Statements

George Mason University is winning the battle against COVID-19. We have not won yet, but we are close.

Anne Gentry has been named George Mason University's interim University Counsel effective immediately.

We will open as planned on January 3, and the spring semester will begin as planned on January 24. We will require all faculty, staff, and students to obtain a booster shot as soon as they are able, and provide proof of the booster to Mason. And we will continue our indoor masking, testing, and Mason COVID Health Check requirements.

Prioritize your health and safety. Here are a few departing reminders to help ensure that we close out this year happy and healthy!

Soon we will significantly reduce required COVID testing for most who are fully vaccinated, and will offer free tests to any member of the university community who wishes to be tested, regardless of their vaccination status. The Mason community has earned this rollback in testing through its collective diligence in taking the many precautions to keep COVID at bay.

Mason is initiating the largest-scale surveillance testing protocol of any Virginia university, in which our goal is to test up to 13,000 members of the Mason community each week.

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.

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 are just six weeks away from the kickoff of the fall 2021 semester, and I am thrilled to confirm that the campuses of George Mason University will be fully open to welcome a record number of students.

As we turn our attention to the Fall Semester, we must all continue to do our part and work together to keep Mason safe. This starts with new policies for COVID-19 vaccination, testing and masking.

The sudden reversal of CDC mask recommendations has prompted many questions about what this means for George Mason University. As we review changing protocols, we will continue to require masks when on campus, and will provide an update with definitive guidance when we have it. As we consider these factors and review the changing protocols, we will continue to require masks when on campus, just as we have done this past year. 

The verdict is in on the Derek Chauvin trial, and he has been held accountable for the injustice that occurred to George Floyd. We can breathe a collective sigh of relief that jurors reached the verdict they did.  With that being said, the nation must sustain its quest for systemic change to its criminal justice system, to ultimately make such episodes exceedingly rare.