George Mason University Korea will provide ‘Covid-19 Emergency Fund’ to students who are going through financial difficulty due to Covid-19, in collaboration with the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK). Mason Korea will also provide a Covid-19 Relief Grant to help continuing students successfully overcome this crisis.
Just by the numbers, George Mason University’s annual Spring Preview was a huge success, with 1,855 registered students and about 3,600 total attendees at the April 23 event.
But this preview was also about the boundaries Mason pushed, technologically and organizationally, to set up a unique event that was both virtual and personal. An online event that did its best to “open” a campus that is shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even during “normal” times, career preparation can feel confusing and intimidating. Facing that in the midst of a national crisis, is simply put, scary. We can’t fix everything, but we are here to serve Mason Nation as a source of reliable career expertise.
We have reformulated our annual Career Launch workshop series. This year it’ll not only be completely virtual, but will also directly address questions and concerns about career preparation in the age of COVID-19. Whether your student is currently job searching or just want to get strategies and insight from the career experts, Career Launch 2020 is for them.
Dear Patriots,
We hope you are healthy, safe and well.
We are pleased to announce that registration for the fall 2020 semester begins this Friday, May 1. Your registration time will be e-mailed directly to you from the Office of the University Registrar.
We know that many of you have questions about the fall semester. University leadership continues to monitor the health crisis and is considering the best options for how classes will be delivered this fall, with the safety of the university community as our main priority.
At the same time, we remain committed to ensuring you stay on track. Therefore, we encourage you to work with your academic advisor now to register for the classes that will advance your progress toward degree completion. If you need to change your schedule after these decisions are made, you will be able to update your registration.
As options are considered for fall 2020 semester classes, know that the university will keep you informed about plans and any possible adjustments that may be necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis and guidance provided by public health officials or directives by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Please check the university’s coronavirus information page for updates.
We are all adjusting and adapting to the implications of COVID-19. At Mason, our foremost concern is your health, safety and well-being. The university is committed to supporting you, your learning and your continued academic and professional development.
Sincerely,
Mark R. Ginsberg
Interim Provost and Executive Vice President
Doug McKenna
University Registrar
Dear Mason Class of 2020:
I hope this email finds you well and that your classes are going smoothly as we move into the last few weeks of the spring semester. I know this is not the ending to your studies that you had envisioned. Despite this, I want you to know that I couldn’t be prouder of your resilience and your adaptability. You’re not only completing your coursework but many of you are taking time to help others through this difficult crisis.
As I mentioned last week in our virtual town hall and follow-up message, because of the public health risks and the governor’s orders, and not surprisingly, we are unable to hold a traditional Spring Commencement ceremony this May. And yet many of you responded to our survey about a future commemorative event and your message was overwhelmingly clear: You want to walk across the stage at EagleBank Arena in front of friends and family, and we want to celebrate with you. You will all be invited to participate in an in-person ceremony at a future date when it is safe to do so.
In the meanwhile, we want to celebrate your accomplishments this spring. We have listened to your feedback on how best to do that, and I want to share with you the details about the Celebration of the Class of 2020.
We invite you to join us for a celebration of your efforts at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 22 on GMU-TV. This will include congratulatory messages from me and the deans, a short message from a member of the Class of 2020, a performance by the Green Machine, and special guests wishing you well. We hope you will take the time to celebrate your accomplishments and invite friends and family to do so as well.
In addition, each School and College will have its own dedicated graduation slide show with a message from your Dean and personalized slides for each graduate showing your name, degree, major and college. We invite you to share a photo along with an optional message for your personalized slide.
You will receive an email from [email protected] with more information and additional specific details about what we can all look forward to during the celebration event.
We are all so proud of you and we can’t wait to honor you on May 22 and celebrate with you in person in the future.
Sincerely,
Anne Holton
Interim President
Dear Patriots,
I hope you are doing well. I want to check in with you to learn about your Mason experience particularly since we made the decision to move to a distance learning format in response to the current pandemic. Please fill out Mason Pulse Survey – it will take less than 5 minutes – so we can gauge your experience, continue to address areas that need improvement, provide you with any needed support, and plan for the future.
When you submit your completed survey, you will be entered into a random drawing. We will give away five pairs of Beats by Dr Dre Studio Noise Cancelling Headphones. We will notify winners and mail Beats directly to you.
We really want to hear from you. Knowing how you are doing is incredibly important to us, particularly at this moment in time. Please complete by Wednesday, April 29.
Thanks,
Rose
Rose B. Pascarell
Vice President for University Life
Mason Patriots,
While campus is secured and virtual learning and telework are ongoing, we want to remind everyone of the steps we are taking to keep the Mason Nation safe. The university is developing plans to resume on-campus activities later this year. In order for us to understand when it is safe for us to return to campus, we need your help.
Report COVID Illnesses: If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have had close contact with someone who has, please notify Mason using the university’s confidential reporting procedures to ensure we are aiding students, faculty, and staff as needed and to track the status of our community.We can slow community transmission by notifying contacts to quarantine.
