Well Someone's Wrong About GW's Eco-Friendliness

Not long ago, USA Today sang the praises of GW's Green Move-In and our supposedly eco-friendly campus.

What a difference a week makes. Now the Hatchet reports the Sierra Club has called the USA Today report - pardon the pun - garbage.

GW was named as one of the schools that "failed to implement policies to fight climate change." Sierra Club's lifestyle editor, Josie Garthwaite, sums up the entire GW experience in one pithy quote:

"What we were measuring was accomplishments," Garthwaite said. "We were not measuring aspirations."

My green tip of the day - never recycle anything at Carvings. At the end of the day, they take the bag from the recycling bin and place it in the regular trash bag to throw away with the other garbage. Your recycling efforts are thwarted by lazy workers wearing a ganja hat (the only thing "green" about that place).

What do you think? Is GW a green campus or not?

Whenever You Get E-Mail from Soapy Joe's...

...seriously, do your own freaking laundry. Freshmen beware, it's pretty much another e-mail scam. You'd have to do roughly 74 loads of laundry - about 5 loads a week, wash and dry - to equal their cheapest plan of $185 a semester. Do you do that much laundry?

Not to mention, I know a friend who had nearly her entire wardrobe stolen when she left her bag outside for Soapy Joe's. Someone just walked by, picked it up, and took it.

Can anyone justify them? Is it worth it to any of you?

Wanted: SMPA Advisors

For all the things the SMPA program has- small class sizes, talented faculty, and state-of-the-art equipment, this is one area in which the program needs improvement.

Currently, SMPA has ZERO staff members whose primary function is to counsel the 400+ students in the School of Media and Public Affairs.

While I've found that the professors who are assigned to advising duties are generally pretty interested and able to help students meet their academic and professional goals, it just becomes a question of time. Professors are expected to teach multiple sections AND serve as an advisor to sometimes upwards of 100 students!

This is unfair on all sides; firstly to advisees who battle long lines just to meet with their advisors. Secondly, to all SMPA students who have limited access to their professors who have secondary obligations as SMPA advisors. Thirdly, the current system places an unreasonable strain on SMPA faculty. We only have a handful of them anyway; why not better capitalize on what they bring to the classroom and for which they were actually hired?

I suggest bringing in a couple fulltime advisors for SMPA. I know it sounds revolutionary but hey, CCAS finally got a few, ESIA has them, and don’t get me started on the impeccable roadmap business majors have at their disposal.

I am lucky enough now to have access to the undisputedly best advisor in SMPA, which has really helped me to grasp what a true disadvantage it is to students without a similar resource.

I’m interested to hear if this is something more people would like to see, or maybe if there are already alternative resources that SMPA majors can take advantage of on campus.

USA Today Gives Props To GW

GW gets some well-deserved recognition for it's Greenness:

Students arriving on campus this month are seeing green — and not just from the money they're spending on tuition.

For example, students coming to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., will start their school year with the university's first "Green Move-In."

Rose Dunnegan, the university's property manager, says the program follows the success of last semester's "Green Move-Out." Student and staff volunteers recycled thousands of pounds of clothing, household items, food and "e-cycling" materials, including cellphones, batteries and computer parts, Dunnegan says.

The Green Move-In includes:

•An online check-in system is an alternative to the paper forms usually distributed to students who move into the dorm rooms.

• Laminated posters with maps and campus information will be posted in residence halls instead of being distributed on paper.

• The university's bookstore will sell reusable grocery bags and clothing made from recycled and organic materials.

• Students are encouraged to pack items in reusable containers.

• There will be designated recycling areas for moving boxes.

If you're not a grizzled college graduate like me, take part in the Green Move-In and show some love for your planet.

OMG my room is naked!

A few tips to dress up your space.

An old comforter, temperamental alarm clock, and beaded curtains that proved far more trouble than they were worth: basically, my freshman year dorm decorating scheme.
I laughed all-knowingly as peers raced to Target and online sites like rhl.org for things they had obviously lived without just fine up until college season.
But now I find myself entering junior year with the insatiable need to purge myself of all my old crap and figure out how to create a comfortable living space like everyone else did freshman year.

