Tired of rankings yet? Georgetown, after failing to break the top 20 in U.S. News rankings yet again, (Go convince Charles Deacon that the CommonApp is not the devil and ask our donors to give a couple billion more to the school) receives another round of beating from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s data. The Chronicle released a study showing how universities view one another, using data submitted by over 1,500 colleges to the U.S Department of Education.

Georgetown now ranks as 63^rd out of 1,595 schools (behind University of Florida), according to their PageRank algorithm. In their interactive pictograph [pictured right], Georgetown selected ten peer colleges; five of which are Ivy League schools. Sadly, our university was jilted by all but three of the schools they selected as peers, although two matches were Ivy Leagues (Dartmouth and Brown). Some schools, like Bowdoin College, selected almost 100 colleges as peers.

Duke and Columbia University did not select any institution as a peer.

On the bright side, we at least have some suitors (24, in fact). Every major Jesuit school chose us as a peer, along with American University and George Washington University. Furthermore, the eight Ivy League schools only picked 12 schools outside their ranks as peers, and Georgetown was one of them, in the company of Stanford, University of Chicago, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We also got some love from Emory (who somehow managed to beat us for the vaunted 20^th place in U.S. News). Seriously, be nicer to Robert Morse, he lives on top of Baked and Wired.

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A letter urging Georgetown to dismiss former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, signed by over 150 scholars, was allegedly delivered by students to President John DeGioia last Wednesday.

According to a press release published by the North American Congress on Latin America, Uribe’s connection to human rights violations have been ignored.

“Given the human rights scandals associated with Álvaro Uribe’s administration, and the ties between his administration and illegal paramilitary groups, it is disturbing that Georgetown University has chosen to host him this year,” Lesley Gill, a Vanderbilt professor, wrote in the release.

Last summer, Uribe was invited to teach courses at Georgetown as a Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership. Since his arrival on campus, however, human rights groups have organized against and protested his hiring.

Eight Georgetown faculty members, including Professor Mark Lance, Adjunct Professor Fr. Joseph Palacios, and Associate Professor Maurice Jackson, signed the letter.

Photo: Jackson Perry

h/t Chronicle of Higher Education

On Monday, The Chronicle of Higher Education released the results of its annual “Great Colleges to Work For” study. Lo and behold, Georgetown is among the best in the nation.

The Chronicle focuses on the University’s “many amenities,” specifically mentioning its pharmacy and child-care services, as well as the “major benefits” of working in Washington, D.C.

“We are proud of the innovative ways our faculty teach and encourage student learning, and this recognition reflects our efforts to support these important initiatives,” President John DeGioia said in a press release. “We will continue our efforts, not only to enhance teaching innovations on campus, but also to enrich the work experience for all our staff and faculty members.”

During its year-long study, the Chronicle assessed workplace policies and surveyed more than 600 University faculty, administrative, and staff employees.

This isn’t Georgetown’s first employer accolade of the month, either. In early July, the Scientist named Georgetown as the 27th-best place to work in academia, due to high marks in “job satisfaction.”

Photo by Flickr user “4yas” used under a Creative Commons license.

If there was ever any doubt in your mind that being chained to a statue with duct tape over your mouth for eight hours sucks, The Chronicle of Higher Education put that doubt to rest.

A new series on the Chronicle’s website called “Say Something: College Life. One Student at a Time,” features recent Georgetown graduate Julia Shindel (COL ’10) in its first episode.

Shindel’s interview revolves around her time as one of the three members of Plan A: Hoyas for Reproductive Justice that chained themselves to the John Carroll statue in March.

The two-minute, 17-second clip begins by Shindel saying that “the duct tape was absolutely disgusting … the glue just kind of tends to just melt with your skin.”

This introduction sets the tone of the rest of the edited-down clip, which seemed to focus more on how Shindel felt during and after the protest, rather than the protest itself.

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CNN recently released a ranking of the most expensive colleges and universities (based on data from the Chronicle of Higher Education) and Georgetown is a very high achiever: according to their data, we’re the second most expensive school in the country this year.

With a total cost of $52,161 for the 2009-10 school year, the only school that Georgetown is cheaper than is Sarah Lawrence College, which clocked in with a total cost of $55,788.  According to CNN, Georgetown’s total cost increased by 2.9 percent from the 2008-09 school year.

Perhaps the most tragic thing about this ranking is that we can no longer point at GW for being so outrageously expensive—they’re a whole two spots and $386 below us this year.

The Chronicle of Higher Education just released its annual list of the top U.S. producers of Fulbright students, and for the second year in a row, Georgetown made the cut!

With 10 current students and four recent alumni winning Fulbright scholarships, Georgetown won a spot on the list of U.S. research universities with the most Fulbright students.  The number of Georgetown-affiliated students winning Fulbrights is a little lower than it was in 2008, when 15 current students and 3 alumni were awarded scholarships.

Things look pretty good, though, when you consider Georgetown’s Fulbright acceptance rate.  With 36 students applying and 10 being granted scholarships, Georgetown’s acceptance rate is 27.8 percent, the 17th highest of the 39 research universities listed.

In love with the “John DeGioia” Twitter account? You’re not alone—the Chronicle of Higher Education is, too!

They just published a story on university presidents with twitter impressionists, based almost entirely on JackDeGioia, the brainchild of Georgetown Heckler Editor (and recent Vox guest poster!) Jack Stuef.

The Twitter account identified as belonging to Georgetown University’s president, John J. DeGioia, features frank admissions about the mundane details of running a modern academic institution. Last week, for instance, the microblogger wrote that his face was tired from all the “fake-smiling” during graduation events. The PR office can’t possibly approve, right?

Right. And neither does Mr. DeGioia. The Twitter account, which points to the president’s real home page, is produced by a prankster.

Usually we’d be psyched about the press, but the article reports something sinister, too:

Georgetown leaders have likewise asked Twitter to remove the fake account for Mr. DeGioia. “We think it violates their terms of service,” said Andy Pino, Georgetown’s director of media relations. “We think the author has not made it explicitly clear that he is not Mr. DeGioia.

Oh, c’mon Georgetown! Where will we get all our insights into DeGioia’s gustatory preferences if you take it down? Where will we get up-to-date information about new working groups? Clearly, this is only a violation of Twitter’s terms of service if they prohibit awesomeness.

A PCC student explains how to make eye babies

I know it’s a bummer when your Thursday night hookup comes to a crashing halt because Mullah Jack doesn’t want condoms sold on campus, but religion could still make your college life a lot worse. How much worse? For that, the Chronicle of Higher Ed journeyed to Pensacola Christian College, a school so conservative it says Bob Jones University is too liberal.

The school’s in the news because one of its alums is involved in the Justice Department hiring scandal. Someone who enforces our laws was subject to some pretty bizarre ones herself, including:

• No talking between men and women outside chaperoned areas
• No inter-sex handshaking
• No movies
• No “optical intercourse” (staring hard at someone). This is, delightfully, called “making eyes babies”.

Students who break those rules are subjected to bizarre punishments, which including not talking to anyone of the opposite sex or not leaving campus for two weeks. The craziest, being shadowed, forces you to live in your RA’s room for a couple days, follow them everywhere, and talk only to them.

Whenever I hear about repressive schools like this, I imagine myself as a sort of Kevin Bacon in Footloose, smuggling in copies of Halo and Harry Potter and teaching the students (and yes, eventually the teachers) how to kick free of their squarish restraints. It’s not worth the effort, though, because the place isn’t even accredited.

Flickr photo from lady_lbrty used under a Creative Commons license . Via Tbogg.