02 05 15

VOICE the georgetown

UNEQUAL BUT NOT UNHEARD

Georgetown employees demand workplace justice

By Manuela Tobias

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w February 5, 2015 w Volume 47, Issue 19 w georgetownvoice.com

the

Voice

Feb. 5, 2014 This week:

Leo’s workers seek justice

The Voice reports the process of Leo’s workers’ journey for better wages and fair treatment in their new contract Aramark.

Editorial ... Leo’s workers deserve more in new contract, pg. 3 News ... Multicultural week exposes Council’s weakness, pg. 4 Sports ... Hoya walk-ons share experiences, pg. 6 Feature ... Leo’s Workers Demand Fair Treatment, pg. 8 Leisure ... SpongeBob seeks the Secret Formula, pg. 11 Page 13 ... The Call heard around the nation, pg. 13 Voices ... The moral inconsistency of H*yas for Choice, pg. 15

The Georgetown Voice welcomes responses, questions, and opinions from its readers. Submit all e-mails to editor@georgetownvoice.com.

Please include your name, year, and school. Bear in mind that letters may be edited for length and clarity and may be published and used in any medium.

Last week’s key:

KenKen – Kathleen Coughlin

KenKen puzzles are similar to sudoku in that you need to fill in the numbers (in this case 1-4) which appear once and only once in each row and in each column. The darker outlined areas are “cages” which contain a mathematical operation and a target number. The numbers in the cages must be combined using the specified operation to reach the target number. For example, a cage where the target is +5 has four possible solutions, 1&4, 2&3, 3&2, and 4&1. Note that the order of numbers in the cage does not matter for subtraction or division.

Corrections: Last week’s feature, “DC to Qatar: A Georgetown Presence in Doha,” mistakenly identified Ari Goldstein (SFS ‘18) as a member of the Class of 2017.

Last week, an editorial on fossil fuel divestment incorrectly identified the date on which the Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility released their response to GU Fossil Free’s proposal. The date was, in fact, Monday, Jan. 26, and GUFF released their response on Monday night, not Tuesday. In addition, a separate editorial on GUSA elections incorrectly described the composition of the Georgetown Community Partnership. The GCP has students involved in its working groups. The GCP’s steering committee is the body that contains a single student, the GUSA president.

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 47.19 February 5, 2015 Editor-in-Chief: Dayana Morales Gomez Managing Editor: Caitriona Pagni General Manager: Mary-Bailey Frank Webmaster: Maya McCoy Editors-at-Large: James Constant, Julia Lloyd-George, Ian Philbrick Contributing Editor: Chris Castano Blog Editor: Marisa Hawley Halftime Leisure Editors: Erika Bullock, Graham Piro Halftime Sports Editors: Alex Boyd, Rob Ponce News Editor: Lara Fishbane Sports Editor: Joe Pollicino Feature Editor: Ryan Greene Leisure Editor: Daniel Varghese Page 13 Editor: Dylan Cutler Voices Editor: Noah Buyon Photo Editor: Joshua Raftis Cover Editor: Christina Libre Design Editor: Eleanor Sugrue Spread Editors: Pam Shu, Sophie Super Assistant Blog Editors: Grace Brennan, Morgan Hines, Carley Tucker Assistant Halftime Leisure Editor: Michael Bergin Assistant News Editors: Courtnie Baek, Ryan Miller Assistant Sports Editors: Isabel Echarte, Kevin Huggard, Max Roberts Assistant Feature Editor: Shalina Chatlani Assistant Leisure Editors: Elizabeth Baker, Dinah Farrell, Sabrina Kayser Assistant Voices Editor: Leila Lebreton Assistant Photo Editors: Vicki Lam, Carolyn Zaccaro Assistant Cover Editor: Megan Howell Assistant Design Editor: Ellie Yaeger

Staff Writers:

Emilia Brahm, Chris Almeida, Sourabh Bhat, Emmy Buck, Brendan Crowley, Emmanuel Elone, Samuel Kleinman, Joe Laposata, Brian McMahon, Maneesha Panja, Thomas Stubna, Manuela Tobias, Colleen Zorc

Staff Photographers:

Ambika Ahuja, Saman Asdjodi, Jen Costa, Megan Howell, Gavin Myers , Freddy Rosas, Taryn Shaw, Andrew Sullivan

Staff Designers:

Erin Annick, Lizzy Blumberg, Caitlin Garrabrant, River Davis, Katie Hyland, Johnny Jung, Erin McClellan

Copy Chief: Dana Suekoff Copy Editors:

Lauren Chung, Bianca Clark, Jupiter El-Asmar, Alex Garvey, Rachel Greene, Madison Kaigh, Michael Mischke, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Kenneth Lee Editorial Board:

Shalina Chatlani, James Constant, Isabel Echarte, Lara Fishbane, Dayana Morales Gomez, Ryan Greene, Laura Kurek, Caitriona Pagni, Ian Philbrick, Daniel Varghese

Director of Finance: Allison Manning Director of Human Resources: Michael Sitcawitch Accounts & Sales Representative: Suzie Park The Georgetown Voice The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 424 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Website: georgetownvoice.com The opinions expressed in the GeorgetownVoice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of the Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

editorial

The georgetown voice | 3 fair trade dining

Unite with Leo’s employees for a better contract

UNITE HERE, a union of Aramark employees who work at Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall, Starbucks, Cosi and Dr. Mug, has embarked on a campaign to improve employee wages, working conditions, and rights. The campaign comes amid negotiations between Aramark and its employees to renew the company’s labor contract.

Aramark workers at Georgetown face many injustices on a daily basis. A cashier at Leo’s, for example, earns over four dollars less than his or her counterpart at nearby American University, where Aramark also operates dining services. Georgetown’s Aramark employees also pay almost double for the health insurance policy Aramark provides and receive none of the dental, vision, or short-term disability benefits that AU’s Aramark employees do. Full-time Aramark employees at Georgetown also currently only get paid for 37.5 hours of their 40-hour workweek, because Aramark does not consider the breaks workers take to be working hours. As a result, Aramark employees do not earn what constitutes a living wage under Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy.

Aramark must eradicate the blatant injustices that currently exist in its labor contract at Georgetown. Paying its employees a lower salary or requiring them to pay more for less healthcare coverage in different college dining operations are inexplicable and unacceptable inequities that Aramark needs to address. As a third party to the negotiations, Georgetown University cannot force requirements upon Aramark. Nevertheless, it ought to reconsider how it applies its Just Employment Policy to oncampus auxiliary businesses if those businesses fail to live up to the spirit of the policy.

The negotiations are more than just another example of a textbook labor struggle. They also shed light on perceptions of Leo’s within the campus community. Students frequently speak disparagingly about the quality of our only dining hall. The blame for that, however, falls not on Leo’s workers, but on Aramark. Without the quality, locally sourced food that Leo’s employees want as part of their new contract, they will have a harder time taking pride in their work

and preparing food that students actually enjoy.

Moreover, they will continue to bear the brunt of hurtful complaints about on-campus dining, all the while being subjected to systematic mistreatment by Aramark.

If students wish to pressure Aramark and the university to enact concrete change, instead of grumbling about bad food and average service, they must understand the conditions workers face. Aramark workers want to provide a quality food service, but they cannot do so with such poor employment conditions. The issues that UNITE HERE has raised need to become concerns of the entire undergraduate population.

Four years ago, students joined forces with Aramark employees when they unionized. Now, students must once again lend their support to the cause of Leo’s workers during the negotiations. Otherwise, every meal we swipe will only perpetuate the unfair employment practices and inequitable compensation that they suffer as they work tirelessly to prepare our daily meals.

georgetown’s gini coefficient

Inequitable traditions at Senior Parents Weekend

Last week, the Senior Class Committee hosted Senior Parents Weekend, a chance for seniors to spend time with their parents on campus before graduation. For some families, however, the event is not being a celebration of their time at Georgetown, but rather a painful reminder of the wide socioeconomic disparities between students.

This year, regular registration alone cost $90 per couple, with another $45 for each additional family member. Most egregious, though, was the “Winter Wonderland: 34th Annual Senior Auction” held on Saturday at the Grand Hyatt. For parents and students who wished to go, they must pay a separate ticket fee on top of registering for the weekend. Tickets for the auction cost up to $190 per person, depending on how close one wanted to sit to the stage.

The university has made great strides to address socioeconomic issues on campus with events and programs such as the Georgetown Scholarship Program that are focused on assisting low-income families shoulder the financial

burden of a Georgetown education. The SCC also plays a part in this mission. Proceeds from the senior auction help the Senior Class Committee hold events for seniors and, for families of financial need, subsidize the costs of the events it holds during graduation.

In the past, however, the SCC has pressured seniors to attend the auction regardless of whether their parents came to D.C. for the weekend, publicizing it as a time-honored tradition and even calling the event “the biggest party between now and graduation.” This year’s SCC astutely toned down the publicity surrounding the auction. Regardless, the auction remains the crux of parents weekend that, according to the SCC, no one should miss.

Apart from the auction, the agenda of Senior Parents Weekend does not justify the exorbitant registration cost, or even the expense of making a trip to D.C., which some families find hard to afford. Apart from a welcome reception hosted

by President DeGioia, the weekend’s other programming, such as faculty lectures, an organized

run to the waterfront, and a men’s basketball game screening at the Healey Family Student Center seem like filler events leading up to the senior auction—the weekend’s climax.

Ultimately, the Senior Student Committee needs to make its parents weekend more accessible so that all families and students, regardless of socioeconomic status, can feel comfortable fully participating in the weekend’s events without reaching beyond their means. A lavish party where Georgetown’s elite and wealthy families compete for prizes like a vacation at a French château or a golden Tombs barstool to charitably allow low-income families to attend graduation events cannot set the tone of class dynamics among the Georgetown community.

The Senior Class Committee has missed the mark with this year’s Senior Parents Weekend.

The class of 2016 needs to reconsider whether they want next year’s Senior Parents Weekend to be defined by economic privilege or by accessibility and affordability for all.

speak easy

Hard liquor ban big step backwards for Dartmouth

Last week, Dartmouth College announced a campus-wide ban on hard alcohol. Beginning this spring term, students will no longer be able to consume liquor containing 15 percent or more alcohol on school grounds.

Spearheaded by Dartmouth’s new president, Philip Hanlon, the policy change is one of several recent, ambitious overhauls of campus life aimed at reducing irresponsible drinking, sexual violence, and abusive fraternity activities. Of Hanlon’s initiatives, the blanket ban on hard liquor has unsurprisingly received the strongest resistance from Dartmouth students.

While alcohol consumption is a problem at virtually all U.S. universities, media coverage has made Dartmouth infamous for its campus drinking culture. The Princeton Review has ranked Dartmouth one of the nation’s heaviest beer-drinking campuses.

In 2012, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon brother published a column in The Dartmouth, the school’s campus newspaper, detailing his

fraternity’s abusive hazing practices involving alcohol and other substances.

Hanlon’s ban on hard liquor is, in his words, “moving Dartmouth forward”—but in the wrong direction. Banning hard liquor, for one, does not attack the root causes of sexual violence. Even if a majority of sexual assault cases are associated with alcohol consumption, drinks alone do not lead to sexual assault. An inebriated student does not bring an assault upon herself or himself by nature of his or her consumption of alcohol.

Moreover, a blanket ban will prove difficult to enforce and could ultimately backfire. After the national drinking age increased from 18 to 21 in 1984, college students did not cease drinking—they simply moved their parties from from public bars to private residences. Dartmouth’s plan will do the same, driving parties underground where students will continue to binge drink regardless of university policy.

