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In a resolution calling for the office's abolition unanimously approved Friday, the board said the move would align UVa with a White House executive order calling for cuts to DEI programs at schools as well as a U.S. Department of Education letter doing the same.

The two-page resolution directs UVa to dissolve its main DEI Office, along with its Center for Community Partnerships. Permissible programs that do not conflict with the directives should be transferred to "a new organizational home," the resolution reads.

The resolution further said that "faculty, staff and students doing legally permissible research and activities should proceed as normal."

It was not clear Friday how many UVa employees the resolution will affect, if all of those positions would be terminated or if employees would be transferred into other roles. 

Though the resolution orders UVa to dissolve its DEI Office, it is unclear whether other DEI divisions within the university, such as UVa's School of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, will be affected.

Friday's resolution was prompted by a White House executive order titled, "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity," which President Donald Trump signed Jan. 21. The order directs agencies "to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities."

Trump's order also says that DEI policies "not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system."

UVa's resolution also seeks to comply with a U.S. Department of Education letter issued Feb. 14 to all educational institutions that receive federal funds. The letter threatened those that don't comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 law —  the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution — that their funding may be revoked.

The letter advises institutions to "ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law," "cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends" and "cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race."

"Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding," the letter reads.

UVa said in a prepared statement sent to The Daily Progress that the DEI Office "houses several important functions, including the Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights, Title IX compliance, the UVA Tribal Liaison, and the University’s Office for Community Partnerships."

"In accordance with the resolution," the statement reads, "the administration will review the functions of the office, and all personnel and programs that are permissible under state and federal law will be transferred within the University, within 30 days."

"We will provide additional information as those efforts proceed," UVa said.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican and Trump critic-turned-ally, applauded the decision.

"DEI is done at UVA," Youngkin said in a statement Friday. "Today, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted for commonsense saying NO to illegal discrimination and YES to merit-based opportunity."

"Students at Mr. Jefferson’s University — and across America — deserve unlimited intellectual freedom, not ideological gatekeeping," he added.

UVa's Board of Visitors has directed President Jim Ryan to update the body on his progress complying with the resolution within 30 days.