Oct. 29, 2012 Volume 89 Issue 8
Broadside
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Blackboard On Its Way Out?
A new online platform for classrooms helps to make connections and takes the place of Blackboard
George Mason University’s Student Newspaper
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Recreational Sex and Relationships
A look at how engaging in casual sex may affect relationships in the long term
Getting Out to Vote “Gangnam Style”
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ALEXANDRA SUDAK/BROADSIDE
Mason Plans to Expand Dining Services Last month, Mason Dining held a meeting with a variety of different food service companies, all of which were potential bidders to be the next food provider for Mason. University officials outlined several stipulations and obligations that the company would have to meet if it were to work for Mason, one of them being moving towards anytime dining. “We want to provide 24/7 dining by changing the hours of our dining halls to create a valued dining experience,” said Mark Kraner, Executive Director of Campus Retail Operations. It is this valued dining experience that Kraner believes anytime dining will provide. The plan starts with building more university regulated dining
halls. Starting in 2013, Ike’s in Presidents Park will be closed and replaced by a dining hall similar to Southside that will seat 385 people that will service the Shenandoah neighborhood. Furthermore, plans are beginning to take shape to build a dining hall for the Aquia neighborhood between 2015 and 2016. These two construction projects, combined with the library expansion, a new residence hall and the removal of a lecture hall would not only dramatically change the layout of Mason’s campus, but also change the system of dining on campus. “These dining halls would be open 24 hours a day, and there would be no swiping to get in,”
Kraner said. This new system would essentially throw out the current meal plan structure that breaks it down between swipes per semester and week. Instead, students would choose from a variety of plans, all of which would give them unlimited access to the dining halls on campus at all times, but would have different amounts of points to be used across campus at locations such as Chick-fil-a and Taco Bell. According to Kraner, the current dining structure on campus creates a variety of barriers that make establishing a community more difficult. CONTINUED PAGE 4
Conference Shakeup
After an offseason full of conference departures, the Patriots have put a major focus on a quality nonconference schedule PAGE 16