The plan for George Mason University establishes a framework for orderly growth for what is arguably Northern Virginia’s most dynamic institution. It supports the concept for a distributed university, with full-service campuses in Fairfax, Manassas, and Arlington, Virginia distinguished by centers of excellence in teaching and research, and well placed to serve the needs of a rapidly growing but dispersed local population. It supports strengthening the ties between research, industry and economic development. It provides the strategies for consolidating the University’s campuses as mature academic communities, serving as destinations and cultural resources for a larger world, and manifesting a clear and distinguished identity.