The Hoya: January 18, 2019

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 100, No. 15, © 2019

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

A Welcome Change

As Georgetown enters 2019, join the conversation on the value of New Year’s Resolutions.

EDITORIAL Georgetown must support students living off campus rather than imposing sanctions.

PELOSI BACKS D.C. STATEHOOD A House bill endorsing D.C. statehood received 155 cosponsors Jan. 3.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A8

GUSA Weighs Fringe Religious Sect Encroaches at GU Student Vote On Reparations ALEXANDRA BOWMAN AND CADY STANTON Hoya Staff Writers

SATYA ADABALA Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown University Student Association senate began initial deliberations Tuesday on a referendum allowing Georgetown students to voice support on whether to pay reparations to the current descendants of the 272 slaves who were sold by the Maryland Society of Jesus in 1838, commonly known as the GU272.

The GUSA senate ways and means committee met Tuesday night to discuss the referendum, which would establish a financial contribution for descendants of the GU272, after GUSA senator Sam Appel (COL ’20) introduced a bill titled the “Act of Referendum

to Establish a New GU272 Legacy and Create the Reconciliation Contribution.”

The bill proposed the reconciliation contribution appear as a semesterly fee as part of tuition.

However, senators and members of the GU272 advocacy team, one of GUSA’s policy teams, have yet to finalize the exact details of the possible reparations, according to GU272 advocacy team member Hannah Michael (SFS ’21).

Several descendant groups have called for reparations in different forms, such as financial reparations, including the GU272 Isaac Hawkins Legacy Group, the GU272 Descendants Association and the See GU 272, A6

KARLA LEYJA/THE HOYA

GU 272 descendants met in Maringouin, La., on June 9, 2018. GUSA is considering a referendum to allocate reparations for descendants.

Multiple Georgetown students have been approached by individuals on campus about the ideological concept of “God the Mother,” asking them for their contact information to join a Bible study.

A female incarnation of God, “God the Mother,” is believed to have co-created the Earth with “God the Father,” a belief associated with the fringe sect of Christianity known as the World Mission Society Church of God. WMSCOG has faced allegations of mistreatment from former members.

WMSCOG has recruited members on college campuses throughout the country, including Oberlin College, Vanderbilt University, Boston College, the University of Mississippi and Boston University, according to The Daily Beast. Reports of students encountering individuals using similar recruitment techniques as Georgetown students have experienced began in January 2018. At Boston College, multiple students were approached in early 2018 by individuals who asked if they had heard of “God the Mother” and invited them to a Bible study.

WMSCOG confirmed they approached these BC students.

Two individuals approached Haley Talati (COL ’20) inside the Healey Family

Student Center in November 2018. Talati said the women stopped her, read Bible verses to her and spoke to her about the concept of “God the Mother.”

“I wouldn’t say they were trying to convince me of anything necessarily, but I did get the impression that their interest did go beyond the academic and was more personal and religious-oriented,” Talati said.

The interaction seemed harmless at the time, according to Talati, despite the allegations of mistreatment against the WMSCOG. “I was more inclined to think more generously toward it just because they’re taking a different approach to gendered God instead of male imagery, which I think is generally a good thing,” Talati said. “But looking back, it seems probably — and just from other things I’ve read since then — less benign than maybe the impression I got initially from that meeting.”

Former members of a WMSCOG church in New Jersey called the group a cult and claimed the church frightened individuals into joining and donating money, according to a local media outlet.

Campus ministry instructed the individuals approaching students on Georgetown’s campus to address students more respectfully after students reported feeling uncomfortable following interactions with members,

according to Bryant Oskvig, Director of Protestant Ministry.

“I haven’t had any direct interaction with them. One

“We made it clear that they just couldn’t corner students in the way that they were, at least has been reported to us.”

BRYANT OSKVIG Director, Protestant Ministry

of my colleagues has and indicated to them what our expectations are and how they are to communicate,” Oskvig said in an interview with The Hoya. “We made it clear that they just couldn’t corner students in the way that they were, at least has been reported to us.”

WMSCOG’s recruitment methods resemble those of the International Church of Christ, a cult that Georgetown announced in 2012 was banned from campus for violating university guidelines, according to Professor Lauve Steenhuisen, a visiting assistant professor in theology and women’s studies. Georgetown requires all religious groups that operate on campus to become affiliated with the university before they can approach students on cam-

pus.

Steenhuisen currently teaches a course titled “U.S. Cults: Religious Extremism and the Search for Meaning” at Georgetown. WMSCOG has been on campus for at least a year, according to Steenhuisen.

“I taught my cult class a year ago this semester,” Steenhuisen said. “The World Mission Society has been around on campus at least since then.”

Georgetown University Police Department received one official report regarding the individuals proselytizing “God the Mother” in December, according to GUPD Chief Jay Gruber. Despite several student accounts to The Hoya, GUPD has yet to send out an alert to campus.

GUPD’s records management system, which requires keyword searches, makes it difficult for officers to compile a comprehensive list of incidents of religious groups trying to recruit students, Gruber said.

“We have had a number of groups that have come onto campus over time doing similar types of things,” Gruber wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The group’s activities do not currently pose a threat to individuals on campus, according to Gruber.

“We don’t plan on sending an alert to our community See WMSCOG, A6

Campus Events Present Clashing Views on Abortion

Doctor Argues Christianity, Feminism Permit Abortion

Abortion Contradicts Feminism, Panelists Say at ‘Stand for Life’

AMY LI

RILEY ROGERSON

Hoya Staff Writer

Abortion falls within the values of Christianity and women’s right to abortion should be protected, Christian OB-GYN and reproductive rights advocate Dr. Willie Parker said at a Lecture Fund event Wednesday.

Condemning reproductive choices like abortion is not intrinsic to mainstream religions, and the perception of abortion as an immoral act reflects a misconstrued understanding of religious teachings, Parker told students.

As a devout Christian doctor, Parker said his sense of morality centers around supporting the patient’s wishes.

“I had a moral obligation and ethical obligation to respect the personhood and the autonomy and the bodily integrity of women,” Parker said. “As a practicing physician, I had an ethical obligation to practice beneficence.”

Parker’s visit came just a day after a panel hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life with the Office of Mission and Ministry that featured four anti-

FEATURED

abortion activists who argued that abortion is anti-feminist.

The limited access to abortion services in many Southern states and his experience with racism and poverty growing up in Birmingham, Ala., motivated Parker to practice

“Science without morals and ethics is dangerous, and religion or sentimentality without evidence and scientific reality is dangerous.”

DR. WILLIE PARKER OB/GYN, Reproductive Rights Advocate

as a women’s health care provider in the South, he said Wednesday.

U.S. policymakers shy away from confronting abortion inaccessibility issues because they worry they might infringe upon religious freedom, according to Parker.

“Because of the deep-held value of religious freedom in our country, people back up and they throw their hands up,” Parker said. “How do you rebut or push back on somebody’s religious understanding?”

Parker provides abortion services to women in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois and Mississippi. These states represent some of those with the most restrictive abortion laws nationally, according to Parker’s website. He is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the state of Mississippi, attempting to prevent the closure of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic.

American views on abortion vary widely based on religious group, according to a 2014 Pew Research Study. Although a minority of Americans believe abortion should be criminalized, the study found that a majority of evangelical Christian respondents think abortion should be illegal.

Christians do not violate their religion’s ideas about morality by providing abortion services, Parker said.

See PARKER, A6

Hoya Staff Writer

Abortion is anti-feminist and represents violence against the female body, according to a panel of female anti-abortion advocates at an event in Dahlgren Chapel on Jan. 15.

Women who are against abortion are often misconstrued as being anti-feminist, Gloria Purvis, creator of a Catholic television network show, said at the event. Purvis, however, argued that supporting abortion prevents women from embracing their own bodies.

“People say: ‘I’m a feminist, I’m this, I’m that, how can you be not for abortion?’ And my answer to that is I think the question of abortion poses as the problem the female body itself,” Purvis said. “The problem itself is pregnancy.

Our enemy of progress is our very own body. Just the essence of being female.”

The panel, titled “Stand for Life, All Life, Every Life: Resisting the Throwaway Culture,”was hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life as

part of the Dahlgren Dialogues series, which features conversations with various thought leaders about moral and political issues regarding faith and public life.

Cosponsored by the Office of Mission and Ministry, the panel also featured Aimee Murphy, executive director of Rehumanize International, a nonpartisan organization that stands against all violence, which the organization argues includes abortion

and the death penalty. President of Feminists for Life of America Serrin Foster and Julia Greenwood (COL ’19) also participated in the panel.

Abortion does not advance equality but rather is a form of violence against women, Murphy said at the event.

“Pro-life women like all of us sitting up here really do represent a rejection of the idea that we need violence in See STAND FOR LIFE, A6

AMY LI FOR THE HOYA

Gloria Pervis, left, Aimee Murphy, Kim Daniels, Julia Greenwood (COL ’19) and Serrin Foster discussed abortion in Dahlgren Chapel on Jan. 15.

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

New Promises for Survivors At a student-sponsored forum, administrators pledged opposition to proposed changes to Title IX policies.

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Valuing Disability Instead of viewing disability as a deficiency, we must recognize it as a part of human diversity.

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Conference Loss The Georgetown men’s basketball team fell to 2-3 in Big East play after a tightly contested loss to Marquette on Jan. 15.

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NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

Facilities Responds to Mold Georgetown conducted deep cleanings of buildings with high concentrations of reported mold over winter break.

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Oppose O’Connor Conference Students should protest the upcoming conference because it does not represent Georgetown’s values.

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District Swim and Dive Georgetown swimming placed second in a three-way meet against D.C. rivals George Washington and American on Jan. 12.

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Published Fridays

Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com

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OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

THE VERDICT

Abolish Club Applications At tomorrow’s club fair, undergraduates will navigate crowded tables in the Healey Family Student Center in an effort to find a cause, a team and a community that aligns with their interests. Entry to these clubs should not depend on an application.

Clubs provide undergraduates with the opportunity to explore new ideas, fields and communities within the comfort of their university. Expecting a certain level of experience or deeming a student unqualified to participate is counter to an organization’s purpose in engaging students. To reduce exclusivity, clubs that receive benefits from the Center of Student Engagement should eliminate applications.

At Georgetown, clubs are organizations that receive financial support and university resources from the CSE. As the administrational umbrella for clubs, the CSE funds the majority of student groups. With the Center’s mission to foster “student learning and development through co-curricular involvement,” clubs must allow all students the opportunity to engage and grow.

Club selectivity is pervasive in Georgetown culture. The central role of exclusive clubs in social life increases student stress for those attempting to join them.

While some organizations have tried to remedy club selectivity in recent years — most notably the Lecture Fund, which decided in 2017 to accept all students to its general body, and Blue and Gray Tour Guide Society, which in 2018 required freshmen to apply after one semester at Georgetown— these measures are not enough

by themselves to combat club culture. CSE-backed clubs must also remove applications.

While most clubs and organizations are funded by the CSE, notable exceptions include Students of Georgetown, Inc., commonly known as The Corp; the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union; and Blue and Gray.

As these organizations operate as businesses or direct representatives of the university, they have a logical need for applications.

While they should do more to increase accessibility, removing applications is not practical.

However, CSE-backed clubs that currently require applications, such as certain debate, performing arts and media groups — including The Hoya — must also recognize their role in perpetuating club selectivity. For these organizations, applications prevent the realization of student engagement.

Removing applications from clubs — which are meant to encourage student growth — is an essential step toward healing a campus plagued by a “sleep when you’re dead” mentality. Without applications, club prestige would equalize and participation would increase across organizations.

Moreover, eliminating applications could encourage healthy levels of club participation. Rigorous application cycles perpetuate the notion that club membership is an elite status to be earned and maintained. Recruitment without applications could decrease pressure to excessively participate and create stronger clubs by bringing in genuinely interested members rather

than just experienced members.

Changing recruitment practices would not mean that organizations would have no method of ensuring new members are capable and committed. In place of applications, clubs could use interest forms or inclusive entrance requirements to demonstrate commitment.

For example, Georgetown University College Democrats and Republicans use an “interest form” model. All students who complete the interest form are accepted into the club; this model ensures new members are dedicated to the club without hindering efficiency.

Similarly, Philodemic Society membership depends on participation in workshops and mentorship. This method not only ensures commitment, but also prepares students for active engagement in the club.

By using applications, club leaders have forgone inclusive approaches to recruitment in favor of a model predicated on chasing prestige.

In recruiting new members, clubs should ensure students are committed and capable. However, applications are not necessary to achieve this goal.

If club leaders genuinely seek to combat club culture, all clubs receiving CSE benefits must remove their applications.

Drunken Excursion — A woman was banned from a Walmart in Texas last weekend after riding around the parking lot on an electric shopping cart in the early morning. When police arrived on the scene, they discovered that she had been drinking wine out of a Pringles can throughout her joyride.

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Toto Forever — 27-year-old Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf installed six speakers in Namibia’s Namib Desert which play “Africa” by Toto on loop. He said he hopes his installation, titled “Toto Forever,” will remain playing for at least 55 million years.

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EDITORIALS

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Founded January 14, 1920

Poached Record — This week, a picture of an ordinary egg broke Instagram’s record for the most liked photo, previously held by Kylie Jenner. Currently, the egg has nearly 48 million likes.

Sweet Spill — A tanker truck in Flagstaff, Ariz., spilled 3,500 gallons of 120-degree liquid chocolate across Interstate 40 on Monday. While the source of the accident was unclear, the Arizona Department of Safety tweeted that it was “a sweet cleanup.”

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Snappy Surprise — On Wednesday, police entered a New York home with a permit searching for narcotics and unexpectedly found a live alligator being kept as a pet.

Although the pet was identified as potentially very dangerous, police ensured that it was safely removed and plan to send it to a wildlife sanctuary.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Alexandra Bowman

The Hoya’s editorial board is composed of six students and 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.

Reduce Off-Campus Burdens Georgetown University’s Office of Neighborhood Life is designed to assist students living off-campus. Yet by imposing arbitrary penalties and issuing unclear guidelines, the office fails to serve the needs of students.

The stated mission of the Office of Neighborhood Life is to “support all students, non-students, and permanent residents” and “create a positive quality of life for everyone living in the neighborhood.” However, the office’s extraneous sanctions, vague appeal processes and outdated policies make it more difficult for students to live off campus.

Georgetown should hold students living off campus to the same standards as on-campus students when it comes to residential life issues. Too often, the Office of Neighborhood Life’s trivial sanctions and unclear guidelines financially burden students living off campus. The university should instead provide students with assistance and support in navigating off-campus life.

While the ONL organizes an orientation to guide students at the beginning of the year and arranges chaplains for emotional support, these superficial initiatives fail to address extraneous penalties.

Under current regulations, students living off campus can be cited for trash disposal, property maintenance and parking violations. Though it is understandable that the ONL and the Office of Student Conduct monitor student compliance with Washington, D.C. laws, penalties are often more severe than

the violation warrants.

