George Mason College president rejects Training Division’s apology demand

George Mason College’s president won’t apologize to fulfill the demand of the Training Division, which mentioned it had decided the college has violated federal civil rights legislation, in line with a letter obtained by NBC Information.

The letter says the federal division’s conclusions, printed Friday, make it “obviously obvious that the [Office of Civil Rights] investigation course of has been lower quick, and ‘findings’ have been made despite a really incomplete fact-finding course of.”

Lawyer Douglas Gansler, who wrote and despatched the letter to the Virginia faculty’s Board of Guests on behalf of college President Gregory Washington, mentioned each Washington and the board are “removed from needing to apologize.”

“To be clear, per OCR’s personal findings, no job applicant has been discriminated towards by GMU, nor has OCR tried to call somebody who has been discriminated towards by GMU in any context,” the letter says. “Due to this fact, it’s a authorized fiction for OCR to even assert or declare that there was a Title VI or Title IX violation right here.”

It argues the Workplace of Civil Rights’ allegation that George Mason engages in discriminatory practices “borders on the absurd.”

The civil rights workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Monday.

The Training Division discovered the college in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, accusing it of illegally “utilizing race and different immutable traits in college practices and insurance policies, together with hiring and promotion.”

The Trump administration opened the civil rights investigation into the college’s hiring practices final month. On Friday, the Workplace of Civil Rights mentioned it gave the college a proposed settlement with a 10-day deadline to voluntarily resolve the allegations.

As a part of the proposed decision settlement, the workplace mentioned it might require Washington to personally launch a press release to the college group affirming compliance with Title VI, in addition to apologize for “selling illegal discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion, and tenure processes.”

However Gansler’s letter argued an apology would quantity to the college’s admitting it violated the legislation.

“An apology will quantity to an admission that the college did one thing illegal, opening GMU and the Board as much as authorized legal responsibility for conduct that didn’t happen beneath the Board’s watch,” it says.

George Mason’s Board of Guests mentioned in a press release Friday that it was reviewing particular proposed decision steps.

Gansler’s letter says the college has “moved swiftly” to make sure continued compliance with new federal mandates since Trump started his second time period, together with ceasing affirmative motion applications for ladies and minorities, dissolving the college’s Workplace for Variety Fairness and Inclusion and reviewing variety statements on job postings.

It provides that at the least 17 positions related to DEI efforts have been eradicated or restructured and that a number of diversity-related applications and initiatives have been dissolved.

“Effectively earlier than the federal authorities turned its consideration to GMU, the college, beneath Dr. Washington and the Board’s management, undertook a strong effort to remain forward of the curve and make lots of the adjustments now being demanded of universities,” it says.

Within the letter, Gansler additionally requests that he be a part of discussions in regards to the college’s response to the Training Division’s calls for.

“The journey towards putting any settlement with OCR should start with a shared set of info, which we don’t but have,” the letter reads.