The Hoya: November 22, 2024 by The Hoya

RA Union, GU Fail to Reach Tentative Agreements in Fifth 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, completed their fifth round of negotiations with university officials Nov. 21. During this bargaining session, RAs and the university continued talks on placement — the process by which RAs are assigned to work in specific university buildings — and rehiring; they also began discussing RA training. The two sides could not come to any tentative agreements during this session.

This round of negotiations represented the ﬁfth meeting between GRAC and the university since the RAs formally voted to unionize April 16, accepting

representation from Local 153 of the Oﬀice of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU).

Izzy Wagener (SFS ’26), an RA in Kennedy Hall and the interim vice chairperson for GRAC, said placement is a particular issue for the union.

“Our position is that we think RAs should have more control over where they themselves want to work, especially for people who have been doing this role for multiple years,” Wagener told The Hoya. “We think that RAs should have some control over where they live and work, especially because RAs basically miss out on a lot of typical living opportunities.”

The current hiring process allows RAs to rank where they would prefer to live — but even if an RA ranks a speciﬁc housing

See GRAC, A7

OLIVIA HOLMBERG/THE HOYA

The Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC) completed their fifth round of bargaining with Georgetown University.

immediately,

GU President DeGioia to Step Down

Caroline Rareshide

Contributing Editor

John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) will step down as president of Georgetown University, eﬀective immediately.

DeGioia, Georgetown’s longesttenured and first lay president, announced his decision in an email to community members Nov. 21. He cited his June 5 stroke and need to focus on continuing his recovery as his reasoning for stepping down.

“I write today to express my gratitude for the opportunity I have had to lead Georgetown over these past 23 years and to share with

Vigil in Red Square Remembers Victims of Transphobic Violence

Nora Toscano

Academics Desk Editor

GU Pride, a student organization that represents the LGBTQ+ community at Georgetown University, hosted a vigil Nov. 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, to honor transgender lives lost from October 2023 to September 2024. During the vigil, students and faculty members read aloud the names of transgender people who were killed in the United States this year as a result of transphobia, along with their ages and causes of death. Vigil participants held plastic candles around a transgender pride flag and stood for a moment of silence after the names were read.

Gisell Campos (CAS ’25), the copresident of GU Pride, said they wanted the vigil to remind community

members to be there for one another.

“It’s always going to be upsetting,” Campos told The Hoya. “It’s always going to be hard to have this event. The fact that we get to have and get to honor their lives is so beautiful, and especially over the next four years, I think this is an event that will only get heavier but only bring the community more together. So, yeah, I hope that people take away a sense of hope, but also a sense of responsibility to be there for each other.”

Transgender Day of Remembrance was established in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a transgender woman murdered in 1998. After 1999, it became a tradition to remember and mourn the transgender people lost to transphobic violence each year on the anniversary of Hester’s murder.

Jackie Early (CAS ’26), the director of outreach for GU Pride, said her hope for the vigil was to honor lives lost as more than a statistic.

“The major impetus behind this is to ensure that trans lives lost this year and all years aren’t lost to a statistic,” Early told The Hoya. “I think a lot of people are used to encountering or finding out about trans violence as a statistic, right? We often see statistics of anti-trans bills and things of that nature, but this is the very tangible impact and personal impact of what this day does.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, at least 36 transgender people have been killed because of their identity since last year’s

See REMEMBRANCE, A7

you the most diﬀicult decision I have ever made: I have informed the Board of Directors that I will be stepping down from my role as the President of Georgetown,” DeGioia wrote in the email.

The email is the first news of DeGioia’s health since Aug. 15. The university has not released details about the severity of DeGioia’s stroke, and a university spokesperson did not respond to requests for details when asked in June and November.

Robert M. Groves, the university’s provost who has been the unofficial interim president since June, will officially serve as interim president while the search for a new president

begins with an end goal of July 1, 2026, according to the email. DeGioia said he plans to serve as president emeritus of the university.

The email additionally announced that Joseph A. Ferrara (GRD ’96), vice president of Georgetown and DeGioia’s chief of staff, would serve as the university’s senior vice president and chief of staff.

“It is hard to put in words the depth of Jack’s impact at Georgetown. Since ﬁrst arriving on campus as an undergraduate student in 1975, Jack has spent his entire career at Georgetown and has helped shape every facet of the University,” Thomas A. Reynolds

(GSB ’74), chair of the Georgetown board of directors, wrote in the email. DeGioia began his tenure as president of Georgetown in July 2001, after serving in various administrative roles at the university. DeGioia was the first president of a U.S. Jesuit university to be a layperson, rather than a member of the Society of Jesus. DeGioia oversaw the formation of the first new school in nearly 60 years, the McCourt School of Public Policy, when it was established in 2013, a new campus in Qatar in 2005 and the development of the Capitol Campus. “In many settings over the years, I See DEGIOIA, A7

GUStudent, PrisonReformAdvocate Wins 2025 Rhodes Scholarship

Patrick Clapsaddle Chief Copy Editor

A Georgetown University student and criminal justice reform advocate won the 2025 Rhodes Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships for students around the world, the university announced in a press release Nov. 17.

Noa Oﬀman (CAS ’25), a justice and peace studies major from Toronto, Canada, is one of 32 students who won the scholarship from the United States, joining dozens of Georgetown students and graduates who have also won the award since its 1902 inception, including three Hoyas last year. The scholarship provides recipients with two years’ funding for graduate education at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, including tuition, fees and a stipend for living expenses.

Oﬀman said she was thrilled to receive the scholarship and attributed her journey within the ﬁeld of criminal justice to her time at Georgetown.

“I was overjoyed,” Oﬀman told The Hoya. “I would not be studying what I study and doing what I do if it had not been for Georgetown.”

Oﬀman arrived at Georgetown planning to study global health but switched her major during her ﬁrst year after speaking with Colie “Shaka” Long, a program associate at Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) — a university

See RHODES, A7

the

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Georgetown University’s longest-tenured and first lay president, John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), will step down effective

with Provost Robert M. Groves serving as interim president during the search for a new president.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Noa Offman (CAS ’25) is one of the 32 students from the United States to win

prestigious 2025 Rhodes Scholarship.

NORA TOSCANO/THE

Allow GUSA to Represent Students

Every year, a plethora of ﬁrst-year students run for the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate on a platform of free laundry and printing.

And every year, despite the senate’s consistent advocacy and multiple resolutions calling for the university to reform its laundry and printing systems, Georgetown has yet to enact these changes.

Many students blame GUSA itself for this inaction — yet, as this Editorial Board sees it, the lack of movement on free laundry and printing reﬂects not GUSA’s own failure but rather a systemic failure of how the university interacts with student leaders. According to a university spokesperson, GUSA’s resolutions play an advisory role on the university.

“Student input into administrative decisions, particularly those that impact the student experience, is vital,” a university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “The formal responsibility for providing input is vested in student government. GUSA leaders are asked to participate in committees and meetings, with the intention and purpose of sharing student perspectives on academic and community policies and practices.”

This should not stop and has not stopped GUSA from continuing its advocacy — this semester, a group of senators led by Meriam Ahmad (SFS ’26) passed another resolution to install free printing and add staplers to printing stations — efforts that the Editorial Board commends. Free printing is an important and popular issue.

Indeed, Ahmad has continued her advocacy beyond the senate, meeting with GUSA President Jaden Cobb (CAS ’25), President-elect Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) and members of the university administration to discuss ways to implement aspects of the resolution.

“Following our meeting, staplers were installed near printers all across campus and a QR code linking to a form for reporting an issue was placed on every printer,” Ahmed told The Hoya

Yet ultimately, despite the best efforts of Cobb, Henshaw and Ahmad and the tangible impact of their efforts, the university continues to ignore students’ calls for free printing and laundry. Worse still, it provides very little transparency to GUSA officials and all other students about the progress being made behind the scenes — leading some GUSA senators to wonder how much the university truly listens to students.

At-large Senator Saahil Rao (SFS ’27) said the fact printing and laundry are still not free despite GUSA’s consistent work passing resolutions to change the system indicates that the university must better cooperate and communicate with GUSA senators.

Full disclosure: Saahil Rao currently serves as an opinion columnist at The Hoya.

“It is very unlikely that GUSA incompetence is the reason that these goals have not been achieved,” Rao told The Hoya. “Because it’s been done so many times and met with no response, it’s now clear to me that the blame lies on the university administration.”

The Editorial Board acknowledges that the university cannot feasibly implement all resolutions GUSA passes; after all, university policy is and ought to be nuanced. Rather, it calls on university administrators to be more transparent in corresponding both to GUSA officials and to the student

HOYA HISTORY

February 21, 2020

In the next two months, several finance and consulting firms will be interviewing Georgetown University students for summer 2021 internships — more than a year before the internship start date. For seniors looking for fulltime jobs, recruiting for finance and consulting will wrap up within the first few months of the fall semester, earlier than all other industries.

Such early recruiting timelines can leave students doubting whether they are making the right career choices, according to Tina Gaddy, assistant director for undergraduate professional development at the School of Foreign Service Career Center.

“Many students have this feeling of FOMO on whether they should pursue consulting or investment banking,” Gaddy said in an interview with The Hoya “They see some of their peers wanting to go into these industries, maybe even having these

body about their progress on changes GUSA recommends — a problem made clear by its lack of transparency on the matter of their long-term printing and laundry contracts.

To its credit, Georgetown has worked to improve its printing and laundry services — in the past two years, it has transitioned printing services to a contract with PaperCut as a primary printing service and begun using the Speed Queen app to pay for laundry services.

Yet, without the administration’s cooperation in genuinely addressing the changes students want, GUSA cannot function well.

Indeed, Senator Han Li (CAS ’27) said GUSA can only work eﬀectively as a non-binding advisory body if the university remains transparent.

“I think university administration is bound by many diﬀerent forces which restrict its ability to act quickly and eﬀectively on GUSA legislation,” Li told The Hoya “In many ways, GUSA has to understand where the university is able to compromise and where it cannot, but the university must also remain communicative and transparent about its commitments and goals.”

What is lost in the nebulous space between GUSA passing legislation and Georgetown implementing it — the space where communication and transparency are most critical — is the tangible impact on students.

For all that free printing and laundry have become synonymous with GUSA’s limitations as an advisory body, there’s a reason this issue keeps coming up in campaigns and resolutions: Students care about it.

Absent deﬁnitive communication from the university about what they are both able and willing to negotiate on, it seems likely that the cycle will continue. Indeed, newly elected Senator Zadie Weaver (SFS ’28) said she’s already begun work on legislation that would give students enough money in their laundry budget to aﬀord to wash and dry one load of clothes per week, a policy she believes is a reasonable compromise.

“I chose to run on that because it was the topic of the majority of complaints I’ve heard in my first months here. And I think that’s really justified; students have to do laundry, so burdening students with laundry costs, especially low-income students, is unfair,” Weaver told The Hoya. “I’m positive that in the $3 billion endowment, Georgetown can afford to give students enough laundry money to cover weekly laundry loads.”

“I anticipate the biggest obstacle not to be drafting or passing this bill, but it actually being enforced by administration,” Weaver added. “But the administration also can’t ignore student opinion forever.”

At Georgetown, dedicated, democratically elected student leaders are being told to play a game where not only are the odds of winning slim, but the rules are nowhere to be found — a system that does a major disservice to both the student body as a whole and the GUSA senators who donate their time to represent them. Without a substantial commitment from the university to provide transparency and take the recommendations of GUSA seriously, will this time be any diﬀerent?

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.

jobs already lined up, and they think, ‘If everyone else is doing it, then I should be, too.’” In 2018, management consulting was the most popular employer industry for Georgetown undergraduates, with 14.5% of the graduating class choosing to work in consulting. The popularity of consulting has been consistent since 2008, with the exception of one year, according to Susan Campbell, director of the Cawley Career Education Center, a career resource center on campus.

Many Georgetown students choose to pursue consulting because of the prevalence of preprofessional clubs and encouragement from recruiters at large consulting ﬁrms. While consulting is a popular industry among Georgetown graduates, some consulting ﬁrms do work with controversial clients, raising ethical questions among those who go into consulting.…

“I’m overjoyed that more stu-

dents are going into the consulting/ﬁnance sector and not the government/foreign policy route,” Aronson said in an interview with The Hoya. “Consulting entities are really helping to shape what’s happening around the world, and I’m so glad our students are the ones that are there and share our values of cura personalis and being men and women for others.”…

Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., professor of government and director of the Center for Latin American Studies, believes students have to consider how their career choices will impact others.

“Everything is bothered,” Carnes said in an interview with The Hoya. “People are bothered in whatever area we are working in. If we’re working in an NGO, we’re bothered in how we make that NGO better. If we’re working in consulting, we’re bothered on what diﬀerence does it make.”

Adam Pack

Don’t just settle for the future you ﬁnd most reasonable or most ﬁnancially appropriate — do your best to look beyond the narrow paths presented to you.”

Thejas Kumar (SFS ‘28) “Explore Opportunities Beyond a Narrow Path” thehoya.com

This week, the Editorial Board argued that the university should consider the nonbinding resolutions of the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) more seriously by addressing them with increased transparency.

The Hoya conducted a poll to gauge whether

students perceive GUSA’s resolutions as put into place as much as they should. Of the 95 responses, 80% responded that administration should listen to GUSA resolutions more, and 20% responded that they were satisfied with current levels of administrative response to the resolutions.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Rachael Gross

Evie Steele, Editor in Chief

Jasmine Criqui and Lori Jang, Executive Editors

Caroline Brown, Managing Editor

Maren Fagan, News Editor

Aamir Jamil, News Editor

Paulina Inglima, Features Editor

Erin Saunders, Features Editor

Peter Sloniewsky, Opinion Editor

Elizabethe Bogrette, Guide Editor

Amber Cherry, Guide Editor

Sophia Lu, Sports Editor

Allen Tovmasyan, Sports Editor

Sahana Arumani, Science Editor

Camille Vandeveer, Science Editor

Rohini Kudva, Design Editor

Heather Wang, Design Editor

Patrick Clapsaddle, Copy Chief

Madeline Grabow, Copy Chief

Emily Blackstone, Social Media Editor

Toni Marz, Social Media Editor

Alan Chen, Blog Editor

Nikhil Nelson, Blog Editor

Alexis Lien, Multimedia Editor

Hayley Young, Multimedia Editor

Meghan Hall, Photo Editor

Board of Directors

Mary Clare Marshall, Chair

Andre Albrecht, Emily Han, Cate Meyer, Oliver Ni,

Ranganathan, William Yu

Explore Opportunities Beyond a Narrow Path

Edmund Walsh’s hopes in “The Aims of the School of Foreign Service” were lofty: designing a school that would usher in a new era of diplomacy and arm the United States with the manpower required to safeguard world peace. At the very least, he believed it would develop leaders qualified for public service who could later serve in key positions of international governance.

A century later, those dreams have largely faded. Nearly a quarter of the School of Foreign Service (SFS) Class of 2023 went into consulting, with another 15% entering investment banking and ﬁnancial services work after graduation. A paltry 7% of graduates of a “school of foreign service” went into international aﬀairs.

