University of Virginia President Resigns Over DOJ Pressure to Scrap DEI

The university has yet to issue a statement confirming Ryan’s resignation.

Published: 6/27/2025, 7:24:26 PM EDT

University of Virginia President Resigns Over DOJ Pressure to Scrap DEI — University of Virginia President James Ryan speaks during a press conference at the school in Charlottesville, Va., on Dec 13, 2021. (Steve Helber/AP Photo)

University of Virginia President James Ryan resigned after the Department of Justice (DOJ) pressured him to end campus DEI programs, federal officials confirmed Friday.

“The United States Department of Justice has a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal discrimination in publicly funded universities,” DOJ Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in an email to The Epoch Times.

“We have made this clear in many ways to the nation’s most prominent institutions of higher education, including the University of Virginia. 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. We welcome leadership changes in higher education that signal institutional commitment to our nation’s venerable federal civil rights laws.”

The university has yet to issue a statement confirming Ryan’s resignation. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia posted a June 17 news report on the situation.

Virginia’s U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, expressed regret over Ryan’s resignation.

“Virginia’s economy and prosperity depend on the strength and integrity of our higher education system. It is outrageous that officials in the Trump Department of Justice demanded that the Commonwealth’s globally recognized university remove President Ryan—a strong leader who has served UVA honorably and moved the university forward—over ridiculous ‘culture war’ trap,” the June 27 statement said.

“Decisions about UVA’s leadership belong solely to its Board of Visitors, in keeping with Virginia’s well-established and respected system of higher education governance. This is a mistake that hurts Virginia’s future.”

President Donald Trump issued executive orders earlier this year calling for the end of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, such as discriminatory hiring and admissions practices, mandatory diversity training, and ideological curriculum, and said institutions that fail to comply are violating existing Civil Rights laws and risk the loss of federal funding. He also noted that the most prestigious universities would be audited first.

The DOJ did not provide additional information regarding its probe of the university’s DEI practices and did not elaborate on whether it demanded Ryan’s resignation.

The America First Legal organization publicized that it pushed the DOJ to enforce federal law against the university. It’s May 21 letter to the federal agency said the university rebranded DEI-related initiatives with benign terms such as “inclusive excellence,” but continued to set aside scholarships and programs for minority and gay students.

“UVA has not dismantled its DEI framework—it has merely rebranded it to evade legal scrutiny,” Megan Redshaw, counsel at America First Legal, said in a May 29 statement.

“We are grateful that the DOJ has taken our findings seriously and is taking action to hold UVA accountable. No institution that receives taxpayer funds is above the law.”

Ryan, the ninth president at the university, is a graduate of its law school and served on the faculty there for 15 years. He also taught at Harvard and served as the dean of that university’s graduate school of education, according to the UVA website.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the University of Virginia for comment.

From The Epoch Times