Prior to Broadside, the student newspaper was called The Gunston Ledger. It was changed in 1969 to better represent the politically out-spoken student body at the time. A “broadside” was a pamphlet used during the American Revolutionary War to help spread information. While Broadside has become an important part of life at Mason, we believe it no longer represents the overarching goals of student-run news. As part of our merger, we hope to reaffirm our commitment to an informed and engaged student body.

Over the past few years, Connect2Mason has become a vital component of the student media conglomeration. The organization’s social media presence has grown to over 5,000 followers on both Facebook and Twitter. C2M has become the number one place for up-to-date news about the Mason community.

Fourth Estate will combine the best aspects of Broadside and Connect2Mason over the coming months. We will actively work to learn from each other’s experiences in both collecting and communicating information in an efficient and unique way. We believe this gives us an important advantage in today’s journalism industry.

Though not specifically outlined like the three branches of government, the concept of a fourth estate referred to journalism and the media as an important tenet in upholding justice and liberty through facilitating an informed public. These historic roots, a nod to our namesake George Mason, coincide with the transforming industry of modern journalism. Our merger will allow us to better experiment and research innovative practices of the industry, through both online and print publications.

The week began with a trip to Kings Dominion on April 20, and ended with a finale celebration at Mason Day.

Concerts throughout the week featured rapper Kendrick Lamar, acoustic artist Chad Hollister, Andy Grammer, and local band of Mason students Sub-Radio Standard.

Other events included a zip-line, a BMX bike show, a comedy show featuring Scott Schendlinger and the carnival rides and booths at Mason Day.

Prospects are looking good for the Patriots for next season. Returning players have improved this season and sec- ond place Temple University is leaving the A10. (IAN MOSTROM BROADSIDE)

The final seconds ticked off the collegiate career of eight women’s lacrosse seniors on April 21, as Mason fell to William & Mary, 16-12.

Senior attacker Allie Hilderbrandt led the way in scoring with a career- high six goals for Mason, capping off a season of solid play for the team.

The loss was Mason’s seventh consecutive defeat, all of which were against CAA rivals.

“We played an exciting game, our girls fought back late in the second half and it is always tough to lose, especially when you are saying goodbye to the senior class.” said coach Lauren Hay. “I would like to recognize the hard work of all eight seniors have put in their careers at Mason. All will graduate from here and I am proud to have watched them grow as people and athletes.”

Looking back on the season as a whole, Mason had and up and down season, claiming all of their victories against non-conference opponents while being bested by all their CAA foes. Mason finished the season with a record of 5-11, going 0-7 in CAA play.

“Overall, we had many contributions by numerous players. Our seniors had phenomenal seasons, our underclassmen got plenty of experience, and we had a successful non-conference season,” Hay said.

As a result of the move from the CAA to the Atlantic 10 next season, the women’s lacrosse team is a part of the group of spring sports left out of postseason play as a result of the conference switch.

It is important to use proper form when squatting, as incorrect form can lead to injury.

When completing any of the three traditional lifts, the squat, bench or the deadlift, make sure that you start out with a light weight and always use a spotter.

Finals week. Ready- No? Tough tinsel. The coach is putting you in anyway and you’ve got some big plays to make. You’re coming late into the game and there is nothing you can do to change that, so you’ll have to roll with it.

Take what you’re given and hopefully put on a little late semester magic. If you aren’t sure how you’re going to pull this off and hope seems lost, here is a rundown of some steps that should give you a game plan.

Check the scoreboard. Even if you have been paying attention to the game the whole time, you need to forget about it for now and look at the scoreboard. It gives the honest facts of the right here and now. It doesn’t tell you how you got lucky by guessing C three times in a row after a string of all A’s and B’s on that last quiz.

The scoreboard does not care about outliers, flukes, runs, momentum swings or any of that. It tells you that you have this grade,it can go up or down by this much with the final and how much time you have until it’s here. The situation is clear. Next up is a plan of action. This is where you bring back what you’ve learned over the semester. The professor curves, there is always true and false sections, the professor likes to take questions that people got wrong from the midterm, the test is cumulative – use these things to your advantage.

Lebron doesn’t go out onto the court and disregard the other team’s history of fast breaks and looking to score off of the transition.

