The president of the University of Virginia, James Ryan, resigned on Friday under pressure from the administration of President Donald Trump on the policies of diversity, equity and inclusion of the school.
In a letter to the UVA community, Ryan said that he had made the “atrocious decision” to resign after concluding that the resolution of the requests of Trump officials would endanger the students and teachers of the school.
“I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” he wrote. “Doing it would not only be quixotic, but seem selfish and egocentric to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, researchers who lose their funding and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their selected visas.”
The American Democratic Senators of Virginia, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, described the Trump administration of “scandalous” in a joint statement and said that Ryan’s departure would harm university and state.
It was not clear if Ryan’s resignation would take effect immediately. Earlier, the New York Times reported that the Ministry of Justice had demanded its resignation and it had decided to capitulate.
The administration launched a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion and the targeted colleges and universities which, according to him, push anti-Semitic, anti-American, Marxist and “radical” ideologies.
Universities that have been the subject of an investigation or that have included funds said that Trump’s attacks threaten freedom of expression, the freedom of academics and the existence of schools.
In a warning issued to the UVA last week, the Ministry of Justice said that the government had concluded that the use of the breed in the admissions and other benefits of students was “generalized practices in each component and facet of the institution”, according to Times.
