The Hoya: May 18, 2012

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Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 93, No. 47, © 2012

COMMENCEMENT ISSUE | FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012

SUMMER 2012

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Yield Hits 47% Sebelius Invite Draws Backlash In Return to Norm SARAH PATRICK Hoya Staff Writer

ADRIANNA SMITH

the incoming freshman class through acceptances from the waitlist.

“We can address things like Georgetown saw a 47 percent yield rate for the 2012 geographic diversity … [and admissions cycle, a 1.5 per- accept more] underrepresentcent drop from last year’s re- ed minority kids, particularly African Americans and Mexicord high of 48.5 percent.

Of 3,317 accepted students, can Americans,” Deacon said. about 1,565 have submitted “It allows us to balance [the deposits to secure a their spot freshman class] out, fine-tune in the Class of 2016. While it and also retain the same the Office of Undergraduate quality that we otherwise Admissions is still waiting to wouldn’t have had.”

Georgetown is also affected receive a few late checks, it has already accepted about by the decisions of students 50 students off the waitlist, who are accepted off the waitaccording to Dean of Under- lists of other top schools.

In addition, statistics from graduate Admissions Charles previous years Deacon. show that anThe higher “Our conclusion nually, about 50 yield rate in is very good. ... students who 2011 allowed submit deposits the university We’ve come in do not attend to fill the Class Georgetown bevirtually exactly of 2015 without they are pulling from where we wanted cause accepted from its waitlist at the waitlists of all, while this to come in.” other schools year’s rate is CHARLES DEACON and choose to more in line Dean of Undergraduate Admissions enroll at those with Georgeinstitutions intown’s average yield of 47 percent over the stead.

According to Deacon, many past 12 years.

Due to a strict enrollment of those students end up atcap set in the university’s tending Ivy League schools.

Though Georgetown’s yield 2000 Campus Plan, Georgetown must come as close saw a slight decline, other as possible to a class size of top-tier universities have re1,580 students. Since last ported increases. Harvard Massachusetts year’s yield was much higher University, than expected, the Office of Institute of Technology and Admissions accepted about Northwestern University all 100 fewer students in the saw record yields of 81, 70 2011-2012 admissions cycle and 43 percent, respectively, than in 2010-2011, helping to for the Class of 2016.

Overall, Deacon said he is bring the university’s acceptance rate down to a record pleased with the outcome of this year’s admissions prolow of 16.5 percent.

Deacon said that his office cess.

“Our conclusion is very hopes to accept between 75 and 80 of the 1,150 waitlist- good,” Deacon said. “We’ve ed students this admissions come in virtually exactly where we wanted to come cycle.

He added that initially ac- in so [that] we aren’t going cepting fewer students allows to have too many [incoming the university to balance out freshmen].”

Hoya Staff Writer

Despite outrage from a variety of religious and pro-life groups, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is still set to speak at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s Tropaia awards ceremony.

In a letter to the Georgetown community released Monday, University President John J. DeGioia emphasized that the invitation is not an endorsement of Sebelius’ political views and will not be rescinded.

Secured as a speaker in January before the Obama administration’s announcement regarding the modified health care regulations, Sebelius was chosen due to her accomplishments in public policy, according to Tropaia Chair Julia Druhan (GRD ’12).

Sebelius served as the second female governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009.

After being appointed HHS secretary in 2009, she played a large role in craft-

ing the Obama administration’s health care legislation.

“We didn’t invite her for political reasons. We invited her because we wanted someone who is qualified to talk to public policy students about public service,” Druhan said.

After accepting the invitation from GPPI, Sebelius took a lead role in the HHS contraception mandate, which requires religiously affiliated institutions like Georgetown to provide contraceptive coverage to students and employees. But according to Druhan, event organizers do not think Sebelius’s speech will focus on the HHS mandate and the ensuing controversy.

The May 4 announcement that Sebelius would be speaking accelerated the already controversial debate about how the contraception mandate will be implemented at Georgetown.

Professor Patrick Deneen, the former director of the Tocqueville Forum who See SEBELIUS, A7

Seniors Celebrate With Record Gift KATHERINE FOLEY Hoya Staff Writer

This year’s graduation festivities started with a bang Thursday afternoon as the Class of 2012 presented a record-high gift to the university during the convocation ceremony.

The $126,052.50 check, which was presented by newly elected 2012 Alumni Class Chairs Chris Butterfield (MSB ’12) and Katie Eisenstein (COL ’12), included funds raised by the Class of 2012 and a matching donation from the board of regents.

In March, an anonymous donor an-

CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

The 2012 alumni class chairs presented President John J. DeGioia with this year’s senior class gift, which totalled $126,052.50.

A TIME-HONORED TRADITION: HEALY THIEVES END SEVEN-YEAR DROUGHT

Hoya Staff Writer

MICHELLE CASSIDY/THE HOYA

Healy Tower’s famed clock hands were noticeably absent after their April 30 theft. See story on A5.

Published Tuesdays and Fridays

nounced that he or she would donate an additional $1 million to the university if more than 68 percent of seniors contributed to the class gift. The Class of 2012 exceeded this benchmark by 2 percent, setting a record at 70 percent participation.

Provost James O’Donnell opened the convocation ceremony, which was held in McDonough Arena. Megan Hickey (COL ’12) led a performance of the national anthem, and Vice President for Mission and Ministry Kevin O’Brien, S.J., and former Jewish Student Association President Samantha Sisskind (SFS ’12) led prayers.

The convocation address was given

by Helen O’Reilly (SFS ’03), who has worked to provide legal advice for children with disabilities in New York and was granted a Luce Scholarship to spend two years advocating for factory workers’ rights in the Philippines. Her speech encouraged seniors to reflect on their core values in their post-college lives. The address was followed by the presentation of the class gift, after which Butterfield and Eisenstein led See GRAD, A7

Design Phase Begins For New Student Center MATTHEW STRAUSS

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

COURTESY DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

Sebelius will speak at the Public Policy Institute’s Tropaia ceremony today.

Plans for the construction of the New South Student Center took a leap forward this month after the NSSC Committee chose the architecture firm ikon.5 to design the new space.

The firm, based in Princeton, N.J., specializes in designing facilities for colleges and other academic institutions. It was selected through a competitive bidding process administered by the committee and is now negotiating a contract with the university.

“With ikon.5, we really sensed their ability and interest in working with students,” Zachary Singer (SFS ’15), student member of the NSSC Committee, said.

According to Singer, ikon.5 impressed the committee with plans to incorporate student input in the design process. The firm plans to hold creative meetings with students throughout the summer in D.C. and other major cities.

Principal architect Joseph Tattoni described his vision for the new student space as focused on the building’s view of the river.

“We see it as a blank canvas. There are so many opportunities with this project because it is one of the few

buildings that has a great view of the Potomac,” he said.

Tattoni explained that in Georgetown’s early days, most of the university’s buildings faced the river, which served as the main view and focal point for campus architecture. Fr. Patrick Healy, S.J., the university’s 29th president, then decided that Georgetown should face the city and altered the campus’s design focus to that end.

Once contract negotiations are finalized, ikon.5 will begin working to design a space that can fit into the existing infrastructure of New South Hall, including the piping and underground work already in place. Renovation plans must also take into consideration the fact that the building’s residents must continue to live in New South during construction.

According to Tattoni, the design process will move along an accelerated timeline so that the new space can open by fall 2014.

“The university wants us to move very quickly on this,” Tattoni said.

“Typically, projects of this scale take a year to design, but this project will most likely move more quickly.”

As construction plans develop, discussions have already begun about See NSSC, A7

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

DCPS Lacks Justice and Integrity

Founded January 14, 1920

To the Editor:

EDITORIALS

A Time for Mischief The recent theft of the Healy clock hands has forced both students and administrators to re-evaluate what the tradition means to us.

Given the safety hazards and extreme risks involved in stealing the clock hands, the university is fully justified in maintaining precautions to deter all but the most dedicated pranksters from attempting the heist.

But because of the value the Georgetown culture attaches to the tradition, we would like to see the university remove the threat of punishment for those who succeed in the endeavor.

Part of the wonder of the prank comes from the fact that it happens only every few years, making it all

the more important that those with knowledge of how to steal the hands do not disseminate information about how to pull it off. The allure of stealing the clock hands comes from the inherent risk, the mystery and the legacy of continuing a revered Georgetown tradition.

Stealing the Healy clock hands is one of Georgetown’s few authentic student-led customs. Aside from sitting on John Carroll’s lap or exploring the tunnels, students on this campus generally steer clear of good, old-fashioned mischief. If anything, this one prank is valuable because it leaves everyone from freshmen to alumni wondering, awe-struck how it was accomplished.

Beyond the Job Hunt The future has been at the forefront of senior class members’ minds for the past few months as their undergraduate years come to a close. More specifically, graduating seniors are asking themselves whether four years of hard work and accumulated debt have been worthwhile.

A person’s academic performance in college has long been considered a sign of his potential to succeed. But as more and more people receive bachelor’s degrees, an undergraduate education is no longer sufficient qualification for many jobs. Employers now expect graduate degrees, technical skills and outside work experience from applicants, calling into question the value of an undergraduate liberal arts education.

But an undergraduate degree, especially one in the liberal arts, has value beyond potential economic returns.

College provides the opportunity to explore majors that some deem “use-

less,” like philosophy or those in the fine arts. These majors, while not technically training students in specific skill sets, offer unique lenses through which to view the world and are thus opportunities to expand student perspectives.

College is not merely an opportunity to prepare for one specific skill or eventual career. Given the growing need for graduate degrees, undergrads should now be free to pursue majors once considered economically impractical. Students should no longer feel the need to choose the major most conducive to a professional track.

As Georgetown graduates step into the world of salaries and mortgages, they should feel proud and satisfied.

Their degrees represent a hurdle overcome in their pursuit of professional success, but more importantly, the last four years have helped them to understand the world that they are stepping into.

The Bubble Mentality With all the resources of Hilltop life at our fingertips, it’s no wonder Georgetown students don’t pop the bubble more often.

The “Georgetown bubble” describes the physical and emotional isolation of life on the Hilltop. While it’s certainly fair to critique students’ level of engagement with the rest of the District, it’s also worth considering what — or who — is really at fault for the bubble’s existence.

It’s easy to blame Georgetown’s physical separation for students’ lack of involvement with the D.C. community. The campus is distant from downtown and deprived of adequate public transportation. A Metro stop or expanded GUTS bus service would likely expedite travel and save money, allowing more students to take part in protests, festivals and service opportunities.

The true culprit, however, is not a

physical barrier but emotional barriers constructed by students themselves. It is easy to be consumed by college life and become disconnected from the outside world, but the real danger occurs when the bubble becomes an excuse for self-indulgent isolation. When students evoke the bubble in this way, it becomes a motivational barrier in and of itself.

While we encourage students to continue working to break out of the bubble, it’s also important to recognize that Georgetown’s insularity can contribute to our close-knit campus community. We don’t want Georgetown to blur the boundaries of campus, as is common at other urban colleges, particularly The George Washington University. As long as our campus-centered focus doesn’t contribute to apathy, it can lead to a greater appreciation for the brevity and significance of life on the Hilltop.

Connor Gregoire, Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kaplan, Executive Editor Steven Piccione, Managing Editor Matthew Strauss, Campus News Editor Braden McDonald, City News Editor Evan Hollander, Sports Editor Victoria Edel, Guide Editor Danny Funt, Opinion Editor Leonel De Velez, Photography Editor Emory Wellman, Layout Editor Emily Perkins, Copy Chief Molly Mitchell, Multimedia Editor Michelle Cassidy, Blog Editor

Contributing Editors Mariah Byrne, Patrick Curran, Kavya Devarakonda, Katherine Foley, Bethany Imondi, Upasana Kaku, Shakti Nochur, Samantha Randazzo, Ashwin Wadekar, Lauren Weber

Emma Hinchliffe Sarah Patrick Kelly Church Sam Rodman Arik Parnass Ryan Bacic Phoebe Lett Hunter Main Jamie Slater Hanaa Khadraoui Sari Frankel Zoe Bertrand Jessica Natinsky Nikita Buley Kendall Ciesemier Martin Hussey

Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy City News Editor Deputy Features Editor Deputy Sports Editor Sports Blog Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Layout Editor Graphics Editor Deputy Multimedia Editor Deputy Blog Editor

Editorial Board Danny Funt, Chair Kent Carlson, Sidney Chiang, Nneka Jackson, Hanaa Khadraoui, Laura Wagner

I am a 1965 graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. I recently retired after 42 years as a history teacher in the D.C. Public Schools.

