FILE – University of Virginia president, James Ryan speaks during a press conference at the school, Dec 13, 2021, in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
By Eric Tucker and Collin Binkley
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The president of the University of Virginia, facing heavy pressure from conservative critics and the Trump administration over the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, announced last Friday that he was resigning rather than “fight the federal government.”
The departure of James Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to reshape higher education. Doing it at a public university marks a new frontier in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted Ivy League schools. It also widens the rationale behind the government’s aggressive tactics, focusing on DEI rather than alleged tolerance of antisemitism.
Ryan had faced conservative criticism that he failed to heed federal orders to eliminate DEI policies, and his removal was pushed for by the Justice Department as it investigated the school, according to a person who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.
Ryan referenced the Trump administration pressure in a statement to the university community last Friday in which he said he had submitted his resignation with a “very heavy heart.”
“To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University,” he said. “But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my job.”
Ryan had already decided that next year would be his last, he said, and remaining in his position until then would be “knowingly and willingly sacrificing this community.”
The New York Times first reported on the resignation and the Justice Department’s insistence on it.
In a CNN appearance last Friday, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights denied that Ryan’s removal was an explicit demand but said the agency “significantly lacked confidence” in his leadership. “I don’t have any confidence that he was going to be willing and able to preside over the dismantling of DEI,” Harmeet Dhillon said.
Ryan’s removal is another example of the Trump administration using “thuggery instead of rational discourse,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which represents university presidents.
“This is a dark day for the University of Virginia, a dark day for higher education, and it promises more of the same,” Mitchell said. “It’s clear the administration is not done and will use every tool that it can make or invent to exert its will over higher education.”
Virginia’s Democratic senators react
In a joint statement, Virginia’s Democratic senators said it was outrageous that the Trump administration would demand Ryan’s resignation over “‘culture war’ traps.” “This is a mistake that hurts Virginia’s future,” Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine said.
After campaigning on a promise to end “wokeness” in education, Trump signed a January action ordering the elimination of DEI programs nationwide. The Education Department has opened investigations into dozens of colleges, arguing that diversity initiatives discriminate against white and Asian American students.
The response from schools has been scattered. Some have closed DEI offices, ended diversity scholarships and no longer require diversity statements as part of the hiring process. Some others have rebranded DEI work under other names, while some have held firm on diversity policies.
The University of Virginia became a flashpoint after conservative critics accused it of simply renaming its DEI initiatives. The school’s governing body voted to shutter the DEI office in March and end diversity policies in admissions, hiring, financial aid and other areas. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin celebrated the action, declaring that “DEI is done at the University of Virginia.”
Among those drawing attention to the Charlottesville campus was America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller. In a May letter to the Justice Department, the group said the university failed to dismantle DEI programs and chose to “rename, repackage, and redeploy the same unlawful infrastructure under a lexicon of euphemisms.”
The group directly took aim at Ryan, noting that he joined hundreds of other college presidents in signing a public statement condemning the “overreach and political interference” of the Trump administration.
Last Friday, the group said it will continue to use every available tool to root out what it has called discriminatory systems.
“This week’s developments make clear: public universities that accept federal funds do not have a license to violate the Constitution,” Megan Redshaw, an attorney at the group, said in a statement. “They do not get to impose ideological loyalty tests, enforce race and sex-based preferences, or defy lawful executive authority.”
Ryan has been leading the school since 2018
Ryan was hired to lead the University of Virginia in 2018 and previously served as the dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade as a law professor at the University of Virginia. A biography on Harvard’s website credits Ryan with increasing the “size, strength and diversity” of the faculty, adding that building a diverse community was a priority.
Robert D. Hardie, leader of the University of Virginia’s governing board, said he accepted Ryan’s resignation with “profound sadness,” adding that the university “has forever been changed for the better as a result of Jim’s exceptional leadership.”
Until now, the White House had directed most of its attention at Harvard University and other elite institutions that Trump sees as bastions of liberalism. Harvard has lost more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants amid its battle with the government, which has also attempted to block the school from hosting foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status.
Harvard and its $53 billion endowment are uniquely positioned to weather the government’s financial pressure. Public universities, however, are far more dependent on taxpayer money and could be more vulnerable. The University of Virginia’s $10 billion endowment is among the largest for public universities, while the vast majority have far less.
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