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Editorials

Erasures controversy reveals Rhee’s errors

When Michelle Rhee resigned as chancellor of D.C. Public Schools last fall, she left behind a legacy of school closings, teacher accountability, and rising test scores. But those apparently weren’t the only marks left during Rhee’s tenure. According to a report from USA Today last week, classrooms in 96 schools were flagged for an inordinate number of erasures on correct answers on the 2008 D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System. Over the past three years, dozens of D.C. schools have seen a statistically abnormal amount of corrections on standardized tests, implying that teachers possibly cheated to significantly improve test scores.

News

Crime summit urges theft vigilance

On Tuesday and Wednesday night, InterHall and the Southwest Quad Community Council hosted a crime prevention summit with the Department of Public Safety to raise student awareness about crime prevention.

Editorials

Student interns deserve pay and class credit

Few things are more coveted at Georgetown than a prestigious internship. Landing one has been universally accepted as the best way to secure a paying job after college. Unfortunately, students on the Hilltop find themselves constrained in the internship search by the University’s burdensome requirements for internship accreditation, along with employers’ growing preference for unpaid interns. Getting employers to fairly compensate interns will require action by the Federal government, but more immediately, Georgetown should reform its accreditation process and stop funneling students into menial, unpaid positions.

News

Saxa Politica: Keep $3.4 million SAFE

With $3.4 million of student money weighing on their minds, it’s hard to envy the members of the Student Activities Fee Endowment commission.

Sports

Lacrosse continues to fall short against elite

After a controversial snub from the NCAA Tournament ended last season for the Hoyas, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team has yet to come up with a signature win to boost their playoff resume in 2011. While such a win has been elusive, the unranked Hoyas have certainly come close.

Sports

The Sports Sermon: Program on the rise

Within the last two weeks, two Georgetown basketball seasons have ended. They couldn’t have ended more differently. While the men’s team stumbled in the first round yet again, the women bowed out in a more bittersweet (and respectable) fashion.

Sports

Hoyas freeze in first Big East test

The Georgetown baseball team started off Big East play last weekend, winning one of three games against Notre Dame. A lack of timely hitting cost the Hoyas in the series in which each game was decided by one run.

Sports

Lax knocking on the door

In an era of college sports where mediocre non-conference schedules are usually the norm for elite programs, the No. 23 Georgetown women’s lacrosse team stands out as unique. Though the third-hardest strength of schedule in the country has left the Hoyas with a 2-5 record, the team is still confident.

Sports

Backdoor Cuts: We are (not) Georgetown

Now that almost two weeks have passed since VCU ended Georgetown’s fourth straight season of underachievement and disappointment, we need to step back and look at what is really happening. We love our team, but is this program really what we think it is?

Features

The style is all yours

Spring at Georgetown brings out the best in most of us, but it’s not sundress season yet. Suit up for interviews, take an afternoon stroll­ in style, and look good for class. You never know what might end up in the yearbook.

Page 13 Cartoons

Don’t play it SAFE: How to spend $3.4 million

Last December, Gusa passed SAFE reform, freeing up the $3.4 million previously allocated to the Student Activities Fee Endowment. We at the Voice understand the importance of careful consideration when allocating University money, and would like a voice in the proceedings.

Leisure

M&B is in too deep with Rabbit Hole

From its opening scene, you might expect Rabbit Hole, Mask & Bauble’s latest production, to be the stage version of a gender-reversed Knocked Up. Izzie, a carefree woman-child clad in a Beatles t-shirt and skinny jeans, recounts her most recent bar fight to Becca, her tightly-wound older sister. After Becca gives her a verbal slap on the wrist for profanity and some motherly chiding about her partying lifestyle, Izzie reveals the reason for her alcohol-fueled altercation—she is pregnant by the woman’s boyfriend.

Leisure

We like Venus’s big butt, and we cannot lie

Although the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived in D.C. last week, another sideshow act lurks just beyond Georgetown’s front gates. The set of Venus has transformed Walsh’s Black Box Theatre into the underbelly of a circus’ big tent, outlined by thick, red bands of fabric that drape from ceiling to floor. At center stage dangles a performer’s swing, where Tess Trotter (COL ‘14) plays Saartjie Baartman, or the “Venus Hottentot.” To reach the circus stage, however, the audience must first pass through a sobering setup chronicling Baartman’s life in a miniature mock-museum.

Leisure

Local artists pop up in AdMo

In fiction, the vanishing shop is a pretty common convention—an exploring protagonist is surprised to find a store sitting where there might have been an abandoned building or vacant lot the day before, only for it to disappear soon after. Much like this proverbial protagonist, folks traversing through Adams Morgan over the next three weeks are likely to see a shop on the corner of 18th and Mintwood that isn’t normally there. However, there’s a more natural force at work here: a collection of Adams Morgan artists have turned the vacant space into a “pop-up shop” until April 16th, as a neighborhood component of the citywide Cherry Blossom Festival.

