Highlights

George Mason held a series of free wellness events in observance of February's Healthy Heart Month. Hosted by RSR-Employee Health & Well-Being, offerings included complementary blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose checks, well-body screenings, and a special presentation on the Mediterranean diet by campus dietician Courtney O'Loughlin.

RSR-Environmental Health & Safety officially launched Battery Safety training this February, providing education on the safe use, storage, transportation, and disposal of batteries in laboratories and other facilities at George Mason University. This training is available online.

University Sustainability and Auxiliary & Business Services were awarded $1.06M by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The grant focuses on improving composting and food-waste diversion, redistributing unused campus dining-hall meals, and supporting waste-stream infrastructure. This funding recognizes George Mason’s successful sustainability effort and is an investment in its continued leadership.

A newly installed temperature sensor at the Central Heating & Cooling Plant enables a more stable and accurate condenser water supply temperature. This key upgrade will prevent unnecessary motor ramping and support consistent chiller performance, resulting in energy efficiency and longer equipment life.

February marked seven years since George Mason became the first university in the nation to launch autonomous food delivery through Starship delivery robots. Mason Dining celebrated the anniversary of the program, which has grown to a fleet of over 60 robots, fulfilling dozens of delivery orders each day for the George Mason community.

The final Collect the Spirit headband drop at Homecoming capped a memorable and record-breaking sales season. The mobile merchandise trailer more than doubled last year’s in-arena sales demonstrating strong demand and the effectiveness of expanded retail strategies.

George Mason is implementing a multi‑phase phishing‑inoculation program using Microsoft Attack Simulation and Training (ASAT), a capability already included in our Microsoft Defender for Office 365 licensing. ASAT provides realistic phishing simulations, behavior‑based microtraining, and leadership‑level reporting, offering a more effective security readiness model than traditional annual training. The rollout began with an ITS‑only pilot to validate tooling and playbooks, where a one‑week simulation yielded 26 clicks and 7 credential submissions out of 314 users. Phase 2 expands to ~400 early‑adopter users for fine‑tuning and communication testing. Phase 3 will scale to the full university beginning in late March/early April, introducing recurring, automated simulations to strengthen long‑term community resilience.

Curious about PatriotAI but haven't made it to a training yet? Check out the recap of February's user training at Mason Square, held on February 17 and 19, which introduced generative and agentic AI, explained how AI models generate responses, and taught users how to craft effective prompts using the PACE framework (Problem, Action, Context, Expectations).

Raj Murthy has joined George Mason University as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for ITS. Raj brings more than 20 years of leadership in higher education technology, with strengths in infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, service reliability, and data‑driven decision-making. Raj leads with an emphasis on inclusion, clarity, and execution, enabling teams to focus on meaningful outcomes and deliver results that matter.