The Hoya: February 28, 2014

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 95, No. 37, © 2014

FRIDAY, february 28, 2014

A RANGE OF OPTIONS

COMMENTARY Teach for America fails to address many dire issues in public education.

POLITICOS The Right Way and The Progressive draw readers beyond GUCR and GUCD.

GUIDE, B1

OPINION, A3

NEWS, A5

Georgetown a cappella offers varied musical styles and social scenes.

ROAD WOES With their 75-73 loss at Marquette, the Hoyas fall to 2-7 on the road.

SPORTS, B10

JUPS Tezel, Jikaria Win Executive Race Major Wins Approval 2014 GUSA ELECTION

Matt Gregory Hoya Staff Writer

Molly Simio

Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown College approved justice and peace studies as an official major Tuesday, after a yearlong campaign by the program’s students.

“We see our transition into a justice and peace studies major as a positive sign of university validation for our unique, collaborative program,” Program on Justice and Peace Director Randall Amster said.

The new major will be a part of the Program on Justice and Peace, which already offers a six-course minor in the College as well as a certificate in the School of Foreign Service, School of Nursing and Health Studies and McDonough School of Business.

The JUPS major will fall under the department of interdisciplinary studies in the College, which also includes the cognitive science program. Students pursuing the 11-course major will consult with a JUPS faculty member to design a concentration consisting of a minimum of three courses. Possible examples of concentrations include conflict transformation, social movements and humanitarian aid.

“It’s inherently an interdisciplinary investigation, something that connects natural and social science to philosophy, to theology and to many other things,” said Mark Lance, professor of philosophy, who helped to develop the JUPS program more than 20 years ago.

Students largely drove the movement to create a JUPS major, collecting data from students and universities that offer similar majors in order to lobby College Dean Chester Gillis.

“In effect, students used all the See JUPS, A6

KRISTEN SKILLMAN/THE HOYA

Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15) and Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15), top, won the GUSA election Thursday with 50.19 percent of the vote in the final round. After watching closely for results on Twitter, the pair celebrated in a university townhouse with campaign staff, including campaign manager Katherine Key (SFS ’15).

Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) and Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15) won the GUSA executive election Thursday night, bringing in 35.23 percent in the first round of instant runoff voting and 50.19 percent of the vote in the third and final round.

The ticket, which initially received 1,213 votes in the first round, ended with 1,728 votes in the final round, while Zach Singer (SFS ’15) and Dan Silkman (COL ’15) finished second with 1,535 final-round votes.

A total of 3,517 ballots were cast in the election, lower than last year’s record turnout of 3,733 voters.

“Omika and I are going to change Georgetown; we’re going to take a policy-based approach; we’re going to reform access to benefits. It’s the policycentered approach we need,” Tezel said after the results were announced.

The results of the election, which were released round by round five minutes apart on Twitter by the Georgetown University Student Association Election Commission between 12:50 a.m. and 1:01 a.m. Friday, mirrored a poll that The Hoya conducted last Tuesday, in which Tezel and Jikaria led Singer and Silkman 26.6 percent to 18.8 percent.

Tezel and Jikaria, running on the campaign slogan “Connect to Georgetown,” primarily advocated for student rights, including free speech, improved access to benefits for unrecognized student groups, reforms to the Code of Student Conduct and improved resources for survivors of sexual assault. Their platform also called for the creation of a multicultural council, which would allow different cultural groups to communicate and determine how best to advocate for particular initiatives on campus — a proposal that attracted attention and criticism during the campaign.

The ticket received endorsements from Hoyas for Immigrant Rights, the See GUSA, A6

MAYORAL RACE Sexual Assault Website Bowser Battles Gray at Debate Highlights New Policies Johnny Verhovek

Maddy Moore

Special to The Hoya

Through the collaboration of the Sexual Assault Working Group, Title IX administrators, the Office of the President and others, the university launched a website with information on sexual misconduct Feb. 21 after a six-month review of how Georgetown perceives and treats sexual misconduct on campus.

“I think this website is a huge improvement on the previous presentation. It clarifies who is the confidential resource and where to go to if you want to file a formal report with the university,” Sexual Assault Working Group Member Alyssa Peterson (COL ’14) said.

“It also helps the university be in com-

pliance with Title IX, which requires us to have a clause of non-retaliation and centralizes resources so survivors can look at it.”

The website, sexualassault.georgetown.edu, includes a revised policy on sexual misconduct and clearly states the steps students can take if they wish to report a sexual assault. The updated site is more centralized than before, offering easily accessible information about policies and resources. It also provides links to reporting, getting help for both survivors and the accused, Title IX at Georgetown, confidentiality, policy and procedure, D.C. law and getting involved.

See ASSAULT, A6

WARREN TALKS WAR

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered her first foreign policy speech since she joined the Senate in Gaston Hall on Wednesday. See story on A5.

Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947

Hoya Staff Writer

At the last mayoral debate featuring Mayor Vincent Gray on Jan. 31, Democratic candidates vied to emerge as the frontrunner against the incumbent. During a debate broadcast live from 88.5 WAMU’s media center Wednesday, however, Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) was the woman to beat.

An NBC4 poll released Tuesday put Bowser only eight points behind Gray with 20 percent of the vote to his 28 percent. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) trailed in third with 13 percent.

After receiving endorsements from both The Washington Post and pro-choice political action committee EMILY’s List in recent weeks, Bowser is now viewed as Gray’s biggest challenger in the April 1 Democratic primary.

The debate, moderated by WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi, featured Gray, Bowser, Evans, Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) and Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6). Former State Department official Reta Jo Lewis, restaurateur Andy Shallal and D.C. party promoter Carlos Allen also participated.

Bowser, who spearheaded the 2011 bill that created an independent board of ethics for all city officials, led the critique of the possible ethics violations and corruption related to Gray’s 2010 campaign.

“A message has been sent that there is a new sheriff in town, and you will be punished whether you are a member of the D.C. City Council or a front desk worker at a District recreation center. You will be punished for wrongdoing,” Bowser said.

Gray was quick to deny any role in the alleged wrongdoing when

Published Tuesdays and Fridays

JOHNNY VERHOVEK/THE HOYA

From left to right: Carlos Allen, Muriel Bowser, Jack Evans, Vincent Gray, Reta Jo Lewis, Vincent Orange, Andy Shallal, Tommy Wells. pressed on the issue, as he has throughout the campaign.

“The documents that have been asked for have been given, and the cooperation with the investigation has either come through me or my attorney. I will assert, once again, that I did nothing wrong,” Gray said.

The mayor took numerous shots from opponents on other issues, including on his education platform.

“The reason why you see such an active role taken by the council on the issue of school reform is that there has been a void in leadership at the top,” Bowser said.

“We’re not seeing the same kind of intensity on the issue from the mayor’s office or the superintendent’s office.”

Gray defended his administration’s record on education, citing improved test scores and increased resources for special needs students and went on to criticize the leadership of Councilman David Catania (I-At-Large) (SFS ’90, LAW ’94), who chairs the council’s education committee.

“I’m concerned with the current education committee trying

to micromanage how we run our schools in the District of Columbia. We work with the chairman on various issues, but I don’t believe Councilmember Catania or any other member ought to be involved in trying to run the programs of our public schools,” Gray said.

Though Catania has yet to declare his candidacy, he is considered a serious candidate for the November general election.

In one of the evening’s most heated exchanges, Wells criticized all the candidates and Bowser and Gray in particular for accepting corporate contributions to their respective campaigns.

“There is no daylight between Muriel Bowser and Vince Gray on this issue. Both are taking bundled dollars from super lobbyists.

When Muriel says that there’s no line between a businessperson and a business, that’s the line of Citizens United, that’s the line of the Republican Party, that’s the line of the Koch brothers,” Wells said.

D.C. Council outsider Lewis See DEBATE, A6

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIday, february 28, 2014

THE VERDICT

C C

Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

Not Easy Living Green C

In the housing lottery, the last rooms to go — besides Village C East — are usually in LXR. So it’s unsurprising that barely any students decided to give up their chance at better housing to live in the Greenhouse Living Learning Community on the dorm’s fourth floor next year.

In its first incarnation this year, the Greenhouse LLC attracted three students and one resident assistant. The Office of Residential Living set a minimum of 10 participants in order for the LLC to be renewed, but only three students signed up.

Sustainability is a common passion among Georgetown students, whether through GU Fossil Free or Georgetown Energy, and there are surely more than 10 students interested in living in an environmentally friendly manner. However, it appears that the poor location of the Greenhouse community justifiably deterred applicants. To remedy this, the Office of Residential Living should

reserve higher quality housing for LLCs, especially those that are just getting off the ground.

LLCs are excellent educational tools that enrich campus by allowing students with similar interests to live together. Students who choose to orient their lives around a specific issue or passion should be encouraged to do so by the university, and students who take the necessary initiative to create a community surrounding a new passion particularly deserve that support.

Established LLCs for interests like French language and culture, Jewish living and social justice succeed partly because they are in desirable — or at least not undesirable — housing in Copley Hall, Henle Village or the Southwest Quad.

With a better location, the Greenhouse LLC could have ended up among their ranks. It’s a shame it won’t get the same chance to flourish.

Schoolhouse Rock — D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced a new program that will award $5 million to schools to help improve overall student satisfaction for projects including enrichment activities, field trips, anti-bullying initiatives and athletic opportunities.

TSA Troubles — A TSA agent at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport asked to see a passenger’s passport after initially refusing to accept her D.C. driver’s license as valid identification on the grounds that D.C. is not a state.

Easy Travelling — Metro will stop most major track work from mid-March to mid-April to better facilitate travel during cherry blossom season.

C C C

Sweet Escape — Ben & Jerry’s introduced a new ice cream model called “Cores,” that combines two flavors of ice cream with a core center of fudge, raspberry jelly or caramel.

C

Gold on the Ceiling — Union Station is undergoing renovations, including the first retouching of the gold ceiling stenciling since 1988.

Closer Than CVS — Walgreens drug store and pharmacy is reportedly moving into the space in The Shops at Georgetown Park previously occupied by H&M. Sunday Bloody Sunday — U2’s Bono was spotted with his wife in Kafe Leopold on M Street last weekend.

More Money to Metro — Metro’s board of directors will hear an update on plans to raise the fares for MetroBus, Metrorail, MetroAccess and parking.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Megan Schmidt

A Resource for Sharing The conversation surrounding sexual assault on campus has mainly been driven by student activists and organizations, but the university took an important step forward last Friday by launching sexualassault.georgetown.edu.

The website provides information on how to receive immediate help in cases of sexual assault, options for reporting sexual misconduct and links to university policy as well as D.C. law.

In a campus-wide email introducing the website Feb. 25, University President John J. DeGioia also presented a new and extensive University Policy on Sexual Misconduct.

Establishing this centralized resource and enhancing policies has the potential to effect significant change on campus in the area of sexual misconduct. However, these initiatives’ ultimate success depends on what the university decides to do next. In this website, Georgetown has the initial building blocks for a broader cam-

paign that could serve as a hub for discussions, information and support regarding sexual assault through social media and other publicity.

Currently, the website lacks sustainable visibility. Although its launch was publicized in an email, the website could be forgotten if its presence is not reinforced by a continued campaign to direct students to its resources. This will likely be a priority of groups like Sexual Assault Peer Educators and the Sexual Assault Working Group, but the university also has a responsibility to raise awareness on its own.

In his email, DeGioia wrote, “This website reflects our deep commitment to increasing awareness of issues relating to sexual misconduct.” To fulfill that commitment, more will be required than adding another website to Georgetown’s collection.

Sexualassault.georgetown.edu is already front and center — now it’s time to keep it there.

Votes of No Confidence Especially during election season, a common complaint about GUSA is a perception that it has failed to connect to different segments of the student body.

Whether that perception is valid or not, GUSA should make it possible for students who feel that way to register it on a ballot. To differentiate between students with principled objections to the GUSA election process and/or the candidates that are running, and students who simply fail to fill out a ballot, we propose the inclusion of a blank ballot during the voting process.

Participation rates in past GUSA executive elections have hovered around 50 percent of undergraduates. Yesterday’s election was only slightly different, with 46 percent of students submitting a ballot. This disconnect between a large segment of the student population and the election process has often been dismissed simply as apathy. But if GUSA is serious about gauging its success by its ability to reach all engaged students, it needs a way to measure how many people are interested in the

election but uninterested in the options on the ballot.

Adding the option to submit a blank ballot in the GUSA election would do precisely that. Voting for no candidate would give concerned students the ability to voice their displeasure with candidates and the process as a whole.

GUSA elections, like any other democratic forum, claim to neutrally represent the preferences of the electorate; however, student expression is unduly limited to the particular set of candidates who happen to be running that year or the perennial write-in, Chicken Madness.

The current system prevents students who feel disempowered or oppose current GUSA arrangements from expressing their preferences. If these groups had the ability to register their discontent through the symbolic gesture of the blank ballot, leaders in student government year to year would be better able to determine whether or not they were improving the accessibility and effectiveness of the institution.

