September 16, 2019
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Volume 7 Issue 3
FOURTH ESTATE Transparent GMU gets hearing in Supreme Court of Virginia
@ivestate | gmufourthestate.com
SODEXO WORKERS DELIVER UNION PETITION (P. 4) || HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH (P. 9) || FALL SPORTS (P. 13) || OPINIONS ON IMMIGRATION (P.16) Fourth Estate is a free publication, limit one copy per person. Additional copies are 25 cents payable to the OfямБce of Student Media.
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DANA NICKEL HAILEY BULLIS Co Editor-in-Chief
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
ALEXANDRIA MCALPINE Art Director
Hey Patriots, A lot happened last week. From Transparent GMU’s case being heard at the Supreme Court of Virginia to Sodexo workers petitioning for better conditions — there’s a lot to talk about. The Student Support and Advocacy Center hosted its second annual Consent Carnival. Our opinion writers touched on a variety of topics, including a debate between the College Republicans and GMU Democrats on immigration. Meanwhile, our Sports editor Natalie Heavren wrote a column on why you should attend fall sports games. The Sports section also provided an update on how Mason’s Men’s and Women’s soccer teams, and Women’s volleyball team are doing this season. Yeah, there’s a lot to talk about. Like many on staff, I have been a part of this paper since my freshman year. I have seen the paper grow and change with new writers and staff coming and going. Each one has left their mark in different ways. Former Managing Editor Basma Humadi started our regular feature Faces of Mason two years ago now. Former Culture Editor Monica Echols started multiple columns during her term last year, one of which is a column you’ll see this issue called Hidden Hangouts. My Co Editor-in-Chief Dana Nickel (then a staff writer) and former Editor-in-Chief Alexander Shedd (then the assistant news editor) launched the possibility of investigative reporting within Fourth Estate with their series, “Koch Uncovered” (a story that still has relevance today). As a staff writer, Natalie Heavren single-handedly started up our Sports section again. None of this could have been possible without the support of our readers. I guess what I’m trying to say is, no matter how you are contributing to this paper — whether you are a staff writer, an editor or a reader — you can help shape what this paper becomes. And I hope that you do. Start a dialogue with us on Facebook or Twitter, send us the information about the event your organization is holding, pitch us the stories you want to see in print. As always if you have any questions, comments or concerns please email us at masonfourthestate@gmail.com.
LAURA SCUDDER DELANEY HARRISON Copy Editors ABIGAIL ADCOX News Editor JACK HARVEY Assistant News Editor PETER NJOROGE Culture Editor IZZ LAMAGDELEINE Assistant Culture Editor NATALIE HEAVREN Sports Editor DOMENIC ALLEGRA Assistant Sports Editor CHRIS KERNAN-SCHMIDT Opinions Editor BILLY FERGUSON Online Director LEXI REYES Social Media Editor DOMINIQUE BERNARDINO Multimedia Editor EMMETT SMITH Distribution Manager
Sincerely, Hailey Bullis
KATHRYN MANGUS Director
Co Editor-in-Chief
DAVID CARROLL Associate Director JASON HARTSEL Assistant Director
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COVER PHOTO CREDITS Alexandria McAlpine / Fourth Estate
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TRANSPARENT GMU CASE HEARD BY THE SUPREME COURT OF VIRGINIA
GMU Foundation gift disclosure case argued in Richmond DANA NICKEL CO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JACK HARVEY ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR ALEXANDRIA MCALPINE ART DIRECTOR
The case was first heard in the Fairfax County Circuit Court by Judge John M. Tran in 2017. The case was ruled in favor of Mason and the GMU Foundation. Transparent GMU later
appealed the case in Oct. 2018. In 2017, Judge Tran stated that the case was “historic” because of what it could mean for the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Mason and the GMU Foundation were represented by Sean F. Murphy, Robert L. Hodges and E. Rebecca Gantt from the McQuireWoods law firm for the original lawsuit. The arguments presented at the Supreme Court of Virginia were similar to the arguments in the Fairfax County Circuit Court.
Thompson and Transparent GMU are being represented pro bono by Evan Johns, a staff attorney at the Appalachian Mountain Advocates. They argued that because the GMU Foundation conducts business on behalf of Mason, a public institution, the foundation should be considered an entity of a public body. If the GMU Foundation is considered an entity of a public body, then all records within the foundation would be accessible under FOIA. Mason is now represented by Toby Heytens, the solicitor general of Virginia. The GMU Foundation is represented by Matt Fitzgerald, a partner of the McGuireWoods law firm in Richmond.
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Both Heytens and Fitzgerald argued that the foundation is a private entity that operates independently from Mason. Because of this, they argue that the GMU Foundation is currently exempt from FOIA requests. Student leaders and alumni that lead Transparent GMU during the original lawsuit gathered outside the courthouse before the oral arguments began for a press conference.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MASON POLICE
MASON WEEKLY CRIME LOG
“This has been...five, six years in the making,” Sam Parsons, campaign director for UnKoch my Campus, told the audience. “We are here because we believe that the public and students at large deserve to know who is influencing their education … I’m just really honored to be part of an effort of young people who are taking steps to protect our democracy and the transparency and the access that we all have a right to.” After the case was heard, MacKenzie Earl, a member of Transparent GMU, said they were “encouraged by the engagement of the justices throughout oral arguments,” but explained that it was out of their hands. “We recognized that the hard work on our part was already done,” she continued. “The results of the hearing
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Transparent GMU and Augustus Thompson’s case against Mason and the George Mason University Foundation (GMU Foundation) was brought before the Supreme Court of Virginia in Richmond on Wednesday, Sept. 11. The court’s decision will be handed down in approximately six weeks.
are partly dependent on interpretation of legal text. And there is little we can do to influence that kind of deliberation.” Though the case has not been decided, Transparent GMU felt that the case making it to the Supreme Court of Virginia was a victory in itself. “Our representation presented clear arguments that rang true with the principles of academic integrity and transparency we value,” Earl stated. Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. Details will be updated as Fourth Estate receives them.
Tuesday, Sept. 10 -- Arlington Campus
Wednesday, Sept. 11 — PV Lot
Drunkenness: Subject (Non-GMU) was arrested and transported to Arlington County
Hit and Run: Complainant (GMU) reported a hit and run of a vehicle.
Adult Detention Center for being highly intoxicated in public.
Case 2019-008745 — Inactive
Case 2019-008714 — Cleared by Arrest
Tuesday, Sept. 10 — Engineering Building
Thursday, Sept. 12 — President’s Park
Intimidation: Complainant (GMU) reported a threatening voicemail message
Sexual Assault/Fondling: An unknown male subject approached a female student on Patriot Circle and groped her buttocks before running away.
Case 2019-008715 — Information Only
Case 2019-008780 — Pending
Wednesday, Sept. 11 — East Building
Thursday, Sept. 12 — Arlington Campus
Vandalism: Complainant (GMU) reported vandalism to posters.
Larceny: Complainant (GMU) reported the theft of a secured bicycle from a bike rack.
Case 2019-008745 — Information Only Case 2019-008784 — Inactive
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SODEXO WORKERS GATHER TO DELIVER UNION PETITION Workers hold a demonstration as part of ongoing union efforts JACK HARVEY ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Sodexo manages dining for both Mason’s dining halls and some of the restaurants on campus. The petition calls for respect for workers and their right to bargain for a higher wage, according to one of the students in attendance. Sodexo’s management did not come out to speak to the group, which proceeded to chant slogans such as “que salga!” (come out!) and “Come out, Juan!” in reference to Juan Seguin, one of the managers working at Southside. The group then walked over to Ike’s. Marshall Petit, a student demonstrating in solidarity with the workers,
explained that “Ike’s is a better place to yell because everyone can 100 percent hear you.” Petit was one of many members of a student organization known as ROSE (Radical Organizers for Socialism and Equity) present at the protests. ROSE had handed out flyers in the week before alerting students to the workers’ efforts. When the group began chanting inside of Ike’s, students left their tables in the dining area to witness the demonstration. Several students began to record videos of the event. After chanting, the group left the dining hall and gathered on the front steps. Several workers, one of whom has worked at Mason for over thirty years, spoke about their experiences with Sodexo.
