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We are at an important moment in our fight against COVID, and I want to applaud everyone for their help in making �鶹��Ƶ the safest campus it can be. �鶹��Ƶ has received the go-ahead to begin vaccinating faculty and staff this weekend, and students later this month.

Doctoral student Sharrell Hassell-Goodman is co-chair of the Student Voice Committee.

This week, the Governor’s Office issued new guidance on how universities could conduct commencement ceremonies this spring based on revised COVID-19 restrictions.

Tuesday’s mass murder in Atlanta returns us to terrible, familiar ground, as we try again to make sense of violence, and calm the terror that was already building within an entire cultural community.

�鶹��Ƶ Lighting the Way: Creston Lynch

As associate director of the LGBTQ+ Resources in the Center for Culture, Equity, and Empowerment (CCEE), formerly ODIME, Kinchen advises student groups, sits on many committees and does a lot of consulting and training with schools, colleges, and departments across the university that want to learn more about working with LGBTQ+ students.

Electrical engineering student Jazzmin Robinson knows the value public speaking skills hold for a career in engineering.

Junior Dominique Dowling has been working to enact social change since high school. She joined the GMU NAACP chapter in her second year at �鶹��Ƶ, and now she is the group’s vice president. Through the chapter, she has been involved in numerous panels and committees, which inspired her to do more anti-racism work on campus.“Being part of the NAACP has exposed me to different initiatives and people who have been doing this work for years,” said the integrative studies major. “It made me realize that anti-racism work requires an ongoing dedication because there is always work to be done.”

�鶹��Ƶ's annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Evening of Reflection event on Thursday included a discussion between President Gregory Washington and a student panel about the opportunities they have to make changes to improve social justice and equity. Spirit of King award winners were also announced.

Step into a local Total Wine or Whole Foods store and you may be surprised to find George �鶹��Ƶ among the wine bottles on the shelves. Sporting a colonial hat with a modern pair of shades, he’s the face of �鶹��Ƶ’s private wine label.

MLK Evening of Reflection

Of the more than 4,000 lynchings of Black Americans that took place in the United States between 1865 and 1950, at least 43 cases occurred in Maryland. �鶹��Ƶ’s John Mitchell Jr. Program (JMJP), housed within the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, has been helping research several of these cases since 2019 to support the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In October, they received news that they will be taking their research to the next level, thanks to a $300,000 Department of Justice grant they helped secure for the commission.