The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it reached an agreement with the University of Virginia, a public school in Charlottesville, that it said will protect “students, faculty and employees from violations of federal civil rights laws, including from discrimination based on race, sex or national origin.”
“We appreciate the progress that the university has made in combating antisemitism and racial bias,” stated Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. “Other American universities should be on alert that the Justice Department will ensure that our federal civil rights laws are enforced for every American, without exception.”
Dhillon called the agreement “notable” and said that it will protect students and faculty at the school “from unlawful discrimination, ensuring that equal opportunity and fairness are restored.”
The Justice Department said that the public school agreed to be guided by the agency’s “guidance for recipients of federal funding regarding unlawful discrimination,” which bars it from engaging “in unlawful racial discrimination in its university programming, admissions, hiring or other activities.”
The school committed to give the federal government relevant documentation on a quarterly basis until 2028, per the Justice Department. “The president of UVA will personally certify each quarter that UVA is in compliance with the agreement,” the department said.
The Justice Department, in turn, is pausing its pending probes of the school’s admissions policies and “other civil rights concerns” and will treat the school “as eligible for future grants and awards.”
“If UVA completes its planned reforms prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion at the university, the department will close its investigations against UVA,” it said.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, stated, “academic freedom embraced, free speech protected, a campus free from illegal discrimination.”
The agreement “requires UVA to fully comply with federal civil rights law, avoiding fines and protecting full access to federal grants,” Youngkin said. “DOJ can reopen anytime if UVA goes sideways. That’s common sense and a fair deal.”
In June, the university’s president, Jim Ryan, resigned under pressure from the Trump administration about the public school’s diversity, equity and inclusion program.