For example, three minor trash violations can lead to fines of $300 for off-campus students. Additionally, off-campus students face up to $200 in fines, disciplinary probation and likely relocation for noise violations. For the same noise violation, on-campus students are only fined $50 and subject to housing probation.

Sanctions can quickly become overwhelming and lead to outrageous costs, especially as students living off campus can face double penalties: for the same violation, students can be fined by the D.C. police as well as by the ONL. The university’s additional policing of students is unnecessary and an overstep.

To truly support students as it claims, the Office of Neighborhood Life must implement reasonable policies that align more closely with on-campus sanctions.

Currently, citation severity and policy discrepancy between on- and off-campus students is significant and inequitable. As a Sept. 22, 2017 editorial in The Hoya notes, the Code of Student Conduct specifies that the university must provide “clear and convincing” evidence of guilt for on-campus incidents, while the burden of proof is only “more likely than not” for off-campus incidents.

Although living off campus is considered a privilege and can be cheaper for some students, the Office of Neighborhood Life’s arbitrary and harsh sanctioning presents an excessive financial burden.

While the Office allows students to substitute monetary fines

with work sanction hours, fines are converted to sanction hours at a rate of 1 hour for every $10.

This arbitrary conversion is far below the D.C. minimum wage of $13.25 per hour and should be updated to match it.

In addition to arbitrary penalties and policies, the ONL’s adjudication process is often unclear.

The lack of a timeline set by the ONL or the Office of Student Conduct in outlined policies leads to further confusion and hostility between students and university administrators.

To better support those living off campus, the Office of Neighborhood Life should clarify to students why specific sanctions are imposed and how to appeal them.

In doing so, the university could decrease perceived arbitrariness in its current policies.

While it is important that the university uphold neighborhood rules, arbitrary sanctions and unclear guidelines fail to meet the needs of off-campus students.

Though students should face penalties for offenses, the university should work with students to provide the assistance they need in understanding the process.

If the Office of Neighborhood Life genuinely seeks to support students, it must reduce the excessive burden it places on those living off campus.

The Hoya’s editorial board is composed of six students and 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.

Maya Gandhi, Editor-in-Chief Yasmine Salam, Executive Editor Will Simon, Executive Editor Catriona Kendall, Managing Editor Will Cassou, News Editor Deepika Jonnalagadda, News Editor Danny McCooey, Sports Editor Faris Bseiso, Guide Editor Kiera Geraghty, Guide Editor Yumna Naqvi, Opinion Editor Harrison Hurt, Features Editor Amber Gillette, Photography Editor Samuel Nelson, Design Editor Emily Shambaugh, Design Editor Susanna Blount, Copy Chief Kate Rose, Social Media Editor Caroline Porterfield, Blog Editor Tarina Touret, Multimedia Editor

Editorial Board

Yumna Naqvi, Chair

Molly Cooke, John Curran, Nabil Kapasi, Erica Lizza, Philip Tsien, Emma Vahey

Karena Landler Amy Li Mason Mandell Yolanda Spura Cady Stanton Allie Babyak Brendan Dolan Sarah Cammarota Suna Cha Maddie Finn Dennese Mae Javier Timothy McNulty Sela Dragich Jonathan Wiersema Doris Zhang Will Cromarty Meena Morar Natalie Isé Sheel Patel Kiki Schmalfuss Amanda Van Orden Mina Lee Janis Park Eloise Owen Katherine DeMatteo Sarah Donofrio Chau Le Victoria Lei Madison Carter Barbara McDuffee Isabel Roemer Anne-Isabelle de Bokay Irene Chun

Graduate Desk Editor Campus Life Desk Editor Academics Desk Editor City Desk Editor Campus Life Desk Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Features Editor Deputy Features Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Social Media Editor Deputy Blog Editor Deputy Blog Editor Deputy Multimedia Editor Deputy Multimedia Editor

Contributing Editors

Saavan Chintalacheruvu, Grace Chung, Dean Hampers, Janine Karo, Juliette Leader, Joshua Levy, Christian Paz, Meena Raman, Tara Subramaniam, Mitchell Taylor, Stephanie Yuan

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HOYA HISTORY: May 1970

GU Closes in Protest of Vietnam War Approximately 15 years ago, I visited The Hoya’s office as a Georgetown University alumnus when the topic of the school’s closing in protest against the Vietnam War arose. I was informed by The Hoya’s staff that they had made inquiries about the Vietnam-era school closing, but while the closing was confirmed, the administration was not forthcoming about details.

My earliest significant memory regarding the war was the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., an ardent critic of the Vietnam War. Washington, D.C., was riot-torn shortly thereafter. As looters moved toward Georgetown, classes were suspended, and the school closed until things simmered down.

In June of 1968 Robert Kennedy — another critic of the Vietnam War — was assassinated.

As the war continued and more

American men were drafted, protests became more numerous, more vocal and sometimes even violent.

In the fall of 1969, the March on Washington culminated in anti-Vietnam protests on the steps of the Capitol building.

After this event, protests across the country further intensified. In May 1970, tensions escalated between students at Kent State University and the Ohio National Guard. Four students were killed and at least 11 others were wounded. I suspect this event was the catalyst behind the closing of hundreds of colleges nationwide.

One day, rumors spread around campus that the student council, under the leadership of President Mike Thornton and Vice President Mark Winston, would vote on the school closing. As I approached

the student council meeting, I learned that the vote to close the school had already taken place. The student council voted to keep the school open by one vote.

One of the council members asked me to address the assembly since I was chairman-elect of the Black Student Alliance at the time. I opined that Georgetown was standing on the wrong side of history by taking the nonclosure position. I further opined that the council should hold another vote.

This idea was raised and seconded. In the second vote, the council voted to close the school down. Shortly thereafter, the faculty followed suit, and the school closed for the rest of the semester.

Gerald Yancey graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 1971.

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OPINION

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

AS THIS JESUIT SEES IT

THE HOYA

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VIEWPOINT • BORZILLERI

Broaden Horizons

Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J.

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t Georgetown University, we think in centuries. We dream big. As I like to tell incoming students, we have a vision here that is expansive, that recognizes in each present moment an arc extending far into the future. And this perspective charges the start of this new semester, with immense meaning.

We date our community back to 1789, some 230 years ago, the same year as the U.S. Constitution. We trace out our heritage in monumental buildings like Healy Hall, built 90 years later, or Lauinger Library, 90 years after that. We feel the weight and promise of these centuries, with their beauty and brutality ever more visible as we interrogate them in retrospect, and we feel a sense of purpose in shaping the next century.

This year, 2019, we celebrate 100 years since the establishment of our Walsh School of Foreign Service. The centennial anniversary has captured my imagination and inspired me to let my mind and horizon expand anew.

The SFS was founded in a world still reeling from World War I. It sought, in a time of division and lingering suspicions, to develop the ties of trade and investment, of respect and solidarity, that would allow peoples around the globe to flourish and make war and violence less likely.

The intellectual underpinnings and aspirations of the SFS were path-breaking. More than simply addressing well-known challenges, Fr. Edmund Walsh, S.J., called for a novel project.

He saw the school’s mission as centered on the “recognition of new problems and the assumption of new obligations, broadening our scope in response to the growing demands made on human knowledge by the evermultiplying specializations of human activity.”

Walsh and the founders of the SFS believed in progress, and they understood that they needed a forward-looking vision that would draw on the best of Georgetown’s heritage while also embracing ideas and opportunities they could scarcely imagine. It is mind-boggling to think that they drew up their

plans nearly a decade before the discovery of penicillin and three decades before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it is sobering to recall that even with their best efforts, the 20th century would be the most violent in human history.

Recalling this history makes me wonder: What would our semester look like if we approached it with the same grandness and seriousness of vision of Walsh and that first group of faculty and students in 1919?

Thinking in centuries, rather than moments or hours — or seconds, as often occurs on social media — transforms our perspective. It helps us distinguish between vital questions and superficial ones, and it provides the impetus to engage the issues that matter most. It affects the classes we choose, the projects we undertake, the communities we seek to form and understand. It does not allow any kind of complacency in the face of pressing problems, but rather it charges each of our actions — for justice, inclusion and the flourishing of our planet and each of its inhabitants — with lasting importance.

Walsh closed his inauguration of the School of Foreign Service with a prayer, asking that the newly founded school form a community of “great soul, great heart and great mind.” Many will recognize in this phrase the Jesuit ideal of magnanimity — greatness of soul, expansiveness of vision, generosity of concern and compassion.

It is a vision that can inspire us today as we take up the work of this new semester at the start of 2019: to think in terms of lifetimes, of centuries and the arc of history. To have hopes and ambitions no less far-reaching, no less weighty and expansive, than those who have walked this Hilltop before us and who send us into our next century.

Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., is an associate professor in the government department and the School of Foreign Service, and he currently serves as director of the Center for Latin American Studies. AS THIS JESUIT SEES IT appears online every other Tuesday.

Recognizing Niedfield, who dedicated her life to others and served people in need worldwide, would bring attention to one of the most incredible students to graduate from the university.

Name MedStar for Eileen Niedfield

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n February 2018, the Georgetown Women’s Alliance embarked on an effort to increase the university’s memorialization of women at Georgetown, which currently pales in comparison to the countless portraits of men hung across campus. The portraits now hanging in Hoya Court memorialize the efforts of pioneering women across Georgetown’s campuses and programs.

As I researched the women I hoped to honor, I was overwhelmed by the many untold stories of women throughout Georgetown’s history. The chance to honor these dozen women should just be the first step in increasing awareness of women’s contributions to Georgetown’s history.

With this project complete, I now propose another step in this process: naming the new medical and surgical pavilion after Dr. Eileen Niedfield (MED ’51), one of the first female graduates of the Georgetown Medical School and a true woman for others throughout her lengthy career.

Niedfield graduated as valedictorian of the Class of 1951, the first cohort of medical students to include women.

A member of the Medical Mission Sisters religious order, Niedfield was assigned to Holy Family Hospital in Mandar, India, where she worked 40 years

and reported, “I don’t even want to come home. It is so much more satisfactory to be where you are needed.”

When she was not treating patients, Niedfield trained locals in basic medicine and health care practices. She instructed a border radio operator in medicine so that he could assist patients in the winter months when medical professionals were unable to reach the remote area that he patrolled.

Niedfield’s most incredible sacrifice, however, was her dedication to surgery. On multiple occasions, she drew her own type-O blood in the middle of surgical procedures to transfuse into her patients if they were in need. Following her work in India, she returned to the United States in 1992 and cared for AIDS patients in San Diego until her death in 2007.

Unlike many other institutions, the majority of Georgetown’s buildings are named for important figures from the school’s history rather than heavyweight donors. Copley, White-Gravenor, Poulton and Gervase are the names of the first five Jesuits to settle in America in 1634, who laid the foundation for Jesuit education throughout the nation.

Other buildings, such as Healy Hall, the Edward Bunn, S.J. Intercultural Center, Henle Village and O’Donovan Hall bear

the names of former university presidents.

The Jesuits we currently recognize have contributed to Georgetown by inspiring and driving its mission. They have modelled and spread the spirit of Georgetown, acting as men for others, within both the campus and global communities, for the “Greater Glory of God.” The temptation to attract a large gift by honoring the benefactor with naming rights looms large over all nonprofit institutions.

As our campus continues to grow and evolve, however, it is important to broaden our scope of candidates for recognition so that our physical plant reflects the true nature of the university’s diverse population. Currently only three women — Eleanor Darnall, Anne Marie Becraft and Ida Ryan — are remembered through structures on campus.

Georgetown’s 2017 to 2036 Campus Master Plan presents an opportunity to honor another woman on campus and to preserve the tradition of naming our buildings after figures of historical importance; the unnamed medical and surgical pavilion currently under construction between existing MedStar facilities and Darnall Hall should be named after Niedfield.

The partnership between MedStar and Georgetown is more than corporate: The Georgetown University School

of Medicine and the School of Nursing and Health Studies both have training programs within the Georgetown university Medical Center, and the university and hospital collaborate on research. Though MedStar owns and operates the building, it maintains a strong recognition of Georgetown’s previous ownership of the facility. MedStar’s Gorman Building remains named for former University President Fr. Lawrence Gorman, S.J., who served from 1942 to 1949.

Similarly, the portraits of the current and former popes on the walls throughout the main building reflect MedStar’s continued commitment to Georgetown’s Catholic identity. After all, it was the Catholic mission that initially inspired and motivated the founding and operation of a hospital on the school’s campus to care for the sick and needy.

Recognizing Niedfield, who dedicated her life to others and served people in need worldwide, would bring attention to one of the most incredible students to graduate from the university. The Eileen Niedfield Medical and Surgical Pavilion will be an appropriate honor to her memory and a reminder to Hoyas about what true service can look like.

C.C. BORZILLERI is a senior in the College.

VIEWPOINT • SCHIFFRIK

DISCUSSING DISABILITY

Protest O’Connor Conference

Recognize Diversity in Disability

O

n Jan. 19, Georgetown will host the 20th Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life. Student awareness of the event remains surprisingly low despite its self-proclaimed status as the “largest collegiate pro-life conference in the nation,” the controversial speakers it invites and the alarmingly consistent presence of high-profile Georgetown administrators at the conference. As this year’s conference approached, I mentioned it to many peers, but it seems very few students know it exists.

Given the administrators in attendance — Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Dean of Students Jeanne Lorde and Assistant Vice President Erika Cohen Derr are all regular attendees — clearly the conference has institutional support.

However, as a community of students, it shouldn’t have ours.

Hoyas need to know that it exists and fight its shameful, consistent and unchallenged presence on our campus.

Occurring annually on the heels of the March for Life, the world’s largest pro-life rally, the conference attracts speakers and attendees largely from high school and collegiate groups attending the march. So like it or not, this conference matters — hundreds of people who attend each year leave with a distorted impression of Georgetown students, our community, and our values.

The namesake of the conference, Cardinal John O’Connor (GRD ’70), is a stain on Georgetown’s legacy and a disgrace to our community’s values. A notorious homophobe, O’Connor actively worked against the LGBTQ community through his efforts to overturn New York’s ordinance against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, block AIDS education programs and prevent the distribution of condoms as the AIDS epidemic decimated the gay community.

O’Connor also had heavily misogynistic inclinations, claiming abortion is immoral in the case of rape or incest because rape is a “legally lesser evil” than abortion. Moreover, he brushed aside the deaths of thousands of women forced to resort to unsafe abortion prior to legalization with the comment that “the mothers involved could have chosen not to abort.”

To champion this man as “prolife” is misleading and untrue, and to host a conference under his name insults these women and people who died of AIDS as a direct result of his harmful efforts. He has blood on his hands, and there should be no place for reverence of his name on our campus.

In addition to its regrettable namesake, the conference has a long history of bringing shameful and discriminatory speakers to campus. This year’s keynote speaker is Cardinal Timothy Dolan who, like O’Connor, is strikingly homophobic. Dolan has in the past called same-sex marriage and LGBTQ families “detrimental to the common good” and a “perilous” act of “Orwellian social engineering.”

He has also likened same-sex marriage to incest.

