The Georgetown Voice, March 19, 2015

VOICE

the georgetown

THE FIGHT TO FINISH THE Students strive for a PUZZLE diversity requirement

By Caitríona Pagni

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w March 19, 2015 w Volume 47, Issue 24 w georgetownvoice.com

the

Voice

March 19, 2015 This week: Editorial ... The 2018 Campus Plan is coming, pg. 3

News ... GUSA releases Campus Plan report and petition, pg. 4 Sports ... Men’s basketball enters the Madness, pg. 6 Academic Diversity requirement The Voice explores the evolution of the student movement to create a diversity requirement at Georgetown.

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.

Crossword: Hot Guys, Burgers, and Fries

Across 1. Food type 5. An alloy testing 10. Burger material 14. Woodwind instrument 15. Outdated 16. Shrek species 17. Bad mannered 18. For Whom the Bell ___ 19. Promise 20. Trig function 22. Perplexed sound 23. Metal source 24. Has to have 27. Panoramas 31. Star Tatum 34. Lacking vigor 35. Hey there 36. Stretch the truth 37. Jealousy 38. River blocker 39. Baby’s first word, maybe 40. Misery 41. Stare wonderingly 42. Bishop’s hat 43. Solar rays 46. Fruit drinks 47. Leaders

Last week’s key:

48. Charged atom 49. Cirque du Soleil show 50. Common protists 54. Wager 57. Old cathartic drug 59. One of the Hemsworth brothers 61. Coffin stand Down 1. In favor of 2. Border on 3. Soft drink 4. Adolescent 5. Daisy-like flowers 6. Rock 7. French fry seasoning 8. The whole 9. Consenting reply 10. Archers 11. Conceit 12. Go wrong 13. Nourished 21. Feta source 22. Female bird 24. Dissenting reply 25. Enlarge pupils 26. More nasty

Feature ... Students push for diversity requirement, pg. 8 Leisure ... Tolman shows our dark side in Civilized, pg. 10 Page 13 ... Untitled study, pg. 13 Voices ... The happiness paradox, pg. 14

– Kathleen Coughlin 27. Takes a look at 28. Cali burger chain 29. At sixes and ___, confused 30. Go for it 31. Sturdy leg coverings 32. Residence 33. Toothed machine parts 35 People’s sexiest man 2013 39. Accomplished 41. Petrol 42. Excavation site 44. Boulangerie-Patisserie 45. Notable span 46. Hoya Bradley 48. Likeness 50. Turing test creator 51. Erupted 52. Assistant 53. Heroic story 54. Six or eight pack 55. Small amount 56. Stepped drink 57. 1990s-2000s legal drama 58. Ruckus 60. Masculine individual

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 47.24 March 19, 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, Dominique Rouge, 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:

Chris Almeida, Sourabh Bhat, Emilia Brahm, Emmy Buck, Lilah Burke, Brendan Crowley, Patrick Drown, Emmanuel Elone, Tyler Kranawetter, 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

editorial love thyself as thy neighbors

Student Action for 2018 Campus Plan starts now

The Georgetown University Student Association released an extensive campus plan report yesterday along with a call to action for students to voice their concerns on the 201838 Campus Plan before the Georgetown Community Partnership develops a conceptual plan by the end of this summer. The report covers the financial and community consequences of the 2010 Campus Plan, which has forced the university to enact a student vehicle ban, embark on two housing projects, and enact a third-year housing requirement, among other unpopular policy changes.

The report is a valuable resource. While the university regularly hosts evening town halls and master planning presentations, too often only those in student government or campus media attend the events, meet administrators, or understand neighborhood sentiments. New and prospective students, for example, probably don’t know that the university is beginning construction on a GUTS bus turnaround at the McDonough parking lot next semester.

Editorial Board Chair: Kenneth Lee Editorial Board:

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

Director of Finance: Allison Manning Director of Human Resources: Michael Sitcawich 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 Georgetown Voice 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.

An uninformed student body has no leverage to push back against Campus Plan requirements that unilaterally favor neighbors. The university, not GUSA, should be the one taking the initiative to inform and involve the Georgetown community on its construction and planning activities in an accessible manner.

Fortunately, the vicious history of the 2010 Campus Plan does not have to repeat itself. The 2010 Plan suffered from a gross lack of representation and insight on the part of the student body at each phase of the planning process. Through the Georgetown Community Partnership’s working groups and elected representatives on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, students enjoy institutionalized methods through which they can express their interests in the 2018 Plan’s negotiations and establish rapport with Georgetown’s neighborhood representatives.

However, students need a unified voice on their vision for the campus’ future. After all, despite what the university might want everyone to believe, many student interests are irreconcilable

with those of the neighbors. In 2010, neighborhood leaders wanted the university to, in the long-term, place 100 percent of undergraduates on campus. This goal will likely become a point of contention as the 2018 Plan develops. This time around, students must take action to ensure that neighbors don’t simply get their way in imposing tighter university housing requirements that completely ignore the interests of students and the campus’ infrastructural capacity.

This is why the Editorial Board strongly encourages every student to visit ourgeorgetown. com to learn more about what’s at stake and to sign the site’s petition, “Let’s Not Get Screwed Again,” which urges the university to not require any more students to live on-campus after it completes the Northeast Triangle and the Old Jesuit Residence. It also asks that the university prioritize the renovations of existing buildings.

After all, the first step in maintaining the current town-gown goodwill is for every student to educate him or herself about the future of this university.

raise your glass

A toast to Cups for Campus and party hygiene Beginning tomorrow at 11 a.m., Cups for Campus will distribute disposable cups for students to promote health and prevent the spread of disease, especially at parties. The Editorial Board welcomes this new valuable service, as long as students take the necessary steps to dispose of the cups properly.

Health Education Services will fund Cups for Campus in order for all students to have access to clean, disposable cups free of charge.

Currently, area stores charge exorbitant prices out of convenience for disposable cups. At Vital Vittles, a 50-pack of Solo cups costs $7.56, including tax. At Wisey’s, 30 Solo cups cost $4.79.

Students with limited incomes or without ample supplies of mugs in their kitchens may be unwilling and unable to pay for a hygienic environment for their peers, who will quickly deplete a pack of disposable cups for jungle juice and drinking games.

Copy Editors:

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

The georgetown voice | 3

The spread of disease, especially through plastic cups at parties, has become an issue of concern on college campuses. While students who share cups could, at most, contract a common cold or a mild flu, more serious diseases such as mononucleosis and meningitis can easily be spread through cup sharing. These illnesses can have serious impacts on students and, as some in the campus community learned in a tragedy last semester, be life threatening. The Washington Post has attributed the college party scene to recent outbreaks of bacterial meningitis at Princeton University and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

With a visible outlet that provides free cups, the onus is now on party hosts to pick up clean cups and on students to not reuse or share cups with their friends. In line with recent Code of Conduct changes such as an alcohol amnesty

policy, Cups for Campus helps foster a healthy living (and partying) environment on campus.

One concern for Cups on Campus is the potential environmental impact of circulating singleuse plastic cups. Because the cups are free, students could develop a tendency to waste the cups they get from the program. Recycling programs on campus, however, can provide a solution. For example, Terracycle bins in the Leavey Center and various residence halls collect Solo cups to create deck chairs made of recycled plastic. Moving forward, the organizers of Cups for Campus should work to partner with the university’s environmental groups and initiatives to promote plastic cup recycling and prevent unnecessary waste.

Cups for Campus has the potential to greatly reduce the spread of disease among students. As long as the program works to ensure that recycling efforts are made to dispose of their cups properly, free cups for all students make sense for Georgetown.

more tables, and maybe a puppy room?

Rethinking student needs in the Student Center

Six months since the Healey Family Student Center’s grand opening, the space has become one of the campus’ most frequented gathering places. On Thursday nights, the Georgetown Program Board hosts “Breaks at 8” and doles out free desserts. Scores of high school students and their parents can be seen walking through the center during what a Blue and Gray tour guide says is a “new high point on the tours.” Much of what has come from the HFSC exemplifies the high hopes the university has for its ongoing slew of construction projects. Nonetheless, the current design of the $21 million project represents many missed opportunities.

The furniture on the first floor expose large discrepancies in how the university anticipated students to use the space and how students are actually using the space. The HFSC was envisioned as a “living room,” but because of the lack of available and appealing study space on campus students, find themselves propping up textbooks and laptops on couches better suited for leisure.

The study alcoves are equipped with flatscreen televisions, but most students do not have an HDMI cable at hand. Without windows and doors to enclose the study alcove and block out conversation, noise from performances in the great room, or music from the Corp’s Hilltoss, students have little incentive to use the audiovisual equipment for presentations and group work.

The HFSC has also made only cursory considerations for performing arts students. The university chose not to replace the pianos in the music practice rooms, which have long been a source of frustration on IdeaScale. Despite being a celebrated feature of the HFSC, the two dance studios are too small in size to practically accommodate group practices and events. The blank walls surrounding Bulldog Tavern could have been an excellent opportunity for students to creatively express themselves through murals or other artwork.

Moreover, nothing on the second floor entices students to stay and use the space. The

gallery opposite the dance studio still contains photos from a Nov. 2014 Georgetown University Art Aficionados exhibition. The concrete patio could have been a valuable area for a community garden or other outdoor pursuits, but so far the space has seen little use.

If the university wanted the HFSC to become a new commons for both work and play, then it has only achieved the ‘work’ portion of its original vision. If it still wishes to provide “interactive spaces designed to bring students together,” it should investigate student feedback and continue to make the HFSC a versatile space for all activities.

As the administration plans to open more shared spaces similar to the HFSC in the Former Jesuit Residence, in the Northeast Triangle’s outdoor patio, and in its long-term master planning process, the university must make considerations of student needs and wants and accommodate design and furniture acquisition decisions based on realistic assessments.

news

4 | the georgetown voice

MARCH 19, 2015

New GUSA petition and report seek student input on 2018 Campus Plan RYAN MILLER GUSA released a report on Wednesday highlighting the impacts of the 2010 Campus Plan and what it expects from the 2018 Campus Plan, currently in its early stages. Additionally, it released a petition that demands that no additional students— beyond those the 2010 Campus Plan legally mandates—be required to live on campus, that the university renovate and maintain current buildings on campus before starting new construction projects, and that more student representation be added to Georgetown Community Partnership Steering Committee.

GUSA’s Our Georgetown website, which contains the petition, calls for students to let their voices be heard during the formation of the 2018 Campus Plan.

“We’re hoping the website will help mobilize students around the petition in the next few weeks, and will then transition into a more longterm role after the petition and April 11 GCP meeting,” Ari Goldstein (COL’18), Co-Chair of the GUSA Campus Plan Subcommittee, wrote in an email to the Voice.

In the report, Reno Varghese (SFS ‘16), Co-Chair of the GUSA Campus Plan Subcommittee, encouraged stu-

dent participation in the formation process of the 2018 Campus Plan.

“We formed the Campus Plan Subcommittee in September expressly to prevent the mistakes of 2010 and ensure that this time, the student body is engaged, informed, and provided with a seat at the negotiating table,” Varghese wrote in the report. “The stakes have never been higher.”

