"James E. Ryan, a scholar of law and education who is dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will be the University of Virginia’s ninth president, school officials announced Friday.
Ryan’s selection comes at a fraught moment for the state’s flagship university, just a month after white supremacists marched on campus during a weekend that brought deadly violence. And it arrives at a time when the university founded by Thomas Jefferson is delving into its complicated history even as it prepares to celebrate its bicentennial.
For the 50-year-old Ryan, whose term will officially begin in October 2018, his elevation to president marks a homecoming: He attended the U-Va. law school and was on its faculty before going to Harvard." …