The Georgetown Voice, September 23, 2010

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GU GETS A GAY-FRIENDLY RANKING PAGE 4

FOOTBALL COMES HOME AFTER IVY LOSS PAGE 7

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PREP-TANNICA PAGE 11

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  September 23, 2010  Volume 43, Issue 6  georgetownvoice.com

TEACH. PRAY. LOVE.

2 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

letter to the editor

In the Voice’s Sept. 16 article “On the Record: Álvaro Uribe,” the former President of Colombia said that I am “completely wrong” for suggesting that he has shown contempt for human rights work.

The problem with his denial—sadly, lying about factual matters is the norm for Uribe—is that the world has recording equipment.

Some of Uribe’s widely-quoted descriptions of human rights workers, such as the notable human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, include: “Rent-a-mobs at terrorism’s service who cowardly wave the human rights flag”; “human rights traffickers”; and “intellectual front of the [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]”.

“Amnesty International [does] not condemn international humanitarian law violations by the guerrillas and they give legitimacy to terrorism,” he has said.

“They go around European bureaus like library rats, gossiping in low voices, undermining Colombian institutions.”

Perhaps someone could explain how these descriptions are not contemptuous?

Uribe has also slandered specific individuals.

“Before [José Miguel Vivanco, a director of Human Rights Watch], a FARC defender [and] accomplice, came here to criticize our policy of democratic security, we were making serious efforts to put our country on its feet,” he said. “I don’t have anything to learn from Mr. Vivanco when it comes to human rights.”

His accusations have not gone unnoticed in the international community.

Human Rights First responded by saying, “President Uribe and other admin-

istration officials have branded [human rights defenders] as terrorist sympathizers and have insinuated that illicit connections exist between human rights [nongovernmental organizations] and illegal armed groups. Irresponsible comments by government officials in Colombia put the lives of human rights defenders at even greater risk and threaten to undermine the value and credibility of their work.”

Margaret Sekaggya, who researches human rights defenders for the United Nations Human Rights Commission, found that human rights defenders in Colombia constantly face “stigmatization by public officials and non-State actors; … illegal surveillance by State intelligence services; … arbitrary arrest and detention; … judicial harassment; and raids of nongovernmental organizations’ premises and theft of information.”

One could go on, but I trust the point is clear. I would urge the Voice to go further and examine his actions in a detailed article by an expert on human rights in the region. But what I would really like to see is a response to these contemptuous remarks from someone in the Georgetown administration. I would like to understand how this sort of “distinguished leadership” is consonant with Georgetown’s claim that it places social justice and service to humanity at the center of its teaching mission.

—Mark Lance Professor, Department of Philosophy and Program on Justice and Peace Georgetown University

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9. Therefore 14. Lewd look

15. Place between hills 16. Make disappear completely 17. 4% say, on a bank acct.

18. No clue 20. The ultimate degree?

21. Intimate conversation

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24. No clue 28. One and ___ (flip cup boast) 29. North American labor union (abbr.)

31. Consonantless German city 32. Swears 33. Sports percentages 34. Opposite of NNW 35. Higher education insts.

36. Champion tennis servers 37. Disruption 38. Beyonce single 39. Things took ___ for the worse 40. AP Math subj.

41. Created a hole 42. Television network home to Top Model and Gossip Girl 43. Water ice manufactorer 44. Pooh’s donkey friend 46. Voice behind 18-, 22-, 53across and 26-, 32- down 49. Spread throughout 52. Does not like Green Eggs and Ham 53. Text similar to an Our Father or Hail Mary?

56. Chemical suffix 57. Holder for a broken arm 58. Approx.

59. Have ___ with (be connected) 60. Thick

answers at georgetownvoice.com 61. Oft-hunted animal 62. Old cry of shock DOWN 1. Style of skirt 2. Middle (prefix) 3. Set of procedures 4. Hospital drama 5. Demonstrate clearly 6. Rihanna hit “___ Bow” 7. Egyptn. queen 8. Mr. Connery 9. Awful 10. Made a mistake 11. Badger 12. Crime drama 13. Poetic time of night 18. Gird one’s ___ 19. Regurgitates 23. Pulls behind 25. Home of Michigan State University 26. The food of love?

27. Psychic 29. Back of a boat 30. Merit 32. In style?

33. Bunny’s tail 35. Give, as in territory 36. An insignificant dweeb (2 words) 37. 60s Japanese prime minister 39. Plot size 40. Fall drink 43. Movie deemed inappropriate for children 45. Renders accessible 46. Prince’s wife 47. Gold-medal gymnast Comaneci 48. Add to 50. Talking horse of TV 51. Simplicity 53. Acid 54. Suffix with project 55. Family 59. American Eagle

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 43.6 September 23, 2010 Editor-in-Chief: Juliana Brint Managing Editor: Molly Redden Editor-at-Large: Tim Shine Director of Technology: Alexander Pon Blog Editor: Chris Heller News Editor: Cole Stangler Sports Editor: Nick Berti Feature Editor: Sean Quigley Cover Editor: Holly Ormseth Leisure Editor: Brendan Baumgardner Voices Editor: Keaton Hoffman Photo Editor: Jackson Perry Design Editors: Megan Berard, Ishita Kohli Literary Editor: James McGrory Crossword Editor: Mary Cass Assistant Blog Editors: Geoffrey Bible, Julie Patterson Assistant News Editors: Emma Forster, Holly Tao Assistant Cover Editor: Marc Fichera Assistant Leisure Editors: Nico Dodd, Leigh Finnegan Assistant Photo Editors: Matthew Funk, Hilary Nakasone

Associate Editor: Iris Kim Staff Writers:

Cyrus Bordbar, Tom Bosco, Kara Brandeisky, Matthew Collins, Kate Imel, Satinder Kaur, Matt Kerwin, Scott Munro, Rob Sapunor, Keenan Timko, Imani Tate, Tim Wagner, J. Galen Weber, Sadaf Qureshi, Matthew Decker

Staff Photographers:

Max Blodgett, Lexie Herman, Helen Burton

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Richa Goyal, Marc Patterson

Copy Chief: Matt Kerwin Editorial Board Chair: Hunter Kaplan Editorial Board:

Kara Brandeisky, Jackson Perry, Eric Pilch, Sean Quigley, Molly Redden, J. Galen Weber

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On this week’s cover ... Joseph Palacios Cover Photo: Jackson Perry

the georgetown voice 3 ERROR MARKED

Leo’s changes, like its food, are hard to swallow Complaining about Leo’s is a Georgetown tradition, and not without good reason. The management of the University’s dining hall and meal system needs change. Unfortunately, the changes that have been made to Leo’s this fall were a step in the wrong direction.

Over the summer, the dining hall was rearranged and restructured. The upstairs salad and fruit bar as well as the “weekly wrap” disappeared, and bagels and muffins vanished from Late Night. These changes haven’t fundamentally altered Leo’s, but they show that Georgetown and Aramark, the food service provider for Leo’s, are not interested in making changes that improve the food quality. Given the underwhelming showing, it is clear that Georgetown needs to reconsider its contract with Aramark.

Aramark claims that every change made to Leo’s over the summer came about as a direct result of student feed-

back from their online Dining Styles Survey. Instead of relying on low response-rate email surveys and individual opinions, Aramark needs to engage a larger proportion of Georgetown students before making any changes.

Small, week-long test runs for new dining options conducted in the dining hall itself, combined with a convienient feedback system, would ensure that changes reflect the wishes of the majority of student diners. Most importantly, Georgetown needs to encourage students to take an active role in designing their dining experience rather than simply reacting to the changes made for them by Aramark.

Aramark lacks integrity in the way it conducts business with its clients and the way it treats its employees. Despite decreasing the quality of its service, Aramark raised prices on all its meal plans this year by an average of about $35. As usual, the weekly meal plans it offers

force students to choose a plan with too few or too many meals per week.

In 2008, an inspector general in Florida found that the company had pocketed over $10 million for meals it never served, and had substituted in cheaper ingredients without permission from their client, the State of Florida Prison System. Several labor unions have complained about Aramark’s poor worker compensation, including the National Labor Relations Board in Philadelphia, which recently accused Aramark of collecting union dues from its workers but not passing them on to the unions.

Georgetown University should assert itself on behalf of its students and renegotiate its contract with Aramark, demanding more reasonable meal plan options and insisting that any increase in price comes with an increase in quality, not a decrease. And if Aramark is unwilling to negotiate, the University should find a new provider.

SCHOOL’S OUT

Gray skies ahead for D.C. Public Schools?

As candidates for mayor, incumbent Adrian Fenty and victor Vincent Gray, who will almost certainly replace Fenty as mayor in November, agreed on many issues. Gray, however, has been clear that he does not want to duplicate the uncommunicative atmosphere in which Fenty and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee carried out their biggest reforms of the District’s flailing public schools. But, as he undertakes his own education plan, it is important that Gray does not let a more open process interfere with progress.

Rhee and Fenty may have consulted few outsiders when making DCPS policy, but their reform strategies worked.

As a result of their initiatives, schools have seen double-digit improvements in standardized test scores in a span of only three years, and D.C. is the only

major urban school district to see these kinds of gains. Gray must maintain this progress. If he replaces Rhee, which he almost certainly will, her successor must be equally willing to make tough, unpopular choices. After all of her success, it would be a shame if Gray nominated someone new who does not share Rhee’s understanding of what it takes to reform DCPS because he is afraid of offending other parties.

While Gray voted for mayoral control of the schools, he also received about $1 million from the American Federation of Teachers’, a group with a history of opposing reforms, such as 2009’s mass firings of underperforming teachers. Gray should not let their support during his campaign influence his decisions to support reforms that are necessary for improving D.C.’s school system.

Rhee was not the perfect chancellor.

She was not transparent with teachers or students’ families about many of her decisions, including school closings and teacher firings. But to maintain the progress the city has made so far, D.C. needs a leader who is willing to upset those who are effectively defending the broken status quo. The next chancellor must be willing to accept the political costs of tough decisions.

Ideally, public school reform should transcend politics Unfortunately, in D.C. it does not. We hope that at the very least, Gray will choose a strong, reform-minded chancellor to replace Rhee, so that a critical mass of parents continue putting their children back in DCPS. If the new chancellor fails to inspire confidence and enthusiasm, we could quickly see some of the critical improvements Rhee made disappear.

POLITICKED OFF

A DREAM deferred for immigrant students Six weeks before the general elections, it seems that more often than not politics takes precedence over the common good.

Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to filibuster a comprehensive defense authorization bill that would have vastly improved higher educational opportunities for children of illegal immigrants. The “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors” Act, attached to the same bill that included legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” fell victim to a partisan Congress playing politics in an election year. At a time when the United States needs to rejuvenate and reinvent its workforce, Congress cannot afford to deny thousands of students with excellent grades and the ambition the opportunity to pursue higher education.

The DREAM act would give children of illegal immigrants access to student loans, scholarships, and reduced resident tuition rates. One of the students who would benefit if this legislation passes is a Georgetown senior, Juan Gomez (MSB ’11). Gomez came to the United States with his parents almost 20 years ago. He graduated near the top of his high school class in Miami, and after intense lobbying, Gomez was given a place at Georgetown.

Juan’s success on the Hilltop is a good example of why this bill needs to be passed as soon as possible.

Children of illegal immigrants did not choose to come to the United States illegally. Nevertheless, every year 65,000 students graduate from high school with

a limited economic future and no way to pursue a higher education. The proposed law would allow many children of illegal immigrants to qualify for six years of “conditional permanent residency” if they enroll in college or enlist in the military.

When the DREAM act is reintroduced during the lame duck session in December, Republican senators should support it for the good of the country.

This bill levels the playing field so that those who have done nothing wrong can have a chance to better themselves and the nation. The DREAM act is an important step towards helping dedicated students like Juan Gomez instead of condemning them with the label of illegal alien.

news

4 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

LGBTQ activists reflect on Newsweek rankings

by Rachel Calvert Of all the arbitrary college rankings that have recently been released, one stands out as particularly puzzling: Georgetown’s 24th place showing on Newsweek’s “Best Gay Friendly Schools” list.

