The challenge was to design a planning process for three very different campuses, absent a significant institutional planning culture or operative strategic plan, in the middle of a presidential transition, during a global pandemic
that prevented face-to-face interaction. The planning process was divided into two year-long phases. In the first
phase, relevant hard and soft data was analyzed to provide a holistic institutional picture, and thus motivate clear programmatic campus identities. Phase two then synthesized specific design responses and defined substantive principles that Mason will use to evaluate future opportunities. The plan was created collaboratively by the Mason community with 2,000 people participating in eight town halls, over 100 stakeholder meetings with both internal and external constituents, and about 5,000 people participating in an on-line interactive mapping exercise. Participants in the virtual mapping exercise dropped 51,000 icons with over 9,000 comments, then machine learning algorithms were deployed to identify positive and negative sentiments.