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When the Education Department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights notified George Mason University on July 1 that it was opening an antisemitism investigation based on a recent complaint, the university\u2019s president, Gregory Washington, said he was \u201cperplexed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Compared with other campuses, where protesters had ransacked buildings and hunkered down in encampments, George Mason had been relatively quiet over the past year, he said. His administration had taken extensive steps to improve relations with the Jewish community, had enacted strict rules on protests and had communicated all of that to the OCR during a previous antisemitism investigation that remained open.<\/p>\n
By the next day, though, there were signs that the new investigation was part of a coordinated campaign to oust him.<\/p>\n
One piece of evidence: the speed with which conservative news outlets reported on the OCR\u2019s action, which hadn\u2019t been publicly announced. The OCR letter was embedded in a July 2 article published by a right-wing news outlet, The Washington Free Beacon. The next day, the City Journal,<\/em> published by the influential and conservative Manhattan Institute, ran an opinion essay headlined \u201cGeorge Mason University\u2019s Disastrous President.\u201d The article accused Washington, the university\u2019s first Black president and a first-generation college graduate, of backing \u201cracially discriminatory DEI programs\u201d \u2014 referring to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts \u2014 and failing to address campus antisemitism. It concluded that \u201cWashington\u2019s track record warrants his resignation or dismissal.\u201d<\/p>\n The similarities to recent events at another public university in Virginia were hard to ignore. The OCR\u2019s George Mason investigation was opened just four days after the University of Virginia\u2019s president, James E. Ryan, announced that he was resigning to help settle a federal probe into the university\u2019s DEI commitments.<\/p>\n That happened after a group of conservative University of Virginia alumni, the Jefferson Council, published blog entries and newspaper ads decrying the president \u2014 in part for focusing too heavily on diversity efforts \u2014 and demanding that he resign. The council\u2019s connections to board members and Justice Department lawyers led many observers in higher education to conclude that Ryan\u2019s forced resignation was the result of a coordinated assault.<\/p>\n Now, Washington is feeling the same heat coming from similar sources.<\/p>\n The temperature cranked up several degrees Thursday morning, when the Education Department notified George Mason that it\u2019s opening a second investigation \u2014 this one alleging the university illegally considers race in hiring and promoting employees. The department said it was acting on complaints from \u201cmultiple professors\u201d at GMU.<\/p>\n In a press statement Thursday, Craig Trainor, the Education Department\u2019s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, suggested that the agency has already reached sweeping conclusions about the university\u2019s hiring practices. \u201cDespite the leadership of George Mason University claiming that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, it appears that its hiring and promotion policies and practices from 2020 to the present, implemented under the guise of so-called \u2018Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,\u2019 not only allow but champion illegal racial preferencing in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This kind of pernicious and wide-spread discrimination \u2014 packaged as \u2018anti-racism\u2019 \u2014 was allowed to flourish under the Biden Administration, but it will not be tolerated by this one,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The university rebutted those accusations in a statement saying it is complying with all federal and state mandates and does not discriminate. The university \u201creceived a new Department of Education letter of investigation this morning as it was simultaneously released to news outlets, which is unprecedented in our experience,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAs always, we will work in good faith to give a full and prompt response.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, dozens of Jewish faculty members at GMU have signed on to a statement condemning \u201can attack on our university community and our GMU President that is quickly intensifying under a false, racially divisive, and deeply cynical claim of combating antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n Even before Thursday\u2019s announcement, Washington said he had detected a pattern that\u2019s been playing out at other universities targeted by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration: Multiple investigations are filed in quick succession and word leaks to news organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like this is orchestrated,\u201d Washington said during an interview Wednesday. \u201cThe same people who are kind of aligned that got rid of Jim Ryan are aligned against me.\u201d<\/p>\n He finds the timing of the attacks against him and his university troubling.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that the Office for Civil Rights doesn\u2019t publicly announce who is under investigation, we were wondering how these conservative outlets even got the information in the first place,\u201d Washington said. The \u201calmost hateful discussions of me\u201d in the City Journal article looked like \u201ca concerted effort to try to paint the institution in a negative light.