The Hoya: April 12, 2019

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 100, No. 25, © 2019

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

The Club Issue

Explore The Guide’s special issue about club culture and its manifestations on campus.

EDITORIAL GUSA’s leadership should narrow its promises in order to tackle realistic goals.

ALUM LEAVES TRUMP CABINET Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS ’94) resigned from her post as secretary of homeland security.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A5

Leo’s Workers Set To Strike; Contract Talks Unresolved NATE KRAL

Special to The Hoya

Campus food service workers are preparing to picket and rally outside O’Donovan Hall on April 16 after months of protest and negotiation with campus food service provider Aramark. Workers’ complaints include low wages, short break times and disrespect from their managers, according to several workers who requested anonymity because of concerns about their employment.

Student activists from the Georgetown Solidarity Committee hung a banner in Leo’s in

support of food service workers on April 10. Groups of about 30 workers had previously protested in Leo’s on Feb. 27 and April 4. The latest contract between Aramark and the campus food service workers, who are represented by labor union Unite Here, expired in December.

The two parties have still not agreed to new terms several months after the contract’s expiration. Aramark met with the delegation of workers to negotiate a new contract April 5. Aramark respects workers’ right to protest, according to Karen Cutler, Aramark vice See ARAMARK, A6

WILL CROMARTY/THE HOYA

Mélisande Short-Colomb (COL ’21), a descendant of the GU272, speaks at a rally in favor of the referendum in Red Square on Thursday.

Students Endorse Reconciliation Fee University response to GU272 results does not clarify next steps DEEPIKA JONNALAGADDA Hoya Staff Writer

ALLISON HERR FOR THE HOYA

Student activists from the Georgetown Solidarity Committee hung a banner April 10 in O’Donovan Hall in support of food service workers.

Students voted overwhelmingly in favor of a referendum to establish a semesterly fee that would go toward a fund to benefit descendants of the GU272 on Thursday night with the highest turnout in recorded student government electoral history. The university is not obliged to enact the proposed fee.

With 66.1 percent of students voting “yes,” the $27.20 semesterly fee in student bills would be allocated to descendants of the GU272, the 272 enslaved people sold by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus

in 1838 to financially sustain the university. Should Georgetown approve this policy, it would establish the first collegiate reconciliation fund in the country.

Since October, the GU272 Advocacy Team, an on-campus student group that raises awareness for descendants, has worked with the Georgetown University Student Association to push for this referendum. The team has led an outreach campaign to educate students and encourage them to vote such as an April 3 town hall featuring a panel of students both for and against the referendum.

Voter turnout in the election was 57.9 percent. The high turn-

DeGioia Speaks on GU272, Title IX MAYA GANDHI Hoya Staff Writer

As Georgetown reckons with its history of slavery, University President John J. DeGioia reflected on the university’s path forward in a wide-ranging interview with The Hoya on Thursday morning.

The president also defended the university’s systems for handling sexual assault and reaffirmed Georgetown’s support for lowincome, first-generation students amid the admissions bribery scandal.

GU272

In fall 2015, DeGioia convened a Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation to help confront the university’s history of slavery. The group’s report, released in summer 2016, included recommendations for public memorialization of Georgetown’s history of slavery and increased engagement with descendant communities, among many others.

Yesterday the undergraduate student body approved a referendum proposing the establishment of a reconciliation fee to support descendants of the 272 enslaved people sold by the Maryland Society of Jesus in 1838 to financially sustain the university.

The morning of the referendum, DeGioia recognized Georgetown’s efforts to fulfill the recommendations of the working group while acknowledging the work that remains.

“I’m aware of the scrutiny of

FEATURED

our commitment to fulfill all of such as through work on health our obligations under that we disparities and criminal justice relaunched back in 2015. We’ve form, according to DeGioia. done several of the things — we “We never ameliorated the had our formal liturgy of reconcil- original set of issues and so we iation, we renamed our buildings, live today with the implications we’re engaged in rather extensive of that, and so the work that we conversation with descendants,” engage in as a university needs to DeGioia said. “We know we still go to the heart of that,” DeGioia have some things to do and we said. “There are a range of things are engaged in processes to do that we as an institution, using those things.” our institutionThe presial agency, can dent also embe engaged phasized the in, in trying to importance of address those including deunderlying, scendant voicenduring — es in Georgethe enduring town’s work presence of the and the longlegacy.” term nature of Asked yesthose efforts. terday morn“A key prining whether ciple that the university we’ve tried to would support UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT JOHN J. DEGIOIA carry forward the establishDiscussing repercussions of slavery over the course ment of the of these last reconciliation few years is: We’ve wanted to en- fee, DeGioia said, “We’ll have to gage in work that is appropriate take that one step at a time.” to work with descendants on, to engage with descendants on it,” TITLE IX AND SEXUAL ASSAULT DeGioia said. “That is work we DeGioia praised Georgetown’s continue with, and so when we framework for handling sexual talk about putting in a perma- assault, including a variety of renent memorialization, we want sources to report and expanded to do that together. So there’s bystander training that is intesome work that just will require grated into campus life.

— it’s on a longer-term time hori“It’s a comprehensive, holistic zon.” approach to addressing the chalGeorgetown can substantively lenge that acknowledges the comgrapple with its history by work- plexity of the issue and ensures ing to address the systemic issues that we have appropriate and created by slavery and its legacy, confidential ways to report; we’ve

“We live today with the implications of that, and so the work that we engage in as a university needs to go to the heart of that.”

got a framework in which you can pursue a disciplinary action — comprehensive in terms of training of bystanders, of connecting it to day-to-day campus life,” DeGioia said. “I think the program is — I’m very proud of it. I think our folks have worked very, very hard over the course of nearly 30 years to have a program that is regarded by many as a model that you could look to for its elements.”

Georgetown implemented mandatory “Bringing in the Bystander” training for all first-year students after its 2016 Campus Climate Survey, which found that 31 percent of female undergraduates and about 10 percent of male undergraduates reported experincing sexual assault at Georgetown. The university conducted its second Campus Climate Survey from February to March 2019 and expects to release the results in fall 2019.

The president defended the Title IX office, which has come under recent criticism from students in the absence of a full-time Title IX coordinator. Laura Cutway, who was hired as Georgetown’s first full-time Title IX coordinator in January 2016, left her position unexpectedly in June 2018. Amid the search to replace Cutway, Title IX investigator Samantha Berner has served in her own role and as interim Title IX coordinator.

“We’ve had an interim coordinator all year. She’s outstanding.

She’s done great work. I would defend her against anybody who See DEGIOIA, A6

out will further the ongoing conversation surrounding descendant advocacy on campus, according to Shepard Thomas (COL ’20), a descendant and a member of the GU272 Advocacy Team.

“I’m definitely happy to see the response that we have, around 50 percent,” Thomas said. “I would just be happy to see this dialogue continue in the same direction.”

The university is not bound by the results of the April 11 referendum, according to university spokesperson Matt Hill. The university released a statement at 1 a.m. Friday acknowledging students’ voices but not specifying

the university’s next steps.

“The university values the engagement of our students and appreciates that 3,845 students made their voices heard in yesterday’s election,” Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson wrote. “This student referendum provides valuable insight into student perspectives and will help guide our continued engagement with students, faculty and staff, members of the Descendant community, and the Society of Jesus.”

See GU272, A6 þ GUSA Senate Results, A7

STUDENT STAR INVESTIGATED

@ROYKIMMUSIC/INSTAGRAM

Georgetown student and K-pop music star Roy Kim (COL ’19) is being investigated under charges of sharing lewd videos.

Story on A5.

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

UndocuWeek A campus group addressed the experiences of students without documentation through expanded programming.

A7

Still Failing Survivors The university systematically silences survivors of sexual assault and protects alleged perpetrators.

A3

Carraway’s Command Junior attack Jake Carraway led the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team with five goals in a 16-14 loss to No. 2 Loyola.

A12

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

Parent Pleads Guilty A Georgetown parent pleaded guilty to fraud in a case regarding his involvement in the national admissions bribery scandal.

A4

Improve Disability Representation Accurate media representation of disability is a necessary step toward an inclusive society for people with disabilities.

A3

Road Runners The Georgetown men’s track team won three races in the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton University.

A10

Published Fridays

Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

THE VERDICT

Narrow GUSA Policy Goals Nearly a month after Georgetown University Student Association President Norman Francis Jr. (COL ’20) and Vice President Aleida Olvera (COL ’20) were sworn into office, their efforts have been disappointing. Though the pair have just begun onboarding staff, they should ensure that the the current passivity of the administration does not continue for the rest of their term.

The pair campaigned on a platform of T.R.A.P. — transparency, reform, accessibility and progress. Tasked with leading a student body that lost trust in GUSA after a series of senior staff resignations in the fall semester, the pair cannot afford to dawdle in enacting meaningful reform.

And yet other than hosting a “Yell at GUSA About Stuff” event last Friday for students to vent their concerns, the pair has not communicated a concrete plan to students that outlines future goals.

Though tabling in Red Square to solicit student feedback is a valuable opportunity for Francis and Olvera to learn from student activists, listening cannot be all that this administration does.

To restore trust in GUSA and avoid becoming another lackluster administration, Francis and Olvera should not only continue to collect student feedback, but also understand how bureaucracy can obstruct immediate reform and narrow their policy goals to maximize productivity.

Among the executive candidates, Francis and Olvera offered easily the most substantive platform, detailing over 90 policies that covered about 20 topics. However, as this editorial board pointed out in February, Francis and Olvera lacked an understanding of university processes as GUSA outsiders and did not even remember their own policies, hindering progress of tangible reforms (“GUSA Candidates Underwhelm,” The Hoya, Feb. 1, 2019, A2).

Since their victory in the Feb. 8 executive elections, however, Francis and Olvera are still discussing their policy agenda with frustrating ambiguity. The pair asserted that they planned to be approachable and increase student engagement with GUSA in a March 20 interview with The Hoya but failed to provide any other concrete goals they would be pursuing as executives or mention any they had promised as candidates.

To achieve any progress, Francis and Olvera

should narrow their campaign promises to focus on more specific and feasible priorities.

Right now, their policies to move the Counseling and Psychiatric Services facility to the “front of the building” or “advocate for a return to 1 week for Thanksgiving Break” are representative of student opinion, but these changes would require tremendous time and advocacy efforts, potentially wasting the majority of a term.

Instead, Francis and Olvera should focus on more achievable aspects of their policy platform, such as collaborating with the Academic Resource Center to get accomodations for exams that fall during Ramadan or launching a comprehensive discrimination climate survey. These efforts are reforms that should be prioritized not only because they are achievable, but also because they elevate marginalized communities.

Moreover, Francis and Olvera should truly embrace their campaign pillar of transparency and report on what is being accomplished through GUSA emails and social media posts.

By keeping the student body updated on concrete results, Francis and Olvera could begin to rebuild student trust in GUSA. Though Francis and Olvera have served only a month as GUSA president and vice president, change at Georgetown takes time. To achieve meaningful reform, the executive should start advocacy immediately rather than spending valuable time solely listening to concerns. Feedback is necessary, but it should not be the only tangible accomplishment of the administration.

This executive has thus far done a commendable job of being present: Olvera attended an information session for top-floor Alumni Square residents during the relocation process, both Francis and Olvera tabled in Red Square for their “Yell at GUSA About Stuff” event, and their campaign page posted in support of the April 11 GU272 referendum. But beyond presence, the pair has disappointed with their vague policy platform and failure to achieve critical reforms.

Restoring confidence in GUSA is not an easy task, but Francis and Olvera clearly have the intention to initiate meaningful reform. But to do so effectively, they need to narrow their platform to feasible policies that can be achieved.

C

Roomba Robber — On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office in Washington County, Ore., got a phone call about a daytime burglar “making loud noises” inside a house. When police arrived at the scene, they found out that the supposed intruder was only a roomba.

C C

EDITORIALS

C C

Founded January 14, 1920

Waffle Run — A Tennessee woman was charged with theft after she stole an electric scooter from Walmart last week. She was arrested by police at 5 a.m. in a highway’s slow lane on her way to get coffee at Waffle House.

Turtle Army — Police arrested a Florida man after he was reported for disturbing businesses. When confronted by police, he yelled obscenities and threatened to unleash an army of turtles that would “destroy everyone.”

No More Nescafe — The Swiss government announced its intention to eliminate the country’s stockpile of coffee. The Federal Office for National Economic Supply concluded that coffee was “not essential for life.”

Mansplaining Mnuchin — On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with members of Congress. After a few hours, Mnuchin announced his desire to leave, proceeded to explain to committee chair Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) how to run the committee and promised not to return.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Alexandra Bowman

Invest in Streetcar System In the 1960s, Washington, D.C., dismantled its extensive streetcar system, abandoning Georgetown neighborhood residents to find accessible transportation to downtown D.C. With the distance from Metro stations, long wait times for buses and high prices for ride-shares, Georgetown residents must decide between a fast commute and reasonable budget.

Three years ago, the D.C. Council re-implemented the streetcar, starting with a two-mile trial segment that runs along H Street; but despite high ridership rates and economic stimulation for businesses along the route, the project has been criticized for its exorbitant costs.

To provide residents with a more accessible, affordable and environmentally friendly method to commute in the District, the D.C. Council should continue to expand the streetcar in spite of the costs.

Expanding the streetcar is central to the interests of Georgetown University students; currently, students lack a convenient Metro station or consistent access to buses. By extending the streetcar’s coverage, however, Georgetown students would finally have better proximity to critical internships and career opportunities in the downtown area.

If the D.C. Council continues to expand the streetcar, one of the planned routes would connect Wisconsin Avenue to Union Station, stopping at stations such as The George Washington University and the White House.

Implementing a streetcar with this route could significantly cut the current travel time of public transportation. Unlike buses, the streetcar would have its own dedicated track and a right of way that would allow it to escape heavy traffic in the city.

