Some people have been acting like they’re not excited about seeing Coolio for free tonight on Harbin Field. Even the What’s After Dark e-mail is taking hospitality cues from Lee Bollinger: “Bear witness to the proud living legacy of one of the greatest visionaries of our time: COOLIO. That’s right. That wasn’t a misprint. It’s not a hoax.”

For those of you who think Coolio’s a has-been, here’s how Coolio’s been keeping busy since “Gangsta’s Paradise” (from Wikipedia, naturally):

• Coolio has been on Celebrity Fear Factor and made it to the third round
• Coolio played a “space age stoner” in Dracula 3000, a made-for-tv movie that has only negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
• He was in a Croatian movie!
• The last three albums he’s released have all gone gold.

Still, staying on the field after “Gangsta’s Paradise” is socially impermissible.

-Will Sommer, blog editor. Flickr photo from judge-penitent.

UPDATE: Pride co-President Scott Chessare (COL ‘10) has sent out a letter to administrators and media outlets; it is posted below the jump.

The two co-Presidents of GU Pride, along with Bill McCoy, the part-time coordinator of LGBTQ resources on campus, are in Chicago at DePaul University tonight, attending a conference on LGBTQ issues on Catholic campuses. I just received an e-mail from Olivia Chitayat (COL ‘10), one of the co-Presidents. Though obviously dismayed by the incident, she’s happy that the University got the news out faster this time (”Five days is better than three weeks”); interestingly, she says McCoy hadn’t heard about the incident yet. You’d think the University would want to tell him. More from Chitayat:

The University can’t just say that we do not tolerate homophobia on this campus and expect the culture to change. … These incidents are going to keep occurring, they already occur every day, [until] we step in and start talking about the issue, start providing safe spaces for members of the community, start listening to the needs of people that live and breathe on this campus and MAKE A CHANGE. We have to keep talking and keep pushing people out of their boundaries until everyone realizes that homophobia will not and cannot be tolerated, until everyone understands why treating a member of the community in such a disrespectful, hateful, and violent manner is unacceptable.

We’ll be reporting as much as we can on this issue tomorrow, so keep an eye on the blog.

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief

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Looks like homophobia on campus isn’t limited to September 9’s assault. Two men said homophobic slurs and pushed another person against a wall Sunday morning, according to a University Public Safety alert sent out Thursday night:

A complainant reported to DPS that at approximately 2:34 a.m., he was approached by two unknown males as he walked up Lauinger library steps. The suspects made homophobic remarks and followed the complainant to the Healy building. The suspects pushed the complainant into the side of the building and blew smoke in his face.

Nothing was taken, and the victim wasn’t injured. It’s not clear if anyone involved is a student.

It’s more depressing to see this happen again than it was to hear about the first hate crime, because at least that could have been as an isolated incident. The administration seems to be handling this faster and with more transparency than the last hate crime, and they’ll be more likely to agree to Pride’s reasonable request more LGBTQ resources in the wake of the previous assault.

Shame on the school for not having a DPS officer at the steps 24 hours a day. It seems like most assaults and muggings happen there, but Vice President of Public Safety Rocco DelMonaco only suggests “more education.” Also, the safety alert’s recommendations to students for avoiding future incidents? Call DPS and Saferides if something bad happens, and don’t prop your windows open!

-Will Sommer, blog editor

In this week’s feature, I quote from an open letter that four faculty members sent to Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson regarding GU Pride’s abortive protest and the Professors’ role in Georgetown policymaking:

It is simply and deeply unjust for the University to place so much of the burden of fighting intolerance onto young students and a few willing allies, with hardly any institutional support. With all that in mind, last Thursday’s episode outside Healy, and your decision not to step in to reassure the students that they are not an inimical presence on this campus, strike us as unconscionable. Surely, if cura personalis means anything, it must now mean for the Vice President of Student Affairs – and for the University administration as a whole - to make a public commitment to serious changes to make Georgetown a community that truly welcomes all its members and treats them equally.

We didn’t have room to put the whole letter in this week’s paper, so the whole thing is after the jump.

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief
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When Ben Shaw and Matt Appenfeller ran for president and vice-president of GUSA, their promise of free newspapers melted my heart. When I visited Holy Cross in high school, their stacks of New York Times and Washington Post newspapers were the most appealing thing about the college (that, and its football prowess). If GUSA could get us free newspapers, my regrets about not going to Holy Cross would be soothed.

The free newspaper idea is great for college students. We’re too busy to read every day, so a subscription would be a waste. But we also want to know things! Put a bunch of Posts inside Leo’s next to the college newspapers and watch the stigma of eating alone at Leo’s evaporate. (more…)