The University of Virginia Faculty Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution of no confidence in the school’s Board of Visitors on Friday, July 11, just hours after president Jim Ryan officially stepped down from his position. The vote passed 46 to 6, with eight abstentions, signaling broad faculty dissatisfaction with the Board’s handling of recent federal pressure on the university’s leadership.
Ryan, who served as president since 2018, announced his resignation last month following what he described as relentless pressure from the Trump administration over his support for UVA’s DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives.
In a statement, Ryan said, “I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this university. But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job.”
He warned that such a fight would jeopardize the university’s funding and harm students and staff. “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 added.
The Faculty Senate’s resolution cited multiple grounds for its no-confidence vote, including violations of the Senate’s constitution and bylaws, the Board’s failure to engage faculty during a time of crisis, and its perceived capitulation to federal interference.
“The Faculty Senate expresses no confidence in the Board of Visitors for not protecting the university and its president from outside interference, and for not consulting with the Faculty Senate in a time of crisis,” the resolution reads.
Two Board members—Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson—attended the meeting. Sheridan denied claims that she had been in discussions with the Department of Justice prior to officially joining the Board on July 1, according to The Cavalier Daily.
In a second resolution, passed 44 to 3, the Senate outlined expectations for the appointment of an interim president. The resolution emphasized the need for shared governance, academic leadership experience, and freedom from external political influence. Among the Senate’s demands was a call for faculty and other university stakeholders to be “full partners in the selection of an interim president.”
Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, UVA’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, assumed the role of acting president on July 12. Ryan will take a sabbatical before returning to the university as a professor at the School of Law.
Peter McDonough, vice president and general counsel at the American Council on Education, criticized the federal role in the situation, calling it “a potentially ominous effort to control a learning environment it finds objectionable.”
For many in the higher education community, Ryan’s forced resignation and the Board’s response have become emblematic of growing concerns over government intrusion into institutional autonomy.