For the past two years the underwater hockey team has been placed in the A division of the National Tournament. (COURTESY OF TIMOTHY JORDAN)

The underwater hockey team is preparing for their upcoming national tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this July, the team’s fourth and final tournament of the year. This year, they have traveled to Canada, Orlando and have held their own tournament at the AFC.

“I love going tournaments, especially nationals, is really fun,” said Dan Yocum, president of the team who will be taking his third trip nationals this summer. “Preparing for it is difficult and getting everything organized. It is fun to push yourself for three months for the big tournament so we can play high level hockey. We are lucky at Mason because every practice we get in a high level game.”

Underwater hockey is an interesting vari- ation of hockey in a pool where swimmers have a mask, snorkel, fins, gloves, small stick and weighted puck. It is played with six people in the pool per team, typically with three forwards and three defensemen but no goalie.

Yocum believes it is the type of sport where people will get a lot more out of it then they expect.

“Underwater hockey was weird when I started and I did not know what to expect, but I thought it was fun,” Yocum said. “I watched videos on Youtube which made it look fun. You just have to play it. Most people that come out to play continue to come out.”

Underwater hockey shares similar char- acteristics with normal hockey. Like ice or roller hockey, swimmers usually play in shifts. A typical shift may last two minutes and a swimmer may be under water for 30 seconds at a time.

Another similar part of the game to its on-land counterpart is penalties. The most common foul in the underwater hockey is hitting someone in the face with a stick, which happens when players swim close to the floor when opponents are hitting the puck.

Hitting someone in the face may get a swimmer thrown out of a game.

Because underwater hockey has fewer competitive teams than most sports, adult teams and even one high school teams play at

nationals in separate A and B divisions based on skill level. Cities like California, Colorado and D.C are known for having competitive teams.

“We hope to get into the A division again, which is rare for a college team,” Yocum said. “That is our big accomplishment in the last two years and hopefully we can do it again this year.”

No matter how his last season as president ends, Yocum just wants to know he has made

the program better from when he took over. “The sport is awesome. It is like nothing else you have ever heard. It is a great conversation piece and it is addicting. I think we are in a really good place as a program.”

Erez Cramer’s claims of anti-Semitism and hate speech are predicated on SAIA’s advocacy “through posters” that Israel should be eliminated. He states as a fact that these posters exist and also blame Jews for America’s problems.

These posters do not exist. SAIA does not advocate any of these positions, and in fact has spoken against anti-Semitic and other types of hate speech. On April 13, the group posted its “Guiding Principles” to their Facebook page. The final paragraph states, “SAIA maintains a nonviolent and non-confrontational stance in both our actions and our speech. We reject any and all hateful speech, and will not be held accountable for such speech made on our behalf by non-members.” These principles were created before Hala Numan’s article ran in the Broadside. SAIA has not released any “anti-Semitism messages” in any form.

Through his opinion piece, Cramer shows clear intent to designate SAIA as a hate group, which is not only damaging to our organization, but also our members. He perpetuates his argument through false statements, the only conceivable way to substantiate such outrageous claims.

Cramer not only insinuates that SAIA is a hate group, but also that any students involved with SAIA are “inciting hatred,” which is a federal crime. SAIA also welcomes participation from people of all races and religions that agree with our Guiding Principles. Finally Cramer asserts that: “They believe that the world’s only Jewish state, (…), should not exist.” Again, this is a false statement of our beliefs, and was used by Cramer to demonstrate SAIA’s “anti-Semitic” nature.

In Michael Gryboski’s piece, he states that “What the SAIA, the SJP and the whole host of Palestine solidarity groups seek is the removal of every Jewish man, woman, and child from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, regardless of whether or not they belong to the Israeli Defense Forces.” Additionally, he states that, “They seek to create a singular ethnic nationalist state, purged of any Jewish communities.”

This is a false statement of fact. Stating that we want to ethnically cleanse Israel or the Occupied Territories of Jews is absolutely untrue. We have stated that we want everyone to have equal rights under the law, and a one-state solution. None of these goals include ethnic cleansing, which we vehemently oppose. By printing these false statements of fact, Gryboski aims to diminish our support and credibility in the Mason community.

