The Hoya: Jan. 31, 2012

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 93, No. 28, © 2012

tuesday, january 31, 2012

SILENT KNIGHTS

The No. 20 Hoyas held No. 11 Rutgers to 36 points in Sunday’s upset victory.

DENEEN Professor Patrick Deneen explains his decision to leave GU in a letter to the editor.

SAFE PROPOSALS All three proposals passed a student body referendum last week. Now what?

SPORTS, A10

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A4

CASH CAB SafeRides will soon be a more exciting way to get around Georgetown.

NEWS, A6

New CSP ANC Blasts Campus Plan in Resolution Admin Chosen Esteban Garcia Hoya Staff Writer

Asst. Director Kathryn Kay leaves as university replaces Bill McCoy Emma Hinchliffe Hoya Staff Writer

Amanda Carlton, an administrator at the University of California, Berkeley, will become the adviser for the Student Activities Commission and associate director of student programs on Feb. 15.

Carlton, who serves as interim director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Student Leadership, will replace Bill McCoy, who left the university in August to become director of the Office of LGBT Awareness at Bucknell University.

While Carlton will fill a position that has been vacant since the beginning of the year, another post in the Center for Student Programs opened last week when Assistant Director of Student Programs Kathryn Kay left to become director of orientation and leadership at the University of Utah.

Kay had also served as the adviser for New Student Orientation, the Lecture Fund and the Graduate Student Organization at Georgetown.

“It’s been a little tough, but everyone’s just working a little harder and giving more of a time commitment to help the office transition,” SAC Chair Jack Appelbaum (COL ’14) said of the CSP personnel changes.

Appelbaum participated in the search process that resulted in Carlton’s hiring.

“We really liked the experience Carlton had dealing with a lot of difficult issues at Berkeley,” he said.

“She impressed us with her knowledge of leadership, funding allocation and a lot of issues that student groups face.”

See CSP, A5

KYLE YOUNG FOR THE HOYA

ANC 2E Commissioners Tom Birch (left) and Jeff Jones (right) formalized their grievances against the 2010 Campus Plan in a document approved Monday.

Youngest Students Blend In, Excel at GU Kelly Church Hoya Staff Writer

Until the beginning of his senior year, few of Armen Avagyan’s (COL ’10) friends knew that he was just 17 years old when he matriculated at Georgetown as a sophomore.

“I liked being younger with nobody else knowing,” he said. “No one had any idea I was younger and everything was fine.”

That all ended at Senior Disorientation, when the then 19-yearold was given a differently colored wristband from his drinking-age friends.

“As soon as people started noticing it was less enjoyable,” he said.

“People … treat you differently.”

A Class Apart Avagyan, who grew up and went to high school in Armenia, moved to the United States when he was

15. Once here, he decided that he wanted to move directly on to college, and an adviser from the University of Maryland helped him to apply to community colleges.

He transferred to Georgetown after spending his first year of college at Montgomery College in Rockville, Md. Avgayan is just one of a small number of students who began attending Georgetown at a youngerthan-traditional age.

Santhia Varatharajah (COL ’14), who finished high school in three years, is about two years younger than most of her classmates.

According to Varatharajah, it was common knowledge among students that there was a 16-year-old freshman in the class of 2014. People would ask her what she thought about it and express their own negative opinions on having someone so See YOUNG, A5

Protesters continue to occupy mcpherson square ... and the news

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E voted 6-1 in favor of a document condemning Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan at its monthly meeting Monday night.

The document was drafted by the Burleith Citizens Association and the Citizens Association of Georgetown, and presented at the ANC’s last meeting before the D.C. Zoning Commission rules on the Campus Plan Feb. 9.

“The Commission finds that the growth in enrollment and the consequent number of student group houses have created objectionable conditions in adjoining communities,” the resolution read.

It went on to assert that the university’s efforts, including implementation of the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program, construction of the Southwest Quad and expanded shuttle service on weekends, have failed to meet

neighbors’ expectations for resolving divisive issues.

“The Commission concludes that the [university] has not met its burden of showing that the proposed Campus Plan is not likely to become objectionable due to noise, traffic, number of students or other objectionable conditions and will not tend to affect adversely the use of neighboring property,” the document read.

The single dissenting vote on the resolution came from Jake Sticka (COL ’13), the sole student representative on the commission. Sticka added that debate over the decision to ratify the document was not contentious because each commissioner’s stance on the issue has long been clear.

“It’s a year now since that initial debate [on the Campus Plan], so at this point it’s not really contentious. It’s something I disagree with the commissioners on,” he said.

See ANC, A5

January Crime Up From Last Year 50 Jan. 2011 40 Jan. 2012 30

20

10

Burglary

Theft

Drugs

Alcohol

Assault

Total

DATA: DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY; REMY SAMUELS/THE HOYA

Crimes in January spiked 71 percent compared to the same month last year, with thefts and burglaries seeing the largest increases.

Burglaries Spike in First Month of 2012 Carly Graf

Hoya Staff Writer

ELIZABETH GARBITELLI/THE HOYA

Occupy D.C. protesters remained in their encampment in McPherson Square Monday past the noon deadline set for their departure by the National Park Service. It remains to be seen whether the camp will be forcibly cleared. See story on A4.

Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947

Published Tuesdays and Fridays

The Department of Public Safety reported 48 crimes this month, a 71 percent increase from the same period last year.

While January 2012 saw fewer crimes than October 2011 and November 2011, the month saw significant spikes in the number of burglaries, thefts, drug violations and overall crime compared to last January, when 28 incidents were reported.

But compared to previous months this school year, reported crimes declined. The total number of crimes dropped from 58 in November, representing a 21 percent decrease, part of which may be due to the fact that dorms were closed for the first 10 days of the month. Data from December is not comparable because campus was closed for the holidays.

Unlike most crimes, burglaries did not decline this month; there were nine burglaries reported in January, compared to three in November.

One of the nine burglaries in-

volved the theft of 50 cartons of cigarettes from a Vital Vittles storeroom Jan. 23. This is the third burglary to take place at the convenience store since Dec. 1, and the case is one of seven incidents this month turned over to the Metropolitan Police Department for investigation.

One of the remaining cases, a Jan. 1 drug violation that did not involve Georgetown students, was closed with an arrest. An incident in which DPS discovered a substance containing methamphetamine in an LXR Hall dorm room Jan. 19 is still being investigated by MPD. One case of disorderly conduct, in which students were accused of violating D.C.’s noise ordinance, resulted only in a warning to the subjects, while another case, in which students were found to be uncivil toward GERMS staff, was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

The 23 remaining cases are still pending investigation.

Hoya Staff Writer Hiromi Oka contributed to this report.

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

tuesDAY, January 31, 2012

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Bidding the Hilltop Farewell

Founded January 14, 1920

To the Editor:

EDITORIALS

Gains by GUSA: SAFE Reform and Beyond Last week, we were thrilled when students took the final step in the year-long process of Student Activities Fee Endowment reform by voting in favor of all three proposals.

Georgetown University Student Association President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Vice President Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) should be applauded, along with the GUSA senate, for encouraging openness and transparency throughout the year,.

This progress suggests GUSA is ready to take on an expanded role in campus affairs. By increasing voter thresholds for elections and referendum, GUSA can boost its legitimacy in the eyes of both students and administrators, making the case for its inclusion in an even greater range of university decisions.

SAFE reform, which culminated in last week’s referendum, was conducted with admirable professionalism. GUSA held multiple town halls, solicited proposals and whittled them down to three viable options. It is the first time in years that students have had official control over a sizable chunk of university funding.

Just as impressive is the relatively high voter turnout GUSA managed to generate: over 2,500 students voted on each issue, exceeding the 2,000-vote threshold imposed for the referendum. In fact, the vote totals are comparable to the number cast in the student body presidential elections of recent years, which have also experienced growth in turnout.

But this year’s success implies that GUSA can progress further. With a significant portion of the undergraduate body now taking part in student body-wide referenda and elections, it might be time to

reconsider threshold levels. This year, after the 2,000-vote minimum was reached, a proposal needed a simple majority to pass.

In theory, any one of the proposals could have passed with 1,001 “yes” votes, which would represent the support of less than one-seventh of the undergraduate student body.

There is no doubt that last week’s student body vote was valid. More than 85 percent of the votes cast for each proposal were positive, and none of the proposals had more than 350 detractors. But with a precedent of high student turnout now firmly established, it would make sense to give any future referendum even more legitimacy by establishing a “yes” vote threshold rather than a total vote threshold.

We are suggesting a system by which a certain number of votes in favor would be required, perhaps around 1,500, for a referendum to pass. This system would only add to GUSA’s legitimacy, and its recommendation shouldn’t be taken as a criticism of the organization but as a compliment to the work done so far. We believe that GUSA has reached a point where it functions well enough to take on larger university issues that could improve student life even more.

Despite some of the criticisms that GUSA has received over the past few years, there is no denying the success it has attained with this latest SAFE referendum. We are proud to have seen our student body leadership come such a long way, and we look forward to seeing the benefits of the passed proposals. But most importantly, we hope GUSA will be able to sustain and build upon established levels of participation and dialogue with voters in years to come.

Making Gym Fees Work Out Students have the freedom to decide how often they dine at O’Donovan Hall, choosing from a variety of tiered weekly and block plans. But if we can control how often we consume our heart’s desire of Hershey’s ice cream in Leo’s, why can’t we choose how often we burn it off at Yates Field House?

The yearly $348 Yates fee is compulsory for full-time undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of how often — if ever — they use the recreation center. This policy is inflexible and unnecessary; we therefore propose that Yates membership be restructured in a way reminiscent of the model that follows meal plans.

It is understandable that the university would not want to create a disincentive for exercise, but mandatory fees are not the solution. Student gym membership should be optional, just as meal plans are for upperclassmen.

Tiered plans should be implemented to fit student needs, depending on how frequently they go to Yates. As with dining, only a small fraction of students desire carte blanche gym access. In reality, most Yates users go a few times each week, and different plans should be available

to reflect that variability. Block plans, for example, would benefit students whose weekly schedules require more flexibility.

And while Georgetown certainly has its share of gym rats, students who prefer outdoor alternatives like running through the city should not be charged for services they don’t use at the field house. No other building on campus requires an entrance fee, and other recreational programs, such as intramural sports, are purchasable at a student’s discretion.

In addition to the typical equipment and pool access, Yates offers group fitness classes and guest memberships. To make these services more convenient, students who enjoy spinning or yoga should be able to use a form of Flex Dollars toward taking classes at the gym.

Money not spent on programs or classes could be spent at the Yates Pro Shop on anything from university apparel to earplugs for lap swimming.

Leo’s has dining options to match all kinds of diets, and Yates memberships should reflect student preferences as well. A recreation center means different things for everyone, so why are we all paying the same fee?