The following is an open letter to University President John J. DeGioia: I am very disappointed that you conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters on D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson and used the following words to describe her: “Her integrity, passion for justice and ability to bring together communities has enabled her to … strengthen the foundation for education in cities across the nation.”

I am one of many DCPS teachers, including several Georgetown graduates, whose successful teaching careers were cut short by Chancellors Michelle Rhee and Kaya Henderson. Their reform — fire “bad” teachers and reward “excellent” teachers with bonuses — has failed.

As a student at Georgetown, integrity and justice gained meaning for me when I helped organize campus support for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. In Montgomery, Ala., joining the march from Selma and experiencing the power of justice in the shadow of its denial helped shape my decision to become a teacher.

Kaya Henderson joined DCPS in 2007 when she was appointed deputy chancellor by former Chancellor Michelle Rhee. With the support of foundations, the chancellors developed an unethical, two-part teacher termination policy. The policy involves a new and harsher teacher evaluation system, which uses the same criteria for all teachers regardless of grade level or subject, and an “excessing” policy, which enables the use of budget changes to remove teaching positions and put teachers with effective ratings

“

in an “excess” status with no right to vacant positions in their licensure area. Treated like new hires, if no principal accepts these teachers, the chancellor terminates them.

This situation is currently facing 333 recently excessed teachers.

When Henderson and Rhee took over, good standards for most subjects had just been written. Curricula, the bridge between standards and teacher lesson plans and the basis for a fair evaluation process were next. Curricula were not written; their absence created more work and uncertainty for teachers.

In June 2008, Rhee arbitrarily transferred Wilson High School’s respected advanced placement biology teacher, whose 71 percent pass rate over 14 years is unrivaled in DCPS. Over 550 former students and parents petitioned Rhee. She stonewalled, no reason given. Henderson was silent.

A year later, Rhee dissolved the city-wide science department and terminated its director.

According to reports last week from the Nation Assessment of Educational Progress, only 7 percent of D.C. students tested “proficient” in 2011’s eighth-grade-level science test, the lowest in the nation. Rhee and Henderson’s disrespectful treatment of science education shares responsibility for those results.

To me, “integrity” means defending standards of behavior and revising them if they are flawed — not secretly bypassing them. At Wilson High School in 2002 and 2006, I discovered the widespread practice of altered student grades and students awarded diplomas despite missing required courses. Fixed grades are like counterfeit currency: worthless.

In 2010 I reported to Rhee and Henderson that students with hundreds of class cuts

were allowed on a Wilson High School senior class trip to the Bahamas, which she, by law, had to approve and should have reviewed. It was also after my principal told me that my anti-cheating precautions, for example, a scrambled test page order, were “creating an expectation that students will cheat, and they will rise to it.”

In August 2010, Rhee involuntarily transferred me to Phelps High School because of “significant educational philosophical differences between you and the Wilson administration.” She and Henderson ignored the timetable for due process hearings. When I was excessed in June 2011, however, Henderson followed the excess timetable.

Rhee and Henderson have fired hundreds of teachers using unethical methods that bear no correlation to student performance. Their ties to foundations have enabled them to escape accountability.

In April 2010, the public learned that Rhee had arranged for a three-year grant of $63.75 million for bonuses, excessing and salary increments.

The conditions required that DCPS meet a list of “predicted gains”: 16 items in 2010 and 20 items in 2011. DCPS met none of the items on the 2010 list and only two on the 2011 list, but the grants apparently kept coming.

By now, almost half of DCPS teachers are replacements hired by the chancellors — in 11 Ward 8 schools, over 70 percent. The Rhee-Henderson policy that schools can be improved by firing and rehiring has failed — by their own standards.

As long as they are lionized by prominent city leaders, they will continue to ruin lives and escape accountability.

What can you do to restore integrity and justice to DCPS? Erich Martel (SFS ’65)

READER’S RESPONSE 40,000 signatures in just the past few days urging GU to rescind her invitation to Ms. Sebelius. Several national television news shows feature this story. People are concerned! We’re talking about religious freedom here! Tell me again upon which principles our great nation was founded, ditto our first Catholic college?

”

Concerned Hoya on “Commencement Speakers Announced” Posted May 10, 2012

A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD US ... @wpjenna

May 8 Georgetown’s Healy clock once again has hands. Replacements?

Originals? @thehoya @CasualHoya May 8 The Axis of Evil has been defeated. RT @thehoya: The clock hands on the front of Healy Tower have been replaced. @HealyClockTower May 8 I hope so too. I’m not too optimistic though, it’s not high on Interpol’s priority list... @thehoya4E

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SENIOR COMMENTARY

friday, may 18, 2012

THE HOYA

A3

Allison Villarreal

Brooke Heinichen

What’s in a Cup of Coffee Forever Our Alma Mater S A t around 11 p.m. last Friday night, I clocked out of my closing shift at The Midnight MUG for the final time. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that in the fall I won’t be trudging across campus to my house at 3 a.m. covered in syrup and coffee grounds.

It didn’t become real to me until I took down my nameplate from The Corp’s Chief Operating Officer desk and turned my 30-something keys and COO Blackberry over to the next bright-eyed Corpie officers for their turn to run this company.

My parents joke that I majored in Corp. Their jokes are much more accurate than they realize, considering that I’ve spent far more time at a storefront or at my Corp desk than I ever did on schoolwork. However, this did not stop me from getting an education.

I’ve never been to a school like Georgetown — a school where the campus life and community are driven, lead and inspired by the students far more than by a top-down administration. We run our coffee shops, grocery stores, banks, newspapers and student government almost exclusively on our own. As we say in The Corp, there are no grown-ups allowed. And as much as I have learned in Georgetown’s classrooms, the unique leadership and entrepreneurial opportunity The Corp has provided me has expanded my Georgetown education even more.

Georgetown students can hardly appreciate the freedom we have at this school to captain our own education and direct our community.

In exchange, we each have an obligation to enrich the community around us and to earn our place at this school by contributing whatever we can, however we can,

to sustain this vibrant community.

For my part, I contribute a cup of coffee. Standing tall at six inches, this 12-ounce, $1.50 cup of socially responsible caffeine might be the first of four for one student, the midday pick-me-up for an administrator or a desperate inspirational beverage for someone at 1:59 a.m. when he has 10 pages to go.

But does this cup of coffee earn what Georgetown has given me? Could it ever?

Georgetown gave me some of the best friends I’ll ever have, engaging in late-night chats in our Leavey office

or on the couches after The Midnight MUG has closed, and in return I’ll ring up your Bagel Bites. “Here,” said Georgetown, “enjoy having a seat in front of professors Madeleine Albright and Marc Busch.” “And here!” I cried in return. “Please let me lift your storage boxes.”

Georgetown let me be on the board of directors of a multi-million dollar, student-run company, and I pay it back by negotiating with a vendor to get pre-packaged chocolate-covered espresso beans. Georgetown gave me license to pursue happiness in clubs, office hours and

genuine conversations on graduation, life and relationships in senior capstone.

In return I got licensed to be a D.C. food handler, so for four years I could keep our stores open and operational.

If you measure a year in the time it takes to serve a cup of coffee, my service to the community is probably no more than three minutes of someone’s day, and my meager contribution has hardly compensated for what Georgetown has given to me: the community, education, friends and experience. But it’s something.

The scale or visibility of the impact may vary, but each student has an obligation to give back to the community from which we enrich our own lives, an obligation that extends beyond the gates and after graduation.

This is more than just a call for extracurricular involvement, although I maintain that no Georgetown experience is complete if you never leave a classroom or the library, no matter what your transcript says. Rather, it is a call to serve one another and lend our time and talents to this community, even if it’s only through the art of beverage preparation and latte foam.

On Saturday, I will graduate. Someone will hand me a diploma in exchange for all of the sweat, coffee and tears that I’ve put in over the last four years. It’s taken me that long to understand all that Georgetown has given me, and it would take many more years and lattes to repay that, but that’s no excuse not to try. I can’t offer a lot, but it’s all I’ve got.

Would you like room for milk with that?

Brooke Heinichen is a senior in the School of Foreign Service and the former chief operating officer of The Corp.

Greg Laverriere

GU Life: A Family Affair I

f my time on the Hilltop has taught me anything, it is that Georgetown students make up a unique family. My Georgetown story starts back in 2000, when I first arrived on the Hilltop to help move my oldest sister Elizabeth (COL ’04) into Village C, and it continued throughout the last decade with my other sisters, Kate (NHS ’07) and Caroline (COL ’09). It wasn’t until I began my own four years at Georgetown, however, that I truly realized how special this place is. I had no idea that my family was about to get exponentially bigger.

Over the last year, I have had the privilege of serving as vice president of the Georgetown University Student Association. This opportunity has allowed me to experience Georgetown in a fashion outside of the typical student experience and has given me further insight into just how special this place is. We may not have the money of Harvard or Yale. We may not have the facilities of Syracuse or Cornell. However, what we do have is thousands upon thousands of Georgetown students, faculty, administrators and alumni who have a pure and unabashed love of this school and who together form one big family.

I never had a brother growing up, but at Georgetown, I found two: my roommate for all four years, Charles Jang (MSB ’12), and former GUSA President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12). They have been there for me through everything — the good, the bad and the ugly. I have found mentors in Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., Jeanne Lord and Erika Cohen Derr. These individuals, as well as countless other students, teachers and administrators, work tirelessly to make Georgetown a better place. They pour their hearts into what they do.

In the most basic sense, they represent the Jesuit

ideal of men and women for others.

Students at Georgetown truly are men and women for each other. We learn to treat each other as family — we push each other to work harder, to be better and to fight for the things that matter. Like any family, we disagree. We point out each other’s faults. We ask a lot and expect the best from our fellow students, and we try to hold ourselves to the same standards. But whether it’s sharing a pitcher at The Tombs, procrastinating on Lau 2, debating economic policy with roommates at 2 a.m., attending a professor’s office hours or pouring hours of work into student organizations, love is always present.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have repeatedly heard the question, “What are your favorite memories of Georgetown?” This question makes me think back to a car ride home this past Thanksgiving with Charles.

At that time, I responded to this very question by saying, “Mine was giving Mike the biggest hug in Lau after hearing we had won the GUSA executive election and crying in the stacks when I told my sister the news.”

Charles, however, had a slightly different reply. He said that what he would remember most fondly is simply walking around campus and taking the time to enjoy everything around him. My initial response to his answer was laughter, but after a little bit of reflection, I realized just how profound my roommate’s response actually was. It demonstrated how he felt God’s self-sacrificing, all-encompassing love in everything he saw and did at Georgetown. I am reminded of my mom’s favorite quote from the play “Les Miserables”: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” Whenever two or more Hoyas are interacting, be it in Red Square, Gaston Hall or The Midnight MUG, God’s love is present.

When I walk across the stage at graduation, I will be taking with me each and every memory from my time on the Hilltop. But more importantly, I will carry with me the strength and confidence that four years full of love have bestowed upon my classmates and me.

I will be taking with me a family made up of parents, siblings, students, faculty, administrators and alumni that I wouldn’t trade for anything and that will always hold a special place in my heart. I have found that Georgetown educates and brightens not only our minds but also our souls. We learn the value of extending the cloak of family around our fellow students, and together we build something bigger than ourselves. And this we will carry with us long past our time at Georgetown.

Greg Laverriere is a senior in the College and former vice president of the Georgetown University Student Association.

eniors, I want you to do something for me. I want you to look in a mirror and tell yourself, “My life is going to be radically different.”

