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  Mason Week celebrates road to Cabrera’s inauguration

  Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia April 30, 2013 at 8:27 pm Comments are Disabled

  Mason Week 2013 featured concerts, events and giveaways for Mason students ready to show their Patriot pride and celebrate the inauguration of Mason President Angel Cabrera. The week began with a trip to Kings Dominion on April 20, and ended with a finale celebration at Mason Day. Concerts throughout the week featured rapper Kendrick Lamar, acoustic artist Chad Hollister, Andy Grammer, and local band of Mason students Sub-Radio Standard. Other events included a zip-line, a BMX bike show, a comedy show featuring Scott Schendlinger and the carnival rides and booths at Mason Day.

   
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  Women’s lacrosse look forward to A10 after winless season

  Featured, Sports April 30, 2013 at 8:21 pm Comments are Disabled

  Coach Lauren Hay congratulates seniors, encourages returning players  The final seconds ticked off the collegiate career of eight women’s lacrosse seniors on April 21, as Mason fell to William & Mary, 16-12. Senior attacker Allie Hilderbrandt led the way in scoring with a career- high six goals for Mason, capping off a season of solid play for the team. The loss was Mason’s seventh consecutive defeat, all of which were against CAA rivals. “We played an exciting game, our girls fought back late in the second half and it is always tough to lose, especially when you are saying goodbye to the senior class.” said coach Lauren Hay. “I would like to recognize the hard work of all eight seniors have put in their careers at Mason. All will graduate from here and I am proud to have watched them grow as people and athletes.” Looking back on the season as a whole, Mason had and up and down season, claiming all of their victories against non-conference opponents while being bested by all their CAA foes. Mason finished the season with a record of 5-11, going 0-7 in CAA play. “Overall, we had many contributions by numerous players. Our seniors [...]

   
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  Ten Minute Play Festival brings talent to the stage

  Featured, Lifestyle April 30, 2013 at 2:59 pm Comments are Disabled

  On April 26, the Mason Theater Department presented the Seventh Annual Ten Minute Play Festival. The end product of a grueling playwriting competition, the festival showcased the work of eight aspiring student playwrights. This competition narrowed down the submissions based on their ability to create a meaningful, well- rounded story in just ten minutes. To some, this may not seem like a great task. However, it should be noted that many great performances do not even introduce their main character in the first ten minutes, much less craft an engaging plot with a solid beginning, middle and end. The plays’ brevity had the potential to create problems. With so little time, it can be difficult for the audience to build a connection with the characters on stage. In addition, the playwrights had to build a world on stage quick enough for viewers to feel engaged without making it confusing or contrived. The student writers and their casts managed to pull off that task seamlessly. The festival’s performances ran the gamut of the human experience. From the literal dawn of time to a plague infested future, from silly, heartwarming romantic comedies to gritty, realistic family meltdowns. The playwrights utilized every last minute to [...]

   
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  Study abroad offers students a chance to work with the African Wildlife Foundation in Kenya

  Featured, Lifestyle April 30, 2013 at 2:49 pm Comments are Disabled

    This winter break, while many Mason students were stuck in frigid temperatures in the U.S., eight students were able to escape the cold and enjoy the dry, 70 degree weather of a Kenyan summer. These eight Mason students not only earned the opportunity to study environmental conservation and wildlife in Kenya, they were also offered the chance to work with the African Wildlife Foundation (AFW). “Students are now more interested in more exotic places. They’re also not satisfied with things that are easy to get — they’re interested in a real adventure,” said Academic Director Ryan Valdez, who has been teaching students in the Kenya study abroad program since 2010. Valdez has been with the Kenya study abroad program since it began, conducting research with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “During my research, I began working with the African Wildlife Foundation, who’s primary role is conservation. Over the year my collaboration got better and better, and the opportunity for my students to work with the AWF came up,” said Valdez, who is also working on his doctorate degree at Mason. “I’m always looking for new things for students to do, and I was specifically looking for internships.” In the [...]

   
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  Graffiti marks Mason

  Featured, News April 30, 2013 at 1:44 pm Comments are Disabled

  Unsolicited artwork around campus costs university thousands in cleanup, removal    Bathroom stalls littered with hate-filled sentiments and other ambiguous graffiti across campus has cost Mason thousands of dollars. Although students at Mason tend to create art in acceptable campus locations, more obscure forms of graffiti remain on campus. The kind of spray- painted graffiti normally seen in inner cities and on freight trains is not what is normally popping up around campus, though. It is the drawing on bathroom stalls and occurrences of lesser- known graffiti that are costing money. Recently, some illicit outdoor graffiti has become prominent. “We get occasional reports [of graffiti],” said Sgt. David Ganley of the Mason Police Department. “We’ll have sprees of things like that.” In the past year, tags displaying the word “slick” have cropped up around campus. Appearing anywhere from outside of the Patriot Center to the halls of the Robinson buildings, “slick” has become a dreaded adversary to the Fairfax campus. “As far as that goes, that would be part of an ongoing investigation,” Ganley said. “If people do have information, we encourage them to call our crime solvers tip line here on campus.” The biggest occurrence of the “slick” tag [...]

