The Hoya: November 1, 2024 by The Hoya

Hundreds of GU Students

Join Thousands at National MallRallyforKamalaHarris

Ruth Abramovitz, Patrick Clapsaddle and Nora Toscano GUSA Desk Editor, Chief Copy Editor and Academics Desk Editor

Hundreds of Georgetown University students attended a rally at the National Mall to hear Vice President Kamala Harris deliver the closing remarks for her presidential campaign Oct. 29.

During the rally, Harris focused her speech on drawing a contrast between herself and former President Trump, saying the country needs to move past disunity and polarization.

“The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised, a nation big enough to encompass all our dreams, strong enough to withstand any fracture or ﬁssure between us and fearless enough to imagine a future of possibilities,” Harris said at the rally. “Let us ﬁght for this beautiful country we love.” The rally comes as the election

season nears its end and Harris seeks to make a ﬁnal appeal to voters in her bid for president. Harris took the stage at the Ellipse, with crowds reaching as far back as the Washington Monument and an illuminated White House as her backdrop.

By 7:20 p.m., Harris stood in front of a crowd of as many as 75,000, addressing a variety of her policy positions, including restoring reproductive rights and lowering costs for workers.

“I believe in the fundamental freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies and not have their government tell them what to do,” Harris said. “I will ﬁght to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America.” Noah Vinogradov (SFS ’25), who attended the rally, said Harris’s comments on striving toward the founding

See HARRIS, A7

COURTESY OF BRAEDON TROY

Hundreds of Georgetown University students attended Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally at the National Mall Oct. 29.

The Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC) and Georgetown University reached a tentative agreement on two articles related to health, safety and emergencies after their fourth round of negotiations

GRAC, GU Finish Fourth Bargaining Session

Aamir Jamil and Maren Fagan

Senior News Editors

The Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC), the organization that represents Georgetown University resident assistants (RAs) in collective bargaining negotiations, ﬁnished two rounds of negotiations with university oﬀicials Oct. 21 and Oct. 30.

GRAC and the university tentatively agreed on two additional articles regarding health and safety and emergency and natural disasters, while

At GU, UN Independent Expert Accuses Israel of Genocide

Nora Toscano Academics Desk Editor

A United Nations independent expert on human rights in Palestine asserted that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and emphasized the international community’s moral obligations towards the ongoing conflict in the Middle East during a talk at Georgetown University Oct. 28. Francesca Albanese, the expert, is an Italian international lawyer who serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and works independently of the U.N. to examine and report on human rights issues. On Oct. 1, the U.N. published a report by Albanese on conflict in the region that concluded Israel has committed

genocide and ethnic cleansing in an attempt to colonize Palestine; in her talk, titled “Anatomy of Genocide in Gaza” and part of the university’s Gaza Lecture Series, Albanese discussed the report and the wider context of war in the region.

“I concluded in March this year with others — and there are Israeli scholars, experts of genocide — together with leading genocide scholars, that what Israel has done amounts to acts of genocide,” Albanese said at the event.

“It’s established as Article II of the Genocide Convention, which says this is very specific to this crime, that in order to have genocide, this crime should be committed with the intent to destroy,” Albanese added.

Albanese’s report also concluded

that the violence in Gaza “is not happening in a vacuum, but is part of a long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.” It also recommends that member states of the U.N. intervene in the conﬂict.

“Investigations can be launched by domestic courts,” Albanese said at the event. “And then there is the responsibility of the state that can only be investigated by the International Court of Justice.”

During the event, Albanese also said Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel constituted crimes in international law.

“There is no way to say that what See ALBANESE, A7

continuing to negotiate the length of training, job descriptions and placement. These negotiations represented the third and fourth meetings between GRAC and the university, following the RAs’ formal vote to unionize April 16, accepting representation from Local 153 of the Oﬀice of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU).

With the completion of four bargaining rounds, RAs and the university have tentatively agreed on nine of their proposed contract’s 22 total articles while discussing, but not agreeing to an additional three.

Sam Lovell (CAS ’25), an RA in Copley Hall and the interim chairperson of GRAC, said negotiations in this bargaining session were particularly productive in exchanging language.

“This meeting, in particular, was really productive in the sense that the university and the union engaged in an iterative process where we handed back and forth language a couple of times on counter proposals,” Lovell told The Hoya Izzy Wagener (SFS ’26), an RA in Kennedy Hall and the interim vice chairperson of GRAC, said GRAC has seen continued

progress in negotiations.

“I think it seems like the university does seem open to actually making some real progress on the articles, and I know that was something we were concerned about going into it,” Wagener told The Hoya. “I think we have been making steady progress, so that’s good to see.”

A tentatively agreed article titled “Health and Safety” provides speciﬁc provisions to protect RAs, including forbidding Residential Living employees from asking RAs to clean public

See GRAC, A7

@ETHANDARIUS4GUSA/INSTAGRAM

The Editorial Board reluctantly endorses the Henshaw/Wagner ticket, expressing disappointment with their lack of concrete plans.

To Georgetown University’s student body, exhausted by or indifferent to the prospect of yet another Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) executive election that seems to prioritize ideological standing over pragmatic change, we have bad news.

After careful consideration, The Hoya’s Editorial Board reluctantly endorses the Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26)/Darius Wagner (CAS ’27) ticket for GUSA executive ofﬁce. While their policy platform is laden with ideas, it lacks pragmatism and will be diﬀicult at best to implement; still, the candidates’ proven track record and deep understanding of GUSA operations make them the stronger choice.

The Henshaw/Wagner policy platform is expansive. The 11-page document proposes a large number of far-reaching goals: abolishing legacy admissions, launching a “campaign to normalize and regularize conversations around inclusivity and accessibility,” removing programs that send new transfer students to the Capitol Campus and increasing the frequency of Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) services. “What we see is a platform where we are able to be strong advocates and where we know the work that goes into accomplishing many of these goals,” Wagner told The Hoya Those goals — if you ask the ticket — are the result of their

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Oct. 30.

Cut GUSA’s Grip on Media Funding

As candidates for Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) post ﬂyers and share Instagram stories to attract students’ votes, the details of their platforms and plans often get lost.

Indeed, as the GUSA election approaches, with students voting Nov. 5 to Nov. 7, the Editorial Board feels there has not been enough discussion of certain nuances within GUSA’s appropriation process, which deeply aﬀects students — student media groups perhaps most of all.

In 2001, Georgetown’s student body established a semesterly Student Activities Fee, included in tuition, via referendum. Referendum organizers intended for the fee to partially fund student clubs, but also to partially form an endowment that would replace the fee within ten years. However, because of factors including the 2008 recession, the university’s ﬁscal discipline and unjustiﬁed optimism about the endowment’s growth, the Student Activities Fee, controlled by the GUSA Senate, remains the sole source of funding for clubs.

Each year, during a lengthy ﬁnancial appropriations process governed by the senate’s Financial Appropriations Committee (FinApp), GUSA senators liaise with club advisory boards, which represent clubs based on their focus, to distribute the money from the Student Activities Fee. For the 2025 ﬁscal year, which covers the 2024-25 school year, FinApp distributed over $1.2 million to 11 advisory boards and organizations.

Collectively, these organizations typically request more money than can be allocated, meaning the committee must make cuts. FinApp made cuts to five of the eleven groups in fiscal year 2025, including a notable 6.8% decrease to the Media Board — which funds The Hoya, The Georgetown Voice and other media organizations — from its allocation in the 2024 fiscal year.

While this Media Board cut is not the most drastic of the collective cuts, this decrease — from its requested allocation of $116,996 to a ﬁnal allocated sum of $79,250 — falls into a pattern of behavior. For the 2024 ﬁscal year, the Media Board requested $154,018 from FinApp and was awarded just $85,000 — just over 55% of their request.

Senators on FinApp — Senator George LeMieux (CAS ’25), in Media Board’s case — explain their reasoning for their group’s allocations in a report.

LeMieux attributed the 6.76% decrease in part to his idea that physically printing newspapers at volume is wasteful and unnecessary. Still, he wrote that “this Committee has no intention of attacking free speech or the press on campus, only that funding be used transparently and not wasted.”

The Editorial Board is pleased with LeMieux’s commitment to his duty of stringent ﬁscal responsibility and communication. This process is opaque and its conclusions are diﬀicult to remedy; while the Media Board was fortunate to communicate with a senator so willing to provide written reasoning for the cuts, many other boards

HOYA HISTORY

November 11, 2022

The Hoya’s executive editorial team rescinds The Hoya Editorial Board’s endorsement of the Camber Vincent (SFS ’24) and Alyssa Hirai (SFS ’24) Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Executive ticket. Full disclosure: Vincent previously served on The Hoya’s Editorial Board in Fall 2021. Around 4 p.m. on Nov. 10, The Hoya’s editorial leadership received a tip that Hirai had attended social events put on by the Georgetown chapter of the Network of enlightened Women (NeW), an organization that describes themselves as “community for conservative women to come together to learn, grow, and encourage each other as like-minded women.” Hirai is featured in a photo on the NeW website from a Nov. 14, 2021, gathering. The post said the individuals pictured were chapter members, and that the group gathered for its first official event to discuss the chapter’s goals for spreading conservative beliefs and fostering a safe community for conservative women on campus. Hirai also attended a NeW Welcome Back Brunch on Sept. 18, 2022. Hirai confirmed to The Hoya her attendance at both of these events.

were not so lucky.

However, the Board feels it necessary to express its disgust with his views on printed newspapers and lack of faith in The Hoya to adequately appropriate its resources.

In an interview with the new Vice Chair of FinApp, Tina Solki (MSB, SFS ’26), however, the Editorial Board initially found reason for hope. Solki, who also serves as design editor for the Voice, reiterated her support for publications’ continued printing.

“I’m familiar in my role as a design editor that half the reason people draw is to get their works in print. It’s an incredibly special experience. And I think that printing has incredible value,” Solki told The Hoya

While Solki’s support for student media is comforting, it does not bring the Editorial Board long-term hope for stability in campus media that it strives for.

Although Solki’s position as a member of the Voice’s Board of Editors boosts our conﬁdence that the Media Board will be cut less, or not at all, this dynamic highlights the volatility of the process and the unreasonable inﬂuence of individual senators.

The fact that allocated funding has been so dependent on individual senators demonstrates a fundamental weakness in the appropriations process.

Indeed, with regard to journalistic organizations, this funding process presents a dramatic conﬂict of interest. Student journalists from The Hoya, the Voice and other publications regularly observe and report on GUSA with a critical eye; yet GUSA’s appropriations process leaves crucial funding decisions to the very student government members that student publications cover.

As a result, the Editorial Board strongly recommends that any media organization with potential to regularly report on GUSA should not be subjected to their funding process, and should instead be directly managed by university administrators with no ties whatsoever to student media. Even if the university behaves in a more critical manner with regard to funding waste, the Editorial Board trusts that the process will be conducted impartially and with suﬀicient room for appeals and transparency.

The university administration is largely divorced from the student politics and social momentum that deﬁne GUSA’s FinApp process; the Editorial Board has faith that it will not only better and more consistently prioritize the needs of campus media, but promote a higher degree of independence for those media outlets.

The Editorial Board urges the university to consider how best it can promote the freedom of the press that we take pride in as a community. Divorce those who govern from those who check their power; remove media appropriations from FinApp’s control.

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.

On Nov. 14, NeW will host transphobic, conservative activist Riley Gaines on Georgetown’s main campus. Gaines has been an outspoken critic of transgender women’s participation in women’s and girl’s sports, including at a recent speech she gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) alongside former president Donald Trump. Hirai has not attended an event for NeW since Sept. 18, 2022, and therefore had no involvement in planning this event. Hirai said she was never an official member or on the board of directors of the Georgetown NeW chapter. “I am not a member or on the board of the Network of enlightened Women,” Hirai told The Hoya

The Hoya’s Editorial Board was aware that Hirai had involvement in conservative organizations on campus — such as the Georgetown University College Republicans — at the time the endorsement came out. Her political aﬀiliation is not the reason for this rescission.

The Hoya was not aware, however, of her attendance at social events for a club that has now invited a transphobic speaker to campus. Because The Hoya cannot complete an independent

investigation into the extent of Hirai’s involvement in NeW before GUSA polls close Nov. 12, The Hoya’s editorial leadership has chosen to rescind this endorsement.

When asked if she would denounce the Georgetown chapter of NeW or denounce her attendance at the social events, Hirai did not personally condemn the event or her previous attendance at NeW events. Instead, she repeated that she and Vincent, as a ticket, denounce the Nov. 14 event.

“Camber and I, as a ticket, condemn the event,” Hirai told The Hoya. Hirai also apologized for any harm she may have caused.

“I regret any harm that I caused to the transgender community or any other aﬀinity group on campus,” Hirai said.

When asked if Hirai’s presence in the GUSA Executive could negatively impact transgender students on campus, Vincent responded that he understands the way Hirai’s involvement in GUSA may upset LGBTQ+ students.

“I recognize, unfortunately, that her presence in the executive may have that impact on students,” Vincent told The Hoya. “And for that, I apologize.”

While the choice was not particularly difficult — the Henshaw/Wagner ticket will undoubtedly represent the student body more thoroughly and professionally than the Sanchez/Sperber ticket — the Editorial Board remains unconvinced by the merit of both tickets’ platform and positions.

The Editorial Board “Vote Henshaw/Wagner, Demand Better from GUSA” thehoya.com

The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) executive election will be held from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7. In the upcoming election, the two tickets for GUSA executive office are Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26)/Darius Wagner (CAS ’27) and Alexandra Sanchez (MSB ‘26)/Paul Sperber (MSB ‘26).

The Hoya conducted a poll in order to gauge who,

if anyone, students are planning to vote for. Of the 208 respondents, 19.2% said they would be voting for the Henshaw/Wagner ticket, while 5.8% said they intend to vote for the Sanchez/Sperber ticket. 43.3% said they were indiﬀerent to both tickets, and 31.7% said they are not planning to vote at all.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Anish Raja

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Support Mental Health

Like many of my friends and classmates, I spend far more time scrolling on TikTok or Instagram between classes or before starting homework assignments than I would care to admit.

Along with the lighthearted internet trends that come and go — the catchy songs and addictive dances — my social media feeds show me real and unsettling things about who I allegedly should be. Videos of Andrew Tate, David Goggins or a variety of men claiming to be Batman tell me how to be a man, and I believe them.

Even though I know their presence on my phone is generated by an algorithm — calculated and impersonal — the place these videos and their messages have in my mind makes me feel like they were made just for me. They always seem to appear when I’m at my lowest. When I feel like I’m not smart enough, I’m told to study harder and simply “lock in.” When I feel like I’m not strong enough, I’m told that going to the gym will solve my problems. When I’m just not feeling good enough, they tell me I’m a disgrace to manhood.

Due to the stigma surrounding men’s mental health — the notion that boys don’t cry — I’d rather take solace in these ideals than talk about the way I feel. As much as we tell ourselves that we live in a world where mental health is understood and accepted, reality doesn’t always reflect that sentiment for men. Men are still meant to be strong, stoic and selfless — to ask for help when these traits define us would make us feel weak and ashamed. I shouldn’t talk about my emotions because that’s not what men do. For myself and many others, this stigma directly impacts how we’ve approached our experiences at Georgetown University. We work hard like every other student, but we work hard for different reasons. In talking to a few of my male friends here, the consensus is that we work hard to get a good job and provide for a family one day.

College-aged men will push themselves to utter exhaustion chasing society’s rigid standards of masculinity, suﬀering silently through burnout, anxiety or depression because they’re “just being a man.” This all-too-common line of thought contributes to a devastating statistic from the National Institutes of Health: men account for roughly 80% of suicides committed by college-aged people. Unfortunately, Georgetown’s culture doesn’t do well to combat

this issue. Our unyielding pride in our place at an elite academic institution and undying drive to get good grades or land impressive internships makes us blind to the eﬀects of mental health: We take care of business, then we take care of ourselves.

Even our limited dialogue on campus about mental health excludes — or even discredits — young men. With a rise in student groups focused on shedding light on the challenges faced by women and LGBTQ-identifying students, mental health and wellness resources do not seem as widespread or accessible to men, leaving them behind.

Georgetown’s You Choose Movement, a club I have become deeply involved with in my ﬁrst two months here, is working to ﬁx this narrative. Spearheaded by the club’s founder and current president, Spencer Paik (CAS ’25), the You Choose Movement at Georgetown connects young men in a real and authentic way to engage in conversations about how we can be compassionate and honest with ourselves and each other.

Whether we’re holding Spikeball tournaments, getting group meals or just talking, Georgetown’s You Choose Movement is redeﬁning what it means to help men in the face of men’s mental health stigma. Through an informal yet passionate environment, I’ve learned that part of the strength men strive to attain isn’t physical: It’s the emotional courage to speak up and ask for help.

I’m not any less of a man because I want to talk about the way I feel, and they’ve helped guys like me understand that. Men break and boys cry — and we have to start fostering communities where men don’t feel judged for being emotional. So, help combat the stigma by having a conversation, making a phone call or sending a text to a man in your life. The outwardly strong and independent men in our lives — sons, brothers, boyfriends — might not always be okay on the inside. We need to talk to them and let them know it’s okay to not be okay.

Society tells us a reassuring fairy tale: that young men are okay. But unlike traditional fairy tales, we can’t just pretend this one is true.

Dylan Goral is a first-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. This is the fourth installment of his column, “The Fairy Tales We Tell.”

