James E. Ryan, the former University of Virginia president, sent a letter early Friday to the flagship’s Faculty Senate that offers his first detailed accounting of the events that led to his controversial resignation amid federal scrutiny of UVa’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
The 12-page document provides a retelling that he says “differs in significant parts” from that of Rachel Sheridan, the current rector (chair) of the Board of Visitors, and outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. It comes amid growing tensions between Youngkin and incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, over the ability of the current board — all appointees of Youngkin — to select the university’s next leader.
The former president adopts a sharp tone at points of the document, saying that he was left “stunned and angry” by what he calls a lack of honesty among some board members, that some board members were “complicit” in his ouster, and that he had heard that the government would “bleed UVA white” if he didn’t resign.
Moreover, Ryan’s account raises questions about whether the wish for him to resign originated with the government or with Sheridan, who did not yet lead the board at the time Ryan announced his departure. He characterizes the series of events that led to his ouster as rushed and confusing, saying he did not know who he could trust or what to believe.
Ryan’s letter states he put the document together over the summer, while the events were still fresh in his mind. “I was never sure if I would release it publicly, but I thought there might be a legislative hearing or inquiry that would require me to respond, and I wanted to make sure my memories were freshly recorded,” Ryan writes.
The letter includes sections on Ryan’s resignation, the turmoil over UVa’s DEI commitments, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s entry into the fray. In April, The Chronicle published an investigation of ties between an alumni group and alumni helming the Justice Department’s civil-rights division that may have placed a magnifying glass on an institution that otherwise was unlikely to be a focus of the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education.
Ryan acknowledges attending law school with one of the Justice Department lawyers, Harmeet Dhillon, but says he doesn’t have a strong memory of her. He notes that the other most involved DOJ lawyer, Gregory Brown, has sued the university several times. “I heard along the way that neither of the DOJ lawyers were fans of mine,” he writes.
As tensions grew between the Trump administration and UVa, Ryan details feeling repeatedly excluded from conversations between board members and federal officials.
He says he didn’t speak directly with the Justice Department. Communications went through two Youngkin board appointees — Sheridan and Porter N. Wilkinson. The board’s then-rector, Robert Hardie, also seemed to be in the dark, Ryan writes.
Tensions Build
Ryan says he first heard about the demand for his departure after a June board meeting.
Sheridan told him that the DOJ lawyers were very upset “and that they basically insisted that I would need to resign in order to resolve the various inquiries and avoid the federal government inflicting a great deal of damage to UVa.” He writes that he found such a demand hard to believe, but was willing to resign if it was in the best interest of the university.
“I wasn’t sure it would be, given what it would mean in terms of letting the federal government decide who gets to be president of the University of Virginia,” Ryan writes.
In mid-June, Ryan had lunch with Paul Manning, a board member and friend who had been involved in some of the DOJ negotiations with Sheridan and Wilkinson. Months earlier, Ryan had asked Manning if he should resign given souring relations with the board. According to Ryan, Manning encouraged him then to stay on, since the upcoming gubernatorial election could change the board’s makeup.
But at the lunch in June, Ryan writes, Manning told him that he should step down. He was worried about the pain the DOJ could inflict on UVa’s research funding.
Between that lunch and his resignation, Ryan says he met with Sheridan and Manning several times.
During one of Ryan’s exchanges with Sheridan, she suggested he talk to a lawyer friend of hers, Beth Wilkinson, who had worked with Columbia University and would be able to walk him through what fighting against the government would mean.
Instead, Ryan says, Beth Wilkinson told him she’d heard he was willing to resign and wanted to talk about what that would look like.
The lawyer told Ryan that he was going to be “kicked out one way or the other,” he writes, and that the board might even try to fire him for cause.
Ryan says he also asked Beth Wilkinson if she was working for the board, and she said she was. According to Ryan, Sheridan had told him otherwise, indicating only that the board might hire her in the future.
“On a normally functioning board,” Ryan wrote, “the rector would at least have been notified of the appointment.”
Decisions, Decisions
At times, the letter turns to reflections on Ryan’s agonizing over what to do, especially whether to make the 2025-2026 academic year his last. Ultimately, he says, he decided on that plan and told Sheridan and Manning.
The following day, Sheridan met with the Justice Department lawyers. Ryan says he was told that the officials were “very upset” by a leaked story in The New York Times about federal pressure on Ryan to resign, and that he had to announce his departure that same afternoon or “the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVa.” He says Sheridan told him the Justice Department had offered “an amazing deal,” agreeing to suspend federal investigations and not impose any financial penalties if Ryan left.
Ryan talked with Hardie, the then-rector, who advised him that UVa should take the deal. After a few more conversations and a close colleague pointing out that his lack of board support was a problem, Ryan tendered his resignation.
Ryan wrote that he contemplated going public as he faced pressure to resign. “But the call for my resignation, right until the end, seemed so outlandish as not to be entirely believable,” he wrote.
Ryan’s tell-all letter comes one day after Sheridan sent her own letter to the faculty, a document that offers her own accounting of the lead-up to Ryan’s resignation. In it, she claims that Justice Department representatives “indicated” they “lacked confidence” in Ryan, and she conveyed that message to him afterward. Sheridan’s letter makes no mention of Beth Wilkinson, the attorney who Ryan claimed pushed him to resign.
Sheridan also claims that Ryan asked her to relay the possibility to the Department of Justice that he would resign at the end of the academic year, rather than immediately. Brown, of the Department of Justice, said the resignation would need to be immediate to “improve the university’s posture,” she said. That statement left both her and Ryan “shaken.”
Ryan writes in his letter that he is still wrestling with how he handled the crisis that cost him his presidency. “The whole episode still feels surreal and bewildering, and I still cannot make complete sense of it. I’ve also asked myself a million times if I should have done something differently, and I’m sure anyone reading this will have questions as well.”
Rachel Sheridan Letter (PDF)