Employee complaints included alleged mistreatment and disrespect from Sodexo’s management at Mason, as well as claims of discrimination and being overworked and underpaid. Some workers also stated that their hours were reduced from 40 to 37 hours a week, but they were still asked to complete the same amount of work. Sodexo did not respond to Fourth Estate’s request for comment. As of now, it is unclear whether Sodexo has recognized the union on Mason’s campus.
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Workers and students met Friday, Sept. 13, in the Southside lobby to deliver a petition to Sodexo’s management team.
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story.
LAST WEEK IN POLITICS Monday, Sept. 9
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam names new diversity director following blackface scandal
Tuesday, Sept. 10
Donald Trump fires National Security Advisor John Bolton
Wednesday, Sept. 11
Transparent GMU et. al v. George Mason University et. al. is heard at the Supreme Court of Virginia
Thursday, Sept. 12
Friday, Sept. 13
The third round of Democratic primary debates sees ten candidates take to the stage in Texas
Felicity Huffman is sentenced to 14 days in prison for her involvement in the college admissions scandal
PewDiePie rescinds donation to Anti-Defamation League days after pledging $50,000
Beloved TV show “ScoobyDoo” turns 50
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DRAGON BLOOD USED AS NEW ANTIBIOTIC? Mason researchers explore the uses of Komodo dragon blood OLIVIA VERMANE STAFF WRITER
Researchers Barney Bishop and Monique van Hoek, along with a team of undergraduate and graduate students, have opened a new door into the world of antibacterial treatment with an unusual origin: the blood of a Komodo dragon. Komodo dragons drew the researchers’ attention specifically for their innate immunity and unique resistance to bacteria. The team hypothesized that antimicrobial peptides may be a factor in the dragons’ level of innate immunity, and as it turns out, they were right. The antimicrobial peptides have a broad range of uses, such as, “to directly kill bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses and even cancer cells.” Tujah, a Komodo dragon who came
from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in Florida, provided researchers with about four tablespoons of blood, which allowed Bishop and van Hoek to better understand why these reptiles are so resistant to illness, according to The New York Times.
identified,” said Bishop, an associate professor in Mason’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Bishop also provided clarification on the misconception over whether or not it is the blood itself that is useful.
Their study, which was published in the scientific journals BMC Genomics and Biofilms and Microbiomes, discusses “the sequencing, assembly and analysis of the Komodo dragon genome.”
Bishop and van Hoek’s findings consist of identifying antimicrobial peptide genes within the blood of the Komodo dragon and artificially sequencing these peptides with the purpose of using them to combat drug-resistant bacteria.
This research also stems from a discovery in the plasma of the Komodo dragon, which in previous years was identified to have unique antimicrobial peptides. Bishop, van Hoek and their team are continuing to test over 40 different substances found within Komodo dragon blood, according to The New York Times.
“There’s no medical benefit derived from the Komodo dragon blood directly,” said Bishop. Instead, the synthesized peptides that are modeled after those in the Komodo dragon blood will hopefully be beneficial in antibacterial treatments.
“We’re not talking about making drugs from the peptides we’ve identified or from the ... Komodo dragons. We’re trying to make a synthetic, artificial peptide based on the ones we’ve
When discussing the study and their discoveries, Bishop confirmed that no animals were harmed during testing.
This discovery comes at a time in the antibacterial drug world when the count of drug-resistant bacteria has been on the rise, according to the World Health Organization.
Ph.D., a professor at Mason. Though this research has been ongoing since 2009, Bishop hopes for the project to continue to advance in the future, and is happy with the progress and discoveries made so far. The team hopes that they have made progress not only in research, but in the lives of students and aspiring scientists with the work they have accomplished. “One of the most rewarding things about it has been … helping to encourage new generations [and] new fascination with science,” said Bishop.
Mason has been working with these reptiles since 1992, when the first Komodo dragon hatched outside of Indonesia was hatched in captivity under the care of Geoffrey Birchard,
MASON ENROLLMENT INCREASES Student enrollment for fall 2019 shows an increase in student body SUDIKSHA KOCHI STAFF WRITER
Mason welcomed its largest freshman class in history with enrollment at 3,711. Of total enrollment, 81 percent are in-state students and 43 percent are from minority race and ethnic groups. Each year, the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness records student demographics, including the total number of undergraduate students, the total number
of graduate and other characteristics.
students defining
Compared to fall 2018, there was an increase by 580 students. In fall 2018 the total enrollment was 37,293. From that population, only 26,277 students were undergraduates. Between the fall 2018 semester and the fall 2019 semester, the number of degree-seeking students has increased from 25,546 to 26,050. In addition to the number of degree-seeking students increasing, the total number of graduate students has increased from 10,466 to 10,578.
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Mason continues to be the largest public university in Virginia with 37,873 students as of fall 2019, according to the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness. Of that population, 26,696 were undergrads at Mason.
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TOWN HALL ADDRESSES STUDENT DEBT CONCERNS Senator Mark Warner focuses on student loan debt, financial literacy and other issues HAILEY BULLIS CO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On Friday, Sept. 13, Senator Mark Warner hosted a town hall meeting in the Hub ballroom aimed at addressing his legislative initiatives, including the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2019 and other issues surrounding higher education costs. During his opening statement, Warner talked about his business background and a few of the different legislative measures he has put forward centering around college affordability and student financial literacy.
“We do a really crummy job in this country of trying to give you the right information and have the right kind of price transparency around making that selection, so I’ve got a series of bills, legislative bills, that try to say, ‘How do we make sure that you are a more informed consumer before you go?’” said Warner. Before welcoming Warner to the stage, Mason President Anne Holton took the opportunity to note the diversity of backgrounds in Mason’s community and why the discussion on the cost of higher education was important at Mason. “We are a student body — as you know — largely comprised of folks who don’t come from a lot of wealth ... over a third of our student body is First Gen college students, almost a third of our student body are students who are eligible for Pell Grants, students from lower income backgrounds, students with lots of need,” Holton said. She continued, “The great thing is that we take them on here at Mason to great graduation rates, to great jobs throughout Northern Virginia and the United States and the world.” The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2019, on which Warner partnered with Senators Marco Rubio
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Warner noted that the decision on where a student goes to college and the cost of attending a university will probably, next to buying a house, be the most expensive investment that student makes.
and Ron Wyden, aims at increasing students’ access to information about a school’s graduation rates, how much a graduate can expect to earn, and student debt levels before they make important decisions about higher education. Warner also brought up his Employer Participation in Repayment Act that would allow employers to pay for employees’ student loan payments, or even send an employee back to school using pre-tax dollars. He also talked about making the Dynamic Student Loan Repayment Act, an income-based repayment legislation, the “number one or two number top priority” for the Senate. During the question and answer portion of the town hall, Student Body President Camden Layton asked Warner several questions that were sent in beforehand by Mason students that centered around increasing Pell Grants, student financial assistance and financial literacy.
A few Mason students also had an opportunity to ask Warner their questions directly. Among them was Will McLauchlin, a sophomore at Mason, who asked if Warner would support Bernie Sanders’ plan to cancel student debt, a prominent issue among the Democratic party. “I have several friends here with great amounts of student loan debt and I’m aware that your colleague in the Senate, Senator Bernie Sanders, has introduced legislation … to make public colleges’ and universities’ four year tuition free... we are the richest country in the world...in my opinion, if we can bail out the banks on Wall Street, we can bail out the students too,” McLauchlin said. Warner said he does not support Sanders’ plan, saying, “There is nothing progressive about leaving your generation with a country that can’t pay its bills.” Another Mason student, Nick
Steinmetz, who is an out-of-state student from Florida brought attention to out-of-state tuition costs. “I’ve spent my entire life in the state of Florida, however, I realized because I wanted a career in politics I had to be in the capital region but out-of-state tuition is astronomical,” he said. He proceeded to ask Warner if he had any plans to drive down out-of-state tuition costs. Warner said this is because out-of-state students do not have representatives at the state legislative level. Warner said he does not have a simple answer to the high tuition costs out-of-state students face. “Unless we can decrease the inflation rate in higher education, we’re just nibbling around the edges,” he said. Both Student Government and GMU Democrats were present at the event. For Taylor Moore, the Executive Secretary of University Services of Student Government, student loan debt and the discussion surrounding it is going to be an important voting issue
for her this November. “For me, I would say student loan debt and the whole discussion around that is something that is very important to me because I do like education … and education policy, and I am a student and I have a lot of debt,” she said. Emma Salas, the chief of staff for GMU Democrats, also said that college affordability would be a big voting issue in the November election. “It’s a super important issue, especially — I’m an out-of-state student — this will be the first time I’m voting here in Virginia in this local election year ... At [Warner’s] level, college affordability [is] a big [issue],” she said. Warner ended the town hall by urging attendees to go vote. “This year, every member of the General Assembly, all 100 house seats, all 40 senate seats — those folks will frankly have as much to say about tuition and reimbursement and support,” he said. “So please get out there if you’re a Virginian and vote this fall.”
