Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.



Editorials

Vote Hampton/Torres

It is not hard for a GUSA candidate to come up with a wish list of problem-solving proposals. A much greater test, however, is to break through the mesh of bureaucracy and funding difficulties to make those changes actually happen. For a GUSA administration to show results at the end of its term, history has shown that it must combine previous experience with a focused plan of action.

Editorials

An unwelcome departure

Last week, Professor G. John Ikenberry of the Government Department announced he would be leaving Georgetown for Princeton University, his alma mater, at the end of this semester. Ikenberry cites the move to Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs as the next step in achieving his personal and professional goals.

Voices

Getting alumni to give it up

Last year, Georgetown met its capital campaign goal of raising $1 billion. The University had raised its goal from a $500 million campaign announced in 1995 as the program’s success far exceeded expectations. This fundraising is an integral part of the University’s strategy for the coming years, as it will fuel both endowment growth and the construction of new facilities, a process that is already well underway, with the Southwest Quad getting broken in by this year’s residents and ground already broken on several other projects.

Voices

Bologna and babies

The first lesson I learned during my trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran this winter was that it is impossible to find a real mocha in Tehran. Secondly, one should not spark a political conversation in a university, especially since a student basij spy is around the corner.

Voices

I still believe

VOICES BY DAVE STROUP It hasn’t been the greatest few weeks for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, but he still has my support, and I still maintain that John Kerry looks like one of the tree people from Lord of the Rings. I traveled to Iowa the weekend before the caucuses as part of Howard Dean’s “Iowa Perfect Storm,” to meet up with my girlfriend Esther and a friend of mine.

Editorials

Buses on the right route

Last Saturday, GUSA sponsored a pilot program to investigate whether the University should invest in Saturday night bus transportation for students to Dupont Circle. Despite difficulty in locating funding for this program, GUSA should be commended for its efforts towards improving transportation, an issue that students value, and the University should learn from GUSA’s initiative and allocate funds for expanded bus service on the weekends.

Editorials

Arriving at Lands’ End

On Jan. 22, Georgetown University cancelled its apparel contract with Lands’ End Inc. indefinitely. Georgetown’s Licensing Oversight Committee recommended termination of Lands’ End’s contract because of the company’s inability to verify its compliance with the workers’ rights outlined in Georgetown’s Code of Conduct for Licensees.

Editorials

The new town-gown order

Earlier this month, a sign displaying “Read Orwell” adorned the Virginia approach to the Key Bridge. Clearly Georgetown University’s neighbors have taken the graffiti artist’s advice: They’ve been reading their Orwell, and they like what they read.

Recently, members of the Alliance for Local Living proposed that neighborhood residents take personal initiative and videotape what they deem to be inappropriate student behavior off campus.

Voices

Wesley and me

VOICES BY JASON MAURICE Jan. 17: “Welcome to Manchester, where it’s a balmy 16 degrees. Anything you leave on the plane will be divided among the flight attendants.” And thus the cheery Southwest crew introduces Ariane and me to New Hampshire, where we are spending the weekend with our friend Hillary, the Women’s Outreach Coordinator for Wesley Clark.

Voices

Reconsidering civil war

War has been the name of the game for humanity’s most recent spin around the sun. American soldiers have been sent to oust a dictator from the lands of wind and sands, and democratic battles are being waged against Iran and North Korea. Never before has an entire continent made a concentrated and personal attack on a leader in the way that Europe threatened Bush with steel tariffs.

Voices

A new veneration of leadership

“It’s usually not this cold here,” Alice said as she ushered me into her apartment. She said it as if it would warm me up, as if I should have been happy to know that my toes usually wouldn’t be frostbitten after waiting 30 minutes outside in the middle of a New Hampshire winter for an old lady who said she’d be home at 10:30 A.

Editorials

A tale of two buses

While the frigid D.C. winter makes a trip to Dupont less than appealing, getting off campus just became a little easier. Earlier this week, Georgetown University and Georgetown University Hospital, owned by Medstar, struck a deal which allows University students, faculty and staff to use the hospital-run shuttle buses, in addition to those provided through GUTS, to travel to Dupont Circle or Rosslyn.

Editorials

Opportunity lost in Alanya

Last November, the State Department issued a travel warning for Istanbul due to increased terrorist attacks in the region. As a result of the warning, the Emergency Support Team for International Affairs cancelled Georgetown’s study abroad trip to the McGhee center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies in Alanya, Turkey.

Voices

Are you there, God? It’s me, Nathaniel

VOICES BY SCOTT MATTHEWS Boy, there sure are a lot of Starbucks around! It seems like everywhere you go there’s another Starbucks! I mean, how many Starbuc … “Damn it!” I yell as I slam my fist down in anger and frustration, accidentally hitting a cactus that just happened to be there.

Editorials

A new type of cure

As theories about treatment for the mentally ill have evolved, the need for St. Elizabeths mental hospital’s expansive campus in Southeast D.C. has declined. What remains of the 149-year-old institution is mostly a collection of aging and abandoned buildings.

Voices

Rage against the machine

Teaching little kids English at a French school requires one thing: lots of photocopies. Recent favorites include color-it-yourself numbers, “Dick and Jane” and a scary page from a 1990 yearbook. With the right amount of energy and a not-so-sincere smile, these pages are portals into the magical world of the English language.

Voices

Left brain/left hand coordination

Walking into any given Barnes and Noble, the average pleasure reader is faced with stacks of titles like American Dynasty and Bushwacked, all railing against the actions, policies and general state of being of the Bush administration. While their conservative counterparts like Ann Coulter’s Treason are nearly as prevalent, the sheer quantity of inked vitriol directed towards the president is striking.

Voices

Correction

The Georgetown Voice takes mistakes seriously. We correct all errors of substance in our stories and publish appropriate clarifications as soon as possible.

Voices

Letter to the Editor

Corruption and inefficiency plague public schools

Editorials

Two up on the town

In the continuing battle between Hoya and Townie, the University has recently pulled ahead with several victories. On Dec. 4, the D.C. Court of Appeals struck down several D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment provisions instituted against the University’s most recent 10-year plan.