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FOURTH ESTATE Nov. 17, 2014 | Volume 2 Issue 11 George Mason University’s official student news outlet gmufourthestate.com | @IVEstate
FINDING ROOM IN THE BUDGET Due to Virginia’s tax shortfall, Mason faces $9.4M in cuts | p. 6-7 (LAURA BAKER/FOURTH ESTATE)
INSIDE: NEWS / CRISIS # / 10 • LIFESTYLE / HOLOCAUST / 14 • SPORTS / BASKETBALL / 22-23
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Crime Log Nov. 10 2014-023666 / Drug/ Narcotic Violations Complainant (GMU) reported possible drug violation. Officer responded to subject’s (GMU) residence and took possession of illegal drugs. (41/Rapoli) Adams Hall / Referred to OSC/OHRL / 10:10 p.m.
Nov. 11 2014-023853 / Theft from Building Complainant (GMU) reported theft of unattended property in unsecured area. Loss estimated $500. (33/Daniels) Planetary Hall / inactive / 9:30 p.m. (JOHANNAH TUBALADO/FOURTH ESTATE)
Nov. 13 CSA Report / Attempted Sexual Assault George Mason University Police Department was notified by a Campus Security Authority (CSA) that a female student reported that three men attempted to sexually assault her in a hallway outside of Dewberry Hall during a late-night event on November 8, 2014. Due to the confidentiality of reporting, limited information is available regarding this incident. Dewberry Hall / N/A / 12:00 a.m.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram : @IVEstate Use the hashtag #IVphoto on snapshots of Mason for a chance to see it in a future issue!
The Campus Drive Project on Ox Rd. and Braddock Rd. is nearing completion, evident by the installations for singage put up this month at the intersection at Braddock R.
POPULAR LAST WEEK 1 Community
Groups hold discussion onaffordable Fairfax housing
Community members and city officials met together on Monday to discuss options for affordable housing in Fairfax. The meeting featured testimonials from residents who have been impacted by high cost housing.
ON GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM
VA Senate 3 Dining 2 campaign Services
managers discuss election results at Mason
releases annual satisfaction survey
Campaign managers from the Mark Warner and Ed Gillespie campaigns came together in Arlington to discuss the results of the midterm election.
Mason’s Dining Services asks for student input in their annual survey which impacts their decisions.
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11.17.2014
Letter from the EIC
NOW HIRING DRIVERS! !!!GMU STUDENT SPECIALS!!! (Valid for Carry Out with GMU ID or Delivery to GMU Fairfax Campus Only)
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MORE STUDENT VALUE DEALS! One Medium 1 Topping Pizza…$6.99 each Choose any Two (or more) items…$5.99 each
Small 10” pizza w/2 top / Sandwich / Pasta tin / 8pc Chicken (Code 9181)
3 Mediums w/ 1 top each…$5.55 each (Online only Code 9116)
One Xtra-Large Cheese…$8.99 (Online Code XL) 2 (or more) Med pizzas w/2 tops each….$5.99 each (Code 9193) (online code items good for both on & off campus delivery) (Remember some deals are not available online. Pan & Brooklyn crusts additional) Must mention special when ordering. Offer can’t be combined with other offers or specials. Prices do NOT include sales tax. Delivery areas may be limited to ensure safe driving and excellent service. Pan & Brooklyn crusts are additional. Delivery charges may apply. Drivers carry LESS than $20.00 MINIMUM DELIVERY is $9.00
HOURS OF OPERATION during GMU School Year… Mon-Thurs 10:30am until 1am and Fri-Sat until 2am (Summer and Mason school break hours we close at 12mid Mon-Thu and 1am Fri-Sat)
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It has been a fun semester, but this will be the last full issue of Fourth Estate before we depart for winter break. Next week’s issue will be a holiday guide of sorts to prepare you for the coming season of family, merriment and all that jazz. Because I’m told that next week, this space might be occupied by a good, handsome Vietnamese facsimile of Santa Claus, I wanted to use this space for some sentiment. As I’m writing this, it’s nearly 6 p.m. on Sunday. If you told me last semester that I would be nearly done at 6 p.m., I would say that’s pretty surprising you got done that early. This semester, it’s the latest I’ve been in here putting final touches on the paper. I owe these earlier finishing times -- and reliefs to my disposition of the world -- to the dedicated work of my staff. This big, crazy thing that is a student-run publication doesn’t happen without them. One thing that I have to deal with at the conclusion of this semester is that having a group of such talented people means that professional, bigboy organizations aren’t stupid and decide to poach my staff. First big shout out goes to Niki Papadogiannakis, one of my managing editors. She is the main catalyst for Fourth Estate’s increased productivity this semester on the print side, and by managing everyone’s lives, has made a more efficient system. She is one of the smartest, most tireless workers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She is likely departing us to go pursue one of her passions in international correspondence and research, and I have no doubt that she is going to succeed in whatever field she ends up pursuing. I said in my very first letter at the beginning of last semester that Fourth Estate would be nowhere without her efforts, and that opinion has only been strengthened from working with her more closely. Then, there is my news team. I thought I was only losing one or two, but oddly enough, I hope I lose them all.
This is an odd thought to contemplate, but sacrificing my efforts for the sake of better individual futures is a piece of altruism I still keep in tact. Alexa Rogers, my news editor, will be leaving for an internship with Gannett Media. Alexa was one of my first hires when I took this job, and I knew zero things about her. I only had a reputation to go off of from Niki. I was told she was a dogged and strong reporter who showed a passion for journalism and Fourth Estate. Again -- as will be the theme of this -- people know better than me. Alexa is now not only a good friend but she has proven to be a dedicated writer and leader. I’m proud to have contributed some marginal help in the advancement of her career because I’m sure she is going to do something dope in media. Suhaib Khan, my print news editor, is off to pursue internship opportunities with political advocacy groups which is very apt for him. In fact, you can read him scorning whitey on p. 19. Suhaib is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful persons I have interacted with and I’m happy to have him as a friend. I know Suhaib will be able to thwart the efforts of Dr. Yakub in a meaningful way in whatever he ends up pursuing as a career because he has the talent to succeed at a number of roles. I’m sure there will be one or two more and I’ll mourn them when the time comes -- R.I.P.D. -- but I also want to say that now comes an opportunity for others to step up because the work here we do is meaningful to getting these opportunities beyond what Mason can offer.
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Hau Chu Editor-In-Chief
Daniel Gregory Managing Editor
Niki Papadogiannakis Managing Editor
Alexa Rogers News Editor
Suhaib Khan Print News Editor
Sara Moniuszko Lifestyle Editor
Savannah Norton Print Lifestyle Editor
Amy Rose Photography Editor
Amy Podraza Asst. Photography Editor
Walter Martinez Visual Editor
Jill Carter Copy Chief
Laura Baker Illustrator
Ryan Adams Distribution Manager
Kathryn Mangus Director
David Carroll Associate Director Fourth Estate is printed each Monday for George Mason University and its surrounding Fairfax community. The editors of Fourth Estate have exclusive authority over the content that is published. There are no outside parties that play a role in the newspaper’s content, and should there be a question or complaint regarding this policy, the Editor-inChief should be notified at the email provided. Fourth Estate is a free publication, limit one copy per person. Additional copies are 25 cents payable to the Office of Student Media.
HAU CHU EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GMUFOURTHESTATE@GMAIL. COM @HAUCHU
Mail Fourth Estate George Mason University Mail stop 2C5 4400 University Drive Fairfax, Va. 22030 Phone 703-993-2950
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(CLAIRE CECIL/FOURTH ESTATE)
Mason Police undergo accreditation assessment
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ANGELA WOOLSEY STAFF WRITER
Mason Police took an on-site re-accreditation assessment in early November to ensure that its policies and procedures meet national standards. Conducted by the Commission for Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, the two-day-long process is voluntary and takes place once every three years. It focuses on six different categories: the agency’s role, responsibilities and relationships with other agencies, organization, management and administration, personnel administration, law enforcement operations, operational support and traffic law enforcement, detainee and court-related services and auxiliary and technical services. CALEA has a total of 483 standards that each member agency must fulfill, though not all of them are applicable to Mason’s University Police Department. These standards cover everything from patrol procedures and administrative set-up to hiring practices and handling of citizen complaints. “The CALEA re-accreditation benefits students and employees with a greater accountability within the agency,” said Cheryl Goss, the department’s accreditation manager. Mason Police has been part of CALEA since 1991 and has never failed to get re-accreditation after an assessment. It is one of only four university agencies in the state to receive accreditation, along with the police departments of University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and University of Richmond. Virginia has 27 accredited law enforcement agencies overall, not including training academies.
