George Mason University

Problems Solved: Facing an Unsolvable, Intractable Problem, Global Competition		Strategic Focus: Leading and Navigating Change, Crafting and executing Strategy, Transforming Cultures, Developing Staff and Organizational aApacity
Thought Leader and Project Manager: Donald M. Norris

George Mason University is an innovative public university serving nearly 30,000 students on four campuses and other extended learning settings in the Northern Virginia metropolitan area.  Over the past 20 years, Dr. Norris has worked with GMU leadership to develop GMU as a "distributed university" linking separate locations with technology, logistics, and services. In a continuing series of co-creation projects, Strategic Initiatives worked with GMU in developing:

• New approaches to mobilizing community support for new programs and learning centers;
• New models for developing branch locations through public/private partnerships,
• Leading-edge facilities using technology to fuse work, learning, and other experiences,
• New approaches to academic program innovation,
• New revenue sources, and
• Creative use of technology in facilities, programs, and academic/administrative processes.

These efforts have been imitated by other metropolitan universities in many settings.

Currently, Dr. Norris is leading a university task force that is investigating new models for distributed universities in hypergrowth metropolitan areas. This effort involves case studies of George Mason University, Arizona State University, University of Houston, University of Central Florida, and Florida Atlantic University.