Instead, Dartmouth should consider the educational—rather than punitive—approaches

peer institutions have taken to address alcohol abuse. In 2012, Georgetown administrators reversed an unpopular on-campus party registration system and allowed open containers in public areas. Stanford has even taken this sentiment a step further: it acquired an alcohol ordinance exemption in 2010, encouraging students to drink in an open-door policy. By bringing drinking back into public purview, students have less of an impulse to binge drink at pregames. They can more confidently seek the attention of Residential Assistants and emergency services while learning for themselves the risks of over-consumption in a safer environment.

Despite its laudable intentions, Dartmouth’s new policy will contribute little to changing drinking culture on campus. Students will only lose opportunities to seek help or counseling or to learn from their mistakes. For a university that inspired the infamous college film Animal House, Dartmouth should know better than to enforce a ban on hard liquor.

news

4 | the georgetown voice

FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Students question the Multicultural Council’s efficacy after Multicultural Week DINAH FARRELL Lask week, GUSA’s Multicultural Council presented its inaugural Multicultural Week, giving students the opportunity to participate in various cultural events. Despite the council’s overarching goal of promoting diversity, leaders of cultural groups have responded negatively to Multicultural Week, expressing concern about the purpose and effectiveness of the council as a whole.

According to Randy Puno (COL ’16), president of Club Filipino and SAC commissioner, there was little communication between the Multicultural Council and the different cultural groups leading up to Multicultural Week. “I would say that involvement could have been better,” Puno said. “One of the things I would say is a problem is that we weren’t very well contacted.”

President of the Chinese Student Alliance Dennis Mai (COL ’15), echoed these sentiments, drawing attention to the lack of personal connections between the council’s members.

“I think [the Multicultural Council]

HIGHER EDGE:

needs more face-to-face interaction.

I don’t know that I’ve ever met any of the council members,” Mai said, “Occasionally [the Chinese Student Alliance] will just get an email asking us if we want to participate in an event.”

The Multicultural Council was initially launched in the spring of 2014 as a GUSA initiative to promote diversity through advocacy of cultural groups on campus and encouragement of cross-cultural interactions between groups. The council seeks to be a direct line of communication between cultural groups and the university administration.

Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15), vice president of GUSA and co-founder of the Multicultural Council, explained that the goal of the council is to become a way for university administration to hear and meet the needs of cultural groups through communication with GUSA. “SAC oversees all student groups, like International Relations Club, College Democrats, College Republicans, GUGS, and it has cultural groups within it, but all those different groups don’t necessarily have the same needs or concerns,” Jikaria said.

“The most important thing when picking classes is choosing the right professor.”

This is the platitude every incoming freshman is bombarded with when they pick their classes for the first time. It’s the same advice that those freshmen will then pass on to the newest incoming class once they are older and wiser upperclassmen.

The reason why this advice is given out at college campuses year after year is because it’s true. Professors have the potential to either make or break the course. I have enjoyed learning even the driest and densest material when it was taught by enthusiastic professors and have grown disdainful toward subjects I once enjoyed because of the professor’s dull, half-hearted lectures.

Although professors are integral to undergraduates’ experiences at universities, good teaching is currently battling a variety of obstacles.

As Georgetown professor Jacques Berlinerblau said in a recent article published in The Chronicle, professors are being disincentivized from teaching. “While teaching undergraduates is, normally, a large part of a professor’s job, success in our

“We’re looking at whether cultural groups might benefit from having their own funding body.”

According to Puno, however, the Multicultural Council might not be necessary because it essentially fulfills the same role as the Students of Color Alliance.

The SOCA serves as an advocacy board for students of color, providing some additional funding for cultural groups as well as meeting with cultural group representatives weekly to discuss issues. “[The Multicultural Council] provides more avenues to do the same thing, not necessarily new avenues to do new things,” said Puno.

BY LARA FISHBANE

field is correlated with a professor’s ability to avoid teaching undergraduates,” he wrote.

Berlinerblau explains that when he began teaching at the lowest quality public community colleges, he had to teach six courses per semester. As he climbed the ladder toward more prestigious universities, he was able to teach less and less. He was conditioned to work with the aim of ultimately obtaining a “double zero”, where a professor teaches zero undergraduate courses in both fall and spring semesters. This problem is particularly pervasive at more prestigious universities, where research work and publications are prized over the intangible quality of student education.

Even at a university like Georgetown, where the majority of courses are taught by professors, teaching assistants are often the ones who do the grunt work. This is the case in large lectures and small seminars alike; teaching assistants are the ones who engage with students in discussion sections, grade assignments, and work to make the material more easily digestible. Professors of these courses, on the other hand, get to

fessor accountability. These evaluations, however, might actually further promote sub-par teaching as opposed to preventing it. According to several reports, when students are evaluating their professors, they are more likely to rate more lenient professors higher in all aspects of course evaluations. In a survey conducted at San Jose State University, for instance, 70 percent of students revealed that their expected grade in a course influenced their professor evaluations. Furthermore, Herbert Marsh suggested that professors are also aware of this positive correlation between grading leniently and better evaluations. In one survey, 38 percent of professors admitted to altering their courses to make them easier after receiving negative student evaluation feedback.

Although course evaluations should be holding professors to higher teaching standards, in practice, they effect the opposite results.

In addition to pushing professors toward teaching less rigorously, they also force professors to hesitate before discussing contentious topics in class such as gay marriage, abortion, and religion. Williams and Ceci published a report which asserted that student evaluations are “opinion polls.” Professors are put in a defensive position where

they, to a certain extent, avoid teaching material that might not be agreeable with all students.

If we want to hold teachers to the highest possible standards, however, it would be incorrect to completely eliminate course evaluations. Instead, universities need to develop better ways of using them.

At Georgetown, the quantitative results of course evaluations, such as multiple choice questions, are provided to faculty, department chairs, program directors, deans, and the provost. These administrators are expected to make important decisions about professors’ rank, tenure, and merit based on quantitative data that may be misleading. Qualitative results, articulated through written comments, are available only only to the faculty member to whom they pertain through CoursEval.

There are no clear solutions to improving professor quality, but expanding the accessibility of written student feedback and contextualizing data by also considering mean grades in a course would be a good place for universities to start. If these types of changes are not made, universities are not only allowing lackadaisical teaching from their professors, but also encouraging it.

MULTICULTURAL WEEK TOO WEAK TO SUPPORT CULTURAL GROUPS.

LETTING OUR PROFESSORS FAIL US

a tri-weekly column ABOUT AMERICA’s UNIVERSITIES

Furthermore, Puno believes neither group has sufficiently addressed funding concerns.

Budgeting enough money for food has surfaced as a readily apparent example of funding difficulties faced by cultural groups. “SAC in general is not very receptive to using money for food,” said Mai. According to Mai, food is a more integral component of cultural events than it is for many other groups on campus, exacerbating this problem.

“We have to say there are more people coming than we anticipate, so we can have just enough food for people… or we should overestimate, and that’s a huge problem if you’re overesti-

mating, because you’re cutting into the the budget of another club,” said Mai. Puno also suggests that establishing a funding board exclusively for cultural groups would not solve the problem of scale cuts and inadequate overall funding. “It doesn’t matter how much they divide the pie, the pie is still the same size so moving cultural groups to a different funding board wouldn’t change how we have scale cuts,” said Puno.

In its attempt to resolve the issues cultural groups face in terms of funding, the Multicultural Council initiated working groups dedicated to evaluating a wide range of issues that are now being considered.

“In the fall, we really focused on working groups,” Jikaria said. “We were looking at academic issues, institutional issues, programming issues, and funding issues.”

Puno suggested that while Multicultural council had good intentions, its goals have not been actualized. He said, “The goals at first were very ambitious and there was reason for them to pursue those goals. Ultimately, they failed.”

stand in front of the classroom and lecture material without having to interact with undergraduates, with the exception of those sycophants who show up to office hours.

In addition to the professor’s role becoming further removed from the classroom, when professors are in the classroom, there are few mechanisms in place to hold professors to a high standard of teaching. This lack of accountability in the classroom has resulted in what Indiana University Bloomington professor Murray Sperber calls “the faculty/student non-aggression pact.” According to Sperber, this pact is a mutually beneficial tacit agreement between students and their professors. Professors do not need to expend excessive time and energy trying to develop in-depth lesson plans and challenging assignments. Students in return are only assigned minimal amounts of work, but rewarded with high grades.

Both sides win and neither has to argue over grades or workload.

At Georgetown and at many other institutions, course evaluations are provided as a means for student feedback to maintain pro-

MEGAN HOWELL

news

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice | 5

Students and faculty push for improvements to the Academic Resource Center THOMAS STUBNA The Academic Resource Center has begun to explore the possibility of expanding its office to a larger space in the coming months. Currently located in Leavey 335 with some testing rooms on the fifth floor of Leavey, the ARC has been the subject of student complaints regarding cramped conditions, low staffing, and issues of accessibility.

A committee of students and staff to be formed later this month will consider options to advance the nascent initiative, according to ARC director Jane Holahan. “We’re still gathering the people, and there will be students,” she says.

After moving to its current location from the counseling center in 2004, the ARC has expanded its services to the point of straining productivity at the current location, which employs five staff members.

“We’re a growing office, so we don’t have enough space for our cur-

rent staff members,” said Holahan. In her view, relocating the ARC again could smooth operations and help the students who use the center.

GUSA Senate Speaker Tyler Bridge (COL ‘17) said that several students have complained about the current ARC facilities. According to Bridge, often students say that the room is cramped, windowless, and stuffy.

The ARC provides academic support for students with physical and psychological disabilities as well as study skills workshops for all students. The workshops are currently held in Regents Hall. Students who require extra time for exams must take their exams in the ARC. One student reported to Bridge that the testing room is claustrophobic and full of distractions, including noisy typing by students who must submit responses on their computers. Bridge believes taking exams in a more comfortable room, or even in a regular classroom, would do

much to improve student performance and well-being.

GUSA Undersecretary for Disability Affairs Lydia Brown (COL ‘15) also pointed to the ARC’s expansion as grounds for the move. Furthermore, Brown believes adding additional staff would do much to help the ARC since it is so frequently used by students. “We have the same number of staff as schools with half of our student population do,” she said.

According to GUSA President Trevor Tezel (SFS ‘15), preliminary plans for the move suggest switching the ARC and the Center of Multicultural Equity and Access, so that the ARC would be in the Center of Multicultural Equity and Access’ current space on the fifth floor, and the CMEA would be on the third floor, adjacent to the LGBTQ Resource Center and the Women’s center. Tezel believes placing the CMEA next to the LGBTQ Center and the Women’s Center could facilitate intersec-

RESOURCE CENTER ReQUESTS RESOURCES AND RELOCATION. tional programming. “There are a lot of positive opportunities that could come with an office space,” Tezel wrote in an email to the Voice.

According to Brown, expanding the ARC would additionally benefit many of the physically disabled students who use it. “Once you go in the door for ARC, that hallway is not wheelchair accessible,” she said. She recounted the case of a former student worker several years ago who had trouble moving down the ARC’s nar-

ANDREW SULLIVAN

row hallway and accessing the front desk via wheelchair.

As the ARC begins to solicit student engagement in the coming weeks, more concrete plans for the move will be made. Raising awareness is the first step, according to Bridge. “The seconds step is gathering a group of students and a group of administrators, sitting down and having the first conversation about some of the problems we’ve seen and some of the solutions we could offer,” he said.

Petition seeks more transparaency regarding Ph.D. instructors’ training Committee for Diversity to address LILAH BURKE An email newsletter sent out by GUSA on Jan. 30 publicized a petition that calls for greater transparency in the Foreign Language and Linguistics Department in regards to the use of Ph.D. candidates as instructors. Senator-at-Large Adam Shinbrot (COL ’18) published the petition on Jan. 24 and on Sunday GUSA Senate passed a bill expressing their support for it.

“I’m not addressing whether they are good or bad instructors,” Shinbrot said.

He is only seeking to raise awareness of their training. “You should know that your tuition dollars are being put to good use to train Ph.D. candidates to instruct your classes, and instruct them well.”

