I can’t explain this one – Jim Ryan deciding to step down as the president of the University of Virginia, in the face of what felt like token pressure from the Trump Department of Justice.
Just two hours before the news broke, I hit publish on an analysis of the story about the DOJ pressure that itself had just broken last night with a report from The New York Times.
ICYMI
My conclusion two hours ago: he ain’t going anywhere.
My edit now: I’m not sure why he didn’t hold out, unless …
I’ll get there.
It’s been no secret that the UVA Board of Visitors, with a MAGA supermajority, had wanted to get rid of Ryan before the end of the year.
I’ve been writing about the work behind the scenes on that one since last fall, when former BOV member Bert Ellis, a double-‘Hoo who has since been removed from the board by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, first laid out the agenda to oust Ryan to me.
I know, strange bedfellows – Ellis, a MAGA firebrand, telling me, a progressive journo, what was up.
What can I say – we bonded over football, and our mutual distaste for the tenure of Carla Williams.
Ellis made it clear in conversations with me that Ryan, whose contract was extended in 2022, before the MAGAs started gaining power on the BOV, was a goner; the only question was, how?
There was plenty to work with – the issues with leadership at UVA Health, which led to the resignation of its CEO, Craig Kent, in February; the failures on several fronts that factored into the entirely preventable shooting deaths of three UVA Football players in 2022.
Turns out, the leverage point would be DEI, with a pair of UVA alums in the Trump DOJ, Gregory Brown, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Harmeet K. Dhillon, a civil-rights lawyer in the department, leading the charge on that front.
I’ll rehash here what I wrote earlier today on what they were aiming to do with DEI as a wedge.
In essence, the pressure from the DOJ folks on Ryan would seem to have been an attempt to make a case that Ryan could face termination “with cause” under the terms of his employment contract.
Specifically, the exposure would come in clauses (a) and (b) under the “Termination” header, which would require a finding of “gross negligence or willful malfeasance by the President in the performance of his duties, which negligence or malfeasance causes substantial harm to the University,” or “actions or omissions by the President that are undertaken or omitted knowingly and are criminal or fraudulent and involve dishonesty or moral turpitude.”
The case for a finding under either (a) or (b) begins with the UVA Board of Visitors vote in March to dissolve the school’s DEI office, to come into compliance with a Trump executive order of dubious constitutionality.
ICYMI
- UVA Board of Visitors does Youngkin’s bidding: ‘DEI is done at the University of Virginia’
- The MAGAs got Cedric Wins at VMI: Is UVA President Jim Ryan next?
The UVA Board of Visitors could, of course, fire Ryan “without cause” without outside help, but that would come with a hefty price tag – one year at his annual base salary of $750,000, plus six months of vested sabbatical leave that would cost another $375,000, and on top of that, Ryan would retain tenured faculty status.
Granted, it’s hard to imagine that it’s just $1 million-plus that would be keeping the MAGAs from cutting bait on Ryan; the board members could pass a hat around the table and come up with a million before ordering sandwiches and tea for lunch.
More than the dollar cost, firing Jim Ryan comes with political and PR costs.
To that point, here’s the first statement on the record on the Ryan news – a joint statement from U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner:
“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 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’ traps. 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.”
Yes, this is an unmitigated disaster, a reputational hit that makes the effort by the Bob McDonnell BOV to turn UVA into a Southern New Hampshire University sister school look like …
Sorry, I’m losing my train of thought.
It’s bad, is the point.
Which is why I wrote earlier today that I imagined what was going on behind the scenes was, the Board of Visitors had been using the UVA alums in the Justice Department to pressure Ryan to take a buyout, sign an NDA, and have the matter go silently into the night.
I assumed, two hours ago, that the reporting from the NYT blew a hole in that strategy, but as it turns out, the die had already been cast.
The Times is reporting this afternoon that Ryan informed the BOV on Thursday that he had decided “with deep sadness” to resign.
I’m going to stick to my instincts on this, and assume he’s not leaving UVA without a million-dollar parachute.
If only the million-dollar payout was the extent of it in terms of the costs to the University of Virginia.
It’s a dark day in the history of UVA, is what it is.
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Chris Graham
