UPDATE: Pride co-President Scott Chessare (COL ‘10) has sent out a letter to administrators and media outlets; it is posted below the jump.

The two co-Presidents of GU Pride, along with Bill McCoy, the part-time coordinator of LGBTQ resources on campus, are in Chicago at DePaul University tonight, attending a conference on LGBTQ issues on Catholic campuses. I just received an e-mail from Olivia Chitayat (COL ‘10), one of the co-Presidents. Though obviously dismayed by the incident, she’s happy that the University got the news out faster this time (”Five days is better than three weeks”); interestingly, she says McCoy hadn’t heard about the incident yet. You’d think the University would want to tell him. More from Chitayat:

The University can’t just say that we do not tolerate homophobia on this campus and expect the culture to change. … These incidents are going to keep occurring, they already occur every day, [until] we step in and start talking about the issue, start providing safe spaces for members of the community, start listening to the needs of people that live and breathe on this campus and MAKE A CHANGE. We have to keep talking and keep pushing people out of their boundaries until everyone realizes that homophobia will not and cannot be tolerated, until everyone understands why treating a member of the community in such a disrespectful, hateful, and violent manner is unacceptable.

We’ll be reporting as much as we can on this issue tomorrow, so keep an eye on the blog.

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief

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In this week’s feature, I quote from an open letter that four faculty members sent to Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson regarding GU Pride’s abortive protest and the Professors’ role in Georgetown policymaking:

It is simply and deeply unjust for the University to place so much of the burden of fighting intolerance onto young students and a few willing allies, with hardly any institutional support. With all that in mind, last Thursday’s episode outside Healy, and your decision not to step in to reassure the students that they are not an inimical presence on this campus, strike us as unconscionable. Surely, if cura personalis means anything, it must now mean for the Vice President of Student Affairs – and for the University administration as a whole - to make a public commitment to serious changes to make Georgetown a community that truly welcomes all its members and treats them equally.

We didn’t have room to put the whole letter in this week’s paper, so the whole thing is after the jump.

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief
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GU Pride held a press conference/rally in Red Square this afternoon demanding that the administration commit to opening and funding an LGTBQ Resource Center and instituting mandatory LGBTQ diversity training for students, faculty and staff. Pride wants to see these commitments by November 9—the two-month anniversary of a recent anti-gay hate crime—and if the University won’t take steps, Pride says it will “escalate” its protests until they see results.

The Red Square event came in the wake of University President Jack DeGioia’s decision not to attend Pride’s public forum about the hate crime, which resulted in the event’s cancellation.

“Jack needs to prove to us he is the ally he says he is,” one Pride spokesperson said.
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The latest news about the bias-related incident that spurred Monday’s campus rally: The as-yet-unidentified victim found alleged assailant Philip Cooney (MSB ‘10) not just on Facebook, but also in an MPD photo line-up. Here’s Sam Sweeney’s web exclusive. Be sure to keep an eye on the blog and Thursday’s edition of the paper for more news on this developing story.

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief

Late but never out of date, it’s your weekly issue round-up.

- The feature sends Sam Sweeney and Clare Malone out to find Georgetown’s quirkiest professor’s—can you say “Beer me that Wordsworth?”

- Relentless reporters Juliana Brint and Crystal Chung continue to explore Metro’s party watchlist and new arrest policy; who knew it was unconstitutional? The ACLU.

- Phil Perry, the original man vs. wild, plunges into Georgetown’s weekly tail gate to hang out with an old lady. Hi-jinks ensue.

- “Our Moment” boardmembers make the case for giving students in the college a chance to get a certificate in international development.

- The Eds page still wants more transparency from the powers that be as they remake the alcohol policy, and they aren’t having any of Petraeus’ bullshit about the Iraq war.

- I’d like you to have some decent wine. Is that so bad?

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief

What happens when a bunch of bored alums get together to chat Georgetown on the internet? Here’s a hint: it involves asking us here at the Voice to, um, kill ourselves. Here’s a charming Hoya from the boards:

When did the rag put out some worthy material?

Has anyone checked out their website recently?

The main facade at the top of the screen is some hippie’s smelly ORANGE foot stepping on the seal.

http://www.georgetownvoice.com/

….seriously, what the bleep is that all about?

Well, it’s a joke. Also, if not stepping on the seal was such a university priority, maybe it shouldn’t have been put on the ground in front of a door. I’m just sayin’.

Now, they also crack some jokes about our reporting. We don’t mind taking one in the teeth when we screw something up (it’s why we run corrections) but I feel compelled to defend our honor. This last year, for instance, we won more on-campus journalism awards than the Hoya (including second* place in the Sports category, HoyaTalk fans), and for the past three years I’ve been on campus, we’ve split the awards fairly evenly with our rival newspaper. Maybe that’s why our alums end up working at places like CNN, CBS, Agence France Press, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington City Paper, Entertainment Weekly, the Poynter Center, The Nation, and The Washington Post.

But why would these anonymous alums bash students who work long hours to contribute to our campus’ culture? Maybe the same reason they have plenty of time to spend rehashing their golden college years on the internet: they don’t have anything productive to do with their time. Hoya Saxa, your life is awesome!

- Tim Fernholz, Editor-in-Chief

* Turns out The Hoya (in fact, this gentleman) picked up the first place prize for sports writing, we took second! It seems one of our writers won first place in commentary and second place in sports, and I flipped them around in my head.

Not that this is bash Aramark day, but I ventured into Donny’s (Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall, get it?) today and was confronted with cold, cooked, broccoli. For some reason, I love broccoli, but either have it cold and raw or cooked and hot. Nothing’s worse than something that is both cold and mushy. How are you finding the new dining hall?

- Tim Fernholz, Editor in Chief

The class of 2011 has arrived, and we went out to meet them.

The University enacted a new set of party rules this month that could take the fun out of any campus-dwelling student’s weekend. And what’s more, it seems they timed the release to avoid the predictable student backlash: Making the announcment in the midst of finals, they new students would be too busy to actively oppose it, even as seniors—probably the most knowledgable and invested students at school—are leaving and in time to convince incoming freshmen that this is the way it’s always been. Rest assured that the Voice will be editorializing about and covering this issue heavily next fall; one hopes that prompt action from students and GUSA will result in a more acceptable set of rules, ala this school year’s keg ban debate. While parties may seem silly in light of all the other things students are up to, they’re an important part of the Georgetown experience and one of the few things we actually have some say over. See the letter from Dean of Students Todd Olson and some more commentary after the jump. (more…)