"GMU Folk" via Aram ZS in Google Reader

Photo 2/365: A ride through the forest is the perfect thing for...

2012-05-27T00:43:10Z

Photo 2/365: A ride through the forest is the perfect thing for such a nice day. The trees are the paint strokes in nature’s canvas, growing only where they are allowed.

My name is "Ace", but you can call me "Ace". VGHS Ep. 3 [REVIEW]

2012-05-27T00:35:00Z

It’s way past rock o’clock, but that’s O.K. Know why?

Engie doesn’t know, but I’ll tell you.

It’s time to review VGHS episode 3.

Plot
After a crazy dream, BrianD (Josh Blaylock) and Ted Wong (Jimmy Wong) head to FPS 101 taught by Ace (Zachary Levi, “Chuck”) and his teacher’s assistant Jenny Matrix (Johanna Braddy).

Matrix, captain of the junior-varsity FPS team is seeking a freshman for the Varsity v.s. JV scrimmage and BrianD takes the pit challenge. Will he succeed and join JV for the scrimmage?

Analysis
Episode 3 was excellent in the beginning with the trippy dream sequence, but got sluggish toward the end.

Ironically enough, the episode ended with a speedrun of the pit which was exciting to see, but it didn’t have the impact of the action from the previous two episodes.

It is understandable that you can’t keep running at full speed all the time and you do need to build story. This episode is a great lead up to the party Jenny Martix has invited BrianD and co. to along with the drift racing sequence Freddie Wong had teased earlier in the week.

We do get to see the relationship between BrianD, Ted Wong and Ki Swan (Ellary Porterfield) start to be expanded on.

These characters are being fleshed out well with each one able to be categorized. BrianD is the awkward but amazing gamer, Ted Wong is the peppy hyper friend you know you want to shut up, but in truth entertains you and Ki Swan is the nerdy girl who in the end will kick major butt.

For those who don’t know, Freddie Wong appeared on “Chuck” for an episode as one of the villain’s top hackers. Levi had shown interest in being involved with Wong’s work after which and came on board for VGHS.

Levi’s appearance is the first of the series, but is very strong. This slick shooting teacher is someone I’m looking forward to seeing again.

Though there wasn’t anything overly intricate effects-wise, but the dream sequence really was the highlight of the episode.

Conclusion
Things keep getting better and better, but VGHS is starting to slow down to focus on story and characters. It is a good point to flesh out the characters, but hopefully with the next episodes the heart pounding momentum will keep going.

Until next Thursday, stay jolly!

FINAL VERDICT: 7/10

Photo 1/365: I’ve been biking to a local shopping center...

2012-05-26T01:10:00Z

Photo 1/365: I’ve been biking to a local shopping center since graduation and this fountain always makes me happy. It’s the little things in life that we have to enjoy.

You sank 2 hours of my life, "Battleship" [MOVIE REVIEW]

2012-05-26T01:07:32Z

I was really unsure with what was going to come of this board game based movie when it was announced last summer.

One thing is for sure, “Battleship” set it’s priorities on sinking 2 hours of my life as I ended up watching an overly intricate commercial for the Navy. With aliens. In frog jumping spaceships.

I figure I should set some priorities for myself this review.

Priority three: Wonder to myself who thought making this movie was a good idea?

Priority two: Be amazed that the movie wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

And finally, priority one: Tell you about why you should wait to see this movie.

Plot

Based on the Hasbro board game, “Battleship” follows Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch, “John Carter”) during this coming of age story.

Mankind has found a planet in deep space that is similar to Earth and decides to send out a signal in hopes of alien life and a response.

After a brief episode of trying to impress Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker, “Just Go With It”) with a chicken burrito, Hopper’s brother Commander Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard, “True Blood”) convinces him to join the Navy.

Flashforward to present day and the Naval Rim of Pacific Exercises or RIMPAC are taking place. Alex has risen through the ranks, becoming a lieutenant and wants to marry Shane who turns out to be United States Navy Pacific Fleet Commander and Naval Admiral Shane’s (Liam Neeson, “Batman Begins”) daughter.

