Virginia lawmakers have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged President Donald Trump’s war on the use of race at universities. Their action, clearly intended to save George Mason University President Gregory Washington from being fired, has made the Old Dominion a test case.
The Trump administration has a choice. It can stand down and allow Washington to thumb his nose at executive actions banning diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the use of racial preferences in schools that take taxpayer money (virtually all except for outliers like Hillsdale). Or it can use its ample leverage to move against GMU.
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The track record of this administration has not been one of rolling over. Indeed, it has dealt forcefully against Harvard and other Ivy League schools. GMU, take heed.
The action by the Democrats in Richmond came last Thursday. The state’s Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted to block 14 appointments that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had made to the boards of GMU, Virginia Military Institute, and the University of Virginia. The committee had blocked eight appointments to the same schools in June.
Why would a Senate committee act in such high-handed fashion?
In its drive to eliminate woke policies from universities nationwide, the Trump administration has told universities in Virginia to follow the law against racial discrimination, whether in admissions or hiring and promotion practices, or in the training that goes under the label of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
GMU and its very DEI-oriented president have been major causes of concern for several months, as the Departments of Education and Justice launched two investigations each, both on DEI and hiring practices, respectively, on July 10 and 17.
Then, on Aug. 22, the Department of Education announced it had found GMU in violation of various civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, because of its hiring and promotion practices. Title VI bans discrimination based on race and national origin in educational institutions that receive funds from the taxpayer.
The Education Department gave GMU 10 days to resolve the violations, which included “illegally using race and other immutable characteristics in university practices and policies, including hiring and promotion.”
“In 2020, University President Gregory Washington called for expunging the so-called ‘racist vestiges’ from GMU’s campus,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement. “Without 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’t make this up.”
The department’s Office of Civil Rights also told Washington to apologize.
Washington, though, refuses to do that. Through his lawyer, former Maryland attorney general Douglas Gansler, Washington called the OCR findings “absurd.”
“If the Board entertains OCR’s demand that Dr. Washington personally apologize for promoting unlawful discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion, and tenure processes, it will undermine GMU’s record of compliance,” Gansler wrote in a letter to the GMU board. “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’s watch.”
The GMU Board of Visitors had taken a different approach, saying in a statement on Aug. 22 that it would “continue to respond fully and cooperatively to all inquiries from the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. House of Representatives and evaluate the evidence that comes to light. Our sole focus is our fiduciary duty to serve the best interests of the university and the people of the commonwealth of Virginia.”
This is where the Virginia Democrats come in. The governing board met on Aug. 1 amid reports that it was ready to fire Washington. Instead, it not only kept him on the job but also unanimously approved a 1.5% salary increase.
This led to a raft of stories about how the board was behind Washington, who put out a statement saying, “Regardless of how one views the events unfolding at George Mason University, today’s display of unity by the Mason community is inspiring.”
The reality is that the 1.5% raise was the lowest that Washington could get, and the statement of support was tepid. That, plus the board’s cooperative response to the administration after the charges of violations were announced, clearly convinced Washington’s many friends in the Virginia Senate that it was moving to fire him.
The cuts the Democrats have made to the GMU board, which should have 16 members, leave it now with only six. In other words, the board now lacks a quorum and can no longer govern the university.
The Democrats told the governor to cease making any more appointments. “We therefore respectfully request that you suspend further appointments to these boards,” they wrote in a letter.
Youngkin has called the cuts a “partisan campaign” that “irreparably harm[s] higher education in Virginia.” But he is termed out and due to leave office in January, and in the remainder of his term, he faces a hostile Virginia General Assembly.
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Which puts the matter back into the Trump administration’s hands. GMU receives about $200 million in federal funds. The administration has made adroit use of this leverage in this second term, and it has seen one university after the next fold when faced with the cut of funds.
Will it use it again? If Virginia gets away with this use of raw power, it will become the model to thwart the administration on DEI and many other fronts.
Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo senior fellow on E Pluribus Unum at the Heritage Foundation and the author of NextGen Marxism: What It Is and How to Combat It. Heritage is listed for identification purposes only. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect any institutional position of Heritage or its board of trustees.