Thanks for your support everyone!

April 17, 2008 · Leave a Comment 

It’s been a long and hard journey to get to this point, but we wanted to extend our utmost thanks to everyone for supporting our campaign. We didn’t win, but we congratulate Zack and Claire for a great campaign and look forward to working with them next year! It’s been a heckuva ride, -Nicole Kukuruda and Ravi Udeshi Student Senators  Read More →

Welcome to NicoleandRavi.com!

Welcome to our site! We are Nicole Kukuruda and Ravi Udeshi, current Student Senators who want to use our experience and passion to turn our vision of what Mason could be into reality. We're focused on implementing Real Solutions, Right Now. Increase shuttles to fix parking? First thing on our list. Longer dining hours, especially on the weekends? Count on it. Upgrade the Mason email system (to Gmail!)? Already started working on it. People telling you we'll never see Chipotle on campus or an NCAA football team? We refuse to quit if that's what the students want. Feel free to explore our humble little abode on the net and, before you leave, please tell us what YOU want to see happen next year at Mason! Read More →

Parking & Transportation

• Non-Traditional solutions to parking problems - Adjust class times to allow a wider gap between classes to alleviate parking shortages. Discussions with Josh Cantor, Director of Parking Services, and Provost Stearns have been promising, who are interested in exploring the feasibility of starting with the evening classes as a model. By changing class times to 4:30pm-7:05pm and 7:25pm-10pm (or just evening classes to 7:30-10:10), there will be an increase in the parking gap by 10 minutes, which will save students time and alleviate congestion in Patriot Circle. We are determined to pursue this solution as an alternative means of looking at the Mason parking problem.
• Increasing shuttles - We want to make it more convenient to park in the Field House and West Campus lots than it is to find an open parking spot on the main campus. This can be done by increasing the rate of shuttles — picking up students every 5 minutes — and driving them directly to the Johnson Center.
• New Parking Deck - We plan to advocate that the new parking deck, which is being built where Lot F used to be and will contain 2660 spots, is not a parking deck permit-only location. Parking decks have been built on our campus and are not full each day, yet the general lots are filling up and causing overflow parking delays. We plan to encourage Parking Services to make the new deck part of the general lots in order to keep parking overflow problems down. We also hope to reserve at least one floor of the parking garage for resident students living in Chesapeake, Commonwealth, Dominion, and the Commons.

Dining Services

• Extend night, weekend, and vacation and summer hours - We are committed to continuing our work with Dining Services and Mason’s Sodexho representatives to increase the hours of dining locations on campus. We want to extend the weekend hours and to open more venues on the weekend, including keeping everything in the JC Food Court open until at least 9pm, if not later. We are also actively working to increase the hours of dining available during Fall, Winter, and Spring breaks, as well as summer hours.
• 24-hour Food and Study Location - Provide a dining location on campus which will be open 24 hours a day. We propose using the Starbucks as this location — open 24 hours a day as a place where you can study, get small food items, or purchase coffee to help you stay up all night. We also hope to get Damon’s open until at least 2am on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, when, come Fall ‘08, it will be accepting Freedom Meal Plans.
• Losing the forced meal plan - On-campus students who do not have a kitchen in their dorm room are currently forced to purchase a meal plan. We believe that college students are responsible adults who can budget for their own dining options, on-campus or off-campus.
• Expanding the Green Star program - The Green Star program, which provides discounts for Mason students at local businesses that affix a green star sticker to their windows, was recently revived this year. We have been working on this program with Vice President for University Life Sandy Hubler, and Student Body President Drew Shelnutt, and believe invitations should continue to be extended throughout the summer and coming year to provide a large base of local businesses that support Mason students.

Technology and Innovation

• Upgrading the Mason email system - We have been working with VP of the Technology Services Division Walt Sevon to upgrade Mason’s email. The Student Senate unanimously passed a resolution advocating for this change following a presentation by Ravi; this helped spur the university decision to adopt a new email system by Fall ‘08. Ravi will be serving on the committee that makes this change, and will strenuously advocate a switch to Google’s Gmail — the service with which most students are already familiar, provides the most features, and will save the University more than $400,000/year.
• 100% Wi-Fi everywhere - Full Wi-Fi coverage in every building, academic and residential — no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It’s in the University’s Master Plan to happen eventually, but we don’t think it can happen fast enough. We have worked with VPIT/CIO Joy Hughes to increase the speed and coverage of wireless in the JC, but we won’t rest until you can’t cross this campus without getting a Wi-Fi signal.
• Computer Labs in Residential Areas - Place mini-computer labs of 3 computers and a copy/scan/print machine in each residential area for increased convenience to residential students.
• Mason Money Debit Card - As one of our largest initiatives, we plan to work with the Mason ID card staff and either Chevy Chase Bank or Apple Federal Credit Union to provide free student banking accounts where the debit card access of one’s account is put onto their Mason ID card. This opt-in system will allow students to use their Mason ID cards in any establishment that accepts debit cards, including Fair Oaks Mall, Downtown Fairfax, and others. We also hope to allow this debit system to work similar to Mason Money, to offer tax-free food options while on campus, and allow family and friends to add money to the accounts from a separate location. This technology is readily available; overtures must be made to the University banks to allow this idea to come to fruition.