The Hoya: January 31, 2020

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 101, No. 16, © 2020

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

GUPD Arrests 2 Anti-Trump GU Halts Programs in China Amid Coronavirus Outbreak Activists in Red Square CASEY FERRANTE

HARRISON MCBRIDE

Hoya Staff Writer

Hoya Staff Writer

Two members of the activist group Refuse Fascism were arrested for unlawful entry by the Georgetown University Police Department while demonstrating in Red Square on Jan. 27.

Two activists, Luna Hernandez and Bo Login, entered Georgetown University’s campus alongside fellow members of Refuse Fascism, an organization that advocates for the removal of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence through nonviolent protest.

Hernandez and Login were passing out flyers and speaking to students Tuesday about the ongoing presidential impeachment trial and an upcoming related protest.

GUPD officers asked the pair to stop distributing flyers on campus, so they decided to relocate to Red Square, which they heard was a free speech zone, to talk to students about their upcoming event without handing out flyers, according to Hernandez.

GUPD officers arrived in Red Square and instructed the pair to leave. After the two activists refused to leave, officers handcuffed Login.

He then began shouting, drawing passing students’ attention, according to video taken by The Hoya.

RILEY ROGERSON/THE HOYA

Activists convened in Red Square on Jan. 28 to advertise an upcoming demonstration against President Donald Trump.

“Your police came and attacked us and threw us on these benches,” Login said according to video taken

by The Hoya. “We came on this university and we were having casual conversations with people about getting organized and driving out the Trump-Pence regime this Wednesday at the Capitol and your police came and arrested us.”

After restraining and handcuffing Login, the authorities pushed and arrested Hernandez, she said.

“They whipped me around, they knocked me to the ground, they pushed me to the ground and I started yelling in pain, because it was painful because he started putting his knee in my back and another police officer came on top of me,” Hernandez said in an interview with The Hoya. “I was like, ‘You’re hurting me! You’re hurting me!’ I was trying to get up, and even when I was trying to get up they yanked me off See RED SQUARE, A7

Georgetown University announced a temporary suspension of all Chinese study abroad programs and university-related travel to China for students, faculty and staff Jan. 28 amid rising concerns over the spread of the coronavirus in the region.

The university is in contact with students, faculty and staff who were planning on traveling to the country and is working to coordinate appropriate alternate plans, according to a Jan. 28 universitywide email from Provost Robert Groves announcing the suspension. The decision comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of State raised their travel advisories Jan. 27 to recommend travelers avoid nonessential travel and reconsider travel to China, respectively, according to Groves’ email.

“While there have been no reported cases with any connection to Georgetown, the university is taking proactive steps to ensure the safety and health of our community out of an abundance of caution, since there is still much about the situation that is unknown,” Groves wrote in the email.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Chi-

na. As of Wednesday, 132 people have died and over 6,000 cases have been confirmed, with five cases confirmed in the United States, according to The New York Times. As of Monday, one person in Washington, D.C. has tested negative for the disease and two people are still undergoing testing after showing symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus, according to the D.C. Department of Health.

The coronavirus ranges in severity from mild respiratory

study abroad programs independently announced the cancellation of their spring semester programming to their students.

The Council of International Educational Exchange announced the cancellation of all of its programs in China in an email to program participants Jan. 27. The decision was made with the best interests of program participants in mind, according to Sinclaire Jones (MSB ’21), who was set to take part in the CIEE program in Shanghai.

“Of course I’m disappointed to miss out on the opportunity to study in Shanghai, but I believe the program and the University made the right decision,” Jones wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I can only hope for the best for the country and its people and that this virus is somehow contained.”

While the exact number of students affected by the suspension is unknown, the university is actively working with students to coordinate travel plans away from the region, according to Groves’ email.

With the short notice given by the sudden cancellation, coordinating alternate plans will pose a logistical challenge to students, Jones wrote.

“They’re working to place us in alternative programs, but in the likely event that

“I can only hope for the best for the country and its people and that this virus is somehow contained.”

SINCLAIRE JONES (MSB ’21) Intended China Program Participant

illness to more serious symptoms including death. While experts originally linked the spread of the disease to human contact with infected animals, they now believe that the virus can be spread from person to person, according to the CDC. The university’s announcement comes after several

See CORONAVIRUS, A5

4 Tickets Run in GUSA Executive Race Ferretti, Badger Emphasize Tangible Goals

SOPHIE HABER AND JAIME MOORE-CARRILLO

RILEY ROGERSON Hoya Staff Writer

A shared passion for public service guided Nicolo Ferretti (SFS ’21) and Bryce Badger (MSB ’21) to the Georgetown University Student Association, where the two bonded over advocating for student interests. Ferretti and Badger accumulated considerable experience and hope to employ their knowledge as GUSA executives.

Ferretti and Badger, currently members of the administration of GUSA President Norman Francis Jr. (COL ’20) and Vice President Aleida Olvera (COL ’20), hope to use their GUSA experience to launch

Salmeron-Perla, Elliott Brault Seek GUSA Reform Hoya Staff Writers

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

Nicolo Ferretti (SFS ’21), left, and Bryce Badger (MSB ’21), right, hope to use GUSA experience to pursue practical goals. new initiatives surrounding sustainability, sexual assault and misconduct, facilities and inclusivity.

In pursuit of their policy goals, Ferretti and Badger have See NICOLO/BRYCE, A6

Gonzalez Porras, Figueroa-Flores Aim To Empower

Julio Salmeron-Perla (SFS ’22) and Gabby Elliott Brault (SFS ’21) have teamed up in the past. The pair collaborated to advocate for socioeconomic inclusivity, with Salmeron-Perla working from the Georgetown University Student Association Senate and Elliott Brault pushing in the executive. Their partnership entered a new stage when they petitioned to join the GUSA 2020 Executive election ballot Jan. 24.

The pair is seeking to better the university by reshaping policies on mental health resources, sexual misconduct and inclusiv-

HARRISON MCBRIDE

Hoya Staff Writer

Hoya Staff Writer

Arisaid Gonzalez Porras (COL ’21) and Anahi Figueroa-Flores (COL ’21) are both undocumented women who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border when they were toddlers. Both are low-income, first-generation college students, and neither ever expected to be at Georgetown University.

Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores met their freshman year in the Community Scholars Program, an initiative organized by the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access to promote

After meeting in the Community Scholars Program, an initiative organized by the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access to promote diversity and ease the transition of incoming students, Joshua Marin-Mora (SFS ’21) and Isbel Deleon (COL ’21) discovered a shared interest in advocating for student needs.

Marin-Mora and Deleon joined the GUSA Executive ballot to continue this activism in the highest positions in student government. Issues the team hopes to high-

NEWS

O’Connor Conference Protested Students criticize conference for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

A7 Streetcar Expansion Cancelled New bus routes replace abandoned streetcar expansion.

A9

SPORTS

KIKI SCHMALFUSS/THE HOYA

diversity and ease the transition of incoming students.

Together Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores manage

THE GUIDE

Hoyas For Immigrant Rights, a student-run advocacy See ARISAID/ANAHI, A6

ity. At the core of these policy initiatives is a desire to rework what they perceive to be an ineffective and disconnected GUSA,

according to an interview with The Hoya.

See JULIO/GABBY, A6

Marin-Mora, Deleon To Connect With Students

JAIME MOORE-CARRILLO

Arisaid Gonzalez Porras (COL ’21), left, and Anahi Figueroa-Flores (COL ’21), right, seek to improve representation in GUSA executive.

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

Julio Salmeron-Perla (SFS ’22), left, and Gabby Elliott Brault (SFS ’21), right, emphasize student participation to improve GUSA achievements.

FEATURED

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

Joshua Marin-Mora (SFS ’21), right, and Isbel Deleon (COL ’21) detail plans for socioeconomic inclusivity and mental health resources. light during their administration include decreasing the campus sexual assault rate, providing stronger student

mental health resources, and improving accessibility See JOSHUA/ISBEL, A6

OPINION

Build a Legacy Kobe’s life encourages others to leave a meaningful legacy.

A3 Respect Accomodations Georgetown must prioritize accessibility for disabled students.

A3

EDITORIAL

Draft Dreams Two Georgetown football players declare for NFL Draft.

A12

Vote Marin-Mora/Deleon The ticket provides the most in-depth and practical plans.

A2

GUTube See Georgetown through the lens of student YouTubers.

B2

GU Health Services Students report lack of clarity within the Student Health Center.

A4

GUIDE

FEATURES

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

EDITORIALS

Vote Marin-Mora and Deleon This campaign season, students should look to Georgetown University Student Association candidates to propose enactable policies.

After just one ticket — Nicolo Ferretti (SFS ’21) and Bryce Badger (MSB ’21) — announced their candidacy Jan. 22, three additional tickets petitioned to join the race. One of these petitions, with candidates Joshua Marin-Mora (SFS ’21) and Isbel Deleon (COL ’21), offers students the best platform in this executive election.

All four tickets have promised to address prominent campus issues such as facilities, accessibility and sexual assault. However, simply recognizing these issues is not enough; students need candidates who are prepared to implement specific policies.

Marin-Mora and Deleon move beyond cliche calls to action and offer tangible policy solutions with a central focus on student input. Marin-Mora’s and Deleon’s strong understanding of GUSA — likely due to Marin-Mora’s experience as a GUSA senator — underpins a substantive platform with creative, realistic solutions, making them the best choice for students in this election.

Policies from Marin-Mora and Deleon address broad problems in practical, incremental ways. Proposals to improve accessibility range from better publicizing a map of accessible campus routes to pushing Georgetown University to hire a full-time employee focused on making campus compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Moreover, the pair’s comprehensive and preventative approach to sexual assault at Georgetown stood out from other candidates’ policies. The ticket has proposed ideas, such as working with the Student Activities Commission to reform club funding as an incentive for increased bystander training among club leadership, that demonstrate a clear understanding of the GUSA Executive’s capacity while still bringing new ideas to the table. While other tickets also offer ways to improve bystander training, the clear suggestion of SAC enforcement adds a pragmatic element other candidates lack.

Ideas to address affordability, facilities and mental health are similarly specific and wide ranging, ensuring Marin-Mora and Deleon can make a realistic impact on a smaller, day-to-day level while still pressuring the administration to make major changes.

When creating policies like their suggestion to join the Open Textbook Network that American University uses to improve textbook affordability, Marin-Mora and Deleon looked to peer institutions to see what can feasibly be implemented at Georgetown. Such research makes their proposals impressively detailed and demonstrates a commitment to bringing fresh ideas to Georgetown’s campus without feeling a need to reinvent the wheel for every GUSA project.

Where other tickets offer just a few policies for each major issue, Marin-Mora and Deleon have extensive, well-researched lists.

The clarity and depth of Marin-Mora and Deleon’s policies push their platform above that of Ferretti and Badger, the only other ticket to demonstrate a full understanding of what they can realistically accomplish through the GUSA Executive office.

The Ferretti-Badger ticket is strengthened by the candidates’ GUSA experience. Ferretti worked in the GUSA Senate until he resigned to become the executive branch’s director of university affairs in spring 2018. Badger is currently the Francis-Olvera administration’s chief of staff and works on the board of SaxaFund, and he previously served as student engagement director for the Nair-Rahman administration.

Experience with GUSA has given Ferretti and Badger a clear idea of what the executives can accomplish. They know the exact limitations of the GUSA executives’ power, and they are prepared to work within these roles to push policies that can actually be enacted. Since both of the candidates have extensive knowledge of GUSA’s current initiatives, a Ferretti-Badger executive would also help ensure current projects are not lost in transition.

Extensive experience with GUSA, however, has also made Ferretti and Badger’s platform too cautious. The pair has some solid proposals, such as Badger’s idea to allow students to stay on campus over winter break if a trip home is unsafe or unaffordable.

To reduce rates of sexual assault and misconduct on campus, Ferretti and Badger also propose a peer group for masculine-identifying students to discuss healthy masculinity with representation from all men’s sports teams, according to the candidates’ website. This ticket is the only one to propose new policies that would specifically address the role of masculinity in sexual misconduct.

Despite the pair’s few practical ideas, the ticket relies heavily on current GUSA initiatives and fails to provide as many new ideas as Marin-Mora and Dele-

on offer. Ferretti and Badger repeatedly emphasized campus accessibility as a priority, but to The Hoya they presented few solutions beyond GUSA’s current support for the HoyaLift initiative, which would establish an accessible shuttle route on campus.

GUSA candidates have been using buzzwords for too long; in this election, students need tangible solutions to actually address some of Georgetown’s long-term problems. The Ferretti-Badger ticket would be a valuable second choice for voters, with well-informed intentions to enact good policy. But compared to Marin-Mora and Deleon’s in-depth policy proposals, Ferretti and Badger’s ideas seem disappointingly limited.

Julio Salmeron-Perla (SFS ’22) and Gabby Elliot Brault’s (SFS ’21) platform pales in comparison to that of Ferretti and Badger, and even more so to that of Marin-Mora and Deleon. While Ferretti and Badger offer well-informed but limited policies, Salmeron-Perla and Elliot Brault’s platform raises more questions than answers.

Proposals from Salmeron-Perla and Elliot Brault are unclear and at times problematic. The pair’s policy on addressing campus sexual assault and misconduct is particularly concerning. Noting that Georgetown’s Office of Title IX Compliance has been failing students, the candidates proposed that survivors of sexual assault go through GUSA to find support. Elliot Brault said that if she is elected vice president, she will walk with survivors to the Office of Title IX Compliance. This policy somehow expects untrained GUSA executives to address sexual assault in a professional capacity, and it is dangerous for Elliot Brault to encourage survivors seeking Title IX services to approach untrained students rather than a federally regulated office.

Moreover, this policy is especially misguided given the 2018 resignation of GUSA President Sahil Nair (SFS ’19) amid assault allegations. Survivors have good reason not to trust GUSA with this issue, and it was careless of Salmeron-Perla and Elliot Brault to propose such a policy.

Salmeron-Perla and Elliot Brault’s lack of substantive policy is troubling given their experience with GUSA. Salmeron-Perla has served in the senate and Elliot Brault in the executive branch as Socioeconomic Advocacy Policy chair.

Compared to Salmeron-Perla and Elliot Brault, Arisaid Gonzalez Porras (COL ’21) and Anahi FigueroaFlores (COL ’21) offered more feasible policies and demonstrated an admirable passion for representing the underrepresented.

Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores’ background as organizers makes them clearly open and receptive to student ideas. The pair brings up issues no other ticket has mentioned, such as menstrual equity, indicating a commitment to issues outside of the select few GUSA candidates typically focus on. The pair’s activist mindset and knowledge of a broader set of issues would be a valuable addition to GUSA’s advocacy efforts.

Though Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores bring up important topics and dedicate attention to underrepresented communities, they repeatedly stated they did not know about GUSA’s processes or the responsibilities of president and vice president.

Since effective GUSA policies must navigate around specific bureaucratic guidelines, successful candidates need to craft policies that are feasible within the scope of their roles. Thus, Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores’ lack of knowledge about the GUSA executive role makes their ideas less feasible than those of Marin-Mora and Deleon.

The Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores ticket is undoubtedly a positive addition to the race. Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores are both undocumented students and serve as president and vice president of Hoyas for Immigrant Rights. Throughout their campaign, they have emphasized the importance of undocumented student representation in student government. The pair has also demonstrated a commitment to specifically addressing the experiences of marginalized communities at Georgetown, an important and admirable commitment at a university that often overlooks these groups.

If Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores are not elected, the next executive administration should absolutely work with the pair in an official capacity. This ticket’s ideas would critically improve the scope and efficacy of GUSA’s advocacy projects.

All tickets emphasize a desire to work with student organizations through the GUSA executive to facilitate advocacy projects. While such collaborations are valuable, GUSA executives also need to have distinct, substantive ideas. In this race, Marin-Mora and Deleon’s platform is by far the most detailed and feasible.

If students want to see effective policies enacted, they should vote for Marin-Mora and Deleon on Feb. 6.

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Giraffic Park— Two giraffes escaped from a truck on a highway in Bangkok. The dynamic duo has been spotted throughout the area by multiple onlookers, though they still have not been wrangled back to their captivity.

Wanna-Bee— An Oregon beekeeper recently had 92 beehives stolen from his property in Northern California. The man suspects a rival beekeeper, who recently lost his own bees, is responsible for the theft.

RoboHog— PETA demanded in a statement that Punxsutawney Phil be replaced by a robot. PETA believes that the live groundhog undergoes too much stress and should be replaced by an AI that could predict the weather instead.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Advait Arun

HOYA HISTORY: Jan. 26, 1973

Students Criticize Nixon Peace Agreement Student antiwar spokesmen, while welcoming an end to the bombing and the release of U.S. prisoners of war, blasted President Nixon’s peace agreement as “absurd” and “a documentation of a crime.”

The Nation Peace Action Coalition has scheduled a march on the Capitol on Feb. 23 to demand “Out Now!”. The Student Mobilization Committee is planning meetings with student leaders to decide future strategy.

Both organizations pledge to continue the fight for a lasting peace until U.S. forces are withdrawn from all of Southeast Asia.

“The scheduled signing of the cease-fire accords on Saturday marks not the consecration of peace but rather the documentation of a crime,” said SMC coordinator Charles Petrin in a press statement released within hours of the president’s televised address.

President Nixon’s announce-

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ment Tuesday evening included an internationally supervised cease-fire, a release of prisoners and an accounting of those missing in action and a withdrawal of American forces within 60 days. The President was not clear whether the cease-fire extends only to South Vietnam, however.

The agreement also guarantees the South Vietnamese people “the right to determine their own future without outside interference” and promises continuing U.S. support to South Vietnam in its struggle to rebuild its war-ravaged land.

In a press statement similar to that released by the SMC, Jerry Gordon, NPAC coordinator, said, “The U.S. war against the people of Vietnam has not ended, as Mr. Nixon falsely claimed last night.”

“Nor will the war ever end so long at the U.S. government denies the Vietnamese the right to run their own affairs,” he added.

“The U.S. will still control much of South Vietnam, despite Mr. Nixon’s rhetoric about self-determination.”

According to the NPAC statement, military advisors are pouring into South Vietnam and a massive American military force still will be positioned in Thailand, Guam and the South China Sea. “Warplanes and thousands of tons of munitions have already been rushed to the Saifon generals to help them consolidate their hold,” Gordon charged.