Connor Gregoire, Editor-in-Chief Upasana Kaku, Executive Editor Suzanne Fonzi, Managing Editor Mariah Byrne, Campus News Editor Sarah Kaplan, City News Editor Pat Curran, Sports Editor Steven Piccione, Guide Editor Katherine Foley, Opinion Editor Chris Bien, Photography Editor Stephen Levy, Online Editor Remy Samuels, Layout Editor Samantha Randazzo, Copy Chief Fiona Hanly, Multimedia Editor Michelle Cassidy, Blog Editor

Contributing Editors Kavya Devarakonda, Kathryn DeVincenzo, Eddie Fearon, Lawson Ferguson, Meagan Kelly, Shakti Nochur, Eamon O’Connor, Michael Palmer, Mairead Reilly, Glenn Russo, Lauren Weber

Matthew Strauss Rita Pearson Braden McDonald Evan Hollander Ashwin Wadekar Victoria Edel Alex Sanchez Bethany Imondi Hanaa Khadraoui Sari Frankel Christie Shely Zoe Bertrand Jessica Natinsky Emory Wellman Nikita Buley Emily Perkins Martin Hussey

Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy City News Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Blog Editor

Editorial Board Katherine Foley, Chair Sidney Chiang, Laura Engshuber, Danny Funt, Alyssa Huberts, Nneka Jackson

It was strange to read the article about my departure from Georgetown for Notre Dame (The Hoya, A1, “Deneen to Leave GU at Semester’s End, Jan. 24). I recognized some of my words, yet I did not recognize myself in them.

I hope I will be allowed a few more words before I leave at least to balance an imbalanced picture.

I will admit that I was nursing some wounded pride at not having been as enthusiastically grasped by Georgetown at the time I was being courted by Notre Dame. Like a spurned lover, I could see only the shortcomings of an old girlfriend. Advice to students: Never speak to the press the day after you have become The Aggrieved Party.

I have had much joy in my seven years at Georgetown. The classrooms filled with laughter at my bad jokes. The late-night conversations fueled by bourbon. Retreats with students to Virginia’s rolling hills. Showing off my children to students at basketball games, and viceversa. The pride when you would applaud for us in our ridiculous robes at convocation. Endless, intricate, beautiful conversations.

Georgetown is a wonderful place to be a student, and doubtless a Jesuit, but it can be a hard place for the occasional professor who longs for Georgetown also to be his or her community. For him or her, it can be a fragmented place marked by the part-time presence of faculty speaking many jargons and needing to get to far-flung homes before the crescendo of rush hour. Too rarely do we come together to discuss things that matter — such as what we aspire for our students to become, what a Georgetown education should be, whether a whole can be made out

of our many parts.

This fragmentation is one of the main reasons I lament the dearth of Catholic identity at Georgetown. Without the glue of a shared mission, academia too easily becomes innumerable silos of separated specialists. That mission for Georgetown is Catholic and Jesuit — the education of the whole person. If a faculty is educating in parts, who is to attend to the whole?

I had hoped to generate more of those conversations by starting the Tocqueville Forum.

Alexis de Tocqueville taught of the vital necessity in liberal democracies for a robust form of community to overcome the twin temptations toward individualism, on the one hand, and a helpless reliance upon the State on the other. Democracy, he argued, desperately needs community to foster confident citizenship. If we cannot aspire to such community on a campus as small as ours, what hope have we when we leave the front gates?

I leave here in significant part because of the unbearable contradiction of teaching about community in the absence of one. In the best moments, I have had that experience with many of you, my treasured students. But you keep leaving and we remain, and only some deeper bond among those who remain can somewhat soften the blow of your constant departures.

Now it’s my departure that looms, and there’s no softening that blow. I will miss the Hilltop, and I thank her for all she has given me and hope that in some small way I have given something in return.

Patrick J. Deneen Associate professor of government

Facilities Needs to Be Cleaned Up To the Editor: We all know that to get something done at Georgetown University, you need to deftly and skillfully navigate immense bureaucracy.

From fixing a leaky sink to trying to getting your academic transcript, students must contend with a bureaucracy that would give the 19th-century British Empire a run for its money.

It all started before I even got to campus.

My roommate was participating in a preorientation program, which was supposed to allow him to move into our room early. As one might expect, someone along the way messed up, and until a couple of days before arriving he had not actually been registered to move in early.

Upon moving in, our sink had a lovely leak.

As instructed, we filed a work order request the next day. That was Aug. 31. Come Nov. 31, nobody had shown up, and our sink continued to leak. Finally, someone came right be-

fore finals to fix it, but he ended up bringing the wrong part, only making the leak worse.

It was not until I personally emailed the director of facilities that our sink was fixed.

One should not have to email the director of facilities because a leaky sink has not been fixed in five months. One should not have to navigate an immensely complicated system of bureaucracy to do, frankly, basic tasks.

Georgetown would be wise to clean up its act (literally and metaphorically). The school should implement a committee to oversee the digitization of basic tasks and the elimination of wasteful bureaucracy. It’s time to leave behind this colonial-age mindset of deep bureaucracy and move into the 21st century. Georgetown turned 223 years old just this past week. It is time to start reflecting our institution’s age in how things get accomplished on campus.

Ziad Jawadi (COL ’15)

THE RAW DEAL by Anthony Mastroianni

Jonathan Rabar, General Manager Glenn Russo, Director of Corporate Development Kelly Connelly, Director of Finance Claire Willits, Director of Marketing Michael Grasso, Director of Personnel Bryn Hastings, Director of Sales Caroline Boerwinkle Catherine Hendren Evan Marks Sara Eshleman Shane Sarver Kent Carlson Keeley Williams Max Gottlieb Mary Nancy Walter Michael Lindsay-Bayley Ryan Smith

Alumni Relations Manager Special Programs Manager Accounts Manager Operations Manager Publishing Division Consultant Human Resources Manager Institutional Diversity Manager Public Relations Manager Local Advertisements Manager Online Advertisements Manager Web Manager

Board of Directors

Carolyn Shanahan, Chair Connor Gregoire, Web Leslie, Jonathan Rabar, Sam Schneider, Lauren Weber, Amanda Wynter

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Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues.

Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-800 words.

Send all submissions to: opinion@ thehoya.com.

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OPINION

tuesDAY, January 31, 2012

THE HOYA

cARDAMOM, SPICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

A3

THE STATE OF NATURE

A New Big Brother Young Fiction Comes of Age For the 21st Century S G

Cookies, tracking devices that idenoogle proudly announced in an email to all of it’s users, “We’re tify the volume and specifics of user getting rid of over 60 different access to a server, are already at work privacy policies across [the company] on Amazon, eBay and countless other and replacing them with one that’s a websites. But there’s a fine line between benign data collection and invasion lot shorter and easier to read.”

The change in Google’s privacy of personal privacy. This semester, I policies will go live March . The mul- ordered only two of the three books I tinational corporation extols its needed for my Latin American history streamlined privacy guidelines as an class. Luckily, Amazon picked up on the improvement. In actuality, the reduc- oversight and sent me an email recomtion from 60 policies to one transpar- mending the third book. I was grateful ently exhibits Google’s fading loyalty to to have the reminder. But Google’s desire to collect all of my Internet activity, its consumers.

Starting in March, Google will openly not limited to one website or sector, access consumers’ personal informa- clearly crosses the line.

Since Google tion, web history powers Hoyamail, and email correthe changes in their spondents. Google privacy policies may is peddling these have major implicachanges as an entions for Georgehancement to the town network users.

Google experience, Students, faculty advertising that and staff who have their services will linked their Gmail now be “tailored accounts with their for you.” While Hoyamail accounts users are signed Sophia Berhie will undoubtedly into any Google be subject to the accounts (Gmail, I find the collection new policies. CusGooglePlus or Youtomers have the opTube), Google will and maintence of large tion of moving all collect information their information on their Internet amounts of personal from Google (before activities. The beninformation by Google March 1) and optefits the company ing out of these new trumpets are that highly disturbing. privacy invasions. search results will This troublesome be customized to users and recommendations will make change does not come unexpected. In 2010, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt navigating the Internet effortless.

Maybe one day, I’ll regard the person- acknowledged Google’s approach to alized web experience as convenient its users’ privacy. He explained that when Google suggests I email my sis- Google saved user history for about a ters about the Preen dress I mark as a year and on multiple occasions prefavorite on Shopbop or when YouTube sented user data as incriminating eviremembers that I like an Andrew Bird dence in courts of law. He cautioned song with Bon Iver. But for now, I find clients about the important of privacy the collection and maintence of large and stated, “What we learn from this is amounts of personal information by that privacy is more important, not less a large corporation like Google highly important. ... Privacy needs to be seen as more important than we’re treating it disturbing.

For our generation, the limits and today only.”

A higher priority must be placed on norms of privacy have been reworked and redefined as often as the Facebook privacy. As for me, I am not sure if the interface. Social media is constantly opportunity cost in inconvenience of blurring the barrier between what we removing all of my information from consider private and what we consider Google (as well as changing my email public. Technically, Facebook owns ev- address) is worth avoiding the new polerything that we ever post, like or send icy. Are such policies the future of all email and social media providers? We even in a “private” message.

With Google, there is no hiding. must wait and see.

Your browser history is saved forever.

This information will be analyzed and Sophia Berhie is a sophomore in the manipulated by statisticians then used School of Foreign Service. CARDAMOM, to synchronize your email topics with SPICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS appears every other Tuesday. search queries and more.

cout Finch, Holden Caulfield, Margaret Simon — meet Katniss Everdeen. She’s the heroine and action star of Suzanne Collins massively popular “Hunger Games” trilogy. She’s also at the center of the latest trend in young adult fiction. Where adolescents once craved stories of social conflict or escape, they now want tales about something more instinctive: survival.

For every literary classic like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Catcher in the Rye” or “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” all three embraced by young adults, today there are a bushel of novels based on a relatively simple premise: How do we endure in harsh and violent settings? With the “His Dark Materials,” “Harry Potter” and “Hunger Games” series representing just a small sample of related books, this focus has reached critical mass.

As beloved classics fade from popular prominence, we’re left to wonder why today’s youth find bleak settings, dark themes and ruthless realism so alluring. If the history of young adult fiction indicates anything, it’s this: Adolescents can discern and perceive society’s deepest anxieties. Today, they live in the age of extremes.

Though bygone romantic heroes, social outcasts or inquisitive protagonists still lurk in all modern young adult fiction, Katniss Everdeen and her peers represent archetypal survivor character. Choosing to save her sister Prim’s life, Katniss fights to the death and prevails against 23 other young adults in a futuristic, coliseum-like battleground set in North America.

The dystopian novel is far from a new genre — consider classic books like Orwell’s “1984,” Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Burgess’s “A Clockwork Orange.” These books spanned generations of catastrophe, from Huxley’s Great Depression-era writ-

ing, to Orwell’s the cold war era and Burgess’ during the countercultural revolution. Today, the catastrophe isn’t so obvious, but the doubts and demands of the Great Recession of 2008 still weigh on young adult minds.

