Under the pressure of the Trump administration, the president of the University of Virginia resigned. “It's scandalous”
James Ryan. Photo source: Win McNamee / Getty Images / Profimedia
The President of the Virginia University announced his resignation on Friday, under the pressure of the Trump administration, which opened an investigation into the institution's practices in favor of diversity, informs France Presse.
This marks a new stage in Donald Trump's attacks against American higher education since his return to power.
In a statement, James Ryan, who runs the University of Virginia in 2018, explained that he prefers to resign only to “fight against the federal government.”
The Ministry of Justice, which deals with the investigation against its institution, has specifically demanded its resignation, according to the New York Times.
“If I had not affected me so personally, I would have chosen another way,” said Ryan, stressing that in this case they are “very important principles”.
But the attempt to keep their function seemed “selfish and self-centered against hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, researchers who would lose their financing and hundreds of students who could lose financial help or see refused visas,” he added.
In a statement, democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine denounced “a mistake that damages the future of Virginia”.
“It is scandalous that the officials in Trump's Department of Justice have asked the University (…) to dismiss Ryan President,” they estimated.
Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump leads a campaign against the universities that he accuses of propagating a “Woke” ideology, a term used in a pejorative way to denounce what they perceive as an excess of milititism in favor of minorities.
The Ministry of Justice has opened multiple investigations on the admission or recruitment practices of institutions throughout the country.
The Trump administration concerns especially prestigious institutions such as Harvard, where they try to prohibit the admission of foreign students, and Colombia, who threatens with the withdrawal of accreditation, which could deprive it of any federal funding.