Gordon said that the NPAC demands a cut-off of all support for Thieu and all other “U.S. imposed” regimes. He claims that previous cease-fires in Indochina — in 1954, 1957 and 1963 — have been ineffective in assuring a lasting peace.

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Skeleton Crew— An Arizona driver was caught using a skeleton as a pseudopassenger in order to use the carpool lane. The driver clearly found a very barebones strategy to bypass carpool laws.

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That’s Tomb Much— A man in Scotland who found his own gravestone in a cemetery is now concerned that people think he is dead. He blames his ex-wife for putting the gravestone on a plot of land she bought, and he wants others to know that he is very much alive.

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OPINION

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

THE HOYA

VIEWPOINT • CRAWFORD

O

MOLECULAR MUSINGS

Forge a Legacy

n Jan. 26, former Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant passed away suddenly in a helicopter crash with his daughter Gianna and seven others. Within minutes of confirming reports, the entire world, from basketball fans to politicians to musicians, mourned the loss of one of the most influential and inspirational athletes of the 21st century.

A five-time champion, 18time All-Star and 2008 NBA MVP, Kobe was known for his mamba mentality, a mojo of unrelenting hunger to win and the desire to do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal. Dying at 41, he demonstrated that even legends can leave us unexpectedly and reminded us that, since any day could be our last, we must always strive to make the most of our lives.

Mixed between the honorary 24-second violations, impromptu mass memorials and tweets of disbelief were replays and reminders everywhere of just why Kobe held such a special place in our hearts. His impossible work ethic, his clutch gene and his passion for the game in all aspects made us appreciate basketball that much more. Building a legendary resume in his two-decade career, he showed everyone that a great attitude and unrelenting drive can take you far in life.

Before attaining stardom, Kobe built inroads into farflung communities like one in the Philippines, where a court named in his honor was dedicated just hours before his passing. He never waited to use his abilities to change lives and to better himself. He lived his life with his foot on the gas. After his death, every NBA superstar — from Europeans like Luka Doncic to rivals like LeBron James — remarked on just what an influence he had on them, showing them what was humanly possible if they had enough hunger and grit.

The sheer shock at his sudden passing, just a day after congratulating James on passing him on the all-time scoring list, should serve as a reminder of a deeper truth about life. We are all just one

heartbeat away from being a memory. Many of us assume we will have more time to build our lives and legacies.

Once we get into college, start a family or settle in a new city, we assume we have time to start making the most of our lives. For some people, that time will never come.

Kobe showed us that you have to exemplify the mamba mentality day in and day out in case your life is cut unexpectedly short. There’s never a day when you can’t work toward making the world a better and happier place. Kobe demonstrated that attitude by being as equally positive and inspirational in the basketball world after his retirement as he was before. He seamlessly rechanneled his passion for basketball toward philanthropic efforts. Kobe championed women’s basketball, worked out with current players and broke down the game in detail to those seeking his undying thirst for achievement, it’s no wonder the world came to a standstill when the former player was suddenly gone. Part of the mourning is knowing just how much he had left to give to the game and to the world.

Both Kobe’s sudden death and the reaction to it should serve as sobering reminders that life is a privilege that can be revoked at any time, and when that day comes, it’s in our hands to decide how we’re remembered.

Think about the stories your friends and family would share to memorialize your life and the legacy you’ll leave behind.

There’s no doubt that Kobe exemplified a life well lived, even if his life was cut short. It’s hard to think of a better way to exemplify the mamba mentality than ensuring the world will show its respect no matter when your time is up. Kobe strove every second of every day to make himself and the world around him better, and he showed us we should aspire to do the same.

JOHN CRAWFORD is a junior

in the McDonough School of Business.

Surrounded by peers who work relentlessly, the glorification of sacrificng sleep to work more than your peers and the pressure to get the perfect internship, it is easy to accept high stress levels as a norm in colllege.

Resist Desensitization to Stress Culture

Sarah Reuter

O

n the cellular level, we are programmed to respond to stress. Our cells sense and respond to their environment. Signaling molecules — like the hormones circulating in your bloodstream — bind to the membrane receptors of their target cells and deliver cellular instructions. Notably, a cell can alter its response to a particular molecular signal. When a cell is bombarded by signal molecules for a prolonged period of time, the cell internalizes its membrane receptors so the signal molecule can no longer bind to the cell and induce a change. In other words, the cell can become desensitized to the signal.

Like cell receptors that become desensitized to an extracellular signal after chronic exposure to it, Georgetown University students can become desensitized to apparent norms such as stress culture, feelings of inadequacy

and the urge to be perpetually busy. But students should resist the cellular precedent to become desensitized to persistent signals. This resistance is critical to one’s mental and physical well-being.

Surrounded by peers who work relentlessly, the glorification of sacrificing sleep to work more than your peers and the pressure to get the perfect internship, it is easy to accept high stress levels as a norm in college.

I am all too familiar with this bombardment of expectations.

In the fall of my sophomore year, my workload increased considerably. Learning organic chemistry, I started spending hours in the library assembling molecules with a plastic model kit to wrap my mind around conceptually difficult material. I also joined a research lab, which necessitated getting up to speed on biological processes that were much more complex than those in any of my prior coursework.

Though pressed for time and sleep, I felt like I needed to do more. I was surrounded by seemingly endless opportunities on campus and in Washington, D.C., and my peers seemed to be taking advantage of them all. Like a cell that withdraws its membrane receptors in response to being surrounded by

an abundance of a molecular signal, I tried to get used to a new normal of busyness, along with the stress and sleep deprivation that accompanied it.

This compulsion to succumb to Georgetown stress culture was spurred by my desire to fit in with my ambitious classmates.

Though a benefit to attending Georgetown is the opportunity to be surrounded by bright, hardworking individuals with big ambitions, it is also easy to feel inadequate in this environment.

When I first arrived on Georgetown’s campus as a freshman, the student body seemed to be a sea of high school valedictorians with ample previous accomplishments, and I became focused on merely keeping up with my impressive peers. Shifting my mindset to focus on my own progress and accomplishment at Georgetown has been an ongoing process.

For most of my time at Georgetown, I have embraced a busy schedule in an attempt to avoid missing out on any academic or professional opportunities. Almost too late, I have realized that doing so has caused me to miss some of the opportunities that cannot be captured in a line on a resume. I am embarrassed to admit that I waited until my senior year to go to a Georgetown

basketball game and that I have yet to visit some of the Smithsonian Institution museums. In my final semester at Georgetown, I have chosen to take four classes instead of five so I can fully devote myself to one last semester of classes, activities and time with the friends who I will not live within walking distance of next year. I am determined to see D.C. landmarks I have not yet visited, to celebrate weekly Mass in Dahlgren Chapel with the Jesuits and to attend more unique on-campus events.

Cellular desensitization allows a cell to protect itself from the detriments of excessive response to a particular molecular signal. In stark contrast, becoming desensitized to apparent norms such as pressure to be busy can have dangerous effects on the wellbeing of Georgetown students. I urge students to reject the norm of perpetual busyness and to make time for activities they enjoy. While desensitization to a bombardment of signals may be an appropriate response for cells, desensitization to stress culture is not beneficial for our Georgetown community.

Sarah Reuter is a senior in the College. MOLECULAR MUSINGS appears online every other Wednesday.

PONDERING POLITICS

UNPACKING DISABILITY

Focus GOP Efforts on Cities

Prioritize Accessibility

to Seattle.

Nationally, the United States has a police staffing problem. City populations continue to grow and require proportionally increasing city services, including policing. Without such accommodations in city governance, more and more voters moving into cities with understaffed police departments will rally behind pro-law enforcement candidates.

Though the current electoral map indicates that progressive Democrats have a stranglehold on metropolitan voters, growing insecurity about public safety has the potential to trigger a political realignment toward the GOP. Although concerns about equitable policing and use-of-force policies may continue to temper the conversation around law enforcement, a quiet but nonetheless zealous group of citizens concerned about their security can be rallied around conservative city governance. There is a balance to be struck between regulating police activity, a cause championed by progressives, and reducing crime, a considerable concern of the right wing. Nonetheless, the Republican Party should be forceful in its insistence that all Americans ought to be safe walking through their city’s downtown — a value clearly abandoned by urban progressives.

Regarding the drug crisis: the growing calls from the progressive end of the political spectrum for drug management programs such as injection sites are nothing but defeatist sentiment in our battle with addiction. Allowing this disease to persist in city streets is neither compassionate to those who are under the influence of illegal drugs nor fair to community members who must avoid used needles in shared public spaces. The good grace

ager emailed her multiple times, nothing changed in that class. It is Georgetown’s responsibility to start training faculty on the accommodations process and ensure professors understand why creating an accessible classroom is important.

When it comes to my accommodations, I have had many types of professors at Georgetown. I want to stress that these professors cross disciplines and have a range of identities. I have had the professor who did not believe me – either that I even have a disability or that my accommodations are “real.” I have had the professor who says, “Sophie, I am so sorry I forgot to enlarge your quiz,” in front of the entire class. I have had the professor who asks for weekly reminders for my accommodations because of their busy schedule.

I have had the professor that messes up, apologizes and wants me to fix their mistake. Unfortunately, the kind of professor that I have had least at Georgetown is the one who genuinely wants to make their classroom accessible and who goes beyond the mandated accommodations to do so.

Academically, I have received lower grades when my accommodations are not met either because learning materials are not fully accessible or because assessments are not presented in an accessible format. If professors do not enlarge my test, I am the one who suffers tangible consequences. The stress of advocating for accommodations takes time and energy away from my academic work. In addition, I often encounter professors who casually use harmful language surrounding disability in their lectures without realizing how it impacts students. I had a professor last semester who used deafness and blindness as metaphors for not doing the homework

Sam Kehoe

I

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n 2016, white workingclass voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan became disenchanted with the Democratic Party and voted red.

In coming years, U.S. voters in the heart of big cities may be the next group to swing right. U.S. metropolitan centers are suffering from the failures of left-wing policies around public safety and the drug epidemic. U.S. conservatism has long called for a restoration of public safety and stands in opposition to the misguided efforts to establish injection sites intended to contain the drug epidemic. The GOP should bring these solutions to the American metropolis, which has been suffering under Democratic rule for decades.

In 2019, I worked on a primary city council campaign in downtown Seattle. As campaign manager, I talked to countless residents who were tired of witnessing the everyday tragedy of drug overdoses on our city streets and the ever-common danger of falling prey to a random attack from a seldomprosecuted offender. The understaffed Seattle Police Department became increasingly vocal in its pleas for a more pro-law enforcement city government at around that same time. According to Seattle police exit interviews, the lack of support by city leadership motivated an officer exodus from the force. Pair that with the under-prosecution of repeat violent offenders and you have a citywide safety issue.

But this issue is not unique

of metropolitan voters was reaching its limit in 2019 in Seattle as mental illness and addiction contributed to intense homelessness and sanitation issues in the city.

Law enforcement will often be the first point of contact with severely drug addicted individuals in city streets.

Therefore, more officers on the beat will allow for a more robust response to victims of the drug epidemic.

When the frustration of urbanites is met with the realization that real compassion means mandating treatment for those who repeatedly commit crimes due to mental illness or druginduced episodes, cracks will widen in the seemingly impenetrable cement of urban progressivism. The conservative opposition to injection sites creates a hope that drug addiction can be conquered and that those in its grips are not doomed to a life of chemical dependency.

But in order to win over metropolitan liberals, the GOP must be clear in its message that compassionate addiction policy means lifting people out of the deadly grip of addiction and not merely allowing them to suffer under the supervision of “safe” drug injection sites.

The GOP will still face an uphill battle in the metropolitan United States. As of now, big cities are voting overwhelmingly blue. But the conservative support for law enforcement and the GOP’s unapologetic confrontation with addiction as a matter of public policy speaks directly to the issues facing metropolitan centers across the country. Urban voters are ready for new solutions.

The GOP has the realistic, effective ideas that U.S. cities need.

Sam Kehoe is a freshman in the College. PONDERING POLITICS appears online every other Tuesday.

Sophie Septoff

W

hen I entered Georgetown University as a firstyear, I was ready to walk away from the many inequities and challenges I faced as a visually impaired high schooler. I wholeheartedly embraced Georgetown’s tenets of caring for the whole person and being people for others. But sadly, as a senior, I now find myself reflecting on the numerous challenges I have faced in terms of physical accessibility, legally mandated accommodations and harmful language.

The university’s response to physical accessibility issues is to attribute the problem to the lack of funding allocated to physical access issues. But I personally could do with a smaller flower budget for a while if it meant my institution would feel like home to students with disabilities.

Though professors are legally mandated to follow the directives they receive from the Academic Resource Center, they rarely do so consistently. When professors are not compliant, the ARC sends a message condemning their behavior, but no real action is taken to ensure they will accommodate myself and other students in the future. In my junior year “Conflict Transformation” course, my professor consistently failed to provide me with in class materials in a font that was accessible to me so that I could interact with them in class like other students had the opportunity to do. Though I reported this professor multiple times to the ARC and my case man-

before coming to class. I, then, have to deal with being triggered or missing class on a regular basis. Learning is far more difficult when it is constantly stopping and starting.

I am also impacted socially.

Club activities, study groups and social situations that should be accessible to me are often not. Georgetown must begin to teach and exemplify inclusivity, because I cannot and should not have to constantly educate my peers. I end up spending the majority of my time trying to be treated like a full human and student instead of participating in activities. Fortunately, I can afford to take the time to do this. However, I know this is not an option for other students with disabilities who may be working multiple jobs to afford attending Georgetown.

Georgetown needs to start training faculty in legally mandated accommodations and on the effects of their language and content on students. Professors must take responsibility for their actions. That means making disabled students feel welcome at Georgetown.

That means putting accommodations into their weekly routines. That means not talking about student accomodations with or in front of other students without permission. That means using language in syllabi that shows openness to accessible practices in all parts of the classroom environment, instead of language that shows disabled students they would not be welcome if not for a law. Georgetown needs to create a system that teaches faculty and students how to make accessibility a habitual practice on this campus.

Sophie Septoff is a senior in the College. UNPACKING DISABILITY appears online every other Thursday.

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Bipartisan cooperation is more important than ever amid President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, panelists explained at an event Jan. 29. Story on A9.

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IN FOCUS

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MOCK CAUCUS

We should all call on Jack to do not what’s best for Jack, but what’s best for the District of Columbia.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser on Jack Evans’ decision to run for his vacated D.C. Council seat.

Story on A9.

from our blog

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GU Politics hosted its second Mockus event, which simulated the Iowa Caucus, on Jan. 28. The event was moderated

by Mo Elleithee, left, and featured Iowa Caucus veterans Pat Burgwinkle, center, and Kate Waters, right.

GU Health Services Lack Adequate Accessibility for Students KIRSTEN GARINO

surance does not satisfy the university’s requirements.

After several days of fever and achiness to start his sophomore year at Georgetown University, Niels Ruigrok (COL ’22) visited the Student Health Center on Sept. 10, 2019, where a doctor diagnosed him with mononucleosis and strep throat. Ruigrok was prescribed medication for his strep and advised not to exercise for four to six weeks, in addition to not attending classes for one week because of the mono diagnosis.

A day later, Ruigrok’s roommate found him on the floor of their room, shaking and unable to form any words. Ruigrok was immediately rushed to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in a Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service ambulance. Blood work done at the hospital revealed Ruigrok had neither mono or strep, but instead had a common virus.

“It was terrifying. My throat completely closed and I couldn’t breathe at all,” Ruigrok said in an interview with The Hoya. “Whatever medication I got from the Student Health Center, it wasn’t the medication I was supposed to have. It definitely had an adverse effect.”

Ruigrok, who is enrolled in the Platinum Premier Plan — the university’s only health insurance option — had to pay $2,500 out of pocket for a visit to MedStar Hospital on a bill that totaled $3,250. The Premier Plan, which costs $2,895 annually, only covered $750 of that medical bill.

Ruigrok’s experience is one among many student concerns about the quality of care provided at the Student Health Center. Student reports of inadequate care provided by the health center are coupled with student concerns about health insurance accessibility and cost.

Students’ insurance must be compliant with Georgetown’s policy, which can pose challenges for students unable to afford insurance or those whose existing in-

INADEQUATE HEALTH CARE

Special to The Hoya

Since its creation in 2003, students have vocalized their dissatisfaction with the Student Health Center, citing both long wait times and poorly managed urgent health scares. In 2014, when Georgetown confirmed a case of bacterial meningitis on campus, some undergraduate students who had difficulties booking appointments at the Student Health Center opted to seek treatment elsewhere.

During the 2019-20 academic year, problems relating to accessibility and quality of treatment, such as those in Ruigrok’s case, still pervade student sentiment about the Student Health Center.

Elise Chapman (SFS ’23) had been dealing with neurological issues for two years before coming to Georgetown and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after the start of her freshman fall semester. When her condition worsened in November 2019, she immediately visited the Student Health Center, where her primary care physician told her that her symptoms were only the result of stress, according to Chapman.

“They referred me to CAPS, and kind of just didn’t really seem to care too much about my symptoms or what was going on even when I told them about my background of neurological issues,” Chapman said in an interview with The Hoya.

“I feel like they’re not really well equipped to treat anything other than, like, a cough, or like — I don’t know — normal college student diseases.”

Long wait times for treatment and limited clinical hours make health care at the Student Health Center inaccessible for the majority of students, according to several sources.

The Student Health Center opens on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and closes between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., depending on the day. Some students experience difficulty when receiving treatment on weekends, as the clinic is only open for three hours Saturday mornings, and is closed Sundays. For urgent health prob-

lems after hours, the Student staffed, however, because not all Health Center advises students Student Health Center employto speak with the clinic’s on- ees work on the same days or call physician over the phone at the same times, according to or visit the emergency room at Jenia Davis, a receptionist at the MedStar Hospital.

Student Health Center.

