GEORGETOWN’S PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH MUST PRIORITIZE TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY By the Editorial Board
features
4 voices Dear Georgetown admissions, SYDNEY CARROLL
5 voices D.C.’s Shia: The seeds of restaurant worker organizing
EVALYN LEE
6 leisure
A Complete Unknown is not really that unknown, but it is very impressive
RHEA BANERJEE
7 halftime leisure
From donutgate to Hamilton, 10 things turning 10 in 2025
HALFTIME LEISURE
10 sports
A look back on Georgetown’s fall athletics season
ANDREW SWANK
12
news
RFK stadium is back in the District’s hands. Local leaders are divided over how to use it.
KATIE DORAN AND SAMANTHA MONTEIRO
January 17, 2025 Volume 57 | Issue 9 on the cover
“Winter
Regents” PAUL KANG
13
halftime sports Voice Sports predicts Super Bowl LIX
HALFTIME SPORTS
14
editorials Georgetown’s presidential search must prioritize trust and transparency
EDITORIAL BOARD
“...The next president must demonstrate more than savvy diplomacy and an ability to raise money—they must have the moral clarity to defend Georgetown’s values, even when peer institutions won’t.”
Editor-in-Chief — Connor Martin
Managing Editor — Eddy Binford-Ross
internal resources:
Exec. Manager for Staff — Tina Solki
Exec. Editor for Resources, Diversity, and Inclusion — Ajani Jones
Asst. Editor for Resources, Diversity, and Inclusion — Imani Liburd
Editor for Sexual Violence Advocacy, Prevention, and Coverage — Franziska Wild Social Chairs — Apara Chandavarkar, Samantha Monteiro Service Chair — Katherine Wilkison Archivist — Elle Marinello
news:
Executive Editor — Samantha Monteiro Features Editor — Sydney Carroll Asst. Features Editor — Chih-Rong Kuo News Editor — Katie Doran Asst. News Editors — Sophie St. Amand, Aubrey Butterfield, Katherine Wilkison
Staff Contributors: Leah Abraham, Meriam Ahmad, Paige Benish, Carolina Bomeny, Elspeth Campbell, Mariela Cruz, Thomas Fischbeck, Elizabeth Foster, Katie Han, Rina Khoury, Rory Myers, Christina Pan, Belinda Li, Aidan Munroe, Nicholas Romero, Isabella Stratta, Brendan Teehan, Catalin Wong
Thank you Hoya Game Day and Wingo’s for supporting this issue!
Dear readers...
Hello. My name is Connor, and if we haven’t met yet, I am the editor of this silly paper. During my freshman fall semester, my official Voice buddy Annemarie wrote in her first letter from the editor, “The Voice believes that all journalism should be community journalism.” Three years later, our mission cannot be more essential. On Monday, Donald Trump becomes U.S. President, and his regime will deepen pre-existing scars in this nation and further deteriorate a system that already fails to protect its most vulnerable.
The Voice’s greatest resource is our coverage—we pledge to spotlight injustices in our community and never defer to those in power. We believe that a newspaper should be the conscience of the community, one guided by empathetic, considerate, and trauma-informed reporting.
Our commitment means I would love to hear from you all; your ideas, your feedback, what you hope to see covered, and where we are falling short. Please reach out to me (editor@ georgetownvoice.com) at any time with complaints, concerns, pitches, or thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
A Complete Unknown is not really that unknown, but it is very impressive
BY RHEA BANERJEE
GRAPHICS BY JENNY SU; LAYOUT BY LUCY MONTALTI
It’s generally advised to approach relationships and careers with a teaspoon of caution. However, Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) throws caution to the wind in Hollywood’s most recent biopic, A Complete Unknown (2024), which approaches stages of the star’s life with an effervescent, reverberating ambition.
Named after a line in one of Dylan’s most famous songs, “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965), the film quietly entered theaters on Christmas Day, with audiences initially watching either due to their love for Dylan or for Chalamet—hardly both. Yet, it seems that older and younger generations have found something new to bond over. While the film follows Dylan’s explosion into stardom in the 1960s, it is creating a mirrored phenomenon today: resurgence of Dylan-mania is at an alltime high, largely due to the visibility this film is garnering.
Panning out with Dylan arriving in New York City in 1961, the film starts slow, introducing key characters one shot at a time. Chalamet plays a coy, unknown Dylan who meets his hero Woody Guthrie (Scott McNairy), a legend in American folk music. The blend of music and plot creates a beautiful scene with Chalamet’s rendition of Dylan’s musicality—a surprisingly impressive one at that. His grit and passion truly shine in his vocal aptitude and ability to mimic Dylan’s slurring tone of speech, speaking to the five years he spent preparing for the role. Chalamet had picked up the guitar for one of his more iconic performances in Call Me By Your Name (2017), but has since put much effort into fine-tuning his singing prowess and playing the harmonica—both of which shine in his covers of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (1965) and “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963).
