HAIL GMU?

Part 1

 

“Innovation is Tradition” this has been GMU mottos since 2010 however this motto is is actuality hurting he Mason’s community. Because there is so much innovation the there is a lack of tradition.  With a campus that is constantly under construction, there is no room to breathe in the sights of our beautiful campus. Students like graduating senior Rebecca Howell, have been woken up every morning this semester the loud jack hammers and machines at 7am. “ It is difficult for me because I am a nursing student” says Howell “ after working a long shift at the hospital, the last thing I want is to be woken up by a jackhammer!

 

 

Moving on, there is several other ways the Mason has no sense of tradition. One example is the renaming of buildings on campus. In late 2010 SUB II was renamed the HUB. This change did not many any sense however because if there is a building on campus named SUB 1, there needs to be a building named SUB II. Strange other name changes include the changing of the parking structure names to better fit with names of Virginia landmarks.

 

 

Finally Mason tries to establish traditions, only to change them or not enforce them years later.  A prime example of this is our schools alma mater.

 

“The alma mater is the generic title given to the official song or anthem of a school, college, or university.The official song may be referred to as the alma mater of the school, college or university, and it may be understood by those who know, which song is referred to. It is not to be confused with a college’s fight song, which is usually much more upbeat and used for a college’s athletics programs. An alma mater is typically slow, light in instrumentation and with lyrics that wax nostalgic about the college’s setting and affirm the singer’s devotion to, and fondness for, the school.” -Wikipedia

 

While the fight song  is said at basketball games at Mason, this is not our official school song. But then what is it?

 

That question is sadly one of the reasons why I started this blog in the first place. There is so much confusion about which song is our alma mater that I have spent hours trying to find official documents to no avail.

I was able to find two audio tracks that claim to be Mason school song.

 

1.  Patriot Pride  –  Written in 2009

2.  Patriot Dreams – Written in 2002

 

The question is which one is our alma mater. Like said earlier there is no official document that says what our alma mater is. However according to the Atlantic 10 webpage Patriot dreams is our alma mater.

 

However, this is where the University’s failure at keeping traditions comes into play. Searching for a school song should not require hours of goggling to find an answer.   So, in a survey of random college students I had clips of both the songs an I asked if they had heard the song before today.

Here are the results (still on going):

Patriot Pride                                                               Patriot Dreams

 

 

Interestingly, more people had a recollection of Patriot Pride than Patriot Dreams, which is our alma mater.  This shows that if Patriot Dreams is our alma mater, nobody knows about it. From my recollection these two songs are played at new student convocation and graduation, nowhere else.   It is a shame because at some schools, like my high school for example, the alma mater is a major part of school spirit, which is the next part in my blog, stay tuned.

Edit: Earlier this week, I received an email from the Managing editor of GMU Spirit which said the following:

“The alma mater was written by one of our professors Rick Davis and a music student now alumna Vincent Oppido.”

This means, that I can conclude that “Patriot Pride” is our alma mater, but it is still a problem that not many people recognize it as such.