Limited clinical hours af“It probably is a little — it fected Ethan Williams (SFS ’23) gets a little hectic because when he visited the Student not all the providers work Health Center during the fall in one day,” Davis said in an 2019 semester after develop- interview with The Hoya. ing a 104-degree fever, only to miss the clinic closing by five INSURANCE BARRIERS minutes, he said in an interview Georgetown requires all unwith The Hoya. dergraduate students to have The Student Health Center’s health insurance that meets hours are inuniversity convenient standards and for students, is compatible especially with the Afthose who fordable Care have commitAct. Students ments outside are automatiof classwork, cally charged according to for and enWilliams. rolled in the “If I had university’s just met with Premier Plan somebody unless they from Student waive the Health Serhealth insurvices for like ance before ELLIOT MACK (SFS ’22) 10 minutes, the start of the Student enrolled in Premier Plan they could’ve school year. told me Forty-five what was wrong,” Williams percent of Georgetown students said. “Instead, I had to wait are enrolled in the Premier Plan, in the hospital waiting room according to Laura Hardman for about four hours with my Crosby, director of the Student friends to even meet with any Health Insurance Office. kind of doctor or nurse.”

Although a large proportion The Student Health Center of the student body is enrolled operates on a triage system, in the plan, some students have which involves assessing the found it difficult to navigate severity of a student’s illness to what the plan does and does determine the priority of their not cover. Elliot Mack (SFS ’22), a treatment. Triage systems are student enrolled in the Premier often used in hospital emer- Plan, visited the Student Health gency rooms to address sick Center with painfully impacted patients according to their need wisdom teeth, only to be redifor medical assistance. rected to a website to find a denThe system will not always be tist on his own. convenient for students because “It hurt so much, and I went it seeks to prioritize more seri- to the Student Health Center ous cases, according to Assistant and they literally like gave me Vice President of Student Health a phone number to call,” Mack Services Vincent WinklerPrins. said in an interview with The “There may be times when Hoya. “I had to go on the weba student wishes to have an site, find a dentist, call them and appointment that the student then found out that I wasn’t covhealth center may not im- ered.” mediately be able to accomWisdom teeth removal is not modate but we have a nurs- covered by the Premier Plan, ing triage system in place to despite urgent wisdom teeth help address urgent student removal constituting a medineeds,” WinklerPrins wrote cal emergency, according to in an email to The Hoya.

Mack. Although it is listed on The clinic can often feel short the website that the Premier

“We have an orientation for every little thing at NSO, but for health care the university doesn’t help you understand it at all.”

Plan does not insure dental or vision care, Mack claimed this was not made clear to students and expressed a desire for more student insurance options.

“I wish they had more transparency and more options, like if you want to get dental you can get dental,” Mack said. “It’s a kind of a one plan fits all, and they don’t give you a summary that helps you figure out what you’re covered for. We have an orientation for every little thing at NSO, but for health care the university doesn’t help you understand it at all.”

The insurance office makes itself available to students by phone, walk-ins and appointments to address health insurance coverage-related questions, according to Hardman Crosby.

Emily Graul (NHS ’20), a founding board member of Georgetown University Students for Health and Medical Equity, a club that raises awareness for the availability of health care services, echoed Mack’s concerns about the university’s lack of transparency and accessibility in informing students about the Premier Plan.

Graul was concerned that the 85-page document listing which situations are eligible for coverage is not sent out to students along with the health care waiver.

“When do we look at that when we sign? We’re filling out a Google Form when we waive or we don’t waive [the Premier Plan],” Graul said in an interview with The Hoya.

The university can improve at informing students about their health care coverage, according to GUSHME President Grace Keegan (COL ’21) “It is the responsibility of the university to cover what isn’t covered for students. I don’t think it should be our responsibility to fight for that or to even have to address those issues,” Keegan said in an interview with The Hoya.

HEALTH CARE COSTS

For students who arrive at Georgetown without existing insurance plans and students whose health care coverage is deemed insufficient by the university, waiving the Premier Plan may not be a viable option.

Even with the university mandate, some students may go uninsured for several reasons, according to Missy Foy, director of the Georgetown Scholars Program, which supports lowincome and first-generation college students on campus.

“Some low-income students are on Medicaid in their home state which typically doesn’t translate to coverage in the District,” Foy wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I understand how that can be confusing, and the result is a student may not be insured when they’d likely be eligible both for GU insurance and financial assistance to help with the cost.”

Eligibility requirements for Medicaid, a federal program that provides discounted health care for low-income families, differ in each state.

Out-of-state Medicaid does not necessarily meet Georgetown’s requirements for adequate health care coverage because it often does not extend to the Washington, D.C. area, according to Hardman Crosby.

Health insurance can be covered by financial aid, as it appears on the fall semester’s tuition bill.

GSP assists students with getting financial aid to cover insurance costs, informing them about options that can cover health insurance costs if students do not already have coverage, according to Foy. “Incoming students may, understandably, worry about the cost of health insurance, and I would encourage them to reach out to the Financial Aid Office, to speak to their financial aid counselor, and ask what funding options are available to them to meet the insurance requirement,” Foy wrote.

Despite the Student Health Center’s shortcomings in health insurance coverage and medical assistance, some students, like Williams, will continue using the Student Health Center because of its convenient location on campus.

“If I’m dealing with a pressing medical issue, I can’t really just go off campus to try to find the nearest clinic, or go to the hospital to wait four or five hours,” Williams said. “So it’s really the only option.”

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

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University Increases Tuition For 9th Consecutive Year

Students To Vote in Feb Blue Campus Referendum

ALEC DEWAR

LIANA HARDY

Special to The Hoya

Undergraduate tuition to attend Georgetown University for the 2020-21 academic year is set to increase by 3.5% from $55,440 to $57,384, marking the ninth consecutive year of tuition hikes.

Provost Robert Groves announced the tuition increase for the upcoming academic year in a campuswide email Jan 23. This rise in tuition follows the 2.8% increase observed last year.

Next year, Georgetown plans to make its largest investment in financial aid in university history, with more than $230 million dollars set aside for incoming students, according to Groves’ email.

While the university works to minimize tuition increases each year, tuition rates must be set with the university’s commitment to offering a robust financial aid program in mind, Groves wrote.

“We maintain our deep commitment to attracting the brightest students regardless of their financial circumstances,” Groves wrote in his email.

“We continue to prioritize cost containment efforts, and have renewed our commitment to securing scholarship funding.”

Georgetown follows a need-blind admissions policy, meaning that the university’s admissions process does not consider financial need when reviewing applications, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions website.

The university also commits to a financial aid policy that

meets all demonstrated need.

To mitigate the effects of the general tuition rise, the university has worked to cut fees charged in addition to tuition. For the upcoming academic year, the university has eliminated fees for science and language laboratories and course material fees, according to Groves’ email.

Previously, certain language and science courses had a fee associated with their lab or technology components. Students registered for science lab courses were charged $150 per course, according to the university’s revenue and receivables website. A language technology fee of $70 contributed to the operation of Georgetown’s Language Learning Technology Center, which supports students studying a foreign language.

In addition to these set fees, students enrolled in fine arts or performing arts courses often had to shoulder the additional costs of purchasing required course materials, which could range from $50 to $100 in cost, according to the university website.

Groves’ announcement of the upcoming tuition hike comes after a monthslong student-led push for a universitywide tuition freeze.

Georgetown undergraduate students called for a tuition freeze in a Feb. 15 editorial in The Hoya. In October 2019, the Georgetown University Law Center Student Bar Association submitted a resolution to Law Center Dean William Treanor, urging the administration to approve tuition rates for the next academic year

that match those from this year adjusted for inflation.

Since students are most directly affected by changes to Georgetown’s tuition, they should have a voice in the decision-making process on setting tuition, according to Georgetown University Student Association press secretary Harper Thomas (SFS ’22).

“The university administration has failed to solicit student feedback and participation in discussion regarding tuition rates and the allocation of funds,” Thomas wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We deserve to be aware of discussions surrounding the level of Georgetown’s tuition, and how that tuition money is spent.”

Tuition revenue goes toward a variety of university expenses, including educational instruction, financial aid and student services, according to a projection of expenses included in Groves’ email.

The university assesses a wide range of factors when considering whether to increase tuition, according to the university spokesperson.

“University leaders, faculty and staff take these investments seriously and work hard each year to reduce direct costs, increase philanthropic support for scholarships and mitigate rising expenses of providing a Georgetown education,” the university spokesperson wrote in an email to The Hoya. “In setting tuition rates, the University must balance the competing needs of academic programs, students, faculty, staff, facilities, and infrastructure.”

Foreign Journalists Face Barriers To Freedom of Speech, Panel Says HARRISON MCBRIDE Hoya Staff Writer

Freedom of expression is a universal aspiration among people, but journalists and policymakers must be cognizant of diverse cultural and political circumstances when promoting free speech abroad, panelists said at a Jan. 30 event.

The event, titled “Exporting the First Amendment: Noble, Impractical, or Wrong?,” was hosted by The Free Speech Project, a nonpartisan initiative working to assess the condition of free speech in the United States. At the event, panelists discussed the intersection of international journalism and the spread of free speech around the world.

Journalists who attempt to promote free speech in countries with oppressive regimes face great risks, according to the Director of Voice of America, an international news and broadcast organization, Amanda Bennett, who moderated the event.

“Everyday I’m watching people in repressive regimes come to seek us out even when their countries block us out, and I take it from that that there is a huge demand around the world for a free press,” Bennet said. “But, one of the things that we notice, is also we find we’re putting our journalists often in great risk to make them a part of this endeavor.”

These foreign journalists who face censorship in their native countries may face dangerous repercussions from their governments for their

commitment to free press, according to Foreign Affairs Columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer Trudy Rubin.

“What I find is that there is an instinctive hunger for young people who have an interest in journalism to try to get information, real information,” Rubin said. “Over and over again, I’ve found this bravery, but it does create moral issues.”

Rubin specifically cited cases in Syria where local journalists trained in reporting were killed as part of the ongoing conflict in the region to illustrate threats to free speech. An estimated 147 Syrian journalists have been killed between 1992 and 2020, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Austin Tice, a second-year law student at the Georgetown University Law Center, went missing in Syria in 2012 while traveling in the country to report on the escalating civil war between the Syrian government and rebel forces.

Tice is believed to have been kidnapped by an affiliate of the Syrian government.

Other featured panelists for the event included Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States H.E. Fitsum Arega, Associate Editor at The Washington Post Karen DeYoung and U.S. Correspondent for the Straits Times of Singapore Nirmal Ghosh.

When covering political issues, such as ethnic conflicts in foreign nations, journalists need to educate themselves on the country’s history to gain a better understanding

of the context of the situation, according to Ghosh.

“I think there should be cognizance of the nuances of the history of the ethic divisions, the bad baggage of post-colonial history,” Ghosh said. “I find that in the modern discourses, even in the media because the news cycle has become so franetic, and its instant, that it often lacks context. It lacks historical context, it lacks immediate context.”

When traveling to foreign countries, journalists can gain valuable perspectives from interacting with locals, according to DeYoung.

“We as correspondents going places, I think that we find in dealing with local journalists that they are really, without exception, in my case at least, are so eager to seek you out and actually help you,” DeYoung said. “And I think that as correspondents we really couldn’t even do our jobs if we didn’t have the assistance of local reporters.”

In a time when foreign countries face threats to free speech, many foreign citizens see the United States as the protector of free speech around the world, which is an image the U.S. must strive to maintain, according to Ghosh.

“America has always stood for something, despite its credibility issues and its had credibility issues all the time, supporting dictators, regimes and so forth,” Ghosh said.

“But it’s always stood for something and if that gets eroded, that’s a problem.”

Hoya Staff Writer

Students will vote whether to designate Georgetown a Blue Campus on Feb. 6 after the Georgetown University Student Association Senate passed legislation to put forth a referendum to the student body Jan. 26.

The Blue Campus label would serve as a university pledge to commit to environmental sustainability and protection of ocean habitats.

The referendum encourages the university to adopt particular sustainability policies, including investment in renewable energy sources and carbon offset programs, which seek to counteract fossil fuel emissions. The referendum would also call for increased education on environmental sustainability and reduced use of plastics and other possible pollutants.

The referendum will appear on the ballot of the GUSA Executive elections Feb. 6, alongside a separate referendum advocating for the university’s divestment from fossil fuels.

The idea of designating Georgetown as a Blue Campus began in the fall with the creation of the Blue Campus Working Group on Nov. 24, according to GUSA Senator Leo Rassieur (COL ’23), an early advocate for the referendum. Designating Georgetown as a Blue Campus could set a valuable precedent for other universities looking to pursue environmentally friendly policies, according to Rassieur.

“We started this idea of us declaring ourselves to be a Blue Campus and what it would look like to do that, because even though we want

COURTESY GUSTAV HONL-STUENKEL

’20), who voted against the original referendum but supported the renewed version.

Members of the Blue Campus Working Group added an additional section to the referendum that would create a task force to implement the policies, causing the referendum to appear more feasible, according to Blue Campus Working Group member Rowlie Flores (COL ’23).

“Our referendum is more broad and that’s why we wanted to create a committee to help address the policies we presented,” Flores said in an interview with The Hoya.

The task force would include GUSA senators, members of the student body, and university administrators, according to Rassieur.

During the past decade, the university has worked to implement environmentally friendly policies. In early January, LEO MKT introduced reusable dishware. One year earlier, the Office of Sustainability, created to reduce the university’s environmental footprint, was nominated for a sustainability award.

The referendum previously included policies that would ensure the university’s divestment from fossil fuels, but this section was removed before the new version of the referendum was introduced. The Blue Campus Working Group, however, is still supportive of the idea, according to Rassieur.

“The divestment referendum is a movement that we’re working really closely with, and obviously our values are super aligned because both of our referenda are about getting the university and the student body to take action to preserve the environment,” Rassieur said.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Students will vote on whether to designate Georgetown a Blue Campus in a referendum Feb. 6. If passed, the Blue Campus label would serve as a university pledge to commit to environmental sustainability.

Student Study Abroad Plans Disrupted By Disease Outbreak CORONAVIRUS, from A1

The event, titled “Exporting the First Amendment: Noble, Impractical, or Wrong?” was held in Riggs Library on Jan. 30. The event was hosted by The Free Speech Project.

this to be a national movement that spreads to other colleges and universities, it’s obviously not something that has ever been defined before, in terms of what specific policies are required,” Rassieur said in an interview with The Hoya.

The referendum is critical to addressing climate change due to its emphasis on ocean preservation, Rassieur added.

“In terms of past environmental policy, especially by the university, there isn’t much attention to the effects of things like ocean acidification or plastic dumping or coral bleaching, and all of the available science suggests that these are things that are accelerating climate change,” Rassieur said.

The Blue Campus initiative will help the university consolidate its patchwork of environmental policies, according to Blue Campus Working Group member Ally Pyne (COL ’23).

“I think the university does a pretty good job of having green and sustainability initiatives, but there’s not one cohesive space, and that’s what the point of the referendum is: to bring initiatives together,” Pyne said in an interview with The Hoya.

The referendum’s first iteration failed to pass the two-thirds majority threshold for referenda at a senate meeting Jan. 20, with 17 senators voting in favor and seven voting against. Six of the dissenting senators, who cited lack of specificity in the original referendum, voted in favor of the renewed referendum, which passed 23-1.

The new referendum added new details and slashed unnecessary ones, according to senator Juliana Arias (SFS

that doesn’t happen, I would have to return to Georgetown and somehow find a way to catch up considering we’re already a month into the semester,” Jones wrote.

Georgetown students who were scheduled to complete programs in Hangzhou and Kunming in collaboration with Middlebury College have the option to spend the spring semester at Middlebury’s campus in Vermont, according to William Mayers, assistant director of international programs at Middlebury.

Though this option is not ideal for some students, it is logistically easier for students since Middlebury’s spring semester does not begin until Feb. 10, according to Mayers.

“We are fully aware that this is not what they want

to do, but since we can’t offer them an opportunity in China, we want to make sure that they at least have the opportunity to keep up with their studies so that they can graduate on time,” Mayers wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Replacement programs or opportunities will not provide students with the same caliber of language study, according to Philip Kafalas, associate professor and study abroad adviser for Chinese programs.

“They put a lot of work and long-range planning into getting to that point and were looking forward to both the learning and the adventure that was supposed to happen,” Kafalas wrote in an email to The Hoya. “There is no substitute here for study abroad; our Chinese language curriculum is not designed to offer a full load of

courses for a student at, say, a third-year level.”

As the outbreak persists, the medical and public health communities are working rapidly to learn more about the coronavirus, according to Jesse Goodman, professor of medicine and director of the Center on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship.

“While we wait to learn more about this virus and how it is spread, like other respiratory viruses such as flu, spread through contact with sick patients and their cough and other secretions is most likely,” Goodman wrote in an email to The Hoya. “While it won’t protect against this novel coronavirus, if you haven’t yet had this year’s flu shot, it’s not too late to reduce your risk of flu, which causes similar symptoms and could be confused with coronavirus.”

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Ferretti, Badger Highlight Previous GUSA Experiences NICOLO/BRYCE, from A1 oriented their campaign around several guiding principles, according to Badger.

“Our campaign is built on three core values: being realistic and be proactive, to recognize and embrace intersectionality and also to own who we are and what we stand by,” Badger said in an interview with The Hoya.

Ferretti currently serves as the GUSA Executive’s director of university affairs. As executive director, Ferretti worked with the university to coordinate a Georgetown University partnership with the Capital Bikeshare University Program, as well as update the school webpage. He previously worked as a GUSA senator until he resigned to join the executive branch in spring 2018.

Within GUSA, Badger works as the chief of staff for the Francis-Olvera Administration where he supervises senior staff, coordinates with advocacy committees and attends meetings with Georgetown administration. Previously, he worked as the GUSA executive treasurer and served as a GUSA senator during his freshman year.

In 2018, Badger also worked as student engagement director for former GUSA President Sahil Nair (SFS ’19) and Vice President Naba Rahman (SFS ’19). In fall 2018, Badger, alongside Rahman and nine other executive cabinet members, resigned to put pressure on Nair to resign amid sexual assault allegations against him.

Ferretti and Badger’s GUSA experiences will inform how they operate their administration if they win the election, Badger said.

“I’ve been in a lot of different roles throughout my years and I think one thing that is really great about that is that Nico and I bring a lot of different experiences to GUSA and a lot of different perspectives from seeing it in different capacities and seeing how the holistic of the organization can implement things to be effective and advocate for students,” Badger said.

If elected, Ferretti and Badger’s first priority would be to address sexual assault on campus, ac-

cording to Badger. They plan to work with the Title IX office for survivor protection, particularly in light of the 2019 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct in which 31.6% of undergraduate women reported experiencing nonconsenual sexual contact.

“I was very disconcerted by the sexaul assault climate survey from last year and I think that really has to be where our efforts are right from the beginning,” Ferretti said.