Dystopian young adult novels, prevalent in the post-2008 world, pose the logical extremes of crum-

Meaney and Hoyt

Young adults see dystopia staring them in the face. bling Western society. In the home, parents are divorced. Outside, the environment decays. News coverage reports partisan bickering, unemployment, terrorism and corruption.

And while most adults recognize that the state of society isn’t great, young adults see just how bad it can be. Adults explain away dystopian fears as an undercurrent propagated by the fringe of society. Young adults, on the other hand, see dystopia staring them in the face. A tidal wave of related books appeals to their instincts.

A number of young adult fiction scholars and authors have debated the sudden predominance of the genre. In 2010 in The New York Times, a debate series titled “The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction,”

experts suggested a number of explanative frameworks. All their accounts, however, pointed to the same context: a world in turmoil.

One debater, Paolo Bacigalupi, author of the young adult novel “Ship Breaker,” argued that adolescents craved “stories of broken futures” because they anticipated truth in those visions. Even as their helicopter parents want to shelter them from this harsh reality, young adults seek to read the truth.

Other authors wrote about young adults yearning to escape the trappings of constant internet surveillance and data mining, or hoping for a post-apocalyptic world where order and systems of oppression were destroyed. Some contributors noted that the darkening dystopia is just a natural step in the gradual exploration of madness, evil and other awful things in society.

The present world of simultaneous scarcity and excess captures all the above and more, making an anxious genre like the dystopia perfect for today’s young readers. Unease over an unreliable world manifests in their demands for austere and disruptive books.

Consider “The Hunger Games” as the epitome of this movement. The violent interpretation of reality in “The Hunger Games” is almost surreal; it’s too graphic and horrible to exist anywhere but a nightmare.

But, as part of the complexity of the book within a greater context, it’s perfect. In the age of extremes, the perverse nature of reality stares back when we look in the mirror of young adult fiction.

Mike Meaney is a senior in the School of Foreign Service and Matthew Hoyt is a senior in the College.

They are the president and director of communications of the Georgetown University Student Association, respectively. THE STATE OF NATURE appears every other Tuesday.

THE DISCONCERTED DEMAGOGUE by Daniel Yang

VIEWPOINT • Jesse Mirotznik

Looking Past Politics: A Question of Morality

T

he 2012 campaign season has been filled with drama. Of late, much of it has been caused by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s marital history.

Two weeks ago Marianne Gingrich one of Newt Gingrich’s ex-wives, stated that he had asked her to have an “open marriage.” Moderator John King, an anchor for CNN, opened the GOP debate by asking Gingrich about the allegations.

Responding with the self-righteous moralization that has typified his political career, Gingrich told King that opening with that question was “as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”

Clearly, Gingrich has a very limited definition of “despicable.” For one thing, he has cheated on two wives and then divorced both of them. Is that less despicable than King’s question? How about the fact that he was organizing concerted attacks against Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife with an intern while simultaneously cheating on his wife with a staffer?

Or the fact that, based on allegations of tax fraud and perjury, Gingrich was the first speaker of the house in American history to be disciplined for ethics violations?

But no, asking about Gingrich’s marriage in a presidential debate — when there are so many other important issues to discuss — takes the despicable cake, according to the candidate himself. Surely, whether Gingrich asked his second wife for an open marriage when he was cheating on her is not an important issue in a presidential election.

In this primary race, there are so few substantive differences in policy between the various Republican frontrunners — with the exception of Ron Paul — that informed Americans must cast their votes on some other basis

than pure policy.

That’s where character comes in.

Indeed, Gingrich’s whole political narrative is based on character — especially on attacking those of others.

To Gingrich, Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist who lacks empathy for the common man. He paints a picture of Barack Obama as a food-stamp president with a Kenyan anti-colonial mindset. Gingrich is a moralizing machine, but no one has been willing to turn those good-ol’ Gingrich judgments on the man himself. Instead, until Thursday’s debate, Democrats, Republicans and reporters were all content to merely tiptoe around the elephant in the room (pun intended).

Among the candidates at the debate, Rick Santorum made the strongest statement about the newly released allegations. “These are issues of character to consider,” he said.

As much as I hate to agree with Rick Santorum about anything, he is right about this. Virtue, self-control and empathy might sound cliche in this day and age, but they are crucial attributes for selecting a president.

Newt Gingrich is right about one thing — there are very few decent men and women in public affairs today, and he is a prime example of this ethical void. It’s about time we start holding leaders to the same standards of human decency.

No one would give his house keys to a person without integrity. Certainly no one would allow that person to baby-sit his kids. But we as Americans constantly elect people with little integrity to positions of major power.

If we wouldn’t let them borrow our cars or take care of our children, why should let them press the big red button?

Jesse Mirotznik is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.

VIEWPOINT • Adaire Carey and Hillary Oneslager

The Real Meaning of Greek Life

W

hile a fair number of Georgetown students claim the absence of sororities and fraternities is a major selling point for the university, there are still students to whom the world of sacred letters, ritual bonding and lifelong friendship appeals.

In many ways, the small Greek community at Georgetown fulfills its purpose by allowing an outlet for interested students without capitalizing on the negative aspects often associated with these groups.

By nature, Greek life is very self-selecting. If the thought of brotherly bonding makes you cringe, you can happily glide through your time on the Hilltop without ever encountering fraternities or sororities. But if you are interested, there are groups like Adelfi that you can seek out and join.

Though not well known on campus, Adelfi, the equivalent of a college sorority, aims to attract girls looking for the advantages that come with joining a Greek sisterhood. Pop culture and Hollywood movies have gone to town with their over-the-top, bleached-blonde and fake-tanned interpretations of sorority girls, but these cliche representations fail to capture the essence of what makes

such a group appealing to some Georgetown girls.

Unlike the official fraternity chapters of Sigma Phi Epsilon or Alpha Epsilon Pi on campus, Adelfi was founded at Georgetown and is not affiliated in any way with a national or international charter. While this gives us great leeway in structuring our own values, it also presents a unique set of problems. Because we aren’t a chartered sorority, for example, the group isn’t always taken seriously as a Greek organization.

Furthermore, because we’ve chosen not to affiliate with an outside chapter, we’re often regarded as a group without real aim or vision.

Despite these prejudices, Adelfi’s unique origins allow us to create a sisterhood that highlights many of the positive aspects of Greek life. Just like in any other club on campus, you get as much out of Adelfi as you put into it. As a relatively small group, Adelfi offers plenty of opportunities for all members to create events and initiatives if they have the drive and time to do so.

Parties and formals are usually the most notorious aspect of Greek life because they are often the most readily visible and are often mistaken for the main focus of the fraternities and

sororities.

This, however, is not the case. Over the last year, the Adelfi community service chairs have been working hard to establish a relationship with the Lombardi Cancer Center pediatric ward. Service opportunities have ranged from volunteering at the center’s annual fundraising gala to taking the patients to sporting events and trick-or-treating on Halloween. For the past few years, Adelfi has also been one of the top five teams for Relay For Life and we have every intention of continuing this tradition.

In addition to our commitment to service, Adelfi is another way students seek to carve out their own niche within the Georgetown community. Campus clubs and organizations serve to bring together like-minded individuals. Adelfi is no different. With an open admission process and flexible time commitment, Adelfi brings together girls from all different years who are looking for a way to connect with others.

ADAIRE CAREY and HILLARY ONESLAGER are sophomores in the College. Both are members of Adelfi.

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THE HOYA

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NEWS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE The cases against the students involved in August’s Leavey break-in were dropped last week. Read more at thehoya.com.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

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consumers of our products want this.

”

Scott Fleming, associate vice president for federal relations, on the Designated Suppliers Program.

See story on A6.

from

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CHRISTINA LING FOR THE HOYA

Relay for Life kicked off its annual fundraising campaign Sunday with carnival-themed festivities, including raflles, games and give-aways, in the Intercultural Center Galleria and Red Square. View more photos from the event in a gallery at thehoya.com.

CAMPUS SARTORIALIST We approached a few stylish Hoyas who were still working it, despite the chilly January day. blog.thehoya.com

Several Steps Remain After Occupy Camp to Be Evicted Passage of SAFE Reform ELIZABETH GARBITELLI Hoya Staff Writer

MARIAH BYRNE Hoya Staff Writer

All three proposals for the allocation of the $3.4 million Student Activities Fee Endowment cleared their last hurdle when they passed a referendum by the student body last week, but the implementation process for each is just beginning.

Last week’s referendum was the final step in a reform of the Student Activities Fee that began last spring. The implementation of the individual plans now rests on the shoulders of the students on the respective steering committees, which are being managed by the working groups for each proposal and the Georgetown University Student Association.

Just before the referendum, GUSA members signed a binding agreement with the administration regarding the implementation of each proposal. According to GUSA President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12), the document guarantees that students’ money will be used appropriately by the university, which controls the funds for the time being.

“In terms of the short term, having [the university] sign [the agreement letter] ensures that no funny business can happen,” Meaney said.

The document, signed Jan. 23, dictates that the Social Innovation and Public Service Fund, granted $1.25 million, will be established by Jan. 1, 2013. However, the leaders of SIPS are currently working to recruit three additional members to its 10-student steering committee by Feb. 14. Students will be able to apply to join through GUSA. The group intends to have the fund up and running by fall 2012, according to GUSA senator Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13), who helped spearhead the proposal.

“The 13 of us will … work out a lot of kinks and then turn [SIPS] over to the [governing board],” she said.

The steering committee plans to hold a launch event for the fund in April.

“There’s obviously a lot of work to be done … but I don’t foresee any challenges being big enough [not] to overcome in the next three, four months,” Gustafson said.

Members of Georgetown Energy, which was allocated $250,000 to install solar panels on about 43 university townhouses, are talking with University Facilities and Student Housing about when construction can begin.

The university has agreed to install solar panels on seven to nine townhouses on 37th Street as the first round of the project. The allocated money not used will be placed in

the Green Revolving Loan Fund, housed in the SIPS Fund, and can be used for future sustainability initiatives.

An agreement on the start date for the project and the number of townhouses included must be reached by April 3, according to the agreement signed with the university.

Although Solar City, a residential and commercial solar provider, helped develop the proposal, Georgetown Energy has not yet chosen a company with which to partner in the project. The group hopes to choose a vendor by mid- to late February.

The solar panel installation plan must be approved by the Old Georgetown Board before the project can begin. Dave Nulsen (SFS ’12), Georgetown Energy’s project leader for the solar panel installations, is optimistic about winning their approval.

“The Old Georgetown Board are good people,” he said. “They just want to make sure Georgetown maintains its integrity.”

“I imagine that [the installation] will take place over the summer, [because] it’s not that difficult,” Meaney, who is also on Georgetown Energy’s advisory committee, said.

Leaders of the New South Student Center proposal are meeting with University Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Christopher Augostini and members of the university’s Investment Office to determine when to cash out the $2.04 million of endowment money that the project was allocated. The timeline depends on the strength of the financial market, according to Meaney.

