The Hoya: February 10, 2023

Timeline of Events

It has been 287 days since a student committed a hate crime against LaHannah Giles (CAS ’23) at Georgetown University. Below, see what has happened since the day of the hate crime.

April 29, 2022

Student Commits Hate

Crime Against Giles Between the hours of 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., a white male student yells racial slurs at Giles and calls for the death of all Black people from a window in New South Hall.

May 6, 2022

University Contacts Giles for the First Time

For the first time since Giles filed their reports, the university reaches out to them.

May-November 2022

University Takes No

Public Action

IDEAA representatives work with Giles over the next few weeks, revealing that all video footage has been lost.

November 30, 2022

Giles, @guprotectsracists

Posts Demands

Giles and GUPR post demands including public acknowledgement from the university about the hate crime.

December 5, 2022

Sit-In Protests Begin

December 7, 2022

Rally for Justice

Giles and over 200 students march from the front gates to the IDEAA office to protest the administration’s lack of response to the hate crime.

December 9, 2022

GUPR Announces End of Sit-Ins

After the university commits to sustained dialogue and action during the Spring semester, GUPR organizers post a statement telling the community the sit-ins are ending.

April 30, 2022

University Sends Message to New South Residents

May 2-6, 2022

GUPD Develops Potential Suspects Based on Video Footage

May 6, 2022

GUPD Provides Report to Other University Offices, Reveals It Has Lost Footage of the Incident

May 13, 2022

Giles Meets with Johnson Judy Johnson, the director of the Office of Student Conduct, meets with Giles . Giles says Johnson shames them for their reaction to the hate crime.

November 22, 2022

Giles Posts About Their Experience on Instagram Giles shares an Instagram post explaining what happened to them.

December 5, 2022

GUPD Reclassifies Incident as Hate Crime

December 6-7, 2022

Administration Meets with Giles, GUPR Organizers University officials review a document with GUPR organizers that includes the university’s planned responses to each of GUPR’s demands.

December 8, 2022

University Publicly Apologizes

December 9, 2022

University Meets with GUPR Organizers Again GUPR organizers meet with administration to review the suggested edits that the university failed to make in the final email sent to the community. Administration makes some updates to the online statement and promises to post it on the university’s Instagram page, according to GUPR organizers.

The university has not done so as of Feb. 10.

December 17, 2022

December 18, 2022

University Meets with Giles Giles and GUPR organizers speak with university officials about the new evidence that a suspect submitted and the delay in the report release date.

January 16, 2023

GUPR Community Meeting

February 1, 2023

GUPR Informs IDEAA of Sit-Ins

February 7, 2023

GUPR Announces that the Sit-Ins are Still On

NEWS

Original IDEAA Hate Crime Report Release Deadline

The IDEAA fails to release its investigation report of the hate crime by the deadline that it promised it would be sent to Giles.

January 13, 2023

Second IDEAA Hate Crime Report Release Date

January 31, 2023

Third IDEAA Hate Crime Report Release Date

February 7, 2023

University Releases IDEAA

Hate Crime Report

February 8, 2023 Sit-Ins Resume

Ceremony Hosts CIA Director

William J. Burns was honored with the “Jit” Trainor Award by the School of Foreign Service at a Feb. 2 event.

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InterHall Election Controversy

An InterHall Council candidate sparked student outrage for allegedly promising support to political clubs in exchange for votes.

A8

OPINION

LaHannah Giles (CAS 23) addresses a crowd of student supporters at

outside University President

Students Demand Justice

Adora Zheng

Executive Editor

CW: This article references/discusses racism and hate speech. Please refer to this article on thehoya.com for onand off-campus resources.

Editor’s Note: See a detailed timeline of events leading up to the Feb. 8 sitins on the left side of this page.

Students reignited sit-in protests this week, gathering in Healy Hall to demand justice for LaHannah Giles (CAS ’23) and for the university to expel the student who committed a hate crime against them nearly a year ago.

On April 29, Georgetown Day, a white male student called for the death of all Black people and shouted racial slurs at Giles, who is Black, from the window of New South Hall, a first-year dorm. Following the hate crime, Giles said they and five eyewitnesses identified the perpetrator from screenshots of security camera footage and

GOCard data during a university investigation, but the university failed to take disciplinary action against the student or inform the university community of the hate crime.

Sit-in protests first took place from Dec. 5 to 9, pushing the university to acknowledge the hate crime and expel the perpetrator. The protests resumed on Wednesday following the conclusion of the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action’s (IDEAA) two-month investigation of the hate crime, which yielded inconclusive results Feb. 7.

In their report, which Giles said the university prohibited them from sharing publicly, IDEAA claims there was insufficient evidence to determine the perpetrator, even though Giles said they identified the student.

“I don’t think any words can ever describe how I felt after receiving the investigation results yesterday,” Giles said at the Feb. 8 sit-in. “Just like I was denied justice 10 months ago, I am now

being denied justice once again today, this time with a stinging sense of finality.”

A university spokesperson said IDEAA applied its “preponderance of the evidence” standard and was unable to identify the perpetrator — meaning IDEAA could not say if any suspects were more likely than not responsible for the hate crime.

“Investigators carefully reviewed all submitted evidence and interviewed witnesses and potential suspects, including new evidence that was submitted and new witnesses who were identified in December, late January and early February,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya

Evidence included security footage, photographs, GOCard swipes, testimonial evidence and documents provided by suspects and witnesses, according to the spokesperson.

Hundreds of students filtered through the sit-in organized by Georgetown University Protects Racists (GUPR), a group of stu-

dent activists demanding justice for Giles, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and participated in chants every hour, including “Justice for LaHannah,” “Expel the Racist Student” and “No Justice, No Peace.”

The original sit-ins were organized by Giles and other GUPR leaders to demand accountability and acknowledgement from the university about the hate crime.

“Shame on the entire institution of Georgetown, for constantly failing its marginalized communities, but especially its Black students — Black women in particular,” Giles said. “It is not on Black students to dismantle this university’s legacy of white supremacy; it is this institution’s job.”

The Second Round of Sit-Ins

In their 1 p.m. address at the Feb. 8 sit-in, Giles shared updates while surrounded by a crowd of supporters from the campus community.

See GUPR, A4

GU272+ Descendants Discuss History, Future

Julia Butler

City Desk Editor

Descendants of the GU272+ joined Georgetown University’s Department of African American studies Feb. 2 for a conversation on the legacy of the GU272+: the 314 enslaved people the Maryland Jesuits, who operated Georgetown in 1838, sold to financially sustain the university.

Adam Rothman, history professor and principal curator of the Georgetown Slavery Archive, a repository of materials relating to GU272+. Rothman moderated the event, which focused on the development of the GU272 Memory Project, an organization dedicated to tracking the ancestry of the enslaved people affiliated with Georgetown and honoring their legacy in the community.

Rochell Prater and Carlos Scott, two GU272+ descendants, led the discussion.

“I want to thank our ancestors really for their resilience, their intestinal and spiritual fortitude, their formidable courage,” Scott said at the event. “I know they could not see a day like today or a night like tonight happening. But man, this is really special. And I’m so proud to be a part of it.”

Prater said that after experiencing so much familial

Rankings Aren’t Everything

Priyasha Chakravarti (CAS ’25) argues that rankings are minimally useful and can perpetuate toxic, highly competitive cultures.

A3

Reject Catholic Homophobia Maddie Naisbitt (SFS ‘25) calls for Georgetown to break away from the church’s stance on homosexuality.

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loss and grief in her life, finding out that she was a part of the GU272+ network through a 2016 The New York Times article was life-changing.

“To me, it felt like I had hit the lottery,” Prater said at the event. “Not a monetary lottery. Hear me, right? I had family, y’all. I had family all over the place.”

Prater and Scott grew up in Maringouin, La., the same region where Maryland Jesuits sold their ancestors

GUIDE

and around 314 other enslaved people in 1838. The sale amassed $115,000, equivalent to about $3.3 million today, in what was one of the largest sales of human beings in U.S. history. The Jesuits then used the profits to pay off their debts and fund the development of Georgetown University.

ing Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation — a group dedicated to exploring the university’s past involvement with the institution of slavery — in September 2015. The establishment of this group followed the reopening Mulledy Hall and McSherry Hall, named for Rev. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown who managed the sale, and Rev. William

In response to this history, Georgetown University President John DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) formed the Work- See GU272+, A7

SPORTS

Softball Season Preview

‘The Menu’ Is a Success

With strong performances, clever writing and shocking twists, “The Menu” is a social satire that is not to be missed.

B7

Lil Yachty Rocks Out

The rapper Lil Yachty successfully branches out into the rock genre with his latest album, “Let’s Start Here.”

B6

Georgetown softball looks to build off of its 2022 season to compete at the Big East tournament for the first time since 2014. A11/12

Men’s Basketball v. UConn

After a back-and-forth struggle with No. 21 UConn, Georgetown ultimately lost the game 68-62.

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MIRANDA XIONG/THE HOYA

the Feb. 8 sit-in protest

John J. DeGioia’s (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) office on the second floor of Healy Hall

GU272 MEMORY PROJECT

Descendants of the GU272+ gather for a photo together in the 1980’s.

OPINION

EDITORIAL

GU, Protect LaHannah.

After months of student protests, Georgetown University finally completed a report on the investigation of the hate crime committed against LaHannah Giles (CAS ’23) 10 months ago — only to reveal that the investigation was inconclusive.

On April 29, 2022, a white male yelled racist slurs and violent threats at Giles, who is Black, shouting calls for the death of all Black people through a window in New South Hall, a first-year dormitory. At the time, Giles was sitting with their friends outside the Healey Family Student Center. Despite Giles and five other witnesses saying they identified the perpetrator, 10 months later, the university has yet to determine the aggressor, denying Giles justice for this racist hate crime.

Georgetown University has betrayed Giles. The Editorial Board condemns both the bigotry displayed in the hate crime and the university’s failure to seek justice for Giles. We urge Georgetown to commit to meeting all of Giles’ demands, including improving institutional support for Black students, who should not have to fight for this from Georgetown in the first place.

One of Giles’ demands — the expulsion of the perpetrator — has yet to be met. The student, if found, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent for the pain and trauma they inflicted upon Giles.

On Nov. 30, Giles released their comprehensive list of demands for the university to address following the incident. These demands included action items such as expelling the perpetrator, increasing funding for the Student of Color Alliance and commissioning an internal review of Georgetown’s investigatory processes.

Recognizing that The Hoya is and has been a predominantly white institution, The Hoya and the Editorial Board are dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black students on campus. The university has neglected Giles for too long, and the Editorial Board demands justice be served for them.

Last year from Dec. 5 to Dec. 8, 2022, Giles and GU Protects Racists (GUPR), a group of student activists leading the efforts seeking justice for Giles, organized protests demanding the university publicly acknowledge the hate crime and take disciplinary action against the perpetrator.

The Institutional Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action (IDEAA) office sent Giles the investigation about her case Feb. 7 after previously promising to send it on Dec. 17, 2022, Jan. 13 and then Jan. 31. The report revealed that the investigation was inconclusive, and the student who committed the hate crime still has yet to be officially determined or punished by the university.

Although Giles, along with five eyewitnesses, said they identified the student, the university failed to verify these claims and hold the perpetrator accountable. The university reported that the Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) lost the surveillance video footage that helped them to bring in the student as a suspect in the first place.

Following the release of the IDEAA investigation, GUPR resumed sit-ins in Healy Hall.

“I don’t think any words could ever describe how I feel after receiving the investigation results yesterday,” Giles said in a speech at a Feb. 8 sit-in.

“I hoped that I would have a sense of relief and closure, contributing to the ending of the protests. However, instead, I received an overall feeling of hurt, disappointment, invisibility and disbelief,” Giles added. The Editorial Board calls on students to continue to support Giles following the inconclusive results of the investigation. This includes attending sit-ins and other GUPR programming, as well as applying persistent pressure on the university to hold the university accountable in fulfilling all of Giles’ 11 demands, including holding the perpetrator responsible.

The university has acceded to some of Giles and

HOYA HISTORY

GUPR’s demands, creating three work groups to aid in the process of implementing the changes Georgetown promised. These include separate groups committed to exploring communal spaces for underserved communities, allocating funds to the Students of Color Alliance and improving the bias reporting system.

The university has committed to creating a system to guide students through bias reporting and has hired an outside expert to conduct an external review of Georgetown’s handling of the incident.

These concessions, though, do not represent the university’s previous actions in addressing the hate crime before the protests began.

In an email obtained by The Hoya, Jay Gruber, the GUPD chief of police, reached out to New South residents on Apr. 30 to inquire about the hate crime and request information from potential witnesses. Giles received no direct communication from the university until one week later on May 6, when Georgetown emailed them with mental health resources. Giles then had their first sit-down meeting with university officials on May 13, an egregiously delayed response to the incident.

Gruber’s email proves that Georgetown can respond quickly. Survivors deserve the same promptness that the university offered to potential eyewitnesses in the dorm.

Once Giles sat down with administrators, including Director of the Office of Student Conduct Judy Johnson, they not only did not receive administrative support but said they were “traumatized” by those supposed to protect them, according to Giles’ Nov. 22 Instagram post about the hate crime.

Giles recalled that Johnson created a hostile environment in which Johnson berated them for mentioning the Office of Student Conduct in a nowdeleted LinkedIn post about the hate crime and told them that they were unjustified in feeling the way they did about the incident.

Giles said Johnson “betrayed, gaslit, and violated” them during the May 2022 meeting, according to Giles’ Nov. 30 press release. Johnson did not respond to The Hoya’s request for comment in time for publication.

These actions unfortunately fit into the university’s disturbing pattern throughout its response to the incident.

Georgetown defended the Office of Student Conduct in response to Giles’ allegations.

“While we cannot comment on matters involving individual students or incidents, the philosophy guiding the Office of Student Conduct is educational and grounded in our community’s mission and values,” a university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

“We seek to understand the impact that campus life experiences have on students, as we do the work of evaluating and adjudicating potential violations of the Code of Student Conduct.”

Though the university acknowledges they are trying to take steps moving forward, Georgetown’s actions have not fully reflected the explicit recommendations of Giles and GUPR.

There is still a long way to go in this fight — a fight that not only requires the university to comply with GUPR’s demands but that also advocates for the safety and well-being of Black students like Giles, who has been overlooked and unsupported by Georgetown for nearly a year.

Georgetown purports to be a “diverse community devoted to social justice, restless inquiry and respect for each person’s individual needs and talents.”

It’s time they show it.

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

Why Is Georgetown Metro-less?

February 3, 1984

With Metro stations dispersed throughout the District of Columbia as well as Maryland and Virginia, making stops which put people in rapid touch with most of the capitol city, it is amazing to many that there is no closer stop than the Rosslyn station to Georgetown.

In fact, many would ask why there is no Metrorail station in Georgetown proper. The answers would seem to lie in some of the earliest planning stages for the Metro system, and the reasons appear to be twofold.

First, of all there was rumored, but never proven, pressure that was put on the Metro planning commission by “concerned citizens of Georgetown” not to build a station in Georgetown. It is said that when the Metro was in its conception stages there was an active effort

to try to develop the Georgetown waterfront as a residential area, the most likely place for a Metro station. Concerned citizens were afraid of a variety of things including: “imported ‘riff-raff’ from other sections of the city,” “destruction of an historic area” and the potential danger of underground construction in an area that has a myriad of tunnels gave rise to an implied pressure that could cause problems for the Metro planning board. Many feel that it was “fear of the political power of Georgetown” that caused the Metro planning board to never propose the construction of a station here.

A secondary, more concrete, reason is that in proposing the Metrorail system, the planners informed the citizens of Washington that there would be no need

LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND VIEWPOINT POLICIES

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

Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya.com.

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

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

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

NEWS TIPS

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

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

IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE

Georgetown University has betrayed Giles. The Editorial Board condemns both the bigotry displayed in the hate crime and GU’s failure to seek justice for Giles. We urge GU to commit to meeting all of Giles’ demands, including improving institutional support for Black students, who should not have to fight for this from GU in the first place.”

The Editorial Board thehoya.com

COMMUNITY OPINIONS

What Georgetown class would you recommend to other students?

“Free Speech and Foreign Policy” - Rachel Gurevich (SFS ’26)

“Theological Implications of the Holocaust” - Rishi Manghat (CAS ’25)

“International Law” with Professor William V. O’Brien – Anthony Arend (SFS ’80)

“Material Culture in Early Modern Europe” - Leila Hamdan (CAS ’26)

Any class with Jacques Berlinerblau - Stella Peters (CAS ’25) and Carolina Wesley (SFS ’26)

“International Relations” with Professor Grimm - Lexah Caraluzzi (SFS ’25), Jasmine Yazid (SFS ’26) and Sahana Vivek (SFS ’26)

“Creative Non-Fiction Writing” with Professor Sandosharaj – Sabrina Perez (CAS ’24)

“Asian American Literature” - Amy Lum (CAS ’26)

“Philosophy of Reparations” with Professor Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò – Alana Hendy (SFS ’21)

“Spanish Sociolinguistics: Race, Nation and Language” with Professor Maria Moreno Gonzalez – Leila Pagel (CAS ’26)

“Disability, Culture, and the Question of Care” with Professor Libbie Rifkin – Kristin Yung (CAS ’25)

“Terrorism & Civil War” with Professor Daniel Byman - Judy Liu (SFS ’26) and Anna Han (SFS ’26)

“Health in a Free Society” with Professor John Kramer – David Kim (SOH ’24)

“Caste and Race” - Alex Brown (SFS ’25)

“Development of India” with Shareen Joshi – Amara Saleem (SFS ’26)

“Social Psychology” with Professor W. Gerrod Parrott – Tiffany Zhang (CAS ’25)

“The Problem of God” with Professor Kerry Danner – Kenzo Yee (CAS ’26)

“Biology of Sex” with Jennifer Fox – Katie Wachter (CAS ’24)

“American Art” with Professor Lisa Strong – Noah Van Horne (SFS ’25)

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Natasha Leong

for such a station as the mass transit system would combine buses as well as trains to serve the needs of commuters.

