Here’s the first in our coming series of interviews with GUSA candidates. Tim Brown (COL ‘09) discusses his campaign, Georgetown basketball, and empowering students.

—Tim Fernholz, Contributing Editor

Tim Brown (COL ‘09) and Dale Sevin (SFS ‘09) have produced the latest GUSA campaign video for your enjoyment. It’s the best of the year so far, but I’m not sure it rivals all-time classic Vote in a Box. Incidentally, later today I’ll be posting the first in a series of video interviews with GUSA candidates; the first interview is with Mr. Brown himself. For now, here’s an obviously Rocky-inspired montage from the ticket:

Color me culturally and diplomatically enthralled … U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be paying Georgetown’s very own conglomeration of U.N. dorks, NAIMUN, a very special visit tomorrow afternoon. The Georgetown club is hosting a conference for eager high school kids who are interested in politics, international affairs and getting drunk in their hotel rooms, and the Secretary will be speaking to the eager under-age beavers at around 3 pm tomorrow at the Washington Hilton Hotel at Dupont Circle.

Apparently he won’t stay long, something about cocktails with Condi, so rears in gear Georgetown, we’re supposed to love this stuff.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Yaiza Gómez

A little inside baseball here, but Peter Hamby (COL ‘03), a former Voice staffer and all-around good guy, just found a spot on The Politico’s top 50 list of Washington…politicos. Hamby works as a producer for CNN, where he recently covered the Presidential campaign in South Carolina and former President Bill Clinton. So congratulations, Peter, on this recognition. Oh, and current Hoyas—can you see yourself as a professional journalist after graduation? Maybe you should join the Voice and get started making that dream a reality.

—Tim Fernholz, Contributing Editor

The New York Times wants to hear what you have to say about love. But not just any kind of love—it’s that Facebook relationship status/hook-up culture/text message love they’re interested in. From the Times:

From the hippie culture to the AIDS epidemic to the Internet revolution, love has gone from “free” to fraught to Facebook. What is love now, in this age of 24/7 communication, blurred gender roles and new attitudes about sex and dating?

We invite college students nationwide to submit a personal essay of between 1,500 and 2,000 words that illustrates the current state of love and relationships. The winning author will receive $1,000 and his or her essay will be published in a special “Modern Love” column on May 4, 2008 and on nytimes.com.

For the uninitiated, Modern Love is a weekly column in the Sunday Styles section that tries to portray different aspects of, well, modern love. Once in a while, a writer will get it just right, mixing sentimentality and insight without sounding narcissistic or whiny. But, all too often, I think, the lens through which “modern love” is addressed—in-vitro fertilization, Hurricane Katrina, cancer, finding pictures on MySpace of your ex hanging from hooks—overshadows any substantive discussion of “modern love.” Plus, a lot of the essays just suck.

The Time’s previous college essay contests have turned out pretty well, but I’m worried that this one might not be so successful. Far be it from me to criticize essays I haven’t even read, though. At very least, the winning essay can’t be worse than the average Modern Love column.

So go at it, Hoyas. Writing, I mean. Bonus points for discussing the ambiguity of the phrase “hooking up”, what it means to be in an open relationship on Facebook and what crazy STD the kids are passing around these days.

Image courtesy the New York Times