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JACK’S BOATHOUSE DISPUTE ALMOST OVER PAGE 4

WOMEN’S LACROSSE UNDEFEATED IN BIG EAST PLAY PAGE 7

PROVOCATIVE SPRING AWAKENING ROUSES POULTON PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  April 4, 2013  Volume 48 Issue 11  georgetownvoice.com

GOT BEEF?

the locavore’s dilemma

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april 4, 2013

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Voice Crossword “You did what?!?” by Tyler Pierce 43. Cell transfusion 44. Filibuster 46. Like an idiot 49. After-Christmas event 50. Counseling Service 53. “Dig in!”

55. Half a score 56. Tradition 3 62. “___ you kidding?”

63. Ignores 64. Lesotho national language 68. Former French coin 69. Brawl 70. Spa handout 71. Call off 72. Have something at home 73. Hi-fiver from Scrubs DOWN

ACROSS 1. __ Antony 5. Indigenous Canadian 10. Car stat 13. Squib 15. The “N” of U.N.C.F. 16. ___ mode 17. Star in Perseus 18. Eagle’s claw

19. Some fraternity men 20. Tradition 1 23. ET carrier 26. Halloween decoration 27. Prying 28. ___ Lee cakes 30. Not loose or cumbersome 35. Madison Square Garden, e.g.

37. Female organs 40. Tradition 2

1. Wharton degree 2. “Is that ___?”

3. Persian, e.g.

4. Gator’s cousin 5. Entirely 6. Approach 7. Wrinkly fruit 8. “Pumping ___” 9. Chinese mafia 10. Tropical fruit 11. Promotes 12. Bloated 14. Amorphous mass 21. Varnish ingredient 22. Wholes 23. Cable network

24. North Dakota’s largest city 25. Nabisco cookies 29. Pacifist, of sorts 31. Antlered animal 32. Pipe plastic 33. Ooh and ___ 34. Gunk 36. Soon, to a bard 38. Acclaim 39. Fissile rock 41. Fed. construction overseer 42. Material for a whitesmith 45. Craving 47. Chapter subset 48. Gab 50. “Cut it out!”

51. Composer Copland 52. Pretentious sort 54. Midterm, e.g.

57. To be, to Brutus 58. Perlman of “Cheers” 59. Rump 60. Against 61. Choo-choo’s sound 65. Couple 66. “If only ___ listened ...”

67. Antediluvian

Answers to last week’s sudoku

Answers to last week’s crossword

editorial

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Volume 48.11 April 4, 2013 Editor-in-Chief: Keaton Hoffman Managing Editor: Gavin Bade Blog Editor: Connor Jones News Editor: Matt Weinmann Sports Editor: Steven Criss Feature Editor: Julia Tanaka Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Leisure Editor: Julia Lloyd-George Voices Editor: Sara Ainsworth Photo Editor: Miles Gavin Meng Design Editors: Amanda Dominguez, Madhuri Vairapandi Projects Editors: Alec Graham, John Sapunor Back Page Editor: Tiffany Lachhonna Puzzles Editors: Andrew Duverney, Tyler Pierce Contributing Editors: Leigh Finnegan, Kevin Joseph Assistant Blog Editors: Isabel Echarte, Ryan Greene, Caitriona Pagni Assistant News Editors: Lucia He, Julia Jester, Jeffrey Lin Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Almeida, Chris Castano Assistant Cover Editor: Lauren Ashley Panawa Assistant Leisure Editors: Alex Golway, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Photo Editors: Andres Rengifo Assistant Design Editor: Teddy Schaffer

Staff Writers:

Emilia Brahm, Will Collins, Emlyn Crenshaw, Brendan Crowley, Laura Kurek, Maria Lappas, Alex Lau, Keith Levinsky, Claire McDaniel, Liana Mehring, Dayana Morales-Gomez, Joe Pollicino, Cole Stangler, Sam Wolter, Claire Zeng

Staff Photographers:

Rebecca Anthony, Julian de la Paz, John Delgado-McCollum, Kat Easop, Robin Go, Kirill Makarenko, Tess O’Connor

Staff Designers:

Karen Bu, John Delgado-McCollum, Christy Geaney, Mike Pacheco, Tom Pacheco, Sebastian Sotelo

Copy Chief: Morgan Manger Copy Editors:

Kathryn Booth, Grace Funsten, Tori Jovanovski, Rina Li, Natalie Muller, Sonia Okolie, Caitriona Pagni, Ana Smith, Dana Suekoff, Kim Tay, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Patricia Cipollitti Editorial Board:

Maitane Arana, Aisha Babalakin, Gavin Bade, Lucia He, Keaton Hoffman, Quaila Hugh, Julia Jester, Caitriona Pagni, Julia Tanaka, Galen Weber

Head of Business: Aarohi Vora The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

This newspaper was made possible in part with the support of

Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, online at CampusProgress.org. Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

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 Web Site: 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. The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed by Silver Communications. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover: “Locally-sourced Food” Cover Photo: Julia Tanaka (SFS ‘15)

the georgetown voice 3

ADJUNCTION JUNCTION

Adjunct unionization efforts deserve support In the coming weeks, Georgetown’s adjunct faculty members will vote to decide whether they should form a union. The election has been scheduled thanks to the efforts of the Service Employees International UnionLocal 500, which, in conjunction with advocacy organization New Faculty Majority, has lobbied for the unionization of adjuncts in universities throughout the District.

If approved by a majority of voting adjunct professors, the union will bargain on behalf of adjunct faculty in order to ensure much needed job security protections, work benefits, higher salaries, and opportunities for professional development for part-time and nontenure track faculty members.

Adjunct professors, who contribute mightily to the intellectual life of any modern American university, receive a relative pittance of a salary with little to no benefits.

Adjunct pay ranges from as little as $1,000 to $8,000 per 3-credit course. The national average salary of a full-time adjunct is roughly $21,000—an undeniably low working-class

income for white-collar professionals with graduate degrees.

Georgetown rests on the upper end of this bracket, paying its adjunct faculty roughly $6,000 per course. However, the fact remains that the University allots a mere 2 percent of its budget to its adjuncts, even though they make up roughly 48 percent of Georgetown’s faculty.

The marginalization of adjunct faculty also harms them professionally. Due to low salaries and lack of job security—and oftentimes, the added burden of crushing student debt—adjuncts often split their energies between multiple universities and day jobs. These various demands constrain adjuncts from developing professionally through traditionally academic pursuits like research.

The shift of university cost structures from scholarship to flashy facilities and bigger administrations is a nationwide phenomenon, as brand-conscious universities attempt to boost rankings in order to compete for students and funds. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a system that takes emphasis away from the qual-

ity of academic life of students and professors.

Indeed, students also pay the price for subpar adjunct conditions. For example, without offices, adjuncts do not have an adequate space to hold office hours which are invaluable to fostering student-professor relationships.

Income insecurity and the stress of juggling multiple jobs also negatively impacts adjuncts’ abilities to address the needs of students.

The upcoming election is a chance for adjuncts to push back against the supply-anddemand principles that have compromised the integrity of academia. While it is encouraging that the University administration has pledged neutrality in the process, in correct observance of its Just Employment Policy, the Georgetown community needs to take a more active role in support of its adjunct faculty. Even though only adjunc ts can actually vote, the student body has a particular responsibility to present a united front in support of those professors who have devoted so much of their time and energy to our education. After all, we only stand to gain.

RACIAL PROFILES

Facebook confessions reveal campus tensions The Georgetown Confessions Facebook page has garnered a huge following in recent weeks, with 1,144 likes at the time of publication. The page allows users to submit anonymous “confessions,” which are then posted for public consumption. Far from a harmless Internet fad, however, Georgetown Confessions has become the latest forum for debate concerning race and class issues.

“Affirmative action is an abomination because it discriminates against Jewish-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Caucasians who are more than capable of earning similar grades, and who are callously thrown under the bus by people who don’t have the capacity to achieve based on merit,” wrote one student.

“Just because someone who is in a financial struggle cannot themselves [sic] pay for their tuition does not mean they haven’t earned the right to be at this institution!” argues another.

The virulent cyber bickering occurring on this page is indicative of a larger problem

endemic to the Georgetown community. As is clear from students’ inabilities to address these issues in a sensitive, nuanced way, there are tensions that have been percolating under the veneer of a cohesive student body at a prestigious university. These are likely exacerbated by the fact that Georgetown lacks the breadth of racial and socioeconomic diversity that can be encountered at many public institutions.

In 2009, after several disturbing bias incidents were reported on campus and an extensive appeal was made to the University by the Student Commission for Unity, the administration sought to correct this through the Main Campus Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness. The initiative looked to modify hiring practices as well as to grant more scholarships to students in need. While it got off to a strong start, enthusiasm waned as the years went on.

It is evident that institutional diversity initiatives have fallen short at Georgetown. The

ignorance that pervades the Facebook conversation about the gradient of experiences across the socioeconomic and racial spectrum is, frankly, appalling.

While we applaud programs such as Pluralism in Action, social awareness needs to be a year-round effort, not just a two-hour session at the beginning of the college experience. At the very least, a diversity requirement needs to be implemented in the undergraduate curriculum to provide an all-encompassing net to ensure that every Georgetown student is guaranteed the opportunity to connect with an experience that previously may have run invisibly parallel to their own.

We are owed a dialogue about race and class in a more formalized setting than anonymous Facebook posts. Georgetown students come from a rich variety of backgrounds, and to neglect this aspect of our education is to cheat us in truly achieving the goal of cura personalis.

FRANKENFOOD

The Hill protects Monsanto, undermines justice Last Tuesday, President Obama signed HR 933 into law with little fanfare. A continuing resolution designed to provide stopgap funding to the government for the next six months, the spending bill represented Washington’s continued inability to carry out the most basic functions of government.

Yet the ostensibly irreconcilable parties did manage to agree on one thing: included in the bill was a provision that protects biotech companies in the event that their genetically engineered (GE) crops are found to be harmful. The provision, dubbed the Monsanto Protection Act after the leading producer of GE seeds, is an unjust piece of legislation.

Much remains unknown about the longterm effects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the arguable success they have had in improving global food availability is not grounds to grant legal immunity to companies producing them.

The text of the Monsanto Protection Act would prevent courts from blocking the plant-

ing of GE crops even if evidence suggests that such foods are detrimental to human health or the environment. Judicial oversight is a crucial part of the checks and balances that protect Americans from harm at the hands of their own government and the special interests that collude with it. By leaving federal judges powerless, the Monsanto Protection Act weakens our democracy and leaves farmers, consumers, and the environment at great risk of abuse.

Corporate giant Monsanto, which dominates the global GMO industry and possesses a massive stake in the U.S. agricultural-industrial complex, argues that the text will allow farmers to grow their crops and not face arbitrary delays from litigation brought by opponents of genetic modification. The company points out that GE products would still be subject to a regulatory review process, but the reality is that this provision undermines an already insufficient review and approval process for GMOs. Perhaps more distressing than the text of the provision is the manner in which it was

approved by both houses of Congress and the president. Despite vocal opposition from constituents and food safety advocacy organizations, the provision was included in the spending bill and passed without a full hearing.

Given Congress’s inability to pass a real budget, the spending bill was necessary to allow the government to function until fiscal year 2014, but this was no excuse for legislators to rubber stamp sweeping protections for interests contrary to those of the American people.

It is disappointing that political leaders acted so unquestioningly to further the interests of large agricultural corporations, even as they fail to make any progress in addressing the concerns of average Americans. Though it will last only six months—provided that civil society prevents its inclusion in the government’s FY 2014 budget—the Monsanto Protection Act represents a threat to public health and safety. But more importantly, it underscores the continued cynicism and compromised integrity of our political leaders.

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april 4, 2013

Future operator of Jack’s Boathouse nearly finalized

by Ryan Greene After months of dispute and controversy, the legal battle between Jack’s Boathouse and the National Park Service has come to an end. Jack’s Boathouse will be replaced by a similar business, Boating in Boston, by the end of April.

Jack’s owner Paul Simkin, despite his opposition to the NPS up to this point, is satisfied with this result.