The Navy head out into Hawaiian waters for the exercises only to have the aliens come crash landing to Earth and wanting to take over. Will Hopper and the human race be able to defend humanity and the planet?

Analysis (SOME SPOILERS AHEAD)
Let’s go back to priority three: Wonder to myself who thought making this movie was a good idea?

Hasbro and Universal Pictures, the same people who brought you the Transformers trilogy were the minds behind “Battleship” and I really wonder if this was a commercial for the Navy or for the board game?

It was really funny that before the movie began, a commercial for the board game came up and there was a universal chuckle at the screen. “You sunk my battleship!”

That was only the beginning of the laugh fest that was this movie.

“Battleship” had it’s really cool and serious moments especially toward the second half of the film, but the seriousness is shot down by the silliness of the film.

For starters, the planet the aliens are from is called a Goldilocks planet, “one not too hot, not too cold, but just right.” Not only that, the movie is filled with blatant product placement that gets distracting at times.

I couldn’t wrap my head around the alien destroyers which were like rolling tanks that for some reason reminded me of Megatron from Transformers. How were these things driven? Were they remote controlled? They didn’t make sense and to me, had no reason for being in the movie other than blow things up.

Though the movie was silly, there was a big surprise. Priority two: the realization that the movie wasn’t all that bad.

The first thing that redeemed the movie was how the board game aspects were used. You probably saw this in the trailer, the alien’s explosive weapons are the pegs from the game. The Navy eventually loses it’s electrical systems and in order to fight the aliens, they use a grid system just like the game even going as far as to shout “A11” and the such! GASP!

When you see it, you’ll agree with me in saying it works. It is a bit silly because you know you’re seeing a board game come to the big screen, but with any movie, you must suspend your disbelief. The grid system is actually used in a really interesting fashion and you laugh because you see it working.

Lastly, it was really cool to see the veterans save the day. At a point, Hopper and crew must use the USS Missouri, a museum and the only battleship around, but they don’t know how to pilot it. The veterans aboard come together and show the young crew that one’s not too old to kick alien butt.

Each actor gave a decent performance, but the most surprising was Rihanna who delivers one of the movie’s best one liners. Along with her, Tadanobu Asano did a spectacular job as the Japanese commander continuously taking charge of the situation.

Asano along with Liam Neeson’s performances anchor the seriousness in the neck deep waters of silliness.

Conclusion

Lastly, priority one: Tell you about why you should wait to see this movie.

At the end of it all, this is a movie based off a board game.

You know going into the theater that’s the fact and you may enjoy it, but at the end of it all, the movie is in it to make money and be entertaining.

“Battleship” was a decent movie at best that has it’s moments, but it’s seriousness is undermined by how silly it is at it’s core.

I was waiting for the entire movie to hear Neeson say “You sunk my battleship” just like the kid in the commercial, but sadly, it never happened.

You will get the full experience when seeing this on the big screen with some friends, but it’ll be best to rent this one.

Mission accomplished. Aloha.

FINAL VERDICT: 6.5/10

Project 365 [ANNOUNCEMENT]

2012-05-25T18:28:00Z

Welcome to Project 365.

I am going to be taking a photo a day and posting it here. Simple as that. I don’t know what they’ll be, but that’s the fun part. If not a photo than a video will be in its place.

The photo or video will be accompanied by a little story and description so whether that blossoms into a news story or not will be entirely up to fate.

I’m going to try my best to make this work and I hope that you’re along for the ride.

365 days, 365 photos or videos and a whole lot of typing.

Let’s get started. :D

First photo to come later today.

Fairfax County Times article: "Merten helped build George Mason’s image"

2012-05-25T13:56:42Z

Fairfax County Times article: "Merten helped build George Mason’s image":

Fairfax County Times wrote a great article on outgoing Mason President Alan Merten. Head to the site and look back at his tenure and accomplishments.

Short Fiction Recommendations

2012-05-25T20:44:00Z

A couple of short stories online caught my attention recently, and then a full anthology crossed my desk — each worth recommending (though admittedly with a little bias on the anthology, as you’ll find out).

