If you are on campus for Inauguration Day, George Mason University will have plenty to do. Among the events planned for January 20, you’ll be able to see the Inauguration in the JC Atrium and attend an Inaugural Ball right here on campus. 

The ceremony will start at 11:30 a.m. and can all be seen on the big screen in the Johnson Center. There will be coverage both before and after the event, so plan to come early. If you can’t make it to the Atrium, Mason Votes will be hosting a live stream of the event. 

At 4 p.m., GMU-TV will be hosting a panel of experts who will be giving a Mason perspective on the Inauguration. You can watch the show live at GMU-TV’s studio in Innovation Hall, 4th floor. Interactive on-camera participation in the event can also be found in Innovation Hall room 103.

Seating for both locations begins at 3:30 p.m. If you can’t find a seat, you can watch the on-campus cable channel 48 or see what channel GMU-TV broadcasts on near you at their website. The event is also available online via live streaming video.

Everyone is invited to send questions to the panel in real-time via Yammer, a social micro-blogging service accessible to anyone with an active gmu.edu e-mail address. By signing in to the service at www.yammer.com instant messaging to the panel will be available.

There will be a dialogue about the inauguration facilitated by Mason’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. The event will be in the Johnson Center’s Dewberry Hall at 5:30 p.m. and is an opportunity for small-group discussions of the issues in the earlier GMU-TV panel.

In the evening Mason is holding its own inaugural ball. (See the Facebook group.) From 9 p.m. to midnight, the SUB II ballroom is the place to celebrate the Inauguration of the 44th president. During the night there will be food, live music, dancing, a balloon drop, mocktails, and video coverage of all the after inauguration events. Students are invited to wear anything from formal to party clothes and dressing up in red, white or blue is recommended. There will be live performances by The Monster Band and DJ Rush Hour.

Beyond the themed activities, the campus will be have a number of other options open for students who expected classes.

• The Johnson Center will be showing movies all day.
• The new fitness center will be open from 9 a.m. to midnight.
• The SUB I game room will be open until midnight.
• Corner Pocket will be open for play from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Any members of the Mason community are invited to e-mail their photos to Mason Votes’ Flickr account, where they will be posted live into the photo stream. You can send photos from your computer, cell phone or other internet-enabled device to wither69fact@photos.flickr.com. Be aware that any photos sent to this address will fall under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Posted on January 14th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Filed under: Mason Learns, Top Stories