Law professor tapped for FTC post

Professor William Kovacic of the GW Law School was sworn in as a commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Jan. 4.

The Senate confirmed Kovacic, now one of five commissioners serving on the FTC, Dec. 17. All of the commissioners must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate before assuming their positions.

Kovacic said the two major responsibilities of the FTC are to enforce anti-trust laws, which promote competition in the economy, and to protect consumers.

“It is a source of great pride for us that one of ours is tapped for an FTC position,” said Frederick Lawrence, dean of the Law School.

“At the FTC, I plan to draw upon the excellent students I have come to know at GW,” Kovacic told The Hatchet in an e-mail. “One of my attorney advisors at the FTC will be a GW graduate from the Law School class of 2001. I hope to assist the FTC in recruiting GW Law School students to join the commission as junior attorneys or to participate in internship programs.

A professor at GW since 1999, Kovacic will not be teaching while he serves his seven-year term.

“I will greatly miss the classroom, the opportunity to get to know our students and the daily participation in the Law School’s wonderful community of scholars and administrative professionals,” Kovacic said.

-Leah Carliner

UVA nabs Semester at Sea

Nearby University of Virginia is now the official academic sponsor of the Semester at Sea program. The Dec. 20 announcement came about a month after GW withdrew as one of five finalists for the sponsorship.

“(Students) spend half their time on a ship learning and half their time in port seeing what they have learned about global politics, global psychology, global economy, global public health … I have talked to numerous students who have gone through this program, and I can tell you that the changes have been profound,” said Leigh Grossman, vice provost for International Affairs at UVA, in a news release.

The addition of the program comes in conjunction with a UVA commission on making the school a global presence while adding an international dimension to students’ academic experiences.

Donald Lehman, GW’s vice president of Academic Affairs, said the University passed on the program because of the difficulty it would have faced finding faculty members to commit to a 100-day cruise and GW’s differing opinion that study abroad should be total immersion rather than short stays in Americanized surroundings.

“(Participants) are basically living in an American environment,” Lehman said. “We investigated very thoroughly, and in the end we came to the conclusion (it) was not a good fit for either the Elliott School (of International Affairs) or the School of Business.”

-Lizzie Wozobski