George Mason University ends office for 'Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation'

George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia has eliminated an office dedicated to “racial healing” in response to federal directives targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

A spokesman for the university said on Wednesday that the institution had closed the Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation in order to comply with “federal executive orders and U.S. Department of Education directives,” reporting by The Washington Examiner asserts.

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The center was founded in 2021 and was formerly dedicated to “improving our overall campus climate with regard to diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism.”

A Jan. 21 executive order signed by President Donald Trump bars universities that receive federal funds from promoting DEI. On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education outlined in a letter to public schools that “under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal.”

According to the Wayback Machine, an internet archive, the website was last captured on April 1. 

The center is not the only George Mason office that administrators have purged DEI from in response to federal pressure. On March 3, President Gregory Washington released an update on the university’s review of its DEI practices. 

One modification involved renaming the “Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” to the “Office of Access, Compliance, and Community.” The university reportedly stated that the name change was not intended to avoid the executive order but to describe the office’s mission more accurately. 

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“This is a more specific and intuitively accurate reflection of its charter,” Washington said at the time. “It is not an attempt to evade compliance through clever wordsmithing – it simply affirms our actual compliance through more precise naming.”

While the university has backed away from its offices dedicated to DEI, it has continued to promote anti-racism. The university maintains an “anti-racist” reading group dedicated to “anti-racist practices, racial justice, and the creation of conversations as well as systems of compassion and healing.” 

On May 30, Purdue University announced that it was “sunsetting” its Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Other schools, such as Harvard University and the St. Louis University School of Medicine, have also either renamed or eliminated their DEI offices entirely.

Campus Reform contacted George Mason University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.