Fellow Patriots:
As I have communicated to you in town halls and other public venues, our institution has been working to carefully review and address recent policy changes at the federal and state levels relative to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Our goal has been to remain committed to our core value that “Diversity is our Strength,” while ensuring that we are compliant with state and federal law and policy. This work actually began in 2023 after the US Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision ending affirmative action in higher education admissions.
Among the many new federal mandates announced in recent weeks, the US Department of Education (DoEd) sent a letter to all educational institutions on February 14 demanding an end to “race-based decision-making” and any decision-making “relying on non-racial information as a proxy for race.” The letter defines its focus on “discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin,” and asserts that American schools and colleges are discriminating “on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantages backgrounds and low-income families.” You can find the full "Dear Colleague" letter here. In addition, the Department issued a Frequently Asked Questions information sheet on Saturday, March 1. You can find the full FAQ sheet here. We also received additional guidance from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Education Secretary Aimee Guidera on the matter.
The deadline to confirm compliance was last Friday, February 28, and the penalty for non-compliance is potential loss of federal funding, an outcome that I am fully dedicated to ensuring does not happen to George Mason. The specific requirements of the DoEd are threefold:
- Ensure that our policies and actions comply with existing civil rights laws.
- Cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means.
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Cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race.
We do not discriminate
I am pleased to confirm that, after an initial review of our policies and practices, George Mason meets all of these federal mandates. Specifically, we have always complied with existing civil rights laws, and we can find no evidence of any practices at the university that use proxies or other indirect means to substitute for race in decision-making, nor that we rely on third parties to accomplish such actions for us.
Language matters
With that said, we have also been reviewing and updating our digital platforms to ensure they accurately reflect our compliance with new and pre-existing federal requirements. That review is tedious and ongoing, given the extensive volume of websites in existence on gmu.edu – Google indexes more than 3 million pages on any given day.
Some language is changing to more accurately reflect how we operate. Some web pages are misleading and outdated and may be unpublished entirely. And many pages will now include a standard disclaimer affirming our compliance to federal mandates and our commitment to maintaining an environment free from discrimination.
Many high-profile sites already have been changed, and others will be changed as we work our way through the full ecosystem with the help of AI bots and many dedicated staff.
Our DEI office is now the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community
As of Friday, the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was updated to the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community. This is a more specific and intuitively accurate reflection of its charter. It is not an attempt to evade compliance through clever wordsmithing – it simply affirms our actual compliance through more precise naming.
The fact of the matter is, “DEI” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” are terms that have become so broadly misunderstood and misapplied as to become counterproductive to our work. We cannot unilaterally correct the broadening public misperception that anything with DEI in its name is just a new form of discrimination aimed at a different group of Americans. So we will change the name of this office and move on, committed as always to the substance of that office: ensuring a fair, welcoming, and supportive environment for all, and observing state and federal civil rights laws to the benefit of all.
For the George Mason community, all means ALL. It is core to the ethos of George Mason. With a 90 percent acceptance rate, our diverse student body is a portrait of those who seek us out, not those whom we enroll under exclusive rules of admissions. Inclusivity to us means including all students, and opening all programs and services to all students, even when they are focused on particular populations. We do not focus on color, national origin, sex or gender expression, military or veteran status, first-generation or legacy student, traditional freshman, transfer student, or mid-career contemporary student – or any distinction. We simply welcome and support them all, so long as they are prepared to succeed in the rigors of our curriculum. For confirmation of our commitment to welcoming all, just look around you when you are on campus.
The coming months
George Mason will continue to ensure that we comply with all legal mandates from the federal government. We expect more changes to be announced in the months ahead, and we are working to act with agility when necessary, but also to understand when to allow time for dust to settle before determining how to proceed, as citizens and courts engage in ways that could alter outcomes. In all things, we are guided by our core values, which will never change under any circumstances:
Our students come first • We thrive together • Diversity is our strength • We honor freedom of thought and expression • We act with integrity • Innovation is our tradition • We are careful stewards.
I will keep you updated as events warrant.
Sincerely,
Gregory Washington
President