First up is Scott Garson’s “About Me and My Cousin” in Matchbook — not a new story, since it was published in 2009, but new to me. Not only do I admire the movement of the story — literally a movement, since it progresses episode by episode via a series of links — but Garson’s comments on the story are mighty persuasive argument about the possibilities the Internet offers to short stories beyond just “a cheaper alternative to print.”

Next on my list is another story from SmokeLong Quarterly: “The New Doctor” by Abe Gaustad (and featuring some mighty fine artwork by the five-year-old son of a friend of mine).

Finally, the anthology: Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Presents Flush Fiction: 88 Stories You Can Read in a Single Sitting. And the bias? “The Hamster,” a story by wife, Tara Laskowski, is featured in the collection. While it’s a great story (see for yourself in its original publication here), the others I’ve sampled from the anthology are equally interesting. Eric Cline’s “What’s the Difference Between Optometrists and Ophthalmologists?” was the first I read, not just because it’s the first in the book but also because I’d enjoyed his story “Two Dwarves and Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs” from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine last year. Jason Schossler’s “For Wile E. Coyote, Apetitius giganticus” — about (yes) that Wile E. Coyote — was not just clever but also remarkably touching. And Corey Mesler’s “Aftermath” proved how much story you can fit in a very little space (just nine lines). Still browsing through this one, but already worth recommending. — Art Taylor

Filed under: Reviews/Recommendations, Short Fiction

The Blessay

2012-05-25T01:22:14Z

Sorry, I don’t have a better name for it, but I feel it needs a succinct name so we can identify and discuss it. It’s not a tossed-off short blog post. It’s not a long, involved essay. It’s somewhere in between: it’s a blessay.

The blessay is a manifestation of the convergence of journalism and scholarship in mid-length forms online. (For those keeping track at home, #7 on my list of ways that journalism and the humanities are merging in digital media). You’ve seen it on The Atlantic‘s website, on smart blogs like BLDGBLOG and Snarkmarket, and on sites that aggregate high-quality longform web writing.

Some characteristics of the blessay:

1) Mid-length: more ambitious than a blog post, less comprehensive than an academic article. Written to the length that is necessary, but no more. If we need to put a number on it, generally 1,000-3,000 words.

2) Informed by academic knowledge and analysis, but doesn’t rub your nose in it.

3) Uses the apparatus of the web more than the apparatus of the journal, e.g., links rather than footnotes. Where helpful, uses supplementary evidence from images, audio, and video—elements that are often missing or flattened in print.

4) Expresses expertise but also curiosity. Conclusive but also suggestive.

5) Written for both specialists and an intelligent general audience. Avoids academic jargon—not to be populist, but rather out of a feeling that avoiding jargon is part of writing well.

6) Wants to be Instapapered and Read Later.

7) Eschews simplistic formulations superficially borrowed from academic fields like history (no “The Puritans were like Wikipedians”).

I suspect readers of this blog know the genre I’m talking about. Am I missing other key characteristics of the blessay? What are some exemplary instances?

UPDATE: Unsurprising griping about the name on Twitter. Please: give me a better name, one that isn’t confused with other genres. Other suggestions: Giovanni Tiso: “essay” (confusing, but gets rid of the hated “bl”); Suzanne Fischer likes Anne Trubek’s suggestion of “intellectual journalism” (seems to favor the journalism side to me). As I’ve said in this space before, writing is writing; I’d love to call this genre just “the essay” or, yes, “writing,” but I wrote this post because I believe if we go that route the salient characteristics of the genre will be lost in a night in which all cows are black.

UPDATE 2: Much headway being made on Twitter in response to this post. Yoni Appelbaum puts his finger on it: “It’s not journalism. It’s not blogging. It’s practicing the art of the essay in the digital space.” That’s right. Thus Yoni’s suggestion for a name: “Simplest is sometimes best. These are Digital Essays – composed, distributed, and tailored for the format.” Anne Trubek and Tim Carmody worked to define the audience. Anne spoke of readers of the print Atlantic, the New Yorker, and other middle brow gatherings, and authors like Trilling. Tim responded: “The audience for this is similar: para-academic, post-collegiate white-collar workers and artists, with occasional breakthroughs either all the way to a ‘high academic’ or to a ‘mass culture’ audience.”

