Inclusion

Mason Dining launches kosher program at Southside

Janelle Applewhite — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 19:05:52 +0000

Mason Dining launches kosher program at Southside Janelle Applewhite Fri, 07/07/2023 - 15:05

Mason Dining has worked closely with Mason Hillel and the Chabad at Mason to provide students, faculty, and staff with an eclectic mix of kosher cuisine at Southside Dining Hall, enabling Jewish students to easily follow kosher dietary rules.

Bracha and Rabbi Ezra Wierner of Chabad at Mason with Char Bar owner Michael Chelst at the opening of Mason Mensch. Photo by Sofia Vetrova

The station, known as Mason Mensch, launched in January and serves kosher dinners Sundays through Thursdays on a first-come, first-served basis.

Rabbi Daniel Novick from Mason Hillel says his team is grateful to their Mason colleagues for years of partnership that helped get them to this point. “We are not only excited about what this means for our Jewish community now, but how this will help our efforts to make Mason an attractive destination for Jewish students for years to come.”

Char Bar, a well-known kosher establishment in downtown Washington, D.C., is providing a selection of brisket tacos, hot honey chicken, burgers, kabobs, sandwiches, and more. Production and service will be overseen by a mashgiach—an expert kosher supervisor—to ensure the highest standards are followed.

This addition to the dining program has been in the works for years and aligns with the university’s overall mission of inclusion. Mason Dining is thrilled to be able to bring the Mason community food that is both delicious and respectful of kosher rules.

“With such a diverse campus and requests for foods that fit into a kosher lifestyle, we are very excited to bring this innovative and inclusive concept to fruition at Mason,” says Pascal Petter, executive director of Mason’s Auxiliary Services.

“There’s a Jewish expression, ‘May we go from strength to strength!’” says Rabbi Ezra Wiemer, co-director of Chabad at Mason. “This is a huge milestone for the Jewish community, and we are thankful to the Mason administration for their true commitment to inclusion.”

Learn more about dining options at Mason

Topics

AI-assisted computer vision research aims to improve accessibility for deaf, hard of hearing

Teresa Donnellan — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 14:55:35 +0000

AI-assisted computer vision research aims to improve accessibility for deaf, hard of hearing Teresa Donnellan Mon, 02/27/2023 - 09:55

In This Story

Jana Košecká

Digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa aren’t currently useful for, say, the hard of hearing and deaf community. ��AV researchers led by Jana Košecká are making the Internet of Things more inclusive and accessible to those for whom it has not been designed. For the next year, her work to improve "seeing" computer systems to translate continuous American Sign Language into English will be funded by Amazon’s Fairness in AI Research Program.

Jana Košecká. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Having worked at Mason for more than 20 years, Košecká began studying computer vision as it applies to American Sign Language in 2019 with colleagues Huzefa Rangwala and Parth Pathak in collaboration with Gallaudet University. Their work resulted in three academic publications on the topic in 2020. The team’s initial work focused on computer vision recognizing American Sign Language at the word level.

Košecká describes her current work as a continuation of earlier work, but now, especially with the help of AI, she’s tackling more complex ASL content, such as sentence-level communication, facial expressions, and very specific hand gesticulation.

“The challenge of extending some of these ideas [of computer translation] to American Sign Language translation is the input is video as opposed to text; it's continuous, and you have a lot of challenges, because you have a lot of variations about how people sign,” says Košecká.

The project is accordingly multifaceted. “We are focusing on better hand modeling, focusing on incorporating the facial features and extending to continuous sign language, so you can have short phrases the model can translate to English,” Košecká explains. “We are basically trying to capture continuous sign language and not just individual words."

To accomplish this goal,Košecká is using weakly supervised learning machine learning methods that provide mechanisms to teach the system without excessive human labelling effort.

“Weakly supervised learning techniques don't need perfect alignment of video sequences that contain multiple words,” she says. “In the word-level recognition, the model is presented with examples of a video snippet of a signed word and the word text, so it has perfect supervision. Given many examples of the sign ‘apple’ as a video snippet, the system will learn to recognize the word 'apple.' ”

“There are some techniques which can discover patterns without this need of direct supervision. If you just give the model a lot of examples, the model will figure out repeating patterns of certain words occurring in certain contexts,” she says. “So we are applying these machine-learning techniques to the setting of American Sign Language.”

Relating her work to AI-powered chatbots like chatGPT, Košecká says, “There has been a lot of headway made in this space for written and spoken languages, and we would like to make a little bit of headway for American Sign Language, using some of these insights and ideas.”

