The Georgetown University College Democrats and College Republicans came together on Wednesday evening to co-host “A Catholic Family Discussion on LGBT Issues”. College Democrats member Hannah Lomax-Vogt, College Republicans member Joe Knowles, National Organization on Marriage spokesperson Maggie Gallagher, and Atlantic Monthly Editor Andrew Sullivan formed the panel moderated by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne.

The discussion focused primarily on gay marriage rights, with Lomax-Vogt and Sullivan in favor and Knowles and Gallagher opposed.

“I decided that our politics are now so filled with hatred and rancor over taxes and economics that it opens the way for a discussion of a whole range of cultural and moral issues,” Dionne said to open the conversation. “I intend to be a fair and balanced moderator in the actual sense of that phrase [...] on gay marriage I have been on both sides on this issue.” He made clear that he currently sides with Sullivan on the issue.

Read the rest of this entry »

Crime is prevalent. (Especially if you live in Village A.) But, technology is always being used to combat the forces of villainy. That’s why one University of Maryland professor decided to update 9-1-1.

Video 911, a smart-phone application developed by Professor Ashok Agrawala, would allow victims and witnesses of crimes to transmit their location as well as audio and video to a police dispatcher at the touch of a button. If Agrawala can raise $100,000, he believes UMD could launch a pilot program as early as next semester.

“[We've been] begging, borrowing, stealing, getting students to participate as part of their projects and coursework, things like that,” he said to the Diamondback.

While Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety has no plans to launch a similar project, DPS Associate Director Joseph Smith commended UMD’s progress.

“I would like to applaud the University of Maryland for their innovative efforts to improve incident response on their campus,” Smith wrote in an email. “Georgetown DPS strives to be innovative as well, and we are certainly open to measures that we determine will improve the quality of service to the Georgetown community.”

The question begged is the application’s usefulness. Would victims have the time to pull out their phones, let alone navigate their way to an app? Having a button that could silently transmit your position to a dispatcher seems handy, but the sheer number of likely butt-presses and prank uses seems prohibitive. We’ll stick with the good old three-button press ourselves.

Photo: Flickr user “honou“

h/t Diamondback Online (via GW Hatchet)

The Project on Student Debt recently published its figures for the Class of 2009—and it ain’t pretty.

American student debt is frighteningly high; according to the study, which was published by the Institute for College Access and Success, the national average debt for a graduating senior in 2009 was $24,000. Among all states, D.C. claims the highest debt rate per student ($30,033), although New Hampshire ($29,443), Maine ($29,143), Iowa ($28,883), and Vermont ($27,786) followed close behind.

Surprisingly enough, however, Georgetown doesn’t have the highest student debt among all schools in the nation’s capital. Corcoran College of Art and Design ($42,355) leads the pack, followed by American University ($40,966) and George Washington University ($31,299). The figures make Georgetown’s $25,085 average debt look paltry by comparison.

Read the rest of this entry »

For many Georgetown Law professors, orientation activities are an easy way to introduce law students to D.C. These activities probably seem familiar to anyone who remembers New Student Orientation: trips to the monuments, visiting Capitol Hill, and those painfully-awkward icebreakers.

But, Associate Professor Pete Wales bucked the trend, leading his class on a scenic bicycle tour of the city.

“Bicycling just seemed like a fun alternative,” Wales said in a YouTube video that chronicled the ride. “It’s not obvious when you first come here that bicycling could be a way to get around.”

Read the rest of this entry »