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MASON WELCOMES NEW TITLE IX COORDINATOR
Angela Nastase gives an in-depth look into Title IX office In June, an email was sent to university students announcing Angela Nastase’s hire as Mason’s new Title IX Coordinator.
The office makes the process as private as possible and students can choose to go through an informal or formal process.
and other campus stakeholders that takes a comprehensive approach to preventing sexual assault and interpersonal violence at Mason.
added an online reporting form to the Title IX and CDE website.
“She brings extensive experience and is a nationally recognized expert in Title IX administration,” wrote Julian Williams, the vice president of Compliance, Diversity and Ethics (CDE), in the email to Mason’s student body. Nastase formerly served as the Title IX Coordinator at Marymount University.
Under university policy, a formal process is when a complainant reports that a student has engaged in at least one instance of prohibited conduct and requests that an investigation or disciplinary action be pursued. The Title IX Review Committee or the Title IX Coordinator then decides whether a formal investigation is appropriate. In cases of physical harm, a formal process must be pursued.
One goal of the committee is to create a more robust outreach campaign to make sure the campus community understands concepts like consent and healthy relationships, knows how and where to report instances of discrimination, and is aware of the support resources that are available to those who need them.
As for addressing past concerns from students in regard to Title IX, Nastase is mainly looking to move forward and let students know that Title IX is a place where students, faculty and staff can go to for help.
Title IX is an office within CDE. CDE handes discrimination in all forms — with Title IX addressing sex and gender-based discrimination. Nastase said that her “main goal is to ensure that members of the campus community are able to focus on educational programs and activities in an environment that is free of sex and gender-based discrimination, and harassment.” Nastase said she is “committed to providing a fair and balanced resolution process that addresses reports of sexual and interpersonal misconduct.” In order to provide that balanced process, Nastase facilitates the cases between complainants and investigators. The Title IX office has two investigators — Lamar Ball and Emily Gleason — who step in to examine cases. In situations where Title IX has an overflow of cases or needs extra help with a particular issue, outside investigators step in. “The police process is separate and may be simultaneous to Title IX investigations under the university’s policy,” said Nastase of Title IX investigations. Nastase’s job is to be the point of contact for students involved in such cases. When a case comes to Nastase, she reaches out to the complainant, first speaking to them in-person and then sending an email after to discuss the options involved in reporting the incident that occurred.
An informal, or alternative, resolution can be pursued when agreed upon by the complainant, respondent and Title IX Coordinator. Such solutions can include training for relevant individuals or housing accommodations, among other solutions.
Members of Mason for Survivors are on the committee as well to provide that student input. The office is currently working on updating the website, and recently
Nastase said these documents can also be accessed online under University Policy. According to Nastase, all students involved in a case are updated on the happenings of the Title IX process. Title IX has a responsibility to be neutral with all parties involved, as the office has to ensure due process in accordance with rules established by the Department of Education. Along with this rule, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act — or more succinctly the Clery Act — is the reason behind the emails that get sent to students informing them of suspicious incidents on campus. All Mason employees are required to complete one annual and two biennial trainings. Aside from options for complainants, Nastase explained the kind of work that goes into promoting awareness of what prohibited conduct is. According to Nastase, the Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence (SAIV) committee — previously a task force — is an implementation team with administrators, faculty, students
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CONSENT CARNIVAL CONTINUES INTO SECOND YEAR Consent and healthy sex practices emphasized at outdoor celebration IZZ LAMAGDELEINE ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR
A vagina bean bag toss and lube tasting were just some of the fun that could be found at this year's Consent Carnival. Held on Tuesday, Sept. 10,
by the Student Support and Advocacy Center (SSAC), consent and healthy sex practices were celebrated. In its second year, SSAC's Assistant
Director of Student Support and Interpersonal Violence Courtney Diener brainstormed the idea to help students discuss healthy relationships and sexual practices. Besides games that centered on educating students about their sexual health, like the penis ring toss and vagina bean bag toss, treats like cotton candy were also offered. Music played in the background, but students could also choose quieter activities like coloring.
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SSAC partnered with numerous groups on campus for the event, including Women and Gender Studies, Patriots for Choice and the Office of Student Conduct, who provided activities of their own. "We don't want people to be afraid of sex,” said Lin Chun, SSAC's assistant director for alcohol and other drugs. ”We want people to be curious and ask questions so that they can have healthy
practices." SSAC urges affirmative consent. This happens when both people feel comfortable and free to stop what they're doing at any time. Affirmative consent was also encouraged by groups and the activities they sponsored. One was the Get Lucky Duck Pond game hosted by Patriots for Choice. Players were seated at a kiddie pool with plastic ducks and unicorns bobbing inside. Written on the bottom of each plastic animal were typical responses like "yes," "no" and "maybe later." Students had to find two consecutive yes statements before they could win. "I specifically chose the Get Lucky Duck Pond as consent because it's all about making sure both sides are equal and everyone has their opinion and their voice, and I think that is really critical with the pro-choice
movement in understanding that these are your reproductive rights, and you can say yes," Patriots for Choice’s President Amanda Parsons said. "So, I think they go hand in hand together." The event also focused on affirmative consent in a non-romantic context. The Office of Women and Gender Studies hosted a booth to increase awareness about healthy friendships. Participants could view statements about friendship, and then make their own poster about the subject. Freshman communication major Denise Colombani-Garay said, "I honestly like it 'cause it's very open about the whole sex thing, and a lot of people are not open about sex." She also said that she would attend future Consent Carnivals. Chun said that as long as people keep attending and learning, SSAC will definitely continue to hold the Consent Carnival.
MASON FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE ORIGINAL FILMS Best of Film event debuted a variety of impactful projects in Harris Theater TRAVIS MCMILLAN STAFF WRITER
Events like Best of Film help showcase student screenwriters, directors, producers and other creatives. Nine films in all — ranging from 5 to 18 minutes — covered topics from police brutality and refugees to a competition between Maury the Muffin Salesman and a cupcake-selling church lady. ALWAYS CARRY A BIBLE The first film showed, “Always Carry a Bible,” directed by Rhyan Elliott, was an experimental 5.5 minute short about the portrayal of police brutality from the perspective of the bystander. The camera is always in motion around the never-named man, following him as he walks around his
apartment. In the background, you hear two policemen screaming at people in the apartment next door. “I wanted the audience to feel mesmerized by what is happening physically in the space of the man,” Elliott said. “I wanted it to be obvious that he was sort of distracting himself from what’s happening in the world around him.” In the film, the color red drenches everything in the room, and is only lessened when you hear a gunshot. In silence, the two officers officers walk into the room from a blue light in the doorway only to stand at attention and be found not guilty in the afternoon. The film ends there. SIR “Sir,” written and directed by Kaidan Blackmer, follows Ty, a transgender man, and his “average” day. At 9.5
minutes, it shows his struggle with his body in numerous situations. These include times of intimacy with his loving girlfriend, simply trying to use the men’s restroom at the gym or being questioned about his sexual orientation. After being bullied in the men’s locker room and told to leave because he wasn’t born in the right body — and then being called a pervert and kicked out when trying to use the women’s locker room — Ty has had enough. He drops his pants in front of the gym’s sign and relieves himself on it. He’s then yelled at by a police officer and called “sir.” The film ends on his smiling face. During the Q&A portion of the event, Blackmer took the mic and spoke to the transgender people in the audience. In reference to the current political climate, the director said,
“We are still here, and we will continue to be here … We will continue to thrive and shine.” BINI The showstopper of the event was the 18-minute-long film “Bini,” directed by Erblin Nushi. The story follows the protagonist and the piece of candy he desperately wants during a time where Serbian soldiers are forcing people from their homes.
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Harris Theater was filled with film majors, movie lovers and student directors on Friday, Sept. 6. Held by Film at Mason, Best of Film displayed the hard work of Mason creatives.
