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News Briefs Humane Society’s ‘Woof Walk’ The Humane Society of Fairfax County is hosting a “Woof Walk” on Sunday, May 22 at the Burke Lake Park Amphitheater from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event is an effort to fundraise, raise awareness about animal abuse and cruelty in the area and promote pet adoptions. The “Woof Walk” is a day dedicated to man and “man’s best friend.” There will be a three-mile walk, a silent auction, contests, prizes, an “Ask a Trainer” booth and Congressman Gerry Connolly will be a VIP visitor. There is a registration fee of
$20 online or $25 on the day of the event and $5 for each pet. Six animal lovers from Professor Sergei Samoilenko’s Principles of Public Relations class have helped in the promotion of this event and the Humane Society in general. “[The Woof Walk] will help the Humane Society in the long run, and hopefully some animals will be adopted,” said Katie Oswald, a junior communication major and one of the animal lovers from George Mason University helping the Humane Society of Fairfax County.
New Broadside editor-in-chief elected Gregory Connolly has been elected Broadside's Editor-inChief for the 2011-2012 academic year. Elections were held through secret ballot Friday, April 22, after each candidate gave a brief presentation of their objectives and proposal and took part in a
period of questions and answers with the staff. Connolly, a senior communication major, currently serves as news editor. Current Style Editor Ramy Zabarah also campaigned for the position.
news briefs by Sonya Hudson, managing editor
Students share their favorite campus food options BEST, from Front “I head straight for the cereal bar,” said Holly Klodin, a freshman biology major. “That or the salad bar.” Southside allows students to eat as much as they want for a set price. However, Southside is not a 24-hour facility, which leaves students to seek out alternate dining locations at night. Pilot House, one of the newest places to eat on campus, has surpassed Ike’s as the most popular late-night diner. According to William Fry, director of retail operations for Mason Dining, in the Gazette article, the latenight snack of choice is a slice of cheese pizza or chicken wings. “I like to get cheese pizza and fries,” said Ann Ibraz, a sophomore communication major. “I’m usually up late studying and just need a break.” Mason’s local watering hole, the Rathskeller, is a nice place to watch a sports game or grab a cold
beer to unwind after a long day of exams or papers. According to the same article, Fry said Mason students love Yuengling and like to drink it with a basket of chicken tenders. “I actually didn’t even know the Rat served alcohol,” said Beth Nechamer, a sophomore English major. “Now that I do though, I’ll be there when I finally turn 21.” Beyond the normal food and beverage purchases, the Patriot Center has had a successful year showcasing such acts as Alice in Chains, 30 Seconds to Mars and even Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. But according to the article, the top-selling act of last year was Gorillaz, and this year, students are already buying tickets for Ke$ha’s show in August. The bookstore saw best-selling novels like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Water for Elephants” top the list. Apple dominated the sales in the Patriot Computer stores with the new iPad 2.
State money for Mason has steadily decreased since 2009 BUDGET, from Front Scherrens spent part of the forum discussing how Mason stacks up against other Virginia universities in terms of money received from the state. The numbers show that Mason has at times received as much as 80 percent of what is received by the other doctoral schools, but the number is typically between 75 and 80 percent. “Old Dominion is a great school,” Scherrens said, “but being in their company on this is not where we want to be. As ODU knows and GMU has learned, and you have learned, we’re the last ones at the trough. There has never been the willpower or the interest in reducing the funding at the other schools to try to level the playing field a little bit.” The budget allocates $500,000 for an increase in development.
“We’re in what’s called the ‘quiet phase’ of the major moneyraising effort,” Stearns said. “Any time a university does a capital campaign, it has to expand staff. The rule of thumb is that you spend 20 cents to get $1. This is our 20 cents.” Some of the other budget priorities are as follows — $850,000 for library materials, $3 million for enhancement and expansion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, $4.15 million for operating and maintenance expenses for new buildings, $850,000 CISCO technology initiative and $4.10 million new enrollment growth funding. “These items have been institutional priorities and represent major drivers of the estimated $22 million E&G [Education and General] budget increase,” according to the PowerPoint that was used at the forum.
Affording a semester abroad is a matter of planning ABROAD, from Front who don’t recognize the value of the opportunity. “So what’s the value?” Stoy said. “Well first of all, [if ] you leave Virginia and you go somewhere else and say, ‘I went to George Mason University,’ people aren’t going to know what that is. You go somewhere else and say, ‘I studied for a semester at the University of Oxford,’ people are going to know what that is.” Not all the programs are as expensive as Oxford. There are over 60 programs available at Mason, and several are much more affordable. “You can go abroad for two weeks and earn three credits in Ecuador for around $3,500,” Stoy said. “[Or] you can go to Greece for eight days for about $2,500.” Compared to other schools, Mason’s study abroad program is relatively young, according to Stoy.
