Between 5:45 and 6:00 p.m. Friday, a forcible fondling occurred at Village A, according to a public safety alert about the incident. At 6:19 p.m. a student called DPS to report the incident. DPS and MPD responded to investigate and search for the suspect, who was last seen walking west between Leo O’Donovan Hall and Southwest Quad. The search for the suspect was not successful. The victim was not physically harmed during the incident.

A witness described the suspect as a slim, non-student, college-age, 5’8″ black male, wearing a lime green jacket. The witness description also noted the suspect’s crooked teeth.

DPS requests that anyone who has information regarding this incident, or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident, to contact them immediately at (202) 687-4343.

In a lengthy email to the senior class late last night, Senior Class Committee chair Chris Butterfield (MSB ’12) defended the controversial decisions of the Georgetown Day planning committee. Butterfield placed the responsibility for the scaled-back nature of the event on Georgetown students and our behavior. The full email is available after the jump.

In the email, Butterfield suggested that the expansion of the security barricades from just surrounding the beer garden to enclosing the entirety of Copley Lawn is an acceptable response to inappropriate behavior by a few students in the past.

Butterfield simultaneously rejected and employed, in the space of a few words, the logic that the actions of a few represent the entire Georgetown undergraduate community:

Often it is these students whose behavior neighbors showcase and hold up as representative of “the whole”. And that is simply not true; we are better than that. Last year at GU Day, a Port-O-John was pushed over, a security officer was punched, and people were throwing full beer cans at others at an on-campus party. As a student community, we have to address these incidents; they are a part of our behavior we have to own.

While scolding Georgetown students, Butterfield also said the decision to forgo the beer garden was supposedly made out of a sense of community. “We entertained the idea of having a beer garden, however seniors agreed that seemed to work more against the idea of community than toward it, segregating those who were 21 from those who weren’t,” Butterfield said. Earlier this semester, the administration claimed that the beer garden and inflatables were taken away because students hadn’t become involved in the planning process sooner.

The changes made to Georgetown Day will divide the student body much more than the beer garden supposedly did last year, for it will push the celebrations back into dorm rooms and off-campus townhouses. If Hoyas are celebrating Georgetown Day together anywhere, it will be on Leavey Esplanade, not Copley Lawn.

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Friday is not Georgetown Day. On Friday, there will be free food and drinks, an awards ceremony, and performances by various student groups, but it will not be Georgetown Day.

In an email to the student body that would make Orwell proud, the “Georgetown Day Planning Committee” announced that Copley Lawn will be barricaded on Friday. No liquids will be allowed to pass through the metal barriers, which will be monitored by the fun police hired security guards, DPS officers, University administrators, and student volunteers. Presumably the barricades are to keep fun in, not out.

While Coca-Cola is a sponsor of the event, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to bring their products onto Copley Lawn. Woe betide anyone who attempts to drink a carbonated beverage on Copley Lawn Friday afternoon. The Committee also gleefully warned that anyone who attempts to climb over a metal barricade to access Copley Lawn will receive a citation from the fun police.

While the “all-student planning committee” sent the email, this group has existed for less than a month, and the email itself was sent from The Division of Student Affairs’ email address. It was the head of Student Affairs, Jeanne Lord, who expressed concern in March about the transformation of “a celebration of the campus community” into “a celebration by…the student community.” Students can celebrate the end of the school year, but only in University-approved ways. Even if the University has approved of the standard Georgetown Day celebrations for several years, they’re not going to fly this year.

The metal barricades and the University’s recent decision to eliminate the fun parts of Georgetown Day notwithstanding, the Committee insists this year’s celebrations will be the “best ever!” and the “best yet!”

Our ultimate aim is to celebrate Georgetown – its ideals, values, institutions, its teachers, staff and students.

Until this year, Georgetown Day did celebrate Georgetown. At the end of a long year, community members came together to have fun and celebrate their accomplishments over the previous two semesters. When GAAP weekends have coincided with Georgetown Day, potential students were attracted, not put off, by the carnival-like atmosphere.

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Since I took over Vox in November, we’ve been through a lot. Now, alas, our time together has come to an end. Come Monday, Vox will have new masters. Since I’m not one for teary goodbyes, let’s just remember what the last five months have given us.

Barely 48 hours after I figured out WordPress was one word, a Georgetown student was arrested in Cairo, Egypt for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at state authorities.

In the final season of Henry Sims, Jason Clark, and Hollis Thompson, the Hoyas men’s basketball team gave us reason to believe in Louisville in December, basis to hope in Syracuse in February, and cause to despair in Columbus in March.

The process to get the University’s 2010 campus plan approved will never end.

The most intense GUSA presidential election in memory included defaced flag posters, a Herman Cain-inspired campaign video, an amusing vice presidential debate, a hungry vice presidential candidate, and ultimately a new Executive in Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13). In non-election news, the multi-year effort to reform the Student Activities Fee endowment saw the easy passage of three referendum proposals that finances a student-run innovation fund, solar panels on townhouse rooftops, and parts of the New South Student Center.

In March, our beloved, if aging, Jack the Bulldog suffered an ACL injury from jumping on a couch. Within weeks, a new mascot-in-training, Jack Junior, was announced and officially welcomed into the hallowed ranks of Hoya mascots. This semester also saw many more Vox Pups and even one Fox Pop. And going where no paper has dared go before, the Voice published its first-ever Shark Week issue.