Meaney expects construction on the student center, which will be financed primarily by the university, to begin in summer 2013. The project can begin only after the university has raised enough money to complete its portion of the renovations.

The proposal will use SAFE money to augment the university’s plan for the space, adding an outdoor terrace and additional study and lounge space to the existing design.

Through the agreement document, GUSA retains the right to approve revision to the plans for NSSC enhancements. The administration has also agreed to build a restaurant and bar that will serve alcoholic beverages and to allow GUSA to choose the names for the areas of the NSSC on which SAFE money is spent.

Meaney is optimistic that the implementation of the approved proposals will go smoothly.

“Because the process itself was so thorough … I actually don’t think any of the initial roadblocks we foresee will stall up [the plans],” he said.

Occupy D.C. protesters remained in McPherson Square Monday night, despite a National Park Service announcement that they would have to leave the park by noon.

The drive to clear the camp began earlier this month when D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray sent a letter to NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis, asking that the McPherson camp be moved due to a rat infestation and other health issues.

Last week, Jarvis was called to testify before a House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee as to why the camp has been allowed to remain in the square since protesters first moved in last October, violating an NPS ban on camping there.

According to the National Park Service, the camp is considered a 24-hour vigil, and therefore exempt from the ban. However, under the guidelines for such vigils, protesters are not allowed to sleep in federal parks, as the Occupiers have been doing.

Speaking to the subcommittee, Jarvis argued that the Occupiers had a First Amendment right to protest in the square in his statement to the subcommittee, but acknowledged the need to address safety and health concerns surrounding the encampment.

Gina Bull (SFS ’12), who has been actively supporting the Occupy movement on campus and visited McPherson Square on Sunday, said that she believed the real impetus for the crackdown is to suppress dissent.

“There were a lot of police around at one point, and it definitely seemed like they were trying to have an intimidating presence,” Bull said. “I think whatever guise they may give for shutting it down, we all know that this is an attempt to suppress dissent and the camps are incredibly powerful symbols for that.”

Samuel-Geaney Moore (SFS ’12) agreed that the District had motives other than health concerns for deciding to close the camp.

“I don’t think it’s an issue of cleanliness. … Camps have been exceptionally organized,” he

ELIZABETH GARBITELLI/THE HOYA

Occupy protesters remained in McPherson Square Monday, though the Park Service announced that it would enforce a ban on camping there. said. “[The NPS decision] follows that pattern of trying to close the camps across the country.”

Bull added that the camp was likely allowed to remain in place on Monday because the eviction had attracted so much media attention.

“The police didn’t come probably because there were so many news cameras. I don’t think it would be unlikely that they would [take down the camp] during the night instead,” she said.

The camp remained in place at press time, though the possibility that authorities would disband the protesters remained.

Though the McPherson Square camp has been relatively calm compared to other Occupy groups in Oakland and Manhattan, there has been a recent increase in tensions between police and protesters, culminating in the cuffing and tasering of a protester known as “Lash” Sunday.

“Lash … wouldn’t hurt a fly,” American University student and protester Ben Johnson said. “He’s all about having a positive attitude.

So the fact that they chose Lash, of all people, to tase … really speaks to the mindset of the cops. They’ll tase somebody who walks around in [pajama] bottoms and spends most of his days playing guitar because he said something they don’t like.”

Johnson claimed that protesters were bracing for more altercations, but stressed that the protesters themselves would not provoke

violence.

“If there’s violence here, it’ll be on the part of the cops,” he said.

Supporters of the movement, such as Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) warned against an unruly response to NPS enforcement, saying that such behavior could distract from the protesters’ real message.

“If some resist the enforcement of the camping ban, they could reinforce critics who see them as young people on an adventure and could destroy the unity of their message against income inequality, which has captured the country and changed the conversation in Washington,” Norton wrote on her website Sunday.

If police do remove protesters by force, Bull felt that college campuses will become increasingly important protest sites, adding that Georgetown Occupy, an oncampus group that supports the D.C. Occupy movement, plans to coordinate more discussion events and general assembly meetings on Fridays to increase awareness.

“If camping at Occupy D.C. comes to a close, it only means a transformation for the movement, certainly not an end, and that’s why I think it becomes increasingly important to think of creative ways to keep the Occupy movement going,” she said. “College campuses [will] become more critical sites. Georgetown Occupy intends to increase our presence this semester.”

News

Tuesday, january 31, 2012

THE HOYA

A5

Young Hoyas Achieve Beyond Their Years ANC Restricts

Food Trucks

Young, from A1 young in their class. None of them knew that she was the 16-year-old student they were talking about.

“I heard stories straight to my face about what people thought of it,” she said. “I don’t want people to think of me that way.”

These negative reactions compelled Varatharajah to act older, never giving anyone a reason to suspect that she was two years younger than her classmates.

Avagyan had a similar mentality.

“If you do something crazy and stupid and you’re their age they think its okay, but if you do something crazy and stupid and they know you’re younger [they won’t],” he said.

Still, these students find that there are many situations in which simply acting older is not enough.

According to Wardah Athar (COL ’13), who received her Georgetown acceptance letter when she was 16, being younger has affected her ability to apply for scholarships and jobs.

“Something that’s sometimes tough is applying for internships where they’re looking for someone a little bit older,” Athar said.

Under the Radar According to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon, young applicants to Georgetown are few and far between. Most students who deviate from the standard applicant age tend to be older than the typical 17 or 18 years rather than younger.

In the rare circumstance that a particularly young applicant does show up, his or her age weighs heavily in the acceptance process.

“The younger the student, the more the question will be looking at the student’s maturity and ability to move into an older setting,” he said.

But the Office of Undergradu-

ANC, from A1

LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA

The decision to begin college early brings a unique set of challenges for younger-than-traditional students like Wardah Athar (COL ’13), who received her Georgetown acceptance letter at the age of 16. ate Admissions does not keep track of admitted students’ birthdates, meaning that it is easy for younger-than-traditional students to go unnoticed once accepted.

“They could be slightly invisible. Unless you focused in on the age it wouldn’t be apparent,” he said.

Looking Forward Despite the challenges of starting college earlier than their peers, younger students find that their position has some perks.

Avagyan pointed to the fact that he was able to start his job application process almost two years ahead of anyone his age.

“You graduate early, you get a job early,” he said.

Avagyan graduated from Georgetown as a math and economics double major with honors. He now works with a government subcontractor as a research analyst while attending graduate school for math at Georgetown.

Athar, who will soon begin applying for M.D./Ph.D. programs, appreciates that her age makes her stand out among other applicants. Although she will be only 20 years old when she begins her graduate school application process, Athar’s resume will speak for itself.

Though these students are reluctant to admit it, their academic records and achievements are remarkable.

Varatharajah has assumed leadership positions in several

campus groups, where even now few people know her true age. A few years ago she also co-wrote a bill for Congress with her father about the economic recession and illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, Athar works in the Donoghue Laboratory on campus researching cortical development. She also won the McTighe prize, a Georgetown award honoring community involvement, in spring 2011.

Despite her accomplishments, Varatharajah prefers to focus on the day-to-day reward of being at Georgetown.

“The biggest benefit of coming to Georgetown at 16 is identical to that of all university students: college is a great place that people never want to leave,” she said.

ANC Chairman Ron Lewis, who voiced concern that the university has failed to understand neighborhood concerns, also expressed his relief that the long debate on the Campus Plan is coming to a close.

“I think we’re all very eager to have the Zoning Commission make a decision,” he said.

The issue of food trucks in the neighborhood was also a prominent item on Monday night’s agenda. Popular among students, mobile food vendors have irritated residents who claim they park on residential streets.

Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Director Nicholas Majett attempted to address the concerns of both business owners and residents.

“It’s very difficult for us to strike a balance between [the interests of] brick-and-mortar [establishments] and vending trucks,” he said.

The commissioners subsequently passed a motion prohibiting food trucks from parking on streets designated as residential parking permit streets, which make up large portions of Georgetown.

The board also addressed the repairs currently underway on O and P Streets. Commissioner Jeff Jones said that the work on the 3400 block of P Street is nearing completion. The rehabilitation will include the replacement of original cobblestones and streetcar tracks in order to preserve the historic character of the area.

The project is projected to be completed in February, one month later than had been announced at the ANC’s Dec. 1 meeting.

SAC Adviser to Start Feb. 15 CSP, from A1 Carlton was chosen by an eight-person committee comprised of three students and five faculty members.

Appelbaum is confident that Carlton will be a strong asset to the CSP. “We’ll expect a little bit of a learning curve, but I have confidence that she’ll pick up immediately and help student groups when she gets to campus,” he said.

Director of Student Affairs Erika Cohen-Derr also believes that Carlton’s arrival will benefit Georgetown.

“Amanda Carlton has the right combination of experience, talent and professional philosophy to support student learning through co-curricular involvement in an academically engaging, diverse campus community,” she wrote in an email.

A6

news

THE HOYA

tuesday, january 31, 2012

DSP Monitors GU’s Vendors Sarah Patrick Hoya Staff Writer

A recent decision by the Department of Justice will allow universities to monitor labor conditions in factories producing school apparel.

Schools that are members of the Designated Suppliers Program, which was approved in December, will work to develop licensing terms that reflect fair labor standards. All apparel produced in the plants that accept the terms will contain a label that clearly outlines the workers’ labor conditions.

The program will largely mirror Georgetown’s relationship with Alta Gracia, an apparel line that uses a Dominican factory that pays its employees three times more than the minimum wage in the Dominican Republic, where the factory is located.

“The goal of this project is to create workable means so that a factory can operate while providing safe working conditions, the right to organize and a living wage, so the workers can make it in life and the factory can still be viable,” said Scott Fleming, Associate Vice President for Federal Relations and Public Affairs and interim chair of Georgetown’s Licensing Oversight Committee.

Fleming hopes the program will inspire the creation of more factories like Alta Gracia.

“I can’t help but believe that hopefully there is some way that having the DSP may help the financial viability of Alta Gracia,” he said.

The push was spearheaded by the Worker Rights Consortium, of which Georgetown was a found-

ing member. The group was founded in 2000 in response to student and university requests that school apparel be made free of sweatshop labor and includes more than 180 colleges, universities and high schools.

Through the committee, the university has worked to ensure Georgetown apparel is made without sweatshop labor and has aided the WRC in gaining approval for the new program.

Though the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division concluded that the proposed program follows U.S. antitrust law, the WRC cannot demand general licensing standards.

Instead, the program aims to offer something like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to factories that uphold a school’s designated labor standards, according to Fleming.

The WRC will be responsible for monitoring factories that participate in the program and reporting conditions to the member schools, a process that is supposed to foster an open dialogue between the consumers, companies and workers.

Fleming said that he isn’t sure what the Designated Suppliers Program’s effect will be on the Georgetown University Bookstore, which already sells Alta Gracia products.

He admits that the success of the program depends on consumers’ willingness to purchase materials from these factories.

