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March 2012

News

Long-delayed boathouse project moves forward

On Saturday, March 3, the National Park Service held a public workshop on the construction of a boathouse along the Potomac River waterfront near Georgetown.

By March 15, 2012

News

Students support Fluke with petitions, gatherings

Over the past week, Georgetown students angered by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s verbal attack on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, have created petitions and begun planning events to protest Limbaugh’s comments, which drew national media attention and outrage.

By March 15, 2012

News

Housing responds to student outcry over air conditioning

On Wednesday, after an outpouring of student complaints and online protests, the Office of Student Housing addressed concerns that buildings on East Campus would not have working air conditioning until early May.

By March 15, 2012

News

Saxa Politica: Life report lacks data

Last April, the GUSA Executive commissioned the 2012 Report on Student Life, and allocated a large portion of their budget to the project. Although they call the resulting 73-page report “rigorous” and “empirical,” the report’s findings and methods are dubious at best.

By March 15, 2012

Features

Justice vs. Jesuit Values: The struggle for reproductive rights

"I was in shock the first time I tried to get my prescription filled as a student, and I was told that I owed seventy-five dollars. I’ve never paid over twenty dollars for it. I was hurt and embarrassed and felt powerless.” This is the story of one of many anonymous law students, explained in a survey-based memorandum delivered two years ago to the University by the Georgetown chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice.

By March 15, 2012

Voices

“Frothy mixture” definition hurts more than Santorum campaign

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has become an object of ridicule in popular culture. Santorum’s statements—including ones describing how President John Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religious liberty made him want to “throw up” and claiming that Obama wanted to send more kids to college to make them liberals—raised eyebrows even inside Republican spheres.

By March 15, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: Capitalism on cable

While surfing TV channels over spring break, I noticed a show on ABC called Shark Tank. A knock-off of a British and Canadian show called Dragon’s Den, Shark Tank provides entrepreneurs and ambitious small business owners with a chance to pitch their business or product to boardroom of “sharks,” shrewd, self-made millionaire investors with a considerable talent for making money. The contestants approach the sharks requesting a specific dollar amount for a percentage of their company, make their pitch, and wait to see if the sharks care to make them an offer. Many propositions are immediately dismissed as ridiculous and hopeless, while others are so potentially lucrative that the sharks will compete with one another for the contestant’s partnership.

By March 15, 2012

Voices

Hunger pains: Teens starving for better literature

March 23 is generally not a particularly memorable date. But this year, it is a day of incredible importance for a multitude of children and young adults: At 12:01a.m. on Mar. 23, 2012, the first Hunger Games movie premiers. The first book of Suzanne Collins’s trilogy appeared in print in September 2008 and has since become a critical success, having been named one of the New York Times’s “Notable Children’s Books of 2008,” translated into 26 languages, and published in 38 countries. But all this hype begs one very important question: does The Hunger Games deserve of all its acclaim?

By March 15, 2012

Voices

Corp controversy shows need for more civil discourse on campus

In the past few weeks, media attention has fixed on Georgetown as a result of Rush Limbaugh’s slanderous comments against Sandra Fluke (LAW ’12). President John DeGioia came to the defense of Fluke and Georgetown women with a well-received letter to the Georgetown community.

By March 15, 2012

Editorials

We are all to blame for sensationalist media

Even for the exceedingly low standards applied to the American press, in these past few weeks our media machine has outdone itself. The public has been exposed to an uncommon amount of sensationalized, dubious news reports surrounding topics like insurance coverage for contraception and the Invisible Children documentary about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. Although not altogether uncommon, this round of media malarkey is especially destructive for what it covers up—the civilian killings in Afghanistan, a pressing transportation bill in the house, Voter ID laws, and more. Sensationalism has become a natural part of our media’s culture, as people follow trends instead of properly informing themselves. We must commit to consuming thoughtful, competent media and shaping a society where others do the same.

By the March 15, 2012