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Voices

A colorblind case for income-based affirmative action

Recently, while filling out forms for a fellowship, I found myself confronted with the all too familiar race-based form that instructs me to please mark the box titled “White/Caucasian.” Of course, if I object to providing this information, I do have the option of marking the corresponding box. But I think it’s safe to say that marking the “I decline to respond” box is basically saying, “I’m white or another race that isn’t considered diverse enough for this institution.”

Voices

Tricks and treats: college unmasks a new Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. It’s not just the scary movies, the haunted houses, the crisp fall weather, the pumpkin pies, the apple cider, the bonfires, the haunted corn mazes, and the hayrides. What other holiday encourages, even requires, you to put on a crazy costume and get tons of treats (or perhaps more realistically for the average Hoya, a sloppy makeout with someone whom you think is the hot guy from your English class, though you can’t really be sure under his Dread Pirate Roberts Mask)? And no, Mardi Gras doesn’t count.

Sports

Homecoming heroes: football clinches winning season

Having spent the last five Saturdays in enemy territory, the Hoyas were ecstatic to return to a packed Homecoming crowd. “I actually started to miss Multi-Sport Facility,” junior linebacker and Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week Robert McCabe said, drawing laughs from Head Coach Kevin Kelly and his teammates. With the way the Georgetown football team (6-2, 2-1) played in its 40-17 homecoming victory over Colgate after five straight road games, it’s hard to blame him.

Sports

Sports Sermon

As the Georgetown football team traded handshakes with the Colgate players and coaches following a 40-17 homecoming victory, the packed grandstands of Multi-Sport Field filled the air with resounding applause. Sadly, this was one of the only times the crowd seemed invested in the contest at all. Much of game was observed in relative silence, so much so that it is unclear which was quieter in the second half: the crowd or the Colgate offense.

Sports

Double Teamed: Theo catches his moneyball

The Chicago Cubs recently spent $18.5 million on talent that won’t even step foot on the field during his time with the team. In fact, he won’t even be in the dugout. After being named the President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs, Theo Epstein has likely become Major League Baseball’s highest-paid executive. Not only are the Cubs paying a ludicrous fee for Epstein’s services, but they also have to compensate the Red Sox, for whom he had one year left on his contract. The Red Sox will probably receive a player from the Cubs for Epstein.

Voices

High hopes for Libya and the future of U.S. intervention

Congratulations are due to the people of Libya. After months of civil conflict, the tyrant who oppressed them with his iron fist is gone. However, a warning is needed as well: that was the easy part. What Libya is faced with now is much more cruel and much more destructive than any tyrant could be. It lurks behind the joyous celebrations, behind the statements of global political leaders, and behind the news streams around the world of Gaddafi’s death. It is the potential that Libya’s reconstruction will fail.

Sports

Hoyas await Big East showdown

Georgetown women’s soccer coach Dave Nolan has some sound advice to offer his players before their first postseason match of the year. “Just beat Syracuse.” Sunday’s clash isn’t just another rivalry game. It will decide if the Hoyas will return to the Big East semifinals for the first time since 2007. Only redshirt senior Ingrid Wells remains from that team. This year’s seniors will be eager to make an appearance before their careers with the team come to a close.

Sports

Cross country races for title

The Georgetown women’s cross country team will start its postseason this weekend, traveling to Louisville for the Big East Championships. The No. 6 Hoyas will look to repeat their success from a year ago, when seven runners placed in the top 20 overall finishers, resulting in a second place showing.

Voices

Facebooking the dead

Every October 25, my Facebook experiences its annual flood of wall posts. This inundation of birthday wishes from friends, family, distant cousins, Sunday school teachers, past hookups, and people I just plain forgot about is something only Facebook could facilitate. But another event on that day spawns an almost equally predictable outpouring of well-wishers—the death of my soccer teammate and friend, Will Wardrip.

News

Georgetown, DCRA partner on off-campus housing

Over the past month, Georgetown administrators and the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs have come together in an unprecedented partnership to aid students who rent privately- owned properties in the neighborhoods surrounding the University. The two sides first met about a month and a half ago in an effort to identify unlicensed off-campus houses and to deliberate ways to ensure that off-campus housing units frequently rented by students are properly licensed and inspected to comply with D.C. building and safety codes.

News

On the record with new Student Activities Commission Chair

Newly elected Student Activities Commission Chair Jack Appelbaum (COL ‘14) sat down on Tuesday to discuss his visions for SAC and the challenges that face the system. Interview conducted and transcribed by Fatima Taskomur.

