A Show of Resistance

By Broadside Contributor Michael Gryboski

Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of attention has been focused on our university. It was not because of our basketball team, but because of the student body’s election of a drag queen as our Homecoming Queen. Ryan Allen, also known as Reann Ballslee, has created headlines for major newspapers and cable news television, as well as plenty of YouTube videos and blog postings. Some see this as a great step forward for inclusiveness, to others it’s a big joke, and to others still it’s a disgrace.

Like all the other pundits with some voice in media out there, I am offering another potentiality to explain the anomaly. By casting a yes-vote for Reann, the student body was casting a no-vote to the University administration’s tireless efforts to create a “professional” college, often at the expense of students.

It is consistently believed at our university that students have no real say in things.
Students did not have a say in the 1990s when the administration at the time approved all these construction projects, making them fall at the same time, eliminating numerous parking lots in the process.

Nor were students given a voice when the powers that be opted against advancing our club football team, which had a miracle run of its own a decade ago but got virtually no administrative support. This is inherent in our institutions, as the all-powerful Board of Visitors does not allow its student representatives to vote, and so decisions are made to change General Education requirements with little warning for students expecting to graduate on time and our beloved Gunston, the mascot who saw us through the Final Four run of 2006, is eliminated.

Why do all of this? It was best explained by the current Associate Director for Student Activities, Dennis Hicks, when interviewed by Connect2Mason about the replacing of Gunston, “The look of the new mascot is definitely more collegiate looking and fits better with the mascots of other major universities.”

And there you have it; this pushing forth is towards a direction of becoming just like every other major university. That is why students have virtually no say in our goings-on, be it mascots or parking accessibility. We should become another George Washington, or if we’re lucky, another Yale or Harvard.

It is amusing, however, that the last time we had a mascot that had the colonial American persona, it was quickly removed by then Mason president George Johnson, namesake of the Johnson Center, over the view that it did not adequately reflect our college’s diversity. Of course, it is no longer about us; it is about being a professional and respectable institution.

Perhaps this trend is benevolent. Some of the items held in contempt are really points of an ephemeral nature. Sure, there are plenty of lots closing, including the much cherished Lot F, but from its ashes shall arise a very imposing and very convenient parking deck.

Sure, construction can get on a person’s nerves, but once this construction is completed, new buildings with cutting edge technology and expanded academic programming will be more readily available for the student body. It’s possible that this continual overlooking of student opinion will be for our benefit in the long run, creating a better future.

This may be true, but I don’t think that is what students were thinking about as they voted in Reann Ballslee as Ms. Mason, an act that would be deemed unprofessional by the standards of most Yales, Harvards and George Washingtons. Granted, our university administration has voiced support for the decision, but they may just be doing that to save face.

Deep down, they know this hinders their goal to become a mainstream, high- ranking college, one that can get an award more tangible than “Number One School to Watch” from U.S. News and World Report, which is tantamount to an honorable mention certificate at an elementary school talent show. Maybe students, for better or worse, do not want to become another Yale, or a Harvard, or even a George Washington. Maybe we want to be Mason, a commuter school with a strong bend towards multiculturalism and basketball. Maybe that is what students want, regardless of what the administration thinks.