Georgetown University took steps to address a wave of recent crimes off campus that left many students concerned for their safety.

A robbery on the night of Feb. 4 left one student injured after two men held up the student and her friends for money at gunpoint. The Metropolitan Police Department said that an SFS senior was shot in the arm on the 1400 block of 33rd Street around 10:30 p.m. after two male assailants approached the student and her two friends.

Another student was mugged earlier that morning while walking on Prospect Street. Around 2 a.m., the student was grabbed by the neck as the suspect took money from her purse. MPD said that the two crimes were unrelated.

University officials assured students that steps were being taken to ensure safety on- and off-campus during a town meeting on Feb. 8 in Sellinger Lounge.

David Morrell, Vice President for University Safety, Darryl Harrison, Director of the Department of Public Safety and Ed Solomon, chair of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, all addressed the safety concerns of students at the meeting.

The officials told students that measures such as an expanded SafeRide shuttle system and stronger coordination with MPD were implemented to ease growing concern for safety and to guarantee a safer experience for students, both on- and off-campus.

Several students and administrators expressed concern at the meeting that MPD was at fault due to its failure to properly respond to threats and crimes around the university.

“I was shocked at the escalation [of crimes], not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of violence,” College Assistant Dean Helen Karn said in an interview with The Hoya after the meeting. “We’re all shocked.”

MPD Lt. Felcia Lucas had suggested earlier in the week that MPD would be more efficient at preventing serious crimes if they were not concerned with student behavior off-campus.

“If our people weren’t taken away dealing with large parties and drinking all the time, we could have high-visibility patrols and try to deter some of serious problems that go on,” Lucas said.

University officials and campus police assured attendees of the meeting that they were working hard to maintain high safety standards for students.

Living Wage Coalition Meets DPS Resistance

Department of Public Safety officers restrained several student members of the Living Wage Coalition on Feb. 1 after they attempted to enter New South to protest what they claimed was the university’s failure to increase wages for subcontracted workers as promised.

The students said they wanted to address the monthly meeting of the Advisory Committee on Business Practices taking place inside the building.

Several members of the coalition attempted to force their way past DPS after being denied entry to the building.

Officers pushed back several students and brought some to the ground after calling for backup.

The coalition later held a Red Square rally on Feb. 9 to call for higher pay and expanded union rights for the the university’s subcontracted employees.

PSM Conference, Protesters Come to Campus

The Palestine Solidarity Movement, a national grassroots organization accused by some of holding extreme anti-Israel views, held its fifth annual conference at the university Feb. 17-19.

The PSM has called on churches and universities to divest from Israel, withdrawing their financial interests from the country. Citing its Speech and Expression policy, the university defended the right of Students for Justice in Palestine to play host to the conference, though University President John J. DeGioia insisted that Georgetown would not divest from Israel.

Heavy security was on hand for the duration of the conference, but protests were largely muted, with only a few members of organizations supporting and opposing the PSM assembling on Healy Lawn. One man was forcibly removed from a panel in Gaston Hall by the Department of Public Safety and later accused DPS of police brutality.

uition Climbs to New High

The university’s board of directors voted to approve a 6 percent increase in full-time undergraduate tuition, bringing the cost of a year of attendance at the university to roughly $47,000, The Hoya reported Feb. 24.  

The accepted proposal raises tuition to $33,555 for undergraduates, while room and board fees will climb to around $10,500.  

The board of directors also admitted that it would take the university two years longer than originally estimated to eliminate deficits totaling several million dollars per year. The board said that the university would not start making more money than it spends until 2010.

Georgetown’s total operating deficit was $15.2 million dollars in 2005. 

USA Election Results Thrown Into Question

After weeks of debate, Twister Murchison (SFS ’08) and Salik Ishtiaq (SFS ’07) were declared the winners of the Feb. 16 GUSA presidential election nearly a month after the polls closed.

Murchison received fewer votes than Khahil Hibri (SFS ’07) and his running mate Geoff Greene (SFS ’08), but Hibri and Greene were disqualified by the student association’s Election Commission, which said that the candidates violated GUSA bylaws when they provided a laptop students could use to vote in O’Donovan Hall.

Hibri and Greene appealed their disqualification to a special appeals board the following week, arguing that the Election Commission ignored bylaws by not providing a written argument for its decision to disqualify the candidates within 24 hours following the election.

The appeals board later rejected Hibri and Greene’s complaint after finding that the candidates had not been the targets of bias.

“It is not the place of the Election Appeals Board to effectively `re-decide’ a ruling of the Election Commission; rather, its purpose is to ensure that said ruling was achieved without bias,” the board ruling said.

On the night of Feb. 28, when the GUSA Assembly was expected to certify the results and swear in Murchison as president, the assembly voted to reject the results, calling for a new election to be held later in the year.

“I think the Assembly members are heroes,” Hibri said after the Assembly meeting.

Two weeks later, however, the Assembly reversed its decision, voting to certify the election results and declaring Murchison president.

Some Assembly members suggested that the sudden reversal followed pressure from Director of Student Organizations Martha Swanson to find a solution to the election debate.

Hibri said that Murchison would have to work particularly hard as president to regain some legitimacy that GUSA lost during the election process.