GMU board agrees to cut DEI programs while unanimously approving raise for embattled president

George Mason University’s president will be getting a raise in exchange for the institution cutting some of its DEI programming. 

On Friday, George Mason University’s governing board agreed unanimously to give a 1.5% raise to university president Gregory Washington in exchange for the school nixing some DEI programming, the Washington Post reported.

In a comment following the GMU’s governing board’s approval of his raise, Washington said, “Regardless of how one views the events unfolding at George Mason University, today’s display of unity by the Mason community is inspiring. It is a reminder of how centrally important our university is to northern Virginia’s families and economy.”

The Wall Street Journal had previously suggested Washington’s days might be numbered given the prevalence of DEI on the campus.  

DOJ INVESTIGATING GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY’S HIRING PRACTICES OVER ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION

President Donald Trump has signed various executive orders targeting DEI and directing educational institutions to end all DEI practices or risk losing federal funding. 

Washington, who began his tenure as president at GMU in 2020, allegedly wrote a letter in 2021 highlighted by the WSJ where he said that “just 30 percent of our faculty are from ethnic minority, multi-ethnic, or international communities.” 

“If you have two candidates who are both ‘above the bar’ in terms of requirements for a position, but one adds to your diversity and the other does not, then why couldn’t that candidate be better, even if that candidate may not have better credentials than the other candidate,” Washington wrote. 

“This kind of thinking seems to have permeated the university in recent years,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote. 

The board highlighted work from the Manhattan Institute’s “City Journal” which alleges that “one faculty search committee assessed each job candidate’s contribution to ‘diversity’—including, according to an official memo, ‘demographic diversity,’” another “scored candidates on, among other factors, his or her interest in ‘diversity,’” and a “third boasted that it had carefully crafted a job advertisement to signal its desire to make ‘a diversity hire.’”  

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, LAW JOURNAL SUED FOR ALLEGEDLY DISCRIMINATING AGAINST STRAIGHT WHITE MALES

On July 21, the Department of Justice announced that they are investigating GMU to determine if the university discriminated on the basis of color, race, or national origin. 

In a July 16 letter, Washington hit Trump’s attack on DEI. 

“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,” Washington said. “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.”

The WSJ piece also highlights that a judge in Fairfax County ordered that four George Mason board members named by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, as well as four at other universities, must be removed. 

Fox News Digital reached out to GMU for comment.