Are Conservative Donors Bullying This Public University?

George Mason University’s president has responded to concerns raised by faculty, students and others that the public university has become overly dependent on private donations—questions prompted by one recent gift from a foundation with conservative ties and another that asked that the university’s law school be renamed to honor late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“I extend my congratulations to Dean Henry Butler for raising the largest gift in university history,” Angel Cabrera, the president of George Mason University, wrote Sunday in a letter to the faculty senate, “and to his faculty for what I expect to be a transformative milestone in the already remarkable trajectory of a leading law school.”