The Hoya: March 24, 2023

Since 1920

Georgetown Launches New Center for Study of Slavery, Its Legacies

Emily Han

Academics Desk Editor

Georgetown announced March 17 the formation of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies (CSSL), an academic initiative for research and interdisciplinary work to strengthen the university’s understanding of its history with slavery.

In 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus who ran the university sold 314 enslaved people, known as the GU272+, to financially sustain the university. The CSSL will engage with faculty and student research, teaching efforts and collaborative programs that support Georgetown’s promise to confront its roots in slavery.

Adam Rothman, the founding director of the CSSL, said the new center builds upon several university initiatives, making learning about Georgetown’s past more accessible.

“Georgetown’s history and

historical involvement with slavery was never a secret,”

Rothman told The Hoya. “People have been writing about it for a long time, but it was not widely known by the Georgetown community or the broader public. So I felt that one of our most important obligations as a university was to try to make this history known and to teach it.”

Rothman also curates the Georgetown Slavery Archive, a repository on the Maryland Jesuits, Georgetown University and slavery. The archive was created by the Archives Subgroup of the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation and is one of many initiatives by Georgetown to research the university’s role in perpetuating slavery and to make reparations for Georgetown’s past.

Hoyas Hope to Rebound With Cooley

Nina

Raj,

Michelle

Vassilev, Carrie McDonald & Oliver Ni Senior News Editors and Senior Sports Editors

Ed Cooley, the former head coach of the Providence Friars, promised that a national championship win is on the horizon for the Georgetown University Hoyas.

conference March 22 introducing Cooley as the new face of the program.

Cooley said his journey into such a prestigious leadership position as a Black man from a low-income background proves that anything is possible.

ed in a Sweet 16 appearance that earned Cooley the 2022 Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year Award, an honor given annually to the best Division I basketball coach.

Reed said Cooley quickly emerged as the leading candidate to usher in a new era of Hoya men’s basketball following the heavily criticized tenure of Ewing.

“He builds teams. He builds community. He understands what it means for a team to be successful on the court and, most importantly, the role that athletics can play in the formation of the young men on his team.”

Anya Markovitz

Special to The Hoya

The last time Rebecca F. Kuang (SFS ’18) was in the ICC auditorium, she was a freshman taking an Economics exam. Eight years later, she’s giving a talk as a 26-year-old New York Times bestselling author in the same room.

Kuang joined Georgetown students March 15 for a conversation on her books and time at Georgetown.

The Georgetown University Lecture Fund, a nonpartisan student organization that arranges forums and hosts speakers on a variety of topics, held the event in collaboration with the Georgetown English department and the GU Center for Research and Fellowships, which connects students and alumni to fellowships and research opportunities. Rhodes Scholar Atharv Gupta (SFS ’23) moderated the event, which included remarks by Kuang followed by a Q&A session.

Kuang specializes in epic fantasies, a genre defined by

NEWS

Rothman said he is working to engage students and several academic departments in the CSSL, somefictional settings and plots, characters and themes with an epic nature. Despite not pursuing creative writing in an academic setting, she said she has always been interested in writing fantasy stories.

After a record-breaking Big East losing streak over the past two seasons resulted in the departure of Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), the university appointed Cooley as the new head coach of the Georgetown men’s basketball program March 20. Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) and Georgetown Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Lee Reed held an official press

Famed Novelist, GU Grad RF Kuang Speaks on Campus

Literature at Yale University.

“I coach from experience, humility and appreciation,” Cooley told The Hoya. “I do not take anything for granted. The fact that I am the head coach of Georgetown right now says that dreams can come true, regardless of your background, regardless of what you look like.”

Cooley transformed Providence from a conference bottom feeder to a perennial powerhouse, posting a 242153 record over his 12 seasons leading the Friars and earning seven NCAA Tournament berths. The team’s continuous improvements culminat-

“We needed a leader, someone who understood our identity and could re-imagine Georgetown basketball to fit today’s unique basketball landscape,” Reed said at the press conference. “Coach Cooley has a vision for our program on the court, in the classroom and in the community.”

DeGioia said Cooley facilitates a healthy environment for players, both on and off the court.

“Ed’s a builder,” DeGioia said at the press conference.

Although speculation surrounding Georgetown’s new coach started months before Ewing’s departure, the official hiring process lasted a mere 48 hours, beginning when Providence exited the NCAA Tournament. Georgetown, with support from management and consulting firm CRG, negotiated with Cooley and Dennis Coleman, who serves as a senior counsel at Ropes & Gray law firm, before quickly finalizing the decision. For Cooley, a cohesive community requires a See COOLEY, A7

“I just had always kept this weird, fictional diary,” Kuang said at the event. “Instead of chronicling things that were happening to me, I was writing about this fictional set of kids riding hoverboards in a post-apocalyptic world living in abandoned skyscrapers with some vague, dystopian, totalitarian government lurking in the background. I was basically writing fanfiction books about my own life.”

Kuang graduated from the School of Foreign Service as a Marshall Scholar, joining a cohort of talented American students selected each year to pursue graduate studies at a UK institution. After graduating from Georgetown in 2018, Kuang received her MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is currently pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and

‘Vietcetera’ Showcase Shines

The Georgetown Vietnamese Student Association hosted its first-ever cultural showcase March 19.

A5

Honoring Women Leaders

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Irish prime minister, among other female leaders, spoke on campus.

A8

OPINION

At the event, Kuang said she came into Georgetown with the goal of working in politics or consulting, but her interactions with professors steered her toward other pursuits that better fit her skill sets.

“For the first few years, I kept pushing myself into fields that I just wasn’t good at, and trying and failing,” Kuang said. “But Georgetown offers you so much flexibility to change your path at any point on the pipeline, and I had incredible mentors.”

After a Georgetown professor encouraged her to take a gap year, Kuang spent a year in Beijing, where she wrote her first novel, “The Poppy War.” The first installment of a trilogy about empire, warfare and shamanism, “The Poppy War” is a Chinesehistory inspired epic fantasy.

Kuang said much of the creative inspiration for her fantasy tales comes from her interpersonal struggles and family history.

“Everything was a parallel

See KUANG, A7

The Fight for DC Statehood

Asher Maxwell (CAS ’26) and Brandon Wu (SFS 24) argue that Georgetown students must mobilize for D.C. statehood.

A3

End Contract with Aramark Students representing the GU Prison Outreach call for the university to end their dining contract with Aramark.

A3

@KUANGRF/TWITTER

Rebecca F. Kuang (SFS ’18) studied history at Georgetown University, going on to write several New York Times bestselling epic fantasy novels.

SCIENCE

Bird House Is Back

After six years of renovations, the Smithsonian Bird House reopened with three new interactive aviaries.

A6

The Future Is Biofabrication

Stella Peters (CAS 25) shares how sustainable fabric alternatives could mitigate the pollutive nature of the fashion industry.

A6

SPORTS

Departure of Coach Howard James Howard, the head coach of the women’s basketball team, will not return for another season with Georgetown. A11/12

Men’s Lacrosse Bounces Back The team won three consecutive games against the High Point Panthers at Cooper Field on St. Patrick’s Day weekend. A11/12

@GEORGETOWNHOOPS/TWITTER

Following the departure of former Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), Georgetown University hired former Providence Friars Head Coach Ed Cooley to lead the Georgetown men’s basketball team.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

The center’s launch event featured a performance by a jazz quartet and a screening of the film “City of a Million Dreams.”

EDITORIAL

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

If Georgetown is set on upholding this culture that values preprofessional experiences, then it must be willing to make these opportunities as accessible as possible to its student body.

The Editorial Board calls on Georgetown to facilitate student internship opportunities during semesters where they are pursuing a full course load by rethinking and expanding its policy for offering credit hours for internships.

While the Editorial Board recognizes the impossibility of a one-size-fits-all solution because of differences in the requirements and responsibilities of internships, we urge the university to at least begin implementing a system that could increase access to internships for all students.

We encourage Georgetown to institute changes to its policies in order to better support its students, especially first-generation and low-income students (FGLI), in their pursuit of professional growth and development.

More specifically, the Editorial Board urges the university to create more paths offering at least three credit hours — the number offered for most courses — for students working an internship that both aligns with their course of study and requires a significant time commitment.

Internships offer valuable opportunities for students to explore their academic and extracurricular interests in a professional setting, potentially opening future career paths. Obtaining an internship is often a necessary prerequisite for students to receive a job offer post-graduation, particularly for those pursuing careers in consulting and finance.

Especially for a school with a large student population interested in government and foreign affairs, Georgetown’s location in Washington, D.C., offers a valuable opportunity for students to take advantage of all the opportunities available in the nation’s capital.

Yet many popular D.C. internships are unpaid. For example, a number of positions at the U.S. Department of Treasury, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are unpaid opportunities.

Georgetown University can and should begin to fill the gap by offering credit to its students with internships.

Currently, the McDonough School of Business offers a series of courses that provide one credit hour for internships completed during a semester or over the summer. The only three-credit course offered requires students to complete 120 hours at their internship over the semester or summer. Many of these courses are available to students in all undergraduate schools. The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) also offers a CASstudent-specific course.

Nevertheless, these courses, in either offering only one credit hour or placing unreasonably high expectations for a three-credit course, do not provide the support necessary for many students to take on internships.

Attempting to balance internship opportunities with the many responsibilities of being a full-time student with an intensive course load

IN

and numerous extracurricular activities poses challenges for students hoping to develop their resumes and skill sets.

Nirvana Khan (SFS ’24) felt this pressure when she was an intern for the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Fall 2022 semester.

“I would definitely say trying to intern 15 hours a week on top of a full course load was very stressful, and I felt really bad I couldn’t contribute as much as I wanted to in both my classes and at the internship,” Khan wrote to The Hoya

“On top of that I was learning really similar things in both places and having credits for my internship definitely would’ve made sense and made it possible for me to give my best,” Khan wrote. Georgetown falls short in making internships an accessible learning experience for students, especially its FGLI student population.

Many FGLI Hoyas must find jobs on campus to support themselves and their education, which can require an intensive time commitment. Thus, an unpaid internship is simply not a feasible option for many, given that they still must take a full credit load to ensure on-time graduation.

Corbin Buchwald (CAS ’25) shared these concerns.

“I believe that the current system of not providing credit for internships makes it difficult for individuals to balance an internship with their course load while limiting it to people that have the resources to do so,” Buchwald wrote to The Hoya

By failing to provide adequate support for internships, Georgetown contributes to a system that benefits the wealthiest students who have the time and resources to work without pay.

“Decisions to award course credit for internships are made at the individual school level based on the specific curricula of their programs,” a university spokesperson wrote.

This process, however, fails to meet all student needs. The university must create a system that offers credits for internships.

Along with requiring 50 minutes of in-class time, each Georgetown credit is also expected to require two hours of work outside the classroom, totaling to approximately three hours of work per credit.

The Editorial Board recommends that the university use this metric in evaluating the number of credits it offers to students working internships, capping the number of internship credits over a student’s time as an undergraduate at six.

While the Editorial Board recognizes that these changes will take time to implement, they are imperative for creating the equitable system that Georgetown claims to desire.

Georgetown University has the chance to help their students access invaluable learning opportunities — there is no reason why they should not.

The Hoya’s Editorial Board is composed of six students and is chaired by the opinion editors. Editorials reflect only the beliefs of a majority of the board and are not representative of The Hoya or any individual member of the board.

GU Focuses on AIDS Awareness

March 23, 1990

The Georgetown University Office of Student Life and several other university departments will co-sponsor an HIV/AIDS Awareness Week from March 26 to 30 titled “Living AIDS: Talkin’ Bout My Generation.”

According to Andrea Masciale, assistant to the director of Residence Life, the program was planned due to the impact AIDS has on today’s college students. Masciale added that national collegiate statistics indicate that as many as 28 Georgetown undergraduate and graduate students could have the disease.

“I hope the students will not just necessarily know the facts but will understand and feel for the people with AIDS,” Masciale said.

A panel discussion, titled “Young and Living with AIDS,” will take place Monday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Intercultural Center auditorium. The panel will consist of young adults who have the disease and Fr. Salvador Jordan, S.J., chaplain of the Georgetown University Hospital.

In addition, Dr. Mary Young of the Georgetown University Medical Center’s Division of Infectious Diseases will speak March 27 on HIV/AIDS risks for women at 8 p.m. in Village C East in the fourth floor lounge.

Other events include an encore production of “Holding Patterns,” a Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society one-act play, on March 28 at 7:30

LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND VIEWPOINT POLICIES

The Hoya welcomes letters and viewpoints from our readers and will print as many as possible. To be eligible for publication, letters should specifically address a recent campus issue or Hoya story. Letters should not exceed 300 words. Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-700 words. The Hoya retains all rights to all published submissions.

Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya.com.

The Hoya reserves the right to reject letters or viewpoints and edit for length, style, clarity and accuracy. The Hoya further reserves the right to write headlines and select illustrations to accompany letters and viewpoints.

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of a story, contact Executive Editor Adora Zheng at adora.zheng@thehoya.com or Executive Editor Clayton Kincade at clayton.kincade@thehoya.com.

NEWS TIPS News Editors Nina Raj and Michelle Vassilev: Email news@thehoya.com. Guide Editors James Pocchia and Nikhil Nelson: Email guide@thehoya.com.

Sports Editors Oliver Ni and Carrie McDonald: Email sports@thehoya.com.

THIS WEEK’S ISSUE “

The university must commit to providing food to the Hilltop in a sustainable manner that does not involve incarcerated labor or harm Georgetown employees.

Savannah Sarafoglu (CAS ’26)

Sophia Comiskey (CAS ’26)

Micaeli Dym (SFS ’26)

COMMUNITY OPINIONS

What

“Accessibility on campus.” – Anika Bansal (SOH ’25)

“The price of tuition.” – Jacob Adams (CAS ’23)

“The big sour patch kid in Vittles.” – Sunil Rosen (CAS ’26)

“Corp sushi.” – Matteo Ficco (CAS ’26)

“Going out is so inaccessible. Clubs have expensive covers and formals have expensive tickets.” – Blake Bertero (SFS ’26)

“Everyone sleeps on the Whisk pumpkin bread.” – William Lambert (MSB ’26)

“Elitism — the fact that so many people went to the same exact high school is crazy to me.” – Madeline Norton (CAS ’24)

“Leo’s food is always so amazingly cooked. I always like Leo’s eggs. Even though they’re powdered eggs, they’re just made with so much love.” – Alyssa Wang (CAS ’25)

“The New York Jets getting Aaron Rodgers.” – Jason Russo (CAS ’25)

“Food waste from Leo’s.” – Jacqueline Sun (CAS ’26)

“The extreme bureaucracy on campus. There’s so much administrative bloating at this school that prevents things from getting done.” – Naomi Gould (CAS ’26)

“Our affiliation with MKUltra.” – Halina Kwan (SOH ’26)

“People do not take advantage of speaker events and going to school in D.C. No one leaves campus enough.” – Alexandra Deramo (CAS ’24)

“The Middle East in the 19th Century.” – Joshua Bernard-Pearl (SFS ’25)

“The funkiness of the Leo’s playlist.” – Allie Gaudion (CAS ’26)

“The CAPS service can be pretty garbage.” – Alex Wang (CAS ’25)

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Sarah Lin

p.m. in the Leavey Program Room. The play, written by Gina Shaw (CAS ’89), deals with a young man with AIDS who attends a university in the Northeast.