Moreover, the streetcar would make traveling in D.C. more affordable for D.C. residents. Currently, Metro and Metrobus fares start at $2 per trip. The streetcar is currently free, but even if fares are implemented after the streetcar is expanded, each trip would only cost $1, according to the District Department of Transportation’s plan.

If the streetcar is fully implemented, commuters would no longer need to choose between the speed of ride-share services and the lower price of public transportation. For students who must commute regularly for unpaid internships, the streetcar could cut down their travel time significantly without imposing a financial burden.

Though the low price of the streetcar would benefit commuters, critics of the project argue that the price tag is excessive. For the current twomile trial segment on H Street, the District has already spent $200 million. Moreover, low fares of the streetcar mean that taxpayers would be burdened with $8 million of annual operations costs.

Though the costs are expensive, a streetcar is still a worthy investment for the District. By bearing the bill of the streetcar, taxpayers would be investing in a transportation system that benefits all residents of the city. The added mobility would give residents and students an easier commute to work and allow them more freedom to experience the full range of opportunities D.C. has to offer.

Moreover, the eco-friendly nature of the streetcar makes the investment especially worthy. The streetcar runs on a fully electric system that is adaptable to renewable energy sources as they become more available. Without consuming fossil fuels and emitting exhaust, the streetcar proves to be a far greener alternative than traditional buses. And, as technology for renewable energy develops, the streetcar will become even more eco-friendly.

The streetcar trial has been successful, and the D.C. Council should follow through with its plans to expand the network to Georgetown and throughout the District. The added connection to Georgetown would allow much more ease in travelling from the neighborhood to downtown and expand opportunities for Georgetown students.

The D.C. Council has an opportunity to finish the promising streetcar project it has started.

Residents and students deserve the accessible and affordable transportation system the streetcar offers.

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

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

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

Editorial Board

Yumna Naqvi, Chair

Elizabeth Ash, Matias Burdman, Juliette Leader, Maya Moretta, Rowan Saydlowski, Jenny Xu

Contributing Editors

Yasmeen El-Hasan, Caroline Pappas

HOYA HISTORY: April 13, 1973

Nixon Turns Down Georgetown Invitation President Richard Nixon has turned down an invitation to address the Georgetown University commencement in May. The Most Rev. William Baum, archbishop-elect of Washington, D.C., will be the principal speaker at the graduation ceremonies, the university announced this week.

The board of directors voted to invite Nixon to speak and receive an honorary degree at the commencement during a Feb. 2 meeting. The board vote followed a recommendation by the Honorary Degree Committee in January that Nixon be invited to the event.

The recommendation provoked angry student protests when it was announced. Student leaders threatened to stage a senior walkout from the graduation ceremonies if Nixon attended the exercises.

Student leaders also complained that the student repre-

sentative to the committee, John Flood (CAS ’73), was not present at the meeting that voted to invite Nixon. Flood complained that the notice that the meeting would be held was mailed to his Copley Hall address during Christmas vacation, when he was out of town.

A source in the university administration said that it was traditional to invite U.S. presidents to speak at Georgetown during their term of office. Presidents since Herbert Hoover have spoken here for different occasions, the spokesman said.

Bishop Baum was named early last month to succeed Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle, who is retiring in May as head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Bishop Baum, 46, is currently bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo. The Archbishop-elect is a prominent theologian and chairman of the Roman Catholic Bish-

op’s Committee for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs. He is expected to improve the relationship between the Archdiocese and the university, which has soured under Cardinal O’Boyle.

Bishop Baum was a delegate to the Second International Assembly of Catholic Universities of the World, the meeting that produced the controversial document on the relationship between universities and the dioceses in which they are located. A university spokesman said Bishop Baum “was more or less in favor” of the document, which was attacked last month

by Catholic Standard columnist Frank Moriss.

As an authority of ecumenism, Baum was executive director of the U.S. Conference on Ecumenical Affairs from 1967 to 1970.

Andy Lang News Editor

For letters to the editor and more online content, visit thehoya.com/category/opinion.

Tara Halter, General Manager Luke Sanders, Director of Alumni Relations Brian Yoffe, Director of Financial Operations Aditi Joshi, Director of Human Resources Kate Wittpenn, Director of Sales

Board of Directors

Anna Kovacevich, Chair Dan Crosson, Maya Gandhi, Tara Halter, Subul Malik, Margo Snipe, Hannah Urtz LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND VIEWPOINT POLICIES The Hoya welcomes letters and viewpoints from our readers and will print as many as possible. To be eligible for publication, letters should specifically address a recent campus issue or Hoya story. Letters should not exceed 300 words.

Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-700 words. The Hoya retains all rights to all published submissions.

Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya. com.

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

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of a story, contact Executive Editor Yasmine Salam and Executive Editor Will Simon by email at executive@thehoya.com.

TIPS News Editors Will Cassou and Deepika Jonnalagadda: Email news@thehoya.com.

Guide Editors Faris Bseiso and Kiera Geraghty: Email guide@thehoya.com.

Sports Editor Danny McCooey: Email sports@thehoya.com.

GENERAL INFORMATION The Hoya is published once a week during the academic year with the exception of holiday and exam periods. Address all correspondence to: The Hoya Georgetown University Box 571065 Washington, D.C. 20057-1065

The writing, articles, pictures, layout and format are the responsibility of The Hoya and do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University.

Signed columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Hoya.

Unsigned essays that appear on the left side of the editorial page are the opinion of the majority of the editorial board.

Georgetown University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for student editors.

The Hoya does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, color, national or ethnic origin. © 1920-2018. The Hoya, Georgetown University weekly. No part of this publication may be used without the permission of The Hoya Board of Editors. All rights reserved. The Hoya is available free of charge, one copy per reader, at distribution sites on and around the Georgetown University campus.

Email: editor@thehoya.com Online at www.thehoya.com Circulation: 4,000

OPINION

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

DISCUSSING DISABILITY

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • YABLANS

Anna Landre

Combat Media Tropes

S

trolling down Wisconsin Avenue, I barely notice the young family passing me — that is, until their daughter abruptly stops and points at me. “Mommy, what’s wrong with her?” she asks, staring with a mixture of horror and fascination.

She was, of course, referring to the fact that I’m a wheelchair user.

Though her inquiry was undoubtedly off-putting, upsetting and intensely othering, it is also a natural response from a child encountering something they have never seen before. However, adults aren’t much better — they just blatantly stare at me instead.

Our society has an acute problem with accepting the existence of disabled people. This problem has roots in today’s media landscape, which typically misrepresents or forgets disability. When nondisabled people have no frame of reference for how a disabled person looks, acts and lives, it’s natural that they interact with us inappropriately. By identifying and solving our current problems with disability representation, we can create a reality that is more accepting and inclusive.

In 2018, only 2.1 percent of characters on regular television broadcasts were disabled, while in reality nearly 25 percent of the U.S. population has a disability, according to data from GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This disparity leaves disabled viewers without role models to whom they can relate, which can lead to outright rejection of their disabled identity in a futile effort to fit with the nondisabled ideal they see on TV. But it’s not just about the quantity of representation; quality matters, too. Although Hollywood’s disability representation remains as low as television’s, roughly half of Best Actor Oscars have been awarded for portrayals of disability or illness. This may sound promising, but 95 percent of disabled characters are played by nondisabled actors, a phenomenon known as “cripping up.”

This, and the fact that such films are made without input from the disabled community, produces stereotyped, stigmatizing portrayals of how disabled people live.

The characters we do see reflected in the media are often molded into tired tropes that further contribute to the othering of disabled people. Media studies have found that disability is often incorporated as a lazy way to signal a host of unsavory character traits.

Perhaps most common is the pitiable and pathetic disabled character who exists either to convey

another character’s charity or an emotional lesson for the audience.

Think Tiny Tim from “A Christmas Carol,” or the protagonists in “Me Before You” and “The Upside.” In these movies, the disabled character is depressed and bitter because of his disability and believes his life isn’t worth living.

Whereas a normal love story would end happily ever after, in “Me Before You” the protagonist pursues medically assisted suicide so his lover can have a “normal” boyfriend — conveying the idea that disabled people are depressed, burdensome and can never lead full lives.

“The Upside” evokes the same stereotypes. The protagonist — once again a wealthy, white disabled man — has no will to live. He hires a care aide who, throughout the course of the movie, teaches him how to be happy. This portrayal implies that disabled people are inherently unhappy and require a nondisabled savior to show them the value of their lives.

On the other end of the spectrum lies the “super crip” stereotype, whose narrative is consumed by the pursuit of “overcoming” their disability. Characters, often athletes, find themselves injured or diagnosed with a disability but somehow defy their prognosis through hard work and sheer willpower, implying that a person must eliminate disability to achieve success. Such portrayals further stigmatize disability as a defect that needs to be overcome rather than a normal part of diversity that can be embraced.

Finally, another common trope is the disfigured villain whose disability is meant to signal that they are evil inside and out. The most classic example of this is Shakespeare’s Richard III, but recent incarnations include Darth Vader’s medical reconstruction, which was used as a device to convey his inhumanity, or Dr. Poison’s facial disfigurement that signals her sinister nature. Representations of disability as scary or malevolent further stigmatize and exclude disabled people.

Media representations of disabled people, in increased quantity and quality, are necessary to foment true acceptance and inclusion into broader society. The mere glimpse of a disabled person going about their daily life should not be so surprising that someone stops or stares. It’s time for our society to start reflecting that — on-screen and off.

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

DISCUSSING DISABILITY appears online every other Tuesday.

White’s letter is an all-too-familiar sentiment for many girls, indicative of a larger culture in which women are taught to dress in a way that is not distracting to men.

Respect Self-Expression Through Clothing

L

ast month, Maryann White, a mother of four sons and a practicing Catholic, wrote a letter to the editor to The Observer, the student newspaper of a fellow Catholic institution, the University of Notre Dame. In her scathing letter, White described a Mass at Notre Dame in which women sitting in front of her wore leggings. “I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds,” she wrote.

A woman’s decision to wear leggings does not mean she is responsible for the actions, let alone thoughts, of men. Instead of criticizing women for their dress, those like White should support others in their self-expression however they feel comfortable.

White’s letter is an all-toofamiliar sentiment for many girls, indicative of a larger culture in which women are taught to dress in a way that is not distracting to men.

As a 13-year-old girl, my choice of clothing served as a form of expression during a formative time. But I was soon criticized for my self-expression. My middle school dean

— a woman and a mother — called me and 20 other girls into her office to tell us our leggings were “too revealing” and “too distracting” for our male classmates and teachers.

Being told this as a young girl shocked me because I was not dressing for anyone else but myself; what I was wearing was not outwardly inappropriate — it was comfortable. Her words told me that my form of self-expression — a sweater and leggings — could be a source of attraction for others.

The sentiment that White and my middle school dean share is that women are responsible for the thoughts of men. However, it is impossible for women to control those views and opinions, and vice versa. Women should not have to restrict our style, comfort and expression in order to spare men from distraction.

We should not have to dress for anyone but ourselves, and we certainly should not compromise out of concern for what others think.

It is not the job of mothers concerned for their sons’ dignities to dictate what women wear, nor are their sons’ temptations our problem to solve.

Leggings are not inherently sexual, but women such as White are legitimizing the sexualization of the garment.

I may wear leggings to the gym or on a cold day, and I do so because it’s practical and comfortable, not because I’m attempting to draw attention to my body. I respect myself and my body by dressing the way I want.

Leggings are multifaceted — worn as athletic apparel, for style and for comfort. Still, White argues that comfort is not a justification for wearing form-fitting clothes; wearing pajamas or being naked is also comfortable, she argues, but “we” — women — don’t walk around naked out of respect for ourselves. However, it is completely illogical to equate the comfort of leggings to nakedness.

Leggings are clothes.

In response to the letter, female Notre Dame students protested by wearing leggings, posting pictures with the hashtag #leggingsdayND. Students reclaimed what White sexualized in her ironic attempt to address the sexual connotations she associates with leggings.

Although White targets the women of Notre Dame, the themes of her letter are heavily centered in what she perceives as Catholic values.

However, Catholic values are rooted in acceptance, not criticizing others for their choices. White imposes her interpretation of Catholicism onto others, which is contrary to the core belief that people should be free to make their own decisions without judgement from others.

School deans and mothers should be figures who girls look up to and learn from.

If the role models of women insist we cater our lifestyles to men, girls will be unable to create a sense of self and identity. We cannot control — and should not be responsible for — the way others think.

The right of comfort and self-expression is inherent to our identity. As students and women, we can and will wear what we want without being criticized for it, and we should continue to support each other in the self-expression that is most preferred.

JULIANNA YABLANS is a freshman in the College.

VIEWPOINT • ANONYMOUS

‘Perpetrators Are Being Found Innocent’: GU Continues to Fail Survivors This Viewpoint discusses sexual assault on campus.

Please refer to the end of the article for on- and off-campus resources.

The author of this Viewpoint chose to remain anonymous and wrote with assistance from Emma Oechsner (COL ’21). All first-person references should be attributed to the anonymous author.

You may have noticed the parade of blue flags lining Copley Lawn earlier this week. It is difficult not to. Unless of course you’re doing so intentionally — which seems to be a pervasive theme at Georgetown University.

The flags represent the thousands of students who have reported experiencing sexual harassment at Georgetown.

“This one’s you, and that one’s me,” my friend joked, pointing to two of the flags as we walked across campus.

You may recall an anonymous op-ed published in Th e Hoy a last fall in which two survivors described their experiences with Georgetown protecting predators despite its promise to support survivors (“Georgetown Fails Survivors, Protects Predators,” Th e Hoy a , Nov. 9, 2018, A3).

The accused perpetrator from the November op-ed is still a Georgetown undergraduate. He has in no way changed his behavioral patterns.

His continued presence

on campus, despite several formal Title IX complaints against him, poses an active threat to women at Georgetown. The university’s systemic negligence is dangerous for all survivors of sexual assault and interpersonal violence.

The university continues to allow his pervasive misconduct that, coupled with his colossal wealth, provide him with a safe harbor in a system that was built for him.