When it comes to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender issues, Georgetown’s recent history is marred by hate crimes and institutional intolerance. But some said the ranking reflects ongoing institutional efforts to improve the on-campus environment for LGBTQ students and faculty.

A major contributor to Georgetown’s high ranking was

its LGBTQ Center, which was launched in 2008. Shiva Subbaraman, director of Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center, said that it is unusual for any university to have a fully staffed resource center, let alone a Catholic institution.

Mia Di Stefano (COL ’12), a member of GU Pride, said Georgetown’s Newsweek ranking surprised her, especially given the school’s moderate-to-conservative student body.

However, Di Stefano also said she has noticed positive changes in Georgetown’s on campus environment since her arrival as a freshman in 2008, the

SHIRA SHAPERSTEIN

The LGBTQ Resource Center propelled Georgetown to a surprisingly high ranking.

year the LGBTQ Resource Center launched. She has noticed more advocacy for LGTBQ students from the administration.

Rob Byrne (COL ’11), a member of GU Pride, said that the rankings are a sign of progress.

Even if they are somewhat arbitrary, Byrne said, they speak to a “growing trend” of tolerance and acceptance on campus.

Subbaraman said the administration has allowed the LGBTQ Resource Center to establish a presence in many different facets of campus life, including New Student Orientation, various student activities, academia, and Campus Ministry. The Resource Center has also engaged in dialogue with the Office of Admissions and has liaisons in Health Services and the Department of Public Safety.

While Subbaraman is pleased with Georgetown’s ranking in Newsweek, especially given the relative newness of the LGBTQ Resource Center, she said she hoped that the campus will continue to grow more accepting of LGBTQ students.

The school continues to hear reports of bias-related crimes,

although they are not as high profile as the hate crimes that prompted Georgetown to establish its bias-reporting system in 2008. Since then, the school has seen a rise in the reporting of bias-related incidents, a trend which Subbaraman views as a positive indication that Georgetown students feel more empowered and confident that the administration will take the accusations seriously.

She also pointed out that the survey was compiled in a way that favored elite schools like Georgetown. Subbaraman said that the list only examined the country’s most selective institutions, so Georgetown was judged against a smaller pool of U.S. colleges and universities.

To compile the rankings, Newsweek first looked to The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students and InsideCollege. com for two independent lists of gay-friendly campuses. The lists were narrowed down based on selectivity in the admissions processes, as well as the average SAT and ACT scores of its firsttime students.

Shane Windmeyer, the chief

researcher and writer of The Advocate Guide for LGBT Students, and the founder and executive director of Campus Pride, said that Newsweek sought no expert advice in compiling the list. He said that lists like this required advice from organizations like Campus Pride, a group dedicated to fostering a safer college environment for LGBT students.

Noting that the schools on the list were “not necessarily the best LGBT campuses overall,” Windmeyer said he does not consider Georgetown to be particularly gay friendly. He said that addressing issues such as homophobia and student safety is a long process that requires efforts from all levels of the administration for a good number of years.

Still, most ultimately agreed that Georgetown has become more gay-friendly since the University established its LGBTQ Center—even if there is still more progress to be made.

“Georgetown promotes tolerance, but not necessarily acceptance,” Di Stefano said.

Ideally, what do you aim to accomplish with your testimony?

I hope that Congress doesn’t let politics get in the way of maintaining a program that’s made a huge difference in my life and a difference [for] the 840 students at Georgetown who have received Perkins Loans. I know there are issues of how the program gets funded and what name the program has—that doesn’t matter to me, the politics of it don’t concern me. As long as we’re ensuring that talented people of all backgrounds are extended the opportunity to attend a school like Georgetown, I’ll be happy.

that may cost upwards of $50,000 instead of going to the state school or something like that. It gives them more choice and it rewards them for the hard work that they put in in high school.

loan forgiveness aspect. If you give a certain amount of time to service in your community, whether it’s working in the military or government or teaching in an underfunded school district—each year you give spending back to your community, fifteen percent of the loan is forgiven. That provides me with an added incentive to give back and pursue service. I think it’s really important to provide incentive for talented people to go into these careers that might not necessarily pay a lot but that are rewarding nonetheless.

—Additional Claire Sherburne

reporting

by

On the record with Joe Hill: Student, Perkins loan advocate On Wednesday evening, Joe Hill (COL ‘10) sat down with the Voice to discuss the testimony he delivered before the House Budget Committee in support of the Perkins Loan Program. Interview conducted and transcribed by Emma Forster.

How did the Perkins Loan help you personally?

When I began to apply to colleges, the price tag was a big factor in where I would go. I got a few small scholarships in addition to the aid I got from the Georgetown Scholarship Program, but there was still a gap that needed to be filled. The Perkins Loan helped me and my family fill that gap by providing us with a low-interest loan, part of which could be deferred and a portion that is forgiven if I decide to go into public service.

So it basically helped me by allowing me to go Georgetown; without it I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

How did you get to testify before Congress in favor of the Perkins Loan Program?

The Dean of Financial Aid, Dean McWade, recommended me. I’m assuming it was because she saw me speak

at an event my freshman year for the Georgetown Scholarship Program. She knew I was receiving financial aid and figured that it would be good for me to revive my personal testimony. I think she also knew that I was really interested in public policy and government, given that I had worked on the Hill. Scott Fleming, the Associate Vice President of Federal Relations, extended the opportunity to me, and it was a great experience.

What was it like to testify before Congress?

It was cool. I was pretty nervous at the beginning, but once the words started to come out, I was less and less nervous. I was talking about myself so I didn’t feel like anyone was going to test my knowledge of interest rates or different algorithms they use to determine financial need, so I felt pretty comfortable. My friends were there, my roommates were there, my parents were there, so good people were around me and I didn’t really feel too nervous.

And it was exciting at the end, when it was finished—big sigh of relief at the end.

Why do you think that the Perkins Loan Program is so important?

I think the program is important because there is a whole host of opportunities for people who are below the poverty line. But for those people who are right above what it means to be in poverty and who are just working class folks, a lot of the time we get ignored, we get overlooked.

I think that the Perkins Loan Program is an opportunity for middle class students ... an opportunity to attend a school

How do you plan on repaying the loan debt to Georgetown when you graduate? What are your plans for the future?

After Georgetown I plan to teach back home in Philadelphia.

The low-interest rate [of the loan] helps out a lot, the deferment helps out a lot, and so does the

EMMA FORSTER

news

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the georgetown voice 5

Corp sees 10 percent rise in applicants Leo’s introduces changes

by J. Galen Weber Three hundred eighty-five students applied to the Students of Georgetown Inc. this year, an unusually high number. But the entirely student-run company, better known as the Corp, hired only 57 new employees, for a total acceptance rate of 14.8 percent.

Brad Glasser (COL’11), the current CEO of the Corp, estimated that they received up to 10 percent more applications than they had in any previous year, although they have not been compiling application data long enough to officially confirm that figure.

Leaders of the Corp attributed the rise in applications to efforts they made to spread information about the Corp to freshmen, through both traditional channels, like flyers, and more unorthodox methods, like tabling freshmen move-in.

“We got some really valuable early exposure to new students as they came onto the campus,” said Glasser.

Maggie Laush (SFS’14), a freshman who got a job working at Hoya Snaxa, said that she had seen Corp flyers all over campus, and that many of her fellow freshmen had talked about applying to the Corp.

Freshman students comprised of more than 46 per-

cent of the total applicant pool, Glasser said.

Kevin Suyo (SFS ’11), who has worked for the Corp since the fall of his freshman year and is the General Manager of MUG this year, said he noticed a definite increase in the number of applicants this year, with 96 people applying for just six spots. Suyo suggested that the poor economy could have contributed to their high level of applicants.

Suyo also pointed out that the Corp has worked to open itself up to students in recent years, which he views as another potential explanation for the rise in applications.

“Over the past few years we’ve been making an effort

—Additional Maddy Joelson

reporting

by

OLIVIA PERCOW

The Corp saw applications soar this year as it upped its outreach.

Gray’s growth problem?

At approximately 2 a.m. on May 26, D.C. Councilmembers received a startling surprise in the draft budget submitted to them by then-Chairman Vincent Gray. Despite assurances Gray had made the previous night that the longawaited streetcar project would be included in the city’s budget, it had mysteriously disappeared.

“It will essentially kill the program,” an irate District Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein told the Washington Post on May 26. “If they kill it, basically, it goes on ice.

Gray’s move nearly delayed the streetcars, which were to run from H Street to Benning Road.

Fortunately, in May, the Council restored streetcar funding at the last minute after their phones and inboxes were flooded with messages

to make the Corp less insular,” said Suyo.

Applicants said they were intrigued by the Corp’s dual function as a social group and a job.

Ben Santucci (SFS ‘13), who was invited back for two interviews before being denied a spot, saw the Corp as a tightknit social group on campus.

“The Corp is kind of like a frat but also a job, so it was really like killing two birds with one stone,” Santucci said. “For the Corp you get the same things that come with a frat, but instead of paying dues, you get a paycheck.”

from angry constituents.

In light of this incident, many D.C. residents who want to see a more livable, accessible city were skeptical of Vincent Gray’s candidacy for mayor. Current Mayor Adrian Fenty—whom Gray defeated in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary—created the popular Circulator bus system, dramatically expanded bike lanes in the city, promoted walkable urban development, and strongly supported the streetcar program. But many District residents are now wondering whether Gray’s impending victory in the November mayoral election will threaten the “new urbanism” renaissance that has gained momentum in D.C. under Fenty.

In addition to the streetcar fiasco, Gray said that the bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue—where

many bikers, like me, commute to jobs downtown—are “really ludicrous.” Center for American Progress blogger Matt Yglesias has noted that Gray has expressed concerns about the high cost of parking in D.C., implying potential support for parking or parking lot

City on a Hill

by Eric Pilch

A bi-weekly column on D.C. news and politics subsidies. This would be a terrible waste of money and space, especially in downtown D.C. But, fortunately, there are also signs that Gray has sympathies for the urbanist vision of walkable and bike-friendly streets, public transportation, and smart growth.

He expressed support for devoting more resources to buses and expanding bike lanes during the campaign. He also garnered the

by Matt Kerwin Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall has made several changes to its layout for the 2010-11 academic year.

The upstairs dining area has been most significantly altered.

The salad and sandwich bar, which used to take up a large portion of the upstairs floor space, has been removed. The wrap station now also serves salads, but it no longer offers a weekly rotation of wraps or any meat options. Students who want to make sandwiches must visit the downstairs sandwich bar.

“I miss the wraps,” Emily Stoiken (COL ‘12) said. “I also miss being able to make my own salad.

It’s such a waste of Leo’s workers’ time to be making salad for us.”

The taco bar, once a weekend staple, has been moved upstairs from the downstairs serving circle.

Associate Vice President for Communications Julie Green Bataille wrote in an email that the dining hall has added stations that break up the service lines.

At least one student appreciated the stations’ new locations, away from the salad bar where the lines frequently overlapped.

“They did move the taco bar to a better location,” Greg Rodarte (SFS ‘13) said. “It used to cause a huge traffic jam, but its new spot seems to work better.”

support of influential blogger and activist David Alpert, after Alpert conducted interviews with both candidates in the days leading up to the primary. “[It is my] strong belief that Gray is a supporter of a livable, walkable city,” Alpert, the founder of the popular urban planning blog Greater Greater Washington, told the Voice.

He added that Gray had demonstrated a thoughtful approach to decision making while serving as the D.C. Council Chair, which would lead to better development.

When D.C.’s leaders make choices after considering community input and the ramifications of a given project, he said, the results are superior. In Alpert’s view, the Fenty administration didn’t approach projects with as much deliberation as Gray. That approach is crucial, as new construction shapes the urban landscape for decades to come.

Gray’s contradictions and dis-

The silverware stations, which were dispersed throughout the cafeteria last semester, have all been removed except for the two large stations located by the entrance to each floor. According to Green Bataille, this was part of a move to centralize the silverware.

