A 2025 alum filed a lawsuit against GW, several of its senior officials and her former employer Wednesday, alleging retaliation and discrimination after she used her graduation speech to urge the University to divest from companies tied to Israel.
Cecilia Culver, who officials barred from all GW campuses and University-sponsored events last May after she deviated from her preprepared graduation speech at one of the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences undergraduate ceremonies, is suing the University, her former employer Ernst & Young and a dozen GW and EY officials in the D.C. District Court for defamation and violating her civil rights. Culver alleges that GW and EY violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the D.C. Human Rights Act and D.C. common law, claiming University officials disseminated false statements about her following her speech and that EY terminated her employment over her association with and advocacy for Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.
Culver is seeking financial compensation for the economic and emotional harm she has experienced over the last year, acknowledgment from the University and EY that they violated the law and an end to her ongoing ban from campus. She is also seeking restoration of her CCAS Distinguished Scholar status, from which she says she lost the unspecified “full benefit of” as a result of the University’s response, termination of the University’s alleged ongoing investigation into her conduct at the ceremony and punitive damages against GW and three officials.
Culver filed the 167-page suit, which details 19 charges for instances of racial discrimination, civil rights conspiracy, breach of contract, breach of confidential relationship and defamation, in the U.S. District Court for D.C. on April 15.
In addition to GW and EY, she is also suing University officials in their individual capacities, including University President Granberg, Board of Trustees Chair Grace Speights, former Provost Chris Bracey and CCAS Dean Paul Wahlbeck. The suit also names CCAS Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Rachel Riedner, Vice Dean for Programs & Operations Kim Gross and University spokesperson Kathy Fackelmann.
Culver also named Jason Morrissey, Andrew Phillips, Andrea Stempel, Anthony Jordan and Robert Carroll, all employees at EY, as defendants in the suit.
A University spokesperson declined to comment. None of the named GW or EY officials, nor EY’s press contact, returned a request for comment.
The suit alleges GW and EY violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, D.C. Human Rights Act and the District’s common law, claiming GW officials’ “coordinated institutional response” to Culver’s speech damaged her professional reputation and suppressed her speech, which she says also prompted EY to terminate her employment five days later.
Culver, an economics and statistics graduate, used her speech at one of last year’s CCAS undergraduate graduation ceremonies to condemn the University for suppressing pro-Palestinian activism related to the war in Gaza and urge graduates to withhold donations from GW until officials disclose all financial investments and divest from companies tied to Israel.
She says in the suit her speech at the CCAS ceremony “unmistakably associated” her with Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, and her termination from EY violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects employees from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin, including by association.
Following the speech, Fackelmann said the University was investigating whether Culver violated the University’s events protocol or Code of Student Conduct, adding that her remarks were “materially different” than the speech she submitted to officials for approval ahead of the ceremony.
“We apologize to the graduates and families in attendance that their time of special celebration being disrupted,” Fackelmann said following the ceremony.
Three days after the speech, the University announced in a statement that it had barred Culver from all GW campuses and sponsored events. The May release did not specify the duration of the ban.
Culver alleges in the suit that EY heard of her speech and moved to terminate her employment, first placing her on administrative leave less than 24 hours after delivering her remarks and ultimately ending her employment five days after the ceremony. She says in the suit no EY officials disclosed the policy violation that prompted her termination but confirmed that her placement on administrative leave was related to the speech.
The suit marks the second filed against GW by former students in the last year related to their handling of campus protests since the onset of the war in Gaza. A group of current and former students sued the University in May, accusing officials of allowing “pervasive and severe” harassment of Jewish and Israeli students since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
GW also entered into a voluntary-resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights in January 2025 stemming from two separate Title VI complaints filed in 2023, one alleging anti-Palestinian discrimination and another alleging antisemitism at the University.
The Office for Civil Rights had been investigating both claims since April and May 2023, respectively, ultimately finding the allegations of antisemitism “unsubstantial.” The office reportedly ruled officials may have treated a pro-Palestine student differently on the basis of shared ancestry, according to Palestine Legal, a pro-Palestinian legal group, something Culver cites in the lawsuit as evidence of the University’s history of anti-Palestine behavior.
As a result of the resolution agreement, officials last spring presented proposed changes to their discrimination and protest policies and sought community feedback on the potential changes. Officials unveiled the finalized anti-discrimination policies to the community in May.
Here’s a breakdown of the lawsuit:
Lawsuit’s account of events
Culver alleges officials’ decision to bar her from campus was a “predictable output” of the University’s “hostile environment” toward pro-Palestinian expression, citing instances of alleged hostility dating back to 2015.
The incidents included a GW Police Department order for Ramie Abounaja — a biomedical student — to remove a Palestinian flag from his residence-hall window in 2015, officials demanding the Office of Advocacy and Support remove a post promoting mental-health resources to Palestinian students in 2021 and the University’s disciplinary proceedings against pro-Palestinian organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine both before and after Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Culver says in the suit she submitted multiple drafts that officials edited to ensure she stuck to the time limit and shared a script with sign language interpreters, but the University did not say the submitted draft would constitute the “exclusive and binding” text she delivered at the ceremony. She says officials never indicated that a topic was off limits or objected to the contents of any of her drafts, including a version that mentioned speaking out against injustice across the world.
Culver says in the suit that the first five paragraphs of her speech were the same as her draft, which the University approved. She says officials never specified what policy she violated.
“GWU never told Ms. Culver, before or after the ceremony, what rule she had broken,” the suit reads.
Culver alleges the University’s response to the speech was an act of “institutional retaliation,” including the statements Fackelmann gave to media outlets, like The Hatchet, labeling her speech as “materially different” from what she submitted before the ceremony and apologizing to attendees for the disruption caused by her remarks. She says GW disseminated these statements widely, and EY leadership likely read them.