Emma Hinchliffe, Editor-in-Chief TM Gibbons-Neff, Executive Editor Sheena Karkal, Managing Editor Lindsay Lee, Online Editor Mallika Sen, Campus News Editor Madison Ashley, City News Editor Carolyn Maguire, Sports Editor Kim Bussing, Guide Editor David Chardack, Opinion Editor Alexander Brown, Photography Editor Ian Tice, Layout Editor Robert DePaolo, Copy Chief Karl Pielmeier, Blog Editor

Contributing Editors

Katy Berk, Zoe Bertrand, Pat Curran, Victoria Edel, Danny Funt, Chris Grivas, Penny Hung, Sarah Kaplan, Hanaa Khadraoui, Hunter Main, Eitan Sayag, Sean Sullivan, Emory Wellman

Deputy Campus News Editor Sam Abrams Deputy Campus News Editor Kit Clemente Deputy City News Editor Suzanne Monyak Deputy Business Editor Natasha Khan Deputy Sports Editor Andrew May Deputy Sports Editor Tom Schnoor Sports Blog Editor Max Wheeler Deputy Guide Editor Allison Hillsbery Deputy Guide Editor Jess Kelham-Hohler Deputy Opinion Editor Matthew Grisier Deputy Photography Editor Julia Hennrikus Deputy Photography Editor Daniel Smith Deputy Photography Editor Michelle Xu Deputy Layout Editor Michelle Cardona Deputy Layout Editor Kennedy Shields Deputy Copy Editor Jackie McCadden Deputy Copy Editor Zack Saravay Deputy Copy Editor Sharanya Sriram Deputy Blog Editor Emma Holland

Editorial Board

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dress Code Restricts Opportunities To the Editor: Last Friday, during the Cawley Career Center’s Government & Nonprofit Career Expo, I was denied entrance because of my “inappropriate and unprofessional attire.” I was wearing a white blouse, darkwash jeans and leather boots and planned to stop by the fair on my way to Georgetown University Information Services, where I work in website production. The Career Center employee who called me out as I tried to check in for the event insulted my attire and refused to check me in. I debated with him briefly about what

is and what is not appropriate to wear to a career fair before giving up and going to work. I never entered the fair.

I cannot deny, the dress code for the event was listed as “business professional,” a requirement that the university dictates on all too many occasions. Georgetown’s devotion to formal dress perpetuates an opinion that already permeates much of the professional world: If you look poor, you can’t be smart. Barring students who may not have financial access to high-end professional attire from university-sponsored opportunities is unacceptable and embarrass-

ing for a school that claims devotion to social justice.

As a university, we must support students from all backgrounds in post-academic pursuits. While an employer that hires based on appearance over qualifications should raise a red flag to job searchers, it is in the end up to the employer, in an interview, to make such judgments. However, the university and the Career Center should support and protect students against employer discrimination in these cases, not the other way around.

Haley Lepp SFS ’15

CORRECTIONS The article “Men and Women Finish 2nd at Big East Championships” (The Hoya, A11, Feb. 25, 2014) incorrectly stated that the track and field teams concluded their indoor season with a secondplace finish at the Big East Championships. They have four meets remaining on their schedule.

The article “Asian-American Students Confer in DC” (The Hoya, A8, Feb. 25, 2014) incorrectly identified Christine Chen as a panelist and assistant director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is the APIAVote director. The theme was “Mission Ignition: Champion Your Cause,” not “Mission Ignition: Championing Your Cause.”

Michal Grabias, General Manager Jason Yoffe, Director of Accounting Christina Wing, Director of Corporate Development Nicole Foggan, Director of Marketing Addie Fleron, Director of Personnel Brian Carden, Director of Sales Nick DeLessio, Director of Technology Clara Cheng Kevin Wilson Tessa Bell Sean Choksi Laura Tonnessen Chris Amaya Dimitri Roumeliotis Natasha Patel Charles Lee Nicole Yuksel Ellen Zamsky Emily Manbeck Christine Cha Chris Hedley Katherine Seder Matthew De Silva Casandra Schwartz Janet Zhu

Operations Manager Revenue Outreach Manager Senior Accounts Manager Local Accounts Manager National Accounts Manager Treasury Manager Statements Manager Alumni Relations Manager Special Events Manager Public Relations Manager Human Resources Manager Professional Development Manager Institutional Diversity Manager Online Advertisements Manager Local Advertisements Manager Systems Manager Technical Support Manager Web Manager

David Chardack, Chair

Consultants

Katy Berk, Taylor Coles, Patrick Drown, Ben Germano, Kelly Nosé

Kent Carlson, Kevin Tian, Mary Nancy Walter, Mullin Weerakoon, Simon Wu

Board of Directors

Evan Hollander, Chair

Michal Grabias, Emma Hinchliffe, Hanaa Khadraoui, Vidur Khatri, Hunter Main, Braden McDonald Letter to the Editor & 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 600-800 words.

Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya.com.

Letters and viewpoints are due Sunday at 5 p.m. for Tuesday’s issue and Wednesday at 5 p.m. for Friday’s issue. 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 TM Gibbons-Neff at (203) 858-1127 or email executive@thehoya.com.

News Tips Campus News Editor Mallika Sen: Call (310) 918-6116 or email campus@thehoya.com.

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OPINION

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2014

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • McElroy

THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING

A Valuable Lesson for Teach for America I Allie Heymann

The New Standard For Dating T

hree days ago, I was sitting in Sellinger contemplating the Arabic homework in front of me.

After looking over my vocabulary list several times without success, I realized that I was not retaining a single word because of a case of split focus.

While my eyes were on the page — seemingly absorbing the content — my ears were trained on the conversation of the two guys at the table beside me.

This might be deemed eavesdropping, but I found that I was inadvertently pulled into their discussion because of my proximity. The topic of conversation was a recent date that one of them had been on. The date-taker (or bachelor No. 1) was frustrated by his date’s offer and insistence on paying for her meal.

His thoughts on the matter: “All I wanted to do was take this girl out and have a good time, and there she was trying to pay for the stupid dinner. Now I really don’t care about all that feminist crap, but seriously it just made the situation awkward.”

After getting that off his chest, the two guys continued to banter about the injustices of women who offer to pay on dates. Now, as I eavesdropped, I was increasingly amused by the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

When a woman offers to pay for her dinner, it is not because she is trying to rob her date of his manliness. If anything, she is probably having one of three considerate thoughts.

First, offering to pay, in any situation, is a polite thing to do.

Second, offering to pay helps to alleviate some of the pressure from the date by making it lighter and less formal.

I wish that it were more socially acceptable for any girl to walk up to a guy and ask him out.

Third, dates are expensive — any chance to relieve some financial burden doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Women today are constantly scrutinized by their male peers for having and spending their money. Yet, a recent Pew study determined that women earn more than men in nearly a quarter of U.S. households. Women are the leading or solo breadwinners in 40 percent of households compared with just 11 percent half a century ago.

Money, like many things, is a symbol of status and power in society.

Those who earn, save and subsequently spend should be proud of their ability to do so.

This raises the question: What is so wrong with women paying for dinner? Is it because it is beyond the norm? Is it because it breaks down the structure of a traditional date?

The traditional date plays nicely into the status quo. A man asks a woman on a date, she shyly accepts, the date is planned and it proceeds. The man pays for dinner. The woman flirts. It all seems somewhat archaic to me. In a world where women have increasingly diverse interests, burgeoning opportunities for success and amazingly complex personalities, why has the date become so stagnant?

Challenging the norms could make life a little bit more interesting. I wish that it were more widely socially acceptable for any girl to walk up to any guy and ask him out — even if only for the heck of it. Because we live in a world with more and more autonomous, strong and independent people, the dating process should not be so one-sided.

Women should be not be ashamed of having money, and they should not be ashamed to spend money — in most cases, they have worked hard to earn it.

Simultaneously, women should not be derided for their courtesy: If she’s offering to pay, it’s because she’s a class act.

In either case, labeling a women’s indignation over being treated like a pretty prop as “feminist crap” is in no way acceptable. Any man who feels that way should curb his machismo and think about things a little more carefully.

My challenge stands to those men who are brave enough: Take a woman out to dinner, and if she offers to pay, let her.

Allie Heymann is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING appears every other Friday.

joined D.C. Reads as a bewildered freshman with the hopes of finding a place on this campus. Honestly, I did not expect the organization to have a substantial impact on my college experience, let alone my political opinions or career decisions. I was wrong.

After a year of tutoring with the program, I became a site coordinator — a position I held until halfway through my senior year. I now follow local and national education news religiously and am often ranting about some policy decision or another. The state of education in this nation has become my main interest and concern.

This passion therefore affects my future goals, which I started thinking about at the end of my junior year. I considered a few options, including teaching, before settling on social work. One option I never contemplated, however, was Teach for America. I first learned about the program during my freshman year and believed it was an innovative way to address the broken American public school system.

At the time, I agreed with the organization’s main belief: Ineffective teachers are the problem, and effective teachers are the solution. After all, that was the main conclusion of the convincing documentary “Waiting for Superman,” and of TFA alum and former Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Michelle Rhee. These documentarians and school officials were supposed to know more than me, right?

But I know now that the solution is not that simple. Individual teachers obviously play a significant role in the success or failure of students, and this role should not be discredited or ignored. However, it is necessary to recognize that teachers are restricted under current legislation, such as No Child Left Behind Act and the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Their influence is also limited by the socioeconomic and racial segregation that continues to plague schools and neighborhoods across the nation. This segregation means

Failure to address entrenched inequities will continue to result in a wholly ineffective public school system. that teachers in low-income schools work with a disproportionate number of impoverished, learning disabled and academically struggling students. These patterns are indicative of a deeper flaw affecting not only the public school system, but also all aspects of life in the United States. And this problem cannot be solved through TFA. Individuals who are introduced to educational inequity through TFA — arguably a large percentage of corps

members — do not learn about these latter issues in depth until they begin facing them in the classroom.

They are taught that their intelligence and enthusiasm are enough to change the lives of their impoverished students. But when these corps members become alumni, they are then taught that their two years of teaching experience qualify them to make informed education policy decisions. Some may consider these beliefs novel and promising; I consider

VIEWPOINT • Hopkins

them naive.

The most widely discussed issues surrounding TFA, such as its lack of adequate teacher preparation and questionable retention rates, are important and should be considered by the organization and any individual applying to it. But I would argue that these weaknesses are simply representative of the organization’s most profound failing: its simplification of the problem of educational inequity.

This simplification, in turn, has a detrimental effect on the students, teachers, parents, schools and communities that associate on any level with TFA corps member or alumni.

Why? Because it results in a force of influential individuals who believe and act as though they are the solution and everyone else is the problem: teachers deemed ineffective by NCLB; students who misbehave in class; parents who seem apathetic about their children’s education.

My criticism of TFA concentrates on something greater than statistics — specifically, the mindsets of TFA corps members, alumni and administrators. Allowing these teachers and policymakers into schools and offices only perpetuates the current system because they often fail to consider the entrenched socioeconomic, and racial inequities facing underprivileged students and society as a whole. Failure to address these barriers to achievement first has resulted and will continue to result in a wholly ineffective public school system.

There are thousands of talented, passionate young adults eager to address the educational inequities plaguing this nation. For these individuals, the most obvious way to accomplish this goal is through TFA. I understand this temptation and still respect my peers — including some of my closest friends — who are or will soon be corps members. However, I implore them to reconsider this choice and think about the most effective, not the quickest or simplest, way they can help solve educational inequity in America.

BRIDGET MCELROY is a senior in the College.

COLLEGE ON A HILL

Let’s Call It What It Is, The Pros and Cons of And It’s Not Apartheid Doing What You Love

I

n the hustle of this week, many of us have stopped to examine the wall erected in the Intercultural Center Galleria by Students for Justice in Palestine as an effort to raise awareness of “Israel Apartheid Week.”

As a symbol for the separation barrier that delineates and protects the borders between the West Bank (Palestinian territory) and the democratic, Jewish state of Israel, the wall is meant to increase campus understanding of the long-running territorial conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in an impactful way, focusing on the conflict’s issues concerning human rights.

While I appreciate SJP’s desire to ignite campus dialogue around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a humanitarian perspective, and I want to assert that using polarizing, sensationalizing “apartheid” language is neither accurate nor constructive, and it does not move us toward developing a safer, more peaceful existence for Israelis and Palestinians.

I recognize that many who use the word apartheid are deeply concerned about the ongoing circumstances in Israel and the Palestinian territory. I, too, am invested in the situation. As an active member of J Street U, a pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, propeace organization, my commitment to working toward an end to the occupation stems from an intense dedication to human rights. When it comes to safety and quality of life, every person needs to be treated equally: It is not acceptable to me that Palestinians have limited access to clean water and restrictions on travel within their own territory. Moreover, Israel’s long-term survival is threatened so long as it continues to enact occupational policies on another people. Something needs to change.

But what is happening in the Palestinian territory is not apartheid; it is occupation. For one, Arab Israelis have rights in Israel that would never have been permitted for black South Africans under apartheid. The Israeli parliament allows Arab and anti-Zionist parties to openly run for seats. The Israeli Supreme Court has Arab Justices.

Arabic is an official language of Israel.

Furthermore, the restrictions of military rule apply only to the Arab citizens living in the occupied Palestinian territories, not within Israel itself — and applying the term “apartheid” here makes no distinction between the two.

To be clear, I do not seek to belittle the hardships of the individuals who live through the effects of military rule

every day. By illustrating how Israel is, in fact, not an apartheid state, I mean to argue that reducing the multidimensionality of the conflict to a matter of racial oppression is not an effective way to advocate for change.

We need to remember that the roots of the current occupation lie in territorial conflict that has persisted in the region for, arguably, centuries. It’s a complex situation of two peoples with equally valid claims to the same land.

Israelis have an equal right to live safely in their legitimately recognized democratic state, and Palestinians have a right to exist in their homeland without the restrictions of military rule.

For these two ideals to exist simultaneously, we need to end the occupation with a solution derived from fair compromises by both parties. The one-sided, goodversus-evil image created by apartheid rhetoric halts progress toward such a compromise by emboldening extremists on both sides and discouraging the kind of moderate discussion needed to diplomatically handle such a deeply nuanced conflict.

