Walking together

The 12th annual AIDS Walk Washington to benefit the Whitman-Walker Clinic is Oct. 4, and hundreds of people representing GW will be there. The GW AIDS Walk Team is more than just a community service event – it is a unique opportunity to promote unity on campus.

The GW AIDS Walk Team Committee is working to bring together students and faculty as well as break down the barriers between different student populations. Our goal and purpose is to unify the GW community while giving back to the D.C. community.

For the second consecutive year, the GW AIDS Walk Team Committee has worked to create one large team that represents all facets of the GW community. Last year’s team brought together about 600 participants and raised more than $8,000, proving that a unified team representing the entire GW community can do amazing things.

This year, the GW AIDS Walk Team Committee aims for 800 participants. To bring this many GW community members together to promote unity through community service, we need your help.

We also are asking student organizations and faculty departments to get involved. Please get your members involved. The mail-in registration forms we provide have our name and team number (#402) already on them. You can find them on the ground floor Marvin Center, the Office of Community Service in MC 414, Monroe Hall, several residence halls and other locations around campus.

You also can register on the Web at www.wwc.org/aidswalk, but please be sure to include our team name and number. If you already have registered and would like to join the team, please call 332-WALK and tell them you want to be a part of the GW team.

Oct. 4, hundreds of people from all areas of GW life will show Washington what community is all about. We hope you will join us for this once-a-year event.

-Michelle Proser GW AIDS Walk Team Committee member

CLLC programs not `secret’

It is unfortunate that the Community Host Initiative was viewed by a GW Hatchet editorial as “secret” (“Secret residents,” Sept. 10, p.4). We requested The Hatchet wait until our press release was available (which explained these new initiatives), but it chose not to do so.

The Community Living and Learning Center is excited about the Community Host Initiative (CHI). We have worked hard to creatively provide students with non-traditional residence hall programs and initiatives such as CHI, and the Community Standards Initiative – a GW program regarded nationally as one of the most creative and developmental approaches to teaching college students the skills of responsible citizenship and benefits of democratic governance.

To be accurate, staff for this pilot program did not receive apartments or spaces students have ever occupied. They are assigned to live in the hall’s staff apartment in order to do their Community Host work. This work directly impacts and benefits students. Door signs have been ordered so staff will be identifiable to community members and temporary door signs have been posted.

We will be working hard this year to make the new ideas successful realities and always welcome suggestions for programmatic improvements by all community members.

-Mike Walkersenior assistant dean, CLLC

Hooked on fonics

I was walking to the Foggy Bottom Metro station the other day and passed by Kennedy Onasiss Hall. Funny thing – the beautiful buff and blue GW flag in front of the building has Ms. Onassis’ name spelled incorrectly.

While President Trachtemberg (I am purposely spelling his name wrong) might think such a mistake is OK, I personally do not. It is a travesty to our University, its students and especially, to Ms. Onassis, a world-renowned former GW student. Something should be done immediately, not only because it is an embarrassment, but simply because it is sad.

-Robert Lucksophomore

Happiness is .

This summer, my few moments of happiness came from watching World Cup soccer games. Although baseball does not give me the same sort of jollies as soccer, there have been two exceptions.

The first was in 1995, when Cal Ripken played his 2,131st consecutive game. I was a freshman then and I recall how packed the Thurston Hall TV lounge was.

And the second exception was just a few days ago, on Labor Day, when Mark McGwire hit his 61st to tie Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in one season.

On his father’s 61st birthday, and as his son watched from the Cardinals’ dugout, McGwire’s 61st home run gave me some momentary happiness. I think everyone watching or listening experienced some happiness when the realization hit that this was history.

Like with Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire’s achievement comes as the natural result of consistent and disciplined effort, which how success is achieved, whether it’s sports or academics.

-Dileep Rajansenior

Staying put

Again, GW politics is pulling the wool over the eyes of naive students. I read “GW claims fraternity is nuisance to community” (Sept. 3, p.1) online and it made me sick.

As a former president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at GW, I know, as well as so many other Greeks who are current students or alumni, that we should have sued GW years ago for being a nuisance to fraternities.

Look around campus. What’s been happening to our school for the last ten years? We have hippos, professor gates, parks, ever-changing names of residence halls, but were there new fraternity houses or new Greek-letter anything?

I remember the Alpha Epsilon Pi house, the Phi Kappa Psi house, the Pi Kappa Alpha house, the Sigma Alpha Mu house, the list goes on and on. But they’re no longer around because our school will buy out any fraternity house or harass the members until they are banished, just to put up a flower garden to impress incoming students.

For you Greek-letter organizations out there who think the University is on your side, think again.

Remember our school president a couple of years ago said, “GW is a business that does a little education on the side.” Well he and his staff mean every word of it, and all the community service, campus positions and alcohol-free parties will not mean crap if you own property they want. Be prepared, as we were. The more the school harasses us, the bigger and better we get. Our national office backs us. This year is SAE’s 140th at GW and I’ll be back there wearing purple and gold.

Here’s my message to GW – the biggest house in the middle of campus is here to stay.

-Sean Duncan class of 1997