VOICE the georgetown
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SAC FUNDING PROCESS DISCUSSED AT FORUM PAGE 4
TENNIS SETS UP TO HOST CLASSIC PAGE 6
SHOPHOUSE PACKS HEAT, NOT FLAVOR PAGE 11
Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w September 22, 2011 w Volume 45, Issue 5 w georgetownvoice.com
LET’S GET LOUD
2 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
Foxdog
by Nico Dodd
Voice Crossword “Don’t Quote Me” by Scott Fligor
Across 1. Snorkeler’s gear 6. 90’s commerce pact 11. Navigational device 14. Enlightened Buddhist
15. Torpedo vessel 16. Lockout assister 17. “A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it” 19. “You’ve got mail” corp.
answers at georgetownvoice.com 20. Lawman Wyatt 21. Ivan the Terrible, and others 22. Buy in 23. Harem rooms 25. GUSA position 27. “Pulp Fiction” lead John 31. Metallica drummer Ulrich 32. Shelley nightfall 33. Old phone feature 35. Sum 38. “¿Cómo ___? 40. Woodwind or brass: abbr. 42. Romance writer Roberts 43. Mixes 45. Challenges 47. Hipster’s interjection 48. “Father of the Internet” Vint 50. Not that bad 52. “I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I did not inhale” 55. Alike, in Paris 56. TV host Kelly 57. Rodeo rope 59. Biblical herd 63. Disney doe 64. Genesis pair 66. Tennis unit 67. “Pomp and Circumstance” composer 68. Old Olds 69. Three, to Catullus
70. “___ Be The Tie That Binds” 71. “Well, when the President does it, that means it’s not illegal” Down 1. Spell caster 2. Length times height, for a rectangle 3. Restaurateur Toots 4. Chess champ after Fisher 5. Brit. money 6. Paper holder 7. “Mama Mia” quartet 8. Unusual trick takers 9. Mortarboard attachment 10. NCAA part: abbr. 11. Manhattan mausoleum 12. Snapshot 13. Cobbler, sometimes 18. List ender 22. Home run king Hank 24. Pentagon tenant: abbr. 26. Rebellious Turner
27. Golf supporters 28. Remainder 29. Foresee 30. 1942 Preakness winner 34. Graffiti 36. Asia’s ___ Sea 37. Superman’s love interest Lois 39. Hockey venue 41. “Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement” 44. Chrysler lttrs. 46. Spanish Mrs. 49. Last words of Pledge of Allegiance 51. Acid neutralizer 52. Peak 53. Passenger ship 54. Mont Blanc covering 58. Genus of dabbling ducks 60. Wild goat 61. Fiddling emperor 62. North Carolina university 64. Tech. trade show 65. Author Brown
Are you a logophile? Share your love of words and help us write crosswords. E-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com
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VOICE the georgetown
Volume 45.5 September 22, 2011 Editor-in-Chief: Tim Shine Managing Editor: Sean Quigley Blog Editor: Leigh Finnegan News Editor: Holly Tao Sports Editor: Daniel Kellner Feature Editor: Kara Brandeisky Cover Editor: Iris Kim Leisure Editor: John Sapunor Voices Editor: Kate Imel Photo Editor: Max Blodgett Design Editors: Michelle Pliskin, Catherine Johnson Projects Editor: Rob Sapunor Crossword Editor: Scott Fligor Assistant Blog Editor: Ryan Bellmore Assistant News Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Assistant Sports Editors: Abby Sherburne, Kevin Joseph Assistant Leisure Editors: Mary Borowiec, Heather Regen Assistant Photo Editors: Julianne Deno, Matthew Funk Assistant Design Editor: Kathleen Soriano-Taylor Contributing Editor: Nico Dodd
Staff Writers:
Nick Berti, Geoffrey Bible, Rachel Calvert, Mary Cass, Emma Forster, Kelsey McCullough, Sadaf Qureshi, Adam Rosenfeld, Melissa Sullivan, Nick Thomas
Staff Photographers:
Sam Brothers, Lucia He, Jackson Perry
Copy Chief: Aodhan Beirne Copy Editors:
Claire McDaniel, Kim Tay
Editorial Board Chair: Jackson Perry Editorial Board:
Gavin Bade, Rachel Calvert, Ethan Chess, Sean Quigley, J. Galen Weber
Head of Business: Keaton Hoffman The Georgetown Voice
The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.
the georgetown voice 3 PASS THIS JOBS BILL
Economic woes require immediate action On Monday, Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies released a report revealing that more than one in three young families with children were living in poverty in 2010. The analysis was based on U.S. Census data made available on September 13, which showed that more Americans are living in poverty than at any point since 1959. These numbers are shocking, but elected officials in Washington, especially Republican leaders, have decided that the best thing they can do is nothing at all. Inaction might be shrewd political calculus, but it is terrible economic policy. Despite conservative rhetoric, the problem with the American economy is a lack of demand, not government intrusion in the marketplace. Nor are our economic woes due to fears about U.S. debt: interest rates on 10-year Treasury bills are at record lows, signifying that investors have
not lost faith in America’s ability to repay its debt. The real problem is that with so many Americans out of work and harboring concerns about the strength of the recovery, consumers are hesitant to spend and businesses have little motivation to hire or invest. With millions in poverty, no sign of economic improvement in the near future, and low rates of inflation and borrowing, it is clear that the government must take bold and decisive action. The American Jobs Act proposed by President Obama, while far from perfect, would certainly help the weak economy. Many of the proposals seem like no-brainers: spending on much-needed repairs to infrastructure and specific tax breaks to promote hiring. Yet Republicans, who initially seemed open to some of the ideas, which they’ve supported in the past, have reverted to their strategy of obstruction and obfuscation.
Their opposition is not based on rationality or reason. Even as they balk at a payroll tax cut that would benefit American workers and support Texas Governor Rick Perry’s assertion that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” they deride any attempt to tax wealthy Americans at a fair rate as “class warfare.” And while they point to deficit concerns as the reason the U.S. can’t afford to fix its infrastructure, they shoot down any measure to close tax loopholes that cost the U.S. billions of dollars. Georgetown students stand to lose a great deal if the necessary steps to fix this economy are not taken. Families will struggle with tuition payments, and graduating students will enter a stubbornly stagnant job market. The U.S. economy is not necessarily doomed to suffer years of economic weakness, but that’s just what will happen if students fail to demand immediate action from Congress.
NOT SO BIG EAST
Georgetown has a Big decision to make Over the weekend, news broke that Syracuse and Pittsburgh have decided to leave the Big East Conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference. With some predicting that the defections will prompt the Big East’s remaining members to strengthen the conference and others already preparing to write the league’s eulogy, Georgetown must be proactive in the coming days and months to protect the school’s athletic programs and ensure that they have a place to compete at a high level. If Georgetown’s men’s basketball team does not play in a strong conference, it will negatively affect our entire athletics program. The revenue from ticket sales and television contracts that the basketball team brings to the athletics program allows Georgetown to field stellar teams in a diverse range of sports. A less competitive schedule would draw fewer spectators to Verizon Center and attract a less lucrative
television contract, constricting Georgetown’s athletics budget significantly. Hoya basketball is also an important factor in the college decision process because it promotes school spirit and a unified student body, which is a selling point for Georgetown when competing for students who are interested in other schools with strong academic reputations, but without strong sports programs. Since Georgetown lacks a Football Bowl Series program on the gridiron, the school’s basketball team is virtually alone in representing Georgetown on the national stage. Without the publicity of a top-tier conference, Georgetown may cease to be relevant in the world of college basketball, causing further problems for the University as a whole. Georgetown has few options. Whether Georgetown should follow the lead of Syracuse and Pitt out of the Big East, fashion a new conference with other refugee
schools, or remain loyal to what remains of the Big East is a difficult decision. Georgetown must decide whether to remain in the conference it helped found, or to get out while it still can. If Georgetown stays in the Big East, whether or not the conference poaches new members of its own, it should first be sure of the continued loyalty of the remaining schools. The most dangerous course for the University to take would be one of inaction. The University must make conference stabilization athletic priority number one in this period of profound uncertainty. This is an excellent opportunity for the administration to improve relations with the student body by listening to the needs and concerns of the athletic department and its many supporters. Georgetown must be forward-looking and act in a way that will maintain the high caliber of its basketball program in both the present and future.
DIRTY MONEY
This newspaper was made possible 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 413 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 ... DC Students Speak Cover Design: Iris Kim
Politicization of the HPV vaccine disconcerts A surprising point of contention during the Republican presidential debate last week was an executive order that Texas Governor Rick Perry passed in 2007 mandating that girls in the sixth grade in Texas receive an inoculation against human papillomavirus. After the signing of the executive order, which the Texas legislature later overturned, it came to light that Merck & Co., the manufacturer of the HPV vaccine, donated $5,000 to Perry’s 2006 gubernatorial reelection campaign. Perry’s former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, was a lobbyist for Merck when the order was signed. Merck also donated to political action committees such as the Republican Governors Association, which, in turn, donated heavily to Perry’s campaigns in Texas. Overall, the Texas Tribune estimates that Perry has received roughly $30,000 from Merck
in campaign funds over his 10 years as governor. As the 2012 elections draw near, this episode demonstrates the extent to which politicians are clearly willing to sacrifice their most fundamental ideological positions for the sake of adding to their campaign war chests. Rick Perry frequently refers to his wish to make government involvement in citizens’ lives “inconsequential.” More damning, Perry told an Iowa crowd on August 16, “I don’t think the federal government has a role in … children’s education.” But Perry fought for the inoculation order to go through, even sacrificing political capital with social conservatives who contested it. A group of families even went so far as to sue in order to block the order, but Perry did not back down from the challenge. Perry has since claimed he regrets the order. How is it that someone who
defended the order by saying it made “good economic sense” regard the mandate as a “mistake” a mere four years later? The entire debacle highlights the influence that lobbyists—particularly lobbyists with large checks—have over politicians’ decisions. The proportion of glib lines in speeches about the benefits of a certain proposal that was bought instead of thought is depressingly high. This controversy makes it clear that above all, politicians treasure not their constituents’ needs, or their party’s priorities, or even their own personal beliefs, but their own political survival. On an issue as serious as the health of young women, politicians like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann should set aside the blatant politicking. If they don’t, voters should hold them accountable for using children for their own political goals.
news
4 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
SAC commissioners, student leaders talk funding by Eileen McFarland On Wednesday night, Student Activities Commission board members and student group leaders came together for a forum to discuss SAC funding guidelines. SAC has drawn heavy criticism in the past for its funding guidelines, which were created in the spring of 2010 at a closed meeting that involved no student group leaders. The meeting was meant to be an opportunity for SAC and student leaders to create a better system for both SAC and student groups. Students cited four main problems with SAC funding guidelines: the criteria for allocating money, the schedule by which student groups need to hand in their budgets to SAC, that club events need to fall into neat categories like a dinner or a theater event, and that events need to be approved by SAC two times before clubs can hold them. SAC commissioners at the forum focused on the first issue: possible changes for how SAC decides money allocation for clubs. The commissioners said they were planning on keeping a lump sum funding system, which means student groups will still need to finish their semester or yearly budgets in advance, and did not explicitly address solutions for the latter two issues at the forum.
