CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) Hundreds of demonstrators took to the University of Virginia’s fabled Lawn and Rotunda on Friday afternoon to protest after UVA president Jim Ryan was pressured to resign by the Trump administration.

Many objected to the overreach of the federal government, using a Department of Justice investigation into the school’s continued diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to force Ryan to leave his post.

“This is not about conservative or liberal. It’s about who gets to decide what’s best for a university,” said Peter Norton, who holds a PhD from the school and has been a faculty member for 25 years. “This is an intrusion of the President of the United States into the president of a university, which is a completely inexcusable violation of our principles as a democracy. It’s even a violation of conservative principles that we need limited government, not intrusive government.”

The demonstrators marched to Ryan’s residence where he delivered remarks to the supportive crowd.

The university later released a statement from Ryan which read, in part, “I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University.  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.”

While many echoed Norton’s concerns about the usurping of state powers by the Trump administration, others defended Ryan as a strong president for the university.

“He’s the quintessential president for the moment at UVA,” said Marsh Merriman, a UVA Law School graduate. “He fits the times. He identifies closely with the students.”

Mary Kay Goldschmidt, who holds three degrees from UVA, agreed.

“This man does not deserve this. He’s an awesome human being,” Goldschmidt said. “He’s much beloved by faculty, students, staff, everybody. It’s not fair. It’s inappropriate. I’ve never been this angry about a political situation in my life.”

After a sizeable crowd had assembled in front of the steps at the Rotunda, speakers began addressing the gathering. Jeri Seidman, a professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, read a resolution passed by the faculty in support of “President Ryan’s leadership and vision,” and calling on the Board of Visitors to join the faculty senate in “condemning the demands of the U.S. Department of Justice that led to the resignation of President Ryan.”

As Seidman read the resolution, after she said the line, “the faculty senate calls on the board of visitors,” another protestor shouted out “to resign.”

“As much as we love Jim, this is not about Jim,” Seidman told the crowd. “This is about interference that is inappropriate.”