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09.30.2019
GMUFOURTHESTATE.COM @IVESTATE
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UNCOVERING THE POLITICS OF ERITREA Faculty members and 11 students embark on a two-week trip to Eritrea SUDIKSHA KOCHI STAFF WRITER
“Eritrea is a country with a very difficult past, and having a nondemocratic government, we were very lucky to have students experience a different kind of political environment,” Simmons said. According to Simmons, Eritrea has
a history of being unwelcoming to foreigners. However, this trip was supported by the Eritrean and U.S. governments as a way for students and faculty to study the long history of colonization and war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. “Students were able to have conversations with top-level ministers and government officials, and it is amazing that these government officials were willing to go off the record,” Simmons said. According to Simmons, one of the biggest impressions that the students left on the government officials of Eritrea was the fact that they were open-minded and curious. Since nondemocratic societies are used to being treated with disrespect, he explained, Eritrean government officials were impressed by the
willingness of students to be respectful. “Eritrea is described very negatively, often [being described by foreigners as] … the North Korea of Africa. The reason for this is because Eritrea is diplomatically isolated, which makes it very hard to socialize and do business there,” Simmons said. While the trip was a positive experience for students and faculty, it did have its difficulties. Cash is the only medium of exchange that can be used in the economy and internet access is limited. Socializing with many people is often difficult because the country is isolated.
well. This made the trip fascinating,” Simmons said. Simmons intends to make this study abroad opportunity available next summer as well with another group of students. “Our presence was not threatening in any way, and overall, Eritreans were impressed by how successful and open
our students were,” Simmons said. Students were able to apply for this trip through the Global Education Office and applications were open to all students, regardless of major. Various credits were awarded to students at the end of the trip.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA
Last summer, faculty from the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution along with 11 Ph.D. undergraduate and graduate students went on a study abroad trip to Eritrea, an isolated country in East Africa. The trip was focused on studying conflict zones between Eritrea and its neighboring country, Ethiopia. Dr. Solon Simmons, who co-led the trip with Carol Pineau, a former CNN journalist who reported on the Eritrean–Ethiopian war, took the opportunity to teach his students about the economic and political development of the country.
“Even though our group did face these negatives, the trip overall was positive. We enjoyed the people and the government was very cooperative. One important thing to say was that on the trip, an Ethiopian student came as
MASON TO FULLY INTEGRATE CHOSEN NAME POLICY BY 2022 Town hall meeting addresses name policies and provides a time for integration TRAVIS MCMILLAN STAFF WRITER
A major implication of such policies at Mason is that they would give transgender and non-binary people the ability to update their names and pronouns in Mason’s online systems to match their chosen names. The original policy, approved back on Dec. 19 of 2016, had used the “preferred name policy” as opposed to the newly adapted “chosen name policy.” “This crazy manual workaround, students had to present themselves in the registrar’s office to let them know that … the chosen name should be appearing on Blackboard and in their class rosters,” said Jeannie Brown Leonard, dean of Student Academic Affairs.
The adaptation of this new policy, besides the change to the name policy, is having it apply to faculty members and not just students. Mason has many students who are transgender or non-binary as well as a diverse staff, so moving the policy to apply to faculty was the logical next step.
seamless integration of the chosen name policy into the university system. This would include having one’s chosen name shown on Mason sites such as StarRez, Outlook, Mason360,
Students and faculty will be able to choose from the available pronouns and genders, as well as updating their name. “It’ll have a drop down list with three sets of available pronouns. So he, she and they. And they’ll also [have] a gender identity option as well … So man, woman and non-binary,” said Kinchen. Kinchen also expressed the goal of a
what isn’t possible in terms of the changes being applied to all platforms. During the question portion of the meeting, the problem of changing names on Mason ID cards came up. One staff member who had looked into this spoke up and stated that, because the ID is used for vo t i n g pur poses, a person’s legal name must stay on the front. T h ey then brought up how the school is planning on moving from ID cards to iris scans and using students’ smartphones. FOURTH ESTATE TRAVIS MCMILLAN
In an effort to further the goal of inclusive community Mason hopes to foster, Josh Kinchen, associate director for LGBTQ resources, spoke about updates to Mason’s name change policy at a town hall meeting on Sept. 25.
Handshake and other systems where a student’s name is required. This would require speaking to every department’s tech team, and deciding what is and
Being that the policy can only be reviewed every three years, the administration wanted to ensure that they
were prepared. The timeline shown at the meeting, depicting the start of the revision process, outlined all the steps they plan to take with this policy. According to Kinchen and the timeline, students should have the chance to go into Patriot Web and update their chosen name as early as November. The November date will only apply to Patriot Web, as there will be an extended wait for the new policy to take effect on all other platforms. Leonard told attendees at the town hall meeting that there will be a call or email telling everyone to go in and check their information, and correct it if needed. The timeline has the plan being fully integrated by 2022.