Display Jesuit Values in Georgetown’s Outreach

On Oct. 18, Georgetown University’s Instagram account posted a “day in the life” style video, showcasing a snippet of the “average” academic life of a firstyear undergraduate student. At first glance, the video might seem typical of a college student’s day — packing a bag, making some coffee and studying with a friend. But a closer look reveals a large array of high-priced luxury items, including a Goyard tote bag worth upwards of $1,500, a $45 Erewhon tumbler, a $250 Frigidaire ice machine, $550 Apple headphones, a $1,250 Cartier ring and a $180 bottle of Dior skincare. The response to the video has been overwhelmingly critical, with current students and graduates — particularly those from low-income backgrounds — voicing their disappointment. For many, the reel highlights a tone-deaf approach that disregards the experiences of a significant portion of the student body who do not enjoy such affluence. A university wields considerable influence over prospective students’ impressions, showcasing an image of what they believe is representative of their student body. Given that this

Find Comfort in Your Own Company

As the night settles in and the aviation lights atop Healy Hall begin to glow, the campus falls into a hush. I ease into my beanbag by the Copley Hall windowsill, switch on my airplane-window neon sign and take a moment to reflect before diving into the book I’ve been reading: “The Life Impossible,” a novel by Matt Haig about a lonely English woman moving to Ibiza, Spain, in pursuit of reinvention. In the quiet moments, when the noise of the world around us fades, loneliness often slips in like an uninvited guest. For a long time before I began college, I braced myself against it, avoiding solitude whenever I could. I filled the silence with work, group study sessions, dinners, lunches and club meetings. It simply felt unnatural to be alone. Deriving my energy from the presence of others gave me an addictive kind of constancy that made everything feel purposeful. But the more I depended on this constant buzz, the less equipped I felt to handle moments of solitude when they inevitably arrived. Without the usual turbulence of the social world, I felt lost and unsure of what to do — the stillness was unsettling, and I had no familiar cues to follow. Entering college, I didn’t realize how lonely it was going to be during these first few weeks. Everyone talks of the excitement of meeting new people and the rush of diving headfirst into this new chapter of life. And in many ways, it was exactly that — fresh faces at every turn, new classmates and opportunities to join clubs (and their mixers). I was constantly surrounded by people, moving from one conversation to the next, and yet something about it still felt incredibly lonely. Despite the crowds, there was a

lingering sense of disconnection, like sitting in a crowded airport waiting for a flight surrounded by strangers whose journeys were just beginning to overlap with mine. The busy energy was there, but each initial connection felt surface-level. These fledgling connections couldn’t mask the fact that I was still figuring out where I belonged and how to bridge the gap between acquaintances and genuine relationships. I was surrounded but wasn’t truly seen. Thus, when forced to grapple with this loneliness my first few weeks, I realized the extent to which I had avoided taking care of myself. I had neglected to check in with my emotions or acknowledge the things I was wrestling with internally because my focus was always outward — on others, on activities, on maintaining momentum. It wasn’t until the noise started to fade and those quiet moments became more frequent that I realized something had to change.

Embracing loneliness wasn’t just about learning to be alone; it was about learning to listen to myself, to reflect on what I needed when no one else was there to guide me. I found that quiet moments — journaling, taking walks or even just sitting in silence — allowed me to hear myself more clearly, and I could recognize what I needed emotionally, mentally and physically. It became less about being alone and more about getting to know and understand the person I am in those quiet spaces. I began to understand that solitude, much like a moment of cruising above the clouds, was a time when I could regain perspective and steady myself for whatever was to come.

As a college student, surrounded by so much emphasis on connection and involvement, this can be an

especially difficult lesson to learn. For many of us, loneliness feels like an uncomfortable contradiction — these years are supposed to be the most social and engaging years of our lives. But the reality is often different. Loneliness can creep in even when we are surrounded by new people, new opportunities and endless activities. It’s easy to interpret this loneliness as failure — an inability to fit in or to forge deep relationships immediately. But I wonder if that’s not a failure; maybe it’s an invitation to pause, to slow down and to explore who we really are.

As I settle into my beanbag at night, I carve out a moment for myself to breathe. It is about acknowledging the weight of my thoughts and giving them the attention they deserve. And in doing so, I see loneliness not as a void to be filled with activity, but as a space to grow more in tune with myself. I learned that, just like the woman in “The Life Impossible,” sometimes reinvention and self-understanding require a journey inward, away from the noise the world offers.

Embracing loneliness isn’t about shying away from others. It’s about ﬁnding comfort in our own presence so that when we re-enter the busyness of life, we do so with a clearer sense of who we are. It’s a practice of becoming steady in our own journey so that no matter how turbulent the trip may get, we can ﬁnd peace amid the noise. So take a moment to embrace the quiet, listen to your thoughts and reconnect with yourself amid the noise.

Nhan Phan is a first-year in the College of Arts & Sciences. This is the fourth installment of his column, “Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost.”

reel was shared on Georgetown’s official account, the choice to feature such a luxury-driven perspective isn’t a casual oversight. It raises important questions about who controls the narrative and whether the chosen perspective truly aligns with Georgetown’s mission, especially one grounded in Jesuit values of humility, inclusivity and service. This highlights a growing need for the critical examination of what universities and colleges should aim to convey through their social media presence. Ideally, such platforms should serve as an inclusive or at least a conscious space, oﬀering insight into the experiences of students from various backgrounds. They should echo the institution’s values, rather than inadvertently highlight disparities or lifestyles that might alienate signiﬁcant portions of their audience. The purpose of a college’s social media accounts is not merely to share aesthetically-pleasing content; it’s to foster a connection between the university and prospective, current and past students. A university’s social media should serve as a digital campus tour,

revealing the essence of a school’s community and values.

In choosing a luxury-oriented representation, Georgetown missed an opportunity to engage meaningfully with its audience and present a well-rounded, widely accessible picture of campus life.

For Georgetown, as a Jesuit institution, the message carried by its content matters immensely.

Jesuit values emphasize service, humility and inclusivity, fostering a campus environment that prioritizes compassion and collective growth over material wealth. An Instagram reel featuring items well beyond the means of many students risks undermining these core principles. By presenting an idealized, consumerist image of student life, Georgetown’s social media team overlooked the opportunity to communicate its commitment to inclusivity and community.

Rather than promoting a high-priced lifestyle as the norm, Georgetown’s social media presence could better serve its purpose by oﬀering a fuller picture of student experiences. Georgetown’s social media

team should focus on producing media that emphasizes stories of academic dedication, community service and the campus’s diverse backgrounds. This could involve highlighting volunteer initiatives, academic projects or student clubs that showcase a range of student experiences and achievements — content that resonates with both the school’s mission and the reality of life on campus.

The issue withGeorgetown’s recent reel isn’t the luxury items alone; it’s the missed potential for social media to serve as a welcoming bridge between the university and a varied student body. By fostering content that aligns with Georgetown’s values and emphasizes a more inclusive vision of student life, Georgetown and other institutions can set a higher standard for university social media. The Georgetown social media team should greatly reconsider what these posts are intended to communicate and ensure that, in the future, they embody the school’s Jesuit values. Charlotte Hibbert is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.

As a ﬁrst-year, I was initially stunned by the selectivity of the club application process, but soon became thrilled by the challenge. Coming from a hometown where sports were championed over academic achievements, I found it invigorating to be in an environment where both types of activities were held in equally high regard. The energy and passion that Georgetown University students put towards their chosen clubs is nothing short of contagious, and rightfully so — after sweating through rounds of interviews or tryouts, it feels like an honor to be selected as a member of your favorite organization.

Yet when it comes to off-campus events and trips, students in academic competition clubs face a dilemma: receive an unexcused absence or sacrifice an opportunity for personal advancement. Georgetown University Model United Nations (GUMUN) is currently ranked second in North America, and Georgetown Debate has won the Top Speaker award at the National Debate Tournament six times. It’s time for Georgetown to start supporting students in pursuing their interests without penalty.

While Georgetown helps student-athletes obtain excused absences for games, its policies fail to recognize students’ dedication to academic clubs. The attendance policies should be updated to excuse absences for legitimate extracurricular commitments that conﬂict with class times.

This semester, four out of my six classes have strict attendance policies: If I miss more than the permissible number of classes outlined in the syllabus, points begin to come oﬀ of my average.

Most of my peers face the same rules. If they want to compete, they have to hope they won’t fall ill later in the semester and violate their professor’s maximum number of absences.

If a varsity-level student-athlete has to miss class to participate in a sports competition, they must notify their professors in writing at the beginning of the semester of all unavoidable conﬂicts. This must be done prior to the end of the add/ drop period, to discuss whether the absence can be reasonably accommodated.

Club participants are not aﬀorded that luxury and face a diﬀerent reality. New members learn of their acceptance after the add/drop period ends, and returning members learn their travel schedules too late to notify professors properly and arrange accommodations. Moot Court members are informed approximately a month in advance of their scheduled tournament dates. Certain organizations such as GUMUN have debaters apply to attend individual conferences just weeks or days before they occur. The structure of their competition seasons leaves students unable to fully outline their absences to their professors before the add/drop period ends. Additionally, varsity athletes are assigned an athletics academic advisor who advocates for them — someone who can liaise with professors to resolve attendance conflicts. While other students have advisors within their respective schools, these advisors cannot as easily work with professors to manage student absences.

Students do ultimately choose to become a member of on-campus activities, and some may argue that this means they choose to accept

the consequences of missing classes for said activities. Yet it is unfair for students to have to choose between accepting an unexcused absence, risking their GPA or depriving themselves of an experience often closely related to the field they wish to work in one day. Georgetown promises its scholars that they will learn how to flourish in their desired field. It is unfair to penalize them for pursuing extracurriculars meant to reinforce that mission.

Both clubs and administration need to play a role in revising the attendance policy. The administration should become more receptive to these types of conflicts, understanding their importance to the student body. University-wide policies should be revised to allow exemptions for club-related absences when documentation and dean-approval are provided (preventing the abuse of the policy). To support this change, clubs should publicize all known travel dates, so that members can notify their professors of possible conflicts far in advance. If applications are on a conference-by-conference basis, students can then negotiate with their professors to determine a fair number of events to attend. Georgetown’s core values include not only academic excellence but also educating the whole person. Its mission includes integrating the virtuous life into academic experiences, co-curricular life on campus and beyond. To live up to these values, the administration must change the attendance policy to support those genuinely excited to take their learning beyond just sitting in a classroom.

Ella O’Connor is a first-year student in the School of Foreign Service.

ILLUSTRATION BY JASMINE CRIQUI/THE HOYA

Student Musicians Face Limits on Live Shows

After university employees shut down a September concert, students have questioned Georgetown University’s amplified sound policies and begun discussions with Residential Living to modify them.

Anya Warrier and Michael Scime Deputy Features Editors

efore soundcheck even be-

Bgan Sept. 21, Prospect Records, Georgetown University’s student-run record label, had to cancel its Homecoming show.

Sebastian Larsen (SFS ’27) and Clare Didden (CAS ’26), the organization’s co-presidents, were setting up equipment for the unoﬀicial fraternity Zeta Psi’s live concert in a university-owned townhouse across the street from Georgetown’s campus. Weeks of preparation had gone into planning the event, which would feature three student bands: Kicking Cans, Araujia and No One And The Elses.

But the concert came to a halt when a staff member from Georgetown’s Office of Residential Living, which handles student affairs and facilities management, entered the townhouse’s backyard and informed Larsen that the organization could not proceed with the show.

“It was a noise thing essentially, said we couldn’t even set up and didn’t give us a chance to prove that we could keep it at a reasonable volume,” Larsen told The Hoya The abandoned concert is one of multiple on-campus live music events that have been canceled or shut down. In the last year, university officials stopped events including performances in Red Square and a concert in the Alumni Square courtyard, citing university policy about amplified sound causing disturbances.

Griffin Elliott (CAS ’26), a member of No One And The Elses, said the sudden cancellation of the Prospect Records show appeared unwarranted, given the absence of any explicit university policy about live band performances.

“During regular school hours, there can’t be ampliﬁed sound, but at Homecoming, we got shut down on a day where there were no classes, and they used the same rule,” Elliott told The Hoya Residential Living policies permit amplified sound until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays during any outdoor informal gathering in common areas of Village A, Alumni Square and LXR and Nevils Halls; there is no explicit policy for gatherings occuring in townhouse areas. The concert was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

The university’s student code of conduct prohibits excessive noise.

“Excessive sound which infringes upon the community’s right to reasonable peace and quiet is prohibited at all times,” the code reads. “For non-University owned properties, if noise can be heard beyond the property line, it is probably excessive, taking into account the time and the nature of the activity generating the sound.”

However, Noah Vinogradov (SFS ’25), a member of No One and The Elses, said the university’s preemptive shutdowns do not give musicians a chance to regulate the sound on their own.

“How can you say that something is excessive sound before you’ve even heard it?” Vinogradov told The Hoya

A university spokesperson said the university aims to support students’ musical expression and encourages students to work with Residential Living staﬀ to ﬁnd space for concerts.

“From Gaston Hall’s history as a formal concert hall to the Hilltop’s role as an incubator for the local punk scene, Georgetown has a proud history of nurturing musical expression by its students,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya

“Contemporary examples include the student-organized Battle of the Bands and Georgetown Day’s student band performance in front of White-Gravenor Hall.”

“We encourage students to speak with their Community Directors in advance of any planned activities so we can collaborate to ﬁnd a workable solution. As students plan events, they should be sensitive to the peace and privacy concerns of their colleagues, students and local residents,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Georgetown is in the business of making dreams come true, and a lot of people just love, love music.”

JAMES DOLAN (CAS 25) STUDENT MUSICIAN

“In addition, Residential Education staﬀ are in the process of working with other university colleagues to identify spaces where students may perform without adverse impact on the surrounding neighborhood.”

Georgetown’s Musical Past Student-performed live music has been flourishing in recent years, with student bands drawing large crowds.

In particular, the band Rosewater, composed of Will Lefever (SFS ’24), Will Staniar (CAS ’24), Sofi Schlesinger (CAS ’25), Will Atkinson (SFS ’25) and James Dolan (CAS ’25), gained popularity performing in student-owned basements, backyards and on campus before breaking up. Benjamin Harbert, an ethnomusicologist and the chair of Georgetown’s department of performing arts, conducted a study with students in his first-year seminar about the importance of live music at Georgetown.

“What we found in our study was that live music was crucial for Georgetown students, faculty and administrators because it was an important tool for people feeling like they were part of a community,” Harbert told The Hoya Harbert said live music has the ability to bring people together in a unique way.

“Live music, as opposed to recorded music, means that the people you live with and go to class with and study with and the people who are part of your community are the ones who are creating that sense of ‘we,’” Harbert said.

Dolan, Rosewater’s guitarist and a member of Prospect Records, said that student music began to flourish on campus two years ago when Prospect began allowing bands to use its audio equipment, rather than restricting its

use to Prospect-run shows only.

“What ended up happening was, because people could use the equipment to have their own shows, bands on campus started making their own shows to play. All of a sudden, live music exploded because people could create something that belonged to them,” Dolan told The Hoya. “And instead of asking their friends to Uber across D.C. to come to a Prospect show, they could come to a two-hourlong show on campus.”

Following this new policy, bands like Rosewater gained momentum, with Prospect renting out equipment 39 times last year, according to Dolan.

Soﬁa Gershanik (CAS ’27) said her experience at a Rosewater concert last year opened her eyes to the talent of student musicians.

“That was the ﬁrst time I have ever seen a student band of people my age really and truly blow me away,” Gershanik told The Hoya “They sounded like professionals. They acted like professionals. They performed and had a stage presence, just as professionals do.”

The university has supported student bands, inviting Rosewater to perform at the McDonough School of Business’s annual gala and Georgetown Day, an end-of-the-year celebration on the last day of classes, last spring. On Sept. 20, the day before the canceled Prospect Records concert, the university had invited Kicking Cans to perform at its Traditions Day celebration, part of Homecoming Weekend.

Despite participating in this university-sanctioned event, Dimitri Rosenthal (MSB ’26), a rhythm guitarist and vocalist for Kicking Cans, said the performance was not as impactful as the one on Homecoming would have been.

“It wasn’t quite the crowd we had anticipated, because there’s something diﬀerent between a Georgetown-sponsored event and a sort of frat kind of energy,” Rosenthal told The Hoya. “It’s just diﬀerent there.”

Dolan said that if the university wants student bands to be able to perform at university events, they must allow bands to develop their talent at unofficial shows and parties.

“The university loved having us for Georgetown Day last year, they loved having us for the spring concert, they liked pointing to a student band and saying, ‘Isn’t that so great?’”

Dolan said. “But we would’ve never had that experience if we didn’t play those basement, backyard shows.”

Harbert said student bands have been able to attract fans because they have had the space and latitude to play.

“Georgetown’s music scene has always been really mixed, because it’s small,” Harbert said. “There’s a lot of creativity and a lot of surprising learning from each other, but part of what’s allowed it to be healthy is that students have had places to play.”

Community Reactions

Beyond restricting live bands, the university has also prevented individual students from practicing music in public and private spaces.

Harbert said students may risk receiving noise violations for practic-

ing musical instruments in their dorm rooms.

“Something like 70% to 80% of Georgetown students come in having studied an instrument or voice before,” Harbert said. “That’s a really high number of people, and then they come in here and they can’t do it..”

Harbert, who attended Wesleyan University as an undergraduate, said music was essential to his college experience.

“Every part of my memory of college involves live music, of my friends and I playing,” Harbert said. “I was in bands, I played music for my friends’ dance recitals, I sat out on the hill with guitars and wrote songs with friends of mine. We learned from each other. A lot of live music was watching each other play and being inspired by each other.”

“To me, college doesn’t make sense without music,” Harbert added.

Elliott attempted to busk in Red Square independent of his band last year, playing guitar and keyboard with one of his friends.

“We would just busk in Red Square during farmers markets,” Elliott told The Hoya. “For the love of the game, just to have a place to perform, to bring music to Red Square, to get some eyeballs and have a chance to go play some music for people.”

Elliott said that he and his friend performed three times and received positive attention from students before a fourth performance was cut short by university employees.

“People would stop and form a little semicircle and listen to us and take little videos as they were walking by and request songs and that kind of thing,” Elliott said. “We were just starting to become a fixture there.”

Elliott said policies prohibiting music amplification on campus block students from expressing themselves through performing live music.

“That just kind of stymies student artists’ capabilities to get better at performing and also just enjoy performing and give performances to other people,” Elliott said. “It also gives people less motivation to start bands or keep playing in bands, because where are we ever even going to play?”

“It is deﬁnitely actively repressing the band culture on campus and making it intentionally more diﬀi-

Student bands traditionally perform at parties, in basements and publicly on campus, even though university policies restrict the use of amplified sound.

cult for musicians to play music live and share their music,” Elliott added.

Dolan said that live music plays an important role in fostering a positive campus culture.

“It does a lot for people’s enjoyment of college,” Dolan said. “One thing that I think Res Living might be forgetting is that their job is to foster a healthy experience, and they have their own speciﬁc goals for that, but if you’re preventing people from really loving college, then you’re missing the whole point.”

