Even though the school's environmental record doesn't suck quite as much this year, it hasn't exactly entered the “ivy league,” so to speak, of eco-friendly campuses. It is now ranked 81 out 135 universities around the country; hardly a passing score even with grade inflation so common at colleges these day.

Still, the Sierra Club’s third annual Cool Schools report didn’t even consider other D.C. colleges such as Georgetown University, American University and the University of the District of Columbia. So, there is no way to establish the true pecking order, environmentally-speaking, of D.C.  higher-learning institutions. The only other area schools included in the ranking also received uninspiring grades: The University of Maryland beat G.W. with a 67, while George Mason University brought up the rear with an 89.

Georgetown University has two major campus newspapers, The Hoya, published twice weekly, and The Voice, published weekly. As an undergraduate some years back, I spent much of my college career, to the detriment of my college career, working at the Voice.

Like any two institutions in close competition and proximity (they occupy adjacent offices in the student center), The Hoya and The Voice have developed a relationship, rivalry even, that ranges from the insouciant to the deathly serious. Hoya staffers seethe over how their ad revenues subsidize Voice operations, while Voice staffers stew over The Hoya's massive sense of self-importance.

Each April Fools' Day, The Hoya chooses to print a special issue full of mostly hamhanded and occasionally offensive parody articles. The Voice, in my day, mainly ignored them, saving things for the traditional year-end softball game in Whitehaven Park. (We did once did pile newspapers in front of the Hoya door while dozens were locked inside having a staff meeting.) Then a few years back, after some Hoya staffers were discovered infiltrating the Voice offices next door, several Voicers climbed into the Leavey Center rafters and hid a remote-controlled battery-op doorbell above the suspended ceiling, then proceeded to use it to torment the self-proclaimed "paper of record" for months.

The prank offensive continues apace: This year, Voicers wrapped pretty much every item in the Hoya office in spare copies of the Voice and tape.

Now, bragging to the world about your clever prank—not really in the spirit of the thing, you know?

But going on the Voice blog to express your righteous outrage at the prank?

That's our Hoya!

Of the board's 14 members, 10 voted in favor. Three members—Verizon exec Joseph Askew, alumni representative Eugene Dewitt Kinlow, and student representative Dale Lyons—voted against. One member was absent.

UDC President Allen Sessoms said afterward he is gratified by the vote and by the discussion and debate that accompanied it: "UDC has not had a truthful, in-depth discussion of where this university is going."

The next step, he says, is moving forward with measures to expand the university's autonomy from the District government, allowing it greater freedom to manage its own affairs. "We want to be accountable," he says. "We don't have accountability right now."

Board chair Jim Dyke says that lessons were learned from the uproar that accompanied the tuition-hike proposal. A task force on communications, he says, has been established to combat what he calls the "misinformation" that went out to students about the tuition hike.

Despite all that, he says, "I think the students conducted themselves very well."

Sounds shocking, but a few things don't get mentioned, or get mentioned very briefly, in most press accounts.

First off, UDC has never made a very good distinction between its two-year community college and workforce development programs and its four-year baccalaureate degree-granting programs. The tuition hike is part of a plan to improve that situation. Second, this tuition hikes would only affect the four-year students. Under the new plan, students enrolled in two-year, community college classes would pay the old rate—$3,000.

While it's noble to speak of UDC's mission as providing a "quality and affordable education for residents of the District of Columbia"—as UDC student Joshua Lopez told WaPo this week—it's very hard to argue is that all its students are getting a quality education now. And $7,000 in-state yearly for a college degree still qualifies as affordable, compared to other state universities in this part of the country.

LL sees the facts this way: UDC has continually underwhelmed throughout its 35-year history, in no small part because of money. It's done only token, if any, private fundraising, it's never managed its budget well, and, especially, during the control board era, it's never been given the operating subsidy it needs.

Now UDC's programs and reputation aren't going to improve immediately, and students may not decide that $7,000 for a UDC education is worth it. But students can vote with their feet: Thanks to the federally funded Tuition Assistance Grants, D.C. residents can attend any public university at in-state prices. Or they can remain in community college programs.

UDC President Allen Sessoms doesn't expect that to happen, though. In an interview with LL earlier this month, he said, thanks to the economy and changes in programs, he expected UDC's enrollment to rise from about 5,500 this year to about 7,000—4,000 in four-year degree programs, the rest in community college classes.

Lest LL open himself up for ad hominem attacks, some full disclosure here—LL attended a very expensive private university, financed largely by his parents' savings. So he probably isn't the guy to stand up and say to UDC students: Hey, you need to take on a whole bunch more debt!

But the reality is that the status quo can't support making UDC what it needs to be. The alumni and other private support isn't there; the governmental support certainly isn't going to improve anytime soon, so if UDC is ever going to improve, things have to start with tuition.