Positive

Men’s basketball: After a dismal 2002-03 season, the men’s basketball team made a dramatic improvement, finishing with an 18-11 record and a National Invitational Tournament bid. With star-in-waiting Maureece Rice set to potentially join the young cast, GW could be looking at its first trip to the big dance in five years.

Famous people on campus: This year, GW played host to prominent politicians, from Colin Powell to John Kerry and Howard Dean. Each of these high-profile visits helps improve GW’s image as a rising star in the academic world.

Leaving Aramark: While the jury is still out on Colonial Cash, moving from Aramark service to independent venders has been great for students. Too bad Chipotle turned down a spot in Ivory Tower.

Mixed feelings:

Trimesters: The administration did a poor job of selling this controversial proposal to the student body. Regardless, the University will eventually need to find ways to generate the additional revenue required to sustain GW’s transition to being one of the top 50 colleges in the country.

RIAA lawsuits: While no one disputes the legality of person-to-person file sharing, the music industry needs to adapt to the times, and the University should look to develop a way for students to legally share music files.

Negative:

University Greek-letter policies: While the University claims to support Greek-letter expansion – through such initiatives as building Townhouse Row – its strict policies have hamstrung fraternities and sororities into not being able to have fun.

Student Association election scandals: Executive Vice President-elect Anyah Dembling’s alleged vote buying at the College Democrat endorsement hearing – and the resulting Joint Election Committee incompetence – helped to put a damper on one of the most upbeat SA election campaigns in history.

Friday classes: Admitting an increasing number of freshmen and aggressive University housing expansion without sufficient academic building has led to a serious classroom shortage. This shortage forced the University to begin offering more Friday classes; or perhaps it was merely a ploy by GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg to ease us into the seven-day-a-week calendar he secretly envisions.

Continued use of Social Security numbers: The University still claims it would cost a couple million dollars to switch from using SSNs for student identification. However, the increasing threat of identity theft should indicate that the change would be money well spent.