Archive

Sweeney’s arrest jeopardizes future of AUC programs

On Nov. 23, Georgetown student Derrik Sweeney (COL ’13) was arrested in Cairo, Egypt, on allegations of throwing Molotov cocktails at police during a protest in Tahrir Square. He and three other American students were detained and released from jail on Nov. 25. Sweeney returned to his home in Missouri a day later.

By Morgan Manger December 1, 2011

Independent retailers struggle on Wisconsin

On Nov. 29, the Citizens Association of Georgetown met with neighborhood residents to address the longstanding issue of fostering Wisconsin Avenue independent businesses, which have struggled to establish themselves in the area.

By Soo Chae and Matt Weinmann December 1, 2011

Students, faculty discuss Occupy’s future at two panels

On Tuesday evening, two different speaker panels organized by Georgetown Occupy and McDonough School of Business Dean David Thomas, respectively, provided contrasting viewpoints on the two-month-old Occupy D.C. protest in... Read more

By Patricia Cipollitti December 1, 2011

Saxa Politica: Budget summit breakdown

In Nov. 2008, Nick Troiano (COL ‘12), then a GUSA senator, staged a sit-in in a Student Activities Commission constitutional meeting to protest SAC’s closed voting policy. In response, SAC chair Sophia Behnia (COL ‘09) shouted, “You can all stay in here for this vote, I don’t give a damn!”

By Ryan Bellmore December 1, 2011

SFS Dean Kasper set to resign

At the end of this semester, School of Foreign Service Dean Bryan Kasper will leave Georgetown for a job at the State Department. Kasper has worked for Georgetown since 1998.

By Rachel Calvert December 1, 2011

Features

Best of 2011

Movies: Drive, Harry Potter, Bridesmaids, 50/50, Midnight in Paris, Super 8, The Muppets, The Help, Moneyball, Contagion Music: Fleet Foxes, Kanye West & Jay-Z, Adele, The Weeknd, Bon Iver, Coldplay, The Decemberists, The Strokes, Childish Gambino, Tom Waits

By the Voice Staff December 1, 2011

Even Georgetown students struggle with mental illness

As Georgetown students, we pride ourselves on being accepting of all those who study and work at our school. To most students, the days of widespread institutional racism, classism, and heterosexism are gone. Bureaucracies have been established, policies enacted, and we all live thinking that justice has overcome bigotry. And, in many ways, it has—when I’ve encountered racism, it has been with my distant, parochial relatives, not with my classmates at Georgetown. But while students would camp out in Red Square, stage protests, and hold rallies against a racial or social injustice on campus, no one will venture to openly discuss issues of mental illness.

By Connor Jones December 1, 2011

Faster-than-light particles may contradict Einstein himself

It was rumored that only three people in the world have understood Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it,” physicist Niels Bohr once said. Quantum theory is now recognized as the most significant advancement in physics of the last century, yet recent experiments in Europe suggest that neutrinos can travel faster than light, in seeming violation of quantum theory and Einstein’s equations.

By Alex Zajac December 1, 2011

Carrying On: An N64 to fall back on

Over Thanksgiving break, my roommates sent me home with a request. Actually, it was more like an order: “Don’t come back unless you bring your Nintendo 64.”

By Tim Shine December 1, 2011

Political correctness muddles discussion of race on campus

A few years back, several incidents pushed issues of race and diversity at Georgetown to the forefront of the campus’s mind. In 2007, the attack of a gay student on campus prompted the formation of the LGBTQ center at Georgetown. In the same year, some criticized the priorities of Georgetown students when a protest on the alcohol policy received more attention than a vigil for the Jena Six that was held on the same day. In 2008 and 2009, students protested the Hoya and the Georgetown Heckler for publishing satirical articles that they found insensitive toward minorities and women who had faced assault.

By Holly Tao December 1, 2011

Editorials

Black Friday: True American capitalism

Riots, gunfire, pepper spray, police brutality: although often attributed to the Occupy protests or political revolution in the Middle East, these images actually depict scenes from 2011’s Black Friday shopping brouhaha. Assaults over two-dollar waffle makers, parking lot robberies, a woman pepper spraying a crowd vying for an Xbox 360, and police knocking a man unconscious for attempting to protect a prized video game are all among this year’s Black Friday excursions gone horribly wrong.