Students may have mixed reactions to the new Leo’s, but according to Aramark, the company contracted by Georgetown to run Leo’s, they are getting what they asked for.

“Any changes made in our dining locations are the direct result of student feedback,” Aramark Director of Communications Karen Culter wrote in an email.

“We survey students [through the Dining Styles Survey] to determine their needs and preferences, and implement changes based on the feedback we receive.”

Aramark took control of the food service at Leo’s in the fall of 2007, and its contract with Georgetown will be up for renegotiation in 2012.

Executive Director of Campus Dining Services Andrew Lindquist did not respond for multiple requests to comment. Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Maggie Bryant could not be reached for comment.

—Additional reporting by El Roberts

concerting comments over sustainable smart growth should not be taken lightly, and D.C. residents must hold him accountable to his campaign promises and commitment to maintaining Fenty’s urbanist vision.

At the same time, during the election, it was easy to paint Fenty as pro-smart growth and Gray as strictly against it. In reality, though, Gray sent out the right signals during the campaign, and his ability to carefully consider alternative points of view—likely his greatest strength as Council Chairman— may help him implement it even better than our outgoing mayor.

Urbanism fans have good reason to hope Gray will move D.C. forward on the path toward smart and sustainable development.

Want to sustain Eric’s growth?

Email him at epilch@georgetownvoice. com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

Soccer can’t find a way to win in Ivy League battles

by Adam Rosenfeld Last weekend, the Georgetown men’s soccer team took to the pitch for two matchups against Ivy League opponents.

Despite their tough play, the Hoyas emerged from the Ivyclad gauntlet winless.

The Hoyas opened the weekend with a Friday night matchup in the Garden State against the Princeton Tigers.

The Tigers came out with tons of energy and jumped on Georgetown early, creating numerous chances and forcing senior goalkeeper Matthew Brutto off his line multiple times.

Georgetown couldn’t hang on, however, and a defensive

miscue in the 27th minute led to an easy Princeton goal. The half ended with the Hoyas trailing 1-0.

“They were given a goal without earning it,” head coach Brian Wiese said. “The first half was one-way traffic in our favor.”

After a Princeton shot rang off the post to open the half, the Hoyas were able to equalize the score with a strike from senior standout Seth C’deBaca.

The goal shifted the momentum of the game, and Georgetown opened the floodgates with an offensive onslaught. The Tigers’ goalkeeper was up to the task, turning away multiple shots, includ-

Women lose a pair out west

by Abigail Harrison

After winning every game this season, the Georgetown women’s soccer team took to the West Coast for a tougher test against soccer juggernauts No. 2 Stanford and No. 10 Santa Clara. But the No. 19 Hoyas (7-2), came up empty handed on the road trip.

“We knew going into the games this weekend that they were going to be challenging,” head coach Dave Nolan said. “We were playing against two of the more storied programs in the women’s game.”

Friday night’s game against Santa Clara was a close battle, but an own goal by Georgetown ultimately led to Santa Clara’s victory.

The hard-fought loss was the first defeat for the Hoyas this season, though according to Nolan, the game should have ended in a draw.

“We had a couple of penalty calls that I would have hoped we’d get one or two of,” Nolan said. “But the referee wasn’t brave enough to make the call.”

Georgetown barely had time to catch its breath with a game against the second-best team in

the nation two days later. Unfortunately for the Hoyas, the Cardinals didn’t give them a chance to breathe as they jumped out to an early lead. Senior forward Christen Press scored on a cross from the top of the box only 2:31 into the game. Stanford controlled the rest of the game, outshooting the Hoyas 22-4.

“At the end of the day, Stanford was better, and there certainly still is a gap between us and them,” Nolan said.

While ranked in the top 20, the young squad still has a long way to go. But the higher level of competition they saw on their winless road trip is key to their long term improvement.

“Next year, we have Stanford coming to play us here,” Nolan said.

“It will be interesting to see if we’ve closed the gap.”

The team’s out-of-conference schedule is now over and they are now preparing for the Big East season, which opens Friday against a tough Rutgers team. The Hoyas hope that their early-season competition has readied them for the Big East.

“We’re exactly where we had wanted to be,” Nolan said. “Now we just have to go take care of business in our last ten conference games.”

JACKSON PERRY

Ingrid Wells looks to lead the Hoyas into Big East play after a tough road trip

ing a breakaway from sophomore midfielder Andy Reimer.

Regulation time ended with the sides deadlocked at one.

Both teams had tired legs in the overtime periods and no real opportunities developed.

The game ended in a stalemate. Despite not getting the win, Georgetown dominated the stats. They outshot the Tigers 21-14 and were awarded nine corner kicks to Princeton’s one.

“We’re very disappointed with the tie,” senior captain Jose Colchao said. “We ran that game. … It was all us.”

Georgetown returned home Sunday afternoon to face 22nd-ranked University

of Pennsylvania, the team coached by Georgetown soccer alumnus Rudy Fuller (MSB ‘93). They got off to a hot start, scoring the game’s opening goal in the 10th minute. Sophomore defender Tommy Muller connected with a header off a C’deBaca corner kick, depositing the ball into the left corner of the net.

It was clear, however, that the Quakers were on the verge of a breakthrough, and after going into the half down, they were able to capitalize off a deflection in the 52nd minute.

UPenn added two more goals in the second half to put the game out of reach, handing the Hoyas a 3-1 loss.

“We didn’t come out and close the game out like we did against Michigan State,” Wiese said. “We stopped working for each other and we looked tired.”

The Hoyas need to regroup during this week of practice before beginning Big East play this weekend. Wiese’s challenge is in getting his team to play at its full potential for the entire game.

“We’ve proven we can perform against great teams and be scary good,” Weise said. “The question is if we can be scary good for 90 minutes.”

The Hoyas look to scare the Bearcats of Cincinnati in Ohio on Saturday night. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

the Sports Sermon “I knew we were going back to OSU this year, and I wanted to tackle Brutus.”

— Ohio mascot Rufus, on his plans for revenge on Ohio State’s mascot fantasy football era, the average fan’s cheering habits were the same.

But with fantasy, everything has changed. Suddenly, it is easy for me to care more about my fantasy team than the team I’ve supported my whole life, especially if there is money on the line.

This past Sunday for example, my favorite team, the Miami Dolphins, beat the Vikings, in a great game, a huge victory for the Miami. In the pre-fantasy era, I

my couch, I was begging Saints coach Sean Payton Fantasy football was born to put Reggie back in for over 20 years ago as a pasjust one more play—I didn’t time accessible to the public care if his leg got torn off, I in major regional newspaneeded to win my silly game. pers. With the rise of the InOf course, he didn’t do that, ternet, fantasy football has and the results depressed me become one of sports fans’ more than my impending pofavorite distractions. Some litical theory paper. of the biggest sports webAlthough fantasy footsites, which have their own ball makes more football leagues, have even hired games interesting to watch, fantasy football “analysts.” it causes some issues of Yes, there are some people confusion and disloyalty. earning six figures to analyze What do you do if you’re in a fake football the playoffs and Pete Rose Central game. Fantasy is your starting fanDa bettin’ line one of NFL.com’s tasy QB is playmain focuses, and ing against your Dookies Margin Hoyas millions of people favorite team? (underdogs) (duh!) participate in this (favorites) Can you root for game every year.

Tom Brady if he Evil Beer Trucks is on your fanGood All this makes Sobriety it hard for me to tasy team, even if 11:30am Tailgate admit that this Holy cross you’re from New Georgetown Believe! is the first year I York? have ever played fantasy foot- would’ve been ecstatic. The I did. On Sunday, I—a ball. The appeal is obvious. It win would’ve kept me happy New Yorker—was rooting for has only been two weeks, and until Tuesday. But while in Tom Brady to have a good I have already felt intense ex- reality my team had scored a game. In the past, I would citement and disappointment victory, my fantasy world was have been hard-pressed to over a fantasy game. But fan- full of heartbreak. think of anything that would tasy football has also changed I trailed my opponent go- make me root for a player or how I watch the NFL and root ing into the Monday game team from Boston, but here for teams. and would need a big game I was in what seemed like Before playing fantasy from Saints running back an alternate universe, cheerfootball, I would watch my Reggie Bush to bounce back. ing for another Brady-Moss favorite team’s games, and He had a great first three touchdown. maybe catch the Monday quarters, and it looked as Fantasy football has definight games when they were though it’d be enough to win. nitely changed the way we a good matchup. But I only I was losing by .1 points—yes watch sports and I’m still trytruly cared about the out- one-tenth of a point—when ing to figure out if it’s for the come in one game a week. Bush broke his leg and left better or not. One thing is for It was simple—I was only the game. All he needed to sure—fantasy makes you do loyal to one team. In the pre- do was run two yards. From crazy things.

by Nick Berti

sports

georgetownvoice.com

Hoyas fall on final play

by Daniel Kellner An undefeated season may have been more of a dream than a realistic goal, but the Georgetown football team will nonetheless be disappointed knowing they were just seconds away from a perfect 3-0 start. The Hoyas surrendered a touchdown as time expired and were defeated by Yale University 40-35.

The Hoyas (2-1, 1-0 Patriot League) allowed the Bulldogs to take a 27-14 lead before halftime and had to come up from behind once again. But like their triumphant performance against Lafayette last week, Georgetown came out of the break quickly, with a phenomenal opening kickoff return for a touchdown by sophomore defensive back Jeremy Moore. Moore’s blistering return, which was the Hoyas first since 2004, earned him Patriot League Special Teams Player of the Week honors, and praise from head coach Kevin Kelly for revitalizing the team.

“When you come out of halftime and you run a kickoff back like Jeremy did, it just puts life into us,” Kelly said. “I told them

at halftime, ‘execution fuels emotion’, and that’s what happened.

We executed a big time play and the emotion came back in again.”

Freshman Dalen Claytor also returned a kickoff for 54 yards to set up a touchdown in the first half, demonstrating the Hoyas’ considerable improvement on special teams.

Moore and the Georgetown special teams unit were not alone in earning honors. Senior wide receiver Keerome Lawrence, who caught eight passes for 129 yards and rushed for a touchdown, was named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week. Although he’s pleased with the rush of awards the Hoyas have received, Lawrence said he is staying focused on the team’s record.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the wins, and if you don’t get the win it doesn’t mean that much to me,” he said.

Junior cornerback Jayah Kaisamba intercepted a pass on Yale’s first possession of the second half, giving the Hoyas great field position, which Lawrence converted to a six-yard touch-

MATTHEW FUNK

Hoyas have high hopes going into homecoming despite the loss to Yale

Nobody’s home I looked at the Georgetown men’s basketball schedule, which came out last week, and I have good news: you’re not going to need to camp outside of the Verizon Center at six in the morning in the freezing cold.

That’s not exactly what you want to hear before you shell out $125 for season tickets, but the sad truth is that the home schedule this year is weak. It’s not a bad schedule—there’s no way it could be, with nine Big East games—but let’s just say that fans aren’t likely to see President Obama courtside this year.

John Thompson III did his job with the non-conference schedule, setting up a challenging but manageable slate to prepare his team for the rigors of conference play.

But entertaining the home fans fell slightly lower on his list of pri-

orities. The Hoyas will play seven games on the road before Big East play begins. That’s the most since Thompson came to Georgetown. In fact, it’s the most since his father was at Georgetown; the Hoyas haven’t traveled this much in the first semester since 1980.

The past two seasons may have spoiled fans, with Duke (albeit in January) and Memphis the year before in the home game lineup, but there have always been games to go to in the fall. This year, it’s just Tulane, Utah State, Appalachian State, and Loyola, plus UNC Asheville over Thanksgiving weekend. Utah State is a good team, but as the highlight of the schedule, the Aggies leave something to be desired.

At the same time, it’s hardly an easy schedule for the Hoyas.

HoyaSaxa.com ran the numbers, and based on opponents’ RPI from last season, Georgetown is playing its toughest non-conference sched-

down run and a 28-27 lead.

The Hoyas added to their advantage when junior quarterback Scott Darby found junior wideout John O’Leary for his first touchdown catch, Georgetown’s third of the quarter.