Because of its connotation with South Africa, the term “apartheid” fosters an anger-charged, uncooperative atmosphere in which progressive dialogue becomes impossible, and in obstructing dialogue, we obstruct compromise. And without compromise, we won’t see peace.

We need to instead set the stage for constructive dialogue. We need to educate the campus about the region’s history and about the main components of the arguments on both sides. Both peoples have certain requirements regarding borders, national security, resettlement of refugees and access to Jerusalem that need to be met before they will agree to any kind of long-term compromise.

As a member of J Street U Georgetown, I believe that the best way to reach this compromise is through a two-state solution, and there are critical negotiations going on right now — led by Secretary of State John Kerry — to reach this goal. Instead of raising awareness of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in a non-constructive manner, we can act to improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians in the long term. I invite more students to educate themselves on the conflict and the ongoing negotiations, and to join a growing constituency to support peace through a two-state solution.

What is happening in the Palestinian territory is not apartheid.

KATE HOPKINS is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.

I

n the realm of career advice, If you have a passion for knitting, many of us are told to pursue however, you might not be able to what we are passionate about, turn that into a materially lavish regardless of its practicality. This lifestyle. Another job, therefore, advice can often be summed up can help fund your ability to knit, as “do what you love” — known to and thus you can do what you love. many as DWYL. This is a catchy slo- Resources, including our time, are gan adopted by people who want to scarce. DWYL tells us that in the face exchange their labor for a sense of of that scarcity we should prioritize fulfillment rather than work for a the things that we love whenever paycheck. possible. The person working two Yet there is something elitist jobs is passionate about providing about this statefor one’s family, ment. What about even if he is not pasthose who cannot sionate about the afford to do this? jobs themselves.

What about those While DWYL can people who do jobs be a justification that are not the for doing only what manifestation of you want, it entheir passions — the gages many people garbage men, facto work to improve tory workers and our society. Very few Kent Carlson day laborers? Those career options have people who work little to no effect on two low-paying jobs One’s life will not be other people. Labor to just pay the rent is not an isolated defined by one job, act. What we do has seem severely disadvantaged in the the potential to afpassion or hobby. pursuit of their pasfect other people. sions. Isn’t it narcissistic to do only Most importantly, there are many what we want to do and elevate people who are passionate about that position with our own moral helping other people, eliminating imperative when some people can- injustices in the world and empownot? While in a certain sense these ering others. In this case, a startup, sentiments are true, I posit that NGO or public service has the poDWYL is a message people not only tential to benefit others, including important to the individual but those who do not have the same opalso to society as a whole. portunities to follow DWYL. One’s life will not be defined by Take, for example, social venone job, one passion or even one tures like D.C. Central Kitchen. This hobby. We are all complex and have organization provides job training a variety of interests and curiosities. for the unemployed, homeless and DWYL is a mantra that is not meant incarcerated as well as food secuto put some people’s work down, rity for low-income neighborhoods. but rather it’s to encourage people Started by people passionate about to find happiness. We will graduate solving these social problems of into a professional world that will hunger and chronic unemployconsume much of our time. ment, this organization embodies Rather than spend our lives how DWYL can empower other peofeeling alienated from our work ple to improve their own lives and in order to receive a paycheck, we pursue their own passions. should think about how we can If we view labor exclusively as spend our time doing things we an exchange of work for money, love to do. If we want to make a ca- we lose sight of our ability to imreer out of it, we should find a way prove our communities. Pursuing to pursue that. If we cannot, we can a DWYL lifestyle requires privilege. ultimately find other ways to pur- Social imbalances exist, and not sue what we love through hobbies, everyone has the means to pursue volunteer work, et cetera. things that fuel their passions.

Passion does not necessarily By encouraging those with the translate to a specific job or career. privilege to DWYL, we empower DWYL insists that you do the things people to dedicate time to creatthat bring you the most happiness, ing a world where more people can fulfillment and passion. It does not spend their time not just working promise that you will be able to for a salary, but for what they love. make a boatload of money from that. In the case of people like Steve Kent Carlson is a senior in the Jobs, who heavily encouraged peo- School of Foreign Service. COLple to pursue a DWYL lifestyle, the LEGE ON A HILL appears every othmoney did follow. er Friday.

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THE HOYA

PAGE FOUR

NEWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2014

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Students for Justice in Palestine constructed a wall in the ICC for Israeli Apartheid Week. See story on A6.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

verbatim

CLINTON HAILS MEN

just think “ Iyou’re wrong at this point.

”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to an impromptu activist interrupting her speech to call for action in Ukraine.

See story on A5.

from

INTHECAPITAL.STREETWISE.CO

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the 2014 Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security to three honorees Tuesday in Gaston Hall, including British Foreign Secretary William Hague. See story on A8.

DC BRAINPOWER A new study by The Business Journal ranks the District as the biggest source of collective brain power in the country. blog.thehoya.com

After 2013 Violations, Local Eateries Adjust KATHERINE RICHARDSON Hoya Staff Writer

Since being cited for critical and noncritical health violations in 2013, several Georgetown restaurants have made changes to their health code policies in response to the recent violations at gourmet grocer Dean and Deluca that forced the store to close Feb 19.

Mai Thai, Booymonger and Wingo’s, all popular local eateries among students, have taken steps to revise their health code after being cited for critical and non-critical violations by the D.C. Department of Health.

Mai Thai, located at 3251 Prospect St., was charged with five critical and seven non-critical violations in August 2013 ,including for mold on the ice machine and oil buildup on the woks. Jennifer Estremera, a server at Mai Thai, said that since the violation, the establishment has been working to fix its environment in order to prevent future violations.

“We’ve been pretty much taking care of everything down to even micromanaging to make sure that it’s clean on a daily basis,” Estremera said. “For the ice machine, that’s really easy to have our servers take care of every night. For the pots and pans, we have them scrubbed down every night as well.”

Nearby Booeymonger Restaurant ,at 3265 Prospect St., was cited for four critical violations in February 2013 including mold on the ice machine and employees failing to use gloves during food preparation, all of which were fixed immediately on site.

Booeymonger’s manager A.J. Wellage said that his eatery will be prepared for the next inspection, since they consistently follow the rules.

“We are always prepared,” Wellage said. “We know what D.C. requires.

That’s why I went for three years to get the certification and do the exam according to the law. Whether it is the law or not, we do have certain standards here, so we are not scared of them coming in because we are well prepared all the time.”

Wingo’s, located at 3207 O St. NW, was cited for four critical health violations in March 2012, including improper holding temperatures, lack of proper date labels and improper food separation — all of which the restaurant was able to correct on site. A follow-up inspection in December 2013 found only two critical health violations, for food separation and management awareness, both of which were corrected on site.

“They’re there to help you, and I think that’s what we realized, and I think a lot of places don’t. They hide things. They don’t realize, if it’s not

clean, people see it, and that’s why their businesses aren’t doing well,” Wingo’s manager Mike Arthur said.

After being shut down Feb. 19 for the second time in one year after a routine health inspection, gourmet grocery Dean and Deluca at 3276 M St. has come under fire from area restaurateurs for repeated mismanagement.

“They close for one day, they clean the store up, they make it beautiful , and they say, “Oh good, the health department won’t be back here for six months to a year,” and that’s the only thing they’re hoping for. They’re just reacting, they’re not taking a proactive approach to address the problem; they’re just reacting to it,” Arthur said of the eatery.

The grocery, which declined to comment, received a total of six critical and eight non-critical violations including “dead mice cited at time of inspection upstairs in the food prep area and downstairs around the cheese display case” and “improper date marking on prepared foods inside of the walk-in unit upstairs,” according to the DOH inspection report. A similar incident occurred last year, when the establishment closed after receiving eight critical and 11 non-critical health violations.

“A high-end store that charges those prices should keep a much better organization and a much cleaner establishment because that’s what you’re paying for, right?” Arthur said.

According to Wellage, Dean and Deluca’s problem stems from its scale.

“I think because maybe the volume is too big for them to control,” Wellage said. “I have 10 employees. I can see them at the same time eye to eye. Maybe there are people from different departments, so some of them don’t do their job right. Here if I do something wrong, all the other nine people know that.”

Estremera said that Dean and Deluca, as well as all other Georgetown food establishments, must be wary of rodents and bugs.

“It’s our own responsibility to make sure that we do our very best in keeping everything as sealed tight as we possibly can to eliminate those occurrences that many places may see and have to deal with,” Estremera said.

Julie Reiter (NHS ’17) said that these health code violations may affect where she chooses to eat in the future.

“I’ve eaten at Mai Thai recently, and I’m definitely reconsidering eating there ever again,” Reiter said. “People expect a certain standard when they are served food at a restaurant, so I think the health code violations kind of can tell you if the standards you expect are being met.”

SOFIA LAYANTO FOR THE HOYA

The Greenhouse Living Learning Community was not renewed by the Office of Residential Living after only three students applied to live there for the 2014-2015 school year.

Greenhouse LLC Cycled Out SYDNEY WINKLER Special to The Hoya

The Office of Residential Living has declined to renew the Greenhouse Living Learning Community for the 2014-2015 academic year.

The Greenhouse LLC which first opened its doors to residents in fall 2013, currently numbers only three residents, in addition to its resident assistant. Coordinators had hoped for at least 10 residents to apply to the Greenhouse LLC which would have allowed its charter to be renewed, but only received three applications for the upcoming school year.

Residents noted the LLC suffered from a lack of resources in comparison to the resources other LLC programs receive.

“It was mainly that we did not have a lot of communication with our faculty representative,” resident Patricia Stupp (SFS ’16) said. “A lot of LLCs depend on their professors to get support because they know where to get resources.”

As a new LLC, the guidelines for the Greenhouse LLC were unknown. Sarah Stoll, a professor in the chemistry department, served as the Greenhouse LLC’s academic advisor.

“There have been times when I was unclear of what my role should really be,” Stoll said. “I saw myself in a support role and a connector.”

The Greenhouse welcomed students of all interests who had the common goal of being more aware about the environmental issues facing Georgetown, the District of Columbia and the nation.

“I thought and still feel that some sustainable living option is a missing need at Georgetown, and tried to fill that need,” Greenhouse LLC founder Megan Griffin (COL ’14) said.

To that end, residents created guidelines for sustainable living.

“We initiated a constitution where we agreed to, at least twice a week, give up meat for a day,” Stupp said.

“And also, recycling and making sure water uses was limited as well as electricity use and energy use.”

According to the Greenhouse LLC website, other programming ideas included attending D.C. Environmental Film Festival screenings, visiting Eastern Market or local farmers markets and hiking with Outdoor Education programs. Unfortunately, many programs were not able to come to fruition.

“Programming was very weak and I feel like that’s why it didn’t get the support it needed to continue another year,” Stupp said. “None of us had the time to dedicate to the LLC itself.”

A lack of funding also made it difficult for the LLC to prosper. “[We had] a couple hundred dollars,” Stupp said. “It was a very small

amount, for the full year too so we can’t really do much with that.”

Stupp also brought up the issue of the LLC’s location. In contrast with other communities that are in townhouses on Magis Row, the Greenhouse LLC is on the fourth floor of LXR Hall.

“I feel like another downside to it is because a lot of people don’t like LXR,” Stupp said.

Stoll also argued that students seemed pickier about where they live, rather than whom they live with.

“I don’t know how much of the success or not success of the LLCs has to do with where students want to live, which is sort of a private matter.”

In the future, the Greenhouse LLC may come back, depending on interest.

“I think it’s totally 100 percent open and it all lands on student interest,” Stoll said. “It’s just a function of where the student body goes.”

The LLC may return if more students explore green life on campus.

“I hope that another generation of Georgetown students will be interested to explore this idea further,” Griffin said. “I am grateful to [the Office of Residential Living for] giving this idea a chance.”

Requests for comment to Associate Director of Residential Education Andrew Erdmann had not been answered by press time.

News

friday, february 28, 2014

THE HOYA

A5

BSA Holds Battle of the Warren Talks Foreign Policy Voices for DC Colleges Molly Simio

Hoya Staff Writer

Ashley Miller Hoya Staff Writer

Battle of the Voices, the first intercollegiate singing competition in Washington, D.C, debuts tonight in Gaston Hall.

The event, which is sponsored by the Black Student Alliance, will feature soloists from Trinity Washington University, George Washington University, University of Maryland and Howard University.

“I spoke with an administrator who’s been here for seven or eight years and she told me that no sole African-American organization has been in Gaston Hall in more than eight years, just by themselves putting on an event,” Entertainment Coordinator Zeplyn Tillman (COL ’14) said.

The BSA partnered with Trinity’s Campus Activities, GW’s Program Board, Howard’s Endustry Power Players and UMD’s Black Student Union.

The singers were chosen through an audition process; a panel featuring one member of each participating organization selected the competitors at each university, based on vocals and performance.

Enushé Khan (MSB ’17) is a member of the Georgetown Phantoms and will represent Georgetown in the competition.

“Some of my fellow Phantoms had brought it up and said ‘Oh, we should audition,’ so a couple of us auditioned for fun,” Khan said.

The Phantoms will perform the national anthem to begin the event; Resonance Essence Live — a new a cappella group from Georgetown — will also perform.

The BSA hopes that the competition’s location — Gaston Hall — is demonstrative of the event’s importance to the university community.

“Honestly, it was one of those things where we wanted people to understand the magnitude of the event,” Tillman said. “This [Gaston Hall] is the most prestigious place on campus.”

The BSA sees the event as a way to unite the D.C. community through music.

“That’s kind of why we chose music.

