11.11.19- Fourth Estate

November 11, 2019

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Volume 7 Issue 9

FOURTH ESTATE For the first time in 26 years, Virginia Democrats take control of state legislature {p. 9}

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NEW HOUSING STAFF STRUCTURE (P. 4) || THE COMEBACK KID (P. 7) || JAZZ FOR JUSTICE (P. 9) || OPINIONS: FAST FASHION TRUTHS (P. 16) Fourth Estate is a free publication, limit one copy per person. Additional copies are 25 cents payable to the OfďŹ ce of Student Media.

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11.11.2019

FOURTH ESTATE

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE

DANA NICKEL HAILEY BULLIS Co Editor-in-Chief

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

ALEXANDRIA MCALPINE Art Director

Hey Patriots, In case you haven’t heard, on Tuesday, Nov. 5 the Democratic party gained control of the Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates.

This hasn’t been done in 26 years. Regardless of your political stance, it was truly a historic election for Virginia.

And, of course, with the passing of this election season, we are officially only a year out from the 2020 presidential election.

Our News section went to Merten Hall on election day to gather student reactions and responses and also attended presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s rally on Monday, Nov. 4. Read more about these two events on page five and three respectively.

Steering away from political news, our Culture section went to the Fall New Dances performance put on by the School of Dance.

Meanwhile, our Sports section worked tirelessly all weekend to provide you with the most up-to-date basketball game coverage. You can check it out online. Our Assistant Sports Editor Domenic Allegra also wrote a profile about Mason volleyball player Erin Derick — read it on page seven.

Opinion staff writer Eli Kohn wrote an opinion surrounding the national student debt and what policies the Democratic presidential candidates have to solve it. See more about his take on page 16.

As we draw closer to the end of the semester and the holiday season (Starbucks has already changed over to their holiday cups), I hope you guys are taking care of yourselves and making time to accomplish everything that you want to this semester.

And as my Co Editor-in-Chief Dana Nickel and I always say, if you have any comments, questions or concerns, please feel free to 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 KATHRYN MANGUS Director

Best,

DAVID CARROLL Associate Director

Hailey Bullis

JASON HARTSEL Assistant Director

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COVER PHOTO CREDITS Mohammad Abdalla Khamis/ Photo Courtesy

NEWS

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE

11.11.2019

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ANDREW YANG RALLIES AT MASON The Democratic primary candidate talks universal basic income, automation JACK HARVEY ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

going very, very purple, and with just a bit of a push, I think Virginia is gonna go blue, whaddya think? It’s gonna go deep, navy, math, Yang Gang blue.”

During his 30-minute speech, Yang talked at length about the importance of predicting and mitigating the automation of various sectors of the U.S. economy.

PHOTO COURTESY OF VIJAY IYER

He used the example of a trucker, Fred the Felon, who was a fan of the campaign that went so far as to paint “Truckers for Yang” on the side of his truck.

Democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang held a rally at Mason’s Center for the Arts on Nov. 4. The two-hour rally featured speakers from Yang’s campaign as well as Mason students.

Yang is currently polling between one and three percent according to aggregate polling data from FiveThirtyEight.

Kara Kline, president of George Mason Democrats, spoke about the importance of voting in the Nov. 5 Virginia election: “Your vote counts, your vote is your voice; use it … It’s super, super important that y’all get out to vote tomorrow because it is going to set the tone for 2020.”

Yang echoed her sentiments when he began his speech, stating, “Virginia is

“Fred is excited about the campaign because he realizes that we’re in the process of trying to automate his job and the jobs of 3.5 million truckers in this country … by equipping the trucks with 5G teleoperating equipment where, when the truck’s not sure what to do, a human operator will beam in from Nevada or Arizona and drive it like a videogame,” said Yang.

Yang further argued for the necessity of limiting corporate power, citing the fact that Amazon paid $0 in federal income taxes for 2018 and the decision to build Amazon’s HQ2 outside D.C.

He referred to Bezos’ accountants, saying, “Jeff goes into his vault, takes out bags of gold coins, gives them to each accountant; and then they go home and take a little Scrooge McDuck gold coin bath.”

“We are going to rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy so that they work for us [and] they work for you,’’ Yang stated.

He also made a case for his plan for universal basic income (UBI), which he calls the Freedom Dividend.

“How much of [the money spent because of UBI] would stay where you live and work and go to school? … This is the trickle-up economy, Virginia. Your people, your families, and your communities-up. This is the opposite of the trickle-down garbage that’s been weakening us for years,” said Yang.

Joshua Farnsworth, a freshman computer science major, explained his rationale for supporting Yang.

“The biggest [issue], undeniably, is universal basic income. Which, coming from a family when I was younger that was not necessarily poverty-stricken

but also wasn’t on the right foot, universal basic income would’ve helped my family back then, and I know that there’s millions of families out there that it would help now. Even if it isn’t as extreme as he’s pushing, I still believe it is a policy that would help millions of people around the country,” said Farnsworth.

Madoc Kimball, a freshman at Mason and Andrew Yang Caucus Chair with the George Mason Democrats, explained how he got involved: “Andrew Yang draws me for a lot of reasons. I come from a very politically active family; we — even though I couldn’t vote in 2016, me and my mother, we phone banked for Hillary, we did a lot of stuff. Because we have such a competitive primary — first and foremost I’m a Democrat and I wanna support who’ll beat Donald Trump.”

Kimball continued, “I think Andrew Yang is the best choice for that … one of the main reasons Andrew Yang succeeds so much as a candidate is because he’s bringing forward really persuasive policy and he shows how that will make a difference in American families.”

LAST WEEK IN THE NEWS

Monday, Nov. 4

McDonald’s CEO steps down after revelation of relationship with an employee.

In Norway, an American white supremacist was arrested hours before he was due to give a speech at far-right conference.

Airbnb announces ban on “party houses” after five people shot and killed at a Halloween party near San Francisco.

An oven and cookie dough were launched into space for arrival at the International Space Station.

Tuesday, Nov. 5

Wednesday, Nov. 6

Democrat Andy Beshear wins governor’s race in Kentucky over incumbent Matt Bevin.

A teen “Jeopardy!” champion donated more than $10,000 of his prize money to cancer research in Alex Trebek’s honor.

Andrea Camblee, wife of a journalist killed in the Capital Gazette shooting, finishes husband’s 300-page love letter book he had written for 13 years.

Democrats in Virginia flip both chambers of the state legislature blue.

Two former Twitter employees charged with using their access to spy for Saudi Arabia.

House Democrats announce they will hold their first public impeachment hearings next week.

Two murder suspects that escaped California jail over weekend arrested by federal officials.

Thursday, Nov. 7 According to an advisor, Michael Bloomberg is expected to file to appear on Alabama’s presidential primary ballot.

Trump ordered judge to pay $2 million to charities over misuse of foundation for personal, political gain, court documents say.

Book by anonymous author says senior Trump administration officials considered resigning en masse.

Friday, Nov. 8

Former national security advisor John Bolton allegedly has new details on the Ukraine affair that lawmakers do not know, according to his lawyer.

Vitamin E in combination with THC could be behind the illness that’s sickened more than 2,000 people and killed dozens, CDC announces.

White House officials testify that acting chief of staff Mulvaney helped arrange quid pro quo with Ukraine.

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NEWS

11.11.2019

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE

HOUSING AND RESIDENCE LIFE ADJUSTS TO NEW CHANGES IN STAFF STRUCTURE On-campus students and staff react to the new structure LAURA SCUDDER COPY EDITOR

Between the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years, a number of changes were made to Housing and Residence Life (HRL) policies and staff structure.

more flexibility in terms of academic conflicts — they can choose if they want to be there, or if they’d rather not be there because they don’t have to be present.”

One of the biggest changes was to positions held by student members of Housing and Residence Life.

According to Associate Director of Residential Communities Christian Barber, in the previous RA role students would do everything from responding to emergencies to decorating doors and bulletin boards. Students can now apply to be a Resident Assistant (RA) or Community Assistant (CA). With the new, more-defined RA and CA positions, responsibilities are split up, allowing students to apply for the job that is a better fit for them.

Senior Taylor Moore, a former CA, reiterated the significant differences between this year and the ones previous.

going to continue this or not. But I decided to stay in Student Government over housing.”

because there’s just less now. Either way, I miss getting to know people on my floor.”

sporting equipment, games, things like HDMI cords — things that we know students were using.

Moore maintained that HRL has good intentions when it comes to supporting students. “HRL places a high value on the work that they require from student staff, however I do genuinely feel like they care about them and place a

Aside from staff structure, changes were made to housing desks and certain resources available to students.

Barber continued, “When we would rent out equipment in the past, we could actually track what was used and how often to see what’s being used and what’s not. Those things that were used and were requested by students in terms of games and entertainment equipment we definitely kept.”