The play will be preceded by a 15-minute slide presentation on the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The quilt, which consists of 6-foot by 3-foot panels that each represent one person who has died from AIDS, has in recent months grown too large for display on the Ellipse downtown. Each panel was created by the deceased person’s family members or friends.

The events will continue with a “Band-AIDS Coffeehouse,” to be held March 29 in Leavey Commons from 7 to 10 p.m. The coffeehouse will feature an “open mike” and will feature such campus musical groups as The Chimes, 3 Chicks & a Guitar, Phantom Singers and Fair Warning.

Throughout the week, peer educators and nursing students will man an information table in the Leavey Center. The table will disseminate fact sheets dealing with symptoms of the disease, testing information and the transmission of the virus.

The program will be the last university-sponsored awareness week for the 1989-90 school year, Masciale said.

Sabrina Cellarosi

Founded January 14, 1920

Caitlin McLean, Editor in Chief

Clayton Kincade, Executive Editor Adora Zheng, Executive Editor Mary Clare Marshall, Managing Editor

Board of Directors

Jared Carmeli, Chair

Bay Dotson, Laetitia Haddad, Khushi Vora, Laura Kapp, Rushil Vashee, Timothy Goh

Sophia Lu

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Hoya is published once a week during the academic year with the exception of holiday and exam periods. Address all correspondence to:

The Hoya Georgetown University

Box 571065 Washington, D.C. 20057-1065

The writing, articles, pictures, layout and format are the responsibility of The Hoya and do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University.

Signed columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Hoya Unsigned essays that appear on the left side of the editorial page are the opinion of the majority of the editorial board. Georgetown University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for student editors.

The Hoya does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, color, national or ethnic origin.

© 1920-2022. The Hoya, Georgetown University weekly. No part of this publication may be used without the permission of The Hoya Board of Editors. All rights reserved. The Hoya is available free of charge, one copy per reader, at distribution sites on and around the Georgetown University campus.

Email: editor@thehoya.com Online at www.thehoya.com

Circulation: 3,000

Nina Raj, News Editor

Michelle Vassilev, News Editor

Annie Kane, Features Editor

Caroline Rareshide, Features Editor

James Pocchia, Guide Editor

Nikhil Nelson, Guide Editor

Ryan Thurz, Opinion Editor

Liam McGraw, Opinion Editor

Oliver Ni, Sports Editor

Carrie McDonald, Sports Editor

Naomi Greenberg, Science Editor

Cece Ochoa, Science Editor

Sophie Liu, Design Editor

Alan Chen, Design Editor

Miranda Xiong, Photography Editor

Hannah Wallinger, Copy Chief

Cate Meyer, Copy Chief

Sarah Sisto, Social Media Editor

Amna Shamim, Multimedia Editor

Board

Ryan Thurz and Liam McGraw, Chairs

Sriya Guduru, Sofia Wolinski, Teddie Wai, Jason Hepfer, Elena Martinez, Audrey Sun

Evie Steele

Julia Butler

Emily Han

Jack Willis

Li

Brian

Christian Baldari

Amanda Hao

Austin Huang

Briana Sparacino

Henry Liu

Ediriweera Sahana Aruman Sofia Wills Emily Smith Adriana Guzman Alexis Kim Varsha Venkatram Ariana Biondi-Copeland Madison Fox-Moore Selma Zuaiter Daniel Greilsheimer Anne Poulos Anya Karumanchi Rania Khan Lauren Doherty Ce Mi Lee Jasmine Criqui Reina Lau Sarah Lin Veronica Campanie Lindsay Jenkins Jesse McGannon Cliff Stern Isa Bishop Joshua Ford Iris Fan Madeline Lee Yuni Kim Jessica Lin Sami Powderly Georgia Chen Karenna Warden David Yang Student Life Desk Editor GUSA Desk Editor City Desk Editor Academics Desk Editor Graduate Desk Editor Events Desk Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Science Editor Deputy Science Editor Deputy Science Editor Deputy Science Editor Guide Reviews Desk Editor Guide Features Desk Editor Guide Features Desk Editor Guide Columns Desk Editor Guide Deputy Editor Guide Deputy Editor Opinion Deputy Editor Opinion Deputy Editor Opinion Deputy Editor Opinion Deputy Editor Opinion Deputy Editor Features Deputy Editor Features Deputy Editor Design Deputy Editor Design Deputy Editor Design Deputy Editor Design Deputy Editor Copy Deputy Editor Copy Deputy Editor Copy Deputy Editor Copy Deputy Editor Copy Deputy Editor Social Media Deputy Editor Social Media Deputy Editor Social Media Deputy Editor Social Media Deputy Editor Photography Deputy Editor Photography Deputy Editor Multimedia Deputy Editor Multimedia Deputy Editor Multimedia Deputy Editor Patrick De Meulder, Director of Business Operations Chris Delaney, Technology Director Aditya Gupte, General Manager

Safeguard the Health of D.C.’s Waterways

Columnist

Rising precipitation rates resulting from climate change have exacerbated a decades-old problem in Washington, D.C.: sewage runoff making its way into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.

Heavy rains compromise the District’s already burdened sewage system, which diverts roughly 140 million gallons of untreated human waste into the Potomac River and its tributaries each year. As a result, the waterway received a “B-” rating in river health from the Potomac Conservancy. The Anacostia River, which begins in the Maryland suburbs and merges with the Potomac River, faces a similar problem, as 500 million gallons of raw sewage enter the waterway annually.

As Georgetown University students and residents of D.C., we must be conscious of pollution in the District’s waterways and advocate for the modification of the city’s outdated sewage systems and the strengthening of laws to protect our rivers.

D.C.’s sewage system discharges both human sewage and stormwater runoff. This system uses the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant as the discharge point for sewage and rain runoff because of its far distance from the city. There are 47 sewer outfalls along the banks of the Anacostia, Potomac and Rock Creek rivers. The outfalls on the Anacostia, at one point, were excreting raw sewage into the river over80timesperyear,precipitating muchofthepollutionstillafflicting D.C. waterways.

Following a lawsuit by the Anacostia Watershed Society, the city of D.C. was required to remedy the sewage problem through a court-mandated rehabilitation project. The lawsuit resulted in a consent decree, which binds the Districttocleantheriverunderthe oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This undertaking, called the Clean Rivers Project, is one of the city’s most expensive infrastructure projects since the construction of the Metro.

The system is set to include 18 miles of newly built tunnels to

manage runoff and sewage. The $2.7 billion project is primarily funded by residents through the Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charge (CRIAC), which some argue has driven lowincome tenants out of the city. While the speed with which the current plan proposes to clean D.C.’s waterways is of utmost importance, the establishment of a relief program to unburden low-income residents is equally important.

Despite the need to update its sewage and drainage system, DC Water has tried to shift the project’s timeline and reduce the scope of the proposed tunnel system. For the time being, DC Water appears to be committed to its original plan, which demands the completion of a two-mile sewer tunnel under the Potomac River by 2025, a deadline imposed by city lawmakers. Given the backlash from residents, however, the continuation of the Clean Rivers Projectremainscontested,andits future is uncertain. At a Council of the District of Columbia hearing in May 2018, residents argued that the high water bills associated with the CRIAC were accelerating gentrification. While a commitment to the original scope and timeline of the project remains crucial, mitigating the financial burden of the Clean Rivers Project on low-income residents ensures equitable access to clean and safe waterways.

Georgetown students must be steadfast in their support of the Clean Rivers Project and regulations that protect waterways. Despite notable progress, improving the health of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers is still challenging. As such, it is all the more necessary that we advocate for the project, which would reshape D.C.’s antiquated sewage system.

Students must be conscious of the necessity of the Clean Rivers Project and advocate for relief funds that diminish the financial burden of the updated system on lowincome residents. The District’s waterways depend on it.

Grace Rivers is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. Weeding Out Injustice is published every third Friday.

VIEWPOINT • KIM, SARAFOGLU, COMISKEY & DYM

Protect Workers, Sever Ties with Aramark

Aramark, the food service and facilities provider contracted by Georgetown University, is guilty of sustaining unpaid prison labor, substandard working conditions and hazardous food quality. Aramark supplies the food and workers for Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall and Epicurean & Co. With operations in 19 countries, Aramark’s 2022 revenue was $16.3 billion, approximately 12% of which stems from prison labor.

Aramark not only uses the forced labor of incarcerated individuals for revenue but does so under the guise of providing rehabilitation services. Over 6,000 incarcerated individuals have worked in prison kitchens via the company’s In2Work program, often laboring up to 40 hours a week. Aramark classifies these individuals as “students” rather than employees — making them ineligible for adequate pay — while Aramark continues to profit off of their free labor.

Due to Aramark’s record on workers’ rights and prison labor, Georgetown must end its contract with Aramark and replace it with a self-operated dining service.

Inmates at the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, Calif., sued the county and Aramark in 2019 for involuntary servitude. The plaintiffs in the case prepared more than 16,000 meals a day without pay, and Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies allegedly threatened them with longer sentences and solitary confinement for noncompliance.

Aramark also has an abysmal track record of substandard food quality within prisons. On multiple occasions, incarcerated people have accused Aramark of severe health and safety violations, sanitation

Advocate for D.C. Statehood

While many consider Washington, D.C., a liberal stronghold, a starkly different reality could soon emerge. A Republican Congress and presidency after the 2024 elections could abolish D.C.’s autonomy and its progressive policies because District residents continue to lack congressional voting power to potentially stop Congress from using its right to overturn local D.C. laws.

D.C. residents will continue to suffer from the looming threat of the lack of their federal representation until everyone in the D.C. community — including college students — mobilizes and organizes for justice.

Despite claims of being “smallgovernment conservatives,” many Republicans are set on abolishing the District’s autonomy. To secure far-right Republicans’ votes, current Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed to allow members to attach riders — controversial measures mostly attached to large bills that would not pass on their own — to crucial budget bills.

These riders could end D.C.’s control over its local affairs. They have been used in the past to block D.C. from legalizing the sale of marijuana and assisting low-income women with accessing abortions.

Republicans could easily force Democrats to either vote to shut down the government to prevent the abolition of the Council of the District of Columbia or vote to fund the government while undermining the District’s autonomy.

President Joe Biden recently signed a GOP resolution that received Democratic support to overturn D.C.’s revised criminal code, signaling that Democrats in the presidency and Senate majority are willing to trade D.C.’s autonomy for political gain as

they try to present themselves as “tough on crime.”

D.C. residents crucially lack congressional votes to stop these efforts to abolish the District’s autonomy. Furthermore, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who represents the District in the House, has no voting power. D.C.’s 710,000 residents — more than the populations of two states — deserve representatives and senators who can vote on policiestargetingtheircommunity.

Counterarguments to D.C. statehood remain lackluster. The belief that D.C. statehood will only help Democrats’ congressional power is a poor excuse to continually deny representation for the District’s marginalized communities. In addition, a recent poll found 57% of Maryland residents opposed the Republican-proposed idea of retrocession, which would mean ceding D.C. back to Maryland.

While a significant plurality of young Americans support D.C. statehood, many, including at Georgetown University, do not take action to make it a reality. However, there is much to do to fight for statehood beyond educating ourselves on the issue. Georgetown students must go one step further to mobilize and create the future that D.C.’s residents deserve.

First, if Democrats represent your home district, you can search the list of senators and representatives who are cosponsoring the Washington, D.C. Admission Act in the Senate and House to see if your members of Congress support statehood legislation. Four Democratic senators and 26 Democratic representatives have not signed on — and calling and emailing Democratic representatives increase the pressure to pass D.C. statehood in Congress. Second, Advisory Neighborhood

infractions and unauthorized food substitutions and reductions. Within the Santa Rita Jail, Aramark served food that was expired, spoiled and contaminated with rodent, insect and bird droppings. Aramark locations in Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky have recorded similarexperiences. In 2016, Georgetown signed a 10-year contract with Aramark, which maintained the corporation’s position as the university’s dining contractor. Aramark, rather than the university, employs all dining hall workers. During the contract negotiation process, students advocated to ensure that the employment status of all workers would be protected under Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy. However, because Georgetown’s food service workers are contracted by Aramark, their rights are not protected by the university. These workers do not receive the benefits afforded to official university employees, such as fair wages, healthcare and adequate paid time off. In addition, Aramark’s food service workers have struggled with adequate staffing and training.

As Aramark employees explained at the recent Community Conversation on Workers’ Justice hosted by the Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights, 2023 is a contract year during which workers can renegotiate their contracts. Consequently, Georgetown’s unionized workers can collectively bargain for more equitable treatment in the next pay cycle.

Nevertheless, Aramark employees — who are not unionized Georgetown workers

— are not afforded these same benefits. As long as Georgetown continues to contract labor through Aramark, dining hall workers will not be granted the same employee rights as provided in Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy. This, combined with the corporation’s unjust and unsafe labor practices in private prisons, provides further reason for the university to cut all ties with businesses that contribute to the prisonindustrial complex.

Severing the university’s ties to Aramark would mean contracting employees directly through Georgetown. The university would thus hold greater accountability in its treatment of dining workers and be bound to the terms of its JustEmploymentPolicy.Therefore, employees would have access to more equitable benefits and safe conditions. Under the assurance that all dining staff would maintain their jobs, a private contract with the university would be an important step towards workers’ justice on campus.

Georgetown University Prison Outreach (GUPO) calls for the dissolution of the contract between Georgetown University and Aramark and for a self-operated dining system in partnership with Georgetown to take its place. With the contract between Georgetown and Aramark set to expire in 2026, now is the perfect time to begin exploring alternative dining systems.

GUPO is not alone in its efforts to sever ties with Aramark. In 2019, a group of student activists at Barnard College succeeded in preventing the renewal of a contract with Aramark.

GUPO would like Georgetown

to turn to a self-operated service for future dining systems. Although such a system may sound expensive and difficult to implement, self-run dining services have become practical in the status quo. In 2022, Johns Hopkins adopted a self-operated dining service, providing a model for Georgetown to follow. Adopting a self-operated dining service would further enable Georgetown to improve its sustainability efforts, as the university would be able to control where food is sourced and purchase fromlocal,ethicalvendors.

GUPO also urges Georgetown, in the event of a shift to a selfoperated dining service, to follow in the footsteps of institutions like Johns Hopkins and retain the current dining staff as employees. Although this decision may increase short-term costs for Georgetown, its effects will pay dividends: working conditions will improve, Georgetown’s ties to the prison-industrial complex will be severed and its ecological footprint will shrink.

The university must commit to providing food to the Hilltop in a sustainable manner that does not involve incarcerated labor or harm Georgetown employees.

Priscilla Kim is a first-year student in the School of Foreign Service. Savannah Sarafoglu is a first-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. Sophia Comiskey is a first-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. Micaeli Dym is a firstyear student in the School of Foreign Service. The authors are writers from the OnCampus Publications Team of Georgetown University Prison Outreach (GUPO).

Search for Identity in Culture Change

representing Georgetown can — and should — advocate for statehood.

A recent statehood advocacy letter accumulated over 100 signatures from across D.C. While one commissioner representing our neighborhood, Joe Massua (SFS ’25), signed the letter, our other commissioner, John DiPierri (SFS ’25), did not.

You can email Commissioner DiPierri at 2E08@anc.dc.gov to expressthatheshouldsupportD.C. statehood initiatives and represent his constituents’ beliefs. If student constituents send emails now to urge Commissioner DiPierri to support statehood, change can — and will — materialize.

Finally, there are multiple organizations to support that are fighting for statehood. For instance, Georgetown students can advocate for D.C.’s marginalized communities by volunteering a few hours weekly for DC Vote, an organization dedicated to rallying local and national support for statehood.