Košecká envisions her research helping improve the interface between hard of hearing people and their environment, whether that be when they’re communicating with Amazon’s Alexa or ordering at a restaurant counter. No doubt her work will help improve inclusivity and accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing both at Mason and beyond.

Topics

American Sign Language

Computer science; computing; Amazon

Inclusion

Artifical Intelligence

Research

The Inclusive Teaching and Curriculum Initiative seeks to foster a more welcoming atmosphere for all students to increase learning

John Hollis — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 15:09:04 +0000

The Inclusive Teaching and Curriculum Initiative seeks to foster a more welcoming atmosphere for all students to increase learning John Hollis Fri, 08/26/2022 - 11:09

The Inclusive Teaching and Curriculum Initiative seeks to foster a more welcoming atmosphere for all students. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

Christopher A. Carr, chief diversity office in ��AV’s College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), sees the new Inclusive Teaching and Curriculum Initiative as a natural response to President Gregory Washington’s call for exemplars in combating systemic racism and the marginalization of underserved groups in academia.

The two-workshop program, which was developed by the college’s Office of Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning (DOIL), is an acknowledgement that the increase in diverse student populations entering higher education has not been met by a corresponding increase in resources for faculty to teach those visible and often invisible entities, Carr said.

The team piloted a short course for CEC and College of Science faculty, offering them tools and techniques for fostering inclusion and making them aware of university resources available to them.

Three faculty enrolled in a longer five-module course on “in-depth inclusive curriculum practices that are designed around identity, power, positionality and privilege and their system effects in higher education,” Carr said.

The initiative is part of efforts to heed the call of President Washington’s Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force (ARIE), which joined the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Community Engagement and Civic Learning in funding curriculum design, teaching strategies and pedagogical resources supporting anti-racist and inclusive teaching. Supporting the integration of ARIE throughout the Mason curriculum was one of the three areas recommended for funding by the task force’s Curriculum and Pedagogy Committee.

Short-course topics covered introduction to tools/techniques needed to foster inclusion, and introduction to inclusive assessment tools and course resources. Long-course workshop modules included topics surrounding the current state of inclusive pedagogy in engineering education, student-centered course design, and course activities and appropriate space needed for more inclusive classrooms.

Inclusive classrooms are settings in which the instructors/faculty and students work together to create and sustain an environment where all feel safe, supported and encouraged to express their views and concerns.

“We hope that, in these classrooms, content is deliberately viewed from multiple perspectives and the varied experiences of a range of groups,” said Carr, who noted the critical assistance of Christi Wilcox, his diversity associate, in putting things together.

Faculty members who took part in the summer’s long-course workshop were Mihai Boicu, an associate professor and associate director at the Learning Agents Center Information Sciences and Technology School of Computing within the CEC; Eugene Kim, an assistant professor of bioengineering in the CEC; and Katherine (Raven) Russell, an assistant professor of computer science within the College of Engineering and Computing.

“We want to ensure that faculty are able to present content in a style that reduces all students’ experiences of marginalization and, whenever possible, helps students and faculty understand that their individual experience, values and perspectives influence how they construct and evaluate knowledge in any field or discipline,” Carr said.

Topics

Campus News

Faculty and Staff News

College of Engineering and Computing

College of Science

Inclusion

diversity

Center of Community Engagement and Civic Learning CECiL

President's Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence

Gift from Google will advance equity-focused computer education initiatives at Mason

Colleen Rich — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 17:19:16 +0000

Gift from Google will advance equity-focused computer education initiatives at Mason Colleen Rich Thu, 02/03/2022 - 12:19

��AV received a $250,000 gift from Google to be used by the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) for equity-focused computing education. The money will be divided equally between the two colleges.

“We appreciate the generosity of this gift,” said Christopher Carr, CEC associate dean and chief diversity officer. “Technology involves the tools of the future. These funds dedicated to creating a more inclusive education in technology help ensure that our future will be represented by the collective best of us.”

Shekila Melchior, director of CEHD’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, said that she’s “excited for a collaboration with Google as we see an ever-increasing need of work in diversity and inclusion in the field of education.”

The portion of the gift going to CEHD will help with the continuation of a teacher externship program created last year with Amazon’s help. The program provides current and potential computer science teachers in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia with an opportunity to shadow technology experts and take a companion three-credit graduate-level class at Mason. While the program was started working with Amazon, the gift from Google allows the work to continue through a partnership with Google.

“We are thrilled that our teacher externship will continue and this partnership with Google has made this happen,” said Shirley Hartman, CEHD director of advancement.

