Broadside News

Allison Rutledge, Broadside Correspondent

Over the past month, members of George Mason University’s Environmental Action Group, or EAG, have been working hard to help pass legislation to protect streams and mountains in the commonwealth. One bill in particular, the “Stream Saver” bill, would stop coal companies from dumping surface mining waste into streams, effectively ending mountaintop removal in Virginia.

The EAG is familiar with the environmental destruction caused by the extraction of coal. Last October, five EAG members traveled to the coal fields of West Virginia for the annual Mountain Justice Fall Summit. The students witnessed the impacts of mountaintop removal, the predominant type of surface mining in Appalachia.

According to the EAG, mountaintop removal is the practice of leveling mountain tops with massive explosions and then dumping the resulting debris in adjacent valleys — a common location for streams. The waste pollutes the watersheds, decreases biodiversity and deprives Virginia residents of clean drinking water. This type of mining has already destroyed 67 Virginia mountains. A 2001 assessment by the U.S. EPA says that the waste from mountaintop removal mining had affected 151 miles of streams in Virginia. Many more miles of streams have been destroyed since 2001 and, according to the EAG, will continue to be destroyed if action is not taken. The Stream Saver bill would stop this practice.

Freshman undeclared major Emily Miles and junior physics major Jason Von-Kundra traveled to Richmond on Jan. 18 to voice their opinions to their legislators regarding various environmental bills. Chief among the proposed legislation was the Stream Saver bill, formally known as Senate Bill 564. The students met with four state senators and two legislative aides to ask for their support. Virginia Senator Chap Petersen (D-34th), who represents the district where Mason’s Fairfax campus stands, was among those spoken with.

According to Von-Kundra, “Senator Peterson seemed sincerely interested in everything we discussed. He admitted he was not familiar with mountaintop removal coal mining, which prevented him from taking a stance on the issue.

“A documentary film about mountaintop removal, Coal Country, explains the issue well and has made a big impact on me,” said Von-Kundra. “Other members of the EAG and I plan on giving the film to Petersen in the near future.” The two students also met Virginia Senator Patricia Ticer (D-30th), the patron of the bill, and Virginia Senator Margaret Whipple (D-31st), a co-patron.

Von-Kundra went to Richmond again on Thursday, Feb. 11, for a hearing on the Stream Saver bill. Senator Petersen described the event as “one of the largest public hearings in the history of the State Capitol.”

The hearing room, an overflow room and the surrounding halls were packed with concerned citizens. During the nearly three-hour hearing, both supporters and opponents were given the chance to voice their opinions to the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee.

One hundred coal workers came to speak against the bill. Most of the bill’s opponents spoke in defense of coal industry jobs, although proponents alleged that the bill only applied to surface mining which, because of its highly-mechanized nature, employs far fewer workers than traditional underground mining. In Virginia, surface mining represents approximately 30 percent of the coal industry according to the U.S. Energy Administration Information website.

Tommy Hudson of the Virginia Coal Association gave the jobs breakdown at the hearing: of the 4,797 coal mining jobs in the commonwealth, 1,433 are related to surface mining.
The supporters of the bill spoke of environmental, economic and social injustice caused by mountaintop removal; they claimed the legislation was a solution to those problems. Residents from southwestern Virginia, where mountaintop removal is currently taking place, came to support the legislation.

Kathy Selvage, a Wise County native and co-founder of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, brought water from her tap that had been polluted by mountaintop removal. She urged legislators to support the bill. Another southwestern Virginia resident described the nearly constant blasting from the explosives used to break up the top of the mountains, saying it occurs dangerously close to homes, keeping people up at night and endangering lives.

Both sides received 45 minutes to present their case. Following the hearing, members of the EAG collected photo petitions to send to Sen. Petersen to show him that Mason students support the bill.
On Feb. 12 Mason’s bill supporters entered the Johnson Center with cameras and signs that read “Save Our Mountains and Streams, Support SB 564” and “Not One More Mile!” They took pictures of anyone who wanted to send a message to their elected officials. Before snapping a picture of a Mason student holding one of the signs, junior Gopi Raghu, an electrical engineering major, explained that “Not One More Mile!” means the polluting of Virginia streams must stop now.

