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IN THE AUGUST EDITION
Goodbye Webex Services and
Hello Microsoft Teams
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UPCOMING
ALL STAFF MEETINGS
New Date:
Sept. 18, Tech Team
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Nov. 6, Professional Development
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Chris O'Sullivan
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Team: Relationship Management
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Hometown: Santa Maria, CA
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Q. What does your usual workday look like?
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In a non-pandemic world, I usually wake up well before dawn, throw on some business casual, and hit the road for a 14-hour day of recruiting patriots in Southern California. These days, my docket is usually filled with email, making quips in the RM Teams chat, administrative work, and staring longingly out of my office window.
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Q. What 3 words would you use to describe Mason?
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Vibrant. Energetic. Welcoming.
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Q. What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?
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Aside from the joy that I get from the actual counseling aspects of my job, I would have to say that travel is the most enjoyable. Regional admission counselors tend to thrive in our line of work because we love the hours spent on the road, airport coffee, and hotels.
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Q. What would people never guess you do in your role?
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Folks probably wouldn't guess just how many miles I drive for Mason during recruitment season in the fall. In September of 2019 alone, I logged over 3,200 miles on the road.
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Q. Where would you like to travel to?
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At this point? Anywhere. Anywhere outside of my house.
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Jill Manuel
Graduate Admissions Specialist
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Q. Before working in the Office of Admissions, what was the most unusual or interesting job you had?
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The most interesting job I had prior to joining Mason was a set painter. While living in Knoxville, TN I worked as a set painter for the University of Tennessee Clarence Brown Theater. It was perhaps the most enjoyable, yet physical, job I've ever had and I learned that I was much more capable and creative than I had ever thought.
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Q. What 3 words would you use to describe Mason?
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Inclusive. Diverse. Supportive.
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Q. What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?
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The people. In any job, the people are what make it or break it. I have a great team and I love working with them.
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Q. What is the most important thing you've learned in the last 5 years?
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I have learned how capable I am. I think learning is life-long and I learn something new every day. I thought I had learned all there was to know about myself until I was encountered by situations that forced me to act in ways that I never thought I could. I love knowing that I'm never too old to learn new tricks.
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If you were stuck on an island, what 3 things would you bring?
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A good book, a good man, and good food.
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Ousswa Ghannouchi
Assistant Director, Transcript Evaluator for INTO Mason Programs
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Hometown: Born in Madison, WI, raised in Fairfax, VA
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Q. What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?
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My team! I love getting to work with these amazing people and knowing we truly support one another! Being a part of both Admissions and INTO Mason gives us a larger support network throughout the university which I am very grateful for. I also enjoy meeting the INTO Mason students in person during Orientation week.
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Q. What 3 words would you use to describe Mason?
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Community. Inclusive. Collaborative.
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Q. What is the best vacation you have been on?
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Last year I studied abroad for a week in Amman, Jordan, and while it was technically school, (and I did learn a lot!), the trip felt like a vacation. My flight there through Doha was delayed and I got a free night in Qatar! Jordan was also such an incredible country. The food was out of this world, and the Dead Sea was gorgeous. I did some of my best shopping there, and I would definitely go back!
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Q. What is your favorite food?
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We made it! Fall 2020 semester is finally here! While March 17 seems like an eternity ago, we enrolled our fall class and it is time to celebrate our success. Through WebEx and Zoom, email to case, and no shortage of overflowing individual email accounts, we have enabled 10,271 new undergraduate and graduate students to enroll at Mason as of August 24.
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I could not be prouder of this team! With not a lot of lead time and with some clever improvisation, we served students and families and made it work. While not every enrollment goal was achieved, the reality is that given the circumstances, things could have been worse. In addition to all that we do for our office, we have also supported Mason Student Services Center and partner offices with the backlog of cases they have. We truly are #OneTeam.
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I am happy to report that we are turning the page on fall 2020 and moving forward to enroll our spring and fall 2021 classes. We are confirming our recruitment opportunities and shoring up our virtual engagement strategy for students, parents, and stakeholders. The Events and Relationship Management Teams are working on exciting new formats for our large and small virtual events. As dates are announced, be sure to block your calendars for all-office participation because we need maximum support to make these events a seamless and welcoming experience for our students.
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A final note, the university beginning-of-term census date is September 8. Mason should have a better sense of our overall financial health after this date. As more is known, Vice President Burge and I will certainly share any impact on our office and division.
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Again, thank you for all that each of you has done to write this great enrollment story for fall! Reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
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HR/Finance
My team has been hard at work coordinating searches for the Dean of Admissions and Executive Director of Enrollment Operations. I hope that you have had a chance to participate in the presentations for these searches, and are able to join us for the remaining ones this week. Moving the interviews to a virtual format has had its challenges, but everyone has been doing a great job adjusting.
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As we move into the fall we will be facing a lot of new challenges, and seeing some new faces (raise your hand if you are excited about virtual onboarding)! We will need to work as a team to continue to feel connected with each other, and make our new team members feel welcome. If anyone has suggestions for a virtual team building activity, please sent them to [email protected] - we would be excited to hear them!
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Please continue to take care of yourselves, both physically and mentally. Take time off, take advantage of the resources that Mason provides, ask for assistance when you need it.
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Relationship Management
August is here and soon it will be the fall! It's hard to believe summer has gone so quickly and that we have not been on campus together since mid-March. I don't know where the time is going!
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The all 2020 freshman and transfer classes are tracking well. We did not see a large drop off in students as we expected we might see this summer, but we will know more after census in early to mid-September. We continue to admit students and take new applications through the first week of class for the fall 2020 semester. At the same time, we are pivoting to begin recruiting the next class of Patriots for spring and fall 2021.