“We are here because the consumers of these products want this, and they are the ones who have gotten universities to establish these policies,” he said.

Moot Court Is Anything But Bebe Albornoz Hoya Staff Writer

CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Trebizond Investments CEO Caspian Tavallali (SFS ’14) leads an information session.

Student Investors Stand Apart Annie Chen

Hoya Staff Writer

Making its platform clear through an advertising campaign that invites students to “Become the one percent,” Trebizond Investments is working to distinguish itself from other campus investment groups.

Founded last year, the organization is the newest investment group at Georgetown and manages about $50,000. According to CEO Caspian Tavallali (SFS ’14), it differs from larger and more established groups like the Georgetown Collegiate Investors and the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Financial Credit Union in its focus on short-term investments.

“GCI and GUASFCU invest like our grandparents do. They invest on the long term,” he said. “In reality, we’re in college for four years. Very few of these investments you’re making will … ripen by the time you

graduate. We look at shortterm investments that we can make profits out of in maybe three months.”

Tavallali previously served as GCI’s secretary of the board and was actively involved in GUASFCU. Chief Operations Officer Alex Kondziolka (MSB ’14) said Trebizond also invests in higher risk funds and makes faster decisions than other investment groups on campus.

“We see opportunity and take it. In that way, [our] investment rationale is more risky,” Tavallali said. “But as young adults, we can take that risk.”

Tavallali added that the organization was also unique in its structure.

“Many of our members have little investment experience, but they have the opportunity to pitch investment ideas in front of peers,” he said. “That makes the investment less paternalistic, because no one is being lectured to.”

Both Tavallali and Kondziolka emphasize participation as the most valuable asset of the club. The group also prides itself in the use of a secret ballot when it makes investment decisions, according Chief Investment Officer Eric Vorchheimer (MSB ’14).

“A lot of times when you do open voting, you would either get almost 100 percent ‘yes’ or 100 percent ‘no,’ because when the CEO raises his hand, other people tend to just follow,” Tavallali said. “It becomes investing under peer pressure, and that’s not good investment strategy.”

Trebizond Investments also uses an online investing forum, which allows for a transparent log of investment rationale and creates a system of accountability.

“Even people who are not club members can see our rationale,” Tavallali said, “So people have more responsibility when pitching.”

GUSA to Launch Game Show, Prizes in SafeRides Program Sam Rodman Hoya Staff Writer

SafeRides will become a more exciting way to get around the neighborhood when Georgetown University Student Association launches a “Cash Cab”-like game in one of the service’s vans Thursday.

The program is intended to mimic the Discovery Channel game show, which poses trivia questions to unsuspecting taxicab passengers in New York City.

Each night during weekends, one SafeRides van is driven by a GUSA member.

Students who are picked up by this van will have the opportunity to answer trivia questions and win prizes ranging from bottled water and sports drinks to gift cards and Georgetown Cupcakes.

According to GUSA Vice President Greg Laverriere (COL ’12), GUSA hopes that student interest in the game will reduce incidents of students calling SafeRides but leaving before the van arrives, which can cause the drivers to fall behind schedule. He also sees the game

as a positive demonstration of student-administrator collaboration.

Once in the van, participants will be asked to list items in a single category, such as Major League Baseball teams, until they reach their destination.

At the end of the ride, prizes will be awarded based on how many items the students were able to list.

GUSA hopes to collaborate with The Corp and local businesses to provide prizes. For the pilot program, prizes will be financed by the university Chief Operating Officer’s office.

GUSA is working on a way to install lights, like those used in “Cash Cab,” that flicker when passengers enter to announce that they have been chosen to participate in the game.

The project was conceived

by GUSA senator Bridget Power (COL ’12), Laverriere and Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Augostini at a Hoya Roundtable event. Laverriere and Power have since been working with Augostini and the Department of Public Safety to make the game a reality.

Student participation in the

game will be filmed and posted to the university and GUSA websites. Participants will sign two waivers, one when they enter the van and another the next day, in order to ensure consent.

“If [students] sign a waiver while they’re inebriated, then the next morning they might think better of it,” GUSA Senior Counselor Sam Ungar (COL ’12) said.

The videos will also be edited to show what GUSA deems to be the best clips instead of posting footage of entire SafeRides trips.

The program will debut Thursday, because SafeRides expects to receive fewer calls on a Thursday night than on weekend nights. According to Laverriere, it will serve as a test run, and the game will be moved to Friday nights as of next weekend.

“Ideally it would be something that would be expanded to each weekend night. We’d definitely love to do that,” he said.

GUSA’s collaboration with SafeRides is slated to continue through the end of the year, as is the new quiz game.

Of the 78 cases brought before the Supreme Court since its term began in October, 73 had been argued beforehand — in a moot court at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Richard J. Lazarus, former Georgetown Law professor and Supreme Court advocate, founded the Supreme Court Institute twelve years ago after he noticed that Georgetown’s faculty boasted more practical Supreme Court experience than those at other law schools across the country.

In the past five years, the institute’s moot court has gone from hearing 40 percent to 95 percent of cases on the Supreme Court docket.

Two- hour cases are heard on a first-come, firstserve basis and are held about one week before the formal court proceedings. Only one side of any case is given the opportunity to present oral arguments in order to prevent the five panelists assigned to the case from revealing any information about one side’s arguments to their opponents.

“It is completely non-partisan, completely nonideological, there is no charge for any of the services. It is purely pro-bono and in the public interest,” Dori Bernstein, deputy director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, said.

Once the case is scheduled, the assembly of the panel of judges begins. According to Bernstein, the program draws on the many prominent Supreme Court advocates, former members of the Solicitor General’s office and recent Supreme Court clerks in the D.C. area.

“We usually try to get a mix of people on a panel so you get a range of experience … various backgrounds and various outlooks … because that is more likely to reflect what the advocate will encounter when they go to court the next week,” Bernstein said.

The panelists ask questions of the advocate presenting his or her argument for the first hour, then hold strategic discussions during the second hour. They do not, however, render a verdict on the case.

Bernstein, who has worked for the program since July 2010 and has 18 years of appellate experience in the federal government, said the pro-

INDEX

GEORGETOWN LAW

The moot court housed in the GU Law Center reflects the floor plan of the Supreme Court.

gram is tremendously helpful for the advocates who have the opportunity to receive feedback.

“This job has restored my sense of the legal profession as really being one filled with people who are committed to what’s best, I think, in our system of government — that it’s a democracy and that there’s room for differing opinions and differing points of view, and that we’re all best served when all those different points of view can be fully aired and fully explored,” she said.

Bernstein added that the ability to hear cases of national importance while they are preparing to do similar work is a valuable experience for students in the law center.

“The primary goal of the Moot Court Program is to prepare advocates to present their best argument to the Supreme Court,” Bernstein said. “The secondary goal, which is also of great importance, is to further the education of the students at Georgetown Law school because they have the extraordinary privilege of being able to observe these moot courts.”

The program often coordinates with professors so that the case being presented is integrated into the class curriculum as well.

“That’s just a tremendous opportunity because it brings the law really alive,” Bernstein said.

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Sports

tuesday, january 31, 2012

MEN’S Tennis

Special to The Hoya

Coming in with renewed confidence, the Georgetown men’s tennis team improved to 3-1 on the season Saturday with a 4-1 win over Richmond at Belle Haven Country Club in Alexandria, Va. “The guys worked really hard going in. That hard work led to confidence,” Assistant Coach Matthew Brooklyn said.

That confidence was jumpstarted in the first match, with junior Charlie Caris and senior Andrew Bruhn quickly picking up the Hoyas’ first win of the day at No. 1 doubles by a score of 8-4.

“Bruhn and Caris came out and took the match to the opponent. They had great energy that trickled down to the rest of the team,” Brooklyn said. “When your No. 1 wins quickly, that helps a lot.”

The doubles pairing of sophomore Casey Distaso and senior Brian Ward continued the Hoyas’ momentum. They registered an 8-3 victory at No. 3 doubles.

“No. 1 and 3 doubles won very comfortably, and that set the tone for the rest of the competition,” Brooklyn added.

Brooklyn attributes Georgetown’s solid 3-1 early record to their dedication and commitment to improvement.

“All nine guys on the team really work hard,” Brooklyn said.

“In the fall, they really worked to improve and bought into what we are trying to do.”

Head Coach Gordie Ernst also sees positive change in his team this year.

“The difference between our team this year and last year can be attributed to Matt [Brooklyn],” Ernst said. “He came in and did not want to tiptoe around. With his UCLA experience, he imme-

diately asserted himself and put together practice drills and conditioning that made the guys better.”

Ernst believes his other assistant — former Georgetown women’s tennis player Stephanie Wetmore — has also had something to do with the men’s early season success.

“Matt and Steph come from the same high level, and the kids get that. They have brought with them the professionalism that you need to get better,” Ernst said.

But it isn’t just on his coaching staff where Ernst sees substantial improvement.

“Before, the kids just wanted to get the uniform and were happy to just play. Now, these guys want to get better,” Ernst said.

By cutting out players that just went through the motions, Ernst has worked to get rid of what he calls the “dead weight” on the team.

“It’s been addition by subtraction. Unless you give 100 percent of your effort, you are not going to win,” Ernst said. “It is sometimes like a street fight. You look across the net and say ‘I’m taking you down.’”

The Blue and Gray will have to keep up that fighting spirit if they hope to post a winning record for the season. The team’s next battle will come against Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., on Feb. 12.

“Mary Washington will be a good warm-up for the men after two weeks off before we play Penn [on Feb. 15 in Philadelphia],” Brooklyn said.

“We should beat teams like Richmond and Mary Washington,” Ernst said. “Our goal is to beat the higher-level teams like William and Mary and Penn. To be a good team, you have to beat the good teams.”

women’s tennis

Hoyas Notch Wins Over Liberty, JMU Laura Wagner Special to The Hoya

While Victoria Azarenka was catching the world’s attention working her way towards the women’s singles title at the Australian Open this past weekend, the Georgetown women’s tennis team was earning consecutive victories against Liberty and James Madison at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. The Hoyas swept Liberty, 7-0, Friday and defeated JMU, 6-1, Saturday. These impressive performances have improved the Hoyas’ record to 2-1 in the spring season, their only loss coming at the hands of 35thranked Virginia Commonwealth.

Against the Liberty Flames, the Hoyas won all 6 singles matches without dropping a set. Sophomore Kelly Comolli put the Blue and Gray on the winning track with a 6-2, 6-1 victory at No. 3, and senior Lauren Greco followed suit with a 6-2, 6-2 win at the No. 1 singles spot.

Junior Vicky Sekely won at No. 4, 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Madeline Jaeger enjoyed similar success at No. 5 with a 6-3, 6-2 win and sophomore Tina Tehrani defeated her opponent, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 2. Freshmen Sophia Panarese concluded singles play with a 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 6.

