Text of UVA President Jim Ryan’s Statement to the Board of Visitors

Editor’s note: On Friday afternoon, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan, in a statement to the Board of Visitors, addressed concerns over a non-binding student referendum that encouraged the University’s investment arm to divest itself from companies doing business with Israel. Here is the text of the president’s remarks:

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan (Photo by KK Ottesen)

I say this by way of preface to let you know that if I were a student, I wouldn’t have voted in favor of this referendum. There was a lot in there, but the part I want to talk about is divestment. I recognize that my own views are immaterial. As we covered this morning, decisions about how to invest the University endowment are made by the University of Virginia Investment Management Company, otherwise known as UVIMCO, which is a separate entity that is ultimately responsible to the Board of Visitors. And as we heard, UVIMCO has a Committee on Investor Responsibility that considers concerns raised by members of the community about their investment strategy. 

All that said, and for whatever it might be worth, my own views are fairly simple. I appreciate the immense pain and suffering caused by this war, to all of those who were and are its victims. I appreciate the pain and suffering this war is causing on our Grounds among students with friends or family in Israel or Gaza. But I do not favor divestment generally as a strategy. And the topic of Israel and the ongoing war is one that is hotly debated. I don’t believe a university should use its investment strategy to weigh in on one side of such a complex and deeply contested set of issues. 

There’s no doubt that, in part because of this referendum, some members of our community, including those who are Israeli or Jewish, are worried about how welcome they are at UVA. We’ve also heard from many Palestinian and Muslim community members who have experienced very similar emotions and have asked the same questions over the past few months. What is most important to me is that our students know that we care about all of them, and that we see all of them, not just a select few; that we acknowledge the pain of those who have lost loved ones in Israel or in Gaza; and that we grieve for all innocent lives lost, whether Israeli or Palestinian, Jewish or Muslim; that we are not selective in our empathy nor selective in our outrage at injustice; and that we view all innocent lives lost equally.

We also have to do everything we can to foster an environment where students can express themselves and engage in debate on difficult issues knowing that the university is their home, and that they belong. Our aim, as it is often said – sometimes as a critique – is not to tell our students what to think, but to help inform them so they can come to their own views. We are all here collectively to help our students learn, develop and grow. Sometimes that means, as is the case with referenda, staying out of the way to allow our students to work things out for themselves, as messy and painful as that process can be. It’s often where real lessons can be learned – lessons that our students will hopefully carry with them when they leave. 

Lastly, as I said in the video that I shared with the community at the start of this semester, when we are at our best, we are not just a community – we are a lot more like family. This does not mean we will always agree; far from it. But it means that at a very basic level, we’re committed to each other and to seeing the best in one another. In my view, that is some of the most important work we can do as a community.