George Mason University’s Disastrous President

The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell, among others, have come under fire or been forced out in recent years for failures of leadership on campus anti-Semitism and racially discriminatory DEI programs. Yet Gregory Washington, the president of George Mason University, has managed to keep his job despite similar failures. Mason may not be an Ivy League school, but anti-Semitism and discrimination are problems at nonelite public universities, too. Washington’s track record warrants his resignation or dismissal.

Mason’s Board of Visitors selected Washington in 2020, just as woke fever was reaching its peak. Upon appointment, Washington committed Mason to being “a national exemplar of antiracism and inclusive excellence.” True to his word, Washington built a gigantic diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracy, with 7.4 DEI staff per 100 tenure-track faculty members. This was the second-highest ratio among the more than 70 universities the Heritage Foundation examined.

Despite President Trump’s executive order calling out DEI bureaucracies for promoting illegal discrimination, and a Supreme Court decision prohibiting racial preferences, Washington has refused to scale back his DEI efforts. His commitment to DEI surpasses his concern for the legal liability those activities impose on Mason.

Washington’s ideological commitments also eclipse his obligation to follow the law when it comes to face-coverings worn by campus protesters. Virginia law forbids wearing a mask to conceal one’s identity in public. Courts have upheld that law—created in response to the state’s experience with the KKK—as constitutional, and the state attorney general advised universities to amend their policies to prohibit face-coverings at protests.

All major public universities in Virgina complied—except for George Mason. Instead, it merely requires protesters to show identification upon request, a policy that is impractical to implement and does not actually align with the law. Washington claimed to favor this approach out of concern for free speech, even though courts have ruled that concealing one’s identity during a public protest is not protected speech.

Meantime, anti-Semitic activity at George Mason is on the rise. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has subjected the university to investigation for its failure to protect the civil rights of Jewish students during both the Biden and Trump administrations.

Mason students were arrested for planning anti-Semitic violence in two incidents last year. In the first, police searched the home of two sisters who led the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, finding an illegal gun and “pro-terror materials, including Hamas and Hezbollah flags and signs that read ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Jews,’” according to the Washington Free Beacon. The sisters also allegedly engaged in criminal vandalism on campus and posted on their anonymous social media account the threat that they would launch “an inferno that will engulf all systems of oppression.”

In the second incident, FBI agents arrested a Mason student for allegedly “plotting a mass casualty attack on [the] Israeli consulate in New York.” The student also “operated several pro-ISIS and Al Qaeda accounts that promoted violence against Jews.”

In response to the latter incident, Washington sent a campus-wide letter that failed to mention either the specific threats against Jews or anti-Semitism more broadly. By contrast, when three Palestinian students not affiliated with George Mason University were shot while traveling in Vermont, Washington sent a campus letter lamenting “the terrible truth that Islamophobia is all too present in America.” The letter continued, “To the Palestinian communities at George Mason University, I offer this: Mason is also your home. You ARE supported here, as all students are supported.”

The university’s Board of Visitors decided to adopt a resolution of its own denouncing anti-Semitism. That resolution directed agents of the university “to refrain from sponsoring or endorsing any organization, event, or other activity whose position or posture is antisemitic under the IHRA definition.” Washington opposed this resolution, complaining that the term “endorse” was too vague. The board adopted it anyway.

Greg Washington’s devotion to DEI and refusal to protect Jews on campus are painfully clear. His dedication to these policies despite the dangers and legal liability they create for George Mason University and its students is deeply troubling.

Leaders at other universities have resigned or been removed from office for far less. It’s time for Washington to go.

Photo by Bill O”Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images