This trend is not unique to the SFS, or even Georgetown University for that matter. The cost of a degree is sizable, and with that degree comes a pressure to immediately earn and put that degree to use — to achieve “success,” whatever that may be. Jobs in consulting and ﬁnance oﬀer stable work with high starting salaries that seem to check these boxes.

Even more than that, these jobs offer prestige — the same breed of prestige that influenced many of our individual decisions to come to Georgetown. We are taught to pursue competitive opportunities and difficultto-attain work fits the bill — a message reinforced every time we see that bright “Deloitte” sign emblazoned on a building across the river.

I’m not inherently opposed to jobs in consulting or finance. These industries require a variety of skills that are perhaps best found in graduates of elite universities, and the pay reflects that — it’s not wrong to want to recoup the cost of your degree as soon as you can. However, there is an institutional problem that is reflected in the high percentage of students who go into these fields. When we come to college, many of us are still undecided about our career prospects. Over the course of our time here, we are told in many ways, both big and small, what the right

choice is. The end result, driven by a process experts call “career funneling,” is less surprising and more predictable. Over time, the “best and brightest” enter places that are meant to expose them to new ideas and opportunities, thereby broadening their horizons. Instead, they are systematically drawn to a handful of highpaying, purportedly prestigious fields that prioritize profit over any sort of personal or societal fulfillment. In the long run, this process leads to less and less talent being put toward meaningful societal change. While this trend would be troubling at any university or school, it is especially so in the SFS. Situated in Washington, D.C., and possessing a stated commitment to service, the SFS would seem to be an ideal institution for pursuing careers dedicated to global service. Yet, SFS graduates still go into consulting or finance at disproportionate rates compared to work in international service. When nearly half of students at a school uniquely suited to public service reject it at the very outset of their professional lives, it signals a troubling misalignment between institutional mission and graduate outcomes. How is it that, in a school so forwardly dedicated to social good, students seem to have lost a passion for it?

A Georgetown student is, by deﬁnition, an ambitious student. However, that ambition and any subsequent success should not solely be deﬁned by how much money we make and the prestige of our job. To me, success means pushing to enact meaningful change with the potential to impact the world around you. Whether you agree or not, I implore you: Take time to explore the idea of service. Don’t just settle for the future you find most reasonable or most financially appropriate — do your best to look beyond the narrow paths presented to you. I think you’ll find yourself better off for the trouble.

Thejas Kumar is a first-year in the School of Foreign Service.

Confront Narratives of Economic Privilege on Campus

When I first arrived at Georgetown University last year, it felt like everyone couldn’t stop talking about how different Washington, D.C., was from their hometowns — the humid, muggy weather or annoying mosquitoes were all anyone talked about.

Having grown up in Maryland, just half an hour away from here, these conditions were nothing new to me. Nonetheless, I experienced a different kind of culture shock: I didn’t realize the sheer amount of wealth flaunted by my fellow students. I knew what I was signing up for when I committed to an elite, private and predominantly white institution, but the class differences were hard to conceptualize until it was right in front of me every day. Many students wore designer items — Golden Goose and Alexander McQueen sneakers instead of Nike Air Forces, Louis Vuitton and Goyard purses instead of JanSport backpacks, and Canada Goose coats over one from Burlington Coat Factory. These differences in material possessions sometimes made me feel like an outsider as I struggled in adapting to my new environment. In a weird sort of retaliation, I felt the inexplicable need to drop my own subtle status signals

NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST

Maintain

Optimism Toward Struggle

In the wake of everyday challenges and stressors, global political turmoil and the aftermath of a consequential (and controversial) election, I find myself adrift in an uncertainty that feels far larger than myself. It’s overwhelming to be pulled in countless directions — each demanding that you care, act or pick a side — all while trying to figure out your own place and purpose in the world. This disorientation forced me to ask myself some fundamental questions: How do I navigate this storm without losing myself in the process? How can I cope and find purpose when the world feels so overwhelming? And, perhaps most importantly, how do I confront the frustrating reality that so many people fail to recognize their power to change the world for the better?

I have three things to say: Have optimism, recognize your potential and take action. In the face of uncertainty and chaos, optimism is not ignorance. It is not about ignoring the challenges or pretending that everything is fine. It’s about believing in the possibility that there are better days ahead and focusing on the steps — however small — that we can take to create them. My message is meant not to push you toward an ignorant, blind faith but rather to encourage the development of a mindset that allows us to see potential in the rubble and opportunities in the struggle.

Stepping back from the noise, I’m reminded of the resilience that deﬁnes us. Communities have always faced challenges, yet they have found ways to both persevere through hardship and create meaningful change. During the pandemic, small acts of solidarity — neighbors helping the vulnerable and businesses distributing masks, for example — proved the power of collective action. This spirit thrives at

Georgetown University, where Hoyas organize for justice, lobby for change and turn struggles into progress. And yet, this spirit cannot sustain itself without individuals willing to step forward, take risks and act.

This commitment to action is not new — it’s embedded in Georgetown’s history. In 2019, students undertook the monumental task of compiling a comprehensive database of names tied to enslaved individuals connected to the university, a group now collectively referred to as the GU272. This research fueled activism that resulted in a historic referendum demanding reparative justice for the descendants of those enslaved people. Even in the face of daunting challenges, the Georgetown community has consistently harnessed the power of collective action to foster positive change. This legacy reminds us that optimism is not just hope for change but a belief in our collective capacity to create it.

The GU272 initiative should not be simply a story of what has been accomplished but a rallying cry for what remains to be done. It is easy to look at such a historic act and feel distanced from it, as though the work of those students has absolved the rest of us of our responsibility, but optimism requires us to look at this movement as an ongoing opportunity to deepen our impact and push for greater justice.

So, I ask you: What small steps can you take today to move forward, even in the face of uncertainty? Start by taking the time to understand the GU272 story and then ask yourself what you can do to help carry its mission forward. Volunteer with organizations that tackle systemic injustice, attend events that amplify marginalized voices and use your platform to raise awareness about

justice eﬀorts. Also, consider the growing national conversation around reparations and racial equity. Now is the time to ensure the GU272 story remains a centerpiece in these discussions.

The movement for justice for the GU272 continues to grow, with descendants and advocates working to ensure that Georgetown’s acknowledgment of its past — beyond the new “Pathways to Social Justice” requirement — translates into meaningful actions. By continuing to consistently demand changes to the status quo — expansions to the current program or the renewal of efforts to locate descendants of enslaved peoples — we can be a potent force of change. Advocacy, rooted in history and backed by collective action, can bring systemic injustices into the public conscience. These examples remind us that optimism is not passive, but instead the engine for meaningful action. The truth is that we all have the potential to make a difference. However, potential means nothing if we don’t act on it. Optimism is anything but passive. It is the courage to believe that justice is attainable, that progress is possible and that we have the power to make it happen. Even in the uncertainty of the current political climate, we can find opportunities to challenge the status quo. The GU272 movement teaches us that optimism thrives not in certainty but in the willingness to face uncertainty with purpose. It is most powerful when it is bold, deliberate and collective.

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

to communicate my class, or to differentiate myself from “the elites” or “one-percenters.” I would casually mention that I went to a Title I public school or paid for my car through hard-earned money to convince others, and maybe even myself, that I was not like a “typical” Georgetown student. It’s not just me though — I’ve often heard other students nonchalantly mention their work-study status or lack of parental allowance to subtly distinguish themselves from their more affluent peers. In doing so, we transform our lack of economic advantages into social currency, a futile attempt to elevate ourselves through our disadvantages. It establishes a false narrative that affluent students should be ashamed because they somehow used money to their advantage, and less-affluent students should be celebrated for overcoming structural obstacles through hard work and determination. We inadvertently reinforce a class hierarchy, all because we want to avoid being at the bottom of a social ladder we are scared will turn against us. I want to acknowledge that our different financial backgrounds profoundly shape our daily

experiences. It’s alienating when you can’t go out with friends because a restaurant is too expensive or feel pressure to overachieve because you don’t have a financial safety net. Money is an uncomfortable topic, and this discomfort must be overcome to create real understanding and inclusion across Georgetown. How people share their experiences, through these mindless status signals — therein lies the problem. By subtly dropping these social status symbols, we fail to acknowledge that attending Georgetown is a privilege in and of itself. We have the time, money and capacity to attend a prestigious university, an opportunity that only some people can take advantage of. While we all come from different backgrounds and have had to make sacrifices, at the end of the day, we are at Georgetown to (hopefully) elevate our social status and income-earning opportunities. We are studying and establishing a network to become successful. I chose Georgetown over my state school because I knew it would, ultimately, put me further ahead. Through these subtle indications, we also create a false perception of what it means to be “poor.” We

distort the reality of poverty — and its adjacent consequences that tens of millions endure — just to ease our own consciences about attending an elite university built on wealth and privilege. Yes, I may have gone to a Title 1 public school, but it was also in one of the richest counties in the country. And while I did pay for my own car, my parents are paying for my education. We create a false dichotomy between poor and rich, that you’re either one or the other. In reality, most people straddle the in-between.

This article was probably uncomfortable to read — I know it was uncomfortable to write — but I implore you to think about why you feel the need to mention how expensive your flight home was or that you bought something on sale. Do we want to influence how others perceive us, or are we using these conversational status signals to convince ourselves that we are down-to-earth to avoid confronting the fact that we now go to a wealthy school that will have highly beneficial outcomes for our careers?

Anjali Ofori is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.

To the Opinion section of The Hoya, It has been a pleasure to write for you as a columnist this past semester. The slogan of your institution is to “Read the Paper.” I hope I can say I’ve done my part to make the paper worth reading.

And I think I can say that, with your help, I’ve played a small part in helping the paper be read. Our ﬁrst article, on increasing accountability during the GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee process, was followed with proposed bylaw changes to reduce the impact of individual dedicationlacking GUSA senators. Policy recommendations from our article on giving H*yas for Choice the right to reserve rooms were included in the GUSA president-elect’s policy platform. Our column on reviving the GUSA newsletter was cited in legislation that eventually compelled the CobbMehta administration to send out their ﬁrst in nine months.

The point of this is not selfcongratulations — it’s to show that what is published in The Hoya can have a real, tangible and immediate impact. It can genuinely lead to policy changes and policy progress. The paper still matters.

So, in my final set of policy recommendations this semester to an institution I perceive as having fallen “ill,” I want you, the Opinion section of The Hoya, to embrace the role a student newspaper can play in advancing and informing community discourse.

Understanding that role, what then are my

recommendations? Publish pieces which present personal takes on university and student groups’ policies or cultures. Publish pieces that are precise and specific about your recommended changes. Act affirmatively to maximize your ability to facilitate change.

In my view, The Hoya’s Opinion section has failed to do so in recent semesters. While it is important to note that general consumption of college newspapers has been declining across the United States, Opinion (and The Hoya more broadly) must also take some responsibility for the broader perception of the paper’s general declining readership and impact, something showcased in the GUSA Media Board funding justiﬁcations.

A substantial portion of the Opinion pieces published this semester have been personal, reﬂective and abstract. Generally, authors have made their own emotional journeys the center of their pieces, working through their feelings to end up recommending broad yet vague changes to the attitudes of the student body or administration.

This sort of introspection can be valuable, especially when published in small and punctuated doses. When it becomes near-hegemonic, though, an opinion section begins to lose its value. An opinion section is, after all, part of a newspaper, whose very name suggests it should contain content pertaining to the news. It is decidedly not a public, collaborative, student diary. I make these purposefully

provocative because I want themto have an impact; I know ﬁrsthand the value that this paper’s Opinion section can have. This is the section that once exposed the racial depravity of the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union’s recruitment process, leading it to change its culture. This is the section that identified the need and advocated for a Disability Cultural Center two years before the one we have now was opened. This is the section that published the initial call by Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., for the university to acknowledge and honor the GU272.

I know Opinion can move in that direction once again, even in the face of a systemically difficult environment for the college newspaper. Publish thoughtful solutions to the crises in our community as they arise. Solicit student articles that recommend precise changes to university policy that concretely affect our lives. Make the paper worth reading. So, as we head into next semester, I want to again say thanks for the opportunity to make an impact. The future of The Hoya can be bright. To ensure that it is, we must be honest with ourselves about the challenges the paper faces, some systemic, some selfimposed. Now is not the time to play it safe. Now is the time for tough conversations and bold change. Let that start with transforming Opinion. With respect,

Saahil Rao is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

VIEWPOINT • KUMAR

VIEWPOINT • OFORI

INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR ILLS

From Surfing to Skiing to Rock Climbing, Outdoor Clubs Struggle to Expand Access to Activities

Georgetown’s outdoor-focused clubs navigate waves of challenges, such as funding, transportation and safety concerns, to bring students closer to nature and community.

Bella Gagliano Features Writer

After a two-hour drive oﬀ campus in a rental car, the nascent Georgetown University Surf Club, composed of Lily Loft (SOH ’27), Max Pattillo (CAS ’27) and four other Georgetown students, arrived in Assateague Island, Md., welcomed by warm salty air, wild horses and crashing waves.

“We were all just really excited to see sand and waves,” Loft told The Hoya. “It was pretty magical to just be back by the beach.”

“I was telling my friends last year that I was getting ocean withdrawals,” Pattillo told The Hoya. “You spend two hours a day there every morning, four times a week, for years, and then you just drop that in your life immediately for like seven months.”

After their initial surfing outing, Loft and Pattillo hoped they could foster more excursions via entering the university’s new club development process, allowing their group to become a university-approved club and apply for funding from the school.

However, Loft said she received an email Nov. 17 that Georgetown’s Center for Student Engagement (CSE) had rejected Surf Club’s application to become a club. Loft said she found the club application process frustrating because she did not receive actionable feedback to improve her application for recognition.

“I understand that Georgetown is limited in resources and they have to reject some clubs and that’s justiﬁed, but I think giving a reason why is important so people can go ahead and try to address that reason when they apply next time,” Loft said.

“I think the club process is frustrating when they reject student clubs because it feels like a mass sent email — they gave no actual speciﬁc reason why Surf Club speciﬁcally was rejected. It didn’t feel personalized at all.”

The Surf Club’s struggles to gain funding and approval reflects the difficulties many clubs with outdoor focuses face at Georgetown. While groups such as Club Rock Climbing face issues subsidizing members’ fees, others such as Outdoor Education (Outdoor Ed), which aims to provide students with access to nature through organizing hikes, backpacking, rafting and kayaking trips, have restrictive training requirements. Pattillo said he hopes the club becomes a space for those searching for community and connection over their shared interest of surfing.

“Where I would like to take it is to a place where it’s accessible and obvious to those people who

want to be a part of a community like that,” Pattillo said.

Getting Away from Georgetown

For some students involved in outdoor-focused clubs, student organizations provide a way of ensuring balance between city life in Washington, D.C., and opportunities to get outside and be in natural spaces.

Cristina Gomez (CAS ’26), who is a student guide for Outdoor Ed, said her involvement with the organization helps her feel

“Every time I’m leading a trip, there’s at least one person who’s like, ‘Wow, it’s so nice to just get off campus and get outside.”