The petition also asks the FLL to ensure that students have the contact information of those they can reach should there be a problem with their Ph.D.-candidate instructor.

“If you have a problem with a professor you go to the chair of the department, simple as that. If you have a problem with a Ph.D. candidate, sure you can go to the Chair of the Spanish department, but there’s also a lot

of people who’re involved with the just the Ph.D. program,” Shinbrot said.

“You should have their contact information if you have a problem.”

Gwen Kirkpatrick, chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, believes this aspect of the petition is unnecessary. According to Kirkpatrick, the proper contact information is on the syllabus of every 100-level course in her department and can additionally often be found on Blackboard. She also believes there is no reason undergraduate students cannot come directly to the chair of the department with a complaint.

Student Cassidy Gasteiger (SFS ‘18), who expressed skepticism about the benefits of the petition, said, “Can’t they just talk to their dean? Isn’t that our point of contact if we have problems with our professors?”

Kirkpatrick expressed her enthusiasm for the other parts of the petition.

Emphasizing how extensive the Ph.D. candidate instructor program is, she explained “They should tell people what they’re doing. ... We could make ourselves better understood.”

Shinbrot has said the motivation for the petition stemmed from

SHINBROT’S PETITION FOR TRANSPARENCY LACKS CLARITY.

JOSHUA RAFTIS

his own lack of understanding in a past class. “When I was in my class I thought ‘Okay, I’m paying all this money to go to school and my instructor has no training.’” Only after looking into the matter further did he realize this was not the case.

According to Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. candidates receive special training in second language acquisition and linguistics, taught by prominent professors in the field. “This is where Georgetown is distinctive,” Kirkpatrick said.

“I’ve never seen such a well-developed system of language instruction.”

Instructors in the Spanish department have backgrounds in areas such as anthropology, ethnography, and comparative literature and are pursuing their doctorates in similar areas while specializing in Spanish speaking regions. Many have taught at the college level before joining the Ph.D. program, and are all observed by professors or teaching assistants.

Ph.D. candidate and Spanish instructor Yoel Castillo Botello hopes this petition might help those Ph.D. candidates who are working hard to teach classes, on top of their doctorate workload. “I think that our department strives to give us as much support as they can, but university-wide there should be more support for Ph.D. candidates who are actually full instructors.”

Shinbrot believes both students and faculty will receive his proposal well. “I don’t think this is something that is that difficult.... I don’t think that anyone would have a negative reaction to this.”

issues faced by students of color MIA LOPEZ-ZUBIRI

The Office of the Provost announced the creation of a Committee for Diversity on Jan. 28 to address issues faced by students of color at Georgetown. The committee will consist of students, administrators, and staff members interested in racial and social justice.

According to University President John DeGioia’s Chief of Staff Joseph Ferrara, a group of students presented DeGioia a proposal introducing the idea at the 2014 annual Black House Dinner.

“Working with the students, we formed an ad hoc group of faculty, administrators, and of course students to begin working through these issues,” Ferrara wrote in an email to the Voice.

“The students showed great leadership in advocating for greater diversity and inclusion. It became clear that this ad hoc committee should become a permanent committee.”

Although a number of groups already congregate to promote diversity and inclusivity on campus, the Committee for Diversity is the sole group dedicated to these issues that will interact directly with the Provost. It will also work with existing groups, according to Provost Robert Groves.

According to Ferrara, the Committee for Diversity has had support from several offices around campus, including the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action, the Division of Student Af-

fairs, and the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access.

“Georgetown, like any institution of higher education, is a complex organization,” Ferrara wrote. “Yet, I think some progress has already been achieved— for example, this year, we have been able to put in place an institutionalized system of funding and communications support for the celebration of heritage months that did not exist before.”

In addition to the active work that committee members will be undertaking, Groves defined his expectation that the committee will teach participants relevant lessons about intergroup respect and community understanding which will better prepare them for life outside of Georgetown.

“We want to build leaders for an increasingly interconnected world, filled with different cultures, races, beliefs, and languages. We want our students to have all the skills to navigate the world.

To achieve that, we need to learn how to engage effectively the differences we have in our own community,” Groves wrote in an email to the Voice.

Groves also hopes that the committee will be able to have a significant impact on both its members and the Georgetown community.

“Georgetown aspires to build a culture in which all persons are valued and respected for the individual complex of talents they bring to the community,” Groves wrote. “We have hopes that this committee will be a strong force to achieve that.”

sports

6 | the georgetown voice

february 5, 2015

Hidden jewels: Walk-ons play vital role in Hoyas’ success ISABEL ECHARTE

Just over two minutes were left on the clock when Georgetown was beating Creighton by 26 points on Saturday. The crowd was elated. In addition to the impossibility of a comeback

by Creighton, Georgetown fans were overjoyed because both junior David Allen and redshirt sophomore Riyan Williams, the team’s walk-ons, were put in to play: Saturday’s game was a surefire win.

David Allen, who is going on his third year with the team, says he has fun anytime he gets to play in games like Saturday’s, though he hopes to play more meaningful minutes as well.

“Obviously we’re excited to get in the game no matter what the situation, but at some point or another you’re hoping to play meaningful minutes that aren’t in the last two minutes of the game when you’re up 40,” he told the Voice.

When Williams, who joined the team prior to the 2013-2014 season, subs into a game like Saturday’s, however, his main goal is “to not mess up,” he told the Voice.

“There’s the idea that walk-ons aren’t that good so I don’t wanna feed into that stereotype,” he said.

Williams hoped to play college basketball since his sophomore year of high school, so to him, getting to play those few minutes is “a dream come true.”

“When I was in 10th grade, my dad and I were watching TV one time, and he was like, ‘My only dream would be to see one of my sons on TV playing basketball.’

And ever since then I worked my hardest to get to a place where I could play basketball.”

Williams’ father is no stranger to Georgetown basketball: he is Reggie Williams, the player that helped Georgetown win the

NCAA National Championship in 1984 and played in the NBA for a decade after graduating from Georgetown. Riyan sees his father’s jersey hanging on the wall every time he goes to practice in McDonough Arena.

He knew he wasn’t the strongest basketball player, and despite being approached by a few coaches to be recruited, he worked hard to become a strong student. He wanted to go to a good school and try to walk onto a team.

While Williams was not able to join the team his freshman year, he got the opportunity to do so his sophomore year.

“I thought it was just gonna be fun,” Williams said. “It’s a lot of hard work—like I said, you’re competing against the best players in the nation… It’s a great opportunity.”

One of the people who has pushed Williams the most in his basketball career is his father.

His father was the coach of his high school basketball team and still gives Williams advice after every game. “One game I got in a three-pointer. He was so mad about that, he was like, the first shot you take should not be a three-pointer, he talked to me for like 30 minutes about that, so I won’t be doing that again.”

Although Allen was able to walk onto the team his freshman year, he echoed Williams’ sentiments about the rewards of being part of the team and the work that it entails.

“It’s been fun, I mean it’s been an experience of a lifetime not many people get to do this, just putting in a lot of hard work,” he said.

According to Head Coach John Thompson III, these players are an “integral part” of the basketball team. They are part of the scout team, meaning they have to

david allen is just as crucial to the hoyas as the team’s starters, JTIII SAYs. VOICE ARCHIVES

learn the opposing teams’ plays in addition to the Hoyas’ own to test the other players in practice.

“They give as much to this program as, if not more than, the D’Vauntes [Smith-Rivera]s and the Jabril [Trawick]s do. And I say if not more because they never get that pat on the back from the world, but they’re as much a part of what we do and as important a part of what we do and contribute to our winning as much as anyone else.”

Both Thompson and Williams noted that the public

Joe o’s Pollicin

doesn’t always notice their important role in the success of the program. Though they cheer for Allen and Williams to play at the end of a successful game, Thompson believes the fans “just see the people that I decide to throw out there on the court.”

Williams believes that at times, people might belittle his accomplishments simply because he’s a walk-on, though they rarely do so directly. He believes this is a result of play-

ing in such a competitive Big East program.

“This is top-tier basketball,” Williams said. “You’re playing against the top players in the nation, NBA-bound players. ...There’s always gonna be better players.”

Thompson, however, believes both Allen and Williams are very good basketball players.

“The differences between those guys playing and [the walk-ons] isn’t as great as the general public might think.”

SPORTS SERMON---

“I’m just here so I won’t get fined.”-Seattle Seahawks RB at Super Bowl Media Day.

The beast is back.

After a lackluster inaugural season, Big East conference has reasserted itself as a force to be reckoned with in the world of college basketball. Left for dead by many after the mass exodus of some of conference’s most prestigious members, such as Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Louisville, and Notre Dame, for the greener pastures of big-time football conferences with lucrative television contracts, the Big East has found a way to reinvent and revitalize itself for the better.

In the wake of the realignment buzz that has engulfed major college athletics, the Big East has found a nice niche in a sport that has been otherwise saturated by behemoth conferences with 12 or more teams, where there are large gaps between the playing level of the top teams and the cellar dwellers.

Rather than adopt practices utilized by its peers, the Big East has opted for a more condensed and contrarian structure, with just 10 teams, all of which do not play FBS football. As a result of the 10-team membership, the league has been able to adapt a double round-robin schedule, where each team plays every team in the league once at home and on the road, which in turn has help cultivated new rivalries as well as increase the familiarity of opponents to the league’s fans. And instead of competing for television time with other conferences on ESPN, where in all likelihood only their top two or three teams would be showcased, they chose to sign on with upstart network Fox Sports 1 to have nearly every league game televised, providing equal amount of exposure to all of its members.

But while this setup looked ideal on paper, it all hinged upon the fact that the league’s members would have to deliver on the court, which they did not, at least not last year.

Only two teams, Villanova and Creighton, found themselves consistently ranked, and the league barely managed to earn four bids to the NCAA Tournament. No teams advanced past the third round of the tournament and conference brand names such as Georgetown and St. John’s settled for the National Invitation Tournament.

Fast forward to this year, and you have a much more talented league that has been able to take advantage of the Big East’s unique setup. Five teams, Villanova, Butler, Seton Hall, St. John’s, and Georgetown, have been ranked in the Top 25 polls at some point this year. ESPN resident bracketologist projects seven Big East teams will earn selections in March. Based on Ratings Percentage Index, the Big East is the second toughest conference in the country, just behind the Big 12 and ahead of the Big Ten and ACC, leagues that get substantially more attention from the national media due to their cozy relationships with ESPN. Even without these offthe-court figures, just watch any Big East game. Aside from cellar-dwelling Creighton, almost every team in the conference has two players who can make a legitimate claim for a spot on the All-Big East 1st team. Georgetown has D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, and arguably the hardest big man to guard oneon-one Joshua Smith. Provi-

dence has LaDontae Henton, who leads the league in scoring averaging 20.4 points per game, and Kris Dunn, who leads the league in assists with 7.4 per game. St. John’s has one of the best defensive players in the country with Chris Obekpa, the league leader in blocks, to accompany scoring machine D’Angelo Harrison. The entire Villanova starting lineup could make a case for a spot on the allleague team as well.

But while the relationship with Fox Sports 1 has allowed those who follow the conference closely, like myself, to fall in love with it even more due to its wall-to-wall coverage of every game, the fact that the conference does not play its games on ESPN anymore has helped fuel this notion that, in terms of quality of play, the Big East remains much inferior to its ACC and Big Ten counterparts.

Just tune into highlight shows such as SportsCenter or even college basketball-dedicated programming such as College GameDay. You would not hear much about any of the teams and players I just mentioned. In fact, you would probably think the Big East did not even exist anymore due the paucity of attention it receives.

