Earlier this week we ran a pretty lame but kind of funny contest asking you all what you would rename the Career Center. After receiving some minimal responses (come on guys, let’s see some creativity), we’ve decided to scrap the vote and, by default, give the award to Carly for “The ‘Here’s my CV, So Cawley Maybe.’” I mean, really, the other submissions didn’t stand a chance.
So let’s try something different. With the Georgetown community all abuzz on the Campus Plan shenanigans from this week, we’d like to present a poll. Sure, there were some significant gains for students in the recently proposed conditions. From the list we put together yesterday, what do you think sucked the most?
As promised yesterday in a press conference, ANC 2E finally released the full details of the provisions in the Campus Plan. University officials and neighborhood leaders have ruminated over these “proposed conditions” since negotiations restarted in early April. Both parties responded with an extremely satisfied view on the result. ”I am confident that this agreement represents the interests of our entire community and aligns our long-term strategic plans with the goals of our growing city,” President John DeGioia said yesterday in an email to the Georgetown community.
Not all students reacted to the agreement with as much excitement as the Mayor and President DeGioia. “Particularly promising in this agreement is the stated desire by both sides to make campus a more lively and social place … That said, they are certainly elements of the agreement I found troublesome … Students are full members of society and they should not have their ability to freely choose housing redistricted. The complete ban of student cars from the neighborhood also strikes me as unfairly discriminatory,” ANC Commissioner Jake Sticka (COL ’13) said in an email to Vox.
Earlier today we brought you a few highlights from the recently released provisions on the Campus Plan. Now we’re giving you the full breakdown: from housing to food trucks to the satellite campus. Enjoy.
In a lengthy email to the senior class late last night, Senior Class Committee chair Chris Butterfield (MSB ’12) defended the controversialdecisions of the Georgetown Day planning committee. Butterfield placed the responsibility for the scaled-back nature of the event on Georgetown students and our behavior. The full email is available after the jump.
In the email, Butterfield suggested that the expansion of the security barricades from just surrounding the beer garden to enclosing the entirety of Copley Lawn is an acceptable response to inappropriate behavior by a few students in the past.
Butterfield simultaneously rejected and employed, in the space of a few words, the logic that the actions of a few represent the entire Georgetown undergraduate community:
Often it is these students whose behavior neighbors showcase and hold up as representative of “the whole”. And that is simply not true; we are better than that. Last year at GU Day, a Port-O-John was pushed over, a security officer was punched, and people were throwing full beer cans at others at an on-campus party. As a student community, we have to address these incidents; they are a part of our behavior we have to own.
While scolding Georgetown students, Butterfield also said the decision to forgo the beer garden was supposedly made out of a sense of community. “We entertained the idea of having a beer garden, however seniors agreed that seemed to work more against the idea of community than toward it, segregating those who were 21 from those who weren’t,” Butterfield said. Earlier this semester, the administration claimed that the beer garden and inflatables were taken away because students hadn’t become involved in the planning process sooner.
The changes made to Georgetown Day will divide the student body much more than the beer garden supposedly did last year, for it will push the celebrations back into dorm rooms and off-campus townhouses. If Hoyas are celebrating Georgetown Day together anywhere, it will be on Leavey Esplanade, not Copley Lawn.
After recent emails and articles telling us what’s important about Georgetown Day, Vox decided we want to know what our readers think makes Georgetown Day so neat. It’s time to find out what the people really like. So, neighbors, administrators, professors, people who work at Kitchen No. 1, inflatable moon bounce peddlers, and even students, what does Georgetown Day mean to you?
Friday is not Georgetown Day. On Friday, there will be free food and drinks, an awards ceremony, and performances by various student groups, but it will not be Georgetown Day.
In an email to the student body that would make Orwell proud, the “Georgetown Day Planning Committee” announced that Copley Lawn will be barricaded on Friday. No liquids will be allowed to pass through the metal barriers, which will be monitored by the fun police hired security guards, DPS officers, University administrators, and student volunteers. Presumably the barricades are to keep fun in, not out.