Further, Dolan is complicit in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal, attempting to shield church finances from damage suits by victims of childhood sexual abuse and authorizing payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests to ensure their quiet dismissal.

Welcoming Dolan to campus with open arms underscores the inaction of the university in the face of calls to revoke the honorary degrees of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who abused boys for decades, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who protected abusers.

Past speakers also include Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), the

namesake of the notorious Hyde Amendment, which prevents Medicaid funds from being used for abortion except in certain cases, shamelessly discriminating against poor women and women of color. Hyde brazenly admitted to his targeting of vulnerable women in Congress, stating, “I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the ... Medicaid bill.”

This conference promotes itself as the exemplary vision of the pro-life movement, claiming to foster “discourse on the sanctity of human life.” And yet the conference’s singular focus on abortion suggests an indifference to the countless undeniable threats to human life.

The conference fails to have a single breakout session or panel engage with war, migration, transphobia, police brutality, gun violence, environmental degradation or the majority of issues outside of abortion that indisputably threaten the lives of vulnerable people. It’s not a conference about life. It’s about abortion — or more specifically, making sure people can’t access abortion.

The Georgetown administration actively supports the Cardinal O’Connor Conference, but we shouldn’t. I believe in a Georgetown community that does not support homophobia, the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal or the denial of reproductive health care. If you agree that this conference is not the Georgetown we want to present to the world, join me to protest outside Healy Hall on Saturday to make our disapproval known.

ELIANNA SCHIFFRIK is a soph-

omore in the School of Foreign Service. She is also co-director of media and communications for H*yas for Choice.

Anna Landre

I

t took me a long time to consider myself “disabled.”

I know that sounds strange coming from someone who, wheelchair and all, is a veritable poster child for the term.

Yet growing up, “disabled” conjured images of sick people on television or patients in the hospital where my mom worked. The word carried a heavy negative connotation, implying someone who was to be pitied, cared for and protected. It wasn’t an identity; it was a defect. Meanwhile, everyone in my life, from parents to friends to teachers, was able-bodied. In my mind, I was like them — not like the helpless caricatures of disabled people in pop culture and the world around me.

For disabled children and adults, this sense of internalized ableism is all too common, causing self-esteem and mental health issues that permeate every aspect of life. To minimize ableism, we need to acknowledge disability as a normal part of human diversity — an identity like any other, rather than a deficiency or inferiority.

Disabled people are America’s largest minority, and as a society we fail to pursue equality for this group when we separate disability from other types of “diverse” identities. For other minority groups, we tend to understand that their adversity is caused by external factors like prejudice or a lack of opportunity; we therefore fight to eliminate those barriers. For disabled people, the source of adver-

sity is assumed to be internal, caused by some sort of medical problem. By that logic, there’s nothing that can help disabled people, except perhaps medical interventions.

However, scholars are quick to point out that many difficulties that disabled people face are not inherently caused by their disabled body, but instead by their environment. For example, the fact that I can’t walk is a problem largely because I can’t use stairs and thus do not have access to certain places.

However, this limitation practically disappears when all buildings around me have ramps. It isn’t my disability that limits me, but that those around me have made a decision to construct buildings that don’t accommodate everyone.

My body cannot be changed, but the buildings around me can. For the sake of progress in pursuing equal treatment and opportunities, we need to acknowledge the adversity faced by disabled people as a result of institutional exclusion, not physical inability. In other words, stop feeling sorry for me because I can’t walk up stairs and start helping me build a ramp instead.

Another large barrier to equal treatment of disabled people is the assumption that we inevitably have a lower quality of life than others. In reality, studies find that people with disabilities have equal or even greater life satisfaction than those without disabilities. Issues with quality of life only arise when we lack medical resources, reside in an inaccessible city or are denied jobs due to disability — the same types of oppressive external challenges faced by other minorities. When we assume that the oppression faced by disabled people is caused simply by our disabilities, we ignore these discriminatory factors and fail to fix them.

Moreover, to combat the mental health and confidence issues related to internalized ableism, we need to encourage disabled people to accept and take pride in themselves. This also means stopping harmful tropes that encourage disabled people to minimize or “overcome” their disabilities, marking them as a flaw.

This seemingly harmless sentiment was ingrained into my own experience from a young age, each time my parents proudly asserted to friends and family that, despite my wheelchair, I didn’t consider myself disabled. Instead, they assured everyone that I was just like “everybody else.” I learned that my behavior and ambitions were somehow incompatible with — and better than — being disabled.

In the same way, adults would commend me for “overcoming” my disability by doing simple things like getting good grades and participating in school activities. Every minimization of my disability was intended as a compliment.

In situations like these, no one was actively trying to do any harm; these are simply the things we say to disabled individuals who defy the stereotypes of disability. But in doing so and in praising achievement as “overcoming” disability, we are only teaching that disability is incompatible with success.

Only when we learn to view disability as a normal part of human diversity will these harmful practices and inequalities cease. We cannot pretend to pursue a just and equal society if we continue to leave the largest minority behind.

Anna Landre is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.

DISCUSSING DISABILITY appears online every other Tuesday.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE The McDonough School of Business announced its new grading policy, which took effect for the spring 2019 semester. Story on A7.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

verbatim

IN FOCUS HARRIS BOOK TALK

“

We’ve historically been ahead of the curve in using sustainable materials.”

Alex Gong (SFS ’20) on The Corp’s replacement of single-use plastic straws.

Story on A8.

from our blog

GW

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) spoke about her memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” at an event at The George Washington University on Jan. 9 amid speculation about a possible presidential bid for the 2020 election.

STAYING WARM IN THE SNOW Beyond hitting up Forever 21’s 65 percent off sale on outerwear, Hoyas can stay warm by running away from rats on campus. Check out 4E for all the tips for GU’s fave season. blog.thehoya.com

Government Shutdown Disrupts Lives of DC Residents JULIE GUAN

Special to The Hoya

The ongoing government shutdown has resulted in hundreds of federal employees being instructed to work without pay, national tourist attractions remaining closed and local businesses having to alter daily operations.

The longest in U.S. history, the government shutdown began Dec. 22 after the U.S. Congress declined to comply with President Trump’s $5 billion funding request for a border wall.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) wrote a letter to Trump’s administration on Jan. 4. The regional leaders urged the president and Congressional leaders to end the government shutdown because of its negative effects on state and local budgets, government services, the economy and the livelihoods of federal workers.

“The national capital region is home to well over 360,000 federal workers, many of whom are employed by the departments and agencies affected by this lapse in appropriations,” the letter reads. “These federal employees have been furloughed or forced to work without pay, not knowing when they will get their next paychecks.”

The leaders also cited the threat the shutdown poses to public safety and health, especially in areas maintained and safeguarded by federal employees. The shutdown puts coasts and waterways at risk because of the shutdown’s restrictions on the daily operations of the Environmental Protection Agency and Coast Guard, according to the letter.

The reduced number of federal workers also leads to lower standards of safety and sanitation in national parks, according to the letter.

Five workers affected by the government shutdown anonymously filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for requiring them to work without pay. The lawsuit alleges that the administration labeled the defendants as essential workers without proof that their work meets the necessary standards. The

Jan. 9 lawsuit seeks to prevent the federal government from mandating employees work without pay.

Hayley Grande (COL ’21), president of the Georgetown University College Republicans, commented on the conditions of unpaid federal workers, but acknowledged that benefits could arise from the shutdown.

“It’s unfortunate that government employees are furloughed,” Grande said in an interview with The Hoya.

“There are different perspectives within the club that see the merits of having the shutdown and the demerits as well, and it really depends on the outcome.”

The reduced number of federal workers because of the shutdown adds to the day-today considerations students must take when making travel plans or visiting D.C. attractions, according to Georgetown University Democrats Chair Rebecca Hollister (COL ’21).

“I think that us living in D.C. has also opened our eyes.

I know traveling back, I definitely went to the airport earlier, so even just small things like that, and even the museums are closed,” Hollister said in an interview with the Hoya.

Beyond preventing federal workers from receiving their paychecks, the shutdown also hurts local businesses dependent on closed tourist attractions, according to Washington’s Top News.

While the metro system, local government, Library of Congress and Kennedy Center remain open, the Smithsonian museums, National Zoo, National Gallery, National Archives, Washington Monument, Rock Creek Park and other government-run attractions remain closed until further notice.

The closure of federallyrun national attractions has decreased revenues for business owners and taxi drivers reliant on visitors to these attractions. Additionally, tour groups operating in D.C. have attempted to fill in gaps in tour schedules by working with privately-owned museums, according to The Washington Post.

Though the shutdown has caused some disturbances in

the District, the city is taking efforts to alleviate limitations caused by the federal government’s limited operations.

Daily work done by the local government such as trash collection will continue because of the District’s adoption of budget autonomy following the last government shutdown, allowing D.C. to raise and spend funds without the approval of Congress.

The LOVE Act, signed by Bowser on Jan. 1, enables couples to get married despite the government shutdown. The act allows D.C.’s secretary to issue marriage licenses in place of the clerk of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which has not been operating during the shutdown.

“As we’ve said: You can’t shut down love,” Bowser said in a Jan. 11 news release.

“This shutdown is senseless, it’s hurting real Americans, and we will continue calling on the President to work with Congress to get the government back open and our federal employees back to work.”

Bowser commended local businesses and event organizers for their efforts to keep the city running and provide entertainment to tourists and visitors amid the closure of national parks, monuments and museums.

“I am proud that through these challenging times, local businesses, event organizers and others are stepping up and providing our residents and visitors continued access to resources, attractions, and activities that make D.C. the greatest city to live in and visit,” Bowser said in a Dec. 31 news release.

ANNE STONECIPHER/THE HOYA

National tourist attractions remain closed and local businesses have to alter daily operations as a result of the shutdown.

KEENAN SAMWAY/THE HOYA

The longest shutdown in U.S. history began Dec. 22 after Congress refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s request for funding for a border wall. Hundreds of federal employees are being instructed to work without pay.

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

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Wuerl Had Prior Knowledge Women’s Center Continues Search for Permanent Director Of Allegations Against Predecessor MAX LEVINE

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University Women’s Center has yet to secure a permanent replacement for former Director Laura Kovach three months after she vacated her position Oct. 5.

Kovach worked for the women’s center for over a decade. Under Kovach’s leadership, the center established the Biondi Copeland Lecture Series, which recognizes the exceptional leadership of women in higher education.

In collaboration with Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, Kovach also spearheaded an annual conference for women students.

While the center searches for new leadership, Jeanne F. Lord, associate vice president and dean of students, will serve as interim director of the center, aided by several colleagues who have already been employed at the center for some time.

Currently, the women’s center has four undergraduate student workers, one graduate assistant and a program coordinator who is a staff member, according to Vanessa Phillips (MSB ’19), a staffer at GUWC. The center

also receives external staff support while Lord serves as interim director, Phillips said. Phillips declined to disclose progress on the search for a new full-time director.

Karla Rondon, the program coordinator for the center, said the daily operations and services provided by the women’s center for the community will remain unchanged during the interim director period.

“The Center will continue to function as it has been, and we’re committed to providing all students with resources and education. We want students to know that what we offer has not changed, and we’re very excited for the upcoming semester,” Rondon wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Kovach left the women’s center to begin a new role at Alteristic, a social accelerator organization focused on the prevention and elimination of power-based violence.

Kovach declined The Hoya’s request for comment on last year’s change in leadership.

Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson praised Kovach’s legacy and advocacy efforts for women’s issues during her time in the position.

“Laura Kovach provided

extraordinary leadership to the women’s center for over 10 years and was a powerful voice on current issues impacting women, notably surrounding our community’s work in preventing and addressing sexual assault,” Olsen said in a statement to The Hoya.

Caroline Sarda (COL ’20), an undergraduate staffer at the center, said despite Kovach’s absence, the center remains committed to its goals of being accessible for all students.

“Laura provided a very unique energy and warmth to the center that we will really miss, but we are dedicated to keeping the space a safe, welcoming and helpful resource for all students at Georgetown,” Sarda said.

Students involved with the women’s center in the past will play a vital role in the center’s operations as it undergoes a change in leadership, Olson said.

“As we conduct a search for a new leader and explore strengthening the work of the women’s center and LGBTQ Resource Center, we will engage with students leaders and campus partners who are involved with both,” Olson wrote in his statement to the Georgetown community.

JULIA ALVEY/THE HOYA

Laura Kovach, former director of the Georgetown University Women’s Center, left her position Oct. 5.

Jeanne Lord, associate vice president and dean of students, will serve as interim director.

MEREDITH MILLER Hoya Staff Writer

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, former archbishop of Washington, D.C., apologized for forgetting an allegation of sexual assault against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, his predecessor, that was brought to him in 2004 in a Jan. 15 letter to the Society of Jesus.

Wuerl’s letter comes after previous public claims that no accusations were made against McCarrick during his time in D.C. until June 2018, when the Archdiocese of New York reported a credible allegation of abuse against McCarrick. Wuerl denied prior knowledge because his statements were in response to questions of McCarrick’s abuse of minors, whereas Robert Ciolek was an adult during the timeframe of abuse, according to Wuerl’s letter.

In 2004, Ciolek, who left the priesthood to get married in 1988, accused McCarrick of sexually abusing him while he was an adult seminarian in a complaint to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, according to the D.C. Diocese’s Jan. 10 news release. Wuerl, who was then the bishop of Pittsburgh, reported the accusations to the Apostolic Nunciature to the U.S., a clerical office of the Vatican based in D.C. with the rank of an embassy. Wuerl kept the accusation confidential following his report to the Papal Nunciature.

His disclosure comes amid student calls for the university to revoke the honorary degrees given to Wuerl and McCarrick. In response, Georgetown has assembled a working group to revisit the honorary degrees and has yet to announce a decision.

Georgetown will continue taking measures to address the issue of abuse in the Catholic Church, according to a university spokesperson.

“The allegations surrounding abuse in the Catholic Church are deeply troubling,” a university spokesperson wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It is with profound sadness and concern for the victims and those harmed by these actions that we continue our work to respond to this moment through dialogue, reflection, and action, building on the convenings this past semester and ongoing conversations with our community.”

The Archdiocese of D.C. defended Wuerl for respecting Ciolek’s

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., says Cardinal Donald Wuerl was warned of allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. privacy in his handling of the allegation in 2004.

“Bishop Wuerl adhered to Mr. Ciolek’s request for confidentiality, and the Archdiocese understands that Mr. Ciolek also expressed his gratitude with how the Diocese of Pittsburgh handled his allegations,” the D.C. Archdiocese wrote in a Jan. 10 news release.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group for survivors of institutional sexual abuse, is calling for the Catholic Church to punish Wuerl for his compliance in covering up McCarrick’s abuse and later denial.

“If other American prelates are as disgusted with the abuse crisis as they claim, they should publicly demand that the Vatican excommunicate not only

Wuerl but every other official who has ignored, minimized, or covered-up allegations of child sex abuse,” SNAP wrote in a Jan. 14 news release.

