How Virginia Became Higher Ed’s Battlefield

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In this episode

One university president has resigned. Another is on the ropes. A new governor is heading into office, flipping party control to the Democrats. It’s all happening in Virginia, which has become a key battleground in a larger political war over higher education. This past summer, Jim Ryan resigned as president of the University of Virginia, hoping to stave off federal investigations of the university’s diversity efforts. Now, Gregory Washington, president of George Mason University, is under fire for similar issues and fighting to keep his job. In tumultuous fashion, the commonwealth of Virginia has become a tinderbox of state and federal political fury — and there’s no clear end in sight.

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Related Reading

• House Republicans Say George Mason Leader Broke the Law. His Lawyer Sees ‘a Political Lynching.’ (The Chronicle)
• Virginia Democrats Block College Board Appointees, Leaving George Mason’s Without a Quorum. (The Chronicle)
• The U. of Virginia’s President Was Targeted Over DEI. Now He’s Resigning. (The Chronicle)

Guest

Jasper Smith, staff reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education

Transcript

This transcript was produced using a speech recognition software. It was reviewed by production staff, but may contain errors. Please email us at collegematters@chronicle.com if you have any questions.

Jack Stripling: This is College Matters from The Chronicle.

Jasper Smith: They’re using this power from the federal government to influence who colleges admit, who they hire, and even who gets to be president of the universities.

Jack Stripling: As political battles in higher education rage across the country, the commonwealth of Virginia has proved to be among the most active theaters of war. In the space of the past few months, the president of the University of Virginia has resigned, hoping to stave off a government investigation of UVa’s diversity practices. The president of George Mason University, facing a federal investigation over similar matters, is fighting to keep his job. While the Trump administration’s higher ed agenda looms large in these stories, so too do state-level politics. And those are shifting mightily. Last week, Virginians elected Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, to be the next governor, flipping control of the executive office in a state where Democrats already hold a legislative majority.

To talk about the big battles underway in Virginia, I’m turning to my colleague, Jasper Smith, a staff reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, who has covered the unfolding saga in the commonwealth and writes regularly about race and politics in higher ed. Jasper, welcome to College Matters.

Jasper Smith: Thanks for having me, Jack.

Jack Stripling: I’m so excited. This is your first time here. Are you ready?

Jasper Smith: I’m so ready.

Jack Stripling: OK. I really wanted to talk to you about this because I know you’ve been writing a lot about Virginia. How would you describe what’s happening in the state? Why do you think it’s significant?

Jasper Smith: Yeah, that’s a great question, Jack. So I think to start, it’s really important for our listeners to understand that there’s two really big cases unfolding in Virginia right now. And both are at some level dealing with this national backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. As we’ve been reporting, the Trump administration has been going after DEI across the federal government and now in higher education. And both the University of Virginia and George Mason University have been targets of these federal investigations relating to their diversity practices. So what we’re seeing is a lot of scrutiny toward any steps that these universities have taken in recent years, specifically, you know, after 2020 to diversify their faculty, their student bodies, to make commitments to diversity initiatives. And the consequences have been significant for these college leaders, for their campuses. Jim Ryan, the president of the University of Virginia, resigned over the summer. And Gregory Washington, the president at George Mason, is twisting in the wind as this drama unfolds currently.

So we can drill down into some of those individually, but I think what’s really important is just showing how these universities in Virginia are being subjected to extreme political pressure, both at the state level, but also at the federal level.

Jack Stripling: So we’re talking about two universities in one state, but I didn’t bring you here just to talk about that. We’re always interested on this show about the grander theme. What’s this story really about? What’s your take on that, Jasper?

Jasper Smith: What’s unfolding at these two universities is about what’s happening across the country right now. Higher education is at the forefront of this war that is DEI, about this idea that diversity initiatives are giving people of color, women, other marginalized groups, these quote unquote unearned benefits at the expense of their white or male counterparts. More broadly, it’s about how the Trump administration is working to reshape how colleges and universities do business. They’re using this power from the federal government to influence who colleges admit, who they hire, and even who gets to be president of the universities. We’ve seen some of that happen in the deals that have been cut with these high profile private colleges like Columbia, and Brown and Cornell. But here it’s a little bit different because we’re dealing with public universities. And so state politics are very much at play here, especially Virginia, the commonwealth. And those politics, you know, after this gubernatorial election are changing pretty quickly.

Jack Stripling: Well, let’s dive into George Mason first. You’ve done a lot of reporting on that, and there’s been some news of late on this. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released a report recently looking at diversity-related hiring at George Mason. What does the report say exactly?

