On Friday, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan announced that he was stepping down after the Justice Department demanded that he resign as a condition of resolving an investigation into the school's diversity programs.
"To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University," Ryan said in a statement explaining his decision to resign. "But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job. 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."
Ryan became UVA president during my first year at the university. While my friends filled their Instagram stories with praise for Ryan and outrage at Trump and a former university counsel lamented in The New York Times that "his departure will result in a less inclusive university community, which will harm all students who choose the University of Virginia," I'll admit that I've had trouble summoning the same pity for Ryan.
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