The US Department of Education announced on Friday its determination that George Mason University (GMU) violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) alleged that the university illegally considered race, sex, and “other immutable characteristics” in hiring and promotion.
Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said:
In 2020, University President Gregory Washington called for expunging the so-called ‘racist vestiges’ from GMU’s campus … President Washington then waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race… The Trump-McMahon Department of Education will not allow racially exclusionary practices—which violate the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Protection Clause, and Supreme Court precedent—to continue corrupting our nation’s educational institutions.
