Mason’s Mortarboard

The abundance of new buildings soon to open on the Fairfax Campus has put the University Naming Committee into overdrive. Students of engineering, the arts, and even physical education will have new homes as early as late spring.

Some of the new names developed by the naming committee are still pending BOV approval, but many are as good as done.

Project name: Academic VI / Research II
New name: The Engineering Building

Project name: Arlington II (Arlington Campus)
New name: Founders Hall
-The public plaza will be called “Virginia Square Plaza”

Project name: Hotel and Conference Center
New name: The Mason Inn Conference Center and Hotel

Project name: Parking Deck III
New name: Rappahannock River Parking Deck

Old name: The Physical Education Building
New name: The RAC (Recreation and Athletic Complex)
-Robinson Field will be called “RAC Field”

Apparently it’s a big deal to a lot of people when trees die in the wake of construction. So I guess it should be equally as important when a tree lives through the construction process.

Mason’s Facilities Management team came to the rescue once again. After recently saving the lives of 17 trees located in a construction zone outside of the Performing Arts Building, Facilities saved yet another tree — a 12-foot-tall rubber tree.

In preparation for the construction of the swing space building on the Fairfax Campus, Mason’s greenhouse had to be demolished. All plants, including the rubber tree, needed to be removed.

But transplanting a tree of that size was difficult. And workers had trouble finding a suitable location that had enough space and proper lighting for the tree to survive. Finally, all parties agreed on the foyer of Research 1.

To get the tree out of the greenhouse and into Research 1, workers had to give it a significant trim job. After the once-mighty tree was trimmed down to an unassuming stump, the delivery was completed.

But this isn’t the first time this tree was pruned so extensively. Not long ago, it got the same treatment and still survived. So everyone is optimistic that “stumpy” will pull through just fine.