One understated moment of the film is its portrayal of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962: a box television playing presidential speeches and warnings in black and white underscores the crescendoing anxiety of those in Greenwich Village seeking comfort in the face of imminent death. Dylan’s winding, yet unyielding, “Masters of War” ultimately breaks the panic, culminating in quite the cinematographic progression when Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) falls into his bed. They wake the next morning to alerts of safety,
though Dylan’s relationship with Baez, as well as with his girlfriend, Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), have both completely changed.
Much like Chalamet’s portrayal of Dylan, Barbaro’s depiction of Baez is equally stunning, with a stellar introduction onstage at Gerde’s Folk City, where she delivered a bone-chilling rendition of “The House of the Rising Sun.” Assertive and confident in her ability as a musician, Barbaro illustrated Baez as someone who understands what she fights for: a woman with determination and conviction. Although Dylan’s affair with
performance highlighted how Dylan wore his fame; as he fought to make himself known, she was slowly left behind to bleed into the background. Unable to bear Dylan’s unmistakable chemistry with Baez, Russo wishes him goodbye for the last time, quoting Bette Davis’s iconic line from Now, Voyager (1942): “Don’t ask for the moon. We have the stars.”
Apart from the movie’s extraordinary characterizations, A Complete Unknown treats advocacy and social justice with a sense of wishy-washiness, alternating between subtle
From donutgate to Hamilton, 10 things turning 10 in 2025
BY HALFTIME LEISURE
GRAPHICS BY ELYSE VAN HOUTEN; LAYOUT BY TINA SOLKI
1
Badlands by Halsey
Even though it was the 2014 Tumblr aesthetic that made a resurgence at the start of this decade, nothing could beat the iconic era that was the following year, when Halsey dropped her debut studio album Badlands. You just had to be there. Inventing cursive singing and injecting pastels into the black-and-white soft grunge lookbooks of the 2010s was no easy feat, but Halsey did it, no sweat. The internet was truly never the same—why did I see a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ship edit set to “Colors?” Her impact, indeed.
— Sagun Shrestha
2
An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success
Before Olivia Rodrigo was SOUR, she was sweet. You may think of O-Rod as one of the breakout stars of the 2020s, but OG fans remember her decade-old debut in American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success. In this (phenomenal) movie, Grace Thomas travels to Paris, masters French pâtisserie, wins MasterChef Junior, and saves her grandparents’ bakery—quite the impressive resume. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be as accomplished as a nine-year-old in an American Girl Doll movie. Sorry! (Or as the French say, désolé!)
— Lucy Montalti
3
25 by Adele
“Hello, it’s me,” said the album marking Adele’s highly anticipated and powerful return to the music industry. Even if you were just a middle schooler melodramatically belting about heartbreak (aka me), 25 unified us through a melancholic image of intimacy and youth and a nostalgic visualization of motherhood—something we clearly ate up, and still do. New electronic elements and rhythmic patterns certified the Grammy winner’s esteem. Listed as one of the Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone, Adele’s work is unforgettable.
— Rhea Banerjee
4
To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
Before Kendrick Lamar had us emphatically telling “bitches” to “be humble” or chanting “WOP WOP WOP WOP WOP” to Drake’s downfall, it was To Pimp a Butterfly that brought the rapper onto pop culture’s central stage. Audaciously ingenious, the album has not only sold over a million copies in the U.S. and won five Grammys, but delivers an important message about systemic racism, capturing a striking picture of what it means to be Black in America. Still as relevant as ever, we can only hope to be “Alright.”
— Kristy Li
5
Hamilton
Whether you were feverishly trying to memorize the lyrics of “Guns and Ships” or rolling your eyes as theater kids broke out into another unprompted performance of “My Shot,” no one escaped the cultural phenomenon that is Hamilton. The musical’s legacy (“What is a legacy?”) certainly lives on through the widely-acclaimed genius of this hip-hop-inspired retelling of the American Founding Fathers. “Hamilfan” or not, there’s no doubt that this Lin-Manuel Miranda brainchild was revolutionary, addressing timeless themes of ambition, advocacy, and rebellion while bringing the past alive through the art of the present.
— Elizabeth Adler
6
Cinderella
Disney’s 2015 adaptation of Cinderella was not the studio’s first stab at “reimagining” its classic catalogue as live-action. On its own, Cinderella was pretty good—by some standards. What this film did right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it), was show Disney that live-action remakes are a formula to sell big. For audiences, 2015 Cinderella retroactively doomed us to a decade of glaringly mediocre remakes (with some outliers) that have little creative merit and serve no greater purpose than keeping the money rolling in—and for that, her legacy is bittersweet.
