Hey Austin Freeman, Sims didn’t cry on Senior Day. He probably cried when he watched The Notebook, but I mean, who doesn’t?

Julia Ryan fails to realize that this was a surprise for the 90 percent of the audience who didn’t know The Artist was a movie.

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With finals fast approaching and Lauinger reaching capacity every night, Vox has put together a list of some of Georgetown’s other, better places to study this finals season (not including the place we want to keep secret for ourselves).

Our on-campus suggestions:

• Hariri Building. The hidden gem for on-campus studying. As former Vox editor Molly Redden puts it, “Aside from probably having the highest working-to-non-working outlet ratio of any building on campus, it’s shiny, clean, and within I-hope-no-one-steals-my-laptop walking distance from Uncommon Grounds and Vital Vittles.”
• Blommer Science Library. Tucked away on the third floor of the Reiss Science Center, Blommer is Lau’s oft-forgotten, nerdy sibling. Study here and you will be neither seen nor heard.
• The Car Barn. Former Vox editor Juliana Brint gushed over the Car Barn two years ago, writing, “[it has] lots of tables and couches, tons of outlets, [and] multiple vending machines. It’s got its own microwave, and it’s right near one of the nicest bathrooms on campus.” Consider us sold.
• The ICC. Classrooms can only be reserved by clubs and professors, they say. Vox has seen quite a few one-person club meetings taking place during finals time in ICC rooms, so take that rule as you will.
• Walsh Building, 4th Floor. No people. No distractions. When you need to hunker down, Walsh is the place to go. With Wisey’s a short hop across the street, Vox wonders why Walsh isn’t more popular, especially considering the alleged improvements to the building’s wireless Internet.
• Healy and Maguire Halls. Vox‘s personal favorite place to write a paper, Healy Hall offers space to spread out, plenty of outlets, and a much more pleasant environment to work in than Lau. Maguire is also a great place for groups to get together when the second floor of Lau is packed. For full details on hours, consult the library’s website.

For those who want to hole themselves up off-campus, the neighborhood’s various cafes and coffee shops offer many options for hours of studying at the price of a latte. Note: this is your last chance to study at the Barnes and Noble on M Street because it is closing at the end of this year. In addition to its on-campus location, Starbucks has two shops nearby: one on M Street that offers a lovely second floor with piped-in jazz music and a fireplace to remind you it’s not Lau, and a second at the Safeway on Wisconsin that is more convenient to Burleithers.

Want Vox readers to descend upon your own secret study space? Tell us all about it in the comments!

If you’ve been to Lauinger since you’ve been back on campus, you may have noticed a small, but shocking change to the area—open spaces.

The bookshelves that once stood directly across from the coffee shop are gone, replaced by extra tables and chairs. The changes, which were among the many suggestions made by the Student Space Working Group last spring, provide a bit more study space to the library’s often-crowded second floor.

Midnight Mug itself got a bit of a redesign as well. In addition to those comfy couches and chairs, there’s a Starbucks-esque bar along the glass wall that allows for a few additional work spaces.

Brendan McElroy (COL ’12) said the addition is “a much-needed first step towards creating more space and accessibility for students to work in the library.”

McElroy added that he will probably take advantage of the extra study space, “provided the music isn’t too loud.”

What do you think? Should we be grateful that the University is responding to our demands for more study space, or is this a half-hearted attempt to appease students without making great changes?

Photo: Julie Patterson

Pegged to the story of Eric Sheptock, a homeless man in D.C. who has blogged about homeless issues all the way to CNN, NPR, and the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper has put together a guide of where to go in the District to access the Internet for free if you don’t have a computer.

Barring the D.C. Public Library system, which maintains about 600 free computers, or, not nearly enough to service the 40 percent of residents in City Wards 5, 7, and 8, WCP has put Georgetown’s Lauinger Library first in that guide:

“The best place in the area for virtually unlimited, unmonitored computer use. In what Georgetown officials say is ‘a conscious effort to reach out to the community and the city,’ the library is open daily from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. to anyone with a photo ID. On the main floor are 45 computers equipped with Windows Vista and available to anyone, though they tend to be for short-term use.

“The real sweet spot is downstairs. Open 24 hours most days (closed between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday nights), the basement’s Gelardin New Media Center has roughly 65 computers with a basic version of Windows; the chairs are soft, the lighting not too bright, and the computers all come with keyboard wrist pads.”

Flattering us further, reporter Amanda Abrams gives props to the Corp: “Best is the second-floor café, which is open until 2 a.m. many nights and offers dirt-cheap bagels with cream cheese,” she writes. While service can be notoriously slow at said café, Midnight Mug, we have to agree, those are some damn good, cheap bagels.

But a few points of information, D.C. residents: Not all 65 downstairs computers are available for anyone to use. Any computers that do extra stuff—video editing and scanning, for instance—required a Georgetown login that only students and employees have.

And Abrams incorrectly reports that through clever navigation of our “idiosyncratic entry scheme for outsiders,” you can enter the Library at 10:45 p.m., just before they start turning away outsiders, and “no one will care whether you’re a student or not.” In fact, the Department of Public Safety scours the Library almost every evening checking to see if you have a University ID once it’s time for outsiders to leave. If you don’t, adios.

Still, she closes with strong advice.

“[G]et ready for sensory deprivation—if you spend too much time in the windowless Gelardin Center, it will start to feel like a dungeon.”

“Studying”: Not just for Lauinger anymore!

First, the bad news: Vox will be blogging on a reduced schedule during study days, finals, and winter break. We’ll do our best to run three posts a day, but finals may intervene—besides, the student body just won’t be doing as many delightful and interesting things over the next few weeks as it normally does.