The report outlines the different visions for the 2018 plans that the neighborhood, the university, and Medstar have. According the report, the neighborhood indicated during the 2010 planning that they would want 100 percent of undergraduate students living on campus. The university’s hopes that the plan include features such as expanded green space, improved transportation methods, and a more developed residential living and learning community.

Robin Morey, vice president for Planning and Facilities Management, did not respond to request for comment in time for print.

According to Jamie Scott, assistant director of Community Engagement, the university has worked to engage students in the campus planning process for the 2018 plan.

“Students are a really important part of [the planning] process.” Scott

AMBIKA AHUJA

GUSA ASKS STUDENTS TO SPEAK UP SO THEY WILL NOT GET “SCREWED AGAIN.” said. “We’ve had open community forum where students are invited, we created the master planning website that shares a lot of the information and ideas on the plan and invites people to read comment on those.” Scott added that events like the Hoya Roundtables engaged both student groups who have traditionally been involved in the planning process and those who have not.

Additionally, relations between the neighborhood and the students have improved in forming the 2018 Campus Plan compared with 2010, according Goldstein.

“There remain important differences between student and neighbor priorities, but the hostility of 2010 is hopefully a thing of the past,” Goldstein wrote in an email to the Voice.

The 2010 Campus Plan placed an enrollment cap of 14,106 on the total student population and required all students under the age of 21 to live on campus. It will increase the number of beds on campus by 385 by fall 2015.

“When students fail to organize effectively in the face of politically powerful neighborhood institutions, we end up with university agreements that accommodate neighborhood interests at the expense of students,” Goldstein wrote in the report’s closing letter of the 2010 plan. “It has played out time and time again, but we’re only now beginning to suffer the consequences of recent inaction.”

Goldstein continues to state that the various neighborhood associations pushed for a four year on campus housing requirement in 2010 and will likely do so again in

than 70 congressmen who No Labels certifies as “Problem Solvers,” meaning they have agreed to No Labels’ principles and have endorsed their national strategic agenda.

No Labels Georgetown could play a key role in moderating on-campus political dialogue, according to Vice President Musa Bassey (COL ‘18). “Instead of having an environment in which all the people you’re talking to basically agree with you,” he said, “I want us to have events in which people can talk about why they hold their beliefs without being interrupted.”

Bassey listed three ways in which the organization will work to build trust across the political spectrum. The first step is to set up an online message board for political dialogue. Second, the organization will host events and parties for people from different political groups to socialize with each other.

Third, further programming will supplement existing de-

bates and roundtables between existing political groups. “From there, we can go on to talk about how to specifically look at certain problems, such as climate change,” he wrote.

According to its website, “No Labels has a unique view on the root causes of dysfunction in our government and the required solutions.” The organization as a whole has suggested a four-point National Strategic Agenda: creating 25 million new jobs in the next decade, funding social security and medicare for the next 75 years, balancing the federal budget by 2030, and making America energy secure by 2024.

Both the College Democrats and the College Republicans welcome the opportunities No Labels will provide. “This will be a great opportunity to promote cooperation on issues that have traditionally experience partisan gridlock,” College Dems outreach coordinator Tracey Zhang (SFS ‘17) said.

2018. Goldstein, though, called this “both unprecedented and unreasonable” in the report.

Despite GUSA’s call to students to take action to prevent a restrictive plan for students, Scott believes that the current procedure in place for creating the campus plan—with input from students, neighbors, and the university along with committees like the Georgetown Community Partnership—allows the goals of all three to align.

“Our vision’s are aligned and I think there are shared goals and interests between the university, the community, and students about what we want campus to look like,” Scott said.

According to Goldstein, signing the petition is one way for students to express their opinion for what their goals and vision for the campus plan might be. “[The petition] opposes additional on-campus housing requirements and demands that administrators prioritize long-needed renovations,” Goldstein wrote in an email to the Voice. “We’re hoping for thousands of student signatures to demonstrate clearly to both the administration and the community that students are ready to take a stand.”

Additional reporting by Marisa Hawley and Kenneth Lee.

No Labels establishes Georgetown chapter, aims to foster bi-partisan dialogue THOMAS STUBNA The nonpartisan political organization No Labels, a “national movement of Democrats, Republicans and independents dedicated to a new politics of problem solving” according to its website, established a chapter at Georgetown on March 2 and is currently accepting leadership position applications.

No Labels Georgetown is among the first of one hundred chapters to be established on college campuses, according to Regional Director of D.C., Mary-

land, and Virginia Max Rosner (SFS ‘18). “No Labels has decided within the past few weeks that college chapters would be a great auxiliary to the organization, and this is the beginning of a grassroots campaign,” he wrote in an email to the Voice.

According to Rosner, the group will host joint social events and policy panels with existing political organizations on campus, in addition to attracting speakers. The chapter will help provide internship opportunities for students interested in working for more

BECAUSE GEORGETOWN REALLY NEEDS ANOTHER POLITICAL GROUP.

FACEBOOK

“[The effort] reflects on many Georgetown students’ commitment to finding practical solutions to pertinent issues rather than get caught up in ideological stalemates.”

GUCR Chair Amber Athey (COL ‘16) recognized the need to overcome political division.

“There is political division everywhere, including our campus; GUCR’s goal is to provide a community for conservatives and help promote conservative ideology on campus,” she wrote in an email to the Voice.

Athey believes in the ability of Georgetown students to listen to each other and said GUCR would be willing to have a dialogue with No Labels and the College Dems.

“Everyone agrees that it’s hard to accomplish anything in the current political atmosphere,” she wrote. “However, this seems to be an issue stemming from increasing ideological polarization as opposed to an inability to work together.”

news

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the georgetown voice | 5

Office of Residential Life announces new initiative to hold spaces for students studying abroad LILAH BURKE The Office of Residential Life announced a new initiative to hold spaces for students studying abroad as a part of housing reforms to be enacted in Spring 2015 in an email sent to students on March 17.

While students planning to study abroad in the fall of 2015 will remain ineligible to enter the housing lottery for their return in the spring semester, groups will now be able to hold spots for students who are abroad by living with vacancies. Residents will enter a lottery system for the opportunity to obtain a “blank

code” to write into their group housing application to hold space for the abroad students.

Before the semester change, the student who is abroad and their roommates will have to mutually request the vacancy fill.

Groups may request up to two vacancies per apartment or townhouse, although there will be a cap, which has not yet been determined, on the number of vacancies permitted campus-wide. “[The vacancies] allow students to live where they want, with who they want after coming back, which was really the original intention,” said incoming GUSA Director of Communications Will

FREDDY ROSAS

ADMINISTRATORS FINALLY PUT AN END TO RESTRICTIVE HOUSING POLICIES.

Simons (COL ’16). He added that requesting a vacancy would not affect a group’s housing points.

The changes to the housing policies were the result of collaboration between the Office of Residential Life and representatives from the informal group Students Against Restrictive Housing Policy, consisting of Simons, incoming GUSA Co-Deputy Chief of Staff Ken Nunnenkamp (MSB ’16), and GUSA Senator of the Finance and Appropriations Committee Declan Kelly (COL ’17).

The student group formed in response to a previous change in the housing selection process made in Jan. 2014, wherein students studying abroad in the fall would not be able to enter the housing lottery. Their Facebook campaign amassed over 800 signups, which Kelly called “an immense point of leverage” in the group meetings.

The student leaders believed the original change in policy, effectively expiring a student’s eligibility before going abroad, would mean that students choos-

ing to study abroad would be saddled with undesirable housing upon their return. They anticipated it would be more difficult for abroad students to secure a spot with their chosen living group. After talks with Patrick Killilee, Executive Director for Residential Services, in the 20132014 academic year, the group was able to postpone this change until 2015. More recent talks led to the new initiatives.

In past years, students choosing to study abroad would enter the housing lottery with their group, then drop the housing for the entire year after being accepted to study abroad. This meant they were not guaranteed housing upon their return. The remaining members of the group would be notified that they had one week to fill the vacancy, which was usually done by pulling in another rising junior or a rising sophomore.

That student would typically have an informal agreement with the group that they would request a room change at the end of the fall, leaving a vacancy open for the abroad student.

With increasing numbers of students studying abroad, this system was beginning to place a large burden on Residential Services, as all swaps had to be processed manually. Simons noted that the informal practice of pulling in “holds” is still possible, but it now requires students to be more proactive and bring placeholder roommates into the housing lottery.

“What students need to know… is that Patrick Killilee is not the enemy. [He] saw a failing system and he made a change,” Kelly said. “Initially, students reacted very negatively to that. … When we told him we thought it was wrong he completely turned around.”

The students said the working group with the Residential Services would continue into next year and beyond, bringing in students who are interested as well as members of the office to collaborate on further design changes for future classes. “We truly want a long term solution to our housing policy,” Kelly said.

“We’re willing to work however long it takes to get there.”

Cups for Campus distributes cups to prevent spread of communicable diseases COURTNIE BAEK Cups for Campus, a new initiative that promotes healthy campus lifestyles by preventing the spread of communicable diseases through disposable cups, will launch on March 20 in Red Square.

“In our age, we have this invincibility complex that [diseases are] never going to happen to us, because we’re young, fit, and healthy,” said Cups for Campus President Chantal Durgana (NHS ’17). “Unfortunately these things do happen.

I think providing the students with the means to make safe and healthy decisions in their social lives and personal lives is the best to combat that invincibility factor and promote health on campus.”

Durgana and three other classmates developed this initiative from a project in the NHS course “Health Promotion and Prevention” with Professor Jordan Reilly. They sought to develop a program to eliminate the harm of alcohol in a university setting. The passing of classmate Andrea Jaime from meningitis last September inspired Durgana to create a program that would

reduce the spread of disease by removing a cost barrier.

“In our social culture, we share our cups all the time. That’s a lot of the ways that these things are spread. I looked up the prices of cups online, and they’re really cheap,” said Durgana.

The cups will be distributed every Friday that school is in session. The expected end date is April 24th, but Cups for Campus may continue its cup distribution during finals week depending on tools and funding, according to Durgana. Each student can come to the table, put down his/her NetID, and get his or her hand stamped for a pack of 50 cups.

With only two more months of school left, Cups for Campus will use funding from the pilot program budget the members presented to Health Education Services. After seeing the results of the itemized budget and surveys from students, Cups for Campus plans to give another presentation to Health Education Services to acquire further funding for the next academic year.

The initiative’s current funding is approximately for $1,300

March to April. “The cups are a monthly expense, but we bought the marketing tools for the whole year, including stickers, stamps, and flyers. The cups amount to about $1,100 just for this month,” said Durgana.

Moreover, Cups for Campus took caution to avoid potential misapplications of its initiative on campus. “We don’t want to make it seem like we’re advocating a raging party culture, but we’re trying to insert ourselves into the existing culture to help students make healthy and safe decisions. To keep that in mind, we have these quarter sheets which outline our mission, and safe drinking tips and safe partying tips. The cups that we’re handing out have lines on them to indicate one ounce of liquor, five ounces of wine, and twelve ounces of beer.”