One example of such changes that have been hard for students is the

Items like games and entertainment remain available for student use throughout the semester. The vacuums will be available prior to breaks and move out, as the data showed that that was when they were being utilized, according to Barber.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOMINIQUE BERNARDINO

“The work always happened,” Barber said. “We kind of changed and merged position titles to be more efficient in how we provide those services for students.”

According to the position description, an RA works with students on problems they may have with roommates, provides aid for student concerns or issues — contacting the proper HRL staff or other campus resources if necessary — and creates flyers and bulletin boards for assigned areas.

In contrast, a CA works to assist students, staff and guests at the housing desks, performs health and safety inspections and completes walkthroughs during the evenings in assigned buildings.

This year, in order to better comply with the hours that CAs typically work — nights and weekends — housing inspections are done on Saturday afternoons.

“Those are times when it shouldn’t conflict from students coming and going from class,” Barber said. “We continue to post notices at least 48 hours in advance … because we do want to provide notice so no one’s surprised by it. But doing it over the weekend, again, gives students

“HRL is big on pushing resources available on campus for both students and staff,” Moore said. “There [were] a lot of policy changes this year that have [been] difficult for residents, but change is hard.”

Moore had to quit her position as a CA as she is an accelerated master’s student who is active on campus.

According to Moore, something had to go — and it ended up being her role on the housing staff.

“That was probably the hardest thing for me, deciding what to cut out,” Moore said. “I’m in Student Government and I had very serious conversations about whether I was

high value on the mental and physical well-being of the student staff,” she said.

Per the position requirements, both RAs and CAs must maintain a 2.5 GPA while enrolled full-time and attend weekly meetings.

Changes in staff structure have been noticed by Mason residents.

“I’m a sophomore and it’s my second year in the Honors College LLC,” Anna Bertino said. “I’ve noticed that there hasn’t been as much floor programming as last year, which might be because I was in freshman housing last year and they did more for us or

removal of the ability to check out vacuums from housing desks. One student explained the inconvenience which the change caused her.

“Housing stopped checking out vacuums this year (at least [at the] Piedmont desk) without a heads up and now I’m vacuumless, and I had glass smash on my floor the first week of school and had to phone a friend,” sophomore Sophie Chapin said.

There was intent behind the decision, explained Barber. “Any decisions we make, we try to look at data. What’s used by students, what’s not used, what’s being requested,” he said. “So the desks still do have a fair amount of

In previous years there was also a housing desk at Whitetop, where students from the Aquia neighborhood could go if they had issues with their dorms. Now, students in Whitetop and Rogers have to travel to the housing desk in Piedmont, which also covers the entirety of the Rappahannock neighborhood.

“I think it’s just that students have to adjust to the new changes,” Moore said of this move.

According to Barber, this change occurred because of the tearing down of student apartments that used to be across from SUB 1.

“That dramatically cut the population of what most folks know as the Aquia area to between 600-700,” Barber said. “In comparison to over here [Rappahannock], you have almost 3,000 students; in the Shenandoah area you have between 2,400-2,500 students. So just based on those numbers right there, we knew — and the data supported it — the Whitetop desk would have a lot less activity.”

Barber added that, while HRL does encourage residents to visit the desk, students are always able to call the housing desk for help in case of safety concerns.

Without as much traffic, the 24-hour desk at Whitetop was removed.

NEWS

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE

11.11.2019

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VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE GOES BLUE

Virginia sets the tone for 2020, flipping both chambers of state legislature Democratic ABIGAIL ADCOX NEWS EDITOR

For the first time in 26 years, Virginia Democrats gained control of both chambers of the state legislature. All 140 legislative seats were on the ballot in Tuesday’s election.

Democratic candidates, going along with similar trends in recent elections.

For the Virginia House of Delegates 34th seat, 84 percent of Mason voters said they voted for Democrat-backed David L. Bulova.

Republicans held a narrow majority going into the Nov. 5 election, but their hope of holding onto their current seats or gaining more quickly diminished.

Omeish, 24, became both the youngest person and the first Muslim woman to hold elected office in Virginia.

Democratic-backed candidates also took full control of the Fairfax County School Board.

At Mason, students who were registered to vote on campus voted in Merten Hall. A “Party at the Polls” event was held outside on the walkway, where various partners, including Student Government, Mason Votes, and politically active student groups, offered breakfast and coffee, as well as conducted an exit survey. Several local candidates on the ballot, including Priscilla DeStefano, James Walkinshaw and Chap Petersen, made in-person appearances.

The exit survey, which was completed by over 100 students, overwhelmingly showed that students preferred

PHOTO COURTESY OF MASON POLICE

MASON WEEKLY CRIME LOG

The exit survey showed that the most important issue to Mason voters was civil rights, with 20 percent of

committee for Student Government (SG) and a senior, explained the situation in detail: “[Student Government], along with a lot of other organizations, did voter registration events.”

He continued, “The requirements changed over the past year but many

making those students ineligible to vote in the Nov. 5 election. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights group, challenged the issue in court and argued that the registrar should have sent a request of information instead of a “notice of rejection.”

The matter resulted in the registrar’s office moving the initial Oct. 26 deadline back to Nov. 2.

An email sent out by George Mason University Housing on Oct. 24 instructed students to check their registration status and to make the changes, if needed, in order to vote.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOMINIQUE BERNARDINO

The usually overshadowed school board elections came into the spotlight after Abrar Omeish won a spot on the Fairfax County School Board.

When asked to share who she decided

“It will change the course that Virginia will go for years to come on health care, gun reform [and] women’s rights issues … so we need to make sure our voices are represented and heard.”

Newly-elected members of the state legislature will be given the task of redrawing the map after the 2020 census, which could have the ability to shape future elections.

Martin further argued the importance of civic engagement, especially amongst younger voters.

to vote for in Tuesday’s election, Mandana Ravanpak, a sophomore, laughed, “We go to a very Democratic university, so I’ll just leave it at that.”

Olga Diupina, a George Mason Democrats member, expressed the importance of the election.

“It’s very important to flip the house and senate this year,” Diupina said.

respondents citing that. Other issues that ranked high to students were: health care (16 percent), environment (16 percent), economy and jobs (10 percent), gun control (9 percent) and higher education (9 percent).

Leading up to the election, voter registration issues plagued Mason students.

Shane Martin, chair of the Government & Community Relations

… [people registering students] were not informed. Everybody was being registered to what they believed was how they needed to fill [the application] out. People used a generic campus address rather than their dorm, their specific dorm address. The registrar denied those registrations.”

The Fairfax County registrar rejected 171 registration applications, in turn

According to the United States Census Bureau, among 18-to 29-year-olds, voter turnout went from 20 percent in 2014 to 36 percent in 2018, the largest percentage point increase for any age group — a 79 percent jump.

“I think that being civically engaged, especially for students, is incredibly important. Voter turnout among younger people is nowhere near what it could and should be,” Martin said.

Thursday, Nov. 7 — Center for the Arts

Thursday, Nov. 7 — Fairfax Campus

Destruction / Damage / Vandalism of Property: Complainant (GMU) reported vandalism (spray paint) to a column.

Hit and Run: Complainant (GMU) reported a hit and run of a vehicle.

Case 2019-011085 — Information only

Case 2019-011042 — Inactive

Thursday, Nov. 7 — Fairfax Campus / Student Residence Hall

Tuesday, Nov. 5 — Global Center (Second Floor Common Area)

Sexual Assault / Rape: Mandatory reporter notified GMUPD that a Complainant (GMU) disclosed being sexually assaulted by a known Subject (GMU).

Theft From Building: Complainant (GMU) reported the theft of an unattended laptop from an unsecured location.

CSA Report #110719-2 — Information Only

Case 2019-011020 — Pending

Thursday, Nov. 7 — Fairfax Campus Stalking: Mandatory reporter notified GMUPD that a Complainant (GMU) disclosed receiving unwanted contact from an unknown Subject on multiple occasions.

CSA Report #110719-1 — Information Only

Tuesday, Nov. 5 — Fairfax Campus / Student Residence Hall Sexual Assault / Rape: Mandatory reporter notified GMUPD that a Complainant (GMU) disclosed being sexually assaulted by a known Subject (GMU).

CSA Report #110519 — Information Only

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NEWS

11.11.2019

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE

FACULTY SENATE DISCUSSES MASON PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH

Faculty Senate meeting continues talks regarding opening up presidential search APRIL HORENCY STAFF WRITER

The recent faculty senate meeting served as an opportunity for faculty to continue the discussion regarding Mason’s search for its next president and ultimate goal of getting the Board of Visitors (BOV) to open up the search to the public. They attempted to do so through two motions, both of which were passed in the meeting.

Robinson Hall B continued a discussion started at an open forum hosted by the Presidential Search Committee.

At this forum, faculty and students brought up the lack of transparency in the presidential search process, as the BOV is currently able to select presidential candidates through a closed process.

