From Bradley Cooper’s chiseled physique to Bill Clinton’s infamous intern activities, Georgetown alumni certainly have a reputation for sex. Enter Julia Allison (COL ’04). Sexy and smart, this blogger, former Time Out New York columnist, and all-around media personality is now starring in Bravo’s new reality show, Miss Advised.

After several years working as a blogger and political pundit, Allison finally wiggled her way into the public eye after dating Jack McCain, 2008 Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain’s son. Despite the brouhaha of the failed political relationship and her growing star as a relationship pundit, Allison’s stardom and expertise on all things intimate arose from beginnings as Georgetown’s first dating and relationship (a.k.a. sex) columnist for The Hoya.

In an interview with Vox back in 2009, Allison spoke candidly about the cultural barriers she faced breaching the topic of sex at a school as conservative as Georgetown. Building on her experiences working with the Cosmopolitan and The Hoya, Allison is going the way of the Kindle and moving away from print, voyaging into uncharted  territory with a new reality TV series.

In Miss Advised a self-proclaimed bay-area sexpert (Emily Morse), an entrepreneurial NYC matchmaker (Amy Laurent), and a dating/relationship writer and LA transplant (Julia Allison) have the roles reversed, as America gets the chance to scrutinize the dating lives of three smart, successful women hopelessly searching for love themselves. Inherently sabotaging the experts’ “credentials,” Miss Advised is an honest admission and a reassurance that even after spending years of your life studying relationships, these women still don’t have a clue.

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On Monday night, Yu Jie (余杰), a prominent Chinese dissident living in exile in Fairfax, Virginia, visited Georgetown to address around 70 eager students in McShain Lounge Large. Jie’s main message was to urge students in Western universities to be weary of Chinese Communist Party motivations behind Confucius Institutes in an event sponsored by The Lecture Fund, GUSA, the Asian Studies Department, and the Office of Residence Life.

Hailing from Chengdu in rural and relatively poor western Sichuan province, Yu has spoken out in the past against issues ranging from forced labor camps to persecution of the home church movement. After publishing China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao, in which he thoroughly criticizes the Chinese Premier’s human rights record, and cozying up next to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, Yu was put on house arrest for over a year. To avoid further persecution, Yu emigrated to the U.S. in January 2012.

To a crowd of Chinese and Chinese-American students, Yu discussed (in Chinese with an English translator) how Chinese president Hu Jintao has used state-sponsored Confucian Institutes to teach foreigners Chinese language and culture, all the while inculcating them into trusting the Chinese Communist Party.

Though his presence was generally received positively, many in the crowd pressed Yu with tough questions concerning a range of topics, from Bo Xilai’s recent fall from grace to hopes for democratization at the local level. In particular, many students voiced issue with the fact that Yu overlooked the benefits of the Confucius Institutes with regards to cultural exchange and language instruction. Georgetown itself has a unique institutional relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, though the tricky relationship wasn’t discussed.

According to Yu, the spread of Confucius Institutes is an example of China’s growing desire for soft power alongside a rising military. Citing state-sponsored advertisements by Chinese media outlets in New York, Yu proposed that symbols of pandas, the Great Wall, and martial arts are “replacing the symbols of the Communist Party.” In addition to giving pandas as gifts to Western nations, Yu cautioned that the Institutes were another way of “spreading propaganda overseas.”

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[Editor's note: this is a sponsored post.]

What is distinctive about Millennials? How do their personal and public values differ from those of previous generations? How will they shape the 2012 election and America’s future? On Thursday, the Berkley Center and the Division of Student Affairs are convening a panel discussion on “Millennials, Values, and America’s Future.” The event will feature authors Joshua Foer (Moonwalking with Einstein), who has appeared on The Colbert Report, as well as Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (Harlem Is Nowhere) and Rev. Jim Wallis, a leading Evangelical. Student leaders from around the country will also be on the panel. The event will take place in Copley Formal Lounge from 2 to 3:30 p.m. You can find more information and RSVP here.

The event will follow on the release, earlier that morning, of the Millennial Values Survey, a groundbreaking poll of 18-24 year-olds on faith, values, and the 2012 election. You can RSVP for the release event, which will take place from 10:30-12:00 in the Fisher Colloquium (Hariri Building) here.

Both events are part of a nation-wide Campus Conversation on Values designed to engage the Millennial generation. You can join in the conversation by following these five different threads.

> Does educational opportunity remain the key to success in the United States?

> Is economic inequality the single greatest problem in America today?

> Are Americans united by a shared set of values?

> Does the Millennial generation have values fundamentally different from its predecessors?