GUSA Director of Sustainability Caroline James responded to the implications of the initiative’s distribution of plastic cups on campus. “It’s a pretty classic tradeoff that is often created by the fact that hygiene, sanitation, and safety often come into con-

flict with sustainability. That’s not to say that one’s more important than the other. I admire the initiative.” said James. “One thing that I hope will come out of this is that since these cups are recyclable in Georgetown recycling stream that people [recycle] them instead of throwing the cups in the trash.

I would also encourage people to just be aware of the number of cups they’re using and try to keep it to one per person.”

“We haven’t heard anything or reached out to GUSA, but we did factor into our marketing and budget plan when we were first designing the program to

give out trash bag to every student that picked up cups from us” Durgana said. “We haven’t been able to do that for this program, but we’re hoping to do that for the next academic year.”

Cups for Campus are looking to give out around 5,000 cups this weekend alone. Director of Operations and Assistant Director of Communications of Cups for Campus Rachel Skonecki (NHS ‘17) said, “I am hopeful that the Georgetown community will soon come to appreciate this initiative as a means to take more personal responsibility for their health.”

DECREASING THE COST OF PARTYING SAFELY ONE CUP AT A TIME.

JOSH RAFTIS

sports

6 | the georgetown voice

march 19, 2015

Men’s basketball begins madness with Eastern Washington KEVIN HUGGARD

It’s that time of year again.

Selection Sunday saw the Georgetown men’s basketball team (21-10, 12-6 Big East) slotted into the four seed in the South Region, with their opening round matchup against Eastern Washington University (26-8, 14-4 Big Sky) scheduled for Thursday in Portland, Ore. The Hoyas ended the season with a strong run of games, winning six of their last eight. Last week, however, their momentum faltered as they fell to Xavier in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. But even in that game, the team could find something positive to take away, as Georgetown rallied from a 20-point deficit to cut the Musketeer’s lead to one point before running out of time.

“I think the loss the other day is difficult, but I do like overall the way we are playing,” Thompson said. “As a coach you sit there and wonder how we got in that hole [against Xavier]. But we could have packed it in. And that we didn’t is a positive sign.”

Hoya fans should get to know Tyler Harvey, Eastern Washington’s sophomore combo guard who leads the nation in scoring average at 22.9 points per game.

If the underdogs are to have any chance of pulling off an opening round upset, Harvey will need to erupt against the Hoyas. “[Harvey] puts the ball in the basket in an assortment of ways from all over the court. You don’t score as many points as he did without being very, very good. Every game that he’s played this year, [the opponent] has said, ‘we need to stop this guy,’ and nobody has done it yet,” Thompson said.

As a team, the Eagles have the third-best scoring average in the nation at 80.9 points per game

while shooting .480 from the field—19th best in the country.

“They can score. They have the leading scorer in the nation. It will be a tough challenge just trying to contain them,” junior guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera said.

Portland is a long way from the District, but only a five-hour drive from Eastern Washington’s campus, raising the question of whether the Eagles will get to play a de facto home game.

“We’ll probably be more worried about the [other] team than the fans. Hopefully we’ll have some people in the stands cheering for us also,” Thompson said.

“There are other people that have long trips too. I would much rather be taking this long trip than not taking it.”

The selection committee’s decision to award the Hoyas with a four seed raised a few eyebrows, with the team itself even admitting to a little bit of surprise given that they were expected to be a five, six, or seven seed.

“Quite honestly, I was surprised that we were a four [seed].

And thinking about it, maybe I shouldn’t have been. I think it speaks to the strength of our schedule, I think it speaks to the strength of our league, and I think it speaks to the strength of our team,” Thompson said.

The Big East saw six of its ten teams make it to the tournament, with Villanova taking a one seed, Butler, Providence, and Xavier each earning six seeds, and St. John’s rounding out the group with a nine seed.

“I think if you look at the conference RPI, which we’ve been talking about all year, I think we’ve shown that we are one of the, if not the strongest conference in college basketball,” Thompson said. “This conference is not only surviving, but it’s thriving.”

carolyn zaccaro

Senior Forward Joshua smith looks to lead the hoyas to a deep tournament run.

Much has been made of the Hoyas’ tournament failures in the past five years, and there’s no denying the record. Before missing out on the madness entirely last year, the Hoyas made it past the first round only once in their previous four trips to the tournament—when they beat Belmont in 2008 before falling in the second round to North Carolina State.

But the team will not shy away from its history.

“We will absolutely talk about the past,” Thompson said.

Joe o’s Pollicin

“Making it to the tournament is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s special.

It does feel good after missing out last year. It’s something that we’re used to doing. Making it back definitely feels good.”

Should the Hoyas win their first game, they will face either fiveseed Utah (24-8, 13-5 Pac 12) or 12-seed Stephen F. Austin (29-4, 17-1 Southland). If they manage to win again, they will likely go up against Duke (29-4, 15-3 ACC), the top seed of the South Region, in a

Sweet Sixteen matchup in Houston. But while fans may be imagining the possibility of a Final Four trip to Indianapolis, the coaching staff will try to keep the team’s attention on Eastern Washington.

“All your buddies are going to fill out their pools. We’re not,” Thompson said. “All the chatter will be, ‘Well, if this happens, we can do that,’ and then you see Indianapolis sitting there. Forget that, it’s Eastern Washington, nothing else. It’s Thursday night, that’s all we need to focus on.”

SPORTS SERMON---

“HEART OF A LION YOU CANT RIP THAT OUT MY CHEST!!!” - Hoya freshman Tre Campbell via Twitter

The NCAA Tournament, the most thrilling three-week rollercoaster ride in sports, has begun. Cue the bracket pools, upset wins, and two of the year’s most unproductive work days for college basketball fans everywhere, who will be sneaking a glance at work, at school, or will miss both entirely to take in the thrilling first two days of action. Mid-major teams will see if the slipper fits for a Cinderella run through the Tournament, coaching legacies will be determined, and a new year of All-Americans will attempt to become the next Michael Jordan, Carmelo Anthony, or Shabazz Napier by carrying their team to a national championship.

Fair or not, what transpires over the next three weeks will nullify, or simply supersede, the accomplishment-filled fourmonth regular seasons of the 68 teams in the tournament field.

Especially for programs in the power conferences such as the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, and Big East, it will not matter whether you won your conference’s regular season championship, nor will it matter how many future NBA players your team’s roster boasted. All that matters is your outcome in the Tournament, which has evolved into the ultimate crapshoot of sports.

That’s why this week, as the four seeded Georgetown men’s basketball team travels to Portland, Ore. for its first round matchup with 13-seed Eastern Washington, is the most important week in the history of the program since 2007.

That crossroads year in the history of the program, 2007, the Hoyas traveled to East Rutherford, N.J. with the opportuni-

ty to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1985. The team, led by future NBA players Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert, eventually went on to reach the Final Four after nail-biting victories over Vanderbilt and North Carolina, a feat which proved that Georgetown must be taken seriously again as a basketball powerhouse nationally.

But unfortunately for those who bleed blue and gray, that Final Four becomes less and less recent and gives way to the narrative that the Hoyas are impotent in the postseason. Davidson, Ohio, VCU, and (gulp) Florida Gulf Coast, all double-digit seeds when they played Georgetown, have done their part in building a perception of a Georgetown program that cannot succeed in March. And that perception is accurate. Ever since that 2007 run, the Hoyas have failed to advance past the first weekend of the tournament.

As a result of these letdowns, when the casual fan now thinks of Georgetown, the first thing that comes to mind is not “Big East beast”, “powerhouse”, or even the “Princeton offense.” It’s “tournament disappointment,” and that dreaded word association has manifested itself this week throughout the national media when the various bracket prognosticators have picked the four seeded Hoyas as the most likely high seed to fall in the first round to upstart Eastern Washington, who will be making their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

It feels like Georgetown is the underdog entering this game, despite nine seed lines separating the two teams. Their reason for doing so does not purely stem from the challenge that the Eagles, the third-highest scoring

team in all of college basketball, will present the Hoyas. Instead, it is more based off their past disappointments than anything else. You could fill McDonough Arena with the number of television pundits I’ve heard say that they cannot pick Georgetown to win a tournament game until they prove that they can perform on the biggest stage of college basketball.

That perception has not only taken effect nationally but locally as well, especially with the now beleaguered blue and gray fanbase, to the point that many have questioned the leadership of Head Coach John Thompson III, the one constant for the Hoyas during all those March setbacks.

While these claims are valid, there is no better person out there to lead the Georgetown men’s basketball program. I challenge disgruntled Georgetown fans to find another coach who could take over the program the way Thompson has, and have the Hoyas be the consistent regular-season contender that they have been, as almost every year the Hoyas are in contention in the Big East and are ranked nationally. Georgetown fans go to bed happy after more games than they do sad.

I could list his accomplishments as head coach ad nauseum, but as long that litany does not include success in the March, I will fail to win over the most cynical of those blue and gray fans as well as the college basketball world.

That’s why Georgetown needs to break that prevailing viewpoint that has shackled the program’s reputation over nearly the last decade. And that starts this week in Portland—success in March is all that matters.

sports

georgetownvoice.com

On the record with Megan Hyson STEVEN CRISS The Voice traveled out to the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy to catch up with Georgetown softball (10-14, 0-0 Big East) and their senior ace and captain Megan Hyson as the team worked with young athletes from around the city. With conference play starting this weekend at home against Villanova (7-11, 0-0 Big East), Hyson shared her thoughts on her own progress this season as well as her views on this year’s team.

What are the main things you attribute your success in the circle to so far this season?

Last year, especially, we worked on getting ahead in the count. I think that’s a big thing because usually when I get behind in the count, it’s not a very good outcome. In practice we’ve been working on it. Also, with my team behind me, I think they do very well picking me up, especially in hard innings and tough situations, they help me get out of them.

When you’re pitching, what kind of mindset do you try to keep?

I like to be pumped up, but I also have this motto of not thinking, of just going out there and it being just me and the catcher.

A lot of times when I overdo or overthink, it just never turns out right, so I go out there without thinking about anything.

Have you been doing anything differently this season that has helped you while you’ve been pitching?

My changeup, I’ve definitely worked on my changeup, which

After a difficult start to the season, the Georgetown baseball team (6-8, 0-0 Big East) posted a 5-2 record at the Snowbird Baseball Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla. The Hoyas’ talent shined brightly in the Sunshine State with pairs of wins over Northwestern (4-13, 0-0 Big Ten) and Lehigh (3-10, 0-0 Patriot League), as well as a split against Western Michigan (7-9, 0-0 MAC) and close loss to Illinois State (8-9, 0-0 MVC).

The Hoyas dropped their first game of the tournament 2-1 to Iowa State. Despite the loss, lefthander Matt Hollenbeck surrendered only one hit and one unearned run in the start.

The following day, Georgetown came right back for two wins over Northwestern, by scores of 7-1 and 8-6. The first

– buckwild –

emmy Buck’s TRI-weekly column about sports

The luck of the irish

Georgetown sports information

Senior pitcher megan hyson has paced the hoyas so far this season. has helped me in a lot of situations. And when you have an offspeed pitch, it definitely offsets the batters, and that’s definitely helped me a lot this season.

