The Hoya: November 11, 2022

Class of 2025 Students Express Concerns Over New Housing Changes

Students have voiced con cerns about housing options for the 2023-24 academic year after Georgetown University an nounced a series of residential living changes.

The university announced these changes Nov. 1 as a result of the construction of the new Henle residential complex, which is scheduled to begin in early summer 2023. The demolition of Henle Village will eliminate around 470 upperclassmen beds, with these apartment-style units most commonly housing thirdyear students. The university is planning to temporarily replace these beds by converting the oncampus Georgetown University Hotel to student housing and of fering an off-campus residence

hall located on H Street.

Georgetown will also allow up to 100 juniors to apply to live off-campus outside the George town, Burleith and Foxhall com munities, who will be randomly selected and will receive an ex emption from the university’s existing three-year on-campus housing policy. Juniors apply ing to live off campus will not be permitted to live within the Georgetown, Burleith and Fox hall neighborhoods, and stu dents must provide documenta tion to confirm their residence is outside of these boundaries.

Aya Takegami (SFS ’25) said she feels the university did not give students enough time to arrange new housing plans.

“I was upset about the late no tice and short timeline given,

See HOUSING, A6

Von Fürstenberg Speaks a t Georgetown

To be in charge means to be committed and true to oneself, fash ion designer and inventor of the wrap dress Diane von Fürstenberg told Georgetown University students.

The event, titled “Women Rising: A Conversation with Di ane von Fürstenberg” and held

Nov. 9 in Copley Formal Lounge, featured von Fürstenberg, an acclaimed fashion designer and founder of the fashion company DVF, in conversation with Ambassador Melanne Verveer, the current executive director of Georgetown Insti tute for Women, Peace and Se curity (GIWPS) and former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Glob al Women’s Issues. The event was co-hosted by GIWPS and

GUSA Executive, Senate Candidates Discuss Platforms at Town Hall

Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) senate and executive can didates spoke to students about their plans for future legislation and answered questions from voters during a Nov. 4 town hall event.

At the town hall, the three executive tickets — Camber Vincent (SFS ’24) and Alyssa Hirai (SFS ’24), Chijioke Achebe (SFS ’25) and Devon Pasieka (MSB ’25) and Spencer Wood

all (MSB, SFS ’24) and Anya Caraiani (SFS ’24) — partici pated in the first of the three one-hour long discussions. Candidates responded to in dividual questions, and other candidates were allowed to re spond if mentioned by name.

The second session featured 10 first-year candidates who are vying for seven class of 2026 senate positions, while the four at-large senate candidates who are running uncontested spoke in the third session. The town hall took place in WhiteGravenor Hall.

Moderators and students asked candidates about what strategies they will use to improve GUSA’s reputation, diversify student represen tation within the organiza tion, improve the efficacy of GUSA’s communication with the student body and pro mote free speech on campus.

Vincent, who currently serves as speaker of the GUSA Senate, said it is im portant that GUSA consider student voices when draft ing resolutions.

“You don’t earn students’

trust by saying ‘you should give me your trust,’ you earn students’ trust by proving that you have earned it,” Vincent said at the event. “You do it by meeting with administrators, creating re sults and actually publiciz ing those results to make sure that students know that these resources are here for them and that their voices are being heard.”

Pasieka said her and Achebe’s ticket has built their platform around reaffirming GUSA’s purpose to focus on improving students’ lives.

“Our platform is really centered around getting back to the core of what GUSA should be,” Pasieka said. “It should be about the students and making sure that every student at George town should be able to have the most impact possible over however many years they have here.”

Caraiani is the only candi date who does not currently hold a position in GUSA, which Woodall said is an ad vantage for their ticket.

“I would like to point out that I’m the only ticket run ning with someone who’s a complete outsider to GUSA, so I bring new blood to the table, and I want to work with new senators and new people to make sure they can do whatever they can to im plement their new ideas and bring new ideas to the table,” See GUSA, A6

the Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS).

At the event, Verveer presented von Fürstenberg with the GIWPS 2022 International Trailblazer Award, which recognizes female leaders making a more peaceful, equitable and safe world.

Three international female Georgetown students, Bahar Ghandehari (COL ’23), Olha Ko vach (SFS ’26) and Salma Aloko zai (GRD ’24), spoke alongside

von

Credited

See WOMEN RISING, A6

Photo of the Week

NEWS

The Rats Do Run This City

The rats are going to love this announcement: rat numbers are increasing across Washington, D.C. A9

Voters End Tipped Wages

Washington, D.C. residents voted to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers from $5.35 to $16.10 an hour. A5

OPINION

Religious Diversity Issue

The Opinion section has gathered Viewpoints from a multitude of faiths represented on Georgetown’s campus. A2/A3

Faith-Centric Reporting

Eric Bazail-Eimil (SFS ’23) argues journalism is missing the resurgent role of politics in the U.S. and the world. A2

GUIDE

‘Midnights’: Pop Perfection

Taylor Swift’s record-breaking 10th studio album features new synth-pop sounds and masterful lyricism. A12

May Fire Rain

The Dance has begun: Game of Thrones spinoff redeems the franchise, following a disappointing end to the hit series. A12

SPORTS

Get to Dribblin’, Hoyas

The Basketball Issue returns with unfavorable rankings for both the men’s and women’s teams. B1

guard Kelsey Ransom will hit the ground running in what will be her third season playing for the Hoyas. B3

Ransom Leads the Team Junior

Fürstenberg and Verveer, speaking on women-led revolu tions and resistance movements currently taking place in their re spective home countries of Iran, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

as the creator of the popular wrap dress, von Fürsten berg reflected on her start in the fashion industry as being born from a simple dress and a desire

THE GEORGETOWN UNIVERISTY INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY

Fashion icon and women’s rights advocate Diane von Fürstenberg spoke to the Georgetown community about her work empowering women around the world, at an event by GIWPS and the SFS.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Residential living changes for the 2023-24 academic year have sparked concerns over access to the main campus, affordability and social problems.

Julia Butler Special to The Hoya

Helen Walker Special to The Hoya

Olivia Macaulay Special to The Hoya

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) candidates discussed campaign platforms and answered questions from voters at a Nov. 4 town hall event.

ANTHONY PELTIER/THE HOYA

Photo of the Week: A brisk, colorful autumn day in the District of Columbia

Kindness Transcends Faith

There’s a famous joke about two Jews, Goldberg and Schwartz, who are walk ing and stopped by someone who asks where they’re going. They casually tell the person that they’re on their way to synagogue.

The person responds, “Goldberg, I know why you go to synagogue. You believe in God, and you’re an observant Jew. But Schwartz, you don’t believe in God, why are you going?”

Schwartz responds, “Goldberg goes to syna gogue to talk to God, and I go to synagogue to talk to Goldberg.”

One of the things that I love about this joke is that it highlights an essential aspect of Jew ish identity: it is not dependent on faith in God. Many Jews believe in God. The Torah, Jewish prayers and theology revolve around a relation ship with the Divine. But a person belonging to the Jewish community, identifying as Jewish or attending synagogue does not depend on that individual’s understanding or belief in God.

As Larry King, the famous CNN anchor and journalist, said, “I’m a classic agnostic but I’m a Jewish agnostic.”

Thankfully, these problems of belief and identity aren’t new for the Jewish people. Over 1,500 years ago, the rabbis of the Talmud read a verse in Deuteronomy — “You should walk after God” (Deuteronomy 13:5) — and had a problem with it.

The Rabbis wanted to know how these words could be possible, for another verse in Deuteronomy reads, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God,” (Deu teronomy 4:24).

How can a human being walk after God if God is a consuming fire?!

The rabbis of the Talmud conclude that what the verse actually means is to walk in the ways of God, mimicking the attributes of the Holy One: visiting the sick, clothing the naked, consoling mourners and burying the dead.

These four examples of the ethical and moral behavior that we should embody in this world are meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive. To walk after God means to care for our fellow hu man beings. Even if one felt doubt about a Di vine Presence in the universe, there was still no doubt about how to treat each other.

There is a Hasidic story that was written

down by the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, which builds off this Talmu dic discussion and takes it a step further.

The Master teaches his students that God created everything in the world to be appreciat ed, since everything is here to teach us a lesson.

One clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did God create them?”

The Master responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all — the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, they are not doing so because of some religious teaching. They do not believe that God commanded them to perform this act. In fact, they do not believe in God at all, so their acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness they can bestow upon others simply because they feel it to be right.”

“This means,” the Master continued, “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that God will help you.’ Instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no God who can help, and say ‘I will help you.’”

Now, the point of the story is not that you should be an atheist. The point of the story is that it’s okay if you’re an atheist or an agnostic or someone of deep faith, as long as you show up for people in your community and don’t ig nore the needs of others in this world. That’s part of the reason why Larry King might claim to be an agnostic, but is still proud to be a Jew ish agnostic.

Each faith is unique, but I appreciate that the Jewish tradition creates space for all Jews, regardless of belief. At the end of the day, what one believes matters less than how we treat each other. That principle is why when asked to summarize the entire Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel — a great 1st century BCE sage — said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its in terpretation. Now go and study.”

Rabbi Daniel Schaefer is the interim director of Jewish Life at Campus Ministry.

VIEWPOINT • BAZAIL-EIMIL

Prioritize Religious Journalism

Journalism is missing the largest story of our lifetimes. A deeper story has emerged over the last 15 years that has shattered traditional polit ical alignments and changed the lives of millions of people, especially in the Global South. That sto ry is the resurgent role of religion in politics both here in the United States and around the world.

This claim is a provocative one, I admit, but reli gion is one the biggest geopolitical variables as the world moves into a new era of great power competi tion and realignment, and the influence of religious actors in politics will impact the fight against climate change, the future of democracy and the interplay of science, technology and political change.

Coverage of religious news, be it from re ligion-affiliated outlets, national or interna tional outlets, is becoming all the more vital to inform the public and hold religious author ity and movements accountable as they grow more relevant in U.S. and global politics.

To see the impact of religion in politics these days, and the failure of outlets to report on it, look no further than to the rise of Pentecostal churches. Pentecostalism, a charismatic Evan gelical denomination of Christianity that em phasizes direct personal experiences of God, is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world. It is rapidly upending the political status quo around the world, creating new po litical constituencies and fueling a new wave of conservatism in the Global South and among Latinx voters in the United States.

Brazil is the perfect case study. Throughout this year’s contentious presidential election, President Jair Bolsonaro and President-elect Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva jockeyed for the support of Brazil’s fastgrowing Evangelical and Pentecostal communities, which have co-opted American social conservatives’ rhetoric around abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and the de cline of traditional families.

Now, Brazil’s democracy is buckling, amid claims of voter fraud from Bolsonaro supporters reminiscent of those in the U.S. that have been amplified by Evangelical actors. American outlets largely overlooked Brazil’s Evangelical stakehold ers in their coverage of this election, missing a brewing storm that now threatens the stability of Latin America’s largest democracy.

The electoral transformations that have accom panied the growth of the Evangelical movement are not exclusive to Brazil. In the U.S., Evangelical churches have helped Republicans increase their

LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND VIEWPOINT POLICIES

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support among Latinx voters in key swing states like Florida, Arizona and Texas, shattering align ments that have defined American politics for several decades.

It is worth noting the importance of religion in politics is not limited to Christian countries. The rise of Hindu nationalism in India is receiving little coverage from most American newsrooms, even as allies of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi continue to weaponize Hindu identity as a cudgel against the various faith groups found on the Indian subcontinent.

In Israel, far-right parties that cater to Jew ish settlers in the West Bank are likely to join a governing coalition that will return to power the country’s controversial former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s policies, es pecially around the expansion of settlements and relations with Palestinian authorities will likely escalate tensions further.

Deeply sourced reporting and coverage of these stories would not only enrich the public, but also bet ter direct policymakers towards a more holistic ap proach to statecraft and diplomacy as they navigate these new religious currents.

Right now, coverage of religious news falls on a motley crew of outlets and journalists: report ers at wire services like the Associated Press, staff writers at religion-focused outlets like the Religion News Service and religiously-affiliated outlets like the Jesuit magazine America and the Jewish magazine Tablet, and a handful of reporters and producers employed by major outlets to cover the Vatican from Rome. Most secular outlets lack religion desks to coordinate coverage, and many relegate religious news to the corners of their print pages.

Covering these stories will require news rooms to make investments in their religion desks, such as hiring journalists with knowl edge of the faiths they cover and their theolo gies. Whether newsrooms make those invest ments will seal the fate of journalism as an industry and its ability to hold powerful actors and movements accountable.

to have been able to adjust my mindset to see my identity as an asset. Nonetheless, I know the path ahead will include long hours, arrogant men and constant growth.

Eric Bazail-Eimil is a senior in the School of Foreign Service

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Religious Diversity Issue

Reconceptualize Contradiction

It moves, it doesn’t move. It’s far, it’s near. It’s inside all, yet it’s outside everything. – Īśā Upaniṣad, verse 5

If one theme could be found in common from the large variety of Dharmic and other Eastern traditions, it is the acceptance and embrace of contradiction. The Upaniṣads use contradictory terms to indicate the universal principle Brahman, the Jain concept anekāntavāda describes reality through contradic tory viewpoints, and the Taoist work “Zhuangzi” commends both the acceptance and transcendence of contradictions.

Yet too often, contradiction can be a source of pro found discomfort. Modern systems of logic are cen tered on the law of non-contradiction, which states that two contradictory statements (“p and not-p”) cannot both be true. But in real life, nothing is truly

Today, I believe we need to be more accepting of contradiction in order to advance both interreligious and interideological understandings. Assuming that one side is correct and the other is wrong misses the nuance and insight gained from considering and re specting alternative viewpoints. To be clear, accept ing contradiction does not entail drawing a superfi cial, false equivalence between oppositional beliefs. Rather, we should understand that each viewpoint has a person who holds it, and that person has a reason why they hold it: the values, circumstances and experiences unique to each of us. Only by un derstanding the values that drive them can we even attempt to bring people together.

Consider the Supreme Court’s recent affirma tive action case, SFFA v. Harvard, which questions whether race-conscious admissions decisions unconstitutionally penalize Asian American appli cants or are an acceptable means of ensuring diver sity. Yet the case is much more complex than these two diametrically opposed opinions. The variety of perspectives that gave rise to both sides in this case — Asian American exclusion, the model minority myth and American immigration policy, the deepseated roots of racism and attempts for redress, and longstanding social and distributional inequities — illuminate potential areas of common ground. One such area is the elimination of legacy admissions, which disproportionately benefit white students, a proposal that appears to have potential support on both the right and the left.

AKINTUNDE AKINADE AUTHOR

black and white; it is unrealistic to try to reduce our world to a logical system that is perfectly free from contradiction.

The word “contradiction” comes from the Latin “contra dicere,” or “to speak against,” indicating how the concept is tied to the ability to respect and con sider opposing viewpoints. By accepting contradic tion, we express humility in judgment. Since each viewpoint is contingent on the circumstances and experiences of a particular individual, we admit that one particular viewpoint — and one individual’s view of reality — may not capture the entire truth. Such humility frees us to have a glimpse at a greater truth that transcends all viewpoints.

In fact, even modern science has benefited from accepting contradiction. Until the early 20th century, physicists used to have two competing theories of light: the wave theory and particle theory. When vari ous experiments proved both theories correct, scien tists began to understand that light — and in fact all matter — is both a wave and a particle. In short, accepting the contradiction between both theories freed scientists from the restrictions of both, leading to the development of quantum mechanics.

VIEWPOINT

Perhaps more difficult, but just as important, are debates engulfing my own religious and ethnic com munities. In 2021, the conference Dismantling Glob al Hindutva ostensibly divided many South Asian Americans into two oppositional camps: those who believe the conference led to anti-Hindu bias and those who believe it solely critiqued a political ideol ogy of Hindutva. But again, peoples’ viewpoints paint a more complex and nuanced picture — one shaped by caste-based and racial discrimination, the legacy of colonialism in defining concepts such as “Hindu” and “caste,” India’s history with liberalism and de mocracy and the varied experiences of the South Asian diaspora. Admittedly, such issues are deeply rooted and may seem intractable. But acknowledg ing the core values behind peoples’ perspectives is the first step needed to reach the shared values of humanity behind all sides.

Ultimately, accepting contradiction in the spirit of the Dharmic and other Eastern tradi tions does seem to make judgment incredibly difficult. It may seem shortsighted, even wrong, to impose our viewpoints on others. Modern life, though, demands judgment, whether in arguing a court case, making a policy or advocacy deci sion, or even making each of our everyday choic es. When we make decisions, accepting contra diction reminds us that we are all ultimately imperfect. This attitude can help us shape and reformulate our decisions to better take into account the lived experiences of others. Con tradiction is not a societal obstacle to overcome, but rather a feature of society to be embraced. It keeps us humble, thoughtful, understanding and more just.

• ALHAMID

Recontextualizing Islam at GU

As a Hoya that is part of two geographi cally distinct Georgetown University entities, I have developed a unique perspective on the notion of religious diver sity. My dual experience as a student on the Georgetown Qatar campus and now an ex change student on the main campus here in Washington, D.C., has enabled me to reflect on how religious communities manifest themselves in both our campuses. Not only have I built insight into the religious dynamic of a Jesuit academic institution, but I have also had the opportunity to tap into my own understanding of my identity as a Muslim student.

As a Muslim who was born and raised in Muslim countries, I constantly struggled with the idea of religion as being something that I passively adopted just because I was born into a religious Muslim family. Despite the feeling of comfort that comes with belonging to a certain faith, I had always wondered if I, as an individual, would choose to believe and practice Islam if I lived in an environment that was not primarily Muslim. The answer to this question became clear when I was ex posed to the religiously diverse community here at Georgetown in D.C.

