WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s efforts to assert more control over higher education hit new heights on Friday, after the president of the University of Virginia submitted his resignation amid a Justice Department probe of the school.

James E. Ryan, who has led the prestigious flagship since 2018, had a contract extending through 2028. But in a message to the university community Friday afternoon, he acknowledged that intense pressure from the federal government, including the threat of major funding freezes, influenced his decision to step down.

“I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” he wrote. “To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.”

The Department of Justice had been investigating the university, which is located in Charlottesville, Virginia, over its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs. In March, the university disbanded its DEI office. Glenn Youngkin, the commonwealth’s Republican governor, proclaimed at the time: “DEI is done at the University of Virginia.”

That move wasn’t enough to satisfy the Trump administration, however. The New York Times, which first broke the news of Ryan’s resignation, reported on Thursday that the Justice Department was pressuring Ryan to step down in order to resolve a civil rights inquiry into the university. At risk were millions in federal funding dollars.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, a UVA graduate, would not confirm whether the Justice Department had pushed for Ryan’s ouster. In a statement to USA TODAY, she said the agency made its demands clear to the school.

“When university leaders lack commitment to ending illegal discrimination in hiring, admissions, and student benefits – they expose the institutions they lead to legal and financial peril,” she said. “We welcome leadership changes in higher education that signal institutional commitment to our nation’s venerable federal civil rights laws.”

Ryan’s resignation pleased conservatives and alarmed academic freedom advocates and Democrats. In a joint statement, Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, said decisions about UVA’s leadership should only belong to the university’s board. They called Ryan’s departure a “mistake that hurts Virginia’s future.”

“Virginia’s economy and prosperity depend on the strength and integrity of our higher education system,” they wrote. “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.”

Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.