Author: Eleftheria Giannopoulos

COVID-19 Mandatory Testing Requirements

Dear Patriot,

We are so excited to welcome everyone back to Mason this fall. Everyone in our community deserves a safe place to live, learn, and thrive. The Mason Nation has done an incredible job at keeping ahead of COVID-19, and we are enhancing our efforts this fall by requiring students, faculty and staff to participate in ongoing COVID-19 testing.

Please pay close attention to your email, as it is the official means by which you will be informed of your individual testing requirements. Regular testing allows us to identify and isolate COVID cases so that we can prevent potentially deadly outbreaks. Those who fail to participate in mandatory testing could face disciplinary action.

Students living on campus:

All residential students will be tested each week during the first three weeks of the semester.

- If you are vaccinated against COVID, you will be required to test every week for the first three weeks of the semester. Subsequently we anticipate being able to scale testing for this group back to once every two weeks — that’s only two tests every month after the first 3 weeks of the semester.
- If you are not vaccinated against COVID and have an approved exemption, you will be required to test twice a week for the duration of the semester.

Students living off-campus:

If you are vaccinated against COVID, you may be chosen randomly to test periodically throughout the semester.
Those not vaccinated against COVID with an approved exemption are required to test one time per week for the duration of the semester.

Students with high contact:

If you engage in roles, activities or classes that put you in frequent, close contact with other individuals (such as athletes and student organizations that host large in-person events) you may be required to take a COVID-19 test more frequently. Again, please pay close attention to your email, as it is the official means by which you will be informed of your individual testing requirements.

Please be mindful that not all members of our community can receive the vaccine at this time, due to approved medical or religious exemptions. Please continue to show each other empathy and respect.

Mason Nation knows how to fight COVID:

get the COVID-19 vaccine
participate in COVID testing
complete the Mason COVID Health Check daily, if you are registered for in-person or hybrid classes
adhere to Mason’s new masking requirements
take the online COVID safety training

Later this week, you’ll receive more detailed information from Safety, Emergency, & Enterprise Risk Management regarding the mandatory, ongoing COVID tests. We’re counting on you to do your part by testing when notified to do so.

To learn more about Mason’s COVID Safety Plan, visit the Safe Return to Campus website at https://www2.gmu.edu/safe-return-campus.

Sincerely,

Rose Pascarell
Vice President, University Life

Julie Zobel, PhD, Associate Vice President
Safety, Emergency, & Enterprise Risk Management

Mason gears up to welcome the newest Patriots to campus

The Patriot welcomes back students to campus. Photo by: Ron Aira/Creative Services/ George Mason University

Family Weekend Registration is Open!

New Student and Family Programs invites your family to join us for Family Weekend 2021 – October 15-17! Online registration is now open and will close on Monday, October 4 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

Family Weekend is an opportunity to come together to connect, have fun, celebrate and make new memories, become familiar with the institution, and spend time with your student, which is why our schedule includes events for people of all ages. Family Weekend features several events that showcase the best of Mason and all it has to offer, including a signature athletic event, faculty spotlights, student performances, area tours, service opportunities, and much more! There will also be opportunities to tune into Family Weekend events from the comfort of your own home if you are unable to come to campus.

PRICING
Family Weekend tickets are $35 for adults (ages 13+); $12 for children (ages 5-12); and FREE for Mason students and children ages 4 and under. Your ticket grants you entry into every on-campus Family Weekend event! View the full schedule of events on our website at MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu.

VISITING CAMPUS
If you need hotel accommodations, book now at one of our Marriott partner hotels for a discounted rate. Rooms fill up quickly, so book early if you know you are attending Family Weekend! Visit MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu/Where-To-Stay for information on where to stay.

FAMILY OF THE YEAR
Nominate your family for the Dr. Alan and Sally Merten Family of the Year Award and be recognized for the crucial role you play in your student’s experience at Mason. There are a few ways to nominate your family!

Create a presentation or collage (minimum of 5 slides)
Write a short essay (minimum of 500 words)
Compose a creative writing (i.e. poetry, speech, play, song, etc.)