Students’ privilege and isolation often precludes them from caring about anything beyond M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. But if students stay on the sidelines on statehood, a Republican-controlled federal government will not wait a second to pass a restrictive abortion ban, abolish the D.C. Council and implement countless other anti-democratic measures. By then, Instagram story reposts or attempts at organizing will be too little, too late.

But right now it is not too late to act. We as Georgetown students must leverage our privilege to fight for justice and make D.C. statehood a reality.

Asher Maxwell is a first-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. Brandon Wu is a junior in the School of Foreign Service.

Sanna Mehta Columnist

Before moving to India, my parents cleaned, cooked and did household chores together. While riding the bus, I watched women in pantsuits rush to work and dads, like mine, drop their daughters at school. Those were my mornings in Manhattan, and now even my mornings in Washington, D.C.

Having met a plethora of Hoyas who have moved around a lot in their childhoods, cultural adjustments are something many of us have faced. On the cusp of my family’s move to India when I was six years old, I didn’t know that the norms were about to change.

From Manhattan to Mumbai, a nuclear family to an extended family, I embraced the riotous introduction to Mumbai life and its technicolor vividness. I got used to my frizzy hair from the humidity and the medley of doorbells announcing food vendors. I learned to fall asleep to sounds blasting from the TV and wake up to my grandmother praying at an ungodly hour. For a while, my baby cousin’s morning cry was my unfailing second alarm.

As life in Mumbai started to flow with its own cadence, I realized that while my cousins — all male — became my best friends, being the first girl in four generations was not always fun.

Nevertheless, as I balanced the chaos of my extended family with the robust support system it offered, I began to not only navigate cultural norms but abide by them. Gender and cultural expectations pervade our realities, but how we respond is entirely up to us. Addressing every cultural disagreement may not be

feasible, but I’ve learned when and where to fight my battles, and I now bring that skill of prioritization to both my classes and social life at Georgetown.

Truth be told, my grandparents didn’t know how to handle me, a new addition in their home in 2009. Overwhelmed by having a vocal “American” granddaughter intheirtraditional,predominantly male family tree, their eyes asked, “What do we talk to her about now?” To them, I was delicate. Emotional. Unknown. Protected by my tigress-with-her-cub mom.

While my grandparents have always celebrated me as a “princess,” they also trap me in a cageofage-oldbeliefssurrounding gender norms and female fragility. The phrase “don’t hit girls” was often said around me, leaving me confused and wondering, “But we can hit boys?”

I knew I wasn’t fragile and could hold my own with my male cousins in pillow fights and arguments. I recognized my strengths outside just being the stereotypically dramatic, argumentative American girl.

Often, the gender expectations were subtle — like women being served food only after men. Sometimes it struck deeply — like a family member declaring me unfit for business because I was a girl. I bristled. My mom didn’t teach me to curb my tongue, but her hand, squeezing mine under the dinner table, encouraged me to pick my battles. I did. Most of the time.

I questioned why dad and grandpa got the first servings while simultaneously taking a hot roti with my bare hands and placing it on my mother’s plate. I questioned why my dad didn’t cook anymore.

I made sure that I engaged in conversations about the family business. I delicately balanced the positives of a close-knit, large

family with its biased outlook.

After eight years in Mumbai living with my grandparents, my parents and I finally moved to our own apartment 10 minutes away. I watched, bemused, as my mom recreated our New York City apartment. She held fast to the image of our Manhattan life; it gave her conviction and patience. We resumed our pre-Mumbai life, almost resetting my nuclear family dynamics and expectations. The irony here is that I miss the family support and overwhelming presence now that I am here at Georgetown. While gender inequalities are more relaxed here, there is something to say about how much I grew because of my large family and robust culture. Even though I pondered what teenage life in Manhattan would have been like, I would not change my parents’ decision in 2009 to move to India.

Coming to Georgetown, I have grown to appreciate the fact that life teaches us unexpected lessons. While I hadn’t expected to encounter such views within my own family, being openminded, yet having the courage of conviction, is non-negotiable.

I will carry this with me as I embark on my next adventures in college and beyond. As I reflect on my younger self, holding onto conviction was a skill I had yet to discover and practice. But even with my personal growth, the balancing act between being vocal and dramatic is something I still strive to achieve.

Before, I would get offended and angry if I were doubted or undermined. Now, my aspirations to be patient yet opinionated are cultivated at Georgetown.

Sanaa Mehta is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. Identity Introspection is published every third Friday.

Grace Rivers

The Patrick Ewing Experiment Comes to an End

After six seasons as head coach of the Georgetown University men’s basketball program, Patrick Ewing (CAS ‘85) has left his alma mater, amid mixed feelings.

Oliver Ni, Carrie McDonald, Nina Raj, and Michelle Vassilev Hoya Senior Sports Editors and Senior News Editors

Patrick Ewing’s (CAS ’85) hire as head coach was supposed to be the next chapter of his legendary Hoya career. If only it was meant to be.

After going 75-109 over six seasons at his alma mater, Ewing will not be returning as head coach of the Georgetown University men’s basketball program. Ewing’s departure follows the Hoyas’ (7-25, 2-18 Big East) 48-80 thrashing by the Villanova University Wildcats (17-17, 10-10 Big East) during the first round of the men’s Big East Tournament in Madison Square Garden, the home stadium of Ewing’s former team, the New York Knicks.

Georgetown appears to have moved on already, as earlier this week, the university announced it would hire Ed Cooley, former head coach of the Providence College Friars (21-12, 13-7 Big East), to replace Ewing.

“I am very proud to be a graduate of Georgetown University,” Ewing said in a March 9 statement. “And I am very grateful to President DeGioia for giving me the opportunity to achieve my ambition to be a head basketball coach.”

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) said the university remains forever indebted to Ewing for his dedication to the basketball program over the past six years.

“Patrick Ewing is the heart of Georgetown basketball,” DeGioia said in the March 9 announcement. “I am deeply grateful to Coach Ewing for his vision, his determination, and for all that he has enabled Georgetown to achieve.”

Dashed Hopes for a Heroic Homecoming

Georgetown University hired Ewing as the 18th head coach of its men’s basketball program in 2017, following an illustrious playing career that launched Georgetown basketball to national fame.

Under Head Coach John Thompson Jr., Ewing led the Hoyas to three NCAA Tournament finals and the 1984 national championship, Georgetown’s only NCAA basketball title, before his selection as the No. 1 pick in the 1985 NBA draft. During his 17 years as an NBA player, Ewing became an 11-time All-Star and a member of seven All-NBA teams.

Despite 15 years of experience as an assistant coach in the NBA, Ewing had no experience as head coach of any program at any level before accepting his position at Georgetown. But Georgetown took on the experiment, since Ewing was one of the best players in Georgetown basketball history. Many expected his hiring to be the homecoming story of a Hoya hero.

Quentin Fidance (SFS ’24), vice president of Hoya Blue, Georgetown’s official spirit organization, said Ewing defined the program’s prime.

“You can say what you will about his coaching performance; Ewing will always be

one of the best people this campus has ever produced,” Fidance told The Hoya. “He will be, aside from John Thompson himself, the face of that era.”

Thompson Jr. is the embodiment of Georgetown basketball’s golden age, as the first Black coach in history to win a NCAA title. After Thompson Jr. retired in 1999, the Hoyas worked to capitalize on his legacy by turning to his assistant coach, Craig Escherick, and then his son, John Thompson

ly, things didn’t go as I planned or thought. But above all, I am glad to be a Hoya.”

But following their Big East win, Ewing’s Hoyas hit rock bottom. They lost 29 straight conference games across the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons to set a record for most consecutive Big East losses, struggling to a pitiful 13-50, 2-37 Big East record in the past two seasons.

High turnover rates have also plagued the team as players race to escape the sinking ship; since the Big East championship title, 17 players have entered the transfer portal in an attempt to leave the program.

Many long-time, demoralized Hoyas fans stopped attending games. Some fans who did attend brought posters demanding Ewing be replaced, only to have the posters confiscated. Flyers reading “Save Georgetown Basketball” were posted all over campus, welcoming students back from winter break.

lar guys that start didn’t seem to start. It just didn’t seem like the same Georgetown team that we had seen all season.”

Rebecca Friedman (CAS ’24), another pep band member, said there was only one thing more predictable than Ewing’s firing going into the tournament: Georgetown’s loss.

Even as the pep band packed for the trip to play in the stands at Madison Square Garden, Friedman said the students only brought enough clothing for one day of travel, anticipating that Georgetown would be eliminated in an early round.

Despite general disappointment with the men’s basketball team, Friedman said she felt unsure how much blame fans should place on Ewing’s shoulders.

faced criticization for the numerous transfers of players, a poor defense, a struggle to retain talent from the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area and an overall lack of team culture.

said. “That’s going to be a big part of whoever comes in next, where you can’t just recruit the best players. You have to recruit the best players for Georgetown.”

Weinberger said the talent of Georgetown’s players went to waste with a poor coaching strategy.

“We always just seem to collapse down the stretch, and I feel like that comes down to coaching,” Weinberger said. “There will be times where we call a timeout, and we come out of the timeout and immediately implode. We can’t do that; that’s on the coach.”

As a longtime Hoyas fan, Kurkjian said watching the team’s downfall has been painful.

“I know how fun it is to watch them when they’re at their top, and I know how brutal it is to watch them when they’re at the bottom,” Kurkjian said.

ing a neglect of defense and poor retention of Washington, D.CMaryland-Virginia-area talent.

“If you watch Georgetown basketball, you know that they just have not played defense at all during Ewing’s tenure, which I found kind of ironic just because his whole career was built on the fact that he’s one of the greatest defensive players of all time, blocking shots and just being a force in the paint,” Kurkjian said.

“Another thing is an ability to recruit in the DMV area,” Kurkjian added. “Recently, we’ve seen so many good players come out of it, and they haven’t ended up in Georgetown. They grew up right in our backyard, and we haven’t been able to keep them home.”

Still, Kurkjian warned that Ewing’s firing will not solve all of Georgetown’s problems.

III, to fill the head coach position. Following Thompson III’s firing in 2017, Georgetown once again attempted to revive its glory days by hiring the crown jewel of its NCAA championship run: Ewing.

Nathan Chen (SFS ’22), a former Georgetown Athletics communications intern, said the university knew it was taking a chance on Ewing when it first hired him.

“They ran the risk of this happening, where they might have to force out their favorite son,” Chen told The Hoya

“This university gave Coach Ewing the opportunity to fail, and that’s not something that you see happen for a lot of great, and frankly a lot of Black, head coaches,” Chen added. “They don’t get the opportunity to fail. And Ewing got the opportunity, and he failed, and it’s time to move on.”

Ewing inherited a team that had recently slid from a stretch of consistent NCAA postseason appearances to consecutive losing records within the Big East.

Georgetown hoped Ewing’s hiring would be the kick-start that the program needed to move back toward its former glory.

But the Hoyas have not reached the Final Four since 2007.

Georgetown struggled to establish its footing under Ewing’s first year, the 2017-18 season, as head coach following a 15-15, 5-13 conference record. In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, Ewing continued to produce mediocre results, failing to turn the program around.

The Hoyas’ surprise 2021 Big East Tournament championship win as the No. 8 seed offered a glimpse of hope for the struggling program, according to center Qudus Wahab (CAS ’23), who started for Georgetown in the 2020-21 Big East Tournament run and the 2022-23 season.

“Winning the Big East championship my sophomore year gave me the confidence that it could be done again,” Wahab wrote to The Hoya. “Unfortunate-

Even Georgetown’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Lee Reed acknowledged the basketball team was struggling.

“We recognize this is a challenging and frustrating time for the men’s basketball team and our fans,” Reed wrote to The Hoya on Jan. 4. Wahab said Ewing’s best efforts as a head coach came up short of his lofty ambitions for the team.

“Coach Ewing will forever be a Hoya legend, his goal was to bring the basketball program back up to the level when he used to play,” Wahab wrote. “He did his best as a coach and now all he can do is to wish the program the best in future endeavors.”

Ewing Experiment Ends With Mixed Sentiments

Ewing coached and lost his last game for Georgetown men’s basketball March 8 against Villanova — the same team to which he lost his last game as a player in the 1985 NCAA championship. Georgetown announced his firing the next day.

Brian Weinberger (CAS ’24), both a Hoyas and a Knicks fan, said Ewing still holds a special place in his heart, even after his lackluster career as head coach.

I know online there’s been a lot of hate for him,” Weinberger told The Hoya. “I don’t have any hate for him, I really don’t. It has to be a tough situation being this hero at Georgetown and coming in and just being terrible.”

Some fans, including Simone Guite (CAS ’26), could not believe the news that Ewing and Georgetown would be parting ways.

“I thought it was a joke,” Guite told The Hoya. “I didn’t think it was serious because Patrick Ewing means so much to this school.”

Guite, who played with the Georgetown Pep Band at the Big East Tournament, said the energy of Ewing’s last game felt different from the rest of the season.

“The team itself seemed different, I will say,” Guite said. “That was one of the big things I noticed that night, is that a lot of the regu-

“I feel like it’s sad to have people clamoring for him to be fired,” Friedman said. “We’re doing really badly, but sometimes, when I watch our team, I’m like, ‘Well, we would have missed that three even if we had a great head coach.’”

But others, like John Kurkjian (CAS ’24), the vice president of Georgetown basketball blog Thompson’s Towel, said head coaches have a direct hand in the performance of their team.

“I think the head coach and the right guy at the helm is an integral role in just bringing in the right culture,” Kurkjian told The Hoya. “Aside from the on-court failures, we’re just seeing that there’s no sort of culture at all, and it’s just impossible to build a culture of winning when you just have guys transferring out, you have scandals and you just can’t win basketball games.”

Kurkjian said Ewing’s player recruitment strategy prioritized individual skill but failed to play to the strengths of Georgetown as a team.

“The guys that he picked up in the transfer portal were just guys that he knew could play and weren’t necessarily good fits for the program just because he needed as much talent infusion as possible to win games,” Kurkjian

Chen said change was imperative, but he is not celebrating the departure of the Hoya legend.

“My reaction was just sadness really more than anything else, not angry,” Chen told The Hoya “Not angry at the decision, not angry at Ewing, no longer angry at the way the last two years have gone down.”

“You knew it wasn’t for lack of effort. You knew it wasn’t for lack of care or passion, but things just didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate,” Chen added.

The Future of Georgetown Men’s Basketball Ewing’s departure comes amid a complete restructuring of Georgetown’s entire basketball program, as the university also declined to renew women’s basketball Head Coach James Howard’s contract, according to a March 13 announcement by Georgetown Athletics.

Despite excitement around leadership changes, students expect Cooley to face an uphill battle of trying to rebuild a once great but now struggling program as its new head coach.

Kurkjian said Cooley must work on addressing the weaknesses of Ewing’s tenure, includ-

“I think people will have to temper their expectations a little when we are hiring a new head coach that he’s just going to come in, whoever it is, and fix everything,” Kurkjian said. “I think it’s bigger than that. It needs to be bigger than that. It has to be a cultural revamp, more than just an on-court revamp.”

It is still possible to honor Georgetown’s past while preparing for a better future, according to Chen.

“There’s a way to be able to respect the values and principles that made this program what it was, made it the revolution and the intervention that college basketball needed when it was ascending in the ’80s, but with new methods of conveying that message to a national stage and new methods of providing underserved communities with educational opportunities that make more sense in the landscape of college basketball today,” Chen said.

