Broadside News

By Sarah Albani & Risham Tariq, Broadside Correspondents

Last week, the walls of the Johnson Center Gallery 123 were adorned with Arabic calligraphy, Islamic architecture and embroidered verses from the Qur’an to mark the start of Islam Awareness Week (IAW).

As the largest event held by the Muslim Student Association nationally, IAW aims to “introduce Islam on a unified platform to all university and college campuses,” according to the MSA National website.

“People have a lot of misunderstandings but are interested in learning more about Islam,” said Muhammad Elsayed, a senior administration of justice major.

It was with the chief aim of enlightening the non-Muslim community that last week’s events took place.

However, despite the non-Muslim target audience, IAW works to educate Muslims as well.

“The best way to learn is to teach,” said Hamna Riaz, junior chemistry major and active MSA member. “One of the ways I’ve learned more about my faith and developed . . . spiritually, has been through telling people about my faith.”

The MSA commenced the week of events on Monday, March 29 with a screening of the documentary Islam: An American Faith.

This was followed by a question-and-answer panel session, during which time three American Muslims from different backgrounds spoke about their experiences with their faith in the United States.

The panel was comprised of Ron D’Agostino, Maryam Elsayed and Matthew Brooks, all of whom are George Mason University alumni.

Co-sponsored by the Afghan Student Union, a March 30 event, “Life Within the Light,” explored the purpose of life, a topic MSA president Zuhair Shaath, a senior and Islamic Studies major, felt would be germane to a diverse group of people.

“The purpose of life is brought up all the time,” Shaath said. “In any religion class you go to, ‘what is God’s will . . . how do you [fulfill] God’s will?’ [is deliberated].”

The event featured Imam Magid, an Islamic leader and the executive director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, who explored the purpose of human existence and shared some keys to happiness with audience members.

Even as a non-Muslim student, Stefani E. Truyol Sanabria, a junior art and visual technology major, appreciated the series of events.

“Many people have general misconceptions about Islam,” Truyol said. “By coming to these events, I hoped to gain a better understanding about this faith. I am learning about Islam right now and I believe that Islam offers universal advice for human beings on how to live their life . . . I wanted to gain some more knowledge that I could apply to my daily life.”

Dr. Zainab Alwani was the guest speaker at the March 31 event entitled “The Most Influential Man: a Model for Social Change.”

A prominent figure in the Muslim community of the D.C. Metropolitan area, Alwani spoke about the life of the prophet Mohammed.

Alwani emphasized Mohammed’s role in bringing positive social change to his society during the time periodin which he lived.

In addition to the subject matter of the lecture, senior biology major and MSA Vice President Fatuma Yasin believes that the speaker herself served an educational purpose, as an exemplary model of the potential Muslim women have to excel within their own communities.

“Islam is a religion that not only exemplifies women and brings them up in status, it encourages them to be educated, to be people who are changing lives,” Yasin said.

IAW came to a close with “Night of Light” on Thursday, April 1, an event co-sponsored by the Saudi Student Association, which aimed to “[show] the beauty of the Qur’an,” according to Shaath.

Amidst candle-lit table center pieces, renowned Qur’an scholars from the area recited verses from the holy book, and elaborated on the meaning of the Arabic verses they read.

Zainab Hassan, a senior art and visual technology major and MSA public relations officer said, “There’s a science behind different types of reading,” and he explained that the event aimed to showcase different types of Qur’an recitation.

“We’re taught to recite [the Qur’an] eloquently and to listen when it’s being recited,” said Hassan. “It is not just read as a book; you feel what you read and it touches you on a different level.”

By Matthew Harrison, Broadside Correspondent

Just in time for spring and summer, University Life hosted its 14th annual Health and Fitness Expo in Dewberry Hall on Thursday, April 1.

The expo provided a large amount of information pertaining to nutrition, exercise, stress management and more. The event also featured demonstrations, healthy exercise activities, student health challenges and screenings for things such as bone density and blood pressure for students, staff and faculty.