With time, the program will be able to offer the same opportunities as other schools. “A school like William & Mary offers over $200,000 a year to study abroad,” Stoy said. “We’re nowhere near that. Students would say that they don’t study abroad because they can’t afford it.” Stoy and Arnold said they would argue anyone can afford to study abroad as long as they properly plan ahead and understand the opportunity. “It’s a matter of them understanding that these programs are a necessary part of their studies and that they require some investment on their part,” Stoy said. “They require them to put some money into these kinds of programs up front so that down the line they get into graduate school, they get the job they want and then they pay those finances off.”
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Mason’s golden ninja Charitable student hopes to inspire peers Jeffrey Giorgi Asst. News Editor Many people on campus have met or at least know of Chris Mayernik. Some have seen him biking around; others just instantly spot him in a crowd. Tumblr even has a page dedicated to Mayernik sightings. Unlike most people on campus though, Mayernik has another name, a name more and more people are learning daily — Golden Ninja. Whether it’s handing out golden coins to various charities in the Johnson Center or sporting a distinctive golden jacket and backpack, it’s difficult to miss him in a crowd. “When I think about Golden Ninja,” Mayernik said, “the key words that come to my mind are a leader, not a follower, and young and fearless. It’s the kind of person trying to do great things that maybe other people are afraid to do.” No stranger to adversity, Mayernik was raised as a home-schooled military brat before entering the world on his own at 18 after being kicked out by his parents. “My family moved around a bit … because both my mom and dad were in the Navy,” Mayernik said. “I went from Seattle to Georgia, and then I lived on a sailboat when I was really young … I’d never gone to public school till [Northern Virginia Community College] and until now. But through these challenges I came up with the mindset of ‘never give up.’” Anyone who has seen him walking around campus has probably seen his stereo backpack with those very words — “never give up” — displayed in gold on the back of it. It’s a motto Golden Ninja hopes to use to inspire everyone, not just here at George Mason University, but the whole world.
“I want people to believe in their dreams,” Mayernik said. “Yes, you’re going to fail, but the Japanese have a proverb … that means failure is the origin of success and they have another one … which means fall down seven times, get up eight.” His nickname hasn’t always been there either. “I wasn’t even sure I was going to be called the Golden Ninja,” Mayernik said. “But some of the names I came up with were really dumb. I had Golden Man, Golden Warrior, Golden Boy, and I thought those were terrible. Also, a lot of those were taken for the dotcom and that’s important for the future. Because what if you say, ‘Check out Golden Ninja. His website is goldenninja31.com.’ It’s confusing.” Creativity has always been the driving force behind everything Mayernik has done, even when he was just a kid. “I started drawing and I wasn’t good,” Mayernik said. “I couldn’t even draw a stick figure. But those stick-figure fighting animations online, those inspired me. So, literally, I started drawing stick figures.” So what’s in the future for Golden Ninja? “The next thing is the more difficult thing,” Mayernik said, “because I got your attention. But now the next step is to hold [the] attention and grow your audience to a much larger audience. Because the more people I work with, the more people I inspire, then the more I can do. So it will kind of be me trying to build some kind of interactive online show where I go around with a video camera docuPhoto by George Yanez menting the things I’m doing and finding other people doing inspirational things and George Mason student Chris Mayernik, comgetting them out there. And also to try and monly known as the Golden Ninja on the Fairfax campus, has made a name for himself with have fun.” his inspiring speech and gold-colored clothing.