According to Harbert, Georgetown’s music scene is hampered by a lack of funding and the university’s restrictions. Harbert said he wishes there was more support for music on campus.

“Being involved in the music program, I try to make this a haven for musicians so that they can play music as much as they can, but we don’t have the resources to support the whole community,” Harbert said.

Looking Ahead Grace Fenwick (CAS ’26), a guitarist in Kicking Cans, said she hopes students will voice their concerns to Residential Living and collaborate on a compromise that provides Georgetown bands like hers with adequate performance spaces.

“We’ve been trying to organize this since Homecoming,” Fenwick said. “Trying to set up a time to talk to Res Living, and we have a list of things that we want to address with them, so that will hopefully happen in the future.”

Despite their disappointment over the ampliﬁed sound restrictions, Larsen and Didden have also been in contact with Residential Living to discuss potential avenues for continuing live music performances at Georgetown.

“It’s been a pretty big inconvenience and block as far as setting up shows this semester, but Res Living has expressed that they are open to talking with us, we’ve set up a meeting, so we’re optimistic for the future and that we can reach an agreement that works for the both of us,” Larsen said.

The Prospect team met with Residential Living Oct. 23 in the ﬁrst of what Larsen said will likely be a series of conversations.

“The aim was to chart a course go-

ing forward for how we could make sure that bands could have spaces that we can reasonably expect to be able to play at,” Larsen said.

Elliott said he hopes that Residential Living will be receptive to student requests in these negotiations and put students’ wellbeing ﬁrst.

“I think I would say that my ideal outcome for these, whatever negotiations are happening behind closed doors right now, would be that the university realizes that independent live music on campus is actually a good thing for students and for the school spirit,” Elliott said.

The university spokesperson emphasized the importance of communication with Residential Living surrounding music performances.

“Residential Education staff frequently communicate with residents in university townhouses, Village A and other locations about maintaining a reasonable noise level, especially during periods of high activity such as Homecoming or Georgetown Day, as well as managing large crowds that loud music may attract,” the spokesperson said. Gershanik said she believes the university should not only reverse its decision to restrict amplified sound but also actively encourage more young artists to explore the fine arts.

“Somebody like me who’s not sure what they want to do in life, but knows that they just want to be part of that music experience, that music industry, oﬀering a lot more resources for that and a lot more accessibility is a wonderful thing that I think that the university really should be doing more of,” Gershanik said. For Dolan, live music performances at Georgetown are more than just a form of entertainment — they’re a fulfillment of his lifelong aspirations and a powerful means of community building.

“People since they were little kids have images of themselves, imagining that they were Jimmy Page or Celine Dion, Kurt Cobain on stage,” Dolan said. “Being able to offer people a slice of living out their dreams is largely what Georgetown is all about.”

“Georgetown is in the business of making dreams come true, and a lot of people just love, love music,” Dolan added.

COURTESY OF MEGHAN HALL

Activists, Artists, Scientists Tackle Legacies of Racism, Colonialism on Climate, Health Justice at GU Panel

Isabel Liu

Deputy Science Editor

Activists, artists and researchers outlined key strategies for addressing systemic injustices in climate change mitigation and response at a virtual panel event titled “Racism, Colonialism, and Climate Change: Uncovering Injustices in Impacts and Responses,” hosted by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Oct. 24.

Panelists analyzed how colonialism and racism cause delays in climate action, which exacerbate health inequities for countries in the Global South and minority communities in the United States. The event was moderated by Dr. Renzo Guinto, associate professor of global and planetary health at the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School in Singapore and member of the O’Neill-Lancet Commission.

Guinto said that interdisciplinary events that incorporate perspectives from marginalized groups help challenge traditional structures of power in global health.

“The global health community is still dominated by certain sources of power. It’s characterized by asymmetries in power, which then lead to inequalities and injustices in health,” Guinto said. “But today we

are going to look at the intersection between racism, colonialism and health inequality with the climate crisis, which is perhaps the biggest existential threat we are facing now as a human civilization.”

In November, climate change leaders are expected to negotiate climate action agreements in Baku, Azerbaijan as part of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29). This year’s conference will focus on ways to make it easier for developing countries to fund climate action.

According to Guinto, previous global climate goals and mitigation strategies have not compensated for factors such as colonialism and racism.

“This coming COP, like in the COPs of recent years, there are two main outcomes that we still want to see: dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, especially among rich countries, and substantial financing to support poor countries for adaptation and now to compensate for what we call ‘loss and damage,’” Guinto wrote to The Hoya. “These goals remain elusive primarily because we are stuck in our racist and neocolonial political, social and economic systems.”

Panelist Mita Huq, a researcher at the Institute for Global Health at University College London, explained that countries in the Global North have yet

to take an equal share of responsibility in combating climate change.

“Although the Global North makes up only 14% of the world’s population, it was responsible for 92% of excess carbon dioxide emissions from 1850 to 2015,” Huq said at the event.

Susana Almanza, panelist and director of nonproﬁt organization PODER, highlighted the integral role of community organization in bringing climate justice to the United States. Notably, after discovering that Tank Farm, a series of fuel storage tank facilities located in a predominantly Latine and Black neighborhood in eastern Austin, violated air emissions and contaminated the groundwater, PODER led a campaign that resulted in the relocation of Tank Farm in 1993.

Almanza celebrated the campaign as one of many showing the power of grassroots climate organizing.

“This campaign was done with a $2000 grant, and we were able to kick the ass of multibillion dollar corporations in our community,” Almanza said.

According to Huq, under-resourced healthcare infrastructure in formerly colonized nations may not be able to adapt and respond to the challenges associated with climate change.

“The resources of the health system and its capacities to adapt to climate change in formerly colonized nations is limited, which contributes to a disproportionate burden of deaths in the Global South. Barriers to health such as legal status or aﬀordability are ampliﬁed, and this is especially pertinent to migrants, even in traditional communities,” Huq said. Huq further explained that institutional bias has motivated decisions to locate sources of pollutants and toxins closer to marginalized communities, increasing the risk of exposure to health-harming environmental factors for these communities.

“Institutions and systems expose minoritized communities to a higher proximity and exposure to pollution and toxins produced by fossil fuels, and intersecting forms of oppression including disability, gender, socioeconomic status, these all kind of come together and form a medley of harms,” Huq said.

Another speaker at the event was Elizabeth Koroivulaono, director and producer of “The Forgotten Pacific,” a documentary that shows indigenous communities across five Pacific Islands fighting to save their islands

Seminar Explores How Pathogenic Fungi Evade Drugs

Angela Lekan Special to the Hoya

Neeraj Chauhan, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Center for Discovery and Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Health, explained the mechanisms behind antifungal resistance in Candida auris (C. auris), a species of yeast, and the implications for human health at a seminar hosted by the department of microbiology and immunology Oct. 22.

Fungi cause many common diseases in humans, including yeast infections, athlete’s foot and ringworm. Antifungal resistance occurs when a fungus is no longer susceptible to the medications used to treat it.

Chauhan said that despite the extensive impact of pathogenic fungi on human health, the topic does not receive much attention.

“Fungi, I think, are very important. They impact almost all aspects of human life, from agriculture to biodiversity to food security and of course human health,” Chauhan said at the event. “Unfortunately, fungi and fungal diseases do not receive the attention they deserve.” Chauhan’s research focused on C. auris, a species of yeast that can cause skin infections and life-threatening bloodstream infections that can spread to vital organs such as the brain. The first human case of C. auris was discovered in 2009, and infections have since spread globally.

C. auris spreads through skin-to-skin contact and contact with contaminated surfaces, especially in healthcare facilities like hospitals.

According to Chauhan, the unique qualities of C. auris make it harder to treat than other fungal infections.

“What’s really unique about this

fungus is that it adheres to human skin and tends to for a long, long time,“ Chauhan said. “Which means if someone gets colonized by Candida auris, that person can potentially transfer it to another person.”

Compounding the problem, some strains of C. auris have developed resistance to all three classes of antifungal drugs, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to categorize C. auris as an urgent threat on its annual watchlist of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and fungi in 2019.

“One thing which is really unique and distinguishes Candida auris is that it happens to be quite resistant to antifungals,” Chauhan said. “Which is a problem because there aren’t many antifungal drugs available.”

Chauhan’s research addresses this growing threat by uncovering how C. auris adheres to human skin and acquires resistance to antifungal drugs. The answer, he found, lies in a gene called HOG1 that encodes a protein that regulates cell responses to a variety of environmental conditions.

After creating two mutant strains of C. auris that produce a deficient HOG1 protein, Chauhan discovered the cells were almost completely killed by the antibiotic Amphotericin B.

“In the presence of the drug the parental isolate grows because it is resistant, but the mutants become almost dead in both strain backgrounds, clearly showing these are important genes in regulating drug resistance,” Chauhan said.

Additionally, HOG1 mutants were less eﬀicient at colonizing skin and establishing colonies in the kidneys and brains of mice.

Kincer Crovetti (GRD ’25), a master’s student in the Biohazardous Threat

Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases program, attended the talk. Crovetti said that Chauhan’s observation of brown C. auris strains, which normally grow white, could indicate increased resilience of C. auris isolates.

“What I thought was really interesting was the phenotypic switching between the white and the brown, especially because we’ve seen a lot of different things with darker fungus being more hardy,” Crovetti told The Hoya.

Stephan Menne, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of microbiology and immunology, organizes the seminar series, which captures a diverse range of research.

“I usually request speaker suggestions from faculty and especially our Ph.D. students ahead of each semester,” Menne wrote to The Hoya. “I try to cover a broad range of basic and translational research related to infections with pathogens.”

According to Chauhan, it is hypothesized that increasing global temperatures due to climate change could stimulate fungal evolution and allow more species of fungi to survive at human body temperatures.

“Climate change leads to other organisms living on the planet becoming more adept at growing at higher temperatures. Fungi in general are not that good at growing at body temperature, so a rise in temperature allows them to adapt,” Chauhan said.

Crovetti emphasized the importance of building awareness around antifungal resistance, as resistant species of fungi pose an increasing threat to human health.

“If anyone isn’t familiar with this topic, they should at least do a little bit of research into it because it’s going to aﬀect everything at some point,” Crovetti said.

Professors Talk Disability, Medical Humanities Research

Ellie Ward Science Writer

Two Georgetown University professors discussed their writings on disability studies at an Oct. 23 event. Joel Reynolds, director of the Disability Studies Program at Georgetown and an associate professor in the philosophy department, explored how deﬁnitions of disability are applied in various disciplines in his article “The Meaning of Ability and Disability.” Theodora Danylevich, a professor in the English department, studied the literary depiction of disability in her article “Disability Politics and Reproductive Critique in Gayl Jones’s Corregidora.” During the event, hosted by the Medical Humanities Initiative, both spoke on their personal expertise and the interdisciplinary nature of disability studies and medical humanities.

Reynolds emphasized the value of disability studies in bettering the lives of individuals and furthering a well-rounded understanding of studies in the humanities and social sciences.

“I increasingly think that the study of disability is foundational. Every ﬁeld in the humanities and social sciences relies in some way upon the concept of ability and,

thereby simultaneously, the concept of disability,” Reynolds wrote to The Hoya. “The sooner we realize this, the better we could make things for all people regardless of their (dis)ability status.”

Given that disability studies can inform a variety of disciplines, Reynolds said there is value in conducting interdisciplinary work in the disability studies ﬁeld.

“These ﬁelds are interdisciplinary at their core, which is a boon,” Reynolds wrote. “Approaching things from multiple angles and methods is a more promising route to produce deep insights.”

Timothy Newﬁeld, a professor in the history and biology departments at Georgetown and an organizer of the event, said the Medical Humanities Initiative seeks to bring multidimensional perspectives within the medical humanities discipline to students through its events.

“We really do aim to encourage cross-discipline dialogues at Georgetown through our Medical Humanities Initiative,” Newﬁeld wrote to The Hoya. “Beyond simply being necessary in the ﬁeld of study, I think it just makes things exciting and dynamic. It makes for more possibilities, more questions, and more answers.”

Newﬁeld said he was pleased the initiative could highlight disability studies.

“This was our first conversation to focus specifically on disability and to have two awesome scholars working in disability studies contribute was fantastic — ideal really,” Newfield wrote.

Reynolds said he was excited to see the growth of interest in disability and medical humanities studies within the university.

“There is an explosion of interest in disability studies as well as in medical humanities across the college, graduate school and school of medicine at Georgetown University,” Reynolds wrote.

Students from a variety of majors and backgrounds attended the event and asked questions ranging from implications on the ﬁeld of medicine to the intersection of anthropological study.

Charlotte Phillips (CAS ’28), a student attendee, said the event informed her of the myriad aspects of disability studies.

“I didn’t realize how many different disciplines disability studies touches,” Phillips told The Hoya. “It was interesting to see how professors from two diﬀerent focuses could show how complex the topic is and the impact of framing the conversation from

from climate change.

Koroivulaono hopes her documentary can bring underrepresented stories of climate activism to light.

“It highlights the crisis that is happening, but also what the grassroots community is doing, and it shows the world that they are not standing by waiting for things to change,” Koroivulaono said at the event.

The event concluded with a collective brainstorm on how to promote antiracist and decolonial approaches to climate policy and governance.

Jessica Kritz, director of the Initiative on Health and Peace and assistant professor in the department of global health at Georgetown University, shared the university’s mission to train students to incorporate justice

SCIENCE ON THE BALLOT

Post-Dobbs Abortion Access Will Be Pivotal in Deciding 2024 Presidential Election

Minoli Ediriweera Science Columnist

Abortion is the single most important election issue for women under 30 in the United States, according to an October survey from KFF. Recent polling shows that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris maintain razor-thin margins in nearly every battleground state as Election Day approaches, highlighting that the election may be decided by very small numbers of votes.

In every presidential election since 1980, women in the United States have registered and voted at higher rates than men, and this gender gap grows every election cycle. For both candidates, this means that the way they present their goals for reproductive health policy could hand or cost them the election.

that voted to overturn Roe — has realized in recent months that the issue can make or break his campaign. In years past, Trump was a ﬁrm opponent of abortion, even claiming in 2016 that “there has to be some sort of punishment” for women who use the medical procedure.

However, his third run for presidency differs from the previous two in its unclear and inconsistent approach to abortion policy, likely due to growing public support for abortion rights. In 2024, Gallup found that 64% of U.S. women and 61% of U.S. men support legal abortion. Only 12% believed that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

diﬀerent questions.”

In addition to exploring how their work intersects, both professors reﬂected on the personal impacts of their own work.

Reynolds said that seeing the vast diﬀerences between how disability has aﬀected members of his family caused him to reconsider what the term “disability” means and write about it in “The Meaning of Ability and Disability.”

“What it meant for my late brother to be disabled vs. what it means for my mother to be disabled (vs., for that matter, what it means for me to be disabled) is wildly, perhaps even categorically diﬀerent,” Reynolds wrote. “Witnessing these diﬀerences — as well as how differently people treated them — led me to think that disability isn’t one sort of thing.”

Reynolds suggested that the conversation around disability should shift to examine the term’s impact on diﬀerent communities.

“While in some domains like law, we have to define disability, I think that searching for an all-encompassing definition is misguided,” Reynolds said. “We need instead to look at what the concept does in the world. How do we tend to use it and what work does its use do for us in specific contexts?”

The 2022 Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the landmark case Roe v. Wade, set the stage for an inflammatory political landscape in a nation that has been deeply divided in its legal and ethical perspectives on abortion for decades. Since 1973, Roe had provided federal protection for the right to have an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy in every state. Beyond the first trimester, states could impose restrictions or prohibitions based on the “viability” of the fetus. In the aftermath of Roe’s reversal, states are now able to restrict or ban abortion entirely, even in the first trimester.

Since Roe’s overturning, onethird of U.S. women of reproductive age now live in states with little or no abortion access. In Georgia, at least two women have died due to complications after being unable to access abortion care. The inability to terminate pregnancies also has consequences for the fetus if risky pregnancies are carried to term. Infant mortality in the United States rose by 7% from 2018 to 2023, according to a study from JAMA Pediatrics, and the researchers say this may be correlated with the Dobbs decision.

Thirteen states have opted for complete bans with few or no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother. Others only allow abortion in a window when women may not even be aware that they are pregnant.

Four of the seven swing states that are vital to an Electoral College victory do not provide legal protections for abortion in their state constitutions.

Trump — who appointed three of the Supreme Court justices

Trump has boasted about his inﬂuence in blocking abortion access in the United States, and has called the passage of restrictions across the country post-Dobbs “a beautiful thing to watch.” International humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International have called such bans a violation of human rights.

During his presidency, Trump supported a federal abortion ban, but on Oct. 1, after months of providing incomplete answers to the press, he said he would veto such a ban if elected. His ﬂip-ﬂopping position has left many confused, from his pro-life supporters to his opponent, Kamala Harris, who said that Trump cannot be trusted to protect reproductive freedoms because of his inconsistent position on the matter. Unlike Trump, Harris has stood relatively firm on supporting the federal right to an abortion, saying her first priority, if elected, is to stop the harm that abortion bans are causing across the country. Harris evidently recognizes the health complications and deaths that such restrictions have brought upon women and their families, and has frequently shared their stories in interviews, at campaign events and on the debate stage. She has also said that if Congress were to pass a bill to restore the right to an abortion at the federal level, she would “proudly” sign it into law. Even with their varying views on reproductive justice, it is evident that both Trump and Harris are intent on winning over voters on the issue, as this election cannot be won without doing so. In the first presidential election of the post-Roe era, every vote cast will represent far more than party politics — it will be a litmus test for the health freedoms that this country believes its women deserve.

ISABEL LIU/THE HOYA

The O’Neill Institute organized a panel Oct. 24 to address systemic injustices in climate change mitigation and their impact on health.

ANGELA LEKAN/THE HOYA

Neeraj Chauhan explored mechanisms of antifungal resistance at a seminar hosted by the department of microbiology and immunology.

Candidates running for

discussed their campaigns,

Ajani Stella Staff Writer

The Georgetown University Reconciliation Fund, which awards grants to organizations supporting individuals and communities descended from the people enslaved by Georgetown and Maryland Jesuit plantations, awarded a total of $200,000 to seven community-based descendant organizations and projects Oct. 15.

The grants focus on community-based projects that celebrate and honor enslaved ancestors while supporting education and empowerment eﬀorts to uplift the next generation. They represent the second of two annual installments, totalling $400,000, which the Reconciliation Fund has allocated to support the descendant community.

