The University of Virginia’s 2025-2026 academic year kicked off amid unprecedented government intervention that will have wide-reaching impacts on the university and central Virginia.
Former UVA President Jim Ryan’s ouster over the summer of 2025 — which came after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding and continue investigating the university’s diversity initiatives — was the first time in American history that federal officials have explicitly tied funding to the resignation of a university official because his initiatives did not align with the president’s political agenda.
Here’s a timeline of what has happened since the summer. It includes links to Charlottesville Tomorrow’s reporting, as well as other local outlets’ work, including The Cavalier Daily, VPM, 29News, CBS19, Virginia Mercury and The Daily Progress.
We’ll update this timeline about once per month as UVA continues to confront challenges to its autonomy, governance and academic freedom during the Trump administration.
June 2025
June 9, 2025: Democrats on the Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee reject eight of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s appointees to college boards, including Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and Department of Homeland Security official in the first Trump administration, on UVA’s Board of Visitors. The BOV falls out of compliance with Virginia code, which requires 17 members appointed by the governor, at least 12 of whom need to be Virginia residents and 12 of whom need to be UVA alumni.
June 27, 2025: Jim Ryan unexpectedly resigns after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding and continue investigating the university’s diversity initiatives if he did not step down, according to a report citing multiple anonymous sources in The New York Times (subscription required). Despite his resignation, the Department of Justice investigations into UVA continue.
June 27, 2025: Hundreds gather at UVA to express their support for Ryan and protest his forced resignation. (VPM reported on a variety of perspectives and published a slide show.)
June 30, 2025: The Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, a union of academic professionals, condemn Ryan’s forced resignation. National and UVA chapters follow suit.
July 2025
July 4, 2025: Around 400 demonstrators gather at UVA’s Rotunda to protest Ryan’s forced resignation and the federal government’s interference in the university, reported by CVILLE Weekly.
July 11-14, 2025: On July 11, President Jim Ryan’s last day, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis steps in as acting president. That day, the Faculty Senate pass a vote of no confidence in the Board of Visitors “for not protecting the University and its president from outside interference, and for not consulting with the Faculty Senate in a time of crisis.” The UVA General Faculty Council later unanimously endorse the no confidence vote. On July 14, UVA’s Student Council vote on a resolution to include student voices in the search for UVA’s next president, as reported by The Cavalier Daily.
July 14, 2025: Melina Kibbe quietly steps down as chief health affairs officer of UVA Health . Two days later, Wendy Horton, CEO of UVA Medical Center, announces she is stepping down from her role as well. Their departure marks the loss of three of UVA Health’s top executives in less than half a year following CEO Craig Kent’s resignation in February, which came after 128 doctors and faculty members sent a letter of no confidence to UVA leadership in September 2024. The letter contained a litany of allegations against both Kent and Kibbe, including “explicit and implicit threats and retaliation,” endangering patients and questionable billing practices.
July 25-27, 2025: UVA announces 28-person special committee to oversee “the process to identify, recruit, screen and recommend candidates to serve as the University’s 10th president.” UVA’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors sends a letter to the Board of Visitors, Acting President “J.J.” Wagner Davis and Faculty Senate Chair Jeri K. Seidman, stating that the search for an interim and permanent president does not properly include faculty.
July 29, 2025: A Fairfax Circuit Court orders the removal of the eight rejected appointees to Virginia college boards, including Ken Cuccinelli from UVA’s Board of Visitors, as reported by 29News.
August 2025
Aug. 1, 2025: Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds initiates an exchange of letters with UVA’s Board of Visitors, demanding answers about former President Ryan’s forced resignation, reported in The Cavalier Daily. The BOV initially says it will respond in full to Senator Deeds’ questions, but later reverses course, citing ongoing discussions with the DOJ as the reason they cannot provide answers, reported in The Daily Progress (subscription required).
Aug. 4, 2025: Paul Mahoney, professor and former dean of the UVA School of Law, is appointed in closed session by the Board of Visitors to serve as interim president of UVA. The BOV says it hopes to select a permanent president in the next four to six months.
Aug. 4-11, 2025: 141 retired faculty issue a statement of no confidence in the Board of Visitors; Student Council passes a resolution declaring no confidence; UVA’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors announces no confidence; and UVA’s chapter of United Campus Workers of Virginia, the union for UVA’s faculty and staff, joins in no confidence 11 days later. Representatives from all three organizations participate in a “Hands off Our University” press conference.
