Boo-yah! AU Moves Up from #86 to #85 on USNews Ranking

USNews & World Report’s Annual “America’s Best Colleges” List was released online today. AU is in roughly the same place it was last year, moving one place up the list. Much controversy follows the list and how accurate or valid its portrayal of colleges is. Amusingly, American Weekly seems to have taken the position that our higher rank this year is an indication of progress, and not that the list is unable to reflect the unique and distinguished programing in which AU excels. However, AU entered the list at #99 in 2003 and has slowly made gains in the last couple of years. The Princeton Review uses smaller, more specific lists to highlight specific institutions. It was on their Most Politically Active list that AU was ranked #1 last year. We also got #9 in Great College Towns and #16 in This is a Library? The new Princeton Review list comes out August 21, so stay tuned.

photo courtesy of flickr user alai.jmw

Summer Changes at AU

AU will be a little different for returning students at the end of this August. There are plenty of smaller construction projects but the main ones are Mary Graydon First Floor and Nebraska Hall, both of which are supposedly ready for the fall. The Eagle gave a good account of everything on the docket earlier this summer. Now, American Weekly reports that Nebraska Hall is pretty much done. That’ll be good news to the 115 students who signed up to live there.

Also, the Student Government Website has been hosting this map all summer with little explanation. So, I thought I’d do all the work of deciphering it for you.

Click the picture to see what I’ve guessed/inferred from the articles. Here’s some additional detail from American Weekly:

“That’s a renovation of the first floor from the Tavern around through the university club rooms,” Gager said. “Mostly room finishes like carpet, furniture, other flooring, and in the Tavern they’ll be a new ceiling. The restrooms on the quad side of the building will be removed and relocated to the middle corridor area. If you’re standing in front of Pura Vida you’ll see open space. A portion of the first floor will be closed beginning the third week of May. The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-August.”

Also, there’s a new fancy-shmancy website dedicated to “President Elect Cornelius Kerwin.” I guess we’ve got to call him “Elect” until we make him President with an official ceremony, but it doesn’t look like we’re going have another for a long time, so we might as well make the best of it.

AU Athlete Dies in Car Accident

The Eagle has just emailed out a Breaking News Email Edition saying the following:

Jimmy Pepper, a member of AU’s wrestling team, died Tuesday morning in a car accident in Columbia, Ill. He was 19. Pepper, who would have been a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, was driving on an exit ramp of state Route 3 when he lost control of his car and crashed into a ravine.

Friends are writing notes to him on his facebook wall. Here’s an article that was linked to on the Jolt. I didn’t know him, but I wish his family and friends condolences during this awful period.

The Eagle

Briefly Noted: MGC Construction

Daily Jolters picked up on this little note in “Permits Approved” in the Wapo this Thursday.

American University, 3500 Nebraska Ave. NW. Renovation of the first floor of the Mary Graydon Center. Cost: $1.5 million.

The fact that AU is spending over a million to redo parts of MGC is no surprise. What’s interesting is that the address given is not where MGC is. Figure that out.

Biking in DC

photo courtesy of flickr user jGregor

For many AU students, a bike is a great way to get around the District. Whether you commute to class or bike downtown, riding a bike is cheap, healthy, and fun. Of course there are some caveats. What kind of lock is necessary? (a u-lock or very sturdy chain) Where’s a cheap place to get a bike? (L&N Thrift near the Black Cat) What kind of bike do I need in the city? (A “utility” bike or hybrid).

For people interested in biking, these questions are just the beginning. Luckily, there are resources. On campus, consult Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels for more info on bike activism and getting around the city. For more information about biking in the city, check out the very active Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

ALL BIKERS TAKE NOTE: WABA has worked with the District’s Dept. of Transportation (DDOT) to make a really great bike map of DC, including all streets with bike lines and streets off limits to bikes. This map has just been updated! It is available in PDF form and they will mail you a copy if you request by email (I just got mine).

“Gimme Gimme Dat Kerwin”

photo courtesy of NASA

Kerwin, sweet Kerwin. After nearly a year of searching, AU has finally chosen Neil Kerwin, former Provost and most recently interim President, to be the permanent President we all wanted him to be since the beginning. Starting September 1, he’s in there for good.

Since taking over after Ladnergate, Kerwin quickly distinguished himself as more than just the guy left to pick up the pieces. Though AU quickly set about organizing the long and confusing process of finding a new prez, many students were left with the feeling that it would inevitably leave them with another disconnected white guy who is good at raising money but not actually doing anything positive for the student body. Kerwin on the other hand, is not an outsider, and is AU through and through. Having been here for most of his academic and professional careers, Kerwin definitely has a good idea of campus life. Not only that, he’s a president who’s not too high up to sit down to an interview with the Eagle, or speak at a KPU forum on political activism.

Who knows what prompted the Board of Trustees to keep Kerwin Numero Uno? Maybe it was the candidates dropping out late in the game, combined with the need to have a real President installed by fall, but whatever the reason, Kerwin is in and it’s a great step for AU.

The Eagle Reports

The Most American of Celebrations

photo courtesy of flickr user Pak Gwei

For those who live in the capital, the trend around this time of year seems to be enjoying the show while staying as far away from the tourists as possible. That’s definitely the case with the fireworks, where high vantage points (NOT ON THE MALL) are key. Though Tenleytown has a reputation for being the highest point in the city, those in the know all seem to be looking for the best spots.

To cut out some of the work, DCist has compiled a great interactive map built on the google maps engine that shows all the metro lines and some key high spots. I recommend the normal version on this map for trip planning as well, since every metro station is so carefully plotted.

If you are in DC and you plan to watch the fireworks, leave a comment of where you plan to watch them (or where you did). Happy freedom day!

Testing Terror at AU

photo courtesy of flickr user Daquella manera

In case you missed it, AU Public Safety conducted a “emergency simulation” with the help of the Metropolitan police in the beginning of June. From this write-up in American Weekly, it looks pretty intense. The premise was a gunman loose in McDowell, and it was not a mild setup.

The various players in the simulation wore badges to signal their roles. The shooter, dressed in a Carolina Panthers football jersey, was situated on an upper floor of McDowell, and people playing students were scattered throughout the dorm. When officers entered the building, they found a woman slumped over the front desk wearing a label that simply, chillingly, read “dead.”

Over the course of the next 45 minutes to an hour, MPD officers stormed the residence hall, securing floors and exits while simultaneously shepherding out “students” and searching for the gunman. Using information they collected from witnesses and their own work, they eventually found him on the seventh floor and “administered lethal force.” After the drill was complete, everyone gathered in the McDowell Formal Lounge to offer feedback on the day.

Of course no one could ever imagine this happening at their own school, it’s beyond strange to read about it and get the mental picture in places we’ve all spent time in.