On Feb. 15, the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee chose to “leave the bill in committee” and postpone the voting until next year. This is the first time such legislation has been considered in the Virginia General Assembly.

Yasmin Tadjdeh, News Editor

Last week, George Mason University celebrated Love Your Body Week.
The week, which was hosted by the Eating Disorders and Positive Body Image Awareness Taskforce, aimed to encourage students to love themselves no matter what they look like.

“Formerly known as Positive Body Image Awareness Week, Love Your Body Week coincides with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week,” said Assistant Director of the Office of Alcohol, Drug and Health Education Danielle Lapierre. “The taskforce decided to take a more positive approach to the week, encouraging students to love their bodies, love themselves and recognize that all bodies are beautiful.”

“From a very young age, both boys and girls are exposed to negative body images and body expectations from the media, and these images can create unhealthy and unrealistic expectations for their own body ideals,” said Lapierre.

“[Our] popular culture is permeated with unrealistic expectations,” said Ruthie O’Donnell, a junior economics major. According to O’Donnell, these unattainable expectations promote unhealthy body images in many people.

During Love Your Body Week, students were able to visit kiosks in the Johnson Center where they could learn about having a better body image. According to the OADHE website, “Students can express their own feelings and thoughts about their own bodies by writing messages on paper jeans that are hung at the kiosk, shred negative media messages and have an opportunity to play our positive body image version of Magnetic Poetry.”

Students were also invited to attend events such as a presentation by Jessica Costeines, the author of beYOUtiful, a book in which, according to the OADHE website, students can learn to love their bodies the way they are.

“The presentation by author Jessica Costeines was inspiring and really encouraged students to love themselves and be confident just as they are,” said Lapierre. “She spoke about her experiences with body image issues, [which] are illustrated so wonderfully in her book beYOUtiful.”

Students were also encouraged to participate in “Operation Beautiful.” “This year, we took part in a new project called ‘Operation Beautiful,’” said Lapierre. “Students were invited to write inspiring positive body image messages on post-it notes.

“Some examples included, ‘Your eyes are gorgeous’ and Damn, you’re hot!’ The notes were then placed in random locations on campus, like bathroom mirrors and bulletin boards.”

To some students, the week was a success. “I think that the media [promotes unhealthy body images] especially in the film and fashion industries,” said sophomore psychology major Inderdeep Dhillon. “All you see on the covers of magazines are skinny celebrities or models, and the same in films.

“Also, when an actress loses weight you see her getting more film and television deals than before . . . I think that [Love Your Body Week] does help students feel better about themselves and the way they look [in a society such as ours].”

Other students, however, only partially agreed with Dhillon. “I think it’s wonderful that Mason is encouraging people to view themselves in a loving way,” said O’Donnell. “But I think it calls out to a deeper issue: Why should we ‘love ourselves?’

“Because we all have an inherent dignity and worth. “I wish Mason and the Office of Alcohol, Drug and Health Education would point to that, instead of telling women to love themselves simply because they are beautiful. They are beautiful, but they are also so much more.”

Nya Jackson, Broadside Correspondent

With Virginia facing a deficit of $1.59 billion for the 2010-2011 biennial budget, one George Mason University organization alleged that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is wasting taxpayers’ money with “frivolous lawsuits.”

The Mason Environmental Action Group, or EAG, was referring to petitions the attorney general filed in federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. to block the Environmental Protection Agency from complying with a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The ruling allowed the agency to set limits for greenhouse gas pollution in order to protect public health under the Clean Air Act.

“Cuccinelli’s actions are a slap in the face to the thousands of people around Virginia that have been working for years to combat climate change,” said Jason Von-Kundra, physics major and co-chair of the EAG.

At a recent press conference, Cuccinelli said that the EPA was making its decisions based “on unreliable, unverifiable and doctored science in its bid to regulate greenhouse gases.”

Others disagreed. “Cuccinelli’s extreme claims are without warrant,” said atmospheric scientist Jennie Moody, research associate professor at the University of Virginia. “The public welfare is threatened by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.”

