The Georgetown Voice, April 27 2018

VOICE The Georgetown

Hoya Saxa Weekend Welcomes Students of Color page 8

First Ladies: SFS Grads Revisit Time on the Hilltop page 12

April 27, 2018

2

April 27, 2018

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE Volume 50 • Issue 16

staff editor-in-chief JAKE MAHER Managing editor Margaret Gach news

executive editor ALEX LEWONTIN Features editor EMILY JASTER assistant features editor Jack Townsend news editor noah telerski assistant news editors katya schwenk, damiAn garcia, rachel cohen

culture

executive editor Caitlin Mannering Leisure editor brynn furey assistant leisure editors Brynne Long, Ryan Mazalatis, Kayla Hewitt Sports editor beth cunniff Assistant sports editors jorge Deneve, Aaron Wolf

“UNTITLED” by EGAN BARNITT

opinion

contents Editorials Carrying On: Nice for What? Stop Telling Me How to Talk Lilah Burke

4 5

Letters to the Georgetown Community Women of the Voice

6-7

Easy Decision: Hoya Saxa Weekend Welcomes Students of Color Dajour Evans

8-9

Jenn Wiggins Spreads the Gospel of Health Ed On Campus Sienna Brancato

10-11

First Ladies: SFS Grads Revisit Time on the Hilltop Rebecca Zaritsky

12

Freshmen Step up to the Plate Tristan Lee and Jake Gilstrap

13

Executive editor CHRIS DUNN voices editor Lizz Pankova Assistant Voices editors Ava Rosato, Mica Bernhard Editorial Board Chair Nick Gavio Editorial Board Jon Block, Alex Boyd, Chris Dunn, Emily Jaster, Alli Kaufman, Alex Lewontin, Jake Maher, Caitlin Mannering, Graham Piro, Isaiah Seibert, Phillip Steuber, Noah Telerski, Jack Townsend

halftime

Leisure editor Dajour Evans assistant leisure editors Inès de Miranda, Juliana Vaccaro de Souza, Rachel Lock Sports editor Santul Nerkar Assistant sports editor Teddy Carey, Jake Gilstrap, Tristan Lee

design

Executive editor Margaux Fontaine Spread editor Jake Glass Photo Editor Rachel Zeide cover Editor Egan Barnitt assistant design editors Delaney Corcoran, Annie Shaw Staff designer Lindsay Reilly

copy

copy chief hannah song assistant Copy editors Cade Shore, Neha Wasil editors Audrey Bischoff, Caroline Geithner, Isabel Paret, Kate Clark, Kate Fin, Madison Scully, Maya Tenzer, Max Fredell, Mya Allen, Nancy Garrett

online

Empty Houses and the Stories Inside: Evicted Confronts an American Tragedy Lizz Pankova

14

Critical Voices Brynn Furey and Alex Lewontin

15

website editor Anne Freeman Website assistant Maggie Grubert Podcast editor Parker houston assistant podcast editor Devon o’Dwyer social media editor Alli Kaufman content Manager claire goldberg MULTIMEDIA editor amy guay

business

general manager anna gloor assistant manager of accounts & sales isabel loRD The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgeton Voice, unless otherwise indicated.

editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057

support

associate editors Sienna Brancato, Gustav Honl-Stuenkel, Eman Rahman, Julia Pinney

Staff writers

Dan Sheehan, Carlos Miranda, Luis Borrero, Haley D’Alessio, Laura Isaza, Errol French, Will Shanahan, Bradley Galvin, Zach Pulsifer, Umar Asif, Cam Smith, Rebecca Zaritsky, Jayan Hanson, Kent Adams

3

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Read & Listen on

GEORGETOWNVOICE.COM sports

Men’s Lacrosse Cruises Past NJIT on Senior Day Read assistant sports editor Jorge DeNeve’s write-up of the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team’s victory over NJIT. The game, played on Senior Day, was the team’s seniors’ last on Cooper Field, and gives the team momentum going into their final game of the season on Saturday, April 28.

halftime leisure

The Weekly List: Georgetown Day Leisure editor Brynn Furey offers some lesserknown and underappreciated hits for your Georgetown Day playlist. Check out this weekly list for some picks to celebrate to.

halftime SPORTS

The Real Homework Your Team Should Be Doing on the NFL Draft QB Class Sportswriter Will Shanahan provides insightful commentary on the upcoming NFL draft. Read his piece for advice on your favorite team’s strategy on drafting an elite quarterback.

NEWS

Austin Tice Photo Gallery Introduced by Dean Hellman Read newswriter Kent Adams’ coverage of the “Austin Tice: Children of Syria” photo gallery event. The gallery featured photos that Tice took before his kidnapping in Syria.

fOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA @gtownvoice

@georgetownvoice

@thegeorgetownvoice

EDITORIALS

4

April 27, 2018

GUPD Should Not Be Armed The GU Advocates for Responsible Defense (GUARD) presented the office of the president with a letter arguing that GUPD officers should be trained and equipped with firearms on April 13. A group of about 20 Georgetown students signed the letter anonymously, and leaders of the group made it public. The letter condemned the university’s current active-shooter protocols, stating that the lack of armed officers on campus would leave students defenseless in an active-shooter situation while waiting for Metro PD officers to arrive.

Arming GUPD officers would be a misguided choice.

GUPD officers currently carry batons and pepper spray.

Many situations that campus police officers deal with, such as handling intoxicated students, breaking up fights, and managing mental health crises, require adept de-escalation techniques and not firearms. Guns are not necessary in these situations and may even worsen them.

The shooting of Scout Schultz, a student at Georgia Tech in September of last year demonstrates how guns were used in place of adept handling of a mental health crisis. A campus officer shot and killed Schultz after officers thought they were holding a knife. In a video of the incident, officers tried to de-escalate the situation by speaking to Schultz.

When one officer told them not to move and Schultz began to walk towards him asking the officer to shoot them, the officer killed them. Schultz suffered from depression and had previously attempted suicide, and the officer who killed them had not received training on how to respond to calls involving mentally ill individuals. In the situations that arise on college campuses where specialized skills, such as in mental health crisis management, are required to keep students

safe, placing extremely deadly weapons in the hands of the school’s police force can do more harm than good.

GUARD’s letter states that it is “unusual” for a D.C. university to keep its police force unarmed, but neglects to mention that Georgetown is not the only local university that elects to keep its police force unarmed. Despite having authorization under the College and University Campus Security Amendment Act of 1995, George Washington University, American University, Gallaudet University, and Catholic University also do not have armed campus police.

While GUARD’s letter mentions Howard University and University of the District of Columbia (UDC) as two examples of local universities that arm their campus police forces, it fails to recognize the ongoing movement to disarm the campus police at Howard. Last month, members of the student group HU Resist occupied an administrative building to demand the disarming of campus police and formation of an oversight body on the police force, among other claims. Both Howard University and UDC are historically black colleges, and HU Resist stated that disarming campus officers is vital to prevent unnecessary violence against black students. Having a gun can escalate tension and potentially lead to an officer using deadly force in an inappropriate situation, a fear that is exacerbated further by a history of police violence against black Americans. A prominent example is the shooting of Samuel Dubose, an African-American student at the University of Cincinnati, who was shot by a campus police officer at a traffic stop over a missing license tag.

Arming GUPD would also be an expensive endeavor.

It would require the university to purchase guns and hold

training programs for GUPD officers. Armed campus officers are required by D.C. law to complete a 56-hour basic firearms course covering the use of lethal and nonlethal force and police liability and to submit proof annually of qualification to Metro PD. Given the potential downsides of arming campus police, this would not be a responsible investment.