Ferretti and Badger would also advocate to move bystander training for first year students to earlier in the academic year in hopes of lowering sexual assault rates.

When addressing student facilities concerns on campus, Ferretti and Badger would push the administration to use a $75 million deferred maintenance fund for housing renovations and improved accessibility, Ferretti said.

To improve inclusivity, Badger proposed working with the administration to allow queer and low-income students who have hesitations about going home to stay on campus during breaks.

The Ferretti-Badger Administration would also seek expanded resources for queer students and people of color in Counseling and Psychiatric Services. They would also encourage the university to hire more diverse faculty, CAPS staff and staff in the Title IX office as well as advocate for implicit bias training for selection committees.

The ticket has also set a goal for Georgetown to get 50% of its energy from renewable sources.

To reach that goal, they want the university to use greener vehicles, improve access to green transportation like bicycles, build a solar farm and hire a recycling manager, among other initiatives, according to their campaign website.

Although the 2019 GUSA Executive elections saw the lowest voter turnout since 2007 and 2% of students polled ahead of the election reported strong trust in GUSA, Ferretti and Badger hope to reengage the student body through tangible, visible accomplishments from the beginning of their term.

“The way that you get people

to engage with your projects and engage with you is by having results and making sure you are effective in your advocacy,” Badger said.

Although Ferretti and Badger have been involved with GUSA since their freshman years, they are both involved with other campus organizations. Ferretti is a science, technology and international affairs major who has participated in the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service’s D.C. Schools Project, school spirit organization Hoya Blue and dance performances Rangila and Reventón Latino.

Badger, who is majoring in marketing and global business, serves as the director of communications of the Georgetown Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs, coordinator for the Business Undergraduates Invested in Leadership Development preorientation program and worked on The Blaxa, an oncampus media group. Badger is also president of the Asian American Student Association.

As a queer person of color who identifies as Black and Asian and has dyslexia, Badger has felt the need to hide or neglect elements of his identity, he said. Badger is running for the GUSA Executive to advocate for those people who feel like they do not fit into the university community.

“I’ve always felt like I’ve had to contort myself to fit Georgetown’s mold and not necessarily have Georgetown be accessible to me or work with me. I’ve always felt like I’ve had to fight for my spot in a room,” Badger said.

“I’ve always wanted to push for making things more accessible to people like me and people who aren’t like me so that’s kind of my personal reason of why I am running for GUSA.” “I’ve always felt like I’ve had to contort myself to fit Georgetown’s mold and not necessarily have Georgetown be accessible to me or work with me. I’ve always felt like I’ve had to fight for my spot in a room,” Badger said.

“I’ve always wanted to push for making things more accessible to people like me and people who aren’t like me so that’s kind of my personal reason of why I am running for GUSA.”

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

Salmeron-Perla, Elliott Brault Push for Reforms Within GUSA JULIO/GABBY, from A1 After struggling to find a community that she felt accepted her on campus, Elliott Brault hopes to harness GUSA’s power to make sure every student feels recognized and included.

“I’ve never felt like I had a very strong place on campus, a very strong identity on campus.

I didn’t feel like I belonged to any one group or identity,” Elliott Brault said. “I wanted GUSA to be something that kind of brought students together, and I found that that wasn’t the case. I found that GUSA was lacking in so many different things: communication, transparency, even just getting things done.”

Drawing upon their experiences working in GUSA in the past, Salmeron-Perla and Elliott Brault hope to partner with other student leaders to find effective ways to accomplish concrete goals.

“A big part of our platform is the fact that GUSA is broken.

Our slogan is ‘GUSA is broken, let’s fix it together,’” Elliott Brault said. “A big part of that is being together, and that is drawing students in from every different background on campus so that they can communicate with GUSA and actually make a difference within GUSA itself.”

To join the GUSA Executive ticket, presidential hopefuls needed to attend one of two information sessions hosted by the election commission, which only candidates Nicolo Ferretti (SFS ’21) and Bryce Badger (MSB ’21) attended.

Salmeron-Perla and Elliott Brault instead joined the race days later via a petition requiring 100 signatures to enter the race. Since the pair launched their petition, two other tickets joined the race by petition.

Though the pair boasts GUSA experience, they hope to bring fresh perspectives to the table with their candidacy, according to Salmeron-Perla.

“I think that part of why we ran is because we heard the voice of the student body that was discontent and wanted a challenge to that first ticket, and wanted a second choice,

wanted something different something fresh that will start GUSA on a clean slate,” Salmeron-Perla said.

As well as serving as a GUSA senator his freshman year, Salmeron-Perla has been involved in the International Relations Club and international relations publication The Caravel.

Elliott Brault has served as president of the now disbanded United Feminists Club and mentors freshmen in the Georgetown Scholars Program, a campus organization that provides support and mentorship to first-generation or low-income students.

Elliott Brault also worked as Socioeconomic Advocacy Policy chair in the GUSA executive branch, including under former GUSA President Sahil Nair (SFS ’19). In Fall 2018, Elliott Brault and Bryce Badger (MSB ’21), another candidate for GUSA vice president, resigned along with eight other executive members to put pressure on Nair to resign amid sexual assault allegations against him.

To address one of the ticket’s policy areas, sexual misconduct on campus, the pair hopes to increase trust in GUSA by making an open space for students to come and talk to specially trained GUSA members who can support them through the Title IX process.

“As a survivor myself, I think you can’t prevent sexual assault on campus. You can’t prevent sexual harassment.

But, you can hold students accountable for it,” Elliott Brault said. “I will walk with students myself to report these things if I have to. I just want them to feel like they have that space on campus.”

Salmeron-Perla and Elliott Brault are not the only students who have low trust in GUSA. According to a poll last year, only 2% of students indicated a strong trust in the student government. In period of low student faith in GUSA the pair hopes to revitalize support in the institution by being more accessible on campus, specifically to sexual assault survivors.

“I think it’s a long process to rebuild trust in something. I think part of it will be making sure we’re open for survivors to come to us so that we have all the resources they need at the drop of a hat if they need,” Elliott Brault said. “I think part of it is that a lot of students don’t know what GUSA is and they don’t know what GUSA does.”

During their time in GUSA, Salmeron-Perla and Elliott Brault found it difficult to make progress on initiatives with the administration because of the short length of GUSA terms. The team hopes to open up policy proposals and resolutions to the entire student body and encourage students outside of GUSA to spearhead projects, since their commitment to the project goals would likely outlast GUSA terms.

While the pair does not yet have all of their concrete policies defined, the two hope to be adaptable to students’ current issues, and to be more responsive to the Georgetown community, Salmeron-Perla said.

“I think that a big part of what we seek to do is actually stay informed. We’re not here to say ‘we’re going to promise to end this, or we’re going to stop this,’ but rather we’re here to start a movement of, we’re going to meet with administrators and actually talk to students,” Salmeron-Perla said. “We’re going to make GUSA actually be around the students and have student clubs have GUSA.” If elected, Salmeron-Perla and Elliott Brault would spend their first 100 days in office working to build a strong executive team and establish relationships with GUSA senators and the larger student body so that they can make progress on tangible goals.

“I think Gabby and I are the best candidates because we see our limitations,” SalmeronPerla said. “We seek to work with students and the administration to try to work through some of those limitations and improve conditions for all students on campus.”

Marin-Mora, Deleon Propose Activists Gonzalez Porras, Figueroa-Flores Push Bounds Diverse Slate of Policies ARISAID/ANAHI, from A1 group. Their story continued Jan. 24 when they filed a petition to join the Georgetown University Student Association 2020 Executive election ballot one day before the petition period ended.

After gauging positive interest in their candidacy through Instagram polls on their private accounts, they made the sudden decision to run; however, their motivation for running is clear, Figueroa-Flores said.

“Sometimes you feel like you don’t belong here, but if you see people who look like us be president and vice president, then I think that’s gonna inspire other people to also run for office, like as senators, and they can feel more welcome on campus,” Figueroa-Flores said in an interview with The Hoya.

Gonzalez Porras studies American studies and FigueroaFlores studies computer science.

Georgetown offered a full-ride scholarship to Gonzalez Porras, who is also one of 20 Baker Scholars, a selective Georgetown scholarship program. Both Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores mentor incoming students of color from low-income backgrounds, aiding them in their transition to Georgetown.

The ticket’s platform is driven by a desire to increase inclusivity and bridge a gaping rift between students and GUSA, according to Figueroa-Flores.

“GUSA has so many resources that students don’t know about, or at least I don’t even know about either, so it would be putting that knowledge for students and making it more accessible and making GUSA more inclusive, and just bridging that gap between students,” FigueroaFlores said.

Among their primary focuses is an expansion of resources for LGBTQ members of the community, according to Gonzalez Porras.

“There are transgender folks that can still get periods, and they don’t feel comfortable entering the women’s bathroom, so we would want to have something stocked outside, so that none of those decisions don’t have to be made,” Gonzalez Por-

ras said.

Once in power, the pair would also strive to improve mental health services, particularly focusing on the lack of diversity among mental health officers, Figueroa-Flores said.

“It’s unacceptable to have that lack of representation on campus and lack of space for students to heal,” Figueroa-Flores said. “I think expanding those spaces for students and also providing staff that is competent for those spaces, especially for communities of color, is really important.”

Gonzalez Porras and FigueroaFlores hope to extend their advocacy beyond the student body by celebrating the contributions of campus workers, Gonzalez Porras said.

“When we see the workers here on campus, I see my parents. My parents do these jobs.

My mom’s a housecleaning person and my dad sells used merchandise at flea markets and swap meets,” Gonzalez Porras said. “So seeing the workers here sometimes not even be appreciated — I feel so guilty sometimes being at this school. So one of our things would be a workers appreciation week.”

Should their administration encounter resistance from university administration on issues like expanding inclusive student resources, the experienced activists are prepared to pressure the university through strategies ranging from conversation to sit-ins, according to Gonzalez Porras.

“Where the university is now with the LGBTQ Center and having a director for undocumented student services, it hasn’t come out of the goodness of the university — it just hasn’t.

It has come because of student activism,” Gonzalez Porras said.

“I’m tired of being afraid of institutions in power thinking that they can tell us what to do, but in reality I think the power is in the people.”

If elected, the ticket would measure their success more broadly than with just particular policy achievements, according to Figueroa-Flores.

“Knowing that I helped make a change in a student’s life, knowing that GUSA helped

make something happen, if that happens in 100 days — I think that would make me happy,” Figueroa-Flores said.

Gonzalez Porras agreed with her running mate about how they would measure the ticket’s success when in office.

“I would consider myself successful if you could call someone out on campus and be like, ‘Has GUSA reached out to you in any capacity or in any club that you’re in? Do you know that they’ve reached out to you?’ And if they say yes, that to me would be like we did something,” Gonzalez Porras said.

While Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores are the only candidates with no prior GUSA experience, they are unfazed by this hurdle, according to Gonzalez Porras.

“We’re very new at this; we don’t know how GUSA functions,” Gonzalez Porras said.

“We have a lot of the skills and tools, and we’ll figure out how we’re going to do it. So I don’t have a doubt that we’ll figure it out, but we just got to get elected first.”

During their tenure in HFIR leadership, Gonzalez Porras and Figueroa-Flores renewed the club’s activism and organized a walkout advocating for the rights of DACA recipients with over 150 students in November.

Current members of GUSA have briefed the candidates on GUSA’s basic functions and structure, according to Figueroa-Flores.

“We’ve already had a couple of meetings with people who are in GUSA, and I think just from hearing them and what they’ve experienced in GUSA, I’ve learned so much already,” Figueroa-Flores said.

In an effort to empower overlooked perspectives, the ticket’s executive team would consist entirely of women of color, according to Gonzalez Porras. The fresh outlook the candidates bring to the GUSA race will rally student voters to their campaign.

“We’re two women; we’re Latinas; we’re undocumented.

That already says a lot. I think that we would be making history at Georgetown,” Gonzalez Porras said.

JOSHUA/ISBEL, from A1 and transportation, among other initatives.

When deciding to run, the pair emphasized the urgency of addressing issues often overlooked by GUSA, according to Marin-Mora.

“There are really important issues that are affecting a lot of students that we haven’t seen a lot of impact on but we talk about. Costs continue to rise, the sexual assault rate hasn’t changed and students aren’t feeling supported in the classroom regarding mental health,” Marin-Mora said in an interview with The Hoya. “Georgetown’s most important resource is its students.”

Marin-Mora comes from Reno, Nev., where he was raised by immigrant parents from Costa Rica. At Georgetown University, he studies international politics and is involved with the D.C. Schools Project, CSP and the Georgetown Scholars Program, an organization that provides resources and support to first-generation and low-income students. MarinMora also participates with the Latin dance group Ritmo y Sabor. He has also served in the GUSA Senate since winning a seat in spring 2019.

Deleon hails from the Dominican Republic and studies government in the College. Deleon is active in the Blue and Gray Tour Guide Society and The Corp as well as CSP and GSP. She has also worked as a student guard, in residential living, the residential hall office and the Center for Social Justice. Deleon additionally served as a representative for Reventon Latino and is a member of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.

Marin-Mora and Deleon will listen to all students’ concerns to best inform their administration’s initiatives, according to Deleon.

“We want to see change and we want to drive the impact for the students. We

want them to be heard, we want them to feel safe, we want them to feel listened to because I know that is something I have heard going on time and time again,” Deleon said. “We just want to make sure that we try to help them as best as we can.

And make sure we find the ways to tackle those important issues and contain and make them at the forefront because the way this is going it is just not a sustainable relationship.”

The ticket will consider such student when considering how to better provide resources for first-generation college students on campus.

Deleon has proposed a student-faculty mentorship program to help students better communicate their needs as first-generation students to professors.

“I know there have been times I get intimidated to go up to my professor and tell them I am confused on something and my imposter syndrome can sometimes become very real,” Deleon said. “This mentorship program at Princeton allows first-generation students to build that type of connection with faculty members and in turn allows faculty members to understand the hardships not only first-generation students go through but also other students in general.”

In addition to providing more resources for firstgeneration students, the pair also highlighted policy goals like improving sexual assault policies on campus. One initiative regarding sexual assault on campus that the pair highlighted requires the executive board members of all student clubs on campus to undergo specific training in order to receive club funding from the university. MarinMora additionally suggested exploring ways clubs could designate a student sober intervener at social events.

“This isn’t to replace a critical resource that a survivor may need but a student ought to be able to know that

their student leaders can at least recognize situations on how to intervene but also at the same time that they can at least direct a student to resources on campus that they will need,” Marin-Mora said.

Current campus protocol ineffectively addresses student needs, according to Marin-Mora. The candidate recommended the university hire an administrator focused on university American Disability Act compliance and general campus accessibility.

The ticket also discussed implementing an open textbook network that would make certain materials and textbooks available for free use in academic courses. A similar program at American University saved 1,500 students $251,000 between 2015 and 2017, according to the AU website.

Though student trust and engagement with GUSA has been low, with last year’s executive election voting reaching its lowest turnout since 2007. Marin-Mora and Deleon hope to rebuild trust with the student body by actively engaging student organizations.

Such student engagement will become an essential lever to push the administration to advance GUSA and the student body’s agenda during Marin-Mora and Deleon’s tenure as executives, Marin-Mora said.

“That is just a small step.

But it is directly engaging the students because once that happens I think that it really does show the administration that GUSA isn’t just as disconnected as it seems and also importantly, I think it shows students that you don’t have to per say go to GUSA. You can reasonably expect GUSA is coming to you to gather your input,” Marin-Mora said. “We’re that bridge. And we really need to be that bridge.”

Hoya Staff Writer Annalise Myre contributed reporting.

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GAGE Begins Fall Contract Negotiations With University ANNALISE MYRE Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

In October 2019, protesters, including students and professors, prevented an invited speaker from giving a keynote address at the Georgetown University Law Center.

GULC Considers Revising Free Speech Policy After Protests HANSEN LIAN Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University Law Center has reconvened its Speech and Expression Committee to consider changing school policy on inviting speakers and responding to disruptive protests after a law student-led protest prevented an invited speaker from delivering a keynote address last October.

In October 2019, the Law Center invited then-acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan to give the keynote address at its annual policy and law conference.

When McAleenan attempted to speak, protestors, which included law students and professors, shouted chants until McAleenan left the stage.

The Speech and Expression Committee will provide recommendations on whether there should be constraints on which outside speakers may be invited to speak on the Law Center campus, how the school should respond to disruptive protests during an event and whether the school should take disciplinary or other administrative action against students, faculty or staff disruptors, according to a Jan. 16 email sent by the Speech and Expression Committee to Law Center students.

Students who participated in the October protest launched a petition Jan. 21 to oppose any potential rule changes, especially those that would punish peaceful protestors, according to Samuel Singleton-Freeman (LAW ’22), who helped craft the

petition. The petition received over 140 signatures from students, faculty, staff and alumni

by Jan. 26, according to Singleton-Freeman.

The petition, which was addressed to Law Center Dean William Treanor, said the Law Center’s consideration of implementing disciplinary measures to punish protestors undermines its commitment to free speech.

“One does not have to support the cause of a specific protest to know that punishing peaceful protesters would have a chilling effect on free speech and expression across campus,” the petition read. “We urge you to respect the right to dissent.

We urge you to not punish protesters and to reject any changes making it easier to punish protesters in the future.”

The Speech and Expression Committee, comprised of students, senior staff and faculty, will review practices at peer institutions and university policies and practices to develop its recommendations. The committee released a confidential Google form and hosted a listening session Jan. 24 to solicit student feedback.

The Law Center held the listening session in accordance with its commitment to upholding its values of free speech and expression, according to GULC spokesperson Tanya Weinberg.

“Georgetown’s Speech and Expression Policy provides that faculty and student groups may invite outside speakers and guests to campus,” Weinberg wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“Similarly, it affords the right to members of our community to share their own views and objections about a speaker and to protest peacefully in a manner that does not interfere with the audience’s right to listen and with the safety and security of our campus.”

The committee hopes to find the best way to allow both future speakers and protestors to make their voices heard, according to Weinberg.

“The purpose of the committee process, including the listening sessions, is not to address or punish conduct at past protests,” Weinberg wrote. “The purpose is to consider the best path forward in balancing the competing concerns of the right to speak and the right to protest at the Law Center.”

Rather than only allowing administrators to choose which speakers come to campus, students, faculty and professors should have a say in deciding whose voices should have a platform on campus, according to Jeremy Penn (LAW ’21), who participated in the October protest.