No matter your race, sexual orientation,

NATASHA THOMSON/THE HOYA

Enushé Kahn (MSB ’17) will perform tonight at BSA’s Battle of the Voices.

gender, it’s like everyone flocks together to hear good music,” Tillman said.

This attempt to include as many different people in the community as possible is reflected by the diverse group of contestants.

“People would expect to see five African-Americans on stage and we have a very eclectic mix,” Tillman said.

UMD contestant Antonia Murray, a junior who goes by the stage name “Kora,” believes that this diversity makes the contestants more relatable.

“I think it’s going to add all the more height to it because somebody can relate to one of us,” Murray said.

The BSA decided to open the competition to single contestants rather than entire groups in an effort to make the event more unique.

“It was something that we hadn’t necessarily seen yet. You see a lot of a cappella festivals or group performances around campus, and you know I think those are great, we just wanted to do something different,” Tillman said.

The competitive aspect of the performance also makes the event stand out.

“I think that having a competition versus other schools would definitely help to rally Georgetown together rather than kind of pitting group by group,” Tillman said.

The competition will involve two elimination rounds after the contestants participate in group performances. The four judges include producer Chucky Thompson, Mrs. D.C. America Meagan Barnes, Huge Studio CEO Yudu Gray Jr. and recording artist Carolyn Malachi. The winner will receive $500 and a trophy, while the runner-up will receive $300.

Since individuals will compete on behalf of different schools, some contestants expressed concern that the audience might be inclined to cheer for school-specific contestants.

“I’m just nervous about not having a receptive crowd because they are rooting for the other contestants,” Khan said.

This fear resonated with Trinity’s Janaé Daniels, who doubted that her school would have a strong turnout.

“The downfall is that I do think that they may not cheer for me because I’m not from there,” Daniels said.

However, Murray was less bothered by the possibility of a narrow-minded audience.

“Of course, whichever contestant is from each school, that school is going to cheer for them more, that’s just normal,” Murray said.

The contestants look forward to the exposure that the event will provide.

“I’m really excited to perform in front of a large group of people. I think it’s always the first step to becoming comfortable performing on stage,” Daniels said.

Meanwhile, other contestants look forward to bonding with the audience.

“My main thing is not so much winning the competition, it’s more so that I want to connect to the people, impact the people, make them feel good and I just want to vibe off their energy and see where I’m coming from,” Murray said.

The event is also philanthropic: Money is being raised for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Tickets are $10 for students; general admission tickets cost $12.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) focused on the moral and strategic importance of minimizing civilian casualties during combat while also touching on some domestic issues in her delivery of the 2014 Whittington Lecture, entitled “Collateral Damage, National Interests and the Lessons of a Decade in Conflict,” in Gaston Hall on Wednesday evening.

“Seriously addressing the issue of civilian casualties is essential to upholding our values at home and advancing our interests overseas,” Warren said, in her first foreign policy speech since assuming her senate seat.

The Whittington Lecture is given each year in memory of Leslie A. Whittington, a professor and associate dean of the former Georgetown Public Policy Institute, who died alongside her husband and two daughters when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon on Sept.11, 2001.

After reflecting on Whittington’s death and the tragedy that swept the nation in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Warren pointed out that with the conclusion of the war in Iraq and the drawdown in Afghanistan, the United States is concluding its first chapter of post9/11 history.

“We are ending two wars, but this does not mean that we will withdraw from the world beyond our shores or pretend that there are no threats to our safety and security. … As these wars come to an end, we also have an opportunity to think about what we can learn from the last decade of conflict,” Warren said.

Specifically, Warren cited a theory known as “insurgent mathematics” from former General Stanley McChrystal, once the top commander in Afghanistan. According to this principle, each time an insurgent is killed, as many as ten new enemies are created out of their desire for revenge or martyrdom.

“McChrystal describes this dynamic with insurgents, but the same dynamic is at work with collateral deaths of innocent civilians and the same dynamic can apply to all kinds of military operations,” Warren said.

Warren suggested that the lessons learned during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be institutionalized in order to decrease civilian casualties in the future. She called for support of efforts to develop military training programs to minimize civilian casualties and for an improved system of tracking these unintended casualties. Further, Warren suggested that the military establish practices for expressing regret and compensating families in the event that civilians are killed.

“Now is the time to think systematically about these kinds of

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) discussed collateral damage with McCourt School Dean Edward Montgomery on Wednesday. efforts and to incorporate them into our military training and planning,” Warren said.

Prior to her election to the United States Senate in 2012, Warren was a professor at Harvard Law School specializing in bankruptcy law. A question and answer session followed Warren’s address.

While questions were submitted on notecards prior to the lecture and posed to Warren by McCourt School of Public Policy Dean Edward Montgomery, who also introduced Warren, one individual stood up at the session’s conclusion and called for preventative measures to avoid war with Russia.

“What are we going to do right now with the situation developing in Russia? This is looking like a world war,” a man said.

The activist likened the lack of preventative measures to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine to the British and French appeasement of Nazi Germany at the 1938 Munich Conference.

While security personnel approached the individual, Warren responded to his assertions.

“The question about whether or not Ukraine will hold together or whether Ukraine will be caught in a conflict that is both internal and that becomes part of a larger external conflict is what we’re struggling with, and our allies are struggling with,” Warren said. “I think the idea that we jump, as you suggest in your question, to knowing what the answer is — I just think you’re wrong at this point.”

Prior to this interruption, Warren answered a few questions focused on domestic issues.

One question focused on the small number of women in Congress.

“The best way [women] could have our voices heard is if there were more of us. … We have to have women who are going to go out there and try, who are willing to run for office,” Warren said.

When asked what can be done to make a college education more affordable, Warren suggested incentivizing the high performance of schools by giving less federal loan money to colleges that fail to meet certain criteria such as low dropout rates and high percentages of students graduating on time. Further, Warren said that students should be able to refinance their student loans and that the government should not be making a profit off college students.

“When she talked about student loans, it was huge because it’s an issue that we’re all dealing with. She challenged the schools themselves and she challenged the government, which I though was great. It was self-effacing,” attendee Eamon Johnston (SFS ’15) said.

Warren’s desire to ease the financial burden on college students resonated well with Georgetown students in attendance, as did her ideas to lessen civilian casualties in U.S. military campaigns.

“In regards to collateral damage and civilian casualties, I’m all for more transparency and better enforcement of policies that prevent civilian deaths. I wish that she had been more specific about how domestic discussion would impact our military’s behavior in these areas,” attendee Justin Fang (COL ’17) said. “Overall, however, I was very impressed and refreshed to hear her ideas, especially about student loans and domestic policy.”

The Rise of the ‘The Right Way’ and ‘The Progressive’ Jamie Slater Hoya Staff Writer

Patrick Gage (SFS ’17) arrived at Georgetown and realized that, unlike the College Democrats’ and their publication “The Progressive,” the College Republicans had no official publication, he decided to fill that void with one of his own.

In November, he began to talk to board members about spearheading one for the club, and, on Jan. 13, “The Right Way” was born.

Gage ran his own political blog in high school and felt that the experience qualified him for the job.

“It was something that they had thought of, so I figured, ‘Why don’t I just take this and run with it?’” he said. “I think it was really important also for the club, because the [Georgetown University College] Democrats have been doing it for a couple of years, and I felt that it was important that we not only match that, but try to even do better.”

On any given week, the blog will feature four posts from individual staff writers, including Gage, and one member of the GUCR board.

The blog aims to publish well-researched conservative opinions on a wide range of timely issues from women’s rights to anti-abortion stances.

“We’re not aiming to be a news site,” Gage said. “We’re going for an informed editorial, is what I would call it.”

Gage has no requirements for his writers and allows them to choose their own topics.

“From my experience, if you’re told to write about something that you don’t want to write about, you’re not going to write it well. …

I think that giving them freedom also really gives us a great diversity of topics other than me just choosing,” he said.

The blog values differences in opinions, including those that may not be traditionally Republican.

“There’s a diversity of opinions in the party, and that’s something you don’t really get from the media,” Gage said. “We’re showing students that Republicans do think differently. We’re not all just machines thinking exactly the same thing at the same time.”

Staff writers have published posts about support for both Israel and Palestine and legalizing marijuana, while Gage has written about opposing the death penalty and supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Staff writer Alex Robledo (COL ’17) also has written about some of these more contentious viewpoints.

“It’s a mixture of what I am personally passionate about, so at least for me I’m really passionate about individual liberty, freedom, so my past articles have been about legalizing marijuana, about being more open and tolerant of gay Americans,” he said.

For Robledo, this is important because he believes college campuses are not always friendly to Republicans.

“I feel like the caricature of Republicans, at least amongst college campuses, is that we’re all of the same mold, and we all agree on the same things,” he said. “Being able to disagree over policy issues, especially within the party, and being able to do that freely, and other people being okay with that, really makes me happy, and I feel like we can learn from each other when we’re able to disagree like that.”

As of Tuesday night, “The Right Way”had received 6,667 page views, with 2,000 unique viewers. These came from 22 countries, with viewers from Jordan composing the second-largest readership after the

United States.

“The Right Way” also provides a place for Republicans to express their opinions, which Gage thinks is one of the blog’s most important features.

“We really want to provide Georgetown Republicans a place to share their opinions where we can openly discuss it. It’s a way for students to almost test their opinions also, to kind of put it out there and see what people have to say about it,” he said.

“The Progressive,” which represents GUCD, acts as a platform for liberal and progressive principles, and holds more of a focus on news and current events.

“It’s largely the online newspaper for the College Dems,” Editorin-Chief Matt Sarge (COL ’14) said.

“However, it’s also meant to be a form for all progressive groups on campus, so potentially groups like H*yas for Choice or, in a very broad sense, any progressive leaning group on campus … to write and express their views.”

The online publication, which has 95 pages of articles on its website, has a staff of 12 members, many of whom both write and edit.

The site also prioritizes having a steady stream of articles over having a set rotation of writers. They aim to post one to two articles per day, and writers choose their own topics, although the staff also brainstorms ideas at GUCD meetings.

“It gives me an excuse to do a little research into something that interests me during the school week,” staff writer Hayden Frye (COL ’17) said Last week, Frye wrote one of the website’s most popular articles, which got about 600 views, on Clay Aiken running for Congress in North Carolina. The daily views

on the site range from 100 to a few hundred per day.

“It’s not all opinion and blog. It’s more of an online newspaper than a blog in a sense,” Sarge said. “A lot of articles are well-researched and link to news sites and things.”

In general, the publication supports the mission of the GUCD and follows party policy closely.

“The website speaks both to provide publicity for the College Dems and the things that they’re trying to accomplish and just to espouse the same general principles that the Democratic Party stands for,” Sarge said.

Gage believes “The Right Way” differs from “The Progressive,” in the extent to which each agrees with its respective party’s policy.

“I think ‘The Progressive,’ from what I’ve seen, does a lot to toe the party line,” he said. “I’ve never seen a “Progressive” article that says that opposes gay marriage, for example, or a “Progressive” article that is pro-life.”

Sarge feels his publication’s policy alignment stems naturally from GUCD member’s beliefs.

“We don’t necessarily go extensively out of our way to cater to [a conservative viewpoint] just because, in terms of the staff that we have, they naturally have a certain viewpoint,” Sarge said. “But occasionally they’ll have deviating viewpoints on specific policies, and we don’t in any way try to prevent them from expressing that.”

Occasionally, however, Progressive staff writers do represent dissenting viewpoints, although these are generally on less bipartisan issues.

“Typically when we’ve had people write things that are more dissenting is when there’s not a clear party line on it. We’ve had articles that oppose what President Obama

did, in areas like national security issues or drone strikes,” Sarge said.

Sarge also believes that the addition of “The Right Way” to Georgetown’s media and political landscape will help increase dialogue, despite the large difference in size between the two websites.

“The College Dems are a much larger group in comparison. I don’t know how large of a site or a staff they’ll have, but in general I think the more dialogue the better,” Sarge said. “There’s obviously going to be a rivalry in the sense that [GUCD and GUCR] have somewhat opposing missions, but I think having dialogue on the other side can only serve to strengthen the arguments that we make in favor of democratic policy.”

Frye reads “The Right Way” occasionally and also welcomes the competition.

“Their articles are well written.

It looks good. It looks professional, and I think it’s important to have both blogs on campus,” he said.

“I’m glad that they do because without that you don’t want to have one-sided blogs coming up.

You want to have both sides of any issue being represented.”

For Robledo, the size of GUCD is somewhat intimidating, but he hopes that students can still appreciate the views of “The Progressive.”

“Obviously the College Dems are the biggest organization on campus. That’s good for them, but we want to provide Hoyas with a different set of opinions that maybe they haven’t heard or maybe they aren’t really used to hearing,” he said.

“We hope that this blog is a way for other people to latch onto our ideas, be exposed to them, maybe they agree with our ideas, maybe they just don’t know it, really just to create a dialogue and to try and make our ideas open to everybody.”

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news

THE HOYA

fRIDAY, february 28, 2014

SJP Brings Focus to Apartheid Justice and Peace Ryan Thomas

The Georgetown University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine held numerous events this week, including an exhibit in the Intercultural Center Galleria and a documentary screening to raise awareness for Israeli Apartheid Week.

The events aim to raise awareness of the conditions in the region and to educate college students about the issues facing Palestinian citizens and refugees in Israel and elsewhere.

“What makes it so important is that it is an opportunity for the Palestinian voice to be heard and for us to express the simple truth about their situation without the conversation being shifted away from Palestinians under the guise of ‘balance,’ which really values the needs and desires of their colonizer,” SJP President Leila Shebaro (SFS ’15) said. “When we talk about peace and resolution, we are always talking about it on their terms, never on balanced terms and certainly never on Palestinian terms.”