Ewing said he looks forward to seeing where the Georgetown program goes and is proud of his time with the program.

“I wish the program nothing but success,” Ewing said in a March 9 statement. “I will always be a Hoya.”

GUHOYAS

Ewing

“He did his best as a coach and now all he can do is to wish the program the best in future endeavors.”

QUDUS WAHAB (CAS ’23) CENTER, MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Hoyas ended the season 7-25, 2-18 Big East, losing 48-80 against the Villanova Wildcats in Ewing’s last game as head coach.

Governance Expert Discusses Book, Speaks on Legislative Research

Jack Willis

Graduate Desk Editor

A professor and legislative expert spoke about her latest book, which examines the legislative process on Capitol Hill, during an event hosted by Georgetown University’s government department.

Maya Kornberg, a research fellow at New York University and an adjunct professor at Georgetown, wrote “Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process” and discussed it with Georgetown students and community members at the March 20 event. Kornberg’s work draws from her doctoral project about how congressional committees are a place of deliberation and learning. She expanded on the project significantly for the next seven years after realizing it was an avenue she wanted to pursue professionally.

At the event, Kornberg outlined problems that plague the field of policymaking, including insufficient staff, pervasive lobbyist involvement and the widespread presence of staunch partisanship and cameras on Capitol Hill.

Despite these issues, Kornberg said she feels students interested in working in government, and specifically on Capitol Hill, should be excited about the opportunities on the horizon that those careers offer.

“I’m definitely an optimist,” Kornberg told The Hoya. “Staff have real power to shape things. They should be encouraged at the amount of power they could have if they worked in Congress. I think there’s a lot of space and room for encouragement.”

In her book, Kornberg proposes reforms to the legisla-

tive process such as investing in fostering a skilled and diverse staff on Capitol Hill, creating more spaces for biparti-

WHAT’S NEW IN MULTIMEDIA

Victoria’s Secrets: Cheer for King Lear

In the second episode of “Victoria’s Secrets,” host Victoria Freeman (CAS ’26) reviews Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current production of “King Lear,” which is running from Feb. 23 to April 16. Tune in to hear Freeman’s analysis of the production and why it reminds her of the song “Anywhere With You” by Maggie Rogers. Podcasts are available to stream on The Hoya website, Soundcloud and Spotify.

Students Host First Ever On-Campus Vietnamese Cultural Showcase

is legislating a lot less; it’s passing less legislation than it was, by far, than decades ago. Legislators are spending about a third of their time legislating, which is crazy given that their job is to be a legislator.”

Kornberg said congressional committees stand out, as the testimonies shared there are authentic and often deeply personal experiences.

town VSA to finally make “Vietcetera” a reality this year.

members of the Georgetown community can take away something meaningful from the showcase.

san relationship-building and rethinking hearing formats to foster a wider impact.

Kornberg said a priority for legislative reform should be reorganizing and modernizing its intricate committee infrastructure.

“The last time that Congress reorganized its committee jurisdictions was in the 1970s, and as a result of that, also as a result of other things, we don’t have one committee with sole jurisdiction over things like the tech industry because it didn’t exist in the 1970s,” Kornberg said at the event. “That and many other issues fall through the cracks more easily when you don’t have a committee dealing with them.”

Kornberg said statistics show that there is truth to the narrative that Congress spends more time arguing with one another than pushing through actual laws.

“We look at Congress today and see a hyperpartisan Congress,” Kornberg said at the event. “Congress today

“Committees are a space for members to hear from just ordinary American voices,” Kornberg said at the event. “There aren’t that many spaces in Congress for that to happen. It’s not necessarily the scientist from NASA — not that those testimonies are not important — but, the ones that shape them, the ones that they held up, were the WNBA star who grew up on food stamps and the journalist who lived with ISIS and the mother of a sex trafficking victim.”

Kornberg gave attendees an inside look into her research methods while acknowledging the limitations of her work given the vastness of the inner workings of Congress.

“I couldn’t look at all the committees because each chamber has about 20 committees in any given Congress,” Kornberg said at the event. “I chose a sample of eight committees, and the committees that I chose vary in terms of partisanship.”

Georgetown’s location in Washington, D.C., should encourage students to engage with the legislative process on Capitol Hill, according to Kornberg.

“It’s a real luxury to be here in D.C. and be able to just attend congressional hearings and see for yourself what’s going on,” Kornberg told The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) organized “Vietcetera: Back to Vietnam,” its first cultural showcase, to celebrate contemporary Vietnamese identity March 19.

“Vietcetera” began with the story of a Vietnamese American named Đu Đủ returning back to Vietnam in hopes of fulfilling a marriage pact with his childhood best friend and first love, Chôm Chôm. The showcase follows Đu Đủ’s rediscovery of his Vietnamese heritage through several performance acts, such as a dance battle featuring traditional conical hats and dancing fans, as well as a fashion show featuring Vietnamese dresses and textiles.

Ashley Nguyen (SOH ’24), Ariel Le (SOH ’24), Angelette Pham (CAS ’24), Mary Truong (SOH ’25) and Mary Nguyen (CAS ’25) co-directed the show. The five directors collectively decided to name the production “Vietcetera” because it combines “Viet” with “etcetera.” The portmanteau indicates there is more to be said about the Vietnamese American narrative beyond the model minority myth, which incorrectly puts forth the successes of certain ethnic groups, like Asian Americans, as proof structural racism does not exist.

Over 130 cast and crew members collaborated to produce “Vietcetera,” according to Pham. More than 200 attendees supported the show, including some from other colleges and universities across the Mid-Atlantic Union of Vietnamese Student Associations (MAUVSA), of which Georgetown VSA is a member.

Culture shows have been a long-standing tradition for many MAUVSA schools. Pham, who also serves as the external vice president of VSA, said some schools have been performing annual culture shows for decades and that these inspired George-

“For the past two years, our involvement in MAUVSA has grown exponentially, and after supporting local universities’ culture shows, we were inspired to produce one ourselves to celebrate the Vietnamese identity with both the Georgetown and local communities,” Pham wrote to The Hoya

Pham said Georgetown VSA’s members felt a mix of anticipation and anxiety about starting such an intensive production from the ground up.

“Before the show, we were both nervous and excited about Vietcetera,” Pham wrote. “For the first time, we had the opportunity to showcase our passion for Vietnamese culture and narrative and our pride in our organization. On the other hand, we were unsure if Vietcetera would grow into the large-scale showcase we had envisioned primarily since this was our first culture show.”

Le said the responsibility of executing “Vietcetera” together was fantastic for facilitating bonding within Georgetown VSA and learning new skills, despite being a daunting task.

“We were very lucky to have board members who were happy to try something new with us, and we all, as a community, came together with different skill sets to produce something great,” Le added.

Truong, who serves as the cotreasurer of Georgetown VSA, said the club’s board started planning for “Vietcetera” at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

“There were definitely a lot of sleepless nights watching the sun go down and rise all in one sitting,” Truong wrote to The Hoya. “Every single person that participated in Vietcetera played an important role and the show would not have been what it was without them.”

Dominic Pham (CAS ’23), one of two co-emcees, said he hopes both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese

“I really hope that Vietnamese members of the Georgetown community were able to see a part of themselves represented on stage. The board drew a lot from folktales and songs our families used to share with us as we were growing up in Vietnamese households,” Dominic Pham wrote to The Hoya “As for non-Vietnamese members, I hope that they were able to learn a little bit more about our community and culture on campus, and become inspired to discover their own heritages,” Pham added.

Dominic Pham said “Vietcetera” feeds into Georgetown VSA’s broader goals of promoting cultural awareness, supporting and expanding the Georgetown Vietnamese community and advocating for Vietnamese communities across the world.

“We strive to actively be a welcoming and inclusive community for anyone interested in Vietnamese culture and narrative, and, given that Georgetown University is a predominantly white institution, we especially aim to foster a comfortable space for students of color and other marginalized identities to thrive,” Pham wrote. Le said she feels immense gratitude for every person who was involved with “Vietcetera” and looks forward to continue celebrating Vietnamese culture on and off campus.

“This was my first time acting, and the people around me were so supportive and uplifting,” Le wrote. “In general, being able to do this work with friends has made the entire Vietcetera experience such a good memory that I would love to relive again.”

Full disclosure: Dominic Pham formerly served as the managing editor, creative director, and diversity, equity and inclusion director for The Hoya

New Beeck Center Director Brings Fresh Department Vision

Karenna Warden

Multimedia Desk Editor

Former Senior White House leader Lynn Overmann started on March 6 her new role as executive director of Georgetown’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, an organization which aims to equitably improve daily life through design, technology and policy, with years of government experience under her belt.

Overmann brings expertise in technology, policy and higher education to the role as well as plans to invest in her team and help improve the Beeck Center’s services. Overmann’s vision includes promoting a human-centered approach for individuals within and outside of the Center.

“One of the most important things a leader can do is understand who their team is and what they need, so a large part of my job is to support them,” Overmann told The Hoya. “So I’ve been doing that, and I’ve also been learning about the great work that’s already underway and finding ways that we may be able to grow beyond that work. The team is incredible.”

Overmann said the primary mission of the Beeck Center is to improve how people interact with government

resources like student loan forgiveness, food stamps and unemployment assistance.

“We interact with government every single day, even if folks don’t necessarily recognize it,” Overmann said. “What the Beeck Center does is we try to recognize those places. If we can bring data and technology and better design, it will make it easier for people on the other end of those services to access them.”

Overmann has held seniorlevel positions under Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s presidential administrations and most recently served as senior advisor for the United States Digital Service, a technology unit of the federal government, where she provided advice to federal officials, including U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and U.S. Digital Service Administrator Mina Hsiang.

Overmann also said her previous experience as a public defender has shaped her perspectives in her professional life.

“The first ten years of my career were in direct services working with folks who were amongst the most vulnerable in our populations and were at risk of having things go really sideways in the criminal justice system,” Overmann said. “That experience has really stuck with me throughout my career.

With the Beeck team, we talk about being human-centered, and everyone is.” Adam Bobrow (COL ’94), the co-convenor of the Beeck Center’s Unemployment Insurance Tech Coordinating Coalition for the Digital Benefits Network, said he is excited about Overmann’s hire. Bobrow, who worked alongside Overmann in 2015 in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, a department of the federal government, is familiar with Overmann’s work.

“She has the experience in and out of government to understand how digital innovation can improve service delivery for government programs,” Bobrow wrote to The Hoya. “Lynn’s exceptional skills as an administrator and fundraiser will ensure Beeck continues to move from strength to strength.”

Ashleigh Fryer, the storyteller-in-residence and interim director of communications for the Beeck Center who has been developing content to amplify the Center’s narratives since 2021, said she is encouraged by Overmann’s commitment to storytelling.

“In a few short weeks, she’s shown herself to be a thoughtful and dynamic leader whose experience in the civic tech space is

unrivaled,” Fryer wrote to The Hoya “Her strategic vision and commitment to storytelling will help bring our work to new audiences and grow our impact on the lives of individuals utilizing the systems we aim to improve.”

Vinith Annam, a state chief data officers network program manager at the Beeck Center, said he believes that Overmann will push the Center to ask the right questions regarding ongoing projects.

“As a Program Manager, I think Lynn will ask important questions and provide valuable suggestions that will improve our work and project outcomes,” Annam wrote to The Hoya The Beeck Center announced on Feb. 22 that it had received over $11 million in funding to enhance its projects on the access and delivery of public safety net benefits. The funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Families And Workers Fund, The Ford Foundation and the Beeck Family.

Overmann said that she enters her executive directorship with an understanding of the policy sphere, which overlaps with the human-centered approach to her work. “A really important lesson

that has been learned in the policy world in the last 10 years is that getting the policy done is just the beginning

of the story,” Overmann said. “We really need to be sure that we are delivering what is intended in those laws.”

Hillary Clinton headlined a conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of the signing of a historic peace deal that ended a 30-year period of violence in Northern Ireland.

Sophia Lu Student Life Desk Editor

“It’s a real luxury to be here in D.C. and be able to just attend congressional hearings and see for yourself what’s going on.”

MAYA KORNBERG ADJUNCT PROFESSOR

SCIENCE

Science Spotlight: GU Project

RISHI Addresses Anemia in India

Ria Varma Hoya Staff Writer

Project RISHI (Rural India

Social and Health Improvement) is a nonprofit organization working to promote sustainable development in rural India. Georgetown’s chapter, which was established in Fall 2020, aims to address the health of people in rural India after COVID-19 revealed the fragility of public health.

Georgetown’s Project RISHI chapter is currently partnered with the migrant female population in the district of Beawar in Ajmer, a city in Rajasthan, a state in northern India. Project RISHI has collaborated over the past year with Lucky Iron Fish, a Canadian social enterprise that manufactures tools that help fight iron deficiency, to increase iron levels in this population.

One major condition women in India face is iron deficiency anemia, which is caused by a lack of healthy red blood cells. Healthy red blood cells need to carry hemoglobin, a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen, in order to get oxygen to the body’s tissue.

The university’s Project RISHI partnered with Gramin Avam Samajik Vikas Sanstha (GSVS), an NGO registered in Rajasthan. In their initial pilot study, GSVS tested the hemoglobin levels of 83 women and selected 30 anemic women to join the program. These women were then given the Lucky Shakti Leaf, a cooking tool produced by Lucky Iron Fish, that can be added to any acidified boiling liquid to infuse a meal with iron. On-site volunteers hosted workshops to teach the women how to incorporate the tool into their routine.

Vegetarian diets are a large part of Rajasthani culture because of the prevalence of Dharmic religions, and are a partial cause of the high rates of anemia in India. Iron sourced from a plant-based diet has a lower absorption rate than iron sourced from meat products; because of this, 52.7% of women aged 15 to 49 in Rajasthan are anemic.

“After researching and creating a desk review, we concluded that most women suffered from anemia in the region, and that it became a hindrance in their everyday activities,” Sanchi Gupta (CAS ’24), the club’s vice presi-

dent of initiatives told The Hoya Project RISHI chose to use the Lucky Shakti Leaf to aid anemia after extensive research into other methods of iron intake, like pills.

Most of the women in the study used the leaf every day or a few times a week, according to Nicole Vernot-Jonas (SOH ’24), director of PR and marketing.

Project RISHI has seen promising results from their pilot project as of spring 2023, and they will be scaling up their project this year to reach more women in Rajasthan. In the pilot program brief, President Shreya Arora (SOH ’24), said most of the women had quantitative and qualitative evidence of improvement in iron intake.

“Twenty-three women saw their hemoglobin levels increase after 3 months. Women who were highly iron-deficient at the beginning of the pilot program (HB levels of 7 or 8) had a greater HB level increase than those who started the pilot program with higher hemoglobin levels (13 or 14),” Arora said.

“We researched on what programs have previously been working on iron deficiency al-

leviation, and found that most projects, including government projects, relied on iron pills, which many women aren’t fond of,” Gupta wrote to The Hoya. “We quickly realized that in order to get tangible results from our project, we need a product that does the job but is not a pill.”

Arora said participants in the pilot program preferred the leaf to other choices because of its ease of use, and the fact that it does not change the taste of the food. Participants also stated that they noticed the leaf lowering anemia symptoms like fatigue and headaches.

UN High Seas Treaty Promotes Ocean Protection

The United Nations member countries reached an agreement March 4 known as the High Seas Treaty, which aims to promote accountability for the protection of marine wildlife and biodiversity in international waters, following nearly 36 straight hours of negotiations.

