An Evening with Rupert Murdoch: Posponed

I had previously wrote about Rupert Murdoch's appearance on the new installment of the Kalb Report. Due to the recent snow, however, the event, originally scheduled on Feb. 9, was postponed. The Hatchet wrote that "the even has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 6," according to the Director of the Global Media Institute Michael Freedman.

The Hatchet also wrote:

Students with ticket reservations for Feb. 9 will have the first opportunity to get tickets for the rescheduled date, Freedman said. After those students have the chance, others will be able to reserve any remaining tickets.

It will definitely be an interesting talk for those who are curious to hear about the media mogul's take on the internet and the future of the media. So make sure to get the tickets!

A President Who Will Fight

Finally we have a president who will fight for us. One who will stare down the enemy. One who will never accept defeat. No, I'm not talking about Barack Obama. I'm talking about GW President Steve Knapp. With four days without classes, and plenty of snow, it was only natural that dozens, if not hundreds, of snowball fights occurred. On Wednesday, GW battled Georgetown in one of the bigger fights during Snowpocalypse. It was over before it started.

With over 200 Colonials showing up, the approximately 75 Georgetown students never stood a chance. As President Knapp was surely one of the few administrators left on campus, it was good to see him trek to the snowball fight and join the students in victory.

Knapp has tried to become a more visible presence on campus this year, helping students during the fall move-in and joining in on the official days of service that have occurred during the year. My message to President Knapp is simple: Keep It Up.

Back to Business

Now that the snow is behind us, and in most cases still underfoot, DC and GW can finally get back to normal. Although we are expecting more snow on President’s Day Monday, it is already a University Holiday and there will be no more days off for snow, at least this week.

The makeup schedule (below) is announced and will probably cause at least a little bit controversy as it takes away reading days and moves classes from Thursday, February 11 to Saturday May 1. But this is what is expected, there is nowhere else to makeup the classes, and what each individual professor does with his or her classes is the decision of each professor.

Monday, Feb. 8, canceled classes to be held on Tuesday, April 27 (Regular Makeup Day);
Tuesday, Feb. 9, canceled classes to be held on Thursday, April 29 (Reading Day 1);
Wednesday, Feb. 10, canceled classes to be held on Friday, April 30 (Reading Day 2);
Thursday, Feb. 11, canceled classes to be held on Saturday, May 1.

Snowmageddon is over, Snowmageddon II is past, it is now time for the city and the university to get back to normal before graduation is moved.

Photo Credit 1

Forget Valentine's Day!

For all of you suffering from cabin fever, I may have a solution to some of your problems: Mardi Gras! Do not let the snow hold you back. Coming from the second largest celebration area in the U.S., St. Louis, and having family in New Orleans, it's hard not to appreciate this "holiday." Mardi Gras, also known as Carnival, refers to "Fat Tuesday," the last night of eating "fattier," more delicious foods before Lent. While D.C. may not have the parades, beads or overall craziness like New Orleans, there are still a few ways to have fun here.

For those underage, look up a recipe for king cake...don't forget the plastic baby and have a Mardi Gras dinner. Try some dishes like gumbo, jambalaya or shrimp creole. Another popular dish is beignets, but if that seems too tough, stick to pancakes (you can even use frozen ones). Make everyone dress in purple, green and yellow, and throw yourself a party.

For those ready to celebrate, Mardi Gras Madness begins at 8 PM tonight in Falls Church. Clarendon will have a local parade on the actual Fat Tuesday, February 16 at 8 PM. Rumors (19th & M) will hold it's Annual Bourbon Street Bash beginning at 4 PM on the 16th. Or try out Lulu's Club Mardi Gras (1217 22nd St.) for Cajun food and I'm pretty sure a celebration for the next week. So, grab some masks and beads, and have some more fun this 11-day weekend!

Boycott GW's Lousy Make-Up Schedule?

MadTwomey already wrote a great post about GW's lame make-up schedule (shout-out, by the way, to a fellow Connnecticuter who has never seen snow so poorly handled), but I felt the need to chime in as well because this is really bothering me.

This new schedule completely eliminates our reading days - not only that, but it also goes so far as to steal one of our weekend days, the Saturday before exams start.  The GW administration might think all we do on the weekends is drink, but the weekend before finals, most of us actually study for our exams.  Forcing us to go to class right up until two days before exams start is going to severely affect our performance on said exams.