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THE RETURN OF HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH Bienvienda Latina kicks off celebrations with music, balloons IZZ LAMAGDELEINE ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR
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For Meneses, the slogan also means no matter where someone comes from or what their background is, the Latinx community can still come together and support each other because of the culture they share.
As Bievienda Latina began this year, Hispanic music was blasting. Shiny pink balloons spelling out the event’s name on Merten Hall’s quad were visible near the stage. “Buenas tardes, George Mason University,” one of the announcers said on stage. The event held each year to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month at Mason had begun. Last year, the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Educational (ODIME) and LGBTQ Education was scheduled to host Bienvienda Latina. Several student organizations were set to appear at the event and support it. However, there was no music, no balloons, no MC’s. Last year, there was no Bienvienda Latina. When Hurricane Florence threatened Northern Virginia over a year ago, Mason did not cancel classes. However, in an email sent to update students about Florence, outdoor events were mentioned to be potentially moved, canceled or postponed. On a poster that can be seen on ODIME and LGBTQ Resources’ website, it stated that the event would be postponed, with more information to follow. The kick-off was eventually canceled entirely. This decision was the beginning of
problems in some organizations. The Hispanic Latino Leadership Association (HLLA) were not able to rebook many of the events cancelled because of Florence. In Hispanic Student Alliance (HSA), members began to distance themselves from the group after it was cancelled. “Some of them were seniors, and they were really sort of kinda disappointed ‘cause (sic) that was their last Hispanic Heritage Month celebration,” HSA President Nelcy Rocha Meneses said. Hispanic Heritage Month’s slogan is
Although ODIME and LGBTQ Resources did not host the event this year, they also sponsored it and were present at the event. “You can see the culture,” the retention chair of Mariposas Mentoring Program, Michelle Ramirez, said. “You basically get an insight of what the Hispanic culture is about, and everybody does their little performances, and it just gets you excited.”
“There will always be some argument, but there shouldn’t be [because] we’re here together,” Meneses said. “We have to support each other instead of having to fight against each other.”
For many, it was the first time they were able to attend. It was Meneses’ first Bienvienda Latina, as she transferred to Mason from NOVA in fall 2018. She wasn’t alone. Many other members of different organizations that supported the event were also there for the first time this year.
Hispanic Heritage Month is officially recognized nationally from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. It aims to celebrate the Hispanic community, as well as to bring people together to celebrate their heritage, traditions and way of life.
“Last year I was a freshman, so I had been hearing about this event and it seemed so much fun, so I was actually kind of sad that it was canceled due to weather and stuff like that,” DREAMers public relations chair Katherine Trejo said.
Bievienda Latina this year featured a flag parade, food and music. Seventeen different student organizations helped sponsor it, including Águilas Mentoring Program, the Association of Latino Professionals for America and the Black Student Alliance.
“But being here now, seeing all the orgs set up, hearing the music that I usually listen to with my friends or by myself, it feels so much fun, and I’m excited to see what it looks like once everything starts.” Besides Bienvienda Latina, the Mariposas Mentoring Program and
Águilas Mentoring Program are partnering to host a Hispanic dance lesson called New Steps, New You on Sept. 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Along with several other organizations, Mason DREAMers is holding their 9th Annual Immigration Monologues on Oct. 12 in the JC Cinema. HSA will host the Hispanic-Latinx iCafe, which is a collaboration with the International Programs and Services Office. They’ll have drinks, snacks, samples of food representing countries like Mexico and Bolivia and a table dedicated to the different kinds of tea in Central America, South America and the island countries. These events, as well as Hispanic Heritage Month itself, are important to the members of the organizations. Trejo and Meneses both emphasized that they hope other members of the Hispanic community feel they are not alone. “Even though we have a lot of immigrants, we also have a lot of American born [members of the Latinx community],” Ramirez said. Ramirez continued, “And we need to help them explain what their culture is about ... There’s other people that look like you. And you should be proud of how you look, where you come from, what language you speak as well.”
FOURTH ESTATE ALEXANDRIA MCALPINE
simple: “Unidos por cultura.” United by culture. It’s also the main slogan of HSA this year. Meneses saId they hope to support each other instead of arguing and fighting, or developing damaging cliques that would harm their relationships both inside and outside the group.
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FOURTH ESTATE ALEXANDRIA MCALPINE
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GENDER IDENTITIES IN GREEK LIFE An inside look at Greek life for transgender and non-binary students BY KIM BARTENFELDER STAFF WRITER
Embedded in Mason’s campus culture is diversity and inclusion.
organizations put a damper on their goal of being inclusive.
Mason pledges to “build and sustain an inclusive campus community and to foster a
Another hindrance Gamma Rho Lambda mentioned is the repeated gendered language of some Greek life organizations in official documentation. Although “brotherhood” and “sisterhood” to some students expresses a concept of family, Gamma Rho Lambda’s representative wrote that it’s “the type of language that could be considered unwelcoming.”
welcoming climate that values and respects all members of the community ... Our own unique identities — faith, race, sexuality, gender, abilities, socioeconomic class — we each offer an irreplaceable opportunity to examine issues from new and innovative perspectives.” By doing so, Mason has received nationally recognized rankings, including from U.S. News and World Reports. Creating opportunity for a diverse and inclusive environment is also vital to student organizations. Specifically, Greek life at Mason has a vibrant presence. Several major councils include the Interfraternity Council (IFC), Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), National Pan-hellenicCouncil (NPHC) and National Panhellenic Conference (NPC). Every council has their designated chapters to inspire students to seek leadership, thrive academically, serve their communities and provide spaces for individuals to become friends and members of the greater fraternity or sorority. Gamma Rho Lambda, a new sorority at Mason, is looking to promote additional involvement by offering a more representative Greek experience to members of the LGBTQ+ community. A representative from the organization wrote in an email that gender-specific
Rather than using binary language such as male or female, they aim to use the term “siblings.“ “The implementation of this by other Greek orgs would promote the idea that Greek life can be a space for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation,” according to the Gamma Rho Lambda representative. The sorority added that in their search for campus inclusion, “MGC members both in and out of the LGBTQ+ community have expressed excitement and support for the formation of our colony.” The representative continued, “We’re looking forward to working with them in the future.” For the future, their goal is to create “a place for LGBTQ+ students to feel completely at home, but we are still eager to interact and collaborate with other on campus organizations of all types to promote shared interests and improve student life.” Solomon, a transgender student who works closely with the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Multicultural Education (ODIME) and LGBTQ+ Resources, agrees that “organizations have been accommodating” to gender identities.
Solomon declined to give their last name for the article, citing personal reasons. However, Solomon also said that the “Mason community still has a lot to learn.” They said that by introducing one’s pronouns, it normalizes different gender identities. They continued, “We use pronouns a lot more than we think.” Mason has many resources for transgender and non-binary students, such as ODIME and LGBTQ Resources. Mason also provides campus-offered trainings that can fill in those gaps of knowledge about transgender and non-binary perspectives. When Sara, a non-binary student, was asked if they had ever considered joining in Mason Greek life, they said yes. Sara also declined to give their last name for personal reasons. They didn’t see the point of being gendered. “People are people,” they said. Austin Deray, a Mason graduate professional assistant and Ph.D., has devoted his studies to the history of single-sex collegiate masculinity and the expansion of rules and social behaviors to today’s fraternities. “We live in a world where everyone — I mean everyone — has diverse identities within ourselves (sic),” he said. “It’s within those conversations of identities that we see differences and commonalities to take down barriers.” “There must be willingness and openness with all student organizations for all student organizations,” Deray continued.
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09.16.2019
CULTURE
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FACES OF MASON delves into the lives of Mason students, faculty or alumni, and organizations every week. This week we take a close look at faculty Rei Berroa and organization Mariposas Mentoring Program INTERVIEWS BY NAYO,MI SANTOS AND PETER NJOROGE
FOURTH ESTATE NAYOMI SANTOS
FA C U LT Y, R E I B E R R O A How did you discover your passion for poetry and the written word?
What do you want students in your classes to take from your teachings?
Tell me about your most recent work of research or creative work.
