President Washington addresses federal investigations, GMU-AAUP holds rally

BY SAM DOUGLAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The Mason Board of Visitors recently held an Executive Committee meeting on the afternoon of Dec. 4. It was their second meeting of the semester without a quorum. 

Per the BOV’s bylaws, a quorum of eight visitors is required to hold full board meetings. The board currently consists of six. 

Executive Committee meetings are able to be held according to Article IV Section 5 of the bylaws: “… should a quorum of the Board fail to be present, the Executive Committee shall be convened.”

The assembly of the meeting faced opposition from the GMU chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Faculty, students and members of the community filled Merten Hall with signs. Some said “Rogue Rector, Bogus Board,” referring to Rector Cully Stimson, who has faced calls for him to resign due to his ties to the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.

An hour into the meeting, sign-carrying members of the audience walked out from the BOV meeting to hold a rally on the lawn outside Merten Hall. Roughly 20 people gathered outside listening to speeches and chanting slogans like, “Whose university? Our university!”

Before members of the audience left for the AAUP rally, President Gregory Washington began his strategic plan update — which is about his annual performance metrics and the state of the university — on a somber note.

“While we continue to perform, and perform at a high level, the reality is that we are not immune from the challenges that are affecting most of the country and most of higher ed,” Washington said.

He detailed that graduate student enrollment and research funding were both down, with the school losing out on $7.1 million from graduate student tuition. Washington listed future events that could impact the school, including the upcoming inauguration of governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, potential new legal issues and what he called “G.O.K factors.”

“What in the world is G.O.K? It’s ‘God Only Knows,’ right?” Washington said to laughter from the audience, referring to how the university will have to react to sudden and unexpected problems.

He ended his report by addressing the ongoing federal investigations into Mason. In November, the House Judiciary Committee released a report saying that Washington and Mason had discriminated in hiring practices. 

Washington said the university was responding “vigorously and truthfully” to the findings.

“Look, at the end of the day, people know what discrimination actually looks like. They know if you’re discriminating or not. The community knows that. The faculty and staff know that. We actually know what it looks like,” Washington said.

Washington said that the school is engaging in initial discussions with the federal government to resolve the investigations, but also that he is not going to back down.

“[I am the] wrong guy to throw these kinds of things at. I’m not the guy that runs away from the fire. I’m the actual guy that runs into it,” Washington ended his report to applause from the audience.

Outside after the AAUP rally had concluded, Vice President of GMU-AAUP, Tim Gibson, voiced his support for Washington and encouraged him to hold the line.

“Our president is the only one to stand up publicly against these attacks from the Trump administration. [He] refused to compromise, refused to sell out our values and we support him for that,” Gibson said.

The quorum-less board, only six members strong, approved an affiliation agreement with Patriot Labs, as well as a state mandated six-year operating plan. 

Patriot Labs will operate as a non-profit funded in part by the Department of War. The university has seen a decline in federal research funding in the past year.

“This not only sets up a vehicle where we can attract government monies, but also private industry monies through the 501(c)(3), and then individuals and foundations too,” Rector Stimson said.

“[What] we’d lose in direct cost, we’d lose some federal funding, we may be able to plus-up on the other side,” he said.

The approved operating plan targets tuition increases for fiscal year 2027 and FY 2028 to be between 0% and 3%, “…targeting the lower end of the range to the extent practical and feasible.”

The operating plan, as well as the Patriot Labs affiliation agreement, were both approved unanimously.

The Board will next meet on Feb. 12 in committees. By then, Mason’s BOV may be unrecognizable — governor-elect Abigail Spanberger has pledged to fill vacancies in state university’s boards on “Day 1.”