The Campaign to get Jim Ryan Fired
July 14, 2025
The New York Times published an article describing the concerted effort to get Jim Ryan fired. This is crucial reading for anyone involved in higher education and really anyone who cares about it. This is in effect the 2025 version of their 2012 article called “Anatomy of a Coup,” about Terri Sullivan’s firing.
Much of the backstory is not news to UVa affiliates. The short version is that The Jefferson Council, a well-funded alumnae group has been building a campaign against Jim Ryan, and I would extend that against everyone who works to make the University more inclusive and more welcoming. Much like DT when he was running in the Republican primary the first time, it was tempting for some people to dismiss them as an obnoxious fringe. They found friends in the Governor and in DT. Note that many official things at UVa are also called the Jefferson blah blah. So much of the most interesting stuff I have done has been funded by the Jefferson Trust. We have Jefferson Fellows, a debate club called the Jefferson Society, etc. I got my first Jefferson cup in 1985 as a math prize. So, this group looks legitimate and is easily mistaken for being an official UVa organization. The Jeff Council President says, "What the Justice Department did was very similar to what President Eisenhower did,” Mr. Gardner said, comparing the Trump administration’s actions to the 1957 White House decision to dispatch troops to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education." THIS IS TOTAL TWILIGHT ZONE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE STUFF.
The work at DOJ is led by two UVa alumnae. After Jim Ryan resigned, Gregory Brown, the DOJ bulldog posted a photo of himself on twitter smoking a cigar with the words Sic Semper Tyrannis," (The tweet is linked in the NY Times story)
This is the state motto which translates loosely to Thus always to tyrants. This is also messed up. The state seal presents an Amazon queen stomping tyranny. The myth is that Brutus said this before he assassinated Julius Caesar. (I'm dubious). Ceasar was a vengeful, populist, violent ruler who did everything he could to create absolute power. He had a bad combover. In June of 2017 Shakespeare in the park staged a version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with the title character dressed like Donald Trump; complete with a Slovenian super model wife. MAGA outrage ensued. The lovers of free speech wanted censorship. And they failed to understand that the play offers meditations of failed politics, that in Shakespeare's version of history the Roman Republic was never the pure ideal they thought, etc. So here we are eight years later and the folks who were mad at a play are defunding the NEA, NEH, Public Education, The Library of Congress etc.