As for news that made us shake our heads, the University got rid of the widely popular beer garden and inflatables from Georgetown Day, University donor Saudi Prince Alwaleed reportedly employs dwarves as “jesters”, and former Hoya basketball star Dikembe Mutombo was supposedly involved in a multi-million dollar conflict minerals scam.

Keep calm and carry on.

In this week’s feature, Gavin Bade dives into the District’s jazz scene, from Columbia Heights to U Street, and Duke Ellington to H Street NE:

Even if it is a smaller, less prestigious scene, D.C. has certain elements that New York lacks. “There is a lot of truth to the idea that in New York people are just playing chops all the time, and trying to sound all wild and out and on the next thing when they’re really sort of on their own thing,” Russonello said. “Whereas in D.C., it’s like, ‘Alright, what can everyone get together around? What can we all connect with?’” New York may have a reputation for more innovation in the music, but the D.C. scene offers “music that is both for the musicians and the audience.”

On the editorials page, the ed board hopes the University community uses Saturday’s planned conferral of an honorary degree on D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson (SFS ’92, G ’07) as an opportunity to examine her complex record of education reform in the district.

In News, Connor Jones reports on student-led efforts to convince the University to influence Adidas to pay severance to 2,800 workers recently laid off from an Indonesian factory that supplied the apparel company.

In Sports, Tim Shine writes about basketball.

For Leisure, Mary Borowiec profiles the glitter-based art of Julien Isaacs (SFS ’12), whose new exhibit Divine Chaos is on display at the Adams Morgan coffeehouse Tryst until the end of May. “For me it has been about capturing that light in my art. Glitter does that. It is a little piece of heaven,” Isaacs said.

For his final issue as the secretive editor of Page 13, Rob Sapunor offers a campus plan that will satisfy zero of the neighbors (and only half of the campus’ bulldog population), just like any other proposed campus plan that does not include Georgetown relinquishing its status as a residential university.

And finally in Voices, Keaton Hoffman calls for 21st-century development and humanitarian efforts that harness the powerful optimism of youth voices and shrug off the cynicism of academic and media elites.

Every spring, the Voice dedicates one issue to feature the best of Georgetown photography, taking submissions from the Hilltop’s creative community. Last year, Keaton Bedell (COL ’13) won with this powerful image, titled “Levitation.” To see the rest of last year’s winners, click here.

The winning photo in this year’s contest will be featured on the cover of our April 26th issue, while the following top photos will be featured on the inside spread. Both color and B&W photos are accepted.

To participate, please send your high-resolution photos to photo@georgetownvoice.com before midnight on Tuesday, April 24th. Make sure to include your name, school, and graduation year. Feel free to include a blurb about the photo and a potential title.

In previous years, Hoyas have submitted impressive displays of photographic skill. Check out the best of 2010, 2009 (Vox‘s favorite), and 2008 for inspiration!

After twenty-seven years of service, the retired Space Shuttle Discovery will be flying over the District tomorrow on its way to the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is adjacent to Dulles International Airport.

If you want to see a Space Shuttle riding piggyback on a Boeing 747 (NASA put a video of the mating ritual on Youtube) or don’t want to make the trek out to Dulles to see Discovery when it goes on display on Thursday, find a rooftop or a high window between 10 and 10:45 a.m. tomorrow (approximately).

The Washington Post has a helpful graphic of the best places, including most of the Potomac River shoreline, to see the Shuttle as it passes over the D.C. metropolitan area. The Shuttle-mounted 747 will mainly stay at 1,500 feet, besides a few swoops closer to the ground.

Vox‘s suggested viewpoints are the Village A rooftop, the Leavey Esplanade, the top of the Car Barn, the rooftops of Nevils and Walsh, and the field above Yates. Some students in Village A, New South and the Southwest Quad may enjoy private shows, but most patient, space-minded Hoyas will have to find a rooftop.

Hoyas with internships or jobs in downtown buildings should have spectacular views. With a good weather forecast for tomorrow morning, the Mall is the place to be to watch Discovery fly overhead.

Disclaimer: The complexity of the fly-around means the NASA flight crew may cancel or abridge the tour at any time.

Photo: NASA/Lori Losey

The debate over the appointment of Robert Groves as Provost and what it means for Georgetown’s Jesuit identity notwithstanding, most of the comments this past week concerned animalian topics.

With the official induction of JJ into the hallowed fraternity of Hoyas mascots, momzerme thinks Jack the Bulldog’s days are numbered.

Georgetown has cheerleaders? Who knew? Now that the puppy is here, what does that portend for Jack? Upcoming vet appointment?

@momzerme also thinks the injured Jack is headed for greener pastures:

I would assume as such. Doggy ACLs are so expensive to repair.

WAKE UP SHEEPLE

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At approximately 2:30 a.m. yesterday, a Georgetown student confronted an unidentified male with a backpack inside his Henle Village residence. The man said he was looking for someone, and the student “escorted” him out of the apartment, according to a public safety alert. The student eventually learned that one of his roommates’ laptop was missing. The Department of Public Safety responded to the scene, and discovered no sign of forced entry.

The public safety alert describes the suspect as a six-foot black male, wearing a red baseball cap and a black jacket, and carrying a black backpack.

DPS requests that anyone who has information regarding this incident, or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident, to contact them immediately at (202) 687-4343.

Photos: Julian De La Paz and Kirill Makarenko