For a long time, the Georgetown neighborhood blogging scene has been confined to us and Georgetown Metropolitan, but it looks like we’ve got new company: The Georgetowner‘s Editor at Large Dave Roffman has recently begun blogging at Georgetown Week.
Given The Georgetowner‘s focus on the social scene, it’s not surprising that Georgetown Week is largely focused mostly on neighborhood events (think of it as sort of like the Saxa Speak for the adult set). The blog also offers some neighborhood news coverage, though, recently featuring a summary of the latest ANC meeting, an analysis of the state of Georgetown’s trolley tracks, and a rundown of the Citzen’s Association of Georgetown meeting.
As always, Vox is happy to have more blogging company!
According to The Sexist, the city’s most progressive sex column can be found in the American University Eagle. Co-written by three anonymous authors, the column has been a bit of a mixed bag, with high highs (tackling anal sex in an enlightened way) and low lows (the inaugural column kicked off with a disturbing date rape scenario). But the Sexist found enough promise in the column-writing threesome to give them a progressive score of seven.
Coming in second was the GW Hatchet‘s sex column. The Hatchet switches off between an anonymous male writer and an anonymous female writer, and tends to neglect the LGBTQ perspective, according to the Sexist, earning them a six on the progressive scale.
The Sexist gave Leahey props for using her real name and acknowledged the challenges inherent in writing a column for a relatively conservative paper where “vulgarity” is frowned upon, but took her to task for directing her columns at “desperate” heterosexual females. Ultimately, Leahey and The Hoya walked away with just four progressive points.
Promising news for print journalism fans: although the Collegiate Readership Program, which provided free newspapers on campus, was suspended this year due to lack of funding, there are two replacement offers on the table.
Members of GUSA, the Corp, and Interhall have been working to restore free papers to campus. According to Will Cousino (SFS ’12) of Interhall, both options would provide roughly half as many papers as last year at about half the cost.
The first offer came from the New York Times and would include 200 copies of the Times and no other papers. USA Today, which sponsored last year’s program, also made an offer late last week that would include USA Today, the Washington Post and the Times.
Cousino and GUSA Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) will sit down next Monday to discuss which plan they, along with Corp CFO Phil Goodman (SFS ’10) and GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11), would like to pursue.
Both offers are currently at $12,000, according to Angert and Kluger. But they’re hoping to haggle them down.
“We’d love to start a bidding war. That would be ideal,” Angert said.
“As for distribution locations, last year we had four and this year they would probably be reduced to three or two,” Cousino said. “The one we’re pretty sure we’d cut would be the site at Uncommon Grounds.”
USA Today collected data about how many papers were picked up at what location, according to Cousino. On average, 134 papers a day were picked up in Leo’s, 133 in Red Square, 105 in Alumni Square, and 88 at Uncommon Grounds, he said.
“Once we pick a program, all the focus will be on raising the funds to get it and keep it sustainable,” Kluger said.
Last year, the Collegiate Readership Program was sponsored by five organizations, donating $5,000 each. Those organizations were GUSA, the Corp, Interhall, the Senior Vice President’s Office, and the Provost’s Office.
The Corp and GUSA are the only confirmed sponsors of the free newspaper program so far, according to Angert. The students are also hoping to get funding from the Dean of the MSB, among other sources.
There are elegant townhouses aplenty in Georgetown, but have you ever wondered who exactly our influential neighbors residing in the multimillion dollar abodes are?
Lucky for you, this week’s issue of The Georgetowner features a two-page spread (above) showing where some of the most important and influential Georgetown residents live. Though the map is a bit hard to read, the list of VIPs is quite impressive, consisting mostly of politicians, influential journalists, and other Washington heavyweights.
John Kerry and Teresa Hines and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd show up on N Street, while Senator Arlen Spector and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appear down near K Street. Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, two former Washington Post editors, live on 30th Street, just a block away from famous Watergate journalist and author Bob Woodward.
The wide world of sports is represented, too—Paul Tagliabue, former NFL commissioner (and current chair of Georgetown’s Board of Directors), and Mark and Judy Lerner, owners of the Washington Nationals, live in Hillandale and by the waterfront, respectively. The rest of the list is rounded off by a mixture of television and print journalists, White House advisors, and philanthropists.
It’s a wonderful politically powerful day in the neighborhood!
With so many sexual assaults occurring in the Georgetown neighborhood in the last year and a half—including two in one week at the beginning of the school year—the University is not the only one finally acknowledging the serious issue of sexual assault on campus.
Since most of these attacks seem to follow the modus operandi of the infamous “Georgetown Cuddler,” local and national news networks and bloggers have flocked to the issue, either to report on the attacks or challenge the affectionate title of “Cuddler.”
In case the Voice‘s reporting hasn’t been enough for you, Vox has compiled a roundup of outside coverage of the crimes.
The Washington Post grappled with the issue of the wide range of descriptions victims have given for their attacker, but also observed that, despite the seriousness of some of the attacks, there doesn’t seem to be widespread fear in the campus community.