The accused perpetrator from the November op-ed is still a Georgetown undergraduate. He has in no way changed his behavioral patterns.

It is hard to describe the mix of anger, fear, dread and defeat I felt when he approached me a few weeks ago for the first time since he assaulted me in the fall of my freshman year.

He said he’d heard where I was planning on studying abroad next semester. He said he’d see me there.

A few days later, I reached out to the Office of Global Education with concerns about both his presence at Georgetown and his admission to

this particular small, secluded program where avoiding him would be virtually impossible. After speaking with others also planning to study abroad there, I learned I was not the only one with concerns: Several of them had also met with OGE’s regional program adviser to express their fears.

OGE suggested we defer our acceptances to the spring semester or look into other study abroad programs –– the regional adviser even offered to waive the application late fee.

I then presented a letter to OGE signed by nine students on the trip, stating that if he was permitted to study abroad with this program, we would all rescind our decisions to do the same. A week later, OGE replied: “The student about whom you’ve raised concerns has elected to withdraw from the program and will not be studying [at this program] in the Fall 2019 semester,” the regional program adviser wrote.

After OGE sent its response, a student leader from Georgetown Survivors’ advocacy team met with officials in the Office of Student Conduct to raise concerns about the existence of several allegations of sexual assault against this single perpetrator. The student asked if anything could be done to prevent more harmful behavior by this individual.

The officials suggested that each allegation against the perpetrator be presented as

a formal complaint by each of the survivors, but they admitted that these complaints could only lead to universitysanctioned repercussions if he was found guilty as a result.

Yet two complaints have already been filed against this perpetrator — and zero have found him guilty, on various technicalities. Georgetown’s Title IX conduct process has shown how it sets survivors up to fail: The existing student conduct system does not operate in a way where it can accurately determine innocence or guilt. It is broken, and in the process of trying to achieve “fairness,” it breaks.

My intention was not for the predator to be removed or elect to “withdraw” from the program, only to see him attend classes comfortably on Georgetown’s campus. He has proven himself to be an imminent threat to community safety — as evidenced by the multiple Title IX complaints and the nine people who spoke up against his presence on the trip.

In allowing the perpetrator to remain on campus despite being made aware of his persistent predatory behavior, the university continues to gravely fail its survivors.

Were this institutional apathy unintentional, I would think it a matter of horrific incompetence. But Georgetown’s culture silences survivors and protects this perpetrator and all he represents — power, privilege and entitlement. This culture is

careful and deliberate, and it is one we as members of the Georgetown community must consciously work to dismantle. When Georgetown fails to take tangible action, we must hold our school accountable.

Perpetrators are being found innocent, and without a record, they can receive acceptance into study abroad programs, clubs and resident assistant positions.

Georgetown, do better.

Your systems are still failing.

And to the perpetrator: It is not vengeance we seek, nor even justice. There can be no justice, because what you’ve done cannot be undone. Your impact was so emotionally

draining that I found difficulty in even the most habitual of tasks: getting out of bed; checking my email; showing up to class and to work; breathing. While the pain you caused diminishes with time, it never goes away.

Your story is still being told because of what your actions represent: the white supremacy, classism, toxic masculinity and misogyny that exist not in a vacuum, but on our Hilltop. Georgetown may not acknowledge the consequences of your actions, but they will stick with me for the rest of my life.

THE AUTHOR is a student at Georgetown University.

RESOURCES On-campus confidential resources include Health Education Services (202-687-8949 or sarp@georgetown. edu) and Counseling and Psychiatric Services (202-6876985) Additional off-campus resources include the D.C. Rape Crisis Center (202-333-7273) and the D.C. Forensic Nurse Examiner Washington Hospital Center (844-443-5732).

If you or anyone you know would like to receive a sexual assault forensic examination or other medical care — including emergency contraception — call the Network for Victim Recovery of D.C. at 202-742-1727.

To report sexual misconduct, you can contact Georgetown’s interim Title IX coordinator at 202-6879183 or file an online report here.

Emergency contraception is available at the CVS located at 1403 Wisconsin Ave NW and through H*yas for Choice.

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/GUselfcare.

A4

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

PAGE FOUR

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Compass Coffee opened a new location on Wisconsin Ave., adding to its other nine storefronts in the D.C. area.

Story on A8.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

verbatim

IN FOCUS RELAY FOR LIFE

“

It would be fair to say without the action of lawyers, this crisis would still be hidden in many ways.”

Director of Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life John Carr on the clerical abuse crisis.

Story on A8.

Photo Feature

ALLISON HERR FOR THE HOYA

Georgetown’s Relay for Life hosted its annual fundraising event on Cooper Field on April 7. The event included food, field games and student performances. The student group raised more than $72,000 for cancer research and patient care programs.

PROFESSORS OF GEORGETOWN Six professors, including MSB professor Eric Koester, sat down with The Hoya to discuss their motivations for teaching and moments in the classroom that changed the way they saw their courses and themselves. thehoya.com

Georgetown Parent Pleads Guilty in Admissions Bribery Case

LEY ROGERSON

ya Staff Writer

Georgetown parent Stephen mprevivo and 12 other unirsity parents pleaded guilty fraud for involvement in college admissions bribery heme in a Boston federal urt Monday.

The plea comes after the orgetown University Stunt Association senate voted ainst a resolution to urge e university to expel curnt students and rescind the grees of alumni implicated admissions fraud in a Suny meeting.

Semprevivo is pleading guilty one count of conspiracy to mmit mail fraud after the partment of Justice indict50 people, including five orgetown parents and forer Georgetown tennis coach rdon Ernst, on March 12. mprevivo, whose son currentattends Georgetown and is udying abroad this semester, id an intermediary $400,000 give his son an advantage in e admissions process, accordg to the indictment.

Elizabeth and Manuel Henuez, Elisabeth Kimmel and uglas Hodge, who have or d children at Georgetown tween 2013 and 2019, were o charged with conspiracy commit mail fraud and nest services mail fraud but ve not yet issued a plea and ait future hearings.

The Henriquezes, Kimmel d Hodge received additioncharges in a superseding dictment of money launderg Tuesday for conspiring launder bribes through a arity run and transferring oney into the United States promote the fraud.

Ernst, who left Georgetown June 2018 and resigned m his position as women’s nnis head coach at the Unirsity of Rhode Island on arch 22, pleaded not guilty a racketeering conspiracy arge March 25. He allegedly sely designated 12 students tennis recruits in Georgewn’s admissions process for .7 million in bribes, accordg to the indictment.

Georgetown has not taken tion against current stunts Adam Semprevivo (COL 0) or Isabelle Henriquez OL ’20) since the March 12 dictment. (Full disclosure: mprevivo formerly served

as the cartoonist for The Hoya.)

The university is evaluating the indictment, University President John J. DeGioia wrote in a March 15 campuswide email.

“Now that the government’s investigation has detailed the extent of the alleged fraud, we are reviewing the indictment and will take appropriate action,” DeGioia wrote.

GUSA Senator Julio Salmeron-Perla (SFS ’22) voted against the resolution. Salmeron-Perla said that while admissions fraud is unacceptable, a reprimand would distract from university-led investigations.

“I totally am upset about these people. They are not a part of our community because they did not uphold the ideals of honor and integrity,” Salmeron-Perla said. “At the same time, I don’t think that us condemning these students will do anything because I personally feel that it will just cloud the ongoing investigations.”

Instead of condemning Georgetown students, GUSA should support the Georgetown communities most adversely affected by admissions fraud, according to SalmeronPerla.

“A more proactive way to approach this would be to pass a resolution that reaffirms all the other students that worked hard to get here, all the other communities that worked really hard despite all the obstacles that they had to get into Georgetown,” Salmeron-Perla said. “And so I feel like that we should pass a resolution in support of them.”

The GUSA resolution failed after 11 of the 19 senators in attendance voted against it.

GUSA Senator Evan Farrara (COL ’19) introduced a previous version of the resolution, titled “A Resolution to Condemn Students Found Guilty of Admissions Fraud,” in a ways and means committee meeting April 2. This iteration of the resolution failed after four of six committee members voted against it.

Farrara said GUSA, as a group of representatives for the student body, is responsible for speaking out against wrongdoing.

“There have been really no organizations on campus that have been saying that students and Georgetown need to take certain actions, and that’s be-

cause that’s what GUSA’s role is, and so the reason it needs to be said now is so we can establish and react to those who are hurting at Georgetown and say, ‘This is what GUSA thinks,’” Farrara said in an interview with The Hoya.

Georgetown alumnus and admissions interviewer Mickey Lee (COL ’05) called for the university to rescind the degrees and admission of students implicated in the scheme in a March 13 petition. The letter, addressed to

DeGioia and University Provost Robert Groves now has over 19,500 signatures.

Other universities mentioned in the March 12 indictment, including Yale University, University of Southern California and Stanford University, rescinded the admission of several students implicated in the bribery scheme.

GUSA must set an example for other students by taking initiative on campus issues such as admissions fraud, according to Dylan Hughes (COL ’19),

senate chair of the ethics and oversight committee and a cosponsor of the initial bill with Ferrara.

“I believe that this type of resolution is an important moral stance that GUSA should take and that it is encouraging to students when they see GUSA taking that kind of action,” Hughes said. “I think that this was the most straightforward way to do that.”

GUSA Senate Speaker Eliza Lafferty (COL ’21), who voted against the resolution in the

ways and means committee meeting and in the senate at large, disagreed with Hughes and said that the role of GUSA should be to support students rather than reprimand them.

“I don’t support language that condemns students. I don’t think that’s our place to condemn students in general,” Lafferty said in an interview with The Hoya. “My main reason is that there are university processes that I don’t feel like the senate should be taking that place.”

JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE

Stephen Semprevivo, one of five Georgetown parents implicated in a nationwide admissions bribery investigation, pleaded guilty in a Boston federal court April 8. Semprevivo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

NEWS

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

THE HOYA

A5

GU Student Charged in K-Pop Homeland Security Secretary Sexual Misconduct Scandal Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns RILEY ROGERSON Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University student and Korean pop artist Kim Sang-woo (COL ’19), popularly known as Roy Kim, is under investigation for allegedly sharing sexually explicit videos of women filmed without their consent.

Kim was charged by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency with circulating obscene materials in violation of information and telecommunications law April 4, after sharing sexually explicit photographs of women in a KakaoTalk mobile chat room, according to the Korea Herald.

After winning a South Korean music competition show “Superstar K” in 2012, Kim rose to fame and released a song that topped the K-Pop Hot 100 chart for three weeks in 2013.

Now 25, Kim first enrolled at Georgetown in 2013 and is expected to graduate this May. After he was formally charged, he left the United States for South Korea on Tuesday morning and was questioned by the Central Seoul Major Crimes Unit on Wednesday.

Kim intends to cooperate with the police investigation, he said in a Wednesday statement.

“First and foremost, I apologize to my fans and the public for causing concern,” Kim said to reporters. “I will faithfully face the investigation.”

The university has not taken any action or made public comments against Kim. Georgetown takes seriously all accusations of sexual misconduct, according to university spokesperson Matt Hill.

“Georgetown is committed to making sure that reported cases of sexual misconduct are investigated and responded to promptly and thoroughly,” Hill wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The charges against Kim come after fellow K-pop stars Jung Joon-Young and Seun-

gri were charged for posting lewd photographs in the same group chat as Kim last month.

Joon-Young admitted to filming sexually explicit videos of women without their consent and posting them in a groupchat with Seungri and Kim. The scandal has received national attention in Korea because of the prominent celebrities implicated by it.

In addition to sharing videos taken of women without their consent, the multiple prominent K-pop stars in the chat of at least nine men also discussed raping and drugging women as well. Since the allegations, Joon-Young’s management company dropped him, and Seungri decided to leave music industry, according to CNN. “I gave her sleeping pills and did her,” an as yet unspecified man with the last name Park who is a friend of Young wrote in the chat group.

Dissatisfaction with the university’s response thus far has prompted responses from students and departments as well. Finn Thompson (COL ’22) started a Change.org petition April 8 calling on University President John J. DeGioia to suspend Kim until he is formally charged and expel him if he is convicted. The petition has received 88 signatures as of time of press. Thompson declined a request for comment from The Hoya.

The phenomena and arrests of K-pop stars sparked a conversation in K-Pop fan Gina Kang’s (SFS ’22) third-level Korean class, where students have presented on the growing problem of illegal filming in Korea.

Georgetown should condemn Kim’s misconduct if he is found guilty, according to Kang.

“I think that the university does have a responsibility to take a position, even if it is against the student, and not condone this kind of behavior,” Kang said in an interview with The Hoya. “They cannot be

facing any more special treatment or not be addressed just because they are celebrities or wealthier.”

The pattern of K-pop stars sharing obscene photographs highlights a broader problem of illegal nonconsensual filming of women. Every year there are on average approximately 6,000 incidences of “spy cam porn” reported to the Korean police, and 80 percent of these victims are women, according to BBC News.

Because each case involving sexual misconduct is distinct, it is unclear exactly what disciplinary action Kim could face at Georgetown, according to Grant Olson (COL ’19), director of the Student Advocacy Office of the Georgetown University Student Association.

“Each case and each person has mitigating and aggravating factors that go into how they are going to be seen when they are brought forward for any charge,” Olson said in an interview with The Hoya. “Most of the time it is a very individualized thing based on what the university thinks that have to do with a specific individual” The Georgetown Code of Student Conduct does not explicitly outline consequences for distributing lewd photographs.

However, the code does recognize sexual harassment and cyberbullying as significant infractions.

Though the Code of Student Conduct requires that students respect local D.C. laws, the consequences of breaking a law of a foreign country is not explicitly laid out within the code.

Although it is unknown whether Kim sent lewd photographs while at Georgetown, the location of the alleged crimes does not matter in university disciplinary processes as long as the student is affiliated with the university, Olson said.

“The second you sign to become a Georgetown student, the code of conduct follows you everywhere,” Olson said.

