Editing George Mason University (section)

===20th century===
In 1949, the [[University of Virginia]] created an extension center to serve  mid-career working [[professional]]s and [[Nontraditional student|non-traditional students]] near urban centers in the [[Northern Virginia]] suburbs of [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Steele |first=Clarence A. |title=Clarence A. Steele to Colgate W. Darden, Jr., April 4, 1949 |date=April 4, 1949}}</ref><ref name="Finley" /> The extension center offered both for credit and non-credit informal classes in the evenings at various pre-existing venues.<ref name="Finley" />{{rp|5}} The first for credit classes offered were: "Government in the Far East, Introduction to International Politics, English Composition, Principles of Economics, Mathematical Analysis, Introduction to Mathematical Statistics, and Principles of Lip Reading."<ref name="Finley" /> By the end of 1952, enrollment was 1,192 students.<ref name="Finley" />

[[File:George Mason.jpg|thumb|left|170px|[[George Mason]], a [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father of the United States]] and the university's namesake]]
A resolution of the [[Virginia General Assembly]] in January 1956 changed the extension center into University College, the [[Northern Virginia]] branch of the [[University of Virginia]].<ref name="autogenerated1919">{{Cite book |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-329-31719-2 |last=Anderson |first=Keith |title=The Los Angeles State Normal School, UCLA's Forgotten Past: 1881–1919 |date=August 29, 2015}}{{rp|158}}{{self-published source|date=February 2020}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}} John Norville Gibson Finley served as director.<ref>{{Citation |last=Teachman |first=A. Ellis |title=Photograph: J.N.G. Finley |date=September 6, 2007 |url=http://mars.gmu.edu/handle/1920/2712 |access-date=December 10, 2015 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073730/http://mars.gmu.edu/handle/1920/2712 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Seventeen freshmen students attended classes at University College in a small renovated elementary school building in [[Bailey's Crossroads]] starting in September 1957.<ref name="Cristian2009">{{Cite thesis |publisher=Catholic University of America |last=Cristian |first=Viviana |title=Who are We?: Cultural Identity Among Latino College Students in Northern Virginia |location=Washington, DC |date=2009 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/304858005/FC4D3905D50541C5PQ/ |via=[[Proquest]]}}{{rp|24}}</ref> In 1958 University College became George Mason College.<ref name="autogenerated1919" />

The [[Fairfax, Virginia|City of Fairfax]] purchased and donated {{convert|150|acre|ha|abbr=off|round=5}} of land just south of the city limits to the University of Virginia for the college's new site, which is now referred to as the [[George Mason University Fairfax Campus|Fairfax Campus]]. In 1959, the [[Board of Visitors]] of the University of Virginia selected a permanent name for the college: George Mason College of the University of Virginia. The Fairfax campus construction planning that began in early 1960 showed visible results when the development of the first {{convert|40|acre|ha|abbr=off}} of Fairfax Campus began in 1962. In the Fall of 1964 the new campus welcomed 356 students.<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-329-31719-2 |last=Anderson |first=Keith |title=The Los Angeles State Normal School, UCLA's Forgotten Past: 1881–1919 |date=August 29, 2015}}{{rp|185}}{{self-published source|date=February 2020}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}}

In 1966, in the [[Virginia General Assembly]], [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]] delegate [[James M. Thomson (Virginia politician)|James M. Thomson]], with the backing of the University of Virginia, introduced a bill in the General Assembly to make George Mason College a four-year institution under the University of Virginia's direction. The measure, known as H 33,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/items/show/98 |title=A History of George Mason University – Acts of Assembly, Chapter 68 [H33] Article 8. George Mason College, March 1, 1966. |work=gmu.edu|date=March 1966 }}</ref> passed the Assembly easily and was approved on March 1, 1966, making George Mason College a degree-granting institution. During that same year, the local jurisdictions of [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]], [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington County]], and the cities of [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]] and [[Falls Church, Virginia|Falls Church]] agreed to appropriate $3 million to purchase land adjacent to Mason to provide for a {{convert|600|acre|ha|abbr=off|adj=on}} Fairfax Campus with the intention that the institution would expand into a regional university of major proportions, including the granting of graduate degrees.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

In 1972, Virginia separated George Mason College from the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] and renamed it George Mason University.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/exhibits/show/independence/contents/independence |title=A History of George Mason University – 1972–1978: Independence : Independence, April 7, 1972 |work=gmu.edu |access-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-date=February 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208155536/http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/exhibits/show/independence/contents/independence |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1978, [[George W. Johnson (academic)|George W. Johnson]] was appointed to serve as the fourth president.<ref name="Johnson Obit" /> Under his eighteen-year tenure, the university expanded both its physical size and program offerings at a tremendous rate.<ref name="Johnson Obit">{{cite news |first=T. Rees |last=Shapiro |title=George W. Johnson, college president who transformed GMU, dies at 88 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/george-w-johnson-college-president-who-transformed-gmu-dies-at-88/2017/06/03/473a9fe2-4875-11e7-bcde-624ad94170ab_story.html |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=June 3, 2017 |access-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref><ref name="gmupres">{{cite news |title=Office of the President: Mason's Presidents |url=https://president.gmu.edu/masons-presidents/ |work=George Mason University |access-date=June 24, 2017 |archive-date=July 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723053655/http://president.gmu.edu/masons-presidents/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Shortly before Johnson's inauguration in April 1979, Mason acquired the [[George Mason University School of Law|School of Law]] and the new Arlington Campus. The university also became a doctoral institution.<ref name="Johnson Obit" /> Toward the end of Johnson's term, Mason would be deep in planning for a third campus in [[Prince William County, Virginia|Prince William County]] at [[Manassas, VA|Manassas]]. Major campus facilities, such as Student Union Building II, [[EagleBank Arena]], Center for the Arts, and the Johnson Learning Center, were all constructed over the course of Johnson's eighteen years as University President. Enrollment once again more than doubled from 10,767 during the fall of 1978 to 24,368 in the spring of 1996.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/exhibits/show/prominence/contents/introduction |title=A History of George Mason University – 1978–1996: Emergence : Introduction |work=gmu.edu |access-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-date=February 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208155642/http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/exhibits/show/prominence/contents/introduction |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1996, [[Alan Merten]], dean of the [[Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management]] at [[Cornell University]] was appointed the university's president. He believed that the university's location made it responsible for both contributing to and drawing from its surrounding communities—local, national, and global. George Mason was becoming recognized and acclaimed in all of these spheres. During Merten's tenure, the university hosted the [[World Congress on Information Technology (2019)|World Congress of Information Technology]] in 1998,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wcit2014.org/history/ |title=History |work=WCIT |access-date=August 5, 2015}}</ref> celebrated a second [[Nobel Memorial Prize]]-winning faculty member in 2002, and cheered the [[George Mason Patriots#Men's Basketball|Men's basketball]] team in their [[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] [[Final Four (college basketball)|Final Four]] appearance in 2006. Enrollment increased from just over 24,000 students in 1996 to approximately 33,000 during the spring semester of 2012, making Mason Virginia's largest public university.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/exhibits/show/presence/contents/introduction |title=A History of George Mason University – 1996–2012: Prominence : Introduction |work=gmu.edu |access-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-date=February 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208162350/http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/exhibits/show/presence/contents/introduction |url-status=dead }}</ref>