Editorials

Opinions from the Voice’s official editorial board.

Editorials

Clearing out schools with cash

For too long, the District of Columbia Public School system has failed to give Washington’s students a decent education. The appointment of new DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee was supposed to change that. Rhee has already proposed closing under-enrolled schools and has laid off part of the administration, all in the name of saving money and refocusing efforts. Last Thursday, Rhee announced the latest positive step in her strategy of school reform: offering buyouts for as many as 700 teachers, which will allow the District to cut costs and better serve its students.

By the April 17, 2008

Editorials

The Pope visits D.C.

As part of his first trip to America, the Pope will speak with 200 Catholic university and college presidents today. Since he arrived on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI met with President Bush and various Washington dignitaries, celebrated his 81st birthday and held mass at Nationals Park this morning. Prior to tonight’s discussion, at the Catholic University of America, several Georgetown papal experts speculated about what issues the Pope will address during his stay.

By April 17, 2008

Editorials

GU’s no college of cardinal sins

Another event on the Pope’s schedule is of even greater interest to Georgetown students, Catholic or not: his meeting with the presidents of Catholic universities. While he may be coming to chastise, the Pope could learn from our model of Catholic education.

By the April 10, 2008

Editorials

A prescription for drug disaster

If an Ohio District Court rules in favor of Johnson & Johnson in an upcoming case, it will set the precedent that drug companies are no longer responsible for their medicines’ unadvertised side effects. This legal shield would let drug companies literally get away with murder.

By the April 10, 2008

Editorials

A housing crisis D.C. might solve

Last week, Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed one of the first tactics in his homelessness reduction strategy: the construction of an apartment building to house 400 of the city’s chronically homeless. Unfortunately, the building’s site was originally intended for a homeless shelter. The plan is a bold and commendable move to protect Washington’s most vulnerable citizens, but the Mayor should keep the city’s shelters running until his permanent housing initiative proves successful at reducing homelessness.

By the April 10, 2008

Editorials

NCAA fouls out on game tickets

Davidson College students had two reasons to smile during their Elite Eight game: their team had come out of nowhere to beat Georgetown and Wisconsin, and their trip to Detroit was free because Davidson’s administration paid for game tickets, transportation and lodging for students who wanted to go to the game. While Georgetown’s precarious financial state makes such a cushy arrangement unlikely, Davidson has the right idea: giving college basketball back to college students. This is something the NCAA, with its restrictive ticket policy, seems loath to do.

By the April 3, 2008

Editorials

Feds trying great train robbery

When D.C.’s first mayor-commissioner, Walter Washington, was appointed in 1967, Representative John McMillan (D-NC) congratulated him by sending a truckload of watermelons to Washington’s office. While the overt racism is gone, the federal government is still treating its responsibility to D.C. like a cruel joke. With Washington’s Metro system confounded by hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs, it’s time for Congress to help the District that it’s ignored for so long.

By the April 3, 2008

Editorials

Forget it, Georgetown, it’s China

With the Beijing Olympics only four months away, protests aimed the Chinese regime’s abuses and its support for the genocidal Sudanese government are mounting. Reporters Without Borders sells shirts with interlocked handcuffs in place of the Olympic rings, and Steven Spielberg left his job as an artistic adviser to the games over China’s indifference to the crisis in Darfur. Now is the perfect time for Georgetown to evaluate its own ties to two Chinese universities.

By the April 3, 2008

Editorials

Area taken out by the ballgame

While Washington prepares for the Nationals’ first game in their new stadium, one group of Washingtonians has little to be excited about: people living and working near the stadium who have been shut out of its economic benefits.

By the March 27, 2008

Editorials

GU holds its first Women’s Week

Feminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti wanted to know what words came to Georgetown students’ minds when they heard the word “feminism.” The responses from the predominantly female audience included words such as “angry” and “bra-burning.”

“Most young women are feminists, have feminist values, but are too freaked out to use the word,” Valenti said.

By March 27, 2008

Editorials

GUSA’s own housing meltdown

No one can say that GUSA President Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) and Vice President James Kelly (COL ’09) lack ambition. Their GUSA Summer Fellows initiative has the laudable aim of providing free summer housing at Georgetown to undergraduates with unpaid internships they couldn’t otherwise afford to take, starting this summer. But Dowd and Kelly have approached the idea with a startling naiveté of the complexities involved in enacting such a bold proposal. Putting their energy towards an unreachable goal of trying to institute it this summer diminishes GUSA’s credibility and detracts from the program’s chances for next year.

By the March 27, 2008

Editorials

DPS shouldn’t run an arms race

Department of Public Safety officers are about to get a belated Easter gift: batons and pepper spray. By the end of March, all of Georgetown’s DPS patrol officers should be trained to use their new tools. But instead of protecting Georgetown against D.C.’s rising crime rate, these weapons might actually make life on campus more dangerous.

By the March 27, 2008

Editorials

How to repair our national lawn

Although the National Mall is home to memorials to our nation’s Founding Fathers, it is treated like Washington’s ugly stepchild. The facilities are neglected and dirt patches grow faster than grass. As the front yard of the nation’s capital, the Mall deserves better than its current disgraceful state.

By the March 13, 2008

Editorials

Bill leaves D.C.’s workers ailing

Last week, Washington became the second city in the country to force businesses to provide paid sick leave to their employees. While the Council should be commended for following San Francisco’s lead and protecting the city’s working poor, it should reverse the pro-business amendments that dramatically reduce the legislation’s effectiveness.

By the March 13, 2008

Editorials

Hard time has come for reform

Prison, meant to be a punishing interlude before a return to society, has become a way of life for too many Americans. The Pew Center on the States released a report last month that found the United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world, with one in every 99.1 adults an inmate in a federal or state prison.

By the March 13, 2008

Editorials

Time to run off voting system

After deciding which Student Association tickets to vote for from the plethora of candidates, actually casting the vote should have been the easy part. But when Georgetown students logged on to vote last Thursday, they were greeted with a ballot that managed to be an online analogue to GUSA itself: confusing and tedious. Voting was so flawed that GUSA will hold a run-off between the top four tickets because the GUSA Senate refused to certify the results. It’s time to ditch the multiple-choice ballot and instant-runoff voting.

By the February 28, 2008

Editorials

GUSA: Out with old, in with new

Ben Shaw (COL ’08) took office last February promising to bring the student body free national newspapers, extend the add-drop period and represent the student body to the University administration. As Shaw’s term ends, two of those goals have been fulfilled.

By the February 28, 2008

Editorials

Clinton shouldn’t fake comeback

One year ago, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) seemed poised to win the Democratic presidential nomination in more of a plebiscite than an election.

By the February 28, 2008

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.

By February 28, 2008

Editorials

Muslim center’s no madrassa

It seems like 2005 again as a $20 million donation from a Saudi royal stirs up media controversy, casting aspersions on Georgetown’s academic ethics and credibility.

By the February 21, 2008