Simply put, you cannot write off the Big East as a glorified mid-major conference anymore. The country needs to start to paying attention. But as the season draws to a close, and the NCAA Tournament inches nearer, the league must take advantage of their successful season so far by having multiple teams make deep runs in the Tournament. Only then will the doubters be able to say that the Big East is back.

sports

georgetownvoice.com

Mixed week for men’s basketball KEVIN HUGGARD No. 24 Georgetown (15-6, 7-3 Big East) had a chance during its past two games to recover some momentum and display greater consistency. The team came three points away from doing just that, beating Creighton (11-13, 2-9 Big East) on the road before returning home and falling 71-74 to Providence (17-6, 7-3 Big East).

The Hoyas entered their game against Creighton needing a win to bounce back from their loss to Xavier (14-9, 5-6 Big East) and give themselves a chance at remaining in the national top 25 rankings.

They dominated the Bluejays for most of the game, and their 67-40 victory last Saturday was enough to keep them at No. 24 in both major polls this week.

The Hoyas opened with nine straight points, but would go cold for a six minute stretch that saw Creighton claw its way back into the game. From there, however, the away team controlled play as the Bluejays could not find the basket, going 17 minutes without a field goal.

“It wasn’t that they took shots out of the norm,” junior guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, who scored a game-high 24 points, said. “Today they got quite a few shots they usually knock down that they didn’t make. I think we defended well, so it kind of frustrated them a little.”

In early January, the Hoyas traveled to Providence and suffered a bitter, 57-60 defeat in overtime. On Wednesday night

The Georgetown women’s basketball team (4-19, 2-9 Big East) suffered two losses on the road last weekend, falling at DePaul (17-6, 9-5 Big East) 52-93 and losing to last place Marquette (5-17, 1-10 Big East) 73-80.

The Blue Demons took an early lead against the Hoyas, which they rode to a 48-20 lead at half. Despite out-rebounding the Blue Demons 52-40, the Hoyas still gave up 33 turnovers and 10 three-pointers. The 41 point loss is the Hoyas largest by far this season, topping a 20-point loss on Jan. 5, also to DePaul. This defeat continues a 7-game losing streak.

Freshman forward Dorothy Adomako paced the Hoyas with 20 points and 10 rebounds, while junior forward Dominique Vitalis pulled down 10 rebounds.

– Riseandfire – brendan crowley’s TRI-weekly column about sports

THE UNLIKELy heroes club

carolyn zaccaro

The Hoyas will look to bounce back this saturday when they face No. 7 Villanova. the Friars would once again hand Georgetown a crushing three point loss, with this one coming at Verizon Center by a score of 7174. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera saw his three-point attempt bounce off the rim as time expired, denying the Hoyas the chance to tie the game in its final seconds.

The two teams battled throughout the first half, with the Hoyas gaining an early edge with their fullcourt pressure. Then the two sides would trade baskets for the remainder of the half, and a Smith-Rivera three-pointer gave the Hoyas a 4744 lead heading into halftime.

The Hoyas used a 14-2 run early in the second half to stretch their lead to 61-52 and looked poised to take control of the game. But after Smith-Rivera’s three-pointer with just under eight minutes remaining in the game the Hoyas would not convert another field goal for the remainder of the game.

“We didn’t take care of the ball. We can’t go through stretches where we aren’t getting shots. You have to give their defense credit, but

we have to be better,” Head Coach John Thompson III said.

LaDontae Henton and Kris Dunn led the way for the Friars, scoring 16 and 12 points respectively. Dunn, the Big East’s assist leader, added 9 assists and 6 steals.

Smith-Rivera once again shouldered the greatest scoring load, with 21 points including five three-pointers. Senior forward Joshua Smith, freshman guard Tre Campbell and freshman forward Isaac Copeland each contributed 10 points.

A series of turnovers and fouls late in the game led to several lead changes in the final minutes. Two crucial turnovers in the closing seconds by the Hoyas, however, allowed Providence to recover their advantage and build a 74-71 lead in the final moments of the game. This would be enough for the victory, as Smith-Rivera’s shot bounced out with two seconds left on the clock.

The Hoyas will travel next to Philadelphia to take on No. 7 Villanova (20-2, 7-2 Big East) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Women’s hoops drops two on road JOE LAPOSATA

the georgetown voice | 7

Two days after the loss, the Hoyas took on Marquette in Milwaukee. The Golden Eagles entering the game looking for their first conference win, and despite four Georgetown players scoring in the double digits, the Hoyas made too many costly mistakes as Marquette sank 32 free throws, taking a 7-point lead in the last 2 minutes. The Golden Eagles left the Al McGuire Center with their first Big East win and pushed the Hoyas to last place in the division.

Mental errors, particularly turnovers, were a commonality between the games. The Hoyas turned over the ball 15 times while also allowing Marquette to attempt a whopping 42 free throws, of which the Golden Eagles converted 32. Sophomore Faith Woodard led the way for the Hoyas with a team-

high 15 points, converting nine of those at the free throw line, while Vitalis added 14 off 6-of11 shooting.

The Blue and Gray has seven remaining games to round out the season, playing every other team in the Big East except Marquette and DePaul. Their next game on Feb. 8 sees them pitted against fourth place Villanova (13-10, 7-4 Big East) to begin a threegame homestand.

The Hoyas will be having a special promotion for the Feb. 13 game against Xavier (13-9, 5-6 Big East), called “Hail to the Kale.” A variety of kale (yes, the vegetable) themed events will take place throughout the night, including a kale eating contest.

So if you don’t feel like making dinner on the Friday the 13th, head on down to McDonough for way too much kale.

When the clock struck zero at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday night, 24 year-old Malcolm Butler stood in disbelief at the center of the field, slowly shaking his head as he fielded questions from NBC’s Michele Tafoya.

The former standout at Division II West Alabama University had emerged as the unlikely hero of Super Bowl XLIX. An interception, the first of Butler’s NFL career no less, had flipped the script, prolonging the New England Patriots’ postseason dominance in the 21st century, while simultaneously stifling the Seattle Seahawks repeat bid for a championship.

“I’m just blessed,” Butler said. “I can’t explain it right now. It’s crazy.”

It is crazy. But isn’t it always crazy? In the biggest games, on the biggest stages, the unlikely hero always seems to crop up.

Just like this past Sunday, in the last three Super Bowls, viewers have watched a relative unknown steal the spotlight from the players discussed on media outlets ad nauseam in the weeks leading up to the big game. We glorify names like Brady, Manning, and Rodgers, but always end up talking about the undrafted free agent who was a busboy three months earlier, or the washed-up veteran who somehow managed to turn back the clock.

In Super Bowl XLVII it was Jacoby Jones, the Baltimore Ravens’ kick-returner extraordinaire who tied the Super Bowl record for most combined yards and broke the record for longest kickoff return for a touchdown. Despite finishing third on Dancing With the Stars a year later, these remain Jones’ biggest accomplishments to date.

In Super Bowl XLVIII, our unexpected hero was Malcolm Smith, the Seattle Seahawks linebacker who managed to recover a fumble, return an interception for a touchdown, and register nine tackles, despite entering the game known by most as, “Steve Smith’s brother.” He exited that game known by most as the Super Bowl MVP. And in Super Bowl XLVI it was the New York Giants’ Mario Manningham, whose fourth-quarter reception along the sideline continues to defy gravity. Manningham had been overshadowed by star wideouts Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks all season, but on that day he was in the right place at the right time to make a catch teammate Antrel Rolle described as “the reason we have a ring.”

The list continues: David Tyree, Dexter Jackson, James Washington,

etc. It is a wondrous thing about team sports that we tend to overlook: big-name players will put you in the position to succeed, but it’s the nobodies who will take you to the Promised Land.

The phenomenon is not limited to football. In 2012, LeBron James entered Game 5 of the NBA Finals with the chance to secure his first NBA title. The Miami Heat star had ripped through the regular season and the playoffs, winning the NBA MVP and averaging a gaudy 27.1 points per game.

But in Game 5 it was Mike Miller, the NBA journeyman from South Dakota, who won the day. Despite numerous injuries and ineffective play throughout the playoffs, Miami Heat Head Coach Eric Spoelstra went with the veteran in Game 5, a rotational decision that proved to be fruitful. Miller tallied 23 points, including seven three-pointers, an unexpected scoring outburst that broke the Oklahoma City Thunder’s resolve. LeBron James, along with the other members of the Miami Heat’s Big Three, will always be remembered as the team’s linchpins, but Mike Miller will be forever revered as the player who finished the job.

Pick a sport and the example is there waiting for you.

Hockey? How about the New York Rangers’ Stephane Matteau?

Soccer? I don’t know about you, but I had no clue who John Brooks was when the 2014 World Cup started.

Baseball? Aaron Boone!

The reality is that the unlikely heroes of sports can only be identified in hindsight. They are labeled as too old, too young, or simply too irrelevant to be worth mentioning.

But behind the scenes they are working. Each and every day, outside of the public eye, they do what they can to help better their team’s chances to succeed. And when their opportunity comes, they’re always ready.

There’s a video on the New England Patriots website posted on Aug. 20, 2014, right at the beginning of Malcolm Butler’s stint with the team. It is buried in the archives, having garnered only 15 Facebook likes and a handful of comments at the time of its release. In the video, Butler is asked about his status so far with the team.

“I just come out and compete every day,” Butler said. “You have good days, you have bad days. …

You just gotta keep going.”

I think Patriots fans are glad you kept going, Malcolm. Welcome to the Unlikely Heroes Club.

feature

8 | the georgetown voice

February 5, 2015

is now the result of negotiations between the union and the company instead of between Georgetown and the company or Georgetown and the union,” Weaver said.

serving up justice

By: Manuela Tobias

Aramark workers call for equal treatment After years of pay and benefit discrepancies between Aramark employees at Georgetown and other D.C. universities, in addition to alleged mistreatment by management, workers gathered on the lower level of Leo J. O’Donovan Hall during their 4 p.m. afternoon break on Jan. 19 of this year to deliver a petition to their employers for fair and equal treatment.

“It really doesn’t matter what the manager says,” Sam Geaney-Moore (SFS ’12), UNITE HERE Local 23 Union Representative for Aramark employees at Georgetown University, said to the assembly of approximately 20 workers. “What matters is that they take up the petition and hear a voice.”

The petition asserts that the workers are not second-class citizens. Demanding the same treatment as the food service employees at Aramark’s other D.C. based branches, including those at American University, Catholic University, and George Washington University, the workers asked for schedules of 40 paid hours, affordable health insurance, meaningful wage increases, protection for immigrant workers, and dignity and respect in the workplace.

Over 70 percent of the unionized workers at Georgetown signed the petition.

Marching alongside approximately 30 students, the workers presented the document to then-Regional District Manager Ram Nabar outside the corporate offices located below Leo’s sub-level.

Petition in hand, Nabar assured those assembled that Aramark was in a good-faith bargaining agreement process with the union and working towards “the best solution [they could] work out.” Nabar then asked if there was anything else the employees would like to say.

“40 hours, 40 paid hours,” they chanted in unison, before filing back up the stairs.

The small rally embodied the workers’ frustration, which has grown alongside what employees consider to be Aramark’s reluctance to incorporate these demands into their second union contract. The original contract expired on Dec. 31, 2014. UNITE HERE Local 23 union representatives, voicing the demands of the workers, have been negotiating the terms of this contract with Aramark since October. UNITE HERE has represented Georgetown’s contracted employees at Leo’s, Starbucks, Cosi, and Dr. Mug since 2011.

In spite of being the nation’s oldest Catholic, Jesuit institution of higher learning, Georgetown University still

lags behind its counterparts in D.C. in terms of workers’ benefits. Georgetown is the only university in Washington where Aramark’s contract does not require the company to create as many 40 paid hour schedules for its employees as possible guarantee a maximum amount of 40 paid hou schedules for its employees, according to Lauren Burke, the lead organizer for UNITE HERE Local 23.