The recent development comes after Pope Francis accepted Wuerl’s resignation from the position of D.C. archbishop in October after a Pennsylvania grand jury report revealed Wuerl’s mishandling of cases of sexual abuse during his time as bishop of Pittsburgh.

McCarrick was suspended from ministry last June and resigned from the College of Cardinals in July, the first cardinal to resign from the advisory group due to allegations of sexual abuse. He is currently being tried by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the judicial arm of the Vatican.

University Administrators Address Title IX Concerns at Town Hall MEENA MORAR Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University administrators rebuked proposed changes to Title IX regulations at a town hall hosted by Students Taking Action Against Interpersonal Violence, a campus student group dedicated to advocating against sexual misconduct, on Tuesday.

On Nov. 16, the U.S. Department of Education released proposed changes to Title IX regulations that include the redefinition of sexual harassment under Title IX and raising the standard of proof necessary in Title IX hearings.

In response Georgetown hosted 10 in-person feedback sessions across its campuses in Washington, D.C., between Dec. 3 and 19 to provide a forum for students to voice their thoughts on the Department of Education’s proposed changes to Title IX regulations.

The feedback sessions, however, left many students uncertain of how the university would respond to their concerns, according to STAIV member Fiona Singer (SFS ’20). The university’s ambiguity has led STAIV to seek another forum to clarify how the university intends to proceed.

“We felt that creating a forum where STAIV would be able to ask and follow up on a lot of the topics and issues that were raised in the listening sessions would be a really valuable tool for the work that we’re interested in pursuing,” Singer said in an interview with The Hoya.

The panel included Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Director of the Office of Student Conduct Judy Johnson, vice president for institutional diversity and equity Rosemary Kilkenny, associate director of Health Education Services Jen Schweer, and Title IX investigator Samantha Berner. Berner has also been serving as the interim Title IX coordinator since

Laura Cutaway vacated the position in August 2018.

Georgetown plans on opposing the proposed changes in the proposed regulations for limiting action the university can take against sexual assaulters on campus, according to Olson.

“We believe that Title IX coordinators should be able to proceed with a complaint when there are multiple reports against the same respondent without requiring the individuals to be cross-examined,” Olson said. “We believe that we need to act when we know as an institution, or reasonably should know.”

The proposed Title IX regulations would treat educational institutions like courts of law to the detriment of survivors of sexual assault at Georgetown, according to Olson.

“We care deeply at Georgetown about fair grievance procedures,” Olson said. “By narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and by requiring colleges to implement courtroom-like procedures, we believe the proposed regulations will deter reporting, will allow misconduct to go unaddressed, and will make students feel less safe and be less safe.”

The new definition requires “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” conduct to be perceived as sexual harassment, whereas the previous definition only required one of the three conditions.

The Education Department’s proposal also mandates that investigations of formal complaints be held to a higher legal standard of proof, which would make taking disciplinary action against accused students harder for universities. The previous standard used in Title IX hearings required only that the alleged action more likely than not took place, while the new standard requires “clear and convincing” evidence that a violation occurred.

Multiple students present

at the feedback sessions and at the town hall expressed concern over the new definition of “sexual harassment” as well as the introduction of proposed regulations requiring cross-examination of accused students and survivors as well as the higher standard of proof.

The university hopes to finish its draft of comments to the regulations by the middle of next week, according to Kilkenny.

The comment period for the proposed Title IX regulations ends on Jan. 28. STAIV member, and Emma Oechsner (COL ’21) said the group still feels the administration’s response is lacking, as Georgetown has not yet published its formal comment.

Administrators promised students they would have the opportunity to read before it is submitted to the Education Department.

Students have also criticized Georgetown for its handling of recent cases of sexual misconduct on campus.

Students wrote an Aug. 31 letter criticizing the university for having Berner serve as both a Title IX investigator and coordinator following the departure of Laura Cutaway, the previous Title IX coordinator. Following a Nov. 8 op-ed and a Nov. 13 letter to the editor that outlined specific instances in which the university did not meet survivors’ needs, Georgetown Survivors formed to offer new support networks to survivors of sexual assault.

According to Georgetown’s 2016 Sexual Assault and Misconduct Survey, 31 percent of female undergraduates and 10.8 percent of male undergraduates report having experienced sexual assault at Georgetown. A second campuswide sexual assault and

misconduct survey will be administered by the university in early 2019.

Sergeant Sarah HalprenRuder, the Sexual Assault Response Team coordinator, promised at the town hall to increase the amount of sexual assault training from two hours to eight hours for all GUPD officers. Halpren-Ruder promised Sexual Assault Response and Prevention officers will obtain at least 40 hours of training per year.

The town hall also featured an open forum designed particularly for students from minority groups on campus to ask questions, according to STAIV. Many students, however, voiced frustration at the administration’s deferral of many questions to Health Education Services.

“I was disappointed that it was either Jen Schweer talking about what Health Education Services does or

other members of the panel reflecting back on Health Education Services,” Singer said. “I feel that the institution should make an effort more holistically — it makes me feel there is a few very talented people in one office in campus, but I would like to feel as a student that the entire administration is committed to making students feel safe on campus.”

Despite these complaints, the town hall provided a welcome continuation of the conversations started in the feedback sessions, Singer said.

“I was really grateful that there was a conversation that felt very productive,” Singer said. “I felt that the administration was more transparent than they had been prior, and I did think the event ended with a pretty strong list of commitments that we can follow up and maintain conversation on.”

DENNIS KIM FOR THE HOYA

Campus student group Students Taking Action Against Interpersonal Violence held a town hall Tuesday addressing concerns about the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed changes to Title IX regulations, including the redefinition of sexual harassment.

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Abortion Opponents Alter Narrative Students Report Fringe Group Encounters

STAND FOR LIFE from A1

order to be equal,” Murphy said. “Anyone who needs violence in order to succeed in life is ultimately anti-human and, in this case, extremely misogynistic.”

Greenwood and Murphy’s message to anti-abortion women is that abortion access does not equal the progression of women’s rights.

“Abortion is not empowering to women,” Greenwood said in an interview with The Hoya.

Violence in the form of abortion contributes to oppression, Purvis said, drawing parallels to the systemic racism faced by black people during the Civil Rights Movement.

“When you think about the Civil Rights Movement and the violence that people endured just to say, ‘I am a man, I deserve just the same things as everybody else,’ the kind of violence they endured because people wanted to keep them down,” Purvis said. “In this case, they say that women have to use violence on children, the unborn, in order to achieve our equality.”

In the spirit of combating male-dominated culture, women must embrace preg-

nancy as something that is exclusively feminine, Purvis said.

“If you want to talk about misogyny, then what is more misogynistic than to say maleness is the pattern for female perfection,” Purvis said. “Male bodies, as a consequence of sex, don’t get pregnant. We do. And to make that the problem and then to suggest violence to the woman and to the body within her is a problem.”

Bipartisan support for legislation like the Pregnant Women in Custody Act would give more resources to pregnant women and support them in carrying their pregnancies to term, according to Foster. The Pregnant Women in Custody Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2018, would provide prenatal care to incarcerated pregnant women.

“Let’s get the Pregnant Women in Custody Act done.

Let’s get these things, let’s start checking off the list and talking to people,” Foster said. “We’ve had President Obama and President Trump, Republicans and Democrats work with us on different bills, and that is what we need to do in this town.”

As a student leader of The Francis Project: Hoyas for Human Dignity and Life, a project that strives to create awareness of the Catholic understanding of human dignity, Greenwood said she has found many student pro-abortion rights organizations unwilling to participate in dialogue.

“We have found that other students on this campus, those that are most opposed to us, are not terribly interested in dialogue,” Greenwood said. “We’ve tried.

They’re not interested; they want to shout at us actually.”

In response to the event, H*yas for Choice said abortion access is a life-saving procedure that prevents high maternal mortality rates.

“We believe that abortion is a fundamental human right, and it is disappointing to see these panelists discuss ‘protecting life’ while advocating for further restricting access to life-saving procedures like abortion,” H*yas for Choice wrote in a statement to The Hoya.

Women who do not support abortion have been unfairly characterized as antiwomen, Purvis said.

“We all have been painted as anti-woman and that is completely contrary to prog-

ress,” Purvis said. “I think we say, ‘No, we are pro-women, authentically pro-women, without violence, and that includes our unborn daughters as well.’”

Abortion continues to prove itself as a divisive topic on Georgetown’s campus. A petition to ban the pro-abortion rights student group H*yas for Choice launched in November 2018. H*yas for Choice remains unrecognized by the university and thus does not receive financial support from Georgetown. Georgetown University Right to Life also had its antiabortion chalk display in Red Square defaced in 2016.

Though abortion is a tense topic, many Georgetown students are open to learning more about the anti-abortion mission, according to Greenwood.

“My main surprise, just in my daily life and the people that I know through classes and through freshman dorms, is how many people are in the middle,” Greenwood said. “That’s a really important area that we oftentimes forget to work on: how to draw these people in, because it’s kind of natural to find something off-putting about the prospect of having to kill children.”

WMSCOG, from A1 about this,” Gruber said.

“This activity, although unwanted, does not pose a danger to the community.”

Religious groups regularly visit campus during the semester, whether they are working with campus ministry or not, according to Oskvig.

“While this group has made, now, multiple appearances on campus, this isn’t the only group that we’ve had that sort of shows up,” Oskvig said.

The religious fringe group hung flyers across campus, including in Red Square and the Leavey Center, according to Nelise Jeffrey, office coordinator for the theology department. The flyers were bright yellow and featured clip art, phrases in both English and Korean, and an invitation to a Bible study, according to Jef-

frey.

Encounters with individuals proselytizing the religious fringe “God the Mother” concept have not been limited to Georgetown’s campus. Maddie Chu, a freshman at American University, was also approached on her school’s campus Nov. 29 by a young man and woman who asked her if she had heard about the concept of “God the Mother.”

Students who wish to report interactions with religious groups on campus (both Georgetown- and nonGeorgetown-affiliated) are encouraged to contact the Office of Campus Ministry by email at campusministry@ georgetown.edu.

If students feel at all unsafe in these interactions, they are encouraged to immediately contact GUPD by phone (202-687-4343) or through the LiveSafe app.

Parker Reconciles Christianity With Abortion

CHAD GRIFFITH KARLA LEYJA/THE HOYA

The Georgetown University Student Association ways and means committee considered a proposal for a student referendum, which would ask students to consider a fee that would go toward reparations for descendants of the GU272.

GU272 Referendum Under Consideration GU 272, from A1 Legacy of the GU272 Alliance.

The reconciliation contribution bill was inspired by the history of the student activities fee that is included in the cost of attendance, created by Georgetown students in 1999, according to Appel.

The committee voted Tuesday to make the reconciliation contribution as a stand-alone fee, instead of tying it to the student activities fee as it was originally proposed.

Senators present expressed their support for the referendum and agreed the topic deserved further deliberation.

In the days since, committee members and team members have continued discussing further details on the semesterly fee and the establishment structures that would determine allocation of the reparations.

Moving forward, discussions need to focus on the opinions and experiences of the descendants of the GU272, Michael said.

“The wrong that was done in the 1838 sale can’t be amended without making sure that that’s the center of any work that we do,” Michael said in an interview with The Hoya.

The GU272 advocacy team

met Thursday night to continue discussions on the referendum, but Appel and Michael declined to comment on what details they anticipated further deliberations would address.

Mélisande Short-Colomb (COL ’21), a descendant of the GU272 who was present at the Tuesday meeting, said the referendum is an opportunity for redress.

“We are here tonight because current Georgetown University students have the opportunity to address and provide funding in a way that has not that has not been done in any other university in the United States or in the world,” Short-Colomb said at the meeting. “It is a student demonstration that students are willing to make a statement.”

Talks around the referendum will resume next week as senators discuss guidelines for the reconciliation contribution, as well as the creation of a specific structure for the GU272 Reconciliation Board of Trustees, which would oversee how reparations benefitted GU272 descendants.

The senate talks are part of a wider discussion of university efforts to address Georgetown’s historical dependence on slavery. In 2015,

the university created the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation to address this history and the GU272 specifically. The Working Group’s 2016 report outlined recommendations for how the university should proceed, including the recommendation of financial aid for the descendant community.

Though the university has apologized for its role in the sale of the 272 slaves to plantations in Louisiana and named buildings on campus after Isaac Hawkins and Anne Marie Becraft, the first name listed on the 1838 bill of sale and the founder of one of the first schools for black girls in Georgetown respectively, Georgetown has not created financial aid initiatives for descendants, despite their requests for such aid.

Georgetown history professor Adam Rothman, who was a member of the working group, was supportive of the student discussions.

“I’m excited to see that the students are thinking about Georgetown history and their relationship to it,” Rothman said. “I’m all in favor of conversations that flow from that.”

Georgetown is engaged in dialogue with the descendant community and the Society of

Jesus as it continues to consider other recommendations from the working group, according to university spokesperson Matt Hill.

“We appreciate the engagement and support of students and GUSA and will continue to consult with students and other members of the university community as we work in partnership with Descendants on a process that recognizes the terrible legacy of slavery and promotes racial justice in southern Louisiana, southern Maryland and throughout the nation,” Hill wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The relationship between the GU272 and the university ought to be incorporated into more of Georgetown’s curriculum to ensure broader awareness among the student body, Rothman said.

“The more we can do to elevate the consciousness of our own history around campus, the better. I’d like to see classes that devote some attention to this history — not just in history classes, but in philosophy classes, theology classes, business classes and art classes,” Rothman said.

“Some of that is going on already, but I think that in some cases, students can take it upon themselves.”

Christian OB-GYN and reproductive rights advocate Dr. Willie Parker spoke in the Healey Family Student Center Jan. 16.

PARKER, from A1 Parker serves on the boards of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and URGE and chairs the board of Physicians for Reproductive Health.

Religion should not dictate reproductive policy as it has in the past, Parker said.

“The problem with religion influencing policy is that religion is too prolific in a nation where religious freedom is guaranteed,” Parker said. “Religious pluralism means that we cannot have policies that govern us all determined by something so subjective.”

Outside of political policies, religion should play a role in the debate about abortion, according to Parker.

“Science without morals and ethics is dangerous, and religion or sentimentality without evidence and scientific reality is dangerous,” Parker said.

Those who oppose the legality of abortion in the United States contradict the fundamental U.S. value of individual freedom, according to Parker.

“Patrick Henry said, ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ and that was a rallying cry for the revolution that founded this country,” Parker said. “So I don’t know why it’s such a reach for us to understand why a woman’s willing to die trying to live on her own terms versus being forced to live on the terms of someone else.”

Parker’s lecture was cosponsored by pro-abortion rights student group H*yas For Choice and Georgetown University College

Democrats. The event included reserved seating for members of both H*yas for Choice and anti-abortion student organization Georgetown Right to Life.

Georgetown University Police Department officers checked the bags of all attendees and officers stood around the perimeter of the room during the event.

Parker addressed comments made by panelists at the Stand for Life event hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and the Office of Mission and Ministry. Parker rebuked the idea that abortion is a form of violence towards women in an interview with The Hoya, instead insisting abortion empowers women to protect their lives.