What do you think the biggest challenge is for your team as you begin conference play this weekend?

I don’t think we really have any challenges. I think our team is honestly going to be really good in conference just with the mindset we have and knowing that we always play really good against our conference because we’re always pumped up, especially the first games. And we love playing Villanova, they’re one of our rivals, so we’re always going to pumped up for that one.

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the season, and what have you enjoyed about this season so far?

I’ve enjoyed my teammates, especially since if I didn’t have them, I would probably hate being on the team. Just that I have friends on the team this year who I can talk to if anything

goes wrong and they’re kind of like my therapists sometimes, especially when I’ve had tough games or something like that.

I’m also looking forward to hopefully winning the Big East.

That’s our goal, so if we win, that will be awesome.

What advice do you hope to leave with the underclassmen after you graduate?

Just play hard all the time.

You only have four years to play softball and it’s so weird because you don’t realize it until you get to your senior year. And then once you graduate you’re really going to miss it, so just play with all your heart every game.

What’s next for Megan?

Well, hopefully I’m going to get a job and become a nurse. I’m crossing my fingers for whoever will take me. I’m also hoping to maybe do something like this with [Nationals] Academy, or helping little kids learn the game of softball, which I can never get away from softball. So I’ll try to do something with that.

Postseason success for baseball MATTHEW JASKO

the georgetown voice | 7

win of the day was also the 30th career victory for Head Coach, Pete Wilk. The majority of the offense in the doubleheader was provided by infielder Jake Kuzbel, who went 6 for 9 that day. Matt Smith and Will Brown each picked up wins, and David Ellingson notched his first save of the year.

In the blue and gray’s next context, they dropped a tough 4-1 loss to Western Michigan despite strong work from relievers Tim Davis, Jimmy Swad, and David Ellingson. The defeat was quickly forgotten, however, after a heart-pounding 10-9 comeback victory over Lehigh. After a rain delay in the 8th, Ellingson came in the top of the 9th with two runners on and nobody out in a tie game and got out of the inning without surrendering a run. Curtiss Pomeroy deliv-

ered the decisive blow with a two-out, walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th.

After an off day, the Hoyas returned to the field to avenge one of their previous losses in a rematch with Western Michigan. The difference in the Hoyas’ 12-8 victory was Jake Kuzbel’s grand slam. In the final game of the tournament, Matt Smith put together another impressive start en route to a 2-1 victory over Lehigh.

During the tournament, catcher Nick Collins was added to the watch list, and Matt Smith received Big East Pitcher of the Week honors. The Hoyas next have a three-game series against Brown (1-10, 0-0 Ivy League) The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday, which begins at 12 p.m., and then they will close out the series with a third game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The recent celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and the onslaught of midterms has everyone searching Healy Lawn for four leaf clovers.

Students have started to knock on wood, sleep facing south, and hoping a ladybug lands on them. The widespread hope for good luck has permeated all aspects of campus life. In fact, I’m sure if you checked the pockets of the Georgetown basketball team, you would find each player carrying his lucky rabbit’s foot for March Madness. All this may seem like mere superstition, but luck is sometimes the determining factor for who wins and who loses—who makes it or breaks it. Luck, Fortune, Fate, whatever you choose to call that magical force that enables the underdog to win and amaze the crowd is the reason why we continue to watch sports.

Just to show you how far luck can carry you, take Stephen Bradbury. A short-track speed skater, Bradbury was racing for the Gold in the 2002 Winter Olympics. He was in last place, when his four competitors crashed on the final turn. Bradbury glided into first place and received his first Olympic gold medal. However, it ought to be noted that up until this point, Bradbury had had the worst luck.

In 1994, he lost four pints of blood after a skate slashed his thigh. Then in 2000, Bradbury broke his neck in yet another accident. So after suffering severe, life-threatening injuries and overcoming immense obstacles to qualify for the Olympics, luck finally decided to side with Bradbury.

My mother always said, “Fortune favors the bold.” But this takes on entirely new meaning when considering 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier. In Game One of the 1996 American League Championship Series, Jeffrey sat in the stands in right field watching the Yankees play the Orioles. The Yankees trailed behind the Orioles 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Derek Jeter hit a ball deep into right field. The Orioles’ right fielder Tony Tarasco ran to the wall and was reaching up to make the catch when Jeffrey leaned over and caught the ball. Despite the uproar on the side of the Orioles, the umpires ruled the ball to be a homerun and not fan interference. Jeffrey’s bold move to snag Jeter’s homerun from Tarasco’s grasp led to the Yankees winning not only that game, but the series as well.

You all know coffee has magical elements. But what if I told you coffee could win you games?

In January 2015, Serena Williams was playing Flavia Pennetta for the Hopman Cup. Williams was struggling in the sweltering Australian heat. She didn’t score a single point in the first set and was getting ready to lose her second set when she called a timeout. Williams walked up to the referee and asked if she could have a shot of espresso. The referee could have denied her request, but he just laughed and told her to order up. How much difference could a single shot of espresso make? A lot. After Williams whipped back her espresso, she returned to the court to win the next two sets handily.

Luck enables the underdogs to shock and amaze and win games that they never should have won.

And nowhere is this more obvious than “The Kick Six.” The Auburn Tigers faced off against their biggest rival, Alabama, in the Iron Bowl on Nov. 30, 2013. Alabama was ranked at the top of the polls, and was referred to as the “Greatest Team in Alabama History.” A close call was made by the referees, and they ruled to add one final second to the clock. That final second did not seem so significant at the time, but it became the most important second of that game. Alabama chose to attempt a 57-yard field goal. The game was tied, with one second on the clock, and they would probably go into overtime.

However, in that one last second, Auburn’s Chris Davis caught the ball nine yards deep into his own end zone, and proceeded to run 109 yards for a touchdown, winning the game. Auburn continued after this amazing win to compete for the National Championship, surprising everyone.

But the moment to top all lucky moments is the “Immaculate Reception.” The Pittsburgh Steelers were losing to the Oakland Raiders in the AFC division playoff game in 1972. The Steelers quarterback, Terry Bradshaw, whipped a speedy pass to John Fuqua, who lost possession of the ball. But just before the ball touched the ground, the Steelers fullback, Franco Harris swiped up the ball to run it in for a game-winning touchdown. Although some say the initial pass to Fuqua was complete, the widespread controversy of the “Immaculate Reception” only further perpetuates the fame of the play.

A lucky bounce, a lucky call, a single moment can change the momentum of a game and drastically alter the expected outcome. Luck is why we continue to watch sports from the edge of our seats.

feature

8 | the georgetown voice

MARCH 19, 2015

The Final Push

An ongoing struggle for an academic diversity requirement By: Caitríona Pagni On Feb. 7, 2000, 300 students stood crowded together in Red Square. They gathered together in the cold, listening to the voices of their fellow students echoing through the square. They were posed the question “What do we want?” In response, they shouted in unison, “Diversity.”

The Georgetown University Unity Coalition, made up of the Black Student Association, MEChA (a Latin American student group), GU Pride, and the Jewish Student Association, had organized the rally in response to a series of hate crimes that had taken place on campus over the previous months. The incidents included vandalization of a Jewish menorah, spray painting of anti-Semitic graffiti on university property, and continual harassment of gay students.

Then-president of the BSA, Erica Cannon (MSB ’02) called the incidents “an epidemic of hate.”

The GUUC rally was far from the first student initiative to press for greater campus diversity. This demonstration came almost ten years after a report released by the Subcommittee on Cultural Diversity in the Curriculum in 1991, marking the first time in Georgetown history that students formally expressed the need for increased awareness of diversity in the university’s academic life. The report read, “To continue to produce leaders in a complex world, Georgetown College must equip its students with a complex

Sophie Super

understanding of how the world works, now.”

By 2000, conversations about revising Georgetown’s undergraduate curricula had been underway among students in the background of campus life for years. It was not until 2001, however, that a formal request to implement an academic diversity requirement came to light. The Committee on Diversity in the Undergraduate Curriculum recommended a twoclass diversity requirement. According to the report, all undergraduates should be required to take a class entitled “U.S. Pluralism in a Global Context: Interrogating Difference.” The second requirement would be an overlay requirement in which students would take a number of cross-listed courses with subject matter related to issues of diversity.

The committee’s proposal, however, was rejected by the College Curriculum Committee in 2002.

The faculty and deans who formed the CCC argued that adding a mandatory class about U.S. pluralism would overwhelm the instructional capacity of the Department of American Studies. The committee also expressed the belief that Georgetown’s curriculum already naturally incorporated issues of diversity, making an additional diversity requirement redundant. “It would be almost impossible to obtain a Georgetown degree without having engaged in at least some classes which explicitly dealt with issues of pluralism,” the CCC wrote.

Associate Dean Dennis Williams, who served as the Director of the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access from 1997 until 2014, said that he was surprised that the proposal was rejected in 2002 due to the strong student support in favor of the requirement and the popularity of diversity requirements at Georgetown’s peer institutions. A poll conducted by a student diversity committee in 1999 found that 52 percent of students believed that Georgetown’s curricula did not adequately address diversity. Additionally, a survey of 543 universities, including many of Georgetown’s peer institutions, found that, in 2000, 62 percent of universities had some form of a diversity requirement in their curricula, and over half of these institutions had instituted the requirement over five years prior to the survey.

Williams explains the rejection as a type of institutional inertia. “Our faculty is not very forward-thinking on these issues,” he said. “We at Georgetown give ourselves a lot of credit for what we have, and if it’s different than what other people have, we just assume that we’re special.”

After the CDUC’s proposal was rejected, a lull in student activism on the issue ensued. While the university enacted other diversity initiatives, such as creating the African American Studies minor in 2003, it was not until 2007 that renewed efforts to create a

diversity requirement surfaced. African American Studies program professors Michael Dyson and Soyica Colbert and Department Chair Robert Patterson did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with the Voice.

In 2007, the Georgetown Student Commission for Unity published an external report, showing that, in terms of diversity, Georgetown ranked far below many other top universities. The group entered negotiations with the president’s office, and these negotiations resulted in the President’s Diversity Initiative in 2009. The Initiative created three working groups: the Academic Working Group, the Admissions and Recruitment Working Group, and the Student Life Working group. Among the groups’ suggestions to improve different areas of campus diversity, the Academic Working Group included a curricular diversity requirement in its final report released in 2009. Professors Eusebio Mujal-Leon and Veronica Salles-Reese, who chaired the Academic Working Group in 2009, were unavailable for comment on this story.

Interim Dean of the SFS James Reardon-Anderson said that the proposed requirement has not succeeded for so long because changing the core curriculum of any university is a slow process, regardless of the nature of the proposal. Since 1991, Georgetown University made one change to its core curriculum when it altered the Humanities and Writing requirement in 2013. Additionally, Reardon-Anderson said that most faculty members resist adding additional requirements to the curricula because they believe that they restrict students’ academic freedom.