I was sent to the seminary when I was a little boy [in the Dominican Republic], which was wonderful for the family. [When] you have five children, you don’t have enough food. Suddenly the priest comes to the house and tells the parents, ‘That boy is very smart and very quiet. That means that the Lord has separated him for the service. You should send him to the seminary.’ And so [my parents] were very glad, they decided to send me to the seminary. I was 11 years old. What does a boy or a girl at 11 know? You know the world that you have in front of you. So it was not until I was a little older that I realized that that was not what I wanted to do in the world. I was questioning everything.
As chair of the department, I teach one class … During the year, I teach a class on the introduction of literary and cultural analysis, which is a class about reading. The whole idea is ‘Let’s read texts and discover everything that is in the texts so that nobody, after this class, will deceive you.’ Because the whole thing about poetry is that you say one thing and you mean another. If the student — or the teacher — is able to discover that as a game of understanding the reality, it can save us a lot of headaches … There is a power that the student has that also has to be exercised with common sense, the same manner where the professor — — who has a lot of power — has to use it with a great sense of humanity, common sense.
Well, the two of them have not materialized yet. Every year, I organize a poetry festival and it is something that when I became chair of the department, I told the dean, ‘I cannot abandon that because it is my soul.’ I cannot be chair because I am a poet, and a poet relies on chaos to create a different kind of order that is connected to the heart and the mind. I organize this poetry festival every year in which I invite poets to come to the Washington area and spend a weekend reading poetry. The first day at the Library of Congress and [the second day] at the Teatro de la Luna, [where] I have been the Literary Adviser since its beginning in 1991
FOURTH ESTATE PETER NJORGE
O R G A N I Z AT I O N , M A R I P O S A S M E N T O R I N G P R O G R A M Can you tell me a little bit about the mentorship program?
Can you tell me a little bit about this event?
So, we’re basically a mentoring program, and we put mentors and mentees together based on their year. So, if they’re a transfer, or they’re freshmen or they’re sophomores, they’ll be the mentee and we pair them up with seniors and juniors. And with that, it’s basically a partnership where they can network, get advice, become friends. We just want to let them have somebody they can rely on because a lot of Hispanics usually don’t have background knowledge on college. Basically, we’re providing that background for them so they don’t come here to campus and feel stressed out like, ‘Oh my god. What are we going to do?’ We provide that background and [a] sense of confidence so they don’t feel lost.
This event, which is Bienvenida Latina, [is] basically to get all the Hispanic students on campus to get together and find out what orgs are out there for them. What orgs help them out with school, what orgs are going to help them get involved on campus. There’s a bunch of people on campus that look like them even though they don’t see them. It helps them to know that there’s more of them out here and that you can get involved and let people know about our culture, to explain to them what we’re about, where we come from. Just so they know, I guess, our background and that we have culture as a group where we consider ourselves family. Not just ‘Oh you’re on campus, we’re not going to talk.’ We want to be a huge family on campus.
Do you have anything else planned for Hispanic Heritage Month? We do have two events coming up. It’s going to be tomorrow at the Hub room 1 and 2 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. And that’s going to be our meet and greet basically, and we’re going to be introducing the eboard. We’re going to introduce more about what the organization is about for those who haven’t been able to come out to events. And we also are going to get all the members to participate in activities so they can get along, make new friends and meet new people. And then we also have a dinner date on Sunday. At Señor Tequila from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., and for that you will have to RSVP. That’s basically a more social event. We want everybody to feel comfortable in our organization and want them to know that they always have somebody out there to talk to.
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HIDDEN HANGOUTS: THE JEFFERSON BUILDING AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS The Jefferson Building is a sight to behold LEIGH NORMAN STAFF WRITER
Named after Thomas Jefferson, the building is one of three buildings that make up the Library of Congress. The other two, Madison and Adams, are also free and open to the public, and feature reading rooms and cafes. But, if you want a feast for the eyes, the Jefferson Building is your destination. Once you step out of the Capitol South metro stop, the outside of the Jefferson Building seems like the rest of D.C. Grey, imposing with too many stairs. Weekdays are calm, while on the weekends you might spend as long as 30 minutes in line. However, the wait is well worth it.
Watch the grey exterior fade away when you enter the Jefferson Building’s Great Hall. Seeing it is reason enough to visit: marble staircases, towering columns, stained glass, the history of the world painted on the ceiling. Park yourself next to a cherub statue and stare for a while. The Great Hall is surrounded by several exhibits. Some have been there for years, like Thomas Jefferson’s original library and the political satire exhibit. Others are newer, like Walt Whitman’s original drafts and the “Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote” display. There are three floors to explore, and all have something new to discover. The Library of Congress stays true to its name —from the American Folklife Center to the Young Readers Center — there are plenty of books to
choose from. To check out materials, you simply need to get a Library of Congress library card. Should you want to do some inquiry, check out the reading rooms. They’re a researcher’s paradise. Look at the first pop-up book in the Rare Books and Special Collections Reading Room, or read ancient poetry in the Asian Reading Room. For handling special materials like maps, diaries and sketchbooks, you need to attend an orientation that happens on specific days. You can also schedule an individual consultation.
The Jefferson Building is a day-long experience. Tours are available in Spanish, French and English. Tours for visually impaired visitors are also offered. Grab a coffee in the tunnel cafe, then attend a concert in the Coolidge Auditorium or pop by the political cartoon display. Live the lives
of Bob Hope and Alice Paul as you view their exhibits. Spend the day reliving the history of the nation. The Jefferson Building is well-equipped for you to just check out a book, settle in a chair and enjoy your day.
FOURTH ESTATE LEIGH NORMAN
At the Library of Congress – Thomas Jefferson Building, the lives of many, including suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and musical icons like the Gershwin brothers, live on.
Not all the historical items you can interact with are dusty journals and papers. Rosa Parks’ featherlite pancake recipe is available. You can also find board games from the 1930s. All the subject librarians and desk attendants are eager to assist you.
Quick tips on how to save money as a college student AHMED FARID STAFF WRITER
eat. However, with a little planning, you can save a lot. Mason Dining offers a variety of plans that are tailored for a student's needs, whether you eat all your meals on campus or only once a week.
Between tuition fees and the ridiculously expensive books, we usually find ourselves jumping through hoops in order to put our finances together. While there may be no one to make our bills go away, there are a number of things that you can do as a college student to make ends meet. Below are tips that will help you save money this semester.
If you commute to campus, you need to make sure you do it in the most affordable way. Mason students have free access to the CUE bus, so consider traveling that way if you can. Also, if you’re on campus and did not bring your car, know that there are a number of places you can go for free using the Mason shuttle.
Choose a meal plan that suits you Whether you live on or off campus, chances are you are going to have to eat while at school. Some people end up spending a fortune on the food they
Find convenient transportation
Buy used textbooks Every semester, you're going to be asked to buy a number of incredibly overpriced books. One of the best ways to prevent yourself from going bankrupt in college is to look
for cheaper options. These can be in the form of old books being sold on Amazon or by other Mason students, renting or finding a friend who previously took the class and are willing to lend you the book. At the beginning of the semester, make sure to check with your professor if you need the book before you buy or rent it. Attend Mason events We all need to de-stress every now and then, but it seems that in order to have fun you have to spend some money. On a campus like ours, there are tons of free events where you can enjoy your time without spending a dime. Whenever you want to do something exciting, check online for events held by different organizations and see if anything appeals to you.
FOURTH ESTATE BILLY FERGUSON
As college students, there are many things that separate us. We have different majors, enjoy different hobbies and come from diverse backgrounds. Yet, there seems to be one thing that most of us can agree on: We are completely broke.
