Letter from the Editor
Hey Patriots, After a six week stretch, we’ll be taking a couple weeks off for midterms and spring break. Spending six weeks with the same group of people in close proximity really taught me a lot about the team my…
Category: Opinion
Letter from the Editor
Hey Patriots, I hope everyone had an amazing Homecoming week. Whether you went to any events, or just the basketball game — I hope you were able to have some fun. Our Culture section covered a few of the events…
SPECIAL SECTION: MASON CORE
BY: DOMINIC PINO, OPINION EDITOR Since every student is affected by the Mason Core, it is only fitting that students have a lot to say about it. By the time students enroll in college, they have been attending school for…
Design Courses for Real Students
BY: JACE WHITE, STAFF WRITER This entire conversation about the core curriculum relies on the tenuous assumption that students actually learn things in their classes. We make the opposite mistake that the scientists in “Jurassic Park” did: We’re so preoccupied…
Is the Mason Core Different From NOVA?
BY: DAWSON WEINHOLD, STAFF WRITER Like many people at Mason, I first went to Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). It provided a way for me to take introductory courses like the ones Mason offers, but at a lower price. Having…
From 3,000 Miles Away: A View from a Graduate
BY: STEVEN ZHOU, STAFF WRITER Before I came here to Mason for my Ph.D., I went to Pepperdine, an undergraduate college 3,000 miles away in California that was the opposite of Mason in many ways. Mason is public. Pepperdine is…
An Honors College Approach to Gen Ed
BY: SAVANNAH MARTINCIC, STAFF WRITER As a member of the Honors College Recruitment Team at Mason, I have been taught to tell prospective students that one of the biggest appeals of the Honors College is its curriculum, in that they…
Remember Who’s Paying for Education
BY: ELI KOHN, STAFF WRITER The Mason Core is designed to give students a “well-rounded educational experience” and to guarantee they are exposed to many different subjects and classroom environments. The Mason Core requires that students take courses designated as…
Building on the Past: History of Liberal Arts
BY: ALEX MADAJIAN, STAFF WRITER The ideas behind the Mason Core curriculum do not stand alone. They stand on the shoulders of thousands of years of the liberal arts tradition. But what is this tradition? Why does it matter now?…
I Wish Mason Taught Entrepreneurship
BY: DANIEL SCOTT MITCHELL, STAFF WRITER Think back to your childhood summers; the blazing sun was beating down on the world, a heat mirage was dancing on the asphalt, and just about everyone was seeking a reprieve from the stifling…