Much of the actual policy review is now done off-site. According to the CALEA website, this process involves a self-assessment and requires agencies to mail in a document that provides information about themselves and the surrounding community. Departments must also develop proof files demonstrating compliance to applicable standards. The on-site assessment primarily involves observation, equipment inspection and interviews with officers and the command staff about the department’s operating procedures. Assessors also take a tour of the station and host a call-in session and open forum for the public to voice questions, comments or complaints. The process concludes with a debrief with Mason Police Chief Eric Heath and Assistant Chief Thomas Longo. “It used to take longer, but CALEA has changed a lot of their processes,” Heath said. “When they come on, they have a very detailed schedule, they stick to it and then they’re gone.” The call-in session took place Thursday from noon to 2 p.m., and the public forum was that same day at 4 p.m. in SUB II, rooms 4 and 5. Comments were limited to 10 minutes each. Following the on-site assessment, members of the police department will attend a conference held from Wednesday, Nov. 19 to Saturday, Nov. 22, according to the CALEA website. At the conference, each member agency undergoes a review in front of a committee to enforce compliance to CALEA standards. This conference is also when agencies officially receive accreditation for the next three year cycle. Filure to meet a particular standard could mean the loss of a department’s accreditation,
though CALEA gives the agency in question time after the assessment to make policy or procedure changes. CALEA has four programs: law enforcement, communications, training and campus security. Mason has been accredited through the law enforcement program since it first joined the commission, but this year’s assessment will mark the first time it also participates in the campus security program, which was developed in 2010. Among other standards, the campus security section governs campus security escort services and emergency notification systems. Goss said Mason covers these stipulations through, respectively, its cadet escort program, which is available to students at all times of the day, and the Mason Alert system. A complete list of CALEA assessment standards can be found on the commission’s website. Though this is his first time going through this process with the Mason university police, Heath says the department has generally gotten positive feedback from assessors, and he is unaware of any major policy changes that have resulted from an assessment. “The UPD [university police department] is constantly reviewing and revising policies and procedures to reflect the best practices and to keep the department moving forward,” Goss said. She is responsible for making sure that the department keeps up to date with CALEA standards and is prepared for each assessment. The Mason police department updates its policies annually. The department also receives feedback through the call-in session and public forum. Heath says that the most frequent comments
relate to transparency or complaints specific to an individual community member’s situation. “Even negative feedback is a positive thing, because you can take it, and you can learn from it,” Heath said. Since participation in CALEA is voluntary, a lack of accreditation does not necessarily mean an agency’s policies do not meet the prescribed standards. According to Heath, the assessment process takes effort, time and money, making it challenging for smaller departments or ones with less funding than Mason’s. Still, the CALEA assessments help hold member agencies accountable to the university and the surrounding community, and accreditation, especially if an agency maintains it for as long as Mason has, can be reassuring for students. Mason student Keosha Quigley says he always feels safe on campus. “I think it’s good to have a university police department, instead of having to call 911 and the Fairfax City police having to come out here,” Quigley said. “I usually feel safe when I see them, even though there are no call boxes around campus like other schools have.” Heath says it is relatively rare for a department to maintain accreditation for as long as Mason Police has. “You want police departments to have the right policies and procedures…to adhere to those policies and procedures and efforts to provide services to the community,” Heath said. “It’s something that this police department should definitely be proud of.”
IV news Documentary receives national praise GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
REEM NADEEM STAFF WRITER
of political cultural issues for most of the US,” Cynthia Fuchs, director of Film and Media Studies said. The film is available to Mason students through the library. According to Fuchs, Out in the Night features many different voices that were involved in the case, including one of the arresting officers, lawyers and activists who became involved during the appeals process. “There’s some re-enactment footage, and then there’s some sort of surveillance footage from outside, on the theatre, outside of which the event occurred. And then some clever, I think, animation. They didn’t have access to the courtroom, so they had some animation showing sort of how the judge was ruling and how the prosecutors and defense lawyers were presenting the cases. Again, I think it’s a very good model for how you might put together a documentary that’s slightly unconventional as opposed to sort of more you know, Discovery Channel that we’re used to,” Fuchs said. According to Chesler, Mason students have a special opportunity to advocate for issues they care about and Mason’s innovative atmosphere
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(COURTESY OF CYNTHIA FUCHS)
Out in the Night, an award winning documentary produced by Mason’s Director of Film and Video Studies, was screened at Mason as part of the Visiting Film Maker Series. Out in the Night has been screened at several film festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Feature at the Queer People of Color Film Festival and the Jury Award for Excellence: Best Documentary at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. According to Film Producer and Director of Film and Video Studies, Giovanna Chesler, the documentary tells the story of a group of African American lesbian friends, the New Jersey 4, who were out in the West Village of New York City in 2006 and were harassed on the street by an older man. When the man realized the women were gay, his threats become violent and sexual. A fight broke out between the man and the women. Though others on the street jumped in to defend the women, the police arrested and charged the women with gang assault and attempted murder. Three other women who were with the NJ4 accepted plea agreements but Renata Hill, Patreese Johnson, Terrain Dandridge and Venice Brown were put on trial and convicted by both the courts and tabloid media. According to Mason’s Film and Media Studies website, the NJ4 were dubbed a “Gang of Killer Lesbians,” by media. “The media called them a gang, particularly the tabloid media. And the New York Times called the man ‘an admirer,’” Chesler said. The story of the NJ4 raises several different social issues, including racial and gender identity disparities in the legal system. “So the story of the New Jersey 4 is interesting because it raises questions about who has the right to defend themselves and also how the
media contributes to, I think, egregious sentencing in the courtroom. How gender identity, race and class really make it so that people don’t have power in the courtroom, they can’t claim self defense,” Chesler said. According to Chesler the film brought up issues that are relevant to students on college campuses who may aspire to become journalists or film makers. “I think it’s important for college students to understand also the role that media has, I think a lot of our students are interested in being journalists or are film makers and should be aware of the way that when things are framed, they criminalize innocent people,” Chesler said. According to Chesler, the story of the NJ4 raises so many different social issues and becomes especially relevant to many students from different backgrounds and fields of study. “Bringing this film to campus was about telling a story that I think brought a lot of students from many different disciplines into one room. And I think it’s also really important that when we tell stories that we look across disciplines and understand how criminal justice, how African American studies, how film and video studies, how film and media studies who organized the whole event, communication, art, you know how all of these people should be at the same table addressing these issues,” Chesler said. Out in the Night tells of the legal and social issues faced by the NJ4, but their personal stories and backgrounds are shown as well. According to director, Blair Dorosh-Walther, during the discussion panel, the original intent of Out in the Night was to prove the NJ4’s innocence. However, because self-defense would not stand in court, the film became about the NJ4’s individual stories as well as social issues. “So it’s a very complicated layering of how that moment happened and how the case unfolded afterwards but it’s also about broader sort
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encourages students to do so. “I think that we’re just very well positioned, we’re very close to D.C. and we’re also in this giant purple state and so whenever students come here, they reflect the diversity of this state as well as an international community and we’re just so privileged to be able to have this conversation across culture,” Chesler said.
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Va. mandates new university budget cuts
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This semester, the university was required to return $4.7 million to the state due to a Virginia tax shortfall of $2.4 billion for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. In addition to the state requirement, the university cut an additional $4.7 million in order to create a State Reduction ELLEN GLICKMAN STAFF WRITER
(WALTER MARTINEZ/FOURTH ESTATE)
Stabilization Fund and a University Stabilization Fund, which would function as preparation for future cuts. JJ Davis, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, said the state cuts “are really a snapshot of a long-term trend.” Davis and Provost David Wu said that the university’s $9.4 million total budget reduction goal was met by deducting $3.7 million from academic units and $5.7 million from other operating units. Originally, the state asked for $6.2 million, but returned $1.5 million, so the overall budget reduction went from $10.9 million to $9.4 million. While explaining the reasoning behind the cuts at a town hall in early October, Davis and Wu reiterated their main priority of protecting and advancing the core academic mission of the university. Thus, Wu mentioned that cutting courses was not conducive to preserving the university’s academic core. Among the academic units, Wu and Davis announced that the College of Humanities and Social Sciences will take the most cuts with $697,600, followed by the College of Science and then the Volegnau School of Engineering. Finance and Administration will have the most deductions of all operating units at $2,335,400. Central Academic
Administration take the next cut with $1,435,900 and then University Life with $567,800. From 1985 to 2015, Mason has seen more than a total reversal in the percentage of funds that come from that state and the funds that come from tuition and other sources. In 1985, 67% of Mason’s Education and General budget consisted of state funds and 33% came from tuition and other sources. The funds for the 2015 budget were 27% from the state and 73% from tuition and other sources. Davis said rising student debt is largely occurring because of reduced state funds, but there is no “media conversation” concerning that aspect. Davis also explained state funding reductions are a problem currently facing many universities. According to Provost David Wu, 49 states are spending less per student in higher education than they were in 2008. 28 of those states have reductions of more than 25%. “The situation we find ourselves in is not unique,” Davis said. “This is a national phenomenon, national trend.” Davis and Wu said the $2.8 million in the State Reduction Stabilization Fund is money the state already owes the university for health care and pension funds. However, they are unsure if they will receive that money. Davis said that they do not know at this time whether the state will ask for further cuts in fiscal year 2015.
