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UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES NEW PUBLIC POLICY SCHOOL PAGE 4

VOLLEYBALL RISES TO THE OCCASSION PAGE 7

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Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w September 19, 2013 w Volume 49, Issue 6 w georgetownvoice.com

LIFE BEYOND THE RAINBOW: LGBTQ AT GEORGETOWN

BY CAITRIONA PAGNI

2 the georgetown voice

september 19, 2013

Voice Crossword “Georgetown Sights” by Tyler Pierce

37. 19 Across and 57 Across are just a few examples of these 42. “___ questions?”

43. Birds of the same one flock together 44. Rubbernecked 47. “The Maids” playwright 51. I, to Claudius 52. Epic 56. Elvis Presley’s “___ Lost You” 57. Georgetown rowers get togethers 61. Scottish hillside 63. John Lennon, once 64. At sea 65. “My country” follower 66. French butt 67. Big bang maker 68. Chester White’s home 69. Mary of The Maltese Falcon Down

Across 1. Oily secretions 6. Fraction of a joule 9. Shack 12. Jeweler’s glass 13. Immediately 14. Delhi wrap 15. Disease of the pituitary adenoma

18. Mahjong piece 19. Place where the Washington National Opera performs 21. Charlotte-to-Raleigh dir.

22. Withdraws, with “out” 23. Unagi, at a sushi bar 24. Caterpillar hairs 27. It might be airtight 30. Set setter 36. “___ so fast!”

1. Quenches 2. Certain epoch 3. County named after the first Texas president 4. “Once ___ a time...”

5. Same: Fr. 6. Legislate 7. Cameos, e.g.

8. Savage, to whom a Breaking Bad episode was dedicated 9. It might recede 10. www.yahoo.com, e.g.

11. Windsor, for one 14. Girder material 16. Old name for Tokyo 17. Cheat 20. Oolong, for one 25. Tarzan extra 26. Bobble 28. Salaam 29. “___ magic!”

31. Amiss 32. Ante33. Bygone bird 34. Colony member 35. ___ power 37. Joker 38. “___ Ng” (They Might Be Giants song) 39. Pigeon-holed, for an actor 40. Chill out 41. Boiling blood 45. Everglades bird 46. Anonymous John 48. Like Miss Congeniality 49. Be that as it may 50. Consumer Reports employee 52. Sail extender 53. Pretentious 54. Neon, e.g.

55. Take effect 58. Interrogative text pronoun 59. Limestone variety 60. Bad day for Caesar 61. Deli order 62. Director Howard

Answers to last week’s sudoku

Answers to last week’s crossword

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 49.06 September 19, 2013 Editor-in-Chief: Gavin Bade Managing Editor: Connor Jones Blog Editor: Julia Tanaka News Editor: Lucia He Sports Editor: Chris Almeida Feature Editor: Patricia Cipollitti Cover Editor: Kathleen Soriano-Taylor Leisure Editor: Heather Regen Voices Editor: Ana Smith Photo Editor: Andres Rengifo Design Editors: Lauren Ashley Panawa, Teddy Schaffer Projects Editors: Alec Graham, John Sapunor, Cannon Warren Puzzles Editor: Tyler Pierce Creative Directors: Madhuri Vairapandi, Amanda Dominguez Back Page Editor: Tiffany Lachonna Social Media Editor: Rio Djiwandana

Assistant Blog Editors: Minali Aggarwal, Isabel Echarte, Ryan Greene, Laura Kurek Assistant News Editors: Jeffrey Lin, Claire Zeng Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Castano, Brendan Crowley, Joe Pollicino Assistant Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Assistant Leisure Editor: Dayana Morales Gomez Assistant Photo Editors: Kathryn Easop, Joshua Raftis Assistant Design Editor: John Delgado-McCollum

Staff Writers:

Tim Barnicle, Emilia Brahm, Will Collins, Emlyn Crenshaw, Claire McDaniel, Liana Mehring, Dzarif Wan, Sam Wolter, Abby Greene, Abby Sherburne, Steven Criss, John Guzzetta, Jackson Sinnenberg, Joshua Ward, Annamarie White

Staff Photographers:

Elizabeth Coscia, John Delgado-McCollum, Robin Go, Alan Liu

Staff Designers:

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

Copy Chief: Sonia Okolie Copy Editors:

Grace Funsten, Cailtin Healey-Nash, Morgan Johansen, Sabrina Kayser, Samantha Meaden, Dana Suekoff, Isobel Tayler, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Caitriona Pagni Editorial Board:

Gavin Bade, Patricia Cipollitti, Lucia He, Quaila Hugh, Connor Jones, Julia Tanaka

General Manager: Michael Grasso Managing Director: Nick Albanese 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: LGBTQ issues on campus Cover Photo: courtesy of LGBTQ Resource Center

the georgetown voice 3 TRANS*FORMATION

Taking the first steps to support trans* students Last week, GU Pride elected Celeste Crisholm (COL ’15) as its first ever trans* representative. Members of Pride’s board believe this step will allow them to work more closely with trans* students and cater better to their needs. (“Trans*” serves as an umbrella term that encompasses a diversity of identities that span the gender spectrum.)

GU Pride members also said the group plans to cosponsor trans*-related events with the LGBTQ Resource Center during OUTober.

They also plan on sponsoring events on the Trans* Day of Remembrance in November.

These are important steps to fight discrimination against the trans* community, and we congratulate GU Pride for taking this necessary step toward inclusivity for trans* students.

Creating a trans* representative for their board will bring more visibility to the trans* community on campus and will undoubtedly make Georgetown a safer and

more welcoming place for trans* students.

In 2012, 9 out of the 16 bias reports filed on campus dealt with issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. In the coming year, Ms. Chisholm and her fellow board members must rise to the challenges of fostering acceptance and education around trans* issues and ought to play a vocal, public role in representing the trans* community.

GU Pride and the University must remember that, while the coming out of the trans* community is exciting and longneeded, Georgetown has just begun the first steps in a long transformation. The University as a whole must ensure that Georgetown welcomes the entirety of the LGBTQ community, not just white, able-bodied, cisgendered, gay men. While Georgetown has made impressive strides in the recent past towards inclusivity for the LGBTQ community, the University cannot rest on its laurels.

Its work is unfinished.

GU Pride and the LGBTQ Resource Center must be sure that OUTober focuses not just on sexual orientation, but also on the interplay of racial, socioeconomic status, ability and gender identities with being LGBTQ. The two organizations are taking steps to put together the pieces of the trans* community by planning trans*-related campus events.

In order to bring genuine change to campus, the LGBTQ resource center and GUPride cannot remain the only support system for LGBTQ students who do not identify according to a male-female gender binary. Gender neutral bathrooms, using prefered names instead of legal names for net IDs, and increasing academic emphasis on gender studies all would bring growth to the Georgetown community. These kinds of changes can only happen with full institutional support, and, until they become a reality, Georgetown cannot call itself truly LGBTQ-friendly.

I PREFER PANTY LIENS

Tax lien reform fails to deliver sufficient progress

On Sept. 9, Mayor Vincent Gray called for a moratorium on tax lien sales in the District after a 10-month investigation by the Washington Post uncovered that property owners were losing their homes over petty amounts of property tax debt. The investigation found that 1 in 3 people who recently lost their homes had under $1000 dollars of unpaid taxes.

The District’s tax office, using a tactic worrisomely reminiscent of the reckless behavior that led to the 2008 financial crisis, was foreclosing homes and packaging the debt to sell to financial companies. This process is called a tax lien. What’s more, the report showed that these financial groups colluded to drive down the prices of repossessed homes.

In 2001, the city’s tax office passed on the responsibility of handling foreclosures to lien investors, saying it was too “overwhelming” for the agency to handle. The move motivated investors to begin charging legal fees to debt-strapped homeowners

for processing their foreclosures and tax lien sales, which included attorney costs and even the cost of legal paper.

District homeowners behind on their property taxes are not wealthy yuppies. They simply do not have the money to compete in court against predatory property investors looking to seize their home and flip it for a profit. As the process stood, they had no option but to lose their homes, a chief reason why foreclosures across the District have doubled in the past five years.

Property owners effectively enter an agreement with the state to pay for taxes when they purchase either a residential or commercial holding. Tax lien sales are an effective measure by which the United States government scares property owners to pay for their fiscal obligations. Instead of using a carrot, however, this practice proves that it uses the stick. The government must take measures to protect those who are most vulnerable.

Gray has proposed a bill to ensure that legal fees are capped at $1500 and that sales of liens for debts of under $2500 for primary residences are forbidden. While he and other politicians may consider their legislation to be a final solution to the problem, it is hardly a beginning.

The tax lien problem, although horrifying, is a small one in terms of District-wide housing issues. Until governments devise holistic approaches to homeowner issues and take steps to connect at-risk residents with the correct resources, the District and other cities will not make meaningful progress on foreclosures.

Gray’s new perspective on tax liens is encouraging, but it is only tokenism until his administration can devise a program to keep all types of residents in their homes.

The Voice encourages the D.C. government to treat every foreclosure with the same critical mentality it finally came to assume with tax liens.

BAY WATCH

Court ruling stands up to agricultural lobbyists

Last Friday, in a decision fiercely contested by agricultural lobbyists, U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to reduce contamination in the Chesapeake Bay do, in fact, fall within the agency’s authority. Rambo’s ruling is cause for celebration among environmentalists, bringing the bay closer to restoration after decades of half-hearted attempts to mitigate the damages that industry, agriculture, and growing populations continue to inflict on its ecosystem.

The EPA’s push to clean up the watershed area is based on the model of the Watershed Implementation Plans, which were created by individual states with the goal of restoring the bay. Agricultural lobbyists claim Rambo’s ruling overstepped the government’s bounds, a common complaint against the EPA. The court’s decision falls well within its authority and provides the necessary cata-

lyst to create change in the Chesapeake Bay. The most significant pollutants come from agricultural operations, which contaminate the bay with nitrogen and phosphorous. Elevated levels of these elements have changed the bay to a blue-ish green in a process known as eutrophication. Additionally, the lack of oxygen in the water creates “dead zones,” areas where the lack of oxygen in the water makes it uninhabitable for aquatic life.

Predictably, the American Farm Bureau and partner organizations, including the Fertilizer Institute and the National Chicken Council, filed the lawsuit. Collective action on the part of industrial agriculture has impeded conservation attempts for years. By acting in the interests of the 17 million inhabitants of the watershed area instead of powerful industry groups, Rambo set a sorely needed precedent for using the

democratic process to pursue the wellbeing of American citizens and wildlife.

Small farmers, already threatened by large agricultural companies’ market capture, soaring input costs, and sinking returns, need additional resources to comply with the pollution limits, which should include facilities to store and process animal waste. In the case of independent farms, the responsibility of support falls on the government. However, state governments should also provide incentives for corporate farms to financially support farmers in reducing waste.

The cries of lobbyists cannot continue to impede necessary change.

Rambo’s decision proved there are some people who are not afraid to stand up against lobbyists. In order to make progress, more judges, both national and local, should follow her example.

news

4 the georgetown voice

september 18, 2013

Georgetown University to create new Public Policy School

by Lucia He Wednesday morning, Georgetown University President John DeGioia announced the creation of the McCourt Public Policy School, a project funded by the largest donation received in the school’s history.

Frank McCourt (COL ‘75), founder, chairman, and CEO of McCourt Global, an investment firm that works in the fields of real estate, private equity, sports, and media, donated $100 million to create the school. The Georgetown Public Policy Institute, now a part of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, will be incorporated into the new school.

