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Voices

The SAT is to Georgetown what the appendix is to your body

Georgetown’s emphasis on standardized testing is harmful to both the University and prospective students. Georgetown should follow in the footsteps of Wake Forest, Bowdoin, Smith, Bard, Middlebury, and other highly regarded institutions of higher learning that have recognized the limitations of the SAT. It’s time to phase out the SAT and make the test optional for applicants to the class of 2014.

Voices

Trains: they’re the only way to fly

After a few too many flights where pilots sighed, “Well, we made it,” and fellow passengers made the sign of the cross as the wheels finally managed to stick their landing, I knew it was time to find a different way to get around. Because they seemed to succeed where planes failed—with wheels firmly attached to the ground at all times—I began to take trains everywhere I went.

Voices

Give booze unto others as others gave booze unto you

While friends at large state schools reported that frats often charged entry fees to offset costs, all the parties I attended were free. I was sort of proud of this. As one particularly generous host explained, “It’s about taking care of our own. We crashed parties when we were freshman; now it’s our turn to pay it back.” His pay-it forward logic struck me as oddly chivalrous, especially for a guy in a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” t-shirt.

Editorials

Feds shouldn’t take aim at home rule

In 1973, Washington won home rule: the right to govern most of its affairs free from Congressional interference. Now Congress is considering a bill that would take away the city’s self-government on one of the most important issues in the District: handguns.

Editorials

16 fewer townhouses for the rest of us

It sounds like an idyllic, almost utopian community: 16 groups of four students united by common interests and a commitment to social justice living together on a block of colorful townhouses just outside the main gates of Georgetown. But even if Magis Row—the new living and learning community that Residential Life has created for the 2009-2010 school year—manages to live up to the University’s high expectations, which seems unlikely given its ambiguous mission, the program’s benefits wouldn’t outweigh the damage it does to the student body as a whole. By taking 16 townhouses out of the housing lottery, the program subverts the fairness of the housing selection process and unduly favors a group of students hand-picked by the University over the general student population.

Editorials

Juicy Campus: thanks, but no thanks

Thought middle school was tough? You’ve probably never been to Juicy Campus. Within days of arriving at Georgetown last week, the gossip site was flooded with threads about who’s sleeping with whom, who the hottest person on campus is, who’s promiscuous, and who’s an asshole, to pick out a few topics. As if that wasn’t enough, all of the allegations, which frequently called out students by name, are made under the cloak of anonymity, without any repercussions for the posters. The answer to the Juicy Campus phenomenon is not for Georgetown’s administration to censor the website, cutting off access for students using Georgetown’s internet connection. Rather, it falls to us—the students of Georgetown—to practice a modicum of restraint on the site, always keeping the golden rule in mind—don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to be said about you.

Sports

Hoyas to host two Big East foes this weekend

The first goal of the season is always tough for a team to give up. But it’s especially tough when a team manages to log nine hours of play and five games before it comes. Such was the case for the Georgetown men’s soccer team, which surrendered its first goal of the year and suffered its first defeat of the season at Providence last Saturday.

Sports

Thirteen years and still Mr. Clutch

On Tuesday, Derek Jeter surpassed Lou Gehrig’s record of 1,269 hits at Yankee Stadium, a milestone that has stood since 1939. This latest accomplishment adds to a laundry list of honors, including nine All-Star selections and three Golden Gloves for the shortstop. But perhaps the greatest accomplishment of his 13-year career with the Yankees is that he has never failed to reach the playoffs. That streak will almost certainly end this season, the last at Yankee Stadium.

Sports

Shoot-out at Villanova

Sometimes a story is best told by the numbers: 13 games, 12 wins, 41 goals. That’s what the Georgetown and Villanova women’s soccer teams will bring in to their Big East opener on Friday afternoon. The Hoyas (5-0-1) and the Wildcats (7-0-0) have enjoyed success in the form of an offensive explosion to start off the season, so when the two meet in Philadelphia, something’s got to give.

Sports

Dual quarterbacks look to power offense vs. Yale

The Georgetown football team suffered its first setback of the season last Saturday, losing on the road to Lafayette, 24-6. The team will need to address its offensive woes in order to repeat its D.C. Cup success, but they will have a tough time of it this weekend as they travel to Connecticut to take on Yale.

Sports

Sports Sermon: D.C. running culture

What’s the difference between a 60-year-old man and a 20-year-old college student? Answer: He’s faster than I am. This might have surprised me anywhere else in the country, but it’s just about what I expected from my first foray into the District’s running culture: an army of Type-A road warriors.