Williams attributes the cyclical nature of diversity movements at Georgetown to the exhaustive nature of student and faculty activism. “You almost can’t do this constantly and do your job,” he said. “People collect their energy and make a push, but when it fails you fall back and take a breath. It’s frustrating and disappointing.”

On Monday, Feb. 23, 2015, 15 years after GUUC’s efforts and 25 years after the release of the SCDC’s original recommendation for a diversity requirement, a familiar scene unfolded in Red Square. In the wake of a cartoon published by the Voice depicting violence against a black student and a female student by two white students, students stood in a circle with their hands raised in solidarity.

Once again, they called for greater understanding of diversity on campus. “How are you supposed to be men and women for others when you don’t know who the others are?” Kimberly Blair (COL ’15), an

georgetownvoice.com organizer of the rally, asked at a town hall held in response to the Voice’s cartoon.

This rise in student support for creating discussions centered around diversity accompanies a proposal co-authored by the Last Campaign for Academic Reform and the Provost’s Office’s Diversity Working Group to implement an “Engaging Difference” requirement. The current movement proposes an overlay requirement that would mandate undergraduates to take two classes that focus on some aspect of diversity. The proposal’s definition of diversity is far-reaching, encompassing not only issues of race and class, but also those of gender, sexual orientation, and ability.

The authors of the proposal, who, according to LCAR member Dan Zager (COL ’18), had been working on the proposal privately since December, decided to publicize their proposal and circulate an online petition during the height of student outrage over the Voice’s cartoon in order to garner student support for their efforts.

“People collect their energy and make a push, but when it fails you fall back and take a breath.

It’s frustrating and disappointing.”

The decision to pass or reject the proposed requirement will be made solely by the Main Campus Executive Faculty, who will vote on the proposal on March 27. Zager believes that student support from the petition may influence faculty to support the proposal. “To show that this is a campus-wide initiative will help get this passed,” Zager said.

The Engaging Difference requirement has its roots in the annual Black House President’s Dinner that took place in the spring of 2014. At the dinner, members of the Black House, a Georgetown residence dedicated to fostering a community for students of color, presented an eight-point proposal to university President John DeGioia, which included a request for a diversity requirement and the creation of a Provost’s Committee on Diversity.

The university has since responded to some of the points mentioned by the proposal. Most notably, the Provost’s Committee on Diversity came into fruition in February of this year. Vice Provost Randall Bass, who was involved with the Diversity Working Group, hopes that, as it takes shape, the PCD will play a role in guiding the implementation of the Engaging Difference requirement and in ensuring that it will have the most meaningful effect possible for students.

“There will always be a mismatch between a course requirement and the larger effect,” Bass said.

“We as a university have the obligation to introduce our students in a responsible way to the most difficult issues of our time.”

Resident Director of the Black House Nancy Hinojos (MSB ’15), said that asking the university to implement a diversity requirement is a difficult but necessary task. “This [requirement] will be a good way to talk about issues that can be uncomfortable and, yes, they can be hard to talk about, but it’s critical for us to understand these issues,” Hinojos said.

feature Nevertheless, some members of the campus community have expressed concern about the implementation of the “Engaging Diversity” requirement. Supporters of the proposal say that, although they have not encountered much ideological opposition to the idea of a diversity requirement, faculty and students are most frequently concerned with the logistics of implementing such a requirement.

Reardon-Anderson said that the SFS core curriculum is already requirement-heavy and adding another requirement could be too restrictive for students.

“Universities should give students the opportunity to explore,” Reardon-Anderson said. “I think sometimes the curriculum becomes too restrictive.”

He also said that, while diversity should be discussed in many different classes throughout Georgetown, a requirement could be detrimental if it pushes students to think a certain way about diversity. “We should raise issues of divisions of power, privilege in the classroom, but I don’t think the curriculum should instruct people on what to think,” Reardon-Anderson said.

Additionally, speaking from his knowledge of the Walsh School of Foreign Service curriculum, Reardon-Anderson said that a diversity requirement may be redundant, given the existing core requirements of the SFS. “The whole of the SFS curriculum is a diversity curriculum,” he said. “It’s hard for me to see what is not diverse about our [the SFS’] curriculum.”

Elizabeth Oh (SFS ’16), however, said that, even though the SFS does focus on cultural differences, a diversity requirement would still be beneficial to SFS students because they do not currently learn about diversity as it applies to the context of the United States. “I have a lot of friends in the SFS who understand why Brazilians are racist to each other, but don’t understand why people in Ferguson are rioting,” she said. “They know about oppressive regimes and dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, but they don’t know about oppression in terms of identity in the U.S.” LCAR and the Diversity Working Group have pursued active dialogue with faculty and students about the terms of the requirement to ensure that it, if passed, will be a meaningful addition to undergraduates’ academic experiences, while still not overburdening students’ course load. As such, they have compiled a list of about 80 courses currently taught at Georgetown that could be cross-listed to satisfy both the diversity requirement and another general education requirement. Bass called the requirement a “win-win,” saying that the overlay requirement would strike a good balance for student academic life.

Although a diversity requirement remains absent from Georgetown’s curricula, the campus has undertaken several notable diversity initiatives in recent years both in academic and extracurricular life. The LGBTQ Resource Center was founded in 2008, marking a huge step forward for the LGBTQ community on campus. Following the President’s Diversity Initiative in 2009, the African American Studies program was expanded and hired additional faculty members. At the recommendation of the Student Life Working Group, the resident assistant training also includes intensive training on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, reli-

the georgetown voice | 9 gion, ability, and socioeconomic status. Director of Residential Living Ed Gilhool did not respond to the Voice’s request for comment.

Students view these and other developments as progress, but they say that these initiatives do not have the capacity to reach all students. “It’s sort of the same students who show up to all the events,” Hinojos said.

“They know about oppressive regimes and dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, but they don’t know about oppression in terms of identity in the U.S.” Colleen Roberts (COL ’15), a supporter of the diversity requirement, believes that all students need to be educated on issues of diversity in order to understand the world. “Its really important for all student to be dabbling in these issues, not only the students who self-select for it,” she said.

“I am so tired of having to explain why I am advocating for a diversity requirement,” Oh added. “There is so much explaining that students have to do that it’s exhausting selling our identity. There is no incentive or requirement in our school to learn.”

With the faculty vote one week away, supporters of the requirement remain hopeful. After 25 years of ongoing committees, working groups, and proposals, Zager believes that they have finally struck the right balance. “I am confident that this group of students and faculty will pass the requirement,” he said.

Even if the requirement does not pass its supporters, like Hinojos, have no plans to give up. “The idea is to continue supporting and advocating for a diversity requirement.”

Additional reporting by Ryan Greene

Marisa Hawley

leisure

10 | the georgetown voice

MARCH 19, 2015

The Ugly Truth: Civilized drags society’s dark side into the light EMMAUEL ELONE Tucked away on G Street stands Flashpoint Gallery, an art exhibition space that exemplifies the essence of bare-bones minimalism. Uneven concrete floors, metallic bars and wires and bright, powerful lights that shine their artificial glow on the exhibit pieces are all that make up a room the size of an ICC classroom.

Somehow, this rough, jagged space provides the perfect complement for Ben Tolman’s latest collection of works, Civilized. Composed of only a handful of extremely detailed and thought-provoking drawings, this exhibit is a statement about the gloomier, more horrific traits that define the urban landscapes of the world—things we all know yet refuse to admit.

Describing his work, Ben Tolman states, “The spaces we build limit us as well as offer us possibilities.” This statement is deceiving at first glance, since many of his images are simple cityscapes made with basic geometric shapes.

But within these works lurks a darker reality that, just like in the city today, is hidden to those who choose not to look. Homeless men sleep on cardboard

fetish, have a party on a building roof right next to a Starbucks filled with regular customers. In another piece, “Urban,” men and women go about their day while naked, unsurprised by their lack of clothes.

Graffiti images of penises and S.O.S. signals on the tops of

behind a city building, women flash masturbating men their breasts in an alley, and people are held at knifepoint in a sewer where gigantic cockroaches live.

These are the mysterious evils that exist in all cities deep under their glittery and idyllic

dilapidated houses are adjacent to billboards warning the public to “FEAR GOD.” In this new dystopia, we see the satire and social criticism of today and can only awkwardly laugh as a result, it shows us the true weight of society’s flaws

UNDER THE COVERS A bi-weekly column about literature by James Constant

After getting back from a weeklong hiking trip in the Smoky Mountains last Friday, I sat around with some friends and discussed our respective spring breaks. The topic of reading for pleasure (something that looks to have been relegated to vacation time for most Georgetown students) came up after a couple of beers, and I mentioned that I’d ripped through most of Toni Morrison’s Beloved on my ride back to Georgetown that day.

My friends broke out into choruses of “Oh, I had to read that in high school.” Despite knowing that would likely be the case—Beloved won a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Times crowned it the best work of American fiction written between 1981 and 2006—I was still a little shocked to hear it was being handed out to entire classrooms of teenage English students. The book

FLASHPOINT GALLERY

iT’S lAU 5—TAKEN TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL veneer; Tulman simply brings these uncomfortable truths to the forefront of his drawings.

Strangely enough, however, he adds these truths with a hint of sickening humor. In one piece titled “Now,” Furries, people who wear animal costumes as a

is about the consequences of a former slave’s decision to murder her daughter rather than see her captured into bondage, but it wasn’t this heavy subject matter that got me thinking about whether a book like Beloved deserved a place on the standard high school syllabus.

For all of its merits, Morrison’s novel can be a difficult read. There are multiple stretches of five or more pages—and I promise, I’m not just channeling my inner bored teenager here—in which not very much happens to drive the plot along. I found myself rereading pages of beautiful prose two or three times to understand their significance to the narrative. To catch the intricacies of the story, the reader has to absorb each and every sentence with the sharpness of a critic.

That’s a lot to expect of anyone, let alone 16 year olds that are prob-

and our inability to face and accept them as actual blemishes in our communities.

However, not all of the social commentary in this artwork contains strange, slightly-tinged fantasy; in a suburban landscape, bulldozers tear down an old building on the outskirts of

the town. In another, a landfill as tall as a small mountain towers over a line of people waiting to throw more trash on it.

In these works, his utilization of simple, realistic imagery with less detail than his other drawings portray environmen-

Time to rewrite to the high school syllabi

ably ill-inclined to read anything a teacher forces in front of them.

I brought up Beloved to another friend this weekend and she admitted to “Sparknoting” (a verb unique to high school English classes) more than half of it.

Schools can’t expect students to learn to love reading when they’re given books that are either too difficult for them or that won’t hold their attention. During my sophomore year of high school, my English class was assigned to read all 560 pages of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. When our teacher was out of the room, Ivan, the class’s biggest clown, asked the rest of us if we’d done any of the reading. The collective response amounted to “of course not—the internet exists.” I was one of three students that admitted to having followed Raskolnikov’s misdeeds.

There’s a problem there.

Perhaps the Western canon of “good” literature isn’t the best place to start teaching adolescents to appreciate written word. A straightforward jump from the constructed genre of young adult fiction fed to American middle schoolers, such as The Giver or The Outsiders, to Pulitzer Prize-winning works of staggering complexity is more than enough to make a teenager “hate reading,” as I frequently heard my classmates declare. In a country where the Department of Education estimates that only one third of students entering high school can read at grade level, the status quo seems to be alienation from literature.