The Hoyas also breezed through the doubles matches with the No. 1 pair of Greco and Comolli winning, 8-2, the No. 2 team of Tehrani and Sekely helping gain the doubles point with an 8-1 win and the No. 3 pair of Panarese and Jaeger holding on to win, 8-6.

Needless to say, Head Coach Gordie Ernst was very pleased with his team’s performance.

“The girls responded to the challenge. They knew they weren’t playing the 35thranked team in the country, and they showed how good they really are without worrying about who was on the other side of the net,” Ernst said.

“Confidence is everything.”

The Hoyas’ strong performances continued the next day against JMU, with easy victories at No. 3, No. 5 and No. 2.

After the Dukes rallied to take the No. 4 point, No. 1 Greco and No. 6 Panarese clinched the victory for the Hoyas in two tight contests.

Greco won in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, while Panarese faced a tiebreaker in her first set but managed to win, 7-6(6), 6-1. As in Friday’s match, the Blue and Gray nabbed the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots.

Coach Ernst had nothing but praise for the way his team handled the match against JMU. “They won the points that really mattered,” Ernst said. “The JMU coach even said, ‘They won all the big points, all the points that they needed to win under pressure.’“ These victories are a big confidence boost for the Hoyas, as they prepare to face Pittsburgh on Feb. 11 in what will be their first Big East contest. Ernst thinks the victories at White Sulphur Springs will give the squad momentum going into the match against Pitt.

“Winning is a learned behavior, and this confidence will carry over to the match in Pittsburgh,” Ernst said. “Last year was the first time we had beat Pitt in years, so they will probably be coming into this match with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder.”

Despite the challenge, Ernst is optimistic about his team’s chances, due in part to the presence of strong team leaders.

“Kelly Comolli transferred from Cornell, and she has brought a tremendous energy and competitiveness that really adds to the team,” Ernst said.

“And Lauren [Greco] has been great to have. She continues to amaze, she gives it her all and she wants to win for the team her senior year.”

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Assistants Help Spur Georgetown Revival CELEE BELMONTE

THE HOYA

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Senior guard Jason Clark scored nine points in Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh. Clark will need to lead a strong defensive effort Wednesday against UConn’s backcourt duo of Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier.

GU Looks to Avoid Two-Game Skid UCONN, from A10 Playing the role of Pittsburgh senior forward Nasir Robinson — who went 9-for-9 from the floor en route to a career-high 23 points against Georgetown — could be Connecticut center Andre Drummond. The freshman, who is projected by some to be the top pick in the NBA draft this June, is averaging 10 points and nearly eight rebounds a game. He also has 51 blocks on the season.

Drummond anchors a Connecticut defense that ranks sixth in the Big East, allowing just over 62 points per game.

The Blue and Gray are no defensive slouches themselves, boasting the second-best scoring defense in the conference at 60 points allowed per game. But the Hoyas will have to contend with

sophomore guards Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier, both of whom have stepped into starring roles this year after playing small parts on last year’s national championship-winning squad.

Lamb is the better scorer of the two at nearly 18 points per game, while Napier is more of a creator who averages over six assists per game while also scoring more than enough (14.3 ppg) to keep defenses honest.

Stopping Lamb, who, like Drummond, is projected to be top picks in the NBA draft, won’t be easy for a Georgetown defense that has allowed more than 65 points six times since the start of conference play.

The Hoyas lost both meetings with the Huskies last year, as they struggled to contain Kemba Walker and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel. Walker is with the

Charlotte Bobcats now, though, and Coombs-McDaniel has transferred to Hofstra. Still, Georgetown hasn’t beaten them since January 2010, when Austin Freeman exploded for 28 points in the second half of a three-point win.

Of potential concern for the Hoyas is junior forward Hollis Thompson, who pulled a muscle in Georgetown’s win over Rutgers and looked out of sorts against Pittsburgh. Thompson made just one shot until an eight-point flurry in the final minute, which brought his point total to 11. If he can’t perform like he did in the early season, the Blue and Gray will have to lean heavily on senior guard Jason Clark and senior center Henry Sims to carry the scoring load.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. tomorrow night at Verizon Center.

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check out The Hoya’s new blog blog.thehoya.com

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sports

THE HOYA

Tuesday January 31, 2012

Candid Canadian

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Hoyas Mauled by Panthers Thomas Overshadows White House Festivities T LAWSON FERGUSON Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown arrived in Pittsburgh looking to keep pace with Marquette and Syracuse at the top of the Big East standings, but was instead dealt a humbling 72-60 loss to the lowly Panthers (13-9, 2-7 Big East). The No. 9 Hoyas (16-4, 6-3 Big East) fell behind early due to an anemic offense that managed only 22 points in the first half, and an inexplicably inconsistent defense prevented the Blue and Gray from ever closing to within one possession.

The main beneficiaries of Georgetown’s shaky defense were Pitt’s frontcourt duo of sophomore Lamar Patterson and senior Nasir Robinson, who combined for 41 points on 15-of-17 shooting from the floor. Patterson also dished out seven assists on a night where the Panthers’ star guards, senior Ashton Gibbs and junior Tray Woodall, struggled from the field. Gibbs had a quiet 13 points, while Woodall made just one field goal but handed out 10 assists in his third game back from injury.

“Jason [Clark] chased Gibbs around pretty effectively for most of the night,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “They put so much pressure on you to focus on him because he is such a good player and when he’s not scoring, he can help other people around.

But they had other guys that stepped up.”

In a sign of things to come, Patterson buried a long three to open the scoring on the hosts’ second possession before Robinson sandwiched two layups around a three from Georgetown’s Hollis Thompson. The standout junior forward did not score again until the last minute of the game.

Thompson’s struggles were symptomatic of a much larger problem for the Hoyas, who limited their turnovers but struggled to put up points against a team that ranks in the bottom half of the Big East in all major defensive categories. The Blue and Gray relied heavily on their bench in the first half, as freshmen Otto Porter, Jabril Trawick and Greg Whittington combined to score 17 of the team’s 22 points. Sophomore guard Markel Starks sat for much of the half after committing two

File Photo: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Hollis Thompson scored only once in the first 39 minutes of Saturday’s loss before scoring eight points in garbage time. early fouls, and was one of three starters who did not score in the first 20 minutes (senior center Henry Sims and fellow sophomore Nate Lubick were scoreless as well).

With such poor production from its star players, Georgetown was relatively lucky to be down only 11 at halftime.

“I felt we played our best in the first half, but they got some layups in the second half,” Pittsburgh Head Coach Jamie Dixon said. “We made them earn their post baskets and that’s what we wanted to do.”

“We haven’t been good on defense all year,” Patterson said after the game. “We just wanted to show everyone that we could play defense ... Everyone knew that it was something that had to get done.”

The Blue and Gray emerged from the locker room a different team, finding the basket on their first six possessions of the second half. A jumper from Sims — who scored on three of those possessions and also assisted on a Starks three — got the Hoyas to within five with just under 16 minutes to go, and it looked like the Blue and Gray had their hosts on the ropes.

“We’ve been down before to start the game and have [had] to crawl way back into it,” Thompson III said. “We crawled our way back into this one and got it back to six

a couple times.”

Georgetown wouldn’t get any closer, though, as the Panthers seemingly had an answer for everything. Woodall and Patterson consistently found wide-open teammates for easy layups and open jumpers, part of an impressive passing effort in which the hosts picked apart Georgetown’s poor defense for 20 assists on 25 made field goals.

“It was not good,” Sims said of his team’s defensive effort. “Transition defense, half court defense, we could have communicated a lot better. There were a lot of things we could have done better. Overall just a bad defensive performance.” “[On] the defensive end, what happened should not have happened,” Thompson III lamented.

“From lack of communication to lack of effort to breakdown. ... We knew what they were looking for but they just got up and got it.”

The win pushed Pittsburgh’s record to 12-0 all-time against top-10 teams at the Petersen Events Center and was its second consecutive win after an eight-game losing streak. The Hoyas will seek to avoid a losing streak of their own when they take the court next, as they return to Verizon Center to play host to Connecticut Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

here was a notable absence last Monday At Georgetown, the connection between at the White House, where the Boston the two realms is the subject of a class Bruins were recognized as 2011 Stanley taught by professor Victor Cha, and it Cup Champions. Tim Thomas, the champi- covers great political statements such as ons’ lone American and arguably the NHL’s those made at the Olympics of Munich best goalie, decided to skip the event. He later and Beijing and at the Rugby World Cup made the following statement via his Face- in South Africa. book page: In his statement, Thomas writes about ex“I believe the federal government has ercising his “right as a free citizen.” Of course, grown out of control, threatening the rights, all American citizens possess the freedom to liberties and property of the people. speak out or to protest nonviolently against “This is being done at the executive, legisla- the government. But a visit to the White tive and judicial level. This is in direct oppo- House to celebrate an athletic achievement is sition to the Constitution and the founding far from a political endorsement. The event is fathers’ vision for the fedintended as a celebration eral government. of excellence in athlet“Because I believe this, ics, not a political tool. today I exercised my This isn’t the Boston right as a free citizen and Bruins endorsing Barack did not visit the White Obama for re-election, alHouse. This was not though I’m sure the maabout politics or party, as jority of Boston already in my opinion both parhas, this is the president ties are responsible for giving thanks to a team Arik Parnass the situation we are in as for providing something a country. This was about to the nation that he, a choice I had to make as and most others, cannot.

Thomas is not engaging an INDIVIDUAL. In hockey, there is a “This is the only public in political debate, he is big difference between a statement I will be makfight, in which both playthrowing a metaphorical ers drop the gloves, and a ing on this topic. TT” Thomas is far from the sucker punch, in which sucker punch. first to use professional one player surprises the sports as a platform for other without allowing political protest. In 1968, American track and them to defend themselves. In refusing to field stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos appear at the White House, Thomas is not raised their fists in opposition to racial in- engaging in political debate, he is throwing equality in the United States. Since the United a metaphorical sucker punch. He’s embarStates’ boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, rassing Obama, his cabinet and — as the lone we have seen athletes in a variety of sports American on the team — his country as a refusing to stand during the singing of the whole. For an athlete who was finally given National Anthem. More recently, Tim Tebow his chance to shine in this country at the ripe starred in a Superbowl ad with an anti-abor- old age of 31, he is disrespecting the fans, the tion message. league and his team.

One of the most vocal political voices in Tim Thomas is correct in thinking that he sports has been Phoenix Suns point guard has the freedom to refuse this invitation. But Steve Nash. In interviews during the 2003 All- like most of the media who have since been Star Game, Nash wore a T-shirt that read, “No questioning him about the decision, I have War. Shoot for Peace.” In 2010, he was a key the right to think he’s a self-involved prima proponent of the Suns wearing “Los Suns” donna for doing so. The loose, fun, smiling jerseys for a playoff game in protest of the Thomas of the playoffs has given way to a controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which bitter, cynical one, and I, for one, think some allows local police to check the legal status of of his charm has been lost. Stick to hockey, anybody suspected of being an undocument- Tim, and hopefully no season ticket-holding ed immigrant.