SAC currently uses a bulk allocation funding system, where students specify the type of events they are planning, and SAC allocates funds according to that description. Students criticize this system because SAC grants a standard amount of money for event types regardless of the group that holds them, then doles out money for specific event types by averaging out the amount of money used by all clubs for such events. “One of the most blatant examples for this is general interest meetings,” said Eitan Paul (SFS ‘12), former chair of the International Relations Committee. “Every club, whether it’s the International Relations Club that has 300 people coming to its interest meeting … or Iranian Cultural Society, which may have 20 people at the meeting, which my roommate was chair of, all [clubs] get the same [amount of money].” SAC commissioner Jack Applebaum (COL ‘14) suggested the possibility of using a comprehensive budget system, in which each organization would submit detailed event budgets to SAC, including the monetary amount they were requesting for the event. The last alternative is the criteriabased system, where clubs would be awarded money in a lump sum format based on certain measurements of group information, which could in-
clude past spending, group requests, group size, travel and large-scale special events. The programming arc system, a type of lump sum system, also has been met with criticism from student leaders, but SAC plans on keeping the system. In March, student groups must submit an outline for all events they plan from March to the following December. They must also request funding for all events in that period. Groups cannot plan new events after submitting the programming arc in March, even if that event does not require any funding. “If we had invited Madeline Albright … to speak with us in November 2011, we need to invite her in February 2011 to see if she can come in November, in order to get her on the programming arc,” Paul said. “If she said no, but then in September 2011 said, actually, I can do it in December 2011, we’d have to say no.” It’s not enough for groups to have their events approved when proposing their initial programming arc. Groups must also request SAC approval for any event two weeks before the event takes place. In essence, all events must be approved twice. “What we learned, and this may not come as a surprise to a lot of people, is that the program
arc system really underachieved,” SAC chair Andy Koenig acknowledged in his opening speech at the SAC forum. Student group leaders also criticized the funding system for how it determines the amount of allocated funds. Groups can apply for funding events that don’t fall into one of SAC’s event categories, such as dialog events, but only once a year. During the question and answer session after the meeting, SAC commissioners clearly wanted to work with student group leaders to streamline the funding process going forward, but student group leaders mostly spoke from past experiences of struggles with the unwieldy bureaucratic funding process.
The bureaucracy seems to extend beyond the control of SAC student commissioners. When Applebaum asked the group if student groups who exceed their budgets should be penalized, Paul pointed out that student groups do not have access to their online cost centers. Koenig responded, “neither do we,” eliciting student laughter around the room. “I think that’s where a lot of dealing with this question is at this point,” Koenig said. “The University infrastructure really isn’t there yet. In terms of a timeline, that has to come up first. Because all too often it happens that at the end of the fiscal year a charge from March comes up. I honestly can’t speak to where the University is on that.”
julianne deno
SAC commissioners explain the funding process to student leaders.
Professors discuss suitability of diversity requirement at GU by Neha Ghanshamdas and Fatima Taskomur Last February, Georgetown University’s Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness’s Working Group on Academics released a recommendation calling for the implementation of a diversity course requirement in the Georgetown core undergraduate curriculum. Though the group had anticipated the requirement beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, professors and faculty at Georgetown are still divided on whether the course is a good idea, making the plan’s future uncertain. University President John DeGioia referenced the inherent difficulties in implementing a diversity requirement in his bi-annual interview with student publications in September. DeGioia said that the academic life developments have moved slower than the admissions and student life groups have. “When we start working on curricular issues, the time horizon is much longer be-
cause it does require such a depth of engagement of our faculty,” he said. The Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness grew out of the Student Commission for Unity, founded by Brian Kesten (COL ‘10) as an “initiative to deter instances of discrimination, climates of bigotry on campus... and create opportunities for students to learn from each other from an equal, mutual standpoint” he told Vox Populi, the Voice’s blog, in January 2009. The group became the Diversity and Inclusive Initiative in September 2010. Three working groups comprise the initiative: the Working Group on Admissions and Recruitment, the Working Group on Student Life, and the Working Group on Academics. The academic working group primarily seeks to foster cross-cultural understanding through the classroom and curriculum. The group suggested the formation of a Main Campus Diversity Requirement Committee, which will determine courses that fulfill the diversity requirement.
Leslie Hinkson, an assistant professor in the sociology department, expressed concern over Georgetown’s criteria for determining diversity requirement classes. “The requirements is only as good as the requirement [classes] themselves,” she said. “Almost every course on campus qualifies. If the requirement is made in part for increased opportunities to engage in dialogue with people from different backgrounds and critical thinking, you need more stringent criteria.” According to a Vox Populi post from August 15, 2010, the academic working group had already identified 140 existing classes in various departments at Georgetown that could count towards this requirement. Marilyn McMorrow, a visiting assistant professor in the School of Foreign Service, disagreed with Hinkson’s assessment. She likes the fact that the requirement easily fit into a student’s overall curriculum, as it stretches across many disciplines, deeming the courses neces-
sary “for the kinds of communities [students] are entering.” “I particularly like the idea that they wouldn’t be a sort of diversity syllabus that every student would have to take,” she said. “We could do a better job of addressing very tough political and social issues when we build the subject matter right into the courses rather than addressing it as a separate phenomenon,” McMorrow said. Hinkson doesn’t believe the diversity requirement can change campus culture. She thinks that in Georgetown’s current climate, a requirement would be more of a detriment to attitudes about diversity. “If we have a university culture in which people believe that having a Latin American or African American studies program is just as critical as having a program on Africa or Asia, it would make it a lot easier,” she said. Diversity requirements have been implemented at Cornell University, but only at one of its undergraduate schools (the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), a fact that is in-
dicative of the complexity of making curricular changes at any university. Thomas Hirschl, a professor of development sociology at Cornell, said the success of Cornell’s “Human Diversity” course is due to the “more progressive” nature of the CALS. “It is particularly pertinent in that college,” said Hirschl, explaining how CALS disciplines fit organically with those that fulfill the Human Diversity requirement. “The requirement does its job, [but it may be] more valuable for the mainstream students rather than those who are from different ethnic backgrounds.” Even if a diversity requirement is implemented at Georgetown, it’s unclear if current attitudes toward diversity on campus would change. “I think that the people pushing the diversity requirement think that it will help change the culture at Georgetown, that [students] will embrace the idea of diversity more and that just having it will change the culture,” Hinkson said. “I’m not too sure. I think a little more work will have to be done.”
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the georgetown voice 5
Pop culture supplements the humanities by Zoe Gadegbeku and Morgan Manger This semester, Georgetown is offering an array of popular culturethemed classes, from “Philosophy and The Wire” to “Videogames in Critical Content.” While the courses are in high demand, the idea of merging TV and movies with serious academic questions has drawn criticism and ridicule. A course called “Philosophy and Star Trek” has been offered at Georgetown for a decade but has been appearing on “Strange College Courses” lists across the internet for almost as long. Bestcollegesonline.com has it on its “20 Completely Ridiculous Liberal Arts Courses That Really Exist” list. The article praises Georgetown for being a prestigious university, but said, “When classes like this pop onto the course offerings list, we cringe.” Dr. Linda Wetzel, who teaches the Star Trek course, disagrees. “I think Star Trek is very philosophical,” she said. “When I watched it as a kid, I saw it as an ideas show rather than just Star Wars.” Take an episode of Star Trek where two of the characters switch bodies, she said. “That’s not possible unless the mind is not physical. It’s an excuse to examine the dualism philosophy that says we’re composed of two substances.” Kyle Fruh, a graduate student in the Georgetown philosophy department who teaches “Philosophy and The Wire”, said he did not create the class to discover something about The Wire. While he uses the show to get some philosophical ideas straight, he makes minimal use of it in class.
William Bejan (MSB ‘12), a student in “Philosophy and The Wire,” said professors battling the perception of not teaching a real class end up neglecting the pop culture material a little. “This has left it more to individuals... to draw the connections between the philosophy and the fiction,” said Bejan in an email. Another advantage of linking pop culture with philosophy is that students are usually far more interested in participating if they can talk about their favorite shows— ”Philosophy and The Wire” had 11 students on the waitlist at the end of the Add/Drop period. Several other culture-themed courses— ”Television and American Society,” “Cultural Politics of Television”— were also in high demand. “The show does a lot really well, [and it’s] how we can make philosophy classes more acceptable, more exciting, more appealing,” Fruh said. “The goal is to get students who might not have otherwise wandered in. Give them something that will last, be of value of them, and help shape a view of what is worthwhile in higher education.”
The Wire might convince you to major in philosophy.
Hold GUSA to promises It’s that time of year again, when we elect a number of our fellow classmates to senatorship in the Georgetown University Student Association. As regular as the yearly elections are, so are the outlandish promises made by candidates as they vie for the few votes necessary to win (one student only had to garner four votes to win one of last year ’s GUSA Senate elections). Though these pledges are often made by freshmen who have yet to find out how little an effect they can have on the bureaucratic machine that is Georgetown, upperclassmen make some of the same asinine
Wetzel realized the potential of a pop culture philosophy class when she saw that students could grasp difficult concepts much more easily when she used pop culture references. “When I present someone’s argument that he can doubt his body exists, [my students] would be yawning,” she said, but when she talked about The Matrix, her students got the concept right away. Wetzel said she was surprised that more students kept enrolling in the Star Trek course. “The material is hard. I thought I would teach this once and word would get out that it’s a lot of work, but students keep coming.” Fruh is optimistic about the future of pop culture classes at Georgetown. “This feels different,” he said. “I think there’s a sustainable kind of model here that you can use in the future and there’s a lot of material out there that is perfect for classes like this…. This is one strategy to adopt for coping with the crisis of justification—to get people excited about these things, about studying English and philosophy.”
