Tag: George Mason University

Additional State Budget Cuts Affect Mason

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced on Tuesday more details of the additional budget cuts that he had previously promised.

“We did do reductions to higher [education]. The net reductions to higher [education] on average… is about a 7.7 percent reduction to higher [education] That amount is slightly over $100 million,” said Kaine during the announcement. “We do believe, based on our discussions with the higher [education] institutions that they will be able to manage to this.”

According to Dan Walsch, George Mason University press secretary, Mason will be hit with an eight percent cut which will translate to $17.5 million. “It’s significant,” said Walsch. “We will spread it out as much as we can. That doesn’t mean it will be mathematically even but we’ll try to be even handed.”

When asked if the cut would mean layoffs, Walsch said, “I don’t think so, but it probably will mean some realignment, reorganization, perhaps combining programs. In terms of out and out layoffs, I doubt it but [the cut] is significant.

Below is video of Kaine’s full budget cuts announcement.

Photo by flickr user World Resources.

Mason’s College Republicans Host Fimian, Brescia

By Mason Votes Director Christian Smith

The George Mason University chapter of the College Republicans’ first meeting brought to campus Keith Fimian, 2010 candidate for 11th district House of Representatives seat, and Eric Brescia, candidate for House of Delegates in the 47th district.

Brescia began the evening by describing himself as a libertarian-like Republican, announcing that if elected he would work towards repealing the Marshall-Newman amendment.

The economy, however, was the biggest topic of the evening.

“I like numbers, I’m good at numbers but what we are doing is absolutely irresponsible,” said Fimian. “These politicians are reaching into the public troughs…these people do not care about you.”

Fimian, who announced his candidacy this summer, is just coming off his loss to Gerry Connolly (D-11) last November.

“I will win this seat the next time around because my ideas are better then Gerry Connolly…My ideas are better than stale old Democrat ideas.”

The College Republicans next meeting will be Sept. 15.

Photos: Creigh Deeds at Mason

Obama Speaks at Mason on Economic Crisis

President-elect Barack Obama gave an brief speech at George Mason University yesterday, urging Congress to act quickly in order to save the economy from a deeper plunge.

Obama said that both parties need to work together on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will “jump-start” jobs and create “long-term growth” by making energy, education, and healthcare the government’s top priorities.

See the full article and video of the speech at Connect2Mason.

Woodson High School Voting Lines Run Smoothly

by Kevin Loker
Mason Votes Correspondent

On a rainy day after a marathon two-year campaign race for the White House, George Mason University students registered on the Fairfax campus finally boarded vans to cast their vote.
“We’ve been running vans to and from W.T. Woodson since the polls opened,” said senior Student Government member Andrew Roth, who volunteered to drive one of the MasonVotes three shuttle vans, “and so has Students for Barack Obama.”
Though their name may sound partial, Students for Barack Obama did take non-Barack Obama supporters to the polling place. “We all have the same goal,” said Roth. “We just want to make it easier for Mason students to vote.”
During midday, many students said their long-awaited poll experience at W.T. Woodson High School ran rather smoothly.
“I didn’t have to wait very long at all,” said first-time voter and Mason student Brittany Higgs, “and they had some great little arrows to point you to the right place.”
Other students using the vans have responded similarly.
“Most of the students I have asked have gotten in out within around ten and fifteen minutes,” said Roth.
“I actually waited longer for the van than to actually vote,” said Higgs

Hacker Pulls Hoax on George Mason University Students

In the early hours of Election Day, a person hacked into the e-mail system of George Mason University, sending out an e-mail to the student body that claimed Election Day had been moved to Nov. 5.

The message was sent out at 1:16 a.m. from Provost Peter Stearns’s e-mail account. It read, “Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.”

Stearns addressed the issue in a later e-mail that said, “It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved. I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it.”

A Student Government member volunteering with the Voters Van project, running students to the local voting precinct, said that volunteers already had had to field questions about the e-mail.

“We just got one guy. He was like, ‘Wait, I thought voting was tomorrow,'” freshman Nicola Anderson, a native of Scotland, said. “We’re just putting it down by saying Election Day is always the first Tuesday in November.”

Student Government President Zack Golden thinks there will be consequences for the hacker.

“Whoever did that, when they get caught, they’re going to be in major trouble,” Golden said.

Some George Mason students who registered on campus forced to vote provisionally

Some students who registered on campus at George Mason University were not allowed to cast a vote today.

Freshman Katie Bredholt, 18, said she registered to vote on campus with a group of Obama supporters in early September. She was only allowed to vote provisionally today.

