U.S. Department of Education

07/10/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/10/2025 08:07

U.S. Department of Education Opens Title VI Investigation into George Mason University

A Complaint Filed with OCR Alleges that the University Has Widespread Policies in Hiring and Promotion That Discriminate on the Basis of Race
July 10, 2025

Today, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into George Mason University (GMU) for allegedly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964).

This investigation is based on a complaint filed with OCR by multiple professors at GMU who allege that the university illegally uses race and other immutable characteristics in university policies, including hiring and promotion. This alleged conduct creates a racially hostile environment and is prohibited under Title VI and its implementing regulation at 34 CFR § 100.3(C), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in the employment practices of educational institutions that receive federal funds. According to the complaint, GMU leadership have promoted and adopted unlawful DEI policies from 2020 through the present, which give preferential treatment to prospective and current faculty from "underrepresented groups" to advance "anti-racism."

"Despite 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 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,' 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-packaged as 'anti-racism'-was allowed to flourish under the Biden Administration, but it will not be tolerated by this one," said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. "The Trump-McMahon Education Department's Office for Civil Rights will investigate this matter fully to ensure that individuals are judged based on their merit and accomplishment, not the color of their skin. That the leadership of a university named in honor of the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights-which informed the Constitution's Bill of Rights-needs a refresher on the primacy of treating individuals equally under law is deeply disheartening."

Background:

GMU's reported policies and practices included in the complaint which allegedly constitute racial discrimination include:

  • The presence of "Equity Advisors in every academic department" for faculty recruiting that would take into account race, sex, and other characteristics;
  • Directives from GMU President Gregory Washington that the university will "develop specific mechanisms in the promotion and tenure process" based on whether an employee is a "[person] of color" that "recognize the invisible and uncredited emotional labor that people of color expend to learn, teach, discover, and work on campus";
  • The creation of a "metric-based template for [academic] units to use" that will ensure at "the college and school level" the "vision and definition of anti-racism and inclusiveness for that unit";
  • The creation of a Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) to make university policies which will "advance systemic and cultural anti-racism" at GMU. This includes funding "diversity cluster hire initiatives" to "reflect" its student population and eliminate "gaps" between "the demographic diversity" of its faculty and its student body; and
  • Guidance from President Washington that once candidates have cleared a certain "bar" of requirements for the position, GMU would hire faculty and staff on the basis of a candidate's "diversity...even if that candidate may not have better credentials than the other candidate."

According to the complaint, in a university-wide email sent in March 2025, GMU President Gregory Washington announced that the "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" office was renamed to the "Office of Access, Compliance, and Community." President Washington allegedly wrote that there was nothing for GMU to change about its hiring, promotion, and other university policies, stating that GMU has "always complied with existing civil rights laws."

Last week, OCR opened a separate Title VI (shared ancestry) investigation into GMU amid allegations that it failed to respond effectively to a pervasively hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty from October 2023 through the 2024-2025 academic year.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) prohibits discrimination on the bases of race, color, and national origin in education programs and activities receiving federal funding. Institutions' violation of Title VI can result in loss of federal funds.

Contact

Press Office
(202) 401-1576
press@ed.gov
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