CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – When state Sen. Creigh Deeds submitted a 6-page, 46-question letter to UVA Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson regarding the August 1 resignation of UVA President Jim Ryan, he gave them two weeks to respond.
Deeds did receive a response last Friday, but it wasn’t what he had wished for. Instead of giving answers, an attorney for the Board of Visitors asked for another two weeks to “respond in full.”
“They indicated that there are certain negotiations that are ongoing with the Justice Department that are private, that have to be confidential, and so they might not be able to give me a complete response,” he said. “But I’m going to get something on the 29th. I just want answers, I’m not out to play getcha with anybody, I just want answers and hopefully we’ll get something on the 29th.”
Deeds’ questions suggest that Sheridan and Wilkinson had knowledge of or may have gone so far as to take part in the Trump administration’s pressure on Ryan to step down over his handling of diversity policies. He asks specifically for information on meetings and communications between UVA leadership, state officials, and the Department of Justice on June 3, 24 and 26.
Another question is what, if any, influence Gov. Glenn Youngkin had on the Board of Visitor’s unanimous vote to dissolve UVA’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) office. He opted for a letter versus a public records request under the Freedom of Information Act because he felt a FOIA request would be too confrontational.
As for finding someone to replace interim president Paul Mahoney, Deeds says he has many concerns.
“I want the process for selecting a new president to be transparent, he said. “I think that the interim president is fully capable of righting the ship and keeping things stable until we have a new president in place. I want there to be fair and open process, a transparent process, when it comes to picking a new president and I think it’s way too early for me to say anything right now about that process because I just don’t know.”
