\n<\/p>\n
Washington rejected OCR\u2019s demand for a personal apology Monday.<\/p>\n
Bill O’Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n George Mason University president Gregory Washington has rejected demands by the Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights that he apologize for alleged discriminatory hiring practices, questioning the findings of an OCR investigation that accused him of implementing \u201cunlawful DEI policies.\u201d<\/p>\n In a letter to GMU’s board Monday, Washington\u2019s attorney, Douglas F. Gansler, alleged that OCR cut its fact-finding efforts short and only interviewed two university deans before reaching the conclusions the Department of Education published Friday. Gansler wrote that \u201cOCR\u2019s letter contains gross mischaracterizations of statements made by Dr. Washington and outright omissions\u201d related to the university\u2019s DEI practices.<\/p>\n Gansler also accused OCR of selectively interpreting various remarks by Washington, the first Black president in GMU\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear, per OCR\u2019s own findings, no job applicant has been discriminated against by GMU, nor has OCR attempted to name someone who has been discriminated against by GMU in any context. Therefore, it is a legal fiction for OCR to even assert or claim that there has been a Title\u00a0VI or Title\u00a0IX violation here,\u201d Gansler wrote in a 10-page letter.<\/p>\n ED has demanded changes at GMU and a personal apology from Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2020, University President Gregory Washington called for expunging the so-called \u2018racist vestiges\u2019 from GMU\u2019s campus,\u201d Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement released by the Department of Education last week. \u201cWithout 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\u2019t make this up.\u201d<\/p>\n In his letter to the board, Gansler emphasized that under Washington\u2019s leadership, GMU has complied with executive orders that cracked down on DEI programs and practices, pointing to recent changes such as the dissolution of GMU\u2019s DEI office and restricting the use of diversity statements in hiring.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Board entertains OCR\u2019s demand that Dr. Washington personally apologize for promoting unlawful discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion, and tenure processes, it will undermine GMU\u2019s record of compliance. An apology will amount to an admission that the university did something unlawful, opening GMU and the Board up to legal liability for conduct that did not occur under the Board\u2019s watch,\u201d Gansler wrote. He added that admitting to such violations could bring about punitive action from other federal agencies, such as the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s rejection of an apology and dispute over the claims made by OCR comes shortly after speculation that GMU\u2019s Board of Visitors\u2014which includes numerous conservative political figures and activists appointed by Republican Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin\u2014would fire him. Instead, the board gave Washington a raise after a lengthy closed-door meeting earlier this month that brought dozens of protesters out to show their support for the besieged president.<\/p>\n Asked for a statement, GMU officials referred Inside Higher Ed<\/em> to Gansler.<\/p>\n ED did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington rejected OCR\u2019s demand for a personal apology Monday. Bill O’Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images George Mason University president Gregory Washington has rejected demands by the Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights that he apologize for alleged discriminatory hiring practices, questioning the findings of an OCR investigation that accused him of implementing \u201cunlawful<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[9623,9108,7294,10811,1059,9126,7559],"class_list":{"0":"post-17831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-apologize","9":"tag-findings","10":"tag-gmu","11":"tag-ocr","12":"tag-president","13":"tag-refuses","14":"tag-rejects"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}