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Voices

Breast cancer research, overfunded and overexposed

This Monday, I sat in a hospital waiting room, anticipating news of my mother’s condition. Her breast-cancer surgery was supposed to take five to seven hours, but the surgery was approaching hour eight. Luckily, we found out that the extra time was due to a delay, not a complication. She asked to see my sister and me only a few minutes after she woke up from the anesthesia.

Sports

Gomez looks golden in goal for surging Hoyas

Relying on athletes fresh out of high school is a major gamble for programs looking to compete right away. The college level is a whole new world, especially when it comes to a top Division I conference like the Big East. Luckily for the Georgetown men’s soccer team, their gamble on freshman goalkeeper Tomas Gomez has paid off.

Voices

Occupy movement awakens Americans’ preoccupations

Much of the American populace seems dormant in the face of two wars and the growing contingent of radical, anti-progressive right-wing politicians in Congress known as the Tea Party. I have no problem with the actual existence of the Tea Party—they have every right to organize themselves and implement policies—but where was the opposition? Sitting quietly on the sidelines, hoping for “change we can believe in” from Obama?

Sports

Sports Sermon

There has hardly been a more draining succession of offseasons in my time as sports fan than in 2011. First, the NFL couldn’t figure out what to do with its fortune, and nearly risked canceling the season after owners and players spent months debating how to fatten each others’ pockets. Yes, the season survived, but it came at a price of months of speculation and doubt, which weighed on any devoted fan.

Sports

Football rolls, returns to D.C.

For the first time in over a month, the Georgetown football team will get to sleep in their own beds on a Friday night. But their long stretch of away games has still yet to end, as the team faces cross-town rival Howard. Officially labeled the D.C. Mayor’s Cup after an attempt by the mayor’s office in 2008 to instigate an intra-city football rivalry between the two schools, the event has been rekindled after the teams did not meet in 2010.

Sports

Double Teamed: A sports fan’s circle of life

After the Yankees crushed the Tigers last week to tie the American League Divisional Series at two games apiece, my friends and I bought tickets to game five in New York on the spur of the moment. As seniors, we didn’t care if we were going to miss a class or two. We thought was going to be one of those things where we would look back in 10 years and say, “that was one of the greatest decisions we ever made.”

News

Graduate applicants increase, contrast national numbers

Despite national downward trends, Georgetown graduate schools increased enrollment by 3.3 percent from 2009 to 2010, rising from 9,059 students to 9,358, according to statistics from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. National graduate school enrollment decreased by 1.1 percent during the same period, according to a report from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Sports

Golf struggles to keep par

Heading into this past weekend’s Bearcat Invitational Tournament, Georgetown men’s golf coach Tommy Hunter was cautiously optimistic about his team’s prospects, but the Hoyas managed a fifth place finish despite a talented field of 15 teams. An overall score of 289 in their final round brought the team within 13 strokes of tournament champion Austin Peay.

News

New COO leads discussion between students, administrators

On Wednesday, students and University leaders met at the first of what will be a series of “Hoya Roundtable” meetings in Sellinger Lounge. Around 20 students were in attendance, while over 30 administrators were present at the roundtable.

News

City on a Hill: Keep D.C. occupied

If there’s one thing the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C. protestors have achieved, it is shaking up the establishment. House Minority Leader Eric Cantor denounced them as “mobs” that pit Americans against Americans. President Obama’s thoughts were a bit more understanding. He said the protestors are “giving voice to a more broad-based frustration.”

News

RJC reformed, students have concerns about Conduct Code

After a yearlong absence, the Residential Judicial Council, a student-staffed disciplinary body, is up and running again with numerous structural changes aimed to increase the number of cases RJC sees and make the body a more integral part of student conduct proceedings at Georgetown.

Voices

Out of power, Gaddafi leaves mixed legacy in Africa

Recently, a friend asked me whether, as an African, I thought the ongoing revolution in Libya was good or bad for the continent. In my attempt to answer, I realized that, like many Africans outside of Libya, I harbored a little bit of sympathy for Muammar Gaddafi—not for his deposed regime or his domestic policies, but for his contributions to the development of the African continent as a whole, a part of his legacy that is largely overlooked in the West.