There’s an element of a vicious cycle at play here. High school teachers were English majors, and they likely have plenty of intelligent thoughts about Beloved, The Grapes of Wrath, and other books

tal issues that the world universally accepts, but is reluctant to deal with.

After these two works is an image of an empty city block with crumbling edifices and chunks of granite tossed haphazardly on the street. Taken as a whole, they show a new world that could have been taken from a science fiction movie, but also prove to us that this could be our own reality soon—a truly frightening thought.

That is the real gift of Civilized: its black and white drawings give not just a meaning but a powerful and explicit warning.

Ben Tulman’s flair for imagination, combined with his sense of both large and small perspectives, give his audience a taste of true city street life from the viewpoint of the homeless man to the outlook of the community and even the perspective of a cockroach.

All the pieces give a voice and meaning to the otherwise mute and hollow facets of urban life, obliging us to wonder: are we truly civilized?

Flashpoint Gallery 916 G Street NW Feb. 7 to May 3 Tue. - Sat 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. culturaldc.org

often assigned that are probably out of reach for the majority of high schoolers. Teachers merely want to teach students to love the books they love.

But that’s not going to work for the average student. I saw this first-hand at the public high school I attended. Even in the advanced English classes, with supposedly capable students, I saw my peers abandon assigned books after just a few pages.

I don’t have an easy solution to this problem. But one thing I know for sure is that not all of those students who gave up on the books they had to read for homework disregarded reading completely.

I knew many who were into science fiction novels, thrillers, and manga. Maybe the answer lies in an acknowledgement that literature comes in many forms, and the standard catalogue of assigned texts represents just one of them.

Go back to high school with James at jcc286@georgetown.edu

georgetownvoice.com

“Why can’t I be the cute, carefree Irish guy who sings all the time?” — p.s. i love you

the georgetown voice | 11

New Divergent fizzles out de Kooning daringly distorts portraiture ANDREA KEKLAK

The second installment of the best-selling Divergent series continues in a thrilling—okay… well, let’s just say it continues.

Insurgent picks up where the last film left off, with the protagonist, Tris, played by Shailene Woodley, her brooding, hunky boyfriend Four (yes, hardly any of these people have normal names), her brother Caleb, and her sometimes-ally sometimes-enemy Peter, having narrowly escaped from the Dauntless headquarters. Now, they head for the Amity sector, basically an over-the-top, feelgood hippie commune.

After arriving safely in Amity, Tris and Four engage in some forced romantic dialogue, made all the more awkward by the fact that Caleb is played by Ansel Elgort (Woodley’s boyfriend in The Fault in Our Stars), and Peter is played by Miles Teller (Woodley’s boyfriend in The Spectacular Now). The re-casting of the same actors here feels vaguely incestuous— you’re trying to concentrate on Four (played by Theo James), but you can’t help but remember that Woodley has already made out with the other two.

Otherwise, for a series described as “the poor man’s Hunger Games,” this sequel certainly delivers. Tris, like Katniss, suffers from extreme guilt and angsty nightmares due to “Everyone I love dies!” syndrome.

Tris, like Katniss, makes maddeningly irrational decisions (yeah, why not turn yourself in to the totalitarian government?

They seem nice—I’m sure they won’t double cross you).

Most of all, Tris engages in exactly the sort of personality waffling that made Katniss so difficult to like. From scene to scene, Tris shifts between moods so rapidly you begin to wonder if, in fact, the government was right in labeling her as

“WE’RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!”

an unstable hazard to the community. Is she a cold-blooded killer or a weepy teenage girl? Is she determined to seek revenge or the type to shrug off betrayal as no big deal? Throughout the movie, Woodley valiantly struggles to play a character that has too many—well, divergent— personality traits.

One of the more engaging aspects of the plot emerges in the chilling psychological ordeal that Tris endures. The combination of her freakish nightmares and the occasional “sim” (a virtual simulation that tests personality traits) creates a curiously unstable sense of reality—you’re never exactly sure if the scene you’re watching is actually happening.

This uncertainty creates some much-needed excitement, and lends itself well to plot twists and character development. It’s also horribly creepy watching the sim-subjects flail around in the air, dangling from ropes connected to their nervous system.

The action-packed simulations are in fact far more entertaining than the endless real-life fight scenes. Four, with his blazing guns and six-pack, saves the day so many times you begin to lose count and interest. Just as a situation looks completely hopeless, he swoops in with an all-too-timely rescue, the hundreds of armed guards in his way mysteriously evaporating.

I mean, you’re telling me these people have instantaneous brain scanners, but can’t keep one teenage boy out of the government headquarters?

Overall, Insurgent fails to impress—it’s now just one more mediocre film in an already-crowded dystopian genre. Tip for next time: lose the worn-out romance angle, scale down the predictable fight sequences, and at least choose a protagonist whose name doesn’t rhyme with Katniss.

IMDB

SARAH JOSEPH

The average portrait aims for perfection. The artist attempts to flawlessly represent the face, physique, and expression of his or her subject. Yet Elaine de Kooning’s portrait series challenges viewers to reconsider what exactly a good portrait makes.

The National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibit on de Kooning presents viewers to a new dimension of portraiture, defined by a woman whose career was largely overshadowed by her husband and fellow artist Willem de Kooning. Mrs. de Kooning moved far beyond the normal characteristics of portraiture, choosing to capture her subjects in a moment of spontaneity and emotion rather than in still, straight posture. de Kooning’s subjects vary, switching from family and friends to rumored lovers and even President John F. Kennedy. de Kooning’s portraits portray glimpses of her subjects that immediately capture the viewer’s attention. Despite their abstract nature, viewers get a sense of what the subjects looked like in a defining

moment. de Kooning evokes their unspoken essence in her paintings, infusing intrinsic qualities that cannot be captured in the quintessential portrait. de Kooning effortlessly transcends the confines of the portrait using abstract techniques, such as her astounding usage of oil, her primary medium. A simple portrait was transformed into an abstract piece with harsh brush strokes of raw color. By focusing more on abstract gestures of the oil on her paintbrush, de Kooning is able to do more than merely document the faces of her subjects.

Sketches displayed alongside Kennedy’s portraits revealed her process: start with facial features and move outward. The face seemed to be the most detailed, while the limbs melted away in a sea of colors.

It was astonishing to see that I could instantly identify Kennedy from de Kooning’s sketch of just his eyes. de Kooning depicts Kennedy’s remarkable sense of compassion, which she came to know after many meetings with the President.

Other times, de Kooning utilizes abstraction to hone in on the

body as a gesture by eliminating facial features altogether. She particularly embraces facelessness in her painting “Seated Man (Conrad).”

With wide strokes of blazing color, she captures a man whose washed-out face seems empathetic but whose body appears dauntingly sharp. de Kooning seems to struggle with whether to include the face or focus more on the figure. In fact, de Kooning claimed the men she painted were like gyroscopes, spinning on an axis until finding balance. She is trying to find this same balance in her paintings—between face or body, and between abstract painting or portraits. de Kooning daringly combines abstraction with portraiture in order to express unseen sides of her friends, family, and American figures. de Kooning was perfectly capable of pure painting, but she braved uncharted territory with a unique combination of art worlds.

National Portrait Gallery 8th St. and F Street N.W. 11:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. npg.si.edu

Plan B’s food not worth the morning after SAM KLEINMAN Every Plan A needs a Plan B. Unfortunately, Plan B Burger Bar was, at best, a Plan C. As a transfer from a college outside of Boston, I can attest that nothing good comes from New England. In this case, Connecticut, the home of the first Plan B, has bequeathed the District with a merely decent mini-chain.

Greeted with the hostess’ station’s bookshelf rather than the hostess herself, we decided to seat ourselves ten minutes after our arrival. On our way to self-selected seats, we admired Plan B’s beaux arts lightbulbs and burnished wood, a Bioshock-esque attempt at celebrating Prohibition America.

With a cocktail menu that would make Hemingway swoon and a beer list that would make any mustachioed Brooklyn hipster salivate, Plan B looked to be an excellent choice. Unfortunately, appearances are rarely reality.

After being regaled with ordering instructions (a choice between “pink” and “no pink” for burgers, essentially medium or well-done), and the theme of the restaurant (the B stands for burgers, beer and

bourbon), we started our night with cocktails. One of which was a Sazerac, a classic New Orleans cocktail concocted of Sazerac rye whiskey, bitters, absinthe, and sugar, garnished with a twist of lemon.

Admittedly, the drink is very complicated, enough to make any bartender in D.C. groan, but we were disappointed to receive a beautiful cocktail absolutely drowning in a sea of bitters.

In general, Plan B seems to be a place that likes to cut corners. The best dish we had by far was not a burger, but rather the appetizer-sized mini beef Wellingtons. Perfectly seasoned, wrapped in pastry that melted on the tongue, and served on a bed of blue cheese béchamel, these tiny Wellingtons were no doubt as good as, if not better than, their fully sized cousins a block away at the Caucus Room.

A closer look, however, revealed that the beef itself was clearly cooked sous vide, the same method by which Chipotle cooks its steaks in huge vats outside of Chicago. Similarly, though the Cobb salad consisted of crisp lettuce glazed with tangy ranch

dressing, it was as if had not been mixed, as many of these parts rested on top of the dish. Finally, the run-of-the-mill french fries were clearly flash-fried and no different from the “fries” of Leo’s.

With the burgers, we ended on a sour (well, under-seasoned) note.

The choice between pink and no pink turned out to be a choice between parched medium-well and desertified medium-well. Though the “Bacon Cheese” burger was reasonably juicy, it was only on account of the garlic mayo that doused it, complimented by sickeningly-sweet caramelized onions.

Though these burgers were good, certainly better than almost any fast food burger you’ll find, they failed to live up to the hype.

As my friend said at the end of our meal, “this is the kind of place you bring a first date you don’t plan to go very well.” I couldn’t agree more. My advice? Don’t put yourself in the position where you and your date need Plan B. Plan B Burger Bar 801 Pennslyvania Ave. N.W. planbburger.com

leisure

12 | the georgetown voice

CRITICAL VOICES

Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly, TDE That it turned out to be a garden-variety clerical error that To Pimp a Butterfly got released early is irrelevant—only Kendrick Lamar could make us wait three years for an album and still send us scrambling when it drops a week ahead of time. As the follow-up to the widely celebrated good kid, m.A.A.d. city, the new album from the self-appointed King of New York naturally has a lot to live up to andresponds by moving in a new, bold direction.

Modest Mouse, Strangers to Ourselves, Epic After seven years of silence, Modest Mouse has finally released its latest offering, Strangers to Ourselves, but considering the disappointment that the release brought with it, perhaps continued silence would have been the better option. Despite the fact that the album is headlined by the superb “Lampshades on Fire” and a few other gems, Strangers is an underwhelming effort at best.