promises far too often. Unfortunately, this also includes candidates for the more effectual branch of GUSA, the office of the President and VicePresident. Elected last spring, GUSA President and Vice-President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) ran on a platform of “re-envisioning the Hilltop”. Having served more than half of their term in the executive so far, have they lived up to their slogan? Meaney and Laverriere have already accomplished one of their campaign goals, securing funding to continue the Collegiate Readership Pro-
iMdB
gram, a service that provides free newspapers on campus. The duo have also delivered on their promise to create a program called “GUSARides” to shuttle students between M Street, Wisconsin Avenue, and campus during late-night
Saxa Politica by Geoffrey Bible
A bi-weekly column on campus news and politics hours on weekends in order to reduce the amount of foot traffic in the neighborhood. Still, only around half of their plan to re-envision the Hilltop has been completed. On the campaign, Meaney and Laverriere pledged to work with Aramark to allow
SaxaNet problems, expansion by Matthew Weinmann The University Information Systems set up a new wireless network, SaxaNet, in 18 University buildings to address the lack of wireless connectivity on Georgetown’s campus, but a number of students have had trouble connecting to the network at all. UIS is also looking to expand wireless coverage to areas on campus that are not currently provided wireless access. Prior to SaxaNet’s installation in July and August, most campus residences did not have access to wi-fi, and the existing campus network was unsecured. According to Beth Ann Bergsmark, senior director of UIS, security was the biggest priority with the installation of SaxaNet. Unlike HOYAS, the network requires a Georgetown NetID and password for access, and ensures the data that users send and receive is encrypted (and therefore difficult to intercept or steal). Though it was billed as a universal, campus-wide network, SaxaNet is not the only wireless network on campus. The HOYAS network is still used in New South Hall and the Southwest Quadrangle. All of the other buildings on campus, including Walsh and the Car Barn, have full access to SaxaNet, as well as GuestNet, which provides loginfree (and unencrypted) internet access to users without NetIDs. UIS is looking to expand SaxaNet into those buildings that
students to get hot food from inside Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall as a part of Grab ‘n Go. They also pledged to have a subsidized optional weekly cleaning service for Universityowned townhouses similar to the program that George Washington University currently has. Neither of these popular pledges has been implemented. The campaign also promised to create a GUSA Ambassadorship Program that would allow students to attend relevant international conferences in order to further promote Georgetown overseas. This idea has a number of fundamental problems (for instance, should we even be spending money on something like this?), and so the proposal has not yet come to fruition.
currently are not covered and get all of the campus on one unified network. They are also looking into expanding wireless coverage into several of the campus’s major outdoor spaces, such as Healy and Copley Lawns. There was confusion involved in setting up individual devices to operate on the network when students returned to school. Over New Student Orientation weekend, the UIS Help Desk had to assist several hundred students in connecting to the wireless networks. In the last week, UIS still received 50 service calls related to SaxaNet. The issues primarily revolved around software called CloudPath, which would automatically perform the necessary configurations on devices to connect to the network, Bergsmark wrote in an email. The software was released prior to the release of the “Lion” update to Mac OS X, which led to configuration problems for users with up-todate Apple computers. Bergsmark also said that some Lenovo products had two wireless controls installed, which made for connecting issues. “The introduction of SaxaNet was a significant change for our community,” Bergsmark wrote. “Any change brings both benefits and a period of adjustment. Setting your computer up for secure wireless can take several steps and the steps are different for different platforms and operating systems.”
No one ever expects a politician—let alone a student politician—to follow through on all of their campaign promises, but that does not mean we cannot hold their feet to the fire and try to make them follow through on them. As GUSA election season rolls around, make sure to keep in mind the platforms that the candidates run on and see if they actually follow through on them. Maybe the newly-elected senators and the current executive will break the trend of GUSAs past and follow through with the majority of their campaign promises. But I’m not holding my breath. Sweet talk Geoffrey into voting at gbible@georgetownvoice. com
sports
6 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
Hoyas look to ace foes at Georgetown Classic by Kary Jablonski Starting tomorrow, the balls will be in the Hoyas’ court. The Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams look to set the tone for their 2011-2012 season with a rare home appearance this weekend as they host the annual Georgetown Classic Tennis Tournament at McDonough Outdoor Tennis Complex. Players and coaches anticipate the tournament every year, since the competition is strong—this year including George Washington, Bucknell, Maryland, James Madison, UMBC, and Longwood—and the on-campus location makes it easy for students, staff, and parents to come out and support the team. “It’s something our teams look forward to,” men’s and women’s head coach Gordie Ernst said. “A lot of parents are coming, a lot of the players’ friends are coming. It’s become one of those weekends when the players want to do well.” Aside from the added pressure of impressing friends and family, the tournament will be an essential building block for the rest of the fall season, as both squads prepare for Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals at the end of October. “It’s our first test to see where we are in terms of other teams and how we view ourselves,” men’s senior captain Andrew Bruhn said. “We’ve worked hard and now it’s time to go out and play.” The women’s team comes into the weekend motivated by their success at the UNC-Wilm-
ington Fall Invitational, where the Hoyas won two singles flights in their best-ever performance at the tournament. Sophomore Tina Tehrani handily took the A flight with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Lauren Kline from Furman while junior Vicky Sekely claimed the B flight crown in defeating another Furman player, Alex Moreno, 6-2, 6-3. After last weekend’s dominating display in which Tehrani did not drop a set, expect her to have a target on her back this weekend. With her confidence growing from success at several summer tournaments and her triumph in Wilmington, the Connecticut native has distinguished herself as the Hoyas’ top player. Yet, with a randomly selected draw, she could likely be matched up against one of her own teammates in the first round, which Ernst believes could strengthen the teams’ overall performance. “Some of the other girls last weekend that didn’t do well are going to want a piece of her,” Ernst said. “The girls know I believe in heavy-duty competition, so if they have to play each other in the first round they won’t be surprised.” The Classic will serve a slightly different purpose for the men’s team, as they will be making their season debut Friday. Talented squads from Maryland and James Madison will force the team to quickly shake off the rust if they hope to secure victory in the tournament for the first time.
courtesy SPORTS INFO
Lauren Greco is one of several Hoyas who could make a big run this weekend.
But Ernst isn’t overly concerned about a slow start. “Win or lose, who knows what’s going to happen,” he said. “One thing I know now is our guy’s team is ready to play. They’re the most hungry team I’ve had in a long time.” Spectators and opponents will be on the watch for junior Charlie Caris, labeled by Ernst as “the quintessential team guy,” as he
holds perhaps the best chance to lead an upset of the highly touted players from Maryland and JMU. “He’s by far our hardest worker,” Ernst said. “You just want to see a guy like that do well in this sort of venue.” The men will also be focused on preparing for the spring in addition to their remaining fall tournaments. UMBC, Bucknell and George Washington also appear on the Hoyas’
spring schedule, meaning the Classic will be a crucial time for them to scout and gain confidence against their future opponents. “We’ll still have a long way to go,” said Bruhn. “I think it’s going to be a good way to see where we are right now.” The action starts early Friday afternoon and continues through Sunday at the McDonough Outdoor Tennis Complex.
the Sports Sermon “If conference commissioners were the founding fathers of this country, we would have Guatemala, Uruguay and Argentina in the United States.” - Jim Boeheim
come from the idea that Big East prestige has suffered a crushing blow, that the conference’s diminished talent pool will only be exacerbated over the years as the remaining Big East schools struggle to match previous recruiting standards. This argument hardly seems valid. Pitt and Syracuse only constituted a small piece of the Big East’s core. Aside from their national title in 2003, the Orange have made just one Final Four appearance in the last twenty years, while winning just three Big East titles. Pitt, meanwhile, hasn’t made a Final Four since 1941.
The real danger for the Hoyas is not a weakened Big After Syracuse and PittsEast, but rather that the Big East burgh announced they were will dissolve or become a subleaving the Big East for greener section of one giant conference, football pastures in the ACC, as schools look to maximize many Hoya fans were desponfootball revenues. But even if the dent, preparing themselves for Big East ceases to be, Georgea plunge into decades of college town is well positioned to thrive basketball irrelevance. with other basketball-focused To me, though, the panic that schools. St. John’s, Villanova, has spread throughout campus DePaul, Providence, Seton Hall in the few days since the news and Marquette are just some of broke has been even more asthe Big East schools that find tounding than the news itself. themselves in the same uncomPerhaps it stems from the frusfortable position as the Hoyas, tration of first round tournament without FCS football programs exits, or maybe this particular but with basketball teams ready realignment hits to compete at the close to the heart. highest level. Pete Rose Central Regardless of its These schools Da bettin’ line origins, this realignwill not allow each ment is not a doomsother to fall by Dookies Margin Hoyas day scenario or even the wayside and (underdogs) (duh!) (favorites) the beginning of the could even unite end—the Hoyas will Blue Devils Orange The Ass Bowl with non-Big East be just fine. schools like Xavier Jay Cutler Two-hand touch and Butler to creThough it is un- NFL Defenses Cardinals Bullpen blues ate a conference Braves deniable that the Big East is weaker solely designed to without the Panthers and the While these teams have car- compete in Division I basketball. Orange, their departure by no ried a lot of weight in the confer- While such a move is unprecmeans makes the Big East a ence over the past decade, we edented, so was the exit of two weak conference. In fact, the must be careful not to overstate of the Big East’s oldest members. Big East will remain one of the their contribution to the comWhile their classic bouts country’s deepest and most re- petitive quality of the Big East. with the Orange may cease, spected basketball leagues. The The strength of this conference the Hoyas have actually lost exit of two perennial contenders lies in its remarkable depth from very little in terms of potential hardly debilitates a conference top to bottom—there still isn’t a and prestige. Save your worwhose ninth place finisher, Con- conference in the country that ried looks and decadent sighs necticut, was cutting down the can boast as many quality teams for the actual season when the nets in the national title game as the Big East. Hoyas inevitably allow their last spring. Losing these annual match- frustrating habits to nullify Those worried by the ACC ups will certainly damage their immense talent, leading potentially becoming a “super- the Hoyas’ overall strength of to a premature tournament exit. conference” need only remember schedule, but the program as a The Hoyas have survived the how brutally awful the league whole will not be harmed. Re- dark days of Craig Esherick and has been outside of Duke and cruits will still flock to the his- inconsistencies of John ThompNorth Carolina in recent years. toric and highly competitive Big son III. We will survive without Furthermore, the loss of East. Powerhouses from around Pittsburgh and Syracuse and Pitt and ‘Cuse has to be put in the country will continue to so- continue our legacy of basketits proper historical context. licit Big East teams to bolster ball excellence – if that’s what Much of the histrionics have their non-conference schedules. you want to call it.
by Daniel Kellner
sports
georgetownvoice.com
Football set for stiff road test by Kevin Joseph Georgetown’s matchup against Marist to close the 2010 football season hardly gave then-freshman tailback Nick Campanella cause for celebration. Despite their 14-7 win over the Red Foxes, the Hoyas had just wrapped up a dismal slide that saw them finish 4-7 overall, while Campanella failed to see any action in the game outside of special teams. More importantly, however, the game marked the last in blue and gray for senior Philip Oladeji, who had served as an invaluable mentor to Georgetown’s young core of running backs. Now in the midst of his sophomore season, Campanella has been the featured tailback for the Hoyas, admirably filling Oladeji’s role. He attributes
his early success to the lessons gained under Oladeji’s tutelage. “Even as a freshman, Phil made me feel like an integral part of the team,” Campanella said. “I learned from him that the game is much more physical and fast paced at the college level. Patience and focus are keys.” Campanella’s 13 carries for 66 yards were not enough this past weekend, as the Hoyas surrendered 37 points to Yale. But head coach Kevin Kelly claims the loss was not merely a result of offensive and defensive deficiencies. “The difference was the field position game,” Kelly said. “We did a poor job on our cover teams, and that was the difference.” This weekend, the Hoyas will face a radically different
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The O-line will need to open holes for Campanella given the injuries at QB.