The fact of the matter is, it will be. It is going to be radically different because we are leaving our alma mater, which means “nourishing mother.”

You are leaving your mother, except here, mother is actually a school, and instead of paying her with love and kisses, we pay her in cash. And maybe for some of us, she was a bit neglectful, but whether you see her as a good mom or a bad mom, by graduating from this school there is this now an intangible, irrevocable, familial bond that — much like family — exists whether you like it or not.

Potentially even more salient is the idea that our life as a student is over when it is all we have known since age four or five. That’s not to say that school is our life, but it has been a huge facet of our day-today existence, and now it won’t be. Many of you will be going on to graduate programs; I tip my hat to you. But I feel like a sprinter who was asked to run a marathon, and I’ve finally reached — and collapsed at — the finish line. I am ready to start the rest of my life.

When I matriculated at Georgetown, my intention was to graduate with a degree in chemistry on the premed track and then transition into the School of Medicine. That went well for a while, but like many, I became a fallen soldier on the premed path my sophomore year. Before anyone gets too sad, it was because Georgetown had, even in my second year, emboldened me with fearless inquiry. Thanks to Georgetown’s liberal arts tradition, I got a taste of a lot of things and ended up finding something even tastier than science: theater. I shifted gears a bit and decided to learn as much as I could about this new love.

However, feeling the pressures of society and capitalist culture, I decided I should get a “useful” degree in addition to theatre — which is useful but not necessarily profitable — and settled on psychology, the perfect blend of my former passion for science and my pervasive passion for people.

But that’s only the academic side. Personally, I grew in ways I didn’t intend and could not have imagined. When one is thrown into a very different, new environment, she feels the impulse to either conform or strike out on her own. Everyone makes the choice, and neither option is necessarily better than the other, but I found myself asserting my Mexican heritage, something I had not had to do before, as well as taking on roles as an LGBTQ activist and a body-positive individual in new, more aggressive ways. The only reason I was able to engage in these passions was that Georgetown provided me with the avenues to do so. I got

involved early on with Pride and the LGBTQ Resource Center and was able to write and perform my theater and performance studies thesis on fat acceptance.

I feel like I could go on and on about social learning in my life as a resident assistant at the Culture and Performance Living Learning Community, associate producer of Nomadic Theatre and just generally making so many new, different kinds of friends, but I feel like we’ve all had those experiences, and in a way, it can go unsaid.

The bottom line is that we have grown up at Georgetown. Even though I am terrified of the rest of my life, I am now a more fully formed adult thanks to this school.

I am leaving Georgetown with tangible knowledge, sure, but more importantly, I am leaving having learned how to keep learning without a classroom. I have learned how to go about making an impact on the world, having already made an impact on this school.

Because each and every one of us passed through its doors, this school is different, even if only minutely.

And I have learned that I am a valued person.

The invisible bond we have with this school also gives us an intangible bond to each other.

If you are reading this, you are a valued person.

I value you for coming here, whether you were my classmate, my friend, my roommate or the person who swiped my GoCard in Copley.

For all of that and more, all I have to say is: Happy belated Mother’s Day, Georgetown, our dear alma mater.

Allison Villarreal is a senior in the College and the associate producer of Nomadic Theatre.

Jed Feiman

Just a Few Clarifications B efore we all say goodbye to our shallow acquaintances, suffer to get our dysfunctional families out of sight and say farewell to the Hilltop tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to clear up common misconceptions about some events at Georgetown over the past four years.

1. I am president of the Stewards.

For all those unfamiliar with the group, it is the main secret society at Georgetown.

Others include Cloak and Dagger, Cross and Circle and Mask and Bauble. Merriam-Webster defines “steward” as “one employed in a large household or estate to manage domestic concerns as the supervision of servants, collection of rents, and keeping of accounts.” But the Stewards — with a capital S — mainly hand out candy during finals in Lauinger, meet secretly to discuss important university matters and hand out candy during finals in Lauinger. Here’s some trivia: I actually became the youngest member ever when I was first tapped in 2003 at the height of the Iraq War. The Steward experience has been critical in my professional development and my candy-eating during finals.

2. All of the laptops that I stole throughout our four years can be picked up on Copley Lawn following commencement exercises.

My friends and I — the Stewards — are generous enough to provide laptops as commencement presents to all members of the senior class. We figured we would be the indie Robin Hoods of Georgetown, stealing computers from professors, nerds in Lauinger and residents of Village A and giving them back to unemployed members of the senior class. It was going to be a complete surprise, but unfortunately, all of those annoying DPS emails through the years blew our cover. Whatever. Enjoy the laptops.

I’m sure you’ll be happy to have yours back. And since most of them haven’t been used since their burglary, as a “you’re welcome” present, I would recommend running your anti-virus updater.

3. Norovirus was really a science experiment that got out of hand.

In the fall of our freshman year, a few hundred students sought medical treatment for norovirus, a virus that usually spreads in prisons or prison-like cafeterias at Georgetown. After doing some research at the Leo O’Donovan Hall Research Library, which is located behind the stir-fry counter, I’ve found that norovirus was actually designed and produced in a lab here as part of a competition in a public policy class. The goal was to see how quickly one could force the school to change Grab ‘n’ Go companies. I know from personal experience that many of my fellow residents of Darnall ached in constant nausea, vomit and general pain. And then norovirus made things much worse.

Anyway, the library in Leo’s is amazing and has a lot of outlets.

4. I didn’t really mail the Healy clock hands to the Vatican.

Mailing the hands to the Pope for his blessing has been a tradition here since the 1960s and frequently mentioned on Georgetown tours. Firstly, yes, I and I alone stole the hands. Or at least that’s what I’m going to say until the real culprit — me — claims responsibility.

Anyway, the day after, I wasn’t really feeling the whole UPS thing.

In actuality, after landing on Healy with my hippogriff and taking a look at the hands themselves, I discovered something very interesting. Like Hanukkah gelt, the Healy clock hands are made of chocolate wrapped in foil.

After flying home to Burleith and posting some angry comments online about Kathleen Sebelius, I removed the hands’ wrapping and have been eating them ever since. However, you have no need to be jealous. The hands have been exposed to the elements for decades and taste pretty mediocre, a mix between the pizza at Epicurean and the Corp’s coffee.

5. Commencement is just as weird as we think it’ll be.

It is bizarre. We’ve been students and friends for four years, together suffering through New Student Orientation, rejoicing

outside the White House over Obama’s election, the capture of Osama bin Laden and Jeremy Lin and generally enjoying each other’s company. We’ve made it through good house parties and bad, disciplinary meetings, work sanction hours, lines at Leo’s, uninspired common room discussions at early hours, girlfriends, boyfriends, multiple Philly P shutdowns and a few amazing classes. But judging by the $78 black body condom and cap I purchased at the bookstore this week, college is over.

Despite what many smarter people may tell you, some or much of this strange world will indeed evaporate at or after commencement. There won’t be too much closure, and after a while Facebook birthday posts won’t be able to substitute for real friendship. Saying goodbye is tough, and the chance to say farewell in person to some friends, professors and others who have meant a good deal to you may have already passed. It sucks.

But on the bright side, we walk away from Georgetown with amazing memories, an expanded cache of knowledge and a job at Deloitte. Hoya Saxa. It’s been an unforgettable four years, and hopefully it won’t be too long since next we meet.

JED FEIMAN is a senior in the College and winner of the 2011 Mr. Georgetown pageant. He ran for GUSA president last year and lost.

A4

SENIOR COMMENTARY

THE HOYA

FRIday, MAY 18, 2012

Rebecca Kiely

Ryan Wilson

Goodbye to Familiar Spaces It’s Time to Bridge the Gap A

college townhouse is an interesting and strange place. Many parents avoid them at all costs, horrified by the smells and artifacts of the debauchery they hope we’re not participating in. Yet we spend much of our college lives in them, perhaps enjoying more house time in these four years than our existence in the real world will ever allow.

My living room is a black hole. Time passes so quickly there that it’s a miracle I make it anywhere on time.

Objects of unknown origin and destination litter the room. It’s usually stuff that none of my roommates claim but that finds residence on our coffee table for months at a time. A small American flag hangs on the arms of a wall sconce. A blender sits casually on the floor next to the TV. My roommate’s guitar rests next to a box filled with desk supplies that another roommate hasn’t unpacked since leaving his freshman dorm. A collection of textbooks is stacked next to a gorilla costume someone left here on Halloween … in 2010.

However, the living room’s structure is so normal that the occasional cleaning makes this place look like an adult could actually live here. Hide away the random odds and ends whose shelf lives will expire with our fateful move out and this room makes my roommates

and me seem a lot more sophisticated. Our books prove us to be well read, and our inherited throw pillows make the place cozy and livable.

Definitely worthy of the real world.

To me, this room, these things and the time I spend here are indicative of my emotional state as I face grad-

uation. This room is a bridge between college and the real world, housing evidence of my attempts to straddle the line between childhood and adulthood.

Yes, the silly things that I let lie around are lingering ties to my younger, more playful self. But we also have a blender. And I’ve read that stack of textbooks. We’ve inched closer to independence and adulthood than I’d like to admit, and we’ve made a house our home all on our own. If you clean us

up a little bit, we’re definitely ready to enter the world.

These spaces are so much of what has made college distinctive. The classrooms, buildings, lawns, dorm rooms, bars and Hilltop that have served as the backdrops for our memories and experiences over the last four years are places I haven’t fully realized I’ll leave behind. The importance of these spaces — of our spaces — lurks under the radar in my last attempts to soak everything and everyone in before graduation. I think about the people who have made those spaces so meaningful more than I think about the space itself.

As I sit in my living room and think about all this stuff that has come to characterize my life, I know I will truly miss the spaces at Georgetown that I’ve made my own.

My future spaces will not — or at least should not — be littered with the same articles of youth, the same evidence of my friends or the same collection of college life debris.

However, as I inch closer to graduation, closer to that independence that Georgetown has prepared me for, I know that my college house will always be a space to remember, a home that has been an active backdrop to my growth and the source of some of my fondest memories.

Rebecca Kiely is a senior in the College and the former president of the Georgetown University Grilling Society.

Jamil Poonja

Before You Go and Set The World on Fire ...

A

t my freshman floor reunion last week, I revisited my stomping grounds on New South’s fourth floor with Fr. Christopher Steck, S.J., and Jack the Bulldog. The running joke amongst my floormates: That night was the most time I had ever spent on the dorm floor.

I’ve spent the vast majority of the last four years disengaged from the Hilltop. At times I was working almost 40 hours per week at internships in government and at startups, and at others, I spent every second minute awake on the phone with my high school friends on both coasts. I even took a semester off from school and from living on campus.

(If you ever have distaste for living in Darnall or Village C East, try Rosslyn for a couple months).

I had not found my home at Georgetown. Freshman fall I ditched New Student Orientation for Denver and weekend parties for battleground states. Like many of us who came here, I was attracted by the idea of being in the nation’s capitol, and as opportunities arose, I believed Lauinger, Healy and Leavey couldn’t satisfy my hunger. It was not until last semester that I had a true change of heart.

James and Derek from my freshman floor invited me to go out with some friends of theirs — acquaintances of mine — and the experience sparked a new desire to befriend and enjoy time with many of our fellow Hoyas.

That’s when I let go of many of my off-campus commitments — working at a startup and on projects for political campaigns and government agencies — and wound down activities and adventures beyond the Hilltop.

Here is just a small sampling of what I discovered by reintegrating into the Georgetown community.

Early in January, I ran into Luke grabbing coffee, and a simple hello turned into a two-hour-long conversation that shifted my perspective on career tracks and led me to reconsider going off the beaten path.

In a weekly capstone dinner in the Copley apartment of Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., I met Maria for the first time. One dinner led to another and to one over Easter weekend down the street. It opened my eyes to someone with talent and character, which otherwise would have been hidden from me in the depths of Gonda Theater.

A three-minute reflection about God that Matt shared in our “Jesuit Education” class captured my attention and allowed me to imagine traveling abroad and laboring in Honduras, something I never could have imagined when we took a Liberal Arts Seminar together our freshman year.

