Law School awaits dean appointment
The University has not made a decision about who will replace current dean Law School Dean Jack Friedenthal, who resigns in June to take a one-year sabbatical.
The Dean Search Committee recommended three candidates for the position to GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg in May, said Scott Mory, Student Bar Association president.
“We’re just waiting for him to decide which one he’ll choose and which one we’ll accept,” Mory said.
In selecting the candidates, the committee looked for someone with academic distinction, administrative ability, fundraising skills and the personality to lead a large faculty, said Dean for Academic Affairs Roger Transgrud in October.
-Kathryn Maese
Kosher Cafe closes at end of semester
The Kosher Cafe, offered through the Hillel Jewish Student Center, will close at the end of the semester, said Rabbi Gerald Serotta.
The dining option provided students with food prepared by a cook trained in the kosher sanitation rules practiced in the Jewish faith. The future of the cafe could remain up in the air until the end of the summer, but the University will provide some type of kosher option for students next semester, Serotta said.
The cafe served students for 10 years, but only in the past two years has GW Hillel operated the service, Serotta said.
Aramark and other vendors privately operated the cafe for the University until two years ago, and financial problems again will induce GW to look to a private operator, he said.
“With the encouragement of the University, we will find a private operator,” Serotta said. “We have a potential person but we are not certain yet.”
“I look forward to finding out what is happening next year,” said Daniel Schreck, a student on the kosher meal plan, in an e-mail to administrators.
Schreck questioned whether future kosher meals offered to students will be prepared by a trained kosher cook.
“Will prepared and prepackaged meals be brought in from an outside source and simply heated?” he asked. “Quality is very much an important factor, not just mere availability.”
-Shruti Dat?
Deputy attorney general to speak at law school graduation
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be the featured speaker at the GW Law School’s Commencement Sunday, the University announced.
Holder has served in one of the Department of Justice’s top spots since 1997 and is the highest-ranking African American in law enforcement in United States history, according to a University press release.
A graduate of Columbia University Law School, Holder clerked at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense Fund and in the Justice Department’s criminal division while he was a student.
President George Bush tapped Holder for an associate judgeship in the D.C. Superior Court in 1988. Five years later, President Bill Clinton nominated him for the job of U.S. Attorney in the nation’s capital.
The law school will hold its Commencement Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the Smith Center.
-Becky Neilson
John Glenn to bring stories of space to GW
Sen. John Glenn will discuss his journeys to space at a GW symposium on space research May 21.
GW’s Space Policy Institute will sponsor the “Space Day” symposium – a day of seminars and presentations on topics like health-related space research, NASA research and women’s health, and preparing for a space station era.
Glenn is a former astronaut and was chosen by NASA to return to space last winter.
The symposium is being held in collaboration with Research! America and the Society for the Advancement of Women’s Health Research.
Space Day will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Marvin Center theater. Registration is free, but limited. To register, e-mail [email protected] or call 994-7292.
-Becky Neilson
GW to recognize government service
GW will honor a dozen outstanding young men and women in federal government when it presents the Arthur S. Flemming Awards June 11.
The awards, presented for the first time in 1948, were established by the D.C.’s Downtown Jaycees to honor Flemming’s 70-year career in the federal government and higher education.
This year marks the first time the University will present the awards, according to a University press release.
The 1998 recipients represent federal agencies around the city including the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the General Accounting Office.
Melchor Antunano, John Creighton, Robert Dacey, Margaret Wrightson, Christopher DellaCorte, Jerry Hatfield, Cynthia Moore, Mary Katherine Walker Simmons, David Douds, Vernon Ellingstad, Carol Tan Esse and Timothy Tarver will receive Flemming Awards at a black-tie dinner in the Marvin Center Ballroom June 11.
-Becky Neilson
GW Health Plan names new chief
Stanley Aronovitch will head the GW Health Plan as its new chief executive.
Aronovitch took the helm last month, replacing Norm Scott, who served as acting CEO for more than a year.
“Given Dr. Aronovitch’s outstanding 25-year career in health plan management, and his superior accomplishments at some of the leading managed care plans in the nation . I am quite enthusiastic about his acceptance of this position at GWUHP,” GW Vice President for Health Affairs John Williams said in a GW Medical Center press release.
Aronovitch comes to GW from the West Coast – he was senior vice president of the community care division of San Diego’s Sharp HealthCare for the last four years. He served as Sharp’s president for three years before that and reached enrollment, productivity and service goals in the health plan’s top spot.
“I am excited about the opportunity to lead such a fine organization as the GWU Health Plan and be a part of the GW Medical Center, a dynamic and progressive academic health center,” Aronovitch said in a press release.
Aronovitch earned his bachelor’s degree from Baltimore’s Loyola College and his Ph.D. in medical care organization and hospital administration at Johns Hopkins University.
-Becky Neilson
Adams Hall officially renamed
Adams Hall was officially renamed Lafayette Hall Friday, after the University agreed last fall to postpone the name change until the end of the academic year.
The new plaque and bust, which had been covered for months, were unveiled without a ceremony. The University renamed the development office adjacent to Rice Hall the “John Quincy Adams House” and placed a new bust and plaque in front of the building.
Students protested last October when the University announced it would change the name of the freshman residence hall during family weekend. Students organized a sit-in in Adams Hall and met with GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who agreed to hold off the renaming until Commencement weekend.
-Matt Berger
America’s Gate built to honor Cuban immigrant
GW administrators Friday dedicated America’s Gate, recently built on 22nd Street in honor of University trustee Emilio A. Fernandez.
The gate is part of GW’s Mid-Campus Quad Project, a plan to aesthetically enhance and improve the nine-block area bordered by I and F streets, and 20th and 23rd streets.
Fernandez came to the United States from Cuba in the early 1960s, after Fidel Castro’s rise to power. He earned his master’s degree in engineering at GW in 1976.
“Fernandez came through America’s gateway to freedom at the age of 16 with a suitcase and a dream,” a University press release said.
Fernandez contributed $200,000 to GW to create America’s Gate, which he said should symbolize the opportunities immigrants can find in the United States.
In addition to the newly-erected gate, event space and two driveways that will serve Gelman Library and Lisner Auditorium will be constructed this summer, said Michelle Honey, director of architecture, engineering and construction.
-Francesca Di Meglio
Phi Sigma Kappa close to returning to campus
Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity has been given support from the Interfrat
ernity Council to return to campus this fall after a year-long suspension for violating IFC rush rules.
A majority of the IFC’s Presidents’ Council voted to bring Phi Sigma Kappa back to good standing. The fraternity is awaiting official word from the University that it has been allowed back on campus.
The fraternity lost University recognition last fall by allegedly holding a social gathering for incoming freshmen during Colonial Inauguration in the summer, a violation of rush rules. Fraternities are not permitted to hold functions that might attract freshmen before official rush begins because it might give them an unfair advantage over other IFC organizations.
Since the fraternity’s suspension last fall, Phi Sigma Kappa members have proven themselves worthy of recognition by improving their GPAs and doing community service projects, said Phi Sigma Kappa executive board member Jeff Meil.
Phi Sigma Kappa gave a presentation to the IFC Presidents’ Council the week before the vote, highlighting the improvements made by members of the fraternity.
IFC President Neil Smith declined to comment.
-Francesca Di Meglio