“The McCourt School will bring an innovative approach to public policy education and discourse by leveraging the unique resources of Georgetown to contribute policy-based, data-driven research and solutions,” DeGioia said during a media conference call on Wednesday morning.

According to DeGioia, the idea for the new Public Policy School has been under discussion over the past ten years. The concept first emerged during a meeting of the University’s Board of Directors,

of which McCourt was a member from 2005 to 2011.

When referring to the particulars of the new school, Provost Robert Groves emphasized that interdisciplinary and data-based approaches will be key aspects.

“In the interdisciplinary, it is clear that the problems facing this country and many other countries in the world don’t come packaged in little boxes that can be solved only by economists and only by political scientists with their knowledge, with their disciplines,” Groves said.

With regards to the data-based approach, Groves introduced the Mass Data Institute, a resource that “will supply scholars with data resources to motivate and guide their analyses and discovering in regards to what policies are effective and how policies become effective in ways that are really unprecedented.”

According to administrators, in addition to the creation of this data institute, a large part of the money will be invested in adding five endowed chair positions for new faculty.

“We already have good faculty who are experts in health and education and other topics, and

this represents an opportunity through endowed chairs to go after some of the very best scholars from around the United States, and indeed from around the world, and bring them here and increase the range of topics we have expertise on and expand our depth,” said Edward Montgomery, Dean of the GPPI and future Dean of the McCourt School.

Faculty members welcomed the new opportunities that the McCourt School will provide.

“GPPI has always been a very top tier place to study policy, but most of our competitors are their own separate schools. … Expert faculty and expert practitioners who we want to become a part of the teaching environment here may be more likely to notice the school because it’s a school as opposed to a department,” said Micah Jensen, visiting assistant professor at the GPPI who received his Masters Degree and PhD at Georgetown.

Some of the donation will also be allocated to creating the new McCourt Fellows Program that will recruit and offer scholarships to future policy makers and scholars.

“We will also use some of the gift to go after the very best stu-

dents, to be able to attract those students that may be going to Harvard or Princeton, and bring them here to Washington, D.C., to the McCourt School, so that we are training the future of policymaking and policy practice for tomorrow,” Montgomery said.

GPPI offers merit-based financial assistance through the Georgetown Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and needbased federal loans and employment aid administered by the Office of Student Financial Services. The $100 million donation is expected to increase the resources available to recruit students interested in public policy, helping students pay the yearly tuition of over $44,000.

With regards to the physical location of the McCourt Public Policy School, DeGioia told the Voice that the school will use GPPI’s current space in Old North at first but will eventually move to a campus downtown.

“It is our intent to identify a location more in the heart of the city, more in the heart of the policy formation part of the city, where we would be able to ultimately locate the school,” DeGioia said. “That will be a

part of our campus planning efforts and it will be one of the issues we take into account as we move forward.”

Despite the University’s positive reception of this donation, several national media outlets have expressed skepticism about McCourt’s financial precedents, putting into question the integrity of his work.

In 2004, Forbes reported McCourt borrowed $421 million, including a $196 million loan from Fox, to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers. Even though the value of the Dodgers nearly doubled under McCourt’s ownership, the team’s debt increased an estimated $600 million, primarily because he used his ownership stake in the team to finance multimillion dollar personal spending sprees. After driving the Dodgers into bankruptcy, McCourt sold the franchise for $2 billion in March 2012, walking away with a profit of $800 million.

The administration refused to comment on McCourt’s relationship with the Dodgers but confirmed that they will continue working with McCourt through the final planning and implementation stages.

Library announces student council Sukkah opens on Healy

by Kenneth Lee This Monday, Georgetown University Library hosted an information session on the creation of a new Student Library Council that will allow students on the Main Campus and from the School of Continuing Studies to evaluate the services of the Lauinger and Bloomer libraries.

The council is expected to have 20 student representatives, as well as two members appointed by GUSA and the Graduate Student Organization.

“The best way for us to discover what our users want and need is to hear from them directly,” said Jenny Smith, coordinator of communications, outreach, and programming for the library. “This isn’t a new goal for us by any means, but simply a new way to achieve what has always been at the core of our mission.”

Previously, the library received suggestions through the University’s IdeaScale website,

from student representatives on the Faculty Library Advisory Committee, and through ad hoc conversations with staff members. These methods will continue to be used, but the council is expected to facilitate the library’s follow-up process on feedback it receives.

Library employees believe that the creation of the council will also help attract students to underutilized resources, such as its research consultations and Gelardin workshops.

“At the beginning of the year, students have no idea how to use the library, and it has a lot of resources that students just don’t know about,” said Alyssa Lazzeroni (COL ’15), a supervisory student assistant who has worked for two years in the library. “As somebody who deals with the students, I want them to understand [the library] better.”

The creation of the council follows a number of changes that the library has introduced this semester.

“We now have nine new monitors that students can use like the [Hariri building’s] breakout rooms,” said Aaron Williams, Systems Administrator of the Library’s Information Technology department. “They can connect their laptops and do collaborative group work.

Seven of those are rooms that they can reserve through the website.”

Other technological upgrades include the installation of the geo-information services software ArcGIS on all the library computers, as well as the addition of a book scanner on the third floor, an idea that originated from a student request on IdeaScale.

Additionally, the second floor of Lauinger will soon feature a larger study space. Furniture and carpeting are being installed in the next one to two weeks where periodicals used to be located.

Applications for the council are due Friday, September 20.

GAVIN MYERS

Wednesday marked the completion of the custom-built sukkah on Healy Lawn in anticipation of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot at Georgetown. The sukkah, designed and constructed by architects Babak Bryan and Henry Grosman, will remain until the end the holiday on Sept. 25.

Sukkot is an eight-day harvest festival that began at sundown on Wednesday. The word sukkot is a plural of sukkah, which means “booth.” The sukkah is a symbolic dwelling that represents the temporary shelters the Israelites built in the desert wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

— Claire Zeng

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the georgetown voice 5

Gray vetoes LRAA, councilmembers push for new bills

by Shalina Chatlani On Tuesday, D.C. councilmembers failed to override Mayor Gray’s veto of the contentious Large Retailers Accountability Act (LRAA), legislation that would have required retailers with gross revenues of at least $1 billion and retail stores with over 75,000 sq. ft. to pay employees a minimum wage of $12.50 an hour.

The Council’s vote could have overturned Gray’s veto if it had received support from nine of the 13 council members, but only seven voted in favor of the bill.

In spite of the decision, several councilmembers introduced new versions of a living wage bill.

Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), one of the five councilmembers who originally voted against the bill, introduced his own version of the bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.25 an hour after two years.

“My bill actually helps everyone making minimum wage. The LRAA bill only helps people in future Walmart stores up until four years from now. My bill does not ex-

clude McDonalds, does not exclude Burger King, does not exclude Walgreens,” Wells told the Voice. “With regard to this type of legislation, there ought to be no winners and losers in the corporate world.”

Councilmember Anita Bonds, who switched her vote from yea to nay, co-introduced the “The Living Wage for All Act” with Wells.

“When I supported the Large Retailers Accountability Act, it was the right and only thing to do,” Bonds wrote in a press release on Tuesday. “[However], the issue of fairness remained.

What would be done for the thousands of workers in the banks, cleaners, sandwich shops, and corner stores, as well as those employed by large retailers?”

Nonetheless, many supporters of the LRAA believe Gray’s veto has granted Walmart yet another victory.

Nick Wertsch, program coordinator for Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, says Walmart could have set the bar higher for similar retailers across the country. “[This issue] has been reduced to a false choice between low-cost retail options versus

The case for a satellite campus GUSA leaders talk at length about the need to “start a campus discussion” surrounding whether to create a satellite campus. In the same breath, they condemn it as an abomination that would destroy student life at Georgetown.

Reading reports in campus media, it would seem as if no students would consider supporting the establishment of a satellite campus, let alone live there if it were created. While student leaders are nearly unanimous in their dissent to any form of distant residence whatsoever, under the right conditions, many students would be amenable to living there.

That is to say, there are strong arguments in favor of establishing a satellite residence for undergraduates. Let me preface this column by saying I don’t necessarily support creating a satellite residence. In the interest of fostering the elusive “campus dialogue” that GUSA seems to care so much about, I write to give voice to the opposite side of this issue. This is the Voice, after all.

The One Georgetown, One Campus folks rely heavily on the

argument that separating campus into two parts would kill student life. Having to commute to campus would prevent the kind of extemporaneous interaction that makes the University great, they say. No late-night pizza runs, no pickup ultimate Frisbee, no impromptu gatherings, no bumping into your friends walking around campus.

This argument invokes what I think of as the “cult of the Hilltop”—the overriding imperative to improve student life on campus, most often through student programming. Student leaders consider this drive to protect and foster student life to be a matter of school pride.

To be honest, though, some people just don’t care. After two years of living on campus and participating in student activities, living the student life becomes tiresome. Clubs are fun, but after a while, it’s all the same. In my experience, students become involved early in their freshman year but pare down their commitments by their junior and senior year. It’s not a bad thing. While some students keep with their

SHALINA CHATLANI

Councilmember Tommy Wells speaks to living wage supporters on Sunday. jobs that pay a living wage,” Wertsch said. “It seems reasonable to ask a company with a $17 billion profit margin to pay its workers a living wage. [There is] clear evidence that taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart’s practice of paying poverty wages.”

In his press release, Gray categorized the LRAA as a “job killer,” claiming that it would cost the District 4,000 jobs in the first few years alone because major retailers such as Target, Home Depot, and Wegmans, would reconsider opening stores in the District. student groups all four years, many students start to focus outward by their senior year, when the threat of entering the “real world” looms. No number of late-night movies, foam parties, midnight carnivals, or on-campus concerts can change that.

As such, many students would appreciate living far off campus under the right conditions. One of the proposed sites is D.C.’s Capitol

Saxa Politica

by Connor Jones

A bi-weekly column about campus news and politics Hill neighborhood. If there’s one thing Georgetown students love, it’s Hillternships. Living and working in the heart of the city while still attending school would be a dream to a sizable chunk of students, especially if the building offered apartment-style housing. It could be reserved for juniors and seniors to ensure that freshmen and sophomores get to spend their formative college years on the Hilltop.

A Rosslyn location could similarly offer juniors and seniors a chance to live a more urban lifestyle. Georgetown’s suburban feel

However, according to Peter Davis, an employee at the Ralph Nader Center for Study of Responsive Law, which has been following the LRAA since its introduction to the council back in June, the veto could actually result in more job loss.

“An unrestrained Walmart is a good job killer,” Davis said. “It will drive good jobs out of the neighborhood. … 71 percent of D.C. residents want the LRAA, and that number goes up in wards affected by the incoming Walmarts,” he said.

Davis also feels Walmart can afford these wage increases. The becomes grating after the hundredth bus ride to get to a metro station. As long as satellite housing isn’t less expensive than on-campus housing, which would create more problems of voluntary segregation, a remote housing option poses distinct advantages to trying to cram more students on campus.

GUSA President Nate Tisa said he was concerned that a satellite option may be the most fiscally and logistically expedient choice for the University. In part, that’s why he wanted to mount a campaign to stop it. I’m not privy to the conversations in which numbers are discussed, but, if a satellite option fulfills the requirements of the campus plan at the cheaper cost, then that simple fact is the most powerful argument for it.

The University has significant financial constraints. After building the Northeast Triangle structure, the school only has about $15 million allocated to provide for the housing of 160 additional students.