“The situation as its currently structured is that all the power rests in the hands of the administrators, and so, we the students have very limited capacity to pick people as influential as Former Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, or any of the many other high profile speakers we have come to campus,” Penn said.

“Because there is no accountability by students or by faculty, it’s really really hard to say this is something that is representative of the Georgetown community.”

Activists Returned to Campus Day After Red Square Arrests RED SQUARE, from A1 the ground and they hurt my arm even more.”

Once Login and Hernandez were removed from Red Square, Hernadez then told GUPD officers that she could not feel her hand because the handcuffs were cutting off circulation to her hand, she said in an interview with The Hoya. The officers loosened the handcuffs and then took her and Login into custody where they were held for about three hours, according to Hernandez.

Any member from the Georgetown community may protest as long as the speaker and listeners’ rights to free speech are not violated, according to a university spokesperson. Non-Georgetown affiliated visitors that have not been invited to protest, however, are not allowed to do so on Georgetown property.

“In this instance, as nonstudents, the protestors were informed that they could continue to protest outside of the front gates or elsewhere offcampus,” the spokesperson wrotesaid in an email to The Hoya. “When they refused, they were removed from campus by GUPD and arrested for unlawful entry.”

The GUPD crime log writes that an unauthorized protestor was located in Red Square at 3:24 p.m. after they had been previously escorted off campus, with the case closing in arrest.

The log separately lists that an authorized protestor was located in O’Donovan Hall at 3:24

p.m. after they had been previously escorted off campus, with the subjects being barred from campus.

GUPD has not responded to The Hoya’s request for comment at the time of print.

Although the GUPD crime log says that Hernandez and Login were escorted off campus before their arrest, Raphael Kadaris, a representative from the D.C. team of Refuse Fascism, said that they were never instructed to leave before their arrest.

“They were not protesting, they were inviting students to a protest this Wednesday at the Capitol,” Kadaris wrote in an email to The Hoya. “They were never actually told they had to leave before they were arrested. They had been told they couldn’t pass out flyers, which they stopped doing.”

The incident was unsettling to watch, according to Leo Rassieur (COL ’23), a Georgetown University Student Association Senator who witnessed the event.

“I saw a police officer grab her wrist, then she yelled and was pushed to the ground. She was recording the arrest of the other protestor,” Rassieur wrote in an email to The Hoya.

People and groups not affiliated with the university are barred from flyering on campus, according to the university’s Speech and Expression Policy. Only members of the academic community are allowed to hang posters or hand out handbills or pamphlets, the policy reads.

Open discourse is authorized

in specific locations on campus, including Red Square, according to the policy. The policy does not specify if individuals outside the Georgetown community are welcome in those spaced without an invitation those spaces.

“Certain areas of campus shall be considered ‘public squares’ and shall be available, without prior arrangement, for individuals and groups during daylight hours for the purpose of exchanging ideas,” the policy reads.

Login and Hernandez were arrested despite complying with university policy, according to a Refuse Fascism twitter thread chronicling the events of Jan. 27. “@Georgetown’s core mission states it is a ‘university with a heart’ dedicated to ‘social justice’ and ‘restless inquiry,’” the tweet said. “Yet they brutally arrested activists engaged in nonviolent speech, simply inviting students to protest a white supremacist, fascist regime?”

Despite the previous day’s events, members of Refuse Fascism, including Hernandez and Login, returned to campus Jan. 28. Hernandez said that Georgetown should apologize to her and Login and provide the pair a chance to speak about their experience.

“I think the university should give us an apology,” Hernandez said. “That was unacceptable, that they violently arrested us, I think that there should be students and professors inviting us to their classes to talk about what actually happened.”

The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees has entered into negotiations with Georgetown University by engaging in weekly bargaining sessions in an attempt to finalize its first union contract.

Every Tuesday for the rest of the semester, members of GAGE’s bargaining committee will speak with administrators in an attempt to reach an agreement on a union contract to go into effect for the fall 2020 semester, according to the GAGE website.

GAGE hopes graduate student workers will attend the bargaining sessions to stand in solidarity with their fellow students, according to a Jan. 20 update posted on the GAGE website.

“By attending a bargaining session, you can learn more about the graduate experience at Georgetown and show your support for your friends and colleagues at the table,” the update read. “More importantly, you can remind the administration that you and hundreds of graduate employees like you will do what it takes to win a contract.”

Going into contract negotiations this semester, GAGE’s bargaining committee will emphasize specific areas of focus highlighted by responses to its January 2019 bargaining survey, which flagged key concerns of graduate employees, members and nonmembers of GAGE. These areas of focus include increased worker com-

pensation, expanded health care coverage and improved reporting processes for harassment and discrimination, according to GAGE bargaining committee member Jewel Tomasula, who is pursuing a doctorate of philosophy in the department of biology.

Finding ways to relieve the burden of health care costs for graduate students will be a priority in the upcoming negotiations, according to Tomasula.

“Most graduate workers’ only source of income and only option for healthcare is what Georgetown provides,” Tomasula wrote in an email to The Hoya. “However, the stipends for PhD students and wages for hourly work are far below livable wages for DC, and the student healthcare options pose a financial burden.”

The university has already reached tentaive agreements with GAGE on proposals regarding management rights, union rights, grievance and arbitration procedures and procedures to address claims of discrimination and harassment, according to a university spokesperson. During the bargaining sessions, GAGE and university administrators will negotiate over topics including service hours, stipend levels for students who are serving as research or teaching assistants and benefits, according to a university spokesperson.

The university would like to reach a collective bargaining agreement by the end of this spring semester, a university spokesperson wrote in a state-

ment to The Hoya.

“Georgetown University shares GAGE’s belief in the important role that graduate student assistants play and shares its commitment to giving them a strong voice as members of our community,” the university spokesperson wrote. “In order to respect the collective bargaining process, discussions on all matters subject to negotiation should take place at the bargaining table.”

GAGE voted to unionize in November 2018 following a yearlong push to receive official recognition as a union from the university. GAGE elected 14 members to the union’s bargaining committee Feb. 8, 2019 in preparation for the beginning of worker contract negotiations with the university.

The salary and stipends offered to graduate student workers are not sufficient to cover rent and other expenses, according to bargaining committee member Marya Hannun, a seventh year Ph.D. student in the Islamic studies department, who has worked as a teaching assistant while pursuing her degree.

“Currently, we don’t have the protections or salary to make pursuing a phd easy for someone without a safety net or with any sort of dependents,” Hannun wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I’m so privileged to have that safety net of parents who can help me out, but I want a contract so people who don’t have those safety nets can also do this work.”

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Demonstrators on Healy Lawn cited Cardinal O’Connor’s support of anti-LGBTQ initiatives and groups as reason for protesting the conference and its speakers.

Anti-Abortion Conference Draws Student Demonstrators ANNA FERRAZZI Hoya Staff Writer

As students protested outside Healy Hall, speakers at the 21st annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life discussed the intersection of law, morality and human dignity within the antiabortion argument Jan. 25.

The theme of this year’s conference, “The Consistent Life Ethic and the Law: the Ethical Argument for Life,” focused on the rise of the anti-abortion movement, especially given the recent passage of anti-abortion laws on the state level and themes of public morality and human dignity.

COCC has historically drawn student criticism. This year’s protests began Jan. 23 when student activists chalked messages in Red Square opposing the event.

Although fighting for antiabortion causes may become tiresome, people must seek to develop a society that protects and cherishes all life, according to one of COCC’s keynote speakers Jonathan Reyes.

“There’s can be something romantic about finding a cause, falling in love with it. Caring for people. But romanticism about caring for the elderly, caring for the poor, caring for the unborn, caring for mothers, it will wear off,” he said. “Build a culture of life. Give everything you have for it. Not just because the culture needs you but because you need it. Let’s change the conversation that all may know they have an inherent dignity.”

Reyes serves as the executive director for the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development and the assistant general secretary for integral human development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The second keynote speaker at COCC was Bethany Madonna, vocation director for Sisters of Life, a Catholic religious community of women dedicated to

promoting anti-abortion causes.

COCC, which was originally founded by Georgetown University students in 2000, convenes students, clergy and activists from around the country to engage in discourse over a variety of anti-abortion topics, according to the COCC website.

The pro-abortion rights argument’s emphasis on attaining greater dignity for all human beings is applicable to women who choose to get abortions, according to Madonna.

“We see in their hearts the sorrow, the pain, the shame, the guilt, the depression, the anxiety, the anger,” Madonna said. “Jesus comes. Jesus comes, and his mercy has real power to make them new, to restore innocence.”

Following the keynote addresses, the recipient for the Rev. Thomas King, S.J. Award was announced. The award, which was granted to two groups the University of St. Thomas Celts for Life this year, recognizes collegiate anti-abortion groups. The all-day conference also featured a panel discussion on the theme of consistent life ethic and the law later in the afternoon.

H*yas for Choice, an unrecognized pro-abortion rights student group on campus, organized a protest in Healey Circle on the morning of COCC. The protest was supported by the Georgetown University College Democrats and GU Pride.

The purpose of the protest was to raise awareness about the harmful beliefs propagated

by COCC and to demand that the university end its support of COCC, according to HFC President Talia Parker (COL ’20).

“We’re out here today because we don’t believe in anything the Cardinal O’Connor conference stands for, and we think it’s crazy that Georgetown funds and supports this and that administrators come to this,” Parker said. “We’re out

here to show that this conference actively makes students on campus feel unsafe and that Georgetown should not be supporting this in any way.

Ultimately, we want this conference to be gone from this school forever.”

Cardinal John O’Connor (GRD ’70) has faced criticism for his condemnations of the LGBTQ community. He supported the prohibition of LGBTQ Catholics from the property of the Diocese of Brooklyn and opposed the 1986 passage of a New York City bill that would have banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, according to The New York Times.

Continuing to host an event in the namesake of a person who held anti-LGBTQ beliefs tarnishes the work student activists have done to promote inclusion on campus, according to GU Pride Co-President Siena Hohne (COL ’22).

“The Cardinal O’Connor Conference for Life has no place at Georgetown University, where we have worked tirelessly to foster an environment that is not only accepting, but celebratory of the LGBTQ+ community,” Hohne said.

Many COCC organizers and attendees were shocked by the heated nature of the protest against COCC, according to COCC Press Coordinator Sam Dubke (SFS ’21).

“We object to the particularly vitriolic rhetoric used by protestors this year,” Dubke wrote. “It was particularly shocking to watch our Georgetown peers shout slogans like ‘f**k the Church’ at students and nuns as they attempted to enter our conference.We hope that, in the future, we can engage in more respectful dialogue with our fellow Hoyas.”

Hoya Staff Writer Ashley Zhao contributed reporting.

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

Grad Student Group Hosts 1st New Associate Vice President Chinese New Year Celebration Joins University Administration HANSEN LIAN Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown Collaborative Diplomacy Initiative hosted its first Chinese New Year Celebration to promote cultural diplomacy between American and Asian Cultures on Jan. 24.

GCDI, a graduate student organization funded by the School of Foreign Service, seeks to educate Georgetown University students about the factors influencing diplomacy, facilitate experiences with practitioners and seek new solutions to diplomatic problems.

The event was celebrated a day before the 2020 Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year, an observance of the start of the new year in a lunar calendar.

The event, which took place in the Healey Family Student Center Social Room, sold out with over 130 guests in attendance, according to second-year Masters student in the School of Nursing and Health Studies and President of GCDI Heerak Kim. GCDI and co-sponsors organized the event to promote intercultural engagement by embracing Chinese and other global cultures, according to Kim. “The purpose of Chinese New Year Celebration is to practice cultural diplomacy by wanting people who are not Chinese to come and meet Chinese individuals who are students at Georgetown so that we have cultural exchange and creation of mutual understanding, which is the bedrock of cultural diplomacy,” Kim said.

The UCLA Network of Washington, D.C. and the University of California, Berkeley, Association of Washington, D.C.. were co-sponsors of the event. Both organizations offer opportunities and resources within the private sector, academia, civil society and cultural and religious institutions alongside traditional diplomatic organizations in D.C. for alumni and current students.

The event gave attendees the opportunity to learn about Chinese students’ experiences celebrating Chinese New Year in China, according to Greg Cooper,

an attendee who heard about the event from the UCLA Alumni Association.

“People were really friendly, the food was really good, and I heard some great singing,” Cooper said in an interview with The Hoya. “I learned, at my table there were a couple of students from China, so I learned about their traditions, and how they would celebrate with their family back in their hometown.”

The event featured performances by two Georgetown acapella groups, Georgetown Superfood and the Georgetown GraceNotes, as well as a blessing from Fr. Christian Wagner, S.J., a member of the Georgetown Jesuit community who has done mission work in Taiwan and mainland China, and a speech from Maryland’s 2nd District Republican Candidate Genevieve Morris.

The performances at the event

by Superfood and the GraceNotes show how Chinese New Year is a celebration that can be appreciated by all, not just those with Chinese heritage, according to Kim. “We brought Superfood and GraceNotes because cultural exchange goes both ways,” Kim said. “Having the two music groups allows the opportunity for global celebration of Chinese New Year as something that is not confined to the Chinese people, or Asian people, but that it is an international celebration, and an

important one.”

The GraceNotes’ performance of “Gong Xi, Gong Xi,” a popular Chinese New Year song, was especially impressive, according to second-year Masters student in the learning, design, and technology program Sandy Lee. “I was not expecting them to sing in Chinese, but that was unique, and in my experience I don’t know of any other schools that have the acapella groups singing in a different language so that was impressive,” Lee said in an interview with The Hoya.

The event comes days after the Georgetown University Student Association unanimously passed a resolution calling on the university to recognize the Lunar New Year on the official Georgetown University calendar and their social media platforms at a Jan. 20 meeting.

The celebration represented an important step for the Georgetown community toward intercultural appreciation and understanding.

“I think that this celebration is great, we have over 130 people attending today to celebrate Chinese New Year,” Kim said. “I think this is a monumentally important event for Georgetown University in terms of cultural understanding, cultural diplomacy, and/or encouraging understanding of Chinese culture, Chinese history and Chinese people.”

@GCDI_GEORGETOWN/TWITTER

The event, hosted by the Georgetown Collaborative Diplomacy Initiative, featured guest speakers as well as two a cappella performances.

KELLY ANDERSON Hoya Staff Writer

Bisi Okubadejo (LAW ’03) started the role as the Georgetown University’s first associate vice president of equal opportunity, affirmative action and compliance Jan. 27.

Okubadejo will help oversee efforts to prevent instances of discrimination on campus, according to Rosemary Kilkenny (LAW ’87), the university’s vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer. Okubadejo will also manage the daily operations of the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action, which works to promote equality in educational, employment and contracting opportunities, according to Kilkenny.

Okubadejo will help address cases of discrimination filed with the IDEAA office, as well as with external federal and city agencies, and will help lead efforts at the university to promote nondiscrimination.

“The role presents an incredibly unique opportunity to give back to my alma mater while addressing cases of discrimination, and working as part of a team that is committed to building an inclusive community,” Okubadejo wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Okubadejo previously participated in Teach for America and attended Hamilton College before attending school at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Okubadejo taught in the Baltimore City Public School system, the same system that her mother and other family members attended when it was segregated, according to a university news release announcing her new position. She said her experience as a public school teacher influenced her decision to attend law school and pursue a career in promoting inclusion and equitable opportunities for all.

Okubadejo worked at the law firm Ballard Spahr for the

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Bisi Okubadejo (LAW ’03) began her role as the associate vice president of equal opportunity, affirmative action and compliance Jan. 27. last six years, where she addressed higher education civil rights, regulatory compliance and Title IX discrimination compliants on gender, according to the news release.

Before working at Ballard Spahr, she practiced law at the firms Venable and Hogan & Hartson, where she worked on employment issues. She also worked at the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, according to her LinkedIn. In her new role, Okubadejo will supervise a multifaceted group including a senior investigator and counsel, a director of affirmative action training programs, a director of affirmative action compliance and data analytics, as well as an associate director, according to Kilkenny.

Okubadejo hopes to lead her new team with a focus on improving the university’s response to student discrimination complaints, she wrote.

“I look forward to looking into the issues of equal opportunity and affirmative action, and working with Rosemary as well as the team at IDEAA, to strengthen the university’s capacity to address complaints of unlawful discrimination and harrassment,” Okubadejo wrote.

As part of Okubadejo’s new role, she will take over some duties that Kilkenny performed in her former role as vice president of institutional diversity and equity. In April, Kilkenny was appointed the university’s vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and as its first chief diversity officer. The university created both Okubadejo’s and Kilkenny’s roles as part of a broader effort to promote an inclusive campus environment and equitable opportunities for all students, according to the press release.

Kilkenny’s role expanded when the university appointed her as its first chief diversity officer and the vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the news release.

By hiring Okubadejo to take on some of her former responsibilities, Kilkenny will be able to allot more energy to expanding the scope of her diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, she wrote.

“Bisi’s new associate vice president role allows me to more fully expand institutional efforts to demonstrate Georgetown’s commitment to diversity and equity and inclusion, and I am excited by the new energy, skills and capacity that her role brings to our team,” Kilkenny wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Former Georgetown Parent Pleads Ukrainians Must Support Human Rights in Crimea, Panelists Say Guilty to Academic Bribery KELLY ANDERSON Special to The Hoya

Former Georgetown University parent Karen Littlefair pleaded guilty in federal court Jan. 22 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after prosecutors said she paid a private company to take online classes for her son.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office recommended a four month sentence, $9,500 fine and 12 months of supervised release, according to court documents. Littlefair entered into a plea agreement Dec. 9, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Littlefair paid William “Rick” Singer’s for-profit college counseling and preparation business, The Key, $9,000 to take online classes for her son James Littlefair (COL ’18) to satisfy his Georgetown graduation requirements, according to charging documents. One class was taken at Arizona State University, but then transferred to Georgetown for credit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Littlefair was the 53rd person and fifth Georgetown parent charged in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, a national investigation into parents who collaborated with Singer to illegally improve their children’s college admissions chances or fulfill graduation requirements.

Littlefair reportedly emailed Singer with questions and concerns over ways to obtain college credits for her son without him taking courses, including asking for the completion of an online history course to satisfy Georgetown requirements, according to

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen, the prosecutor on Littlefair’s case.