“There are so many indications that we are trying to be healthy,” said Carol Filak, an administrative director at Student Health Services.

The event involved more departments than any other campus event this year, and students were happy to help.

“We have about 70 vendors, and 50 student volunteers [who] helped organize this event,” said Filak. “We are trying to give as much information about healthy life styles [as we can].”

With spring in full swing, and summer just around the bend, getting in shape for the beach and pool is a top priority for some students.

“Mason has three fitness facilities that help create a healthier campus,” said Masooma Munir, a junior health, fitness and recreation resources major and volunteer at the expo.

Students these days are becoming more health conscious about their diet and exercise. The expo provided a great deal of information to help answer students’ questions about healthy living habits.

“We are trying to make students more aware of how to pick out health foods,” said Kristin Caulley, a sophomore nursing major and volunteer at the expo.

But it was not just information kiosks; activities such as swing dancing caught plenty of attention.

The expo also provided students with a large variety of free healthy snacks, specialized doctors at various vendors and dance teams to entertain the crowd.

“There are so many healthy choices out there, people just don’t know,” said Alan DeGracia, an undeclared junior at Mason.

Caulley and DeGracia both worked at the nutrition vendor that showcased healthy foods at Southside.

One of the more unique vendors was Pranic Healing, which involved students in a not-so-typical exercise.

Pranic Healing called itself a “highly developed and tested system of energy, and energy medicine that utilizes prana to balance, harmonize and transform the body’s energy processes,” according to the late founder of Pranic Healing, Grand Master Choa Kok Sui.

Students and faculty can find more information about University Life and Student Health services at http://ulife.gmu.edu/events/HFE.php

By Sonya Hudson, Managing Editor

To help feed the hungry of Northern Virginia, George Mason University students collect donations of food Saturday outside the Giant Supermarket in Loehmann’s Plaza in Falls Church, Va. for Food for Others, a nonprofit organization dedicated to distributing free food directly to people in need in Northern Virginia.

Food for Others highlights the poverty problems in Northern Virginia. According to its website, “Even though Northern Virginia is considered one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the country, we still face a poverty rate of about 5%. This means, based on U.S. Census figures, that more than 90,000 people are living in poverty and 30 percent are children.”

Food for Others takes donations of food, money and time. Food for Others also helps support food programs of other community-based agencies. According to its website, “We make bulk distributions of food to more than 30 other charitable organizations that support soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and deliveries to the elderly, as well as church and community center pantries.”

The nonprofit organization’s upcoming special events include “Empty Bowls,” an April 9 event in which individuals who contribute a small donation receive a meal of soup and bread in handcrafted bowls donated by local ceramic artists.

Food for Others then encourages attendees to keep the bowl as a reminder of hunger in the world. In May, the organization is hosting its 7th Annual Food for Others Golf Tournament, which will be played at Springfield Golf & Country Club in Springfield, Va. For more information on these events and Food for Others in general visit the organization’s website www.foodforothers.org.

By Pearson Jones, Asst. Style Editor

Star Trek is not just for geeks anymore. J.J. Abrams recent resurrection of the Star Trek franchise proved that. Capturing the attention of a whole new generation of trekkies, Abram’s installment beamed up younger fans to the Enterprise who were just being introduced to Captain James T. Kirk for the first time.

This new fan base, combined with the diehard fans that have been rocking the Vulcan salute for over 40 years now, can be attributed to the large turnout alien language designer Marc Okrand received from George Mason University last Friday.

Okrand is the designer behind the alien language Klingon used in many of the Star Trek films. The veteran linguist is also responsible for developing the language used in the Disney animated film Atlantis. A god to those familiar with the franchise, Okrand unveiled the secrets of Klingon to a waving room of Vulcan salutes and anxious fans.

James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty in the television series, came up with the idea of Klingon orginally.

