Telephone Tag
The Mason Continuity and Coordination Team and University Information are reporting challenges connecting callers with offices and resources at Mason. For example, your office might not have a phone monitored regularly and have a virtual option to reach your office. Perhaps you have different hours for phone vs. virtual options.
To aid in connecting the Mason community, University Information has worked with ITS to develop a secure, dynamic form to capture how someone can reach your office. This will help:
- Switchboard staff guide patrons to your main office (e.g. “Can I speak with someone in the Dean’s Office?”).
- Create and maintain an hours-of-operation website, listing contact hours for in-building, virtual, and phone availability.
They do not need the contact information for each individual in your office, just how general traffic should be routed if there is a request to your main office.
You may submit this information via the form linked at the top of http://hours.gmu.edu. You will use your Mason NetID credentials to submit your office’s information. Please update as plans adjust. University Information will regularly ask for updates, especially if university-wide operations pivot, to ensure the path to connect patrons to your office is not lost.
Some items for the “Note” section on the form:
- The switchboard can transfer callers to a non-Mason phone number, if needed. If your office is using a personal phone number you do not want public, but can be used to transfer switchboard callers without giving callers the number, please indicate it is private.
- If your virtual option is appointment only, indicate how someone can make that appointment.
Expanded – and Less Invasive – COVID Testing
Testing is at the core of Mason's COVID-19 safety plan. As announced last month by President Washington, this spring the university plans to greatly expand its capacity. We have also moved to a saliva-based PCR test (effective Jan. 11 in Fairfax and Jan. 25 for the Arlington and SciTech campuses) and Mason researchers are processing the test results in laboratories on the SciTech campus. These changes will help us get a faster and more accurate picture of the virus, and help us limit the spread at Mason.
Collecting representative samples is the key to accurately determining the prevalence of COVID in the Mason community, so your participation is strongly encouraged.
Mason has expanded to five testing sites for random, surveillance testing across its campuses:
- The former first floor library in the Johnson Center for testing residential students, non-residential students, faculty and staff.
- Merten Hall, Room 1204 for testing non-residential students, faculty and staff.
- The former MIX space in Fenwick Library for testing residential students.
- In Arlington, Van Metre Hall, Room 308 for testing non-residential students, faculty and staff. Testing will be conducted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
- At SciTech, Randall’s Café in Colgan Hall for testing residential and non-residential students, faculty and staff. Testing will be conducted on Mondays and Thursdays.
Surveillance testing for the Athletics department will remain in the Field House on the Fairfax Campus. The Ángel Cabrera Global Center parking garage will no longer be used for testing.
Everyone who participates in the surveillance testing must be prepared to show their Mason ID with their G number, confirmation of their appointment, and a green Mason COVID Health Check™ screening.
Faculty and staff will be selected for weekly testing through a randomized process based on their risk group, based on their off-campus activities. Your daily completion of the COVID Health Check survey helps the university understand who is coming to campus and when. Please don’t forget to do your daily COVID check!
To learn more about Mason’s work to keep the community safe this semester, please check out the university’s new video on COVID testing.
For up-to-date information on vaccine roll-out in Virginia, check out the Virginia Department of Health’s page at https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/.
COVID-19 Social Distancing and Symptom Modeling Study
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, it is increasingly important to understand the role of social distancing and how people move when performing daily activities. You can help by participating in a research study being conducted by Mason’s College of Health and Human Services.
This research study aims to understand movement patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and link these movements to the possibility of modeling spread of pandemics. The research will have a direct impact on understanding COVID-19 spread as well as potential overall understanding of people’s movement during pandemics.
Participants of the study will receive $10 electronic gift cards to help purchase needed apps, as well as $10 gift card for every completed month of participation. In addition, $20 gift cards will be provided for completing a survey.
The study participants are asked to:
- Complete daily the Mason HealthCheck (https://healthcheck.gmu.edu)
- Install a smartphone app for collecting GPS data and send the data to investigators. Detailed instructions how to install and use the app will be provided.
- Agree to share WIFI connection data from Mason campuses.
- Complete a 20-minute survey that asks questions related to COVID-19 and social distancing.
To sign up for the project, please fill and sign the consent form at: https://hi.gmu.edu/distancing2. After completing and signing the consent you will be contacted with more detailed instructions.
The consent form includes a more detailed study description. This research is being conducted by a team led by Dr. Janusz Wojtusiak in the College of Health and Human Services at George Mason University. He may be reached by email at jwojtusi@gmu.edu for any questions related to the study or to report a research-related problem.
You may contact the George Mason University Institutional Review Board (IRB) Office at 703-993-4121 or IRB@gmu.edu if you have questions or comments regarding your rights as a participant in the research. This research has been reviewed according to George Mason University procedures governing your participation in this research. Please refer to the IRB study number 1596465 when contacting the IRB office.
January 28, 2021