Leisure

Festival shows one act can rule them all

A musical number set on a flaming oil rig and a sober reflection on the Egyptian revolution, united on the same stage on the same evening? That’s this year’s Donn B. Murphy One Acts Festival. The festival’s two productions, Peaches and Freon and #Courage, are an unusual combination, but together they show off the strength of original student work at Georgetown.

Leisure

Gainsbourg is the trip of a lifetime

Toward the beginning of Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, the biopic’s subject, little Lucien Ginsberg, later to become the prolific and infamous singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, is bopping down the streets of Nazi-occupied Paris. The Jewish son of Russian parents, Lucien is surrounded by frightening posters of anti-Semitic propaganda, featuring a large-headed, caricatured Jewish man with insulting French slurs written across the bottom. As Lucien walks by, the figure in the poster springs to life and climbs out of the portrait—a jarring moment for the audience, but not for Lucien. The figure, a Tim Burton-esque, short-legged cartoon strolling the real-life Parisian streets, interacts with the boy, who does nothing to hint that this is outside of an everyday occurrence.

Leisure

What’s up with this Thing?

Walking into the screening for The Thing, a prequel to the beloved 1983 John Carpenter film, you’d expect to witness a crowd-pleasing scary movie with terrifying special effects. But The Thing ends up just as generic as its title.

Voices

Dog days are over

In a boy’s life, there are a number of rites of passage allowing him, in some sense, to become a man. There’s his high school graduation, his first car, and his 21st birthday, to name just a few. For me, however, each has come with great ceremony but no great sense of growth. I feared it might only be at my retirement party that I no longer felt like a little kid anymore. Until my dog died.

Leisure

M Street Treats

Save room for your stomach this weekend: it’s that time of the year again. The 18th annual Taste of Georgetown kicks off this Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

Leisure

Whiskey Business: Typing under the influence

We all know how it feels. You’re sitting down in front of your computer, about to start on the 15-page paper you have due in three days, when all of sudden you remember that there’s still half a bottle of whiskey in your freezer. Suddenly, you find yourself wrestling with the ultimate collegiate dilemma: to drink or not to drink?

Leisure

Byte Me: A not-so-tempting Apple

Let’s talk iPhone. Apple fanatics waited to hear these words for 16 months since the debut of the iPhone 4. As if there were not already enough rumors surrounding the launch of what most people hoped to be the iPhone 5, the announcement that Apple would be hosting an event at its Cupertino campus to “talk iPhone” sparked a firestorm of speculation. Unheralded bloggers and world-renowned news sources alike all released their lists of what we should count on for the next-generation iPhone. And with 66 percent (according to an August survey by RBC capital) of current iPhone owners planning to upgrade to the new model, sight-unseen, people were listening.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Real Estate, Days

Brooklyn-based Real Estate is due for some attention. After a pristine debut album, the group has made a smooth transition into its sophomore release, Days, solidifying Real Estate as one of the chillest, melodically pleasing bands around. Although it’s not a significant improvement from the first LP, Days’s fresh material possesses a lackadaisical charm that splits the difference between ‘60s surf-pop and modern indie.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Mayer Hawthorne, How Do You Do

After making an electric debut with 2009’s A Strange Arrangement, Mayer Hawthorne has been moving up in the world. From a collaboration with retro-rap duo The Cool Kids to a... Read more

Features

A life in learning: Father James Schall

In the moments before his Elements of Political Theory class, Father James Schall, S.J., stood in the hall, chatting with early-comers about the weather, the readings, and other courses. Schall not only knew all of his current students by name, but also recalled almost all of his recent students. He made introductions among the students standing in front of him, and a large, comfortable conversation started.

News

Lack of transparency in SAC spurs new student group

On Tuesday, student group leaders received an email announcing the formation of the Student Group Union, a student group alliance created in response to perceived transparency issues with the way the Student Activities Commission allocates group funds. Emma Green (COL ’12), a former Philodemic Society treasurer, is heading the initiative. In the email, Green wrote that the SGU would be a way to increase dialogue among student organizations and with the administration.

News

New South Student Center may use SAFE funding

At a forum on the proposed New South Student Center on Monday, architects from SmithGroup, Georgetown University Student Association senators, and University administrators revealed updated designs for the project and indicated that students would still have more opportunities to provide input on the final design of the center.