The University of Virginia (UVA) is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged violations of anti-discrimination law. The University’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI)-fueled President, James E. Ryan, appeared to have stonewalled the federal investigation. He was forced to resign as a result.
I received my Ph.D. and J.D. from UVA. I have been following this story closely and have written several op-eds about it. I published my most recent op-ed, “A Letter of Suggestions for U.Va.’s Interim President,” in the University’s student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily. I submitted it there because that newspaper is devoting a lot of attention to the Ryan imbroglio and I thought the Interim President, Paul G. Mahoney, might read it if it was published in the campus newspaper. Moreover, the Cavalier Daily has been operating since 1890 and has produced some accomplished journalists, such as Katie Couric and Pulitzer Prize winner Lane DeGregory, a good friend of mine when we were in graduate school.
The Cavalier Daily is notoriously liberal. In 1979, another student-run newspaper, the University Journal, was formed in opposition to what many perceived as the left-wing editorial stances of the Cavalier Daily. The University Journal ceased operations in 1998. One of those subsequent left-wing editorials appeared in 2022, when the Cavalier Daily’s editorial board called for UVA to rescind a speaking invitation to former Vice President of the United States Mike Pence. Pence, of course, is a Republican.
Frankly, given how liberal the Cavalier Daily is, I was surprised that the editors agreed to publish my op-ed, which they did on August 15, 2025. Indeed, as far as I can tell, of the dozens of articles and op-eds published in that newspaper about Ryan and the Trump administration’s civil rights investigation, my piece remains the only one critical of Ryan’s DEI efforts. That said, the editors held me to a higher burden of proof on my factual assertions than any other newspaper ever has—including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times—and to which I strongly suspect pro-Ryan and pro-DEI submissions are not held. I gladly and easily supplied the requested proof.
[RELATED: UVA’s Administration Is Stonewalling on Viewpoint Diversity Too]
In my op-ed, I offered four suggestions for Interim President Mahoney: (1) make sure that UVA complies with anti-discrimination law and with government investigations about alleged violations of it, (2) address UVA’s apparent violations of the private inurement prohibition of the Internal Revenue Code, especially with respect to the astronomical salary that Ryan will receive when he returns to the faculty, (3) hire more conservatives and libertarians for the faculty so the students are educated rather than indoctrinated, and (4) hold accountable the UVA decision-makers who put UVA in the extreme legal peril it currently faces.
My op-ed received a lot of attention, especially for one published in a college newspaper. For example, Instapundit, arguably the most significant conservative blog in the nation, picked up on it, as did the leftist New York Times columnist—and fellow UVA alumnus—Jamelle Bouie. My personal website received almost ten times its usual traffic, and I received many emails about the op-ed.
The majority of the emails were complimentary. Here is a quick summary of some of the positive ones, all but one of which were penned by UVA alumni:
*From an 8/15/25 email from a “double Hoo” and purported friend of UVA’s Interim President, and the first email I received about the op-ed: subject line: “Bravo on CD article”; excerpt from the body of the email: “Have faith. However, your letter to the CD is brilliant and we all appreciate that. It came to me through someone linking the CD article to their X account.”
*From an 8/15/25 email from a UVA employee: subject line: “Scott -Thank you for your article in the CD.” This person asked me to call him because “I have some things to share that might interest you as a concerned alum.”
*From an 8/15/25 email from a UVA Medical School alumnus: “Excellent letter to interim president Mahoney … Having followed the absolute mess created by both the Dean of the medical school and the CEO of UVA, both of which are now thankfully gone, it is imperative that the future president of UVA bring back meritocracy to a first class medical center. We need the best and brightest physicians to both teach, do research and treat patients. This was not the case under the recent administration. We need to keep up the pressure to maintain the reputation and integrity of university.”
*From an 8/16/25 email from a UVA alum: “Thank you so much for your impactful and measured open letter to the new President of the University … Ryan was a colossal disappointment. Again, thank you for your kind words to a University beloved by so many.”
