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Amazon
Just a quick note on the heralded Amazon arrival in Northern Virginia. As a humanist I have to hope that any company that picked that name can’t be totally bad news for liberal education – think mythology or geography or both. But there is a broader and more serious response that warrants discussion, and I […]
The Challenge of Terror
In the aftermath of recent attacks, including those in Beirut, in Paris, and apparently against a Russian airliner, and with deep respect to those who have suffered in result, a few thoughts. It is really important to remember several things about terrorism, recently and historically. Terrorists are not able to use conventional military strength OR […]
Public Grief: History and Emotion
A month or so before my service as provost ended we had a “shooter” exercise for our safety folks and upper administration. The idea of course is that some realistic scenarios would help us all deal with the real thing should it ever occur, and while I always disliked the simulation I can’t argue that […]
Community Outreach
One of the features of George Mason which has always impressed me, from my first serious encounter during my interview process in fall 1999, has been its tremendous commitment to community service and outreach. This commitment has, I believe, persisted and even increased, even as the University enhances its global links and its research roles. […]
The Civil War in International Perspective
In May, Mason will host a one-day conference on the international context and impact of the American Civil War, as part of the Commonwealth’s impressive series of gatherings to commemorate the conflict’s sesquicentennial. I offered to organize the conference some time ago, and it’s great to see it nearing fruition. My qualifications for my role […]
Changing Athletic Conferences
As many know, Mason has decided to leave the Colonial Athletic Association in favor of the Atlantic 10. We have been mulling this move off and on for a year. It was never an easy decision: the CAA had been good for us in many ways, and we will continue to value relationships with the […]
Super Sandy
We’re still assessing lessons learned from Sandy, and the process remains interesting particularly as it impinges on “the next time”. First, of course, we were very lucky, and my continued sympathies for colleagues in NY-NJ who face ongoing adjustments both on campus and at home. Second, Mason is pretty well organized now, a large team […]
Budgets and Tuitions
A recent visit from a legislative official—seemingly a nice, responsible guy and a friend of Mason—brought comments about his bafflement about how higher education costs keep soaring, tuitions keep rising, there must be a storehouse of waste and inefficiency. I was, frankly, nonplussed—not at the comments, which are now common enough, but at the source, […]
Commuters and Commuter Schools
Two preliminaries. First, the initial spur for this blog came from our new University president, who has a knack for asking timely questions. I hope I am usefully embellishing the thought. Second, this is an unabashed effort to have my institutional cake and eat it too, but I think our record warrants the combination; you […]
Mason’s Vision Series
We’re about to launch the new round of our now well-established Vision Series. I’ve written on this before, but a renewed note is appropriate. We conceived of the series now five years ago as an opportunity for faculty from all sorts of fields to present their work to a general audience. Our hope was that […]
Recent Posts
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Amazon
Just a quick note on the heralded Amazon arrival in Northern Virginia....
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A Real Path Forward for AP World History
After a recent period of deep concern, there’s some (pretty) good news...
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Conference on Emotions History: some thoughts about the field
We have just emerged from a conference on the history of emotions...
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