Georgetown University’s Medical Center may soon have new leadership, following the submission of four candidates for executive vice president for health sciences to University President John J. DeGioia.

Stuart Bondurant, the interim executive vice president of health sciences, told faculty and staff in a meeting last week that he was “very enthusiastic” about the transition and is supportive of each of the four candidates, according to Blue and Gray.

“These are really outstanding people,” he said of the four candidates, according to the Blue and Gray report.

A former employee of the Georgetown University Hospital filed a lawsuit against the organization that operates the hospital last month, alleging that she was fired because of her race.

The employee, Bonita Brown, was employed as a clinical technician at the hospital for four years before she was fired in August 2005. In a formal complaint filed Aug. 10, Brown’s attorney Reuben Collins said that MedStar Health, the non-profit healthcare organization that operates the hospital, discriminated against Brown because she is African-American.

Collins is seeking $950,000 in damages for his client on the charges of discrimination based on race and retaliation, wrongful termination and breach of contract.

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met with faculty, administrators and local leaders Friday in Riggs Library, in a visit to Georgetown that university officials did not publicize and kept closed from the public. The “off-the-record round-table discussion,” as it was characterized by university spokesman Eric Smulson, was not announced on the university’s public calendar, which includes speakers and other public events. Although it had been reported by several sources, including Fox News and The Harvard Crimson, that Khatami was planning to visit Georgetown, the date of the appearance was not specified. Attendees of the meeting, which was sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, were individually invited to the

Hoya Staff Writer Friday, September 8, 2006

In spite of a favorable environmental assessment issued in April by the National Park Service, several neighborhood groups remain opposed to the university’s planned construction along the Potomac River and are appealing for additional study. The assessment found that the preferred design for the boathouse, which calls for an 18,682-square-foot structure not exceeding 36 feet 6 inches, would cause a light-to-moderate environmental impact. But Matthew Logan, president of the Potomac Conservancy, said in a letter to NPS written in June that the EA did not fully address the potential negative effects the boathouse could have on the quality and flow of water in the Potomac, and requested a more detailed

Hoya Staff Writer Friday, September 1, 2006 Lindsay Anderson/The Hoya University officials said that contract disputes are responsible for delayed construction of an eatery in Darnall Hall.

More than a year after the cafeteria in Darnall Hall closed its doors, the space remains empty, and plans to open a restaurant there have been set back by ongoing negotiations. Margie Bryant, associate vice president for auxiliary services, said the university is still negotiating the terms of a 10-year lease with C.W. Chon, the restaurateur selected by the university to take over the space last spring. She said the restaurant would not be open by

Georgetown is finalizing plans with a local restaurant owner to open a new dining establishment in the space vacated by the Darnall cafeteria in 2005, which university official Margie Bryant hopes will open sometime in the fall semester.

Bryant, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, said that that university signed a memorandum of agreement April 4 with the restaurateur C.W. Chon, who operates Epicurean & Co., and is awaiting the finalization of building plans before signing a lease.

Under the terms of the agreement Epicurean & Co. would be granted use of the space for ten years. Chon said that he plans to use the space as a cafeteria, sit-down restaurant and cocktail lounge.

Georgetown’s plan to build its own boathouse west of the Key Bridge cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when the National Park Service released an assessment that concluded the project would not substantially damage the environment.

The long-awaited assessment, which examined the potential effect of the boathouse on the local area, said that it would not pose any serious environmental problems, but also recommended that plans be altered to lower its height in order to mitigate concerns that the boathouse may damage sightlines of the Potomac River.

A local restaurateur has been approved by the university to open a restaurant and possibly a cocktail lounge in the vacant Darnall cafeteria next semester, pending final lease negotiations.

The restaurateur, C.W. Chon, said that he has received final approval from the university and added that it could take up to a month to finalize negotiations on a lease for the Darnall space. Chon, who operates Epicurean and Company, a restaurant on Connecticut Avenue, said that the Darnall establishment will be his 15th restaurant.

Some of Georgetown’s most prominent buildings remain veiled in scaffolding as the university pushes to complete its most recent maintenance projects before much of the available bond funding expires at the end of March.

According to Karen Frank, vice president of Facilities and Student Housing, renovations to the Yates Field House and White Gravenor — two of the largest ongoing projects — are expected to be completed by the end of the spring break, several weeks before bonds issued in 2001 by the District of Columbia that are financing many of the projects are set to expire.

“Almost all of the projects currently underway are bond-funded with the exception of the Gaston roof and the West Road realignment,” she said.

Workers are still putting the finishing touches on a 47,000 sq. ft. resurfacing project in Yates Field House, nearly a month after its planned completion date.

Despite delays, Director of Yates Field House James Gilroy said that the facility would be open by the first weekend of March.

But the project could take up to a week longer than Gilroy’s estimate, according to Karen Frank, vice president of facilities and student housing. The goal is to have the area operational by the end of spring break, she said.

Last December, workers began removing the deteriorating surfaces of the indoor track, tennis courts and stretching area in the northern portion of Yates’ main floor.