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SPORTS
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09.16.2019
FALL INTO THESE SPORTS
NATALIE HEAVREN SPORTS EDITOR
The temperatures have not begun to cool down, the leaves have not changed colors and fall sports are not even close to wrapping up. There is still a long way to go. Now I am just as excited as the rest of the basketball fans for the season to begin because I have been watching basketball since I could sit up, but let’s not rush into things. Before basketball begins, take a chance to head over to the RAC to catch a Women’s Volleyball match or walk just past the field house to catch a Men’s and/or Women’s Soccer game. These athletes work just as hard and put in just as much effort — and yet are not rewarded by the crowds who head over to EagleBank Arena for, primarily, Men’s Basketball games. At many fall sporting events, there is a scattered crowd of students, it is necessary to give these athletes the fans they deserve. As the weather begins to cool, catching a soccer game is the perfect way to
unwind during the week or relax on a Sunday afternoon. Both soccer teams hosted home playoff games last season with the men’s team making it to the championship game. Volleyball is a riveting way to spend a Friday or Saturday evening and you will be sure to leave wondering how some of the athletic plays were made. Last year Women’s Volleyball had its best season since joining the Atlantic 10 and made its first appearance in the A-10 championship. If you have been to a basketball game and do not think watching sports are for you, give these fall sports a chance. Even if you are counting down the days until the first basketball game, you have survived every offseason so far and checking out a few of the fall sporting events may make the final stretch a little bit easier. Here are some players to keep your eye on when you watch these exciting fall sports. Women’s Volleyball Freshman Stephanie Dur leads the team in digs per set. Bailey Williams is second on the team
in points per set and leads the team in kills per set. Men’s Soccer Tunde Akinlosotu led the team in scoring and assists last season and scored the game-winning goal in the team’s season opener. Ryan Mingachos has scored 11 goals and tallied eight assists in his Mason career. Women’s Soccer Emma van der Vorst is the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference Player and Rookie of the Year after finishing last season with 14 goals and four assists. She already has one goal and three assists this season. Morgan Symmers has allowed just 1.5 goals per game over her four-year career and started 17 games last season. FOURTH ESTATE BILLY FERGUSON
We are now a few weeks into the fall semester and I have already begun hearing and seeing pleas for the college basketball season to return.
Women’s Volleyball’s next home match is on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. Men’s Soccer’s next home game is Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. Women’s Soccer’s next home game is Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. You can find the rest of the teams’ schedules on GoMason.com.
SPORTS IN BRIEF Women’s Soccer In Fairfax on Sept. 8, Women’s Soccer secured their first win of the season by defeating Binghamton, 2-0. The Patriots came out of the gate strong in the second half as Sara Chontosh and Jisca Adigo scored goals in the 46th and 55th minutes, respectively. On Thursday, Sept.12, the Patriots traveled to Harrisonburg where they were defeated by James Madison University, 3-2. This moves Mason’s record to 1-4-1 overall. Kayla Hamric opened the scoring with a goal in the 31st minute. However, the Dukes scored three of the final four goals in the match to seal Mason’s fate.
Men’s Soccer Men’s Soccer lost for the third game in a row, falling to 1-3 on the season. Campbell University shut out Mason, winning by a 3-0 score on Sept. 8 in Buies Creek, North Carolina. Both teams were held scoreless through the first 28 minutes of the match before Campbell scored twice in nine minutes, closing out the first half of play on a high note. Campbell opened the second half by adding an insurance goal in the 56th minute. As a team, Mason recorded only two shots on goal while Campbell recorded eight.
Women’s Volleyball At the RAC on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Women’s Volleyball fell to Navy, three sets to one. Mason now sits at 2-4 on the season. Mason and Navy split the first two sets before Navy took the final two. Mason trailed Navy 15-14 in the fourth set before Navy rattled off five consecutive points and eventually won the set 25-19. For the Patriots, Siron Hardy led the team with 14 kills while Peyton Ehmke recorded a seasonhigh six blocks. Bailey Williams also posted a season-high with 21 digs.
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OPINIONS Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu
09.16.2019
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A S-PAINFUL EXPERIENCE
KAYLYN MATIS STAFF WRITER
On my first day in Madrid, Spain, I got off the plane and got into a taxi to go to my host family’s house. I had no idea where I was going and had been awake for over 24 hours. The address did not look anything like an address would in the United States, and the taxi driver did not speak any English. Then the taxi driver got lost. I could not figure out where I was going and neither could my driver. We drove around for nearly an hour all while I was calling my host mom, in Spanish, trying to figure out where to go. This was only the first day, and I was only 18. Moreover, this was my first study-abroad experience with the first year of Mason’s Global Education Office’s (GEO) Global Gateway program. The feeling of being lost and alone, unfortunately, carried on throughout the rest of the semester. This is especially true after the GEO advisor left. Her role was to assist the members of the program with adjusting to our new environment. This included things such as assisting us in getting to the school as well as class registration. She was only in Spain for less than two weeks and it seemed as if I had to figure out how to do everything by myself. The advisor left even before class registration was finished.
I was constantly emailing Mason to see if the classes I wanted to take were approved. There was no online database and it was difficult to understand which classes were okay to take, especially since we had no in-person help from Mason. The lack of support was certainly the most overwhelming part. There was only one person at the University of Carlos III that could help us. One person for over twenty freshmen, all of them novice travellers. It seemed as if it was me and the other students dealing with the lack of support more so than the program directors. This was just one of many issues. I had a nearly 40 minute train commute to school with multiple transfers in a major city, all of which I had to figure out by myself. While I did request to live downtown, I was not aware of how long it would take me to get to the campus nor was I taught how to use the bus or train system. But that was not the worst of it! On top of it all, nearly all basic activities had to be done in Spanish. There was no language requirement for the program, and all students were under the impression that most people in Madrid would speak English. This was not the case. The combination
of the language barrier and lack of a Mason advisor led to feeling alone. I was not the only person who felt this way. When reflecting on the experience with my peers, it was clear we felt similarly throughout the program. Nearly every morning I took the train with my friend to school. We got lost regularly, but we figured it out together. We figured everything out together. It was the students figuring out how to get across the city by train to get to each other. It was the students that got nearly every single class approved for that semester. It was the students that helped each other figure out which phone plan was the best. It was the students that figured out which grocery store to go to. Everything was done by us, not the program leaders. This did not just occur in the Spain Global Gateway. Grace Karol, a student in Australia’s Global Gateway, shared the feeling of being lost as well. She felt that “there wasn’t a lot of guidance.” The two women in charge of the cohort that were “supposed to be visiting for weeks at a time” turned into only one of the original program leaders and a replacement that did not actually know anyone in the program.
For Karol it felt “awkward” since no one actually knew the replacement and did not feel as if they could talk to her about their problems. The lack of guidance seemed to be the most overwhelming part of the experience across the board. My parents were also frustrated with the program. My father had been in the military for his entire career, and my mother works at a college. My father was mainly concerned about the safety aspects of the program or lack thereof. The program advisor never discussed the location of the United States Embassy with us. This should have been stressed to a group of United States citizens living abroad. Instead, it was something my family talked about with me and information that I was proactive about sharing with my peers. My mother used the information she received from her college’s study abroad program to assist me in fixing the credit issues at my college. Instead of Mason fixing the issue, I had to go to another institution to find the answers. My parents had all the reason to be concerned too. After returning from Spain I realized how frustrating the program had actually been. What is worse is that the issues did not end after returning to the
United States. My freshman cohort and I had issues with transferring credits back from Spain. This led to me, along with others, taking credits that were not necessary towards our degrees. Due to not having many courses offered at Carlos III, many students opted to pay the extra money to take courses online back at Mason or settle for a course that counted as only an elective credit. This was frustrating for many since students were initially told that many core classes were offered. Being freshmen, many of us needed those core classes. It was clear that the problems from being abroad were following us back to the US. Some students had issues rising to sophomore year after returning even though they had passed all of their classes. Their credits had simply not been transferred. These issues needed to be addressed. After not receiving a response from my program leader regarding the credit issues, I decided to contact the GEO office again. This was when I finally found out that my program leader did not work in the office anymore. Eventually I got some answers. I was able to speak with the new program leader for Madrid Global Gateway as well as the manager of freshman programs at the GEO office. We were able to have an open dialogue about what went wrong in Spain and what should be changed in the following years.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KAYLYN MATIS
After the conversation it was clear that the GEO office is committed to fixing their past mistakes, which was refreshing to hear. At the Global Gateway Gala a few nights ago, they allowed students from the program to discuss the issues they experienced as well. While talking about the problems is a great start, actual change is required to fix the issues that I and other Global Gateway students experienced while studying abroad. If the Global Gateway program follows through on things such as better preparing students before they leave and providing better guidance while abroad, I am sure the program will be as amazing as I had hoped it would be.
