Inside the Conservative Campaign That Took Down a University President

The Jefferson Council, a band of conservative-leaning University of Virginia alumni, was impatient and fed up.

For years, the group had railed against the university’s president, James E. Ryan, for his robust promotion of campus diversity initiatives.

They had counted on Glenn Youngkin, the state’s Republican governor who vocally opposed D.E.I., to force a new direction at one of the country’s most prestigious public universities. But as 2025, the final year of Mr. Youngkin’s term, began, the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion apparatus was still in place. And time was running out, with polls showing that the governor’s race would be an uphill battle for a Republican candidate.

But the Jefferson Council had a new ally in its campaign: President Trump.

In his first week in office, Mr. Trump signed executive orders banning federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which threatened any public and private universities receiving federal funds.

The Justice Department then hired a lawyer to help enforce those orders at its Civil Rights Division: Gregory W. Brown, a University of Virginia alumnus and donor.

The Jefferson Council was well acquainted with Mr. Brown. As a lawyer in private practice, he had sued his alma mater on behalf of students claiming free speech violations or antisemitic harassment — cases referred to him by the council.