Time for some pizza parties

On Sunday, the GUSA Senate voted to create budgets for the Student Life, Community-Building and Outreach, and Academic Affairs Committees to draw small amounts of money from without going to the Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Student Life and Academic Affairs recieved $250 each, while Community-Building and Outreach snagged $500.

The budgets are not set in stone, though; if a committee exceeds its budget, it will simply revert back to the old plan of approval of case-by-case, itemized appeals. The bill passed almost unanimously, with only one tongue-in-cheek “nay” vote.

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Last night’s marathon Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting covered everything from crime to tree boxes. As always, we’ve picked out the meeting’s highlights just for you. Let’s get to the recap.

The name is Bond. Revenue Bond.

Linda Greenan, associate vice president for external relations, presented the University’s application for tax-exempt revenue bonds incited an onslaught of heated reactions from audience members. A proposed $60 million of the bonds, a majority, will go toward funding the new science center. The rest will cover the cost of maintaining on-campus residences, including $12 million to outfit all residential halls with wireless Internet access.

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After an ANC-less August, last night’s Advisory Neighborhood Committee agenda featured bikes, break-ins, and a daunting backup of private projects.

Bicycle Races

The next major topic of discussion was the highly-anticipated Capital Bikeshare program. DDOT spokesman Chris Holben announced that the two-year old SmartBike project—the first public bike-sharing program in the US—has been so successful that the city will expand it to 100 new locations and 1,100 bikes.

The new plan will include three locations in Georgetown, two of which have already been discussed and agreed upon—a spot on K Street next to the House of Sweden and on Wisconsin next to the Canal Bridge. The candidates for third location included the stretch of sidewalk right outside the University’s front gates and the intersection at Prospect and 35th, adjacent to the Car Barn.

The ANC voted to continue its support of the first two locations and, despite complaints from residents wary of potential increased noise, voted six to one in favor of the 37th and N location.

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In August, Georgetown received more than $5.6 million from the Department of Education through the National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship program.

The Title VI grant, issued by both programs, supports foreign language, area, and international studies programs in U.S. colleges and universities.

Three centers in the SFS were awarded funding to establish or enhance their respective NRCs, including the the National Resource Center on Asian Studies.

The Center for Latin American Studies also applied for a grant but did not receive one, according to Director of Asian Studies Victor Cha.

Cha was particularly excited for the Asian Studies program’s first-ever Title VI grant, which gave the program over a million dollars worth of support.

“These grants are based on potential. We are not, in terms of Asian Studies, at the level of other major research universities like Columbia, Stanford, or Berkeley,” Cha said. “We have a very strong faculty in Asian Studies and a very strong Korean, Japanese, and Chinese language programs. That’s what helped us get the grant.”

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How many Public Service Announcement reports about sexual assaults do you think you’ve gotten in your e-mail inbox over the last year? If you actually check your Hoyamail account, that answer probably ranges somewhere from “Too many,” to “Way too many,” to “Oh my God, can this be for real?”

On Wednesday evening, GU Men Creating Change, United Feminists, and Sexual Assault Peer Educators held a vigil in Red Square in response to recent sexual assault incidents and in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Students including Jared Watkins (COL ’11), co-Chair of GU Men Creating Change, Marion Cory (COL ’10), a board member of United Feminists, and Amanda Kerrigan (SFS ’10) of Sexual Assault Peer Educators, conducted the vigil “for all sexual assaults that occur and remain unheard,” according to the event’s Facebook posting.

Although the Facebook posting confirmed 96 confirmed guests, a crowd of only about 15 people gathered in Red Square for the vigil last night. The crowd, which included a representative from Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), discussed plans to increase on-campus sexual assault awareness.

“It’s important that people are well informed about sexual assault even without all the PSAs,” Watkins said. “We’re here to provide resources on related organizations or to let anyone who’s interested to get involved.”

Some students, such as Kristin Mitchell (COL ’10), expressed concern about the lack of University action against sexual assault during the vigil.

“We get the emails, but they’re met with almost complete silence,” Mitchell said. “We don’t see anyone mobilizing, just people saying, ‘Look how scary! Don’t walk home alone!’ But what can we do to change?”

However, representatives from the coalition of groups did not seem discouraged by the small crowd that attended the vigil—they instead argued that it was a step in the right direction. Undeterred, the groups plan to hold similar events in Red Square in future months in order to provide information and raise awareness about sexual assault.

Watkins, who seemed particularly optimistic, added, “All great movements start with about this many people!”