(Washington) The president of the University of Virginia, faced with strong pressures from conservative criticism and the Trump administration concerning the practices of the establishment in matters of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), announced its resignation on Friday rather than “opposing the federal government”.
The departure of James Ryan, who has run the establishment since 2018, marks a spectacular escalation in the efforts of the Trump administration to reshape higher education. The fact that he intervenes in a public university marks a new stage in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted the establishments of Ivy League. This also widens the logic of government aggressive tactics, focusing on Dei rather than alleged tolerance for anti -Semitism.
James Ryan had suffered conservative criticisms for ignoring federal orders aimed at suppressing Dei’s policies. His dismissal was requested by the Department of Justice as part of his investigation into the establishment, according to an unauthorized person to express himself on the subject and having requested anonymity with the Associated Press (AP).
Ryan spoke of the pressures exerted by the Trump administration in a statement addressed to the university community on Friday, in which he explained that he had resigned “with a heavy heart”.
“In short, I am inclined to fight for my convictions and I deeply believe in this university,” he said. But I cannot make the unilateral decision to fight against the federal government to save my post. »»
James Ryan had already decided that next year would be his last, he said, and staying in his post until this date would be equivalent to “knowingly and voluntarily sacrificing this community”.
The New York Times was the first to report the resignation and insistence of the Department of Justice to claim it.
Friday, during an intervention on CNN, the deputy general prosecutor of the Department of Justice responsible for civil rights denied that the revocation of James Ryan was an explicit request, but stressed that the government agency was sorely lacking in confidence in its leadership.
“I have no confidence in his will and his ability to preside over the dismantling of the Dei,” said the prosecutor Harmeet Dhillon.
The dismissal of James Ryan once again illustrates the appeal by the Trump administration to brutality rather than a rational discourse, said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, who represents the university presidents.
“It’s a dark day for the University of Virginia, a dark day for higher education, and it promises the same thing,” said Mitchell. It is clear that the administration has not finished and that it will use all the tools at its disposal to impose its will on higher education. »»
Reaction of Virginia Democrats Senators
In a joint declaration, the Virginia Democratic senators said it was scandalous that the Trump administration demanded the resignation of Mr. Ryan for “cultural war traps”.
“This is an error that compromises the future of Virginia,” said senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine.
After campaigning on the promise to put an end to “wokism” in education, Donald Trump signed in January a law ordering the abolition of DEI programs nationwide. The Department of Education has opened surveys on dozens of universities, arguing that diversity initiatives are discriminatory against American white and Asian students.
The response of the establishments was mixed. Some have closed their DEI offices, removed scholarships for diversity and no longer require a diversity declaration during the recruitment process. Others renamed their dei activities under other names, while others have remained inflexible on their diversity policies.
The University of Virginia has become a point of friction after conservative criticism accused him of having simply renamed his Dei initiatives. The University’s board of directors voted for the closure of the Dei office in March and the end of diversity policies in admission, recruitment, financial aid and other areas. Republican governor Glenn Youngkin welcomed this decision, declaring that “Dei is a common practice at the University of Virginia”.
America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Stephen Miller, advisor to Donald Trump, was among those who drew attention to the Charlottesville campus. In a letter addressed in May to the Department of Justice, the group declared that the university had not dismantled the Dei programs and had chosen to “rename, recondition and redeploy the same illegal infrastructure under a lexicon of euphemisms”.
The group attacked James Ryan directly, stressing that he joined hundreds of other university presidents to sign a public declaration condemning the “excessive political interference” of the Trump administration.
Friday, the group said that it would continue to use all the tools available to eradicate what it describes as discriminatory systems.