Bruins fans will decide to exercise their First Sports and politics have been connected Amendment right to peacefully protest and ever since Greek messenger Pheidippides ran stay away from the TD Garden. to Athens to deliver the news of a Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon, leading to the Arik Parnass is a freshman in the College. famous commemorative race of that name. CANDID CANADIAN appears every Tuesday.

women’s basketball

track & field

Women’s DMR Sets Record Ashwin Wadekar Hoya Staff Writer

The track and field team has returned from a successful weekend at the Penn State National Meet, where 29 additional athletes qualified for the Big East championship as Georgetown demonstrated impressive composure for an early-season invitational.

The highlight of the weekend came in the women’s distance medley relay, where a time of 10:55.95 shattered the school record by nearly five seconds and earned a spot as one of the best times in collegiate history.

Junior Rachel Schneider got the squad off to a strong start, splitting 3:20 in the 1200-meter leg. Senior London Finley then set her personal record in the 400m split before handing the baton off to sophomore Chelsea Cox. Senior Emily Infeld anchored the squad

and completed the historic race that earned the unit an automatic qualifying bid to nationals.

“It doesn’t surprise me they ran that well, but all four athletes put together great races,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Patrick Henner said. “It shows that when you have a big-time athlete like Infeld at the anchor, everybody else steps up because they know what can happen if you put your anchor in a good position.”

The same trio, minus Finley, also dominated the 800m event, coming in at under 2:07. Infeld finished third overall, followed

by Cox in fifth and Schneider in sixth. Infeld finished right behind a familiar face: her sister Maggie, who graduated from Georgetown in 2009 and helped pace the Georgetown contingent. The elder Infeld took time off from Georgetown Medical School to

File Photo: SARI FRANKEL/THE HOYA

Kamryn Austin (5) and Biyerem Okengwu in the 60m hurdles.

train for an Olympic bid.

The highlight on the men’s side was junior Andrew Springer, whose one-mile time of 4:01.17, just three seconds short of an automatic bid to nationals, was good for fourth place overall.

“Andrew Springer had the top performance of the meet for the men,” Henner said. “He’s been training for the 3k and 5k, so for him to run that fast in the mile right now … is impressive.”

Freshman Brian King was also impressive this weekend, taking the top spot in the 5000m run with a time of 14:40.19.

“It was his best race. He ran really well,” Henner said. “He stayed composed and relaxed in the pack. He can run a much faster time, but it was his best race of the year [in that] he executed his game plan perfectly.”

The Blue and Gray also returned two athletes at the Penn meet who were recovering from injury, junior Justin Crawford and senior Biyerem Okengwu. Crawford’s time of 8.14 seconds in the 60m hurdles earned him 18th place overall, while Okengwu’s time of 8.17 placed him in 20th overall. “[Crawford] is at full speed, but he missed two weeks of training.

And if you’re not training, you’re falling behind. It just knocked him back a little,” Henner said.

“Biyerem is coming back strong, and he ran his seasonal best. He’s ready for a [personal record] at the Armory next week.”

Despite the returnees, Georgetown is still recovering from nagging injuries, but the team is also making strides early in the season.

“We had some great performances, but we’re still working our way back from injuries,” Henner said. “I think by [the] Big East [Champuionship] we’ll have everybody back.”

The Hoyas next compete this weekend at both the Giegengack Invitational in New Haven, Conn., and the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City.

CHRIS GRIVAS FOR THE HOYA

Senior Rubylee Wright’s 472 career assists are the most in Georgetown history.

GU Picks Up Resume Win RUTGERS, from A10 frustrated, so instead of playing at that same level we had to step it up.”

With 5:33 remaining in the first half, Rutgers redshirt senior guard Khadijah Rushdan went down hard, smacking her head on the hardwood. Rushdan was down holding the back of her neck for what seemed an eternity.

Thankfully, the scary moment ended with her being helped off the court in a wheelchair. Rushdan returned to cheer on her team from the bench in the second half, but her injury clearly affected the Scarlet Knights.

“I don’t think people realize how important she is and that she makes everything go,” Rutgers Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer said.

“The kind of point totals that we can get is a direct result of Khadijah. It’s not her scoring, but it’s obvious that she makes everything go.”

The Hoyas pulled away late in the first half, which ended with senior forward Adria Crawford’s buzzer-beating put-back. Georgetown had a seven-point lead and all of the momentum at the break.

The Blue and Gray started the second half on fire, going on a 7-0 run and never looking back. Rodgers did not have her best offensive day (19 points on 5-of-22 shooting), but Magee seemingly scored at will, recording a

game-high 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting.

“I feel like I always play hard, but my teammates came to me and said, ‘Tia, this is what we need from you. We need more production, we need you to be more aggressive,’” Magee said.

To pile on to the Hoyas’ already outstanding afternoon, senior guard Rubylee Wright’s fiveassist performance gave her a school-record 472 career assists.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without these girls,” Wright said. “I was blessed to have them on my side. They make everything else easier for me.”

The victory over the Scarlet Knights was the Hoyas’ first win over a ranked opponent since Dec. 21, when they beat then-No. 7 Miami (Fla.).

In Williams-Flournoy’s eyes, this was a mustwin game.

“What I told the team was we beat some ranked opponents in December, but now it’s the end of January and at this point you need a signature win going later into the season, into the Big East tournament, into the NCAA tournament,” Williams-Flournoy said. “We really needed a signature win over a ranked opponent.”

The Hoyas will look to keep riding this momentum when they travel to Cincinnati this Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. at Fifth Third Arena.

SPORTS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012

THE HOYA

A9

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Georgetown Falls to Surging Panthers in Road Test ANALYSIS, from A10 forward Nasir Robinson and redshirt sophomore forward Lamar Patterson were the primary scorers for the Panthers, making seemingly endless open layups and dunks on their way to a combined 41 points on 15-of-17 shooting.

The Blue and Gray’s inability to defend the paint led to an early 17-point deficit that they were ultimately unable to overcome.

“From the defensive end, what happened should not have happened,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “From lack of communication to lack of effort to breakdown.” “[The defense] was not good,” senior center Henry Sims said. “Transition defense, half court defense, we could have communicated a lot better. There were a lot of things we could have done better. Overall [it was] just a bad defensive performance.”

Georgetown looked hopelessly confused on the defensive end for most of the game. Robinson wasn’t just open — he was abandoned. With every dunk or wide-open layup, the Hoya defenders seemed to inch farther and farther away from the senior.

The Hoyas gathered themselves at halftime, however, and looked like they might be able to take control of the game after a nice run at the beginning of the second half had seemingly blunted all of the Panthers’ momentum.

With 15 minutes left in the game, Sims hit a jumper and Robinson committed a rare turnover. Georgetown had the ball down by five and had an unexpected opportunity to make it a one-possession game.

Two turnovers, three fouls, two missed shots and zero rebounds later, the deficit was back to double digits and the crowd was back into it.

“Everyone’s performance today, everyone on Georgetown basketball needs to get better,” Thompson III said after the game.

The Hoyas cut the deficit to six

points twice more in the second half, the last time coming at the four-minute mark when freshman forward Greg Whittington hit a pair of free throws.

Patterson responded with two assists on the Panthers’ next two possessions, leading directly to a dunk and a layup, and senior guard Ashton Gibbs followed a Sims turnover with a long jumper to push the lead back to 12 and put the game out of reach.

More worrisome than the Hoyas’ inability to come back, though, were their early struggles on the offensive end.

With 10:32 left in the first half, the Blue and Gray had scored only 11 points but were staying close to the Panthers thanks to a strong defensive effort that had held the Panthers to only 14. Over the next few minutes, though, the Blue and Gray’s defense deserted them and the offense was unable to pick up the slack. The Hoyas mustered only three points on 1-of-11 shooting in the next eight minutes, while the Panthers scored 17 points.

“We were getting the looks we wanted but they were not going into the basket,” Thompson III said. “It was not just our half-court defense, but our transition defense turned into easy shots for them.”

The poor shooting stretch included nine missed jumpers, including an ill-advised three-point attempt from sophomore forward Nate Lubick, who missed the wide-open look with 29 seconds left on the shot clock.

For the most part, though, this game was not the worst Georgetown has played — at least not offensively.

While the defense was horrendous, it showed flashes of competence, and the Panthers deserve credit for hitting 19-of-22 free throws and not committing too many fouls themselves.

The Petersen Events Center is never an easy place to play, as evidenced by visiting top-10 teams’ all-time 0-12 record in the building.

The loss isn’t as bad as the flaws

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Senior Henry Sims scored all of his 10 points in the second half of Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh. The 6-foot-10 center also had five assists in the loss, whcih was the third in six games for the Hoyas. it exposed. Defense has been the Hoyas’ calling card all year, often compensating for an offense that has consistently struggled with turnovers and free throws. With just one month remaining before postseason play starts, this is not the time for Georgetown to start

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

making defensive miscues.

“On the defensive end they got everything they wanted,” Thompson III said. “And when they didn’t, they got the rebound.”

Next up for the Hoyas is yet another desperate team: the Connecticut Huskies. The Huskies have lost five of

their past seven games and recently tumbled out of the national rankings, after starting the season as the No. 4 team in the country. If the Blue and Gray are to remain in the conversation for a Big East tournament double-bye, they can ill afford to lay another egg on Wednesday.

TURNING TWO IN THE 202

GU Stifles Rutgers in Upset Win MLB Salary System Works W

LEONARD OLSEN Hoya Staff Writer

This one was more than just a win for the No. 17 Georgetown women’s basketball team — it was a statement. The Hoyas upset No. 12 Rutgers in convincing fashion, defeating the Scarlet Knights, 5436, on Sunday afternoon at McDonough Arena.

“We really needed a signature win over a ranked opponent at this point in the season,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said after the game.

And a signature win it was. The Blue and Gray had lost three of their last four home games, all at the hands of ranked opponents, but they finally were able to end that streak and defeat a high-caliber Big East team.

“Defeat” may be a little too soft of a word. The Hoyas demolished the Scarlet Knights.

Georgetown came out firing straight out of the gate and played a relentless 40 minutes of basketball. They swarmed to the ball, crashed every rebound, and simply played with much more inten-

sity then their counterparts.

And their defense wasn’t too bad either: The Hoyas held Rutgers to a meager 36 points, which was over 20 points fewer than the Knights’ previous season-low in points scored.

Georgetown employed their signature press often, and Rutgers had no response, as the Hoyas scored 22 points off of as many turnovers. And when the press didn’t force turnovers, it ate time up on the shot clock and forced Rutgers into taking some tough looks.

“It was definitely one of our best defensive games,” WilliamsFlournoy said. “Our kids have bought into pressing and bought into defense being the key point to our program.”