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The $1.9 million University Stabilization Fund was also created to improve the graduate admissions process, increase out of state recruiting and help with the university’s digital strategy and IT infrastructure due to recent information intrusions. “It is real, we are getting cyber-attacks,” Wu said. “Mason is also a big target.” Davis and Wu said they expect to hear more information from the state in December concerning health care and pension funds and the possibility of more cuts, at which time they will hold another meeting. More information will also be available about plans for fiscal year 2016 when the university will need to return $8.6 million. Davis said meeting the amount of required cuts would not have been possible without support from Mason faculty and staff. “We ultimately had to return $4.7 million mid-year, not an easy feat,” Davis said. “I think a big shout-out to the faculty and staff for helping us through that. That was in a matter of two and half weeks. We had hundreds and hundreds of people helping us cut mid-year just as students were arriving. When you think about doing the impossible, the team at Mason gets a lot of credit for that.” According to Davis, raising tuition has been one way the university has responded to increased state disinvestment, along with growing the student body, cutting expenses and increasing scholarships from private donors. “The only way to manage through this, and the level of this, is to have all options on the table every year, all the time,” Davis said. Despite the raise in tuition, Davis said Mason has managed to remain less expensive than other Virginia universities. However, she said raising
news tuition has been necessary to maintain academic quality. “We’ve seen significant cuts from the state budget, but we also have a commitment to the students to make sure they get a good academic experience,” Davis said. According to Davis, who was previously part of the Office of Management and Budget for the state of Delaware, constrained state resources have led to the decrease in higher education funding because, with limited funds, the state usually prioritizes health and social services like K-12 education, police departments, etc. “They’re pretty critical issues, number one,” Davis said. “Number two, they tend to have pretty vocal constituencies, and three, they don’t tend to have any other options in terms of how they fund their budget.” On his blog, President Ángel Cabrera wrote about the correlation between reduced state funds and rising student debt with help from Mason public policy doctoral student Kirk Heffelmire. The post said that over the past 15 years, the continual decrease in state funds has caused Mason’s tuition to double, and that has contributed to a rise in student debt. “One of the most direct consequences of raising tuition is the ballooning of student debt,” the post continued. “Recent college graduates hold the highest student loan debt burdens ever. The majority of students graduate with at least some loan debt.” Taylor Pigram, a member of GMU Democrats, was not surprised by this relationship. “We have a tuition hike each year,” Pigram said, “so [student debt] will inadvertently be affected through that because you’re going to have to come up with more money or loans to
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finance.” The post also said tuition raises are shifting the responsibility of paying for a higher education from public to private, meaning students are expected to pay a larger percentage of their college education than 15 years ago. “Now, as students, you’re being asked to foot the bill for the vast majority of your education,” said Katharine Destler, Mason Assistant Professor of Public Policy. Beverley Harp, a University Scholar and co-founder of the Roosevelt Institute, said states might be finding it easier to cut from higher education versus other programs, like Social Security, because “old people vote and students don’t.” “It’s politically easier to put budget cuts on public universities because there aren’t as many votes tied to public universities,” Harp said. Davis said increased student advocacy could change the situation. “Getting real students talking about, ‘Look, if you don’t fund George Mason one of the realities for us is greater tuition,’ and what does that mean? That equates for many of our students into more debt,” Davis said. Harp said that for some sources of private funding, like scholarships, transparency is important. “The trend towards private donors isn’t one I’m thrilled about,” Harp said. “I feel like it goes against what a public institution is supposed to be, but it’s kind of reality. If we’re headed in that reality, in that direction, we should make sure we’re doing it the right way and students understand where their funding is coming from and it’s not hyper-politicized.” For junior Emma Copeland, those private
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sources of aid are contributing to her amount of debt. Due to her financial situation, Copeland said she was unable to qualify for federal and state loans. She said most of her aid is in the form of loans that come from private sources. One of those loans, she said, has an interest rate of “over eight percent.” She said that loan is “going to be kind of a doozy if I recall correctly.” Copeland said her and her mom “don’t one hundred percent know” how they will pay the bill for the coming semester. “We’re both in the mindset of, ‘Just please finish college,” Copeland said. “The obvious point of going to college is to get the payoff, but then you get the weird cycle of why did you take out the loans to go to college if you’re just going to pay off your student loans anyway?” According to Destler, some voters may feel the public to private shift is not a negative one. “I think there’s a certain level at which taxpayers, certainly taxpayers who are not college age or don’t have close family members who are college age, probably see that argument with a certain amount of appeal,” Destler said. “You’re the one benefitting for this, you should put money in.” However, she said the shift is still an issue because the state is contributing less and less to a valuable citizenry. “Our country depends on a well-educated citizenry in a whole range of fields,” Destler said. “College at a rigorous university, like George Mason, should be about students exploring a wide range of intellectual pursuits and challenging themselves and making missteps and learning more about the subjects they’re studying and learning more about themselves in the process.” At the town hall, Davis said that, despite the trend of decreased state funding, Mason is better off than other universities because “43% of our students carry no debt.” Cabrera’s blog post also stated that Mason is doing comparatively well in regards to its graduates’ debts. “In the case of George Mason University, the comparatively high employment levels and wages of our graduates, our comparatively low tuition, and the fact that more and more of our students transfer from the community colleges and work during college have helped keep student loan default rates among the lowest in the country,” the post said. Davis said the average debt of Mason graduates is approximately $26,000, about $3,000 less than the national average, which President Obama said is approximately $29,000 in June. Pigram thought the large number of commuter students also contributes to less student debt. “It does help that we do have an off-campus population,” Pigram said. “I know that some people have avoided debt by living at home with their parents.” Cabrera’s post said that although Mason is better off than most state universities, the trend with funding needs to reverse or else student’s education will suffer. “If the state doesn’t pay,” the post said, “students likely will, either in the form of quality, or tuition, or time-to-degree or a combination of the above.”
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CHSS class minimums raised due to university budget cuts ELLEN GLICKMAN STAFF WRITER
Communication classes that do not have at least 15 students registered by Dec. 15 may be cancelled. This change has been made in order to contribute to recent university budget cuts that were the result of a state tax shortfall totaling $2.4 billion for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. The previous class minimum was 12 students. The new class minimum applies to all departments within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. CHSS was required to eliminate a total of $800,000 from their budget as part of the university-wide cuts, and increasing the acceptable class minimum was one money-saving method they chose. “We are upping the minimum a little bit and we are enforcing the minimum a little more strongly than we have in the past,” said Robert Matz, senior associate dean of curriculum and technology in CHSS. “The reason for that is the entire university is in a budget crunch that has to do with the state budget shortfall.” Matz said he expects this measure will save the college approximately $30,000, but that there is no way to know for sure until registration is complete. He said this is a relatively minor way to make budget cuts since the college was asked to cut a total of approximately $800,000. The majority of CHSS cuts came from a college “rainy day fund” and from a decision to not fill vacant faculty positions. “We’re not replacing faculty lines,” Matz said. “So somebody retires and instead of hiring a new person, we’re just freezing that line until the budget situation improves.” Matz said these two measures garnered the majority of cuts CHSS was required to make. He also said exceptions will most likely be made for honors
classes, internship classes, classes students need to graduate, among others. Lisa Sevilla, undergraduate program coordinator for the Communication Department, said special topics courses are among those most likely to not meet the new minimum. “It’s predominantly special topics courses [at risk], and it’s mostly because they are special topics,” Sevilla said. “They’re not required. They’re just being offered because we think they’re great opportunities for students and great resources for them to learn.” Dr. Carla Fisher, who is scheduled to teach a communication special topics course in the spring, agreed the classes are beneficial to students. “The special topics courses are a wonderful opportunity for students to become skilled in more specialized areas of communication (like family communication and health, children and the media, digital communication and science and the media), and to learn about these topics from internationally renowned experts working in those areas,” Fisher said via email. Sevilla said that during her five years in the Department of Communication, she could not remember CHSS mandating an increase in the class minimum. However, classes have been cancelled in the past due to low enrollment. “At least not from the college’s standpoint, we’ve never had an official, ‘This is what needs to happen. Spread the word,’” Sevilla said. “We have had to cancel classes before due to enrollment. It’s usually just one or two classes that don’t have enough students in them, and we can’t justify teaching an entire class, hiring a full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, paying them to teach five students.” Sevilla said this is similar reasoning behind upping the minimum to save money. “It’s too expensive to have an instructor, to pay an instructor, to pay for the resources and all of that when there’s only, like, 10
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students in a class,” Sevilla said. Sevilla also said the new minimum of 15 applies just to undergraduate classes. She is unaware of the new graduate course minimum. According to Sevilla, the Communication Department believes student demand is a better determining factor of cancelations than arbitrary college or department decisions. “Rather than us straightforward canceling classes, like deciding on our own ambition which courses we keep and which do we not keep for the semester, we’re letting student enrollment for the semester decide,” Sevilla said. The Communication Department has been trying to inform students of this situation, because prompt registration may to prevent a desired class from being cancelled. “We want them to know as soon as possible so they can sign up for classes now as opposed to waiting until the week before school begins in January,” Sevilla said. “A lot of students just take their time over the winter break.” Sevilla said if students wait, “they’re not going to have the opportunities we want to offer for them.” “Hopefully if we keep blasting and talking to students during advising appointments and sending things out to the listserv and the Facebook page and the twitter pages we’ll get enough interest to be able to hold the classes that we want,” Sevilla said.
(LAURA BAKER/FOURTH ESTATE)
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Program allows students to work for pay and gain credits ELLEN GLICKMAN STAFF WRITER
(WALTER MARTINEZ/FOURTH ESTATE)
“If you could go through this program and gain the necessary experience and then afterwards actually find jobs within your field, I think that’s really great versus just sitting in a classroom theorizing.You’re actually getting hands-on knowledge to prepare you.” -Tanya Donangmaye, a senior global affairs major who plans to apply to Enstitute.