Jasper Smith: Yeah, this report was interesting, somewhat of a Thursday news dump, if you will.

Jack Stripling: Sorry about that.

Jasper Smith: Right. I had to cancel my Orange Theory class for it, but it’s OK. This is more important. In 50 pages, this report accuses Gregory Washington of lying to Congress about his involvement in implementing what they call race-based policies and hiring practices that sought to match the racial diversity of the faculty to that of the student body. Now, this report cites testimonies from three George Mason administrators, including the current dean of the law school, Ken Randall. And he claimed that Washington told the dean that there were too many Asians in the hiring pool for a top position. One anonymous administrator also testified that the university deans would be punished with budget cuts if they didn’t comply with the diversity goals.

Randall also told the committee that, quote, “you’d get fired if you didn’t have a plan.” The [committee] also obtained several documents from various GMU schools as evidence that the university implemented racial quotas in hiring.

Jack Stripling: So tell me a little bit about Gregory Washington. What’s his story?

Jasper Smith: Yeah, Gregory Washington was hired as George Mason University’s first Black president in 2020. Part of the reason why he was hired was because of his success at diversifying the faculty at the University of California at Irvine, where he was the dean of the engineering school. And what’s really unique about Washington, I think, is that he came in swinging with his commitment to getting similar results at George Mason. And what I think is important to understand is that, while about 30 percent of GMU’s student body is white, nearly 60 percent of their faculty is white. And so to Washington at the time, that was a glaring disparity. And to a lot of college leaders, in 2020, this was a big goal of theirs, was to diversify the faculty. And so less than a month into his tenure as the president, he established this anti-racism task force, which sought to examine the university’s systems, its policies, practices, traditions, and to see if racial bias existed. And if it did, he said at the time that he would work to eradicate it.

And so Washington and these other administrators on the task force were pretty explicit about their goals to increase faculty diversity. And so, Washington’s task force and the initiatives that came from it have since drawn the ire of the Trump administration, and it’s at the heart of this judiciary report and so many of the other investigations that have come out of the Trump administration at this time targeting George Mason University and Washington himself.

Jack Stripling: So he was very explicit about these goals of diversifying the faculty. He talked openly about it. He put things in writing about it. This report that came out of this congressional committee might be dismissed as partisan, but at the same time, the implications here are that this was illegal activity and that he lied about doing it. How does the report complicate Washington’s public defense?

Jasper Smith: Yeah, it complicates it in quite a few ways. You know, since this controversy, since this report has kind of blown up, Washington’s lawyer, Douglas F. Gansler, he’s called the report racist, and he’s called it a display of political theater from House Republicans that have really made it their mission to go after college leaders at this time. So he said that the diversity goals were a recommendation from the university’s equity advisors, which were part of, you know, this task force. But they weren’t requirements, and so they’ve been adamant that this was not a requirement. He also denied claims that anyone was punished for not implementing these goals. But the report challenges the validity of that defense in quite a few ways. The House committee obtained documents from multiple schools at the university that show explicit requests to hire faculty of color at specific percentages, and that’s where things get kind of dusty. So, for example …

Jack Stripling: That sounds pretty prescriptive, right?

Jasper Smith: Yeah, that’s what House Republicans are worked up about. As part of their investigation, the committee obtained documents from the School of Policy and Government outline goals to hire 12 tenure track faculty at a ratio of 33 percent underrepresented minorities and 50 percent minorities.

Jack Stripling: I see. So they’ve got some receipts here, it sounds like. How has Washington responded to the report?

Jasper Smith: So after the report came out, his lawyer sent a letter to the university’s board leadership, which thoroughly disputed its findings. Gansler described the investigation as wholly incomplete and heavily biased. He described the report as, quote, “no more than a thinly veiled attempt to take down George Mason’s first Black president, transposing Jim Crow-era tactics into the 21st century. “

Jack Stripling: I gotta say, if you want a quotable lawyer, Gansler’s your guy. This is not an uncommon type of response from him. I’ve been emailing him a little bit over the last few weeks. And we have tried to get Gregory Washington on the show multiple times. His lawyer has said that they’ve advised him not to speak to the media. But we have a standing invitation for him to come on this show if he would like. And the same goes for Jim Ryan at UVa.

But we should talk about the governing board at George Mason, which is a key piece of the story of what’s happening there. The Board of Visitors is supposed to have 16 voting members. And, if current Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had his way, it would be stacked now with his GOP allies. But a number of Youngkin’s [appointees] have been blocked by Virginia Democrats. They won’t let them be seated. And the board is essentially frozen now. They can’t reach a quorum, so they essentially can’t do business. They can’t fire Washington, even if they wanted to. Do I have that right?

