DOE targets DEI policies in hiring and promotions
Josh Janney //July 10, 2025//
George Mason University
George Mason University
DOE targets DEI policies in hiring and promotions
Josh Janney //July 10, 2025//
Summary
The U.S. Department of Education‘s Office for Civil Rights is investigating George Mason University for racial discrimination, it announced Thursday. According to the DOE, several George Mason professors alleged in a complaint that the university has favored employees of underrepresented races in hiring and promotions, thus creating “a racially hostile environment.”
Mason President Gregory Washington, who became the university’s first Black president in 2020, is specifically mentioned in the professors’ complaint, according to the DOE announcement, saying that he has directed the university to “develop specific mechanisms in the promotion and tenure process” in part based on whether an employee is a person of color, and that the university would base some hires “on the basis of a candidate’s ‘diversity … even if that candidate may not have better credentials than the other candidate.'”
This announcement comes on the heels of federal scrutiny of the University of Virginia and its president, Jim Ryan, who announced his resignation last week under pressure from a similar investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. President Donald Trump‘s administration has stated its aim to purge diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from universities, including the threat of pulling federal funding for research and student financial aid.
The complaint accuses George Mason leadership of promoting and adopting “unlawful DEI policies” from 2020 through the present in efforts to advance antiracism.
“This kind of pernicious and widespread discrimination — packaged as ‘antiracism’ — was allowed to flourish under the Biden administration, but it will not be tolerated by this one,” said acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor in a statement.
The complaint also criticizes a task force on antiracism and inclusive excellence, and said that the university’s DEI office was renamed the Office of Access, Compliance and Community in March, after the university’s board of visitors voted to dissolve George Mason’s DEI functions. Other Virginia public universities, including U.Va., did the same following Trump’s executive orders and comments regarding universities who accept federal funding.
George Mason was already under investigation by the DOE’s civil rights office, which accused the university administration of failing “to respond effectively to a pervasively hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty from October 2023 through the 2024-25 academic year.” A similar complaint was made against U.Va.’s Ryan, whose last day as president is Friday.
Mason released the following statement Thursday: “George Mason University (GMU) received a new Dept of Education letter of investigation this morning as it was simultaneously released to news outlets, which is unprecedented in our experience. As always, we will work in good faith to give a full and prompt response.
“George Mason University again affirms its commitment to comply with all federal and state mandates. The university consistently reviews its policies and practices to ensure compliance with federal laws, updated executive orders, and on-going agency directives.
“George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.”
George Mason’s board is made up entirely of appointees by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who named multiple members with high-profile conservative positions, including Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs under President George W. Bush, and now a senior legal fellow and manager of the National Security Law Program at the Heritage Foundation.
Stimson is one of three rectors being sued by nine state Senate Democrats to prevent the seating of eight rejected appointees to their boards. George Mason’s appointees who were not confirmed by a Senate committee in a party-line vote were former Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick, Florida attorney Charles J. Cooper, former U.S. deputy secretary of education William D. Hansen and former Federal Trade Commission chair Maureen Ohlhausen.
Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, said that there has been a “disturbing pattern of conduct” on George Mason’s board since spring 2024 during the committee hearing, including a moment in a March meeting when board member Robert Pence, a former U.S. ambassador to Finland during Trump’s first term, made a comment some viewed as offensive.
Ebbin said that Pence asked Washington “how it would feel to hear, ‘Get a rope and hang them all’ invoked as free speech. Sadly, it appears that some of the visitors do not seem to be there for academic or even university governance purposes. They seem to be there … to disrupt and, if they can, to destroy.” A video of the meeting showed the statement made by Pence.
Stimson did not respond immediately to a request for comment Thursday.
James H. Finkelstein, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason, said that university presidents “with moderate to liberal values” face pushback even if they lead schools in blue states. “Even if you have an extraordinarily supportive governor and you think you’ll be safe there, you’re not,” because of the federal government’s power to withdraw funding and student visas.
Finkelstein, who has specialized in studying university presidents’ contracts, notes that Washington — while “charismatic, smart, well-informed” — was hired by a board dominated by Democratic gubernatorial appointees at the height of COVID and racial justice protests.
“The values that he was hired to advance — this board has a different set of values,” Finkelstein said.
Former Gov. Doug Wilder issued a statement saying that Washington “is being assailed and publicly maligned for promoting antisemitism … without a scintilla of evidence from his accusers to substantiate the claims.
“He is not the only person of color heading our colleges and universities being subjected to specious and questionable charges. Cedric Wins, [former superintendent] of VMI, was also subjected to undue criticism.”
Wins was ousted earlier this year by Virginia Military Institute’s board of visitors, which did not renew his contract. Like Washington, Wins was his institution’s first Black leader.
Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.