This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
State senators are considering asking representatives from the University of Virginia to meet with lawmakers in Richmond after school leaders signed an agreement with the federal government to suspend multiple civil rights investigations, sparking opposition from legislators, alumni and faculty.
The news comes days after Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger asked the university’s board to wait until she’s in office before selecting a new president, and after former President Jim Ryan’s account of the process that led to his resignation was published Friday. Ryan wrote that his ouster, amid downward pressure from federal officials, “still feels surreal and bewildering.”
Ryan said Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson worked with the Department of Justice and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office in pressuring him to resign during the federal agency’s investigations. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to the claims.
UVA issues may be on the agenda of senators’ meeting
During the spring, the U.S. Department of Justice initiated its investigation of the institution due to its concerns that UVA was violating federal civil rights laws in its admissions, hiring, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and that its campus culture was inhospitable to Jewish students; the school refuted all these allegations.
The claims conflicted with President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at reforming universities to align with his administration’s views.
The situation drew national scrutiny and criticism close to home, with Democratic lawmakers now considering calling the university’s board members to account in the near future.
Last month, Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, asked Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education, to consider calling UVA leaders to Richmond. His district encompasses the institution.
During the same time, Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Albemarle, and Deeds wrote a letter to UVA Interim President Paul Mahoney and the Board of Visitors expressing their disappointment with the decision and calling for them to reverse “this surrender of institutional autonomy and reject further federal interference.”
“I’m not doing anything right now, but not that I won’t,” Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education, said to the Mercury in an interview last week.
Locke said her colleagues will discuss higher education in Virginia and other subjects at a Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee retreat at Radford University beginning on Thursday. She said the discussion could help determine the Senate’s next steps.
The Mercury asked Sens. Chris Head, R-Botetourt, and Todd Pillion, R-Washington, who sit on the subcommittee, for comment. They did not immediately respond.
The retreat will convene Thursday and Friday at Radford.
Incoming and outgoing governors weigh in
The institution is also navigating calls from Spanberger to suspend its search for a new president until vacant seats on the governing board are filled, likely not until this upcoming General Assembly Session. In her letter, Spanberger claimed the board members “severely undermined” the public’s confidence in their abilities.
Youngkin said Spanberger is attempting to interfere with the hiring process and jumping to conclusions.
“It’s dangerous to wrongfully disparage committed individuals who volunteer to serve on university boards and the serious work they do,” Youngkin wrote in a letter. “Further, the governor of the commonwealth should speak thoughtfully and honor the service of those individuals.” He recommended that the school not delay the process.
DOJ investigations background
To suspend the DOJ investigations, UVA agreed to comply with civil rights laws and to provide quarterly reports to the government on its compliance efforts.
If UVA fails to make “sufficient progress” toward compliance with the DOJ, it will have 15 days to address the issues before the agreement is terminated and investigations resume.
Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, and Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, signed a letter to Rector Rachel Sheridan and Mahoney asking them to reconsider the agreement and to “defend the University’s autonomy, Virginia’s sovereignty, and the constitutional limits on federal power.”
“Thomas Jefferson founded this University to be a beacon of enlightenment and independence,” the senators stated. “It should not become a cautionary tale of capitulation to federal overreach.”
In response, UVA leaders doubled down on their decision, saying the school suspended costly and disruptive investigations, avoided financial and operational risks, preserved institutional autonomy and academic freedom, and that compliance does not require major changes.
UVA leaders said they had “not given up any administrative, statutory, or constitutional protections” after signing the agreement, and said the agreement would allow UVA to litigate only if and when the DOJ’s interpretation of the law diverges from UVA’s policies.