MYROSLAV DOBROSHYNSKYI Hoya Staff Writer

Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS ’94) resigned from her position as secretary of homeland security Sunday, marking the 48th senior official to depart President Donald Trump’s administration.

Nielsen has helmed the Department of Homeland Security since December 2017, leading the Trump administration’s immigration policies and supporting the construction of a barrier along the U.S.-Mexican border. Nielsen filled the vacancy left by former Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly (GRD ’84), who left the position to serve as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019.

Nielsen’s resignation is effective immediately. Kevin McAleenan, the current commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, will become acting secretary of DHS, Trump tweeted Sunday.

While Nielsen is proud of her tenure, she believed it was important for her to step down at this time, according to her resignation letter, which she posted on Twitter. Nielsen did not give a reason for leaving the position in her resignation letter.

“Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside,” Nielsen wrote. “I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the court sin fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse.”

Nielsen has faced bipartisan criticism for enforcing immigration policies that separated migrant families, with many, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), calling for her resignation in June 2018.

“DHS @SecNielsen must resign now. She’s allowing Trump to ruthlessly hold vulnerable children hostage, to use them as bargaining chips,” Pelosi wrote in a June 2018 tweet. “This is beyond morally reprehensible.”

KIRSTJEN NIELSEN/FACEBOOK

Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS ’94) has faced criticism from the Georgetown community for her enforcement of family separations at the border.

Over 1,500 Georgetown alumni signed a petition, first circulated in June 2018, calling for Nielsen’s resignation over her role in the Trump administration’s separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border.

Nielsen violated Georgetown’s values through her role at the Trump administration, Andrea Guerrero (SFS ’15) wrote in a July 2018 op-ed in The Hoya.

“Did Nielsen never sit down with a Jesuit professor or her residency chaplain to discuss the role of compassion in leadership?,” Guerrero wrote. “What about her Georgetown experience galvanized Nielsen to implement a policy that literally tore babies from their mothers’ arms?”

Nielsen has defended her role in enforcing the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexican border as part of a zero-tolerance policy against migrants crossing the border without documentation.

“We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” Nielsen said in a June 2018 speech. “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.”

Trump was reportedly frustrated with Nielsen’s performance in November 2018 and ready to fire

her within days despite opposition from then-White House chief of staff John Kelly, according to The Washington Post.

Trump thanked Nielsen for her time at DHS in a tweet Sunday evening.

“Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service,” Trump wrote.

The resignation comes days after Trump withdrew the nomination of Ronald Vitiello to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to CNN. Nielsen previously worked for the Trump administration as Kelly’s chief of staff at DHS and later as deputy chief of staff in the White House from September 2017.

Nielsen has also worked in the Transportation Security Administration and served on the White House Homeland Security Council under former President George W. Bush.

Nielsen’s departure follows a string of resignations and firings from the Trump administration within the past year, including former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt in July 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November 2018 and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis in December 2018.

A6

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

Highest Turnout Ever Propels DeGioia Defends GU Title IX GU272 Referendum to Victory Program, Acknowledges Criticism GU272, from A1

DEGIOIA, from A1

If approved by the university, the referendum would create a reconciliation fund, which would be presided over by a board of trustees including five students and five descendants. The reconciliation fund would then distribute funds toward purposes to the direct benefit of descendants of the 272, according to the Students for GU272 Facebook page. Proposed projects include funding K-12 education, establishing college scholarships and purchasing school supplies.

Lee Baker, a descendant of Nace and Biby Butler, a married couple among the 272 enslaved people sold in 1838, reaffirmed the importance of the students’ activism.

“The students remembered, recognized, and re-ignited awareness about Descendants who literally made it possible for today’s Georgetown University,” Baker wrote in an email to The Hoya early Thursday evening.

“Regardless of what happens, we will know that Georgetown University students practiced solidarity and decided to ensure that such an historic injustice has a permanent lens for awareness, analysis and action.”

GUSA President Norman Francis Jr. (COL ’20) and GUSA Vice President Aleida Olvera (COL ’20) supported yesterday’s result, urging the implementation of the referendum.

“The measures advanced in this referendum would put Georgetown on the right side of history and constitute the first reparations policy in the nation,” Francis and Olvera wrote. “The students of Georgetown have indicated their clear support for the University to take reparative action in order to address the outstanding moral debt incurred by the University’s decision to engage in and profit off slavery.”

Other universities, such as Harvard, Yale and Columbia, have acknowledged their past ties to slavery, according to the Associated Press. However, Thursday’s referendum marked the first time a university has held a vote on the inclusion of a fee that would raise funds for descendants.

would have a criticism,” DeGioia said. “I don’t think that we could have been in better hands, and now we’re gonna bring a new member to the team; we’ll further strengthen the team.”

Identifying, interviewing and hiring qualified candidates for leadership roles at elite higher education institutions can take as long as a year, according to a university spokesperson. Ten months after Cutway’s departure, Georgetown’s full-time Title IX coordinator may be hired soon, according to DeGioia.

“We’re close to bringing closure to the search, expected that will be done imminently for the next fulltime director,” DeGioia said.

AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA

Student supporters and opponents of the GU272 referendum chalked in Red Square on Wednesday night ahead of the Thursday vote.

Though the vote has passed, it still must pass a vote of Georgetown’s board of directors, which is composed of 39 members who approve major university policy decisions. GUSA Senator Sam Dubke (SFS ’21) voted no in the Feb. 3 GUSA senate vote on whether or not to hold a referendum on a fee to benefit the descendants.

Dubke said though the vote has concluded, the debate about the proposed fee is ongoing.

“This fight isn’t over, because I don’t think that this election is over,” Dubke said in an interview with The Hoya. “There are individuals that are going to bring suits who made numerous complaints to the election commission.”

The referendum shared a ballot with GUSA’s April 11 senate election. The GUSA senate voted in favor of holding the universitywide referendum with a 20-4 vote Feb. 3.

GUSA elections have suffered declining turnout over the past few years. Recent GUSA executive elections in February saw the lowest voter turnout since the 2007 executive election, with 32 percent of the undergraduate student body casting votes. Overall voter turnout in the last senate election in October was 20.9 percent, according to the GUSA election commission’s Twitter account.

Previous referenda have never received votes from the majority of undergraduate students.

In February 2018, two referenda on a GUSA executive election ballot on senate restructuring and nondiscrimination saw a voter turnout of approximately 39 percent, according to GUSA archives.

Voter turnout in a December 2016 referendum on establishing a smoke-free campus was 41 percent, and turnout in a February 2016 live registration referendum was 33 percent.

The university has not specified what actions it would take if the referendum were to pass.

“We’ll have to take that one step at a time,” University President John J. DeGioia said in a Thursday morning interview with The Hoya.

Despite yesterday’s historic vote, Georgetown will continue to grapple with its difficult legacy of slavery, according to Richard Cellini (COL ’84, LAW ’87). Cellini is the founder of the Georgetown Memory Project, an independent nonprofit that has located 8,298 direct descendants of the GU272 since 2015.

“Whether this referendum passes or not, the moral stain on Georgetown and Jesuit leadership can never be erased unless Georgetown gives restitution to these families,” Cellini said in an interview with The Hoya early Thursday afternoon.

“Even if it takes 50 years, or a 100 years, these issues are not going to go away.”

ADMISSIONS BRIBERY SCHEME

Georgetown has garnered national attention in recent weeks after being named among eight schools implicated in a nationwide admissions bribery scandal. Five Georgetown parents were named in the indictment, which charged former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst with accepting bribes from wealthy parents to secure their children’s college admission. For many in the Georgetown community, the bribery has also underscored the role of socio-economic status in college admissions.

Still, the university has made strides in seeking out socio-economically diverse applicants to expand the accessibility of higher education, DeGioia said.

“Over the course of our recent history — last half-century — we understood a deeper and deeper responsibility to ensure access and affordability [for] the most talented young people from across our nation, regardless of their socio-economic background. And 41 years ago we put in place our need-blind, full-need financial aid policy, which covers more than 40 percent of our student body,” DeGioia said.

The president commended the university for its support of low-income and first-generation students, in particular citing the Community Scholars Program and the Georgetown Scholars Program, which provide resources for

first-generation and low-income students, as well as the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access.

“Our Community Scholars Program, our GSP program, the work that CMEA has done over the course of more than a halfcentury — we see it right now with our graduation rates of our first-generation students, I mean, they’re among the best in the country. We’re regarded as having the strongest program to support them in the country.”

GSP has a 96.4 percent graduation rate for first-generation students, compared to the national average of 32 percent, according to HuffPost.

Despite suggestions stirred by national media coverage of pervasive elitism in the university, Georgetown’s culture is ultimately one of support, according to DeGioia.

“I recognize that the perception that this admissions scandal has created in our nation, but I do believe here at Georgetown, we have a deep, deep community and a deep culture of support to ensure the success for all of our students,” DeGioia said.

Three other schools involved in the admissions scheme — Yale University, the University of Southern California and Stanford University — have rescinded the admission of students implicated by the scandal. A petition for similar action by Georgetown had garnered almost 20,000 signatures as of April 11.

The university is committed to investigating its ties to the bribery scheme but has not yet taken action against students allegedly involved, according to DeGioia.

“We have a very, very exhaustive investigation that we’ve been undergoing. We treat each of the cases on a case-by-case basis and we’ve been meeting with individuals and families,” DeGioia said. “When we’ve completed our work, we’ll make clear what the outcomes are.”

CLERICAL SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS

As a leading Catholic institution, Georgetown has also had to grapple with the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. In February, following mounting pressure from student activism, the

university revoked the honorary degree of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after the Vatican removed him from the priesthood for accusations of sexual abuse.

The university has also organized seven events focusing on the clerical sexual abuse crisis since September 2018. Reacting to The Hoya’s investigation last month into 13 priests and one nun with credible accusations of sexual abuse and ties to Georgetown, DeGioia stressed the distance of the abuse from the campus community.

“We have found no case of anyone who was accused of anything involving a minor whenever they were affiliated with Georgetown,” DeGioia said. “It occurred at other times in their lives, which was small consolation, but nevertheless.”

A December 2018 report by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus recorded credible accusations of sexual abuse by Fr. William Walsh, S.J., over the course of four decades that overlapped in part with his time teaching at Georgetown during the 1966-67 academic year (“‘Sick Pleasure’: GU Jesuit Walsh Abused Nieces for Decades,” The Hoya, March 15, 2019, B7). There are no known credible accusations of sexual abuse on Georgetown’s campus, per The Hoya’s report.

The safety of the campus community remains the university’s priority in the wake of the clerical abuse crisis, according to DeGioia.

“The first and foremost concern that I bring involving abuse of any kind is to try to ensure the safety and security of the community,” DeGioia said. “So the most urgent matter always is: Is there a potential threat to the safety and security of the community? That’s where I always start.”

In grappling with the abuse crisis, the president also underscored Georgetown’s responsibility to protect marginalized and vulnerable communities.

“We need to go to the margins, we need to protect and respect the marginalized,” DeGioia said. “We need to play our role in transforming the culture to protect the most vulnerable.”

LEFT: NATE KRAL FOR THE HOYA, RIGHT: ALISON HERR FOR THE HOYA

Food service workers at O’Donovan Hall plan to picket and rally April 16. The workers, represented by labor union Unite Here, have not reached a new contract agreement with campus food service provider Aramark since their last contract expired in December. Aramark respects the right of its employees to demonstrate, according to Karen Cutler, Aramark vice president for communications and public affairs.

Workers Bemoan Low Wages, Short Breaks Under Aramark ARAMARK, from A1 president for communication and public affairs.

“We respect the right of our employees to demonstrate and look forward to continuing to bargain in good faith,” Cutler wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Workers plan to strike April 16 if a resolution is not reached within the week, according to Joshua Armstead, vice president of the D.C. chapter of Unite Here Local 23.

“We are hoping to have a fair contract by the end of this week,” Armstead wrote in an April 8 statement to The Hoya.

“If not, join us outside the dining hall on the 16th of April for a demonstration.”

CAMPUS PROTESTS

Georgetown’s food service workers officially unionized in March 2011 with Aramark’s approval and agreed to a threeyear contract with Aramark 10 months later. As that contract approached expiration in February 2015, Aramark workers and student activists from GSC marched together from Sellinger Lounge to Leavey Court to protest poor working conditions.

After those demonstrations, workers negotiated a contract with new benefits, including a 50-cents-per-hour raise and cheaper health care coverage for workers. However, food service workers continue to cite poor

working conditions, such as insufficient vacation time and low wages, according to a food service worker who requested anonymity because of concerns about their employment.

“We want longer vacations and a pay raise. Two weeks isn’t enough,” the worker said.

“We have kids.”

Breaks for campus food service workers are limited, according to another worker who also requested anonymity for employment concerns.

“If you work 5 hours, you don’t get a break,” a food service worker said in an interview with The Hoya. “When you do get a break, it’s 30 minutes.”

Cutler said that the collective bargaining agreement between Aramark and workers allocates breaks based on the amount of time worked each day.

A third worker suggested that food service workers only receive complimentary meals in the downstairs section of Leo’s, which means they have less access to hot meals if their break falls between 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., when the Fresh Food Company downstairs transitions from lunch to light lunch.

“My doctor said I’m not eating enough and that I don’t get enough square meals,” the worker said. “I can’t eat enough. My break is at 3 p.m., and they only let employees eat downstairs. They only serve hot meals until 2 p.m. Work-

ers either have to pay for their meals upstairs; the meals that we make, or try and turn the salad bar into a full lunch.”

Cutler said that workers have access to hot food between 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

“All team members, including management employees, have the opportunity to dine in the residential dining facility,” Cutler wrote. “Between 2p and 4:30p hot options are available along with a variety of other options.”

Cutler did not indicate whether employees must pay for meals in the upstairs dining section, however.

STUDENT SOLIDARITY

Prior to hanging the banner in Leo’s on behalf of food service workers, GSC also hosted a Feb. 14 open forum about ongoing labor contract negotiations. The group is pushing for meaningful wages and benefits for Unite Here workers, according to a GSC statement.

