Better than a cup of coffee, the Morning Digest will provide you with what you need to be prepared for the day: a daily round-up of links, local news, and important events on campus and around D.C.
Today will be humid with a chance of showers, with a high of 64.
To masticate today:
Hit the books: Tonight, OCAF will be hosting the Hoya Saxa Study Slam at Sellinger Lounge at 11 p.m. There will be free pizza and candy. There will also be coffee to remind you that you still need to study, and that this isn’t a middle school sleepover.
The Postal Service: Georgetown students can now use PostYourBook to buy and sell textbooks to each other. It is a free service where you post the textbooks you still own from past classes, and you can contact students who have the books you want. This will hopefully help cut down your costs, although Vox is definitely going to miss scouring Facebook GAAP groups for textbooks.
What to look out for:
Drink up: It’s National Drinking Water Week! This week of hearty celebration serves to remind us of the “essential role drinking water plays in our daily lives.” There are going to be various school events and festivals to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation and recycling.
Buck up: In another reminder that D.C. is neither a swing nor a state, President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address at The Ohio State University last night. He spoke at length about the unique qualities of American citizenship, and took the opportunity to slip in a few jabs at Wall Street and Congress—all in all, a rollicking good time. Watch it in full here.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were reelected on Tuesday night, and hundreds of Hoyas ran to the White House to express their support. Both Leavey’s Sellinger Lounge and The Tombs were packed with Georgetown students watching the election count on CNN, cheering for Obama as he won state after state.
Students gathered at the front gates around midnight to run to the White House in large batches.
“Running to the White House for me was a way of celebrating a hard fought victory, acknowledging the opportunity we have as a democracy to fairly chose our leaders, and envision an improved America,” Mauricio Serna (SFS ’13) wrote in an email to Vox. “It was also a way of participating in what makes Georgetown such as a special place. Hundreds of Hoyas ran in groups, with buses, cabs and other drivers honking as we ran while chanting ‘four more years.’ At the White House, it felt as if half our campus was there, and chants of Hoya Saxa also broke out.”
Serna ran with a group of 10 students who started out watching the election at The Tombs.
Tuesday evening, almost 75 to 100 Georgetown students stood in line at Duke Ellington High School to engage in same-day registration. Ballots were shoved into an inconspicuous cardboard box, with lines circling around the high school hallways until 9 p.m. Not expecting so many students to show up for same-day registration, the voting personel were not equipped with enough same-day special ballots, further delaying the process. Students waited close to four hours before they were able to vote.
Ever wondered who the man was behind the pensive, chess-playing statue in front of White Gravenor?
Yesterday, President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to this war hero, the late Jan Karski, a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter who later became a professor at Georgetown University. The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. Karski died in 2000 and spent 40 years as a Georgetown professor.
During the early 1940s, Karski reported to the Polish government-in-exile, the American, and British allies on the atrocities committed in German-occupied Poland. ”Jan took that information to President Franklin Roosevelt, it being one of the first accounts of the Holocaust, imploring the world to take action. It was decades before Jan was ready to tell his story, and by then he said, ‘I don’t need courage anymore, so I teach with passion,’” Obama said during the awards ceremony.
Karski was a part of ZWZ, Union of Armed Struggle, which was an underground army formed in Poland to resist German occupation. ”When Karski told Jewish Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter what was happening, Frankfurter replied, ‘I do not believe you.’ Winston Churchill refused to meet with Karski to discuss saving the Jews. Had the allies acted when Karski spoke up, millions could have been saved,” the Huffington Postwrites about Karski.
Yesterday evening, The Kennedy Center and Georgetown University hosted the annual Let Freedom Ring Celebration, a musical celebration commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year’s concert featured a special performance by Grammy-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama also attended.
Toddchelle Young (COL ’12) delivered the invocation and included prayers for peace in Syria, for survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, “all those affected by natural disasters in 2011,” and for the presidential candidates running in the 2012 election.
Clarence Jones was presented the John Thompson Legacy of a Dream Award by University president John J. DeGioia and former Men’s Basketball Head Coach John Thompson, Jr. This award is given to an individual or organization whose contributions to community service or social justice reflect the values and ideals of Dr. King. Jones was a speech writer and advisor to Dr. King, and was instrumental in distributing his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He is currently a Scholar-Writer in residence and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University.
