Straws in the Wind - Part 224

From the Washington Post: As Republican leaders moved to root out what they have criticized as liberal ideology at the University of Virginia, some conservative appointees to its board texted privately about ending “chemical and surgical mutilation” for transgender youth at its hospitals and undoing “regimes of racial classification” in its classrooms, according to nearly 1,000 pages of text messages reviewed by The Washington Post. The board members coordinated frequently with Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) or his top aides in nearly every major debate at the flagship university in Charlottesville in the past year — which some observers have described as an unusual level of involvement by the state leader. The conservative appointees also spoke in candid, sometimes inflammatory terms about the university’s then-president, James E. Ryan, his supporters and diversity policies.

“This is war!” Stephen Long wrote on April 17 to a fellow board member about a professor who sought to preserve diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Board members have often been reluctant to speak publicly on university matters outside of meetings. But the texts, exchanged between June 2023 and mid-December by board members and top university officials, offer an unfiltered account of the body’s inner workings as it rolled back some gender affirming care, dissolved the university’s DEI office and responded to several investigations by the Trump administration, among other changes at U-Va. Ryan resigned in June amid the intensifying scrutiny. At times, the texts show tension between conservative, moderate and more liberal board members, including one who referred to his fellow board members as “crazies.”

Youngkin spokesperson Rob Damschen said the involvement of the governor and his aides were “essential to responsible oversight.” ...

Full story at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/01/09/university-virginia-board-texts-messages-youngkin-dei/.

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From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The University of Michigan’s incoming president, Kent Syverud, could make up to $3 million a year, per his contract. At $2 million, his base pay would have set a new record last year, according to Chronicle data... In addition to the $2 million, Syverud, who has been president of Syracuse University since 2014, can earn an annual performance award that is worth up to 30 percent of his base pay, or $600,000. The university will also contribute up to $360,000 a year to his retirement plan after one year of service. At the end of his time as Michigan’s president, unless he is fired for cause or leaves for another institution, Syverud will be able to take a one-year leave while earning his base pay. He can then join the faculty as a tenured professor and continue to earn his base pay for three years...

Colleges’ presidential contracts are starting to feel more like those afforded to their football coaches, who get enormous pay packages but can be fired at a moment’s notice. The people filling both positions are under pressure from board members, donors, alumni, and sometimes state lawmakers to meet certain metrics or step aside... But $3 million a year is still a lot for the leader of a public institution...

Other college presidents’ compensation will likely match or exceed Syverud’s in the near future, if they haven’t already. Their contracts are a bit of an arms race, James H. Finkelstein, an emeritus professor of public policy at George Mason University, told The Chronicle in November. Presidents, he said, tend to want what they see their peers getting.

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/new-u-of-michigan-presidents-pay-may-set-a-record.

Straws in the Wind - Part 161

From Inside Higher Ed: House Republicans have accused George Mason University president Gregory Washington of lying to Congress about diversity practices at his institution, ratcheting up pressure on the president to step down. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee alleged in a report... that Washington made “multiple false statements to Congress” in testimony about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at GMU. The public university has been under fire for months over allegedly illegal DEI practices as the Trump administration has sought to crack down on such initiatives, claiming they are discriminatory and violate federal civil rights law. The Judiciary Committee report also alleged that the university “likely violated federal civil rights law by discriminating based on race in its hiring practices to advance Dr. Washington’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative.”

Washington has denied breaking the law through efforts to diversify GMU’s faculty and staff, telling Congress that the university did not practice illegal discrimination under his leadership... The House Judiciary Committee’s report zoomed in on an effort by GMU, launched shortly after Washington took office in July 2020, to diversify employee ranks. The Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence initiative the president introduced aimed to make faculty and staff “mirror student demographics” at GMU, which is among the most diverse institutions in the country. As part of that effort, GMU tasked schools and departments with hiring more underrepresented individuals. But in congressional testimony, Washington denied the initiative was a strict mandate.

...The House Judiciary Committee claimed Washington lied about that... Congress pointed to testimony from Ken Randall, the dean of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, as evidence that Washington lied about the plan being optional. “You’d get fired if you didn’t have a plan,” Randall said, according to an interview transcript.

Washington also denied the administration formally reviewed plans to diversify faculty hiring. Republicans accused him of lying about that, too, pointing to internal remarks from then–vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Sharnnia Artis (who now has a different title), in which she said the DEI team “consistently reviewed, monitored, and supported” such plans. “Again, the evidence contradicts Dr. Washington’s testimony,” the report states...

