Room Auction Raises Thousands, but Fairness Questioned

The Residence Hall Association held its annual room auction, Martha's Marathon, on Wednesday Feb. 2. The auction gave students the opportunity to bid on rooms in Munson Hall, JBKO, Guthridge Hall, The West End, The Dakota, South Hall, Amsterdam Hall, and Ivory Tower. Students could also win choice room assignments through a raffle and through a poker and blackjack tournament that served as the theme of the night.

All proceeds of the auction and the raffle go directly to the University Scholarship Fund. This year, a total of about $26,000 was raised. The same event last year raised $23,385.

Martha’s Marathon began 44 years ago as a small auction used to boost school spirit. The original auction winners received lunch with the Speaker of the House, a curfew extension for freshmen, and a football autographed by the entire football team. $2,084 was raised to buy books for the library.

New Housing Option Offered to GW Students

If next year, GW students that are involved in a certain organization or have similar interests want to live together, GW is offering Affinity Housing. It is less structured than the LLC program and will be living communities based around particular needs and interests.

GW Housing Programs says the goal of the program is to provide opportunities for students to extend learning opportunities beyond the classroom into the living environment and invite students to create such opportunities for themselves.

Each Affinity Group must have at least 10 members with a Group Coordinator, who will serve as the main point of contact for GW Housing programs.

In order to apply, all members must have at least a 2.5 GPA, no active record with SJS, and submit an online application no later than February 10th at 5:00 p.m.

For more information, go to living.gwu.edu

Gender-neutral housing coming to GW

GW announced late Thursday afternoon that gender-neutral housing will be offered for the 2011-2012 academic year. The Equal Housing Opportunity Act (EHOA), a proposal presented by current senior Michael Komo to the GW Student Association Senate last January, was the catalyst for the decision. After the SA voted to approve the motion last year, it was sent on to the GW administration for consideration. Their decision yesterday came after months of debate by students and administration staff alike.

The new program will allow all students to live with one another, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Begininning this fall, all GW students, including freshmen, will be able to opt-in. Students will not be randomly assigned in to the program to live with students of different genders; all students who wish to live in opposite-sex housing must specifically request to live with students they know.

25th Anniversary of the Excellence in Student Life Awards

For the past 25 years, the Student Activities Center has made it a priority to annually recognize those on campus that have made a strong commitment to GW. The Excellence in Student Life Awards honor individuals, student organizations, and university programs whose efforts have enhanced the quality of campus life. Awards range from 'Program Board Event of the Year' to 'Student Employee of the Year' to 'Student Organization of the Year.'

Departments involved with the awards include the Career Center, Housing Programs, Program Board, Campus Recreations, Office of Community Service and Multicultural Student Services Center.

This year, the awards will take place on Wednesday, April 21st. Be sure to nominate those that have made an impact on your experience at GW! Nominations are being accepted online now through to March 5th.

WRGW News will be covering the awards and reporting the winners.

Housing Hazards

A couple of major campus problems frustrated many students this weekend.  On Friday, a fire was reported in JBKO residence hall.  The building was evacuated by the fire department, but no one was hurt and students were allowed back into the building later the same night.

 

In Thurston Hall on Sunday, a lack of hot water forced some students to forgo their morning showers.  Emily Sieg, a 9^th floor resident, said she was shocked at first, but eventually opted for a cold shower.  Hot water has since been restored to Thurston, but students are now complaining that the thermostat regulation is too high and that tap water can become too hot.  Officials at facilities management were unavailable for comment today.

 

Several students compared the situation at Thurston with the power outage affecting the Mount Vernon campus two weekends ago.  This was mostly due to a fallen tree on Foxhall Road after tropical storm Hanna passed through the Washington D.C. region.  The storm was not as ferocious as originally feared, but its high wings and heavy rains left its mark on the area.  On the Vern, Several residence halls and Ames Dining Hall were without power.  Emergency lights brightened the hallways, where students tried to make the best of the situation.  PEPCO, the company providing electricity to the area, reported 13,000 outages in the county.

-Monika Wysocki

Pre-Convention Briefs

We're less than a week until convention time!  Jesse Regis and myself will be in Denver from August 24th until 29th covering the Democratic Convention and going behind the scenes.  We'll have interviews from delegates, volunteers and of course, a few surprises along the way!