Among other implied promises that Washingtonians are still waiting for the Metro to keep are the 20-hour-a-day service with Metro running from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., and the planned off street parking that will probably never come as much of this space has already been converted into shopping centers and office buildings. Until Metro develops the “effective feeder bus system,” or the slack is picked up by independent transport systems, like GUTS, it appears that Georgetowners will have to take the walk across the Key Bridge before they can “take it easy.”

Jim Schiefelbeim

Founded January 14, 1920

Board of Directors

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Bay Dotson, Laetitia Haddad, Khushi Vora, Laura Kapp,

Rethink Rankings

Priyasha Chakravarti Columnist

Georgetown University Law Center withdrew from the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings in November 2022 alongside several other top institutions including Columbia, Yale and Harvard Law schools. These schools cited the rankings’ overemphasis on standardized testing score averages and endowment size, as well as their undervaluing of an institution’s commitment to public service — and they are certainly onto something.

The U.S. News Report rankings prioritize standardized test scores, graduate employment and education-related expenditures per student. But even though these rankings help universities maintain their institutional prestige and offer useful information that helps students compare schools, they should not be used as the sole indicator of the successes one can achieve at any given institution, nor of that institution’s accomplishments.

Rankings like the U.S. News’ are not necessarily based on meaningful aspects of a university’s offerings. Moreover, the rankings can perpetuate highly competitive cultures amonghighschoolersandbeyond, which can lead to increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

In light of Georgetown Law withdrawing from the U.S. News rankings, we must take steps to shift away from overreliance on similar rankings and recognize the negative mental health impacts they can have on students. Instead, we can prioritize aspects such as academic, social and cultural fit to ensure that the environments we choose, including educational settings, are the best for us.

It is common for students to emphasize rankings over more tangible factors such as academic offerings, location, financial aid and school size when applying to colleges. A University of Michigan first-year student body profile that surveyed incoming firstyears found that 86.7% chose the universitybecauseofitsreputation as a prestigious institution.

A common sentiment among high school students at my international school in the Philippines was the notion of “go

big or go home.” To us, this meant that if we were going to be paying so much money to study in the United States so far away from home, we needed to be attending a well-ranked — and preferably top 20 — institution.

Hence, I was surrounded by a culture where students felt scared to reveal their final decisions, in fear of judgment that their school was not prestigious enough.

This culture can be detrimental to students’ self-esteem and mental health, especially if they are rejected from their top choices. They may be forced into chasing rankings and setting unrealistic standards for themselves rather than focusing on their passions and potential happiness in college, leading to a rise in stress levels, anxiety and depression among students.

This reliance on rankings does not stop with college admissions. Even when applying for internships and graduate school, students may consider the prestige and reputation of their programs over role descriptions, flexibility and work culture.

This culture of prioritizing rankings throughout our lives emerges partly from being in competitive environments — facing pressure from friends, family and counselors to chase “good names” — but also from consuming the information that universities promote in advertisements, brochures and campus tours that boast rankings and statistics.

We can all take steps to encourage each other to shift our mindset from prioritizing rankings to looking at the work environment and culture of institutions we may move on to — be it for internships, jobs or graduateschools—sothatwecan help each other become fulfilled individuals. On this campus, this would take the form of students celebrating acceptances and achievements no matter how large or small and counselors emphasizing factors other than rankings when advising about post-college opportunities.

Making this change would foster a more supportive environment that is conducive to our mental and intellectual well-being, something that will improve student experiences on this campus better than any ranking boost could.

PriyashaChakravartiisasophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. Mental Health Messages is published every third Friday.

Fight Antisemitism with Jewish Pride

CW: This article discusses antisemitism and violence against Jewish communities. Please refer to this article on thehoya.com for onand off-campus resources.

On Jan. 23, a student found antisemitic graffiti in Darnall Hall, a first-year dorm at Georgetown University. Being located in the heart of our nation — the metropolis of Washington, D.C. — makes this all the more shocking given the assumed acceptance of diversity. Nevertheless, as a result of the graffiti, Jewish first-year students who arrived on campus less than half a year ago have been left feeling unsafe in their supposed new home.

This antisemitism in the 21st century — especially for an institution that has come so far from its founding in terms of its admission of Jewish students — seems unreal and impossible.

Nevertheless, it did happen. And in a world that aspires to be more just and tolerant, it is alarming to witness the resurgence of this historic hatred. The question now lies in how to even begin addressing the rise of antisemitism on our campus. In the face of this renewed discrimination, Jewish students at Georgetown need to stand stronger together and embrace their Judaism, rather than leave it behind in fear.

Unfortunately, the prejudice and discrimination directed toward the Jewish people has once again reared its ugly head on college campuses across the United States. Amidst the ivy-covered brick buildings and hallowed halls of learning at several other universities, one would expect to find a haven of intellectual curiosity

Reject Religious Homophobia

CW: This article references/ discusses homophobia. Please refer to this article on thehoya.com for on- and off-campus resources.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime” should not be a revolutionary position. However, those were the groundbreaking words that Pope Francis said in a Jan. 25 interview with the Associated Press — the first time that a pope has spoken out against laws criminalizing homosexuality.

Although it is promising that Pope Francis supports the repeal of cruel antihomosexual legislation, the Church’s unflinching position that being gay is a sin contributes to discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, even if that is not the intention. The Pope went on to explain that while homosexuality is “a sin,” Catholics should not discriminate against homosexuals, as we all commit sins.

Despite the Pope’s attempt to frame the “sin” of homosexuality in a tolerant manner, the classification of homosexuality as a sin still implies the identity as categorically negative and as something that is rejected by God. The Pope’s statements do not signal any true shift on the Church’s behalf on the topic of homosexuality. Unfortunately, the reality is that rejection of homosexuality is clearly outlined in the Church’s Catechism, and the Church is unlikely to move away from this position in the near future.

As a Catholic institution, Georgetown University cannot wait on the Church to change its mind about LGBTQ+ people. Thus, the university must forge its own path and

create a safe and accepting environment for students who identify as queer or trans.

Historically, Georgetown has failed to protect the queer community. In 1988, Georgetown agreed to end an eight-year legal battle and grant equal treatment to queer and gay student organizations. The university’s opposition to recognizing these groups was based on the idea that these clubs were “inconsistent with the position of a Catholic university,” i.e., that homosexuality is a sin. Instead of setting a model of inclusion for other universities, Georgetown displayed that it was a bulwark against progress.

In recent years, Georgetown has become more supportive of LGBTQ students, despite the Catholic Church’s unchanged official position. The creation of the university’s LGBTQ Resource Center in 2008 — a result of student activism at Georgetown, not a legal mandate — illustrates how far the university has come since the legal battle in the 1980s.

Nevertheless, Georgetown still has plenty of work to do to support queer students. The administration must do what is best for LGBTQ+ students, instead of waiting on the Catholic Church to grant permission.

There are a few concrete policy changes the university should adopt. First, the LGBTQ Resource Center must be properly staffed. Although the center’s website states that it should have two full-time professional employees, that has not been the case since 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, the center was professionally staffed only by an associate director, who left in Fall 2022; now, the center is fully in the hands of part-time student workers and staff at the

and openness. Yet, the reality is that Jewish students are increasingly facing hostility and discrimination in the form of hate speech, physical attacks and the vandalization of religious symbols on their campuses.

To start, Jewish Hoyas in Darnall need more security presence to ensure their safety. For example, even at neighboring George Washington University, Jewish students were recently targeted by their professors, who demeaned and reduced students’ Jewish identities publicly in class. Across campuses nationwide, Jewish students are increasingly questioning whether they can celebrate their Jewish identity publicly because they are scared of the potential consequences. They constantly have to wrestle with questions that should never have to be entertained, including whether or not they should wear kippahs or put their Mezuzahs on their doorposts. Even as Jewish leaders on campus, we sometimes question whether or not we should wear our Jewish Student Association (JSA) sweaters or Star of David pendants. Yet, we still wear our kippahs and our Star of David necklaces.

This may seem counterintuitive: Why would someone want to become closer to a part of their identity that makes them seemingly more vulnerable, as further demonstrated with the Swastika found nearly a week ago?

But the larger question that looms: should we even tell people that we are Jewish? The answer could not be more clear: yes.

As Jewish seniors who are

both extensively involved in Jewish Life, Chabad Georgetown, the JSA and Georgetown Israel Alliance, our days left on campus are sadly dwindling. We have dedicated a large portion of our time here toward creating a more tolerant and accepting campus for our heritage and religion. Consequently, we were struck by how the incident in Darnall seemed to wipe away all of our hard work. Furthermore, the events of this past week in other parts of the world — including the targeted attack on Jews in a Jerusalem synagogue during Shabbat services — have made us realize just how much more work there is to be done.

Nevertheless, even with this loss of progress, we have persisted. Alongside the rest of our JSA Board, as well as Jewish Life and Chabad, we organized a public Havdalah service on the steps of Healy Hall behind the John Carroll statue on Jan. 28.

Havdalah marks the conclusion of Shabbat, the weekly day of rest for Jewish people. In organizing the event, we also invited university chaplains and staff of other religions, Georgetown administrators and the general student body. We were thrilled to see such a large turnout of Jews and non-Jews alike. This was important to show the university’s unity in its rejection of antisemitism. We were further overjoyed that the Havdalah service publicly brought together Rabbi Daniel Schaefer and Rabbi Menachem Shemtov, a further image of solidarity.

During the uplifting ceremony, we recited a blessing upon the fire, which symbolizes light and darkness and our capability to distinguish between the moral

and immoral, the holy and mundane. Just as the fire of the candle brings light and warmth to the darkness, the Havdalah manifests inspiration and hope in the face of adversity — something that Jewish students at Georgetown need now more than ever.

Fearing for one’s safety because of antisemitism is real. However, if we allow this pain, despair and confusion to paralyze current Jewish students from raising the next generation with a strong commitment to their Jewish identity — whether religiously and/or culturally — the antisemites will have won. Jewish students need to be proud of and committed to their Jewish identity to create a sense of resilience and prove that we are still here.

That is how we triumph. Protests and confrontation can work, but as our public Havdalah showed, unity, solidarity and the celebration of our Jewish identity are far greater solutions.

So, this is a call to action to all of our fellow Jewish Hoyas: Wear your Star of David, wear your JSA sweatshirt, come to Jewish community events, put that Mezuzah on your door and, most importantly, do not be afraid to tell others that you are Jewish. We implore you to not only speak out and promote your identity but also to celebrate it. Collectively, we must show that Judaism is hard to hate, and that antisemitism has no place at Georgetown University.

Joseph Abergel is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. Max Paley is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Stamp Out Gun Extremism

peaceful country.

Women’s Center. The university must honor its commitment to hiring multiple staff members in order to comprehensively meet the complex needs of LGBTQ students.

Additionally, the university must create a more transparent and welcoming housing process for transgender students. The current process requires students to email the Office of Residential Living to request accommodations, leaving trans students in limbo until they receive an official response. Creating a more formal request process for trans students’ housing would reduce students’ stress and signal that the university is prepared to meet all student housing needs.

Furthermore, the university ought to reform its OUTober programming. In its current state, the month consists of many religiously driven events. There is certainly a need for spaces designed for queer students who are currently religious, or grappling with religious trauma, to interact with the religious elements of Georgetown, but religion itself should not be the primary mode of celebration during OUTober. The university must offer more secular ways for queer students to find community on-campus.

Although I am glad that Pope Francis does not want me jailed for my lesbianism, the fact that decriminalizing queer bodies is seen as wildly progressive for the Church demonstrates the need for the university to further break with Catholic canon and put less emphasis on doctrine when it comes to deciding how Georgetown should support queer students.

Maddie Naisbitt is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.

CW: This article discusses instances of gun violence. Please refer to this article on thehoya.com for on- and off-campus resources.

On Jan. 21, a gunman shot and killed 10 people during a Lunar New Year celebration. On Jan. 23, seven people were shot and killed at a mushroom farm. More shootings were carried out at a high school Jan. 23 and a convenience store Jan. 24. Between this year’s 54 mass shootings and uncountable instances of community violence and suicide, guns have already killed 3,936 people in 2023 as of Feb. 3.

And yet, on Jan. 24, Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) sent two non-Georgetown University students to table in Red Square with signs reading “Print Guns, Not Money” and “Come and Take It.” These inflammatory messages, brandished in the wake of an increase in gun violence, are an especially ghoulish reminder that gun extremists value their weapons over human lives.

Gun extremism, however, is on the losing side of history, both within and outside of Georgetown’s gates.

As the former political affairs director of March for Our Lives Georgetown, I can say that we are absolutely horrified by the bloodshed of the past few days. We acknowledge the emotional toll that these shootings have taken, especially on the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, and stand with them in grief and rage. As this campus’ chapter of the national, youth-led gun violence prevention group March for Our Lives, we want to serve as a resource for all of those struggling with the traumatic effects of gun violence as well as allies in the movement to build a

With this in mind, the presence of YAL on this campus unequivocally deepened the pain of the student body with its feeble attempt to entrench not only the ownership but more significantly, the glorification of tools of mass violence. The tone-deaf manner in which YAL promoted its extreme message in the aftermath of a multitude of mass shootings is staggering. Even outside of the events of the past few weeks, college campuses specifically have been the sites of horrific gun violence. They house a generation of students who grew up with lockdown drills and news of countless school shootings, living in fear that their community would be next.

The fact that the YAL tablers were not affiliated with Georgetown speaks volumes: Their embrace of extremist ideology is not shared by those on this campus and is antithetical to the lived experiences of many college students.

As a member of March for Our Lives, I want to be clear: There is a difference between what YAL represented this week and the viewpoints of countless responsible gun owners across this country.

For example, a recent study by Tufts University School of Medicine researchers and 97Percent, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on gun reform, found that 72.9% of gun owners support universal background checks, 78% support prohibiting the purchase of a gun by those convicted of domestic violence and 63.8% support requiring a permit for concealed carry.

I myself have collaborated with gun owner advocates who were members of Giffords Gun Owners for Safety, a group of

gun owners who organize for stronger gun laws. Gun safety is an incredibly popular topic for both gun owners and non-gun owners, and YAL’s extremist position is out of touch with the majority of the American people. Our campus and our country are hurting, and we are in desperate need of change. I want to motivate all who are reading this to join March for Our Lives Georgetown as we continue to advocate and educate for gun safety. As college students, we come to Georgetown with perspectives from all across the country. In turn, I want to implore you to organize for change in your hometowns.

There are scores of grassroots organizations working to create change at state and local levels, which in my home state include the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence and the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute. Many of the most recent victories of the gun violence prevention movement have been won in state governments, and state-level organizing is a critical way for activists to leave an impact.

Finally, write to and call your representatives to encourage them to take action on gun reform. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant federal gun reform law passed in almost 30 years, came about because citizens like us pressed legislators for change. We have moved the needle once, and we can do it again.

YAL came to our campus thinking that they could spread harmful rhetoric on guns to the student body. It is up to us to prove them wrong by organizing, educating and building a country free from gun violence.

Ari Kane is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

GUPR, from A1

“I want to know that you’ve deeply touched me by being here today,” Giles said. “I want to be vulnerable because I know that vulnerability is really important, and you have consistently showed up, and the least I can do is show back up by letting you know what’s really happening.”

GUPR’s short-term goals for the sit-ins are the expulsion of the perpetrator and spreading awareness about the university’s handling of the hate crime, according to GUPR organizer Sanchi Rohira (SFS ’24).

“One of the most prestigious and prominent universities in the country in 2023 spearheaded the cover-up of a racist hate crime committed against a Black woman 10 months ago on its campus,” Rohira said in an interview with The Hoya “We want prospective students, especially prospective students of color, to know what they’re getting into when they decide to apply to Georgetown University. We want parents sitting at home to know what safety means at Georgetown and how the administration is actively cultivating an unsafe environment for students of color,” Rohira added.

Alex Missen (SFS ’24) attended the Feb. 8 sit-in and said the Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) and the university’s handling of the hate crime investigation is unacceptable.

“If we don’t hold them accountable now, when are they ever going to be held accountable?” Missen told The Hoya. “It seems like they’re just shutting the door on this case and giving a half satisfactory answer in the hopes that that’s what we’re going to accept. Clearly, that isn’t the case.”