— Ajani Jones
Donutgate
Before she was a seldomly-disputed vocalist of the generation, Ariana Grande was the untamed 22-year-old caught on CCTV licking a donut in a mom-and-pop bakery. Besides being a gross violation of health code, Grande’s unauthorized tasting was also cause for political unrest—her postpastry-violation proclamation that she hated America convinced Republican parents across the country that the young star was a devout Communist. These statements were later retracted by Grande on Good Morning America, as she sat beside a comically large bottle of her beloved fragrance, Ari. — Karcin Hagi
8
The Creation of James Charles’s YouTube Channel
Coinciding with other monumental gay moments of 2015 (cough, cough samesex marriage), make-up guru James Charles created his now iconic YouTube channel on Dec. 1, 2015. The young artist would become a major face of the beauty industry with the release of his Morphe palette and clothing line. From the crazy crossover that was the Sister Squad, to the Vitamin Civil War of our middle school years—Dramageddon, may we get another like it soon—this controversial influencer’s rise was one-of-a-kind.
— Aubrey Butterfield
9
Glee’s Final Episode
The sun may have set on Glee, but the age of gleeks never ends. A decade later, fans are craving a reboot. What’s not to miss? It’s a musical comedy about a high school show choir featuring the creepy Will Schuester, the filterless Santana Lopez, and the relentlessly competitive Rachel Berry, who sent a fellow classmate to a crack house. But hey, at least it wasn’t an active crackhouse. The show also had its musical accolades, with the original members’ cover of “Don’t Stop Believing” reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009.
— Aaron Pollock
10
Rocket League
Rocket League had a monumental takeoff, and its consistent drive over the years explains our shock that it turns 10 this year. From a simple game of rocketpowered cars playing soccer, Psyonix fueled Rocket League’s relevance today with the creation of esports leagues (including at Georgetown!) and an explosion of new modes like ranked play. Famous content creators like SunlessKhan also helped cement Rocket League as evergreen. While Rocket League had moments of stagnation, the game will likely remain pertinent for the foreseeable future.
— Bradshaw Cate
A look back on Georgetown’s fall athletics season
BY ANDREW SWANK GRAPHICS BY KATIE SNYDER; LAYOUT BY LUCY MONTALTI
As the spring semester begins, the Voice looks back on the highlights and lowlights from all the active fall sports last semester. Nine women’s teams and eight men’s teams competed for Georgetown over 10 different disciplines in the busiest season for Hoya sports, providing plenty of inspiring, or, at minimum, entertaining storylines.
Cross Country
Georgetown’s men’s and women’s cross country teams had a strong 2024 season, capped off by competing at the NCAA Championships in November. Georgetown women’s cross country team won their fifth consecutive BIG EAST Championship, led by senior Chloe Scrimgeour, who placed third overall. Graduate student Abel Teffra led the men’s cross country team to third place in the BIG EAST after he finished in ninth place among individual competitors. The season culminated at the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wisconsin. The women’s team placed ninth, and the men’s team ended up 23rd, with Scrimgeour and Teffra again leading the way for the Hoyas. On the individual and team level, Georgetown cross country excelled this fall season.
Field Hockey
Georgetown field hockey experienced another difficult season, ending in a 3-14 (1-6 BIG EAST) record. Although a threewin season was an improvement from last year’s 1-17 (0-7 BIG EAST) record, field hockey still struggled to compete, especially against BIG EAST opponents.
Senior midfielder/forward Sophie Towne and freshman midfielder Colleen Maloney led the way for Georgetown on offense with three goals each on the season. One of the season highlights
was Georgetown’s sole BIG EAST win over Quinnipiac (2-17, 0-7 BIG EAST). Sophomore midfielder/forward Elena Perez Alejandro scored a game-winning goal in overtime, giving the Hoyas the come-from-behind victory.
The Hoyas had a significant change this year, playing at a new home field. Last year, Georgetown hosted their home games at Towson University in Towson, Maryland—64 miles away from the Hilltop and further than any other Division I school’s home venue. This year, though, Hoya home games returned to the University of Maryland Field Hockey Complex in College Park, Maryland, where Georgetown field hockey played in 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2013. College Park is just 17 miles from Georgetown’s campus, a significantly shorter distance than last year.
Football
In some ways, this season was déjà vu for Georgetown football. The Hoyas finished 5-6 and ended up in fourth place in the Patriot League for the second year in a row, albeit with one less conference win than in 2023. This season especially stung, as the Hoyas had a 5-3 record with three games left to play, needing just one more win to achieve their first winning season since 2011. Still, another five-win season equals head coach Rob Sgarlata’s best win total since he took over the program in 2014. However, Sgarlata has recorded four 5-6 seasons in the past six years, a consistent mediocrity sufficient for some but frustrating for others.
