Recent Posts

• Ben, Jerry and Sam

  Editorials April 23, 2012 at 3:08 pm Comments are Disabled

  Sometimes Ben & Jerry’s pint of Chunky Monkey is glued to our hands. For others, Sam Adams is the culprit. But most of the time, the addiction is not a drug, it’s the person we love — or think we love. It’s the phone calls we can’t ever decline to answer or the incessant thoughts of those people that fill the void in our minds. Everyone has a weakness, and sometimes we succumb to those downfalls. But when we are always falling prey to the calls of Ben, Jerry, Sam or our ex, then we have to begin to ask why. There’s a substantial difference between making mistakes and making it a lifestyle. What’s more important is recognizing it’s human nature to be faulty, but it is not a justification for continuing an exhausting lifestyle that depletes you of self-respect. I’ll be honest; regaining one’s sense of self-respect is not easy by any means. Contrarily, it takes loads of patience and love. Losing respect for oneself is one of the most abhorrent things I can imagine. From there, lack of self-love is born, and shortly after maintaining your self-interest plummets to the bottom of the to-do list. You begin to […]

   
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  Kevin Lingerman Overcomes Adversity, Aspires to Become Professional Baseball Player

  Featured, News1 April 23, 2012 at 3:03 pm 2 comments

  He threw the pitch and watched it sail toward home. His team was down, and he had been brought in as a relief pitcher. The first batter had struck out. The second got a hit. Now what? Where was the ball? What was going on? He stumbled back, then caught himself. “My first baseman was at my side and asking if I was okay. I said, ‘I don’t know what happened.’ I was still looking for the ball,” said Kevin Lingerman, senior pitcher for the George Mason University baseball team.   The next time he looked up there was blood everywhere. Lingerman sank to his knees, then to all fours as he tried to piece together what was going on. Lingerman was still looking for the ball. Trouble was, the ball had found him first. The batter had hit Lingerman’s pitch and returned it at 100 mph into his face. His face was broken in five places, completely smashing his nose, orbital bone and the top of his jaw. “The day it happened we were getting beat pretty good,” said Mick Foley, the sophomore first baseman who was first to Lingerman’s side. “It was already silent in the park because […]

   
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  Students Develop Model Wetland

  Featured, News1 April 23, 2012 at 3:00 pm Comments are Disabled

  Students are helping to develop a model wetland to research the effects of wetland erosion and the benefits of expanding wetland to the Earth’s soil. Changwoo Ahn, a wetlands ecologist and associate professor with the department of Environmental Science and Policy, developed the Wetland Mesocosm Compound in 2007 with the intent of bringing outdoor environmental study to George Mason University. “Four years ago, I built [the Wetland Mesocosm Compound] purely with my experience and my idea that the school would need an outdoor teaching and research facility,” Ahn said. “Many big research-oriented schools have this kind of facility, [like] schools that I used to work at before I came to George Mason University, so I had a vision to build this kind of facility before.” Ahn’s vision for an outdoor research center came to fruition in 2007 with the support of a Sustainability Office grant, the Office of the Provost, ESP, and Long Fence, an area fencing company that donated $20,000 worth of chain link fencing to enclose the compound. The site is located behind Intramural Field I near the West Campus parking lot. Inside the compound, Ahn and his students are working on developing mesocosms, or medium-sized, contained wetland […]

   

• Undergraduate Research Fund Grants Money, Promotes Student Research

  News1 April 16, 2012 at 4:39 pm Comments are Disabled

  A new undergraduate research program has been formed to promote student research and foster student-faculty relationships. The Undergraduate Research Scholars Program — formerly the Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program — was created as part of the Quality Enhancement Plan of 2011. According to Rebecca Jones, assistant director of the Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities and Research, the objectives of the URSP are to encourage undergraduate research and to develop lasting student-faculty relationships. “The goals of the URSP are really to help support undergraduate mentor-mentee relationships in pursuing an individual, independent-research, scholarly or creative project,” Jones said. The URSP pairs undergraduate students with graduate students or faculty members to work collaboratively on a research project. The program gives undergraduate participants flexibility in deciding what project to pursue and with which faculty member or graduate student to be paired. According to Jones, participants can choose between a part-time project, which requires a 10-hour per week time commitment, and a full-time project, which requires a 40-hour per week commitment. Participants also receive a monetary award that varies depending on the full-time or part-time status of the project. Mentors receive a portion of each award as compensation for their time. URSP guidelines do not limit […]

   

• Campus Computers Due for OS Upgrade

  News1 April 16, 2012 at 4:38 pm Comments are Disabled

  George Mason University is upgrading all of its computer labs and classrooms by fall 2012 with Windows 7, the latest operating system from Microsoft. According to Mike Fletcher, Mason’s manager of Computing Services, all classrooms and labs on the Prince William and the Arlington campuses already have the Windows 7 upgrade.  In Fairfax, the Innovation 301 lab is the only room on campus in which Windows 7 is in use. Although the upgrade will only apply to the university’s labs, Fletcher said, “Some colleges run and maintain departmental classrooms, and many of these departments have already made the upgrade to Windows 7.” “We want to be a cutting edge university, and here we’re running an operating system that was originally released in 2001,”Fletcher said in reference to Windows XP. Mason currently runs Windows XP, but the software lacks certain compatibilities because its regular support with Microsoft expired in 2009. The operating system is running on extended support with Microsoft.  Having Windows XP is problematic, Fletcher said, because Microsoft seems reluctant to help users if technical difficulties arise since they are mainly focused on the current software. According to Fletcher, Windows 7 will provide a greater experience because Mason will be […]