Features

High Marks

“In terms of what has actually been happening over the past 20 years, there’s no doubt that there has definitely been grade inflation,” School of Foreign Service Professor Ted Moran said. Moran, who began teaching at Georgetown in 1978, has witnessed the upward surge of grades at the University first-hand.

Georgetown currently lacks any official policy to combat inflation. The University has a recommended grade distribution for all departments and instructors, suggesting that professors attempt to award 30 percent A’s, 54 percent B’s, 13 percent C’s, 2 percent D’s, and 1 percent F’s. But there are no formal, university-wide procedures to address deviations from the recommended guidelines.

News

Saxa Politica: The Kelly kerfuffle

Before James Kelly (COL ’09) became vice president of the Student Association, he ticked off a lot of people at an open forum following last fall’s bias incident when he argued that the school wouldn’t have proposed a resource center had a straight male been assaulted. While true, Kelly’s hypothetical entirely missed the point that the incident was a hate crime. So when Kelly came into office as Pat Dowd’s (SFS ‘09) VP, there was lingering resentment toward the ticket from certain campus groups, particularly GU Pride.

News

Bias charges

William Rennie (COL ‘09), the alleged victim of the bias-related incident that occurred in Burleith two weeks ago, has decided to press charges and file a lawsuit against his alleged harassers. According to Rennie, the residents of a house on the 3600 block of S Street who taunted him at the beginning of the school year also did so in July.

News

Evans victorious

Incumbent Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans (D) defeated challenger Cary Silverman (D) in Tuesday’s Democratic primary by 1,300 votes, garnering 65 percent of the vote.

Editorials

Hanna hits Georgetown

Tropical Storm Hanna hit the Georgetown campus late Saturday morning, bringing strong winds and rain and causing damage to student residences.

News

Ten more years

Imagine this: a library that can handle the masses of students who descend upon it during finals, a walk to Leo’s for lunch that does not involve constantly dodging vehicles left and right. These ideas could become reality if included in Georgetown’s next ten year campus plan, which will dictate how the University will grow over the next decade.

Editorials

M St. water woes

Last Sunday at around 6:30 a.m., a fire hydrant burst on 33rd Street, closing a busy stretch of M Street and flooding Starbucks, Qdoba Mexican Grill, and the apartments of some Georgetown students.

News

Crime wave

A series of crimes hit Georgetown last week when two students were violently robbed, one at gunpoint, and a woman was sexually assaulted by a man who may be a suspect in three other Northwest D.C. sexual assault cases.

Leisure

Doomsday drinks

If you’re reading this, then you know that the world did not come to an end on September 10, 2008 at 4: 27 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. At that moment, a group of European scientists under the city of Geneva, Switzerland, flipped the “on” switch of the Large Hadron Collider, a massive proton accelerator whose essential purpose is to recreate the Big Bang on a miniature scale.

Leisure

The shorter the better

It’s that time of year again! No, not “International Housekeeper’s Week,” although I’m sure everyone’s super excited about that. This bit of news is just as good; District’s very own DC Shorts Film Festival is back for the fifth year in a row, starting on Thursday, September 11th.

Leisure

Just one more night in Bangkok

“The work is steady, the money’s good, but it’s not for everyone,” says Nicolas Cage’s assassin Joe at the beginning of Bangkok Dangerous. He’s describing his globe-trotting, gangster-murdering job, but he could just as easily be describing Cage’s career. The actor has delivered reliably decent performances in action movies for years, sometimes giving the impression that he worked harder on a single scene than the screenwriter did for the whole movie.

Leisure

By any means necessary

In case you didn’t know, the Internet is a remarkable source for learning about music and finding that music for free. While many collectors are in the habit of finding full albums to add to their libraries, casual downloaders are often in search of single songs.

Leisure

Water Polo? Seriously?

The Georgetown gallery scene doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but gems are ready and waiting to be unearthed for those industrious enough to pick up a few brochures. But first, a brief lesson in jock culture: because the bodies of water polo players are submerged in water, the helmets players wear serve the same identifying function as jerseys do in other sports. John Trevino, a D.C. based artist and Howard University professor, has taken this idea and run with it in “What Comes Next,” an exhibit of portrait photography at District Fine Arts (DFA) on Wisconsin Avenue. The portraits, photos of black men and women in cartoon water polo helmets, ultimately fall short of their aim to “examine dreams and memory created as the residual of human interaction.”