Last week, Voxy Gurl took a break for Thanksgiving, and left y’all in the dust. But don’t worry because we’re back in action this week. Though the holiday ended days ago, we’d like to take this moment to thank our commenters for their love disguised in angsty comments, and we’d like to give thanks to the brave President John J. DeGioia and other people, corporations, and organizations that keep Vox‘s content entertaining.
Last week, GUSA passed a controversial resolution to allow students to enter residence halls after 10 p.m. with GoCards. The current policy as it stands requires students be signed in by a resident if they want to get into a dorm after 10 p.m. any day of the week.
Terrible people felt comfortable, for whatever reason, exposing that he (or she) sleeps at 11 p.m. on weekends. Snoooozer.
As someone who frequently likes to go to bed around 11 pm regardless of the day, I hate having to listen to commotion in the hallways late at night. I don’t care if the hours are extended, but they sound laws must be enforced!
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Major General of the U.S. Marine Corps Andrew B. Davis addresses student veterans, encouraging them to stay strong and “take care of each other” in the life after war.
This afternoon, on Copley Lawn, Georgetown University Student Veterans Association President TM Gibbons-Neff led the opening remarks at the Veterans Day Celebration to an audience of students, veterans, and cadets in honor of the hard work and commitment of members of the army at battle now and resettling to life back home. The invocation was led by Father Richard J. Curry, Director of the Academy for Veterans at Georgetown. Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson was also present at the ceremony.
Major General of the United States Marine Corps Andrew B. Davis, now retired, delivered a heartfelt speech to the current student veterans, reminding them to “take care of each other” in the life after service. He recounted stories of his career, describing the struggles he had returning to school after the Vietnam War. “There was no equivalent of the Student Veterans of America, and there really should have been,” he said. “Because the returning veteran needs a place and a home, a safe haven, that he or she can be with fellow warriors and share experiences, even use profanity (which isn’t acceptable and other circles) and help each other reenter the civilian life that they left.”
He left student veterans with three important pieces of advice. “First, take care of each other here in the workplace and beyond…go forward and do absolutely great things, and what I always tell my Marines, don’t screw it up,” he concluded, to the laughter of the audience.
Take a look at the U.S. News & World Report website today, and you’ll no longer see a ranking number for our neighbors at George Washington University. In previous years at 51st place, now GW is “unranked” on the website, due to their misreported class ranking data of incoming students.
Earlier this month, a disclosure revealed that GW had inflated its high school class standing information for over a decade. The incoming freshmen in the top 10 percent of the class was reported at 78 percent, while the actual after correction was 58 percent. For those freshmen reported to be in the top 25 percent of their high school class, GW reported 95 percent, which was corrected to 90. The total number of students who submitted class rank, according to initial data, was 51 percent, and 38 percent after correction.
According to the U.S. News & World Report update, this false data made GW’s ranking higher than it should be after newer statistics are taken into account. Last week, the President of GW Steven Knappformally apologized for the data errors and the Provost stated that those who were responsible for the errors would be “held accountable.”
In a statement released today, Knapp expressed surprise at the ranking removal. “We were surprised by the decision of U.S. News to remove George Washington’s numerical ranking rather than to correct it in light of our disclosure,” he said. “We regret the error and have put safeguards in place to prevent such errors from occurring in the future.”
When James Li (MSB ’13) began his freshman year at Georgetown, the traditional paths of finance and international banking were on the horizon. “It was sort of a struggle to see a path that was different from that,” he said. “I didn’t really have that many thoughts about entrepreneurship.”
Four years later, Li and two other Georgetown students are now in the limelight for an application they created to assist nonprofits share their stories and engage with donors. This “interactive, story-based email communications platform,” called Encore, was voted last Thursday as D.C.’s “Hottest Start-Up” in a showcase of 25 selected D.C. startups, organized by a tech media company Tech Cocktail.
Li describes Encore as a way to help nonprofits in D.C. focus on their relationships with donors. The web app allows grassroots organizations to quickly and easily tell supporters about the latest initiatives. Encore will also provide nonprofits with the analytics and information on donor activity and behavior.
They were among the youngest founders out of the 25 startups featured at the event. Last Friday, Li and the other co-founders, CFO Michael Hauser (MSB ’13), and Tammy Cho (MSB ’16) of Encore went all the way to San Fransisco, California, for the one of the largest nonprofit conferences in the nation, to meet and publicize their newly launched web app to an audience of almost 900 nonprofits. Also on their staff is Elle Kang (SFS ’15).