According to Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh, the Just Employment Policy demonstrates Georgetown’s commitment to its Catholic and Jesuit values. The JEP is an addendum to university-auxiliary company contracts that aims to ensure a living wage, the minimum wage needed to cover the cost of living in the D.C. area, and was created in 2005 as a result of workers’ rights advocacy by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee.

The wage rate mandated by the JEP, according to GSC member Erin Riordan (COL ’15), is calculated assuming a 40 paid-hour work week. However, after subtracting their 30-minute lunch breaks, total work time for full-time Aramark employees adds up to only 37.5 hours per week, failing to reach the standard for a living wage. Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh did not respond to multiple emails regarding the number of hours used in the living wage calculations.

While the JEP dictates a minimum compensation requirement, Pugh said it does not elaborate on or define, “full-time.” According to GSC member Caleb Weaver (COL ’16), this in turn prevents the university from legally mandating the number of hours full-time employees need to work. In an email to the Voice, Aramark Communications Director Karen Cutler wrote that the company “fully complies” with Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy.

Securing a living wage is particularly important to the workers because Aramark employees are paid less for their work at Georgetown than they are at other Aramark institutions according to Burke. While a cashier at Georgetown earns $12.10 per hour as of February 2015, a full-time cashier at AU, who is guaranteed 40 paid hours, makes $16.21.

Affordable health care constitutes another key demand for the new contract, since it ensures that employees who do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid receive coverage for themselves and their families without crippling their ability to pay their other bills.

Two and a half miles up the road from Georgetown, Aramark employees at AU not only receive medical, vision, and dental coverage, but their policies cover 100 percent

of their medical bills. At Georgetown, workers receive 80 percent coverage during medical visits, have no coverage for dental or vision costs, and pay a higher weekly rate. Additionally, Georgetown employees are not guaranteed the life insurance or short-term disability insurance that contracted employees at AU receive.

While full-time Aramark employees at Georgetown are eligible for health insurance, the number of people each employee chooses to cover determines the cost of his or her plan, which is deducted weekly from their paychecks.

An Aramark employee at AU pays $17.46 per week for single-employee insurance, $48.92 for the employee and another person, or $73.43 for a family plan. On the other hand, his or her counterpart at Georgetown pays nearly double for less coverage, with plans that cost $30.11, $80.41, and $113.36, respectively.

Donté Crestwell, who has been working at Leo’s for 17 years and is a member of the contract negotiation committee, laments the $80.41 dent in his weekly paycheck necessary to insure himself and his son on top of a bill after every doctor’s visit and zero dental coverage.

Alongside many of his fellow workers, Crestwell demands better coverage and that Georgetown employees’ current Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan be replaced with Kaiser, the plan available to eligible Aramark employees at AU. Healthcare conditions have nonetheless improved since the union’s first contract with Aramark. Year-round coverage, according to Burke, constituted one of the previous contract’s key victories. Prior to 2011, workers’ insurance did not provide coverage during months when employees did not work, meaning that during the summer months, when a large portion of students and administrators vacates campus, many employees had no coverage.

Attempting to articulate reasons for such discrepancies, Crestwell said that Aramark employees at Georgetown were the last to unionize in the city.

“Everybody else has a big head start, more experience ...

But there isn’t a reason why we shouldn’t be treated equally,” Crestwell said.

As Cutler explained, Aramark engages in collective bargain agreements with unions on a case by case basis, so there is no policy in place to extend the wages, benefits, and hours received by employees of one university to those of another in the same geographic area. According to Pugh, Georgetown University is not a party to negotiations between the union and Aramark.

“There’s definitely a distancing that happens which, legally, shields Georgetown from liability of abuses that go on in the workplace because the arbitration of those abuses

Short Term Disability

Vision

Dental

Life

Dif ferences

in Employee Benefits and Weekly Insurance Costs

Employee Benefits with Insurance

Georgetown University

113.36

80.41

73.43

48.92 17.46

30.11

single

plus one

family

Weekly Insurance Cost (USD)

American University

Georgetown vs. American:

georgetownvoice.com

Deep dissatisfaction with the treatment they receive on behalf of Aramark managers defines many of the workers’ experiences at Georgetown. While some of the alleged mistreatment—including derogatory name-calling and unsubstantiated job terminations—became more heavily regulated after the union instituted a grievance-filing process upon arrival in March 2011, workers continue to report instances of racial discrimination, managerial disregard, and general disrespect.

“You have some management talk to you in any kind of way, holler at you, talk to you like you are a child,” shop stewart and 17-year Leo’s employee Rhonda Smith said.

Smith reported that when she attempts to talk back to managers, they turn their backs and walk away.

Starbucks employee China Nguyen encountered similar frustrations when she approached Aramark management with issues of improperly clocked hours and general complaints.

“It goes in one ear and out the other,” Nguyen said.

Meanwhile, she and her colleagues down the hall in Hoya Court are not privy to the institutional support of the external grievance-filing process since they were not included in the unionization process in 2012.

In 2010, Antonio Piner was fired on account of what he called “bogus write-ups.” Piner was working in catering and received three write-ups in the same week for incidents of improper set-ups and tardiness that led to his prompt termination. When the Leo’s workers achieved unionization in 2011, the union reinstated Piner after statements from catering clients certified his fine job performance.

According to Riordan, the system for filing grievances that earned Piner his job back is a tremendous benefit of unionization. While the university ensures a procedure to file grievances through the JEP, Weaver believes the confidential hotline available to workers holds little power to enact change in comparison with the better-equipped and more responsive union grievance process.

“The union’s job is to go to bat for workers when they come forward with a complaint,” Weaver said. “People whose employer is Georgetown just are in a different situation when it comes to taking the side of a worker versus Georgetown.”

The grievance process is by no means perfect, though, with workers continuing to report many more instances of the racial discrimination that led the workers to unionize in the first place. According to Charlene Grant, one of the the shop stewards at Leo’s, managers’ preferential treatment creates racial tensions among employees. Grant described hostile work conditions for African American workers at predominantly Latino work stations, like the pizza station and the catering services.

“The management tries to divide us and I really don’t like it,” Grant said. “They try to divide and conquer us.”

While Cutler did not address any instances of such behavior in order to avoid violating “the integrity of the bargaining process with the union,” she said that Aramark does not tolerate bias or harassment of any kind.

The university maintains regular contact with Aramark managers to address issues of food quality, a major source of dissatisfaction among students. According to Sam Greco (SFS ’15), Georgetown University Student Association director of auxiliary service initiatives, GUSA engages in weekly discussions with Georgetown administrators and Aramark managers to find affordable solutions. While workers do not participate in these conversations, their opinions on food quality are no different from the popular student perspective.

“I don’t think it’s any secret to anyone who’s eaten at the dining hall that there are serious flaws, and we look to address those,” Greco said.

feature According to Piner, who now works as a prep cook at the salad bar, employees bring their own food to work regularly in order to avoid the dining hall’s limited options and poor quality.

“It’s so bad, the employees don’t even want to eat it,” Piner said.

While Greco agrees that the food quality is problematic, he said that continuous conversations with management have yielded results, citing the return of the wok station after the summer holidays. Greco also said, however, that the interpersonal service at the dining hall stands at an unacceptable quality level.

“While we make sure that our workers are compensated to a fair living wage that coincides with our Jesuit Catholic values, I am also adamant that every student should expect to be greeted, should expect urgency, eye contact, smiling, thanking—the common things that we expect of any hospitality employee,” Greco said.

Such a demand becomes harder to meet for some workers, for whom the toll of working conditions is hard to bear.

“It’s hard to have a smile on your face and continue to be friendly. A lot of times we’ve got a lot of anger, and a lot of stuff going on with us. And it’s hard because sometimes we might take it out on y’all. But we really don’t mean to,” one worker who has been working at Leo’s for 12 years told the Voice on condition of anonymity before breaking into tears. Last week, a manager told the source that workers were expected to act as robots.

“We’re not robots, though. We’re humans,” the source said.

Aramark representatives were unable to comment on this allegation due to the ongoing negotiations.

While Weaver said that GSC is proud of Georgetown’s JEP tool for fighting workplace inequality on campus, they acknowledge it is not as strong “as it could or should be,” yielding unjust situations that lay within the letter of the law. “The university works closely with vendors on compliance and is in regular contact should any issue arise,” Pugh wrote in an email to the Voice.

“If Georgetown is not violating the contract and yet all these bad things are happening, it shines a light on some issues GSC has been raising on how strongly the JEP can be enforced,” Weaver said.

Stemming from what GSC sees as inadequate action, students have developed a more vocal standpoint on the issues affecting workers. While GSC members regularly host worker breakfasts between the night and morning shifts every Friday, and larger events like a social at Leo’s last semester, they have developed profound relationships with workers over the years that make them aware of issues that may otherwise be delegated to the union.

In light of workplace accounts like those described and inequities in benefits and wages, GSC began to disseminate a student petition to show solidarity with the workers. As Chris Wager (SFS ’17), explained, students have an even greater imperative to act on the injustices seen at food services on campus in light of the Jesuit value of cura personalis and being women and men for others.

“The mistreatment of campus employees should be seen as unacceptable to all people at Georgetown. ... I say this not only because of Georgetown’s status as a Catholic university but also for the mere fact that the dining employees are vital members of our community and should be treated as such,”

the georgetown voice | 9 Nicolette Browning, undersecretary of auxiliary services to GUSA, wrote in an email to the Voice.

Student solidarity, in fact, formed the impetus for many of the rights workers on campus enjoy today. GSC-led efforts that began in 2001 and included a hunger strike, for example, led to the implementation of the JEP in 2005, while petitions, small protests and a worker-student rally with attendance of over 100 students led to unionization in 2011.

GSC therefore launched a student petition on social media to demonstrate the students’ solidarity with the workers. The petition, which has garnered 1,210 signatures as of Wednesday, will be presented both to Aramark management and the Georgetown administration in coming weeks as negotiations for a renewed contract continue.

When asked to comment on hopes for negotiations, Pugh wrote that that Georgetown expects “both parties to negotiate in good faith and to reach a mutually agreeable resolution.”

During the last contract negotiations on Tuesday, Jan. 23, however, Aramark failed to make a proposal that would raise the Georgetown employees to the standard held by Aramark employees at the other D.C. universities, according to Smith.

When Geaney-Moore asked the assembled workers that previous Friday at Leo’s if they would continue to fight for better treatment, the workers provided a resounding “yes.”

Before returning to their work stations, the workers turned towards the gathering of students that had accompanied them downstairs.

“We wouldn’t be here without your support,” one worker announced. His colleagues clapped and a few began to cry as they hugged some of the students who were present.

Megan Howell

leisure

10 | the georgetown voice

FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Fu’s Land of Deities leaps off the page, redefines the pop-up book ELIZABETH BAKER Remember your first popup book? The three-dimensional, brightly-colored images have the incredible power to keep young children occupied and amused for hours.

Yet interestingly enough, pop-up images in books were first used to teach in difficult disciplines, serving as visual examples for astronomy or anatomy. Now, artist Colette Fu uses this same technique to create beautifully intricate images in her exhibit Land of Deities: Popup Photos of Southwest China. Fu’s collapsable books combine her photography with pop-up images and flaps, creating a unique story of her exploration of Yunnan, China’s most southwestern province.

Walking into the Spagnuolo Gallery, nine individual pop-up books immediately grab your attention, each presenting fascinating and elaborate cultural aspects of the region. One blank pop-up book stands in the back of the exhibit, which the artist encourages viewers to touch in order to understand the medium she works with. From foods

to festivals, legends to landscapes, viewers are delighted by the various levels, directions, and dimensions that Fu uses in her compositions. “Axi Fire Festival,” for instance, depicts a cultural celebration honoring Mu Deng, an old wizard who allegedly brought fire to Axi

These pop-ups will satisfy both 5 year old you and adult in you hunters during a harsh rainstorm. The composition itself is inviting, as if Fu’s figures are calling us to join the celebration alongside joyous drummers and proud wood-bearers.

