CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – In a six-page letter that included 46 questions, state senator Creigh Deeds asked the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors to detail for the General Assembly and the public the events that led to UVA president Jim Ryan’s resignation last month.
Deeds said he’s concerned the Board of Visitors failed to perform its charged duties as it relates to Ryan being pressured to step aside by the Trump Administration.
“They need to protect the school from outside influences, and that includes the government,” Deeds told Cville Right Now on Monday. “And they need to protect the president. I don’t think they did either of those things in this situation. And I’m trying to get some answers.”
Deeds said he wants to know why the BOV didn’t intervene to protect Ryan and what it knew in the month leading up to Ryan’s resignation. He said he’s heard from a large number of constituents who share his concerns.
“The people of Virginia deserve to know whether political interference, external pressure and/or secret deliberations played a role in the resignation,” Deeds wrote in the Aug. 1 letter, a copy of which was obtained Monday by Cville Right Now. “… The University of Virginia belongs to the Commonwealth, and it’s leadership must be accountable to the public it serves.”
Deeds’s letter included questions about the Board’s March 7 resolution on diversity, equity and inclusion, queries about the retention of outside counsel to deal with a Department of Justice investigation into the school’s DEI practices, and communications between the Board and the DOJ and other federal entities.
“These questions are designed to clarify the sequence of events that led to President Ryan’s resignation, the role played by members of the Board of Visitors, and the nature of communications between the Board, the Governor’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice,” Deeds wrote in the letter addressed to new BOV rector Rachel Sheridan and new vice rector Porter Wilkinson.
Deeds asked about a June 3 meeting between school officials and the DOJ, and two subsequent phone calls or meetings on June 24 and 26, according to the letter, and whether or not Ryan’s resignation was demanded by federal officials.
Ryan, who has served as the UVA president since 2018, resigned last month under pressure from the Trump Administration, which accused Ryan and the university of not being responsive as the DOJ investigated whether or not the school had dismantled its DEI initiatives, as demanded by the federal government.
“This is bigger than Jim Ryan. It’s bigger than the University of Virginia,” Deeds told Cville Right Now on Monday. “There are questions about the independence of our institutions of higher education, and I just want some basic answers.”