The monthly meeting on Nov. 6 in

The first motion discussed called on the

BOV to conduct a presidential search consistent with the faculty handbook by allowing faculty an opportunity to attend a public forum with each of the presidential finalists and then submit feedback on candidates.

Some senators expressed the opinion that a completely open process would be difficult to adhere to, as it might prevent certain candidates from applying for fear of losing their current positions.

Interim President Anne Holton was in attendance at the meeting and voiced her opinion on the search process.

PHOTO COURTESY OF VIJAY IYER

“In the spirit of being careful not to assume what other people’s motives are, I think that you’ve got some real conflicting principles,” Holton said.

“I think that by having a more open search gives you lots of opportunity to get feedback and useful information about candidates certainly, and yet I do think that there are lots of reasons why

candidates might not be comfortable in that public forum that does not mean that they’re not ready and willing to work with faculty once hired.”

Faculty Senator Bethany Letiecq was the one to propose the change. In the meeting, she argued, “This really is about our power to uphold our handbook. Man, if we don’t uphold our handbook, the BOV certainly will not uphold our faculty handbook.”

The second motion — introduced

by Faculty Senator Keith Renshaw — proposed that a working group of faculty senators work with the Presidential Search Committee to come up with potential procedures to make the search process more transparent. The motion passed and, according to Renshaw, “nominations for the work group are under way” Mackenzie Earl, a member of Transparent GMU, was in favor of the second motion.

“We heard the comment several times, ‘Well what’s going to get the BOV to pay attention to us?’ It’s that second motion, it’s students, faculty and faculty senators continuing to work together to come up with creative solutions that make everybody happy and ensure that we have a president that represents Mason, not just Mason’s Board of Visitors,” said Earl.

Cassidy Pollard, another member of Transparent GMU, said, “There are ways. I think maybe there might need to be some [changes] to the language of that second motion, but I think there are ways to make that compatible with a completely open search.”

“Everyone recognizes that the whole search process can’t be open, so obviously I’m sure there are other ways, like that motion to make the beginning steps of the process before there’s finalists more open and transparent,” Pollard continued.

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SPORTS

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11.11.2019

7

THE COMEBACK KID

Erin Derick goes from a suffering a dramatic injury to playing in a starting role DOMENIC ALLEGRA ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

you feel better. But when you can’t, you have to find other things, so I had to start reading and start writing, and just working so hard in school to just get myself, on every level, back to where I was before.”

There have only been two sophomores to record more than 590 assists in one season in the last five seasons: Derick (currently 598 in 2019) and her current teammate Emily Konchan (895 in 2018).

Derick chose Mason in 2018. Despite the injury Derick had suffered, head coach Aylene Ilkson still maintained Derick’s offer to play for Mason.

Ilkson credits this dramatic jump to her training in the spring and the summer of 2019. “She worked so hard in the spring,” she said. “I think at times it was very painstaking for her and it was very frustrating for her. But if you can imagine that when she came in, she couldn’t jump set and locate where she was going to set the ball and I just said, ‘That’s okay, we’re going to go through all fall like that and then in the spring we’ll get to work.’”

FOURTH ESTATE DOMENIC ALLEGRA

“I was worried about it, but she had the work ethic of someone who was working as hard as she could to be as physically and mentally prepared as she could once she got here,” Ilkson said.

Derick’s journey began in the summer of 2008. Derick was watching beach volleyball in the Olympics when it all sort of clicked. “Mom, I want to do that,” Derick said.

By the time sixth grade rolled around, Derick knew this was the sport she wanted to pursue. “I had a coach and he was like ‘Erin you’re going to be a setter,’ and he trained me to set. And that’s what I’ve been doing since.”

However, things shifted in 2017 after what was considered to be a normal play for Derick. “I had a miraculous save in a game. Everything was fine and dandy … I went home, had ice cream, took a nap, went to sleep,” she said.

She continued, “I woke up the next day and my legs were really tight. And for the next week I was in the training room in my high school just getting treatment for my hamstrings and quads. [The trainers] finally were like, ‘let’s get you an MRI just to make sure you don’t have anything wrong with your legs.’”

This is where it took a turn for the worst. MRI results showed that the

pain was not coming from her legs, but rather, her pelvis. The doctors told Derick that she had shredded her pubic synthesis, the piece of cartilage that holds in the front of the pelvis that prevents the two pelvic bones from separating.

This meant that all the physical therapy that Derick had been through to get back on the court was for nothing. “It was going to prevent me from possibly walking again,” she said.

According to Derick, she was referred to a pelvic specialist who, upon seeing her results, said “get this girl in here now, something’s very wrong.”

volleyball like how I used to,” Derick said. “And one thing I’m very proud of is, when I was in the hospital when I came out of the hospital going through PT. I always had the positive mindset that all my doctor said, my mom saw it and my mom and I still cry about it.

And she’s like, ‘I’m so proud of you for keeping that positive mindset,’” Derrick said.

She continued, “I have to say it’s hard when you can’t play the sport you love.

It’s one of the hardest things, because all you want to do is do that to help

In 2018, Derick played a limited role on the Mason squad, only tallying 20 assists on the season as a setter.

However, Derick’s life took another turn in the 2019 season.

She found herself in the position she wanted to be in: the starting setter.

In her first five games, she tallied 148 assists as the main setter. With two matches left in the 2019 season, she has recorded 598 assists at the setter position.

She continued, “I think there was a lot of moments of just pure, ‘This is not fun at all.’ [But] I mean I think I was just really happy for her … she has really worked at this and she was up against someone who had started for every almost every play of her career … she was that kid that worked so exceptionally hard to get here.

She is probably my greatest accomplishment as a coach in the fact of where she started, and what we knew her athletic ability was to where she is right now.”

Derick overcame the possibility of never walking again and trained nonstop to finally do what she longed to do — play volleyball.

Just 11 days after she felt as if something was wrong, Derick found herself in the hospital. Over the course of the next seven days she had undergone three different surgeries, making it difficult for her to walk.

“I couldn’t walk without crutches until after Christmas [of 2017], and then I was in physical therapy until the beginning of April, and then I didn’t play volleyball until end of April,” she said.

Derick was sidelined for almost six and a half months with this injury. Which, according to Derick, were a long six and a half months.

“It was the worst, because all I wanted to do was get all my stress out playing

FOURTH ESTATE DOMENIC ALLEGRA

In sports, injuries are commonplace.

While some athletes come away with only some cuts and bruises, this was not the case for women’s volleyball sophomore Erin Derick.

She continued, “I think that it honestly was once she arrived in the summer.

It gave her time to actually acclimate to what we were going to do here that really helped alleviate a lot of stress about her injury and also get her mentally prepared to battle through if it was going to perk up again.”

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SPORTS

11.11.2019

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE @IVESTATE_SPORTS

FALL SPORTS ROUND-UP NATALIE HEAVREN SPORTS EDITOR

Men’s soccer followed an expected championship game run with a disappointing season.

The team finished the season 4-13-1.

Similar to the 2018 season, the team again found more success in conference play than nonconference play, going 3-5-1 in the regular season.

Mason defeated American and George Washinton in regulation. The team also had two double-overtime wins against Dayton and Davidson.

Three of these four wins occurred at home, with the win against the Colonials taking place a few miles away in Foggy Bottom.

On Nov. 9, the seventh-seeded Patriots lost to second-seeded VCU, 4-3 in a penalty kick shootout, a week after losing to the Rams 1-0 on Senior Night.

Sophomore Brison Moorhead spent most of the season in goal for the Patriots. He allowed 1.71 goals per game and had a 0.732 percent save percentage Senior Ryan Mingachos led the team in goals this season with four. He also added two assists this season.

Senior Tunde Akinlosotu added four goals and five assists this season.

Six other players contributed at least one goal this season.

Women’s Soccer Women’s soccer’s season came to a disappointing finish on Oct. 27. The team went 2-4-1 in nonconference play.

After starting the season 0-3-1 the

team got their first win against Binghamton, 2-0, at home on Sept. 8.

The team would get their second win of the year, 1-0, one week later against Towson on Sept. 15.

However, that game changed the course of their season. Thirty-seven minutes into the game, reigning A-10 Rookie and Player of the Year Emma van der Vorst went down with an injury. She did not play another minute this season.

After losing the next five games, the Patriots defeated Davidson 1-0 on Oct. 13.

Redshirt senior Morgan Symmers and junior Louisa Moser split time as Mason’s primary goaltenders.

FOURTH ESTATE DOMENIC ALLEGRA

Men’s Soccer

Symmers (1-4) allowed 1.95 goals per game and Moser (2-5) allowed 1.54 goals per game.

Juniors Kayla Hamric and Jisca Adigo led the team with nine points each, both scoring three goals and accumulating three assists throughout the season.