When the NPS declined to renew the lease for Jack’s Boathouse in January and began looking for a suitable replacement for the decades-old boathouse Simkin filed separate lawsuits against the agency, and the District of Columbia. The NPS required Simkin to reapply for the property because his name was not on the lease, but that of his nowdeceased business partner.

Simkin posited a list of legal claims, stating that the NPS had no legal right to terminate his business.

He also alleged the NPS was colluding with Guest Services, which runs the refreshment services on the National Mall, behind the scenes to wrest Jack’s away from him and grant Guest Services the lease.

Last week the court dismissed Simkin’s lawsuit against the District, but a judge ruled that Simkin has sufficient ground to take the NPS to trial. Simkin, however, revealed that he may not do so.

“The court did say that we did, in fact, have a case that should go to trial,” Simkin said.

“Whether or not I’m going to do that, I don’t know yet.”

To Simkin, the lawsuit against the city was never important and was filed out of legal necessity.

“For legal reasons, we had to bring [the District] into that lawsuit, in order for us to proceed against the park service,” Simkin said. “This was just a legal thing and I think the city understood that.”

Simkin believes that the NPS’s selection of Boating in Boston as the replacement for Jack’s is a direct result of his fight against the NPS. Boating in Boston runs six boating locations in Mass, two of which are very similar to Jack’s, and Simkin views it as an appropriate successor to Jack’s.

“Our main objection to everything [the NPS was doing] was that we didn’t want a corporate

boathouse or a huge, collegiate boathouse there, and both of those were in the offing,” Simkin said. “Our involvement here clearly made that impossible.”

Boating in Boston’s small size and attitude toward boating made it a much more preferable replacement to Simkin than a large concessioner like Guest Services. “[Boating in Boston] is a company that is very, very similar [to Jack’s] in the way they do business and the way they feel about the water,” Simkin said. “I’m working with them to take over [Jack’s] assets.”

Simkins suggested that Guest Services would have temporar-

ily taken over the boat house and eventually turned it over to Georgetown. “I think this blocked that from happening,” said Simkin.

President of Boating in Boston Michael Aghajanian echoed Simkin’s spirit of cooperation and optimism. “We have a friendly, cordial relationship back and forth with [Simkin],” Aghajanian said.

“Until the National Park Service tells us that we’re clear to operate, we’re not getting involved with anything between him and the National Park Service.”

Boating in Boston has even relieved Simkin’s past worries about what will happen to his

Miles Gavin meng

Boating in Boston will most likely replace Jack’s Boathouse on the waterfront.

workers in the event that Jack’s loses or drops the legal battle against the Park Service. “The best news of all is that they have agreed to truly consider using all of the staff that’s been working at Jack’s, so that’s incredibly good news,” Simkin said.

Despite the standing lawsuit, Boating in Boston is expected to take over their new operation in the next few weeks. However there seems to be confusion between the NPS and Simkin as to the exact date. According to Jeffrey Olson, public affairs officer at the NPS, Boating in Boston is scheduled to begin operating this Monday. Meanwhile, Simkin estimated the new owners will be up and running by April 15.

While the 70-year legacy of Jack’s Boathouse is coming to an end, Simkin himself is genuinely excited about the site’s future. “I want absolutely everyone who’s been a customer of Jack’s to come to this new place because that carries on the tradition,” he said. “Finally, after months and months, I’m able to get a good night’s sleep.”

With a month left GUSA focuses on allocation reform, sexual assault

by Laura Kurek Though just over a month remains in the school year, Georgetown University Student Association hopes to accomplish several objectives before the semester’s end.

The Finance and Appropriations Committee will discuss improvements for its allocation process, the Intellectual Life Committee will host events for iWeek, and the Ways and Means Committee will introduce legislation concerning sexual assault education on campus.

Newly elected Speaker George Spyropoulos (COL ‘14) and Vice Speaker Sam Greco (SFS ‘15) seek to increase the productivity of the senate following the lull during election season.

“My top priority is to bring the senate back on track. We had a very productive first semester, but we just went through a transitional period which inadvertently slowed our progress,” Spyropoulos said. “I believe though there’s still a lot that we can accomplish if we pick up the pace.”

Greco, as Vice Speaker and chair of Ways and Means, intends to facilitate access to resources for the senators and their initiatives. Both

Speaker and Vice Speaker stress the importance of cooperation between Senate and Executive.

“In past years, the senate and the Executive had been almost entirely disconnected and I would like to change that. President [Nate] Tisa (SFS ‘14) and I have set up weekly meetings to discuss ways in which our student government branches can cooperate,” Spyropoulos said.

Additionally, FinApp wishes to further fine tune tuition allocation to advisory boards, including the Student Activities Commission, the Advisory Board for Club Sports, and the Performing Arts Advisory Council.

“Student Affairs has a system for allocating tuition dollars every year, and frankly it’s pretty arbitrary.

This year SAC received $156,607, whereas Club Sports, which wasn’t created until 2000, received $7,000, which pales in comparison,” said former FinApp Chair Sheila Walsh (COL ‘14). “Engaging in discussion with Dr. Olsen’s office and evaluating tuition allocation, that’s going to be something on FinApp’s shortterm agenda.” The funds coming from tuition are separate from student activity fee funds.

FinApp is also responsible for allocating the money from the student activity fee paid yearly by all undergrads with the aim of distributing the funds to programs that broadly affect the student body A new issue for FinApp to address this year is the precedent set by Campus Ministry, as it applied for the first time to the Budget Summit on behalf of eight student groups as if it were a student advisory board. These groups included the Jewish Students Association and the Muslim Student Association, along with other religious student associations.

At the beginning of the school year, Campus Ministry loosely used the term advisory board to describe itself. GUSA, however, defines this term as a student-led board that elects their members, but Campus Ministry is a part of the Office of Mission and Ministry, and is headed by Father Kevin O’Brien, S.J.—a Jesuit, not a student. While the eight campus ministry groups ultimately received funding from student activity fees, Walsh urges continued dialogue with Campus Ministry to further explore if an actual advisory board model is a feasible and desired option.

“Campus Ministry’s application set off a red flag. We have to be cautious, as we don’t want to allocate directly to a University department,” said Walsh.

“Although FinApp allocated to those eight campus ministry groups, by no means are future FinApps obligated to do so.”

The Intellectual Life Committee will end the year by hosting two events for Georgetown’s International Week, April 15-20.

The first event, the Global Affairs Essay Competition, kicks off the week’s celebrations and invites the student body to write a 500-word essay on a technological advancement and its effect globally. “iWeek is a celebration of Georgetown’s unique culture and living globally-minded. Using GUSA as an outlet, this is an opportunity to collaborate with the Office of International Programs, which organizes iWeek,” said Intellectual Life Chair Shweta Wahal (SFS ‘16).

The Subcommittee on the Arts will be arranging the second GUSA event for iWeek, an art gallery in the ICC Galleria.

The subcommittee was formed earlier this year in response to the lack of art visibility on cam-

pus, which is usually confined to the Walsh Building.

“This gallery was our first project to increase visibility of the arts, and in this case the visual arts, on campus. We look forward to showcasing the artwork of Georgetown students on a central location on campus,” said subcommittee chair Elizabeth Oh (SFS ‘15).

Perhaps most importantly, Sens. Robert Shepherd (MSB ‘15) and Pat Spagnuolo (SFS ‘14) will introduce a bill to the senate floor this Sunday addressing the lack of sexual assault education on campus.

The bill will require all GUSA senators to undergo Sexual Assault Peer Education administered by trained professionals. The bill also requests senators who are campus leaders in other organizations to spearhead similar education initiatives.

“The impetus for the bill is the lack of education about sexual assault on campus. It was a major focal point of Nate and Adam [Ramadan]’s (SFS ‘14) campaign, so Rob Shepherd and I wanted to take it up in the senate,” said Spagnuolo. “The process of education has to happen as soon as possible, so the culture of Georgetown can be changed for the better.”

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Faculty submit ITEL proposals, decisions expected by May

by Matt Weinmann Last Thursday, March 28, faculty members submitted 42 final grant proposals for the Initiative on Technology-Enhanced Learning, with some proposals aimed at this upcoming fall semester and others as the foundations of massive, open online courses.

A working group of faculty, administrators, and students will now review the proposals to allocate funds. ITEL was launched in December as an $8 million initiative to allocate grants over three years, and although it seems to many students that Georgetown has barely developed an adequate technology infrastructure, ITEL aims to bring the University to the cutting edge of online learning.

55 preliminary proposals were submitted, in mid-February with the intention of being an easy point of entry, according to Randall Bass, associate provost and executive director of the Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship.

“We wanted people who maybe thought they had an idea to have a low-risk way of throwing their hat in the ring,” said Bass. “For us, the twostage process worked perfectly.”

COURTesY GeORGeTOWn UniveRsiTY

Pres. Jack DeGioia and Harvard Pres. Drew Faust announced edX in December.

According to Bass, the proposals cover a large range of topics, though he declined to give specifics about any proposals.

“The three largest areas where we saw proposals were from the medical center; from international relations, government, public policy; and a significant number from the languages,” Bass said.

“The rest were distributed broadly, but lots from the humanities, lots from the sciences.”

A common theme across proposals was “flipping the classroom,” a new teaching style that introduces new content outside of the classroom. “[We want to start] moving lecture content online, [with] some

A poisoned relationship

Last Friday, Empower DC, a local community advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia challenging the city’s plans to close 15 schools in predominantly minority neighborhoods.

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson says the closures are due to under-enrolled schools—some of them utilizing less than half their available building space as overall DCPS enrollment has dropped and students have moved to charters and other schools in more affluent parts of the city. Henderson says consolidating the students into fewer schools will save $8.5 million, allowing the funds to be reallocated to special education, art, music, and the like.

Empower DC contests the numbers, pointing to a recent audit of the 24 closures under then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee in 2008 that found the decision ended up costing DCPS millions. Another analysis from the D.C. Fiscal Policy institute claims the closures slated for next year will cost $10.2 million, but doesn’t extend their study beyond

2014, when DCPS expects the most savings. Empower DC also accuses the District of racial discrimination, saying the closures will affect only two white students while displacing thousands of minority pupils.

To be honest, given the dueling economic analyses it’s difficult for me to ascertain if the closures are a good idea financially. But, there’s a more fundamental question festering underneath the rhetoric of each side, and it has to do with how DCPS makes policy.

Back during the first round of closures under Rhee, DCPS had to deal with a similar upwelling of public contempt. There wasn’t a lawsuit filed, but Rhee was subjected to numerous openly hostile community meetings in the weeks after her proposal was leaked to The Washington Post. At that time, she made an especially poignant comment to PBS reporter John Merrow about her attitude toward the peeved parents: “People said, ‘Well, you didn’t listen to us.’ And I said, ‘No, I listened to you. I’m not running this District by consensus or by com-

kind of interactive assessments, so that the material would be available before class and as part of the architecture of the class,” Bass said. “[Now] class time could be spent doing much more interactive things.”

Several proposals focus on what Bass referred to as “gateway” courses. “That first course that is an introduction to the major, [we] see that course as a course that’s really worthy of a lot of collaborative work,” said Bass.

“People were really creative and I think it speaks a lot about what professors really want in their classrooms and it shows the Georgetown community is really thinking about this,” said Tyler Sax (COL ‘13), the undermittee. We’re not running this school district through the democratic process.’”

That statement, more than any other, depicts how a large segment of the public views the DCPS decisionmaking process, both then and now. A principal complaint of many parents during both rounds of closures was

City on a Hill

by Gavin Bade

A bi-weekly column about the District that they—the affected parties— were almost completely disconnected from the policy making process. Things were being done to them, not with them, and in a realm as personal as education, that distinction breeds contempt.

This autocratic approach is often how government agencies work, but DCPS will tell you they’re different. During and after Rhee’s tenure, the chancellor and her staff have tried to include community organizations in their governance, meeting with the Education Councils of each ward, a number of PTAs, and even some

graduate member on the ITEL working group.

A significant number of proposals were collaborative between faculty members and across departments.