Other options could include “modular housing” (read: trailers) or making some double rooms triples, each of which One Georgetown, One Campus would prefer to letting the more detached members

large retailer announced on June 7 that it would spend $15 billion buying back its own stock. In fact, the monolithic superstore has been buying back its stock for the last four years at a total of $36 billion, a sum that could have granted their 1.3 million workers a “$3.30 per hour bonus each year for five years,” according to the institute.

Wells, for his part, says he supports a higher minimum wage, but reiterates that he doesn’t want a bill he sees as discriminatory against some businesses.

“I really agree that I don’t like Walmart, but I don’t get to legislate that way,” he said. “I’m really going to try to help the residents of D.C. and all the residents of D.C. [because] we’ve got food deserts in Ward 7 and underprivileged areas.”

And, in spite of the initial failure to pass the LRAA, Wells believes the campaign for a minimum wage in D.C. is gaining momentum.

“I think part of it is the sensitivity around the Walmart bill,” Wells said. “We’ve got more support for a minimum wage hike, than we’ve had, I think, ever.” of our humble school live farther away than everybody else.

It’s not as if undergraduates don’t get a fair portion of the huge University budget. The school already spends millions of dollars on us. The University has competing interests, all of which are important. Extra dollars spent on building the perfect dorm on campus is less money the school can use for scholarships, graduate programs, investment, research, and other resources for students.

Undergraduates should be mindful of this reality when making demands to the University.

While the Hilltop is the heart of undergraduate life, letting no more than five percent of students live elsewhere won’t be the deathblow to liberal education at Georgetown. Instead of holding this one campus as sacrosanct, GUSA leaders should establish themselves as trustworthy partners for the University while keeping in mind that “student life” means different things to different people.

Or, at least, that’s the argument.

Wanna live with Connor in Rosslyn? Email him at cjones@georgetownvoice.com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

september 19, 2013

Hoya football can’t find answers against Marist

by Joe Pollicino Despite entering this past Saturday’s game as overwhelming favorites after a dominating 42-6 win against Davidson (0-2, 0-0 Pioneer), the Georgetown football team (1-2, 0-0 Patriot League) put in a feeble effort against Marist (1-2, Pioneer), losing 43-23 at Multi-Sport Field.

“It sure showed like it was a let-down game,” said Georgetown Head Coach Kevin Kelly.

“It was a poor performance from myself all the way down, and we’re just going to have to rally.”

Georgetown got off to a horrific start when, on the first play of the game, redshirt senior quarterback Isaiah Kempf ’s deep passing attempt was intercepted by Marist senior safety Tyler Ramsey. The Red Foxes took advantage as senior quarterback Chuckie Looney connected on a 6-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Armani Martin to give Marist an early 6-0 lead. Following a Georgetown punt, Marist senior kicker Jesse Signa converted a 43-yard field goal attempt to extend their lead to 9-0 with 7:04 remaining in the first.

After the teams exchanged punts, the Hoyas appeared poised to score after moving the ball swiftly into Marist territory, despite starting the drive from their own 2-yard line. But it all proved fruitless, as the Red Foxes recovered a Kempf fumble at their own 25-yard line. Georgetown did bounce back, however, as sophomore running back Jo’el Kimpela rushed for a 2-yard touchdown to cut the Marist lead to 9-6, with 9:30 remaining in the second quarter. A few series later, Georgetown senior kicker Matt MacZura’s 44-yard field goal tied the game at 9 with 1:19 remaining in the half. The Red Foxes swiftly responded as they marched 79 yards on six plays,

culminating in a 6-yard touchdown rush by Looney to give Marist a 16-9 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Red Foxes quickly put the Hoyas on their heels, scoring three unanswered touchdowns to go up 37-9 with 4:09 left in the third quarter. Looney completed 17yard and 10-yard touchdown passes to junior wide receiver Matt Tralli and junior running back Wale Onakoya exploding for a 55-yard touchdown run.

Kempf connected on two touchdown passes to senior wide receiver Zack Wilke and sophomore wide receiver Jake DeCicco on consecutive possessions to cut the deficit to 3723 with 11:08 remaining in the fourth quarter. However, the Red Foxes wouldn’t go away.

On the ensuing drive, Looney led Marist on a time-consuming 12-play, 81-yard drive that culminated in a 26-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Bartley Leneghan to cap the scoring and seal the victory for the Red Foxes.

“You can’t make mistakes.

You can’t turn the ball over,” said Kempf, who otherwise played well, completing 35 of 52 passes for 398 yards with two touchdowns. “I put the defense in really bad position… You just can’t do it with especially the injuries we’ve had. It’s inexcusable.”

The Hoyas played without two of their starting linebackers, senior Dustin Wharton and junior Nick Alfieri, due to injuries. Their absence certainly showed. The defense struggled to contain a balanced Red Foxes offensive attack that seemed to do as it pleased while amassing 505 total yards, including 230 yards rushing.

The Marist defensive line wreaked havoc on the Hoyas’ protection schemes, managing to sack Kempf seven times. Even when he wasn’t sacked, Kempf had to scramble frequently.

ANDRES RENGIFO

A litany of errors doomed the football team in their loss to Marist.

“A lot of it’s on me. I wouldn’t put all the blame on the lineman,” said Kempf.

“I’m the one back there doing the protection checks. Sometimes, I made a few mistakes of sliding them the wrong way… I need to be protected to be successful, but it starts with me.”

One positive for the Hoyas is that the offense, barring

turnovers, moved the ball effectively down the field, especially in the no huddle. In total, the Hoyas accumulated over 453 yards of total offense and 27 first downs. Wilke, who had 10 receptions for 108 yards, and DeCicco, who had seven receptions for 118 yards, seemed open all night.

“Overall, I think we did well [on offense], but we could

do a lot better,” Wilke said.

“We started off a little slow.

We got to keep going, keep fighting, and play hard.”

The Hoyas return to action this Saturday when they travel up north to Providence, RI to face Brown (0-0, Ivy League).

The Blue and Gray will look to avenge last year ’s humiliating 37-10 homecoming loss at the hands of the Bears.

the Sports Sermon

“I just want apple pie. I don’t feel like talking. I want to go to Whole Foods, enjoy my Whole Foods and play with my teammates.” -Metta World Peace, New York Knicks Forward Also an undefeated boxer prior to the fight, “Canelo” was guaranteed 5 million dollars from the fight’s contract. You would think this isn’t a bad paycheck for a night’s work, until you hear the rest of the fight’s payout.

Mayweather, who ended up winning the fight, brought in 41.5 million dollars before adding revenue from pay-per-view buys, all guaranteed before the first bell rang. It seems outrageous that one athlete could make so much in one night, especially outside of the major sports leagues of the world, but this is a testament to Mayweather’s dominance.

There was a time when Mayweather had a rival. Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines was

times before without losing.

Marquez knocked Pacquiao The most recognizable faces out in the sixth round, but the in sports make millions each year, 39-year-old’s physique and new but the athlete sitting atop the fitrainer, who had been associatnancial world doesn’t compete in ed with PED’s previously, along the NFL, MLB, NBA, the Premier with questionable drug testing League, or La Liga. Some know policies, made many doubt the him as “Pretty Boy” while others legitimacy of Marquez’s vicknow him, more appropriately, tory. Regardless, Pacquiao fell as “Money.” But no matter what out of the spotlight and left you call him, Floyd Mayweather Mayweather as the undisputed knows how to bring millions. pound-for-pound king.

Boxing’s empire has certainMayweather’s ability in boxly waned since the days of the ing is unquestioned. Against world-renowned heavyweight Alvarez, who many believed to champions, but, for the man at be his most formidable oppothe top, the fighters struggling in nent, Floyd never looked to be small bouts are irrelevant. Mayin trouble. Mayweather put on weather is a welterweight boxer a boxing clinic and extended the who is ranked unanimously as winning streak that began along the top pound-forwith his profesPete Rose Central pound fighter in the sional career. And world. as long as he keeps Da bettin’ line Since turning pro winning, “Money” Dookies Margin Hoyas in 1996, Mayweather will keep seeing the (underdogs) (duh!) has fought 45 times (favorites) money flow. In 2013 and won 45 times. alone, Mayweather Fab Melo No fight has even has earned over 499 N # # # BA Rank been close, with only $70 million without Browns Trent Colts one judge out of the receiving any enMy Heart== Two Episodes dorsements. Even 135 that have scored Breaking Bad his fights ever writing a scorecard in dominant form for most of scarier, 2012 was more lucrative, against Mayweather. As a result, the 2000s and sparked a debate allowing the fighter to net $85 he has become by far the planet’s among experts about who was million in winnings. most recognizable fighter. the best fighter in the world. But Mayweather’s activities The sweet science is no longer Pacquiao ran into two unfortu- outside of the ring are quesin the mainstream. All top-billed nate fights during the past year, tionable, but when it comes to fights run on pay-per-view chan- the first against Timothy Bradley prize fighting and bringing in nels and have a greatly restricted in which “Pacman” was seeming- business, he can do no wrong. audience. The most watched fight ly robbed by the judges’ rulings.

An interesting question for in this era of boxing had less than Bob Arum, who promoted Mayweather is retirement. three million pay-per-view buys. the fight, said, “If this was a The 36-year-old still looks to In contrast, the Super Bowl, foot- subjective view that each of [the be unstoppable and will be ball’s marquee event, brings in judges] honestly held, okay. I able to schedule big fights in over 150 million viewers annual- would still disagree, but then the foreseeable future, but the ly. However, Mayweather’s abil- we’re off the hook in terms of legacy of an undefeated fightity to generate buys allows him there being no conspiracy. But er is much different than that to pick his opponents and take a there needs to be an indepen- of a one-loss fighter. majority of a fight’s purse. dent investigation, because it Mayweather will face a Mayweather’s last fight was strains credulity that an event dilemma as he keeps winning on Sept. 14th with 23-year-old everybody saw as so one-sided and aging. The allure of anSaul “Canelo” Alvarez. Alvarez, one way, all three judges saw it other payday may keep Mayhailing from Guadalajara, is the as close. It strains credulity.” weather in the ring one bout pride of Mexico and has brought Pacquiao’s next fight was too long. As of now, though, in enough supporters to easily against Juan Manuel Marquez, this question isn’t important. outnumber Mayweather’s fans. who Pacquiao had fought three Just show him the money.

by Chris Almeida

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Men’s soccer edges JMU in extra time Volleyball bounces back

by Chris Castano Not many soccer teams can say they had so many chances on net in a game that they actually broke the goal. But now the Hoyas men’s team can. With 14 minutes left in the second half of Georgetown’s game against James Madison, a shot from a gray shirt dislodged the goal from its rigging.

This excuse for a water break on a hot Sunday afternoon summed up the Hoyas’ afternoon perfectly.

Despite breaking down the James Madison defense, breaking any chances of control the Dukes tried to exert on the game, and breaking quickly with the ball any chance they got, the Hoyas did not find it easy to break onto the scoreboard.

“We got into a really good rhythm. We had the ball a lot. …

The reality is that we had the ball for so long, and they defended for so long. That really runs out a lot of legs. We told the guys to be patient and keep the tempo high. The spaces would come,” said Head Coach Brian Wiese.

Wiese was correct in saying the space would come. However, it didn’t appear until extra time when a surprise sub-in junior defender Jared Rist found sophomore forward Brandon Allen in the box, and he finally buried the ball in the back of the net to give the Hoyas the 1-0 lead.

When asked about his goal, Allen said, “Coach made a sub, Rist on for Josh Turnley. His first play he threw it on for me, I spin the guy, cut another player and then send it back post with my right foot.”