Freshman Grace Hotaling scored three goals and tallied an assist in her first season of collegiate soccer.

Despite not playing in the last 10 games of the season, van der Vorst was one of three players that tallied five points this season with a goal and three assists. Redshirt sophomore Emma Lee also had one goal and three assists and Emily Bradshaw had two goals and one assist.

Women’s Volleyball Women’s volleyball’s 2019 season has been disappointing. One year after making their first A-10 tournament, the team has gone 0-12 in conference

play. The Patriots’ overall record is 4-20.

All four of Mason’s wins came in the month of September. The team beat UMBC, Saint Francis (Pa.), Maryland and William & Mary.

Despite the team’s record, many of the players have had successful seasons. Sophomores ShaLi Niu and Siron Hardy, as well as senior Bailey Williams, all average more than 2.9 points per set.

The trio also all average more than 2.6 kills per set.

Sophomore Erin Derick leads the team in assists with 7.7 per game and junior Emily Konchan is second on the team with 5.38 assists per game.

The team has two more matches, both at home, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. and Senior Night on Nov. 16 at 5 p.m.

Cross Country Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams had successful regular seasons.

This included a third-place finish for the men and fourth-place finish for the women at the Mason Invitational on Sept. 13.

Two Patriots finished in the top 10.

Junior Hunter Jutras finished seventh and sophomore Jack Ikenberry finished eighth.

On the women’s side, three Patriots finished in the top 15. Freshman

Annabelle Eastman came in 4th, freshman Vilde Vage Henriksen finished 13th and junior Carina Garcia placed 15th.

At the A-10 Championship, the men’s team placed fourth, their highest team finish since 2016. Ikenberry and Jutras both finished in the top 15 to earn All-Conference honors.

The women’s team placed sixth, with four runners in the top 40. Sophomore Siobra O’Flaherty finished 17th, leading the Patriots.

Qualifying runners will continue the season at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship on Nov. 15 and IC4A/ECAC Championships on Nov. 23.

UPCOMING SPORTS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Nov. 16 vs. Detroit Mercy

Nov. 13 vs. Long Island

Nov. 15 vs. Rhode Island

EBA: 7 p.m.

EBA: 7 p.m.

RAC: 7 p.m.

Nov. 16 vs. James Madison

Nov. 16 vs. Fordham

EBA: 7 p.m.

RAC: 5 p.m.

CULTURE

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11.11.2019

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JAZZ FOR JUSTICE

Mason Jazz Ensemble and Vocal Ensemble perform annual benefit concert PETER NJOROGE CULTURE EDITOR

Jazz for Justice was started by James Carroll, the founder of the jazz program at Mason, in 2001. Discussing the conception of the event, Carroll was inspired by Joseph Pelisi’s “The Artist as Citizen.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARDEN PURCELL

“He talks about in there [the book] as musicians,” Carroll said. “We’ve got to

be good citizens. We can no longer just hip-hop and play our horns. We’ve got to contribute to the community.”

law … They’re down in the trenches working with people that society doesn’t care too much about.”

After a chance meeting with former president of the Virginia State Bar Ed Weiner, the two men launched the annual program to raise money for both jazz music and pro bono work.

For Darden Purcell, director of jazz studies, Jazz for Justice serves as an interesting meeting point for two totally different circles.

Jazz for Justice has evolved from a single benefit concert at Mason into a nonprofit organization. Franchises exist at several Virginia universities, including the University of Virginia, Christopher Newport University and James Madison University.

So far, the concerts have raised over $400,000, benefitting university jazz programs throughout Virginia. The m o n ey also helps to fund a variety of free services offered

by LSNV. “They do everything,” Carroll said. “[Elder] law, family law, human trafficking, housing

“I think it brings two communities together,” she said. “It brings the jazz community and legal community together.”

In addition to helping cover operating costs for Mason’s jazz program, the money from this year’s benefit will help contribute to a Mason jazz trip in Sao Paulo next spring.

The 2019 Jazz for Justice concert celebrated the upcoming centennial of legendary 20th century saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker’s birth. Parker was a notable innovator, known for changing the direction of jazz music during the ‘40s and ‘50s before a tragic death at age 34.

90 years before the general public knew who he was. Brahms discovered Bach. And now for Charlie Parker, the general public does not know who this colossal giant was.”

In addition to the music of Charlie Parker, the Mason Jazz Ensemble also debuted an original composition and arrangement by steel pannist Eljhaie Brathwaite at Jazz for Justice.

Brathwaite is a junior in the Jazz department. He hails from the Virgin Islands, and came to study with Victor Provost, a professor in the Mason Jazz department.

“Ever since I found out that he worked here, George Mason has been my choice,” he said. “It’s an amazing opportunity to play for something

that’s very gives back to the community and I’m very honored to be a part of that experience.”

According to Purcell and Carroll, the program continues to grow. This year, there was a reception and jam session for younger musicians after the show, along with a host of Jazz for Justice memorabilia.

“Our relationship, now, with the legal community is really organic; it’s kind of like jazz music itself,” Carroll said.

He continued, “Ed Weiner and I, we’ve been friends now for 18 years. It started as a friendship of an attorney and a jazz musician, and we just are really playing with each other now.

It’s grown into something like a New Orleans gumbo.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARDEN PURCELL

On Friday, Nov. 8, Mason jazz musicians performed their annual Jazz for Justice concert as a joint benefit for the Mason jazz program and Legal Services of Northern Virginia (LSNV), a nonprofit organization with seven offices in the Northern Virginia area that offers free legal services to marginalized people.

“Charlie Parker’s 100th birthday is next year, 2020,” Carroll said. “So, I’m doing a precursor with Jazz for Justice.”

He continued, “Bach and Bird are similar in their genius. Bach was gone

CREATIVITY SHINES IN NEW PIECES

Fall New Dances premieres upperclassmen Work The dancers, 11 women dressed in black, walked onto the stage.

They crowded so close together you couldn’t tell where each person began and ended. As the dancers lumped together, they began to shake — their arms, legs and hair flying up and down.

The women began to move across the stage, still shaking and connected, until the tempo in the music sped up and they finally separated to dance alone.

This piece, titled “Drink Some of My Brain,” premiered as part of the Fall New Dances performance held by the School of Dance from Nov. 7-9 in Harris Theater. The event is held every semester to give upperclassmen students the opportunity to cast,

choreograph and design their own pieces.

“If you can have nothing and then make something, and people come and see it and experience it from beginning to end — that whole process,” said Susan Shields, the director of the School of Dance, “You can pretty much do anything.”

The pieces featured in “Fall New Dances” this year ranged in both mood and set, from the dark set of fearful students to the loud clock noises illustrating the progression of time to the blue, patterned summer dresses worn in pursuit of sharing the feeling of a New York summer..

The training students receive from the School of Dance is intense. Only 20 dancers are accepted into the program each year.

mentors. Upperclassmen help underclassmen when they see that they are struggling, while still keeping a healthy competitive spirit alive in the program.

Besides rehearsing for “Fall New Dances” or any other performances they are cast in, all of the dancers have two classes per day. Shields said students might go to a basketball game or spend some time with friends occasionally, but for the most part they are in the studio working on their dancing.

“Dance for me is a mode of communication, or a means of communication,” junior choreographer Holly Harkin said. “And, often, my most effective means of communication. To be able to go into something that you really, really love and put your all into it, and then feel really seen afterwards, is an incredible feeling that I don’t think … a lot of people get to have.”

Within the program can be found a strong community. Professors are invested in the success of their students, stressing one-on-one instructional time.

Meanwhile, other dancers serve as

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM COBURN

IZZ LAMAGDELEINE ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR

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CULTURE

11.11.2019

GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE

How to get around without breaking the bank IZZ LAMAGDELEINE ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR

CUE BUS

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The way I get around usually is through the CUE Bus System.

They connect me to all of Fairfax, allowing me to travel to my cheap laundromat (so I don’t smell like a dump), go to the local mall to buy pints of

ice cream and find restaurants I always promise myself I will try one day. The bus drivers are also super nice; one drove me out of her way to the aforementioned laundromat after the bus went out of service for the night.

area can become confusing and expensive quickly. However, there are so many great places in the area — from the Newseum

MASON SHUTTLES I can’t count how many times the free Mason shuttles have come through in a pinch.

There are ones that can take you to the local Metro station, the Sci-Tech campus, Walmart, Brion’s Grille or even West Campus, if you don’t want to walk that far. Keep updated on when your shuttle will be coming by using the Shuttle Tracker or Mobile Mason app.

Traveling around the Fairfax

GRAND OPENING WEEKEND with specials just for you!

November 15th, 16th & 17th

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in D.C. to Target in Fair Lakes Center — that everyone should explore. Check them out and have an adventure!

703.841.2504

FOURTH ESTATE BILLY FERGUSON

The cheapest parking pass you can get at Mason is $120, and it’s located all the way over on West Campus. Additionally, that pass doesn’t include gas or any other car-related expenses.