Presidential task force wraps up forums Group will now begin formulating report for Merten Gregory Connolly News Editor After two open forums for members of the George Mason University community, a meeting with resident advisors and a meeting with resident directors, the Presidential Task Force commissioned to investigate the Mason Police Department’s interaction with students will meet Monday to begin discussion of what will appear in an interim report to President Alan Merten. Communication professor Peter Pober, one of the two co-chairs of the Task Force, said today’s meeting is the first time the group will discuss its findings. After the interim report, due to be sent to Merten by mid- to late May, the Task Force will compile a final report which will be submitted at the end of June. The Task Force engaged resident directors and advisors, and collected 42 written documents outlining interaction with police in addition to hearing 16 to 18 testimonies from members of the Mason community who spoke at the open forums, Pober said. The overwhelming majority of people who spoke at the two open forums expressed concern with the Mason Police Department. Most of the concerns came from students detailing interactions they had with police officers, according to the transcripts. Students at the open forum were given five minutes to speak to the task force and the reports ran the gamut. Conflict analysis and resolution major Keenan Hartless spoke of a series of messages he received from a threatening individual and the lack of interest
he perceived to be shown by Mason police to his dilemma. Conversely, Barry Geisler, general manager of the Patriot Center, said, “I’ve had the good fortune to work alongside the police in handling many events here at George Mason at the Patriot Center, and over that time I guess I’ve developed an appreciation for police work.” “Everybody’s been very positive about [the task force],” Pober said. “They’re appreciative that the president called for the Task Force, appreciative of the forum and sincerely hope that the recommendations that come out of this will be carefully addressed by the president.” Pober said he believes a number of people feel like there should be more consistency from both police and students — consistency in the way specific situations are handled and a specific understanding of policies on both sides. The Task Force was called for shortly after Mason student Abdirashid Dahir was arrested on felony abduction charges stemming from an incident at Fenwick Library. The charges were later dropped, and an independent consulting firm specializing in institutional safety, Tomlinson Strategies, LLC, has been hired to investigate the policies and procedures that led to Dahir’s arrest. “We are not at this point [addressing], nor do we intend to specifically address, the incident that led to the formation of the Task Force,” Pober said at the first student forum, according to a transcript. “There’s an external review taking care of that.”
Mason community speaks out at open forums The following quotes and information were taken from transcripts of the two open forums held by the Presidential Task Force. “I often see Mason Police off campus and it makes me as an economist wonder if we have too much police and too little to do.” -James Bennett, professor of economics “The officers that I met there have been absolutely inspirational to me and they've really mentored me, you know, and actually convinced me to apply within the George Mason Police and so I did that, and I really, really think that, you know, it's very important to understand that police have such a difficult job.” -Kerrie DeGaetano, psychology major Robert Aramayo said police responded to a noise complaint, but went to the wrong apartment. The students in the apartment were drinking, but were of age. Most of the guests had placed their identification in an adjacent room which Aramayo said agitated the officer. Aramayo said the officer told his roommate who expressed the location of the identification to “shut up” because he was impeding a police investigation. Aramayo said his roommate went to the bathroom and after he finished, the officer entered the bathroom and said that the student was only allowed to move when she said so. She then arrested the student for obstruction of justice. Aramayo said his roommate asked for clarification and that the officer said she would charge him with resisting arrest if “he kept it up.” Aramayo said his phone rang so he looked at it, and the officer said he was not allowed to answer his phone and then handcuffed him. -Roberto Aramayo, undeclared major
Wearing jeans to raise awareness Denim Day promotes sexual violence education and prevention Statistics about rape and sexual assault Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. 82.8 percent of rapes committed by an intimate are not reported to the police. 35 percent of college men who voluntarily participated in psychological research conducted at several universities indicated they might commit a rape if they knew they could get away with it. Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Most often the abuser is a member of her own family. 20 to 25 percent of college women in the United States experience attempted or completed rape during their college career. In 2005-2006, there were an average annual 232,010 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. About 44 percent of rape victims are under age 18 and 80 percent are under age 30. Statistics taken from www.denimdayinla.org
Sonya Hudson Managing Editor Denim Day is a rape prevention education campaign, organized by Peace Over Violence, an organization dedicated to preventing sexual violence. This year’s Denim Day was observed last Wednesday. Denim Day honors an Italian woman who was a victim of sexual violence in the 1990s. In this case, the 18-year-old woman was picked up by her married 45-year-old male driving instructor for her first driver’s lesson. He took her to an isolated road, pulled her out of the car, wrestled her out of one leg of her jeans and forcibly raped her. Threatened with death, he forced her to drive home. She told her parents, and they helped her press charges. He was arrested, prosecuted, convicted of rape and sentenced to jail. He appealed his sentence and the case made it to the Italian Supreme Court. The case was overturned, dismissed and the driving instructor was released. In a statement by the Chief Judge, he argued, “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but
consensual sex.” Enraged by the verdict, within hours the women of the Italian Parliament protested by wearing jeans to work. This action encouraged the California Senate and Assembly to do the same. And with this, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence Patricia Giggans began Denim Day in Los Angeles in April 1999. On Denim Day, people are encouraged to “wear jeans as a visible means of protest against misconceptions that surround sexual assault,” according to the Denim Day in LA website. “The case is so outrageous,” said Connie Kirkland, director of Sexual Assault Services at George Mason University. This year was Mason’s third year observing Denim Day. “It’s really about solidarity,” said Kirkland. Denim Day would have been better promoted at Mason if they had known earlier the specific date of the event, said Kirkland. Sexual Assault Services did have kiosks in the Johnson Center where information about sexual violence was passed out, as Denim Day not only remembers victims of sexual violence but focuses on education and prevention.