“We had so many proposals that came in with anywhere from two or three to 10 or 12 faculty involved— faculty across departments, faculty who don’t normally create curricula together, trying to re-imagine what an interdisciplinary approach to a course would look like,” Bass said.

Some proposals were aimed at developing MOOCs to go onto the edX platform Georgetown joined in December. EdX is an online consortium between Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, the University of Texas, and the University of California ,Berkeley that is creating a free online learning system open to all.

“Over the next two or three weeks we will be selecting through both the review process and a broader strategy process which courses will be the first courses we develop to put up in the edX space,” Bass said. The proposals will go through the same review process, but funds for edX courses are separate from ITEL. Sax has spoken to students who have expressed reserva-

everyday residents in their living rooms. But still, the affected communities say they have no voice, that the policy for the closures was made within the bubble of the D.C. political class.

DCPS is adamant they take community input into account when crafting policy, but if you listen to the soon-to-be displaced kids and their parents, the district still embodies Rhee’s statement.

They’re either ignoring the input from the community, or they’re talking to local officials and parents as woefully disconnected from the public sentiment as they are.

Without a doubt, some things were different in 2008, and Henderson’s office rolled out her proposal more judiciously than was possible five years ago. Most notably, she allowed schools to submit alternatives to closure— accepting five of them, mostly from more affluent schools. But this hasn’t been enough to placate a large swath of parents who aren’t convinced DCPS has their interests at heart, and that suspicion will remain until the families the policies affect are actually listened to from the beginning.

tions about edX and the development of online courses.

“More often than not, [students’] vision is a world where people are taking classes on YouTube and that’s it,” said Sax. “But it’s important to realize this is as much a conversation about about pedagogy and the way we teach people as it is about technology and the internet.”

To Sax, ITEL and edX are about keeping Georgetown on the edge of technology. “The university model is changing under our feet and we’re fortunate to be at a place that’s ahead of the curve,” he said.

Although some proposals will involve several years of development, others will have immediate impact. “I would say many [proposals] would be in action in the fall, even if it’s to test something that would then be revised and reviewed,” Bass said.

With such a broad range of experimental proposals, the innovation is likely to continue to grow.

“What excites me is that this is such a concerted effort moving in the same direction at the same time.”

The working group will announce its final decisions in the last week of April and funding will begin May 1.

No one’s arguing for a return to a traditional school board to foster more democracy in DCPS, but Henderson and her staff must change something in their approach to governance, and quick.

The last round of closings precipitated an exodus of students from DCPS to charters around the city, and it’s easy to see why. Charters govern themselves almost autonomously, so a parent only needs to worry about dealing with the school’s individual principal, staff, and teachers, a far cry from the faceless bureaucrats in DCPS Central Office.

At its core, this is an issue of trust. If DCPS families aren’t legitimately brought into the policymaking process on every possible issue, they will quickly grow suspicious of the tough decisions, questioning whether or not these people actually care about their children first. That will make them leave in droves, to charters, private schools, or simply out of the city. And that, more than any lawsuit, predicates the death of a school district.

Shut Gavin down at gbade@ georgetownvoice.com.

sports

6 the georgetown voice

april 4, 2013

Men’s lacrosse fails to tame Wildcats in fourth-quarter loss

by Joe Pollicino Coming off an exciting 1712 home win this past Friday against Marquette (2-5), the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (4-6, 1-1 Big East) lost 8-6 in disappointing fashion to Villanova (3-6, 2-0 Big East). Facing a 6-5 deficit after the third quarter, the Wildcats scored three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter that helped catapult them to victory.

The Hoyas struggled to contain Villanova’s freshman midfielder John Kluh, who burst on the scene for 3 goals and 1 assist, with 2 goals coming in the second half. Kluh’s speed and quick cuts created numerous problems for Georgetown’s defense.

Head Coach Kevin Warne had nothing but praise after the game for Kluh.

“He was awesome. He’s a really good lacrosse player,” said Warne. “For us, we wanted to put a short-stick on him and slide to him. I’m not sure we slid well. He got a couple of looks from about 10 yards out and he’s right-handed so he’s going to bury them. He’s been their most consistent and one of their best offensive players, especially in the past couple of weeks.

Senior attacker Travis Comeau and sophomore attacker Reilly O’Connor led the Hoyas with 2 goals apiece and sophomore goalkeeper Jake Haley kept the game close with 13 saves despite the Wildcats dominating offensively, outshooting the Hoyas 42-26.

“I thought Jake Haley was awesome tonight. Jake played great. I thought our defense finally came together and did all the right things. We are getting better,” said Warne.

After a goal by Villanova’s Kluh to start the first quarter, the Hoyas rattled off three goals in a

two-minute span, with Comeau, junior midfielder Zac Guy, and sophomore attack Bo Stafford all finding the back of the net. Villanova stifled the 3-goal run with a goal by junior midfielder Mark Jackson to end the first quarter.

Comeau scored the only goal of the quiet second quarter, and the Hoyas went into halftime with a 4-2 lead.

O’Connor opened up the second half by scoring for the Hoyas, netting his 16th goal of the season to give the Hoyas a 5-2 lead. The Wildcats quickly responded, however, scoring three consecutive goals to tie the game at 5. The Hoyas then regained the lead after another goal by O’Connor, giving them a 6-5 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The final quarter, however, was all Villanova. Kluh scored the game-tying goal and senior attack Nick Doherty netted the game-winner with 8:50 remaining. Villanova senior attacker Will Casertano provided an insurance goal with 2:31 left, which put the game out of reach for the Hoyas.

“I think you saw Villanova’s athleticism take over,” Warne said. “I think they caused a lot of turnovers. They’re a pretty athletic group. We knew that. They got the ball on the ground and we kind of fell into their hands.

We did have a couple of open looks. We didn’t really shoot the ball with authority or as hard as I would have liked to.”

The Hoyas were sloppy during parts of the game, marked by 20 turnovers and 5 penalties, allowing the Wildcats offense to control the game’s tempo.

“I think a lack of depth hurts a little bit. I think we got a little tired,” Warne said. “I would say, if you looked at their possessions and our possessions, I would say our possessions were a lot quicker than theirs. They

MILES GAVIN MENG

Zac Guy could only find the net once in the close contest against Villanova.

might have played offense for a minute and a half, and then our possessions were 30 seconds and there’s no shot clock right away. That kind of hurt us in the end.”

Despite Georgetown redshirt junior face-off specialist Tyler Knarr coming into the game ranked fourth in the country in

face-off win percentage at 65 percent, Villanova junior faceoff specialist Thomas Croonquist dominated the Hoyas, winning 10 of the game’s 17 face-offs.

“Coonquist is very good. He did a very good job,” Warne said.

“We tried to get our wings at it.

[Villanova] did a pretty good job of tying Tyler up. We just got to

pick up a couple more ground balls and those things will change pretty quickly.”

The Hoyas now have to regroup and get ready for a tough test this Saturday when they travel north to Bethpage, N.Y. to take on No. 12 St. John’s (7-2, 2-1 Big East) in a crucial conference matchup.

the Sports Sermon “Last week,Woods texted Rory McIlroy: ‘Get your finger out of your a-- and win this week.’ Remind me: What charm school did he attend again?” -Rick Reilly on Tiger’s swag On top of the injuries and improving competition, the Yankees were in stalled contract negotiations with vital second baseman and slugger Robinson Cano. After rejecting a sizeable offer earlier in the year, Cano and former agent Scott Boras were on track to ride out the 2013 season straight into free agency, as is typical of Boras’s clients.

In free agency, the Yanks would have to compete with other high payroll teams for Cano’s talents, which could have very easily ended with Cano leaving the Bronx. When it seemed as if a crippling blow was to be dealt to the Yankees, the forces of Roc Nation arrived to fortify the trenches.

to continue its winning ways.

Having Boras out of the way The 2013 season was startand Jay-Z in his place will end ing to look pretty bleak for the up being a huge help for the New York Yankees: The Bronx Yankees.

Bombers set a new MLB record Cano has had a batting for highest opening day payaverage of over .300 each of roll at $230.4 million on Monthe last four seasons and has day and then went on to get hovered around 100 RBIs and convincingly handled by the 30 home runs. If the Yankees Boston Red Sox 8-2—not quite can rely on anyone to consisthe start you would expect out tently produce, it is Cano, and of the most valuable team in for that reason, management history. The woes do not stop must make absolute certain there, though, as their disabled they do not lose their second list could almost fill an All-Star baseman. team starting lineup.

Now with Jay-Z entering With the likes of Derek the picture, two things are Jeter, Phil Hughes, Mark fairly sure. The first is that the Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, rapper’s NY pride will keep and Alex Rodriguez (whose Robby in the Bronx and the $29 million per year contract second is that Robby actually alone is more than wants to stay in Pete Rose Central the entire payroll the Bronx.

Da bettin’ line of the Houston Many athletes Astros) all sitting with the skill and Dookies Margin Hoyas on the DL, Yankee success of Cano (underdogs) (duh!) fans have good rea- (favorites) would go to free son to be sweating agency and see Coach Rice Societal Norms which team is Rutgers as the season gets Marlins underway.

With willing to offer the Young’ins Nats a payroll breakhighest bid. It is Scoreboard Streakin’ Melo ing the $200 milsomewhat of a relion mark each of the last six On Tuesday, Jay-Z’s Roc lief to see that such a big name seasons, the Yankees do not Nation announced that it as Cano opted to fire the agent like to leave things to chance would be partnering with Cre- that would have brought him when it comes to building a ative Artists Agency (CAA) to market and sold him to the winning team.

Sports to sign its first client in highest contract. His switch But even spending nearly a Robinson Cano. The combina- to Jay-Z reveals that he wants quarter of a billion dollars on tion of major Yankee fan Jay-Z a deal with New York to get player salaries may not guaran- and CAA, known for landing inked and believes in the futee a playoff spot this year. The some hefty contract exten- ture of this team. top position in the AL East will sions, can almost guarantee Part of the decision was probably turn out to be more that Cano will remain in pin- definitely for publicity and of a battle this season, with the stripes. Although it may also I’m sure there will be some Baltimore Orioles returning a mean that the Yanks will be perks to being Jay-Z’s first athstrong roster along with prom- handing over another massive lete client, but no player who ising improvements from Bos- contract to Cano, the more im- wants teams fighting over him ton (as seen in the opener). The portant aspect to focus on is with untold amounts of cash talk of the league, though the the fact that New York needs risks leaving the agent that is Toronto Blue Jays, who made Cano, and needs him badly. known for getting teams to do huge moves in the off season With stars such as Jeter, just that. We are seeing some in signing pitchers Josh John- Rodriguez, Ichiro Suzuki, and commitment out of Cano by son, Mark Buehrle, and NL Cy Travis Hafner aging quickly, this new representation and Young winner R.A. Dickey, in the organization will have to maybe Yankee fans can now addition to Jose Reyes, Melky secure its younger centerpiec- find a bit solace in this time of Cabrera, and Maicer Izturis. es for years to come if it want uncertainty.

by Steven Criss

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Women’s lax looks for third Big East win #Natitude re-emerges in D.C.

by Maria Lappas It has been a fantastic start for the No. 9 Georgetown women’s lacrosse team. With an overall record of 7-2 and a conference record of 2-0 in the Big East, the team has been building steady momentum that will hopefully lead to a conference championship. The outstanding display of teamwork in the previous games has been a positive factor in the success of the Hoyas, especially on the defensive end, as highlighted by sophomore defender Adrianne Devine.

“We’ve only lost two games and I think we have a really good close-knit group of girls, and that’s really what’s been a positive on the season,” Devine said.

Working on their communication and continuously improving their overall gameplay, the defense hopes to stop any sort of advances in transition by future

opponents. Playing together as a cohesive unit, however, is one of the fundamentals that have been stressed the most in practice.

Offensively, the Hoyas could not be characterized as anything short of explosive. With the efforts of sophomore attacker Caroline Tarzian, the Hoyas have been aggressive on the offensive charge and thus have secured high-scoring victories, notably their 21-3 win against Louisville.

