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



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Union Jack: Obama gets Georgetown’s race relations problems

New York Times op-ed contributor Bob Herbert suggested on Tuesday that Senator Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) March 18 speech on race, which gained publicity for its willingness to tackle a difficult topic, should be required reading in classrooms across the country. He may be years removed from a college campus, but Herbert has the right idea. Obama’s claim that society still needs inflammatory remarks to drive people to action is certainly relevant to Georgetown’s campus.

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Arming DPS

Some Department of Public Safety officers have started to carry pepper spray and batons and wear protective vests, and DPS hopes to have all officers trained and equipped by the end of March.

The University committed to the initiative at the end of August 2007 after requests by DPS officers for the equipment, according to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille.

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News Hit

Cabbies take meters to court In a continuation of the months-long struggle between D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) and the city’s taxicab drivers, a hearing will be held today in... Read more

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New prez, new plans

After being officially sworn in at Monday night’s GUSA senate meeting as the new GUSA President and Vice President, Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) and James Kelly (COL ’09) laid out an ambitious timeline for accomplishing their three major initiatives: a “GUSA Summer Fellows” program, a take-your-professors-to-lunch program and a modification of the alcohol policy.

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Student groups talk diversity

A month after a Georgetown student woke up with a swastika drawn on his body, more than thirty student organizations, including the Georgetown University Student Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Jewish Student Association and the Corp, held a second Diversity forum last night, following up on one held last fall.

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Plans for local library underway

The D.C. Public Library has begun the process of reconstructing and renovating its Georgetown branch, nearly a year after a fire severely damaged the building and the library collection.

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Student-run class visits sweatshops

It was late last week when Manuel and Julio, union leaders at a textile factory in the Dominican Republic, rushed into their factory office and shouted triumphantly, “We got our visas!” Days later, the two men boarded a plane to the United States to speak at universities along the East Coast about the poor working conditions—verbal abuse, low wages, unpaid overtime and discrimination—they experience as laborers in Dominican sweatshops.

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Madeleine’s Memo

“What’s evident is that the world is a mess,” Dr. Madeleine Albright said Tuesday.

The former Secretary of State and current Mortara Distinguished Professor in the Study of Diplomacy spoke to a full audience of undergrads, graduate students and faculty in Copley Formal Lounge on Tuesday about her newest book, Memo to the President Elect.

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City on a Hill: Radical Rhee-form

The purge of nearly 100 employees from the District of Columbia Public Schools’ central office shows that Chancellor Michelle Rhee is developing a habit of coupling good instincts with god-awful implementation. Her focus on rehabilitating the dysfunctional central office is much needed: DCPS’ administrative hub has devolved into a bloated bureaucracy incapable of providing students, teachers and principals with the resources they need.

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On the Record: DPS Director Darryl Harrison

After 38 years in law enforcement and security, Department of Public Safety Director Darryl Harrison is ready to call it quits. Harrison, retiring in May, has spent nine years in charge of Georgetown’s on-campus police force. The gruff former cop, who started his career with the Metropolitan Police Department in 1970 and worked as an international security consultant for five years before coming to Georgetown, talked to the Voice about his time here and the future of DPS.

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Howard Dean talks politics in ICC

Howard Dean showed up to talk about Black History Month but the focus quickly changed to politics Tuesday night in ICC Auditorium.

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Union Jack: Bringing equality to Afghanistan

In a small Afghan town of mud huts with just two paved roads, a nine-person provincial council recently took a very progressive step forward—its members elected three women to their highest official positions. For Karen Chandler (SFS ‘02), the State Department’s representative on the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Afghan province of Farah, this egalitarian move symbolizes some of the positive changes that this undeveloped country has seen in recent years. Chandler has worked in Afghanistan since May 2007, helping to strengthen and rebuild the local government.

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GUSA election part II

As of 5:36 p.m. last night, 2,437 votes had been cast in the run-off election for GUSA President, nine more than the 2,428 cast in the first election. Voting will continue until noon today. The election is a the result of a GUSA Senate vote not to certify last week’s elections, based on the recommendation of Election Commissioner Maura Cassidy (COL ’08).

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Georgetown Law goes international

This fall, the Georgetown Law Center will expand overseas as it begins a partnership with nine other top law schools from around the world to create the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London.

Editorials

NEWS HIT

Free national newspapers are finally set to arrive on campus the Monday after spring break, almost a month after Student Association President Ben Shaw (COL ’08) promised the papers would be here.

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$20 million gift to Muslim center questioned

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) sent a letter last week asking Georgetown to explain a $20 million donation from a member of the Saudi royal family in 2005. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s donation to the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding has been used to fund the Center’s study of Islamic civilization, Muslim-Christian understanding, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and educational programs in these fields, according to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille.

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D.C. to fund another stadium?

With the new Washington Nationals’ stadium set to open next month, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) has proposed using its surplus revenues to construct another arena for the only remaining resident of the aging Robert F. Kennedy stadium, Major League Soccer’s D.C. United.

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NEWS HIT

Georgetown’s Board of Directors approved a 5.5 percent undergraduate tuition increase last week. Tuition for the 2008-2009 academic year will rise to $37,536, up from $35,568. The increase, which will... Read more

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Campaigns end, GUSA voting begins

“If Georgetown tries to encroach on my rights, we’re going to rock it like a hurricane,” Tom Karwacki (MSB ’09), a Georgetown University Student Association presidential candidate, said as he tore off his shirt in the middle of the Hoya’s first GUSA presidential debate on Tuesday night. “Rock You Like a Hurricane” blared from a set of speakers amidst the 50-plus attendees in the audience. Karwacki and six other GUSA hopefuls answered questions from the Hoya, the Voice and the audience for an hour and a half.

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City on a Hill: No such thing as a free lunch

Next time you complain about the dismal options at Leo’s, take comfort in the fact that you’re not an elementary school student in one of the District of Columbia’s Public Schools. Students who are currently subjected to pre-plated meals like fish fillet on Fridays and meatloaf on Mondays might prefer their school system to spend a little less time on alliteration and a little more time providing them with better quality food.