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington said the piece seemed to be urging the Trump administration to take the investigation to the next level, the Department of Justice, which could levy punishments against the university.<\/p>\n Many faculty members at George Mason agree. They worry that despite the OCR\u2019s insistence in its letter to the university that its investigation will be unbiased, the Trump administration has already reached a verdict on the institution\u2019s president and wants him out. As evidence, they point to a web of ties between right-wing news organizations and politicians \u2014 including Virginia\u2019s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin \u2014 as well as some George Mason board members.<\/p>\n \u201cThe same unfounded and coordinated attacks that pushed Ryan out of UVa are now being leveled at GMU President Greg Washington,\u201d the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote in an online post. \u201cWe think the DOJ, Governor Youngkin, and Youngkin\u2019s appointees\u201d to GMU\u2019s governing board \u201care trying to force President Washington out so they can hire an ideological ally who will impose the Governor\u2019s political ideologies on Mason\u2019s governance and curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n Late Wednesday, Virginia\u2019s two Democratic U.S. senators, Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, doubled down on those warnings, publishing an opinion piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch saying that the Trump administration \u201cappears to be eyeing its next target\u201d with George Mason\u2019s president.<\/p>\n \u201cThe accusations \u2014 which are pushed by bloggers with ties to ultra-conservative groups with histories of false claims about Mason and advocacy for the removal of university presidents \u2014 are eerily similar to those lodged against Ryan,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThey include vague and politically charged accusations centered around \u2018DEI\u2019 and suggestions that the university\u2019s administration has been insufficiently responsive to concerns raised by Jewish students about their safety on campus. That\u2019s despite the fact that the university\u2019s leaders have repeatedly and publicly condemned antisemitism and actually been praised by the local Jewish Relations Council and campus Hillel for their leadership and commitment to Jewish members of Mason\u2019s community.\u201d<\/p>\n The education department\u2019s July 1 letter notified George Mason that it was investigating a complaint, filed in June, that Jewish students and faculty members faced a hostile environment at the Virginia university between October 2023 and the end of the 2024-2025 academic year. It gave the university until July 21 to turn over voluminous information about its response to antisemitism complaints.<\/p>\n It also assured the university it would take a neutral stance in evaluating the information.<\/p>\n Warner and Kaine are skeptical that the investigation will be fair and impartial: In their opinion piece, they said it\u2019s more likely \u201cto serve as yet another smokescreen to punish universities and leaders who don\u2019t align with their ideological goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Some George Mason faculty members share these concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you start seeing these hit pieces come out one after another in a matter of days, you know it\u2019s coordinated,\u201d Bethany L. Letiecq, a professor in the College of Education and Human Development, said in an interview.<\/p>\n Indeed, higher education leaders have accused the Department of Justice\u2019s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which officially oversees investigations by several federal agencies, of ignoring procedures intended to provide due process, racing toward predetermined results, and then punishing universities by stripping them of billions of research dollars.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s critics have ties to right-wing advocates of eliminating diversity efforts and other examples of what they see as higher education\u2019s \u201cwoke\u201d policies. The author of the essay calling Washington a \u201cdisastrous\u201d president, Ian Kingsbury, has co-published articles promoting conservative causes with Jay P. Greene, a senior research fellow with The Heritage Foundation. Christopher F. Rufo, one of the nation\u2019s most aggressive and influential opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, is among the contributing editors at City Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n Such critics are well represented in George Mason\u2019s leadership as well.<\/p>\n Youngkin, the governor, appointed most of GMU\u2019s governing board, known as the board of visitors. The university\u2019s general counsel, Anne Gentry, is married to a longtime conservative activist and executive with the Koch Foundation, Letiecq pointed out. \u201cAt Mason, the foxes are in the henhouse,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s an inside job.