Board of Visitors elects new executive committee, reviews president's goals, welcomes new provost, and announces transformative gift

At its first meeting of the new fiscal year, the George Mason University Board of Visitors discussed President Gregory Washington's goals for 2026-27, elected new leadership, announced a transformative gift for the College of Public Health, and officially welcomed new provost Marion Underwood to the university.

The backdrop of the BOV meeting on July 31, and the board's annual planning conference the day prior, centered on how George Mason cannot only endure the transformation reshaping higher education in the face of fiscal, technological, political, and demographic challenges, but how the university can be a model for large public research universities in this evolving era.

Washington recapped institutional performance highlights from the past year, including increases in undergraduate and Mason Korea enrollment and increased philanthropy and state support. He also cited growth of the Early Identification Program, a balanced budget, launching the Grand Challenge Initiative, and university-wide AI implementation among the achievements.

Goals for the current fiscal year include initiating and executing a new strategic plan; forming Reimagining Education through the Doctorate (RED) task forces in every school and college to examine shortening time to earning bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees; expanding direct admissions; leveraging the innovation districts at the Science and Technology Campus in Manassas and at Mason Square in Arlington; and launching the office of Organizational Excellence and Institutional Integrity by next spring.

Washington also mentioned starting a "university-wide entrepreneurship framework" to complement the career planning and placement structures already in place to give students more paths to success in a shifting job market being redefined by AI.

"The George Mason University you are involved with now has never been greater and has never been stronger than what it is at this particular point in time," Washington told the board, whose 16 members include 13 in their first year of service. "That's even through all the turmoil. Even through all the challenges. Even through all of the back-and-forth. This university is in really good shape. It's meeting its mission. It's doing so like no other institution in the commonwealth. I feel really confident in being able to say that, and the data really highlights it."

Washington asked the board members to tackle five priorities in the coming year: develop a comprehensive plan to advocate for George Mason in Richmond to close the existing state funding gap, connect the university with philanthropists, greenlight capital projects, broker new relationships with industry and government, and use their strategic and planning acumen to help advance the university's future.

"This university has always overachieved," Washington said. "We've always done more with less. We've always led and pushed the envelope. That's actually what we bring to the commonwealth and what we bring to our peer institutions. Now is not the time to stop that. Now is the time to lean into our base in terms of who we are."

The BOV elected a new executive committee. Sumeet Shrivastava, MBA '94, who had been serving as vice rector, was chosen as rector. Shrivastava is the former chair of the George Mason University Foundation Board of Trustees and past president of the George Mason Alumni Association.

BOV members also elected Anne Altman, BS Marketing '82, as vice rector; Paul Misener, JD '93, as secretary; and Delbert Parks and Jon Peterson as members-at-large. Altman and Misener had been serving on the executive committee as members-at-large.

The BOV also welcomed one new member, James W. Dyke Jr., who served as the state's Secretary of Education from 1990 to 1993 and as a domestic policy advisor to former Vice President Walter Mondale. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger appointed Dyke to the BOV in June.

Like Washington, Shrivastava said he believes George Mason is in an advantageous position to emerge as the model of a modern university at a time of dramatic change in higher ed.

"George Mason is in a perfect place to execute that," Shrivastava said. "We're a region that's growing. … We're already number one in Virginia for the outcomes families really care about-degree value and upward mobility. Doesn't make the shocks and challenges less real. If we manage them with discipline, and frankly a little obsession-if not a lot of obsession-we help lead [the transformation]. That's how a 50-year-old university becomes the model."

The BOV announced a gift from Barry Dewberry and Arlene Evans to the George Mason University Foundation in support of the School of Nursing-the largest philanthropic commitment ever for the College of Public Health and the first naming gift for an academic unit within the college. Pending approval by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), the school will be named the Arlene Evans and Barry Dewberry School of Nursing. Evans is a retired operating room nurse, and she and Dewberry are among the university's greatest benefactors. Watch for a future George story about this gift.

At the BOV's annual planning conference the day prior, Washington introduced Underwood and new Antonin Scalia Law School Dean Daniel B. Kelly. BOV members and other attendees took part in breakout sessions run by university leaders on fiscal sustainability, demographic sustainability, and technological sustainability.

Those sessions reinforced points that attendees heard earlier in the day from Washington and Daniel Greenstein, chief of industry transformation at higher ed technology company Ellucian and the former chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), where he led an extensive overhaul of that system.

The planning conference marked Greenstein's second appearance at the university in recent months-he was a panelist at the P3•EDU MAP Summit at Fuse at Mason Square in March.

He too urged attendees to adapt to the changing landscape and said he believes George Mason is strategically poised to successfully adapt, more so than many peer universities.

"Higher education is the last and most reliable engine of social mobility and workforce development," Greenstein said. "We have to prioritize mission over our current practice. I know that's hard because change is hard and change is emotional. The alternative is irrelevance.

"Institutions that are going to be successful are going to learn how to remain uncomfortable. Use that discomfort to drive mission and to create the changes that are necessary."