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Nonie Darwish, author of Now they Call Me Infidel: Why I renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror, will speak at the Jack Morton Auditorium on October 16 as part of the Young America’s Foundation’s Islamo-Facism Awareness Week.

The Egyptian-born Darwish has called for Muslims to renounce radical teachings and support a peaceful solution with Israel and America. Her next book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Effects of Sharia Law, will be released in November. GW YAF President Rob Lockwood said he expects Darwish will discuss her childhood in Egypt and own personal journey.

Following the controversy that marked last year’s Islamo-Facism Awareness Week, Lockwood expressed hope that his organization can unite, rather than divide, the campus . In addition to Darwish’s appearance, YAF will also screen a film that profiles the lives of Muslims in America who have rejected radical Islam.

“What I’m trying to do is to remind people that America is at war with a very small sect of people who claim to speak for Allah,” he said.

He added that the film is “More of a tolerance or awareness video, and should not be controversial.”

Lockwood said he has contacted leaders of the Jewish Student Association, the Muslim Student Association, and other political and religious groups on campus with the hope of including them in the week’s proceedings.

“If we all work together on this, the message we would get would be so much better than people just trying to call each other names,” he said. “I think that if everyone is gung-ho about protecting America, they should be on-board.”

The woman who called in the “suspicious package” that led to the evacuation of the Academic Center this afternoon identified it as a large leather suitcase, a description corroborated by Richard Troen of the MPD bomb squad and University Spokeswoman Tracy Schario.

Young-Key Kim-Renaud, chair of the department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, said that she other members of her department were leaving a meeting on the fourth floor of Rome Hall when they noticed an unattended suitcase with a Dubai International Airport sticker lying under a desk near the elevator bay. Kim-Renaud said she and her colleagues then made the decision to call UPD shortly after 2:30 p.m.

Kim-Renaud said that in France, the suitcase would have been destroyed immediately.

“See what kind of social disturbance it makes!” she said.

Schario said investigators on the scene had identified the owner of the suitcase, a woman who was visiting a friend at GW.

Eric Roper, Alexa Millinger and Tim Gowa contributed to this report.

Viktors Dindzans/assistant photo editor

Updated Saturday, 3:50 p.m. Fire officials responded to an alarm in JBKO at about 8:45 p.m. Friday, because of smoke in the residence hall. Alan Etter, a spokesman for the D.C. Fire Department, said Saturday that the smoke came from “a minor short circuit.”

Several residents said they saw smoke emanating from a fourth floor room.

“I heard really loud knocking on my door and it was UPD,” said sophomore Heather Hachenburg, who lives on the floor. “I didn’t know what to do, I just darted out the door as fast as I could.” She said “smoke was everywhere” on the floor.

“I could smell fire on the fourth floor,” said sophomore Sophie DeMartine, a resident of the sixth floor. “I just want to go back in.”

The fire department allowed residents to return to their rooms at about 9:15 p.m. No injuries were reported.

Lauren Hoenemeyer, Tim Gowa, Andrew Nacin and Alexa Millinger contributed to this post.

D.C.-based hip-hop artist Wale (pronounced wah-lay) will perform at Fall Fest tomorrow, Program Board announced Friday.

“Wale will add his high energy performance to the already full fay of amusements and music,” Program Board Chair Tiffany Meehan wrote in a news release.

Wale has recorded four mixtapes since 2005, with his fifth, titled Back to the Feature, set to be released at the end of this month. He has collaborated in the past with such artists as the Roots, Shwayze and Lil Wayne. In 2007, Wale was named by Entertainment Weekly as one of eight people to watch in 2008.

Wale will join rock bands Virginia Coalition and The Canon Logic, both of which were announced last week.

Due to potentially inclement weather resulting from Hurricane Hanna, Fall Fest will be held in the Smith Center tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Five former secretaries of state will be part of a bipartisan roundtable entitled “The Next President: A World of Challenges,” that will be held Lisner Auditorium on September 15 at 3 p.m. GW professor Frank Sesno and CNN special correspondent Christiane Amanpour will moderate the event, which will air on CNN.

The panel will consist of Madeleine Albright, James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, and Warren Christopher, all of whom have served as United States Secretary of State.