In a statement to the Voice, university spokesperson Rachel Pugh wrote, “Our top priority is the safety and security of our community and we are constantly working to prevent violence and ensure the security of our community.” We believe that in pursuit of this goal, the university should focus on educating Georgetown students and staff of university resources and protocols for an active shooter situation.

“Run.Hide.Fight” is a set of strategies for responding to a shooter on campus that is used at universities throughout the country. Groups of individuals from the Georgetown community can request a 30-minute training course.

The course lays out the action steps students should take in an emergency situation. Teaching how to respond to an active shooter situation is the best way to prepare for potentially dangerous emergency situations. GUPD also has a dedicated threat assessment team whose objective is to prevent the “Run.Hide.Fight” protocols from ever needing to be used. This program is a resource for students to report threats they have experienced against themselves or others to avoid a dangerous situation from occurring in the first place.

More widespread knowledge of these programs, not more guns, are what will keep the Georgetown community safe.

D.C. General Demolition Ignores Safety Concerns of Homeless Residents During her first mayoral campaign in 2014, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser vowed to close the D.C. General Family Shelter, the former hospital that served as the city’s primary homeless shelter for families. In 2016, she proposed building smaller shelters in each of the eight wards with the goal of “ending homelessness in the District.” While the city has not altered its original timeline for D.C. General’s closure, an internal budget communication obtained by Washington City Paper shows that only one of the eight new shelters is currently on track to be finished on time.

D.C. General needs to be shut down. Large-scale shelters are dangerous and often lack the necessary individual treatment for the individuals they house. Residents have said that the shelter is unsanitary and does not provide sufficient privacy. Lead and asbestos have been found in D.C. General, and when 8-year-old Relisha Rudd disappeared from the shelter in 2014, many questioned the security and safety of the complex’s residents.

While the merits of closing D.C. General are not in dispute, the District government should be more cautious in its plan to shut down the only major family homeless shelters. Demolition has already begun on buildings in the same hospital complex as D.C. General despite the fact that people are still living in other buildings. We question the safety of this decision and urge the city to make residents’ safety the primary concern of the ongoing construction.

The mayor aims to close D.C. General and open the new shelters by the end of 2018. A women’s shelter was opened by the government in Ward 2 last year and can house over 200 women per night. However, shelters in Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6 are not projected to open until 2019 or later, meaning that nearly half of the wards will lack a homeless shelter. The city currently rents rooms from hotels and motels to house people experiencing homelessness in the absence of a ro-

bust long-term shelter system, costing the city a substantial amount of money.

Not all of the fault for the delay in constructing local shelters falls on the city government, as neighborhood coalitions have actively worked to prevent shelters from being built in their wards. In Ward 5, a group of residents has filed a petition to the D.C. Court of Appeals challenging the shelter that is slated to be built in their neighborhood based on zoning regulations. Concerned neighbors have also challenged the proposed shelter in Ward 3. These petitions and efforts have stalled the District’s construction efforts on some of the new facilities, further delaying the schedule.

The ongoing changes to the District’s homeless shelter system will bring positive effects in the long run. But in its current rebuilding effort, the city has jumped the gun on demolishing D.C. General, potentially damaging the health of many vulnerable homeless residents.

5

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

I’m sorry. I really am.

I’m sorry that I’m not going to ask for a promotion. I’m sorry that I use exclamation points! I’m sorry I apologize so much.

I really am.

Because realistically, I’ll probably achieve more “success” if I act differently—more egocentric, more harsh, more direct.

More masculine.

In this world that was designed by men, achieving success as a woman in a male-dominated field depends on one’s ability to play a part. We’ve all heard the advice. Lean in, work overtime, stop apologizing. Ask for a promotion when you don’t think you’re qualified. Don’t cry. Don’t get excited. Don’t be yourself.

Be more like men.

When we tell these things to young women, what are we saying? We are privileging masculine traits and masculine behavior, casting them as superior.

In 2015, consultant Tami Reiss launched “Just Not Sorry,” a website where women could take a pledge to stop saying what Reiss considered to be undermining words, like “just” and “sorry.” For International Women’s Day this year, Freeform bleeped out women saying the word sorry on their shows like Grown-ish and The Fosters. When your feminism involves shaming women for how they express themselves, you’re doing it wrong.

When I apologize, it’s because I’m sorry. It’s because I empathize and because I realize my own mistakes. When I use exclamation points in my emails, it’s because I’m excited. I’m happy, and I want you to be too. There’s nothing wrong with that.

These behaviors don’t show deference, they show compassion.

“For many women, and a fair number of men, saying ‘I’m sorry’ isn’t literally an apology; it’s a ritual way of restoring balance to a conversation,” writes Georgetown University linguist Deborah Tannen in her book Talking from 9 to 5. That is, “sorry” is meant to make the conversation’s other participant feel at ease. Being nice in a professional setting is not a negative thing. We only think that because women do it.

Of course, I want women to achieve success in science, politics, medicine, and business in any way they can. I want them to make the contributions that only they could make to these fields. But I also want these fields to grow, change, and come to accept the women who join them for what they are, for the people who, through nature or nurture, they grew up to be.

VOICES

Nice for What?

Stop Telling Me How to Talk

When I leave Georgetown and pursue a career, I’ll probably try to stop my more feminine habits. Is that the strong and self-assured woman within me bursting out? Or is it internalized misogyny rearing its head? I suppose I’ll know when the time comes.

But as much as I believe that I will stop these habits, I also believe that I shouldn’t have to. Ideally, the burden should not fall upon women to change themselves to achieve success. The burden should fall on the men in power to understand women’s habits, socialization, and capabilities. Men in power should change the way they promote, hire, and evaluate. Will they?

Probably not. But I’d like to see them try.

Additionally, it is our job as feminists to expand our ideas of success, power, and achievement. Men designed these images, and it is in their shadows that we strive. When I came to Georgetown, I hoped to get a job in the performing arts department, maybe in the scene shop, where I might learn carpentry and basic construction. Instead, there was only an opening in the costume shop, where I would sew. In some ways I looked down upon my potential position. It seemed quaint and domestic. Unliberated and uncool. I was wrong. I love my job now.

But I was skeptical at first about what it signaled about me, about my worth in this world of men.

I applaud the women in government, construction, and science research. I also respect female seamstresses, nurses, and teachers. I wish more men would see these as career paths that are worthy and would see the traditionally female traits of humility, cooperation, and expressiveness as worthy ones to learn.

Liberation and equality are not only going to be found when women can be like men, but also when we truly respect traditionally feminine arts, occupations, and expressions. Women should have a choice as to how they want to act and work. They should receive equal respect no matter what they choose. Any less is misogyny at its most insidious.

That’s my opinion. And, well, I’m not really that sorry.

Lilah Burke (SFS ’18) is the former executive news editor of the Voice.

Delaney Corcoran

APRIL 27, 2018

VOICES

6

In between Women’s History Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the women of the Voice gathered to discuss feminist issues on campus with the intention of writing a letter to the Georgetown community. Over the course of that discussion, we talked about a broad range of topics, from sexual assault to underrepresentation of female faculty members. We considered the question: What should feminism be at Georgetown, according to the women of the Voice? It’s impossible to address every feminist issue at once, so we chose to focus on the behaviors and cultural trends that often are ignored in our daily interactions.

We decided to write two different letters: one to campus women and another to so-called “manbassadors,” well-meaning and sympathetic but sometimes clueless men. Our overarching conclusion was that feminism is an active endeavor, and in order to create cultural change on campus everyone must take part.