For a program that hasn’t had a winning season since the 2011 run, this year featured some stellar moments. The Hoyas defeated Columbia (7-3, 5-2 Ivy League) 20-17 in an upset victory at Cooper Field. Junior wide receiver Jimmy Kibble stood out on the Hoyas’ offense, averaging 72 yards per game
However, the Hoyas too often struggled to stop the run. Georgetown allowed more rushing yards than passing yards; the only team in the Patriot League to do so. In games against Lehigh (5-1, 9-4 Patriot League) and Colgate (2-10, 1-5 Patriot League), Georgetown allowed 310 yards and 272 yards on the ground, respectively the highest and third-highest rushing performances in a Patriot League game all season. With crucial players like Kibble and Daniel returning next season, the Hoyas are poised for a big 2025 season if they can address some of their rushing woes.
Men’s Golf
Georgetown men’s golf will be entering 2025 with momentum after peaking right at the end of the fall season. The Hoyas started the season with a thirdplace finish (out of 12 teams) at the USF/ Howard Intercollegiate. The Hoyas faltered a bit in their next two competitions before regaining their momentum at the Georgetown Intercollegiate, yet again finishing third place (out of 12). Then, everything finally clicked for the Hoyas at the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate, winning first place thanks to strong performances across the board.
Sophomore Barnes Blake led the way for the Hoyas at the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate with 13 birdies to finish -under-par. Blake finished fourth place overall, his best career leaderboard placement. Freshman CJ Winchenbaugh shone for the Hoyas all season, consistently placing high on the leaderboards. Men’s golf will resume play later this semester on March 10 at the Donald Ross Collegiate.
Women’s Golf
Georgetown women’s golf had a difficult start to the season, finishing last at the Cougar Classic and tied for eighth (out of
12 teams) at the Cavalier Regional Preview. However, the Hoyas had an impressive second half of the season, ending up with two podium finishes—second at the Princeton Invitational and third at the Blue Hen Invitational.
Graduate student Megan Gormley and senior Georgia Ruffolo put in impressive performances this year, often ending up as the top two finishers for Georgetown. Gormly was named BIG EAST Female Golfer of the Week after the Cougar Classic, where she recorded the Hoyas’ best score. Ruffolo also won BIG EAST Female Golfer of the Week after her play at the Big Hen Invitational. She shot fourunder over the invitational’s three rounds, finishing second overall. Georgetown women’s golf returns to action on Feb. 2 at the Therese Hession Challenge in Palos Verdes, California.
Men’s
Rowing
Georgetown men’s rowing started the season with the Navy Day Regatta, where three boats competed in the 8+ category, for racing shells with eight rowers. The Hoyas’ best boat finished third overall out of 26. Next, Georgetown competed at the Head of the Charles, the largest three-day regatta in the world. There, Georgetown’s Lightweight Eight A boat placed sixth out of 13 competitors. The final competition of the fall semester was the Princeton Chase, where Georgetown’s Lightweight A finished in fourth place, and the Heavyweight A boat secured fifth place, capping off the fall competition season.
Women’s Rowing
Georgetown women’s rowing also began their season at the Navy Day Regatta, competing in the 4+ and 8+ divisions. Georgetown had boats finish in third place in both divisions for a strong start to the season. The women’s team also competed at the Head of the Charles, and the Lightweight 8+ boat led the way with a fifth-place finish out of eight boats. Finally, the Hoyas swept the Head of the Occoquan
Regatta with first-place finishes in all the varsity and JV divisions.
Sailing
Georgetown’s sailing team had an outstanding start to the fall season, with seven first-place finishes in their first eight competitions. The highlight of this run happened at Cornell, where the Hoyas comfortably won both the Women’s and Coed regattas, with four of Georgetown’s boats winning their divisions. Senior Piper Holthus and freshman crew Scarlett Harris dominated the Women’s A division on their way to an emphatic 36-point victory. Seniors Mateo Di Blasi and Caro Gaston had an even more dominant 40-point victory in the coed A division.
The Hoyas finished second in the MAISA Women’s Conference Championship Regatta, falling short of the champions Cornell. At the ICSA Open Singlehanded Nationals, sophomore Peter Barnard finished sixth in the country, and junior Benjamin Smith took 12th place. On the women’s side, Holthus earned 12th place at the ICSA Open Singlehanded Nationals, capping off a successful fall semester.
Men’s Soccer
As one of Georgetown’s most successful sports programs, Hoya fans have high expectations for Georgetown men’s soccer every season. This year, the Hoyas ended up 11-5-5 (5-2-1 BIG EAST) and secured the program’s sixth BIG EAST Championship, earning the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoyas were poised to make a deep NCAA Tournament run and compete for their first National Championship since 2019. Unfortunately, Georgetown fell in their first NCAA Tournament game for the second year in a row, losing to a much lower-seeded team. This time, NC State (10-5-5, 3-3-2 ACC) handed Georgetown a 2-0 loss on Shaw Field to end the Hoyas’ season prematurely.
