The University of Virginia describes itself as a place where “differing perspectives not only coexist, they co-create.” It’s a sentiment that may no longer ring true at the prestigious public university, and, potentially, all of higher education.
Today, the venerable research institution created by Thomas Jefferson suddenly finds itself in big trouble, its mission and independence threatened by the Trump administration’s demands to weaken its diversity, equity and inclusion programs or risk losing millions of dollars in federal funding.
James E. Ryan, the university’s ninth president, resigned under pressure last week, part of a settlement with the Justice Department into ending the school’s diversity practices. His resignation is among the many signals that we are in a new and unprecedented era for higher education, traditionally a bastion for freedom of thought and speech. It likely marks the first time the federal government has pushed a university to remove its leader.
Ryan’s resignation is a stark reminder that it’s not just the Ivy League that has incurred the wrath of President Donald Trump and suffered from federal overreach into every echelon of university life. The move against UVA will “spread fear across the academy and American society at large,” Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the university, wrote for The New Republic. “Students, faculty and university leaders will cower, believing that no institutional power will protect us if the right comes after us.”
Related: Interested in more news about colleges and universities? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.
As UVA president, Ryan has been a champion of maintaining diversity, and he acknowledged having to resign against his will because the Trump administration does not believe he went far enough in dismantling DEI initiatives aimed at making all students feel included. The university dissolved its DEI office in March, but conservative alumni and others have complained that Ryan did not do more.
“I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” Ryan said in a statement Friday, while faculty and students protested on the leafy Charlottesville campus. The 58-year-old president noted that he is “heartbroken to be leaving this way,” and many students also said they were sorry to see Ryan go.
Democratic lawmakers in Virginia vowed over the weekend to fight back, including Sen. Mark Warner. “This federal DOE and Department of Justice should get their nose out of the University of Virginia,” Warner said during a television appearance on Sunday. “They are doing damage to our flagship university. And if they can do it here, they’ll do it elsewhere.”
Related: Tracking Trump: His actions to abolish the Education Department, and more
UVA opened with a faculty of eight and a student body of just 68 men, a crowning achievement for Jefferson, who famously believed that an educated citizenry is key to a democratic society. The first Black student was not admitted until 1950; the first woman 20 years later. Today, the top-ranked public research institution enrolls more than 25,000 students, 9.4 percent of whom are Black or African American and 10 percent of whom are Hispanic, the most recent university data shows.
The issue of Ryan’s departure, of course, is about far more than what he did or is perceived to have not done. All of higher education has been under pressure since a divided Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, and even more so since Trump took office and promised to address what he calls an “anti-white feeling” in America.
Trump has questioned the tax-exempt status of universities, issued executive orders aimed at eliminating DEI, gutted funding for critical research and launched an array of civil rights investigations. His Justice Department last week opened an investigation into hiring practices at the University of California, and on Monday said it had determined that Harvard violated federal civil rights law by ignoring the concerns of Jewish and Israeli students during Gaza war protests and threatened to withhold all federal funding from the university.
The University of Virginia has also been pressured by the Jefferson Council, a group of conservative alumni that has been highly critical of Ryan’s leadership, as it details on a website called Reset UVA. “For too long, policies driven by ideology rather than merit, achievement and character have eroded trust, divided the community and betrayed the university’s founding ideals,” Joel Gardner, president of the Jefferson Council, said in a statement.
Ryan previously worked as an education school professor and dean at Harvard (the university that has attracted a great deal of Trump’s ire) and earned a reputation as a supporter of first-generation students during his nearly seven years at UVA, at a time when many college presidents are quietly folding scholarships, pipeline initiatives, race-based mentoring and offices devoted to racial equality.
Many college presidents have been reluctant to speak out openly in opposition to Trump, but not Patricia McGuire, the longtime president of Trinity Washington University, a small Catholic institution. Ryan’s resignation, she told me, “lays bare once more the intent of the Trump administration to silence the leadership of American higher education and to debilitate its leading institutions so that the regime can continue its campaign to deconstruct our democracy without opposition.”
Related: Trump is bullying, blackmailing and threatening colleges, and they are just beginning to fight back
A few other leaders have recently joined forces, including in a new campaign, From Campus to Community; many of the college presidents involved posted commencement speeches filled with calls for courage, including Wellesley College President Paula Johnson, who told graduates: “We are in the midst of a degree of meddling that American colleges and universities have not seen since the McCarthy era in the late 1940s and 1950s.”
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, called Ryan’s resignation “a dark day for the University of Virginia, a dark day for higher education.”
“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,” he added.
In the meantime, it’s the loss of its freedom that higher education, already under pressure due to declining enrollment and lagging public support for its value, needs to be worried about on Independence Day.
Contact Liz Willen at [email protected]
This story about UVA was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