If you don’t live on campus and don’t have a car, the Metro can also put a hole in your wallet, as you run back and forth between your house or apartment and campus. Here are some tips to get you around transportation costs at Mason.

Actions

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Turning promises into reality is what defines us. That’s why we’re proud to invest in what we believe in, and what’s important to you.

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Faces of Mason

FACES OF MASON delves into the lives of Mason students, faculty, alumni and organizations every week. This week, we take a closer look at student Isaiah Jordan and alumnus Andrew Milin INTERVIEWS BY IMANI HOLLOMAN AND IZZ LAMAGDELEINE

Student: Isaiah jordan my career as I become a lawyer and getting a better understanding of what the government will be like if I decide to pursue [that path]. My father encouraged me in doing so, because he said that was the best way for me to succeed in life and to do better.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ISAIAH JORDAN

What are you most excited about in the upcoming election?

What I’m probably most excited about is the change that could possibly happen if the young people go out and vote. But, you have to be encouraged to vote and want to vote. If you don’t want to vote, then you gotta understand that you can’t complain about the current state of this country, or what’s going on.

As a transfer student, how did you hear about Student Government? How did you get involved?

So, at my last school, I went to Valley

Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania. I graduated with an [associate] degree in political science, and upon [doing] so, took it upon myself to get interested in Student Government, to better off

Do you plan on voting in the presidential election in 2020?

To be honest, it depends on who’s in the election. I’m an avid person on being able to believe in what I want

to, and be free in my thoughts. And certain candidates are not giving out freedom of thoughts. They’re more trying to control what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, and I believe in freedom in all aspects.

What issues are important to you? And why?

The most important issues to me probably would be immigration, gun violence and gender discrimination.

Immigration is a big thing because we were [all] initially immigrants who were coming to this country. We shouldn’t shame people from coming to this country to get away from refugee camps, guerrilla camps, rape, murder, things of that nature.

We also should be very aware of gun violence and how guns are easily accessible for anyone. I could walk into a pawn shop right now, in the state of Virginia, with my Virginia

ID, and go and purchase an assault rifle, or a pistol. Why? Because I’m already of age, and all they have to do is do a quick background check on Virginia’s state court [database] to see if you have been convicted for a felony. And then if you’re approved for the weapon, you can walk out right then and there. I feel like it should be a much more thorough search, and I feel like you should go through a health evaluation before you purchase the weapon.

And, the last thing: gender discrimination. I feel as if women have an important voice. They also are the givers of life, so we should appreciate them much more and give them the respect they deserve. Without them, the world wouldn’t go around, and behind a lot of these really successful men are strong women who support them and gave them the wisdom to do so.

Alumnus: Andrew Milin endorsement vote, which happened at the end of April. And then we ended up working so well together that I decided to stick it through to the end of the general election as well. It just happened by chance.

What made you want to work for her and stay on for her?

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW MILIN

I just felt so strongly that not only did we need to get rid of the incumbent, but that Laura Jane was the perfect person to do it. As we spent more and more time together and I listened to her speak to crowds of people from all across the political spectrum, and seeing her values and her words really resonate with people — it was very inspiring.

What was your favorite part of the campaign?

How did you meet Laura Jane Cohen? How did you get involved in her campaign?

I was looking for jobs last semester of

college, and I had a friend who was working on another campaign who connected me [with] her. And I initially was going to stay on just through the

We, more so than I think most other campaign (sic), really tried to have as much fun as we could while doing all of the work that we needed to do. We would make sure that we were always cracking jokes and really just trying to

keep our spirits high, especially during some of the long days when things would happen that weren’t so great, or somebody would say something negative and we would just really try to lift each other up. I think that was definitely my favorite part, because we both have very similar senses of humor, so we were able to make each other laugh a lot which, I think, really kept us going at full speed.

Did your closeness to Laura Jane Cohen impact how you felt about winning on Election Night?

Definitely, because I very quickly became a part of her family. I feel like I’m a part of her family, and so it felt very personal, and we all had just gotten so invested personally in this race. And we knew how bad things were, so we knew that there was a lot of pressure put on us by a lot of people, either intentionally or unintentionally. So once we saw that we had pulled it off it felt incredible.

What do you think you’re going to do next?

So, I’m taking a few days off. A lot of campaign staff do some kind of vacation, or usually physically remove themselves from wherever they worked on the campaign. So I’m doing that for a few days. And then when I go back to Virginia, I’ll be continuing the job search. I have a few potential leads that I’m working on, but I still have no idea where I’m going to end up. I would love to work for Laura Jane, but unfortunately at the moment they — the school board members — share a part-time staff that do mostly administrative work, and I think there’s like three school board members per staffer. So, I know that there’s intentions to change that, to give each school board member a full-time staffer, but that just isn’t gonna happen in time for me to be able to work with Laura Jane. But I think down the road, we definitely will be working together again in some capacity.

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11.11.2019

CULTURE

HIDDEN HANGOUTS: FAIRFAX DENNY’S

A hangout hidden in plain sight JACK HARVEY ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

As I am seated at the local Fairfax Denny’s, happy to find shelter from the cool fall air, I am handed their Holiday Delights menu.

I am impressed by the selections — their menu always runs just the right amount of comfort food without overstepping into more disappointing

complex recipes.

We are at Denny’s and all is well. At this point, Denny’s is the only house of respite in a cold, dark Fairfax County.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ABBY CLARKE

To say it is the “only” house of respite does it a disservice. Denny’s is not bad as a late-night hangout. Indeed, its warm light and ample comfortable booths are infinitely more than what I could ask for at this point.

In both instances, I find myself looking up to the servers here as demigods — as fosterers of warmth.

The ability of the late-night crew — the late night crew say “good morning” — to memorize orders is a marvel of franchise capitalism. We

are in their charge; they are what lies between us and our food.

Yes, the food at Denny’s is transcendent on a cold autumn night. As I look around at my friends they are like puppies, hopeful for food but unsure of its arrival.

They share stories of past visits here, of odd interactions they have had with the staff. Two of my friends come here weekly — my friend leans over to correct me, it’s actually almost daily — and have a rapport with members of the staff. They do it as a tradition to cap off a long day of studying.

I don’t have as many stories as them, but I do recall one time when our hot chocolates were brought out without their famous whipped cream. When we asked for whipped cream, the server brought a can to the table and offered to put it on top of everyone’s

hot drinks, cocoa or coffee. It was a struggle, as the canister came close to running out, but we got there in the end to wonderous applause.

I look around to survey my friends’ opinions of the food. Many of the initiated know exactly what to get: the value menu’s $8 sizzlin’ country steak and eggs hotplate. It sizzles, it’s hot and you can put tons of hot sauce on it.

My skillet arrives, and it smells heavenly. The plate sizzles. One comrade’s mouth is hanging open.

Another burns his mouth on the potatoes immediately, something he does every time.

The flurry of consumption is over. I can’t ever truly return to the state I was in while I was there, but I don’t have to. The memory is there, and so are the good vibes.

MASON’S OWN SPACE FOR INQUIRY

Gallery manager talks about its accomplishments and goals NAYOMI SANTOS STAFF WRITER

Stephanie Grimm is the art and art history librarian who manages the Fenwick Gallery. She, alongside her graduate assistant Tanya Dieudonne, works with curators and artists to create the art displayed in the gallery.

“What we try to do is really make deep connections with what is happening here at George Mason,” Grimm said.

The gallery used to be in the hallway that connects Fenwick Library with the MIX. When the renovated Fenwick Library opened, the gallery was moved to the space it inhabits today. The gallery also emphasizes the use of community resources to create the exhibits.

“It’s not unusual for libraries to have

exhibition spaces, but I think what Fenwick [is] doing [is] bringing in things from the community, [which] is a little less common to find,” Grimm said.

One of the past exhibits, “Our Comics, Ourselves: Identity, Expression and Representation in Comic Art,” was shown in 2017. It prompted many questions and discoveries about comic book art and what it means.

“That was really great because, for many people, that expands what their conception of this media is,” Grimm said. “What the comic can be about and what it can do.”

This year, the gallery had the opportunity to host its first Artist-InResidence. The purpose of the ArtistIn-Residence program was to see what kind of work would be created when the library is a main source of research.

“I wanted to see what it means to bring an artist into a library as a space

for creative work,” Grimm said.

The artist that Fenwick Gallery invited to conduct research and expand their work was Adriana Monsalve, a photo book maker and the co-founder of Homie House Press. She wanted to expand on a project she had done in the past related to looking at people with albinism in Puerto Rico, with the purpose of exploring issues of both personal and broader identity.

During her stay, Monsalve conducted research in the library’s collections, expanding her project to include the Melungeon communities in Appalachia. In addition to the stacks, she had the opportunity to pull knowledge from the faculty in the Folklore Studies Department.

