Editorials

Opinions from the Voice’s official editorial board.

Soda Tax a sweet deal for District residents

Government revenue has to come from somewhere, so it is valuable when the government can levy taxes that have societal benefits, too. So as the local government faces an increasingly dire fiscal situation, the District of Columbia’s policymakers made a sound decision in turning to an unconventional tax on sugary drinks for spare change.

By the Editorial Board September 30, 2010

Appalachia Rising to stop surface coal mining

This weekend, more than 700 Appalachian residents, retired coal miners, and students held a three-day conference at Georgetown to protest the practice of mountaintop coal removal. The group, Appalachia Rising, unites residents from West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, states whose streams and mountains have been negatively affected by this harmful mining practice.

By the Editorial Board September 30, 2010

Leo’s changes, like its food, are hard to swallow

Complaining about Leo’s is a Georgetown tradition, and not without good reason. The management of the University’s dining hall and meal system needs change. Unfortunately, the changes that have been made to Leo’s this fall were a step in the wrong direction. Over the summer, the dining hall was rearranged and restructured. The upstairs salad and fruit bar as well as the “weekly wrap” disappeared, and bagels and muffins vanished from Late Night.

By the Editorial Board September 23, 2010

Gray skies ahead for D.C. public schools?

As candidates for mayor, incumbent Adrian Fenty and victor Vincent Gray, who will almost certainly replace Fenty as mayor in November, agreed on many issues. Gray, however, has been clear that he does not want to duplicate the uncommunicative atmosphere in which Fenty and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee carried out their biggest reforms of the District’s flailing public schools. But, as he undertakes his own education plan, it is important that Gray does not let a more open process interfere with progress.

By the Editorial Board September 23, 2010

A DREAM deferred for immigrant students

Six weeks before the general elections, it seems that more often than not politics takes precendence over the common good. Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to filibuster a comprehensive defense authorization bill that would have vastly improved higher educational opportunities for children of illegal immigrants. The “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors” Act, attached to the same bill that included legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” fell victim to a partisan Congress playing politics in an election year.

By the Editorial Board September 23, 2010

GU must improve sexual assault education

At Georgetown, we often hear a deeply troubling statistic, that one in four to one in five women on this campus will be the victim of sexual assault before they graduate from Georgetown. Although many high-profile cases involve strangers, the vast majority of sexual assaults and rapes are perpetrated by acquaintances or friends. Given the prevalence of this horrible crime, it is essential that Georgetown improve its efforts to educate students about sexual assault.

By the Editorial Board September 15, 2010

ANC candidate needs to get off the fence

Single Member District 3 of the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which includes Copley and Harbin Halls, as well as dozens of student townhouses, also hosts the strongest opposition to Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan. The winner of the November’s ANC election will be an important voice in ongoing debates over the plan as the community pushes the University for more concessions. Unfortunately, the only candidate on the ballot has explicitly avoided voicing his position on the campus plan.

By the Editorial Board September 15, 2010

Free Newspapers Apparently Too Expensive

Print journalism just lost another audience: Georgetown students. As the Hoya reported last week, students will no longer be receiving free copies of three national newspapers, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today due to lack of funding. The second demise of the College Readership program in two years should have both faculty and administration concerned about the deterioration of Georgetown’s intellectual environment.

By the Editorial Board September 15, 2010

Where in the world is Jack DeGioia?

Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman holds regular, open office hours with undergraduates. When he walks around campus, DePaul University President Brian Casey greets most of the students he passes by first name. But at Georgetown, it is extremely rare to see President John DeGioia unless he is giving a guest speaker on campus a brief and formulaic introduction.

By the Editorial Board September 9, 2010

Pushing campus toward green roofing

An environmentally friendly roofing method that is catching on across the nation should have Georgetown University thinking about using its many flat-topped roofs for more than parties and gravel. Green roofing, which retrofits existing roofs to support the growth of grasses and shrubs grown in sod over a waterproof membrane, carries with it serious environmental and financial benefits, making it well worth the University’s consideration.

By the Editorial Board September 9, 2010

D.C. schools recieve much-needed cash

In late August, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that the District, along with nine states, had won the second round of the Race to the Top grant competition, earning $75 million to invest in D.C.’s dismal public school system. This is a huge victory for the District’s struggling public school system, which badly needs the funds, and more proof that Fenty has capably managed education reform over the last four years.

By the Editorial Board September 9, 2010

Blaming the victim is not good police work

Early last Sunday morning a woman was raped in her home in Burleith. The crime itself is horrifying. Unfortunately, the misleading responses issued by both Georgetown and the Metropolitan Police Department are seriously dismaying and raise questions about how both organizations treat sexual assault.

By the Editorial Board September 2, 2010

SmartBike expands, DDOT spins it wheels

Over the next two weeks, the District of Columbia Department of Transportation will extend and rebrand SmartBike, the local bike sharing pilot program. Dubbed “Capital Bikeshare,” the new program may improve bike sharing’s visibility in new neighborhoods. It will do little, however, to combat the larger problems of traffic and congestion plaguing D.C.

By the Editorial Board September 2, 2010

Catholics for Equality deserves GU’s pride

Georgetown University has a long history of being at the forefront of progressive Catholicism. In January 2010, Joseph Palacios, a Georgetown professor and openly gay priest, continued this tradition by helping to found Catholics for Equality, a group dedicated to “empowering pro-equality Catholics to [support] LGBT community and their families.”

By the Editorial Board September 2, 2010

Re-elect Mayor Adrian Fenty this September

From the city’s dropping crime rates to the impressive development that the District of Columbia has experienced over the last four years, Mayor Adrian Fenty’s government has vastly improved the quality of life in D.C. and demonstrated a commitment to tackling some of the city’s most daunting problems.

By the Editorial Board August 27, 2010

Oppose! Neighborhood association hysteria

This semester, Georgetown University will take its 2010 Campus Plan to the District of Columbia Zoning Commission. Unfortunately, the University’s neighbors—unhappy that the plan, in their view, will exacerbate what they see as overcrowding in their neighborhoods—have started a full-fledged misinformation campaign in an attempt to force the University to accept more of their demands.

By the Editorial Board August 27, 2010

Down to the wire: UIS finally upgrades

Almost a decade after wireless Internet was first installed on Georgetown’s campus, University Information Systems has finally announced that it will make wireless access a reality in all of Georgetown’s residence halls by the end of the 2010-11 academic year. This has been a long time coming for Georgetown, and UIS deserves praise. Now, however, UIS must follow through.

By the Editorial Board August 27, 2010

Shuttering Burleith’s cranky shutterbug

The contentious relationship between Georgetown neighbors and University students hit a new low this week with the rise of DrunkenGeorgetownStudents.com. The site is run by Stephen R. Brown, a cantankerous Burleith resident with a camera and limited website design skills and publishes damning photographs and commentary about the weekend partying habits of his student and “young professionall [sic]” neighbors.

By the Editorial Board April 29, 2010

Weekend GUTS routes must continue

Tired of complaining about lengthened GUTS routes to Dupont Circle, sporadic weekend service, and no rides to the Verizon Center during basketball season? Don’t worry, Georgetown Univeristy Student Association and the Student Activities Commission have you covered—weekend GUTS routes might be gone for good on the Hilltop next year thanks to a lack of financial oversight from the two organizations.

By the Editorial Board April 29, 2010

New culture of accountability at SAC?

The long and tumultuous conflict between the Student Activities Commission and the Georgetown University Students Association appears to have ended in a cease-fire, with a compromise announced last Sunday which will finally make SAC almost fully accountable to the student body.

By the Editorial Board April 29, 2010

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