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



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Three visiting Afghan students missing

Three Afghan students visiting Georgetown for a weeklong U.S.-Afghan relations exchange program disappeared from their Leavey Center hotel rooms the night of Tuesday, Jan. 28. It was not immediately clear where they had gone, though the University confirmed that some of the missing students have family in the United States.

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Students call-in to protest U.S. stance on FCTC

Georgetown students participated in a call-in campaign to the office of Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson yesterday in Red Square. Callers were encouraged to ask Thompson not to modify an international tobacco treaty proposed by the World Heath Organization and drawn up through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

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GU hosts Afghan students

Georgetown is hosting a program for a small group of students from Afghanistan this week, continuing its involvement in U.S. Afghan relations. The Afghan students arrived last Friday for a week-long program entitled “Blueprint for the Future—Connecting Afghan and American College Students,” where they are working with Georgetown students to draft a document on Afghanistan’s redevelopment.

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Kerry calls for multilateralism

After the events of Sept. 11, leaders in the United States need to have a coherent vision of how to interact with the world, Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a speech last Thursday in Gaston Hall.

In the speech, which was sponsored by the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and The Edmund A.

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Matthews makes a hard call

“This school must be great if you have the money. If you don’t, it must be horrible.” Chris Matthews, known for his outbursts, blurted this out not twenty minutes into the live taping of his program Hardball at Georgetown last Wednesday. During a commercial break while the microphone was off, Matthews leaned over to his two panelists and told told them what he really thought.

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Venezuelan journalist’s speech draws critics

When students and faculty in the Communication, Culture & Technology Program invited Marta Colomina, a Venezuelan journalist and vocal opponent of the Venezuelan government, to speak at Georgetown, they were aware that she was a controversial figure in Venezuelan politics.

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Midnight Mug reopens today after permit trouble

The Midnight Mug, Students of Georgetown Inc.’s new coffee shop located on the second floor of Lauinger Library, is anticipated to reopen for business today at noon.

The coffee shop originally opened on Jan. 21 and ran into immediate regulatory trouble when it was discovered that the University had issued an incorrect Certificate of Occupancy.

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Law Center Dean resigns after 15 years

Judith Areen, Dean of the Law Center and executive vice president for Law Center affairs, submitted her resignation on January 10. She plans to leave her post at the end of her term, in June 2004.

Areen has served three five-year terms as dean and plans to remain on the staff of the Law Center after taking a one- year sabbatical.

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Arts center approval challenged

Community representatives have submitted complaints to the D.C. Zoning Commission requesting a delay in the approval of the University’s Performing Arts Center, construction of which was originally scheduled to begin this spring. They claimed that the University is not meeting conditions that the Board of Zoning Adjustment imposed last March, including an enrollment cap and a requirement that student vehicles be registered.

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What would MLK do?

The anti-war movement has gone mainstream.

Last Saturday’s anti-war protest in downtown Washington brought out somewhere between 30,000 and 500,000 people. No matter what the exact number, the crowd included both the usual and some not-so-usual groups of protesters.

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Students bring Fair Trade chocolate to campus

Georgetown Students for Fair Trade, a group that has worked to offer fair trade coffee on the Georgetown campus since last spring, has now expanded into a national organization and recently widened its campaign to include chocolate products. From Jan. 20 to Feb.

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OIP attempts to determine value of study abroad

Starting this semester, approximately 1000 students from four universities including Georgetown will participate in a research project that will try to determine the value of studying abroad for undergraduate students.

The Office of International Programs at Georgetown is heading the study, which will examine what students learn abroad and the conditions that support this learning, according to Director of International Programs Michael Vande Berg.

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GU students join anti-war protests

Not every student on the bus to the MCI center on Saturday morning was headed to the men’s basketball game. Instead, about 100 Georgetown students headed to the protests on the National Mall, which drew an estimated 200,000 participants despite the cold.

Unlike the International Monetary Fund protests in October, which were only attended by about 2,000 people, the threat of war caused increased participation, according to Mike Wilson (CAS ‘05), a member of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee and Peace Action.

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AFIRMS releases second report

Advocates for Improved Response Methods to Sexual Assault, a recently formed student group, released a second report on the University’s sexual assault policy yesterday. The report examines the adjudication process and offers solutions to perceived problems.

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First-year student takes own life in Village C

At approximately 11 p.m. on Saturday evening, Georgetown first-year student Jeremy Dorfman (CAS ‘06) was discovered to have taken his own life by hanging in his Village C West dormitory room. Dorfman, who was 19, was taken to Georgetown University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead early Sunday morning.

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Students call for new assault policy

A group of students has created a report describing suggestions for improving Georgetown’s sexual assault services, which they distributed to various administrators on Monday.

The group, Advocates for Improved Response Methods to Sexual Assault put together the report as part of a campaign to enhance sexual assault services.

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Thefts over break cause DPS to urge caution

The rate of thefts and burglaries this winter has been dramatically higher than last year, making students uneasy about the safety of their on-campus housing.

According to Department of Public Safety records, a total of five burglaries and two thefts occurred during the winter break, including several in Henle Village and Alumni Square.

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A healthy change

Georgetown, a University that has recently seemed to focus on preserving and promoting tradition, is taking steps to keep up with the constantly changing face of student health.

Throughout the 1990s, the percentage of students on psychoactive prescription drugs rose from 5 percent to 40 percent.

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MLK celebration extended

A week of campus-oriented events to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life began yesterday as part of “Let Freedom Ring,” a University initiative organized by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Planning Committee. The committee, which consists of students and administrators, formed in October to plan diverse events around the national holiday on Monday.

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Whitman discusses EPA’s policies

Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and current head of the Environmental Protection Agency, stressed that environmental and economic policies can coexist in a speech on Monday night.

She discussed Bush’s proposed Clear Skies initiative, which is designed to reduce air pollutants such as sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides by 2018.