...The GMU Board of Visitors has said little in the immediate aftermath of the report... While the board is reviewing the report, it appears unlikely members would be able to take action against Washington. GMU’s board, which is stocked with GOP donors and political figures appointed by Republican governor Glenn Youngkin, is currently without a quorum after Virginia Democrats blocked multiple appointments in recent months. Now a legal battle over those blocked appointments is slowly winding its way through the judicial system. While the Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments in the case last month, it has yet to issue a ruling on the matter. In the meantime, with only six of its 16 seats filled, GMU’s board is hobbled...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/11/07/congress-accuses-gmu-president-lying-about-deiYoungkin’s.

Straws in the Wind - Part 94

From Inside Higher Ed: A law firm representing anti–wind energy groups is demanding that Brown University researchers retract findings linking those groups to the fossil fuel industry... The move comes weeks after Brown reached an agreement with the Trump administration. The government restored $510 million in frozen federal research grants after the university agreed to certain demands, including adopting the Trump administration’s definitions of male and female and turning over admissions data...

Marzulla Law LLC characterized the research published by Brown’s Climate and Development Lab as “false and injurious” in a... letter to Brown’s general counsel. It threatened to file complaints with Brown’s public and private funders, including the Energy Department, the National Science Foundation and the Mellon Foundation... Brown researchers who authored a case study about Marzulla Law have written that the firm has “a history of advancing anti-environmental lawsuits and significant ties with the fossil fuel industry.” Researchers have also published findings accusing one of the firm’s clients—the nonprofit Green Oceans, which is trying to shut down the construction of a nearly complete $4 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island—of being part of “a fossil-fuel-funded disinformation network.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/08/26/law-firm-threatens-brown-climate-researchers.

From Inside Higher Ed: Virginia Democrats blocked 14 gubernatorial appointments to state university boards last week, escalating a fight with Republican governor Glenn Youngkin over institutional leadership. The Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections, led by a Democratic majority, voted 8 to 6 to reject four Youngkin appointments to the Virginia Military Institute board, four to the University of Virginia’s board and six to George Mason University’s board. The latter rejections now leave the GMU Board of Visitors without a quorum at a time when they are under federal scrutiny for alleged discriminatory hiring practices, which GMU president Gregory Washington has sharply disputed, even as concerns over his future hang in the balance.

Youngkin called the move “blatant partisanship.” But Senate Democrats have argued that the governor participated in his own brand of partisanship, stocking college boards with divisive conservative political figures. (An Inside Higher Ed analysis in July found that Youngkin has appointed numerous conservative activists, former Republican lawmakers and officials, and multiple GOP megadonors, among others.) Commonwealth Democrats have also demanded that Youngkin cease such appointments until he meets with Senate leaders, who have accused the governor of failing to adequately consult with them. The Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections previously blocked eight appointments in June. That action prompted a legal fight, with the governor arguing that his picks should be allowed to serve on their respective boards until the full Senate weighs in.

Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, backed the governor’s view, but a judge blocked that effort in July after Democrats sued. Miyares has since appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/trustees-regents/2025/09/03/virginia-democrats-block-14-board-appointments.

Straws in the Wind - Part 93

From the Washington Post: Facing mounting pressure from the Trump administration, a lawyer for George Mason University President Gregory Washington told the board on Monday the leader had done nothing unlawful and would not apologize for his diversity, equity and inclusion policies, despite a call from the Education Department to do so. The federal agency’s Office of Civil Rights made a personal apology from Washington to the campus community part of a series of proposed steps to resolve a recent finding that the Virginia university had violated civil rights law by considering race in hiring and promotions. Washington has said the university’s policies complied with the law and were meant to expand opportunities.

Douglas Gansler, Washington’s lawyer, called the singling out of GMU from the Education Department bordering on the “absurd,” saying in his letter to the George Mason Board of Visitors that the department’s investigative process had been “cut short” after a “very incomplete fact-finding process,”

“The draft Resolution Agreement, in particular its demand that Dr. Washington apologize to the Mason community for promoting unlawful discriminatory hiring practices, would be falsely admitting to conduct that did not occur and would open GMU to further legal risk,” Gansler, a former Maryland attorney general, wrote in a letter obtained by The Washington Post...

Full story at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/08/25/george-mason-president-refuses-apology-dei/.

