Articles by: skline

 

• “Made” Comes to Mason

  Lifestyle February 20, 2012 at 3:09 pm Comments are Disabled

  The Office of Student Involvement is constantly striving to bring George Mason University students the best entertainment possible. Recently, Michelle Davis, assistant director of Student Involvement Programming, was kind enough to sit down and talk about “Made” and a few other events SI has planned. How did “Made” end up at GMU? MD: They wanted to come to the Northern Virginia-D.C. area, so they reached out to the director of our office and sent her an email saying they wanted to come to campus with their proposal. Then she handed that off to me and I contacted them right before Homecoming started and so I’ve been in contact with their people and they are sending out a producer. In the past, “Made” has typically involved high school kids. Do you know if the jump to college students will change anything? MD: They really haven’t said if they’re aiming to do one thing or the other. They’re really trying to keep it broad and open so that they can just see what they get and then they can go from there. How many interview slots are there? MD: They only need 10- to 15-minute slots and I made 20-minute slots. They’re […]

   

• Mason Alum Shares Her Story Through Photography

  Lifestyle February 20, 2012 at 3:07 pm Comments are Disabled

  Deborah Lash, a George Mason University alumna, held a reception for her “When the House Burns Down” exhibit in Gallery 123 in the Johnson Center this past week. The exhibit captured her youngest brother and his best friend at many different scenes that represented emptiness for Lash. When she was 8 years old her family’s house burned down in a chimney fire, and they lost everything. The year after the tragedy, Lash and her siblings didn’t go to school or have any luxuries. They lived in motels and in other people’s homes. “We learned to rely on each other in a really unique way that we wouldn’t have experienced if we hadn’t gone through that time of emptiness,” Lash said. This experience inspired her to express some of her memories through photography, as well as to try to better understand her own feelings about the fire. “I wanted to try to go back and remember that year and how we made it through that time,” Lash said.  “So I took these two children who are very close to me and I followed them around in locations that are very close by and very similar to the locations where we spent […]

   
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  I’d Rather Be Eating: Chutzpah

  Lifestyle February 20, 2012 at 3:05 pm Comments are Disabled

  This past Sunday, I went to Chutzpah Deli for lunch with my two roommates, Lyndsey and Amanda. A friend recommended Chutzpah to me about a year ago, but due to its somewhat inconvenient location, I had yet to make my first visit, until last weekend. I don’t eat subs or sandwiches very often, but when I do, it has to be a really good sandwich. Chutzpah prides itself on being a traditional, authentic New York Jewish deli. In the car on the way to eat, I was thinking to myself, “Will this place actually be worth all the hype?” A wave of excitement snapped me out of my slightly pessimistic thoughts, and I realized that I was about to eat at a place that would surely become one of my favorites in Fairfax. As fate would have it, Chutzpah is now one of my top three places to eat in the area. Chutzpah is what I like to call a hole-in-the-wall, triple-D (“Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”), “Man vs. Food”-kind of joint. It is located in the back of the Fairfax Towne Center shopping plaza. Do you find yourself saying, “What’s that?” Exactly. This shopping center is not very popular amongst […]

   
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  Despite Best Efforts, Wrestlers End Season with 6-16 Record

  Sports February 20, 2012 at 3:03 pm Comments are Disabled

  College wrestling is a unique sport. Like countless other student-athletes, the men give up their free time to train and compete, but for wrestlers, college is more than likely their last hurrah. “It’s special because there’s no professional leagues out there for wrestlers, or money down the road, so its great to have opportunities for wrestlers at Mason. Its’ not like they’re making a lot of money because they’re wrestling. They love the sport so they do it for the challenge,” coach Joe Russell said. On Thursday, Feb. 16, the team hosted their last home match of the season, and recognized the team’s five seniors, Brian Benton, Denny Herndon III, Hunter Manspile, Mendbagana Tovuujav, and Frankie McLaughlin IV. Though there were individual successes against the highly ranked University of Maryland, the team did not pull off a win. Vincent Rodriguez, a freshman, won his match at 125 pounds with a score of 3-0. Co-caption and redshirt Herndon won his final dual on the team 5-3, giving the Mason team a boost in the overall team score. 197 pound Tovuujav took his sixteenth victory of the season 12-4, finishing his final home match strong. “We want to build a program that […]

   
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  Hockey Beats Local Rivals: NVCC Gets Pucked Up

  Sports February 20, 2012 at 3:00 pm Comments are Disabled

  Huddled together to stay warm in the chilly arena, Mason students were ready to cheer for the Mason Ice Hockey team as they played rivals Northern Virginia Community College Friday night at the Prince William Ice Arena. By the end of the game, after several fights between the opposing teams, fans were heated and jumping out of their seats as Mason came out winning 8-2. Clinching a playoff berth against NVCC, Mason is headed to the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference playoffs where they will play either ODU or Maryland at the Herbert Wells Ice Arena in College Park on Feb 23. Gaining a spot in the playoffs wasn’t the only highlight of Friday’s game. Beginning new traditions, Mason honored its senior players in a ceremony before the start of the game: Team Captain Andrew Rudzinski, Alternate Captain Ryan Pageau, Jacob Van der Veen, and Spencer Wolf. The team also recognized alumni from previous seasons. As these players go on to other feats in life, the future looks bright for them, as well as the team. Freshman Forward Dylan Talbot, who scored two goals, is a nominee for the Blue Ridge All-Star team along with fellow teammates Brian Bock and captain […]

