VACPUSA

Gaia Willis,  Broadstreet Workers’ Club CPUSA

On June 27th, 2025, University of Virginia president Jim Ryan resigned after accusations from the U.S. Department of Justice, which accused the university of failing to dismantle its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. Ryan’s Departure is the latest in a wave of reactionary interventions in higher education, carried out under the Trump regime as part of a broader effort to transform universities from sites of critical inquiry into a training ground of propaganda and obedience. This is not just an administrative overreach, but also a component in a class war being waged against students and workers.

 DEI programs are more than symbolic gestures; for many marginalized students, they represent one of the only institutional footholds for identifying and counteracting systemic harm, building community, and organizing. That on its own makes them dangerous to a regime that seeks to reassert unchallenged white supremacy, cisheteronormativity, patriarchy, and other forms of systemic oppression. This attack is only the opening move; what’s under attack is the very idea that universities can serve as spaces of dissent, intellectual freedom, and collective struggle. The end goal is not just compliance but conquest, which seeks to turn universities into spaces that are ideologically and politically captured by the trump regime’s political project, and more broadly, the interests of capital.

In his resignation letter, Jim Ryan wrote, “To make a long story short, 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.”  This resignation is framed as an act of responsibility or care when it is anything but. It reflects the limits of liberal institutionalism in the face of a growing authoritarian power. The meaning of this is clear,  when forced to choose between defending the University of Virginia’s community and compliance, leadership will choose compliance. Not because they align with the trump regime’s project, but because they are structurally bound to preserve the institution at any cost, even if that means abandoning the people within it.

The targeting of UVA is not unique, but part of a broader country-wide effort by the trump regime to bring universities into alignment with the interests of capital and the state. Under the Trump regime, the federal government has escalated its assault on higher education using investigations, funding cuts, and political pressure to dismantle what remains of its opposition. From attacks against critical race theory to trans sports, pro-Palestine protests, and DEI programs, the target of this reactionary project is clear,  any space that enables critique, community, or organizing. This is not just about silencing a handful of administrators; it is about transforming universities from a contested space into a fully captured one where knowledge is subordinated to the Trump regime’s project.

Despite the institutional retreat, the response from workers, students, and community members has been clear; this overreach will be resisted. Dozens of students, alumni, faculty, and community members gathered spontaneously on the lawn last Friday to protest Ryan’s resignation, with another protest planned for July 4th, organized by Uprise! Creative Collective C’ville and Indivisible Charlottesville. The United Campus Workers of Virginia has also made moves against the attack on UVA made by the Trump regime. The UCWVA  condemned the “federal authoritarianism and interference” behind Ryan’s ousting, calling for democratic governance of the university by university workers and students, and rejecting the idea that UVA belongs to political appointees or federal authorities. Similarly, the Wahoos4UVA, a student, alumni, and community member organization at UVA, warned that the DOJ’s actions represent a partisan attack on higher education, threatening the university’s core values. Both statements speak to what this moment demands, organized collective resistance from those who really make the university run.

What happened at UVA is not about just one resignation; it’s a sign of what’s to come. The university is being reshaped by the Trump regime and is being stripped of its potential for opposition. However, as the UCWVA and other student organizations make clear, this will not go uncontested. The future of UVA, and universities across the country, depends on students, workers, and community members organizing, building people’s power, and fighting back against the Trump regime’s reactionary project.