One little regret senior year

I am not necessarily proud to admit it, but I will:

In my four years at GW, I never got involved with the Student Association. And when I say involved, I mean I only voted in one election my junior year. Even in that election, I only knew a few candidates that I voted for.

Is it my fault for not taking initiative, or is it the fault of SA for not doing more to encourage student involvement. Honestly, I think it's my fault. Just look at election week, you can't get past the Marvin Center without collection a buffet of goodies with the candidates names plastered on.

I was speaking with Jason Lifton, our Vice President-elect, last week. We discussed the role of SA on campus and how much power the SA actually has to evoke change.

He said something that would seem common sense, but quite interesting--the following is not a direct quote:

It takes student support for an initiative to be successful. If enough students want something to get done, it will happen.

Just look at the Chipotle/Qdoba movement Paige Esterkin started. In about a week she had over 1,000 supporters on Facebook and got Sodexo to start serving burritos in J Street.

The administration is listening--and SA can't do everything on their own for us.

Looking back, I wish I had been a little more involved in student government. Maybe if I had, some of the things I griped about would have been changed.

The necessity of in-person advising

According to a GW Hatchet article published on March 5, the university is considering implementing an online advising system for students.

This newly proposed system would certainly provide students with easy access to simple information about major, credit, and other academic-related information, but it cannot be the primary point of contact for students. As the Hatchet's columnist Evan Schwartz argues:

Online advising would be a start to easing the advising process, but it should not replace the human contact necessary to feel like a part of an institution.

Schwartz is absolutely right. Students want to connect with people on campus, to be a part of the community, especially as freshmen. Connecting with a computerized advising system may actually leave students feeling disconnected.

Schwartz also suggests that incoming freshmen be assigned one advisor for all four years, so that students gain a foothold in the University during their first year, and then develop a relationship with that same advisor for the remainder of their time at GW. In addition, students would still be assigned a major advisor once declared, for guidance within their particular programs.

Longterm advisors are crucial, as they can better understand their students' personal and academic goals, how those goals change, and subsequently, what academic and professional options will best fit the students. Moreover, students who forge strong relationships with advisors may be more inclined to reach out to someone who knows them well, if in need of help.

Although I never received a four-year advisor, I have been lucky enough to develop excellent relationships with a few professors who have acted as unofficial advisors and mentors, providing me with guidance and advice both in and outside of the classroom. They have greatly impacted my outlook on life, and I look forward to maintaining these relationships once I graduate in May.

I strongly believe that every college student should have an opportunity to interact with an excellent advisor or mentor, and in-person, four-year advising is the best way to ensure that each student makes the most out of their college experience.

Runoff candidates to face off here on GWblogspot! Submit your questions today!

Get Excited Everyone!

GWBlogspot will host a live streaming-video debate between the last SA Presidential candidates standing on Monday at 9 p.m. This will likely be the only debate of the run-off.

Don't miss your final opportunity to vet these candidates. This is a chance to ask questions that were not discussed before the elections last week, and we need your help deciding what to ask.

In the last SA debate on GWBlogspot, you chose fiscal responsibility and accountability as some of the top topics, and candidates wrote detailed answers to your questions.

For Monday's live video debate, we want to know what other pressing issues you feel should be addressed before one of these top candidates is elected President.

Please post your questions on the blog and join us on Monday night for this exciting opportunity. (To sign up for an email reminder before the debate, click here.)

Don't Get Stranded this Weekend

This weekend marks the jump back into Daylight savings time and the Washingotn Post has reminded us that this could effect the weekend plans of many GW students. If students plan on using the metro this weekend, be aware that the time change comes into effect at 2 AM sunday morning (right as some students are venturing back to foggy bottom). The normal weekend closing time for the Metro is usually around 3 AM. But once it hits 2 AM

"Metro will spring foward along with everyone else, and it will become 3 a.m., Metrorail's weekend closing time"

So GW students (and anyone else who reads this blog) be aware of the time change and plan your weekend schedule accordingly. Unless you want to get stuck with the cab fare back to GDubs, set your watch an hour early in the beginning of the night or stay within the 4-Ride zone.

No credit where credit was due

I appreciate the SA Presidential candidates so heavily engaging in our GWBlogSpot online debate (see: lefthand sidebar) and showing their support for student media other than The Hatchet.

However, not as much can be said for our school's "independent newspaper."

I was disappointed to see that Hatchet Reporter Emily Cahn's story regarding campaign complaints against Kyle Boyer did not reference The GW Patriot, the student-run media outlet which broke the story in the first place.

Our own Andrew Perez gave extensive credit to The GW Patriot in his post on the subject.

Props to The GW Patriot for breaking a great story. Thumbs up to Andrew for giving them credit for doing so. Shame on The Hatchet for their willful ignorance of other campus media.

Re-Rebuttal (The anatomy of a California winter)

This is a kind of overly sarcastic (but well-meaning) rebuttal to Owen's post (in response to my original post) earlier about the true nature of the East Coast winter.

Dear Owen (and all you GW New-Englanders),

I think I see your problem. It is that you don't know the truth about California (the greatest state in the Union). Here is a little rundown. You make a lot of claims about California. First off, we do have weather - it is just better than yours. You make the naive assumption that Los Angeles' "'warm' and 'hot'" is the only temperature in California. Let me inform you that even Los Angeles has more than warm and hot. We might not get to the "I'm freezing and must wear 4 layers to simply walk outside" cold, but it gets chilly every once in a while. You so eloquently write

"We get sad if the weather rises above 32 degrees. How is this possible? It's called "layering," and only some situations call for it - maybe this will help you put in context the snide comments you may her from us northeasterners about you and your over-tanned brethren as you all brave nearly 40 degree temperatures with nothing but a thick down jacket, a heavy sweater, and big black waterproof boots to protect you from an inch of slush on the almost 2-block journey from dorm to classroom."