“The characterization of Ms. Culver’s address as a ‘disruption’ to the ceremony was false and defamatory,” the suit reads.
The suit alleges GW’s conduct surrounding Culver’s speech was “no less troubling,” referencing CCAS Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Rachel Riedner telling the crowd in the Smith Center that Culver had strayed from her prepared remarks immediately after she left the stage.
After Culver’s speech, CCAS Associate Dean for Academic Innovation Kavita Daiya said the school represents a variety of viewpoints and thanked Culver for sharing hers. Later, Riedner, during her charge to students, said that Culver strayed from her prepared remarks and that they “do not reflect …” before she was cut off by noise from the crowd. Some graduates began to chant “Free, free Palestine” while others shushed them during Riedner’s speech. Riedner asked the crowd to respect each other’s views and continued her speech.
The suit alleges that following Culver’s speech, GW initiated a public and institutional response, including characterizing she had used a “materially different” speech than the submitted draft, launching an investigation into her and releasing public statements that contributed to her termination at EY.
Culver says in the suit that on May 18 — less than 24 hours after she gave her speech at the CCAS graduation ceremony — EY officials placed her on administrative leave in connection with her speech. She says EY sent her a termination letter on May 22, never identifying a policy she violated that would prompt her termination, despite requesting a meeting with EY officials to identify the policy she violated that prompted her administrative leave and filed an internal-discrimination report on May 22 — the same day she was terminated at EY.
Culver, who graduated in December 2024, had been working for EY since January 2025, according to her LinkedIn.
Culver alleges that a “pressure campaign” launched by StopAntisemitism, including a post on X that received over 500,000 views and affixed a “false antisemitism label” to her, contributed to EY’s decision to terminate her employment.
Culver further alleges that a coordinated campaign of hate online, with multiple accounts posting the video of her speech and identifying her name and employer, besides StopAntisemitism. She says in the suit the comments on each of those posts tagged both EY and GW, adding more voices to the “institutional pressure” already being levied by the original posts on the two groups to respond to Culver’s speech.
Allegations of discrimination, defamation and breach of contract
Culver claims the University, Riedner and Fackelmann violated her contractual rights on a racially discriminatory basis by generating and disseminating “false public characterizations” of her commencement address. She says officials communicated these false characterizations to EY, which resulted in them terminating her.
The lawsuit claims GW’s removal of the livestream of Culver’s address from YouTube, Fackelmann’s characterization of her remarks in public statements as “materially different” than her submission to officials and announcing a formal investigation into her conduct gave EY the “pretextual cover” for her termination. The complaint also cites Riedner’s remarks at the ceremony that Culver had “strayed from her prepared remarks” as part of the discrimination.
Culver claims the defendants’ actions constitute racial discrimination because the retaliatory action was a response to her associating herself in the speech with a protected class, Palestinians and Arabs. The lawsuit cites the D.C. Human Rights Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on their association with or advocacy for protected classes.
The suit also accuses the named GW officials of aiding and abetting discrimination by sustaining a “false institutional narrative” of her remarks and approving an investigation into her based on “unnamed” policy violations.
“Each GWU Defendant acted with knowledge — actual or constructive — that EY had taken or was expected to take adverse employment action against Ms. Culver in reliance on GWU’s public characterizations of her address, and that those characterizations were false,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit claims that beginning on May 17, 2025, the GW and EY defendants engaged in a conspiracy to deprive Culver of her civil rights, specifically freedom from employment termination and institutional retaliation based on her public association with Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, by spreading a false narrative that she acted “dishonestly” by departing from her prepared remarks.
The complaint also accuses Granberg, Speights, Bracey, Wahlbeck and Gross of failing to prevent the conspiracy after receiving written notice from supportive community members — through a Change.org petition demanding GW drop its investigation and a letter from GWU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine — that GW’s investigation into Culver was unlawful and did nothing to prevent it.
The lawsuit also accuses GW of breach of contract, promissory estoppel — a doctrine requiring parties to uphold promises even in the absence of a formal contract — breach of confidential relationship and tortious interference with a contract stemming from Culver’s entrance into the CCAS Distinguished Scholar speaker program. The suit claims the contract obligated GW to notify Culver of specific requirements of her speech, refrain from institutional action against her and honor her speech as a fulfillment of her status as a Distinguished Scholar.
“GWU never identified any policy provision that Ms. Culver had violated, despite Ms. Culver’s right, as a contracting party performing under GWU’s program, to know the basis on which her performance was being characterized as deficient,” the lawsuit states.
The suit claims GW’s portrayal of her as dishonest constitutes a false-light invasion of privacy, which involves the public dissemination of highly offensive or false information about a person.
Culver in the lawsuit also claims the defendants’ actions amount to intentional infliction of emotional distress by engaging in her “professional destruction” by repudiating her remarks in front of an audience and disseminating false characterizations. Culver claims these actions caused her “shock and humiliation” and led to ongoing “reputational harm,” causing her to lose her employment, not because of the career she built but the “wreckage” University officials’ “coordinated institutional conduct” caused.
Culver in the suit also claims GW treated her differently from other CCAS Distinguished Scholars because of her association with Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, noting that the University has not disavowed, removed or investigated other commencement addresses expressing solidarity with Zionist students or other identifiable communities.
The lawsuit also states that GW has maintained a documented, yearslong “hostile education environment,” including targeting Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and those associated with them and has been responded to with deliberate indifference to each example of it named in the suit. The suit alleges GW applied this environment to Culver in its actions against her because she publicly associated herself with Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.
Jenna Lee and Tyler Iglesias contributed reporting.