Robin Proudie — who leads grant recipient Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved (DSLUE), a nonprofit honoring those enslaved by St. Louis University, a Jesuit school whose enslaved workers came from Georgetown — said she wanted to honor her ancestors with the grant.

“This is for our ancestors,”

Proudie told The Hoya. “We realized a lot of people don’t know this history, so we decided to tell our story and educate the wider community. And when I start talking about it, people are fascinated.”

Proudie said her grant will support headstones for unmarked graves, a ﬁlm project documenting ancestors’ lives and contributions to a mentorship program for younger community members and an annual community event celebrating ancestors and elders.

“When we got the grant, it just elevated it to a whole other level so that we can really honor our elders who are here — give them their ﬂowers now,” Proudie said. “I wanted to restore the rites of passage by having the younger generation see us honor our elders. It was amazing.”

Alongside DSLUE, grant winners

included three descendants teaching students in Maryland schools about ancestors’ stories through art; a documentary called “Finding Us” about descendants tracing their heritage; a documentary called “The Poppaw Queen” about ancestor Mary Queen’s legal efforts for freedom throughout the 18th century; and the White Marsh Historical Society, which honors enslaved people at the Jesuit-owned White Marsh Plantation.

Two Louisiana-based projects also won grants: St. Mary’s Academy, a 156-year-old Catholic girls’ middle and high school in New Orleans that Henriette DeLille, a free Black woman, founded; and a project collecting oral histories from descendants and restoring gravestones in Ascension Parish, La.

Pamela Rogers, the principal of St. Mary’s Academy, said the grant would fund education and training which could empower young descendants to become leaders in their community.

“We have meaningful programs in this community so that young people will see their opportunities for the future,” Rogers told The Hoya “Everything centers around the students feeling self-worth.”

Rogers said the Reconciliation Fund’s support would advance their eﬀorts to expand training programs for young Black leaders and community outreach eﬀorts.

“There are just so many additional things we are going to be able to do as a result of this funding,” Rogers said. “It will allow us to include more students in what we want to do and make a greater impact in the community, so we’re very grateful to the Reconciliation Fund for affording us this opportunity to expand our programming.”

The Reconciliation Fund, which Georgetown inaugurated in 2022 after a 2019 student referendum called for reparations, is composed of university representatives, students and descendants. They chose projects based on applications from the organizations, interviews with students,

input from descendants and approval from the University Review Board, a group of administrators who make the ﬁnal funding decisions.

Professor Adam Rothman, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacy (CSSL), an academic initiative for scholarship and education on Georgetown’s history of slavery, said the Reconciliation Fund and its community focus resulted from growing public awareness of the GU272+ community and the subsequent student-led push for reparations.

“The emergence and organization of the descendant community really put the question of reparations — material compensation — on the table,” Rothman told The Hoya. “That’s where the genesis of the speciﬁc debate about what reparations Georgetown does comes from.”

Rothman said that while the Reconciliation Fund was not the wide-ranging reparations initiative that some student and descendant leaders envisioned, it still represents a historic step toward ﬁnancial reconciliation beyond purely symbolic commitments.

“We can argue about whether it should be doing more or how much money it is or the type of grants they’re giving,” Rothman said. “But the fact that Georgetown is doing something, whereas most places are doing nothing — I think that’s amazing.”

Proudie said the work of the Reconciliation Fund and descendant organizations is vital to recognizing and responding to the destructive legacy of enslavement.

“This is the work that needs to be done so we can all heal,” Proudie said. “When we work together to do it and go through the hard part together, that’s what brings us closer. We will never forget it until it is dealt with, talked about — until we work to restore it, and then move forward. These are the things you can do, and I think it’s a beautiful thing.”

WHAT’S NEW IN BLOG?

Airplane Mode: Sand, Sleeplessness and Soviet Steel Senior Blog Editor Nikhil Nelson recounts his travels on a Soviet-era train from Tashkent to Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Ruth Abramovitz GUSA Desk Editor

Fifteen students are running for seats in the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate in its Nov. 5-7 election.

In addition to improving printing, expanding dining hours and improving Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) bus frequencies, candidates hope to increase GUSA communications with the student body, reduce plastic waste, expand student discounts in the Georgetown neighborhood and improve policies for student organizations without university beneﬁts.

First-years will be able to elect seven out of the 10 ﬁrst-year candidates to represent the Class of 2028. Five candidates are competing for the four at large seats, which sophomore, junior and senior students elect.

The Class of 2028 candidates are Harry Block (CAS ’28), Tyler Chase (SFS ’28), Nikki Jiang (SOH ’28), Cameran Lane (CAS ’28), Paul Nassar (SFS ’28), Emma Nicotra (CAS ’28), Sam Schwartz (CAS ’28), Amelia Snyder (SOH ’28), Zadie Weaver (CAS ’28) and Michael Francis Williams (SFS ’28). Aidan Patrick Liss (SFS ’26), Hassan Malik (SOH ’26), Nico Santiago (CAS ’27), Youngsum Sim (SFS ’27) and Saahil Rao (SFS ’27) are running for the at-large seats.

Polls in the GUSA election will open at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, as voting in national elections across the country closes, and will close on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.

Snyder said she hopes to improve communication between GUSA and the student body and connectivity between the administration and students.

“I had not heard of GUSA before the campaign newsletter went out and

have found that many other students feel the same way,” Snyder wrote to The Hoya. “This disconnect inhibits the student body’s ability to voice their concerns and ideas for improvement.”

Chase said he will conduct campus-wide surveys to implement student voices into his policies.

“To address these needs eﬀectively, I plan to conduct thorough surveys across the student body to understand speciﬁc routes, times and dining preferences, as well as to identify popular outdoor spaces,” Chase wrote to The Hoya. “I believe that building policy through peer input is essential for creating meaningful, lasting improvements.”

Weaver said she is focused on increasing student credit for laundry services and ensuring the laundry machines function correctly.

“On the second week here, my friend spent $10 on a load of laundry because every single dryer left her clothes wet; one load of laundry shouldn’t cost a quarter of your laundry balance,” Weaver wrote to The Hoya. “That’s just one example of small things that, if fixed, would make our lives so much easier at Georgetown.”

Sim said his campaign is focused on new policies, including easing the process of finding clubs on campus.

“I commit to ﬁnding a method of making exploring the extracurricular activities on campus easier, whether it be upkeeping a database of all the existing clubs with relevant contact information or rehauling CampusGroups to be more student-accessible and easier to search,” Sim wrote to The Hoya Lane said his campaign is focused on ensuring all student groups, recognized or unrecognized by the university, have equal access to resources.

“The key policy goals for our campaign all revolve around pushing for the things that matter to the class of 2028,” Lane

wrote to The Hoya. “Securing more late-night dining options, making sure projects started by the administration are completed in a timely fashion and working to make sure H*yas for Choice can operate with the same dignity and support that Georgetown Right to Life does.” Liss said that in addition to advocating for the end of legacy admissions, another of his campaign goals is to increase transparency around tuition increases.

“I was shocked when my notice of increased tuition consisted solely of a vague pie chart and a twopage FAQ,” Liss wrote to The Hoya “I was equally dismayed when I talked to students who only found out about massive cuts to the performing arts program only when services they relied on shut down.”

“If elected, I’d ﬁght for clearer updates on tuition spending, department and resource allocation shifts and enough notice to allow for student feedback,” Liss added. Santiago, a former Class of 2027 GUSA senator, said his campaign’s goal is to increase physical and resource accessibility on campus to ensure students can ﬂourish.

“I wish to uphold and facilitate the amazing community we have here at Georgetown, whether it be by making sure everyone has a seat at the table at our dining halls or by ensuring that we are able to enjoy essential traditions, including Georgetown Day,” Santiago wrote to The Hoya

“I have proven to be an eﬀective advocate and I will continue to fervently represent the interests of the student body,” Santiago added. After 27 candidates ran for ﬁrstyear seats in Fall 2023, this election sees reduced interest. The election will coincide with the GUSA executive election.

BellRinger, Georgetown University’s annual fundraiser in which individuals and teams bike to raise money for cancer research, raised over $1.5 million Oct. 26. 1167 riders and 151 teams of Georgetown students, faculty, staﬀ and supporters biked 25, 50 or 100 miles, with 100% of proceeds going to the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a cancer research center at the Georgetown University Medical Center. Student groups raised over $250,000 this year, with each student committing to raise at least $500 in funds from family, friends and supporters. BellRinger has raised over $4.28 million since the fundraiser’s founding in 2022 and will continue to collect proceeds for the research of cancer risk factors and prevention strategies until Dec. 31. Louis Weiner, the director of Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said that BellRinger’s proceeds will help fund the recruitment of new faculty members in the ﬁeld of cancer research.

“We use it to support the recruitments of new faculty members, and so the new faculty members for cancer research are doing world-class cutting-edge therapy,” Weiner told The Hoya

“Every time the pedal turns, someone gets cured,” Weiner added.

Three student groups –Georgetown Kappa, a sorority run by Georgetown students; Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp), a fraternity run by Georgetown students; and The Corp, a student-run non-proﬁt organization at Georgetown – raised over $113,000 collectively.

Georgetown Kappa raised over $46,000, which was the highest amount raised out of all 151 teams, and also had the largest group of volunteers. SigEp raised over $35,000, which was the second-highest amount of funds raised by a team, and The Corp raised over $30,000, which was the third-highest amount raised.

Ella Braunfeld (SFS ’25), co-coordinator of Team Georgetown Kappa, said that she rode in BellRinger to honor her mother, who passed away from cancer last summer.

“My mom had a really rare aggressive form of cancer seven or eight years ago now, Ewing sarcoma, she had in her 40s,” Braunfeld told The Hoya. “She battled and fought, and actually this past summer, she passed away.”

“I really just wanted to do it in honor of my mom,” Braunfeld added. Satchel Kim (SFS ’25), vice president of philanthropy for SigEp, said the team eﬀort involved in BellRinger has become an important tradition of social good.

“If you look at the roster, most of the guys have raised almost double what they need to, which really is a testament to how much people care,” Kim told The Hoya. “They really put a big eﬀort into fundraising and it’s an important cause for us.”

Braunfeld said BellRinger illustrated the importance of community with everyone who joined the ride.

“Community is the ﬁrst word that comes to mind,” Braunfeld said. “I had a lot of girls tell me how much it meant to them for riding in it because so many people’s lives are aﬀected by cancer.”

Braunfeld said that the last stretch of the race was especially moving because riders could see signs of personal stories along the last mile. She added that the cure for cancer is something that truly takes a team eﬀort.

“At the end of the ﬁnal mile of the race, BellRinger puts down signs of people sharing their stories, why they’re riding,” Braunfeld said. “You have survivors riding, and that just really makes you realize what you’re doing this for and how it’s going to take a team, God knows how many, to really defeat and end cancer.”

Elizabeth Martin (CAS ’27), who rode for Team Theta, a sorority run by Georgetown students, said that she found it signiﬁcant how many students took time

out of their busy schedules to ride for cancer research.

“I know for me, this Saturday is in the middle of a swarm of chaos, so it’s really cool to see people taking time out of what is a very stressful and overwhelming time to dedicate a day to something completely outside of that and outside of their own beneﬁt,” Martin told The Hoya

Leila Mahdavi (MED ’27), a BellRinger fellow and medical volunteer for BellRinger, said she wanted to contribute to BellRinger’s cause of cancer research because of how cancer has impacted her and the community.

“I think everybody has something personal with cancer, I think everybody knows somebody or, themself, is aﬀected by cancer,” Mahdavi told The Hoya

“When I was doing the ﬁrst year, I had a family member die from cancer and that really aﬀected me emotionally and mentally.”

Braunfeld said that cancer research is signiﬁcant to her because of how it can give individuals a chance to live longer.

“The former cancer my mom had, it had such a low survival rate of 25 years ago, but it was because of the research done that she was able to have seven years left to live — so it’s not even about for me the cure, the end goal, it’s about getting a couple years,” Braunfeld said.

Hundreds of GU Students Among Thousands Attending Harris Rally

HARRIS, from A1

ideals of the country strengthened his support for her campaign.

“I already voted, but my vote was a solid anti-Trump vote and I think as of last night, my vote was a real pro-Kamala vote,” Vinogradov told The Hoya. “I’m really excited to see what she’ll do as president.” Vinogradov said the diﬀerences between the two candidates inspired him.

“The contrast between Trump, who talks about enemies within and who stirred that mob at the Ellipse, and a message of unity, a message of, ‘I’m going to bring together people from all over the country,’ is so stark to me. I really loved it,” Vinogradov said.

During a rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump spoke to thousands of supporters and urged them to “ﬁght like hell” as the U.S. Congress met to certify Biden’s win, inciting what became an insurrection as the crowd marched to the Capitol attempting to stop the certiﬁcation process. Catherine Hiemstra (SFS ’27), a Michigan voter who attended the rally, said that seeing Harris speak about unifying the country at the same setting Trump had used was symbolic.

“Having a candidate who was conclusively saying she is going to be a president for all Americans and that it doesn’t have to be the way

it has been over the last four years, that was something that was really refreshing,” Hiemstra told The Hoya

Asher Maxwell (CAS ’26), a co-chair of the Georgetown University College Democrats (GUCD), said the rally was a unique opportunity to attend as the election nears.

“We rarely get to see a lot of the campaigning that goes into elections, because most of the time that happens in the swing states,” Maxwell told The Hoya “I think that’s what made this rally special, is that Georgetown students got to participate in a rally and see what a presidential campaign looks like up close.”

Maxwell said roughly 350 Georgetown students signed up to attend the rally with GUCD, though more may have signed up independently.

Elinor Clark (CAS ’27), GUCD’s communications director, said the rally was an opportunity for GUCD members to support Harris and celebrate their monthslong campaigning eﬀorts.

“The biggest thing was making sure that everybody had signed up for it and getting people excited to turn out,” Clark told The Hoya. “We passed out stickers, we did face paint. Going to these types of things with friends is always much more fun and it’s a celebration of the hard work that we’ve put in over the past year — campaigning,

knocking doors, making phone calls for Harris.”

Reilly Souther (CAS ’27), the advocacy director of GUCD, said she felt Harris’ supporters on campus had a responsibility to show their support for her campaign.

“It’s important for young people to show that we’re coming out to support Kamala Harris in the election,” Souther told The Hoya. “Georgetown is pretty politically involved as a school and this is a historic election, so of course we should be there.”

Evan Cornell (CAS ’27), executive director of Youth for Harris-Walz, a national youth movement advocating for Harris’ election, said the energy at the rally was memorable.

“D.C. is already full of history,” Cornell told The Hoya. “But as history is being made here in the city, I think it’s really important that we have this front row seat, so I think we need to take it every chance we get.”

Vinogradov said attending the rally allowed him to see the value of a Georgetown education ﬁrsthand.

“In ﬁve years, you’re not going to remember most of the times you went to Lau to write papers,” Vinogradov said. “You will remember going to the Ellipse to watch Kamala Harris give her closing arguments — you will remember that for the rest of your life.”

RA Union, GU Tentatively Agree On Nearly Half of Contract Articles

GRAC, from A1 spaces. Additionally, the “Emergency and Natural Disasters” agreement outlines procedures for disaster situations and prevents RAs from working more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period.

Lovell said he has been impressed with how RAs continue to remain engaged in the lengthy process, especially as RAs do not get paid to negotiate.

Wagener said she hopes to make progress on negotiations regarding RA’s placement in dormitories, as GRAC has already advocated for fair placement processes in previous bargaining sessions. Currently, RAs can where they would like to be placed, but Residential Living employees make the ﬁnal decision on RAs’ placement.

that the university is committed to working with the union.

“We deeply value the contributions of Resident Assistants (RAs) to our living and learning community,” a university spokesperson wrote.

“Georgetown continues to work in good faith with OPEIU to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.”

Lovell said he is excited to negotiate payment provisions for RAs.

Urges Global Response

UN Expert Says Israel Committing Genocide,

ALBANESE, from A1 happened on Oct. 7 was not, to a large extent, a series of crimes,” Albanese said. “The moment civilians are touched, killed, brutalized, taken hostage, we are in the realm of crimes, and crimes are to be investigated and prosecuted.”

Albanese said Israeli officials not directly involved in the country’s military actions in Gaza are still responsible for enabling genocide.

“You cannot claim that this has been only the atrocities intended by a group of government officials, because what were the other government officials doing?” Albanese said. “They have supported, aided and elected and even further enabled the work the government has done. What was the Parliament doing? Just kept on passing laws to the treatment of Palestinians harsher and harsher.”

“And what has the judiciary done, especially after Jan. 26, when the court, the International Court of Justice, ordered Israel to investigate and prosecute genocide or incitement? Nothing,” Albanese added.

Albanese said that the violence in Gaza must be viewed with a wider context.

“You cannot look for genocidal intent with a microscope, because genocide is an insidious crime, but it’s a collective and complex endeavor,” Albanese said. “And if you take a step back and look at the totality of conduct, it is the totality of the people in the totality of the land.”

Albanese has faced accusations of antisemitism from figures including Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. The Georgetown Israel Alliance (GIA), a student organization that supports Israel, released a statement on Instagram condemning Albanese’s presence on campus.

“As a Jesuit institution that prides itself on religious diversity and inclusion, we ask that you reconsider

your decision to bring Francesca Albanese to this campus,” GIA wrote in the statement. “Allowing her on this campus to speak is dangerous and demonstrates a signiﬁcant disregard for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students.”

At a Princeton University event Oct. 29, the day after her lecture at Georgetown, Albanese said she condemns antisemitism.

“Antisemitism is disgusting,” Albanese said at the event. “However, in recent years, antisemitism has been used as a weapon against any critical voice against Israeli practices.”

“Jewish people have profound love for Israel, and I respect it, but I do not respect governments who do not abide by international law,” Albanese added. “No one here is calling for the destruction of the Israeli state, only asking for Israel to be aligned with international law and human rights and not practice apartheid.”

Albanese’s talk was the eighth in the Alwaleed Center for MuslimChristian Understanding (ACMCU)’s Gaza Lecture Series, which started in January 2024, and brings speakers from a variety of disciplines to examine topics ranging from increasing antisemitism and islamophobia to the history of colonialism.

