George Mason failed to address ‘a pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students,’ complaint alleges
The Trump administration is investigating George Mason University over allegations that Jewish students and faculty have faced a hostile environment on campus, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched the investigation on Tuesday in response to a civil rights complaint alleging that George Mason “discriminated on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) by failing to respond effectively to a pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty at the University from October 2023 through the 2024-2025 academic year,” according to the letter.
The probe marks the Trump administration’s latest move to crack down on campus anti-Semitism and racial discrimination. The federal government has frozen nearly $3 billion in federal funding from Harvard University and revoked the school’s authorization to host international students, and slashed over $430 million from Columbia University and threatened the school’s accreditation. The administration has also frozen roughly $790 million to Northwestern University and more than $1 billion to Cornell University.
George Mason has grappled with a number of high-profile incidents involving anti-Israel and even pro-terror radicalism since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
Under suspicion of defacing George Mason’s student center, police searched the home of two Students for Justice in Palestine leaders, sisters Jena and Noor Chanaa, in November. The raid turned up firearms, scores of ammunition, Hamas and Hezbollah flags, and signs that read “death to America” and “death to Jews,” the Free Beacon reported.
Shortly thereafter, in mid-December, the FBI arrested a George Mason freshman, Egyptian citizen Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, accusing him of plotting a terror attack on the Israeli consulate building in Manhattan.
“Two options: lay havoc on them with an assault rifle or detonate a TATP vest in the midst of them,” Hassan wrote in an online message to an agency informant.
Virginia Democrats, meanwhile, blocked Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointment of Kenneth Marcus to George Mason’s board in January. Marcus is a renowned anti-Semitism expert and founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
The next month, the Northern Virginia university hosted an anti-Israel professor, Raz Segal, who delivered a lecture aimed at “shattering this idea that anything that is to do with Jews, the Holocaust, Israel is somehow unique.”
The school has until July 21 to turn over detailed information pertinent to the allegation under investigation, including any correspondence and relevant documents such as complaints surrounding anti-Semitism.
“George Mason University has received notice of an impending investigation and a request for data,” a spokesman told the Free Beacon. “The university believes the allegations to be false, and is working on a timely and comprehensive response.”