News in Brief

Swedish Embassy Finds New Home on Georgetown Waterfront

The Swedish government has a new home in the United States following the opening this week of a new embassy on K Street, less than a mile from campus.

The embassy, dubbed the “House of Sweden,” celebrated its official inauguration this weekend with numerous events, ranging from musical performances to a waterfront festival on Sunday.

President Bush welcomed Sweden’s king and queen, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, at the White House yesterday.

According to Anders Ericson, press counselor for the Swedish embassy, the Swedish property board acquired the lot where the embassy is now located in the late 1990s. He said the country had been trying to find a permanent location for the embassy since the 1960s. The embassy had previously been housed at different times at the Watergate complex and at an office building on M Street.

The inauguration was capped by the Royal Gala Dinner, with guests including Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

The embassy will be open to the public tomorrow and will feature an exhibition on architecture and design, the first of five exhibitions over the next 18 months.

Ericson said that the exhibitions will “present to the public a view of a modern and dynamic Sweden.”

— Kristin Thomas Georgetown Law Center Offers New Legal Program for Journalists

Georgetown Law Center will offer journalists the chance to enroll in a new program next fall designed to help them better understand the complexities of legal issues.

Albert Lauber, the new program’s director, said that the Law Center’s administration and faculty are very excited about the new curriculum’s potential effects within the journalism community.

“The idea is to give journalists a solid background in law so that they can approach their stories with a more accurate, more nuanced perspective,” Lauber said.

Initially, however, the scope of the program will be very small. Lauber said that he estimates that only between two and four students will register for the first year.

Students enrolling in the program will take three courses from the law students’ first-year curriculum, choose several elective courses relevant to each journalist’s particular field of expertise, and complete a research project, the details of which are still being worked out.

Journalists will complete the program in one year, after which graduates will receive their degree, a master of studies in law.

No other law schools in the country currently offer M.S.L. programs for journalists, although Yale Law School did make an unsuccessful attempt that ended in 2004. Lauber pointed to Yale’s location as the main factor in that program’s failure, a result he said is unlikely at Georgetown.

“We’re here in D.C. where all the journalists are. So unlike at Yale, they can enter the program part-time without having to move or quit their jobs,” Lauber said.

In order to apply for the program, journalists must have at least two years experience in any media form.

— Sam Harbourt

Nobel Prize Winner: North Korean Missile Tests Signal Need for Negotiations

North Korea’s nuclear ambition is a “cry for help” that the United States should take seriously, Mohamed ElBaradei and SFS Dean Robert Gallucci agreed at an onstage conversation Monday in Gaston Hall.

Gallucci’s conversation with ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and recipient of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, was mostly centered on the topic of North Korea’s nuclear testing.

“They want to say, ‘We could do a lot of harm; come talk to us,’” ElBaradei said.

“The Bush administration says they’re prepared to negotiate, so what’s the problem?” Gallucci said.

Gallucci and ElBaradei discussed the situation in Iran, another state with nuclear ambitions.

At one point, ElBaradei was asked if he thought Iran possessed nuclear weapons.

“They have the knowledge to enrich uranium,” he responded, “but whether their intention is to create nuclear weapons, we don’t really know yet.”

ElBaradei said that nuclear states should preserve peace through leading by example.

“It takes two to tango,” he said. “You need the leadership of those who have weapons. There needs to be a system that can look beyond state declaration.”

— Eugenia Sosa

University Wins Pretigious Service Award for Katrina Relief Efforts

Georgetown was honored last week for its efforts to aid displaced students after Hurricane Katrina, as the university was among the recipients of the first-ever President’s High Community Service Honor Roll.

Georgetown was also recognized with the Katrina Compassion Award, and was among nine schools, including the University of Notre Dame and Xavier University, to receive presidential recognition on Oct. 17.

Kathleen Weigert, director of the Center of Social Justice, said that Georgetown students made strides to “see the devastation and see the hope of the people knowing that others cared about them.”

CSJ coordinated faculty, administrative, and student efforts from across the undergraduate, professional, and graduate schools.

Georgetown donated over $1 million worth in tuition to enroll 52 undergraduate students and 30 law students during 2005, and the Georgetown University Hurricane Emergency Relief coupled faculty supports with student fund-raising to collect over $15,000 for charities such as the American Red Cross. The homegrown student organization Blanket New Orleans raised $7,500 to provide displaced families with new blankets.

Furthermore, students and faculty reconstructed houses that had suffered from water damage in hurricane flooding in Bayou La Batre, Ala., during spring break.

— Lisa Tibbetts