\u201d<\/p>\n Letiecq worries that Youngkin might exert the same kind of influence that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican, has in trying to reshape higher education to fit a conservative playbook. Neither Youngkin nor the board of visitors immediately responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cI have suspected that Youngkin, in his quest for political capital, has been following the DeSantis playbook and sees Mason as a potential New College that they can take over and take down,\u201d she said. New College of Florida, once a progressive institution, underwent substantial changes to its curriculum and staff beginning in 2023 when DeSantis stacked its board with conservative members.<\/p>\n Neither Kingsbury, the author of the City Journal piece, nor the Department of Education responded to inquiries about the patterns Washington saw. Eliana Johnson, editor of the Washington Free Beacon, said in a statement that \u201cour reporting speaks for itself.\u201d City Journal did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Washington defended his record in a public statement on July 3. \u201cAs we prepare a response to the complaint, it is important that we all have an accurate understanding of how safe and welcoming the George Mason community is, particularly as we prepare to welcome tens of thousands of students to campus in just a few short weeks,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge Mason has not been marred by the sort of violence that has rocked so many other campuses elsewhere in Virginia and around the nation following the Hamas attacks of 2023. It is a distinction we are proud of, and work hard each day to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n In 11 messages that were sent to the campus community detailing the university\u2019s responses to the Hamas attacks and that were shared with The Chronicle of Higher Education,<\/em> his office denounced \u201ccraven acts of terrorism as we have seen in Israel,\u201d urged \u201ccivil discourse, understanding, and peaceable assembly\u201d on campus and denounced the \u201cdisgusting behavior\u201d of those who were attempting to distribute antisemitic leaflets. University leaders coordinated with law enforcement to respond to two violent antisemitic actions.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been more than a year since the last campus demonstration related to Gaza, Washington said. That protest remained safe and legal and did not disrupt university business. \u201cNo encampments have ever formed at George Mason, and we will not permit them in the future,\u201d Washington said. The university was one of the first to introduce a comprehensive safety and well-being plan, which remains in effect.<\/p>\n \u201cOur data continues to show that our environment has dramatically improved since the horrific Hamas attacks of 2023, so we are perplexed to be receiving this investigation at this time. Nevertheless, we will respond in a forthright, direct, and timely manner to this and any inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 2023-2024 academic year, the university received 31 bias-incident reports based on antisemitism, according to Rose Pascarell, vice president for university life. Last year, that number dropped to 12.<\/p>\n Plus, she said, the university \u201cresponded fully\u201d to a previous OCR complaint related to antisemitism \u2014 but never heard back from the government.<\/p>\n Letiecq said that, in her view, Washington has overreacted, not underreacted, to complaints of antisemitism, instituting restrictions on protests and punishments for protesters that she considers \u201coppressive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an insatiable campaign on the right and it seems there\u2019s nothing you can do to satisfy them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n Utah Sen. Mike Lee Says Selling Off Public Lands Will Solve the West\u2019s Housing Crisis. Past Sales Show Otherwise.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n George Mason, with more than 40,000 students, is the most racially diverse public research university in the state, university officials say. To comply with Trump\u2019s executive orders, the university has repurposed its DEI office to focus on compliance and community. It has cut six positions, eliminated diversity training and expanded a program in constructive dialogue. All of those changes are outlined in a lengthy report to the board. Washington insists, though, that the university won\u2019t abandon its commitments to the underlying principles its diversity efforts support.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you are a diverse institution, you have to operate from that diverse framework,\u201d Washington said. \u201cI don\u2019t run away from that. I run toward it.\u201d<\/p>\n DEI expenditures represent 0.1% of the university\u2019s budget, GMU officials say.<\/p>\n Asked why he agreed to speak out publicly when so many presidents have stayed silent to avoid angering the administration, Washington said the attacks were too personal to avoid.<\/p>\n \u201cMy philosophy is: Sunlight is disinfectant. We\u2019re going to be transparent with the community throughout the process,\u201d including the back-and-forth with OCR, he said.<\/p>\n Washington says if the university is asked to make significant changes without a standard investigation and discussion of the facts, it will deal with that as necessary. \u201cWe will work in good faith to move through this,\u201d Washington said. \u201cWe will know if we\u2019re given due process by how they manage our particular case.\u201d<\/p>\n Katherine Mangan is a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they\u2019re published. 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