Features

A deep dive into the most important issues on campus.



Features

In the shadows: Confronting sexual assault at Georgetown

  During spring break, John* (COL ‘15) was with four friends, all men, at a crowded club. As John and his friends moved toward the bar, two girls walked past,... Read more

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A Republic of Letters: Promoting social change through poetry

WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for... Read more

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A sign of the times: The story of deaf students at Georgetown

“My first two weeks here freshman year were horrible. I cried every night because that was the first time I had to be in the hearing world 24/7.” Heather Artinian... Read more

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Climbing to the summit: The story of five Hoya Olympians

It’s no secret that the Hilltop is teeming with type-A students. Hoyas have ended up at the top of the financial, political, and entertainment worlds. There are a handful of... Read more

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Following the Money: Why are so many Georgetown graduates taking jobs in banking and consulting?

Right around 4:30 a.m., after another late night of running numbers, Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union CEO Chris Kelly (COL ’14) hits the lights and locks up... Read more

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Laying the foundations: The story of Georgetown’s architecture

In 1894, Rev. J. Harvey Richards sat at his desk and took pen to paper. He was editing a fundraising speech he was set to give to a group of Georgetown alumni. “Professors from other institutions, seeing our immense buildings and grounds, our numerous”—here he scratched out “professors” and put “instructors” above it in spidery handwriting—“and students, do enquire, ‘What is your endowment? It must be very great!

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Students Beyond Borders: The story of undocumented students at Georgetown

Standing in her living room, Anna* (COL ‘15) absorbed every detail of her house, neighborhood, and family for, what she believed to be, the last time. While she was exhilarated... Read more

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Homefield Disadvantage: Why hasn’t Georgetown’s field hockey team had a winning season in over a decade?

Two years ago, Hannah Carey was facing a hard decision. She had an offer from Harvard, where she could have played field hockey for the Crimson. However, she also had an offer from Georgetown. Even though Georgetown’s field hockey team was not as prestigious as Harvard’s, the promise of a team on the rise convinced her to join the Hoyas. A year after playing, she’s dropped the sport completely.

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A for Effort: Hoyas are used to good grades, but do we deserve them?

If you were sitting on Healy lawn at graduation in the Spring of 2013, there’s a 55 percent chance that you were one of the many students graduating with the... Read more

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Best of 2013

Albums 1. Yeezus – Kanye West A challenging album that stands in sharp contrast to some of West’s past releases thanks to its raw minimalism, Yeezus is generally devoid of... Read more

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Capital Cannabis: The campaign to legalize marijuana in Washington, D.C.

A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling released last April found that 63 percent of D.C. residents would support legalizing marijuana and regulating its sale for adults. Moreover, 75 percent of D.C. residents would approve of decriminalization. Despite the obstacles and potential pitfalls, marijuana activists remain confident that they can change the law via a 2014 referendum. With other states eyeing legalization in 2014, D.C. could both provide a symbolic victory to pro-marijuana activists and serve as a model for how the rest of the country should proceed.

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Not crazy, just a little unwell: Mental health at Georgetown

On the outside, a visit to Georgetown's Counseling and Psychiatric Services may appear trivial or commonplace, no different from the typical routine for a doctor’s appointment—but the decision to seek out CAPS at all can be monumental. To students affected, recognizing and addressing a mental health problem carries far greater weight than does of a physical disorder, since the stigma surrounding mental health is so deeply entrenched in our society and on our high-powered, high-achieving campus.

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Continuity through Change: Experience and depth guide Hoyas into the new Big East

It’s inexplicable, really. There’s nothing anybody can point to when trying to explain the suffering of the cornerstone of Hilltop athletics. For each of the past six years, the Hoyas’ seasons have been a torturous series of up and downs, each ending in postseason disappointment. So, this season begins with the same question: Will the Hoyas snap out of it?

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The Case for Catholicism

On Oct. 4, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. submitted a canon law petition organized by William Peter Blatty (COL ’50) asking the Church to require that Georgetown abide by Pope John Paul II’s directives for Catholic universities, Ex corde Ecclesiae, or else disallow Georgetown from designating itself as Catholic. Over 2,000 Catholics, including members of the Georgetown community, have signed petition mandates and statements in support of its claims.

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Georgetown jams: How GU Jam Sesh is building a community for Georgetown’s burgeoning music scene

From the outside, Georgetown’s music scene often seems limited to a few visible student groups. But a capella singers aren’t the Hilltop’s only musically-inclined students. Through its efforts to build a community of student musicians, GU Jam Sesh is providing an outlet for diversified creative musical expression at Georgetown, despite the obstacles it faces from neighbors and University noise policies.

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“Second-class faculty”: The hidden struggles of Georgetown’s adjunct professors

The concerns faced by adjunct professors at Georgetown are many, stretching far beyond access to permanent office space. Adjuncts at Georgetown and other institutions of higher learning across the United States receive salaries as low as half of those of tenure-track professors, seldom have access to any health or retirement benefits, and must cope with job insecurity year after year. Recognizing these hardships, Georgetown’s adjunct faculty voted in favor to form a union under SEIU Local 500 in May of this year.

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The Hilltop at your fingertips: Online learning at Georgetown

Last week, Georgetown joined the ranks of Harvard and MIT in offering a range of new digital learning alternatives by launching its first Massive Open Online Course. Through these projects, Georgetown is rapidly moving into the technological arena by making online learning a substantial part of the undergraduate experience. While this puts Georgetown on par with its tech-savvy peers and presents students with a cheaper, more diverse course selection, faculty members on the Hilltop and elsewhere are raising concerns about the pedagogical effectiveness of online courses, in addition to the broader implications for higher education.

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The Fashion Issue: Fall 2013

This season is a melding of hard and soft, meeting at a blurred edge. Pastel colors come together with leather panels, studded sweaters meet tartan skirts. Men’s prints meet womenswear in a houndstooth dress—the bold pattern is almost a neutral. Mixed-media coats paired with delicate, single-soled heels. Mild decadence is in the details, with rich textiles and prints coming together in moody hues. Welcome to fall.

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In the Red: The burden of student debt at Georgetown

Leah Brown (COL ‘16) wakes up at 9:30 a.m., finally giving in to her alarm after hitting snooze a couple times. She rolls out of bed and pads into the hallway, slipping into the empty bathroom. After getting ready and dressed, she breakfasts on a piece of fruit she swiped from Leo’s the night before. She has to choose her Leo’s meals carefully and stretch out her 10 meals so they last the week.