Following the news of University President Jim Ryan’s resignation under pressure from the Department of Justice, over 400 University faculty and staff members attended a town hall meeting July 2 to discuss how the University got to this point and what will come next. The town hall was hosted — in person at Clark Hall and on Zoom — by the University of Virginia chapter of the United Campus Workers of Virginia, a wall-to-wall union which represents anyone receiving a paycheck from the University.
The Cavalier Daily was permitted to attend this meeting under the condition that only public speakers would be identified by name — all other attendees asked to remain anonymous.
The meeting opened with a speech from Ian Mullins, a member of the University chapter of UCWVA and assistant professor of sociology. Mullins acknowledged the confusion many have felt in the wake of Ryan’s resignation, mentioning a Board of Visitors meeting which had been scheduled for the morning of June 2 and then canceled without explanation.
He said the purpose of the town hall was to mobilize community organization, despite a lack of clarity regarding Ryan’s resignation.
“We are all here because we care … We’re here because we chose to be,” Mullins said. “We want to know what we should do as a community. That’s what today is going to accomplish.”
Later in the meeting, Mullins opened up the floor for other comments, all of which are anonymized here as per the meeting’s stated guidelines. He shared a slide entitled “Common Areas of Concern” with three points to guide discussion — knowing what happened, selecting a new president and potential consequences.
Many individuals expressed fear and anger with the Justice Department’s demand for Ryan to step down or risk the University losing federal funding. One tenured professor cited their age and experience in their assertion that this news posed a massive risk to higher education.
“Faculty who have tenure are supposed to speak up at moments like this,” they said. “I’ve been teaching for a long time at other universities. This is categorically the worst threat to higher education I have encountered in my lifetime.”
In addition to fear, individuals also raised concerns with the process of selecting an interim president, stating that the politicized leanings of the Board threaten principles of shared governance. In a previous email to the University community, Board Rector Rachel Sheridan and former Rector Robert Hardie stated that the search for a new president would consider the perspectives of various University stakeholders, such as students, faculty and staff.
Mullins asked the room to raise their hand if they believed the Board would take their input into consideration — no attendees raised their hand.
While the room expressed general worry that the Board had zero legal requirement to consider such stakeholders, one individual took issue with the implications of this term, saying that the word minimizes faculty contribution to the University.
“We are not stakeholders, we are constituents,” they said. “We make it work … We are this University.”
The conversation also mentioned the possibility of organizing alongside other universities who have also received similar political pressure from the federal government. Several people floated the idea of a strike.
“If we do strike, I don’t think it will be the University of Virginia alone,” said one individual.
The meeting also included a series of comments from public guest speakers. Each individual began their speech by sharing their various ties to the University or higher education — citing degrees, employment, Charlottesville residency and more.
Harry Szabo, president of UCWVA and assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, urged attendees to join their union, noting that although this diversity of experience can lead to differing political views, there is power in community solidarity against government intervention in higher education.
“There will be people to your political left and right… What we do share here is a stake in the future of higher education,” Szabo said. “When one group of us is under attack, we all are.”
Karen Waters, an Albemarle County Schools administrator and advisory board member of the Center for Community Partnerships — a University program aiming to improve the relationship between the University and Charlottesville — expressed similar sentiments to Szabo. Waters, who has been a student, employee, patient and consultant at the University, said that this level of involvement from the federal government regarding University affairs is unprecedented, and that University faculty must provide a unified response.
“The bottom line here is, we have to be one band with one sound,” Waters said. “We need to make sure the BOV knows that this is our institution, and we are not putting up with this foolishness, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
In addition to collective organizing, several speakers discussed other potential avenues for legal and political action. One speaker, Adam Barnes, member of the American Association of University Professors and senior lecturer in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, raised the topic of UCWVA bringing potential legal action against the Board, calling Ryan’s exit “politically motivated extortion.”
Following the news of Ryan’s resignation, the Virginia conference of the AAUP sent a letter to incoming University Rector Rachel Sheridan calling for an independent investigation into the communications between the Board and the Justice Department.
The letter argued that if Board members were found to be involved in Ryan’s resignation, that would mean Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his appointees to the Board would be engaging in willful non-compliance with Virginia state law’s separation of powers.
The law says that university governing boards fall under the control of the state legislature, not the executive — meaning that all Board members are appointed by the governor but subject to approval by the General Assembly.
Currently, there are several Board members at universities across the Commonwealth — including Ken Cuccinelli, former state attorney general and University Board member — who were denied by the Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. However, Democrats and Republicans disagree whether these members may still be allowed to serve until the General Assembly convenes early next year.
Cecelia Parks, UCWVA member and University librarian, pointed to Youngkin’s vetoing of H.B. 2764, which would have expanded collective bargaining rights of Virginia workers, as reason to take to the polls this November. She believes gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger would not veto a similar bill.
“If we’re going to win this, we need to all be on the same page,” Parks said. “We’re more powerful when we’re together.”
As the meeting wrapped up, meeting leaders emphasized the importance of showing up. They urged attendees to contact their elected officials, organize their departments, show up to demonstrations and join the union. Mullins concluded by pointing out that 300 people had joined the meeting on Zoom — the maximum capacity for a Zoom meeting.
“This is a historic moment. This meeting is a meeting people are going to remember,” Mullins said. “Show up again. You’re not alone in this. We are in this together, and that’s where our strength lies.”
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