Conference shuffle has fans dancing On Tuesday night, the Pac-12 announced it terminated negotiations to expand the conference to 14 or even 16 teams. The conference said it was happy with 12 teams—for now. That’s all well and good, but if you think conference re-alignment is finished for the foreseeable future, you are simply wrong. More shifts are coming, and while college basketball fans (especially in the Big East) may lament the possibility of more moves, college football fans should be ecstatic about the potential for major conference re-alignment. In fact, college football fans should want more moves, leading to bigger and better conferences for all. The current state of school shifts is similar to a Rubik’s Cube.
Before re-alignment, we had a completed cube, with each conference comfortably occupying one colored side. As the first schools left their respective conferences to join the Big Ten and Pac-10, the cube experienced various twists and turns. Worried by the threat of weakened conferences and lured by bigger media contracts, many schools have found new homes, further complicating and scrambling the cube. The Rubik’s Cube is now an unsustainable multicolor heap. Some conferences are content, but others – I’m looking at you, Big 12 and Big East–are struggling to recoup their losses and could potentially fold. Instead of wasting time fixing the cube through more complicated shifts
scheme from anything they have faced thus far. The Red Foxes play a stacked 3-3-5 defense, blitzing gaps and presenting wrinkles for an offense whose quarterback’s health is still in question after junior Isaiah Kempf left the contest against Yale with an unspecified injury. Kelly has listed Kempf as “probable” for this Saturday, noting that he would have to undergo standard protocol to clear him for play. If he is unable to go, senior Scott Darby, who led the Hoyas for the remainder of last weekend’s game, will start. Regardless of who starts at quarterback, the Hoyas need to improve their pass coverage, playing mistake-free football with a low margin of error. “Every game is going to be close,” Kelly said. “It’s going to come down to five or six plays and we have to be on the plus side of the plays.” With so much uncertainty around him, Campanella will have to continue his consistently solid output this weekend, using what Kelly called a “rare combination of power and elusiveness” to open up the passing game for either Kempf or Darby. Campanella said the team is not lingering on the Yale defeat, but is determined to not fall to .500 on the season in Poughkeepsie this Saturday as the Red Foxes look to exact revenge on the Hoyas from last season. “We are focused with intensity and determination to execute our game plan,” Campanella said. “Marist is a solid team, but so are we.” and twists, I propose we paint the sides. I’m envisioning four football super conferences—yes I’m aware the cube is technically no longer a cube, relax—grown out of the Pac12, Big Ten, ACC, and SEC.
Double Teamed by Adam Rosenfeld
a rotating column on sports With bigger conferences, teams would play less cupcake teams and have more games against big-time conference rivals. Matchups previously reserved for BCS games would now be commonplace every single week. You would be able to see Oklahoma play Oregon the same week Texas plays USC.
the georgetown voice 7
Soccer bounces back by Abby Sherburne After a rough overtime loss in their Big East opener against Seton Hall, the Georgetown women’s soccer team rediscovered their form with a huge win over Rutgers. Sunday’s 4-1 win, reaffirmed the team’s presence as a top Big East contender, improving their overall record to 7-3. The team stumbled early when the Scarlet Knights scored in the 16th minute. But the Hoyas answered immediately with a header from sophomore Mary Kroening in the 21st minute and cruised to victory from there. Head coach Dave Nolan couldn’t hide his elation with the resounding win. “We pretty much hammered a very good team,” he said. The front line came up big, with senior midfielders Kelly D’Ambrisi and Ingrid Wells combining with forward Samantha Baker for the final three goals. A four-goal performance was needed after a week in which the Hoyas struggled to find the back of the net. Senior Camille Trujillo also elevated her game, wreaking havoc in the Rutgers defense throughout the match. Despite not claiming a goal for herself, Nolan credited her for the win. “She terrorized the Rutgers defenders today,” Nolan said. “As I told her: ‘You were the reason we scored four goals today.’ She’s that type of player.” Though Trujillo put in a brilliant performance, the real
Additionally, these conferences could easily be constructed in such a way that preserves old rivalries while creating previously unimaginable annual matchups. This solution would also rid college football of the messy BCS system. Instead of wondering what teams were the best in the country, that debate would be settled on the field. Boise State would have a chance to prove they belong with the big boys week in and week out by facing USC, Oklahoma, and Oregon every year. TCU would face a similar schedule, or perhaps compete against the likes of LSU and Auburn in the new SEC. At the end of the year, we would be left with four conference champions. The current bowl system could stay in place—keeping sponsors and fans happy—with those four
star of the day was Baker. The senior from Long Beach, Calif., added two assists in addition to her goal. Baker leads the team in assists and is second only to team captain Wells in goals scored. But Sunday’s contest was only Baker’s third start this season, despite having appeared in all 10 games. Baker was nothing but enthusiastic about the opportunity to prove herself against Rutgers, which Nolan has described as the Hoyas “boogey team.” In the end though, it’s just another game, and to Samantha Baker, the win is clearly paramount to her personal accomplishments. “We’re finding ways to win it even when the balls aren’t bouncing our way,” she said. “That’s all that matters.” With many more Big East match-ups to be played, the Hoyas’ final position in the conference standings remains unpredictable. If anything, their defeat of Rutgers demonstrates that anyone can beat anyone in a league with three teams in the top 25 and many more vying for coveted postseason berths. “That’s Big East soccer,” Nolan said. “Every game is going to be a scrap and every game is going to be a fight.” The Hoyas won’t get any breaks on their quest for Big East glory. On Friday, the women begin a road trip to New York with a match against Syracuse before meeting St. John’s on Sunday.
teams competing in de facto national semifinal bowl games. The winners would then play one extra national championship game to be named the true champion of college football. Many may protest this vision, claiming the re-alignments are designed with only college football in mind. This is a valid argument, but the simple fact is that college football rules college athletics. Football keeps many athletic departments afloat, and money will flow into the gridiron even faster with bigger weekly matchups and a Final Four-like finale. Change has come, and more is coming. It’s an exciting time to be a fan of college football. Think Adam is a conference slut? Email him at arosenfeld@georgetownvoice.com
feature
8 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
feature
georgetownvoice.com
D.C. Students Speak and D.C. starts to listen by Kara Brandeisky
D
C Students Speak opened this year’s first general membership meeting with a bit of hometown pride. “D.C. chillin’/ P.G. chillin’/ My name Wale, and I came to get it,” a YouTube video of Wale’s “Chillin’” greeted the 30 or so students who trickled into White Gravenor 206. Sam Brothers (COL ’14) reluctantly convened the meeting with a disclaimer. “Because DC Students Speak as of yet unfortunately does not have access to benefits in Georgetown University … I just have to read this disclaimer,” he said. The crowd giggled. “This program is hosted by Sam Brothers and DC Students Speak and is not sponsored by Georgetown University. Any views in this forum are the views of the individual and do not imply endorsement or support by Georgetown University.” In a town of professional politicos, DC Students Speak may be the youngest and leastexperienced interest group vying for attention. And they face an uphill battle. Working as an advocacy group for student issues, DC Students Speak hopes to elect more students to Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, the District’s hyper-local government bodies. Commissioners can have great influence over D.C. life, since District agencies are bound by D.C. Code to take ANC resolutions into account and each ANC commissioner represents only about 2,000 residents. Although DC Students Speak estimates that students make up 15 percent of the District’s population, they only hold two of 276 ANC seats. Many permanent residents are reluctant to encourage student representation, arguing that students are a transitory group without the requisite experience
or long-term vested interest in their neighborhoods. Despite pushback from neighborhood groups, DC Students Speak leaders believe they have come to represent an emerging political constituency. They point out that in recent weeks, public officials have started to take student interests more seriously, by speaking out against ANC redistricting that disadvantages students. And in just nine months, DC Students Speak has expanded from Georgetown University to establish representation at American University, Catholic University of America, George Washington University, Howard University, Trinity-Washington University, and the University of the District of Columbia. But to achieve their goals, DC Students Speak must first convince students to register to vote in D.C. Then they must create opportunities for students to run for office. And they must create an institution that can last, even after its leaders graduate.
T
hough only founded in April 2010, DC Students Speak is already in its third incarnation. Mike Trummel (COL ’10), who began the project with the help of a $3,000 ReImagine Georgetown grant, had initially conceived of DC Students Speak as a student media aggregation website. The website pulled content from student publications at American, Catholic, Howard, George Washington, and Georgetown. “Our vision of this website is that it can be used as a tool for students to better understand the challenges that students collectively face,” the leaders wrote on the website right after its launch. “More than just raising awareness, DC Students Speak also strives to be an ad-
vocacy organization, with the aim of mobilizing DC students to work together towards common goals.” But by July, the leaders were reconsidering their aims. “There was sort of a lack of a mission,” Scott Stirrett (SFS ’13), the group’s current chair, said. But they recognized a new opportunity. Jake Sticka (COL ’13) had decided to run for the Georgetown ANC, replacing the former student commissioner Aaron Golds (COL ’11). “Around August of 2010, we sort of thought long and hard,” Stirrett said. “And this was when Jake was in this process of qualifying on the ballot. And we said, we see ANCs as this big problem, in the sense of there’s not enough students on ANCs.” Sticka won the election in November (he ran uncontested), and DC Students Speak launched a new blog in January. After the 2010 Campus Plan was filed in December, debate had heated up about off-campus housing, Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle routes, and other points of contention between neighbors, students, and administrators. The new blog mostly focused on these issues. “We were more Georgetown-focused at the beginning because it was all Georgetown students,” Stirrett said. The group went back to the original plan. “We went back to the initial view of the organization, which was this idea of breaking bubbles of all these different campuses,” Stirrett said. American University students were contending with similar issues during American’s 2010 Campus Plan debates. And they had launched their own voter registration drive, called “A Voice 4 U,” which had gotten American freshman Deon Jones elected to the ANC containing American University. The stu-
dents who had organized that drive joined DC Students Speak, and later created a chapter at American. Over time, DC Students Speak expanded to other schools as well. “We’ve been tremendously happy with the fact that in nine months we’ve been able to grow to seven universities throughout D.C.,” Stirrett said.
