Students and Employees Protest Against Alleged Wage Theft

 By Justin Lee

 

A team effort between the Employment Justice Center, GW Progressive Student Union and the DC wage Theft Coalition gathered in Kogan Plaza on Thursday. They were joined by various other workers’ rights organizations to protest against BRAVO!, a company that allegedly withheld money from 11 members of the university cleaning staff this summer.

The protest opened with various leaders of the organization giving small speeches about how GW Students could get involved in helping the university workers. The megaphone was then handed off the two of the workers who gave their side of the story and explained the damages they received from the wage theft.

The group then marched over to Rice Hall to deliver a petition to GW ‘s Vice President of Operations, Alicia Knight. The petition has over 1,000 signatures on it.

The demonstration did not limit its scope to just the eleven victims of wage theft. Sam Nelson, Organizer of the Progressive Student Union, stated that this demonstration was meant to also give GW students some insight into the lives of GW employees.

“Even if only 30 people show up for this rally, the message is still in the public eye,” said Nelson. “The importance of this rally is for GW students to become more aware of what happens in the community around them.”

Approximately fifty people showed up for the demonstration with many other students passing by and stopping to listen.  

Religious Demonstration Occurs in Kogan Plaza

by Jesse Zapata


A crowd gathered around volunteers from a religious group at the entrance of Kogan Plaza on Monday.   The volunteers stood on milk crates they had brought with them at the mouth of the Plaza across the street from the Marvin Center.  For several hours the group used a megaphone  to speak to a spontaneous crowd that gathered around them about the need to read the New Testament more.  Additionally, other members of the group held signs that explained their goals.

According to one of their members, a man named John, the group was not affiliated with any congregation and the group's members came from many different places.  He said that the group was an international group that believes the New Testament was not read enough.  John said there were a lot of men and women in the world who could be saved if they "took scripture into their hearts."

The group was encouraging people to go to their website www.luke24vs47.com.  John did say the group was affiliated with Jeremiah Cries, DC Evangelicals, Gods Way and the website, which they displayed on their signs, "Youaresinners.com."

The crowd size peaked at about 30 people during lunch hour and responded in a variety of ways.  Some onlookers conversed with the religious volunteers and asked questions, while a few people in the crowd argued with the speaker on the milk crate about the group's message.

Officer Saechao from UPD was supervising a few feet away from the scene.  He said that UPD had been contacted but did not intervene because the demonstrators had done nothing more than exercise their right to free speech on public property.  Officer Saechao also confirmed that the group of eight-nine demonstrators had not been offensive or unruly and had told him that they would stay until about 3pm.

One student, Frank Ockleman, took advantage of his own right to free speech and setup speakers about 10 feet away from the demonstrators on the plaza that boomed out casual rock music while he sat on the ground and read a book.  Ockleman said he setup the music specifically because of the religious group's presence.

A calendar on the religious group's website showed that in the next week the group planned similar demonstrations at VCU, NCSU, Appalachian State, and West Carolina State.  In the past week the group had already visited Harvard, Princeton, Rhode Island University, Bloomsberg University, U Penn, and George Mason University before coming to GW.      


 

Club Schenley Looks to Change Tune on School Spirit

On an early spring day in Washington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” emanated from a set of cheap Logitech speakers placed strategically along a set of third floor window screens.

“You are now listening to Club Schenley,” an automated female voice announced after the song ended. “We are taking song requests through Twitter and we’ll be back with more music.”

The George Washington University’s Schenley Hall, located at 2121 H St. N.W., lies directly in the heart of the school’s urban campus. Two weeks ago, sophomores Pranav Sethuraman, Saager Enjeti and Peter Finn transformed their third floor dorm room into a disc jockey’s booth so they could share their sounds with the people around them.

The trio’s room is now known as “Club Schenley,” and different styles of music radiate from the third floor window screens weekdays between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.

“We love playing our music, especially during nice days when there are people outside,” Enjeti said. “(Along H Street) You have the food trucks, Kogan Plaza, and a lot of foot traffic, which means we get more listeners.”

The group behind Club Schenley even created Twitter and Facebook pages where listeners can request songs, post comments, and interact with the DJs behind the eclectic sounds. Collectively, the sites have amassed over 100 followers. But the group never thought Club Schenley would be such a sensation.

“Originally, we wanted to play a raunchy song just once, just so we could see the reactions of