A new partnership between Mason and a non-profit organization will provide an opportunity for students who prefer the learning-by-doing method of education, beginning this spring. Enstitute, established in 2012, is a non-profit that coordinates apprenticeships for individuals with “innovative companies,” according the Enstitute website. Originally meant as an alternative to higher education, Enstitute is partnering with Mason to offer a version of the program to students. Tanya Donangmaye, a senior global affairs major who plans to apply, thought Enstitute could be a good college alternative but also saw the Mason version as a valuable contribution to her higher education. “If you could go through this program and gain the necessary experience and then afterwards actually find jobs within your field, I think that’s really great versus just sitting in a classroom theorizing,” Donangmaye said. “You’re actually getting hands-on knowledge to prepare you.” Kelly Dunne, assistant dean for academic affairs in New Century College, said she is unaware of any other apprenticeship organization and university partnership. “[Enstitute] is the only one I’m aware of that’s partnering with a fouryear university,” Dunne said. Once accepted, Enstitute will match students with an organization in the D.C. area. The apprenticeship will last for one year, and will function as a fulltime job. Dunne said applicants can expect 40 hour weeks and a $30,000 salary. Donangmaye, said the salary would contribute to her transportation and student loan expenses. “In terms of just taking public transportation it would definitely go to helping me pay for those costs,” Donangmaye said. “That’s what deterred me in the past from taking internships in D.C. that were non-paid is because the fact I just couldn’t afford to travel for a 40-hour-a-week job.” The pilot Enstitute at Mason
program will be offered through the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the first students will begin their apprenticeships in the spring of 2015. Applications were due Nov. 17. Dunne said about 10-15 students will be accepted into the program. “Any student can apply,” Dunne said. However, freshman are not recommended because they have not yet experienced college, and a large majority of Enstitute work will take place off campus. Donangmaye said she is attracted to the program because it will prepare her for graduate school. “All the graduate programs that I’m looking into, they all require experience,” Donangmaye said. “If I can find that experience so easily through Enstitute, why not take advantage of that opportunity because for that same opportunity, just looking for it on my own is going to be extremely difficult because these are really competitive places that they’re placing us in.” The program will offer a maximum of 24 credits, ideally 12 in the spring and 12 in the fall. However, Dunne said students will have the option to “spread” the credits and work over the summer. She said the summer session is not mandatory because it would cost extra tuition that some students might be unable to afford. “Some students who are on financial aid, that covers the traditional fall and spring semesters, but that often means summer’s out of pocket,” Dunne said. “You can take that 24 credits and spread it across spring, summer, and fall if you want, but if you need to take them just in the two regular semesters, that’s fine too.” Dunne said the college credit will also be flexible. “We are willing to work with the students’ major home department to make this work for them,” Dunne said. “Whatever they need to see on the transcript to count towards the major, we are willing to do what is necessary.” Dunne said the “default” option is NCC credits, however, she pointed to the Criminology, Law, and Society program as an example of where other credit is possible. The CLS bachelor of
science program requires a minimum of 15 internship credits, which Dunne thinks the Enstitute program could fulfill. She said credit acceptance could depend on the organization a student is matched with. “We’re simply just trying to help grease the wheels and make it work for students,” Dunne said. In addition to the apprenticeship, students will be required to attend a class once a week that will mostly consist of reflective work and discussion about their Enstitute experiences. “The course will be most similar to a synthesis or a capstone,” Dunne said. Dunne said an apprenticeship differs from an internship in two key ways - it lasts longer and an apprentice usually works at a higher level in the company. She said an apprentice will most likely work as “an assistant to someone higher up in the management, it could even be the CEO of the company.” Dunne described the kind of student who would be well-suited for this scenario. “I would recommend someone who is poised, has good social-interaction skills, good communication, group collaboration skills, because basically you’re going into the workforce,” Dunne said. She also recommended “someone who’s open to chaos” because “anything can happen in a work day, so just being able to deal with change and the unknown and to think quickly on your feet.” “You’re going into the unknown,” Dunne said.
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Mason’s 24 hour crisis hotline only one in Virginia “It is better to receive a call from a victim rather than have the victim remain silent about their incident. Choosing not to talk about an…incident often leads to anxiety and depression,” -Mary Ann Sprouse, director of Wellness, Alcohol and Violence Services office
ASHLEY COOK STAFF WRITER
Mason is the only university in Virginia with a crisis hotline that provides 24/7 counseling support for students. The hotline, first offered by Wellness, Alcohol, and Violence Education and Services office in 1998 and provides students with support in coping with alcohol and drug concerns, sexual violence incidences and other areas of critical concern. “The hotline serves as a valuable, unique resource for students; it is so helpful for troubled students who feel that they have no one to turn to after a sexual assault incident has occurred.” said Mary Ann Sprouse, director of WAVES. According to Sprouse, the hotline is available to those have difficulty in finding someone to speak with after any incidents occur, while also helping students with more extreme cases maintain their confidentiality. “It is sometimes hard for victims to talk with
(LAURA BAKER/FOURTH ESTATE)
Education and
others about their incident to people they know, such as friends or family members,” Sprouse said. “The hotline offers victims an outlet for victims to confide in, on a comfortable and personal level. Totally confidential. While being a reliable resource for students to use, the hotline does have certain logistical difficulties. “Mason is the only university to offer a 24-hour hotline on campus, probably because it not an easy resource to maintain,” Sprouse said. According to Sprouse, the staff must be well equipped on a professional and supportive level to handle the variety of calls they receive. “In order to provide callers with a helpful and meaningful conversation, one that will help them cope with their situation, our staff is trained for thirty hours before they can take their first call,” Sprouse said. According to Sprouse, many callers are reporting after the fact. This does not mean, however, that all callers are reporting an incident that occurred the night before, or even the week
before. The hotline receives calls reporting cases that happened months or even a year prior. ‘The cases that occurred more recently and the cases that occurred some time in the past each have unique challenges when coping, and all victims need to feel like they can talk about it,” said Sprouse. According to Sprouse, the hotline receives on average 10 to 12 calls per week at the height of the semester. “While this number may surprise some, it is considered normal. It is better to receive a call from a victim rather than have the victim remain silent about their incident. Choosing not to talk about an…incident often leads to anxiety and depression,” Sprouse said. Victims with these symptoms, however, can visit the Counseling and Psychological Services office on campus. Similar to WAVES, the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) provides counseling on both the individual group level. The CAPS office offers a staff of professional counselors and clinical psychologists for
students to utilize as an on-campus resource. Dr. Barbara Meehan, executive director of CAPS, said that the crisis hotline is a primary factor in reducing the risks associated with mental health concerns. “We know that asking for help can be very difficult and the window of time during which a student is ready to seek help can be very short,” Meehan said. Meehan said how critical it is for students to have immediate and free access to a trained professional who can offer the level of support needed to decrease emotional distress. “At Mason, we are committee to ensuring such access so that any student who has made the important decision to seek help does not face any barriers to receiving that help,” Meehan said.
11 news Student photographs dirt paths where the sidewalk ends
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RYAN THORNTON STAFF WRITER
A Mason student has started using photography to document the numerous dirt paths around campus. Caroline Weinroth, a junior studying theatre, initially began the project as a simple video slideshow for her Computer Aided Design class. It inspired Weinroth to continue to photograph the dirt pathways that students have created. “I went around campus and took photos of the dirt paths around campus with my phone and then edited it together into a movie file,” Weinroth said. “Video isn’t my strongest art form, so the end result I submitted for class looked pretty amateur.” After that course, Weinroth decided to continue taking photographs of these paths and started a Twitter account to share her pictures with the community. “I created a Twitter, @MasonPaths, since I really admire the George Mason culture that has arisen on Twitter,” Weinroth said. “With Twitter being used by official university groups as well as unofficial student-made fan pages, I thought it would be the most accessible for Mason students. There are only a few photos so far, but maybe we’ll see popularity grow.” The account features pictures from various spots in different areas of campus. One image is of a well-tread dirt path between Southside and the Hub, another takes a wide-angle view of a trail just outside the Art and Design Building and a third displays a muddy path just after a rain shower. The account description on the Twitter account reads, “There are paved roads that you can follow, or you can choose to create your own path.” This is indicative of what Weinroth believes Mason’s culture to be – students working together to find creative solutions for the problems they’re faced with. Anthony McLean, a senior Integrative Studies major, provided his opinion on Weinroth’s project and on the paths. “Caroline’s project is interesting. I have discussed with friends that there are paths that students have created because the sidewalk did not lead from point A to point B in the best way,” McLean said. “It is quite entertaining to see how students will make their own path based on what suits them, and not what is already provided. I personally
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enjoy the paths, except when it rains or snows because then there is mud all over the place. Weinroth had the same thoughts when she first decided to record the paths. She described her own love of nature and her desire to show how Mason students shape the Fairfax campus. “I just wanted to document all the paths I find walking around campus and figured the best way to share the photos would be through Twitter,” Weinroth said. “I really like seeing dirt-trodden paths and man-made parts of nature. It’s neat to see where people before you have walked. There’s a kind of metaphor behind how, even though there’s a permanent road in place, students have created their own way by thinking alike and taking the same shortcut.” Shannon Pace, a junior studying Environmental Science, expressed her love of nature slightly differently than Weinroth. Pace is frustrated with sidewalks that don’t seem to take students where they want to go, and is hesitant about the man-made developments through natural areas on campus. “I do not understand why we need sidewalks to begin with,” Pace said. “People like to walk the shortest path to get where they are going, and as you can see from the dirt pathways, students do not care where the sidewalks are. Sidewalks are just giving us more impermeable surfaces and larger floods.” Weinroth hopes that the end goal of the project will be assisting other students in cultivating an appreciation for the paths. “I have a lot of creative projects I’m working on – I also make music – so my only goals are just to not abandon this Twitter and to create a sort of community admiration for the way that students shape the George Mason campus,” Weinroth said. Although she only has three followers on Twitter currently, Weinroth says she is not too concerned for the account’s future. For her, it’s all about promoting a passion and sharing it with anyone else interested. “I honestly haven’t gotten much feedback on this project! Maybe @ MasonPaths will be the next @ GMUCrane, but if not, that’s okay with me,” Weinroth said. “I’m just fascinated by little things in the world and wanted to create a digital shrine to some dirt.”
