The news of President Jim Ryan’s resignation has hit Grounds like a slap across the face, placing the spotlight on the University in ways not seen since the dark days of 2017, when hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville and enacted violence on our community. The irony is that many other University community members and I have had our own frustrations and critiques of Ryan’s leadership throughout his seven-year tenure at the University. His administration too often engaged in civility politics, evaded responsibility on difficult questions, put forth half-measures in moments of crisis and resorted to heavy-handed tactics against the safety and wishes of students and faculty.
But no matter how fiercely progressives in our community fought with Ryan’s administration, it was always motivated by the desire to see our state’s flagship university improve in its mission to serve all of us — not to dismantle it. It brings none of us joy to see him go, knowing that his departure was not prompted by demands from the left, but from the same constituency of wealthy and powerful alumni who Ryan spent his entire presidency attempting to appease. Emboldened by a second Trump presidency, they are intent on transforming our public institutions into ideological battlegrounds. So far, they are winning. What comes next will test the soul of this university.
We have seen this before. In fact, some of us have lived it.
In 2016, I was a first-year student at the University who watched in disbelief as Donald Trump won the presidency. Crowded on the first floor of Balz-Dobie with my friend and dozens of other first-year students, we kept ourselves awake late into the night watching the results come in, afraid of what this new political direction would bring. In the days that followed, students organized, gathered on the Lawn and marched with handmade signs. We met with former University President Teresa Sullivan to express our fears and have our voices heard.
We pleaded for protections for undocumented students, stronger access to on-Grounds healthcare and counseling services, divestment from companies that did not reflect the University’s stated values and accountability for police officers who jeered at us the night of the election instead of keeping us safe. We wanted justice, but what we got was deflection. The University declined to take a stand.
And then the crises came.
In the first half of 2017, Charlottesville became a focal point in a national clash over race, history and power. Local provocateurs like Jason Kessler — working in tandem with white supremacist movements emboldened by Trump — descended upon our community, threatening students and community members alike. I was there in late March at a student-organized protest outside a town hall hosted by then-Congressman Tom Garrett. Kessler and his cronies showed up not to participate in dialogue, but to intimidate. They physically blocked students from the steps of Garrett Hall, trying to incite violence. In the aftermath of that confrontation, the University administration did nothing.
It was not until the tragedy of Aug. 11 and 12 that the full cost of that passivity became clear. Tiki torches lit up the Lawn. Nazi chants echoed across the Rotunda. A young woman, Heather Heyer, was murdered in the street by a white supremacist, emboldened by a president who would later speak of our fascist invaders as “very fine people on both sides.” The entire nation fell into a state of shock. But to many of us on Grounds, this tragedy was the inevitable outcome of a University leadership culture that had refused to prepare for an emergency, refused to act decisively and refused to adequately protect its students.
Now, just five months into a second Trump presidency, history threatens to repeat itself — only this time, the assault on the community threatens to destroy the University itself.
Ryan’s resignation is just the beginning. The demands for greater compliance from the Department of Justice, along with cooperation from the conservative bloc on the Board of Visitors, will bring enormous harm to students, faculty, University employees and the wider Charlottesville community. These forces have made their goal clear — gut DEI initiatives, restrict academic freedom, undermine protections for minority students and politicize every aspect of campus life until the University resembles nothing of its former self.
This is not about Jim Ryan. This is about whether Virginia’s flagship public university will allow itself to be remade in the image of a federal regime bent on control. This is about whether we, as students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members, are prepared to defend Thomas Jefferson’s values of free inquiry and expression, local self-governance and resistance to injustice — or whether we will once again be told to stand down and hope the storm passes.
The decision to stand up will not be easy. The means of protest and peaceful assembly have already been weakened in the wake of last spring’s student demonstrations. Earlier this year, we saw how quickly federal directives can ripple through our institutions — and how difficult, yet possible, it is to push back. Now, hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line, and thousands of lives, jobs and futures hang in the balance. We cannot ignore the sacrifices — and the stakes — involved.
The path forward requires courage. Not just from leadership, but from all of us. That means faculty must stand firm in defending academic freedom, even when doing so risks retaliation. It means student organizations must organize together — not in silos or single-issue struggles. It means alumni must raise their voices, not just their donations, in defense of the University’s democratic purpose. And it means those in positions of power at the University — whether interim or newly appointed — must reject the urge to appease.
This University belongs to the people of Virginia — not to Washington, not to unelected federal appointees and certainly not to political donors with an agenda. This is our University. And we will fight for it.
Wesley Michaelson is a 2020 alumnus from the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences at the University of Virginia. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
The opinions expressed in this guest column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Guest columns represent the views of the authors alone.
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Letters to the Editor: The resignation of University President Jim Ryan
1 hours agoFollowing this resignation, The Cavalier Daily has received letters from the University community which provide various perspectives on what this moment means to them and to the University’s future.
BARRETT: President Ryan’s forced resignation jeopardizes the future of U.Va.
By Reese Barrett | 7 hours agoIt is essential that each and every one of us are vocal in our opposition towards any president who is unwilling to stand up for us and the integrity of the University.
EDITORIAL: Federal overreach will not end with President Ryan
By Editorial Board | 11 hours agoThe University is the first institution to lose their president as a result of dramatic and unprecedented federal intervention. But we will not be the last.