Bredholt, whose permanent address is in Texas, said after not receiving her voter registration card in the mail, she called the Virginia registrar.

“The registrar said, ‘You’re in the system- don’t worry about it-just bring your ID,'” Bredholt, a freshman, said.

At Woodson High School, the polling site for students registered at Mason, Bredholt waited and filled out forms. She said an official had a list of at least 15 other people that were able only to vote provisionally, and almost everyone on the list was registered at Mason.

“I feel like now my voice might not be counted and Virginia is a swing state,” Bredholt said. “My vote should count because I was registered.”

Bredholt’s vote now will only be counted if an Electoral Board meeting tomorrow determines that she is qualified to vote. Though Bredholt has the option of appearing in person to plead her case, she said she will not be able to attend because of her classes at Mason.

“I feel like if it happened to a lot of Mason students, they’ll recount it,” Bredholt said. “Everybody has the same story.”

From: UWIRE

Founding Fathers Would Not Recognize Current Office

By Rashad Mulla

Because of the increased responsibilities of recent presidents, the United States’ first leaders would not recognize today’s presidency, political scholar Joseph Pika said.

Pika, co-author of “Politics of the Presidency,” spoke live via video conference to students from Denver University, Pace University in Manhattan and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. on Oct. 9. Pika said the president had little executive power when the position was first conceived in 1788. His remarks are part of the distance learning collaboration between C-SPAN, the Cable Center at the University of Denver, and the three universities.

“The expectations of the presidency have surpassed the realistic possibilities of the (job),” said Pika, a political science professor at the University of Delaware. “The president was really tailor-made for this media age.”

George Mason student Taft Nesbitt agreed with Pika and said his assertion was grounded in fact.

“The presidency has definitely evolved and become more powerful,” Nesbitt said. “The position has become much more encompassing than the Founding Fathers ever envisioned it being.”
Pika said the ascent of the president’s political power has been a gradual process, including President George W. Bush’s current term.

“A slow accretion of power keeps going in the president’s direction,” he said. “Now, the presidency requires a miracle worker to be successful.”

Pika said the presidency has gotten so powerful that presidents now can frequently over-promise and under-deliver, concepts Mason guest instructor Steve Farnsworth explained to his students on Oct. 2.

One example was President Bush’s handling of the Iraq War, Pika said. In his book, Pika wrote that Bush projected himself as an effective “wartime president” at the beginning of the war, then lost public support for the war. Now, Pika says wartime presidency has lost its luster.

“The appeal is still there,” Pika said. “But a lot of the shine has worn off.”

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain both frequently over-promise in their campaigns, Farnsworth said on Oct. 2. This development is fully attributable to the added power of the presidency, added Nesbitt. The Founding Fathers did not have the power to make such promises, he said.

“(The presidency) wasn’t supposed to be the all-encompassing, pseudo-monarchy that it is today,” Nesbitt said.

According to Pika, when one of the candidates is elected president in three weeks, he will have one of the toughest jobs in U.S. history.

From: UPI

Innovative Course Allows Students to Make Educated Decisions at Polls

By Keeley Peters

Janette Muir, a professor at George Mason University, teaches an enthusiastic group of New Century College students about the ins and outs of political campaigning. She strives to educate her students about pressing election issues and encourages them to educate others by reaching out to undecided voters in the area.

“I came into this class with absolutely no knowledge what-so-ever about the 2008 campaign,” said Sara Hardy, a senior at George Mason from Springfield, Va. Like many others in the class, Hardy claimed, “All I knew was that Obama was the Democratic nominee and McCain was the Republican nominee.”

Students in the political campaign class eagerly await the election on Nov. 4. So far, classes have included discussions regarding primaries, the national conventions and the debates. Muir encourages students to voice their opinions whenever a major event takes place within the campaign.

She even provides a blog space on the Internet as a forum for open discussion.
“I posted on the blog when the Democratic and Republican candidates were announced, after both candidates gave speeches at the conventions and after the first presidential debate on Friday (Sept. 26),” Hardy said.

The blog space on blogger.com has become a medium for constructive criticism, venting and somewhere to post links to articles written on a daily basis about the major party candidates. The class is also informed of major happenings within the campaign with continual updates made by Professor Muir.

Together, each class group must collectively log 60 Experiential Learning hours, which encourages extensive learning outside of the classroom.

“As for learning outside of the classroom, I would like to see healthy, rich conversation on the blog,” Muir said. “I would like to see students engaging new ideas and their reactions to what is happening.