While “Axi Fire Festival,” employs a neutral palette, “Dai Food” dazzles the eyes with vi-

Out of CoNtrol A bi-weekly column about gaming by Chris Castano

Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver version are the greatest installments of the series to date.

There. I said it.

Pokémon is the undisputed champion of handheld role-playing games. It is a franchise that now spans generations with brothers and sisters passing it on to siblings, cousins passing it to cousins, and a few fathers and mothers passing it on to their offspring.

And given the series’ 19-year run, it seems almost inevitable that the latest iterations have innovated far beyond what was contained in the large Game Boy Color cartridges of the late 90s. But, as a Pokémon veteran who remembers his days spent with Blue version with fondness, I can assure you that Gold and Silver were a set of games the likes of which have not seen in years, much to the chagrin of older fans.

brant color schemes and appetizing culinary treats. While the Axi live in the mountainous region of Yunnan, the Dai inhabit a subtropical landscape, evident in the colorful cuisine the artist emphasizes in this composition.

Once more, Fu expertly draws viewers in, using levels to al-

Back in 1999, the Pokémon franchise was still young. There was a realm of possibilities awaiting the employees of Game Freak, and with the release of Pokémon Gold/Silver, they showed just enough imagination and just enough restraint to create a set of games that pushed the boundaries of the series while also staying within the realm of believability.

For starters, they established a series mainstay by introducing a horde of new monsters for catching, almost all of which were totally awesome. Sneasel, Skarmory, Heracross, Donphan, the list just goes on and on.

Even the weaker additions to the cast found their own merit. Why? Because no Pokémon was an HM slave. No Pokémon had a defined role on your team based on moveset. None of the trends or staples of the series were codified yet. Everything was fresh.

most create a three-dimensional table for us to sit and (visually) dine at.

Yet my favorite design in the exhibition is “Yi Costume Festival Book.” One of the famous Yi legends tells the tale of a woman and her lover’s peace threatened by a jealous Devil King. In or-

der to save her lover, the woman learned to crow like a rooster to signal the sun and drive the demon away; in the end, love prevails. To show their gratitude, villagers wear cockscomb hats that bring luck, safety, and happiness. In this special fashion show, Fu captures the radiant

COLETTE FU

joy and celebration of love and unity in this particular spread, evident in the women’s smiles and the elaborate costumes made specifically for the event.

What is so fascinating about Land of Deities is that Fu brilliantly captures various regional cultures and religions that so few

New Pokémon games aren’t very effective...

The realm of believability was still completely intact. Game Freak didn’t introduce anything into the series that was totally out of sync with the narrative of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. In fact, Game Freak made the incredibly savvy decision to introduce an element of continuity in the series by having the hero of Gold/Silver return to Kanto for a second round of competition after conquering the gyms in his own region.

Wandering back to your old stomping ground to see how it had changed in the years you had been away was an experience that generated a sense of wonder and nostalgia that older players could understand and younger players had never experienced before. Combine that sick, nasty, and totally badass final battle with the spirit of your character from the first game on top of a mountain? Who in their right mind wouldn’t have been totally hooked?

Later games have tried to incorporate that same sort of conti-

nuity. The events of Pokémon Black/White 2 take place two years after their predecessors and many of the locations or characters met in the previous iterations aren’t included.

The traditional gaming media met the expansions with praise saying that it broke the mold that sequential releases in the same generation had established. While that might be true, the extension of the story felt forced, especially after two generations that had done away with that kind of recapitulation.

In fact, many of the supposed “innovations” in recent games have seemed artificial.

The introduction of Mega Evolutions, where a Pokémon can hold a certain item to attain its ultimate form, in Pokémon X/Y is less a groundbreaking addition to the game model, and more a get out of jail free card for developers who knew they couldn’t keep adding evolutions to pre-existing

people know about. Yunnan is a diverse region, with ethnic minorities constituting more than 30 percent of the population.

Yet it is not a province often discussed when addressing the history and culture of China.

Since Yunnan was the birthplace of her mother, Fu established a personal connction with the province. After teaching English there for three years, she returned on a Fulbright Scholarship to document the lives and cultures of Yunnan’s ethnic groups.“ While I am directly unable to help these groups preserve their identity and ways of living,” Fu writes in her preface to the gallery. “I can use my skills as an artist to spread knowledge and provide just a brief portrait of their existence.”

Colette Fu’s exhibit is both delightful and informative, both aesthetically pleasing her viewers and educating them about cultures that for so long have been unheard and unknown— and all through the power of a pop-up book.

Spagnuolo Art Gallery Walsh Building, Room 101 Jan. 21-April 12, 2015

Pokémon without fans accusing them of recycling old game concepts. Sky battles, where a trainer battles flying-type Pokémon in the sky, and horde battles, where a trainer must battle multiple enemies, are cool, but they seem to be very much an innovation aimed at bringing the games closer to manga and anime rather than building an immersive experience.

Remakes are great. 3D graphics are great. New Pokémon to hunt down and capture are great. But none of these supposed innovations are anything that fans of the series weren’t expecting.

I am a traditionalist, and I love the Pokémon game model.

It’s familiar, it’s comfortable, and, for the most part, it’s good. But it could be great. Game Freak pushed the boundaries of the franchise with its second installment and then got comfortable.

Until they can start thinking like they did during their sophomore success, they should prepare for trouble. And make it double.

Help Chris catch them all cdc67@georgetown.edu

georgetownvoice.com

“I think anybody who falls in love is a freak... It’s kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity” — Her

DC’s El Camino not a walk to remember CAITRIONA PAGNI El Camino has a long road to travel until it can live up to the vibrancy and flavor of great Mexican cuisine.

Although it offers an imaginative and appealing array of traditional and modernized Mexican dishes, it fails to deliver on its menu’s lofty promises, leaving its patrons out to dry.

Located in the Bloomingdale neighborhood, El Camino does not accept reservations, so expect a 20 minute wait before being seated. The interior straddles the line between intimacy and claustrophobia. The dining room is divided into a bar and two seated sections with wooden tables made of tire rims and packed together in such close proximity that there is hardly any room to walk.

The menu offers traditional-style Mexican dishes and street food in addition to some experimental dishes.

The cocktail menu, which is as long as the food menu, includes classics like the margarita in addition to novelties like Tepache, a fermented and spiced pineapple juice. There are items that appeal to both hardened culinary adventurers who swoon at the idea of trying new and exotic flavors and their less daring friends who got dragged along even though they don’t really eat spicy food.

Chips and dip is the word on appetizers. Chips and salsa, chips and guacamole, chips and black beans, chips and refried black beans. I’m warning you now: if you go to this restaurant, there will be chips involved. Don’t get me wrong, the chips tasted great, but there weren’t many other options.

The guacamole strikes a great balance with texture and flavor— smooth, mild avocado and sharp, spicy jalapeño.

“Madre de dios, bless our guac and tortas. Amen.”

EL CAMINO

The scallop ceviche, from the antojitos section of the menu, was marinated in lime, grapefruit, and pomegranate and stood out from the rest of the meal as a well-executed example of Mexican street food. The scallops were seasoned with spices that balanced the acidity of the lime and grapefruit, as well as the sweetness of the pomegranate.

Unfortunately, my main course, a torta filled with carnitas, was disappointing. Despite an array of delicious ingredients, the sandwich came out as bland and as greasy as pizza at Leo’s.

Basically, there was too much bread in proportion to the meat, which was bland to begin with.

The dessert, Papa Carlos’s chocolate macaroon cupcake, ended the meal on a passable note. The rich chocolate cake isn’t amazing, but it gets the job done if you have a sweet tooth.

The cupcake’s familiar flavor stands in contrast with the kick of many of the main courses, calming the taste buds down after a long spicy Mexican culinary adventure.

Although El Camino strayed off its path throughout the night, its innovative menu definitely gives it the potential to become a great restaurant in the future.

the georgetown voice | 11

Unite at Unity Live!

SABRINA KAYSER

This Friday, the School of Nursing and Health Studies Academic Council and the GU AIDS Coalition are collaborating for the 3rd year in a row to host the 6th annual Unity Live benefit concert in Gaston Hall. The show will feature student dance and music groups, who will come together and perform to raise awareness about and money for HIV and AIDS. The student groups performing include Groove Theory, the GraceNotes, GU Jawani, GU World Percussion Ensemble, the Tappin’ Jacks, the Irish Step team, and the Phantoms.

Proceeds raised by this event go to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School, a Jesuit high school for AIDS Orphans in Nairobi, Kenya. As it is known, Georgetown University has close ties with St. Al’s, sending faculty and staff on a trip to the school every summer. The event will include a talk by NHS professor Laura Anderko, who will reflect on her visits with St. Aloysius and provide a first-hand glimpse into the work of the school.

The mission of St. Aloysius is “to be a center for excellence that provides holistic and transformative education rooted in Christian values” to orphaned and needy children in Kibera, Kenya. Through a system of scholarships and programs for character formation, the school instills in its students those same core values of human dignity, integrity, Ignatian spirituality, and social justice that are cherished at Georgetown.

Unity Live Gaston Hall Friday, Feb. 6, 7 pm $10 in advance, $12 at the door

El Camino 108 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W. elcaminodc.com

COLIN CROWLEY

Sponge out of Water serves up the secret formula for success STEVEN CRISS BENJAMIN RINGWOOD Since the summer of 1999, the world has watched SpongeBob SquarePants faithfully protect the coveted Krabby Patty secret formula from the ever persistent Plankton. The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water initially appears to be a continuation of this eternal rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket, but director Paul Tibbitt has cooked up something much bigger for the cartoon’s second fulllength film.

When the secret formula is stolen, Mr. Krabs immediately pins Plankton as the surefire culprit, gathering the citizens of Bikini Bottom in typical mob fashion to get to the bottom of the crime. It is only when SpongeBob, knowing that Plankton is truly innocent, decides to stand up for his historic enemy that the story gets truly interesting.

This is rather surprising, as Plankton usually fulfills the role of

the villain in television iterations of the cartoon. But here, his partnership with SpongeBob in their quest to restore sanity to the post-apocalyptic Patty-less world adds depth to his character. The promotion of teamwork and loyalty throughout the film is enhanced by the fact that these perennial foes must put aside their pasts for the greater good of sea-kind. Plankton’s development into a dependable ally with diverse emotions creates a storyline that diverges from the expected.

With Plankton’s new role taking time to develop, though, fans of Patrick Star’s unique flavor of humor may be disappointed at his amount of screen time, or lack thereof. Usually one of the major stars of any SpongeBob production, Patrick unfortunately is forced to take a backseat to this new duo. However, even in this more limited role, Patrick is still able to deliver his lovable goofy-goober greatness.

Although this film’s characters and themes are geared for young

children, Tibbitt and his team of writers make sure to include a subtle layer of satirical humor for the parents and older siblings. SpongeBob enthusiasts will rejoice in the film’s smart critiques of the illogical behaviors and overreactions all too common in today’s society. From rioting and vandalism to recycling practices, Sponge Out of Water masterfully intertwines comedy with questions of what we value and why.

The intelligent use of more adult material is one of the many aspects of SpongeBob productions that the show’s older fans have come to appreciate over the years. But with this film, Tibbitt and team are gunning to do things differently from the very first frame. The film was promoted using mainly clips from scenes that portrayed three-dimensional characters up on land, initially causing SpongeBob purists to question how much of the film would veer away from its traditional two-dimensional style.

Despite this worry, Sponge Out of Water delicately balances the new techniques and appearances with the classic drawn appeal in a way that appeases both those who desire a fresh take on the sea’s most beloved sponge and those who prefer the vintage look. Though the visual effects stray from what viewers are accustomed to, continuity in the style of comedy is firmly intact throughout—promising all the irony and randomness that has made SpongeBob an installment for all age groups.