“To say abortion is anti-feminist is like saying black people opposing racism is racist. They can say that if they have a very narrow and rigid understanding of what is appropriate to women,” Parker said. “There is an internal inconsistency with saying that something that is so critical to the existence of women is antifeminist.”

Parker addressed student activists in the room, commending H*yas for Choice’s advocacy for reproductive health despite a petition to ban its activities on campus. The group remains unrecognized by the university and does not receive financial support from Georgetown.

“The notion and the very idea of a group and an organization at Georgetown University called H*yas for Choice inspires me,” Parker said.

NEWS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

GU Cleans Dorms After Mold Outbreak MYROSLAV DOBROSHYNSKYI Hoya Staff Writer

The Office of Planning and Facilities Management is responding to a significant increase in student concerns about mold by cleaning dorms with high rates of moisture-related problems, as universities nationwide address mold infestation in campus buildings.

Between Dec. 21 and Jan. 9, facilities conducted cleanings and inspections of on-campus buildings that were exposed to high amounts of moisture and mold last semester, according to Benjamin Kuo, vice president of planning and facilities management.

“We conducted deep cleaning of all private bathrooms in our residence halls, oncampus apartments and offcampus townhouses, as well as larger communal bathrooms in the dormitories, approximately 920 bathrooms total,” Kuo wrote in an email to The Hoya.

In addition, 148 bathrooms received extra cleaning to ensure that tile and grout areas were free of mold, according to Kuo. Facilities responded to 361 mold-related work requests between August and October last year, more than double the number reported during that time frame in 2017.

All the bathrooms of Village A and Henle Village apartments were treated with Saniglaze, a sealing process to clean and maintain tile and grout, according to an email sent to the Georgetown community members Wednesday.

The university also hired outside contractors to inspect the dorms with increased reports of moisture and mold build-up, according to Kuo. Eastern Research Group, an industrial hygienist firm, searched for mold and mea-

sured air conditions in affected dorms.

Addressing reports of mold is a university priority and students are encouraged to contact the Student Health Center should they have any concerns about mold affecting their health, according to Geoffrey Chatas, Georgetown senior vice president and chief operating officer.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and respond to recommendations from ERG’s final report to ensure a safe learning, working and living environment for our campus community,” Chatas wrote in the Wednesday email.

Historic amounts of rainfall contributed to increased mold in on-campus dorms, with the greatest number of requests coming from students living in Village C, Darnall Hall and Village A. Several students became ill after exposure to black mold in their dormitories last semester. Students reported contracting bronchitis, as well as experiencing difficulty breathing, coughing, lightheadedness, fatigue and congestion. Exposure to mold can lead to itchy eyes and skin, upper respiratory problems and nasal stuffiness, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Facilities conducted air quality assessments in Village C East, Village C West and Darnall Hall before winter break, according to a Dec. 3 email sent to residents of the three dorms. Facilities staff conducted visual inspections of each student dormitory room as well as the common rooms.

Members of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee urged the university to protect facilities workers responsible for the removal and cleanup of mold in a letter delivered

MSB Relaxes Grading Curve, Seeks Collaboration KAREEDA KABIR Special to The Hoya

KIKI SCHMALFUSS/THE HOYA

In response to a steep rise in mold reported in dormitories, Georgetown conducted cleanings of approximately 920 bathrooms. to University President John J. DeGioia on Dec. 6. Workers were exposed to harsh chemical cleaners such as bleach during mold remediation efforts, often without proper training, according to GSC. Other colleges in the Washington, D.C. area have also experienced issues with mold because of unprecedented amounts of rainfall and poorly maintained buildings.

Last September, more than 500 students at the University of Maryland, College Park, were relocated to hotels after mold was discovered throughout a freshman dorm. Inci-

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dents of mold in living areas have also been reported at nearby universities, including American University and The George Washington University.

The increase in reports of mold is not limited to colleges in the region: Indiana University at Bloomington is among many universities nationwide that experienced an increase in mold-related problems last semester, according to the Indiana Daily Student. IU is facing a class action lawsuit that alleges the university did not do enough to remove mold in two freshman dorms.

The mean grade point average in all undergraduate courses taken in the McDonough School of Business will now be capped at 3.5 out of 4.0 in an effort to decrease competition among students.

This new grading policy will affect core and elective courses across all majors, in addition to Georgetown’s MBA program, and will take effect in the spring 2019 semester, according to a Jan. 7 email from Patricia Grant, MSB senior associate dean, announcing the update to MSB students. The former policy, which had been in place since 2009, dictated that the average GPA in any MSB core class could not exceed 3.3.

The MSB’s decision comes after a monthslong initiative to address concerns about unintended consequences of the previous grading policy, such as increased competition, reduced collaboration and adverse effects on employment and graduate school admissions compared to universities where such a policy does not exist, according to an email announcing the update to MSB students.

The MSB’s executive council, which includes the school’s faculty and senior administrators, as well as student representatives, decided upon the new policy in November 2018, according to the MSB website.

Professors are able to request an exemption to the grading policy on the basis of exceptional reasons, such as a small class size or high levels of selfselection into the class, accord-

ing to the email.

Former Deputy Dean of the MSB Professor Ricardo Ernst was a strong advocate of implementing the previous curve until he saw the negative consequences the strict curve had on students’ willingness to collaborate.

“The element of competition is always healthy, but you should not push it to the limit,” Ernst said in an interview with The Hoya. “One of the beauties of Georgetown is that our students, at the end of the day, many times they become friends. Having the curve implemented too tightly destroys that very important part of the learning process, which is cooperation among classmates.”

Paul Dougherty (MSB ’20) believes students’ academic attitudes will not be affected by a change in the grading system.

“I am not so sure that it will change the level of ‘competition’ people talk about when it comes to the MSB,” Dougherty said. “The way I see it, people will continue to put in their best effort and the result of the curve will simply be a different way of measuring the same academic process and relative performance that has always occurred.”

The new policy is likely to not affect students on a dayto-day basis, since the grading curve only comes into effect at the end of the course, according to Dougherty.

“The curve only comes into effect once final grades are solidified, and thus does not affect a student’s perception of their standing in a class until it is too late to change the level of effort they are putting in,” Dougherty said.

Hoya Hub Serves Food-Insecure Students in Opening Months EMMA WENZINGER Hoya Staff Writer

The Hoya Hub, an oncampus food pantry, has expanded to 130 signups in the three months since its opening, but more may be utilizing the pantry, as the Hoya Hub does not track exact usage statistics.

The pantry opened in October 2018 following a 2016 Georgetown University Student Association survey in which 54 percent of respondents reported experiencing food insecurity on campus.

The Hoya Hub seeks to alleviate food insecurity on campus by providing food through its on-campus location in the Leavey Center.

The Hoya Hub encourages pantry users to indicate their use of the pantry through an online form, but completion of the form is not necessary to obtain the access code to the pantry.

Of the pantry users who filled out the voluntary form, 66 percent are undergraduate students, 25 percent are graduate students and 9 percent are staff or alumni. Class breakdowns were roughly even across the four years of undergraduates, with juniors accessing the pantry most and sophomores the least.

Sixty-six percent of students who completed the form said they did not have a campus meal plan.

Georgetown can do more to address food insecurity on campus beyond offering the food pantry as a resource, Research and Writing Fellow at Food Tank Katherine Walla (SFS ’19) said.

Georgetown could re-evaluate whether its meal plans, which offer varying amounts of meal swipes and flex dollars, leave students with sufficient funds for food, Walla said.

Graduate students face a different set of financial circumstances than undergraduate students, with low stipends or hourly wages that do not extend into the summer months, according to Chad Frazier, a Ph.D. candidate in the history department and member of the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees organizing committee, the leadership committee for the graduate student union.

“So what happens is you have to make a living and make ends meet,” Frazier said. “And the way a lot of grad students do that is by

skipping a meal.”

GAGE worked with the Hoya Hub to spread awareness about the pantry among graduate students, Frazier said, citing a disconnect between graduate students and campus resources. GAGE also helped hold a food drive for the pantry.

Efforts to reach out to Georgetown staff, such as translating Hoya Hub promotional materials into Spanish, also resulted in a quick uptick in the use of the pantry by staff members, according to Hoya Hub chair Caroline Barnes (COL ’19).

In a continued attempt to move beyond the nonperishable food items offered by the pantry, the Hoya Hub partnered with The Tavern, Sweetgreen’s indoor farmers market, to provide students with $10 coupons for fresh produce.

Through this partnership, the Hoya Hub hopes provide healthy, balanced meals to students, according to Barnes.

“We’re really trying to push, instead of just snacking, a whole, sustainable meal, especially for those who don’t have a meal plan,” Barnes said.

At The George Washington University, students are set to launch a program called Last Call For Food on Jan. 28, which discounts food at campus locations toward the end of the day for students experiencing food insecurity.

The program’s leaders are planning to expand to Georgetown and American University, according to LCFF co-founder and GWU senior Chloe King. In December, the group began efforts to expand to Hilltoss, the salad restaurant in the Healey Family Student Center owned by Students of Georgetown, Inc., commonly known as the Corp, according to King.

Beyond providing donated or discounted food, increased awareness of students’ eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could potentially help alleviate food insecurity, according to Walla.

A recent Government Accountability Office report found almost 2 million lowincome students may have been eligible for SNAP but were not receiving the benefits.

Yet eligibility issues can arise for students who are enrolled in college more than half time, according to

HOYA HUB

Since the food pantry Hoya Hub opened in October 2018, 130 people have signed up, including undergraduate students, graduate students, staff and alumni. Nearly two-thirds of registered students said they do not have a campus meal plan.

Walla.

“If you’re enrolled over half-time, you’re not eligible because you’re assumed to have your parents’ financial support or support from colleges,” Walla said. “But, as we know, that’s not the case.”

Many full-time students may remain unaware of exceptions that could make them eligible, such as working more than 20 hours per week.

The GAO report recommended that the Food and Nutrition Service provide clarification for college students on eligibility.

Once the Hoya Hub obtained a location in the Leavey Center in September, the group raised the necessary funds to open the following month through SaxaFund, Georgetown’s student-run crowdfunding platform.

The Hoya Hub has raised $1,625 of its $3,000 goal through its page on SaxaFund. The group also has

an official Georgetown donation page. A range of students, professors, alumni and family members have donated, according to Barnes.

In December, the Hoya Hub received a $5,000 grant from the Masonic and Eastern Star Home Charities for 2019.

Barnes expressed hope that the grant would be renewed for the following year, and that a combination of grants and donations would sustain the effort going forward.

Space, rather than funds, is the Hoya Hub’s greatest challenge going forward, according to Barnes. Although Barnes plans to continue to advocate for more space for the Hoya Hub on campus, she estimates expansion could take more than one year.

“I think the Hoya Hub is going to be a fixture on campus moving forward,” Barnes said. “I just don’t know with the existing space we have on campus whether that will be realistic even in the next year or so.”

AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA

Hoya Hub saw an uptick in usage by Georgetown staff members after translating promotional materials into Spanish.

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THE HOYA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

DC Law Banning Single-Use Plastic Straws Takes Effect

DC Experiences Record-High Homicide Rates Early in 2019

CADY STANTON

DUSTIN HARTUV

Hoya Staff Writer

New requirements banning businesses or organizations in Washington, D.C., from providing single-use plastic straws and stirrers when selling food or beverages took effect Jan. 1.

The Department of Energy and Environment began reviewing businesses for compliance and issuing unofficial warnings at the start of the month. After July 1, businesses found providing plastic straws and stirrers will be sent a notification of their first violation.

Subsequent violations will incur fines between $100 and $800.

The ban is part of the District’s long term goal to reduce the amount of landfill waste by 80 percent, according to Zachary Rybarczyk, an environmental protection specialist with the DOEE. “We hope to take a small step towards achieving the District’s overall waste reduction goals, while also educating residents, businesses, and organizations about our reliance on single-use plastics and the growing number of alternatives available on the market,” Rybarczyk wrote in an email to The Hoya.

In compliance with the new regulations, Students of Georgetown, Inc., commonly known as The Corp, is set to replace one-use plastic straws with compostable plastic straws at its seven storefronts.

The organization began to

work with suppliers to implement the change following the city’s announcement of the ban last year, according to Alex Gong (SFS ’20), CEO and president of The Corp.

The straw ban supplements the Corp’s ongoing efforts toward becoming more ecologically sustainable, which include only providing plastic lids to customers upon request at select locations and offering discounts to customers who use their own reusable containers, according to Gong.

“Currently, all of our hot cups are compostable and our iced drink cups are recyclable,” Gong wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We’ve historically been ahead of the curve in using sustainable materials and are happy to hear that the D.C. government is requiring all businesses to adopt similar practices.”

Under the Sustainable D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2014, District businesses and organizations are required to only use food service ware specified in the Mayor’s “List of Recyclables and Compostables.”

In October, the Mayor’s List was updated to specifically exclude single-use plastic straws and stirrers from the list of allowable items. The new policy went into effect Jan. 1.

The updated regulation makes D.C. the second major U.S. city to pass a plastic straw ban after Seattle’s restriction went into effect last July.

The DOEE suggests businesses replace plastic straws

and stirrers with straws made of materials such as paper or plant fiber.

To offset the cost of replacing plastic straws with straws made of more expensive material, the department recommends that businesses only provide compliant straws to customers upon request.

In its recommendation, the DOEE also suggests that businesses can offset expenses by passing some or all of the additional cost onto their customers.

Local businesses in the D.C.Maryland-Virginia area, including Farmers Fishers Bakers and Sweetgreen, had already chosen to eliminate their usage of plastic straws as part of the “Our Last Straw” initiative, a coalition of restaurants and businesses seeking to eliminate single-use plastic straws that launched in 2018.

The Farmers restaurants switched to paper straws in 2016 and added hay straws in 2018 after using single-use compostable drinking straws from 2008 to 2016, according to Julie Sharkey, director of marketing operations for Farmers Restaurant Group.

“Farmers Restaurant Group has always held sustainability and thoughtful sourcing at the forefront of our mission and goals,” Sharkey wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The hospitality industry is one of the largest purveyors of single-use plastic straws, and so it was a natural next step to spearhead this cause.”

Hoya Staff Writer

Washington, D.C., experienced 12 homicides as of Jan. 17, more than double the number reported at this time in 2018, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

The homicide data follows the deadliest year in D.C. in a decade, with the exception of 2015, according to MPD’s website.

Increases in the District’s homicide numbers do not typically affect Georgetown because of the low frequency of crime in Ward 2, according to Georgetown University Police Department Chief Jay Gruber. GUPD has not yet released its crime statistics for 2018, but a 2017 report shows there were no homicides in the area.

The rise in homicides in the D.C. area can be attributed to an increased use of guns in crimes, according to MPD Deputy Communications Director Kristen Metzger. Most homicides occurred as a result of disputes between acquaintances, according to Metzger.

“The rise in homicides are a result of the frequent use of guns in crimes and more fatal outcomes when a shooting occurs,” Metzger wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The majority of homicides in DC are a result of petty disputes between known parties where a gun is introduced, which leads to someone being killed.”

