Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.

Voices

Carrying On: Isolationism in Italy

When I was 12, I read Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord, a novel about two runaways who become thieves in the city of Venice. I instantly fell in love with its romantic portrayal of Italy and read it over and over again.

By November 11, 2010

Voices

To national detriment, Golden State voters defy the high

California has been through a rather tumultuous decade of politics: a recall election in 2003 featuring bodybuilders and child actors; the 2008 ban on gay marriage; and in Tuesday’s election, a failure to legalize the state’s most popular recreational drug. In many elections, the nation watches the West, and we always manage to disappoint.

By November 4, 2010

Voices

Censure for censor? Accepting a blogger’s remorse

At least once a week, I censor my peers. This is an aspect of my job as editor of Vox Populi, the staff blog of the Voice, that I rarely question. Inappropriate comments, like those that include slurs or offensive language, always catch my attention as if they have flashing lights attached to them.

By November 4, 2010

Editorials

A liberal’s guide to the new Republican majority

After two years of scaling back reforms to meet the demands of Republican dissent and obstruction, Democrats find themselves once more in the minority in the U.S. House of Representatives. They now face the same choice Republicans did two years ago: either return to the core values of their party, or continue attempting bipartisanship.

By the November 4, 2010

Editorials

University keeps mum on DMT contradictions

Now that almost two weeks have passed since Charles Smith (SFS ‘14) and his friend John Perrone were caught cooking dimethyltryptamine in Smith’s dorm room, a clearer picture of the dramatic, early-morning evacuation of Harbin Hall and their arrest has emerged. Unfortunately, very few of the facts we now know have come from Georgetown itself.

By the November 4, 2010

Editorials

Searching for a Rabbi, students find their voice

eorgetown’s Rabbi Harold White has left a lasting legacy at this university. The community will be sad to see him go, but White’s departure may leave the community with one last gift. To select his replacement, the University is using a student-driven process—one that would serve as an excellent model for future hiring decisions.

By the November 4, 2010

Voices

Advent of an age of reason: Moderates rally for cause

My life is insane. Being a Pre-Med Biology major and living in Harbin have forced me to accept that madness is par for the course at Georgetown. Yet this Saturday, as I stood on the National Mall, I realized that this was not the way the rest of the country ought to be.

By November 4, 2010

Voices

Carrying On: Administrative error

Georgetown is a great university—in spite of its administration. I know I will look back happily on my time here long after I’ve graduated—in spite of its administration. Every year, we learn about something stupid the administration has done and it aggravates students whose disappointment with the University usually lays dormant.

By November 4, 2010

Voices

E-reader, Kindle, and Nook, let me read my freaking book

When I read a really great book, “smaller, lighter, faster” are not the first words that come to mind. I don’t love my favorite stories because they come with high quality, built-in WiFi. In short, e-readers aren’t for me. My least favorite thing about e-readers is that in Kindle-land, all books are created equal.

By October 28, 2010

Voices

Hailing from the Most Serene Republic of San Marino

Like many people my age, I have a grandfather who came to America through Ellis Island in search of a better life. Only he didn’t come from a big country like Italy, Ireland, or Russia as many other immigrants did. He traveled from a small country known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino.

By October 28, 2010

Voices

Globe warms up to green economy, U.S. left out in the cold

America is losing its edge. Or at least, that’s what the experts would have us believe. From professors to politicians, nothing has gotten our educated crowd more hot and bothered for the past decade than the future of American economic power—except maybe for Christine O’Donnell’s views on masturbation.

By October 28, 2010

Voices

Carrying On: The healthy Danish?

As is typical of the fall semester, last week I found myself facing a daunting pile of homework, impending deadlines, and to top it off, a poorly-timed bout of influenza. This time I was not terribly upset about my illness, because I’m in Denmark, a country with free healthcare.

By October 28, 2010

Editorials

Aramark cooks up healthy profits, but lousy food

Aramark, Georgetown’s dining services provider, has sacrificed both quality and variety to achieve cost savings for itself, a fact that is plain from student responses to the ongoing Campus Dining Survey.For example, of the 690 students that had completed the survey as of Wednesday night, only eight percent were “happy with Leo’s.”

By the October 28, 2010

Editorials

Alarming errors in University’s DMT response

Early Saturday morning, residents of Harbin Hall woke to the sounds of Department of Public Safety and Metropolitan Police Department officers shouting and pounding on their doors. Authorities had found a dimethyltryptamine lab, which contained several highly flammable and explosive chemicals needed to produce the illegal drug, in a room on the ninth floor.

By the October 28, 2010

Editorials

Future funding reform not a SAFE bet for GUSA

The University owes its students $3 million, plus nine years’ interest. That’s the sum it promised to contribute to the Student Activity Fee Endowment in 2001. But it never did, and for the last 10 years, the Student Activities Fee Endowment has stagnated without its support. With that money, the endowment today would be much closer to maturing.

By the October 28, 2010

Voices

Ugly edifice of evil of praiseworthy beacon of learning?

We are all lucky enough to attend a school with a truly beautiful campus. And yet, tucked in the corner of our picturesque front lawn, beneath the austere and regal façade of Healy, lies the squat, angular Lauinger Library—a gloomy, gray structure that looks more like a decrepit Soviet housing project than a comfortable place to study.

By October 21, 2010

Voices

The social network: Where business is all up in my business

I think I may have told Mark Zuckerberg too much. First, on a sidebar, Facebook asked me, “Do you know this person?” and showed a picture of my father. Next Facebook started displaying “photo memories,” pictures of people I occasionally Facebook-stalk that were taken at events I didn’t attend.

By October 21, 2010

Voices

Incompetent chef craves Georgetown culinary institution

Once again, Leo’s has made me sick. But this time, it has nothing to do with undercooked chicken or unwashed forks. I’m homesick. I went abroad ready to experience everything that a foreign country has to offer: the people, the history, and especially the food.

By the October 21, 2010

Voices

Carrying On: Teaching the teacher

Not every Georgetown professor is perfect, and many Georgetown students have had serious problems with some of the teaching styles they have encountered during our college careers. I’m not talking about a complaint about the amount of homework on a particular night—I mean a fundamental problem with their professor’s teaching methods.

By October 21, 2010

Editorials

Georgetown supports a community of scholars

Every fall, over one million young Americans become the first person in their family to attend college. The first-generation college students who come to Georgetown do so through incredibly hard work, often overcoming huge obstacles on their own. Once they arrive at Georgetown, students continue to face enormous financial, social, and academic pressures.

By the October 21, 2010