Practicing my religion in an environment that is not immersed into Islam religiously and culturally has helped me solidify my re ligious beliefs and build more intentionality towards the practices I perform as a Muslim. For example, I no longer depend on the sound of the call to prayer that echoed into my house and reminded of performing my prayers on time, nor do I depend on my parents to keep me on track with my religious duties. Instead, I became completely responsible for and conscious of my own religious obligations as a Muslim. Despite this responsibility being solely my own, it added a sense of meaning fulness into the practices that I used to do just for the sake of checking them off my to-do list.

In addition to that, I also understood the experience of being a Muslim as part of a mi nority. Unlike the Muslim commmunity back home — where Muslim individuals make up a majority of the country — being a Muslim as a minority means having a tighter and more closely-knit community that supports and encourages spiritual and religious growth with open mindedness and through com munal guidance. I slowly realised that the responsibility of upholding my religious prac tices and believes are not actually solely my own, but with the help of existing Muslim so cieties like Muslim Life and the Muslim Stu dent Association, this responsibility became a

shared one. One of my favourite experiences I had was going on the fall retreat that was or ganised by Muslim life and led by the Muslim chaplain. The theme of the retreat was about finding spiritual grounding and implement ing it in our daily lives. This experience was very eye-opening as it made me reflect on the importance of spirituality in Islam, a concept that is not very prevalent among traditional Muslim communities.

Moreover, I also had to experience different facets of my religion that I did not discover back home in Saudi or Qatar. On Fridays, Muslims attend a service that involves pray ing and listening to a preacher as a way to honor the significance of this day in Muslim tradition. Unfortunately, in my home country, this service is most commonly attended by men in society even though, religiously speak ing, both men and women are encouraged to attend this service and participate in the prayers. Growing up, I would always watch my dad coming back from the Friday prayers and he would tell us about the speech given by the preacher.

Here on the D.C. campus, however, I get to participate in this tradition, one that I always felt curious about. Going to the Friday prayers at the Mosque in Georgetown has been a very enriching and uplifting experience, one that has helped me become more spiritually con nected to my religion and feel a sense of com munity in the midst of our diverse campus.

Additionally, this experience made me reflect on how religious traditions back home can sometimes be culturally more accessible to men than to women. Thus, when I return back home, I will aspire to encourage women in my community to become more involved so that they can get an equivalent spiritual and reli gious experience.

In my opinion, religious diversity helps us regain our humanness by helping us rec ognize other people’s beliefs and faith with a deeper understanding and open minded ness. These insightful interactions I have had in the past few months between people who do not share my religion made me feel more comfortable with the idea of cherishing my own religious identity while appreciating and acknowledging the existence of other faiths within Georgetown. Finally, this experience reminds me of a verse from the Quran that beautifully highlights this notion, “To you your religion, and to me my religion” (Qur’an 109: 1-6).

Noha Alhamid is a junior in the School of Foreign Service

Ashwin Ramaswami is a law student at the Georgetown University Law Center.

“Interreligious engagement is not analogous to simplistic agreement — such a position is incongruous with the sheer diversity of human values evi dent in the world. Rather, it is a solemn and humble affirma tion that all people can learn from one another.”

Globalize Modern Religious Dialogue

The theme of diversity occu pies a special place at this auspicious time when Qa tar is fully prepared and poised to welcome visitors from all over the world to the Pearl of the Peninsula. FIFA’s World Cup promises to be full of fun, fascinating and fantastic. It is indeed a good time to ponder on the solemn splendor and the nagging challenges of understand ing and embracing the “other.”

This magical moment provides a good opportunity to reflect on the diversity of cultures, religions, val ues, sensibilities and worldviews in our shrinking planet. The task of engaging diversity is an inte gral part of Qatar National Vision 2030. This vision focuses on “toler ance, constructive dialogue, and openness towards others at the national and international levels.”

Tolerance and intercultural sen sitivity are increasingly important in a world where people are be coming more interconnected by the forces of globalization. Beyond the discourse on the “clash of civi lizations,” it is imperative to en gender creative insights into nar ratives that can enable humanity to critically engage the diverse and complex factors that have become non-negotiable aspects of our contemporary world.

The 21st century has ushered in a borderless and globalized. world. This is our new global structure and it is pertinent to the academic study of world re ligions. Ninian Smart, a Scottish scholar of comparative religion, has maintained that this reality contributed to the modern study of religion. This insight provides a great segue to delve into the power and persuasion of religious diver sity. Engaging religious diversity is central to the mission and vision of Georgetown University. As a Je suit institution that valorizes in terreligious understanding, cura personalis and community in diversity, Georgetown affirms that because we live in an ecumenical age in which many cultures and religious traditions will affect one another, it is crucial for us all to have a mutual understanding.

In light of the pervasiveness of insularity in the world, the Spirit of Georgetown firmly accentu ates the power of solidarity and communitas, to borrow a word by the British anthropologist, Victor Turner. In the twenty-first centu ry, religious identity and affirma tion continue to play significant

roles in personal, domestic, and international affairs. In a world that is already fraught with many centrifugal forces, religious bigotry can exacerbate existing tensions and fault lines. Walter Benjamin once remarked that “If the enemy should win, not even the dead are safe.” This prognosis is a grim re minder that the future of human ity rests on the bold affirmation of virtues that transcend selfish and myopic interest.

The pathways to salvation, moksha, nirvana, samadhi and sat-chit-ananda are sated with treasures, insights and practices that can transform chaos into symphonies of hope, joy and bliss. Religious traditions provide tre mendous resources such as kind ness and forgiveness for grappling with some of the challenges con fronting humanity today. These insights can actually serve as anti dotes to global challenges such as terror, ecological disaster, and food security. Dealing with these chal lenges demands collective efforts and insights.

Georgetown University is com mitted to putting religious di versity into action. On Oct. 10, I had the honor of hosting Imam Yahya Hendi, director of Muslim Life and Chaplaincy at George town in my “Problem of God” class. He spoke about the mean ing of Islamic spirituality and pi ety and addressed the poignancy of religious diversity in our new global village. At the lecture, my students from religious tradi tions engaged him on thorny theological issues such as theod icy, predestination and eschatol ogy. His responses were candid and laced with humor, wisdom and personal anecdotes. The class session was a testament to the power of honest interre ligious engagement. The flow of our discussion reminded me of a poem by Hafez, a Persian lyric poet. The poem affirms the pres ence of the Ultimate Reality in churches, mosques and temples.

Interreligious engagement is not analogous to simplistic agree ment — such a position is incon gruous with the sheer diversity of human values evident in the world. Rather, it is a solemn and humble affirmation that all peo ple can learn from one another.

Akintunde E. Akinade is a pro fessor of theology at George town University in Qatar.

Universal Lessons From Orthodox Teachings

The first person I encoun tered at GAAP weekend, an introduction to cam pus for admitted students, was the Orthodox Christian chaplain at Georgetown University. My conversation with him about the vibrant Orthodox Christian com munity at Georgetown cemented my desire to attend a university where religious life is not only tol erated, but encouraged. Needless to say, I quickly found a home in Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) that fall.

Georgetown’s commitment to spiritual development has ex ceeded my expectations. How ever, practicing faith on a college campus, even at a Jesuit univer sity, can be challenging in the context of a largely secular culture. Reflecting on my experiences, I would like to share three lessons I learned about faith and the uni versity using Orthodox Christian ity as my guide.

The first lesson is to follow the examples of the saints. The word “orthodox” originates in Greek, meaning “right teaching.”

Indeed, Orthodox Christians strongly emphasize apostolic tra dition, meaning that our praxes are centuries old and largely un varying. Nevertheless, Orthodox Christians are called to embody our ancient faith amid modern-

day challenges. While we may feel alone in this endeavor, we should recall that our presentday tests are variations of what Orthodox Christians have expe rienced for millennia.

The saints struggled to apply their faith to their own contempo rary struggles, which often mirror those we face today. Most rel evantly, several Orthodox saints experienced hardships in many ways representative of “cancel culture,” from the politically moti vated exile of St. John Chrysostom in 403 A.D. to that of St. Nektarios in 1891. Studying the lives of the saints inspires the understand ing that we are neither the first nor the last to reconcile our faith with our culture through prayer and humility, as did the Church Fathers before us.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bar tholomew I, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians around the world whom we welcomed to campus in 2021, is another inspir ing example of how we can use our ancient faith to tackle cultural challenges such as combating climate change and navigating religious diversity. Identify a role model in your religious tradition and emulate theirresilience.

The second lesson is to build a tight-knit community with whom you can pray. The abil

ity to practice the religion of your choice in a pluralistic society is a blessing, but exposure to tenets of new faiths can be confusing when you are still in the process of understanding your own. On the other hand, the secularity so prominent in the West may feel crushing, and the existence of pressure from peers to abandon religion cannot be ignored.

The solution to this problem is to forge strong community ties.

OCF understands that it will re main relatively small, yet it is still an exceptionally robust group. The group builds fellowship through weekly prayer services, service projects, retreats, monas tery visits and engagement with Orthodox Christians at other institutions. After I planted my roots in fertile Orthodox ground, my faith blossomed amid the storm of external distractions.

Campus Ministry is eager to provide students with resources about faith groups; seek out a community that feels like family.

The third lesson is that human reason is a gift, and it is fallible.

Above all, our identity at George town is “student” and is largely defined by our academic pursuits. In such an intellectually driven environment, reason is king: every problem and solution is rational ized. Orthodox Christians believe

VIEWPOINT • MEHTA VIEWPOINT • LEE

Strengthening My Spiritual Voice

Like many prospective stu dents interested in inter national affairs, I initially chose Georgetown University for its world-renowned School of For eign Service (SFS). I knew it was a Jesuit institution, which I appre ciated as a Catholic, but the ambi tious college applicant in me cared more about academic excellence — and, I have to admit, prestige — than religious affiliation. Little did I know, however, that Georgetown’s Catholic identity would become the most vibrant force in my four years on the Hilltop.

My first foray into Catholic Ministry occurred almost by ac cident. During move-in weekend of my first year, I attended Chap lains’ Tea with my family and met Fr. Gregory Schenden, S.J., the director of Campus Ministry. He introduced me to Dr. “Russ” Weis mann, the director of Music Min istry, after I shared with him that I had accompanied our church choir on the piano at home. I chat ted briefly with Russ, and we ar ranged a time for me to audition for the position of student pianist.

Soon, I became a member of the Contemporary Choir, per forming weekly at Dahlgren Cha pel’s 8 p.m. Masses. I spent hours practicing the piano and forming bonds with peers from all four schools, separate from the SFS bubble I am confined to in my classes. We gathered at Leo’s every Sunday to share some food and laughs before rehearsal and then blended our voices to celebrate Mass. We even launched a selfie contest through GroupMe, en couraging members to snap self ies with one another as they ran into each other throughout cam pus. As a first-year, I discovered my sense of belonging — and some of my best friends—in the Music Ministry community. I realized very quickly how important it was to develop myself spiritually in ad dition to academically.

Although the COVID-19 pan demic physically separated our choir, it didn’t prevent Music Ministry from ministering. That year, I assumed a directorial role, hosting online game nights and Mass “watch parties” and send ing out weekly newsletters to keep us connected in spirit. Instead of singing together at Mass, we com piled “virtual choir” performances. When we returned in person last year, our ministry had shrunk, but we have worked hard to rebuild it through robust recruitment ef forts and monthly group dinners.

Choir has been the rock of my col lege experience — something I count on every Sunday to prepare myself mentally, physically and spiritually for the week to come. Now in my senior year, as I men tor my pianist successors, I know future students will continue to find a home in Music Ministry.

Music Ministry, however, has not been my only source of spiritu al growth and religious formation at Georgetown. It’s been in prayer, friends and the delicious food of Catholic retreats and Catholic Faith Communities. It’s been the opportunity to minor in Religion, Ethics and World Affairs . It’s been between the pages of readings for classes on Pope Francis and Cath olic Social Thought, deepening my understanding of how the Church views the application of faith to public life. It’s been the luxury of calling Dahlgren Chapel my sec ond home.

I have also been lucky to par ticipate in various Catholic pro grams at Georgetown. Through the Global Citizenship Fellow ship organized by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, I engaged with students across the world and attended the International As sociation of Jesuit Universities conference to help shape a bet ter future for their universities. I had the rare, once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity to partake in Pope Francis’s synod on synodality — and be on a Zoom call with him. These opportunities have reminded me that spiritual for mation occurs far beyond the gates of Georgetown, and that my own faith journey will not end once I graduate.

This integration of my Catho lic faith into my college experi ence has transformed my out look about the person I want to be: humble, gracious and kind. Character will take me much fur ther in life than academics and career development. Religious formation has simultaneously provided a strong foundation for my personal values and instilled a sense of purpose into my stud ies — the Jesuit value of people for others regularly rings through my head, and I know it will persist if I pursue a career in public service. After all, morality and virtues are crucial for the cultivation of future leaders. With the tense climate of domestic and internation al poli tics today, the world can surely use some cura personalis.

I hope all students at George town, whether Catholic, of an other religious tradition, agnostic or atheist, can take advantage of the special religious, ecumenical, and interfaith opportunities stu dents can enjoy on the Hilltop. Aside from Catholic services, I’ve also attended a Jewish Shabbat, meditation sessions at the John Main Center and spiritual gath erings with Dharmic Life; these experiences have expanded my understanding of religious diver sity and spiritual enrichment.

For those who might not know where to start, Chaplains’ Tea still happens every Tuesday in Dahl gren Quad, and you can count on seeing me there, too.

Channing Lee is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.

that we have been endowed with reason by our creator to grasp a basic understanding of our world and our God, but the Church ac cepts the limitations of the hu man mind and the element of mystery in its approach to God and his creation.

In what I believe perfectly en capsulates this message, Gregory of Nazianzus writes in his Third Theological Oration, “For faith is that which completes our argu ment.” Changing our perception about reason will take the form of profound appreciation of your studies, not only because reason is a gift, but also because its purpose is to draw you near to God. Howev er, it also forces us to acknowledge that by virtue of our humanity, ev eryone has limits. We are not invin cible, and the goodness of God and his creation is beyond our imagina tion; love and cherish it.

If faith is your foundation, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). Fol lowing the saints, finding a com munity and accepting my limita tions have altered the course of my spiritual development for the better. I am confident that being a student at Georgetown can enrich your faith as it did mine.

Antonia Sames is a senior in the College.

Embrace Dharmic Community

Aweek ago, my mother brought up how surprised she is that I am not only part of religious life here at Georgetown, but also the presi dent of its newest organization, the Jain Student Association. Needless to say, my grandpar ents are proud.

On Oct. 25, Georgetown Uni versity celebrated the first an niversary of the Dharmic Medi tation Center (DMC), located in the Leavey Center. Supporters and participants in Dharmic Life gathered in the DMC to sing “happy birthday,” as well as enjoy cake and other offerings. The celebration — organized by the Hindu Chaplain and Dhar mic Life leader Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan — came over 10 years after students first re quested the space. In 2021, when the concept came to fruition, the space was the first of its kind at a Catholic institution.

Anjali Jha (COL ’23), the Pres ident of the Hindu Student As sociation (HSA), said the DMC marked a monumental mo ment for Dharmic life on cam pus, also noting the unexpected 475 attendees of the Deepavali celebration on Oct. 23.

“Getting our own space was a slow process, but it has been a success ever since,” Jha told The Hoya When I told my mother about the DMC, she had raised a good point: she wondered why I, along with some peers, became so “religious” at George town. Alongside the desire to find a home away from home, I think the explanation comes from the “buffet-style” exis tence of the Campus Ministry. Students can pick and choose their level of participation in terms of religious opportuni ties, spirituality and fostering a sense of community.

Sharan said the presence of

an inclusive space on campus is especially important and that he hopes to use his posi tion at Georgetown to gather support from the entire stu dent body to provide an equi table space for all.

“It is even more important to be talking about dharmas now because monocultural presumptions on Hinduism are the dominant narrative. Being inclusive and equitable means striving to provide such a space and for centuries we have been unable to do that,” Sharan told The Hoya Keerat Singh (MSB, SFS ’23), president of the Sikh Student Association (SSA), said religion has played a significant role in her life at Georgetown and her role in the formation of the SSA, which currently has 15 members and hosts monthly Sunday Sangat and trips to a gurdwara — a Sikh place of as sembly and worship.

“I grew up resisting many of the spiritual aspects of Sikhi, but didn’t come to realize how important the community I had formed through my gurd wara was to me until I came to a PWI,” Singh wrote to The Hoya

Similarly, my personal choice to eschew religious af filiation back home stemmed from the underlying contro versial sexist norms that I sup posedly “had” to follow in order to practice Jainism. I learned through participating in reli gious life at Georgetown that some of these notions are not even rooted in Jainism, they were just social constructs that create hierarchy within the re ligious community. It is the open and interpretive nature of Jain, Hindu, Sikh and Bud dhist identity at Georgetown that makes religious life ap pealing and beneficial to me.

Jha said she felt similarly

about the diversity and inclu sion that these beliefs promote.

“Dharmic Life is a great way to combine like-minded spiri tual beliefs into one,” Jha said. “It’s like a tree, and we are little branches and leaves off of that, with distinct roles but a com mon appreciation.”

Dr. Sharan said that he hoped to remove the colonial influence from Dharmic tradi tions at Georgetown.

“There are a lot of people claiming to have Dharmic bases for their ideologies that are mainstream at the mo ment,” Sharan told The Hoya “So, rather than operating from ancient, outdated, anglophone 1800s, protestant, British as sumptions about the tradi tions, it is my hope to raise awareness about the variety of dharmas and the problem of colonized education.”

Through the Campus Min istry Student Forum, minor ity religions are finally finding their place amid Georgetown’s Jesuit values, gracefully mark ing their territory.

Georgetown’s case is a noteworthy one: a Jesuit institution where I am con fidently writing about the success and foundations of the Jain Student Associa tion, although this does fall in line with Jesuit principles of interreligious understand ing. While there is room to grow and be mindful of the language we use and context in which we discuss Dharmic traditions, we have the ability to normalize interreligious dialogue across the country and to other institutions by being more actively involved in our own opportunities.

