by Chap Petersen

In the fall of 1991, I had just entered UVA Law School after a year in Japan. My first act on arriving in Charlottesville was to join the University rugby team. (I had played in college and Japan). Grad students comprised the “A side” of the UVA team and, yes, we had some very good players.

One of the best was a diminutive halfback from Yale. Fearless and lightning fast, he led our attack and scored lots of tries. He was also self-effacing and quiet off the pitch; it was several weeks before I learned that my teammate “Jimmy Ryan” was the #1 ranked student in his Law School class and headed to a prestigious clerkship with the U.S. Supreme Court.  

That UVA squad made it to the state final, losing a close match to Norfolk RFC. Here’s a close- up of our team photo, just after that loss. (Ryan is standing in the second row; I’m kneeling in the front).  

Years later, I ran into Jimmy Ryan when he became a professor at the Law School. He had turned down a lucrative career in corporate law to teach young attorneys. Then in 2017, he was named the next President of UVA. A dream job and couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

During my time in the State Senate, he was often in Richmond to lobby for the University. (I was the Subcommittee Chair on Higher Education). He was still the same humble but impressive guy. He had become a sub-3 hour marathon runner in his spare time as President — and I told him he was too skinny. We got a good laugh about that. 

From my recollection, Jimmy was apolitical as a student. He was focused on solutions, not getting attention.  

In that sense, he may have been ill-prepared for the maelstrom of campus politics, from the overbearing COVID shutdowns of 2020-2021 to the Gaza-based protests of 2023-2024.

From my observation, he was always trying to find a middle ground, even where one did not exist.

The 2024 election of Donald Trump was the ultimate disruption. Coupled with the 2023 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admission vs. Harvard, the tectonic plates had shifted firmly and irrevocably against years of “equity-based” academic policies. 

The Fair Admissions holding is very simple: you can’t discriminate based on race in college admissions. (Or in college hiring). The reality was a bit more tricky, as a University President does not have unilateral power to undo years of DEI policies and personnel. Faced with conflicting pressures from faculty, alumni and the Feds, Ryan was put in a thankless position.

The stakes were raised when the Dept of Justice sought his resignation this June, after he failed to adequately “report” the University’s progress on rescinding its DEI policies.

He could have “resisted” the Federal government and become an icon to campus activists, like Harvard’s President. To do so would have put the University’s Federal research funding at risk, along with scores of attendant jobs. Not worth it.

So instead he announced plans to resign a year early. (He had planned to step down in 2026). By his doing so, the University will avoid a ruinous showdown with the Dept. of Justice, in which there will be no winners.

One of the signal achievements from Ryan’s tenure was UVA winning the men’s basketball title in 2019. The coach of that team, Tony Bennett, trained his players to be “servant leaders,” which means putting the team ahead of the individual. That’s what a winner does.

Jim Ryan was a servant leader. I may not have agreed with every decision that he made — but I do agree that he listened to both sides and, whenever possible, put the welfare of the students first. He will be missed in Charlottesville.  

Chap Petersen is an attorney in Northern Virginia. This column has been republished with permission from his Substack account, The Virginia Attorney.