Darby had another standout performance. He moved the chains, limited turnovers and finished with 340 passing yards and two touchdowns, but he was unable to add to the Hoyas’ late lead to seal the victory.

The Hoyas’ offense didn’t score in the fourth quarter and the defense faltered against the aerial assault led by Yale’s quarterback, Patrick Witt, who finished with 407 passing yards.

The Hoyas will have no shortage of motivation to improve for this weekend’s matchup against Holy Cross.

“We’ve got a Patriot League game. It’s Holy Cross and we haven’t beat them since ’99 so it’s been a long drought and our guys are hungry to get another win,” Kelly said. “This our first home game, it’s homecoming, so there’s a lot of reasons why they’re excited to put the other game behind us.”

However devastating this loss might be, Yale’s Ivy League affiliation means it will not impact Georgetown’s place in the Patriot League standings. But they don’t have that as a consolation this weekend, as the Hoyas look to prove that their unexpected start was no fluke.

They will certainly put that to the test as they welcome the defending league champions to campus this Saturday. It could make for a classic homecoming game, something the Hilltop hasn’t seen in a while.

ule since before 2002, and the most difficult in the Big East. The Hoyas will play five teams that finished in the top 60 last year, and Utah State is the only one they’re playing at home. You’ll have to enjoy watching the likes of Memphis, Missouri, Temple, and Old Dominion on television.

Backdoor Cuts

by Tim Shine

a rotating column on sports The conference slate, meanwhile, is out of Georgetown’s hands. But the schedule-makers in Providence did not do Hoya fans any favors, either.

The Hoyas are facing perennial powerhouses Villanova and Connecticut on their home courts. The conference title rematch against West Virginia will take place at the Verizon

the georgetown voice 7

Volleyball bounces back

by Abby Sherburne After getting off to a bad start this season, the Georgetown women’s volleyball team knows better than anyone that how you finish is more important than how you start.

Luckily, the team took their early season experience to heart in Tuesday night’s game against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. After dropping the first two sets, the Hoyas mounted a comeback for a hard fought 3-2 win.

A tough loss to Furman broke the Hoyas’ seven-game winning streak last weekend, and losing their second game in a row would have been a disappointment. Plus, two consecutive losses would not be the most ideal way to go into the conference schedule.

Instead, the team was motivated by their coach and dug deep to get back on the winning track.

Head coach Arlisa Williams used what she said were “not the kindest words” to rally the Hoyas during the 10-minute break after two rough sets, both of which the Hoyas lost 25-20. Whatever she said, it seemed to work. Junior captain Tory Rezin said the team knew after the second set that they needed to step it up and work together, and the Hoyas rallied to win all three subsequent sets. From then on, they played relent-

Center, but four days before classes start in January.

So should you pass on season tickets this year and blow $125 to watch the Heat play the Wizards and see some names you know? Of course not. This is still Georgetown basketball. In the end, it should always be the blue and gray jerseys that you’re going to see, not the visitors’. And the games are sure to be exciting, whether Georgetown rolls to a 30-point blowout or plays another nail biter against Rutgers.

The road ahead isn’t entirely bleak either. There’s an ESPN Big Monday matchup against Louisville, and a game against Big East favorite Pittsburgh on the first night of spring semester.

And of course, there’s the most important game of all, the match against the hated Orange.

One thing the schedule-makers got right this year is the ‘Cuse game. After playing in New York

lessly and outscored the Retrievers 65-48.

“We’re not going to push ourselves five days a week, three hours at 7 a.m. everyday, to just let some team come into our gym and walk all over us,” Rezin said.

Rezin added that after the second set, the team improved communication their on the court.

Their hard work finally paid off in the final three sets, in which the Hoyas had 40 kills. Nine of these came from senior Samantha Trauth, and senior Vanessa Dorismond and freshman Elizabeth Riggins also contributed eight each.

Five of the team’s seven blocks also came in the last three sets.

Late in the match, the Hoyas got a huge contribution from sophomore Paris Coleman, who came in during the fourth set. Rezin said she led key background attacks that helped the team win.

Georgetown had the lead for the all of the fourth and fifth sets, and five unmatched points lead them to victory in the deciding set of the night.

With this win, Georgetown is looking to start a new winning streak as they kick off their Big East season against their vaunted rival, Syracuse, this Friday in the McDonough Arena at 7 p.m. Williams and the team are looking forward to the match.

“We’ve gotta come out hard and make sure we’re nice and disciplined,” she said. “[We’re] just really excited for our Big East opener.”

earlier in the month, the Orange will come to D.C. at the end of February for Georgetown’s first Saturday game since 2004.

It also happens to be Georgetown’s final home game, giving Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, and Julian Vaughn the first real senior day since Roy Hibbert and Co. said goodbye with their last-minute win over Louisville. (Sorry Jesse Sapp, but you got screwed with DePaul over Spring Break.)

And that’s the real reward for slogging through an otherwise uninspiring home schedule.

Make it to the end of February, and you’re in for the most meaningful, drunkest, and— depending on records—most important Syracuse game in years. That’s worth the price of admission alone.

Ask to join Tim’s road trip at tshine@georgetownvoice.com.

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8 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

Joseph Palacios: Keeping faith in the fight for gay rights MARC FICHERA

Last week, the official founding of Catholics for Equality sent a ripple through the Catholic community. The group, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender rights organization aiming to mobilize pro-equality Catholics in favor of same-sex marriage and the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, is not even two weeks old, but it has already been denounced by several church leaders and outspoken members.

Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio said that Catholics for Equality “cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic” since the church could not condone homosexual behavior.

The Cardinal Newman Society, a group dedicated to conserving and promoting orthodoxy at Catholic universities, spoke out

by Sean Quigley

against the group on its blog, but for a different reason. One of its founding board members is a Georgetown University professor—and an openly gay Catholic priest.

Rev. Joseph Palacios, an adjunct professor of liberal studies and Latin American studies, is a founding member of Catholics for Equality who embodies the paradoxical-seeming activist group perhaps better than anyone else. He holds a Ph.D in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, he is an openly gay, ordained Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and he has a background in politics. His distinct pedigree makes him uniquely suited to fighting the battles Catholics for Equality has chosen.

Knowingly fighting for causes the church does not con-

done, Palacios might be expected to lay low and avoid angering the Catholic establishment.

But he makes no attempt to hide his role in the LGBT community. His activity in various D.C. gay rights groups is listed on his online Georgetown biography page. Despite the anger some Catholics feel about Catholics for Equality, he says that at Georgetown he has not been met with the type of opposition or condemnation that he finds elsewhere.

“I personally have only been supported by fellow colleagues and administrators,” he said.

The minimal resistance Palacios has met at Georgetown speaks to the University’s commitment to dialogue and understanding, but there are many Catholics—at Georgetown and elsewhere—who are deeply disturbed by the idea of a priest

Chilling in Chile: Palacios gathers with students in the Chilean Andes in the summer of 2008.

Courtesy joseph palacios

working actively against church doctrine. But they don’t seem to have bothered Palacios.

“I’ve not encountered any problems at Georgetown,” he said. “If there are problems, I’m not aware of them.”

+ + +

Palacios’s affinity for activism and social change stretches back to his high school days in the late ‘60s at St. Pius X Preparatory School, a boys’ boarding school in Galt, Calif., where he was heavily involved in Chicano student organizations and the antiVietnam war movement. By the time he went to college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, his conception of himself as a Catholic and Chicano leader was fully formed, and he became, as he put it, “very engaged in putting faith into action in the anti-war movement.”

It was also during his time as an undergraduate that he realized he was gay. But it would take much longer before this sexuality became part of his public identity and professional life. Throughout his early adult life, Palacios says he found it difficult to reconcile his Catholic faith with his sexuality, and felt pressure within the church to deny his gay identity. He did so for many years, through seminary and his early ministry. But, he said, eventually, he had to come to terms with who he was.

While studying for a doctorate in sociology from UC Berkeley in 1998, he agreed to help a group of graduate students organize a candlelight vigil for Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who had been tortured and murdered for being gay. Though initially reluctant to participate, he says

now that the experience was “life-changing.” It was his motivation for getting involved with LGBT issues as a priest, and coming out as a gay man.

No longer apprehensive about asserting his identity as a gay priest, his passion for activism brought him into the gay rights movement in the District.

He served on the D.C. Steering Committee for the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization that lobbies for

teaching is bolstered by his belief that most Catholics have a favorable view of gay rights.

“The church may teach that homosexuality is an intrinsic moral disorder, but I don’t think Catholics believe that,” he said. “There’s nothing abnormal about homosexuality for Catholics.”

Many Catholics, however, are not as willing to discount the church’s traditional teachings on homosexuality. At Georgetown and elsewhere, many Catholics have trouble accepting the idea of a priest supporting gay marriage, much less fighting for it.

“It’s pretty clear what the teachings of the church are, and to see a priest, an authority figure like that, arguing so plainly against something that’s been so central to the faith for so many years is baffling and distressing,” said Matthew Cantirino (COL ’11), the Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Academy, a student journal written from a conservative Catholic viewpoint.

“There’s a temptation at Georgetown to try to reconcile opposite beliefs and try to just say it’s in the name of tolerance, instead of actually looking at these issues through a hard lens,” Cantirino said. “But I think orthodoxy ultimately is much more innovative and dynamic than these false solutions,” he said.

“It’s been asked of me, why do I have to be engaged as an openly gay person in politics or in social issues in the church? But no one questions my activity being Latino. Everybody expects me to be Latino and be interested in Latino issues. Being gay is like being Latino; it’s part of me.”

LGBT equality, and became the co-chair of D.C. Clergy United for Marriage Equality, an interfaith organization fighting for the marriage rights of same-sex couples in the District.

Despite the acceptance and support he found at Georgetown and in D.C., Palacios says he still feels pressure from the church to keep quiet about his sexuality.

“It’s been asked of me, why do I have to be engaged as an openly gay person in politics or in social issues in the church?” he said. “But no one questions my activity being Latino. Everybody expects me to be Latino and be interested in Latino issues. Being gay is like being Latino; it’s part of me.”

Eventually, Palacios realized that he could only bring together his Catholic and gay identities by taking a less than literal view of church doctrine on gay marriage, which he says is “a doctrine that doesn’t resonate with reality.” His willingness to break with traditional church

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georgetownvoice.com

Some students even find the University’s association with a figure like Palacios unacceptable.

“By attempting to undermine or usurp the church’s clear and consistent teaching, Palacios and his associates seem to be getting in over their heads.”

Kieran Raval (COL ‘13), who is involved in a number of Catholic organizations on campus, wrote in an e-mail. “As a proud Hoya, it is upsetting to me that the good name and reputation of Georgetown, the nation’s oldest Catholic university, have been marred by this scandal, which really is an affront of one of the core Jesuit values: obedience to the Pope.”

The Cardinal Newman Society, known for its stringent commitment to Catholic orthodoxy, was unequivocal in its condemnation of Palacios and Catholics for Equality, shaming Georgetown for being associated with a gay rights organization in several blog posts. In a letter to Georgetown President

John DeGioia, Patrick Reilly, the president of the society, wrote that “Catholics for Equality represents outright rebellion” within the church and urged University employees not to participate. Members of CNS declined to comment for this article.

Palacios said that even though he has frequently been the target of CNS’s Campus Notes blog, they have never contacted him for comment.

“I find it rather salacious that people who supposedly claim they’re Christians are slandering me in public,” he said.

Though it prides itself on upholding the orthodox values many Catholic universities like Georgetown were founded on, the CNS doesn’t hold as much sway at Georgetown as it would like to.

“Within the Jesuit community, there is very little sympathy for the way the Cardinal Newman Society goes about doing things,” Rev. John Langan, rector for Georgetown’s Jesuit community and professor of philosophy, said. “The way they do things is accusatory, aggressive, and really counterproductive.”

But he stopped short of fully endorsing the causes that Catholics for Equality stands for, noting that church doctrine clearly does not condone samesex marriage.

“They have to make a case for what they’re doing, and the rest of us have to decide if it’s compatible with tradition,” he said.

