As the board met in the university Rotunda, designed by Thomas Jefferson, the demonstrators on the tree-lined central lawn outside erupted in cheers when Dr. Sullivan, a popular figure, walked through the throng to meet the board behind closed doors and again when she left about 20 minutes later. She said little to the crowd, but later released the statement she had read to the board.

“Trust does not mean an absence of disagreement,” said Dr. Sullivan, who friends said had been blindsided by the call for her to leave. “But it requires that disagreements be frankly discussed. No matter how accomplished he or she may be, a president cannot read minds. When you choose a new president, tell him or her what you are thinking.”

She said she had not stoked the angry reaction to her removal, but she warned that it would have consequences. “Deans and provosts at every peer institution are setting aside funds now to raid the University of Virginia next year given the current turmoil on our campus,” she said.

Eight days after the news broke that Dr. Sullivan had been forced out after less than two years, the controversy continued to intensify rather than abate, a rare and embarrassing display of dissension for one of the nation’s premier public universities.

On Sunday, the faculty Senate, which had already demanded an explanation for Dr. Sullivan’s removal, approved, by a 68-to-2 vote, a statement of no confidence in the board. The same day, two of the university’s leading figures, John T. Casteen III, the president for 20 years before retiring in 2010, and John Simon, the provost and executive vice president, criticized the board’s handling of the affair.