Patriot Connect, George Mason University’s new integrated platform for coaching and advising, recruiting, and admissions, marks one of the most ambitious technology initiatives in the institution’s history. It aims to reshape the student experience at every stage by eliminating fragmented interactions and delivering a unified, data-driven approach to engagement and support.
Because of the project’s scale, Patriot Connect spans numerous departments, teams, and functional areas. While no single unit owns the full initiative, Information Technology Services (ITS) has played a foundational role—building, securing, and sustaining the systems that make the platform possible and providing critical technical leadership at every step.
A Modern IT Foundation for a Modern University
At the heart of Patriot Connect is a complete rethinking of how student data, worPatriot Connect, George Mason University’s new integrated platform for coaching and advising, recruiting, and admissions, marks one of the most ambitious technology initiatives in the institution’s history. It aims to reshape the student experience at every stage by eliminating fragmented interactions and delivering a unified, data-driven approach to engagement and support.
Because of the project’s scale, Patriot Connect spans numerous departments, teams, and functional areas. While no single unit owns the full initiative, Information Technology Services (ITS) has played a foundational role—building, securing, and sustaining the systems that make the platform possible and providing critical technical leadership at every step.
A Modern IT Foundation for a Modern University
At the heart of Patriot Connect is a complete rethinking of how student data, workflows, and communications systems function across the university. This requires deep technical alignment across diverse systems—an area in which ITS has been instrumental from the start.
One of ITS’s earliest and most critical contributions was its coordination with the Salesforce Center of Excellence (COE). Through the COE, ITS leads:
- User account provisioning for all environments (QA, UAT/training, production)
- Alignment between functional teams and technical access protocols
- Development of the new persona-based access request form, jointly owned with the COE
- Automated notifications, supervisor approvals, and security checks that ensure FERPA and Highly Sensitive Data compliance
This work not only streamlines technical processes but also directly improves the user experience by making access clearer, faster, and more secure for faculty, staff, and future student users.
Connecting Systems, Data, and People
The EDIS team within ITS has led one of the most technically complex aspects of Patriot Connect: mapping, translating, and synchronizing data across multiple systems, including Banner, Salesforce Education Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Summit Events, and legacy systems like EAB Navigate and TargetX. This integration work ensures Patriot Connect becomes a single source of truth for the student lifecycle—from prospect to graduation.
ITS is also responsible for the coordinated migrations needed to fully retire TargetX. These migrations must line up precisely with each user activation wave, which requires:
- Tight timing
- Clean data structures
- Zero room for error
- High-volume, high-accuracy migration cycles
Meeting these deadlines has required extraordinary commitment—including late nights, weekends, and holiday work—to keep the entire program on track despite earlier delays.
ITS’s Security Office also played a crucial role in ensuring compliance with institutional security standards to provision access, enabling safe batch provisioning under compressed timelines, supporting user training aligned with security requirements, and reducing technical debt as the system evolves. This close coordination ensures Patriot Connect can scale without compromising data protection.
Lastly, but certainly not least, as with many projects, while much of ITS’s work happens behind the scenes, the most visible impact often comes when something goes wrong. Tier 1 and Tier 2 ITS Support teams have been on the front lines. Onboarded late in the process and facing a steep learning curve, they worked directly with users throughout Release 1, managing frustrations, solving issues in real time, and ensuring operational continuity during early adoption.
Shaping George Mason’s Future Through Technology
Patriot Connect is far more than a new software platform—it’s the tangible outcome of years of work to solve the “Mason Shuffle,” a challenge identified during the Student Experience Redesign initiative. ITS has been part of that journey from the beginning, helping design the technical roadmap that guided the RFP and vendor selection long before implementation began.
By adopting Salesforce Education Cloud at this scale, George Mason University is positioning itself at the leading edge of higher education technology transformation, an advantage that is increasingly important amid national concerns about the enrollment cliff.
While Patriot Connect is transforming student-facing services, it is also transforming ITS itself. The project is accelerating the shift to a fully agile methodology, which is expected to become a model for future IT projects at George Mason.
What’s Next
With User Acceptance Testing for Release 2: Recruitment and Admissions beginning in March and the technical rollout scheduled for April 24, ITS continues to lead critical project elements, including integrations to support readiness. User activations begin May 1 and will continue in waves.
The long-term vision is clear: Patriot Connect will become a central part of George Mason’s digital ecosystem—something faculty, staff, and students rely on daily without a second thought. And ITS will remain at the core of its evolution, ensuring the platform continues to grow, scale, and support the university’s mission for years to come.