Recent Graduate Founds Web Site To Share Job, Roommate Information

Matt Demmer (COL ’02) was a little frustrated when he graduated college, but he always kept his head up, and has now found a way to use his experiences to launch a new business.

Demmer last week launched a new Web site, www.gradspot.com, to help the transition for graduates.

“I was going to be a writer,” Demmer said of his graduation plans. “I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have an apartment. I didn’t really have a lot of money. I distinctly remember feeling there needs to be an easier way.”

The goal of the site is to provide a centralized resource for recent graduates and a community in which to share information, Demmer said. Demmer is the site’s editor in chief and came up with the idea with his friends Stuart Schultz and Antony Clavel, graduates of Emory and Harvard Universities, respectively. The site features a discussion board and a roommate finder, and Demmer said that there will soon be a job board.

Although there is, in general, a wealth of information on topics such as finding an apartment, moving and getting a job, very little of it is geared toward recent graduates, Demmer said.

“The genesis of the idea was that we had moved to New York and there were so many things we were learning even five or six years after graduation,” he said.

Besides articles providing graduates with information, another goal is to recreate a community that students lose when they graduate from college.

“The minute you graduate, you lose that support network and informational resource,” he said.

There have been 1,500 hits and more than 100 users have registered since the site was launched April 23.

— Colleen Nicholson

MPD Responds After Student Verbally Assaulted in Suspected Hate Crime

A homosexual Georgetown student was reportedly pushed and taunted by five Georgetown students early Friday morning in an assault that has been labeled a hate crime by the Metropolitan Police Department.

According to the MPD incident report, five students approached the student as he got out of a taxicab outside the Healy Gates at around 2 a.m. THE HOYA does not print the names of hate-crime victims.

The students then began pushing the victim and proceeded to ask if he was homosexual, according to the report. The victim replied “yes” and the assailants then called him a “faggot” and continued pushing him, according to the report.

The victim identified the assailants as white males but was unable to offer any further description in the report. He did not recognize any of the suspects, but he identified them all as Georgetown students, the report said.

The victim did not sustain any injuries and refused medical attention, according to the report.

A spokesperson for MPD’s Second District could not be reached for comment.

— Yoshi Myers

Volcker Headlines Crop of Recently Announced Commencement Speakers

This year’s slate of commencement speakers ranges from a genetic researcher to one of the country’s top economists.

Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1979 to 1987, will address the McDonough School of Business. In 2004, Volcker was tapped to head the Independent Inquiry into The United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme.

At Georgetown College’s commencement, Rev. Jim Wallis, an Evangelical Christian leader, will be speaking. Wallis is the president and chief executive officer of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, which publishes Sojourners magazine, a publication that reaches 250,000 people.

The commencement speech for the School of Nursing and Health Studies will be delivered by Derek Yach, the director of global health policy for PepsiCo. According to a university press release, Yach works to improve the company’s health and wellness policy by creating partnerships with non-governmental organizations.

As befits the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the commencement speaker is Jessica Tuchman Matthews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. According to its Web site, the Carnegie Endowment works to advance international cooperation and “active international engagement by the United States.”

Philanthropist Catherine Reynolds will give the commencement address for the School of Continuing Studies. John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, will deliver the address at the MSB’s MBA commencement ceremony. The speaker for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is Bernard Bailyn, a distinguished professor and author from Harvard University. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, will speak at the Georgetown University School of Medicine commencement. Nina Totenberg, a legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, will deliver a speech for the Georgetown University Law Center’s commencement ceremony.

The commencement ceremonies will be held between May 18 and 20 at various locations on campus.

— Virginia Boyce

Georgetown Videoconferences with University of Bahrain

A small group of both undergraduate and graduate Georgetown students debated media coverage of the Iraq War with students halfway across the world, at the University of Bahrain, in a live two-way videoconference held Monday morning.

Students discussed topics including the role of media in influencing public perception about war, the role of limited press in wartime and state and regional interests in reporting.

Several Bahraini students said that perception is the most controversial issue in international news reporting.

“Arabs, because of the media and the resulting perceptions, generally do not differentiate between the American people and the American government,” one Bahriani student said.

The videoconference, which was organized by Fatema Ali, a Bahraini student, in conjunction with the Center for Social Justice, was moderated by Ali at the University of Bahrain and by Piya Radia (SFS ’09) at Georgetown.

Radia said that the conference helped create personal connections between students of different backgrounds.

“There is certainly a goodwill issue here,” she said.

“But this kind of conference does a lot for basic education, as this allows us to learn a lot from students on different issues that you cannot get elsewhere,” Radia added.

The videoconference was a first between Georgetown and the University of Bahrain. Radia said that she hopes further videoconferences are scheduled in the future.

— Andrew Dwulet

Georgetown Day Festivities Moved Indoors After Morning Showers

Despite a morning rainstorm that forced organizers to relocate, Friday’s annual Georgetown Day festivities provided ample opportunities for fun, relaxation and celebration of school spirit.

While students lined up for free hamburgers, ice cream, pizza, hog dogs and smoothies in the hallways of the Leavey Center and on the Leavey Esplanade, various student groups, including Groove Theory, Ballet Folklorico and the Georgetown Hawaii Club, performed in Sellinger Lounge. The event was planned to take place on Healy Lawn.

Other events during the day included a Mass of Thanksgiving for Faculty and Staff Retirees in Dahlgren Chapel and a presentation of various undergraduate research projects in the Bunn Intercultural Center Galleria. The day ended with an evening jazz festival.

Students partaking in the events were glad for the chance to take a break from studying.

“Georgetown Day is a wonderful end-of-the-year tradition in which we got to gather together to eat, play and forget about work for the whole day,” said Erica Imbimbo (COL ’08). “It's one of my favorite days of the school year.”

Festivities began with the bequeathing of the Dorothy Brown Award, an award given annually since 2002 to an outstanding faculty member as voted on by students. The award was given to Joan Riley, a professor at the School of Nursing and Health Studies.

— Ji-Hye Park