Sophomore midfielder Matthew Van Horn was Georgetown’s top scorer on the season, with six goals and three assists. However, Georgetown’s defense impressed the most, allowing just 0.81 goals per game, the 10th best in the nation by that metric. Senior defender Maximus Jennings and junior goalkeeper Tenzing Manske deserve tremendous credit for the team’s defensive strength this fall.
Women’s Soccer
Women’s soccer (13-2-7, 8-1-1 BIG EAST) stands as another of the most successful programs at Georgetown, always contending for conference titles and competing in national tournaments. The Hoyas had an impressive record in the regular season, winning the BIG EAST
regular season title for the third year in a row. However, Georgetown lost unexpectedly to UConn in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals, failing to win the conference title for the first time since 2019. In postseason play, the Hoyas dominated Fairfield (18-21, 10-1-1 MAAC) 3-0, setting up a matchup against the Iowa Hawkeyes (15-3-4, 8-2-1 Big Ten) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa won 1-0 in a hard-fought match, ending Georgetown’s season.
Georgetown usually prides itself as a tough defensive team, but this year’s squad was exceptionally strong at the back. The Hoyas had the third-lowest amount of goals allowed per game in the NCAA, 0.476. It almost sounds made up, but they gave up fewer than a goal every two games. Georgetown’s goalkeepers— junior Cara Martin and graduate student Anna Karpenko—both saved more than 80 percent of the shots they faced.
One area for improvement from last season was goalscoring, particularly in key moments. The Hoyas improved greatly on their goals per game number from last year, thanks in large part to the efforts of senior Maja Lardner, who tallied 11 goals and seven assists this season.
Volleyball
Georgetown volleyball (11-19, 4-14 BIG EAST) started the season strong at their first few invitational tournaments, going undefeated at the Maryland Invitational and the DC Showdown on the way to a 7-5 non-conference record. However, BIG EAST play would prove to be more difficult for the Hoyas. Georgetown lost 14 conference games, only recording four wins against BIG EAST opponents. They still ended the season on a high note, with a straight-sets victory over Butler on Senior Night.
Freshman outside hitter Dionna Mitchell led the Hoyas in kills and service aces during her first season on the Hilltop. Mitchell ended up with 356 kills and 26 aces on her way to a unanimous selection to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. Mitchell’s contributions will be important for the team’s future as Georgetown looks for its first winning season since 2018. G
RFK stadium is back in the District’s hands.
Local
leaders are divided over how to use it.
BY KATIE DORAN AND SAMANTHA MONTEIRO DESIGN BY RYAN GOODWIN
The Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) campus, a 174-acre plot of land along the Anacostia riverbank, hosts green space, a skate park, and a football stadium that hasn’t seen a game in years.
That may change soon.
On Jan. 6, President Joe Biden signed the RFK Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act, transferring administrative control over the campus to the D.C. government for 99 years, though the federal government retains ownership. The transfer has sparked debate over how to use the land: a new stadium, housing, retail or recreational space, or some combination of these options.
“It is a good day for DC when we finally have control of our own destiny at the RFK campus,” Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote in a press release. “We are ready and optimistic about unlocking the full potential of this space, and with more than 170 acres of land we can do it all—deliver housing, economic opportunity, green space, recreation, sports, and more.”
The city is now set to decide the future of the site, which is in Ward 7, though the Act requires reserving at least 30% of the land for park space.
One potential plan that has been met with significant controversy is building an NFL stadium for the Washington Commanders on the campus. The Commanders currently play at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, but their lease expires in 2027. From 1961 to 1996, the Commanders played at RFK Stadium. Since then, the stadium has fallen into disrepair and is scheduled for demolition. Now, the team is looking at locations in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Bowser and Josh Harris, managing partner of the Commanders, are developing a finance plan for the location, but any plan that uses local tax dollars must be approved by
the D.C. Council. The Act prohibits federal funding for a new stadium.
The cost of developing the RFK campus or building a new stadium is still unclear. Previous stadium projects have been expensive—the District covered the entire cost of Nationals Park at nearly $700 million and invested $150 million in Audi Field. While D.C. would most likely finance part of the Commanders’ stadium, it could still cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Some local leaders are concerned that a football stadium will negatively impact residents, pulling land and resources away from residential and commercial development.
“NFL stadiums are notoriously bad economic drivers,” Ebony Payne, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner 7D05, who represents the nearby Kingman Park neighborhood, wrote to the Voice. “Empty parking lots equate to lost opportunities for economic development.”
An NFL stadium is used 12.5 times a year on average, including entertainment and games.
A stadium and its accompanying parking—the average NFL stadium has at least 20,000 parking spots—could easily fill the RFK campus, though underground parking or public transportation would reduce the land needed.