JESSIE TRAXLER (CAS ‘26) OUTDOOR ED GUIDE

DC Replaces Lead Pipes, Impacting Students, Environmental Justice Goals

Sarah Phillips Special to The Hoya Georgetown University students living oﬀ-campus in the Burleith neighborhood may soon beneﬁt from an opportunity to replace lead pipes on residential properties as a Washington, D.C. government program begins its work to remove lead pipes in the neighborhood.

The Washington, D.C. Lead Pipe Replacement Assistance Program (LPRAP) provides free or discounted removal of lead pipes on private land to eligible residents with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These eﬀorts are part of President Joe Biden’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan, a commitment to replace the lead pipes in all of the nation’s drinking water systems within 10 years, which targets lead found in pipes, faucets and building interiors, intending to enlist plumbers in D.C. and across the United States to replace the country’s lead pipes and service lines.

Plumbing materials containing lead can contaminate drinking water through a chemical reaction called corrosion in which the metal dissolves or wears away from pipes and ﬁxtures. The short-term symptoms of lead exposure are mild, including headaches, stomach pain, joint pain, fatigue and irritability. However, the long-term dangers

of lead exposure range from high blood pressure to irreversible brain damage — a risk particularly high for young children.

The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority created an interactive map that tracks the presence of lead on private and public property in D.C.

According to William Elledge, director of engineering and technical services at D.C. Water, current data estimates that 7,000 of the roughly 42,000 lead service lines in D.C. have been replaced in recent years.

Elledge said the pipe replacement process moves slowly due to its invasive nature.

“It’s a disruption to every homeowner,” Elledge told The Hoya. “The improvements that the Biden administration and the EPA pushed forward and finalized a couple months back require that we enter people’s homes.”

Caroline Samoluk (CAS ’25), a Burleith neighborhood resident, recently discovered that her residence had lead pipes and would be eligible for free pipe replacement.

“The lead pipes situation makes me really nervous, especially because I am finding out about this now after having lived here since August,” Samoluk told The Hoya. “Previously, I had no idea that there was any danger and I only found out when my roommate told me we were eligible after doing some research.”

Samoluk said she is dissatisﬁed

with the apparent lack of urgency to remove the lead pipes and the lack of information about what tenants can do to speed removal.

“I have not felt a great sense of urgency from the district and landlords to get the pipes replaced and I wish I did,” Samoluk said. “I would feel better if there was more aggressive advertising from the district and more communication with landlords.”

Efforts to decrease lead exposure in the District are further complicated by the impacts of environmental injustices. Tim Bartley, professor at the Georgetown University Earth Commons, said the impact of systemic environmental injustice manifests as the disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards.

“I think it’s really clear that ordinary citizens and particularly people of color, who have faced severe hazards, have been really instrumental in drawing attention to environmental injustice and the unequal burden of various kinds of environmental hazards that are faced by low-income people, and especially low-income people of color,” Bartley said.

In D.C., Black families are at greater risk of lead exposure than other socioeconomic groups. Nationally, there is a strong negative association between risk of lead exposure and income. These imbalances are likely due in part to the cost associated with removing and replacing lead

pipes. By reducing the cost barrier, LPRAP could help address existing environmental injustices.

Bartley also said there is uncertainty around the continued involvement of the federal government in environmental justice initiatives, like LPRAP, during president-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

“I think what everyone in the environmental justice world is thinking about now is what happens under a second Trump administration,” Bartley told The Hoya. “My sense is that there are a whole bunch of people working on environmental justice in D.C. and in various parts of the federal

UPenn Professor Highlights Blood Cancer Diagnostics

Finn Wernet Special to The Hoya

Dr. David Teachey, professor of pediatrics and distinguished endowed chair in the department of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, detailed recent developments in the diagnosis and treatment of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and lymphoma, rare types of blood cancer originating from bone marrow tissue and the lymphatic system, at an event hosted by the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Nov. 15. At the talk, Teachey described efforts to tailor care based on a patient’s unique genetic risk factors in order to circumvent systemic health care inequities that negatively influence patient outcomes. According to Teachey, misclassifying the severity of T-ALL has devastating effects on treatment, and risk-classifiers, or certain risk factors that may contribute to a poor outcome or relapse, are often misclassified due to systemic biases in diagnostic practices.

“When we make risk-classiﬁers with cancer patients, we tend to poll everybody together. The way we risk-classify people in the U.S. is driven by white people of European descent,” Teachey told The Hoya. “People with African descent are

misclassified because they’re risk-classified the same way although their underlying genetic ancestry is different.”

Teachey said it is crucial to correctly classify patients at the earliest diagnostic stages. Early and accurate diagnosis can improve prognosis and reduce the risk of relapse and death from T-ALL.

“If a child with T-ALL relapses, the patient’s survival probability drops down to a low of 30%,” Teachey said. “Currently, we get one good shot at treating children with T-ALL.”

T-ALL has been linked to several mutations in the genes that control blood cell production.

Genetic tests can help detect these chromosomal abnormalities before the disease develops.

According to Teachey, genomic sequencing is essential to create an individualized treatment plan that accounts for the genetic drivers of the patient’s unique case.

“Precision therapies are the most eﬀective treatment options for treating T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia because treatment agents are only eﬀective in one genomic subgroup,” Teachey said.

Maisha Huq, event attendee and postdoctoral felloan w at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said genetic testing, including chromosomal mapping, may help guide the treatment course by exposing the presence of genetic risk factors.

“Genetic testing is very important,” Huq told The Hoya. “There is a reason

Dr. David Teachey detailed health equity efforts in diagnosing rare types of blood cancer, at an event hosted by Lombardi Cancer Center Nov. 15.

for this test. It may positively impact your treatment plan.”

However, Brenna Mossman, a postdoctoral fellow at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center who attended the event, said inherent bias should be acknowledged when recommending genetic testing to avoid perpetuating medical mistrust.

“Genetics come with a lot of fear, caution and mistrust because people are scared that their genetic information will be misused or abused,” Mossman told The Hoya According to Teachey, recent

research and improved genetic testing have contributed to improved treatment outcomes for T-ALL. Most patients diagnosed with T-ALL now receive tailored care that targets their unique genetic drivers of disease. These treatment programs have improved the prognosis for T-ALL signiﬁcantly.

“Improvement in cure rates for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the great success stories in modern medicine,” Teachey said.

Experts Weigh in on Avian Flu Pandemic Preparedness

Shivali Vora Deputy Science Editor

Science and policy experts from institutions across the United States came together to discuss the H5N1 influenza virus strain, also known as bird flu, in a webinar titled “Pandemic Influenza Vaccines: Responding to the H5 Outbreak & Preparing for the Future,” hosted by the Global Health Institute and the O’Neill Institute, a part of the Georgetown University Law Center that takes an interdisciplinary approach to national and global health law, Nov. 15. The event consisted of four panels tackling different dimensions of influenza pandemic preparedness. Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security and professor at Georgetown University, moderated the first panel, which focused on what is currently known about the virology and epidemiology of H5 flu strains. Speakers highlighted recent adaptations that have facilitated avian flu’s spread from domestic poultry to wild birds and mammals, which ultimately resulted in the arrival of this flu strain to the Americas in 2021.

Marcela Uhart, a veterinarian from the University of California, Davis, said a key indicator that mutations are occurring is the incidence of H5 viral infections throughout the year rather than solely during the typical winter ﬂu season.

“We have a huge catalog of viruses that can mix and adapt in diﬀerent hosts,” Uhart said at the event.

Uhart also emphasized the inequities that have already resulted from H5. For example, the burden of sampling wildlife often falls on equatorial countries that have the relevant animal hosts of the virus, and the process of obtaining these samples is both challenging and disruptive to local ecosystems.

“We have lost an excess of 680,000 birds to this point, only in the last year and a half or two, and nearly 60,000 mammals,” Uhart said. “If we only consider the Americas, North America is responsible for 80% to 90% of virus sequences even though it has only 10% of all the cases.”

Jennifer Nuzzo from Brown University’s School of Public Health said that, despite the relative mildness of H5 infections in humans thus far — possibly due to immunity conferred by exposure to previous inﬂuenza strains such as the 2009 swine ﬂu, also known as H1N1 — there is still cause for concern, especially as the virus evolves. To illustrate this point, Nuzzo gave an example of a teenager in Canada who was recently hospitalized with H5N1 and remains in critical condition.

“We should not wait for severe illness to occur to take action to protect people from that possibility,” Nuzzo said at the event.

Nuzzo also said that H5 is an occupational hazard for farm workers, who may be disincentivized to report infections and

participate in surveillance programs due to concerns about losing their livestock. Nuzzo noted that some inﬂuenza strains can simultaneously infect the same animal host, leading to reassortment, a process of genetic exchange that could result in a more dangerous novel H5 strain. A novel strain of this nature would also have a disproportionate impact on health care workers, according to Nuzzo.

The second panel focused on the regulatory environment of H5 vaccines. Dr. Arnold Monto, a physician and professor emeritus of epidemiology and public health at the University of Michigan, spoke about the importance of increasing vaccination capabilities between inﬂuenza pandemics. As an example of a successful coordinated response among manufacturers and regulators, Monto discussed the H1N1 pandemic, which began in spring 2009. By September of that year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had already approved four vaccines.

A new strain change proposal currently under review by the FDA would allow previous vaccine prototypes to be updated during the interpandemic phase so that safety and eﬀicacy data would already be available if and when a pandemic breaks out.

Dr. David Kaslow from the FDA prompted further discussion about this expedited regulatory pathway. He said capitalizing on the interpandemic period to consolidate evidence

about the safety and efficacy of updated vaccines is crucial.

“Coupled with better and better tools to forecast eﬀective pandemic vaccine composition, we may save critical pandemic response time by having the updated vaccines we need without waiting for a strain change,” Kaslow said at the event.

Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist who works for Tunnell Government Services, a consulting firm in the national health security space, highlighted various immune mechanisms that are being researched to allow for different approaches to vaccine development. For example, while inactivated vaccines contain killed versions of the virus and rely on inducing antibodies against it, live-attenuated vaccines contain weakened versions of the virus, which produce a closer reflection of the body’s natural immune response. This type of vaccine often confers longer-lasting protection without the need for booster shots and may, therefore, be an easier route to achieving herd immunity, which is a threshold for broad community protection defined by a high enough percentage of people having acquired immunity. Treanor also emphasized that with any vaccine, developing it is only half the battle.

“Vaccine design is really just part of this whole response,” Treanor said at the event. “Production, distribution, administration and sustainability all impact whether this is a successful response to controlling a pandemic.”

government who are moving to other places or looking for new jobs.”

In D.C., environmental injustices extend beyond lead exposure. Air and water pollution disproportionately impact majority-Black communities in D.C. living in Wards 1 and 7 along the Anacostia River. Increased levels of exposure have been linked to release of toxic chemicals by large companies and contribute to severe negative health outcomes, including higher rates of asthma.

Patterns of environmental injustice repeat across the country. The Biden administration’s plan to replace all lead pipes in the nation’s drinking water

systems could be of particular importance to communities whose health has been historically overlooked. Bartley said past environmental justice movements have been rooted in local community organizing and that future movements and advocacy are possible even without government support.

“People have been quite remarkable in compiling their own evidence of the hazards in their communities,” Bartley said. “It takes a lot of work on their part, but they can become activists and gather the evidence to start to put the pieces together on their own.”

Creating Life in the Lab: Behind the Science, Politics Of In Vitro Fertilization THE REPRO RUNDOWN

Audrey Twyford Science Columnist

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, women and birthing people have been left to wonder how his return to power will impact their reproductive rights. Though his political record demonstrates an unwillingness to recognize key reproductive freedoms, including abortion, his avowed support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) breaks ranks with many Republican Party politicians who oppose the procedure. Trump, in an eﬀort to appeal to the majority of U.S. voters who support IVF, even proclaimed himself the “father of IVF,” despite requiring Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) to explain the procedure to him earlier this year.

While Democrats and Republicans debate the future of IVF, around 22% of U.S. adults remain unsure if they support the procedure, possibly owing to a lack of knowledge about what IVF actually entails. Moreover, cultural taboo contributes to misconceptions about the treatment — for example, the Catholic Church condemns IVF, decrying that it disassociates marriage from procreation. So, putting politics and culture aside, what is the science behind IVF?

The journey from lab to life begins when a person seeks to become pregnant. There are many reasons someone might seek the help of assisted reproductive technology: 1 in 8 U.S. couples struggle with infertility, samesex partners can use IVF to start a family and cancer patients may freeze their eggs to protect their fertility from chemotherapy-induced damage. Regardless, the ﬁrst step in IVF is an evaluation of the male and female partners’ eggs and sperm, ensuring that at least some of their reproductive cells, called gametes, are healthy. Then, the female partner receives hormone injections for 10 to 12 days, which allows multiple eggs to mature inside the ovary.

The next step in IVF is egg retrieval, which occurs while the patient is under anesthesia. With the guidance of an ultrasound machine, a doctor inserts a thin needle through the vagina into the ovary and extracts 10 to 20 eggs. The doctor then places the eggs in a dish with sperm isolated from the male partner’s semen.

The fertilized eggs grow in an incubator until they reach the blastocyst stage of development, typically after 3 to 7 days. This incubation period — during

which growth occurs in an artiﬁcial environment instead of in a live organism — explains why the procedure is called “in vitro.” What characterizes a blastocyst embryo are two layers of cells: one that becomes the fetus and one that becomes the placenta. Finally, doctors either freeze the blastocyst embryos for future use or transfer one or more of them into the patient’s uterus. Herein lies the main point of contention for IVF’s opponents: If frozen embryos are accidentally destroyed, does that constitute murder? That is, should embryos enjoy the same rights as people?

In February 2024, many in the United States reacted with shock and dismay at the Alabama Supreme Court’s answer to these questions. The court ruled that the accidental destruction of human embryos at IVF clinics constitutes child murder, spurring fertility clinics to cease operations. Though state lawmakers responded with a measure that protects IVF providers from wrongful death lawsuits, many clinicians remained worried that the court’s ruling could expose them to legal repercussions. Their legal concerns stem from the fact that it is common for fertilized eggs not to survive: 45% of lab-grown IVF embryos die before becoming blastocysts, and plenty of others die in the female body even when naturally conceived. Furthermore, when couples are left with extra embryos after a successful round of IVF, it is common practice for clinics to destroy them or donate them to research. Given that IVF enjoys widespread support throughout the United States, it is unlikely that concerns about fetal personhood will lead to significant bans, especially as the GOP remains split on the issue. However, fertility experts worry that increasing the legal risk of IVF could impose restrictions on the use of embryos, rendering the process more inefficient and requiring couples to undergo more cycles. IVF is already quite cost prohibitive, with one cycle costing up to $24,000 and lacking insurance coverage in 31 U.S. states. In the United States, the debate about IVF is far from settled — as recently as September 2024, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have enacted federal protections for IVF, contradicting Trump’s assertion that he wants to expand access to the treatment. Nevertheless, the science underpinning the safety and efficacy of IVF remains steadfast, as does the fact that thousands of families could not have exercised their right to bear children in its absence.

ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN BECK/THE HOYA

The Lead Pipe Replacement Assistance Program is working to remove lead pipes around Washington.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

IN FOCUS

Barnes & Noble Reopens Georgetown Location

Judge Consolidates Data Leak Lawsuits

Aamir Jamil and Maren Fagan Senior News Editors

Three lawsuits against Georgetown University concerning leaked student data were consolidated Nov. 13 to be presented to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the federal court in Washington, D.C.

The data breach, which occurred for over 24 hours between 8 a.m. Oct. 16 and 8:30 a.m. Oct. 17, made available student information, including social security number, tax identification, marital status, disability status, immigration and visa status, ethnicity and gender. Mary Margaret “Maggie” Cleary (COL ’14) filed the initial class action lawsuit Oct. 18. Rebekah Morrison (CAS ’23) and Tyree Daniels (GRD ’19) each filed additional lawsuits, and the three were consolidated because each lawsuit regards the same issue and same defendant, Georgetown. Georgetown’s legal counsel did not contest the consolidation of the lawsuits.

Lowey Dannenberg, P.C., a law firm based in New York, and Shub & Johns L.L.C., a law firm based in Pennsylvania, will be the lead counsel for the case.

The consolidated lawsuit is a class action lawsuit, meaning it seeks an unspeciﬁed amount of damages for the plaintiﬀs and “all others similarly situated.” The “similarly situated” in this lawsuit refers to others whose student data may have been accessible during the data breach, including current Georgetown students and recent graduates.

The consolidated lawsuit alleges that Georgetown was negligent in its handling of students’ private data and breached an “implied contract” between the university and its students and graduates.

The university disclosed the leak in an Oct. 17 email sent to the Georgetown community by Chief Information Officer Doug Little, ordering the 29 people who accessed the website during the time of the leak to destroy any data retained.

A university spokesperson declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

Cleary, an attorney in Virginia, sued the university in her personal capacity as a graduate and is represented by the litigation firm Lowey Dannenberg, which declined requests for comment.

Cleary’s lawsuit says she faces anxiety from the leak due to concerns about access to her personal information.

“The Data Breach has caused the Plaintiff to suffer anxiety and stress from concerns that she faces an increased risk of financial fraud, identity theft, fraud and other types of monetary harm as a result of the stolen information,” the lawsuit reads.

Cleary’s lawsuit alleges the university has failed to appropriately inform those whom the lawsuit impacts.

“Defendant has yet to fully and accurately inform those aﬀected of the full extent of the Data Breach,” Cleary’s lawsuit reads. “It is not clear how many total victims of the Data Breach that Defendant thus far notiﬁed, however such information will be deduced through discovery.”

Morrison is represented by Tycko & Zavareei L.L.P., a law firm in D.C. that specializes in class action and whistleblower lawsuits. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

“Inexplicably, Georgetown has not yet fully or accurately informed those aﬀected about the complete scope of the data breach,” Morrison’s lawsuit reads. “The Data Breach resulted from Georgetown’s inadequate security measures and failures, including insuﬀicient protocols for safeguarding sensitive information. These vulnerabilities allowed unauthorized individuals to access Georgetown’s systems and extract the personal and academic data of potentially hundreds of thousands of individuals.”

“The data breach was directly caused by Georgetown’s ﬂawed system conﬁguration and design, along with its failure to implement and adhere to fundamental security protocols. This negligence allowed

unauthorized access to sensitive information, making the breach both foreseeable and preventable,” Morrison’s lawsuit added.

Daniels’ representation is Lowey Dannenberg — the same representation as Cleary — and Shub & Johns.

Shub & Johns did not respond to requests for comment.

“The Data Breach was a direct result of Defendant’s failure to implement adequate and reasonable cyber-security procedures and protocols necessary to protect its students’ Private Information,” Daniels’ lawsuit reads.

“Defendant maintained the Private Information in a reckless manner. In particular, the Private Information was maintained on Defendant’s computer network in a condition vulnerable to Data Breaches.”

In their individual lawsuits, Cleary, Daniels and Morrison include charges of negligence, breach of implied contract and unjust enrichment. Daniels also alleges violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

Cleary’s lawsuit requests monetary damages and also urges the court to order the university to address weaknesses in personal data storage.

“Plaintiﬀ seeks damage and injunctive relief requiring Defendant to (i) strengthen its data security systems and monitoring procedures; (ii) submit to future annual audits of those systems and monitoring procedures; and (iii) continue to provide adequate credit and identity theft monitoring to all Class Members,” the complaint reads.

Morrison’s lawsuit alleges that the university has disclosed little information about the data leak, saying the lack of information has forced students to remain concerned for the state of their data.

“These eﬀorts are burdensome and time-consuming, especially because Georgetown has disclosed little information about the Data Breach, forcing customers to continue to monitor their accounts indeﬁnitely,” Morrison’s lawsuit reads.

GSP Kicks Off GSProud Celebration

Song Lim and Nora Toscano Graduate

The Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP), a program that provides resources and support to first-generation and low-income (FGLI) students at Georgetown University, hosted a kickoff to start its 20th anniversary celebration week, GSProud Week, on Healy Lawn Nov. 18. The kickoﬀ featured various stations, including a pizza stand, a GSProud merchandise table oﬀering hats and an activity station where attendees created suncatchers and wrote on the star-shaped cards about why they are “GSProud.” The event was open to both GSP members and non-members.

Sharona Nagamuthu (SFS ’26), a member of GSP’s student board, said she hoped GSProud Week would increase the visibility of GSP and FGLI students.

“I think FGLI visibility on campus is important,” Nagamuthu told The Hoya. “We chalked earlier, so if you walk through Red Square, you’ll see a bunch of things on the ground. And I think that helps a lot. Just knowing what GSP is, that’s the biggest thing we want.” GSP has served more than 2,600 students since its inception in 2004 and centers on four core tenets: advising and mentorship opportunities, community building,

necessity funding and advocacy. Nagamuthu said the kickoff was an opportunity to bring together the wider Georgetown community.

“Kickoﬀ is one of our events that is open to everyone, not just GSP members,” Nagamuthu said. “So it’s really great to see a lot of people, not only GSPers, but friends of GSPers or grad students that are walking by that have come out. So it’s been going really great so far.”

Michelle Ramos (CAS ’25), the co-president of the student board, said the 20th anniversary of GSProud is important because GSP is a community that is deeply eaningful to her and one she has cherished seeing grow over time.

“It means being able to contribute back to a community that has given so much to me and watching it thrive and grow,” Ramos told The Hoya. “It allows us to think about ways we can continue the program as we continue forward.”

Lisa Kennedy (CAS ’25), the other co-president of GSP’s student board, said this year is also the 10th anniversary of the GSProud celebration.

“This is the 10th anniversary of our GSProud celebration, which was started by some of our ﬁrst GSP student board members,” Kennedy told The Hoya. “We are looking back at our program over the past 20 years and the past 10 years of GSProud and looking forward to how much more we hope to grow as well.”

Kennedy added that the theme of this year’s GSProud’s celebration week is reﬂection.

“Our theme for GSProud this year really speaks to us celebrating the 20 years,” Kennedy said. “Our theme is reﬂection, so we are looking back at how much leaders in the program have grown it and what they went through to build the foundation for the program that we have today.”

Members of GSP are selected by an external committee based on certain criteria, including “high achieving students” from ﬁrst-generation and low-income (FGLI) backgrounds.

Nagamuthu said GSP oﬀers students opportunities to ﬁnd community at Georgetown.

“Not as a student board member, but just as a GSPer in general, I feel like GSP has definitely given me a huge community on Georgetown’s campus that I feel like I may not have been able to get otherwise,” Nagamuthu said. “There’s people that just understand and relate to me, whether it be in my background or just understanding the nuances of Georgetown, that I really appreciate.”

Ramos said the kickoff event showed how far GSProud has progressed and how much its presence on campus has increased.

“We have more non-GSPers now than ever before, and it is really showing how much GSP has grown in visibility on campus,” Ramos said.

WHAT’S NEW ONLINE?

Emma Kim Features Writer

Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy welcomed Banky Wellington (GRD ’25), a prominent Nigerian-American Afrobeats artist, singer, rapper, actor and politician known as Banky W, this academic year.

Wellington, who is pursuing a master of policy management, W hopes to build upon his established work in activism and advocacy. He said his global experiences and dedication to musical, cinematographic and political spheres inspired him to seek a career in public service.

Wellington, a Nigerian-American dual citizen who grew up in Nigeria and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York for his undergraduate studies, said he hopes to increase his skillset to better equip him for changemaking.

“If I am going to take a seat at the table, I must bring more than my creativity and character; I must have a level of competence in public policy administration that qualiﬁes me to be there,” Wellington wrote to The Hoya Wellington campaigned in Nigeria’s 2023 House of Representatives general election but lost; he said he chose to take a step back and focus on personal growth after the election, leading to his enrollment at Georgetown.

“I decided I needed to take some time oﬀ from everything I was doing to catch my breath and reinvest in myself — in my knowledge and network, hoping to grow in competence and capacity as a leader, to prepare for my next season of service, wherever that will be,” Wellington wrote.

Sean O’Brien, adjunct professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy and Wellington’s speechwriting professor, said he has enjoyed learning about Wellington’s run for oﬀice and commitment to public good.

“It’s exciting to have someone with his level of experience and professional accomplishments in the class to add to our perspectives,” O’Brien wrote to The Hoya

“The focus of the class is how to write speeches that seize the opportunity presented by any audience and moment. And as a performer, ﬁlmmaker and politician with experience in both Nigeria and the U.S., Banky has certainly seized his share of opportunities with diﬀerent audiences,” O’Brien added.

Wellington currently holds a following of 4.9 million followers on Instagram, 3.7 million followers on X (formerly known as Twitter) and over 200,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. He leads “Empire Mates Entertainment,” a media agency with over 22,000 followers, and spearheads the Banky Wellington Organization (BWO), a community service organization in Nigeria.

Denzil Mutsikiwa (GRD ’25), president of the Georgetown Africa Business Alliance at the McDonough School of Business (MSB), said that Georgetown’s African community has embraced Wellington’s presence on campus, especially since he holds countless global experiences.

“The entire African community at Georgetown was excited to learn that such a prominent ﬁgure — a celebrated musician and respected Nigerian politician — was studying full-time,” Mustikawa wrote to The Hoya. “Banky is

truly an extraordinary individual, and his presence has added a dynamic and inspiring element to the Georgetown community.” Sagal Ali (GRD ’25), a longtime fan of Wellington’s music, said she is excited to be able to call one of her frequently listened-to artists her colleague and friend.

“I’ve been a fan of Banky’s music for almost a decade, dating back to my undergraduate days when I would listen to his tracks while working on papers and preparing for exams,” Ali wrote to The Hoya Akintunde Akinade, professor of theology at Georgetown’s Qatar campus, said Afrobeats help to communicate the performative and artistic dimensions of the African identity.

“I can say without any equivocation that Banky W understands the genealogy of this fascinating artistic genre and he has consistently contributed to this industry,” Akinade wrote to The Hoya. “I know him as a true and bonaﬁde ‘omoluabi’ — gentleman. Mighty kudos to him for his humility, creativity and passion.” Wellington, whose style is predominantly Afro-R&B, said music gave him a medium through which he could share his story and connect with the world.

“I have always written songs from a very personal place, inspired by my experiences, and that authenticity is what audiences connect with,” Wellington said. “They’ve found their stories in mine. It heals hearts and inspires minds; it entertains and motivates. It blesses, and I’m blessed to have been a vessel in that regard.”

“It transcends boundaries and brings people together,” Wellington added.

COURTESY OF BANKY WELLINGTON

Banky Wellington “Banky W” (GRD ’25), a prominent Nigerian-American Afrobeats artist, singer, rapper, actor and politician, entered Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

CAROLINE WOODWARD/THE HOYA

National bookstore chain Barnes & Noble reopened its location at 3040 M Street NW Nov. 6, replacing a Nike store and marking its return to Washington,

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

The Bedford Falls Foundation awarded the Georgetown University School of Nursing (SON) $1 million to fund scholarships Nov. 8, offering support to those who would otherwise need federally subsidized loans.

RA Union, GU’s Fifth Bargaining Session Results in No Agreements

GRAC, from A1

option as their top choice, there is no guarantee they will receive that placement.

Sam Lovell (CAS ’25), an RA in Copley Hall and the interim chairperson of GRAC, said the university and GRAC made headway in formalizing a more transparent placement process for RAs.

“They understood the desire to indicate to RAs, by the process and by the language of the contract, that it’s not an arbitrary process and so I think that is very much a win,” Lovell told The Hoya. “The university expressed willingness and eagerness — although also uncertainty about how exactly to do it — but a willingness to engage in discussions about how we could create a process that makes clear to RAs how that’s happening and to assuage those concerns.”

A university spokesperson said the university is committed to working with OPEIU, who is aiding GRAC in negotiations.

“The University values the contributions of Resident Assistants and continues to work in good faith with OPEIU to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement,” a university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya

“Any changes in the RA placement process will depend on the outcome of the bargaining process,” the spokesperson added. GRAC and the university

have tentatively agreed to nine articles, over a third of the total contract in its past four bargaining sessions. The two sides have yet to discuss RAs’ potential pay.

Ulises Olea Tapia (SFS ’25), an RA in Village A and GRAC’s interim bargaining lead, said GRAC wants to see increased equity in the placement process.

“We do believe that there is still some space to be worked on,” Olea Tapia told The Hoya “We truly are trying to envision a more equitable process of placement. That doesn’t mean everyone going to the same community, but it does mean that RAs would have a larger say rather than just giving the preferences for placement.”

The university and RAs also discussed hiring and training sessions.

Regarding the hiring process, Wagener said RAs hope for greater job security.

“In terms of employment, RAs are hired on a year-by-year basis and they have no guarantee that they’re going to be rehired,” Wagener said. “We’d like to see more of a guarantee that unless an RA has done a poor job, that they will be rehired.”

The RAs also hope to win reforms to their training system; RA training occurs during August before students arrive on campus.

According to Wagener, RAs worked 12-hour days at the beginning of the semester during training sessions. During this

round of negotiations on training, GRAC proposed capping training at 20 hours a week, but ultimately agreed with the university to cap RA training at 40 hours a week, although the two sides did not formalize any tentative agreements.

In addition, the university will allow RAs to serve on a training committee and help oversee training.

GRAC and the university will resume negotiations in December, and Olea Tapia said the union is prepared to discuss all of their contractual proposals but hopes to wrap up negotiations on articles not related to pay soon.

“Our ideal would be to ﬁnish all non-economic articles,” Olea Tapia said. “We’re basically halfway through the contract, we have a few more articles to get through. We believe that the proposals that we sent before the beginning of the semester are all extremely sensible, and very much doable.”

Olea Tapia said the process has remained positive, and GRAC remains motivated in negotiations.

“That’s truly the beauty of bargaining and of negotiations with the university,” Olea Tapia said. “It’s not to say that we are expecting to have complete say over everything, but rather that we work in conjunction to ﬁnd terms that are not only agreeable to both sides, but that are beneﬁcial to the continued development of RAs and the RA position.”