The album starts strong. It’s opening track “Strangers to Our-

The new album can be described as following Lamar’s mental state through its tracks—through all his ups and (more commonly) his downs. Lamar does have a lot to be angry about, however—Butterfly frequently deals in damning discussions of institutional racism and poverty. This is perhaps Lamar at the most vulnerable and angry he’s been.

As ought to be expected, Lamar’s lyrically in good form here.

He proves that he’s still a master storyteller in songs like “How Much a Dollar Cost?” as he spins the tale of an encounter with God. Furthermore, the final line of “The Blacker the Berry” is such an effective reversal it almost warrants a spoiler warning, turning the entire message of the song on its head, as he speaks to his own hypocrisy. “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street?/ When gang banging make me kill a n**** blacker than me?”

This lyricism is also displayed in the amount of symbolic weight

Kendrick is able to place into his music through less direct or obvious devices. There’s a quiet excellence going on here, as this is one of the most plainly-spoken and eloquent political rap records ever recorded, treating each issue it tackles with the nuance it deserves, but still knowing when to apply lyrical blunt force.

Lamar is building a legacy with To Pimp a Butterfly. He’s crafted an entirely different beast from his previous album that still maintains his consistent personal touch. This new album is a deeply personal and ambitious effort by Kendrick, an artist who, if nothing else, demands excellence from himself. Plus, if anyone was looking for an especially high-profile counterpoint to the Year of Iggy Azalea, this could do the job nicely.

selves” has a smooth, Pink Floyd-esque synth style. It’s an introspective start, with lyrics like “How lucky we are, that we are, so easy to forget / How often we become susceptible to regret” providing the listener with a mellow beginning. “Strangers” leads into the more upbeat “Lampshades on Fire.” “Lampshades” was released as a single prior to the album’s release, and it provides a much more upbeat and catchy alternative to the more pensive “Strangers”.

Unfortunately, after this excellent start, the album’s quality deteriorates rapidly. “Shit in Your Cut” and “Pistol” are fun to listen to, due to some excellent drum beats, but don’t offer much beyond Mouse’s traditional combination of alternative rock and pop. The rest of the tracks follow a similar pattern: the songs blend in to each other far too easily, and sound like Mouse’s past work.

This makes it seem like the band plays it too safe with their choice of song styles.

Fortunately enough, Strangers isn’t a total wash. Just because Mouse chooses to stick to the familiar doesn’t mean that the songs aren’t enjoyable. “Coyotes” and “Pups to Dust” are especially fun to listen to. Mouse doesn’t finish strong, however, with “Of Course You Know” serving as boring bookend to the album. Its vocal variation feels forced, as if Mouse is trying to be edgy. The result feels flat.

Mouse has clearly found a style that suits the band well. Unfortunately, committing to that style for an entire album makes “Strangers” feel too generic and stale. One can only hope that Mouse’s next album will be slightly more experimental and daring in its styles. “Strangers” is just too familiar.

Voice’s Choices: “How Much a Dollar Cost?,” “u” —Andrew gutman

Voice’s Choices: “Lampshades on Fire,” “Strangers to Ourselves” —Graham piro

CONCERT CALENDAR FRIDAY 3/20 Chris Lake U St. Music Hall, 10 p.m., $20

SATURDAY 3/21 Dan and the Wild Fire Gypsy Sally’s, 6 p.m., Free

SATURDAY 3/21 Claptone U Street Music Hall, 10 p.m., $15

SATURDAY 3/21 Melodime Gypsy Sally’s, 7 p.m., $15

SATURDAY 3/21 EOTO 9:30 Club, 10 p.m., $20

WEDNESDAY 3/25 Goldfish U Street Music Hall, 10 p.m., $15

MARCH 19, 2015

Deadbeats

You can’t really collect audio files

In the past decade, music has almost reached a zenith of accessibility. The internet has all but unshackled the industry from the grubby hands of executives and allowed for a much more direct interaction between artist and consumer. While the big record labels still have their claws dug into major artists and genres, the average music listener is no longer beholden to industry big shots to decide what they can listen to.

Imagine the days before the internet. Your three options for listening to music were catching live shows, catching songs on the radio, and buying physical copies of music. There was no free, on-demand music listening. Today, anyone, anywhere can listen to almost every song made by just about every artist and band for free. It doesn’t matter how small or how far from your hometown an act is. If they have recorded music on the internet, it’s almost a certainty that you can stream it for free. While the freedom to listen to all music for free is ridiculously empowering, it has a sad side effect: most people don’t have music collections that they can call their own.

It’s certainly a pretentious thing to complain about. Physical music collections, and even downloaded music collections, cost time and money to obtain and aren’t guaranteed to last forever. They are impractical and probably excessive, but man are they fun. There’s an undeniable charm to holding a record and its accompanying packaging in your hand and nerding out over it. Album covers take on a whole new life when they are printed out onto a vinyl case.

Additionally, most bands reward their customers who buy physical copies with bonus materials like exclusive posters, extra artwork, or photo booklets. It’s excessive to care about any of that stuff too much, but those little bonus items go a long way to making physical copies of music have their own personality.

A friend recently mentioned that he digitally downloads about two albums a day to his computer because of his voracious listening habits and desire to have some sort of ownership over his music. But I think downloading is a shallow substitute for something physical.

Whatever little charms a particular vinyl package has, the entire

package itself is a physical connection to a band or artist, which is a rare thing to have in an era where a lot of people technically don’t own any music.

It’s no surprise, then, that vinyl sales have rebounded from their steep downfall during the CD and early digital era. According to Slate, in 2013, digital album sales declined for the first time since 2003, when the iTunes store opened. Vinyl, on the other hand, has gradually resurrected itself as the CD has fallen by the wayside. Between 2002 and 2012, vinyl LP sales in the U.S. increased by 250 percent, while total recorded music shipments were nearly cut in half.

Nevertheless, vinyl is still a miniscule portion of the music market and remains stigmatized as an over-the-top, hipster hobby.

In 2013, vinyl LP sales accounted for only two percent of total album sales in the U.S. There should be some sort of middle ground between the simple digital download and the full-blown, exclusive-packed vinyl purchase. The digital download is too bare-bones and the vinyl LP is too overblown for all but a small sect of listeners.

For one thing, digital album prices should be brought down in many cases. A lot of single digital tracks are $1.29 on iTunes right now, with many albums costing $15 or $20. That’s outrageous. I much prefer the Bandcamp model where bands usually sell albums for $5 or $7. Cheaper prices allow bands to broaden their customer base and earn more listeners and dedicated fans, who will go on to buy merchandise or tickets to shows.

But more important than cost is the product being offered. Digital albums would be much more enjoyable if they came with download exclusives of photos or behind-thescenes videos of the artist or band.

Many bands already do this, but this should be the norm. It would be great if it could go even further, with digital album sales guaranteeing a customer some physical token to be delivered in the mail.

Listening to music is too easy nowadays for artists and bands to rely solely on their music to drive music downloads. And it’s pretty hard to get really excited about an MP3.

A bi-weekly column about music by Ryan Greene

Listen to Ryan’s mixtape at rcg63@georgetown.edu

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PAGE THIRTEEN

the georgetown voice |13

– Dylan Cutler

voices

14 | the georgetown voice

MARCH 19, 2015

Recovering the Long-lost Art of Killing Time: A primer for Hoyas JOE LAPOSATA My spring break plans consisted of going to my house, catching up on sleep, and playing FIFA 15. It was a casual, ordinary spring break, except that my house happens to be my townhouse here in Georgetown (yes, I know I’m lucky).

And with exceedingly few people left in and around campus, relaxation started to transition rapidly into boredom shortly after Saturday lunch. It was at this point that I found myself wondering: “What exactly do I do with all of this time?”

What follows is a guide for how to handle one of two things that Georgetown doesn’t teach you: what to do when you have too much time and not enough to do. For the other, ask the College Republicans how to handle a shotgun. Heed this advice if ever you find yourself alone for the foreseeable future without the obligations that usually accompany being a person.

My immediate reaction to being so liberated from appointments (classes, clubs, and the like) was to sleep so long and so late that I wouldn’t accidentally make any more. I view this as my body’s attempted assertion of dominance over my calendar, for which I have punished it severely with caffeine now that school has resumed.

The result was total day-night reversal: being awake until 5 a.m., sleeping 12 hours, making dinner, and then resuming the utter destruction of my sleep schedule. Was this bad for me?

Undoubtedly. Did it help pass the time? Absolutely. It’s like the old saying goes, “time flies when you’re irretrievably unconscious.”

At some point, though, I did have to wake up, and so the rest of the time I was constantly faced with loneliness. At first, I thought about spending some time on ChatRoulette to while away the hours, before I remembered that was a horrible idea and if I really

wanted to see a stranger’s genitals, I had the entire rest of the Internet. At least in porn, the genitals are groomed—or so I’m told. However, gaming did provide a great deal of relief from the crushing weight of utter abandonment by my friends. Joe may have been alone, but his level 67 High Elf in Skyrim was surrounded by his loving housecarls.

If ever you’re faced with similarly oppressive ennui, I highly suggest finding a game that is both addictive and very time-consuming. I spent two whole days playing one game of Civilization V and I regret nothing, except trusting that two-faced bastard Alexander of Macedon. If this sounds painfully nerdy, think of it like this: isolationism has existed since the dawn of solitaire, all that’s improved is the technology.

Now, some of you might be reading this and assume that it’s resulted in my “withdrawal” from “society” and that it will result in my inevitable “Gol-

lum-ization.” But hey, I was on spring break! Some people choose to get drunk in Cancun; I choose to play video games until I run out of batteries. But, oh, sure, I’m morally suspect because tipsy Xbox at 6 in the morning is somehow “a deplorable state of human affairs.”

An important thing to remember about drowning yourself in technology is that you will still get bored unless you vary your chosen opiates. It’s like eating marshmallows: one is yummy, several are a guilty pleasure, but cramming a couple dozen into your mouth in quick succession will make you want to purge the earth of anything that remotely reminds you of air-puffed sugar. Have a couple different game disks ready.

Occasionally, friends may want to stop by. If these friends should want to play video games with you, let them. And this should go without saying, but if you ever have a free hour, or say, a free entire week concurrently with somebody who will

willingly sleep with you, do that.

I refuse to grant anything more than two sentences to this painfully obvious concept. Apart from that, defend your precious Xbox time tooth and nail; you won’t have any more until the next vacation.

At the end of the day, it’s worth noting that killing time is not the same as wasting time.

If you enjoy the time you spent as much as I clearly enjoyed my spring break, then that time wasn’t wasted. Far too often we, as Georgetown students, tend to throw our happiness by the wayside in favor of productivity, forgetting that being happy is productive, too.

Now on that note, you should probably ignore all of this advice for a couple of months. Don’t you have a paper due soon?

JOE IS A JUNIOR IN THE College

Why it’s hard to be happy here, and how you can make it easier SAM RICCIARDI Being happy is hard. One would think that, after millenia on this planet, humanity would have perfected the art of being happy. Happiness is, after all, our foremost goal as individuals, once we’ve figured out the whole life and liberty thing. Everything you are or do is an unconscious cost-benefit analysis of how happy it will make you. And yet, when it comes to being happy, it seems as if many of us, if not the vast majority of us here at Georgetown, have missed the mark.