Shanika Hope, director of tech education at Google, said the goal was “to provide the information, tools and services that help students build knowledge, fuel curiosity, and prepare for what’s next.”

“��AV is committed to tackling the lack of diversity in computing education to foster more equity and representation in tech and tech-enabled careers,” Hope said. “We are excited to support Mason and look forward to supporting systems-level change to broaden participation and transform educational pathways into tech for underrepresented students."

CEC is dividing its part of the gift into a number of significant initiatives, including admission fee waivers, emergency retention scholarships, diversity needs-based scholarships, a graduate pathways program and faculty development. CEC also plans to contribute funds to Mason’s Early Identification Program and GIRL Inc., as well as establishing a CEC-led no-cost coding boot camp for high school students in marginalized communities.

“We will be using the funds in a holistic way in which the impact will be greatest in our efforts to support our marginalized students,” Carr said.

Topics

Campus News

College of Education and Human Development

College of Engineering and Computing

Tharuna Kalaivanan

Daniel Hyunbin Chung — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 14:31:55 +0000

Tharuna Kalaivanan Daniel Hyunbin Chung Thu, 01/27/2022 - 09:31

Instructor & Graduate Professional Assistant, Honors College

Instructor, Honors College

PhD Student, Sociology

Lead Research Mentor, Social Science Research Lab

Contact Information

Email: tkalaiva@gmu.edu
Phone: 703-993-1110
Mail Stop: Honors College, MSN 1F4
Campus: Fairfax
Office: Buchanan Hall 205

Personal Websites

Biography

Tharuna Kalaivanan is a PhD student in the Public and Applied Sociology Program at ��AV. She graduated from ��AV with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2020. She is also an Honors College Alum. Currently she is an Instructor and Graduate Professional Assistant in the Honors College. She is also a Lead Research Mentor in the Social Science Research Lab (SSRL) led by Dr. Blake Silver. The SSRL is a multi-disciplinary lab that uses team-based social science research to understand student experiences in higher education. Her research interests include immigrants and how their experiences are shaped by race, ethnicity, and other dimensions of identity in higher education and the workplace. Currently she serves as the Secretary in the Public Sociology Association where she plays an active role in encouraging students to explore, learn, and do public sociology through pursuits devoted to activism around social problems on-campus and beyond.

Research

Kalaivanan's research interests include first-generation college students and students with immigrant backgrounds, focusing on their experiences in higher education and the workplace.

Education

BS, Psychology, ��AV (2020)

Publications

Kalaivanan, Tharuna, Blake. R. Silver, Lily Krietzberg, and Bianca Kwan. Forthcoming. “The Senior-Year Transition: Gendered Experiences of Second-Generation Immigrant College Students” Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education Silver, Blake, Lily Krietzberg, and Tharuna Kalaivanan. Forthcoming. “Transitioning Out: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Students’ Concerns in the Senior Year” Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition Silver, Blake R., Freddy Lopez, Fanni Farago, and Tharuna Kalaivanan. 2021. “Focused, Exploratory, or Vigilant: Reproduction, Mobility, and the Self-Narratives of Second-Generation Immigrant Youth.” Qualitative Sociology. doi: 10.1007/s11133-021-09489-w. Silver, Blake R., Freddy Lopez, Tharuna Kalaivanan, and Lily Krietzberg. 2021. “Second-Generation Immigrant Students and the Senior-Year Transition.” Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice 58(4):388–400. doi: 10.1080/19496591.2020.1789467. Silver, Blake R., Tharuna Kalaivanan, Lily Krietzberg, and Jordan Hawkins. 2020. “Distance, Alignment, and Boundaries: How Second-Generation Immigrant College Seniors Negotiate Parental Involvement.” Journal of College Student Development 61(5):558–73. doi: http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.1353/csd.2020.0055.

Grants and Fellowships

OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. “How Racialization Affects First-generation Asian-American’s Perception of Organizational Commitment and Identification” PI: Tharuna Kalaivanan. (8/2019-12/2019). OSCAR Undergraduate Student Travel Fund. “How Racialization Affects First-generation Asian-American’s Perception of Organizational Commitment and Identification” PI: Tharuna Kalaivanan. (2020). OSCAR Undergraduate Student Travel Fund. “Distance, Alignment, and Boundaries: How Second-Generation Immigrant Seniors Negotiate Parental Involvement”. PI: Tharuna Kalaivanan. (2019). OSCAR Undergraduate Student Travel Fund. “Supporting First-Generation American College Students in the Senior-Year Transition”. PI: Tharuna Kalaivanan. (2019).

