They're trying to sneak it in on us, it seems. This Constitution is horrible. It has a freshmen caucus-thingie-forum in addition to freshmen reps and separates the speaker of the Senate from the EVP. In other words, it tries to fix a lot of what isn't actually broken within the SA. Instead it is just a massive time waste for both the SA and the student body at large. This election could cost up to $500, which will probably average to more than $10 spent per person who actually will vote.
For more in-depth reasons as to why this new Constitution sucks, I recommend a visit to Logan's SA blog.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
SA Constitution vote set for next Wednesday
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 4:14 PM
A Quick Check-In on the Competition
Say what you will about the Patriot; we are a durable lot. Campus media come and go, but we've remained relatively steadfast here in the GW media world.
At the beginning of the year, we had the much-ballyhooed arrival of two potential rivals; The College Democrats Blog, The Blue Line, and something called The Colonial Review, which was supposed to supplant the Patriot as the conservative voice on campus.
Well, here we are at almost the end of the first semester. The Blue Line lost its best writer (and communications director) in the great Twombly scandal of the CD's, and hasn't been updated in about two weeks. Even when it was updated, I never got the impression that anyone was reading.
The Colonial Review, as far as I can tell, never got off the ground. To be honest, I don't even know if that link up there is the same Colonial Review that they were talking about earlier. The CR website has a "blog", but it's nothing but a press releases and event info page.
Those old dummy's at GWBlogspot are long gone (though the professor whose class writes the blog promises a return in the spring), and the best blog GW ever had, The Colonialist, lost its writers to graduation.
Like Woody Allen said, 80% of success is just showing up. We're here, GW, and we'll be here for a while yet. Thanks for reading.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sorry Josh, the SA is already irrelevant.
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 11:33 AM
Josh Akman is a bit behind the curve in this op-ed. He claims the SA is bordering on the brink of irrelevance with this new Constitution. Akman cites the new constitution that the SA is trying to pass a dangerous symptom that the SA is "spinning its wheels" towards irrelevance. But this begs the question, when has the SA not spun its wheels? Has the SA ever really been anything more than an ATM for student orgs and a place for future politicians to play dress-up? There should be only one time a year where the SA should be paid attention. The weeks that make up the allocations process at the beginning of the school year. After that, who cares? As someone who goes to the majority of SA meetings, the rest of them mainly consist of passing non-binding useless "resolutions", nominating people to fill constantly empty (mostly graduate school) seats and arguing over the bylaws. The bylaws that only affect the SA and have no bearing or consequence on any other student or group.
So Mr. Akman, I applaud that you are starting to see the light, but I think you didn't go far enough in your op-ed. The SA is irrelevant, they don't do a job that a bureaucrat couldn't do with almost twice the efficiency. I'm afraid that your column, though well written and well argued, will only be read by members of the SA who will no doubt pen a counter op-ed next week arguing for all the good the SA does, and of course to shill for this new undemocratic, useless Constitution they are trying to sneak past everyone. But in the end who cares? Well, there's you and me and (some) members of the Senate, Bindelglass and her goons...yep,that's about it. That's about 35 of us, and we are all pathetic for putting so much effort into something so inconsequential.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Is it Christmas yet ?
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 11:15 PM
The Christma-er-"Holiday" season. Every year it seems to get earlier and earlier. I remember a time say, oh five years ago, when Christmas (yes its Christmas, we aren't getting time off for Kwanzaa) was after Thanksgiving. It was Santa bringing up the rear of the Thanksgiving Day Parade urging all of the boys and girls to come into Macy's to buy the newest trinkets and gadgets and whosawhutsits. That's all changed.
