Does this mean it’ll have staples?

Newsprint dying? Devil may care! At the beginning of the upcoming school year the Georgetown Independent, Georgetown’s good ol’ monthly newsmag, will be making a serious aesthetic upgrade, going from newsprint to glossy paper.

According to Erika Cohen-Derr, the Director of Student Programs and Media Board adviser, the Independent will self impose cuts in order to defray the costs of glossing it up. So while the Indy estimates that its printing costs will only rise about $200—from $7,802 last year to a projected $8,000 this year—it will be cutting down the number of copies it prints per issue from 4,000 to 3,000.

Jenna Kelly (COL ‘10), who served as co-Editor in Chief during the spring semester, said the Indy’s staff decided last semester that they needed to make some changes. Kelly wrote in an e-mail:

[We made the decision to go glossy because] both our newspaper and other campus papers always have numerous copies left over to be recycled … We want to cultivate a new niche in the gtown journalism community.

Though the Hoya typically prints a few magazine-style issues every year, such as their basketball issue and a new student guide, this change will make the Independent the only Georgetown publication to print magazine style year-round.

Curiously, they first announced their decision to Georgetown pre-frosh. Fliers that went into every packet of new student information earlier this week read, “The Independent is going glossy. (And we think you should, too!).”

Photo from Flickr user bravenewtraveler under a Creative Commons license.

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!

Former Voicer Phil Perry was impressed by JT Jr.’s patriotic lunch choice.

Mara Hollander was unimpressed by the little store’s meat options.

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Amanda Hess, City Paper’s Sexist, has started DC’s Manliest Workplace Competition, ranking DC businesses and institutions based on the number of men at the top of their org chart. Hess takes a company’s top ten positions and assigns points in descending order, so a man at the top positions earns ten points and a man at the one position earns one point. She then throws the final score (max score of 55) into a rubric:

The Manly Index
0-10: Non-manly
11-30: Mannish
31-50: Manly
50-55: Manliest

Yesterday, the Washington Times knocked out Washingtonian. That’s no surprise, but where do Georgetown’s publications stack up in “remembering the ladies,” as Abigail Adams would say? Using mastheads and fuzzy division, I’ve ranked Georgetown publications from least manly to manliest. When I wasn’t clear whether one position ranked over another, I relied on masthead order.

The Independent: 13
The Independent scores a barely mannish 13, despite Editor-in-Chief Greg Gangelhoff. If they ever hope to edge out Blue & Gray, they’re going to have to tell me whether “B Palmer” is a man or woman.

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The Georgetown blogosphere got a little bigger with the creation of the Independent’s Daily Monthly. Jess Joswick lays out what to expect from the Daily Monthly:

First, we want to update the stories you see in our print edition, so that our stories stay fresh all month. You’ll be the first to know when the feud between Hanson and the Jonas Brothers, documented in our last print issue, culminates in a furious and adorable scuffle. Second, we want to provide you with original content that will keep you coming back for more. From advice columns to reviews of movie trailers to our own devastatingly-funny Photoshop creations, a healthy smattering of random hilarity will also be par for the course. Third, we’ll cover some cool stuff that’s going on around campus and in the world. Business news? Pop culture commentary? Linguistic analysis of modern discourse? Check all around.

All right.

Hey, class of 2012. If you’re hungry for any information you can get about Georgetown, this is your blog.

Vox Populi is the next evolutionary stage of Georgetown’s weekly paper, the Voice. We’ll be having a big freshman week of posts with more detailed advice (alcohol, sex) during orientation. Until then, though, this post should save you some time over the summer and some hassles during your first semester.

Ask any other questions you have in the comments and we’ll help you out. Also, keep checking the blog this summer for more posts about Georgetown and DC.

Q: Do I have to read Before the Frost and write the response paper?

A: No. If that’s your thing, go for it, but nothing bad will happen to you if you don’t. My orientation adviser said that people who don’t do the papers get bad housing lottery numbers for sophomore housing, but the idea that Housing could coordinate that with New Student Orientation is prima facie ridiculous.

This brings up a useful thing to know about NSO and Georgetown life in general: unless alcohol, drugs, criminal activity, or something truly outrageous is involved, Georgetown doesn’t have many ways to punish you for not doing what it wants. This means that you can skip book stuff, convocation, or any other NSO event with impunity.

After the jump, 10 more, plus a bonus.

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How did The Independent, which actually trumpets its objectivity in its name, become the blindest Georgetown booster this side of GAAP weekend? I don’t know how the eventual popular history book about Georgetown newspapers will answer that question, but I can predict that book’s Appendix A: An Insider’s Guide to Life at Georgetown.

Writer Jenna Weiner spends most of the piece straining to remember her last campus tour, then typing it. Presented without comment, the four parts of the article most likely to be included in Blue & Gray:

• Over 300 words on how to use Rate My Professor
• “It is your four years, it is your Georgetown. Make it unforgettable.”
• Jenna advises using the laundry room if you’re worried about laundry.
• “You will come to love the dining hall”

There’s no mention of actually useful things to know about, like outrageous GOCard replacement fees, the worst stir fry cook, or Georgetown Day’s open container amnesty.

To Jenna’s credit, she never uses “Joe and Jane Hoya”, and The Independent’s guide to protesting is good. Still, freshmen and those who want them can expect better new student information soon from this very blog.