Kappa Sigma plans Jon Rizzo memorial service

The Kappa Sigma fraternity will host a candlelight vigil for Jonathan Rizzo Friday at 8 p.m. on Kogan Plaza.

“We wanted to do something to include the whole community and give us a sense of closure,” Kappa Sigma President Jon Guidroz said. “We want to let people know about his overall love of life and service to others and do something for those who couldn’t make it to the funeral.”

Guidroz said the event will include speeches by a couple of Rizzo’s close friends and a prayer by a pastor from the Newman Center.

“There has been a lot of positive talk about the event, and we are expecting hundreds of people,” said senior John Williams, a member of Kappa Sigma. “We want to remember his spirit and friendship and show what he meant to everyone.”

-Mosheh Oinounou

Groups party for unity

Several hundred students danced and enjoyed free food giveaways at “Where Da Party At???,” a soiree sponsored by two student groups at the Hippodrome Friday night.

The Black Student Union and Latinos for Progress hosted the party to reach their goal of unifying the campus by bringing together a wide variety of students.

Local radio station WPGC 95.5 co-sponsored the event, which drew about 500 students.

“GW is not known for on-campus socials and, with that in mind, this is a great turnout,” Multi-cultural Center Adviser Sandra Gutierrez said.

The BSU, founded in 1968, is one of the oldest campus organizations, BSU President Phillip Robinson said. He said the event’s main purpose was to encourage freshmen to get to know each other and upper classman through other means than a “typical icebreaker.”

The group earned a Pyramid Award in 2001 for the being the best registered association at GW. Robinson said he saw it as a significant stepping stone to accomplishing the levels of involvement and awareness that they desire.

BSU Vice President Tamika Smith agreed.

“(It) demonstrated the efforts to unify the GW community with support not only from GW, but from the entire city,” Smith said. She also said the BSU is not aimed solely at black students, but at the whole student body.

Latinos for Progress members said it is important to help minority students adjust to college life to encourage larger enrollment.

“Blacks and Latinos are dropping out of college at alarming rates and it is important to make people feel happy and socially adjusted,” Latinos for Progress President Erica Pinero said.

-Trevor Martin

Feminist group aims to integrate men

Women and men are invited to join the GW Feminists, a newly registered student group that intends to print a publication and educate the campus and community on women’s issues.

President and founder Heather Fink said she decided to start the group after searching through GW student groups and finding that there was no group that dealt specifically with on-campus women’s issues.

“We will have a very different focus from other feminist groups,” Fink said. “My goal is to have one-third to one-half of the members be males to be more representative of real society.”

She said the gender membership goal is realistic and will make a big difference in terms of the group’s popularity.

“People ask `how could a man be a feminist?’ but men can support reproductive rights and can support a lot of women’s causes,” Fink said.

GW already has a Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance group, but Fink said the GW Feminists will deal with more general issues than the FMLA. The groups will also try to dispel macho images of men, she said.

Fink plans to establish a GW Feminist magazine, which would include poetry and art. It wold allow students to be political and allow for debates on hot issues, she said.

Fink also said she hopes to form an executive board, which would research women’s status in a number of fields and report back to the group and eventually the campus. The first meeting is planned for this week.

-Mosheh Oinounou

PB, SA host Gradstock

About 500 graduate students hung out on the Quad Sunday, enjoying music and a barbecue during the first-ever Gradstock.

Coordinated by the Program Board and the Student Association, the event was intended to bring the University’s 11,000 graduate students together.

PB Executive Chair Alicia O’Neil said she was pleased with the turnout, and the event would be back next year.

O’Neil began planning the event last June with the help of SA Vice-President for Graduate Policy Randy Lizardo, PB Graduate Affairs Chair Becky Heider and SA Senator Maureen Benitz (G-CSAS). O’Neil said she thought the event would serve as a Welcome Week event for graduate students.

Lizardo said he enjoyed many University-sponsored events as an undergraduate and felt graduate students were “left by the way side” once he became a medical student.

Lizardo said he and other graduate students felt isolated law students because they only associate with other law and medical students. He hoped the event would give graduate students a chance to meet one another and become more involved in the University.

-Layla Schlack