Along with her research, Monsalve also conducted class visitations and a workshop. The workshop called for students to explore what the meaning of home is and isn’t. By the end, the students’ work was printed into

an unbound book that Monsalve exhibited at the Tate Modern in London.

“This Mason book made its official debut at this prestigious art book fair,” Grimm said.

Grim continued, “The byline of the Fenwick Gallery is ‘Space for Inquiry,’ so it’s about asking questions. But it’s also about trying things that might not always succeed but gives you an opportunity to explore that.”

The gallery allows students who may have never been exhibited before to premiere their work, and learn from the experience without the pressures that may come from other art galleries.

Grimm also hopes to see art that explores various different disciplines — for example, the annual “Call & Response” exhibit, where a visual artist and a writer are paired up to create collaborative work.

FOURTH ESTATE NAOMI SANTOS

The Fenwick Gallery is often the first thing that students, faculty and visitors see when they walk into Fenwick Library. The exhibit space allows people to explore the art made

by Mason students as well as visiting artists.

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ROSA ALCALA HOSTS A TALK AT MASON

Poet and professor speaks about the poetry performance of Cecilia Vicuna PETER NJOROGE CULTURE EDITOR

Alcala translated and edited a collection of Vicuna’s ambitious readings and performances in “Spit Temple,” a book of transcriptions that tries to encapsulate and display the multi-faceted work of the Chilean artist.

As a partnership event between Mason’s creative writing program and the School of Visual Arts, Alcala came to Mason to discuss translating Vicuna’s experimental poetic readings.

“It’s very interesting to translate from an oral tradition as opposed to a written tradition,” said Matthew Davis, one of the event’s organizers and a professor in the English department.

“That’s really what [Alcala’s] doing.

She’s translating Cecilia’s poetry performances.”

Vicuna is a filmmaker, poet, painter, improviser and activist. She was born in Santiago, Chile in 1948, and left for the Slade School of Fine Arts in London in 1972. Now, the artist splits her time between New York City and Chile.

According to Alcala, the 1973 military coup that took place in Chile while Vicuna was studying in London greatly impacted the trajectory of her body of work.

“The military coup would change the course of her work and life forever,” Alcala said. “Since the coup, she has lived primarily outside of Chile, living for a time in Bogota, Colombia, and since 1980, living in New York.”

Vicuna’s poetry, like most of her other work, is not traditional. Readings often include singing, switching languages and varying degrees of improvisation.

“What I noticed in a lot of these performances that were videotaped — some of the archives that I worked with were just audio tapes — [is] that the camera person was focused on the microphone, right,” Alcala said.

“That’s where the reading was going to take place.”

In a video shown by Alcala, Vicuna began her reading with a faint, chant-like song prior to making it to the podium. For viewers, the song is audible, but the artist is nowhere to be found.

Alcala continued, “What was being filmed was the podium. And that sometimes the camera person would

start swerving looking for where was the music coming from.”

“So there was a lot of confusion and I started thinking about how the video person, the person who was filming it — the video — was also reflecting on our expectations of how we think a poetry reading is going to take place,” she said.

Alcala’s work was an immense undertaking. Translating audio and video performances is a unique challenge that is different than working with written material.

FOURTH ESTATE PETER NJOROGE

On Nov. 6 in the Art and Design Building, poet and translator Rosa Alcala hosted a talk discussing the oral performances of multi-disciplinary artist Cecilia Vicuna.

“I think I’ve been drawn to writers that think about visual art,” Alcala said.

“But the reason that I’ve dedicated so many years to her work is because it took me so many years to figure out how all these elements come together.”

MASON’S GREEN MACHINE BRINGS PASSION AND SOUL

A deeper look into the essence of the musical community

PHOTO COURTESY OF EVAN CANTWELL

KIM BARTENFELDER STAFF WRITER

find Green Machine, “If you have the capability, and the desire, you can be there.”

Machine. If you’re not good at playing an instrument, you can get better, and that’s all it is.”

For the World Series, Dass specifically created an arrangement for the song “Baby Shark,” a continuity throughout the National’s playoff run. He did so in only a few hours. Usually, a Green Machine arrangement takes him three weeks.

Dass continued, “Showing up is half the battle, and Green Machine allows people to do that in every form possible. Whether it’s the pep band, drumline, winter guard, the fife and drum, the civil war band, the funk band, you-name-it band. Anything that the Green Machine is, it allows people to participate on so many levels for so many things.”

“I got it done between the hours of 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.,” Dass said. “We played my arrangement for four or five TV networks, and a bunch at Game 5.”

At the core of Mason’s Green Machine is a lot of heart, continuous enthusiasm and a strong will to perform.

Excitement surrounding Green Machine, Mason’s multi-disciplinary arts ensemble, spiked in 2006, when Mason’s men’s basketball made it to the NCAA Final Four. However, their story did not end there. Since then, the group has received national recognition, played with major artists like Lady Antebellum and, most recently,

the group performed at the 2019 World Series.

Junior music major Aaron Grossman said, “From when I first heard about the Green Machine, I knew I’ve always wanted to be in it because I love the energy.”

For others like senior music major Anthony Dass, “Green Machine was definitely something that just came about [in search for colleges].” Dass added that regardless of how you

Dass continued, “For high and low-profile events, we are very prepared. It’s what we do and what comes naturally.

Senior music major Angela Estay said, “I think the [World Series] game was a more high-energy event because the community was very excited for Green Machine and the Nationals. I actually got into baseball after we performed at Game 3 because I thought, ‘Ah, this is kinda cool.’”

“A big part as a student is just being involved,” Estay said. “A lot of people don’t know that you don’t have to be a music major to be involved in Green

Dr. Michael Nickens, better known as “Doc Nix,” is an integral part of the function and performance of Green Machine. Nickens is the director of the organization and is one of the most recognizable figures on campus.

“We have 250 members of the Green Machine this semester alone,” he said. “Many students do not want to continue with music as a profession, but they didn’t want to put down their horn and that’s why our community is built upon our own flexibility.”

Nickens emphasized the concept of risk. To him, risk is something that allows everyone to push their own boundaries.

“When the music is live and good, it transforms you,” he said. “And there’s nothing like seeing that quiet kid from your math class go out and rip a guitar solo and leave orbit.”

Dass believes that students should all find a way to contribute to their university environment. “In terms of school pride, this is everyone’s college experience and you really have to grab it by the reigns and go,” he said. “You really have to support the institution that you came to, including groups like the Green Machine.”

Mason’s basketball games are opportunities to make memories with friends and gain some great experiences — not just listen to great music.

“As we pick songs [to perform], we continue to bring personality, feelings and soul,” Nickens said. “We have to tap [the audience] into it and it’s just dope.”

According to Nickens, Green Machine is “forging new ground and new tunes.

Just as our players mature, we will too.

I know the best thing is ahead of us — keep your eyes and ears open.”

OPINIONS

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Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu

TURNS OUT BETO WASN’T COOL AFTER ALL DOMINIC PINO STAFF WRITER

Turns out I probably wasn’t that far from the truth.

Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune described O’Rourke’s exit as “abrupt.”

Apparently, the campaign spent $1.43 for every $1 it raised. You don’t have to be a math major to see the problem with that. The decision to pull the plug was made so fast that O’Rourke’s wife wasn’t even there.

Just like in the 2018 senate election in Texas, voters saw through O’Rourke’s phoniness. To be clear: all politicians are phony, but some are phonier than others. O’Rourke was one of the phoniest, and despite voters clearly rejecting him twice now, I’m afraid we probably haven’t seen the last of him.

As I wrote last year after his defeat in

the senate election, O’Rourke’s public persona is best thought of as The Beto Myth. The Beto Myth is centered around O’Rourke being a regular guy (he’s actually extremely wealthy and comes from a privileged family) who’s a young outsider to politics (he’s 47 and was in Congress) who had a real talent for Latino outreach (his given name, Robert Francis O’Rourke, is about as Irish as a bottle of Guinness in a shamrock koozie on St. Patrick’s Day).

Above all, The Beto Myth is that Beto is cool. The lengths he would go to prove his coolness were straight from the middle-school boy’s playbook: ride a skateboard, cuss in public and just say crazy stuff to get attention. Except the crazy stuff he said didn’t just get him in trouble with the social studies teacher. Instead, he did damage to his party by confirming many voters’ worst fears about the Democrats.

His “Hell yes, we’re taking your AR-15” quote led many Republicans and independents to say, “See what

I mean about the Dems wanting to take my guns?” For decades, Democrats always said they were for “common sense gun control” (often diluted further to “common sense gun reform”) and said it was paranoid to think anyone would come and take your guns. NRA fear mongering, they called it. O’Rourke brushed all that aside to try to reach two percent in the polls.

just to get a few cameras on his failing campaign.