UPDATE 3: Back to the name: Some perhaps better suggestions are surfacing. Sarah Werner mentioned a word I often use in this space for the genre: “pieces.” Anne Trubek gives it that classic modifier: “thought pieces.” Kari Kraus reminds me that MediaCommons uses “middle-state,” which has some charms, but is a bit opaque.

UPDATE 4: So of course Stephen Fry would beat me to the coinage of “blessay” (thanks, Dragonweb). Again, the point of this exercise is less about the name than about a set of traits. A blessay—or whatever we want to call it—isn’t just a long blog post or a short academic article posted online. It has certain stylistic elements. And it doesn’t rule out other kinds of intelligent online writing.

My name is "Ace", but you can call me "Ace". [Review

2012-05-25T01:05:38Z

Free slurpee ftw. You can still head over to 7-11 to get your...

2012-05-23T18:45:00Z

Free slurpee ftw. You can still head over to 7-11 to get your own free Slurpee or Slurpee Light. The offer ends tonight at 7.

Just the Text

2012-05-23T19:08:42Z

This post marks the third major redesign of my site and its fourth incarnation. The site began more than a decade ago as a place to put some basic information about myself online. Not much happening in 2003:

In 2005, I wrote some PHP scripts to add a simple homemade blog to the site:

In 2007, I switched to using WordPress behind the scenes, and in doing so moved from post excerpts on the home page to full posts. I also added my other online presences, such as Twitter and the Digital Campus podcast.

Five years and 400 posts later, I’ve made a more radical change for 2012 and beyond, as the title of this post suggests. But the thinking behind this redesign goes back to the beginning of this blog, when I struggled, in a series called “Creating a Blog from Scratch,” with how best to highlight the most important feature of the site: the writing. As I wrote in “Creating a Blog from Scratch, Part I: What is a Blog, Anyway?” I wanted to author my own blogging software so I could “emphasize, above all, the subject matter and the content of each post.” The existing blogging packages I had considered had other priorities apparent in their design, such as a prominent calendar showing how frequently you posted. I wanted to stress quality over quantity.

Recent favorable developments in online text and web design have had a similar stress. As I noted in “Reading is Believing,”

rather than focusing on a new technology or website in our year-end review on the Digital Campus podcast, I chose reading as the big story of 2011. Surely 2011 was the year that digital reading came of age, with iPad and Kindle sales skyrocketing, apps for reading flourishing, and sites for finding high-quality long-form writing proliferating. It was apropos that Alan Jacobs‘s wonderful book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction was published in 2011.

Now comes a forceful movement in web design to strip down sites to their essential text. Like many others, I appreciated Dustin Curtis’s great design of the Svbtle blog network this spring, and my site redesign obviously owes a significant debt to Dustin. (Indeed, this theme is a somewhat involved modification of Ricardo Rauch’s WordPress clone of Svbtle; I’ve made some important changes, such as adding comments—Svbtle and its clones eschew comments for thumbs-up “kudos.”)

One of the deans of web design, Jeffrey Zeldman, summarized much of this “just the text” thinking in his “Web Design Manifesto 2012” last week. Count me as part of that movement, which is part of an older movement to make the web not just hospitable toward writing and reading, but a medium that puts writing and reading first. Academics, among many others, should welcome this change.

My three copilots in my car.

2012-05-22T15:55:04Z

My three copilots in my car.

"Welcome to VGHS", Episode 2 [REVIEW]

2012-05-22T04:22:00Z

It’s that time of the week again and Rocket Jump is out with a new episode of their flagship web series “Video Game High School”.

While the first episode introduced us to our hero BrianD, we get head to VGHS for his first day at the elite school in this episode.