In that time I spent on campus, I met an incredible array of characters and bumped up against some incredible stories and experiences that I could never have found outside the front gates.

Last November, I joined a team of students, alumni, faculty and administrators to help structure and launch a social innovation and public service endowment on campus.

The people I’ve been surrounded by in this project have become my home base — a true community. One of those is my neighbor Bridget, who I had not spent time with since classes freshman year and with whom I could not be more grateful to be working. Greg similarly sat in almost every economics class with me outside of his hours as GUSA Vice President, and yet it took until this project for that time to mature into what I know will be a longlasting friendship. Beth is one of the most creative people I know, blending talents and interests in

women, politics and entrepreneurship; a friend once tried to introduce me to her, but it took until now for us to realize our connection.

In the last three weeks, we recruited and selected a managing committee of seven students and a board of nine Georgetown community members to drive the endeavor forward in the next year. One of those students is Christian, who discovered his interest in carbon financing and is researching energy politics in Haiti this summer.

I have started to realize how much there is to discover in the people around me.

The opportunity to be part of strengthening an institution with this endeavor has provided me with a tremendous experience, one that I hope will catalyze future Hoyas to dabble in their hopes, dreams and creativity — very human feats — that are so much of why we are here on the Hilltop.

At the core of Georgetown’s mission is a commitment to form the humanity in beings. It is a pursuit we often take for granted and fail to engage, even though we are surrounded by it.

It is what Fr. Tim Healy, S.J., was acknowledging when he explained that the accomplishment of a university is whom it brings together.

We are an extraordinary gift to one another, sometimes tucked away in nooks and crannies around campus we don’t always find.

There will always be opportunities calling us into the world. But we should not overlook the ones right beside us, inside our gates, that are inviting us in.

When we spend a few minutes here, we will find Hoyas who once wanted to be astronauts and presidents, who have worked on immigration border policy and launched farmers markets and some who lost a parent on Sept. 11, 2001.

We should accept Georgetown as our invitation to visit these stories and find a home in engaging in these experiences.

We should respond, as Fr. Ryan Maher, S.J., says, to the call: Come in, come in.

JAMIL POONJA is a senior in the College and a Steering Committee member of the Social Innovation and Public Service Fund.

O

n May 19, 2012, I will graduate from two Georgetowns. The first is the one that everyone knows about. This is the Georgetown of the International Relations Club, The Corp and The Hoya. It is the one that is sold in brochures in the admissions office and promoted during GAAP weekends and New Student Orientation.

The second Georgetown is a distinct subset of the original one. This Georgetown is found in the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, in the Black Student Alliance and throughout Hoya Saxa weekend. As a member of Georgetown’s black community, a large amount of my time has been spent serving this second Georgetown.

My graduation from two Georgetowns is the result of a sharp divide that exists here. In the beginning of my freshman year, I, like many freshmen, developed close friendships with a number of students on my floor. The friends that I made freshman year were from all walks of life; we represented a number of states, races and social classes.

Although we didn’t know it then, Georgetown was preparing us for very different experiences.

Today, many of those friends from freshman year are a part of “mainstream” Georgetown.

Their experiences here over the last few years have been similar to what one would expect of a typical Georgetown student. They have committed themselves to the organizations with which we are all very familiar, and they have done very well in these groups. While I continue to maintain friendships with many of my freshman-year friends, there is no doubt that, in many respects, I attended an almost entirely different school than many of them did.

Students of color at Georgetown are saddled with an unsettling burden. We must find a way not only to support the organizations and programs that are essential to enhancing the presence and experience

of student minorities, but also to integrate ourselves into the larger campus community. The extent to which a minority student balances these different worlds often defines his university experience. For some, movement between these worlds is easy, but for others, striking a balance is more difficult.

All of this brings me to understanding the importance of diversity. Georgetown must continue to encourage its students to truly step into others’ shoes. Far too often, our discussions about diversity, as one of my great professors stated, are a “no-fault remedy for an unacknowledged crime,” and far too often, our engagement with this issue rests only on intermittent service or twice-annual attendance at cultural shows. I believe that our values as a Catholic and Jesuit university should push us to engage more deeply with one another.

Many of my friends in the “mainstream” Georgetown have at times seemed unable to understand this divide. They believe that all Georgetown organizations are open and inclusive and that minorities simply “self-segregate.” After four years on both sides of the fence, I can confidently say that claims of selfsegregation are patently false. Not only do minorities interact with the general student body in our dorms, classes and cafeteria, but they are also expected to know all about the “mainstream” world without receiving reciprocal interest or respect for their own.

In my own time at Georgetown, I have had the privilege of being chair of the Student Commission for Unity, a campus group dedicated to enhancing community dialogue and diversity. The SCU’s mission was to create a community that “actively pursue[d] our Jesuit ideals with all deliberate speed.”

Guided by Georgetown’s mission statement, we explored the concepts of faith, culture, race, socioeconomic status and justice. After significant research and dialogue, we created a series of recommendations that we thought could serve as a vehicle for change. Today, I still believe that initiatives such as those developed by the SCU provided a tremendous opportunity to find ways to move our talks about diversity into action.

As a soon-to-be alum, I truly hope that Georgetown students will begin to bridge this divide. The experience of minority students on campus is as much a part of the Georgetown experience as any other. In order to truly reach our potential, diversity must not be confined to one-off programs or specific classes. After four years of attending both Georgetowns, I am hopeful that future students will be able to achieve an equally rich experience — but with the feeling that they are attending just one.

Let’s begin to bridge the divide.

RYAN WILSON is a senior in the College. He is a former chair of the Student Commission for Unity and a founder of the College Awareness Program.

THE RAW DEAL by Anthony Mastroianni

Angela Nelson

Row Toward Your Passion A

s the time to graduate looms, it’s impossible not to spend the quickly dwindling weeks reminiscing about the last four years. In a lot of ways, it’s been a beautiful process — cathartic, almost — but it has also reminded me that this time in my life is coming to an end. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about that.

There’s so much to be remembered: move-in day, finding friends, dealing with roommate conflicts, first college classes, first mediocre grades, first basketball games, first crushes, first parties and so much more.

Certain memories stick out more than others: those that have to do with my passions. I have a lot of them, as all Georgetown students do. It’s hard to pinpoint how much and how deeply these passions have changed me. But to my core, the experience that has shaped me most has been rowing for the past four years.

Yes, my Georgetown experience has been shaped by my sport. Some of you may think this to be a negative thing, but I hope more of you will see it as a labor of love. Dedication to this one passion has brought me purpose and, ultimately, happiness. I’ve met and retained my best friends on this team. Out of a freshman

class of over 30 rowers, there are just four of us left as seniors, so it’s no understatement to say that we have spent an incredible number of early-morning workouts and late-night coffees, laughter and tears, sunshine, rain and even blizzards in one another’s company. These three other women, along with the sport, have taught me more about myself than I thought possible.

I could try to tell you what rowing has taught me, but every time I write something down, it comes across trite. So I’ll just say this: When you find your passion, it’ll kick your butt. Rowing kicked mine. However, it will also give you purpose. It will help you to grow. My current self is a far cry from the 18-year-old who first stepped onto Harbin patio, and that change is a result of the four years I have spent on the Potomac.

My hope for all of you is that you find your passion. It can be hard to know when you’ve found it, and there will be plenty of times when you think you’d be more than happy to give it up. I, for one, can count more than a handful of times when I thought rowing for four years was going to be too difficult for me and when I would have loved to quit.

But that’s the thing about any passion — if it weren’t difficult, it

wouldn’t be worth doing.

Ladies and gentlemen, your passion is like the swirling and roiling churn of the Potomac. It can be scary and difficult, murky as the river on a cloudy day, but it will teach you more about yourself than you could have thought possible. You just have to be willing to row toward it and take the plunge.

Angela Nelson is a senior in the College and a four-year member of the crew team.

News

friday, MAY 18, 2012

THE HOYA

DPS BLOTTER Friday, April 27 Drug Violation, Village C West, 4:18 p.m.

Department of Public Safety officers responded to a room in reference to a suspicious odor complaint and recovered drugs and alcoholic beverages. Occupants were identified as underage. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Assault, New South, 4:18 p.m.

Two students were involved in a verbal altercation that escalated into a shoving match. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Sexual Assault, Village A, 5:45 p.m.

A student reported that an unidentified male touched her inappropriately while at a gathering on Village A rooftop. The Metropolitan Police Department is handling the investigation.

Disorderly Conduct, Healy Circle, 7:03 p.m.

DPS officers made contact with non-affiliates who were observed fighting. The case was closed and the subjects sent on their way.

Drug Violation, Village A, 10:50 p.m.

DPS officers investigating a suspicious odor recovered drugs from the listed location. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Saturday, April 28 Public Urination, 3400 Block of Prospect Street, 2:03 a.m.

DPS officers responded to the listed location at the request of an MPD officer who had made contact with a student after observing him urinating on the sidewalk. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Alcohol Violation, LXR, 2:05 a.m.

DPS officers made contact with underage students who were

found to be consuming alcoholic beverages in the listed building.

The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Sunday, April 29 Theft, Leavey Center, 1:42 a.m.

A student reported the theft of her iPhone, which was last seen at the listed location. The case was closed with no leads.

Monday, April 30 Theft, New South Hall, 3 a.m.

A student reported that her laundry was stolen from a dryer in the New South laundry room.

The case was closed with no leads.

Burglary, Healy Hall, 6:30 a.m.

A university staff member reported that an unknown individual made entry into a room in the listed building and stole miscellaneous items. The case was closed with no leads.

Assault, Alumni Square, 10:16 p.m.

Two roommates reported that another roommate shoved them and uttered threats to do bodily harm to them while inside a unit at the listed location. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Breaking and Entering, Reiss Science Building, 11:44 p.m.

A vending machine located inside the listed building was found to have been broken into and the currency stolen. MPD was notified and is handling the investigation.

Friday, May 4 Drug Violation, 3621 O St., 2:06 a.m.

Drugs and drug paraphernalia were recovered from the listed residence by DPS officers who were investigating a suspicious odor. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Theft, Lauinger Library, 4 a.m.

A student reported that his unattended laptop was stolen from the listed building. The case is under investigation.

Tuesday, May 8 Theft, Healy Hall, 2:30 p.m.

A staff member reported the theft of her wallet from the listed location. The case is under investigation.

Thursday, May 10 Theft, LXR, 12:16 a.m.

A student reported his bicycle stolen from the listed building.

The case is under investigation.

Theft, Leavey Center, 12:30 p.m.

A staff member reported the theft of his unattended wallet from atop a table in a restaurant in the listed building. The case is under investigation.

Friday, May 11 Burglary, Reiss Science Building, 8 a.m.

A faculty member reported that a laptop had been stolen from his office. There were no signs of forced entry. MPD was notified and is handling the investigation.

Wednesday, May 2

Saturday, May 12

Theft, Hariri Building, 5:05 p.m.

A student reported that his bicycle was stolen from outside the listed building. The case is under investigation.

Assault, 35th and Prospect Streets, 1:53 a.m.

A DPS officer made contact with a student who reported that another student had assaulted her. Contact was made with the

assailant, who appeared to be inebriated. The case was closed as the complainant declined to press charges.

Assault, Kennedy Hall, 2:04 a.m.

A DPS officer made contact with a student who reportedly assaulted another student. The case was closed as the complainant declined to press charges.

Alcohol Violation, Kennedy Hall, 2:19 a.m.

A DPS officer made contact with the occupants of a room in the listed building who were underage and found to be in possession of alcoholic beverages. The case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Assault on a Police Officer, Village C West, 1:50 p.m.

A student physically shoved a parking ticket into the vest of a DPS sergeant after receiving the infraction for illegally parking his vehicle. The case was closed with an arrest.

Theft, Hariri Building, 3:01 p.m.

A student reported his unattended iPad stolen from a restroom in the listed building. The case is under investigation.

Sunday, May 13 Public Defecation and Disorderly Conduct, 3200 Block of Prospect Street, 2:45 a.m.