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Mountain Goats, All Eternals Deck

Listening to All Eternals Deck, the latest album from indie rock institution The Mountain Goats, is a bit like flipping through a photo album chronicling a stranger’s entire life. Each track is a snapshot—a single image, light on context but with an emotional weight that rings clear. Depression, isolation, fear, and despair permeate the album, but are always tempered by lyricist John Darnielle’s trademark touch of guarded hope. So when Darnielle sings “Rise if you’re sleeping, stay awake/We are young supernovas and the heat’s about to break” on “High Hawk Season,” it’s hard not to feel stirred, even if you aren’t entirely sure why.

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Belong

When listening to an album for the first time, people often find it helpful to ignore the lyrics to better get a feel for the album’s musical merit. However, in the case of Belong, the sophomore release from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, this proves an impossible task—the trite, clichéd lyrics mar the album from its very start. The album’s opener, “Belong,” sets the tone for the rest of the tracks, complete with uninspired lyrics that sound like they come straight from the pages of a dramatic high-schooler’s diary. Although it begins hopefully with a pop-friendly guitar introduction, it takes a turn for the worse soon thereafter, with scratchily mixed overtones and the murmurs of lead singer Kip Berman’s repetitive and dull chorus of “we don’t belong, we don’t belong.”

Leisure

Fade to Black: Kicking and streaming

Movie studio execs must be keeping America’s psychiatrists pretty busy. I imagine all their therapy sessions start out with a discussion of the same recurring dream: their spouses have lost all interest in them and have fallen for the small, evil red envelopes that have been moving in on their territory for years. Of course, when they first met, the movie execs thought the envelope was awesome: it babysat the kids, walked the dogs, and trimmed the roses. Then, boom! One day, said executive catches the little red bastard in bed with their better halves!

Leisure

Amuse-bouche: Whole Foods, entire budget

When I read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma for a class last week, I violated one of the few rules I live by: eat in near-complete ignorance of where your food comes from. As a rule, I don’t want to know how my chicken was treated before it became a component of my McNugget, which species of fish are farmed unsustainably, or which vegetables are still awash in pesticides when I buy them at the supermarket. I don’t eat any foods specifically for its locavore … ness, and I just barely can argue that I eat healthy.

Voices

Dancing into the hearts of Georgetown’s Best Buddies

Ever since I began Irish dance lessons in second grade, the month of March has always been filled with performances. Whether marching in my town’s parade or dancing at black-tie events, during the week of St. Patrick’s Day, my dance shoes almost never leave my feet.

Voices

More practice space is instrumental to musicians’ growth

When I made the decision to go to Georgetown last spring, I knew what the school was known for and, well, what it was not known for. The strengths, which in my eyes outweighed any drawbacks, included its relatively small size, location in D.C., and academic reputation. But my decision still meant making sacrifices. As a musician who plays many instruments, including piano, guitar, and (my personal favorite) drums, I found Georgetown had relatively few outlets to satisfy a non-music major’s cravings for jamming.

Voices

The Times, it is a changin’

The New York Times has always held a special place in the hearts of liberal elitists like myself. When I was young, I grabbed the Los Angeles Times on Sunday to read the color comic strips. Decidedly uninterested in the latest shenanigans of Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, or that cheeky bunch over at Family Circus, my parents went for the Gray Lady’s news and opinion sections. Long after our subscription to the L.A. paper was cancelled, the New York Times remains an integral part of my family’s breakfast routine. It is considered a grave offense to throw the paper away before both of my parents have the opportunity to read it.

Voices

A mural dilemma: Looking for inspiration on the Leo’s wall

Like almost every Georgetown student, I don’t enjoy much of the time I spend in Leo’s. But it’s not the food that bothers me. I love the “Flavors of Home” line, I love the sweet potatoes and the white sauce on the boiled noodles, and I love making myself waffles downstairs. People who complain about the food in Leo’s are either spoiled or not hungry enough. But, though it has nothing to do with the dining hall’s gastronomic offerings, my lunches and dinners are still unsatisfying.

News

Student leaders criticize SAC, push for funding changes

Although student leaders vocalized months worth of pent-up criticism about the Student Activities Commission’s new funding method at a town-hall meeting Tuesday night, SAC commissioners made no definite commitment to change the policy in the near-term.

News

Working group proposes sexual assault conduct changes

A subcommittee of the University’s Sexual Assault Working Group recently drafted a proposal to change the student code of conduct’s language pertaining to sexual assault in order to clarify the definition of sexual assault.

News

Obama lays out energy plan in McDonough speech

President Barack Obama formally introduced his adminstration’s new energy policy during a speech in McDonough Gymnasium on Wednesday morning.