GU Pride Hosts Transgender Day Of Remembrance Vigil in Red Square

REMEMBRANCE, from A1

Transgender Day of Remembrance. In particular, violence against transgender individuals in the United States disproportionately targets young transgender women of color.

Vigil participants stood in a circle silently holding candles as Early, Campos and students and faculty who volunteered read the names of victims killed in the past year. Ashley VanMeter, a professor of neurobiology who read names during the vigil, said she was impressed by the turnout at the vigil, especially by Georgetown community members who are not members of the trans and nonbinary community.

“One thing I was really happy to see was how many people were there,” VanMeter told The Hoya. “It was quite a bit larger of a group than I was anticipating. And not everybody who came was trans, so I think that’s a really positive sign that the Georgetown community does care.” Amanda Phillips, an associate professor of English, ﬁlm and media studies, women’s and

gender studies and American studies, attended the vigil and said showing up for their students was important.

“I’m a faculty member, and I’m part of a group of faculty and staff who are trans or nonbinary, and so for us, it’s really important to show up for the youth and to live by example and show them that we’re here,” Phillips told The Hoya . “It’s possible to live a life that’s successful when you’re trans or nonbinary, even when there’s so much in the world that might say otherwise. And so I’m here to support the students. I’m here to stand up for the trans community.”

Phillips, who read names during the vigil, said it was meaningful to do so as a member of the trans and nonbinary community.

“The student organizers had asked for trans and nonbinaryidentifying volunteers to read the names for tonight,” Phillips said. “I think it was important to them to have representatives of the community hold that responsibility. And so as a member of the community, I volunteered to do that.”

President DeGioia to Step Down, Search for New President Begins

DEGIOIA, from A1

have shared with you the great hope I have for the future of this University and how we will continue to be ever more true to our mission and purpose,” DeGioia wrote. “This responsibility is one that each of us shares by virtue of our membership in this community.”

DeGioia also oversaw the increase of the ﬁnancial aid budget to $284 million as of 2024 and the growth of the endowment from $700 million in 2001 to $3.6 billion in 2024, raising the university’s ranking from 70th to 44th in higher education endowments.

“Under Jack’s leadership as President over the past 23 years, Georgetown University has grown and ﬂourished as a global leader in higher education,” Reynolds wrote. “With a deep commitment to academic excellence, research, student formation and its Jesuit and Catholic identity, Jack has

helped to position Georgetown as a force for good in the world.”

As president, DeGioia promoted eﬀorts to foster religious diversity and dialogue, create access for all students — including LGBTQ+ and disabled students — and advance sustainability on campus.

Among the initiatives established during DeGioia’s tenure was the university’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation, which led Georgetown to issue a public apology in 2017 for the sale of 272 enslaved children, women and men by the Jesuits who ran Georgetown in 1838.

“We cannot hide from this truth, bury this truth, ignore this truth. Slavery remains the original evil of our republic, an evil our university was complicit in,” DeGioia said in 2017. “We do not seek to move on with this apology, but to move forward with open hearts to respond to urgent demands of justice that are still present in our time.”

DeGioia was also one of the ﬁrst U.S. university presidents to call for a ceaseﬁre in Gaza in April, saying Palestinians must receive safety and resources and the hostages must be released.

“In the Middle East, it begins with access to humanitarian aid, the return of the hostages and an immediate ceaseﬁre in Gaza,” DeGioia wrote April 1.

“And we must recognize that so much more will be required if we can support the choices of ‘life … reconciliation … justice … relationship … dialogue.’” DeGioia wrote that serving as the president of Georgetown was the privilege of his lifetime and that the roles he held at Georgetown were authentic to his vocation.

“All of us can ﬁnd reassurance in knowing that we share in this work together and that, over many generations, we have built the type of community that will enable Georgetown to thrive for years to come,” DeGioia wrote in the Nov. 21 email.

Noa Offman, GU Student, Advocate For Justice, Named Rhodes Scholar

RHODES, from A1 educational opportunities — who was formerly incarcerated.

resolve, integrity and an unwavering commitment to ﬁght for justice. We know she will continue to make an impact for good in our world.”

VanMeter said reading the names out loud was a way to authentically remember the lives of those lost.

“I think another thing that’s really important about reading these things aloud is that we are recognizing them for who they want to be seen as,” VanMeter said. “In many cases, in police reports and news articles, they’re misgendered and their given name is used instead of the name that they chose. So this is our community coming back and saying, ‘No, wait a minute. This is who this person was. These were their pronouns and this was their name.’”

Campos said the vigil represents the importance of remembering those lost.

“As a nonbinary individual, I think an event like this, it’s important to bring up,” Campos said. “As important as it is to talk about trans joy and what we can do to foster trans communities, it’s also important to acknowledge those that we lose, especially when they’re killed. It’s important to me to be there for my community and to be present and to honor those lives.”

“There was this serendipitous moment in my ‘Problem of God’ class wherein I had a chance meeting with an incarcerated individual who was Zooming into my class from the D.C. Jail, and it’s quite rare for a college student who occupies incredibly privileged spaces to interact with any incarcerated or system-impacted person,” Oﬀman said. “After that one class, I changed my major from global health to justice and peace studies, and I’ve never looked back.”

After meeting Long, Oﬀman completed the ﬁnal project for her “Media and Social Justice” class on juveniles sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“Being able to report on and amplify the stories that so often go untold, what a unique and special opportunity,” Oﬀman said.

Oﬀman said Georgetown and the PJI have played a unique role in forming her academic and career interests.

“To be a part of an educational institution in which formerly incarcerated people are teaching hundreds of Georgetown students is remarkable; it’s what I look forward to most,” Oﬀman said.

At Oxford, Oﬀman plans to pursue a master’s degree in criminology and sociolegal studies.

University Provost Robert M. Groves said he commended Oﬀman’s achievements and service in winning the scholarship.

“We are so proud of Noa Oﬀman’s accomplishments, both academically and in service to others,” Groves wrote in a Nov. 17 press release. “Noa has been an instrumental leader on and oﬀ campus, one who demonstrates

Ann Oldenburg (GRD ’20), lecturer and assistant director of the journalism program, taught Oﬀman in her “Media and Social Justice” class in Fall 2022.

Oldenburg said Offman’s character and capacity for empathy were evident in her enduring commitment to criminal justice reform.

“I remember that Noa was committed to this topic in my course as a matter of social justice, but it wasn’t until later — when she was applying for the Rhodes Scholarship — that I came to realize that she is deeply committed,” Oldenburg wrote to The Hoya. “When I asked her about her work with incarcerated individuals, she said it has created in her ‘a purpose I’ve never known,’ but the work has been a ‘radical test of empathy and understanding.’”

Oﬀman said her experience working with and learning from formerly incarcerated people has made her uniquely positioned to advocate for changes to the U.S. prison system, which experts often consider inhumane.

“Knowing the stories and the injustices and blatant brutality that are rampant within our prison system is rare,” Oﬀman said.

“Being privy to that kind of information and getting to talk to the people that experience it directly imparts upon you a responsibility to do something about it.”

Beyond the classroom, Offman has also been involved in decarceration efforts with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and wrongful conviction case prepara-

tion with a local law ﬁrm. Erika Cohen Derr, associate vice president for student affairs, said Oﬀman’s input was integral to developing Restorative Georgetown, a university task force the university created to advance restorative justice and community healing.

“Noa’s active participation and creative ideas in germinating restorative response options led her to be selected as the inaugural restorative justice student coordinator in the Office of Student Conduct,” Cohen Derr wrote in the press release. “She helped grow the Restorative Georgetown collective from a small group of mostly administrators to more than 50 people — students, faculty and staff — through proactive outreach and collaborative invitations.” Lauren Tuckley (GRD ’11), the director of the Center for Research and Fellowships who advised Offman throughout the application process, said she is impressed by Offman’s sense of optimism as an advocate for criminal justice reform.

“I am most struck by her optimism — prison reform might be one of the most challenging ﬁelds to work in but she brings an unrelenting sense of hope in what might be considered a hopeless ﬁeld,” Tuckley wrote to The Hoya. “She’s driven by a desire to make the world a more just, equitable place.” Offman said she attributes her success to caring about what she does.

“You can be successful on caring alone — that’s what happened for me,” Oﬀman said. “Every single day I get to work on something that I care deeply about alongside exceptional people society often overlooks, and as a 21-year-old, that is truly special.”

NORA TOSCANO/THE HOYA

Students and community members read out names in a vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance, held in Red Square Nov. 20 and hosted by GU Pride.

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), will step down as president of Georgetown University effective immediately, citing his June 5 stroke and need to focus on recovery.

GU Community Holds Prayer for Red Square Oak Tree Before Its Removal

Kate Hwang Student Life Desk Editor

Georgetown University Campus Ministry gathered students for a prayer Nov. 18 to mourn the removal of the willow oak tree in the center of Red Square.

The Red Square willow oak tree will be removed during Thanksgiving break from Nov. 29 to Nov. 30, following an oﬀicial tree risk assessment report, conducted by an arborist, that identiﬁed significant decay in the tree.

The Oﬀice of Planning & Facilities Management said in a campus-wide email sent Nov. 12 that Red Square’s southern half will be blocked oﬀ during the tree removal. The area will remain fenced until the replacement tree, currently located by Healy Hall, is transplanted over winter break in December. Wood from the willow oak will be salvaged for future use, such as for furniture and carvings.

Fr. Greg Schenden, S.J., the director of Campus Ministry who led the prayer, said it is diﬀicult to see the departure of a tree that has forged countless connections with members of the community, also recognizing notes people left on the tree.

“We must bid farewell to this giant willow oak tree here in Red Square, but we also take this as a moment of opportunity — to see the notes already gathered here — to recall the countless fond memories that have been forged under this tree

over many, many years,” Schenden said in his prayer.

Tyler Feichthaler (SFS ’28), an attendee at the prayer, said that since arriving at Georgetown, the willow oak has been a central gathering point for the community.

“I’ve only been in Georgetown for a couple months but pretty much every day, I walk through Red Square and I see the tree and all the people gathered around it,” Feichthaler told The Hoya. “It’s such a nice thing to have because it’s a place anyone can just go to hang out or promote their message and to see it gone is going to be sad.”

Schenden said gathering to pray before the tree’s removal was important to help the community process the change.

“It was good that we came together because it would have been a terrible shame if we just came back after Thanksgiving and without any kind of news or announcement, the tree was gone — because it was such a ﬁxture of our campus,” Schenden told The Hoya Arborists tested the tree’s condition using resistance drilling, a drilling technique that measures a tree’s density, and found that the structural integrity of the roots as well as its trunk posed risks to individuals standing near the tree and to nearby buildings.

Carla Tiberi, a landscape architect at Georgetown, said the tree’s decaying conditions currently pose risks during winter time.

“More likely than not, limbs could fall with the weight of

snow or ice and a heavy wind in the winter,” Tiberi told The Hoya “These limbs are rather large. You wouldn’t want that to fall down on anybody or anything.”

Additionally, Tiberi said that as ongoing utility work on Healy Lawn requires the removal of a beech tree, Facilities has decided to relocate it to Red Square during winter break.

“There’s a beech tree on the east side of Healy Hall that was planted about nine years ago by our facilities crew. We picked out the tree and so that has some sort of connection and signiﬁcance to us, and that’s in great condition,” Tiberi said.

Schenden said care for the tree connects to Georgetown’s Jesuit values since Pope Francis, the ﬁrst Jesuit pope, sought care for the common home.

“He wrote an encyclical on care for our common home on the environment, which shows the importance that we place on not just the natural world, but our place in the natural world — not above and beyond but alongside the rest of the natural world,” Schenden said.

Schenden said this moment provided a crucial opportunity for the Georgetown community to reﬂect on the tree’s lasting impact.

“It’s important for us to come together in a space, which is a sacred space for so many members of our community over so many years, to be able to come together again in a spirit of gratitude for creation,” Schenden said.

Call Your Mother Wins Legal Battle

Kate Hwang

The Washington, D.C. Board of Zoning and Adjustment (BZA) voted 4-1 to approve an exception and area variance Nov. 13 to enable Call Your Mother (CYM) to keep its Georgetown neighborhood location open. The D.C. bagel chain won a contentious five-year legal struggle to operate its business in Georgetown, which arose due to the deli’s location not being zoned as commercial property and, more recently, for causing disruption to the residential community. The vote comes after two months of deliberation in September and October. BZA’s November decision mandates that CYM conduct weekly pest control, ensure daily trash removal and provide signs encouraging customers to dine elsewhere. Andrew Dana, the co-owner of CYM, said it was a relief to see BZA ultimately vote in favor of keeping CYM open.

“We were relieved. We think it was obviously the right decision,” Dana told The Hoya. “We were disappointed that the Board of Appeal turned us over, so we had

to go through this again.”

Melinda Roth, a resident of the Georgetown neighborhood and visiting associate professor of law at George Washington University, led the lawsuit against CYM in Roth v. Dist. of Columbia Zoning Adjustment. Roth complained that the bagel shop worsened littering problems, caused crowding due to a lack of seating options and attracted rats. Roth was among 16 Georgetown residents to dispute CYM’s continued operation, bringing the CYM court case to the D.C. Court of Appeals in August 2022. Dana said he has oﬀered concerned residents the opportunity to discuss any issues directly with him.

“I have oﬀered to sit down and chat with them and talk through any issues they may have and nobody has been willing to sit down and join me at the table,” Dana said.

“And so I would say give us a shot and if there’s anything they want to chat about, we’re here to do that.”

CYM customers have also been frequently spotted eating their bagels at the outdoor seating for Coffee Republic, a coﬀee shop located 80 feet from CYM. Sean Flynn, the

co-owner of Coﬀee Republic, said this has reduced the cafe’s revenue as CYM customers use their dining tables without purchasing Coﬀee Republic products.

“We just want to continually be able to impact the community in a positive way and serve the community,” Flynn said at a BZA meeting. “But in order to do that, I think we have to have a fair shot at survival.”

Joe Massaua (SFS ’25), a Georgetown University student and the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) district 2E04 commissioner, said he thinks CYM faces challenges with outdoor seating.

“If Call Your Mother does decide to go through with outdoor seating, I think that they’ll ﬁnd a big ﬁght because neighbors aren’t really willing to give them any more of an inch,” Massaua told The Hoya Dana said that CYM has continued to address complaints from the community, such as thorough trash pickup and crowd control.

“We’ve gone above and beyond and have done more with the trash and the crowds and the noise,” Dana said. “We’ll just continue to do what we’ve been doing and con-

tinue to be great operators.”

Massaua said he has noticed how CYM has taken steps to address neighborhood complaints.

“I appreciate the way Call Your Mother has been a good neighbor and has taken steps to address neighbor concerns about trash and overcrowding in terms of long lines,” Massaua said. “There’s only really room to grow.”

Dana said the recent decision by the BZA has helped protect the job

security of CYM employees.