An MPD officer observed a student defecating in public at the listed location. Another student was being disorderly, loud and boisterous at the same location.

The case was closed with two arrests.

Theft, 3335 Prospect St., 4:30 a.m.

Student occupants reported the theft of property from the listed residence. MPD was notified and is handling the investigation.

The blotter is compiled weekly by the Department of Public Safety.

A5

Clock Hands Tradition Rekindled Emma Hinchliffe Hoya Staff Writer

More than two weeks after the clock hands on the front face of Healy Tower went missing, the mystery of who took them remains largely unsolved.

After confirming the theft of the front hands, which went missing April 30, the university removed the set on the back of Healy Tower to assess damage to the clock and reinstall dismantled security systems.

The following week, on May 8, the university replaced the missing hands on the front face of the clock with a spare pair that had previously been kept in storage. The hands on the back face of the clock were reinstalled at the same time.

According to Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh, damages totaled about $9,000.

Stealing the clock hands from Healy Tower is a long-standing tradition whose frequency has decreased in recent years. In the 1960s, the hands were stolen so frequently that the university stopped replacing them between thefts.

The hands were most recently stolen by Andrew Hamblen (SFS ’07) and Wyatt Gjullin (COL ’09) in 2005. After a two-week investigation by the Department of Public Safety, the two students admitted to climbing construction scaffolding and entering the tower through a broken window.

Hamblen and Gjullin were placed on academic probation and assigned 75 and 100 community service hours, respectively, though expulsion was initially considered.

“When I learned of the tradition of stealing the Healy clock hands freshman year and [after] reading various publications about the history associated with the tower, I decided that I eventually wanted to contribute to the survival of the tradition before I graduated,” Hamblen told The Hoya at the time. “I intended no destruction or ill will to the university in taking the hands, simply to contribute to one aspect of what makes this a special place.”

A6

news

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012

Hospital Will Stay on Main Campus Alum Challenges GU’s Catholicism

Hiromi Oka

Hoya Staff Writer

Contrary to recent media speculation, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital does not have plans to move to Capitol Crossing, a new development being constructed near Interstate 395 in downtown D.C. The Washington Post reported on April 29 that the hospital and medical school could be moving to the new site, which is across the street from Georgetown University Law Center.

The article noted that other university departments such as the Law School, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and the School of Continuing Studies were also considering moving to the development, which is owned by the New Yorkbased real estate agency Property Group Partners.

According to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Director of Media Relations Marianne Worley, however, there have been no discussions to move the hospital.

“There has been some speculation in

LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital has no plans to move downtown, though the university is exploring options for the relocation of some graduate programs.

the media recently about the possibility of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital relocating from the Georgetown University campus to another area of the city.

We want to assure you that this is not the case,” she wrote in an email.

As for rumors that the hospital might expand its current on-campus location, Worley remained vague about any potential plans.

“As we look forward, we will continue to build world-class services across MedStar’s Washington region, including hospital-based services on the Georgetown University campus on Reservoir Road, MedStar’s other hospital campuses across the region and our extensive ambulatory and physician locations on behalf of our patients,” she wrote.

University spokeswoman Stacy Kerr said that as the university sold the hospital in 2000 to MedStar Health, she could not speak for MedStar administrators regarding their future plans. However, Kerr said rumors speculating that the hospital might build on Kehoe Field are not true.

“Kehoe Field is owned and managed by the university,” she said. “There are no plans for the hospital to take over that space at this time.”

Kerr also added that any changes to the current hospital facilities would be difficult to implement.

“The hospital facilities north of Kehoe Field are subject to a long-term lease, and any proposed development of those areas would not only be subject to the provisions of the lease but [also] the campus plan,” she said.

Although the hospital will remain in Georgetown, the campus still faces problems accommodating its academics and students in its current space.

Kerr said that the university is looking at multiple locations in the D.C. metropolitan area for an expansion of its graduate programs and that the Capitol Crossing development is one of the locations being considered.

PGP Regional Vice President Robert Braunohler said that while the school has talked with developers about purchasing part of the property, where construction is expected to begin during summer 2013, nothing has been decided.

“It’s just a possibility … at this point.

There’s no firm decision as far as we understand it,” he said. “It’s among the options they’re looking at. They’re looking very seriously at it, but at this point, there are no commitments, nothing definite to say either way.”

Matthew Strauss Hoya Staff Writer

In the wake of a year’s worth of controversy surrounding Georgetown’s Catholic identity, a prominent alum is challenging the university’s right to be affiliated with the Catholic Church and the Society of Jesus.

Academy Award winner William Peter Blatty (C ’50), best known as the novelist and screenwriter responsible for “The Exorcist,” announced plans today for the creation of The Father King Society to Make Georgetown Honest, Catholic and Better.

The organization, which is named for the late Fr. Thomas King, S.J., of the theology department, intends to petition the Catholic Church to strip Georgetown of the ability to describe itself as Catholic or Jesuit in fundraising and informational materials.

Though the organization was planned before the announcement of Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius as the speaker at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s Tropaia awards ceremony, the development prompted Blatty to launch his initiative this week.

“This is simply the last straw,” Blatty said. “The scandals that Georgetown has given to the faithful are too many to count and too many to ignore any longer.”

The Father King Society is now threatening the university with a canon law action, a lawsuit filed within the Catholic Church. The outcome will be judged by archbishops and possibly the Vatican.

This is not Georgetown’s first encounter with canon law action. In 1991 and 1992, then Dean of Students John

J. DeGioia came under fire as dean of students for authorizing university funding for GU Choice, the predecessor to current pro-choice advocacy group H*yas for Choice. Catholic alums quickly organized in response, filing a canon law action with the Archdiocese of Washington. Cardinal James Hickey deferred the matter to the Vatican. Threatened with the removal of Georgetown’s Catholic affiliation, then-President Fr. Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., reversed DeGioia’s decision upon his return from Rome.

Blatty’s Father King Society has close ties with the Cardinal Newman Society of Washington, which called on Georgetown to cancel the Sebelius address in a Wednesday Washington Post opinion piece by organization founder, President and CEO Patrick Reilly.

Reilly said he supports Blatty’s initiative as a last resort to address what he sees as Georgetown’s noncompliance with Catholic teachings.

“We’re thrilled that …

Blatty has invited us to assist him and others in their efforts to defend Georgetown’s Catholic mission from those who would undermine or abandon it,” he said. “Such intervention is necessary only because Georgetown’s leadership has repeatedly demonstrated its unwillingness to uphold Georgetown’s obligations under canon law.”

Blatty stressed that he aims to return the university to its Catholic roots.

“In the months to come, The Father King Society will ask Georgetown and the Church for explanations and decisions,” he said. “It grieves me that Georgetown University today almost seems to take pride in insulting the Church and offending the faithful.”

news

Friday, MAY 18, 2012

THE HOYA

A7

Class of 2012 Celebrates Senior Week DeGioia Stands

By Speaker Choice

GRAD, from A1 their peers in affixing class pins to one another’s robes to represent their official membership in the Georgetown alumni network.

Muslim Students Association member Wan Muhamad Nazhif Wan Yusoff (SFS ’12) gave the benediction before the closing recessional concluded convocation.

Official commencement festivities will continue through Sunday. Today’s graduation ceremonies present diplomas on behalf of all the graduate programs — other than the School of Medicine and the Law Center — and will take place on Healy Lawn.

The night before Saturday’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies, seniors and their guests are invited to attend the Senior Ball at Union Station.

This year, the Senior Ball Committee hired a D.C. Circulator bus to take attendees back to the Georgetown area at the end of the night.

“The lessons the [Senior Class Committee] has learned throughout the year have really made the week the best that it’s going to be. Senior Ball will be an incredible culmination of all that,” Butterfield, the Senior Class Committee chair, said.

Undergraduate commencement ceremonies will begin with the Georgetown College graduation, followed by the School of Nursing and Health Studies, the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the McDonough School of Business. There are 1,868 seniors graduating, including students from the School of Foreign Service campus in Qatar. The valedictorians addressing their classes will be Nadia Mahmassani (COL ’12), Alison Lauter (NHS ’12), Anton Strezhnev (SFS ’12) and Perry Rogers (MSB ’12).

SEBELIUS, from A1

CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

University Secretary Edward Quinn leads the Class of 2012 into convocation.

For many seniors, this weekend’s festivities will offer an opportunity to join together with old friends and reflect on their shared experiences.

“In some instances, you see the faces of people you met for orientation. Instead of meeting new people, you’re reconnecting with them,” Marzena Zukowska (SFS ’12) said.

Every year, deans of the respective schools organize the speakers for each ceremony. This year’s speakers range from journalist and “The Wire” producer David Simon, who will speak before the College, to LivingSocial founder and CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, who will speak at the commencement ceremony for the McDonough School of Business.

The weekend’s festivities end Sunday with the Baccalaureate Mass, commencement brunch and the School of Medicine and Law Center graduation ceremonies.

Director of Academic Events Meghan Hogge estimates that in total, there will be tens of thousands of guests on campus for the weekend’s events.

There are 7,500 chairs set up for guests on Healy Lawn, but some ceremonies, including the College and Law Center graduations, feature additional standing room.

According to Karen Frank, vice president for facilities and student housing, there are approximately 350 commencement guests — 100 fewer than last year — staying on campus in Village C West, Harbin and New South Halls.

Architect Chosen for Student Center NSSC, from A1 potential tenants for several available vendor spots to be included in the new facility.

Only Students of Georgetown, Inc. has confirmed plans to apply for a new location in the center. The student-run business also posted a poll on its blog May 6 asking customers what kind of new venue they would like to see. Options included a salad

shop, smoothie shop, deli, bakery and coffee shop. Results were not available for public viewing.

“We see this space as a chance to be innovative and challenge ourselves, as a way to bring something new to campus while at the same time delivering a high-quality product,” CEO of The Corp Michael West wrote in a statement to the press.

In addition to vendor spaces, the university has committed to provid-

ing room in the new facility to house a pub, community room and open study space.

Tattoni said his main goal for the designs will be creating a useful and meaningful student space that will last for generations.

“We know the whole history and love and memory of the old pub and student activity space that was in Healy Hall,” he said. “We hope to get at the spirit of what that was all about.”

will resign to pursue a position at the University of Notre Dame before the beginning of the fall semester, wrote a letter to DeGioia asking him to rescind the invitation.

According to the letter, Deneen believes that hosting Sebelius at a commencement ceremony signifies Georgetown’s endorsement of the HHS mandate. Eight other Georgetown faculty members signed the letter.

In his letter to the Georgetown community, DeGioia wrote that the university disassociates itself from positions that conflict with the traditional church teachings due to its Catholic and Jesuit roots and therefore does not endorse the HHS mandate. He argued the importance of Georgetown’s acting as a forum for the free exchange of ideas.

University spokeswoman Stacy Kerr added that Sebelius was invited to speak for her role in public policy, not as a political statement.

“The Georgetown Public Policy Institute chose her as a policy leader, and [the university] regularly has high-profile speakers who come to campus, and their presence on campus does not mean that [the university] endorses their opinion,” Kerr said.

Despite this clarification, the Archdiocese of Washington released a statement Tuesday claiming that Sebelius’s speaking engagement at Georgetown was a challenge to the Church as a whole.

In addition, a petition written by President Patrick J. Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society — a group that aims to “renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education,” according to its website — has received over 27,000 signatures.

“It is scandalous and outrageous that America’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university has elected to provide this prestigious platform to a publicly ‘pro-choice’ Catholic. …

The contrast is stark between Georgetown University and those faithful Catholic colleges and universities that have stood for faith and freedom,” the petition reads.

DeGioia emphatically negated these statements in his letter, noting that the invitation was extended and accepted before the debate over the HHS mandate began.

“I’m not sure why having a speaker who took a stance that is different from the university’s disqualifies [her] as a speaker,” H*yas for Choice spokesman Brad Crist (SFS ’12) said. “The university, especially a Catholic one, doesn’t have to share the same views as a speaker. Georgetown is an institution where we value diverse thought, so it would be a great place to have a pro-choice candidate speaking.”