By the Editorial Board December 1, 2011

Editorials

NBA misses its shot at meaningful reform

While most of the sports world was focused on football and the fallout of the Penn State scandal, National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern and Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter were secretly hashing out an agreement to end the 150-day NBA lockout. Then, last Saturday, the Commissioner’s Office announced that an agreement was in place, and that the season would tentatively begin on Christmas day.

By the Editorial Board December 1, 2011

Editorials

Emulate Sweeney’s spirit, not his actions

While most Georgetown students were enjoying turkey and family time, one of our fellow students found himself incarcerated by a violent military regime. Derrik Sweeney had been studying abroad in Egypt, but was forced to bring his semester to an end after being arrested near Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the country’s most recent pro-democracy protests. Along with two other American students, Sweeney was captured after the demonstrations turned violent, and was accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces

By the Editorial Board December 1, 2011

Tinkered and tailored to perfection

Though Intro to International Relations professors may paint the Cold War as a nostalgic period of simple bipolarity, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the period’s politics were anything but straightforward. The Cold War of British novelist and retired spy John le Carré is dizzyingly complex, and offers no reassurances of the West’s moral superiority. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson is the latest to take on le Carré’s work, adapting his novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy into a film with a star-studded cast led by Gary Oldman. Thankfully, Alfredson abandons none of the book’s complexity in this stylish, throwback spy flick.

By Jake Schindler December 1, 2011

These digital canvases fail to inspire

For an exhibit entitled A Theatre of Objects, artist Andy Holtin’s collection of video channels at Flashpoint Gallery near Mount Vernon does little to entertain or stimulate the viewer beyond its original use of media. Using a trio of varying yet simplistic scenes, Holtin attempts to “understand and narrate human interaction and intent, even with the vaguest of clues.” A secondary goal is to reevaluate the role of the video equipment itself, making it a dynamic medium rather than simply stationary machinery. While this objective adds an intriguing dimension to the favored medium of our YouTube generation, it fails to make up for the lack of captivating content in the scenes themselves.

By Julia Lloyd-George December 1, 2011

Wheatgrass shots, limes, and carrotinis

At Georgetown, we live on a campus where most beverages are either caffeinated or alcoholic (or, in the heyday of Four Loko, both). So D.C.’s latest food truck, Juice Revolution, can offer Hoyas a new, healthy and refreshing drink option—live juice. Instead of prepackaged juice, which is inevitably pasteurized, Juice Revolution offers its patrons a series of live juices packed with vitamins and antioxidants made from fresh fruits and veggies.

By Mary Borowiec December 1, 2011

Critial Voices: Trey Songz, Inevitable

When Trey Songz rocketed to mass popularity in 2010 with hit singles “Say Aah” and “Bottoms Up,” he set a high standard for his music. With the internet buzzing with speculation about Chapter 5, his upcoming 2012 studio album, the five-track EP Inevitable provides a clear preview of Songz’s newest work. Unfortunately, Inevitable without question misses the high mark of his 2010 singles, and what remains is a steaming pile of rap that leaves former fans praying that the inevitable transformation of the EP into Chapter 5 never comes.

By Kirill Makarenko December 1, 2011

Critical Voices: Curren$y, Jet World Order

In concept and construction, the latest album from prolific rapper Curren$y, Jet World Order, is a lot like Lil’ Wayne’s We Are Young Money or Jay-Z’s The Dynasty: Roc la Familia—albums worth of tracks from associates and labelmates, with different artists featured in various combinations in each song. An album of this type usually works nicely because it gives listeners the opportunity to listen to a familiar artist while exposing them to the stylings of associated up-and-comers. Unfortunately, on Jet World Order, Curren$y himself only appears in three of the album’s twelve tracks, and without him the other artists fail to hold up.

By Michael Mouch December 1, 2011

Box Office, Baby!: No Green for NC-17

Walking into a screening of Shame, an upcoming film labeled with the dreaded NC-17 rating, I felt a tingle of excitement. No, not the excitement a pubescent boy feels before opening his first Playboy, but the excitement that I was about to witness a quality film. Unfortunately, the stigma of pornography that an NC-17 rating carries has left many independent films like Shame at the cruel mercy of the Motion Picture Association of America.

By Mark James December 1, 2011