George Mason's President Put Race at the Center of His Hiring Policies. When Trump Took Office, He Said He Did Nothing Wrong.
The Northern Virginia university is facing an array of federal investigations related to alleged discrimination practices
Ethan Barton and Jessica Costescu
July 25, 2025
Immediately after taking office in July 2020, George Mason University president Gregory Washington announced a flurry of race-conscious initiatives aimed at changing the way the school hired, promoted, and paid faculty members. They included plans to "recognize the invisible and uncredited emotional labor that people of color expend" during the school's tenure process and to launch "diversity cluster hire initiatives," all in the name of making George Mason "a national exemplar of anti-racism and inclusive excellence in action."
Washington was met with some internal pushback from faculty members, several of whom asked him to explain how the targeted hiring of minorities complied with federal anti-discrimination law. In response, Washington penned an April 2021 message titled, "Adopting an Inclusive Excellence Framework for Hiring Will Deliver Best Candidates." It lamented that "just 30 percent of our faculty are from ethnic minority, multi-ethnic, or international communities" and defended hiring practices that would increase that figure—even if they meant hiring a less qualified candidate.
"Professional experience will always be vital in recruiting our workforce, but so must lived experiences," Washington wrote. "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?"
https://freebeacon.com/campus/george-masons-president-put-race-at-the-center-of-his-hiring-policies-when-trump-took-office-he-said-he-did-nothing-wrong/
