WISE – University of Virginia President James Ryan’s resignation is not affecting operations at the University’s College at Wise.
UVA Wise Chancellor Donna P. Henry said Ryan’s announcement Friday ends a strong seven-year bond between the president and the Wise campus.
“His leadership has had a positive and lasting impact here,†Henry said Monday. “He came here a year before he assumed the university presidency, and he has been committed to the college’s mission. As a first-time college student, he understood the college’s role.â€
Ryan on Friday announced he was resigning after pressure from the Trump administration’s Justice Department over the university’s diversity, equality and inclusion policies, according to the Associated Press.
“To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University.,†Ryan said in a statement issued Friday. “But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job. To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.â€
Ryan had planned to leave the university presidency in 2026 after completing UVA’s capital campaign and most of its strategic plan goals, he added.
“But I could not in good conscience cause real and direct harm to my colleagues and our students in order to preserve my own position,†Ryan wrote.
Faculty and staff joined Sunday in a protest in support of Ryan at UVA’s Charlottesville campus. A sign was posted at the Carr’s Hill access road to the president’s quarters that read, “Jim Ryan. A president with a moral compass.â€
Henry said college officials had reviewed its own DEI policies in the wake of Trump administration orders , adding that the college is in compliance with those executive orders.â€
“We focus on our individual students,†said Henry.
Ryan was the latest in a series of UVA presidents who focused on the college’s growth and success, Henry said. John Casteen in the late 1990s supported the college’s name change from Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia to UVA Wise. Casteen’s term saw a closer relationship between the college and UVA Wise, she added.
Teresa Sullivan, Casteen’s successor and who selected Henry for the Wise chancellor’s post, got college officials to look at demographics of its service region and expand its mission, Henry said.
“Jim Ryan recognized (Sullivan’s) efforts and continued with them,†said Henry. “One of the biggest impacts he had was to include the college in its scholarship programs.â€
Ryan participated in several UVA Wise commencements, appearing in May along with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Two months before, Youngkin celebrated the UVA Board of Visitors’ vote to dissolve the university’s DEI program.
“DEI is done at the University of Virginia,†Youngkin said in a March 7 statement.