“We are in complete solidarity with the Unite Here Local 23 workers at Georgetown fighting for a contract that will allow them to provide for themselves and their families,” GSC wrote in a statement to The Hoya.

Recent public outcry from students and workers at Georgetown follows protests directed at Aramark at American University and New York University.

University officials at American University decided to look into alternative food service providers to Aramark after a student-led town hall and protest in response to price increases in a proposed meal plan, according to The Eagle, AU’s campus newspaper.

New York University chose not to renew Aramark’s dining contract in light of multiple protests, including a 155-hour long occupation of NYU’s main library, according to Washington Square News, NYU’s campus newspaper. The protests centered on Aramark’s role as a food service provider to the private prison industry.

Georgetown renewed Aramark’s campus food service contract for 10 years in November 2016. The university is not involved in current contract negotiations between Aramark and Unite Here workers, according to a university spokesperson.

“While Georgetown is not part of the ongoing negotiations between Aramark and Unite Here, we are committed to ensuring both entities negotiate in good faith and reach an agreement that continues to adhere to university policies, including the Just Employment Policy,” the university spokesperson wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Georgetown’s just employment policy sets standards for compensation, job loss and

grievance procedures for workers on campus. The just employment policy applies to workers hired by contractors such as Aramark.

GSC members, however, believe the university is not genuinely interested in the needs of workers or students.

“The university is not concerned with the knowledge or experiences of its students or with the ethics of its subcontractors,” GSC wrote. “It is more interested in making profitable decisions, even at the cost of its morals; choosing Aramark as our food provider was such a decision.”

PROTECTION PROTOCOLS

Though Georgetown has not been involved in the ongoing negotiations between Unite Here and Aramark, the university has established a protocol for employees to file complaints about violations of the just employment policy.

“We have outlined a clear and accessible protocol for contract employees to notify the university of any concerns related to the Just Employment Policy,” a university spokesperson wrote in an email to The Hoya. “This includes the Georgetown University Compliance Helpline, a safe, and anonymous if desired, way to report problems or raise questions or concerns.”

Aramark also has a toll-free

employee hotline for anonymously reporting workplace grievances that is managed by a private third-party provider, according to Cutler.

Students will need to place pressure on Aramark on behalf of food service workers since the university is unlikely to act, according to GSC. “In this situation Aramark is the one negotiating with workers and our job as students is to support them in their efforts and put public pressure on Aramark,” GSC wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“Based on our experience, we don’t think change will come from the university.”

Several workers feel mistreated and intimidated by Aramark management, according to two workers who requested anonymity for employment concerns.

“They don’t care about us at all and are intentionally intimidating,” one worker said.

“We will keep fighting until we get our rights.”

Aramark has not received any reports of abusive conduct by the company’s management, according to Cutler.

Disrespect from management is an even greater concern than wages for one food service worker, however.

“This isn’t just about money.

It’s about respect,” the worker said. “We’re all going through a lot and we’re treated like we’re not even human.”

NEWS

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

THE HOYA

A7

GUSA Senate Race Sees High Petition Demands Representation Turnout Amid Referendum Of Native American Students CADY STANTON Hoya Staff Writer

More than 57 percent of the student body voted in the Georgetown University Student Association senate elections Thursday.

Eighteen senators, twelve of whom are serving for the first time, were elected in the GUSA senate elections April 11.

The senate election saw a record voter turnout, which two reelected GUSA senators attribute to the election coinciding with a referendum on a semesterly fee to go toward a fund to benefit the descendants of the GU272. Six rising seniors, six rising juniors and six rising sophomores were elected in Thursday’s vote.

Without the referendum, voter turnout would have not have reached this year’s record high, according to re-elected GUSA Senator Harrison Nugent (SFS ’20).

“No question it had to have been the referendum. I know we’ve had referendums in the past that have been used as a tool to get turnout to increase, but nothing like this election,” Nugent said. “Clearly the referendum surrounding reparations and the GU272 really inspired a lot of debate on campus and really brought people to the polls.”

The turnout breaks a previous record for the 2013 executive election’s 57 percent voter turnout, according to Justin Rich (SFS ’22), recently appointed chair of the GUSA Election Commission.

“We are pleased to see a high turnout this election season,” Rich said. “As you know, there was a lot of campaigning and campus media articles surrounding the referendum, so while we don’t definitively know the cause of the high turnout, there was a large presence surrounding the referendum both in the press and around campus.”

This year’s turnout for senate elections, the highest in GUSA history, was 57.9 percent and follows student activism around the GU272 referendum attached to the senate ballot. Students voted to approve a referendum creating a semesterly fee that would go toward a fund to benefit descendants of the GU272, the 272 enslaved individuals sold by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus in 1838 to financially sustain the university. A university statement in response to the referendum results did not clarify upcoming steps.

The elections also come after the formation of Abolish GUSA, a movement seeking to replace GUSA with a more efficient and inclusive system of student government. The group began distributing posters across campus Jan. 27 and has since created a Facebook page. Three senate candidates, Alexander Mazzeo (SFS ’22), Christopher Castaldi-Moller (SFS ’21) and Henry Dai (COL ’22) have publicly associated themselves with the Abolish GUSA campaign this election season, though none of them run their senate races.

Abolish GUSA has pointed out areas where GUSA can improve upon in terms of properly using its powers to properly represent students, Nugent said.

“I’ve seen a lot of candidates this year run on an Abolish GUSA platform,” Nugent said. “We’re not doing ourselves any favors with a lot of things we do. People see it sort of as a meaningless institution.”

The emergence of the Abolish GUSA initiative demonstrates the low trust of the student body in GUSA’s ability to make change, according to re-elected senator Leo John Arnett (SFS ’22).

“I think those Abolish GUSA campaigns just prove how low

the perception of the organization has gotten in the last years,” Arnett said. “I believe that if anything, it proves that the new senate has to work that much harder to change that perception around for the better.”

The elections filled a seat vacated by Nicolo Ferretti (SFS ’21) who left to take the position of director of university affairs within the executive branch of GUSA. Another seat that was filled in this election was Sam Appel’s (COL ’20), who resigned from both the senate and as a candidate for the executive race Jan. 28. Despite GUSA bylaws, which call for a special election following a senator’s resignation during a term, the GUSA election commission chose not to hold a special election for Appel’s seat due to tight timing between the resignation and this week’s spring senate elections.

This senate election is the second since the passage of a set of referenda in February 2018 which moved upperclassman senate elections from the fall of the year, in which the senators serve to the spring of the preceding year. The transition chair, transition vice chair and transition finance and appropriations committee liaison for the senate, three positions created by the referenda to serve for the transition period over the summer. In previous years, incoming senators have been appointed in the week following the election.

While the referenda moved the formal upperclassmen senate elections to the spring, the most recent senate elections occurred Sept. 30 to fill three vacant junior seats as well as scheduled freshmen and at-large seats.

Senators for the incoming class of 2023 will be elected in the fall.

ELIZABETH ALARCON AND EMILY SHAMBAUGH/THE HOYA

The referendum on the GU272 reconciliation fee Thursday saw the highest voter turnout any Georgetown University Student Association election has ever seen.

3rd Annual UndocuWeek Expands Programming on Intersectionality MYROSLAV DOBROSHYNSKYI Hoya Staff Writer

A Georgetown University group that promotes accessible education for youth without documentation hosted three more events than last year and increased the number of cosponsorship opportunities with student organizations during its third annual UndocuWeek.

Through UndocuWeek, which runs from April 6 to April 12, GU Undocumented Student Support Services aims to address topics relating to the experiences of students without documentation through educational sessions, events and community activities during the entire week.

The educational campaign seeks to raise awareness about experiences of students without documentation not only at Georgetown but nationwide, according to Arelis Palacios, associate director for undocumented student services within the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access.

“We seek to address broader immigration topics related to family separation, immigration detention, experiences across graduate levels, and political activism,” Palacios wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The week includes information sessions on allyship and life in detention centers, a screening of the documentary “Salud Sin Papeles” and two events on the intersection of political activism and art.

This year’s UndocuWeek increased the number of days during which the organization hosted two events and includes co-sponsorship from more student groups than last year, according to Arisaid Gonzalez Porras (COL ’21), co-president of Hoyas for Immigrant Rights, a

student advocacy group administered by the Center for Social Justice.

“This year we did two events per day which has been kind of hectic but also pretty amazing that we’ve gotten so far,” Gonzalez Porras said. “Some of the events that are different is that we partnered with the medical school, which we haven’t done before. We also highlighted other narratives that are not normally shared or you don’t normally see in the mainstream.”

While the main coordinators for the week are the student leaders of Hoyas for Immigrant Rights, other organizations that are co-sponsors include the Georgetown Scholars Program and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán, an advocacy group for students identifying as Chicanx. The LGBTQ Resource Center, Georgetown University College Democrats, GU Pride and others also co-sponsored.

The collaboration of these student groups to support students without documentation and address broader immigration issues is encouraging and exciting, according to Palacios.

“I’m excited to see the allyship and solidarity building across different student groups, as a showing of support to our community members, but also as a showing of their commitment to broader social issues,” Palacios wrote.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy grants immigrants without documentation who arrived in the United States as children protection from deportation. In 2012, former President Barack Obama issued the DACA executive order after the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, a bill that would grant minors without documentation a

path to citizenship, did not pass in Congress several times.

In the future, Gonzalez Porras said she would also like to see an event that shares the story of parents of DACA policy recipients and other students without documentation, who are often portrayed negatively in society.

The young people affected by DACA and the DREAM Act are often referred to as dreamers.

“I think I would love to see more about the, we call it the original dreamers, or our parents, that usually are the ones that are criminalized in the narrative,” Gonzales Porras said.

“And maybe like if some students feel comfortable to speak about how it’s been like for their parents, because a lot of parents don’t want to speak on their experiences just because they’re still scared since they’re not protected.”

UndocuWeek began April 6 with a Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church with Bishop Mario Dorsonville. There are two events scheduled for each day except Friday, when the week is scheduled to end with the Undocuqueer Coffee Hour with the LGBTQ center from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Undocumented Student Resources was launched in 2016, when University President John J. DeGioia reaffirmed Georgetown’s commitment to supporting students without documentation.

“As a university located in our nation’s capital and animated by our Catholic and Jesuit identity, we are called to support all of our students, including our undocumented students,” DeGioia wrote on the university website.

“These young women and men demonstrate an extraordinary passion to make America, and our increasingly interconnected world, a better place.”

ASHLEY ZHAO Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University Native American Student Council delivered a petition to the office of University President John J. DeGioia calling for greater support for indigenous students April 3.

The petition received 605 signatures from undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff members, and non-Georgetown affiliated allies, according to NASC’s Facebook page. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), one of two Native American women ever elected to Congress, also signed the petition at a March 29 dialogue addressing the importance of intersectional feminism in Congress.

Five members of NASC and two other students marched from Red Square to the Office of the President on Wednesday morning. The petition was handed to Vice President and Chief of Staff Joseph Ferrara.

During the petition delivery, Ferrara said he would discuss how best to proceed with the administrative bodies the NASC had already contacted, including the Office of the University Registrar, the Office of the Provost and the Office of Admissions.

In light of the petition, the university would like to reaffirm its dedication to issues surrounding Native American visibility and support on campus, according to university spokesperson Matt Hill.

“We take the issues raised seriously and are committed to better understanding the experiences of our Native American students,” Hill wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We look forward to further engaging with these student leaders and working together to ensure Georgetown offers them and the broader community the appropriate resources and support.”

The students spoke to Ferrara about the demands listed in the petition, including hiring more indigenous faculty members and increasing outreach and admission of Native American students by partnering with College Horizons, a nonprofit that offers college admissions assistance to Native American students.

The full support of the Georgetown community is necessary for promoting indigenous visibility

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT COUNCIL

Seven students delivered a petition to the Office of the President on April 3 advocating for increased support for Native American students. on campus, according to NASC President Kelsey Lawson (SFS ’19).

“We feel as though we’ve been able to receive a lot of support through the petition, but we’re still very dependent on people showing solidarity with our cause because our group is so small and we need numbers to carry our movement,” Lawson wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The petition describes the lack of support for indigenous students on campus and includes 12 demands regarding how the university can create greater support for its Native American students in terms of outreach, support services and course offerings.

One percent of 3,202 students admitted to the Class of 2023 are Native American, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69).

Given the small number of indigenous students on campus and the university’s inability to disclose the names of students who identify as Native American because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, which protects the privacy of student education records, the group has struggled to expand and make its voice heard to the university, according to Lawson.

“It has been very difficult to navigate through the bureaucratic structure on our own and we feel as though our five member club has been burdened with the responsibility of resolving institutional issues regarding support services for Native students,” Lawson wrote.

The NASC is a university-recognized student affinity group committed to discussing events

affecting Native American communities and promoting Native American culture. The group’s petition has been circulating since March 18, with the delivery coming at the beginning of Georgetown’s Native American Heritage Month.

While NASC has taken note of some of the university’s recent efforts to create a more supportive campus environment for its Native American students, the group wants greater transparency and accountability from the university moving forward, according to NASC treasurer Yasmin Zuch (NHS ’20).

“At this point, if the University is to take the issue of Indigenous representation seriously, NASC and our supporters want a detailed plan of action in addressing the points we raise, and more importantly, a way to hold the University accountable for meeting these demands,” Zuch wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Campus Ministry has been working with NASC to dedicate a place on campus for Native American students to burn sacred herbs, as part of efforts to ensure representation of native communities on campus, according to Zuch.

“We have goals and aspirations to obtain a quality education just like anyone else, and for some of us, we want to use this education to help our communities back home,” Zuch wrote. “Not taking action to address the lack of resources or recruitment only contributes to erasing what presence we have on campus already.”

New GU Environmental Initiative Director Appointed RACHEL FRIEDMAN Hoya Staff Writer

Peter Marra, a leading researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, has been named director of the Georgetown Environment Initiative, the university announced in a news release April 3.