With themes ranging from friendship and heroics to respecting intellectual property rights, Sponge Out of Water reaches a depth not typically found in most films, let alone those of the PG, animated kind. Absorbent and yellow and porous he may be, SpongeBob brings us yet another example of reflective hilarity in his latest quest to save the day, so if nautical nonsense be something you wish, then this film will easily have you dropping on the deck and flopping like a fish.

“Patrick, I don’t think we’re in bikini Bottom anymore...”

IMDB

leisure

12 | the georgetown voice

FEBRUARY 5, 2015

CRITICAL VOICES

Murder by Death, Big Dark Love, Bloodshot Records Murder By Death is known for musical experiments, and their latest LP, Big Dark Love, is no exception. All in all, the band gives their seventh studio album a decent effort; but I’m worried that the discrepancy in quality between their previous LP, Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, and Big Dark Love shows that even though they may have found a consistent sound, the quality of their future work may differ wildly.

Bob Dylan, Shadows in the Night, Columbia Records There’s no doubt that Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan are two defining voices of the 20th century. Yet putting them together produces a rather peculiar animal. In his most recent album, Shadows in the Night, Dylan has covered ten of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ most popular songs, with a bluesy twist. Conceptually, the album is fascinating, but curiosity soon gives way to the realization that this is just a mediocre album with the occasionally pleasant highlight.

Unfortunately, this most recent experiment falls short.

The five piece ensemble taps into their alt-folk/indie rock sound once again to create nervous, haunting melodies powered by simple, up tempo drumbeats, a remarkable variety of stringed instruments, and lead singer Adam Turla’s vocals.

Indeed, Turla’s vocals are the most memorable feature of the album. He manages to combine Johnny Cash’s baritone with a Willie Nelson-like lisp to get a comforting, grandfatherly voice that makes the chilling qualities of the album’s songs all the more bizarre.

For instance, “Dream in Red” evokes 19th century Appalachian murder ballads with lyrics such as, “Down by the river she said she swore I’d die / My body was broken, my wrists were tied / Broken in the reeds, tangled in the weeds / That’s where … she resides.” High pitched violins screech throughout the song, obviously connoting screaming,

while the rhythm picks up as the song’s narrator becomes more and more afraid. Needless to say, the overall effect is disconcerting.

But beyond the more frightening elements of the album, Murder By Death’s newest release is nonetheless pure Americana. “Send Me Home” exhibits Turla performing a classic Bruce Springsteen growl and wail while singing about the highway, moving on, and ex-girlfriends—the timeless Springsteen trifecta.

I’m still curious to see what Murder By Death comes up with next, because I love the idea of Johnny Cash’s vocals used in modern country and folk settings. Unfortunately, Big Dark Love, sounds like an established band’s first foray into angst-ridden, emotional music, but their experiment just didn’t pay off.

The main problem with Shadows in the Night stems from the tracks Dylan chose to cover. The original versions of nearly every song on the album tell morose stories that rely on sorrowful brass and string instruments and majestic vocals. This means that the album, as a whole, displays no evidence of sound diversity.

Dylan traps himself not only by his song choices, but also through his decision to simply tweak all of the Sinatra songs into brooding folk ballads. Songs like “Where Are You?” and “Autumn Leaves” lazily mimic every rise and fall of Sinatra’s originals with substitutions only for Dylan’s throatier work at the vocals.

Dylan’s quintessential vocal style is enjoyable, yet cannot function in the same way as the voice of a crooner.

His cover of “The Night We Called it a Day” suffers because he tries to flaunt a range that he does not share with Sinatra.

In Shadows in the Night, Dylan unfortunately displays a lack of own-

ership of his covers, but that does not discount the inherent talent of Dylan as an artist. If one looks at “I’m a Fool to Want You” or “What’ll I Do” purely as Bob Dylan folk songs, they prove to be enjoyable listens. Tracks like these two parallel a full orchestra sound with trippy guitar work that equates the rich, yet sullen music that boosts Sinatra’s voice.

Dylan is 73 years old; it’s understandable that he cannot belt like a member of the Rat Pack, but the fault lies in the attempt. Dylan should have taken these songs much farther from their original forms. Regardless of the fact that Shadows in the Night is a botched attempt, it represents a trend of legends covering legends that music fans will definitely appreciate. And maybe his next effort will be more “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Voice’s Choices: “Send Me Home,” “Natural Pearl” —Riley mellen

Voice’s Choices: “What I’ll Do,” “Full Moon and Empty Arms” —Mike Bergin

CONCERT CALENDAR THURSDAY 2/5 Viceroy U Street Music Hall, 9 p.m., $15

SATURDAY 2/7 Chris Tucker DAR Constitution Hall, 8 p.m., $80.75

SUNDAY 2/8 Animal Collective, DJ Set U Street Music Hall, 10 p.m., $10

SATURDAY 2/7 Slick Rick Howard Theater, 8 p.m., $32.50

SATURDAY 2/7 Elm Gypsy Sally’s, 9 p.m., $12

WEDNESDAY 2/11 Chris Robinson Brotherhood 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $25

ReelTalk

The director Hollywood deserves

In the case of Wes Anderson, perhaps we should alter the truism “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” to something like “It’s a relief to see him nominated.”

After receiving two Oscar nominations for screenplays, Anderson has graduated to the realm in which he belongs. This year, he received nominations for Best Director and Best Picture for his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Anderson’s quirky auteurism may not go down smoothly for every audience member, but his superb body of work suggests that these nominations were inevitable. From early hits like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums to more recent projects like Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson’s films have maintained a steady dose of fervent eccentricity.

Whether his characters are lovelorn teens or awkward boy scouts or concierges on the run, Anderson has never failed in highlighting their hopeful decency.

In terms of his work with the camera, The Grand Budapest Hotel may be Anderson’s best. Up until now, I would have presented Fantastic Mr. Fox as Anderson’s most impressive work, largely because he employs innovative stop-motion animation without sacrificing his trademark bouncy dialogue. The Grand Budapest Hotel, of course, does not utilize stop motion technology. Where it does thrive, however, is in its frenzied combination of narrative girth and visual compactness. Ralph Fiennes and the rest of the cast do impressive work with Anderson’s bubbly script, but the camera is the biggest star.

The movie crisscrosses fictionalized European climes, covering more ground than any of Anderson’s previous work.

In hotel lobbies and on snowy mountainsides alike, he miniaturizes landscapes, capturing the peculiar souls that inhabit them.

In a way, Anderson succeeds in wrapping his imagined Europe into a tiny little set, a stationary backdrop on which his players can tiptoe and conspire. Anderson’s playhouse of a world looks like it might collapse with a gusting winter wind, but his characters loom large on top of it.

All this being said, Anderson probably won’t win. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman and

Richard Linklater’s Boyhood have deservedly dominated the awards season to this point, and it’s hard to imagine another filmmaker snatching Best Director outside of this pair. In the Best Picture race, The Grand Budapest Hotel stands in as a praiseworthy afterthought.

But none of that matters.

Alfred Hitchcock once said, “A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission, and the babysitter were worth it.”

Awards season captivates us with the allure of excellence reaffirmed and stardom ensured, but the chaos of competition often clouds our judgment of what makes movies and moviegoing so important and joyous. This remains a business based on entertainment—achievement in winning over audiences rather than in being deemed “better” or “best” compared to completely separate cinematic works.

Who can say if Birdman or Boyhood is inherently better than Anderson’s idiosyncratic adventure?

Who needs to? All of these films, along with their fellow nominees, remain entertaining throughout their run time. They produce laughs, melancholy, and meaningful introspection. Linklater, Iñárritu, and Anderson have all crafted inventive film experiences, with no thoughts of beating out their fellow directors.

If it sounds like I aim to do away with awards shows, I apologize. We should, without question, celebrate the extraordinary achievements of those who create and carry out superb films. We should not, though, allow the lack of a trophy to mar the work of directors like Anderson.

Orson Welles—who I am told knew a thing or two about cinematic achievement—posited, “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” Anderson’s verse may be unconventional and bizarre, but it has produced too many good films to ignore. By any definition, by Welles’ or Hitchcock’s or the Academy’s, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a good movie with a great director.

Anderson has been making winning films for two decades now, even if his trophy case says otherwise.

A bi-weekly column about film by Brian McMahon

Check in to a hotel with Brian at bem64@georgetown.edu

georgetownvoice.com

PAGE THIRTEEN

the georgetown voice |13

– Dylan Cutler

voices

14 | the georgetown voice

FEBRUARY 5, 2015

H*pocrites for Choice: Abortion advocacy at a Catholic school ELLIE YAEGER Before I begin what is sure to be an incendiary argument, I would like to make a disclaimer: I am a liberal, feminist Catholic. I believe that women should be priests, that nuns deserve more respect, and, yes, that many Catholic laws, mandates, and morals are inherently sexist. Moreover, I believe that women have the civil right and moral authority to make decisions regarding their bodies for themselves.

However, I also really wanted to come to Georgetown.

I loved its American Studies program and commitment to social justice. So, even though I was not entirely in agreement with all of Georgetown’s views, Catholic related and otherwise, I decided to become a Hoya.

When I signed my commitment to attend Georgetown at the end of my senior year, I effectively signed my support, at

least in part, to the beliefs of the Catholic Church. I say this because by attending this university, I am quite literally funding their mission and message through my tuition.

All students here did this. I doubt anyone here agrees with everything Georgetown does, least of all GU Fossil Free, Hoyas United for Free Speech, or H*yas for Choice. But everyone clearly saw the value of a Georgetown education, and decided to compromise their beliefs in some way big or small in order to get a Georgetown degree.

H*yas for Choice is unique in that they attempt to pose as an inflexible, uncompromising moral authority on campus.

That they portray themselves as liberal, pro-choice saviors is inherently hypocritical because they chose to pay tuition and attend this university. Their legitimacy as a moral authority suffers because they are demanding moral con-

sistency from the university when it comes to its stated commitment to free speech while simultaneously failing to uphold moral consistency themselves. Their unwillingness to concede to university authority on anti-choice dogma in the public square actually hurts them because they have already conceded by coming here and paying tuition. By paying tuition, they are enabling Georgetown’s authority over them.

Their money funded the Right to Life Conference, Vita Saxa, and every “virulently racist and homophobic” speaker invited to lecture at Georgetown. Their money helps pay the salaries of the police officers who removed them from the sidewalk, and those of the administrators who wrote the very free speech policies that they claim to be victimized by.

Their attendance at the university negates any strict moral argument they have against it:

they endorse it, its policies, and its Catholic message through their mere class attendance and tuition.

H*yas for Choice has two options to advance their moral legitimacy on campus: to remove their monetary support for the university by withdrawing, or to concede that by paying tuition, they are not the moral authority they claim to be.

In short, H*yas for Choice needs to admit that they are hypocrites. They must admit that the Catholic Church now has some, although very negligible, domain over their lives, and that, however unwittingly, they support the views of the Catholic Church through their tuition.

H*yas for Choice are already radicals, but in order to become the reformers and leaders they want to be, they need to offer some concessions.

By espousing their own brand of inflexible morality and by refusing to attend the Cardi-

nal O’Connor Conference on principle, they appear ignorant of the fact that they helped underwrite the Conference. They are, in fact, just as hypocritical as they claim the university is when it promotes itself as a place of free speech.

My advice for H*yas for Choice? Next time you stand by John Carroll protesting whatever anti-choice, homophobic, sexist, and undoubtedly Catholic event comes next, at least acknowledge that you asked for it, you paid for it, and by remaining students here, you perpetuate it. By recognizing your part in supporting these views, you come one step closer to compromise. Only by admitting your own hypocrisy will you be able to make a sound argument.