The Hoyas started the game brightly, dictating the flow and pace of the contest. Senior forward Steve Neumann and Allen combined well with junior midfielder Austin Martz.

Neumann and Allen worked hard to find space, but it was freshman midfielder Bakie Goodman who excited most in what was otherwise a quiet first half.

“The coaches put me out wide to start, but they let me roam around out wide and in the gaps in the middle because what they

JOSHUA RADTIS

The men’s soccer team squeezed by in overtime despite controlling the game.

McCourt helps Hoyas, hurts L.A.

A new piece of Georgetown history was written yesterday as University President John J. DeGioia formally announced that a $100 million gift from class of 1975 alumnus Frank H. McCourt Jr. will be used to found the McCourt School of Public Policy.

Being the largest sum ever given to our University, this gift is an opportunity for progress in a field that Georgetown has yet to successfully traverse. But as a sports enthusiast myself, I cannot help but wonder what the name “McCourt” means in the world of sports.

Although this name will be posted all over our re-envisioned public policy school, it will also be a constant, unfortunate reminder of baseball’s largest financial scandal in recent memory. $100 million is an extraordinary amount of money to donate and we are lucky to expand our academic horizons, but let’s take a look back a year or so and see where exactly this

money is coming from. Our story begins in 2009 when the curtain dropped on the absolute mess that was the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ownership as McCourt’s now ex-wife Jamie filed for divorce.

This embarrassing debacle between husband and wife caused serious distractions in the management of the baseball franchise that would severely affect the efficiency and legitimacy of the organization. It also provided a new transparency to the McCourt ownership module, which is where the most offensive decisions the McCourts made had been hidden. From the time that McCourt bought the Dodgers in 2004 to this point in 2009, the couple had achieved a debt of $460 million by providing the team’s worth as collateral for the massive loans they hungered for.

Unless multi-million dollar real estate purchases and what most would say was a ridicu-

want me to do is pick the ball up in the middle and go at the defense and attack.” Goodman said,“That’s why you see me all over the place in there.”

The Hoyas stepped their intensity up right from the outset of the second half. Freshman forward Alex Muyl had an excellent chance to put the Hoyas in front in the 50, but, after a flurry of desparate kicks and saves, the ball ended up sailing over the net. The Dukes registered their first chance of the game in the 76th minute when Georgetown keeper Tomas Gomez was called into action for a close range save.

Neither the Hoyas nor the Dukes could find a winner, so the match headed into extra time. In the 95th minute, Coach Wiese subbed Jared Rist into the game, a player who hasn’t seen much game time over his Georgetown career. Rist turned out to be the missing link the Hoyas were seeking, as he set Allen up for the goal that would end the contest. The game finished 1-0, the Hoyas walking away triumphant.

Wiese will have a few issues to address with his team in terms of capitalizing on chances but was ultimately happy with how Sunday’s game turned out.

“JMU didn’t make it easy.

They ended up sitting deeper and deeper and the spaces got tighter and tighter,” he said. “It got harder as the game went on.

We needed to be taking more chances. … I thought the guys had a really good level of concentration, were disciplined, and got the result.” lously lavish lifestyle might have had some positive effect on the team, then I wouldn’t say that McCourt had the team’s best interest in mind when he borrowed almost half a billion dollars. I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with McCourt’s way of living had he not been putting one of the most storied franchises of our nation’s pastime in

All The Way

by Steven Criss A bi-weekly column about sports

jeopardy. He threw the Dodgers into bankruptcy, and for no better reason than because he selfishly wanted to spend more money than he could afford.

What is most enraging about all of the hassle and conflict that McCourt forced upon the Dodgers, their fans, Los Angeles, and Major League Baseball was that, in the end, he won. He left the broken-down franchise with all its newfound inefficiencies

by Emmy Buck This past weekend, the Georgetown Volleyball team finished off the Active Ankle Tournament in Gainesville, Fla. with a satisfying 2-1 record. Although they lost their first match to Florida in three sets, the team quickly rebounded with two wins against Western Michigan and Iona.

Florida, ranked fifth in the nation, proved to be more than just a team competition. Family rivalry between Georgetown’s own Caitlin Brauneis and the Gator’s Taylor Brauneis spiced up the match. “Before and after, of course, we exchanged glances,” said freshman setter Caitlin Brauneis. “But during the game, we were pretty serious.”

The team remained focused throughout the match, breaking down the game into smaller pieces. Junior MacKenzie Simpson had a strong performance with ten digs throughout the game.

“MacKenzie took charge in the back row,” said Head Coach Arlisa Williams. “She made some pretty impressive digs.” Unfortunately, the Hoyas couldn’t beat the Gators, losing in three (25-14, 25-14, 25-10).

In their next matchup, the Hoyas faced Western Michigan and quickly fell behind two sets. At halftime, the team rallied to devise a comeback. Coach Williams said, “We talked about the need to serve aggressively, and our team went out and got them out of system.”

and management debacles after a $2 billion bankruptcy sale to Magic Johnson’s group. After paying off a debt of almost $600 million, legal fees from his divorce, taxes, and the $131 million he was required to give his ex-wife, McCourt walked away from the ruins of a baseball team with over $800 million in his pocket, ready to continue his days in luxury.

So what lessons did we learn from this tale of irresponsibility, greed, and poor foresight?

I guess sometimes the antagonist just gets his way no matter how unfair his actions, but, on the bright side, at least McCourt won’t be investing his money in any more baseball teams close to our hearts any time soon.

Also, even when taking advantage of people and situations for personal profit, you can still see the positive amid a cloud of deceit and demise. Enter the McCourt School of Public Policy.

Although I shudder to think that McCourt’s lack of respect and care towards the Dodg-

With the help of service runs from sophomore defensive specialist Emily Gisolfi and junior middle blocker Dani White, the Hoyas were able to seal the third set. “I tried to pick out the girl in the five zone,” White said. “She was looking nervous, I was looking nervous. But it was who was going to crack first.” Georgetown came back strong, winning the hotly-contested third set 27-25.

Bent on continuing their winning streak, the Hoyas won the fourth set 25-20 with an ace by Gisolfi. In the final set, both senior outside hitter Brooke Bachesta and freshman right side hitter Shannon Ellis proved to be crucial assets with their respective back-to-back kills. Georgetown celebrated a great victory, with a final score of 15-10.

In their third matchup, the Hoyas faced Iona, who showed some spark in the second set after the Hoyas took the first, exploiting Georgetown’s fatigue from the Michigan game. The Gaels won the second set 25-18. “That match was a mental game,” White said. “We knew that we could beat them, it was just how efficiently we could do it.” The Hoyas refocused their efforts and pulled out with two consecutive wins in the third and fourth sets, 25-21 and 25-18.

The team will travel to the Gold & Blue Tournament in Morgantown, W.V. this weekend to face West Virginia and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

ers and Major League Baseball could be good in any way, I have to realize that there is some truth to that statement. He trampled all over Major League Baseball by humiliating one of its teams and dragging it to the brink of relegation, but at least we get a new school out of it.

Ignorance is a truly unfortunate condition and so, as long as we know where all this wonderfully generous gift money is coming from, we can optimistically look forward to the new direction Georgetown will be taking in the field of public policy.

I can’t help but still feel a little greedy myself though.

I wish McCourt could give a little back to the world of baseball, or at least to Georgetown’s baseball program. Maybe he could spare a couple more million on helping our own Hoya athletes in their pursuit of success (on-campus baseball field, hint hint).

Make some policy with Steven at scriss@georgetownvoice.com

8 the georgetown voice

feature

september 19, 2013

How LGBTQ FRIENDLY

ARE WE?

In the past year, Georgetown has been cited in national media as a trailblazer in LGBTQ issues for a Catholic university. Although seeing students sporting “I am” shirts and toting rainbow flags around campus feels as normal today to the average student as Nantucket Reds and Sperrys, activists say Georgetown still has a long way to go before it can truly call itself “gay-friendly.”

“President DeGioia turned around admirably when he announced the LGBTQ Initiative,” Luciano said. “It was a brilliant move. And that’s when things began to change.”

Though Georgetown administrators have embraced certain pro-gay causes, this shift came about thanks to the decades-long efforts of student activists rallying around LGBTQ rights.

“GU Pride was the one that made our existence possible, and I will never forget that. It is student activism that made us possible,” Subbaraman said.

2

Mural from the Out for Change campaign, 2007

1

Where we’ve

BEEN

Four decades ago, the Georgetown community embarked on what was to become a long journey toward becoming a “gay-friendly” university. From where we stand in 2013, it isn’t apparent for most that this journey was, and continues to be, an uphill trek against strong winds of intolerance and ignorance.

After the establishment of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance by a group of undergraduates in 1980, LGBTQ students at Georgetown faced open and vocal opposition from both students and administrators. Though some faculty members and administrators tried to address LGBTQ concerns, intolerance for this minority still permeated the Georgetown culture.

After decades of conflict, which included a lawsuit filed by student groups at both the main campus and the law center in 1981 to allow gay and lesbian groups to receive formal recognition from the University, a series of hate crimes in 2007 finally spurred students to seek large-scale action.

“This one galvanized the student body,” said Sivagami Subbaraman, director of Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center.

In 2006, the year before the formation of what became known as the Out for Change campaign, 15 of 23 bias reports filed dealt with discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Tired of living as Georgetown’s best-kept secret, LGBTQ and ally students responded to the crimes with a campuswide student movement supported by a broad coalition of organizations, including minority ally groups like the Black Student Association.

“When we first had a meeting it was in this one guy’s Henle apartment and it was so small we had to turn the coffee table sideways so people could sit where the coffee table would be,” said student organizer Ellen Greer (SFS ‘11). What began as a grassroots movement of upset students quickly erupted into a full-fledged campaign that openly

Courtesy LGBTQ RESOURCE CENTER

Where we

ARE

Since its establishment in 2008, the LGTBQ Resource Center has provided LGBTQ students with safe spaces to receive counsel and socialize.

More importantly, change can be seen beyond the scope of the Center. Before the Center began its work in 2008, GU Pride was the only place that LGBTQ students had to voice their concerns. Today, LGBTQ students are visible throughout all aspects of campus life, from Residential Living to the leadership of GUSA. “That’s what has changed on this campus. Gay students feel empowered and safe to do what they love to do,” Subbaraman said.

Additionally, Lavender Graduation, an annual celebration of graduating LGBTQ seniors, has grown from a humble affair of 30 students and 75 attendees in 2009 to one of Georgetown’s most inclusive graduation events with 140 graduates and 225 attendees from the main campus as well as the law and medical schools in 2013.

These changes have attracted the attention of LGBTQ alumni who return to campus to find their alma mater, the place which once inspired dark memories of intolerance, transformed beyond recognition. For others, though, the wounds of their time here still run too deep.

challenged the University community’s bigotry—or perhaps worse, its ambivalence—toward a minority that saw its personal safety threatened.

“All of a sudden people were roused, a little bit frightened, and really angry. [So] they started to organize,” Greer said.

“Tensions were heightened. … People were either very vocally with us or against us.”

Out for Change reached its peak in October 2007 when students wearing “I am” shirts marched from the ICC to Healy Hall to deliver a shirt to University President John DeGioia, along with a petition demanding that the University hire a fulltime LGBTQ coordinator, establish working groups, and overhaul the bias-reporting system.

The incident remains controversial. According to campus media and student accounts, students wearing “I am” shirts were purposefully barred from Healy Hall that afternoon.

University officials deny these accusations, claiming that, due to a number of high-profile events, the North section of Healy Hall was closed to the general public that day.

