The ongoing violence between the Israelis and Palestinians can be resolved peacefully with the United States as a major Palestinian ally, Palestine Liberation Organization Ambassador to the United States Afif Safieh said yesterday in the Intercultural Center Auditorium.

Theology professor Chester Gillis was named interim dean of Georgetown College for one year yesterday, filling the post that will be vacated by current Dean Jane McAuliffe on July 1.

University Provost James O’Donnell said that Georgetown will launch a nationwide search for a permanent dean this summer.

The working group charged with examining and revising the university’s altered alcohol policy recently launched a blog in an effort to increase student involvement in the discussion.

It’s back to the drawing board.

The Old Georgetown Board rejected last week the university’s design plans for a proposed new athletics facility, holding that the structure of the building would not complement the university’s historic architecture. The decision was announced only days after the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission unanimously approved the university’s proposal to construct the 90,000-square-foot, five-story athletics practice facility during its Oct. 2 meeting.

The university will now have to revise the design plans and resubmit them to the OGB. The next opportunity for approval will be at the OGB’s Nov. 1 meeting.

In addition to the new business school and science buildings, Georgetown may see another structure erected in the next decade.

The university recently proposed the construction of a new athletic practice facility, which, if approved by the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission next month, may bring Georgetown’s largely criticized athletic facilities closer to being on par with those of its Big East competitors. The proposal comes after months of discussions between university administrators concerning the plans.

A former death-row inmate who was exonerated after almost 18 years in prison described his experience and called for the abolition of the death penalty in a speech yesterday in White Gravenor.

Juan Melendez spent 17 years, eight months and one day on death row in Florida after being convicted of the 1983 murder of Delbert Baker. There was no physical evidence linking Melendez to the crime and another prisoner, Vernon James, had admitted to murdering Baker a month before the trial began. James invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying at the trial, and his taped confession was ruled to be hearsay evidence and not shown to the jury.

Melendez was released on Jan. 3, 2002, after a transcript of James’ confession was discovered and a new trial ordered.

If you’ve often found yourself thinking about Georgetown long after dozing off for the night, you’re not alone.

The university is a “dream” school in the eyes of both prospective college students and parents, according to a survey released recently by the Princeton Review.

Georgetown placed ninth among schools chosen in a survey of college applicants and tenth in a survey of parents of college applicants. New York University was first in the student survey and Stanford University led the parent survey.

When the Senior Class Gift Committee decided last year to fund the construction of a park outside Reiss Science Building, it continued a long-standing trend of senior classes who wanted to leave a unique imprint on the Hilltop.

So when this year’s SCGC announced that its parting gift to the university would be a donation to the Georgetown Fund, many seniors voiced their disapproval, saying they were not included in the gift-selection process.