Kennedy Jackson (SFS ’25) came to the protest to support Giles, assisting with making posters that students put up on the walls of Healy Hall and other prominent locations on campus reading “We Demand Justice,” “Healy Hall is Occupied” and “We Love LaHannah,” among other messages.

“It could be anyone that this happened to, any Black person on campus, and that’s really scary,” Jackson said in an interview with The Hoya. “I believe it’s really important, especially as a Black woman, for me to support.”

Dozens of student groups have shown solidarity with Giles and the sit-ins, including the Georgetown Black Student Alliance, the Georgetown University Black Leadership Forum, GU Pride, H*yas for Choice, the Asian American Student Association, Georgetown University College Democrats,

the South Asian Society, The Corp and the Georgetown University Student Associations, among others.

How Did This Happen?

Immediately after the hate crime, Giles’ friends who witnessed the crime called GUPD to report it, and later that night, Giles filed a crime report with GUPD and a bias-related incident report through the university’s

in our community’s mission and values,” a university spokesperson wrote on behalf of the Office of Student Conduct. “We seek to understand the impact that campus life experiences have on students, as we do the work of evaluating and adjudicating potential violations of the Code of Student Conduct.”

In the weeks following the hate crime, the Office of Student Conduct asked GUPD for the footage Giles used to identify the perpetrator. The university then discovered that GUPD had lost all footage related to the hate crime after an alleged server failure, meaning Giles had no video evidence of the student they identified as the perpetrator.

IDEAA told Giles the footage was lost, and that without video evidence and because the student denied all personal involvement, the student could not be held accountable. This was despite Giles previously identifying the student when footage was available and from still photographs GUPD took of the footage before it was lost.

bias reporting system. The university, however, failed to reach out to Giles about their report until May 6, a week after the hate crime occurred, according to Giles’ Nov. 30 press release.

In the days following the hate crime, GUPD created a report identifying two potential suspects that matched Giles’ description of the hate crime perpetrator and were recorded using a GOCard swipe into New South, the building the perpetrator was in at the time of the incident.

The report included images of these suspects taken from GUPD security camera footage, and Giles and five eyewitnesses pointed to one of them as being the perpetrator. Both suspects denied all involvement with the hate crime when they were contacted by university officials.

On May 13, Giles met with Judy Johnson, the director of the Office of Student Conduct, and the assistant director, Victor Lopez. Johnson told Giles IDEAA would be taking over their case, and Giles said she proceeded to berate them for their reaction to the hate crime.

“Johnson essentially told me I did not deserve to feel the way I did about the hate crime,” Giles wrote in their Nov. 30 press release. “Johnson betrayed, gaslit, and violated me. I felt unseen and unbelieved.”

Johnson and the university did not respond directly to these claims.

“While we cannot comment on matters involving individual students or incidents, the philosophy guiding the Office of Student Conduct is educational and grounded

A university spokesperson did not comment when The Hoya asked what date GUPD’s servers failed and when they installed new servers.

The university took no public action in the following six months.

“The Georgetown University administration and GUPD refuse to acknowledge the hate crime that happened to me, so I will make them,” Giles wrote in a Nov. 30 press release. “No justice, no peace.”

During that time, Giles said they experienced intense emotional distress because of the hate crime and felt invalidated by university administration.

“For close to seven months now I have been in therapy dealing with the aftermaths of being racially harassed by a racist violent white peer. I’m traumatized,” Giles wrote in the caption of their Nov. 22 Instagram post. “Please Georgetown do something.”

Giles went public about the hate crime and their subsequent experience with Georgetown administration Nov. 22, posting an Instagram infographic that garnered over 13,000 likes.

In early December, the first round of sit-ins began, leading to the university publicly apologizing, GUPD reclassifying the incident as a hate crime and IDEAA starting a new hate crime investigation.

Giles and GUPR organizers met with university officials multiple times to discuss ways for the university to meet their demands, from an internal published review of IDEAA, the Student Office of Conduct and GUPD’s handling of Giles’ case to IDEAA

changing its investigation policy to include testimonial evidence and increasing support for Black students on campus.

The university finally acknowledged the hate crime to the campus community in a Dec. 8 university-wide email. Officials also committed to sending out emails every time a hate crime occurred on campus going forward.

The IDEAA Investigation Report

After originally promising to release the IDEAA investigation on Dec. 17, Jan. 13 and then Jan. 31, the university missed all three deadlines. Following the missed deadlines, GUPR emailed IDEAA on Feb. 1 informing them of their intent to restart sit-in protests if they did not release the report by Feb. 7.

A university spokesperson said new witnesses were identified in December, late January and early February.

“The incident was thoroughly investigated by the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action (IDEAA) and the Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD),” the spokesperson wrote. “The evidence that was reviewed included security footage, photographs, and GOCard swipes, as well as testimonial evidence and documents provided by witnesses and potential suspects.”

On Feb. 7, the results of IDEAA’s investigation came back inconclusive, with the report stating that there was insufficient evidence to determine the perpetrator despite Giles identifying the student.

“I hoped that I would have a sense of relief and closure, contributing to the ending

of the protests. However, instead, I received an overall feeling of hurt, disappointment, invisibility and disbelief,” Giles said at the Feb. 8 sit-in. “The investigation report outlined that based on the evidence available, the student I have identified and know is the person responsible for the hate crime will not be held accountable because the evidence isn’t sufficient enough — the evidence they have lost.”

IDEAA met this final deadline after learning of the possibility of future sitins, something GUPR organizer AK (SFS ’23) said was not coincidental.

“This looks like it’s an act to silence LaHannah and to put an end to the protests, especially with how they strategically met our deadline without actually delivering any justice,” AK told The Hoya. “We want to keep asking for justice for LaHannah, and that does mean continuing to ask for the identity of this suspect to be released and for their expulsion process to begin.”

It is particularly upsetting that IDEAA was the university office that produced these results, Rohira said.

“The Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action is the office that ultimately participated in and continued the cover-up of a racist hate crime that happened at Georgetown,” Rohira said.

“There are two primary offices that participated in this hate crime, and one of them was the Georgetown Police Department — which we all knew was coming because it’s a police department,” Rohira said. “The more surprising office that participated in this cover up was the of-

fice that is tasked with protecting the interests of and the security of students of color on campus.”

What Now?

GUPR plans to continue holding sit-ins for the foreseeable future, and Giles told community members they would be stepping back from an organizational role to focus on their health.

“The entire system of Georgetown, the institution itself, must be dismantled from the bottom up, and that starts with setting a precedent that we as a community will not allow Georgetown to get away with covering up the hate crime that’s happening to me,” Giles said. “I call on you to continue showing up to demand justice on my behalf.”

The university created three work groups Feb. 6 to implement the commitments they made to Giles and the Georgetown community in December, according to a university spokesperson. These groups will focus on prioritizing access to communal spaces for underserved communities, including the Black Student Alliance, to meet; launching a funding process for the Students of Color Alliance, a collaborative of leaders of cultural organizations on campus; and reviewing the bias reporting system.

Giles encouraged students to invite their friends and classmates to come to the sit-ins and show their support for GUPR.

“I give you the baton to continue to demand justice for me from Georgetown,” Giles said. “I have done all I can, and I call you to do all you can.”

MIRANDA XIONG/THE HOYA

Students occupied the second floor of Healy Hall, working together to create posters that were taped to the walls of the building reading “We Demand Accountability IDEAA” and “Justice 4 LaHannah,” among other messages.

“The student I have identified and know is the person responsible for the hate crime will not be held accountable.”

LAHANNAH GILES CAS ‘23

MIRANDA XIONG/THE HOYA

A student supporter at the sit-in works on a poster referring to the surveillance footage GUPD lost from the day of the hate crime.

Georgetown University Student Association Senator Impeached

Evie Steele

GUSA Desk Editor

The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate voted to impeach and remove Senator Olivia Valante (CAS ’24) from the senate at its Feb. 5 meeting for accumulating excessive unexcused absences.

GUSA limits members to two unexcused absences per senate session, and further unexcused absences are grounds for removal. Valante missed all four meetings of GUSA’s November session without excuse, according to the impeachment resolution.

Nineteen senators voted in favor of her removal from office, with four opposed and two abstaining. This met the two-thirds majority threshold for impeachment.

GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair John DiPierri (SFS ’25), GUSA Senate Speaker Manahal Fazal (SFS ’24) and GUSA Policy and Advocacy Committee Chair Joshua Bernard-Pearl (SFS ’25) introduced the articles of impeachment against Valante. Senate Vice Speaker Alicia Gopal (CAS ’25) initially sponsored the resolution but asked during the meeting for her name to be removed as sponsor.

“Senator Valante has accumulated four unexcused absences, missing meetings on Nov. 13, Dec. 4, Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, which has been every single meeting of the 18th senate November session thus far,” DiPierri said at the meeting. Valante did not submit any requests for an excused absence to the senate, according to the articles of impeachment.

“Senate leadership has, on multiple occasions, publicized the existence of an excused-absence request form as well as clarified that ad-

vanced notice must be given for any excused-absence to be granted,” the articles of impeachment read.

GUSA President Camber Vincent (SFS ’24), the previous speaker of the senate, said Valante had also missed several senate meetings during the body’s prior session. Vincent said that he had reached out to Valante but received no response.

The impeachment of Valante is the first of its kind since August 2019, when the senate impeached but did not remove Senator Peter Lee Hamilton (CAS ’20), also for accumulating unexcused absences.

DiPierri said removing a senator from office is a last resort that the GUSA Senate has rarely had to enforce.

“It is very rare that the GUSA Senate takes articles of impeachment up,” DiPierri said at Sunday’s senate meeting. “This is a rather unprecedented incident for the vast majority of senators who were not here through an impeachment process.”

Bernard-Pearl said Valante’s unexcused absences could not be overlooked, as senator attendance at meetings is integral to the functioning of GUSA.

“If we are not being serious with attendance, then the order of this institution falls down,” Bernard-Pearl said at the meeting.

A majority of members of the senate’s Ethics and Oversight committee, which Senator Bora Balçay (SFS ’23) currently chairs, must first approve impeachment resolutions before the full senate can vote on them, according to GUSA bylaws.

DiPierri moved to break the rules and introduce the resolution without prior Ethics and Oversight approval.

Balçay, Bernard-Pearl and Gopal initially favored tabling the resolution until after the

Ethics and Oversight committee had the chance to vote on the resolution, although Balçay said that the committee would likely give its approval.

“As senators, we like to take breaking the rules fairly seriously,“ Balçay said at the meeting. “I would rather give the option of discussion by the committee first, then move by the senate.”

DiPierri said that waiting for the Ethics and Oversight committee to meet would waste time, encouraging members to confirm the articles of impeachment directly.

“The idea of waiting two or three weeks to get six people to meet together, who meet very infrequently anyway, together to decide this, which could essentially be a 30-second conversation, is not a good use of our time,” DiPierri said. “Over those three weeks, we will have a senate seat that is essentially vacant. I hesitate to tabling this, because you are essentially preventing student voices.”

The senate ultimately approved the motion to impeach in a 19-4 vote, with Gopal and Senator Saatvik Sunkavalli (SFS ’25) abstaining and Senators Max Massick (CAS ’24), Chijioke Achebe (SFS ’25), George Currie (CAS ’26) and Rob Arzano (CAS ’24) voting against Valante’s impeachment. Valante’s seat as a Class of 2024 senator will be filled through appointment before the next senate meeting Feb. 19.

DiPierri emphasized the importance of GUSA senators participating in student government.

“We are just trying to expedite the process of having someone here who wants to be here, and actively engaged in not only our club, but the institution and the Georgetown community,” DiPierri said.

VERBATIM

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CIA Director Receives Annual School of Foreign Service Award

Shreya Dudeja Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (SFS) awarded the annual J. Raymond “Jit” Trainor Award to William J. Burns, a former U.S. ambassador and the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in a Feb. 2 ceremony.

The Trainor Award, named after a former SFS registrar, is handed out on a yearly basis to an exemplar of excellent conduct in diplomacy. Burns won the award in 2022, but he could not attend a ceremony in-person until now because of ongoing commitments with the federal response to the Ukrainian war.

Burns served as a diplomat for 33 years before retiring in 2014. Throughout his career in diplomacy, Burns served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the September 11 terrorist attacks, Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan and Deputy Secretary of State.

After receiving the award, Burns offered remarks responding to global threats and engaged in a conversation with Ambassador Barbara K. Bodine, a professor in the practice of diplomacy and director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, a Georgetown University center dedicated to exploring diplomacy and global issues.

Burns said encouragement from his father and his father’s service in the military first sparked Burns’ decision to enter a career in diplomacy.

“Public service has shaped my whole life. When I was a graduate student many years ago, trying to figure out what to do with my life, I got a letter that proved to inspire me,” Burns said at the event.

“It was from my father, a remarkable career army officer and a fine man who died recently. ‘Nothing will make you prouder,’ my dad wrote, ‘than to serve your country with honor.’”

Burns said this advice served as his inspiration over his decadeslong career in foreign service in countries across the globe.

Looking to the future, Iran should be a central focus for American policymakers approaching the often-murky relationship between the United States and the Middle East, according to Burns.

“The Middle East has emerged as a particularly complicated set of challenges for American policymakers as well,” Burns said, “Part of that is about the Iranian regime that I think is increasingly unsettled about what’s going on inside Iran.”

Burns said that instability in Iran can be attributed to protests in the country speaking out against the current regime.

“The remarkable courage of demonstrators over the last few months, especially young Iranian women, who in many respects are fed up with economic decay, corruption, political oppression and social restrictions, I think that unsettled view of what is going on internally is leading to more aggressive behavior externally toward the Iranian regime,” Burns said.

After the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died while in police detention, protests swept Iran with demands for increased freedom in the country. While similar protests occurred in Iran in 2009, 2017 and 2019, the ongoing movement is the most widespread in recent memory.

Burns said addressing ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, including conflict in the IsraelPalestine region, will be an engaging task to take on in his work as CIA director.

Recent developments in the re-

gion, including a shift to the right in Israeli elections and clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, have sparked fears that conflict could spiral. In a recent visit to Jerusalem, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both sides to remain calm and begin to work toward restabilization.

“We see it across the Middle East,” Burns said. “Part of the responsibility of my agency is to work as closely as we can with Palestinian security services and Israeli security services to prevent the kind of exposure to violence that we have seen in recent weeks as well. That is going to be a good challenge.”

“Today, I am still in the arena, very proud to have been a career diplomat and equally proud now to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency”

Burns said his personal experiences in public service have prepared him for his current position leading a national intelligence agency.

“Today, I am still in the arena, very proud to have been a career diplomat and equally proud now to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, leading another incredibly dedicated group of women and men at a moment of profound transformation on the international landscape,” Burns said.

Panel Forecasts Political Future of Latin America, Caribbean

Nicole Iriza

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI) hosted a panel Jan. 30 to discuss the regional forecast for Latin America and the Caribbean in the upcoming year.

The panel, titled “Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023: What to Expect?” featured Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics; Michael Shifter, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University; Shantall Tegho, a managing director at Goldman Sachs; and Alejandro Werner, GAI’s founding director. The event focused on political extremism, political instability and economic market outlooks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The panel came amid vast protests in the Latin American region in recent months, with large-scale demonstrations against the lack of social mobility in Colombia and Chile, the elimination of fuel subsidies in Ecuador and election fraud in Bolivia.

The center of discussion was Latin America’s largest country, Brazil, which experienced a highly divisive election in which the winning candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, won by 1.8 percent of the vote over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Fervent supporters of Bolsonaro protested

the election results, which many believed to be fraudulent, by storming key government buildings in the capital of Brasilia.

De Bolle said that the new government of Brazil, under Lula’s leadership, has a long road ahead of them to mitigate political division.

“There’s a lot of rebuilding and a lot of reconstruction to be done,” de Bolle said at the event. “Surely, some of it will be done. But it’s four years — it’s four years to rebuild an entire country, to give people the competence that they once had. That social mobility will be back, that inequality is going to be reduced, that yes, politicians are going to respond to the needs of the people: these are the basis for Lula’s election.”

These issues are confounded by Latin American free trade agreements, which have not seen monumental success, according to Werner. “We have not seen any of the free trade agreements signed with the U.S. be a game-changer in Latin America,” Werner said at the event. “NAFTA in ’94, the Colombian free trade agreement with the U.S., the Chilean free trade agreement, they were very good. They significantly affected in a positive way some regions of these countries, but these are not European Union integration processes.”

“Obviously, Latin America stands out for a region that has constantly disappointed markets,” Tegho said at the event. “We did come out of the COVID prices with growth that was never able to go back to the levels we saw pre-2020. We had very violent political forces.”

Shifter said corruption, crime and inequality are the three issues key to analyzing and predicting the state of Latin American affairs in 2023.

“When do you expect those to be reduced in 2023?” Shifter said at the event. “It is not easy to come up with a lot of encouraging responses. And those are three critical issues that certainly contribute to political volatility.”

Tegho said that conditions in Latin America are largely dependent on the state of the American and Chinese economies because of the region’s dependence on external markets.

“For Latin America, the two most important driving forces of external conditions are U.S. growth and Chinese growth,” Tegho said.

Shifter said he has cautious hope for the political state of the region because people are largely still committed to voting, despite the region’s general instability.