   

• The Rules on Flying the Flags

  News1 April 16, 2012 at 4:37 pm Comments are Disabled

  Judith Green, Executive Director of the Office of International Programs and Services, clarified the rules regarding the 81 flags that are flown in the Johnson Center during International Week. Students who consider themselves to be from nations such as Kurdistan will not have their flag flown in the Johnson Center, though they can fly their flag during the parade that takes place during international week. Currently, the method for selecting flags takes into account how many international students George Mason University has from different nations. Mason looks at the nations that are most represented in the international student population, such as South Korea. According to the Guidelines for Display of Flags, the top 20 most-represented nations have their flags flown. The American flag is always flown, and the remaining 60 spaces are systematically drawn. The guidelines state, “The system for choosing the remaining 60 countries is based on listing them in alphabetical order and taking every other one, then every third one, and so forth, until our spaces are full. Countries not hung [in the current year] will be compiled as an ‘overflow list’ and each of these flags will be hung the following year so long as there is […]

   

• Campus Faces: Greg Werkheiser

  News1 April 16, 2012 at 4:36 pm Comments are Disabled

  Q. What are the purposes of the Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship? GW: Our job is to identify, educate and network the world’s future social entrepreneurs. While other centers focus on social entrepreneurs’ late-stage development, we focus on the student experience and identify students with great ideas and great potential that can change the world.   Q. Describe some of the latest programs that your center has designed. GW: Just a week ago, Mason developed a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration on social entrepreneurship. Fewer than 10 of these are available worldwide and enrollment begins in the fall.   Q. How do you define social entrepreneurship? GW: The actual definition is still being sorted out in the field. But personally, social entrepreneurship is about using transformative ideas to solve major social problems in financially sustainable and scalable means. In this sense, while a solution may work in one part of the world or for certain groups, a solution can be modified for equal or better impact in other parts of the world. For example, microfinance started out as a regional program. Now it is global.   Q. Is there anything else you want to share with Broadside? […]

   
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  Kappa Phi Lambda Helps Power APAHM

  News1 April 16, 2012 at 4:35 pm Comments are Disabled

  Multicultural greek life is different from other sororities. “We have cultural values and family values,” said Ada sophomore business major and member of Kappa Phi Lambda at Mason. So it’s a completely different vibe.”  Every April, the women of Kappa Phi Lambda help to organize Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with other groups like the Asian Pacific American Coalition and the newly dubbed Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Multicultural Education. Not an exclusively Asian sorority, many students rush because they are interested in Pan-Asian culture. The Kappa Phi Lambda colony was established at George Mason University in 2004 by two students who wanted to more actively promote awareness of Pan-Asian culture on a campus that was largely commuter-based. Although Kappa Phi Lambda is involved in philanthropy year- round, Spark Hope falls during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. It will benefit Horton’s Kids, a nonprofit that works to provide tutoring and recreational activities for children in Washington, D.C. area. It is one of the most popular events of APAH Month. “[It’s] Very popular. They know how to get people there and how to make their event very effective,” said Shaoxian Yu, the associate director of Asian Pacific American Student and American […]

   

• Enough is Enough: Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino is Just the Latest Victim of Unjust Media Exposure

  Sports April 16, 2012 at 4:33 pm Comments are Disabled

  It is not our culture or our society that is the issue. Ironically enough, it is the ruthless and reckless regard of journalists today. It is an unfortunate reality that “got ya” journalists, the men and women across the nation who devote their time and efforts to bringing down public individuals, are widely recognized for their work. It’s a shame that honest journalists can seemingly not exist in a world that enjoins ever greater dirt digging and mud slinging.But that is what journalism has become.The role the media plays throughout this nation is incredible. Take, for instance, the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman controversy in Florida and think about the impact of the pictures that have surfaced – an outdated picture of an innocent-appearing Martin sitting side-by-side with a prison mug shot of Zimmerman.At what point did it become okay to crucify someone in  public, abusing the power of the media to destroy the reputation of someone who does not have the platform to print a newspaper, air a radio or television show or communicate his or her words on a widely renowned platform?But it is not the power that is troubling. It is the lack of responsibility displayed by members of the media that, in […]

   

• Making A Splash: CAA Champion Derrick Butts

  Sports April 16, 2012 at 4:32 pm Comments are Disabled

  George Mason University’s senior swimmers and divers are cleaning out their lockers and reminiscing about their Mason athletic careers as their final year comes to a close. Diver Derrick Butts remembers both his darkest and brightest moments. Butts’ brightest moment this year outshined those of some of the most talented athletes at Mason. Butts became the first Mason men’s diver to make it to the NCAA championships, marking his place in Mason’s diving history. In the 3-meter dive, Butts placed 23rd in the preliminaries and ranked 29th overall. He was also named the 2012 CAA Men’s Diver of the Year. Butts’ road to the NCAA Championships had a few roadblocks. Leading up to his senior year, coach Roland McDonald left to coach at San Diego State University, leaving Butts feeling lost and confused. “Our coach of two years just up and left. I was pretty crushed at this point,” Butts said. “I thought I would have to start all over. I thought about quitting because I had come so far. I thought about transferring schools.” Butts had been diving too long to give up so easily. Originally beginning as a swimmer for a community swim team, Butts found more excitement […]