Marra, who holds a doctorate in ecology from Dartmouth College, will also serve as the Laudato Si’ chair in biology and the environment and as a professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy. Prior to joining GEI, which provides research opportunities for students and faculty to advance environmental preservation efforts, Marra worked for nearly 20 years at the Smithsonian Institution.

The position of GEI director provides Marra with more opportunities to directly affect environmental conservation efforts, Marra wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to move the needle from my current position at the Smithsonian,” Marra wrote. “So I had been looking for another position, preferably within academia, in which I could help do more to protect our environment, for people and biodiversity.”

Established in 2012 as part of the university’s commitment to address environmental concerns, GEI leads Georgetown’s efforts to advance the interdisciplinary study of the environment and conservation, according to the initiative’s website. Through a variety of programming, GEI among its goals aims to improve public understanding of environmental public policy.

Marra said that his past work studying bird habitats and urban ecosystems has prepared him to lead GEI in addressing key environmental issues.

“I’ve spent my entire career trying to conserve biodiversity through research, education and public outreach on an international scale,” Marra wrote. “Problems facing many individual species are the same large-scale problems we all face and must solve - climate change, habitat

destruction, loss of biodiversity, pollutants, disease, and the list goes on and on.”

Georgetown University Student Association Sustainability Chair Rowlie Flores (COL ’22) said that students are often unaware of the university’s environmental initiatives because of a lack of communication from the administration. Flores said he hopes Marra’s work with GEI will increase the initiative’s presence on campus.

“I hope that with this new GEI leadership, we can increase student interaction with administration and that students become more familiar with sustainability efforts that the university has and is planning to enforce in the future,” Flores wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Among recent conservation efforts, students have worked with the Office of Sustainability on a composting pilot program in O’Donovan Hall, though the program has faced challenges with contamination in the composting bins. GUSA’s sustainability policy team has also recently implemented a Go Plastic-Free initiative that promotes sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic products.

Marra recognized the importance of student engagement with GEI, and plans to create new ways they can get involved.

“Our GEI goal is to create the conditions that spark and amplify student creativity, collaboration, thought, and action to protect our environment,” Marra wrote. “Students have to be an integral part of the GEI if we are to succeed.”

GU Fossil Free member Juliette Leader (SFS ’19) said Marra’s commitment to growing GEI and increasing student involvement is an important step towards making Georgetown’s campus more environmentally friendly. (Full Disclosure: Leader is a member of The Hoya’s editorial board.)

“I’m glad the university is investing in developing and deepening our engagement with environmental issues on campus, and that I hope the GEI will be able to expand its on campus

presence and leadership under Peter Marra,” Leader wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Previous sustainable efforts made by the university include the recently established Laudato Si’ Fund, which will provide $300,000 in grants to student-, faculty- and staff-proposed projects seeking to combat sustainability challenges both on and off campus. Georgetown also divested from tar sands oil in June 2018 after a petition from GUFF, and is currently considering a second proposal to further limit its investments in any nonrenewable energy company.

Over the next few years, Marra hopes GEI will help transform Georgetown into an institutional leader in the fight against environmental degradation through incorporating sustainability more deeply into the lives of students and faculty.

“Broadly, we will create an atmosphere at Georgetown that has everyone thinking about ways to incorporate environmental and sustainability thinking, attitudes and actions into everything they do,” Marra wrote. “We must act now to protect our environment. If we don’t do it, who will? I can’t wait to get started.”

Though Marra hopes to improve Georgetown’s environmental outreach, his appointment comes amid criticism against the university for a proposed solar panel project.

Student activists and local environmentalists recently urged the university to disclose the timeline on its proposed solar panel project in La Plata, Md., as the plan would deforest 240 acres of land.

Despite upcoming challenges, the chance to work directly with members of the Georgetown community on environmental initiatives presents a change of pace, according to Marra.

“I feel so lucky to be working with such extraordinary and committed Georgetown students, staff, and faculty to leave the world a better place,” Marra wrote in an email to The Hoya.

A8

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

Attorneys Can Prolong, Publicize Councilmember Evans Faces Clerical Abuse Crisis, Panelists Say Challenger in 2020 Election JAIME MOORE-CARRILLO Hoya Staff Writer

Panelists praised attorneys of survivors Monday for holding the Catholic Church accountable for the clerical abuse crisis, while also acknowledging the role of lawyers in the church’s efforts to cover up sexual misconduct.

Lawyers have played a critical role in confronting and publicizing the clergy sexual abuse crisis, according to John Carr, director of Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, who moderated the event.

“It would be fair to say without the action of lawyers, this crisis would still be hidden in many ways,” Carr said. “It was plaintiffs attorneys who sued the church and took on this crisis, and we owe them a lot.”

Plaintiffs, lawyers and attorneys general have spearheaded investigations into clergy misconduct across the country for years.

The most recent, prominent example was a sweeping, two-year investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General, who in August 2018 identified more than 300 priests across Pennsylvania’s six dioceses credibly accused of sexually assaulting thousands of minors.

In some cases, however, attorneys have also played an active role in silencing reports of abuse and preventing reform in the church, according to Carr.

“There were attorneys who advised the church, some of whom said, ‘Don’t worry we’ll handle this, we can make this go away,” Carr said. “Don’t meet with victims, don’t apologize, don’t acknowledge.’ Other diocesan attorneys said, ‘Be a pastor. Do what’s right and we’ll handle it

the rest of it.’”

The April 9 event, titled “How Law and Lawyers Help Hide and Uncover the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis,” was part of a month-long series of dialogues hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life on the clerical sexual abuse crisis.

Carr moderated a four-person panel including Margaret Graf, the general legal counsel of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles since 2003; Tom Johnson, public advocate for sexual abuse victims in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese; Peter Steinfels, a former religion reporter for the New York Times; and Barbara Thorp, former director of the Office for Pastoral Support and Child Protection of the Archdiocese of Boston.

For decades, attorneys for survivors and the church have played a large role in perpetuating the culture of secrecy surrounding sexual abuse, according to Johnson.

“Statutes that would require you report that abuse to law enforcement and take other actions are pretty much ignored,” Johnson said.

In January, the Council of the District of Columbia proposed a bill, currently under review, that would legally mandate pastors, rabbis and other clergy to report instances of child abuse or neglect. Under current D.C. law, teachers, school officials, medical professionals and daycare workers are mandated reporters, who are required to report incidents of abuse to the Metropolitan Police Department or to child protective services.

The Catholic Church used confidentiality agreements signed by victims pledging to remain in exchange for a small payoff to maintain this culture of secrecy,

according to Johnson.

“Their silence was bought, and in the course of doing that, they actually became a player in a conspiracy to keep it silent,” Johnson said. “That damage to the victims was very significant.”

While civil law has provided an avenue for survivors to access support resources, canon law has yet to recognize to the same extent its responsibility to survivors of clerical abuse, according to Thorp.

“The canon law side of this is lagging far behind in terms of seeing itself as another opportunity to bring real healing and real confidence that the church understands the depth of the harm and damage that’s done,” Thorp said. “The cases that have gone on appeal to the Vatican, there is no intention of resolving them.”

Collaboration between lawyers, clergy and survivors is imperative to finding legal solutions to the crisis, according to Graf.

“One of the big takeaways as we think about these issues and we talk today: we need to gather data, we need to consider best practices, but we need to look at it through the eyes of victim-survivors, not just through the eyes of the institutional church,” Graf said.

Lawyers for survivors have misused their influence by telling a story of the church’s sexual abuse crisis that is at odds with reality, according to Steinfels.

“Lawyers have also helped define and, I would argue, distort our understanding of the abuse scandal. We have a dominant storyline very much shaped by lawsuits, criminal cases, depositions and the media spiraling of lawyers,” Steinfels said.

AFUA NYANTAKYI Hoya Staff Writer

Patrick Kennedy, former campaign co-chair to Washington, D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) announced April 8 that he will be opposing Evans in the 2020 D.C. Council elections following recent ethical scandals involving Evans.

Evans was reprimanded by a March 19 council vote after using his government email to solicit business deals and offering to use his influence to help clients. D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) reduced some of the responsibilities Evans holds as chair of the Committee on Finance and Revenue, such as control over tax policies and his oversight over the city’s sports and events authority, but did not strip him of his position as chair of the committee.

The Federal Grand Jury is investigating Evans because of legislation he promoted in 2016 that would have benefitted a digital sign company, Digi Outdoor Media, which Evans had previously purchased stock from a month earlier, according to The Washington Post.

Evans, the District’s longestserving councilmember, lacks the fresh perspective needed

to address the issues that D.C. currently faces, according to Kennedy, who is currently serving his fourth term as a neighborhood commissioner in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

“As I have said, I think even aside from the ethics issues, that Jack’s sensibilities and policy preferences just aren’t a good fit for the District as it exists today and that this election is an opportunity to discuss doing things differently,” Kennedy wrote in an April 9 tweet.

Kennedy plans to focus his campaign on a progressive platform that extends beyond criticizing Evans. He aims to highlight issues of affordable housing and transportation, including plans for a network of protected bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes.

The candidate also plans to receive funds through the new public financing program, a program facilitated by the government to offer candidates who swear off large corporate contributions with matched funds for each small public donation those candidates receive, according to DCist.

In addition to Kennedy, others are considering running against Evans, who previously ran unopposed in the 2016

election. However, some officials are skeptical of the potential success of any opposing campaign because of Evans’ 28year run as D.C. councilmember, according to The Washington Post.

Although former incumbents involved in scandals have been ousted by newcomers in the past, including the concession of former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D), who served from 2011 to 2015, to Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), it would take more recent allegations to garner enough push for a new candidate to eliminate Evans, according to DCist.

In 2014, former D.C. Medicaid contractor Jeffrey Thompson pled guilty to felony charges for illegal contributions to Gray’s campaign. Bowser received 44.2 percent of the vote in the 2014 Democratic primary, defeating Gray in an election that had the lowest voter turnout in 30 years.

There has already been a push from D.C. activists to recall Evans from his post. However, the campaign was halted by the D.C. Board of Elections on April 3 as a result of technical mistakes regarding paperwork that needed to be filed in order to collect signatures for a forced recall, according to The Washington Post.

DC Elections Board Cancels Ballot Initiative on Term Limits ALEXANDRA BOWMAN Hoya Staff Writer

The Washington, D.C. Board of Elections ruled that D.C. residents may not vote to enact term limits for city officials April 3, effectively cancelling an upcoming ballot initiative that would limit D.C. councilmembers to two terms.

Imposing term limits on city officials would require an amendment to the D.C. city charter, which only the D.C. Council can propose, according to a 10-page decision released by the board.

The initiative proposes changes to the contents of the Home Rule Act, which delegates legislative power to the District, making the initiative illegal, according to Rachel Coll, a representative from the D.C. Board of Elections general counsel.

In 1994, D.C. residents voted by a 62 percent majority to approve a similar ballot measure imposing term limits. The referendum was overturned seven years later by the Council, according to DCist.

The D.C. Council considered but ultimately did not pass a bill that would have established term limits in 2011, amid an ethics scandal that saw two councilmembers resign and two serve prison time for bribery and stealing public funds, according to DCist.

James Butler, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in the 2018 Democratic primary and as a write-in candidate during the general election, filed paper-

work to start the proposed ballot initiative in January, according to DCist.

Butler said the Board of Elections should not rule out his initiative because a similar 1994 initiative on term limits was passed and approved by the council as well.

“It made it all the way to the ballot and became law, so I’m confused at why they’re saying now that what happened in 1994 was unlawful,” Butler said in an interview with Th e Hoy a .

Butler’s unsuccessful candidacy against incumbent candidate Mayor Bowser (D) reminded him of the importance of his initiative.

“Challenging an incumbent really showed me that there are many advantages of incumbency that definitely, in my opinion, does not mean that the incumbent is more qualified than his or her opponents.” Butler said.

“Almost every single incumbent was reelected. You have to ask yourself — does that mean that every single incumbent was doing a good job?”

Bowser and six incumbents won nominations for mayor and city council positions in the June 19 primary election. Bowser received 83 percent of the vote for the Democratic bid and faced no Republican opposition in the November re-election.

Over three dozen states impose term limits on governors, and 15 states currently impose term limits on legislators, according to U.S. Term Limits, a group that assists in enacting and promoting term limits in

all levels of government.

No limitations currently exist on how long the D.C. mayor, attorney general or councilmembers can serve in any of these offices. If term limits were approved, they would not apply retroactively.

The initiative is especially important in light of the recent scandal involving long-serving Councilmember Jack Evans (DWard 2), Butler said.

“Most recently, Jack Evans has touted his influence as the longest-serving councilmember seeking outside employment, using emails from the DC Council,” Butler said. “I definitely believe he has raised some questions about incumbents staying in too long, and their terms not being limited.”

Evans, the longest-serving lawmaker in D.C., repeatedly used his government email account to solicit business deals from law firms that had lobbied the D.C. government, offering to help clients through his connections and influence as a public official.

Councilmember Evans’ office declined Th e Hoy a ’s request for comment.

Butler plans to take his initiative to the D.C. Superior Court this Friday.

“I will file for the Writ of Mandamus with the D.C. Superior Court on Friday in the morning.

I think we’re going to win in the courts. We are ready to take it the Supreme Court if we need to,” Butler said.

BUTLER FOR DC MAYOR/FACEBOOK

James Butler, who unsuccessfully ran for Washington, D.C. mayor in the 2018 election, started a proposed ballot initiative in January that would impose term limits on D.C. councilmembers.

@PLK/TWITTER

Patrick Kennedy announced his candidacy for the 2020 D.C. Council elections amid a federal grand jury investigation of his opponent, Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2).

Compass Coffee Opens New Wisconsin Avenue Location CONNOR THOMAS Hoya Staff Writer

Compass Coffee, the main supplier of coffee products for Students of Georgetown, Inc., commonly known as The Corp, opened its own new location in Georgetown on April 6, as it aims to offer a new study space for Georgetown students off campus.