“Democracy is under stress,” Shifter said. “It is under stress, but it survives.”

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

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Georgetown COVID-19 Surge Sparks Student Uncertainty

Naomi Greenberg Science Editor

Georgetown University is experiencing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases among undergraduates, according to an email sent to community members Feb. 3. In the week of Jan. 29, 127 COVID-19 cases were reported, compared to 91 cases the previous week and 75 cases two weeks prior. The vast majority of the recent cases were reported from students on Georgetown’s main campus, sparking concern among students about further case increases and isolation and masking practices on campus.

Wastewater testing, which detects the volume of viral COVID-19 particles, indicates that more students will likely test positive in the coming weeks, according to the email sent to students by Dr. Ranit Mishori (MED ’02), vice president and chief public health officer at Georgetown.

“There are individuals on campus who already have or are developing an infection who may not be aware of it yet,” Mishori wrote in the email to community members.

The current case load has almost reached Georgetown’s space limits for isolating students in individual rooms. According to Mishori, the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center, which is currently used as Georgetown’s dedicated isolation space, has around 100 rooms that can be used for quarantine.

“We are approaching full capacity of our dedicated isolation space on campus,” Mishori wrote. “Residential students who test positive may be instructed to isolate in their residence or share an isolation room with another student.”

The news of an uptick in COVID-19 cases on campus is not new, as there had been similar upticks reported in December 2022, April 2022, February 2022, December 2021 and October 2021. Georgetown expected an uptick in cases at the beginning of the semester, according to Mishori.

“We anticipated this increase because, once you have people return to campus after a vacation from all over the world essentially, you expect cases to go up,” Mishori said in an interview with The Hoya

Mishori said it is important to be prepared, however, in case on-campus COVID-19 infections continue to increase.

“We are always preparing for what might happen,” Mishori said. “If we have a much greater surge, we would have to go to sharing rooms or isolating in place.”

Some students are already following an isolation in-place quarantine model, especially if they live off campus or in an on-campus single with its own bathroom, according to Mishori. Each student’s isolation protocol will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

“We would work with every case and try to understand the setting, the individuals involved, before we tell somebody to isolate in place,” Mishori said. “We’re going to consider who’s in the residence hall, what their health status is and whether it makes sense.”

Isolating in place, specifically with uninfected roommates, poses serious challenges according to Dr. Rosemary Sokas, professor of human science and family medicine in the School of Health.

“That’s a situation you do not want to encounter. The person

Increase in COVID-19 cases among undergraduates reignites public health concerns.

really needs to be in a different room from the uninfected roommate,” Sokas said in an interview with The Hoya. “I would not want to see any of my students have to do that.”

Sokas said despite the reduced risks for people in the age range of undergraduate students, it is still medically advisable to avoid getting COVID-19.

“I think it is a real disservice to people to be cavalier about whether or not they get COVID,” Sokas said. “Young people tend to do extremely well. Nevertheless, we just do not know long-term outcomes as well as we should. And so we should be trying to do better.”

Mishori also emphasized the threat of “long COVID,” drawing on a study published by re-

Professors Win Grant to Study Gel Properties

Sam Buan Science Staff Writer

Three Georgetown University physics professors are collaborating to research colloidal gels, a specific type of gel that can be used in applications ranging from food science to 3D-printed organs.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year, $691,996 grant to Daniel Blair, Emanuela Del Gado and Jeffrey Urbach, professors in the physics department, for their investigation of these gels.

A gel is a semi-solid that, while largely composed of fluid, is held together by a network of some solid. Colloidal gels differ from other gels in that the solid that gives them structure is a collection of small, bloblike particles, as opposed to another common classification of gels: polymer gels (like in contact lenses), which have long, repeating chains of a molecule acting as the solid structure. An everyday example of a colloidal gel is Jell-O, which is held together by blobs of powdered gelatin.

“Everybody is excited about colloidal gels, because if you want to print things, these materials can reconfigure easily,” Del Gado said in an interview with The Hoya. “When you need, you can reshape them into something different.”

Urbach highlighted colloidal gels’ utility for organ transplants. More than 100,000 people in the United States alone are waiting for organ donations.

“If you want to, say, 3D print an organ, there’s a number of

different things that it needs to be able to do. To be able to control that is about being able to understand where you transition from flowing to something that’s kind of solid,” Urbach said in an interview with The Hoya Blair, Del Gado and Urbach aim to use the new NSF grant money to better understand how individual particle movement impacts the wider structure of the entire gel, which could vary properties such as stiffness, tensile strength and viscosity. Urbach said parts of their desired research comprises deep gaps in the scientific community’s knowledge.

“Some of this stuff really is wide open. We’re just not really sure what we’re gonna find,” Urbach told The Hoya

Until recently, it was essentially impossible to measure the full extent of motion that particles within colloidal gels undergo. Last year, however, researchers at the University of Oxford discovered how to stain a particle such that the bulk of it is one color, but part of the particle that is off center is a different color.

This staining technique, which was led by former Oxford professor Roel Dullens, allows researchers to measure the rotation of the solid particles within the gel. Measuring the rotation of the particles within the gel is vital because particles unable to move laterally may still be able to rotate. This motion could potentially greatly impact the properties of the gel.

“We are very excited about the ability to combine experiments and simulations in this research, because basically, in

the simulation, we have developed models to generate these structures, and then perform tests and understand how things change at the level of the single particle,” Del Gado said in an interview with The Hoya Del Gado’s lab will focus on the computer simulations, while Blair and Urbach will focus on the experimental side of the research. Urbach, Del Gado and Blair believe that their partnership, as well as the combination of simulation and experimentation in their research, will allow them to get to the heart of the issue.

“There is sort of one experimental stream and one computational stream, but they overlap continuously. The computational work will be continuously informed by and inform the measurements. We’ve had this type of collaboration over the years,”

Urbach said in an interview with The Hoya

According to Blair, this collaboration is particularly useful in scientific research.

“The ideas come from each person’s individual expertise and way of thinking that gets then tested and tried and thought about. It’s a very nice way of doing science,” Blair said in an interview with The Hoya

The three researchers also said their labs will provide valuable training opportunities for student researchers at Georgetown.

“It’s an important part of why this is a good use of taxpayer money,” Urbach said. “Most of our student researchers will end up in industry in one way or another.

It’s young researchers who are trained with federal grant support, who really drive the innovation in this country.”

Science Spotlight: Georgetown Space Initiative

Briana Sparacino

Deputy Science Editor

The Georgetown University Space Initiative (GUSI) may be one small step for Georgetown, but it is one giant leap for space education.

GUSI is Georgetown’s first space-related professional development organization, and it serves as a platform for students interested in all topics related to outer space. The club’s weekly Wednesday evening meetings consist of presentations and conversations with professionals from the space industry who provide insight on how to break into the industry and where it is headed.

GUSI is not only a forum for professional networking but a place for student innovation. The organization is composed of four different teams that pursue projects related to space policy, science and technology, investment and commercial space companies.

Brady Stoffregen (SFS ’26), a member of the science and technology team, said his team is working on several developments with corporations.

“One of the upcoming projects is with an IBM satellite, where we will be given the opportunity to code some of the satellite’s functions while it is up in space,” Stoffregen said in an interview with

The Hoya. “I am also a part of a new research team that is doing some agricultural research, testing plant life in space.”

GUSI also runs Georgetown’s Space Advocacy Committee (GSAC) which encourages and plans the implementation of space-based curriculums and initiatives on campus. Stoffregen said this committee exposes students to new academic and career paths they never considered before.

“I think it is largely involvement in GUSI that pushed me towards a STIA major as opposed to coming in doing IPOL,” Stoffregen said.

“And now I am taking an intro to comp sci class so that I can participate in the satellite program.”

While GUSI is working to improve space education at Georgetown through a student outlet, there are still institutional concerns. GUSI co-presidents Andres Permuy (CAS ’24) and Owen Chbani (SFS ’25) said they are concerned about Georgetown’s lack of academic resources related to space.

“We would like to have more classes added,” Andres said.

“We would like to see an expansion of space related classes in STEM. However, that requires a specialized faculty.”

fairs (STIA), Chbani said that this goal would be possible through more course options.

“The first step … within STIA is to add to those sub-concentrations. Like science, technology, security, sustainable development. There could just be a space concentration added on to that,” Chbani said.

Associate history professor Dagomar Degroot, whose classes focus on climate crises and space exploration, serves as a professional advisor to GUSI. Degroot said GUSI is only just the beginning of the necessary implementation of space education at Georgetown.

“GUSI was very much on the development of new space and space commercialization. It has kind of kept astronomy alive to some extent at Georgetown for decades, but in a sense we are still doing so little at Georgetown,” Degroot told The Hoya in an interview. “We would love to hire more people and have more courses to reflect the level of interest and the importance of the issue going forward.”

Degroot also said the great amount of student engagement with Georgetown’s few space-related events was promising, such as an environment symposium hosted along with NASA. Degroot said this was an example of exten-

searchers at George Washington University on Jan. 27. According to the study, more than 30% of people suffered from long COVID, defined as symptoms that develop more than four weeks after initial infection.

“Even if you may have a mild case of COVID, the risk of long COVID is still there,” Mishori told The Hoya Students are also concerned about their own health and those of their classmates and friends.

“With the recent rise of COVID cases on Georgetown’s Campus, the university must center its disabled and immunocompromised community members,” the Georgetown Disability Alliance wrote to The Hoya. “As a community, we must take more proactive measures to protect our

disabled and immunocompromised community members.” Some public health recommendations that apply to all students, regardless of health status. Sokas recommended students get vaccinated and boosted with the bivalent booster and continue to wear masks in classrooms. Sokas also recommended the university look into additional measures, such as far-UVC, which can inactivate the virus without posing health risks to humans, to further protect the community.

“I urge everyone to think about the most vulnerable in our community and how we can be part of a solution of protecting them, even, sometimes at the expense of inconvenience to yourself,” Mishori said.

Include Forgotten Female Scientists in Our Syllabi

Maria Posada Velasco Columnist

Every semester, I flip through my science class syllabi and am met with the same familiar pattern: pages and pages filled with the names of male scientists.

At first, I perceived the absence of women in science syllabi as a sign that they were not involved in the history of major scientific advances, but this is not the case. Many notable women succeeded despite the male-dominated field, and ignoring these women and their accomplishments is the modern equivalent of the blatant sexism that reigned in science years ago. Science classes at Georgetown University need to teach about more women in science.

The abhorrent notion that women did not make significant contributions in science is far from the truth. Many female scientists, including Mary Anning, Elizabeth Blackwell and Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, made impressive breakthroughs and innovated science in fields dominated by men.

Most of women’s contributions to science remain lost to history, however. Our classes at Georgetown have a responsibility to spotlight these historically forgotten women, elevating their scientific discoveries and providing new generations of women scientists with representative role models.

members. We have a responsibility to give her a voice many years later by highlighting her work in geoscience and evolution classes.

Another woman whose story should be incorporated into Georgetown’s science curricula is Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. Blackwell was born in England and moved to the U.S. at 11, where she dove head first into advocating for abolition. Blackwell initially trained as a teacher and had no interest in pursuing a career in medicine, until speaking to a dying family friend who expressed that there was a crisis in patient care in America. In 1849, Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. Blackwell spent her life advocating both for women’s healthcare and the importance of women doctors in improving patient care.

Blackwell also founded the New York Dispensary for Poor Women and Children, which provided a space for women to practice medicine in a time where most practices and hospitals did not accept them. The hospital provided high-quality medical and surgical care to families struggling financially. For those interested in becoming healthcare professionals, we have Blackwell to thank for opening the door for the many years of female doctors at Georgetown and beyond.

sive student interest and desire for more space-related programming on campus. Within the next few months, GUSI has a lot planned. Not only will they be hosting more space industry professionals at meetings, but GUSI will participate in various networking and educational conferences around the Washington, D.C. area and the United States.

Notably, GUSI is preparing to assist in hosting SEDS international SpaceVision conference in November 2023, a student-based networking and educational conference for space lovers.

“It is a really huge opportunity for students because it is right here in our backyard,” Permuy said in an interview with The Hoya. “SpaceVision is an excellent event to network and for students to get their start in the space industry.”

Degroot said he strongly encourages students to complement their education with space-related programming.

“If you think about where our species is headed, I think expansion into space is pretty much inevitable,” Degroot said. “It is very fundamental that students have an understanding of what the picture looks like right now, and where it might be headed.”

Highlighting the achievements of women scientists helps fight against misconceptions. These women and their achievements show the scientific community that the sciences are not only for men, and help break down the misconception that women are not as successful or impactful as scientists as men.

Women should not have to wait for trending movies such as “Hidden Figures” and “Radioactive” to shine a light on these scholars. I’m not saying female scientists need celebrity status — after all, scientists are rarely household names. But when you ask someone to name 5 scientists, those names should not all belong to men, and the women mentioned should not be limited to Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin. The first step to equity among the sexes is to teach about women in our classes and read about them in books just the same as their male counterparts.

Such education starts here. One example of a historically forgotten female scientist is Mary Anning. Anning was a ‘fossil hunter’ in the early-to-mid 19th century whose discoveries helped revolutionize our knowledge of marine Jurassic species.

Although she was clearly a pioneer in paleontology, Anning never received the recognition she deserved. Despite these major findings, Anning died in debt with little to no recognition and was never admitted to the Geological Society of London, where her male contemporaries were

At Georgetown, Margaret Oakley Dayhoff broke several boundaries. Dayhoff worked at the Georgetown Medical Center during the 1970s, and revolutionized the field of bioinformatics by applying mathematics and computational techniques to protein sequencing. One of Dayhoff’s major contributions was the Protein Information Resource, which is the online database containing a collection of all known protein sequences.

Dayhoff also invented the single letter amino acid code, which significantly reduced the data file size needed to code amino acid sequences. These are all techniques which are central to several biology courses, but Dayhoff is rarely, if ever, credited in these classes despite the fact that she worked right here at Georgetown. Incorporating Dayhoff’s role in the curricula of classes with a molecular or evolutionary focus would serve not only to credit her for creating technology and a letter coding system we use everyday, but also to remind us of the incredible science that happened right here at Georgetown.

While these are only three examples of women whose recognition has been lost to history, there are countless women who helped progress the scientific field whose names are lost to history. It is vital that we learn about these women in our classes at Georgetown to elevate their stories and discoveries.

Women have always, and will always, play a vital role in science.

Maria Posada Velasco is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. Mind the STEM Gap appears in print or online every third Friday.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Three Georgetown professors received a three-year grant from the NSF to research the properties of colloidal gels.

GU272+ Descendants Discuss Family History, Future Education

Students Organize Candlelight Vigil to Mourn, Honor Life of Tyre Nichols

Evie Steele Student Life Desk Editor

CW: This article discusses police brutality. Please refer to this article on thehoya.com for on- and off-campus resources.

Georgetown University students gathered at a candlelight vigil to grieve and remember the life of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man whom Memphis police officers brutally beat to death.

Dozens of Georgetown students, faculty and staff attended the Feb. 5 vigil in Red Square, organized by Kessley Janvier (CAS ’25), to celebrate Nichols’ life and mourn his death. A diverse audience of students, faculty and Campus Ministry staff held candles in silence as Janvier, Lukas Soloman (SFS ’26) and Rev. Ebony Grisom, the interim director of Protestant Christian Ministry at Georgetown, spoke.

On Jan. 20, the Memphis Police Department (MPD) fired five officers involved in Nichols’ killing, before releasing body camera and surveillance video of Nichols’ arrest Jan. 27. By Feb. 3, two further officers and three emergency medical technicians had also been fired.

The footage prompted widespread protests across the United States, from New York to Los Angeles, as well as advocacy from members of U.S. Congress, all demanding police reform and accountability for Nichols’ death.

“I just think of how they have to explain to that boy that Dad went to work one day and didn’t come home,” Janvier said at the vigil.

Attendees observed a moment of silence following Janvier’s speech before Grisom said a prayer for compassion and justice.

“When we see our sibling hurting, may we pause and extend love. When we see our sibling struggling, may we pause to extend help. When we see our sibling grieving, may we pause to extend compassion,” Grisom said at the vigil.

After Grisom’s prayer, Soloman read Jericho Brown’s “The Tradition,” a poem about brutality, injustice and systemic racism.

Janvier said she chose to hold a vigil, instead of bringing the Georgetown community in a different forum, such as a rally or protest, because it allowed for students to pay their respects to Nichols’ life beyond his death.

“I feel like a lot of times when people are killed by the police, they lose their personhood. They become a line on Twitter, or a photo, and very often you lose the entire backstory of their lives,” Janvier told The Hoya. “I felt like a vigil was a good way to discuss who he was and also come together as a community to express our sorrows at not only his death, but by the manner in which he died, without necessarily centering the way in which he died.”

GU272+, from A1

McSherry, former Georgetown president who served as Mulledy’s lawyer during the sale.

In November 2015, DeGioia approved the renaming of Mulledy and McSherry Halls following student protests and a recommendation from the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation.

The university temporarily renamed the buildings Freedom and Remembrance Halls, before renaming them in 2017 to Isaac Hawkins Hall, after the first enslaved person recorded in the 1838 sale, and Anne Marie Becraft Hall, a pioneer Black educator.

