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With temperatures reaching the mid-80s Tuesday, head to Ben and Jerry’s in Georgetown (3135 M St.) to nab for a free ice cream cone.
Or go to any of these participating locations.
Beyond the Books
Your Guide to student life
Contributor
Cory Weinberg
Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013
Passion Pit, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kendrick Lamar to play Sweetlife Festival
Synths will pulsate through Merriweather Post Pavilion in May when Phoenix, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Passion Pit headline Sweetlife 2013.
Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos will take the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion at Sweetlife Festival on May 11. Photo by Flickr user moses_namkung
The fourth-year festival announced its lineup Tuesday, filling it not only with big-time indie pop icons, but also hip hop’s burgeoning star Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé’s younger sister Solange and angsty keyboardist Youth Lagoon.
Artists like Holy Ghost!, Gary Clark Jr. and Lindsey Stirling will also perform.
Tickets – $75 for lawn and $95 for pavilion and pit – for the May 11 festival go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. through Ticketfly. Followers of the @sweetgreen Instagram account can snag tickets Wednesday.
The festival will also pack in local foodie favorites like vendors Toki Underground and 13th Street Meats.
Held in Columbia, Md. and sponsored by the local salad chain Sweetgreen, the festival has gained steam over the past few years. Last year, big acts like Kid Cudi, the Shins and Avicii performed.
Friday, Jan. 18, 2013
Plan your pre-game: Inaugural Ball drinks to cost $9
If you plan on drinking Monday at GW’s Inaugural Ball, you might want to start saving now.
Drink tickets will cost $9 at Inaugural Ball, GW’s sixth ever. Hatchet File Photo
One ticket for an alcoholic drink will cost $9, which you can pay with cash or credit card, University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said. Servers will be checking IDs, she added.
Light hors d’oeuvres and soft drinks will be served, too, but those will be free.
If you want to check your coat after getting to the Omni Shoreham Hotel, near the National Zoo, it’ll cost $5.
The event, which starts at 8 p.m. Monday, attracted a sellout crowd within 24 hours when the $100 tickets went on sale in November. The University expects to recoup about two-thirds of the $600,000 it poured into this year’s ball.
It will be the sixth-ever ball, and the largest in the University’s history.
Friday, Sept. 28, 2012
Trachtenberg gets harsh treatment in National Journal article
Former University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg was profiled Friday by The National Journal. Hatchet File Photo
Former University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg was spotlighted Friday by The National Journal as the instigator of a “tuition arms race” in higher education.
Trachtenberg, whose 19-year tenure transformed GW from a commuter school to a selective research university, also oversaw the University’s rise as the country’s most expensive school after a decade of campus expansions.
That strategy to cover GW with the gloss of “cafés, beautiful study spaces, and nicer dorms” before it improved academically drew a stinging comparison to the nationwide concern about student loan debt and tuition increases.
“The way Trachtenberg saw it, selling George Washington over the other schools was like selling one brand of vodka over another. Vodka, he points out, is a colorless, odorless liquid that varies little by maker,” National Journal staff reporter Julia Edwards wrote.
“He realized the same was true among national private universities: It was as simple as raising the price and upgrading the packaging to create the illusion of quality,” she wrote.
Now, undergraduate borrowers nationwide owe $28,100 on average, a quarter more than they did a decade ago.
Since Trachtenberg stepped down in 2007, GW has stepped back in the tuition arms race.
Annual tuition increases for incoming students and capital investments like the $275 million Science and Engineering Hall continue, but GW no longer counts as one of the top 20 most expensive schools in the country.
The University instead has taken on more than $1 billion in debt and pinpointed cost-cutting or revenue-boosting strategies through the Innovation Task Force like online programs or satellite campus expansion.
But Trachtenberg, who came to GW in 1988, told The National Journal he wished he could have spent more.
“I would have been bolder,” Trachtenberg said. “I devoted too much time and energy worrying about a rainy day.”
Monday, Aug. 27, 2012
New sign misspells Fulbright Hall
Photo originally posted on Facebook by Evan Ritscher
GW brought in two high-profile firms to redo the University’s logo that adorns campus buildings.
But they may have forgotten to hire copy editors.
Fulbright Hall is misspelled as “Fullbright Hall” on the new sign that sits outside the sophomore residence hall.
The University’s new logo, met with mixed reviews, is not even a day old. But some students are already poking fun at the spelling flub.
“Only at GW do you spend millions of dollars for someone to change your school font and misspell dorm names,” sophomore Ericka Anne Medina posted on the Facebook group “Overheard at GW.”
Officials have remained tight-lipped on the cost of the rebranding campaign, but the firm 160over90 charged Michigan State $478,000 for their new look, according to the student newspaper The State News.
University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard did not immediately return a request for comment.
Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012
Seniors hope to turn political brawls into happy hours
Enough with the filibusters. It’s time for bar crawls.
Two seniors want to calm Washington political sniping by bringing policymakers together over beers – and they’ve set up a Super PAC to buy the brews.
President Barack Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley took part in a “beer summit” in July 2009 after a race controversy at Harvard. Two GW seniors hope more beer summits can help secure the country’s fiscal future. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
Daniel Bassali and Winslow Marshall registered the Slam Dunks, Fireworks and Eagles Super PAC with the Federal Election Commission in early June. ABC News reported Wednesday that they hope to raise $5,000 by September, tapping the checkbooks of family, friends and online supporters to pay for events where politicians can discuss issues over beer.
“This used to be an old Washington tradition that has unfortunately disappeared. We are bringing it back. America is sick of the partisan divide that is keeping us stuck,” Bassali told The Hatchet. “We believe that if we have a friendlier government then we will have a better government.”
Bassali and Marshall, who are roommates and members of Pi Kappa Phi, have targeted deficit reduction as the Super PAC’s signature issue – hoping Republicans and Democrats take a step back from fiscal cliffs and have a beer to settle their differences.
Bassali said he and Winslow were “frustrated” soon after registering their Super PAC, unable to come up with the group’s purpose. “This was a project without a mission,” he said.
“Finally, my roommate and I sat down together and had a beer. We talked about what we were most concerned about as college students who will soon be joining the work force,” he added. “Even though Winslow leans a little to the left and I lean to the right, we both agreed that our nations deficit and fiscal irresponsibility eclipsed every other issue we face as a nation.”
To encourage more fiscal responsibility, they will use campaign finance laws as their wingman. People have no donation limits when they give to Super PACs, which aren’t tied to official campaigns.
The Slam Dunks, Fireworks and Eagles Super PAC is the latest in a string of political groups that have used absurdity to drum up attention for their cause. Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow” set off the trend, paving the way for groups with names like “Raptors for Jesus” and “Joe Six Pac.”
But Bassali said Super PAC stunts weren’t his motivation.
“The concept that any average American, even those still in college, could create their own organization with the hopes of making their impact on democracy intrigued me,” he said.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
D.C. workers let curse words fly, and the boss may not approve
Loose-lipped office workers in D.C. curse more in the work place than in any other U.S. city, according to a Career Builder report – but that may harm their career chances.
D.C. workers curse the most in their office despite foul-mouthed former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who spoke at GW's 2009 Commencement, switching his office to Chicago City Hall. Hatchet File Photo
Shit.
About 57 percent of employers said they’d be less likely to give a promotion to workers who often spit out four-letter words, according to the survey released Wednesday. That’s a bad sign for those trying to work their way up the office chain in D.C., named the most potty-mouthed city.
D.C. edged out Denver and Chicago, with 62 percent of D.C. workers claiming they swear at work, making the District the top swearing city even though former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, famous for his colorful language, has moved on to the Chicago mayorship.
All that swearing may call the employees’ professionalism into question, 81 percent of employers said. It could also mean a lack of maturity, 68 percent said.
And if you’re in the office cellar as an intern? Nationwide, 18-to-24 year olds are 16 percent less likely than their middle-aged coworkers to swear at work.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
GW power couple, circa 1976: Alec Baldwin and Hilary Rosen
Even in the 1970s, Thurston Hall was ripe for love – and home to what could be GW’s biggest power couple ever.