District residents are split over the stadium question. According to a poll by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, 39% of voters are in favor, while 55% of voters believe that the land should be used primarily for “housing and neighborhood amenities.”
“The Council must understand that the vast majority of the residents who live here do not want to live next to an NFL stadium, so using DC taxpayer dollars in pursuit of this project only adds insult to injury,” Payne wrote.
Some local advocates worry that the NFL won’t prioritize local concerns if the land is put toward a new stadium.
wrote to the Voice. “If the NFL is the main focus, the mayor’s claim that we can meet both NFL needs and community needs is not believable.”
Some D.C. leaders hope that the Council will prioritize developing affordable housing and other community spaces on the RFK campus.
“I do think it is very important that we use that land to build a lot of housing and affordable housing because D.C. is facing a housing crisis,” Ankit Jain, one of D.C.’s two shadow senators—non-voting representatives who lobby Congress for D.C.’s interests—said. “This is the last large, undeveloped plot of land in D.C.”
Some have expressed fears that building a new neighborhood on the RFK campus, particularly if it includes a stadium, will fuel gentrification in D.C., but Jain emphasized that affordable housing at the site could combat displacement. More than 80,000 residents in D.C. do not have stable housing, an issue fueled by the lack of available, affordable units in the city.
“The main reason people get displaced out of D.C. is because it’s just so expensive to live here,” Jain said. “Building new affordable housing at this site is, I think, actually going to be one of the best ways we can reduce displacement in the city.”
Payne also urged the District to work directly with community members.
“There should be a meaningful effort to engage with the community on what uses we want to see here,” Payne wrote.
The original RFK Stadium is set to be demolished starting in late January, but beyond that, the fate of the RFK campus remains unknown. Still, local leaders expressed optimism over the possibilities it creates.
“The NFL is a mega-corporation and they want RFK to be developed in a way to maximize their profits,” Ed Lazere, a member of the No Billionaire’s Playground Coalition, which opposes a new NFL stadium,
“It’s for the Council to decide exactly how the site is used, but I do think there’s a lot of opportunities to create a great new neighborhood in D.C.,” Jain said. G
VoiceSports predicts Super Bowl LIX
BY HALFTIME SPORTS
DESIGN BY ELLE MARINELLO
Bradshaw “Will keep picking the Chiefs until I’m wrong” Cate
Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Detroit Lions
I have been right two years in a row. At this point, I should be on ESPN or on my way to Vegas. So, here’s my pick: the Kansas City Chiefs are going to win the Super Bowl. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes will do what Bill Belichick and Tom Brady never could: win three in a row.
The Chiefs’ offense has been nothing special this season, with Mahomes having his lowest adjusted yards per pass attempt and highest sack rate since becoming a full starter. In addition, their wide receivers and running backs have battled injuries throughout 2024, preventing the team from finding a real rhythm. However, the Chiefs’ defense has stepped up. During the regular season, Kansas City has held playoff opponents to 18 points per game (excluding Week 18), going 7-1 against those teams. Expect more stifling defense, especially with an extra week of rest, that will cement the Chiefs in the annals of history.
Henry “The Chicago Bears have been eliminated from playoff contention” Skarecky
Baltimore Ravens defeat the Philadelphia Eagles
As the only author of this article without a rooting interest in these playoffs, I am here to provide an unbiased take on what will unfold. The story out of the AFC is the No. 1 Kansas City Chiefs’ ability to squeak out close wins for almost all of their 15 victories this season, including some that required incredible amounts of luck to pull off. While I believe it requires a well-disciplined team to consistently win, no matter the margin of victory, I don’t think the Chiefs will string together three squeakers against playoff teams for a Super Bowl victory. As for the NFC, the No. 1 Lions have been unstoppable nearly the entire season, but I think the playoff lights will once again be too bright for Detroit. The Philadelphia Eagles will instead be the team to scrape into the Super Bowl, where they will fall to MVP favorite Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens.
Ben “You wish your team was as cool as the Lions” Jakabcsin
Detroit Lions defeat the Baltimore Ravens
Andrew “Indiana Lions fan” Swank
Detroit Lions defeat the Buffalo Bills
As a loyal Lions fan, I am overjoyed that the team is good now. My family tradition of watching the Lions lose on Thanksgiving ended this year when Detroit won their first game on the holiday since 2016. Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson has the team’s offense firing on all cylinders—so much so that he is a prime candidate for teams looking for a new head coach. Pair that with one of the top defensive units in the NFL, and you have a recipe for the Lions’ first-ever Super Bowl title. I predict Detroit will avenge their earlier loss to Buffalo and finally win it all.
Sydney “I came all the way from Features to share the gospel of Josh Allen” Carroll Buffalo Bills defeat the Detroit Lions
I couldn’t tell you the first time I cried over the Buffalo Bills, but I could probably name at least 20 places where I’ve cried over the Buffalo Bills. This year, though, by the grace of God, I will only shed happy tears. I hate to jinx it (we’re a superstitious bunch), but this Bills team feels different.