In April 2019, 66.1% of students voted to establish a $27.20 semesterly fee to go toward a fund that would benefit GU272+ descendants. The university did not implement the fee but instead announced its intention in October 2019 to form community-based projects about GU272+ before launching a Reconciliation Fund in October 2022.

Growing up alongside Prater in Louisiana, Scott said he often wondered about his heritage and how his family ended up in Maringouin.

“Like how did we get here?” Scott said. “Nobody had answers. We knew that nobody would, on their own, move to this place.”

When Prater broke the news to Scott that she is his biological cousin, Scott said it felt rewarding to finally get answers.

“It was a hard life,” Scott said at the event. “Well, who caused the life I was living? Our history had been erased, our people didn’t know. And so for a kid who grew up throwing rocks wondering, would I ever make it out of this place? It meant everything. It means everything.”

Scott, who now works as a pastor in Bowie, Md., said that he struggled with the idea that his ancestors were owned by priests, given his own faith.

“So people who were supposed to be the face of the pope were actually the face of hell, and they betrayed our people,” Scott said. “How do I process that? How do I handle that? I’ve learned from my mom, forgiveness is for me; if you hurt me, I need to forgive you so that I won’t be a prisoner to that situation.”

Scott said that education is essential in the preservation of historical stories like the GU272+.

“One of my big fears is that one day everybody will lose interest, and the knowledge will fade,” Scott said. “And two generations from now, another group of people are gonna have to rediscover this whole history for themselves. We don’t want to have that happen.”

Prater said schools like Georgetown must continue to raise awareness of Black history, especially given recent efforts by states like Florida to ban a new Advanced Placement course in African American studies.

“So I’m asking you to hold them accountable,” Prater said. “And make this a part of the curriculum, a part of the college tours, right up there beside [John] Carroll. This history needs to be right there.”

Scott said one way to ensure history is not forgotten is for Georgetown to publicly pay homage to its ancestors.

“I also would like to see a shrine. Something at Georgetown, where something can be constructed — a sculpture or torch that never goes out,” Scott said. “Something that tells people that the GU272 were here because our story really is a microcosm of what happened throughout this country.”

Campus Ministry supplied candles for the vigil, which attendees lit as Janvier described Nichols’ life. A 29-year-old familyoriented father to a 4-year-old son, who loved skateboarding and landscape photography, Nichols had his mother’s name tattooed on his arm.

“I tell you that to say that he’s just an average person,” Janvier said at the vigil. “He’s just an average guy trying to go home, trying to go to his mother’s house, and his life was taken.”

Soloman, who helped Janvier organize the vigil, said the event intended to provide a space for community members to come together and support each other.

“Anger and frustration weren’t the primary reactions. It was more just pain and grief and exhaustion, and we wanted something that was more appropriate for those feelings,” Soloman told The Hoya. “And we wanted to cultivate a space where those emotions could be felt and shared and expressed and processed.”

Ollie Henry (CAS ‘24), who attended the vigil, said they find

community essential to process the grief of racist violence.

“It takes me back into my body with a reminder that support exists, that violence to the Black community is more than just another headline to other folks at the University,” Henry wrote to The Hoya. “Tyre died alone. We deserve to grieve together.”

Janvier said she organized the vigil alone, rather than through campus clubs, in order to separate the affirming role of cultural affinity clubs, such as the Black Student Alliance (BSA), from the burden and grief of the vigil.

“Very often, when there is an event that happens within that affinity group — so, for example, a hate crime against Asian people, or a Black person gets shot by police, or somebody experiences any kind of racism — it falls on that affinity club to organize for that and to advocate for that, and I feel that is wrong,” Janvier said.

“The role of the BSA is not to be protesting every week. The role of the BSA is to provide a safe space for Black students,” Janvier added.

“I didn’t want the BSA to be putting on a vigil because they should not have to put on a vigil.”

Both Janvier and Soloman were surprised by the vigil’s immense turnout.

“What we ended up seeing were people from many different identities and backgrounds, racially, religiously, showing up both to grieve and also to support,” Soloman said.

Janvier said it is important to continue to demonstrate kindness and compassion in the wake of Nichols’ death.

“We ought to extend more love to each other,” Janvier said at the vigil. “Tyre’s mom, she said that he had a beautiful and loving soul. And I think if there’s one thing we can take away from his life, and unfortunately his death, is to extend more love to each other on this campus and off this campus and every day.”

Students held a candlelight vigil in Red Square on Feb. 5 to mourn the death and celebrate the life of Tyre Nichols, a Black man killed by police in January.

Former Senator Donates $4 Million of Congressional Funds to Georgetown

Emily Han

Academics Desk Editor

Former Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) made a record charitable donation of $4 million to Georgetown University from his campaign fund account, the largest congressional campaign donation ever made directly to a university.

The $4 million donation, which was made public in a Jan. 31 filing, quadrupled the next largest congressional campaign donation to a university, according to Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher at OpenSecrets, an independent nonprofit that tracks money in U.S. politics. Richard Shelby chose not to run for reelection in 2022 after serving in the U.S. Senate for 36 years, leaving him with $16 million of unspent campaign funds. The senator’s team did not respond to a request for comment.

Annette Shelby, the senator’s wife, is professor emerita in the McDonough School of Business (MSB). In 1997, Annette Shelby became the first woman to be a tenured professor in the MSB; she taught at Georgetown for more than 20 years.

Annette Shelby said her husband raised more money than was necessary to fund his senatorial campaigns and felt that giving back to Georgetown would make a continuing impact for university students.

“In the end, he had some money left, and he felt that Georgetown had been such a wonderful place for me and had given me many opportunities,”

Annette Shelby told The Hoya

“He wanted to show that, and he also wanted to leave some kind

of legacy for me as well.”

Annette Shelby also said the recent donation to Georgetown comes after Richard Shelby’s campaign donated much of its excess funds to other universities and fellow candidates, though all of these donations together did not total even $1 million.

A university spokesperson said the donation will fulfill important needs in the MSB.

“Georgetown works carefully with our generous donors to ensure alignment of goals in the purpose of gifts,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “We deeply appreciate the trailblazing contributions Prof. Shelby has made to the Georgetown University community over the years and are grateful for this gift in support of critical priorities at the McDonough School of Business.”

Richard Shelby’s campaign committee recorded one donation of $4 million disbursed to Georgetown University on Nov. 3, 2022, according to the FEC website. Shelby’s campaign account now has about $5.5 million in remaining funds.

Richard Shelby also leads the political action committee (PAC) Defend America, which supports Republican candidates. According to The Washington Post, in 2014 Shelby used substantial campaign and PAC funds for extravagant travel and food expenses. These expenses included $4,400 at the Senate Gift Shop and $1,000 at Chick-fil-A, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2021 and 2022, records show reimbursements of over $28,000 in total to Richard Shelby and Annette Shelby for travel and food expenses.

Richard Shelby left office with the most leftover funds out of any retiring member of the 117th Congress, with $9.7 million in his campaign account and $6.5 million in Defend America, according to Roll Call.

FEC records show that Defend America contributed a total of $5.5 million to the Alabama Christian Conservatives, a super PAC that supported his successor, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). Donating leftover leadership PAC funds directly to a super PAC is relatively unusual, according to Mayersohn.

Mayersohn said that once a member of U.S. Congress retires,

the main options for spending leftover campaign funds include giving to a charitable organization, donating to a party committee, refunding campaign donors or supporting another candidate.

“I would guess the normal thing to do is to donate the money that was raised to begin with to support fellow members of their party,” Mayersohn told The Hoya Myles Martin, FEC public affairs specialist, said federal campaign committees are allowed to donate to educational institutions, as they are a type of organization that falls under the charitable donation category outlined

in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code.

“Donations of campaign funds to a charitable organization do not constitute the personal use of campaign funds unless the candidate (former or current) receives compensation from the donee organization before the organization has expended, for purposes unrelated to the candidate’s personal benefit, the entire amount donated by the campaign,” Martin wrote to The Hoya Richard Shelby’s campaign account has never received money from Georgetown University, according to the FEC website.

Mayersohn said that because leadership PACs face fewer restrictions on spending, FEC records are not fully reflective of how candidates handle their funds.

“Be aware of what the data can and can’t tell you,” Mayersohn said. “We know a lot about who donates to congressional campaigns because that data is all required to be made public and with very stringent requirements. We know a lot less about who donates to super PACs and outside spending groups because those groups have many more avenues of hiding the money.”

GU272 MEMORY PROJECT

GU272+ descendants spoke about their ancestors’ history with Georgetown and how they hope to preserve their memory at a Feb. 2 panel.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Former Sen. Richard Shelby donated $4 million from his campaign account to Georgetown University, where his wife, Annette Shelby (pictured center), taught for 20 years and has been tenured since 1997.

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H*yas for Choice Launches First Sexual Joy Committee Meeting

Sophia Lu Student Life Desk Editor

H*yas for Choice (HFC) launched a new sexual joy committee for Georgetown University students to learn more about sex and sexual empowerment, which held its first meeting Feb. 2.

The sexual joy committee’s first meeting introduced interested participants to the committee’s goals for the semester ahead, which include expanding knowledge about sexual experiences and generating more awareness around safe sex practices. HFC, an abortion-rights student group, hopes the committee will draw interest from a broad range of Georgetown students. The committee houses three subdivisions — sexual empowerment, sex education and queer sex — that mirror the overarching targets of the new initiative.

Committee members plan to host informational seminars and lead interactive workshops throughout the semester to create a more positive sexual environment for the Georgetown community.

Serena Barish (CAS ’25), HFC

co-director of advocacy and organizing, steered the formation of the new sexual joy committee. Barish said that advancing reproductive justice requires creating safe spaces for conversations about sex, especially at religious institutions.

“We feel like information is really important, and especially surrounding sex, it’s not something that people generally have the easiest access to, especially people who have gone through kind of like the Catholic school pipeline up to Georgetown,” Bar-

ish told The Hoya Sophie Burk (SOH ’25) and Brigid O’Connor (CAS ’26) co-lead the sex education subcommittee, which focuses on building better foundational understandings of topics like birth control, closing the orgasm gap between men and women and destigmatizing sexual experiences for those with medical conditions.

Burk said the sexual joy committee is an extension of HFC, though the committee places a greater emphasis on sharing information about the sexual experience itself.

DC Expands Tutoring Following COVID-19 Learning Disruptions

Julia Butler City Desk Editor

Washington, D.C., announced Feb. 2 its third major investment in high-impact tutoring (HIT), a form of intensive individual or smallgroup tutoring.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), the state education agency for the District, will support an additional 3,600 students with their investment and hopes to close opportunity gaps in learning created during COVID-19 online classes. D.C. will divide the funds between nine tutoring organizations across the city, according to a D.C. government press release. Bowser said disruptions in learning due to the pandemic made it necessary to invest in educational support like HIT.

“We know that many students are still recovering from the time spent out of the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic and need extra support to rebuild con-

Black and Hispanic students in D.C. dropped 7.7 and 7.0 percentage points, respectively, compared to the 5.3% drop for white students. For math, the proficiency rate dropped 13.4 percentage points for Hispanic students, 12.0 for Black students and 8.7 percentage points for white students.

Antonio Gutierrez, co-founder of Saga Education, a highimpact, in-school tutoring organization receiving funding from the District, said that HIT is an efficient and tested approach to combating learning challenges.

“High impact tutoring, when implemented with fidelity, is one of the most cost-effective approaches ever rigorously evaluated in U.S. Public Education,” Gutierrez wrote to The Hoya. “It is an area worthy of additional exploration and investment.”

Of the nine organizations receiving funding in the form of Scaling HIT Grants, six will partner with schools, two will work in schools and within communities at non-school sites and one will provide HIT in non-school sites only.

Organizations obtaining the grants include American University; Great Oaks Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to career-technical programs and services for youth and adults; Horton’s Kids, an organization helping children and families in Ward 8 with academics, youth development, health and wellness and family engagement; and Lana Learn, a global education and training company.

fidence in learning,” Bowser said in the Feb. 2 press release. “There are also students who were already struggling academically before the pandemic, and that’s why we are focused on strengthening and scaling up our high-impact tutoring program.”

The English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency rate for D.C. students in third to eighth grade dropped from 38 to 30 percent between 2019 and 2022. Similarly, math proficiency dropped from 32 to 22 percent.

The increased funds for HIT will focus on aiding atrisk groups because of the disproportionate impacts the pandemic had on learning disruption, according to the press release.

“The disruptions in learning that occurred during the pandemic disproportionately impacted students of color, students from lower-income families and students who were already struggling academically,” the press release read. “The HIT programming prioritizes these students and ensures they have the supports needed to achieve academically.”

The ELA proficiency rates for

“We’re here trying to create a space that focuses on how to create positive sexual experiences,” Burk told The Hoya. “It’s more about the pleasure aspect, the joy aspects of mindsets.”

Sydney Abele (CAS ’25), a coleader of the queer sex subcommittee, said committee leadership prioritizes engaging participants from diverse backgrounds.

“With me being a representative from GUPride, as well, I think that it’s really important to have not only gender and sexual minorities be represented,” Abele told The Hoya. “It’s also really important to have people of color represented and people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. So that’s definitely something that we’re really cognizant of, and working towards actively.”

For their first campus-wide event, the sexual joy committee invited students to participate in a discussion about hookup culture.

O’Connor said events like this are critical to the overall mission of the committee but also to attract potential new participants. “We’re still very much in our

kind of incubating phase where we’re still collecting applicants, and trying to build the committee up a bit more,” O’Connor told The Hoya. “As more people kind of gauge interest, and as we start having this type of event, and increase our presence on campus, we already have an influx of interest from more people.”

Marieteresa Porcher Allen (MSB ’24), an attendee at the hookup culture event, said the meeting was very informative. “I learned a lot. I feel like I knew some stuff already, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot, like half of the

Students Donate Food, Supplies to Earthquake Relief in Turkey

Evie Steele

Student Life Desk Editor

CW:Thisarticlereferences/discusses violence related to natural disasters.Pleaserefertotheendofthearticle for on- and off-campus resources.

Georgetown University’s Turkish students organized a food and supply drive to send resources to people in Turkey following the deadly earthquake that killed around 21,000 individuals in Syria and Turkey as of a Feb. 9 statistic.

Bora Balçay (SFS ’23) worked with other Turkish students to organize the supply drive, collecting items like clothes and food, after learning of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The earthquake, epicenter near Gaziantep in southcentral Turkey, struck in the early morning of Feb. 6 local time with a 7.5-magnitude aftershock occurring nine hours later about 60 miles away.

The earthquake caused widespread building collapses in both Turkey and Syria, killing over 15,000 people in the two countries as of Wednesday. The earthquake’s epicenter lies in an area where millions of displaced people have settled, including at least 1.7 million of the 3.5 million Syrian war refugees that Turkey hosts.

Student efforts to organize the Feb. 6 drive started after the Turkish Embassy announced it would be collecting donations and flying them to Turkey, according to Balçay.

“I am in touch with a contact at the embassy, who was helping us

Bowser has committed more than $39 million over three years to HIT programming and announced in the press release that her goal is to deliver HIT to at least 10,000 D.C. students, which is 2,000 more students than OSSE’s original goal in September 2022.

HIT as an intervention strategy has proven to be successful in improving student learning, according to the release.

“HIT allows students to receive intensive tutoring, either one-to-one or in very small groups, on a sustained basis over a semester or longer,” the release read. “This type of tutoring has strong evidence supporting its effectiveness among all learning interventions.”

D.C. State Superintendent Christina Grant said that the experiences students have in HIT programs positively impact the trajectory of their entire educational career.

“The relationships that students build with tutors in the HIT programming shapes their learning experiences for life,” said Grant in the press release.

“It’s important that all students in DC have the confidence to learn and grow academically, and we know that having more tutors in our schools will ensure that our most vulnerable students are better supported and prevent achievement gaps from growing.”

population has herpes, that was kind of crazy,” Allen told The Hoya “I’m looking forward to more events like this.”

Allen said she appreciated how attendees actively contributed new perspectives to the conversations at the event.

“I thought it was really good. I learned a lot from the open discussion, especially from the guys that were here making good comments, which was interesting and made me happy,” Allen said.

Burk said those who have engaged with the sexual joy committee so far have displayed large

amounts of enthusiasm for the committee and its purpose.

“It’s kind of a self-selecting group who comes, but honestly, the thing that surprised me the most was just how the people who came or have been coming to what we’ve been doing have actually been very eager to participate and have their voice heard,” Burk said.

“The three goals that I would use are probably education, empowerment and destigmatization,” Abele said. “Those are three really big goals that sum up what we’re trying to do here.”

when he gave me the list of necessary items, shared the embassy donation account and its numbers that I have been sharing,” Balçay told The Hoya. “When the boxes are filled, hopefully tomorrow, I am gonna take the first party of goods to the embassy, and they are going to help.”

Students can drop off new winter clothes, outdoor equipment, unopened canned food, baby formula, diapers and hygiene products in the drive’s collection box in the Intercultural Center Galleria until Feb. 10.

The areas impacted by the earthquake are currently experiencing harsh winter weather, further exacerbating the disaster’s scope and complicating rescue efforts.