During the event, Fida Adely, the director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), an interdisciplinary program in the School of Foreign Service (SFS) that focuses on the Arab culture, history and economics, introduced Albanese and said it is vital for academics to discuss the impact of the IsraelHamas war to ensure that the U.S. government can confront its complicity in the ongoing conflict.

“The threat of a full-scale regional war hangs over us, and all of this has been supported and funded by the U.S. government, by our representatives just a stone’s throw away,” Adely said at the event. “Their complicity means that U.S. citizens and those

of us at U.S. institutions have a moral obligation to speak about the grave injustices being committed, injustices that jeopardize the safety and security of everyone in the region, if not the world, including Israelis.”

ACMCU Director Nader Hashemi said the series is important in understanding the consequences of events in Israel and Palestine.

“This is a major global event that has not only destabilized the Middle East but has global, international repercussions,”

Hashemi told The Hoya. “The United States is deeply involved in the horror, the trauma and what many people believe is an unfolding genocide, and as a university and a School of Foreign Service devoted to the study of international relations, we felt that we had, as educators, an educational responsibility and moral responsibility to organize a lecture series devoted to examining this monumental, transformative, global event.”

Albanese said attention needs to remain on the crisis in Gaza or the international community will regret allowing the violence to continue.

“When we see what has been done to the people of Gaza, we will be ashamed that it has happened on our watch,” Albanese said. “And I say that having been forced to look a little at what has transpired, what they have been enduring, adults and children alike.”

Albanese said that young people on both sides of the conﬂict ﬁghting for human rights give her hope for the future.

“We can still come back,” Albanese said. “We are suspended, I often say, between the present day, the abyss, and hope. Hope comes from Palestinians and Israelis who resist and can engage in a decolonized future and from the youth. I really praise many of you who have shown older people what it means to walk the walk when it comes to human rights.”

“These meetings tend to last a while, and I think it’s important to recall that RAs aren’t paid for their time at these meetings,” Lovell said.

“The university is paid for their time, and so there’s a lot of imbalances that students, when they’re engaging in this process, confront, and that’s one of them. It’s admirable to see students make the time.”

Ulises Olea Tapia (SFS ’25), an RA in Village A and GRAC’s interim bargaining lead, said GRAC is prepared to discuss all aspects of the proposed contract and hopes to hasten the bargaining process.

“We would appreciate seeing a quicker turnaround for the university with counter-proposals,” Olea Tapia told The Hoya. “We would also appreciate quicker sessions, but generally speaking, we believe it went well.”

“I’m deﬁnitely hoping to get a response on our placement article,” Wagener said. “That’s something we’ve traded language back and forth on and we deﬁnitely made some compromises. So I’m hoping to see that they’d also be willing to make some compromises.”

Olea Tapia said placement, on which a tentative agreement has not been reached, is important to RAs.

“Placement is where we are really pushing the administration, mainly because the administration really wants to continue with the status quo as it is,” Oleo Tapia said.

“We believe that the process of placement as it is is not an equitable process, and we think that it can really be improved upon.”

A university spokesperson did not respond to The Hoya’s request for comment on this round of negotiations but told The Hoya Sept. 26 in response to questions on previous rounds of bargaining

“We’re eager to wrap up these non-economic proposals and get into perhaps the meat and potatoes, if you will,” Lovell said. “I think pay is a big issue that has been on RAs’ minds and it’s what we are planning to address in the ﬁnal and the last bit of our negotiations.”

Lovell said he was encouraged by the university’s willingness to negotiate, adding that GRAC will continue to advocate for change.

“Although we still have some distance on some of these proposals, we are very narrowly coming to an area of consensus and it’s within vision,” Lovell said. “It seems like the university is willing to entertain some reform, although I think we definitely have to stay steadfast and hold them through that commitment because things do have to change and that’s why we did it in the first place.” GRAC and the university will resume negotiations in November.

Henshaw/Wagner Ticket Aspires To Change, Lacks Concrete Plans

ENDORSEMENT, from A1 uniquely pluralistic approach to campaigning, including outreach to 40 clubs and meetings with 26, resulting in endorsements from a variety of organizations across campus. Henshaw and Wagner bring to the table a seemingly unprecedented level of widespread popularity.

To their credit, both Henshaw and Wagner bring an impressive degree of institutional experience to their campaign.

Henshaw, an experienced GUSA senator, has spearheaded initiatives ranging from implementing gender-inclusive housing to extending winter break. Perhaps more notably, his leadership as co-president of the Georgetown University College Democrats and co-founder of Hoyas Against Legacy Admissions, a student-led campaign to end legacy admissions at Georgetown, further demonstrates his campus-wide influence. Wagner, also a co-founder of Hoyas Against Legacy Admissions, currently serves as GUSA’s financial accessibility chair, though in an appointed rather than elected capacity.

The Editorial Board finds that their combined experience reflects a genuine concernforthewell-beingofthestudentbody.

However, the Editorial Board cannot offer the Henshaw/Wagner ticket an unconditional endorsement. In the Editorial Board’s view, it seems that their platform, while broad in scope, largely consists of platitudes designed to appeal to large swaths of the student body rather than tangible plans for implementation.

“We want to be there for our clubs. We want GUSA to be actively involved in our student body,” Wagner said. “We’re in this because we care about helping campus life, and we care about bringing back some more fun and bringing our communities together.”

The Henshaw/Wagner policy platform relies on familiar promises and GUSA cliches — to install free printing and laundry, protect affinity houses from the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAPs), a program which identifies “student houses that may raise concerns,” end legacy admissions and increase financial aid

— most of which the Editorial Board wholeheartedly supports. While Henshaw and Wagner have significant GUSA and student organizing credentials, the disconnect between their ambitious goals and lack of actionable steps raises serious concerns.

In a striking parallel, The Hoya’s Editorial Board declined to endorse a candidate for the GUSA executive oﬀice in February 2022, describing the options as “pitiful.” Although the Board praised the Thomas Leonard (CAS ’23)/Nirvana Khan (SFS ’24) ticket’s “reasonable grasp of important issues,” it criticized them for their insuﬀicient plans to implement change on Georgetown’s campus. Even then, Leonard and Khan presented a more detailed policy framework than the Henshaw/Wagner platform.

The Editorial Board cannot, therefore, unconditionally endorse candidates whose platform similarly lacks concrete strategies to implement their ambitious proposals.

However, the rival ticket, composed of Alexandra Sanchez (MSB ’26) and Paul Sperber (CAS ’26) presents more concerning issues. Sanchez and Sperber provided a one-page policy platform to The Hoya — one page more than they have released to students — and have released one Instagram graphic with a list of proposals that are neither ambitious nor achievable, centered on dining reform and Georgetown Day. Their policy plans lack detail and fail to address popular campus issues such as legacy admissions, campus protests and broader financial accessibility.

During their interview, unlike Henshaw and Wagner, Sanchez and Sperber said they would support funding the Capitol Campus more and opposed ending legacy admissions.

Most troublingly, Sanchez confirmed in an interview with The Hoya that her run for GUSA allows her to receive an exemption from writing a 20-page paper in the government class “Campaigns and Elections.”

While she maintained she had intended to run beforehand, this ex-

planation rings hollow given the Sanchez/Sperber ticket’s evident unpreparedness during the interview and their notably short platform.

“There was an assignment that was if you help someone in a campaign, that can be like a project, except that’s not why I’m running; I was going to run beforehand because I’m actually passionate about this issue,” Sanchez said. “I’m definitely 100% fit for the job; that’s no reason why I should be looked down upon. I think it just shows that I’m willing to put myself out there, and I think that makes me a really good candidate because it shows I’m wanting to do this and I’m really passionate about it.”

The Sanchez/Sperber ticket also lacks crucial GUSA experience. Their limited understanding of executive-senate relations, particularly regarding appropriations, combined with their outsider status, casts serious doubts on their ability to implement their agenda. The Editorial Board’s endorsement decision this cycle stems neither from either ticket’s specific policy proposals nor from any real, existential question about the role of the GUSA executive raised by either ticket. While the choice was not particularly difficult — the Henshaw/Wagner ticket will undoubtedly represent the student body more thoroughly and professionally than the Sanchez/Sperber ticket — the Editorial Board remains unconvinced by the merit of both tickets’ platform and positions.

The Editorial Board encourages students to vote for the Henshaw/ Wagner ticket, but to simultaneously call for more and better from their GUSA executives and candidates in the future. In February 2022, the disappointed Editorial Board called for “bold and specific policies.” We’re not holding our breath. The Hoya’s editorial board is composed of six students and is chaired by the opinion editor. 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.

HAAN JUN (RYAN) LEE/THE HOYA

Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC) and Georgetown University completed its third and fourth rounds of bargaining for a tentative contract Oct. 21 and 30, respectively.

ACMCU/YOUTUBE

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. independent expert on human rights in Palestine, asserted that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza at a talk for the Gaza Lecture Series Oct. 28.

GU Humanities Initiative Inaugurates New Dedicated Space in Old North

Ari Citrin

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown Humanities Initiative, which organizes humanities scholarship and projects on campus, inaugurated its new space in Old North with the goal of expanding interdisciplinary collaboration and recentering the humanities in Georgetown University’s culture Oct. 25.

This location, which represents the initiative’s first dedicated physical space, was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by students, faculty and donors, featuring a large conference room, offices for visiting scholars and a symbolic location at the heart of campus. The McCourt School of Public Policy previously occupied the space before its move to the Capitol Campus this summer.

Andrew Sobanet, interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said the initiative’s new space will allow it to take on a more prominent role on campus.

“The humanities are the cornerstone of a Georgetown education, not just the College of Arts & Sciences, but for every Georgetown student,” Sobanet said at the ribbon-cutting. “It’s an extension of the commitments we make as a community to foster interdisciplinary research, teaching and public facing projects that demonstrate the enduring value of the humanities for a better understanding of the human condition.”

Founded in 2019, the Georgetown Humanities Initiative provides funding and support for student and faculty research across humanities disciplines. In 2021, Nicoletta Pireddu, the initiative’s director and a professor in the department of Italian, established a student advisory board for the initiative and hopes to have

students to moderate future events. Pireddu said the space enables the initiative to serve as a bridge between disciplines on campus.

“I am appreciating not only the beauty ofthespace,butalsotheflexibilitybecause the room is big enough to have not only seminars, but also lectures,” Pireddu told The Hoya. “It gives us an independence that I would have never dreamed of.”

Devon Wald (CAS ’28), who joined the student board this fall, said she wants to expand the presence of the humanities on campus.

“We’re looking to open up the position of humanities to a wider range of Georgetown,” Wald told The Hoya “People often kind of overlook the humanities. So I’m hoping to make sure that these events and opportunities are available to the general student body.”

Though the Georgetown Humanities Initiative currently occupies only the second floor of Old North, administrators envision this space as the first step in creating a “Humanities Quad” around Dahlgren Quad, which is currently home to the English, theology, philosophy and classics departments.

The project will also feature a renovated McNeir Auditorium in New North, partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a government agency that finances humanities-related projects. The grant requires Georgetown to raise approximately three times the $750,000 the NEH awarded.

Provost Robert Groves said that the unveiling of the initiative’s new space foreshadows the establishment of a Humanities Center, pending funding, and represents an institutional commitment to humanities education.

“We’re dedicating this as a humanities initiative, but this nomen-

JUPS Celebrates 10 Years Of Major Program, Fetes

Founder at Retirement

Ajani Stella Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies (JUPS) program celebrated its 10-year anniversary as a major and honored the retirement of its founding director with a panel of graduates and professors Oct. 25. JUPS, an interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts & Sciences focused on researching global conflict and the means to achieve peace and justice, was founded in 1994 by Professor Mark Lance and offered minors to students. The JUPS major program began in Fall 2014 and the Class of 2025 has 40 graduating seniors.

Andria Wisler, teaching professor and director of the Center for Social Justice, moderated the panel, which featured Guillermo Barriga (SFS ’11), a JUPS graduate and coordinator for the Metro Migrant Education Program in Aurora, Colo.; Kathleen Godfrey (SFS ’03), a JUPS graduate and director of the Aspen Institute’s Justice, Society, and Democratic Institutions Initiative, which works on collective activism and justice; Lauren Reese (COL ’12), a JUPS graduate who has worked in peace studies and social change strategy; Andrew Willis Garcés, a former JUPS adjunct professor and longtime organizer in Southern-based movements; and Lance.

During the event, Elham Atashi, director of and teaching professor in the JUPS program, also announced the inauguration of the Founders Award, a $2,000 prize recognizing contributions to the ﬁeld, in what she said would both recognize the impact students have and celebrate Lance’s legacy.

Lance, who is retiring this year and transitioning to emeritus status, said he founded the program out of an interest in bridging activism and academia.

“I had two separate lives — I was an activist and organizer, and I was an academic,” Lance said during the event. “I didn’t anticipate those having anything to do with one another.”

Lance said the JUPS program has formed a strong community, giving him new hope for solving global issues.

“It just keeps your soul alive. It keeps you having hope for the future,” Lance said. “It’s like you see that the world sucks in so many ways, but you also see there’s this pipeline of people who are going to fight that. I got very lucky with my job.”

Garcés said the JUPS program has always been focused on supporting and caring for students.

“Maybe we came for something else, and what we found was a whole lot of nurturing,” Garcés said during the event. “That ended up being a huge

clature needs deﬁnition,” Groves said at the ribbon cutting. “I will go anywhere to try to raise money for the humanities center and ﬁll this place out and ensure sustainability of everything you want to do.”

Pireddu said with the existing funding, the initiative has been able to develop programming to support both student and faculty research, interdisciplinary collaboration, guest speakers and resources for the Georgetown community.

“The humanities have always been a fundamental component of Georgetown’s identity, but with the creation of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, we have been able to demonstrate that we are much more than a cluster of juxtaposed disciplines,” Pireddu said. “We are exploring exciting public-facing and experiential learning opportunities, and we are engaged in interdepartmental collaborations involving faculty and students, be it when we approach past ages or when we tackle the challenges of our complex present. Our humanities projects make individual disciplines speak to one another.”

Pireddu added that housing the initiative in the oldest academic building on campus is especially meaningful as the program expands.

“Thanks to this beautiful space, Georgetown Humanities can finally be not only an intellectual endeavor, but also a physical reality, a distinctive forum for hosting events, exchanging ideas and promoting a sense of community and welcoming our forward-looking program in this historic location,” Pireddu said. “Having space in the oldest building on campus nicely expresses, in my view, our way of conjugating respect for tradition and commitment to innovation.”

The Georgetown Humanities Initiative opened its first office on the university’s

representing the first new space of a planned “Humanities Quad” around

GU’s Qatar Campus Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Saim Affan Haider

Special to The Hoya

throughline for a lot of the students and faculty of JUPS.”

Barriga said JUPS helped him to develop his own code of ethics and shape what he wanted to do with his life, including being vegan and dedicating his life to social change.

“Being part of the program helped me realize how I wanted to live my life and my ethics,” Barriga said.

Reese said the program’s unique approach to education allowed her to appreciate and participate in diversity at Georgetown, helping her ﬁnd her place at the university.

“One of the things that was most amenable to me about the JUPS program was the ability to shape my own path through the interdisciplinary approach to this discipline,” Reese said at the event.

“Coming at it with a core foundation of values and nonviolence and justice allowed me to bring that lens into the diﬀerent areas of interest that I had, looking at the interconnected global aspect of social justice,” Reese said. “I always joke around that I thought I got an SFS degree, but on my own terms.”

Julianne Meneses (CAS ’25), the student program assistant for JUPS, said the program has shaped how she views her place in the world.

“What makes JUPS truly unique is its commitment to core values,” Meneses said at the event. “The program teaches us to view the world through a lens of equality, compassion and consideration for others, qualities that serve as a powerful foundation for any future that we choose to pursue.”

Reese said that while JUPS was not designed with one career path in mind, it ensured that she built a career focused on the program’s values of justice in theory and practice.

“I resonate so much with the language of developing people that have a responsibility to the world because I left JUPS knowing that whatever I did in life, I needed to feel like I was having a positive impact on the world,” Reese said. Lance concluded the panel saying the JUPS program greatly changed his life and that he is excited for the next generation of JUPS students.

“I hope all of these wonderful panelists push further than my generation could, and I hope all you students push further than they do,” Lance said.

“You all are my hope for the world, and I consider myself unbelievably lucky to have been a part of this community, to have fought with you, to have worked with you, to have celebrated with you and sometimes cried with you,” Lance added.

“However long I have left, I will still be in the struggle, in whatever role is useful, but it’s your struggle now.”

Georgetown University’s campus in Qatar (GU-Q) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, marking two decades since its establishment in partnership with Qatar Foundation, the country’s largest non-proﬁt organization focused on education, research and community development.

The milestone comes as GU-Q continues to oﬀer its bachelor of science in foreign service (BSFS) degree in Doha, oﬀering majors in international politics, culture and politics, international economics and international history. Established in 2005, the campus has since grown into a diverse community in Doha, dedicated to upholding Georgetown’s mission and values.

GU-Q Dean Safwan Masri said the Doha campus oﬀers unique opportunities to students seeking a global education.

“Twenty years ago, the idea of establishing Georgetown in Qatar was seen by some as ambitious — perhaps even audacious,” Masri told The Hoya “Today, GU-Q has created a legacy of academic excellence that resonates far beyond Doha. Our students and faculty have been uniquely positioned to address challenges that others can only observe from afar, oﬀering solutions grounded in both local

context and global understanding, from diplomacy to international aﬀairs and beyond.”

This year’s anniversary comes amid a period of signiﬁcant growth for the Doha campus as GU-Q reached its highest-ever student enrollment, with 470 students on campus for the 202425 academic year. To support this growing community, the university made several key additions to its faculty to celebrate its 20th anniversary, welcoming seven new full-time professors and introducing its inaugural cohort of GU-Q doctoral fellows, a group of scholars who spend a year on the Doha campus while completing their doctoral studies at Georgetown’s main campus.

Salome Mamuladze (SFS ’24, GRD ’26), a GU-Q graduate currently pursuing a master’s degree in Eurasian, Russian and East European studies at Georgetown’s main campus, said her experiences at the Doha campus were pivotal in shaping her perspective on global aﬀairs.