There's already a Facebook group condemning the decision:

GWU made an executive decision to cancel classes due to the record snowfall. They have a responsibility to their student-customers to rearrange the semester schedule responsibly. Elongate the semester, change the final exam schedule or format - but don't punish your students by taking away their study days or weekends, harming their academic performance. A make-up day is a fine time to hold missed classes, but don't take away our reading days. In protest of this senseless new policy, the members of this group will protest by boycott, and refuse to attend class on reading days or a Saturday. More study days and better final exam grades are worth more than a few missed classes on designated reading days stolen from the student body by a university which refuses to lose a small fraction of their exorbitant profits by adding a few days to the semester.

Facebook groups are an easy way to show disgust with a stupid policy, and boycotts may be fun (especially when they involve not going to class), but will either of these tactics really result in a change to the make-up schedule?

The Mystery of GW Mail

Of course, the big news this week was GW shutting down due to the second (or third if you count December’s) snowpocalypse—classes cancelled, academic buildings shut down, Gelman operating on partial hours. Some buildings did remain open though, hot spots like Hell Well and the Fishbowl.

Among the closed sectors of the university was GW’s Package Services, the central portal where all GW students living on campus have packages shipped. After the first storm, I ordered snow boots, and they were scheduled to arrive this past Wednesday, when we got our second dose of snow. I figured their arrival would be delayed. How could anyone sign for them at Package Services if it was closed?

Surprisingly, after following my boots’ UPS tracking number, it said the boots were successfully delivered and signed for on Thursday; yet upon calling the university’s concierge service, they informed me that Package Services was indeed closed. So did packages still get successful delivered , but students fail to receive delivery notification?

And what about all of the other mail? I haven’t received mail in my dorm since last Thursday, while friends living off-campus have received mail. Why isn’t GW’s mail system as effective?

Did you experience any headaches not receiving mail/packages this past week?

The Problem with the Make-up Snow-edule... Er... Schedule

We all knew what was to come this past Monday when Friday’s snowstorm still looked fresh, plows had given up, and classes were canceled. (To be clear, I think GW did a fantastic job ensuring its students were safe, warm and busy this week, with its maintenance staff working around the clock, as the Hatchet so kindly pointed out. But I’m from Connecticut. If Manhattan had gotten 26" overnight, no trace of it would be seen by the next morning.)

Despite the fun of having four snow days in a row (and totaling, for those who have no Friday classes, to be an eleven-day weekend), academics were certainly impacted. I spent every day in the library trying to stay on top of my work and preparing for the papers and projects I could only assume would be on schedule for next week. By Monday night’s announcement to cancel Tuesday’s classes, I was anxious to receive emails from my professors outlining what readings and homework we were expected to have completed.

Finally, the University announced the following end-of-year schedule in an email at 8:35 p.m. last night:

Monday, Feb. 8, canceled classes to be held on Tuesday, April 27 (Regular Makeup Day); 


Tuesday, Feb. 9, canceled classes to be held on Thursday, April 29 (Reading Day 1); 


Wednesday, Feb. 10, canceled classes to be held on Friday, April 30 (Reading Day 2); 


Thursday, Feb. 11, canceled classes to be held on Saturday, May 1.

The original schedule was as follows:

Make-up Classes (T) April 27

Designated Monday/Last Day of Spring semester classes (W) April 28

Reading Days (R-F) April 29-30

FINAL EXAMINATIONS (M-T) May 3-11

As a junior at GW, I’ve come to appreciate our "reading days." Some schools only have one. Some schools don’t have any. Some schools, like University of North Carolina at Asheville, became outraged when theirs were being taken away (see their Facebook group's picture above). With the old schedule, we had four days to prepare for finals. Four days to, yes, let loose, relax and see friends, but mostly, study hard in Gelman. It’s a necessary vacation.

With the new schedule, we lose those reading days we've come to love. We’ll be in class on Saturday, and have only Sunday free before finals begin on Monday.

I understand Snowmageddon had to be responded to, and I understand that because this amount of snow is not ordinary, GW didn’t have a policy in place to deal with it. But I don’t think making up every single day was necessary. Because we missed Monday—Thursday and most classes are on a M-W(-F) or T-R schedule, we should only have to make up one Monday and one Tuesday. Monday could have been made-up on the originial makeup day, Tuesday, and Tuesday could have been made-up on Thursday, Reading Day 1, keeping in place Wednesday’s designated Monday schedule. I’m sure both students and professors could have adapted to missing a day or two of class, nixing just one assignment and one assigned reading.

But even with the schedule I proposed, there will be issues. Are professors going to be teaching new material in the two (T-R) or four (M-W) classes we have in the last week—only a few days before the final exam?

This schedule is just going to end up stressing us all out, even more, during finals week.