Dear campus women, When the women of the Voice gathered and shared stories of our experiences with sexism and exclusion, we achieved a greater understanding of the issues facing women on this campus. We acknowledged the essential nature of accountability, intersectionality, and introspection. Of course, as a group of 14 women, we don’t have all the answers. But we did come to certain realizations about personal steps we can all take to make life better for everyone at Georgetown, particularly the community of women that make up the majority of students on this campus.

We must hold ourselves accountable to ensure cultural change. This means being open to the possibility that, whether we consider ourselves feminists or not, there will be times when we will falter. We may make a well-intentioned but inappropriate comment; we may use non-inclusive language by assuming someone’s gender pronouns; we may actively cause another person discomfort with our actions. The important thing is to interrogate our own actions and actively listen to others when they relay their discomfort or offense to us. If we get defensive and refuse to acknowledge the validity of their perceptions, then any possible progress halts.

Additionally, we must respect women in all different contexts, making intersectionality a priority. This is primarily important because feminism has historically been a white women’s movement, exclusive of the narratives and struggles of other women. However, with time we have realized that none of us can truly claim liberation or progress while leaving members of our community behind solely on the basis of race, class, sexual orientation, or gender expression. Womanhood includes a wide range of experiences and identities that influence our perspectives on feminist issues and the way society perceives women. We can’t develop a comprehensive picture of what the world really looks like while disregarding and dismissing the narratives of other women. If we do that, then we can’t fight for any kind of meaningful liberation. We must remember that our personal brand of feminism, while it may be essential to our identity, is not the only valid form.

When a friend shares an experience of sexist discrimination, listen to them, believe them, and provide them with the support necessary to promote

a sense of safety in speaking up. Otherwise, we only contribute to the cycles of oppression that keep women silent. If we actively listen to all the members of our community, our conceptions of feminism should evolve to accommodate more diverse perspectives.

Another important step in promoting feminism on this campus is to reexamine the relative value placed upon femininity and masculinity. This is particularly important in our current academic environment, in which students make decisions every day that will influence their career paths and by extension the rest of their lives.

What obstacles do women expect to face when entering the business school? Feelings of isolation pervade us when we realize how few women actually surround us in classes. We contemplate whether to act like “one of the guys” to gain respect while working on group projects or to play up our more feminine qualities to seem less threatening.

How often do men talk over us in government discussion sections? Even so, we must continue to raise our hands.

While we encourage women to pursue male-dominated professions, do we do the same in reverse? How do we, as a campus and as a society, judge male nursing students? Often, we shame them for pursuing more traditionally “feminine” careers.

As long as we perpetuate the system of masculinity as power, we perpetuate our own oppression.

To progress as a society, we must rethink our definition of success and consider how we can achieve such success as women. There is no reason why we should abandon femininity; rather, we must embrace femininity as powerful in itself.

The conclusion we reached from our discussion was the importance of women supporting women. Gathering as a group, a small subset of a larger campus community, was affirming and reassuring. To make this campus the most inclusive and equal environment for all, we must build women up rather than tear them down. Applaud women’s accomplishments, and be there to catch each other when we stumble. We can only move forward together.

7

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

VOICES

Dear male allies, Participating in feminism as a social movement can take many forms.

Voting for feminist female candidates, marching against discrimination, and encouraging comprehensive sexual harassment policies are all steps we can take against male hegemony. But sometimes the place we have the most impact is on the home front, examining the behavior of our friends, our relatives, and ourselves. Feminism is not only about politics, but also about the way we conduct ourselves interpersonally, about who gets respect and what kind.

In that vein, we would like to encourage you, the allies of women, the self-styled “manbassadors,” to consider and examine how you interact with, support, and dismantle norms of respect. If you’d like to be a better ally, we implore you to ask yourself a few questions: How do you interact with the women in your life? Probably with respect, gratitude, and understanding. But how about with the women who are not in your life, the women you are less likely to meet at Georgetown? They are the women who are staying home with children, who are serving fast food, who don’t speak your language. They are not disposable parts of this movement.

Consider them as you move about your world. How do you speak to them?

What do you think or say about their choices? If you are searching for feminist heroes, do not only look at those who have achieved despite great obstacles, but at those whose obstacles prevented them from traditional achievement.

How do you interact with the women you don’t respect, the women you hate, loathe, think are incompetent at their jobs? What role does their gender play in these interactions? As women move up in politics and management, they are subject to greater criticism and scorn, often with a misogynistic bent. This is not to say that the women you dislike are not incompetent or bad, but that our conceptions of competence and leadership are difficult to extricate from tangled-up notions of masculine and feminine. Imagine your enemies were of a different gender. Would that change, ever so slightly, how you saw them?

How do your friends interact with women? Are they rude? Discriminatory? What have you done about it? Do they only respect women they find

attractive? What have you said to them? This is one of the avenues in which you have the most power as men, changing the dialogue and challenging the discourse in the spaces that women cannot enter, within male friendships.

How do you react when someone says you have said something sexist or treated them differently because of their gender? Are you defensive? Or do you listen? Being defensive is human nature. But to move forward we must all truly be open to criticism and view it as a path to self-betterment.

Do you seek out feminist dialogue? Do you listen? Do you expect applause when you positively contribute? We ask you to be ready for dialogue, with women and with other men. Start conversations with your friends, your fathers, your brothers, your colleagues, your little sisters. Don’t be upset if you do not get recognized for your contributions. Applause is not the point.

Consider your reward instead the opportunity to live in a more just world.

Finally, do you seek out and consume women’s cultural output? That is, their writing, artwork, music, films? Sometimes you might have to work harder to find it. Sometimes it might take a different form. When women were not allowed to paint, they quilted, sewed, and embroidered. When they were discouraged from playing guitar, some played piano. Sometimes the output won’t be what you like. But often the standards that we compare work against were created by European men. You must open your eyes to new styles and new beauty. We also implore you to support women’s contemporary output, while recognizing the obstacles still ahead. When all the women in the Met are the naked bodies on the canvases and not the names on the walls, what does that say about our traditions of art? Walking down that hallway of nudes, what effect might that have on a burgeoning female artist?

If you don’t know how to answer these questions, or you do not know if you can take on all of this, don’t panic. The answer is not to abandon any claims of allyship to absolve yourself of these demands, but to take things piece by piece, day by day, and to ask questions. On the passing of Women’s History Month, we acknowledge that allies to women have done incredible things. So much still rests upon you.

Egan BarnitT

APRIL 27, 2018

8

Easy Decision

Hoya Saxa Weekend Welcomes Students of Color

By Dajour Evans The Healey Family Student Center buzzed with nervous chatter. Dinner was being placed on a table in the back and music played on speakers as prospective Georgetown students sat around tables talking about the weekend that lay ahead of them.

“For me personally, I’m excited to visit the classes,” said Jennifer Martinez, a prospective student from Arizona. “I want to see the interactions the students have with the professors.”

Sergio Gonzalez Porras, a prospective College student also from Arizona, looked forward to learning about the resources offered by Georgetown. “Considering I’m undocumented and our current political climate, it’s important to see what resources the university would offer,” he said.

Martinez and Porras were two of 77 admitted students of color visiting Georgetown last weekend for the 2018 regular decision Hoya Saxa Weekend. Hosted through the Center for Multicultural Equity & Access (CMEA) and in partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Hoya Saxa Weekend is a chance for admitted students of color to experience life at Georgetown. Twice each spring, once for early admission and once for regular decision, admitted students of color stay with a student host for a weekend and experience campus life with an emphasis on the multicultural experience. The university pays for their travel and accommodation expenses.

