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Second Quarter - June 2026
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Summer 2026 is officially here, and I hope everyone had an opportunity to get outside over the weekend for some fun in the sun. As a sports fan, I thoroughly enjoyed all the competitive action this past weekend. The New York Knicks finally won the NBA championship after a 53-year drought, the U.S. Men’s soccer team had a dominant victory in their World Cup opener, and there was even a UFC cage fight on the South Lawn at the White House. These are great examples of how unimaginable outcomes are possible with solid teamwork, chemistry, and resilience. We will need to lean into these same attributes over the next few weeks as we bring in the next class of Mason Patriots.
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I am so proud of this team and all that you have accomplished during this recruitment cycle. We had our fair share of challenges due to local demographic shifts, federal policy changes, DOJ investigations, changes in student behavior, and the transition to Patriot Connect (just to name a few). However, we continue to make steady progress toward our goals while supporting each other every step of the way.
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As the 2025-2026 recruitment season comes to an end, I want to encourage you all to reflect on what you have learned this year, cherish the relationships you have made, and celebrate all your personal and professional accomplishments. Your contributions to this team have been extremely valuable, and you should be very proud of the countless lives you have impacted through your work in admissions.
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Thank you for continuing to strive for excellence in your respective roles. It is a pleasure to work with such an amazing group of people, and I am honored to serve as your Dean.
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WELCOME TO OUR TEAM!
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Omolola Oviroh
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Transfer Admissions Assistant
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Claudia Concha
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Admissions Operations Assistant
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Caroline Silvera
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Team: Admissions Outreach & Partnerships
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Start Date: June 29, 2026
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Special Features in this Edition
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OneTeam SPOTLIGHT on Callia Barwick
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UNIT UPDATES
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HR & Finance
Are you taking advantage of the discounts you get for being an employee at George Mason? Did you know that there are hundreds of available discounts on food, travel, tickets, apparel and more available at https://patriotperks.gmu.edu/.
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You can find even more discounts when you visit the Commonwealth of Virginia Employee Discounts Marketplace at https://commonwealthofvirginia.savings.workingadvantage.com/home. On this page you can find discounted tickets to Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens, as well as deals on cars, pet insurance, cruises, computers, movie tickets and more.
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Another fun way to shop is visit GovDeals at https://www.govdeals.com/en. This is where all the surplus items of the Commonwealth of Virginia (including George Mason) are sold to the public to generate revenue for the state. Check out this page to find things you didn't know you wanted - Native American bolos, a box of kitchen knives, a dump truck, etc. Be sure to adjust the radius to somewhere you are willing to travel - many of these items you must pick up in person and won't be delivered.
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Document Center
The Document Center has fully transitioned into summer mode with the arrival of final high school transcripts! We'll be entering graduation dates into SOAHSCH and checking for failing grades for each transcript we receive, which will keep us busy! Additionally, while we are still doing most of our work in Banner, we are prepared for the gradual transition of our work to Patriot Connect.
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If anyone has any specific ideas/requests for document processing in Patriot Connect or wants to workshop ideal workflows together, please reach out to Byron -- this is the best time to do it while volume is still small! The Document Center is, as always, invested in finding a way to do things that makes the most sense for all parties involved.
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CredEval Team
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The CredEval team is in its busiest season, evaluating transcripts for both our current and incoming fall students. In addition to the daily high volume, we expect two major surges of documents: first, when the VCCS schools post spring semester degrees, and second, just after the Fourth of July, when AP and IB score reports arrive.
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Transfer Recruitment
Summer is here, and while the weather started off rainy the latter part of May, hopefully this means better weather stays with us though I know we need the rain! Just as summer heats up, the work enrolling transfer students for the fall term heats up, too. We are on track to enroll another large transfer class this fall with the most applications we have ever had year-to-date. Where we need to close the gap is with our admits and deposits. Our team is actively engaged in both application review and decisioning, and calls to admits to push next steps. Summer melt is of concern, so Vice President Burge has assembled a team, which I am part of, to address the common barriers to transfer enrollment, mainly class availability and advising appointment availability. We will do all that we can within our team to control for melt.
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We are excited for a large, virtual event on June 9th for our admitted transfers. This leads into the June 15th reply date for Fall 2026 transfer enrollment. Beyond these dates, we are also excited to now have the former Office of Community College Partnerships as part of our team! And we are excited that Jason Cottrell has begun his 4th month as Director of ADVANCE. He has great work ongoing to examine data needs, data collection and coaching practices. More to come from Jason and team!
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Graduate Admissions
Happy Summer! May you enjoy the calm before the wave 2 release! We are busy working out the tweaks with Patriot Connect and processing applications for Spring 2027! We are having some integration issues that we are hoping will be resolved soon. Additionally, migrated applications are not yet connected to Banner. We are experiencing some new system hiccups that everyone is patiently trying to navigate! Appreciate your support and patience.
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OGA is also trying to wrap up last minute Fall 2026 applications in TargetX and hope for one last boost in numbers to help with enrollment. Things will pick up considerably in August so we too are enjoying a bit of a breather until then. See you soon at the summer camps or summer trainings!