Sanaa Mehta is a sopho more in the School of For eign of Service.

ILLUSTRATION BY: CE MI LEE/THE HOYA

Advocacy and Identity: Refugee Communities at Georgetown

At Georgetown, refugee students and activists have found community, pursued their studies and advocated for refugees on campus and around the world.

Rania Khan Special to The Hoya

Zahra Wakilzada (SFS ’23) lived in Afghanistan for the first 13 years of her life before moving to Pakistan and then the United States after her family came un der threat by the Taliban because of her mother’s work as an activist.

Full disclosure: Zahra Wakilzada previously served on The Hoya’s Editorial Board in Spring 2021.

Prior to immigrating to the U.S, Zahra and her family lived as refugees in Pakistan while the United Nations High Com missioner for Refugees (UN HCR) processed their case.

Wakilzada’s family then emi grated to Virginia in 2015.

Wakilzada, who is majoring in international politics (IPOL), said her experience as a refu gee has shaped her studies at Georgetown University.

“I really wanted to understand the world, the way the systems operate, and how we as individu als with intersectional identities who are coming from differ ent backgrounds can actually contribute in fixing this world,” Wakilzada told The Hoya Wakilzada said her decision to pursue international poli tics was sparked by the Trump administration’s peace talks with the Taliban in 2020.

“I realized that there was a lack of inclusive voices at the table,” Wakilzada said. “There might be certain issues that will happen in Afghanistan, where like, we as Americans might not be able to see if we have not had experienc es like my family’s experience.”

At Georgetown, refugee stu dents like Wakilzada and activ ists in support of refugee causes have found community, pur sued their studies and advocat ed for refugees on campus and around the world.

Education, Community and Identity

While refugee students and immigrants from countries ex periencing conflict can pursue higher education and find sup port at Georgetown, there is room for more inclusion and under standing across campus.

Wakilzada said Hoya Saxa Weekend, a spring admissions event for students from un derrepresented backgrounds, had an impact on her decision to attend Georgetown.

“I stayed here for the weekend. I remember the flexibility that these individuals had in order to accommodate me because I was coming late to campus, being in that space, feeling so loved and welcome among these individu als.” Wakilzada said. “Georgetown actually welcomed me by offering me a scholarship as well.”

At Georgetown, Wakilzada took an anthropology class on border imperialism with De nise Brennan, a professor and the chair of the department of anthropology. The class focused on what it means to have bor ders or abolish them, migra tions, refugees and indigenous people’s rights, Wakilzada said.

While this experience was enriching, Wakilzada said other classes have been less sensitive toward her identity and lived experiences.

“In my IPOL classes, my iden tity has been at the center of the discourse. They always spoke as if there wasn’t an Afghan woman in the class. At times, my professors would ask me why I wear a hijab during office hours.” Wakilzada said. “It is not my responsibility to teach my

deal with Iran, and so having nuclear and terrorism all in the newspaper when talking about Iran did not help with the ad justment,” Ghandehari said.

Ghandehari was uncomfort able with people knowing about her identity until she started col lege at Fordham University in New York City and surrounded herself with other Middle East ern students, former asylum seekers and individuals who embraced their cultural roots.

“In high school, I basically start ed from scratch. I made friends without telling them where I was coming from,” Ghandehari said.

“It took me until college to be able to sit and say I’m an Iranian with out being uncomfortable.”

Ghandehari transferred to Georgetown to combine this newfound connection with her identity and the political network in Washington, D.C., working on activism about the Middle East, international law and human rights.

the political turmoil as a whole or the brutal murder of Amini.

“Unfortunately, there is selec tive solidarity at Georgetown University, and it’s extremely alarming because students learn about the causes they should focus on after graduation here. Georgetown was able to respond to Ukraine quickly, and I am so happy they responded that way, but I hope they can extend that support to students from other countries,” Ghandehari said.

Russia began their invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. That same day, Hellman invited stu dents in the SFS to a town hall discussion to express solidarity over these tragic events.

Georgetown is aware of the turmoil in Iran, according to a university spokesperson.

tion, like getting a visa.

“In Afghanistan, right now, there are not lots of qualified and professional infrastructure at the universities, and the quality of higher education is going down,” Azizi said. “For this reason, some of the universities in the U.S. or other European countries can provide some online platforms, certificate programs, online stud ies for master’s and undergradu ate studies, for students in lowand middle-income countries.”

While 37% of the non-refu gee global population has ac cess to higher education, only 3% of the refugee population has the same opportunity.

the U.S. Having now completed a master’s of public policy from the University of Oxford, Tori Jan advocates for refugee causes and access to education for mar ginalized communities.

At Georgetown, Tori Jan leads the implementation of Onward for Afghan Women, an initiative of GIWPS dedicated to equipping Afghan female leaders with opportunities to continue their advocacy after evacuating from Afghanistan.

ZAHRA WAKILZADA (SFS ’23)

professors about my identity, or about the way that the system contributes to oppression, I de serve to get as much as any of my peers from this institution, I deserve to learn as much.”

For other students like Na sim Gul Azizi (GRD ’24), com ing to the U.S. and Georgetown also meant adjusting to a new education system.

“When I came to Georgetown, three months ago, I connected with different organizations. I connected with different people with my work related to my previous experience, and I saw the professors and the students have a very friendly environ ment,” Azizi told The Hoya Before Kabul’s collapse to the Taliban in August 2021, Azizi traveled globally for confer ences and training programs, aided in the growth of small female-owned businesses and worked extensively in conflict resolution. When the Taliban took over, Azizi and her exper tise became a threat.

“Before having to come to the United States for my stud ies, I wanted to stay in Asia and go to Kazakhstan to get a mas ter’s degree in business admin istration. Then the situation changed.” Azizi said.

Bahar Ghandehari (COL ’23) left Iran at age 13 to seek asy lum in California.

“In Iran, women essentially don’t have freedom at all,” Ghan dehari told The Hoya. “You don’t have freedom to choose certain occupations, and you don’t even have freedom to buy yourself a ho tel room. So when the opportunity came for me to move, I took it.”

Middle school was especial ly tumultuous for Ghandehari, who was still learning English, because her peers were igno rant of her identity.

“I had moved around the time the U.S. was having its nuclear

Advocacy for Refugees

Many students, including Ghandehari, strive to support refugees, both with campus-spe cific causes and broader efforts.

“I saw that young people like myself did not have a space to say what they wanted to advocate for their country,” Ghandehari said.

“I decided to come up with an organization and a community that would bring these countries together and just show how much our causes are connected.”

Ghandehari is the co-founder of Middle East Matters, an online community that amplifies the voices of young people who want to advocate for their countries. The organization has received widespread support and has over 200,000 followers on Instagram.

On campus, Ghandehari is also involved with student-led movements, including helping to write a letter with the Irani an Cultural Society (ICS) to call on the university to release a statement in solidarity with the women of Iran as they lead pro tests against the government.

In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody of Iran’s morality police. Her mur der sparked protests for reform throughout the country and de veloped into a national uprising.

Following the release of the ICS letter, which was addressed to President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), School of Foreign Service (SFS) Dean Joel Hellman issued a response to the violence faced by students at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.

“We join other universities around the world in standing with the students, faculty, and staff of Sharif University in sup port of their struggle and call for all students currently detained or missing to be released safely,” Hellman wrote in the letter. “We add our voice to the many in Iran courageously fighting for equity, justice, and an end to intolerance.”

Besides this, there has still been no public response from the university that addresses

“We are deeply concerned and saddened by the recent violent re pression of Iranian students and citizens demonstrating for basic freedoms and human rights, and recognize the weight that these events must place on our IranianAmerican and Iran-connected students on the Hilltop,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya

Making Education More Accessible to Refugee Students

As she works towards complet ing her graduate studies, Azizi is also involved in the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS), an organiza tion that combines research and advocacy to advance stability and justice worldwide. Azizi recently attended the United Nations’ dis cussion on the future of women’s education in Afghanistan with GIWPS and the Malala Fund.

“Not only are the girls not re ceiving education in Afghani stan, but the quality of educa tion is extremely low because all the professional educators are emigrating,” Azizi said.

Azizi came to Georgetown on a scholarship, but she said the visa process poses a huge road block for talented Afghan stu dents pursuing higher education.

To broaden higher education access, Azizi said implement ing online programs can help eliminate obstacles to educa

Last year, No Lost Genera tion (NLG), a campus organi zation that raises awareness about refugee crises, held food and clothing drives to donate to Afghanistan, partnering with local organizations to tutor ref ugee students assimilating to American high schools.

Zachariah John (SFS ’25), communications and advocacy director of NLG, said the organi zation is currently working on a large-scale scholarship project in collaboration with George Washington University.

“We’re trying to develop and pilot a scholarship program here at Georgetown, where we hope to bring international or domestic refugee students and house them under a full fouryear holistic scholarship and mentorship program,” John told The Hoya. “We’re hoping to bring this idea up to Dean Hellman by the end of the semester.”

Lina Tori Jan, the Afghani stan policy associate at GIWPS, said her upbringing in Afghani stan has shaped her passion for education and advocacy.

“At the time when I was attend ing school, there was certainly still a lack of access to education for girls, but it was nothing compared to today. My own journey of seek ing access to education is what brought me to this other side of the world and where I am today,” Tori Jan told The Hoya

Tori Jan spent her child hood in Afghanistan but left in pursuit of education when she earned a scholarship to study in

Following Kabul’s collapse, GIWPS played a vital role in evacuating hundreds of highrisk Afghan female leaders and their families, including wom en’s rights activists, journalists, policymakers and public offi cials, according to Tori Jan.

“Onward for Afghan Women is delivering on its mission to ensure these women can continue their advocacy even after the evacua tion,” Tori Jan wrote to The Hoya

While institutes and stu dent-led initiatives like GIWPS and NLG work to make the campus more well-versed in refugee causes and more inclu sive for refugee students, some argue there is still room for in stitutional improvement.

Ghandehari said efforts by the ICS to raise awareness about the political uprisings in Iran were done without support or funding from Georgetown.

“I think, as Middle Easterners at Georgetown, or as Iranians as Pal estinians, as Afghans at George town, it is often in our own hands to amplify our communities and make sure people learn about our causes,” Ghandehari said.

Ghandehari and other refu gee and asylum-seeker stu dents believe the university can do more to support causes in their home countries.

“There’s a pro-democracy revolution happening in Iran — a country that has been the case study for terrorism and nuclear weapons in the Middle East in all academic institutions. That’s why I want Georgetown to do more. To change the narrative and show that Iran can also be about de mocracy and freedom,” Ghan dehari wrote to The Hoya

ILLUSTRATION BY: NATASHA LEONG/THE HOYA While insitutes and student-led initiatives like GIWPS and NLG work to make the campus more well-versed in refugee causes and more inclusive for refugee students, some argue that there is still room for improvement.

“It is not my responsibil ity to teach my profes sors about my identity, or about the way that the system contributes to oppression.”

GIWPS

Refugee students and immigrants from countries experiencing conflict can pursue higher education at Georgetown and find community in organizations on campus.

Georgetown Students Investigate Reproductive Health in Ghana

Karenna Warden Special to The Hoya

Two Georgetown University School of Health students have been exploring reproductive and sexual health research in Ho, Ghana, throughout the Fall 2022 semester.

Clare Westerman (NHS ’23) and Emme Rogers (NHS ’22) are more than halfway through 15 weeks of aca demic work in the Ho Mu nicipal District in the Volta Region of Ghana. The two are conducting research in collaboration with the In stitute of Health Research (IHR), a multidisciplinary research center at the Uni versity of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ghana. Rogers is studying malaria treatment education cur rently provided to pregnant women, while Westerman is researching ways to mo tivate adolescents to seek sexual and reproductive health services. Westerman and Rogers arrived in Ghana on Aug. 25 and will wrap up their research Dec. 9.

Westerman, a pre-med student, said that the se mester has given her an op portunity to uplift adoles cent sexual health, an often overlooked issue within the medical field.

“I’m really interested in working with underserved communities and communi ties that face stigma or barri ers on what they need,” Wes terman told The Hoya. “And for me, sexual health digs into that. Adolescent health is something we don’t talk about enough.”

As part of her research, Wes terman said she is observing the work of health clubs, edu cational spaces that teach Gha naian youth about safe sexual and reproductive health prac tices. These clubs may provide a model for global health educa tion, according to Westerman.

“They had everyone in a big room, and they had boys and girls together, which I thought was kind of cool, be cause their topic was men struation,” Westerman said. “It was very participatory. It was kind of what I wish my health classes had been.”

Rogers said she wanted to utilize her time in Ghana to examine health education in clinics, specifically focus ing on the dynamic between health providers and preg nant women.

“Pregnant women are es pecially vulnerable to ma laria,” Rogers wrote to The Hoya. “I was very interested in knowing why women weren’t taking the drug if they were already attending the clinic. In short, my re search has shown that they aren’t getting quality health information from their pro viders, so they don’t realize why it is important to get the complete dose.”

UHAS medical and orga nizational anthropologist Matilda Aberese-Ako, a vis iting scholar with George town’s Department of Global Health, will join Westerman and Rogers in Ghana in the coming days. She is currently teaching a master’s program on Georgetown’s campus.

Aberese-Ako said she has en couraged Georgetown students entering the IHR program to select topics that can make a meaningful contribution to Ghanaian health knowledge.

“Because students want to learn new things, it makes it easy for me to work for them,” Aberese-Ako told The Hoya. “We love for students to do topics that are really critical to Ghana health service. We want the work to be practical and serve people in Ghana.”

According to Aberese-Ako, past Georgetown students have made significant im pacts on the community in Ho. Aberese-Ako said that one

student was involved with a local church and connected with the city through religion.

“When she went to the church she became so inte grated,” Aberese-Ako said. “This lady was so much a part of the community that she was participating in or ganizing funerals and activi ties for her Ghanaian family. I would say she has a family in Ghana.”

Rogers and Westerman have been working remotely as Ghanaian unions repre senting teachers and uni versity personnel, including UHAS scholars, have been on strike in order to seek in creased educational funding in response to inflation. The protests follow an unsuc cessful Oct. 14 meeting in which the Ghanaian govern ment did not meet unions’ demands on issues includ ing vehicle maintenance and off-campus allowances.

Westerman said that while she would prefer to conduct her work in person, she supports the mission of the unions and the rationale behind the strike.

“I definitely miss going into the office, I am a per son who likes being around other people and enjoying that set structure,” Wester man said. “It was definitely an adjustment, but I’m glad they are doing what they are feeling they need to do for their workers’ rights.”

Rogers said that working alongside experienced re searchers in a new country has taught her both impor tant technical and life skills.

“UHAS has an incred ible team of researchers. I’ve learned, and continue to learn, so much from them,” Rogers wrote. “Ultimately, this experience has honed my ability to adapt to new situations and be able to go with the flow. I’ll be forever grateful for those skills.”

DC Votes to Pass Initiative 82, Ending Tipped Wage Policies

Brooke DeLucia Hoya Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. resi dents voted to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, including restau rant servers, bartenders, ho tel staff and other workers in the service industry.

Initiative 82, a ballot mea sure proposing the end of tipped wages, passed with 74% of the vote in the 2022 mid term elections. In accordance with the measure’s passage, the District will gradually in crease the hourly minimum wage for tipped workers from $5.35 until it reaches $16.10, D.C.’s current minimum wage for non-tipped workers, in 2027. Initiative 82 comes as a follow-up to Initiative 77, a 2018 referendum in which D.C. voters narrowly voted to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers. Despite vot ers’ support for the initiative, the D.C. Council voted to re peal it Oct. 2018. A majority of D.C. councilmembers have indicated support for Initia tive 82, likely eliminating the possibility of a repeal.

Saxa Strategies, a George town University political con sulting organization, worked with the D.C. Committee to Build a Better Restaurant In dustry to create advertising in support of Initiative 82. Me riam Ahmad (COL ’26) worked on the team this semester and said the passing of the initiative will help D.C. workers who may be struggling financially.

“We wanted to support this important progressive cause because, if passed, it would guarantee all D.C. workers in the especially difficult ser vice industry a fair wage,” Ah mad wrote to The Hoya.

According to Ahmad, Ini tiative 82 would allow work ers to earn the mandatory minimum wage without hav ing to rely on tips for income.

“Initiative 82 would most certainly have a positive impact on D.C. workers,” Ah mad wrote. “Currently, the minimum wage for tipped workers in DC is $5.35 an hour, and although employ ers are legally required to compensate their employees

up to minimum wage ($16.10 an hour), they often don’t. That’s because employees have to go out of their way to request compensation if they don’t make up the dif ference in tips.”

One Fair Wage (OFW), a nonprofit organization working to end submini mum wages across the na tion, is campaigning for ballot measures, including Initiative 82, to raise the minimum wage in 25 states by 2026. According to Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, the passage of the initiative will level the play ing field for workers and may encourage people to enter the restaurant industry.

“OFW initiated Initiative 82 because the subminimum wage for tipped workers is a direct legacy of slavery that, even before the pandemic, forced a workforce that is majority workers of color and women restaurant workers to suffer from the highest rates of economic instability and sexual harassment of any in dustry because they have had to put up with so much from customers in order to get tips to feed their kids,” Jayaraman wrote to The Hoya

In the eight states that have eliminated the tipped mini mum wage, workers and busi nesses in tipped industries have lower poverty rates and more employment growth.

Jayaraman also said the COVID-19 pandemic led to decreases in tipping, which contributed to financial struggles for many tipped workers in the District.

“With the pandemic, these challenges worsened; workers reported that tips decreased dramatically and harassment went up further, with thou sands of women reporting they were regularly asked to remove their masks so male customers could judge their looks and decide their tips on that basis,” Jayaraman wrote.

While the initiative passed, it still faced strong opposition from some em ployees and restaurants.

Vote No on 82, a nonprofit organization that was orga nized in opposition of the

initiative, raised concerns about the impact the initia tive will have on tipped em ployees’ wages and on the costs restaurants and other businesses may incur to pay these workers.