Okrand took it one step further though in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Actually, make that two Klingon Dictionaries, several Shakspeare plays translated into the alien language and one Klingon Language Institute further.

What started out as just a few phrases developed into a functional language. A language only some of the most hardcore Trek fans can claim to know.

Klingon, known as tlhlngan Hol to Klingon natives, is unlike anything ever spoken.

Vowels and constants are used in the language according to Okrand but are the only familiar grammar aspects English speakers will recongnize.

There are emphasized gaps in words, apostrophes are letters instead of punctuation marks and there are random capitalized letters inside of words.

If those rules don’t confuse novice Klingon speakers then Okrand’s decision to eliminate all K’s in the language will. Good luck spelling Klingon.

Okrand defended this decision with the excuse that “K’s are always at the beginning of words that are used to describe bad things in movies.”

The Klingon language is even harder to pronounce then it is to learn. So despite the many groups of people who identify it as a real language, people are still probably better of trying to talk in Latin to each other then Klingon.

By Rashad Mulla, Broadside Correspondent

Patriot Web is undergoing a massive database and software upgrade that will keep the system down until Wednesday, April 7. Thomas Shifflett, director of ITU database application services, said the upgrade, which began Friday, April 2, is aimed at improving system performance and providing thorough maintenance.

Notices will be sent on Wednesday afternoon when the system is available for use, according to Shifflett.

During the outage, Patriot Web will be unavailable, and a host of other related systems, such as Blackboard, will have accessibility restrictions. Blackboard itself will be available for student and faculty use, Shifflett said, but course and enrollment data was frozen on Friday afternoon.

The upgrades are expected to be completed a week before class registration begins. Graduate students, the first group eligible for class registration, may begin signing up on April 13. Summer class registration, which began on March 15, will be frozen during the upgrade.

Beginning at 8 a.m. today, a copy of the new PatriotWeb will be up for viewing only, allowing students to look at the class schedule, but no account actions within the system, such as registering for or dropping classes, will be saved. Any information entered into the system during this time, such as a change in personal data, will be wiped out upon completion of the upgrade.

Despite the mid-semester timing of the upgrade, Shifflett said it is essential.

“The purpose of the upgrade is to ensure that the Patriot Web software and the underlying hardware and software infrastructure are at a supported maintenance level,” he said. “The upgrade will also facilitate enhancements to functionality that will be implemented in the coming year.”

Other related systems affected by the upgrade include the library, Student Accounts, Student Health, Parking Services and Mason Money. All of these sites remain available.

For a complete list of affected systems, please visit https://patriotweb.gmu.edu/alerts.html. Send questions to the Patriot Project Team at banner@gmu.edu.

By Emily Sharrer, Editor-in-Chief

Following Program Board’s announcement March 27 that the neon-colored skinny jeans wearing fivesome Cobra Starship would be headlining this year’s Mason Day, close to 20 disillusioned members of the “Bring ____ to Mason Day 2010” Facebook group posted comments on the group’s wall, calling into question the process used to pick the synth-pop group.

Other possible Mason Day acts included on a student survey were Trey Songz, Passion Pit, Wale, Phoenix, Billy Currington, Kid Cudi with Ratatat, Girl Talk and Flogging Molly.

“Personally I’d like to see the results of the survey,” said Genevieve McKenna, a communication major, on the wall of the group, which recently changed its name to “Mason Day 2010 Feat. Cobra Starship.”

“I mean if it was a majority that’s great… but [there’s no] proof that they even looked [at] our votes or, you know, went with what they could afford. A straight answer is all I ask,” said McKenna.

Mason Day will be held outdoors on April 22 in Lot L. The free event, which is scheduled for 2-10 p.m., will feature rides, concerts by local bands and Mason organizations hosting games and passing out free food, culminating in an 8 p.m. concert by Cobra Starship.