As the name of the week implies, the group aims to draw attention to Israeli apartheid.

“If you look at U.N.’s definition of apartheid, what Israel is doing fits that completely,” Shebaro said.

“Twenty percent of the population of Israel proper is Palestinian, but they still face discrimination and are second class citizens.” SJP member John Flanagan (SFS ’14) said.

The week’s events featured talks

with American Studies Association member Steven Salaita and journalist David Sheen, as well as a screening of the documentary “Five Broken Cameras,” a film about Palestinian non-violent resistance in the West Bank.

The Salaita lecture discussed and supported a boycott of products made in Israel or its settlements.

“As with any boycott, it’s not about the economic facets. It’s more about the symbolic power and empowering the Palestinian people and raising awareness for their situation,” Flanagan said.

The group also built an exhibit in the ICC Galleria to make students aware of the week. The exhibit features a wall, which serves as a representation of the Israeli West Bank Barrier, which has been under construction since 2003.

“It provides a barrier for the permanent, illegal settlements and essentially makes them permanent.” Flanagan said.“It’s a blatant land grab, so we wanted to expose the wall and give people a sense of its symbolic power and also its material power.”

The week’s events elicited responses from other campus groups.

“The oppression that the SJP is seeking to highlight with this week is legitimate and is the same suffering that J-Street is seeking to end,” J Street U Georgetown co-president Elijah Jatovsky (SFS ‘16) said. “The conditions in the West Bank are oppressive and brutal, and the ongoing conditions ought to offend anybody who believes in democratic principals.”

However, Jatovsky said that J Street ad-

vocates for a two-state solution, which is not generally accepted by members of the SJP, according to Shebaro. Additionally, Jatovsky expressed concerns regarding the choice of the word “apartheid” to describe the situation in Israel.

“While there may be some commonalities, to apply the word ‘apartheid’ to Israel misuses and cheapens the term.” Jatovsky said. “We believe it oversimplifies a very complex issue into zero-sum, good versus bad issue.”

Some Jewish students on campus also expressed dismay over the presentation.

“It’s very personal for me, the way that my country is being portrayed,” Georgetown Israel Alliance Vice President Nitzan Gabai (SFS ’16), who formerly served as president of the organization, said.

Gabai is also an Israeli citizen who served in the Israeli Defense Force from 2008 to 2011.

“Completely negating Israel’s existence is counterproductive and completely polarizes the entire hope for peace in the region,” Gabai said. “Both sides have a stake in this, both sides should have a seat at the negotiating table, and both sides should have a right to exist. It’s not all or nothing.”

SJP, J Street U and GIA previously attempted a collaborative movie event in November but withdrew organizational support after SJP backed out, citing differences irreconcilable with their platform. Members from all three organizations still attended the program as individuals.

REBECCA GOLDBERG/THE HOYA

CHARLIE LOWE/THE HOYA

DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA

Hoya Staff Writer

After losing the GUSA race, Zach Singer (SFS ’15) hugs Dan Silkman (COL ’15), left, Ben Weiss (COL ’15) and Sam Greco (SFS ’15) deliver a last speech, middle, and Jimmy Ramirez (COL ’15) hugs Thomas Lloyd (SFS ’15).

Tezel, Jikaria Win GUSA Election GUSA, from A1 Secular Student Alliance, Club Boxing, GUTV and the Graduate Student Organization.

Tezel and Jikaria pledged to begin work immediately, promising the immediate creation of the transfer and multicultural council in addition to policy changes.

“We’re going to get right to work on some of the policy reforms that we stressed, like access to benefits, free speech reform, and we’re going to start doing office hours right away,” Jikaria said.

Jikaria was the only female candidate in this year’s contest; however, she said that it was the issues that her campaign focused on rather than her ticket’s diversity that contributed to her and Tezel’s victory.

“I’m proud to be the only woman in the race, but I’d like to think that the race focused on issues and not around gender, but at the same time, I do think that some girls saw me and definitely have someone to look up to now,” she said.

Singer and Silkman finished in second place, with 1,055 votes in the first round and a third-round tally of 1,535 votes after redistribution. Singer has extensive experience in GUSA as a former senator who currently serves as outgoing GUSA President Nate Tisa’s (SFS ’14) chief of staff. His running mate, Silkman, gained prominence on campus for his roles in New Student Orientation, Relay for Life and the “What’s a Hoya?” program.

Singer commended Tezel and Jikaria’s campaign, and he expressed appreciation for his own campaign staff and supporters. He described this year’s election as policy-based, rather than personality-based.

“This year, we saw a real difference in ideas. It’s a positive thing. Moving forward, hopefully, it will be even less

about personalities,” Singer said. “We put out our ideas and they put out their ideas, and Trevor and Omika’s were taken.”

Singer said he would examine an opportunity to be involved in the new executive, if offered, but expressed a commitment to continuing student advocacy regardless.

Tezel and Jikaria had cross-endorsed the ticket of Ben Weiss (COL ’15) and Sam Greco (SFS ’15), who finished in third place, receiving 614 first-round votes and 683 second-round votes before being eliminated.

“From the bottom of my heart, I couldn’t be happier. This school’s in safe hands with Trevor,” Weiss said.

“He’s put a tremendous team together, and I look forward to doing anything I possibly can to help.”

Weiss expressed surprise at the outcome for Thomas Lloyd (SFS ’15) and Jimmy Ramirez (COL ’15), who came in fourth with 561 votes in the first round before being eliminated from instant runoff voting, and slight dissatisfaction with his own ticket’s tally.

“I was marginally surprised at how low Thomas and Jimmy did, and a little disappointed at our numbers, but I think it pretty much reflected the general consensus,” he said.

Lloyd, who also congratulated the executive-elect, indicated that he wished he had decided to run earlier, having committed himself to the campaign only a few weeks ago. His campaign was cross-endorsed by Singer and Silkman, and he received the endorsements of the editorial boards of both The Hoya and the Voice.

“I would have jumped in earlier and gotten over my stage fright and assembled a larger team earlier. I wouldn’t have changed my platform or running mate or anything my campaign did,” Lloyd said. “I think that obviously being eliminated in the first round is just disappointing, but we got those results

surrounded by supporters knowing that we had significant endorsements.”

Moving forward, Lloyd said he would remain involved with GU Pride in a role yet to be determined after his term as president ends and continue to advocate for free speech and access to benefits issues.

Per custom, Tisa called Tezel to inform him of his victory just before the Election Commission released the final round of results.

“He was thrilled. I told him ‘Congratulations, Mr. President-Elect.’ There was a lot of celebration on the other side of the line, as there should be,” Tisa said.

“Trevor and Omika have a lot of great ideas, which I hope they have the time to implement. We’re going to work with them over the next month to give them the tools.”

Tisa, who along with Vice President Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) chose not to endorse a ticket, complimented each campaign and encouraged all the candidates to continue building on their campaign initiatives.

“All the candidates put themselves out there, had great ideas and are clearly dedicated to Georgetown. We’re hoping that the other candidates don’t stop working to make Georgetown better,” he said. Tezel and Jikaria, who assume their roles after spring break, will be inaugurated in March.

Tezel expressed deep gratitude to his campaign staff.

“They are the best, most amazing people that I could have ever asked for. I never could have imagined when I stepped foot at Georgetown that I would have had as smart, as intelligent and as knowledgeable a campaign team as I did tonight,” he said.

Perennial candidate Chicken Madness took fifth place with 102 write-in votes.

Hoya Staff Writers Emma Hinchliffe and Mallika Sen contributed reporting.

Candidates Spar With Incumbent DEBATE, from A1 harshly scolded the Council for delaying the election of an independent attorney general for the District, saying that the delay underscored the reason why so many D.C. citizens view corruption as the norm in city politics.

“We have no laws, and we have no order in the District of Columbia. It will take someone who is an outsider, not part of the political establishment, to give the citizens of the District what they finally deserve, which is a clean and ethical government,” Lewis said.

In light of the 135 percent increase in homeless families seeking shelter in D.C. facilities this past winter and the District’s mandated right-to-shelter policy on freezing nights, candidates discussed

reforms to D.C.’s homeless policy.

Shallal was quick to address the need for a preemptive plan to avoid leaving people out on the streets, especially in the winter.

“The mayor’s plan is tough, but there’s certainly no love there. I think we’re a more compassionate city, and I’d like to see us be that way. Leadership is about anticipating crises, not answering to one fire after another,” Shallal said.

Allen, recounting his own experience with homelessness, called for a better system of communication to make the options offered by the city more widely known.

“I was homeless once in this city. I know what it’s like to get back on your feet. What is missing is communication between the city and those people

out on the street to let them know that there are resources available to help them move forward in their lives. It’s all about bringing compassion back to this city,” Allen said.

In a post-debate interview with The Hoya, Bowser attributed her rapid accession recent polls to her campaign’s offer of a new vision for the city that focuses on continuing the District’s recent prosperity and mending the trust that’s been eroded between the government and the people.

“The people of the District want a government they can be proud of. My campaign is about continuing the progress we’ve seen in terms of economic development and growing the middle class, but we have to have the right leadership to get those things done,” Bowser said.

Major Added JUPS, from A1 nonviolent strategic tactics as well as their understanding of sustaining a community movement that they learned in their JUPS courses to make the JUPS major come to fruition,” former JUPS Director and current Center for Social Justice Director Andria Wisler wrote in an email.

JUPS minors Kyla McClure (COL ’15) and Gianna Maita (COL ’15) began the campaign for a major in fall 2012.

“Georgetown is a Jesuit university and in that sense it is very much committed to social justice and social action,” McClure said. “The JUPS major provides the theoretical, academic context for a lot of the work that students do already.”

Maita agreed that the major will provide students with both the tools to do social justice work and the theory to back it up.

“Justice and peace as a field develops students’ thinking and research toward how to make the world more just and peaceful; it allows us to reflect on how to live for others in an academic space,” Maita, who is currently studying abroad, wrote in an email.

The major’s curriculum includes five foundational courses and three electives in addition to the three concentration courses, while the minor requires three foundational courses and three electives.

The requirements for the minor previously included a 50-page thesis to be completed over two semesters during senior year. Now, this thesis is part of the curriculum for the major and will no longer be a requirement for the minor, going forward. Current seniors must still complete their theses, but juniors solely pursuing a minor will not be required to do the same.

Supporters of the JUPS major hope that its creation will attract more interest for the minor as well.

“Now students who like the JUPS department, but couldn’t really dedicate themselves to a full thesis for a minor are going to be able to minor without that, like a lot of similar minor programs,” McClure said.

Since the rigorous requirements that were in place for the minor required strong administrative support, the leadership of the program will not change despite the addition

of a major.

“We don’t have to alter our faculty or administrators because our justice and peace minor was almost like a major event before this expansion, because of our requirement of the 50page thesis,” Amster said.

Amster, along with Elham Atashi, was one of two new full-time faculty members hired to the JUPS program at the start of last semester.

“The faculty felt that, with those hires, we were actually in a position to responsibly offer a major that the students were pushing for,” Lance said.

Lance anticipates that the program will continue to expand with the creation of the major.

“We’re hopeful to begin developing things like a dedicated study abroad programs, community based research and community based study conferences that will hopefully start coming out next year,” Lance said.

The major program will commence in the fall 2014 semester. Current freshmen and sophomores will be able to declare JUPS majors, while juniors who would like to pursue the new major will only be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Some of the juniors who pushed for the creation of the JUPS major have already begun to complete the curriculum in anticipation of its approval.

“I knew what the requirements [for the major] were, so I’ve just been taking the classes and crossing my fingers,” Margaux Nielsen (COL ’15) said.

Nielsen is a teaching assistant for the justice and peace introductory class and said that several underclassmen taking the course have expressed interest in pursing the major.

Gillis anticipates up to 30 students choosing the JUPS major, next year.

“If it goes as we plan, then the JUPS program will have a bigger imprint at Georgetown and there will be more students engaged,” Gillis said.

The plan for the major includes a provision that will allow Gillis to review the program after four years and dial it back if he finds that there is not significant student interest.

Gillis also thought the new major could help Georgetown attract prospective students.

“It can only help us by having another option for students who have this passion,” Gillis said.

Website Provides Survivor Resources ASSAULT, from A1 “The real conversation started to take place when the university started recognizing that our policies and our methods of informing faculty and staff on reporting obligations in case of sexual assault were severely outdated and quite possibly out of compliance with Title IX,” Sexual Assault Working Group Member Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) said. “While the process was in stages of development, I think student and administrators realized that something like this website needed to be included as soon as possible.”

The university’s initial steps involved appointing a Title IX coordinator and several deputy coordinators, including Associate Vice President Jeanne Lord, who serves as a deputy Title IX coordinator for undergraduate students and spearheaded the website’s creation. Title IX prohibits sexual harassment on the basis of disruption of ability to participate in school. Coordinators must investigate claims and provide education and training.

“We hope the website will create awareness of resources, offer students insight into the behavior that constitutes sexual misconduct that will not be tolerated and reassure members of our community that complaints of sexual misconduct will be taken seriously and promptly and fairly investigated,” Lord wrote in an email.

Peterson acknowledged the importance of providing resources to the accused.

“My thought is that, although the rate of false reporting is extremely low, it is important that complaints and respondents are accorded due process. There isn’t any reason why accused students shouldn’t be able to access university resources as long as they do not retaliate against or intimidate the complainant,” she said.

Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity and Title IX Coordinator Rosemary Kilkenny emphasized the importance of the website in fulfilling Title IX requirements.

Recently, sexual assault and sexual misconduct have been issues of importance to the U.S. Department of Education. President Barack Obama created a task force to address sexual assault on college campuses in January.