Nevertheless, the efforts of student activists ultimately spurred the University to action. In the spring of 2007, DeGioia convened a town hall forum at which he announced the establishment of an LGBTQ resource center, the first of its kind on a Catholic campus, in addition to the creation of three working groups which would bring faculty, students, and administrators together to improve the conditions faced by LGBTQ Hoyas.

In a sentiment expressed by others involved with the campaign, Greer said, “[DeGioia] did a big thing in sticking up for us that day. ... I will always be grateful to President DeGioia.”

Prior to the Out for Change campaign, support for LGBTQ students largely existed behind closed doors. “There was only one employee, Bill McCoy, who was assigned to support LGBTQ students, and he was only funded at half-time though he worked more than a full-time job,” said Dana Luciano, an associate professor in the English Department.

Courtesy LGBTQ RESOURCE CENTER After 2007, it was no longer possible for the President DeGioia with GU Pride leaders, 2012 University to ignore the needs of its students.

georgetownvoice.com

3

the georgetown voice 9 Todd Olson, Vice President for Student Affairs, articulates that in dealing with gender identity, the University stands firm on its view of gender as binary.

“There is an emerging view that gender identity is sort of something you play with.

I think that is quite a different view than the Catholic view of identity and of human sexuality,” he said.

The University cites the position of the Church as the reason it continues to reject calls for gender-neutral housing. As Olson put it, “The fact is, we are a Catholic and Jesuit university. … We do not support gender-neutral living arrangements in university housing because of our mission and what we view as an appropriate way to structure campus housing.”

Though Olson insists that the University has made efforts to work with transgender students on an individual basis, Dever claims she did not receive any support from the University during her identity struggles last year. “It was definitely on my own. ... Beyond the fact it was taking place on campus, it was definitely individual. There was not much assistance from the Center at all,” she said.

Over the past year, the trans* community has begun to grow in the public sphere. (“Trans*” is an umbrella term that includes all individuals in the gender identity spectrum.) Last Wednesday, GU Pride elected its first trans* board member, Celeste Chisholm (COL ‘15).

Since her election was announced, Chisholm has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the campus community. “Since then the response has just been astounding. …

This just affirms my faith in Georgetown,” Chisholm said.

Moreover, Dever has been working in conjunction with the LGBTQ Resource Center to generate more support for transgender students on campus.

From an administrator’s perspective, the future looks hopeful for Georgetown’s trans* community. According to Olson, all new buildings constructed on campus, including the North East Triangle Project, will include individual or gender-neutral bathrooms. Administrators are also discussing whether to allow students to use their preferred rather than legal name for their NetID. Despite promises from the University for change, however, Dever remembers an incident in which her floormates in LXR voted to distinguish one of their bathrooms as gender-neutral, but the University denied their request. “It’s the fact that they refuse to allow it when it is such a fundamental need for so many transgender people is not good,” Dever said.

In the coming years, the way Georgetown pulls or pushes the campus community in its balancing act will be indicative of how LGBTQ-frendly this campus has really become. Indeed, securing an inclusive environment for Georgetown’s non-conforming individuals seems to be next in line to tip the scales.

Where we’re

GOING

Compared to what Georgetown used to be four decades ago, or even a few years ago, campus culture is nearly unrecognizable.

Nevertheless, LGTBQ activists say that a lot of work remains to be done. Nine of the 16 bias reports filed last year dealt with issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

In a statement to the New York Times in July, Thomas Lloyd, president of GU Pride, said, “Every month is a good month to be out at Georgetown.”

In an interview with the Voice, Lloyd reaffirmed his statement—but added an important caveat. “The ‘LGB’ community has grown enormously over the last few years,” Lloyd said.

In response to Lloyd, Kimberly Blair (COL ‘15) said, “I would actually challenge that and say that there is more on the ‘G.’” “In my time here I have seen the same stagnant experience for queer people of color,” Blair said.

“There is not a lot of visibility for queer people of color on campus. They don’t feel solidarity.”

Blair, who identifies as Hispanic, black, and lesbian, feels that student culture does not respect her idenCourtesy LGBTQ RESOURCE CENTER tity as much as it would for a gay, white, cis-gendered male. ‘Cis-gender’ refers to an individual whose March for Community, 2010 gender identity matches their sex at birth.

“Just because I am recognized as a human being “A lot of them will never come back,” said Adam Talbot doesn’t mean I am recognized the same way as my peers,” (COL ‘12), a recent gay alumnus. “But a lot of them feel like she said. “There’s a lot of stigma.” they can maybe come back and start rebuilding their memoGU Pride, which in past years had accrued a reputation for ries of this place.” being dominated by white, gay males, has evolved into one In 2012, Lorri Jean, one of the law students involved in the of the most diverse organizations on campus. The majority of 1981 lawsuit against the University, returned to deliver graduthe board identifies as people of color or as women. Despite ation addresses on both the main and law campuses. “That’s progress in including more minority perspectives, many stuhow far the campus has come, that she who sued us to be dents note that GU Pride’s diversity does not reflect the reality recognized could come back as somewhat of a hero to say of the larger community.

‘Yes, the campus has changed,’” Subbaraman said.

“We all tend to organize most vocally around that piece of In November 2011, the Center received a $1 million endowidentity that is the first place of discrimination,” Subbaraman ment from alumnus and Chairman of the Board of Directors said. “For white, gay men, the first time they are discriminated Paul J. Tagliabue (COL ‘62) and his wife, Chandler Tagliabue, to against is when they find out they are gay because they are further build upon the Center’s resources. not discriminated against for being white or male.”

Although Subbaraman has tried to conduct the affairs Jason Capecchi (COL ‘14) realizes the importance of recognizof the Center in a way that is respectful of the mission and ing this dynamic of the LGBTQ movement on campus. “It is a values of Georgetown, opposition to the LGBTQ movement privilege to be able to do activist work or to choose what kind on these grounds persists among students and alumni. Last of activist work you want to do. A lot of the people who I see June, William Peter Blatty (COL ’50) filed a petition in Canon who are really active court against Georgetown for failing to adhere to its “Catholic as queer people at identity,” referencing the Catholic Church’s disapproval of Georgetown are cis, same-sex relations. In addition, Andrew Schilling’s (COL ‘14) white men … who article “Marriage is an Institution Defined by Procreation,” are also gay,” he said. published in The Hoya last April, proves Catholic sexual moralIn addition to stuity still wields significant sway on campus. dents who struggle “That way of thinking has a long history of correlation with with the intersection the Catholic tradition,” Greer said. “At Georgetown there is a of multiple identiplace for that. I don’t like it, but there is a place for it.” ties, LGTBQ students Many LGBTQ students on campus have nevertheless benclaim that Georgeefited from the Jesuit ideals upheld by Georgetown. “I really town also lags in its adored having the Jesuit educational experience here because support of transgenit is so based on self-reflection and not hiding or running away der students. from that knowledge of yourself,” Talbot said.

“I like to think It has been a difficult balance to strike, but Georgetown that Georgetown administrators have come to see the LGBTQ community as is a very accepting wholly compatible with Jesuit values. “Principles and cultures place, but at the develop. I think we have seen an expression of cura personalis same time I am still in a lot of different ways [over the years], just now with lesparanoid about walkbian, gay, and bisexual students,” said Fr. Kevin O’Brian, vice ing around campus president for mission and ministry. in a skirt,” said Lexi “It is always a balancing act—you have to be a trapeze artDever (COL ‘16), who ist to do this work,” Subbaraman said. “No matter how long I identifies as male-tohave been here, every day I feel like a trapeze artist.” female transgender. Lorri Jean visits the LGBTG Resource Center, 2013

Courtesy LGBTQ RESOURCE CENTER

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

september 19, 2013

The Bard brilliantly enters the stage and exits the closet

by Emily Coccia Tattered paint peels off the walls. A smoky haze fills the room. A luxurious yet torn red velvet curtain takes center stage. This decadent late-1930s Austria, teetering on the verge of fascist annexation, sets the backdrop for the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Measure for Measure, expertly directed by Jonathan Munby.

The show opens as the latenight crowd pours into one of Vienna’s cabaret shows—rich young men fill the seats, crossdressers croon on stage, and “The Sisters” strip out of their habits into lingerie to the delight of all involved.

As the show reaches its peak in a swinging, partnerswitching dance, an older man standing in the corner gropes a young black man clad only in black leather straps. The scene suddenly changes as the older man panics mid-embrace, pushes the other man off of him, and throws a chair across the stage. As the patrons flee, the man crumbles in his own shame and reveals himself to be Duke Vincentio, deftly played

by Kurt Rhoads.

Munby’s interpretation of Measure for Measure hinges the Duke’s actions on the shame he feels for being gay in a fascist government where Catholicism permeates all aspects of society.

After 14 years of prostitution, liberal sexuality, and decadence, Vienna stands in a state of moral depravation. This setting spurs the Duke’s decision

to abandon his position and leave Austria in the hands of a supposed moral puritan, Angelo (Scott Parkinson), who takes it upon himself to enforce the law with undue severity.

The action focuses on the plight of Claudio (Avery Clark) who, labeled with a scarlet F for fornicator, is sentenced to death under the harsh morality laws for impregnating his fiancée Juliet (Katie deBuys). Claudio sends the fabulously foppish Lucio (Cameron Folmar) to implore Isabella (Miriam Silverman), his sister and a novice nun, to intervene and save his life.

Isabella’s attempts to plead Claudio’s case reveal Angelo to be a man of inner vice and wicked lust himself, since he only agrees to save Claudio’s life if the nun will give up her virginity to him.

Through a plot involving the Duke disguised as a Franciscan friar, Angelo having sex with his own ex-fiancée who he believes to be Isabella, and the beheading of a man whom looks enough like Claudio to pass, the action comes to a head at a trial where the truth finally comes out.

Munby’s decision to place Shakespeare’s play in the overtly Catholic, fascist Vienna with the jazz cabaret scene as a hidden backdrop sets the stage for a confrontation between public appearances and private realities. The director weaves this conflict throughout the play, bringing to light discrepancies between characters and their social perceptions, allowing the

shaKespeare theatre COmpaNY

“What do you mean the Duke is gay? I didn’t see him at confession.”

audience poignant glimpses into the inner sense of shame many feel at their personal failings. These feelings become palpable in scenes such as Angelo’s self-flagellation after first lusting after Isabella.

Munby stages shame most fully through the Duke’s homo-

sexuality, as ordinary moments are transformed by a singular gong, the flash of red stage lights flicking on, and the sudden appearance of the same young man from the jazz cabaret.

This staging allows Munby to portray Catholic guilt on a personal, as well as societal,

Marxist manic pixie girls

It’s hard to imagine a Healy Lawn devoid of Vineyard Vines and Sperrys. But even Georgetown had an edgier age when The Who and The Grateful Dead were typical lineups at our spring concert. Beyond the gates, anti-establishment America flourished, and Jonathan Lethem’s new novel Dissident Gardens pulls you by the hand through a maze of iconic rebellious decades.

The novel is a whirlwind with a vast and wild cast of characters, but just like a buzzed traipse through a city you’re not familiar with, Dissident Gardens doesn’t leave you with a full image or wellrounded story. Instead, you feel like Lethem is about to tack on a “you just had to be there” to the end of his tales.

Mainly set in New York City, Dissident Gardens is a good way to jump into contemporary fiction. It’s stimulating, but I could put it down without too much regret. That’s the risk with an ensemble cast and overlapping stories—they don’t often hold together with the same power as one potent tale does. Still, Lethem is one of my favorite contemporary writers, and his latest novel is worth the read.