The Jesuits may be unable to fully support Palacios in his activism, but the fact that his high-profile efforts are even tolerated is a testament to the University’s desire to be a place for open dialogue about what it means to be Catholic. Jesuits were unwilling to explicitly break from Catholic doctrine, but they seem to approach Palacios’s situation with a heartfelt desire to understand his views.

Palacios, for his part, isn’t as concerned with Georgetown’s orthodox heritage as he is with mobilizing Catholics—hardline orthodox or not—into political action.

“Catholics for Equality wants to change culture and politics in our country,” he said. “We’re not here to pick a fight. We’re here to motivate Catholics.”

He stresses that his organization is not a church reform movement.

“I’m not a theologian. My work as a sociologist doesn’t get into doctrinal issues. I study trends,” he said.

The trends, he says, back up his conviction that Catholics are generally in favor of gay rights.

the georgetown voice 9

Courtesy joseph palacios

Reading Religion: Palacios at the book launch of The Catholic Social Imagination at Georgetown in the fall of 2007.

“The majority of Catholics in the United States are for gay marriage,” he said. “Catholics are in favor of gays adopting children, and being in the military, and I report that trend.”

Whatever victories Catholics for Equality achieves will owe a large debt to Palacios and his multifaceted background as an academic, a clergyman, and a political activist.

His personality, too, is wellsuited to the people-centric business of activism: earnest and animated but by no means overbearing, he has a softspoken, easy charisma and a winsome, slightly sheepish grin that matches his natural modesty.

Phil Attey, another cofounder and board member of Catholics for Equality, said that his ability to combine his

training as a sociologist with his background as a Catholic priest made him an important figure in the D.C. gay rights movement.

“He brings a wealth of experience and guidance in helping our organization keep track of trends in Catholic attitudes and to provide data on trends in other heavily Catholic countries,” Attey said.

He might be able to operate as an activist without nearly as much controversy were he not a priest, but Harry Knox, the Director of the Human Rights Foundation’s Religion and Faith program, noted that his background in the clergy helps him bring something unique to the table.

“He has a great pastor’s heart, so he brings not just observations, but love to the conversation,” he said.

Courtesy joseph palacios

Palacios Posing with a Poet Painting: At the Pablo Neruda Isla Negra home.

Love seems to be at the center of Palacios’s mission. He often compares the church to a loving family, and seems unwilling to accept the idea that Catholicism could turn its back on anyone.

“I think Jesus would be there with a son or daughter who was gay,” he said. “We [Catholics] value family as faithfulness.” + + +

As movements like Catholics for Equality gain traction and figures like Palacios become more prominent within the Catholic Church and at universities, Catholic schools like Georgetown will have to decide where they stand. Fr. Langan admits that the school’s current position is a bit nebulous, but seems to think it will evolve over time.

“This issue requires shades of gray,” he said. “The legalization of gay marriage is a relatively recent notion … It’s pretty clear that the church is opposed to this, [but] it’s part of Christian charity to be supportive.”

As recent battles with Plan A and H*yas for Choice demonstrate, the University will face challenges as long as it maintains its orthodox position on issues of sexuality.

“Georgetown has made a very concerted effort to serve their students, who are coming from a variety of backgrounds, while trying to be true to the church, but it’s clear that you can’t treat them as if they live in a Catholic bubble,” Palacios said. “They live in the real world, and dealing with LGBT freedoms and rights is part of reality.”

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

Beauty is in the eye of the professor

by Leigh Finnegan Have you ever taken a snazzy picture of the Potomac from your walk across the Key Bridge and thought “Wow, look how beautiful D.C. is?” Probably. Have you ever thought the same about a photo you took of the grimy outside of a Metro car, or traffic moving through DuPont? Probably not.

And that’s why Roberto Bocci, multimedia artist and Georgetown professor, is innovative enough to display his work in the 2010 Georgetown Faculty Art Exhibition, which is on display in Walsh’s Spagnuolo Gallery now through Oct. 15. In “Streams, Consciousness, and Spaces in Between,” Professor Bocci shows off D.C.’s subtle beauty using an LCD monitor, with urban sounds and a low heartbeat of pulsing percussion serving as the aural backdrop to his installation. Using time-lapsed photographs that show daily and seasonal change, and still images morphing into one another in succession, Bocci breathes a fresh beauty and life into everyday D.C. happenings. But the work’s real originality comes not from the displays of photographs, but from

their interactive nature. Using a touch pad, the viewer controls the speed and succession of the images and sounds. The result is a personal, individual connection to the city as it’s seen through Bocci’s lens.

“At Least I’m Keeping the Menace Away from the Earth,” features a replica of a comic in which Superman fends off a villain. The piece is one of a few similar comic book paintings in Moody’s latest collec-

but exaggerated, graphite drawings of the artist’s own lips and mouth, a recurring subject in his collections. When these pictures are put together on a small screen, they animate the lips forming the

After hours of contemplation and soul-searching, Jeremy reached a conclusion—it was a tree.

Helen Burton

Other faculty artists capture the art in the everyday, too. Two oil-on-canvas, trompe l’oeil paintings by Professor Sharon Moody, of an open comic book and a partially unwrapped Hershey’s bar, portray common objects with stunningly realistic clarity and dimension. The larger painting, entitled

tion, which focuses on games and entertainment.

Video screens are in heavy use throughout the exhibit. In some cases, video serves to enhance the experience of the more traditional art forms, such as in Scott Hutchinson’s “Yeah.” This installation features a series of small,

word “yeah” with different intonations. Although the repetitive voice accompanying the display gets tedious after a few minutes of viewing, the originality and craftsmanship are more than enough to compensate for the annoyance.

Alongside the technologicallyenhanced displays, the exhibition

erything from “Tofu Libre” subs to Key Lime Pie Cupcakes.

Hoards of customers are drawn to these unconventional eateries and their unique lunch and snacking options. Essential to the trucks’ appeal is the ability for custom-

Bros, for example, boasts an incredible 6,000 followers on Twitter.

Always quick to jump on a trend, a number of local blogs have also joined in. One, Food Truck Fiesta, turns trucks’ Twitter updates into a real-time food-truck-tracking map.

people you get to meet and the stories you tell can’t be duplicated at your neighborhood Quiznos,” the blogger writes.

Many food truck patrons agree.

Bryan, a frequent customer of Rebel Heroes, explained that while

also features some more traditional pieces. John Morrell’s two blue-wash Parisian landscapes are less initially enticing than some of the other works, but are nonetheless impressive for the artist’s use of pencil and white gouache to add pristine, clear detail to the pictures’ foggier base. “Duet,” by Professor Scip Barnhart and Jody Mussoff, who is not affiliated with Georgetown, features graphite self-portraits of both artists’ faces.

All four eyes stare firmly at the viewer, with the woman’s more emphatic expression contrasting the reserved, imperial look of the man. Despite its lack of color or detail, the drawing is gripping and visually appealing, and proves itself one of the collection’s strongest works.

Video screens, commonplace items, and traditional pieces abound in the Art Faculty Exhibition, but in each installation the artist demonstrates his or her own particular artistic voice. And at a school that tends to place emphasis on either international politics or global corporations, it’s refreshing to know that our professors still view our quotidian surroundings with artistic consideration.

Food trucks: Like restaurants, only faster

by Mary Borowiec

Fresh peppers, onions, and Cuban roast pork sizzle on the grill, producing a mouth-watering aroma that draws a serious crowd.

Could it be? A new grilling station at Leo’s? Not a chance. This is the work of Rebel Heroes, one of the many food trucks that are popping up all around D.C., and transforming the way the nation’s capital does curbside cuisine.

All of this food truck fanaticism is culminating in a road food feast. Next month’s “Curbside Cook Off” will give customers the chance to sample D.C.’s most popular trucks at one convenient location, CityCenterDC, on Oct. 7 and 8. But what exactly is so special about these trucks?

For most city-dwellers, street food implies hot dogs and Mr. Softee. But that line of food trucks is quickly becoming outdated as trendy, “gourmet” trucks surface in cities all over the U.S. This craze hit the D.C. area in full force, and trucks like Curbside Cupcakes and Fry Captain are serving ev-

After the devestating losses on Alderaan and Hoth, the Rebel Heroes have taken in resident in D.C. ers to track them. Hunting these trucks by word-of-mouth or Twitter makes seeking a mobile snack almost like a game, and most vendors have embraced social networking as a means of spreading word about their locations. Fojol

Food Trucks D.C. is the diary of a Washingtonian who has decided to eat lunch from food trucks for the rest of the year.

“The unpredictability of the choices for lunch, and the yearning for different tasting foods, the

Rebel Heroes

food trucks were not necessarily a quicker or more convenient lunch option, he would rather support local business owners than a chain like McDonalds. That keeps him coming back, along with the “Macho Meatball” sub.

The “Curbside Cook Off” is motivated by more than just an appreciation for food; it’s no coincidence that the event will take place just one week before the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs will vote on food truck legislation. Currently, D.C. food trucks are following codes meant for stationary food carts.

Rules considering the movement of these trucks and how far they must be from permanent restaurants are under debate. Regulatory factors like insurance, liability, health inspection, property taxes, and the use of public parking are also under debate. Vince Gray, who is likely to be D.C.’s next mayor, has announced his support for these enterprises, provided they play by the rules. The Curbside Cook Off is the perfect opportunity to shore up any additional support food trucks might need as DCRA considers legislation.

But never mind the politics of it. Get on Twitter, grab a friend, and find the nearest food truck …

That is, if you can catch it before it drives away.

georgetownvoice.com

“Don’t act like you’re not impressed.” —Anchorman

the georgetown voice 11

Encyclopedia Prep-tannica lists of what to eat while you’re there (Triscuits). It even contains a preppy cookbook. “The True Prep Master Reading List” and “The Preppy Mix Tape” are well-selected but predictable, including tracks by the B-52s, Talking Heads, and Vampire Weekend, along with “all of [F. Scott Fitzgerald’s] work.” Are you a baby boomer divorcee trying to plan a tasteful second wedding?

Advice lies within!

In 1980, the preppy aesthetic was only identified with WASPs, but in True Prep, Birnbach declares that preppiness is open to everyone. There are sections on black preppies, gay preppies, and Muslim preppies.

One thing remains the same though: preppies love stuff. See “Shopping as Recreation.” You want to dress like the people in this book? It tells you exactly what to buy. Its wardrobe section doesn’t merely exhaust the subject of style, it includes credits in the back listing every item pictured in the book. It’s basically a glorified shopping list. All the usual suspects are here including odes to the Bean Boot and Brooks Brothers, along with a page on “Logology” describing the nuanced differences in size and history between the Lacoste croc, the Polo pony, and the Brooks Brothers fleece logos.

Birnbach also plugs brands that weren’t around the first time around in 1980. The book offers

company bios of Vineyard Vines, needlepoint belt maker Tucker Blair, and Thom Browne (whose work does not seem nearly conservative enough to be considered preppy, despite his collaboration with Brooks Brothers). There’s even a blurb on Ralph Lauren, who was considered “too new” in 1980 to be included in TOPH. The biggest change between 1980 and today? Patagonia.

The meticulousness of this book is impressive, but it’s unnecessarily lengthy. From 20 pages on the most successful preppies, “The New Pantheon,” (The Obamas and Fantastic Mr. Fox make the cut) to three pages on loafers, True Prep is more anthropological than tongue-incheek, something I feel like taking notes in rather than chuckling at. This ends up being its biggest weakness. After all, the term “prep” originated as a pejorative term.

We at Georgetown are no strangers to preppies. Not so long ago, we had a croquet club. In the end, this book will only be most helpful to those trying to get off their country club’s waiting list.

True Prep gives detailed and accurate snapshot of the prep-set in 2010. Some of the clothes have changed, but they’re still filthy rich, selfish, and oblivious. So if you really want to fit in with the pastel posse, heed every word of True Prep, but don’t blame us for calling you a tool.

