Georgetown has but one, single dining hall—everyone’s favorite, Leo J. O’Donovan’s. The University considers purchasing a meal plan a “fundamental part of developing community among resident students,” which seems to be true, though it may be more of a point of commiseration rather than celebration. Here are a few  tips on how to get by dining at Leo’s.

• Get to meals early. We can’t stress this enough, especially at the beginning of the year. Lines are long and tables can be scarce, so go on off times. This means 11:00-12:15 for lunch and 4:30-6:00 for dinner.
• Unless you just love eating breakfast, there’s no reason to get a meal plan with more than 14 meals a week. Vox endorses the University’s recommendation to get the 14 plan your first semester.
• Keep track of the number of meals you use. Running out of meals is not a common occurrence at Georgetown, but make sure you don’t walk up to the card swipers without meals on your GOCard.
• When you notice that you’ll have meals left over at the end of the week, get grab ‘n go meals and save them for later. Even if you won’t eat all the food, just grab some soda and juice to use as chasers.
• Don’t be afraid to eat at Leo’s alone. It’ll probably be difficult to schedule a time to go to lunch with all your friends. There’s no shame in it: just get some food and keep yourself busy with a book or a laptop. It’s also best to do this when Leo’s isn’t too busy.
• Study at Leo’s. If you’re all right with smelling like Leo’s for hours afterward (and oh yes, it’s a distinct smell), head downstairs, find an outlet, and camp out. Not to mention, you also get infinite snacks and free coffee.
• Late night isn’t that bad. Vox’s previous recommendation to freshmen was to avoid late night altogether. Since then, late night (9pm-11pm, Sunday-Thursday) has gotten better, though it’s still somewhat of a gamble. Some nights they only have breakfast food or pizza-and-corndogs fare. At the same time, they always have the salad bar and cereal out.
• Invest in some tupperware. While most students get enough cafeteria food during meals, stealing Leo’s food is a cherished Georgetown pastime. If you do it right, then you won’t have to buy bread or fruit for four years. Read the rest of this entry »

Sam Ungar shows how only GUSA could make a discussion about transparency completely opaque.

Josh, you have no idea how happy former Hoya Bill Clinton is that GUSA senator Daniel LaMagna (COL ’13) took this dubious honor from him. The mockery he received during his own GUSA presidential campaign haunted him so much Al Gore lost Florida in 2000.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kathryn Berg questions the administration’s bizarre approach to the construction of the science building. Conspiracy theorists, now is your time to shine.

Former Vox editor Nico Dodd doesn’t realize that it really was Chinese food. Well actually, it was American brand cereal manufactured in China, so I’m not sure how it should be categorized. Read the rest of this entry »

Our very own Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall is a bit of a bonding experience for all freshmen and sophomores, who must submit to the mandatory meal plan, barring a few exceptions.

Vegetarianism doesn’t get you a pass on Leo’s, but you bleeding heart animal lovers will be pleased to hear Peta2 voted Georgetown the 10th most vegetarian friendly campus of 2008. Though we have yet to repeat the performance, Leo’s vegetarian options aren’t all that bad. In fact some Leo’s-weary diners become what we like to call “Leo’s vegetarians,” in self-defense from the dubious post-Thanksgiving turkey mélange.

Anyway, whether you carry out a (totally safe) Grab ‘n Go sandwich, or enjoy your chicken fingers beneath Leo’s nod to the Sistine Chapel, surviving Leo’s requires an iron-clad will stomach and a reliable Tupperware set. Not to mention the well-developed knack for double-think that allows students to smuggle out a backpack full of nauseating food after every meal.

Luckily for all you newbies, some of your fellow Hoyas have compiled their favorite Leo’s recipes (we like to call them coping mechanisms) in O’Donovan’s On The Waterfront. Since these tips won’t get you through the whole year unscathed, here are Vox‘s tips for dealing with Leo’s, originally compiled by former Voice Editor Juliana Brint:

Read the rest of this entry »

A union of Georgetown University’s Aramark workers was officially certified this week, marking the end of nearly two months of negotiations between Aramark, which operates several food service locations at Georgetown, and Unite Here, a union that represents 80,000 foodservice workers nationwide.

“The union at Georgetown for its Aramark workers at Leo’s, Starbucks,  Cosi, the Jesuit residence, and Dr. Mug has been certified,” David Schwartz (SFS ’12), a student who has been involved in the unionization efforts since last July, said.

Through their representation in Unite Here, Aramark employees who work in Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall, Wolfington Hall, the Cosi and Starbucks in the Leavey Center, and the Dr. Mug in the Preclinical Building now have the authority to negotiate with Aramark over health care options and wage increases.

Read the rest of this entry »

Aramark employees told their management on Feb. 9 that they intend to unionize as a part of Unite Here, a foodservice union. The announcement comes after more than a year of clandestine planning by Aramark workers, who were later joined by Unite Here union organizers and Georgetown students and professors.

The unionization effort by the Aramark employees—who operate Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall, Cosi, Starbucks, and other venues on campus—sparked on-going negotiations between Unite Here and Aramark.

Over at the Voice, Editor-in-Chief Molly Redden has the full story of the workers’ campaign to unionize.  According to multiple Aramark employees, the push for unionization was a direct response to disrespectful treatment from their managers, as well as poor pay and benefits.