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This fall like most of 2020 will not be like any other time we've experienced before. We are gearing up for a virtual fall travel season that will take us to different parts of the country virtually for high school visits and college fairs. The good news is we will be able to cover more areas more quickly in parts of the country we've never traveled before. There won't be long drives, rental cars, hotel stays, and meals out, and we will miss seeing all of the wonderful students, families and school counselors we would meet in person each fall! We will also miss the other college reps we would get to hang out with in our territories. We are ready to start "Zooming" through this travel season!
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We are getting ready for application reading season, too. Our partners in ATT and EM are working with us to develop a new application reading tool within TargetX/Salesforce that we hope will be ready for the next cycle. We are preparing Workflow just in case we need a backup solution. We are excited for the efficiency that a new application reading process will create. Hopefully, this gives us more time to do what we do best, which is build relationships with prospective students, families, CBOs and school counselors.
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Enjoy the last remaining days of summer! As always, we are here if you need anything.
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WSP/K12/Events
The WSP/K12/Events team is fully in virtual fall recruitment.
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WSP Team - We are planning for a digital teacher/counselor marketing plan for the fall. We would typically send out mail to schools, but in order to reach teachers/counselors at home and to minimize costs, we are switching to a digital plan. We will keep RM informed with links to share with counselors as they begin their digital travel. We are delaying our student mailing until we have more information on a vaccine and summer 2021 travel.
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Envision - Our side of Envision marketing has been delayed to assess summer 2021 travel. We are working on projections with College Board to ensure we are meeting our contractual agreements.
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K12 - The link for K-8 tours is active https://events.admissions.gmu.edu/k12grouptours/. Schools can sign up for virtual visits. Governor School at Innovation Park is all virtual this fall. We are reviewing info for our other dual enrollment partners.
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Events - We already hosted a junior and senior college planning webinar. We have multiple webinars planned for the rest of the semester. There are two large fall open houses this year. The first on October 8 is called Mason LIVE! and is a talk show featuring the latest and greatest at Mason. The second fall event on October 29 is called Fall Premiere and will run similar to the Virtual Spring Preview. We are also planning Alcanza and hoping to have a nation-wide search.
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Operations
by Crystal Hall Brett
Happy 1st week of classes! It has been a busy push to the end, but we are almost there! Big thanks to everyone for continuing to be flexible and accommodating to get as many students admitted and enrolled as possible!
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Here are the updates for the Operation teams:
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The Transfer, Non-Degree, and Domicile Teams are going through the last push to get students admitted and enrolled in the fall. The beginning of the semester is always stressful!
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The Transfer Credit Evaluation Team has been busy finalizing IB/AP credits, attending orientations and finishing last minute credit evaluations for students for the fall.
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Document Center will continue their summer hours until after the Labor Day holiday. Starting September 8th, they will be going in twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) to process packages and mail. They have coordinated with the Mason Student Services Center to accept documents from students/applicants and will collect those twice a week. Big thanks to members of the Admissions team who have agreed to accept packages at home or to go to the JC to pick up packages for the Document Center. It really does take a village!
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The Graduate Operations Team continues to process applications for Fall 2020 intake and the final push to get graduate students in the classroom. They are also starting their fall audit process which will take until October to complete. The tech team is busy finalizing annual updates for the Fall 2021 application from all of the units and we will see those changes reflected when we open up the application on September 15, 2020! Application launches for Fall 2021 degree, Spring 2021 non-degree AND Summer 2021 degree!
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The INTO Mason Team remains flexible, and is working closely with INTO and other university partners. They too pushed back their deadlines to accommodate students for the fall semester and are wrapping up those applications.
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Happy Fall to everyone and wishes for a safe return to campus!
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International
by Meghan Walter
What a summer! I am so proud of how hard everyone worked to bring in this class. Our international students had so many ups and downs and we have finally made it to the end of this admissions cycle. We are hopeful things will get better from here for the international students coming to the US. For Fall 2020, we had many student choose to enroll in online classes from their home country due to the difficulties of entering the United States. We did have a lucky few that were able to enter the US to start on campus in-person this semester! The rest decided to defer to spring or next fall in hopes that things will be better in future semesters.
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There are still many countries that have not opened their schools or tried opening and then had to close them again. This still makes it very difficult for students to get official documents to us. We will continue to be flexible in collecting documents from students and following up with them to eventually get the official copies once things get better. For any student's that sent unofficial documents over the summer and still have not been able to submit the officials by the start of school will have a hold placed on their file September 1st. We will then continue to work with them through the semester to get the official document from the school. If it continues to be a problem for them we will assess the situation at a later date.
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Looking to next cycle, we are in the process of registering for virtual fairs all over the world. If we can find some glimmer of positivity in this pandemic, it has allowed us to participate in virtual recruitment fairs in counties that we normally would not have had the time/budget to travel to in person. We are looking forward to speaking with students all over the world over the next couple of months.
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Military Services
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The Military Services team will remain remote for the Fall. We are excited to be available via phone from 9 - 4, Monday - Friday using the Veracity System. Please don't hesitate to reach out for assistance in your recruiting and admissions needs.
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We are also available to offer 1-1 meetings via zoom for families that have questions regarding VA benefits at Mason.
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We hope these efforts will show why Mason is one of the best places to be for military and veteran families. We wish everyone a smooth transition into the Fall term.
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Admissions Tech Corner
Cisco Webex service offerings, including WebEx Teams, are being phased out at Mason and will be shut down on May 31, 2021. ATT encourages everyone to install Microsoft Teams with an eye towards migrating to that platform in the coming months. The desktop installer for MS Teams (Windows & Mac) can be found at the following link:
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Mobile versions for Android and iOS are also available on the respective platform’s app store.
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Any questions may be directed to Matt Scott.
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