In a blistering letter to University of Virginia faculty, its former president alleged that Justice Department officials disliked him personally and wanted him removed — or else the department would “rain hell on UVA.”
James E. Ryan, in his first extensive comments since resigning in June, wrote in a 12-page letter that the school’s board was “complicit” in his departure and pressured him to leave to save the university. He said he was given four hours to resign or risk federal funding cuts. He added that Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) told a board member that Ryan needed to resign.
In a blistering letter to University of Virginia faculty, its former president alleged that Justice Department officials disliked him personally and wanted him removed — or else the department would “rain hell on UVA.”
James E. Ryan, in his first extensive comments since resigning in June, wrote in a 12-page letter that the school’s board was “complicit” in his departure and pressured him to leave to save the university. He said he was given four hours to resign or risk federal funding cuts. He added that Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) told a board member that Ryan needed to resign.
The remarks came as a long-simmering fight over the direction of Virginia’s flagship university reached a new inflection point after the sitting governor, his successor and current and former school leaders lobbed a slew of criticism and allegations at each other in a flurry of letters.
The arguments center on the fate of the University of Virginia’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which the Trump administration says amount to racial discrimination, and whether Justice Department officials demanded Ryan’s removal — a charge that officials have denied. The letters also signal how politics have reshaped the university and institutions of higher education across the country.
“Too often, people within the DOJ and on our own Board have implied that if we were following policies that they did not favor, we were somehow doing something illegal,” he wrote. “That is not the case, obviously. DEI, for example, is not itself illegal.”
Trump administration officials and other conservatives accused Ryan of refusing or stalling efforts to unwind such policies. Liberals have pushed back on what they call an intrusion into their academic freedom by the Trump administration.
In late October, the university in Charlottesville announced a deal with the Justice Department to halt several investigations into the school that some critics say went too far.
Ryan’s letter came two days after Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) asked the university to pause its search for Ryan’s successor until she takes office in January, arguing that the board had lost the trust of students, faculty and staff. On Thursday, Youngkin accused Spanberger of bullying and micromanaging, while U-Va. rector Rachel Sheridan sent her own letter to faculty trying to distance herself from the tensions over the Trump administration’s probes into the school.
Ross Mugler, interim president and CEO of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, said Ryan’s letter showed what he called alarming political interference with decisions “driven by political pressure, secrecy, and external influence rather than transparent, mission-focused governance.”
“This kind of intrusion destabilizes institutions, undermines academic freedom, erodes trust among faculty and students, and jeopardizes a board’s ability to steward the long-term health of the university,” Mugler said in a statement.
The tensions at the university began in March, when the Board of Visitors, filled with Youngkin appointees, overwhelmingly passed a resolution dismantling the school’s DEI offices. At the time, the governor declared that “DEI is done” at U-Va. But the resolution allowed the university to keep some policies permissible under law.
Conservative alumni soon argued that Ryan was dragging his feet in making changes within a 30-day period set by the board, and called for him to be fired. Ryan later alleged in his letter that Youngkin’s office had a direct hand in drafting the resolution, an unusual step, and said the governor misrepresented the scope of the resolution.
Other Virginia universities followed the U-Va. board’s lead, and some conservatives soon began calling for the removal of George Mason University’s president, whom federal officials also have derided over DEI policies.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department sent seven letters to U-Va. officials over two months concerning DEI policies and initiatives to address antisemitism. The Supreme Court in 2023 barred universities from considering race in admissions, overturning decades of precedent. The Trump administration has interpreted that ruling more broadly, saying it extends to all aspects of student and campus life, including hiring, promotion, financial aid and scholarships.
The federal probes roiled the university of more than 26,000 students, where over 7 percent of undergrads are Black, 8.5 percent are Hispanic, nearly 20 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander and just under 48 percent are White.
In June, as Ryan and the board scrambled to respond, tensions worsened between the university and top Justice Department lawyers — and U-Va. alumni — Harmeet K. Dhillon and Gregory Brown.
Ryan alleged that some board members prevented university leadership from responding publicly to the federal investigations — a decision he said gave the false appearance the institution was dragging its feet in providing information to the campus community.
He also criticized Sheridan, who was not yet board chair, for the nature of her meetings with Justice Department officials, which she said she did reluctantly. Former board rector Robert Hardie has also chided Sheridan and another member for leaving him out of conversations with the federal government.
Two days before he would resign, Ryan had a call with a lawyer at Sheridan’s suggestion. Ryan says the lawyer told him that the board would fire him if he didn’t resign. Sheridan offered a different account of the conversation in her letter, writing that she did not support the board removing him.
A turning point came on June 26, when the New York Times reported that the Justice Department was pressuring Ryan to resign, a leak that appeared to anger the department. Around 1 p.m., Ryan said he received a call from Sheridan and lawyers that the board had retained to negotiate with the administration. He was told that he needed to resign by 5 p.m. or the university would risk losing federal funding.
“If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from U-Va. before they would even negotiate. I was then told that the DOJ had offered an amazing deal — unlike any the lawyers had ever seen, in their words,” he wrote.
Ryan said he had considered going public as this was happening but worried that if he did, U-Va. would lose funding and he’d still end up leaving.
“The call for my resignation, right until the end, seemed so outlandish as not to be entirely believable,” he said. “It also felt like a hostage situation, where the kidnapper threatens harm if you do not keep information about the demands confidential.”
Ryan decided he had no options left. He announced his resignation on June 27. Later that day, Sheridan wrote, Brown told university lawyers that the Justice Department would suspend its inquiries while negotiating a final resolution.
As the federal government set its sights on U-Va., another fight was brewing among state lawmakers over the makeup of the university’s governing board. Youngkin, who is in the final months of a term-limited tenure as governor, nominated 22 people to serve on boards of colleges across the state, including five at U-Va. But Democrats in the Virginia Senate have rejected them all, a battle that is still working its way through courts.
Some Democrats, fresh off overwhelming victories in this month’s election, have called for Spanberger to clear out the boards once she takes office. Virginia governors typically appoint a quarter of each public university board each year and can fire board members for cause.
Spanberger has not said whether she would gut the boards. But in her letter this week, she said she would move quickly to appoint members to fill those open seats at U-Va. She said a decision on the school’s new president should not happen until then.
The board has said it is reviewing Spanberger’s letter, but Youngkin has said he believes it should continue its presidential search. The search committee previously announced plans to interview candidates this month.
The back-and-forth this week has reignited debates on and off the U-Va. campus.
On Friday, at a faculty senate meeting, professors said they trusted Ryan’s account of his departure and members overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the heads of the Board of Visitors to resign. They also urged the board to pause the presidential search.
“The board thought that it would be easier to implement change that they didn’t really understand,” said Jeri K. Seidman, faculty senate chair. “They wanted to eliminate DEI programs but they didn’t understand what DEI programs were. They wanted buzzwords without the nuance.”
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