Category: October 2018

Whether you are celebrating an upcoming national appreciation day or just want to say thank you, Reward and Recognition has many options for appreciating and celebrating your colleagues at Mason!

• Keep encouragement and appreciation on hand with the new Recognition Mini-Notes.
• Wish someone good luck, happy birthday, or say thank you anywhere, anytime, with eCards.
• Be Kind Bingo is the perfect game to play on World Kindness Day (November 13).

Questions? Contact Reward and Recognition at awards@gmu.edu.

Many of you may be aware that Fairfax Water is replacing the water tank on the Fairfax Campus. This project will benefit both the campus and the surrounding community. The water tank is also adjacent to the Child Development Center (CDC) and several parents of children who attend the CDC have expressed concerns about removal of the existing steel water tank.

In an effort to address these concerns, Mason has requested, and Fairfax Water has agreed to implement, a delay in the removal of the existing steel tank until the CDC is closed. As a result, the contractor for Fairfax Water will remove the steel tank during Winter Break, which runs from December 22 through January 6, when the university and CDC will be closed. Should weather or holidays adversely impact the contractor’s ability to complete the steel tank removal by January 6, the steel tank removal work will be completed during times that fall outside of the CDC’s regular hours of operation (evenings or weekends).

Fairfax Water will provide air monitoring of the construction site perimeter during the removal of the steel tank, and Mason will provide appropriate monitoring of the CDC site and surrounding areas outside the construction fence.

For more details on this project, visit Building Patriot Pride.

Contact Nancy Pickens at npickens@gmu.edu with questions.

The November Staff Senate meeting will feature guest speaker Rose Pascarell, Vice President, University Life. She will be discussing recent University Life initiatives and updates, and how University Life manages diverse needs across Mason’s campuses.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018
10:30 a.m. to Noon
Fairfax: Merten Hall, Room 1201
Arlington: Founders Hall, Room B119 (videoconferenced)
SciTech: Colgan Hall, Room 221 (videoconferenced)
Front Royal: Academic, Room 219 (703-249-8067)

The Staff Senate represents all classified and non-student wage employees at George Mason University. Working closely with university administration, we address concerns that have an impact on the quality of work-life for the Mason community. The work of the Senate is accomplished through open and continuous communication with its constituents.

All are welcome to attend the Staff Senate general meeting.

Submit your questions for the Staff Senate:
To promote dialog at the Staff Senate general meetings, the Senate is collecting questions/comments from constituents. Submit your question using the online submission form or email your question to staffsenate@gmu.edu. You may include your name, or you may ask to remain anonymous.

All who attend the Staff Senate general meeting are welcome to ask questions in-person, during the session.

For questions, contact staffsenate@gmu.edu.

If you missed the September Staff Senate meeting, watch it here. Stacey Remick-Simkins shared information about the Virginia Governmental Employees Association (VGEA).

Check out the October Staff Senate meeting, where Patricia Coray shared information and updates about Benefits at Mason.

Since 2011, Mason’s Office of Sustainability has been in charge of administering the Patriot Green Fund (PGF)—a $100,000 annual fund to support facility improvements and student research focused on sustainability.

The main goals of this fund are to raise awareness of issues of sustainability, improve Mason’s image as a green-minded institution, and encourage cultural change to make Mason’s campuses and surrounding communities more sustainable.

Any student, faculty, or staff member may apply for funds to support a sustainability project. The upcoming PGF application deadlines are Friday, October 19, and Friday, November 9.

To learn more about the funding options and to apply, visit green.gmu.edu/patriot-green. Contact the Office of Sustainability at pgf@gmu.edu  with questions.

This semester’s Freedom and Learning Forum will focus on the human rights of immigrants. On Saturday, October 20, Jose Antonio Vargas—Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and undocumented immigrant—will join President Ángel Cabrera in a dialogue focusing on the human rights of immigrants. Don’t miss out on this incredible program.

The Freedom and Learning Forum is hosted by President Cabrera and the following university offices:

• University Life
• Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education + LGBTQ Resources
• Leadership Education and Development Office

For more information and to RSVP, visit lead.gmu.edu/freedom. This event is expected to fill to capacity, so register today!

Copies of Vargas’ new book, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, will be available for purchase.

Contact Jennifer Crewalk at 703-993-2700 or kbarret8@gmu.edu for more information.

Fall for the Book will turn 20 years old in style with a star-studded lineup of headliners including novelists Tayari Jones, Elizabeth Strout, and Elizabeth Kostova; and Congressman John Lewis. Other major writers will include Paul Hawken, Tom McAllister, Leslie Pietrzyk, Sylvia Chan-Malik, and Katharine Weber.

The festival, which runs from October 10-13, will welcome a robust list of poets, historians, novelists, memoirists, children’s authors, YA writers and more at George Mason University and locations around Northern Virginia.

Saturday, October 13, Fall for the Book is partnering with the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival to bring a day of literary and artistic events to audiences from throughout the region.

For more information, visit fallforthebook.org.

 

Mason Libraries offers free, 24/7 online access to electronic resources for Mason faculty, staff, and students—just use your Mason NetID and password.   

Here are some of the resources Mason Libraries provides:

• Overview of libraries collection 
• Libraries A-Z database List: Over 775 subscribed databases from films and videos to NY Times newspaper 
• Librarians: Subject experts provide personalized research assistance 
• Subject guides: Great starting point for research 
• Interlibrary Loan: Borrow academic materials not available at the university 

Call & Response 2018: Borders 

About the exhibition:

Call & Response is an annual exhibition of collaborations between writers and visual artists, in which ones calls and one responds. The result is a dynamic set of paired works of words and artistic media that resonate and speak to contemporary issues. The theme for the twelfth annual Call & Response is Borders. 

What are borders? How do we define them and how do they define us? A river, a mountain range, a line scrawled on a map, the skin enveloping the body, the boundary between one mind and another. Borders are the edges that separate us, but they are also the lines, categories, and groups that define us. Emotional, physical, and metaphorical borders have been drawn around people, around land, and around ideas in the name of protection, defense, inclusion, and exclusion. 

The participating artists and writers are asked to consider and examine the borders that interest them—their intersections and parallels. 

Call & Response: Borders will be on display from Wednesday, October 10 through Sunday, November 18, in Fenwick Gallery. An opening reception and panel discussion with the artists is scheduled for Wednesday, October 10 at 1:30 p.m., during the Fall for the Book Festival on the Fairfax Campus. 

Call & Response is a collaboration between the School of Art, the English Department’s MFA program in Creative Writing, and the University Libraries, and is presented in conjunction with the Fall for the Book festival. 

Heartfelt congratulations to Juli Monroe, director of the Women’s Business Center, for being selected as the September 2018 Employee of the Month. The Women’s Business Center is a program of the Community Business Partnership at the Mason Enterprise Center. Read more about Juli in this Mason News article.

Do you know a superstar? Make sure they receive the deserved recognition and submit a nomination for Mason’s Employee of the Month. Additional information can be found on the Human Resources and Payroll website.

Contact Reward and Recognition at awards@gmu.edu with questions.