“The credits were submitted to Georgetown, and based in part on these credits, on or about May 19, 2018 LittleFair’s son graduated from Georgetown University and was issued a diploma,” court transcripts said.

In March, four Georgetown parents and former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst were charged by the Department of Justice in connection to the scandal. The university first discovered Littlefair’s misconduct through an internal investigation stemming from the indictments brought against the former parents and Ernst.

Ernst, who was asked to resign by the university in 2017 after a university investigation, separately pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges in March 2019. Ernst was additionally indicted with over 10 additional charges, including mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering Oct. 22, according to ABC News.

Ernst pleaded not guilty to the added charges in Oct. 2019, and does not have any further scheduled court appearances scheduled. A pretrial meeting for Ernst’s case is scheduled to take place in April 2020.

Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez, Douglas Hodge and Michaelle Janavs, four other Georgetown parents tied to the scandal who were charged with bribery and fraud, previously changed their pleas from not guilty to guilty at a federal court in Boston on Oct. 21.

The Family Educational Rights

and Privacy Act prevents university officials from commenting on the specifics of any individual student’s case, university spokesperson Meghan Dubyak wrote in an email to The Hoya. When alumni are accused of violating the Honor System, the university Honor Council reviews the case.

“When the University learns of a potential serious violation of the Honor System after a student has graduated, the Honor Council will investigate and adjudicate the case and may recommend sanctions up to and including the revocation of the student’s degree,” Dubyak wrote.

Previously, the university rescinded the admission of two students linked to the scandal through their parents. One of the two students, Adam Semprevivo, brought a lawsuit against the university alleging wrongful disciplinary actions. (Full disclosure: Semprevivo previously served as a cartoonist for The Hoya.) He then dropped the lawsuit two months after his degree was rescinded on May 15.

Going forward, federal prosecutors do not have any present plans to investigate or charge Littlefair’s husband or son, according to Rosen.

“It’s not our present intention to charge the son or the husband for this conduct and, again, we don’t view this as a promise or inducement, simply based on the information we know to date,” court transcripts said.

Littlefair’s attorney, Kenneth Julian, declined to comment. Littlefair’s sentencing date is set for May 13.

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

The admissions office is located in White-Gravenor Hall, above. After she pled guilty, U.S. attorneys recommended a four-month prison sentence, a fine and 12 months of supervised release for Karen Littlefair.

YALDA ZARRABI Hoya Staff Writer

All Ukrainians should work together to address ongoing human rights violations in Crimea, Ukranian writer, filmmaker and former political prisoner Oleg Sentsov said at a panel Monday.

Crimea has been a center of conflict between Ukrainians and Russians since the 2014 Ukranian revolution in Kyiv that resulted in the removal of pro-Moscow Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych. Following Yanukovych’s removal, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Russian Federation to annex the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, officially a part of Ukraine, citing proRussian sentiments in the region.

The conflict has created more than 10,000 civilian casualties and displaced an estimated 1.5 million within the region, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Conflict Tracker.

The ongoing hostilities in Crimea has persisted into 2020 and continues to cause casualties, according to Sentsov.

“Six years. For six years they’ve been fighting and the fight is still going on,” Sentsov said. “14,000 people perished; that is too much.

And the war is ongoing and is not ending.”

The conflict has also seen an increase in human rights violations in Crimea, such as the forced enlistment of Crimean citizens in the Russian armed forces, with those who oppose the draft facing criminal charges, according to the Human Rights Watch.

Given the persistent conflict in Crimea, Ukrainians and Crimeans should unite to preserve Ukraine and fight for their freedom, according to novelist and President of PEN Ukraine Andrey Kurkov, who was one of the other panelists.

“In Ukraine, freedom is more important than loyalty,” Kurkov said. “Ukrainians from different regions should find the balance between respect and love for freedom, and somebody else’s opinion and loyalty to their country, because only when the country is in danger do Ukrainians unite, because they understand they can not only lose their country, they can lose their freedom.”

The event, titled “Fighting for Human Rights in Crimea,” was cosponsored by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, PEN America, the U.S.-

Ukraine Foundation and the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies. The panel included Sentsov, Kurkov and Ukranian civic activist and journalist Maria Tomak. The panel was moderated by former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia John Tefft (GRD ’78).

Sentsov, who was vocal in his opposition to the Russian takeover of his native Crimea, was detained in May 2014 by Russian authorities and sentenced to 20 years in a Russian prison on terrorism charges in August 2015.

He was released from a Russian penal colony in September 2019 after five years of detention.

Sentsov was awarded the 2017 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, which is an award that seeks to end the persecution of authors and defend free expression by honoring writers who have been imprisoned for their work. Sentsov’s imprisonment tested his integrity and loyalty to the Ukrainian cause, according to Sentsov.

“A person never knows how resilient his endurance is and what he’s capable of until he finds himself in a complicated situation. When he is faced with a choice of whether to fight for his dignity and for his country or to surrender,” Sentsov said. “What prison teaches you is patience to preserve your personality to preserve yourself as a person and not to break and to just live through it, overcome.”

In December 2019, Putin defended rebel, pro-Russian leaders

in Ukraine after the Ukrainian government denounced the rebels’ claim to independence as illegal, according to the BBC. The annexation of and continued war over Crimea is a strategic move

by Putin to expand Russian territory and to regain regions formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, Sentsov said.

“Putin’s objective is not Crimea or Dunbass and even not Ukraine per se,” Sentsov said. “His target is the sphere of influence that consists of all the former republics of the former Soviet Union, and he perceives these former republics as his sphere of influence and he’s punishing those countries that are trying to leave the zone of his influence.”

The Crimean government held a referendum in March 2014 to determine whether its citizens wanted to join the Russian Federation or restore the Crimean constitution. 95.5% of voters supported joining the Russian Federation with 83% voter turnout. The Ukranian and U.S. governments maintain that the referendum was illegitimate.

Sentsov said the referendum was not conducted in accordance with Ukranian law and international standards, and pressure from Russia likely played a role in the passing of the referendum.

“To that fake referendum that was conducted over there, no referendum can be conducted when the gun is pointed at your temple and under the knife of the foreign army,” Sentsov said. “So, I do not believe the results of the referendum.”

MADIHA SOHANI FOR THE HOYA

Panelists discussed the importance of Ukrainian unity against human rights violations in Crimea at a Jan. 27 event.

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

THE HOYA

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DDOT Scraps Plans for Streetcar Impeachment Trial Requires Line Expansion Into Georgetown Bipartisanship, Panelists Say ISHAAN RAI

Hoya Staff Writer

The Washington, D.C. Department of Transportation abandoned plans to extend a streetcar line into Georgetown on Jan. 14, marking the end to a yearslong push for the project’s completion.

DC Streetcar, a free light rail line that runs along city streets, began operating in 2017, running along H and Benning Streets in Northeast D.C. An expansion into Georgetown would have run for 3 miles along K Street NW, according to the DC Streetcar website. After conducting an internal assessment, the DDOT decided against seeking federal funding for the project, citing greater funding priorities and operational challenges, according to a Jan. 14 DDOT review sent to the Committee on Transportation and the Environment.

In place of the extended streetcar line, the DDOT will establish a 1.3-mile K Street Transitway which will span from 12th to 21st Streets NW. The transitway will feature dedicated bike and bus lanes, as well as improved pedestrian amenities, according to the DDOT website.

The transitway will broaden transportation options within the Union StationGeorgetown Corridor with minimal disruption to residents, according to Janice Ferebee, who serves on Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2F, which represents Lo-

gan Circle and parts of Shaw.

“I did not feel streetcars were a good idea because of disruption and length of time the construction would cause,” Ferebee wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I don’t believe it’s worth the upheaval of the roads and the communities. I do, however, believe in improving transport from Union Station to Georgetown, and the planned enhancement of bus routes (transitway) is a viable alternative.”

The transitway will serve D.C. residents better than extended streetcar lines, which would be costly and would require allocating land for railcar storage and maintenance facilities, according to DDOT director Jeff Marootian.

“We’re pursuing the K Street Transitway because it’s expected to deliver a maximum impact in a quicker and more cost-effective way,” Marootian said to the Washington Post. “A streetcar project we know takes significantly longer and has several complexities, such as the need for another storage and maintenance facility.”

The DDOT is still planning to extend the streetcar line east over the Anacostia River along Benning Road NE to the Benning Road Metro station, a project that is projected to cost $241 million, according to WTOP. The now-scrapped plan to extend the streetcar line to Georgetown was part of the city’s multi-year effort to provide faster and more reliable east-west transit. When DC Streetcar was implemented

in 2017, residents praised the faster and more affordable means of transportation.

However, opponents of the streetcar line pointed out the high cost of the project. The city spent over $200 million on constructing the first 2-mile stretch of the streetcar line, according to The Washington Post.

As of Nov. 30, 2019, the DDOT had allotted $101,595 for the construction of the Union Station-Georgetown streetcar line, according to the DDOT review. That funding can now be used to support the transitway project, according to WTOP. If completed, the transitway project will serve as a suitable alternative to an extended streetcar line, according to Christopher Mathews, board member of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, a civic organization composed of Georgetown residents.

“The city’s decision to cut streetcar to Georgetown is unfortunate, as it diminishes the potential value of the existing streetcar route. But more important, from CAG’s perspective, is that if indeed the city won’t move forward with the Georgetown leg of the streetcar that it nonetheless move forward with the K Street Transitway,” Matthews wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“This ambitious project will improve cross-town bus service by the creation of highquality, bus-only lanes. This will ultimately benefit residents, workers and visitors of Georgetown.”

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

GRACE BUONO Hoya Staff Writer

Bipartisan cooperation within the U.S. government and communication between citizens with varied perspectives is essential for the future of the nation as President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial continues, panelists said at a Jan. 29 event.

The event comes months after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Sept. 24. Since then, the House has introduced and voted on two articles of impeachment. On Jan. 16, the House formally presented the articles of impeachment to the Senate, initiating the official impeachment trial.

The event, titled “A Conversation on Impeachment,” was hosted by the Institute of Politics and Public Service and moderated by Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief at Buzzfeed News Kate Nocera.

The panel featured Former Chief of Staff for Speaker Pelosi Nadeam Elshami and Former Staff Director for the Senate Repulican Communications Center, which is a critical operation for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Antonia Ferrier.

Given heightened political polarization within Congress and the U.S during the impeachment trial, young people should contribute their perspectives to the political arena, Elshami said during the panel.

“Civil service, politics, is a noble profession,” Elshami said. “So for those of you who are here or interested and may one day want to do this, we need you. We need a new fresh, thinking, generation, whether you’re right, left or an independent, it doesn’t matter.”

As of Jan. 29, ten days after the House voted to impeach Trump, 84.1% of polled Democrats support impeachment proceedings, whereas only 9.4% percent of Republicans express support, according to data collected by FiveThirtyEight. Despite the large percentage of Democrats in favor of impeachment, an acquittal of Trump would be the best

KELLY ANDERSON

GU Professor Named Chair of DC Climate Change Commission

Former Washington, D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans filed Jan. 27 to join special election for the seat he vacated when he resigned a week prior amid investigations into ethics violations.

After spending 29 years representing Ward 2 on the council, the council commissioned a report that found Evans had committed 11 ethical violations stemming from his legal and consulting work outside of the council. The council then voted unanimously to oust Evans; however, he resigned before the expulsion process could be finalized. Evans also filed to join the Ward 2 primary race held every four years.

Evans is additionally the subject of an ongoing federal investigation, which led to a June raid of his Georgetown home.

Investigations into Evans and his eventual resignation have weakened the public’s relationship with the council, according to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. The chairman declined to support Evans’ bid because he considered it damaging to the council’s ongoing effort to improve its reputation with the District, Mendelson wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“The Council needs to rebuild the public’s trust. It would be a setback to rebuilding that trust if he came on the Council so soon after we nearly expelled him,” Mendelson wrote.

All 12 sitting councilmembers issued a joint statement condemning Evans’ decision to enter the race as unwise and disrespectful, according to DCist.

“All of us agreed to expel Jack Evans from the DC Council after an exhaustive investigation found numerous violations of our Code of Conduct,” the councilmembers wrote. “His decision to run for Ward 2 Councilmember again, which we do not and cannot support, shows a willful and arrogant disregard for ethics and is not in the best interests of the District.”

If Evans were to win back his

Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University professor Uwe Brandes was sworn in as the chairman of the District of Columbia Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency on Jan. 15.

Brandes was appointed by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) to chair the commission. The 16-member commission advises the mayor and the D.C. Council on the best practices to integrate issues associated with climate change into the city’s policies and budget, according to a news release from the Georgetown School of Continuing Studies.

Through his role on the commission, Brandes hopes to push the city to take on a more significant role in combating climate change on both a local and global level, he said.

“I’m very much looking forward to crafting an important role for the commission in the context of Washington,” Brandes said in an interview with The Hoya. “But, because Washington is a global city with many other cities looking to Washington for best practices, I look forward to positioning the city in the global effort to mitigate climate change.”

Although cities make up less than 2% of the Earth’s surface, cities consume 78% of energy production worldwide and contribute to more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Human Settlement Programme. Despite D.C.’s small size, changes made on the citylevel has the potential to have a large global impact on alle-

viating the effects of climate change, Brandes said.

“Climate change impacts everyone everywhere, and so the role of the city in advancing climate solutions should not be underestimated,” Brandes said. “The regulation of buildings has always been a city function, so you can see just with that example how strategic climate change and cities are.”

Brandes currently serves as the faculty director for the master’s in urban and regional planning program at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies. Focusing on careful planning when considering urban development and design can create a more sustainable city, according to Brandes.

“The issues of urban planning relate to transportation, relate to buildings, relate to public spaces, and the impact of climate change and the sources of emissions relate directly to how those uses are organized in a city,” Brandes said. “The solutions lie before us in the functioning and operations of the city. So that’s why urban planning really is about climate planning.”

The Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency was established in 2016 by the D.C. Council. The commission is comprised of 16 voting members, eight of whom are appointed directly by Bowser. Georgetown professors Kathryn Zyla, an adjunct professor of law, and Colin McCormick, an adjunct associate professor within the science, technology and international affairs program at the Walsh School

of Foreign Service, will join Brandes on the commision.

The commission brings together a diverse panel of experts from a variety of fields, Brandes said.

“I’m just overjoyed to see that other Georgetown faculty are participating in the commission,” Brandes said.

“We are at a time where research and practice are coming together in the form of new, innovative solutions, and so it’s wonderful to see that we have other academics on the commission.”

In addition to teaching, Brandes also serves as the faculty director of the Georgetown Global Cities Initiative, which aims to connect over 60 faculty scholars and practitioners on research related to urbanization, and as an affiliated faculty member at the Georgetown Law Center and within the STIA program.

Brandes’s appointment to the commission complements the SCS’s mission to inspire students to go beyond the classroom and solve global challenges, according to SCS Dean Kelly Otter.

“Georgetown is proud to have Professor Brandes at the helm of such an important commission to our city,” Otter wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“His involvement is consistent with the charge of SCS to provide education that addresses the challenges of our changing world. I am confident that under Professor Brandes’ leadership, Washington D.C. will be better positioned to tackle climate issues and form innovative solutions for a brighter future.”

way to ensure a functioning government and democracy, according to Ferrier.

“I have some real concerns about this from a real institutional perspective,” Ferrier said. “I’m probably going to say something that will upset people, I actually think the best thing for this country is to have this end and end by meaning acquitted. Let’s go to the polls. Let’s let the democracy continue forward.”

Both Elshami and Ferrier are former GU Politics Fellows and moderator Nocera is a current fellow. The GU Politics Fellows Program began in fall 2015 and has brought five distinguished figures from the fields of politics, government and media to campus every semester to connect with students.

Given the historic significance of the impeachment trial, GU Politics organized the event to foster a dialogue in which students could better understand the political landscape Congress faces, according to according to Chief of Staff for GU Politics Carly Henry (MBA ’19).

“As part of our effort to convene bipartisan dialogue, we wanted students to hear from people on both sides of the aisle who understand the

dynamics at play in this historic time,” Henry wrote in an email to The Hoya.

While Ferrier and Elshami may have worked for politicians on different sides of the aisle, they both agreed on the trivial nature of today’s political media coverage, which often sends mixed messages to the public.

“Now, there’s always been an element of that in a twoparty system and you can see the sort of slide over time with mass media, so I’m a bit of two minds. It was definitely worse in real ways before, but there’s a pettiness to it now that is just exhausting,” Ferrier said.

For Nocera, in working as a political journalist and serving as moderator, today’s political divides, while not surprising, have taken a new level, she said in an interview with The Hoya.

“As they said, there’s always going to be a political divide between Democrats and Republicans, they’re motivated by very different things,” Nocera said. “They fundamentally disagree on a lot of things. I think that people are really tired of the sniping and just general exhaustion over ‘my team’s right’ and ‘your team’s wrong.’”

Jack Evans Files to Join Race For His Former Council Seat

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) appointed professor Uwe Brandes, who teaches at the School of Continuing Studies, as chairman of the D.C. Commission on Climate Change and Resilience.

ANNA FERRAZZI

MADIHA SOHANI FOR THE HOYA

Moderator Kate Nocera and panelist Nadeam Elshami spoke about President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial at a Jan. 29 event.

Hoya Staff Writer

@JACKEVANSWARD2/TWITTER

Former Councilmember Jack Evans filed to enter the race for his vacated seat after he resigned from the D.C. Council on Jan. 17. former seat, the council would again consider calling for his resignation, Councilmember Robert White (D-At Large) said to Washington City Paper.

“I think the options are calling for his resignation or reformation of the ad hoc committee,” White said. “But unfortunately I now need to think through this ridiculous scenario to make sure Jack Evans is held accountable for his actions in office and also does not further tarnish the reputation of the city.”

Evans joined the council in 1991. Since then, Evans has served on the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, and the Committee on Business and Economic Development, among other committees.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has long worked with Evans on various initiatives. The pair recently drew public attention as they participated together in Lunar New Year celebrations Jan. 26 despite Evans’ ethics violations and recent resignation.

Once Evans announced his entry into the council’s special election and primary, however, Bowser called upon Evans to consider the implications of his decision.

“I think he knows very clearly how I feel about getting on with the business of the District,” Bowser said in a news briefing.

“We should all call on Jack to

do not what’s best for Jack, but what’s best for the District of Columbia.”