“There has been recent federal guidance to encourage universities to be very aggressive. ... We have

mobilized and have made a very big push to launch the website,” Kilkenny said.

The website identified and delineates the confidential resources on campus.

“This website provides another way for survivors to be made aware of and get connected to confidential resources at Georgetown,” said Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Services Coordinator Jen Schweer, who is one of the two on-campus confidential resources for sexual assault.

“Confidential resources do not have obligations to report sexual assaults, but they work with survivors to help them determine if and when to report depending on their desires and their healing process. It’s critical for students to know that there are places where they can explore their options in a safe and confidential way, before deciding on next steps.”

The revised sexual assault policy can be also be found on the new website. In addition to revisions to the sexual assault policy, the university also altered its policy regarding alcohol violations to provide amnesty whenever a student reports an incident of sexual assault involving underage drinking.

“It is important that the university is putting effort into publicizing this information rather than sweeping this issue under the rug. The resources are valuable and it is crucial that people know about them, especially those who need them most,” Lilli Seabol (COL ’17) said.

Although the website has received positive feedback, students are still pushing the university to do more.

Peterson, who has extensive antisexual assault advocacy experience, including a White House internship in sexual violence, urged Georgetown to expand the amnesty clause to all drugs, eliminate survivor sexual history in hearings and install a closed circuit camera system where survivors testify to a camera, in lieu of a thin screen between the survivor and the perpetrator.

“As students, we are going to push for the administration to be more proactive and more involved with the issue of sexual assault. In order to create a culture of care we need to have a discussion of what it means to be in a campus and why there are at higher risks,” Sexual Assault Working Group Member Chandini Jha (COL ’16) said. “We are definitely going to continue pushing for more changes.”

news

friday, february 28, 2014

THE HOYA

A7

MSB Enters Partnership With Saudi University Joy Ma

Special to the Hoya

The McDonough School of Business has entered into a partnership with Effat University, an all-women’s university in Saudi Arabia to expand that university’s burgeoning business curricula.

The partnership, which began in December 2013, entails the MSB assisting Effat in the development of their undergraduate business curriculum as well as their application for accreditation through The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Founded by Queen Effat Al Thu-

nayan in 1999, the thousand-student school pursues values related to educating and empowering women. Prince Turki Al Faisal (SFS ’68), a former ambassador of Saudi Arabia, serves as a member on the university’s board of trustees.

The partnership was signed after Senior Associate Dean for Under-

COURTESY NOREAN SHARPE

MSB Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs Norean Sharpe discussed the MSB’s new partnership with all-female Effat University located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in December 2013.

graduate Programs Norean Sharpe and professor of operations and Managing Director of Georgetown’s Global Business Initiative Ricardo Ernst traveled to Saudi Arabia in December and met with Effat University President Haifa Jamal Al Lail and Dean Mervat Chuman.

“They have very interesting strengths,” Ernst said. “They are one of the most solid universities in the country for the education of women, and they have been doing a superb job. The work the university has put in and established is commendable, and MSB is proud and happy to cooperate with such a university.”

Ernst expressed that the partnership will be mutually beneficial to both universities. In particular, Effat’s Islamic finance program is something that the MSB felt they could incorporate into their international finance curriculum.

“We can help them achieve their objective to get accredited. But the cooperation should also enrich their already valuable curriculum,” Ernst said. “They also have some content in their curriculum where they have great level of expertise that we can use for our program.”

Sharpe explained that the MSB will help Effat University ensure that their business program delivers its curriculum in alignment with their mission, ambitious vision for the future and sizable resources.

“Anything we can do to advance the economic empowerment of women, particularly in the Middle East, is a good thing. It’ll be interesting to see where the women go after such education,” she said.

The partnership between Georgetown and the Jeddah-based

women’s university will continue through a plethora of meetings and conferences. Chuman visited Washington in January to appear for a conference alongside Sharpe.

Sharpe has already invited Chuman to present on another global partnership panel at the AACSB Annual European Conference, which will take place in October in Grenoble, France.

“What we are in the midst of pulling together for them is a custom program for their students — one week in June, here we will host them — we are currently deciding on which faculty will teach them, and the different sites that they will visit,” Ernst said.

Haifa and Chuman also expressed their optimistic outlook towards the new partnership’s potential to provide a more global education for their students.

“We are very keen that our students get a global education and that they can measure themselves against world-class institutions such as Georgetown,” Haifa said.

“This partnership will give them the confidence that they can compete globally, and they are not isolated on the periphery and are receiving an education that they can be proud of.”

Chuman commented on the importance of culture recognition and creating value-added alliances as ways in which MSB students will benefit from the relationship.

“In today’s global world, we need to learn as much as we can about other cultures, other ways of doing business, in order to be successful. I think that if MSB students can gain perspective into the culture of the Middle East through this partnership, it will help them in their future careers.”

Labor Network Honors GU for Fair Practices Molly Simio Hoya Staff Writer

The Catholic Labor Network discussed the continued efforts of student activists and Georgetown University’s fair treatment of adjunct professors Feb. 1 when the university was recognized by the CLN as a model of fair labor and fair labor advocacy.

The panel, which included members of the university’s Advisory Committee on Business Practices and the Licensing Oversight Committee, highlighted Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy, which ensures a living wage for all university employees, including subcontracted workers.

“Georgetown over the years has developed a just employment policy rooted in Catholic social teaching that could really serve as a model for Catholic institutions around the country,” CLN Treasurer Clayton Sinyai said.

Contention with the university’s wage policy arose in 2005 when 26 students involved with the Living Wage Coalition launched a nine day hunger strike to fight for higher wages for university employees.

“Georgetown did not arrive at this policy without difficulty, but with the sustained efforts of students and the commitment of the university administration, Georgetown is now a model of fair labor practices,” Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor staff member Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13) said.

The strike culminated in a new living wage policy that considered the costs of housing, health care, child care, transportation, taxes, food and basic necessities when calculating a wage for its workers. Additionally, the university ensures that all university employees have access to resources such as English as a Second Language classes, Georgetown University Transportations Shuttles and library privileges.

“In Catholic social teaching, labor is rather expansive and has an emphasis on social justice that insists that workers are entitled to a living wage, that they have the right to organize in labor unions and that they are to be treated as ends and not means,” Sinyai said.

The university was also distinguished from its academic peers on the basis of its cooperation with adjunct professors in their efforts to unionize. Georgetown’s adjunct professors unionized

in May 2013 under the Services Employee International Union Local 500, facing no opposition from the university.

“In line with Catholic social teaching, Georgetown has said repeatedly that workers have the right to join a union if they choose, that right belongs to the workers alone and nobody is entitled to exercise intimidation to try to force them one way or another,” Sinyai said.

SEIU Director of Research and Strategic Planning Anne McLeer, who attended the meeting, found Georgetown deserving of the honor based on her experience with the adjunct’s union.

“It’s really important to hold up Georgetown as a model of labor relations so that other universities follow, because right now they’re really the only one of the Catholic institutions that is upholding a just employment policy,” McLeer said.

Many of the policies for which Georgetown has received recognition were advanced by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee. Members of the GSC said that while there is still room for improvement, they agree that other universities should follow Georgetown’s model of labor relations.

“Sometimes it’s a little tricky to gain perspective because we only see what’s going on at Georgetown … and we see a lot of things about how labor works at Georgetown that we would like to change and that we think can be improved,” GSC member Caleb Weaver (SFS ’16) said. “It’s much easier to pursue these goals of social justice when everyone in the community is engaged with each other and participating in that dialogue.”

Most recently, the GSC has promoted the university’s signing of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which seeks to improve labor conditions for Bangladeshi workers. The university announced earlier this month that it would require all university trademark licensees who manufacture products using the Georgetown logo that source, produce or purchase goods from Bangladesh to comply with the accord, requiring companies to submit to full, public inspection of factory conditions.

“It’s a way for universities to pressure companies to sign onto the accord and to be accountable for these workers, since it’s really difficult to get individual actions to change,” GSC member Erin Riordan (COL ’15) said.

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Left to right: Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Mo Cowan (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) reflect on the role that black senators have played in Congress.

Black Senators Recognized Sydney Winkler Special to The Hoya

Prominent black figures in American politics convened to recognize the contributions of black senators to the U.S. Senate in a nonpartisan discussion entitled “Honoring our Past and Celebrating our Future: Discussing Personal Journeys and a Nation’s Progress with America’s Black Senators” in the Library of Congress on Tuesday.

Hosted by U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in honor of Black History Month, the discussion, moderated by U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, featured current and former black senators including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Senators Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.).

The commencement of the 113th Congress in January marked the first time that two black senators have served concurrently in the Senate. Since the election of Hiram Revels of Mississippi in 1870, only nine AfricanAmericans have served in the Senate including President Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

“I want to thank Senator Scott for bringing us all together,” Booker said. “I am looking at he and I, who are focused on empowering people’s lives, to be the change we really want to see in the entire Senate.”

The event was divided into two parts — the former a discussion moderated by Black focusing on the senators’ journeys to the Senate and the latter a question and answer session with audience members.

Sen. Scott, who assumed office in January 2013, stressed the importance of inspiring the next generation to pursue

their goals.

“One of the reasons why I thought this was an important opportunity for us to gather today is because there are so many young kids who want to be here,” he said.

Raised in poverty, Scott came from a single-parent household, where his mother worked 16 hour days.

“No matter where you come from, no matter how you started, no matter how difficult life is, whether you have a two-parent household or a single-parent household like I did, but in America, all things are possible,” Scott said.

Scott pointed to his mother, who raised him and his brother, as well as to his mentor, John Moniz, an Air Force veteran and owner of Scott’s local Chick-fil-A where he worked as a teenager, as a source of encouragement throughout his life.

“One of the lessons that [Moniz] left me with was that, if you want to make a difference in this world, start with yourself,” Scott said. “And number two, get into a place where you can impact lives of other people in your community.”

Amid deep factions and partisanship within today’s Congress, an underlying theme of nonpartisanship ran throughout the day’s event.

Braun voiced her concerns for the factionalization that she had seen in Congress, not only for her own generation but future ones as well.

“This is another step we can take in suggesting to our colleagues that it’s time to focus in on how our country fails, how we build on our successes, how we move forward in a way that will honor our ancestors, as well as do justice by our children and

the generations to follow,” Braun said.

Braun went on to describe the racism and sexism she encountered as the first and only African American female in the Senate — biases that, the senator says, still exist today.

“I was once asked ‘Which was worse,’ and my response to that is if someone’s foot is on your neck, it almost doesn’t matter why it’s there,” Braun said.

Cowan noted that the presence of Scott, the sole Republican senator on the panel, exemplified adversity of perspectives.

“Even though only one of us is on the other side of the aisle, I think we represent a range of political interests and view points,” Cowan said. “I think that’s good for the African-American community to see.”

He urged Americans to honor the struggle of the past generation by inspiring future generations and encouraging them to succeed.

“My prayer is that my generation, especially, can look at people on this stage who fought battles that I will never fight, never see, in order to give us these opportunities and privileges,” Booker said.

“That we prove worthy of those privileges that we have not by paying anything back, but by paying it forward.”

In an interview with The Hoya after the event, Scott argued that black people have made a lot of progress in the Senate over the years in combating racism.

“I think a good way to look at it is that in the first 150 years, we got four Senators and, in the last 20 years, we got five,” Scott said. “The fact of the matter is that our country continues to make leaps forward.”

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THE HOYA

fRIDAY, february 28, 2014

Clinton Honors Men Working for Gender Equality Three men receive 2014 Hillary Rodham Clinton Award Kit Clemente Hoya Staff Writer

Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state and honorary founding chair of the Georgetown Institute of Women, Peace and Security, presented the 2014 Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women in Peace and Security in Gaston Hall on Tuesday to honor and celebrate the work of three leaders in the field.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Dr. Denis Mukwege, director of Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and absente recipient North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, were the honorees. The event also marked the one-year anniversary since the creation of the GIWPS. “The work of the institute resonates profoundly with our community as a Catholic and Jesuit institution, animated by a deep commitment to social justice and the responsibility that we have to prepare our young women and men to address challenges that threaten peace, security and human dignity,” University President John J. DeGioia said.

In her opening remarks, Clinton stressed the importance of Georgetown’s work in opening the first institute of this kind and the shared responsibility citizens of the world, including men, hold

in ending sexual violence and advancing the rights of opportunities for women.

“When women are excluded and marginalized, we all suffer. We miss out on their experience, their knowledge, their skills, their talents, but when women and girls have the chance to participate fully alongside men and boys in making peace, in growing the economy, in political life, in every facet of existence, then we all benefit, and the three men we honor today understand this and have put their considerable prestige and efforts behind that,” Clinton said.

The discussion moved to the formidable obstacle sexual violence poses to women and the work of Mukwege in effectively addressing these issues.

Clinton remarked on her remembrances of Mukwege’s work when she met him in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during her tenure as secretary of state.

“I don’t think any of us can ever appreciate fully what he has meant, not only to the women who he has helped, but to the cause of peace and human rights,” Clinton said.

Clinton additionally spoke of Rasmussen’s contributions to the field in leading NATO’s efforts to integrate women, peace and security to the alliances operations.

By directing and working at Panzi Hospital, founded in 1999, Mukwege has

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Former Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton delivers her remarks concerning the recipients of the GIWPS 2014 Hilary Rodham Clinton awards.

treated more than 40,000 victims of rape through, medical, psychological, social, political and justice support.

“I accept this award today on behalf of these women, as I strongly believe that those who have endured violence in conflict times have the capacity to act as an agent for peace and security and deserve a place at the negotiation table at peace talks,” Mukwege said in his speech.

