Articles by: Cody Norman

Changing the Conversation on Mental Health

Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:34 am Comments are Disabled

The Mason chapter of a national organization called Active Minds will be hosting a fundraiser on Oct. 22 from 6-10 at Josie’s at University Mall to support their efforts against reducing the stigma against students suffering from mental illnesses. Active Minds is a national organization dedicated to helping students become emotionally healthy before they reach the point of crisis. According to their website, nationwide 1,100 college students commit suicide each year. This makes it one of the leading causes of death on college campuses, second only to alcohol. Their website also states that 44 percent of college students report feeling so depressed in the past year that it was impossible to function, and 2/3 of students who need help do not receive it. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately one in four American adults per year suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. Major Depressive Disorder is the leading cause of disability in the US for ages 15-44, and more than 90 percent of those who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder. This year, the Mason chapter of Active Minds passed out glowsticks on campus to shed light on mental illness. In November they will be hosting […]
Fox Film Critic Kevin McCarthy Reviews His Time at Mason

Featured, Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:31 am Comments are Disabled

An intense action sequence is playing out on the screen, and just when you think that there is no hope and the hero has seen the end, he comes through and saves the day in an epic display of knowledge and knife technique. The mind blowing graphics and beautifully demonstrated use of characters is just too much, and a single tear of awe and appreciation rolls down the viewer’s cheek. According to Kevin McCarthy, Mason Alumni and CBS movie critic, this phenomenon is known as nerd tears. Nerd tears, those moments of insane giddiness, are the namesake of McCarthy’s website where he posts movie reviews and celebrity interviews. Since he graduated in 2006, McCarthy has built a career in film critique and radio. It all started the first time he saw The Terminator 2, the second film in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s popular science fiction action franchise. McCarthy, a young boy at the time, fell in love with film. He was fascinated by the technical aspects that went into making the movie and its main actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would become his childhood hero. He never could have known that this cinematic experience would be the beginning of a bright career in film. […]
A Night of Blood Curdling Fun at Hallow Inc.

Featured, Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:26 am Comments are Disabled

As we stand in line outside of the Rockville, Maryland strip mall, our stocky host gives a dramatic appraisal of the situation. “This,” he explains, “is a very dangerous place, and you will be very, very lucky to make it out alive.” Already I’m excited, and I can feel my adrenaline level rising. Our host, now our survival guide, brings my friends and I up to date on the “situation.” Something is horribly wrong inside this building, and it is up to us, the brave and adventurous explorers that we are, to find out what happened. A government program for studying the effects of nuclear radiation on humans, canceled long ago, has fallen into the wrong hands. The result is housed in the warehouse before us. Our job is to check the situation out. We’re not sure what went wrong, but as our survival guide finishes his speech, he lowers his sun glasses for dramatic effect. Below his eye. A bite mark. Our survival guide is in the early stages of zombie infection. At Hallow Inc’s The Warehouse: Project 4.1, your experience begins the minute you line up outside the building. From that point on as you enter the lobby, […]
The Carouser Report: Drunk Politics

Editorials October 23, 2012 at 10:21 am Comments are Disabled

I’ve got a new drinking game. Take a drink every time one of your friends posts something over-exaggerated, irrelevant or flat-out uninformed during the presidential debates. Have 9-1-1 on speed dial; it’ll be a wild night. But, I digress. This campaign season has seen the emergence of a new drinking tradition. The presidential debate drinking games swirling around the internet are all the rage among the college crowds. For those of you who have no idea what I am referring to, listen up. Two men take the stage for a friendly debate. The nation is watching. You are prepared with a case of ice-cold brew. Beforehand, you have Googled some version of the fascinating game, and are well-versed in the rules. Lights, camera, action. Mr. Schieffer, please begin. As the rules state, you will take a drink every time one of the candidates says a key word or phrase. For example: Romney says “Obamacare” — drink. Obama mentions 47% — drink. One of the candidates interrupts the other — chug! There are varying rules, but you get the point. By the end, you’re three sheets to the wind, and left with little idea of who even won — blackout. With […]
Mason Combats a Terrifying Trend

Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:20 am Comments are Disabled

There is a conflict on all American college campuses. Nationwide, 1 in 4 college relationships are abusive. In an attempt to end this conflict, Mason’s Sexual Assault Services (SAS) has been promoting safe relationships where the two people in the relationship respect each other and each other’s opinions. “Our office is critical because we’re able to provide education and outreach about healthy and unhealthy relationships,” said Hope Savolainen, Education Coordinator of SAS. “We are able to provide support to students who experienced abuse in their relationship.” However, the office’s priority is to stop this abuse before it begins. SAS promotes a healthy relationship through non-threatening behavior, respect, trust & support, honesty & accountability, shared responsibility, economic partnership and negotiation & fairness. SAS defines a relationship as two people who value and respect each other. Along with these tips, the office also has key points on how to keep an exceptional relationship, start one across cultures and ways to spice up a couple’s love life. The goal of these tips is to create a relationship where the couple has equal responsibility and respect. If the relationship is strong and both trust and support each other, the office believes that this will […]
Wish Tree Project Inspires Professors