Georgetown Right to Life acknowledged that the invitation is not an endorsement of the contraceptive mandate, though it does pose a timing problem.

“I don’t think we should bring her to speak when this is such a controversial issue,” former Right to Life President Joseph Cardone (COL ’14) said.

The students and faculty of GPPI sent separate letters to DeGioia on Wednesday, clarifying their intentions in choosing Sebelius as a speaker and maintaining support for the invitation. Later that day, the editorial board of The Washington Post praised DeGioia for allowing Sebelius to speak.

“The Georgetown community, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, should be proud of its president’s defense of openminded debate,” the editorial read.

A8

news

THE HOYA

friday, MAY 18, 2012

Loan Rate Increase Sparks Concerns Meghan Patzer Hoya Staff Writer

The looming expiration of the interest rate for Stafford loans on July 1 has university administrators and student representatives concerned.

Stafford loans, which comprise subsidized and unsubsidized student loans granted by the federal government, carried interest rates as low as 3.4 percent in the past academic year for subsidized loans, while private-loan interest rates range into the double digits.

If the current low interest rates expire, the rate would increase to 6.8 percent, resulting in a mean increase in cost of $1,000 to the average Stafford loan awarded, according to Associate Vice President for Federal Relations Scott Fleming (SFS ’72).

The loans are a crucial resource for both undergraduate and graduate students. The Stafford loan program ensures that no payments are expected while the student is enrolled in school, with a grace period extending six months after the time of graduation.

Fleming expressed worry about the imminent change.

“In that the university is committed to its full-need financial aid policy — that policy is designed specifically to ensure that all qualified students are financially able to attend Georgetown — we are concerned when policy changes would add to the cost of financing a Georgetown education,” he said.

Due to the fact that 43 percent of undergraduates at Georgetown rely on direct loans to pay tuition, Georgetown University Student Association President Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) is taking action to advocate an extension of the rate cut. “[We] have been working with a large network of universities to ensure Congress acts to pre-

vent this expiration,” Gustafson said.

Along with nearly 200 other student executives, Gustafson signed a May 1 petition to Congress.

“We need bold, bipartisan steps to address the systemic problems that are driving up the cost of college,” the letter said. “We hope action on extending the 3.4 percent Stafford loan interest rate is the first of many steps in a real effort to address the level of student debt and reduce the excessive need for borrowing.”

Gustafson stressed that the university must work to maintain its current level of dedication to college affordability, citing the average graduate debt of $12,500, just over half the nationwide average of $23,000.

“We have a long tradition of dedication to this issue. Georgetown was the first Catholic university to promise need-blind admittance,” she said.

While Gustafson was optimistic that Congress would take action to preserve the low interest rate by the July 1 deadline, she said her staff is working throughout the summer to fight against the increase.

“I am nearly certain Congress will address the issue by that point, given that this is a huge issue in working to solve the student debt problem in America,” she said. “A good amount of [the GUSA] staff is here [this summer], so we are remaining proactive in addressing this issue.”

Should the current interest rates expire, the university hopes to counteract the cost increase with its own fundraising for student financial aid.

“The university continues its efforts to increase Georgetown scholarship funding, including making funds for Georgetown scholarships a major focus of the ongoing capital campaign,” Fleming said.

LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA

Mayor Gray’s proposal, which aimed to increase tax revenue from alcohol sales, was rejected by a D.C. Council committee this month. However, all city bars, including M Street’s Rhino, will offer extended hours during presidential inaugurations.

Council Rejects Extended Bar Hours Katherine Foley Hoya Staff Writer

Mayor Vincent Gray’s proposed legislation to keep District bars open until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 4 a.m. on weekends was rejected in a 3-2 vote by the D.C. Council’s Committee on Human Services earlier this month.

The proposed legislation was intended to increase revenue for local bars and sales tax intake for the D.C. government. Gray estimated that with the additional hours, total revenue would increase by $3.2 million, with $1.2 million of that total coming in sales tax revenue.

Representatives of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, which includes the university and

Georgetown neighborhood, lauded the outcome, given concerns that the proposed legislation would leave customers stranded without adequate public transportation home and residential areas vulnerable to excessive late-night noise pollution.

“All patrons that leave bars at 4 a.m. are inherently loud. It’s one thing to wake up at 3 a.m. or 3:30 and go back to bed, but after being woken up at 4 a.m. or 4:30 it’s much harder to go back to sleep,” ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels, also a representative on the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, said.

The proposal’s failure means that bars will have to find another way to generate the sought-after revenue.

Three councilmembers have pro-

posed an additional 6-cent excise tax on drinks.

Gray’s spokeswoman Doxie McCoy emphasized that Gray was hopeful the council could increase revenue without raising taxes.

“The mayor said there would be no tax increases this year and there still won’t be,” she said.

Despite rejecting the extended hours, councilmembers affirmed two other parts of Gray’s alcohol proposals. Bars will be allowed to stay open until 4 a.m. on the night of the presidential inauguration every four years and liquor stores, grocery stores and wholesale alcohol vendors will be allowed to open at 7 a.m., two hours earlier than they are allowed to open at present, every day except Sunday.

friday, MAY 18, 2012

sports

THE HOYA

A9

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

A ROOKIE LOOKS FORWARD

Team Comes First For Georgetown Athletics

C

ollege athletes come and go. ing the nation in the Big East tournaMost stay for just four years, and ment and the men’s lacrosse team earn few become professionals, but its 23rd consecutive winning season one constant remains: the college they under Head Coach Dave Urick.

These performers were all students attended. Students can only say they go to Georgetown for just four years, but as well: I had class with them, ate with them and saw them all over campus. they call themselves Hoyas for life.

The first time I saw Hollis Thompson Even without the cameras, they away from Verizon Center, he was walk- gained student support through their success. ing across Red Square.

In the same way, the women’s basIt was Dec. 2, the day after his buzzer-beating three-pointer — seen live ketball program will survive without around the world on ESPN2 — had former Head Coach Terri Williamssealed unranked Georgetown’s improb- Flournoy, who left for Auburn this spring after unprecedented success at able win at then-No. 12 Alabama.

In that moment, and in many oth- Georgetown. Her former assistant and ers during his three-year Georgetown new Head Coach Keith Brown, is alcareer, he was a hero. Fans all over the ready working to keep the Hoyas’ imcountry knew his name — although pressive recruiting pipeline flowing.

In the end, though, everything bemany still figured he was related to our gins and ends with the men’s basketbeloved coach — and he knew it.

But Hollis wasn’t walking to Yates ball team. This year I saw how sports with a gym bag over his shoulder; he dreams can be fleeting. There is no was walking to class. Beneath the star- free agency, no draft and no trading in college sports; dom and the heroics, recruiting is all we he was just another have. student. I felt connectFor a little while, ed to an athlete, and ignoring logical reatherefore to a team, soning, I began to like I never had before. think top recruit NerI got that same lens Noel was comfeeling the time I ating to Georgetown. It tempted to steal a certainly would have grilled cheese I hadn’t Arik Parnass made sophomore ordered from the Leo’s year more exciting.

Diner. As I grabbed But Noel was going it, a voice behind me John Thompson III’s to be a one-and-done said, “That for Nate?”

I turned around and Hoyas will always be anyway, a superstar who cast a shadow stood transfixed as Nate Lubick took the about the team and not larger than the institution itself. He would basket — the name the individuals. have been more Nate clearly written similar to James than on the slip — out of Thompson — never my hands and walked just another student. away.

If there’s one thing to be taken from For the vast majority of sports fans, superstars like LeBron James are just a Georgetown’s surprising run to the third combination of labels. James is a Miami round of the NCAA tournament, it’s this: Heat forward, a multimillionaire, three- John Thompson III’s Hoyas will always be time NBA MVP and the best basketball about the team and not the individuals.

With the additions of D’Vauntes player on the planet. But in forgoing a college basketball career for the glory Smith-Rivera, Brandon Bolden and and riches of the NBA, he abandoned Bradley Hayes — not to mention the rean opportunity of being part of a last- turn of young stars like Otto Porter and Greg Whittington — I see no reason ing tradition and student community.

It is encounters like those at Leo’s why the Blue and Gray can’t surprise and Red Square that we can tell our again in 2013 and beyond.

Nerlens Noel, and Georgetown’s sucfamilies and friends about, run-ins that most people never get to experience. cess this season, teach us a valuable To others, these athletes are just icons, lesson. If college sports are truly about but we are privileged to know them as supporting your school, no one athlete is greater than the team and certainly more than that.

And that sense of pride and closeness no athlete is greater than the school.

With that in mind, I’m looking forgoes beyond men’s basketball. In my first year at Georgetown, I witnessed ward to the next three years on the the women’s cross country team win Hilltop. a national championship, the football team embark on a Cinderella run to its Arik Parnass is a freshman in the Colbest record since 1999, the women’s la- lege and a deputy sports editor for The crosse team fall a goal away from shock- Hoya.

LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA

Keith Brown was announced as the Hoyas’ seventh women’s basketball coach during a press conference at McDonough Arena May 9. He was most recently an assistant to former Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy.

Hoyas’ ‘Team Dad’ Aims High Pat Curran

Hoya Staff Writer

“We’re going to do great things at Georgetown.”

Keith Brown’s booming voice rang across the McDonough Arena lobby, announcing a new chapter in the history of Georgetown women’s basketball.

The former assistant coach, who was officially tapped to replace Terri Williams-Flournoy as head coach last week, has a manner that couldn’t be more different from his predeccesor.

Williams-Flournoy has a quiet confidence about her and rarely raises her voice. Brown’s demeanor, however, is just as imposing as his 6-foot-4 frame.

But Brown looks to keep one constant from the Williams-Flournoy era: unprecedented success.

Williams-Flournoy’s departure for Auburn was a major blow to a program that has been on the rise for the past four years. She was the architect of a revolution, the woman whose recruiting and coaching brought the Hoyas to heights unseen since the early 1990s. But fans of Auburn’s newest head coach need not worry: Brown promised last week to stick to what has brought Georgetown this far.

“We’re going to trap, trap, trap, put a lot of pressure on teams,” he said.

“We’re going to get up and down the floor. We love that up-tempo style.”

As anyone who has watched the Blue and Gray compete over the last few years knows, defensive tenacity and a run-and-gun offense are their bread and butter. Implementing the strategy won’t be an issue for Brown, who seems to have a good grasp on

the system. But the graduation of this year’s senior class will leave a gaping hole in the lineup, and a big part of the Hoyas’ future success will depend on Brown’s ability to continue WilliamsFlournoy’s impressive recruiting.

Concern about Brown’s recruiting ability, though, is unfounded. During his tenure as an assistant coach, Brown served as the Hoyas’ head of recruiting and was instrumental in pulling in prospects like rising senior guard Sugar Rodgers, a high school All-American who has led the Blue and Gray in scoring since her freshman year. Other Hoyas attested to Brown’s recruiting acumen as well.

“Me and Coach Brown have been really close since I got here,” rising senior forward Vanessa Moore said. “He recruited me. He’s pretty much the reason that I came or a big part in the process of me choosing Georgetown.”

“He’s a really great recruiter,” rising senior center Sydney Wilson said. “He knows how to talk to people, he’s really genuine and sincere and I think that will definitely translate onto the court.”

Brown’s background as an educator also played into the decision to hire him. Before coming to the Hilltop, he held various teaching positions in the D.C. metro area while coaching AAU basketball.

But it wasn’t Brown’s basketball philosophy, teaching experience or even recruiting skill that landed him Georgetown’s top job. According to Director of Athletics Lee Reed, the administration saw a passion for the game and love of Georgetown in Brown that set him apart from the other candidates.

“The person that is successful is the person that displays the want, the willingness to be here more than anywhere else in the country,” Reed said.

“And Keith proved that.”

Regular attendees of the team’s games at McDonough can attest to Brown’s passion, manifested in a thunderous motivational style during games. Brown frequently stood up from the bench to yell at players and could be heard all the way across the gym. But the team doesn’t seem to mind, with Moore even referring to Brown as a “team dad.”