Editorials

Occupy DC movement at a crossroads

Since the Occupy DC protests took root in McPherson Square at the beginning of October, over a hundred tents have been erected, as well as more permanent set-ups to service the everyday needs of the occupiers such as food, basic medical care, clothing, and reading material. As the occupation approaches its second month, participants must work to ensure the longevity of the movement while facing two big challenges: the fast-approaching winter and ideological issues that threaten the unity of the movement.

News

City on a Hill: Brown’s schools’ IMPACT

Last Friday, D.C. City Council Chairman Kwame Brown announced he would propose legislation to reform another one of former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s policies, the IMPACT teacher evaluation system. The IMPACT system has been exacerbating problems of educational inequity and cyclical poverty in the city’s schools, and the Councilman’s proposal stands a chance of changing that.

News

Thefts, burglaries down from last year

Department of Public Safety crime reports indicate that incidences of theft, by far the most common crime on campus, exhibit a cyclical pattern, picking up during the fall and spring months and declining during winter and summer. However, there have been fewer thefts this fall compared to last year. While the DPS crime log reports 37 thefts in October of 2010, this month has only seen 14 so far.

News

CycleBeads study contested

Recent studies published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care claim that CycleBeads, a contraceptive tool developed by Victoria Jennings, the director of the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown, are more effective than male condoms.

Editorials

U.S. wars end, foreign policy lessons abound

This week, the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi coincided with the announcement of the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of the year. The conclusion of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the NATO-led campaign in Libya should provide an opportunity for American policymakers to learn from both our failure at nation building in Iraq and the relative success of our measured strategy in Libya.

Editorials

Complaints about Leo’s deserve attention

For years, complaining about the quality of the food provided at Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall has been among Georgetown students’ most common conversation topics. As healthiness and food choices have declined in recent years, prices have increased. Since Georgetown’s contract with Aramark, the company the University contracts to operate the dining hall, expires next year, the administration has an opportunity to address one of the most persistent, and easily addressed, sources of student discontent.

Leisure

Critical Voices: She & Him, A Very She & Him Christmas

December 25 is a full two months away, ornaments are still packed in boxes, and presents have yet to be bought, but none of this has stopped indie pop duo She & Him from releasing a Christmas album. In A Very She & Him Christmas, the quirky M. Ward and actress-turned-singer Zooey Deschanel take on the difficult task of making holiday cheer relevant in October.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto

The cover of Mylo Xyloto is a graffiti-splattered maelstrom of color that bombards the eye like a set of fireworks. With even their cover art looking like an obnoxious attempt to draw attention, Coldplay once again appears to be foregoing subtlety in favor of grandeur.

Features

Turning in the jersey: student-athletes call it quits

Former Georgetown soccer player Claire Fuselier (MSB ‘13) had her fair share of experiences on the field for the Hoyas in her first two years on campus. Unfortunately, most of those moments weren’t the ones that made headlines. Fuselier, who described herself as more of a practice player, entered 12 games as a substitute and quit the team after her sophomore year.

News

Capital Campaign launch next week, priorities defined

On the last weekend of October, Georgetown’s Office of Advancement will launch the public phase of its latest capital campaign, the final push for a $1.5 billion fundraising initiative begun in July 2007. By the end of this June, the University had raised $737 million through the “quiet phase” of the campaign, almost half of its goal. Administrators hope to increase interest in the campaign by announcing the projects the office is planning on sponsoring on the launch weekend.

News

SGU helps club leaders move toward collaboration

This Sunday, the newly created Student Group Union will have its first meeting in Copley Formal Lounge. Approximately 50 student groups have already signed on to be part of the group, and organizers hope that new groups will come and formalize their commitment to the SGU at the meeting.

News

Saxa Politica: Coulter incites criticism

Last week, the announcement that the Georgetown University College Republicans and the Georgetown University Lecture Fund was bringing conservative pundit and commentator Ann Coulter to Georgetown set off a firestorm of criticism from students.

News

DiversABILITY presents play for deaf, disabled communities

This Saturday, Georgetown’s Department of Performing Arts will put on Visible Impact, a production that seeks to engage with deaf and disabled communities as part of Georgetown’s DiversABILITY Forum, a weekend-long initiative to promote discussion about students’ understandings of diversity through various performing arts and discussions with artists, educators, policymakers and advocates.