Most famous for his hit, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” McFerrin’s performance was very interactive. McFerrin performs a cappella with his four octave range, and at the Kennedy Center he invited the audience as a whole to participate in the performance (to understand his style, you can watch this video of him). McFerrin closed his set with an innovative rendition of The Beatles’ “Black Bird”.
According to the Washington Post, President Barack Obama is expected to visit the newly-completed Georgetown Waterfront Park tomorrow, as part of his promotion of the American Jobs Act.
The purpose of the visit will be to discuss the Key Bridge, which was recently reported as “structurally deficient” and in need of immediate repair. Under the jobs plan, about $387 million would be available to D.C., some of which would go to repairing the Key Bridge. According to DCist, the District Department of Transportation reports that the Key Bridge would be the first to undergo repairs if this money became available.
The White House announced yesterday that Kathryn Ruemmler (LAW ’96) – a Georgetown Law graduate – would replace Bob Bauer as President Obama’s legal counsel at the end of the month.
“Kathy is an outstanding lawyer with impeccable judgment,” President Obama said in a press release. “Together, Bob and Kathy have led the White House Counsel’s office, and Kathy will assure that it continues to successfully manage its wide variety of responsibilities.”
While at Georgetown Law, Ruemmler was editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal. After graduation, she worked as a law clerk for Honorable Timothy K. Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She subsequently served as associate counsel in the Clinton Administration. In 2001, she was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney.
In 2003, Ruemmler was picked to assist in the federal prosecution of energy giant Enron’s founder, Kenneth Lay, and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling for accounting fraud. She became deputy director of the Enron Task Force in 2005.
President Obama appointed Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice in 2009. She joined the Office of Counsel to the President in 2010.
As Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US forces in Pakistan, crowds of students from D.C. universities thronged in front of the White House in a spontaneous rally.
As news of bin Laden’s death reached campus, crowds of Georgetown students grabbed taxis, rode bicycles or simply sprinted down M street in order to reach the White House. A crowd of several thousand people eventually massed, pressing up against the White House fence and pushing into Lafayette square. Members of the crowd waved American flags and chanted an energetic series of slogans: “U-S-A,” “Obama got Osama,” “yes we did,” and “Hoya Saxa” were shouted by eager students in the crowd.
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Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer
A crowd of approximately 1,000—mostly students—packed into McDonough Gymnasium this morning to hear President Barack Obama as he laid out a plan to reduce oil imports by one-third in a decade.
“Here’s the bottom line—there are no quick fixes, ” Obama said. “And we will keep on being a victim to shifts in the oil market until we get serious about a long-term policy for secure, affordable energy.”
Criticizing “the same political gridlock and inertia that’s held us back for decades,” Obama explained that the country must find and produce more oil domestically, while simultaneously reduce oil dependence by investing in clean, alternative fuel sources. With those measures in mind, Obama announced that he plans to encourage offshore oil drilling—including seven deep-water drilling permits granted in recent weeks.
“I don’t think anyone’s forgotten that we’re not even a year removed from the largest oil spill in our history,” he said. “What we learned from that disaster helped us put in place smarter standards of safety and responsibility.”
In his speech, Obama also cited a growing role for alternative energy sources, such as natural gas, renewable biofuels, and clean forms of electricity. By 2015, he said, all federal agencies will purchase only alternative fuel, hybrid, or electric vehicles.
President Barack Obama will be speaking tomorrow at Georgetown University to outline his plan for America’s energy security.
Obama will be speaking in McDonough Arena at 11:15 a.m. According to a broadcast email from the University, first-come, first-served tickets may be picked up tonight beginning at 6 p.m. in the Georgetown Athletic Hall of Fame in the Leavey Center.
Obama’s last speech at Georgetown caused great controversy–not for what he said, but because the IHS symbol in Gaston Hall was covered up during the speech.
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.
Today will be humid with a chance of showers, with a high of 64.
Ever wondered who the man was behind the pensive, chess-playing statue in front of White Gravenor?
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