Basketball is a sport that feeds off the outwardly impossible. Players appear to soar as they make incredible dunks; seemingly insurmountable leads are overcome in minutes; and on those rare occasions a desperate buzzer-beater will hang in the air as a moment stretches into eternity. This year, the men’s basketball program has done what may have previously seemed impossible. Following two severely disappointing years, the team overcame the last two seasons’ failures with impressive zeal.

For most of us, Student Association elections are a yearly headache. They represent a time of year when we each go out of our way to avoid getting palm-carded in Kogan. We also have to deal with that annoying kid in our hallway, class or student org who just won’t leave us alone about supporting “candidate X” because he or she “is really cool and has great ideas!” Last year, I was in the majority of people who really just did not care and saw this entire process as pointless. This year, that all changed. I went from the furthest on the outside someone can be to right in the middle of the madness as a campaign manager, and it has changed the way I look at my experience at GW.

Someone once made the joke to me that no one our age can ever be president, because we all have some mistake documented on Facebook.

A recent New York Times article reported that 30 percent of all employers check Facebook as a screening mechanism. But it’s not just future employers you should be concerned about seeing your “personal” information – it’s people you meet at the bar, strangers across the globe and your grandmother.

I forbid laptops in most of my seminars and discussion sections, though I do allow them in large lectures. I did not make this rule because I am anti-technology. I agree with Twomey that technology has improved our lives in many ways. Certainly, the courses I teach on American history and culture would be greatly impoverished without online resources. I have no desire to go back to arranging slides in a plastic carousel, as my own professors did, rather than pulling historical images instantly from the Library of Congress Web site or ARTstor.

As college students, the sight of two people making out, couples holding hands and the ever-changing “relationship status” on Facebook are omnipresent. It is a perfectly casual and comfortable aspect of many of our lives. We need not worry about repercussions in our respective jobs, internships and future places of employment for the way in which we lead our personal romantic lives. That is, of course, as long as you are not gay and a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or enlisted in the armed services.

As we embark on a new semester of work and leisure, we must ask ourselves once again: When will the University realize that it is time for Gelman Library to be updated? Students will agree with me when I say a university library is the focal point of a school, yet GW’s library is far from that. “Get Gelman Going” is a movement at GW that aims to get the University aware of how students, staff and faculty are extremely upset with the way the University has handled Gelman. This group has hit GW hard with students contributing their feelings and views about our library. The priority of making Gelman better needs to be on the top of GW’s list.

According to news reports, a recent Northwestern University study concluded that such ads are not only ineffective at curbing binge drinking, but may in fact encourage college students to party harder. The study says the shame-based campaign arouses feelings of guilt in viewers – guilt that translates into more drinking. This is hardly the way we should be communicating.

Now comes the full disclosure – I am a binge drinker.

As if Sodexo’s reputation as GW’s food service provider has not been marred enough, one more strike can be added to the list. In a comparison of prices, The Hatchet found that at times, prices at on-campus providers are sometimes twice as high than at off-campus grocery stores.

The District’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration is an organization charged with, among other things, investigating violations and enforcing sanctions related to the sale and consumption of alcohol in D.C. In the past, the agency has been effective in achieving those goals. But this is not the case when it comes to the agency’s investigation into Adams Mill, the bar at which Laura Treanor drank the night she died of alcohol poisoning 14 months ago. ABRA has consistently failed to promptly initiate an investigation, release the reports of that investigation, or take subsequent actions in a timely manner.

Another February, another bitterly contested SA election. Assuming the JEC sifts through the alleged mountain of violations and does not disqualify anybody, Jason Lifton will ascend to the presidency by a margin of about 51 to 49 percent, and EVP candidates Logan Dobson and Rob Maxim will advance to a runoff from a race where all four candidates received at least 20 percent of the vote. Though contested races are nothing new in a school full of budding politicos, these numbers illustrate one of the most competitive elections in recent memory.