Virginia

James Fallows
‪@jfallows.bsky.social‬

1) 'Why I Resigned' from UVa Prez 100% worth reading
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26278550-jim-ryan-letter/

2) Events were forced by NYT story w leaked info that he was under pressure to resign. UVa prez has 'no idea' where leaks came from (See below.)

3) FWIW same NYT team did leaked "Harvard will cave" stories

Story says:
Headline "The Final Day"
Then:
The Final Day

Rachel went to meet with the DOJ lawyers the next day—Thursday, June 26th. That morning, an article came out in the NY Times describing how DOJ lawyers were pressuring me to resign. I still have no
idea who leaked the story.

At around 1pm on Thursday, I was called by Rachel and the two outside
lawyers, Jack and Farnaz, who attended the meeting with Rachel. I was told that the DOJ lawyers were very upset with the leaked story in the Times and that the only offer on the table was that I needed to
resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA.

I also needed my resignation to be effective prior to the students returning. If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would
extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate.

I was then told that the DOJ had offered an amazing deal—unlike any the lawyers had ever seen, in their words. They were basically willing to grant UVA blanket immunity—all of the inquires and investigations would be suspended, no financial penalties would be imposed, and agencies would be told not to cut off our research funding. They said they had never seen or heard about such a great deal for any university.

Rachel praised the lawyers for their astute and savvy bargaining, and I was told this was an amazing deal.
ALT
November 14, 2025 at 5:35 PM