D.C.’s 160 homicides in 2018 were concentrated in District Wards 5, 7 and 8. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) provided additional resources to District Wards 7 and 8 in response to the rise in violent crime, according to a May 28 news release. As a result of Bowser’s actions, MPD in-

RICHARD SCHOFIELD/THE HOYA

Twelve Washington, D.C. homicides have occurred since Jan, 1, 2019. The MPD attributed the rise to an increase in gun use in crimes. creased its staffing levels by 25 percent in the Wards 6 and 7, and resources from non-law enforcement agencies were deployed around each ward.

The District will continue its partnership with local law enforcement in an effort to reduce the number of homicides in 2019, according to Bowser.

“With precision policing targeted at illegal guns and repeat violent offenders; with strengthened resolve of our federal law enforcement partners; and with a focus on greater economic opportunity, we will reverse this year’s homicide spike in our city,” Bowser said in a Jan. 2 news release.

The Georgetown community has experienced instances of violent crime in the past. In Oct. 2018, a woman was shot while she was sitting in the passenger seat of a car at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue

and Water Street in Georgetown, sustaining injuries that were not life-threatening. The shooting was not random, according to Dustin Sternbeck, MPD communications director.

Wendy Martinez (GRD ’12) was fatally stabbed while jogging in Logan Circle in Sept.

2018. MPD suspect the attack was random, according to CBS News.

MPD encourages D.C. residents to be vigilant and report all suspicious activity to prevent crime, according to MPD Public Affairs Specialist Alaina Gertz.

“It has always been a priority that DC Police safeguard the District and we will continue to do so,” Gertz wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Residents of the District are urged to be vigilant and follow the motto, ‘If you see something, say something.’”

Bowser Announces Initiative To Reduce Opioid Overdoses MEREDITH MILLER Hoya Staff Writer

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed a bill that would make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. If the bill passes, D.C. residents would gain voting representation in Congress.

Pelosi Joins 155 Cosponsors Of DC Statehood Bill in House CONNOR THOMAS Hoya Staff Writer

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democratic leaders endorsed the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would make D.C. the 51st state in the United States.

The District’s non-voting representative in Congress, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), introduced the bill on Jan. 3 with 155 original cosponsors, setting the record for a bill introduced on the first day of Congress.

Pelosi issued a statement Jan. 4 expressing support for the bill. H.R. 51 will allow D.C. residents the same representation in Congress that residents of states are afforded, Pelosi said.

“The right to vote and to equal representation is the foundation of our freedom and a core pillar of our democracy,” Pelosi said in the news release.

“For too long, the residents of the District of Columbia have served our nation in uniform, paid taxes and contributed to the economic power and success of our country while being denied the full enfranchisement that is their right.”

Under current law, Norton and the five delegates representing Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands can only vote when the whole House votes and when the House is controlled

by Democrats, according to The Washington Post. However, if the delegates change the result of a vote, that result is ignored and a new vote is taken.

The house has not voted

on D.C. statehood since 1993, when the bill failed 153-277, according to The Washington Post.

Norton and other D.C. officials such as Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) have long advocated for statehood, most recently including a March 2017 bill introduced to the 115th Congress. The House did not vote on the bill even though it received support from a supermajority of Democrats. In a November 2016 referendum on statehood, over 80 percent of D.C. residents voted in favor of the measure, but no legislative changes followed.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform will hold a hearing and markup on the D.C. Statehood Bill later this year, according to a press release from Norton’s office. The bill has also received support from Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of House Oversight, who cited the need to protect all citizens’ rights as his reason for backing the bill in a news release.

“We must protect the rights of everyone across the country, including the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who live in our nation’s capital,” Cummings said. “I plan to schedule a hearing and markup this year in the Oversight Committee.”

Congresswoman Norton expressed gratitude for the record level of support for D.C. statehood in a Jan. 3 press release, noting the hearing and markup as a way to increase exposure for the issue.

“A hearing and markup will provide a prime opportunity to inform and remind Americans

that over 700,000 of their fellow citizens who live in the nation’s capital are denied their basic democratic rights,” Norton said.

Due to lack of representation for residents in Congress, 11 D.C. residents filed a lawsuit in Nov. 2018 in conjunction with the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Washington, D.C.’s chapter of the national of the nonprofit social justice center.

Findings supporting D.C. statehood were also included in a bill that would significantly reform campaign finance law and voting accessibility laws introduced

by House Democrats on Jan. 3 Pelosi said the push for D.C. voting rights and statehood will accompany Democrats’ efforts to strengthen the D.C. Voting Rights Act of 2007, which Congress recognized as having the power to give voting rights to a state under the district clause.

Though new Democratic leadership has supported the bill, Republicans in the House have historically been supported measures to limit D.C.’s ability to govern itself rather than move it closer to statehood.

Georgetown University government professor Stephen Wayne expressed doubts about the success of the statehood movement due to Republican concerns about increasing the number of Democratic senators.

“If the District had two senators, that would increase to 102 the number of senators and that would give the Democrats two more. Republicans are going to oppose that,” Wayne said in a 2016 interview with The Hoya.

“Every one of the states would feel that they’re going to be losing a little power if two more senators are added.”

A Washington, D.C. initiative, LIVE.LONG.DC., aims to reduce District opioid overdoses by 50 percent by 2020, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced.

Opioid overdoses are at a record high in D.C., which experienced more deaths from opioid-related overdoses than homicides in 2018.

Input from the public on the plan, announced Dec. 24, as well as past efforts to combat the epidemic, will be heard in a Jan. 28 Joint Public Oversight roundtable hosted by the D.C. Council Judiciary and Public Safety and Health committees. The mayor’s office, the Department of Behavioral Health and the Metropolitan Police Department are all set to participate in the discussion.

The plan outlines seven measures, which call for support of resources for addiction prevention and recovery, increases in public health education and collaboration with law enforcement.

Though the administration is seeking to increase joint efforts with law enforcement, the majority of efforts within the plan concentrate on the treatment of opioid addiction as a health issue instead of a legal one, according to Sean Barry, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services’ communications director.

“The partnership with law enforcement is critical, but fundamentally, Mayor Bowser and her team approach this as a public health crisis,” Barry said in an interview with The Hoya.

Measures in the LLDC plan will be funded by federal grants, including a $21 million State Opioid Response grant and a $21 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Amid this new initiative, the D.C. government faces an audit by the federal government for previously failing to implement federally funded programs designed to combat the opioid crisis, according to The Washington Post. Federal officials will reassess the city’s plans for the $21 million grant as part of the audit, according to Jack Goldberg, SAMHSA’s financial director.

At this time, it is unclear whether the audit will impact

funding for LLDC, though D.C. Councilmember Vincent Gray has expressed concern that the audit will jeopardize the status of the grant, according to The Washington Post.

Critics have pointed out that aspects of LLDC are a continuation of previous government policies that have failed to prevent increases in deaths over the past year, according to The Washington Post. The Bowser administration said its plan is based off of the practical experience that has been gathered since it began tackling the problem of opioidrelated deaths, according to a representative from Bowser’s office.

Bowser has previously opposed legislation that would require police officers to carry naloxone, a drug that counters opioid overdoses, citing redundancy and increased costs as D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, which also respond to overdose calls, carry naloxone.

Her position is being challenged by a new bill introduced by the D.C. Council which would require officers in Wards 5, 7 and 8 — areas most affected by the opioid issue — to carry the drug.

D.C. has one of the highest rates of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States at 30 deaths per 100,000 persons. The opioid crisis is the worst public health crisis to affect the city since the HIV/

AIDS epidemic after a 210 percent increase in drug overdoses from 2014 to 2017, according to The Washington Post.

81 percent of people who overdosed from opioids between 2014 and 2017 were black. During the same threeyear window, 80 percent of deaths occurred in people aged 40 to 69.

These statistics differ from nationwide trends, as well as the national narrative that opioid deaths have been increasing mainly among young, white, suburban Americans.

The plan aims to address the specific problems present in the community as opposed to targeting nationwide trends, according to Bowser.

“We know that the opioid epidemic in our city looks different than how the epidemic is talked about nationwide,” Bowser said in the Dec. 24 news release. “This plan was created in response to the specific needs of our community and focuses our resources on increasing awareness and prevention, enhancing treatment offerings and strengthening recovery supports.”

The LLDC program originated at a summit that convened in Oct. 2017, which led to the creation of seven opioid strategy groups. Leadership for these groups was finalized in April 2018. All OSGs meet quarterly, with the next summit planned for later this month.

SPENCER COOK FOR THE HOYA

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced a new initiative to reduce opioid-overdose related deaths in Washington, D.C.

NEWS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

THE HOYA

A9

Pelosi Family Endows Former GU Professor Public Service Scholarship Fr. Charles Currie, SJ, Dies ANYA HOWKO-JOHNSON Special to The Hoya

Chair of the SFS Board of Advisors Paul Pelosi (SFS ’62) and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi donated $1.6 million toward expanding the career development programming of the newly renamed and endowed Paul F. Pelosi Public Service Scholars Program.

Formerly known as the Walsh Scholars Initiative, the Pelosi Scholars Program plans to double the number of participants it accepts to between 10 and 15 undergraduates per year, according to a Jan. 10 Georgetown University press release. The program seeks to aid students pursuing careers in public service through financial support for summer internships, mentorship and professional development.

This financial support also enables students to take civil service and nonprofit internships despite the fact that many of them are unpaid, Walsh School of Foreign Service Dean Joel Hellman said.

“It has created an opportunity for students of all different backgrounds and financial means to confidently take public service internships and not worry how they’re going to get housing and food and pocket money,” Hellman said in an interview with The Hoya.

“What students do in the summer has a very big impact on the kinds of career paths that they choose.”

In addition to stipends for

their internships, students have access to sessions in job training, professional development, networking and mentorship. The program also allows students to shadow Georgetown alumni working in the public sector to learn more about the field.

The Walsh Scholars Initiative was founded in 2015 by Megan Murday, the President of the School of Foreign Service Academic Council at the time. Noting that unpaid internships in the public sector might exclude students from pursuing careers in public service, Murday and the council devised the program to help students pursue public service internships without sacrificing financial stability.

With its new endowment, the Pelosi Scholars Program can not only provide more resources to its students, but can also expand to include up to 15 students for each admitted class.

Paul Pelosi had been interested in the Walsh Scholars Program as his tenure as chair came to a close, according to Hellman, due to the program’s lack of permanent funding.

“When we told him about the Walsh Scholars Program, and that what we really needed to do was endow the program so that it would become a permanent feature of the SFS landscape and expand the program, he was very excited because it fit with the spirit of his own service to the university and his family’s service to the country,” Hellman said.

Paul Pelosi has maintained a close relationship with the university after his graduation, holding the longest tenure as the Chair of the SFS Board of Advisors and having sent both his children to Georgetown.

Speaker Pelosi said the program provides students with an important connection to the international world.

“The mission of this program is to equip students with the professional experience, confidence and opportunity to address the most pressing international challenges of our time,” Nancy Pelosi said in a statement to Georgetown University. “Indeed, to advance Georgetown values, and make the world a better place!”

This program compliments the mission of the SFS, Paul Pelosi said to Georgetown.

“This is so in our sweet spot to encourage young people who are interested in careers in public service. To the extent that we can facilitate that in a significant way is just really exciting to us,” Paul Pelosi said.

The program has been very popular among students, according to Hellman.

“One of the things that we heard from students was ‘we want more programs like this, we want to expand programs like this, because we want to create more opportunities to really enhance the commitment to service that was so fundamental to the founding of the school,’” Hellman said.

MASON MANDELL Hoya Staff Writer

Fr. Charles Currie, S.J., a former Georgetown University chemistry professor and special assistant to the university president, died Jan. 4 at 88 years old. Currie is remembered not only for his service to Georgetown, but for his fierce commitment to social justice.

Currie’s death comes after a recent pulmonary illness, according to his brother, Fr. Rob Currie, S.J. The Georgetown Jesuit Community held a vigil at Wolfington Hall on Jan. 11, where speakers including University President John J. DeGioia, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rosemont College President Sharon Hirsh gathered to mourn Currie’s death.

The oldest brother among five siblings, Currie was born in Philadelphia in 1930 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1950. Two of his younger brothers would go on to do the same.

Currie started his career as a chemistry professor at Georgetown in 1966, three years after being ordained as a priest in 1963. Currie also worked closely with students in pushing for equal civil rights and opposing the Vietnam War, according to his brother Rob. Though Currie left Georgetown to serve as president of Xavier University from 1972 to 1982 and of Wheeling University from 1982 to 1985, he returned to the university in 1989. In his role as special assistant to the university president, he helped plan the university’s bicentennial celebration and response to the killing of six Jesuit priests and two women in El Salvador in 1989.

The slain Jesuits had been advocating for a peace accord in the El Salvadoran civil war between left-wing rebels and the U.S. military-backed government. Currie worked with

Congressman Joe Moakley (DMass.) and his aide, current Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), in investigating the killings.

“Few individuals would have had the moral, spiritual, intellectual, practical and emotional range to go through coordinating the celebration to a complete immersion in the politics of Central America in a moment of tragedy,” DeGioia said at the vigil.

In addition to his work with the Jesuits in El Salvador, Currie also worked closely with people in poverty in Latin America.

“His perspective was always dealing with those influential in society, but always from the position and the point of view of the victims of society,” Rob Currie said in an interview with The Hoya.

Currie heavily incorporated this empathy for the poor into his work in higher Jesuit education.

“He provided a unique blend of how to have direct contact with the poor while also creating systems that are about change,” Fr. Gerard McGlone, S.J., who led the vigil, said in an interview with The Hoya. “It was like this dual sort of giftedness that we don’t see anymore, that ability to join two worlds in a common vision and mission.”

After finishing his one-year tenure as special assistant to the university, Currie went on to serve as the president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, an organization that connects 28 Jesuit institutions of higher education, including Georgetown.

As president of the AJCU, Currie oversaw the creation of JesuitNET, an online network that provides Jesuit education outside of a traditional campus. Currie later expanded this initiative in his role as executive director of Jesuit Commons, which grants degrees from Jesuit institutions to refugees across the globe.

Currie used his position at the AJCU to strengthen ties

between Jesuit education and social justice in the developing world.

In 1996, Currie led student demonstrations outside the Fort Benning, Ga., military institute, where protestors believed the Salvadoran military personnel who executed the Jesuits in 1989 were trained by the American military.

This protest developed into the Ignatian Family Teach-In, an organization that annually trains an international group of over a thousand members of Jesuit education institutions to advance social justice.

As president of AJCU, Currie also pushed for programs that bring college students in the United States to engage with the impoverished in El Salvador, Nicaragua and greater Latin America.

Currie also advocated for the elevation of women in the Catholic faith, in furtherance of his commitment to the principles of social justice and equality, according to Hirsh.

“He kept returning to the issue of women and women in the church in his actions, in his writing, his life,” Hirsh said at the vigil, citing Currie’s contribution to the book “Jesuit and Feminist Education.”

