Features

A deep dive into the most important issues on campus.

Features

Operation R.O.T.C

Some students join the Reserve Officer Training Corps to serve their country. Some need the money for college. And some just want to be President someday. Today, Georgetown recruiters target students who are interested in leadership positions in the future. According to Major Jon Chytka, most cadets join ROTC with the intention of “setting themselves up for success later on.”

“Everyone, even Democrats, has had military experience,” Chytka said. “Even Bill Clinton had one year of M1 [ROTC training].”

By the April 10, 2003

Features

Spotting the Signs

When first-year student Jeremy Dorfman (CAS ‘06) took his own life on January 11, it was the first suicide on-campus in almost eighteen years. Administrators credit Georgetown’s low suicide rate to a proactive web of resources, called “Safety Net.” Whether or not this system works is up for debate. Some Georgetown students with depression did not feel as if the University adequately dealt with their cases.

By the April 3, 2003

Features

A Voice to Be Heard?

GUSA, the Georgetown University Student Association, has served as Georgetown’s student government since 1984. Throughout its history, incidents like the most recent election debacle have been commonplace. But while mistakes and mismanagement have served to erode student trust, one rarely discussed fact has been more influential. In 1983, shortly before GUSA’s creation, the student handbook printed that, “Student Government is a misnomer; it is not a government at all. Student Government has no sovereign power to legislate or enforce its will.” Little has changed since.

By the March 27, 2003

Features

Finding his Strength

Georgetown senior sprinter Michael Williams lost his mother months before entering college. Since then, Williams has battled to fulfill her final wish—his graduation.

By the March 20, 2003

Features

A change in Chinatown

Since its opening in 1997, the MCI Center has spawned substantial economic development, turning Chinatown into one of the city’s more bustling commercial areas. Six years ago, the thought of a Hooters restaurant on the same block as Wah Shing Kung-Fu School would have seemed laughable. But as the new Washington Convention Center nears completion just six blocks north and developers move into the area to install chain restaurants, bars and shops, more Chinese-owned businesses are being forced to compete both for customers and increasingly pricey commercial real estate.

By the March 6, 2003

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Slam!

It may seem odd to rank poets like sports teams, but slam isn’t just art, it’s a competition. In an official poetry slam, a poet must present an original composition, no longer than three minutes and without using any props, music, or costumes. Five audience members are chosen at random to serve as judges and they rate each poem on a scale of one to ten. Unlike purely written poetry, just as much emphasis is placed on bodily movement and intonation as on the poem’s content.

By the February 27, 2003

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Georgetown’s New Cookbook

Trying to fill the gap between home cooking and a steady diet of Hot Pockets, two new cooking groups and a television show have been created at Georgetown over the last few semesters, . Food aside, the new groups all have something else in common—they are centered on socializing. The students behind these organizations found that good food wasn’t the only thing missing from their time at Georgetown, but that a sense of community was lacking as well.

By the February 20, 2003

Features

The need to know

The University asserts that a student’s disciplinary record, like his or her grades, should not be made available for public scrutiny.

Many individuals who have either been directly or indirectly affected by campus judicial processes believe quite the opposite.

By the February 13, 2003

Features

Taste goes out the window

The dismembered hand flew through the air and struck my date in the face. The leather-and-lingerie-clad woman who had flung it, demonstrating remarkable power considering she was using her teeth, bared her choppers to the crowd and gave one last howl before finishing Bill, her meal. Laughter erupted, fake blood spurted, someone quickly flashed the audience, and the lights went down.

By the February 6, 2003

Features

In the anti-war movement is only one A.N.S.W.E.R. right?

Though the debate over numbers may prevent ANSWER from getting the credit it feels it deserves for organizing what may have been among the largest protests ever in Washington, its increasing success in attracting “real” Americans to protests has raised serious questions in the media and activist communities surrounding ANSWER’s role as the current leader of the anti-war movement. The group is at the center of a growing controversy surrounding the anti-war movement, how it should be run and just who ought to be running it.

By the January 30, 2003

Features

On the Road to the Supreme Court

You have 30 minutes to present the most important argument of your life. You try to keep your carefully constructed thoughts in order, but you cannot stop the barrage of questions from the top nine legal minds in the country. You have never argued in a court like this before.

By the January 23, 2003

Features

Spring Break 2003

It’s that time of the year. No, not November-guess again. It’s time to make your airline reservations and then go stand in line at the airport, because by the time you’re done getting cavity searched in the name of airline security and cleared for takeoff, Spring Break 2003 will be nigh upon us. We at the Voice have come up with some destinations well worth visiting this March-all in the continental United States.

By the January 16, 2003

Features

The Top Tens

The Top Ten Films of 2002

Repetition was the theme in many of 2002’s films, with few original ideas surfacing amidst the numerous studio remakes of past hits (Insomnia, Ring, Solaris), a slew of crappy sequels to films that were crappy to begin with (Analyze That, Harry Potter) and too many insightful and touching four hour musicals about exploitive British colonialism in 19th century India (Lagaan, Extreme Ops).

By the January 9, 2003

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I Go Walking After Midnight

At the moment he knows three things. He knows his watch reads 3:08 a.m., he knows he’s walking, and he knows it’s cold. Jesus it’s cold. That’s for sure. Nothing could be as certain as that right now …

He knows of lots of other stuff. He knows of his name, for example.

By the December 5, 2002

Features

Burn

They’re torching bums in Brooklyn. That’s what I hear anyway, I haven’t seen it myself. It’s too dangerous to take the subway even if you pay the men at the turnstile for protection, and cabs are no better now that the gangs have started firing on them.

By the December 5, 2002

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The Blind Man Dance

Take me down, Take me down. Oh won’t you please take me home. The silence in the whorehouse makes itself present again and so I quietly sing aloud. I mimic Axl Rose’s scratch that is repeating in my head, a mental hiccup from earlier when we had entered dark European bars in search of girls who would not understand that we are unimpressive.

By the December 5, 2002

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Unsung Heroes

Over the past ten years, the men’s and women’s cross country teams have been among the most successful and least recognized programs at Georgetown. Both teams started the season ranked in the top 10 nationally, but have struggled to live up to their expectations this fall.

By the November 21, 2002

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The future of music is now

A young woman with short, dyed-red hair, dressed stylishly with a hint of thrift-store nonchalance, stands confidently behind the podium among Gaston Hall’s stained-glass-and-oak-paneled grandeur. Names of great thinkers are etched on the wall behind her, and a herd of dark-suited lawyers, powerful businessmen and curious musicians sit in front of her.

By the November 14, 2002

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Talking to each other

The tensest moments of recent public conflict between student groups involved the politics of the Middle East. Groups such as the Muslim Student Association, the Jewish Student Association, the Young Arab Leadership Alliance and the Georgetown Israel Alliance have been especially active on campus in recent years, staging events, bringing speakers to campus and trying to foster debate or at least raise awareness of what they see as an important issue on a seemingly daily basis.

By the November 7, 2002

Features

Do you know what your vote means?

The dispute between students and non-student residents in Georgetown is not a new topic. As bad as tension in the neighborhood may be, it has also served as the catalyst for student involvement in local politics. Since the first students were elected to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 1996, students and non-students have worked to reach a consensus on various problems that divide Georgetown and create an “us vs.

By the October 31, 2002