It has now been over a month since our University president, Jim Ryan, announced his resignation in the face of federal threats and conservative alumni excoriations. In this month of anguish, I, like many others in our University community, have found myself bitterly furious — furious at the usurpation of our University by federal administrators and at the cowardice of our University’s governing bodies who preferred to remain silent rather than protest this political takeover.
Yet, this moral indignation lies not solely with what was done to us, but also who it was done to — Ryan, a University president who operated in a profoundly human way. Now, as we find ourselves mired in this seismic scandal, it is time for our Board of Visitors to recognize the moment they in part created and still perpetuate with their general exclusion of students from the presidential search committee. And it is time for the Board to instead fill the abyss of humanity which now rests on the front cover of our University.
Ryan held the role of president in a way uniquely admirable compared to several of those from other institutions. Many at other universities, such as Yale and Princeton, see their own university presidents as wholly disconnected from the student body. Ryan was not this. From his frequent Runs With Jim to teaching a COLA class for new University students, Ryan set out to be involved in the lives of all the pupils within our University community. And perhaps nothing could better prove the recognition for his dedication than the Run For Jim that was organized directly in the wake of his forced resignation. In his consistent dedication, he projected a humanized image to a role that can all too often appear ivory-towered — an empathetic distinction that the Board so regularly seems to ignore.
But beyond the everyday weight of an amiable presence, Ryan was also deeply personal and relatable in how he carried himself. He shared with students the intensely private story of meeting his biological mother for the first time. He opened his home to us in the midst of unspeakable tragedy, and continued to do so — as a place for University students to eat snacks, play with his dogs and connect as a community. He laughed with us, he cried with us and, when the macabre moment came to choose between his job and the University’s future, he resigned for us. He made mistakes, as he himself acknowledged, but always sought a better tomorrow for the University that he entitled 2030. Ryan was the epitome of humanity that our University community lives. With his resignation comes a loss of humanist leadership, a loss that has sown deep sentiments of anger and sadness throughout our University.
Perhaps this is why the riposte from the Board has been so utterly upsetting. In this chasm of uncertainty, the response has been a crisis of leadership from the Board. Three days after Ryan’s announcement of his intent to resign, the outgoing and incoming Board rectors pledged to keep our community informed — a humane recognition of the need to treat this unstable moment with empathy and transparency. Since then, faculty concerns have been left unaddressed and student outreach unacknowledged. Indeed, even a letter of outreach from 12 academic deans was met with a disturbing silence. Concerningly, therefore, the continuous conduct of our Board in the midst of this turmoil appears to be insularity and silence.
Such apathy towards students and other stakeholders looks set to further abound in coming months. In that letter three days after Ryan’s resignation, the rectors not only pledged to inform University stakeholders, but also to ensure their inclusion in the search for an interim and permanent University president. And yet the recent announcement of the permanent president search committee, chaired by Rector Rachel Sheridan, revealed that this promise was characteristically deceptive — the Board’s student representative would be the only undergraduate included from our community. There was no acknowledgement of the Student Council resolution calling for the involvement of five students on the search committee.
The inclusion of students in this committee was not only important for the sake of empathy and rightfulness, but also for the hope of what it might confer — the selection of a succeeding president who is similarly humanist. The personal connection Ryan had with the University community was special, and while we cannot hope for an exact replication, we ultimately wish for a similar dedication. The inclusion of student voices would have allowed for these desires to be present in our presidential considerations — without them, these desires appear supremely unlikely. Instead, with a committee made up of a plurality of Board representatives, it appears all the more likely that our next president will embody their traits of insularity and disengagement.
What can we make of a Board that buckles under the weight of their own commitments of transparency and inclusion, besides understanding that they have zero intention of remediating this pernicious and uncaring trend? Having been stripped of our agency as University stakeholders in the initial act of Ryan’s ousting, it appears that there is little intent to seriously address our continued disenfranchisement.
In all capacities — in matters of transparency, engagement and action — the power rests with the Board to empathize with the loss of agency and leadership that sears through our community. Yet, this Board seems impervious to the chorus of students who have emotionally protested the unjust eviction of a caring leader from our community. In short, we are calling “O’ Captain!, My Captain!” for thoughtful and humanist leadership, and the Board continues to keep their heads in the sand, rather than stand on their tables with us.
Wylie Brunman is an opinion editor who writes about politics for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Columns represent the views of the author alone.
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