In his remarks, Hague stressed how countries must improve the condition of humanity and be optimistic about human nature.

“This must be the century in which women take their rightful place, in which hundreds of years of marginalization are forcefully and finally overturned and extinguished, in which girls are born not into a world of narrow hopes and lesser protections, but into a world of equal treatment and boundless opportunity,” Hague said.

Hague, who drew inspiration from Angelina Jolie’s activism in the field, announced that from June 10 to 14, London will, along with Jolie, host a global summit of 140 nations on the issue of women to stress the importance of incorporating more rights and security for women in government and law.

“It should be at the heart of how we view conflict prevention and foreign policy in this century. On this occasion we must acknowledge that it is still considered unusual for a man, and political to raise this issues, but rape and sexual violence are crimes overwhelming committed by men and that they should happen when the world did too little should shame all men,” Hague said.

Despite the progress the GIWPS made, all speakers spoke to the fact that these advances are only a beginning.

“I’m greatly encouraged by this award and by knowing that we are all part of this same endeavor, by taking up this cause we are shouldering a responsibility that our world has shirked for too long, and by taking it up, we must never set it down again,” Hague said. In her closing remarks, Clinton emphasized the growth of women in public life since the opening of GIWPS and her upcoming No Ceilings Program as part of the Clinton Foundation.

“From our perspective I think you can deduce that we believe that this is the unfinished business of the 21st century, giving women the tools and resources to break through the barriers that keep them from contributing to fully participating in their government’s economics and societies, and I cannot think of a better way of kicking off this work then by honoring the three men, and particularly the two that are with us today,” Clinton said.

GIRA Grant Opens Apps Kelly McKenna Special to the Hoya

To bolster education and empower students to enact changes in international affairs, the fourth annual Georgetown International Relations Association Global Generations Grant is accepting applications until March 15.

GIRA, founded in 1969, maintains a working relationship with the International Relations Club on campus, and is an 501(c) nonprofit that aims to foster education of international matters. In doing so, GIRA serves as a force behind the Model United Nations conferences Georgetown holds, including the National Collegiate Security Council and the North American Invitational Model United Nations conference.

The Global Generations Grant seeks current undergraduate and graduate students — barring current senior undergraduates — who have designed projects that have the potential to impact their communities and the world.

“The criteria is to find projects that promote or teach the understanding of international affairs or development and that it empowers youth in some way,” GIRA Chief Operating Officer Chris Stromeyer (SFS ’14) said.

The grant awards recipients up to $2,500 to implement the goals of their projects. Since the grant began four years ago, recipients’ projects include building a school in Kenya, engaging in research of the Burmese music industry and creating a tennis program for children with autism in Serbia.

The three awardees for the 2012-2013 school year included Naomi Gingold (GRD ’14), Milosh Popovic (SFS ’16) and Rachel Sawyer (COL ’14).

“I first found out about the grant when I was planning to go work on the newspaper in Burma and do research. I knew I was quitting my job and I was looking for funding opportunities,” grant recipient Gingold said.

CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA

Rachel Sawyer (COL ’14) received a GIRA grant to cover her expenses as part of the Learning Enterprises program in Turkey.

Gingold’s research in Burma focused on how the public sphere changed after the 50-year period of censorship passed and the development of Burmese hip-hop.

“I also proposed doing some workshops. I wanted to do a music production workshop as there was not much music education, but I did not know how much,” Gingold said.

Grant recipient Sawyer applied to GIRA in order to cover her travel and teaching expenses as part of the Learning Enterprises program she attended in Turkey.

“I had several different places confirm before that they would help me with those expenses, and slowly, one by one ,they started to fall through, so I started reaching out to people asking if they had any suggestions for scholarships or grants ,and they pointed me in the direction of GIRA,” Sawyer said.

Grant recipient Milosh Popovic (SFS ’16) will use the money to help fund a tennis program for youth with autism in Serbia this summer. Popovic first implemented this idea in his hometown of Princeton, N.J., where he started a program similar to the Special Olym-

pics that paired high school students with students with autism to play tennis.

Popovic, who was born in Serbia, wanted to bring a similar program to the country in order to help provide support to children with disabilities in a country that lacks many of the programs that the United States has.

“The fact that I am from Serbia and my roots are there allows me to connect with people on a more personal level. I am truly willing to give back not as a westerner, but as a person who understands the Serbian mentality and the resources of the west,” Popovic said.

The grant, which is financed using profits generated from NCSC and NAIMUN, is open to students who either have individual projects or are part of a program that may or may not help on an international scale. The main objective of the grant is to address current international concerns.

“Our mission in the end is just to help Georgetown students develop their ideas and to give funding to the best ideas out there,” Stromeyer said.

OB/GYN discusses women’s health, supporting abuse survivors in DRC Kit Clemente Hoya Staff Writer

Denis Mukwege, an obstetrician gynecologist, is the director of the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was one of three honorees bestowed with the 2014 Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Women, Peace and Security. He spoke with The Hoya on Tuesday, before the ceremony in Gaston Hall.

What does this award mean to you?

I think that for me it gives me a feeling that the voice of the women of Congo is heard, and this is very important when you are suffering, when you have oppressions to know that you have a support, to know that your voice is heard is very important, and that is my impression and I am very happy about it.

How do you find the strength to continue your work?

It’s not me, I can say that, my strength is in the fierce determination of survivors who really want to overcome the stigma, want to overcome their problem and the women are very strong, so you don’t have a choice. You just have to be with them and support them because all of the time my question for myself is, if I was in the same situation, what could happen to me? But I have patients that are very strong, that have fierce determination and the only thing that I can do is to support that.

Why did you choose the work of women and peace and security?

I think that it just found me on my way because I’m an OB/GYN. The question should be why I chose to be an obstetrician; it was only because I found that in my country that women were suffering a lot to give life and when I was a medical doctor, it was a shock to see that women were dying in giving life.

This would not happen in France where I was, for example, it is not the same, so I decided to be an obstetrician and bring my piece to try and solve the problem. When I was just treating women in 1999, I decided to just get a small hospital where I could performs C-sections and help women, but the first women who came to the clinic was not for the C-section. She came be-

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Mukwege delivers his award acceptance speech. cause she was raped with extreme violence. After, I discovered that she was not just one but that it was many, and today we [have treated] more than 40,000 women. To see all these things and I could just understand that it was something planned to destroy the community, to destroy women, and women are the ones giving life, and when you destroy women you destroy many lives at the same time, so at this moment I thought that we can’t keep silent, we have to talk about it What are your aspirations going forwards?

I think that I have one dream, to see sexual violence in conflict end everywhere. I met women in Bosnia, from Colombia, from Libya and it’s the same; why do women have to suffer in conflict? Most of the time, it’s men that are creating conflict, but who is suffering? It’s women and children and I think that who wants to can stand up and say sexual violence has to stop in the war in the conflict. I think it’s possible and really my dream is to see that this can happen. Last year, the world stood up and put a red line on chemical weapons and we could see that the world came together to say that is not acceptable. Why can we go accepting that women can be targets in war conflict and especially sexual violence as a weapon of war? It’s possible to stop it if men and women step up and say this is not acceptable, this is my dream.

This interview has been condensed for publishing.

NEWS

friday, february 28, 2014

THE HOYA

A9

GUSA Aligns With Jesuit Student Associations Chris Balthazard Special to The Hoya

JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA

Government professor Anthony Arend highlighted the legality of drones following 9/11 in “Drones and International Law,” the second event of the Drone Awareness Project.

Drone Legality Discussed Andrew Frank Special to the Hoya

The Georgetown Amnesty International and The Asian Studies Program held the second event of the Drone Awareness Project, “Drones and International Law” on Wednesday.

The discussion featured Anthony Arend, government professor and the director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service, who focused on the use of drones since the 9/11 attacks and their associated legality on an international scale.

“There are different ways of evaluating the efficacy of [remotely piloted aircrafts] — politically, militarily, legally and ethically. You may have different outcomes depending on the way you look at it.

You may determine they are ethically abhorrent but still legal, for example,” Arend said.

Arend identified the two strands of law relating to such attacks, the jus ad bellum and jus in bello.

“Our jus ad bellum issue is, if an armed attack has occurred, does the United States or any other state involved have the right to use military force in response to that? If that armed attack is still going on, is it something we can still respond to? If it is, and we still are connected

to that, there would seem to be a lawful use of force for that,” Arend said. “The second law related to the conduct of hostilities — the law that outlines how all parties have to behave in an international conflict is the jus in bello.”

In assessing the legality of a drone strike, Arend also touched on the proportionality of the attack and the legitimacy of targets attacked. While much of the international community has come to the consensus that attacks should be proportional to a prior attack or perceived threat, and that some targets are legitimate and some are not, it is largely subjective to determine what is considered proportional and when illegitimate targets lose their legitimacy.

“My ultimate conclusion is this: There is nothing per se illegal in international law about the use of remotely piloted aircraft. You may think there are political problems with their use per se or ethical problems, but from a legal perspective there is nothing illegal about their use any more than there would be about an M16 or an AK47,” Arend said.

Georgetown Amnesty International member Bassam Sidiki (COL ’16), who helped out with the event, felt the discussion gave a

much more accurate representation of the issue, as it separated legal and ethical issues.

“As I am a Pakistani-American, this is something very close to my life. I moved to the [United States] … four years ago and this is an issue that many of my friends in Pakistan are very passionate about. Many think that it’s an infringement on Pakistani sovereignty. I want to bring about a more nuanced transnational conversation to this issue,” Sidiki said.

To many students, the event allowed them to partake and dissect a more nuanced view on drones.

“Speaking for Amnesty International and myself we are against the use of drones.

The lecture made me agree that drones are legal in international law but the way the … [United States] is applying them to force must be proportional,” Georgetown Amnesty International President Joseph Lanzilla (SFS ’16) said. “I think there is still a lot of gray area … [with] the appropriate use of drones, how we define legitimate targets and react to the people who help the wounded and rush in immediately after a drone strike.”

The remaining three events in the Drone Awareness Project series will take place after spring break.

The Georgetown University Student Association Senate voted to join the National Jesuit Student Government Association and to adopt the NJSGA constitution Sunday.

The NJSGA will be the first entirely student-run organization to be a part of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and will foster communication among student leaders on a variety of topics. Student leaders from 28 Jesuit colleges and universities collaborated on designing the NJSGA constitution.

The path toward the formation of the NJSGA began this past summer at the annual National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. GUSA President Nate Tisa (SFS ’14) and Vice President Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) attended the conference.

“One of the things that we did was have a meeting with all of the student government representatives that were there, and we talked about how our student governments are organized, what we do, the problems we’re facing,” Tisa said. “And then, within that conversation, one of [the students of Creighton University] had a proposal to have a national [Student Government Association].”

Since then, the Jesuit schools have been working on a constitution, the final draft of which was approved by all student leaders, including Tisa and Ramadan, in mid-February. All student leaders were then given a month to get that constitution ratified by their respective student governments, which Georgetown has now done.

Tisa explained the reasons behind GUSA’s desire to help form and join the NJSGA. “One [reason for joining] is the collaboration: idea sharing, finding out what really has worked well at other schools, and then also what works well here,” Tisa said. “An example of that is some schools were trying to raise the student activities fee, and we were able to talk to them about [Student Activities Fee and Endowment] reform, what that looked like, what our fee is, what we spend it on, how we allocate it.”

In addition to constant online meetings, NJSGA holds annual conventions as part of the existing NJSLC, which will take place at Boston College this summer.

Tisa described the communication network of the Jesuit Association of Student Affairs Administrators, one of many such groups under the AJCU whose successful meeting structure the NJSGA hopes to emulate.

“All the administrators for all these 28 schools have this thing called JASPA. So all these administrators have these different meetings,” Tisa said. “[Vice President for Student Affairs] Dr. [Todd] Olson sits down with the VPs of Student Affairs for all the different schools, and they share ideas and best practices. So we want to not just kind of passively let them decide what the best practices are, we want to have a voice in that.”

There are more than 30 different conferences, or groups, such as the one Olson takes part in, based on position and expertise.

Georgetown Vice President for Mission and Ministry Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., has communicated regularly with the other 27 vice presidents for mission and ministry, and he emphasized the AJCU’s role both in convening the Jesuit colleges and in advocating for them before policy makers.

“It’s been extremely helpful, particularly sharing best practices. Rather than having to reinvent the wheel every time a new problem or situation comes up, or a new opportunity, others may have tried it at other places,” O’Brien said. “We’ve started some new programs that other people have liked and said, well, we might imitate that, which is fine.”

GUSA Senate Vice Speaker Kasey Ng (SFS ’16) discussed how Georgetown has provided knowledge to other Jesuit schools.

“We are one of the first Jesuit institutions, if not the first one, to have an LGBTQ Resource Center, so for something like that, we would be able to share our experiences with the other institutions.”

Meanwhile, another student-driven organization is poised to join the NJSGA in the AJCU. The AJCU recently announced that they have added the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network, which Georgetown established along with Fairfield University and Fordham University in 2006, and in which 10 Jesuit universities are now involved.

“GU’s JUHAN fellows serve as the university’s first responders in coordinating fundraising efforts following international humanitarian disasters, such as the [recent typhoon in the] Philippines,” Georgetown Center for Social Justice and JUHAN Director Andria Wisler said.

Both the NJSGA and the JUHAN serve as major organizational resources for students at Jesuit universities.

“Student government at Georgetown has grown leaps and bounds over the past few years,” Tisa said. “As student governments have grown and students have been more and more vocal at their universities, this just kind of grew out of that as a natural extension.”

