A Republican effort to topple George Mason University’s first Black president is headed toward a showdown on Friday at a meeting of the school’s governing board.
The president, Gregory Washington, has been under attack from the Trump administration for supporting diversity efforts at George Mason, Virginia’s largest university. The federal government opened several investigations over the last month to examine the university’s approach to diversity and its response to antisemitism.
His problems are not coming from only President Trump.
The state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, has packed the boards that oversee the state’s public universities with right-leaning allies who are hostile to diversity efforts, including George Mason’s.
Recently, boards have forced the departures of Jim Ryan, the president of the University of Virginia, and Cedric T. Wins, the superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute, a public military college. Both men had come under fire from Republicans for supporting diversity, equity and inclusion programs at their schools.
Dr. Washington’s conservative critics have pointed to his years-old efforts to emphasize diversity, at a time when it was a priority for a broad swath of universities and other American institutions. In a letter to Dr. Washington on Tuesday, Representative Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Chip Roy pointed to Dr. Washington’s past plans to “advance systemic and cultural anti-racism” and to create a task force on “anti-racism and inclusive excellence.”
George Mason and its president are something of an odd target, however.
The university is a vibrant center of conservative thought. It is home to the Antonin Scalia Law School, named after the Supreme Court justice who was a staunch conservative. It has also promoted its intellectual diversity, a conservative priority. Unlike the elite institutions that the Trump administration has typically targeted, like Harvard University, George Mason is the type of accessible and affordable college that has usually received broad political support.
Its campus protests over the war in Gaza have also been muted. The school did not have a pro-Palestinian encampment during the height of campus demonstrations last year, for example.
Dr. Washington’s messages about anti-racism went out to the campus in 2020, shortly after George Floyd, a Black man, died under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, prompting a moment of heightened racial sensitivity across American institutions.
As tensions rise within his own board, Dr. Washington has found himself increasingly isolated.
The federal government began piling on investigations last month. Four inquiries, from the Education and Justice Departments, are probing the campus’s response to antisemitism and racial diversity efforts. Republican members of Congress have demanded documents related to diversity and asked that the president schedule an interview with the House Judiciary Committee by Aug. 12.
They also say that the university renamed its diversity office this year, instead of eliminating it altogether.
They cited “a pervasive culture of intolerance at George Mason that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the Civil Rights Act.”
In a July 16 message to the campus, Dr. Washington made it clear that he had a different understanding of the Civil Rights Act, which was passed in 1964 to combat racial discrimination. The Trump administration’s application of civil rights law represents a “profound shift,” Dr. Washington said.
“Longstanding efforts to address inequality — such as mentoring programs, inclusive hiring practices, and support for historically underrepresented groups — are in many cases being reinterpreted as presumptively unlawful,” he wrote. “Broad terms like ‘illegal DEI’ are now used without definition, allowing virtually any initiative that touches on identity or inclusion to be painted as discriminatory.”
Democrats in the state senate have sued to block some of Mr. Youngkin’s university board picks. A Virginia circuit court judge this week ordered the removal of eight appointees across the state, including four at George Mason, which could complicate efforts to oust Dr. Washington.
It is unclear how much support Dr. Washington has on the board. One member, Michael Meese, the son of Edwin Meese, Ronald Reagan’s attorney general, sent a message to fellow members on July 10 warning them not to be “played” by outside forces trying to divide the university.
The university ended an effort to roll out diversity courses in the core curriculum and scaled back administrative positions, he said. “Claims that George Mason has not reformed its approach are simply false,” he wrote.
Unlike many university leaders targeted by the Trump administration, Dr. Washington has provided a spirited defense of his efforts in the press, until the board restricted his ability to speak with journalists about the investigations. Now, all inquiries must go through an outside law firm with strong ties to Mr. Trump.
Last week, professors came to Dr. Washington’s defense with a faculty senate resolution. The next day, Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s civil rights chief, said in a letter that the government would be investigating the group.
Virginia’s experience is similar to Republican efforts to overhaul higher education elsewhere in the country. While the Trump administration has unleashed an unprecedented attack on universities, targeting top institutions with major funding threats, the turmoil in Virginia’s universities has been largely driven at the state level.
The same has been true in states like Texas, where Republicans have also sought to reverse diversity initiatives, and especially Florida, where Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, had crafted his political identity around attacking educational institutions.
“Florida has been the standout, until now,” said James H. Finkelstein, a professor emeritus of public policy who has studied university governance. “Virginia is becoming the new Florida.”
Vimal Patel writes about higher education for The Times with a focus on speech and campus culture.
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