Local blog DCist took issue with both the softhearted nickname of “Cuddler” as well as the University’s lackluster response to the issue, particularly the initial characterization of the August 30 attack as a burglary.
Top women’s rights blog Feministing took the “Cuddler” issue very seriously, pointing out that using cute nicknames for a sex offender “excuses the attacker, dismisses violence as acceptable, and condescends to survivors.”
In today’s issue of the Voice, you’ll find excerpts from our Tuesday interview with University President John DeGioia. Due to space constraints, we couldn’t fit the entirety of our 40-minute conversation in the paper, but we’re happy to offer you the full transcript here on the blog!
Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson and Associate Vice President of Communication Julie Green Bataille were also at the meeting, so don’t be alarmed if you see them chiming in. For those who wish to skim, we’ve put some of the more interesting quotes in bold.
Voice: My first question is about the 2010 Campus Plan. Many students have expressed frustration about the new Dupont GUTS route that started in the spring, and they’ve said that they feel it’s an example of the University caving to pressure from residents. At the May 2010 Campus Plan meeting, some administrators expressed a desire to send almost all buses through the Canal Road entrance. Can you make a commitment to students to not further extend GUTS bus routes? And if not, what would you say to students who feel that the University is not defending their best interests? DeGioia: Are we tweetering? Voice: No, not right now, no… DeGioia: Just kidding. I couldn’t make any commitment in the context of an interview with a newspaper, but I could say the issue of the 2010 plan is a very complex negotiation. We enter into it every decade and it usually take two or three years to get through the negotiation with our local neighbors and then with various regulatory authorities that we need to work with. And when we’re finished we have a document that guides the campus for the next decade.
The last one we did we felt enabled us to take some very important steps to develop the university community and we’ve been engaged in the most significant capital expansion in the University’s history over the last decade, so we feel very pleased about what we were able to do with the last plan.
At the beginning of each school year, reporters from Georgetown’s student newspapers get one chance to grill University President Jack DeGioia.
Since DeGioia isn’t generally the most available guy on campus, this annual interview is pretty much the only chance we get to talk to him directly, so we try to bring the best questions we can.
This year’s meeting is going to be held tomorrow afternoon, and the Voice has already come up with a pretty solid list of questions. However, we wanted to make sure we’re representing what students are really curious about, so we figured we’d open it up to you guys: what question do you want DeGioia to answer?
Leave your questions in the comments section, and we’ll try to make sure we ask them at the interview tomorrow!
In case ourcoverage of the Hoya‘s delayed independence (not to mention their news story, editorial and letter from the editor) left you confused about the Media Board’s logic, Vox has some of the memos that show the Media Board’s reasoning behind their sanctions.
First, we have the memo Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr sent on behalf of the Media Board to the leadership of the Hoya on April 22 announcing their sanctions:
According to emails obtained by the Voice, in mid-April the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action filed a complaint with Media Board, the funding board that oversees student media, over the Hoya‘s April Fools Issue. On April 22, Media Board issued sanctions, including a one year delay of the Hoya‘s planned independence.
The Hoya appealed Media Board’s ruling, citing their unwillingness to remain tied to the University, but their appeal was denied on June 16, documents show. A three person appeals board composed of Father Christopher Steck, S.J., GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11), and Faculty Senate President Wayne Davis decided that Media Board had acted within their rights and that the ruling should not be overturned.
The Voice will have more information in our Friday issue.
Like any other campus media outlet, we receive a fair number of tips, but for the most part they’re just requests to promote a club’s event or solicitations from outside companies trying to get us to shill their product. So when we get a tip that breaks that pattern, we’re generally pretty psyched.
A couple months ago Vox received a cryptic “tip” from someone calling themselves Robert Quincy Kendall, telling us he had “sensitive information” that would be “highly damaging to the university’s reputation.” Curiosity piqued, we asked him to clarify.
For two months, nothing. Then, earlier this week, we finally received another email from the mysterious (and almost certainly fictitious) Mr. Kendall:
I understand that it has been over two months since my last communiqué, and for this I apologize wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, I have been the target of an increasing campaign to discredit my name because of the information I have come into contact with.
I am afraid, however, that I can no longer remain silent, even at the cost of my own reputation and academic future. I have no choice but to pass on to you the secrets that my comrades and I have risked everything to obtain. The scanned document attached to this email was procured from the sealed files of the Jesuit community. Its fate, and indeed the very fate of our academy, now rest with your magazine.
I know you did not ask to bear this burden … but those who serve in the name of truth are always rewarded with the grace of God. I cannot force your hand to publish anything — I only ask that you do what you think is best, but I sincerely hope that our sacrifices have not been in vain.
Veritas Est Enim Pax,
Robert Quincy Kendall
So what is this scanned document, “procured from the sealed files of the Jesuit community”? Find out after the jump!
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.
WWCD: What Would Carrie Do?
At the beginning of each school year, reporters from Georgetown’s student newspapers get one chance to grill University President Jack DeGioia.
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