   
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  Nyla Milleson named new women’s basketball coach

  Featured, Sports April 23, 2013 at 7:18 pm Comments are Disabled

  On April 17, Nyla Milleson was announced as the new women’s basketball coach to fill the vacancy left after the resignation of four year coach Jerri Porter. Milleson comes to Fairfax after serving as the coach of Missouri State University’s women’s team for six years. A key factor in the decision to hire Milleson was her strong win record. She has a career record of 290-123 (.702) in 13 years as a collegiate head coach. Prior to MSU she was the inaugural coach of Drury University’s women’s team. While at Drury University, Milleson posted a very strong 185-36 (.837) record, including six Heartland Conference titles and five post- season appearances in the NCAA division II tournament. In her final four years there, Drury had the highest winning percentage of all Division II programs in the nation. Milleson’s track record of wins made her stand out early as a strong suitor for the position. Director of Athletics, Tom O’Connor spoke with Milleson in an interview before her selection and said at the press conference that he was impressed with her focus on the offcourt welfare of her players. “I am here first for the student athletes themselves. I care about them [...]

   
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  How to get to Mason from the other side Mason Makes Careers of the world: Part Three

  Editorials, Featured, Lifestyle April 23, 2013 at 6:15 pm Comments are Disabled

  Over the series of three articles, Stepan Gordeev shares his experiences as an international student The previous part had ended right before the beginning of the semester. I was pretty nervous and curious at the same time. I was waiting for my first days of a very different college in a very different country to start, and I didn’t know what to expect. It turned out that there are a few things in US education that I wasn’t prepared for. When the classes started on Aug. 27, 2012, the first thing that surprised me was the incredible freedom — or lack of discipline, whatever you want to call it — in the classroom. Students can come and leave whenever they so desire, eat and drink in the classroom and do all kinds of stuff that would severely affect the student’s grade if he or she did it in a Russian university. It would be a lie to say that an average Russian college is the stronghold of discipline and obedience. It is not, Russian students love being free and independent just as their American colleagues. But the need for some sort of discipline in education is not being questioned or doubted. [...]

   
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  Greek Week celebrates fraternities and sororities

  Featured, Lifestyle April 22, 2013 at 9:01 pm Comments are Disabled

  Every April, Greek life takes over campus with traditions and celebrations      Greek Week is an anticipated tradition for Mason’s Greek organizations. The event originally only included the 15 recognized National Inter-Fraternity Conference fraternities and the six National Panhellenic Conference sororities, but now encompasses all social Greek councils, which include the National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Multicultural Greek Council. The overall goal of Greek Week is not only to promote Greek life, but to raise awareness and funds for Habitat for Humanity and canned food donations for Food for Others, a Fairfax food bank. According to a celebratory post on Phi Kappa Sigma’s Facebook page, nearly 20,000 canned goods were collected for Food for Others. just two days into this year’s Greek Week. To give raising funds, awareness and donations for Habitat for Humanity and Food for Others a competitive edge, Greek Week is also a competition among the Mason fraternities and sororities. In the past, each fraternity and sorority represented only their organization. Each Panhellenic sorority would compete against the other Panhellenic sororities to win the title of Greek Week sorority champions, and the IFC fraternities would compete for the fraternity Greek Week champions title. Now, with 36 [...]

   
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  North Korean threats have no effect on international study

  Featured, News April 22, 2013 at 8:37 pm Comments are Disabled

  Life for families, plans for South Korean Songdo campus continue without interruption  Despite the stream of aggressive threats from North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, life at Mason goes on as normal and plans concerning Mason’s South Korea satellite campus continue. The Office of Global and International Strategies announced in statement on April 18 that although they are aware of the threats from North Korea, no advisory has been announced warning against travel to South Korea. “Furthermore, none of Mason’s partner institutions in South Korea have advised their international students to leave South Korea,” the announcement stated. According to Anne Schiller, director of the Office of Global and International Strategies, planning continues as usual. “Student exchange programs in South Korea have not been affected by the threats, either, which are regularly issued by North Korea in moments of presidential transition in South Korea like this one,” Schiller wrote in an email. Some members of the Korean Student Association are not worried about the threats either, explaining that these threats happen often and are not taken seriously. “Their threats have been non-stop throughout their history, since the end of the Korean war,” said Basil Ok, an undeclared sophomore and member of the Korean [...]

   
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  Women’s rowing finding the right combinations

  Featured, Sports April 15, 2013 at 6:04 pm Comments are Disabled

  The women’s rowing team took the water on April 7 in Occoquan, Va. for the Occoquan Sprints. The race was only the second official race of the spring season. Because it is still early in the season, the team used the race to try different combinations of rowers for their boats. “We had a lot of lineup switches and, as a result, we gained, overall as a team, a lot of speed throughout our two Varsity Eights and both of our Varsity Fours and also the Novice Eights,” senior rower Bridget Hally said. “I think the expectation was to go in there and race our own race, and I think all boats accomplished that. So we were very happy with the results.” The changes to the lineup came after the opening spring race of the season at the Murphy Cup in Philadelphia on March 30. Coach Geoff Dillard was not entirely satisfied with the results at that event and felt the tweaks were necessary to keep pace with other teams. “I think coming off the first race, we did not necessarily race our own race. So, we were definitely looking to keep our heads in the boat and knowing that [...]