“The tip credit guarantees that servers and bartenders receive the minimum wage but enables tipped employ ees to earn well above that amount—about $26 per hour, on average,” Vote No on 82 wrote in a statement. “Initia tive 82 would eliminate the tip credit and upend this system, harming servers and bartend ers across the District.”

Julie Sproesser, interim executive director of the Res taurant Association of Met ropolitan Washington, said the measure will create ad ditional difficulties for the D.C. restaurant industry amid attempts to recover from the pandemic.

“We are disappointed with its passage and the new real ity that awaits our vibrant industry during a time of al ready challenging economic recovery,” Sproesser wrote to The Hoya. “This measure will disrupt our city’s hundreds of small and independently owned restaurants and limit the earning potential of tipped employees, while also having regional repercussions.”

Despite the concerns res taurants and employers raised regarding the impact of the initiative, others remain hopeful that Initiative 82 will facilitate positive growth in the industry after its passage. States with fair wage policies have higher restaurant indus try job growth rates and small business growth rates, accord ing to Jayaraman.

“With the Great Resigna tion, One Fair Wage is the in evitable future of the restau rant industry,” Jayaraman wrote. “Over 100 DC restau rants are already paying One Fair Wage and are not going to be able to go back down to $5 an hour. There is only one future for the restaurant industry, if it wants to have enough workers to survive - pay people a full livable wage that allows them to feed their kids.”

Environmental Health Collaborative Presents at Public Health Expo

Ingrid Matteini Student Life News Desk Editor

The Georgetown Undergradu ate Environmental Health Col laborative (GUEHC) presented findings from their climate jus tice programming on campus at the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) conference.

The APHA Annual Meeting and Expo, which took place Nov. 6, hosts a variety of presenters that discuss health equity, a core value of the APHA. At the expo, the GUEHC reported on the re sults of their “Climate Health in the District Weekend” event, which was held on campus from Sept. 16-18. Funding for the event came from a $500 “Student Champions for Climate Justice” award the APHA’s Center for Cli mate, Health and Equity granted to GUEHC and four other stu dent groups from across the na tion in July 2022.

Ursula Gately (COL ’23) and Mark Kuo (COL ’24) represented the GUEHC at the conference.

Gately said the pair dis cussed ways to engage under graduate students in environ mental health studies and spoke about the results of their September event.

“At the conference, we had the opportunity to present our expe rience creating an undergraduate environmental health group and the impact of our APHA-funded climate justice programming,” Gately wrote to The Hoya. “We made the case that there is both passion and understanding nec essary in undergraduate circles to engage students in environmen tal health research and advocacy.”

Climate health inequities are particularly severe in Washing ton, D.C., something Kuo said APHA hopes to increase aware ness about through awards like the one GUEHC received.

“The APHA’s award is in tended to drive further academic

community awareness in issues of climate health and health equity,” Kuo told The Hoya. “D.C. city temperatures can vary by as much as 17 degrees Fahrenheit, disproportionately impacting Latinx and Black communities.”

Kuo said GUEHC used their experiences at Georgetown to make a case to expand envi ronmental health education around the nation.

“We found that Georgetown students were disapproving of Georgetown’s course offerings in the subject, most likely due to a limited number of opportunities to take such courses,” Kuo wrote to The Hoya. “We also hope that Georgetown will eventually real ize its unique strengths by creat ing a climate change and policyoriented environmental health academic program.”

The “Climate Health in the District” event allowed the Georgetown community to explore the D.C. environment while learning about climate health, according to Kuo. It highlighted the impact of urban sprawl in northeast D.C., dispari ties in the presences of green spaces in D.C. neighborhoods and accessibility to large park spaces such as Rock Creek Park.

The GUEHC planned four ac tivities in partnership with the John Main Center, Rock Creek Conservancy, local expert speak ers, Georgetown GREEN and outreach organizations for those experiencing homelessness, ac cording to Kuo.

Alexandra DeCandia, as sistant teaching professor and GUEHC faculty advisor for the APHA, said attendees partici pated in a crafting event that di rectly benefited the unhoused in the District, a meditation work shop and a clean-up initiative at Rock Creek Park.

The event brought climate ad vocacy groups across the district together to facilitate important

discussions around the intersec tionality of environmental health issues, according to DeCandia.

“It will bridge gaps between future environmental scien tists, policy makers and medical health professionals,” DeCandia told The Hoya before the event.

Gately said GUEHC hopes their programming will inspire more undergraduate students to get involved in discussions of en vironmental health.

“Presenting our findings to a crowd of over fifty public health professionals and thinkers, we are excited about the impact that this presentation may have on undergraduate representation in environmental health dialogue,” Gately wrote.

Kuo said the group hopes its advocacy will connect George town students to ongoing national and global advocacy groups fighting to mitigate these issues.

“We believe that environ mental pollutants, climate change, and sustainability are increasingly vital in the health and wellbeing of our future communities,” Kuo wrote be fore the event. “We hope the event launches a larger effort to generate policymakers and healthcare workers driven to improve environmental deter minants of health.”

Kuo said GUEHC is excited about the new opportunities that being a part of the APHA offers.

“GUEHC is hoping to be a contributor to environmental health policy and advocacy on a national scale,” Kuo wrote.

“Given membership within the APHA associated with the con ference, we can propose policy statements for adoption and endorsement by America’s larg est public health professional body. I don’t think one can un derstate how exciting it is to be able to influence such policy as a student group.”

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At the American Public Health Association’s annual conference, Georgetown students spoke about GUEHC’s findings from their “Climate Health in the District Weekend” event.

Students Running for GUSA Seats Speak at Town Hall-Style Event

Off-Campus Housing Alternatives Spark Financial, Social Worries

HOUSING, from A1 especially as study abroad deci sions and even planning had not even begun,” Takegami wrote to The Hoya. “I think there is really no best way to go about constructing a new building, but they could of fer more support and guidance toward students rather than mak ing us make decisions blindly without much time.”

Off-campus options for up perclassmen include George town’s newly built apartmentstyle residence hall located at 55 H Street NW, near the George town University Law Center. This hall, which contains 158 furnished apartment-style units, will be open to undergrad uate and graduate students, and free shuttle-bus transportation will be available for students to travel to Main Campus Mon days through Fridays.

The monthly rent to live in the H Street residential hous ing ranges from $1,500 to $2,472, while on campus apartmentstyle residence halls range from $6,140 to $8,102 per semester. The university did not clarify in its announcement regarding the housing changes whether undergraduate students will pay the same rate for the 202324 academic year.

Takegami says the H Street op tion will pose a financial and so cial problem for upperclassmen.

“I think it’s crazy that GU even considered this an option for stu dents that are not part-time or doing the program in D.C. with

Georgetown (CALL),” Takegami wrote. “A commute to school with public transit, especially when juniors aren’t even able to be fully off the meal plan makes a huge financial barrier and bur den for students. It really shows that GU doesn’t care about pro moting a community or bonding within the student body for ju niors since these students would be completely isolated.”

Mikaela Catto (COL ’25) said the lack of transportation to campus on the weekends will isolate students living on H Street and disadvantage lowincome students.

“If you can’t even take the Cir culator or the bus to see them on the weekends, then that just means you’ll be even more iso lated on the weekends, and so I just think that that’s really sad, and also for students who can’t necessarily afford to use their own transportation to campus that’s just not an option for them,” Catto said in an inter view with The Hoya Rooms in the hotel will be come single, double and triple private-bathroom units and provide 298 residential beds for upperclassmen. The hotel will have some of the amenities included in other Georgetown dorms, according to a university spokesperson, including a laun dry room and access to a com munity kitchen.

Takegami said she is worried the hotel is not conducive to dorm-style living and thus does not intend to rank it highly, al

though she acknowledged the hotel as a good temporary option.

The university says it is work ing with students to address their concerns about the new housing options.

“University leadership has been working closely with stu dent leaders since the spring, including GUSA and the two student Advisory Neighborhood Commission commissioners, in their effort to address the univer sity’s residential capacity chang es,” a university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya

Maya McDonald (COL ’25) said she is worried she may not be able to have a full college experi ence if she has to live on H Street.

“Personally, I feel like being on campus is vital to my college ex perience, and part of why I chose Georgetown was because it has such a small campus,” McDon ald said in an interview with The Hoya. “It takes away that entire experience, and even if it has transportation, it doesn’t neces sarily mean that it’s coming every single second of every single day, and my schedule changes.”

Takegami said she hopes to secure an on-campus apart ment for next year given her concerns regarding the other housing options.

“I don’t want to live off cam pus nor have the resources/ knowledge to get a lease for next year,” Takegami wrote. “I worry that the changes may cause the sense of community or bonding among dorms and junior class will decrease.”

GUSA, from A1

Woodall said at the event.

During the class of 2026 town hall, candidates dis cussed getting the George town University Transporta tion Shuttle (GUTS) buses to operate on weekends, expand ing GUSA’s budget and ex tending hours of operation at Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall.

Class of 2026 senate can didate Andrew Wong (SFS ’26), said underfunding of GUSA is a critical problem within GUSA that limits the body’s ability to create posi tive change on campus.

“Many of my candidates here will say ‘GUSA has lost trust,’ and ‘it’s an ineffective institution,’” Wong said. “I agree with that to a point, but I think the main issue here lies with the fact that GUSA is under-resourced and simply can’t fulfill all students’ expectations.”

Class of 2026 senate can didate Seth Edwards (COL ’26) said it is important to take into account the impact on Georgetown employees,

not just on students, when working with the university to enact changes like extend ing dining hall hours.

“I think that what we of ten ignore running for GUSA is that some of our policies are going to have effects on workers,” Edwards said. “If we are extending Leo’s hours, that means that there’s gonna be another hour of a shift added to workers’ here. Listening to what they were saying, they are already treated poorly by the univer sity, and they don’t need stu dents to be pressuring them into a higher workload.”

Audience member Kayla Barnes (SFS ’26) said many of the first-year candidates seemed dedicated to making real differences if elected.

“I’m not going to lie, most of the time when I think of GUSA I think of wannabe politicians,” Barnes wrote.

“However, there were quite a few people like Ryan, Dylan, Hilary, and Seth who changed my mind. I felt like they genuinely wanted to make a difference.”

At-large candidate Rob Arzano (COL ’24) said GUSA should work to prevent the university from further rais ing tuition costs after 11 straight years of tuition hikes.

“I feel like GUSA has not done enough to put pressure on the university for raising tuition, so that we can try to get the alumni to under stand that we want them to withhold dowries or dona tions or any sort of funds from the university so that they go directly to clubs,” Ar zano said at the event.

The other candidates run ning for Class of 2026 senate positions alongside Wong and Edwards are Meriam Ahmad (COL ’26), George Currie (COL ’26), Dylan Davis (COL ’26), Rhea Iyer (COL ’26), Taeeon Kong (COL ’26), Ryan Lee (SFS ’26), Hilary Orozco (COL ’26) and Dylan Phan (COL ’26). Besides Arzano, the other at-large can didates, all of whom are run ning unopposed, include María Victoria Almeida Vazquez (SFS ’25), Joshua Bernard-Pearl (SFS ’25) and Manahal Fazal (SFS ’24), who is an incumbent.

Fashion Mogul Honored with GIWPS 2022 International Trailblazer Award

WOMEN RISING, from A1 to empower herself and, subse quently, other women.

Having launched InCharge, a platform that seeks to con nect, empower, inspire and advocate for women around the world, von Fürstenberg said she designs for women in charge.

“I wanted to be a woman in charge, I wanted to be able to design my life, pay my bills and do anything a man does,” von Fürstenberg said at the event. “And I was lucky I be came that woman. I became the woman I wanted to be be cause of a little dress.”

Von Fürstenberg said her sense of purpose and commit ment to freedom is deeply root ed in her identity as the daugh ter of a Holocaust survivor.

“When I think about my birth, I realize that because my birth was a miracle, I had already won the minute I was born,” von Fürstenberg said. “I was a shoot of green in a field of ashes and so my purpose, I think, has been, and will be, until I die, to honor life and to be grateful for life.”

University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) introduced the event and welcomed von Fürstenberg to Georgetown, noting her exhaustive work to empower women across the globe.

“She has dedicated herself to efforts that celebrate and support women leaders, es tablishing in 2010 the DVF Awards to honor and provide grants to women leading im pactful social change and

serving on the board of the Vital Voices, an organization co-founded by Ambassador Verveer, focusing on support ing global women leaders, in novators and entrepreneurs,” DeGioia said at the event.

At the event, students spoke on women-led revolutions, including Ghandehari, who spoke about the protests cur rently taking place across Iran.

The protests were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, who was arrested by moral ity police in Tehran for alleg edly violating Iran’s hijab law.

Amini died three days after her arrest from what protest ers believe to be the result of police beatings.

Ghandehari said that the protests taking place in Iran are part of a woman-led revolution.

“One thing that’s so differ ent about this protest is that people didn’t start protesting because of economic reasons or mismanagement that have been the reasons for a lot of protest in previous years, but they started because a wom an died and she should have been alive and she could have been alive right now in any other country,” Ghandehari said at the event.

Kovach said that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Ukrainian women have been fight ing in large numbers on the front lines, trying to main tain a sense of normalcy for their families after being displaced, and experienc ing heightened amounts of gender-based violence as a

result of the war.

“I believe that the least ev eryone can do is to continue to talk about Ukraine, continue to think about people who are staying there right now,” Kovach said at the event. “An other thing we can do is to support different local organi zations, different initiatives, because they have a chance to

talk to these women, to these populations specifically, and they can make sure that they have everything they need.”

Reflecting on the injustic es women are facing in her home country of Afghani stan, Alokozai said that Af ghan women and girls are making their voices heard as the Taliban continues to

deny them their basic right to education.

“Women are protesting, they are taking the risk, they’re getting out there and still rais ing their voice because now they know only they, them selves, can help themselves get out of there,” Alokozai said at the event.

Revolution symbolizes a

collective fight for freedom, equality and individuality, von Fürstenberg said.

“It’s about being able to be who you are and being able to be educated and being able to, you know, dress and to be you. I think that is the Revolution,” von Fürstenberg said. “I think that is the common ground that we have to fight for.”

KASSIDY ANGELO/THE HOYA

Candidates for the GUSA executive, first-year and at-large senate positions shared their plans if elected ahead of the Nov. 10-12 elections.

At the Nov. 9 event, Diane von Fürstenberg spoke with Ambassador Melanne Verveer. Three international female Georgetown students also shared their experiences with women-led revolutions in their home countries.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

On Nov. 1, the university announced that the Georgetown University Hotel will become student housing and up to 100 juniors will be allowed to live off-campus.

Ward 2 Councilmember To Co-Teach GU Law Class

Annie Kane Academics Desk Editor

D.C. Ward 2 Councilmem ber Brooke Pinto (LAW ’17) will teach an intensive, oneweek course at the George town University Law Center (GULC) over the winter break in January 2023.

Pinto will teach the course — “Law and Policy in the Capitol City,” — alongside Georgetown Law Professor Meryl Chertoff, who serves as the executive director of the Georgetown Project on State and Local Government Policy and Law (SALPAL).

Pinto will teach the course in accordance with the D.C. Code on Ethics and Govern ment Accountability and as such will not accept pay ment for her services.

Pinto said she hopes to form the same kind of con nections with students that she was able to find with her professors during her time studying at GULC.

“Returning to my alma mater to teach a course to

law students is an enormous privilege,” Pinto wrote in a statement to The Hoya. “My time at the Law Center was filled with professors who made meaningful impacts on the trajectory of my career.”

The course will focus specifi cally on Washington, D.C., and its complex system of gover nance as a federal district but not a state, allowing law stu dents to examine the challeng es the D.C. Council faces when aiming to navigate governance.

According to Chertoff, inspi ration for the course grew out of her previous teaching on state and local government law.

“We’re going to be talking about things including D.C. statehood, but we’re going to go well beyond questions of D.C. statehood,” Chertoff said in an interview with The Hoya. “And we’re going to be talking about the way that the district government is set up — the D.C. Council, the court system, the regula tory agencies — we’re going to be talking about develop ments in the city transporta

14 Students Campaign For First-Year, At-Large GUSA Senate Seats

Special to The Hoya

Georgetown University stu dents will vote to elect seven Class of 2026 representatives and four at-large representa tives in the Georgetown Uni versity Student Association (GUSA) Senate this week.

Ten first-year and four atlarge candidates have cam paigned for the upcoming GUSA elections. Common is sues appearing on candidates’ platforms included improving transportation, expanding dining options and increasing awareness about GUSA’s role on campus. Polls open Nov. 10 at 10 p.m. and will close Nov. 12 at 10 p.m.

First-year candidates in clude Meriam Ahmad (COL ’26), George Currie (COL ’26), Dylan Davis (COL ’26), Seth Edwards (COL ’26), Rhea Iyer (COL ’26), Taeeon Kong (COL ’26), Ryan Lee (SFS ’26), Hilary Orozco (COL ’26), Dylan Phan (COL ’26) and Andrew Wong (SFS ’26).

Joshua Bernard-Pearl (SFS

on a personal level.”

Lee said ensuring that ad ministrators are aware of GUSA’s actions and take reso lutions seriously is important, suggesting that GUSA should routinely send resolutions to relevant administrators.

“Right now, passed resolu tions aren’t even read by rel evant administrators,” Lee wrote to The Hoya. “This is an issue when it comes to actu alizing objectives outlined in a given resolution, because Senators and administrators aren’t on the same page. While Senators have lobbied and de liberated to get a resolution passed, administrators have no idea what’s going on.”

Multiple candidates, in cluding Phan and Ahmad, have called for the extension of hours at Leo’s until 9 p.m. Alternatively, Edwards said GUSA should consider the ways that change would affect campus staff.