D
C Students Speak still faces a number of challenges, and its most serious one may also be the hardest to overcome: convincing students to change their voter registration to D.C. Last year,
Sticka won his seat on the ANC with only nine votes (one person wrote in another candidate). Others before him were only a bit more successful. In 2008, Golds took the seat with 48 of 52 votes cast. In 2006, Jenna Lowenstein (COL ’09) won with 20 of 21 votes. Many residents opposed to student representatives see low rates of voter registration as a sign that students are not politically engaged. But there are some serious disadvantages to registering in D.C.—disadvantages that affect the politically engaged more than anyone else. For one, D.C. has no repre-
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Sam Brothers convenes DC Students Speak’s first meeting of the year.
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Fiona Greig tries to recruit members of DC Students Speak to her campaign. sentation in the Senate and only a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. After the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans stripped D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of even her largely ceremonial vote in the Committee of the Whole. Despite the protestations of Norton and organizations like DC Vote, President Obama seems unlikely to make D.C. voting rights a priority anytime soon, so registering in D.C. means having no representation in Congress. On the local level, it pays to register Democrat. The winner of the Democratic primary for mayor has gone on to win every election since 1975, when D.C. citizens were first allowed to elect the mayor by popular vote. And since voters must declare a party on their voter registration, almost 2,600 voters switched their party to “Democrat” in advance of the 2010 mayoral election just in order to have a say, the Washington Post reported. On the presidential map, D.C. is solid blue. In 2008, Obama won 92.5 percent of the vote. Students considering switching their registration from a swing state may feel that a presidential vote cast in D.C. is far less meaningful. So DC Students Speak has to make a compelling pitch. “What we’d say is we understand that it can be a difficult decision if you live in a swing state or a swing district,” Stirrett said. “Many, many students don’t live in swing districts … When it comes down to it, D.C. issues affect students far more than issues back at home, or in the federal government.” What’s more, Stirrett argued, many students spend 11 months of the year in D.C. if they decide to stay the summer to do an internship or take classes. So issues encompassed by the Campus Plan “have a
tremendous impact on your life,” he said. Furthermore, since ANC single-member districts only have about 2,000 residents, contested elections are often won by only a handful of votes. “One vote in an ANC election can be such a crucial sort of tip,” Stirrett said. “In most jurisdictions, the margins of victory or defeat are going to be significantly larger.” There is a precedent for students registering to vote in D.C. The most successful coalition was Campaign Georgetown, the 1996 voter registration drive that got about 1,000 students registered to vote in D.C. and elected two students to the Georgetown ANC for the first time ever. And so far, DC Student Speak’s efforts are not for naught. Stirrett and Sticka estimate that the Georgetown chapter has registered 150 people in D.C. Including the “A Voice 4 U” voter registration, they estimate about 500 students have been registered across the District. Stirrett also stressed that while Campaign Georgetown had registered about 1,000 students in 1996, they did so during an election cycle. DC Students Speak has a head start. “We’ve seen several hundred students registered in a place where we’ve already had this infrastructure built for a couple of months,” Ricky Garza (SFS ’13), executive director of DC Students Speak, said. “At these other schools we’re really just getting started … All of this is just beginning, so you can look forward to a lot more.”
the Georgetown ANC was redistricted. The redistricting committee created a safe seat for students, which encompassed the Southwest Quad, Village C, New South, Village A, Alumni Square and some townhouses. Darnall, Henle, Harbin, Copley, Nevils, and LXR were split off into other districts. Students were no longer competitive in any other district except the safe one. Campaign Georgetown quietly fizzled out. Chad Griffin (SFS ’97), one of the leaders of Campaign Georgetown, helped turn out the vote in 1996. He said it was “unfortunate to hear” that students have only ran in the safe seat since 2002. Competitive elections had made previous student campaigns stronger. “If someone wanted it then, they had to work very hard,” Griffin said. Sticka blamed the 2000 redistricting for student apathy about voter registration. “When you don’t have competitive districts, when you don’t have a reason for students to get involved, they don’t have the ability to have their voices heard,” he said. This year presents another opportunity. Every ANC must again be redistricted following the 2010 Census. Though DC Students Speak as an organization wasn’t directly involved in the Georgetown redistricting task force, members of DC Students Speak have been included in the discussions, in Georgetown and across the city. The students on the Georgetown task force—Sticka, Ruiyong Chen (SFS ’13), Robert Biemesderfer (COL ’12), and John Flanagan (SFS ’14)—
the georgetown voice 9 have pushed for three competitive districts for students on an eight-member commission. (Disclosure: Flanagan is a former Voice staffer). The proposal submitted by the task force to the D.C. City Council only gives students two safe seats. Going forward, the Council will have an opportunity to call a hearing on the redistricting proposals from across the city. “A lot of that is going to be dependent on how people throughout the city feel about redistricting and if they really do feel as though they need to listen,” Sticka said. “I hope the Council will hear there are grievances from a number of areas and allow those voices to be heard.”
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C Students Speak’s first general membership meeting also included a special guest: Fiona Greig, a new mother who is considering a primary challenge against Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2). Greig, a consultant for McKinsey & Company who has a Ph.D in public policy from Harvard, came to the meeting to hear about student concerns and try to recruit people to her campaign. Students questioned Greig about a wider range of issues than DC Students Speak usually addresses. Rather than only asking about the Campus Plan or the noise ordinance, students wanted to know what Greig thought about building height restrictions. How would she improve accountability of teachers? Would she help expand student access to affordable Metro? How would she address the city’s energy policy?
Greig had a request for the students as well. “I invite you to think big and act local by supporting my exploratory committee,” Greig said. “I need a campus captain. I need volunteers to moblize fellow students to register to vote and to actually show up to the polls. But most of all, I need you to tell me about your big ideas and interests in the District.” DC Students Speak has started attracting attention from other politicians as well. At the end of August, Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) sided with students on the issue of Georgetown redistricting, telling The Current that the existing plan was “grossly discriminatory” to students. Sticka said DC Students Speak had not contacted Mendelson prior to his interview. Georgetown ANC Commissioner Charlie Eason went even further, telling the Voice on September 14, “It was clearly gerrymandered to attempt to dilute the representation of GU students, who represent almost half of the residents of the ANC. I don’t need to imagine this; I was expressly told that was the objective.” “If students show they’re engaged on the issues, if they show they really care about them, and they also show that they’re willing to register to vote, you will see a city government that is much more responsive to their needs,” Sticka said. “Even without prompting.” Disclosure: The author once wrote a blog post for DC Students Speak expanding on a column published in the Voice.
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ut just registering students to vote isn’t enough. They need someone to vote for. In 1996, students competed in, and won, two single member districts. After the 2000 Census,
MAX BLODGETT
Jake Sticka, center, attends a Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting.
leisure
10 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
Freemusicthatwon’tgetyousuedbytheRIAA by Laura Gevarter After a long week of classes and gloomy weather, this weekend comes as a welcome break. But why put yourself through another listen of “Party Rock Anthem” when you could be stomping your feet to lyrical Brazilian “choro” music? Whether
you’re a music buff or simply looking for a new and exciting beat, head over to McNeir Auditorium in New North at 1:15 p.m., where Rogerio Souza and his colleagues are sure to deliver an entertaining afternoon. The best part? It’s completely free. The performance is part of Georgetown’s Friday Music
Courtesy GU Department of performing arts
Who knew Kenny G had four step-brothers? And they’re all named Stanley.
Series, which brings in commended artists from all over to perform right here on campus, just in case you don’t feel like trekking up to Carnegie Hall (where many of the artists have performed). Along with choro performers from the D.C. area, Souza—a world-renowned guitarist and pioneer in Brazilian music—will expose you to both choro classics and his own original, innovative compositions. The series offers a spectrum of music types, from traditional opera to contemporary electro and everything in between. Each year, it brings in artists whose performance specialties expose audiences to an extremely wide variety of music. Italian opera, high-energy percussion, and a saxophone quartet all share space on the program. Professor Anthony DelDonna, director of the Music Program, said, “It’s not just for older people. We all talk about the importance of hearing live music, so we want to cover
many demographics for a wide audience.” Such variety is possible because the entire music faculty has input in the series. The Friday Music Series is designed to complement various Music Department classes here at Georgetown, and professors are familiar with the circuit of artists and know who to recommend. Thanks to these professors, even the inexperienced listener can be assured of the performers’ ability. Since its modest beggining in 2002, the Friday Music Series has grown significantly. At no cost, and with famous performers that promise a quality show, it’s not hard to see why McNeir has people lined up at the door each week. “The series really is great exposure for the music program here,” DelDonna said. “It’s not just people from the University or the Georgetown area. We’ve expanded to greater Washington. We try to create a unique space for music in the area.”
A look at upcoming events for the series reveals its dynamic schedule. On September 30, Michael Beckerman, chair of the Music Department at NYU and frequent guest on Live From Lincoln Center, will host a lecture-recital in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic. A focus on traditional music continues on October 14 with Bryan Bowers on autoharp. Finishing up the regular season of the series, Paul Rudy adds electronics to violas as he composes to the cosmos in celebration of Galileo on November 11. Think about it: who doesn’t have room to expand their cultural horizons? And with no price tag, there are no excuses to miss out on these performances. So before you head back to your room this Friday afternoon and take that long-deserved nap, stop in at this week’s installment in the Friday Music Series and bring in the weekend with a saucy Brazilian beat that will leave you dancing for the rest of the night.
Don’t let Real Steel‘s robots steal your money by Alex Manasseri It’s hard to expect a movie centering on the world of robotic boxing to be top-notch cinema, but somehow even Hugh Jackman’s rugged Australian charm can’t save Real Steel, a wannabe action flick with flawed plot and mediocre acting. Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, a washed up boxer desperate to get back into the ring with the help of his technologically advanced robots. The movie’s opening sequence offers a flimsy introduction, dragging the viewer through the Texas mud as Kenton places a $20,000 bet on his robot’s battle with a raging bull. Real Steel wastes no time in setting up its clichéd plot: an attractive girl in the stands catches Kenton’s eye, he loses both the fight and his money, and his life goes downhill. Kenton sells the custody of his son, Max (Dakota Goyo), to Max’s aunt and uncle for $100,000. They then proceed to hand him over to his deadbeat father for the summer without
so much as a second thought, even though the two have been separated for all eleven years of Max’s life. The utter idiocy of the storyline and the disappointing action sequences fall short of
or not a robot named “Noisy Boy” can make it to the second round without his head being smashed into smithereens. The illegal, underground robot boxing rings prove comical, and by the end of the film, it’s hard
money back are so poorly constructed that his young son repeatedly calls him an idiot. It’s impossible to have sympathy for Kenton, who brusquely pushes away everyone he cares about and lacks an ounce of
The last robot I beat the shit out of was my printer, but I think I’ve got a shot at this guy. being even mildly entertaining. As much as one may enjoy watching two-ton steel robots tearing each other to pieces, it’s hard to be riveted by a plot whose main source of dramatic tension is whether
to believe anyone could care whether Kenton or his robots make it out alive. Jackman’s performance falls far short of being remotely believable, and his character ’s ill-conceived plans to win his
IMDB
intelligence. Evangeline Lilly attempts to add an element of romance as Kenton’s childhood friend, but she is little more than a temporary diversion from the less-than-thrilling antics of the father and son duo
making money and taking the world by storm with their underdog robot fighter. The movie’s only redeeming quality lies in Goyo’s performance. A sweet, bizarre combination of Justin Bieber and Neil Patrick Harris, he carries the viewer through the stalled plot and pathetic attempts at humor on his tiny 11-year-old shoulders. His character, although predictable, provides some respite from Jackman’s fading Southern accent and forced acting. Max’s occasional quips lighten the mood considerably, and his pre-boxing routine, in which he dances to hip-hop songs with his robot, is a corny but enjoyable prelude to the nonsensical titanium brawling. Real Steel certainly provides unintentional laughs, most of them coming from poorly executed attempts at poignancy, like when Kenton dramatically claims that he would travel “1,200 miles for a kiss.” But even if Real Steel was just a block away, it wouldn’t be worth seeing.