At the conference, Rebecca Helm, a marine biologist who studies jellyfish and other coastal species with the Georgetown University Earth Commons Institute, provided delegates with expertise on marine genetic resources and insight on the potential environmental impacts of treaty propositions to help assess their practicality.

“Up until this treaty, the animals and the ecosystems that I study really didn’t have meaningful environmental protection,” Helm said in an interview with The Hoya

The landmark agreement resolves nearly a decade of negotiations over the plan’s funding and fishing limitations, and it includes a number of provisions to conserve marine ecosystems.

The treaty’s name is derived from the last international agreement governing international waters, the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. Forty years ago, the U.N. agreed upon a shared ownership system of the “high seas” — waters where countries can openly traverse, fish and research. The recent conference continued the work of the 1982 U.N. convention, placing environmental protections at the forefront of its agenda.

The High Seas Treaty will in-

troduce more marine protected areas (MPAs) — regions of the sea that limit the volume of fishing, shipping and deep-sea mining, or the extraction of minerals from sea beds more than 200 meters below the surface. Ecologists say these activities are disruptive to marine life because they create noise pollution and infiltrate animal breeding grounds, according to Helm.

“This will enable us to create what I like to think of as international parks,” Helm said. “They are regions of the seas that are protected from some or all potentially destructive activities, which really allows ecosystems to flourish.”

The treaty plans to expand the designation of MPAs from about 1% to nearly 30% of the high seas, increasing the potential for the U.N. to roll out environmental regulations. Any activities taking place within MPAs must comply with environmental standards, which notably limit the extraction of marine resources for business endeavors.

“I hope nations don’t see the ocean as a place with just profits, as yet another place where they can develop their own economy, but that they can look at it as a part of a natural system that the world needs,” Gina Green, a professor with the Earth Commons Institute researching innovation with marine biodiversity, said in an interview with The Hoya Enforcement will be measured by regular environmental impact assessments (EIAs), which involve the measurement of probable environmental and biological effects of a plan or ongoing development by member nations. However, some scientists are concerned that difficulties in enforcing the

treaty through EIAs may hamper its potential benefits.

“My biggest worry as a fieldapplied person is the on-theground management and enforcement. I just don’t see it happening,” Green said.

Green’s concern has been echoed by scholars who believe inequitable resource and profit distributions make it difficult for developing nations to enforce the same standards as developed nations, especially in conducting EIAs.

Nevertheless, the High Seas Treaty includes language outlining a process known as “capacity building,” in which nations provide assistance to developing countries to help them carry out the agreement. Similar development plans

have catalyzed the success of several U.N. agreements, such as the Paris Agreement to address climate change. Whether these provisions actually bolster the treaty’s success will have to be measured once it takes effect.

For now, some marine biologists feel a sense of relief knowing that the future of their work will have reinforced protection.

Helm echoed this feeling in relation to her own research. She believes the treaty will afford long-awaited preservation for the marine species she studies.

“After working for several decades on ecosystems with that gnawing feeling in the back of my mind that if something were to happen to them, there would be no recourse … that’s not the case anymore.”

New Smithsonian Bird Exhibit Takes Flight

Pallavi Bommareddy

Hoya Staff Writer

Following six years of renovation, the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Bird House reopened to the public March 13. The exhibit is housed in a sleek new building, inspired by the plumage of the sandhill crane. Upon entering, visitors are greeted with a mosaic tile archway that has been part of the Bird House since it first opened in 1928.

The Bird House is composed of three aviaries that aim to tell the story of the annual cycle of a migratory bird, focusing on migration, breeding and overwintering, the phase in which birds wait out the winter. The Bird House also focuses on informing its visitors about how bird populations are being threatened by factors such as deforestation.

The renovated Bird House is notable in that visitors can experience the presence of the birds up close and with no barriers.

Peter Marra, the director of the Earth Commons at Georgetown and a former senior scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, worked on the design of

the new Bird House for eight years. According to Marra, the goal of the renovation was to offer a more immersive experience for visitors.

“As a person experiencing the exhibit, you yourself would almost be on a migration,” Marra said.

Daisy Fynewever (CAS ’26), an avid bird enthusiast, visited the Bird House shortly after its reopening and said the interactive component was the most enjoyable part of her experience.

“I loved that I was able to see the birds so up close,” Fynewever told The Hoya. “I felt like I could’ve spent hours in the exhibit, watching the birds and their behavior.”

To prepare for this new experience, the Smithsonian had to ensure that the birds could acclimate to the presence of visitors. The birds are first introduced to the keepers so that they are already accustomed to people as more and more visitors arrive. The birds were also introduced to service dogs to ensure they are exposed to situations that could emerge once the House opened to visitors, according to Marra. The first aviary of the exhibit that visitors enter is

all about migration and the presence of shorebirds on the Delaware Bay. The exhibit simulates the Delaware Bay’s water bodies, sandy shores and water life, including horseshoe crabs. The shorebirds land at the Delaware Bay because of horseshoe crab eggs, one of their preferred food sources.

When it comes to feeding in the Bird House, Marra emphasized the importance of making sure the birds are well nourished, but also challenged to earn their food.

“It is a process of positive reinforcement over time to eventually get them to find the food,” Marra said.

The visitor then enters the second aviary, which is focused on duck breeding grounds. In the summertime, many ducks breed in the Prairie Pothole region of Canada and the northern United States, and the aviary is meant to simulate this environment. Here, visitors can see many different species of ducks as well as their eggs.

The third aviary highlights migratory birds’ journey south to the tropics of South America during winter. Walking in, the visitor

Project RISHI’s Lucky Iron

Fish Project was inspired by a previous project with EcoFemme, a women-led social enterprise based in Tamil Nadu, India, that sells washable, reusable cloth pads and provides menstrual health education, according to Arora.

Georgetown’s Project RISHI chapter will send members to Rajasthan this summer to speak with the participants with the help of a Social Innovation and Public Service grant, according to Vernot-Jonas.

Arora said the results of Project RISHI’s projects thus far

have supported the club’s overall goal of sustainable development in rural India.

“Georgetown Project RISHI’s mission and work is so important because we are committed to working in solidarity and close partnership with members of our partner communities to enact positive, sustainable social change in rural India,” Arora told The Hoya

“Sustainability is at the core of all of our initiatives, and we hope that each RISHI project will eventually become self-sufficient without direct involvement from Project RISHI.”

CLIMATE MATTERS

Adopt Green Fashion

Stella Peters Columnist

Welcome to the world of biofabrication, a place where your shirts are made from microbes or synthetic spider silk and your sneakers and car seats are made from mushroom leather. Collaborative endeavors between artists and scientists in biofabrication have the power to change the pollutive nature of the fashion industry.

In its current manifestation, the textile industry will account for 25% of the world’s carbon budget by 2050. Plastics make up about 60% of the materials used by the fashion industry, which annually release at least 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean and toxic chemicals into landfills. Furthermore, growing and dyeing textile fibers like cotton consumes and pollutes freshwater. Biochemists, design students, mushroom farmers, researchers, molecular florists and designers are working together to find solutions for these issues.

Materials science — understanding what things are made of and why they behave a certain way — is just one piece of the carbon reduction puzzle, but a very impactful one. A growing conglomerate of innovators who recognize the impact of the textile industry on the climate have already begun to research and produce bio-fabricated goods.

the opportunity to implement them on a larger scale. In an era of greenwashing, or brands claiming to be sustainable as an advertisement strategy, ecological adaptation is a cornerstone of the brand. Stella McCartney proves this can be successfully implemented, standing out as a designer whose sustainable trailblazing is anything but greenwash.

In a 2021 news feature, a bold headline states that “Stella McCartney Does Mushrooms in Paris.” This referenced McCartney’s Paris Fashion Week debut of garments made from Mylo leather, a mushroom-based leather replacement made from mycelium. In 2021, Adidas also released a shoe in their popular Stan Smith style that was made with Mylo leather.

Often, the properties of lab-grown clothing are not only equivalent, but superior to typical materials. Spiber, a Japanese textile innovation group, developed a process called “Brewed Protein” to develop textiles through the fermentation of sugar and microbes.

is immediately met with a misty, humid environment with parakeets and other songbirds flying around.

“The habitat the birds were in felt very well designed, so you could see the birds doing many different activities,” Fynewever said.

The third aviary also highlights how birds can thrive in shade-grown coffee plantations as opposed to sungrown, or monocrop, coffee plantations. Monocrop coffee production is significantly cheaper, but requires the removal of native trees that sustain the natural habitat; in Central America, over 2.5 million acres of land have been cleared because of the switch from shade-grown coffee to monocrop coffee growing.

“We are trying to illustrate how you can drink coffee and other foods in a sustainable way,” Marra says.

The exhibit offers visitors a new experience of understanding migratory birds, which is particularly important because so many of these species are becoming endangered.

If you have a couple of hours, check out the free exhibit to see all that it has to offer — but be prepared to be splashed by a duck.

In 2021, Theanne Schiros, an assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and research scientist at Columbia University, collaborated with the New York-based brand Public School to make a sneaker from bacteria cultures and yeast using a process similar to how kombucha is made. This shoe material has an 88% to 97% lower carbon footprint than other alternative leather options, and is also compostable.

Alongside Valentina Gomez and Chui-Lian Lee, Schiros co-founded Werewool, a team of scientists committed to textile innovation. As one of the winners of H&M Foundation’s 2020 Global Change Award, Werewool uses the naturally occurring protein structures of microbes to engineer alternative materials that mimic the functionality of non-biodegradable fabrics. For example, collagen’s spring-shaped protein has elastic properties. Using microbes combined with biopolymers from industrial waste streams, Werewool is engineering biodegradable, performancebased textiles that will degrade at the end of their life cycle.

“More than any other project I have done, it captures the spirit of how entrepreneurship sometimes manifests not from a drive to be an entrepreneur but from other values,” Schiros told Osage University Partners, pointing to the importance of value-based innovation in a climate-conscious manner.

When scientists develop alternative materials, designers have

In 2019, Spiber collaborated with The North Face to design the Moon Parka, which features an impressively waterproof yet breathable outer shell made from a Brewed Protein laminate. Potential applications of these alternative materials go beyond clothing. Geopolymer Solutions uses waste from fly ash and steel production to develop Geopolymer concrete, a greener concrete substitute with a much lower carbon footprint than traditional concrete. Automakers in Japan are engineering safer cars using more sustainable, plant-based materials like cellulose fiber, which is five times stronger than steel. In order to make these biofabricated materials viable alternatives, consumers must be more mindful. This starts with purchasing less. Consumption in the United States has risen 400% since 1970. When we buy fewer things, emissions and pollution drop. Beyond curbing consumption, we must research the material composition of the essential goods that we elect to purchase and choose sustainable products, like those emerging from the field of biofabrication. To fully embrace the advances made in the biodesign sector, producers and consumers must loosen their tight grip on capitalist tendencies that prioritize careless material sourcing, overproduction, overconsumption and a “trendtrumps-durability” mindset. The emergence of biofabrication as a science shows that design need not be wasteful and exploitative. If designers utilize and invest in materials that are aligned with sustainable, natural features, they can create better-performing outputs that are carbon-neutral, durable and compostable, challenging the dark side of market capitalism and improving the composition of the biosphere.

Stella Peters is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. Climate Matters publishes online and in print once every three weeks.

COURTESY OF GSVS STAFF

The Georgetown University chapter of Project RISHI, a student-run organization, collaborates with women in rural India on health-related initiatives.

Alexa Hill

Hoya Staff Writer

COURTESY OF NOAA

The U.N. High Seas Treaty allows for more robust protection of marine ecosystems, offering relief to researchers.

Georgetown Confronts Its History Through New Center Focused on Study of Slavery, Its Legacy

Georgetown University Hires New Head Coach for Men’s Basketball

COOLEY, from A1 healthy reciprocal relationship between athletes and the Georgetown community at large. He stressed the importance of maintaining accountability and inclusivity to build widespread support for the program.

“The commitment to excellence is not just on the court, it’s in the classroom, and for all of you, get ready,” Cooley said at the press conference. “I am super inclusive. I want to meet you. I want to know your names. I want you to see and evolve with us from day one, because we cannot do it alone.”

When Cooley first joined Providence in 2011, LaDontae Henton was his first recruit. Twelve years and a stint in professional basketball later, Henton now serves as the Friars’ associate director of player development, scouting and recruiting coordination — having coached under Cooley’s guidance for the last two seasons.

“He built real life relationships off the court to where you can trust him,” Henton told The Hoya. “And he gains players’ trust. Guys would run through a wall for him — knowing that he’s genuine, he’s kind, he’s going to be real with you and he’s going to hold you accountable.”

Georgetown’s new Center for the Study of Slavery hosted an inaugural event to discuss the role that New Orleans jazz music has played in racial progress.

CENTER, from A1 thing he hopes will make a lasting impact.

“I think it’s really important that each successive cohort of students, faculty, staff and the growing alumni community understand their history,” Rothman said. “I think having the center as a permanent fixture at Georgetown will help to do that, so we don’t have to go through a whole working group again, 10 or 20 years from now. This knowledge will be just part of our community’s consciousness.”

Students can get involved by enrolling in classes that connect to the history of slavery, taking the virtual walking tour of sites on campus that have a legacy of slavery and reaching out to the CSSL and faculty about their research, Rothman said. The CSSL’s March 18 inaugural event featured a screening of “City of a Million Dreams,” a film that explores the rise of jazz music within the racial justice movement. Jason Berry (CAS ’71) directed the film, which is based on a book he wrote by the same title.

Berry said through years of research on race relations, he has identified jazz music as an important focal point and catalyst for liberation.

“I’ve come to see the birth of jazz and the rise of the music in the 1890s as the beginning of a counter narrative to the white South,”

Berry told The Hoya “The music sings of freedom, particularly in the gospel music — religious music that is so much a part of the repertoire of the marching bands during funerals. Jazz is a metaphor of democracy to me,” Berry added. The film follows Michael White, a leading jazz clarinetist who has experienced the evolution of the musical tradition in New Orleans and its ability to inspire people.

White said jazz is both a vehicle of democracy but also an important form of personal expression and community bonding.

“In the playing of jazz, you find ways of showing democracy but also countering invisibility by having individual songs and individual expression and collective expression as well,” White told The Hoya. “It allows for all ethnicities and individuals to create and contribute to the mix of what the music becomes. It’s the ultimate way of incorporating diversity.”

The Saturday screening event, followed by a performance by White’s jazz quartet, launched an ongoing series of efforts by the CSSL to address the legacy of slavery at Georgetown.

Maurice Jackson — professor of history, African American studies and music — said the CSSL will increase student engagement with materials and lessons about Georgetown’s relationship with slavery.

“To understand today, you must understand yesterday. That’s why student participation becomes so important, and that’s why we hope that students start using the archive,” Jackson said.

“It should not take this long for the university to mandate that every student who comes to Georgetown knows a bit of the history,” he said.

Mary Beth Corrigan — the curator of the Collections on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation — said the CSSL will provide an opportunity to discuss and raise money for continuing memorialization efforts on campus.

“That’s always been an ongoing story,” Corrigan said.

“I think it will provide a real touchstone for people who are interested in the subject and interested in the role Georgetown is taking in this, not just on campus but in the broader academic community itself.”

Rothman said he does not see the CSSL dissolving any time soon and hopes it maintains a continuous presence at the university.