Jasper Smith: That’s right. The board is effectively frozen, and in a way that’s good for Washington. The board has very conservative members who would probably agree that he needs to go. The board’s rector, Charles Stimson, works with the Heritage Foundation. It’s the conservative thinktank that has been very critical of the university’s DEI efforts. And Heritage, as many people will know, is the group behind Project 2025, which has basically provided the blueprint for the Trump administration’s higher ed agenda.

There are certainly people who think that rector’s Heritage connections are a problem. Democrats in Virginia have said he should recuse himself from any discussions about the president’s future, and they cited his conflicts of interest.

But, of course, this could all change with a Democratic governor taking power in the state. It could be a big departure from what we’ve seen with the Youngkin appointees.

Jack Stripling: Right, there’s a sense that Youngkin appointed some pretty far right-wing people to the board to exact an agenda. Is that your sense from faculty on campus?

Jasper Smith: Absolutely, Jack. But I think, you know, Washington’s saving grace is almost the board, you know, because they haven’t been able to make quorum to make any decisions about whether they’re going to push him out, to fire him. But also, I think it’s important to highlight the support that he’s had. I was at the board meeting when everyone thought that he was going to get fired in August, and it was filled with faculty supporters, with students that were really putting a lot of pressure on the board to keep Gregory Washington. Now, whether or not that pressure can save him in the long term, it’s hard to say. But it is important to note that a majority of the faculty, especially the Faculty Senate, a lot of the students I spoke to, and other faculty members, staff, want to keep Washington as their president, and they thought that he’s been doing a great job. But a lot the pressure to oust him is coming from conservative faculty, from the law school, and some of these more conservative members of the Board of Visitors.

Jack Stripling: Right. So we’re in this weird stalemate. Then, you have a new governor. You’ve got this congressional inquiry. He’s being accused of lying to Congress. How do you see this all ending there?

Jasper Smith: I mean, that’s the big question here, Jack. Can Virginia’s universities ever really say, we’re safe? For all intents and purposes, DEI doesn’t exist at George Mason anymore. This investigation is retrospective. I mean it’s looking at past policies. DEI was eliminated in the resolution in August. So, George Mason could really say there’s nothing left here to dismantle.

Jack Stripling: We’ll be back in a minute.

BREAK:

Jasper Smith: So, Jack, I know you’ve been talking to people at UVa. Is the sentiment similar there to what I’ve been hearing at George Mason? Are people in Charlottesville asking, how does this all end?

Jack Stripling: Very much so. So just probably a short history of the University of Virginia’s travails makes sense here.

Between April and June, the Department of Justice was just bombarding the university with letters and demands. The DOJ launched numerous investigations of the university’s compliance with civil rights laws. And it’s very similar to the stuff you were talking about with Mason. Did these DEI initiatives effectively violate civil rights law? Did it discriminate against people, other than underrepresented minorities? And this all came to a sort of tipping point in June when Jim Ryan, as you mentioned, the president of the University of Virginia, resigned. And I think the expectation there was that that was what the federal government wanted, that that would bring an end to this sort of environment of investigation and even persecution. But what’s interesting is, is that it actually kind of didn’t bring things to an end. The university, under interim leadership, entered into this agreement with the Department of Justice last month. And it’s not one of the most onerous agreements that we’ve seen across higher ed, if you look at some of the other deals at Columbia and so forth. But it’s significant in that it doesn’t close the investigations of UVa. The DOJ said it would suspend these investigations for three years while it gets these quarterly reports from the university about its compliance with civil-rights laws. So now UVa is essentially under this microscope for another three years, and the president under penalty of perjury is going to have to sign off on reports saying they’re not violating civil-rights laws.

You will know this too, Jasper, I think it’s worth mentioning that in the eyes of the Trump administration civil rights laws are a lot more restrictive than what a lot of lawyers and people in higher education think. Their interpretation of civil rights laws is that things that are so-called racial proxies in admissions, which might mean recruiting in an area that’s predominantly Black or Latino, that that might be a way that you’re trying to boost your underrepresented minority enrollment and that might be unlawful. So it’s a very expansive notion of civil rights laws, and I think that’s very worrisome to people at the University of Virginia. And there’s a sense there, as you say, that this will never be over. There’s a black cloud looming over the university, and I feel like faculty feel that.

Jasper Smith: So Jack, what are you hearing from professors on the ground about that?