Scoring a total of 9 goals over the past two games against Cincinnati and Louisville, Tarzian has demonstrated her overwhelming talent and has invaluable to the consecutive wins. Last week, she was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll for the third time this season.

“Honestly, every single time it’s a surprise because there’s a ton of really good players in our conference so it’s a really great honor,” Tarzian humbly said.

MILES GAVIN MENG

Caroline Tarzian’s dominant offense landed her on the Big East Weekly Honor Roll.

Gyms are the new sweatshops

I did a little bit of a double take on the Rutgers news this week. My initial reaction to reports of men’s basketball coach Mike Rice’s verbal and physical abuse of his players was pretty nonchalant; “Tough love,” I thought.

Then I saw the video. Fiery passion is one thing, but Rice’s callous disregard for his players as humans needed to be addressed.

It certainly was with his dismissal from the program on Wednesday, but the decision comes about eight months too late.

It was a cover-up that dates back to July of last year, when athletic director Tim Pernetti was first presented with the possibility of such abuse against his student athletes.

The video is no revelation for Pernetti. He received the video on Nov. 26, months after a former employee described the abusive behavior to him. In it, Rice aims basketballs at his players, shoves, grabs, and kicks them, and tosses vile and homophobic language at them.

The only reason Rice is gone now is because the public got a hold of the video. At the time, Pernetti did not deem the incident worthy of termination, instead opting to suspend Rice for three games, fining him $50,000, and ordering him to attend anger management classes.

I’ll go ahead and deem that a cover-up. It’s similar to other scandals we’ve been faced with, Penn State’s child abuse case at the hands of Jerry Sandusky sitting at the forefront.

These cover-ups tend to exacerbate the problem. Although Penn State was much more shocking and tragic in its nature, the scandal that rocked Happy Valley could have been lessened if someone in the university’s administration had taken some more initiative. Instead, a coverup that trickled down to the late, formerly venerable patriarch of Penn State football—Joe Paterno— completely uprooted a once-proud athletics program.

Currently undefeated in the Big East, the Hoyas look to continue this streak with an additional win against the No. 15 Loyola Greyhounds (5-5, 2-0 Big East) in Baltimore. After a heartbreaking 15-14 overtime loss against the Greyhounds last year, the Hoyas hope to answer that defeat with a resounding victory this season.

The Greyhounds have also had previous matchups with both Cincinnati and Louisville this season and notched similar commanding victories.

“We want to make sure that we have the focus on how we’re playing and what we’re doing,” said Head Coach Ricky Fried. “We should have plenty confidence right now being 7-2 and having some of the wins that we’ve had against ranked opponents and quality teams. We want to make sure that we maintain that.”

By paying attention to the details during practice, the Hoyas hope to improve their .475 shooting percentage and gain the competitive edge against the Greyhounds.

“We’ve had a little bit of a break so we should go in fresh, excited, and hungry,” said Fried.

“And if we do that, it’ll bode very well for us.”

With aspiring sights set at receiving a bid for the NCAA tournament, the team is taking it one day at a time with six games left in conference play. The Hoyas look to continue their impressive start with another Big East win on Saturday at noon.

Rutgers is similar in that negligence delayed the proper dismissal of Rice back when this issue first surfaced. For that, I’ll agree with the consensus that Pernetti needs to be held accountable and similarly dismissed for his culpability.

From a basketball perspective (clearly, the least important aspect of this scandal), the firing may

Double-Teamed

by Kevin Joseph A bi-weekly column about sports

have been a blessing in disguise for a Rutgers program headed to the Big Ten after this season. He’s not that great of a coach. Rice took a Robert Morris team to the first round of the NCAA Tournament twice and parlayed it into the head coaching gig at Rutgers in 2010. Since that time, the Scarlet Knights have failed to finish better than 11th in the conference while featuring an embarrassing attrition rate of key players. Given this video, it’s no wonder the

by Chris Almeida After Robert Griffin III’s knee buckled under the weight of the city’s expectations, Georgetown students eager to get into D.C. sports were left with only the underachievers who play in the Verizon Center. Baseball fever, however, has made its way through the city. Two years ago, the Nationals were a sub-500 team, and three years ago, they barely fended off a 100-loss season. Then, it was 2012, and things snapped into place.

The Nats were winning, and with the wins came an unprecedented wave of excitement in the nation’s capital. Ace Stephen Strasburg was back, Gio Gonzalez joined the pitching squad, the Jayson Werth signing panned out, and Bryce Harper had come up to the majors a few years early and lived up to all the hype.

ESPN had never given Washington sports more than a 30-second spot on Sports Center, but suddenly they were caught in the middle of a love affair with Harper. Baseball Tonight was drooling over the rotation that, at one point in time, had the league leader in strikeouts, ERA, and wins. Suddenly, Ryan Zimmerman was back in form and the lineup that had struggled year after year had turned into a group that could hit from top to bottom.

The Nationals finished the regular season with 98 wins, the best record in the MLB. Though the season ended with disap-

number of transfers was not even higher than the four wise souls that left the program for greener pastures.

The reverberations will ultimately affect Pernetti, as they should. Even if the schools’ higher-ups are pleased with his move to send Rutgers to the Big Ten, this outweighs it. This was a mistake on his part, and a preventable one at that.

This week, people are pointing to the gruesome injury to Kevin Ware as an example of the NCAA taking advantage of its student athletes. Coaches are making millions, athletic directors hundreds of thousands, and the schools themselves benefit greatly from the revenues. But the actual players are put in jeopardy and it’s not simply a monetary matter anymore.

Rather, this type of physical and verbal abuse is jarring. It is exploitation in its own right, with players having no leverage against their highly paid coaches. If a Rutgers player wanted to keep his scholarship, gain exposure to pro-

pointment, a blown save in game five of the NLDS against St. Louis, the 2012 level of success was unprecedented in the recent history of the nation’s capital.

Preparation for the 2013 season began with the retention of Gold Glove first baseman Adam LaRoche as well as the signings of outfielder Denard Span, starting pitcher Dan Haren, and closer Rafael Soriano. After being held to an inning count that ended his play before the postseason, Strasburg is now uncapped and ready to bring his white-hot fastball into October.

Opening day at Nats Park was Monday, and the show put on did not disappoint. After a presentation of the Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers as well as the Manager and Rookie of the Year trophies, the Nationals went out in front of the sellout crowd and defeated the Miami Marlins 2-0. The matchup featured seven shutout innings from Strasburg.

However, the story of the game was Harper, who is feeling the pressure of great expectations.

Harper hit a solo home run on the second pitch he saw, and then followed it up with another solo bomb on his second at-bat.

While the season is still young, the Nationals are poised to make a run at Washington’s first professional sports title since 1991. So, that’s not the cherry blossoms that smell so sweet this April—Natitude is in the air in D.C.

fessional scouts, and get his education, he sure as hell was not about to speak out against Rice.

The rules, simply put, are different for people in power. Take Florida Gulf Coast University coach Andy Enfield as an example.

By no means did he do anything wrong, as he bolted for 10 times the salary at USC. He can do so right away without any repercussions. Then turn to former Scarlet Knight Gilvydas Biruta, who transferred to Rhode Island before last season. Britua had to sit out a year, even if his reasoning was an abusive coach.

This incident in particular falls on a poor hierarchy at Rutgers. As an athletic director at a major university, Pernetti failed to look out for the student-athletes’ best interests. It’s a disturbing trend that’s all too familiar to the exploited student athletes.

Firing Rice and Pernetti would be a good start, but it’s far from a permanent solution.

See how Kevin would manage at kjoseph@georgetownvoice.com

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8 the georgetown voice

april 4, 2012

The Big ‘O’

cally, it is still unclear where Aramark purchases its other animal products from.

“We have a lot of buying power as a university, so we have the leverage to say to Aramark that we want them to do this more

Organic and local food in Georgetown and D.C.

Greg Glenn wakes every morning amidst the sounds of restless cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens. He is hard at work by sunrise and spends the next four hours moving the livestock on to new areas of grassland. He rotates the animals from pasture to pasture every day with the purpose of maintaining fertile soil.

Glenn, in his late twenties, rarely stops working until after sunset. He says that what he does “is less of a job and more of a lifestyle.”

Glenn is the owner of Rocklands Farm, a 34-acre property in Poolesville dedicated to environmentally-friendly agriculture and livestock. Growing 30 to 40 varieties of vegetables and fruit and raising four different types of livestock, the farm is run by only two full-time staffers: Greg and his wife, Anna. With the start of the gardening season in mid-March, the couple is joined by their friends, Joel and Megan Barr.

many as our shelves can hold (550 to 600) and we sell out.”

Likewise, the success of the GUFM in the Georgetown community has allowed it to expand from its initial six

By Lucia He

dards, but has not been verified due to high certification costs.

But, unlike Glenn’s regular consumers—and, until recently, Georgetown students—few households in the U.S. have the privilege of locally-sourced and organic food, much less visit the farm where the food was produced or interact with the farmers themselves. According to the Economic Research Service Report conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, direct-to-consumer sales in the country accounted for only 0.4 percent of total agricultural sales in 2007.

Nevertheless, food consumption patterns in the U.S., especially in higher-income households, have shown a positive shift toward locally-grown and organic food.

Dialogue surrounding the ethics of animal treatment and the impact food production has on the environment has increased, while stores such as Whole Foods, which embraces a moderately green identity, are increasingly

JULIA TANAKA

Lambs lounge on Rocklands Farm pastures. Rocklands Farm rotates its animals to fresh grass daily.

Every Saturday, Rocklands Farm opens its doors to families who come to purchase fresh produce, tour the property, and enjoy homemade meals cooked by Glenn himself.

“We wanted to have a market here because we want people to come to the farm to meet us, to see the farm, see where their food came from, and to see the animals and production,” said Glenn.

All animals at Rocklands Farm are pasture-raised. Their produce is noncertified organic, a classification certain producers choose when they believe their produce meets the national organic stan-

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georgetownvoice.com

in vogue. According to a study conducted by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, conventional food distribution uses 4 to 17 times more fuel and emits 5 to 17 more CO2 emissions than the local systems. In addition, according to the New Economics Foundation, a think tank based in London, local purchases “are twice as efficient in terms of keeping the local economy alive.”

Accompanying this trend is the increasing number of farmers’ markets in the country. According to the USDA, the number of farmers’ markets in the

U.S. has increased by 448 percent in the last 18 years, from 1,755 in 1994 to 7,864 in 2012. About 30 of these are located in Washington, D.C.

For years, Georgetown students’ access to locally-grown food was limited to Whole Foods and the Glover Park Farmers’ Market. But with the establishment of the Georgetown Farmers’ Market in the spring of 2011, a variety of vendors from within a 200-mile radius, the conventional definition of “local,” have been attracted to the opportunities selling produce on a university campus provides. Likewise, students have benefited from the presence of sustainable food on campus.

“Farmers’ markets provide an educational experience and a social justice experience in that they show people how important it is to understand where their food comes from and recognize who and what goes into that,” said Alexa Cotcamp (MSB ’15), the Executive Market Director for the Georgetown University Farmers Market.

Breanna Donald (NHS ’12), one of the co-founders of the GUFM, agrees. “One thing that is unique about the farmers’ market is that it’s one of the only places where you can have a conversation with the people who are actually producing your food.”

According to a report carried out by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2007, although the definite nutritional benefits of consuming local still depend on a variety of factors, foods that spend significant time on the road lose more nutrients before reaching the marketplace. Additionally, local producers tend not to harvest with industrial machinery, allowing their produce to retain further nutrients.

“Most of the produce that Leo’s gets ... was shipped transnationally ... or from Central American countries,” said Donald. “There is a nutritional difference between consuming locally and organically-grown produce versus transnational produce.”

According to Kendra Boyer, the marketing manager for Aramark, the provider of Georgetown’s dining services, initiative has been taken recently to provide students and other community members with sustainable food options.

“We aim to source as much food as we can locally and within the region when available. This varies depending on the quantity of product needed to serve the campus and seasonal availability,” said Boyer.

Indeed, many of the fruits and vegetables offered at Leo’s come from farms that are located within a 250-mile radius of the University.

