FAUNTROY: Trump Attacks Diversity, Excellence and Black Leadership at George Mason University

The Trump administration’s investigations into George Mason University are the latest steps in its fight to walk American higher education back to a less excellent, less meritorious and less diverse place. The administration acts as if it wants to preserve privilege and opportunity for some and erect barriers to those who do not adhere to their worldview. We are witnessing attacks and threats to educational and opportunity access.

GMU has long existed in an ideological tug-of-war. The law school and the economics department have persistently provided intellectual fuel and legitimacy to the conservative movement. The law school is seen as a beachhead in the fight against what they seem to see as the evil, corrupt world of liberal higher education.

Conservatives see GMU as their university. So, imagine the angst some on the right must feel as the university has bloomed into a nationally respected institution, consistently climbing the charts of various publications’ ratings, with perhaps the most diverse student body in America, and led by an African American man, Dr. Gregory Washington, as president. GMU is no longer “the little engine that could.” It is now “the big locomotive that does.”

A draft Faculty Senate resolution supporting Washington and defending the university lays out well how the institution has grown under his leadership. Under Washington, GMU has seen record-setting growth in state appropriations. Student enrollment has consistently grown when national trends indicate that fewer people are attending college. GMU has had five of the six highest fundraising years in university history since he took office in July 2020 — amid a worldwide pandemic. And in absolute evidence that diversity and excellence are compatible, GMU is the only Virginia institution recognized among the highest tiers of research excellence (Carnegie Classification of R1) and social mobility. There are only 16 universities in America that share that dual distinction.

George Mason University is what American higher education should be: excellent, affordable and, yes, diverse.

But as the saying goes, “no good deed goes unpunished.” And now we have two different Trump administration departments — Education and Justice — opening investigations into the university and President Washington. No one should be surprised if more federal inquiries are launched. These attacks threaten all this success and seem geared toward moving the university, as well as all American higher education, backward to a less diverse, less excellent world in which privilege or connections are the most important qualification.

The attack on Washington specifically and the university more generally should be taken seriously by all who understand the role higher education has played in creating a powerful and prosperous country. Our universities are the envy of the world. As a parent about to send off two first-year college students next month, and as a professor who has taught students from every continent on earth, I know there are people across the globe who would love to have their kids educated here. In this way, American higher education is a form of international diplomacy.

I have spent most of the last 23 years of my professional career as a professor at George Mason University. I have seen it shed its condescendingly referenced “commuter school” image to become a nationally respected institution. Diversity has been a driving force in its rise. Economic, racial, geographical and religious inclusion has made GMU the excellent institution that it is. Now the largest public university in Virginia, GMU is a national player.

And it can all be unraveled in the name of ideological aggression.

Michael K. Fauntroy serves as an associate professor of policy and government at George Mason University and is the founding director of the Race, Politics and Policy Center. He teaches courses related to the presidency and racial politics.