Dissident Gardens begins in the 1930s in Sunnyside Gardens Housing Complex, Brooklyn.

These “dissident gardens” are run by a communist cell and a neighborhood watch, headed

by Rose Zimmer—a firebrand Jewish New Yorker, communist activist and young mother.

Lethem based Rose on his own mother, activist Judith Lethem. In an Art of Fiction interview with The Paris Review, Lethem described his politically charged childhood. “Listen: The first third of my life was spent at political demonstrations, shouting my lungs

hoarse. … When you’re in the center of demonstrations, you believe. My life was a demonstration,” he said.

Dissident Gardens is still a book about people, but it’s also about the inevitable submersion of life in politics. Not good versus evil, not right versus wrong, but human meets human—and humans are political animals, in more than one sense. The history of the radical American leftism he paints is instructive, comical, and colorful. But the characters outshine the politics.

Rose’s daughter Miriam is “a Bolshevik of the five senses,” just like her mother. She dances

Under the Covers

by Emilia Brahm a bi-weekly literary column through the 60s and 70s in the streets of New York and eventually in rebel camps in the Nicaraguan jungle. When you first meet her, she is a knowit-all 17-year-old: “Miriam felt the freedom accorded to nobody special as a power equal to the Empire State’s mass and force. Had anyone ever already known what Miriam had at seventeen? It seemed unlikely.”

She may still be nobody special in history, as proper Marxist equality would recommend, but she’s the most compelling character of the novel.

Cicero Lookins is also a stand out. He is a massive, gay, black and angry college professor in Maine—where he is an anomaly, self-isolated to avoid inevitable marginalization. He is the son of Rose’s longtime lover and is taken under her keen, critical eye.

But just like Rose, who adores her daughter even as she puts her head in an oven, cynical Cicero falls under Miriam’s

level, transforming Shakespeare’s ambiguous final lines with a simple shake of the head and a single red light.

Lansburgh Theatre shakespearetheatre.org Sept. 12 – Oct. 27 $18 student tickets

spell: “Cicero’s sudden idol had a knack for making what he’d never heard of until that instant sound exactly like the life he craved for himself: dignified planet, Che Guevara, McSorley’s, falafel, Eldrige Cleaver, hashish, the Fugs, Ramblin’ Jack, Dim Sum.” Lethem’s novel has the same knack, at times. It is a hodgepodge of events, desires, sexual orientations, nationalities, origins, and characters, but they swim together in a way that somehow makes sense, pulled along by the dialectical materialism of Marxist history.

Dissident Gardens eventually cycles to the nebulousness of the Occupy Wall Street movement, where there are no communist cells and protest has taken on a distinctly millennial flavor. A “Marxist manic pixie” protester, Lydia, says, “It’s wherever you are, right now. …

Just living differently.”

No longer do we have the guidance of Marxist ideology and underground communist hierarchy. Modern rebelliousness is a very different kind of leftism from Rose or Miriam’s activist days. Maybe this is just the nature of the present—it lacks the selective highlight reel nature that we view the past with.

Dissident Gardens didn’t leave me nihilistic, though.

On the contrary, the energy of the hippy, free-love New York that Lethem adores and that his characters bring to life makes the novel well worth the read. And if you’d like to relive those bygone eras that Dissident Gardens drags you through, head to Politics and Prose on Oct. 3. Jonathan Lethem is speaking, and I’ll be there, channeling Miriam and expecting a wild night out in our own city afterward.

Get bougie with Emilia at ebrahm@georgetownvoice.com

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“I’m just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual Transylvania.” — The Rocky Horror Picture Show

the georgetown voice 11

Warhol brings whirlwind to Rosslyn Pho-king deliciousness

by Sabrina Kayser Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds takes you to a dreamland where your cares are lifted into the stratosphere amid the gentle roar of distant fireworks. Lost in the euphoria of unanticipated joy, visitors to the Rossyln Artisphere’s exhibit have a chance to experience a literal cloud nine in the center of a balloon whirlwind.

The brainchild of a collaboration between Warhol and electrical engineer Billy Kluver, the 1964 project that bore the first Silver Clouds exhibit in New York originally aimed at creating a gallery filled with floating light bulbs.

Instead, Kluver brought Warhol the heat-sealable material he was working with, and the artist folded it into airy clouds. These fanciful balloons have made their rounds since their first debut at

the Leo Castelli gallery in 1966, and this month the Arisphere is showcasing one of the largest east coast installations of Warhol’s creation.

The clouds themselves, one hundred and fifty strong, are made of a metalized plastic film filled with helium and oxygen.

Fans placed strategically throughout the gallery waft the balloons on currents of air, enveloping the viewers on every side. They drift in a clockwise rotation around the center of the space, creating a mirrored wall of balloons pressing inwards against the participants.

The Artisphere’s gallery displays a very relevant Leonard Bernstein quote: “Any great art work … revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world—the extent to which it in-

artisphere

If you’ve ever wondered how hipsters pillow fight, now you know.

vites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.”

Warhol creates a new ethereal world with his installation, one high up in the sky where irrational joy is not just accepted, but expected.

Silver Clouds defies the typical art viewer’s experience.

Warhol’s genius lies in the interactive quality and assertive nature of the exhibit as the clouds continually bump up against the viewers, forcing them to take an active part in the artwork. Children and adults sit on the floor in identical positions, playing with the balloons and posing for pictures. Against the blank white walls, the shadows of human bodies and metallic balloons intertwine in a display that enhances the action occurring at the center of the exhibit.

The clouds are on view at the Artisphere every Wednesday through Sunday until Oct. 20. This tribute to Warhol is central to the Artisphere’s goal of connecting artists and viewers through new technologies that emphasize interactive participation in art.

The fascinating quality of Warhol’s installation is its ability to bring together complete strangers in the same moment of incredulous delight. Hipsters and CEOs alike lose all social pretenses, frolicking amid an onslaught of balloons.

by Amanda Wynter Nestling itself into the cozy neighborhood on Wisconsin Ave, Pho Viet & Grille brings the Georgetown area a relatively inexpensive yet satisfying new eatery. This little café just north of Q St. aims to attract the pholoving crowd that wants to avoid the trek to Rosslyn for their Vietnamese gastro-fix.

Upon entering the small space, several employees immediately jump to seat you at one of the intimate wooden tables. Or, if you prefer, you can head back to the dark mahogany bar and place an order for a decently priced drink or—and this was worth a double take— a tall glass of the restaurant’s homemade soymilk.

Yes, that’s right, Georgetown’s growing community of health-conscious and lactosefearing students can obtain a fresh made glass of soymilk just a short stroll up the block. The fresh drink pairs nicely with the flan or fried bananas on the dessert menu.

Boasting seven different variations of the famous dish, Pho Viet & Grille also serves rice and meat combinations in addition to more expensive “Chef’s Specials.” The various spinoffs build off of the standard steak flank pho. No. 2

pairs both steak flank and beef meatballs in the soup. With tender steak flank and soft noodles, the meatballs’ chewy texture works to counter the delicate lightness of the dish.

The most interesting item on the menu, however, is the banh mi. Vietnamese cuisine includes this French-inspired baguette sandwich, which is filled like a spring roll but substitutes the typical shrimp or tofu for heavier meat. A hefty duo of pho and banh mi comes in just over $12.

You won’t find the communal feel of more casual pho restaurants at Pho Viet & Grille.

Quiet music and dim lighting set the mood for a romantic date or small business lunch.

With a straightforward name like Pho Viet & Grille, you’d think you know what type of restaurant you’re walking into. Instead, the combination of food and atmosphere create an odd pastiche of a 60s French bistro.

Take two cartoonish paintings of a French-looking chef with a substantial mustache, 40s American Big Band music, and Vietnamese noodles, and you’ve got Pho Viet & Grille. It’s a good place to grab a casual dinner because of—not in spite of—its endearing kitsch.

Al-Mansour triumphs with first film shot in Saudi Arabia

by Larissa Ong On paper, Wadjda is your typical Saudi preteen girl. She also possesses more spunk and spice than the entire cast of Mean Girls combined. This may be surprising given Wadjda’s context, but viewers cannot help but feel an inner glow every time the film’s titular character out-sasses the boys.

Inspired by director Haifaa alMansour’s feisty niece, Wadjda’s rebellion is the driving force behind the entire film. The power of Wadjda’s precious protagonist is testament to al-Mansour’s casting ability—the other characters are familiar faces in Saudi cinema, but Waad Mohammad never acted before this film. For all her cheek, the childlike Mohammad is always endearing and never angsty.

Wadjda’s quest to get a bike seems at first like a simple sto-

ryline, but the pursuit leads the young Saudi girl into far more complex territory.

Still, Wadjda is by no means a symbol of any women’s rights movement. In fact, al-Mansour told the Voice that she has zero political intention invested in her films about Saudi women. The true themes are persistence and not giving up.

“I am not a politician, I am an artist,” al-Mansour said. Nonetheless, a political interpretation from the audience is unavoidable.

While Wadjda unquestionably represents Islamic society, simply calling it a political film would be to miss the deeper human story that al-Mansour tells about her home.

She exemplifies artful sensitivity in the treatment of delicate religious topics, all while weaving in an enduring humor. The director never shows violence upfront either—the only fighting the Saudi men do is in

their video games, and Wadjda’s society is curiously receptive to aspects of American pop culture despite maintaining a conservative bent.

Because of her story’s strength, al-Mansour doesn’t embellish Wadjda with fanciful music or special effects. Instead, she allows the dialogue to stand alone and uses singing of verses from the Quran as musical accompaniment amid the film’s somber soundlessness.

Although al-Mansour faced enormous limitations in creating the first film entirely shot in Saudi Arabia, she still captures the authentic setting that’s necessary to convey her story. Muted yellow buildings paired with people’s monotone outdoor dress stands in stark contrast to the vibrant colors of indoor life.

In its final moments, the triumph of persistence that transcends gender expectations shines through.

This victory, executed as apoliti-

cally as possible, earned al-Mansour Saudi Arabia’s submission for the Oscars’ foreign-language category.

Wadjda wasn’t an obvious commercial pursuit or Oscar nominee, which makes its achievement even more triumphant. It may be too early to predict the growth of women’s filmmaking in Saudi Arabia, but al-Mansour hopes that her example will help make it easier.

“I watched a lot of film when I grew up. I gained so much knowledge from the way images tell stories. It’s the way I escape from reality. I wanted to find a voice and have fun with it,” alMansour said.

“Before, it was hard to make films. Now the possibilities are increasing. It’s a good time to be a filmmaker in Saudi.”

imdb

While women can’t drive in Saudi,checking out boys outside the bus is fair game.

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

september 19, 2013

C ri t i c a l V o i c es

MGMT, MGMT, Columbia Records MGMT’s self-titled LP is a beautiful labyrinth that can only be appreciated once you break free of its constricting walls. Though weirder than ever, the electro-soaked, psychrock sound, first shared with the world on MGMT’s breakout success Oracular Spectacular, has become more refined and distinctive in their third full-length recording.

A child’s voice gives life to the first words of the album atop long, shimmering, synthesized notes. The innocence of this voice in “Alien Days” immediately establishes the mood of the song, further supported by a perky drum line and cheerful strumming guitar layered on 30 seconds later. Andrew VanWyngarden’s soothing voice takes over and tells a surprisingly relatable story about losing

his mind to alien control before the song drifts away into a fuzzy coda.

MGMT continues to play with emotion in “Mystery Disease,” a melancholic ballad. The distant vocals and dissonant synth chords combine to create an eerie atmosphere that keeps the listener on edge.