Leo’s purchases over 50 different types of produce from its local produce distributor, the Keany Produce Company. These products range from arugula and basil, to apples and peaches.

However, as soon as certain fruits and vegetables go out of season, produce is shipped from other parts of the country or the world to meet Georgetown’s yearly demand.

“It’s really important to realize ... that while you can get strawberries in December and apples in June, neither are going to be locally-sourced due to the season,” said Cotcamp. “It’s important to know that things ... are going to taste better if you pick them locally because on a greater scale there’s going to be less energy involved both mechanically and on a human basis.”

Even though Aramark does purchase some of its produce from local growers, it is still behind the curve of the national movement towards more sustainable food purchases by big institutions.

Santa Clara University, a fellow Jesuit school located in the Silicon Valley, offers its students a completely sustainable dining experience. Prioritizing buying food from within a 150-mile radius, Santa Clara offers its students free-range beef, cage-free eggs,

Glenn grows herbs in the greenhouse.

LUCIA HE

hormone-free milk, antibiotic-free chicken, and Fair Trade-certified coffee and tea.

Even though the milk provided at Georgetown’s dining hall is sourced lo-

GEORGETOWN VOICE

Georgetown students peruse goods at the Farmers’ Market every Wednesday. ethically, or buy from more local farmers or more local produce if they are going to continue serving our university and serving our needs and our mission,” said Victoria Ngare (SFS ’12), Community Outreach Chair of the GU Farmers Market.

While there is a widely held belief that switching to buying organic and locallygrown food will impose higher costs on consumers, this does not always hold true. With the rising price of oil, shipping produce from the West to the East Coast is no longer as costefficient as it used to be.

“When you look at buying broccoli local as opposed to buying it from the West coast, for example, the West Coast shippers are pretty much mass-producing, so their cost per case is pretty cheap, but they do have that fuel cost ... They are paying around $4,000 for a truck to get from California to Keany,” explained Mary Baran, Customer Relations Manager for Keany Produce Company.

In fact, when The Corp decided last fall to start purchasing its apples from Beechwood Orchards, one of the vendors at the GUFM, one of the main incentives was the cheaper price of buying the local apples against buying them from their previous non-local supplier.

“After talking with the farmer and talking with The Corp, I was able to figure out that we were going to be able to provide apples at a cost substantially lower than the one offered by our provider at the time, which wasn’t locally-sourced at all,” said Cotcamp, who is also the Middle Manager of Digital Media for The Corp.

According to the former produce purchaser for The Corp, Dana Mitchell (MSB ’15), customer reaction to the switch into locally grown apples has been positive so far.

“Our customers have certainly noticed and we have seen greater demand for apples during warmer months when the farmers’ market apples are available,” wrote Mitchell in an email to the Voice. “Usually I purchase anywhere from 400 to 500 apples per week, [but] with farmers’ market apples I buy as

vendors to its current seventeen to eighteen weekly vendors.

“Pricing is a concern, but people do want to consume fresh fruit and vegetables and are willing to pay a ... higher price out of the convenience of being able to pick it up at the farmers’ market on campus versus walking all the way to Safeway,” said Donald.

The purchasing power of the Georgetown community, however, is far from representative of that of D.C., much less the rest of the country. Of the many farmers’ markets in the city, most are condensed in the Northwest and Southwest areas, where the most affluent neighborhoods are located.

Unlike Georgetown students, not all households are within walking distance of a supermarket. According to a report conducted by the USDA in 2009, 5.4 percent of all households in the U.S. live more than half a mile away from a supermarket and do not have access to a vehicle, in a “food desert” with limited transportation to get out. This accounts for a total of 5.7 million households in the country. In D.C., 18,000 residents live in such areas, which are all located in Wards 5, 7 and 8.

“Food deserts are a very unfortunate situation. There are places that don’t have food; they just have 7-Eleven stores, potato chips, microwave hot dogs, and sugar water. That’s what people are eating,” said Glenn.

The lack of accessibility to grocery stores makes it even harder to argue for the proliferation of more locally-grown products. However, several organizations around the country have been working for the last couple of years to make locally-grown food more accessible to people both financially and geographically.

Arcadia is a D.C. nonprofit organization established in 2010 that aims to create an equitable and sustainable local food system in the city. It runs a mobile market that delivers local, sustainably-produced food across the

District, catering to mostly low-income, underserved communities that do not have access to fresh and affordable food otherwise.

“We took a school bus, refurbished it, and set it up so that it can be used to haul vegetables, fruits, meat, and other items, and set up temporary market stops in different low-income neighborhoods in the area,” explained Matt Mulder, Director of Development and Communications for Arcadia.

“We conducted a study after our first year of running the mobile market, and we found out that, contrary to what a lot of other people had said before, there is a demand for locally-grown, sustainably-grown, fresh, nutritious food in these low-income communities, as long as it is available, accessible, and affordable,” said Mulder.

Arcadia accepts federal food assistance vouchers such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as Food Stamps), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant, Children, and the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program in order to maintain affordability. Arcadia also offers a “Bonus Bucks” program to double the purchasing power of these benefits. Every dollar spent on Arcadia food has twice the regular market value, and the organization absorbs the costs itself with its grant money. “[Bonus Bucks] makes it competitive with bigger grocery stores. If somebody comes and buys $20 worth of tomatoes for $10, that ends up being really competitive with what they might spend at a local supermarket,” said Mulder.

Another way D.C. organizations are tackling the problem of food access is through education, an approach that could potentially provide a long-term solution to the flaws in our food production and consumption patterns.

“If you don’t incorporate the education piece into the work we’re doing, we’re at risk of just becoming a fad,” said Karissa McCarthy, D.C. Greens’ Farm to School Program Coordinator. D.C. Greens is another local organization that works to help low-income District residents afford fresh, local produce. “The local food movement efforts across the country are saying that eating local is trendy. It’s important that we have this education piece that cultivates students and citizens who know why it’s important to eat local and support their local food economy, for both their bodily health and for the environment’s health.”

the georgetown voice 9 In recent years, the number of school gardens in D.C. has increased to 82, allowing students a hands-on experience in growing their own food. To Glenn, this is an essential step to take if we want to move toward a more sustainable food production system.

“You ask kids where a french fry or a chicken nugget comes from and they answer, ‘McDonalds.’ There’s a huge disconnect. Food no longer comes from an animal or the soil, but from a grocery store,” said Glenn.

Back at the farm, Glenn tosses a muddy tennis ball towards the barn for his excited dog to catch, as he contemplates the future of the food production system.

“It’s hard because our whole food system is set up in a certain way. It’s like we have a city full of buildings and roads; your whole infrastructure is there, so to create a whole different city is hard - you have to dig up all the roads and pull out all the pipes and restructure your city that exists in a certain way,” said Glenn.

However, Glenn believes that shifting the practices of big farms and institutions can potentially start changing the system in which our food is currently being produced.

“To really achieve things, the guys who have a million chickens or ten thousand cows, those are the guys that if you can try to convince to shift their production, I think they can really make a difference,” Glenn said. “If you convince them to shift their practices to be more and more organic, sustainable and humane, you are basically slicing a bigger piece of a pie.”

At a smaller scale, Glenn also believes that the day-to-day choices we make as consumers, such as choosing to shop at a farmers’ market or buying other local food, can help make a difference.

“People ask me almost every day if I really believe what we’re doing makes a difference,” said Cotcamp. “My response is yes. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who will tell you that shopping at an average grocery store offers the same food or experience. Grabbing a few apples at the farmers’ market may seem like a little thing. But all those little things add up to something bigger — maybe today or maybe not, but one day, they do.”

“There’s a lot of attempts for consumers in our country to understand food better, to demand a better food, and be better part of the system. It all starts with the consumer because producers supply what we demand …

I think there’s hope.”

The Rocklands greenhouse has been over-capacity for a number of years.

JULIA TANAKA

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

april 4, 2013

Spring Awakening shocks and awes in Poulton Hall

by Liana Mehring This weekend, sex and suicide will be simulated on a Georgetown stage. This is not a lurid hook to get you to spend $8 at Poulton Hall. It is a salute to our Jesuit University and its students for their creative and mature handling of the, at times, violent and shocking content of the musical Spring Awakening. The show is masterfully done and displays the full spectrum of Georgetown’s talent from the singing, to the staging, to the orchestration.

With eight Tony Awards to its name, Spring Awakening is the remarkable rock-musical adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s original 1891 play. Set in a provincial town in Imperial Germany, the musical explores the sexual awakening of teenage girls and boys within the context of their oppressive school system, church, and families. Sexual interest, ignorance, and frustration meet with social and religious repression to both humorous and tragic affect.

Melchior Gabor, played by John Roach (COL ‘13), is the headstrong and charismatic lead. An independent thinker among his peers who at 14 has renounced God and condemned his narrowminded society for having “no room for critical thought or interpretation,” Gabor undeniably anchors the story. Moreover, Roach gives a masterful performance with an equal measure of sensitivity and self-assurance.

Wendla Bergmann is a fierce and compassionate young girl who, despite her intelligence, dies a victim of personal and systemic

social ignorance. Olivia Duff (COL ’16) plays the part with a beautifully clear voice and high-energy earnestness. By the play’s end, her and Gabor’s romantic union will force their community to scrutinize the morality of its own inflexible ethics and reevaluate its practice of social and sexual oppression.

Andrew Walker (SFS ’16) gives another standout performance as Moritz Stiefel, Melchior’s friend and classmate. Walker, with wild hair and blood-shot eyes, animates Moritz with a desperate energy as he acutely suffers the shame and severity with which his school and family treat him. The audience follows these three deeply sympathetic characters along with the rest of the talented cast as they navigate issues of rape, child abuse, homosexuality, suicide, and abortion.

In keeping with the play’s bleak themes, the stage is minimally set.

The set, as producer Liz Robbins (MSB ’14) pointed out, is designed almost exclusively in brown tones and reflects the somber challenges faced by the young characters. It also captures the energy of their revolt, as multicolored lights flash across the stage whenever the characters break into song and express the full range of their suppressed thoughts, feelings, and desires.

The musical’s range and intensity of emotion is captured in its evocative score. The music is performed live and is exclusively Georgetown-produced with a pianist, bassist, violinist, and cellist. The entire orchestra and chorus do a superb job, leaving the audience wishing only that they could rock the black box with an even bigger sound. The decibel

MIleS gaVIN MeNg

“Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty!”

level does reach an intensity befitting of a rock musical however during the full-chorus rendition of “Totally Fucked.” With the entire cast on stage and channeling perhaps their worst midterm experiences, Robbins points to

“Totally Fucked” as her “favorite scene of the production.”

At the conclusion of this emotionally fraught two-hour drama you’d have to be an absolute stoic to not feel shaken and awoken to a new sense of self. The process

Sandberg leans in, falls short

“The blunt truth is that men still run the world.” Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead asserts that gender inequality in the workplace is rampant.

Sandberg’s book calls on you, women and men of Georgetown, to lean in—“be ambitious in any pursuit”—to combat this phenomenon.

Lean In is not a great piece of literature, by any means. It’s not really a feminist manifesto, either. With its political vernacular and clichéd prose, Lean In sounds like a motivational speech, and is in fact very similar to the 2010 TED talk Sandberg gave and references throughout the book (“Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders”).

Nevertheless, it is a timely redux of a pertinent and threatening issue. We at Georgetown may not expect sexism at the distinguished firms and revolutionary NGOs we will be lucky to work for. As Sandberg says, didn’t our mothers and grandmothers fight that battle for us?

Her answer is a resounding no. The most potent parts of Lean In come in the form of two case studies, proving our relaxed assumptions to be erroneous.

First, Columbia Business School Prof. Frank Flynn and New York University Prof.

Cameron Anderson polled MBA students on their impressions of a successful venture capitalist, giving half the class a résumé by a man (Howard), and half the same résumé by a woman (Heidi). Though the accomplishments and presentation were completely identical, student opinion was not. Howard was considered an impressive model while Heidi was “selfish” and “not the type of person you would want to hire or work for.” Successful women are less liked by both genders.