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“everybody fights; nobody quits. If you don’t do your job, I’ll kill you myself.” — starship troopers
the georgetown voice 11
ShopHouse—all spice and no nice China-fest at Kennedy by Amy Liu For most college students, Chipotle represents a paradise of fat, guacamole-stuffed burritos, and bowls that satisfy their appetite without murdering their wallet. But fans of the chain’s gloriously simplified Mexican cuisine may be surprised and slightly confused to learn that last Thursday, the company opened a store focused on Asian cuisine—ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen in Dupont Circle. The name reflects the culture of Southeast Asian cities, where small, family-owned restaurants and eateries are often found on the ground floor of the owners’ residences. Yet ShopHouse’s modern, minimalist décor owes little to its namesakes, with long expanses of whitewashed walls lit by simple suspended lamps and exposed bulbs. To those disinclined to contemporary interior design, ShopHouse may even appear unfinished or awaiting renovation. Like Chipotle, ShopHouse features assembly line, “buildyour-own” style meals. Instead of burritos, ShopHouse offers a take on the traditional Vietnamese Bánh mì sandwich—a
baguette accompanied by your choice of chicken satay, pork and chicken meatballs, steak, or tofu topped with green papaya slaw, herbs, and crushed peanuts. A bowl option is also available, comprised of a choice of the same proteins over jasmine rice, brown rice, or chilled rice noodles. Bowls are topped with your choice of one vegetable, sauce, garnish, and topping. My pick was the chicken satay over jasmine rice, topped with eggplant and Thai basil, green papaya slaw, and crispy garlic. Though warned by my server that the spicy red curry was indeed “really hot,” the daredevil in me went for it anyway. My first disappointment was the portion size—small in comparison to Chipotle’s huge meals. The first few bites were unimpressive, but they were merely the calm before a very intense storm. What at first started out as a moderately surprising spiciness soon escalated to an intense burn. Halfway through the bowl, my sense of taste was almost entirely numb. After taking a breather and gulping down a ginger ale, the rest of the meal was finished with continuous sips of water. The
The sitcom that wasn’t shit
This week, the Internet has been abuzz with Emmy reactions. “Game of Thrones!” “Why didn’t Mad Men get any acting awards?” “Why do people still think Glee is funny?” But among all this hubbub, when you actually look at the winners, something fascinating comes to light—the night’s most successful show wasn’t a highbudget cable period piece, or a tried-and-true office comedy, or a bloody, serial killer drama (I know Dexter season five sucked, but seriously, Michael C. Hall deserves at least a pat on the back). It was…a network family sitcom? That it was. ABC’s Modern Family took home five Emmys on Sunday night, including its second consecutive “Best Comedy” and awards for directing, writing, and acting. And yet, it’s on the same network and in the same genre as such specimens of television horror as Married to the Kellys. The fact that enough viewers trusted ABC
during Modern Family’s debut season in 2009 to give the show a chance reveals that American TV audiences are an overly-optimistic bunch. But when viewers did tune in to Modern Family, they got something unexpected. Family sitcoms have a formula—the good-looking parents, the goofy and/or inoffensively rebellious kids, the silly antics and G-rated troublemaking that always ends in a group hug and a one-liner from the requisite funny grandparent, all punctuated by a ubiquitous laugh track. Maybe I need to get off my TV high horse, but that doesn’t sound Emmy-worthy to me. What does sound Emmy-worthy, though, is what Modern Family has that the other shows lack. That starts with its creators, writer/ director powerhouse Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, who were behind shows from the golden age of the sitcom like Frasier.
next item I had—with the mild green curry—was also surprisingly spicy, so even those who think they can tolerate extreme heat should probably opt for the tamarind vinaigrette or green curry. Interestingly, ShopHouse’s chicken satay, a dish indigenous to Indonesia, tasted strikingly similar to Chipotle’s grilled chicken. As for the rest of the ingredients, the flavors were mediocre at best. While spiciness in Asian cuisine is usually supposed to complement the other flavors of the dish with an added kick, ShopHouse seems to have equated heat with flavor. While Chiptole prides itself in its fresh ingredients and “authentic” flavors, ShopHouse merely recreates aspects of Southeast Asian cuisine without any distinct flavors. Granted, you can’t expect much from a restaurant that attempts to assemble Asian dishes the same way you make a Mexican burrito. For diehard Chipotle fans, ShopHouse might be an interesting experience, but when your next food craving arises, good old Chipotle is definitely the way to go. In the end, ShopHouse can’t escape the shadow cast by its parent’s massive burritos. With that team behind the show, the situations episodes centered around weren’t going to be the same, formulaic drivel that other shows survive on. The first tweak was to bring in a gay couple. This is a modern family, after all. The premise of the show’s mockumentary style— which, unlike that of The Office, is actually explained in the first epi-
Idiot Box by Leigh Finnegan a bi-weekly column about television sode—is that Mitchell and Cam, a gay couple from California consisting of a trim, put-together lawyer and a large, Midwestern, histrionic over-reacter, have just adopted their first child from Vietnam. And while this is hardly the first sitcom to feature a gay couple, each character’s combination of the stereotypical and non-stereotypical (Cam, the more flamboyant one, is revealed in one episode to be a
by Leigh Trefny Surveying the broad developments in Chinese art in recent years, the Kennedy Center is hosting the ongoing festival China: The Art of a Nation this month. Presented in partnership with the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Culture, the exhibition features the work of 300 contemporary and performing artists. The event comes nearly six years after the Kennedy Center’s groundbreaking Festival of China, which brought international recognition to scores of native Chinese artists. While penny-pinchers might enjoy Landscape in Mind, the free outdoor exhibition, its nuances may be lost on those without a background in contemporary Chinese sculpture art. Featuring a variety of statues created by Chinese artists blending the modern
with the traditional, the sculptures themselves are aesthetically intriguing. Though the outdoor exhibition may be lackluster to the layperson, the festival’s eclectic performance calendar is packed with enough variety to please just about anyone. This weekend, the National Ballet of China is performing from the 22nd through the 24th. With a less traditional take on Chinese dance, the Beijing Dance Theatre is performing on October 22 through the 24th, showcasing pieces dramatizing global pollution and its impact on the spiritual condition. Whether you are an art aficionado or just want to expand your knowledge of Chinese art beyond what you learned in Mulan, Art in China is the perfect opportunity to engage in an international heritage just a bike ride away.
LeIGH trefnY
“Son, I think it’s time to tell you where babies come from. former starter for the University of Illinois football team) render them complicated, hilarious, and decidedly non-formulaic. The other two nuclear families on the show toe that same line between standard and unexpected. Claire and Phil, the characters for which Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell won their Emmys, are respectively neurotic and un-self-aware, avoiding the perfect, nurturing environment that the funny parents on other shows manage to create. Phil and Claire’s hijinks aren’t so vanilla as those of other sitcom parents, and when they joke about how badly they’ve screwed up their three somewhat dysfunctional kids, the audience laughs along uneasily. And when their middle daughter retorts to her older sister that she “has an eating disorder [she] should be attending to,” the show enters a realm of dark humor rarely treaded by sitcoms. A laugh track would be inappropriate. And of course, we can’t forget the last, and most unlikely, of the
families on the show—Cam and Claire’s father, the wealthy, elderly Jay, and his impossibly hot, young, Columbian wife, Gloria, played impeccably by Sofia Vegarra. Together with Gloria’s son Manny, who acts beyond his years (although often unwisely) the trio provides the show’s funniest moments—like Gloria’s frequent English language mix-ups and Manny’s romantic failures—but also its most serious. An unwittingly emotional scene in the second season involving the stoic, detached Jay telling a demoralized Manny about manhood, a moment that provides genuine poignancy but never verges on cheesiness. But if poignancy isn’t for you, there’s also a time when the shapely Gloria complains about her inability to ride a bike because “I kept hitting my boobs with my knees.” After all, it is on ABC. Get Leigh’s full Emmy commentary at lfinnegan@georgetownvoice. com
leisure
12 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
C r i t i c a l V o i ces
Wilco, The Whole Love, dBpm While the release of a eighth album may suggest a band’s unwillingness to retire, with The Whole Love, alternative veterans Wilco prove that they’re creative juices are still running strong. Continuing to avoid a defining genre, Wilco remains nestled somewhere between pop, alternative rock, and indie, once again incorporating new instruments and experimental sounds to live up to their continuity-through-change reputation. “Art of Almost” begins the new album boldly with a collection of synthesized beats, acoustic riffs, and a classic electric guitar solo that could have been plucked out of a 1969 rock ‘n’ roll hit. “I Might” continues this instrumentation, but only a unifying elec-
tronic harmony remains as the third track, “Sunloathe,” brings the listener back to the band’s typical negative tone, which— surprise—ends up defining the album as a whole. Even the vocals on upbeat tracks such as “Dawned on Me” and “Standing O” deal with the theme of unrequited love (the album title is ironic). The Whole Love only deals with the end of a false love and, as 12-minute epic “One Sunday Morning” illustrates, the inevitability of lonely death. One track, “Capitol City,” stands out from the rest, which departs from the album’s melancholy tone with a feel-good, ragtime rhythm. Though the change may be a turnoff for fans of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco, the melody quickly disintegrates into a cacophony of experimental city sound samples and church bells, paving the way for a return to sadness, with frontman Jeff Tweedy singing, “I was born to die alone.” The Whole Love has something for everyone, combining the repertoire of styles Wilco has been developing since 1995. From the mellow acoustic guitar riffs of “Open Mind” to the rock guitar solos of “Born Alone,” at least
When Rats ruled the Hilltop Today, faculty at Georgetown take the student Code of Conduct quite seriously, doling out fines, written reprimands, and work sanction hours. Yet when it comes to run-ins with the law our 19th century counter-parts were battling a much stricter set of rules. Still, their prescribed punishments did not prevent these distant Hoyas from having their fun. The Jug Rat Society was comprised of students who regularly ended up in the “Jug,” a Catholic school term for detention hall which either is as an acronym for “justice under God” or derived from the Latin word for “burden.” Although it is unclear when the Society came into being, but the Jug was located in the eastern tower of Old North, erected in 1795. In an 1848 letter, a student sarcastically explained
that “the Jug was reserved for those guilty of repeated misdemeanors. It was a pleasant room, where one might lie at ease and fare sumptuously on bread and water, with coffee for breakfast on Sunday mornings… I had also been told that the rules were so severe that it was impossible to pass a week at Georgetown without becoming an inmate of the ‘Jug.’” A stay at the Jug entailed translating lines from Latin under the watchful eye of a faculty member. According to the same letter, smoking was “a grievous crime, punished with 300 lines.” In addition to translating Latin, students were also known to write a few lines of their own on the walls when no one was watching. According to a note written by Father Francis Barnum, an alumnus who managed the Uni-
some part of this album will resonate with fans of previous Wilco hits. The album’s title seems to refer not to the broken hearts of the characters of the songs, but to the two decades of lovelorn musicianship by the band itself. Voice’s Choices: “Art of Almost,” “Capitol City” —Kirill Makarenko
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Hysterical, Red General Catalogue For a group that started out as an internet buzz band, music blogs have been pretty quiet about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s new album, Hysterical. Where the band succeeded by keeping it simple but original, this new album disappoints by kicking up production and burying its tried and true versity archives in the late 1800s, “juggies” would frequently scribble the phrase “Can a man live on air?,” a reference to the meager rations afforded to guilty students. Not much is known about the club’s origins or activities, but in a letter by a member of the class of 1854, the students claimed that the expression “Jug Rat” was coined by fellow