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OPINIONS Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu
09.16.2019
RETURNING ACADEMIA TO THE HANDS OF ACADEMICS STEVEN ZHOU CONTRIBUTOR
When I applied to the graduate program at Mason, my application was reviewed by the specific faculty members in the department. I’m sure there was a graduate admissions committee that reviewed my overall profile, but when I got the exciting call with my admissions offer, it came from the professor who ultimately decided that I should be admitted. I believe that such a model should be reflected in undergraduate admissions as well. Let’s face it: university admissions is a touchy subject. Admissions offices are regularly accused of admitting children of special donors connected to the university. Harvard is still being sued for setting up an admissions plan
that resulted in a significantly higher SAT requirement for Asian Americans to be admitted than any other race. I’m not arguing that having faculty make the decision would fix all these problems in one fell swoop. However, it should be noted that ultimately, faculty are the ones who decide and know exactly what is being taught in the classroom and expected of our students. Faculty will know best who is prepared for academic success and who is not — and by overseeing admissions, they can help refocus admissions primarily on what it’s meant to be about: academic preparation. After all, we go to college to learn. That’s not to say that student life, athletics, extracurriculars, counseling services and other departments aren’t important. In fact, they’re critical, insomuch that they support the holistic student and equip them with the tools they need to succeed in the classroom and apply the knowledge gained to the real world. If other departments get a say in admissions, then faculty should have a
voice to represent the whole point of education: Learning. Moreover, having faculty on the admissions committee should improve the important element of diversity in the student body. I’d like to believe that all faculty are open-minded and willing to entertain other viewpoints, as such a perspective is the foundation for scientific investigation (if not, maybe they shouldn’t be a faculty member). Faculty should lead the way in creating a diverse classroom with diverse viewpoints, rather than using hidden quotas to artificially “color” a student body. Faculty would know the divergent viewpoints in their field and be able to identify students from across the spectrum of perspectives. I recognize that there are difficulties with the model. We may need more faculty to distribute the load of admissions review. We may need to create a clearly structured panel model so that applicants are reviewed by faculty from multiple departments. I’d prefer we spend time and money focusing on making this doable, rather than risking a review process
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS KERNAN-SCHMIDT
In the wake of the series of admissions scandals ranging from fake athletic profiles to transferring custody of children away from wealthy families, colleges like Yale and University of Southern California (USC) have proposed a long-overdue protective measure: return oversight of admissions to the faculty.
susceptible to the ever-growing list of scandals. I’ll also add that this is not to say the admissions office is useless; they would actually be critical in such a scenario to recruiting applicants, presenting the best part of the school to the world and encouraging applicants throughout the process. Frankly, they’re probably much better at the recruiting process than the faculty would be, and such skills should be harnessed to their highest potential.
In the article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s article, Mason’s own Vice President for Enrollment David Burge emphasized that “you have to have a good, strong connection between the faculty and the admissions office.” Burge, I agree — let’s return academia to the hands of the academics, and for the sake of fairness and diversity, allow faculty to have a say (if not the final say) in admissions.
WHY COLLEGE IS SO WEIRD
DOMINIC PINO STAFF WRITER
Ever wonder why college is so weird? It’s not like work and it’s not like home. It’s a weird, four(ish)-year span of our lives when we complain about other people making our food for us, sleep until noon while being considered “full-time” and lament being around the smartest people our society has to offer. What a bizarre state of affairs. It’s only made weirder by all the activism you see on campus. If you walked into the grocery store and encountered people begging you to sign their petition on the environment or marching around with signs and shouting about the manager of the store, you’d probably never go back there again. But with universities, it’s a selling point — part of “the college experience.” Why isn’t there anywhere else in society we put up with this weirdness? Economists James Buchanan and Nicos Devletoglou thought the same thing in 1970 when they wrote their book, “Academia in Anarchy:
An Economic Diagnosis.” Yes, it’s that James Buchanan of Buchanan Hall fame — one of Mason’s Nobel Prize-winning economists. He and Devletoglou, an economics professor from Greece, used their economics training to answer why universities are so weird. They found that all the incentives are different in universities than they are anywhere else. For example, in a grocery store, the customer pays for products that food producers sell in a building owned by the store owner. It works out pretty well because customers want to spend as little as possible to satisfy their wants, producers are competing to satisfy consumers’ wants at the lowest price and the owner manages the store to satisfy customers and producers alike. With universities, Buchanan and Devletoglou point out, every part of what works about grocery stores is flipped on its head. Universities provide a product — education — that customers don’t pay for, producers
don’t sell and owners don’t control. The customers of a university are students, but students largely don’t pay for their education. How? Financial aid. According to the College Board, the average published tuition and fees for an in-state student at a public four-year university in 2018-2019 was $10,230, but students only pay $3,740. Consequently, consumers are not sovereign at the university like they are at the grocery store. It’s odd to think about it, but the owner of the grocery store is completely at the mercy of his or her customers because customers can go somewhere else with their money and put the store out of business. Not so for the educator. Since financial aid comes from more sources than one can count, and there are numerous intermediaries between the student and the university, there is no possible way for educators to figure out what students want like grocery store owners figure out what customers want. The producers at a university are
professors, but professors don’t sell education. Admissions and marketing offices do. They’re fine people, but they aren’t professors. Professors have an incentive to come to work: their paycheck. But, since professors don’t make the decisions about who gets the product, they have no incentive to make the product good for the students.They provide good education out of the goodness of their hearts —a quality that varies greatly among humans. So long as the university turns applicants away (i.e. forever), professors know they will have students to teach no matter what, meaning they can teach the same lessons year after year — whether they are any good or not. Finally, the owners of universities don’t control education. Since Mason is a public university, the owner is the Commonwealth of Virginia — represented by the Board of Visitors, which is appointed by the governor. They don’t make any decisions on how the university is run day-to-day.
Administrators and executives like the university president and the various deans actually control the university. You don’t see anyone put the names of Board of Visitors members on signs to demand change. In fact, most people couldn’t even name one member if they were offered a million dollars. Unlike at the grocery store where producers know what we want and we know whom to blame if something is wrong, universities are a tangled mess of blurred signals, which, to economists like Buchanan and Devletoglou, is anarchy. If there’s something we don’t like, we can’t leave a negative review, ask to speak to the manager, or —the most powerful action of all —take our money and go somewhere else. It’s not our money, the professors are going to do whatever they want no matter what and the people who own the place don’t call the shots. All that’s left to do is post on social media or get out the markers and poster board. Weird.
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OPINIONS Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu
GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
COLLEGE REPUBLICANS VS. GMU DEMOCRATS Republican and Democratic side-by-side take on immigration
GRAPHICS DONE BY ALEXANDRIA MCALPINE FOURTH ESTATE
IAN WAITE COLLEGE REPUBLICANS’ CONTRIBUTOR
OUR COMMON STORY
The system by which the U.S. allowed people from all over the world to begin a new chapter of their life — built upon the safety, stability and prosperity of our democracy — used to be the envy of the world. Today, it is in peril.
What is at stake is the livelihoods of millions of people, many of whom are American citizens and many who are not but wish only to toil for the benefit of their families and the advancement of the American experiment. The fate of all Americans and non-naturalized immigrants are inextricably linked, and both will be damned if we cannot answer two fundamental questions. First, why does this system matter? Second, how do we fix it? To answer the first question, we need to look no further than the stories of Marcelino and Johnson Farms in Northern Michigan. Marcelino is part of a migrant community of seasonal workers who spend winters laboring in Florida and summers in
Michigan on various orchards. They travel between these places annually, but in 2017 fewer migrants started making the journey. Many are here illegally and fear that if they make the trip, they may be caught and deported. It is worth noting that Marcelino has been in the U.S. since 1989. He poses no national security threat and has spent the past 30 years working to the benefit of the American economy. There is no reason why someone in Marcelino’s situation should not have the option of a pathway to citizenship or a long-term work visa available to them.In fact, a continued decline in participation from individuals in a similar situation to Marcelino would come at the detriment of the American economy. When asked by NPR why he doesn’t hire Americans, the farmer who hired Marcelino, Dean Johnson, said, “We’ve tried. We really have. Sometimes people
come out on a day like today and they’ll pick one box, and then they’re gone. They just don’t want to do it.” A strong economy means American workers are taking better paying, high-skilled jobs. Employers like Mr. Johnson are willing to pay more to entice workers to stay, but only if we create an environment that allows immigrants to feel comfortable working in the open. This can only be our reality if we fix our broken immigration system. As of now, it costs an employer $2,000 per worker to hire someone with an H-2A temporary work visa. This cost is an obstacle for small operations that need to increase their worker capacity and the bureaucratic process that grants these visas is in desperate need of simplification and cost reduction. Additionally, if our friend Marcelino wanted to become a citizen, the cost for applying is at least $725 in initial
fees. Spending that kind of money to simply start the process is a hurdle that disincentivizes citizenship and encourages illegal immigration. The best tool we have to combat illegal immigration, is to make the naturalization/work visa processes easier and cheaper to navigate. Finally, the heartbreaking and horrendous conditions at our southern border cannot be ignored. Families being separated and forced to live without basic essential hygiene products is inexcusable. That is why in June, Republicans led the vote on a $4.6 billion humanitarian relief bill meant to address these conditions. Accelerating the rate at which we process these asylum requests is our most effective possible solution to these overwhelmed facilities. If we muster the political will to implement these changes and more, we may well improve the standard of living for everyone in this country.