Classes

HNRS 110: Principles of Research and Inquiry
HNRS 131: First-gen College Students

CEDRIC launch supports diverse students; offers opportunities

Rena Malai — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 14:41:47 +0000

CEDRIC launch supports diverse students; offers opportunities Rena Malai Thu, 11/04/2021 - 10:41

In This Story

Kenneth Ball

Kenneth Ball, dean of the College of
Engineering and Computing, addressed the audience
during CEDRIC's launch.

Having access to support and resources is essential for students from diverse backgrounds.

The Computing and Engineering Diversity Resource and Information Center (CEDRIC) is dedicated to giving diverse and underrepresented students at the College of Engineering and Computing the tools they need to succeed. Guest speakers, Mason staff, and students gathered Friday, October 29 for CEDRIC’s official virtual launch.

Mason’s newly appointed Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Sharnnia Artis, also an engineer, shared with the audience that if it wasn’t for a similar organization like CEDRIC which had helped her, she may not be where she is today.

She encouraged students to explore all the opportunities and mentoring CEDRIC offers.

“The journey to your profession of choice is not going to be easy,” she says. “But CEDRIC will help you build a foundation to make that journey a little easier and more innovative, rewarding, and successful.”

According to Kenneth Ball, dean of the College of Engineering and Computing, CEDRIC is committed to supporting students so everyone can be successful as they navigate through their College of Engineering and Computing degrees at Mason.

“This is wonderful for us, and wonderful for ��AV,” he says.

CEDRIC is a one stop shop for students from underrepresented backgrounds, says Christopher A. Carr, chief diversity officer in the College of Engineering and Computing. Students can find not just a home, but resources, connections, friendship, collaboration, and guidance both during their time at CEC and beyond.

CEDRIC can be accessed here. It is an initiative of the Office of Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning within the College of Engineering and Computing.

Topics

diversity

Inclusion

College of Engineering and Computing

Computer Engineering

Increased Pell Grant student enrollment exemplifies Mason’s commitment to access

Colleen Rich — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 18:12:09 +0000

Increased Pell Grant student enrollment exemplifies Mason’s commitment to access Colleen Rich Wed, 07/07/2021 - 14:12

��AV grew its number of Pell Grant-receiving students by the fifth-largest total in the country over the past five years, the American Talent Initiative announced last week in a progress report that tracks enrollment of lower-income students at the ATI’s 130 member institutions.

Between Fall 2015 and Fall 2019, Mason increased Pell enrollment by 1,303 students. Mason also was one of only 31 ATI institutions to increase its number of Pell recipients in Fall 2020 amid the pandemic. Pell Grants support students in exceptional financial need.

“Expanding opportunity for students from underserved communities is fundamental to ��AV’s mission as the largest and most diverse university in Virginia,” Mason President Gregory Washington said. “We are successfully identifying and developing talent and in turn boosting the economic mobility of our graduates to the great benefit of our region and state workforce.”

The report from the ATI, a group of four-year colleges and universities with six-year graduation rates of 70% or higher who have committed to advancing equity in college enrollment, noted that Mason, the University of California–Merced, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and the University of California–San Diego each increased their Pell enrollments by 1,300 to 1,500 students between 2015 and 2019. The sixth university on the list enrolled fewer than 900 additional Pell-eligible students.

The ATI, formed in 2016, set a goal to enroll an additional 50,000 lower-income students by 2025. COVID-era declines, however, have nearly returned Pell enrollment among ATI members to 2015-16 levels, the report states. Mason is an exception. According to university figures, Pell students grew to 7,825 in Fall 2020 from 7,633 in Fall 2019.

“Mason has long served students largely blocked out of other institutions of higher learning—whether through ultra-selective admission standards or prohibitive costs,” said David Burge, Mason vice president for enrollment management. “These students are welcomed here and are incredibly successful.”

The ATI previously recognized Mason for its transfer pipeline closing equity gaps in degree attainment. This latest recognition highlights Mason’s role as a state leader in access to higher education for lower-income students. According to Fall 2019 data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, 31.8% of Mason’s undergraduates received Pell Grants, which is more than the state average of 26.6% for public four-year institutions. It is also more than double the percentage of Pell-eligible undergraduates at William & Mary (12.4%), the University of Virginia (13.9%), Virginia Tech (14.7%) and James Madison University (14.7%).

Topics

Campus News

Inclusion

American Talent Initiative

enrollment growth

Mason recognized as one of 10 universities bucking the downward trend of Black student enrollment

Colleen Rich — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 16:20:18 +0000

Mason recognized as one of 10 universities bucking the downward trend of Black student enrollment Colleen Rich Wed, 04/14/2021 - 12:20

Students at Mason's 2019 Spring Commencement. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

��AV was highlighted as a national leader in Black student enrollment and graduation in a recent report from Eduventures Research.