ELLIE IS A SOPHOMORE IN THE COLLEGE

What happened to creativity? Taking aim at movie remakes CHARLES EVAIN Insomnia, The Departed, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: most of us know these works, but not that they were all great foreign films before being remade in the U.S. Annie and True Grit, believe it or not, were American classics long before Hollywood decided to update them for the 21st century.

Remakes have become increasingly common in past decade, and while the movies I just cited are noteworthy, they also act as Trojan horses to a scourge of mediocre

films that Hollywood has had the gall to re-do.

Production companies think some American classics should be remade because they are outdated, or that only by rehashing foreign films in English with American actors they can expose the common man to otherwise inaccessible greats. They believe updating old classics is a valorous challenge.

They are wrong. These companies are profiteering off someone else’s talent and it’s unacceptable.

Both remakes of foreign films and old domestic movies rarely outshine the original material,

river davis

ONE AND DONE GODZILLA’S NOT GOING TO LOOK ANY PRETTIER IF YOU REMAKE HIM

and usually only taint its reputation. RoboCop was one of the biggest disappointments of 2014, despite the critical acclaim of its predecessor. I wish Dinner for Schmucks had bombed in 2010, as it did no justice to the French classic Le Dinner de Cons, and wasted the colossal talents of Oscar-nominated Steve Carrell.

So why are the same old stories to be recycled? It’s a business decision: the brand is already established. While the name The Imitation Game wouldn’t initially catch everyone’s attention, Godzilla certainly would. This pleases stockholders who value safe profits over originality. They look at the past successes of Karate Kid and The Ring, and think they have found a money-making formula. Even though these aren’t bad films, they are the exception. The principle of reusing plotlines should not be standard practice in the industry.

Looking at last year’s best performing movies can be depressing: sequels and remakes are everywhere. Mockingjay Part I was 2014’s best performing film, and it’s a good flick, but it was stretched thin over two movies to double profits. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was terrible, but still squeezed its way to 12th place in the box office—not too bad for a rip-off of Batman Forever. The abysmal Godzilla came in at 13th place.

There is still some hope, though. Guardians of the Galaxy clocked in at second place, and The Lego Movie came in at a respectable fourth. Some original movies do find their way to the top, but the general rule seems to be that most of these spots are reserved for movies like Transformers 4 (sixth) and TMNT (15th).

Movies should be broadening our imagination and bedazzling us with stories we haven’t heard before. It’s these novel stories that make films like The Sixth Sense so memorable. Directors and producers can change some details in a remake, but none of us will be surprised when King Kong dies.

Expensive CGI and well-known actors shouldn’t be used as a substitute for a good story.

House of Cards is one of the rare examples where the remake equates its predecessor, succeeding mostly thanks to Kevin Spacey’s brilliant performance. The Usual Suspects and American Beauty already established him as an actor and despite the epic failure that was Superman Returns, Kevin Spacey didn’t need House of Cards to revamp his career.

It’s a great show but the BBC version is equally great. Remaking a series that is already great is a waste of resources and talent.

Our intelligence is being insulted when movies like Oldboy are released, since it is clearly insinuated that we aren’t capable of watching a

movie with subtitles. We shouldn’t be adapting to the lowest denominator by remaking these films; instead, we should be pushing everyone to watch what gave the movie its name in the first place by giving no alternative.

Thousands of movie scripts are written each year, and some with great potential are refused and replaced by movies that have already been produced. I can’t help but wonder what Christopher Nolan would have created if it hadn’t been Insomnia, or what David Fincher would have directed if it wasn’t The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Brilliance is being wasted on movies we can already watch.

We should be demanding originality from our movies. I don’t want to watch another remake of Spiderman to hear Uncle Ben say, “With great power comes great responsibility” for the third time. It’s already happening, though. You probably (and hopefully) missed it, but The Thing was remade for the third time in 2011. We need to put a stop to this practice and ignore these movies before remakes become the status quo. Karate Kid was the exception, not the general rule, and we need to prove it to them.

CHARLES IS A SOPHOMORE IN THE SFS

voices

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THE GEORGETOWN VOICe | 15

Death without Dignity: The dangers of assisted suicide LYDIA BROWN Two weeks ago, the Voice published an editorial supporting a D.C. proposal to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Better known as “dying with dignity,” physician-assisted suicide has been popularized by the media through their coverage of a photogenic young, white, class-privileged woman named Brittany Maynard. Mass media would have you believe that opponents are mostly anti-choice, rightwing, religious extremists callous to incredibly heart-wrenching stories like Maynard’s.

Yet as a disabled activist working within a framework of radical, intersectional social justice, I am deeply concerned about

issues of choice, self-determination, and bodily autonomy. This is precisely why I am ardently opposed to the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.

Instead of promoting choice, legalization of physician-assisted suicide will limit choices. Legalizing physician-assisted suicide incentivizes medical insurers to restrict or outright deny coverage of more expensive life-saving treatment. If people with limited financial resources are denied other treatment options by their insurers, they can be functionally coerced into choosing assisted death. With greater focus on austerity and high medical costs incurred toward the end of life, the cheap option of assisted suicide ($100-$300) will unavoidably distort future treatment decisions.

NOT DEAD YET (CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE)

A PRECARIOUS CHOICE ASSISTED-SUICIDE LAWS CAN ENDANGER DISABLED PEOPLE

CARRYING ON

Georgetown’s own Center for Clinical Bioethics published a study in 1998 that found a strong connection between pressure to cut costs and willingness to prescribe lethal drugs if legalized. The study warns that there must be “a sobering degree of caution in legalizing [assisted suicide] in a medical care environment that is characterized by increasing pressure on physicians to control the cost of care.”

The D.C. bill is closely based on Oregon legislation, which was drafted by a former healthcare executive and passed in 1997. It is thus critical to examine the Oregon law to understand the dangerous nature of the D.C. legislation.

Neither the Oregon law nor the D.C. bill provide any means of detecting violations of the safeguards.

Oregon’s annual statistical reports repeatedly state, “we cannot determine whether assisted suicide is being practiced outside the framework of the law.”

Oregon’s research has failed to uncover numerous cases inconsistent with the stated purpose of the law that only came to public attention through media coverage. For example, Barbara Wagner’s insurance provider sent a letter denying coverage for her chemo prescription but offering to cover assisted suicide instead. The law further fails to prevent a caregiver or heir from suggesting assisted suicide, witnessing the consent form, obtaining the lethal drugs, and administering them.

Most importantly, no supposed safeguard can protect people from

CAREERISM ON CAMPUS

BY CHRIS ALMEIDA

A rotating column by senior Voice staffers

Is image everything? In a place like Georgetown, the answer is usually yes.

People on the Hilltop know— or at least believe that they know— what they want, and they are pretty good at figuring out how to get it.

Freshmen and sophomores are usually angling for the kinds of club positions that make for nice bullet points on a résumé. Juniors are angling for high-powered internships. Seniors are angling for jobs. The people who reach their desired goals usually do their best to cover their bases before trying to take their next step toward success.

Sometimes, that comes with a degree of misrepresentation.

I’m not saying that students lie about their accomplishments or their grades. In my experience, very few have resorted to outright fabrication in the pursuit of success. But many do choose to

skew the reasons they harbor for taking certain actions.

There are some of us who honestly dream of becoming investment bankers, but I’m sure there are even more who, if answering truthfully when asked why they wanted a Wall Street gig, would say, “Because it’s what I have to do to stay ahead of my peers.” I have friends in the MSB who have standing return offers from exceedingly prestigious prior internships, but spread themselves across the investment banking and consulting frontiers just to be a part of the recruiting rat race.

In clubs, everybody wants to be in charge, but nobody wants to look like the eager careerist.

Whether it be in GUASFCU, the IRC, or even here in student media, many of us have made an art of hiding—or even lying about—what

choosing to die based on a wrong prognosis. Doctors admit that it is impossible to predict with certainty when someone will die. In a letter published in The Boston Globe, Jeanette Hall described how she originally supported Oregon’s law. After receiving a terminal diagnosis, she requested lethal drugs. Eleven years later, Hall is “so happy to be alive” and has publicly opposed further legalization.

Furthermore, people with terminal illnesses in all 50 states may receive palliative sedation, where they are sedated and pain-relieved for a peaceful death. Patients everywhere also have the right to stop artificial nutrition and hydration.

These currently legal solutions do not implicate the serious ethical and legal dilemmas that the prospect of legalizing assisted suicide does.

While there are widespread, dangerous trends of patient neglect and prolonged suffering, the solution is not assisted suicide, but improvements to the medical profession.

As a disabled person, I am concerned by the rampant ableism in physician-assisted suicide implementation. Many disabled people live with chronic pain, multiple co-occurring physical, cognitive, and psychiatric conditions, and repeated and incorrect prognoses of early deaths. Our world is dominated by public discourse that considers disabled lives inherently defective, burdensome, suffering, and not worth living.

It is not hyperbolic to imagine that talk of legalizing assisted sui-

we want so that we have a better chance of getting to the top.

Now, all of this is logical. People want what they want. But it proves that in a place like Georgetown, where ambition eclipses authenticity, you should be careful about who you trust.

I’ve long been a proponent of using the word “friend” sparingly.

I’ve always made friends slowly.

This is in part because of my inability to make effective small talk, but also because I don’t believe that friends should be anything but starkly honest with each other.

At Georgetown, or even in the outside world, everybody that I would consider a friend is somebody that I feel that I can speak to without having to filter myself. But because the majority of one’s interactions on campus are couched in collegiate doublespeak in which people manipulate

others to get ahead, friends can be hard to come by.

Sure, we can unite behind shared groups and classes, but in the end, everybody is looking out for themselves, and unless your classmates and clubmates genuinely care about you outside of the context of your shared work, chances are they won’t think twice about lying to or about you.

Students at elite schools are driven, but not necessarily toward the right ideas. They believe that success in college will lead to success in the job market, which will lead to happiness once they’ve bested their peers in the twin arenas of academics and employment. But often this isn’t the case. Many people change careers more than once, and even more find themselves stuck in a job that comes with prestige and money but satisfies very little.

cide for terminally ill patients could be expanded to include people who simply have lifelong disabilities.

Many non-disabled people believe that it is better to be dead than disabled. Mass media and public opinion laud a disabled person’s “brave” or “heroic” decision to commit suicide though most would rush to find suicide prevention services for non-disabled people. Current research further suggests that pain is rarely the actual reason that people choose assisted suicide. Instead, most people do so because they are afraid of becoming disabled and thus burdens on their families. This insidious form of ableism will have deadly consequences if assisted suicide is legalized.

No amount of safeguards is sufficient to prevent exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people with disabilities, as well as elders. Furthermore, in the presence of existing options for end-of-life care, it is disingenuous at best to suggest that those who have terminal illnesses have no other option. I am disturbed that many otherwise progressive people concerned with social justice have chosen to support a dangerous, discriminatory bill that in effect profits large corporations and unscrupulous relatives of sick and disabled people. There is no real justice or choice in assisted suicide.

LYDIA IS a SENIOR in the COLLEGE

Many people believe that the market wants what it wants and you need to do all you can to be in demand. But I believe that if you can’t be honest, the job you have or the people you’re dealing with aren’t worth keeping around. If you have to bend the truth to get something, you shouldn’t be trying to get it.

Georgetown comes with many opportunities and privileges, but also with a competitive and uncompromising streak that sits under the surface of many relationships. I’ve tried my best to keep these kinds of relationships out of my life. I believe that if somebody can’t be completely honest with me, we will come to blows sooner or later. But many circumstances require more casual connections, and it’s important to be careful of making yourself vulnerable to those people who have the ability to undercut you, but not the restraint to think twice.

No, not everybody has bad intentions, but at Georgetown, it’s important to know who your friends are, because your acquaintances will throw you under the bus for a dollar.

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