You better believe that persuadable voters are going to remember O’Rourke’s comments long after his campaign is a distant memory. Given the subject matter of O’Rourke’s proposals, stories about them rocketed around every part of conservative media. In an election year where Democrats just need to look normal

and competent, O’Rourke’s groping for attention both failed to make him cool and hurt his own party.

Svitek concluded his story on O’Rourke’s campaign ending by saying, “Then, he got into the minivan and was gone.”

It’s poetic justice that the candidate who ran on being cool exited the campaign in a minivan.

His mention of removing tax exemption from religious organizations that believe in traditional marriage was equally destructive. As Russell Moore of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission explained, the power to tax is the power to destroy, and the point of tax exemption for religious organizations is to prevent the government from controlling religion. It’s not a government benefit — it’s an important part of the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. O’Rourke was promising to violate that basic principle of American government

PHOTO COURTESY OF GAGE SKIDMORE

When Mason sent out the email blast announcing Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was canceling his event at the Arlington campus, I joked that it was because his campaign was doing so poorly, he couldn’t afford the plane ticket.

WHY WATCHING ANIME DOESN’T MAKE YOU A WEEB

ARIANNA GOODMAN STAFF WRITER

Watching anime doesn’t make you a weeb. In some circles, this would be a given. And yet I’ve often had to defend myself against such an insult.

I have been watching anime (Japanese animation) and reading manga (Japanese comic books) since before I was in elementary school. However, I would consider myself a former weeb, one who’s seen the light and made a switch.

FOURTH ESTATE VIJAY IYER

But before I dive into that revelation, what is a weeb? Weeb is short for

weeaboo, an often derogatory term used for people who are obsessed with Japan and supposedly Japanese culture. The term first sprang into existence from a comic strip in which it was used as a nonsense gag that meant nothing. So, how did a word that meant nothing turn into an insult?

This is where the internet comes in.

In the early 2000s, users on the online imageboard forum 4chan started picking on a subset of Japanophiles by calling them “wapanese”

— a portmanteau of “wannabe” and “Japanese.” It was an insult specifically targeting white people who were obsessed with Japanese culture to the point of abandoning their own — such as those who would wear costumes of anime characters to a formal event or who would embed Japanese phrases into everyday English speech.

So many arguments were started around the word that 4chan moderators decided to intervene by replacing all instances of “wapanese” with the aforementioned nonsense word “weeaboo.”

As the years passed, weeaboo began to take on a more inclusive definition, and it became a caricature of an overthe-top anime nerd. Allow me to paint a picture: a weeb integrates random Japanese words heard in anime into English sentences for no other reason but to flex their intimate knowledge (or lack thereof) of the language.

They take great offense to any criticism of Japan or Japanese things. They insist on only eating Japanese food or wearing Japanese clothes. Theyonly

date Japanese people, deeming them superior to all other ethnicities.

Basically, the weeaboo is characterized as knowing little of Japanese culture but claiming otherwise and as seeking out any and all opportunities to get closer to their perfect anime fantasy.

And so, the key difference between a regular anime lover and a weeb is simple: fetishization. Having a hobby is good, and it is healthy to have interests in different cultures. However, there is a certain point at which the hobbyist becomes the creep. Weebs are notorious for placing Japan on a pedestal and forsaking everything else.

I’ll use my younger self as an example: imagine middle school me sitting at a Denny’s asking if they have chopsticks, thanking people who didn’t speak Japanese by saying “arigato” at every waking opportunity, and assuming every Japanese person I did meet loved anime and was like a character from a manga. I was brazen, and at the time, I saw no reason to fix that.

Well then, what led me to change?

Honestly, I don’t know. Whatever

it was, I eventually came to the understanding that my love of anime and Japanese culture did not make me an expert, that English and Japanese are two separate, beautiful languages, and that Japan is not a perfect utopia filled with anime girls and spunky mecha protagonists.

There’s a certain warmth that I feel when thinking of my years as a weeb.

I feel that it was part of the natural progression of being a hobbyist. Many hobbyists fall into a period of obsession only to get out of it and appreciate the hobby even more.

In truth, I learned a lot from that time, and whenever someone calls me a weeb these days, I have to laugh. It’s funny that people are so quick to judge a hobby based on a few examples of its followers.

Anime has genres just like any other form of entertainment, and fans all have individual tastes. Lumping all anime fans — or more broadly lumping all those who enjoy some aspect of Japanese culture — together under a single label is a fool’s errand.

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OPINIONS Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu

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WHO WILL SAVE THE STUDENTS?

ELI KOHN STAFF WRITER

One of the biggest current events in America is the 2020 presidential election. Of course, any presidential election is bound to be a major talking point in the year leading up to it, but the 2020 election in particular stands out because it will be the first opportunity to remove from office one of the most disliked and controversial presidents in American history.

One of the biggest issues to American students — of which there are nearly 15 million — is the student debt crisis.

According to Forbes, there are a total of 44.7 million student borrowers in America who owe a total of over 1.5 trillion dollars in student loan debt. Now, President Trump isn’t exactly making big strides towards eliminating student debt -- considering he is promoting the elimination of Public Service Loan Forgiveness, among other things.

So, the question becomes: which of the Democratic nominees has the best plan to eliminate the crisis that plagues the future of America?

PHOTO COURTESY OF 0THEFOOL

When Barack Obama ran in 2012, reforming the college financial system wasn’t a point of emphasis for his campaign.

Seven years later, students have

become increasingly outspoken on the issue, and understandably, candidates have made it a prevalent part of their platforms. Here I will address the frontrunners, and describe their respective plans for reforming America’s crippling student debt.

make more than $250,000. Warren also seeks to implement free four-year college, planning to “split the costs of tuition and fees and ensure that states maintain their current levels of funding on need-based financial aid and academic instruction.”

While Joe Biden has proposed several plans for debt forgiveness, Biden’s educational reform ideas are mostly focused on K-12. However, some of his plans for fixing the higher education system include simplifying the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, particularly for teachers, to make it easier for certain professionals to get loan forgiveness. Additionally, while he hasn’t offered many details, Biden has suggested plans to offer free community college, as well as offering debt relief for graduates making less than $25,000 a year.

Senator Bernie Sanders is infamous for his radical plans for student debt reform. Parts of this plan include: canceling all 1.5 trillion dollars of student debt; a complete elimination of tuition at public colleges, universities, and trade schools; capping interest rates at 1.88 percent; and tripling funding for the federal work-study program.

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren has a much more detailed forgiveness plan than most of her competitors. She wants to forgive up to $50,000 in loans for graduates with an annual income of $100,000 or less, and partial forgiveness to those who make between $100,000 and $250,000. However, she plans to offer no forgiveness to those who

Mayor Pete Buttigieg has taken a relatively unique stance compared to his competitors on the topic of student loan debt. Buttigieg plans on making college debt-free, as opposed to the seemingly prevalent pushes for tuitionfree college. But what’s the difference?

Basically, Buttigieg wants to make college more affordable (rather than totally free) for lower-income families, enough so that it could be paid for without taking on loans. While this is less absolute than his opponents, it is far more realistic.

reasonable, yet sweeping, reformation.

He makes a big point of only extending completely free higher education to a small group of very low-income students, while making college for everyone else simply cheaper. He highlights the necessity of simplifying higher-education payments, making them easier to understand and pay, and encouraging higher-education institutions to be more transparent and accountable in financial matters. Concerning an issue with such extreme answers thrown about, Buttigieg seems to offer a practical answer, and I would prefer cheap college now over free college two terms from now.

One thing to be said is that most candidates have a rather lofty ideal of making college completely free, or at least monumentally cheaper. I’m pushing my word count, so I won’t go into their plans (those that exist, anyways) for actually implementing these ideas. For that, you’ll have to watch the debates. So, who is the champion of us poor, poor, students?

And will our next president actually do anything? We’ll find out soon enough.

Buttigieg has the best plan for

THE TRUTH ABOUT FAST FASHION CHRISTINA O’FARRELL STAFF WRITER

An average top from Forever 21 might cost about $10, which is affordable compared to designer fashion. All of these brands provide cheap prices with a wide range of different styles, which is what makes them so attractive. But, not everything can be that easy.

The truth about fast fashion is that it’s killing our environment as well as hurting the workers that work for these brands. As I stated in a previous piece about thrift shopping and fast fashion,

the clothing industry is the second highest polluter on this planet. The reason behind this is because most fastfashion brands create their products in developing countries where labor and resources are cheap, and where coal is used as the main source of electricity.

Forbes said that the clothing industry is responsible for 10 percent of all carbon emissions globally. Another sad truth about fast fashion is that most workers don’t get paid fairly. Less than two percent of the women who work in these clothing production lines even make a living wage.

Although fast-fashion pieces are trendy and affordable, it is hurting the environment. Next time you’re in the mall, try to avoid some of these big name stores or at least try to limit the amount you buy from them. If you

go online, there are lists of ethical fashion brands that are also affordable.