   
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  Merten Family Says Goodbye in Their Final Home Game

  Sports February 20, 2012 at 2:59 pm Comments are Disabled

  For nearly 16 years, those two words have rung throughout the home arena, students and fans standing to recognize the man who has made the biggest impact on George Mason University. They chant his name in order to reciprocate the love and affection that President Alan Merten and his wife, Sally, have showed all students, staff and fans since they arrived in Fairfax in July 1996. And on Saturday evening, they chanted his name to say farewell. Raising both hands in the air, President Alan Merten stood to acknowledge the “Al-an Mert-en” chants that echoed throughout the crowd of over 7,000. He and his wife both wore big smiles as they admired the plethora of white T-shirts that stacked to the rafters of the Patriot Platoon. “It reminds me of what I’m here for,” Merten said during a conversation in November. “And that’s the students.” Nearly 16 years ago, Merten and his wife took office as president and first lady of a small, commuter university that schooled just 24,000 students. Using athletics as the front door, the Mertens played a major role in morphing the university into the fastest growing institution in Virginia, eclipsing the 30,000-student mark and being recognized […]

   

• Rule Change Keeps Rules the Same: Women Are Able to Serve at Batallion Level, but Still No Combat

  Editorials February 20, 2012 at 2:57 pm Comments are Disabled

  The Pentagon announced on Feb. 9 that it would make changes to existing regulations ultimately easing restrictions on women in combat. The Department of Defense staed that it would be opening up 14,000 jobs to women in the military. According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon guidelines “still ban women from serving as infantry, armor and special operations forces, which are considered the most dangerous combat jobs.” Despite the lack of involvement of women on the front lines, the  military remains one of the most powerful and comparatively progressive armies in the world. In contrast, the Chinese military, the world’s largest in terms of the number of troops, only allows women in support positions. The Chinese also take it so far as to require women to sing and dance in order to be recruited, thus demoralizing the position for these women. It would be wise for the United States to review the 2010 survey by the British Ministry of Defense that examined the militaries of 12 countries which allow women in close combat roles. Considering that “combat” is a somewhat ambiguous term in this day and age, the BMD went so far as to define combat as “engaging an enemy […]

   

• Are Meal Plans Worth the Coin?

  Editorials February 20, 2012 at 2:56 pm 2 comments

  When I was a freshman, meal plans seemed like such a great deal. You were able to get into Southside with one swipe and use it almost anywhere else with a $6 equivalency. The problem is you’re paying over $8 a meal on some plans, but only get $6-worth of food every time you use a meal plan anywhere other than Southside. Yes, you do save at the door every time you go to Southside, but who always wants to go to Southside? Especially the way it’s been lately — with poorer food quality than ever before, along with extreme wait times and the impossibility of finding a decent table. As students who are paying thousands of dollars for a meal plan, should we be restricted to only using it in Southside, or else get ripped off? Why not make our equivalency at least close to what the actual value of the meal plan is? Some might say $2 doesn’t seem a lot every meal, but if you’re paying $6.29 for a large sub and want a drink, you’re paying over $8, which means you have to use some other form of payment. You end up actually spending over $10 […]

   

• President’s Approval Rating Reaches 50 Percent

  Editorials February 20, 2012 at 2:54 pm Comments are Disabled

  Barack Obama’s approval ratings are at 50 percent. According to Donald Garrett, a  student senator, “Barack is doing great things for our country. In order for his numbers to be higher, he needs to work towards more bipartisan solutions.” Conversely, economics major Brett Baker has been “disappointed overall” and wishes President Obama had chosen not to continue the Patriot Act, as it “infringes significantly on our freedoms.” See? Fifty percent approval. But in all seriousness, a poll conducted by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation International did show Obama’s approval rating to be, in a steady fashion, up to the halfway mark. It’s surprising even to me that his approval ratings are so high — about the same as Ronald Reagan’s at this point in his first term and higher than George W. Bush’s — and it leads me to wonder what he’s done recently that’s so right. On the domestic front, he signed the National Defense Authorization Act into effect — legislation that includes a wildly unpopular clause which allows the government to detain suspected terrorists — only a few weeks ago. And just this alone has been seen as a permanent blemish on his record by conservatives and […]

   

• Students for Ron Paul Spread Libertarian Message

  News1 February 20, 2012 at 2:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  Junior Olivia Valentine, secretary for Patriots for Ron Paul, was tired as she headed to a CPAC conference last year. Despite her exhaustion from getting up early, she was motivated because she was going to meet the man that she had researched and read about since summer. She was going to meet Ron Paul. After her experience at the CPAC meeting, Valentine furthered her involvement in Ron Paul’s campaign, and eventually joined Patriots for Ron Paul, a student group on campus dedicated to helping Ron Paul’s campaign in the 2012 presidential election. Patriots for Ron Paul had their first official meeting Wednesday in Sandbridge. The meeting was not a discussion of tactics or strategies to help Paul’s campaign; it was organizational in nature and the group decided on officers including president and vice president. Patriots for Ron Paul has not been recognized as an official group on campus yet. Instead of waiting for official certification — which will be forthcoming — to begin conducting business, the members have gone ahead with meetings. The meeting drew many different people who are attracted to Paul for different reasons. “I guess I came to him through my experience here as an economics major,” […]