News

News

National brief

April 23

The Pennsylvania State Education Department is planning to institute new security procedures after a 10-year-old boy ordered standardized tests to play school, the Associated Press reported. Hempfield Area School District Director of Pupil Services Rebecca Costello told the AP the boy hopes to be a teacher when he grows up and was not trying to cheat when he filled out an online order form and faxed it to the exam company.

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News

Student wins comic title

By Meg Fowler | April 23

Molly Martinez became not only the first AU student but also the first woman to ever win the stand-up comedy award "DC's Funniest College Student" at the local comedy club DC Improv on April 15. Martinez, a freshman in the School of Communication, said she was also the only woman and the only freshman in the pool of contestants. She broke precedent by winning the first place award out of competitors from area universities.

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News

Senate censures AUTO commissioner

By Jimm Phillips and Lindsey Anderson | April 23

The Undergraduate Senate voted to censure AUTO Commissioner Zack Schwartz during a special session late Wednesday night and approved a motion encouraging Student Government Comptroller Eric Goldstein to file charges against him in connection with allegations he misused AUTO vans.

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News

Chess master plays 20

By Nick Platt | April 23

There 20 chess players sat, boards in front of them in a large square, waiting for their opponent. However, all were waiting for the chance to play the same person. The opponent was a 30-year-old Kazakhstani international chess grandmaster, Darmen Sadvakasov, who came to AU on Friday to play 20 members of the university's chess club - simultaneously.

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News

AUTO oversight law passed

By Jen Calantone | April 20

The Undergraduate Senate held a five-hour-plus meeting Sunday, several hours of which were closed to anyone except the body's members, to discuss legal matters involving allegations of AUTO van misuse. The senate unanimously passed a bill that would require oversight of the AUTO program, which Student Government President Seth Cutter vetoed. The senate then unanimously overrode the veto. During the closed meeting, the senate censured AUTO Commissioner Zack Schwartz, according to Justin Woods, the speaker of the senate.

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News

Metro calendar

April 20

Monday, April 20 Lecture: "Broadway Up Close and Personal: Sheldon Harnick" 7 p.m. WHERE: John F. Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. N.W. METRO: Foggy Bottom-GWU (orange and blue lines) INFO: Tony Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick will sit for an interview and perform his works live.

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News

Students walk for lupus

By Lindsey Anderson | April 20

Paper butterflies floated down Pennsylvania Avenue Saturday as participants in the third annual Walk for Lupus Now held their signs high and moved to the tune of Unk's "Walk it Out." Walkers paraded through the starting line's balloon arch and headed toward the Capitol.

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News

Alumna talks security

By Howie Perlman | April 20

President Obama's most significant homeland security challenges will involve fighting terrorists on the ground and protecting the United States from criminals who abuse digital technology, said Frances Townsend, an AU alumna who served as former President George W. Bush's homeland security advisor between 2004 and 2007, during a Kennedy Political Union event Wednesday.

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News

CASJ petitions for Aramark benefits

By Anna Tuman | April 20

AU's Community Action and Social Justice Coalition is petitioning to get fair benefits for Aramark, Bon Appetit and other subcontracted company workers at the university. "This campaign is something that we took upon ourselves after talking to the workers about their conditions," said Geoff Ramsey, a sophomore in the School of International Service and an organizer of CASJ's Solidarity With AU Workers Campaign.

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News

Students tidy D.C. park

By Clint Rice | April 20

About 35 AU students found everything from Cadillac tires to wheelchairs to mix tapes while cleaning up a creek in Marvin Gaye Park in Northeast D.C. Saturday morning. The cleanup of the creek - Watts Branch - was part of the 15th-annual Anacostia River Cleanup and Earth Day Celebration.

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News

Undergraduate Senate's closed-door AUTO actions invalidated

By Jimm Phillips | April 20

April 20 | 10:00 p.m. » The Undergraduate Senate will hold a special session at 11 p.m. Wednesday to reconsider a previously-passed AUTO oversight bill, one of several senate actions - including a censure of AUTO Commissioner Zack Schwartz - currently considered invalid because they violated a previous Student Government Judicial Board ruling.

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News

News briefs

April 20

The Arbor Day Foundation named AU a 2009 Tree Campus USA University, the university announced during the annual Campus Beautification Day Thursday. The status is granted to campuses around the United States that meet five standards to "promote healthy trees and student involvement" developed by the Arbor Day Foundation, according to the organization's Web site.

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News

SG approves new budget

By Lindsey Anderson | April 20

The Undergraduate Senate approved the AU Student Government's $590,400 budget Sunday for the 2009-2010 academic year, increasing allocations to the Student Union Board, Founders Day and Women's Initiative. The bill raises the SUB budget to $170,750, compared to $165,750 this year.

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News

AUTO oversight law passed

By Jen Calantone | April 20

The Undergraduate Senate held a five-hour-plus meeting Sunday, several hours of which were closed to anyone except the body's members, to discuss legal matters involving allegations of AUTO van misuse. The senate unanimously passed a bill that would require oversight of the AUTO program, which Student Government President Seth Cutter vetoed.

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News

AICPA exec holds GM discussion

By Howie Perlman | April 20

The director of federal regulatory affairs for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Ian MacKay, talked with students and faculty Thursday at the Kogod School of Business about how General Motors' annual financial statements can be used to reveal details about the company's economic performance.

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SOC selects commencement speaker

By Tamar Hallerman | April 20

April 21 | 7:20 p.m. » Susan Zirinsky, an AU alumna and executive producer for the CBS news magazine "48 Hours," will be the School of Communication's commencement speaker, according to David Taylor, President Neil Kerwin's chief of staff. Zirinsky graduated cum laude from AU in 1974.

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News

Campus calendar

April 16

Thursday, April 16 Lecture: "Minorities in the Media" 6-7:30 p.m. WHERE: School of International Service Lounge INFO: College of Arts and Sciences professor Bette Dickerson's Social Advocacy and Change class invites students to learn and discuss how minorities are represented in both film and television.

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