While Coca-Cola is a sponsor of the event, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to bring their products onto Copley Lawn. Woe betide anyone who attempts to drink a carbonated beverage on Copley Lawn Friday afternoon. The Committee also gleefully warned that anyone who attempts to climb over a metal barricade to access Copley Lawn will receive a citation from the fun police.
While the “all-student planning committee” sent the email, this group has existed for less than a month, and the email itself was sent from The Division of Student Affairs’ email address. It was the head of Student Affairs, Jeanne Lord, who expressed concern in March about the transformation of “a celebration of the campus community” into “a celebration by…the student community.” Students can celebrate the end of the school year, but only in University-approved ways. Even if the University has approved of the standard Georgetown Day celebrations for several years, they’re not going to fly this year.
Our ultimate aim is to celebrate Georgetown – its ideals, values, institutions, its teachers, staff and students.
Until this year, Georgetown Day did celebrate Georgetown. At the end of a long year, community members came together to have fun and celebrate their accomplishments over the previous two semesters. When GAAP weekends have coincided with Georgetown Day, potential students were attracted, not put off, by the carnival-like atmosphere.
Today the Hoya reported the unfortunate news that Georgetown Day 2012 will not have a beer garden or any inflatables, such as a bounce house or obstacle course (pictured left). According to the Hoya, Senior Class Committee chair Chris Butterfield (MSB ’12), a leader of the informal planning efforts, and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jeanne Lord placed the responsibility for the delay in planning on “lack of student interest in the fall semester.” What Butterfield and Lord neglect to mention is that students weren’t given the opportunity to be interested.
In previous years, broadcast emails in the fall semester have invited students to submit applications to be on the Georgetown Day Planning Committee. For example, on November 8, 2010, Georgetown students received the “Weekly Events Email” from the Center for Student Programs, which included the following blurb:
Apply to be on the Georgetown Day 2011 Planning Committee Sponsored by: The Center for Student Programs Details: Applications are due Wednesday November 10th at 11:59 p.m.
Want to be Part of a Georgetown Tradition? Apply to be on the leadership team planning Georgetown Day 2011 Check out our website to learn more, and apply online at http://studentorgs.georgetown.edu/georgetownday.
No such email was sent last fall. Not until the GUSA Executive’s broadcast email yesterday were students given the opportunity to apply for the Committee. With applications not due until March 24, the planning committee this year will have one month, at most, to plan, compared to five months last year. CSP Director Erika Cohen Derr did not respond to a request to explain why no email was sent out last fall.
While the delay in planning, artfully blamed on students, is an easy excuse for abandoning the beer garden and inflatables, ultimately they were abandoned because they were considered inappropriate for the day. Planning was not the deciding factor.
In an email to Vox yesterday, Associate Vice President Lord explained the real reasons why Georgetown Day is different this year (bolding hers):
The past few years have seen declining participation on the part of student organizations and individual student volunteers in the activities of Georgetown Day. The mission of the day seems also to have lost clarity over this time- what began in 2000 as a celebration of the campus community in all its parts has shifted to being a celebration by the community, or more accurately, by the student community. Based on this trend and on concerns over general health and safety on Georgetown Day, there was limited interest on the part of past planners- both students and administrators- in replicating the full scale of events. Student leaders and administrators have been discussing the concerns raised, and are developing a plan for the last Friday of classes that seeks to both celebrate appropriately the end of the academic year and address concerns about the scope and purpose of the day.
The reason Georgetown Day 2012 will be a fundamentally different experience is because of two things: the event’s shift from “a celebration of the campus community” to “a celebration by…the student community” and “concerns over general health and safety.” In other words, because it turned into a party for undergraduates.