“There’s something about having a sense of the past alive with us that it continues to shape, the way we weave through the world,” Rothman said. “That’s particularly true of the history of slavery and what came after in this country. And it’s just incredibly important to reckon with that history. It can’t be hidden away.”

Henton witnessed firsthand Cooley’s efforts to rebuild the Providence men’s basketball team as a fouryear starter under Cooley. Drawing from his experiences both as a player and athletics staffer for the Friars, Henton said Cooley’s ac-

tions as a coach back up his bold aspirations.

“I’ve seen him when he had dreams of what he could make happen at Providence College, and I believed in him from the start,” Henton said. “Everything that he talked about when he took over the job, and he recruited people, he did.”

“The growth of Ed Cooley never stops,” Henton added. “He wants to be better. He wants to be great at his job, and he strives to do that every day, and that hasn’t changed since I met him.”

Cooley said he is determined to bring that winning spirit with him to Georgetown, starting with carrying over some familiar faces from his former staff at Providence to the Hilltop.

Cooley exclusively confirmed to The Hoya that Providence Assistant Coach Ivan Thomas would “definitely” be joining Georgetown’s staff.

Cooley said his coaching team will embody passion, energy and a strong work ethic.

“Nobody will outwork this group, nobody,” Cooley said at the press conference. “There will not be one staff in the country that will outwork the staff that is about to arrive at the Hill. I can tell you that.”

Cooley said his players must also subscribe to a philosophy of grit and personal excellence.

“We need to make sure we have not the best players, but the best people, that are good players, that have incredible integrity, that have character, that have passion, that have a chip on their shoulder to want to be a champion,”

Cooley said.

Cooley said he aims to inject energy into a tired Georgetown program after its two seasons of repeated losses.

“I promise you, we’re gonna win games,” Cooley said at the press conference. “We’re not gonna win a little. We’re gonna win a lot.”

Despite ambitious goals, Cooley said it is also important to remember such largescale changes only happen with widespread buy-in from all interested parties of the basketball program.

“We need everybody in here to give us a chance,” Cooley said at the press conference. “The word ‘patience’ is always hard, because everyone wants it and they want it right now. Have a little bit of patience, right? Rome wasn’t built in a day, as we all say, but it was built.”

Cooley admitted waiting for change might feel painful, but he said it is integral that Georgetown basketball does not dwell on past failures.

“I never look in the past.

I’m a present and move forward person. What happened yesterday, happened yesterday, we cannot control it,” Cooley told The Hoya. “But we can control what is happening today and what’s going to happen in the future.”

Henton said Cooley is the perfect person for any team looking to rebound.

“I really think that Coach Cooley is a winner in life, and that translates to basketball,” Henton said. “Everything that he’s been through, he’s been a winner. He’s going to win wherever he’s at, wherever he’s put.”

Bestselling Author RF Kuang Returns to Roots at Georgetown Book Talk

KUANG, from A1 of the messy feelings I was having, and fabulation was just the most natural outlet for it all,” Kuang said at the event. “If I’m feeling any very strong emotions, positive or negative, I immediately start thinking about how I can channel it into how a character is feeling.”

“I try to hold onto where my brain is going when I’m feeling deep grief, or frustration, or anger, and I put that into the project,” Kuang added.

Kuang said drawing from her own life experiences helps make the narratives she crafts within her epic fantasies more relatable to readers.

“That’s why they’re compelling, why the reader is so persuaded, even in scenes where dragons are battling in the sky,” Kuang said.

“Something about that scene has to feel true.”

She also spoke on her experience as a minority student from a disadvantaged back-

ground attending an elite university, saying minority students should lean into discomfort as a way to flourish.

“Don’t try to therapize yourself out of that discomfort,” Kuang said. “That discomfort is really worth holding onto, and it’s something that ought to shape and inform every decision you make afterwards. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your presence at an elite institution is in itself radical.”

Kuang’s latest work, “Yellowface,” is a novel about a white writer parading as Asian-American. It is expected to be published this May.

Kuang said that regardless of her success thus far, her creative process is continuous.

“I treat each fiction project as a way to experiment, to expand my craft and learn to be a better writer than the Rebecca I was a year ago,” Kuang said. “It’s an ongoing process, and it didn’t happen at Georgetown, but it happened because of Georgetown.”

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

R.F. Kuang (SFS ’18) discussed her journey from a Georgetown student to an author of epic fantasy novels, sharing with students how to craft their own narratives that mix fiction with lived experiences.

@GEORGETOWNHOOPS/TWITTER

After six years under the leadership of Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), the Georgetown men’s basketball team welcomed new Head Coach Ed Cooley in a March 22 press conference.

Hillary Clinton, Irish Leaders Commemorate Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

Jack Willis

Graduate Desk Editor

Former

Secretary

of State

Hillary Clinton headlined an event honoring the role women played in crafting the Good Friday Agreement, a peace agreement that ended a deadly period of conflict in Northern Ireland 25 years ago.

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) hosted the March 16 conference to highlight the importance of women peacemakers in concluding The Troubles, a 30-year extended conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland that killed nearly 3,000 and injured over 40,000 in the late 1990s. The conference also commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended The Troubles.

Melanne Verveer, former U.S. ambassador for global

women’s issues and GIWPS executive director, moderated the event, which included discussions with a slate of 14 politicians, experts and activists. Leaders in attendance included Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister; Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland; and Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the United States.

Hillary Clinton visited Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, as First Lady during the Good Friday negotiations. Clinton and her husband, Bill, who was president at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, broke from presidential tradition by choosing to get involved in the peace talks in Northern Ireland. Clinton said it is imperative that conflicts like the one in Ireland do not continue to inhibit the future success of affected populations by maintaining long term

Medievalist Professor

Gives Lecture on History of Animal Skin, Paper

Jack Willis Graduate Desk Editor

While today’s students use PDF files and watch video documentaries, one professor maintains that an often overlooked medium plays a key role in human history — parchment, the thin material made from animal skin.

Bruce Holsinger, a professor and researcher at the University of Virginia, spoke at the 2023 Lacay Lecture, co-hosted by the Georgetown University Humanities Initiative and the departments of English and global medieval studies. Holsinger, who specializes in premodern literary history and culture, spoke about his most recent publication, “On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age,” which delves into the role of animal skins in writing, arts and culture.

Holsinger combined his expertise in medieval cultural studies with that of scientific experts in conservation and

“For well over a thousand years, the societies of the EuroMediterranean world transmitted and preserved much of their written cultures on the skins of animals,” Holsinger said.

“If it were not for the countless beasts whose hides served these and other scribes and illuminators over many centuries, we might now possess only fragments of ancient culture.”

Holsinger said embracing multiple academic disciplines was key in his research and writing processes. Holsinger said it is challenging to maintain the unique identities of the many worlds that he studies.

“One of the challenges entailed in writing a book about parchment is that indeed, one of the medium’s own provocations came in engaging these distinctive cultures on their own terms without sacrificing their methodological specificity or their specialized idioms in the name of a flattening interdisciplinarity,” Holsinger said.

Holsinger recounted the scientific aspect of the research that he participated in, including the intricate process of extracting molecules from precious ancient manuscripts to study their parchment without damaging their structural integrity.

To solve this unique problem, Holsinger said scientists he worked with, specifically archaeology expert Sarah Fiddyment, used pencil erasers to clean the 1,000-year-old York Gospels without physically altering any of the documents.

political stability.

“The violence that afflicted Northern Ireland for so many years was an impediment to people’s full potential — for them following their own dreams and understanding what was possible, not just for themselves but their families and their society,” Clinton said at the event. “So first and foremost, we have to continue to prevent violence.”

Varadkar said that women are often ignored in the accolades that follow important diplomatic proceedings such as the Good Friday Agreement — a dynamic he feels must change.

“In truth, women from across the political spectrum were able to contribute to everything that happened, except for photographs at the end,” Varadkar said at the event. “Women’s leadership, vision and inspiration is needed today more so than

ever to ensure that Northern Ireland, and all of Ireland, achieves its full potential.”

Female leaders played key roles in brokering the Good Friday Agreement, including rallying public support behind a 1998 referendum ratifying the peace accords, as well as bridging the sharp Protestant-Catholic divides that at times defined the conflict.

Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, said leading her country during such a tumultuous time enabled her to take risks in bridging gaps across a divided Irish people. Robinson embarked on a historic visit to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, in February 1992.

“The visit to Northern Ireland that stays with me most was the hardest one,” Robinson said. “The Irish government didn’t want me to go, the British government certainly didn’t want me to go.

GradGov 2023-24

Executive Election Cycle Kicks Into Full Gear

The Georgetown University Graduate Student Government (GradGov), which represents members of the graduate school community, is holding elections this weekend to select its Executive Board for the 2023-24 academic year.

Candidates are running for various positions, including Executive President, Executive Vice President and Treasurer, as well as various director positions tasked with advocacy efforts, communication management and technology development. Students interacted with candidates as they shared their visions for Georgetown’s graduate schools at a March 17 town hall before polls open.

While polls are not open to the general graduate student body, GradGov senators will be able to cast their ballots using a ranked-choice system from March 24-26, according to GradGov Director of Elections Mac Milin Kiran (GRD ’25).

Aurmin Amirmokri (GRD ’24), a candidate for Executive President, said solutions to improve student housing accessibility are at the top of his list of priorities as a candidate.

“A lot of graduate students have been having a lot of trouble with housing, they’ve been priced out. Availability is really poor, especially in these market conditions,” Amirmokri told The Hoya. “I want to be able to build some

It was really hard, but nobody would say no.”

“I still remember, vividly, arriving at the Falls Community Center, the children outside with their flags, the sense of excitement of a community that was being recognized at last — it was as much as that. It was just incredible,” Robinson added.

Pierce said women ensured stability in Northern Ireland throughout The Troubles.

“It was women who, throughout the decades of violence in Northern Ireland, kept their families fed, kept them intact,” Pierce said. “They faced the burdens of poverty, domestic violence, single parenthood, even loss of housing because of the conflict.”

Verveer led a discussion panel following remarks from Varadkar and Pierce with Monica McWilliams, a lead negotiator in the Good Friday talks; Michelle O’Neill, the First Ministerdesignate of Northern Ireland; Liz O’Donnell, a former Minister of State of Ireland; and Robinson.

McWilliams said the anniversary of the agreement

allowed her to reflect on the significance of the progress Ireland has seen over the last two and a half decades.

“There are people alive today that would not have been alive had we not made that Good Friday Agreement,” McWilliams said. Verveer then invited four women to participate in a conversation with McWilliams: Avila Kilmurray, a social activist; Patricia O’Lynn and Emma Little-Pengelly, Northern Ireland legislators; and Emma DeSouza, a writer and activist.

Norms must be challenged for sustainable peace solutions to be effectively implemented in regions that have been impacted by conflict and violence, Clinton said.

“We don’t want to hear different opinions from people who we have already concluded are outside the pale of our comfort zone. You cannot run a society, let alone make peace for long, if that is your ingoing attitude,” Clinton said. “So we all have to do some serious soul-searching about how we relate to one another in this much more complicated information environment.”

bioarchaeology to develop the concept for his book and the Lacay Lecture.

Sarah McNamer, a professor and the director of the global medieval studies program at Georgetown who introduced Holsinger at the event, said his work transcends the boundaries of any one field.

“Professor Holsinger’s work is so rich and varied that it’s difficult to sum him up in any succinct way,” McNamer said at the event. “But we might start by describing him as a specialist in the literature and culture of the medieval world.”

McNamer, also a medieval scholar, said Holsinger’s work helps dissect the inconvenient, and often problematic, role of human-animal interactions in chronicling human history.

“It is a typical Bruce Holsinger impulse to move towards such problems, boldly leading us into new interdisciplinary territory and helping us to see the manifold ways in which humans have literally enrolled animals in the task of memorializing the past,” McNamer said.

Holsinger said that without the use of animal skins in writing, specifically parchment, much of human history before the use of paper would have been lost to time.

“How can you justify cutting up a priceless manuscript for biomolecules? How can sampling be done at a scale that would make such inquiries worthwhile?” Holsinger said, referring to Fiddyment. “She does so not by sacrilegiously snipping off a corner of a Chaucer manuscript, but by using the very waste produced by conservationists around the world working to clean and restore membrane documents.”

Following his remarks at the event, Holsinger participated in an interview with The Hoya Holsinger said he takes advantage of the wide array of parchment manuscripts that have been made available online in the 21st century.

“Many of them already are digitized,” Holsinger told The Hoya. “There’s massive amounts of digitization that have happened in the last 20 years. I teach from digitized manuscripts all the time, and there’s already so much out there.”

Holsinger said that while the use of parchment seems worlds away to students in this modern day and age, the influence of the material is both timeless and meaningful to Georgetown.

“Georgetown is a Jesuit school, and the Jesuits were great leaders of manuscripts and were great students of medieval theology, most of which survives on parchment,” Holsinger said. “It’s always going to be relevant as part of the intellectual tradition of the school.”

sort of coalition or partnership with apartments that are already in place, that already have some Georgetown graduate students.”

The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area faces a housing shortage, according to a data analysis from the Brookings Institute. The Georgetown neighborhood faces an amplified problem, as multimillion dollar homes and a lack of available units rank it as a “high-end” neighborhood for renters, pushing many graduate students to more affordable areas that come with the tradeoff of a sometimes lengthy commute, including areas in northern Virginia like Rosslyn and Arlington.

Amirmokri said he also hopes to advocate for the specific needs of graduate students, including expanding the offerings of professional development opportunities.

“I want to make sure we have the resources and support we need to succeed,”

Amirmokri said. “This could include research and networking, advocating for better funding and support for our graduate students and so forth.”

Micaila Curtis (GRD ’25), another candidate for Executive President, said that while the heavy course load associated with graduate school can be burdensome, the impact she is able to make through GradGov inspires her to continue to engage with the organization.

“I find meaningful purpose in serving my peers, hearing their stories, constantly being

inspired by them, and knowing that ‘hobbies’/activities outside my Ph.D. work can help bring positive change in this world, too,” Curtis wrote to The Hoya Curtis also said that she hopes to see GradGov and its members connect in a meaningful way with the administrators who keep the university running.

“Some current initiatives I hope to continue are building more collaborative partnerships with our higher administrative members across more branches, so more of our GradGov leaders are able to work directly with the university’s faculty and staff and learn more about their roles on an institutional level,” Curtis wrote.

Alex Grant (GRD ’24), a candidate for Executive Vice President, said he aspires to modernize the disorganized legislative process within GradGov and create a space in which student representatives can effectively address issues faced by students.

“My number one priority is to give the power to the senators from each graduate school and program to address the issues their constituents are passionate about,”

Grant wrote to The Hoya. “This tool will be a game changer for the senate to hear and address the concerns such as international student affairs, transportation and housing, to name a few, which are dear to graduate students.”

Grant, who currently serves as a GradGov senator and as its deputy director of student rights and conduct, said joining the organization has been an enriching experience. Grant said he encourages students interested in GradGov to find ways to get involved.

“GradGov offers the opportunity for you to have your voice heard and make an impact on campus,” Grant wrote. “You don’t necessarily have to be elected, you could join one of our working groups or apply to be the director or deputy director of a committee.”

No matter the outcome at the ballot box, Amirmokri said that GradGov will be run well and with dedication from its chief executives.

“Regardless of the outcome, I really think whoever’s President and Vice President, Georgetown is in great hands,” Amirmokri said. “Everybody really cares deeply about the school and just wants the best for the entire student body.”

