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



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Harbin resident arrested

On Tuesday night, just two days after the Metropolitan Police Department made its first drug-related arrest on Georgetown’s campus since 2005, another resident of Harbin Hall, Kelly Baltazar (COL ’14), was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Baltazar was arrested on Tuesday after the Department of Public Safety notified members of the Narcotics and Special Investigations Division of MPD that she was “selling marijuana on the Georgetown campus."

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New five-year faculty salary plan awaits approval

In January 2011, Georgetown professors will likely see a 1.5 percent increase in their salaries as part of the new five-year faculty salary plan proposed by the Main Campus Planning Committee in early October. The plan’s enactment is dependent on approval from the Provost and the Board of Directors. Last spring, the Main Campus Planning Committee, which reports to the Provost and Board of Directors, proposed no salary increases for faculty and staff for fiscal year 2011.

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Jewish students search for new rabbi

While Georgetown’s Rabbi Harold White officially retired from his full-time position at the University at the end of last spring semester, the process of finding his replacement is just getting started. On Wednesday, Andrew Levine (COL ’11) and Merav Levkowitz (SFS ’11) held an open house at the Jewish Community house on 36th Street and invited students to come and share their opinions on the ongoing search for White’s replacement.

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ZipCars at Georgetown?

This week, Georgetown University Student Association President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) announced that they are searching for ways to fulfill one of their campaign promises to bring ZipCars to Georgetown’s Main Campus for students 18 and over. Georgetown University has offered two ZipCars at the Law Center since 2004 to students, faculty, and staff who are 21 and over. Currently, there are no ZipCars located on the Main Campus.

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Saxa Politica: If I had $1.9 million…

Last fall, some Georgetown University Student Association senators made an alarming discovery: they were short an expected $8.2 million in student funds. Every year, students pay a $100 Student Activities Fee, but we only use half of it every year to provide approximately $315,000 in club funding. Ever since the student activity fee was created in 2001, the other half of the fee has gone into the Georgetown Student Activities Fee Endowment, a section of the larger University endowment.

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GUSA announces Student Activity Fee reform

On Wednesday, the Georgetown University Student Association Financial and Appropriations Committee announced that it will now appropriate the entirety of the $100 yearly Student Activities Fee toward funding student clubs through the Advisory Boards. Since 2001, half of the student activities fees paid by undergraduates have gone to an endowment that was supposed to have accrued enough interest by now to be self-sustaining. That endowment, now at roughly $1.9 million, is not expected to mature.

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Capital Bikeshare set to launch in Georgetown next week

Students seeking a new way to escape the Georgetown bubble are in luck. Capital Bikeshare, a program that offers daily, monthly, and yearly access to communal bikes across the District of Columbia and Arlington Va., plans to install a new station at 37 and O Streets by early next week. The station is being installed as an alternative to the originally proposed site in front of the Car Barn at Prospect and 36 Streets.

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Mice problem affects Midnight Mug

Earlier this fall, Bill Nelson (COL ’11) began noticing some alarming signs in Midnight Mug, one of his favorite spots on Georgetown’s campus. Nelson says he witnessed evidence of mice—torn or gnawed packaging—about half the times he’d been in Midnight Mug this year. Corp Chief Executive Officer Brad Glasser (COL ’11) has acknowledged that Midnight Mug had problems with mice, although he stressed that the coffee shop does not have an infestation.

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GERMS alcohol calls steady

Although the annual number of alcohol violations reported by the Department of Public Safety dropped by 31 percent from 2007 to 2009, the number of alcohol-related calls, or EtOH calls, to the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service has stayed roughly the same for the past two academic years. The number of alcohol violations reported to DPS has been decreasing since 2005. In the Oct. 5 edition of the Hoya, Joseph Smith, associate director of DPS, attributed the drop to the heightened University.

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City on a Hill: D.C. loses a literary icon

This past week, Carla Cohen passed away at age of 74. A Washington resident, Cohen became one of the most celebrated booksellers in America after she founded a bookstore 26 years ago. After the Reagan Administration eliminated her position at the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, she decided to establish a bookstore that she would like to spend time in—a comfortable store with a knowledgeable staff and a regular community of readers. That bookstore became Politics and Prose.

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Plan A holding meetings with GU

Plan A Hoyas for Reproductive Justice, the reproductive advocacy group that drew attention this spring when its members chained themselves to the statue of John Carroll, is alive and well—but the average student would never know it. Plan A was created last year to demand the on-campus sale of condoms, access to rape kits at Georgetown University Hospital.

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Georgetown comes out of the closet

“Come out, come out, come out!” Echoing the words of famed San Francisco politician and gay rights advocate Harvey Milk, that is what GU Pride Co-Programming Chair Lisa Frank (COL ’13) said when asked about the message of Georgetown’s Coming Out Week. GU Pride is hosting a series of events as part of National Coming Out Week for the sixth consecutive year.

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On the record with potential Post pundit Conor Williams

On Wednesday evening, Georgetown PhD candidate Conor Williams (GOV ’11) discussed his entry to the Washington Post’s “America’s Next Great Pundit” essay competition with the Voice. At the time of publication, Williams’ essay about the impact of the D.C. mayoral election on education reform, “Real Education Reform,” was in fifth place.

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News hit: GU applies for bonds

Georgetown’s new science center could receive a major boost in funding thanks to a application recently submitted by the University for $90 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds. Associate Vice President of External Relations Linda Greenan announced the application at an Oct. 4 meeting of Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Comission.

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Saxa Politica: Georgetown students need to work together

The closer we get to the midterms, the less Democrats and Republicans can agree on. The Republicans are the party of no; the Democrats are the party of “maybe, after I’m reelected.” National leaders could use a lesson from our peers in the Georgetown University College Democrats, the Georgetown University College Republicans.

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Reaccreditation delays Diversity Initiative

Every ten years, Georgetown needs to be reaccredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Although the University must meet all of Middle States’ 14 “characteristics of excellence,” Georgetown is never really in danger of losing its accreditation.

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GUSA Senate talks student rights, GUTS buses

Newly elected Georgetown University Student Association senators mapped out potential initiatives for defending students rights, and increasing funding for student clubs, and intiatives at their inaugural GUSA Senate meeting on Sept. 30. GUSA Senator Josh Mogil (SFS ’11) hopes to restart and head a student advocacy committee. GUSA formed the committee last fall

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One Nation rally brings out GU progressives

On Saturday, approximately 60 Georgetown students joined the tens of thousands of protestors gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the One Nation Working Together rally. The event, whose organizers included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and an array of unions, environmental groups, student groups, and peace advocates

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City on a Hill: Republican hypocrisy

Democrats across the country are scared of what will happen on Nov. 4, but District of Columbia residents have good reason to be especially worried. With Republicans poised to take control of the House of Representatives, this year’s midterm elections will likely put the GOP in a position to meddle in the District’s affairs and reverse laws passed by the D.C. Council.

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Correction: “Georgetown faculty salary growth stays stalled,” Sept. 30

In the Sept. 30 article "Georgetown faculty salary growth stalled," the Voice quoted Professor Julia Lamm as saying President John DeGioia's salary had increased by two percent. In fact, his salary did not increase, but his total compensation package increased 42 percent from the previous year.