With vision approved, Mason administration to determine student growth

The university is exploring options for on-campus student growth and expansion of the online graduate program (photo courtesy of George Mason University).

On March 20, George Mason University’s Board of Visitors passed a resolution to approve President Ángel Cabrera’s new strategic vision for the university. With the approval, the university will begin planning to fulfill the goals laid out in the vision.

Though the vision provides broad guidelines for how the university will grow, the administration has yet to establish details on how to accomplish this goal.

According to Provost Peter Stearns, one of the first questions the university will explore is how to increase the student population.

“Our current plan calls for about a 3,500 headcount growth between now and 2020, pushing us toward 38,000 students,” Stearns said on his blog. “All major categories, except Law, are open for modest expansion under this scenario: a bit of annual freshman, transfer and Master’s level growth, plus similarly modest improvements in retention. The result, again by 2020, would be about 420 more degrees awarded annually than is currently the case.”

Though these numbers are not definite, the university is looking at scenarios for expanding both the on-campus population and the online graduate programs.

“We know we are going to grow. Do we grow modestly or do we think there is a reasonable basis for growing up to 50,000 [students]?” Stearns said.

“We expect growth in both areas in the next decade, and over the course of the strategic planning process this year we will hope to say how much growth we will be planning for,” Vice Provost Michelle Marks said in an email.

Part of the online growth will involve a new program called Mason Online, in which graduate programs will be held solely online. Marks commented that Mason plans to add a few new programs every year.  

 “… [Growth has] been an important part of our history obviously and we are committed to continuing,” Stearns said. “We want to be an accessible and diverse institution, figuring out what’s possible and reasonable is an important part of moving this forward.”