The day after Halloween I saw Christmas commercials. Snowy scenes, families in windows, claymation reindeer playing Call of Duty. And I have to think,is it too soon? Is society forgetting the "true" meaning of Christmas? Or, do we just love the idea of getting a bunch of gifts and decorating our houses with fake snow, nativity scenes and chili-pepper lights so much that we have to do it as soon as possible. Why just yesterday I yelled at a friend for having her tree up in her room. I yelled "Too Soon!" and she replied. "Shut up I love Christmas!!". So what is it? Am I right? Or am I just Scrooge 2k9? Jews, people who celebrate Festivus, feel free to comment as well.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Did anyone see Public Enemy/Flava Flav last night?
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 9:44 AM
Apparently they stormed down H-street. Causing a ruckus and disturbing all of those being lame studying in Gelman.
Did anyone go see the concert? Any thoughts or comments? Did Flava Flav say anything particularly ridiculous?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Quick Hits
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 4:39 PM
- No S.A. Liveblog tonight. Find another way to waste your Tuesday night
- The Hatchet is having some sort of coffeehouse/ombudsmen/forum thingie at their offices Thursday night. I expect that like SA Townhalls, this will only be attended by tools. Yes, I will be there. No, I'm not going to ask dumb questions. No, I'm not going to liveblog it (the thought crossed my mind,however)
- Tonight The GW men's b-ball team looks to continue its undefeated season against Hockey powerhouse/basketball unknown Boston U. Its going to be on channel 7 in dorms and on NESN elsewhere. Watch and have a roster with you, we have a lot of new names.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Huh?
Like most of you probably did, I just got the infomail about the new VolunteerMatch system. For poops and giggles, I opened up the "Volunteer Waiver and Release Agreement" which you're supposed to check the box saying you've read before you sign up. There's also a legal release from VolunteerMatch corporate, but that one's more standard. The GW one is the more eyebrow-raising.
A couple of the more befuddling quotations from the release form:In consideration of the University allowing me to participate in these activities, I hereby assume all risks involved in such activities and voluntarily release, discharge, waive and relinquish any and all actions or causes of action...
This is interesting phrasing. "In consideration of the University allowing me to participate in these activities..." How nice that GW is allowing you to volunteer. I didn't know they were in a position to do that.To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware of any physical disability or health-related reasons or problems which would preclude or restrict my use of the University's facilities. I understand that I am required to have health insurance, and hereby certify that I have such coverage.
This one is weird too. God forbid we have people who don't have health insurance doing volunteer work. Is this just another one of GW's subtle preferences for rich kids? If you can't afford health insurance, we don't want your help!Additionally, by agreeing to this waiver, I grant permission for the University to use my name; any photos, film, or videos of me or my her likeness; and/or any other identifying information about me, and to use the same or portions thereof, including making and using derivative works thereof in any medium, including without limitation, videos, online broadcasts and brochures, for any University purpose...
This one is my favorite. If you want to volunteer but are uncomfortable being used in a GW ad campaign, you need not apply. How can you help the community when you won't even let GW turn you into a brochure?
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Should laptops be banned in class?
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 12:53 PM
The Hatchet has a story where professors say that laptops are distracting. Some students agree, some do not.
What do you think?
Gregg? Do you have two-cents on this?
Hatchet scrapes bottom for news, finds nothing, reports on it.
Posted by W. Hunter Patterson at 10:13 AM
Look, I think we can all agree that the Hatchet sucks. But one of their stories in the last edition was particularly suckful. Apparently there is a GW alum who is now the love interest on the MTV "reality" show The City. I'm not going to bother to recap the rest of the story, I'll let you read the AP English writing yourself. My issue here is what we are calling journalism. Are we going to cover every time a GW-alum douchebag falls ass-backwards onto a TV show? Because if so, the Hatchet of the future better start TiVo-ing CSPAN2 so as to catch every time some GW-traied wonk goes in front of the Senate Select Committee on Committees to talk about why we need more committees.
The problem is that I'm sure a lot of GW's student body found this story informative and entertaining. Now when they go home for Thanksgiving/Hanukkah/Christmas/etc.they can gleefully point to the latest succubus-douche on the TV and go "Oh, see him? He went to GW. Yea, he's still totally a jerk though. Whitney should dump his ass, pass the Tostitos".
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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