So, to freshman, and all other ambitious redecorators, some suggestions:

1. Good bedding

My roommate came to college with the most comfortable down comforter I’ve ever had the fortune to come in contact with and now, after two years of active envying, I’m getting one too!

After a lot of research, I’ve learned you can get high-quality down comforters for $30-$50 on eBay and Overstock.com.


*Get a duvet cover (pillowcase for your comforter) if you are prone to spilling things.

Pick up a comfortable body pillow or arm chair, and you’ll honestly never want to get out of bed (which may or may not be a good thing).

2. iHome Alarm Clock/Radio

It’s worth it, if only to hear something other than that hideous default alarm beep on your cell phone.
Get it for $60 from Office Max (I know it’s weird, but who can complain about half price?)

It’s great to have background noise on when your friends are over and the sound quality is so much better than your laptop speakers.

Sometimes you can score a good deal on eBay too. I’d give you a link, but eBay tells me I’m “currently the highest bidder” and I’m feeling a bit territorial :).

3. IKEA

I just spent the last half hour browsing through my 2009 catalog. By far the best place to for really cheap (but good quality) brightly-colored sheets, towels, organizers, and kitchen supplies.

Hope this helped! Feel free to leave questions/suggestions~!

"Capitol Hills" Looks Official, Will Air After Project Runway on Lifetime

The oft-rumored DC reality show based loosely off MTV's "The Hills" will finally become a reality when filming starts this September. The show's slated for a November debut on Lifetime immediately after Project Runway.

Meet Alexa Johnson, Krista Johnson, Katherine Kennedy, and Sophie Pyle. Unlike The Hills, though, these ladies don't have the intelligence of a brick. Katherine runs her own PR shop (with actual clients) and Sophie dabbles in web design. As for the Johnson sisters? Well, their names are far too generic to show up on the first page of Google.

Given these girls' looks and the level of douchebaggery from the guys in these photos from Sophie, I'm predicting a show very similar to The Hills. Expect more on these girls as the air date nears.

Thoughts???

[via Yeas & Nays]

Gmail is down -- open thread

How is Gmail being down affecting your life, your workplace, your school?

Vent or be philosophical here.

AlertDC

After reading all of the controversial comments on Kayla Howe's most recent blog post, I came across a comment from anonymous that said: "I liked gwblogspot a lot better before it was overrun by incoming freshman who are desperately clinging to their ideal picture of college life. Its amusing to see how misguided they are, but its also getting a bit tedious. I don't think I'll visit this blog anymore if there's one more entry which can be summed up as 'I'm excited for college!'"

So, I decided I'd find something different to blog about. On GWBlogspot, we've already covered the most recent news: the transition to our new email server, the new CI, moving, and the excitement for school beginning. So just as I found myself wondering what else there is to blog about, my phone vibrated as an email came through.  It happened to be from "AlertDC", informing me of a power outage that had affected a few houses in Adams Morgan.

Basically, if you don't have AlertDC sending you either texts or emails, check it out.  It's awfully useful for transportation updates, city-wide celebrations, road blocks, weather, and more.

See you all soon!

Verdict: 74% say CI was awesome or good!

All summer, GWBlogspot.com's had an online poll about people's experience at Colonial Inauguration.

Today, the verdict is in:

• 74% say their CI experience was awesome or good.
  
• 25% say awful or nothing special.

Interesting fact: Before this year's CI sessions began, and only upper-classmen were voting, the poll was split nearly evenly across all 4 options. After CI began, "awesome" and "good" gained steam.

So, what does that mean? Was this year's CI was much better than years past? Do people's fond memories of CI retroactively get dimmer? Are the upper-classmen who read this blog just cranky old curmudgeons? :) What do you think?

Changing people's email address on them: Always cool.

From an email sent today by Ronald C. Bonig, GWU Vice President and Chief Information Officer. I'm 90% certain this email address change was not necessary to convert to Gmail:

As you might have heard, we have introduced a third party email system for students and alumni - we will now be utilizing the Google Mail interface. This is a vital component of ensuring a successful academic and social experience for our students. All student accounts will change from NetID@gwu.edu to NetID@gwmail.gwu.edu.

Quiz: Which of these is the worst idea?

A) Changing people's email addresses on them.
B) Making people's email addresses longer.
C) Using both "GW" and "GWU" in an email address.
D) All of the above.