Too often, when given an assignment like blogging weekly or whatever, students resent doing it. I want the blog to be a communication space outside of lecturing.”

In addition, students have taken the initiative to reach out into the community to encourage people to vote and provide information about the candidates.

“The most interesting aspect(s) of the campaign in this particular election is the fact that we have minorities represented, and the role that media has been playing throughout the whole thing,” Muir said.

Muir hopes that her students will be able to persuade others to educate themselves about party issues, the candidates and the various representations of both presented by the media.

Self-selected class groups have participated in activities that encourage this, including DebateWatch, both high school and elementary level information sharing sessions, the distribution of candidate information on campus and student taped interviews.

While group work is definitely a major aspect of Muir’s class, individual research projects are also required; much of which is inspired by the course text.

Students chose topics for individual research regarding almost every aspect of the campaign: the effects of media on the campaign, the effects of debates on the respective candidates, the effects of personal decisions on a candidate’s campaign and even the presidential image.

After the research is done and the individual papers are constructed, the students participate in a panel-style symposium. Students with similar topics will participate in discussions together.

“The symposium structure models what we do in conferences. We bring in papers that we construct and present them in a thematic panel,” Muir said. “Having an individual presentation for 25 papers gets boring. By presenting in a symposium setting, everyone works together and no one has to repeat something that has already been presented.”

A unique aspect of the course allows students to use unconventional sources for their research like Youtube, “Saturday Night Live” episodes and print resources.

Students observe multiple media sources in class regarding campaigning. Recently, Muir asked students to select a political ad, state the purpose of the ad and determine whether or not it was effective.

“Most of the ads were either meant to bash the opposition or give information for the candidate’s platform, which is helpful in making a decision about who to vote for,” said Diana McGeough, an early education major from Chantilly.

“But sometimes, to more uneducated or less informed voters, these ads could contribute to the downfall of a candidate. It all depends on how much you care and how much time you actually spend trying to find out the truth about the issues.”

Learning how to find out about the issues is perhaps the sole purpose of the class. Muir makes sure that her students are aware of all of the available resources in order to do thorough research both inside of and outside of class.

“I read the (Washington) Post every morning, listen to NPR every day and I read several different blogs,” said Muir. “I also find my colleagues who study political campaigning, like me, to be a great source of information.”

As a result of the constant in-class discussion, it appears that Muir’s students have learned a great deal more than they originally knew.

“The Political Campaign class is helping me as a citizen become more informed on how the political system works,” Hardy said. “Through the class discussions, research and group work I have found this class to be one of the most enlightening classes I have ever been in.”

“It has definitely opened my eyes and understanding about the issues that are consuming our nation,” she said.

Muir said of her students, “They have definitely gained a new sense of awareness in campaigning.”

From: UPI

Hillary Clinton Rallies for Obama at Mason

Today, Hillary Clinton spoke at George Mason University’s Fairfax campus. Virginia is a battle ground state and both campuses are fighting hard for the 13 electoral votes it has to offer.

Supporters were out in large numbers standing in lines that extended from the North Plaza to Enterprise and circling outside the northern portion of the Johnson Center. Mason students represented a relatively large portion of the crowd and of the volunteer staff.

For students like Carly Whelan, a junior biology major, this was their first time volunteering for a political campaign. “I like Barack Obama,” said Whelen of her reason for assisting at the Clinton rally.

“We like Hillary Clinton and support Barack Obama,” said Amy Glibort a Mason graduate student while she waited in line to be admitted to the event.

Gregory Thompson, president of Mason’s chapter of Students for Barack Obama introduced Clinton and presented her with a Mason letter jacket.

Clinton offered a message of full support for the Obama campaign in an attempt to heal deep wounds created during the primary season. “If you were there for me, I’m asking you to do everything you can in these closing hours so that we can win Virginia,” said Clinton.

She also responded to Republican Presidential Candidate McCain’s use of her primary speeches in opposition of Obama’s run for the presidency. “My name is Hilary Clinton and I do not approve that message.”

The majority of her speech, however, was a comparison of President George Bush’s administration’s results to that of her husband former President Bill Clinton and democratic ideals in general. “Wouldnt it be wonderful if even at anytime during Bush’s administration he had said the buck stops anywhere,” said Clinton

She promised that a Obama presidency would create jobs, bring troops home, and make health care affordable.

Mason Votes provided live tweets, photos and video feed which is still available. The full audio of the event will be uploaded to this blog soon.

Mason Votes will be providing extensive coverage during the final days of the election process.

Photo by Courtney Erland.