A hallmark of good leadership is the ability to put the needs of an institution above self-interest. But when universities allow their presidents to fall on their swords in an attempt to save their institution from political attacks, it’s the institution’s integrity that is sacrificed.
Last month, we witnessed the fall of James Ryan, president of the University of Virginia. Ryan resigned after the Trump administration demanded that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. In his letter to the community about his decision, Ryan wrote, “I could not in good conscience cause real and direct harm to my colleagues and our students in order to preserve my own position.” Ryan is one of a string of university presidents to resign under external pressure in the past year, the latest casualty in the sustained attack on higher education that has seen university presidents hauled before congressional committees and put some of the most prestigious universities in the world in the crosshairs of federal inquisitors. One hears echoes of former Harvard president Claudine Gay’s resignation in Ryan’s words. When resigning under similar direct pressure from elected officials, Gay wrote, “It has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge.”
In an ominous escalation of federal pressure on university leadership, this month, the Trump administration opened a fourth probe into George Mason University. The latest from the Department of Justice investigates the university’s admission and scholarship practices along with its response to antisemitism. The president of George Mason, Gregory Washington, is rumored to be next on the chopping block after Ryan. Virginia’s Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner expressed concern that the vague accusations directed at Washington regarding DEI and antisemitism are reminiscent of the UVA ousting. And the AAUP chapter at George Mason decried the University’s Board of Visitors’ failure to defend their president from external attacks.
Despite the onslaught against President Washington’s leadership, George Mason’s first Black president, he seems to still be standing. But how long can one leader last if institutional support falls away? Such lack of institutional support is what sealed James Ryan’s fate, despite his popularity across campus. As Timothy Heaphy, former university counsel for UVA, points out in his opinion piece published by the New York Times, “Under investigation by the Justice Department, the university had a strong defense, if only it had the courage to assert it… Instead of presenting facts and law, the board waved the white flag of surrender.”
While Ryan may have been trying to protect the university with his resignation, by accepting his resignation, UVA acquiesced to a brazen and vindictive demand from the Trump administration, and put itself – and the higher education sector – on shakier ground. Giving in to bullies only invites more aggression – grade school wisdom that the Trump administration’s moves against George Mason bear out.
Even the appearance of simply accepting his resignation in this context is a line the University’s governing board should not have so willfully crossed. By doing so, it didn’t only capitulate to the government’s demands, it signaled it was ready to bargain away its very independence, likely emboldening those who see higher education as “the enemy,” to make ever more outrageous demands. The University and its board ought to have stood firmly against this attempt at political control, recognizing that the autonomy of universities and their independence from direct political control is both sacred and necessary to their functioning, a cardinal value of higher education institutions.
Without that autonomy, academic freedom becomes harder to uphold, opening the way for governments to quash dissent, differing opinions and, really, anything they feel does not align with their own ideology. Indeed, institutional autonomy is what helps ensure universities do not become propaganda machines for their governments, given their extraordinary influence over knowledge, education, and the exchange of ideas. That’s why it’s so especially vital that this independence not be surrendered in the face of the kinds of demands being lobbed by the current administration.
As universities attempt to navigate this concerning climate, their governing boards need to keep their eye on the ball, and the governors of George Mason University should take note. These attacks on their universities are an existential threat. If they refuse to defend their university, if they abandon their leaders to forced resignation, they are gravely compromising not only the values of the university, but its continued autonomous existence.
There is an allegory that comes to mind about a frog in a pot of boiling water who fails to respond to the rising temperature until it’s too late. Today, our universities are feeling that heat, but they are failing to recognize the stakes: if we allow the government to force out a popular president today, what aspect of their independence–and frankly of our democracy–will be in jeopardy tomorrow?
Leaders like Ryan, who are willing to put aside their egos for the sake of their institutions and stand for something bigger than themselves, are needed now more than ever. And with the water heating up around them, universities and their boards cannot stand by while their leaders sacrifice themselves at the government’s command, especially when the rationales are as obviously flimsy and politically-motivated as they were at UVA — as they are at George Mason.
The higher education sector is going to need leaders like Ryan, as the political water inevitably continues to boil. We cannot let the next one be sacrificed so easily.