Featured, Multimedia, News1 October 23, 2012 at 10:18 am Comments are Disabled

Students may have been wondering why there are tags hanging on trees. Suzanna Scott, professor of New Century College’s Art, Beauty, and Culture course, and Lynne Constantine, professor of The School of Art’s Aesthetics course, decided to bring the Wish Tree Project to the George Mason campus as part of their curriculum. For those who don’t know, Yoko Ono originally started The Wish Tree Project in 1996. Scott says, “People participate in the work by writing their personal wishes for peace on white shipping tags and tying the wishes to a tree branch.” This project was started on the George Mason Campus on October 1st and will end on October 18th. When asked why the project would end, Constantine replied, “In a way, the very fleetingness of the tree’s presence here is important. Any longer, and it would simply become part of the landscape. This way, both its appearance and its disappearance are events, opportunities for paying attention.” Once the wishes are taken down on the 18th, they will be shipped to Reykjavik, Iceland where Yoko Ono is collecting all the wishes and building a memorial for her late husband, John Lennon. Both Constantine and Scott were eager to bring […]
Energy and Enterprise Initiative Creates Conservation Efforts

News1 October 23, 2012 at 10:14 am Comments are Disabled

Conservatism is not normally associated with green energy, but one group is aiming to change that. On July 10 2012, GMU announced the formation of Energy Enterprise Initiative (EEI), the brainchild of former South Carolina Congressman Bob Ingles. With this new initiative, Ingles, a moderate Republican who was a casualty of the Tea Party juggernaut in 2010, will advocate for free market solutions to America’s energy & climate problems. Alex Bozmoski, EEI’s Director of Strategy & Operations, described EEI’s philosophy as being “guided by conservative principles of free enterprise and growth, limited government.” Among other things, the initiative proposes eliminating government incentives for solar panels & electric cars, but the catch is that EEI also wants to eliminate government subsidies for oil and gas companies. EEI will be housed at GMU’s Center for Climate Change Communication. Bozmoski argues that it’s better in the end to pay the true cost of gas at the pump, rather than the price we pay now, which does not account for the costs currently concealed by multiple government subsidies that keep prices artificially low. This initiative favors a revenue-neutral carbon tax that would be offset by cuts in other areas, such as income and capital […]
Mason Security Works to Keep Campus Safe

News1 October 23, 2012 at 10:08 am Comments are Disabled

Mason Security depends heavily on the security guards who work to maintain an atmosphere of safety and peace throughout the university, especially in residential areas. James L. McCarthy is the Director of Security for Mason. He is in charge of the university’s entire security force, not only at the Fairfax campus but also at the Arlington and Prince William campuses. Mason Security is technically a division of the Mason Police Department, which has been a nationally accredited law enforcement agency since 1991, according to the department’s official website. In addition to security and patrol officers, it includes police officers, investigators, communications officers and even a LGBTQ liaison officer who serves to facilitate the department’s relationship with the LGBTQ community at Mason. Overall, the Mason Police Department functions much in the same way as any other law enforcement agency. In fact, McCarthy said Mason Police work hand-in-hand with other police departments in the area, most notably those in the City of Fairfax, Arlington, Fairfax County and Prince William County. Based in the security operations center of the Mason Police Department, the security guards themselves have a vast range of responsibilities. In addition to conducting active patrols of the university campus both […]
Mason Earns “B” Grade for its High First-Year Graduate Success

News1 October 23, 2012 at 10:07 am Comments are Disabled

Because of rising college costs, students and their families are looking to find schools that provide a quality education, but at the same time don’t break the bank. Mason is a school that, according to whatwilltheylearn.com, fits in this happy medium. The organization recently gave Mason a “B” grade—the criteria being the quality of the education offered and how monetarily successful recent graduates become. The tool focuses on first-year graduate earnings rather than long-term income. Virginia’s higher-education coordinating body, along with College Measures, a nonprofit group supported by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), collaborated in the making of whatwilltheylearn.com’s tool. The study is what insidehighered.com calls “the most extensive, state-level consumer tool for tracking wages of college graduates.” Wage data was taken from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System, which released detailed wage numbers earlier this month, according to insidehighered.com. Mason’s general education requirements for all majors are composition, literature, mathematics, and science classes. Contrastingly, Mason does not require a foreign language, U.S. government or history, or economics class. The logic here is that the more a college prepares a student academically, i.e. the more classes a student is required to take, the more likely the student will be successful […]
Board of Visitors Approves Mason Campus in South Korea

Multimedia, News1 October 23, 2012 at 10:04 am Comments are Disabled

The Board of Visitors authorized the establishment of a branch campus in Incheon, South Korea at a recent board meeting on Oct. 3. Mason was approached by a Songdo Project representative in 2008 and was asked to consider the possibility of establishing a branch of the proposed “Songdo Global University” in Korea. The Songdo Global University Campus is designed to be a global hub for education, economics, politics, research and culture. Many groups participated in the evaluation process in order to authorize the campus. These participants include members of Mason’s senior leadership, the faculty senate and focus groups with students at Mason and in Korea. Interviews were also held with key international leaders. Anne Schiller, Vice President for Global Strategies and Professor of Anthropology at Mason, was involved in the decision-making process. She is one of many who believe this opportunity has the potential to be very beneficial to Mason. “Mason’s 2014 strategic plan described East Asia as a geographic region of particular interest to Mason,” Schiller said. It is projected that U.S. undergraduate students will be able to begin studying at this campus in 2014. The initial Mason-affiliated majors offered will be in management and economics, and in the […]