“I have avoided calling for longer Leo’s hours because from what I have heard from workers at Leo’s, it will put more weight upon them when they are already over burdened and underpaid,” Edwards wrote to The Hoya “We need to place pressure upon the administration to meet workers’ demands, in cluding hiring more workers, pushing for improved raises, and encouraging retention of existing staff over the usage of outside contractors.”

tion, housing and education and how D.C. faces some unique challenges.”

The course will enable stu dents living in and around the District to better under stand the legal context of the city, according to Chertoff.

“Given, of course, that all of our students are here, ei ther actually living in Wash ington, D.C., or commuting to law school, we thought that it was very important to set into context what they were experiencing in Wash ington D.C.,” Chertoff said.

Chertoff said Pinto’s ex pertise as a representative for Ward 2 — which houses Georgetown’s main campus — will help her foster conversa tions about the ways in which the university itself interacts with the D.C. government.

“She is very interested as a pedagogical matter on ques tions of D.C. governance,” Chertoff said. “We decided it would just be terrific to work together on doing something for the law students, and lift ing up some of these issues,

which I know interest her as they interest me.”

Pinto said her time in the classroom at GULC was ac companied by experiences volunteering that fortified her connection to the District.

Andrew Kales (LAW ’03) said GULC students have a unique opportunity to learn about the legal system through D.C., and that Pinto and Chertoff’s course will enable them to understand how the city functions on the

Campus Ministry, Sikh Student Association Celebrate Gurpurab

Akashdiya Chakraborty GUSA Desk Editor

Georgetown University Cam pus Ministry coordinated a Chaplain’s Tea centered around a Sikh holiday in an effort to fur ther recognize Sikh students at the university.

Campus Ministry organized a celebration of Gurpurab — a Sikh holiday celebrating the birth of the first Sikh guru and founder of Sikhism — at the Nov. 8 Chaplain’s Tea, a week ly event hosted by Campus Ministry offering free tea and snacks and the opportunity for students to speak with univer sity chaplains and members of Campus Ministry. Campus Ministry’s Director for Dhar mic Life, Dr. Brahmachari Sharan, spoke on the signifi cance of Gurpurab, alongside members of the Sikh Student Association (SSA).

Keerat Singh (SFS ’22), one of the co-presidents of SSA, said the event was the first time a Chap lain’s Tea featured the Sikh faith during her time at Georgetown.

“I have been attending Chaplains tea since fresh man year so it was really ex citing to be finally having one centered around a Sikh holi day,” Singh wrote to The Hoya Chaplain’s Tea represents an important step for George town to engage with the Sikh community at Georgetown, according to Singh.

“It’s important because we need to raise awareness about

religions that aren’t taught in schools to both increase visibil ity of religions like Sikhism and to counter hate in the world,” Singh wrote.

Sharan said Campus Minis try has made changes in recent years in an aim to better reflect the backgrounds of Georgetown students, including the change of Hindu life into Dharmic life, which encompasses Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs on Georgetown’s campus. Sharan said that he advocated for the change in order to represent a greater number of students from various faiths.

Sikh students lead Sunday Sangats, coordinating the singing of Shabads, and set ting up a langer, or commu nity kitchen, once a month when Campus Ministry or ganizes a space for Sikh stu dents to gather and worship.

According to Sharan, Campus Ministry has seen an impressive degree of coordination and selfsufficiency on part of the SSA and other Sikh students on campus.

“Because they see that the students themselves manage the Shabads, they manage the entire event, and they’ve created a wonderful community for people — because of that, there’s just a really high estimation of the Sikh Student Association,” Sharan told The Hoya. “Because other traditions have actual chaplains on campus to help them, while these results are student led.”

Sharan said that this celebra tion of Gurpurab further reflects

most local level.

“Georgetown Law students come from all over the coun try because they want to study in DC, but most of the classes focus on federal law and the federal legal system,” Kales wrote to The Hoya. “This type of class will give them a unique perspective on the city they’re living in.

Kales said he also believes the course will grant stu dents a deeper connection to the D.C. community.

Pinto said her goal for the class is to inspire students to care about issues pertinent to the District and utilize the skills they are gaining at GULC to give back to the community.

“My hope in teaching this class is that students are galvanized to continue to ex pand their learning about the community they call home for three years and use their gifts and talents to serve and support District residents,” Pinto wrote.

DYLAN DAVIS COL ’26

’25), Rob Arzano (COL ’24), María Victoria Almeida Vazquez (SFS ’25) and incumbent Manahal Fazal (SFS ’24) are running un contested for the at-large seats.

Iyer said she wants to en sure that Georgetown admin istrators better consider stu dent concerns.

“At Georgetown, there’s a culture of the university ad ministration ignoring student voices,” Iyer wrote to The Hoya “But, there is also a thriving community of students who are working to uplift each other. I’m running for GUSA to ensure student voice is cen tered in all projects the uni versity embarks on.”

Orozco said her goal is to better represent first-genera tion and low-income students if elected to GUSA.

“I want to assist the firstgeneration community by al locating some of our resources to GSP (Georgetown Scholars Program) and cultural clubs that help minority students feel welcome within our com munity,” Orozco wrote to The Hoya. “As a first-generation and low-income student, fo cusing on the group that I am associated with allows me to connect closely with students

Davis said his campaign is focused on creating more sup port for first-years through increasing funding for health services and advocating for more efficient responses to work orders.

“I have experienced first hand the lack of support that many of us freshmen are fac ing during this crucial period of transition,” Davis wrote to The Hoya. “Whether in terms of the inefficient work order system, underfunded health resources like GERMS and CAPS, or lack of freshmenspecific resources, I know that I have the wherewithal, fortitude, and passion to be a strong advocate for the class of 2026.”

Ahmad, Iyer and Currie all said they want to expand Georgetown University Trans portation Shuttle (GUTS) bus services to weekends and in crease the geographic bound aries of SafeRide accessibility.

Currie in particular said it is important to listen to stu dents’ concerns and expand GUTS services in accordance with their needs.

“It is essential to provide GUTS bus access on the weekends and expand the SafeRide program to make it more useful for students,” Currie wrote to The Hoya “It will be difficult to bring about these programs, espe cially in a way that is sus tainable and considerate for our Georgetown transporta tion workers.”

Campus Ministry’s commit ment to providing space for Sikh students at Georgetown to honor their religion.

“Over time, Campus Minis try has been really impressed by how Sikh students gather, and how they do work to gether, not only for their own communities, but for all the communities,” Sharan said. “So when they did start to add themes to Chaplain’s Tea, they felt it was only natural to include one of the most cher ished societies that they have at this school.”

Kelly Rankin, Campus Min istry’s communications and outreach coordinator, said that Campus Ministry decides the weekly themes for Chaplain’s Tea throughout the semester and takes into account many factors, including holidays and partner availability, to honor students’ diverse backgrounds.

“We host Chaplains’ Tea to highlight the diversity of our campus community,” Rankin

wrote. “We like to feature partners as a means of pro moting the important work happening at Georgetown to our faith communities and to broaden engagement in these informal gatherings.”

Singh said Sikh students have noticed Campus Minis try’s recent efforts to uplift the Sikh community at George town. Campus Ministry sup ported SSA’s efforts to orga nize a Nov. 9 Langar Night to celebrate Gurpurab.

Singh said she hopes the uni versity’s support for the Sikh community will continue, with the Gurpurab celebration repre senting a stepping stone for rec ognition on campus.

“Other important Sikh holi days include Vaisakhi, in April, and Bandi Chhor Divas, which happens around the same time as Diwali,” Singh wrote. “It would be great to have other celebra tions supported by Campus Min istry in the same way that they are supporting Gurpurab.”

Contemporary Rubell Art Museum Opens in DC

The Rubell Museum D.C. — a new contemporary art museum free to all Washington, D.C. resi dents — opened in Southwest D.C. Oct. 29.

Named after longtime art col lectors Mera and Don Rubell, the museum on 65 I Street SW comes as the culmination of a $20 million effort to transform a former junior high school into a space for art. The museum’s loca tion used to be the site of Randall Junior High School, a historically Black school that closed in 1978.

George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design purchased the property in 2006 before selling it to the Ru bells in 2010 for $6.5 million.

The Rubell couple began col lecting artwork in 1964. They have spent the majority of their careers in Miami, showcasing works to the public from their collection of over 7,400 pieces. The Rubells also supported many well-known artists at the begin nings of their careers, including Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cecily Brown.

Rubell Museum Director Caitlin Berry said the muse um’s historical setting encour ages artists to take on the role of teachers and challenges viewers to learn about complex issues

like race in society.

“The museum’s unique set ting in the former Randall Ju nior High School emphasizes the important role of artists as teachers,” Berry wrote in an email to The Hoya. “In the gal leries, students will encounter thought-provoking works by the some of the most compelling artists working today, offering new frameworks for exploring themes such as race, gender, and the environment.”

Berry said the museum’s focus on contemporary art will help enrich the variety in the District’s art scene.

“Joining the city’s already vibrant landscape of cultural institutions, the Rubell Mu seum DC further diversifies the city’s wealth of offerings as an institution focused solely on contemporary art,” Berry wrote. “The museum is a platform for sharing diverse viewpoints that speak to our current social, po litical, and cultural moment, providing added opportunity for DC audiences to reflect on lived experiences that are both per sonal and universal.”

Unlike other art museums in D.C. — like the Smithsonian Institution’s museums, which receive funding from the govern ment — the Rubell Museum is funded by grants, sponsorships and the Rubells’ own contribu

tions. Entry fees for non-D.C. resi dents range from 10 to 15 dollars.

Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) — an architecture firm based in New York City — helped the Rubells design the building. The Rubells added artwork to the building without changing its original lay out of classrooms and offices.

However, the new museum building features a new glass pavilion at the entrance to the school, which includes a bakery, bookstore and terrace, accord ing to Hany Hassan, a partner at BBB.

“The Rubell Museum is a transformative project in the heart of the historic Southwest area,” Hassan said in a press release shared with The Hoya. “It will give a new life to the his toric Randall School — an iconic building with a rich social and architectural history.”

Mera Rubell was a teacher making $100 a week and Don Rubell worked as a doctor when they first started collecting art in the 1960s. Mera Rubell said her experience as a teacher prior to becoming an art collector influ ences her view on the role of art.

“As a former teacher, I see art ists and teachers playing parallel roles as educators and in foster ing civic engagement,” Mera Rubell wrote in a press release shared with The Hoya

The museum’s inaugural exhi

bition, titled “What’s Going On,” features more than 190 pieces of work from 50 artists. The ex hibit’s title stems from the 1971 album by Marvin Gaye, an alum of Randall Junior High School, which critiques issues such as the Vietnam War, drug abuse and environmental destruction.

The exhibition also includes the work of famous American pop artist Keith Haring. The Rubell Museum showcases his composition “Untitled (Against All Odds),” which fea tures more than 20 works that bring viewers into a dystopian world full of Haring’s concerns, including environmental de struction and oppression.

The 32,000-square foot mu seum also features a solo exhibit by D.C. abstract painter and Howard University graduate Sylvia Snowden.

Berry said the museum will continue to highlight several works from the Rubell Fam ily Collection, which includes paintings, photographs, sculp tures and site-specific work from around the world.

“As with the inaugural exhi bition, What’s Going On, future presentations will draw together works from the family’s hold ings that demonstrate the im portance of artists’ voices in con tributing to a national dialogue,” Berry wrote.

Evie Steele

@GEORGETOWNOCM/INSTAGRAM

In an effort to further support and acknowledge Sikh students, Campus Ministry held an event for Gurpurab

DC COUNCIL

Brooke Pinto will teach a one-week intensive law course with Professor Meryl Chertoff at the Georgetown University Law Center in January 2023.

“I have experienced firsthand the lack of support that many of us freshmen are facing during this crucial period of transition.”

Michelle Vassilev Hoya Staff Writer

Vincent, Hirai Ticket Discusses Platform

Kales and Adora Zheng Senior News Editors

Camber Vincent (SFS ’24) and Alyssa Hirai (SFS ’24), who are running for Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) president and vice pres ident, said they have built their platform around institutional experience, ongoing advocacy projects and established con nections to administration and student groups.

The Hoya sat down with Vincent, who currently serves as GUSA speaker of the sen ate, and Hirai, at-large GUSA senator and chair of policy and advocacy, to discuss their cam paign goals and how they plan to achieve them. Voting opens Nov. 10 and closes Nov. 12.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

If elected, what will your top priorities be?

Vincent: We want to continue the work that we’ve already started to get back together. We’ve lost a lot of institutional resources over the years be cause of lackluster administra tions, COVID-19 responses and all of these problems of being online. We’ve just started to get back a lot of channels of advoca cy and communications — we just got back the GUSA news letter, we are currently working on the GUSA website. We want to keep this trend towards more engagement with the student body, more engagement with the community and make sure that we’re actually there to pro vide answers to questions.

Hirai: One of my long-term projects is improving our meal plan, especially for upperclass men — reducing the meal plan. These are all projects that af fect every student on campus. These are issues that dispropor tionately affect first-generation, low-income students. That was one of my reasons for joining GUSA in the first place, and that advocacy is what I want to continue if I’m elected.

How do you plan to facilitate interactions between the student body and GUSA?

Vincent: Students have a lot of questions about a lot of dif ferent things that impact their lives — we have the answers to these questions. In order to ac tually communicate those an swers, what we’re going to start doing and what we’ve already begun to work on with the web site that we’re building out, is making these briefing docu ments — one-page documents whenever there’s a relevant up date that explains the rationale behind the university adminis trators’ decisions and answers frequently asked questions.

Hirai: We also already have a working relationship with key actors in the administration. A lot of it is going to be con tinuation and ramping up the projects that we already have, and the GUSA website and the newsletter are big ones.

What experience do you have that qualifies you for this position?

Hirai: A lot of my advocacy in GUSA has come from my ex perience being a first-genera tion, low-income student. The Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP) has been a really big part of my college life and that’s the reason I joined GUSA — to give back and to represent students disproportionately affected by various issues on campus, whether it be hous ing or the meal plan, or lack of transportation access. We’ve talked a lot about how we can advocate for GSP but I think

having those lived experiences and connections with people also part of that community would definitely help.

Vincent: For me, it’s more about institutional experience. I have been in the senate for about two years now. The other two presidential tickets have been in the senate for about a year now. Of the three, I’m the only one who has actually taken steps to achieve various platforms and various indica tions of success. I’m the only one who’s actually met with administrators. I think that my experience, my connec tions with administrators, my knowledge of connections with various groups on this campus that are important for advocacy and platforming them, is some thing that would really help me be a successful executive ticket here is just ongoing relation ship with the administration that other students have not built despite having the same opportunity to do so during our time in the senate.

How do you believe you will be able to accom plish the goals you set during your term?

Hirai: Camber and I have been working with various fac ulty members and we have on going projects that I think we’ve made a lot of progress on in the past year. It’s also about know ing what projects are actually feasible. I think a lot of students feel frustrated because when people campaign for GUSA, they always have a list of things that would be great if it could happen but we all know that it’s literally impossible. We have the knowledge to figure out what projects we actually can get done and really lean into those ones.

Vincent: I think the two things that distinctly make or break whether we’re able to achieve our goals is first a willingness to put in the work. You are spending a huge amount of your time doing unpaid and unrecog nized work that the univer sity administration should be doing. At the end of the day, I am the only candidate in the field that has commit ted the time to actually do that. There’s also something to be said for structural con tinuity. One of the things that GUSA struggles with is that a lot of projects are long term — they take four, five, six years to complete advocacy on. Students are only here for four years, so ensuring that your projects actually get passed down is something that’s important.

Why should voters support your ticket?

Vincent: Voters should sup port our ticket because we are the only candidates with qualified experience who know what we’re doing. We’re the only ones who know what feasibly can and can’t be done and we’re the only ones with working relationships with administrators. And without those three key aspects, you’re going to have a failed admin istration that doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Hirai: This sounds like a very low bar, but Camber and I share a common interest in having a functional student govern ment and I think that’s what students are just so frustrated with. No one cares about dumb politics in GUSA. I think our ticket represents the average Georgetown student the best, and also various affinity groups and traditionally more vulnera ble and underrepresented com munities on campus.

Achebe, Pasieka Ticket Discusses Platform

Eli Kales and Adora Zheng Senior News Editors

Chijioke Achebe (SFS ’25) and Devon Pasieka (MSB ’25), who are running for George town University Student Asso ciation (GUSA) president and vice president, said they have built their platform around in creasing accessibility, working to utilize their networks across campus and connections with administration officials.

The Hoya sat down with cur rent GUSA Senator Achebe and GUSA’s current Executive Cri sis Response Director Paseika to discuss their campaign goals and how they plan to achieve them. Voting opens Nov. 10 and closes Nov. 12.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

If elected, what will your top priorities be?

Achebe: We want to make GUSA more accessible. I’m in the senate and Devon is in the executive, but we do have differ ent networks and connections that just aren’t that little GUSA bubble that exists. We know more people than that around this campus and we want to make us more accessible to those people who aren’t really involved in it at all. This work is vitally important, but a lot of people in GUSA take themselves way too seriously. I’m just a col lege kid who wants to help my classmates have a better, fairer, safer college experience. We need to make it more accessible and more responsive to stu dents. That’s my primary goal.

Pasieka: I think making GUSA more accessible starts with going back to our roots. GUSA’s goal should ultimately be making the student experi ence better. It should be allow ing students to make a greater impact at Georgetown them selves. And I think right now, Georgetown hinders that. There are so many different methods of communication that come in, and we don’t have a common network that shares every day what is going on at Georgetown. If we’re the undergraduate stu dent association, we should be helping our students take advantage of Georgetown. So I think if elected, my first priority is to look out for people who feel super overwhelmed and out of touch and not knowing where to get their information to have GUSA be that center.

How do you plan to facilitate interactions between the student body and GUSA?

Achebe: GUSA itself is quite insular, but Devon and I do a lot of different things with a lot of different people on campus. We know a lot of people on this campus and that’s the first step. You want people who you see around and can just walk up to them and speak with them. There’s a lot of internal reform I think GUSA can undergo to make the body itself more transparent and more acces sible, but I think the first step is having an executive that you know and recognize and see around campus.

