University of Virginia acting President Paul Mahoney on Monday briefed a Senate Finance education panel on the university’s agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. The deal halted any current federal investigations into the school’s alleged Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices, with no impact on funding.
“This is a great win for the commonwealth and its flagship university,” Mahoney said during his comments.
Mahoney continued to say that the agreement “will not cost Virginia taxpayers a single cent,” and that it contains an “explicit and ringing endorsement of academic freedom, that provides that the scope of our obligations under federal civil rights law will be determined by the courts, and that requires us only to comply with the Department of Justice guidance document that is substantively identical with internal guidance that UVA adopted back in the spring of 2025.”
Mahoney’s short time as interim president, which began after former President Jim Ryan resigned during the Justice Department’s investigation this summer, has been plagued by pressure from Republicans in the Trump administration, as well as from Democrats who say the university is surrendering “institutional autonomy.”
UVA’s Board of Visitors Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson were also invited to the Senate panel meeting, but only Mahoney showed up.
Mahoney, while repeatedly pointing out that UVA was the only school to reach a settlement with the Trump Justice Department that did not result in a loss of funding, told the Senate panel that if they had fought back against the investigations instead of settling, it could have significantly impacted the university’s financial situation.
“Our options were to come to an agreement or wait for the DOJ to impose sanctions on us and then litigate,” Mahoney said. “The sanctions potentially available to DOJ include immediate suspension or termination of federal research grants, which total approximately $452 million for UVA through the simple expedient of ordering our researchers to stop work in the longer term, and the government could also have ended our students’ eligibility for Pell grants and federal student loans.”
He spoke directly to the impact of losing federal funding for the school’s medical research projects.
“What would the university then say to the patients and researchers whose lives would be disrupted permanently? We will file suit. We hope to win that suit a year or two or three years down the road. We’re sorry to inconvenience you in the meantime.”
“I trust the General Assembly is not so reckless with lives, livelihoods and the creation of new technologies,” Mahoney continued. “I certainly am not, particularly when the alternative is to agree to what we are already doing.”
Mahoney told the senators that the agreement does not bind the university to comply with any and all Justice Department commands, but instead requires compliance with the specific guidance sent on July 29 by Attorney General Pam Bondi for recipients of federal funding regarding unlawful discrimination, which is the same as UVA’s new internal policies.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Albermarle, argued that the July 29 federal guidance is the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law and is not binding.
“I think that, as is often the case with federal agency guidance, it will come down to specific factual situations and what the Justice Department says one can or can’t do in specific factual situations,” Mahoney responded.
While Mahoney explained that the university’s decisions were made for survival, Democrats blame the Trump adminstration for the chaos ensuing at universities across the country.
“I find it disappointing that institutions have been bullied into capitulating to the Department of Justice, and I find the word justice oxymoronic in this day and age, because that department is certainly rogue these days.”