Dive Brief:
- Top Democrats in Virginia’s state senate accused Charles Stimson, head of George Mason University’s governing board, of a conflict of interest because of his day job at The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, amid federal investigations into the public university.
- The Trump administration has largely targeted George Mason over university President Gregory Washington’s history of support for campus diversity efforts. The administration has opened at least four investigations into the university and formally accused George Mason of violating civil rights law.
- The Democratic leaders called on Stimson to recuse himself from board actions and discussions related to the investigations and Washington — or resign. In a reply obtained by the Virginia Mercury, Stimson said he would not resign and was “completely committed” to serving as board of visitors rector.
Dive Insight:
Addressing Stimson on Tuesday, the senators said his position as senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation creates an “untenable ethical conflict” as board leader.
In a letter, state Sens. Scott Surovell, L. Louise Lucas and Mamie Locke — majority leader, president pro tempore and Democratic caucus chair, respectively — pointed to a September report from the think tank that accused George Mason and Washington of disguising or hiding the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The report also affirmed the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI writ large.
The report looks in part at how colleges responded to an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting DEI initiatives in education. It also looks specifically at how George Mason responded to guidance from the U.S. Department of Education on Trump’s order, which has since been struck down by a federal judge. According to The Heritage Foundation, Washington sent an email in February to George Mason stakeholders that suggested the university was merely making cosmetic changes to its DEI efforts in response to the federal policy shifts.
The authors recommend that federal officials investigate colleges where “officials maintain DEI offices” and “be prepared to withhold federal taxpayer spending from educational institutions at all levels when schools violate crucial civil rights protections.”
In their letter, the Virginia Democrats alleged that The Heritage Foundation report, released earlier this month, “appears strategically timed to coincide with ongoing federal investigations and deliberately undermines the university you are sworn to govern and protect as Rector.”
While Stimson was not among the report’s authors, the senators pointed to his employment at the think tank as compromising his ability to lead George Mason’s board.
“As Rector, you have fiduciary duties to advocate for the university's best interests, including securing necessary federal funding,” they wrote. “Yet your employer has publicly advocated for actions that would directly harm the institution you lead.”
They called on Stimson to withdraw from board business related to Washington’s employment status and performance evaluation, federal compliance or DEI investigations, funding strategies — particularly those tied to federal money — and the university’s DEI policies. Barring recusal, they said Stimson should resign.
In his response, Stimson said he would leave his views “at the door,” according to the Mercury.
“The board is fully focused on our fiduciary duties to GMU and the commonwealth, securing the university’s funding and ensuring it continues to make all Virginians proud as a world-class academic institution,” he added.
The senators also noted the board’s lack of a quorum after Virginia Democrats blocked several appointees of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The Trump administration launched its investigations into George Mason in quick succession during the summer. In late August, the Education Department concluded six weeks after it opened a probe that the university’s diversity policies violated civil rights law, citing in large part past comments by Washington.
In July, the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors voted no confidence in the board of visitors over their silence as Washington and the institution came under attack by the Trump administration.
However, at an August meeting that the AAUP chapter warned could result in Washington's ouster, the board voted to give the university leader a raise.
For his part, Washington has disputed the accusations that the university violated the law or discriminated in its hiring, while his attorney forcefully defended Washington’s record in a letter to the board, calling the Trump administration’s allegations a “legal fiction.”
