Two parts of DOJ investigation closed, Mahoney says

At the Board of Visitors meeting in September, interim UVA President Paul Mahoney revealed that two components of the Department of Justice investigation into UVA have been closed.

The school had in recent days received letters indicating that investigations into the university’s response to allegations of antisemitic discrimination at UVA and in admissions at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the McIntire School of Commerce were closed, Mahoney said. He said he’d been personally engaged in discussions with department officials.

“These investigations were closed based on the information we provided to the department about our policies and actions,” he said at the meeting.

The DOJ initially informed UVA of the two investigations on May 2 and June 17. In May, officials wrote that the department had received complaints of antisemitic discrimination, harassment, abuse and retaliation regarding incidents that allegedly happened in October 2024. In June, the department said it had received evidence from an undergraduate about McIntire’s spring 2025 application process that “raise suspicions that improper race-conscious decision-making and preferential treatment … are occurring in that process.”

The two closed investigations were part of a larger DOJ investigation this spring focused primarily on the university’s admissions practices and its compliance with a March BOV resolution dissolving UVA’s Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Partnerships. Amid the investigation, Jim Ryan (Law class of ’92) announced his resignation from the presidency in June.

Mahoney called the closed investigations initial progress and said the university “will continue to work hard to resolve the remaining investigations.”