Dive Brief:
- A faculty group at Virginia's George Mason University this week adopted a no-confidence resolution aimed at the institution’s board for its handling of recent attacks on the university by the Trump administration.
- George Mason’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors described the board’s response to four government investigations, launched in less than a month, as “inadequate and deeply troubling” in a letter Tuesday to members of George Mason’s board of visitors and state officials.
- The group called on the board to publicly defend George Mason President Gregory Washington and to “reaffirm the university's unwavering commitment to academic freedom, diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence.”
Dive Insight:
Over the course of roughly three weeks, the Trump administration has opened multiple civil rights probes into George Mason through the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice.
The most recent investigation, launched by the Justice Department’s civil rights unit, is looking at whether George Mason’s admissions and scholarship practices violate Title VI, which forbids discrimination based on race, color or national origin at federally funded institutions. It is also probing the university’s response to antisemitism.
A letter this week to the head of George Mason’s board from Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, didn’t contain any specific allegations against the university, but stated that “a school administration's deliberate indifference to a racially hostile educational environment is illegal.”
It followed the Justice Department’s earlier announcement of a probe into racial discrimination in George Mason’s employment practices. In informing officials of that investigation, Dhillon cited past comments by Washington about George Mason’s efforts to diversify its ranks and support women and faculty members of color.
The probes come just weeks after former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan abruptly announced his resignation in June amid pressure from Trump’s Justice Department and a similar investigation into the public institution’s diversity efforts.
In public statements, George Mason’s board — headed by Charles Stimson, who holds leadership positions at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank — has said little beyond that it will provide government agencies with requested information and comply with law.
In a statement Tuesday in response to the latest probe, the board said it will “ensure GMU complies with all federal anti-discrimination laws.” In an earlier statement, it said it had a fiduciary obligation to “ensure that the University continues to thrive as the largest public university in Virginia.”
George Mason’s board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington himself has defended the university’s diversity efforts, writing last week, “It is inaccurate to conclude that we created new university policies or procedures that discriminated against or excluded anyone.”
In the resolution, the George Mason AAUP chapter defended Washington’s record at the university where the board has been publicly silent.
“President Washington has demonstrated exceptional leadership by advancing the university’s longstanding commitment to inclusion and diversity, overseeing significant improvements in the university's national rankings, while still maintaining Mason’s ethos of access and affordability, particularly for first-generation students,” it stated.
The resolution also blasts the board as having “utterly failed to support President Washington and George Mason University during this period of unprecedented and increasing federal scrutiny and political targeting,” adding that “the silence from the Board has become deafening.”
The faculty group additionally called out the board’s choice of attorneys to represent it in talks with the Trump administration, noting that the firm Torridon Law was co-founded by former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served under Trump, and has several prominent Republican lawyers on staff.
Among them is Mike Fragoso, who is handling communications about the investigations for George Mason and was previously chief counsel to former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The hiring of Torridon Law PLLC to defend GMU against the Trump administration’s ideological attacks is like hiring a wolf to protect the sheep,” the faculty group wrote.
Torridon’s Fragoso did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The George Mason AAUP “overwhelmingly” voted in favor of the no-confidence resolution, according to the letter to the university’s board.
