George Mason University president rejects Education Department's apology demand

In a letter, the administrator's attorney said the allegation of discriminatory conduct “borders on the absurd.”


---------- George Mason University President Gregory Washington speaks in 2021 at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va.Alex Brandon / AP file

Aug. 25, 2025, 10:00 PM EDT
By Joe Kottke

George Mason University's president will not apologize to satisfy the demand of the Education Department, which said it had determined the university has violated federal civil rights law, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.

The letter says the federal department’s conclusions, published Friday, make it “glaringly apparent that the [Office of Civil Rights] investigation process has been cut short, and ‘findings’ have been made in spite of a very incomplete fact-finding process.”

Attorney Douglas Gansler, who wrote and sent the letter to the Virginia school’s Board of Visitors on behalf of university President Gregory Washington, said both Washington and the board are “far from needing to apologize.” ... "To be clear, per OCR’s own findings, no job applicant has been discriminated against by GMU, nor has OCR attempted to name someone who has been discriminated against by GMU in any context," the letter says. "Therefore, it is a legal fiction for OCR to even assert or claim that there has been a Title VI or Title IX violation here."

It argues the Office of Civil Rights' allegation that George Mason engages in discriminatory practices "borders on the absurd." ... The civil rights office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

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