CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) University of Virginia president Jim Ryan has informed the school’s Board of Visitors he will resign bending to pressure from the Trump Administration.

The Department of Justice has been investigating UVA for failing to fully comply with President Trump’s demands to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities nationwide. UVA stood to lose millions of dollars in federal funding if Ryan did not agree to step down.

“I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University,” Ryan said in a letter to the UVA community announcing his decision. “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.”

The Trump administration attempted to pressure other universities, including Harvard, into bending to his anti-DEI agenda, but UVA is the first to see its president cast aside in the fray.

Ryan tendered a letter of resignation to the Board of Visitors on Thursday, according to the New York Times, which was the first to report he news.

In his letter, Ryan said he had previously decided the coming school year would be his last.

“Jim Ryan has been an extraordinary president of this great University,” UVA rector Robert Hardie said in a statement. “He has led our institution to unprecedented heights, always doing so with grace and humility. I know I speak for our students, alumni, faculty, and staff when I express my heartfelt gratitude for Jim’s tireless service to our University, especially for the ways he has guided the institution steadily and with great purpose, even in the face of major challenges like a global pandemic. UVA has forever been changed for the better as a result of Jim’s exceptional leadership.”

The university is at odds with the Trump administration and under investigation by the DOJ for continuing diversity, equity and inclusion practices despite the President’s mandate to back DEI initiatives.

According to the Times’ report, the DOJ insisted that Ryan resign or be removed for the investigation to end.

“UVA is committed to complying with all federal laws and has been cooperating with the Department of Justice in the ongoing inquiries,” a school spokesperson told Cville Right Now Friday morning, before the resignation news broke. “The federal government’s support of the University is essential to continue the core mission of research, education, and clinical care.”

After the news of Ryan’s resignation became public, hundreds of demonstrators – including many UVA student, faculty and staff members – took the lawn for a protest in front of the Rotunda.

Ryan has been UVA’s president since August, 2018. Before that, he served as the dean of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, another vaunted institution of higher learning that has found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration.

In March, the Board of Visitors instructed the school to dismantle its central DEI office to comply with the Trump administrations instructions. At that time, some programs the school believed were still legally permissible were moved to other departments.

“UVA is Virginia’s great flagship University and a lot of my family studied and achieved degrees in Charlottesville, but it’s obvious that there have been huge distractions and bad management decisions in recent years so no one should be surprised that the feds have noticed,” Republican nominee for lieutenant governor John Reid told Cville Right Now on Friday. “Maybe the stubborn belligerent racist attitude in the administration needs to change?”

State senator Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee opposing Reid, released a statement calling the political pressure applied to Ryan “troubling.”

“The resignation of President Jim Ryan is a deeply troubling escalation in the partisan campaign against higher education—and it should alarm every Virginian who believes in academic freedom and institutional integrity,” Hashmi said. “Donald Trump’s sweeping efforts against higher education have opened the floodgates for political interference in our colleges and universities. President Ryan is a widely respected leader who has expanded access, supported first-generation students, and defended the university’s core values. He was pushed out not because of performance, but because of politics.”

Sen. Tim Kaine called the federal government’s actions in the situation “shocking,” “unacceptable,” and “completely illegitimate.”

“I am extremely disturbed by the news from Charlottesville today that mid-level functionaries from the department of justice have essentially forced president Jim Ryan to resign as president by dangling over him severe financial consequences to the university in terms of lost research grants and continuing investigations,” Kaine said during a Zoom with reporters Friday afternoon. “This is a level of federal overreach and micromanagement of Virginia higher education and in particular this globally recognized university that is complete unacceptable.”

Kaine expressed disappointment that state officials, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin, did not speak out in defense of the school against the attacks from the federal government.

Kaine and fellow Senator Mark Warner released a joint statement condemning the ouster.

“Virginia’s economy and prosperity depend on the strength and integrity of our higher education system. It is outrageous that officials in the Trump Department of Justice demanded the Commonwealth’s globally recognized university remove President Ryan—a strong leader who has served UVA honorably and moved the university forward—over ridiculous ‘culture war’ traps,” the statement read. “Decisions about UVA’s leadership belong solely to its Board of Visitors, in keeping with Virginia’s well-established and respected system of higher education governance. This is a mistake that hurts Virginia’s future.”

According to the Times, the U.S. Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights, currently led by a pair of UVA Law graduates — assistant attorney general in charge of civil rights Harmeet Dhillon and deputy Gregory Brown — has called for Ryan to resign multiple times over the past month.

Abigail Spanberger, a UVA alum and the Democratic nominees for governor, called Ryan’s resignation “a loss” for the school.

“That the president of a top-ranked, thriving public university would be pressured to resign by the Department of Justice — in order to avoid further harm and harassment from the Trump Administration — is a clear infringement upon academic freedom and should concern every Virginian and American,” Spanberger said in a statement. “As an alumna of the University of Virginia, I am deeply saddened to see our Governor, his Administration, and so many members of the Board of Visitors remain silent in the face of these attacks on the integrity and independence of the University of Virginia.”