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George Mason University

George Mason University is a public university based in Fairfax, Virginia with over 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. ¹ In 2026, George Mason University was ranked the 117th-best national university and 57th-best public university by U.S. News and World Report. ²

In 2025, after the second Trump administration issued a directive to universities to their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, George Mason came under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Education and Congress for allegedly running DEI initiatives that violated the Civil Rights Act. ³ ⁴

Following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel, protests erupted on George Mason’s campus, primarily in support of Palestine and led by the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). ⁵ ⁶

Founding

George Mason College was established in 1957 as a branch campus of the University of Virginia, as a single building with 17 students. In 1972, a group of George Mason students successfully petitioned the Governor of Virginia to spin George Mason University off as an independent school. In 1979, the university launched the International School of Law. ¹

Overview

In 2026, George Mason University was ranked the 117th-best national university and 57th-best public university by U.S. News and World Report. The university’s student to faculty ratio is 16 to one. ²

Like most public universities, George Mason charges different tuition rates for in-state and out-of-state students. Students from Virginia pay $14,316 per semester, while students from outside of Virginia pay $39,212 per semester. George Mason’s acceptance rate is 87 percent and four-year graduation rate is 46 percent. ²

In 2025, George Mason was projected to spend $217 million on research projects. ⁷

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

George Mason University has a history of implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. In July 2020, shortly after taking office as the university’s first Black president, Gregory Washington initiated the Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence program to increase the racial-minority representation in George Mason’s staff to make it reflect the racial demographics of the school’s student body. As part of the initiative, Washington reportedly demanded that at least 60 percent of new hires be Black or Latino. ³ ⁴

In February 2025, the second Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to 60 universities stating that the federal government would stop providing funds to schools that violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by engaging in racial discrimination. The letter was taken as a directive from the Trump administration to left-leaning universities to dismantle or at least limit their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. ⁸

In March, Washington announced that the university was renaming the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office to the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community. ⁹ The Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Initiative was also discontinued. ⁴

In July, ED launched an investigation into George Mason for alleged Title VI violations for using race-based considerations in hiring and promoting, including specific directives from the university president, the inclusion of “anti-racism” in directives, the presence of “equity advisors” in every department, and the formation of a Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence. ⁹ In response, the university issued a statement denying that its present and past DEI initiatives had violated federal law, claiming that they had not mandated diversity quotas or had mechanisms to enforce them. ¹⁰

In August, the George Mason board voted to give Washington a 1.5 percent raise, indicating support for his efforts and defense of DEI policies. However, the board also voted to order the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community to “eliminate all programs, trainings, [and] processes not specifically required for federal or state law,” thereby ending many of the DEI policies at George Mason. The board also banned the school from requiring “diversity statements for employment, promotion, and tenure.” ¹¹ ¹²

Later in August, the DOE offered a resolution agreement to Washington that would require him to apologize to the students and faculty of George Mason, and would force faculty to attend training seminars teaching them not to use DEI practices in hiring decisions. Washington refused to comply with the agreement, with an attorney representative stating, “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.” ¹³ ⁴

In November, Washington testified before the Republican-led U.S. House Judiciary Committee about the extent of DEI at George Mason. Washington denied breaking any federal laws in his efforts to add racial and ethnic diversity to George Mason’s staff, claiming that his Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence initiative was not a directive but a goal that George Mason departments could pursue on their own initiatives. Critical U.S. Representatives pointed to testimony from a George Mason professor claiming that staff leaders could be fired for not following DEI initiatives. After the testimony, the Committee published a report accusing Washington of “multiple false statements to Congress” to downplay George Mason’s DEI initiatives. ³

Israel-Palestinian Protests

Following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel perpetrated by Hamas, protests erupted on George Mason University’s campus, primarily in support of Palestinians and led by the George Mason chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the GMU Coalition for Palestine. On October 12, the first protest was held in support of Palestinian interests, with chants including “bring the whole thing down” and “fight for liberation.” On October 22, SJP called for a boycott of Starbucks in protest of the company operating in Israel. On October 25, SJP organized a student walk-out on campus in protest of U.S. support for Israel; the event included chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” ⁵ ⁶

In November, after several weeks of protests, George Mason president Gregory Washington announced the “Patriot Plan for Community Safety and Well-Being,” which included adding “increased security to stay ahead of threats that may emerge.” ¹⁴ On November 30, SJP organized a march on Washington’s office. ⁶

In February 2024, SJP and the GMU Coalition for Palestine led a “Divest From Death” demanding that George Mason divest from companies that operate in Israel. ¹⁵

In November, police launched a raid on the off-campus home of two SJP leaders and found “guns, ammunition, jihad paraphernalia, and flags of Hamas and Hezbollah.” Soon afterward, the George Mason administration suspended the George Mason chapter of SJP, though the SJP chapter continued operating off campus. ¹⁶ ¹⁷

In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) opened a Title VI investigation into George Mason’s administration for allegedly failing “to respond effectively to a pervasively hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty from October 2023 through the 2024-2025 academic year.” ⁹

In August, SJP, which was banned on campus at George Mason but continued operating off campus, released a video on social media criticizing Israel using the controversial phrase “From the River to the Sea,” and criticized George Mason’s administration’s alleged repression of pro-Palestine protests. Days later, the SJP chapter was reinstated at George Mason. ¹⁷ ¹⁸

In October, Palestine Legal sent a letter to the George Mason administration on behalf of SJP claiming that the school had violated the First Amendment after it had ordered SJP’s video to be taken down. In 2024, George Mason had adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which pro-Palestinian groups criticize for not considering Israel’s actions in Gaza as a form of genocide. According to Palestine Legal, the video take down order was due to “a presumed violation of IHRA.” ¹⁸

In November, the George Mason Undergraduate Representative Body voted to reject the IHRA in favor of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which the pro-Israel Times of Israel considers an antisemitic standard: “Imagine a student government announcing that cross-burnings and the KKK do not represent anti-Black racism.” ¹⁹

Mercatus Center

George Mason University houses the Mercatus Center, a free-market economic think tank run by George Mason economics professor Tyler Cowen. The Mercatus Center operates as an independent charitable organization that is supported entirely by charitable donations and does not receive any funding from George Mason or the State of Virginia. ²⁰

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mercatus Center launched its Fast Grants program, which provided grants from $10,000 to $500,000 within two weeks to proposals to help combat the pandemic. By December 2021, the Fast Grants program had awarded 200 grants worth $54 million that contributed to “several for potential vaccines and treatments for the virus.” Funding for Fast Grants came from Arnold Ventures, The Audacious Project, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Collison brothers, Crankstart, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, and others. ²¹ ²²