Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations

Increased research awards, positive career outcomes and increased enrollment for Fall 2023 shared at May 4 BOV meeting

Colleen Rich — Mon, 15 May 2023 13:42:23 +0000

Increased research awards, positive career outcomes and increased enrollment for Fall 2023 shared at May 4 BOV meeting Colleen Rich Mon, 05/15/2023 - 09:42

��AV is seeing a steady increase in research awards, fall enrollment numbers and in its number of graduates, based on reports to the Board of Visitors at their May 4 meeting.

The value of awards to ��AV researchers is up 35% from this time last year, “a leading indicator for continued long-term growth for our research expenditures,” Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact Andre Marshall reported at the BOV research committee meeting.

Through three quarters of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the value of awards has climbed to $200 million, up from $147.9 at this point last year. The value of proposals of $536.6 million is up from $488.4 million, and the number of proposals has increased to 972 from 950.

A majority of the board approved a $300 tuition increase that would be rolled back for in-state undergraduates if state leaders approve Mason’s budget requests. The BOV will approve an amended budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year once Virginia finalizes its spending plan. The BOV committee and full board meetings were livestreamed on GMU-TV. Complete meeting materials can be found here.

Also included in the meeting was the presentation of the annual Jack Wood Awards for Town-Gown Relations.

Provost Mark Ginsberg, in his report to the Academic Programs, Diversity and University Community committee, outlined good news about Mason alumni, students about to graduate, and students headed to Mason this fall.

A Mason Career Plans Survey found that 87% of Class of 2022 graduates reported a positive career outcome and that 86% of graduates are employed in Virginia, Maryland, or the District of Columbia, “which is a testament to the economic impact of our university on our community,” Ginsberg said. Survey respondents report a median salary of $72,000.

Ginsberg noted that Mason is on track this spring to graduate its largest class in its history, with nearly 11,000 students earning degrees and certificates. Area employers are eager to hire them as well. About 100 employers are expected at the 2023 Just-in-Time Hiring Fair on May 22 in Dewberry Hall.

“This is an event that other universities do not do this late in the season,” said Saskia Campbell, executive director of University Career Services. “It is because we have such high demand from our employers and graduates that we are able to host an event that late in the season. The indicators are very good.”

And on May 1, Mason had its largest number ever of prospective incoming students making deposits to attend the university, up about 320 from last May. Fall enrollment also is ahead of May 2022.

“We anticipate, if all things come as we expect, we will have the largest incoming class the university has ever had in our history this fall,” Ginsberg said. “We are clearly an outlier in the most positive of ways.”

He also gave an update to the board about plans for a medical school for Mason, sharing three possible pathways that venture could take.

The BOV continued its May tradition of honoring graduates from the university’s Early Identification Program, which works with Northern Virginia middle and high schools to find economically disadvantaged scholars and provide pathways for those students to become the first members of their family to attend college and earn a degree.

The BOV this year saluted 23 graduating EIP students, including criminology, law and society major and Honors College student Noel Quezada, who shortly after graduation will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. EIP Director Khaseem Davis said the program also is celebrating 120 high school graduates in EIP.

“I can't imagine my life without this one-of-a-kind program made up of the most sincere hearts,” Quezada said in his remarks to the board. “As EIP alumni, we will be ever indebted to the program and the opportunity this has given our families and [it’s] given us a place we can call our second home.”

“It is always good to have a reminder of why we are here and what is important,” Mason President Gregory Washington said. “Every time one of our students gets up and speaks, it becomes very clear what the purpose of all of this is and quite frankly you just want to make sure they have everything that they need and deserve in order to be successful.”

Topics

Campus News

Board of Visitors

Early Identification Program (EIP)

Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations

enrollment growth

Strategic Direction

A Concert with a Cause: Jazz4Justice™ Celebrates 20 Years of Giving back through Music

Kirstin Franko — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 20:32:12 +0000

A Concert with a Cause: Jazz4Justice™ Celebrates 20 Years of Giving back through Music Kirstin Franko Wed, 11/03/2021 - 16:32

Hear members of the Mason Jazz Ensemble and more in Jazz4Justice™ November 20 at 8 p.m. at the Center for the Arts. Photo by Gabriel Rivera-Martinez.

