Financial crisis hits SAIS
School and students adjust
By Masha Bolotinskaya

Washington’s stimulus package will do little in the way of protecting a majority of SAIS students. While the financial crisis has provided much fodder for class and policy discussions, at a school where 40% of the student body consists of international students, the crisis has hit home. International students have faced currency crises in their home countries while American students have been vulnerable to loss of wealth as the Dow plummets and job insecurity increases.

Cost of attendance is not cheap. Students pay a staggering US$33,178 per year for tuition alone. SAIS estimates that including additional yearly costs, for things such as health insurance, books, and room and board, students at the DC campus have a total cost of US$56,940 per academic year. Students in Bologna are expected to have a yearly cost of € 41,565, or roughly US$53,542.

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SAIS McCain group praises Obama
By Phil Kreck

Disappointed by loss, the SAIS McCain group has found satisfactory performance in President Obama. Despite disagreeing with many of his campaign promises, and having a strong preference for McCain in the election, the SAIS McCain group has, post-election, found many of Obama’s initial policies and actions to be adequate, if not desirable, in addressing our concerns on key issues.

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SAIS looks at the Cyprus Problem

By Niv Elis

I s bombs were falling in nearby Gaza, a group of 20 SAIS students and professors gathered in Cyprus for the 4th Conflict Management field trip. Like previous trips to Haiti and Northern Ireland, the program included high-level meetings with political leaders, academics, civil society groups, and multi-lateral organizations to present views of the conflict from a multitude of angles. Amidst the busy meetings and talk of conflict, the colorful silhouettes of families that adorn the Ledra Street border crossing in Nicosia, the world’s last divided city, did not convey a sense of brutal conflict. Students pondered why a conflict that had not seen widespread violence in nearly 35 years remained frozen and unresolved.

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Inauguration day
Dual perspectives

Cold, Tired and Squeezed
By Gabriel Serrato
In early January, I was considering my options for getting out of town.   I could rent out my apartment, make some quick cash and take a nice vacation leaving DC to the befuddled masses for the weekend.  The swearing-in of President Barack Obama was going to be accompanied by droves of crowds who would invade my adopted city like swarms of locusts.  Millions of beaming Americans ready to Twitter and Facebook their journey into history were going to descend on the Capitol – and they all planned on getting on my nerves. 

A stomach's eye view
By Kevin Cross
The 2009 Inauguration of Barack Obama was supposed to be an extraordinary event. Meaning should have suffused everything, the weather, Lincoln’s Bible, the colors of scarves and ties, Vice President Cheney’s wheelchair, the collapse of Senators Byrd and Kennedy.