CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Former ABC, CBS and NBC news anchor Katie Couric visited Carr’s Hill and helped her friend, former UVA president Jim Ryan, move out of the university residence.
“What a loss for this great university as it is targeted by the MAGA DOJ, enabled by a spineless BOV. (Yes, I feel strongly about this,)” Couric posted on her Instagram account Saturday. “Jim, thank you for being such an incredible leader, full of decency, integrity and grace. UVA was lucky to have you and I can’t wait to watch the good you will continue to put into the world.”
Couric’s post said she was in Charlottesville to help her daughter, a PhD candidate at UVA, move in. She shared a photo of her and Ryan, him holding a stack of boxes and her holding a blue end table. Couric, a UVA alum and Arlington native, is wearing a “I Run with Jim” T-shirt.
Ryan was forced to resign last month under pressure from the Trump administration. The Department of Justice was investigating whether or not UVA and Ryan were complying with federal directives to dismantle the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Ryan and UVA did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation from the DOJ that it was complying with the Trump administration’s position.
Ryan has largely been publicly silent since speaking to supporters in front of Carr’s Hill the day of his resignation. Last week, as he moved out of the residence, he posted a message on his social media accounts.
“Over the years we laughed, sang, debated around the dinner table, celebrated remarkable individuals, and mourned the loss of equally remarkable people,” Ryan wrote. “We will carry these memories of Carr’s Hill and all of you with us, along with our belongings, when we depart tomorrow. The belongings will eventually fade away, I’m sure. But we will hang onto the memories for the rest of our lives, and for that, we could not be more grateful.”
Ryan, who served as UVA’s president since 2018 before his resignation, is currently on sabbatical and will return to the university as a professor when that sabbatical ends.
UVA’s Board of Visitors named former law school dean Paul Mahoney as the interim president while it conducts a nationwide search for Ryan’s permanent replacement.