“He was more of an — I don’t want to say aggressor, but more of a pusher,” Wilson said. “And I think we definitely need that.”

Brown said all the right things in his press conference, thanking everyone involved and even citing advice given to him by former men’s basketball Head Coach John Thompson Jr. — the closest thing to basketball royalty at Georgetown.

His passion, recruiting skill and basketball philosophy all qualify him for the job. What remains to be seen is whether he can manage the loss of the team’s seven seniors and make Rodgers’ senior season one to remember despite the Hoyas’ coming in as underdogs in the brutally competitive Big East.

That question won’t be answered for sure until next winter but Brown certainly has the right attitude going in.

“If you love competition, this is the best place in the world to be,” Brown said. “I keep getting grayer because of it, but I love the big games. We definitely want to focus on one day getting to the Final Four.”

A10

SPORTS

THE HOYA

coach of the year

Friday, MAY 18, 2012

male athlete of the year

Senior Spearheads Dominant D-Line guided me on the proper technique to play effectively on the defensive impact on the gridiron. front,” defensive lineman Jordan “I could tell right away after Richardson, a rising sophomore, the first practice he was going to said. “I think it is fair for me to say be something special, and four that not only did I, but [also] the years later, we are talking about a other freshman across the entire devery special football player here at fense, look up to him and follow his Georgetown,” Kelly said. lead in practice and in games.”

A three-sport athlete in high Just as he helped his teammates school, Schaetzke is perhaps most in practice, his upbeat attitude impressive because of the athleti- made a big difference when the gocism he carries with his 6-foot-4, ing got tough.

265-pound frame.

“I think the team will miss his “He runs extremely well. He bubbly personality, and he’s kind stays on his feet, very quick. If you of carefree in a way, which is a good watch a lot of his thing,” Kelly said. “I plays, you see him think he relaxed a lot chasing a running of guys before ballback right down games, and during the line of scrimthe games, he had a mage out in the real desire to be sucperimeter. That’s cessful with a relaxed something that aspect to him. Guys we’re going to in stressful situations miss,” Kelly said. looked to Andrew for “People had fits that leadership.” trying to block In the classroom, him because of the too, Schaetzke has athleticism.” made his team That ability proud. While he proved invaluable spent last weekend for the Blue and at the Cincinnati Gray. A starter in Bengals’ mini-camp, every game of his Schaetzke will gradulast three seasons ate tomorrow from for Georgetown, the McDonough Schaetzke excelled Hometown: School of Business in his junior sea- Toledo, Ohio with a degree in fison — when he Accomplishments: nance. was named to the Consensus All-Amer“I’m proud of his all-Patriot League athletic accomplishfirst team — de- ican, Patriot League ments, but he’s got a spite missing all defensive player of the 3.2 GPA in the busiof that season’s year ness school. If the spring practice football thing doesn’t with an injury. work out, he’s going to be in the But he saved the best for his se- business world and, you know, a nior season. Leading the Hoyas to great ambassador for Georgetown a winning season and a chance to University, which says a lot for play for the league championship, him,” Kelly said.

Schaetzke was first in the Patriot Georgetown football hasn’t been League in both sacks and tackles perfect over the last four years — for loss. Even more impressively, in fact, it was just the opposite in his 13 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss 2009, when the squad was winless ranked him eighth and sixth in the — but the Hoyas finally asserted nation, respectively. themselves this year, thanks in Like many great players, though, large part to Andrew Schaetzke.

Schaetzke’s leadership isn’t just “He’s a true success story. [He around the line of scrimmage. came] from a blue-collar family.

“Very early on in camp, [Schaetz- He’s done well academically here. ke] spoke to me about how I could He’s done well football-wise,” Kelly have a big impact for the team, said. “He’s the biggest impact playwhich made me work harder and er I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”

SCHAETZKE, from A12

Andrew Schaetzke

MSB ’12

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

John Thompson III (second from left) helped seniors Henry Sims (third from left) and Jason Clark (second from right) develop into dominant scorers in their senior season. The Hoyas finished 24-9 in an expected rebuilding year.

Thompson III Breaks NCAA Skid COACH, from A12 that now you’re a senior, now you’re this leader [and] I thought it was important for both of them not to think like that,” Thompson III said. “I think the notion of going about your business and other people will see that [work ethic] was important.”

In the end, however, Thompson III experienced his fourth tournament defeat by a double-digit seed in the Big Dance’s first weekend, this time in a loss to No. 11-seed N.C. State.

“As a coach, losing hurts. The finality of the last game hurts, and you take a step back and think about the group as a whole. And you say, ‘Ah, I wish this group could have done this differently or that differently.’ But I don’t wish I could have another crack with this group. That’s the beauty of intercollegiate athletics,” Thompson III said. “You have a four-year window at most. It’s time for them to move on — Henry, Jason and Hollis — and it’s time for next year’s group to go through that evolution again.”

The evolution for this year’s squad started with a brawl. The chair-swinging fight between teams from China and the United States had political implications for Georgetown that extended beyond the hardwood. Thompson III, however, handled the situation deftly, evacuating

his players to safety and then healing the conflict with a dose of basketball diplomacy. The teams exchanged gifts at a hotel, and later in the year, Thompson III hosted a team of Chinese high school basketball players.

“I think the China trip was key for the obvious reasons, incident aside. We haven’t taken a foreign trip since I’ve been here, and I realized this past summer was the year to do it,” Thompson III said. “Because of the high number of freshmen and sophomores … we needed to hit the ground running, and for them to be able to … understand the concepts enabled us in September to jump right in as if they weren’t six freshmen and four sophomores.”

Despite the brawl, the trip also helped foster the commitment Thompson III wanted his players to embrace.

“I think that what that trip allowed us to realize is that when called upon, everyone could contribute. Some years as a coach, you’d love to sit here and say, ‘I have 13 players I can put in the game.’

Well, that’s not always the case if you want to win. But I think this year, we realized we could go a lot of different ways without much slippage,” Thompson III said. “And just spending that time together for them to carve their own roles in the locker room was important. The incident, just the whole notion that you realize quite literally you will have

to fight for each other to survive … they embraced that notion.”

Turning negatives into positives may be the crowning achievement of Thompson III’s year. The China debacle was quickly defused. Big East realignment did not seem to distract the team. Plans for the new Athletic Training Facility are moving forward and may give Thompson III’s program the building it needs to train its elite athletes. And the Hoyas secured 6-foot-11 recruit Bradley Hayes only weeks after Nerlens Noel spurned Georgetown.

But looking ahead, the work goes on for Thompson III and Georgetown.

“I think [that] without a doubt, putting another big banner in McDonough is our goal. Without a doubt, cutting the nets down in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night is our goal. But there are so many other things that you can look at, both positively and negatively.”

And on the positive side of that ledger, Thompson III took a group of young, inexperienced players and turned them into a national contender. Six freshmen and sophomores received significant playing time, which will translate to a more experienced roster next season.

Despite another early NCAA tournament exit, John Thompson III excelled in a season that could have easily gone the other way.

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FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012

female athlete of the year

COURTESY GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

Emily Infeld led the Hoyas to a national championship in women’s cross country and also earned her own national title in the 3000m.

A11

team of the year

Hoyas Earn Championship CHAMPS, from A12

THE HOYA

the team started to pick up the pieces of its bad month.

Despite finishing third, the Hoyas looked more like a team that deserved its No. 1 preseason ranking.

“When we left the Big East [championship], that’s when we really started to find our soul,” Miltenberg said.

Georgetown took that momentum into the Mid-Atlantic Regional championships, where they finished tied for first with Villanova, a victory that Miltenberg views as another turning point for the Blue and Gray.

“That’s when we were getting really good at the right time,” Miltenberg said. “We started to run together, and our freshmen just ran phenomenally.”

That was clear during the national championship.

Infeld led the way with a fourth-place finish overall.

She was followed by graduate student Claire Richardson and junior Emily Jones, who took 50th and 54th places, respectively. The final two runners to score points for the Hoyas were junior Kirsten Kasper and freshman Katrina Coogan, who finished 64th

and 67th, respectively. The progress that the Hoyas made throughout the year did not come in the form of better individual efforts; it came from a wealth of talented athletes who ran as one.

“I think the most gratifying thing … is that Coach Miltenberg [carried] such a positive manner, and it was such a great team effort,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Patrick Henner said.

“It wasn’t just an assemblage of talent. It was a true team effort.”

Miltenberg deflected his national coach of the year accolade to the athletes and coaches around him.

“For me, the [award] is a testament to the great people we have here,” Miltenberg said.

The team could not have worked together the way it did without the leadership of its upperclassmen. Jones and Infeld were instrumental in guiding the freshmen, who, because of upperclassman injuries, were asked to take on a bigger role in the team than they had expected.

“Infeld had a lot of ups and downs in September and October, but she never stopped believing in her team and

her teammates,” Miltenberg said. “Emily Jones was a great example of running for your teammates. And the freshmen rose to the occasion.”

The national championship was the last time Infeld will run for the Hoyas as a member of the cross country team, though she still has a year of eligibility left in both indoor and outdoor track.

“She’s one of the most accomplished athletes in Georgetown history,” Miltenberg said. “The biggest impact she had on our program is who she is and what she brought to practice every day. She’s fired up, excited and … responds to adversity with excitement and intensity.”

And adversity is exactly what the Hoyas faced all year. But with the upperclassmen’s leadership, the freshmen’s emergence and Miltenberg’s guidance, Georgetown refused to unravel.

“It’s a great story of how they never stopped believing, even when other people wrote them off,” Miltenberg said. “They never stopped believing. They were truly running for each other.”

A VETERAN REFLECTS Georgetown Star Secures More A Worthwhile Roller Coaster Hardware in Senior Season W for the outdoor national championship take place this week. But the national championin the indoor national championship after ship, which begins June 6, will not be Infeld’s the DMR team — which shattered a school last, since she is still training with the track record earlier that year — finished in a disap- team for next season.

And aside from her work next year in the pointing fourth place. Infeld, the anchor in School of Continuing Studies, the relay, was unable to keep Infeld has set more goals for the lead that junior Rachel herself as a runner.

Schneider gave her with the “I want to just keep improvfinal handoff. ing and focusing on my times,” “It was almost that she comInfeld said. “It’ll be a good expeted too hard in the DMR,” perience to run at trials, and Director of Track and Field and hopefully that’ll help me next Cross Country Patrick Henner year to improve my times and said. “That’s how all four of jump to another level.” them ran.”

Infeld leaves the cross counBut Infeld shook off her frustry program having led her tration and turned around the team to a national championnext day to win the 3000m ship, though she added that run, adding national champithe team’s success came not on to her resume. Again, Miltfrom her individual perforenberg was crucial to Infeld’s mance but from the team’s coturnaround. hesiveness.

“Coach Miltenberg was re“I feel like cross [country] is ally great, trying to keep me such a team sport,” Infeld said. in a positive mental state after “It’s exciting, and there can be the DMR,” Infeld said. “[He] is so many ups and downs withawesome because, while he’s in the season. I just wanted to great with training … he really set a good example in that refocuses [on] the mental com- Hometown: gard.” ponent. A lot of other coaches University Heights, The year has not been comforget about that.” pletely smooth for Infeld, but Still, it is undeniable that In- Ohio her biggest strength has been feld’s success is only partly due to Miltenberg. Her work ethic, Accomplishments: responding to the adversity that would have derailed athintensity and leadership have Eight-time All-Ameriletes with less mental fortiall been integral both to her own development and to the can, national champion tude.

“I ran through so many difarrival of Georgetown’s cross in 3000m ferent emotions,” Infeld said. country and track programs “Our team winning [the] cross [country naon the national radar.

“Her legacy, in terms of the things she’s ac- tional championship] was so exciting. But then I felt a little more pressured, and I just complished, is amazing,” Miltenberg said.

Infeld will continue competing throughout had to remember that this is what I love to do.

May and into June, as the preliminary events I run because I love to run.”

