Many students have heard about the Chinese New Year, but the Vietnamese and other cultures also celebrate the Lunar New Year, which is the beginning of a new year based on the lunar calendar.

On Jan. 29, Mason’s Vietnamese Student Association celebrated the Lunar New Year with cultural food, traditional games and New Year’s crafts.

The Vietnamese New Year, or Tết, is an important cultural holiday to Vietnamese families which typically  involves three days of celebration.

This spring, the George Mason School of Dance was awarded the 2013 Excellence in Academic Program Review.  The Excellence in Academic Program Review is an award given annually to the department that has an excellent APR report as declared by the Office of Institutional Assessment.  There are five prerequisites that the school departments must show they adhere to and go beyond what is required.  These qualifications include dimensions such as “reflective and meaningful discussion of data and assessment findings” and “well-formed action plans based on evidence”.

Students circle up and get their marching orders. Once they receive their schedule the instruction begins and students are forced to step out of their comfort zone and dance their “buttsy” off.

“You hear about this class before you ever walk in,” said junior Elle Thomas, a current student of Nuamah’s. “The class exceeds [your] expectations.”

Though George Mason University is not an art school, it needs to have more options to fulfill the general education fine arts requirement that all students must complete before graduation. Mason should offer classes that both fulfill the arts requirement and appeal to a greater variety of students’ interests.

Right now, Mason offers art courses that involve art history, dance, music, theater and art and visual technology. Basically, you can sing, dance, draw, paint, act, play with Photoshop or sit through a boring lecture.