I dare you to read this book

says will be 27 volumes in total), The Familiar, which was announced last week. The author has revealed little about the plot other than it revolves around his infatuation with cats.

by Nico Dodd When Lisa Birnbach’s The Official Preppy Handbook came out in 1980, its prime audience was the yuppies who had just graduated from college and were about to be riding high through the Reagan administration—namely, our parents. But while TOPH parodied the lives of preppy college and boarding school students, Birnbach’s True Prep is geared towards those who’ve grown up, weathered a divorce or two, and still wear their collars high. Anyone who has a summer home will agree that there are some pretty accurate and funny caricatures in here. Unfortunately, this book could easily be abused as a guide to fitting in with Lacoste crocodile wranglers. The dust jacket reads “HUMOR” over the barcode, but the text endears the preppy lifestyle more than lampoons it.

From its extensive and visually offensive graphic art (blue and yellow stripes assault the eyes and cocker spaniels abound) to its tag line “It’s a whole new old world,” True Prep has the aesthetic and verbiage down pat. My favorite graphic was the Kennedy half dollar sporting a popped collar and Wayfarers.

The book covers every conceivable aspect of the preppy lifestyle, mostly through lists of what you should be doing (sailing), lists of where you should do it (the Hamptons); and even

A novel that is written so that it is a struggle to read is meant for a particular, masochistic literary crowd: fans of post-modernism.

But while the works of classic postmodern authors, like Flann O’Brien and Jorge Luis Borges, abandoned convention and required readers to plunge headfirst into a metaphysical world, many contemporary authors who merely claim to be post-modern simply thrive off of recycled gimmicks and a cult following based on counter-cultural aesthetics (Palahniuk, I may not be able to pronounce your name, but I’m looking at you).

Mark Z. Danielewski manages to combine the best of both worlds in his novels by appealing to an underground culture while still satisfying audiences whose imagi-

nations thrive on a vast, independent and self-referential world. He stands out as a uniquely refreshing voice in a time where blockbuster novels tend to outshine works of greater literary credibility.

His first novel, House of Leaves, which debuted in 2000, was wildly popular for its innovative use of style and formatting—he weaves together several narratives with multiple typefaces, colored text, and extensive, rambling footnotes—but some see its uniqueness as its downfall. Unfortunately Danielewski’s experiments with unique literature do sometimes stray into the territory of unreadable literature, as was the case with Only Revolutions.

Hopefully he’ll show more restraint with his upcoming five-volume work (which is part of a project he

literary tools

by Jim McGrory

a bi-weekly column about literature The proposed scope of The Familiar would seem daunting had Danielewski not proven himself so competent with House of Leaves. It is a text with the appeal of a Finnegan’s Wake or a Gravity’s Rainbow; it carries the weight of an epic and has already garnered a remarkable amount of literary criticism. But the novel doesn’t just force itself its way into the spotlight of academic critics by lending itself to philosophical interpretations. It

Dirty old Town

by Brendan Baumgardner This settles it. With the release of The Town, the gritty Boston crime drama is officially its own genre, comprised of such films as The Departed, Mystic River, and The Boondock Saints. The main reason The Town stands apart, as the newest member in this still young family of films, is that it has the dubious honor of being the first of its kind to feel cliché.

This isn’t to say that The Town is a bad movie. It’s actually hugely entertaining. But it feels too “paint-by-numbers.”

The story revolves around Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck, who also co-wrote and directed), a disarmingly charismatic criminal who’s looking to score one last job before he gets out of the game for good. His hottempered partner in crime (Jeremy Renner) puts them both in danger when his violent outbursts lands them on a singleminded detective’s radar. And of course, there’s the dame (Rebecca Hall), an innocent, highsociety love interest who represents the world outside crime.

Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve

is, by itself, a quite enjoyable satire of academic criticism.

As simply as possible, the story follows tattoo-apprentice Johnny Truant through a reading of an academic study written by a man named Zampanò on the topic of a documentary film titled The Navidson Record, though the film and many of the footnotes and references within the academic study do not exist in either Truant’s or the reader’s world.

Zampanò’s study is rife with allusions to deconstructionist, feminist, post-structuralist, and Freudian criticisms, and this critique of the text within the text offers readers numerous ways to analyze the work as a whole. Post-modern literature has always been somewhat self-referential, but never to this degree; a literary puzzle with all the necessary pieces in place.

seen Heat… or The Italian Job… or The Departed.

The Town finds success in the way it balances its ingredients. The heists are gritty, quick, and tense, and the sense of claustrophobia and speed in the chase scenes is remarkable.

And even though the film is populated by archetypes, the strong cast makes their cookie-cutter characters less trite than they would be otherwise.

Renner’s loose cannon is especially good. He brings a kind of controlled hysteria that makes him much more terrifying than the average Boston thug.

The Town is Affleck’s second time in the director’s seat, and while it doesn’t pack the same punch as 2007’s Gone Baby Gone, it does prove that his first film’s success was no fluke. Affleck has a good sense of pacing and an eye for striking imagery. And while he may just be drawing on his own upbringing to recreate a world he understands, you can’t deny that on some level, it works. Unfortunately, though, when “painting-by-numbers,” you can only do so much by staying within the lines.

Danielewski’s ergodic style of writing in House of Leaves leads readers on a wild goose chase for something concrete to hold onto. A read-through of this 700 page epic is fraught with difficulty, often leading readers to either dedicate an endless amount of time to understanding it, or to give up and mock the impossibility of its potency. While this may not quite deserve the acclaim of the classics just yet, this novel is sure to open up to an endless discussion of possible readings, and all from a debut novel (albeit, one 10 years in the making). As long as he avoids the downward spiral of valuing gimmick over substance, as he did in Only Revolutions, we should have great things to look forward to from Danielewski in the future.

Untangle Jim’s complicated narrative at jmcgrory@georgetownvoice.com

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

C r i t i c a l V o i ces curs in the transition between “Sailing” and “Memory Boy,” where a trailing vocal whimper suddenly collides with cymbals and an up-tempo melody. It is a testament to Deerhunter that the transitions between songs are just as engaging as some of the tracks themselves.

The album’s strongest track is “Coronado,” a dazzling piece that combines bouncy melodies and buzzing, distorted vocals to great effect. The track feels somewhat paradoxically like a blues song with a peppy pace, complete with somber lyrics battling a powerful, emotive saxophone. The lyrics, which deal in vague terms with memories and visions, describe life’s inevitable imperfections with the band’s characteristic minimalism.

On some songs, however, it’s a little too easy to get lost. “Earthquake,” for example, the droning opening track, loops and repeats without developing into anything compelling.

Regardless, Halcyon Digest is a good addition to your music collection. Its solid vocals, compliments of frontman Bradford Cox, and ambient acoustic groove will appeal to anyone looking for something dreamy, and the band’s use of sound effects mixes things up nicely. It’s the kind of album that reveals new surprises with each listen,

inviting you to hear new subtleties in their already nuanced sounds.

As for my fellow Deerhunter virgins, enough abstaining. Time to put yourself out there and listen to them. Even if you’re not comfortable the first time, Deerhunter gets better with every listen.

DC Fashion Week: NY who?

the Washington Times, Mie N Yu restaurant of Georgetown, and a number of other local businesses.

The AARP chipped in, too. Yes, that AARP. So when they say this isn’t your mother’s fashion show, they’re right—it’s actually Grandma’s.

Deerhunter, 4AD

Halcyon

Digest,

I was a Deerhunter virgin before I had heard Halcyon Digest, although they had been on my radar for some time. There’s something exciting about diving into a new artist without any strong preconceptions, and when the minimal, ambient sounds of Halcyon Digest first washed over me I was immediately intrigued.

Despite the occasional standout track, Halcyon Digest is a mellow album that’s best listened to as a whole. It creates a coherent mood, something increasingly rare in the age of iTunes. If you let the eleven tracks play all the way through, it easily makes a 46-minute playlist without getting boring. Every time the wandering tunes tempt you to zone out, the band hits you with a change of structure that draws you back in. A good example of this oc-

The models may have stepped off the runway at New York Fashion Week, but if you’re still hungry for hot new fall fashions, the nation’s capital has what you need. D.C. Fashion Week started on Monday and will be in full swing through Sunday, Sept. 26, giving all us clotheshorses and fashionistas an opportunity to behold designs that even the New York elite haven’t seen yet.

D.C. Fashion Week, which started in 2003, was conceived as a reaction against the closed-tent policy and exclusivity of New York’s event at Bryant Park. The event serves as a way for up-and-coming designers from the D.C. scene to showcase their work in an arena close to home, but in a

way that can garner international attention. It’s also a way to show the world that Washington can out-dress the suits on C-SPAN. “D.C. has an image of being conservatively dressed,” D.C. Fashion Week founder Ean Williams said. “But there are a lot of people that have an eclectic and vibrant fashion sense outside the mainstream we see on Capitol Hill. … D.C. is not just a Brooks Brothers city, but a city of active people with active nightlife. And they show that in their style.”

Unlike the overwhelmingly corporate and luxury feel of the New York Showcase—now officially called Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week—this show’s sponsors skew local. Contributors include

Voice’s Choices: “Memory Boy,” “Desire Lines,” “He Would Have Laughed” —Paul Quincy

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby, Lonely Avenue, Nonesuch Records Many of today’s most successful pop stars write very little of their own music or lyrics, and they don’t want you to know it.

This has never been the case for Ben Folds, who writes the vast majority of his own work. But for his latest album, Lonely Avenue, Folds chose to embrace outside input. Instead of looking to the

suffer for Fashion

by Keenan Sheridan Timko a bi-weekly column about fashion Another refreshing difference between the New York show and D.C. Fashion Week is that here, it’s not all about the celebrities— although a number do come, they’re not essential to the show.

“It’s ridiculous to pay a celebrity $75,000 to sit on the front row of your fashion show to get recognition for your show,” Williams said. “Our focus is on the designers and the clothes.”

kind of studio musicians who penned Miley’s latest hit, though, Folds enlisted the help of Nick Hornby, the renowned English author behind High Fidelity and Fever Pitch. The blending of Hornby’s lyrics and Folds’s music creates a unique, interesting album, but ultimately not a great one.

Fans will recognize Ben Folds’ signature sound, which he calls “punk rock for pussies,” as the instrumental composition on this record is very similar to that of his other albums. The percussion lays a sturdy foundation for his experimentation with piano chord-play and country-tinged acoustic guitars. The instrumentation is noteworthy for its diversity, with a baroque string section appearing as often as Moog synth pads. And you have to appreciate Folds’s musicianship—he individually lays down all of the instrumental tracks on his records.

The lyrics themselves are more interesting than the music, with Hornby tackling welltrodden topics like pop culture and young love. But Hornby’s penchant for prose has its downsides. His words are often too literal, lacking the poetic touch of master lyricists and leaving too few details open to the listener’s interpretation. They also contribute to Lonely Avenue’s biggest problem: Folds’s voice.

In keeping with Washington’s diverse collection of nationalities and cultures, D.C. Fashion Week has an international flare to it, too. Independent designers from as far away as Ghana, Argentina, and Ethiopia get access to full shows and excited crowds in D.C. In New York, these designers often get overshadowed by bigger names, if they even get into the spotlight at all. Williams pointed out that the top five designers from Ukraine all made their international debuts at this year’s fashion week.

You can find D.C. Fashion Week’s events in some of D.C.’s best neighborhoods.

Tonight, you can catch a show at Tabaq Bistro on U Street, where the D.C. United soccer squad will be modeling Mauro Farinelli’s Wolf vs. Goat label, a melding of preppy and

At times, it is not strong enough to compete with his elaborate melodies and handle Hornby’s densely packed lyrics. As Folds strains in “Picture Window,” his vibrato voice sounds more like a Broadway performer’s than the Elton John-style piano rocker he usually resembles.

Hornby’s best contribution to the album is “Levi Johnston’s Blues,” a tribute to the young Alaskan jock responsible for knocking up Sarah Palin’s daughter on the eve of the 2008 Presidential Election. In the chorus, the song mocks Palin’s over-the-top right wing politics: “I’m a fucking redneck / I live to hang out with the boys / Play some hockey / Do some fishing / And kill some moose.”