Parts of the affected area in Syria are controlled by the Syrian government and their opposition, making providing aid to affected areas of Syria more difficult. The United States and members of the European Union currently sanction the Syrian government, while opposition-held areas have little formal sovereignty through which countries or humanitarian organizations can provide aid.

Balçay said it is crucial to remember that the earthquake has also caused damage and death in an already-vulnerable Syria even though the student supplies will be sent to Turkey.

“We are on the Turkish side, and there is also the Syrian side of the story, which nobody is really talking about, because,

Students have started a food and supply drive to aid victims of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

unfortunately, damage is very unclear so far,” Balcay said. “Disaster relief is incredibly hard to get there, information is really not coming down.”

Turkish student Cansu Özdemir (CAS ’26) said it was very difficult to read about the earthquake.

“Fortunately, my family and friends are safe and were not directly affected,” Özdemir wrote to The Hoya. “However, this is a challenging time for all in Turkey, as the rebuilding process will be lengthy and difficult for everyone.”

Doğa Bozkurt (CAS ’26), a Turkish student helping organize the drive and raise funds, said she felt shocked upon hearing about the earthquake.

“Having to live with the reality, there is so many people from your country who is struggling right now, and knowing that there is not much you can do right now to help other than donate and raise awareness, it is so upsetting,” Bozkurt told The Hoya Bozkurt said the unity she saw in Turkey following the earthquake was inspiring.

“What inspired me was the sheer courage of Turkish people to come together at this time, no matter who they are, if they know

the people who were affected or not,” Bozkurt said. “They are all sharing in the pain of the people.”

The university also encouraged students to aid Turkish and Syrian relief organizations in a Feb. 6 email to students.

“We are deeply saddened by the devastation and loss of life caused by the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria,” the email reads. “We offer our prayers and thoughts to all those affected by the earthquakes and their aftermath, and we encourage our community to help respond to this disaster as ‘people for others’ in any way that we can.”

Bozkurt encouraged Georgetown students to help as much as they can through donations to the supply drive and to Turkish governmental rescue organizations.

“There are many ways that you can help,” Bozkurt said. “Even if you are helpless and your contribution is relatively small, it is still huge. During this time, it is important for everyone to come together and provide whatever are the necessities of the people who are left homeless or people who are still under the rubble.”

Please refer to this article on thehoya.com for on- and offcampus resources.

InterHall Council Met with Election Controversy

A candidate running for a position on the Georgetown University InterHall Council, a student group dedicated to improving the residence life of on-campus community members, sparked student outrage for allegedly promising support to political clubs in exchange for votes in its Feb. 3 election. Controversy first arose after posts appeared on Flok, an anonymous college social media platform, that referenced a message that a candidate for the InterHall executive board sent in a GroupMe channel called “Republican Hoyas Group.”

In this channel, Christian Spadini (CAS ’26), a candidate for vice president of finance for InterHall, encouraged recipients to vote for a list of seven candidates, including himself, for the InterHall executive board. All seven candidates on the list won their respective elections.

Spadini’s message characterized the members as politically conservative, according to screenshots obtained by The Hoya. The message also implied future collaboration between InterHall and

Georgetown University College Republicans (GUCR) using InterHall funds.

“We assembled a slate of good, conservative candidates,” Spadini wrote in the message. “If you guys could vote for us then it would do wonders on campus. We plan on doing events with GUCR if elected.”

Students expressed outrage at the message online. Just hours after members of the “Republican Hoyas Group” received the message, posts about a connection between InterHall and GUCR began to circulate on Flok.

“I know Interhall council is stupid, but PLEASE VOTE,” one student wrote. “Currently, GUCR are currently trying to swamp the vote, and have announced plans to use the funds for events with their own club.”

“I know that Georgetown has an obsession with politics, but trying to scam Interhall elections is just pathetic. Come on GUCR,” another student wrote.

Dario Cassera (CAS ’26), the newly elected president of InterHall, said the GroupMe message is not reflective of the candidates’ plans for their administration.

“We are an entirely apo-

litical group, and politics do not and should not have anything to do with our goals to make campus and student living better,” Cassera told The Hoya. “I have no affiliation with the Georgetown College Republicans or any partisan group on campus, and the board itself acts as an apolitical entity.”

GUCR President Michael Emerson (CAS ’24) said the organization had no involvement in campaigning for InterHall seats and that no plans are underway to work with InterHall.

“With regards to the InterHall Council election, GUCR made no official or unofficial deals with any of the candidates,” Emerson wrote to The Hoya. “We also made no endorsements or promotions.”

Spadini said that while he previously suggested a potential collaboration between InterHall and GUCR, he would not support funding for events with a solely political aim.

“There have not been nor are there any plans to send IHC funds to GUCR or any specific club,” Spadini wrote to The Hoya. “The Interhall Council will not organize an event solely to further any political agenda.”

Cassera said the candidates

agreed upon and sent out similar messages promoting themselves in GroupMe channels for other clubs, including the Philodemic Society, the Asian American Student Association and Hilltop Consultants.

“We have multiple friends of philo running and if we win we would definitely try and help philo with events through interhall,” Spadini wrote in a GroupMe message to the Philodemic Society.

Cassera said it is the board’s goal to move past the initial concerns surrounding its election and focus its efforts on improving the student housing experience.

“I’m disappointed that this controversy has kind of gotten in the way of advocating and encouraging education on the InterHall Council,” Cassera said. “I just want everyone to know that we do not care about your political affiliation.”

Spadini said students interested in InterHall affairs can keep up with the organization by looking at its minutes.

“As laid out in the constitution, minutes will be kept at every IHC meeting,” Spadini said. “These will be made available to all students in the interest of transparency and openness.”

EVIE STEELE/THE HOYA

“We know that having more tutors in our schools will ensure that our most vulnerable students are better supported.”

CHRISTINA GRANT D.C. State Superintendent

Jack Willis Graduate Desk Editor

Glossier CEO Talks Beauty Industry, Retail, Personal Career Path

Brian Li Community/Events Desk

A Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy (COL ’05) spoke with students about her vision for Glossier, her experience working in the beauty industry and her path from Georgetown University to her current role.

The McDonough School of Business hosted the Feb. 3 event in collaboration with the Georgetown Retail and Luxury Association (GRLA), a studentrun organization committed to educating students about the retail industry and connecting them with professional opportunities in luxury and retail. The event focused on Leahy’s long-term expectations for Glossier, a community-driven beauty brand built around connecting emotionally with its consumers, and her experience as a student at Georgetown.

Leahy said she spent her undergraduate years studying both humanities and STEM.

“I was an English and mathematics major, though that was probably a sign that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” Leahy told The Hoya “But it was also the start of a thread that’s been throughout my career, which is balancing the arts and sciences.”

As an undergraduate student, Leahy had an interest in consulting, but began feeling an urge to balance both her artistic and analytical sides by working in a more creative industry. This desire brought her

to Harvard Business School, and later, Nike.

“Nike really opened my eyes to the power of consumer brands,” Leahy said. “Seeing a transcendent brand that has dominated its industry on such an emotional and resonant level yet continues to develop new products and marketing strategies was just eye-opening to me.”

This focus on brand power led her to join Glossier as chief commercial officer before moving up to CEO.

“I genuinely believe that in 2030, Glossier will be the next household name of beauty, and when we look forward decades, Glossier will have served a transformational role in the beauty industry,” Leahy said. “We are built on the belief that someone’s story is the most powerful way to create human connection. We tell these stories to give a voice to people who use our products.”

Leahy said the current beauty industry is built to make people believe they must look a certain way. Glossier’s goal is instead to create an environment where everyone is comfortable with how they look, according to Leahy.

“Beauty, ultimately, is a feeling, and Glossier taps into that in such a resonant, emotional way,” Leahy said. “You can be part of a community, be part of something bigger than yourself, in the way that you’re experiencing with our brand. What excites us the most is

Former Mexican Undersecretary Discusses Latin American Trade

that as a brand, we are on a mission to change how the world sees beauty.”

Glossier’s motto, “Skin First. Makeup Second,” represents the company’s fundamental ethos to make everyone feel like the best version of themselves, according to Leahy.

Another thing that sets Glossier apart is the curation of its retail stories to their respective locations, something Leahy said is important for bringing a company’s brand to life within a specific community.

“We’re continuing to lean into our retail experience because it’s the place where we can bring our brand and the community aspect to life,” Leahy said. “Each of our stores is designed with the lens of ‘how do we inspire the Glossier brand but localize it to where we are?’”

Leahy said that in the next five years, she believes Glossier will not only be a leader in the beauty industry but also a major player in changing the industry’s values.

“When we look out into the future, I believe this will be the next household name of beauty that will really serve all aspects of different consumers around the world,” Leahy said. “I hope that we can be a leader in terms of changing the paradigm of how the beauty industry is perceived. I think instead of being a feeling about a superficial way you should look, it’s about how we make people feel.”

Citigroup Global Chief Economist Predicts 2023 Economic Trends

Former Mexican Undersecretary for Foreign Trade Luz María de la Mora discussed the future of Latin American trade with Georgetown University students on Feb. 6.

The Latin American Policy Association (LAPA), a student group dedicated to the discussion of Latin American policies and politics, and the Georgetown University Graduate Association of Mexican Students (GUGAMS), a student group focused on professional development and Mexican cultural appreciation, organized the event.

De la Mora focused the discussion on restructuring supply chains, which she sees as a top economic priority for Latin American countries, particularly Mexico, in combination with maintaining macroeconomic stability and a strong fiscal policy.

De la Mora said it is important for Latin America to scale up its supply chains in order for the region to play a bigger role in political development.

“Geopolitics are taking a very important place in global issues, and Latin America has a role to play,” de la Mora said at the event. “We are not very clear about where we are located and what are the benefits of integrating or participating in the global economy, so we are suffering from the effects of the global decisions.”

Latin American countries have experienced a slowdown of trade integration efforts be-

An Nguyen Special to The Hoya

Citigroup Global Chief Economist Nathan Sheets delivered his largely pessimistic 2023 global economic forecast on Feb. 6 to Georgetown University students in the Intercultural Center (ICC).

The Georgetown Americas Institute, a research center focusing on key challenges facing Latin America, and the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, a research center about good financial industry practices and policies, co-hosted the event. Sheets discussed domestic monetary and fiscal policy, U.S.-China trade relations and global market projections during his talk, suggesting overall pessimism for the global economy in 2023.

Sheets projects low economic confidence due to high inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes, saying governments have a lot of work to do to restore consumer confidence in banks.

“Central banks look at the high level of inflation as an existential challenge,” Sheets said at the event. “As they’ve seen the inflation surge, it’s kind of a four alarm fire within the central banking community. And they’re hiking vigorously to try to bring it down.”

Sheets said a key global economic development has been the shift in consumer spending away from goods and toward services, with the United States as a prime example of this transition.

“The strength of services has important implications for the growth outlook, for real GDP, for inflation and for labor markets,” Sheets said. “Of all of the 517,000 total job creations during the month of January, 128,000 was in leisure and hospitality alone, and educational and health services were another 105,000.”

Services markets produce more than two-thirds of the global gross domestic product (GDP). They have become in-

creasingly dominant in the global economy and provide close to two-thirds of jobs in developing countries and four-fifths of jobs in developed countries.

Oversaturated services markets have created large inflationary pressures, which Sheets said the global economy needs to address moving forward.

“Taking some momentum out of the services sector can be a tougher kind of proposition, which kind of boils down to convincing all of us to stop spending so much on services,” Sheets said.

“We think that getting inflation down to two percent ultimately is going to be a slog.”

Despite his overall pessimism for the global market, Sheets said it is helpful that different regions of the world operate on different economic timelines because market volatility will be better distributed.

“We see a lot of recession risk in the global economy this year. But an important point is that it doesn’t look like all of the major economies are going to go down together,” Sheets said. “There’s a story in the United States, there’s a story in the Euro area, there’s a story in China, there’s a story in the emerging markets and they’re all pretty different.”

With an increasingly powerful economy, Sheets said China will be a potential major player on the global stage for years to come.

“China’s economy is growing, it’s becoming more powerful,” Sheets said. “A bigger part of the global economy, China itself is more influential.”

Latin America’s strong performance over the past few years is another reason for optimism about the future of the region, according to Sheets.

“Latin American economies were much more resilient than what we were expecting,” Sheets said. “And specifically for Brazil, we were expecting Brazil to have a recession in

2022. That never arrived.”

Sheets said recent data collection suggests governments outside of Latin America have also responded well to current economic challenges.

“Most of the information that we’ve received over the last six week period has been more favorable. And specifically, it’s been better than we thought in the Euro area,” Sheets. “It’s been better in China and the data in the United States have been surprisingly resilient.”

Sheets said he has measured optimism for the 2023 fiscal year in light of the flexibility that global financial institutions have demonstrated in a time of economic uncertainty.

“Significant tightening from the Federal Reserve has performed better than we would have expected,” Sheets said. “And I think that the key question, even if there are recessions, we don’t think they’re going to be extremely deep.”

Sheets tempered his hope about the global market due to difficulties other regions of the world face, including the Russia-Ukraine war continuing to complicate supply chains and trade logistics.

“I’m probably the most pessimistic about Central and Eastern Europe,” Sheet said. “That region right now, for obvious geopolitical reasons, is disrupted.”

Sheets said other geopolitical tensions could also create more economic fragmentation in the long run, especially between the U.S. and China.

“I do see kind of a deeper divide and deeper schism emerging on the tech front between the United States and China. And potentially, if the United States brings in other allies, I think we may move to a world where technology operates in two spheres,” Sheets said. “I don’t know what that means for the global economy. It’s got to be negative.”

cause of geopolitical circumstances like the pandemic, according to de la Mora.

“We have talked about the US-China trade relations, we have talked about the Russia-Ukraine invasion, we have talked about things that are happening in the European Union, how this is affecting global supply chains,” de la Mora said. “We know that there are very important challenges now. For example, we have suffered tremendously from inflation as a result of the Russia-Ukraine invasion, but also because of the pandemic.” De la Mora said the existing state of affairs in Latin America is dismal because Latin America has not been a traditional hotspot for international trade.

“Latin America is a minor player in international trade,” de la Mora said.

Latin America makes up about three percent of exports and three percent of imports of global trade, according to de la Mora. Trade in Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina amounts to less than 30% of their GDP.

De la Mora said that Latin American countries could take advantage of nearshoring, which are outsourcing efforts by geographically proximate countries and free trade agreements to stimulate trade in the region.

“The opportunity here is, how can we find those specific inputs or products or sectors?” de la Mora said. “In labor intensive industries, for exam-

ple, textile and fashion, that is an area in which we see a lot of movement.”

Countries like Mexico already have multiple trade agreements in place, but could stand to gain from building new relationships with countries they have not previously interacted with, according to de la Mora.

“After the European Union, the UK and the U.S., Mexico does not have agreements with the Republic of Korea or China, as other countries do have,” de la Mora said. “So that tells you and gives you an idea of where we could integrate into those supply chains.”

De la Mora said Latin America has a high ceiling for growth, especially if political leaders make strategic decisions both in the short and long term.

“I think that Latin America needs to think about industrial policy,” de la Mora said. “And when we talk about industrial policy, I think that we need to choose sectors, we need to choose the champions because we cannot use all of our resources for everything.”

De la Mora said it is important for Latin American countries to direct much more investment into their economic futures so they can compete with the rest of the world.

“We need to invest in physical infrastructure in workforce development, rule of law and long term vision,” de la Mora said. “Otherwise, I think we will only see opportunity when there is plenty of room and there is plenty of work.”

GUSA Senate Votes for University to Improve Red Square Lighting

Evie Steele Student Life Desk Editor

The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate unanimously approved a resolution urging the university to improve lighting in and around Red Square at its Feb. 5 meeting.

First-year senators Meriam Ahmad (CAS ’26) and Dylan Davis (CAS ’26) sponsored the resolution to improve student safety by adding better lighting to Red Square. GUSA Senate Speaker Manahal Fazal (SFS ’24), GUSA Policy and Advocacy Committee Chair Joshua Bernard-Pearl (SFS ’25) and GUSA Senator Rhea Iyer (CAS ’26) co-sponsored the resolution.

Davis said that areas around Red Square, behind White-Gravenor Hall and between White-Gravenor and the Intercultural Center (ICC) are poorly lit.

Currently, several lit bollards — short, vertical posts — around the square’s perimeter, a lit clock, and lanterns on the exterior of Copley Hall comprise the only lighting at night in Red Square, as can be seen in photographs that Ahmad and Davis captured in inspections on Jan. 29 and Feb. 4.

Other existing lights in Red Square are dysfunctional, Davis said.

“There’s also existing lights that are scattered around Red Square,” Davis said at the meeting. “Upon inspection, one night a week ago, some of those aren’t turned on, some of them are broken, they haven’t

been fixed, leading to a lot of dark areas.”

According to Davis, the steep ICC amphitheater steps pose a particular risk in the dark.

“Something that a lot of students have been talking about is the lack of lighting around certain areas. And one thing, one place, where they have a lack of lighting, is Red Square. There’s the amphitheater area, where at night, you can barely see the steps in front of you, so that poses a health hazard,” Davis said at the meeting.

