A federal civil rights investigation has found that George Mason University illegally used race and other “immutable characteristics” in its hiring and promotion, the Education Department said Friday.
The agency’s Office for Civil Rights said it notified Gregory Washington, the public university’s president, that he had 10 days to accept a proposed resolution correcting his attempts to evade a Trump administration ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs favoring minorities. Failure to comply could trigger the termination of federal funding for the Fairfax, Virginia, campus.
“In 2020, University President Gregory Washington called for expunging the so-called ’racist vestiges’ from GMU’s campus,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement. “Without a hint of self-awareness, President Washington then waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race. You can’t make this up.”
The proposed resolution would require Mr. Washington, who became George Mason’s first Black president in 2020, to issue a “personal apology” for his decision to rename rather than dismantle DEI programs after the Trump administration forbade them in institutions that receive federal funding.
Mr. Washington would also need to post a statement affirming color-blind employment policies and instructions for reporting violations on the university’s website.
Finally, the resolution asks George Mason to review and revise all policies, records and staff training to “demonstrate compliance” with the agreement.
In a statement, the GMU Board of Visitors called the proposal “a serious matter” and pledged to cooperate fully.
“The Board is reviewing the specific resolution steps proposed by the Department of Education,” the statement read. “We will continue to respond fully and cooperatively to all inquiries from the Department of Education, the Department of Justice and the U.S. House of Representatives and evaluate the evidence that comes to light. Our sole focus is our fiduciary duty to serve the best interests of the University and the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
The resolution offer comes as part of a broader federal effort to enforce a January executive order from President Trump ending public funding for race-based programs designed to support Black, Latino and American Indian students and faculty.
Promoted by the Biden administration, DEI has sought for decades to boost underrepresented minorities in college admissions and hiring to help campuses better reflect national demographics. Dozens of universities nationwide expanded DEI offices and staff in the wake of the George Floyd protests of 2020.
Mr. Trump has adopted a stricter reading of color-blind provisions in federal civil rights law since returning to office. Building on a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that overturned race-based college admissions, his administration has insisted that DEI fosters reverse discrimination against White and Asian candidates.
The administration has launched investigations into dozens of universities accused of hiding the programs rather than ending them. One investigation prompted James Ryan to step down as president of the University of Virginia in July.
Friday’s proposal would end one of four civil rights investigations the Trump administration opened this summer in response to faculty complaints that Mr. Washington steered George Mason to evade rather than comply with federal policies.
The others include a Justice Department compliance review into whether the university “has denied equal treatment of individuals based on race or national origin” in student admissions, scholarships and benefits.
The Education Department noted on Friday that Mr. Washington renamed George Mason’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as the Office of Access, Compliance and Community in March.
It also cited passages in the faculty handbook requiring that administrators secure the agreement of this office before extending faculty job offers and letting them “waive the competitive search process” to hire candidates who advance “diversity and inclusion.”
Some DEI proponents condemned the proposed resolution, noting the vague use of “immutable characteristics” in Trump administration policies.
“They play off amorphous comments and base fake law off of that, so I am skeptical of this ’investigation’ from the start,” Omekongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communications affiliated with American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, said in an email.
But Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars, praised the Education Department for announcing “loudly and clearly” that the Trump administration won’t tolerate universities privileging group identity over merit.
“Presumably, George Mason’s leadership calculated that federal authorities would turn a blind eye to it,” said Mr. Wood, a former associate provost at private Boston University. “And under the Biden administration, they were right.”
According to some legal experts reached for comment, the university will likely part with Mr. Washington rather than challenge the investigation in court.
“I am skeptical he would willingly post this apology,” said Josh Blackman, George Mason law graduate who teaches at South Texas College of Law in Houston. “He has steadfastly defended his policies.”
Ilya Shapiro, a libertarian constitutional law scholar at the Manhattan Institute, said George Mason has no realistic chance of getting a court to stop the Education Department from pulling funding.
“The university could sue, but we’ve seen settlements from every other school that’s been similarly investigated because the government has them dead to rights,” Mr. Shapiro said.