INFELD, from A12

Emily Infeld

MSB ’12

hen I was asked to write this column a few weeks ago, choosing a general topic was fairly easy. The day I decided to write about my favorite Georgetown sports moment was when it got tough.

Covering the women’s soccer team’s Elite Eight run last year was certainly enjoyable, but my mind eventually turned — as most minds do when thinking about Georgetown athletics — to the men’s basketball team. And after four years of up-and-down play, nothing stuck out in my mind more than one winter week in 2010 that turned out to be, in some ways, a microcosm of my Georgetown fan experience.

That week, the Hoyas went 2-1. Coming off an embarrassing road loss to No. 4 Syracuse that featured a blown 14-0 lead, the Blue and Gray thrashed No. 8 Duke — always a fun time — followed that up with an inexplicable loss to South Florida and avenged an earlier loss by pummeling No. 2 Villanova at Verizon Center.

The circumstances of that week made the experience all the more memorable.

Coming off a year that featured a horrible second-half collapse, the team needed to prove to itself and to its fans that it was for real. The Hoyas had cruised through the early portion of their schedule, winning 11 of their first 12 games, including wins over highly touted and top-ranked teams in Butler and Washington.

But coming into the Duke game, Georgetown had a far more pedestrian 4-3 record in its last seven games, even though that stretch had featured games against four ranked teams.

Many people despise the Blue Devils, and I’m no exception. My distaste for Coach K and his merry band of generally loathsome players (whom I’m sure I’d be ambivalent about were they to play for, say, Wake Forest) had been nurtured through several years of cheering for Boston College, which also plays in the ACC. It hadn’t felt personal, though, until the previous year, when a 12-3 Georgetown squad rolled into Cameron Indoor, only to be undone by a combination of Gerald Henderson’s scoring and some creative refereeing. A Georgetown comeback was abruptly halted after Greg Monroe — already sitting on the bench with

three fouls — got a technical foul for, as far as anyone can tell, absolutely nothing.

There was a palpable sense that the team had been robbed of a shot at glory.

The loss — and therefore that decisive moment, in the weird, weird world of the obsessive sports fan — sent the Hoyas into a tailspin. They would end the year 16-13, although they had been 12-4 before the game. Unwilling to blame the collapse on the Georgetown players or coaches, I — along with many others, I think — blamed Duke for the ill that had befallen the team.

That is the long way of saying that everyone was really, really looking forward to the Hoyas’ exacting revenge on the Blue Devils for their prior transgressions, both real and imagined.

President Obama’s attendance at the game added an extra level of intensity to the experience. And boy, did the Hoyas ever show up.

Lawson Ferguson

My obsession has been unquestionably worth it.

The Blue and Gray scored early and often, shooting nearly 72 percent from the field. They took the lead for good midway through the first half and spent the rest of the game making the Blue Devils look generally incompetent before a late, garbage-time run by the visitors cut the final margin of victory to 12.

Just a week later, the Hoyas scored a staggering 103 points against Villanova, dealing the Wildcats just their second loss of the year.

Much like Obama’s presence made the Duke win so memorable, the snowpocalyptic blanket over the District made this game even more remarkable.

Despite the snow and the non-operational GUTS buses, Verizon Center was rocking, and the Hoyas rewarded their dedicated fans with an outrageous offensive display that put everything else they did that

year to shame. Up 50-33 at halftime, the Blue and Gray somehow scored more points than that in the next 20 minutes and turned the second half into something of a victory lap.

The loss to South Florida sandwiched in between those two games is equally memorable, though, and not just because of USF guard Dominique Jones’ scintillating performance.

No, that game sticks out in my mind because it is what makes that week a perfect metaphor for my experience as a Georgetown fan.

That week featured the unbelievable highs of running two highly ranked rivals completely out of the gym, but it also included one of the more random losses of my time here. For four years I’ve followed — and, this year, covered — the men’s basketball team closely. I’ve spent more time than I care to think about on Casual Hoya, HoyaTalk and every other Georgetown news or discussion source I could find.

And after four years, I can’t help but feel a vague sense of disappointment. Much as that awesome week was everso-slightly marred by the loss to USF, my Georgetown fandom has seen just one NCAA tournament win. But like that week, though, my obsession has been unquestionably worth it.

The disappointment comes from falling short of expectations, but that is only because of the high hopes I have maintained for the team. In my experience, those standards have been absolutely worth it.

They injected a sense of urgency into each game, and with that came a sense of importance, at least for the sports fans on the Hilltop.

In some sense, these two qualities — urgency and importance — are what make sports special. I can’t explain the appeal of sports to the nonbelievers among you, and I won’t try here. Sports are full of emotional swings, and following Georgetown basketball has been no different.

I hope that next year this space will be filled with reflections on postseason success; for now, though, this is all I have. I’ve lived and breathed Georgetown basketball to a fault, and I’d do it all over again.

Maybe with more postseason wins, though.

Lawson Ferguson is a senior in the School of Foreign Service and a former sports blog editor and deputy sports editor for The Hoya.

Sports

SCHOOL’S OUT Over the summer, look for updates at thehoya.com/sports, on Hoya Paranoia at paranoia.thehoya.com and on Twitter @TheHoyaSports.

friDAY, may 18, 2012

INSIDE

talkING POINTS

Pat Curran takes a look at new women’s basketball Head Coach Keith Brown.

See A9

coach of the year

“

Senior All-American runner Emily Infeld

Hoya Staff Writer

John Thompson III helms the most scrutinized program in all of Georgetown athletics. At the forefront of many national stories this year, the men’s basketball team achieved surprising success in Thompson III’s eighth season on the Hilltop.

From an international incident in China to upheaval in the Big East conference, from a nationwide recruiting battle for the top high school player to a debate over Georgetown’s plan for the new Athletic Training Facility, Thompson III had a busy year off the court.

“One of those main differences between being a pro coach and a college coach is [that] at the pro level, you just do basketball, and here, probably 80 percent of our job has nothing to do with basketball,” Thompson III said. “Now,

FILE PHOTO: web leslie/THE HOYA

Head Coach John Thompson III led the Hoyas to a 24-9 record.

that 20 [percent] is really important, but the rest of it comes with helping these guys grow up and deal with life.”

Picked to finish 10th in the Big East by the league’s coaches, the Hoyas finished fourth in the conference that yet again sent the most teams to the NCAA tournament. They earned a No. 3 seed in the Big Dance after winning 24 games and staying in the top 25 from November to the end of the season.

“On most Monday mornings, our fans could feel good about us at the water cooler at work,” Thompson III said.

He did it all with 10 freshmen and sophomores, a junior forward who came within hours of leaving for the NBA draft, a senior center who had never averaged more than three points per game and a streak of three straight NCAA tournament losses creeping into his legacy.

“I think this year’s team — obviously, relative to expectations — accomplished a lot, really understood the notion of team, understood sacrifice,” Thompson III said. “One of the fun parts about my job and probably any coach’s job … [is that] every year, you take a whole new group [and try to] get them to understand commitment … and this group did that pretty quickly, which then allowed us to grow, to get better and to exceed expectations.”

Thompson III’s biggest success may have been the improvement of his two seniors, Henry Sims and captain Jason Clark. Clark, a starter for two years, won the Big East sportsmanship award, while Sims was arguably the nation’s most improved player.

“Conventional wisdom says See COACH, A10

NUMBERS GAME

128

Student athletes who will graduate in tomorrow’s commencement ceremonies.

team of the year

JT III Keeps Stride Despite Challenges Michael Palmer

”

I just had to remember that this is what I love to do. I run because I love to run.

COURTESY gEORGETOWN sPORTS information

The Georgetown women’s cross country team won its first-ever national championship in November 2011.

GU Makes History With NCAA Win Ashwin Wadekar Hoya Staff Writer

A team ranked No. 1 in the preseason is supposed to win the national championship, but the women’s cross country team’s journey to its first title was anything but smooth.

Georgetown began the season brimming with well-deserved confidence.

The squad was set to return several All-Americans and boasted a stellar freshman class.

“Going into the season, I knew that a national championship was a possibility,” Head Coach Chris Miltenberg, who was later named women’s cross country national coach of the year, said. “But I knew that there were sev-

eral other teams that it was a possibility for.”

The Blue and Gray backed up their preseason ranking by demolishing their admittedly weak competition in the Harry Groves Invitational in September, universally validating their potential, including to Miltenberg.

But just as everything fell into place for Georgetown, the team faced seemingly insurmountable adversity. Three All-Americans — junior Rachel Schneider, senior Katie McCafferty and sophomore Madeline Chambers — were forced to redshirt due to injuries.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, senior and eight-time All-American Emily Infeld got hurt in late September.

“Just about everything that could

have gone wrong went wrong,” Miltenberg said.

The Hoyas limped through the rest of September, finishing fourth in the Paul Short Invitational behind three Big East teams and getting crushed by Florida State in the Pre-National Invitational.

“After Pre-National, we talked in the hotel about how everybody had written us off,” Miltenberg said. “And that’s when this team came together. … It’s not about winning a national championship but about being the best we can be.”

Infeld’s health began to improve before the Big East championship, and See CHAMPS, A11

female athlete of the year

male athlete of the year

Infeld Set Pace for Hoyas Ashwin Wadekar

Hoya Staff Writer

file photo: chris bien/the hoya

Senior defensive end Andrew Schaetzke recorded 69 tackles in 2011, his best season at Georgetown.

Schaetzke Leads Renaissance Evan Hollander Hoya Staff Writer

No one played a bigger role in bringing Georgetown’s football team (8-3, 3-2 Patriot League in 2011) back to relevance — and their first winning season since 1999 — than senior defensive end Andrew Schaetzke.

The ninth consensus AllAmerican in the Patriot League’s history, Schaetzke wrote his name in the record books with 30.5 career sacks, the secondhighest tally of all time on the Hilltop and third highest in the

conference’s history.

But for someone who has made such a big impact, Schaetzke almost didn’t make to Georgetown. The Toledo, Ohio, native initially committed to a Mid-American Conference school but was left in the lurch when his offer was rescinded.

The Georgetown coaching staff encountered Schaetzke when it recruited one of his high school teammates, Rick Rattay. Rattay’s father served as an assistant coach for the high school team and recommended that Georgetown take

a look at Schaetzke.

“We took his transcript back and took a look at it and watched a film and immediately … [knew] he’d be an excellent college football player,” Head Coach Kevin Kelly said. “We invited him on campus for a visit, and he liked it.”

So Schaetzke headed to Washington with Rattay — who played two seasons for Georgetown before sitting out the last two with an injury. Once there, Schaetzke made an immediate See SCHAETZKE, A10

Heading into her senior year, Emily Infeld — already a six-time All-American — didn’t need any more accolades.

Still, she spent this past season picking up two more All-American titles, leading Georgetown to its first women’s cross country national championship and earning national champion status herself by winning the 3000-meter run in indoor track.

But for Infeld, who has exhausted her eligibility for cross country but will return as a Sports Industry Management graduate student for another season of indoor and outdoor track, the season could have ended very differently.

“I didn’t really perform that well at the beginning of the season, but [women’s cross country Head Coach Chris] Miltenberg was great,” Infeld said. “He was patient with me and committed to helping me … the whole season.”

Injuries plagued Infeld throughout September, forcing her to spend two weeks away from training. Even though she battled back to finish the cross country season, Infeld committed more time to training during the indoor track season to prepare for outdoor events.

But injuries never truly weakened her.

She finished in fourth place individually in the cross country national championship, where Georgetown was victorious.

She won the mile and 3-kilometer events at the Big East indoor track championship and was part of a record-setting distance medley relay team that took first place. She also took second place at the

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courtesy georgetown sports information

Emily Infeld, eight-time All-American, will return as a graduate student next year.

1500m run at the Big East outdoor championship.

Infeld attributes much of her success to Miltenberg, who worked closely with the graduating senior throughout her career at Georgetown.

“I feel like if I had a different coach, [my season] definitely could have gone a different way, because I wasn’t running that well at the beginning of the cross country season,” Infeld said.

A testament to her perseverance came See INFELD, A11