S. David Wu
S. David Wu begins his second five-year term at George Mason University as provost and executive vice president committed to engaging the campus community in idea sharing and dialogue in implementing the university’s Strategic Plan.
Wu’s first five years at Mason saw remarkable growth, and not just in the student population, said Mason President Ángel Cabrera, adding that Wu built a highly effective academic leadership team and helped develop open frameworks for innovation and curricular collaboration to ensure students receive the highest quality programs and learning experiences.
“He has been a strong advocate for faculty and has personally led numerous initiatives to better support their work,” Cabrera said.
For Wu, Mason is developing what could be a national model for higher education, an institution not only accessible to large populations of students but delivering top-rated research and innovation. Mason is among the top research institutions in the country by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, and rarely do these institutions form extensive partnership with community colleges or reaching out to adult learners.
“I’d like to say we not only provide access, but we provide access to excellence,” Wu said.
“That’s an incredibly ambitious thing to do,” he said. “And to make this work we need a lot of help and thought leadership from the faculty; to figure out how to do it the right way, in a way that’s realistic and sustainable for everybody.”
This is one of many topics Provost Wu would like start a dialogue about with the campus community. One of the tools he plans to use is a monthly blog, where he will post and solicit feedback starting in September.
“Are these the right ideas?” he said. “What are better ways to think about it and make it a reality? That’s what I mean about engaging the campus. It’s not enough to have a broad conceptualization. We need the whole community behind it to make it real.”