University of VirginiaFile photo
The settlement, announced Wednesday by interim President Paul Mahoney, requires the Charlottesville campus to comply with White House anti-discrimination guidelines but does not include financial penalties—a departure from agreements reached by Columbia University ($200 million) and Brown University ($50 million).
The Justice Department launched its investigation in April, scrutinizing the public university's admissions and financial aid processes while accusing then-President Dr. James Ryan of maintaining DEI practices the administration considers discriminatory. The pressure contributed to Ryan's June resignation, when he stated the stakes were "too high for others on campus" to fight the federal government over his position.
Under the four-page agreement—significantly shorter than Columbia's 22 pages or Brown's nine—Virginia must provide quarterly compliance data personally certified by its president. The settlement explicitly affirms academic freedom, acknowledging the government "does not aim to dictate the content of academic speech or curricula."
"We will also redouble our commitment to the principles of academic freedom, ideological diversity, free expression, and the unyielding pursuit of 'truth, wherever it may lead,'" Mahoney wrote to campus, quoting founder Thomas Jefferson.
The university will not face external federal monitoring beyond quarterly Justice Department communications. Mahoney said the deal preserves access to federal research funding while maintaining the institution's autonomy.
Virginia represents an expansion of the administration's higher education reform efforts beyond elite private institutions. While Harvard and other Ivy League schools initially drew scrutiny over alleged antisemitism, the White House has increasingly targeted public universities, including UCLA and George Mason University.
The Charlottesville campus became controversial after conservative groups, including Stephen Miller's America First Legal, accused it of merely rebranding rather than eliminating DEI initiatives. In a May letter, the organization claimed Virginia had moved to "rename, repackage and redeploy the same unlawful infrastructure under a lexicon of euphemisms."
The Justice Department settlement does not resolve a separate Education Department investigation into alleged antisemitism at UVA, listed among 60 universities under review in March. An Education Department spokesperson could not confirm the investigation's status due to the agency's Office for Civil Rights being furloughed during the government shutdown.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon praised the agreement on X, stating: "The Trump Administration is not backing down in our efforts to root out DEI and illegal race preferencing on our nation's campuses."
The settlement takes effect immediately, with quarterly reporting requirements beginning next cycle.