The band, whose main claim to fame is their most recent radio hit “Good Girls Go Bad,” which features Gossip Girl actress-turned singer Leighton Meester, is signed to the same label as Fall Out Boy and 2008 Mason Day performers Gym Class Heroes.

Other students on the Mason Day Facebook group were simply disappointed with the pick.

“Mason Day has gotten consistently worse since I’ve been here,” said accounting major Christopher Grant on the Facebook page. “T-Pain was a joke. Who the hell is Cobra Starship? I won’t be in attendance, have fun partying with these cornballs.”

“I know how hard PB works and I appreciate everything they do for Mason,” said Sabrina Ahmed, a government and international politics major on the Facebook group wall. “I was just looking forward to a better artist.”

According to Michelle Davis, assistant director of programming for Student Activities, Cobra Starship was the highest rated group on the survey that was available and fell within Program’s Board budget. Cobra Starship, the third most-picked band on the survey fell just below Drake and Trey Songz.

In order to find a Mason Day artist, Davis says planners brainstorm popular acts that might be going on tour in the spring to put on the survey, though touring, recording or video-shooting schedules can change and pricing can go up drastically between when the band is put on the survey and when its time to book an act.

“That’s the industry we’re dealing with,” said Davis. “If a band has a new hot song coming out, the price can go up as much as $20,000. It all comes down to if they’re available and how much they cost.”

“Disappointed, but why complain,” said communication major Joshua Jordan on the Facebook page. “You gotta remember Trey Songz is on tour wit JiggaMan, Jeezy, AND Wale…so that takes two people out [of] the survey already.

Cudi’s workin on his album, plus his budget was probably a little more then Mason was willing to pay..same goes for Drake.”

But it’s not all about the headlining act.

For the first time ever, Mason Day will feature carnival rides for students.

“There was a lot of demand on the original survey for more carnival themes and more rides,” said Mallory Wuhrer, a sophomore on Program Board’s special events committee. “We had one ride last year and we really wanted to do more of that and heighten it to a new level. It’s going to be bigger and better than ever before.”

“Mason day really isn’t all about the main act,” said concerts chair Addison Brown. “It’s about the day as a whole. It’s supposed to be a fun experience for the students to have. We try to go for what they like; we try our hardest.”

Check out pb.gmu.edu/masonday for more information.

By Rachael Dickson, Mason Nation Four Years Later Editor-in-Chief

D’Leon Barnett and Jacky Yoo
D’Leon Barnett and Jacky Yoo were named the next George Mason University student body president and vice president this week, marking the end of a competitive election that featured significant campaigning from all parties and higher voter turnout than ever before.

According to Chairperson Dale Warfield of the Elections and Disputes Commission, who announced the results today in the Johnson Center Atrium, the 3,961 votes in this election were the most ever cast.

Barnett and Yoo garnered over 1,200 votes, about 31 percent of the total.

Barnett spoke briefly to the large lunchtime crowd. “We’d like to thank everybody at George Mason for answering the call to action,” Barnett said.

He later commented, “We’re ready to bridge the gap between students, faculty and administrators,” citing a commitment to diversity.

Barnett and Yoo’s closest competitors among the four other pairs running for the executive offices were Lynn Gold and Dominic Pody, who had 971 votes (about 25 percent). Sean Hobaugh and Evan Massengill came in third with 653 votes, with Shane Smith and Rich Everett only two votes behind. Jill Ferron and Mark Murphy received 275 votes.

The competition for the Student Senate seats was more stiff than years past as well, with 45 candidates running for 30 seats.

Several candidates pulled in over 500 votes and still did not win seats. All the winning candidates gained 588 votes or more.

Returning Senator Chelsea Bateman had the most votes at 1,017.

By Yasmin Tadjdeh, News Editor

Over the last two weeks, protesters have gathered around the Patriot Center to rally against the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for alleged animal cruelty of their circus animals. However, according to some protesters, George Mason University police have been unfairly targeting them and inhibiting their protests.

