Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday, July 1. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Brock Read compiled Transitions. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

Turmoil in Charlottesville

The fallout continues after the Trump administration successfully engineered regime change at a top university.

Jim Ryan’s resignation as University of Virginia president is resonating as another warning: The federal government can expand upon the tactics it’s used to pressure Ivy League universities, forcing terrible choices on leaders of colleges both private and public.

• “If they can do it here, they’ll do it elsewhere,” Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat of Virginia, said on Face the Nation on CBS. “If he didn’t resign on a day last week, by five o’clock, all these cuts would take place,” Warner said, describing the Trump administration’s demands. “It was that explicit.”

The Trump administration doesn’t need antisemitism allegations to force change. By leveraging claims that Ryan hadn’t snuffed out diversity, equity, and inclusion work, officials proved that they can seize on other culture-war issues. Using geography or class as a proxy for race to try to diversify recruitment could very well end up in the crosshairs next, Scott Schneider, a higher-ed lawyer, told The Wall Street Journal.

But it might need local cooperation, at least to win quickly, as it did in Charlottesville. A conservative alumni group has been campaigning against Ryan. Virginia’s attorney general is hostile to DEI, and the majority of the university’s board was appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who’s pledged to end DEI at the university, Timothy J. Heaphy, former university counsel for the flagship, wrote in 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,” Heaphy wrote “Instead of presenting facts and law, the board waved the white flag of surrender. Mr. Ryan’s resignation is a victory for intimidation and fear over the rule of law.”

Ryan’s resignation landed with a thud in Charlottesville. The university’s Faculty Senate condemned the Justice Department’s demands and asked the board to detail what happened, Inside Higher Ed reported. Students aren’t happy with the departure of Ryan, who had built a reputation as an accessible leader who was deeply involved in student life, according to reactions gathered by The Cavalier Daily, the university’s student newspaper.

• Hundreds gathered in support of Ryan on Saturday in a tribute to the “Run with Jim” jogs around campus that the president regularly held. “I know it can feel like a pretty-dark place that we’re in right now, but the sun continues to rise every morning, and this race is not over,” Ryan told them, according to Virginia Public Media.

Republicans called the ouster overdue. “This is a wake-up call to college presidents and universities,” Wendell Walker, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, told WSET. “Get your act together here. We want institutions that will put out people that are not against America.”

A top Democrat was left grasping for college leaders willing to show more fight. “This situation is made worse because of the willingness of universities and businesses to quickly capitulate,” Rep. Robert C. (Bobby) Scott, a Democrat who is the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s ranking member, said in a statement. “Ryan’s resignation, therefore, signals to the higher-education community that diversity as a positive value is now diminished and that segregation is to be celebrated.”

Virginia Democrats tried to dig in. Scott Surovell, who leads the Virginia Senate, told the university’s governing board not to pick a new president “anytime soon,” Cardinal News reported. Democrats could quickly try to take control of the university’s governing board if they win the governorship this fall. But leaders of the university’s board said Monday that they’re required to promptly create a committee to search for a new president.

Make no mistake: Virginia’s public institutions were already embroiled in a partisan struggle. A State Senate committee recently rejected several of the governor’s appointments to university boards, setting off a fight about whether the appointments are valid until the full Legislature rejects them. The State Senate leader has floated rewriting the law to prevent gubernatorial appointees from taking their seats until they’re confirmed.

Did Ryan spare the university pain or simply speed up changes that could follow his departure?

• The president was unwilling to be the reason the university lost federal dollars, or the cause of the job cuts, unfunded research, student-visa losses, and unavailable federal financial aid that could follow, Ryan wrote.
• But the resignation leaves the university without a president or provost; its provost accepted an offer in January to become Middlebury College’s president. “The right-wing board has the opportunity to install interim leadership that could stifle the ability of faculty to teach their expertise as we see fit and degrade the quality of education and research,” Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, wrote in The New Republic, a liberal publication.

The bigger picture: Contentious presidential departures are the symptom, not the cause, of governance turmoil. They expose divisions that were already plaguing colleges — whether that’s Carol Folt leaving the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2019 or Teresa Sullivan famously resigning and then being reinstated at the University of Virginia in 2012.

