The Hoya: October 31, 2014

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 96, No. 18, © 2014

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014

FORGING SOCIAL LIFE

EDITORIAL The editorial board supports legalization of marijuana in D.C.

As GU tries to move social life back on campus, fake IDs still reign.

GUIDE, B1

Mold Worst in Village A Ashley Miller Hoya Staff Writer

Despite measures adopted last fall after an outbreak of mold in dormitories across campus, mold has become an increasing problem in Village A apartments, leaving students frustrated by the housing conditions and concerned about their health and safety.

According to Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey, six of the 20 complaints that students have submitted about mold in the past three weeks have been about Village A. Last fall’s infestation primarily concerned Henle Village.

Danny Khanin (SFS ’16) was forced to move out of his Village A apartment due to health problems that he believed were caused by mold.

“I just kept getting sick so I didn’t know if it was from living there or not,” Khanin, a varsity tennis player, said.

“Whenever I would leave I would feel much better and it started affecting my tennis and my schoolwork. I was able to move out and I’ve felt better since.”

Morey said that the university still is unsure of what is causing the current mold problems in Village A apartments.

“At this point we cannot attribute any circumstance that would result in Village A receiving approximately one quarter of the requests,” Morey wrote in an email. “However, as most of the work orders are related minor mold/mildew in bathrooms, we are inspecting the ventilations systems in the bathroom stacks at Village A, as this could be a potential opportunity to improve.”

Morey said that the highest volume See MOLD, A6

OPINION, A2

CLINTON IN GASTON Hillary Clinton spoke about women in the economy Thursday.

MEN’S SOCCER No. 13 Hoyas snuck by No. 9 Xavier 1-0 with a penalty in overtime.

NEWS, A4

SPORTS, B10

Alumni Prepare for Midterm Elections Natalie LaRue

Special to The Hoya

As campaigns enter their final push before midterm elections Tuesday, two Georgetown alumni are clamoring to join the 20 alumni already serving in Congress, while other alumni run for other political seats.

Democrat Deborah Dingell (SFS ’75, GRD ’98) remains in control of her campaign to represent Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, while independent candidate Nick Troiano (COL ’11, GRD ’13) and Democrat Sandra Fluke (LAW ’12) continue their push to remain competitive in their respective elections for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District and California State Senate.

DEBORAH DINGELL Dingell, who is currently a consultant for the American Automobile Policy Council, is running to fill the seat of her retiring husband, John Dingell (COL ’49, LAW ’52), the longest-serving member of Congress in its history. Decisively winning the August Democratic primary election by 40 points in a predominantly blue district, which spans from Detroit’s western suburbs to Ann Arbor, Dingell is heavily favored in the upcoming midterm against Republican challenger Terry Bowman. According to Roll Call, almost one in six of all women who have ever served in Congress succeeded their deceased partners. If elected, however, she would be the only woman to serve in Congress ever to succeed a husband who retired or resigned.

In a statement to The Hoya, Dingell credited her education and the community at Georgetown with guiding her along the campaign trail.

“I have stayed very close to the

COURTESY DEBORAH DINGELL

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

COURTESY NICK TROIANO

Deborah Dingell (SFS ’75, GRD ’98), left, and Nick Troiano (COL ’11, GRD ’13), center, are running to join the 20 Georgetown alumni in Congress. Sandra Fluke (LAW ’12) is running for California State Senate.

Georgetown community since my college days, participating in projects and attending mass,” she said.

“My relationship with Georgetown has provided me with a foundation to continually learn and seek knowledge.”

NICK TROIANO Troiano, an independent from Milford, Pa., is running to represent Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District in the northeast corner of the state to replace incumbent Republican Tom Marino, who has represented the district since 2010.

A Harper Poll released on Tuesday placed Marino’s support at 58 percent, ahead of the 22 percent for Democratic candidate Scott Brion and 10 percent for Troiano.

A former Republican, Troiano explained that he decided to run as an independent in the wake of the government shutdown last October.

“I decided to run for office because we need to fix our broken political system and restore real representation in Washington,” Troiano said. “We will not be able to address any of the major issues we face, including our unsustainable federal budget and national debt, with continued partisan gridlock and special interest corruption.”

Troiano’s campaign, which calls itself citizen-funded, parades the slogan, “America Deserves Better,” particularly highlighting environmental sustainability, fiscal responsibility, economic mobility and political reform as critical issues.

“I am running as an independent candidate and refusing to accept any special interest contributions to my campaign,” Troiano said. “I believe America deserves better than politics as usual.”

If elected, Troiano, who is cur-

rently 25 years old, would become the youngest member of Congress, a title that currently belongs to 31-year-old Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.).

“It’s very important for young people to run for office so that our generation has a voice because we are the ones who are going to have to deal with the consequences of the decisions that Congress does or does not make now,” Rachel Vierling, press secretary and policy director for Troiano’s campaign, said. “We need to engage more young people in politics in general.

Many are apathetic because they see a broken system with elected officials who aren’t doing what’s in the best interest of our generation, and feel helpless to fix it.”

Troiano nodded to Georgetown’s role in his success.