In 2000, the university decided to cancel Minority Hosting Weekend, a similar program that had been running in the 90s.

That year, there was a significant decrease in African-American enrollment, and so in 2001, Hoya Saxa Weekend was born in its place.

In recent years, students who attended the weekend have enrolled at a higher rate than students have at the university as a whole. In 2016, Hoya Saxa Weekend saw a 68 percent yield rate, compared to the university-wide 48 percent. Many former

ALL Photos Onrei Josh Ladao

attendees say they chose Georgetown because of their experience during Hoya Saxa Weekend.

“Hoya Saxa Weekend was one of the things that confirmed that I would belong at Georgetown,” said Julia Potts (MSB ’20), a 2016 Hoya Saxa Weekend attendee and current hosting co-coordinator for the Hoya Saxa Weekend committee. Potts points to ABISSA, the African Society of Georgetown’s annual cultural showcase, as a pivotal moment during her weekend.

“I really fell in love with Abissa and seeing how the black community gathers around Georgetown,” Potts said. “And for me to know that there is a community for black people that do things together and is not separate and that it can be a united front was really important for me.”

Creating this sense of belonging that past attendees have felt is something that Christian Sese, the Hoya Saxa Weekend advisor, aims for during each weekend.

“When I learned that Hoya Saxa Weekend was going to be my biggest project, I actually recalled that I went to Xavier’s equivalent of Hoya Saxa Weekend and that was actually the reason I went there,” Sese said. “And so for me, as somebody who understands the importance and value of feeling like you belong or connect with a place, it was perfect that this was one of my responsibilities.”

One thing that sets Hoya Saxa Weekend apart from the Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program (GAAP), the university’s general admitted students weekend, is that Hoya Saxa Weekend attendees stay in dormitories with student hosts, which provides insight into the college experience that more structured events in the schedule aren’t able to.

Teak Emmanuel Hodge (SFS ’21), one of the hosting co-coordinators for the Hoya Saxa Weekend planning committee, described his role in pairing prospective students with their

student hosts. “Given merely two spreadsheets of names and short responses, my co-coordinator and I were asked to try and connect these two groups in a way where new students could use current students as a resource for their development,” he wrote in an email to the Voice.

For Carolyn Cabrera (MSB ’20), who hosted an attendee this year, the match was perfect. “My hostee was also from New York and also in the business school,” she said. “A lot of doubts I had before coming to Georgetown, she kind of had the same questions. Like, for example, she was between NYU and Georgetown, and before I came here, I was also between both schools.”

When the relationships between hosts and prospective students are successful, it is an incredibly rewarding and enlightening experience for the prospective students, according to the facilitators.

“The day the students arrived and split off their hosts, I remember having some hostees come up to me and tell me that they really appreciated who their hosts were and how much they were able to share about their experiences,” Hodge said. “Even now that my roommate is hosting, I remember walking into our room and hearing how active and engaged the conversation between him and his hostee was.”

Hoya Saxa Weekend always runs concurrently with GAAP Weekend, but in recent years, there has been more of a push to integrate Hoya Saxa Weekend and GAAP. The schedules for Hoya Saxa Weekend provide time for students to attend GAAP programming and events, and the attendees are strongly encouraged to go to them.

“I think it’s important for incoming or prospective students of color to recognize that this is still a predominately white institution,” Sese said. “So they need to integrate or interact

9

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

The Hoya Saxa Weekend planning committee poses at the closing banquet.

with more of the white students ’cause the reality is that when they come here, that’s what this experience is going to be like.

And I think attending GAAP events allows them to have that.”

There has also been a push to unify the Hoya Saxa Weekend student planning committee and the GAAP student board through morning mixers where the committees get to know each other. Cindy Tran (COL ’20), co-chair of the Hoya Saxa Weekend committee, wrote in an email to the Voice that she was grateful for the warm reception that the initiative received from GAAP. “I’ve been working closely with Maria Giaquinto [co-vice president of the GAAP student board] and between hosting mixers and exchanging collaborative emails, we’ve both been integral to the relationship between Hoya Saxa Weekend and GAAP this year,” she wrote. “We still have room for improvement, of course, but I’m hoping to see the partnership continue to grow with future co-chairs and presidents.”

Despite these improvements, Hoya Saxa Weekend continues to struggle under its current budget and cannot fund every prospective student of color who wants to participate. Each year there are students who do not get the chance to experience the weekend for themselves.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions first invites all admitted students of color to RSVP for Hoya Saxa Weekend.

Once the students RSVP, the CMEA then chooses who can come based on factors including their expected family contribution, if they are the first in their family to attend college, and if they have not yet visited Georgetown.

“The demand is growing, but the resources are not,” he Sese said. When he first became program advisor in 2014, Hoya Saxa Weekend had a total 50 to 60 attendees between the two weekends. That number has steadily increased to over 100 attendees without a change in budget for nearly four years.

“To be transparent, the money and funding just isn’t there,” Tran wrote. “CMEA staff are underpaid, and as co-chairs, Omaris and I are not paid, despite the 15-20 hours a week we put into planning Hoya Saxa Weekend. A better distribution of the resources here at the university has to be made to continue the growth and success of Hoya Saxa Weekend.”

Without an increase in budget, the CMEA has relied on partnerships with other departments to expand the program. Recently, they cooperated with the Regents Scholars program, a program which aims to expand opportunities for students from underrepresented communities pursuing studies in the sciences. Headed by Dr. Heidi Elmendorf, this partnership serves to cover the travel costs of admitted students in the Community Scholars Program majoring in the sciences.

Prospective students get to know each other at the opening reception.

Some prospective students have also begun volunteering to fund their own travel costs. “Last year, I think, was the first time we got students who RSVP’d but were declined who offered to pay their own way to Georgetown just to be a part of the experience,” Sese said.

For the students who are unable to attend Hoya Saxa Weekend, the CMEA encourages them to attend GAAP weekend, and if not GAAP weekend, Pangea, a welcome dinner for first year and transfer students that highlights the multicultural experience at Georgetown.

Despite the budgetary restraints, this year’s Hoya Saxa Weekend was successful, according to students who attended. Kelvin Santacruz attended this year’s regular decision Hoya Saxa Weekend and has committed to Georgetown. He cited the relationships he formed with staff members, Arelis Palacios, the CMEA’s associate director for undocumented student services, and Jaime Briseno, senior associate director of multicultural recruitment, as significant factors in his choice to come to Georgetown.

“I was introduced to Arelis Palacios and Jaime Briseno who reassured me that in choosing to come to Georgetown I would be supported and guided by some of the best instructors in the country,” he wrote in an email to the Voice.

Lizette Mariano, another incoming freshman who attended this year’s early action Hoya Saxa Weekend, discussed the relationship she built with her host. “We spent nights talking about Georgetown as a whole. She always answered my questions truthfully, the bad and the good of Georgetown,” she wrote in an email to the Voice.

The relationships that attendees develop during Hoya Saxa Weekend are, according to Hodge, among the most lasting that attendees will have should they attend Georgetown in the fall.

“I think what makes Hoya Saxa Weekend relationships so durable is that they are formed from uncertainty,” he said. “We all come in unsure about college, about life, and about who we want to become, but it is that uncertainty that becomes our greatest bond. Feeling like we are not alone in this choice and in this world gives us the strength to make that tough college decision and to ultimately chose Georgetown as our home.”

