Ryan walked into the room Thursday expecting a meeting with a student organization. That’s not what he found.
By Jason Armesto, The Daily Progress
The meeting did not go as planned.
When University of Virginia President Jim Ryan walked down the Lawn Thursday afternoon, he was expecting to sit down in Pavilion VI with a handful of students who want the school to sever financial ties with weapons manufacturers and other companies “complicit in Israeli human rights violations.”

His appointment with UVa Apartheid Divest, a coalition consisting of 43 student organizations, had been on Ryan’s schedule for a month and had only come after the group’s repeated, and occasionally denied, requests for a meeting with the president.
Through conversations with other university administrators, students felt their university had a pattern: some willingness to engage in conversation, but no willingness to translate conversation into meaningful change.
Still, they wanted a chance to meet with Ryan, make their case and continue to pressure the university.
That is until Saturday, when Ryan and his team called in Virginia State Police to break up a small encampment of anti-war protesters, a controversial show of force that resulted in several students, faculty and members of the public being pepper-sprayed by police and forced off of Grounds.
Recent Posts
Donald Trump Is Advertising Genocide As A Business Opportunity
June 6, 2025
Take Action Now The U.S. president is still trying to sell the world on the destruction of Gaza.By Edward Hunt, Foreign Policy in Focus Among all…
The FBI Sought Search Warrants For Columbia Students’ Social Media
June 5, 2025
Take Action Now New court documents reveal how the feds tried to unmask the Columbia students — and got blocked by federal judges on First Amendment…
Greta Thunberg Speaks From Aid Ship Heading To Gaza Despite Israeli Threats: It’s My Moral Obligation
June 5, 2025
Take Action Now “We cannot have climate justice without social justice. The reason why I am a climate activist is not because I want to protect…
Democratic Party Leaders Just Met For The First Time In Months. When Will They Take Real Action?
June 4, 2025
Take Action Now Countless Americans want the party leadership to stand up for democracy. Instead, the executive committee remains in a bubbleBy…