There’s no doubt about it — Georgetown is a nice place to live. The university is surrounded by charming multimillion-dollar homes, trendy shops and countless restaurants. According to the Princeton Review, Georgetown is the 13th-best college town in the country. But, particularly in the last year, news highlighting strained town-gown relations appeared ubiquitous.

On a warm, late winter day earlier this week, a burly DPS officer with a nametag reading “G. Daniels” approaches a green table decked out with shamrocks in Red Square to request a shirt in an XXL size. Unfortunately for Officer Daniels, the Georgetown University Irish-American Society is out of shirts in that size, and he trudges away in disappointment, as though someone had stolen his lucky charms. Another visitor has better fortune, picking out a green plastic hat adorned with a “Luck O’ the Irish” logo and a single green feather peeking out from behind the words. “An Irish pimp hat,” he proclaims, clearly satisfied with his selection. As it has in the past, the GUIAS is bringing all things green and Irish to the

Danny Murphy (COL ’09), a New Orleans native who remembers sitting on a ladder as a child and catching beads during Mardi Gras, is one of them. He plans to bring a group of Georgetown friends home over spring break so that they can get a taste of the Mardi Gras experience.

“I just wanted to show some friends what it’s like,” Murphy says. “I’m excited to show them the two sides of New Orleans — both the despair and the celebration that it is now.”

Confined to a single day in most celebrations around the world, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the climax to two weeks of non-stop parades and parties known as Carnival.

On the surface, Caitlin McEnery (NHS ’07) seems to be the typical Georgetown student. She is active in numerous student groups, including Adelphi and the Student Nurses Association, and aspires to attend graduate school and work as a pediatric oncology nurse.

But since she was 3 years old, McEnery has lived with Type 1 diabetes. For the past 10 years, she has worn an insulin pump, allowing her to experience what she calls a “normal” life. But with such a serious condition, many obstacles still stand in McEnery’s path.

“Diabetes is different every day — that’s what’s so challenging about it,” she said.

The Shakespeare in Washington Festival — the first of its kind to be held in the area — is the brainchild of Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, who conceived the idea two years ago. He contacted Michael Kahn, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theater Company, to curate it, and the wheels of preparation began to turn. More than 60 organizations in every facet of the arts will collaborate to bring together over 500 events commemorating Shakespeare.

“It’s been the first time that the arts community has collaborated on such a large scale,” said Liza Lorenz, press and public relations manager of the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and for the next couple weeks, the girls will table as a part of Breast Cancer Outreach (BCO) three days a week hoping to raise the on-campus visibility of their favorite cause. Besides a large donation cup, their table also sells T-shirts printed with the phrases “Think Pink” and “Save Second Base.”

This year the Georgetown organization is shaking things up a bit. In the past, BCO has devoted much of its energy in fundraising and has been very successful, raising more and more money each year.

“The focus is changing,” Julia Leis (SFS ’07), who serves as a liaison between BCO and the Georgetown University Hospital, said. “We’re trying to do more outreach.”

During the first few weeks of freshman year, Katie Kaiser had a pretty good sense of what she wanted from her four years at Georgetown. “I said, ‘This is it,’” she

Don’t touch that dial, Georgetown, because the GUTV renaissance is just ahead.

For GUTV, the student-run television outlet currently working to expand its standing and respectability on campus, the weeks are filled with all-nighters and unanticipated mishaps culminating in 16-hour production days. Add to that its current efforts to breathe new life into its programming and activities, and staffers have some of the busiest schedules on campus.

GUTV was the 1998 brainchild of John Collier (MSB ’01) and Juan Pablo Liska (MSB ’00). Its first broadcast aired on Feb. 22, 1999.

Darnall. Yates. Poulton. We fling these names around without a second’s thought. They are a constant part of our scholastic lives, but how well do we know the men in our lives — the men behind the buildings?

White Gravenor Hall

As students, we all got our start in White Gravenor Hall, home to Undergraduate Admissions, among other important offices. It’s a fitting location, as Georgetown itself owes part of its beginning to the Hall’s namesakes — Fr. Andrew White, S.J. and Fr. John Altham Gravenor, S.J., two Jesuit priests who accompanied Lord Baltimore to Maryland in 1634. They settled at the site of St. Mary’s City, which became the fourth permanent English colony in America.