The Archive of the Magazine for the George Mason University Community

Mason Cribs: Pod People

By Leah Kerkman Fogarty on May 6, 2011


Forget everything you’ve heard about the dorms at Mason. Now considered a “primarily residential” university, Mason has a thriving campus life. Peek into how undergraduates are living large on campus with this take on MTV Cribs—but with a little Mason flavor. From singles to suites, here are some of the best “cribs” around.

If you’re lucky, you meet one or two good friends your freshman year of college. But these freshmen in Eastern Shore residential hall are a bit luckier: they’ve got 15 good friends.

Eastern Shore, opened in 2009, is home to Mason’s Honors College. This building is for high-achieving freshmen who elect to join the Honors College Living Learning Community, or LLC. Housing almost 200 honors students, the floors are grouped into clusters of 16-resident pods, which share common living rooms, kitchens, and study spaces. And this pod? Well, it’s the place to be.

Night or day, it’s the gathering spot for the pod’s residents. With a dining area, couches, and a TV, it’s considered the lounge for socializing and unwinding between classes and study sessions. Another study lounge is provided for the students, too.

Tevin Cropper (right) is a biology major who hopes to continue on to medical school after graduation to become a pharmacist. His video game partner is Brett Baker (left), an economics major from Youngstown, Ohio, who’s on the men’s rowing team and is also a student senator. Both say they were intrigued by the invitation to join the Honors College.

“That was one of the reasons I came here,” says Baker. “It sounded like a good opportunity.”

Through the Honors College, they sign up for advanced classes that they take with other honors students. Classes span multiple topics, which helps free up space for students to take more classes in their respective majors.

All that work means these freshmen need a little bit of downtime, too. For fun, they have Nerf gun wars, play video games, watch TV, and just hang out. “We have a lot of late-night convos,” says Cropper. Their pod also took part in intramural volleyball this year, taking on another pod in the residence hall.

“We kind of lost, though,” Cropper laughs. “But it was still fun.”

See more Cribs


1 Comment »

  1. TEV TEV

    Comment by brybry — July 6, 2011 @ 2:34 pm

Leave a comment