Throughout the ethics inquiries and investigations, Evans has long been unpopular among Georgetown University College Democrats leadership. GUCD stands by their position that Evans was right to resign and his choice to run again is a mistake, according to GUCD Chair AJ Williamson (COL ’21).

“GUCD does not support Evans’s decision to run again for his old seat,” Williamson wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Our organization condemned his ethical violations, and we were happy to see him do the right thing by resigning.”

Evans now enters a crowded primary race including three Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners: John Fanning (D2F), Kishan Putta (D-2E) Patrick Kennedy (D-2A). Former Obama administration official Jordan Grossman, Marine Corps veteran Daniel Hernandez and health care executive Yilin Zhang, are also primary contenders. Each primary candidate has also filed for the special election alongside Republican Katherine Venice, an investment manager.

A special election to fill Ward 2’s open seat will be held June 16, with the winner serving until January 2021. The Democratic primary for the Ward 2 seat will be held June 2.

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SPORTS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

WOMEN’S TENNIS

TRACK & FIELD

Hoyas Swept 7-0 by Liberty GU Brings Home 8 Top-3 In 2nd Match of the Season Finishes at Hokie Invitational NICOLO PISONI Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown women’s tennis team suffered its second straight defeat of the season in a 7-0 loss to Liberty University on Saturday, Jan. 25.

The Blue and Gray (0-2) first conceded a point in the doubles matches before losing five of the six matches in straight sets to give Liberty (2-1) the 7-0 victory.

The Hoyas were swept during the doubles competition, allowing the Flames a one-point lead entering the singles competition. First in the doubles matchups, freshmen Olivia Ashton and Agata Mikos were overcome by the Flames’ Kalani Soli and Eloise Saraty, dropping the match 6-2. Despite earning an early 2-1 lead, the pair soon relinquished the advantage as Soli and Saraty cut down the deficit to take the 6-2 win.

Soli would prove a key player for Liberty on Saturday, finding success in both her doubles and singles matches. Soli remains the reigning Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Week and secured her 17th straight singles

dual match win against the Hoyas. With the loss, the Ashton and Mikos pair falls to 0-2 on the season in doubles matchups.

Liberty’s doubles pairing of Alexandra Almborg and Grace Hashiguchi captured a deuce point in the first game against Georgetown junior Sofie Moenster and freshman Chloe Bendetti and wrapped up its 6-2 victory to clinch the doubles point. The defeat keeps Bendetti and Moenster in search of their first win as a pair in the 2020 season.

Sophomore Elena De Santis and senior Anna Short were then defeated by the Flames’ pairing of Tiffany Nguyen and Micaela Ode Mitre 7-5 to complete the sweep for Liberty. De Santis and Short now also sit at 0-2 this season.

The first match of the singles competition was fought between Liberty’s Soli and Georgetown’s Moenster by a 6-1, 6-4 count to propel the home team to a 2-0 advantage.

Georgetown’s Mikos was then defeated by Liberty’s Almborg in a straight-set triumph, falling 6-3, 6-2. This defeat pushed the Flames up to a 3-0 lead and

marked Almborg’s third win of the season while Mikos recorded her first singles loss of the season.

The Hoyas’ loss was sealed with Liberty’s Nguyen, who prevailed against Georgetown’s De Santis. De Santis erased a 5-2 second set to briefly take a 6-5 lead before Nguyen took the next game and won the tiebreaker 7-1 to close out the match. De Santis records the loss as her first of this spring season, winning her previous singles matchup in Maryland in three sets.

Ashton remained competitive in her match, dropping the first game 6-4 before answering with a 6-4 victory of her own. Liberty’s Esther Lovato, however, dominated the tiebreaker 6-3 to take the match and extend Georgetown’s deficit to five against the Flames.

To round out the day, Flames’ player Micaela Ode Mitre shut out Short in two straight sets 7-5, 6-4 while freshman Carmen Aizpurua fell to Saraty 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.

The Hoyas will seek their first victory of the season at West Point, N.Y. against Army on Feb. 1. The start time is still to be announced.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

TIAN SHI

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown men and women’s track and field teams traveled to Blacksburg, Va. to compete among 12 other schools in the two-day Hokie Invitational, grabbing five topthree finishes Jan. 24 and coming away with two first-place finishes from sophomore Maazin Ahmed and senior Kenny Rowe on Jan. 25.

Competing among 12 other teams in the annual tournament hosted by Virginia Tech, the women finished the first day of the meet with mixed results, claiming two of Georgetown’s top-three finishes while also ending several events outside the top 10 or 20.

In the women’s team’s one field event of the day, freshman Lyric Harris took ninth place in the triple jump, recording 11.28 meters while sophomore Eni Akinniyi fouled out of the event.

On the track side, senior Margie Culling followed Harris’ performance with a top 10 finish of her own with a one-mile time of 4:54.58 to place seventh.

The 60-meter dash preliminaries saw action from four Hoyas, with freshman Maya Drayton crossed the line first for the Blue and Gray at 7.6 seconds in 10th place. Drayton and her fellow Hoyas’ efforts, however, fell short of qualifying for the event’s finals.

Later in the day, three Hoyas took to the line to compete in the 1000-meter run. Sophomore Sami Corman took home the team’s highest finish of the day with a time of 2:48.27 to earn second place among six other competitors. Graduate student Alie Fordyce finished less than a second later at 2:50.17 to take fourth.

The last event of the day for the women was the 600-meter run, where junior Olivia Arizin took third with a time of 1:35.31 to round out the women’s two top-three finishes. Freshman Malia Anderson finished two seconds later at 1:37.28 in ninth place and sophomore Katherine Lee crossed the line at 1:39.29 in

13th place.

The Georgetown men topped the women’s performance with three top-three finishes in the first day of competition, including a first-place win in the onemile run.

The men opened the day with the one-mile run with 11 mid-distance runners. As the only first-place finisher of the day, Ahmed recorded a time of 4:04.51, a personal record by eight seconds. Senior Jack Van Scoter finished in fourth place at 4:07.98, followed by freshman Camden Gilmore (4:10.15), senior Matthew Bouthillette (4:11.02), and freshman Parker Stokes (4:12.00). These Hoyas all claimed spots within the top ten, speaking to the dominance of the Blue and Gray in the 40-competitor event.

Director Julie Culley acknowledged Ahmed’s first place finish as a highlight of the two-day tournament, expressing excitement at the sophomore’s early performances this season.

“Maazin's performance was a huge highlight,” Culley wrote in an email to The Hoya. “He ran a massive PR and beat the 4th best finisher in the 2019 NCAA National Cross Country championships en route. He's on a roll right now and it's a joy to see him compete and execute.”

The 60-meter hurdles preliminaries saw freshman Malachi Quarles finishing in ninth place with a time of 8.49, falling short of his competitor and a qualifying spot by 0.04 seconds.

The Blue and Gray also struggled in the 60-meter dash preliminaries, failing to post a Hoya in the top 15 finishes and qualify for the finals.

In the last events of the day, two men earned top-three finishes for the Blue and Gray — sophomore Ethan Delgado finished second in the 600-meter dash at 1:20.01, and senior Dylan Scarsone took second in the 3000-meter with a time of 8:35.72.

The second day of the invitational began with the women’s long jump, where freshman

Aniella Delafosse marked 5.27 meters, taking 10th place, while junior Malika Houston jumped 5.19 meters, claiming 12th place.

On the men’s side, Laney managed 6.33 meters for 14th place.

In the 400-meter dash, the three men who competed all finished in the top 15, with junior Lawrence Leake taking fifth place at 48.14, followed by junior Nate Alleyne at 50.19 and senior Quincey Wilson crossing the line at 51.28.

The mid-distance crew found success in the 800-meter run as junior Lexi Del Gizzo finished in fourth place with a time of 2:12.61. The men’s team put up five competitors, all of whom finished in the top 10. Rowe took first place with a time of 1:50.57 and was closely followed by freshman Matthew Payamps and graduate student Spencer Brown with times of 1:51.81 and 1:51.82. Fifth-year student Nick Wareham finished at 1:53.87, and junior Ruach Padhal wrapped up the race at 1:56.47.

In the last event, the women’s 4x400-meter relay saw competition from both of its teams, as the A team finished in fifth place at 3:51.02 and the B team grabbed eighth at four minutes flat. The men’s relay team saw success from the A team, placing third with a time of 3:17.38.

Looking at the Blue and Gray’s performance over the two-day tournament, Culley acknowledged the improvement she has seen in the team to begin this year.

“Our sprints/jumps/hurdles group continues to up their game with every season and every competition,” Culley wrote.

“They are committed to the excellence and growth of our entire program and any pressure they put on themselves is a by product of their competitive spirit and desire to win.”

The Hoyas will see action again next weekend when part of the men’s team will travel to Indiana for the Indiana Relays, while the rest of the team will travel to Pennsylvania for the Penn State National.

IN TRANSITION

FILE PHOTO: KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Graduate student guard Brianna Jones, 0, looks to send in a pass to graduate student guard Taylor Barnes, 24. Both Jones and Barnes tallied 10 points in the Hoyas’ loss to DePaul.

Georgetown Handed 2 More Losses by DePaul, Marquette KELTON MILLER Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University women’s basketball team fell 73-51 to Marquette in Milwaukee Friday, Jan. 24 in another loss resulting from second-half struggles. On Sunday, Jan. 26, the Hoyas’ woes continued with a 9266 defeat to DePaul to mark their seventh consecutive loss and continue their winless start to 2020.

Its matchup against the Golden Eagles caused the Blue and Gray to fall to 4-15 on the season and 1-7 in Big East play. Marquette, on the other hand, improved to 14-5 overall and 5-3 in the conference.

The game started with promise for the Hoyas as the Golden Eagles struggled to convert offensively, shooting just 3-for-13 from the field in the first quarter.

The Blue and Gray had a stronger showing from the floor, sinking 7 of its 17 attempts from the field in the first.

A 9-2 run by Georgetown beginning in the second minute of play propelled the Hoyas to a five-point advantage early in the game. The Blue and Gray extended its lead to double digits later in the quarter behind back-to-back buckets by sophomore guard Nikola Kovacikova to bring the score to 16-6 with 3:30 remaining.

Marquette quickly responded to Georgetown’s efforts, however, and closed out the quarter with seven unanswered points.

The Golden Eagles managed to stay close by drawing fouls and making the Hoyas pay at the line. Marquette went 6-6 on free throws in the first quarter while Georgetown did not go to the line once. Both teams struggled offensively, resulting in a low-scoring first quarter, with the Hoyas ultimately finishing the period with a 16-13 lead.

In the second quarter, the Golden Eagles were able to gain more offensive momentum as they shot 50% from the field, converting on 9 of their 18 shots. The Hoyas fell short of the Golden Eagles, managing to hit just 31.3%

of their attempts from the floor.

The teams began the second with even play, exchanging baskets as Georgetown held on to a single-digit advantage until the fourth minute when two sunk free throws by Marquette put the Golden Eagles up by one. The free throws marked the beginning of a pivotal 8-0 run by Marquette, led by back-to-back three-pointers from guard Isabelle Spingola with 4:53 remaining. From that point on, Georgetown was unable to come within 4 points of Marquette’s lead and the quarter ended with the Golden Eagles on top 37-28.

The third quarter proved to be more competitive than the second. The teams’ performances were well-matched as both teams tallied 18 points and shot roughly 50% from the floor. Georgetown, however, was unable to make a dent in the nine-point deficit, ending the quarter trailing 55-46.

The game was lost for the Hoyas in the final quarter. After opening the quarter with seven unanswered points, Marquette finished the game on an 11-2 run to cap off a 22-point victory. The Golden Eagles scored 18 points in the quarter while the Hoyas only managed five. Georgetown’s offense faltered from the field, shooting 11.1% and failing to score any three-pointers in the last quarter. Marquette, on the other hand, shot 53.33% and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. Committing fouls also put the Hoyas in hot water, as Marquette scored 90.9% from the free-throw line.

While the Hoyas suffered offensively with regard to field goals — only shooting 32.8% overall compared to Marquette’s 44.3% — the team’s turnovers also proved to be a weakness, conceding 16 points to the Golden Eagles on 20 turnovers.

While Marquette had one player with 24 points and another with 17, the Hoyas’ top scorer, senior guard Marvellous OsagieErese, was the only Hoya to earn double digits with 10 points on the day. Sophomore forward

Shanniah Wright supported Osagie-Erese’s effort with nine points and eight rebounds off the bench while senior forward Anita Kelava also contributed six points and 12 rebounds.

Georgetown’s hopes of turning its road trip around were quickly stifled by a powerful DePaul (19-2, 9-0 Big East) offense in Chicago on Sunday. The Blue and Gray tallied the first bucket of the game but would not take hold of a lead for the remainder of the game.

The Hoyas brought the score to seven apiece behind a threepointer from graduate student Taylor Barnes before conceding thirteen unanswered points to the Blue Demons to trail 31-15 at the end of the opening quarter.

Georgetown saw little success in cutting the deficit in the second, again failing to contain the DePaul offense who closed out the half on an 8-2 run to earn a 23-point advantage at 50-23.

The Blue Demons continued their dominance in the second half, controlling play from behind the three-point line. Sinking six of its 11 attempts from behind the arc, DePaul dominated a Georgetown offense that shot just 2-for-7 from deep in the third to bring the score to 80-50.

The final quarter would prove to be the Hoyas’ most lucrative, with the Blue and Gray putting away four three-pointers and outscoring the Blue Demons 1612 in the final 10 minutes. The efforts ultimately fell short, however, with DePaul claiming the 26 point victory.

On the day, the Hoyas shot 38.5% from the field compared to the Blue Demon’s 47.1%. DePaul also posted six players in double digits while graduate student guard Brianna Jones, Barnes, and Kelava recorded 10 points each for Georgetown.

The Hoyas, who currently sit in 9th place in the Big East, will round out the month with a conference matchup against Seton Hall on Jan. 31 at McDonough Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Benching Stars in NBA Prioritizes Rest Over Record

Vikram Sud Last season, LeBron James made headlines after sitting out a game against the Golden State Warriors. The reason for James’ absence was officially listed as “load management,” the first official acknowledgement of a practice that has become increasingly popular: resting star players when healthy during the regular season to improve their postseason availability. While James’ load management certainly was not the first time the practice has been used, it garnered national attention because of James’ notability as a player.

Since James’ benching, load management has become increasingly common with several stars, most notably Kawhi Leonard. With Leonard leading the Raptors to a title and peaking in the playoffs last year, his success was seemingly a vindication of the practice and the benefits it had on the league’s most talented players.

Even with last season’s success, Leonard’s continued load management this season has received consistent questioning. The Clippers, Leonard’s new team which can be considered one of the most talented teams in the league, are currently sitting three and a half games back of the top spot in the West. Despite fielding such a talented roster, the team’s stars in Leonard and Paul George have missed several games for load management, bringing into question the efficacy of the strategy as the Clippers remain secondbest in the division rankings.

On the other hand, the Lakers have consistently played Anthony Davis and James

and have a comfortable lead in the first spot in a competitive Western Conference as a result. The Clippers are taking a bet that having their stars rested and healthy in the playoffs is more important than having home court advantage.

The strategy uses Leonard’s play last season as justification for that rationale, recognizing that Leonard was able to lead a less-talented Raptors team to their first-ever NBA championship. The Raptors, however, had home court advantage in three of their four playoff series last season, while the Clippers are on pace to only have one series with home court advantage this season and will likely have a markedly tougher first round opponent than the Lakers.

Another example of a team embracing load management with questionable results is the Houston Rockets. Despite having two of the last three MVPs in James Harden and Russell Westbrook, the Rockets are currently the fifth place team in the West. Westbrook has been sitting out several games during back-toback stretches, and the Rockets have notably struggled in games without their superstar point guard. As the Rockets continue to tally losses in Westbrook’s absence, they risk losing home court advantage for a playoff series or two.

If the season ended now, they would not have home court advantage in the first round against a strong Utah Jazz team. While load management prioritizes slightly more rested players over pushing for the best record possible, the strategy clearly disregards the advantage of playing at one’s own stadium. In decisive game sevens in all four rounds of the playoffs, the home team wins around 62% of the time.

In addition to sacrificing playoff seeding, players have voiced frustration at the preferential treatment stars like Leonard have received from coaches and other members of the basketball community,

with load management being an example. An article published in The Athletic reported that role players on the Clippers did not appreciate Leonard’s ability to sit out games when he saw fit and to cancel team practices on a whim.

Load management is almost exclusively done by star players, so it is understandable that it could create resentment by the rest of the team, especially by players who strive for the best possible record and playoff seeding. Benching star players creates more work for the team’s supporting cast, causing these players spend more minutes on the court in more difficult games.

Ultimately, whether or not load management maintains its rising popularity is still to be determined, depending on how teams like the Clippers and Rockets compete this season. It is definitely a bad look, however, for the league to have star players consistently sitting out regular season games. Worse yet, load management breeds frustration among fans who buy tickets in advance to see the stars play. These concerns have prompted pushback for the league to intervene, with proposals such as banning load management and even shortening the regular season in order to spread out the games.

At the end of the day, load management continues to stir up controversy and detracts from the true nature of basketball as a competitive sport.

The league must look to rectify its players’ needs for rest and recovery with its fans’ desires to watch today’s greatest talents on the court. This solution certainly doesn’t lie in load management as the strategy diminishes competitiveness among teams and robs fans the enjoyment of watching their team’s greatest stars perform on the big stage.

VIKRAM SUD is a senior in the College. IN TRANSITION appears online and in print every other Friday.

SPORTS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

COMMENTARY

THE HOYA

A11

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Hoyas Give Up Double-Digit Lead to Butler BUTLER, from A12

@KOBEBRYANT/INSTAGRAM

Kobe Bryant poses with daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, who followed in her father’s footsteps as a basketball player.

points for the contest and a strong victory for a Butler team that had been cooling off after rising to number two in the AP poll.

Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85) commented on the team’s dominant defensive efforts in the first that allowed the Blue and Gray to pull ahead of the Bulldogs.

“In the first half, we were getting stops. Our defense was fueling our offense and in the second half, it wasn’t the case,” Ewing said in an interview with GUHoyas.

The Hoyas frequently turned their tough defense into transition offense. Just before the half, Georgetown pieced together an 8-0 run spearheaded by back-to-back three-pointers from graduate student guard Terrell Allen and McClung.

The Hoyas headed to the tunnel with a 43-32 lead over their nationally-ranked opponent.