throwback Jack by Sadaf Qureshi a bi-weekly column about Hoya history student Dominick O’Burnes, nicknamed “Rat.” The society’s most attended annual event was its end of the year “extermination,” a ceremony that parodied the annual commencement ceremonies of the College. The event’s program read “Disorder of Exercises” across the top, followed by acts such as “Rat Tales,” “In the
style, ending up sounding like a singing telegram to later releases by The Killers and U2. CYHSY made a name for itself with a simple formula: jumpy drums, easy guitars, and Alec Ounsworth’s signature squawk. On Hysterical, though, Ounsworth’s voice is barely distinguishable from Brandon Flowers’ or Bono’s (and in this case, that isn’t a compliment). Backed by reverb on all sides, the songs find no steady foundation, a contrast to earlier CYHSY releases where Ounsworth’s awkwardness, backed by steady rhythms, was much more tolerable. The only track where CHYSY accomplishes the sound they are trying to achieve is “Idiot,” the eighth track on the album. Through the overzealous strings, the listener can hear some satisfying drum fills and Ounsworth allowing himself to sound more lazy than tense. There’s no waiting around, and there’s no point at which to realize you’re bored. There is little range between songs, and it feels as if CYHSY never breaks through the ceiling with hard tracks, favoring a more timid, anticipatory atmosphere for the album. This aggravating choice in style accomplishes little Jugular Vein,” “Homer on Jug Rats,” and “Elegy on the College Barnyard.” They even had their own “Song of the Jug,” which began “With memory weary and worn, a Jug Rat sat on a bench in the Jug, and these were the words he said, ‘lines! lines! lines!’” Besides having its own song, the Jug Rat Society also had four presidents, a humorous constitution, and a coat of arms that consisted of a cracked brown jug with rats crawling out of its cracks. According to the rules, the position of “first president” was given to the boy who had been assigned the most Greek lines to memorize from The Iliad and The Odyssey at the Jug over the past term. The constitution also noted that entering members were required to translate 25 Latin lines, that the number of members of the association needed to be limited to a “jug-full,” and that “one of the presidents
other than leaving eager listener’s patience utterly unrewarded. The biggest offenders here are “In a Motel” and “Misspent Youth,” both fraught with inconclusive musical awkwardness. Songs like “Same Mistake,” and “Siesta (For Snake)” start after introductions that overstay their welcome. As opposed to making songs more ambitious or instrumentally interesting, the unfulfilling endings create flat, arid songs. Hysterical’s songs sound like they’ve been given a great deal of attention from a producer, but the musicianship and songwriting are far from the group at their fullest potential. Even an effort to make their music sound “new” (read: hip) would be more interesting than this offering. As a band that broke out during the mid-2000s, CYHSY is part of group that has largely tapered off in terms of popularity. Bands like Wolf Parade, Tapes N Tapes, and even Hot Hot Heat have either progressed or stopped playing. CYHSY has chosen to do neither. It’s not so much of a burnout as a flat tire. Voice’s Choice: “Idiot” —Nico Dodd and one member constitute a quorum.” The constitution’s concluding statement claimed that “it shall be the duty of any member who shall witness a violation of any of the by-laws or constitution … to keep mum on the subject,” and that “this association be non-dissolved except by the unanimous consent of the whole world and the rest of mankind.” The University archives are short on details, but the “unanimous consent of the whole world” must have been achieved at some point, since the Society was abolished in 1872. So next time you’re doing work sanction hours in the mailroom for a party broken up by SNAP, just be thankful you’re not in the Jug, copying line after line of obtuse Latin poetry. Learn what Bible lines you’ll be copying by contacting Sadaf at squreshi@georgetownvoice.com
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Georgetown Men’s Basketball Schedule 2014-2015 Page 13 has received an exclusive copy of the Georgetown men’s basketball team’s 2014-15 basketball schedule. Here’s our preview of the season’s highlights: November 12
AT
PS 118
November 27
VS Bayi Rockets
ESPN 2 The traditional opener against the elementary school league champs takes on a new dimension this year as they’ve just added their first player taller than six feet. CCCTV
The first time these teams met, the game was stopped in the fourth quarter because of a bench-clearing brawl. In the three meetings since, the teams have an overall record of 0-0-4 and have yet to complete a game, with brawls stopping play every time. December 4
AT
Monstars
Cartoon Network
The rival of the Looney Tunes squad will prove to be an intense opponent as it has been beating teams into the ground. At least 15 players have been taken to the hospital since the beginning of the season. December 23
VS
Washington Wizards
MASN
The recently relegated former NBA team has come under criticism from the NCAA for their open payment of players—at least other teams have the subtlety to do it under the table. Despite a payroll of $65 million the Wizards will probably not have a winning season again until they change their name back to the Bullets. December 29
AT
JULIA KWON
Bryn Mawr
OWN
This all-girls college has a tough inside game and excellent fundamentals that will probably destroy the modified Princeton offense.
January 12
AT
CalTech
ESPN 8 “The Ocho”
CalTech, the holder of a 310 game conference losing streak before joining the Big East, has a three year winning streak against the Hoyas now that the team practices once a month. January 26
VS
Duke Intramural Champions
February 5
VS
Pittsburgh Pirates
February 13
AT
Washington Mystics
February 26
VS
University of Phoenix
SPIKE TV These guys might have just won the intramural tournament at Duke, but they're still a bunch of assholes. PBS If we can’t beat these guys, we have no hope.
GUTV In the Ted Leonsis Challenge, the Hoyas face off against the fourtime WNBA Attendance Champions. Internet
This is Wear Your Pajamas to Verizon Center Day. March 9
Big East Network
VS
DePaul
DePaul will stick with us until hell freezes over. MARCH 18 VS SYRACUSE CBS JULIA KWON
Just kidding.
voices
14 the georgetown voice
september 22, 2011
Waking up to the harsh reality of public education by Alexa Lombardo Last year, my mother retired from teaching after 35 years of dedicated service. At her retirement party, I was unable to count the number of former students in attendance. A number of them gave speeches praising her for her talent and her ability to inspire. Now lawyers, doctors, authors, dancers, and musicians, they all recognized her enthusiasm and dedication as the catalyst for their intellectual growth and success. After years of pay downgrades, funding cuts, and maltreatment, teachers like my mother are more difficult to find nowadays. Once a strongly desired profession, teaching has become something of a fallback career, and as a result, fewer teachers are committed to fostering a desire for learning within students. As a result, students are no longer being inspired in the classroom. School is boring, mechanical, and impersonal. Teachers are not encouraged to be creative with students, but to simply ensure their success on a variety
of standardized tests. Students are being fed answers and administrators are falsely reporting results, all in order to produce higher scores and garner more government funding. I completely understand the theory behind standardization of education, but its implementation has been entirely ineffective. Students are no longer learning how to think for themselves— they’re just being fed information to memorize. To make matters worse, more children are spending their time outside of the classroom doing activities of even lesser value. Kids are more likely to spend their free time outside of school playing video games or sitting on Facebook than going out and playing sports or learning an instrument. There is little pursuit of intellectual growth and thus children are much less likely to be stimulated outside of the classroom, making the school environment all the more critical for growth. A good education used to be a priority, and at one point, a requirement. Regardless of what career someone wanted to pur-
sue, there would be some form of learning necessary, whether it was a vocational degree or a university diploma. This was how we used to measure individual skill, ability, and qualification for a particular job or task. A college degree used to be part of the American dream. It was a crowning achievement, something for which so many used to strive. Privatization is among several theories for how to reform education. On one hand, I see how privatization appears a viable option, but I’m not sure what it would look like if education was completely privatized. I fear private schools would begin to operate like corporations, making decisions based on profits rather than the well-being of students. Furthermore, I cannot imagine where the resources would come from or how educating kids would ever be cost effective. A product of private school myself, I was grateful for the opportunity because I was exposed to so much that I otherwise would not have had the chance to see or do. Students attending public school, on the other hand,
often fall behind and never catch up. Unfortunately, the extremely high cost of private education makes it difficult for many kids to attend. When I spoke to various members of the Georgetown faculty and administration, they too were concerned with the current state of education, and harboring even bleaker outlooks for the future. The cost of college continues to soar at a rate substantially faster than wages and income, which can discourage or completely inhibit many from taking on the “burden of education”. Thus only the wealthy and those willing and able to undertake a lifetime of student loans populate our “elite” universities. I believe that the system we had in place was effective for a long time, until budget cuts and standardized testing put more pressure on teachers while cutting their benefits. In my opinion, there is no magical way to fix education, but increased funding for public schools is necessary. In addition, the system would benefit from a new method for evaluating teachers and administrators
wasn’t that the exact same movie I came to see? To say that Hollywood has had a recent trend of repeating similar films and remaking classics that have no need for a lesser, modern doppelganger is an understatement. In the past few years, originality in Hollywood has been sparse. Sure, there are still gems among the assembly line productions that, deservedly, garner much attention from audiences and critics, but when the same film comes out in the same year with all but a costume
change for the latest “it-girl” and GQ leading man, we have to ask ourselves—where has the creativity gone? And, perhaps a scarier thought: if this is what’s making it on screen, what kind of scripts are being proposed that don’t even make it? The shift in film in recent years from imaginative to mindnumbingly predictable speaks not only to a lack of creativity in Hollywood, but a lack of demand for creativity among viewers. And it’s not just film. It’s reality TV, and even the popularity of the memoir. For the most part, we don’t go to the movies to be provoked, we go to be distracted. And this distraction takes increasingly less and less creativity to be achieved. In books, likewise, we have become so obsessed with telling the truth about our own lives that we have forgotten the art of imagining. In today’s world, it’s not the new that we want—we want the old, the re-packaged. Unfortunately, this lack of invention on screen and on the page is only more indicative of our lack of invention elsewhere—in politics, in economics, and in education. A recent Newsweek article, “The Creativity Crisis,” blames
our education system’s emphasis on memorization for lowered creativity scores among children during the past two decades. While cutbacks on art classes and other creative outlets certainly hinder the creation of a creative environment for children, they are hardly the crux of the issue. It’s not just schools that need to create an environment that fosters imagination and invention, its society as a whole. When stars from MTV’s hit reality show Jersey Shore make it on to the cover of People Magazine, we have to wonder if we are not at fault as consumers. If infamy and fame have become synonymous, it sets the precedent that we can all achieve a certain level of success by doing absolutely nothing. Imagination has been driven out of the creative sphere by the advent of everyone’s 15 minutes of fame. The fact that Rebecca Black is famous for her song “Friday” is not her fault—it’s ours. If we continue to consume the unimaginative trash being slung at us, people will continue to do anything to catch our attention. Currently, our culture is perpetuating this form of un-
to guarantee excellence. Simultaneously, school curricula need to be redeveloped and districts physically restructured to ensure that students are actually learning and thinking, rather than just memorizing for the purpose of higher test scores. Standardization can succeed when balanced with the recognition of the different emotional and rational capacities of individual people. As a country, we need to recognize education as one of the most important factors in our success and growth. Cutbacks on education spending aren’t going to help us out of our economic situation. The future is dependent on the brainpower of children and young adults. If students are not asking questions, but simply accepting the answers being fed to them, then I believe the future of America is looking quite bleak.