10

April 27, 2018

Jenn Wiggins Spreads the Gospel of Health Ed On Campus

By Sienna Brancato As the credits roll on The Hunting Ground, the audience appears solemn and reflective. A panel of professionals sits on the stage of the ICC auditorium, ready to discuss the themes of the film. Among them is Jennifer Wiggins.

“Throughout my college career, I had never even heard someone use the term ‘rape,’ or ‘sexual assault,’” Wiggins said later in an interview. “It was always these innuendos of like ‘stay in groups,’ and ‘don’t drink too much,’ or ‘don’t hang out with shady people.’ But we never, even my friends, never talked about assault.”

Wiggins grew up in Philadelphia. Initially, she wanted to pursue a career in elementary education at Cabrini College.

But after an introductory psychology class, she decided to change her major.

“Coming from a low-income, being first-gen, my mom was like ‘What does that even mean? Will you be able to get a job? You’re not gonna be able to work anywhere.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll have to go to grad school but it’ll be great!’”

Wiggins said.

In graduate school at Arcadia University, Wiggins took a trauma course that included working at a local rape crisis center. She accompanied survivors to preliminary hearings and provided them with resources. Upon graduating, she counseled survivors as young as four and as old as 90.

As part of Georgetown’s programming for Title IX Week this year, the GUSA Federal & D.C. Relations Committee, co-sponsored by the Women’s Center, screened The Hunting Ground (2015). The film depicts the epidemic of campus sexual misconduct and the difficulties of navigating the Title IX reporting process. When Wiggins initially viewed the film three years ago, it prompted her to apply to work with survivors on a college campus because she noticed how great the need is for information and counseling around sexual assault.

In 2015, Wiggins took a job as a staff clinician and sexual assault specialist in Georgetown’s Health Education Services (HES) office.

HES is a health promotion office that offers programming and counseling to foster student well-being. Employees specialize in areas such as sexual assault, eating disorders, healthy relationships, substance abuse, and stress management, but they emphasize overall wellness.

Wiggins describes her job as three-pronged: education, direct service, and advocacy. As an educator, Wiggins participates in Engelhard courses, programming at the Center for Social Justice, and other events. As a counselor, she meets with students in a clinical setting. As an advocate, she assists students in obtaining academic and housing accommodations and supports them through the process of navigating reporting or administrative systems.

“I work often with marginalized communities because I represent multiple marginalized communities, and it’s a passion of mine,” said Wiggins, who is a woman of color.

Wiggins helps students who might otherwise be deterred by monolithic systems connect to care. “We never just leave a student. We are there for them throughout their journey.”

On a night out over spring break, Olivia Jimenez (COL ’20) was drugged for the second time in her life. She was going with a female friend to hang out with a group of Georgetown students that she hadn’t previously met. The group planned to drink before going out to a club. She had two drinks at the pregame, and from that point on, remembers nothing. People have put together bits and pieces of the story for her. She went to multiple clubs that night, of which she has no recollection.

She woke up the next morning in a bed next to a man who swore that nothing sexual happened. At that point, Jimenez had to take his word for it.

Jimenez met with Wiggins once in her counseling capacity. “I’m so happy that I did it,” she said. “I’ve only met with her once and still, it opened so many doors for me.”

“She really knows how to sort of get you to understand that you deserve healing,” Jimenez said. “Some things that happened to you… a) don’t define you and b) regardless of how serious you think they are, they affect you, and you need to deal with that, which has been huge for me at least.”

In the past, Jimenez felt uncomfortable speaking frankly about her experience with sexual assault, even in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

“Keeping it bottled up doesn’t help you, and it’s frustrating because you’re like, ‘I was put in this situation. Why do I have to deal with all this stuff now when it’s not your fault?’”

Jimenez often struggled with self-blame. “Clearly people wanna roofie me or whatever—like that’s dumb—but that’s what I thought at one point. And understanding all those clichés are true. It’s not your fault. Opening up is okay.”

Jimenez was referred to Wiggins by a friend who had previously met with her. A junior in the College—who preferred to speak anonymously using the pseudonym Melissa—discussed her relationship to Wiggins with the Voice. “I was at a point where I was like, I needed people, and I needed people to talk to,” Melissa said.

Over time, Melissa realized that Wiggins could help her thrive in a way no one else could. “Yes, she would be kind, yes she would be affirming, but she would also tell me when I needed to do better or do more work,” she said. “You know, she would push me right to that sweet spot where I would stretch and grow, and I think I really, really needed that.”

Melissa also attested to the value of talking with a clinician who represents underrepresented campus communities.

“It really helps that she’s a woman of color because, as am I,

11

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

and having that connection and someone who kind of understands similar experiences is really, really helpful.”

If a trusted friend hadn’t introduced Melissa to HES and testified to its helpfulness, she says that she wouldn’t have taken that first step through the door. As such, Melissa has recommended HES to multiple friends.

“I want to spread the gospel of Health Ed,” Melissa said.

But the gospel of HES extends beyond the walls of its office in Poulton Hall.

Jimenez thinks that although Georgetown doesn’t have a reputation for rampant sexual assault, it’s important to talk about the fact that it still happens on campus. “Even me talking about this, I feel like no one, really no one would.

This is the first time I have, and no one really wants to talk about it. I think that is huge, and I think people like Jenn ... can open that discussion up to everyone,” Jimenez said.

Wiggins is also the staff advisor for the Sexual Assault Peer Educators (SAPE), a student group which hosts workshops educating students about sexual assault, bystander intervention, and consent. In that role, she is responsible for providing training and continuing education to all the facilitators, in addition to providing emotional support to facilitators (SAPErs), some of whom are sexual assault survivors themselves.

Under Wiggins’ leadership, SAPE facilitator membership has grown from 55 peer educators in her first year to 100 educators in her second year, prompting a cap on membership.

SAPE facilitated workshops for around 1800 students during the last academic year.

To recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), Wiggins assembled a team of 12 students, some SAPE facilitators and others not, to organize programming throughout April. She created the theme of “Take it All Back,” the umbrella under which they organized all the events.

“We always have this notion that sexual assault happens at night, and so we’ve had movements like ‘Take Back the Night,’” said Wiggins. “But this year I was like, you know, why aren’t we taking it all back?”

The committee planned events throughout the month— most with co-sponsors but some on their own. One such event, spearheaded by Wiggins, was called “Negotiating Black Bodies,” which was a discussion of sexual assault and objecti-

fication in the black community, as well as the challenges in reporting those assaults.

Emma Rizk (COL ’18) worked closely with Wiggins as a program assistant at HES and in planning SAAM programming.

Rizk originally intended to go into journalism, but has reconsidered in light of her work with Wiggins. “The work that I’ve done at Health Education Services and through the influence of a lot of clinicians, but really specifically through Jenn, I’ve been rethinking that a lot over the past year, especially as I’m about to graduate,” Rizk said. “I think I’m going to pursue social work now as a result.”

This year, Wiggins has also ensured that there are SAPErs present at the medical school, and she hopes to provide more peer education at the law center as well.

Wiggins has implemented programs centered around wellness in campus communities of color called Building Lives Around Sound Truth (BLAST) and Generating Lifeskills for Our Wellness (GLOW), which are for men and women of color, respectively.

“I actually started BLAST last year after there [were] a bunch of murders at the hands of police brutality against a lot of black men, and I was like, people need a space. I want to build a space for this,” Wiggins said. She reached out to male students of color identified as campus leaders and collaborated with them to pilot BLAST. These discussions take place over dinner, about topics like healthy communication, coping tools, campus health resources, and healthy relationships.

