Editorials

Opinions from the Voice’s official editorial board.

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

Editorials

Locked out

People who have ever entered a residence hall after telling a student guard that they left their IDs at home, by waiting for someone else to come out of a building, or by simply swiftly kicking a door, know that Georgetown’s security measures are far from fool-proof. However, university officials’ current plan to lock all residence halls 24 hours a day and permit only students who live in a particular building to enter that building is misguided and based on a distorted view of the security problem.

By the March 29, 2001

Editorials

Dippity doo ball

To participate in last Friday night’s most prominent on-campus activity, a student needed all of the following: blankets, toothbrush, CDs, textbooks, several tolerable companions, food, drink, patience, copious self-restraint, the competitive spirit necessary to eventually possess one of 1,000 tickets that sold out by Saturday morning and, most importantly, plenty of time.

By the March 22, 2001

Editorials

Crash and burn

It is no wonder that our generation used to say that we wanted to be astronauts when we grew up. They are really smart and have really high-tech plans. Look at the case of the Mir space station (even though it was built by non-capitalist pigs). The way the Russians have decided to retire the space station is pure genius.

By the March 22, 2001

Editorials

Playing the name game

$400,000 is a lot of money. $400,000 could provide a lot in the way of transportation improvements for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. $400,000 is also the amount of money that Republic Representative Robert L. Barr, Jr. (Ga.) wants Metro to spend renaming the “National Airport” station to “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport” station. Doing so also “honors” the former president?he would no doubt be impressed by a Metro stop bearing his name.

By the March 22, 2001

Editorials

Playground Policy

The last few weeks have brought news of yet another rash of school shootings. However, the question still remains for the American public and our policymakers: What steps can we take as a nation to ensure that we are not confronted with stories of children killing children on the front page? Unfortunately, President Bush and his Education Secretary, Rod Paige, seem content to punt this issue away.

By the March 15, 2001

Editorials

Don’t leave school without it?

If the Senior Class Gift Committee is to be believed, the legacy of the roughly 1,550 members of the class of 2001 is not the dedication they’ve shown to their academics or extracurricular activities but the amount of cold hard cash they are able to plunk down for a few extra trees and shrubs to adorn a building they may never see.

By the March 15, 2001

Editorials

Dressing it up

This month marks the end of McCall’s magazine. The magazine geared towards middle-aged suburban women will reemerge as Rosie, and the editor-in-chief is none other than TV’s Rosie O’Donnell.

By the March 15, 2001

Editorials

Promise keepers

The people have spoken. Well, 36 percent of the people have spoken, to be exact. Perhaps this still-low voter turnout reflects the campus opinion of the relatively “blah” nature of this year’s GUSA candidates. Yet the people who did vote did so overwhelmingly for Ryan DuBose (CAS ‘02) and Brian Walsh (CAS ‘02), so the voters must be saying something. We have something to say, too.

By the March 1, 2001

Editorials

Scholastic, Arbitrary Test

On Friday, Feb. 16, the president of the University of California, Richard C. Atkinson, proposed an end to the UC system’s requirement of SAT scores for admission. Atkinson’s bold move is a commendable attempt to refocus the college admissions process on achievement and to eliminate part of the socio-economic bias inscribed on admissions decisions.

By the March 1, 2001

Editorials

Pacifism in the Pacific

The news was almost too unbelievable to comprehend at first: On February 9, an American submarine, practicing an emergency-surfacing maneuver off the coast of Hawaii, hit a Japanese fishing vessel on the way up, sinking the boat. The collision took the lives of nine aboard the Ehime Maru, including four Japanese high school students that were onboard.

By the March 1, 2001

Editorials

Give US A Break

Of the six tickets slated to run in the upcoming elections, we feel that the Bill Jarvis/Doug Herrema ticket comes closest to meeting our criteria for suitable executives. In relative terms, their platform is more evenly balanced between concrete proposals for improvement in student life and activities, measures for student government reform and a push for fuller representation of the student body by GUSA.

By the February 22, 2001

Editorials

Hail to the chief

The recent appointment of John J. DeGioia to the position of University President is encouraging. If Georgetown is serious about its mission to truly become one of the world’s foremost universities, it cannot simply be content with being the best Catholic school in America. DeGioia’s appointment offers a tentative sign that the Board of Directors understands that secularizing the University need not ruin its Jesuit identity.

By the February 22, 2001

Editorials

Hypocrisy on the hill

In a typical election cycle, fundraising activity among members of Congress is fairly quiet following the presidential election. The first few months of the new term are generally a time of much-needed respite for the members after the grueling scramble to raise funds for the campaign trail. Yet despite the fact that the 2000 elections were more tiresome than most elections in years past, this post-election period has seen little slowing of fundraising activity.

By the February 15, 2001

Editorials

Leaving Lorton

Lorton Correctional Complex, a medium and maximum security prison in suburban Virginia, is on its way to a projected December closure, leaving the city with no prison in the metropolitan area. Bi-weekly bus trips take the once-7,200 inmates to new facilities elsewhere?such as Virginia, Ohio, New York and New Mexico?which are a mixture of federal, state and private institutions with which the city has contracted.

By the February 15, 2001

Editorials

Cheque this out

This weekend is Senior Parents’ Weekend. The Senior Class Committee has extended the invitation to parents of seniors to “take part in some of the events that they have enjoyed during their years at Georgetown.” The primary event, however, appears to be parting with a large sum of money in exchange for inclusion in the weekend’s activities.

By the February 15, 2001

Editorials

Pop goes the weasel

Bush’s transformation of his faith-based social service initiative from campaign promise to reality is far from a political jack-in-the-box. It is not surprising that the man who nominated John Ashcroft?who engendered charitable choice with the 1996 Welfare Reform Act?would maintain his commitment to funneling federal dollars to religious organizations. Simply because Bush’s plan should not shock Americans does not mean, however, that it should not frighten them.

By the February 8, 2001

Editorials

Service with a smirk

A bureaucratic miscommunication, a confusing ballot and now, a vote under a cloud. Sure, that is a typical November in Palm Beach County, but unless questions are answered about last Friday’s student activities funding referendum, it could also describe a February in Georgetown. What went wrong? Who is to blame? What should this mean to the fate of a proposal slated to go before the Board of the Directors in less than a month?

By the February 8, 2001

Editorials

Take me home tonight

Last week a Georgetown student was robbed at gunpoint just three blocks off-campus at 9:30 p.m. While this is an extremely alarming crime, it also brings into question what steps the University is taking to protect students’ safety, especially in regard to the SafeRides service.

By the February 8, 2001