Ahmad and Davis originally planned only to advocate for improved lighting in Red Square, but other senators, including Lucy Sonsalla (MSB, SFS ’23), pushed to amend the bill to also include the area behind White-Gravenor.

Around White-Gravenor, Davis said that existing lights are often turned off, such as lampposts and the overhead lights in the arch between the ICC and White-Gravenor.

“There’s actually overhead lights underneath that arch that are turned on, apparently, or turned off depending on the day. So those, A, need to be turned on. B, there’s also some existing lampposts. There’s two that are right around the perimeter that are off, or they’re broken or something, that aren’t on. There’s definitely room for improvement and repair,” Davis said at the meeting.

The resolution states that this lack of lighting makes students feel at risk — par-

ticularly during the winter months, when the sun sets before 6 p.m. and classes are still in session.

“Many students on campus feel unsafe walking through the Red Square arch and the ICC amphitheater steps, the area behind White-Gravenor, and the area between WhiteGravenor and Red Square after sunset,” the resolution reads. “Adding lights to Red Square would enhance student safety.”

Ahmad said the resolution does not ask much of the university.

“The only two requests that we have for the university is to add more lights to the areas that need lights and to repair the existing light fixtures that are currently not working,” Ahmad said.

A university spokesperson said that the Office of Facilities Management is assessing light levels in Red Square and will work to solve any issues emerging from the inspection.

“The safety and security of our students and campus is a top priority and we are always monitoring and taking steps to improve safety measures both on and around campus,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “We appreciate hearing feedback from students about our campus.”

Bernard-Pearl said it was imperative for senators to support the resolution.

“Students are bringing it to the attention of the university,” Bernard-Pearl said. “I think it’s a very good solution. It’s a great win-win for GUSA and the university.”

Sophia Lu Student Life Desk Editor

BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

Citigroup Global Chief Economist Nathan Sheets educated Georgetown students on the 2023 financial forecasts for the world economy at a Feb. 6 event.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgetown Falls Short Again in the Clutch to UConn Huskies

Austin Huang

Deputy Sports Editor

Georgetown men’s basketball fell late in its Feb. 4 game 68-62 against the heavily favored No. 21 University of Connecticut Huskies, despite its recently improved defensive play and impressive individual efforts from sophomore guard Brandon Murray and junior guard Jay Heath.

Georgetown (6-19, 1-13 Big East) dropped to 1-12 in conference play for the season after the game, showcasing that despite the talent on the roster, the Hoyas have been unable to overcome their glaring weaknesses.

The game started with hot shooting from the Huskies (18-6, 7-6 Big East), who took an early 15-9 lead on a 3-pointer from guard Tristen Newton, assisted by forward Alex Karaban. The Husky pair was lethal throughout the game, as each player made 3 3-pointers and helped UConn shoot a scorching 12-of-24 from the 3-point line.

Seven different Huskies hit a 3-point shot, aided by Georgetown’s guards’ inability to fight through screens, leading to shooters getting open off of motion offense curl cuts and wide-open rolling bigs who feasted off of Georgetown hedging pick and rolls.

Despite such hot shooting, Georgetown kept pace for most of the game by shutting down the rim and converting tough 2-pointers. Junior forward Akok Akok and senior center Qudus Wahab both recorded 2 blocks and provided excellent rim protection as the team’s big men.

Georgetown did an excellent job providing help defense in the painted area, holding UConn to just 37.5% shooting on 2-pointers.

Murray and Heath took on much of the scoring load, in part because sophomore guard and leading scorer Primo Spears took just 1 field goal attempt.

Spears looked reluctant to score all afternoon, and even when given open shots and clear lanes to the rim, he was much

more passive than usual, mostly choosing to pass out instead.

Spears’ scoring reluctance could be something to watch out for, especially since he has been the Hoyas’ primary scorer and ballhandler, as well as their most reliable option for penetrating the paint and attacking the rim.

The two teams entered the half neck-and-neck at 31 points apiece.

One worrying trend for Georgetown that persisted throughout the game was the massive disparity in offensive rebounds. The Huskies almost doubled them up, grabbing 19 offensive boards compared to the Hoyas’ 11, which resulted in UConn having 11 more field goal attempts and a significant edge in second-chance points.

Part of this disparity was due to Georgetown hedging its big men and leaving the paint unguarded for UConn’s taller and more athletic wings and guards, as well as UConn’s formidable forward Adama Sanogo’s relentless efforts on the offensive glass.

Nonetheless, the Hoyas responded well in the second half each time that UConn scored and looked to go on a run. The Huskies took their biggest lead of the half with 7:43 remaining in the contest, leading 58-50. Then, an 11-2 Hoyas run capped off by a Murray and-one gave them the lead at the 4:42 mark and got the home crowd roaring.

The Hoyas ultimately fell

short once again in the clutch despite earning a late lead, just as they have in many other games this season. After the Hoyas took the lead, their halfcourt offense that has been shaky all season melted down.

UConn sent help every single time Georgetown attacked the rim, and the Hoyas’ lack of playmaking and shooting crippled their late-game offense. Having Wahab post up against an excellent defender in Sanogo was also a puzzling decision, and the Hoyas had trouble even inbounding the ball and getting it upcourt.

On the other end, the Huskies snatched 2 massive offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive, and 2 clutch 3-pointers from Karaban sealed the game.

Even though Georgetown has performed better in its last few games against Big East competition, especially defensively, it has once again fallen victim to very clear schematic flaws. The Hoyas’ half-court offense is still uninspired, and its performance in clutch time leaves much to be desired.

Georgetown went on to lose 62-74 to the No. 20 Providence College Friars on Feb. 8. The Hoyas hope to earn their second Big East victory of the season as they face the Marquette Golden Eagles (196, 11-3 Big East), who are currently No. 2 in the Big East, at Capital One Arena on Feb. 11 at 12 p.m.

Premier League Clubs’ Financial Muscles Overpower Rivals

At 11 p.m. GMT on Jan. 31, agents and teams scrambled to reach last-minute deals as a momentous winter transfer window for European football came to a close.

English Premier League teams spent a combined $1 billion in a typically difficult time to conduct business in the middle of the season. Chelsea alone spent more than the other top four European leagues — the Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1 — combined. Their spending spree included two $100 million deals, one of which shattered the British transfer record.

In many ways, the signing of the young Argentine Enzo Fernández, named Best Young Player of last year’s World Cup, typifies the exorbitant nature of Chelsea and the Premier League’s recent spending.

Only half a season after arriving at Benfica from River Plate, Fernández was sold for $132 million, roughly 10 times the price tag for last summer. It was the latest in a long line of expensive Chelsea signings fueled by ambitious and deep-pocketed new owners, totaling 16 new players since May 2022 for a combined $750 million.

This spending has been met with much speculation by soccer professionals and fans alike, ranging from confusion as to how this could be legal to outrage, particularly from European football executives. The most notable of these protests came from president of La Liga Javier Tebas, who labeled the British market as “doped” and the amount spent by its clubs as “barbaric.”

The Premier League’s unique combination of extremely lucra-

tive TV deals and wealthy owners who often prioritize on-pitch success over turning a profit, coupled with a lack of intervention from European football’s governing body, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), has led to this unabated increase in spending.

However, their exorbitant spending is very much legal, as long as they are able to prove they spend what they have earned. The Premier League recently charged reigning champions Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of Financial Fair Play rules from 2009 to 2018, questioning the legitimacy of their sponsorship deals, unofficial increases to managers’ salaries, complexities regarding licensing for playing in European competitions and the club’s failure to cooperate with their investigation.

Other European leagues have self-imposed sanctions and rules to prevent uninhibited spending on players, such as La Liga’s salary cap and Germany’s 50 + 1 ownership rule, which prohibits commercial investors from owning more than a 49% stake of a Bundesliga club. Non-English leagues are also less popular worldwide than the Premier League, which translates into less lucrative sponsorship deals and an inability to match the transfer spending of their English counterparts.

As spending by Premier League clubs continues to inflate the market, European giants face the impossible decision of trying to keep up with ever-increasing price tags, risking financial ruin like Barcelona or disgrace like Juventus and realizing that they have been priced out of the top talent.

Tebas described the spending as “dangerous,” as it “can jeopardise the sustainability of European football.” He may well have

SQUASH

No. 18 Hoyas Take 4th in the MidAtlanticConferenceChampionships

Ben Resnicoff Hoya Staff Writer

Heading into the MidAtlantic Conference Championship on Feb. 4, the No. 18 Georgetown University women’s squash team knew it was in for a dogfight. The Hoyas faced several highly ranked teams, and the stiff competition proved to be a challenge for Georgetown, who finished fourth out of the six teams in the tournament.

The Hoyas (14-9) ended their regular season with three wins the weekend prior, sweeping both No. 25 Haverford College and No. 31 Vassar College 9-0 Jan. 28. Georgetown also narrowly defeated No. 22 Chatham University 5-4 on Jan. 29. With these wins, the Hoyas have already improved upon their win total from their 202122 launching season.

The Hoyas’ first matchup was the No. 4 Drexel University Dragons (10-2), a team that had swept them 0-9 less than a month prior. While they suffered yet another 0-9 loss to the Dragons, the resilient Hoyas regrouped and fought their way to a nail-biting 5-4 victory over the No. 19 Franklin & Marshall Diplomats (6-10). This victory propelled them to the third-place game against the No. 12 Stanford Cardinal (5-5) the next day, where they fought valiantly but lost 3-6. Drexel has historically been one of the top squash schools in the nation, and is ranked in the top four nationally along

with Trinity College, Harvard University and Princeton University. The Dragons have 14 rostered players to Georgetown’s 11 and also feature some of the best individual players in the country.

In their first game of the tournament against this elite team, the Hoyas were thoroughly outmatched. Through nine matches at Boar’s Head Sports Club in Albemarle County, Va., each member of the team played well, but none were able to secure a victory in any games or matches.

Against a top 20 Franklin & Marshall College team, however, the Hoyas came out strong, looking to rebound from their loss to Drexel. First-year Sydney Bramen, already one of the top players on the team, clawed back from a looming two-loss deficit to secure a 3-2 win.

Bramen’s comeback turned out to be the decisive performance for the Hoyas, as graduate student Vedika Arunachalam, junior Caroline Wilcox and sophomores Aalia Husain and Nina Flinn all swept their opponents 3-0. They propelled Georgetown to a narrow 5-4 victory and brought the team to the third-place game that Sunday against Stanford.

In the key matchup against another top 20 team in the Cardinal, standout sophomores Husain and Flinn blanked their opponents yet again, taking home two huge wins for Georgetown. Senior Sarah Conner also swept her matchup, giving the Hoyas

three wins. However, after a physically, mentally and emotionally taxing two games, Georgetown came up short, falling 3-6 and narrowly missing the podium.

At the conclusion of the tournament, the College Squash Association (CSA) designated the Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (MASC) as a “fully recognized and sanctioned squash conference within the CSA organization,” according to a Feb. 9 press release from the CSA.

The conference, which first achieved provisional status in 2019, has since expanded to include Georgetown in the 2021-22 season.

The women’s division now includes teams from Dickinson College, Drexel, Franklin & Marshall college, Stanford and the University of Virginia, as well as Georgetown. MASC is now the fourth NCAA conference to sponsor squash competition, joining the Ivy League, Liberty League and the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

The Hoyas will now look toward the College Squash Association National Championships in Philadelphia, Pa., on Feb. 17, where Head Coach Tim Lasusa led them to a secondplace ranking in the Epps Division last year. Lasusa, a former star player at St. Lawrence University, served as the assistant coach for the women and men’s team at Yale University, helping them to top three and top five finishes, respectively.

could actually end up devaluing many positions in soccer. The art of a scout uncovering a hidden gem in a far-off corner seems futile when a club has the ability to splash cash at the most obvious prospect. The art of a world-class technical director in creating a squad greater than the sum of its parts becomes unnecessary. The strategy of having a top-class academy to provide a constant flow of talent becomes too timeconsuming and risky. These changes could risk eroding the very reasons fans fell in love with their team in the first place.

The number of clubs in the Premier League who have this luxury is ever-growing. Six of the top 10 teams on the Deloitte Football Money List are Premier League clubs, as are over half of the remaining teams that form the top 30. The list sees the likes of a struggling West Ham above Italian giant AC Milan.

Perhaps the most poignant confirmation of Tebas’ concerns was when Bournemouth, a Premier League team battling relegation, prepared a far more attractive financial package than reigning Italian champions AC Milan to secure Roma’s Nicolò Zaniolo, a player they were both hoping to sign.

As talent accumulates in one league, there emerges a potential to create a self-perpetuating cycle of other leagues receiving less money and coverage and the quality of play and competitive value suffering for it. The Premier League is the best league in the world, but the European pacesetter is in jeopardy of breaking too far away from the pack, and it is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Jack Lonergan is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. Why it was Special appears online and in print every three weeks.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgetown Falls to Marquette Despite Ransom’s Scoring Dominance

Anisa Nanavati

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown women’s basketball team fell 66-49 to the Marquette Golden Eagles on Feb. 4 following a narrow win over Xavier on Jan. 31.

Despite an impressive 23-point performance by junior guard Kelsey Ransom, the Hoyas (12-12, 5-10 Big East) ultimately failed to respond to large scoring runs by the Golden Eagles’ (15-8, 8-6 Big East) offense anchored by guard Jordan King, who scored 23 points of her own at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee, Wis.

The Hoyas are 4-26 all-time against the Golden Eagles, losing their last 12 contests against them. Earlier this season, the Eagles defeated the Hoyas at McDonough Arena on Dec. 2 with a 78-57 win.

Marquette established a dominant lead early on, with only one lead change throughout the entire match.

Junior forward Jada Claude scored the first points of the game off of a jumper, but the Hoyas quickly lost this lead, outrebounded by the Golden Eagles’ 40-34. Georgetown shot 37.3% from the field, in comparison to Marquette’s 41.9%.

Ransom played an integral role in the Hoya offense, being the only Hoya to post double figures points compared to three Golden Eagles who did so. This season, Ransom has led the team in nearly every category — points, rebounds and steals

per game — and she continued to do so against Marquette, recording 7 rebounds and 1 steal. The next highest scorers were senior forward Graceann Bennett and firstyear guard Kennedy Fauntleroy, with 6 points each.

The Hoyas and Golden Eagles were locked neck and neck for the first three minutes of the game. Each team had a response to the other’s drives until Marquette staged a 10-0 run. Despite the momentum favoring Marquette, Ransom’s 9 points in the first quarter kept the Hoyas in the game as they trailed 18-11.

Marquette extended its run during the first three minutes of the second quarter, scoring 6 more unanswered points. Georgetown’s Fauntleroy scored two jumpers to cut Marquette’s lead to 11 points, but it was not enough to stop the Golden Eagles.

Marquette continued to build its lead up to 17 points and held Ransom to only 2 points in the second quarter. Bennett scored a pair of putbacks in the final minutes of the quarter to cut the lead to 13 points at the half with the Hoyas trailing 36-23.

Marquette continued its strong performance throughout the third quarter, building its lead up to 18 points early in the quarter. The Hoyas responded with 5 quick points, cutting the lead to 13 and forcing Marquette to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the

Golden Eagles came roaring back and extended the lead to 23 points at the end of the third quarter. Marquette outscored Georgetown by 10 points, making it difficult for the Hoyas to mount a sufficient comeback.

The Hoyas found some momentum during the fourth quarter, outscoring the Golden Eagles 13-7. Ransom put up 8 points, but Georgetown’s efforts were not enough to respond to the dominant lead that Marquette established, finishing the game 49-66.

The Hoyas are now 5-10 in Big East play and sit in eighth place in the conference. They went on to fall 53-82 to No. 15 Villanova (21-4, 12-2 Big East), a tough conference opponent ranked second in the Big East, Feb. 8 in McDonough Arena. The match-up marked Georgetown women’s basketball’s annual Play4Kay Game to raise awareness for breast cancer research in honor of Hall of Fame Coach Kay Yow, who spent 38 years as a college women’s basketball head coach. The initiative has been adopted by over 500 schools nationwide since Coach Yow’s death in 2009. Georgetown will next face No. 4 UConn Huskies (21-3, 13-0 Big East), who are currently leading the Big East conference, at Washington, D.C.’s Entertainment & Sports Arena on Feb. 11 at 5 p.m. The Hoyas last faced the Huskies on Jan. 15, where they lost 50-65 against the powerhouse program.

GUHoyas

Despite being tied at halftime 31-31, the Hoyas were unable to close out the game with a win.

GUHoyas

Georgetown squash placed fourth in the Mid-Atlantic Conference championship, winning against Franklin & Marshall and losing to Drexel and Stanford.

@CELTICS/TWITTER

Columnist Benjamin Manens (SFS ’26) calls for greater accountability and reform in the enforcement of sports rules.

MANENS, from A12 the missed call, a rare response to the common problem of bad officiating. Five days later, they admitted to another potentially gamedeciding mistake, this time between the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks, in which Brandon Ingram was incorrectly called out of bounds in the last few seconds of the game. Still, the association maintains the stance that more replay options on high-impact plays would disrupt the “free-flowing” nature of basketball, effectively ruling out that option.