“If you think about counseling and wellness services on campus, there’s not a diversity of providers. So I think some students who are marginalized don’t necessarily transition into those spaces. So [the workshops have] really been able to build community and give a space to address wellness,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins holds office hours in the LGBTQ Resource Center every Thursday at 4 p.m. Julian Haas, assistant director of the LGBTQ Resource Center, expressed appreciation of Wiggins’ willingness to bring her knowledge and resources to the center, a familiar and comfortable space for many.

“Jenn does not bring barriers into the work. She puts on her therapist hat and is able to provide direct services to students in need, regardless of who that person is or what their needs are,” Haas said. “She just gets there, and regardless of whether it’s like, the end of the day and she’s seen 12 other people, I’ve watched her make time for someone when they’re really in crisis.”

Jimenez wants the university to do a better job of publicizing its mental health resources. “I think people think of Health Education Services as good resources for STI testing, pregnancy tests, even other things involving health that are more medical, but there’s a lot of counseling in Health Education Services,” Jimenez said.

But in addition to its clinical work, HES has a portfolio of other services for students. Wiggins believes people usually easily recognize The Stall Seat Journal but rarely connect it to HES. She often finds herself talking to students who don’t realize the difference between HES and CAPS and don’t know that HES services are free and confidential.

“I think Health Ed also helps with so many other things, so it doesn’t have to be sexual assault at all. It can be literally like you’re feeling so stressed and you don’t know what to do, or you’re not feeling good on this campus, or you have some sort of eating disturbance, or you are feeling this or that, and Health Ed is a space where you can air all of that,” Melissa said. “We’re all survivors of something.”

Wiggins emphasized the diversity of Georgetown students’ experiences. “I mean, there are students who bring so much with them, and I think we try to sometimes erase that with this idea of being a perfect Hoya, right?”

Wiggins posed a few questions for the student body to reflect on. “How do we work to not just put on this facade and keep smiling? How are we really promoting health and wellness in a sustainable way that makes the best Hoya that anyone can possibly be in their own way?”

Melissa had a partial answer.

“You need to want to help yourself before anyone else can help you,” Melissa said. “And it’s hard. It is so hard to take that first step. It is one of the hardest things that you will ever have to do, but once you take that first step, and you learn where to place your foot, the rest comes so easily, and suddenly you’ve run the fuckin’ marathon.”

Listen to the accompanying podcast, She Runs the World, on georgetownvoice.com Confidential Resources Health Education Services (HES) sarp@georgetown.edu Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) 202-687-6985 D.C. Rape Crisis Center’s Hotline 202-333-RAPE (7273) Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) online.rainn.org National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-877-726-4727

Jenn Wiggins (second from the right) sits on a panel following a screening of The Hunting Ground.

Sophia Mauro

12

April 27, 2018

First Ladies

By Rebecca Zaritsky

SFS Grads Revisit Time on the Hilltop When Barbara Berky Evans (SFS ’58) arrived on campus in the fall of 1954, she had no idea she was going to make Georgetown history. Her focus was on getting out of her native Chicago and taking interesting classes. But she was also a member of the first School of Foreign Service (SFS) class to include women as day students.

“I had no idea what I was getting into, I really didn’t,” Berky Evans said, speaking as part of a panel of the first women to attend the SFS. “On the brochure that came to my house, on the bottom someone typed in, ‘Women are now admitted to the day school.’ Which should have been clue number one.”

The SFS first began admitting women to night classes in 1944. Prompted by wartime demands, the faculty decided it would be beneficial to the country for women to speak foreign languages, but they only allowed them to enroll in certain night courses, mostly the consular and diplomatic course. Berky Evans was one of just 25 women admitted to the day school’s first co-ed class in 1954.

Until 1980, the university had a quota limiting the number of women admitted to the SFS to one woman for every eight men. However, women had more academic success on average than their male counterparts. Today, women make up more than half of SFS students, and 55 percent of Georgetown’s student body are women.

But the first women students faced challenges that their male counterparts did not. The university was ill-equipped to provide housing for the new female students, so many had to live in the dorms for nursing students, which did not accommodate the evening SFS classes. The dorms had a 9 p.m. curfew; the women would often be in class until 10 p.m.

“I’m afraid the nun was not too happy to come down the stairs dressed for bed and having to unlock the door and

thought it was inappropriate for a female to be out at that time of night,” Barbara Hammes Sharood (SFS ’58) said during the panel.

The women struggled to find female friends in their courses and to garner respect from their male classmates and professors, who often did not allow female students to enroll in their classes. Of the 25 women who arrived on campus in the fall of 1955, the second term to admit women, only eight graduated in 1959. “It was a pretty lonely time until some of these other ladies showed up,” Berky Evans said.

But Hammes Sharood said the struggle gave her a resilience that she found useful later in her life. “Education is not just learning information,” she said. “Education is learning how to think and deal with life and learning how to meet challenges, and we had fantastic opportunity to do that.”

The women who remained in the program met their challenges and formed a group called the Foreign Service Women’s Association, of which Hammes Sharood was student president.

The organization served to support women through their time in SFS. “We just overcame some of the limits and broke a few barriers and a little more, a little more, a little more, until what you see today,” Berky Evans said of her contribution to women on the hilltop.

Along with several of their classmates, Berky Evans and Hammes Sharood came back to Georgetown on Wednesday, April 18 for the panel on their experiences at Georgetown. The event, which took place in Fisher Colloquium, was moderated by Ambassador Melanne Verveer (I’66, MS’69) and discussed the women’s experiences during their time at Georgetown and beyond.

The panel was part of the SFS’s Centennial Celebrations, commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the school’s creation in 1919. It included some of the first female day students

By Rebec-

Cole Trudo/School of Foreign Service

at Georgetown: Berky Evans, Hammes Sharood, Helene Gettler Mallett (SFS ’59), and Paula Wiegerd Tosini (SFS ’60).

Lulu Garcia-Navarro (SFS ’94), an NPR radio host, gave the closing remarks.

Dean Joel Hellman said the faculty working on the Centennial acknowledged the strides the SFS had made in advancing the careers of women. “The role of the school—this issue of creating the foundation for women across international affairs, business, government, journalism—this was something that we thought we needed to celebrate and we needed to explore in our own history,” Hellman said.

As the alumni looked at the women sitting in the audience, the first women—called “women pioneers” in the event’s description—thought about the future and the role of women in education today. “Their opportunities are so much greater than ours … each generation sort of builds on the next,” Gettler Mallet said.

In her closing remarks, Garcia-Navarro said that women still had progress to make for equal rights. She said that, with the help of women like the first SFS students, women’s rights in the United States had made progress. But she also said that her experiences revealed just how much progress still has to be made.

“The questions are not if we can do it, but rather, are we getting paid the same amount for it? Are we being allowed to work without harassment?” Garcia-Navarro asked. “Are there enough women in the halls of power, in media, in politics, in national security, who are in leadership?”

To Berky Evans, the progress is profound. “I think that these young women—there are no limits for them. There are no limits,” she said. “One of them could easily be the next president, that’s how I think of them, right? That was unheard of in my day.”

13

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Freshmen Step Up To The Plate When the Georgetown baseball team opened their season on February 16 at Wake Forest’s Couch Ballpark, freshman shortstop Eddie McCabe took the field for the first time in a Hoyas uniform. McCabe was penciled into the cleanup spot, starting at shortstop, yet went 0-4 and struck out twice. Fellow freshman outfielder James Gabor flew out in a pinch-hit appearance, and freshman catcher Ryan P. Davis entered as a defensive replacement late in the game. After the Hoyas’ opening day, there weren’t many positives to take from their new batch of freshmen.