Although the originality of the collaboration is respectable, Lonely Avenue ultimately fails to capitalize on its potential. Folds’ music and Hornby’s lyrics, although solid on their own, never gel and so the resulting album sounds disjointed. Though it is an interesting experiment worthy of a listen or two, the finished product proves that Folds and Hornby should stick to doing what they do best, separately.

Voice’s Choices: “Levi Johnston’s Blues,” “From Above,” “Things You Think” —Matthew Decker sporty casual styles for men.

On Saturday, Crystal City’s Doubletree Inn is hosting the Washington Menswear Collections, and the French Embassy is hosting the International Couture Collection on Sunday night. Williams recommended that college students with IDs show up early on Sunday for the happy hour from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. to mingle with the crowd before the show.

While D.C. may not have felled trees on the National Mall to make room for the event, as they did in Central Park, D.C. Fashion Week is still an amazing week of fashion that.

Tickets and information can be found on dcfashionweek.org.

Tickets for a private showing with Keenan can be purchased at ktimko@georgetownvoice.com

georgetownvoice.com

SPIRAL

By Joseph Romano Continued from last week’s edition..

My mom died six months after I was born. Pneumonia, an infection. I’m not exactly sure, I never really wanted to talk with my dad about it. I never really want to talk to him at all anymore. Weird, right?

But I wonder what it’d be like to talk to you about it. I imagine her dying is what killed you in the end. The anger at my dad and his failure to provide for her, but even more so, the self-hatred you had for letting her down, letting her die. But that’s not death for me.

Death is your head hitting the pillow knowing that you can’t dream anymore, but still grinning with glazy euphoria. When the last thing you see as you get under the covers is your famously dead uncle’s box on your night table, dusted with crushed k-pins the shrink is willing to dole out, another wintry bluster banging your window.

Or, it could be the dehydrated urine color of the streetlamp light reflecting off of the snow as you look down at your polished black shoes while people say goodbye to you outside of the church. But with a tone of envy that says, “He didn’t even know him and he’s just walking into all those millions.”

Or, when sometimes, in the middle of the night, you come to me.

But sleep won’t come. I coax it, I goad it with medication, but it never comes on my terms. Instead, I take a drag, blow the smoke out of my dorm window, and smush the butt into the ashtray that rests on my uncle’s empty box. I open it, like I had the past couple of sleepless nights.

Your note is gone. I read it once and then lit it with a dying cigarette and watched it burn. I kept the box though. Now it’s filled with my pages, stuff that I needed to get down on paper.

I take them out to read over.

They’re creased on the edges because they were the slightest bit too big to fit inside the box. Goddamn your golden ratio, couldn’t you have made it 8 ½ x 11?

***

“I hate making this walk,” I said.

“We do it to ourselves.” Pete adjusted his black beanie so it covered half his ears and left a visible patch of split ends curling down his forehead from right to left. He exhaled a breath of smoke and started to play with his septum ring, flipping it up into his nostrils and back out again.

“How are you getting along with that,” I pointed to his nose.

“It sucks. I hate it. It’s even starting to smell now.”

“That’s gross, you gotta wash it once in awhile.”

“I know, you don’t have to tell me. But I kinda like it. It reminds me that we all came from little stenching bacteria.”

“Why’d you even get it in the first place?”

“Just a willingness to do something,” “You must enjoy living that punk persona.”

“No, it’s not even that. It’s all,” he paused to find the right words, “It’s all just a joke, it doesn’t matter. Everything that begins as a comedy eventually ends as a tragicomedy.”

I chuckled at his waxing poetic. “So what are you working on that you need a second helping of study buddies?” His body looked atrophied. I didn’t feel all that bad for him though—I’d trade skins in a second. But his tight jeans did make his legs look like you could transplant them as arms.

“People, places, concepts, ideas and how they all relate to each other, developing the ability to write it down for the teacher.”

“So, besides figuring out the meaning of your education, what exactly are you working on?” I was trying to work out how he was becoming my best friend since I had transferred here.

“Irish history since 1800.”

He looked up at the few stars that were visible in D.C. I looked at the concrete treadmilling under my feet.

We were both lost in our own heads.

“You know, after staring in the mirror for twenty minutes, alone, while she’s on the bed

fiction naked and asleep,” he stared straight ahead now, “you get sick of yourself. Knowing more about yourself than you want,” he said, looking at his reflection in the med school building we were passing. I felt this grating knot in my chest. I kept thinking how I wished I wasn’t a virgin, how many women you must have slept with when you were my age, and then how stupid that preoccupation was. How embarrassing it would be if Pete could read my mind.

“Who, Jess?” I took a drag and flicked the butt, aiming for the sewer. But it bounced once and landed on one of the grates, hanging on for dear life.

“Yeah, I think I’m done with her.”

I had no opinion on the matter. We walked and smoked for a bit in silence.

“You know,” he droned, “I’ve realized something about myself recently. How, in fact, I’m not really myself at all. I have no say in who I am. I am the mere summation of interpretations. I am an object to be molded and shaped at the whim of others. To do what is expected of me, and eventually to want to do what is expected of me. Otherwise, I’ll be wearing a black veil and chains, stripped of a face, and scorned on the scaffold of societal convention.”

“Hell is other people” was the only response I could think of, words not my own, ready for me to regurgitate, as I had been trained to do so well. Get to know him. Tell him I felt the same way.

Tell him you, even though you’re a ghost, were the one who gave me that irrepressible desire to escape everything.

He turned to me. “You know what I’m talking about then?”

He smiled. His pupils were black and bulging. I felt like they were little black holes that were sucking up everything I was thinking.

“I’m a transfer aren’t I?”

House 3037, the one with the kicked in screen door, and the chipped green door behind it. There were never any lights on. It looked

dead. We knocked on the door, and waited there for a couple minutes, knowing not to knock again, that wherever he was he would hear it.

“Well hello, crackheads!” our hookup greeted us. “Anyone one need some study aids for their big bad tests?” The Prince was all smiles. I loved how he didn’t care about anything. I felt like if the cops were to come in the middle of a transaction, he’d laugh his way to the station, knowing his dad could get him out of it. He was Jordanian royalty or something, but more importantly he was The Prince and was not to be fucked with. There was only one time when I needed to be reminded of that, even though he had respected me more now than ever since you died—trust me, never again.

Pete cut in through the laughter, “Well no shit, it's why we’re here right?”

“Right you are, right you are,” The Prince laughed, with his mouth open so that you could see all of the gold cavity fillings over his molars. “Come upstairs, and we’ll see if we can’t find something for you guys to eat.”

We stepped into his room.

I hung back by the door and let my friend take care of the deal. I tried to look cool and calm with one foot against the door while I leaned back. But The Prince still intimidated me. Maybe because after he put his metal briefcase away in the closet, he came out completely naked.

“Don’t mind me boys, I’m about to freshen up. But good doing business as always. Now, go let yourselves out, you poor bastards.”

We went down the stairs, closed the door behind us, sniggering for the same reason.

“That dude,” he paused, lighting his cigarette for dramatic effect, “has a huge penis!”

My cigarette fell out of my mouth, as I inhaled my laughter.

As I re-lit it, I couldn’t help thinking that it’d be easy being that confident if I were The Prince.

“The Prince’s prodigious penis,” Pete bellowed, gloating at the alliteration. “Guys like that make me think that the only worthwhile pursuit in this life is sex. Sometimes they’re hot, and sometimes busted. Sometimes you get genital warts, and sometimes you don’t,” drag, “but most times you do.”

“Thanks for that. Now I have an image of your warty pelvis burned onto my brain. Nice work.”

“C’mon, cut me some slack, I’m from upstate. Girls there are nuts.”

the georgetown voice 13 “I didn’t know that.

I’ve never been actually.”

“Yeah, you should come some time.” I opened my mouth to answer, but he stopped me.

“And by come some time, I mean come never. Dormant, where I’m from, is awful. Projects, drug addicts, factory workers.” Letting him talk about himself was easy.

I couldn’t screw up listening and walking at the same time.

“I never grew up in a town, or went to a school where people were smart, or where it was encouraged to read or anything. No one’s parents had gone to college, mine included. My dad walked out and then died of a heroin overdose when I was in fifth grade, and then my mom realized she had a daughter and son whose mouths needed feeding.”

“What’d she do? If you don’t mind me asking.” The word heroin caught my attention. Caught yours too, right?

“Lunch aide. But now she’s the head receptionist at a dentist’s office, and doing well for herself.”

I couldn’t tell whether he was downplaying everything, or being melodramatic.

But we kept walking. I was heading back to the library to keep working, but as we passed one of the dorm buildings, Pete said that he was going to call it a night. We’d meet up for breakfast, go to class, study, and do it all over again the next night.

As he was about to go into the building, he ran down the stairs again and caught up to me.

“Wait up.” I stopped and turned to him as he jogged towards me, slowing to a saunter when he got close enough. He put his hand on my shoulder.

“Listen, tomorrow, let’s forget everything. I wanna take you to Oak Hill cemetery.”

I was a little startled. I was just there burying my uncle. “I don’t know if I’m down for a cemetery late at night.”

“Listen, I don’t do this with many people. I want you to come with me. We’ll go at sundown, it’s beautiful, there’s some really great architecture too, unlike this place,” he said nodding his head towards his dorm.

“Yeah sure, that’d be cool.”

“Good.” Pete’s voice suddenly became a whisper.

I stood there watching him walk back until he disappeared into the dorm foyer, the torn soles of his shoes flapping with each step.

voices

14 the georgetown voice

september 23, 2010

ESPN’s bias boosts Northeast, bullies the rest

by Keaton Hoffman With the San Diego Padres vying for the lead in baseball’s tightest division contest, every game is a big deal. And since I’m away from home, I have to rely on national broadcasting, largely ESPN, for any coverage of the team that I’ve loved since childhood. But there’s a problem.

Sports syndicates overwhelmingly fail to provide the coverage that sports fans like me need when we are displaced by, well, let’s call it an educational diaspora. Finding TV coverage of the Padres that goes beyond a mere score update is nearly impossible, thanks largely to the East Coast bias in sports broadcasting.

Fans who support teams far from the Eastern seaboard have long cursed the East Coast bias that haunts the sporting world.

San Diegans like myself often grumble about the continuous limelight showered upon the New York Yankees. Fans from St. Louis complain about how

sports networks think of baseball teams as if there was an East Coast, a West Coast, and everywhere else, and fans of talented teams like the Rays and the Twins balk at how underexposed their teams are compared to mediocre ones like the Mets.

We all blame the East Coast bias, especially its main perpetrator, ESPN. Since it was founded in 1979, ESPN has become the leading voice in national sports news, with “local” coverage online in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and Los Angeles. Baseball, due to the sheer number of games teams play, has been affected more than any other professional sport by ESPN’s dominance. Though ESPN reports the scores of all MLB teams, its commentators, particularly on shows like Baseball Tonight, have routinely been accused of blatant bias towards East Coast teams and popular franchises, such as the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies. Heath Bell, a pitcher for the San Diego Padres, has adamant-

ly criticized ESPN’s geographical and financial bias, saying, “I truly believe ESPN only cares about promoting the Red Sox and Yankees and Mets—and nobody else.”

There’s hard evidence to substantiate Bell’s claim and fans’ complaints. Consider the MLB games that ESPN chose to air on its flagship channel during the 2010 season. Out of the 62 games it broadcast, nearly half were games played by teams from the East Coast, with West Coast teams playing in only six of those games. ESPN aired eight games played by the New York Mets, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox, while almost every team in the West, except the Los Angeles Angels Dodgers, went overlooked. The schedule was clearly not determined by the success these teams had the previous year either. The Mets, who were tied for the most games aired on ESPN this year, came secondto-last in the National League East last year, while teams that

led their divisions, like the Minnesota Twins in the National League Central, were omitted from ESPN’s schedule.

It might seem possible that ESPN’s broadcast schedule is based on population. New York, which received the most coverage, is America’s largest city.