Through police barricades and caution tape, protesters claim that the Mason police force has been infringing on their right to protest by keeping them away from the public.

“This year when we arrived on campus, there were metal barricades put in place at the top of the steps that lead down from the corner of Roanoke Road and Po River Lane,” said Lisa Qualls, a protester at the event and a volunteer with the local Washington, D.C. based animal’s rights group, Compassion 4 Animals. “Last year, that had been our main protest spot.”

“We were told that the barricades were placed there because, in the past, children were looking over [their] shoulders at us and could have fallen down the steps,” said Qualls.

“The next time we came back, we were told we had to stay outside of the barricades,” said Qualls.“This made it very difficult to leaflet and it created not just a physical barricade, but a psychological one, too. It gives the illusion that we need to be controlled and that we are not approachable. We have never blocked anyone or been threatening. This barricade seems to be a deliberate attempt to suppress our rights.”

Other protesters at the event felt similarly.

“Throughout the demonstrations, the GMU police erected metal barricades whose aim was to enclose circus protesters,” said Nicholas Zinzer, a protester who was issued a trespassing warning on March 27. “Several protesters went behind the metal barricades and were nearly impotent when attempting to disseminate literature and hold visible signs.”

“I was issued a trespass warning at 10 p.m. that day and it will stand for at least one year,” said Zinzer. “The trespass warning is not justified. I was both peaceful and lawful throughout the protests. The GMU police were both aggressive and partial.”

According to Zinzer, he and a group of activists were preparing to leave the Patriot Center after protesting the circus when several Mason police officers approached them. After surrounding Zinzer, Zinzer said he was detained by Lt. Kevin Barrett and issued a trespass warning; he was then escorted off campus.

However, according to Mason police, the trespass warning was warranted.

“We have a designated area for protests, and he [Zinzer] was not cooperative with those directions,” said Deputy Police Chief George Ginovsky. “He didn’t comply with the directions and he was issued a trespass warning. He was escorted from campus without further incident.”

However, Ginovsky said, “If he feels he was mistreated, he needs to make a complaint and we will thoroughly investigate.”

By Ethan Vaughan, Asst. News Editor

A George Mason University student was left in critical condition after being struck by a car on campus last Monday.

Michelle Dawson, 21, was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital after she was hit at approximately 9:35 p.m. on the night of March 29. The driver, Jeffrey Jenkins, a 23-year-old non-Mason student, was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian. Mason police gave no indication that Jenkins had been speeding at the time of the accident, which occurred just in front of the campus police station.

“The vehicle remained on the scene,” Deputy Police Chief George Ginovsky said Friday. “[The driver] was cooperative and described what happened. The investigation is for all intensive purposes over.”

An unidentified individual made a cell phone call to the Fairfax County Public Safety Communications Center, which notified campus police. Officer Eric Aman responded to the accident.

Ginovsky said he was not aware of student complaints concerning the intersection, which some have said is dangerous and ought to be made safer with the installation of a stop sign or stoplight.

“I’m not prepared to make that recommendation,” Ginovsky said. “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

He nonetheless urged students to take common sense step towards ensuring their safety while on campus and preventing a repeat of the incident that took place last Monday.

“It’s just doing obvious things,” he said. “Look both ways, be careful while crossing the street.”

Dawson remains at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Mason police could not release any details of her current condition.

By Matt Loffman, C2M Contributer

At a community forum and special meeting of the Fairfax City Council on Tuesday, Mayor Robert F. Lederer said that the budget for fiscal year 2011 is the “most difficult budget” he has ever seen. Fairfax, he said, is facing an $11 million deficit.

Despite his assertion that “no decisions have been made” concerning where to make budget cuts, Fairfax residents and George Mason University students came to the meeting to support the continuation of CUE bus service. Many had heard about possible cutbacks or eliminations of service from notices posted in city buses, which the mayor later dismissed as “misguided fear[s].”

