The Trump administration’s pressure on University of Virginia (UVA) president James E. Ryan over the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has resulted in the institution’s leader stepping down from his post.
In a letter to the university’s community, Ryan said his first inclination was to fight for what he believes in and that the school is one of those things, Fox News reported on Saturday.
“But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job. To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld,” he stated, noting that he had already decided next year would be his final one in the role.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a demand letter to the university in May requiring leadership to confirm it had eliminated every aspect of DEI on its campuses, Breitbart News reported at the time.
The school’s governing board had previously voted to close down all DEI offices and end related programs, and Ryan was to report back to the board within 30 days to give an update. However, he apparently failed to meet the deadline, prompting the DOJ’s the demand letter.
After the board voted to nix DEI or risk losing federal funding, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said the vote was for “common sense,” per NBC News.
“DEI is done at the University of Virginia. We stand for the universal truth that everyone is created equal, and opportunity is at the heart of Virginians’ and Americans’ future,” he stated.
Per the Fox report, Ryan’s resignation comes after Trump officials “privately demanded that the university remove Ryan to help resolve a Justice Department probe into the institution’s DEI practices, according to the New York Times.”
“The Justice Department argued that Ryan had failed to dismantle the school’s DEI programs and misrepresented the steps taken to eliminate them, amid the administration’s efforts to root out DEI in higher education,” the article stated.
In June 2023, Trump pledged to eliminate DEI programs across the federal government and enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions, according to Breitbart News. Prior to his historic comeback in winning the White House a second time, Trump vowed in 2024 to “reclaim” the education system from radical leftists.
Breitbart News coverage of UVA shows some outspoken students at the school lean left. In 2020, several of them made it clear they did not want white people using multicultural centers on campus, according to video footage from the Young America’s Foundation (YAF).
An opinion piece in the UVA student newspaper in 2020 called on fellow students to “stand up” to their “racist” relatives at Thanksgiving dinner, and a few years later the editorial board of UVA’s newspaper called for the removal of references to Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who founded the school that is located in Charlottesville, per Breitbart News.
Ryan previously worked as the dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was recognized for his commitment to DEI initiatives, according to the Fox report.
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