Let me begin to say that my walk to class is always a 5+ block trek. And layering is great, its grand, but I prefer my flip-flops on a February morning. And you may mock my people for over layering but at least we do it with a little Hollywood style and pizzaz (please explain to me what the point of those boat shoes your New Englanders always wear ...... they are one step above crocks). You call us over-tanned but that is just because you are pale. White, colorless, blinding walking bodies of pigment. 

But guess what! We have something in common. I have been checking the weather forecasts for when I go home too! For what you ask?!?! For the surf report. Thats right, surfing, the ultimate argument in the "California kicks New-England's ass" debate. In the spirit of the Beach Boys, the quintessential west coast pastimes of cruising the glassy waves of the Pacific, which I can do in March, I will take out my 10 foot Stewart longboard and rides the day away.

However, I still have not answered your question.

"Plus... when do you ski?"

I don't ski .... I snowboard. I take a nice day-trip to Mammoth or Big Bear, grab some breakfast along the grapevine (ok you don't actually take the grapevine up to mammoth but I am using it for arguments sake) and then hit the slopes. Because we can do that in California. And if I was really ambitious, I could snowboard, surf, and atv across the desert all in the span of one glorious day of January California sunshine. Just let the Governator tell you ..... (or if you are not a terminator fan, listen to my main man Clint). 

And to answer your final question, I never had the same type of childhood experience as you did. I made sandcastles, body-surfed, buried my friends neck deep in the sand, and ate too much sand for my own good. I also hiked up the Santa Monica mountains, visited the California redwoods, kayaked down the Colorado river (which is in California if you didn't already know), and sailed the majestic Pacific ocean. I will close with some words from my Californian brethren, that prove once and for all that California is the greatest place in these United States. 

Well east coast girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And the southern girls with the way they talk
They knock me out when Im down there

The mid-west farmers daughters really make you feel alright
And the northern girls with the way they kiss
They keep their boyfriends warm at night

I wish they all could be california
I wish they all could be california
I wish they all could be california girls

The west coast has the sunshine
And the girls all get so tanned
I dig a french bikini on hawaii island
Dolls by a palm tree in the sand

I been all around this great big world
And I seen all kinds of girls
Yeah, but I couldnt wait to get back in the states
Back to the cutest girls in the world

I wish they all could be california
I wish they all could be california
I wish they all could be california girls

I wish they all could be california
(girls, girls, girls yeah I dig the)
I wish they all could be california
(girls, girls, girls yeah I dig the)
I wish they all could be california
(girls, girls, girls yeah I dig the)
I wish they all could be california
(girls, girls, girls yeah I dig the)

Storm of the Day (or, "Speaking of dramatic, watch me call out every GW student who has ever complained about snow.")

This is a kind of overly sarcastic (but well-meaning) rebuttal to Daniel Wolman's post earlier about his Angeleno take on local complaints about weather.

Dear Daniel (and the west coast/southern GW population as a whole):

I think I see your problem. You're hanging out with too many weaksauce New Englanders. The way I can tell this is that they allowed themselves to be "snowed in," as if that's a real thing that actually happens to people. When the roads aren't clear enough for motor travel, those are your prime fort-building/snowball-fighting/sledding/general-winter-frolicking hours. Feeling lazy? Well, if you're in New England, and it's winter, and you didn't stock up on hot chocolate and firewood beforehand, you have no one but yourself to blame. Point is, you can't waste your heavy-snowfall time with complaining, though I guess there's no way for an LA kid to know that. You probably don't even understand why I've been checking the two-week weather forecast for back home, hoping for below-freezing temperatures over spring break. It's called skiing, and it's awesome.* (side note: Okemo and Stowe are looking reasonably promising, though Mad River is probably pretty much done for the year.)

The truth is, you don't even have weather in Southern California. You just have "warm" and "hot." Coming from the humid, sweaty, polluted armpit of America as you do, though, I wouldn't expect you to know that in normal places, we have, what's the word, seasons. 65 degree days in December aren't so great; in fact, they're useless. I get plenty of those in the spring and fall. Plus... when do you ski?

In Western Massachusetts, most people get excited about the first snow, and are disappointed if the weather warms again and it melts away. Yeah. We get sad if the weather rises above 32 degrees. How is this possible? It's called "layering," and only some situations call for it - maybe this will help you put in context the snide comments you may hear from us northeasterners about you and your over-tanned brethren as you all brave nearly 40 degree temperatures with nothing but a thick down jacket, a heavy sweater, and big black waterproof boots to protect you from an inch of slush on the almost 2-block journey from dorm to classroom. Also: in winter 1996, I was 6 years old, and about four feet tall. We got 5 and a half feet of snow. Did your childhood at any point feature freaking awesome snow tunnels to everywhere, that you could travel through standing straight?


(Also, as a final note, I think you may have mistaken the nature of the complaint of your friend and my fellow Western Massachusettsian: the problem with DC snow is that it's too freaking WARM here for it to be enjoyable. See, when snowfall is immediately preceded by t-shirt weather, it melts on contact with the unfrozen ground. Hence, "disgusting, cold, wet white crap.")


*You know, even if you're kind of mediocre at it, like me.