Tareq Radi, on behalf of GMU Students Against Israeli Apartheid

Celebrating the efforts to maintain a healthy environment on the third planet from the Sun are widely socially accepted. Exempting the occasional right-wing concerns over extremist environmentalism, most everyone either takes part in Earth Day or at the very least looks upon it ambivalently.

This even though one of the major figureheads of the effort to create an Earth Day was a convicted murderer.

Ira Einhorn, a bearded, bespectacled hippie was the master of ceremonies for the first ever Earth Day, held in 1970 as a rally at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

A self-described pacifist, as reported by Remy Melina of NBC News Einhorn’s stated disdain for violence did not extend to his girlfriend Helen “Holly” Maddux. In Sept. 1977, Maddux went missing.

“It wasn’t until 18 months later that investigators searched Einhorn’s apartment after one of his neighbors complained that a reddish-brown, foul-smelling liquid was leaking from the ceiling directly below Einhorn’s bedroom closet,” wrote Remy Melina.

“Inside the closet, police found Maddux’s beaten and partially mummified body stuffed into a trunk that had also been packed with Styrofoam, air fresheners and newspapers.”

Presently, Einhorn is serving a life sentence for the murder. To be callous, one can note that he not only was a murderer, but by using of all things Styrofoam he was a bad environmentalist.

This major rotten apple has hardly destroyed the ecological awareness movement, much less resulted in a cessation of Earth Day celebrations. Neither has the presence of eco-terrorist organizations, who year after year the Federal Bureau of Investigation considers its top domestic terrorist threat.

As John Lewis, an FBI deputy assistant director, testified before Congress in 2005, “There is nothing else going on in this country, over the last several years, that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions, arsons, etc, that this particular area of domestic terrorism has caused.”

Some would argue the success of environmentalism in general and Earth Day in particular comes from a biased media that seldom reports these facts when covering the cause. Yet that same media has been more than willing to acknowledge the horrid acts of ecological extremists.

Mason did not celebrate Earth Day last week because one of the holiday’s founders was a convicted murderer and some who adhere to its ideals commit acts of terror. Rather, Mason students and faculty celebrated Earth Day because they recognized that the fundamentals of the cause, as well as the mainstream of said movement, are benign in nature.

Einhorn’s horrible act does not negate the arguments that pollution damages wildlife and that harm to environment often negatively affects human life. The violent behavior of an ecological terrorist group does not debunk the evidence that fossil fuels harm air quality or that years ago chloro- fluorocarbons were ripping apart our o-zone layer.

A truly benevolent cause can withstand constructive criticism; it can survive badly behaved members, and even the occasional poor argument. Earth Day shows that.

(IAN MOSTROM/BROADSIDE)

On April 26, the Mason Theater Department presented the Seventh Annual Ten Minute Play Festival.

The end product of a grueling playwriting competition, the festival showcased the work of eight aspiring student playwrights. This competition narrowed down the submissions based on their ability to create a meaningful, well- rounded story in just ten minutes. To some, this may not seem like a great task. However, it should be noted that many great performances do not even introduce their main character in the first ten minutes, much less craft an engaging plot with a solid beginning, middle and end.

The plays’ brevity had the potential to create problems. With so little time, it can be difficult for the audience to build a connection with the characters on stage. In addition, the playwrights had to build a world on stage quick enough for viewers to feel engaged without making it confusing or contrived. The student writers and their casts managed to pull off that task seamlessly.

The festival’s performances ran the gamut of the human experience. From the literal dawn of time to a plague infested future, from silly, heartwarming romantic comedies to gritty, realistic family meltdowns. The playwrights utilized every last minute to make their characters as real and dynamic as possible, and the result was an audience that was at some times laughing out of their seats and at others holding their breaths in a contemplative silence.

Two of the performances that personified the festivals range were Open and Close, written by Emma Hull and directed by Rafael Medina, and Saturday, written by Cody Clarke and directed by Kathleen Barth. The two plays, while sharing a ten minute parameter, could not have been different, which made their juxtaposition in the first act all the more potent. Both dealt with relationships, but one focused on the sweet beginning, and the other focused on the bitter end.

Open and Close came first, opening with the main character James, played by Calil Davis, coming home after tennis practice. He begins with a short monologue explaining his father’s descent into alcohol abuse and his subtle attraction to his best friend Louisa.