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Freshman Recruitment
May 1st has come and gone, Orientation season is upon us, and high school graduation traffic just won't quit. Now that the summer months are here, the Relationship Management team has been able to come up for air at least for a little while. Summer projects (setting up for next cycle success) have begun, Summer training and Dean's Day sessions are being planned/scheduled, and anti-melt outreach has been happening by the team and Goldie. In the coming weeks, we will start planning and scheduling our travel/recruitment events for the fall, but until then, everyone is keeping busy playing in the new Patriot Connect Case System (huge shout out to everyone making change requests and keeping the attention to detail alive and well).
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See everyone in Deans Day sessions, or at the WSP move-in days, but stay cool until the next newsletter!
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Outreach & Partnerships
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Washington Scholars Program
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The Washington Youth Summit on the Environment (WYSE.gmu.edu) begins at the end of the month and both sessions of The Washington Journalism and Media Conference (WJMC.gmu.edu) are in July! The team is busy preparing for staff arrival next week, training, and then welcoming 900 students this summer. We have printed the 100-page WYSE workbook and are finalizing WJMC now. Speakers are booked, including the CEO of the Student Conservation Association, the TikTok producer from The Washington Post, the DOJ reporter from the New York Times, the Beyonce Reporter for USA Today, and many more!
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Thank you to everyone who is helping with conference check-in on the arrival days. Everyone is invited to the conference closings celebrations on Fridays, July 3, 17 & 24.
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We are also figuring out what WSP will look like in Patriot Connect so rebuilding the registration system, SalesForce Community, and integrating many different objects.
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Everyone received the 2026-2027 events calendar in your email on June 1.
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Middle school and high school group tours are over for this academic year. We saw 3,525 middle school students and welcomed 2,973 high school students, as well as facilitating 87 workshops in local schools.
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The Honors College recruitment goals were met! Numbers look great, and we are looking forward to meeting students at orientation this summer.
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International
We are working closely with each international student to ensure they have the resources and support needed to arrive in August. This summer is expected to be particularly challenging. Many U.S. embassies in the Middle East remain closed due to the conflict involving Iran. We are hopeful that students may be able to travel to neighboring countries for visa interviews, but availability is not guaranteed. Over the next several weeks, we will continue monitoring the situation to determine whether students are able to secure visas or may need to defer their enrollment to January. In most other regions of the world, visa appointment operations appear to be continuing as usual.
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We are also monitoring the U.S. Department of State website closely for any updates to visa policies. We anticipate that additional policy changes may be announced this summer, although nothing official has been released at this time.
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In other I-20 news, OIPS has transitioned to a new computer system called George Mason University International Hub through Terra Dotta. This system is now the primary platform students use to request and receive their Form I-20. Because the system was only recently launched, our team is actively learning the new processes for issuing I-20s and helping students navigate their new accounts to access their documents. Please note that we are no longer emailing I-20s directly to students.
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As always, if international students reach out to you with questions, please refer them to [email protected] for undergraduate students and [email protected] for graduate students.
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Military Services
The Office of Military Services has continued to see growth across all types of VA beneficiaries. From inquiries and applications, to continuing enrolled students, our office is busier than ever. As a reminder, OMS should be the point of contact for any benefits questions. This includes questions about the interaction of VA benefits with financial aid, consideration for in-state tuition rates, tuition reclassification eligibility and of course, the VMSDEP tuition waiver program. These conversations are complicated and include expertise in registrar, financial aid and student account policies.
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OMS has recently been included in the Patriot Connect wave 1.5. Our office is in the case system. We are hoping this will allow more visibility among teams once R2 is in full production. We look forward to sharing information once we are all in PC and establishing best practices as we find a more efficient and effective record of communications.
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Have a great summer and be safe!
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Congratulations to Ryan Barnett as a
2026 Outstanding Achievement Award recipient!
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Ryan was selected to receive the Martha J. Reiner Quality Customer Service Award. He has really set the standard for customer service. We are very proud of his commitment to the George Mason community.
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What are your job duties in the office?
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Assist with applicants to GMU and the Honors College, coordinate the book award and assist with the University Scholars and Celebration of Excellence.
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What do you like most about working at Mason?
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I love the energy that everyone at Mason provides from the students, the faculty, and the staff!
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What 3 words would you use to describe Mason?
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Developing. Creative. Dedicated.
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University Chaplain's Office Student Assistant
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Do you have any Pets?
Yes, I have SunnyD, my service dog! She is a loving, calm, and active Labrador retriever. She loves her lamb chop toys, chasing squirrels, and will do anything for Pizza and Milk Bone treats.
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What are your hobbies or
spare time activities?
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In my free time I love to go shopping, see a movie, go on long walks with SunnyD and bake sweet treats.
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
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I was my high school mascot for 3 years during football season and even varsity lettered/had a senior photo banner out on the football field!
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Favorite Food and Beverage
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Italian Food and Strawberry Banana Smoothie
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Tequila Jelisco (It's a local Mexican restaurant I get every time I come back home to Ohio)
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Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
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Friends (TV Show), Mama Mia (Movie), Hunger Games Series (Book)
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Favorite Quote or Movie Line
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"What like it's hard?"- Legally Blonde
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(Geneva on the Lake) Geneva, Ohio
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Favorite Band or Musician
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Meghan Trainor or Luke Bryan
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