George Mason University’s president will not apologize to satisfy the demand of the Education Department, which said it had determined the university has violated federal civil rights law, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
The letter says the federal department’s conclusions, published Friday, make it “glaringly apparent that the [Office of Civil Rights] investigation process has been cut short, and ‘findings’ have been made in spite of a very incomplete fact-finding process.”
Attorney Douglas Gansler, who wrote and sent the letter to the Virginia school’s Board of Visitors on behalf of university President Gregory Washington, said both Washington and the board are “far from needing to apologize.”
“To be clear, per OCR’s own findings, no job applicant has been discriminated against by GMU, nor has OCR attempted to name someone who has been discriminated against by GMU in any context,” the letter says. “Therefore, it is a legal fiction for OCR to even assert or claim that there has been a Title VI or Title IX violation here.”
It argues the Office of Civil Rights’ allegation that George Mason engages in discriminatory practices “borders on the absurd.”
The civil rights office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The Education Department found the university in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, accusing it of illegally “using race and other immutable characteristics in university practices and policies, including hiring and promotion.”
The Trump administration opened the civil rights investigation into the school’s hiring practices last month. On Friday, the Office of Civil Rights said it gave the school a proposed agreement with a 10-day deadline to voluntarily resolve the allegations.
As part of the proposed resolution agreement, the office said it would require Washington to personally release a statement to the university community affirming compliance with Title VI, as well as apologize for “promoting unlawful discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion, and tenure processes.”
But Gansler’s letter argued an apology would amount to the school’s admitting it violated the law.
“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,” it says.
George Mason’s Board of Visitors said in a statement Friday that it was reviewing specific proposed resolution steps.
Gansler’s letter says the university has “moved swiftly” to ensure continued compliance with new federal mandates since Trump began his second term, including ceasing affirmative action programs for women and minorities, dissolving the university’s Office for Diversity Equity and Inclusion and reviewing diversity statements on job postings.
It adds that at least 17 positions associated with DEI efforts have been eliminated or restructured and that several diversity-related programs and initiatives have been dissolved.
“Well before the federal government turned its attention to GMU, the university, under Dr. Washington and the Board’s leadership, undertook a robust effort to stay ahead of the curve and make many of the changes now being demanded of universities,” it says.
In the letter, Gansler also requests that he be part of discussions about the university’s response to the Education Department’s demands.
“The journey toward striking any agreement with OCR must begin with a shared set of facts, which we do not yet have,” the letter reads.