Can you really say that you’re happy? And I don’t just mean happy right now in this moment.

I mean consistently happy and armed with know-how to maintain this feat. If the answer is no, then ask yourself this: If you could have anything in the world, what would make you happiest?

When I was first asked this question I thought to myself, “Well, I’d really like a girlfriend, more free time, and my dream job once I’m out of here. Yeah, those things would make me happy.”

The problem with answers like this is that happiness is not about making—it’s about being. When

KATIE HYLAND

NOT JUST FOR MONKS MEDITATION CAN BE ALL IT TAKES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

we, as individuals and as a society, theorize happiness to be something that is earned or pursued, we set ourselves up for failure.

This is because happiness consists of two semi-paradoxical elements.

One: striving for more and better everything. And two: being content with what you have.

Given that you go to Georgetown, I can guarantee that you excel at point one, because it is within your volition to do so. You know what you want, and you know more or less how to get it.

But point two is far more tricky.

Contentment is seemingly not an act of the will. And besides, even if you were content, wouldn’t that wipe away your drive to work?

First of all: no, it is absolutely possible to appreciate what you have and who you are while still desiring to better yourself and your situation. Contentment does not equate with apathy here.

Rather, it’s a subtle and positive awareness. Secondly, it is indeed possible to turn contentment into an act of the will. It’s done through meditation.

Honestly, I can’t tell why or how it works, only that it just does.

I started meditating about four months ago, and the change has been dramatic. Whereas I used to be racked with a sense of irresolvable emptiness when I approached

happiness as a checklist of pursuits, I can now honestly claim that, for the first time in my life, I am actually happy. And yet, nothing in my life has changed significantly.

I still don’t have a girlfriend, free time, or that elusive dream job.

I’m still working hard to complete the checklist. And, I’m still having a myriad of failures (in addition to a few successes) along the way. But thanks to the meditation, the ride is far more enjoyable.

So what exactly does one do during meditation? Meditation, perhaps better called mindful awareness, is an exercise in concentration. The key is to avoid “mindlessness”, or semi-conscious thinking. Meditation asks of you to sit upright and focus on your breath.

Be curious about it. Whenever your mind inevitably wanders off, lightly recenter it on the breath.

I can understand why you think this may sound silly, even boring. The very reason that meditation is difficult is that it feels boring. But with enough practice, you will gain the ability to focus on, find interest in, and extract enjoyment from something as simple your breath. Once you attain this, focusing on, being mindful of, and appreciating the various aspects of your daily life becomes easy.

Whereas your godforsaken Arabic homework was once a necessary chore serving a long-term goal,

it is now an opportunity to learn.

Nothing has changed except your perspective.

Here’s the problem with just striving for more and better things: if life is a race, with happiness being victory, then solely pursuing checklist happiness is like running parallel to the finish line. You may be putting in a great deal of effort, but you’re going nowhere faster. If you’re only able to gain temporal satisfaction from your pursuits, then you will forever be striving for more and more until you inevitably burn out or die. But the moment you factor in positive awareness and you realize and appreciate just what it is you’ve actually done, then you’ll be happy.

A co-worker and mentor of mine once told me that you can never move forward without looking back. If you are interested in taking up meditation, the John Main Center for Meditation on campus is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are group meditations twice daily, at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. I hope to see you there.

SAM IS a SOPHOMORE in the SFS

voices

georgetownvoice.com

THE GEORGETOWN VOICe | 15

The Migrant Experience: Reflections from alternative break KENNETH LEE Last week, I went to El Paso with twelve other Georgetown students on an Alternative Breaks trip. I left without any real expectations, except that it was something vaguely about immigration—an intractable, mysterious issue, which, like gun rights, abortion, and race, seemed to divide this country and have had no satisfactory solutions.

We stayed at Casa Vides, a shelter for migrants operated by an organization called Annunciation House. We reflected, we cooked, and we swept the floors, just like

everybody else who lived there.

Possessing no Spanish language skills, I couldn’t really talk with any of the guests. One, Rachel, a small, elderly woman, giggled whenever I tried, and failed, to recreate the rolling ‘r’ sound in Spanish. “Rrrapido,” she smiled as she saw me yelling at my friend who could not sweep the floors quickly enough.

And, in the midst of this restless trip, I began to understand what immigration meant.

It used to be easier. More than forty years ago, my great-grandmother’s brothers decided to bring their children to San Francisco, sold newspapers, got engineering de-

MEGAN hOWELL

A TALE OF TWO CITIES EL PASO AND JUÁREZ CAPTURE THE MIGRANT EXPERIENCE

CARRYING ON

grees, and married immigrant wives from Hong Kong or Macau. One of them struck gold by co-founding a data storage company.

Every year, thousands of Indonesian and Filipino mothers and young women move to Hong Kong to become live-in domestic servants for middle-class families. I belong to one of those families. From time to time, my mother gives used clothes, phones, and handbags to Normita, our housekeeper since 2005, who sends it back to her three children in the Philippines. Such was the act of migration: a human choice towards opportunity.

Somewhere along the timeline of our development as a species, however, migration became a story of struggle. An anathema to national security that allows the Obama administration to lock up mothers and babies in family detention centers.

In El Paso, you will find highway checkpoints staffed with wellarmed Border Patrol agents ready to profile migrants and pick fights with anti-border militarization activists who question their legal authority. You will find border fences, motion sensors, and drones—ugly military-industrial scars that separate El Paso and Juárez, two cities that really are one unified community ripped apart in the name of imagined terrorist threats. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, you will find

GEARING UP FOR GRADUATION

BY CLAIRE ZENG

A rotating column by senior Voice staffers

Four years seemed eons away when I first stumbled onto the Hilltop as a confused freshman. Even now, with two months left before graduation, it is still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that my time at Georgetown is coming to an end.

Of the many impactful moments in life, graduation makes the Top 10 for both seniors and their families. Graduation weekend is always celebrated as a joyous family-oriented occasion, and Georgetown families are certainly not the exception; I hear many restaurants are already booked out for graduation dinner.

It’s a little strange, therefore, to discuss how the prospect of bringing my family to graduation ceremonies fills me with trepidation.

Yes, I’m excited about graduating and want to commemorate the end to four life-changing years, but I’m uncertain my parents will find much meaning in Georgetown’s ceremonies and traditions.

My parents, who immigrated to America in the 1990s, still hold tightly to their traditional Chinese values and beliefs. Part of their culture holds that education is less a process than it is a stepping stone. College is not the deeply developmental experience it is often celebrated as in the United States.

Before I came to Georgetown, they sat me down, had me plan out how I would use my education to move into a high-paying job, and emphasized how college was, first and foremost, a financial investment.

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a housewife sentenced to six years in prison, for shoving a vacuum cleaner rod into her Indonesian housekeeper’s mouth and twisting it, among other heinous acts of torture. There are many more exploitive Hongkongers like her.

Instead of a cherished mechanism for opportunity and happiness, migration has become a taboo subject, fraught with frustration and resentment. Sometimes, it’s the little things that make life so hard for migrants. After my phone broke in my first month at school, I almost led AT&T to think that I was committing identity theft because, as an international student, I had no Social Security Number, and my phone bill was under someone else’s name. And even if getting a H-1B work visa is discouragingly difficult, my father reprimands me for not appreciating how hard he had worked to allow me to study overseas in the first place. “How well you know me? You don’t bother to talk to me for more than two minutes,” his words of pain treading on the deepest, darkest roots of my heart. I sobbed alone in the bathroom while I read that text message over and over again.

Of course, my pathetic helplessness about my future after Georgetown is nothing compared to the abuses undocumented migrants suffer from, or the countless

This belief has defined how I was raised. When I returned home from school as a child, they would ask not about my day or my friends, but about my grades and homework. At high school graduation, they went through the motions and smiled for the other parents, but encouraged me to finish up as quickly as I could since they didn’t see much value in spending time there. When my parents call to check in on me, I know they want to be sure of my well-being, but I quickly become aggravated each time they default to asking why I don’t have an internship, or where I am in the job search.

My parents’ underlying intentions are obviously in my best interest, but what’s resulted is that I rarely discuss my life with my family. They are unaware of nearly all of my college experiences because they don’t understand why what I find important and impactful is, in fact, important and impactful, and I often give up on attempting to explain.

They know little to nothing of the

friends I’ve made, or the conversations I’ve had that opened my eyes or challenged my fundamental beliefs, or the travel trips I’ve embarked on. They certainly are in the dark about the partying and bar-hopping—not just because I choose not to mention them, but because they never lived college social life the way I have.

Undergirding my parents’ beliefs is their attitude of cultural conservatism. Perhaps it is a protective mechanism they developed immigrating to a completely new world, but they resist assimilating into American culture and prefer living familiar lifestyles.

My mother’s discomfort with and near-physical inability to eat any cuisine that is not Chinese, even if it’s Japanese or Korean, exemplifies this—albeit in a bit of an extreme fashion.

But as I gain more perspective, I realize I should reach out more.

Thus, when I discussed attending Senior Week activities in January with my family, I was initially excited for my parents to partic-

people who have died crossing the desert on the U.S.-Mexico Border.

When it was time to leave Casa Vides, I stood in the living room while everyone said their goodbyes in Spanish. Rachel sat in the corner, staring at me with the most intense gaze. I had hardly spoken to her or even gotten to know her because I couldn’t communicate in Spanish, but she gave me a firm, warm embrace.

But to her, that didn’t matter.

For her, there was no “other,” no awkward tension with a foreigner from a strange place who could not speak her tongue. I think she knew migration is more than a concept toyed with by congressional Republicans as they hold funding for the Department of Homeland Security hostage. It’s not heckling at rallies that support Aramark’s workers on campus. It’s about celebrating the beauty of opportunity, of encountering difference, or people who you otherwise would never cross paths with.

“You will come back for me,” Rachel said in English, on the verge of tears, not letting go of my hands.

“Rrrapido, rrrapido.”

KENNETH IS A SOPHOMORE IN THE THE SFS

ipate in Georgetown traditions.

I quickly became less optimistic once I read through the events. A lecture on “The Jesuit Education”?

My father would easily fall asleep.

The Georgetown men’s basketball game? My mother finds sports uninteresting, and my father likes hockey only because we lived in Canada. And attending the Senior Auction would have been a great joke. Tossing away exorbitant sums, for however much of a good cause, was simply beyond my parents’ (and, admittedly, my own) comprehension.

Most importantly, although I refrained from verbalizing it, I wasn’t sure how my engineering-trained immigrant parents would fit into the stereotypical white and wealthy Georgetown parent crowd. I didn’t see how they would be comfortable in such a different culture.

I wonder what I will do as graduation approaches. I’m eager to dress up and socialize at Senior Ball and watch the sunrise at the monuments, but the $95 tickets alone are enough to make my parents balk. Beyond that, I wonder how I can communicate how meaningful Georgetown has been to me and why graduation is symbolically important. I’ll let you know how it goes.

*18 to party, 21 to drink!!!