Platform

We’ve compiled an incredibly extensive platform here; it’s more than 3,500 words and prints more than 8 pages. Why is it so comprehensive? We firmly believe that failing to plan is planning to fail, and so we’ve outlined a plan of action for our administration here. If elected, we will turn the following into a checklist and keep it posted in our office to always remind us of what we were elected to accomplish. Please take your time and read through it; if you have an idea that you don’t see listed, please let us know. Thanks!

-Nicole Kukuruda and Ravi Udeshi
Candidates for Student Body President and Vice President

• 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.
• Carpooling - Create an online system, in conjunction with Parking Services, to find commuters with similar routes to facilitate carpooling options. We also propose offering a discounted parking pass for those students who carpool at least 2 days a week.
• Bikers - Students who use a bike to commute to campus should not be penalized on days that it rains, forcing them to park in the decks at full cost. We plan to push for a reduced-cost parking pass especially for bikers who only need a parking space on campus a few days a month.
• Parking Awareness and Communication - We feel that a critical aspect of dealing with parking issues is making the parking system more transparent and open. We plan to achieve this by working with Josh Cantor, Director of Parking Services — who already posts to the TalkMason.com discussion forums and frequently emails students — to open up even more channels of communication, like utilizing the new OrgSync and MyMason Portal projects, to increase awareness of parking changes and construction.
• Parking services staff - We would also like to work with the parking services staff to ensure that customer service is a priority, and that communication between staff and students is clearer.
• Training and consistency with ticketing procedures - Many students receive one, if not multiple tickets from parking services each year, and students often feel victimized by the tactics used to ticket students. We would like to work with Parking Services to have a clearer standard of valid and invalid ways of parking, and to create a more standardized means of ticketing violators. Our plan is to also diminish the instances of overzealous ticketing, especially regarding loading zones and snow day parking.
• Campus safety - Although Mason boasts a safe university, there are still several factors of campus safety which need to be improved. In 2006, George Mason University had the highest rate of rape occurrences of any public institution in the state of Virginia; this is unacceptable. The best way to improve our crime statistics is to make our campus a safer environment. We feel this goal can be achieved through several means, from increasing the number of call boxes across campus to ensuring that the current call boxes are in proper working order. We also plan to improve lighting around campus to provide safe pathways throughout campus at night. Many of these issues can be achieved through work during the annual Nightwalk event sponsored by Student Government. We hope to increase attendance at Nightwalk, not only by students, but by campus administrators and campus police. In recent years, staff involvement in this event has diminished, and we feel it is imperative that the university take a more active role in keep students safe while at school. We will also work to have accountability with administrators regarding suggestions from Nightwalk to have a rapid turnaround on improving safety in designated areas.
• Theft Protection - Security in the Johnson Center, Student Unions, and the Art Department is one of our campaigns concerns. There have been several thefts within the library in the Johnson Center, the Patriots Lounge in Sub I, and from several of the lockers within the Fine Arts Building over the last few years. We plan to improve theft protection deterrents through active security in buildings. This will hopefully be achieved by having rounds done through these buildings on an irregular schedule by Securitas, or another similar company. Our hope is that this will serve as a deterrent to those hoping to steal.

Food and Dining

• 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

• 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.

Other

• Staff training on customer service - Make customer service a campus-wide initiative. Too often, while waiting to get a burrito from Taco Bell, or waiting to purchase a parking pass at Parking Services, or trying to get a package from the mail room, we’ve overheard students complaining about the lackluster dedication to customer service that our university provides. Students are customers too and deserve to be treated with respect. We plan to launch a campus-wide training initiative to bring up our standards of customer service, and make George Mason services more respectable and respected.
• Convert trashcans into multi-purpose disposal bins - We plan to work with the Environmental Awareness Club and the Broadside on an initiative to convert all University trashcans into combination trashcans/recycle bins, with different compartments for standard waste, recyclable paper products, and recyclable glass/metal products. Similar programs have been implemented at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and the University of Pittsburgh, among many others, and can be easily implemented at Mason on a revenue-neutral basis (at no long-term cost to the University).

