Women in engineering

The number of women in the engineering program jumped to 39 percent this year, a 3 percent increase from last year. In a field dominated by men, and one in which only 18.1 percent of undergraduate engineers nationwide are women, it is encouraging to see GW establish itself as a national leader diminishing the gender gap. The School of Engineering and Applied Science is in flux right now as it waits for the completion of its new building. But if this increase is any indication of what Science and Engineering Hall will look like in the next several decades, the school has a bright future ahead.

Halloween

Candy corn and pumpkin patches, fall foliage and chilly weather: Halloween has arrived at last. It’s too bad though that this year’s holiday will fall right in the middle of the week. But let’s be honest. Students won’t miss a chance to get drunk and go trick-or-treating.

In the buff…and blue

The GW Bookstore has all types of apparel, from T-shirts to yoga pants. Now, there’s also GW lingerie. They say we might not have school spirit – but anyone who’s willing to flaunt buff and blue in the bedroom has some serious Colonial pride. But the cost of underwear shouldn’t be proportionate to our tuition. You can buy cheaper and classier pairs at Victoria’s Secret.

Nationals loss

They say there’s no crying in baseball, but it was difficult to hold back tears after watching the Nationals historic season come to a screeching halt a few weeks ago with a 9-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. This produced a city-wide buzz kill and a difficult way to end an exhilarating season. But this loss gives us all the more reason to look forward to preseason play this spring.

Rise in cheating

Academic cheating reached an all-time high last year with professors and faculty bringing 145 cases forward – a 45 percent increase from the year before. While there is no one solution to this perennial problem – we all learn in elementary school and beyond that cheating is wrong – this kind of behavior should not be tolerated, it’s all the more reason for the University and its faculty to stress that this kind of infraction is unacceptable.

Inaugural ball

The University announced last week that student tickets to this year’s inaugural ball will cost $100, an increase of $15 from the 2009 ball. The ball is one signature event in many students’ college careers, so the University should strive to keep the costs as low as possible. We all want to have fun at inauguration, but we don’t want to give up a week’s worth of meals in the process.