Georgetown Celebrates Disability in Performance

Sophia Lu Student Life News Desk Editor Georgetown’s Disability Cultural Initiative on March 15 hosted “ACDC: Art Celebrating Disability Culture” (ACDC), a performance showcase that celebrated disability through students’ song and dance.

Amy Kenny, the associate director of the Disability Cultural Initiative (DCI), and students involved with the DCI produced ACDC, which showcased a wide range of music, poetry, spoken word and original compositions. The event aimed to elevate disability culture and community on campus through performance.

Libbie Rifkin, the founding director of Georgetown’s program in disability studies, said recognizing and celebrating disability is rare, given the stigma surrounding the term. Rifkin said celebration of weakness is even more unusual in ultracompetitive and prestigious spaces such as Georgetown.

“Those are not elements that we often associate with being an elite institution. We don’t want to foreground our vulnerability, or you know, our struggles or our flaws,” Rifkin told The Hoya. “And what I think disability culture and

disability justice enables is the creation of these kinds of spaces which are such important companies.”

Rifkin said hosting ACDC in Riggs Library made the event especially meaningful.

“I thought it was an interesting choice to have it take place in Riggs Library, one of the most sort of high academic spaces on campus, a hallowed space, a space that’s associated with Georgetown’s elite university status,” Rifkin said. “And what the folks in the event did was really transform that space into a place of vulnerability and humanity.”

Kenny started the event with a speech about the importance of uplifting disabled voices and embracing people from all walks of life, followed by 12 acts of performance with emceeing by Ollie Henry (CAS ’24).

Dane Tedder (CAS ’24), one of the performers, said he felt the positive energy of disability celebration throughout the process of putting ACDC together.

“I think the thing that resonated with me most was the air of kindness and acceptance for different ways of being and creating that Dr. Kenny, the MC Ollie Henry, and everyone else involved in

planning made sure to infuse into the night and the process leading up to it,” Tedder wrote to The Hoya

Shreya Dudeja (SOH ’25) performed at the event and served as one of ACDC’s primary event planners alongside Kenny. Dudeja said ACDC helped her bring together an intersection of her personal identities and engage in creative self-expression.

(Full disclosure: Shreya

Dudeja is a staff writer at The Hoya.)

“ACDC was extremely meaningful for me personally because I got to embrace so many of my identities in one space,” Dudeja wrote to The Hoya

“I had the opportunity to be a musician, perform a South Asian piece, and demonstrate pride in my identity as a disabled person,” Dudeja wrote. “All performers took comfort in being vulnerable together, and I think it’s safe to say that we were all very proud of each other.”

Dudeja also said that she feels grateful for everyone who came out to support the performers and the DCI.

“The event exceeded my expectations, and I had really high expectations,” Dudeja wrote. “The turnout

was great, the audience was enthusiastic and supportive, and the people who performed were all so wonderful to talk to. The event was definitely the highlight of my semester thus far.”

Dani Nisbet (CAS ’26) played the darbuka at the event, a goblet-shaped drum commonly used in traditional Egyptian music.

Nisbet said ACDC inspired him to continue his involvement with the DCI in the future.

“I hope this event is a testament for all people to see the Disability Culture Initiative as a growing organization,” Nisbet wrote to The Hoya. “Anyone searching for community will find the group welcoming, and am thrilled to have met all the other students and faculty that helped bring this event to fruition.”

Dudeja said the transformation of disability into artistic performance was empowering for everyone involved with ACDC.

“I hope ACDC and events similar to this demonstrate how much pride there is in disability culture,” Dudeja said. “I hope people see that disability is not this idea of pain and struggle, and it is an identity that is celebrated.”

MIRANDA XIONG/THE HOYA

GradGov, the student government representing Georgetown graduate schools, is hosting elections.

“The Jesuits were great leaders of manuscripts and were great students of medieval theology, most of which survives on parchments.”

BRUCE HOLSINGER GUEST LECTURER

Nicole Iriza Special to The Hoya

Center for Social Justice Awards 2 Students Erica Pincus Scholarships

The Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service

(CSJ) awarded Sarah Tyree (CAS ’24) and Miray Samuel (CAS ’25) on March 15 the Legacy of Erica Pincus scholarship, centered on community impact and leadership.

The scholarships, established in 2021, provide $2,000 each to two co-captains of the CSJ’s First-Year Orientation to Community Involvement (FOCI) pre-orientation program for incoming first-years.

Tyree and Samuel will lead the program, which focuses on social justice and community service in D.C. during the Fall 2023 semester.

The award commemorates Erica Pincus (SFS ’13), a former FOCI leader and CSJ assistant program director who died in 2021. Pincus attended Stanford University and Harvard University after her graduation from Georgetown University and worked in the Obama White House.

Samuel, who participated in FOCI during her first year at the university and became a group leader her sophomore year, said she wanted to lead the program so that she could continue her involvement in a supportive oncampus community.

“It was a space on campus to come together with a group of people that is both immensely diverse but also unified in its goals of wanting to learn, being willing to reflect and having a desire to intentionally work with the greater community around us,” Samuel wrote to The Hoya. “I’m excited to hopefully impact more incoming freshmen the way that the pro-

gram impacted me.”

Tyree said working with the CSJ has allowed her to improve her leadership skills and meet people who share her values.

“Working in CSJ programs has connected me with lifelong friends and pathways for cultivating leadership and service with others,” Tyree wrote to The Hoya. “The CSJ emphasizes intentionality and consensus and has made me a more conscientious decision maker while also making me feel heard and respected as a part of a team.”

Tyree said the Erica Pincus scholarship would allow her to devote time to CSJ programs including FOCI while reducing the financial pressure of living in D.C.

“The Pincus award graciously mitigates some of the financial burden and provides me the opportunity to dedicate my attention to the commitments that should be given more time and energy,” Tyree wrote. “Because the Erica Pincus award is named after a former co-captain, it also invokes my reflection on the FOCI program’s history and its legacy, and how I can help shape that as a co-captain.”

The CSJ also runs the Alternative Breaks Program (ABP), which allows students the opportunity to travel to various locations around the District and the United States during spring break. This year, students had the chance to travel to Nogales, Ariz.; Harlan, Ky.; and Detroit, Mich., among other places.

Samuel participated in an ABP trip in her first year at the university and was an ABP leader this year. Samuel said her time at the CSJ has influenced the way she views her academics and her plans post-graduation.

Another Hoya Takes the ‘Jeopardy!’ Stage, Brings Home $1,000 Prize

“I feel like the work that I do with the CSJ impacts how I look at every aspect of my life — the ways in which I think about my classes and what I prioritize for my future,” Samuel wrote. “I can find people who are kind, interested in the people around them, and looking for connections with the community.”

Emily Diaz (CAS ’25) received the Legacy of Erica Pincus scholarship in 2022 and said receiving the award and leading the FOCI program allowed her to build a welcoming environment for first-year students.

“Through the people I met and the community that was built I knew I wanted to be part of forming that same feeling of love and acceptance for other first year students,” Diaz wrote to The Hoya Diaz said the CSJ’s support has allowed her to fulfill her interest in social justice while being part of a strong community.

“I have always had a passion for social justice and the CSJ has been a place of support where I am able to do this and go out of my comfort zone,” Diaz wrote. “The CSJ has helped me become a more well-rounded person and a Hoya for others at Georgetown.”

Samuel said she hopes to give incoming first-years the same space to explore social justice she received through FOCI.

“I am just one person who is also always continually learning about social justice and ways to better be in solidarity with others, and so my greatest hope beyond putting together a great program for FOCI is to allow others the opportunity to experience that solidarity, learn about the things they are passionate about, and find a community of like-minded people like I did,” Samuel wrote.

Metallica Purchases Local Record Pressing Company in Alexandria

Lockman

Brooke DeLucia Hoya Staff Writer

A third Hoya this year had the chance to bring their knowledge from the cubicles of Lauinger Library to the “Jeopardy!” stage in an episode that aired March 15.

Gwen Lockman (COL ’16) finished third, taking home $1,000, despite a strong showing headed into the final round. Lockman joins the ranks of numerous Georgetown University community members who have appeared on the show, most recently including Patrick Curran (COL ’14, GRD ’19) and Caleb Richmond (SFS ’25). Lockman is an avid trivia player who majored in American studies at Georgetown and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin — an academic background she said prepared her well for the wide array of categories she faced as a contestant.

Lockman said she initially looked into competing on the show when she was in high school, but only took the qualifying test after completing her undergraduate degree at Georgetown in 2016.

Though she was not selected to compete based on her initial test, she took it again in 2022 after playing recreational trivia and was chosen to participate in two further rounds of testing and auditions.

Before taking the test her second time, Lockman said she spent six months in Butte, Mont., where she played on two teams that

competed in trivia nights at local bars and restaurants.

“Both teams did really well and I decided to try taking the test again after someone we played against urged our team to give it a shot,” Lockman wrote to The Hoya

After hearing that she was selected, Lockman only had about a month to prepare for the wide array of trivia categories she faced on the show.

“Once I found out I was going on, I mostly did what I always do: watched the show, did crossword puzzles every day, and kept up on the news and pop culture,” Lockman wrote. “I didn’t want to psych myself out, though, and figured what I’d always done had gotten me far enough to get on the show.”

According to Lockman, trivia skills from her undergraduate tenure and doctoral work at UT Austin proved valuable.

“I’d say my focus on entertainment, leisure, and pop culture came in handy, through classes like Music and Dance in America 19381968, TV in American Society, Rock History, Baseball in American Society, and American Photography,” Lockman wrote. “But I also definitely learned a lot through the broad core in liberal arts and my minor in government.”

Lockman said having some performance experience helped her remain confident while filming.

“It was a ton of fun! I wasn’t really stressed when I was there,” Lockman wrote. “The crew and staff do everything to make sure con-

testants are having fun. It was cool to meet the other contestants and chat about our different backgrounds. I loved getting to see how TV is actually made.”

Lockman’s mother, Jamie Ryan Lockman, hosted a watch party for her daughter and attended the live taping of her daughter’s episode, recalling memories of their family bonding over the show.

“We often watched ‘Jeopardy!’ after dinner when Gwen was growing up,” Jamie Lockman wrote to The Hoya. “On long road trips (common in Montana!) we would pull the Trivial Pursuit questions to make the trip more fun.”

Richmond, who competed on the show last month, said he values being a member of the Georgetown Jeopardy network.

“It’s been amazing to see so many Hoyas competing on Jeopardy in the past few months,” Richmond wrote to The Hoya. “Everyone at Georgetown is here because they have this intense desire to learn more about the world we live in, and while that can be accomplished in infinite ways, it seems to often coincide with developing a knowledge base that’s useful on the Jeopardy stage.”

Jamie Lockman said she will think back fondly of her daughter’s time on the game show.

“I was very proud of her; she played a competitive game with poise and confidence,” Jamie Lockman wrote. “It will go down in our family history as a remarkable and fun memory!”

Julia Butler City Desk Editor

Popular 1980s rock band

Metallica acquired a majority stake in Furnace Record Pressing (Furnace), a record pressing plant in Alexandria, Va., on March 14.

Furnace and Metallica have previously collaborated on several vinyl projects, including the creation of deluxe box set editions for Metallica’s most popular albums. Metallica’s success in these projects and Furnace’s ability to sustain the demands of the growing vinyl record market were driving factors in the new partnership, according to a March 14 Furnace press release.

Lars Ulrich, the co-founder of Metallica, said he is excited to partner with Furnace because of its commitment to high-quality pressing.

“We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace — and Eric, Ali and Mark specifically — to the next level,” Ulrich said in the press release.

As one of the largest record pressing companies in the United States, Furnace produces over 25,000 records a day. Its 70,000 square-foot facility in Alexandria houses 14 presses and manufactures standard and heavyweight pressings, color vinyl, custom vinyl etching and special effect color vinyl.

In recent years, manufacturers have struggled to keep up with the growing demand for vinyl records; yearly vinyl album sales have increased consistently over the past

17 years. Consumers bought 43.46 million vinyl albums in 2022, a 4.2% increase from the previous year. Metallica sold over 900,000 vinyl records in 2022, with roughly half of those sales coming from the United States, according to Billboard magazine.

As such, Eric Astor, the founder and CEO of Furnace, said partnering with Metallica will provide Furnace with the opportunity for stability and future growth.

“Building Furnace into the dedicated and experienced family of experts that it is today has been a huge effort, but immensely gratifying,” Astor said in the March 14 press release. “Knowing our long-term future is secured while also being better able to take advantage of growth opportunities is really exciting for every member of the Furnace staff.”

Ali Miller, Furnace’s chief operating officer, said the partnership also enables the company to maintain its customer-first approach.

“We have found ideal partners in Metallica,” Miller said in the March 14 press release.

“They want us to continue our customer driven focus. To that end we look forward to providing even greater capacity and service to each of our customers in the future.”

James Hetfield, the cofounder of Metallica, said the relationship that Furnace has with Metallica fans and vinyl consumers is admirable.

“Furnace has been great to Metallica and more importantly to our fans,” Hetfield

FURNACE RECORD PRESSING

said in the March 14 press release. “This deepened relationship between Metallica and Furnace ensures that fans of vinyl everywhere, particularly our Fifth Members, will have continued access to high quality records in the future.”

Metallica plans to produce vinyls with Furnace for its new album, “72 Seasons,” which will be released April 14. The over 77-minute album, which delves into how childhood shapes people’s future selves, features 12 tracks. The album will be produced on black vinyl and two colored vinyl variations, according to a Nov. 28 press release.

Astor said the partnership with Metallica will not change Furnace’s commitment to supporting and producing indie records.

“Furnace is not turning into a Metallica only pressing plant,” Astor wrote to The Hoya. “Far from it. Our shared objective is to provide even more capacity to indie labels and bands, not less.”

Furnace leadership will remain in place and will continue to be equity owners of the company and members of the company’s board of directors, according to the press release.

Astor said the partnership will create some surface-level changes, but overall, Furnace will remain the same.

“While the ownership structure is changing, under the hood, everything stays the same: the same people, same spirit, same culture and the same never-ending quest to perfect our craft,” Astor wrote.

Dylan Partner Special to The Hoya

Keegan Hines, a former Georgetown adjunct professor and the current vice president of machine learning at Arthur AI, discussed the rapid rise in generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs and Georgetown’s potential in adapting to software like ChatGPT.

The Master of Science in Data Science and Analytics program in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences hosted the talk on March 17. The discussion centered on the rapid development of generative AI over the past six months.

Hines said generative AI has the capacity to radically change people’s daily lives, including how students are taught and how entertainment is consumed.

“I definitely think we’re going to see a lot of personal tutoring technologies coming up for both little kids and college students,” Hines said at the event. “I have a feeling that in the next year, someone will try to make an entirely AI-generated TV show. It’s not that hard to imagine an AI-generated script, animation and voice actors.

“Imagine what Netflix becomes. Netflix is no longer ‘recommend Keegan the best content’; Netflix is now ‘create something from scratch which is the perfect show Keegan’s ever wanted to see,’” Hines added. Hines then discussed algorithms that generate text.

He said the principal goal of these algorithms is to create deep learning systems that can understand complex patterns over longer time scales. Hines said one challenge AI faces is that it can provide users with incorrect information.

“These models say things and sometimes they’re just flatly wrong,” Hines said. “Google got really panned when they made a product announcement about Bard and then people pointed out Bard had made a mistake.”

Bard, Google’s AI chatbot, incorrectly answered a question about the James Webb Space Telescope in a video from the program’s launch Feb. 6, raising concerns about Google’s rushed rollout of Bard and the possibility for generative AIs to spread misinformation.