Currie also pushed for Linda LeMura’s appointment as president of Le Moyne College, where she became the first female lay president of a Jesuit university.

Currie’s influence in social justice has inspired those around him, giving him a reputation as “Charlie the do-er” for his focus on uplifting others, according to McGovern.

“He’s an example of being a man who believed that it’s not enough to talk the talk — you gotta walk the walk,” McGovern, who is going to El Salvador to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the killings, said in an interview with The Hoya. “Those of us who loved him and were inspired by him, we gotta change the world for the better.”

AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA

Georgetown University joined 64 other universities in signing an amicus brief in a lawsuit that opposes strict punishments for international students studying in the United States with expired visas.

GU Signs Amicus Brief, Challenges Strict Visa Policy MYROSLAV DOBROSHYNSKYI Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University signed onto a Dec. 21 amicus brief in a lawsuit challenging a recent immigration policy change that tightens regulations on visas for international students studying in the United States.

Under the new policy, unlawful presence begins as soon as a violation of the visa occurs rather than after a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official or judge found a violation had occurred. Former visa holders who accrue more than 180 days of unlawful presence could be penalized with re-entry bans up to 10 years.

This policy change negatively affects students and the institutions they attend, according to the amicus brief.

“America will become a less attractive destination for international students and scholars, thus making it more difficult for American institutions to continue attracting and recruiting the best international talent,” the brief reads.

Georgetown joined 64 other U.S. universities and one university system board in signing the brief, which was submitted in the case brought against Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS ’94). Guilford College, et al., v. Kirstjen Nielsen was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on Oct. 23.

Though not a party to the suit, Georgetown, in filing an amicus brief, is able offer its insight and express its strong interest in the matter. Other signatories of the brief include Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University.

The policy change came after the DHS issued a Aug. 9 memorandum instructing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to alter the way it calculates unlawful presence of exchange students and international visitors on F, J or M visas.

F visas allow international students to pursue a degree from a U.S. university, while J visas allow professors, researchers and students to visit the United States on cultural exchange programs. M visa holders can simply enter the United States multiple times as long as the visa has not expired.

President Donald Trump’s administration requested on Jan. 10 that the case be dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs themselves have not suffered any injury from the policy change.

The visa policy change, however, not only harms international students, but also institutions of higher education by affecting the universities’ accessibility to students from abroad, according to the brief.

“The effectiveness of visa programs depends on their stable and orderly administration,” the brief reads. “The new DHS Policy Memorandum regarding the calculation of unlawful presence, however, introduces significant and destructive uncertainty.”

University President John J. DeGioia affirmed the value that international students bring to the Georgetown community and the United States in a Jan 9. news release.

“International students and scholars are vital members of our campus communities and important contributors to our nation,” DeGioia said. “The talents, perspectives, insights and passion to serve our world that they bring our campus com-

munities benefits our nation and contributes to the common good that we all share.”

At least 2,149 international students attend Georgetown on F-1 and J-1 visas, according to the university. Over 3,000 international students are part of the Georgetown community, including those in optional practical training or in non-degree programs.

International students use their educations to benefit the domestic economy and are instrumental in increasing growth, the universities argue.

“The benefits of international study extend far beyond the academy, however, and reach the wider society in the form of significant economic and technological developments,” the brief reads.

This is not the university’s first challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policy. In fall 2017, Georgetown filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court against Trump’s executive order that restricted travel from six predominantly Muslim countries. In defending the university’s position, DeGioia stressed the importance of international students and faculty who can bring invaluable experience and talent to the university.

“We are an institution that values the contributions of our international students, staff and faculty, and we are deeply committed to interreligious dialogue and providing a context in which members of all faith backgrounds are welcomed and encouraged to practice their faith,” DeGioia wrote in a letter to the Georgetown community Jan. 29, 2017.

Hoya Staff Writer Will Cassou contributed reporting.

FRTIMSJ

Social justice advocate and former Georgetown University professor Fr. Charles Currie, S.J., died Jan. 4. Currie served as special assistant to University President John J. DeGioia in 1989.

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SPORTS

THE HOYA

SAILING

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

TRACK

GU Caps Season Hoyas Showcase Depth at PSU Meet With Rose Bowl Regatta Wins JAKE WEXELBLATT Hoya Staff Writer

HENRY DAI

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown sailing team finished its fall season strong, winning big at the Rose Bowl Regatta in Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 6 and 7.

Familiar foes made the top five, including St. Mary’s College of Maryland, who Georgetown defeated by 20 points.

Other top-five finishers included U.C. Santa Barbara, Tufts and Northwestern. The Hoyas’ victory was the team’s sixth consecutive win in the event.

The Rose Bowl Regatta showcased 22 collegiate teams from across the country. Both of Georgetown’s top teams featured West Coast sailors who were familiar with the weather factor in Long Beach.

Georgetown’s sailors were spread across two divisions: A and B. In division A, senior Andy Reiter and junior Gwyneth Dunlevy won eight of nine races, dominating the field with 15 points and taking first place.

In division B, freshman Jack

Reiter and sophomore Marley Mais qualified for the top three by winning six of nine races.

These two teams combined for 45 points in total, enough to comfortably win the event.

The Hoyas finished strong with their fall season of fleet racing and look forward to a successful spring season of team racing. In this style of competition, boats race alongside others from their school in an effort to strategically outmatch and outperform the other team.

The sailing team has been one of Georgetown’s most dominant programs over the last several years, and the dominance continued throughout this season. A highlight for the Hoyas came on Nov. 3 and 4, when freshman Ford McCann placed third at Laser Performance Nationals. Sophomore Carla Broussard finished fifth in the women’s division as well.

In February, the Hoyas will embark on their spring season, hoping to continue their winning trend.

GU HOYAS

The Georgetown sailing team ended its fall season at the Rose Bowl Regatta in Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 6 and 7.

The Georgetown men’s and women’s track and field teams opened their spring season last weekend at the Nittany Lion Challenge with varying levels of success across events.

The distance runners proved again to be a strong section of the Georgetown team. The event was hosted by Penn State University at the Multi-Sport Facility & Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track in University Park, Pa. On the women’s side, Georgetown reached its peak in the 3,000-meter run, with four Hoyas finishing in the top spots of the event. Sophomore Paige Hofstad led the Hoyas with a time of 9:39.54 for a second-place finish, followed directly by senior Josette Norris with a time of 9:40.80. Both finished within two seconds of winner Anna Shields of Point Park University, who won with a time of 9:39.19.

The event displayed not only Georgetown’s most elite runners, but also the team’s depth.

Freshman Sami Corman placed sixth with a time of 9:46.98, and fellow freshman Katherine Modrall finished in 10:02.98, good for ninth in the field of 30 runners.

Other highlights from the women’s team at this event came from junior Meg Mathison, who finished fourth in the mile with a time of 4:56.83, a mere 3.26 seconds from victory. Georgetown’s top finisher in the women’s field events was freshman Eni Akinniyi, who triple-jumped 11.29 meters, finishing in seventh place.

She was slightly more than a meter behind eventual champion Leah Blackall of the University of Maryland.

For the men, the first highlight came early in the weekend when sophomores Jack Van Scoter and Matthew

GU HOYAS

The Georgetown women's track team gave a strong showing at Penn State, with a top performance in the 3000-meter run: Two Georgetown runners placed in the top three in the event.

Bouthillette pushed each other towards second and third place finishes in the mile. Van Scoter clocked in at 4:07.98, while Bouthillette finished in 4:08.09. The two sophomores ran stride for stride, pushing eventual champion Victor Palumbo from CPTC New Balance to the limit, as he edged out Van Scoter by a mere twotenths of a second.

The men’s team’s success in distance races persisted throughout the weekend, as

senior Joseph White captured a victory in the 1000-meter race with a time of 2:21.99. He edged out lead contender Domenic Perretta of Penn State by 21 hundredths of a second.

The Hoyas’ next victory took place in the 3,000-meter race, as junior Jack Salisbury won a photo finish with his time of 8:13.38, defeating Roman Ollar from Army West Point by one-hundredth of a second.

Those two victories, as well as the strong showing in the

mile, demonstrated to all who face the Hoyas throughout the spring season that their distance squad will be a formidable one under any circumstance.

Two Georgetown men also found success in the shorter running events: Junior Quincey Wilson finished in second place in the 400-meter race with a time of 48.69, and sophomore Ruach Padhal placed third in the 600-meter race with a time of 1:18.46.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT?

Is All-Star Steph Curry Freshmen Deliver Victory An All-Time Top-Five Player? In Suspenseful Double-OT Grant Zangwill On a recent episode of ESPN’s “First Take,” Stephen Smith named his all-time starting five in the NBA. The topic was spurred by Allen Iverson’s appearance on Smith’s radio show but quickly spread throughout the sports world.

Smith listed his starting five from point guard on up: Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal.

Jordan and James are universally placed in any list of the sort, and O’Neal certainly deserves his share of votes. While Durant’s selection is open to criticism, it is difficult to know who Smith was comparing him to and at exactly what position. The choice of Curry as point guard, however, is a harder sell.

Smith definitively chose Curry on the basis of his shooting ability and laughed at any other suggestion in typical Stephen A. Smith style.

“Steph Curry: all day, every day!”

Unfortunately for Smith, there is a plethora of great point guards who deserve a mention in the conversation — Oscar Robertson, John Stockton and Jerry West, to name just a few. While including these players, like Curry, is up for debate, there is one player who owns the top spot at point guard.

He deserves to be included in everyone’s all-time starting fives.

Throughout his illustrious career, Magic Johnson accomplished too much to include in a single article. I will just stick to the highlights.

Prior to drafting Johnson first overall in 1979, the Los Angeles Lakers were a non-factor. In the 13 seasons he led them thereafter, they were the top seed in the Western Conference 10 times, never finishing worse than third.

They competed in nine NBA finals, winning five of them. While Johnson certainly played with other greats, it was only when he joined them that they began winning. His retirement was followed by a decade of irrelevance

for the Lakers where the team failed to make it back to the finals, and at times the playoffs, in eight consecutive seasons.

If the championship titles and winning streaks do not convince you, Johnson’s individual accomplishments are just as impressive.

Johnson won three Most Valuable Player awards in a time when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan competed alongside him. He was also selected as an All-NBA First Team nine times and as an All-Star 12 times.

Johnson averaged 11.2 assists per game — the most of all time — nearly double Curry’s 6.7 assists. Unsurprisingly, Johnson is widely described as the best passer ever. His unique size as a 6’9” point guard enabled him to average 7.2 rebounds per game, nearly three more than Curry’s 4.5 rebounds per game.

While Curry does have an advantage in points per game over Johnson, he shoots a lower percentage from the field.

I acknowledge that Curry is the best shooter in NBA history, as Smith suggested. That being said, the point guard position, or any for that matter, requires more than one dimension. While neither Curry nor Johnson qualifies as a great defender, Johnson’s versatility and

wide-ranging accomplishments overwhelm Curry at least at this point in his career.

The best athletes, in any sport, elevate their games at the most important moments. Curry failed to elevate his game in the 2016 NBA Finals when star teammate Draymond Green was suspended. In Game 7, Curry managed a lackluster 17 points and two assists, and the Warriors lost the series.

Curry, time and time again, has come up small in the biggest moments. Despite three finals wins, he has never won a finals MVP award.

Johnson was put in a similar situation to Curry as a rookie in the 1980 Finals. Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did not play in Game 6 due to an injury.

Johnson changed positions for the game to replace the center.

In doing so, he posted 42 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists in one of the best performances of all time. Johnson did not just rise to the occasion. He had to change positions, and still found a way to win.

Curry’s career is not over. He has the chance to make his own case for greatest point guard.

Maybe one day Curry will be in my starting five. In any era, however, I want Magic Johnson bringing the ball up.

@STEPHENCURRY30

ESPN analyst Stephen Smith includes Stephen Curry in his starting lineup of all-time NBA players. Should the star guard make the list?

MATT SACHS

Hoya Staff Writer

In a double-overtime thriller, the Georgetown men’s basketball team defeated the Providence Friars 96-90, thanks to late-game heroics by freshmen guards Mac McClung and James Akinjo.

With 3.9 seconds remaining in regulation and the Hoyas down three, McClung quickly dribbled the ball up the court, avoiding Providence defenders trying to foul him.

The freshman guard banked in a three-pointer almost from half court, sending the game into overtime.

Ewing drew up a play for McClung to get the ball in a timeout.

“Coach [Ewing] drew it up. I caught the ball, took a dribble and I shot it with confidence,” McClung said. “That’s what Coach always says he loves in a player — confidence and belief in yourself, and that’s what I feel about myself.”

The magic continued in the five-minute first overtime period, as Akinjo knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key to tie the game at 86 with three seconds remaining.

“We have a lot of fun because we’re both super confident guys. We believe in each other. So, when James pulled up, I just had a great feeling it was going in,” McClung said.

McClung, who returned from a four-game absence due to an ankle injury, teamed up with Akinjo to score 36 points. Senior center Jessie Govan had high praise for the freshman’s impact on the rest of the team. “[McClung] adds another layer to our team with how aggressive he is,” Govan said.

“He goes into the lane with no remorse. He’s not afraid of contact at all and it makes it easier because we knew we had someone else on the wing to attack it. It was great to have him back out there.”

The Hoyas began play neck and neck with the Friars.

After tying the game at 13, Georgetown fell behind by four, and Providence soon went on a 9-4 run to lead 3223 with 5:29 left in the first half — the Friars’ biggest lead

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Freshman guard Mac McClung sent the Jan. 12 game against Providence into overtime with his three-pointer at the buzzer. of the game.

The Hoyas sent in their second unit when Govan was put on the bench to rest.

Govan’s teammates picked up the slack and helped cut the deficit to two points before halftime, according to Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85).

“The second unit that came in the first half did an outstanding job of getting us back in the game,” Ewing said.

“They were up I think 11, and those guys scrapped — they clawed and were able to cut it to one, two before half.”

With 50.8 seconds left in regulation, the Hoyas got the ball inside to Govan who gave the squad the lead off a dunk. Providence made a go-ahead threepointer to go up by one, a lead which the Friars later extended to three after free throws.

After McClung’s last-second shot, which sent the game into overtime, Georgetown found itself in another gametying situation with 10.5 seconds left in the first extra frame. Akinjo made up for his miss at the end of regulation with his big three, sending the game into double overtime.

Govan attributed the victory to the freshmen guards maturing in their play. “[The freshmen] are growing up right before our eyes.

We said at the beginning of the season that they would have a lot of responsibilities.

They responded really well,” Govan said.

In the final overtime period, Akinjo made a jumper to put the Hoyas up 90-88, a lead they would not surrender.

Govan finished with a career-high 33 points to go along with 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. Georgetown won its first game against Providence since Feb. 10, 2014. The victory propels Georgetown’s record to 2-2 in Big East play.

“This was a great win to get, it was a tough ball game and we had to go into double overtime to come away with it and I’m proud of the guys. We had two good days of practice and it showed today,” Ewing said.

Georgetown played the second of three home games Tuesday night, losing to No. 21 Marquette University (153, 4-1 Big East).

