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Benedict Smith


University president resigned after Jewish student ‘threatened with gun’

The University of Virginia’s president resigned after a Jewish student was allegedly threatened with a gun, it has emerged.

James Ryan stepped down from the 200-year-old institution last month when Donald Trump’s administration demanded his resignation, threatening to strip it of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds.

The justice department opened an investigation into the university earlier this year, which according to NBC News focused on the alleged threat made against the Jewish student.

“The facts surrounding this specific controversy and of the [university’s] alleged deliberate indifference and retaliatory treatment of the victim in response are, in a word, disturbing,” Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general, said in May.

Conservative critics have claimed Prof Ryan pushed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in defiance of federal edicts, prompting anger from the administration.

According to court documents reviewed by NBC, Robert Romer, a housemate of the Jewish student, who has not been named, allegedly posted anti-Semitic memes in a group chat for residents.

In October, he is said to have written to other housemates: “I am going to attempt to free Palestine. Anyone is welcome to join in on the beating,” which the Jewish student interpreted as a threat.

‘Incredibly scary’

Later that month, the student claimed he found Mr Romer holding a gun in his room. The student is said to have touched it to find out if it was real and that Mr Romer refused to say whether it was loaded.

“I’m very scared at this point… Especially because someone had sent messages that I interpreted as anti-Semitic” he alleged later in court.

“I interpreted as pointed towards me, had previously threatened to fight me, didn’t apologise for it, and then was waiting for me in my room holding a gun at midnight — that was something that was incredibly scary.”

After reporting the incident to the university and police, he testified that he moved out of the house and arranged to study abroad for the spring term because he was scared.

Mr Romer was arrested on Nov 1 and charged with four offences, including hate crime assault, although two – brandishing a weapon and entering a property to cause damage – were later dropped. Housemates testified in court that the gun had been unloaded and the Jewish student briefly held it.

Jewish rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and StandWithUs, wrote to the university in April warning the university was not “immune” to the anti-Semitism sweeping college campuses in a letter seen by The Telegraph.

“Lest there be any temptation to sweep this under the rug… This is not a case of ‘kids being kids’; nor can these actions be brushed aside as poor judgment or as mere jesting,” they said.

“The acts directed against this Jewish student were wholly unacceptable anywhere in civil society, were exacerbated by their occurrence in the unique setting of shared housing at a university, and were undeniably rooted in anti-Semitism.”

They added: “The fact that the Jewish student was fortunate to avoid physical harm does not diminish the severity of the threats; rather, it highlights the urgency of serious and substantive university intervention.”

‘Allegations entirely false’

Graven Craig, a lawyer representing Mr Romer, said the allegations against his client were “entirely false” and denied he had pointed a gun at the student.

The messages from the group chat were “cherry-picked” and were typical of “college-aged males from diverse backgrounds who all enjoyed poking fun at each other”, he told NBC.

Tom Romer, Mr Romer’s father, said his son was innocent and that “there was no hate, no assault and no brandishing”.

Another housemate, who allegedly owned the gun, complained to the university in December that the Jewish student had harassed him and used ethnic slurs. The student denied the claim and Virginia later dropped an investigation into the matter.

The University of Virginia said in a statement: “This matter is subject to ongoing criminal proceedings and federal privacy laws prevent us from commenting on specific student records.

“The university opposes anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, and we take swift action to support students who experience threats or harassment and to hold offenders accountable.”