George Mason University will welcome new and returning students to the Fairfax Campus during New Student Convocation on Friday, Aug. 20.
This year, two classes will be acknowledged at EagleBank Arena: the incoming Class of 2021 and the returning Class of 2020, whose official on-campus welcome was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I encourage all our students, those who live on and off campus to participate in events, make new connections, get involved, and find out what it means to be part of Mason Nation,” said Rose Pascarell, vice president, University Life.
The Convocation will occur twice, first at 12:30 p.m. and again at 2:15 p.m., and will include both residential and commuter students. Mason President Gregory Washington will officially welcome the incoming classes at Convocation.
Jennifer Nicoll Victor, associate professor of political science at the Schar School of Policy and Government, said she is “excited and flattered” to be the featured faculty speaker.
Victor said her speech will discuss the meaning and value of democracy and what it means to be an engaged citizen, topics she teaches in many of her classes.
“When we talk about democracy, we often describe it on a national government level. I want to encourage students to think of democracy as an individual level trait,” she said.
One of the ways to do that, Victor said, is to make it about the community at Mason.
“As individual participants in a campus community, we can engage in connections with one another that enhance our individual democracy, sense of democratic community, and mutual respect,” she said.
Victor said she will encourage students to engage in small acts of kindness or start a pay-it-forward thread in which students help each other, for instance, by helping others move into their dorms or find a classroom.
“Those little acts of kindness, we can think of as democracy re-enforcing,” Victor said.
New Student Convocation will not be livestreamed but will be recorded for viewing after the event.
Throughout the day, new students will also attend the Self, Others and Community Program that will include an original performance by the port.man.teau Theatre Company, comprising Mason students and recent graduates. Written specifically for this event, their performance of vignettes, poems, and songs will look closely at the qualities that makes each person unique, said Theresa Marie Ohanian, an adjunct faculty member in Mason’s School of Theater and the director of the Welcome Week Diversity and Inclusion Project at Mason.
On Saturday, students will participate in a program by Speak About It, a consent education and sexual assault prevention nonprofit. Speak About It will use true storytelling and live performance to engage students and capture what healthy relationships can and should look like, according Mason’s Student Support and Advocacy Center website. The show will provide practical tools for communicating about boundaries and desires, while prompting important dialogue about consent culture on campus.
In preparation for a full reopening for the Fall 2021 semester, COVID-19 vaccinations are required on all Mason campuses, except for those with valid medical or religious exemptions. Face coverings are also required indoors on campus, regardless of vaccination status, and outdoors for those who are unvaccinated if physical distancing cannot be maintained. Mason has been a leader in holding back the spread of the virus on campus, with no reported classroom transmissions.