Federal news

• Antisemitism investigation threatens Harvard’s federal student aid: Civil-rights investigators concluded that Harvard University “is in violent violation” of antidiscrimination law, the U.S. Department of Education said on Monday, charging that pro-Palestinian encampment organizers faced insufficient discipline and that many Jewish students reported discrimination. The finding jeopardizes Harvard’s ability to draw federal student aid, hitting a new pressure point even after the university and the government had resumed negotiating to end a standoff during which the Trump administration tried to block Harvard from enrolling international students and cut billions of dollars of its research funding. Harvard disagreed with the findings, saying it’s taken “substantive, proactive steps” against antisemitism. (U.S. Department of Education, The Chronicle, Associated Press)
• Brown U. deepens cuts: Previously announced deficit-reduction efforts, travel limits, and frozen staff hiring aren’t cutting enough costs in the face of continued federal funding losses and uncertainty, university leaders announced on Monday. This summer, they expect to announce changes to staff levels, faculty and staff hiring, and graduate-student admissions. They also plan to pull back on capital investments and cut benefits. (Brown University)
• DHS moves to limit student-visa stays: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has drafted a rule proposal that shares the title of a 2020 bid by the Trump administration to require recipients of F-1 student visas and J-1 exchange visas to apply for visa renewals after fixed periods of two to four years. The Biden administration yanked the 2020 rule before it could take effect. Higher-ed lobbyists opposed it as disruptive. (Bloomberg)
• Higher-ed associations oppose Senate’s Big, Beautiful Bill: Nearly four dozen higher-ed associations last week called for changes to the Senate version of Republicans’ tax-and-spending package because it would limit federal student loans for graduate students, increase taxes on colleges, threaten programs that feed low-earning jobs, and make other changes that could increase college costs. Senators on Monday started the lengthy process of voting on proposed amendments to the bill. Any version the chamber passes would have to win approval in the House if Republicans are to meet a self-imposed July 4 deadline. (American Council on Education, CNN)

Quick hits

• Siena Heights U. will close: The Roman Catholic university in Michigan will shut down at the end of its 2025-26 academic year because of financial challenges, it said on Monday. Its founding order, the Adrian Dominican Sisters, said the advance notice is intended to help students and employees find transfer and employment opportunities, even as the institution seeks to provide “a vibrant final academic year” for the last graduating class. (WTOL)
• Sexual-harassment allegations prompt Boston U. review: The institution said it’s hiring a law firm to review policies in the wake of allegations lodged against its women’s soccer coach last fall. That coach resigned mid-season, although a university-commissioned investigation didn’t find evidence of harassment or policy violations. Boston University’s program is under intense scrutiny after the coach’s predecessor was accused of sexual harassment by Alex Cooper, the host of the popular Call Her Daddy podcast, who played on the women’s soccer team from 2013 to 2015. (Boston.com)
• Students fall through grate on Virginia Tech tour: Three high-school students were taken to the hospital for evaluation and seven were treated on campus after a utility grate gave way on Thursday, sending them on a six-foot fall. (WDBJ)
• Illinois seeks to increase college access: Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, on Monday signed into law a package of bills instructing the state’s public colleges to offer direct admissions, prompting community colleges to work with local high schools on dual-credit courses, and requiring high schools to support students who are filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. (WICS, The Chronicle)
• Closed college, expired web hosting: The website for Paier College is down even though state regulators told the shuttered for-profit institution to keep it up to date for a year with information on its closure process. The Connecticut Office of Higher Education doesn’t know whether the for-profit college is complying with other closure terms. (The News-Times)

Quote of the day

“It does hurt to ask.”

— James K. Beggan, a sociology professor at the University of Louisville

Students want faculty members to violate professional ethics when they request makeup exams without offering any reasoning other than that “it never hurts to ask,” Beggan writes in The Chronicle Review.

“Students who ask me to break the rules for their convenience are effectively asking me to treat them preferentially at the expense of their peers who took the exam despite their own hardships or accepted the consequences of an exam grade of zero,” Beggan argues.

📚 Read the full piece: “When Students Want You to Change Their Grades”

Transitions

• Mark D. West, former dean of the University of Michigan Law School, has been named provost at Washington University in St. Louis.
• John C.P. Goldberg, interim dean of Harvard Law School since March 2024, will assume the permanent role.
• Kumar Venkitanarayanan, a professor of animal science at the University of Connecticut, has been named interim dean of the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com. You can also find Transitions online here.

Footnote

Seven people recently gathered around a picnic table at a family vacation in a wooded camp: A recent high-school graduate preparing to enroll in a U.S. service academy, a young scholar pursuing her bachelor’s degree, a recent college graduate, another recent college graduate who is about to begin a master’s program, a graphic designer employed by a college, a master’s-degree holder who works for a financial behemoth, and your Daily Briefing scribe.

They assembled to play Publish or Perish, a party game that lovingly skewers the world of academe. Collect cards — “idea,” “data,” and the like — then cash them in to publish manuscripts such as the one pictured above.

Rack up manuscript-citation points that are needed to win the game. Along the way, enjoy a boost from a rare productive workshop, or face setbacks from jealous colleagues who seethe as they’re required to clap and congratulate you with each publication.

Some players initially hesitated to take time from their hard-earned vacations to try to climb this fictional ivory tower. But their resistance began to melt with the sardonic instructions, then seemed to evaporate further with each satirical card. When it came time to give final one-minute defenses, even the most reserved players sought to speak for the customary three minutes.

Interrupted briefly by another camp activity, players insisted on preserving the game state so that they could return to finish the match. The master’s-degree holder who works for a big bank even offered high praise during this unscheduled interregnum, deeming the game “alright.”

The identity of the ultimate winner shall remain anonymous, in keeping with the design of this sociological research … and the fact that your Daily Briefing scribe refuses to give public credit to the players who elbowed him out of the way with voluminous but derivative publications.

Conflict-of-interest statement: Max Bai, creator of Publish or Perish, provided a complimentary copy of the game and an expansion pack for review. The expansion pack was not used in the research above.

Opportunities for future research into the expansion pack exist and could appear in a future Footnote.