Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) predicted that more universities will be pressured to cave to the Trump administration after former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan was “threatened” out of his position.
Earlier this week, Ryan resigned a year ahead of his planned exit after a spat with President Donald Trump over the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The Department of Justice demanded Ryan’s resignation.
“This is the most outrageous action I think this crowd has taken on education,” Warner said Sunday on CBS News’s Face the Nation. “Jim Ryan had done a very good job, just completed a major capital campaign. For him to be threatened — and literally there was indication that they received a letter that if he didn’t resign on the day last week by 5 o’clock all these cuts would take place. It was that explicit.”
Host Margaret Brennan noted that the exchange between the Trump administration and Ryan sounded “personal.” Warner responded with a quip, “You’re shocked personal attacks are coming out of this administration?”
“This federal DOE and Department of Justice should get their nose out of the University of Virginia. They are doing damage to our flagship university. And if they can do it here, they’ll do it elsewhere,” Warner said.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESIDENT CAVES TO WHITE HOUSE PRESSURE TO STEP DOWN
Warner suggested that the Education Department has switched gears to target public universities after withholding federal funding from Ivy League schools including Harvard and Columbia. According to the Virginia senator, a possible result could be that “world-class talent” is chased away from these schools.
“If we don’t have some level of academic freedom, then what kind of country are we?” Warner added.
President Donald Trump signed three executive orders during his first days in office that effectively brought about the end of DEI efforts. First, he ordered all DEI employees be placed on administrative leave. Then, with another executive order, he gave all DEI offices in the federal government 60 days to close down. Finally, he reinstated merit-based opportunities by repealing several orders from presidents in the past, one as far back as 1965 under Lyndon B. Johnson.