U.Va. names short-term leader following Ryan’s exit

Following President Jim Ryan’s sudden resignation, the University of Virginia‘s short-term acting president will be Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, the university’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, the university’s board of visitors announced Monday.

She will remain acting president until the board — which changes composition Tuesday with the start of the next year’s terms — names a longer-term interim president to serve until a permanent hire can be made after a national search.

Ryan, who resigned June 27 under pressure by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, leaves U.Va. with no permanent top leaders, as both the provost and UVA Health chief posts also are being held by interim officials.

Rector Robert D. Hardie, whose second and final term on the board of visitors was to end Monday, and Rector-elect Rachel W. Sheridan, who takes the reins of the board on Tuesday, July 1, sent a joint letter to the university community on Monday afternoon announcing that Davis will assume the role of acting president upon the effective date of Ryan’s resignation, although that date was not disclosed in the letter. According to a spokesperson, Ryan’s resignation has not yet become effective as of June 30.

Davis, who will work with interim Provost Brie Gertler and interim CEO of Health Affairs Mitch Rosner, “will remain in that role until we name an interim president who will continue to lead the university as we conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.” According to the BOV’s manual, the rector must convene a search committee when there is a presidential vacancy.

The search process will include input from faculty, students, staff and alumni, the letter from Hardie and Sheridan says, and this process “will commence shortly.”

Sheridan, a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ Capital Markets Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., region, is a 2023 appointee to the board by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She succeeds Hardie, a real estate investor who was appointed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2017 to his first term and reappointed by Gov. Ralph Northam in 2021.

Ryan has been at the center of controversy for months, as two highly ranked U.Va. alumni in the DOJ’s Civil Rights division placed pressure on him and the university to prove that every division of the university and its health system has dissolved and dismantled its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, following a board vote in March.

Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, and Gregory W. Brown, deputy assistant attorney general, sent a letter in April to Ryan and Hardie demanding they produce audio and video from a closed session of U.Va.’s board of visitors and other materials by May 30.

According to The New York Times and other reports, Brown — previously a Charlottesville private attorney who sued the university in 2024 on behalf of a Jewish student who claimed he suffered antisemitic attacks on campus — demanded that Ryan resign in order for the university to reach a settlement with the Justice Department, protecting its federal funding.

Ryan sent a message to the university community Friday afternoon, acknowledging he had submitted his resignation to Hardie earlier in the day. In the letter, the president said that he was leaving to preserve federal funding for research at U.Va., as well as jobs funded by federal money and student financial aid.

“To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this university,” Ryan wrote. “But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job.”

On Friday afternoon after news of his resignation broke, hundreds of people showed up at the U.Va. Rotunda to show their support for Ryan and their anger at what many viewed as the Trump administration‘s overreach. Some held signs criticizing the BOV, which will be entirely made up of Youngkin appointees starting Tuesday.

Virginia Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, were highly critical of the Justice Department’s pressure on Ryan to resign, and many blasted Youngkin as well, who has been accused by Democrats of attempting to exercise too much control over the state’s universities throughout his term.

“The Trump administration, in partnership with Gov. Youngkin, has turned yet another public institution into a political target,” the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said in a statement Friday. “Their goal is clear: to defund public education, rewrite what is taught in classrooms, restrict who gets to learn, and remove leaders who refuse to conform to their narrow ideological vision.”

Earlier in June, nine Democratic state senators sued the rectors of U.Va., George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute over what they view as Youngkin’s attempt to nullify a Senate committee’s vote to reject eight board of visitors appointments, including former Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s appointment to U.Va.’s board.

On Friday, Youngkin thanked Ryan for his service in a statement but made no reference to the political controversy.

Hardie and Sheridan attempted to strike a balance between divergent points of view in their letter Monday, writing: “We share the sentiments of so many members of the university community who have expressed their sorrow about President Ryan’s resignation and their appreciation for his remarkable service to the institution.

“The board, individually and collectively, affirms our confidence in this great university and our understanding of the responsibility we have to ensure U.Va. remains a leader in academic excellence, free speech and responsible governance.”