And for us students, Sandberg presents an example

closer to home: “A 2012 study found that when evaluating identical résumés for a lab manager position from a male student and a female student, scientists of both sexes gave better marks to the male applicant. Even though the students had the same qualifications and experience, the scientists deemed the female student less competent and offered her a lower starting salary.”

Stereotypes abound! Sandberg shows that even educated and open-minded people continue the cycle of sexism.

However, she offers little actual advice on how to change the system (she gives tips on how to wrangle a mentor and rather

Under the Covers

by Emilia Brahm a bi-weekly literary column bland negotiating techniques).

Lean In is not a how-to manual, but a call to action.

Lean In is one of the most talked-about books of the year—it has gotten innumerable comments, reviews, blog posts, and tweets; supportive, annoyed, dismissive, angry, and inspired. Ann Marie Slaughter ’s 2012 article in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” was almost as incendiary. The conversation about women and work thrives here at Georgetown as well, through many womanfocused events, empowerment clubs, and networking associations.

Sandberg’s book is a sound bite in a much grander dialogue playing out in all those venues. In fact, you don’t even need to read the whole thing, or much of it at all, to get the benefit. Sandberg hoped to spark conversation and consciousness in young and soon-to-be professionals like us. She succeeded due to her prominent position. I just

may challenge and even shock you. However, the musical is not meant to depress or defeat its audience. It encourages us instead to engage life with a degree of confidence and openness that we rarely afford ourselves.

hope that something finally comes out of this interminable discussion.

How many generally appealing calls to action does it take? Sandberg’s message is more optimistic than Slaughter’s—hers is more, “Why Women Kind Of Can Have It All But Look! There Are Still Some Obstacles” vs. Slaughter’s “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” But it is absolutely in the same vein, even though the authors differ. Both use anecdotes, scholarly research, and a motivational tone with a neatly packaged presentation.

Still, I was left wanting more. Sandberg is practical in her small-scale suggestions and grandiose in her large-scale hopes, but I see little connection between the two. Even Slaughter’s more intense and pragmatic piece offers little linkage between her articulation of the problem and her hopes for the future—she mentions urging women in her classes to speak up more frequently, but that’s about it.

I think that you and I, women and men of Georgetown hoping for a future in which gender equality is a reality, should be specific. Let’s do our best to speak up and act, to be the next Sheryl Sandberg, regardless of what field we enter. Her best advice is to be taken from her action. When books on women in the workplace become redundant, success has arrived. Until then, we have no excuse to be passive, or we will continue to face the ire of a flawed, stereotyping, sexist system. Reading Sandberg’s book isn’t revolutionary, but “leaning in” is. And at a school that prides itself on equality, on having the first female Secretary of State as a professor, I think we can be assured that as we face some battles, we are in good company.

Fight gender inequality in unisex superhero outfits with Emilia at ebrahm@georgetownvoice.com

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“Is this a thong? Is this a thong!? ” — National Security

the georgetown voice 11

Gosling spruces up Beyond the Pines Spring Sing is in the air

by John Buckley Ambition can sometimes be a dirty word, depending on its reach and underlying intentions. A riveting film following fatherhood and its generation-spanning consequences, The Place Beyond the Pines is certainly no stranger to aspiration. Though a narrative triptych that throws its net a little too wide, the latest film from Derek Cianfrance, the director of indie darling Blue Valentine, is nevertheless a rarity in its ability to touch on themes of novelistic proportions.

Introducing the story of mysterious motorcycle driver Luke (Ryan Gosling) as its central focus, the film explores issues of class and masculinity in the seedy backwater Schenectady, N.Y. When Luke discovers that he is a father as the result of a fling with diner waitress Romina

(Eva Mendes), he resorts to robbing banks to support his fledgling family. He must also deal with the child’s surrogate father and with rejection from Romina’s mother.

In the midst of all this, the audience is immersed in a derivative story involving the local police department and a rookie named Avery (Bradley Cooper) converted to corruption by detective Deluca (Ray Liotta). Avery is also a father ,and when he and Luke eventually cross paths, the consequences from the encounter linger, affecting even their children many years later.

The film keeps you guessing what will happen next, and when the big plot twists finally happen, it reaches a palpable level of depth.

Still, the film’s first act is where it truly shines. It’s when you feel the most empathy for the protagonists and are most engrossed in their tri-

IMDB

The crumbling family was tolerable, but the shortage of wings finally broke him.

als because, especially with Luke, that’s when they’re best demonstrated. There are no big fights between Luke and Romina about raising the child, no breakup scene or overly romanticized moment; melodrama is unnecessary in the face of raw emotion.

The acting is phenomenal as well, with Cooper giving his best performance, perhaps better than that in Silver Linings. Though it might seem like he is resigned to the dark side, he resists acting as a caricature by displaying complexity and ambivalence about his loyalties.

Gosling is as smooth, quiet, and reserved as ever, but, as with Drive, it suits his character well.

The Place Beyond the Pines is by far the best film to hit cinemas yet this year. If there is any criticism I have, it’s the unusual “humming” score of the movie that plays in some scenes, since it is hardly consistent with the film’s flow. The heavy use of shaky cam is also a cinematic cliché that is difficult to endure, though it makes the chase scenes visceral and energetic.

Though the film is not without its flaws, they are worth forgiving for the sake of its exquisite mood development and emotional layers.

A saga that would have benefited from narrowing its focus, its failures nevertheless seem to reflect those of the fathers it portrays—despite their best intentions, their human fallibility will always outlast them.

by Julia Lloyd-George As the Georgetown community gets pumped for Calvin Harris’s concert this Saturday, campus a cappella groups are gearing up for a performance of their own. Superfood will host the Spring Sing concert, featuring familiar groups like the GraceNotes, the Capitol Gs, and the Chimes, as well as esteemed national acts like Johns Hopkins University’s Vocal Chords and Brown University’s Jabberwocks.

The capstone of many a cappella concerts this year, including the D.C. A Cappella Festival and Cherry Tree Massacre, the Spring Sing will feature debut arrangements from every group.

“The concert specifically celebrates the spring season, and is recognized as the final large a cappella showcase on campus, making sure to recognize those seniors who will be performing in their final a cappella concert,” wrote Superfood President Christopher Pepe (COL ‘15) in an email to the Voice.

He noted the addition of the all-male Jabberwocks as a particular highlight of the concert, since they were recently named one of the top five best college a cappella groups in the country by USA Today.

“To make the concert especially exciting this year, we

decided to put extra effort into getting an amazing guest group,” Pepe added.

As for what Superfood itself has in store, he pointed to the group’s ability to bring a personal spin to every song.

“I would say that Superfood stands out in the way that we always strive to make a song our own with a unique interpretation,” he wrote. “Whether it be through a mash-up of two songs, an innovative arrangement by one of our musical directors, or a new take on the solo, we make sure to create a unique feel with every song we perform.”

Moreover, Superfood’s planned mix of old and new hits are designed to engage an audience with a wide range of musical interests.

“From older classics like ‘Always Be My Baby’ by Mariah Carey to recently released ‘Stay’ by Rihanna, our group has made sure to put together a diverse and exciting set that will appeal to all types of audiences, especially Georgetown students,” Pepe wrote.

Before you make your way over to McDonough for a night of DJ Calvin Harris’s catchy musical stylings, be sure to stop by Gaston for performances from both award-winning national groups and Georgetown’s own musical talent.

Outwin Boochever Competition breathes life into portraits

by Rio Djiwandana While the traditional notion of a “portrait” connotes the art of creating detailed personal representations, the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition takes the art of portraiture to entirely new levels.

The exhibit transforms portraits into powerful works that communicate themes of personal identity, cultural differences, and the fleeting nature of beauty—qualities the average Facebook profile picture simply cannot capture.

The 48 works on display at the National Portrait Gallery were carefully selected from 3,000 submissions. While the competition rules required artists to submit a portrait focusing on the human form, artists were free to interpret the concept of portraiture however they pleased.

For example, many of the portraits on display did not include faces, and I was thoroughly surprised to see that many were created unconventionally, using video, time-based media, and even DNA-based images, in addition to the typical paintings, drawings, and photography.

I was particularly shocked to find that the first- and second-place winners of the competition were actual videos, because this notion of portraiture was so different from the stationary artwork that I had initially envisioned.

In fact, the first place portrait, entitled “Jessica Wickham” by Bo Gehring, is a fiveminute video clip, in which a video camera hovers only a few inches away from Wickham as it captures every inch of her body, allowing us to explore and contemplate the personal

expressions that she has chosen to present to the world.

The second-place portrait, entitled “Buffalo Milk Yogurt” by Jennifer Levonian is a six-minute animated short in which a man suffers a nervous breakdown in the middle of an upscale supermarket while a naked woman practices yoga in a pumpkin patch, which is supposed to “depict people’s longings for something beyond their everyday lives.”

My favorite piece of the exhibit, however, was one of the more traditional portraits, entitled “Aki” by Rieko Fujinami.

The piece is a simple headshot in which the subject is staring off to the side with an expression of apparent discontent. The subject, Aki Narita, a popular Japanese underground artist who decided to choose the traditional Japanese lifestyle of marriage and domes-

ticity while continuing to work. In the portrait, Fujinami brilliantly captures Narita’s struggle between pursuing her own art and consenting to the restrictive social norms of Japanese society.

There’s no art connoisseurship required to have a profound emo-

tional response to pieces like Fujinami’s, which is what makes the exhibit such a must-see. Accessible and poignant, it reaches across the ambiguous divide that can often separate art from its viewer to reveal elements of humanity one might typically overlook.

National Portrait gallery

These Nordstrom mannequins forced loyal customers to flock to JCPenney.

leisure

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C r i t i c a l V o i ces

Wavves, Afraid of Heights, Mom & Pop Records We each cope with depression in our own way. For Wavves frontman Nathan Williams on the band’s fourth full-length release Afraid of Heights, it’s copious selfmedication, followed by suicidal meditation. Using ‘90s-era skate punk as a vehicle for self-loathing, Afraid of Heights is a wellconstructed dirge of an album, even if Williams hasn’t moved on thematically from where he was five years ago.

Opening with bouncing guitar strums and bells on “Sail to the Sun,” San Diego-based Williams starts the album paying tribute to the beach pop sounds of ‘60s California. Singing about love and sailing off into the sunset, things

feel almost quaint, reminiscent of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. But just like the proverbial wave, Williams’s lyrics never fail to crash down in introspective misery.

Though not quite Kurt Cobain, Williams marries feel-good punk sounds with nihilistic banter. It’s an odd union, but it works.

Weed and alcohol seem to be the only place Williams finds solace—he dedicated all of “Mystic” to the two substances—but the drug-laced content offers an ironic contrast to the sobering reality of Williams’s descent into suicidal self-destruction. Singing about “holding a gun to my head” and the desire to “put the knife in my brain,” it’s unclear whether substance abuse perpetuates or prevents his demise.

Musically, there’s no real high point to the album; standard garage punk abounds. But when Wavves attempts some clever songwriting, he succeeds. “Woke up and found Jesus / I think I must be drunk” Williams groans on the title track. When the buzz wears off by “Gimme a Knife,” Wavves feels betrayed. “I loved you Jesus / You raped the world / I feel defeated / Let’s all go surf.” Hard to argue with that.

Some ideas shine, some don’t

Reflecting on the recent “conspiracy theory” documentary chronicling interpretations of The Shining’s true meaning, The Atlantic’s Jason Bailey posed a salient question: can movies be solved?

A cryptic and haunting movie, The Shining asks more questions than it answers; on top of this, its famously elusive director Stanley Kubrick was known for his meticulous attention to detail and big picture thematic undertones. With these facts on the table, it becomes clear that The Shining may have an agenda beneath its horror movie veneer.

Room 237, the aforementioned documentary, explores the spectrum of Shining interpretations.

One theorist believes the film was set up as a nuanced apology to the injustices inflicted upon the Native American peoples. Another proposes a subtle nod to Kubrick’s complicity in the “staging” of the moon landing. The list of fanatical theories continues: the reversibility of the film’s plot, the Holocaust un-

dercurrents, and the less fanatical notions of displacement.