“Looking back now, I realize how special it was to be part of a community with over 70 nationalities in a campus of just a few hundred,” Mamuladze told The Hoya. “The diversity on campus and the focus on regional issues meant I was constantly exposed to diﬀerent viewpoints. It wasn’t just about what we learned in class, but also about the mean-

ingful conversations and friendships with people from so many diﬀerent backgrounds.

“Now that I’m in D.C., I can see how those experiences gave me a much deeper understanding of global issues,” Mamuladze added.

To mark the anniversary, GU-Q is continuing its Hiwaraat Conference Series, a ﬂagship program exclusive to the Doha campus that aims to foster global dialogue. One of this year’s key events was the “Reimagining Palestine” conference, which was held in September. The event featured 69 panelists and drew over 1,400 attendees, including notable guests such as Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the chairperson of Qatar Foundation, and Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al-Thani, the CEO of Qatar Foundation.

Masri said the Hiwaraat Conference Series, named after the Arabic word for “dialogues,” is signiﬁcant because it embodies Georgetown’s mission to cultivate intellectual engagement and cross-cultural understanding on complex global issues.

“The spirit of Hiwaraat proved, once again, to be distinctly Georgetown: no other place could serve as such a powerful incubator for these conversations, and no other community could foster the depth and dynamism that we witnessed,” Masri wrote in an email to the GU-Q student body after the conference.

GU-Q’s development has also included initiatives to connect the Doha and Washington, D.C. campuses, such as through the Bridging Capitals class. This four-credit course features a course at both campuses to explore the cultural, social, historical, theological and political landscapes of both cities through a travel exchange during spring break.

Komal Samrow (SFS ’25), a senior studying culture and politics at the main campus who spent a semester at GU-Q, said she found great signiﬁcance in these cross-campus interactions.

“Studying in Doha was eye-opening,” Samrow told The Hoya. “The cultural immersion and the chance to see how Georgetown’s values and academic focus are adapted in a different region really pushed me to think more critically. Doha is such a beautiful city, and I made some amazing friends there. I would love to go again.” Masri said that these engagements between the two campuses represent the university’s dedication to service.

“As we celebrate this milestone, our focus remains ﬁrmly on the future,” Masri said. “We are harnessing the momentum we have built to shape a world deﬁned by Georgetown’s enduring commitment to service, justice and the common good.”

Fall Faculty Convocation Recognizes Professors’ Promotions

Elyse Ellingsworth

Special to The Hoya

Georgetown University celebrated 70 newly promoted faculty members at its fall faculty convocation Oct. 28.

The event recognized professors and associate professors from the main campus, Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Law Center who received either tenure or promotion this fall. It also featured Georgetown’s annual “Aims of Education” address, given by Teresa A. Sullivan, president emerita of the University of Virginia.

Provost Robert M. Groves, who opened the event by

oﬀering congratulations on behalf of University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), said Georgetown faculty are the core of the university and crucial to its mission.

“Faculty are truly the beating heart of the university’s advancement of human knowledge and the formation of our students,” Groves said at the event. “One of the great pleasures of being a provost is seeing the diverse and important work that you’ve done over the years through your scholarship, your teaching and your service.”

Sullivan, the University of Virgin-

ia’s ﬁrst female president, said that some of her most fulﬁlling work was exploring academia beyond her specialization, encouraging faculty to explore both within and outside their areas of expertise.

“I encourage you also to spend a little time daydreaming about the longer term,” Sullivan said at the event. “The rhythm of our academic life is one of narrowing and expansion. One advantage of your promotion is the security that now you can peer beyond your disciplinary boundaries to consider bigger projects, perhaps more interdisciplinary problems.”

“I do not suggest giving up your specialty, but I do suggest that you could fruitfully study the adjacencies of your work and perhaps try new areas,” Sullivan added.

During her address, Sullivan also reﬂected on the mixed emotions that can arise for promoted faculty, saying they should celebrate themselves and recognize the contributions of family and colleagues in their scholarly journeys.

“Paradoxically, promotions can be a two-edged sword,” Sullivan said.

“Sometimes the aftermath of a great achievement feels like a letdown. So if you are feeling ambivalent, at least deep down, that’s not surprising, and you should allow yourself to feel

the conﬂict of emotions.”

“I hope you will let the emotions of pride, satisfaction and joy predominate. Your promotion reﬂects years of demanding work, the esteem of your colleagues and, no doubt, the gratitude of your students and patients,” Sullivan added.

Jesse Meiller, who attended the convocation after her promotion to teaching professor at the Earth Commons, an institute that focuses on the environment and sustainability, said she is excited to share her work with students in her new role, including through the Earth Commons’ new undergraduate degree program in sustainability.

“I had two other careers before entering academia and Georgetown allows me to bring those skills and knowledge to share with students,” Meiller told The Hoya. “Speciﬁcally in the new B.S. degree that I am co-directing, I am able to integrate experiential learning into the courses in meaningful ways. This provides students with opportunities to work with and learn from experts in a number of ﬁelds, mine included.” Calvin Newport, an honoree who was promoted to professor in the computer science department, said that his success as a professor has come from blending his research

goals with teaching undergraduates.

“It’s a combination of introducing new knowledge in the world through research and writing with helping to train students to meet the challenges ahead,” Newport told The Hoya. “These two goals support each other. Research adds energy to pedagogy, and pedagogy adds motivation for research.”

“Some of the most interesting conversations I’ve had during my academic career have come out of informal interactions with students during oﬀice hours or after class,” Newport added. Meiller said that educating students at the postsecondary level offers unique opportunities to make an impact, especially in her ﬁeld of environmental science.

“So many of my students have already started to eﬀect change for the environment,” Meiller said. “I have hope for the environment and the world around us and for the future, and I feel that I can make the biggest diﬀerence by teaching.” “College students are at a point in their lives when they’re ready and willing to take on the world,” Meiller added. “The education that we provide at Georgetown helps to prepare them with knowledge and skills to do just that.”

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

main campus,

Dahlgren Chapel.

DC-Based

Pizzeria’s Dessert

Sparks Outrage, Leads to Protests, Boycott

Shira Oz Special to The Hoya

Content warning: This article discusses drug usage. Please refer to the end of the article for on- and oﬀ-campus resources.

Washington, D.C.-based pizza

fast-casual restaurant &pizza sparked outrage after releasing “Marion Berry Knots,” a marionberry dessert that made fun of the late D.C. Mayor Marion Barry’s drug abuse, Oct. 21, prompting protests Oct. 25.

Harriet’s Wildest Dreams (HWD), an organization that advocates for Black lives at risk for state-sanctioned and intra-community violence, is one of the leading organizations in the boycott of &pizza for the dessert. The group staged a protest Oct. 25, calling on the company to recognize and address the harm its recent marketing campaign caused the Black community.

Barry, who passed away in 2014, prioritized work to lift thousands of locals out of poverty and aid underserved communities during his time as mayor. Despite his well-known struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, including a brief stint in prison after a publicized crack cocaine incident, Barry remains admired in the District.

&pizza’s dessert prompted outrage from the public as the company advertised it with thinly veiled references to cocaine.

“These knots will blow you away,” read one advertisement.

A photo was posted on the company’s X, formerly Twitter, account which featured a pile of white powder atop a mirror with small, powder-ﬁlled plastic pouches scattered around the table.

Mike Burns, the CEO of &pizza, released a public statement regarding the dessert, apologizing to the D.C. community and to Barry’s family.

“While humor was our intent, it was regrettably oﬀ the mark,” Burns said in the statement. “We’re an edgy brand known for being risk-takers. The parody of the former Mayor and portrayal of substance abuse was wrong.”

In a public statement released Oct. 24, HWD said that the references to substance abuse can cause real damage.

“The exploitation of Mayor Marion Barry’s legacy for proﬁt, paired with tasteless references to substance abuse and criminality — particularly in a city where Black communities have borne the brunt of racially biased drug criminalization — is not just oﬀensive, it is harmful,” the statement said.

Critics connected the insensitive dessert to broader issues of racial injustice, noting how Black Americans in the 1990s faced disproportionately longer prison sentences for drug charges compared to white oﬀenders convicted of the same crimes.

Cora Masters Barry, Barry’s wife, told D.C. News Now that the references to Barry and his substance abuse were racist.

“I just think it’s racist,” Masters Barry said. “In this city, it is outrageously racist. You can print that. It’s racist and disrespectful.”

Zoë Griﬀin (SFS ’28) said she thinks that &pizza is not only disrespecting the former mayor but also anyone struggling with substance abuse.

“I don’t even think that that’s just making fun of the fact that this man had a drug problem,”

Griﬀin told The Hoya. “That’s also poking fun at whoever has a drug problem now, and that’s such a prevalent issue.”

D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) called for a boycott of the pizza chain, saying that the dessert disrespects Barry’s legacy and shows a profound lack of cultural awareness.

“Reducing the legacy of Marion Barry to a marketing gimmick is tone-deaf and blatantly disrespectful,” White wrote on Instagram.

Jackie Berman (CAS ’28) said she thinks people have the right to boycott the company, as the marketing campaign was disgraceful.

“The marketing was inexcusable,” Berman told The Hoya. “I think people have the right to boycott.”

While Barry’s estate threatens to sue &pizza over the desert for using Marion’s likeness, HWD and other organizations from the “Knot in D.C. Coalition,” an organization opposing &pizza for the use of Barry, said they are working with Barry’s family and &pizza to resolve the issue.

“We recognize that true restorative relations require mutual input and agreement,” HWD and the other organizations said in a press release. “We value collaboration and look forward to working with &pizza toward a productive process for all parties that are impacted by their harmful and hurtful actions.”

Resources: On-campus resources include Health Education Services (202-687-8949) and Counseling and Psychiatric Service (202-687-6985); additional oﬀ-campus resources include the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988) and the Assessment and Referral Center (202-727-8473).

Gates Foundation Awards $2.3 Million

To McCourt School Research Center

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

The Gates Foundation awarded $2.3 million to the Better Government Lab, a joint research center between the McCourt School and the University of Michigan’s Ford School.

Pritika Patel Special to The Hoya

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity organization focused on global health, education and poverty alleviation, awarded $2.3 million to Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy to a joint research center. The center, the Better Government Lab, works alongside government agencies such as the U.S. Social Security Administration to increase their eﬀicacy by making their services easier to understand and more accessible to the public. The Gates Foundation’s funding, delivered over three years, will allow the center to partner with more agencies and scale up its research.

Maria Cancian, dean of the McCourt School until Nov. 1, said the Gates Foundation’s support will be critical for the Better Government Lab and its programs.

“The support from the Gates Foundation allows the Better Government Lab to scale its operations and partner with a larger number of states and agencies,” Cancian wrote to The Hoya. “This research will generate evidence and insights about how best to reduce the burdens that people experience in applying for social safety net programs and inform policymakers about how to make government more eﬀective.”

Jeremy Barofsky, an associate research professor at the McCourt School and executive director of the Better Government Lab, said the new grant will play a signiﬁcant role in advancing the lab’s work.

“This grant from the Gates Foundation represents a signiﬁcant step forward to advance BGL’s mission of making government work better for all people,” Barofsky wrote to The Hoya. “In particular, it will allow us to expand our impact evaluations and strengthen the evidence on what digital solutions are most eﬀective at increasing safety-net access.”

The Better Government Lab’s research focuses on understanding the various administrative, behavioral and social burdens that prevent individuals from accessing social safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Medicaid. Many more people are eligible for government support than obtain these services, as processes and applications can be complex and frustrating to navigate.

Barofsky said addressing the gaps is important because it minimizes the harm of not receiving beneﬁts.

“This gap is caused by administrative burdens that make interacting with many public programs frustrating and time consuming,” Barofsky wrote. “By measuring these burdens and making clear how they aﬀect vulnerable populations, we seek to minimize them, make government work more eﬀiciently, and increase the resources available to low-income families nationwide.”

Donald Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School and co-director of the Better Government Lab, said accessible social services beneﬁt individuals throughout their lives.

“We know from research, in the short run and the long run, we see

GU’s EMBA Program Ranks 10th in US

Song Lim Graduate Desk Editor

The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business (MSB) executive master of business administration (EMBA) program ranked tenth in the United States in The Financial Times’s rankings and surpassed its diversity record for the Class of 2026.

The Financial Times evaluates programs based on several factors, including career outcomes, graduate satisfaction and international representation, using surveys of graduates and business schools.

The Class of 2026 of the MSB’s EMBA program is also the most diverse class in the program’s history, with a record range of demographics, professional experience and educational backgrounds.

Nita Swinsick, associate dean for graduate and executive program admissions at the MSB, said a unique aspect of the EMBA program is the university’s emphasis on cura personalis.

“One of these is our school’s commitment to cura personalis, or ‘care for the whole person,’ which is evident in our individualized faculty support, close-knit community and collaborative culture,” Swinsick wrote to The Hoya.

“This has helped to foster a sense of belonging and strong connections within each cohort.”

Nicholas Lovegrove, academic director of the EMBA program, said the program oﬀers courses and opportunities designed to explore opportunities in Washington, D.C.

“The EMBA program provides a way to discover their full capabilities and to do it in ways that are convenient and ﬁtting to their schedules,” Lovegrove told The Hoya. “We try to ensure that there are courses and programs that connect our students

to the political and government life of Washington, D.C.” Swinsick said they are pleased to see the EMBA program gaining recognition as one of the top programs both nationally and globally.

“As a school that is known for its immersive experiences, D.C. connections and close-knit cohorts, we are pleased to see our program recognized as a top EMBA program in the world in rankings such as the Financial Times,” Swinsick said.

Kathleen LaTorre (GRD ’26), a student in the EMBA program, said the program’s standout feature is the strong connections formed within the cohort experience.

“The opening residency allowed us to forge deep connections that extend far beyond typical classroom interactions, providing a strong foundation over the past few months,” LaTorre wrote to The Hoya. “These relationships have been invaluable, enabling us to support one another through impromptu study sessions and discussions, as well as advocate for each other with our professors to reach our collective goal of graduating together in May 2026.”

The curriculum features experiential courses that immerse students in real-world international business challenges. In the “Structure of Global Industries” residency, students explore international trade, investment and policy through hands-on practicums, and for their global capstone project, students have the opportunity to explore global strategy and industries abroad.

Swinsick said the program worked to diversify recruitment efforts through initiatives such as fostering connections between graduates and prospective students and providing additional engagement opportunities for specific identity groups.

“We have tried to be deliberate and thoughtful about reaching out to students from different backgrounds in our recruitment efforts,” Swinsick said. “For example, we are open and transparent about providing diversity class profile data to prospective students, we are purposeful in the connections we make between prospective students and alumni/current students.”

“Additionally, we have strengthened our partnership with diversity organizations like the Forte Foundation, which is committed to launching women into fulfilling, significant careers,” Swinsick said. Lovegrove said the EMBA is one of Georgetown’s most diverse programs due to its commitment to ensuring it reflects a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives.

“Just under 50% of the students are women and more than 30% of the students come from underrepresented minorities, and it is close to being one of the most diverse programs that we have,” Lovegrove said. “That reﬂects the approach that we have taken to ensure that the students we admit are representative of all groups and societies.”

LaTorre said the diversity within her cohort provides valuable perspectives and supports her with insights whenever needed.

“Our cohort is among the most diverse in the program’s history, and this rich array of lived experiences truly distinguishes us,” LaTorre said. “As a small business owner, I feel conﬁdent reaching out to anyone in our group chat for advice, insights and networking, and look forward to leveraging the resources and lessons from this program to advance my future endeavors alongside my phenomenal classmates.”

Professor Appointed Chair of NIH Clinical Research Hospital Board

people who can access beneﬁts are more likely to have better longterm outcomes in terms of things like health and economic mobility,” Moynihan told The Hoya

Most of the center’s work revolves around researching administrative burdens through distributing user surveys and conducting case studies to provide government agencies with evidence-based policy recommendations.

Sebastian Jilke, a professor at McCourt and co-director of the Better Government Lab, said that the center’s work is a continuous cycle of research that will aid policy decisions.

“The process of generating evidence is probably not a journey where you have a deﬁned endpoint,” Jilke told The Hoya “At the end of the grant, what we plan to do is communicate our ﬁndings to policy makers and to policy implementers.”

Cancian said that the Better Government Lab has a crucial impact on uplifting individuals by making social safety net programs more accessible.

“The Better Government Lab is an important McCourt School research center working to improve the lives of the most vulnerable through rigorous evaluations designed to improve the delivery of critical social programs,” Cancian wrote.

Jilke said conducting research into social safety net programs is crucial because of its impact on individuals most in need of help.

“It is of incredible importance to look at ways how the state can meaningfully reduce burdens to improve access and thereby help people get the services that help them to thrive in life,” Jilke said.

Song Lim

Graduate Desk Editor

Jack Leslie (SFS ’76), professor of the practice in the Georgetown University School of Health (SOH), was named chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center Research Hospital Board (CCRHB), a hospital dedicated to clinical research at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., Oct. 9.

The CCRHB is composed of experts in biomedicine, health care administration and public health and patient representatives who advise NIH leadership on the hospital’s operations, particularly in areas of safety, clinical quality and regulatory compliance. Leslie previously chaired boards such as the United States African Development Foundation, a federal agency that provides enterprise development in sub saharan Africa, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which works to end HIV/AIDS globally.

Dr. James K. Gilman, physician and chief executive oﬀicer at the NIH Clinical Center, said that Jack Leslie’s prior experience will be instrumental in advancing their mission.

“Jack Leslie has a lot of experience in thinking about strategy and public relations, marketing, helping people know what the clinical center is and what they do and how we communicate with all of our constituents,” Gilman told The Hoya. “He has enough experience with the work at Georgetown, Duke University, the Elizabeth Glaser Foundation, and he knows enough about healthcare to work at a very high level.”

“His work at Georgetown is in the realm of public health and a lot of what we do requires communication with the public,” Gilman added. “The public health viewpoint helps make sure that we are focused on the right kind of issues and is good in helping us understand how to communicate better.”

Leslie said that he aims to promote the work of the Clinical Center through his new role as chair.

“We want to do a better job of highlighting the work that the clinical center does — it does amazing work in ﬁnding new cures and it is one of the only clinical centers in the world,” Leslie told The Hoya

“As a hospital, it employs something called bench to bedside, which means that the researchers are oftentimes literally down the hall from the patients, so it is able to conduct clinical studies in ways that other institutions can’t.”

“It is very important to our nation’s health innovation goals, and it’s the reason why it’s called America’s research hospital.” Leslie added.