From Inside Higher Ed: ...Faculty at Ohio State University can no longer make land acknowledgments—verbal or written statements that recognize the Indigenous people who originally lived on the university’s land—unless it is directly relevant to class subject matter. The new policy from the university’s Office of University Compliance and Integrity is one of many created in response to Ohio’s SB 1, a sweeping higher education law passed in March that seeks to eliminate DEI offices and scrub all mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion from university scholarships, job descriptions and more. The university has also limited student housing decorations in public spaces to “Ohio State spirit themes” and prohibited schools and departments from commenting on a wide array of topics, including the original inhabitants of the land on which the university is built.

Land acknowledgments are “considered statements on behalf of an issue or cause” and cannot be made by someone representing a unit, college or department, according to the new policy. Such statements cannot be used at virtual or in-person university-sponsored events, or written on any university channel, website, social media, signage, meeting agenda or event program. The acknowledgments are also banned from syllabi and class materials and cannot be spoken aloud in the classroom unless they are directly tied to the course, such as in a class about the history of American Indigenous peoples...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/09/03/ohio-state-bans-land-acknowledgments.

What we would likely hear behind those closed doors

We don't know what kind legal advice the Regents are getting behind closed doors with regard to the current UCLA/UC conflict with the feds over frozen research grants. But it is likely along the lines of the item below:

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The Supreme Court has created a major hurdle for colleges seeking to preserve research grants that have been canceled by the Trump administration, including Harvard University. In an emergency decision..., a 5-4 majority of the justices allowed the government to go forward with canceling some 900 National Institutes of Health grants worth nearly $800 million... The Supreme Court’s brief order stated that cases challenging the loss of those research dollars must be brought in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a special division of the judicial branch created to hear monetary claims against the government for things like breach of contract. In that venue, researchers or other entities might have to file complaints individually for every canceled grant...

A different 5-4 majority of the justices upheld the same district court’s authority to invalidate the government’s reasoning and guidance for canceling those grants. The Trump administration has justified the terminations by saying that research projects related to race, gender identity, and other diversity issues don’t align with the president’s priorities. In his June decision, Judge William G. Young ruled that the government had shown “pervasive racial discrimination in selecting grants for termination” and “an unmistakable pattern of discrimination against women’s health issues.”

The split decision from the Supreme Court has cast uncertainty over higher education’s efforts to defend itself from the administration’s leverage of using research grants to force changes in admissions, hiring, and student discipline, among other things... Harvard officials sued the Trump administration in April after the university rejected a lengthy set of demands to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, remove race as a factor in admissions and hiring, and cooperate with orders from the Department of Homeland Security. The administration then announced that it was canceling more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts.

In July, Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts heard arguments in that case, with both Harvard and the government seeking a summary judgment that would avoid a trial... Even if Judge Burroughs rules in Harvard’s favor,* there is a good chance that the case will end up in front of the Supreme Court, where most of the justices have been pretty clear about how they think grant-termination issues should be handled, said Thomas Bluestein, associate vice president in the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community at George Mason University...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/will-the-supreme-courts-ruling-on-research-grants-sink-harvards-lawsuit-against-trump.

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*As blog readers will know, she did rule for Harvard.

Straws in the Wind - Part 73

From Inside Higher Ed: Republican governor Glenn Youngkin was overruled... as a Virginia circuit court ordered eight of his nominees be removed from their posts on three public universities’ boards, the Associated Press reported and court records confirm. Nine Democrats on the state Senate Privileges and Elections Committee had rejected the nominees’ appointment to serve the University of Virginia, George Mason University and the Virginia Military Institute during a special session in June. But Youngkin and his attorney general, Jason Miyares, instructed board chairs to proceed in welcoming the nominees as members, citing a provision in the state Constitution that says all gubernatorial appointees must be approved by the General Assembly. Miyares argued that because a committee, not the full General Assembly, rejected the nominees, that wasn’t the final decision. But Fairfax Circuit Court judge Jonathan Frieden disagreed.

...For now, the ruling serves as a win for the Senate Democrats who filed the lawsuit, arguing Youngkin’s actions fly in the face of the state Constitution. Shaun Kenney, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, however, said they intend to appeal...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/state-policy/2025/07/30/judge-removes-youngkins-university-board-picks.

Straws in the Wind - Part 65

From the NY Times: When the Department of Justice recently opened an investigation into George Mason University over accusations that the university’s diversity programs were discriminatory, many members of the faculty were outraged. Professors quickly published a resolution supporting their president and the university’s efforts around diversity. Now, Justice Department officials say they will investigate the faculty, too.