For those of you unfamiliar with VGHS and didn’t see the first episode, you can catch up on the action here and read my review of the first episode here.

Ready….set….review!

Plot

After unknowingly fragging “The Law” (Brian Firenzie, 5secondfilms.com) in an FPS match, BrianD (Josh Blaylock) arrives at VGHS for his first day.

While being shown around by his “orientation buddy” Jenny Matrix (Johanna Braddy), captain of the junior varsity FPS team, BrianD gets into a one-on-one FPS match with hall bully Annihilist (Evan Riley Brown) after defending roommate and resident adviser Ted Wong (Jimmy Wong).

Analysis

It seems that Freddie Wong and Rocket Jump are really onto something with the web series format. It is worth noting that on May 17, there was a hiccup when uploading the episode, but it was fixed and is now up.

Both episodes do a great job entertaining and offered up some laughs, but the tone really did change this time around.

Episode 1 was more fun and exposition, while this time around, there’s more angst and tension as we get our first look at the elite school.

Everyone remembers their first day of school and the awkwardness of trying to fit in. Episode 2 captures this feeling perfectly and it seems that it’s only downhill from here for BrianD.

The technology and effects shown off in the first minutes of the episode continue to impress and really anchor down the futuristic tone of the series. We get to see holographic, 3D games that are fully interactive along with massive touchscreens displaying school player rank. Really cool stuff.

Jimmy Wong, Freddie Wong’s younger brother, is introduced as the RA and comic relief who is instantly enjoyable. To anyone who has ever had an RA, you’ll find he plays the part spot on.

We get to see more of Harley Morenstein’s (Epic Meal Time) Dean Calhoun who shows off more of the raging gamer. It’s safe to say he’s well cast from watching this, but there’s still plenty more to come.

Every bit of VGHS so far has been believable and relatable. It is starting to get more campy, but that is Freddie Wong’s style. It’s supposed to be tongue in cheek and funny, but at the same time, have all the adrenaline filled action from your favorite video games.

I loved the keyboard lag reference during the match up along with the continuing easter eggs including R.O.B. the Robot and the Team Fortress 2 statue from one of Freddie Wong’s videos.

This series continues to impress.

Conclusion

VGHS keeps on leveling up as these episodes come out.

I’m really interested to see what happens next since we’ve established the setting, tone and characters so far. I hope that the series will continue to improve and keep its momentum going.

It does remain to be seen if this series will touch on the negatives surrounding gaming, but I don’t expect it to judging on its tone.

With the first day done, there’s the next one to look forward to.

You can catch the second episode on Rocketjump.com here before it hits YouTube.

FINAL VERDICT: 7.5/10

Offensive, vulgar and predictable, "The Dictator" [MOVIE REVIEW]

2012-05-22T02:44:00Z

I’m getting this out of the way right now.

If you are easily offended, don’t go see this movie. It is a satire and should be treated as such, but if you aren’t one for being the butt of a joke or being disgusted, Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator” is not for you.

Just like “Borat” and “Bruno” before it, this movie is a satire and full of shock value, arguably more so than any of Cohen’s previous films.

With that out of the way, lets start the review.

Plot

In “The Dictator”, Sacha Baron Cohen portrays the majorly incompetent Dictator General Admiral Aladeen of Wadiya, a fictional Republic in North Africa.

After announcing to the world that he has nukes, the United Nations decides to take military action and Aladeen heads to America to discuss a settlement. Unfortunately for him, his Uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) wants him dead so he can seize power and turn Wadiya into an open, democratic nation to earn billions by opening Wadiya to business. He hatches a scheme to assassinate Aladeen.

After arriving in New York City, hitman Layton (John C. Reilly) kidnaps Aladeen and cuts off his beard, only to let him escape and wander onto the streets of The Big Apple.

Aladeen wanders over to a protest at the U.N. where he finds out Tamir is using his body swap to sign a constitution which will turn Wadiya into the democracy Tamir wants. After trying to jump the U.N. fence to stop Tamir, Aladeen meets Zoey (Anna Farris), an über hippie who saves and takes him to her organic foods shop and employees him.

