Ever find yourself attracted to your professor and secretly fantasizing that at some point you’ll be alone with him talking, laughing, subtly flirting, playing coy but giving all the signs of romantic interest — then he moves close, touches your arm, pulls your body into his, and kisses you with the ardor of a libidinous teenager and the skill of an experienced lover?
Ever find yourself daydreaming about being in his class, about his nicely sculpted physique, about his attentive and sincere manner of addressing students’ questions, about his passionate interest in the subject matter, about his confidence, his flair with words, his humility about his intellectual boundaries, his warmth and charm?
If this is you, maybe you’d like to turn your fantasy into reality? Maybe a private tutorial with an handsome professor is in order? If you’re very cute and interested in a discreet relationship, I’d love to hear from you.
The above ad for collegelifeDC that’s running on the Hoya’s website. Props to them for tailoring their message to the market, but they get some demerits for so shamelessly piggy-backing off Juicy Campus’s notoriety. Another problem: the ad is kind of deceptive, implying that collegelifeDC is simply a classier alternative to Juicy Campus. Not so.
In last week’s issue, Eric Pilch argued that the SAT plays an outsized role in college admissions - and it looks like some very powerful people agree with him. A commission of college admissions officers (including Georgetown’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, according to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille) convened by the National Association for College Admission Counseling conducted a yearlong study of the test. Their report says that the SAT and ACT are poor predictors of success in college and that they give an unfair advantage to upper-class students who can pay for expensive test prep courses and recommends that universities stop relying on them so heavily.
So does this means Georgetown will be moving to a more progressive admissions model? Not quite. Bataille writes in an email:
[W]e have no plans to change our current admissions practices or policies related to the SAT or ACT. We plan to continue to require standardized testing as one part of the overall admissions application and will weigh that as one of many factors in determining decisions.
Georgetown’s neighborhood listserv, georgetownforum, is generally pretty dull: most of the messages are requests for plumber recommendations or notices about boring university events. Every so often, though, they’ll come out with a spectacular gem of unfounded cantankerousness that reminds you how high-strung and thin-skinned some of our neighbors are.
Here’s a prime example, sent out by “Shannon” on Wednesday:
Subject: ugly newpaper box on Prospect
A bright blue newspaper box containing “The Hoya” has been placed on the sidewalk in front of the car barm on Prospect street. It’s a real eyesore. Whom should I contact to request its removal? Seems like it could be placed inside the car barn where the university community could still have access but the neighborhood would not be affected.
Listen, Shannon - we’re not the biggest fans of the Hoya here at the Voice either, but even I have to say: man up. Seriously, the most pressing problem in your life is that occasionally you have to a walk past a not-entirely-aesthetically-pleasing newspaper box?
The best thing about Shannon’s complaint is that the darn box is in front of a university building–it’s not like it’s just dumped in front of her house.
On Thursday, September 4, 2008, a complainant reported to DPS that on Wednesday, September 3, 2008, while walking in the 3900 block of W Street, NW, between 8:30pm and 9:00pm, an unknown male approached her from behind. He placed his right forearm around her throat, told her “Don’t Say Anything,” and choked her to the point of unconsciousness. The victim further reported that upon regaining consciousness, she discovered that she was lying on the sidewalk and that the suspect had stolen her backpack and fled.
A student reported to DPS today, Friday, September 5, 2008, that at 1:30 a.m. in the morning, while walking near 35th & Dent Place, NW, he was approached by a black male wearing dreadlocks and dark clothing. The man pointed a black semi-automatic pistol at his face and told him to “shut-up and not move.” At that time, a second black male wearing dark clothing approached the complainant from behind, placed his right forearm around the complainant’s neck, and pulled his head backward. He began to strangle the complainant, while a third black male wearing dark clothing approached and removed the complainant’s wallet and other personal effects from his pockets. The complainant reported that one suspect then asked one of the others if he “had gotten the cellphone yet?” and that all three suspects then ran in the direction of Dent Place and disappeared.
The complainant proceeded home and called DPS and MPD to file a report. The complainant reported that his cell phone, keys and keychain, passport, and a black leather wallet with his GoCard, check card, license and cash were stolen. All but the cash and cell phone were subsequently recovered on the lawn of a neighbor later in the day.
The Post is just having too much fun with this recession. First they were slyly spotlighting the adverse effect of high gas prices on the social lives of teenagers. Now they’re gleefully chronicling the hardships of the upper-middle class and college-bound who, apparently, are learning to forsake aesthetics in favor of affordability when it comes to dorm decor.
Surprisingly, the kids in the article all come off as basically reasonable and grounded. The most cringe-worthy quote is from an adult, Marshal Cohen, an analyst for a consumer behavior research firm, whose poor use of slang makes me question how well he really understands his key demographic:
“I don’t think it’s going to be about pimping up your room,” Cohen said. “I think it’s about making sure the basic essentials are up to speed.”