“If Jennie Moody and other scientists at the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences, which runs the Virginia Climatology Office, believe the EPA’s ruling has us headed in the right direction, why is our attorney general filing lawsuits that will only serve to hold our state and our country back at a time when we desperately need to be moving forward?” said Von-Kundra.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, who supported the move, believed Cuccinelli was “acting in the best interests of the citizens of Virginia.” However, Colin Bennett of Mason’s Office of Sustainability agreed with Von-Kundra and said that Cuccinelli’s action was ill-advised.

“Rather than acting in the best interests of the citizens of Virginia, our attorney general seems to be acting in the best interest of his campaign contributors,” said Bennett.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, some of the top contributors to Cuccinelli’s campaign are Dominion Power and Alpha Natural Resources, a coal mining company.

Over 15 Virginia university and college presidents, including Mason’s own Alan Merten, have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to pursue climate neutrality at their respective schools.

To learn more about Mason’s commitment to climate neutrality, please visit www.green.gmu.edu.

Yasmin Tadjdeh, News Editor

This month, students on campus will have the opportunity to learn more about the contributions of women to our society. The Women and Gender Studies Center will be hosting Women’s History Month at George Mason University this March.

Through performances, art and seminars, officials involved in making Women’s History Month hope to educate students on women’s issues.

“During Women’s History Month, we strive to raise awareness of women’s and gender issues as they intersect with issues of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and other additional aspects of identity and culture,” said the Associate Director of the Women and Gender Studies Center Vicki Kirsch. “It is also a time to celebrate the contributions by women to all aspects of cultural and political life.”

Through events such as the Reve(a)ling Feminist Art Gallery that will be in the Johnson Center 123 Gallery, Kirsch hopes that students will gain a better understanding of feminism.
“The Feminist Art Show is always thrilling,” said Kirsch, “and this year we invited artists from Empowered Women International, an organization we have collaborated with in the past, to join our Mason artists to give a broader and perhaps deeper response to the questions evoked by the notion of Feminist Art.”

Students are invited to attend the opening and reception of Reve(a)ling Feminist Art on March 3 from 3 to 5 p.m., where Professor Sue Wrbican will be giving a talk. Students can also attend other events going on through March. “The Kitchen Table: Stirring the Pot-Deconstructing: Identity, Sexuality and Queerness” will be taking place in Mason Hall, Conference Room D3 on March 21 from 1 to 6 p.m.

According to a Women’s History Month flier, “This one-day retreat will examine and dissect the meanings and symbols associated with identity, sexuality and queerness. “We will explore the various characteristics assigned to women by modern-day society and deconstruct these stereotypes through group discussions, personal reflection and artistic expression.” Sophomore global affairs major Lauren Allen was excited for the month’s events.

“I think it is an important awareness month, like Black History month,” said Allen. “I think the most people know about women’s history is the suffrage movement, which is important since it gave women the right to vote, but there are also many other points in history that gave women opportunities.”

“[In modern society] women and men are still not fully equal, even in America, and especially in other places in the world where people in their culture [were] brought up to view women in a certain way.
“All in all, this is a very exciting month for us,” said Kirsch.

Ramy Zabarah, Staff Writer

“Vagina” — the word is taboo, yet when used in the right context, so intriguing. For most people, it’s an evil-sounding word. It’s unsettling, upsetting and inappropriate. Heck, one might even wince at the sound of it.

Despite this social bias, the women in last weekend’s performance of The Vagina Monologues at George Mason University broke through that awkward shell and put on a spectacular show.
I walked in about 15 minutes prior to the show to a nearly full theater.

Immediately realizing I was only one of a few male attendees, I took a seat in the third row, and waited for the monologues to begin.

After an emotional introductory video focusing on the struggle of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the show began as three ladies entered the stage and performed a monologue concerning the general perception of the word “vagina.”

The idea that the word “vagina” is such a hard word to say casually because of its negative connotation is introduced in this monologue, and done so with quite some humor.

“It sounds like an infection at best, maybe a medical instrument. ‘Hurry, nurse, bring me the vagina.’”
After this ice breaker, various students performed different monologues throughout the night, evoking a range of emotions from the audience ranging from tears of sorrow to tears of laughter.

One of the best and certainly most impressive monologues of the night was “The Vagina Workshop,” performed by theater major Miranda Rawson.

Recalling an experience she had at a workshop designed to help women ‘find their clitoris,’ Rawson’s character expressed her evolving feelings toward her vagina, which exemplified her sense of self as a woman. It was phenomenally executed.