...The Trump administration said it would seek drafts of the faculty resolution, all written communications among the Faculty Senate members who drafted the resolution, and all communications between those faculty members and the office of the university’s president, Gregory Washington. ...The faculty resolution affirmed the university’s previous stance that “diversity is our strength.” It also defended Dr. Washington, the university’s first Black president, who has been a target of the Trump administration.

...The Justice Department’s interest in the faculty resolution suggested that the Trump administration was widening its targets as it escalates attacks on what it views as a left-leaning climate on college campuses...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/us/justice-department-george-mason-faculty-senate-investigation.html.

From the NY Times: Paul G. Mahoney, a former dean of the law school at the University of Virginia, was named the institution’s interim president on Monday, after his predecessor as president resigned under intense pressure from the Trump administration. The university’s governing board met on Monday to approve Mr. Mahoney’s appointment. He is taking over the helm of a university that was operating in a leadership vacuum as it attempted to negotiate a tricky legal predicament posed by several Department of Justice investigations.

The former president, James E. Ryan, left in July following a campaign waged against him by the Department of Justice and a conservative Virginia alumni group, the Jefferson Council, that led a multiyear crusade attacking the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The university’s longtime provost and second-highest executive, Ian Baucom, left earlier in the year to become president of Middlebury College. Members of the university’s board, who are appointees of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, said at the meeting Monday that they hoped to select a new permanent president within four to six months...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/us/politics/university-virginia-appoints-interim-president.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 48

From State News: Michigan State University has quietly removed references to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, from its 2030 Strategic Plan website and several other public-facing pages. The changes include updates to pages for the College of Human Medicine, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the DEI plan previously posted on the Office of the President’s website. The University Outreach and Engagement Plan has also been removed from MSU’s website.

In statements to The State News, Amber McCann, university spokesperson and Diversity and Inclusion Communications Manager Henry Mochida both said MSU is conducting “an ongoing review of its 2030 Strategic Plan” and is also “engaged in an ongoing review of programs and activities in compliance with civil rights laws.” ...

Full story at https://statenews.com/article/2025/07/msu-removes-dei-language-from-websites-amid-strategic-plan-review.

From The Hill via Yahoo News: The Education Department announced on Thursday a civil rights investigation against George Mason University over allegations of discrimination regarding its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. The federal agency said multiple professors at the university alleged leadership is giving preferential treatment to underrepresented minority groups for hiring and promotion considerations among faculty.

“Despite the leadership of George Mason University claiming that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, it appears that its hiring and promotion policies and practices from 2020 to the present, implemented under the guise of so-called ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,’ not only allow but champion illegal racial preferencing in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This kind of pernicious and wide-spread discrimination—packaged as ‘anti-racism’—was allowed to flourish under the Biden Administration, but it will not be tolerated by this one,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department...

Full story at https://www.yahoo.com/news/education-department-announces-investigation-against-182020931.html.

From Inside Higher Ed: America First Legal has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for alleged racial discrimination, according to The Baltimore Banner. In a 133-page complaint filed Thursday, the conservative legal group, run by President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, urged the DOJ to investigate Johns Hopkins “for its systemic, intentional, and ongoing discrimination within its School of Medicine on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, and other impermissible, immutable characteristics under the pretext of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’) in open defiance” of civil rights laws, Supreme Court precedent and presidential executive orders...

The America First Legal complaint singles out certain medical school divisions and programs for seeking to recruit a “diverse applicant pool,” including residency programs in gynecology and obstetrics, emergency medicine, dermatology, anesthesiology and critical care. But the complaint leaves room for attacks beyond the medical school, noting that DEI practices “are part of a comprehensive, university-wide regime of racial engineering.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/07/21/america-first-legal-urges-doj-investigate-hopkins-dei.

Interesting Podcast

If watching Regents meetings - see our previous post - is not your thing, you might be interested in a podcast from the New York Times ("The Daily" series: When the Culture Wars Came for NASA. If you play the podcast audio towards its conclusion, the NASA issue spills over into higher education institutions (George Mason University, Florida Institute of Technology, U of New Hampshire). 

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful ever made, has revolutionized the way we see the universe. The name was chosen for James E. Webb, a NASA administrator during the 1960s. But when doubts about his background emerged, the telescope’s name turned into a fight over homophobia.

The audio can be found at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/james-webb-telescope-nasa.html.

If you prefer to read it rather than listen, the transcript is at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/james-webb-telescope-nasa.html?showTranscript=1.

There is a somewhat truncated version in the NY Times at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/james-webb-telescope-gay-rights.html.