The Undemocratic Dismissal of Jim Ryan Cannot be Normalized

Photo provided by Owen Andrews

Edited by Allie Svetitz and Sarah Ahmad

To many members of the U.Va. community, Jim Ryan’s resignation early Friday afternoon came as a shock, but not quite as a surprise. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Trump Justice Department had issued a private memorandum demanding Ryan resign due to his refusal to fully dismantle the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. If Ryan did not do so, said department officials, then hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding would be stripped from our university’s lauded research programs. This ultimatum, which came on the heels of a months-long pressure campaign from a largely unrepresentative group of alumni, is emblematic of the Trump administration’s disregard for democracy and absolutely cannot be normalized.

At the very foundational level, Donald Trump’s interference with the DEI policies of educational institutions has not come from a place of genuine goodwill — the president and his allies have been overt and intentional in pushing a discriminatory agenda that will serve straight, white, cisgender men above all other Americans. This deeply maligned president has claimed that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He has plainly stated his belief that certain people have “bad genes.” And he has crudely, incessantly labelled his political opponents with slurs, misogyny, and disability mockery.

Even regardless of where one stands on Trump’s handling of universities’ DEI programs — on which VRoP has already produced several great articles worth reading  — his treatment of Ryan has been undemocratic at a base level. Forcing coercive, vendetta-driven policies with the veneer of democracy is something that fascists do in spades, and though this instance may be smaller than the scale of a country, it is still no less authoritarian. A large portion of the student body had made it clear that we saw Ryan as an effective president, and even if conservative alumni groups and the Board of Visitors had more sway than the students themselves, the involvement of those groups was still much more appropriate than federal intervention from the Department of Justice. Disregard for the voices and interests of students was further heightened by the medium through which we found out about Jim’s resignation — The New York Times, an international newspaper headquartered several hundred miles away from Grounds.

Though Ryan’s track record as University president has been frustrating at times — his unproductive town hall in the wake of pro-Palestinian protest clashes on May 4th, 2024, comes to mind — it’s very difficult to fault him for the events of the past few days.

In an email sent to students after his resignation, Ryan asserted that a refusal to step down would have been “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.” 

It’s difficult to argue with Ryan on these points, and it’s deeply frustrating that a federal agency staffed with vengeance-driven reactionaries has been able to force Ryan’s hand in such a manner. Still, despite the furor and unaccountability that led up to the resignation of President Jim Ryan, there are valuable lessons that can be drawn from this episode — lessons that could prevent a third right-wing ouster at the University of Virginia. Regardless of the Trump administration’s contempt for democracy, transparency, and — as Ryan stressed in his work — the common good, far-right reactionaries can never stamp out the solidarity and ability to organize that define U.Va. as a school.

I attended a protest at the Rotunda at 3 PM on Friday, only a couple of hours after the news broke on Ryan’s resignation. The gathering was spearheaded by Wahoos4UVA, an advocacy group dedicated to, as their website states, ​​dispelling the “orchestrated campaign of misinformation and political pressure headed by a small faction designed to undermine [U.Va.’s] leadership, values, and future.” 

The Wahoos4UVA protest was originally planned before Jim stepped down and thus had only a handful of hours to pivot and address new developments. The way in which students, staff, and community members came together to do so was incredible and is worth taking a moment to highlight.

Despite the bleak news and the cloudy weather, those on the Lawn were energized and proud to be there — many attendees brought signs, joined one another in chants, and, at one point, sang a rendition of the Good Old Song, arm in arm. Speakers on the steps of the Rotunda demanded transparency from the Trump administration, the Department of Justice, and the Board of Visitors regarding the investigation that led to Ryan’s ouster, stressing that “this is not about Jim; it’s about interference that’s inappropriate.”

One standout speaker was George Cohen, who currently serves as Brokaw Professor of Corporate Law at the U.Va. School of Law. Cohen, who served as chair of the University’s Faculty Senate in 2012 when Teresa Sullivan was ousted by a conservative Board of Visitors, spoke on his past experiences with political pressure on the University, exclaiming, “U.Va. will not be silenced, and U.Va. should never be underestimated.”

Another notable speaker was Deborah McDowell, a professor in the English department who has been deeply involved in academics at the University since she joined the faculty in 1987. McDowell spoke on the Rotunda steps without a microphone, inserting pauses between her ideas in a way that held the audience in a rapt silence. Though she did not speak very long, my friends and I were very struck by McDowell’s words; I walked away with the impression that what she shared will remain critically important as the University of Virginia enters a time of deep uncertainty.

“I say, in my name and on behalf of all who agree with me, that power concedes nothing without a demand,” said McDowell, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass. “The worst thing you can do in the face of tyranny is to cave.”