The president of the University of Virginia, James E Ryan, stepped down on Friday amid the Trump administration’s investigation into its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. 

The New York Times reported that Ryan was pressured to resign by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), which threatened to cut funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars after he refused to put an end to the university’s DEI programs.

He added that to do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centred to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.

He had reportedly been accused of “slow walking” compliance by renaming programs rather than rolling them back altogether. 

The school had voted to shut down the DEI office in March and end diversity policies in admissions, hiring, and financial aid, among other areas. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin celebrated the move, declaring that “DEI is done at the University of Virginia.”

Ryan had plans to exit next year

Notably, Ryan also said that he had decided that next year would be his last, “...for reasons entirely separate from this episode – including the fact that we concluded our capital campaign and have implemented nearly all of the major initiatives in our strategic plan.” He ended the statement expressing gratitude to the entire community of students, staff, faculty, and alumni for their support, saying how difficult the decision had been.

Ryan took the helm of the elite University of Virginia in 2018, a year after white supremacists marched with flaming torches through its campus amid heated debate over the removal of some Confederate monuments in southern states.

Ryan's efforts to make the school more diverse and increase the number of first-generation university students reportedly rankled some conservative alumni.

"It is outrageous that officials in the Trump Department of Justice demanded the Commonwealth's globally recognized university remove President Ryan -- a strong leader who has served UVA honorably and moved the university forward -- over ridiculous 'culture war' traps," Virginia's two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, said in statement.

Trump is attacking US universities and other sources of what he sees as left-leaning power in the country as he moves to exert unprecedented presidential control over life in America.

By rolling back DEI programs across the U.S, he is attempting to weaken what he sees as sources of left-leaning power taking away the opportunities of white and Asian American students. His administration had recently included social media vetting to approve student visas, and withheld funds from Harvard, cutting back $3 billion in grants, contracts, and questioning its tax-free status.

(with inputs from AFP and AP)