Student group offers new political viewpoint

A prospective GW student organization will bring a new view on the Middle East conflict to campus.

The Middle Eastern Christian Student Alliance, which is applying for official recognition from the Student Association, promotes social awareness of Christians in the Middle East, founder Adam Ramey said.

“The Christians of the Middle East have become the third wheel instead of becoming the third dimension,” he said. “There is a tendency to oversimplify the problems facing the region without any regard to anything in the middle.”

Ramey said his organization is nonpartisan and open to students of all races and religions.

Several Muslim students said while they think the organization will be a positive addition to campus, they are concerned about its cultural affiliation.

“Arab Christians have a unique identity, and there should be some association where they could express their identity,” law student Fadi Kiblawi said. “Co-sponsoring an Israeli event would push away Arab Christians that would not take that same political line.”

“Giving (the group) a religious tone would possibly create underlying tensions between different religious groups that are supposed to facilitate dialogue,” sophomore Omar Ghumrawi said.

Ramey said religion is pertinent to the political issues the group will address.

“Religion and politics aren’t separate entities,” he said. “They are married, or at least cousins.”
–Zahra Malik

Business School earns honor

The School of Business and Public Management was recently dubbed a “school on the cutting edge” by two think tank organizations. This is the fourth consecutive year the school received the award.

The Aspen Institute and The World Resources Institute handed out the award, which recognized GW’s Master of Business Administration program, earlier this month. The honor is part of the organizations’ biennial report, “Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003.”

“Our dozens of courses, research projects and special events in these areas are the result of the significant efforts of many SBPM students, faculty, administrators, alumni and other stakeholders,” said Mark Starik, associate professor and director of the GW Strategic Management and Public Policy Environmental and Social Sustainability Initiative, in an e-mail.

Out of the top six schools, only GW, the University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received the award for four consecutive years. This year’s other three “cutting edge” schools are Stanford University, Yale University and York College.
–Elizabeth Chernow

ESIA to host Asian conference

About 200 students and educators are expected to attend a series of panel discussions this weekend as part of an Asian studies conference hosted by GW. Interested students can e-mail [email protected].

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies, part of the Elliott School of International Affairs, will sponsor the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies 32nd-annual conference. This year’s theme is Mobile Global Asia.

Dozens of panels will be held throughout the two-day event, covering a range of topics from modern and classical Asian history to technology.

“They are going to look at modern and traditional aspects of Asia,” professor Molly Frost said.
–Andrea Nurko