Maybe Georgetown students contracted reefer madness this weekend, but from Thursday, February 18, to Saturday, February 20, the Department of Public Safety recorded a shocking number of drug violations on campus in its Daily Crime Log (pdf)—five.

Five is shocking, you say? In fact, for one weekend, it is. A review of crime logs back to February 2009 reveal that most months don’t even see five drug violations at Georgetown. Nine of the last twelve months at Georgetown saw two or fewer drug violations, and only one—October, one of the heaviest months of crime at Georgetown in 2009—saw more drug violations, with a total of six. April had five and November had four.

With four drug violations already on the books for this month before last weekend, February 2010 is officially the month with the most drug violations at Georgetown in over a year. Only one other standalone weekend, October 15-17, comes close.

So what’s with the upswing in violations? Not to toot our own horn, but this increase in drug violations reported by DPS began immediately after the Voice’s cover story about how much more lenient punishment for drug use is here than at George Washington University.

Director of the Public Safety Department has not responded to an inquiry whether there was a cause behind the spike, but the sources who drew our attention to the spike have jokingly blamed us for ruining everything. Sorry guys.

Vox has been eagerly browsing the photos you’ve all been sharing on Twitter and Facebook of a Snowpocalypsed Georgetown. (What can we say? When we’re snowed in it exacerbates our stalkerish tendencies).

Now we’d like to put together a slideshow of the aftermath of the snowstorm, like the one we ran in December.

So send your snow photos to blog@georgetownvoice.com, Tweet them @GtownVoice, or join the Voice Flickr group and upload your best shots! C’mon—are you really going to use your day off to catch up on work?

Photo from Flickr user muhkeeduh, who’s already sent us several gorgeous shots of Georgetown!

Last night, the tech doctors peeled back the bandages from the Voice’s web facelift and were pleased to find that they had successfully given the Georgetown Voice:

• A redesigned, more navigable website that lets you view more of what the Voice has to offer in each issue
• A great new look on Twitter, where we now go by @GtownVoice
• And a prettier Vox Populi, which, now that it’s wider, can assault your eyes with more of its content at once

Check us out!

This image doesn’t make too much sense here. I just wanted to use it.

Both the Georgetown Voice website and Vox Populi are being redesigned this week. Vox will be out after about 9:00 this evening, but unless we fail whale like Homer, we should be up and running again when you wake up tomorrow morning!

Image by Ed Wheeler.

Or maybe we’re just waiting for some new PVC piping

This afternoon, we’ll be taking down GeorgetownVoice.com so we can launch a better, redesigned site later this week. (Vox Populi won’t be affected.)

As long as things go smoothly, we’ll be back with our revamped site and our first issue of the semester this Thursday!

snOMG!

The blizzard that incapacitated the District of Columbia for an entire weekend had a few things going for it: it made inclined planes all over the Hilltop exceedingly more fun, and it was super photogenic.

Vox wants to put together a photo album of pictures of a snowed-out Georgetown for this Wednesday. If you want to contribute, join the Voice Flickr group and send us your best shots of our University winter wonderland by Tuesday at midnight!

Photo from Carol Joynt’s blog

Engrossed in the ongoing debate over alleged racism in the most recent issue of The Georgetown Heckler?

Check out former Heckler contributor and recent alum Zach Rabiroff’s (COL ‘09) op-ed, “In defense of satire,” now up on the Voice’s main website.

Afternoon start time interfering with your ability to make it the inaugural men’s basketball game today?  Vox has got you covered!

The Voice’s Sports Editor Tim Shine will be liveblogging the game, so check back here around 3:45 for your basketball fix!

Photo from GUHoyas.com.

If this week’s Voice cover story piqued your interest in Real World DC, Vox has some footage of the cast and their Dupont Circle digs to hold you over until the show’s December 30th premiere!

In this week’s issue of the Voice, I had the chance to talk to quite a few former Georgetown comedians. Unfortunately, we didn’t have space for all of their quotes in the article, so here are a few of the extras:

Alison Becker (COL ‘99) on the advantages of being a comedian at Georgetown:

“Because the comedy vibe at Georgetown was so under the radar of the administration, we did whatever we wanted. It was student-run, and that’s how comedy should be: without rules. And Georgetown gave me something that few other schools could have: the chance to create with genuinely intelligent people. You can’t be an idiot and be a good comedian. You have to play to the height of your intelligence. And I am thankful that my fellow improv players challenged me intellectually and comedically. “

Mike Birbiglia (COL ‘00) on benefiting from Georgetown’s erudite culture and bureaucratic red-tape:

“The upside of Georgetown is that I was surrounded by people from all different fields. government, language, science. so in some ways, I feel like I benefited by osmosis, and it gave me a slightly more balanced view of the world.”

“When I was at Georgetown, I resented the administration and bureaucracy of the performing arts, but when I have distance from it I can see that they really have more of a long view and that yes, it was a struggle to get something up and running on campus but that actually there ought to be a struggle of some kind, because the struggle students will face when they leave Georgetown is far more arduous.”

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