Fast forward to about a month later to March 14 at Georgetown’s Shirley Povich Field. McCabe has moved up a spot. He is now batting third, but still patrolling shortstop. In the third inning he stepped up to bat with runners on second and third.

McCabe, on a 3-1 pitch, sent the ball into the left-center field gap, scoring both runners and extending the Hoya lead to 9-4 on a two-run double. At the end of the day, McCabe was 3-6 with six runs driven in, providing the offensive spark in a 16-9 Georgetown victory over Coppin State.

McCabe and the other freshmen quickly grew comfortable with the college game and have catalyzed Georgetown’s recent momentum. The now 16-23 Hoyas started off the year 7-20, but have won eight of their last 11 games, in part due to the freshmen group’s growing comfort and improved play.

Along with McCabe, other freshmen have stepped up for the Hoyas. Freshmen pitchers Owen Lamon and Jacob Grzebinski have started a combined 14 games. Gabor, with his speed on the base paths, and fellow freshman outfielder Kai Nelson, with consistent hitting performances since recovering from Tommy John surgery, are integral bench pieces and occasional starters.

McCabe and Davis have made the greatest contributions among the freshmen thus far. McCabe cemented himself in the three hole and started at short in every game so far this season.

“Eddie early on was a little shaky, especially defensively he was still settling into the important role that he’s done really well in,” said head coach Pete Wilk in regards to McCabe. “His first five to 10 games was still kind of an adjustment period for him.”

McCabe started the season slow, batting .200 with just two RBIs through the first eight games. Over the course of the season, though, McCabe has turned into an intimidating hitter. He sports a .295 batting average and has driven in a team-leading 28 runs, putting his RBI count at fourth in the Big East: impressive numbers for any player, even more so for a freshman.

“It’s a lot to ask of a freshman in the three hole, which is what we’ve been doing with Eddie, but he can handle it,” Wilk said.

“He’s been handling it really well.”

Despite the freshmen’s success, they admitted that there was a significant difference between playing high school baseball and competing at the Division I level.

“It was the speed of the game. Not so much the pitching and how hard the balls are being hit, but the pace of the game,” McCabe said of the contrast. “Even though we’re playing nine instead of seven innings, it flies by especially playing the infield.

You have to really be on top of everything all the time.”

McCabe said that forgetting about added pressure has helped him play better. “[I’ve tried] to mentally prepare for every game the same way. The support system around us is really good, and the coaches and other players tell me to just relax and do what I do,” McCabe said.

While shining offensively, McCabe is still developing his defense. He holds a .932 fielding percentage, the second lowest among starters, and has committed eight errors, tied for second most among the Hoyas. And while McCabe was an immediate starter, the other members of the talented freshman class grew more gradually into their roles.

Freshman Ryan P. Davis has also made his presence known on the diamond this season. Even after a bland 1-4 in his first start almost a month into the season, and despite joining a Georgetown team with a crowded catching staff, Davis began to see more starts behind the plate. Like McCabe, the more Davis has played, the better he has performed. Davis batted .319 in his shared playing time with seniors Richie O’Reilly and Sammy Stevens. Once O’Reilly went down with an injury, the freshman was thrust into the full-time starting job, and Davis has not disappointed in his new role.

On March 17 against Princeton, Davis put on a hitting clinic. In the bottom of the second inning, with men on the corners, Davis ripped a first pitch fastball up the middle for an RBI single, giving him his second hit of the day and Georgetown a 2-0 lead. Then, in the bottom of the fifth inning on a full count, Davis cranked a double to deep center to

finish the day 3-3. Davis scored later in the inning, giving the Hoyas their third and final run in a 3-1 win. This game was no fluke for the freshman, who has a respectable .300 average and gets on base at a .389 clip, both the highest of any Hoya with as many at bats. However, like McCabe, Davis is still growing defensively. Baserunners have successfully stolen 21 of 25 attempts on Davis, resulting in a subpar 16 percent caught stealing percentage.

Davis’ improved play has not gone unnoticed by the coaching staff. “RD has just stepped in, he’s played really well and in that position, you need to be vocal and take leadership,” Wilk said. “He’s done that because that’s who he is. He’s done a great job.”

Davis has said that his catching counterparts have helped to smooth his transition to college ball.“[O’Reilly and Stevens] are aware everyone is looking at them on the field and they remain calm and collected. They don’t panic,” Davis said of his fellow backstops. “They’re in charge behind the plate and stay on top of school. They set the model for how we should act off the field.”

Davis, McCabe, and the rest of the class of 2021 had a rocky start and still have room to grow. But the recent contributions from freshmen are encouraging, not only for the conclusion of the season, but for seasons to come.

“I don’t know where we’d be without them,” Wilk said.

By Tristan Lee and Jake Gilstrap its.

h Cabe

s

atche

sc Davi Ryan

c ddie M and E

get

s: Geor

Photo

n rmatio

s Info

port own S

April 27, 2018

LEISURE

14

Empty Houses and the Stories Inside Evicted Confronts an American Tragedy

All Photos Lizz Pankova

A home is a source of safety, success, and livelihood, and yet so many Americans must consistently live without one. Evicted tells their story. Based on sociologist Matthew Desmond’s book of the same name, this immersive exhibit at the National Building Museum dives into the harsh realities of poverty, eviction, and homelessness.

The first piece the viewer encounters is a wall-sized map of the United States composed of cardboard moving boxes that represent different states, varying in size proportional to the number of evictions per year in each one. This is only the beginning of a few small but powerful rooms that serve as a sobering revelation and an urgent call to action.

Statistics and facts come alive in the mini-houses that act as canvases for the rest of the exhibition. While they’re shaped like houses, the structures hardly represent homes.

They are rather skeletons with sparse walls, grey wallpaper, and misplaced hooks and knobs. Voices of evicted tenants emanate from within them, while photographs, infographics, and poignant quotes cover the exteriors.

Inside one of the houses, a teenager in a video painfully recalls being homeless as a high schooler. From another, Desmond’s voice echoes, “The average homeless person in America is 9 years old.” On the outside wall, an infographic made of house keys shows the disproportionate rate of eviction for African-American women, a testament to the

quote beside it: “Eviction affects the old and the young, the sick and the able-bodied. But for women of color and their children, it has become ordinary.” Another graphic displays the disturbingly simple cycle of eviction initiated by nuisance ordinances, which label a property as a nuisance— and therefore a red flag for landlords—when it is the site of too many police calls, thereby forcing victims of domestic violence to choose between calling for help or having a roof over their head.

The social justice theme of Evicted is a change of pace for the museum, which has in the past utilized its spacious interior for more showy, Instagrammable spectacle art such as a giant ball pit that simulates a beach and, more recently, a sky-high dome made of paper tubes. Nonetheless, Evicted proves that the same engaging multimedia techniques can be used for a less zany, more meaningful purpose. In many ways, the opulent design of the museum enhances the contrast between the grim truthfulness of the exhibit, which is tucked away in a side room, away from the regal columns and high ceilings.

At the forefront of this shift toward more serious and educational exhibits is Sarah Leavitt, a curator at the museum who was the creative force behind the adaptation of Desmond’s book into an immersive experience. Her previous work includes Architecture of an Asylum, which explored the history of St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital as well as House and Home, an exhibit about housing in America. To bring Evicted to life, Leavitt collaborated with Desmond himself, but also gained personal understanding of the issues by visiting and sitting in on hearings at D.C.’s landlord-tenant court. The effects of this experience translate directly into the exhibit through a mini-house about eviction courts. It is dark and unenterable, forcing the viewer to look and listen through a window, to understand the powerlessness of a soon-to-be evicted tenant.

