New Students Welcomed to Hilltop in Annual Convocation Ceremony
Following six school banners, the Georgetown mace and the American flag, nearly 1,800 newcomers to the Hilltop trooped into cDonough Gymnasium on Sunday to be officially welcomed to the university.
For the 12th year in a row, freshmen and transfer students were formally inducted into the Georgetown community at the New Student Academic Convocation as they gathered in front of administrators, professors, family and President John J. DeGioia, donned their bachelor’s robes and recited the Georgetown Student Pledge.
This year, the Thomas P. McTighe Prize was awarded to Indra Sen (SFS ’08) for promoting diversity and social justice. Accepting the award, Sen performed a modified version of the rap song, “Wake Up Everybody,” telling the students that they are here to challenge themselves, not to “pat themselves on the back.”
SFS Professor Charles King welcomed the students and also introduced four students in their junior year at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service’s Qatar campus.
After the reading of the university charter and the presentation of the new students, DeGioia spoke about the significance of increasing world interdependence.
“The world is in desperate need of your dreams,” he said. “Today, you begin a journey to fulfill these dreams.”
– Michele Hong
Safety Week Stresses Preparedness, Awareness of Campus Resources
Georgetown’s Student Safety Advisory Board plans to promote safety and emergency preparedness by making next week Student Safety Week.
Events will include a breakfast with Vice President for University Safety Rocco DelMonaco, Jr. Tuesday morning in Sellinger Lounge, performances by the Chimes and other Georgetown a cappella groups Wednesday and Thursday in Red Square, an Off-Campus Student Safety Day in Red Square on Friday, and a “Shuttle Night” party Saturday on Healy Lawn.
During Off-Campus Student Safety Day, limited numbers of fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors will be given away, and home safety and emergency kits will be raffled off. The “Shuttle Night” party will be based around the departure of the first shuttle of the night, with free food catered by Georgetown University Grilling Society.
SSAB member Tyler Spalding (SFS ’08) said that the promotion was not created in response to any recent safety incidents on or around campus.
“It was created by the Student Safety Advisory Board as a new tool to provide important safety information to all students early in the year,” he said.
Peter Luger, director of operations for university safety, said he expects a strong turnout.
“We look forward to this as a great opportunity to inform students about developments, such as the new emergency notification system and late-night safe travel options, and to invite students to become more directly involved with SSAB,” he said.
– Yoshi Myers
Students Mark Second Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina With Vigil
Several dozen students attended a solemn candlelight vigil and observed a moment of silence in Red Square on Wednesday night to commemorate the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Amelia Colomb (COL ’09), a former resident of New Orleans who had to relocate after the hurricane, organized the event, which was sponsored by the Black Student Alliance. She said she arranged the vigil to remember not only the victims, but also the survivors who endured through the hardships after the disaster.
“I really wanted people to know from my heart that [the recovery] is still going on, but at the same time also realize that there are people who went through the event,” she said. “I just want them to know that no matter the circumstances . that there is tomorrow.”
Fr. Timothy Godfrey, S.J., director of Campus Ministry, urged the approximately 75 attendees during the vigil to support the thousands of people who are still left without homes from the hurricane.
“We are not just talking about natural disaster. . We are praying for those who are still waiting for their homes,” he said at the event. “We are here to witness that.”
– Ji-Hye Park
Energy Reduction Campaign To Be Part of Effort to Make Greener GU
Following its recent trend of adopting several “green” initiatives, Georgetown University recently introduced a new campaign to reduce energy usage on campus.
The campaign will encourage members of the community to save electricity by turning off lights and appliances when they are not in use. Energy monitors in dormitories will inform students about how much electricity they are using, and they may be used in a campus energy competition.
“Part of the thrust of the educational campaign is encouraging people to take ownership, rather than treating this as nobody’s territory,” said Karen Frank, vice president for facilities and student housing, in an interview with the Blue and Gray.
The educational campaign is not the only way that the university is working to reduce its impact on the environment. Plans for the new science and McDonough School of Business buildings use several environmentally friendly features, including a 20,000-gallon tank that will store rainwater for reuse in the campus utility plant’s cooling tower. The Advanced Vehicle Development program is developing a third generation of fuel-cell buses, although program manager Charlie Pritzlaff said it will be at least a decade before the buses are used commercially.
– Peter Nelson
Administrators Discuss Training, Partnership With University in Dubai
Just two years after forming an SFS campus in Qatar, Georgetown may once again expand its academic presence in the Middle East after a recent proposal to create a university vocational training center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In July, the Center for Intercultural Education and Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dubai Knowledge Village, a free-zone destination established in 2003 for global learning, where companies can be completely foreign-owned. This primary agreement signals the beginning of an academic partnership between Georgetown’s CIED and DKV.
“CIED signed [the agreement] with DKV to collaborate in providing non-degree training to professionals in private companies in Dubai,” Georgetown media relations officer Andrea Fereshteh said.
DKV is home to business, legal and technical services and institutions that aid educational training for students and workers, according to its Web site. The campus is home to dozens of academic institutions and professional training centers from different countries such as India, Australia and the United Kingdom. Many of the centers are specialized in areas of IT, consulting and business management.
“This is not a campus-wide initiative, rather CIED is in preliminary conversations with
DKV to set up sporadic trainings. This is similar to other programs CIED administers throughout the year,” Fereshteh said.
CIED operates with the mission to promote Georgetown education in different countries through the presence of scholarship programs and training opportunities. Funding for such international programs can come from the United States Department of State and Inter-American Development Bank, which recently granted CIED funds for scholarship programs for students from the Near East, South Asia and Latin America this past May.
– Vel Hernandez