The coffee shop, located at 1351 Wisconsin Avenue NW beneath the neon “Georgetown” sign, served free drinks of any size to customers from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

The new location covers a 3,000-square-foot space and is Compass Coffee’s 10th storefront since the company’s founding in 2014.

Washington, D.C. residents Michael Haft and Harrison Suarez co-founded Compass Coffee four years ago when they both returned from active duty in the Marine Corps.

The company’s first location opened on 7th Street in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C., and its reach has since expanded to nine other locations in the District.

Compass Coffee’s Georgetown building was formerly a jewelry exchange. The company expanded into the space because the Georgetown sign has elevated the building to an iconic status, Haft said.

“It just seemed like a great

location for Compass, a great community space,” Haft said.

“It seemed like we could do justice to the building and build something great for the community.”

Evan Conner, a shift supervisor for the Georgetown location, said that many of the cafe’s college-age employees believe the new location is a prime spot for students to study near Georgetown’s campus.

“One of the big things they expressed was that there isn’t a facility that is similar to the one that we’ve built here in the Georgetown community,” Conner said. “So we get a lot of students coming through, studying, even looking around now pretty much everyone in here is deep in schoolwork, which is really exciting.”

Compass Coffee joins Blue Bottle, Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee, among other coffee shops in the neighborhood.

Seo Young Lee (COL ’21), CEO of The Corp, said that she is excited about having Compass Coffee in the area, a company The Corp has had a partnership with prior to its Georgetown opening.

“I’m happy to welcome Compass Coffee to the Georgetown neighborhood,” Lee wrote in an email to Th e Hoy a .

“The Corp has been proudly making all our drinks with ethically sourced beans from

Compass Coffee for years.”

As one of four individuals on the leadership team for the Georgetown location, Conner previously worked at a coffee shop in D.C. that mainly catered to working professionals. Compass’ approach creates a cafe environment that encourages customers to stay for longer periods of time, a tactic which Conner said he prefers.

“I know that I came from a downtown cafe that was more like immediate drinks, trying to get people on their morning commute,” Conner said. “So this is an excellent change of pace, more attention paid to vibe, the environment that we’re creating, so that everyone feels comfortable sitting here, staying here and getting their work done while they’re here.”

The Georgetown location’s decor features greenery, wall art, a fireplace and a variety of seating options.

Sherry Gholami (MED ’22), who was studying at Compass Coffee on opening day, said the location was a refreshing change for her and her peers to study.

“We study frequently so we get tired of going to the same old places,” Gholami said.

“So it’s really exciting when there’s a new coffee shop or a really nice environment to study in.”

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

NEWS

THE HOYA

A9

A10

SPORTS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

CREW

TRACK AND FIELD

Georgetown Claims 3 Top GU Women’s 1st 8 Boat Secures 2nd-Place Finish Finishes at Princeton SIDNEY LEE

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown track and field teams split up Saturday, with one group travelling to Princeton, N.J., for the Sam Howell Invitational hosted by Princeton University, while another travelled to Tempe, Ariz., for Arizona State University’s Sun Angel Classic.

The team came away with three first place finishes in Princeton, while picking up a silver in Tempe.

At the Sam Howell Invitational, the team continued to show its prowess in the steeplechase event, with graduate student Christian Liddell claiming victory in the 3000 meter race. Liddell was consequently named Big East Conference Men’s Track Athlete

of the Week on Monday following the meet on Saturday.

On the women’s team, freshmen Katherine Modrall and Rachel Sessa ran hard in the 3000m steeplechase to come away with two top-five finishes, placing third and fourth in the event, respectively.

After beating a personal record at the Florida Relays on March 28, All-American sophomore Lawrence Leake took a first-place finish for Georgetown in the 400m dash. Leake notched a time of 47.87 seconds, and sophomore Nate Alleyne followed in third place with a time of 48.15.

All-American junior Jack Salisbury crossed the line in 3:45.43 to claim first place in the 1500m run. All-American senior Nick Wareham fol-

lowed soon after to finish in fourth place.

Freshman Rusty Kujdych took another first-place win for Georgetown in the last event of the meet, running the 5000m race in 14:19.27.

At the Sun Angel Classic, members of the women’s team secured more victories for the Blue and Gray. Freshman Sami Corman ran to second place in the 1500m run with a time of 4:33.35, missing out on first place by less than a second. In the 800m run, freshman Cathilyn McIntosh gave the team a top-10 finish by finishing seventh.

The Hoyas will return to the track Saturday, April 13, in the George Mason Spring Invitational hosted by George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

GUHOYAS

All-American junior Jack Salisbury, center, races to the front of the pack in the Sam Howell Invitational on April 6. Salisbury finished first in the 1500 meter with a time of 3:45.43.

BASEBALL

Hoyas Swept by Musketeers In Opening Big East Series TIM ROTERMUND Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown baseball team travelled to Xavier last weekend for a three-game series to open Big East Conference play. The team played a few tight games but lost all three.

In their conference opener Friday, the Hoyas (8-24, 0-3) struck first, scoring a run in the top of the first on an RBI double from freshman infielder Michael Willis. The Musketeers (12-19, 3-0) responded with a three-run home run in the bottom of the second, taking a 3-1 lead.

On offense, freshman infielder Alex Rosen homered, a solo shot over the left-field fence and the first of his career. Graduate student outfielder Kyle Ruedisili had three hits and a home run, his teamleading fifth home run of the season.

The teams continued to trade runs, and the game was tied 4-4 through 4 ½ innings.

However, Xavier added a run in the bottom of the fifth to break the tie and then piled on two more in the bottom of the

sixth on the way to a 7-4 victory.

On Saturday, Georgetown played a double-header, losing both to the Musketeers. Junior right-hander Nick Morreale started the first of the two games, pitching six innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out five. The Hoyas’ offense mustered only five total hits, scoring four runs in a 9-4 loss.

Rosen’s bat remained hot, producing two of the team’s five hits. Freshman catcher Matt Stone blasted his first career home run over the left field fence in the third inning, tying the game 1-1.

Georgetown trailed 4-2 after six frames; Xavier then pulled away with a four run bottom of the seventh, sealing the outcome of the game and eventually finishing at 9-4 in favor of the Musketeers.

The final game proved to be a pitchers’ duel. Xavier won 1-0, scoring the only run of the contest in the bottom of the ninth with a two-out, walk-off RBI double. Senior right-hander Jack Cushing pitched an incredible game, striking out seven batters in 7 2/3 scoreless

innings.

The teams were deadlocked at zero until the bottom of the ninth when Xavier sophomore outfielder Allbry Major came to the plate with two outs and a runner on first. The game seemed destined for extras, but Major had other plans, ripping a line drive down the right-field line and scoring junior pitcher and designated hitter Conor Grammes all the way from first. The walk-off double cemented the Musketeers’ three-game sweep of the Hoyas.

Georgetown returns to action Wednesday, April 10, at Coppin State. The Hoyas then travel to Villanova for a threegame weekend series, hoping to capture their first victory in Big East play.

The Blue and Gray faced Xavier on this same weekend, April 6 and 7, last season. They beat the Musketeers in two of the three games in their opening conference series in 2018.

The team needs to turn things around through a more complete effort both at the plate and in the field in order to improve on a shaky conference start.

GUHOYAS

Graduate student outfielder Kyle Ruedisili stares down a pitch while at the plate against Xavier.

Ruedisili went two for four with an RBI in the Hoyas' 4-3 win over Coppin State on April 10.

JACK LYNCH

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown men’s lightweight team returned last weekend to add Yale, Harvard and Columbia to their tour of the Ivy League in the Wales-Kirrane Cup. Georgetown fell to all three teams in close races. After picking up a win over Delaware on March 23, this performance was a dip in the Hoyas’ start to the season.

The Georgetown women’s openweight team also hit the road this past weekend and travelled to Annapolis, Md., to compete against Navy and Lehigh in their first competition of the season. They showed promise as their top boats posted top finishes. The women’s lightweight team also competed hard in the Cal Cup this weekend, but eventually lost to Drexel.

Beginning April 6, the twoday trip started in Derby, Conn., as Yale hit the Housatonic River for the first time this spring, sweeping the Hoyas in three head-to-head battles. The Hoyas then moved onto the Wales-Kirrane Cup in Ridgefield, N.J., on Sunday in a five-race 2K competition at Overpeck Park. Georgetown entered only three eightmen boats, taking third in each behind Harvard and Columbia.

Despite trailing Yale in all three races on Saturday, the boats performed under tough away conditions. The first varsity boat finished in a time of 5:45.1, only a few seconds off of Yale’s 5:38.3. The Bulldogs showed off their depth, posting times of 5:40.7 and 5:45.8 in the second and third varsity races and taking comfortable victories over the Hoyas’ 5:53.0 and 6:09.8.

Head Rowing Coach Luke Agnini said that the Housatonic course was challenging for the road team.

“It is much more difficult to be on the road and to adapt in the moment. When you have

a straight course with buoys there’s not much of a home advantage but when you’re traveling and the course is irregular, it’s definitely a factor,” Agnini said in an interview with The Hoya.

On a smooth and relatively warm Sunday in New Jersey, the Hoyas completed a tough weekend against the Columbia Lions and the Harvard Crimson. The first varsity race was a tough fight the whole way through as Harvard edged Columbia with a winning time of 5:42.9. The Hoyas finished third with a time of 5:52.9.

The main challenge is "keeping the boys healthy and finding out who [the team] can look to for consistency."

LUKE AGNINI HEAD COACH, MEN'S ROWING

The second varsity race saw the Hoyas lose out in a comfortable victory for Columbia who posted a quick 5:53.1, only a little over a second behind the Crimson’s 6:01.9. Georgetown fell off the pace in the third varsity race, finishing third at 6:24.1, behind first-place Harvard and runner-up Columbia.

Despite the losses, Agnini was pleased with the weekend as the men’s lightweights start to find their rhythm this spring.

The main challenge is “keeping the boys healthy and finding out who [the team] can look to for consistency,” Agnini said.

The Hoyas will host Navy at home on the Potomac for their first home race of the year Saturday, April 13.

In the women’s race, the first varsity eight boat of sophomore coxswain Schylar Jacobs, senior stroke Emily Phelps, senior Monica Firmani, junior Chloe Schalit, junior Mara Sylvia, senior Cate O’Leary, freshman Megan Sofield, junior Angela Glazer and junior Grace Donebedian impressed with a second-place finish in a time of 6:42.4, eight seconds behind a tough Navy midshipmen squad. The second varsity eight took fourth of four, losing out to Navy’s second and third boats and seven seconds behind third place finisher Lehigh. The varsity and second varsity four plus crews each took third behind Navy and Lehigh. Georgetown is set to compete next in the Knecht Cup in West Windsor, N.J., on Saturday, April 13.

The top boat of the lightweight women took a weekend trip to San Diego to compete in the Cal Cup as part of the San Diego Crew Classic. The Hoyas put in a great effort to win their prelim heat on Saturday, April 6, to advance to the final Sunday where they secured sixth.

The squad meshed well, showing grit to cross the line first in 6:47.9 to take down Sacramento State and Seattle Pacific, all within a margin of 5.2 seconds. The five-boat race also included Fordham, who fell off the pace early.

The prelim victory put the Hoyas in an outside lane for the final. They were beaten out

by Drexel, Loyola Marymount, San Diego, Sacramento State and Seattle Pacific to take sixth of six in a time of 6:58.8.

Despite trailing the field, the Hoyas fought the whole race, keeping themselves within 10 seconds of the victorious Drexel Dragons. The lightweights will join the openweights in the Knecht Cup on April 13, seeking to build momentum for the Hoyas as the spring season gets underway.

SPORTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

GOLF

THE HOYA

A11

MEN’S LACROSSE

Hoyas Claim 1st Conference Victory MEN’S LACROSSE, from A12

an assist of his own.

The defense improved upon its weekend performance, holding Loyola’s prolific scoring offense, which is fourth in the nation with 24 goals per game, to 16.

McElroy had a good game in net with 15 saves, and the Hoyas converted on 16 of their 19 clears.

Georgetown struck early, as Bucaro and senior midfielder Lucas Wittenberg each scored to give the Blue and Gray a 2-0 lead.

The Greyhounds (9-2, 5-0 Patriot) took control for the rest of the quarter, however,

outscoring the Hoyas to put the score at 5-3 in favor of the home team at the end of the frame.

Georgetown came roaring back in the third quarter, starting the quarter with a goal from Bucaro and two from Carraway to bring them within two.

The defense held strong as well, and Loyola would not score until over nearly halfway through the frame.

After this, the teams each netted two goals, and the scoreboard read 14-11 in favor of the Greyhounds after three.

The scoring slowed in the fourth quarter, as each team

had plenty of chances but struggled to convert opportunities to their advantage.

Watson scored four minutes in, and it would be another six minutes before Carraway buried another one, pulling the Hoyas within one.

Carraway then had two chances to tie the game up, but the Greyhounds’ goalie saved both.

A penalty on Aslanian gave Loyola a man advantage, with which they were able to net the game-sealing score with 23 seconds left.

The Providence game was a must-win for the Hoyas, as it allows them to remain competitive in conference play

after two consecutive Big East losses, while the loss to Loyola certainly was expected.

Another game in the loss column does not help the Hoyas’ postseason chances, but the strong play exhibited by the team on both ends of the field is indicative that they can still compete at the highest level.

If Georgetown can continue to put out quality performances, they should find more success as they close out their season.

Georgetown will look to secure a second-straight conference win Sunday when they face Villanova at 1 p.m. on Cooper Field.

GUHOYAS

Junior Hardin Council follows through on his swing at the Princeton Invitational. Council finished in seventh overall with a final score of 208.

Men’s Golf Loses Steam, Finishes 6th After Strong Start GOLF, from A12

Richmond (917).

Parsells’ final round 74 was just enough for her to clinch the weekend’s individual title with 218 strokes (71-73-74), one shot ahead of Akron’s Danielle Nicholson, who ended with 219 shots (72-73-74).