“People like to walk the shortest path to get where they are going, and as you can see from the dirt pathways, students do not care where the sidewalks are. Sidewalks are just giving us more impermeable surfaces and larger floods.” -Caroline Weinroth, student photographer
(COURTESY OF CAROLINE WEINROTH)
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“Are you ready for basketball? The Patriots basketball season kicks off today!” @GMU @MasonSpirit Mason Spirit
“Today is gonna be hype, gold rush, black party, food, basketball games YA #GMU”
@JuMAY6 Justin May
“No one talk to me. I just finished 5th out of 200+ students in a knockout game at the Patriot Center at #GMU. You can find me on Tumblr.” @LoyaltylsFirst Ali
“3 hours into having crutches: > go to fountain to get water > man places hand on my knee and prays for me > asks me to walk > still can’t #mason” @WorseLuckRyan Ryan Ledwith
The new De Clieu cafe in Old Town brews gourmet coffee from Intelligentsia Roasters, Montana Coffee Traders and Shenandoah Joe Coffees Inca. They offer a wide range of beans that range in location and in means of roasting.
POPULAR LAST WEEK Movie 1 Review:
Interstellar
The much anticipated film is great if you are just want to look at a movie for three hours. However, the story does not deliver
Mobius 2 Records
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First Annual
3 Take a
aims to create Patriot to a haven for Work Day music lovers a Success A new record store in Fairfax caters to the increasing trend of buying vinyl. With its relaxed atmosphere it is a must for music lovers.
Career Services launched a job shadowing program, in which Mason students were given the opportunity to get hands-on experience in a chosen workplace.
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Mason launches Well-Being initiative
’RE E W
g n iri
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Email gmufourthestate@gmail.com for more information.
(AMY ROSE/FOURTH ESTATE)
Paid staff positions are available for SPRING 2015 in news, sports and design. We are also always looking for writers, photographers, videographers and copy editors. Students participate in Laughter Yoga to maintain well-being. BLANCA ACEVEDO STAFF WRITER
faculty and staff member to take the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment.
Mason is building programs and initiatives around student and employee well-being.
Gallup provides information about how to use one’s top five strengths to live a life of well-being. The university also hosts the Leading to Wellbeing Conference yearly and the Spring into Well Being Day..
In 2014, President Cabrera devised Mason’s Strategic Plan, which includes Goal #7: “Create a model well-being university that allows all of its members to thrive.” This brings compensation of faculty, staff and graduate assistants to competitive levels. “The president asked us--The Center for the Advancement of Well-Being-- to become Mason’s central location for the Well-Being University Initiative,” Penny Gilchrist, director of communications from the Center said. In addition, Nance Lucas, executive director of the center said, “the idea is to implement knowledge and good practices that assist students to find greater meaning of their lives, and to enforce personal and academic strengths within that process.”
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The initiative hopes to expand knowledge and understanding of health and welfare. The aim is to promote well-being and personal satisfaction in all aspects of life, physical, career, social, community, psychological and financial. “We want to promote: Thriving Together— building a life of vitality, purpose, and resilience,” Gilchrist said. “We are sending students out into the world with the knowledge and resources to become successful and flourishing individuals. Our students will become global citizens who make a difference.” Projects that contribute to this new initiative is the Strengths Academy, inviting every student,
“This event kicks off with Hillel’s Good Deeds Day, which our center is helping to sponsor,” Gilchrist said. “For Spring into Well-Being, we invite the Mason community to either create activities, or co-promote already-scheduled activities that fall within the Spring into Well-Being calendar. Our goal is to raise awareness--on campus and beyond--about the many well-being-related spring activities that take place on Mason’s campuses.” The goal of the initiative is to intertwine well-being into all aspects of university life. Within Mason’s well-being university, our academic units, student organizations, and offices are committed to enhancing well-being for the entire Mason community. All of University Life’s offices, including Counseling and Psychological Services, are dedicated to this initiative. Many other academic units are including classes, which also reflect the initiative. With this newfound initiative, the university can expand student’s learning beyond and throughout the classroom experience. The Center for the Advancement of WellBeing hopes that the model used at Mason will encourage other universities to follow suit, inspiring their own students to achieve well-being.
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Expressions of the Holocaust: Storytellers “People who only have only one generation removed or are actually survivors to be able to tell their story is very important. Hungary has still not done enough to admit, not the mistake but the terrible decision they made in 1944, that trauma is still in Hungarian society.” -Former Hungarian Ambassador András Symonyi
CONNOR SMITH STAFF WRITER
This generation of college students is the last cultural generation that will have the privilege and opportunity to speak to a holocaust survivor and to hear their story. The center for Jewish campus life at George Mason hosted a touching event in remembrance of the Holocaust. Last week marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi’s invasion of Hungary. To commemorate this event, Mason’s Hillel hosted Expressions of the Holocaust: Storytellers in the JC Cinema. It was an event involving members of the local community to remember the memory of those who died during the Holocaust. “When Ross [Diamond] asked me to be a part of this I immediately said yes. What’s gone into this event is a lot of passion for educating people today on what happened, so we can honor them as they are entitled,” Event Coordinator Jordan Beauregard said. It was more than a mere reception set up in the JC Bistro. Congressman Gerry Connolly was in attendance and acknowledged the survivors and their family members present. The event also featured a one act play “Uniform” written by a Mason alumni, presentations from Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits and András Symonyi, former Hungarian Ambassador to the United States, a short film courtesy of the DKA film fraternity, and an exhibit on the Hungarian Holocaust entitled “Our Forgotten Neighbors.” The exhibit told stories of the Jewish residents of Pápa, Hungary. The tale of how this exhibit made its way to the JC Cinema is a story in itself.
(ERIKA EISENACHER/FOURTH ESTATE)
TOP: Student actors and alumni perform one act play “Uniform” written by Mason Alumni. BOTTOM: Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits talks about his expereience as a Holocaust survivor.
The exhibit was created by András Gyekiczki and originally displayed in an abandoned
synagogue in Pápa. It stood as an educational tool for its residents and as a resource for those who had never met their parents, aunts, uncles or grandparents. “It’s simply fascinating that so many people came tonight,” said Former Hungarian Ambassador András Symonyi said. “You can fill an auditorium with people who care about this, so many Jews but also non Jews who are interested in learning about this. People who only have only one generation removed or are actually survivors to be able to tell their story is very important. Hungary has still not done enough to admit, not the mistake but the terrible decision they made in 1944, that trauma is still in Hungarian society.” It is very easy when writing a textbook that has to cover hundreds of years of history, not to focus on the lives of the people that lived through the holocaust, but to merely say what happened in a chapter or two. It is an entirely different thing to bear witness to the oral history of the people who lived it. As the evenings presentations drew to a close a reception was held, and survivors were given the opportunity to speak candidly with students, family members and their fellow survivors. Conversations flowed freely, students captivated by the wisdom and insight given with each new anecdote. Anne Herrmann who grew up Nuremburg, the city that became famous for its post war tribunals, spoke not only of her time spend during the holocaust but fascinatingly what happened next. Anne escaped the horrors of the Nazi regime and sought to immigrate to America, unfortunately at the time America had strict quotas on the number of Germans allowed to immigrate until 1948.
“My number was high, so I had to spend the time in England, to spend two years, but I was lucky to get out of Germany,” Herrmann said. “So I had to spend it there as an ‘enemy alien’ and report to a police officer once a week.”
Anne’s time spent in limbo was not spent in vain; she married, had a son and worked in the graphic design departments for NBC, CBS and the New York Times. Today she is 92 years old. Mason’s own Maria Dworzecka was one-year-old when the Nazi’s invaded her homeland Poland. “There is a group that as created about 25-30 years ago called ‘children of the holocaust’ this was for people who were younger than sixteen when the war ended,” Dworzecka said. “I am one of the younger. When we started meeting we realized we weren’t talking before because people think a child will just forget. Those last thirty years we started talking, this group is very important to me.” It was not even that Dworzecka knew her source of anxiety, “and you sometimes don’t even connect it with the holocaust until you start talking with other people, and someone says something and you say ‘oh! That’s why I feel that way.’” “For years it was hard to talk to strangers, I can now, but my daughter used to say ‘do not talk to strangers unless my mother needed something then she sent me to them’,” Dworzacka said. She stayed in Poland until her 1968 when the new regime started to turn anti-Semitic like their Nazi predecessors. Dworzacka went on a vacation to Israel and obtained a refugee visa to the United States in Vienna upon her supposed return. She since received a Doctorate in Physics and has taught at Mason since 1983.