“They made it easy for us to make this decision, the way we were getting treated,” Donté Crestwell, a 14-year Aramark employee, told the Voice. “Our pay raises are just horrible. Last time we had a raise, a lot of [employees] got 12 cents. Mine was 55 cents, and that was probably one of the highest.”

Nonetheless, Aramark has promised to comply with the University’s Just Employment Policy, which requires all vendors to respect workers’ rights, including the right to organize.

“Aramark is neither anti-union, nor pro-union,” Karen Cutler, the director of communication for Aramark, wrote in an email to the Voice. “We fully comply with the University’s Just Employment Policy process, in addition to our business conduct policy that requires equal treatment for all employees, and prohibits workplace harassment.”

Read the rest of this entry »

To lighten your spirits in case you’re still homeless, here’s a photo of Alex Baker (MSB ’14), pictured here in a cowboy hat, serenading a mystery girl in Leo’s to the tune of Lonestar’s “Amazed,” everyone’s favorite slow-dance song from junior prom. [Editor's Note: Actually, second-favorite.]

Was it an initiation prank? Did he win over the lady? And most importantly, why did he do it?

“I don’t know, it was just something I felt like doing,” he said.

The 2010-2011 Georgetown University Student Association Senators were sworn in on Sunday, officially beginning the year’s agenda. While the meeting was heavy on ideas and questions from the senators and light on formal votes, the discussions suggest that many of last year’s issues will rear their heads soon.

Chris Pigott (COL’12), last year’s Senate Vice-Speaker, moderated the meeting.

Student Activities Fee and Endowment Reform (SAFE Reform)

In 2001, a system was set up to allocate half of the Student Activities fee to student organizations, club sports, and the media board. The other half went to an endowment, which, according to the plan, would eventually become self-sustaining and eliminate the need to collect a student activities fee from each student on a semester basis.

At the current interest rates, however, GUSA representatives are concerned that students wouldn’t see the effect of the endowment plan until at least 2025. Let’s hope that the Finance and Appropriation Committee looks into the endowment money and creates a plan to speed up the process.

Read the rest of this entry »

Below, we’ve re-published Voice Editor Juliana Brint’s 2009 guide to surviving Leo’s. As an introduction to the subject, you may want to watch the Heckler‘s informative “Georgetown Freshmen Education Series: I Know How to Eat!” video.

It’s not worth complaining about our errant dining hall; as long as meal plans are foisted on us through sophomore year, it’s simply something we all have to accept.

There are some coping mechanisms you’ll develop, though. Here are Vox‘s tips for dealing with Leo’s:

• Unless you’ve got a prodigious appetite or a passion for bland cafeteria food, there’s really no reason why you’ll need to get a plan with more than 14 meals a week.
• Keep track of your meals and Grab ‘n Go usage. The weekly meal cycle starts on Saturday, so by Wednesday or Thursday it should be pretty clear whether you’re going to be maxed out or whether you’re going to have lots of unused meals. If it’s the latter, start picking up Grab ‘n Go whenever you’re at Leo’s, either to store up or to donate to the Grab ‘n Give program.
• Don’t be afraid to go alone and study. If you can find a free outlet (most are along the wall on the lower level) and don’t mind ambient noise, you’ll save a lot by getting your caffeine and study snacks from Leo’s rather than Midnight Mug.

Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of weeks ago, Vox got the Freedom of Information Act itch and decided to FOIA the Food Establishment Inspection Reports of some local restaurants. We obtained the two most recent health inspection reports from the D.C. Health Regulations and Licensing Administration for 13 area food establishments and perused them over Spring break to see if Georgetown students were eating safe.

What’d we find? Well for starters, you’d better lay off the Epicurean sushi.

The 13 restaurants we looked at netted 30 critical violations and 29 non-critical violations of the health code. Four establishments, Leo’s, Epicurean & Co., The Tombs, and Bangkok Bistro were listed on at least one report as “high-risk” establishments. All of them had critical violations and were given five days to correct their violations or else their licenses would not be renewed.

These four establishments accounted for 20 of the critical violations and 14 of the non-critical violations in all 26 inspections reports. Six critical violations that cannot be corrected on site result in the automatic closure of the food establishment. Owners are usually given five days to rectify critical violations and forty-five for non-critical violations or they risk closure.

Because of the volume of information our FOIA requests turned up, we’ve divided the results into two posts. Tomorrow, we’ll give you the details on the restaurants that were identified as a medium risk or had clean bills of health. And today, we’ll run an accounting of the high-risk establishments, including startling information on Dean & Deluca that the Washington Examiner turned up in their review of health code violators.

EPICUREAN & CO.

Epicurean & Co., shown above, was the biggest violator, and was the only restaurant listed as a “high risk” violator on both of the inspection reports Vox obtained. In late August of 2009, Epicurean earned five critical and four non-critical violations, all of which were corrected on site. They included:

• Food was not properly “segregated, separated, [or] protected.” At the sushi station, eggs were stored in a way where they might contaminate other foods.
• The restaurant was cited for unclean and unsanitized food contact surfaces.
• The restaurant’s food marking and disposal methods were cited.
• Food and non-critical surfaces were not properly maintained.

Earlier in the year, in February, Epicurean had fared even worse, and inspectors discovered 13 critical health code violations, only nine of which were corrected on site.

Read the rest of this entry »