But teams from cities like Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and Milwaukee— all with populations of only about half a million—receive modest coverage at the expense of some of America’s largest cities, such as San Diego, Dallas, and San Francisco, none of which were featured in ESPN’s MLB broadcasts.

Even so, you could still argue that casual fans care most about the big baseball powerhouses.

Isn’t ESPN just giving the fans what they want? Maybe, but ESPN is responsible for deciding the who’s who of sports. By guiding the national sports conversation, ESPN decides which teams people watch—especially casual fans. A traditional viewpoint holds that good teams

produce lots of fans, which leads the major networks to shift their attention to these popular teams. But ESPN covers teams it expects to be good, gets people talking about those teams and attending their games, and fills their coffers, not the other way around. ESPN’s chosen few will never be out of the picture. But every team deserves equal coverage, even the poor ones, because ESPN, whether we like it or not, plays a pivotal role in hyping teams and fueling attendance, thus propping up their fiscal dominance.

So on Oct. 1, when the Padres enter their final series against the Giants to decide who advances to the playoffs, I won’t be watching the games on TV. I’ll be frantically refreshing the MLB.com home page for score updates.

Keaton Hoffman is a sophomore in the SFS. Though he loves his Padres, he’s glad Georgetown has Jack instead of a fat friar.

Logophile gives cruciverbialism a try, and she likes it

by Mary Cass Crosswords are a dying art.

While all the major papers still carry them, few of my peers solve crossword puzzles as a regular activity. There are some word puzzle enthusiasts at schools like Georgetown, but the truth is, this classic time-waster simply doesn’t get the kind of attention it used to, thanks to the vast catalog of computer and video games we can procrastinate with instead. It’s just not

cool anymore. As someone who has spent extensive time in the company of her grandmother, I can tell you that crosswords are for old people. So when I had a chance last spring to help make the case for crosswords at Georgetown, I took it. I now write crosswords for the Voice.

From a crossword puzzle, I learned that the technical term for a someone who crafts crosswords is a “cruciverbalist,” a term that comes from the Latin words for “cross” and “word.”

(For obvious reasons, I don’t

use this word when I try to explain exactly what I’m doing on my Macbook all afternoon.)

This fun fact about myself makes a distinct impression on most people. And I can’t blame them—I was baffled as well when I first heard that the Voice was looking for crossword editors. Like a good English major, I wasted far too much time in high school solving crosswords. I knew the puzzles had to come from someone, but I never thought that I could make them.

AMBER REN

What are a cruciverbalist’s greatest challenges? Coming up with clues and not solving the sudoku on the other page.

To be honest, it isn’t that tricky. The solution comes first, in a 15-by-15 grid. Most puzzles are constructed around a theme, so the black squares on the grid are arranged around the theme words. From there, it’s an elaborate game of guess-and-check to place intersecting words in the grid so that each line—across and down—is a real word in the English (or occasionally, another) language. The clues for the words are written last.

The Voice crosswords have been written by students for years, and my predecessors handed a lot of tips down to me to help me create them. Though less challenging than solving a crossword, it is still lengthy and difficult. However, the process is ultimately rewarding. Studies have shown that solving crosswords keeps the brain agile and may even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. There haven’t been studies on the effects of creating crosswords, but there are obvious benefits. Writing crosswords has helped me learn many new Latin phrases, random words, and fun facts (youngest NASCAR winner, anyone?). The process has also made valuable improvements to my work ethic. Writing or solving crossword puzzles presents a chance to work individually on a project, sort through frustrations and time constraints, and develop the patience and level-

headedness needed to deal with these setbacks—skills that have improved my focus and patience with difficult school assignments and other work.

Creating crosswords also provides me with ample opportunity to express my nerdy creativity. The themes I choose are my way of making crosswords relevant to Georgetown students. They frequently reference Georgetown activities, the college lifestyle, or popular music (like this week’s puzzle).

If making crosswords sounds like your dream job, cruciverbialism and using large Latin phrases that annoy your friends could be in your future too. And for those of you who view crossword puzzles as a boring, old-fashioned hobby, it may be time for you to rethink your prejudices and give this “retro” pastime a try. Besides, there is no better way to dust off some old vocabulary and pass an hour or two while keeping your brain engaged.

So the next time you have some free time on a weekday afternoon, quit Facebooking and give a crossword puzzle (preferably mine) a chance.

Mary Cass is a junior in the College. Six down: her favorite word in the English language and a film starring John Cusack, 11 letters.

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15

Fellow Hoyas, you have the right to remain silent

by Troy Miller It’s been a long week and you’re at a friend’s townhouse, apartment, or dorm room. Music is playing loudly, conversation is even louder, and people are imbibing. Suddenly, three loud bangs on the door. Then, silence. Someone rushes to turn off the music. A few people may try to hide. Because it’s not one of your friends at the door. It’s not even a Resident Assistant. Everyone knows it’s the Department of Public Safety.

Before I suggest what I might do if I were a resident, let me clarify something. DPS officers are not security guards. They are, in fact, law enforcement officers. More specifically, they are special police, meaning that like the Metropolitan Police Department, they derive their power from the mayor and D.C. Code, and they have full powers of arrest within their jurisdiction, Georgetown University. They are essentially Georgetown’s branch of MPD. What rights do you have when dealing with DPS, compared to an MPD officer? Say you’re in your home over the summer watch-

ing Ace of Cakes with a friend who happens to really like Phish. For one reason or another, a police officer comes a-knocking. You answer the door, and he asks if he can come in, but you know that your friend reeks like a concert and that the officer will smell it if he comes in. Good thing you are under zero obligations to let him into your residence: he’s a stranger with a badge. If he has reason to enter, he probably won’t bother asking, and knocking was a courtesy. In this case, you can step outside and discuss the purpose of his visit with him outside.

If he can see anything incriminating from the door, he has probable cause to come in, at which point you no longer have to consent for him to enter.

Now, I’m going to assume that you should have the same right to bar special police officers from your residence. If DPS has arrived because of excessive noise, then they have no technical right to enter your home—the presence of noise doesn’t imply the presence of alcohol. Exercising your right to determine which University employees can enter your residence isn’t proof of wrongdoing, either.

So now you’re outside your residence, having exercised your right not to let strange men into your residence. But one of them informs you that it’s University property, and therefore he’s allowed to enter, even if you don’t consent. This gets messy. He’s certainly not lying about it being University property—that’s why you’ll be

“

It seems students throughout the country don’t want rights, don’t care about rights, or don’t know that they have rights.

charged at the end of the year if you decide to use duct tape to hang your posters on the wall.

But remember that housing agreement you signed at the beginning of the year? Probably not, but it licenses your residence to you. And if you bother to read it, you’ll see that the University agrees “to provide the licensed area free from search and seizure.”

GU should prioritize poverty studies In 1919, Georgetown recognized the United States’s rapidly expanding role in global affairs and established the School of Foreign Service to train young diplomats. Predating the establishment of the U.S. Foreign Service by six years, the SFS has arguably become Georgetown’s most prestigious institution, and its alumni have unquestionably affected the course of history.

As the challenges of the 21st century arise, Georgetown has an excellent opportunity to repeat its innovative and spectacular success in training generations of American and international leaders. However, polished diplomats won’t be the people addressing the most pressing issue the United States and the world will face in the foreseeable future: poverty.

In 2009, according to census data released last week, over 43 million Americans lived in poverty—approximately one in every seven residents. Among children

18 or younger, the rate is one in five. Upward mobility has been on the decline since the 1950s as the boundaries between income groups have intensified. For the last two decades, the probability of a person moving from the bottom 40 percent of income to the top 40 percent has fluctuated between two and four percent. These facts hint at the systemic problems behind the recent credit crisis, housing market collapse, and unemployment explosion. They also raise questions about the long-term viability of the American economy.

Beyond our borders, poverty is far worse. Over three billion people live on less than $2 a day.

Although the number of people living in poverty has declined in the past two decades, most of the improvements have been concentrated in one country: China. In South Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa, almost one billion people live on less than $1.25 per day, which is what the World Bank terms “ex-

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But that isn’t so simple, either.

Qualifying that statement are a couple different exceptions. According to the Student Affairs handbook, a student’s room may be entered without the consent for administrative purposes (safety inspections, facility repairs, housekeeping), apparent emergencies like fire, and finally— and most contentiously—given reasonable suspicion of illegal conduct.

treme poverty.” Beyond the immediate byproducts of poverty, such as hunger, disease, lack of basic education, and violence, povertystricken societies must deal with the tremendous stress on their fractured economies, their changing cultures, and their political institutions, which are often corrupt.

If the gap between the so-called “third world” and developed countries persists over the course

Carrying On

by Jackson Perry A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

of the 21st century, the global community will face critical questions of both policy and of philosophy.

If we at Georgetown want to be on the forefront of addressing these questions, we can commit to massively expanding the international development certificate program, which is woefully underfunded. According to Professor Maria Wagner, the director of the International Development Certificate Program, the budget for the program has been cut more than any other SFS program. The International Development Certificate is the only specialized study of global poverty available at the

”

“A search may be performed upon [oral or written] authorization of either the Director of Student Conduct, the Vice President for Student Affairs, Associate Dean of Students, or the Associate Director of Residence Life,” the handbook says.

Isn’t it clear now? No? Have you noticed the language they use throughout? Phrases like “reasonable suspicion” pepper the documents. Elsewhere, it says, “Universi-

undergraduate level, despite tremendous student interest in this topic. Eighty seniors are currently enrolled in the International Development Certificate Program, making the program the most popular certificate in the SFS by far. Unfortunately, the administration has not made international development an institutional priority.

Georgetown’s students and faculty clearly have the capacity and desire to tackle this pressing issue. It is time for these programs to receive the institutional and promotional support necessary to prepare them to lead in a field that will help to define the 21st century.

Students have already demonstrated their enthusiasm for altruism.

The level of dedication to organizations like UNICEF-Georgetown, the D.C. Schools Project, Students Taking Action Now Darfur, and a host of other groups confronting the roots and effects of poverty makes our commitment clear. The academic foundation to expand Georgetown’s focus on poverty already exists in the SFS and the Public Policy Institute, as well as in the departments of American Studies, Economics, Government, History, Justice and Peace Studies, Philosophy, and Theology. The University has the capacity to attempt this groundbreaking venture, but we do not know if it has the will.

Georgetown has an opportunity to define for a new century

ty Officials may also enter a student’s room to investigate suspected violation of University Policy.” Ask yourself, by whom is the violation suspected? To what degree does the suspicion have to exist? With illegal conduct, there must be “reasonable” suspicion; for University policy, is any hunch acceptable? I’ve used the phrase “student rights” a few times now, yet I haven’t been able to find it in any of the University literature. In fact, through Google, I was only able to find a handful of schools that use the phrase.

It seems students throughout the country don’t want rights, don’t care about rights, or don’t know that they can have rights. For me, that’s hard to believe, particularly at a school like Georgetown that enrolls so many aspiring lawyers. It seems for now we’re stuck trying to read between the lines of Georgetown’s policies regarding students, but that doesn’t mean your rights don’t exist. Just say, “I’d prefer to talk outside, officer.”

Troy Miller is a sophomore in the SFS. He suggests that the next time you go Loko, remember that even if DPS comes, the party rages on.

and for new generations what it means to be a woman or man for others. The Jesuit values upon which Georgetown was founded compel us to focus our energies on the gravest of human problems. As Pope John Paul II said in 2001, “Our world is entering the new millennium burdened by the contradictions of an economic, cultural, and technological progress which offers immense possibilities to a fortunate few, while leaving millions of others not only on the margins of progress but in living conditions far below the minimum demanded by human dignity.”

We succeed as a university and as a society when we do not avoid challenges, but rise to them. Over the last 90 years, Georgetown has transformed itself from a relatively standard liberal arts college into an internationally-renowned university in many fields of study. Just as Georgetown recognized the need for a skilled diplomatic corps in the 20th century, the University must now take on the greatest challenge facing the world in the 21st. With this great challenge comes even greater opportunity.

Jackson Perry is a junior in the College.

He believes that John Carroll envisioned a school that would tackle our greatest problems.