The university has yet to issue a statement confirming Ryan’s resignation.
University of Virginia President James Ryan resigned after the Department of Justice (DOJ) pressured him to end campus DEI programs, federal officials confirmed Friday.
“The United States Department of Justice has a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal discrimination in publicly funded universities,” DOJ Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in an email to The Epoch Times.
“We have made this clear in many ways to the nation’s most prominent institutions of higher education, including the University of Virginia. When university leaders lack commitment to ending illegal discrimination in hiring, admissions, and student benefits, they expose the institutions they lead to legal and financial peril. We welcome leadership changes in higher education that signal institutional commitment to our nation’s venerable federal civil rights laws.”
The university has yet to issue a statement confirming Ryan’s resignation. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia posted a June 17 news report on the situation.
Virginia’s U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, expressed regret over Ryan’s resignation.
“Virginia’s economy and prosperity depend on the strength and integrity of our higher education system. It is outrageous that officials in the Trump Department of Justice demanded that the Commonwealth’s globally recognized university remove President Ryan—a strong leader who has served UVA honorably and moved the university forward—over ridiculous ‘culture war’ trap,” the June 27 statement said.
“Decisions about UVA’s leadership belong solely to its Board of Visitors, in keeping with Virginia’s well-established and respected system of higher education governance. This is a mistake that hurts Virginia’s future.”
President Donald Trump issued executive orders earlier this year calling for the end of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, such as discriminatory hiring and admissions practices, mandatory diversity training, and ideological curriculum, and said institutions that fail to comply are violating existing Civil Rights laws and risk the loss of federal funding. He also noted that the most prestigious universities would be audited first.
The DOJ did not provide additional information regarding its probe of the university’s DEI practices and did not elaborate on whether it demanded Ryan’s resignation.
