University of Virginia president James Ryan communicated to the school’s Board of Visitors that he plans to resign, a member of the board told CNN. The move comes as the university is under pressure by the US Department of Justice to dismantle its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
It was not immediately clear when the resignation would take effect, the source said.
CNN has reached out to the White House, the Justice Department, America First Legal and the University of Virginia for comment.
The planned resignation, first reported by the New York Times, comes as the Times had reported Thursday evening that Ryan was facing significant pressure to resign from the Department of Justice, as well as conservative groups.
The Justice Department had been reviewing UVA’s compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bans any institution receiving federal funds from discriminating based on race, color and national origin, according to America First Legal.
America First Legal, a Trump-aligned group started by Stephen Miller, now the president’s deputy chief of staff and a powerful adviser to the president on higher education issues, had said that the university’s DEI programs were “rebranded,” and alleged that they were in violation of federal law.
“The University is operating programs based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, and other impermissible, immutable characteristics under the pretext of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’) in open defiance of federal civil rights law, controlling Supreme Court precedent, and Executive Orders issued by President Donald Trump,” Megan Redshaw, America First Legal’s counsel, wrote in a May 21 letter to the Department of Justice.
Redshaw continued, “UVA has failed to dismantle its discriminatory DEI programs as required—choosing instead to rename, repackage, and redeploy the same unlawful infrastructure under a lexicon of euphemisms.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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