Post Tagged with: "Ethan Vaughan"

• How Snow Days are Decided; Safety and Financial Loss Taken into Consideration

  News1 February 15, 2010 at 1:38 pm Comments are Disabled

  Ethan Vaughan, Asst. News Editor George Mason University’s closure policy is independent from that of area public schools, a fact that will come as no surprise to students who trudged to class in early February while Fairfax County classrooms were shut due to inclement weather. While Mason was closed for four days during last week’s back-to-back blizzards, it often remains open even when road conditions make it difficult for some to come to class. “Our priority is to stay open,” said Dan Walsch, George Mason University press secretary. “One would be hard-pressed to think of a time when we were closed for four days straight. ­­­We did have two days last semester during finals where we had to close, and I think there might have been one last year.” Walsch said the university contends with many factors when choosing whether to close, including road conditions, campus navigability, input from police, county, and city officials and the financial impact on the school. “There is a cost factor involved,” Walsch said. “It involves paying overtime and double time for some employees. There are about 5,000 people living on campus, and they need to be fed. That doesn’t change just because we’re closed. […]

   

• Jammin’ at Starbucks: Tuesday Jams Moves from Jazzman’s to Starbucks

  News1 February 2, 2010 at 6:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  Ethan Vaughan, Asst. News Editor Tuesday Jams, the weekly event held in the Johnson Center’s Jazzman’s Café, has a new home this semester. On Jan. 19, Mason senior Vincent Lacsamana became the first musician to play Tuesday Jams at the Starbucks in Northern Neck, where it will now be hosted on a regular basis outside of the popular coffee outlet. Addison Brown, a sophomore administration of justice major and chair of the George Mason Concert Committee, said the decision to transfer the event was made last fall in response to the increased student focus on Starbucks, which detracted from patronage at Jazzman’s. “We all decided it was for the best,” Brown said of the committee. “Tuesday Jams wasn’t well represented or well known. We wanted to make it more visible, so we put it somewhere with higher traffic where a greater number of students will have the opportunity to enjoy it.” Brown came up with the idea last semester, when he noticed how many students were frequenting the newly opened Starbucks. “Starbucks has just opened up,” Brown said. “And in my experience, Jazzman’s does not get a lot of foot traffic. With Northern Neck housing being right there by Starbucks, […]

   

• Mason Relocates Data Center: ‘Nerve Center’ of Mason Transfers to Aquia Building

  News1 February 2, 2010 at 6:50 pm Comments are Disabled

  Ethan Vaughan, Asst. News Editor The transfer of the George Mason University Data Center from Thompson Hall to the new Aquia Building was partially completed over the winter break. The Data Center is the computer nerve center that keeps George Mason University’s e-mail system, Internet service, computational systems, electronic records and most of its telephone systems working. Between Dec. 21 and Jan. 15, crucial components of the system were transferred across campus to the Aquia Building, which will house an expanded Data Center due to renovations on Thompson Hall. According to Walt Sevon, executive director for the Technology Systems Division of George Mason’s Information Technology Unit, the most important part of the move was successfully repositioning the center’s fiber patch panel. The panel, which serves as a conduit through which the Internet is channeled from more than 200 servers and then distributed to computers across campus, was replaced over a period of three weeks. “It was really important that we did it over the break,” Sevon said. “We didn’t want to do it while people were here.” The transition process was long and delicate. A new fiber patch panel was installed in the Aquia Building shortly after the fall semester […]