CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – University of Virginia President Jim Ryan took to Facebook to offer a mea culpa following the virtual town hall on how the university handled the May 4, 2024, protest on the Lawn.

“So, I have been president for six years and my colleagues and I have worked quite hard to build a level of trust with students, faculty, staff and members of the broader Charlottesville community,” he said in a Facebook video posted the evening of May 7, the day of the town hall. “I’m fully and painfully aware that we lost some of that trust on Saturday, and that it’s very difficult to regain trust.”

Multiple groups and individuals have openly criticized the decision to use what they call excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. On the morning of the town hall, the American Association of Professors-UVa Chapter published a letter condemning the university’s decision to bring in Virginia State Police. “From our own ample first-hand accounts, we find allegations that the demonstrators were unusually disruptive or a source of any danger to others unfounded.” Several dozen UVA history professors signed a similar letter on Monday.

Ryan called the decision to bring in officers in riot gear “no-win situation” for which he faces personal and professional consequences, which he fully accepts. One thing he said will not accept is the suggestion that he doesn’t care about students.

“I don’t agree at all with the choices and the decisions that [the arrested students] made, but I nonetheless care about them, just like I care about every one of their colleagues and fellow students, he said. “Anyone who has been watching for the last six years would know that, and that will never change.”

The full transcription of Ryan’s statement is found below.

 

Just some final words that I would like to share.

So, I have been president for six years and my colleagues and I have worked quite hard to build a level of trust with students, faculty, staff and members of the broader Charlottesville community. I’m fully and painfully aware that we lost some of that trust on Saturday, and that it’s very difficult to regain trust.

At the same time, I have an obligation as a president to make decisions that I think are in the best interest of the entire community, not one segment of it, and that includes making decisions that that others vehemently disagree with, like deciding to leave a sign on a Lawn room door that many found offensive, but which was protected by the 1st Amendment. Or deciding to invite students back during covid, which many thought was unsafe and reckless, but I thought was the safest route because most students were going to be back in Charlottesville anyway because they live off grounds. Those decisions, like the ones we had to make on Saturday, are no-win situations because some will always question them. But they have to be made, and I have always tried to make them based on principal and based on what I perceive to be the best interest of the community. Once you make a decision you have to own it, and you face the personal and professional consequences, which I appreciate and fully accept.

What I cannot and will not accept, though, is the suggestion that I’ve heard from some that I don’t care about students. I care about each and every one of them, including those in the protest and those arrested. I don’t agree at all with the choices and the decisions that they made, but I nonetheless care about them, just like I care about every one of their colleagues and fellow students. Anyone who has been watching for the last six years would know that, and that will never change. So, thanks to my colleagues and thanks to all of you for joining us.