Thomas Jefferson would be horrified

The Trump administration just robbed my alma mater of its independence

The Trump administration just forced the president of my alma mater to resign as part of a larger campaign to ostensibly enforce “intellectual diversity” and “advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and student learning.”

The University of Virginia is the latest target in the administration’s attacks on higher education, angling to cut federal funding and strip international students of their visas under various thin pretexts, generally alleged antisemitism and diversity initiatives. This assault is the culmination of a longstanding ideological project to remake higher education in a more conservative direction. And while the campaign often claims to be in service of “free speech” or fighting “woke ideology,” it more closely resembles a Viktor Orbán-style effort to impose permanent political control over higher education.

I spent the last four years at, as they say, Mr. Jefferson’s university. I am one of those supposedly “oppressed” campus conservatives (albeit of the Never Trump variety. You can read my past writing in The Bulwark here, here, and here.) And I have not been brainwashed, silenced, or intimidated. On the contrary, I’ve seen a place that is animated by spirited disagreement, debate, and dissent. A shining example of academic freedom and intellectual diversity at their best.

The University of Virginia is a model of intellectual diversity

At UVA, our unique flavor of student activism has always set us apart from other colleges and universities. For instance, our student protests in response to the Vietnam War are known as the “Coat and Tie Rebellion” because, while a substantial portion of the student body opposed the war enough to protest it, they certainly would not want to be confused for what they jokingly referred to as the “scrungy communists” leading similar efforts across the country.

One of the oldest and most prestigious student organizations on Grounds (our term for “campus”) is a “literary and debating society” known for raucous rhetorical battles that rage well into the wee hours of the night, long after the streets are rolled up in our beloved little college town.

Walks to the nearby bagel shop often include a not-always-peaceful encounter with an older gentleman quasi-affectionately known as “sign guy” who displays messages like “leftist professors suck” to college kids who are far more interested in making it through the next exam than in their professors’ political views.

Sometimes it seems like everyone at UVA has an opinion about everything. And from the time we arrive there, we’re taught that that is a good thing. That passionate debate, discussion, and disagreement — with our peers, professors, and the administration — are what college is about. We’re taught that our founder Thomas Jefferson wanted to build a place for rigorous free thought and inquiry.

In the last four years, UVA students have held pro-Palestine walkouts, vigils to remember the victims of the October 7 attacks, a protest during a speech by Mike Pence, and many well-attended events with political leaders from both major parties. Just recently, both the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor spoke at the Rotunda, the building that serves as the focal point of the university community.

In one of my classes last semester, the professor invited a member of the University Democrats and the president of UVA’s chapter of the right-wing Young America’s Foundation to debate the Trump administration’s tariff policy.

Honoring Jefferson’s commitment to making UVA a home for rigorous discourse and debate extends even to reckoning with his legacy. During Ryan’s presidency, groups of students, faculty, and alumni led efforts to more fully acknowledge that the institution of slavery and white supremacy lie at the core of the university’s history. There’s a new memorial on Grounds to the enslaved laborers who built the university, and student-run historical tours educate students and visitors about the university’s relationship to slavery and eugenics.

In response, a small but influential group of alumni called the Jefferson Council, claiming to be guardians of Mr. Jefferson’s legacy and of free speech at the university, has opposed such efforts — to some success. (As far as I can tell, the Jefferson Council has done more to advocate that the university conform to their personal, conservative, political views than any individual “leftist professor,” to steal sign guy’s phrasing.)

Believe me when I say that no point of view is being silenced at UVA. If anything, everyone is so loud that we can’t hear each other anymore. You don’t just have to take my word for it. FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, ranks UVA first out of over 200 colleges for free speech on campus. There’s so much speech at UVA that there’s even discourse about the discourse, with constant op-eds, statements, and editorials debating just how “free” speech is on Grounds.

The White House has no place in campus debates

All of that is to say that under Jim Ryan, debate about UVA’s past, present, and future has been intense. But that’s what a healthy college campus looks like.

That’s what Thomas Jefferson wanted for his university, an “institution…based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

Before the federal government put its thumb on the scales, student and alumni groups — left and right — had called on Ryan to resign, while others organized in support of the president. Interestingly, a recent flare-up of opposition to Ryan’s presidency came from the left after he permitted riot gear-wearing Virginia State Police officers to disperse a pro-Palestine encampment with pepper spray.

By traditional metrics, there was no obvious cause for Ryan to resign. In general, his tenure was marked by UVA’s continued success in national university rankings, massive capital campaign hauls, and numerous facilities expansions and improvements. And it’s been telling that folks on all sides have, at one time or another, criticized Ryan’s decision-making. That’s often a sign that a leader is doing something right.

That debate, that disagreement, that’s how these things are supposed to work.

In strongarming Ryan to resign, the Trump administration has denied all of us — students, alumni, professors, members of the Board of Visitors, state officials, residents of Charlottesville, the Jefferson Council, Students for Justice in Palestine, College Republicans and University Democrats — an opportunity to be active participants in determining the future of our university.

Mr. Jefferson wanted his university to mirror his country’s commitment to self-governance. If universities like his are not allowed to practice governing themselves, they will fail to produce students, alumni, and faculty who are capable of participating in American self-government.

Then again, maybe that’s what the Trump administration wants.