Bailey is concerned with the validity of these claims. Are they all equally preposterous? To answer this, one must consider Kubrick’s side of the story; he is, after all, the mastermind behind the film’s intricacies. As Kubrick was infamously quiet about the meaning of his films, attempts at gleaning facts from his statements are futile.

To oversimplify a bit, all we know about the guy are his perfectionist nature, erudite mind, and intentionally equivocal films (if you look up “mind fuck” in the dictionary, odds are 2001: A Space Odyssey will be prominently featured). His films are more than they appear— no doubt about that. It’s worth going to the film community to work out the tangles of Kubrick’s oeuvre.

But, seriously—moon landings? Was Kubrick out to tackle these subjects? They’re not even tangential to the plot. Does the “watching The Shining backwards”

The heights referenced in the album title refer to those moments of inebriation in which all problems seem to melt away. The fear, then, is that following every high, there’s a crash. Despite the talk of elevation, Afraid of Heights doesn’t really escalate; there’s no climax.

But maybe stability is the point.

Voice’s Choices: “Sail to the Sun,” “Afraid of Heights” —Keaton Hoffman

Charles Bradley, Victim of Love, Dunham Records There are a couple of things you won’t believe when you first slap Charles Bradley’s second record, Victim of Love, on the turntable.

The first is that the gravelly, pained voice coming through the theory have any more weight than these utterly preposterous claims?

Let’s be real: no. Kubrick had a lot more on his plate than a forwardsand-backwards subtext. Can anyone prove this? Unfortunately, no.

And who is responsible for this inane “subjective” bulwark of silly interpretations? Film theory.

reel talk

by John Sapunor a bi-weekly column about film Film theory is to film what relativism is to ethics. It makes any definite claims about films impossible, but more caustically, it places all film interpretations—no matter how ridiculous—on nearly equal footing. Remember that annoying guy in your literature class who constantly emphasized the importance of colors in scenes simply because he had nothing valuable to contribute? He’s probably busy writing essays about Space Jam as a metaphor for the rise of the Illuminati. Even worse, his papers

speakers is that of a 64-year-old. The second is that the record wasn’t released by Stax in 1968.

Victim of Love follows the same game plan as Bradley’s first LP— 2011’s breakout No Time For Dreaming. It’s all hard-charging, funky soul music that’s both true to its roots and adventurous. Even more than Dreaming, Bradley’s latest release proves he and his band are much more than Soul Revivalists. They’re the ones pushing the genre forward.

Bradley’s emotive voice is what sets him apart from the generations of soul singers before him. At first, it’s almost unpleasant—hard-edged and strained. But it conveys the pain and loss of a broken heart better than any other in show business, with an authenticity that can only come from Bradley’s hard-luck life of odd jobs, occasional homelessness, and the murder of his brother.

One listen and you understand why he’s called “The Screaming Eagle of Soul.”

Bradley’s backers, the Menahan Street Band, are an extraordinary instrumental group in their own right, regularly sampled by hip-hop artists like Jay-Z and Kid Cudi for their inventive rhythms and blaring chords. Here, they are as tight and tasteful as ever on more conare probably making their way through film school journals free of reproach. Because of the inherent subjectivity of art and the inability to know an artist’s true intentions, it is nearly impossible to dismiss these theories without finding primary source contradictions.

Room 237’s theories may sound comical, but chances are they would be given consideration in a standard film class. Unless professors weigh the validity of claims, film and literature classes are threatened by an overwhelming wave of bullshit that dilutes the more refined, objectively superior points.

But can a point in these classes be objectively superior? No, and that’s where teachers, audiences, and film scholastics must take a stand.

If someone makes a provocative claim with little or no backing, they need to be called out. The “tolerant school of ideas” has flooded classrooms, embracing fallacies that overextend interpretation to the un-interpretable. I’ve taken a few film classes. I’ve said some really stupid things only to be met with

ventional soul tunes like “You Put The Flame On It” and “Crying in the Chapel.” But, they also venture out, bringing some hard funk psychedelics to songs like “Confusion” and “Love Bug Blues.”

If there’s a weakness on this album, it might be the repetitive, matter-of-fact lyrics. To some, the lack of clever wordplay may signal a lack of imagination. But Bradley’s not that type of musician. He’s a blunt guy looking to communicate his sorrows and tribulations directly, and doesn’t seem to have the patience to beat around the bush.

Victim of Love is another reminder that Bradley’s musician-run label, Daptone Records, is among the best in the business, eschewing all digital recording technology to capture an authentic soul sound. So, if you can appreciate not just soul music, but music with soul, put down the James Brown LP for a minute, because Charles Bradley is proof this art can thrive even in the age of Calvin Harris.

Voice’s Choices: “You Put The Flame On It,” “Crying in the Chapel” —Gavin Bade the instructor’s approbation. The teacher should have responded by calling me a pretentious asshole. To borrow a phrase from Christopher Hitchens, if I were given an enema in these situations, you could have fit me in a matchbox.

Let’s not put down film theory in general, though. Works of art deserve to be given their fair share of analysis. Subtexts, metaphors, and symbolism are an intrinsic element of respected filmmakers’ work.

Nevertheless, when semiotics allows the seeds of absurdities to flourish, it cheapens film theory. A simple admission of superior and inferior theories would do a world of good for film schools and journals; a quick dismissal of the more ridiculous theories would be even better. That said, there’s one ostensibly outlandish theory that stands at the zenith of film scholarship: there’s no doubt in the mind of the rational human being that Kubrick helped stage the moon landing.

Watch John backwards at jsapunor@georgetownvoice.com

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- Christy Geaney

voices

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Justices ignore historical context in aff. action cases

by Julia Tanaka The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Schuette v. Michigan Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, after hearing Fisher v. University of Texas earlier this term. “Another affirmative action case?” you might ask.

While prima facie it may seem necessary to take up two cases on the same issue, both of these cases cannot be painted with the same brush. Fisher v.

Texas is about the constitutionality of affirmative action—the plaintiff, a white female, having been rejected, sued the University of Texas, alleging that her spot was taken by less qualified candidates on the basis of race.

Schuette v. Michigan tackles a more subtle issue. In 2006, Michigan voters passed Proposal 2, which banned the consideration of race in the selection of government employees. This referendum, of course, included affirmative action. The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action responded, taking the original case to the Michigan Supreme Court,

where Proposal 2 was overturned in an 8-7 split. The Attorney General of Michigan, Bill Schuette, is appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The question focuses on the constitutionality of putting civil rights up for a vote.

Putting aside affirmative action itself for a moment, it is clear that in conception and execution, Proposal 2 was a poor idea. According to the census, in 2005, Michigan was 80 percent white, 14 percent black, 3.8 percent Latino and 2.3 percent Asian. To put the question of a policy that benefits the minority to a majority vote is obviously flawed. The minority, in this case, is clear numerically. Nonetheless, it is also important to note that regardless of the demographic distribution of people of color, we will continue to be evaluated as a minority for as long as we face the uphill struggles against underrepresentation in media, positions of power, and in academic institutions. The majority will never bear the concerns of the minority as its own. Breaking the structure of privilege cannot be left to the

privileged, and that means the search for equality is not always going to be democratic.

Of course, the constitutional understanding of affirmative action as a civil rights protection is highly relevant in Schuette v.

Michigan. The basis for Proposal 2 frames affirmative action as a violation of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law regardless of race. (Equal protection on the basis of sex would come later.)

There is a long-held view, mostly by opponents of affirmative action, that the U.S. does not have a history of race-conscious law, and that now is no time to start. These constitutional originalists view the application of the Constitution in the context of its writing—they say, “How can we build policy off of this amendment? The American leaders of 19th century could not have possibly anticipated that our public university system would contend with this issue.”

But to say that the intention of the writers is unclear unless instructions are expressly delin-

eated in the text is the easy way to worm out of the obligations of the 14th Amendment, placing the burden of proof on the groups the Constitution is meant to protect. If we observe the history surrounding the 14th Amendment, it is evident that the spirit of the amendment was to level the playing field for those who had been historically and repeatedly disenfranchised on the basis of race.

After the states ratified the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in 1865, the 39th Congress sent the 14th Amendment to be ratified by the then-37 states in 1866, having decided that a constitutional amendment was the only way to reverse the Dred Scott decision of 1857, which stated that African Americans were not citizens and had no standing in court, and the federal government had no authority to regulate slavery in new territories.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, despite it being vetoed twice by President Andrew Johnson, and the Freedman Bureau Act. Congress also legalized

ence. They are capable of bringing together the most disparate of groups, improving morale, and, as many of us felt post-Philadelphia, sending campuses into the deepest of despairs. In placing athletes on this pedestal, we demand that they achieve greatness. We demand championship trophies and Final Four appearances; otherwise we begin to question why we invested both our money and our emotions.

Due to this pressure, athletics departments seem willing to overlook their players’ legal transgressions. Both LaMichael James of University of Oregon, who was suspended for one game, and Michael Carter-Williams of Syracuse University, who paid the store’s required $500 fine, were not punished arguably because both were key players on their respective teams.

The above cases are not isolated incidents. According to investigative reporting done by John Benedict for Sports Illustrated in 2010, 7 percent of male college football players were found to be in trouble with the law either before or after they entered university.

Most alarmingly, it was found that 40 percent were involved in violent crimes. The study also found that the number of incidents in college football and basketball were double the number of incidents in the NFL and NBA respectively.

The issue of NCAA athletes committing crimes is not new. In 1988-89, University of Oklahoma players were found guilty of a shooting, a gang rape, a robbery, and selling illegal drugs. As Nigel Clay, an OU player charged with gang rape said, “speaking for myself and a lot of other people, we felt like we were above the law, like OU would protect us from anything.”

The school was slapped with a three-year probation by the NCAA, including a two-year ban on TV and bowl appearances and a reduction in scholarships by 30 percent.

In 2003, a Baylor University basketball player was found guilty of murdering his fellow teammate, and the program was found to have committed numerous NCAA violations. The coach was also caught on tape stating that he knew that the dead player had been threatened by his teammates.

The NCAA responded by putting the university on probation until

2010, barring them from playing nonconference games for the ‘05 and ‘06 seasons, and reducing paid recruiting visits and scholarships.

These harsh but necessary sanctions justifiably caused a complete change in the culture at each of these schools. However, the fact that incidents like these still occur calls into question whether or not they serve to combat the larger culture of the NCAA. To be fair, the Steubenville rape trial demonstrates that cover-ups by athletics departments and coaches, as well as the unfounded sense of legal impunity, begin early on in sports.

Players may enter into an NCAA program already feeling entitled.

Entering college only exacerbates the situation. College athletes receive a lot of special dispensation–they often have lower academic requirements for entrance, they get the first pick of classes, they are the first chosen for scholarships, and they often have a whole slew of tutorts to help them academically. However, this sense of impunity doesn’t diminish when players are allowed to continue play even when charged with crimes, as was the case with LaMichael James; it is heightened.

Setting this kind of example means that athletes think that they can get away with whatever they want.

At most universities, a student that has committed a crime also receives some form of punishment at the school, such as probation. Athletics departments are

the use of the metric system in the U.S., which is how you know members were total liberals.

Schuette v. Michigan is not just about affirmative action. It’s also about the interpretation of the Constitution, especially when it comes to vulnerable groups who don’t always have the institutional means to achieve equality.

It is about respecting the rich history and legal tradition from which we as Americans draw our understanding of justice. To use an interpretation of convenience to avoid the unforgiving idea that this country has not yet paid back its debt for discrimination is cowardice.

So sue me, I’m a constitutional liberal. To me, the 14th Amendment establishes solid precedent for equal protection under the law—which means my rights are not up for a vote.

Julia Tanaka is a sophomore in the SFS. She is one sixteenth Native American and put it on her Georgetown application.