“My Angry Vagina,” performed by health science major Chelsea Ashby garnered a room full of hysterical laughter.

Discussing her views on her “angry vagina” represented her fury towards the oppression of women in the most empowering, yet comedic, way possible.

Another favorite of the night was “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy,” performed by communication major Khadija Rahim.

This monologue was unique to say the least. The audience had lost the ability to control their laughter when Rahim closed the performance by going through a laundry list of all the different kinds of moans women make during an orgasm, acting every single one out.

Confidence was an overbearing theme that night, and the cast did not show a single breach of that confidence throughout the whole night.

If the rest of the audience was as blown away as I was, I’d say there is litle doubt that this year’s Vagina Monologues performance was a success.

Kevin Loker, Connect2Mason Executive Editor

Wounded from recent economic troubles, current plans in Virginia’s General Assembly regarding the state’s budget and higher education may leave George Mason University students, faculty and staff stuck with more financial burden. In the proposed budgets, Mason faculty and staff would face a combination of furloughs, stagnant pay and general reductions in research funding — and students would face a projected tuition and fees increase between eight and 10 percent each year for the next three years.

During a town hall budget forum for faculty last Wednesday, Provost Peter Stearns and Senior Vice President Morrie Scherrens discussed options for combating the state budget cuts, options that, without attention in the present, would prevent the university from fully functioning in the future.

“During the past snowstorm, many of you probably had the same experience as I had. My son asked me after I had shoveled the driveway about four or five times – or six or eight times, rather – he said, ‘Do you really enjoy shoveling snow, being from Michigan, or are you just glad to get it done?’” said Scherrens, creating an analogy to the university’s financial situation.

“I had never heard the question phrased that way before, but when I thought about it, every time I went there it was at least semi-manageable,” said Scherrens. “And I knew that if I didn’t shovel it – and just stayed in and screwed around all day – at some point, it would become [un]manageable.”

Options discussed at the forum outlined what both the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia versions of the state budget proposal would mean for the university. The process of determining one legislative proposal has begun, and more details will arise depending on the legislative session ending. Stearns and Scherrens expect more information come late March or early April.

For faculty, the Senate version of the budget would call for employees to take one furlough day in the current fiscal year, and three each year in the fiscal years 2011 and 2012. The House version calls for no furloughs, but makes up the loss in further general budget cuts.

“One has it in and one has it out, but it’s our position . . . to at least plan for the one day of furlough,” Scherrens said. “It’s crazy to go into the final quarter [not knowing what] the plans are,” said Scherrens. Plans for one day of furlough involved both sides of the Memorial Day weekend, but they are subject to change depending on the legislative outcome.

For students, the effect seems more predictable. According to Scherrens, despite differences between the House and Senate, the university looks like it will have to make a prognostication that the tuition students’ pay will increase somewhere in the eight to 10 percent range each year for the next two or
three years. “I don’t see any way that’s going to get better,” said Scherrens.

Those that live in-state may bear another burden. While the House version calls for no such action, the Senate version calls for an imposed capital fee of $2.50 per credit hour for all in-state students.

Matthew Harrison, Broadside Correspondent

George Mason University philosophy professors want to show students the different connections between politics, philosophy and economics.

Dr. Peter Boettke, an economics professor at Mason, said the school’s weekly seminar touching on all three areas will integrate the topics.

“Increased specialization in these subjects has isolated them from what they were in the past,” said Boettke, who hopes to bring the fields closer together.

Boettke obtained his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, has taught economics for 12 years and is a winner of the Gold Dozen Teaching Award from New York University. His open discussion on politics, philosophy, and economics occurs weekly during the school year.

Boettke wants to make students realize the potential and criticism of the fields, and then use the knowledge to help write their theses.

The main guest speaker for last week’s session was Dr. Tara Smith, a professor from the University of Texas at Austin. She has been teaching for 21 years and expresses to students the deeper value of philosphy.

“Most of the students are writing papers for their theses, so this interaction gives them a second-hand perspective,” said Boettke.

Students interact with Smith and other teachers to develop and present their own ideas. An updated schedule for the meetings can be found at: http://www.gmu.edu/depts/economics/pboettke/workshop/workshop_s10.html