LETTER: SG's Goals to Improve Campus Life

By Student Government President Zack Golden

Last Tuesday, Student Government co-sponsored the Mason Vote Vans, which took registered students to the Woodson High School polling place. Student Government leaders drove the vans taking over 200 students to the polls on Election Day. While driving students to the polls, they were given a survey that gave them an opportunity to voice their opinion on issues affecting the campus and to also evaluate student government’s role in representing students thus far. A common theme I noticed in students’ perception of their Student Government was that they weren’t sure what we are working on this year to make George Mason University even better for students.

About a month ago, Student Government put together a comprehensive plan with eight goals to accomplish accompanied by eight specific projects to achieve the goals we set. I want to make the plan public so that everyone knows exactly what Student Government is doing and how we are doing it.

Our first goal is to help promote a sense of pride among students about their university.
We have two projects right now to support this goal. The first is “Gold Rush,” which we are doing again this year with some interesting additions. Our Gold Rush kickoff will feature the drum line and the color guard leading a procession, or a “Gold Rush,” through the residence areas and campus to the Patriot Center. Anyone who joins this “Gold Rush” will receive the new shirt, and be part of a new tradition here at Mason. The other project that we have to support our goal of promoting pride in Mason is to encourage and promote giving back to our university. We will use Gold Rush to help advertise the Office of Annual Giving’s student giving initiative so that students can see the value of giving back to Mason.

Our second goal is to help endear Mason to the Fairfax community. We want students to realize that when we come to Mason we are not only joining the Mason community, but also the Fairfax community. Last week’s Witch Watch, where students volunteered to go out into the community and make sure neighborhoods were safe for trick-or-treaters, is an example of how we are trying to achieve this goal. The vote vans, a program that make it easier for students to vote in the Fairfax community, is another way that we are trying to endear Mason students to the Fairfax community.

Our next goal is to help Mason, from the student perspective, prepare for an expanded residential population. There are three ways we hope to achieve this goal. First, we are going to advocate for a late night study facility, preferably Fenwick library. Next, we are going to try to get condoms dispensers placed in residence halls to promote sexual health. Finally, we are going to work to get more tables placed outside of the residence halls, so that students have more places to gather and socialize outside of their individual rooms.

Student Government’s fourth goal this year is to bring our residential and non-residential populations together. Mason is unique in that it will always have large residential and non-residential populations; therefore we need to find ways to bring the two together. The first way we hope to do that is to work with our administration to start a University Life Hour. This would be an hour in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, where there would be fewer classes scheduled. This would create a time where both populations are on campus. During this time we would be able to schedule our University wide programming, and members of both populations would be able to attend. Next, we hope to open the Chesapeake residence area first floor study rooms to non-residential students. Currently, our Johnson Center and Fenwick study rooms are filled to capacity during the day, and opening more of them would help alleviate the congestion.

These are the first four of the eight goals we have set for the year. Next week, I am going to talk about the remaining four and their accompanying projects. In the coming weeks I will be writing about the status of our individual projects, and why they are or are not working. I hope that this helps students understand what exactly their Student Government is doing for them this year, and how we can help.