The winning family will receive the following:

A commemorative plaque presented at “Breakfast & Bingo” on Sunday, October 17
All fees associated with Family Weekend registration will be waived or refunded if already paid in full (up to $250 will be covered)
$100 gift card to the University Bookstore
A GMU woven blanket from the University Bookstore
A featured article on GMU.edu
A family photoshoot and featured cover photo on the 2022-2023 Family Calendar

We look forward to welcoming and spending time with your Mason Family during Family Weekend! If your family has a question or needs assistance, visit our website at MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu, specifically the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) webpage, or reach out to us via email at [email protected], phone at (703) 993-2475, or our live chat at MasonFamily.gmu.edu.

Mason’s new masking requirements for all faculty, staff and students

Dear Patriots,

We are less than two weeks from the start of the fall semester, and we are making final preparations to fully open George Mason University’s campuses and begin fall semester classes. We cannot wait to welcome the full university community back to our classrooms, laboratories, libraries, and other academic facilities, as well as our residence and dining halls, and once again to come together in person to learn, live, work, and thrive.

Fortunately, with our successful experiences last year and our continued understanding, we are well equipped with the tools we need to fully open our campuses safely and responsibly. As you know, last month, we made COVID-19 vaccinations a requirement on our campuses, excluding those with medical or religious exemptions. If you have not yet uploaded your vaccination information, we urge you to do so via this link.

As COVID-19 infections increase in our region, especially the prevalence of the Delta variant, effective immediately, our university again will require all individuals on our campus to wear masks indoors, including classrooms and laboratories, regardless of vaccination status. We will not require masks to be worn by those who are vaccinated in outdoor settings at this time; however, unvaccinated individuals are required to continue to wear masks outdoors when physical distancing cannot be maintained or at a university event. As we have done in the past, there are a few exceptions to our mask policy, which can be viewed online.

We will continue to assess our policy regarding the wearing of masks in the context of federal, state, and local guidelines and the advice of the medical and public health communities.

This renewed masking requirement is based on the recommendation of the Northern Virginia Health Directors, and in response to our adjacent jurisdictions that are experiencing elevated levels of COVID-19 and the Delta variant. Our university masking requirement will help us to do our part to hold back its spread.

With thousands of students soon arriving on our campus from all over Virginia, across the United States, and many other countries around the world — including many places where the Delta variant is far more prevalent — our vaccination and masking requirements will help us to guard against spreading the virus. It is important to remember that this is a public health emergency, not a private health emergency. Our own personal actions impact everyone around us — and we are affected by everyone else’s actions. We are all in this together.

Our community knows how to fight COVID together. To date, the Mason community has experienced remarkably low rates of COVID transmission. As of the start of this week, we were tracking just six active cases among our students, faculty, and staff. In addition, almost 85 percent of Mason students and employees have reported receiving the vaccine. This is a track record we intend to maintain, for the safety of everyone at Mason.

Coming back together requires that we continue our fight against COVID together. We have a robust plan to keep COVID in check — vaccines, masks, Mason COVID Health Check, and testing. We now need the resolve to use them relentlessly so that we together prevent COVID from spreading.

I have no doubt that Mason Nation will respond as it always has, by supporting each other and setting an example for others to follow. I look forward to welcoming you back to our campus and wish you a successful, inspiring, and healthy fall semester.

Sincerely,

Gregory Washington
President

Welcome Back to Mason

Patriots, it’s time to take our shot!

Mason announces new vaccination requirements for fall semester

Fellow Patriots:

As we make final preparations for fully reopening George Mason University, I am writing to share that we have new and urgent work at hand to ensure a safe return next month. Our community has done an admirable job at keeping one step ahead of COVID-19, preventing even a single known case of classroom transmission and keeping overall COVID cases to a minimum.

But COVID-19 is on the march with the spread of the far more contagious Delta variant, which the World Health Organization calls the “fastest and fittest” version of COVID yet. Children and adults under 50 are 2.5 times more likely to contract the Delta variant, according to Yale Medicine.

As CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has said, “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” In just one week, new cases increased 70 percent in the United States. Hospitalizations rose 36 percent, and deaths rose 26 percent – with 97 percent of all new hospitalizations occurring among the unvaccinated.

For the sake of all who are unable to receive vaccination, the single most effective way to avoid the virus and stop its spread is for the rest of us to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Therefore, Mason is joining the growing community of universities that require all students, faculty, and staff to get vaccinated, and to share verification of their vaccination status, in order to work, study, and live on campus. We will, of course, approve appropriate exemptions for medical and religious reasons. Following university policies and procedures, disciplinary action will be pursued against those faculty and staff who fail to receive an exemption and do not disclose their status and receive the vaccine. This action could include unpaid leave or possible loss of employment.

Mason students, faculty, and staff are required to share vaccination status through Mason COVID Health Check and, if vaccinated, your documentation through the Health Service portal by August 1. Faculty and staff that are not yet fully vaccinated by August 1, must receive their first shot by August 15.

Students seeking a medical or religious exemption must do so by August 1. Employees seeking a medical or religious exemption must do so by August 15. For more information on how to satisfy Mason’s vaccine and documentation requirements students should visit here and employees should visit here.

Vaccines are available on the first floor of the Johnson Center on the Fairfax Campus. They are also widely available through community clinics and healthcare providers. Visit vaccines.gov to locate vaccination providers nationwide.

This requirement is consistent with Mason’s longstanding history of protecting our community through requiring students to be immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles (rubeola), German measles (rubella), mumps, Hepatitis B, and meningitis. It is extended to faculty and staff for COVID-19 because the extraordinary nature of the pandemic demands it.

I recognize that a mandate is an extraordinary step to take, and one not taken without serious consideration of the public health situation and the safety of our community. This week I received the unanimous support of my Executive Council to move forward with the universal vaccine requirement, and I have taken this step for the sake of the health and safety of every Mason Patriot.

Thank you in advance for your continued commitment to maintaining your own health and that of your fellow Mason Patriots. We will see you on campus very shortly.

Sincerely,

Gregory Washington
President

Dr. Jason Dodge Hired as Director for ADVANCE

Dr. Jason Dodge will join the Mason-Nova community as the new Director for ADVANCE on July 26. Dr. Dodge has worked in higher education for over 10 years serving in various leadership capacities that have included building and sustaining curricular and co-curricular programs, leading student services units, overseeing retention initiatives, and cultivating inter-institutional partnerships. Most recently, he served as Director of Student Success on the University of Central Florida (UCF)/Valencia College Downtown Campus. In this role he led a diverse team of student services units whose mission is to serve the needs of all students on a unique integrated campus in downtown Orlando. He also served as Director for Transfer & Transition Services at UCF where he led a department serving approximately 13,000 new transfer students who matriculate to UCF each year. Dr. Dodge graduated with his AA degree from Santa Fe Community College and transferred to the University of Florida where he earned his BA in English, MA in student personnel, and Ph.D. in higher education administration and policy.

(from Provost’s Newsletter, 07-14-21)

Mason Family Calendar in more languages!

Our Mason community is diverse not only in people but in languages as well. New Student and Family Programs (NSFP) produces a family calendar with important university dates, tips, and reminders and distributes English versions during in-person events including Move-In and Family Weekend. For the past few years, NSFP has worked with the Office of International Programs and Services and an off-campus partner to translate the family calendar into more languages. For 2021-2022, we are excited to share that you can view the family calendar in Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Arabic! Visit https://masonfamily.gmu.edu/publications/ to view this year’s family calendar!

2021-22 Mason Reads

The Mason Reads book for 2021–22 is “The Undocumented Americans” by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Fall 2021 students will receive the book in the mail in early August. Programs around the book’s themes occur throughout the year, including film screenings and panel discussions. Mason Reads seeks to increase opportunities to engage around the book’s themes. If interested, contact Sam Greenberg at [email protected]or visit masonreads.gmu.edu.