Leslie said that Georgetown stands to beneﬁt in research opportunities due to its proximity to the Clinical Center and his new role as chair.

“The NIH broadly works with many universities in providing assistance for research,” Leslie said. “Given Georgetown’s proximity to NIH and its long history in groundbreaking research, such as in oncology, Georgetown has a real stake in the success of NIH and its clinical research.”

Christopher J. King, dean of the SOH, said that Leslie’s appointment as chair will support the

school’s mission to advance health and well-being through research.

“Jack Leslie’s appointment as Chair of NIH Clinical Center Research Hospital Board is aligned with our mission, ‘to advance the health and well-being of people through innovative research and interdisciplinary education,’” King wrote to The Hoya. “Through his role, his insight will inform our growth strategy and deepen our capacity to advance knowledge, shape policy and inform practice.” King said new opportunities for SOH faculty will also allow students to observe innovative research ﬁrsthand and learn from it.

“I can certainly see opportunities for our faculty — particularly those with appointments in the Departments of Human Science and Health Management and Policy,” King said. “I envision opportunities that will enhance teaching and scholarly inquiry. Of course, students will have a ﬁrst row seat in these instances.”

Leslie said that the Clinical Center is dedicated to innovative research aimed at underrepresented patient populations, including children.

“The clinical center is very intense on making sure that there is full access to various patient populations,” Leslie said. “For example, it is very engaged in trying to begin to provide resources for research into underserved populations. Something we discussed recently is the importance of pediatric research.”

“Oftentimes, in medical research, very young populations are overlooked and that’s one of the things the clinical center will be addressing,” Leslie added.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Jack Leslie (SFS ’76), a professor at the Georgetown University School of Health, was named chair of the National Institutes of Health Clinic Center Research Hospital Board Oct. 9.

SPILLING THE CHAI FILM

Never Have I Watched ‘Never Have I Ever’, And Neither Should You

which often translates into selﬁshness and superﬁciality.

The title is a lie. I have watched “Never Have I Ever.” Multiple times, in fact, and I cry every single time. When “Never Have I Ever” first came out in 2020, the show immediately struck a chord in young Indian American viewers with its exploration of teen angst, grief, high school dynamics and familial relationships in a uniquely Indian context. Never before had sex, popularity and coming of age in the suburban United States ever been explored through the lens of the first-generation Indian immigrant, especially one as messy and flawed as Devi Vishwakumar. The show was touted as “pioneering,” a label that creator Mindy Kaling is no stranger to. Kaling changed the landscape of South Asian diaspora media forever while winning Emmys and laughs when she debuted as Kelly Kapoor on “The Oﬀice” in 2005. Underscored by Kaling’s now iconic and witty writing, Kapoor broke the box of a stereotypical Indian woman in U.S. media: She was unapologetic, despicable and brilliant. However, in destroying the original box, Kaling has created a new, perhaps even more damaging one, as evidenced by the backlash on her “race-bending” 2023 show, “Velma.” This box is the trope of the “self-hating Indian” — and Kaling’s filmography is a testament to how entrenched this stereotype is.

Kaling created Kapoor with a white suburban audience in mind, yet Kapoor’s character resonated deeply within the Indian American community. Her character doesn’t explicitly reference Indian American culture, instead existing solely within the realm of universal U.S. humor. Still, her very presence on screen at that time was both political and revolutionary. This is due to the nature of her personality, which was a far cry from the way Indian women were fetishized as submissive at the time. Kapoor was a complex Indian woman, written by a complex Indian woman. However, her personality also foreshadowed a central feature of Kaling’s characters that would follow: their unabashed humanity,

After her dynamic writing on “The Office,” Kaling would helm the first show in the United States written by, directed by and starring an Indian woman: “The Mindy Project,” which featured Kaling as a young obstetrician-gynecologist navigating the workplace, relationships and female-centric health, inspired by Kaling’s own mother. In an extension of the Kapoor framework of despicability and complex humanity, the main character Mindy despises her Indian-ness in recurring jokes and dialogue: For example, in a Season 2 episode, she jokes that her ID, which features a blonde woman with blue eyes, is “aspirational.” And in her “trailblazing works” following “The Mindy Project,” Kaling perpetuates themes of casual misogyny and racism toward Indian women: Both “Velma” and “Never Have I Ever” feature multiple jokes about the “gorilla arm hair of Indian women.”

Moreover, “Never Have I Ever,” “The Mindy Project” and Kaling’s other hit series, “The Sex Lives of College Girls” all prominently feature a primary Indian character falling in love with a Jewish guy who is just, simply put, mean and racist. This relationship is not just a coincidental feature but a recurring central pattern of her work: her characters despise their Indianness and an “endgame” relationship with a white character who often makes jokes at the expense of their race is the final negation of their immigrant status, a last assimilation into U.S. culture. When it was done the first time, a character who was self-loathing and unwilling to engage with their culture was unique, making a commentary on the internalized racism of the diaspora and lending nuance to the character’s layers. But Kaling has created “self-hating Indian” characters so many times that the empowerment we once felt seeing such characters on screen is gone. Kaling’s writing now comes across as tone deaf and outdated. The popularity of Kaling’s writing and acting on “The Office” opened doors for South Asian media, but it may have closed the most important ones.

Kaling’s portrayal of other races has also faced criticism. She has been accused by many Jewish media outlets of perpetuating harmful stereotypes, such as depicting Jewish people as “unsympathetic” through her recurring portrayal of the aforementioned rude Jewish love interests. Additionally, her work frequently incorporates Black culture and slang, especially in feminist language. However, at the same time, she perpetuates the trope of Black people being dangerous, most notably in “Velma.” Under the guise of speaking for the Hindu upper-caste community, Kaling’s “Never Have I Ever” also plays casual casteism and Islamophobia for laughs, rather than deeply exploring the issues with sensitivity and nuance.

Kaling’s real-life relationship with B.J. Novak and her education at an elite, majority-white institution have all been trotted out as explanations for or further features of her racism.

The criticism has expanded into her public persona, and at the heart of this conversation is a question all South Asian media must deal with: Do South Asian creators owe us representation? In contradictory podcasts and interviews, Kaling has stated that she wants to voice the Indian experience and yet not be judged on the merit of being an Indian woman. She argues that seeing her as just the mouthpiece for representation prevents her work from measuring up solely as a piece of art or comedy, especially when a white man will never have to answer to those same standards. In a way, she is right, which is where the strengths and weaknesses of her media come from: representation being limited to one pioneer or “spokesperson.”

Any sociocultural identity has nuance, and when we create a formula for representation as Kaling has done, we risk reducing both her and ourselves to stereotypes. Kaling is an example of the problem that pervades contemporary Indian American media; she is peerless, with no other South Asians creating film and TV with a similar level of acclaim and fame. And that’s where the solution arises to the Mindy problem: Kaling doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe it to ourselves to diversify our media and expand past preconceived stereotypes of South Asian women.

ON YOUR RADAR

By Caitlin McBride

CAMPUSGROUPS

MASK AND BAUBLE PRESENTS

“THE GREAT GATSBY”

Step into the Roaring ’20s in Poulton Hall with the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society’s rendition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most widely-beloved work: “The Great Gatsby.” The iconic story and characters will come to life on Nov. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8 and 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. or 7 to 9 p.m. Check CampusGroups for showtime details, tickets and student involvement information.

In Defense of ‘Venom: The Last Dance’

Jasmine Criqui Executive Editor

As I exited a press screening for “Venom: The Last Dance,” I happened to overhear a sampling of initial reviews, courtesy of a discussion between some local film critics. “Straight nonsense,” said one. “Not even good nonsense,” came the clariﬁcation. “‘Morbius’ was something, ‘Madame Web’ was something, this was nothing,” proclaimed the death knell.

Okay, admittedly, that was all from one guy. But aside from giving two of Sony’s most notorious ﬂops more credit than they probably deserve, his point of view seems to me like a fairly reasonable assessment from a neutral party.

(I am not a neutral party.)

On the contrary, I have a fondness for the “Venom” trilogy that borders on delusion. I am a passionate defender of its essential campiness, its utter disregard for tonal consistency and its admirable commitment to making noted heartthrob Tom Hardy look like the saddest, dampest man alive. All this to say that if you’re looking for an appropriately scathing review, you can track down that other guy — otherwise, pop on your rose-colored glasses and let’s roll.

When we catch up with Eddie Brock (Hardy) and his goopy alien buddy Venom in “The Last Dance,” they’ve fled San Francisco, Calif., and are camping out in Mexico after being wrongfully blamed for the death of police officer Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham). When Venom confesses a desire to see the Statue of Liberty, the duo decides to travel to New York City and attempt to clear Eddie’s name, all while trying to dodge the federal authorities sent to track down and subdue them.

Coincidentally, an army of seemingly indestructible alien predators is also hot on their heels, seeking something called a Codex, which was formed when Venom resurrected Eddie at the end of the first movie. However, there’s a catch: The aliens can only track the

Codex when Venom and Eddie are combined in their full form.

Why does the story center on a threat that the characters could most easily avoid by doing nothing?

Beats me. The plots of the “Venom” movies have always been paper-thin, chock-full of internal inconsistencies and nonsensical decision-making.

But while some may consider that a dealbreaker, there’s a reason why audiences have consistently contradicted critics with regard to the “Venom” trilogy, and it has everything to do with the characters.

When we meet Eddie in the first movie, he’s a cocky but kind-hearted reporter who, when told to pick his battles, presumably hits “select all.”

This trait quickly costs him his job, his relationship with his lawyer fiancée Anne (Michelle Williams) and ultimately leads to his bond with Venom, an alien symbiote that brings him both indigestion and superhuman abilities — not to mention a disconcerting craving for brains. The relationship between Eddie and Venom is the trilogy’s core, blending elements of a buddy-cop dynamic, an odd-couple pairing and a demonic possession. Picture, if you will, an action-horror rom-com between a man and his hypercompetent tapeworm.

I’m

when “The

But

Dance”

Eddie and Venom are still a delight to watch, and if the movie had stuck to the plotline it seemed to be building toward of the duo taking a road trip to New York City to wreak havoc and clear Eddie’s name, I think it would have been a much stronger story. Instead, the

But as enjoyable as this dynamic disaster duo is to watch, much of the charm of the first and second movies comes from the side characters, particularly Anne and her new boyfriend Dan (Reid Scott). Eddie is very much not over Anne by the time Dan comes into the picture, but rather than take the easy route of making Dan a jerk so that the audience will root for reconciliation between Anne and Eddie, the movie instead makes a point of showing that Dan is a genuinely sweet guy. He goes out of his way to care for an increasingly erratic Eddie, seemingly harbors no jealousy about Eddie’s past relationship with Anne and, despite being scared out of his mind, aids in the fight against the second movie’s primary villain, murderous symbiote Carnage (Woody Harrelson), when called upon. Anne is also a solid character, clearly still caring deeply about Eddie even as they snipe at each other. Unfortunately, “The Last Dance” sees Anne and Dan replaced by a slate of new side characters that prove difficult to get invested in, including a squandered Chiwetel Ejiofor as Commander Rex Strickland and an unusually wooden Juno Temple as Dr. Teddy Payne. Even though Eddie does reunite with the delightful Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), the owner of a convenience store Eddie frequents in San Francisco, for a surreal dance number, the inclusion of her character mainly served to remind me how much I enjoyed these movies when they were set on a more modest scale, reined in by a smaller cast and the city limits of San Francisco. The villain, too, suffers from a scaling issue when compared to the first two films. Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the first film’s antagonist, was your standard evil billionaire, and even Carnage, for all his wanton bloodlust, primarily seemed interested in taking revenge on Eddie and Venom while getting hitched to his unstable host’s equally unstable girlfriend. Going from those two to a lazily defined, potentially universe-ending threat has the counterintuitive result of reducing the movie’s stakes significantly. If the movie shows me Eddie and Venom bumbling around San Francisco with their ragtag crew, I’m on the edge of my seat — if it

FILM

‘The Substance’ Lacks , Well,

Isabelle Cialone Guide Staff Writer

To what lengths would you go to feel the glow of societal validation?

Substance

2024

D.C. ACAPELLA FESTIVAL (DCAF)

Did you come to college hoping it would be more like “Pitch Perfect”? DCAF is your chance to make those dreams come true — and in a much better location: Gaston Hall. This annual concert is co-hosted by two of Georgetown University’s a cappella groups, the Phantoms and the Gracenotes, and will be a joyful night of music, performing arts and student talent. Buy the $6 tickets on CampusGroups for performances Nov. 2 or Nov. 9 from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m.

CAMPUSGROUPS

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE

Experience Nomadic Theatre’s performance of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” a British musical about a 16 year-old who overcomes prejudice and bullies to step into the spotlight as a drag queen. Buy $5 student tickets on CampusGroups for performances from Nov. 7 to 10 and Nov. 14 to 16. Once you’re in the Village C Theater, just like Jamie’s story, it will be “time to make your dreams come true.”

HOLIDAY MAKERS MARKET & STREET

FESTIVAL

If you are ready to get into the holiday spirit and off-campus this Saturday, Nov. 2, see what the

Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” believes there is no limit to our desperationforapprovalandsucceeds in the public forum, winning the Cannes Film Festival award for best screenplay. When celebrity aerobics show host Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) turns 50, her producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) delivers a devastating blow, booting her from her own show. Newly purposeless and filled with self-loathing, Elisabeth turns to drastic measures: a mysterious subscription medication, dubbed “The Substance,” that offers its users an enhanced, youthful version of themselves, on the condition that they remember that the two versions of themselves are actually one. Subtlety and depth are completely forgone in “The Substance,” but Fargeat’s resulting one-note bluntness works. This film explicitly excoriates the internalization of ageism and bodily commodification of women in Hollywood. Little is developed, or even logical, beyond what is necessary for a movie that remains focused solely on its characters’ internal experiences within the system it reprobates. How do the creators of the Substance benefit from the product? How is it possible that Elisabeth Sparkle gained and maintained decades of fame from an aerobics show? These questions are never answered, but this lack of information never impedes the message. However, the lack of subtlety feels belittling to the audience at times — flashbacks to earlier scenes are overused as reminders of the rules of the Substance, and some of the big reveals are so caught up in ensuring audience comprehension that they

lose some of their novelty. Every choice in the film pervades a sense of discomfort and uneasiness just as in-your-face as the story itself. Extreme close-up shots, Kubrickian looming hallways and tense EDM music alongside the exploitation of every imaginable horror of the human body, including rotting and breaking nails and teeth, injuries of the spine, stitches and needle injections, render the experience truly disturbing. And if the audience’s collective gasps, groans and squirming during the film’s first two hours aren’t enough, the impressive prosthetics in the last 20 minutes are guaranteed to leave the viewer feeling nauseous. Though the last sequence of continuous horrors is certainly exhilarating, the sheer entertainment value comes at the expense of some of the fluency of the central message. The most heart-wrenching scene in the entire movie avoids this gruesome imagery, instead relying on a raw emotional performance delivered by Moore. As Elisabeth withers away at the hands of her younger counterpart Sue (Margaret Qualley), she agrees to a date in an attempt to resolve her loneliness. However, she is so uncomfortable in her own skin that her preparation drags into hours of continuously returning to the bathroom mirror, unable to accept her body. The poignancy of this scene without the use of body horror begs the question: Was this the best genre to evoke such an important message?

The performances delivered by all three stars are truly exceptional. Moore infuses Elisabeth with a heartbreakingly personal sadness that adds another dimension to the tragedy that ensues. Qualley is sensational in her role as the cunning and greedy Sue, who becomes much more than the vapid pretty girl she is made out to be. The aptly named Harvey is a

caricature of the most misogynistic men in the entertainment industry, and Quaid oﬀers an excellent depiction of this sleazy chauvinist in a way that is simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. Elisabeth and Sue may go to extreme measures, but these measures are rooted in very real attempts for validation resulting from continuously unattainable societal standards. The Substance is just an extreme stand-in for any weight loss drug, botox treatment, diet or other commercially advertised “cure” for whatever bodily feature has gone out of style. But in its attempt to embrace self-love, the film almost starts to contradict itself. Body horror as a medium for an exploration of ageism unfortunately leads to the idea of the aging female body as gruesome in and of itself. Wrinkles, graying hair, degrading joints and loose skin are villainized, especially as Elisabeth is punished for Sue’s inevitable abuse of the Substance with overexaggerated features of old age and with the interposition of scenes of each woman standing entirely naked in the mirror. Still, this choice works in making the audience complicit in the very obsession with the allure of the young female body that the movie seeks to condemn.

“The Substance” is a grotesquely thrilling experience from start to finish, and though it has little depth to it, its loud critique of society’s fear of aging is resounding. The movie invites us to examine our own internalized standards for the “perfect body” and how that affects our perception of ourselves and others. This topic couldn’t be more pertinent in an age that seems to be defined by social media and constant comparison to unachievable standards. However, squeamish viewers be warned: This movie is not for the weak of stomach.

IMDB

Jasmine Criqui (CAS ’26) finds a hollow core beneath the glitz of “Venom: The Last Dance.”

Anandita Agarwal

‘Pachinko’ Season 2 Paints Viewers A Heartfelt, Bold Odyssey of Family

PACHINKO, from A12 of Osaka — the second season oﬀers another side to the largerthan-life landscapes: the precious intimate moments within.

These smaller moments build an undeniably strong core for this season, like in scenes in the Japanese countryside where Sunja’s family seeks refuge. There are ﬂashes of whimsy, such as when Chang-ho (Kim Sungkyu) — Hansu’s right-hand man — sets up a stakeout to ﬁnd the chicken coop thief with an excited Mozasu (Eunseong Kwon), Noa (Kim Kang-hoon) and typically reserved Kyunghee in tow. Happiness resides in the intimate family dinners shared under faint candlelight. Love blooms in the light touches and glances between Kyunghee and Chang-ho, while Sunja gains back a bit of independence when Hansu attempts to teach her how to drive. The season doesn’t quite focus on the vast setting that the characters are a part of but rather the little moments which occur within its space.

Additionally, “Pachinko” boasts an incredibly strong ensemble cast. The cast’s passionate performance breathes life into each character, driving the dynamic atmosphere of “Pachinko.”