Jack Stripling: Well, I spoke Monday with Jeri Seidman, who’s chair of the Faculty Senate, and she said faculty are pretty divided on this. There are some people that I think had essentially made peace with this and said we’re gonna have to give them something. There are other people who thought UVa would kind of fight to the death to never have to agree to anything with the federal government. I think that’s sort of part of the UVa ethos, and they were very disappointed that this happened. But where there’s universal consternation, I think, is that Ryan’s resignation was not sufficient to bring this to an end, that they are in this precarious under the microscope relationship for at least another three years. And I asked Seidman about that. I said, you know, did people on campus think Ryan’s resignation would be enough?

Jeri Seidman (Clip): That’s a non-trivial cost. A president can be simply a figurehead who’s known to significant donors and administrators. Or a president can really be the symbol of the university. And President Ryan was that. Students knew him, parents met him at move-in, you know faculty, even who weren’t in administrative roles, had opportunities to meet him. So it was a significant cost to lose him. That seemed like it was, should be enough.

Jack Stripling: So Jasper, you could hear in that answer that faculty at Virginia feel a little bit like this was a bait and switch. You know, we gave you our president, you want more? There’s an emotional piece to this that I think we should talk about a little bit: You’re messing with our people is kind of the sentiment that I pick up in Virginia. Do you sense that deeper emotional component at Mason, too?

Jasper Smith: Absolutely, Jack. And I think what’s important to really understand that emotional component, I mean, we have to go back to 2020 at George Mason and at hundreds of other colleges and universities around the country that were responding to the Black Lives Matter protests, that were responding to the George Floyd protests, where students and faculty were demanding that universities make commitments to support Black students and faculty, and underrepresented groups. I mean, as someone who was graduating high school myself at that time — hate to age myself — this was a real thing.

Jack Stripling: You’re not aging yourself on this podcast, Jasper.

Jasper Smith: This is a real thing. I mean, students were looking for universities to signal the commitments that they were making. This was a very intense time at George Mason specifically. Before Washington arrived as president in July 2020, protesters were demanding that the university tear down the statue of George Mason who’d enslaved 300 black people. And so, you know, campuses wanted their leaders to be proactive in addressing racism and racist histories on their campus.

Fast forward to today, we have a very different message. Diversity doesn’t just mean racial diversity, but also ideological diversity, viewpoint diversity, gender diversity, academic background of faculty, all these different ways to define diversity. And for some faculty, specifically the Black faculty that I spoke with, they describe the backpedaling of what these college leaders meant by diversity as a gaslighting, somewhat as a betrayal. I mean, you meant racial diversity and you meant that as something that you were championing and now you’re trying to kind of rewrite what it is that you committed yourself to.

Jack Stripling: So there’s a sense that the leadership at Mason is having to kind of sand down the edges of what it meant by diversifying the faculty, is that what you’re saying?

Jasper Smith: Yes, at Mason and at so many other colleges and universities. And it’s invoking an emotional response, I would say, from faculty and from students.

Jack Stripling: That’s something I’ve heard from faculty at Mason and UVa and elsewhere as well. There’s a broad sense that even if these boards are reconstituted and political tide shifts, that universities just aren’t going to be leaning into racial and ethnic diversity as a desirable end that is spoken about anymore. And for a lot of conservatives, I think that’s a real victory that they see this as setting things right. For a lot faculty and students, though, it’s a sea change in university values. And that’s why I thought it was important to talk to you about it, Jasper. We’ll certainly continue to follow it. I really appreciate you coming here to speak with me

Jasper Smith: Thanks so much, Jack.

Jack Stripling: On Wednesday, after we recorded our conversation with Jasper, Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger released a letter to the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors. She said she was quote, “deeply concerned,” by recent developments at UVa, describing “federal overreach” that had been “unchallenged by the board.” She urged the board to refrain from naming a new president or selecting finalists for the position until she has had the opportunity to appoint new members.

Jack Stripling: College Matters from the Chronicle is a production of The Chronicle of Higher Education, the nation’s leading independent newsroom covering colleges. If you like the show, please leave us a review or invite a friend to listen. And remember to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss an episode. You can find an archive of every episode, all of our show notes, and much more at chronicle.com/collegematters. If you like, drop us a note at collegematters@chronicle.com. We are produced by Rococo Punch. Our Chronicle producer is Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez. Our podcast artwork is by Catrell Thomas. Special thanks to our colleagues Brock Read, Sarah Brown, Carmen Mendoza, Ron Coddington, Joshua Hatch, and all of the people at The Chronicle who make this show possible. I’m Jack Stripling. Thanks for listening.