U.Va.’s new interim president is former law dean

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors has tapped former U.Va. School of Law Dean Paul G. Mahoney as the university’s interim president. Set to take office on Aug. 11, he is expected to serve until a permanent hire is made to replace former U.Va. leader Jim Ryan, who resigned in late June and left last month.

Mahoney is a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor in the law school and was its dean from 2008 to 2016, according to U.Va.’s announcement Monday. He will succeed acting president Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, U.Va.’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. She took office following Ryan’s departure, which came under pressure from the Trump administration.

Mahoney inherits a university in turmoil, as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division, led by two U.Va. alumni, launched an investigation this spring into the university’s dismantling of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which was ordered by a board vote in March. According to letters and news reports, the DOJ accused Ryan of slow-walking the dissolution of DEI offices and programs, as well as simply renaming them and making other cosmetic changes, although critics of the Trump administration claim this was a ploy to drive out Ryan.

Mahoney joined U.Va.’s law school faculty in 1990 and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a former member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee. Before coming to U.Va., Mahoney worked for the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. He specializes in securities regulation, corporate finance and contracts, and earned degrees from Yale Law School and MIT.

“I am honored and humbled to serve as the interim president of the University of Virginia and to support the extraordinary students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents who make this institution great,” Mahoney said in a statement. “I thank the board for the trust they have placed in me, and for arriving at this decision in a manner consistent with the university’s core values of shared governance, academic freedom and student self-governance. As a longtime member of this community, I care deeply about U.Va’s education, research and patient-care mission and look forward to continuing that important work together.”

The board of visitors has named a committee to oversee the search for Ryan’s permanent replacement.

A U.Va. law school alum and former professor, Ryan said he was resigning as president to preserve federal funding for research and student financial aid, which he said was at risk if he remained president. Meanwhile, the governor-appointed board of visitors, which has hiring and firing power over the university’s president, has received criticism from state Democratic lawmakers for pushing ahead on its search for Ryan’s successor.

Nine state Senate Democrats sued U.Va.’s rector and the rectors of George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute to prevent them from seating eight appointees after they were rejected by a Senate committee in June. Last week, a judge ordered a temporary injunction against the three universities, although the state is appealing the decision.

House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott said during a news conference last month that U.Va.’s board “probably should put a freeze on any hiring, because we will not support whatever it is that they do,” calling the board “illegitimate,” and adding that the gubernatorial appointees have “been told that they will not be appointed permanently.”