A particular standout is Minha Kim’s masterful performance of Sunja. As the central character, the actress faces the daunting task of portraying twenty years of Sunja’s life, which she accomplishes with remarkable ease. Her mannerisms and voice carry the weight of hardship and wisdom, capturing the toll of Sunja’s diﬀicult journey. Minha Kim brings depth to moments of both joy and devastation — notably in Sunja’s reunion with her mother after nearly a decade apart, where she imbues the scene with both tenderness and profound sadness. Through Kim’s careful portrayal, Sunja emerges as a bold woman who, despite facing countless obstacles, maintains her capacity for love.

Another standout is Lee Minho’s Hansu, whose motivations are often hidden and spurred more so by his personal desires than was initially apparent. Minho manages to ﬁnd the delicate balance between cruelty and compassion in Hansu, blurring the line between the two states to create the complex nature of a man who easily uses violence to gain power yet watches over Sunja’s family and treats her

IMDB

Grace Ko (CAS ’27) says “Pachinko” Season 2 brings out intimate moments amid a larger-than-life storyline and beautiful location.

with tender respect. This balance is shown in a scene between Hansu and Yoseb (Han JoonWoo) — Kyunghee’s husband — whom Hansu rescued from Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. Yoseb’s distaste for Hansu due to his work as part of the yakuza leads Hansu to bitterly hold a mirror to Yoesb’s face, displaying the ruin that the attack had left on Yoseb’s body. In that moment of cruelty, Min-ho’s eyes slowly morph to capture pity for the man who lies in pain helpless and terriﬁed of his own face.

While certain storylines — particularly the ones that operate in 1990s Tokyo — are limited to shorter screen time compared to the ﬁrst season, the writers always seem to take the chance to treat these moments with the same care as is given to its storylines in 1940s Osaka. Equally compelling are two parallel stories: Solomon’s

identity crisis, which deepens into a moral one as he seeks revenge against his former boss, and the elderly Sunja’s (Youn Yuhjung) journey as she confronts echoes of her past through a newfound friendship with Kato Tatsumi (Jun Kunimura). There is clearly such care put into building the characters and stories that this season feels even more magnetic than the previous iterations. It’s a sort of care that pulls the audience into the world of the writers’ creation and builds genuine connections to this larger-than-life story. In its sophomore season, “Pachinko” is undeniably as full of passion and life as its ﬁrst season. The utter care and love which shine through “Pachinko” make it one of the best shows on television and one that deserves to continue to develop its ambitious, familial story to its conclusion.

INSTAGRAM/@GRACIEABRAMS

Gracie Abrams demonstrated her emotions and vocal strength, rocked an energetic crowd and showed off her connections with fans during her October concert at the Anthem.

ABRAMS, from A12

-action of the night from the crowd. Going into the concert, I had relatively little excitement for her song “Where Do We Go Now?” Abrams proved me wrong with a beautifully vocalized performance as purple lights beamed behind her at the end of the song. Following Abrams’ performance of the song that brought her to fame — “Mess It Up” — the concert took a slower turn, perhaps inevitable considering her relatively melancholic discography. The surprise song “Fault Line,” from her album “Good Riddance,” was a beautiful performance which meshed perfectly with her slower songs, before the transition to “I Know It Won’t Work” brought a much-needed surge in energy from the crowd and took me

back to jumping up and down for every song. A highlight of Abrams’ performance was its emotion. Abrams almost teared up when fans put pink pieces of paper over their ﬂashlights for her song “Normal Thing.” This emotional response demonstrated her deep connection with her audience, who had organized the distribution of the papers between one another. It was a touching moment that exhibited the community among Abrams’ fanbase. Abrams herself demonstrated her appreciation. Before performing “I Miss You, I’m Sorry,” she took a moment to thank her fans for making her feel understood and like her lyrics matter — a genuine and vulnerable moment that made me admire her even more. My personal favorite song by Abrams is “Free Now,” and the

performance did not disappoint. You can feel her raw emotions in her live performances more than any studio version, and this unique experience made this song that much more enjoyable for me. There were no two better songs in her discography to feature in her encore besides “us.” and “Close to You.” The vigor in the crowd lasted until the very last note and brought the concert to an unforgettable conclusion which left me feeling complete. As a longtime fan of Abrams, this concert reminded me not just of her undeniable talent but also of her ability to connect with her fans more than any other artist I have seen live. Her powerful lyrics and captivating songs bring people together. Especially after witnessing it all live, I have no doubt that this is just the beginning for Gracie Abrams.

Cozy a.kitchen+bar’s Appetizers, Mocktails, Seafood, Service Shine

A.KITCHEN, from A12 based back in the City of Brotherly Love. The bread was perfectly succulent and not too chewy. Sourdough is not the only thing Yin’s restaurant empire knows how to bake. The hazelnut Paris-Brest — a sweet that is structured like a bagel with cream cheese — was incredibly light and airy, with the perfect crunch to match the cloud of buttercream in the middle of the dessert. While the textures were perfect, the dessert seemed inconsistent with the rest of the menu, as its simple and pareddown taste contrasted with the nuance of the other dishes — but it was nonetheless delicious. Though the restaurant oﬀers an impressive wine list, I am unfortunately only 20 years of age;

Fahad asked if I would be interested in their mocktails instead. First came out the Read the Room, a spicy Shirley Temple with a cinnamon and ginger scent. While the base is cranberry juice, the mocktail somehow circumvents the inevitable, terrible dryness that often comes with it. The drink was by far the best mocktail I have ever had in the Washington D.C.Maryland-Virginia area. The next mocktail — New Kids on the Block — is a twist on root beer with ginger and mushrooms. While slightly watery, the taste was incredibly fresh like wild sassafras — the root in root beer, which took me back to my childhood backpacking trips and elicited an overall nostalgia within the ﬂavor interplay. Full disclosure, a.kitchen+bar

provided a meal to The Guide free of charge. As I feasted, I had no idea about the pricing. a.kitchen+bar is perfect for a special occasion, especially for celebrating only with drinks and an appetizer, as the food tends to lean on the expensive side. Though the portion sizes of the entrées were not skimpy, expect to pay about $36 for a plate. The appetizers were also relatively expensive, but the $14 gougères were well worth it. Fahad, along with the rest of the staﬀ, was incredibly attentive, gushing over the culture Yin has created and the joy of working for a brilliant restaurateur with a grounded approach to culinary arts. Yin’s eye for ambiance, incredible hospitality and delicious food is clear throughout a.kitchen+bar.

At a.kitchen+bar, newly opened on Washington Circle in Foggy

appetizers, airy desserts and thoughtfully crafted

Language of the Chronically Online Is Youth’s Stamp on the English Language

KINCADE, from A12

The English language is constantly being reinvented, and the internet has led to one of the biggest evolutions in its history. Old English does not sound like early American English, early American English does not sound like modern English and modern English certainly will not sound like whatever we come up with in the next couple hundred years if the pattern of history holds. On a micro level, new words playfully emerging into the cultural lexicon is not a new phenomenon. Authors make up phrases all the time that stick: Shakespeare invented hundreds of new words in his plays; “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess is practically built on invented social terms; and “Frindle” by Andrew Clements champions the idea of making up fake words in defiance of existing social structures, a lesson that must have stuck for precious children like myself reading the novel in elementary school. Even within the language of the chronically online, there are different layers of usage. The queer community and music community use these words differently, but there is an intersection of these

circles that have birthed their own words, much like any type of language. Humans are creatures desperate for connection, and these invented words help us feel like a part of a group larger than ourselves.

Maybe using these niche words feels so awkward because they’re still relatively new and have yet to emerge into the common lexicon. I’m sure the ﬁrst people to use the infamous “LOL” in a real-life conversation felt weird about it — but now, I bet that everyone under the age of 45 has used it in a conversation at least once. It’s a word that just exists in our collective consciousness, a diﬀusion of language from one place to another. The echo chamber of social media leads me to believe that our whole generation knows these words. I feel this is particularly true at Georgetown University, where it seems that most people are online in some capacity. But it turns out I’m living in a world divorced from reality: I believe everyone must have encountered these phrases as young people raised on the internet, but that’s not true.

As a frequent code-switcher, this new language adds another aspect to my vocabulary which I have to change in certain social

settings. Being from Arkansas, I try to hide any traces of a Southern accent in the East. It still comes out when I’m upset — I’ll draw out my vowels — but I feel that it alienates me in a room of people from Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts. I only let it come out with people that I trust. Now, I have four modes of operation: Southern and Online, Southern but not Online, Eastern and Online and Eastern but not Online. In short, it’s exhausting. I use the language of the chronically online because it makes me feel comfortable and a part of a community, yet I have been playing so many diﬀerent roles that I don’t know where to draw the line. I love laughing at the injokes, but my social identity feels all over the place. It’s a dichotomy that I will wrestle with for a long time. Language use cannot be changed overnight. I cannot predict the grand trajectory of what online words will and will not enter the English canon, but it’s beautiful that most of these words are not in any dictionary, yet hundreds of thousands of people know what they mean without further explanation. For all its troubles, I’m unashamed of being a part of an elusive society of language.

AMBER CHERRY/THE HOYA

Bottom, the delightful

mocktails impressed The Guide.

CLAYTON’S CURATION

‘Pachinko’

Is a Generational, Beautifully Intimate Epic

Grace Ko Guide Staff Writer

In its best moments, the second season of “Pachinko” is utterly breathtaking. Finding a near seamless balance in its vast story, “Pachinko” is able to

eﬀortlessly move through time, across the generations of a family’s history.

The second season jumps to 1945, seven years after the first season’s end. Sunja (Minha Kim) lives with her sister-in-law Kyunghee (Jung Eun-chae) and continues to make a living by selling kimchi — fermented red cabbage — in the streets of Osaka, Japan. As U.S. forces begin to push toward Japan, Sunja is forced to accept the help of Hansu (Lee Min-ho) — a dubious figure from her past — as the family continues to struggle to survive in a war-torn Japan far from their homeland of Korea. The show’s second storyline, which runs parallel to the modern age, begins in 1989, following Solomon (Jin Ha) as he deals with the fallout of his decision to blow a huge business deal. Suffering from a ruined reputation, Solomon’s morals begin to bend in his desperation to prove himself in the high society of Tokyo, where he is an outsider due to his Korean heritage, Japanese childhood and American education. There is no denying that “Pachinko” is quite an ambitious effort. Covering a generational story is no small feat and somehow the show’s second season seems to come into its own with an even more confident rhythm than its first. While I found that the first season leaned heavily into the grand aspects of this story — filling nearly every moment with the sweeping scenery of the Korean countryside and the chaotic sets of the crowded streets

See PACHINKO, A11

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2024

The upscale restaurant a.kitchen+bar, run by Philadelphia restaurateur Ellen Yin, brings style to Foggy Bottom with knowledgeable service that never condescends, sophisticated seafood-centric cuisine and particularly delicious appetizers, according to Amber Cherry (CAS ’26).

A Magical Meal + A Cultivated Look = a.kitchen+bar

Amber Cherry Senior Guide Editor

A 30-minute walk away from campus rests the intimate oasis that is a.kitchen+bar, which opened its doors in Foggy Bottom this September. Restaurateur Ellen Yin, winner of a James Beard Award, through her High Street Hospitality Group partnered with Hotel AKA Washington Circle to open the restaurant — an oﬀshoot of Yin’s original a.kitchen in Philadelphia. Yin aimed to make the eatery not just a hotel restaurant but a part of the neighborhood. With the restaurant’s delicious — albeit expensive — food, cozy environment and impeccable service, Yin has clearly succeeded. As I passed the grand portico entryway to Hotel AKA, complete with large black Chevrolet Silverados, the D.C. politician’s

car of choice, I noticed a small walkway oﬀ the sidewalk leading to a nondescript black door with the letters “a.kitchen+bar” illuminated above it. Besides the name, the only indicator that it is not a speakeasy but a restaurant is the menu posted outside the door.

The space — designed by the D.C.based architecture ﬁrm Gensler — is tucked almost underground, with windows peeking out behind the benches that line the wall. The design maximizes light but is still fairly dark, making the ceilings seem low as your tall server bends down to take your order. Still, there’s not one chandelier in the place, which, along with the choice of wood and soundproof glass, gives the restaurant a cozy feel despite its minimalist furniture design and the scent of new paint. As luck would have it, our incredible server, Fahad Abdul (COL ’14), was a Georgetown University graduate and self-proclaimed

“Corpie” who raved about his time as a barista and how it helped him excel in hospitality. Fahad was incredibly knowledgeable without making us feel unsophisticated. His vocabulary ranged from that of a seasoned professional to more playful words like “groovy.” His excitement over the food was eﬀervescent, yet it was his fastidious service that made the experience excellent.

I began with a.kitchen’s potato rösti, which included crab rillettes and radish salad; the creamy crab melted in my mouth as I crunched on the perfectly crisp potato rösti, which resembles a pseudoelevated hashbrown. The marinated radish salad along with the lemon that topped the dish beautifully balanced out the potato’s heaviness.

The staff also brought out bluefin tuna paired with badger flame beets, rose harissa and taggiasca olives. The whole dish

GracieAbramsWowsFanson‘SecretofUs’Tour

Emily Griffith

Guide Writer

In a vulnerable, emotional and outstanding performance on her “The Secret of Us” tour, Gracie Abrams separated herself from her famous filmmaker father, J.J. Abrams, and her big break as Taylor Swift’s opener to establish herself as one of the most promising artists of our generation. Abrams’ unforgettable tour reflects the success of her sophomore album “The Secret of Us” and her recent ascent to fame. She proves to her fans and the music industry that she is more than just a product of nepotism, or “nepo baby;” rather, she is a name to remember. Standing in line outside The Anthem, I saw a sea of rippling ribbons belonging to eager fans of all ages waiting in simmering anticipation of Abrams’ arrival. The ocean of bows flowed effortlessly alongside the Potomac River next to the waterside venue in southwest Washington, D.C. As we packed into the beautiful venue, all fighting for the best view of Abrams, her opener, singer-songwriter ROLE MODEL (also known as Tucker Pillsbury), prepared for his lively and engaging set of eight songs, which featured some of his biggest hits. You could see the audience jumping up and down to his song “Look at That Woman”

Emily Griffith (CAS ’28) shares the magical, intimate moments and the euphoric ones that Gracie Abrams’ supportive fan base had at The Anthem, complete

and pulling out their flashlights for “Frances,” a slower-paced song inspired by his relationship with fashion influencer Emma Frances Chamberlain. ROLE MODEL set the perfect tone for Abrams’ wide-ranging set and effectively gained himself a new following. Appearing as a shadowy figure slowly descending a staircase to her song “Felt Good About You,” Abrams had fans shrieking

“Blowing Smoke” and “21,” immediately dialed up the energy as the audience erupted into screams at the lyrics of some of Abrams’ most famous songs. When Abrams got to “Blowing Smoke,” the audience began to sing along with the fervor deserved by the masterful lyric, “If she’s got a pulse, she meets your standards now?” In the next segment of songs, Abrams proved she is one of the best vocalists in modern pop. Her now-viral note change during “I Love You, I’m Sorry” lived up to every one of my expectations and received the largest re-

See ABRAMS, A11

was incredibly fresh yet evaded the ﬁshiness of seafood. The ratio of the tuna’s supple interior to its seared periphery was wonderfully proportional. While the blueﬁn tuna brought the salt, the beets brought a moist, earthy aspect to the dish, satisfying the thirst that tuna inevitably induces.

The appetizer that took the cake was the gougères, a savory pastry ﬁlled with warm comté cheese and black pepper. The sweet, ﬂaky crust encapsulates a warm, sharp, peppery explosion reminiscent of a Thanksgiving feast. When I bit into one, I immediately melted: my tastebuds shut down my ears, allowing me to fully enjoy the delicious appetizer.

After the gougères, the littleneck clam entrée — laid on a bed of spaghetti nero, tomato conﬁt and angry crab broth — didn’t quite measure up. While the clams were a little on the chewier side, they did not let

much of the fishiness escape — a taste that reminded me of Seattle’s Pacific sea air. The black spaghetti was extremely flavorful — perhaps too much so, with its pepperiness overpowering the dish. However, the crab broth and the tangy bursts of the tomatoes sprinkled throughout the pasta saved the dish if you were lucky enough to get one in a bite.

The rockfish main course shares the wonderfully fruity tomatoes but adds braised white beans and hakurei turnips to the mix. The turnips were sweet and punchy next to the savory soft greens and butter beans at the base of the dish. The fish managed to have both perfectly crispy skin and the flaky, buttery texture of a successful filet. The staff also brought out sourdough bread from one of Yin’s widely successful restaurants, High Street Bakery,

Clayton Kincade Guide Columnist

The internet has forever changed my use of the English language. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment I knew my sentences were not normal, but I started to notice a pattern: People had no clue what I was talking about at any given moment. For example, my use of the term “oomf,” or “one of my friends,” pronounced “ooh-mmm-phf”, has recently skyrocketed in normal conversations. The word started online to mean “one of my followers,” but it has since come to resemble more closely the word “pookie” or “bestie,” the internet versions of “best friend.” Here are some uses in context: “That’s oomf over there,” or “I went to oomf’s house yesterday” or “What are my oomfs up to today?”

Surely, this challenges the standard conventions of the English language. I have synthesized this information into my brain without a hitch despite it following no discernible rules of proper grammar — and ignoring the common conventions of plural and singular. The internet has taught me its use through blunt exposure, and my brain has ﬁlled in the gaps.

Some of my friends — the ones chronically online — know ex-

actly what I mean. We send each other absolute gibberish: “Body so tea it created a gap in the literature and dipped into the mother fjord” (that doesn’t need a second explanation). “She’s on fraud watch today” makes sense to me, and don’t get me started on the “Khia Asylum,” or “stealing someone’s nachos.” For others, it takes several weeks before they say, “Clayton, I’ve been too afraid to ask: What does that even mean?” In full transparency, I laugh while writing this column. The topic seems on the surface deeply unserious, and I feel like a juvenile writing this text, but my use of chronically online language in real-life conversations has exposed the ways in which I seek connection with others and the world around me. The creation of this subset of the English language needs no investigation. Most of these terms originated on X, formerly Twitter, where the 140- and then 280-character limit forced people to get creative about how they could craft sentences economically. These phrases have packed entire sociological concepts into one or two words to ﬁt the character limit — a genuinely astonishing feat for anyone, much less a bunch of young people online.

AMBER CHERRY/THE HOYA