• Fall celebration - A great idea we’ve been working on with the Weekends committee and the office of Student Activities is the concept of creating a fall celebration around Labor Day weekend to encourage students to stay on campus and in the area, instead of going home. This concept will play directly into two of our overarching initiatives: increasing weekend life and programming and making football a central issue. Student activities plans to have a big concert, BBQ/block party-like atmosphere, and a football game in the evening. They also plan to have other programing on the days before and after the football game to make the whole weekend an exciting programing experience.
• Increasing Mason atmosphere through increased Program Board funding - By giving Program Board more funding (similar to other schools of our size), we can increase weekend life on campus, and have more Mason Day-like events. This concept includes having more block parties (like the one at this year’s Homecoming), more concert-like events throughout the year to attract students to campus for non-educational venues, and more funding to provide better programming (artists, comedians, and entertainment).
• Block parties - As we all realized at Homecoming, the block party was a hit! This was a combination of many factors, from permitting alcohol in the designated area to the calm demeanor of the Mason cops while patrolling the venue. We can increase the feeling of community on campus and Patriot Pride for sporting events by having block parties before all weekend games. There are usually 5-6 weekend games a year, and having a big party before each one will make them all the more fun. This concept can easily overspill into a potential football event too, to create more school spirit for our club football team, and hopefully to build student stamina to push for an NCAA team!
• Save Gunston - Our mascot may be an an awkward green furry blob who is “seemingly without care,” but he (or she) is an important part of Mason’s history, and a very distinct Mason tradition. Our mascot should be saved and protected from an administration that wants to replace him with something more “marketable.” As representatives of the student body, we will fight to keep Gunston, in all of his glory, to preserve a Mason tradition that the students want.
• Football - The tradition of football at Mason is highly controversial. Obviously, bringing up the topic of football again will require a degree of delicacy. We propose to ask that the Board of Visitors convene a new Football Feasibility committee to address this topic and to explore the option of football at Mason. Our hope is that students, faculty, staff, and alumni will all be involved in this process. It has been nearly 10 years since football was last addressed by the Mason administration and, as our school has grown and prospered since that time, we hope that the dynamics of the discussion will have changed.
• Student Funding - Make student funding process easier via more communication from staff and the Student Funding Board. Push for the paperwork system to finally be upgraded to a computerized funding application to alleviate tension on Student Activities staff while simplifying process for students.
• Mason Day and Patriots Day - Our plan is to make Mason Day and Patriots Day even better! This goal will be achieved by 3 initiatives. The first is bringing back Patriots Day to make it a full-fledged, school-wide, programming event at the end of September. We want to make this day the Mason Day of the fall, with headliner bands and a great sense of student life. The second aspect of making this happen is increasing Program Board funding in order to bring in better bands and more entertainment. Lastly, we need to work with the school administration to get classes canceled for Mason Day and Patriots Day so that all students can partake in the fun and celebrate Mason!
• Greek Life - Get a Greek ceremonial room built on campus so that all the Brothers and Sisters can have a place to practice their ceremonies. This room would ideally include a locked closet for each Greek organization so that ceremonial materials and composites can be locked in a safe location. Another initiative we will continue discussion on is expanding opportunities for Greek living at Mason. This includes looking at the new Housing VIIC for locations as opposed to limiting Greeks to the commons. We also plan to work with the Greek organizations to get the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act passed into law through our close location to DC, and major lobbying efforts within our Greek community. Lastly, we’d like to simplify the means of bringing new Greek organizations to campus to allow for easier expansion of the Multicultural Greek Council and the Pan-Hellenic Council.
• Mason Pride - Help our school become a more visible location. At so many college campuses, the sense of attachment to the school logo, mascot and colors is felt everywhere throughout the campus. As students, it is important to not be walking past Enterprise Hall and see a burgundy and turquoise sign, and think you are at another school. Mason should be proud of its name, its colors, and its school spirit. This involves changing the signs throughout Mason to better reflect our university, our school colors, and our Mason pride. Furthermore, we would like to see Mason logos emblazoned on the roads of Patriot Circle.