The reporting forms ask for information about locations visited on campus and others with whom contact was made so that those individuals can be notified if quarantine is recommended. An outline of the university’s process for notification, investigation, and recommended precautions is available online here. Supervisors should consult the university’s guidelines on when employees or students may return to work or campus.
Building Access: We understand that some faculty and staff may need to return to campus to conduct critical research, work, or instruction. Because all university buildings have been secured, you must make arrangements ahead of time with the appropriate contact on this list if you do not currently have and need access to your workspace. Mason Police are getting numerous requests to provide on-demand building access, which takes them away from their primary responsibilities. Repeated on-demand requests may result in a charge to your department for emergency access.
University Events: As President Holton announced at last week’s town hall, that all university events will be cancelled or postponed until Aug. 8. If you have an event or activity that cannot be held virtually and you’d like to request an exception to this policy, please contact [email protected]. The Events Exception committee will conduct risk assessments on a case-by-case basis as requested to ensure consideration of specific event details are evaluated.
Thank you for all you are doing to keep our community safe.
Respectfully,
Lester L. Arnold
CHRO | Vice President for Human Resources and Payroll
Lisa Park, MD, MPH
Executive Director, Student Health Services
David Farris, PhD
Executive Director, Safety & Emergency Management
Dear Patriots,
I want to thank everyone who participated in our first-ever virtual town hall. I am inspired by the level of engagement in our community. We had more than 2,100 viewers from all over the world, including Australia, Congo, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Niger, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. We received more than 375 questions from students, faculty, staff, family members, alumni and community members, and we continue to receive more. Our goal was to answer the most pressing questions. If you missed the town hall or would like to see it again, it is available here: https://vimeo.com/gmutv/masontownhall.
We plan to read all of your questions and find ways to respond, either through our frequently asked questions or in future communications. Please continue to check Mason’s Coronavirus web page for new information. Our two most important goals are to keep our campus community safe and educate students, and all our decisions are made with those objectives in mind. Here are a few key points I shared during the town hall.
Commencement
We are looking ahead at the calendar and making adjustments that allow us to continue with our mission and core goals. With a heavy heart, we have postponed commencement indefinitely. At the town hall, we announced that we will hold a celebration for the Class of 2020 online on May 22 and will share more details about that soon. We know this doesn’t replace commencement, but we also want to recognize our graduating students’ hard work and accomplishments. If you are earning your degree this spring we hope you will participate in this event. Once we have responses to a pending student survey, and once we know how we can safely proceed, we will share our plan for a formal recognition for the Class of 2020 at a later date.
Summer 2020
As you know, the university made the decision to hold summer sessions in the virtual format. After consulting with public health officials and recognizing the need to plan for summer schedules, we feel it’s in the best interest of our community to extend our cancellation of other events as well through Aug. 8. We are creating an exceptions committee that can make decisions for events closer to the start of the semester with the most relevant information at that time. For parents, we encourage you to consider the camps that the university is offering this summer online.
Many people have asked how long we will continue to require employees to telework. We are following the recommendation of public health officials, as well as the guidelines from the state. We will continue to monitor both, adjust the telework policies as needed and provide more guidance and tools for employees and supervisors in the coming weeks.
Fall 2020 Opening
We know that many people have questions about the fall semester. We are doing our best to plan and are hopeful that we will be able to reopen the campus this fall, though it may not look like a typical fall semester. We are depending on the guidance of public health experts to inform our decision making and we hope to share more details on this evolving situation soon. Our goal is to have more clarity by early June.
Budget and Tuition 2020-2021
Finally, we know many students are concerned about their finances in general and tuition costs for next year specifically. We are concerned too. The University is facing unprecedented financial challenges as a result of this crisis, as are our students, families and state government. The university expects to get more guidance on state funding when the General Assembly re-convenes next week; after that date we will adjust our projected budget scenarios based on the latest economic and public health data available. Our Board of Visitors received input from students and others at a public meeting on April 2 on this topic.
Rector Tom Davis will be holding an additional public forum at 10 a.m. on May 6, where students can ask questions and share further comments and concerns about tuition and fees. We will send details about how to join the forum to students through their Mason Live email as well as through university communication and social media channels. The Board of Visitors will consider all this input as well as the latest and best advice we can garner when it meets to make decisions about the budget and tuition at its next meeting, now scheduled for May 20. I know the uncertainty is as frustrating for you as it is for us.
How to Help
You may have seen that Gov. Northam has issued a call for volunteers to join the Virginia Department of Health’s Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). Nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students have been particularly encouraged to apply, but other volunteers are needed to fill roles in logistics, communication, coordination, technology and other support areas. I strongly encourage you to visit vamrc.org to learn more.
I also want to thank everyone who has contributed to the Student Emergency Assistance Fund. More than half of our faculty and staff have donated to the fund, providing help for our students with paying rent and utilities, or with technology assistance needed to continue their coursework. More than 1,600 applications have been received with requests totaling more than $3 million, and more than $1.1 million in funds have already been dispersed. Please consider making a donation to help our students.
We all want better clarity for the future but the safety of our university community and our students’ education are our two driving forces as we navigate this new reality. Thank you for your adaptability and resilience.
Sincerely,
Anne Holton
Interim President
