Georgetown wound up with an early Christmas this year—today, the Office of Communications announced that the University has received its largest philanthropic gift ever.  The late Robert McDevitt (COL `40), a Georgetown alumnus and former Regent of the school, donated $75 million, or about one third, of his estate to the school.

From the looks of it, most of the this money will go to fund faculty salaries and science and technology research at the school:

McDevitt directed that a portion of his estate establish a fund to endow faculty positions at Georgetown … The McDevitt gift will support faculty compensation and the research, technology, and staffing infrastructure necessary to create and support academic work of national and international distinction.

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Who, Georgetown? You should totally date him.

If you’ve been following Georgetown’s ascension through the manly ranks of the D.C. area, it’ll please you to hear that once City Paper’s Amanda Hess allowed that we out-manlied the Brookings Institute, we testosteroned past the Heritage Foundation in her Manliest in the D.C. Workplace bracket to become the manliest thing on D.C.’s think-tank and academia scene.

But that’s the end of the line, says Hess: no one out-brawns the U.S. Senate.

Remember Mark Carter, the former Commander of the Second District’s Metropolitan Police Department? If you don’t, it’s no surprise—his tenure lasted barely half a year before MPD Chief Cathy Lanier replaced him with Matthew Klein, formerly of MPD’s Internal Affairs.

However, if you were among the tens of 2D residents who MPD arrested for open container violations during the months of his reign, it would seem you have him to thank.

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At the conclusion of finals, some students’ travails will continue as they schlep their way to Dulles International Airport. If this describes what’s ahead for you, try take heart in the fact that your progeny will have it easier. Via The Loudoun Extra,  The Washington Post reported that the Metro Silver Line, which will connect Dulles to D.C., is on its way:

“Federal regulators have approved a long-awaited extension of Metrorail to Tysons Corner and Dulles International Airport, virtually assuring construction of a $5.2 billion project that regional leaders say is crucial to ease congestion and spur economic growth in Northern Virginia.”

Of course, the project won’t see completion for quite some time. In a congratulatory editorial, The Washington Post hopes to see it happen by 2013, which is something like ten years from now in bureaucrat-speak.

What you can enjoy right now is D.C.-area commentators having a ‘here’s-some-perspective-for-you’ gala. In its editorial, Post tells its readers that one of the Silver Line’s greatest proponents, Gov. Tim Kaine, was only four years old when the fight for a train line to Dulles began. DCist recalls that this was before man landed on the moon. And as for us, this paper wasn’t even born yet.

Calloo calay!

Hi there, everyone. Yesterday, former blog editor Will Sommer doffed his blogging mantle and handed me, Molly Redden, the keys to Vox Populi.

My creds? I wrote for the print Voice for the better part of last year, but this summer the blog struck my fancy when it lambasted others’ pretentions and its authors passive-aggressively lamented their own poverty—and when it established itself as my lifeblood during the long hours of my summer reception job. We’ve been going out ever since, in the form of ANC knuckle-raps and GUSA-SAC crisis coverage.

So that’s my story. I’m a sophomore in the college, and that’s me pictured above. As you can see, I’m clearly excited, clearly about blogging. Off we go!

Vox is taking off for Thanksgiving. We’d like to give thanks for a few of this semester’s blessings:

• Professors who cancelled Wednesday classes in September, not November
• Professors who have taken advantage of the information super highway for love’s sake
  
• Pumpkin pie
• Jack DeGioia when he looks like a pumpkin
• Pat Dowd when he looks like a pumpkin
• The tantalizing possibility of a Troianometer

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Department of Public Safety PSA reported that on Tuesday, three males assaulted a student while he was smoking on Harbin Patio. The student, who the assailants struck “across the face several times with a shiny object (possibly a knife),” was subsequently treated for lacerations to his face and head.

DPS describes the assault as having been perpetrated by three tall black males wearing hoodless Georgetown sweatshirts. Around midnight, they pushed the student up against a wall and one struck the victim. One assailant made “incoherent comments,” according to the PSA.

Both DPS and MPD all responded to the incident. DPS officers declined to comment.

At least it’s shiny.

Economic downturn is forcing D.C.’s Newseum to cut its staff of 250 by 10 percent. Call it bad luck, but would-be visitors shouldn’t groan at the threat of shortened exhibit hours. When the Voice’s Sara Carothers perused its hallowed media halls in the spring, she found it to be a P.R. palace and home to enough slant for two Fox News Channels. “Uninspired,” she wrote.

Given that visiting the Newseum costs adult visitors $20 a pop, the $450 million museum may not have come up against hard times if it didn’t–well, suck.

As The Hoya reports, SAC passed an amendment to its constitution last night that officially gave its chairs a power that current SAC chair Sophia Behnia (COL `09) says they have had for years: the ability to independently a successor independent of outside (GUSA) review.

But what The Hoya doesn’t tell you is that the scene at SAC last night was utter chaos.

According to Voice reporter Alisha Crovetto, SAC carried out business-as-usual, hearing out clubs’ requests for funding and discussing the requests individually, until they brought the meeting to a vote. Members of SAC then asked everyone to leave the room (SAC members vote in privacy so their peers cannot individually call them out for their votes).

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Ruddad Abdulgader, who attacked a Georgetown medical student back in October, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to “felony assault with bias intent” and “possession of a prohibited weapon,” according to an email press release from the United States Attorney’s Office. The 19-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia will remain incarcerated until his sentencing date, slated for February 6, 2009.

The Washington Blade reports that Abdulgader faces a maximum sentence of five and a half years in prison for the two criminal charges. Adding “bias intent” to a felony assault increases the maximum punishment for assault, three years, by one and a half times, to four and a half year and the weapon carge carries a one year maximum, the press release said.

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