Editorials

Opinions from the Voice’s official editorial board.

Editorials

GW sends students packing

Last Thursday The George Washington University President Stephen Trachtenberg announced that GW will force nearly 5,400 students to leave their Foggy Bottom residence halls in expectation of massive protests for... Read more

By the September 6, 2001

Editorials

Georgetown says NAY to BZA

An organization most students haven’t heard of, much less thought about, has the potential to change student’s lives here at Georgetown. The Board of Zoning Adjustment, a governmental body which... Read more

By the August 30, 2001

Editorials

Leave Condit alone, already

U.S. Rep. Gary Condit’s (D-Ca) Prime Time Live interview last Thursday typified for viewers how the media has handled the Chandra Levy saga. While the impassive Condit was less than... Read more

By the August 30, 2001

Editorials

Riot-Grrrl, Interrupted

Riot-grrrl is back. This underground youth feminist movement, which initially responded to the male dominated punk scene, consisted of consciousness- raising meetings where girls joined together in a safe space... Read more

By the August 30, 2001

Editorials

Differences getting better

As the new first-years arrive this week and move in, signs are posted on dorm doors designating where each new member of the Georgetown community has moved from. Within hours of arrival, students meet others from competely different religious, economic and ethnic backgrounds. For some, it will be the first time that they have encountered anyone much different from themselves.

By the August 23, 2001

Editorials

Md. not a merry land for gays

The celebration from last spring following the passage of SB 205?the Anti-Discrimination Act of 2001, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment and public accommodation?has become short-lived after the announcement that a coalition of conservative religious and political leaders garnered enough signatures to bring the bill to a state-wide referendum in 2002. Sadly, what was viewed as a step forward for the equal rights of gays will now revert to a tug-of-war battle between special interest groups on both sides of the political spectrum. Similar protections offered to other minority groups remain unavailable to individuals who identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual.

By the August 23, 2001

Editorials

Bush’s summer vacation

President Bush spent the summer the way he probably wanted to: out of the limelight and trying to get business done. Unfortunately, for a president without a national mandate, this... Read more

By the August 23, 2001

Editorials

Almost O’Gone-ovan

Father Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. is leaving us. Unlike many of the high-level administrators who have departed recently or will be departing shortly, O’Donovan will be moving on to a quieter life. It’s no wonder he needs a rest, though, in his 12-year tenure, he has worked hard. It seems fitting to take a look back at what O’Donovan will leave behind from his administration.

By the May 3, 2001

Editorials

Wheel of Death

Since 1963, there has not been a single execution of a federally-convicted death-row inmate. The scheduled execution of Timothy McVeigh on May 16 in Terre Haute, Ind., however, will break that streak. Without even addressing arguments for or against capital punishment, the administration of McVeigh’s sentence is generating an inordinate amount of controversy.

By the May 3, 2001

Editorials

It isn’t a child yet

Last Thursday, with support from the Bush White House, Representatives in the House passed a bill granting legal protection to the human fetus by establishing new criminal penalties for anyone who injures or harms a fetus while committing another federal offense. The bill is known as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

By the May 3, 2001

Editorials

Zoned out

In any healthy relationship, there must be give-and-take, yielding and proceeding. In its March 29 decision not to raise Georgetown’s enrollment above the 1990 cap of 5,627 undergraduate students, the... Read more

By the April 26, 2001

Editorials

Theme-based policy

President Bush’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer, told reporters last week that the President had declared an environmental “theme week,” not unlike his earlier “theme weeks” related to spirituality and the... Read more

By the April 26, 2001

Editorials

Anti-Free Trader Joes

What do whales, ozone, sweatshop workers and the prison industrial complex have in common? More than you might think. Protestors at a recent free trade summit in Quebec drew fire... Read more

By the April 26, 2001

Editorials

Back in the U.S.S.R.?

In the wake of the recent “incident” in the South China Sea, we are afforded the opportunity to look back upon what happened, what could have been done differently and what lessons we should take away from this regarding an overarching philosophy of foreign policy in the new Bush administration. To date, the policy of the Bush White House has been largely reactive.

By the April 19, 2001

Editorials

Water, water, everywhere

Late last month, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to reverse a drinking-water regulation imposed in the last days of the Clinton administration that would have reduced by 80 percent the permissible levels of arsenic, a known carcinogen, in drinking water supplies. The Bush administration rejected the new standards in favor of retaining archaic arsenic regulations that were established in 1942. President George Bush’s rejection of the new drinking water standards is only the latest development in the Bush administration’s assault on the environment.

By the April 19, 2001

Editorials

Adios, amigo

Let us be the latest voice to bemoan the loss of Joey Ramone, who died of cancer on Sunday at age 49. Ramone will be forever remembered as the lead singer of seminal New York City punk band, The Ramones, who could fairly be credited with introducing the sound of punk rock to the world and thereby changing the course of popular music history forever. It wasn’t that the members of The Ramones were particularly talented, but they were the catalysts that launched punk rock into the mainstream.

By the April 19, 2001

Editorials

Adding it all up

An advertisement for pizza in a campus publication is unexceptional. But an ad espousing a particular political opinion almost instantaneously provokes controversy, especially when that opinion runs counter to the oft-assumed liberal credentials of the college press corps. To censor ads that contain political content is seemingly to negate the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, but to publish such ads is seemingly to implicitly endorse the views contained therein. For a radical-turned-reactionary looking to force the hand of college newspaper editors nationwide, it has all the makings of a brilliantly spun Catch-22: Publish and perish in the court of public opinion, or cut the ad and capitulate to the pretense that the press has a moral obligation to shield its readers from potentially inflammatory material.

By the April 5, 2001

Editorials

Smoke screens

In October 1998, an amendment, called the Drug-Free Student Aid Provision, was passed as part of the Higher Education Act that prohibits any college applicant with an adult drug conviction from receiving federal financial aid. Last year, Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) pushed bills to repeal this amendment that failed, and Frank wants to reintroduce the repeal bill this spring.

By the April 5, 2001

Editorials

Fully committed

Georgetown University has made millions licensing its name to clothing manufacturers. Georgetown clothing is produced in factories around the world and under varying conditions. Clearly, Georgetown has received money for clothing produced in violation of both labor laws and ethical standards.

By the April 5, 2001

Editorials

End of the line

GUSA executives Tawan Davis (CAS ‘01) and Jacques Arsenault (CAS ‘01) have reached the end of their tenure, and it is time to take stock of the year that has passed. In the 19-page Annual Report recently published by the Student Association, the Davis-Arsenault administration reflects on its accomplishments and the issues that defined the face of student government this year.

By the March 29, 2001