Aladeen must find a way to stop the constitution from being signed to keep Wadiya a dictatorship under his rule.

Analysis

Plain and simple, “The Dictator” is a political satire that Sacha Baron Cohen takes to an extreme level.

For those that have seen Cohen’s previous films, you’ve come to expect that this is his style. He’s provocative, vulgar and leaves no group untouched as he masquerades on screen as an over-the-top portrayal of the tyrannical leader.

“The Dictator” takes all the worst tidbits of what we know of terrorism and dictators like Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and even 9/11 and amplifying them to the highest extent.

Unlike “Borat” and “Bruno”, which were more unscripted in nature, this movie had a plot and strayed away from that style. To be honest, I am amazed that “The Dictator” had a solid plot. It was a side attraction to the vulgarity and crudity that ensued during the course of the film, though.

You must remember: This film means to offend and disgust.

To understand where this movie’s tone, it starts off with a dedication to Kim Jong Il and goes as far as a helicopter tour of New York City that alludes to 9/11.

There’s plenty of antisemitism, anti-democracy, racism, vulgarity and more to go around. You’re pretty much slapped in the face with these themes in every scene to the point where they start to beat a dead horse.

Zoey, though one of the “level heads” of the movie, is the object of negativity in almost every scene she’s in.

“The Dictator” is a comedy, but its laughs come from just how extremely obscene the movie is. There’s a point in the movie where Aladeen and Zoey have to deliver a baby and it gets pretty nasty and that doesn’t even top how disgusting the movie gets.

The jokes and story are predictable, but there are enough moments in the movie that will catch you off guard.

Conclusion

Cohen’s films are meant to be provocative and satirical and once you accept that fact, you’ll do O.K. Take this movie with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and you might enjoy this.

“The Dictator” is a comedy, but honestly, I spent more time being disgusted than I did laughing.

If you do end up seeing it, I recommend going to the matinee showing. You will laugh, but not enough to justify the price of a night ticket. Save yourself some money and wait until this comes out on DVD.

FINAL VERDICT: 6.5/10

New Books on James Ellroy and Robert B. Parker

2012-05-21T18:15:14Z

A couple of books to cross my desk recently will surely be of interest to crime fiction fans.

First up is Conversations with James Ellroy, edited by Steven Powell and just published by the University Press of Mississippi. The collection surveys interviews with the Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction from 1984 through 2010 — and what’s particularly interesting about the first of these, from The Armchair Detective, is that the supposed author of the article denies having written the piece or ever having interviewed Ellroy for the magazine! Other interviews span highlights of Ellroy’s distinguished career and are drawn from Publisher’s Weekly, New York Magazine, The Paris Review, and The Guardian, as well as from several other book-length collections; I’m pleased to have one of my own interviews with Ellroy included, an interview I conducted with him in 2009, just before the publication of Blood’s a Rover.

In Pursuit of Spencer: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero, edited by Otto Penzler and recently released by Smart Pop Books, rounds up a variety of distinguished contributors to remember one of the true greats of the genre. Ace Atkins, who was chosen to continue the Spenser series after Parker’s death, kicks off the collection with the essay “Songs Spenser Taught Me,” and other remembrances and reflections — some personal, some more studious — are offered by Lawrence Block, Reed Farrel coleman, Max Allen Collins, Brendan DuBois, Lyndsay Faye, Ed Gorman, Parnell Hall, Jeremiah Healy, Dennis Lehane, Gary Phillips, and S.J. Rozan — covering topics ranging from supporting characters Susan Silverman and Hawk to the TV series Spenser: For Hire to both Spenser’s code of honor and his culinary skills. Parker’s own essay, “Spenser: A Profile,” originally published by The Mysterious Bookshop, closes the collection. — Art Taylor

Filed under: Interviews, Literary News, Mysteries/Thrillers, Reviews/Recommendations

Morale

2012-05-21T13:20:03Z

On a conference panel last week, chatting with colleagues from other institutions — one to the north of Mason, one to the south — I asked, of course, about how things were going. The intensity of the responses surprised me: morale was plummeting amid budget cuts, lack of ability to replace departing colleagues, and larger classes. Both colleagues proceeded to give lively, imaginative papers, showing (as one of them had noted) that research and teaching continue amid challenge, but the assessments were striking even so. By coincidence I then learned of a recent statement by some UVA faculty, again on gloomy circumstances: five years without a pay raise, more students admitted, etc.