An agitated drumbeat carries out this spooky misery and ushers in “Introspection,” a cover of Faine Jade’s 1968 psych-rock jam. In this cover, MGMT’s cheerful synthesized woodwinds and reverberating vocals change the tone and create a jovial, dreamlike kaleidoscope of sound.

While the well-developed moods on the album illustrate the band’s exceptional songwriting ability, they can also limit the scope of the tracks. “Cool Song No. 2,” for example, is reigned in by its somber temperament to a deep register, leaving the listener longing for a treble note in every chord.

In a nod to their few vinyl loving fans, MGMT’s record ‘flips’ after the rapid-fire wake up song, “Your Life is a Lie.” On this ‘B-side,’ MGMT embraces the poetic style characteristic of their second LP, Congratulations. “I Love You Too, Death,” showcases this style, using Pink Floyd-esque bells and whistles

This season’s comic relief

Any show whose opening sequence revolves around Andy Samberg wearing a leather jacket and moving in slow motion is already at a serious advantage in my book. Now that I have my bias out in the open, I’ll go ahead and say that Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fox’s new sitcom and Samberg’s first major post-SNL vehicle that has nothing to do with nautical pashmina afghans, has some hefty potential.

While the show’s pilot was hardly a comic masterpiece, it’s rare that a series opener can achieve that. Saddled with character introductions, the story can understandably feel a little strained.

Set in Brooklyn’s 99th precinct, the aptly titled Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a workplace comedy about police detectives. Samberg’s Jake Peralta is the clear protagonist, in character as an excellent but immature detective—“the only puzzle he hasn’t solved is how to grow up,” as he is painfully introduced.

The shift that will inevitably change his ways in the future is the arrival of the precinct’s new captain, the macho and openly-gay Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher). The murder that was apparently connected to the theft of an outrageously expensive ham (let me remind you: this is Brooklyn) becomes background noise for the chuckle-worthy antics between Peralta and Holt, whose opposing personalities provide easy comic chemistry.

Samberg easily achieves absurdity, and scenes involving Speedos or “fire extinguisher roller chair derby” keep the show memorable.

The challenge is knowing when to tone down the slapstick to hit a few more subtle notes. Having seen his more nuanced performance in 2012’s Celeste and Jesse Forever, I have little doubt the former dick-ina-box connoisseur is up to the task.

Two other Fox comedies that had their season premieres along-

to build up a musical backdrop to a free form hopeless love poem.

Though perhaps the weirdest and least approachable major label release of the year, MGMT is a lovable and positive development in the bands genre-defining, psychrock sound. This carefully constructed musical maze dictates the listener’s mood at every turn, telling heartfelt stories through words, music, and emotion.

Voice’s Choices: “Alien Days,” “Your Life is a Lie” —Josh Ward

Grouplove, Spreading Rumours, Atlantic Records Grouplove’s Spreading Rumours: for those moments when you need a socially acceptable reason to scream. In a good way. side Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s pilot are no strangers to absurdity themselves. Both the quirky Zooey Deschanel-driven New Girl and Mindy Kaling’s self-titled The Mindy Project ended their last seasons by launching their central characters into literally foreign spaces.

After Taylor Swift brilliantly showed up to sabotage a wedding amid badger-related chaos, New

idiot box

by Julia Lloyd-George a bi-weekly column about television Girl’s Jess and Nick decided to give their friendship-turned-pseudoromance a shot. Picking up right where it left off, the show’s third season opener had them fleeing the loft for a vaguely anarchic Mexico, where they try in vain to escape the problems awaiting them back in L.A. (Nick ends up arrested, with his passport shredded).

I have to admit that I haven’t watched New Girl consistently.

Truly, lead singer Christian Zucconi has mastered a high-pitched and recognizable shriek that will not simply keep you awake, but keep you dancing through the band’s second album.

Each track is—though they would never admit this—a hipster ’s theme song. With simple and often repetitive lyrics, especially on slower tracks like “Bitin’ The Bullet” and “Hippy Hill,” Grouplove lets listeners picture themselves nestled in the sun-soaked grass of Coachella. Yet the punchy combination of instruments paired with vocalist Hannah Hooper ’s candied crooning also makes songs like “I’m With You” and “Borderlines and Aliens” strong candidates to be radio darlings this fall.

With 13 tracks running almost an hour long, Grouplove is certainly ambitious on this second album. Possibly a little too ambitious, as some of their tracks, “Sit Still” for example, fall short of the band’s established talent. In some cases, songs disappoint on their first impression. Yet with each replay, the tracks get more addictive. Instruments that at first seem excessive become esI’ve always been somewhat wary of Zooey Deschanel’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl vibe, but showrunner Liz Meriwether has managed to create a female-centric series that makes its protagonist far more interesting than the sum of her quirks. The roommate-friendship narrative might smack of Friends, but Deschanel’s Jess is far more evolved than the archetypes offered by Rachel, Phoebe, and Monica. She always has control of her own story, making sure not to let her budding romance get in the way of the roommate friendship that is the true centerpiece of the series—never has the phrase, “I got a really good deal on Craiglist,” been filled with such pathos. Going forward, New Girl clearly needs to retain this sense of unity while steering clear of sentiment and easy rom-com traps.

That brings me to the The Mindy Project, a show that has been giving me some mild emotional upheaval due to its disappointing second season premiere. Season

sential to the song by the time you’re on your thirty-fifth replay of “News To Me.” Grouplove’s M.O. seems to be their talent for melding brooding indie rock with sugary pop hits, and in Spreading Rumours, they don’t disappoint.

While some songs get lost in incongruity, the majority of the quintet’s second album will have most everyone tapping their feet. What the LP lacks in unity, it makes up in diversity.

Spreading Rumours, officially released on Sept. 17, may also be a perfect study album, if you’re into that sort of thing. The drums-keys-guitars mixture is electrifying and the lyrics are downplayed enough (sometimes reaching full-on mumbling territory) that they won’t easily distract you from your reading.

Again, I stress: Spreading Rumours is the perfect excuse to let out that scream you’ve built up over the past four hours of studying for your Intensive Arabic exam. You know you want to.

Voice’s Choices: “Shark Attack,” “I’m With You” —Annamarie White one was a pure wonder, making me fall in love with Mindy Kaling all over again. Dr. Mindy Lahiri was a sarcastic, narcissistic character that was difficult to like but entirely relatable and hilarious.

She returns in season two after a mission in Haiti to face the challenge of a new doctor in the form of James Franco. The plot’s aimlessness isn’t as easily supported by the clever dialogue and satirical tone of the first season, and Kaling’s character proves less outspoken.

Kaling has openly alluded to pressures to make her character more likable, something she appears to concede to with the narrative of moving to Haiti and getting engaged to a missionary, but it’s a tonal shift that lacks plausibility.

For the sake of her fan base, I can only hope she can identify a consistent voice for her show without bowing to an audience far too used to simplistic female characters.

Get Fox-y with Julia at jlloydgeorge@georgetownvoice.com

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— Madhuri Vairapandi

voices

14 the georgetown voice

september 19, 2013

Massacre hits close to home, points toward gun reform

by Ana Smith My phone woke me up Monday morning, notifying me that, as a nationally certified EMT, I was placed on standby for the District. Apparently there was a shooting at the Navy Yard earlier that morning and local authorities were searching for two other suspects in addition to Aaron Alexis, who had a history of mental illness.

The symptom “altered mental status” is something first responders deal with daily, whether it’s from a head injury, bodily trauma, shock, or diabetes. It is a way your physical maladies are expressed by your brain, even if there is no injury directly to it. First responders are also trained to handle patients suffering from mental illness.

These are cases seen on every shift, and EMTs don’t judge those patients. But, especially recently, mass shooters have a tendency for mental illness.

These tragedies have become

so common that some news outlets don’t bother to report on them anymore. President Obama can comfortably refer to it as “yet another mass shooting.”

Mental illness is not a prerequisite for gun violence.

Saying so would introduce an unfair stereotype that would be counterproductive. Someone should never be ashamed of being mentally ill, but the trend can’t be ignored. The Virginia Tech massacre, the Newtown school tragedy, and the Aurora shooting were all conducted by mentally unstable people who fell through the cracks of our dilapidated mental healthcare system.

Even if both sides of the political spectrum can’t agree on tighter gun control laws, they must acknowledge that doctors are missing or outright ignoring signs that patients may become violent. And somehow we are allowing the sale of guns to these citizens.

According to a recent New York Times article, Aaron

Alexis, now known to be the sole shooter, called the police because he heard voices a month before the shooting.

Alexis had a history filled with red flags that included past gun violence and a discharge from the military, and yet he was able to obtain a security clearance and buy a shotgun. His infractions and outbursts always fell slightly below what would’ve warranted serious punishment.

No red flags were detected in the granting of his clearance or the purchase of his weapon simply because the system was not constructed to consider such infractions as a potentiality for violence in the future.

If we can’t agree on what the Second Amendment means, let us at least address how we are selling guns in this country. Alexis had a checkered history of mental health issues and violence, but he could buy a gun because he never received a felony and mental health laws

restricting the sale of weapons are incredibly lenient. Let us at least devise a system that can help inhibit the sale of weapons to people whose mental state might make them a potential threat. The system should be restructured so that it can pick up on the red flags it currently can’t detect.

Though the sale of weapons doesn’t wholly prevent someone from obtaining a weapon, Democrats will be satisfied that there are new gun control measures, and Republicans can be satisfied that, so long as they are not considered an unstable threat, they can still buy and own guns.

If we can get to the point where our own president expresses his concern that mass shootings have become a commonplace “ritual we go through” every few months, then we are not putting in enough effort to solve the problem. A violent shooting within a military facility that ends in 13 deaths should nev-

er be something we talk about casually.

Mass gun violence isn’t something we can erase after the fact with supplemental oxygen or a tourniquet. It is not a routine run, or a patient’s symptom, or an illness.

It is largely the result of a system that fails to adequately treat sick citizens and prevent them from becoming a harm to themselves and others.

This time the mass shooting happened on our doorstep. If you’re a Hoya, a District first responder, or a politician on Capitol Hill, the Navy Yard shooting should have shoved your attention toward the gun control issue.

On Monday, the bloodshed was in my EMS jurisdiction, and it was anything other than ordinary.

Ana Smith is a junior in the College.

She wasn’t actually called to the scene because last time she got stuck in an elevator.

Supporting your LGBTQ friends: How to be a good ally

by Grace Funsten When I started high school, my cousin Veronica was a senior at the same tiny private school. I’d grown up following her lead, from emulating her long hair to watching Yu-Gi-Oh. Then I started shopping at Limited Too and Veronica got more into dark clothes and darker music.

When I began my freshman year I was still completely in awe of my cool older cousin, but I didn’t know how to follow her anymore, especially when Veronica came out and reintroduced himself as Riley.

At home, I was happy to argue with my grandmother about how being trans* and being gay are not the same,

but in school things were different. My new friends didn’t understand why Riley had cut off his hair and changed his name, and I didn’t really know how to explain. I told people off for calling him “it,” but I kept quiet way too many times when they wondered, giggling, when Riley was going to have surgery to get a penis or which bathroom he used.

I see now that I should have told them that Riley’s genitals were none of their business.

Riley went through a period of obvious unhappiness, starting in eighth grade, when he realized that his assigned gender and his identity didn’t match up. Since coming out, he’s once again become the enthusiastic cousin that I re-

LEILA LEBRETON

It’s too bad being gay isn’t contagious. But you can still be an ally.

member, and I enjoy seeing him make jokes about his guilty love for Green Day or get excited about Dungeons & Dragons. I’m still ashamed of the role I played in his senior year, though.

