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DOJ officials have asked Ryan to step down on multiple occasions, as first reported by the on Thursday.聽

The DOJ did not immediately respond a Daily Progress request for confirmation.

"The demand to remove Mr. Ryan was made over the past month on several occasions by Gregory Brown, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, to university officials and representatives, according to the three people briefed on the matter," the paper reported Thursday evening.

Brown, a UVa alumnus, also happens to be a partner at the Charlottesville law firm of聽Brown & Gavalier, which has taken UVa to court on multiple occasions, most recently over a Jewish Israeli student who claimed he was the target of virulent antisemitic attacks while on Grounds and a white alumna who faced expulsion after she was accused of mocking a Black Women Matter protest聽鈥� an allegation the university's own investigators decided lacked聽corroborating evidence. Both cases were settled out of court; the settlements were never disclosed to the public.

Brown isn't the only DOJ official and UVa graduate who has called on Ryan to resign, according to the New York Times.

"Harmeet K. Dhillon, the Justice Department鈥檚 top civil rights lawyer, has also been involved in negotiations with the university," the paper reported.

Dhillon is a 1993 graduate of the UVa Law School, where she sat on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review.

Dhillon and Brown join a chorus of voices calling for Ryan's resignation or removal, a campaign spearheaded by the Jefferson Council, a conservative alumni group. The Jefferson Council has on multiple occasions said Ryan's plans to dismantle DEI at UVa, under the direct orders of the Trump administration, were "superficial" at best.

Another group calling itself Wahoos4UVa 鈥� comprising current and former students, parents, faculty, staff and friends of the university 鈥� has come to Ryan鈥檚 defense. The coalition鈥檚 stated goal is to spread the message that 鈥淯Va is thriving鈥� thanks to Ryan. It has collected roughly 4,000 signatures on a letter of confidence in Ryan's leadership.

Ryan, who has served as UVa's ninth president since 2018, has not publicly responded to the calls for his resignation or removal. UVa spokesman Brian Coy did not immediately respond to a Daily Progress inquiry Thursday night.

In March, the university鈥檚 governing Board of Visitors voted to dissolve its DEI office after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding to schools that continued to support such programs.

Later that same month, Bert Ellis, then a member of the board, told The Daily Progress that eliminating DEI at UVa meant everything, not just a single office or position.

鈥淎bsolutely every aspect of it, every aspect of every program,鈥� Ellis said at the time. 鈥淓very aspect of DEI is to be ripped out, shredded and terminated.鈥�

On April 28, though, the DOJ sent a letter to UVa citing 鈥渃omplaints鈥� that the school had failed to dismantle DEI as promised.

The DOJ first set a deadline of May 2 for UVa to comply, but that deadline was extended to May 30, which Coy said the school would meet when he spoke to The Daily Progress in early May.

The latest push from DOJ officials makes it clear that UVa's response was not satisfactory to everyone.

One of the groups that lodged complaints against UVa has been identified as America First Legal, an organization founded聽in 2021 to 鈥渟ave the country鈥� from 鈥渃orrupt special interests, big tech titans, the fake news media, and liberal Washington politicians.鈥�

The group sent a letter to the DOJ on May 21 outlining how it claimed UVa was violating the law.

聽鈥淭he University is operating programs based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, and other impermissible, immutable characteristics under the pretext of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' ('DEI') in open defiance of federal civil rights law,鈥� reads the letter.

The group suggested that instead of removing DEI programs, UVa has simply renamed them.聽

One example is the UVa Equity Center, which has since become the聽Center for Community Partnerships. The Equity Center was established in 2019 "to tangibly redress the relationship between the University and the surrounding community" after years of complaints the university had ignored or outright hurt Black and low-income communities in surrounding Charlottesville.聽

Ryan was quoted by the university communications department at the time saying the Equity Center was "an important step" in remedying the university's relationship with the community.

Others see it differently.聽

鈥淯VA has not dismantled its DEI framework 鈥� it has merely rebranded it to evade legal scrutiny. What the law prohibits, UVA simply renamed,鈥� Megan Redshaw, counsel at America First Legal, said in a May 29 statement.

America First Legal did not immediately respond to a Daily Progress inquiry.

The Trump administration has threatened to cut off federal funding to universities that do not dissolve their DEI apparatus.聽

UVa doesn鈥檛 keep a public record on the total number of university employees who work in DEI, and the only indicator dates back to a Board of Visitors meeting in June 2023.

At that meeting, Ryan noted that UVa employs 55 people who work 鈥減rimarily鈥� in DEI, dedicating at least 80% of their time to DEI initiatives. The president also said that UVa鈥檚 DEI budget amounts to $5.8 million, with the vast majority of that sum paying the salaries of those 55 employees.

UVa has still lost federal funding, regardless of the threats over DEI. As of May, UVa had lost $83 million in federal grant funding due to unrelated cost-cutting in Washington.