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It’s easy being green when you’re the GREEN MACHINE JEVETTE BROWN STAFF WRITER
Walking into the Patriot Center on a Tuesday night at 7 p.m. there’s a cacophony of instruments, ringing loudly through the otherwise empty halls. Upon closer inspection, this is simply a normal Tuesday night sound check and warm up for a practice of Mason’s pep band, the Green Machine. With only about three hours to work with during the week, about 80 pieces of music to cover and over 25 people handling instruments ranging from pianos to piccolos, pep band director Dr. Michael Nickins (or Doc Nix) would seem to have a serious task ahead of him if he’s ever going to have these all of these
students performance ready. Called the “Most Entertaining Pep Band in College Basketball” in 2013 by Bleacher Report, the Green Machine has made a name for itself in the college world for being not only a sound to behold, but a sight to see. Always dressed with pride in the green and gold, the Green Machine has a stellar reputation; from the band’s propensity to produce fun, sing-along mashups of current hits to the general energy that they provide the crowd with, whether we’re winning by 10 or losing by 15. The Green Machine is a fixture at Mason men’s basketball games—providing not only music but also setting the tone of the game for the players and
LEFT: Green Machine’s electric harpist Kelsi Gray at Friday night’s men’s basketball game. BELOW: Green Machine’s presence in the stands at basketball games are a fan favorite. RIGHT: Green Machine director Doc Nix. (AMY PODRAZA/FOURTH ESTATE)
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the fans. “The vibe was actually really good compared to last season though we could’ve been louder and more energetic at some moments,” said senior tenor saxophone player Colton Weaver at Friday night’s opener. “It went great for the Green Machine especially with it being the freshmen’s first game and just getting back into that feel again it’s something you miss.” Not only are the members of the Green Machine enthusiastic, but Doc Nix himself is known for his great amounts of gusto. With various flamboyant suits and his famous green jeweled scepter that gets swung higher and more wildly with every crescendo of the
“The vibe was actually really good compared to last season though we could’ve been louder and more energetic at some moments. It went great for the Green Machine especially with it being the freshmen’s first game and just getting back into that feel again it’s something you miss.” -Colton Weaver,
senior, saxaphone
tenor
band, Doc Nix has become an icon in his own right for the Green Machine. After coming to Mason to join the faculty in fall 2006 as the new director of the pep band, it did not take long for him to start making a name for them. By 2008, the Colonial Athletic Association recognized the Green Machine as “Best Pep Band,” and they got this award for two years in a row.
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advocates for the Green Machine’s importance in his life. “They’re a wonderful group to play with. I probably wouldn’t be doing this for three years, taking hours out of my week and weekend to come play with these guys when it does nothing for my major. It’s just a great experience every week,” Powell said.
Nix also opened the doors for more non-music majors to become involved and even got students to start writing their own charts, or musical pieces for the band to perform at the games.
The first game of the season was Nov. 14. The band prepared to go show off their widely accredited skills. A viral video of them practicing a spirited mashup of “Killing in the Name of/ Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine from 2011 has recently resurfaced with over 2 million views.
Joe Antonucci, a senior Music Education major who has been a part of the pep band for 4 years, is one of the many students who now makes these charts. He accredits Doc Nix for his success.
Kelsi Grey, a harpist for 14 years and a member of the Green Machine for 3 years, proudly claims that the band sounds better than they ever have before and are in “mid season form.”
“The only reason I was able to finish any of those is because he helped me get through it with a good finished product. Without him I wouldn’t have known I could write music in any facet,” Antonucci said. He remembers when he first got involved with the Green Machine and only a few students had ever made pieces to be performed and now in this semester alone, three different people who have never even written music before have produced charts that have been added to the band’s repertoire book.
Powell is also pretty confident in the Green Machine living up to the continuing hype surrounding them.
As far as non-music major involvement, Leland Powell, a junior and Computer Science major remembers the first time he witnessed the legendary pep band at a freshman event during Welcome Week.
“Sometimes at practice it can get a little iffy, but at games we just seem to always get in our groove and get it going! We just really don’t have issues,” Powell said. So between Doc Nix and his scepter swinging and possible mashups of Imagine Dragons and Fall Out Boy, the Green Machine is fully prepared to make this year even better than the last.
“I saw them play and I was like, ‘That’s awesome. I want to do that,’ ” Powell said. “So right after the performance I went right up to Doc and I asked how do I get to be a part of this and he just said sign up for the class. So I did. It’s been three years now.” Powell has been playing the saxophone for almost 10 years and has nothing in his major or minor that correlates to music, yet he
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11.17.2014
Opinion
Beware the Billionaire Villains GMU Student Power is one of the newer student organizations on campus, having held their first meeting late last month. Student Power is a multiissue grassroots organization. Among the various topics on their agenda, one that shall receive analysis here is the concern over corporate influence on public education. Student Power has as one of their objectives “keeping public education a truly public good.” On their Facebook page, they expressed solidarity with a like-minded Florida State University group protesting the hiring of what they called “the hiring of a corrupt, Koch-funded politician as their next University President.” “They held a funeral for academic freedom and flooded the President’s office. Solidarity from GMU to FSU,” stated Student Power, adding a Twitter hashtag, #UnKoch. Student groups like those here and at FSU are not the only people who fall left of center in America that express concern over money from the Koch brothers. During the 2014 midterm campaign season, progressives ran numerous ads denouncing Koch family influence on politics. “Democrats and their allies made the topic one of their central lines of attack this year, featuring the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch in nearly 100 different political spots that ran in states from Alaska to Florida,” reported Matea Gold of The Washington Post. Money from Koch charitable organizations has long been seen as a menace to our freedoms according to left-leaning entities. The nightmare image of the Koch brothers pumping billions of dollars into every aspect of society in an effort to manipulate our society abounds in progressive circles. Yet, Student Power, the Democratic Party and every liberal entity in between are not the only ones with a billionaire boogieman. Going right of center one finds a similar nightmare image, but a different figure with different views: George Soros. Soros and his billions that he has given to various groups have been declared a threat to liberty also, not from liberal sources but rather conservative ones. The conservative publication Human Events has a 2011 article on their website titled “TOP 10 REASONS GEORGE SOROS IS DANGEROUS.” These reasons include “Gives billions to left-wing causes,” “Influence on U.S. elections,” and “Wants to curtail American sovereignty.” Townhall.com, another conservative publication, has numerous articles about Soros’ support for Barack Obama’s administration and Hillary Clinton’s likely candidacy for president. Both Soros and the Kochs are seen as the ultimate billionaire manipulators whose sinister clandestine plots seek to alter American society for the worst. Both Soros and the Kochs are lifted up as
stereotypical partisan billionaires by different sides of the political spectrum who downplay their differences with their respective political extremes. David Koch is on record as supporting the legalization of marijuana and gay marriage and supports cutting defense spending. While this is compatible with a libertarian outlook, the liberal stance on social issues and a dovish foreign policy do not exactly gel well with full scale Far Right ideology. Soros has a history of anti-communist activism as noted by Ben Smith of Politico in a 2010 blog entry. “[Soros’] biggest investment, and his historic impact, was in dismantling real Communism in Central and Eastern Europe,” Smith wrote. “He backed dissidents before the Soviet Union collapsed, and anybody who spent time out there in the ‘90s saw a new liberal civil society of which he was the earliest and most important underwriter.” Soros has also not been above doing business with ideological enemies, either. He invested an estimated $100 million in the Carlyle Group, a private equity with ties to the Bush family. Yes, that Bush family. Yet the trope of the manipulative billionaire marches on in politics, with each side being selective in their outrage over big money influence. The billionaire’s money influencing education, culture and politics is never bad when the billionaire agrees with you. Why the demonization? One factor is that American cinema has increasingly looked towards corporations as reliable villains, argued Frank Ahrens in an essay published by the Washington Post in 2004. “And as many of the 20th century’s evils have been dispatched -- communism, Nazism, fascism -- barely restrained capitalism-gone-bad has persevered as a go-to hobgoblin,” Ahrens wrote. The level of merit that GMU Student Power has regarding the dangers of Koch money in public education is a debate for another time. What is notable for now is that the villain is a billionaire family, it is big money, and it is a narrative also used by groups opposed to Student Power’s worldview.
MICHAEL GRYBOSKI COLUMNIST
GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
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RE: A Second Chance at Life As a Mason student in addiction recovery, I was excited to read the article, “A Second Chance at Life,” chronicling the story of Ray Niederhausen. It is encouraging to me to see the silence and stigma so often surrounding addiction issues broken in such a powerful way. And while many discussions about recovery focus on the problem (i.e. active addiction), I thought this piece did a wonderful job focusing on the solution and the beauty of recovery. Ray’s unswerving commitment to finishing school and being a good father and husband perfectly encapsulates the personal empowerment that is possible for those as committed to sobriety as Ray. Similarly, I too have experienced relationships rebuilt in recovery and opportunities open up to me that I never dreamed possible. I am a full-time student set to graduate from Mason next May with a Bachelors of Science in Health Promotion and a 3.8 GPA- before recovery, it was impossible for me to even finish one semester of college! I am also employed part-time with an entity called WAVES here on the Mason Fairfax campus. WAVES and I are working together to create a more supportive environment on campus for students in recovery. This job is an amazing opportunity for someone like me, and it would have never been possible for me to do this quality of work before recovery. Some days I can hardly believe that it’s me in that office, doing that work, surrounded by some of the kindest and most dedicated co-workers I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Statistically speaking, there are likely to be
hundreds of other students on campus that are in recovery from substance use disorders besides Ray and myself. Right now, our collegiate recovery community is fairly small, partially because the recovery movement is occluded by shame and stigma. The great thing about Ray’s story is that he shows the world that someone in recovery from a substance use disorder can be a productive member of society as well as a loving family member. We in recovery are not degenerates; we are not rejects. We are people recovering from a chronic, fatal illness of the mind and body. The goal for the recovery movement here at Mason is to give recovering students the support they need and deserve to thrive both personally and academically so that more stories like Ray’s are possible. Thank you Ray Niederhausen for sharing your story with us, and thank you IV Estate for sharing this positive message about recovery.