“I’m just happy that our staff gets to have more security and they don’t have to worry about, ‘Is the shop going to shut down?’ And a lot of our staff have been with us since day one and they’re great,” Dana said. “They deserve to have that security and not be threatened by a few neighbors, most of which don’t even live there.”

Massaua said it is critical that CYM prioritize the concerns of neighbors and students in the future.

“Now that it’s over, at least for 10 years, I’d like Call Your Mother to continue to take seriously neighbor and student comments because for the business to be a good community member, it has to listen to its customers and those that live around it,” Massaua said.

“I think it’s more just realizing that we all live in the community together, and students are part of that community,” Massaua added.

GU Students Win Campus ANC Seats

Pritika Patel Special to The Hoya

Two Georgetown University sophomores were elected to Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E), a local government entity that represents the Georgetown, Burleith and Hillandale neighborhoods, Nov. 5 and will assume office Jan. 2.

Peter Sloniewsky (CAS ’27) and Knox Graham (SFS ’27) will replace Joe Massaua (SFS ’25) and John DiPierri (SFS ’25) this January as ANC representatives. The ANC system, created by the D.C. Home Rule Act in 1973, divides Washington, D.C., into 345 districts, each represented by a single commissioner and allows residents to have direct input on local government decisions and community issues.

Full disclosure: Peter Sloniewsky currently serves as Senior Opinion Editor at The Hoya.

ANC2E08, Sloniewsky’s new position, encompasses New South, Village A and Southwest Quadrangle. ANC2E04, Graham’s new position, represents all other residential halls on campus, including Wolfington, the Jesuit’s residence, Townhouses and Arrupe. Graham, who will be replacing DiPierri, said local governments play an important role in people’s lives that is often overlooked.

“I have very quickly learned that local government is a much larger and more complex institution than most people give it credit for,” Graham told The Hoya. “Every day, dozens of staﬀers downtown are executing on the legislation passed by the City Council and the ANCs, working closely with the Department of

Transportation, communicating with local business leaders and advancing the priorities of the mayor.”

Sloniewsky, who will take over the district 2E04 seat currently held by Massaua, said he ran for the ANC because he viewed it as a unique way to advocate for fellow students and gain practical experience in local politics.

“I thought it was a positive opportunity to work on the behalf of other students and honestly to learn about local government, which is to get some hands-on experience that I might not otherwise get at this point in my life,” Sloniewsky told The Hoya Graham said he plans to address the student housing crisis during his tenure, hoping to collaborate with the local residential community to ﬁnd solutions.

“My number one concern is student housing, so that is what I am going to get a grasp of and then communicate what the needs of the student body here is,” Graham said. “Student housing is an issue that is intimately tied into the surrounding area, as so many students have housing off campus.”

Sloniewsky said he hopes to continue working on Massaua’s advocacy to preserve the Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle, an abandoned historic steel bridge that once used to carry a streetcar line. While its infrastructure has suffered damage from years of neglect, supporters argue that it provides a critical walking and bicycling connection on the west side of Georgetown.

“My predecessor, Joe Massaua, spent a lot of time working on the ‘Save the Trestle’ initiative,” Sloniewsky said.

“I know as part of my orientation he’s promised me that we’re going to go out

to the trestle and so I’m definitely considering continuing that.” Massaua said the trestle has the potential to become a bike and pedestrian path.

“One of the things that I’ve worked really closely on is saving the Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle which is right out in the woods behind the bus circle,” Massaua told The Hoya. “I think it would be incredible to have a bike-pedestrian connection and it’s saving a historic structure from the 1890s.” DiPierri, the current ANC 2E08 commissioner, said his role in the ANC includes monthly meetings and frequent communication to address constituent issues.

“I also am in constant dialogue with my constituents, which include students, staff, and private residents on issues of concern,” DiPierri wrote to TheHoya Kishan Putta, commissioner for the ANC2E01 district representing Burleith, said neighborhood commissioners must consider both their local residents and the broader D.C. community.

“While we are neighborhood commissioners, we do think about the city as a whole and all the residents citywide,” Putta told The Hoya. “And so we have to balance both.” Massaua said his time as a commissioner gave him insights into public service, especially when interacting with older residents of the Georgetown neighborhood.

“It’s a great learning opportunity,” Massaua said. “I know that I learn from them and they learn from us and in terms of being a young person involved in public service, we need more young voices and also specifically here for Georgetown.”

KATE HWANG/THE HOYA

Georgetown University Campus Ministry gathered with students Nov. 18 to mourn the loss of the willow oak tree in Red Square, which will be removed over Thanksgiving break Nov. 29-30.

MEGHAN HALL/THE HOYA

Call Your Mother won a five-year legal battle to keep its Georgetown neighborhood location open.

GUSA Senate Picks Committee Leadership, Creates Accessibility, Inclusion Position

Ruth Abramovitz GUSA Desk Editor

The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate elected senators to four committee positions during its Nov. 17 meeting.

The senate filled the vice chair positions for different committees, electing Senator Sienna Lipton (CAS ’27) as Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC) vice chair, Senator Han Li (CAS ’27) as Finance and Appropriations (FinApp) Committee vice chair and Senator Nico Santiago (CAS ’27) as Ethics and Oversight (E&O) Committee vice chair. Senator Keatyn Wede (CAS ’27) was elected as vice chair of resources, accessibility and inclusion (RAI), a new nonvoting position within the E&O committee responsible for providing anti-discrimination resources, liaising with the Title IX office and similar offices on campus and mediating between senators.

Lipton, the newly elected PAC vice chair, said her policy agenda includes reviewing the design of buildings in new construction projects.

“I’m in a class on relationship violence and sexual assault, and it has a book on sexual geographies, which is ways you can build buildings to make them less susceptible to sexual assault,” Lipton said at the meeting. “Seeing as we’re building a lot of new buildings, I would be very interested in passing that legislation.”

Li, the new FinApp vice chair, said he wants to cut funding for organizations, including the Georgetown Program Board (GPB), a student organization which provides recreation activities for all students, that

reallocate their funds to other groups, while increasing funding for the Student Activities Commission (SAC).

“We made quite a few cuts last time around, including cuts twice to GPB and to the GU Lecture Fund,” Li said. “I think this time around, we need to continue looking at whether or not those groups have been serving as banks to other groups, and if that’s the case, continue taking money away.”

For the 2024-25 academic year, GUSA reduced funding for the Media Board — the student advisory board that allocates funding to student media groups, including The Hoya and The Georgetown Voice — by 6.76%.

Li said that he did not yet have an opinion on whether GUSA should maintain the current appropriations level for the Media Board.

“I don’t want to go into this process thinking definitively I’m going to make a decision, or we’re going to make a decision to cut or not cut,” Li said at the meeting.

“We did start making progress with this budget cut last semester. I want to see how they respond to that and whether that’s been well received,” Li said.

At its Nov. 3 meeting, the senate rejected a bill that would have barred students with conduct violations from running for GUSA and would have explored applying this prerequisite to other interested clubs.

Santiago, who was elected after the bill was considered, said he supports the proposal because it will improve GUSA’s reputation among the student body.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that public approval for GUSA hasn’t always been the greatest,” Santiago

said at the meeting. “I think that upholding bylaws to hold senators accountable and make sure there isn’t any kind of outside negative interests aﬀecting the senators that we have in GUSA could aﬀect our perceived ability.”

Wede said she is looking forward to shaping the new position of RAI chair and making GUSA more inclusive.

“To me, this role isn’t so much protecting the constitution as it is protecting the people in this room and making sure that you guys feel like GUSA is a place where you are heard, you are seen and you feel important and empowered,” Wede said at the meeting.

The senate unanimously appointed one student, Yeabsara Fitsum (CAS ’26) to the GUSA constitutional council, the body which rules on cases of GUSA constitutional violations.

The senate also elected 11 students as liaisons for the FinApp committee, including George LeMieux (CAS ’25), Chijioke Achebe (SFS ’25), John DiPierri (SFS ’25), Ahmad Abuirshid (CAS ’26), Tina Solki (MSB, SFS ’26), Amelia Snyder (SOH ’28), Paul Nassar (SFS ’28), Tyler Chase (SFS ’28), Zadie Weaver (CAS ’28), Nikki Jiang (SOH ’28), Olivia Mason (CAS ’26) and Saahil Rao (SFS ’27). The FinApp liaisons sit on the committee, and each liaison is responsible for oversight of a particular area of campus life that receives appropriations.

The senate adjourned its meeting without considering the four pieces of legislation on its agenda, including legislation to restructure the GUSA executive and adjust committee positions.

Sewage Floods First-Year Dormitory Harbin Hall Floor With Sewage for Third Time

Ajani Stella Staff Writer

An overflowing toilet flooded first-year dormitory Harbin Hall’s third floor with sewage Nov. 11, filling rooms and destroying residents’ belongings for the third time in seven weeks.

The 18 residents of a boys’ cluster, who were previously affected by similar flooding Sept. 30 and Oct. 27, saw the bathroom overflow around 6 p.m. and reported the leak to The Office of Planning & Facilities Management. Though Facilities Management arrived by 8 p.m., sewage destroyed the same belongings that residents replaced just weeks earlier.

The flood leaked through to the floors below, including the Harbin Key Room on the first floor, according to images and videos obtained by TheHoya

In an email sent to all Harbin residents, Donna Poillucci, assistant vice president of Facilities and Residential Services, and Jay Gruber, associate vice president of public safety, said objects improperly ﬂushed down the toilets had caused all three ﬂoods and that Georgetown University’s administration was investigating possible violations of the Student Code of Conduct.

“Our investigation of the pipes has determined that there were inappropriate objects ﬂushed down the toilet that created a blockage, including an aluminum can,” Poillucci and Gruber said in the email.

“This is being investigated as vandalism and destruction of property.”

Cluster resident Charlie Schneider (MSB ’28) said he and others used paper towels to block sewage from spreading into their rooms

while waiting for Facilities staﬀ.

We started building paper towel walls around the doors of everybody’s rooms,” Schneider told The Hoya. “I thought we did a decent job — it wasn’t getting into anybody’s rooms at the time.”

Schneider added that a university official sent his resident assistant (RA) a picture of a valve in the toilet that would shut off the water flow, so Schneider waded into the flooded bathroom to find the valve.

“I had some rubber gloves from a Halloween costume, so naturally I had to go in and turn the valve off,” Schneider said. “I’m stepping through the toilet water in the bathroom, and there’s literal pieces of shit floating around the floor. I go to look for the valve they told me to turn, and it’s just not there. The toilet looks nothing like the picture that they’ve sent us.”

The university provided an option for half of the residents to stay in the Georgetown Inn on Wisconsin Avenue for the night, but it did not provide any details until 11:27 p.m, according to an email sent to the residents by the Office of Residential Living.

Schneider said the university initially told residents the rooms would be cleaned that night, but a third-party cleaning company contracted by the university did not arrive until between 10:30 and 11 p.m., forcing residents to stay in the common room until they received the late-night email offering the hotel option.

“We didn’t know what to do — our rooms had been ﬂooded,” Schneider said. “The sanitation teams weren’t even there yet, and they were telling us our rooms were going to be clear to sleep in — that’s strange.”

Luca Nascone (MSB ’28), who lives in the cluster, said he was

skeptical about the cause of the ﬂood being inappropriate objects.

“I don’t know who would do that, and it’s the third time it’s happened,” Nascone said. “If it had happened once, maybe that makes sense and then you prevent it. You wouldn’t do something like that again, but it’s been happening. I’m getting a little concerned.” Sam McVey (MSB ’28), another resident of the cluster, said he was uneasy about the university’s statement that the floods were caused by an individual flushing aluminum cans.

“They keep referencing some anonymous individual who’s ﬂushing things down the toilet but we haven’t seen anything empirical to make us believe that,” McVey told The Hoya. “It’s happening at very random times of day, so there’s not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it.” Schneider said he expected the university to have a better response plan, especially after the two previous floods.

“This had already happened twice, and you think that the third time around, they’d be better,” Schneider said. “I understand the first time it happened, everyone was like, ‘Holy crap, what do we do?’ The second time, it was the same deal. By the third time, you’d think they’d have some sort of procedure in place, but instead they’re texting us pictures of valves that don’t exist.”

Nascone said he was not conﬁdent the university would be able to prevent another ﬂood.

“I don’t even want to put anything on my ﬂoor anymore because I’m worried it’s going to get ruined,” Nascone said. “It was really poorly handled from Georgetown.”

“It seemed like they didn’t really care about us,” Nascone added.

FOOTBALL

Commanders Lose Control of NFC East in Loss to Philadelphia Eagles Hoyas Regress, Lose in Rout Against Patriot League Foes Fordham Rams

In a heavily anticipated NFC East matchup, the Washington Commanders failed to find any spark to start their usual fire in a 26-18 loss Nov. 14 to the Philadelphia Eagles. With a win, the Commanders would have been sitting atop the division, but their disappointing showing now makes their playoff hopes significantly more difficult to realize.

The Commanders (7-4) entered the game looking to recover from a down week against the Pittsburgh Steelers (8-2), a game in which quarterback Jayden Daniels did not successfully convert any passing touchdowns. Before then, however, the team had pole vaulted themselves into playoff contention by racking up a surprising 7-2 record under the rookie quarterback’s leadership. Fans hoped Daniels could return back to his earlier season form, but, once again, he could not muster enough offensive firepower to put the Commanders over the top. The team’s inconsistent defense also had no answers for Eagles (8-2) running back Saquon Barkley, who tallied 146 rushing yards, 52 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.

The first half of the game saw the two teams go back and forth, each unable to meaningfully pull away from the other. After the initial kickoff, the Eagles drove down the field all the way to Washington’s 26-yard line to set up kicker Jake Elliott for a 44-yard field goal, which Elliott missed left of center. The Commanders’ drive on the other side of the field also stalled, causing the team to give up the ball back to the Eagles. After 7 plays and a paltry 11 yards, the Eagles surrendered the ball again, continuing the unexciting streak of 0-0 on the scoreboard.