A few ethical fashion brands are Levi’s, Patagonia, Columbia and Alternative Apparel. All of these brands are dedicated to sustainability and better packaging for their products. These are just a few of the excellent qualities these ethical fashion brands contain.

Looking at the brands we buy might not seem so important, but it really is when it comes down to it. We want to keep our planet as clean we can, right? Buying ethical brands is a small step to helping keep this planet alive!

FOURTH ESTATE BILLY FERGUSON

I would assume that most people who are reading this article right now are probably wearing a product of fast fashion. Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Gap, Fashion Nova and PacSun are all big name fast-fashion brands and are most likely sitting in your closet. These brands are relatively cheap and convenient.

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OPINIONS Opinions do not reflect the views of Fourth Estate. Submit opinions to ckernans@gmu.edu

11.11.2019

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AMERICA NEEDS TRAINS

MOSES HUNSAKER CONTRIBUTOR

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

more efficient use of resources than individual car ownership. Picture the following two scenarios to contrast the use of resources between large-scale car commuting and intermediatedistance rail commuting.

When many Americans think of rail travel, the images that come to mind are sometimes those of a bygone era, when railroads played a larger part in the transportation infrastructure of the country than they do today.

Currently, Europe, Asia and even some Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia boast of their efficient high-speed rail systems, yet the U.S.

lags far behind. Where did America go wrong? Is the choice of individual car ownership really the most efficient use of resources, or is something better possible?

Even if we were to take energy consumption out of the question, a rail system operating on a set schedule, serving a sizable population and serviced regularly, presents a

parking lot, which takes up about as much real estate as the building itself.

In the first scenario, you wake up. It is Monday morning and you know you’ve got to get to your job. You pour coffee into your portable cup, spilling a few drops on your wrinkly white shirt that you meant to dry-clean last week.

As you drink coffee and type numbers all day, your car sits in the parking lot.

It doesn’t provide any useful function to anyone while you’re working, and takes up valuable land paved over to store this bulky inconvenience.

You finish your work, exit the office building, and walk back to your car, letting it warm up for a moment and driving 35 minutes back to your house.

You grab your keys and walk out to your driveway. The sun has just crested the tree line at the end of your street, its rays slicing through the morning fog. Your car has laid dormant since yesterday and takes a moment to warm up as you start it. You see that you’ve begun your journey too late and get stuck in traffic. Your 35-minute journey takes 40 minutes and you arrive to the office six minutes late — after you spent two more minutes questioning your life choices in the

In the second scenario, you wake up. It is Monday morning and you prepare for work at the email farm as you normally do, beginning the two-and-a-half block walk to the train station. You arrive at the station a few minutes early and pause a moment on the platform. You watch the sleek, cylindrical body of the train slowly pull into the station right on schedule, and with the other passengers step inside as its doors open automatically.

Ten minutes later you step out of the

train and onto the platform of the station nearest to your work, along with several other passengers. As you make your way into your cubicle, the train departs again, and while you’re typing numbers and drinking coffee all day, it continues to serve the public, making its regular route and carrying people to where they need to be. When you exit from your job and stroll the two-and-a-half-block journey back to the station the train rolls in. You take it home, but even after you’re back into your house, the rail continues to serve hundreds more passengers well into the night.

Commuter-distance rail provides a far more efficient mode of transport in terms of resource usage. Your car only carries you, and it sits dormant, taking up space when not in use. In terms of efficiency in overland travel, energyefficient high-speed rail is tough to beat, and it’s about time America stepped it up.

YOUNG MEN ARE CHECKING OUT

STEPHEN JONES CONTRIBUTOR

there is an overall rise in suicide for young men?

children just as much as mothers need to be.

The chamber is loaded with only one.

His trajectory is spot on. His focus on the goal is lethal. His mouth opens, inviting the barrel in. He takes one last breath, one last blink. He pulls the trigger. It’s over.

In college, men on average are slowly declining in all levels of degree attainment. This can ultimately have a negative effect on the course of a young man’s quality of life because many places of employment refuse to hire someone who doesn’t have a college degree.

Perhaps men and boys need more positive reinforcement as the current media coverage of men comes in the form of destructive male politicians, mass shooters and men accused of sexual harassment and rape. How many young boys are currently asking themselves, “Are boys bad?” Most importantly, do those boys have fathers to tell them, “No, they are not inherently bad”?

This scenario is one that is becoming more common for young men. Within the past 20 years, there has been an alarming surge in young men feeling so cornered in their feelings of dread, despair and hopelessness that they feel the only form of relief is taking their own life. Due to the acceleration of suicides and drug overdoses, the U.S. has seen a slight decline in male lifespan within the last three years.

Such a drop hasn’t been seen since the 1915-1918 flu epidemic and the start of World War I. Psychologists for decades have often debated the reasons behind suicide.

Looking at contemporary times, what possible leads can we find as to why

There is a significant amount of men between the prime working ages of 25-54 are not seeking employment due to disability and illness. Employment is a major facet of life that lets a person set goals in order to gain a positive view of themselves and financial affluence.

In 2013, 41 percent of children were born to unmarried women. Such households risk becoming fatherless.

Fatherless homes have a greater risk of resulting in sons turning to delinquent behavior while increasing the risk of daughters having unwanted teen pregnancies. Fathers need to be included in the development of their

While these are important topics to report on, there needs to be more of an emphasis on the male politicians who aren’t destructive, the male law enforcement officials that save innocent lives from the hands of mass

murderers and the male authority figures in the justice system who work their hardest to prosecute and convict men who have physically brutalized women.

Society shouldn’t always take the entire blame for issues concerning the

mental and physical health of certain people. Suicide and mental health issues seldom offer an easy explanation and cure, but the clock of mortality is ticking. We need to acknowledge these tragic, mentally-destructive, bloodsoaked realities.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PEXELS

Editor’s note: This piece contains a graphic discription of suicide.

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Got a COMIC?

Tutor Wanted Russian Language Tutor for beginner high school student. Prefer speaker with some teaching experience and knowledge of Russian language curriculum.

Tutoring location is Lorton VA (near South County HS).

Interested candidates should email bd9je@virginia.edu

King Features Weekly Service

© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.

November 11, 2019

1. GEOGRAPHY: In which two U.S. states is the Gila River located?

2. LANGUAGE: What does the Latin suffix –arium mean?

3. LITERATURE: Which 19th-century novel begins with the line, “For many days we had been tempest-tossed.”

4. U.S. PRESIDENTS: In what year did President Richard Nixon resign from office?

5. MUSIC: Who had the 1970s hit “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”?

6. MEASUREMENTS: How long is a span, as mentioned in the Bible?

7. HISTORY: What was the code name of the Allies’ invasion of North Africa in World War II? 8. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Which organization did Juliette Low found in 1912?

9. PSYCHOLOGY: What abnormal fear is represented in the condition called atychiphobia?

10. TELEVISION: What was the number of the mobile hospital unit in the TV drama “M*A*S*H”?

Answers 1. Arizona and New Mexico 2. A place associated with a specific thing, such as planetarium.

3. “The Swiss Family Robinson” 4. 1974 5. Meat Loaf 6. About 9 inches 7. Operation Torch 8. Girl Scouts 9. Fear of failure 10. 4077th

Send your comic to: masonfour thestate@gmail.com MS Funny

FOURTH ESTATE BILLY FERGUSON

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undergraduate interdisciplinary Minor PrograM FeaTures

reQuireD courses | 9 credits

Understand interdisciplinary approaches to designing, building, and evaluating user experiences across a range of technologies, systems, and objects. People with design thinking skills are in high demand across a range of industries including software and website development, product design, user experience design, instructional design, architecture and planning, global health, global management and consulting, and international development. These skills prepare graduates to be flexible and adaptable in different roles and careers.

dsgn 101

introduction to Design Thinking | 3 credits

dsgn 102

Design in the Modern World | 3 credits,

dsgn 401

Design Thinking capstone | 3 credits

skills learneD ●

Implement a design project by exploring alternatives, synthesizing, evaluating, modeling, testing, critiquing, revising, and improving

●

Problem solving skills, analytical and communication skills

●

Teamwork and project management skills

●

Computational skills and experience creating digital and physical solutions

2 Tracks | 9 credits Choose from one of two tracks: Design in the Built environment The Design in the Built Environment track focuses on the use of Design Thinking in the design of 2D and 3D objects, buildings, structures, and landscapes. user experience Design (uxD) The UXD track focuses on the use of Design Thinking in the UXD context, which includes mobile applications, web technologies, educational technologies, sales and marketing products, health and fitness devices, communication design, software design, and learning design.

ToTal creDiTs | 18 credits

learn More

designminor.gmu.edu Contact your advisor

mason core

Design Thinking Minor

Design Thinking Minor