Alexa Lombardo is a senior in the SFS. After graduation she plans to open a school for kids who can’t read good.
This is just the same old story: another Hollywood remake by Kate Imel A few months ago, I found myself tossing back my usual concoction of Sour Patch Kids and popcorn at the K Street Theater while watching the previews before No Strings Attached. The previews, in line with the coming movie, consisted of much of the same repetitive rom-com themes that every girl occasionally indulges. When the preview for Friends with Benefits came on, however, I did a double take—
“My tummy’s turnin’ and I’m feelin’ kind of homesick.”
FLICKR
imaginative realism, rather than looking at reality through a different lens. With so many means of distraction, it is easy to become complacent and let books and TV and movies be our only source of imaginative stimulation. Our imaginations seem to have atrophied. We live in a world where facts are presented over and over to us with nothing more than a change in who’s delivering them. The answer lies not in production, but in our consumption. If we are what we eat, do we really want to be a country defined by the latest super-hero remake, Real Housewives, and pregnant teenagers? Ultimately, our modern media perpetuates a generational narcissism in which we are drawn to the arts as a means to connect our story with the story presented to us. What we have begun to lose, however, is the imagination that allows us to be drawn out of ourselves by something greater.
Kate Imel is a senior in the College. She’s lucky she was 16 and pregnant otherwise she’d never be famous.
voices
georgetownvoice.com
the georgetown voice
15
Injury drives student skeptic to peace of mind at Down Dog by Nick Liu If you live in West Georgetown, chances are that sometime during the day you’ve noticed any number of welltoned young women clad in yoga pants and toting a tightly rolled mat, trooping off to some hidden fountain of youth. It’s a mesmerizing migration, and one that until fairly recently I’d thought to be off limits to the general population. Their destination, Down Dog Yoga —located be-
hind Dean and Deluca off of M street—has in recent years become a staple for both aspiring and established Georgetown yogis. I’d heard of Down Dog before from friends in a variety of social circles, from the progressive bro to the unnecessarily health-conscious Corpie, but the cult-like zeal present in each conversation kept me skeptical. My impression of yoga had always been that it was an effeminate, trivial excuse for exercise, a gimmick
Raise your hand if the new guy makes you feel awkward.
FLICKR
Fighting Irish take on Vatican Studying Irish history is a lot like watching Rocky. As with every Irish hero, Rocky is an underdog with a lot of heart, a lot of will, and an incredible ability to accept a beating. And like every Irish hero, Rocky loses. Unlike Rocky, however, the Irish continue well past six fights. Ireland’s history is marked by rebellion after rebellion. The legacy of the bloodshed and failed freedom fighters belie, by stereotype and by my experience, the true nature of the Irish people: boisterous, but ultimately passive and habitually willing to submit to (Catholic) authority. While the separation of church and state has been a tenet of most Western democracies, the Catholic Church runs
90 percent of primary schools in Ireland. While Americans debated the ethics of cloning and stem cell research, Ireland was drowning in religious conservatism, only legalizing divorce in 1995. This has, in many ways, been Ireland’s downfall. It now appears, however, that Ireland may have found its saving grace. Ireland is still reeling from the financial disaster brought on by their unending trust in the banking system. While riots break out in Greece and the U.K., the Irish accept their fate, silent in the face of austerity and with a sense of Catholic guilt for being so successful and prosperous during the Celtic Tiger era of the late ‘90s. Money has never been a big issue in Ireland, though, mostly
Let the Voice be your voice. We accept opinions, letters to the editor, personal experiences, and creative writing that are exclusive to the Voice. Submissions do not express the opinion of the board of the Voice. The Voice reserves the right to edit submissions for accuracy, length, and clarity. To submit, email voices@georgetownvoice. com or come to the Voice office in Leavey 413. Opinions expressed in the Voices section do not necessarily reflect the views of the General Board of the Voice.
whose glacial pace combined with zoned out instructors to turn a workout into a sweaty stretching session. But after tweaking my back in Yates one morning on the heels of a pretty extended bender, my workout options were limited. Plus, I reasoned, the first week at Down Dog was free. There are worse people to give an hour and a half to than a fit woman in tight pants. How hard could yoga be, after all? I got to the studio a few minutes early to fill out the requisite paperwork, and I immediately noticed a few things: first, the heat. It wraps around you like a fuzzy blanket, a spillover from the balmy main workout room. Second, each of the employees were exceptionally friendly and accommodating, renting me a free mat and towel for the upcoming sweat-sesh. To my delight, the people in attendance weren’t nearly as spacey as I expected, and the conversation sounded strikingly similar to the kind you might find at a regular gym. After I’d completed the necessary prerequisites, stowing my shoes in a cubby and setting up my station, the inbecause no one has ever really had it. But everyone has always had faith, and even more tragic to the Irish than their near financial collapse is the deteriorating relationship between Ireland and the Vatican. The force behind most Irish institutions has also been the force behind some its worst offenses against human rights. For years the Irish turned a blind eye because the Church
Carrying On by Aodhan Beirne A rotating column by Voice senior staffers
always took in those on the margins of society: unwed mothers, prostitutes, orphans. The Church dealt with those who society never wants to, and to criticize or even ask about what happened to them after they were taken in would seem ungrateful, even heretical. These feelings of gratitude and faith have been replaced by feelings of anger and defiance. After the Cloyne Report and the Ryan Commission, both released in 2009, exposed clergy abuse cover-ups and child
structor got started. If you have already attended a flow yoga class, you’ll be unsurprised to read that my admittedly low expectations were blown away—we started off with a few quick warm-up positions, and within five minutes my arms were shaking and my towel was a sweaty recreation of a late Jackson Pollock. Yet, despite the difficulty of some of the poses, I didn’t feel hurried in the way that I do during other workouts, racing to finish with the desperation of a deep sea diver about to drown five feet before surfacing. Rather, we were coached to embrace the sensations we were experiencing, to view the session not as a war against the body but as a collaboration with it. It was a novel approach to me, and one I enjoyed. After an hour and 15 minutes of seemingly limitless perspiration, we finished and exited. As anyone who’s ever gone to Down Dog will be enthused to tell you, the moment you step outside into the fresh air is extraordinary. This time was no different. As a senior at Georgetown, it’s easy to become complaabuse in orphanages, the Irish have become disgusted with the Church. This disgust was never more vocal or more quaking than this summer when Prime Minister Enda Kenny addressed the Irish Parliament to censure the Vatican, saying, “For the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual abuse exposed an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry into a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago.” He continued, saying “the rape and torture of children were downplayed, or ‘managed,’ to uphold instead the primacy of the institution— its power, its standing, and its reputation.” He finished by adding, “dysfunction … disconnection … and elitism dominate the culture of the Vatican.” Since this speech, the Vatican removed its Irish ambassador and transferred him to the Czech Republic, while Ireland is considering merging its embassy in the Vatican with its Italian embassy. This apparent deterioration has sent shockwaves throughout Irish society, which has always relied on the Church for guidance on all ethical and moral issues. This fracture will
cent, to find a pleasant routine and stick to it. And yet, some of my most profound experiences here have come from trying things I had no business trying. This is not to say that every new college experience has been a good one—I will never again opt for late night shwarma over late night Tuscany, and I’ll probably stay away from Modern Lounge and Bar. I wouldn’t, on the other hand, take any of those choices back because even if they didn’t lead me to some new interest or affinity, they widened my horizons and made me richer as a person. Since my first visit, I’ve gone back to Down Dog several times and have been pleased to find that the experience only gets better with practice. As a beginner, my form is atrocious; on the other hand, I’ve got nowhere to go but up. And while I may have gone into the experience a skeptic, I’m glad that I gave yoga a try.
Nick Liu is a senior in the College. Nick is also a beginner in the dark art of kama sutra and looking for volunteers. be healed, but it is an important step for Ireland in dealing with clerical abuse, and one that goes beyond even the efforts of the U.S. to rectify this international problem. Kenny is bringing Ireland into the 21st century by asserting state over religion and finally acknowledging the widespread and centuries-long victimization of Irish citizens by the Church. Fixing these issues is a necessary first step toward repairing the many social and political ailments in Ireland, and it bodes well for the future of Irish democracy. The Catholic Church will remain the largest and most influential institution in Ireland, and its charitable work is undeniable and vital to daily life in the country. No society can tolerate systematic abuse or the interference with the inquiry into it, though. It’s been a long time coming for an Irish victory. Here’s hoping there need not be a sequel.
Aodhan Beirne is a senior in the College. Watching Rocky was the closest he ever got to being an athlete.
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