The fall concert is back after a three-year hiatus. And all those ballots you cast last semester haven’t totally been ignored!

According to the Hoya, Lupe Fiasco will perform Saturday, October 30 at 9:30 p.m. outside of McDonough Gymnasium. The performance will be sponsored by the Georgetown Program Board and Senior Class Council and funded by What’s After Dark and the Corp Philanthropy Committee.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door (or for non-Georgetown students). Tickets will be sold starting next week in Red Square. We can’t wait!

2 p.m. update: The Lupe Fiasco concert will not affect plans for GPB’s Spring concert, according to GPB Concert Chair Alexandra Kisielewski. “Georgetown Program Board has a separate budget for the Spring Concert,” she wrote in an email. “The Fall concert is an initiative that the Senior Class Committee took upon themselves to resurrect for this year, and GPB decided to co-sponsor with them.”

This week’s chilly temperatures didn’t seem to dissuade Georgetown’s loneliest from seeking out company on Craigslist.

Don’t ever try to mug this guy. He will remember every detail about you.

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The three Georgetown grads who founded Sweetgreen, Nicolas Jammet (MSB ’07), Nathaniel Ru (MSB ’07), and Jonathan Neman (MSB ’07), have been named three of the “40 Big Thinkers 40 & Under” in the November issue of Food & Wine.

The trio of “eco salad chain founders,” numbers 34, 35, and 36 on the list, were praised their commitment to eco-friendly service, products, and financial backing from other environmentally-conscious investors, such as Stonyfield Farm founder Gary Hirshberg.

Sweetgreen’s commitment to sustainability is no accident. Jammet, Ru, and Neman began planning a cheap, healthy, and practical alternative to Georgetown dining during the senior year.

Today, the restaurant they opened less then three months after graduating reflects that same eco-friendly philosophy. Sweetgreen composts waste, buys from local farmers, uses low-energy designs and compostable packaging, has plantable takeout menus, and furnishes its locations with furniture made from reclaimed materials.

Yeah, you can’t get much greener than that.

Photo: Eater.com

Last night, animal rights welfare and autism awareness advocate Temple Grandin spoke to a standing-room only crowd McShain Lounge.

Grandin, a high-functioning autistic, shared her experiences with autism and how it led her to study animal science and animal rights.

Her message focused on autism’s effect on brain function. With autism, she explained, there is a connection to specific details rather than to general images and ideas. Animals, too, focus on those specifics.

“To understand animals you need to train yourself to attend to the details,” she said.

After working as a consultant in the livestock industry, Grandin began to use her parallel thinking patterns to better control cattle. She knew, for example, that cows would not move toward a moving flag because of its bright colors, rapid movement, and the loud noise it creates in windy conditions.

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It’s no secret that sexual assault is a serious issue for the Georgetown and surrounding communities.

Last fall, the Department of Public Safety launched the Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) Program. The program is a self-defense course totaling twelve hours over the course of two weeks. The course, which has been offered around the nation for more than twenty years, is open to all female faculty, staff, and students.

According to DPS Associate Director Joseph Smith, the program was not started in response to any specific incident, but rather, as part of an effort to encourage personal safety and security.

“The impetus for the program stemmed from a fundamental desire to enhance the safety and welfare of our students,” he wrote. “We can do all of the right things and still find ourselves in a precarious situation. In such cases, it is important to have a tactical plan in place.”

Assistant Director of Support Services Andrew Powell recommends that every female at Georgetown participate in the R.A.D. program.

“Nationwide, women from ages 13 to 85 have taken the R.A.D. course, regardless of physical ability levels,” Powell wrote. “Because the class is a mixture of both lecture theory and physical skills, everyone can benefit.”

For more information, class schedules, and a registration page, visit the program’s homepage.

A letter urging Georgetown to dismiss former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, signed by over 150 scholars, was allegedly delivered by students to President John DeGioia last Wednesday.

According to a press release published by the North American Congress on Latin America, Uribe’s connection to human rights violations have been ignored.

“Given the human rights scandals associated with Álvaro Uribe’s administration, and the ties between his administration and illegal paramilitary groups, it is disturbing that Georgetown University has chosen to host him this year,” Lesley Gill, a Vanderbilt professor, wrote in the release.

Last summer, Uribe was invited to teach courses at Georgetown as a Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership. Since his arrival on campus, however, human rights groups have organized against and protested his hiring.

Eight Georgetown faculty members, including Professor Mark Lance, Adjunct Professor Fr. Joseph Palacios, and Associate Professor Maurice Jackson, signed the letter.

Photo: Jackson Perry

h/t Chronicle of Higher Education

Think only students got busted for marijuana in Georgetown?

Burleith resident Howard Arenstein, a CBS Radio News correspondent and Bob Dylan look-alike, and his wife Orly Azoulay, a Washington correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth, were arrested on Saturday for possession of marijuana with intent to sell.

The couple, who live on the 3500 block of T Street, were growing the cannabis plants in their backyard. After Arenstein allegedly bragged about the plans, a neighbor filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department’s vice unit. A search of the house unearthed 11 mature, eight-foot tall plants—which can each produce a pound of marijuana—as well as prepackaged, two-ounce bags inside the house.

According to CBS News, Arenstein has covered the 2000 presidential election, September 11th attacks, the War in Iraq, and the D.C. sniper shootings during his time as a news correspondent and CBS Radio Bureau Manager.

If convicted, Arenstein and Azoulay could face up to a year in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Photo: Juliana Brint

It seems that Georgetown restaurants can’t get enough of college students. More and more establishments now offer half price specials, almost guaranteeing that their lines go out the door on those special days.

So, we’ve compiled a list, including happy hour specials for those of-age. (After all, even upperclassmen can be cheap.) Let us know if we missed any!

[Editor's Note: Asterisked restaurants require a weekly "secret word" that is found on Hoya Connection.]

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Remember those high school days when you cursed Georgetown for not using the Common Application, instead forcing you plow through a six-page, two-part application?

Well, take comfort in the fact that future student will have to do the same. Georgetown’s single-use application isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The Common App, which began in 1998 and is now used by 414 schools, creates an “admissions bubble” that unnecessarily swells applicant pools, according to Dean of Admissions Charles Deacon.

“We don’t have the Common App because we think that each person is unique and each school is unique,” Deacon told the Washington Post. “We don’t want people to apply for the wrong reasons.”

Georgetown has reaped the benefits of Deacon’s 38 years heading the Admissions department. When he came to Georgetown, the University accepted more than half of its applicants. After building an alumni network that mirrors the recruitment techniques of the Ivy League, however, Deacon helped transform Georgetown into a competitive, more selective college.

The strategy worked; over the last decade, applications to the University have risen 20 percent, while only accepting 18 percent of applicants.

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Talk about an unfair disadvantage. CareChex, a division the Delta Group, a health services information company, ranked the District of Columbia as the state with the worst hospital care in the nation.

The reports on quality of care [PDF] and patient satisfaction [PDF] may rank our favorite non-voting American entity as dead last, but when ranked as a metropolitan area, D.C. fares significantly better: 32nd in cardiac care, 40th in orthopedic care, 19th in neurological care, 37th in cancer care, 32nd in pulmonary care, and 42nd in overall hospital care.

CareChex’s complied the rankings using a variety of public databases, including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Studies’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems database and the Health Quality Alliance’s Hospital Compare All Pay database.

If you’re looking for a bit of consolation, the Georgetown University Medical Center was ranked 13th in specialty areas by a 2001 US News and World Report‘s “Best Hospitals” issue, and was awarded magnet status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center back in 2004.