(IAN MOSTROM/BROADSIDE)

From there, we are taken into his home where a tension filled family dinner spirals into a loud, expletive-rich argument between James’ mother and father. The mother, played by Cynthia Newby, wears medical scrubs and has her hair tied up in a messy topknot. Her disheveled appearance is contrasted by her frantic need to micromanage her children’s lives.

The audience is stunned to a silence. Though the play did not follow the traditional story model and ended without reaching a concrete solution, I felt as though the playwright’s intention was not to present a “traditional story”. No problem can be resolved in ten minutes, and reality is almost never as rehearsed as a play.

Open and Close was meant to be felt, not simply watched. It was a small, ten minute look inside a fragmented family. It gives the viewer just enough time to feel a personal connection with James, but cuts off before anything can be done to help him. In the end, the audience members empathize with the cast, and in turn they begin to look inwards to reflect on their own relationships.

The following play, a palate cleanser of sorts, marched to a much more upbeat tune. Saturday tells the story of a young couple, played by Cathryn Benson and Danny Issa, who are constantly being woken up by their neighbor’s lawnmower. Through a series of quirky, hilarious antics, the two are arrested for drugging and kidnapping their neighbors and stuffing them in a closet.

Though the play did not have as much emotional depth as the one that preceded it, Benson and Issa’s marvelous portrayal of the young, confused newlyweds helped to bring home the writer’s witty jokes and savvy use of “poetic justice.” At the end of the play, the two sit handcuffed on the bed and realize that even though they will probably face some heavy charges, they couldn’t be happier.

Overall, every play was a success in its own right. Each with their own world and unique cast of characters, watching these ten minute plays was something like – not to sound like a hyperbolic Tumblr user – an emotional rollercoaster.

This winter break, while many Mason students were stuck in frigid temperatures in the U.S., eight students were able to escape the cold and enjoy the dry, 70 degree weather of a Kenyan summer.

These eight Mason students not only earned the opportunity to study environmental conservation and wildlife in Kenya, they were also offered the chance to work with the African Wildlife Foundation (AFW).

“Students are now more interested in more exotic places. They’re also not satisfied with things that are easy to get — they’re interested in a real adventure,” said Academic Director Ryan Valdez, who has been teaching students in the Kenya study abroad program since 2010.

Valdez has been with the Kenya study abroad program since it began, conducting research with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

“During my research, I began working with the African Wildlife Foundation, who’s primary role is conservation. Over the year my collaboration got better and better, and the opportunity for my students to work with the AWF came up,” said Valdez, who is also working on his doctorate degree at Mason. “I’m always looking for new things for students to do, and I was specifically looking for internships.”

In the past, as a part of the Kenya study abroad program, it is required for students to write a science-based paper on their experiences, observations and studies while in Kenya. However, this winter Valdez decided to change the requirement to writing blogs for the AWF.

“The students would pick stories relevant to the AWF in Kenya,” Valdez said. “They’d pick a topic, research the background information and then they would write the content while they’re in the field. Together, they would make stories about what they’re specializing in.” John Probert, a sophomore studying environmental science and conservation, has dreamed of going to Kenya since he was young, and the Kenya study abroad program was one of his deciding factors for choosing Mason for undergraduate studies. Working with the AWF enriched his experience in Kenya.

“One of the first places we went to was the AWF headquarters in Karen. It was a beautiful place. While there, we got to talk to Dr. Philip Muruthi, the Chief Scientist for the AWF,” Probert said. “Hearing about conservation issues from a professional working directly in the field was very enlightening about what we would experience in our time in Kenya. The blog posts make me feel that our experiences will encourage others to do what they can to help conserve wildlife found in the United States and abroad.”

Writing the blog posts was also an exciting challenge for some students.

“Writing for other people is always difficult, and writing something that could potentially be published is even more intimidating — especially when you are writing about something that’s important to you,” said Olivia Cosby, who is a senior biology and ecology and conservation major, and an ocean and estuarine science minor.

Because the program went well for Valdez, he is considering doing the blog assignment again for the next Kenya study abroad trip. The blogs from this January, if approved by the AWF, should be posted by the end of May.