Recent Posts

Former Secret Service agent to share stories from White House

Featured, News March 7, 2013 at 12:53 am Comments are Disabled

Nick Trotta to share experiences; hopes to inspire leadership in Phi Kappa Sigma and other students Even presidents want privacy, but when you are the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) and the president wants to go on a run, allowing him to have privacy is not an option. “Nicky, can you at least give me the illusion that I’m running by myself,” then President George W. Bush said to Nick Trotta, then SAIC. The retired member of the Secret Service remembers the president saying this to him, while he was on a run in Texas during his term. Trotta was a member of the Secret Service for 31 years, but now after his retirement from the service he wants to give back. His son, economics major at Mason Nick Trotta Jr., had an idea of where to start. On March 5 Phi Kappa Sigma will host Trotta at an event in the HUB Ballroom at 6 p.m. Trotta will be speaking about his experiences in the Secret Service as well as the importance of leadership in being successful. “I think it’s very important for me, and I hope others who have had my experience, to give back,” Trotta said. […]
Workout of the week: Hamstring Curls

Sports March 7, 2013 at 12:41 am Comments are Disabled

Leg workouts provide a strong foundation Normally, I do not favor using machines in the gym because they focus on one muscle when you could be working more. I like biceps curls using free weights, as opposed to a machine because it forces your body to stabilize itself and the lifting action is more dynamic. The hamstring curl is a simple exercise to perform you are basically doing biceps curls with your legs. To perform the exercise, set the pad underneath your ankles or lower legs. You need a weight that challenges you but does not have you rocking back and forth. Rocking back and forth on the machine cheats your hamstrings. The key is a slow and controlled movement. Too many people try to do these curls quickly and sacrifice the effectiveness of the exercise. It is better to lift less weight in a controlled manner than to cheat and lift more. Begin curling your feet down and as far back as possible. Slowly allow the weight back to the starting point, being careful not to let it snap back into place. The entire exercise should take a couple of seconds to perform. You may want to count to […]
Student leaders discuss racial inequity

Lifestyle March 7, 2013 at 12:11 am Comments are Disabled

On March 2, Mason’s LEAD Office hosted the Mason Leadership Institute. Held once a semester, the Institute is dedicated to educating Mason’s future leaders. This semester, the Institute focused on the subject of diversity and inclusion. How, as a leader, does one identify internalized biases, and how does that compromise leadership ability? All these questions, and more, were answered by Dr. Shakti Butler. Butler, a true renaissance woman, is African American with a mixed Arawak Indian and Russian-Jewish heritage. Filmmaker and founder of World Trust Educational System, Butler has made it her mission to inform others of their responsibility to each other as humans. “We need to understand that if we want to have a world that thrives, we need to understand how we’re disconnected from each other,” Butler said. The day’s activities primarily revolved around viewing and discussing Butler’s newest documentary, “Cracking the Codes,” a stirring collection of stories that explores both the personal and institutional effects of structural racism. Chimes were played regularly throughout the film, signaling the viewers to turn inward toward their tables and discuss the sensitive topics covered in the film. The film was separated into three sections, the first focusing on the social determinants of […]
Mason hosts CAA Swimming and Diving Championships

Sports March 6, 2013 at 11:32 pm Comments are Disabled

Men’s team finishes in third place, women’s in eighth after four-day competition Four long days of competing may seem like a lot to many people, but it is what Mason’s swimming and diving team look forward to all year. From Feb. 27 to March 2, Mason competed in and hosted the CAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The final results of the championship put men’s in third, behind William and Mary, and let UNCW take their twelfth consecutive champion while the women’s held steady ending the championships still ranked eighth. “In a way, it’s the only meet that matters. It’s what we train for all year. People expect to see a lot of drops [in time] because of how they train,” said Travis Lauri, sophomore swim team member. Head Coach, Peter Ward, would also say that the championships are what the team prepares fully for and is a completely different atmosphere than most individual meets. “The atmosphere here is unbelievable. I have seen a lot of meets from any age group to the Olympics, and this is just as exciting and loud as any of those,” said Ward. After finishing their second day of competition, Mason’s men took second place behind UNCW […]
Breaking down the walls

Featured, Lifestyle March 6, 2013 at 11:25 pm Comments are Disabled

Student with Asperger’s shares his college experience through blogging Sporting a Red Sox hat and a leather jacket, Aaron Gushin, a freshman economics major, may not stand out to you on your walk to class in the mornings. Although his baseball hat may appear conspicuous to some Masons students, the rest of him is fairly ordinary—long brown hair, medium height and medium build. But there is something about Gushin that sets him apart from many: He has Asperger’s syndrome (AS). As defined by the National Institute of Mental Health, Asperger’s syndrome is defined as a neurological condition, one generally considered a form of autism, that causes social impairment, communication difficulties and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a different type of species,” Gushin said. Being a relatively new discovery, AS is a concept many find hard to understand and because of that, difficult to treat or work with. It is this lack of societal understanding, Gushin says, that led him to start a blog to catalogue and document his experiences while at Mason. “I needed to change something for myself, and I just felt putting into words, into writing, all this stuff I’m always thinking, would help […]
Nutrition Department hosts Chocolate Challenge

Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia March 6, 2013 at 11:01 pm Comments are Disabled

Amateur and professional chefs and chocolatiers create edible sculptures For the twentieth annual Chocolate Lovers Festival, the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies hosted the Chocolate Challenge. The competition pitted amateur and professional chocolatiers against each other in a Food Network style competition. All entries were required to be completely edible, made predominantly of chocolate and no larger than 2’x2’. Awards were given for the best amateur and professional cake entries in both child and adult divisions, best in show for sculpture and artistic creations and an overall people’s choice award. Best judges entries received a blue ribbon and an award certificate. Sandy Dornslife of CakeWalk won best professionally decorated cake for her pirate ship creation. The Nutrition Kitchen, a space used by the nutrition studies program, was transformed from a working classroom-kitchen to an edible art gallery. Chocolate creations ranging from sculptures to cupcakes were judged by both a panel of judges and the general public. Judges included: Thomas Prohaska, Dean of the College of Health and Human Services and his wife Beth; Warren Brown of Cake Love and Love Café who has been featured on Food Network; Sabrina Campbell of Occasionally Cake; and Mayor of the City […]
Track senior holds current world record time

Featured, Sports March 6, 2013 at 10:44 pm Comments are Disabled

David Verburg is Mason’s fastest man, and he keeps getting faster. Verburg ran a stunning 45.83 in the 400m, on Feb. 9, at the SPIRE Institute Division I Invitational. Not only was it a personal record indoors, for Verburg but it is the world’s fastest time in the 400m, so far this year. “It feels great. It has never happened to me before. How many people can say that at one point they were ranked number one in the world? It is an honor,” said Verburg, a two-time 400m All-American, outdoors. “I know it will not stay there for long, but it gives me a point where I know I can be at the top. I am just trying to work hard and stay humble and will try to get [the record] back when it disappears.” Verburg, now a senior, started running track during his senior year in high school, finding success and scholarship offers. “I chose Mason because it was a small school and I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to build up the program,” Verburg said. “I know a lot of good recruits were coming in with me. I did not want be […]
Mason Comedians: preliminaries for D.C.’s Funniest College

Lifestyle March 6, 2013 at 3:50 pm Comments are Disabled

This year, Mason will send three student comedians off to the D.C.’s Funniest College Competition. For the tenth year, the D.C. Improv Comedy Club is hosting the event, waiting eagerly to hear the funniest fresh, live comedy from local students. The competition typically includes students from six nearby universities: George Mason, American, George Washington, Howard, Marymount and Maryland. Each university chooses one or two of their best performers and sends them off to the competition. On March 1, Mason hosted its own preliminary round in order to determine which aspiring comedians could make their audience laugh the most. Set up in the Johnson Center on a Friday night, six comedians were asked to show their sense of humor in a five-minute time limit, lined up with two featured comedians who introduced and concluded the show. Instead of picking two this year, Mason judges chose three people for two slots. Among the winners this year was a two-person act, performed by students Matt Pechiney, Film and Video Studies major, and Chris Lancashire, Government and International Politics major. The pair performed a duet of sorts, with Pechiney serving as the guitar player and Lancashire performing the vocals. Their unique approach to stand-up […]
Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Editorials, News March 6, 2013 at 3:33 pm Comments are Disabled

Each week I struggle to balance my schedule as a full- time student, an editor at the paper, a part-time babysitter and a girlfriend. Like everyone else on this campus, I am incredibly busy. Each week is an onslaught of quizzes, papers, interviews, articles, studying and my least favorite of all — the dreaded group project. Unlike Stephen Kline in Editorials, I am vehemently opposed to group work of nearly any sort. While I agree that working together and relying on others is an important life and career skill, I am far from convinced that the reason professors assign group work is because of a desire to teach students how to interact and work as a team. I cannot tell you how many times my professors have stood in front of the class, lamenting the class with the sad tale of how many papers and quizzes they have to grade each week. I am not contesting their hard work and dedication, I understand that being a professor consists of so much more than showing up and lecturing. But my sympathy only extends so far. Often, when professors design their syllabi to lighten their work load, they push the burden off onto […]
Letter to the Editor

Editorials March 6, 2013 at 2:58 pm Comments are Disabled

Clarifying the public image of the George Mason Review As University students, we constantly look for opportunities to set us apart from others. Whether for a job application or for graduate schools, we want our resumes to shine without resorting to the use of actual glitter. I have a suggestion for that glimmering bullet-point, no craft supplies needed: the publication of student scholarship. When a work is accepted by a publication, it signifies that the author, researcher or artist can clearly articulate their ideas. It signifies effective communication skills, dedication and intelligence. Who would not want that on their resume? We might think of research-based writing when we first hear the word “scholarship,” but it actually offers much more diversity. Creative writing and visual art are an essential part of scholarship too. Quite simply, scholarship involves the exploration of an interest or question which contributes to the discourse of a discipline. Whereas scholarly publications usually reserve their precious pages for one particular type of work, Mason’s undergraduate publication, The George Mason Review, wants work from all disciplines, all classes and all students. If you have not noticed, we like to do things a little differently at GMU. We want to re-envision […]