On Saturday, November 20 at 8 p.m., ��AV’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music is proud to present the Jazz4Justice™ 20th Anniversary Concert, a one-of-a-kind event celebrating Northern Virginia’s love of music while raising funds to support legal services for low-income Northern Virginians and the ��AV Jazz Studies program.

This year, in celebration of Jazz4Justice™’s 20^th anniversary, Professor of Jazz Studies and Mason Jazz Ensemble Director Jim Carroll has assembled a stellar musical program featuring a tribute to the great Duke Ellington. The performance will include world premieres of new music as well as classic jazz standards performed by the Mason Jazz Ensemble and Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble. To commemorate the special event, ��AV Provost and Executive Vice President Mark Ginsberg will take the stage as a special guest conductor and lead the Mason Jazz Ensemble in select performances.

“We thought what better person to ask to take the baton as guest conductor for our 20th Anniversary than our Chief Academic Officer, Provost Mark Ginsberg,” Carroll said. “We are grateful he agreed to join us and lead us as Special Guest Conductor.”

Jazz4Justice™ is presented in partnership with Legal Services of Northern Virginia (LSNV), a nonprofit legal aid organization that has assisted thousands of clients in the NOVA region for over 40 years. The services of LSNV in tandem with the musical talents of Mason’s Jazz and Vocal Ensemble has transformed Jazz4Justice™ into a welcoming space where Jazz admirers can congregate and celebrate their love for music. With over 3,000 concert attendees annually and over 50 Jazz4Justice™ concerts held so far, the audience response has been an enthusiastic one, and the event’s reach continues to expand year after year. In celebration of Jazz4Justice™’s incredible impact, alumni from the Dewberry School of Music Jazz program have been invited back to perform during the event’s program.

“Giving back to the community through musical performance is a great opportunity to share the joy and history of Jazz,” shared Tomas Jackson, a Dewberry School of Music alumnus (MA in Music ’20) and six-time Jazz4Justice™ performer. “Those strong relationships have lasted past my graduation and have inspired my peers and I to continue our support of our community and pursuit of Jazz through writing, arranging, recording, and performing. We will always be grateful for the opportunities and inspiration Jazz4Justice™ provided us.”

Professor of Jazz Studies and Mason Jazz Ensemble Director Jim Carroll with the 2021 Jack Wood Award for Town-Gown Relations.

Jazz4Justice™ began in 2000 when Fairfax attorney Edward L. Weiner attended a jazz recital by Mason’s School of Music. Impressed by the music, and reflecting on his work as a past President of the Fairfax Law Foundation (FLF), Weiner saw an opportunity for a new partnership—one in which universities would provide the musical talent and the local legal community would provide the audience and sponsors.

Today, this breakthrough idea has grown into a symphonic, celebratory event with over $500,000 raised for music scholarships, educational aid, and charitable legal services for Virginians in need of civic resources. Due to its astounding impact, Jazz4Justice™ has received awards from the American Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar, and has most recently received the 2021 Jack Wood Award for Town-Gown Relations, a coveted award recognizing leadership in fostering beneficial relationships between ��AV and the community during the past year.

“This year’s Jazz4Justice is especially important as so many people in our community are hurting,” Carroll added. “That we can use Jazz, a true metaphor for democracy and teach our students to be “Artists as Citizens”' is truly a blessing.”

Tickets to the concert at the Center for the Arts are available at the Ticket Office (open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), by calling at 703-993-2787, or at cfa.gmu.edu.

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Center for the Arts

Campus News

Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations

Dewberry School of Music

Mason faculty and students honored with Jack Wood town-gown relations awards

Colleen Rich — Wed, 20 May 2020 20:00:17 +0000

Mason faculty and students honored with Jack Wood town-gown relations awards Colleen Rich Wed, 05/20/2020 - 16:00

Topics

Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations

Community Engagement

Students in the Community

Campus News