CAIT WOODS RECOVERY COORDINATOR, WAVES
opinion
11.17.2014
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What has changed since the events of Ferguson? Over the past two months, more than 1,000 law enforcement officials have undergone 5,000 hours of “specialized training” in anticipation for the announcement of Darren Wilson’s verdict in the murder of Mike Brown. The law enforcement will include Missouri State Highway Patrol, St. Louis County Police, and St. Louis Metropolitan Police, as well as the National Guard as potential backup. This is all in response to planned local demonstrations (in tandem with national demonstrations) being organized to protest the expected indictment of the man who shot an unarmed 18-year-old black teenager six times, refused a request from a nurse to perform CPR, and then left his body lying in the street for four hours, uncovered, in the late summer heat of Missouri. “This is America,” said Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. “People have the right to express views and grievances, but they do not have the right to put fellow citizens and property at risk.” The implication of these words and the mobilization of 1,000plus officers before any lawlessness has actually taken place is that the law enforcement is only meant to protect the white majority, irrespective of any toll taken on the rest. Those in Ferguson protesting the cold-blooded murder of their children on the streets cannot expect to find any state protection for their collective display of discontent, because any collective movement in this country against the institution of white supremacy is not (and has never been) tolerated by the state. Police violence against black Americans is not an isolated outlier. It’s an entire institution, backed up with overly militarized local police and a lack of federal oversight. It has to be expected that when you arm aggressive white boys straight out of high school with military equipment and set them loose on the streets, the result will be violence against civilians, sometimes accidental and sometimes intended. In the same month as Mike Brown’s murder, there were at least four other unarmed black American men killed by the police. John Crawford of Beavercreek, Ohio was shot in the chest while holding a BB gun inside a Walmart that sold BB guns. Ezell Ford was lying on the ground when he was shot in the back after being stopped by the police. Dante Parker of California was “mistaken” for a robbery suspect, detained, and tased repeatedly, after which he was taken to a hospital where he died. Eric Garner of Staten Island was suffocated to death after being held in a chokehold by an officer while he repeatedly gasped, “I can’t breathe!” The video of Garner’s murder is still floating around the internet, if you somehow missed it. Although these murders are almost commonplace, the highly militarized, brutal repression with which law enforcement in Ferguson reacted to largely peaceful protests and displays of civil disobedience following Mike Brown’s murder was still shocking. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and the arrests of Ferguson residents, journalists, and even clergy – these events rang some unfamiliar bell in the backs of our minds. They were events we remembered hearing of long ago, events that we were taught were part of history, only taking place in black and white. They didn’t belong in color. Something had to be different today. But nothing is different today. The events in Ferguson, both Mike Brown’s murder and the subsequent crackdown of the police, indicate that the police still exist only to protect white America at the expensive of everyone else. This was the case
during the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama when black students protested for desegregated schools and were met with police dogs, and it’s the case today in Ferguson, Missouri, when black Americans protest for their children to be able to walk down the street without the risk of being shot and are met with tear gas. When Governor Nixon reprimands protestors to not put “their fellow citizens at risk,” he is valuing the comfort of white Missourians above the lives of black children. Both then and now, one of the many roots of this issue is that white America is unable to tolerate any form of collective dissent that disrupts the status quo. This is due to an almost militantly individualistic lens through which it perceives the world. Through this lens, white America sees individuals operating independently of any economic, political, or institutional structures. It forces them to understand what happens to individuals as not attributable to societal systems, but only to other individuals operating independently. It prevents them from being able to contextualize how individuals choose to act, and attributes action to some inherent trait or quality in them. Rigid individualism forces America to see the killing of Mike Brown as an unfortunate, isolated event, rather than a reoccurring targeting of black youth by white police officers. Rigid individualism forces white America to see the brutal crackdown by law enforcement on Ferguson protestors as a necessary means to prevent looting, thereby valuing the comfort of the white American and his property rights over the life and civil rights of the black American. Rigid individualism prevents white America from seeing the structural economic inequalities between black Americans and white Americans that create the conditions for looting. At its core, the events of August 9 were very straightforward based on facts that we know. An unarmed teenager was shot six times by a police officer and left in the street. Any justifications of this murder that have been constructed around these facts are based entirely on hearsay or speculation, and have no credibility. Whether or not he had robbed a convenience store -- he hadn’t, or if he was “lunging at the officer” -- a claim rejected by many eyewitnesses, or if he tested positive for marijuana -- the relevancy of which I fail to understand -- nothing justifies shooting an unarmed teenager six times. Absolutely nothing. Those making justifications for Darren Wilson are not being diplomatic, but harbor a sinister prejudice allowing them to trivialize the extrajudicial execution of a 18-year-old black boy.
SUHAIB KHAN PRINT NEWS EDITOR
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opinion
11.17.2014
GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
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RE: Graphic Images of Abortion Seek To Misrepresent and Manipulate Ms. Razzano misses the point of the graphic images put up by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. The support of the pro-choice movement for women who choose to keep their children does not even the scales when it comes to the abortions that are also supported. While pro-choice groups emphasize their aspects in a positive light, it only makes sense that pro-life groups emphasize the aspect that is not otherwise stressed: the death of the unborn. It matters not at all when the unborn develop the ability to experience pain. These are undeniably humans in development; ability to feel pain does not define a person’s humanity, and that unborn humans should be killed at all – pain or no pain – is unconscionable. It is backwards in a society trying to overcome a history threaded with social injustices. Since this fact – the death of the unborn – is not
emphasized in other circles, and since it is an issue of great import to our society’s morality, pro-life groups such as the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform put up images which are hard to bear in order to raise awareness of an unbearable practice. Ms. Razzano’s article states that “[t]he premise of their organization is to compare abortion to genocide” and that “[a]bortion is a personal, individual medical decision, while genocide is a systematic mass killing of a national, racial, ethnic or religious group.” The problem is that, as one of these “individual medical decisions” is added to the next, the abortion rate climbs to the millions (one need only check the Guttmacher Institute’s website for some abortion statistics). The unborn do not fit any of the groups listed in Ms. Razzano’s article, but they all fit their
own demographic: humans in early development, usually prenatal. Abortion only differs from genocide in that it reaches similar casualty numbers case by case in a less obvious manner. Dealing with unwanted pregnancies by terminating human lives, however small, is not right. Pro-life groups such as the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform seek to remind us of this, that underdeveloped humans deserve the same rights they will achieve within a year if they are carried to term. The choice should not be whether to keep or whether to abort; rather, the choices should explore what options are available after the child’s birth (e.g., to be kept or to be adopted). MARY CLARE DUREL FILM AND VIDEO STUDIES
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RE: Free speech or incitement? Mr. Khan’s recent column decrying the latest statements by comedian Bill Maher about Islam is confusing at best. Mr. Khan spends most of his response outlining the bigotry experienced in the name of Islamaphobia in the U.S. and does little to address Maher’s actual statements. I don’t disagree that there are examples of idiotic, bigoted views which lead to attacks on our fellow humans, followers of Islam or not, in the U.S. Islamaphobia as a method of broad stereotyping of the “other” is an issue in the U.S.; I agree it needs to be addressed. However, the poorly structured straw man Mr. Khan knocked down did nothing to actually criticize Maher’s statements. Maher, despite what Mr. Khan would have you believe, is not whipping up lynch mobs, encouraging lone gunmen, telling people to burn mosques or discriminate against entire races. It is ironic that Mr. Khan tries to tie Maher to the invasion of Iraq, drone strikes and the “moral superiority of the west” when Maher is one of the most outspoken critics of all three. Maher is openly criticizing
something that is and should be fair game, especially in the U.S.: religious beliefs and the practices they produce. Mr. Khan dismisses the statements of Maher as “hate speech” and “racist,” not addressing any of the core concerns Maher brought up in criticism to certain beliefs within Islam. I was unaware that Islam was a race or that disagreeing with certain tenants of a faith constitutes “hate speech,” especially when Maher treats nearly all religions in an equally critical manner. It’s also ironic that Mr. Khan, an editor operating within a free press, would so blatantly take a quote from Maher out of context when he was criticizing one of the impediments to free speech in religious beliefs: blasphemy laws. It is tragic that Mr. Khan briefly mentions Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a person who should be silenced, when her honest testimony on her experiences as a Muslim woman have secured numerous fatwas against her to the point that she needs constant protection. Numerous other examples exist of these murderous reactions by
significant portions of believers of Islam that are not covered by the excuse of “political violence.” Where is the outcry from Muslim student groups against these practices? Why is the focus on “insult” or “offense” when people’s lives are at stake? Blasphemy, apostasy, honor killings and numerous other beliefs and practices that studies and polling have shown are all too common in the Muslim world, are these not worth criticizing? Does Mr. Khan truly believe in the free speech he actively participates in, one in which ideas and beliefs are fair to criticize, or does he only pay lip service to those ideals?
ANDREW KECK SCIENCE EDUCATION PHD
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GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
sports
11.17.2014
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The process of starting a club sport ALEXANDRA SUDAK STAFF WRITER
Quidditch. Badminton. Ultimate Frisbee. Golf. These sports, in addition to 31 others, are all available to Mason students in the form of club sports. The recreational department guides students in creating and managing these clubs, an arduous task at times, yet the reward is clear. Mason sports can be categorized in three general ways: as Registered Student Organization, which is a regular club, as a club sport, which gives the club access to Mason recreational facilities for free, and as a sport in a division, such as D1. Regular clubs must pay a fee to use recreational facilities, and division sports require tremendous commitment, so a club sport is a meddle ground. In order to become an official club sport, a group must go through a somewhat lengthy process. First, students can contact either Ryan Bradshaw, the assistant director for Club Sports, or Bob Spousta, the coordinator for Club Sports. Second, there must be at least ten interested members. Third, the group must create a mock budget and a constitution for the club in order to prove its ability to be self-sufficient. “Like any organization, their constitution covers who can be a member, how someone becomes a member, what are the positions on their leadership, how do you change the constitution, how do you make decisions, what are the powers that are granted to each person on the executive, how many members do we have in that executive. Some of the clubs have clauses of what the role of a coach is or how to remove a member if you need to,” Bradshaw said. Regulations require that new club sports be financially self-sufficient for their first year through dues and fundraising. After a year, Mason provides club sports with 70% of all necessary funding automatically, while the other 30% is provided in the form of matching a set amount that a club must raise on its own.
