by Scott Douglas Gerber

When former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan recently sat for a friendly interview with Cville Right Now, he sounded delighted to be off the clock. He described mornings spent writing a leadership book; afternoons kite surfing, skiing, golfing, biking and traveling; and he joked, “I’m really good at not working.” The joke lands differently once his sabbatical benefits are understood.

Ryan’s contract explains why he can afford to “not work” so enthusiastically. When he resigned in June 2025 under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice — after multiple civil rights investigations into UVA’s DEI practices — he exercised a contractual option to return to the law faculty at 75% of his presidential salary, or $825,000 a year. As I pointed out in RealClearEducation, that figure is so far beyond what other UVA law professors earn that it likely violates the Internal Revenue Code’s prohibition on private inurement, which bars tax exempt institutions from enriching insiders with unreasonable compensation.

But the sabbatical is even more revealing. Section F.6 of Ryan’s employment agreement states that during his sabbatical he “shall receive his last existing presidential Annual Salary.” That salary was about $1.1 million. The same provision gives him an office, staff support and an annual budget of $50,000 “to be used for research and travel expenses.” In plain terms, UVA is paying Ryan more than a million dollars this year, plus a $50,000 research and travel fund, while he skis, surfs, golfs, travels and writes a trade press book about leadership.

Sabbaticals are supposed to support serious scholarship. Nothing about the book Ryan describes requires a seven-figure salary and a $50,000 research budget — unless he is paying someone else to write it for him, which I doubt. What it does require is a Board of Visitors willing to treat the university’s resources as a cushion for a powerful man’s soft landing.

That willingness was on display throughout Ryan’s presidency. As I previously documented, Ryan repeatedly ignored directives from federal and state officials, as well as from UVA’s own board, to dismantle the university’s illegal DEI regime. Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, told CNN she had received “reams and reams of documents” from other universities — but “not UVA.” Ryan also shut down a planned discussion of viewpoint diversity before it could occur, even after a board member noted that 95% of political donations by UVA faculty went to Democrats.

In short, Ryan behaved as if rules did not apply to him. His sabbatical shows he still does.

The board’s conduct is just as troubling. It hired Ryan knowing his signature achievement at Harvard was expanding the “size, strength and diversity” of its education faculty. It watched him stonewall a federal civil rights investigation and still praised his performance. Then-Rector Robert Hardie publicly called Ryan’s work “remarkable,” and Hardie’s successor, Rachel Sheridan, repeated that claim.

That is not oversight. It is abdication.

Ryan told Cville Right Now that if the board had supported him, he would have “100%” fought to keep his job. Instead, he slid into a million-dollar sabbatical, followed by an $825,000 faculty position. That is not the trajectory of a public servant wronged by politics.

UVA’s board allowed Ryan to ignore federal directives, ignore its own directives and ignore the university’s legal obligations. Now it is allowing him to enjoy a taxpayer funded sabbatical that raises serious questions about UVA’s compliance with federal tax law. Ryan told the interviewer he is “great.” Of course he is. The real question is why UVA’s board is still so determined to make sure he stays that way.

Scott Douglas Gerber of Hampton received his Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Virginia. His most recent book is “The Trafficker: A Novel.” This column has been reprinted with permission from The Virginian-Pilot.