Pasieka: I’m so lucky to be a part of so many awesome groups on campus, and those groups are why I’m running be cause of the concerns that I’ve seen from those groups. GUSA has been a great learning ex perience to see how things get done and where they kind of reach a hard stop. But truly, it’s those groups and the people that I’ve met here and want ing to be involved on campus because I want to give back to Georgetown because I see that there’s room for improvement

here: I’ve learned that through the network that I’ve had from the involvement I’ve had at Georgetown. Those people are definitely who I’m running for.

What experience do you have that qualifies you for this position?

Achebe: I am in the senate and I am the vice chair of the finance and appropriations committee, which I think is the most important commit tee within GUSA. We take the student activities fund and allocate it to the clubs on campus. Outside of that, I’m in the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union and Georgetown University Student Invest ment Fund. Knowing all these people, hearing their stories, their experiences, what makes them tick and what’s impor tant to all of these groups of people I think makes me the ideal candidate.

Pasieka: I hold leadership positions on TEDx Georgetown and I hold a board position in Georgetown Student Capital Partners. And it has been great to watch both of those clubs grow, and having that experi ence definitely gave me a new insight into how an organiza tion should be picked apart and analyzed to make it run more efficiently. GUSA allows me to be creative and think of ways to alter and improve the student experience is really fulfilling.

How do you believe you will be able to accom plish the goals you set during your term?

Achebe: I’ve been able to build relationships with members of the administration in GUSA, so that’s where it starts. I think knowing that we have those lines of communication is how it starts. Not just having talked to students a lot, but also the administrators, because we derive our power from them. I know that we have those re lationships in place already so that day one we can get to work for Georgetown students.

Pasieka: I want to start, on day one, collecting every single event that’s going on at Georgetown that day. I want that to be a leg acy of ours that no Georgetown student can feel like they’re out of touch. That’s one thing that’s super tangible that we can do. I also think the most important thing to do is create a GUSA working group with our mainte nance team and our Leo’s team, because they work really hard for us and are severely understaffed. We need to make sure that, as a part of the Georgetown commu nity, we understand their needs too, because as much as we’re serving the undergraduate stu dents, they’re also serving us.

Why should voters support your ticket?

Achebe: We have experi ences both inside and outside GUSA, so we’re not insular at all. We know we do different things around here besides just sitting and talking about resolutions that don’t really mean a whole lot. People have seen us and know we’re gonna fight for them. They know that we have their priorities front and center. They know that we care and so that’s why they should support us.

Pasieka: We’re unique. We want to give back to the George town community. There’s noth ing that is a personal gain, but we’ve both had some great op portunities that we want to share and we want to make sure that the student experience is a shared positive one, especially coming back from so many years of just disconnectedness.

Woodall, Caraiani Ticket Discusses Platform

Eli Kales and Adora Zheng Senior News Editors

Spencer Woodall (MSB, SFS ’24) and Anya Caraiani (SFS ’24), who are running for Georgetown University Stu dent Association (GUSA) presi dent and vice president, said they have built their platform around reframing GUSA’s bud get to better serve students, combating food insecurity on campus and improving acces sibility for disabled students.

The Hoya sat down with Woodall, who currently serves as GUSA vice speaker of the senate, and Caraiani to discuss their campaign goals and how they plan to achieve them. Voting opens Nov. 10 and closes Nov. 12.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

If elected, what will your top priorities be?

Woodall: We need to under stand what we can do as mem bers of GUSA. GUSA has its own budget of about $20,000 a year, and the biggest thing I have been a proponent of in this campaign is making sure that we spend that money responsibly because that’s $20,000, and we could be put ting that money to other stu dent organizations if we have extra room. I want to put this money into the Student Advo cacy Office, because I’ve talked to some members of the stu dent advocacy board and they said they’re pretty underfund ed by GUSA.

Caraiani: One of the oth er main things we want to focus on is increasing ac cessibility on campus for disabled students. That’s a problem we’ve recognized. It’s a pretty stark problem in our community, and we want to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and that we’re able to represent that voice adequately to the George town administration.

How do you plan to facilitate interactions between the student body and GUSA?

Woodall: You get a trans parent GUSA by making sure you elect transparent lead ers. My opponents have a very bad history of injecting their politics — not neces sarily their political views, but their politics as far as getting elected and reelected for GUSA and how they’ll look with the main campus. I don’t care what’s going to happen, what’s going to hurt me in an election. What I want to do is I want to make sure I’m best representing the needs of the student body and I’m helping them have the best experience on campus possible. I feel like we bring a very interesting take to the table, because you know that we’re not a com pletely political ticket.

Caraiani: Because I’m an outsider to GUSA, I have no vested interest in these pow er dynamics within GUSA. I don’t really know so much, I haven’t been there for the past year, so I can kind of provide a fresh perspective that isn’t so power-politics centered.

What experience do you have that qualifies you for this position?

Caraiani: I’m a club leader right now. I am the president of Prospect Records, which is a media board club. I’m basi cally managing day-to-day things, especially focusing on budget, and also just manag ing so many operations on a day-to-day basis, which

would transfer over to GUSA, especially for us because we are so budget focused. Ad ditionally, I’ve worked in a legislator’s office, and I’ve worked for a consulting firm. Woodall: As vice speaker I’ve been in charge of a lot of leadership and I was in charge of creating the handbook for the key actors, which is basically getting the right names of admin istrators and getting their contact info so that senators know who to contact. I have almost a year of senate expe rience now, so I’m very well versed in how this all works and I’m more than capable of taking on the job.

How do you believe you will be able to accom plish the goals you set during your term?

Woodall: The good thing about our platform is that we don’t need a lot of help from administration to get a lot of our plans done. I’ve made specific plans about what we should do with our deficit budget, I have specific areas that I’ve mentioned where we can cut, and that’s one thing we can definitely do. That’s something that GUSA has complete autono my of. Another thing I plan on doing is addressing food insecurity on campus and I feel like there’s a very easy way to do this that would not involve the adminis tration. One of the ways is that we can work with one of the food security clubs on campus, and we can create a program where students can voluntarily share ex tra meals which they might have and share that with students that have food in security. Because it’s a com pletely voluntary program, that’s something we won’t have any problem dealing with the administration.

Caraiani: Just to add on to that, with the new housing concerns, next year a lot of students will be displaced from campus. Along with that comes a lesser meal plan or perhaps not so many swipes, and with that comes potentially food insecurity for people that can’t afford to get Uber Eats or to get gro ceries every single week. So Spencer’s plan would really help with that as well.

Why should voters support your ticket?

Caraiani: We’re the trans parency ticket. Everything that we pledged to do is feasi ble to do within GUSA. We’re going to put effective plans into action. Most important ly of that is budget concerns because we can do so much with this extra money that’s just sitting there. We’re real ly a frugal ticket and it’s not about us. It’s about what we can do for the student body.

Woodall: We’re the only ticket that has an actual clear platform. What we need to do is we need to build our transparency and build better trust with the student body. You get that through hav ing transparent leaders that have a history of not inflict ing their own political suc cess on how they vote, mak ing sure people know exactly what they’re getting. What students should know is that we are the most transparent ticket and they should feel confident to communicate with us in any way. The goal here is simply to make our lives as hard as possible to make the lives of other stu dents as easy as possible.

Eli

@VINCENTHIRAI2023/INSTAGRAM

The Hoya sat down with Camber Vincent (SFS ’24) and Alyssa Hirai (SFS ’24), who are runnning for GUSA president and vice president in the Nov. 10-12 election.

@ACHEBEPASIEKA2023/INSTAGRAM

The Hoya sat down with Chijioke Achebe (SFS ’25) and Devon Pasieka (MSB ’25), who are runnning for GUSA president and vice president in the Nov. 10-12 election.

@WOODALLCARAIANI/INSTAGRAM

The Hoya sat down with Spencer Woodall (MSB, SFS ’24) and Anya Caraiani (SFS ’24), who are runnning for GUSA president and vice president in the Nov. 10-12 election.

As DC Reopens Post-Pandemic, Rat-Related Complaints Increase

Michelle Vassilev Hoya Staff Writer

Rat numbers are increasing across Washington, D.C., as the city recovers from the pandemic, with rat-related complaints more than doubling in the Dis trict from 2018 to 2022.

The resurgence in rats comes as restaurants reopen, stu dents move back into dorms and people return to the office. D.C.’s service hotline received over 13,300 rat complaints this fiscal year, more than twice the reports it received in 2018. Other major cities are also facing an increase in rats, with New York reaching 21,600 rat complaints last month, a 71% increase from the number of complaints made in Oct. 2020, according to New York’s Sanitation Department.

Bobby Corrigan, a leading ur ban rodentologist at RMC Pest Management Consulting and a former research scientist for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said the repopulation of D.C. — and the associated food and trash humans create — is driv ing the increase in rats.

“This rat in our cities almost

depends entirely on you and I for sustenance and shelter,” Cor rigan said in an interview with The Hoya. “And so, during the pan demic as you know, we all know, the pandemic pause affected us. It affected lots of animals, but all of a sudden the rats in March of 2020 found themselves without the gravy train anymore.”

The brown rat, which roden tologists refer to as the Norway Rat or by its scientific name, the Rattus norvegicus, is the most common species in D.C.

Corrigan said that in the first month of the pandemic, areas that typically have crowded res taurants which produce high volumes of food and trash, such as Capitol Hill and Foggy Bot tom, were closed, bringing rat numbers down.

“All of a sudden there’s no food,” Corrigan said. “You can’t repro duce, obviously. You can’t live for too long, and stress suppressed all these populations.”

Corrigan said rodentologists cannot specifically quantify this year’s increase in rat numbers, because it is difficult to accurately track creatures who are so mobile and who hide in so many places like sewers and drains.

However, Corrigan has con ducted surveys with pest profes sionals who provide services to those dealing with rat problems. He said his surveying involves contacting three long-tenured pest control companies in major cities nationwide a few times a year to gather estimates on the demand they’ve received for rat issues. According to his sur veying, there has been a 15-35% increase in service requests for rat-related issues across the east ern megalopolis, which stretches from Boston to D.C.

Corrigan said another way to measure the increase in rats is to look at the spike in complaints the public has been making to the government and D.C. Health.

D.C. Health did not respond to The Hoya’s requests for comment.

Even though rats carry mul tiple pathogens that cause diseases including the bacte rial disease leptospirosis, and monkeypox, which can lead to symptoms like fevers and rash es, Corrigan said the likelihood of rats actually transmitting a virus to humans is low.

Still, Corrigan said rats can cause emotional distress.

“If you go home tonight and

there’s a rat and you can hear it scurrying about in your ceiling, psychologically that’s going to re ally get to you,” Corrigan said.

Zayan Baig (NHS ’25), a resident assistant in Darnall Hall, said he’s seen multiple rats on the north east side of campus.

“I find that no matter when I’m walking in that area, espe cially at night, I find at least one if not multiple rats scurry ing around campus, so it’s just something that you see every where,” Baig said.

Baig said he worries the in crease in rats will have implica tions students don’t fully consid er, one of which is that rats will enter Epicurean and contami

Students Protest for Affirmative Action Policies

Clayton Kincade Senior Guide Editor

Students protested outside the U.S. Supreme Court to protect af firmative action, as attorneys in side the court held oral arguments regarding race-conscious admis sions programs.

College students from around the country organized demon strations Oct. 31 at the Supreme Court to show support for af firmative action. The protests came on the same day the Court heard two lawsuits regarding af firmative action, both of which have caused intense division over whether or not racial factors should be considered during ad missions decisions.

The two cases — Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard University and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina — have challengers calling on the Supreme Court to overrule Grut ter v. Bollinger (2003), in which the Court upheld University of Michi gan’s race-conscious admissions process for its law school.

Muskaan Arshad, Student Lead of the Harvard Affirmative Action Coalition and protest or ganizer, said the Harvard experi ence is rooted in diversity — and taking away affirmative action would destroy this valuable learning environment.

“If we cannot take race into ac count and pretend like we are in this race-blind society, it is going to systemically take us back so many years,” Arshad said in an interview with The Hoya. “The college experi ence is not what it is without di versity, without inclusion.”

Given the Court’s 6-3 conser

vative majority, the possibility of overruling long-upheld affir mative action policies seems in creasingly tangible. At the Oct. 31 hearings, each of the Court’s six conservative justices indicated skepticism about the program and whether race should be a factor in college admissions moving forward.

David Lewis, a member of Har vard Black Students’ Association and Harvard Affirmative Action Coalition, said students mobilized to action when the Court selected the case for review.

“A lot of people immediately felt the need to do something,” Lewis told The Hoya. “There has already been a lot of struggle at Harvard to promote diversity and to fight for students of color.”

According to Lewis, over 100 students came to the protest, in cluding students from Yale and Howard University.

Student leaders from the Uni versity of North Carolina (UNC) showed up to the Supreme Court protest as well. Christina Huang, Joy Jiang and Sarah Zhang, who serve as the student co-leaders of the UNC for Affirmative Action Coalition, started organizing UNC students’ trip to Washington, D.C., only three weeks prior, when the trio first heard about the affirma tive action lawsuits.

The Leadership Conference Education Fund, the nation’s oldest and largest civil and hu man rights coalition, also made an appearance at Monday’s rally to amplify student voices. Liz King, Senior Program Director for Educational Equity at The Leadership Conference Educa tion Fund, said working with student leaders is increasingly

important for their activism.

“Almost nobody has more at stake here than the students themselves,” King told The Hoya “Every student on every cam pus has something at stake here about what this is going to mean for our future and the future of our country.”

Studies from the Education Fund indicate that a majority of Americans believe affirmative action benefits all students and want the Supreme Court to pro tect these programs. Studies on Proposition 209 in California also found that after California stopped the California State Uni versity system from recruiting based on race in 1996, Black, Na tive American and Latinx student enrollment fell.

Huang’s roommates, Lyssa Menendez and Kalila Arreola, traveled to the Supreme Court to support the UNC Affirmative Ac tion Coalition. Arreola said that the experience was a learning opportunity for her to learn more about the issue.

“Without affirmative action, I really do not think I could be at the school that I am at right now,” Arreola said. “At first I kind of did not realize how per sonal it was to me as well. Being around all these people who have had similar experiences has been really important.”

Menendez said that Huang helped her realize her own stance on the issue.

“As a white student, I still rec ognize how diversity in the school is so beneficial for everybody,” Menendez told The Hoya. “No mat ter the ruling, we are going to keep fighting for what we need, which is affirmative action and race con scious admissions.”

To Lewis, repealing affirmative action would diminish the overall welfare of all students, particularly students of color.

“Everyone stands to lose from affirmative action being repealed or even diminished in any way,” Lewis said. “The whole communi ty of people of color in this country would be impacted.”

History Professor to Receive AHA Lifetime Award

Georgia Russello Special to The Hoya

Longtime Georgetown Uni versity history professor Ju dith Tucker will be awarded for her contributions to histo ry scholarship following four decades of work.

Tucker will be awarded the American History Associa tion (AHA) Award for Scholarly Distinction, which is given to senior historians for lifetime achievement in the field, for her work studying Middle Eastern history. Following the Oct. 24 announcement, winners will receive their awards at the an nual AHA meeting, which will take place in January.

Tucker joined Georgetown’s history department in 1993 and spent four decades teach ing at Georgetown prior to her retirement in May 2022. Tuck er was a professor of history and also served as the former director of the Master of Arts in Arab Studies program. Tucker said throughout her career, she focused on the intersection of gender and Middle Eastern history, publishing numerous books on the topic.

Tucker said she became in terested in women’s history and published her first book covering women in 19th cen tury Egypt in the 1980s, at a time when women’s history

was still an under-researched topic in academia.

“Women’s history was just finding its feet, I think,” Tucker said. “ There was not a single monograph about women’s history in the Middle East.”

According to Tucker, as her career progressed, she explored gender patterns and how social change impacts the develop ment of law, particularly Islamic law, and aimed to broaden women’s history beyond a solely western focus.

“My initial interest was just trying to adjust western women's history, which didn’t necessarily ask the right ques tions when it came to the Middle East, but at least it was a point of departure, a spring board of sorts to get into Mid dle East women's history,” Tucker said.

Thomas Lohman (SFS ’24), who took Tucker’s “Traveling: Europe/Middle East Encoun ters” course in Spring 2022, said Tucker’s character and expertise came through in her teaching style.

“She created a great at mosphere, bringing together different perspectives while guiding discussions with thoughtful questions ground ed in the readings,” Lohman wrote to The Hoya. “I always felt like Tucker’s main goal was helping our learning instead

of stressing us out with strict requirements or bureaucracy.”

Tucker said that while she was initially surprised to re ceive the award due to the AHA’s previous focus on histo rians who research U.S.-based issues, she is honored to be rec ognized by fellow historians.

“To be recognized for contri butions you’ve made over the course of your career, which is what this award is about, was needless to say, I felt very, very grateful,” Tucker said. “I felt seen, perhaps, in a way that I had not felt before. That’s kind of huge to be seen by my his tory colleagues.”

In Spring 2021, Tucker re ceived the Georgetown Career Research Achievement Award and Distinguished Achieve ment in Research Award, which similarly honored the work Tucker had done in his torical scholarship through out her time at Georgetown Georgetown history profes sor Osama Abi-Mershed, who worked with Tucker at George town, said Tucker’s work has played an important role in the promotion of women’s and human rights across the globe.

“While the AHA award ac claims historians ‘who have spent the bulk of their profes sional careers in the US’, it is equally important to high light Professor Tucker’s global

stature and outreach through her widely acclaimed publica tions, her public conferences, and her activist involvement in promoting women’s and human rights,” Abi-Mershed wrote to The Hoya Tucker retired from teach ing in May. Tucker is cur rently working with two col leagues from Georgetown on a textbook for women’s and gender history, aiming to cre ate a guide Tucker wishes she had when she taught courses at Georgetown.