The Hoyas dropped into a zone after pressing throughout most of the game, forcing the Scarlet Knights to beat them in their perimeter shooting. And, just as Georgetown hoped, Rutgers had an abysmal day from outside the paint. They shot a poor 30 percent as a team and did not connect on any of their 14 attempts from

CHRIS GRIVAS FOR THE HOYA

Junior guard Sugar Rodgers scored 19 points but shot only 5-of22 from the field in the Hoyas’ upset of No. 11 Rutgers.

three.

Senior wing April Sykes, Rutgers’ leading scorer and threepoint shooter, could not find her shooting stroke all night, finishing 0-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Georgetown also bottled up junior forward Monique Oliver down low.

“We were just outplayed. They were a much better team than we were today,” Rutgers Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer said.

The game started out close in the opening minutes, but with the game tied at eight with 13 minutes to play in the first half, the Hoyas took over. Junior guard Sugar Rodgers nailed a pair of threes on ensuing possessions and Rutgers fell into a scoring draught that lasted over six minutes.

The Scarlet Knights also caught a bad break with five minutes left in the half when they lost their offensive leader and point guard in senior Khadijah Rushdan, who went out with a head injury. Rushdan sat out the rest of the game, and her absence was evident in the Knights’ offensive output.

The Blue and Gray virtually put the game away early in the second half after scoring seven points in the first two minutes to go up 3317. Five of those seven came from senior forward Tia Magee, who stepped up big in the second half for the second straight game and led the Hoyas to victory. Magee shot 9-11 from the field and paced the Blue and Gray with 21 points. “[Tia] is very capable of taking over the game. Once she gets her confidence, she is hard to defend,” Williams-Flournoy said.

But Magee was sure to deflect the attention toward her teammates.

“My teammates have come to me and said they needed me to be more aggressive, and I’ve been making it a point to take all the things that they give,” Magee said.

The fans at McDonough Arena were not only treated to a dominant win, but also to a recordsetting night from Georgetown senior point guard Rubylee Wright.

Her five assists on the afternoon made her the new all-time assists leader in Georgetown history with 472.

“I just wouldn’t have been able to do it without these girls,” Wright said on setting the record.

“They make everything else easier for me.”

hen it comes to compensating The disappointing quarterback signed its players, Major League Base- a six-year, $61 million deal after he was drafted with the first-overall pick ball has it right.

For the past few weeks and into the in 2007. Contrast this with Tom Brady, next several, many players have been who earned “only” a few hundred thouand will be heading to arbitration with sand per year before cashing in later. their respective clubs to determine salaAfter last summer’s lockout, howries for the upcoming season. Although ever, the rookie pay scale was drastithe majority of players are under con- cally reduced to the point that top pick tract through extensions or free agency, Cam Newton got a remarkably smaller virtually every team deals with arbitra- four-year, $22 million deal. This system tion-eligible players every year. allows more money to be spent on vetUnder MLB rules, franchises control erans who, in theory, are more proven the rights to players for their first six and therefore more deserving of big seasons before free agency. For the first contracts. three years of most players’ careers, MLB has long recognized that players slight raises from the MLB minimum need to prove their worth at the highof roughly $400,000 are standard. Years est level before being compensated like four through six, however, require sub- a veteran. stantial hikes in salary, and teams and Likewise, without a salary cap restrictplayers are often at odds about the play- ing their spending like inthe NBA and ers’ worth.

NFL, baseball teams Based on previous are restricted only by players’ agreements what they feel they with ball clubs, playcan afford rather ers and teams can than by a leagueoften compromise wide rule. In the relying primarily on NBA, for example, a service time (time few players are paid spent on the active ridiculous amounts roster) and basic staof money at many of tistics such as home their peers’ expense. runs, runs batted in, Many teams dry up Preston Barclay batting average, etc., their usable funds to create a contract on one or two stars, for the next year. For so several protective The MLB, unlike to its fellow those that do not, measures have been however, teams and major professional leagues, implemented to still players will each file compensate veterfigures they feel are ans. The mid-level is a fairly free market. fair and the case will exception, for examgo to a judge to deterple, allows teams to mine the salary. exceed the salary cap to sign veterans Although players such as Tim Lince- at a higher salary than the league minicum and Hunter Pence either signed mum. The flaws with the NBA model contract extensions or deals approxi- are seemingly endless, however, with mately at the midpoint between what maximum contracts restricting the the player and club each filed for, big earning potential for many players. And names such as Clayton Kershaw and unlike the NFL, once an NBA contract is Mike Napoli remain ready to fight it out signed, every penny is guaranteed. with their clubs.

The MLB, unlike to its fellow major Regardless of the results, however, professional leagues, is a relatively free the MLB’s system of compensating its market. Young players have to earn their athletes will remain the best of the keep, but once they have, they are paid major professional sports leagues in at the market value of their skills. The America. system does not force teams to restrict Prior to the 2011-2012 NFL season, the their offers to players, and the addition pay disparity between top draft picks of arbitration allows players to gain suband veterans was incomprehensible. Be- stantially — even early in their careers. fore ever stepping on the field, top-five Although the lack of a salary cap may picks were agreeing to deals with tens limit parity, MLB’s system is the fairest of millions of dollars guaranteed and out of all of the major American sports contracts exceeding those of players leagues in compensating its athletes. who had performed at a high level for years in the league.

Preston Barclay is a sophomore in the This system allowed an infamous McDonough School of Business. TURNbust like JaMarcus Russell to earn $38 ING TWO IN THE 202 appears every Tuesmillion over his relatively brief career. day.

Sports

MEN’S BASKETBALL No. 14 Hoyas (16-4) vs. Connecticut (14-6) Tomorrow, 7 p.m.

Verizon Center

tuesDAY, january 31, 2012

Recent Scores: big east MEN’s basketball

WHAT’S INSIDE: Leonard Olsen analyzes the women’s basketball team’s upset win over Rutgers Sunday afternoon.

Notre Dame 50 Connecticut 48

Providence USF

78 81

West Virginia 61 63 Syracuse

Upcoming Games: big east MEN’s basketball Seton Hall at Marquette Tonight, 8 p.m.

Connecticut at WVU Tomorrow, 7 p.m.

Rutgers at Providence Tomorrow, 7 p.m.

“Everyone on Georgetown basketball needs to get better.”

Men’s basketball Head Coach John Thompson III

woMen’s Basketball

men’s basketball

Defense Lapses at Pittsburgh Woodall’s passing keys Panthers to 72-60 upset of then-No. 9 Georgetown Michael Palmer Hoya Staff Writer

scored 22 points off Rutgers miscues compared to eight points on 11 turnovers for the visitors. Magee played a big role on the defensive end, creating a few fast-break layups off steals.

“Our coaches told us to emphasize [the turnovers],” Magee said.

“Once we got them to start turning over the ball, they started getting

Bad luck. Just plain bad luck. That’s what happened to Georgetown Saturday.

Not the game itself. That was just plain bad defense, bad offense, bad everything.

Had the Hoyas played anywhere near as well as they did earlier this season, this would have gone down as a win.

But it was not to be, as Pittsburgh received a timely boost in the form of junior point guard Tray Woodall’s return from injury. Woodall, who missed 11 of 12 games before returning to action against Louisville Jan. 21, has seemingly picked up right where he left off before he got hurt.

Although he labored through 21 scoreless minutes against the Cardinals, Woodall put up 17 points and nine assists against Providence three days before handing out 10 assists against Georgetown. The consecutive wins against the Friars and Hoyas were the first the Panthers earned in the Big East.

The Panthers needed this game. For the first time in seven years, Pitt will most likely not make the NCAA tournament thanks to already having nine losses. A few more would certainly eliminate the Panthers from the bracket.

Woodall shot only 1-of-7 from the floor against the Hoyas, but his passing opened up the floor for his teammates, who shot nearly 59 percent from the floor. Senior

See RUTGERS, A8

See ANALYSIS, A9

CHRIS GRIVAS FOR THE HOYA

Senior forward Tia Magee squares up against Rutgers freshman guard Briyona Canty. Magee led the Hoyas with 21 points en route to a blowout win.

Magee, Georgetown Topple No. 11 Rutgers Matt Carlucci Special to The Hoya

Looking up at the scoreboard four minutes into the game and seeing a 4-2 Rutgers lead might have led Georgetown fans to think that poor shooting would again be the headline of the day. But the Blue and Gray figured out their offense eventually, dominating down the stretch in a 54-36 upset

of the then-No. 11 Scarlet Knights (17-4, 6-2 Big East).

The No. 17 Hoyas (17-5, 6-3 Big East) held Rutgers to a season-low 36 points on 30.8 percent shooting from RUTGERS 36 the floor, includGeorgetown 54 ing a 0-of14 performance from behind the arc. Moreover, the Hoyas forced 22 turnovers, led by five steals apiece

from senior forward Tia Magee and junior guard Sugar Rodgers. “[That performance was] probably close to the best,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “Especially when you think about the top-ranked opponents, it’s definitely one of our better defensive games. I think it might be second, right behind Miami.”

The turnovers were a huge difference in the outcome, as the Hoyas

men’s basketball

Down the stretch they come

Hoyas Play Host to Reeling Huskies Lawson Ferguson Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: SARI FRANKEL/THE HOYA

Sophomore Max Darrah (4), shown at the Hoya Spiked Shoe Invitational, finished third in the 3K run at Penn State Nationals last weekend. See A8.

No. 14 Georgetown (16-4, 6-3 Big East) welcomes Connecticut (14-6, 4-4 Big East) to Verizon Center tomorrow in a matchup of Big East powers looking to get back on track after losing to unranked opponents last weekend.

The Huskies’ situation is somewhat more dire, though, as Head Coach Jim Calhoun’s squad is mired in a threegame losing streak and has lost five of its last seven games. The most recent loss — which came at home, against a Notre Dame team Connecticut had beaten soundly just two weeks earlier on the road — sent the Huskies spiraling out of the national rankings.

Unlike Georgetown, Connecticut was tabbed for big things in the preseason, opening the year ranked No. 4 in the country before a surprising loss to Central Florida knocked it down a few spots. The Huskies remained in the top 10 for several weeks after that, but their current skid has pushed them from the top 25 entirely.

Sunday’s loss to Notre Dame wasn’t without its positives, though, as freshman guard Ryan Boatright returned to action after missing the previous three games — including the win over Notre Dame — as the NCAA investigated his eligibility.

The Illinois native had previously been suspended for the first six games of the season as the NCAA investigated those issues, but has bounced back nicely and is fourth on the team in scoring with 9.8 points per game.

Boatright, who plays a sixth-man role similar to that of Georgetown freshman forward Otto Porter, also dishes

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Freshman forward Otto Porter scored 14 points in a loss to Pitt Saturday.

out 3.4 assists per game and is shooting 48 percent from the floor and 40 percent from behind the arc.

The Hoyas did an uncharacteristically good job of limiting turnovers in their loss to Pittsburgh, but struggled mightily on defense and will be in for a long night if they give up

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similarly open looks to the more talented Huskies.

“Everyone’s performance today, everyone on Georgetown basketball needs to get better,” Head Coach John Thompson III said after the game on Saturday.

See UCONN, A7