*From an 8/18/25 email from a UVA Medical School alumnus/medical school professor: “I write mainly to let you know there are many of us who support your efforts, despite the vocal mob that is in opposition. Having served on the medical school admissions committee ages ago, I can tell you that affirmative action was in action decades ago. And its unfortunate impact was apparent even back then. The quotas we were required to follow resulted in the admission of several unqualified students who invariably flunked out. We did them no favors nor the students that should have been admitted. Affirmative action evolved into DEI, an even more pervasive and destructive policy.”
From an 8/23/25 email from a UVA alumnus: “Thanks for speaking so forcefully for us. So greatly needed.”
The negative emails were extremely harsh and, unlike the positive emails, were sent via pseudonymous email accounts. Here is a quick summary of all of those emails:
*On 8/18/25 Van Mungo—a fake name—submitted the following email via my website: “You’re a stupid racist and the Red Sox suck.” That was the entire email. And it was my favorite of the negative emails because my website’s background graphics are photos of the Boston Red Sox. The real Van Mungo, who pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants in the 1930s and ‘40s and died in 1985, almost certainly hated the Red Sox too.
*On 8/18/25 Wallace Wade—fake again—sent the following email: subject line: “Congratulations!”; body of the email: “On being yet another old racist dinosaur. What a pr**k.” (Wade—and the other critics—spelled out the profane words they used.)
*On 8/18/25 empressinyellow—fake—sent the following email: “In the future, rather than writing a lengthy letter, it would save everyone a lot of time if you would simply write ‘I object to people who aren’t white being allowed into colleges’.”
*On 8/18/25 Alex K —fake—sent the following email: “Scott, just say you want UVA re-segregated you racist piece of s**t.” That was the entire email.
On 8/18/25 Chris Janes—fake—sent the following email: “you’re racist as hell.”
On 8/18/25 TheBlackVanguard—also fake—sent the following email: subject line: “Racist D**k E**er.”
Obviously, none of the negative emails attempted to rebut the substance of my op-ed, and all of them limited their emails to the first of my four suggestions for UVA’s Interim President—the one about UVA violating anti-discrimination law with its DEI policies. Some of the negative emails also likely violated Virginia’s criminal statute against cyberbullying. Section § 18.2-152.7:1 of the Code of Virginia provides: “If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.” Perhaps that is why they used pseudonyms.
[RELATED: UVA Should Set the Standard for True Equality in Education]
I will close with three succinct points.
First, the negative reaction to my op-ed and the Cavalier Daily’s efforts to water it down show how politicized our nation’s college campuses have become. In fact, UVA Board member Doug Wetmore stated at the August 22, 2025, Board meeting that he was looking for a president who would take steps to depoliticize the university.
Second, and related to the first point, my op-ed was not included in the Cavalier Daily’s August 23, 2025 archivists’ report about Ryan’s presidency, despite being the “top story” on the newspaper’s website, according to the number of times it was read, for an entire week. When I asked why, one of the archivists said my op-ed was not about Ryan. Of course, that is a preposterous response, given that all four points I made in the op-ed concern Ryan, and many of the pieces the archivists included after Ryan resigned were complaints to the Board about the search for the interim president and the next permanent president, rather than about Ryan. Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, as far as I can tell, mine was the only piece critical of Ryan, which makes me think the archivists censored it. Obviously, a newspaper, even a student newspaper, should not be engaged in censorship.
Third, and lastly, I have not heard from Interim President Mahoney. Perhaps he has not read my open letter to him. Perhaps he is busy. Perhaps someone rises in the administrative ranks by making political calculations about whether to respond to an alumnus who has published a widely read op-ed that says things the woke movement does not want to hear—to his credit, I am fairly certain Mahoney is not woke. Or perhaps it is a combination of some or all of those reasons.
Image by Jared Gould