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Aug. 11, 2025: Mahoney begins his tenure as interim president.
Aug. 12, 2025: Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office files an appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia to lift the suspension of Youngkin’s appointees from Virginia college boards, reported by Virginia Mercury.
Aug. 22, 2025: The Special Committee on the Nomination of a President meets for the first time to begin the search for a new university president.
Aug. 26, 2025: On the first day of classes at UVA, the Faculty Senate and Student Council jointly host a “We Are UVA.” rally to protest Ryan’s ouster and an ongoing lack of transparency from the Board of Visitors, reported by The Cavalier Daily.
Aug. 28, 2025: Four more of Governor Youngkin’s appointees to UVA’s Board of Visitors are removed from their positions after committee Democrats block an additional 14 appointees from Virginia college boards, reported by Virginia Mercury. All four had been serving since they were appointed by Youngkin in late June. The removals lower both the number of Virginia residents and alumni on the BOV to 9, below the requirement of 12 alumni members.
September 2025
Sept. 8, 2025: UVA alumni Ann Brown and Chris Ford, co-chairs of group Wahoos4UVA, send a letter to Board of Visitors Rector Rachel Sheridan stating that the BOV is out of compliance with legal regulations for its membership. They request that the BOV comply with Virginia law or suspend its activities until it does.
Sept. 12, 2025: UVA students, alumni, faculty and staff line up outside a Board of Visitors meeting, which has limited seating, for an opportunity to attend. Several gather to protest and express their concerns about a lack of transparency from the BOV and failure to properly include university stakeholders in the search for a new president. During the meeting, Interim President Paul Mahoney says the Department of Justice closed two investigations into antisemitism and admissions practices at UVA.
Sept. 12, 2025: Mitchell Rosner, who served as UVA’s interim executive vice president for health affairs for seven months, is named UVA Health CEO by UVA’s Board of Visitors.
Sept. 22, 2025: The Special Committee on the Nomination of a President meet in open session at the Boar’s Head Resort in Charlottesville, reported by The Cavalier Daily.
Sept. 29, 2025: Sen. Creigh Deeds sends a follow-up letter to Rector Rachel Sheridan raising serious new allegations about the Board of Visitors’ interactions with the DOJ and how it handled negotiations surrounding President Ryan’s forced resignation, according to reporting by The Cavalier Daily.
October 2025
Oct. 1, 2025: The Trump administration sends a 10-page Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to nine universities, including UVA, urging them to agree to a list of requests in exchange for priority access to federal research funds.
Oct. 3-17, 2025: The Faculty Senate releases a resolution opposing Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, stating it contains “provisions which endanger the independence and integrity” of UVA. Faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences vote overwhelmingly to reject the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, as reported by CBS19. Student Council President Clay Dickerson signs a joint statement with student leaders at six other universities asking their schools to reject the Trump administration’s Compact, as reported by The Cavalier Daily. The Executive Committee of UVA’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors also releases a statement rejecting the compact.
Oct. 7, 2025: The UVA Board of Visitors’ 10th Presidential Search Special Committee meets to go over a first presentation of potential candidates for the presidency.
Oct. 17, 2025: Over a thousand people, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the Charlottesville community, rally on UVA’s lawn, captured by 29News, to demand that Interim President Paul Mahoney and the Board of Visitors reject the Trump Administration’s Compact for Excellence in Higher Education. A few hours after the rally, Mahoney announces that UVA will not sign the Compact.
Oct. 22, 2025: Interim President Paul Mahoney announces that he has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the University of Virginia and its future president until 2028. The deal temporarily pauses five federal investigations into the university in exchange for compliance with the Trump administration’s July 29, 2025 guidance for recipients of federal funding. Critics of the deal, including faculty and legal experts, told Charlottesville Tomorrow that the agreement hands sweeping control to the Trump administration and undermines hard-won protections for students and faculty of color. Virginia State Sens. Scott Surovell, L. Louise Lucas and Creigh Deeds, as well as Del. Katrina Callsen, criticize the agreement, with some calling for its reversal.
Oct. 24, 2025: The Faculty Senate votes in favor of a resolution calling on Interim President Paul Mahoney and Rector Rachel Sheridan to meet with the Faculty Senate by Nov. 14 “to clarify the circumstances and negotiations that led to the signing” of an agreement with the Department of Justice and what it “will require” of UVA. Mahoney attended the meeting; Sheridan declined.
