Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.

Editorials

Holding on to Jesuit identity

Georgetown doesn’t have a Jesuit President, and likely won’t in the future. We don’t, in fact, have very many Jesuits—only 34 working on campus, out of some 728 full-time faculty. It’s quite possible to go through four years here without taking a class with or even, if you make an effort, meeting a Jesuit. For many students, the most prominent reminder of our Jesuit identity is how often we’re told that we have one. So, what’s the use of our Jesuit heritage today? Should we cast our religious identity aside like so many other Universities and seek to become a Potomac Harvard? After weighing the costs and benefits, we can only say no. Jesuit we began, and Jesuit we should remain.

By the January 31, 2008

Voices

The faith-based fight against poverty

“Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness,” wrote the British essayist Samuel Johnson. “It certainly destroys liberty and makes some virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult.” Johnson’s understanding of the threat that poverty posed to London in the 18th century holds no less true for Washington, D.C. in the 21st.

By January 31, 2008

Editorials

The truth will set the Hoya free

Hoya staffers have lately been flooding basketball games, Red Square and Facebook with appeals to “Save the Hoya,” without specifying who the Hoya needs to be saved from. While the Hoya deserves support, the campaign is inaccurate at best and disingenuous at worst.

By the January 31, 2008

Voices

The pursuit of happiness

I have been told that January 22nd is the most depressing day of the year. Sunlight is scarce, Christmas bills are filling mailboxes and people are coming to the realization that their three weeks of New Years-inspired jogging and Pilates will not actually help them land a model, a professional football player or even a promotion. Forget April, Mr. Eliot; January appears to be the cruelest month.

By January 31, 2008

Editorials

Bush still not keeping it real

President Bush spoke of “decisive days that lie ahead” in his final State of the Union Address Monday. Throughout the speech, though, he revealed his ignorance of the decisive days that have already passed. On matters of foreign, domestic and economic policy the president appeared dangerously out of touch with reality.

By the January 31, 2008

Voices

Buying organic is meating vegans halfway

If you love Mother Earth, good food, animals and being a human, please don’t become a vegan. While adherents to vegetarianism’s extreme cousin claim that their lifestyle, which completely eliminates the consumption of animal products, springs from a concern for animal rights and the environment, a close look at vegan practices reveals them to be largely ineffective in terms of their stated goals. A simple awareness of the benefits of locally-grown and organic food and a dedication to small lifestyle changes is much more beneficial to the earth we all love so dearly.

By January 31, 2008

Editorials

New Corp leaders plan big

After a record-breaking year, the Corp announced at its first-ever shareholders meeting plans to open a coffee shop in the new McDonough School of Business building. Jesse Scharff (COL ’09), Kevin Lynch (COL ’09), and Adah Berkovich (SFS ’09) were also introduced as the new Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.

By January 31, 2008

Voices

The necessity of idealism

Though it is hard to imagine, I’m sure I’m not the only person who enjoys the Hoya’s bi-weekly exegesis of the ancient philosophers, penned by the legendary Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. Each edition of the aging Jesuit’s Aristoletian discourse is a treat—like intellectual antiquing—but I can’t help but take issue with the latest dispatch from the Hoya’s correspondent in the 1920s, entitled by their editors “Idealism Root of Political Problems.” (Hopefully, next week Fr. Maher will come back with “Open Minds Lead to Strife.”)

By January 24, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

The Bush Administration changes course

President Bush’s poor planning and lack of intelligent responses to many issues have spawned anti-Bush blocs in America and around the world. From gay-marriage to Guantánamo, his neo-con positions have drawn criticism from personalities as varied as Tim Kaine and Tim McGraw. But recently, Bush seems to have realized that he does not have to do everything wrong. The administration has careened backwards for six years, but it has accomplished enough in the last year to prove that a turnaround, though it may have come too late in this case, is not impossible. Between election coverage and the press’ prejudice against the administration, most of these accomplishments have been overlooked.

By January 24, 2008

Editorials

More Diversity Progress Needed

Ask whether Georgetown is a diverse university and you’ll get a plethora of opinions, ranging from the University’s official stance—“a leader in promoting diversity among the most selective universities in the country,” according to the fact sheet —to the sense of self-segregation expressed by many students in a 2004 Diversity Action Council report.

By the January 24, 2008

Voices

Students don’t mess about with careers

Like so many Hoyas, I recently braved the mad post-game rush from the Verizon Center, through the Metro and back to Georgetown with a friend from Beantown. We made it to campus in record time, arriving safe and sound at Rosslyn not twenty-five minutes after Roy made that three in the last five seconds of the game. We didn’t make that kind of time by making nice with the other six hundred Hoyas in Metro Center. But when I balked at cutting off a row of students to be one of the last people to board a train, my friend would have none of it. “In Boston,” she explained tersely, “we don’t play.”

By January 24, 2008

Editorials

D.C.’s struggle for rights not over

University President Jack DeGioia went two for two on Martin Luther King Day when he presented this year’s John Thompson, Jr. “Legacy of a Dream” award.

By the January 24, 2008

Voices

On playing the game and being played

Last week, my life was fantastic. I had just moved into one of Georgetown’s finest townhouses. I was finishing all of my work and getting plenty of sleep every night. Sure, it was only the first full week of the semester, but I was still feeling pretty accomplished.

By January 24, 2008

Editorials

Losing liberty for better lawns

A proposed protest zone on the National Mall threatens to sanitize demonstrations and curtail freedom of assembly—all to protect some worn-down grass.

By the January 24, 2008

Voices

Grading the life of the mind

The 2006-07 Intellectual Life Report concludes that Georgetown students party too much, study too little and get too many “A” grades. Like the 1996-97 Intellectual Life Report, which had nearly identical findings, the current Report recommends that faculty assign more work and give out fewer A’s.

By January 17, 2008

Editorials

Keep academic discussion open

Are you partying all the time? Not working hard enough in your classes? Getting lots of inflated grades and easy A’s? You must be a Georgetown student, according to a confidential report created last year by Georgetown faculty critiquing the quality of undergraduate intellectual life on the Hilltop.

By the January 17, 2008

Editorials

Lanier disappointing on crime

Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier took office in January 2007 pledging to stem the District’s notoriously high crime rate. Unfortunately, 2007 brought just the opposite—increased crime and ineffective policing gimmicks.

By the January 17, 2008

Voices

Election ’08: A Democratic change is gonna come

While Republicans continue to squabble over whether they want their old, white, male nominee to be bald or not, Democrats have an exciting and diverse field of candidates to choose from. The Democratic primary is making history, with the top two candidates representing historically underrepresented groups, women and African-Americans. And with plans to combat global warming, provide universal healthcare and implement landmark ethics reform, Democrats are ready to take action on January 20th, 2009.

By January 17, 2008

Voices

Election ’08: A Republican change is gonna come

There is no doubt that the nation is in need of change. Unfortunately, there is a misconception that the Republican Party is resistant to this idea. In reality, the GOP is not against change and being a Republican does not mean being in favor of the status quo.

By January 17, 2008

Voices

Sippin’ on gin ‘n’ juice

The Duchess of Windsor nearly hit the nail on the head when she said, “a woman can’t be too rich or too thin.” Nor, apparently, can she be too muscular. It was surely beyond old Wally’s wildest gold-digging, man-eating imagination to think that a lady would ever seek to cultivate impressive bicep bulges beneath the fluttering sleeves of her newest atelier-made frock. But Janice Dickinson, that interminable pioneer of all things artificial, spoke out last week on behalf of the ladies who lunch … and juice.

By January 17, 2008