The Plan: Programs George Mason will become a center of inquiry, knowledge, and professional expertise in fields with vital implications for human needs and opportunities in the future. (Vision Statement 2000). George Mason’s programmatic emphases will continue to grow out of the needs of the Greater Washington area and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Policy studies, information technology, the arts, and the sciences will be the drivers; conflict resolution, management, nursing and health sciences, education and the social sciences will also be of special concern. A unique aspect of all disciplines will be their emphasis on globalization in both research and teaching, and the importance they give to technology proficiency for all students. By 2007, George Mason will be a national leader in the following areas: Policy Studies Policy studies will reach across many disciplines to provide a broad range of interdisciplinary educational and research opportunities. The School of Public Policy will be the top policy program in the region, competitive with the best schools in the nation. Its enrollment will have increased by 15 percent from 350 to 400. Combining with programs on health policy, law, and educational policy, the school will offer an array of certificate and degree programs, and will provide a public forum for constructive policy debate. It will sponsor research and education on regional and national governance and international policy issues, and will establish alliances with policy institutes in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. At the School of Law, the Centers of Law and Economics and Technology and Law will tackle policy issues arising from these evolving disciplines, while the Juris Master program will expand to meet training needs in this area. The Center for Health Policy, one of the leading research and outreach institutes in this field, will continue to serve as a major source of information and national leadership on health policy. The Department of Public and International Affairs, in the College of Arts and Sciences, will continue to operate a large Master of Public Administration degree that complements programs in the policy school. The Graduate School of Education will conduct research on issues in educational policy, serving as a center for debate on national and regional policy issues ranging from teacher recruitment to assessment programs. Information Technology The use of information technology tools and applications is no longer the purview of the specialist, but is pervasive throughout all businesses and industries. To excel in this environment, all George Mason students will graduate with relevant technology competencies which will in general be taught as part of their regular classroom experience. Programs such as History and the New Media in the College of Arts and Sciences will expand the application of technology to the humanities and the arts. In general, faculty in all disciplines will increasingly incorporate technology into teaching where it can enhance students learning experience. On a more specialized level, The School of Information Technology and Engineering will focus on research in new generation technologies as they evolve, much of it in collaboration with industry and with strong federal research support. It will expand master’s level education in areas vital to labor force development, from computer security to new interdisciplinary fields such as telecommunications and e-commerce. Enrollment at the master’s level will grow by 100 percent, bringing it from 1,385 to 2,700. The school’s close partnerships with industry and government will ensure that it remains at the leading edge of this rapidly developing field. The Arts The College of Visual and Performing Arts will be the leading academic arts program in a region that ranks among the nation’s most artistically vibrant. Through the College’s academic departments, production programs, and the world-class artists presented by the Concert Hall series, the arts will be a pervasive presence on campus and throughout the Northern Virginia community. Students will continue to have access to free tickets to all events at the Center for the Arts, and the arts will be increasingly integrated into courses ranging from history to computer science. A significant arts management program will respond to regional arts community needs. The university will expand its outreach to the larger community through performances for children in the schools, opportunities for community-based learning about the arts, and through Center for the Arts presentations. With the number of arts majors increasing by 50 percent to 1,050, with almost all undergraduates taking arts courses in general education, and with more than 100,000 patrons-- including 20,000 students-- witnessing more than 150 performances and exhibitions presented or produced by the College, virtually the entire university community will participate in the arts as students, audience members, or performers. The Sciences Science at George Mason will undergo rapid expansion, focusing on interdisciplinary innovation and cooperation. A number of new key programs will emerge. More work in both education and research will be done in a virtual environment, enabling people in diverse environments to work together. The sciences at George Mason will focus on emerging areas, including bioinformatics, biotechnology and the biosciences, earth systems sciences and global change, and computer intensive fields such as computational fluid dynamics. Programs in ethics and science management will augment this emphasis. By 2007, George Mason will add four additional Ph.D. programs in the sciences, and eight new master’s degrees. The new facility at Belmont Bay will anchor the expanded program in environmental science and policy.