Mason BOV adopts strategic direction, plus updates on workforce readiness, class modalities and science education

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As George Mason University looks ahead to its next 50 years, the Board of Visitors has adopted a strategic direction that will serve as the blueprint for the onset of the university’s second half-century.

The five-year plan, titled “Mason Is All Together Different,” received BOV approval at the governing body’s Dec. 1 meeting. The plan identifies five broad priorities, with specific strategies and actions for each:

  • The Student Experience
  • Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities
  • Partnerships for Economic and Social Impact
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Faculty and Staff Success

You can read the plan here.

“The future of higher education belongs to those universities that can best adapt,” Mason President Gregory Washington says in the plan’s introduction. “The world we are entering will be fundamentally different than the one we are leaving. To adequately prepare future generations, society needs universities that are poised to be, as we say at Mason, ‘All Together Different.’”

The plan marks the culmination of a comprehensive year-plus process that included extensive outreach to a wide variety of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and industry leaders through a series of interviews, focus groups, town hall meetings and a survey that drew more than 2,000 responses. As Washington says, “Everyone and anyone should see themselves reflected in this plan.”

strategic direction cover

Ken Walsh, chief of staff and vice president for strategic initiatives, headed the strategic planning process and formulated a series of ways to measure strides made toward achieving the objectives.

“The roadmap takes lofty goals presented in the strategic plan and brings them down to detailed action steps, performance indicators and progress metrics so we can see direct progress over the next five years,” Walsh said.

Other items from the BOV meeting: