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Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 11:06 p.m.

Fraternities again report record recruitment numbers

by Jeremy Diamond

The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity invited potential new members to its annual car-smashing event during the Inter-Fraternity Council’s fall rush in fall 2012. Hatchet File Photo.

Fraternities continued to grow this spring, doling out a record 142 bids last weekend on the heels of a strong fall recruitment.

The 1,300 Inter-Fraternity Council members now account for about 28 percent of male students on campus – a boom of 20 percent over the last two years.

Interfraternity Council president Casey Wood credited the growth to the Greek communities’ increased commitment to philanthropy to appeal to more students across campus.

“I think it’s a great sign that the community is growing,” Wood said. “It’s very hard to look, even across the country, and see such a large Greek population.”

Kappa Sigma recruited the most men, with 24 new members, which brings its total membership to 112 members. The chapter – which recently signed a lease for a university townhouse this fall – has nearly tripled in size since spring 2011.

The largest fraternity on campus, Sigma Chi, held its title after inviting 14 men to join their fraternity and reaching 143 members. Pi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha each welcomed 10 pledges and maintained their positions as the second and third largest chapters, respectively.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon offered bids to five men last weekend, out of about 15 men who attended rush events. The chapter rechartered on campus in spring 2011 and has struggled to draw in members. The chapter had just seven members at the start of spring recruitment.

“The guys that started this group have a real focus on garnering qualified candidates that are very sociable,” Rhett Gopaul, the chapter’s president since the fall, said. This semester, Gopaul said the fraternity will become more involved within the Greek community and plans to increase the chapter’s philanthropic efforts.

“We didn’t know how to run the process correctly,” Gopaul, a sophomore, said about recruitment. “We learned a lot from it and now everyone is very motivated.”

The Interfraternity Council’s fall recruitment occurred about three weeks after two sexual abuses were reported in Townhouse Row. Wood said the allegations, which prompted GW’s police chief to speak with chapter heads about security, shook the Greek community.

“The community as a whole has matured,” Wood said about how chapters have moved forward from the incidents.

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Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 10:01 p.m.

Gay rights activist pushes students in pivotal year for marriage equality

by The GW Hatchet

Marty Rouse, a top field director for the Human Rights Campaign, talked up the organization’s efforts to pass marriage equality laws in six states this year. Ashley Lucas | Assistant News Editor

This post was written by Hatchet reporter Stephanie Vilella.

A chief strategist for the country’s leading gay rights lobbying group tried to mobilize students Wednesday in a momentous year for advocates’ fight for marriage equality.

Marty Rouse, the national field director of the Human Rights Campaign, told the College Democrats and Allied in Pride that the imminent Supreme Court cases on gay marriage and several states’ progress on the issue made 2013 the year to get involved in the organization’s efforts.

Rouse also discussed the HRC’s efforts to push for marriage equality legislation in six specific states: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island. This could have an impact on the Supreme Court’s decision if the goals are met before March 24, he added.

“More states that we have in support of marriage equality, that really will impact how this American experiment is going,” Rouse said. “If we can get one, two, or three more states by the end of June, it’s quite, quite significant.”

Same-sex couples now can legally marry in nine states and D.C.

The Supreme Court will rule in June on two cases, one that is trying to overturn California’s Proposition 8 and one that will argue that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

Rouse encouraged students to jump into the fight by volunteering for the organization’s canvassing and phone banking efforts.

“There’s always the need to get involved in some way,” Rouse said. “Everyone has to find their path and just go forward.”

 

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Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 9:06 p.m.

Foggy Bottom’s council member advocates for new FBI headquarters to stay in D.C.

by The GW Hatchet

This post was written by Hatchet reporter Laura Porter

D.C. Council member Jack Evans is fighting to keep the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in D.C., asserting the agency’s possible move to Maryland or Virginia would have negative effects on the city’s economy.

Evans – whose constituency includes Foggy Bottom – teamed up Tuesday with council member Vincent Orange to suggest alternate buildings in the District to the FBI. Their proposal insists a D.C. location makes the base, which has rested in the city since 1974, more accessible to both tourists and the headquarters’ more than 10,000 employees, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday.

Fairfax County and Prince George’s County made bids to host the new base after the bureau’s current home in the J. Edgar Hoover building on Pennsylvania began to struggle with size and maintenance inefficiency.

The council members’ proposal claims transportation set-ups are weaker in the counties compared to D.C., which will make travel more difficult for FBI employees and visitors. Evans and Orange have suggested the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the former Coast Guard headquarters or St. Elizabeth’s campus.

Evans, who coasted into an unopposed sixth term in November, mentioned at a D.C. Council meeting Tuesday that if the FBI does decide to leave the city, he would support a trade off for the return of the Redskins to D.C.

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Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 10:13 a.m.

Gray highlights new technology project in annual address

by Brianna Gurciullo

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, in his State of the District speech on Tuesday, emphasized the development of technology initiatives and the launch of a new project for local entrepreneurs. Elise Apelian | Hatchet Staff Photographer

This post was written by Hatchet reporter Nathaniel Erwin.

A city project to launch this week will link entrepreneurs with political and financial resources, part of an effort to expand D.C.’s technological reputation, Mayor Vincent Gray announced Tuesday in his State of the District address.

The D.C. government-funded initiative, called 1776, will set aside 15,000 square feet for the local startup community, which includes programs at GW. The venture is part of Gray’s goal to make D.C. the largest technology center on the East Coast.

The five-year plan aims to create 10,000 new jobs, boost tax revenue by $1 billion and diversify the local economy, Gray said in front of hundreds at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue. His plan emphasizes markets in the hospitality, healthcare and technology industries.

Gray, an alumnus, also announced that the city will hire 100 more Metropolitan Police Department officers to accommodate D.C.’s growing population.

Many in the crowd who wore t-shirts that read, “Housing for All,” stood and clapped when Gray said the District will invest $100 million in building and preserving 10,000 units of affordable housing across the city.

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Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013 8:45 p.m.

Law school students report thefts from lockers

by Brianna Gurciullo

Correction appended

The University Police Department is investigating a handful of locker break-ins at the law school this month, which have spurred the Student Bar Association to reexamine the school’s security measures.

Four students reported stolen items and three filed reports with the department, UPD Chief Kevin Hay said. Students said the locks were not damaged. The thefts occurred on floors without cameras.

Hay said he is working with the law school to address the issue and would consider ways to better secure the area.

“We are considering our layered security system and if any changes need to be made,” Hay wrote in an email, adding that security cameras were added to the law school last fall.

SBA Executive Vice President Holly Trogdon said the organization worked with Hank Molinengo, the law school’s associate dean for administrative affairs, to amp up security in the school’s buildings last summer, securing all but one of the main entrances with electronic GWorld locks and installing security cameras on two floors.

Molinengo declined to comment on the law school’s current security measures. Hay said UPD is reviewing security at the school to determine “if any changes need to be made.”

Trogdon, who has been a member of the SBA since last spring, wrote that the student group typically receives one or two reports each semester, but some thefts could be going unreported.

This post was updated Feb. 5, 2013 to reflect the following:

The Hatchet incorrectly spelled Student Bar Association executive vice president Holly Trogdon’s name. Due to an editing error, the Hatchet also incorrectly stated the group University Police Chief Kevin Hay was working with student leaders to address security issues. We regret these errors.

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Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013 7:03 p.m.

GW loses Peace Corps crown, but still produces third-most volunteers

by The GW Hatchet

This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Amelia Williams. 

GW lost the highest rank on the Peace Corps’ top volunteer-producing schools, coming in at No. 3 on the list released Tuesday.

Recent alumna Julie Hyman volunteered last year as a Peace Corps member in Namibia, where she worked to build a community library. Photo courtesy of Stephen Chapman

Fifty-three alumni are serving overseas in the Peace Corps – down from 78 last year. GW had earned the top spot in the “medium colleges and universities” list the past four years.

Western Washington University and American University beat out GW to land in first and second place, respectively, this year.

Administrators often cite the large number of alumni serving in the Peace Corps as a testament to undergraduates’ community service interests. University President Steven Knapp has promoted service since he came to GW in 2007.

Since the Peace Corps’ inception, 1,116 GW alumni have served. The University is the No. 29 top Peace Corps volunteer-producing school of all time.

In a release, alumna Danielle Nesmith, currently a volunteer English teacher in Albania for the Peace Corps, touted her studies at the University.

“I’m genuinely excited to learn this unique language and appreciate the beauty of traditional Albanian culture as a result of my thirst of learning that I fostered at GWU,” she said.

Here’s this year’s list of top 10 volunteer-producing medium-sized universities:

1) Western Washington University (73 volunteers)

2) American University (55)

3) George Washington University (53)

4) Cornell University (40)

5) University of Vermont (37)

6) Boston College (36)

7) University of Idaho (33)

8) Georgetown University (31)

9) College of William & Mary (30)

10) College of Charleston (30)

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Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013 4:44 p.m.

Bucknell University holds onto rank after false data reports

by Jeremy Diamond

Bucknell University was the fifth college in a year to admit that it had misreported admissions data. It was not pulled off the U.S. News & World Report rankings.  Photo used under the Creative Commons license.

About two weeks after Bucknell University admitted to skewing test score data, U.S. News & World Report announced that the school would maintain its No. 32 spot on its top liberal arts colleges list.

Bucknell inflated average SAT and ACT scores by omitting several dozen students’ scores, which boosted the overall SAT mean as much as 25 points on the 1600-point scale over seven years.

The publication recalculated Bucknell’s ranking using corrected data and found that the difference “wasn’t significant enough to affect the school’s numerical rank,” Director of Data Research Robert Morse wrote in a blog post Monday.

Bucknell President John Bravman said last month, after disclosing the misreported data, that he believed the college would maintain its ranking. Admissions test scores account for 7.5 percent of the publication’s rankings methodology.

GW was kicked off the best colleges rankings in November after the University announced that it had misreported freshmen class rank data for over a decade.  Tulane University’s business school was also booted from a U.S. News & World ranking in January, while Emory University and Claremont McKenna College maintained their ranks after admitting to data inflation earlier in 2012.

The string of colleges to admit misreporting has renewed scrutiny over college rankings and how those figures are reported, many experts say.

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Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 10:49 p.m.

Kappa Sigma clinches on-campus housing

by Jeremy Diamond

Kappa Sigma, which hosts an annual Shave Away Cancer event, will move into the three-floor Building JJ this August. The University added the building to the Greek housing queue this January. Hatchet File Photo.

Updated: Feb. 5, 2013 at 7:26 p.m.

The Kappa Sigma fraternity, which has nearly tripled in size since fall 2011, was awarded GW’s newest Greek townhouse.

After losing its lease on an F Street townhouse in 2006, Kappa Sigma will move into Building JJ in August. The chapter will occupy the three-floor building’s 28 beds for the next nine years.

“We’re one of the closest brotherhoods on campus,” chapter president Marc Soto said. “Morale has never been higher in our chapter.”

With a growing Greek population, the University allowed sororities and fraternities to apply for Building JJ space in January. An external committee considered between three and four candidates, Center for Student Engagement Tim Miller said, scoring based on chapters’ Greek excellence scores, judicial track record, and an application.

Kappa Sigma handed out 24 bids this weekend during spring recruitment this year, bringing the chapter’s membership up to 113 men. The chapter counted 36 men in spring 2011.

“We’ve proven for the last three years that we don’t need a house in order to get these large pledge classes,” Soto, a sophomore, said. “Having a house on campus will help sustain us, if not help us grow.”

Soto said he hopes to cap his chapter’s membership at about 120 at the end of each academic year.  The chapter will lose 19 seniors graduating at the end of the semester.

But the chapter likely won’t reap all of the benefits of a traditional Greek townhouse – like emblazoning the building with the fraternity’s Greek letters.

“I would expect that letters will not be able to go on the outside of the building,” Miller said, adding that the details had not yet been discussed.

Building JJ previously housed students in sustainability-focused affinity housing groups.

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Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 8:36 p.m.

GW admits slightly more early decision applicants

by Jeremy Diamond

Forrest Maltzman, vice provost for academic affairs and planning, has overseen the admissions office more closely this semester after admissions head Kathryn Napper abruptly resigned in December. Hatchet File Photo.  

The early decision acceptance rate inched up by nearly 4 percentage points this year, as the University admitted 41 percent of early applicants.

A total of 2,331 students applied early decision – on par with last year’s applicant pool, when the acceptance rate stood at 37.5 percent. The University admitted 36 percent of early applicants in 2011 and a similar rate in 2010.

Forrest Maltzman, vice provost for academic affairs and planning, said the figures fluctuate slightly as international students complete financial and immigration paperwork.

Maltzman added that this year GW saw “a modest increase in the number of applications to the engineering school,” though students are not required to list their potential majors.

“The interest in our science and engineering programs reflects the quality of our programs in these areas and the fact that Washington provides  great opportunities for those interested in science and engineering, as well as the humanities and social sciences,” Maltzman wrote in an email Sunday.

Of GW’s peer institutions, Boston University saw a dramatic 40 percent increase in early decision applications from last year. BU’s executive director of media relations Colin Riley added that the school saw a “huge increase” in applicants to its health and rehabilitation sciences school.

New York University’s early applicant pool inched up 3 percent. Northwestern and Emory universities, both considered GW’s peer schools, saw about 8 percent and 10 percent more applicants respectively.

Maltzman said he had not expected the University’s fall off U.S. News & World Report’s best colleges ranking last fall to impact the admissions cycle. GW was unranked by the publication in November after University officials revealed that the admissions office had reported false admissions data for at least a decade.

“We had a record number of applications last year,” Maltzman said, referring to total application numbers. “This year will be pretty much the same.”

Last year, GW accepted about 7,100 of 21,600 applicants during both the early and regular admissions cycles, or about 33 percent of applicants. The Class of 2016 totaled about 2,400 students.

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Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 11:51 a.m.

Professor who spent 41 years at GW loses battle to Alzheimer’s

by Brianna Gurciullo

George Wang, a professor who taught Chinese at the University for more than four decades, died last week at 85 years old.

Wang, who struggled with Alzheimer’s disease, also worked at Yale University before he joined the GW faculty in 1965, The Washington Post reported. He died Jan. 24 at Arden Courts assisted living in Silver Spring, Md., where he was a longtime resident.

The associate professor left GW in 2006, publishing more than 30 articles for professional journals throughout his career.

Wang was born in Shenyang, China and was a member of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in D.C. A 1950 graduate of National Taiwan Normal University, Wang went on to receive a master’s degree from Tokyo University of Education, now University of Tsukuba, five years later.

He is survived by a brother, John Wang of Beltsville, Md., and sister, Mary Hseih, of Southport, Conn.

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