by Natalia Mittelstadt
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan has resigned over pressure from the Justice Department, amid its probe into the institution’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, according to a news report Friday.
The department on Thursday demanded Ryan’s resignation as a settlement condition for the department’s civil rights investigation into the university’s diversity practices, and he did so later that day, according to The New York Times.
Ryan wrote in a letter to the university’s board that he had planned to leave his post 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, a source told The Times.
The university’s board accepted Ryan’s resignation, according to two sources. However, it is unclear when he will step down. While his letter said that his resignation could take immediate effect, he said he would leave “no later than August 15, 2025,” a source said.
The DOJ wrote in a letter to the university board on June 17, saying that it needed to act quickly amid multiple complaints of race-based treatment on campus. The department found that focusing on race in admissions and other student benefits were “widespread practices throughout every component and facet of the institution.”
DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Gregory Brown, both graduates of the university, signed the letter.
The university released a statement on Friday, according to CBS19 News, saying, “UVA is committed to complying with all federal laws and has been cooperating with the Department of Justice in the ongoing inquiries. The federal government’s support of the University is essential to continue the core mission of research, education, and clinical care.”
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Natalia Mittelstadt is a reporter for Just the News.
Photo “Jim Ryan” by University of Virginia.
In yesterday’s (7-1-25) The Cavalier Daily, the private, independent student newspaper at The University of Virginia, is a story about the interaction between UVa and the U. S. Department of Justice for the last several months. I will quote the first three paragraphs of this CD story:
“Between April 11 and June 17, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division sent seven letters to University officials, according to documents obtained by The Cavalier Daily through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“In these letters, the Justice Department sought confirmation that the University had removed affirmative action from its admissions policies and had ended Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. Some letters also alleged that the University had failed to protect students against antisemitism. The letters did not confirm whether or not the Justice Department’s demands had been met.
“The documents confirm that the Justice Department alleged that then-University President Jim Ryan and other members of the University were violating federal law and were impeding their efforts to obtain documentation of certain policies. They threatened that if the University were to continue down this path, federal financial assistance could be suspended or terminated and civil action may be pursued.”
The rest is history.
“I am heartbroken to be leaving this way,” wrote President Ryan in his resignation statement.
Well, what did Ryan expect?
Ryan is a grown man with decades of both professional legal experience and professional educational administrative experience at some of the finest universities in our country. Ryan is a UVa Law School graduate—-a lawyer with a degree from one of the finest law schools in our country. For example, Ryan clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court as a young UVa Law School graduate about thirty-five years ago.
SCOTUS about a couple of years ago ruled that DEI was UNCONSTITUTIONAL and a VIOLATION OF FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS.
The UVa Board of Visitors (BOV) about a year ago officially banned DEI at UVa.
President Ryan officially told the UVa BOV and also publicly reported that DEI had been removed from UVa, but this was a LIE and Ryan knew it!
Ryan and other senior UVa administrators ‘slipped around’ and ‘sneaked around’ and tried to continue DEI at UVa a under different name.
Ryan was CAUGHT in his LIE!
Now, Ryan has been FORCED OUT! This was inevitable!
It is a sad chapter for UVa, one of the founders of an Honor Code at American colleges and universities in the early 1800s.
Ryan is no doubt a man of great ability, but he IS NOT HONEST.
Ryan HAD TO GO!
Many, many people—-me included—-are OPPOSED to DEI and Critical Race Theory (CRT) and ‘wokeism’. It is a scourge upon our country. DEI and CRT and ‘wokeism’ must be ‘pulled out, branch and root’ from American colleges and universities, including UVa!