UVA Board Rescinds Racial Quotas, Tightens Oversight on President Ryan

Meeting in a special session today, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors emerged from behind closed doors to rescind a measure adopted in 2020 implementing the recommendations of the Racial Equity Task Force and to organize a working group to promote open inquiry and “constructive conversation.”

Under heavy pressure from the Trump administration, the Board resolution said that the University has “made progress” in eliminating “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” but much work needs to be done.

The substance of the resolution makes it clear that the Board does not trust President Jim Ryan to undertake the job on his own but requires much tighter oversight.

The vote comes a day after the federal Office of Civil Rights addressed a letter to Ryan and other University officials to turn over extensive documents and “certify” that “the dictates of the Board of Visitors’ Resolution [of March 7] had been “fully and completely satisfied and accomplished.”

The Board voted March 7 to dismantle UVA’s DEI bureaucracy and end racial preferences. Governor Glenn Youngkin declared on national TV that “DEI is done” at UVA. However, the wording of the March resolution did not define DEI and was otherwise ambiguous enough to allow for a range of interpretations. Preliminary indications were that UVA might undermine the intent by moving central DEI office employees to other departments and changing their titles.

The resolution the Board of Visitors adopted today is far more specific about its goals and sets up mechanisms to ensure that they are implemented. It goes beyond DEI to address a campus climate that is antithetical to the free expression of a wide range of views. The resolution reads as follows:

WHEREAS, the University of Virginia has made progress eliminating the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and additional work remains to be done to ensure and advance open inquiry at the University and to best prepare students to become citizen-leaders ready to serve our community, the Commonwealth, and beyond; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Visitors and President Ryan agree on the need to strengthen efforts to ensure that the University is a truly inclusive and welcoming community where all individuals are valued and free to express a wide range of ideas and perspectives;

RESOLVED, to be consistent with the law, the Board of Visitors formally rescinds the portions of the September 2020 resolution entitled, “Board of Visitors Support for Racial Equity initiatives” that endorsed pursuit of numerical goals for the composition of students and faculty; and

RESOLVED FURTHER, the President, Interim Provost, and an appointee of the Faculty Senate shall report to the Board at the next regularly scheduled board meeting on work being done to ensure an intellectual climate and campus culture where all students, faculty, and staff are able to express politically diverse views, engage in constructive discussion across differences, and respond to competing perspectives in good faith; and

RESOLVED FURTHER, the Board of Visitors and President shall establish a working Group comprised of members of the Board of Visitors, faculty, and students to consider non-partisan efforts to promote open inquiry, the art of constructive conversation, and the development of a civic mindset.

The minutes of the September 2000 board meeting can be viewed here. The Racial Equity Task Force, upon which the recommendations were based, called for dedicating up to $950 million for racial equity measures.

Ryan has complied reluctantly with the Board’s March 7 resolution, which was adopted under the threat that the Trump administration would yank hundreds of millions of research dollars if the University did not comply. Ryan was one of 300 college and university presidents — though the only president of a public Virginia University — to sign an April 22 statement issued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and American Academy of Arts & Sciences decrying “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”

“We must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses,” the statement read. “We must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”

The Trump administration struck back yesterday in a letter to Ryan, Rector Robert Hardie and University Counsel Cliff Iler. Referring to the March 7 Board resolution, the letter noted that the Office of Civil Rights had received complaints that the University “failed to implement these objectives.”

The Office went on to demand that the University turn over “all written or electronic records” of Board deliberations, in both open and closed session, submit any reports by the administration (or anyone else) regarding compliance with the resolution, and “certify” that every University division, department, foundation, unit, and system had complied with the March 7 resolution.

“A responsive answer will also include a description with particularity how that has been effectuated, with precision and detail,” stated the letter. “A responsive answer will further include specific identification of which departments, programs, preferences, preferential systems and positions/titles/chairs have been eliminated and terminated. Further, for every employee, student, faculty member, or administrator who formerly occupied a position with any DEI responsibilities, ‘mandate,’ duties or title whatsoever, identify whether that individual’s position and title have been eliminated, whether the individual is still associated with the University in any official or unofficial, paid or unpaid capacity, and, if so, the name and nature of that individua’s current title or position.”

The letter was signed by Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Civil Rights, and her deputy, Gregory W. Brown.

Dhillon and Brown know UVA better than the average government lawyer. Dhillon earned her law degree at the UVA School of Law. Brown has represented multiple students in their dealings with UVA and negotiated settlements in high-profile cases involving Morgan Bettinger and Matan Goldstein.

UVA leaders will have both the Board of Visitors and the U.S. Office of Civil Rights breathing down their necks. And the Jefferson Council will be breathing down their necks.