News

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



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Saxa Politica: A Blueprint for success

This semester, the Center for Student Programs, the Center for Social Justice, and Campus Ministry collaborated to launch a daring initiative entitled The Blueprint. This set of two training sessions, which concluded Saturday, was designed to educate the leaders of student organizations on the resources available under the University’s access to benefits policies and, of course, the consequences of abusing organizational privileges.

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Trebizond Investments sparks campus controversy

Trebizond Investments has sparked controversy ever since it arrived on campus last semester with the slogan, “Become the 1%.” But as founder Caspian Tavallali (SFS ‘14) put it, “any press is good press, especially when you’re a small company.”

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Students, but not Leo’s, embrace composting food waste

For a time, tired students trudging into Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall could at least take solace in their sustainable eating habits. Their napkin dispensers reminded them each day. “Did you know Leo’s composts?”

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Students experience history at RNC and DNC

This year 40 Hoyas attended the national political conventions — 20 attending the Republican showcase, and 20 the Democrats’. Whether participating as volunteers, spectators, or delegates, these students were given a chance to become a part of history.

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Union Jack: Chicago Teachers Strike Back

On Sept. 10, roughly 26,000 Chicago public school teachers could walk off their jobs in the city’s first teachers strike in 25 years. The union has already issued a 10-day strike notice, so if ongoing negotiations don’t result in a fair contract, a strike is likely. While many hope a fair contract can be reached soon, a strike on the part of the teachers would be more than justified.

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Smile! You’re on the neighbors’ security cameras

In response to recent serious crimes and general safety concerns, the Citizens Association of Georgetown has begun to install its own security cameras in the Georgetown area. CAG has had discussions about the installation since July 2011. In CAG’s Newsletter for Dec. 2011, the plan to install cameras was publicly announced. Currently, three cameras are installed.

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Neuroscience attracts attention, but not from Hoyas

The Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN) is one of the success stories of Georgetown’s increased focus on the natural sciences. An obscurity only a few years ago, the Ph.D. program has vaulted itself into the number 14 slot in the National Academy of Sciences’ rankings of neuroscience programs in the U.S. But, even with the presence of a undergraduate neurobiology major at the university, only a precious few Hoyas apply to further their education in the IPN.

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New Provost arrives on campus, starts counting students

On Apr. 10, Georgetown announced the appointment of Dr. Robert Groves to succeed Dr. James J. O’Donnell as provost. With the beginning of the new academic year, Dr. Groves has taken over the post, greeting new students at Convocation and settling into his new digs on the Hilltop.

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Saxa Politica: The new license to spill

In the wake of the unanimous approval of the 2010 Campus Plan by the D.C. Zoning Commission this July, students had remarkably little to celebrate. Still, the University’s apparent caving in to the demands of the Advisory Neighborhood Committee did produce a gem of a regulation—students living in University-owned apartments and townhouses are no longer required to register parties prior to their raucous merrymaking.

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New DPS Chief focuses on community engagement

Since July 30, there’s been a new top cop on the beat at Georgetown. Jay Gruber was selected as the new DPS Chief at the end of last year, after spending 25 years in campus safety at the University of Maryland. He says he is here to integrate and communicate with the entire Georgetown community and mount an assault on property crime around campus.

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Regents Hall is ready

The construction of Regents Hall is nearly complete and professors are continuing the process of moving lab equipment into the new structure. The hall is wholly dedicated to the sciences,... Read more

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CAG installs neighborhood cameras

The Citizens Association of Georgetown (CAG) announced earlier this week that it will be installing security cameras in the Georgetown residential area. The project, spearheaded by CAG President Jennifer Altemus, will begin with installing three security cameras for a test period, after which, the CAG board has authorized the installation of six to seven additional cameras.

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Tensions begin to rise between ANC student candidates

This November, Georgetown students will have the opportunity to elect two representatives to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) for the first time. Peter Prindiville (SFS ‘14) and Craig Cassey Jr. (COL ‘15) have announced their intention to replace Jake Sticka (COL ‘13). Sticka currently occupies the only student seat on the panel responsible for neighborhood governance and working with the University to implement the 2010 Campus Plan passed last year. The two aspirants share a common goal of standing up for students in a system dominated by the neighbors, but that doesn’t mean they are seeing completely eye to eye in the election.

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Union Jack: The high price of ignorance

Never before has the United States occupied a sovereign country for as extended a period of time as it has Afghanistan. That’s quite a record for a country with an imperialist tradition as rich as our own. And yet, a war has perhaps never received such scant attention in an election cycle as Afghanistan does today.

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Faculty question Rep. Paul Ryan’s use of Catholic social teaching

Today, Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is slated to arrive on campus to speak at the 2012 Whittington Lecture, Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s annual event designed to promote education and awareness about policy issues. Since the announcement of his speech, Ryan has sparked controversy among the University’s Jesuit community over his use of Catholic social teaching in support of his budget policies. In anticipation of his presence on campus, Fr. Thomas Reese wrote a letter to Ryan on behalf of Georgetown’s Jesuit scholars, challenging his use of Catholic social teaching to defend his budget and its destructive impact on the poor.

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Occupy activists look to revive movement with May Day

As the spring months begin, the Occupy movement faces questions about how to stay relevant since the forced evictions of major camps in D.C. and New York. Members of Occupy Georgetown are similarly grappling with how to create an activist movement on campus. Both Occupy D.C. and Occupy Georgetown hope to build strength by uniting activists from different causes. A May 1 general strike known as “May Day” aims to demonstrate the continuation of the movement.

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Letters to University show campus divide on birth control

In the past two weeks, President John J. DeGioia has received two letters from groups of students, both on Georgetown’s Main Campus and the Law Campus, concerning the current debate over the University providing birth control under the student health care plan.

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Union Jack: Crony capitalism at NLRB

In a well-functioning democracy, it would seem that a high-ranking public official passing on sensitive information to the industry which he or she is in charge of regulating would cause an immense political scandal—especially when the official in question is leaking information to a top advisor of one of the major presidential candidates.

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Students demand that GU terminate contract with Adidas

Yesterday, members of Georgetown Solidarity Committee and Georgetown Occupy gathered in Red Square to protest Adidas’s refusal to pay its workers severance at the PT Kizone apparel factory in Indonesia. The students claim the unpaid severance is in violation of both the University’s code of conduct for its licensees and Indonesian law. After demonstrating in Red Square, the crowd marched to President John DeGioia’s office to officially deliver a letter requesting that the University exert more influence on Adidas to pay $1.8 million in severance for the 2,800 workers.

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Dean of Admissions says record low admissions rate not paramount

Georgetown’s acceptance rate for next year’s freshman class was a record low at 16.5 percent, with 3,316 students admitted out of a pool of over 20,000. But while other universities strive to attract more applicants to lower acceptance rates, Dean of Admissions Charles Deacon says his office has not been seeking to increase the volume of applications, due to the time and effort his staff takes to review each candidate.