Meanwhile, in the NFL’s Conference Championship games, the 49ers-Eagles game saw a number of questionable calls, including a fourth-down conversion that was ruled complete despite Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith never having gained possession of the ball before it hit the ground. Additionally, an Eagles punt deflected by the SkyCam wire could not be replayed because the referees had no footage of the ball hitting the wire.

While that game was not a close contest due to disastrous quarterback injuries for the 49ers, the Bengals-Chiefs game was decided by a margin of 3 points in the last three seconds of the game, making officiating mistakes even more costly. Some of the calls that Bengals fans decried could have gone either way, but the referees also missed clear calls, including missed holding and block in the back calls, along with a clock error that gave Kan-

sas City an extra opportunity to gain a first down.

Both leagues face allegations of being “scripted,” albeit mostly satirical, and these two controversies raise questions of whether the leagues have too large an impact on the outcomes of games. Low-quality officiating tarnishes the prestige of professional sports as well as the fan experience, and there is no sign of the problem disappearing anytime soon.

The solution? Lean into technology rather than shying away from it. Options for booth review and better video coverage would have corrected many of the issues from last weekend. Regarding the NBA’s objections that it would be too disruptive, soccer’s adoption of the Video Assistant Referee boosted the accuracy rate of referees’ calls from 95% to 99% at the 2018 World Cup. 4% is not a lot, but when a single call can decide the result of a season, it matters.

At the end of the day, every sports league faces this backlash and suffers very few consequences. Realistically, no one stops following a sport because of a bad call; if anything, the vigorous backlash against referees only demonstrates fans’ attachment to their favorite teams.

Still, maximizing the quality of officiating remains not only in the best interest of fans and athletes but the leagues as well. If they are concerned about delivering the best experience to fans and enabling the highest level of athletic competition, this persistent issue will need to be addressed.

SUDOKU

Last issue’s solutions

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgetown Suffers Sluggish Start

VILLANOVA, from A12 layups and poor shooting from outside the paint.

The second quarter saw little improvement. Georgetown continued to struggle to move off the ball and make clean passes, thus creating a one-dimensional offense that was easily stopped by crowding Wildcat defenders near the post.

By the end of the first half, the Hoyas shot an abysmal 3-for-17 on layups. Meanwhile, Villanova punished the Hoyas’ sloppy play, shooting 43.75% from the floor in the second quarter. Georgetown entered halftime down 16-43.

Howard expressed disappointment with his team’s first-half defensive performance.

“We got beat off of cuts, layups, we missed some assignments up there and that led to giving them a lot of points in the first half — about 43 points, that’s too many points,” Howard said. “We pride ourselves on playing good defense and in the first half we didn’t.”

Siegrist alone scored 27 points against the Hoyas throughout the game. Wildcat guard Kaitlyn Orihel also proved an offensive menace, frequently beating the Hoya defense on the post on her way to scoring 20 points of her own.

BASEBALL

While the first half escaped the Hoyas, the second half of the match resembled a David and Goliath-esque struggle between Georgetown and Villanova.

The Hoyas looked like an entirely different team coming out of the locker room, finally landing buckets to shoot 50.0% from the field, more than double their dismal 20.0% field goal conversion rate from the first half, to win the third quarter 21-20. Georgetown maintained its new-found chemistry until the final

buzzer, only dropping the final quarter by 3 points.

The Hoyas’ second-half resurgence proved futile, as the Wildcats’ first-half lead proved insurmountable at the final buzzer.

“The game was played in the first half [...] I wish we had the same sense of urgency in the first two quarters,” Howard said. “The second half is who we are. We played this team tough, but you gotta start the game, you gotta play well right out the gate.”

The Hoyas will look

to improve upon their performance as they face the No. 4 University of Connecticut Huskies (21-4, 13-1 Big East) on Feb. 11 at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C. The Huskies, whose star players have been plagued by injuries all season, lost back-to-back games for the first time since 1993, falling to No. 1 University of South Carolina (23-0, 10-0 SEC) on Feb. 5 before suffering a first-time loss against Marquette University (16-8, 9-6 Big East) on Feb. 8.

Hoyas Confident Despite Tough Schedule

Offensively, Georgetown set a new record for home runs in the 2022 season. Defensively, the team boasts exceptional glovework and looks to use impactful editions to bolster the pitching staff.

BASEBALL, from A12 Baseball Academy this past fall in preparation for the season. The Hoyas will play all home games at this location instead of Shirley Povich Field in Potomac, Md. A key difference is that Nats Academy is a turf field, which should reduce errors as hops are easier to read.

In the District, Georgetown hosted the Ontario Blue Jays for a scrimmage and played the Fall World Series, where Volunteer

SOFTBALL

Assistant Coach Brock Keener’s team won the series, three games to one, against Associate Head Coach Julius McDougal’s team. The Hoyas also traveled to New Jersey to play Rutgers University and Richmond, Va., to play Virginia Commonwealth University in scrimmages.

Head Coach Edwin Thompson said the Hoyas are well-prepared for the season ahead.

“All of our kids played summer baseball and really just worked

on details, on our team, individual fundamentals and those types of activities,” Thompson told The Hoya. “The thing that’s been really consistent all spring and all fall has been our defense. Our defense is going to be as good as an infield, outfield, up the middle, that I’ve had in many years since I’ve been here, but also just in general in my coaching career.”

The Hoyas will open their season Feb. 17 in Cary, N.C., where they will square off against

Presbyterian College. tivities,” Thompson told The Hoya. “The thing that’s been really consistent all spring and all fall has been our defense. Our defense is going to be as good as an infield, outfield, up the middle, that I’ve had in many years since I’ve been here, but also just in general in my coaching career.”

The Hoyas will open their season Feb. 17 in Cary, N.C., where they will square off against Presbyterian College.

GU Looks to Make Postseason Run

SOFTBALL, from A12 Zamora comes from UC Berkeley, where she played in 13 games her senior year and contributed to their winning season.

Decorated graduate pitcher Brooke Plonka also looks to strengthen the Hoyas’ pitching corps after a standout career at Dartmouth. Plonka comes in with a stacked resume after starting and captaining the Big Green for three years, earning Ivy League Pitcher of the Week twice and becoming the first pitcher in Dartmouth history to throw multiple no-hitters.

While the graduate transfers figure to make an immediate impact, Georgetown’s four first-year players, including infielder Kacy Lyman, outfielders Claire Turner and Gabby

Park and first/third baseman Dayanara Campos, aim to be long-term contributors. With five starters leaving, these firstyears will have ample opportunities to step up and help forge a winning culture.

The Hoyas will kick off their season Feb. 10 in Jacksonville, Fla. at the River City Leadoff. They will play Furman, Jacksonville and the University of North Florida in a three-day tournament and hope to continue their winning streak against Furman, which they swept in last year’s series.

Georgetown will follow up by traveling to Norfolk, Va. on Feb. 17 for the Hampton/Norfolk State Tournament. There, The Hoyas will face off against Lehigh, Quinnipiac, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Norfolk State and Bucknell. The Hoyas will then travel

to Wilmington, N.C. on Feb. 24 for the UNCW Tournament, playing Appalachian State, Eastern Kentucky and UNC Wilmington. On March 3, they return back to Florida for The Spring Games, where they will play Southeastern Louisiana University, Central Michigan University, Middle Tennessee, UAlbany and Holy Cross.

Georgetown will open Big East play on March 10 as the Hoyas match up in a threegame series against rival and defending Big East champions Villanova. The matchup will also be Georgetown’s home opener at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. Georgetown is looking for redemption against the Wildcats, who swept the Hoyas last campaign, before facing up against Hampton Univer-

sity, Seton Hall, UConn and George Washington.

Finally, the Hoyas will play Arizona and the University of San Diego at the University of Arizona Tournament before returning to regular season play. The Hoyas will finish off the season with games against Providence, Coppin State, Creighton, Towson, St. John’s, George Mason, Butler and DePaul. Georgetown ultimately hopes to reach the postseason and compete at the Big East Tournament for the first time since 2014.

“We are hoping to have an over .500 season and make it to the Big East Tournament,” Kondo said. “Going onto actual fielding and those types of things, it’s about getting all of our pieces working together at the right time.”

GUHOYAS

GUHOYAS

Sports

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 , 2023

MEN’S BASKETBALL NUMBERS GAME

Despite efforts from guards Jay Heath and Brandon Murray, the Hoyas fell short against UConn.

See A10

A LEAGUE FOR WHOM?

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and referees ruining sports. It feels as though almost every week there is a baseball game where the umpires miss several big calls or a football game where the outcome is decided by how many penalty flags are thrown. With the NBA just halfway through its regular season and the NFL preparing for its biggest game of the season, it’s once again that time of year when millions sit down, turn on their TVs and yell at the refs on their screens for three hours.

Last week, we saw the latest examples of officiating controversies in both leagues. On Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in overtime after the referees completely ignored a foul on LeBron James, preventing him from scoring a game-winning layup. The next day, NFL referees faced harsh criticism in both the AFC and NFC championship games as the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs duked it out for a spot in the Super Bowl.

The cases highlight increased dissatisfaction with the leagues’ refereeing from fans and players alike.

In the Lakers-Celtics game, the Lakers had possession of the ball with four seconds left and the game tied. James went up for a layup, only for Celtics star Jayson Tatum to hit his inner arm, which should have constituted a foul. Despite the lead official having a clear view of the play, no foul was called, and the Celtics won in the following overtime period. Seeing James and his teammates furious, fans flocked to Twitter with memes about the missed call and James’ emotional reaction.

The National Basketball Referees Association apologized for

See MANENS, A11

BASEBALL

TALKING POINTS

We pride ourselves on playing good defense and in the first half we didn’t.”

Howard Women’s Basketball Head Coach

Georgetown women’s basketball suffered a 29-point loss at the hands of No. 15 Villanova, the team’s largest conference deficit this season. Although first-year guard Kennedy Fauntleroy scored 11 points and made 2 steals, the Hoyas were unable to come out victorious.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Villanova Trounces Georgetown Hoyas 82-53

Carrie McDonald and Oliver Ni Senior Sports Editors

Despite a disappointing first-half performance resulting in an 82-53 loss, the Hoyas held their own against Villanova University on Feb. 8 as they shot, rebounded and defended their way to survival in the second half with tremendous energy.

The Georgetown University women’s basketball team (12-12, 5-10 Big East) suffered its largest conference loss of the season so far against the No. 15 Villanova

Wildcats (21-4, 12-2 Big East). The Hoyas narrowly fell 71-64 to the Wildcats earlier this season in a much closer Jan. 4 road matchup.

The Hoyas sported pink uniforms during the match as part of Georgetown’s annual Play4Kay game to raise awareness for breast cancer research. Play4Kay honors the life of Kay Yow, a Hall of Fame basketball coach, and has since been adopted by over 500 schools across the country. Georgetown played a patient game on the offensive side to start, using up most of its shot

clock while being selectively aggressive to generate scoring chances. Although the Hoyas put pressure on the Wildcats’ defense, Villanova played with far more offensive conviction, led by forward Maddy Siegrist, the current leading NCAA Division I scorer. The Wildcats’ free-flowing movement allowed them to execute multiple catch-andshoots on open looks.

Even as Villanova initially struggled to connect on those shots, Georgetown failed to capitalize on its opponent’s mistakes, as the Hoyas turned

GU Ready for 2023 Spring Season

Teddy Gerkin

Special to The Hoya

Georgetown’s baseball team looks to continue its rise to the top of the conference this spring following a 2022 season that saw program highs in wins and home runs — 32 and 98 respectively — as well as a fourth-seed placement in the Big East championship.

The Hoyas will face several formidable opponents this season outside the Big East, serving as a litmus test for the team’s competitiveness.

East Carolina University (46-21, 20-4 AAC) came up just short of a trip to Omaha and the College World Series last year, achieving a conference championship and winning the Greenville Regional in the process.

The University of Virginia (3919, 17-13 ACC) defeated Georgetown 6-4 in Charlottesville, Va., last year. The University of Maryland (48-14, 18-5 Big Ten) also swept the season series against the Hoyas last year, winning all three games in College Park, Md., by scores of 10-9, 5-1 and 19-1.

The University of Connecticut (50-16, 16-5 Big East) poses the biggest threat to Georgetown within the conference. Not only did UConn win the Big East tournament last year, they also advanced out of the College Park Regional and barely missed out on punching a ticket to Omaha.

Yet the Hoyas have plenty to be optimistic about.

Junior outfielder and first baseman Jake Hyde and sophomore catcher and preseason all-Big East selection Owen Carapellotti return to headline a potent Hoya offense. Last year, Hyde achieved selection to the ABCA/Rawlings all-East Region first team and the all-Big East second team for leading Georgetown with 84 hits, 19 homers, 18 doubles and 57 RBI.

Carapellotti was unanimously named the Big East Freshman of the Year in 2022 after slashing .282/.396/.552, driving in 38 runs and tying Hyde for the team lead in doubles.

First-year outfielder and righthanded pitcher Cody Bowker looks to be an impact addition this year. Bowker earned the title of 2022 Gatorade Maine Baseball Player of the Year after batting .490 with 4 homers and 18 RBI through 16 games, adding 44 innings on the mound and compiling a 0.48 ERA and 74 strikeouts.

In its conference preview, Perfect Game USA selected Bowker to win Big East Freshman of the Year this upcoming season.

The transfer portal also proved to be critical in bolstering the pitching staff, as the Hoyas picked up graduate right-handed pitchers Jake Bloss from Lafayette University and Cody Jensen from Stanford University. Bloss put together a 3.57 ERA over 58 innings last year, striking out 68 and walking only 28. Jensen joins the staff after offering 22 innings en route to becoming a Pac-12 champion in 2022. However, the transfer portal giveth and taketh away, as

After a record-setting 2022 campaign, Georgetown hopes to continue improving with its strong veteran presence and exciting new transfers.

the Hoyas unfortunately lost lefty Angelo Tonas, who served as the team’s closer last year with 7 saves, to powerhouse UVA.

The staff will return right-hander Carson Frye, who allowed only 2 earned runs over 10.2 innings last year. First-year left-handed pitcher Andrew Jergins and homegrown right-handed pitcher Kai Lecks-

zas add depth to the Hoyas’ roster while also providing promise for the future. Jergins, from Tampa, Fla., allowed 2 earned runs over 10.2 innings over the summer. Leckszas struck out 27 over 14.2 innings, walking just 5 and allowing 2 earned runs.

Georgetown practiced at the Washington Nationals Youth

over the ball via multiple errant passes, keeping the score tied at 7-7 with 4:50 remaining in the first quarter.

Head Coach James Howard decided to use his bench early on to mitigate an impending Wildcat scoring run.

“To get back into the game, we had to press a little bit more and try to turn them over,” Howard told The Hoya. “We had to play more people because that pace takes a lot out of your guards.”

While Georgetown went 0-for-11 on field goal attempts to close out the first quarter, the

SOFTBALL

Wildcats steadily cruised ahead with a 15-0 scoring streak once Howard substituted senior forward Graceann Bennett and junior forward Jada Claude out of the game with 03:39 left in the quarter. Villanova’s squad ultimately proved to have more depth as the Wildcats ended the game outscoring Georgetown 31-8 on bench points.

The Hoyas struggled in transition defense, while their offense was stifled by a combination of heavily contested

See

Hoyas Prepare For Upcoming Season

Ian Rasovsky

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University softball team hopes to build off its 2022 season this year, its first full season after pandemic-related shutdowns, with veteran leadership and six new players.

The Hoyas’ 2022 season, in which they finished with a 1528 overall record, including 5-14 in the Big East, was one characterized by gratitude to play a full season again and the need to incorporate new faces on the team.

“We were really excited to be back,” Captain Mae Forshey, graduate infielder and catcher, told The Hoya. “One of the big things we really pushed was just being grateful to being able to play, being back on the field, playing the game we loved. It also had an element of surprise because no one had seen us in almost two years, and we had a bunch of grad transfers that helped the program as well.”

Georgetown hopes to reach new heights this season after struggling to live up to high expectations in recent years.

“We’ve taken last year very much into this year in terms of building off of what happened last year,” Captain

Cameron Kondo, graduate outfielder, told The Hoya in an interview. “We’re excited for this year, we feel prepared to go do those things this year.”

In an unfortunate blow, the Hoyas lost five starters this year, all of whom have graduated.

The Hoyas recently lost pitcher Cassie Henning (MSB ’22), who had 11 runs and 23 hits last year. Georgetown also lost infielder Kiki Besnard (SFS ’22), who notched 7 runs and 13 hits.

Additionally, catcher and first baseman Abby Smith (GRD ’22), The Hoyas’ leader in batting average and slugging percentage, graduated last year along with infielder Savannah Jones (GRD ’22), who recorded 32 runs and 39 hits. Catcher and outfielder Alyssa Chavez (GRD ’22) followed suit, who finished the 2022 season with 24 runs and 39 hits. Lost catcher and first baseman Nora Campo (CAS ’22) also graduated, but pitcher Jordan Tallman transferred to George Mason University.

Fortunately for the Hoyas, the team brought in six new players to replace their departing graduates.

Graduate shortstop and second baseman Morgan

GUHOYAS

Georgetown softball brought in six new players to bolster its side for the 2023 season.

GUHOYAS

Benjamin Manens Columnist