The effect of the changes on town-gown relations remain to be seen, especially considering that the Campus Plan is still pending. The D.C. Zoning Commission decides on April 30, three days after Georgetown Day, whether to hold another hearing on the plan before issuing a ruling. One has to wonder if students’ actions this year could affect if there even is a Georgetown Day next year. Regardless of the Campus Plan, the last Friday of classes this spring will be very different from those in years past. Perhaps we’re lucky to have a Georgetown Day at all.
So we forget to write about Tombs trivia names last week. We were there — promise! — but in the midst of hand-wringing about what’s offensive, what’s not, and a sudden need to try on habits, it slipped our mind. To make up for it, here’s a photo of a potbellied pig.
First place (the “fighting the pussification of America” memorial trophy):The number of times I thought my cab driver was Osama or Are you sure it wasn’t Cat Stevens? or Any of the other dozen bin Laden-themed names, really Like Jeff Dunham’s career, these should be buried far away from society forever and ever. It’s a good thing that the world’s less one scumbag, but that doesn’t excuse tired stereotypes.
Second place (the “whiny little bloggers” silver medal): If a tree falls on a woman and there’s no one there to hear it … wait why was a tree in the kitchen? The minds behind this name should gointoadvertising.
Runners-up (the “it’s called dark humor” consolation ribbon) How many drinks does it take to abort this baby? Is there anything particularly funny about this name? Or is just it a lazy ploy to get people to laugh at an uncomfortable topic? Call the exterminator this place is full of WASPs It’s a Catholic school, goof. My couch pulls out but I don’t Classy.
Vox returned to Tombstrivia for a third time this week to see if Hoyas were still yukking it up with cheap jokes about horrible things that happen to other Hoyas. We were not disappointed … which is to say we were deeply disappointed. Who “won” this round?
First place (The “whiny little bloggers” memorial trophy): It’s not rape if you say, “Surprise!” Surprise! Week after week, Hoyas who can’t come up with clever team names decide to make fun of rape instead.
But we’ll be the first to admit that last night, team names were on the whole more hilarious than nasty. So after the jump, find out which team won the inaugural “Four years later and we’re still drinking in a basement” medal of honor:
The Tombs may have taken a break from tired rape and abortion jokes to watch an awful basketball game last week, but came back strong during yesterday’s trivia night. Some of the team names veered into the world of lazy shock humor. Others were funny. The suggestion that the two aren’t the same will inevitably start another flame war in the comments. So let’s get started!
Second place (The “inescapable fact of reality” silver medal): Number of sluts who blew Tiger Woods even after he blew the Masters and She told me it was razor burn. Slut shaming is truly a cornerstone of comedy. The women — they can’t help themselves!
Third place (The “it’s called dark humor” consolation prize): Generic offensive team name, suck it Vox Populi. We’re famous!
Or, “The most shameful Tombs trivia team names that the Georgetown community should be ashamed of but probably isn’t.” But that wouldn’t fit in the title. Either way, today we present to you Vox‘s newest feature, designed to celebrate the lowest common denominator of Hoya humor as exemplified by the most stellar team names juniors and seniors selected for Monday night Tombs trivia.
So, without further tongue-clicking:
The winner: No means yes, and yes means anal. Among the high forms of comedy—satire, parody, irony—cracks at rape surely rank as the highest.
Second place: Number of stairs I kicked my girlfriend down when she told me she was pregnant. The lily-livered, PC wimp seated beside me said he hoped that this was a seriously misguided reference to Gone With the Wind. Psssh! If there’s a joke about relationship abuse that isn’t funny, I haven’t heard it.
Runners up: Will someone please change the channel from women’s basketball. Capitally hilarious, especially since the Georgetown women’s basketball team sadly, yet inevitably, lost during the NCAA tournament. Number of guys you have to blow to be a Miller Lite girl. A winning compliment to the hosts of the game, Bud Light. More like Gay-daffi. It’s funny because … gay!
If I missed a real zinger, please share in the comments. And until next week, Hoya Saxa!
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.
Entries (RSS)
