Campus News in Brief

Student Government Town Hall Meeting

Student Government will be holding a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. The meeting will be conducted in the Student Government office, Johnson Center Room 133. The tentative agenda consists of a discussion of Student Government’s plans for this semester and the reasons behind the plans. Students are encouraged to attend to voice their dissatisfaction with Student Government and George Mason University as a whole. The town hall is open to anyone interested in attending.

Free Gold Rush T-Shirts

Gold Rush shirts will be available for Homecoming week. Students can pick up their free shirts starting at 11 a.m. before the Gold Rush pep rally on Tuesday, Feb. 10, which starts at noon. Students can also get shirts at the Homecoming tailgate on Feb. 14 and at the Homecoming game later that day. Student Government hopes to have the entire student section in Gold for the game against conference rival Northeastern.

RecycleMania

George Mason University is competing in RecycleMania, which is “a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities,” as stated on the RecycleMania website. Mason is competing in the targeted material, food service organics-competition division.

The RecycleMania goals, as stated on the website, are as follows:

1. Have a fair and friendly recycling competition.
2. Increase recycling participation by students and staff.
3. Heighten awareness of schools' waste management and recycling programs.
4. Expand economic opportunities while addressing environmental issues in a positive way.
5. Lower waste generated on-campus by reducing, reusing and recycling.
6. Organize this event successfully so it can be repeated and possibly expanded to other campuses in the future.

RecycleMania lasts 10 weeks, ending March 28, and has over 500 colleges and universities competing. Mason is currently ranked #1 in Virginia and #1 in the Colonial Athletic Association in food service organics-competition division.

For more information visit http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/index.htm.

Contact: Dan Waxman, Sustainability Projects Manager, University Services, dwaxman@gmu.edu.

Inova to Announce New Fund for Collaborative Research with Mason

Inova Health System has provided $1 million to George Mason University for the creation of the Inova Life Sciences Research Collaboration Fund, intended to accelerate joint collaborative research projects between Mason and Inova researchers. Research results will serve as preliminary data for future grant submissions to outside granting agencies or industry sponsors.

Representatives will publicly announce the fund in the atrium of Mason Hall on Monday, Feb. 9, at 6 p.m.

Priority areas of research for the fund include:

• Issues related to chronic disease management

• Treatment and prevention strategies for lifestyle-related conditions such as obesity, heart disease and stroke

• Issues associated with end-of-life provisions and ethical issues in health services delivery relating to health disparities

• The patient experience in healthcare institutions, including the therapeutic environment, nursing/clinical staff interaction with patients and the effectiveness of mind-body interventions and therapies

• Matters related to application of genomics and proteomic-related research, both diagnostic and therapeutic and more.

Dr. Zobair Younossi, co-director of GMU-Inova health system translational research institute; and Roger Stough, PhD, vice president of research and economic development, George Mason University, will administer the fund.

A peer review process overseen by Mason and Inova experts will award the grant requests.

Information compiled from Inova Health System and Mason sources