“I'm currently working on a textbook on women's and gender history,” Tucker said. “When I taught the 099 for those years, there really wasn't any textbook for this subject, that actually really lends itself to teaching a sur vey like this.”

Abi-Mershed said the Georgetown history depart ment honors Tucker’s work studying the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and is proud of her achievement in receiving the AHA Award for Scholarly Distinction.

“Her impact on historical studies of the MENA is rigor ous, profound, and unmistak able, and we are honored to join the AHA in recognizing and celebrating her professional ex cellence and academic stature,” Abi-Mershed wrote.

nate the food offered to students.

“Based on how frequently those rats are moving around in the area, I would not be sur prised if one just got in there,” Baig said. “It’s not very well guarded. You only have the two double-doors to get in.”

A university spokesperson said officials monitor and re spond to reports of rats and other rodents on campus, but they have not seen any increase in rat reports this year.

The spokesperson said stu dents, faculty and staff can re port rodents by submitting a service request.

“While we have not observed an increase in rats on campus

this year, rodents and other pests are not uncommon in an urban environment, especially when the weather outside becomes extremely cold or hot,” the uni versity spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “The Department of Plan ning and Facilities Management coordinates pest control inspec tions on campus.”

Baig said running into rats frequently has recently be come a normal part of his ex perience at Georgetown.

“This is a reality I have to ad just to unfortunately,” Baig said.

“I think I’ve kind of become, and I hate how I say this, I feel like I’m desensitized to it now. I see rats and I’m just like ‘oh cool.’”

Policy Experts Discuss Humanitarian Visa Program in Argentina

Panelists spoke to Georgetown University community members about Argentina’s humanitarian visa for people displaced by disas ters and the example the program sets on the global stage.

The Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) — a multidisciplinary center inside Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service — hosted the vir tual event, entitled “Argentina’s Innovative Humanitarian Visa: Responding to Disaster Displace ment.” Andrés Pérez Esquivel (GRD ’19) — director of inter national affairs at the National Directorate of Migration, a gov ernment agency responsible for managing Argentina’s migration policy — spoke at the event and shared his insider perspective on the program’s development and implementation.

Other speakers at the Nov. 7 event included Susan Fratzke (GRD ’12) — senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a non-profit immigration think tank — and Atle Solberg, head of the secretariat at the Platform on Disaster Displacement, an in ternational, state-led initiative to protect displaced peoples.

In May 2022, the Argentinian government created a new hu manitarian visa that enabled people displaced by climate disasters from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean to reside in the country for three years without migratory fees. Under the program, refugees are guaranteed access to hous ing, food and other essential support for integration such as health care services through out this period by a civil society sponsoring organization.

The humanitarian visa pro gram represents the latest step in Argentina’s extensive history of welcoming immigrants, accord ing to Esquivel.

“We have a long tradition of receiving migrants as a country. Even our national constitution promotes im migration,” Esquivel said at the event. “According to our migration law, migrating is an essential, inalienable right of persons. We have equal treat ment in both duties and obli gations for nationals, as well as for foreigners.”

Esquivel said responding to the crisis of climate-driven dis placement is a global issue that must be addressed by nations across the globe.

“Human mobility in the con text of natural disasters and the adverse effects of climate change represents one of the greatest hu manitarian challenges of the 21st century,” Esquivel said.

Since 2010, weather emergen cies have displaced around 21.5 million people a year across the globe. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 90% of refugees come from countries deemed the most vulnerable and least ready to adapt to the effects of climate change, and the same

countries host about 70% of dis placed persons.

The existing international protocol of asylum systems is unprepared to efficiently handle the large-scale move ment of populations dis placed by climate disasters, according to Fratzke.

“Within asylum systems, in the frameworks that we’ve built to deal with the asylum appli cation, you typically see people making individual claims, going through an individual adjudica tion process,” Fratzke said at the event. “This is intensive, time consuming and leads to mount ing backlogs and delays.”

Fratzke said that, without spe cific programs developed for in dividuals displaced by natural di sasters, these migrants often face denied entry into other countries when seeking safety.

“We know that individuals with complex needs can find it difficult to qualify for asylum,” Fratzke said. “Within the U.S. asylum system, we know that often they have complex cases that don’t clearly meet the cri teria for refugee protection and that can leave them in a vul nerable position.”

The United States does not cur rently offer asylum to people im pacted by climate disasters, and can only apply for asylum if they can show their reason for emigra tion is that they have faced or have reason to fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a par ticular social group.

Current asylum systems re quire migrants to face many risks prior to beginning the for mal immigration process, ac cording to Fratzke.

“Asylum only kicks in once you reach a state’s territory, and it can thus require people to engage in difficult and dangerous journeys to even access the opportunity to apply for asylum,” Fratzke said.

“You end up layering additional vulnerabilities on top of the things that actually drove some one to seek protection and move in the first place.”

Solberg said he expects oth er countries to follow in Argen tina’s lead, given the increas ing importance of climate emergency response.

“I’m more and more con vinced that with global warming and with further environmental degradation, there is a need to prepare more for these types of movement,” Solberg said at the event. “I think we should recog nize that this is an important ini tiative in South America that will most likely benefit an important number of people.”

Fratzke said Argentina’s hu manitarian visa is an inspiring and needed step forward that will help to address global flaws in the immigration process.

“If we continue to try to solve everything through our asylum systems, we will fail, and we will lose our asylum systems,” Fratzke said. “Argentina’s approach is a fascinating first step and will be a fantastic test case.”

Nina Raj Graduate News Desk

JOHN MATUSZEWSKI/THE HOYA

Rat numbers in D.C. have increased following the COVID-19 pandemic. The surge comes as restaurants reopen and trash increases across the city.

JOHN MATUSZEWSKI/THE HOYA

Students protested as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about race-conscious admissions programs.

Most Nutritious Lunch, Dinner Spots in Washington, DC

Sophia Williams Columnist

Today, I’m putting George town’s plant-based lunch and din ner options up to the test: I’ll cover the university and the neighbor hood, both of which offer options to grab your weekday meals.

I’m here to promote wellness in the form of moderation! I’ve found that leading a healthy life includes eating all my fa vorite foods, from spaghetti to sweets.

As I mentioned when re viewing breakfast options, the Plant Power station from The Table at Leo O’Donovan Din ing Hall (Leo’s) offers a plethora of options for lunch and din ner. Pasta is a rarity, but when The Table has pasta, the whole school stands in line for it. Since the delight is so rare, I like using my Leo’s takeaway container to grab extra pasta when available for my lunch the next day.

Another Leo’s life hack is to take flavor into your own hands. Specifically, I mean investing in some Sriracha, vegan dressing and other spices that you can use to customize your Leo’s din ing experience. Whether you’re a spicy food lover or a barbeque sauce enthusiast, buying your own favorite spices, sauces and dressings can transform your dishes. You can also collect a cornucopia of various sauce packets from Epicurean and Company for free.

Besides Plant Power, Leo’s has a salad bar — but they don’t

carry vegan dressing, besides ol ive oil and balsamic. Thus, for salad devotees, I would recom mend Crop Chop as an alterna tive. Crop Chop’s vegan “Green Goddess” dressing drizzled over my personal protein picks of falafel and chickpeas makes for a delicious and colorful addi tion to my meals.

At upstairs Leo’s, my favorite place is 5Spice — not an un popular opinion, and for a rea son! I like to go during quieter hours to beat the rush. I also like to journey over to Sazon to try their tofu and construct my own tacos or bowl. Olive Branch almost always has a vegan protein option available over some form of grains if you crave Mediterranean cuisine.

Another personal lunchtime favorite is the Noodle Bar at Epicurean and Company: you can build your own rice bowl, ramen bowl or cold noodle salad for a meal exchange! The trick is to go when the Noodle Bar is actually open, unlike me, who has managed to discern their hours through heart breaking trial and error.

Lastly, for on-campus op tions, I have to include The Corp. With Flex dollars, avo cado toast with any toppings is easily within reach at Hilltoss. If you want to DIY your avo cado toast, Georgetown’s “Gro ceries To Go” will deliver fresh avocados to you for $1.29 each, with a $10 delivery minimum.

Now, for off-campus op tions…as a disclaimer, I have much more exploring to do, and I haven’t yet discovered where to find the vegan ver sions of some of my favorite cuisines, but I’m going to share a selection of my finds as of my first semester at Georgetown!

To start this working list, my first favorite is Pressed. You can sign up for their rewards and get freebies and discounts on açai bowls and smoothies. I’m convinced their cayenne, lemon and turmeric wellness shot protected me from cough season!

South Block is another excel lent option: they have countless bowls, smoothies and even avo cado toast if you’re looking to treat yourself. Across the street from South Block, you can find Chaia, a completely vegetarian taco place where every option can be made vegan.

On your way back to campus, Foxtrot is a great stop for study ing. They have plenty of vegan sweets, smoothies, toasts and even grab-and-go pasta (my pasta-minded brain lit up when I discovered this). For vegan piz za aficionados, I would strongly recommend &pizza. With veg an cheese, vegan sausage and a much-appreciated rewards sys tem, &pizza will surely enhance your Friday nights.

Finally, as you traverse the broken bricks of O Street, take the chance to admire Saxby’s vegan breakfast options. Just ensure that you have the time on your Sunday morn ing to wait for your order, as the wait can be quite long.

These options form the foun dation of my food finds, so feel free to pick and choose to add to your own foundation. I can’t wait to explore more options, and I know that another future favorite restaurant waits for me. For now, happy eating!

Sophia Williams is a firstyear in the College. Well ness Personalis will ap pear online and in print

NEW RELEASES

By Nihkil Nelson

FILM RYAN COOGLER ‘BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER’

The long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreak ing 2018 Marvel film is here. Headlined by a starstudded cast of Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda For ever” follows Wakanda as the nation copes with the death of its king T’challa — played by the late Chadwick Boseman — just as new underwater threat arises to challenge the country. You can see the movie in theaters starting Nov. 11.

ALBUM

Smino Lavishes Listeners With Pure Affection on ‘Luv 4 Rent’

Oliver Ni Hoya Staff Writer

Smino’s signature smoothness returns with much love.

Four years after releasing “NOIR,” Smino has dropped his third studio album “Luv 4 Rent,” treating fans to 51 minutes of soulful singing intertwined with playful bars. The album expertly builds upon Smino’s past motifs by focusing much attention on its titular subject: love.

The St. Louis-to-Chicago hiphop artist first broke onto the scene after collaborating with fel low rappers Noname, Saba and Mick Jenkins. Since releasing his first album “blkswn” in 2017, Smino has explored themes of he donism and identity through the lens of personal experiences.

The first portion of “Luv 4 Rent” is characterized by pure fun. Driven by producer Monte Booker’s laid-back beats, Smino experiments with creative vo cals while bragging about his carefree lifestyle — most nota bly, with his crooning delivery on “No L’s” and chorus-like, lay ered singing in “90 Proof.”

Never hesitating to crack a playful joke such as “I romanced her, I enhanced her / Diamonds dance in a Tesla, ‘Electric Slide,’ get it?” in the song “Matinee,” Smino’s eccentric personality envelops the album and makes for an immer sive listening experience.

On top of his trademark woozy sound, Smino’s musical matura tion is on full display from both

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the album’s production and cre ativity. Unlike his previous work, which occasionally sounded raw and incohesive, “Luv 4 Rent” man ages a cohesive ambiance thanks to collaborations with producers like Booker, Childish Major, Cory Henry and DJ Dahi. Furthermore, the contrast in styles between songs such as the energetic, partyesque “Pro Freak” and the disori enting “Ole Ass Kendrick” keeps the album sonically interesting.

Smino’s artistic vision is further bolstered by strong performances from featured artists. A-list rap pers such as J. Cole and Lil Uzi Vert meld well with Smino without losing their personal styles, while artists such as Doechii and Ravyn Lenae added distinctive perfor mance dimensions that elevated their respective songs.

While “Luv 4 Rent,” wastes no time having fun, Smino also takes time to reflect on his abil ity to care for himself and his loved ones. For example, on “Louphoria” he reflects on the negative effects of fame: “I ain’t been / Gettin’ no –– Gettin’ no ––Gettin’ no sleep / I changed my number and area code.”

Then on “Blu Billy,” he raps about the drive fueling his pursuit of fame and fortune: “we conditioned by condition / Capitalistic, read through the lipstick / Shit that they make up make us forget shit.”

Smino’s vulnerabilities emerge as he continues contemplating his view on love. Over hushed yet expressive beats, Smino wonders

if he needs more genuine, loving relationships in his life. On “Defi brillator,” he recognizes that he is “real familiar with love / But I’m not immune to hate,” but further realizes how he’ll only “be loved when no one’s around.”

On “Garden Lady,” he confronts lost relationships after compre hending how “You lost me and you / ‘Cause I lost me in you, I’m exhausted / Really the truth is of fered too much, I done turned to a voucher.” Despite sounding un willing to let his emotions free at times, listeners get progressively closer to his authentic self as the album continues.

After his melancholic medi tations, Smino does not lose sight of positivity. Songs such as “Matinee” and “Pudgy” return to the groovy, R&B-inspired high of the album’s beginning. Outros to “Defibrillator” and “Curtains” feature voice messages from family members expressing their admiration and care.

Finally, Smino ends on a note of self-acceptance and re alization in “Lee & Lovie” as he confides in his partner: “Give so much of myself to others / I’m runnin’ out of self of my own shit / But as long as you put you first, we don’t got to rehearse.”

“Luv 4 Rent” is a triumphant album. Smino’s irresistible cha risma is at center stage. His strong technical execution, meshed with undeniable creativity, helps trans form the album from a collection of songs into a celebration of love, for yourself and for others.

‘Poster Girl’ Showcases Mature, Complex Quality of Dystopian Lit

Elyza Bruce Guide Staff Writer

GORO TANIGUCHI

‘ONE PIECE FILM: RED’

The latest film from the long-running Japanese animated franchise has finally released in the United States after months of dominating Japan’s box office. The film commemorates the 25th an niversary of the manga, and continues the story of Monkey D. Luffy and his band of pirates as they adventure across the seven seas.

ALBUM KELLY PARK ‘LOPEZ VS. LOPEZ’

relationship.

The show is loosely based on George and Ma yan’s real lives and is available Fridays on NBC and the Peacock streaming app.

ALBUM DRAKE & 21 SAVAGE ‘HER LOSS’

A collaborative album between two of hip-hop’s biggest stars — Canada’s Drake and Atlanta’s 21 Savage — has finally dropped. Co-produced by one of the founders of record label OVO Sound, 40, the album includes Drake and 21 Savage on almost every song and has already dominated the U.S. Top 50 charts. The duo promoted the al bum with a parody release of Vogue featuring the two artists on the cover and information about the album, making the promotional magazine highly coveted.

Veronica Roth achieved star dom with her bestselling debut novel “Divergent,” which took the world by storm amid the teenage dystopian craze of the early 2010s alongside titles such as “The Hunger Games” and “The Maze Runner.” While “Divergent” was defined by fast-paced action and dynamic romance, Roth’s new dystopian thriller “Poster Girl” is more reserved and mature, focus ing on complex emotional and moral dilemmas.

The story centers on Sonya Kantor, a resident of a prison complex called the Aperture. During the Delegation’s reign before it was overthrown by the Triumvirate, Sonya was the face of the tyrannical regime’s propa ganda posters. Sonya’s previous status as the “Poster Girl” and her family’s close ties with the Delegation resulted in her arrest and imprisonment.

The Triumvirate offers Sonya the chance to earn her freedom from the Aperture if she agrees to investigate the disappear ance of Grace Ward, a girl who was stolen from her parents by Delegation authorities. The plot follows Sonya’s investigation as she uncovers the Delegation’s dark secrets and the true nature of Grace’s disappearance.

Many dystopian novels de pict life under a repressive re gime, and the story typically culminates with a dramatic revolution to overthrow said regime. In contrast, “Poster Girl” distinguishes itself from other dystopian novels by framing the story in the aftermath of a revo lution, as society struggles to re build itself under an improved, albeit imperfect, government.

At first, Sonya appears to be a reserved and unmotivated pro tagonist, but over the course of the novel, Roth builds a complex and compelling portrait of her psyche through gradually introduced de tails about her past. Throughout the novel, Sonya is haunted by the death of her loved ones, the Del egation and her previous self as the “Poster Girl.” Sonya attempts to rectify her family’s past wrongs and her role in the Delegation’s oppressive regime, all while trying to navigate a world that is no lon ger familiar to her.

The story follows a fairly runof-the-mill thriller plot with pre dictable twists and turns, but the novel’s strength is its skillful world building and thought-provoking commentary on technology and surveillance. Roth deftly weaves in world-building details through out the story, introducing readers to concepts such as Insights and DesCoins without ever resorting to boring exposition.

Insights are ocular implants produced during the reign of the Delegation that serve as mentally controlled smartphones appear ing in the user’s vision. At first glance, Insights seem like an in credible innovation that provide all the benefits of a smartphone activated with the convenience of a mere thought. In fact, Sonya thinks of her Insight as an old friend that she has missed ever since it was deactivated following the fall of the Delegation.

However, Insights were also a tool weaponized by the Del egation to monitor its citizens. At any time, the Delegation could view a person’s Insight camera feed, track their location and har vest all stored data.

Although comparable tech nology does not yet exist, the issues surrounding Insights

reflect not only contemporary society’s reliance and addiction to smartphones but also the chilling potential for data har vesting and surveillance.

Roth also introduces the in triguing concept of DesCoin, a monetary and social currency established by the Delegation to reward good behavior and pun ish subversion. As a person goes about their day, they can men tally see DesCoin being added or deducted via their Insights. For example, DesCoin could be re warded for desirable behaviors such as eating a healthy break fast or alerting the authorities to political enemies. Likewise, Des Coin could be deducted for vio lations such as cursing, getting tattoos or simply not expressing enough patriotism.