Update: In response to a question posted in the comments section, tickets are free and a limited number will be available to GW students, faculty, and staff  beginning Thursday, September 4 at 11 a.m at the Lisner Auditorium Box Office.

Forbes Magazine ranked GW 350th in a new study of the best colleges in the country. The magazine judged 569 colleges “based on the quality of the education they provide and how much their students acheive,” according to a news release.

Among national universities - defined as schools that award doctoral degrees - GW is ranked 38th in the Forbes study. The University was 54th in a similar category in last year’s US News and World Report rankings.

Topping the Forbes college list was Princeton University, followed by California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Swarthmore College and Williams College. Forbes says it worked with Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University, and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity to determine the rankings.

Editors note: Several commenters pointed out that Forbes distinguishes between colleges and universities in their rankings. The post has been changed to reflect this.

Approximately 450 college students from around the country flocked to GW last week for the National Conservative Student Conference hosted by the Young America’s Foundation. The five-day conference featured seminars, discussion groups, and speeches from conservative luminaries like Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, and former Virginia Senator George Allen.

“I think attending the conference is an invaluable experience for young conservatives,” said Robert Lockwood, president of YAF’s GW chapter. “You have unparalleled communication with leaders of the movement on the professional activist level, educational level, and student organization level as well.”

The week’s events focused on a variety of political issues and other topics. The numerous panels and speeches were focused on such topics as “Market solutions to solving the energy crisis” and “What is the constitutional Role of Government?”

This year marked the sixth straight that GW has hosted the conference. Lockwood attributed this streak to GW’s Washington location and large YAF chapter.

Thanks to comfortable housing and a great city, the politically active GW student body is among the happiest in the country, according to the Princeton Review’s annual survey of colleges and universities. GW placed second on the list of “politically active Students,” third in “great college towns,” sixth in “dorms like palaces” and 20th in “happiest students.” GW was also named a “college with a conscience.”

Second place on the list of politically active students was a minor fall for GW, since the University topped the category last year. This year’s gold medal went to American University, another D.C. school.

The Princeton Review includes the survey as part of its annual college guide. More than 120,000 students at 368 colleges fill out the survey every year, according to the company.

Hillary Clinton gives an address at the Marvin Center last March. Andrew Nacin: Hatchet Photographer

The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign has not paid at least one college for hosting a campaign event, but they covered most of the money owed for three events held at GW, said University spokesperson Tracy Schario. The Clinton campaign has paid in full for the first two events and most of the third, she said.

“We have invoiced them for the balance of the last event and are confident it will also be paid in a timely manner,” Schario said. “They have been first-rate to work with.”

The Clinton campaign reported a total of $25.2 million in debts and self-financed loans at the end of June, according to CNN.

GW was the recipient of two substantial monetary gifts in the past few days totaling almost $7 million.

M.F. “Midge” Smith will donate $1.6 million to establish the Midge Smith Center for Evaluation Effectiveness within the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy, University officials said Thursday. In addition, the GW Medical Center obtained a $5 million grant to be the national office for the Robert Wood John Foundation’s “Aligning Forces for Quality” initiative, Medical Center officials said Monday.

Smith is the founder of The Evaluators’ Institute, an organization that will now be housed at GW. The Center will partake in both the evaluation of social service programs, as well as research of the evaluation field as a whole, said Kathryn Newcomer, the Center’s co-director,

“The goal of the center is to be the premier unit in the world known for its successes in creating and facilitating use of evaluation knowledge to further effective programs in the public and nonprofit areas,” said Smith in a news release.

Smith will also be named a research professor of public policy and public administration. She was unavailable for comment.

As part of its grant agreement with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the GW Medical School will coordinate the initiative with 14 rural and urban communities nationwide. “Aligning Forces for Quality” is aimed at improving health care in ways that are equitable, patient-centered, and sustainable over time. Bruce Siegel, director of the Center for Health Care Quality within the School of Public Health and Health Services, will be the director of the new program.

“I am deeply honored to help the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in its efforts to improve the quality of health care for all Americans,” Siegel said in a news release. “This initiative will be a catalyst for change in health care. We want to be able to point to the Aligning Forces communities and say that we’ve made a difference in people’s lives.”

Aligning Forces works with care providers by measuring and publicly reporting on data about health care quality. This helps physicians and other providers learn how to improve the care given to their patients and engage them in various aspects of their own health care.