NCAA culture of impunity a threat to university life

by Sara Ainsworth In March 2010, LaMichael James was charged with menacing, strangulation, and assault of his ex-girlfriend. In February 2011, Darrell Williams was charged with rape and sexual battery. In December 2012, Michael CarterWilliams was charged with shoplifting. What do all of these cases have in common? Every one of these men is or was an NCAA athlete. Of these three cases, only one resulted in any significant punitive action (suspension for more than one regular season game) against the player by their athletics department. There is something seriously wrong with that.

As anyone glued to March Madness can attest, athletics are an integral part of the college experi-

TEDDY SCHAFFER

This key leads only to dirty gym shorts, jock straps, and candy stashes.

part of universities; as such they need to abide by university policy. Allowing players off scot-free when they’ve been charged with a crime is insulting to both the other students who are not athletes and to the institution as a whole.

Athletes are the ambassadors of our schools–they represent us on both the national and international stage. Thus, when they behave badly, it reflects poorly on both the individual and the institution. It is thus in the institution’s interest to ensure that each and every student-athlete adheres to the law. Because of this role, we should demand more, not less, of our student-athletes. If we as a nation are going to continue to idolize athletes, then we need to make sure that they are worth idolizing.

Fundamentally, creating an environment of impunity for college athletes carries over into their lives after college, whether they end up playing professional sports or not.

When schools are found covering up crimes, the whole program is punished, which affects the school and the student body in general.

Establishing ethical standards for players makes them better human beings and better members of the unviersity community.

Sara Ainsworth is a junior in the SFS. As a varsity bowler, Sara feels entitled to steal your chicken madness out from under you.

voices

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the georgetown voice

19

SCOTUS hearing, but not listening, on same-sex marriage

by Mark Joseph Stern Last week, the Supreme Court herd oral arguments in two gay rights cases involving Proposition 8 (which banned same-sex marriage in California) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages). To many, the outcome of these cases will be the most important civil rights rulings of a generation.

But will they truly? Last week’s arguments seriously called into question that notion, as the justices clamored for a way to rule narrowly in both cases. Judging from the justices’ questions, there seems to be little chance that the court will use its power to bring marriage equality to the entire country. And if their rulings do force California and the federal

government to recognize same-sex marriages, that noble result will be achieved through arcane technicalities and cramped legal logic.

The first case heard by the court, Perry v. Hollingsworth, has the potential to be the Brown v.

Board of Education of the 21st century. Technically, Perry deals only with California’s Proposition 8, a referendum passed in 2008 to strip marriage rights from gay couples.

But the legal case against Prop 8, headed by conservative luminary Ted Olson and liberal hero David Boies, legal adversaries in Bush v.

Gore, quickly became something more. Olson and Boies decided not to limit their case against Prop 8 to California, but rather to use the case as a vehicle to overturn all same-sex marriage bans throughout the U.S. This move, which would establish a constitutional right to mar-

In California they just want anyone to be able to put a ring on it.

KAREN BU

Sexism in science sucks

Sitting in a large intro science class in Reiss 103 last year, I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

The lights had been dimmed for the PowerPoint presentation, and the professor was talking animatedly about some subject or another. In a perfectly serious manner, the professor concluded a rambling story with the line “Women can’t do physics.”

A year later, simply recalling those words makes my lip curl with indignation and disgust. I have never felt so furious, or so betrayed. I had always thought that even if a class was difficult, professors wanted me to succeed. I had always trusted that my teachers believed in me. My hopeful naïveté was shattered that day.

I don’t think I had ever been more personally offended, and the statement still rankles me a year later. Perhaps it was folly to hope that sexism couldn’t pervade Georgetown’s ivory tower.

But I did hope. Seeing my professor so calmly denigrate half the class, though, caused cracks to form in that cheerful paradigm.

The shock of that moment made it all the more destructive.

I had never known the powerlessness that I felt sitting in that lecture. Like a punch in the gut, I had the distinct displeasure of finding all that out in an emotional maelstrom of fury, sadness, and shock.

Some would scoff and say that it was simply the ramblings

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riage for gay people, remained gay rights activists’ great white hope, until last Tuesday. The justices’ questions during oral arguments quickly crushed any optimism for a nationwide ruling on Prop 8.

A majority of justices questioned whether the proponents of Prop 8 had standing—that is, whether they were constitutionally qualified to challenge the case in court.

It’s a legitimate concern.

California delegated the task of defending Prop 8 to mere citizens of the state, as the government had no interest in supporting a bigoted, hateful measure.

If the court decides that proponents of Prop 8 do not have standing, they will simply toss the case out, allowing the lower court’s ruling to stand. This, in effect, would re-legalize same-sex marriage in California, as the lower courts all overturned the measure. That would be a noble outcome, no doubt, but it would also be the result of cowardly calculus. As Justice Antonin Scalia noted, the court would seem to have implicitly resolved the issue of standing by agreeing to hear the case. Now that each side has made its arguments, the standing question is surely eclipsed by the greater question of justice.

But on that front, too, the court seems ready to punt. The legal argument for same-sex marriage is simple: the 14th Amendment of the Constitution guarantees “equal protection of the laws.” To deny

gays the right to marry, according to this argument, is to deny them equal protection. The four liberals of the court—Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan—seem ready to agree. The four conservatives— Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas—obviously disagree. Roberts in particular was irked by the notion that the Equal Protection Clause covered gays, suggesting that the LGBT community is too politically powerful to deserve constitutional protections.

Thus the decision as to whether millions of gay Americans will be afforded their constitutional rights falls on one man: Justice Anthony Kennedy. Because Kennedy authored the court’s previous decisions honoring gay rights, Romer v. Evans (1996) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003), activists hold out hope that he would provide the necessary fifth vote for nationwide marriage equality.

But during the oral arguments on Prop 8, Kennedy signaled a deep ambivalence about extending the Equal Protection Clause to same-sex couples. The justice probably won’t rule to uphold Prop 8, but he almost certainly won’t use the case to strike down all same-sex marriage bans.

More likely is that he’ll either dismiss the case on standing or strike down Prop 8 exclusively, allowing other marriage bans to stand.

Oddly, during arguments in U.S. vs. Windsor, Kennedy came

of an old man who was behind the times. If so, then why are there many other instances of egregious sexism at Georgetown? Like when a chemistry professor sighs and says that he missed “the good old days when they didn’t let women into lab,” the headline “Breaking News: Freshman Girl Like Totally Going

plaint of sexism and adds more instances that he’s seen, or the pain in the eyes of the eager freshman that is demoralized by the use of women as examples for everything that is bad in her language class, sexism is destructively omnipresent. Why can’t our university see that the status quo is abhorrent?

I know that I deserve to walk through Red Square with my head held high, proud that I am both a woman and a student. I know that I deserve to be held to the exact same level as all my other peers, male or female. I know that I, and all women, deserve to live, work, and study in a world free from sexism.

It is a disgrace that the whipsmart women who research, lecture, and study at this supposedly prestigious university have to suffer through such affronts in this day and age. It is an even more insufferable disgrace that sexism has not been thoroughly eradicated from our university.

We have been a co-ed institution for an embarrassingly long time for there to still be

Carrying On

by Claire McDaniel

A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

to Be a Doctor!!! ;)” is splashed across the front page of The Hoya April Fool’s edition, or even when a kind and respected professor is nonetheless notorious for grading the essays of women much less strictly than those of men. Don’t even get me started on the fact that not a single faculty member in the Women’s and Gender Studies program is even tenure-track.

Something is rotten in academia, and it reeks of bigotry.

Whether it’s that senior who nods knowingly at your com-

out swinging against DOMA, joining the liberal justices in vigorously disputing the law’s constitutionality. Why the change in heart? Irritatingly, Kennedy doesn’t seem to care too much about gay couples’ rights; what he cares about are states’ rights to grant marriages to anyone they choose. DOMA, a federal law, tramples these rights, and so Kennedy will undoubtedly vote to strike it down. His vote, added with the four liberal justices’, will most likley lead to the death of DOMA. The law is destined for the dustbin of history.

Still, it’s disappointing that this would-be landmark case will boil down to Kennedy’s obsession with states’ rights. Few people under the age of 30 doubt that the Constitution guarantees gay people equal rights. Four Supreme Court justices agree. With one more vote, Perry and Windsor could be used to remedy the terrible injustice of marriage equality. For now, though, the struggle will probably have to continue state by state. The court’s rulings will likely keep Prop 8 dead and invalidate DOMA. That will leave 41 states without marriage equality; 41 more battles to fight.

Mark Joseph Stern is a senior in the College. He wrote a letter nominating Tyrion as the 10th Justice. Obama has yet to respond. such alarming instances of bigotry. Sexism should have been old news decades ago.

For sexism is a plague not solely on academia, but on our culture at large. It ought to languish in the fringes, but far too often it is mainstream.

Its presence is felt by injustices, and its absence marked by freedoms. It drags us down from the peaks of excellence and prevents us from reaching our greatest potential as a university and as a society.

So long as there are such incidents that deeply hurt the women who belong to this university community, so long as students like myself leave a lecture with the knowledge that their professor does not think that they can succeed, so long as there exist even the remnants of a paradigm whereby women are perceived as weak, inferior, and incapable of true academic achievement, Georgetown will never deserve its place among the leading universities in the country.

And, Professor, I fucking rock at physics.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT Nehemiah Markos Improvisational Actor and Slam Poet College, Class of 2014 Major: Theater Minors: Sociology and Philosophy

Currently listening to: Riff Raff and Joey Badass

Know a Georgetown Artist?

Contact Tiff at tdl25@georgetown.edu with your suggestions!

Tell me how you got started: “I’ve loved performance ever since I was little. Like, whenever families would gather for picnics, I’d be the kid who’d find a stage, gather my cousins and put on a show. I also loved stand-up and would memorize acts word-for-word to perform.

I didn’t really get started until a show of one-acts in high school.

But I’m not really a theater kid— I just love performance.

Do you stick to performance art?

I love all art, and I do a lot of other art for fun, but what I’d say I’m best at is more performance in the theatrical sense—film, stage, improv, any of those.

Do you have a favorite form?

Well I came into theater from a more contemporary aspect, and that’s what I stick to now. I’m not really big into traditional theater. I do appreciate it, but I like the crazy nonsensical stuff that makes the audience ask: “Why the hell are they doing that” I like performance where the audience doesn’t know the plot beforehand. If you go to see Macbeth, you know what will happen. That’s why I like improv, I also don’t mind making a fool of myself—it’s always interesting.

I know you’re a hit on the improv team, how did you get started there?

I tried it out for the first time in college, found out I was pretty good at it.

I am always amazed at the skill it takes to do Improvisation.

The thing about improv is that it is intelligent comedy. All comedy is intelligent, but I think the best improvisers are the biggest nerds—but you can’t be too nerdy, like you can’t care too much. You have to trust in the moment and in your own intelligence.

Life motto: Always bal­ ance giving as much love as you can with as much not giving a fuck as possible Was improv a long time coming?

Yeah, so you believe in fate or destiny or whatever? I think my passion for stand-up would have led me here eventually in some way or another. I’m also just optimistic about the future, there are three Georgetown alums who have their own comedy shows right now, so I’m excited to see where things go.

How would you describe yourself?

I think the best way is as a true want-to-be artist. Cause I’m really not after the fame, for example, a friend and I, who both love street art, started a film-project where we started documenting ourselves doing our street art thing, why not?

The film is not finished, it will probably never be finished, but see, that’s all okay because the ending isn’t the point.

“Hope felt like the hand of God through an empty stomach, fingers wrapped around the spine so tight the bones get crushed and replaced by a fist, you see eventually, hope is the only thing that holds us together.”

“Hundreds of Muslim women outside its gates, waiting for permission to leave purgatory as if God, Allah, and Yaweh dressed in blue fatigue machetes and AK’s were standing at the doors with their backs turned playing go-fish with bloodstained coffee beans. These women herded into slavery like pests to a trap, disposable.

I couldn’t ignore the tattered wings and shattered halos; I wondered why God let so many angels so far out of his sight.

See sometimes, angels have clipped their own wings before anyone cares for them, before anyone writes a poem for them, before that poem takes the form of a god that never forgot them, …an angel clipped her wings in Lebanon, and even if no one heard her fall, I pray she did not die in vain.”