In the NFC, two teams stand clearly above the rest (Lions, Eagles). The only question is when they will play each other and who plays who first. After a 15-2 regular season with a leaguebest point differential of +222, the Lions have established themselves as the best team in the NFL.
The AFC remains trickier because I don’t think the two-time defending champs are good enough to do it again. The Detroit Lions averaged 33 points per game as the league’s best offense, and the Chiefs have not scored 33 or more points in a game all season…the Lions’ average night would be a banner day for 2024–25 Patrick Mahomes. The Ravens have had the NFL’s hardest strength of schedule by far and come into these playoffs battle-tested and battle-proven…and they have the best player in football, too.
As for the Super Bowl? Give me my home state and the object of my fandom, the Detroit Lions. Bite their kneecaps and all that.
Don’t get me wrong, the Bills’ path to victory will be difficult: the AFC divisional round may very well decide the MVP race between Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, and the Ravens are one of only three teams that legitimately beat the Bills. I see us then facing the Chiefs, which worries me because we lack a strong secondary after selling our soul for more cap space in the offseason. For the Super Bowl, the Lions have been a behemoth as Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson put the team into overdrive.
Despite those concerns, just imagine the story. A team that has never won a Super Bowl, has a quarterback playing with a broken hand, and a fanbase who was told countless times “the window is closed.” We are a fanbase that jumps through tables, shovels snow to prepare Highmark Stadium for games, and raises millions of dollars for charity at the drop of a hat. We have been given the first glimmer of hope since the Jim Kelly era through a zero-star recruit raised in Firebaugh, California who found his way to Wyoming, and eventually home to Buffalo.
Sounds pretty unbelievable, right? Or perhaps, just Bill-ievable enough.
For the first time in 23 years, Georgetown is on the hunt for a new president. After suffering a stroke in June, John DeGioia announced he would step down from his role as Georgetown’s 48th president on Nov. 21. DeGioia’s departure, coupled with a slew of other senior administrator exits, presents an opportunity for structural change across the university to better meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff.
The next president must demonstrate greater responsiveness to student concerns and protect the university from the drastic threats of Trump’s second term, including mass deportations and the shuttering of the Department of Education. The new president must prioritize serving current student needs—from properly staffing resource centers to creating equitable admissions policies—instead of growing the university’s global influence at the expense of its students.
President Emeritus DeGioia was Georgetown’s longest-serving president, and his departure comes amid the exits of Rosario (Rosie) Ceballo, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Maria Cancian, dean of the McCourt School, and William M. Treanor, executive vice president and dean of the Law Center. This is a critical moment to reform the hiring processes for administrators, increase transparency in administrative decision-making, and ensure Georgetown meets the needs of its community. This starts with ensuring student voices are heard and valued.
The newly appointed selection committee must find a president capable of balancing conflicting interests. While Georgetown’s president reports to the Board—itself an insular and opaque institution—they must also balance the needs of students with demands from parents, faculty, and external critics. The next president must be able to create and fulfill a positive vision for the university, centered on student well-being, financial access, equitable admissions, and academic independence. This editorial outlines how the university can prioritize the community’s voices, protect community members amid leadership changes, emphasize transparent spending and fundraising, and ensure student needs are met under Georgetown’s next president.
Voices of the community
Until the Board of Directors selects a president, which it intends to do before July 1, 2026, interim president and former provost Robert Groves will lead the university. While we do not expect Groves to revolutionize the university in the next year and a half, we must hold him to the standard that his title assumes.
The university must establish a process to hear community stakeholders as it looks for a new president. On Jan. 10, Georgetown released an update on the presidential search, emphasizing that there will be multiple opportunities for community input, including listening sessions. As these sessions start, it is critical that the search committee, which includes members of the Board of Directors, allows the community to have a voice during their meetings—and that it takes their concerns seriously through policy change.
The Board of Directors tends to be secretive about decisions and are detached from what is happening in the Georgetown community. The most tangible step the university must take to address student concerns is to add a student member with the same voting power as other directors on the Board. Despite symbolically representing the voice of the student body, the Georgetown University Student Association president cannot vote during Board of Directors meetings. Giving a student full voting power would provide direct student input on the decisions that affect us.
This would continue Georgetown’s history of breaking tradition during its presidential search. In 2001, the Georgetown Board of Directors planned to elect a Jesuit to run the university; however, the Board’s final decision to appoint DeGioia broke with national precedent to choose the first layperson to run any of the 28 Jesuit colleges in the country. When he became president, DeGioia’s main priorities included the promotion of access and belonging through financial aid, advancing academic excellence, and engaging Georgetown’s Catholic and Jesuit identity.
