Recent Posts

• Women’s Volleyball Continues Tradition of International Recruitment

  Sports September 24, 2012 at 3:40 pm Comments are Disabled

  Mason is a place of diversity, which can be seen and heard every day with a simple walk around campus. A great deal of international recruiting is done to bring a diverse range of players to the school.One team taking advantage of international recruitment is the women’s volleyball team. Ever since two girls from Hungary were recruited in 1993, there has been at least one international player on the team. Coach Pat Kendrick continues to bring great opportunities to international recruits. The first big thing that all of these girls and every international recruit must go through is meeting NCAA eligibility, along with the countless paperwork. Just like every student at Mason, they must have certain SAT scores and meet certain standards. However, for international students, extra things like at least a 6.5 in English as a second language exams must also be obtained to attend Mason. These requirements can be very intimidating to international recruits. Sometimes, they cause other schools with fewer requirements to recruit players who would not be eligible to play at Mason. Kendrick explained that high school and collegiate level sports in other countries are not as established as they are in the United States and […]

   
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  Harmouche Aids Patriots in No. 20 Ranking

  Sports September 24, 2012 at 3:37 pm Comments are Disabled

  This past week, Mason had the honor of having one of its freshman soccer players named the CAA Rookie Player of the Week. Ghiles Harmouche, midfield for the team, scored two goals in two games against St. Peter’s and St. Francis.  Upon hearing about this nomination, Harmouche said he was proud to be an asset to the team and that the title helped his confidence as an incoming player. Harmouche is a Fairfax native and knew he wanted to stay close to home. Luckily, he already had contact with a few Mason soccer players in leagues around the area and he knew that Mason fit perfectly into his career as a soccer player. “I like Mason’s style of play; other schools like to play chase, or play with the ball at their heads, but I prefer the ball at my feet. That’s where I am best, and I saw that same style of play in Mason’s team,” said Harmouche. He has also come to really appreciate the camaraderie among the team. Harmouche said they are extremely close, and “like a family, we help each other out, work hard at soccer, and have fun, as well.” Harmouche has played soccer for […]

   
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  Mason Student is Redskins Calendar Cover Girl

  Multimedia, Sports September 24, 2012 at 3:33 pm Comments are Disabled

  There is no bigger fan of the Washington Redskins than Lindsey McCormick. McCormick was born and raised in the D.C. area and quickly adopted her family’s passion for the hometown football team. She bled burgundy and gold. More telling, however, is the tune that echoes throughout her home each time the doorbell rings, “Hail to the Redskins”. “I don’t know whether to answer the door or cheer,” said McCormick, a three-year veteran on the Redskins cheerleading squad and a current Mason student. A competitive dancer throughout high school, McCormick tried out for the Redskins cheerleading team at 19 years of age. She spent one year on the non-dancing ambassador group before earning a spot on the sidelines every Sunday for her favorite team. “I love to dance and I love the Redskins,” McCormick said. “I had the urge to continue my dance career; I didn’t want to stop dancing. But it wasn’t until I got older that I started to think, ‘Dancing and Redskins together might be a good idea.’ It was the best of both worlds.” Since her debut on the sidelines in 2010, McCormick has dedicated a vast majority of her time to the Redskins organization. While other […]

   

• Green Colleen: Dorm Dining on a Dime

  Editorials September 24, 2012 at 3:27 pm Comments are Disabled

  Staying on budget in college can be a big challenge, whether you mismanage your weekly meal plans and run out before Thursday or have trouble scraping together your change for an $8 tray of sushi in the JC. On those desperate nights, students often turn to the epitome of all college food: Ramen noodles. The prepackaged meals are filling and flavorful and often retail for around 10 cents a package, a third of the price of a cup of water on campus. But as your college career drags on and money stretches even tighter, the basic flavors of Ramen noodles can quickly turn bland and boring. To solve those noodles woes, revolutionize the standard meal with a few extra ingredients for different flavors. I transformed my Oriental flavored noodle package into my version of a homemade peanut pad thai. The add-ins I used this week cost only a few dollars each, and most can be saved and used again and again. The sriracha chili sauce added a spicy kick that the basic noodle packages don’t deliver. I’m not a big fan of spice, so I appreciated how the chunky peanut butter bit through the heat and provided some relief. The […]

   

• The Carouser Report: Fear and Loathing on Main St.

  Editorials September 24, 2012 at 3:25 pm Comments are Disabled

  The quintessential party  is played out weekly for a host of onlookers who take pride in knowing the age-old traditions of college.  Rarely seen are the nights when these characters, with their admiration for booze, go searching for an answer to life’s question at the bottom of a bottle. It was late afternoon. My associate and I were sitting on the patio of a local dive bar drinking rum and cracking peanuts, intermittently ordering wine spritzers to keep the buzz running strong. The bar seemed a safe distance from the burdens and monotony of education that plagues those who have neither left youth nor entered adulthood. Our journey began when two middle-aged women, who had been knocking back tequila shots with gusto, approached us.  A conversation began, but was abruptly interrupted when one of them leaned over and asked if we knew where the party was. On a Tuesday night?  I gave her the number to the local Party City. I felt it was time we kick it into fourth gear as we ordered another round.  Within an hour, we were no longer adhering to social norms. I began spreading gibberish throughout the bar about two female undercover cops who […]

   
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  End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse

  Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia September 24, 2012 at 3:24 pm Comments are Disabled