The city is only in the initial stages of budget negotiations and has not made any final decisions. The final vote to authorize the 2011 budget is scheduled for April 29 after two more public input sessions.

Last week, City Manager Robert Sisson proposed his budget, which called for a CUE bus fare increase from $1.45 to $1.60. This hike would bring CUE prices more in line with Metro bus rates and would be on top of the previously announced rate increase, effective April 1, that raises the rate from $1.35 to $1.45.

There was no mention in the proposed budget of charging Mason students to ride buses. Mason students and faculty currently ride for free.

The budget also mentioned that the council is considering “potential service modifications,” but did not give any further details.

Where the Service Stands
Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council was an opportunity for community members to weigh in on the budget shortfall and to advise the council about how and where to make cuts.

Nearly 70 community members attended. Of the 22 people who addressed the council, 17 discussed rumored changes to and elimination of CUE bus service.

But before anyone could lobby the council, Lederer made it clear that he thinks the CUE bus system is an “important service that has been long-serving in our community.”

The mayor told citizens that no discussion of service elimination and no discussion “to my knowledge” of rush hour service cutbacks have taken place. He acknowledged, however, that some adjustments and limited service changes may be necessary, but that the council had not discussed any specifics about how to address the budget problems. He also said that nothing is off the table and every area of city government should be scrutinized and considered.

Currently, the Fairfax city government provides $1 million in yearly subsidies to keep CUE buses running. George Mason University provides an additional $300,000 that allows the Mason community to ride for free. The rest of CUE’s budget is raised through advertisements and rider fares.

‘An Important Service’
Among those present at the meeting was a CUE bus driver who has worked for the service since 1995. The driver, who asked not to be identified, spoke to Connect2Mason after the initial public feedback portion of the meeting.

She said that being at the meeting to represent the drivers was important. When asked which of the proposed cuts to CUE bus services would face the least opposition from her and other drivers if service cuts were absolutely necessary, she said that all the current CUE routes and schedules are needed and that the CUE bus provides an important service.
Mason student Lauren Brown also attended the meeting and said that the CUE bus helps with the “development of the community.”

As a student who lives off-campus and has a job on the weekend, Brown says she needs weekend bus service and that cutting service would be a “step backward.”

She pointed to CUE’s meaning as the City-University-Energysaver as proof of the service’s importance in Fairfax and at Mason.

Ian Fairclough, a Mason librarian who moved to Fairfax after losing his job in Ohio, applauded the “excellent public transportation in Fairfax” and said that he rides CUE several times a day – often just to increase the ridership count of the bus system.

He told the council to only consider changes to the weekend bus schedule, but he was also in favor of having Mason faculty and students pay to use CUE. He encouraged the council to work with Mason administration to develop a stop of the Mason to Metro Shuttle at Fairfax Circle to help alleviate some of the stresses on CUE buses. He said that the council should work to bring CUE “more into harmony” with the Mason to Metro Shuttle.

Another Mason faculty member weighed in during the meeting as well. Mason math instructor Karen Crossin, who was a student at Mason in the 1980’s, praised CUE as her “personal limousine.” She said that many people move to Fairfax for the public services provided by the city. She’s glad that CUE is not on a 9-5 schedule because that doesn’t fit her lifestyle.

Crossin added that she’d be ok with tax hikes to avoid cuts in service because she appreciates the “environmentally friendly” buses and the “small town” feel provided by the friendly bus drivers.

Several people who spoke in support of the CUE buses received applause from the audience members, and many of the people who came to support the CUE buses said they had no other means of transportation. One woman reminded the council that many people who ride the bus regularly couldn’t make it to the meeting to say so.

Her point that many citizens use the bus service as an alternative to personal vehicles seemed particularly ironic considering that the room where the City Council held its forum is the same room that Fairfax City convenes traffic court for people cited for speeding and other traffic violations.