Hines said the potential for bias and toxicity in AI is present, as seen with Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine, which manufactured a conspiracy theory relating Tom Hanks to the Watergate scandal.

“There’s been a lot of research in AI alignment,” Hines said. “How do we make these systems communicate the values we have?”

Teaching and learning in all levels of education will need to adapt to changes in technology, according to Hines.

“One example is a high school history teacher who told students to have ChatGPT write a paper and then correct it themselves,” Hines said. “I think this is just the

next iteration of open book, internet, ChatGPT. How do you get creative testing someone’s critical thinking on the material?”

Hines said OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, noticed larger, more complex language models were more accurate than smaller models due to lower levels of test loss or errors made during training.

“A small model has a high test loss whereas a really big model has a much more impressive test loss,” Hines said.

“The big model also requires less data to reach an equivalent amount of test loss.”

OpenAI’s hypothesis was that the secret to unlocking rapid advancement in artificial intelligence lies in creating the largest model possible, according to Hines.

“There didn’t seem to be an end to this trend,” Hines said. “Their big hypothesis was, ‘let’s just go crazy and train the biggest model we can think of and keep going.’ Their big bet paid off and these strange, emergent, semi-intelligent behaviors are happening along the way.”

Hines said he is optimistic about the field’s future, and he predicted AI will be able to produce even more complex results, such as creating a TV show. “It was really only about ten years ago that deep learning was proven to be viable.” Hines said. “If we’re going to avoid the dystopian path and go down the optimistic path, generative AI will be an assistant. It will get you 80% of the way and you do the next 20%.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023 | THEHOYA.COM NEWS THE HOYA | A9

@MLB/TWITTER

The World Baseball Classic, held for the first time since 2017, dazzled fans with high-intensity games and riveting storylines.

Magic of World Baseball Classic Shines Despite Unpredictability

BLUMENFELD, from A12 metrics set by previous competitions, the WBC might be the best thing that has happened to baseball and MLB in quite some time.

Yet, in spite of the success of the tournament, many people are still angered by Diaz’s unfortunate situation, blaming the timing of WBC on his injury. Some have even gone as far as to argue for a complete absence of major league participants in the tournament.

These concerns are not entirely illegitimate. Many MLB players, specifically pitchers, opted not to play in the WBC because of the potential strain induced by intense, playoff-esque games in March.

Brandon Nimmo, Mets outfielder and teammate of Edwin Diaz, spoke directly to these concerns at a Spring Training press conference.

“The most important thing for me right now is being on the field and ready for opening day. That’s my most important thing right now— is the Mets,” Diaz said.

Only a few days after his comments, Nimmo suffered

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Howard Out Amid Basketball Rehaul

what looked to be a serious injury to his leg sliding into second base…in a Spring Training game.

Nimmo luckily received positive news concerning his ankle, and he should be ready by Opening Day for his highest priority, the Mets. However, Nimmo should now realize that “stuff happens” regardless of location or environment.

The absurdity of the human experience extends far beyond the baseball diamond. It stretches from toestubbing a bed frame to slipping on hazardous black ice.

A baseball player could just as easily burn his hand cooking pasta than take a twoseamer to the thigh. Baseball is unpredictable, and so is life.

If what matters to these players is representing their country on an international stage (pending access to Fox Sports or pirating websites), then let’s embrace that. “Stuff” may happen, but so be it. The WBC has proved to be nothing less than magical, and Diaz’s injury helpfully portrays that existential push we all sometimes need — however tragic.

SUDOKU

Last issue’s solutions

HOWARD, from A12

Jillian Archer (COL ’22) said Howard’s departure from the program was unsurprising given his underwhelming tenure.

Archer played for Howard at Georgetown from 2020 to 2022, after transferring from the University of Southern California during her sophomore year.

“I wasn’t shocked when I heard about Coach Howard parting ways with Georgetown,” Archer told The Hoya. “His record definitely wasn’t the best.”

But to those not as familiar with the program, Howard’s departure was not anticipated.

Malin Kint (SFS ’24), a member of the Georgetown Pep Band who attended both the men’s and women’s Big East tournaments, said Ewing’s last game carried expectations of leadership changes.

Kint said criticisms of Howard were not as well known or discussed.

“It wasn’t even a thought on my mind,” Kint said. “In comparison to the men’s team, I didn’t think I really noticed the women losing as much as I did with the men. Even when they were, it never really crossed my mind that it was a coaching thing.”

Archer spoke highly of her relationship with Howard.

“He impacted my life, and I know maybe a few of my teammates’ lives, a lot,” Archer told The Hoya. “He took a chance on me when I was transferring from USC and gave me the opportunity to get an amazing degree. I’ll forever be thankful to him

MEN’S LACROSSE

and his whole coaching staff.”

Archer said some athletes under Howard’s tenure disagreed with his approach to balancing academics and basketball.

“One of the biggest issues that Coach Howard had was that everybody that he recruited was very talented and skilled, but not everybody took basketball as seriously as Coach Howard would have wanted them to,” Archer said. “With Georgetown being such a great school academically, sometimes academics came first for some people.”

“I’m not saying [Howard] didn’t promote us being successful in the classroom, but you definitely have to have a balance when you’re a student-athlete,” Archer added. “Not everybody that he recruited wanted to have that balance.”

The university’s lack of marketing surrounding the women’s basketball program — in comparison to the men’s team — contributed to Howard’s shortcomings, Archer believes.

“If the university did a better job of promoting women’s basketball, he could have been more successful because he could have potentially gotten higher recruits,” Archer said.

Hoya basketball fan Omar Kanjwal (SFS ’17) believes the facilities that the university afforded to the women’s teams served as an obstacle to Howard’s success.

“It’s very difficult for the next head coach to succeed recruiting-wise, when the facilities that [the women’s team] play in are so outdated,”

Kanjwal said. “If you’re a coach, and you’re trying to go recruit, it’s difficult for you to be able to prove that ‘hey, the school takes this program very seriously, and it wants you to succeed.’”

“It’s difficult for the school to wholeheartedly say that it supports the women’s team if it’s not trying to do something, hopefully, to make it so that [the women’s team] has a better place to play,” Kanjwal said. As a transfer studentathlete, Archer said Georgetown’s gym paled in comparison to other schools, creating an impression of neglect surrounding women’s sports.

“It’s difficult when you go somewhere like Georgetown, and you see that the women are playing in a gym that looks like a high school gym,” Archer said.

“It just makes you think, ‘We don’t take [women’s] basketball seriously here,’ especially in comparison to the men who play at a big arena and have so many opportunities,” Archer added.

Although the university has not yet announced the next head coach of the program, former women’s basketball player Shanniah Wright (COL ’22) said former Hoya and WNBA champion Sugar Rogers (COL ’13, GRD ’21) would be a phenomenal candidate for the position.

“She was a blessing in a very dark time for me,” Wright told The Hoya “She gave me confidence, reminded me of my love for the game.” Rogers, who played for the

Hoyas from 2009 to 2012, is the most decorated player in Georgetown women’s basketball history. Howard brought on Rogers as an assistant coach for the 2021-22 season, but she did not return for the 2022-23 season, even though many players adored her.

“If they brought [Rogers] in as the coach, I think that you would see an amazing shift in the greatness that could be Georgetown women’s basketball,” Wright said.

Archer said she believed current Associate Head Coach Niki Reid Geckeler could help build Georgetown into a powerhouse for women’s basketball as head coach.

“She’s very goal-oriented, not just for herself, but for her players as well,” Archer said. “She’s very passionate and committed to what she does. She plays a huge role in a lot of the girls’ lives as ‘a mom away from home,’ and she’s able to build that relationship with you while still making sure that people are staying focused on the bigger goal.”

During the search for Howard’s replacement, Archer believes an ability to win will be the most important consideration.

“I think the biggest thing will be having a coach that can come in and create structure and win games,” Archer said. “I think that when you have a coach that is really used to winning, it’s a completely different mindset that’s instilled into the players because your first thought is to win, not just to go out and play.”

Offensive Explosion Drives Hoya Victory

HIGH POINT, from A12 all-time assist list and also became the 30th Hoya in program history to have 100 career points. Graduate midfielder Jacob Kelly also scored his 100th career point, split between his time on the Hilltop and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played for four seasons.

With the game essentially won, the fourth quarter had myriad Hoyas see the field. In the end, 11 different Hoyas found the back of the net, and Kelly completed his hat trick with 2 more goals in the fourth. The Panthers, too, were able to tack on 4 more goals to close out the game — 1 goal at the end of the third quarter and 3

more in the fourth quarter.

On the defensive end, sophomore goalie Michael Scharfenberger has been a revelation for the Hoyas over the past three games.

Since being named the starter after Georgetown began the year 0-3, the sophomore has led the team to three consecutive wins.

Despite only posting a .483 overall save percentage, all signs point to Scharfenberger as the future of the Hoyas’ backline. A return to form hopes to see the Hoyas begin to climb back up the national rankings. Georgetown will host Lehigh University (5-2, 2-1 Patriot League) at 12 p.m. on March 25 at Cooper Field.

GUHOYAS

Former women’s basketball Head Coach James Howard’s departure headlines a complete restructuring of the basketball program. Mediocre performances and questions about team culture challenged his tenure.

GUHOYAS

The Hoyas triumphed over High Point’s men’s lacrosse team in a quest to climb the national rankings.

WOMEN’S

Sports

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2 023

EWING EXPERIMENT ENDS NUMBERS GAME

After an underwhelming six years, Patrick Ewing’s (CAS ’85) coaching career was never meant to be.

See A4

TALKING POINTS

Georgetown will always hold a special place in my heart.”

Former Basketball Coach James Howard

GUHOYAS

After six years of mediocre results, Georgetown University decided not to renew women’s basketball Head Coach James Howard’s contract. Howard previously served as assistant coach for Georgetown from 1997 to 1998 and 2015 to 2017 before being promoted.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgetown Declines to Renew Howard’s Contract

Carrie McDonald

Senior Sports Editor Georgetown University declined to renew women’s basketball Head Coach James Howard’s contract following a six-year tenure defined by unexceptional results.

A national search is underway to find Howard’s replacement.

The announcement came after the Hoyas (14-17, 6-14 Big East) fell to the No. 7

MEN’S LACROSSE

University of Connecticut Huskies (31-5, 18-2 Big East) 39-69 in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals, concluding Howard’s fourth consecutive season with a losing record. Georgetown’s decision to part ways with Howard came amid an internal restructuring of the basketball program. Georgetown Athletics publicized the decision four days after a March 9

announcement that former men’s basketball Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85) will not return to the Hilltop.

Howard said he will fondly remember his time on the Hilltop.

“Georgetown will always hold a special place in my heart,” Howard said in a March 13 announcement.

“I was fortunate to build relationships that will continue as I move on to the next opportunity.”

Georgetown Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Lee Reed thanked Howard for his time on the Hilltop.

“Coach Howard and his staff have shown a true commitment to the program and his student-athletes over the past six years,” Reed told Georgetown Athletics.

“I want to thank him for both his dedication and leadership to our studentathletes, and wish him well in the future.”

GU Breezes Past High Point 22-10

Jeremy Fang

Hoya Staff Writer

With three consecutive wins this weekend, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team posted its highestscoring nonconference game since 2020.

The Hoyas’ March 18 victory against the High Point University Panthers (6-3) hopefully signals a return to good form for the No. 16 Georgetown Hoyas (3-3) after an undeniably disappointing start to the season.

St. Patrick’s Day weekend brought out the fans, with a healthy contingent of both Georgetown and High Point supporters descending upon Cooper Field.

Georgetown was in control from the get-go, leading High Point 6-0 to open the first quarter. Strong Hoya defense held the Panthers to just 3 goals in the first half.

The Hoyas dominated in nearly every category in the first quarter. Georgetown posted a solid 14 shots, with 11 on net. Graduate faceoff specialist James Reilly went 9-1 on faceoffs in the first quarter, setting the tone and providing the Hoyas with the majority of possessions.

Notably, graduate attacker Brian Minicus posted a hat trick just halfway through the first quarter. Minicus

would tack on another goal to close out the quarter, giving Georgetown a 7-2 lead.

By the second quarter, the game was already over. The Panthers scored the first goal, but it would be their only point of the quarter. The Hoyas rattled off 7 unanswered goals to take an impressive 14-3 lead into halftime. Minicus would complete a double hat trick before halftime, posting another 2 goals and an assist in the second frame. Six other Hoyas also found the back of the net, leading to an impressive firsthalf team performance.

Georgetown opened up the second half rather uniquely:

Its first 2 scores were pole goals from junior defenseman Will Tominovich and graduate defenseman Will Bowen off of assists from graduate attackman Tucker Dordevic. After these 2 goals, High Point had its brightest run of the game, scoring 3 unanswered goals. The third quarter ended with both teams scoring 4 goals apiece.

To regain momentum, senior midfielder Graham Bundy Jr. scored 2 goals in quick succession, bringing the score to 18-6. These goals made Bundy Jr. the 11th player in program history to score 100 career goals.

Before the end of the game, a few other Hoyas notched notable accolades. Junior attackman TJ Haley climbed to fourth on Georgetown’s

Howard became the 10th head coach in the program’s history June 14, 2017, after serving two years as an associate head coach for the Hoyas following the departure of Natasha Adair to the University of Delaware. Howard brought a breadth of coaching experience, including a brief stint as an assistant coach at Georgetown for the 1997-98 season.

Howard led his team to mediocrity, leaving

Georgetown with a 66-108, 32-77 Big East record and a lackluster .379 winning percentage. The Hoyas have not reached the NCAA Tournament since 2012 or even the Women’s National Invitation Tournament since the 2018-19 season, Howard’s only winning season (19-16, 9-9 Big East) on the Hilltop.

Georgetown player

ROUNDING THE DIAMOND

An epic tragedy of mythical Greek proportions struck Puerto Rico and the baseball world on March 15.

After delivering a dominant top-of-the-ninth performance against the rival Dominican Republic in a win-or-go-home pool-stage game, all-star closer Edwin Diaz suffered a devastating injury to the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating. Yes, while celebrating. Diaz will most likely be out for the entirety of the MLB season.

The great thing is that this injury does not take away from the massive success of the World Baseball Classic (WBC). I say this wholeheartedly — even as someone who couldn’t look at his Twitter for days after the incident because of the surge of hateful Braves “fans” mocking the injury and stupid baseball “fans” calling for reform.

After going through all five stages of grief — aptly beginning with denial — I’ve reached a point of clarity never before known to man-

kind. I would like to share that awakening with you all now: stuff happens. You can hopefully infer what expression I’m going for here.

When given the opportunity to play for their country, to bear their nation’s flag on their helmets and duke it out for the glory of their country, a bunch of prideful and wealthy, desensitized multimillionaires could not say no. Of course, these players are going to care more about representing their home country than for Cincinnati.

The WBC has quickly become what the World Cup is to soccer — and a freak injury is not going to stop baseball’s rising international popularity and momentum.

Even the pool stages of the global tournament resembled playoff atmospheres. It is no easy feat to fill up Loan Depot Park (formerly Marlins Park), seating 37,000 people, yet these games have broken several baseball records.

According to MLB, “Puerto Rico’s game against [the] Dominican Republic averaged a 62% share of people watching TV at the time.” Beating out Olympic-sized ratings and crushing all sorts of

Senior midfielder Graham Bundy Jr. became the 11th Georgetown men’s lacrosse player to score 100 goals.

Former

Eli Blumenfeld Columnist