Compiled by SUSAN JONES
On July 21, the Department of Justice opened its fourth probe into George Mason University in Virginia, which has become the latest target of the Trump administration.
The most recent investigation is looking at if the school’s admissions and scholarship practices violate Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin at federally funded institutions.
On July 17, the DOJ opened an investigation to determine whether George Mason discriminates against employees based on sex and race, including in promotion and tenure decisions.
The DOJ said George Mason engaged in discriminatory practices and policies that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by advocating for the hiring of more women and faculty of color between 2020 and 2022.
In a July 18 post to the university community, George Mason President Gregory Washington vigorously defended the school’s actions and maintained that it was following the orders of state lawmakers at the time. He said the actions cited by the DOJ came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, who was Black, by a white police officer in 2020.
“As part of addressing this national reckoning, we were examining ourselves, looking for ways to become better,” Washington said, adding that diversity efforts were part of a state-mandated initiative, and the public expected George Mason to “play a meaningful part in creating structures and programming to address old biases and persistent inequalities in business operations.”
Separately, the Department of Education opened two investigations into Virginia’s largest public university earlier this month over claims the George Mason hasn’t done enough to respond to antisemitism and illegally uses race in employment decisions. Washington also strongly repudiated these claims in a July 16 statement to the university community.
According to Higher Ed Dive, George Mason’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) this week adopted a no-confidence resolution aimed at the school’s board of visitors for its handling of recent attacks on the university by the Trump administration.
The group described the board’s response to four government investigations as “inadequate and deeply troubling” in a letter July 22 to members of George Mason’s board of visitors and state officials.
The AAUP called on the board to publicly defend George Mason President Gregory Washington and to “reaffirm the university’s unwavering commitment to academic freedom, diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence.”
July 8: The National Institutes of Health announced a plan to implement a cap on the fees publishers can charge NIH-funded researchers to make their work publicly accessible, according to Inside Higher Education. According to NIH officials capping such fees has the potential both to disrupt the lucrative academic publishing industry and to bolster scientific debate.
July 14:
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The U.S. Supreme Court said that the Education Department could move forward with laying off much of its work force. The conservative justices sided with the Trump administration, issuing a 6-3 ruling that overturned a federal appeals court ruling blocking the job cuts.
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The University of Southern California plans to use layoffs and other budget austerity measures to tackle a $200 million operating deficit and gird against a massive blow to federal funding, Interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a community message, as reported by Higher Ed Dive.
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The National Institutes of Health is upending the panels that make decisions about which grant applications to fund, Nature reported. According to Nature, the NIH is planning to dismiss dozens of scientists picked to serve on its advisory councils who were nominated during the Biden administration. NIH leaders are looking to fill those vacant seats with people who are aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities. Nature noted that the move will leave the councils understaffed and without key expertise to make the final funding decisions.
July 15:
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The leaders of Georgetown University, City University of New York, and the University of California at Berkeley appeared at a House hearing about antisemitism on college campuses. The three asserted a commitment to combating anti-Jewish hatred while defending campus rights to free expression, according to the Washington Post.
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The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, called on President Trump to “draft a new contract” that universities must follow or face “revocation of all public benefit,” according to Inside Higher Education. Among other things, institutions would have to end “their direct participation in social and political activism,” abolish “DEI bureaucracies,” and publish “complete data on race, admissions, and class rank.” In a post on X , Education Secretary Linda McMahon congratulated Rufo and the Manhattan Institute for “envisioning a compelling roadmap to restore integrity and rigor to the American academy!”
July 16: Americans’ confidence in higher education has increased, with 42% saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in it, up from 36% in each of the past two years. At the same time, the share with little or no confidence has declined from 32% a year ago to 23% today, according to a Lumina Foundation-Gallup education survey.
July 17:
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The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations voted 19-10 to keep funding for the National Science Foundation and other federal science agencies nearly intact for the 2026 fiscal year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. While the budget is still several steps from becoming law, research advocates said they were heartened by lawmakers’ willingness to break with Trump, who has proposed cutting the NSF’s budget by more than half.
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The University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors issued a memorandum requiring each of the system’s 17 campuses to develop a subcommittee to evaluate the campus’s compliance with the system’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion policy, The Assembly reported. They have until Sept. 1 to show how they have complied with the policy, which cancelled previous DEI guidance and mandated neutrality from administrators on political and social issues. As a result of that policy, UNC campuses reported that they laid off dozens of staffers, moved 131 people to new positions, and redirected $16 million in DEI spending to student success and wellbeing programs.
July 18: The U.S. Department of Energy delayed implementation of multiple rules that it had quietly set to go into effect this week for colleges and schools that receive funding from the agency, according to Higher Ed Dive. The move comes in response to public pushback to proposed policy changes. The proposals would have undone some student protections related to sex discrimination under Title IX, disability discrimination under Section 504, and racial discrimination under Title VI. The rules were also atypical in that they were released by the Energy Department rather than the U.S. Department of Education — meaning only schools receiving Energy Department funding would have been impacted by this set of changes. Pitt has several grants from the Energy Department, including $2.2 million awarded last year to establish the Cyber Energy Center at Pitt.
July 20: A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of major parts of a new Mississippi law that bars diversity, equity and inclusion in the state’s public colleges and K-12 schools. The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and other organizations filed a lawsuit in June on behalf of students and educators, arguing the new law imposes the state government’s views on race, gender and sexuality on public colleges and schools and censors opposing views.
July 22: Columbia University has disciplined over 70 students for participating in two student-led protests, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. The university confirmed in a statement that it was punishing students who participated in the protest at the school’s Butler Library, where at least 80 people were detained, as well as a similar demonstration during its annual alumni weekend last year. Columbia said that sanctions from the library incident include probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions.
July 23:
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Columbia University agreed to pay a $200 million fine to settle allegations from the Trump administration that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students, part of a sweeping deal reached to restore the university’s federal research funding, according to a statement from the university.
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The Education Department said it would investigate five universities — University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University — that offer aid to students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. The Trump administration argues that such scholarship programs violate civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination against national origin because they are open only to DACA students and not to U.S. citizens, according to the New York Times.
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The State Department launched an investigation into Harvard University’s compliance with the Exchange Visitor Program, which allows universities to sponsor short-term J-1 visas for international instructors, researchers, and certain students, according to the Harvard Crimson. In a news release announcing the investigation, the State Department did not allege specific misconduct but wrote that the inquiry aims to ensure that programs “do not run contrary to our nation’s interests.”
- Harvard College has announced the closure of three dedicated centers serving minority, LGBTQ, and women students, consolidating their operations into a new unified entity called the "Harvard Foundation" within the Office of Culture and Community, according to The Harvard Crimson.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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