After Public Input, Fiscal Shortfall and ‘Disinformation’
Most of the people who came to support the CUE bus service left after the initial public input portion of the meeting. Only about 20 people remained for the full meeting of the City Council. The issue of cuts to CUE service was addressed about an hour later when the Council began a budget work session. They returned to the looming fiscal shortfall, and they began to discuss ways to raise revenues or cut city services.

Lederer reiterated that nothing should be off the table when considering cuts, and he said that councilmembers should put aside their “pet projects.” In his view, the council has two ways to consider fixes for the deficit: live within current revenues by cutting city services or maintain current service levels by raising taxes.

Even after all the possible cuts have been made, tax increases are still possible, he added.

“If and when that reality exists, I for one will be willing to put my name to that increase if the process is followed correctly,” Lederer said.

In possibly his most aggressive defense of the budget process, Lederer addressed the “most sensitive and … the most concerning” issue that involves city employees spreading misinformation about the budget cuts. Without singling out CUE bus employees, Lederer suggested that city employees performed a “disservice to the community.”

“In most cases, the information received by the citizens was based on misguided fear that we were going to eliminate either entirely the CUE bus system or essential, dramatic parts of the transportation footprint,” Lederer said.

“As a long-time supporter of the CUE bus service, I find it personally insulting to have my position and that of my colleagues misrepresented in this community,” Lederer continued. “When an employee comes to work for this city, they automatically assume a well-deserved trust in this community, and their viewpoints and expressions of concerns are assumed within the community to be based on fact and not on unjustified fears or misrepresentation. Anything less is a disservice to this community. It is disrespectful to this body, and it is just plain wrong. This is a practice that must be stopped and it must be stopped now.”

He defended the budget discussions to date as “open and fair” and said that working for this city should be a “privilege” not a “right.”

Lederer encouraged the council to “come together” to “find a consensus” and “meet the objectives of the overall community” on the “testing” and “difficult” issue of the budget.

Councilmember Jeffrey Greenfield, a commissioner with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and a Mason alumnus, said that the CUE system is a “Cadillac service” and is the “envy” of other local jurisdictions because of its “green” hybrid buses. Greenfield says that in addition to subsidizing CUE, Fairfax also pays fees to Metro to subsidize bus and rail service to the area. He says that if any cutbacks are made in CUE service or routes that he wants to make sure Metro buses will service affected areas to cover the shortfall.

Mason’s Role in the Service
Noting that Mason spends $900,000 a year on the Mason to Metro shuttle contract with private company Reston Limousine, Councilmember Steven Stombres suggested the city “aggressively negotiate” with Mason to be the transportation provider for the shuttle service. Strombres, who serves as the chief of staff to Virginia Congressman and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and is also an alternate on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, said that any discussion of CUE bus cuts should consider riders, workers and revenue impacts.

The mayor “loved” Stombres’s suggestion and seemed confident that “we could [provide Mason to Metro shuttle service] more cost effective than a for-profit organization [such as Reston Limousine] could do.”

At the end of the meeting, Lederer asked the city’s staff and city manager to prepare a budget memo outlining possible ways to cut money from the CUE bus service through different variations on service cuts. He said that no consideration should include cuts to early morning or rush hour schedules. Instead he suggested looking at expanding the intervals between bus service during non-rush hour periods from every 30 minutes to up to an hour between buses, stopping weekday evening service at 9 PM rather than midnight, or reducing service on the weekends – possibly eliminating weekend service altogether. He wants to know how much money each of the cuts could save the city.

The mayor also mentioned other possible considerations like raising fares up to 30 cents to $1.75.

Lederer also said that Mason community members make up 30 percent of CUE bus riders – a large percentage of the ridership that doesn’t pay for the service. Citing support from the few Mason faculty and students in attendance at the meeting, the mayor proposed charging Mason students and faculty to ride buses – though he did not say if they should pay full-price.