George Mason eager to shed commuter-school status

FAIRFAX, Va. — By most measures, George Mason University has been on a roll since its founding in 1972. Its academic programs have grown, its athletic program is synonymous with "Cinderella" and those all-important rankings from U.S. News and World Report have dubbed it a top up-and-coming university.

But one label continues to sting: commuter campus.

That description may be wiped away next month as a national research foundation is expected to reclassify George Mason and two other public universities in Virginia as "primarily residential."

The reclassification is a big deal to George Mason, which believes the public perception of a sleepy commuter campus is off base.

"It's one of those intangible things. It shows there's a level of investment on our part to make people want to live here for nine or 10 months out of the year," university spokesman Dan Walsch said of the anticipated reclassification.

At George Mason, the change has been fueled in part by a construction boom. A decade ago, dormitories held space for fewer than 3,000 students. Capacity is now at 5,400, with room for another 600 beds under construction and expected to be completed by 2012, said Jana Hurley, the university's executive director of housing and residence life.

That means that about a third of George Mason's full-time undergraduate students are living on campus, a high enough percentage to be classified as "primarily residential" by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Schools with higher percentages of students living on campus are considered "highly residential."

Demand for housing has changed as the school's demographics have changed. George Mason originally drew the overwhelming majority of its students from northern Virginia, and those students could live at home and commute.

Now, the school draws students from all parts of the state, and an increasing percentage of out-of-state students. In the last decade, the number of out-of-state students at George Mason has grown at nearly triple the rate of the in-state student body.

George Mason students say the difference is palpable. Junior Colleen Mattingly said the feel on campus is different from even two years ago.

"More people are staying on campus over weekends. There's less of a commuter campus feel than when I was a freshman," said Mattingly, a government and international politics major, as she signed up students to participate in a Habitat for Humanity club in the school's bustling student union.