The Post does the whole faux-sympathy thing (”the weak economy is cramping our national style”) all the while sniggering about how coddled the younger generation is (”dorm rooms … increasingly resembled urban lofts”), which just makes them seem condescending and disingenuous.
What’s most irritating about this type of article is the underlying assumption that all young people have over-inflated senses entitlement, as if we all believe that buying ridiculously overpriced dorm furnishings with mommy and daddy’s money is some kind of right of passage that we’re being cheated out of. But I think that for most college students, choosing not to buy a $29 trash can, for instance, isn’t some huge sacrifice, it’s just common sense - recession or not.
As far as Georgetown’s performance in this year’s reshuffling of the Princeton Review’s rankings goes, there’s some good news and some bad news. On the plus side, our 10th place showing on both the Most Politically Active Students and Best College Towns lists is an improvement over last year, when we were only 18th and 13th on those respective lists.
However, we’re inexplicably out-done by nearby schools. American University students were named the most politically active, with GW kids coming in second. And while Princeton Review shows an admirable appreciation for DC (with 3 of the 20 spots on the Great College Towns list going to schools in the district) their preference for Foggy Bottom (3rd) and Tenleytown (5th) is puzzling. Have they even tried to get around Tenleytown? You need to take five buses just to switch parties.
Of course, it could be worse: our co-religionists over at Catholic took a beating, getting cited for a lackluster library, a dearth of diversity, and cumbersome bureaucracy. Serves them right, for getting the Pope.
For perspective, consider this: Howard’s The Hilltop clinched the number three spot on the Best College Newspapers list, even though it was forced to suspend publication earlier this year due to $48,000 in outstanding printing costs.
Montgomery College, a Maryland community college, has banned all tobacco on campus, meaning students will have to shlep off campus before lighting up or chewing (or doing whatever they do to get to that nicotine fix). The college is temporarily hiring “healthy campus advocates” to roam around and lay down the law. Hypothetically, students could be kicked out and employees could be fired for repeatedly breaking the rule.
The policy’s a little invasive for my tastes. Chewing tobacco is clearly a personal, not public, risk. Montgomery had already banned smoking within 25 feet of buildings, so it’s not as though non-smokers’ virgin lungs were being attacked as they innocently exited buildings (as is the case at Georgetown, some might argue). It seems like the risks of second-hand smoke were pretty negligible.
But the march towards a smoke-free existence is relentless. One GW professor quoted in the Post article predicted that within five years all campuses will be smoke-free. Seeing as Georgetown only got around to banning smoking in dorms in 2004, that seems overly optimistic to me. Regardless, this trend, coupled with the recent doubling of cigarette taxes up to $2 a pack in both the District and Maryland, means tough times for DC nicotine addicts are about to get a lot tougher.
Above is the mysterious trailer for DC Prep, a “Secret Television Series Coming Soon!” by sorta actress Cameron Goodman (COL ‘10). It’s set in a parallel universe in which D.C. is “the Center of the Modern World” and everyone who lives there is attractive, white, and either the progeny of or sleeping with someone extremely important.
Goodman describes the show as “kinda like if West Wing Made out with the OC.” That seems about right to me. Kids in preppy clothes rub up against each other, the Vice President’s daughter pole dances, and political paraphernalia is used as party decor (see if you can spot the Ron Paul signs).
Judging from the video, Goodman skipped the Georgetown class where they teach you how to spell “Colombian” and “Ambassador” correctly.
Time to bust out your “Peers Who Are Already More Successful Than I Ever Will Be” list and add the name Catherine Cook (MSB ‘11). She hasn’t even started her sophomore year yet, but Forbes is writing about her and the website she and her two brothers run, MyYearbook.
I’d never heard of it, but apparently it’s pretty big (Compete shows almost 3.5 million hits this month). A quick visit shows that MyYearbook offers tacky graphics, inane quizzes (”What Kind Of Sex Should You Have?“), salacious stories, and the creepy opportunity to “own” other members.
Like Forbes, I think the site’s a little immature. Then again, I’m not the president of a site worth millions.
Naturally, Catherine’s got a MyYearbook profile, complete with annoying twinkling background and more than 50,000 friends. Interestingly, she also has a Facebook. I’m not sure what the guidelines are for social network wunderkinds, but this seems a little strange to me. Maybe she’s just monitoring the competition, though.
A source who spoke to Catherine recently told Mashable that it’s more of a PR pitch: Catherine is a 4.0 honors student with little free time in between extra-curricular activities, he says, and knows little about the running of the site when questioned. While the teen angle is a great way to promote the site, the force behind it is older brother Geoff, almost 30, who learned that age is a good selling point while garnering press coverage for a startup in his freshman years. Now too old to play that card, his younger siblings have been thrust in front of the cameras, says our source.
Hmm! Between that and the site’s code (outsourced to Mumbai), how much has Catherine actually done for the site, besides be interviewed?
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's preeminent newsmagazine since 1969. The opinions expressed in Vox Populi are those of their authors unless specifically stated.
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