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What’s happening on campus and in D.C.



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Experts try to measure GU’s local economic impact

With debate between Georgetown and its neighbors over the 2010 campus plan still heated, experts in urban planning and development are attempting to measure the effect that forcing the University to build elsewhere or cap enrollment would have on the District’s economy.

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Corp profits in the black, philanthropy increases

After two years of being in the red, Students of Georgetown, Inc., has recently increased its profits and expanded its philanthropic output from approximately $50,000 to $70,000. Financial success has coincided with the Corp Philanthropy Committee and the Corp Service and Outreach Committee’s pursuit of new projects and endeavors to widen their reach into the D.C. community.

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City on a Hill: Occupy D.C. and the man

So far, some of the most publicized stories of the nationwide Occupy movement have been about the protesters’ confrontations with law enforcement. The initial Wall Street protests produced the largest mass arrests since anti-Vietnam protests in the ‘70s, complete with images of seething, screaming activists confronting armored NYPD forces.

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FDA awards GU $1 million grant, regulatory science center formed

Georgetown has recently been awarded a $1 million grant from the Food and Drug Administration to establish a Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation, a partnership between the Medical Center, the Law Center, and the University as a whole.

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Capital campaign launches transformative programs

Out of the $1.5 billion the University looks to raise by 2016 as part of the Campaign for Georgetown, $300 million will go to the ambiguously titled “transformative opportunities.” Over the weekend, the University shed some light on what this category is meant to entail, releasing details for some of the projects it could fund.

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Grieg against Evans for City Council, supported by GU students

Fiona Grieg, a Democratic candidate for the Ward 2 City Council seat challenging incumbent Jack Evans, recently established the non-partisan Students for Fiona working group. Composed of Georgetown students, the group aims to increase student voter registration this semester, in anticipation of next April’s election. “In the spring, [the Students for Fiona group] will be focused on creating action plans for everyone involved, making sure people know where to vote, when to vote, how to vote, and then the reasons why to vote,” the group’s co-captain Craig Cassey (COL ‘15) said.

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GU townhouse solar panel project to move forward

The student group Georgetown Energy is currently working on an effort to place solar panels on a selection of University townhouses, a project which would be the largest student-funded solar project in the world if it is completed the way it was envisioned, the group’s cofounder and CEO David Nulsen (SFS ‘12) said.

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Saxa Politica: A campaign for all students

Images of the doors of Georgetown’s iconic buildings have become omnipresent on campus in the past few weeks due to the kickoff of the University’s capital campaign, “For Generations to Come: The Campaign for Georgetown.” They have supplanted the blue “Spirit of Georgetown” banners typically bound to the light poles and mounted on the face of the Intercultural Center building. It’s hard to walk anywhere on campus without seeing something about it.

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Georgetown, DCRA partner on off-campus housing

Over the past month, Georgetown administrators and the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs have come together in an unprecedented partnership to aid students who rent privately- owned properties in the neighborhoods surrounding the University. The two sides first met about a month and a half ago in an effort to identify unlicensed off-campus houses and to deliberate ways to ensure that off-campus housing units frequently rented by students are properly licensed and inspected to comply with D.C. building and safety codes.

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On the record with new Student Activities Commission Chair

Newly elected Student Activities Commission Chair Jack Appelbaum (COL ‘14) sat down on Tuesday to discuss his visions for SAC and the challenges that face the system. Interview conducted and transcribed by Fatima Taskomur.

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City on a Hill: Brown’s schools’ IMPACT

Last Friday, D.C. City Council Chairman Kwame Brown announced he would propose legislation to reform another one of former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s policies, the IMPACT teacher evaluation system. The IMPACT system has been exacerbating problems of educational inequity and cyclical poverty in the city’s schools, and the Councilman’s proposal stands a chance of changing that.

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Thefts, burglaries down from last year

Department of Public Safety crime reports indicate that incidences of theft, by far the most common crime on campus, exhibit a cyclical pattern, picking up during the fall and spring months and declining during winter and summer. However, there have been fewer thefts this fall compared to last year. While the DPS crime log reports 37 thefts in October of 2010, this month has only seen 14 so far.

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CycleBeads study contested

Recent studies published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care claim that CycleBeads, a contraceptive tool developed by Victoria Jennings, the director of the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown, are more effective than male condoms.

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Capital Campaign launch next week, priorities defined

On the last weekend of October, Georgetown’s Office of Advancement will launch the public phase of its latest capital campaign, the final push for a $1.5 billion fundraising initiative begun in July 2007. By the end of this June, the University had raised $737 million through the “quiet phase” of the campaign, almost half of its goal. Administrators hope to increase interest in the campaign by announcing the projects the office is planning on sponsoring on the launch weekend.

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SGU helps club leaders move toward collaboration

This Sunday, the newly created Student Group Union will have its first meeting in Copley Formal Lounge. Approximately 50 student groups have already signed on to be part of the group, and organizers hope that new groups will come and formalize their commitment to the SGU at the meeting.

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Saxa Politica: Coulter incites criticism

Last week, the announcement that the Georgetown University College Republicans and the Georgetown University Lecture Fund was bringing conservative pundit and commentator Ann Coulter to Georgetown set off a firestorm of criticism from students.

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DiversABILITY presents play for deaf, disabled communities

This Saturday, Georgetown’s Department of Performing Arts will put on Visible Impact, a production that seeks to engage with deaf and disabled communities as part of Georgetown’s DiversABILITY Forum, a weekend-long initiative to promote discussion about students’ understandings of diversity through various performing arts and discussions with artists, educators, policymakers and advocates.

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Graduate applicants increase, contrast national numbers

Despite national downward trends, Georgetown graduate schools increased enrollment by 3.3 percent from 2009 to 2010, rising from 9,059 students to 9,358, according to statistics from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. National graduate school enrollment decreased by 1.1 percent during the same period, according to a report from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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New COO leads discussion between students, administrators

On Wednesday, students and University leaders met at the first of what will be a series of “Hoya Roundtable” meetings in Sellinger Lounge. Around 20 students were in attendance, while over 30 administrators were present at the roundtable.

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City on a Hill: Keep D.C. occupied

If there’s one thing the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C. protestors have achieved, it is shaking up the establishment. House Minority Leader Eric Cantor denounced them as “mobs” that pit Americans against Americans. President Obama’s thoughts were a bit more understanding. He said the protestors are “giving voice to a more broad-based frustration.”