THE WAR ON IMMIGRATION
ERIC DARYABEIGI GMU DEMOCRATS’ CONTRIBUTOR
The immigration crisis that our country faces isn’t due to immigration from Latin America. The real crisis is due to Donald Trump and the war that he has waged on both legal and illegal immigrants. Trump ran his 2016 campaign on the position of building a giant wall on the southern border — which would replace the Statue of Liberty as the monument symbolically representing America. For the past four years, Trump has continually attacked all that the Statue of Liberty stands for, starting by his statement against Mexican immigrants, saying that, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Then he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” The president calls African nations “s*itholes,” and migrants of color “invaders.” Trump’s rhetoric has been quoted by and has inspired extremists to commit hate crimes against people and communities of color, such as the massacres of Latinos in El Paso, Jews in Pittsburgh and Muslims in New Zealand. He tweeted that four congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came.’’
Most recently, he stated that those suffering from the effects of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas should not be allowed entry into America because the Bahamas contain “some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers.” One of the most despicable acts of the Trump administration has been their travel ban or “Muslim ban.” The ban has been successful in keeping more than one hundred million Muslims from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria out of our country. Around 9,500 family members of U.S. citizens have been prevented access to their family. Since he first stated “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” on Dec. 7, 2015, radical Islamic terrorism in the west and America has decreased significantly. But for some reason, the people from these countries are still considered a threat by the Trump administration, which was supported by a 5-4 ruling upholding the ban from the Supreme Court on June 26, 2018. Trump was so eager to ban Muslisms
from America that it was one of his first big executive orders, which was quickly implemented exactly one week after he had been inaugurated on Jan. 27, 2017.
and the Trump administration wants to lower that number to zero, effectively shutting down America’s refugee admissions program.
Another disgusting act by the Trump administration has been their treatment of Hispanic families at the border. Children are separated from their families and both children and adults are treated like animals.
Lawful immigration processes, such as applying for a green card and citizenship, have been slowed down and ever since 2017, the backlog of pending green card applications has increased by more than 35 percent.
Trump calls this a “deterrent” to slow the migration of families coming from Central and South America, but it is just humiliation and inhumane cruelty to serve as a sign to all minorities that this is how you’re viewed and will be treated in Trump’s America.
A denaturalization task force has been created to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens and the administration has already referred 100 cases to the Ju s t i c e Department for prosecution.
A better deterrent would be to address the cause of the mass migration, which is the poor living conditions and corruption that defines many Central and South American countries. The most effective way to help these countries would be through strong diplomacy and aid, but Trump shows little interest in diplomacy and leadership and aid to these countries has been cut during his three years in office. The Trump administration has also taken action to reduce legal migration to America. The previous refugee admission ceiling of 110,000 people has been reduced to 20,000
Immigration is personal to me, as both of my parents are immigrants — a French Mother and a Iranian Father. These past four years have been hell. America spoke loudly in 2016 and it seems as if my president does not respect me or my family for who we are or what we represent. Immigrants are some of the best citizens and role models in America, but Trump uses the highest office in the land and the most respected in the world, to humiliate and dehumanize those who are different, diverse and who make this country great. We all have ancestors who immigrated from somewhere else and immigration is what has made, and continues to make, America the best nation in the world.
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OPINIONS Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu
09.16.2019
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FIGHTING STEM ELITISM
The struggle of the humanities ELI KOHN STAFF WRITER
For university students, majors and classes are generally separated between those in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and those in the humanities or social sciences fields. For years, STEM careers have been placed on a pedestal. Parents will tell you to pursue those careers and tell you those are the careers that make the most money; teachers will say the same. Just the idea of studying software development or neuroscience seems holier-than-thou, and in the 21st century, that is to some degree understandable. With the emergence of new sciences
and technologies it seems as if those pursuing STEM careers are to be the pioneers of a new age, and conversely, interest in the humanities (psychology, sociology, political science, etc.) has waned. The idea seems to be, “We know all there is to know about humans, now it’s time to know machines.” Majors in English or journalism or philosophy have been deemed useless, and the pressure has increased more and more for students to endorse more so-called practical majors. So, how impractical are the humanities? Have the humanities truly become a dying field because we, humanity, have shifted our interest
to computers and machines? Is it not shameful just to admit this?
At the risk of sounding like an agitated baby boomer, that the immersion into 21st century culture has reduced our ability to think critically about human issues, and to add to that, in my experience, STEM fields encourage almost exclusively technical and vocational thinking (though not to discredit the critical thinking that is involved).
Americans suffer from depression, an additional 40 million are diagnosed with anxiety disorders and stress rates are at an all-time high and rising. And still, the focus is placed on maths and machines. Even in spite of the surge of progress in the humanities that occurred in the 20th century, there’s still so much we don’t know about the human condition, and so much that is lacking in the most necessary fields of humanities — teaching, counseling and psychology —to name a few crucial areas that need drastic improvement.
Studying humanities forces much deeper thought into people and the way people work. 16 million
STEM classes are ones in which a problem is given with a definitive start and end. There are facts, there are
The truth is we need the humanities more than ever.
claims to be defended in numbers, and answers that are reached with little doubt. The humanities, however, are disruptive. The humanities are fields designed to question the questions themselves. Humanities classes pressure learners to engage in incredibly deep, multilayered methods of finding answers, and critical thinking is needed now more than ever in order to encourage another generation of brilliant thinkers. We have plenty of Bill Gateses and Stephen Hawkings in the making. We need more Nelson Mandelas and John Lockes.
BE HAPPY THEY’RE HERE
JACE WHITE STAFF WRITER
Often, they come alone, content to hold their signs, pass out their flyers and shout into their microphones with no one else to protect them. Even those of us who have the conviction to be part of group demonstrations would probably never consider doing one alone. I admire those who believe in something strongly enough to take their message to the streets, and when I visit the White House and see the crowds there, I don’t feel like they are imposing on my experience. In fact, it’s a big part of why I go. Our campus also happens to attract many of the same sort of people who stand outside the White House, especially the ones with religious messages. Sometimes it’s one person, sometimes it’s a table with two or three, but they are always vastly outnumbered by the sea of disapproving students they have to face. Many complain about their presence,
which is understandable when some of them shout at students and make people uncomfortable, but I’ve heard people take offence to their being here at all. Some students are frustrated, “don’t they understand that we’re not interested”? They do understand, they understand that very well; they’re here anyway. Ask yourself: do you believe in anything so strongly that you’d be willing to stand alone to defend it? Would you face a thousand rejections for the possibility of changing one person’s mind? I am inspired by the dedication of the religious and activist groups I see on campus. I don’t have to agree with them, in fact, I hardly ever talk to them, but I am never frustrated by them. It’s flattering that the kinds of people who like to take their message to White House — the center of power for the entire free world — also find it worth their while to come to our campus. Having to say, “No, thank you,” to a few Christian groups on your way to the dining hall is a small price to pay for being in a place where people and ideas from all walks of life converge. Be happy they’re here. Even if you don’t want to talk to them.
FOURTH ESTATE BILLY FERGUSON
When I go into DC, I always stop and see the White House. I do it in part because I’m a tourist who doesn’t know anything better to do, but also because I enjoy watching the mix of political activists, religious groups, long shot presidential candidates and more who come to make their case at the president’s doorstep.
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Enter for a chance to win $200 discount towards your program cost. Visit StudyAbroad.gmu.edu/2020 to learn more.* *GEO will draw three application fee waivers, worth $200 each, among all submissions made through the link listed above by Thursday, September 19, 2019 at 11:59 pm. The waiver is only applicable for study abroad programs that are accepting applications at the time of the Fall 2019 Study Abroad Fair.