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



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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.

News

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.

News

$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.

News

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.

News

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

News

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.

News

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.

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Union Jack: A bill every college kid can afford

Thanks to a bill passed by the House on Feb. 7, applying for and receiving financial aid could become a reality for more college students.

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Stumping for GUSA change

“I would never whore myself out,” Tim Brown (COL ’09), one of the eight candidates for GUSA, said.

“That’s a campaign promise,” Brown added. “That might be my only campaign promise.”

News

Rep. Ellison talks change

“I have one thing to tell you. Everything I say after this one thing is an elaboration on that one thing. Just one thing: the time is now,” Keith Ellison, the Democratic Congressman from Minnesota’s 5th district, told a diverse audience at Georgetown Law School’s Gewirz Student Center on Tuesday night. Ellison’s discussion about bringing change to American politics, titled “Our Time has Come,” was organized by several law center groups.

News

Two deans to leave by summer

Deans Jane McAuliffe and Elizabeth Andretta both announced plans to leave Georgetown this summer over the weekend. McAulifee, the Dean of Georgetown College, will become the next president of Bryn Mawr College, the school’s board trustees announced last Friday, and Andretta, Associate Dean and Director of the Undergraduate Program in the School of Foreign Service will serve as the faculty-in-residence at Georgetown’s Villa le Balze in Fiesole, Italy.

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Ron Paul talks money and voting in Gaston Hall

Just days after scaling back his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.) railed against the mainstream political establishment in Gaston Hall last night, advocating his libertarian philosophy of limited government and personal freedom.

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On the Record

Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the bestselling novels Prep and Man of My Dreams. She is currently working on her third novel, American Wife. Sittenfeld, who has been writing fiction ever since she could read and write attended Groton School, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. She graduated from Stanford University and received a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Sittenfeld will to speak at Georgetown University on February 19.

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Getting out the vote in D.C.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night could keep devoted followers of democratic presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) from stumping for their candidates during Tuesday’s Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia primary elections. Students did everything from canvassing neighborhoods throughout D.C. to standing outside precincts encouraging people to vote.

News

Promise for LGBTQ center

As part of the University’s ongoing LGBTQ Initiative, the working groups on resources and education presented their final reports and recommendations to University President John DeGioia last week. A full-time, fully-funded Resource Center remains the primary recommendation from the Working Group on Resources.