Legendary U2 rock star Bono was made to feel right at home when a full audience at Gaston Hall welcomed him Monday evening. Just when we thought Bono’s keynote address would focus on social enterprise and the power of social movements to foster change, his speech was more accurately about social activism, the economic recession in America, his view on the presidential debates, and Africa.
The event was co-sponsored by Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan and spearheaded by Professor Bill Neveli, the founder of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at the McDonough School of Business. Bono thanked Moynihan, describing him as “a gentleman in a world where that quality isn’t always on tap,” for his help funding U2′s initiative to provide free music lessons to children in Ireland.
Bono opened his speech by mocking the political mudslinging during this past week’s presidential election. He admitted, jokingly, that he spends a good deal of time with politicians, and found the attack ad campaigns distasteful. The Washington Post recently reported that Bono has visited the White House five times in the past four years, including one private meeting with the president.
“I may need to grab another pint at The Tombs,” he joked. He found the political attack ads difficult to watch. “I’d rather see an attack ad on malaria…the riot of social activism.”
The singer discussed also touched on some serious issues and global health concerns, specifically those that plague Africa. Throughout his career, Bono has founded several initiatives and grassroots campaigns to address rampant poverty and disease in Africa.
In celebration of Veterans Day, around 40 people gathered before President John J. DeGioia this afternoon to honor student veterans at Georgetown. There are 419 Georgetown students who are either veterans or are on active duty in the military, according to the GU Student Veteran’s Association’s David Shearman. “68 out of that total are undergrads, of which 41 are in the School of Continuing Studies, 45 are from the Law Center, and 43 are in the Medical School.”
This Thursday, GUSVA will host a Veterans Day Celebration with special guest speaker now-retired Major General of the United States Marine Corps Andrew B. Davis.
On Oct. 24 Saxbys owners Jack and Elizabeth Egle handed over the keys to the flagship Georgetown café to three Hoyas: Jim Hilson (COL ’08), Eric Rodawig (’07), and Ken Martin (’07).
“We were all friends during school and we stayed in touch since then,” Hilson said. “Now, we’re business partners.”
Of the three Georgetown alumni, Hilson is the only one living in D.C. and will work full time as the operating manager. As a student, Hilson worked at the coffee shop for a year, shortly after the location opened. He kept in contact with the owners over the past few years and expressed interest in buying if they ever decided to relocate elsewhere and sell the shop.
Relocate they did, and Hilson pulled together the finances between him and his two friends to buy the franchise. In the past few years, Hilson worked in human resources for a defense contractor in D.C. “It will absolutely change my lifestyle but I’m extremely excited,” he said. “I love being in the atmosphere of the coffee shop.”
Although the new owners plan to “stick to the traditions” and keep the culture and ambiance of the café unchanged, Hilson plans to make a few operational modifications. “There are a few operational things that we’d like to do differently a little bit down the road…things like making sandwiches inside the shop, whereas currently we get them delivered every morning fresh from a deli,” he said.
Correction: Previous version of this post called the coffee shop “Saxby’s” when it is in fact “Saxbys.” Apologies for this error.
Last Tuesday on Election Day, students didn’t just fill out their ballots for presidential candidates. Hoyas also came out to support ANC hopefuls Peter Prindiville (SFS ’14) and Craig Cassey (COL ’15), who both secured spots in an uncontested election.
Cassey and Prindiville will represent Single Member Districts 4 and 8, respectively. Redistricting this year allowed for a second student ANC district. In the past, Jake Sticka (COL ’13) has been the only Georgetown student on the ANC2E commission. Sticka also holds the position of the Georgetown University Student Association’s Chief of Staff.
The turnout this year for these two candidates was unprecedented, with over 100 provisional ballots in ANC2E08 and 61 regular votes for Prindville from students who pre-registered. The provisional ballots have yet to be counted. “It’s remarkable,” Prindiville said. “The Board of Elections ran out of ballots in district ANC2E08 around 2:30 pm and then again at 6:30 pm.”
Prindiville stood outside Duke Ellington High School for six hours campaigning and answering general voting questions. The day before elections, Prindiville reported receiving 65 emails from students asking how to register to vote as a result of a get-out-the-vote campaign he undertook on Sunday and Monday.
The DCBOEE has not yet reported on whether or not the nine write-in votes in ANC2E04 were for Cassey. This information will be posted early next week. ”I can honestly say that I am both humbled and excited by the opportunity I am about to receive,” Cassey wrote in an email to Vox.
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
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