• 24-hour study facility - As mentioned, our goal is to create a location on campus which is available for studying 24 hours a day. Our recommendation for this facility is the new Starbucks which will be inside the Chesapeake Area in the Northern Neck building. Our logic is that the cozy atmosphere with plush couches and a roaring fireplace will invite students to study in the location often. We also hope that although study lounges are available in the housing units, that Off campus students will use the Starbucks to study and relax with friends.
• Park study rooms restored (get rid of the quints) - Removing recreational study rooms and lounges to place five young adults in one room is ridiculous. Housing administrators have previously said they hope to see this happen, but circumstances may preclude them from doing so; we plan to push Housing to firmly commit to converting these quints back into study lounges. We also plan to bring in more HDTVs to the residential areas as well to foster an environment of community.
• Increase professor quality and focus on overall faculty standards - It seems that our university has decided to put its national image above the primary goal of providing a quality education to the students. This was seen in the past year when George Mason chose to take the state funding cuts by reducing the number of faculty hired, increasing class sizes, and leaving vacant positions open. Our focus as an institution should be providing a strong education and this is not feasible if our funds are not going towards hiring outstanding faculty. We plan to work with the Deans of each department as well as the Board of Visitors to emphasize the need for retaining and hiring quality professors above all else.
• Increase reviews within departments based on class surveys - Although students fill out thousands of surveys each semester for their classes, the survey results are rarely used during professor evaluation periods within the departments. We feel that professors should be accountable to their students and should be subject to review from the students on a quarterly basis. Year-end reviews should be used by department heads to evaluate faculty and their ability to teach in the future. When students voice their opinion, it should be taken seriously.
• Improve ratings.gmu.edu - This site currently organizes the numerical data taken from class surveys; in the future, students should be able to add their personal comments, usually written on the back of the class surveys, directly to this site. Furthermore, these comments should also be easily accessible to students seeking personal reviews of professors and classes they are considering taking. Eventually, all class surveys should be administered through this site.
• Fight out-of-state tuition hikes - The next Student Body President must work with the Board of Visitors to ensure that out-of-state students are not unfairly penalized. The BOV plans to increase out-of-state tuition by 16% next year; this is clearly a huge burden for such students, and alternatives to student tuition increases must be investigated. We propose increasing student representation on the BOV to ensure such actions are not repeated in the future.
• State of the Student Body address - The next Student Body President should address the student body at least once a year and inform them of the initiatives they have been working on and those that they intend to pursue. Such events should include significant interaction with the student body, including question-and-answer periods.
• 18th credit hour - Over the last year, we have been working strenuously with the Office of the Provost and the Board of Visitors to address the issue of increasing the number of credit hours at Mason. Many schools in the state of Virginia charge the same price for 12-18 credit hours (or more), and we’d like to see this change implemented at Mason as well. This will allow those students wishing to agressively pursue their education with the intent to graduate in 4 years the ability to do so easily. It will also simplify the process of taking Science and Arts classes which have more or less than 3 credit hours per course. We hope that this will encourage students to graduate on-time and to ease the financial burden on those students.
• 50% book buyback policy - Purchasing textbooks for a class can cost upwards of $500.00 per semester and as college students, we realize the strain that can put on your budget. We would like to work with the Bookstore to enforce a buyback policy of at least 50% so that students recieve some of the money back for books that are purchased. If this is not met successfully by the Mason Bookstore, we will work with Connect Mason to launch a Mason Student to Student book selling forum for students to get the best deals by selling to each other.
• Revise and Open up the Org-Announce Mailing List - Current student organization heads are subscribed to a mailing list used for organization announcements. We want to work with Student Activities and the MyMason Portal project to create a master system which allows everyone — not just organization leaders — to choose updates regarding academic activities, student org events, university announcements, and more.