I should have stood up for him more and I shouldn’t have let anyone get away with transphobic bullshit.

I’ve struggled for a long time with how to best support LGBTQ rights. Obviously Riley has been a huge part of that, but I also grew up close to my godfather and his husband.

I haven’t always been so vocal about my support, though. In middle school, I didn’t want to rock the boat.

Later, I was afraid of talking about the injustice faced

by LGBTQ people because I didn’t want to offend anyone by accidentally using insensitive language. I still worry that while I try to fight inequality, my own internalized prejudices will actually strengthen it. By doing nothing, though, I enable the very oppression I want to eliminate, so I’ve worked on overcoming this nervousness and learning how to be a more effective ally.

One of the best ways to learn about the LGBTQ community is to listen. Go to GU Pride events. Ask LG-

BTQ friends to share their stories with you, if they’re comfortable doing so, and don’t assume that they speak for all lesbians, trans* people, or pansexual people.

I think Jamie Utt put it best in his article “The Importance of Listening as a Privileged Person Fighting for Justice”: “Listening is opening ourselves with the desire to learn and understand before we look for engagement, disagreement, or dialogue.” The most important thing is to take in and understand what is being shared with you, not what you can contribute yourself.

The next step is to recognize and confront your own prejudices. I understand that this is unpleasant. Nobody wants to think they’re homophobic or transphobic, especially since these terms carry an implicit moral judgment for many people. However, we all have internalized prejudices from our parents, the media, religious organizations, and schools. Choosing to leave those intolerances unexamined is inexcusable, but working against them is an essential step toward becoming an effective ally. Don’t be ashamed of your own prejudice—work to eliminate it.

Finally, remember that we will make mistakes in

our attempts to fight injustice. Don’t let that stop you from fighting—we should all use our mistakes as opportunities to stop, reflect, and check our own prejudice. It’s easy and dangerous for us to become defensive when someone points out our mistakes. Feeling guilty and closing ourselves off accomplishes nothing.

Being willing to apologize sincerely, learn from our mistakes, and move forward with our fight is the only way to work against injustice.

I am not the perfect LGBTQ activist. I’m not as involved as I would like to be in the fight against inequality. I make mistakes all the time in my efforts to open dialogues with my friends about it. I am still growing and learning as an ally, but I know that the steps I am taking are necessary to effect the changes I want to see—even the mistakes—and maybe one day my ability to be an ally will sincerely help someone out there like Riley, struggling with their LGBTQ identity.

Grace Funsten is a sophomore in the College. Even now, she still fantasizes about the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

voices

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the georgetown voice

15

NBA one-year rule detrimental to college sport and players

by Chris Almeida The landscape of college basketball today is quite different from just ten years ago, when it was the standard for players to stay in college. Players used their time in the NCAA to develop and help build strong teams that would span many years.

Michael Jordan may be remembered most for his time with the Chicago Bulls, but, during his three years at the University of North Carolina, he created a prologue to his storied career, which included slaying the Hoyas with a late jumper in the 1982 national championship game. Teams

used to have their stars return for many years along with the other players. This is no longer the case.

I’m not trying to argue that players should be required to play multiple years in college.

A handful of players are athletic anomalies able to make the jump to the professional game straight out of high school and should not be prevented from doing so. But, the NBA’s rule implemented in 2006 states that a player must be at least 19-years-old and one year removed from high school before entering the draft. This rule is hurting both athletes as well as the college game and causes an

CHRISTINA LIBRE

Breaking: McDonough court made of cheese, eaten by GU rats.

Intimacy in the Digital Age

In between researching African Peace and Security Architecture and finding the best rooftop happy hour spots, I spent my summer reading 40 Days of Dating. The blog is a social experiment in which two graphic designers, Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman, agree to date each other exclusively for 40 days in order to learn more about their “relationship selves” and see if they can change. The two friends’ dating stories are updated daily, allowing the world to see a playby-play of their evolving romantic relationship.

The concept is interesting and, despite the seeming intrusion into their private lives, it feels natural. Reading it, I was not at all disturbed by their revealing the intimate details of their relationship, such as the first time they had sex. While this sentiment may appear to be

a function of my own voyeurism, it actually points to society’s perverse interest in people’s intimate lives that has evolved from social media.

The site was created for 20-somethings, the original consumers of social media. We were the first to use social media in the contemporary sense—as a way to not only connect with friends, but to also share experiences with the global community. We were the first to challenge the social norm of maintaining private lives, trusting the internet with every detail from our favorite song of the moment to whether “lyfe was complic8ed.”

From the day that MySpace and Facebook launched, they became spaces for us to invite others into our lives. Now, 10 years after MySpace’s inauguration, this level of intimacy has become natural, and almost

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influx of high-level players who have no intention of staying in college past their first year.

Recently, the University of Kentucky has taken full advantage of these players, recruiting strong classes and moving many players to the NBA after one high-profile year in college.

In 2012, the Wildcats had a dominant season and won the national championship without much of a challenge. That year, five Kentucky players were chosen in the NBA draft, two of them with the first two picks.

This past year, the strategy didn’t pan out very well. Kentucky’s talented but inexperienced team failed to make the NCAA tournament. This upcoming season, Kentucky has rounded up what is supposed to be the strongest recruiting class in the history of college basketball.

They secured five of the top ten recruits as well as the 18th ranked recruit in the class. This year, it’s likely that seven Kentucky players will leave school for the draft.

Aside from their ridiculously successful recruiting methods, Kentucky and the one year rule combine to form a monster that is destroying the idea of college basketball. Don’t get me wrong,

expected. As a culture, we have become voyeurs.

What started as a naïve use of technology has become the norm. My newsfeed is inundated with wedding pictures or breakup quotes or “boyfriend and I at a BBQ :).” We expect to know things about the people we’re romantically involved with almost instantaneously—just stalk them on Facebook! The information that our parents’ generation kept closely guarded is now available with the click of a button. Stories that used to require intimate

Carrying On

by Sara Ainsworth

A rotating column by senior Voice staffers

knowledge of someone are now chronicled on Instagram.

At this point, we’ve become so accustomed to this level of access that having an online dating profile filled with such details as our last long-term relationship is not a new phenomenon. We are all too eager to share and connect with others.

And this voyeurism is, to a large extent, a question of how we connect with each other. The “challenge” of 40 Days of Dating was that they had to see each

NCAA basketball is still exciting, but if Kentucky can keep churning out teams like their 2012 edition, the tournament will start becoming a battle for second place.

Though I sit down at the beginning of each season and know the faces in the marquee games, it’s not from the prior season, but rather from stalking recruiting rankings and high school game tapes. The college game now changes drastically from year-to-year as recruiting has become more important than building a team identity.

Imagine what the NBA would be like if LeBron and other All-Pro players only played one year in the league. There is something about familiarity in sports that is comforting as well as exciting.

While seeing new talent on the court is certainly great, seeing it so briefly and concentrated in one place probably does much less good for the game than seeing all these great players go directly to the NBA. What is the point of spending a year in college if it isn’t essential to the development of a player? Many athletes do not start their lives in affluence and want to provide for their families. Why deprive them of that

other every day, but we virtually see each other every day. We’re constantly connecting, whether it is on social media or by text message. We have come to expect a level of contact that would have been unprecedented for those born 20 years earlier.

This constant connectedness means that relationships are played out online using our thumbs. Couples are ended by one wrong tweet and relationships started by a “like.” The minutiae of these virtual interactions become more important than face-to-face interactions because an iMessage doesn’t have facial expressions—unless you decide to use Snapchat, that is.

Our romantic relationships and even our friendships have left the realm of “private life” and entered the nebulous realm of “public life.” This is particularly clear in the fact that the season finale of The Bachelorette this August was the most watched television show this summer.

To some extent this voyeurism improves relationships, since it’s easier to identify common interests at the outset and get out of bad situations before they occur. However, it also creates a certain sense of false intimacy. You “know” someone and

ability for an extra year? The one year rule is forcing NBA-capable players to waste a year of their careers.

In the end, I think that the removal of the one year rule would be beneficial for both the NBA and the NCAA. Players that have professional-level talent should be able to go and earn money as soon as they want without having to waste a year playing for a team that will probably have little effect on their identity. College basketball will miss out on the few hyper-gifted athletes that come from the prep system, but will pit teams, rather than groups of players, against each other in its top matchups. I think that is what makes for the most compelling games. Some people might like watching Kansas and Kentucky play a competitive game with nine one-and-done freshmen on the court. But me?

I’d rather watch a game with some players I’ll see next year.

Just call me old fashioned.

Chris Almeida is a sophomore in the College. He really wanted to get into the University of Kentucky, but didn’t. make assumptions about them on the basis of their curated online profile instead of how they act in person. The traditional courtship and time that it took to get to know someone is now somewhat antiquated because you already saw on LinkedIn that they majored in art history.

Stalking has become a prerequisite of a date, because everyone in our lives can help us interpret a Facebook profile when a strange glance over dinner is too hard to describe.

Ultimately, this means that we’re much less likely to give people a chance. A distasteful post online or a misused three dots in a text message is enough to prevent a relationship from going further. Instead of allowing people to explain themselves in their own words, we predicate our feelings towards them based on a profile that they may not even check. We have taken some of the personal parts out of relationships as they have transitioned into our public, online personas.

My takeaway from 40 Days of Dating is that we need to give people a chance. They are often more than that drunken tweet last Tuesday, despite what your roommate might think.

artist spotlight

“Speak II”

“Cup Size”

From Celeste to You! Book: Zero History by William Gibson “It’s a great novel that has an overarching critique of capital society but in a wonderful way.”

YouTuber: Hennessy Youngman “His talks on art and aesthetics are ridiculously entertaining!”

Artist: John Singer Sargent “Call me a classical girl at heart” Drink: Sloe Gin Fizz

n e h C e t s Cele ol C s. s & Ma y , g ton biolo rt s Bo ro io A u e d N Stu

‘14

e rg o ? e t t G tis f a a r if ge a T r w o n t o u n w ac e d K to t @g .e n o 5 n C l2 ow td t

So you’re a painter — How’d you get started?

Well I was the kid who didn’t sleep during naptime, so teachers gave me crayons and it took off from there.

But I started painting when I was 12. I like to paint people, primarily portraits of my friends and porn stars.

Porn stars?

Yeah, it’s not like during a porn scene obviously, it’s just a close up of their face. They do really good headshots. I’ve always found a lot of very interesting faces with interesting expressions. In portraits, you spend a lot of time trying to get a face down, getting the right expression; you end really knowing their face, so I want to start off with an interesting face.

You’re a double major and pre-med. How are you managing being both a hard science student and an art student?

Conceptually, onceptually, it just makes sense to me because both my fields of study try to get at the human experience. It is sort of bidirectional, the way one leads into the other. I’ve always been very passionate about both art and science. I didn’t want to give up one just because I came to Georgetown, so I didn’t.

How ow has the Georgetown experience shaped your art?

Georgetown eorgetown has a small art community but I think that’s what also makes it so intimate and supportive. They really let you grow. They give you space to explore on your own, but also a good perspective on what’s going on in the art world today.

Broadly, what are your future goals?

Well ell I’ve always seen my art as an outlet. As an artist, I think you sort of suffer from this mental constipation if you don’t create. It cleanses you. I want to pursue a career in medicine but I don’t really see that as separating myself from art. All this time, I’ve been able to do both the sciences and the arts and I think I’m going to keep it that way.