University of Virginia president resigns under pressure from Trump administration

The Trump administration on Friday secured perhaps the most significant victory in its pressure campaign on higher education, forcing the resignation of the University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, over the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Ryan’s resignation presents new challenges for other colleges negotiating with the government, including Harvard, whose officials have been repeatedly attacked by Trump and his allies. While the administration has stripped billions of dollars from universities in pursuit of Trump’s policy goals, Ryan’s departure marks the first time a university has been coerced into removing its leader.

The reaction to Ryan’s resignation was immediate and emotional on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. Faculty leadership held an emergency meeting to adopt a resolution opposing the change, and hundreds of students and faculty members gathered for an impromptu march to Carr’s Hill, the president’s residence.

Ryan emerged from the residence after the crowd chanted, “We want Jim,” and “Death to tyrants,” a rough version of the state motto, “sic semper tyrannis.”

“I appreciate you being here. I appreciate your support,” Ryan told the crowd. “And regardless of my role, I will continue to do whatever I can to support this place and continue to make it the best place it can be.”

Ryan informed the board overseeing the school that he would resign after demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s DEI efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the Justice Department had demanded Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices.

In a letter sent Thursday to the head of the board overseeing the university, Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year. But “given the circumstances,” he wrote, he had decided “with deep sadness” to tender his resignation now, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

Harmeet K. Dhillon, who has overseen the investigation as assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement that “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.”

Ryan’s exact departure date was unclear. He has held the post since 2018 and was unanimously approved for another contract in 2022.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.