Late last month, the U.S. Department of Justice put the University of Virginia on notice: In a letter dated April 28, the federal agency told the state’s flagship public university it had received "complaints" that the school had failed to adequately dismantle its diversity, equity and inclusion apparatus as directed by the Trump administration.
The DOJ gave UVa until May 2 to provide sufficient evidence of "the dissolution and dismantling of DEI."
Speaking with The Daily Progress four days after that deadline, university spokesman Brian Coy said UVa had been granted an extension until May 30 to comply with the order, but that it would be complying.
By that time, UVa also will be expected to certify that DEI policies have been stripped from its schools, departments, foundations and hospital system.
“A responsive answer will further include specific identification of which departments, programs, preferences, preferential systems and positions/titles/chairs have been eliminated and terminated,” reads the Justice Department’s letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.
“Further, for every employee, student, faculty member, or administrator who formerly occupied a position with any DEI responsibilities, ‘mandate,’ duties, or title whatsoever, identify whether that individual’s position and title have been eliminated, whether the individual is still associated with the University in any official or unofficial, paid or unpaid capacity and, if so, the name and nature of that individual’s current title or position.”
UVa also must provide a status report that its president, Jim Ryan, presented to the university’s governing Board of Visitors around April 7 — exactly a month after the board voted unanimously to abolish the university’s DEI Office as well as any programs, policies, scholarships and practices that may involve “prohibited uses of race" in accordance with the Trump administration’s orders.
The DOJ is not alone in inquiring about the whereabouts of Ryan’s report.
The Daily Progress asked for a copy of the report via the Freedom of Information Act but was informed the newspaper’s request for the four-page document would be denied on the grounds of “presidential correspondence.”
The Jefferson Council, a conservative alumni group, also tried and failed to request the report.
It is not clear what would happen should UVa not comply with the DOJ order. The Board of Visitors’ March 7 resolution came after the Trump administration threatened to cut off federal funding to universities that did not dissolve DEI. UVa has already lost $83 million in federal grant funding regardless due to unrelated cost-cutting in Washington.
There are some, like the unnamed people who filed complaints with the DOJ, who believe UVa’s administration, faculty and staff are actively resisting the Board of Visitors and White House.
The Jefferson Council has said UVa’s public statements are incongruous with what its administrators have told faculty. The group has noted that on the same day the DOJ letter arrived, Ryan addressed the university’s Faculty Senate and expressed optimism that the university will “end up in a good place,” where faculty and students of all backgrounds and experiences will continue to be recruited and accepted.
“We are not walking away from our values,” Ryan told the assembled faculty on April 28. “We will do everything we can to make sure they succeed here, and we will do everything we can to make sure they feel welcome. That’s full stop.”
The Jefferson Council took to social media that same day to share video of Ryan’s remarks and suggest his words were not aligned with the orders he’s been given.
"For many," the group said in a post on X, "such assurances increasingly ring hollow without meaningful dialogue, open decision-making, or accountability for suppressing dissent and undermining intellectual diversity."
But Ryan does not work for the Jefferson Council; he works at the discretion of the university’s Board of Visitors. And if the board has taken issue with Ryan’s work, it has not said so.
Only former board member Bert Ellis, an outspoken critic of Ryan who was fired by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in March, has said anything publicly to that effect.
The Justice Department’s letter was delivered to the university the day before a Board of Visitors meeting.
In closed session, the board conferred with legal counsel to discuss UVa’s compliance with civil rights laws, presidential executive orders and “potential and actual litigation and investigations involving governmental agencies; discussion of job duties and assignment of specific employees,” according to the meeting’s agenda.
While the press and the public were barred from listening in on that discussion, the university did publish the product of the closed session: another resolution titled, “Advancing Free Inquiry and Viewpoint Diversity at UVa.”
The resolution repeals a statement of “Support for Racial Equity Initiatives” that was previously approved by the board in 2020 forming a Racial Equity Task Force and calling for the investment of nearly $1 billion in programs with similar missions.
The resolution came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, at the hands of a White police officer, Derek Chauvin, in Minneapolis. Floyd’s killing sparked protests across the country and ushered in a new, however brief, racial reckoning in the United States.
The 2020 Board of Visitors outlined a series of objectives that would ensure “equal access and success” to Founding Father Thomas Jefferson’s university, including:
“Doubling the number of underrepresented faculty by 2030.”Nurturing a student population that “better reflects the racial and socioeconomic demographics of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”And reviewing wages, hiring practices and promotions to “ensure equity.”
Five years later, the 2025 Board of Visitors — now with a 13-person majority appointed by a Republican governor — has rescinded all of those points.
“Additional work remains to be done,” reads the board’s April 29 resolution, referring to UVa’s work to dismantle DEI. “To ensure and advance open inquiry at the University and to best prepare students to become citizen-leaders ready to serve our community, the Commonwealth, and beyond.”
The university administration plans to establish a committee that will “consider non-partisan efforts to promote open inquiry” and “constructive conversation across differences” on Grounds.
It’s unclear how many UVa employees are involved in DEI work, and would necessarily be affected by the board’s resolutions.
UVa doesn’t keep a public record on the total number of university employees who work in DEI, and the only indicator dates back to a Board of Visitors meeting in June 2023.
At that meeting, Ryan noted that UVa employs 55 people who work “primarily” in DEI — or those dedicating at least 80% of their time to DEI initiatives. The president also said that UVa’s DEI budget amounts to $5.8 million, with the vast majority of that sum paying the salaries of those 55 employees.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com