Many Masons, One New Spirit

I came out to George Mason University's Fairfax campus to luxuriate in Final Four frenzy. First thing I needed was a map.

Not to find the right buildings -- the campus signage is just fine. No, if you want to get all academic and fancy about it, what I needed was an ethnographic map.

See, Mason, aside from being the home of America's new darling, the Patriots basketball team, is the most diverse college campus in the land, according to one highly touted survey. Students come from 140 countries and speak 85 languages.

Every student I spoke to was happy to sketch out the turf for me. Abbie Redmon, managing editor of the Broadside, the student newspaper, directed me to the Johnson Center, the main student hangout, where the third floor is the Middle Eastern students' spot and the second floor is where the Asians gather. There's a place on the main floor where the fraternity and sorority kids -- mostly white or black -- fraternize and sororitize.

All over campus, people pointed out hangouts: That breezeway over there? Vietnamese kids. That corner of the lunchroom? Latino students.

The diversity imperative that has been so thoroughly infused into American education tells us that mixing with people of many different backgrounds is wonderful because it opens our minds and challenges our assumptions. Fair enough, except that as anyone who's been to high school or college in the past generation can tell you, we tend to stick to our own, no matter what group we may be a part of.

George Mason, like pretty much all schools these days, caters to this tendency by supporting all manner of ethnic and religious affinity groups. Mason student fees help out 17 different ethnic organizations, from the Bengali Patriots to the Persian Club to the Nepalese Students Association.

Add the fact that a large majority of Mason students are commuters, and you end up with a school that hasn't developed a whole lot of social mixing or student spirit. Until this week.

Jai Lewis, the Patriots' star center, gamely tried to make his way to his usual lunch spot Tuesday and quickly gave up. He was stopped at every step, signing dozens of autographs, on shirts, caps, textbooks, even on other students' ID cards.

"Usually, I walk through here, no problems," the 6-7 senior said. No more. He was loving every second of his newfound celebrity, but he did note that although he'd been in classes with some of them, he'd never actually spoken to any of the students now peppering him with autograph requests.

"People really stick to their own ethnicities around here. But right now, everybody's coming together to have fun," Lewis said. "Hopefully, that will stick."

Furhan Qureshi watched Lewis signing autographs and kicked at the floor. "Man, I had English class with three guys on the team, and I never spoke to them. Now I wish I had."