SPORTS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

Adomako Stands Out Despite Hoya Loss WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, from A12

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

The Georgetown men’s basketballl team lost to conference rival Marquette, continuing the Hoyas’ streak of tightly contested losses.

GU Loses to No. 15 Marquette After Halftime Lead maining to play. “[I told them we] gotta lock it up. We gotta pick it up offensively and defensively. We gotta set screens, rebound, run, tighten up our defense,” Ewing said.

After being held scoreless for almost two minutes, Georgetown sent an outlet pass to sophomore guard Jamorko Pickett, who made a crucial transition dunk to cut the deficit to two points with under three minutes to play.

Akinjo followed on the next possession with a pair of free throws to tie the game at 70 with 2:09 remaining.

With 54.5 seconds remaining, the Hoyas had possession down 72-70. McClung got to the line and made one free throw to cut the deficit to 72-71 with 46 seconds remaining.

Georgetown took back possession with 11.3 seconds left, down 72-71. Akinjo drove to the basket and was blocked on his layup attempt, leading Georgetown to foul Marquette. Hauser, who had a game-high 31 points, made both free throws. “[James is] a competitor. He believes in himself. We’re gonna go work on it and we’ll go to practice tomorrow and work on it,” McClung said.

On a last-second attempt, McClung could not convert from half court, and the Hoyas fell 7471.

For the game, Govan and Johnson scored 14 and 12 points, respectively. Marquette led in points in the paint 34-22 and limited Georgetown to 32 percent shooting in the second half.

Georgetown takes on Creighton (10-8, 1-4 Big East) next Monday at 8:30 p.m. This final game of the three-game home stand will be aired on Fox Sports 1 and can be heard locally on The Team 980 FM.

leading the Golden Eagles 40-37.

Georgetown made six of its first 10 three-pointers and had six steals, but turned the ball over seven times, which led to 12 firsthalf points for Marquette.

Marquette played without its leading scorer and the nation’s sixth leading scorer, junior guard Markus Howard, for all but three minutes of the game because of back spasms. However, Ewing has respect for the rest of the Golden Eagles’ squad even without Howard.

“I don’t think we let down, they played a great game,” Ewing said.

“They have talented people on that team. [Marquette junior forward Sam] Hauser played great.

He had 31 points and he picked up the slack. Our players need to do better and share the ball better.”

With space on the perimeter, Georgetown went on to take an eight-point lead after halftime, following six straight points from McClung.

“I just tried to be aggressive. My teammates were getting me the ball and they did a great job, I just tried to stay focused,” McClung said.

The Golden Eagles showed their depth when they needed it. After trailing 51-43, Marquette staged a 17-3 run, taking advantage of a 5:33 scoring drought by Georgetown to lead 57-51.

Soon after, McClung’s threepointer started a 7-0 run by Georgetown, keeping the Hoyas to within 60-56. After senior guard Greg Malinowski’s free throw, Georgetown tied the game up again at 60 off a contested three-pointer from Govan, which got the crowd members out of their seats with 7:49 re-

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Howard was encouraged by his team’s effort.

“We challenged our players to come out and make the first run, which we did and we played with a lot of effort tonight, which is the way it should always be,” Howard said in an interview with GUHoyas. “The players that we count on each game played aggressively on both ends tonight. We’ll learn from this loss and create more opportunities with it.”

Two days later, the Hoyas faced a similarly difficult test, as No. 14 Marquette (14-3, 5-0 Big East) came to Washing-

ton, D.C., having won seven of its last eight contests. Yet again, the Hoyas were in need of a win against a highlyranked conference opponent, and the team came out firing in the first half. At the conclusion of the second quarter, the game was knotted at 32.

Unfortunately, just like in their matchup against the Blue Demons, the Hoyas were ultimately upended by their opponent in the second half and suffered another hard fought conference loss, 72-62.

As the primary offensive catalysts for Georgetown, Adomako finished with 21 points, White with 14 points,

and graduate student guard Mikayla Venson with 12 points. On the other side of the court, the Hoyas managed to hold the Golden Eagles to well under their season average of 85 points.

Similar to the DePaul game, Howard was encouraged by the team’s performance in the outing against Marquette.

“We played Marquette well, we do some things that other teams might not do and we knew that they’re a very good offensive team, so we tried to limit them on that end,” Howard said in a post-game interview with GUHoyas. “I thought that we executed the game plan well for the most

part. I thought defensively, we were locked in for the first half.”

With these loses, the Hoyas have now dipped under .500 in both their overall and conference records. The level of competition against DePaul and Marquette not only bodes well for the rematches later in the season, but also for the remaining games on the schedule. However, before the team focuses on avenging these losses, they must regroup for their game at home versus Villanova.

The Wildcats provide another opportunity to end the losing skid Saturday, Jan. 19, at 2 p.m.

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Graduate student guard Mikayla Venson, pictured in a Nov. 29 game against Fordham, scored 12 points in Georgetown’s Jan. 8 loss to No. 14 Marquette. The Hoyas were outmatched despite a strong defensive performance, bringing their conference record to 2-4.

SWIMMING AND DIVING

Men’s Team Wins 7 Top Finishes at Home GWU/AMERICAN, from A12

directly after. Barnhorst, Miller and Fujioka swept the podium in the 3-meter event as well, led again by Barnhorst with a final score of 289.15.

The men’s swimming team finished the meet with seven individual victories. Freshman Michael Wheeler took first in the 1000 freestyle, winning the event narrowly by 0.07 seconds. Freshman Brett Sherman then won the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, the latter of which Wheeler followed closely in second place.

Sophomore Drew Carbone claimed victories in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, and junior Terry Johnson won the 200 butterfly.

In the 200 breaststroke, freshman Carlson Temple reached the wall first, over a second faster than the competition.

Leavitt says the team will be using upcoming practice time and meets to prepare for the Big East championships in February.

“Big East is all we’re focusing on at this point, so everything we do at practice is geared towards that, and meets will be about prepping for races that we’re going to be doing there,” Leavitt said.

The Hoyas will travel to Philadelphia next weekend for a dual meet at Drexel University on Jan. 19. The meet will be the first of two before the Big East championships in February.

GU HOYAS

Georgetown’s swimming and diving teams found mixed success against D.C. rivals George Washington and American.

UNDER REVIEW

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A11

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S BASKETBALL

MARQUETTE from A12

THE HOYA

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NFL’s Top 4 Seeds Seek Super Bowl Bids SWANSON, from A12

defense in the first half. However, Mahomes found his stride in the second half, and Kansas City exploded for 31 points in the second half.

If the Chiefs reach the Super Bowl, it will require a dominant

performance from their defensive line, which overpowered the lauded offensive line of the Indianapolis Colts in last week’s divisional round. The Chiefs’ defense, led by Dee Ford, wreaked havoc in the Colts’ backfield on the way to three sacks, five tackles for loss and six quarterback hits

as a team. This effort completely disrupted the Colts’ rhythm on offense.

The Chiefs will need a repeat performance to apply pressure on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

The Los Angeles Chargers failed to do so last week, and Brady surgically picked apart their zone de-

RAMS

The Los Angeles Rams will visit the New Orleans Saints this Sunday to compete for the NFC spot in Super Bowl LII. The team must rely on their strong running backs to earn victory.

fense.

In the first matchup, the Chiefs had moderate success with two sacks and three tackles for loss, but they will need to step up the pressure to secure a win on Sunday.

New England’s main priority is to neutralize Tyreek Hill, a speedy wideout who is always a threat to make a big play. Hill exploded for 142 yards and three touchdowns in the first meeting.

As a result, the Patriots could elect to use All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore to shadow Hill.

Additionally, the Patriots will likely employ a safety help to double cover Hill in an effort to prevent big plays. For the Patriots to win, they will need to contain Hill, especially on broken plays when Mahomes escapes the pocket.

Ultimately, the Chiefs’ defense will do just enough to slow the Patriots’ offense, while Mahomes will lead an effective offensive attack that carries the Chiefs to victory and into the 2019 Super Bowl.

Jeff Swanson is a senior in the McDonough School of Business. UNDER REVIEW appears every other Friday.

Sports

Womens’s Basketball Georgetown (8-9) vs.Villanova (11-6) Saturday, Jan. 19, 2 p.m.

McDonough Arena

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019

Georgetown placed second and third in the women’s 3,000-meter run at Penn State University last weekend.

See A10

MEN’S BASKETBALL

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SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

Hoyas Suffer Close Loss to Marquette Hoya Staff Writer

Trying to replicate the lategame magic from last weekend, freshman guard James Akinjo could not convert at the rim, leading the Georgetown men’s basketball team to lose in a tight contest against No. 15 Marquette 7471.

“We had our opportunities at the end, but we just didn’t play smart,” Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85) said.

Freshman guard Mac McClung carried the load for the Hoyas (12-6, 2-3 Big East) on Jan. 15, scoring 24 points on a night that Akinjo struggled from the floor, and senior center and leading scorer Jessie Govan was limited to four field goals. “[McClung] had it rolling.

He had it going. He was able to get the ball and go downhill and make his shots,” Ewing said.

In the first half, the Hoyas came out strong. McClung, who chipped in 14 first-half points, scored 10 of Georgetown’s first 12 points, helping the squad lead Marquette (15-3, 4-1 Big East) by one with 12:47 left in the period.

The Golden Eagles (15-3, 4-1 Big East) rallied, though, going up by six points with four minutes remaining. Georgetown responded with a 6-0 run, capped by senior forward Kaleb Johnson’s transition and one layup that knotted the score at 33-33.

Making four of their last five field goals, the Hoyas went into the second half See MARQUETTE, A11

Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85)

45

Number of points scored by graduate student guard Dorothy Adomako in her last two games.

GU Drops 2 Pivotal Conference Games Hoya Staff Writer

Freshman guard James Akinjo scored eight points and added a teamhigh eight assists in the loss to Marquette University on Jan. 15.

[McClung] had it going. He was able to get the ball and go downhill and make his shots.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

BRENDAN DOLAN

MATT SACHS

NUMBERS GAME

TALKING POINTS

TRACK

The Georgetown women’s basketball team had two opportunities in conference matchups against DePaul University and Marquette University to recover from a poor performance against Creighton on Jan. 6. The two games were against two of the Hoyas’ toughest opponents this season, leading to two losses for the Hoyas.

The Hoyas (8-9, 2-4 Big East) established themselves against the five-time reigning conference champions, building a 13-point lead in the first half. This was largely due to lockdown defense from the Blue and Gray, who limited DePaul (12-5, 3-2 Big East) to 23 points in the half.

However, the Blue Demons showed their championship mettle and erased the deficit in its entirety by the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, DePaul backed this momentum with a flurry of 17 points, and the deficit was simply too much to overcome.

The Blue Demons managed to walk away with a crucial road victory, 69-64.

The Georgetown offense faded in the most critical moments for the Hoyas, while the defense that stymied DePaul early on allowed them to crawl back into the game.

The offense was hurt by a lack of firepower: Only two Hoyas, graduate student guard Dorothy Adomako and senior guard Dionna White, scored in double figures.

Several Hoyas stood out, even in the loss. Adomako played one of her best games

of the season, posting 24 points and snatching eight rebounds in 38 minutes of action. Furthermore, Adomako and White accounted for 37

of the Hoyas’ 64 points, but six other Hoyas registered in the points column, demonstrating an engaged group capable of chipping in and

filling their roles.

While disappointed in the result, Head Coach James See DEPAUL/MARQUETTE, A11

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Senior guard Dionna White pulls up from deep range. White dropped 14 points and five rebounds in the loss to Marquette University. She also had 13 points, five rebounds and seven steals in the loss against DePaul.

UNDER REVIEW

SWIMMING AND DIVING

Georgetown Hosts Hometown Rivals SIDNEY LEE

Hoya Staff Writer

After almost two months without regular meet competition, the Georgetown men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams returned to McCarthy Pool on Saturday afternoon to host hometown rivals The George Washington University and American University.

The meet had added meaning as the Hoyas celebrated their 11 graduating seniors

for senior day that afternoon.

Although GWU beat both of its D.C. rivals, Georgetown went on to also defeat a talented American team in the matchup.

Despite the loss to George Washington, Head Coach Jack Leavitt was satisfied by the team’s performance.

“Coming off of a training trip where we do the most demanding work of the season, it’s hard to expect them to come back and swim fast, but this was one of the best

dual meets we’ve had all year,” Leavitt said in an interview with The Hoya.

In the first event of the meet, the 200-yard medley relay team consisting of senior Laine Morgan, sophomores Alexandra Rieker and Belinda Donohoe, and freshman Grace Chen secured the Hoyas’ first victory. The relay team finished in 26.39 seconds, a full second ahead of the runner-up GWU team.

Donohoe also finished in first place for both the 50

freestyle and 100 freestyle.

Junior Cristina Barrett came away with a victory in the 1000 freestyle, while Chen topped the 100 backstroke with a time of 28.72.

On the women’s diving side, Georgetown claimed the four highest scores in the 1-meter event, with junior Margaret Barnhorst in first.

Junior Elizabeth Miller and sophomores Riley Fujioka and Naomi Peng followed See GWU/AMERICAN, A11

GU HOYAS

On senior day in McCarthy Pool, the Hoyas returned to competition to host two fellow D.C. rivals: The George Washington University and American University. Although GWU beat both schools, Georgetown also edged out American.

Visit us online at thehoya.com/category/sports

Jeff Swanson

NFL Games Feature Crucial Rematches, Star Players The NFL’s conference championship games this weekend in the AFC and NFC feature the NFL’s top four teams in pivotal rematches from earlier this season. The games will determine which teams will earn the right to vie for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

In the NFC, the New Orleans Saints host a rematch against the Los Angeles Rams.

On Nov. 4, the Saints defeated the Rams by a score of 45-35 in a clash at the Superdome.

The game featured a series of dominant stretches by each team before the Saints ultimately cemented the victory on a 72-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Drew Brees to wideout Michael Thomas.

The game had tremendous ramifications. At the time, the Rams’ loss ended their eight game winning streak.

Meanwhile, the Saints proved their mettle and established themselves as true Super Bowl contenders. The rematch will again be played in the Superdome because the head-to-head victory gave the Saints the tiebreaker over the Rams in playoff seeding.

The Rams’ key to victory will be a revitalized rushing

attack. The late season injury to star running back Todd Gurley led the Rams to utilize C.J. Anderson, who has played exceptionally well.

The Rams elected to deploy both Gurley and Anderson in the divisional round against the Dallas Cowboys, and they combined for 238 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

The duo propelled the Rams to victory, despite quarterback Jared Goff’s underwhelming performance.

A strong Los Angeles running attack can provide a balanced offensive approach, taking advantage of the absence of New Orleans lineman Sheldon Rankins in the middle of the Saints defensive line and keep the Saints’ potent offense on the bench.

Conversely, the Saints will need veteran Brees to orchestrate a successful passing attack to come away with a victory. In the previous game against the Rams, Brees threw for 346 yards and four touchdowns.

Another Saints star playmaker, Thomas torched the See SWANSON, A11