CEO Stresses Advertising in A Vibrant, Changing World SAATCHI, from A10 globally recognized names in advertising.”

VUCA was a buzz acronym that Roberts frequently referred to throughout his talk. Standing for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, Roberts described VUCA as a new guiding principle in today’s world in an effort to describe how tumultuous the current business environment is.

“It is very difficult to strategize more than 100 days out in a world where everything is changing and up in the air in a geopolitical sense, in a micro sense, in an innovation sense, in a technology sense,” Roberts said.

Roberts said he hoped that students could transform this VUCA world into a “SuperVUCA world,” one that is vibrant, unreal, crazy and astounding. He stressed the importance of a little bit of crazy.

“It is only the crazy people who have the vitality, faith, belief and absolute craziness to foster an idea,” he said. “You’ve got to be crazy to keep your idea alive.”

Roberts listed his five tips for success, to be purpose-driven, a creative leader, think with your

heart, inspire everyone you touch and fail fast, learn fast, fix fast.

Roberts also stressed the importance of envisioning a five-year dream. After telling students to lay out their own five-year plans, he spoke of the dream of his own company, Saatchi & Saatchi.

“I dream that the role of business is to make the world a better place for everyone,” Roberts said. “Saatchi has a dream to be revered, not liked or respected. We want to be a hothouse. We want to flourish and grow in inhospitable climes, creating ideas that are world-changing.”

Michelle Zhou (MSB ’16) said that Roberts was one of the greatest speakers she has heard since coming to Georgetown. She said the talk made her realize the vast number of opportunities available to business students outside of finance and banking.

“The talk really helped take the average Georgetown MSB student out of the mindset that banking and finance is the only way to go. There is so much more out there and there is value to it,” she said.

Hoya Staff Writer Katherine Richardson contributed reporting.

Brzezinksi Talk Explores Statecraft and Bureaucracy Gene Choi

Hoya Staff Writer

Charles Gati, a Foreign Policy Institute Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, spoke about his new book, “Zbig: The Strategy and Statecraft of Zbigniew Brzezinski,” which focuses on the former National Security Advisor’s policymaking career, in McGhee Library on Thursday.

“This book captures the classical American immigrant story,” Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies Angela E. Stent said. “It represents the typical view that anything is possible in America.”

Born in Poland, Brzezinski felt burdened by his eastern European identity throughout his career in politics.

“There were concerns raised here and there when he was appointed as the National Security Advisor for the Carter administration,” Gati said. “This was in the ’70s; people were arguing that America could not have someone who is not an American advising the president on national security matters.”

More than simply a biographical account of Brzezinski’s personal identity, Gati’s book also analyzes Brzezinski’s accomplishments as a policymaker.

“Brzezinski’s career as a policymaker in national security affairs is a very complicated one,” Gati said. “But result-wise, there are significant historical successes that he accomplished, such as the normalization of relations with China, the Camp David Accords and the Panama crisis.”

Stent raised questions about some of the more controversial policy decisions discussed in the book “Brzezinski’s policy of making the U.S. help

Afghanistan to arm itself and protect against the Soviet Union is a controversial issue,” Stent said.

“It now raises questions whether that policy choice led to the whole complication with issues involving the Middle East today.”

Gati responded that issues such as Afghanistan were among the other several chapters in his book capable of raising such debate.

“The issue of China is another controversial subject. Brzezinski was right about opening up to China, but many scholars note that his approach was wrong,” Gati said. “But this chapter is controversial and one that I don’t agree with. Why does it matter how he went about his own business?”

Gati also discussed Brzezinski’s less than amicable personality.

“He was anything but charming. He cannot sit down with someone and talk about that person’s son, about his Little League. But he is a brilliant policymaker and advisor,” Gati said.

The bureaucratic element of Gati’s book is considered one of the most interesting features that capture the moments of the Cold War well.

“I was fascinated by how there is so much factional conflict within the bureaucracy,” Eddie Morles (COL’17), who attended the event, said. “I think it is a testament to how inefficient the government can be, and how great Brzezinski was in overcoming those bureaucratic limitations.”

The book, which is being translated in Polish, is expected to be widely read among the Polish population.

“This book is ultimately a combination of a variety of experiences and first-hand anecdotes, and a well-rounded account of Brzezinski’s life and his rise as a U.S. policymaker,” Stent said.

BUSINESS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Alum Refreshes Sock Drawers NATASHA KHAN Hoya Staff Writer

ERIN NAPIER FOR THE HOYA

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts provides insight into creative advertising in Lohrfink Auditorium on Feb. 2

Saatchi CEO Shares Advertising Expertise AARON LEWIS Hoya Staff Writer

CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts discussed how companies today are changing businesses through creative advertising Tuesday evening in the Lohrfink Auditorium during an event titled, “Winning the World: How to Succeed in the Age of the Idea.”

The event was sponsored by the Georgetown Retail & Luxury Association as part of the Stanton Distinguished Leaders Series.

Saatchi & Saatchi is one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, with offices around the world.

Since beginning his tenure at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997, Roberts has shaped a variety of global brands from Duracell to Cadbury to Lexus.

Over the course of his hour-long lecture, Roberts advised students on how to succeed while make the world a better place after graduation. He spoke about the impor-

tance of knowledge, skills and attitude in the workplace, and he said that a strong desire to win is necessary for success.

“You need to want to win within the context of making the world a better place for everyone,” Roberts said. “When you go out of here you can go make a difference, or you can just get out of there and join the herd.”

Before the lecture began, Tiara Kawser (MSB ’15), a member of GRLA, explained the group’s mission.

“Over the past two and a half years, the Georgetown Retail and Luxury Association has striven to bring students events that both inspire and educate,” Kawser said.

“Our goal is to provide them with opportunities to learn and engage with the world of luxury ... We are absolutely thrilled to have with us a visionary from one of the most See SAATCHI, A9

For entrepreneur Phil Moldavski (MSB ’10), the idea for his new startup came out of a simple decision — to buy a new pair of socks.

Moldavski, 26, together with cofounder Ricky Choi, 27, launched online startup Nice Laundry in August to offer men an easy way to purchase affordable, colorful, highquality socks. Moldavski, who previously helped found organic salad store Sweetgreen, met Choi while working at LivingSocial.

“Just when [Choi] felt comfortable enough he called me out on these terrible, white, ratty gym socks I would wear with nice shoes and button-down shirts,” Moldavski said. “I was this guy that tried to look fashionable, but I never thought about my socks, so he convinced me to buy one pair of cool, comfortable socks.”

Choi, on the other hand, is a selfdescribed sock guy.

“I’ve always had 150 to 200 pairs in rotation,” he said.

Moldavski attested to the hassle and expense, running into the hundreds of dollars — of replacing his entire sock drawer, which Nice Laundry offers to do for just $99, which translates into 18 pairs of socks.

“We knew there must be a better way to do something like this,” Moldavski said.

Moldavski and Choi used Kickstarter to raise capital for Nice Laundry, a crowd funding platform allowing entrepreneurs to gather backers for project ideas.

“It’s essentially a pre-order mechanism where people can say ‘yes I’m gonna buy this’ and people deliver four months later,” Moldavski said.

Nice Laundry reached almost 300 backers in its first day, breaking the Kickstarter fashion project record for most individual contributors on the first day, according to Moldavksi, and raised $120,000 in one month.

Moldavski favorably contrasted crowd funding with traditional fundraising methods.

“We would have had to write a business plan, try to find investors, simply because there is no way to buy inventory up front,” he said, emphasizing the difficulty of doing so without sales numbers to back up product pitches. “Instead we are making sure that we build something that customers actually want.”

Nice Laundry has seen steady growth since its August launch.

“I think socks are the new necktie,” Choi said. “Workplaces are becoming more casual and a lot of places that required you to wear a suit with a tie no longer do that.

Guys are starting to pay more attention to accessories and socks are kind of the number one leading edge category within accessories.”

Moldavski attributed Nice Laundry’s success partly to its early expo-

COMMENTARY

Microfinance: Business for Others

A

t the beginning of my sophom ore year, I was fairly confident that I wasn’t the only Georgetown student that was stuck between the dual aspirations of a career in business or working in development. In my mind, there was a clear distinction between these two fields: for-profit versus nonprofit. I was trying to decide between pursuing a career in a financial institution or in an NGO after graduation. While it may seem early, many other choices about classes, summer internships and student organizations were predicated upon the path that I chose to take. Amid weekly panic attacks about what I was going to do with my international economics degree, I joined the Georgetown Global Microfinance Initiative and was opened up to an entirely new realm of career possibilities in the field that lies at the intersection of development and business.

GGMI is a small, student-run organization that was just founded at the end of last semester, and it provides consultation services to growing microfinance initiatives in the developing world. Microfinance is a broad term describing the provision of loans and other financial services to people that would not have access to traditional banks because of their low-income status. Microfinance is recognized as one of the most highly effective tools in combating poverty and has been implemented with success all over the world. Unlike other related organi-

zations on campus, GGMI does not actually give out loans to clients, but rather it provides background support in the form of market research and impact evaluation to existing microlending institutions in developing countries.

As an organization in its early stage, GGMI is currently trying to work out the kinks of applying to become a nonprofit, acquir-

Jaysel Shah Microfinance is one of the most highly effective tools in combating poverty. ing funding sources and connecting with microfinance initiatives around the world. After just three months of being in existence, GGMI has partnered with Honduran Microfinance in managing and evaluating the initiative’s eight community banks and streamlining the process for forming new banks.

As a member of the business development team, I am currently working on grant applications through Corp Philanthropy and the Social Innovation and Public Service Fund. Most recently, GGMI

partnered with the Georgetown Development Initiative in bringing Steven Radelet, a former USAID economist and current Georgetown professor, to speak on campus. It is my hope that the development professionals at GGMI’s future events demonstrate to students in my position that they do not have to choose between being a nonprofit do-gooder and a successful businessman. I have learned that the usefulness of quantitative skills isn’t limited to Wall Street and corporate America, but rather a thorough understanding of finance, accounting and economics is applicable to a wide range of development careers.

All nascent organizations share the initial obstacle of acquiring the necessary funding to pay for startup costs. In a few months, we will hopefully be able to send members to work directly with Microfinance Initiatives on the ground in developing countries, but that is a long way down the road and requires significant funding. Despite these formidable impediments, we are a small group of dedicated students armed with the genuine desire to learn about global development issues; raise awareness in the Georgetown community of the diverse career opportunities in this field; and make a lasting impact with the knowledge and drive that we do possess.

JAYSEL SHAH is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service and a member of the Georgetown Global Microfinance Initiative business development team.

Visit us online at thehoya.com/business

COURTESY PHIL MOLDAVSKI

Nice Laundry offers men an affordable way to revolutionize their sock drawers with creative sock packs that vary in color and pattern. sure through Kickstarter — the company already had 2000 customers before launching officially.

“We’ve had an incredibly awesome response from people and have continued to see really great levels of sales, and we grow every month,” Moldavski said.

Nice Laundry’s business model is based on cutting unnecessary costs in order to provide affordable yet high-quality products. From Moldavksi’s own experience, he found the cost of a nice pair of socks to be anywhere from $12 to $40. Nice Laundry charges $39 for a pack of six pairs of socks, or $99 for three packs.

“There are just super inflated margins in the industry. We cut out the retail middleman and sell our socks directly online instead of through a department store,” Moldavski said.

“Traditionally there’s at least a [double] markup; instead we can pass on the saving to our customers.” The socks are produced in a factory in South Korea.

The six packs currently offered

by Nice Laundry carry the creative titles Chief, Dreamer, Exec, Ladies Man, Visionary and Wild Child, and they vary in color and pattern.

“They’re reflective of peoples’ personalities,” Moldavski said.

Every order is eligible for a prepaid shipping label, so consumers can send old socks back to Nice Laundry to be repurposed.

“We’re offering a complete solution for people through our recycling program,” Moldavski said.

Choi agreed.

“As a customer, there’s nothing you can do with old socks,” he said.

Georgetown students have already

INSIDER

begun ordering the product.

“I love weird crazy socks. I rock them at interviews to build confidence,” Jimmy Ramirez (COL ’15) said. “I heard about [Nice Laundry] through a good friend who knew I have this weird interest. They’re awesome, if you have a thing for socks like me.”

In terms of the future, Choi says Nice Laundry will continue to embrace its philosophy of maintaining the singular focus and mission to replace sock drawers around the world.

“At the end of the day, we are not building a product or a company or a store, we are building a service,” he said.

As a former Hoya, Moldavski believes his four years on the Corp marketing team and MSB experience influenced his career choices.

In particular, he cites a class called “Entrepreneurship” he took with Professor William Finnerty.

“It was really the first time that it got me thinking there’s more to life than consulting and investment banking,” he said.

Choi graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009.

Moldavski has two pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Don’t hesitate to reach out to people who you think are doing cool things to just ask them how they got to be where they are,” he said. “And test things out. Too many times people like to come up with a ‘startup idea’ and they take months or maybe even years perfecting it and no one wants the thing they’ve built.

Figure out ways to test your idea.”

TRADING

What is your opinion of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp? “With WhatsApp only having about 2.5 times more users than Instagram, it astonishes me that it sold (to Facebook) for 19 times the price.”

MATTHEW BUSEL (COL ’17) “It is definitely interesting given that Facebook is paying $19 billion. Although WhatsApp may not have a strong market in the United States, it has an incredibly large backing in foreign markets.

The question of whether the acquisition will pay off for Facebook will come down to whether WhatsApp’s growth continues in foreign markets and whether they find a sustainable mechanism to generate revenue.”

NEEMA GHAVIMI (COL ’16)