The report, “Transcending the Current Higher Education Journey for Black Students: Colleges that Buck the Trend,” notes that from 2010 to 2019, overall undergraduate enrollment dropped 9%, but enrollment of Black undergraduates declined by 20%.

In comparison, Mason’s Black first-time undergraduate enrollment increased 73% during this period, placing Mason fourth nationally behind Towson University, SUNY-Cortland and SUNY-Albany.

Eduventures, a research and advisory firm focused exclusively on higher education, is part of the America College Test/National Research Center for College and University Admissions (ACT/NRCCUA).

The report classifies 50 schools as leaders among 191 non-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with Black graduation rates equal to or above the national average. Ten are singled out by name for exceeding some or all of these four metrics when it comes to Black students: sustained growth in enrollment, steady gains in graduation rate, a graduation rate above the institutional average over the period, and/or a first-time undergraduate ratio above the national average.

The authors note that none of the top 10 met all four of these goals, but add that “all 10 schools show strong [quantitative] evidence of serving Black undergraduates much more assiduously than average.”

As the report notes, in 2019, the six-year graduation rate for all first-time, full-time undergraduates was 60%; for Black students, it was 40%. At Mason the Black graduation rate trend from 2011 to 2019 was 61 to 74%.

Mason’s Black graduation rate matched or surpassed the institutional average for seven years during the 2011 to 2019 survey period, behind the University of South Florida and SUNY-Stony Brook and tying with SUNY-Albany and Washington University in St. Louis.

The authors noted that although the 10 highlighted schools may not be role models in a traditional or narrow view, “they are role models in that each has managed something very few other schools, of any type, have achieved: to graduate traditional-aged Black undergraduates at a rate far above the national average and close this population’s graduation gap that is the norm at most peers.”

Topics

Campus News

access

Inclusion

Mason receives equity grant to help students of color earn college degrees

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 19:58:44 +0000

Mason receives equity grant to help students of color earn college degrees Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 02/15/2021 - 14:58

Spring Commencement 2014. Photo by Creative Services

For its commitment to inclusive excellence, ��AV is among a group of eight institutions to receive a grant from the Indianapolis, Indiana-based Lumina Foundation to support students of color and higher education equity efforts in Virginia.

“We are very excited to be partners with Lumina and [the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia] (SCHEV) in what we know should be a state and national priority in supporting learning, development and success for diverse student populations,” said Creston Lynch, associate dean of University Life. “This further positions us as a leader in the region when it comes to developing and achieving outcomes for students of color.”

On Feb. 9, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced in a press release that SCHEV received the $725,000 grant. Mason is one of four public university receiving $105,000 each.

Northam has set a target of increasing educational achievement for students of color by 5% by 2024, and making Virginia the best-educated state in the nation by 2030 with 70% of working-age adults earning a degree or credential.

“The disruptive impacts of the pandemic on our education system have exposed an urgent need to address achievement gaps that have long persisted in historically underserved communities,” Northam said in the release. “We are grateful for our partnership with Lumina and remain steadfast in our ongoing work to build a more inclusive commonwealth where every student has equitable access to quality, affordable postsecondary opportunities.”

“[The award] affirms our commitment to evidence-based practices that support student success,” Lynch said. “It also affirms that our mission and vision as an institution that supports the larger mission for higher education in the commonwealth.”

The funding will allow Mason to stand up programs and initiatives that will support long-term outcomes for this population.

“We hope to do that in many ways,” Lynch added. “That includes assessing and improving the overall campus climate with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence and piloting programs to enhance academic support for underserved student populations.”

Mason was named one of the most diverse schools in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report. In Fall 2020, 26% of Mason undergraduates were first-generation college students and 29% were Pell-grant eligible, with Pell-eligible students graduating at a similar pace to the overall student body.

Among the university’s many ongoing programs to support students from all backgrounds is its ADVANCE program. Last fall, the program supported 1,806 students on their path from Northern Virginia Community College to Mason, with about 60% of those students being students of color.

“Now more than ever, the work SCHEV and its institutional partners are doing is critical to eradicating unjust and unfair educational outcomes,” said Danette Howard, senior vice president and chief policy officer at Lumina Foundation. “By supporting increased attainment for Virginia’s African American and Hispanic populations and maintaining an ongoing commitment to equity in Virginia’s higher education community, we expect significant improvements for students of color across the commonwealth and models of effective equity-minded practices that can be shared nationwide.”