Second-half struggles, the Achilles’ heel of the Georgetown season thus far, plagued the Blue and Gray once again as the Hoyas faltered in the second

half. The Hoyas’ difficulties late in regulation were the opposite problem from the team’s previous game, a bout with Xavier in Cincinnati, Oh., which saw the Hoyas only score 23 points in the opening period.

Butler was led by senior forward Sean McDermott, who shot efficiently throughout the game.

McDermott found multiple open looks from beyond the arc early in the second half and converted

three straight three-pointers to put Butler up 50-46, capping a 18-3 run to start the half. McDermott finished with a game-high 25 points, eight rebounds and 75% field goal shooting.

Despite Butler’s strong second half performance, Georgetown did not relinquish the game easily. With 5:48 remaining, Mosely hit a clutch triple to cut the deficit to one. As the end of play neared with a minute and a half

left on the clock, senior center Omer Yertseven poked the ball away from a Butler player to gain possession for the Blue and Gray.

On the breakaway, Yurtseven was fouled by Butler and took to the line for two free throws, converting both chances to knot the game at 64.

McDermott, however, struck again. On a set play, he was left wide open and knocked down another three-pointer to reclaim the Bulldogs’ lead. Mosely found an open three on the ensuing possession but could not sink the three-pointer to match the score at 67.

Clutch free throws by the Bulldogs left the Hoyas out of contention as Georgetown trailed by five with 30 seconds remaining. As the cheers at Capital One Arena died down and Hoya fans fell into silence, Butler ran down the clock and Georgetown suffered its sixth conference loss of the season.

The Hoyas next take the floor at Madison Square Garden, where they will look to beat St. John’s for the second time this season and pick up their third conference win. Tipoff is set for Sunday, Feb. 2 at 1 p.m.

pounds, 15 pounds, but I’m ready to get back to doing what I’m doing. So it’s been slow, but it’s also been good to sit down and learn and relax for it.”

When reflecting on the skills he has acquired during his four years as a Hoya, Tate recognized all the tactical skills Sgarlata and his team of assistants taught him.

“Coming out of high school, I was a running back, so putting me in a different position helped me because it created some versatility for me. Coming out I wanted to play running back, but the coaches know what they’re doing, and you’ve got to trust them,” Tate said. “Putting me there, helping me develop some explosiveness, some vision on the field, it just helped me view the game from a different perspective. They also just pour a lot into you every day. Overall I just feel like they helped me a lot.”

Hoyas have not had significant experience in the NFL, given that Georgetown plays in the Patriot League, which is in the Football Championship Subdivision and is

not a Power Five conference. The Hoyas’ presence in the league, however, is historic. When the first NFL team was assembled in 1920 in Canton, Ohio, five of the 24 players on the roster were Georgetown graduates – more representation than any other team.

The last Hoya to play on the professional football stage was Jim Ricca (SFS ’51), a defensive tackle and guard that played 47 games with the Washington, D.C. NFL team from 1951 to 1954 and continued in the league until his retirement in 1956. Alex Buzbee (COL ‘07), remains the most recent Georgetown graduate to make a run at the NFL after he was activated from the Washington, D.C. NFL team’s practice squad in 2007. Unfortunately, Buzbee did not see any action during his time in the league and was released in 2009.

Despite Georgetown’s absence in professional football, many Hoyas do have NFL experience off the field – Paul Tagliabue (CAS ’62) served as the league’s commissioner from 1989 to

2006, Carmen Policy (LAW ’66) is the former president of the Cleveland Browns and the Super Bowl-bound San Francisco 49ers, Jim Schwartz (CAS ’88) is the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Jerry Jones Jr. (COL ’92) is the current vice president of the Dallas Cowboys.

Both Tate and Dereus have a long road ahead leading up to the draft, which will begin April 23 in Paradise, Nev. This process involves pro days, the NFL combine, full-time training, strength regimens and meetings with coaches, general managers and agents.

Regardless of their future careers in football, both players have certainly left behind a lasting legacy on Georgetown football.

“I’ll definitely miss the people the most. Being here at Georgetown, you get to meet some amazing people, and you develop these relationships over four years,” Tate said. “You’re not going to miss the school, you’re not going to miss the morning workouts, you’re going to miss who you’re doing it with.”

WILL HOUSTON/THE HOYA

Senior center Omer Yurtseven takes to the line at Capital One Arena. Yurtseven had 14 points and 13 rebounds against Butler.

Kobe Bryant’s FOOTBALL Impact Will Long Dereus, Tate Set Sights on NFL Draft Outlive Him FOOTBALL, from A12

KOBE, from A12

and 24-second shot clock violations in honor of Kobe’s two jersey numbers during his career.

The Dallas Mavericks have retired his number 24. Meanwhile, players across the league such as Spencer Dinwiddie and Terrence Ross have changed their numbers from the number eight, unofficially retiring it. Kobe will be entered in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year, according to Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo, circumventing the standard voting process and inducting him as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

In his career, Kobe was often compared to his contemporaries.

He was referred to as “the closest thing to Michael Jordan.” You can compare points, championships and style all you want, but the numbers are not what made him great. The greatest quality Kobe had was his power to captivate the sports world every time he took to the court. His mark on the game and on those who watched it will last forever. For a generation of kids who wore the number 24, bit their jerseys and said his name as they airballed a napkin into their bedroom trash can, he will never be forgotten.

whatever cost was clear, but one stands above the rest. In April 2013, Kobe ruptured his Achilles tendon in the fourth quarter of a regular season game against the Golden State Warriors. An Achilles injury is so damaging, some players have chosen to just retire rather than attempt to come back from it. Kobe, however, stood up on his own strength to shoot two free throws on his ruptured Achilles. He made both of the shots and then powerfully limped off the court. The Lakers would go on to win that game by two points.

Kobe’s relentless commitment to the game has inspired an entire generation of athletes and will continue to serve as the model of sports greatness for years to come.

Since retiring in 2016, Kobe has continued to serve as a role model. In 2018, he won an Academy Award for his short film Dear Basketball. Kobe also dedicated his time to raising his four daughters: Natalia, Gianna, Bianka, and Capri.

This week, the NBA and its players have commemorated Kobe. Many teams have taken 8

full-time in preparation for the draft.

Tate contributed on the other side of the ball as a defensive lineman during his four years on the Hilltop. Similar to Dereus, Tate also made his decision to attend Georgetown after signing day. He was planning to walk on at the University of Georgia when an assistant coach familiar with his hometown of Warner Robins, Ga. contacted Sgarlata about Tate. He committed to play at Georgetown without ever having walked on campus, according to Sgarlata.

Tate’s senior season was cut short Oct. 12 when he suffered an arm injury in the homecoming game against Fordham. Since the injury, Tate has been training to regain his strength as he looks toward the draft.

“I blocked the field goal, and the ball hit me, and it just exploded,” Tate said in an interview with The Hoya. “The process has been slow – I’m a little stubborn, so the doctor will clear me for five

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GUHOYAS

Michael Dereus, 5, celebrates after a touchdown scored against the Fordham Rams. His declaration for the draft on New Year’s Eve marked him as the first player to do so this academic year. If selected, he would be the first Georgetown player to appear in the NFL in over 10 years.

ON THIN ICE

Coach Firings Reach New High in NHL WELCH, from A12

new policy. Since his departure, Montgomery has revealed he will be going to alcohol rehab as a result of his dismissal from the Stars.

The speculation surrounding Montgomery’s release indicates that conduct-related considerations in coaching are increasing in significance in the league and have therefore contributed to the bump in coach firings.

On the other hand, John Hynes of the New Jersey Devils, Peter DeBoer of the San Jose Sharks, Peter Laviolette of the Nashville Predators and Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights were all fired because of the lackluster performance of their teams, a more typical and longstanding reason to fire a coach.

These firings are especially notable because many of these people are talented coaches with proven success. Laviolette presided over a successful era of the Nashville Predators, leading them to be a juggernaut in the Western Conference and to an appearance

in the Stanley Cup Finals. Another perennial contender in the West were the San Jose Sharks, who have been continually successful despite an aging roster under the leadership of DeBoer, who also reached the Stanley Cup Finals with his team. Finally, Gallant won the Jack Adams Award for NHL Coach of the Year during the Golden Knights’ first year in the NHL for the team’s historic run to the Stanley Cup Finals, which was ultimately thwarted in the final round of the playoffs.

The firing of these successful coaches demonstrates the changing norms of the league that place importance on fast success and constant rebuilding.

The firing of an effective coach seems to lead to a compounding effect. The Golden Knights were flirting with a playoff spot all season but generally felt they were underperforming. When DeBoer was fired, the Knights had a compelling alternative for the coaching job and decided to release Gallant. Gallant is an extremely talented coach in his own right and brought the Golden Knights

to the Stanley Cup Finals when most professional observers predicted it would be years before the Knights were even a competitive team. It would shock me if Gallant remains without a job for very long. Perhaps another team will fire their coach to make space for Gallant and the so-called coaching carousel will continue.

Furthermore, history seems to favor the teams that fire their coaches. Last year, the St. Louis Blues were last in their division and near the bottom of the entire league when they decided to fire their coach, Mike Yeo, and replace him with interim head coach Craig Berube. Berube brought a new, brutally honest perspective to the Blues and when Berube led the team from the bottom of the league to Stanley Cup champions, he was awarded the coaching job on a permanent basis.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have pulled off a particular magic trick when it comes to releasing a head coach. Twice, the organization has fired their coach in the middle of the season and gone on to win the Stanley Cup, first when

they hired Dan Blysma in 2009 and again when they hired Mike Sullivan in 2016. Seven teams in the history of the NHL had a midseason coaching change and won the cup in the same year. The frequency of this event also seems to be increasing since it happened three times in the last decade, twice in the decade before and only twice in the whole century before that.

Ultimately, a lot of people can share the blame for presiding over an underperforming team, but coaches are the easiest to target. General managers, responsible for assembling rosters and creating long-term plans for teams to win, are difficult to fire and usually work closely with ownership. As the coaching carousel continues to spin, owners in the league dissatisfied with their team’s performance may do well to reexamine who is actually responsible for the team’s failings.

Maddy Welch is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. ON THIN ICE appears online and in print every other Friday.

Sports

Women’s Basketball Georgetown (4-16) vs. Seton Hall (12-8) Friday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m.

McDonough Arena

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

The Hoyas picked up their second loss of the season after being swept 7-0 by Liberty University on the road.

See A10

“

Hoya Staff Writer

GUHOYAS

Senior defensive lineman Khristian Tate gets into position to start play.

Tate announced his intent to enter the NFL Draft on Instagram in January.

2 GU Players Declare For 2020 NFL Draft As of Jan. 26, two Georgetown University football players have announced they will be declaring for the NFL draft this spring. Wide receiver Michael Dereus (COL ‘19) and senior defensive lineman Khristian Tate both announced via Instagram that they are entering the NFL draft pool, with the draft occurring in April.

On the field, the two players have made separate but important contributions. Dereus began his Georgetown career as a freshman, playing ten games and making one start. In his first year on the Hilltop, Dereus recorded 426 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, including a 100-yard kickoff return that earned him recognition as the Patriot League Rookie of the Week.

In his senior season for the

Track & Field Director Julie Culley

Hoyas, Dereus totaled 726 receiving yards with 73 kick return yards, proving to be a significant part of the Hoyas’ offense. In a standout performance against Lehigh this season, he recorded a season-high 155 receiving yards on the day with one touchdown and six receptions. His junior season, Dereus led the Hoyas with 379 receiving yards, and his sophomore year he was named to the All-Patriot League Second Team.

In addition to being a leader on the field, Head Coach Rob Sgarlata also praised Dereus for his role leading the team off the field.

“It’s been great to watch them [Dereus and Tate] develop into team leadership roles over the years,” Sgarlata said.

Dereus graduated from Georgetown in December and has moved to Florida to train See FOOTBALL, A11

The Georgetown men’s basketball team faltered late in another Big East matchup Jan. 28 at Capital One Arena, falling 69-64 to No. 16 Butler, after leading by eleven at halftime and tying the score with just a minute and a half to play.

The Hoyas (12-9, 2-6 Big East) started the game with promise, edging the Bulldogs offensively and setting themselves up to take down their third ranked opponent of the season and pick up their third conference win. Big three-

pointers by Butler (17-4, 5-3 Big East) and missed opportunities by the Blue and Gray in the second half, however, helped hand the Hoyas their third consecutive loss.

Sophomore guard Mac McClung put the game’s first points on the board when he hit a tough fade-away runner on the baseline. After the successful start, the Hoyas were quick to push the ball in transition throughout the contest. They found success with a fast-tempo strategy in the first half, sinking 14 of 30 attempts from the field and shooting 50% from behind the arc.

This weekend, the world of sports lost one of its most iconic figures as Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant and seven others tragically died in a helicopter crash on the morning of Jan. 26 in Calabasas, Calif.

On the court, to me and so many people of my generation, Kobe was nothing short of a god. Ascending to stardom in his teenage years, Kobe was the youngest all-star in NBA history at just 19 years old. He would go on to cement himself in NBA history, winning three straight NBA titles from 2000 to 2002. Just six years into his career, Kobe had already enshrined himself in NBA history.

Kobe was undoubtedly one of

the best players in the NBA for the vast majority of his playing career. He was a first team All-NBA player for 10 of 11 years from 2002 to 2013. He would prove to not just be a Hall of Fame caliber player, but a generational player during this period. He would win two more NBA championships in 2009 and 2010; he also won the Finals MVP both years. Additionally, he was named league MVP in 2008. Finally, he scored the fourth most points in NBA history with 33,643 points after being passed by LeBron James Jan. 25, the night before Kobe’s tragic passing.

Capable of winning a game on his own, Kobe had no issue putting the team on his back. In perhaps his most famous singlegame performance, Kobe scored 81 points against the Toronto

the Bulldogs’ physical play, shooting 85% from the line in the game.

Senior guard Jagan Mosely scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the effort, backing his offensive performance with a solid showing on defense. Matched up against the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, senior guard Kamar Baldwin, Mosely played tight defense. He limited Baldwin, averaging 16 points a game, to just two shot attempts in the first half, though Baldwin’s strong effort down the stretch left him with 13 See BUTLER, A11

FILE PHOTO: KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Bryant’s Death Brings Light to Legacy Hoya Staff Writer

After tying the game at 12, Georgetown went on an 8-0 run capped off by a fast break dunk from freshman center Qudus Wahab to claim a decent lead. Wahab continued his streak of strong performances, tallying ten points and five rebounds in just ten minutes of action.

Early foul trouble for Butler also boded well for the Hoyas. The referees called the game tightly throughout the contest, and Georgetown found itself in the bonus with 9:44 still remaining in the first half. The Blue and Gray converted on its free throw opportunities resulting from

Senior guard Jagan Mosely worked to contain his opponent who looked down court for options. In Georgetown’s game against No. 16 Butler, Mosely scored 11 points and pulled in seven rebounds in the team’s five-point loss at Capital One Arena.

COMMENTARY

AUSTIN BARISH

2

Georgetown football players have declared for the 2020 NFL Draft in April.

GU Falls to Butler in Last Minute of Play DANNY MCCOOEY

Hoya Staff Writer

Any pressure they put on themselves is a by product of their competitive spirit and desire to win.”

MEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S FOOTBALL

GRACE COHN

NUMBERS GAME

TALKING POINTS

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Raptors, the second most points ever scored in an NBA game. To encapsulate his playing style, Kobe gave himself the nickname “The Black Mamba.”

In a 2015 interview with NBA reporter Ahmad Rashad, Kobe explained the nickname and how it represented his relentless work ethic on the court.

“When I step on that court, I become that. I am that killer snake. I’m stone cold, man,” Kobe said.

Stone cold may be an understatement. In March 2010, Kobe was guarding Matt Barnes on an inbound pass. Barnes faked a pass, bringing the ball just inches from Kobe’s face; Kobe was completely unphased.

Kobe is perhaps most known for the characteristic that allowed him to be so great for so

long — his unrelenting competitiveness, or, as it is better known by fans and opponents, “the Mamba Mentality.”

Even his greatest naysayers would never doubt Kobe’s work ethic. In his own words, the Mamba Mentality “means to be able to constantly try to be the best version of yourself.” When it came down to his proudest accomplishment, Kobe had no shortage of accolades from which to choose.

Rather than choose any of his five championships, his MVP award or any of the honors he won in between, however, he simply was most proud of the “hard work behind it.”

There are countless moments where this will to win at See KOBE, A11

KOBE BRYANT/FACEBOOK

Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant were among the victims of a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. on Jan. 26. Bryant leaves behind his wife Vanessa and their three daughters. His legacy as one of the best basketball players of all time remains.

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ON THIN ICE

Maddy Welch

NHL Firings Have Created Coaching Carousel, Instability Recently, coaches in the NHL have been losing their jobs at an unusually high rate. Just two years ago, only one coach was fired over the course of the entire season.

This season, seven coaches have already been fired, and there are more on the chopping block. This season has certainly illuminated a number of variables involved in coach management, including a new look at coach conduct, the treatment of players by coaches and the overall performance of the teams. With the unpredictability of coach hirings and firings this season, the league is constantly reshuffling and rebuilding under new coaches.

This season, a movement to reduce inappropriate conduct in the league sought to foster inclusivity and diversity among head coaches and eliminate abuses of power. The movement began with the former coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mike Babcock, who was on thin ice coming into the season and was fired for failing to convert the abundant talent on his roster into wins on the ice. As previously mentioned in this column, the criticism and subsequent firing of Babcock as a head coach led to the release of information about Babcock’s

alleged mental and verbal abuse of his players that shed light on questionable coaching practices throughout the NHL. The most egregious coaching practices were those of the former coach of the Calgary Flames, Bill Peters, who evidently addressed one of his players with a racial slur and sometimes resorted to physical violence against his players.

The national attention garnered by these scandals and events involving abusive behavior led the NHL to establish an anonymous hotline for players to report inappropriate behavior.

The NHL declared that teams had been “put on notice,” and failure to report incidents would lead to severe consequences.

The day following the establishment of the hotline, Jim Montgomery, coach of the Dallas Stars, was fired. The Stars have not specified their reasons for firing Montgomery beyond explaining that his contract was voided due to “unprofessional conduct.”

They did, however, confirm the conduct was not directed at any former or current players or any employee of the Dallas Stars nor was it associated with the NHL’s See WELCH, A11