November 2025
Nov. 1, 2025: UVA’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors releases a statement condemning the agreement with the DOJ and asks university leadership to rescind it. The faculty organization declares no confidence in Interim President Paul Mahoney and Rector Rachel Sheridan, adding that it will call for their resignation if they refuse to withdraw from the agreement.
Nov. 12, 2025: Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger sends a letter to Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson, expressing concern about “federal overreach.” The actions of the Board “have severely undermined the public’s and the University community’s confidence in the Board’s ability to govern productively, transparently, and in the best interests of the University.” Spanberger asks the Board to not name a new president until she has appointed — and the General Assembly has confirmed — five new members so that the Board is in compliance with Virginia law. She says that she will make her appointments soon after her inauguration, scheduled for Jan. 14, 2026.
Nov. 13, 2025: Board of Visitors Rector Rachel Sheridan sends a letter to the Faculty Senate, outlining the negotiations with the Department of Justice that led to former President Jim Ryan’s resignation. Sheridan states that Ryan offered to resign by the end of the academic year because he felt the DOJ’s animus toward him would hurt UVA, but the DOJ responded that his resignation had to happen sooner to have any effect on the negotiations. She adds that she and fellow Board member Paul Manning cautioned Ryan against offering his resignation.
Nov. 14, 2025: Former President Jim Ryan responds to Rector Rachel Sheridan’s letter to the Faculty Senate about negotiations with the Department of Justice. Ryan contradicts multiple points of her account. He writes in a 12-page letter to the Faculty Senate that, rather than volunteering his resignation, he faced mounting pressure from Sheridan, Board member Paul Manning and Beth Wilkinson, a lawyer Sheridan hired without then-Rector Robert Hardie’s knowledge. He said he was told to resign or the DOJ would “rain hell on UVA,” as reported by The Cavalier Daily, VPM and other outlets. According to Ryan, Wilkinson told him that if he didn’t resign, the Board would fire him. Hardie, whose term as rector ended June 30, supports Ryan’s account of events. The Faculty Senate passes a resolution calling for Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson’s resignation and a pause in the search for UVA’s tenth president until all empty Board seats are filled, reported by The Cavalier Daily.
Nov. 21, 2025: The Special Committee on the Nomination of a President responds to the Faculty Senate, affirming in two letters that it will continue the search despite ongoing pushback from the university community. In the first letter, John Isaacson, the chair of Isaacson, Miller — the external search firm working with the committee — said that the committee will continue their work to find a new president, while the second letter adds that the committee has recently completed its first round of interviews for the position, as reported by Virginia Magazine.
December 2025
Dec. 1, 2025: Nine of UVA’s 14 academic deans write a letter to the Board of Visitors, citing low confidence in the BOV’s leadership and asking them not to select a new president until they have established necessary “conditions of trust” with the university community, as reported by The Cavalier Daily.
Dec. 5, 2025: The University of Virginia’s chapter of United Campus Workers of Virginia — the union for UVA’s faculty and staff — leads a march and rally of at least 35 students, faculty, staff and alumni on grounds before bussing participants to a Board of Visitor’s meeting. They ask that Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson resign; that the presidential search committee cease the search process until all new BOV members have been appointed; and that any candidates for the presidency have a track record of negotiating fair contracts and supporting collective bargaining. During the BOV meeting, Rector Rachel Sheridan condemns the “rise in divisive politics which continue to get in the way of UVA’s mission and our work together as a Board.”
Dec. 11, 2025: The Board of Visitors holds a meeting of the Special Committee on the Search for a President to discuss candidates, during which Rector Rachel Sheridan tells meeting attendees that they will continue interviewing candidates in the next 15 days. All but two minutes of the two-hour meeting takes place behind closed doors, according to reporting from 29News.
Dec. 12, 2025: The Faculty Senate passes a resolution condemning the ongoing presidential search “despite formal requests from stakeholders including the majority of UVA Deans, the Faculty Senate, and the General Faculty Council to pause the search,” adding that anyone chosen as UVA’s 10th president by the current Board will assume the role with no confidence from the Senate. The resolution asks finalists for the presidency to join the Faculty Senate in calling for a pause to the search “to allow for additional deliberation and due diligence on the part of the University.”