The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside in order to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter.
For the leader of a major public university to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates President Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals.
The New York Times reported on Thursday evening that the Justice Department had demanded Mr. Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices.
In a letter to the head of the board overseeing the university sent on Thursday, Mr. Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year but “given the circumstances and today’s conversations” he had decided “with deep sadness” to tender his resignation, according to one of the people familiar with the matter who was briefed on the contents of the letter.
The school’s board has accepted Mr. Ryan’s resignation, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.
It was unclear when Mr. Ryan will leave his post. He said in his letter to the head of the board that his resignation was could be effective immediately but “no later than August 15, 2025,” according to the person briefed on the letter.
A spokesman for the university did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The people briefed on Mr. Ryan’s resignation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Ten days ago, the Justice Department issued a stern warning to the board overseeing the University of Virginia that the school needed to act quickly. The department informed the college of multiple complaints of race-based treatment on campus and that the government had concluded that the use of race in admissions and other student benefits were “widespread practices throughout every component and facet of the institution.”
“Time is running short, and the department’s patience is wearing thin,” the letter, dated June 17, said. .
The letter was signed by Harmeet K. Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, and Gregory W. Brown, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights.Both are graduates of the university and Mr. Brown, as a private lawyer, had previously sued the school.
Some members of the school’s board had pushed for Mr. Ryan’s ouster in recent days, fearing that if the university failed to comply with the Justice Department’s demands, the Trump administration would follow through on its threat to strip the school of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
Board members have also expressed concerns that under Mr. Ryan, the school had not properly dismantled the school’s diversity initiatives despite a 2023 Supreme Court decision doing away with affirmative action and Mr. Trump’s executive order aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In recent days, members of the board appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, had talked to senior Justice Department officials to learn what could be done to resolve the situation, and were told Mr. Ryan had to go. In response to those discussions, members of the board had been anxious to demonstrate to the Trump administration that Mr. Ryan would indeed step aside, according to one of the people.
Before becoming the University of Virginia’s president in 2018, Mr. Ryan served as the dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he was praised for his commitment to D.E.I. programs. Harvard has been one of the Trump administration’s chief targets since it began its assault on higher education.
Mr. Ryan had been the University of Virginia’s ninth president, developing a reputation as someone who championed making the school more diverse, increasing the number of first-generation students and encouraging students to do community service. But many conservative alumni and Republican board members thought he was “too woke” and have pushed for him in recent years to go.
Ann Brown, a co-chair of the advisory council of Wahoos4UVA — a group of students, alumni, faculty and staff committed to “viewpoint diversity and U.V.A.’s independence from political interference” — said that after The Times report on Thursday, there had been a surge in support for Mr. Ryan.
She said that if Mr. Ryan were removed, it would be “extremely damaging” to the university.
“But this also isn’t about one man,” Ms. Brown, who graduated from the university in 1974 and its law school in 1977, said in a text message. “It would be a symbolic surrender of the university’s autonomy and commitment to free inquiry that, if allowed to stand by the Board of Visitors and Virginia’s elected officials, would send a chilling message: that public universities in Virginia serve political agendas, not the commonwealth.”
Michael S. Schmidt is an investigative reporter for The Times covering Washington. His work focuses on tracking and explaining high-profile federal investigations.
Michael C. Bender is a Times political correspondent covering President Trump, the Make America Great Again movement and other federal and state elections.
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