While the majority of the exhibit reflects the intense grief and anxiety of eviction, the last gallery offers a ray of hope, both physically and thematically. The room is welcoming, full of natural light, and cozy, unlike the gray and bleak galleries before it. It focuses on the future and emphasizes the importance of nurturing the seeds of change that activists

throughout history have planted. There is a new map on the wall, and this time it recounts the successes of individuals and communities who fought back against unjust housing policies across the nation, from the fight for rent control in New York City in the 1920s to the passing of a tax to expand affordable housing in Kansas in 2017.

For those who don’t have time to read Desmond’s 300 page study of eviction and the effects of the private housing market on the poor, this exhibit provides a comprehensive and emotional summary of this important but often overlooked topic. For those who have read the book, it presents little new information, but the immersive experience makes the already-heavy material much more tangible and difficult to ignore. The success of Evicted lies in this perfect union of facts and feelings, of the national data and the countless personal tragedies it embodies. It is nearly impossible to walk away from the millions of damaged lives that are presented in the photographs, statistics, and videos of Evicted without feeling deeply unsettled and hungry for change.

By Lizz Pankova

15

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Critical Voices:

J. Cole has always been the fire-and-brimstone preacher in the church of rap. From his breakout single “Lights Please,” a caution against the temptations of sex, to “Fire Squad,” his critically-lauded condemnation of white appropriation of hip-hop, listening to a Cole track or project is not unlike attending a Sunday morning sermon. KOD is no exception, but while historically Cole has hit the nail on the head with his proselytizing, KOD misses the mark.

The album is intended to be a reflection on addiction, and Cole tries to explore it as an issue beyond just substance abuse, addressing related topics such as technology, infidelity, and greed. But many of his arguments come off as shallow and at times holier-than-thou. “Photograph” discusses romance in the age of social media and online dating, but Cole’s analysis never moves beyond the closing lines of the chorus: “Today’s love gone digital / and it’s messing with my health.”

The most intriguing bars on the album come from “BRACKETS,” where Cole takes on the topic of taxes. The beginning of the song is a compelling denunciation of racial imbalances in education. Cole takes issue with the disconnect between white teachers teaching a whitewashed version of history in schools that cater to white youth and black children who struggle to find success. The critiques made in the song are perhaps the most profound and convincing on the album. This makes it especially disappointing when Cole shoots himself in the foot by proposing that instead of voting, “Let me pick the things I’m funding from an app on my screen.” His eventual conclusion that taxes are the root

LEISURE

J. Cole, KOD

By Alex Lewontin of the imbalances also provokes an eye roll, considering that Forbes estimated that Cole earned $17 million in 2017. The anti-tax rhetoric seems unconstructive and without nuance, and doesn’t logically follow from the valid societal critiques put forward in the beginning of the song.

This frustration culminates with the concluding track “1985—Intro to ‘The Fall Off.’” Through this song, Cole responds to a video which surfaced in 2017 showing Lil Pump in 2017 freestyling “Fuck J. Cole” over a trap beat. One can almost hear Cole wheeze, “back in my day…” as he raps, “I’m fuckin’ with your funky lil rap name / I hear your music and I know that rap’s changed / A bunch of folks would say that that’s a bad thing / ’Cause everything’s commercial and it’s pop now / Trap drums is the shit that’s hot now.” The dig at pop trap and SoundCloud rap is particularly sanctimonious considering the trap influence on the production of several songs on KOD. Nonetheless, bright spots on the album shine through.

Cole’s ruminations on drug addiction are the best tracks of the album. The titular “KOD” and “Motiv8” pair narratives about the drug trade, violence, and the pressures of growing up in a low-income environment with energetic beats featuring heavy 808s and claps. The more melodic and lyrical “Once An Addict—Interlude” and “FRIENDS” feature Cole at his rawest. In the former, Cole opens up about dealing with his mother’s alcoholism and emotional dependence. In the latter, he confesses his own struggles with drug use before addressing his friends, urging them to get clean.

J. Cole P&D

KOD is listenable and perhaps even enjoyable, but like his last album, 4 Your Eyez Only, it’s nothing special. The redeeming tracks are good, but they aren’t the instant classics of Born Sinner or 2014 Forest Hills Drive. The title of KOD’s final track, “1985—Intro to ‘The Fall Off,’” has been taken by some as foreshadowing Cole’s next album, speculated to be called The Fall Off. With two consecutive disappointing albums in the last two years, fans should hope it doesn’t also foreshadow Cole’s career.

Critical Voices:

Bishop Briggs, Church of Scars Provocative and resounding, Bishop Briggs’ Church of Scars comes with refreshing verve in every track, as highenergy, magnetic bass lines amplify Briggs’ powerful vocals.

The rising indie artist released her debut album on April 20, after recording her first single three years ago and climbing the charts over time with hit singles such as “River.” While Church of Scars is mainly a collection of previously released singles, its charm comes from Briggs’ compelling sound, which fuses elements of rock with electric pop rhythms. The dark undertone of the album gives it a hard edge and will undoubtedly distinguish it from other recent pop albums.

British singer-songwriter Sarah Grace McLaughlin adopted the stage name “Bishop Briggs” in 2016, inspired by the name of her family’s hometown, Bishopbriggs, Scotland.

From a feature in an Acura commercial to a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and, later, a tour with Coldplay, Briggs has come a long way in just a few years. With the release of Church of Scars, she is at a crucial turning point in her musical career.

Each song on the album has its own unique sound that falls somewhere on the spectrum between mellow electro pop and rock-based trip-pop. Older, spirited tracks like “Wild Horses” and “Hi-Lo (Hallow)” will be familiar to Briggs’ fans, but newer tracks oscillate between the dreamy and more

By Brynn Furey traditionally pop sounding “Lyin’” and the groovy, soulful “Tempt My Trouble.”

“Hallowed Ground,” a new song which features the album name in the lyric—“My heart is a church of scars”—is by far the most captivating song, layering dark emotional sentiments over a reverberating and explosive chorus. While Briggs weaves religious language throughout the album, it is perhaps most prominent in this song, when she unapologetically stands up for the hallowed ground that houses her insecurities and secrets, showing the value she places on authenticity of self.

Despite the musical nuances that make Church of Scars exciting and original, the album’s greatest faults are its lack of cohesion and trite lyrics. The album is more like a sorting box for Briggs’ popular singles than an artfully crafted collection of her work. It comes across as miscellaneous rather than intentional. Likewise, although the music is upbeat and exhilarating, the lyrics often fall short in originality. Their often dark nature contributes to the overall mood, but in general, there is nothing new about repeating poetic nothings to a catchy chorus.

Bishop Briggs’ Church of Scars might not tell an elaborate story, but it’s a perfect album to put on shuffle and blast at full volume. The powerful combination of deep bass,

Teleport Records/ Island Records

invigorating chords, and Briggs’ dark, robust voice creates a palpable energy that highlights her bold attitude. While Briggs continues to find her place in the contemporary music sphere, her strong, daring persona will let the world know that she is not backing down. As she sings in “White Flag,” she would rather die than give up the fight.

3207 O St. NW | 202-338-2478

Open until 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday GoCards accepted!

Happy Georgetown Day! from the Voice

MARGAUX FONTAINE