There are often some faculty around who lament low morale, and sometimes we take these laments with a grain of salt, but there are good reasons to expect a wider confrontation in the future. And yet I’d like to argue, admittedly self-servingly as an administrator, that collapse into low morale is not our best option. Admitting some existing and probable future deteriorations, I’d like to urge colleagues to participate in helping guide momentum amid undeniable change and challenge, rather than sinking into despondency.

Step one involves some candor about degrees of pain. Public universities and many privates — though not all — are hurting, (although probably, on average, a bit less than other public employment sectors and far less than the outright unemployed — and also far less than faculties in many other nations). States like Virginia have suffered less than many sister states, some of which are still hacking budgets.

Step two, in a more positive scenario, involves openness about trends and issues, with faculty and administration collaborating rather than separating. At Mason, faculty and staff have gone a long time without raises, except for the gesture we were able to make (to the annoyance of some state officials) last year. Class sizes have gone up, from 26.2 five years ago to 27.4 last year (though down from a high of 28 in the midst of the crisis). Student faculty ratios have risen from 15.1:1 to 16.0:1. This means, by the way, that we are admitting more students with some impact on teaching conditions, but also some budget relief that cushions the impact. Some faculty have seen teaching loads drop a bit (in three major units of the University), but others, including some administrative faculty, have been asked to do more. And unquestionably this is not, overall, a situation in which to expect dramatic reductions in teaching load. How awful this picture is, of course, must be up to the beholder.

Whatever the reaction, we must keep communication channels fully open and be ready to deal honestly with any questions and disagreements, rather than fall into an unhealthy combination of secrecy and rumor.

Step three: We have to acknowledge that more challenge lies ahead. We seem to have reached the end of an ability to react to public budget cuts with significant tuition hikes. Lots of people are concluding, reasonably enough, that while universities may be hurting, students and their families are hurting even more. This means, almost surely, that more changes must be contemplated, to seek reductions in costs, particularly if we want to be able to afford gains like salary increases in the future.

Which brings us back, squarely, to morale. My hope is that many faculty, grasping the situation rather than merely protesting, will collaborate in innovations and experiments that will make the future as positive as possible for universities, faculty themselves, and students. We need, to the extent possible, to take charge of the situation rather than yield gracelessly to external imposition. There are lots of positive interactions ahead.

We also need to be careful about how change is presented. American universities continue to do lots of things right, including some traditional things and some newer approaches (for example, toward more active classroom learning). We won’t advance if faculty feel belabored and unappreciated by the outside world, and this means, it seems to me, some circumspection on the part of prophets of disruption.

The whole point is to have faculty part of the process, not its targets. Faculty can rightly hold administrators and state officials to account for the fairest and clearest possible policies, even while not expecting a real or imagined status quo ante. Morale can respond to positive responses to admittedly difficult circumstances. We don’t have full choice in our future, but we still have considerable margin, and morale will be partly within this realm of choice.

Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences...

2012-05-21T00:42:00Z

Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences graduated over 2,000 students on May 18, 2012. I was there not only to walk, but also to capture the momentous occasion for all to see.

Edwired goes dark

2012-05-20T20:35:57Z

Edwired is offline indefinitely.

Class of 2012.

2012-05-19T23:08:22Z

lgrathwol:

It’s official: I graduated George Mason University with my BA in Communication! What a milestone. I’m so proud, and very blessed to have come this far.

So proud of you! 2012 all the way!

I went around the meeting area at A Lot before the Mason...

2012-05-19T20:15:08Z

I went around the meeting area at A Lot before the Mason Communication Convocation to see how people felt about graduating. The consensus was “awesome”, but there were some interesting responses.