Now for the “good” news: as Lauinger Library will be flirting with its maximum occupancy levels for the next thirteen days, Vox has a round up of the various other study spots on campus suggested by the University and favored by Voice staffers.

Our staff suggests:

• The Car Barn. Specifically, the graduate student lounge on the second floor. Former Vox editor Juliana Brint writes has “lots of tables and couches, tons of outlets, [and] multiple vending machines. It’s got its own microwave, and it’s right near one of the nicest bathrooms on campus.” And one of those vending machines sells energy drinks.

• The Hariri Building. Aside from probably having the highest working-to-non-working outlet ratio of any building on campus, it’s shiny, clean, and within I-hope-no-one-steals-my-laptop walking distance from Uncommon Grounds and Vital Vittles.

• Off-campus wi-fi hotspots. When Georgetown just can’t hold all of us, it’s time to venture off campus to places like the Barnes and Noble on M Street, which have food, tables, and wireless.James McGrory suggested a host of wi-fi abundant locales around the District back in August, like Baked & Wired (near B & N) and Crepes-a-Go-Go. (See a trend? These places may be a bit of a hike, but they serve up delicious study snacks).

• Blommer Science Library. Located on the third floor of the Reiss Science Center.

Check out Georgetown’s suggestions, with classroom reservation links after the jump!

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Print from the comfort of those cozy-looking chairs!

Shifting impatiently from one foot to another while the person in front of you uses the wrong Lau 3 printer to print a PDF may soon be a thing of the past.

The University plans to install wireless printing and additional printers in Blommer and Lauinger Libraries, according to GUSA Secretary of Academic Affairs Daphne Panayotatos (SFS `11), a member of the Faculty Library Advisory Committee that formed this past Spring. Printers will also be outfitted with duplex printing abilities as a green initiative.

“Plans are to have these measures in effect by the start of next semester,” Panayotatos wrote in an e-mail.

The FLAC, which consists of two undergraduate students, one graduate student, and faculty, was formed to suggest changes to the Library to be included in the 2010 Campus Plan.

An addition to Lauinger Library is included in the plan, and schematics from the draft plan show an addition over what is currently the parking lot, but Executive Assistant to the University Librarian Jessica Pierce and Panayotatos stress that currently, there are no definite plans to expand Lauinger.

Last week, the Voice reported that the Department of Public Safety had been zealously enforcing a previously unknown policy of confiscating unattended laptops in Lauinger Library.

When asked about the confiscations, DPS Associate Director Joseph Smith wrote in an e-mail:

DPS routinely secures bicycles, laptops, and other items for safekeeping when they are found unattended. This is not a new policy; DPS has done this for years.

However, Smith now says the officers on the midnight shift had been performing informal “security sweeps” that were “not consistent with DPS policy.”

Smith writes in an e-mail:

I looked into this matter and found indeed that officers on the midnight shift, as an informal practice, have been securing laptops they find when they conduct a security sweep of the library and holding them at the guard desk to prevent their theft.

While I appreciate their motivation to protect the students from victimization, the practice is not consistent with DPS policy and has been ordered to be ceased immediately.  If there is a compelling need for DPS to secure any property, they will complete both an incident report and a property record, and they will secure the item at DPS headquarters.

Additional reporting by Cole Stangler.

Lauinger Library finally got a spruce-up.  Unfortunately we’re not talking about the physical space—we’re talking about their web presence.

Today, the library revealed its newly redesigned website, and it looks pretty snazzy. With a nice blue and gray wave theme, the new site features well organized sidebars and three separate search options on front page.

The library also devoted prominent spots on their new hompage to featuring delightful library productions like this “Mysteries of the Reference Desk” video (Georgetown YouTube Madness candidate? Absolutely!) and highlighting some of their lesser-known partners like the Writing Center and the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship.

According to the Internet Archive, the Library’s website hasn’t been revamped since January 2005, so they were in for an upgrade.  You can also give them feedback on the new website and suggest tweaks you’d like to see here.

Want a shot at your own 15 seconds of internet micro-micro-fame? Start following us on Twitter (GtownVoxPop) and, if you’re connected to Georgetown, we’ll return the favor and you’ll automatically be in the running!

Jack Stuef wondered what the rationale was behind Georgetown’s waitlist procedures.

Kelsey Ryan confronted the classic Georgetown dilemma: venture out for rainstorm comfort food or stay put (and dry)?

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Lau, you filthy, filthy library, you!

Over at one of City Paper‘s blogs, the Sexist, Amanda Hess has been doing a series on glory holes and public sex in D.C. in honor of “Glory Hole Month.” Today, she set her sights on the offerings of local colleges. She used postings from Gay Universe, a now-deserted website from the internet’s infancy (circa 1999/2000), to highlight the top spots for anonymous gay sex.

What was Georgetown’s glory hole destination? Lauinger Library! Unfortunately, while you can still see Lau listed on the page of D.C. Cruise Spots (NSFW), the actually thread about it has been lost in the sands of internet time. Tragically, it looks like we’ll never know exactly what Lau’s turn-of-the-millennium sex scene was like…

Libraries were the most frequently cited collegiate cruise spots, with AU and Gallaudet’s making the list as well. Particularly entertaining is the section about GW, which cites both Bell and Corcoran Hall as sex spots gone sour. In 2000, Corcoran recommended thusly: “Loud door makes time for recovery. Lots of hot GW studs await at both the urinal, and the stalls!” But two years later someone warned, “WATCH FOR UNDERCOVER COPS!!!!! ESPECIALLY ON THE WEEKENDS. I DON’T GO THERE ANY MORE, I’VE SEEN TO MANY MEN GET ARRESTED. IT’S NOT WORTH IT.”

Photo from Flickr user decaf, used under a Creative Commons license.