On the subsequent drive, however, a couple of Commanders players looked reenergized. Right away, Daniels threw a short pass to running back Austin Ekeler, who took the ball with him and pounded down the field for a 34-yard gain. Two plays later, running back Brian Robinson Jr. navigated straight through the middle of the Eagles’ defensive line — aided by excellent blocking from his own offensive line — for 18 additional yards to put the Commanders at the Philadelphia 1-yard line. He then took it upon himself on the ensuing first-and-goal to score a touchdown. After kicker Zane Gonzalez made the extra point, the Commanders took a 7-0 lead. The Eagles responded by

@COMMANDERS/INSTAGRAM

The Washington Commanders searched for answers, but failed to find enough of them on Thursday Night Football.

conjuring another long drive — this one 77 yards — only to fall short again when Elliott missed his second field goal of the night, a 51-yarder. Despite the Eagles’ kicking mishaps, the Commanders failed to put additional points on the scoreboard. This gave the Eagles one more chance for a field goal before the half expired, a 21-yarder that Elliott was able to convert. Heading into the half, the Commanders led by a small 7-3 margin, giving either team more than enough room to take the game into their own hands. Both teams drilled field goals on their respective first plays of the second half, but it was the Eagles who would go on to control the game from there. In a 2nd-and-7 at the Philadelphia 29-yard line, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a 34-yard dart to tight end Dallas Goedert. Though Goedert initially caught the ball, he ended up fumbling it due to pressure from Commanders safety Quan Martin. Fortunately for the Eagles, fellow tight end Grant Calcaterra recovered the fumble for an additional 2-yard gain instead of an outright turnover. Barkley then took advantage of the shift in momentum to score a 23yard rushing touchdown. By this point, it was clear that the Commanders had lost their mojo. Daniels haplessly turned over the ball to the Eagles as a result of Eagles safety Reed Blankenship’s

interception. After this incident, Barkley took the ball to the end zone again on just 2 plays: a 7-yard rush followed by a 39-yard touchdown. The Commanders did rally with another touchdown of their own to make the score 18-26, but their effort was too little, too late. They attempted an onside kick with 31 seconds left in the game that was quickly recovered by Goedert to end the game for good. As has been evident throughout the season, the Commanders are a vastly improved team from their previous version. Their young franchise quarterback serves as a promising touchstone for the coaching staff to build around in the future, and the team also looks more than capable of contending for a playoff spot at present. Though Philadelphia dealt the team a huge blow, it is one that they will almost certainly recover from. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has several subpar teams to scheme against in the weeks ahead, including the Dallas Cowboys (3-7) and the Tennessee Titans (2-8), which should allow the Commanders to expand their win column.

Washington will look to avenge this loss in their Sunday, Dec. 22 rematch against Philadelphia, but before then, the team will look to regain their momentum when facing Dallas on Sunday, Nov. 24, 1 p.m. at home.

On Nov. 16, the Georgetown University football team faced a ﬁerce Fordham University team, falling 31-3 in the Bronx on the 69th anniversary of the two teams’ ﬁrst matchup.

Georgetown (5-5, 2-3 Patriot League) came out hungry for a big win against Fordham (2-9, 2-4 Patriot League), after losing 43-6 to Lehigh (7-3, 4-1 Patriot League) at home in their last game, two weeks ago. The Hoyas hoped to gain momentum oﬀ their defense, which currently leads the Patriot League in sacks this season. The Rams, however, came out of the gate aggressive, hoping to capitalize on long pass completions.

Junior quarterback Danny Lauter threw several great balls in the first quarter, one of which landed in junior wide receiver Jimmy Kibble’s hands and left the Rams’ corner coverage with no response for a 22-yard gain. The Hoyas fed off this offensive momentum for the better part of two minutes before they picked up a false start penalty, which drove them backward on a third down and resulted in a turnover on downs to Fordham.

Once given this opportunity, Fordham’s oﬀense capitalized on it by using their potent combination of oﬀensive speed and strength.

Quarterback Jack Capaldi led the charge down the ﬁeld, throwing a beautiful 41-yard pass to wide receiver Cole Thornton to set up running back Julius Loughridge — who now has back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons — for a 2-yard rushing touchdown.

Kicker Bennett Henderson then

successfully converted the extra point to put the Rams up 7-0. When the Hoyas got the ball back on the Georgetown 12-yard line, they initially seemed well-poised to respond to the Rams. Sophomore running back Bryce Cox rushed for a 33-yard gain to give the Hoyas a much improved field position at the Georgetown 45-yard line. However, the Hoyas suffered a three-and-out on the next set of downs, surrendering the ball back to the Rams. This time around, Capaldi once again threw a touchdown pass, this time to tight end Jeff Ciccio, to put Fordham up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Hoyas entered the second quarter with a 14-point deficit, showing how records can be misleading in conference play for a team like Fordham. Capaldi struck again early in the second, setting the Rams up for a first-and-goal with another explosive opportunity. A running into the kicker and offsides penalty for Georgetown helped Fordham secure a field goal, putting them up 17-0 against the Hoyas.

Although Georgetown did eventually convert a field goal with a little over five minutes before halftime, the team had trouble setting up any kind of offense in the first half of this game, while Fordham’s offense continued to penetrate and put the Hoyas in bad positions. Lauter was impatient in letting plays develop, deciding to tuck it in and run the ball himself rather than wait for his receivers to get open.

The third quarter continued to be a field possession game for Georgetown, as they needed to pick up yardage and truck ahead without giving Fordham more offensive chances.

Sophomore backup quarterback Jacob Holtschlag had subbed in late

for Lauter in the second quarter and then started the third — a move coaches hoped would help revive the Georgetown offense. Senior wide receiver Cam Pygatt did provide several sparks by taking advantage of Fordham’s zone coverage, but even his veteran leadership could not help the Hoyas get more points on the board. Small mistakes by Georgetown, including an unnecessary roughness foul, gave the Rams the upper hand in yardage and a second touchdown in the last two seconds of the third quarter, which put them up 24-3 over the Hoyas. In the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, Fordham dealt yet another blow to Georgetown: Defensive back Boogie Owens intercepted Georgetown’s offense. The Rams did not score on the other side of the field, which allowed the Hoyas to regain possession and try to restart their offense.

However, just after junior wide receiver Keynan Richardson-Cook made a spectacular 36-yard grab to get the Hoyas down the field, Fordham responded with an outstanding picksix late in the game. Defensive back Trey Bradford intercepted Holtschlag, then lateralled the ball to defensive back Alex Kemper for a Fordham touchdown, leaving the Rams at a commanding 31-3. In the end, Fordham’s strategic defense coupled with their aggressive oﬀense left Georgetown with few opportunities to gain momentum. This Saturday, Nov. 23 at 12:30 p.m., Georgetown will face Holy Cross at home on Cooper Field for their last Patriot League game of the season. The Hoyas hope to clinch one last game in honor of their seniors and bring home their ﬁrst winning season since 2011.

Madeline Wang Sports Staff Writer

In an exhilarating National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) semifinals matchup, the Washington Spirit beat NJ/NY Gotham FC on penalty kicks 3-0 after an impressive equalizer from the Spirit’s Hal Hershfelt, making the score 1-1 in the 93rd minute of the game. The Spirit dominated match statistics with 27 shots and 10 on target versus Gotham’s 14 shots and 5 on target, though impressive defense and goaltending from both sides kept the game close throughout.

The No. 2 seed Spirit (18-2-6) took on the No. 3 seed Gotham FC (17-5-4) at a sold-out Audi Field in Washington, D.C., this past Saturday, Nov. 16 for the NWSL semifinals, after having beaten Bay FC in the quarterfinals.

The match got off to a rapid start, with Gotham FC striker Esther González sending a shot right to the crossbar for the defending NWSL champions in the opening minute of the match. The pace did not slow as quick turnover over quick turnover saw both teams running up and down the pitch, attempting to score the first point of the match. Gotham put up two more shots in the 7th and 8th minutes before the Spirit managed to put up their first and second attempts in quick succession in the 9th minute from midfielder Leicy Santos and forward Rosemonde Kouassi, which both ended in saves from Gotham goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger. Kouassi took another shot shortly after in the 11th minute, which was again saved by Berger but also resulted in a corner kick for the Spirit. In a missed opportunity for the Spirit, Kouassi took the corner and kicked it out on top of the goal. In what became a rather physical

match with six yellow cards and one red card across the board, Gotham defender Jess Carter drew the first yellow card of the match in the 17th minute. Washington capitalized on this by taking the early lead in shots on target, firing off 4 in the first 18 minutes of the match to Gotham’s 1. In the 32nd minute of the match, it looked like Gotham had a real shot at a goal as their forwards charged through the defensive line, but twotime NWSL goalkeeper of the year Aubrey Kingsbury came off her line to swipe the ball out from under González. Both teams saw valiant attempts throughout the rest of the first half, though each fell short of putting a point on the board. Heading into the second half, Kouassi put up a quick shot for the Spirit, which unfortunately did not meet its mark. In the 55th minute, the Spirit appeared to have another chance for a goal but ultimately came up short again, resulting in a Gotham free kick. The free kick made its way all up the pitch, and skillful passes from midfielder Yazmeen Ryan to Lavelle back to Ryan and into González landed the ball in the net after a nifty header to the far post, putting Gotham FC up 1-0. Prior to this semifinal matchup, Gotham FC had not lost a game this season when they were the first to score — then again, they also had not won any of the five games they played at Audi Field. In the 61st minute, Washington looked like they had another chance after midfielder Paige Metayer broke free, but a heavy first touch landed in Berger’s dive. For the next 30 minutes, neither team came close to scoring.

But three minutes into stoppage time, center back Tara McKeown won a free kick for the Spirit, and recently subbed in forward Makenna Morris

took it, sending it straight into the 18yard box where Hal Hershfelt headed it in for the equalizer as the crowd erupted in cheers.

Regulation ended in a 1-1 draw, sending the match into 30 minutes of extra time. Gotham right back Bruninha received her second yellow card of the match in the 11th minute of stoppage time, putting Gotham in the unenviable position of being down one player. Both teams took several shots at each other’s goals in overtime, but sound defense and solid saves kept the match at a draw, forcing the game to advance to penalties.

Ashley Hatch stepped up first for the Spirit, having previously made 3 out of 3 penalties this season. She upped her count to 4 for 4 after putting in the first penalty kick for the Spirit. González stepped up first for Gotham and a diving save from Kingsbury allowed the Spirit to stay ahead. Forward Lena Silano took the Spirit’s second penalty shot and hammered another one in to put the Spirit up 2-0. For Gotham’s second try, midfielder McCall Zerboni made a valiant attempt, but it was once again saved by Kingsbury. McKeown stepped up third for the Spirit and snuck it into the bottom corner to make it 3-0 for the Spirit. Gotham left back Jenna Nighswonger made her way up third with the weight of the match hanging on her shoulders, and once again, Kingsbury made a terriﬁc save, sealing the deal for the Spirit and sending them into this upcoming Saturday’s NWSL ﬁnal.

The Spirit will take on the No. 1 seed Orlando Pride this Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. EST at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. In their third ever NWSL Championship match, the Spirit hope to cap off their season’s success with their second-ever league title.

Hoyas Cruise Past Fairfield,

Gear Up for NCAA Tournament Run

The Georgetown University women’s soccer team kick-started their NCAA tournament with a 3-0 win against the Fairﬁeld University Stags on Shaw Field this past Saturday, Nov. 16.

The Georgetown offense (133-4, 8-1-1 Big East) dominated throughout the game, putting up a total of 22 shots (9 on goal) to Fairfield’s 3 shots (2 on goal). Not only did the Hoyas keep possession for the majority of the game, their close to perfect execution also upset the Stags to the point where Fairfield (18-3-1, 10-1-1 MAAC) committed a total of 12 fouls to Georgetown’s 4.

Just five minutes in, the Hoyas had already started to put on the pressure with smooth passes, good runs and repeated physicality off the ball. Their efforts nearly paid off when the ball slipped through the Stags’ defensive line, but Fairfield quickly recovered to clear it away and deny the Hoyas a goal.

The near miss did not discourage the Hoyas, however, as they continued their

momentum and created even more chances to score.

Fairﬁeld appeared intimidated in the ﬁrst half, struggling to keep the Hoya attack contained.

Senior midﬁelder Eliza Turner

fired a strong shot from outside the box, which was barely deflected by Fairfield goalkeeper Katie Wright and then scrambled away by a shaky Fairfield defense. Shortly afterward, Fairfield had to block another shot off the line.

The Hoyas kept up the relentless pressure to keep the Stags continuously on their toes. In the 27th minute, the Hoyas found the Fairfield box once again and this time, they converted. Junior forward Natalie Means quickly sprinted down the right flank and whipped a ball to junior midfielder Shay Montgomery, who then found senior forward Maja Lardner for a bottom corner goal to put the Hoyas up 1-0. Even after this conversion, the Hoyas refused to relent and continued applying pressure on a discombobulated Fairfield.

Turner took another shot on goal, which bounced oﬀ the top of the woodwork, in the 32nd minute,

and ﬁrst-year forward Jocelyn Lohmeyer also tried for one in the 36th minute.

Though she did not score on her ﬁrst shot, Lohmeyer’s second shot found its mark. In the 44th minute, she cut in towards goal and placed a beautiful shot into the bottom right corner to give the Hoyas a comfortable 2-0 lead right before halftime.

The second half started the same way the ﬁrst ended: The Hoyas once again took shot after shot on the Stags’ goalkeeper. In the 73rd minute, Means dashed past the Fairﬁeld defensive line and then smashed the ball into the goal to give Georgetown a statement 3-0 lead.

“I thought our ﬁrst half was excellent, we did everything we wanted to do,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “The most important thing on a day like this is you need the result.” The Hoyas’ ﬁrst round victory sends the team to the second round in Los Angeles, this Friday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. Eastern, when the Hoyas will face the No. 3 seed University of Iowa Hawkeyes at the Wallis Annenberg Stadium.

TWITTER/@HOYASWSOC

The Hoyas beat the Fairfield University Stags 3-0 at Shaw Field to start their NCAA tournament play. The team now travels to Los Angeles, where they will play Iowa next in the second round.

Golnar Jalinous Sports Staff Writer

Ava Hult Special to The Hoya

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Sophia Lu Senior Sports Editor

@YANKEES/INSTAGRAM

The Yankees lost the 2024 World Series, with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the series 4-1, after multiple defensive mishaps.

For Yankees, Time to Reset, Recover From World Series

HERMAN, from A12

The ﬁrst would be a manageable Dodgers’ bullpen game. The second would have ace Gerrit Cole on the mound. After that, if it got to Game 7, anything could happen.

See? Doable. This was my path to hope after Game 3 — my internal justification to not have a miserable week.

But the Yankees didn’t actually cure my sports-induced misery. They just delayed it. And the fact that I had a glimmer of hope meant it was all the more painful when the Yankees’ middling offense and fourth-grader-quality defense extinguished it. Sorry, that was insulting to fourth graders.

Let me tell you what happened in Game 5. Buckle up, it’s not pretty.

The Yankees were winning 5-0 until the 5th inning. Their best pitcher, Gerrit Cole, was on the mound and cruising. I was already mentally preparing for a Game 6. Life was stressful, but life was good.

Then, the 5th inning happened. The first rule of 2024 World Series Game 5’s 5th inning is that you don’t talk about 2024 World Series Game 5’s 5th inning, so keep this between us.

Outfielder Kiké Hernández hit a single — the Dodgers’ first hit of the game. Fine, Cole can pitch around a runner on first. Then, infielder Tommy Edman blooped what looked to be an easy fly out into center field. There’s your first out.

Right?

No, of course not. Why would you assume that Yankees’ best player and two-time Gold Glove Award

ﬁnalist Aaron Judge would catch a routine ﬂy ball in the most important game of his career? Sheesh. You expect too much out of Judge. It’s not

like he’s paid $40 million per year to be good at baseball, or anything.

So Judge dropped the ball, leaving runners on first and second. Two more boneheaded defensive miscues and a couple of legitimate Dodgers’ hits later, the game was tied at five. I’ll spare you the details; we lost.

Maybe we would have won if I hadn’t written such a pessimistic column the other week. Maybe we lost because the Yankees rudely neglected to respond to my request for a press pass to cover the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Maybe it’s actually your fault — did you jinx them somehow?