This month's Vanity Fair cover story reveals that Alec Baldwin dated Hilary Rosen when the two lived across the hall from each other in Thurston Hall. Photo from Vanity Fair's Facebook page
Actor Alec Baldwin dated liberal commentator Hilary Rosen when they lived across the hall from each other in GW’s largest freshman residence hall, this month’s Vanity Fair cover story on the “30 Rock” star revealed.
Baldwin, who attended GW from 1976 to 1979, transferred to attend New York University’s undergraduate drama school.
Rosen, former CEO of the lobbying group Recording Industry Association of America, earned her bachelor’s degree in international business from GW.
“He was passionate about politics,” Rosen told Vanity Fair. “He was funny — and I won’t say he was lighthearted, because he was always ambitious; he always wanted to have an impact and be in the thick of things.”
But the couple’s future together was for naught.
Baldwin, 54, married 28-year-old yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas on Saturday. Rosen, 53, later came out as lesbian.
“He is better off with Hilaria,” Rosen told The Washington Post in an email. “Very happy for him!”
Rosen was last in the spotlight when she said in April that Anne Romney, wife of the likely Republican presidential nominee, had “never worked a day in her life.”
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
A new summer fashion trend? T-shirt tags GW as “Get Wasted University”
Students will be able to show off their drinking prowess with a new T-shirt from Campus Teez, which started a pre-sale Tuesday. Photo from the Campus Teez Facebook page
Student leaders and administrators have called out GW students for not showing enough school spirit – choosing rival schools’ jerseys over buff and blue gear.
But now one independent T-shirt company has a new way for students to show off their Colonial pride, with a shirt that reads “YOLONIALS: Get Wasted University.”
The online apparel retailer Campus Teez will start hawking the T-shirt Thursday, and started pre-sale orders on its Facebook page Tuesday.
The company sells unlicensed T-shirts with designs tailored to about 50 different universities, including UMass-Lowell (“My GPA is equal to my BAC”), University of Oregon (“Get Ducked Up Or Sit The Duck Down”) and University of Central Florida (“Get Fucked Up Every Single Knight”).
A June 12 Facebook post to the Campus Teez fan page calling for a T-shirt designed for GW generated more than 200 “likes,” stirring demand for the product and pushing the company to create a GW design.
The T-shirt will cost $16 during the pre-sale and $18 on the company’s website. A representative from Campus Teez declined to comment.
As of last fall, students can also “get wasted” with fewer consequences if they get busted. The University standardized alcohol violation policies in October, loosening a former policy that put the charge on a student’s disciplinary record.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Study calls presidential pets a ‘political liability’
President Barack Obama's dog Bo should probably stay out of the media spotlight while the economy continues to recover, GW researchers concluded in a political science journal article. | Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson
While pundits say a poor economy could walk all over President Barack Obama’s reelection chances, GW researchers conclude something else could hurt his campaign: walking his dog, Bo.
The three professors, who dug through a trove of “presidential pet literature,” wrote in the July edition of the journal PS: Political Science and Politics that furry White House residents typically stay out of the spotlight during sagging economic climates – and for good reason.
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Planning Forrest Maltzman, who is also a political science professor, led the team of researchers.
“We surmise that diversionary pets are a political liability when their frolicking on the White House lawn in hard times might cue the public that not everyone in the country is suffering equally and that being president is not a full-time job,” the research team wrote.
During war and scandal, presidential pets are splashed across newspaper pages, the researchers wrote. But during harsh economic times, dogs are out of the picture and are a perceived political liability.
Politically, presidential pets “are unquestionably a mixed breed with an unusual combination of skills. In addition to their insider influence, pets serve the president in hard economic times by staying out of sight; in challenging political and military times, pets stand alongside the president as a reassuring public presence.”
The peer-reviewed article, titled “Unleashing Presidential Power: The Politics of Pets in the White House,” traces the politicization of presidential pets back to a 1944 speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The researchers also noted President Richard Nixon’s 1952 “Checkers” speech – a political salvation for the then-presidential candidate – and Obama’s promise during his nomination-clinching speech to get his daughters Sasha and Malia a dog.
“We view our findings as an important contribution to a research program that will bring the dog into political analysis,” they team concluded.