Additional standout performances from the Hoyas among the leaderboard were sophomore Elizabeth Nguyen who finished fourth in the individual competition with a 221 (76-72-73), while senior Alexa Popowitz shot a 225 (76-74-75) to clinch sixth place overall.

On Saturday, the men shot rounds of 283 and 285 at Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, N.J., which left them level with the Columbia Lions and the Temple Owls at 568 strokes, or even par.

The first round saw Yale sit ahead of the other 12 teams with a 19 under par score of 549, while Penn (556) and Loyola Maryland (566) also led the tie for fourth place.

On an individual level Saturday, the Hoyas were led by a confident performance from junior Eduardo Blochtein who carded a 68 and a 70 to leave him in sixth place in the individual competition,

while junior Hardin Councill (69-71) sat in a tie for 12th.

On Sunday, Councill led the Hoyas through a more difficult day as he carded a 68 to finish in seventh overall among the participants from 13 teams with his final score of 208 (69-71-68).

Blochtein was ultimately able to join him in the top 10, as his final round of 71 left him in a tie for eighth with 209 (68-70-71). Junior Patrick DiPasquale carded three consecutive 73’s to finish with a score of 219.

Other disappointing Sunday finishes knocked the Hoyas down to sixth place at the end of the weekend.

The team shot two over par on Saturday, ending with a score of 854 (283-285-286).

Georgetown ultimately fell 25 strokes behind the champion Yale Bulldogs (829).

Penn, Temple, Seton Hall and Loyola Maryland used strong Sundays to pass the Hoyas and round out the top five.

The men now move on to the Rutherford Intercollegiate in State College, Pa., before the Big East championship.

The women, on the other hand, turn their attention directly to the conference championship.

SUDOKU

3 7 2 6 9 1 5 2 3 4 9 1 8 7 9 3 1 6 3 8 5 4 3 8 9 4 2 7 9 8

1 8 5 4 2 9 7 3 6

3 7 4 5 6 1 9 8 2

7 5 3 1 9 6 2 4 8

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

GU Comeback Falls Short to Denver WOMEN’S LACROSSE, from A12

On offense, Whitehurst continued her outstanding senior campaign, finishing with two goals and two assists.

Whitehurst received help from the rest of the team’s veteran leadership with her fellow seniors Gebhardt and Ryan, who both finished with three points by the final whistle. Bruno also made her mark on the game, scoring two goals in the loss.

Head Coach Ricky Fried attributed the blown lead to a lack of execution and not capitalizing on the chances the team was given.

“Today was a matter of us executing better; I give them a lot of credit for playing hard and taking away passing lanes, but we’ve got to do a better job of finishing the opportunities we’re given,” Fried said in an interview with GUHoyas.

The women’s lacrosse team will look to rebound in another pivotal Big East matchup against Villanova University in Philadelphia on Saturday at 1 p.m.

2 1 8 7 4 5 3 6 9

4 9 6 8 3 2 1 7 5

5 3 1 9 8 4 6 2 7

6 4 9 2 5 7 8 1 3

8 2 7 6 1 3 5 9 4

MARGARET FOUBERG/THE HOYA

Junior defenseman Katie Hudson craddles up the field and looks to facilitate for the Hoyas against Denver on April 6 at home. Hudson scooped up one ground ball in the loss.

FREE KICK

Kean Overcomes Racism to Excel on Field HAMPERS, from A12

Last issue’s solutions

9 6 2 3 7 8 4 5 1

MARGARET FOUBERG/THE HOYA

Freshman faceoff specialist James Reilly, center, lines up at midfield and awaits the referee’s whistle. Reilly has won 126 faceoffs for the Hoyas this season. Georgetown split its last two games on the road with a win over Providence and a tight loss to Loyola.

The Italian league’s disciplinary tribunal has failed to adequately respond to racist incidents, and it is high time officials make a concentrated effort to punish perpetrators of abuse.

Even in the most blatant example of racism, when bananas were thrown by Atalanta fans at two black players in 2014, Italy’s Serie A merely imposed a 40,000 euro fine on a club with a market value of over 200 million euros.

No fans were punished or banned.

Today’s technology can identify specific fans who are responsible for racist chants.

The English Premier League has demonstrated this well, using video surveillance footage in stadiums that can be thoroughly reviewed.

In April 2012, Chelsea successfully identified a 55-yearold man who abused Didier

Drogba and banned the fan for life.

Given the frequency of racial abuse in soccer, all European leagues should implement the same surveillance technology and use the footage to open investigations whenever incidents occur.

Racism in sports remains a global phenomenon; this is especially pervasive in the most global sport.

European leagues also should not hesitate to give broader punishments to the

clubs, including holding matches behind closed doors.

While some may argue that it is unfair to punish an entire fan base for the actions of a few, a firm policy whereby any incident of racial abuse automatically leads to one or more games away from fans would send a powerful message discouraging abusive behavior.

While Italian soccer has demonstrated the most indifference in handling racism, it is far from the only country to experience it. Racism in sports remains a global phenomenon; this is especially pervasive in the most global sport.

A report showing that there were 276 racist incidents across all levels of the sports in the 2017-18 season was published by Kick It Out, a non-profit that advocates for equality in soccer.

Tackling racial abuse in soccer requires both strong

enforcement mechanisms and a collective conscience among athletes and coaches that vocally supports victims, rather than blaming them for competing.

Sterling, among other star players, is emerging as a leader in speaking out against racism and calling on authorities to ban fans from games.

Kean has chosen to mostly stay silent, but his performance has done plenty of talking. Lost in the recent controversy is the remarkable fact that the teenager has scored five goals in his last five matches for his club and country.

If the racist fans at Cagliari were hoping to sabotage Kean’s ability to excel on the field, it seems they have failed miserably.

Dean Hampers is a junior in the College. FREE KICK appears in print every other Friday.

Sports

Men’s Lacrosse Georgetown (8-4) vs. Villanova (7-4) Sunday, April 14, 1 p.m.

Cooper Field

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019

Graduate student Christian Liddell finished first in the 3000m steeplechase at the Sam Howell Invitational.

See A10

“

Hoya Staff Writer

second place all day, while Richmond (312-296) mounted a comeback with a strong second round to force a tie for second.

On the opening day, the Hoyas were led by senior Christina Parsells who sat atop the entire tournament at even par after starting the morning off with a one-under par on the way to a total Monday score of 144 (71-73).

On Tuesday, aware of the opportunity for a victory, the women held off over the rest of the field, as their final round score of 305 left them with 906 (302-299-305), eight strokes ahead of Ball State (914), who led the rest of the pack, which featured Akron (915) and

After losing two consecutive Big East matchups, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team rebounded with a 17-15 victory at Providence on April 6. On Tuesday, however, the Hoyas lost 16-14 in their matchup at No. 2 Loyola Maryland.

On Saturday, senior attack Dan Bucaro and junior attack Jake Carraway led the way for the Hoyas’ (8-4, 1-2 Big East) offense, with Bucaro contributing six points and Carraway adding five points. The freshman class also continued to provide valuable contributions on the offensive end. Freshman attack Dylan Watson posted his first career hat trick, freshman midfielder Declan McDermott added two goals and two assists, and freshman midfielder Zachary Geddes tallied his first career assist. In total, 10 Hoyas scored a point.

While the offense hummed, the defense struggled, allowing the Friars (5-6, 1-1 Big East) to post their second-highest goal total of the season. However, in cage, sophomore guard Owen McElroy tallied 12 saves, while sophomore defenseman Gibson Smith could not be contained to the defensive end of the field, as he netted his first goal of the season.

The Friars started the game off hot with three consecutive goals. The Hoyas had adequate possession time in this first quarter, but they struggled to put the ball past Providence senior goalkeeper

See GOLF, A11

See MEN’S LACROSSE, A11

GUHOYAS

Senior Alexa Popowitz led Georgetown to a victory by shooting a 225 and finishing sixth individually at the Hoya Invitational on April 9.

GU Women’s Golf Wins the Hoya Invitational The Georgetown women’s golf team had a strong first round showing to finish first in the field of eight teams at the Hoya Invitational this week, while the men’s hot start fueled them to finish sixth of 13 teams at the Princeton Invitational.

The women’s match began Monday morning at The Member’s Club in Beallsville, Md., as Georgetown played host to seven opponents. The Hoyas were prepared, firing an opening round 302 and following it up with an even stronger 299.

These 601 strokes left them atop the entire leaderboard following the first day’s competition.

Ball State (305-303) lingered

Women’s Lacrosse Coach Ricky Fried

Tate Boyce, who stuffed numerous close-range chances.

The sequence leading to the first Georgetown goal started when junior midfielder Massimo Bucci managed to maintain possession through an illegal body check. From the turf, Bucci moved the ball to McDermott, who found senior midfielder Patrick Aslanian wide open in the center of the field. Aslanian buried the shot, putting the score at 3-1. The teams traded goals thereafter, with Georgetown’s coming from a coastto-coast effort from Smith.

Bucaro opened the second quarter in style. Driving to the net, the senior went air-

The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team returned to Cooper Field on Saturday in a conference matchup against the No. 14 Denver Pioneers.

The No. 19 Hoyas looked to build on two consecutive blowout wins but ultimately could not handle the challenges of their first difficult test in conference play, falling 12-9.

The Blue and Gray (7-5, 1-1

Big East) got off to a quick start with senior midfielder Francesca Whitehurst striking first just 23 seconds into the half. Denver (10-2, 2-0 Big East) then traded two goals with Georgetown, as freshman attack Ali Diamond and junior attack Michaela Bruno stepped up to give the Hoyas a 3-2 lead. Following the backto-back goals, the two teams went back and forth to finish the half with further scoring from Whitehurst and fellow senior, attack Taylor Gebhardt.

After gaining a one-goal lead heading into halftime, Georgetown began to lose its steam.

Following a goal from senior attack Morgan Ryan to begin the period, the Pioneers went on to an 8-1 run during the middle of the second half. With just 6:23 left on the clock, Denver had taken a commanding 12-7 lead. Despite goals from Bruno and Ryan in the final minutes, the lead would prove too large for the Blue and Gray to come back.

As a whole, the Hoyas and

four straight, securing their first lead of the game and putting the score at 13-11 entering the final frame.

In the fourth, Providence scored and looked poised to make a final run. However, Carraway and Bucaro both found the back of the net within one minute of each other, effectively putting the game away.

On Tuesday, Georgetown faced a far greater challenge when they travelled to Baltimore, Md., to take on Loyola.

Carraway led Georgetown in scoring with five goals and an assist, while Bucci tallied two goals and three assists, and Bucaro added a hat trick and

MARGARET FOUBERG/THE HOYA

Hoyas Fall to Denver in Big East Challenge Hoya Staff Writer

borne and put the ball past Boyce for his first score of the game. Carraway quickly tied the game up, but Providence responded with a 4-1 run.

Entering the half, the Hoyas trailed 9-5.

The third quarter proved to be the decisive frame in this matchup. Following an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Providence late in the first half, the Hoyas began the quarter with a man advantage, and Watson quickly capitalized on this with a goal. Goals from Bucci and senior attack Robert Clark pulled the Hoyas within one.

After a Providence response, Georgetown netted

Junior midfielder Massimo Bucci, left, calls for the ball running up the field. Bucci contributed one goal and two assists in a win over Providence. He also had two goals and three assists against Loyola on the road.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

BEN GAVER

3

The number of first-place finishes for men’s track at the Sam Howell Invitational.

GU Beats Providence, Falls at No. 2 Loyola HENRY MIHM

Hoya Staff Writer

“We’ve got to do a better job of finishing opportunities when given.”

MEN’S LACROSSE

GOLF

JAKE WEXELBLATT

NUMBERS GAME

TALKING POINTS

TRACK

the Pioneers finished with 24 shots in total and 19 shots on goal. Georgetown also committed four fewer turnovers and picked up three more ground balls than the Denver. Despite remaining tall in cage, senior goalie Haelle Chomo made three fewer saves than her Denver counterpart. Denver also outperformed the Hoyas in the draw control, securing nine in comparison to Denver’s 14.

See WOMEN’S LACROSSE, A11

MARGARET FOUBERG/THE HOYA

Senior midfielder Francesca Whitehurst, right, takes the draw at midfield against Navy on April 10. Whitehurst had four points on two goals and two assists in the 16-9 home loss. She also had two goals and two assists in a loss to Denver on April 6.

Visit us online at thehoya.com/category/sports

FREE KICK

Dean Hampers

Racism Still Plagues Soccer’s Top Leagues In Italian club Juventus’ game against Cagliari last Tuesday, the sports world was reminded that racism is not simply a stain on the histories of many once-segregated leagues, but an ongoing issue that continues to affect athletes of minority descent.

Nineteen-year-old Juventus forward Moise Kean, who was born to West African parents, was subjected to monkey noises and other racial abuses from Cagliari fans throughout the match. After scoring the decisive goal in the 84th minute, rather than celebrating, Kean simply stood in front of the crowd with his arms outstretched.

In reaction to these events, Kean’s teammate Leonardo Bonucci said “the blame is 50-50” between the harassing fans and Kean for allegedly provoking them. Juventus’ manager also implied Kean was partially at fault for the incident because he engaged with the fans after scoring his goal.

Bonucci and the Juventus manager’s comments were rightly met with backlash from many soccer commentators, as well as high-profile

minority players including Paul Pogba and Raheem Sterling, who was a victim of racial abuse in Montenegro last month.

Bonucci has since apologized for his statement, but the absurdity of blaming the victim and the perpetrators equally cannot be understated. Expecting Kean to alter his goal celebrations to accommodate jeering fans demonstrates a failure to understand that the racial abuse was completely unnecessary and vitriolic in the first place.

The ludicrous comments after the incident have unfortunately overshadowed the important question of what actions should be taken in response to last Tuesday’s abuse.

While racism continues to exist throughout European soccer, it has been particularly a problem in Italy. Indeed, last week was not the first incident of abuse at Cagliari, where Ghanian midfielder Sulley Muntari reported racist chanting nearly two years ago.

See HAMPERS, A11