But we didn’t win, and now I have a sore tailbone from falling out of a chair. Thanks, squad.

Last week, I opened Twitter — sorry, Elon, I refuse to call it X — only to find out that the Yankees won the American League (AL) Offensive Team of the Year Silver Slugger Award. That’s f— . Fantastic. That’s what I mean to say.

It’s fantastic that the Yankees are winning awards for their regular season performance. I am deeply proud that they won the team silver slugger award, that Judge and Juan Soto won individual ailver alugger awards, that Judge and Soto made up two-thirds of the AL most valuable player nominations and that Austin Wells and Luis Gil did the same for AL rookie of the year nominations.

Taken together, all those accolades amount to a World Series trophy.

I lied again, guys.

Nothing will ever take the sting out of losing the 2024 World Series. The only remedy that could come close? A 2025 World Series victory. And on that note, I will see you all in January. Any guesses for my New Year’s wish?

Hoyas Capture Sixth Big East Championship

PROVIDENCE, from A12

Finally, in the waning minutes of the match, the Hoyas broke through to take the lead. Van Horn drove the ball toward the Providence defenders and laid oﬀ a pass at the top of the box to Baker, who then took a few touches to his left, drawing in a few defenders, before playing a wonderfully weighted pass to sophomore midﬁelder Eric Howard. Howard closed it out, taking one touch before drilling a shot into the bottom right corner to make the score 2-1.

With little time left, Providence could not answer Georgetown’s strike. Delighted Hoya fans erupted as time expired to cement the score at 2-1 and secure the Big East championship for Georgetown.

The Hoyas outshot the Friars 11 to 9, and generated 5 corners to their 0, one of which they were able to capitalize on. While the victory is a reflection of an excellent team performance, the performance of some players particularly stood out. Parete and Howard each signed their names on the score sheet, and Zengue and Baker both tallied excellent assists. Along with these excellent offensive performances, the Hoyas’ defense stood particularly strong throughout the entire tournament. In three full matches of play, with one going to overtime, the Hoyas managed to concede only 2 goals. With their conference championship, the Hoyas automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament, and Hoya fans will certainly be watching.

Sloppy Defense Humbles Hoyas in Loss to Notre Dame

NOTRE DAME, from A12

65% from the floor in the first half and eliminated any hope of a Georgetown victory before the second half even began. Adding to the misery, Georgetown’s shooting was appalling. The Hoyas finished the game shooting 31.4% from the floor and a disastrous 8-32 from beyond the arc.

Other than a brief Georgetown run, capped off by back-to-back 3s from Epps that cut the deficit to 50-40 for the Hoyas, the second half was relatively mundane. Though Allocco and Davis cooled off, Notre Dame continued to keep Georgetown out of striking distance for a comeback as preseason All-ACC first team guard, sophomore

Markus Burton (16 points, 5 assists), sliced, diced and tormented a weak Georgetown zone defense. Burton put Georgetown bigs in uncomfortable positions, knocked down devastating mid-ranges and found Irish big men cutting to the basket for powerful slams. To cap off the Irish’s victory, Allocco added a layup to push the Notre Dame lead to 25. When all was said and done, Notre Dame — despite its 2-20 road record over the last two years — had prevailed, sending a powerful statement to their ACC rivals. The Hoyas will lament missing out on a major non-conference opportunity and must regroup for a 5-game homestand against ﬁve mid-ma-

jors before a Dec. 6 clash at West Virginia University. In the postgame press conference, Head Coach Ed Cooley said he was disappointed in his team’s lack of energy and chemistry but did note that one of the team’s early stars — Sorber — had been struggling with a cold.

Cooley delivered a particularly sobering assessment of the Hoyas’ defensive performance.

“Terrible, F-minus, F-minus. Terrible, absolutely horrendous, we didn’t guard a soul,” Cooley said.

During the conference, Epps said he was surprised at the result after a good week of practice and preparation.

“I thought we had a really good

week, prepared for that team. I don’t think we came out, I think they were hungrier than us coming out,” Epps said. “We had a whole week to prepare for them. I personally thought we were more prepared, Coach thought we were more prepared.” Ahead of their next game, Georgetown will need to address their poor shot selection, lack of movement and the puzzling implementation of a 3-2 zone defense that seemed to play right into Notre Dame’s hands. The Hoyas returned to Capital One Arena Wednesday night to take on their second Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent of the year, Mount St. Mary’s University (3-1), winning 79-51.

First-year forward Thomas Sorber blocks a Notre Dame player at the rim in a show of his defensive prowess. Sorber’s skills on both sides of the ball have already won him acclaim, as he recently received Big East freshman of the week honors.

Ransom Dominates as Hoyas Comfortably Beat Temple

TEMPLE, from A12 and drilled both of her shots to give the Hoyas a 25-19 lead. Next, Rivera’s second 3-pointer of the night followed by Jenkins’ two-pointer and block put Georgetown up 30-19, a lead they would carry into the locker room at halftime. As the second half began, Georgetown’s scoring stagnated, with several big defensive plays for the Owls causing turnovers from the Hoyas. Temple guard Tristen Taylor put the Owls on the board ﬁrst to start the second half, and forward Anissa Rivera drew a foul and made both free

throws to bring the score to 30-23. Temple’s defensive lockdown didn’t allow Georgetown to score until about halfway through the third quarter, but Ransom broke the dry spell with two massive consecutive and-1s, putting Georgetown up 36-25. As the third quarter wound down, the tightly contested defensive showdown continued. Rivera and Ransom each scored from the free-throw line, which they followed up with two and five points from the field respectively. Although a foul from Rivera sent Temple to the free-throw line for three attempts with one second left in the third, Georgetown remained comfortably in the lead, up 46-33 to enter the fourth. Jenkins scored the first points of the fourth quarter after an offensive rebound and followed it up with a massive 3-pointer after a defensive lapse from the Owls. McBride and Rivera followed this up with 3-pointers of their own, giving the Hoyas a 57-35 lead. Rivera, Jenkins and Ransom continued to shine on both ends of the court for the remainder of the game, despite a good offensive stretch from Temple that cut Georgetown’s lead to 14 with 2 minutes left. Nonetheless, the Hoyas were able to close the game out with a comfortable 65-51 win.

Ransom ended the game with 28 points and 7 rebounds, while Jenkins had a double-double with her 11 points and 11 rebounds. Rivera starred on defense and tallied 19 points. This matchup also saw three freshmen earn considerable game minutes, with Hession and McBride each on the court for over 30 minutes. The Hoyas will next travel to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, to compete in the Atlantic Slam W tournament, where they will face off against the University of Cincinnati and Florida Gulf Coast University on Friday and Saturday evenings. Georgetown will look to build a winning streak and continue to prepare for the start of conference play.

GUHOYAS

Junior goalkeeper Tenzing Manske saves the ball during Georgetown’s 2-1 victory over the Providence Friars for the 2024 Big East Championship title, the Hoyas’ sixth championship.

GUHOYAS

Sports

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2024

WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Hoyas won their first round matchup against Fairfield to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

See A10

OUT OF LEFT FIELD

Please, Don’t Take Me Out To the Yankees Ballgame

Eilat Herman Hoya Sports

Columnist

I have to confess to you all. I lied to you in my last column, and I deeply apologize for my actions. Let me explain. Last week, I told you I was a pessimistic person, and I knew the New York Yankees would lose the World Series. At the time, the Yankees were down three games to none against the Los Angeles Dodgers, so I’m sure you believed me. After all, that’s not a deﬁcit any team has ever overcome in the World Series.

But the truth is, there was a small part of me that truly thought the Yankees would win. It’s the same part of me that simply could not imagine a world so unfair to me that it included a Yankees World Series loss. It’s the part of me that didn’t think the Yankees would dare collapse in the most embarrassing fashion — so embarrassing, in fact, that I literally fell out of my chair. Yep, you heard me. When I saw the stupid Gamecast notification that read “End 9th, 3 Outs” — because it had not yet updated to “Final” — I legitimately slid right out of my chair and onto the floor. The Yankees’ loss hurt more than falling butt-first onto hardwood did, if you were wondering. Because it wasn’t just that they lost. It was that they lost in the most embarrassingly incompetent manner I’ve ever seen. After dropping the first three games of the series, they won their next one. At that point, winning was doable. They’d have to win one game, then one more and just one more after that.

See HERMAN, A11

TALKING POINTS

It’s just one game. We have a lot to learn. It’s a young team. We’ve just got to get in the film room and get better.”

Graduate guard Micah Peavy

Georgetown vs. Iowa

Friday, 7 p.m.

Los Angeles (neutral)

NUMBERS GAME

The Georgetown men’s soccer team won the sixth Big East Championship in program history last week.

Georgetown men’s soccer secured their sixth Big East Championship in program history Sunday, Nov. 17 after beating the Providence Friars

in a thrilling victory. The team advances to the NCAA tournament next, in which they have earned the No. 4 overall seed.

GU Tops Providence to Win Big East Championship

Michael Santos Sports Staff Writer

The No. 24 Georgetown University men’s soccer team (11-4-5, 5-2-1 Big East) clinched the Big East tournament championship with a thrilling 2-1 victory against Providence College this Sunday, Nov. 17. The win brings the program its sixth Big East championship and sets the Hoyas up for the start of the NCAA tournament Nov. 21.

The No. 25 Providence Friars (12-5-3, 5-1-2 Big East), a familiar opponent, previously matched up with the Hoyas during the regular season. In that game, Georgetown beat Providence 3-0. However, the road from the end of the regular season to the Big East championship

was not an easy one for the Hoyas. They clawed their way to a 1-0 victory against Creighton University (9-6-3, 4-3-1 Big East), behind a clutch goal from sophomore midfielder Mateo Ponce Ocampo. Then, a few days later, they pulled out a 2-1 victory in overtime against No. 13 The University of Akron (11-4-4, 7-0-1 Big East) to clinch their spot in the finals. Continuing the hot streak, the Hoyas began the game looking sharp, ramping up the offensive pressure early on in the game. First-year forward Mitchell Baker took a well-placed shot on goal in the 8th minute, but this was equally welldefended by Providence keeper Lukas Burns with a timely kick save. Junior midfielder

Zach Zengue also took a shot just 2 minutes later, but his attempt also missed its mark. However, despite the momentum from the Hoyas, the Friars struck first on a right-footed shot from just outside the box. Assisted by midfielders Diego Batista and Pearse O’Brien, midfielder Israel Dos Santos Neto delivered the strike in the 16th minute, giving Providence a 1-0 lead. Though the game did not initially go their way, Georgetown continued to set the pace of play, pinging passes back and forth across the field and tiring out the Providence defenders in the process. They tested the Providence goalie, with both junior midfielder Max Viera and sophomore

Hoyas Squander Chances in Notre Dame Loss

Evan Greenfield

Special to The Hoya

As droves of students, faculty, staff and graduates poured into Capital One Arena for a marquee afternoon showdown against old Big East rival University of Notre Dame, the energy surrounding Georgetown University men’s basketball was at its best in years. However, by the time the final buzzer sounded, the Hoya faithful once again experienced a brutal gut punch, with their team losing 84-63 to the Fighting Irish Nov. 16. Last season, the Hoyas beat the Fighting Irish in a similar matchup before the start of Big East competition, but the team was unable to deliver this time around: Notre Dame (3-0) dominated Georgetown (2-1) in the highly anticipated non-conference matchup. In the loss, however, three Georgetown players — firstyear center and Big East freshman of the week Thomas Sorber (12 points, 4 rebounds), junior guard Jayden Epps (13 points, 3/9 3PT) and sophomore guard Malik Mack (16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) — still shone, serving as highlights in an otherwise disappointing afternoon. With a packed student section and enthusiastic recent graduates lining the stands, the Hoyas had an opportunity to continue a recent string of positive results. Indeed, Georgetown opened up the game with a 4-0 lead after quick buckets by sophomore center Drew Fielder (2 points, 1 rebound) and sophomore forward Jordan Burks (5 points, 4 rebounds). However, in a sign of things to come,

midfielder Matthew Van Horn forcing difficult saves from the Friars. However, despite the continued pressure, the Hoyas were unable to break through and score in the first half of play. That story changed almost immediately in the second half. Georgetown nearly broke through off a cross to the back post from a dangerous free kick position, just 1 minute into the half, and then scored on the ensuing corner. Zengue whipped a corner near the front post, and senior midfielder Cole Parete converted the assist into a header past the goalie to tie the match at 1-1.

After weathering a series of attacks from the Friars, the Hoyas regained control of the game. They continued their calm passing and strong shooting, forcing the Friars’ keeper and defenders to remain on their toes at all times. Georgetown continued serving dangerous crosses into the box through set pieces and in the run of play, and they looked to be inching closer and closer to a game-winning goal. As the second half continued, the Hoyas maintained their relentless style of play. With 16 minutes remaining in regulation, Baker found himself near the goal once again, nearly capitalizing on yet another dangerous cross from Zengue, but the shot traveled just wide of the left post.

Faith Specter Deputy Sports Editor

The Georgetown University women’s basketball team (2-1) entered their Nov. 19 game hoping to improve upon their 61-79 loss to the University of Wisconsin (3-1) over the weekend. The Hoyas did just that, handily beating the Temple University Owls (2-2) 65-51 at McDonough Arena in a strong all-around performance, especially on the defensive end of the court.

Head Coach Darnell Haney started two ﬁrst-years to open the ﬁrst quarter: guards Jayden McBride and Khadee Hession, who took the court alongside junior guard Victoria Rivera, graduate guard Kelsey Ransom and senior forward Kaliyah Myricks.

The Owls won the opening tip-off and scored the first points of the game, but Rivera put the Hoyas on the board just under a minute later. Both teams stayed strong defensively throughout the first quarter, with Georgetown forcing two travels. Ransom got a tough shot off soon after, putting the Hoyas up 9-5 heading into the first media break and giving them their first multi-possession lead of the evening. McBride in particular looked fearless offensively in this early

stretch, taking three shots in the first five minutes of the game. Although her accuracy left something to be desired, her aggression in taking early shots set a strong tempo for Georgetown’s offense. The Owls tied the game at 9-9 soon after, but two free throws from senior center Ariel Jenkins and another from Ransom just after saw the Hoyas regain their lead. Though Temple made one more two-pointer, four more points from Ransom saw Georgetown end the quarter up 16-11. Though Rivera shot a perfect 3-pointer to open the second quarter, a strong spell of offensive production from Temple allowed them to begin to chip away at Georgetown’s lead. But the Hoyas fought back, a bucket from Ransom followed by an intense defensive battle bringing Georgetown up 21-15. Georgetown struggled from the floor in long stretches of the second quarter; the Owls’ defense largely limited the Hoyas to points from free throws. Despite Temple’s stifling defense, though, Georgetown scored seven straight points. The first two were from Ransom, who went to the free-throw line with just over four minutes left in the half

GUHOYAS

2-1

GUHOYAS Junior guard Jayden Epps handles the ball against a Notre Dame defender. Though Epps scored 13 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, the Hoyas lost 84-63 to the Fighting Irish Nov. 16.