Features

A deep dive into the most important issues on campus.

Features

The Murphy Code

It was a dark, rainy afternoon in Bamberg, Germany, but Fr. G. Ronald Murphy wasn’t about to let inclement weather thwart his quest. The Jesuit priest, a professor in Georgetown University’s German Department and scholar of medieval literature, was not looking for an obscure manuscript or a quiet refuge in which to spend his sabbatical. Rather, he was seeking the single object that has had the power to capture the imaginations of men and women for centuries, a relic which has inspired works of art ranging from the Arthurian legend and The Da Vinci Code to Indiana Jones and Monty Python. He was looking for the Holy Grail.

By September 18, 2008

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.

By September 11, 2008

Features

Ward War: 9.09.08

On Saturday afternoon, Cary Silverman approached a Foggy Bottom rowhouse with three bright red Jack Evans campaign signs decorating the lawn. The 32-year-old attorney and challenger for Evans’ Ward 2 City Council seat paused when he saw them.

For the past 17 years, Jack Evans has represented Ward 2—which includes Burleith, Downtown, Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Sheridan Kalorama, Logan Circle, Mount Vernon Square, Shaw, and West End—on the D.C. City Council. On Tuesday, he will be up for re-election for the fifth time. If Evans, the Council Vice Chair and Chair of the Finance Revenue Committee, wins and serves out his term, he will be the longest serving councilmember in the District’s history.

By September 4, 2008

Features

The New Face of DPS

On January 18, 2003, Kevin Curry, an African-American student at the University of Texas, had been playing the piano in the student union before a fraternity meeting when a white UT Police Department officer approached him. According to Curry, he left to go to his meeting. The officer followed him into a stairwell.

By August 28, 2008

Features

D.C.’S BEST ‘HOODS

Adams Morgan Born out of the integration of all-white John Quincy Adams and all-black Thomas P. Morgan elementary schools in 1955 and the city’s subsequent redrawing of neighborhood boundaries, Adams... Read more

By the August 22, 2008

Features

2008 Photo Contest

Check out the rest of our selections over on the Voice blog, Vox Populi. Overall Winner, First Place – Color Chris Svetlik, “Me Jumping” “Taken on a farm in rural... Read more

By April 24, 2008

Features

The Other Side of the River

15-year-old Terrie Jackson had a problem: he wanted to go to Anacostia Library with his younger brother Joshua on a Saturday afternoon to play computer games. But the route from Jackson’s home to the library lies in territory controlled by Choppa City, a rival gang beefing with the Oi Boys—a gang Jackson briefly belonged to.

By April 17, 2008

Features

Spring Fashion 2008

Click here to view the fall fashion pictures in a gallery format. Welcome to the Voice’s first ever full-length fashion issue! This is an expanded version of our perennial spring... Read more

By April 15, 2008

Features

Men’s Spring Fashion: Zeitgeist 2008

Click here to view the fall fashion pictures in a gallery format. T he spirit of the times is bold— colors are getting brighter, clothes are getting tighter, and now... Read more

By the April 15, 2008

Features

Women’s Spring Fashion: Flowered Beauties

Click here to view the fall fashion pictures in a gallery format. On Jackie: Print dress, $89, Zara. On Arfiya: Green dress by Yoana Baraschi, $416, Sugar. Gold Bangles by... Read more

By the April 15, 2008

Features

D.C.’s Fashion Scene

When people think of New York and L.A. fashion, distinct styles immediately come to mind. Walk the streets of Manhattan and you’re bound to run into super skinny dark wash jeans, flats, and oversized bags. On Sunset Boulevard, you’re going to find brighter colors, more shorts, and flip flops galore instead. Unfortunately, the District’s most memorably contribution to the fashion world is probably still Monica Lewinsky’s little blue dress.

As far as the D.C. fashion scene is concerned, “it is definitely lacking,” according to Robin Levine, a co-buyer at We One You Two.

“ Fashion here is a lot more corporate, you can’t get away with much here. What you’ll find is a lot more classic work wear than the trends,” Levine said.

By April 15, 2008

Features

Spring Fashion Photo Gallery

Click here to view the fall fashion pictures in a gallery format. Enjoy!

By the April 15, 2008

Features

Come Hear the Music Play

In the last of the New South rehearsal rooms—past the 40 or so students practicing an Indian dance in a line; in the next, some 20 boys and girls watched another student show them where to put their hands to waltz—Lucy Obus (COL ‘11) slipped in her socks while strutting towards a collection of chairs and falls hard on her side. “Whoops!” she called before scrambling to her feet—“I’m ok! Let’s do this!” Mady Greene (COL ’10), started the song for the 15th time, the girls straddled their chairs, and dance rehearsals for Cabaret continued.

By April 10, 2008

Features

D.C.’s Ticket Exchange

Opening night at Washington Nationals’ ballpark was cold, and I couldn’t find any scalpers.

Fans stood, alone and in pairs, on the red carpet outside the Navy Yard Metro stop, fingers held in the air as signals—two tickets? Three?—even as thousands of other fans, already ticket-holders, flooded Half Street. Beneath red-white-and-blue balloon bunting, they flowed toward the center field gate. An older man, two fingers up, stood next to a young boy clutching a mitt and a bag of peanuts.

By April 3, 2008

Features

The Fall and Rise of Trinity Washington University

One cold Saturday morning in March, Trinity Washington University was hosting an Open House. But I couldn’t see any signs or volunteers showing the prospective students where to go, and on the first day of spring break, the campus was eerily quiet. After walking past the shining new gym, accidentally entering the deserted dining hall and wandering through a handful of gardens that were empty save for miniature statues of the Virgin Mary, I finally spotted a woman carrying a coffee urn and asked for directions.

By March 27, 2008

Features

Take Me Home

“I remember people would say … ‘What if you never do that again, what if the songs aren’t hits?’ I don’t have time to think like that. So I never had a plan B. And I still don’t.”

By March 13, 2008

Features

Foreign Policy Maverick

Irving Kristol, a founder of neoconservatism, once said that a neoconservative is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality. At Georgetown, we have Raymond Tanter, a conservative who’s had his bike stolen.

As the president of the Iran Policy Committee, a non-profit organization that promotes using Iranian oppositionists against Iran, Tanter is a tireless booster for the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an armed group of Iranian exiles that seeks to overthrow the Iranian government.

By February 28, 2008

Features

Backcourt Backstory: Forming Freeman

Mike Jones is always on the lookout for fresh talent. As the boys’ basketball coach at DeMatha Catholic High School in nearby Hyattsville, Md.—one of the nation’s top high school basketball programs—he’s got to be.

About six years ago, when another DeMatha teacher told Jones about a twelve year-old on his son’s middle school team who was turning heads, Jones went to check the kid out.

By February 21, 2008

Features

Cura Personalis in Reverse Overdrive

When Adam Briscoe came to Georgetown in 2003, he took on the ambitious courseload typical of many SFS students, “Chinese and all that.” During high school he had been informally diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder by his psychiatrist, but chose to forego expensive and time-consuming diagnostic testing. Instead, he developed coping mechanisms to help him succeed academically. But by the end of his freshman year, he had “hit it like a brick wall” and was asked to withdraw from the University.

By February 14, 2008

Features

What Fine Dining’s All About

Nathan Beauchamp and I are in the offices above the 1789 Restaurant, and I’m getting nervous. He, meanwhile, is cool as ice water, and opening up a little more as... Read more

By February 7, 2008