But for now, a few headlines from GW and the metro area over the past two weeks:

• We're mid-Olympics and that means it's time for an Olympic Update of sorts.  Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that Olympian Micheal Phelps lives in nearby Baltimore County.  Phelps's history making eight gold medals call for celebration and Baltimore has plans in the works.  The "Phelpstival" could be held over the Labor Day weekend, but no official date has been set.  Marjorie Hampson with the county communications office says they originally envisioned a parade around the county seat that could end at Towson University's more than 11,000-seat Johnny Unitas Stadium, just a few miles from where Phelps grew up in Rodgers Forge. But now she says they're not sure that venue is big enough to contain the crowds who will want to come out to see Phelps.  If you're looking for something to do when you get back on campus, a trip to the Phelpstival might be a good idea.


• Former GW women's basketball players Elisa Aguilar '00 and Anna Montaňana '05 have been representing Spain in the Beijing Olympics. They have helped the team advance to the elimination stage of the 2008 Olympic Games after finishing preliminary round play with a 3-2 record.  According to a GWsports.com press release, Montañana leads Spain and ranks in the top 7 among all players in the Olympics in scoring (14.8 ppg), field goal percentage (51.7 FG%) and steals (2.6 spg) through the five-game preliminary round. She scored 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting in a 74-55 victory over Czech Republic on Aug. 13, and had 13 points, nine rebounds, six steals and four assists in a 79-47 triumph over Mali Sunday.  Aguilar has averaged 5.4 points and 25.8 minutes in five games. She scored eight points in victories against Czech Republic and Mali and in a 67-64 loss to host China on Aug. 9.  Spain plays Russia in a quarterfinal matchup today, with the winner likely to face the United States in the semifinals Thursday, Aug. 21.  The medal games take place Saturday, Aug. 23.


• One more Olympic note - 28 GW graduate students are in attendance at the 2008 games along with their professor, Lisa Delpy Neirotti.  As an associate professor of tourism and sports management, Deply Neirotti has attended 14 consecutive Olympics and this will be the ninth time she has included students to learn about the latest sports marketing and business ideas.  The students will collect survey from spectaors on their spending habits and feelings on customer service.  Delpy Neirotti has attended 14 consecutive Olympics, and this will be the ninth time she has included students.  "The Olympics is a testing ground for new ways of marketing. Students also have the opportunity to meet a lot of key people for future jobs, and it's a great chance for both education and networking," she says.


• If you're living off campus next year, DC's Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs has lots of advice for you.  Their new Collegiate Off-Campus Housing Initiative has a great new blog:  http://thisshouldbeillegal.com  It will help college students in DC know if they're being rented to legally.


• According to the Hatchet, the EMeRG ambulance is finally certified!  GW started the certification process in 1999 and after much red tape, the process is complete.  The ambulance was purchased in 2006 for $7,000 and remained parked on the Virgina campus and next to the Marvin Center.  University Police Chief Deloris Stafford said that the service will be provided free of charge.  This could save hospitalized students anywhere from $500 to $800 if the ride wasn't already covered by their insurance compay.  Also in EMeRG news - their new headquarters will be located in the top floor of the former home of DJ's Fastbreak.


• The AP reported on the Amethyst Initiative, a movement to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18.  Over 100 college presidents have joined the movement, saying that a higher drinking age creates a dangerous climate of secretive binge drinking.  Knapp's name isn't on the list, but two local college are represented.  C.D. Mote, Jr., the president of the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University president William Brody have both signed on as a supporters.


• Construction at the CVS is 2000 Penn is scheduled to start soon, depsite the business not opening until February, according to the Hatchet.  The new CVS will be the fifth CVS within a three block radius of campus. 

-Mallory Thompson

How Do You Like YOUR Roommate?

Freshman year is full of new experiences, places and faces. Perhaps the most familiar faces will be that of you roommates. Hopefully, everyone gets along…but what happens if things go wrong?

This year, freshman were required to meet with their House Proctor and roommates and create a roommate agreement. Roommate agreements cover everything from studying and lights out, to alcohol and sex. They are the first line of defense should any problems arise. If conflict continues or escalates, the university offers a conflict resolution center.

The conflict resolution center is a department of the University Counseling Center. Its mission is to provide all students with a comfortable environment for immediate mediation and to foster long-lasting voluntary resolution skills.

Most mediation are proctored by a third-party, namely a conflict resolution center fellow. Started in 2006, the fellows program was designed for students interested in conflict mediation and communication education. Fellows are responsible for conflict coaching services, outreach and initiative and university-wide efforts to enhance communication and conflict resolution skills.

However, if mediation fails, there is one last option – a room swap. Provided online by the GW Housing program, students unhappy with their residence can fill out a profile online. Once submitted, all other profiles can be viewed. Once a compatible room swap is found, the tow students submit a joint request to swap rooms.

For more information on roommate agreements, contact your house proctor. For more information on the conflict resolution center or room swapping, visit the GW Housing Program website here.

-Maeve Duggan