Throughout the story, Sonya mentally counts the amount of DesCoin she would earn or lose as a result of her actions, even though DesCoin have long since become obsolete. The concept of the DesCoin is not only a clever way of showing how the Delega tion still maintains its hegemonic grip on Sonya but also a deeper glimpse into what Sonya herself views as morally right and wrong.

The most compelling element of “Poster Girl” is Sonya’s fight to distance herself from these technologies and the oppressive regime they upheld. As a result, “Poster Girl” shines brightest when it focuses on Sonya’s trans formation into a more authentic version of herself, free from the claws of the Delegation.

With skillful worldbuilding, emotional complexity and sting ing social commentary, “Poster Girl” makes for a quick and com pelling read — especially for those seeking a dose of early 2010’s dys topian nostalgia.

Hi, Hoyas! Welcome back to Wellness Personalis — well ness for the whole Hoya!

TWITTER/@SMINO

Hip-hop artist Smino released his third studio album, a strong and eclectic mix of songs discussing everything from his love life to the trials of fame.

FILM

Comedian George Lopez and his daughter Ma yan Lopez co-star in a recently released TV sitcom about a long-estranged working-class father and daughter renewing their

IMDB

IMDB

PEACOCKTV/LOPEZVSLOPEZ

‘House of the Dragon’ Debuts With a Fiery First Season

DRAGON, from A12

scheming, political drama in “House of the Dragon” revolves around intra-family conflict, as opposed to the inter-family conflict in the original.

Greater emphasis is put upon a slow revelation and unfolding of conflict and intrigue, where as “Game of Thrones” opened with instant conflict. The result is a show that, while slower than its predecessor, rewards its viewers with a far more inti mate and complex understand ing of its characters.

The relationship between Ali cent Hightower (Emily Carey/ Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra is the fuel for the fire, and both dictate many of the show’s struggles with the patriarchy. Both initially begin as naive yet loving and close friends — and end political enemies. Both are political playthings to the patri archy, to be married off to solve the problems of those in power or their family’s ambitions.

Alicent is married off to a man perhaps three times her age, forced to churn out children for the royal lineage. Rhaenyra, though granted a greater degree of freedom, finds herself conflicted between her duties as a princess and her desire to explore her sexual freedom. This freedom ul timately drives a wedge between Alicent and Rhaenyra, and the two become bitter rivals.

These emotions are not to say that “House of the Dragon” lacks in the visceral, bloody action the original was known for — rather,

far from it. For instance, in the third episode, a chaotic and fiery sequence sees Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and the knights of House Velaryon engage in a grimy beach battle against the guerrilla forces of the Crabfeeder (Daniel Scott-Smith), complete with copious gore and disembowelments. In the final episode, an epic chase in a rag ing storm above the aptly-named Storm’s End sees Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) face off Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys Ve laryon (Elliot Grihault), and is perhaps the single best dragon action ever witnessed on TV.

The show’s biggest strength un doubtedly lies in the complexity of its characters and the supreme talent of its cast. Each character is stunningly human, an amal gamation of desires, motivations and insecurities. Smith encapsu lates Daemon Targaryen, bring ing to life a brutal, cunning yet conflicted warrior whose prime redeeming quality is his love for his family, and dominates every scene he appears in. His relation ship with his niece Rhaenyra is as much off-putting as it is amorous and interesting.

Milly Alcock’s performance as a young Princess Rhaenyra em bodies the rebellious and adven turous flair of a teenage princess, while Emma D’Arcy — after a time-jump before the sixth epi sode — shows a more mature, compassionate, and refined wom an in their portrayal of Rhaenyra as she fights for what she consid ers her birthright.

Considine’s performance as

King Viserys is without a doubt the highlight of the cast, however, expertly portraying a fundamen tally good man whose love for his daughter Rhaenyra and fam ily compromises his ability to rule. Considine’s performance makes the season’s eighth episode, “The Lord of the Tides,” a standout, as he makes a last-ditch effort to keep his family together while suf fering from the literal rotting away of his own body due to leprosy. This is not to mention the whole host of other supporting characters that breathe life into the show. Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) shows us the cost of insatiable ambition, while his wife Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best) bears the brunt of patriarchy, while demonstrating immense wisdom and restraint.

Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) struggles with his honor as a knight of the Kingsguard and ulti mately gives in to his resentment.

Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) is a manipulative yet seemingly loyal politician who may genu inely care for the realm, and Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) em bodies a creepier, more sadistic and perhaps magical version of Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) from “Game of Thrones.”

Most importantly, however, “House of the Dragon” also pos sesses a familial intimacy not of ten shown in the original, along with a more focused narrative. Ul timately, the show’s greatest dis appointment will be the over oneyear wait until the next season. The Dance has begun: may fire reign.

MUSIC

‘Midnights’ Weaves New Sounds With Poetic Lyrics

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MIDNIGHTS, from A12 simply for who she is, beyond the fame and money.

On the flip side, Swift delves into the experience of falling out of love in the track “Midnight Rain,” in which she tells listeners how she “broke his heart ’cause he was nice.” The song begins with her distorted voice echoing the chorus — a controversial choice. Fans seemed to find it annoying at first, but with each listen it becomes more appealing, adding to the ambience of the song and accentuating the chorus.

“Bejeweled” also spotlights a crumbling relationship, with Swift reclaiming her value from her underappreciating lover and reminding them that she “can still make the whole place shimmer.” It’s upbeat and shimmery in sound, if that can be used to describe music.

Arguably, the most memorable track on “Midnights,” however, is “Vigilante Shit.” The song is the only song on the album to have an explicit word in its title and begins with a resounding bass and the line “Draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man.”

The song lyrics are rather simple, but they transition into the exact mood she wants for the song: Everything about it screams power and vengeance. Fans noted the connections between the song and her sixth studio album “Reputation,” as the song alludes to drama surrounding the former holder of her masters, Scooter Braun.

The highly anticipated “Karma” draws on the theme

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of revenge as well, but with a lighter beat. It’s less intense, but just as in-your-face about how her enemies will get what they deserve: “Karma’s a relaxing thought / Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?” The song seems to poke fun at Braun, who is currently facing legal troubles and family conflict.

Swift also adds some debatably less sophisticated lyrics in the song, including “Karma is a cat / Purring in my lap ’cause it loves me.” Yet it still remains entirely Swift, who is well-known for her love of cats.

In many ways, “Midnights” has exceeded expectations. The album is critically acclaimed, made history with

a Top 10 sweep of the Billboard Hot 100, and became the most-streamed album on Spotify in a single day.

Swift puts to words some of her greatest insecurities on “Midnights” while still maintaining an overall upbeat mood. She explores a new sound and combines several themes into one sonically cohesive album, tying it together with an undistilled surety in her emotions.

Though Swift arguably leans into production flourishes rather than her strength of songwriting in this album, the lyrics are still mind-twistingly gut-wrenching, even if they are not quite as poetic as those from her previous albums.

Mi Vida Serves Tasty Mexican Food With Fresh Twists

HUNGRY HOYA, from A12 consists of the restaurant’s most popular snacks, like chicharrones and empa nadas, and is a great way to maximize your Mi Vida experience. Parties of two or more can partake in Sab ores de Mexico, which offers shareable portions of the restaurant’s greatest hits, including carne asada and enchiladas suizas.

If you are in the mood for a yummy cocktail — or mock tail! — the Vuelo a Mexico includes four drinks and guarantees a good time.

Upon encountering the res taurant by chance, my friend and I ordered the works: house guacamole with home made chips, chile-rubbed oranges, broiled chihuahua cheese with jalapeños, ahi tuna taquitos, brick-roasted vegetables and sweet fried plantains. While we didn’t opt for one of the menu’s various tasting options, I will definite ly do so in the future. The of ferings are extensive, the food is delicious and there simply isn’t enough room in my mini fridge to house the leftovers I tried to take home with me.

Both Mi Vida locations are open every day for din ner, weekdays for lunch and weekends for brunch. Sync your Taco Tuesday with Hap py Hour, which takes place

Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. and features dis counted drinks, small bites and tacos.

Overall, if you’re willing to go the distance, Mi Vida is more than worth it to satisfy

your Mexican cravings.

Audrey Biles is a first-year in the College. The Hungry Hoya appears online and in print every other week dur ing the fall semester.

‘Greywaren’ Expertly Balances Fantastical Plot, Realistic Characters

In “Greywaren,” Maggie Stiefvater proves to be a master at

complex plot with genuine, relatable and emotionally

GREYWAREN from A12

“Greywaren” and the previ ous book, “Mister Impossible.” As Ronan’s friends and family dislike Bryde for his “negative” influence on Ronan’s reck less behavior, magical cir cumstances provide another view into the darkest parts of Ronan’s personality that still ring true and genuine. De spite initially viewing Bryde as an antagonist, by the end of “Greywaren,” I saw him as a sympathetic character for whom I even felt compassion.

Stiefvater’s expert use of magical realism to develop her characters throughout the trilogy does not stop with Ronan and Bryde. Take De clan Lynch — the eldest of the three main brothers — whom Stiefvater often defined by his hatred for their dead father. In “Greywaren,” Stiefvater takes Declan — and the reader —

on a journey that ends with an unexpected twist: Declan realizes he never hated his father Niall. Rather, he sim ply misses him so much that his grief and sorrow had dis guised themselves as an emo tion far easier to digest.

This emotional discovery is intertwined with the actionpacked magical elements of the plot. While a clone of his father holds him hostage, De clan views Niall’s memories using a magical device, which allows him to finally process Niall’s death. These moments are what makes Stiefvater’s work so poignant; the reader finds themselves invested in the magic of it all before be ing slapped in the face with an emotional truth that, for many of us, cuts quite deep.

Many young people con tend with the realization that their parents were only ever human, that their mistakes do

not define them, that they are just as flawed as we are and that’s okay. Stiefvater allows us to resonate with the char acters and process our own emotions while enjoying the magical, plot-driven elements that move the book along so smoothly.

For readers who have been with the series since the first installment in 2012, “Greywaren” is a series finale that met and exceed ed expectations.

“The world felt enormous, both past and future, with their slender present hover ing in the middle,” Stiefvater wrote on the final page of “Greywaren.” And for those of us, like me, who grew up with the series and now find our selves standing before that same enormous world, “Grey waren” felt like a precious slice of that slender present that I will never forget.

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Despite multiple time jumps and a slow pace, “House of the Dragon” keeps viewers’ attention with excellent acting and the occasional stunning dragon battle.

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On “Midnights,” a concept album about “13 sleepless nights,” Swift tackles a variety of experiences including the media, her love life and self-doubts.

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balancing a magical,

complex characters.

With locations on 14th Street and The Wharf, Mi Vida provides the city’s best Mexican cuisine with an excellent ambiance and unique dishes like tuna taquitos.

‘Greywaren’ Is A Masterpiece Of Young Adult Literature

Katie Hawkinson Editor in Chief

This review contains spoil ers for “Greywaren” by Maggie Stiefvater.

“Greywaren” — the final book in the Dreamer Tril ogy — is nothing short of a triumph, demonstrating author Maggie Stiefvater’s ability to strike the perfect balance between a magical plot and realistic, complex characterization.

“Greywaren” marks the fi nal installment of both the Dreamer Trilogy and the Ra ven Cycle universe, a young adult magic realism series that stretches across seven books and two series. The novel marks the best in the series for one key reason: It exemplifies the best of what the young adult genre can be.

A common criticism of the genre is that the characters are often presented as onedimensional, or without a critical eye from the author or narrator. Yet, Stiefvater expertly avoids this trap.

Throughout “Greywaren,” Stiefvater guides the main characters — all between 16 and 22 years old, a clas sic range for a young adult series — through deep, com plex and even shocking mo ments of emotional growth while still balancing the plot-focused story-telling required of a fantasy author.

The book centers around the premise that Ronan Lynch — also known as the Greywaren — can pull ob jects, and even people, from his dreams. Stiefvater uses this magical world to craft innovative circumstances under which the readers can watch characters undergo emotional growth.

For example, the charac ter Bryde is a human created from Ronan’s dream, a mani festation of Ronan’s deepest angers and fears. Bryde acts as an antagonist throughout

See GREYWAREN, A11

Taylor Swift Shines Bright in ‘Midnights’

“3 a.m. and I’m still awake” — because Taylor Swift kept us up for yet another sleepless night with her 10th studio album, not including her re-releases, “Midnights.” Swift promised mayhem, and she definitely delivered. From the sneak peek of the album during Thursday Night Football, to the seven bonus tracks chaotically dropped at 3 a.m., Swift has kept her promise of “Midnights Mayhem.”

The concept album, which Swift calls a collection of “13 sleepless nights,” touches

upon themes of falling in and out of love, self-doubt and revenge. Swift is known for her ability to switch from genre to genre seamlessly, and “Midnights” is no exception.

The album opens with “Lavender Haze,” a song Swift said is about “the act of ignoring [weird rumors and tabloids] to protect the real stuff,” also known as her relationship with long-time partner Joe Alwyn. Within seconds, it sets the sonic tone of the album, letting fans know she’s moved past the melancholic indie-pop sound of her surprise eighth and ninth studio albums “folklore” and “evermore” into a more

upbeat, synthetic pop vibe. Swift highlights the media’s obsession with her relationships, stating: “All they keep asking me / Is if I’m gonna be your bride / The only kinda girl they see / Is a one night or a wife.” However, while these breaches of her privacy weigh heavily, she still holds on to the “Lavender Haze,” a phrase originating in the 1950s, which references an all-encompassing love.

“Anti-Hero,” which, while also upbeat sonically, is made up entirely of Swift’s selfdoubts. In the chorus, Swift laments “It’s me, hi / I’m the problem, it’s me.” Swift reflects on her insecurities

‘House of the Dragon’ Redeems ‘Game of Thrones’

Wai Hoya Staff Writer

It would be a safe bet to claim that, from the start, the cards were stacked against “House of the Dragon.”

The abject critical failure of the eighth season of “Game of Thrones” left its fanbase jaded and disillusioned with the se ries. When HBO announced plans to create a prequel show premised on George R.R. Mar tin’s spinoff book “Fire & Blood,” many were justifiably skeptical. Yet after its first season, “House of the Dragon” has seemingly done the impossible, both re deeming the franchise and rein vigorating a massive fanbase.

Set nearly 200 years prior, this Westeros is in a time of peace and prosperity, ruled by the dragonriding Targaryen dynasty. Span ning over 20 years, the season illustrates how the family slowly falls apart, split by rival claims over the succession of King Viserys Tar garyen (Paddy Considine). Viserys chooses his daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock/Emma D’Arcy), as his heir, sparking controversy and conflict over who could be the first female ruler of Westeros.

Although “House of the Dragon” bears great resemblance to “Game of Thrones,” it is still able to stand on its own as a piece of media. While both shows involve extensive politicking and

and tabloid drama with these lines, hoping to find strength in disarray.

The lyrics, though simple, seem to resonate with a lot of people, already becoming a trending TikTok audio. The song was also the album’s lead single, gaining a music video on release day.

Swift continues with this theme of falling in love throughout the album with tracks like “Snow on the Beach” and “Sweet Nothing.”

The former, which features Lana Del Rey, articulates the wonderful absurdity of someone you love reciprocating your feelings at the same time: “It’s like snow

on the beach / Weird, but fuckin’ beautiful.”

The song starts off sounding similar to a classic Christmas song, but, for many, it led to disappointment, given Del Rey is only included in background vocals, rather than a solo verse.

“Sweet Nothing,” on the other hand, is one of the most stripped down songs of the album, presenting Swift’s haunting vocals with a simple melody, emphasizing the simplicity of the “Sweet Nothing” she mentions. In her love, she can give nothing and still be loved and valued

Mi Vida: Your Taco Tuesday Destination

exist outside of the George town bubble.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mexican food is the superior cuisine. I’ve tried it all: crispy tacos from the gas station, Michelinstarred Oaxacan flavors and street food in Mexico City. It’s a social food — nothing solidifies a bond like a big bowl of salsa and a basket of salty tortilla chips.

When it comes to Taco Tuesday cravings, George town has ample locations to celebrate. El Centro and Los Cuates are classics, and nei ther requires an Uber. Some might argue Chipotle does not deserve a mention, but come talk to me after you’ve accrued enough points for free guacamole.

Chaia is great for all eaters, particularly our friends with dietary restrictions who are often left out of traditional taco fun. Guapo’s Restaurant offers a lively waterfront ex perience, and Amigo Mio is an acceptable spot to refuel after some M Street shop ping. These places are near and dear to every Hoya’s heart, but I would argue that the most delicious options

While it might seem like overkill to venture so far for a tortilla stuffed with filling, if you follow my recommenda tion, I guarantee you will re turn to the Hilltop satisfied with your decision.

Mi Vida is my destination of choice. With two loca tions, one on the Wharf and the other on 14th Street, a meal at Mi Vida brings great food and a great atmosphere. The latest venture of Washington, D.C.-based restaurant company Knead Hospitality, Mi Vida 14th St. opened this past August. As a two-story building with a bright pink mural for an ex terior, Mi Vida perfectly em bodies the neighborhood’s vibrant nightlife scene — and the excitement doesn’t stop when you step inside and take your seat.

Celebrity chef Roberto Santibañez focuses on share able bites that offer a fresh take on classic Mexican dishes, like guacamole with blue cheese and taquitos with miso-marinated tuna.

If you are looking to share several small bites rather than restrict yourself to an entree, I recommend the Fi esta de Botanas. The platter

On the highly-anticipated “Midnights,” Taylor Swift delivers a strong album for die-hard fans and casual listeners alike, featuring new synth-inspired sounds and masterful lyricism to give listeners a window into her most vulnerable moments.

A prequel to “Game of Thrones,” “House of the Dragon” delivers a compelling and dark political drama in its fiery first season, proving HBO still has what it takes to manage the franchise

Ariana Ng Hoya Staff Writer

Theodore

Audrey Biles Columnist