George Mason President Refuses To Apologize For DEI
The Trump administration has spent an inordinate amount of its first year back in office attacking university officials and withholding federal funds in an effort to reshape higher education in its image. President Donald Trump has already made schools like Harvard, MIT, and Northwestern the object of his ire, and now his personal attacks are being directed at Dr. Gregory Washington, the first Black president of George Mason University in Virginia.
According to the New York Times, Washington took the role at George Mason in 2020 amid the widespread racial uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. One of his goals as president of George Mason was to reduce racial tensions on campus. “My vision is establishing George Mason University as a national exemplar of anti-racism and inclusive excellence in action,” Washington said shortly after taking office.
The Trump administration has framed Dr. Washington’s support of DEI initiatives in pursuit of that vision as violating the civil rights of George Mason’s white students and faculty members.
Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, issued a statement last month alleging Gregory Washington “waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful D.E.I. policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race.”
I mean, you can make this up. The Trump administration’s whole M.O. is literally making up narratives about how white people are the real victims.
The Department of Education requested that Gregory Washington issue a personal public apology for his commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs by Sept. 1. He refused. “It’s to protect my reputation and the reputation of the campus,” Washington said in an interview.
The personal attacks on Gregory Washington have not gone unnoticed by the higher education community. “Singling out a Black leader in this way is not only unprecedented but also deeply troubling,” the American Association of University Professors said in a statement last week.
“If they can knock down someone like Greg Washington, that’s just one more domino that falls,” James H. Finkelstein, an emeritus professor at George Mason, told the Times.
Gregory Washington’s attorney, Douglas Gansler, issued a letter to George Mason’s Board of Visitors explaining why an apology isn’t necessary. “To be clear, per OCR’s 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,” the letter says. “Therefore, it is a legal fiction for OCR to even assert or claim that there has been a Title VI or Title IX violation here.
While Washington clearly supports DEI initiatives, George Mason has changed its policies to adhere to the anti-DEI mandates issued by both President Trump and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “We’ve made dramatic changes to our D.E.I. infrastructure in order to meet what we believe was the current framework that this administration was using,” Washington told the Times. Washington believes the Trump administration is trying to retroactively punish him for violating restrictions that didn’t exist when he initially implemented the DEI programs.
“They are literally investigating me for what they call offenses I made back in 2020, 2021 and that’s problematic,” Gregory Washington told the Times. “It’s like changing the speed limit and charging you for speeding four years ago.”
The federal pressure on Washington comes as several university officials have resigned or been fired due to their stances on DEI. Former University of Virginia President James Ryan resigned earlier this year due to attacks from the Trump administration over the school’s DEI policies. Last week, Northwestern President Michael Schill resigned from his position after the Trump administration withheld nearly $800 million in federal research grants.
The attacks on Gregory Washington also fall in line with the Trump administration’s characterizations of Black leadership at large. President Trump has frequently called cities with Black mayors as “lawless” despite data showing violent crime has actually trended downward in those cities.
President Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, both of which have Black mayors. Trump has continually threatened to deploy the National Guard to more cities with Black mayors like Baltimore, New Orleans and Chicago, despite residents and city leadership making it clear they don’t want that.
Whether it’s education or city leadership, it’s clear that the Trump administration is threatened by Black leadership and will take whatever steps it deems necessary to undermine it.
SEE ALSO:
University Of Memphis Latest School To Shutter DEI Office
UVA President Resigns Over Trump’s Anti-DEI Investigation
UNC Asheville Dean Of Students Fired For Pro-DEI Comments
Brown Kills DEI Programs, Regains $50M In Federal Funding
MIT Becomes Latest University To Back Away From DEI Initiatives
Northwestern President Resigns Amid Pressure From Trump Administration
Texas Is The Latest State To Censor Higher Education Over DEI Concerns
George Mason President Refuses To Apologize For DEI was originally published on newsone.com