  Fifty-eight years after the United States government launched Project 4.1 to study the medical effects of nuclear fallout, Justin Watson and his friends have continued working on the experiments, with disastrous results. Watson, who graduated from Mason in 2010 with a degree in government and international politics, has opened an urban haunted house called The Warehouse with four colleagues in Rockville, MD. The Warehouse features an imaginary scenario of a continuation of Project 4.1. The haunted house centers on the story line of Atomic Advancements, a private pharmaceutical company that decided to continue the work on the decades-old research project to study the response of human beings who were exposed to significant radiation from high-yield weapons. That is when everything went horribly wrong. The Warehouse, which is located a block from the White Flint Metro station, is a 37,000 square foot department store in a dying shopping mall. Watson and his company have transformed the space into 17 rooms with zombies, decaying bodies and armed guards. A hospital wing, jail and laboratory are all included, but Watson has kept the final room a secret. He promises that it will be different than your average ending to a haunted house. “Our […]

   
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  Former Mason Basketball Player Teams Up with Joe Jonas on Reality Singing Competition “The Next”

  Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia September 24, 2012 at 3:20 pm Comments are Disabled

  A crowd of several thousand of his newest fans roared with excitement as Jordan Baird was called to the stage. It was early August and Baird had just been announced the winning contestant on the Baltimore show of “The Next”. He glowed with excitement as he paced across the stage to thank his mentor, Joe Jonas, and acknowledged the crowd for allowing him to move forward in the competition. The moment was surreal. “I was pumped,” Baird said. “The whole place was going crazy. But then I got backstage and they told me they were not actually disclosing the winner.” Not knowing his standing within the competition, Baird was forced to watch the show on television to find out if he would be advancing. As senior co-pastors of The Life Church in Manassas, Baird’s parents hosted a viewing party at the church where many members of the community gathered, awaiting the results. For a second time on the show, Baird sat with his family and anxiously anticipated the announcement. Finally, after enduring the hour-long show, Baird heard the news he had been waiting for: he would be moving on to compete in the semifinals at Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. […]

   

• Mason Bids Farewell to Two Major Contributors to Mason History

  News1 September 24, 2012 at 3:16 pm Comments are Disabled

  No two days at Mason are the same. With a combined tenure at Mason of 45 plus years, Dr. Morrie  Scherrens and  Dr Sandy Scherrens reflect on their time at  Mason as they say prepare to say goodbye to the institution they helped to shape. Dr. Morrie Scherrens recalls when he arrived in Fairfax 37 years ago, Mason was just a shell of what it has become. It enrolled just 5,000 students and the on-campus housing options consisted solely of the student apartments. Mason was not a number one option. Students arrived hesitantly to campus, electing to go to Mason only when their first several options fell through. “Most students that came here in the 70s or 80s were coming here as a second, third or fourth choice,” Dr. Morrie Scherrens said. “Most students that come here now are coming because they want to be here.” In his 37 years on Mason’s campus, Dr. Morrie Scherrens played a major role – along with Dr. George W. Johnson and Dr. Alan Merten – in shaping the reputation of the university. While the two former presidents focused much of their attention on bringing in the best faculty – with the idea that […]

   

• Campus Ponds Serve as Eco-Friendly Run-Off Deposit

  News1 September 24, 2012 at 3:13 pm Comments are Disabled

  Despite it’s less than favorable appearance, the pond located in front of the Center for the Arts is a sustainable resource that contributes to both the environmental and campus well-being. The man-made pond was excavated in 1989 in order to control the volume of rainwater that flows through the western end of the campus.  A smaller pond located by Roberts Rd. and Braddock Rd. covers the eastern end. “It’s all gravity,” said Bob Endebrock, director of Facilities Project Management and Construction. He explained that no pumps or pressurized systems are necessary for the water to flow since the campus is located uphill. As far as maintenance goes, a control gate along the edge of the pond regulates the level of water. People occasionally complain about the pond being brown since they do not understand its other purpose. The pond was not only built to control the flow of water throughout the campus but clean pollutants as well. While attempting to level itself, the excess water that exits through the control gate becomes filtered before being released into the greater environment, thus legitimizingthe pond as a sustainable resource. In other words, the Mason Pond, including the small pond by Roberts Rd. […]

   

• Mason Inn Earns Certification as Green Hotel for Sustainable Initiatives

  News1 September 24, 2012 at 3:12 pm Comments are Disabled

  The Mason Inn’s initiative to make the hotel environmentally friendly began when creating the blueprints for the hotel. The hotel was built to sustain energy because of an improved thermal building ‘envelope,’ high-efficiency glazing on windows and doors and high-efficiency water-source heat pumps that result in energy cost savings of 15.4 percent. The Mason Inn Conference Center and Hotel has officially been labeled a Virginia Green Hotel by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, adding to its status of being one of the most sustainable buildings on campus. “Sustainable building and LEED/Green certification is, and will continue to be, an important part of Mason,” said  Marc Fournier, Mason Inn general manager. “It is part of the Mason University culture and recognition for being conscious about our resources helps the community understand our commitment.” During the construction of the Mason Inn, nearly 90 percent of the on-site construction waste was diverted from landfills to recycling agencies and more than 30 percent of the total building materials were manufactured using recycled materials. Not only is the building itself sustainable, but the staff also exercise environmentally friendly practices. For example, documents are printed double-sided to conserve paper and housekeepers are trained to accommodate […]