UVA Board of Visitors to meet to discuss federal investigations—without Cuccinelli

The second presidency of Donald Trump seeks to transform higher education with threats of withholding federal funds unless certain demands are met. On January 20, Trump immediately signed several executive orders including one that withdrew several orders that had been signed by President Joe Biden on his first day four years earlier.

One of these had the title of “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”

“It is therefore the policy of my Administration that the Federal Government should pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality,” reads Biden’s order. “Affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”

As a replacement, Trump signed an order titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” which directed his administration to root out any programs that had been sanctioned by Biden’s order. That included “Federal grantees who received Federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or ‘environmental justice’ programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.”

That includes the University of Virginia and the Board of Visitors voted in early March to eliminate those programs and to dissolve the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. That did not satisfy the Department of Justice who in April began sending letters insisting that UVA had not done enough to eliminate programs that ran afoul of the administration’s dictation.

On June 27, 2025, Jim Ryan resigned as UVA’s ninth president.

“I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University,” wrote Jim Ryan in an email sent out to UVA affiliates at 4:11 p.m. that afternoon. “But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job.”

A few days later, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer ‘J.J.’ Wagner Davis was named acting president with an interim to be named in the future. A search committee has been formed to find a tenth president.

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors will hold a special meeting Monday morning at 9 a.m. to talk about both processes. They will not be joined by Ken Cuccinelli, appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin in March to fill a vacancy left after the firing of Bert Ellis. In June a Virginia Senate Committee declined to advance his nomination nor those of members of the governing bodies at George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute.

Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares advised UVA and those other schools that the nominations were still valid. Democratic members of the Senate Committee sued and last week Fairfax County Circuit Court Jonathan D. Frieden agreed to a preliminary injunction barring Cuccinelli from serving as a member of the Board of Visitors.

“Not withstanding the General Assembly’s refusal to confirm the Disputed Appointees, Defendants intend to follow the legal advice of the Attorney General and continue to recognize the Disputed Appointees as members of their respective Boards,” reads the ruling. “Doing so essentially nullifies the votes cast by the Plaintiffs and hold them for naught; nullifying these votes, even briefly, constitutes irreparable harm.”

For more on the ruling, make sure to read Ford McCracken’s story in the Cavalier Daily.

For more coverage on the continuing story at UVA, make sure you’re reading all of the stories in the Cavalier Daily including an August 2 story from Brendon Bordwine about a letter from Senator Creigh deeds seeking answers to the federal investigation.

For more on the closed session, here’s the description in the agenda:

“Consultation with legal counsel and receipt of legal advice about specific legal and regulatory matters including federal investigations and potential and actual litigation; and discussion and consideration of potential candidates for employment and assignment, specifically candidates for interim president and Secretary to the Board of Visitors,” reads the agenda.

After the closed session, the Board will elect a Secretary and will adopt a resolution governing the selection of the interim president. A search committee to find the 10th president has been formed.

AAUP opposition

Since Ryan resigned, the American Association of University Professors at the University of Virginia have expressed concern through a series of letters. On July 28, they sent a letter decrying what they see as a lack of input from staff on the search committees for both the interim president and the 10th president. They want the Faculty Senate to play more of a role.

“With regard to the process for the selection of the permanent president announced last Friday, the search committee fails to include a preponderance of faculty elected by the faculty,” reads an email that accompanied the letter. “There are only 3 faculty on that search committee and only one is elected.”

Today AAUP-UVA sent another letter to the Board of Visitors encouraging the path of Harvard University in resisting demands of the Trump administration.

“In line with AAUP standards, in any compliance review of UVa operations related to DEI programming,
admissions, or allegations of systemic antisemitism, the source and scope of the review
must be made explicit to all faculty,” reads today’s letter.

The group Wahoos 4 UVA sent out a note to supporters on August 1 expressing concern that the UVA Board of Visitors may be on the cusp with signing an agreement with the Department of Justice related to the investigation.

“We are gravely concerned about the direction set by the resolution agreements signed in July by Columbia and Brown Universities with the Department of Justice ,” reads their note. “While framed as voluntary settlements, those agreements give federal officials sweeping authority over campus speech, faculty governance, and student life, imposing mandates that threaten core academic values.”

The group calls on the Board to consider seven things while resolving the investigation including not granting the Department of Justice the right to pre-approve university communications as well as not allowing federal monitors to oversee disciplinary procedures. The seventh calls upon the state’s legislature to play a role.

“Any agreement that carries financial implications must first be reviewed and approved by the General Assembly,” reads the statement. “Any such penalties must be allocated to programs aligned with the University’s core teaching and research missions.”

Before you go: This story was originally posted in the Week Ahead newsletter that went out on August 3, 2025 in Charlottesville Community Engagement.