GMU president’s contract extended through 2031

Gregory Washington, George Mason University’s president since 2020, received a four-year contract renewal through June 2031, the Fairfax County university announced Tuesday.

Less than a year ago, Washington’s job appeared to be in jeopardy after the Trump administration launched four civil rights investigations in July 2025 into George Mason through the departments of Education and Justice.

In August 2025, the DOE found that the university had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by “illegally using race and other immutable characteristics in university practices and policies, including hiring and promotion,” citing policies by Washington at the time that the federal department viewed as biased toward people of color and discriminatory against white employees. At the time, George Mason’s board said it hoped to negotiate a settlement with the DOE, but its current status is unclear.

Also, a staff report produced by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee in November 2025 accused Washington of lying to Congress during testimony. In essence, the report accused Washington, George Mason’s first Black president, of discriminating against white, Middle Eastern and Asian job candidates in favor of Black and Latino candidates.

However, Washington has denied discriminating against any employees or job candidates based on race, or lying to Congress. Through his attorney, the George Mason president refused to issue a personal apology in a statement to the university, which the DOE demanded in its finding. An apology, Washington’s attorney counseled, would place George Mason in future legal jeopardy.

Washington also received heavy criticism at times from the university’s board of visitors, which until recently was made up entirely of conservative political appointees of former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. In January, Gov. Abigail Spanberger appointed 12 board members to replace those who elected to leave after Youngkin’s term concluded, as well as to fill empty seats. On July 1, Spanberger will fill four more seats on the board.

Over the past months, Washington’s professional peril seems to have passed.

“Since 2020, President Washington has successfully led George Mason University through historically turbulent times — navigating the COVID pandemic while simultaneously growing enrollments, improving rankings and transforming our greatest challenges into opportunities for Virginia and the nation,” Rector Michael J. Meese, a Youngkin appointee, said in a statement Tuesday. “He has delivered tremendous results in what matters most: record-high enrollments, graduation rates, student well-being and success, faculty excellence, research activity, state appropriations and private donations. We are thrilled that Dr. Washington will continue to lead George Mason as we are increasingly recognized as the model for exceptional university education both now and in the future.”

Under Washington’s tenure, George Mason has expanded its reach with the Fuse at Mason Square building opened last year in Arlington County, as well as the Life Sciences and Engineering Building in Manassas.

George Mason also has received significant donations in recent years, including a $50 million bequest in 2023 by late businessman Donald Costello that renamed the business school, and $20 million from Kimmy Duong to support the School of Computing. The university, which has more than 40,000 students and 200 degree programs, also has R1 designation, the top research ranking awarded by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Washington previously served as dean of the University of California, Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and received bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.

“If you set out to create a new kind of university from scratch, built purely to respond to today’s societal priorities and the emerging educational demands of the next century, that university would look a lot like George Mason,” Washington said in a statement. “I am at just the right university at just the right time, and I am energized to continue the work.”