Dear fellow Patriots:
By now, you know that last week George Mason University was given a second notice of investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), this time regarding alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 relative to our faculty hiring.
As in all cases, we will cooperate fully with the OCR.
We are also thankful for the outpouring of support for George Mason from our greater community – from on campus, the Northern Virginia region, and around the nation.
On Friday, I was notified by the rector of our board of visitors that the board has retained the Torridon Law firm to represent the university on all matters related to both investigations. Torridon also now serves as the only authorized news media interface on all matters related to the OCR inquiries.
Though university staff is no longer coordinating the university response, I can assure you that George Mason has always operated with a commitment to equality under the law, ever since our inception. It is simply the Mason way, and in my experience, it has not discriminated based on race, color, national origin, or otherwise. Our diversity efforts are designed to expand opportunity and build inclusive excellence – not to exclude or advantage any group unlawfully.
The investigation reportedly stems from a complaint alleging that the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts amount to unlawful racial preference. The university strongly rejects that characterization.
In Response to a Widely Distributed Press Release
The Department of Education issued a press release at the same time it notified George Mason of the latest investigation, and I want to be sure that our community has an accurate understanding of the realities of how we hire faculty and staff at George Mason.
- No academic units mandate outcomes based on race, color, national origin, sex, or any other characteristic protected by law. These practices are consistent with equal opportunity principles.
- There are no mechanisms in Mason’s promotion and tenure policies that give preferential treatment based on race, color, national origin, sex, or any other characteristic protected by law.
- There are no academic unit performance evaluations authorized at George Mason that use race or anti-racism measures as determinants of institutional success.
- All task force work around inclusivity has aligned with state-level policy priorities and directives included in Virginia’s “One Virginia Plan.” No task force outcomes instituted hiring quotas or race-based policies.
- We support units in developing rigorous standards in alignment with strong research institutions nationally, the university does not define those standards, and all hiring evaluations are based on the required and preferred qualifications listed in our position descriptions. Units are never instructed by the university to hire individuals with credentials below those standards or based on race or any other characteristic protected by law.
Why Title VI Exists – and What It Was Meant to Correct
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted to dismantle explicit and systemic racial discrimination that denied access to education, employment, housing, and public services based solely on race, color, or national origin. It was designed to ensure that no person in the United States would be excluded from participation in federally funded programs because of who they are.
Before the Civil Rights Act, it was legal in many states – including Virginia – to deny African Americans access to quality public schools, equal job opportunities, and basic services. Activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., alongside countless citizens of all races and faiths, sacrificed their lives and livelihoods to secure these protections. Title VI was born from this movement and was intended to be a tool to expand opportunity – not to suppress efforts to build fairer, more inclusive systems.
Today, we are seeing a profound shift in how Title VI is being applied. 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. 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.
This shift represents a stark departure from the spirit in which civil rights law was written: not to erase difference, but to protect individuals from exclusion and to enable equal opportunity for all.
George Mason’s Broader Commitment
As Virginia’s largest and most diverse public university, Mason enrolls more Pell-eligible students than any other institution in the Commonwealth and graduates students from all backgrounds at similarly high rates. It admits 90% of applicants and proudly offers an elite education to the broadest possible public. Its mission is grounded in excellence, access, and impact, not exclusion. And we send students into an economy that depends deeply on George Mason to be a reliable source for career talent. This region would not be the powerhouse it is without our university, carrying out its mission in what we often refer to as “the Mason way.”
That “Mason way” includes the belief that diversity includes thought, background, and circumstance and any attempt to artificially redefine our diversity, as one of race-based exclusivity, is doomed to fail no matter who ends up being excluded.
I will continue to update you as circumstances allow, and wish everyone a continued productive and rejuvenating summer as we anticipate another record class of entering freshmen next month.
Sincerely,
Gregory Washington
President