“If a group is given $1,000, 70 percent of that they would get straight up, and the remaining 300 of it would be tied to them bringing in revenue,” Bradshaw said. “If they can make $300, the institution then matches that $300. The students were the ones who came up with this, and they wanted the clubs to prove that they could do it and that they had some ownership on the program and that people weren’t just going, ‘Oh, I got free money,’ so they wanted to have some buy-in from the clubs that were taking part.” According to Bradshaw, Mason commits about $230,000 a year to funding for clubs. Added to the revenue that clubs bring in themselves, the amount of money being managed by the recreational department for clubs alone is about $500,000 a year. Fourth, the group must go through RSO training for tasks like financial management or how to deal with various risks or issues that may arise. Finally, the group presents its documents and ideas to the club sports executive council, which is an assembly of seven elected students who are all members of various club sports. The council asks the prospective club sport team questions to assess the club’s viability and commitment before approving or denying the charter. “The main things we look for are that the club has at least ten members or ten people who are interested, that there’s a need for it on campus and an interest, that it’s something that we can support both financially and with facility space, or if it’s not something we can support with facility space, they have a plan for where they can do it,” Bradshaw said. Recreational department policy only allows applications for a club or club sport charter within the first month of each semester, a difficult feat for some smaller sports to fulfill in such a short time frame. Senior Amy Podraza, president of the newly approved Mason co-ed golf club, faced some challenges before finally achieving club sport status for her golf team. “I started freshman year when
I came in because I played golf in high school and wanted to start a team,” Podraza said. “I had to get ten people, and freshman year it’s hard to find people because you’re still getting connected, and I found maybe two people who were interested in playing, but to start a new club you needed ten. And you can only apply to be a new club or club sport within the first month of the semester, so that’s the hard part.” Podraza persevered through her sophomore and junior year, drumming up interest in the club and working with recreational officials until she finally got enough members and wrote a budget and constitution by her senior year. “Sophomore year I tried again and found about four to six, and again the semesters were over,” Podraza said. “Junior year, fall semester I could have started it, but I was studying abroad. And then getting back in the spring I just couldn’t get everything together. You have to have your constitution written, you have to have your people, you have it pretty well established where you’re going to practice, that kind of thing. And then this year, I have 12 people and the constitution was written up. We still have to through RSO trainings for things like financial management. Once you get through all that, then you can become a real team.” As a veteran of the club sport creation process, Podraza advises prospective club creators to start early. “Get as many people involved as you can quickly, put up fliers, use social media and talk to faculty and staff who are helpful,” Podraza said. Now that the club has achieved club sport status, Podraza is excited for the team’s future. “We plan to find freshman and sophomores who are interested in playing and to find other schools that are interested in playing us, like American University,” Podraza said.
(FOURTH ESTATE ARCHIVES)
(AMY ROSE/FOURTH ESTATE)
Both ultimate frisbee and Quidditch are recreational clubs in which Mason students can participate.
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sports
11.17.2014
GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
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Men’s basketball falls in season opener HAU CHU EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
(AMY PODRAZA/FOURTH ESTATE)
Although a new year for the George Mason University Patriots men’s basketball team meant a fresh start for the young team, the problems of last season seemed to linger in their season opener against Cornell University, falling 68-60. The new-look Patriots’ pregame plan was to establish a post presence against Cornell’s three-guard starting lineup -- with only one starter measuring above six-foot-seven. This plan quickly went awry following Cornell’s remarkable efficiency from three-point range in the first half -- 75% of three-pointers converted. “Obviously we didn’t do a good job of getting the ball inside, pounding inside,” said Head Coach Paul Hewitt in his postgame press conference. “I just thought we got out of character, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of pounding it inside in practice and in the game we had last week [a scrimmage against Shenandoah University]. Getting inside was not our problem until tonight.” For a run in the first half, Mason had a lackluster stretch, going 2 for 15 from the field. The Patriots picked up momentum at the end of the first half with junior guard Patrick Holloway individually going on an 8-0 scoring run, giving Mason their first and only lead of the game at 14:28 into the first half.
Mason struggled to generate much total offense in the first half despite putting up 11 more shot attempts than Cornell, and went 11 for 33 from the field which led to Cornell taking the lead at halftime, 34-31. Cornell got off to a 7-0 run to start the second half, and made early shots from beyond the arc that resulted in Mason trying to answer each three-pointer with one of their own. “They started making threes, so we tried to match their threes and that didn’t work,” Holloway said. “I guess we just lost sight of, as [Coach Hewitt] was saying, what worked for us and that was throwing the ball inside. We got caught up in trying match threes with them, which was nearly impossible tonight because they made nearly everything. That’s when the lead kept going up and up, and we just kept taking bad shots.” Due to Mason’s continued poor efficiency in the second half from the field and on three-pointers -- Mason went 10 for 35 from the field and converted 3 of 16 three-point field goals -- Cornell would not relinquish their lead. Holloway was the game’s leading scorer with 22 points going 7 for 18 from the field and 4 for 11 from beyond the three-point line. Sophomore Jalen Jenkins started off Mason’s scoring with six points, but was marred by foul trouble and was planted
on the bench after two personal fouls and seven minutes played. Jenkins finished the game with 10 points. Junior transfer Julian Royal’s debut on the Patriot Center floor surely was not what he was envisioning while sitting out the NCAA-mandated year for transfer athletes. Royal led the Patriots in field goal attempts in the first half with seven, while only converting two. He would finish the game with only one more shot attempt, which was another miss. Cornell guard Robert Hatter and forward Shonn Miller tied for their team’s individual scoring lead each with 21 points. Of note to Patriots fans, senior forward Erik Copes left the game around the 14-minute mark following a collision under the rim where he seemed to be wincing in pain from his left shoulder. Copes has been sidelined in season’s past from suspensions and a hip injury in his sophomore season that saw him miss seven months of action. Coach Hewitt was unsure of Copes’ status postgame but said that the last word he got was that Copes was headed off for further medical examinations. For coverage of Sunday’s victory over Princeton University, head to gmufourthestate.com for a full game story.
(AMY PODRAZA/FOURTH ESTATE)
(AMY PODRAZA/FOURTH ESTATE)
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sports
11.17.2014
Page 22: (TOP): Junior Julian Royal spots up for a shot against a Cornell defender; (BOTTOM LEFT): Junior Marko Gujanicic waits for a play to develop; (BOTTOM RIGHT): Junior Shevon Thompson attacks the rim amidst a sea of Cornell defenders Page 23: (TOP LEFT): Doc Nix greets the G-Men; (TOP RIGHT): Gujanicic looks for an open teammate; (BOTTOM RIGHT): Sophomore guard Marquise Moore takes an open mid-range jumper; (BOTTOM LEFT): Sophomore Jalen Jenkins awaits to defend an in-bounds pass
(AMY PODRAZA/FOURTH ESTATE)
(AMY PODRAZA/FOURTH ESTATE)
(AMY ROSE/FOURTH ESTATE)
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(AMY ROSE/FOURTH ESTATE)
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Sports
11.17.2014
GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
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SCOREBOARD OPPONENT
SCORE/ RECORD
SPORT
DATE
MEN’S SOCCER
NOV. 13
MEN’S SOCCER
NOV. 14
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 14
VIRGINIA TECH
77-69 (W) [1-0]
MEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 14
CORNELL
60-68 (L) [0-1]
MEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 16
PRINCETON
63-60 (W) [1-1]
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 16
MOREHEAD STATE
70-79 (L) [1-1]
DAVIDSON A-10 Quarterfinals
RHODE ISLAND
1-0 (W) - PK
1-2 (L) - OT
THE WEEK AHEAD HOW TO WATCH
SPORT
DATE/TIME
OPPONENT
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 19 7 P.M.
DELAWARE STATE
Patriot Center
SWIMMING AND DIVING
NOV. 20 10 A.M.
PATRIOT INVITATIONAL
Aquatic and Fitness Center
MEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 20 7:30 P.M.
WEST VIRGINIA
ESPN
CROSS COUNTRY
NOV. 22 10 A.M.
IC4A/ECAC CHAMPIONSHIP
New York, Ny.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
NOV. 23 2 P.M.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON
Patriot Center
(AMY ROSE/FOURTH ESTATE)
A-10 Semifinals
Mason’s Drumline performs at Gold Rush to raise school spirit
THE WEEK AHEAD 1 Going to 2 Women’s 3 Just keep Puerto Rico
homestand
The Thanksgiving holiday season starts a little early for the men’s basketball team as they head down to Puerto Rico for a tournament hosted and broadcast on ESPN. The Patriots’ first opponent will be the West Virginia Mountaineers. The game is on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.
The women’s basketball team’s four-game homestand to start the season concludes this week with two more games versus Delaware State and the College of Charleston. The team hopes to capitalize on their season opening weekend win against Virginia Tech.
swimming
Mason’s swimming and diving team hosts the annual Patriot Invitational tournament this week on Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Aquatic and Fitness Center. This will be the last chance to see the team compete in Fairfax until January.