The next president will need to sustain Georgetown’s commitment to need-blind financial aid, adequately staff student resource centers and support mechanisms, back up the university’s living wage policy with salaries and benefits that are actually liveable for campus workers, and protect communities under threat as our government openly embraces white supremacy. We believe that this is only possible if students are granted voting power for administrative decisions, through a seat on the Board of Directors of the university they attend.
Protecting the community amid leadership changes
When DeGioia assumed the presidency in October 2001, weeks after the events of 9/11, he emphasized that Georgetown must “engage reality at the deepest levels of our being.” Twenty-three years later, the selection of our next president arrives at another moment of institutional vulnerability. This fall, the university faces renewed external pressure from a returning Trump administration. The
while some university presidents agreed to negotiate with student groups, others grossly mismanaged the situation. After Columbia University students occupied a university building to demand divestment from companies supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, President Minouche Shafik requested New York police in riot gear remove all
Republican states have already begun to eliminate their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. Over a dozen of Georgetown’s peer institutions have quietly issued warnings to their international students to re-enter the country before Jan. 20, rather than risk being denied entry after inauguration. When asked
to comment on active preparations for Trump’s presidency and its effect on the student body, universities have remained conspicuously silent.
The next president inherits a student body that will not be silent in the face of institutional neglect and complicity in genocide. Students will continue to exercise their right to free speech and advocate for divestment from corporations with ties to Israel’s military, protection for international students facing the threat of deportation, and a living wage for dining and facilities workers. These are not distractions from Georgetown’s mission—they are essential to it. And the next president must live up to that mission through policy change.
Fundraising and socially responsible investing
Georgetown’s president directly manages the university’s fundraising efforts. Though Georgetown’s current endowment is smaller than many peer institutions—a result of its Jesuit financial policy— DeGioia aggressively increased philanthropic donations and expanded the endowment during his tenure. While this improved the university’s financial standing, Georgetown has failed to spend its resources with transparency in accordance with institutional goals.
College investment portfolios across the United States, many of which conflict with stated socially responsible investment (SRI) policies, have required university presidents to act as both fundraisers and entrepreneurs. Georgetown is no exception: after students pushed for divestment from fossil fuels, DeGioia presided over a divestment process marred by a lack of transparency. The university’s continued investment in companies with ties to the Israeli military further jeopardizes the legitimacy of its SRI pledge. Community members recently put forward a divestment proposal, and the next president must support it.
Ensuring student needs are met
Georgetown’s mission explicitly states that it is a “student-centered” university. But far too often, Georgetown prioritizes national and international influence, name recognition, and most notably, financial gain above its students.
Georgetown’s prioritization of financial gain above its commitment to equity and justice is epitomized by claims in the class-action lawsuit against Georgetown and peer universities. The suit alleges that DeGioia maintained a “please admit” list for applicants based only on their parents’ donation history. In a December statement to the Voice, Georgetown denied any involvement in price fixing and maintained
its commitment to a need-blind system of determining aid. Yet, the alleged “please admit” list highlights the role Georgetown plays in perpetuating inequity within higher education, prioritizing funding at the expense of a potentially more diverse and qualified student body.
During DeGioia’s tenure, the university has also disproportionately focused on “expansion,” both through the Capitol Campus and satellite campuses worldwide—including the Qatar campus and the newly-announced branch location in Jakarta, Indonesia. A president focused heavily on expansion cannot effectively defend students, as they will tailor their actions to serve Georgetown’s political relationships or donor interests. While these actions bolster the name of the university on a global stage, they leave existing campus fixtures under-resourced. The Capitol Campus, in particular, prioritizes a future student body over the current one, neglecting student concerns on the Hilltop.
The LGBTQ+ Resource Center still operates without full staffing—it took Georgetown two years to hire a new director, however, the associate director position still remains vacant. Lack of gender-inclusive bathrooms and support for gender-affirming care exemplifies the university’s failure to remove barriers to inclusivity. Arts and humanities departments are chronically understaffed and underfunded. The GU272+ reconciliation fund—itself a departure from substantial reparations—largely consists of annual grants to descendant communities totaling $400,000; concerns from descendants and student activists about the allocation of funds have yet to be addressed. Title IX processes remain arduous and unduly challenging for survivors. These failures aren’t abstract, and they aren’t unavoidable— they represent Georgetown’s priorities. Georgetown’s efforts have focused on curating institutional prestige, particularly through proximity to political and financial power, but this cannot substitute support for core student needs.
The Board’s choice between candidates— Jesuit, institutional, or external—matters less than their willingness to confront these realities. The selection of DeGioia, while groundbreaking in transitioning from Jesuit to lay leadership, was justified by his demonstrated commitment to Ignatian values and his capacity to make hard financial decisions. The next president must demonstrate more than savvy diplomacy and an ability to raise money— they must have the moral clarity to defend Georgetown’s values, even when peer institutions won’t. G