“My education in government at Georgetown taught me how See ELECTIONS, A6

CARRY THE WEIGHT

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

A group of students gathered to watch and counter anti-Catholic, born-again Christian protesters at the front gates Wednesday afternoon.

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Anti-Catholic Protesters Draw Crowd at Front Gates West African Admissions

Zoe Dobkin (SFS ’16), back left, was joined by Josi Sinagoga (SFS ’16), front left, Sarah Eng (NHS ’16), front right, and Maria Philip (SFS ’15) to help carry a mattress for Carry The Weight, a day of sexual assault awareness at college campuses across the country.

Molly Simio

Hoya Staff Writer

Three anti-Catholic, born-again Christian preachers stood outside the university’s front gates reading gospel passages and trying to spread an evangelical message to about 50 onlookers for about an hour-and-a-half Wednesday afternoon.

“Your good works don’t save you. Trying to be a good person doesn’t work for God. You can’t be any better than what you are, because it compares you to God, and in his righteousness and his holiness, you are an object of wrath,” one preacher said into a megaphone. “Your heart is corrupt. You can’t meet God’s standards.”

The preachers walked onto campus around 12 p.m. and were promptly removed from Healy Circle by the Georgetown University Police Department.

They then stood on 37th and O streets, outside of the front gates.

According to GUPD Chief Jay Gruber, the department called the Metropolitan Police Department because the demon-

stration blocked part of 37th Street. The group left at about 1:45 p.m. after MPD arrived.

“It’s very simple,” GUPD Chief Jay Gruber said. “They’re not a student group so they don’t have any access to rights or benefits on campus, so they had to be off campus.”

According to Gruber, MPD did not ask the group to leave, and no citations were issued.

The preachers, who are not affiliated with any group, have held similar demonstrations around the country.

“We go all over the country doing this — preaching to universities, campuses, community colleges and high schools.

We’re just preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re born-again Christians,” a demonstrator named Randy, who would not provide his last name, said.

About five GUPD officers were located near the front gates throughout the demonstration.

The demonstrators held signs citing

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

See PROTESTERS, A6

Unaffected by Ebola Outbreak Toby Hung

Hoya Staff Writer

Despite the travel policies put in place by the Office of Risk Management prohibiting universitysponsored travel to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in light of the outbreak of the Ebola virus, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will not implement regulations on international student admissions from Central and West Africa.

Kathryn Timlin, associate director of admissions for the Africa, Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and Russia regions, said that since students would not arrive on campus until next fall, it is unlikely that international student admissions would be affected by

Published Tuesdays and Fridays

the Ebola outbreak.

“As of now, we have no policy.

It does not have an immediate impact,” Timlin said. “Because we’re recruiting for the fall of 2015 at this point, we’re 10 months or

“The countries in question are not producers of many students.”

KATHRYN TIMLIN Associate Director of Admissions

so away to worry about a student from anywhere, including [Western] Africa, coming to Georgetown and whether that would be

perceived as an issue for our office to tackle.”

Historically, the number of applications from the region affected by Ebola has been low.

“We receive applications throughout the African continent, but the countries that are in question … are not producers of many international students,” Timlin said. “If we do end up admitting a student from that region who ends up being infected, that would be something that we would tackle from the provost’s office.”

The Office of Risk Management issued an updated visitor policy last week to apply the university protocol of risk assessment to visiSee EBOLA, A6

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OPINION

THE HOYA

Friday, october 31, 2014

THE VERDICT

C

Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

C Vote for Legalization in DC C

Georgetown’s age-old pledge to promote social justice around the world is a basic tenet of our mission as a university. This election cycle, many Georgetown students, as well as all voters in the District of Columbia, have been given the opportunity to implement a policy that would fulfill that pledge: Ballot Initiative 71.

Initiative 71, which is on the ballot next Tuesday in the District, would legalize possession, home cultivation and consumption of small amounts of marijuana, as well as possession and sale of marijuana paraphernalia in Washington, D.C. While the measure does not go as far as those in Washington state and Colorado — states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana for those over the age of 21 — it is the next logical step in what has been a sequence of reforms that has worked to bend the arc of the District’s legal system more toward justice.

According to an American Civil Liberties Union study released in June 2013, arrests for marijuana possession — not just in the District, but nationwide — disproportionally affect minority communities, despite the fact that data show there is no difference between rates of marijuana usage across races.

Based on this significant and (for those who are caught) life-altering divide, this editorial board supported the initial decriminalization and is now endorsing Initiative 71.

This July, marijuana decriminalization took effect in D.C., leaving only civil misdemeanor penalties for those caught with less than one ounce of the substance. In addition, D.C. Met-

ropolitan Police officers are no longer able to take action based on the smell of marijuana alone and they cannot demand identification from those in possession of less than one ounce of the drug.

Taking the step to legalize both possession and cultivation of marijuana in one’s home ensures that police resources will be focused on crimes that have a more detrimental effect on society as a whole.

Of considerable importance is that, even if Initiative 71 passes, it still faces the potential of being overturned by an act of Congress, which is, of course, less than a model of functionality. This reality serves to further highlight why Washingtonians should be able to determine their laws for themselves, especially those that have a real and measurable impact on their lives — but this is an argument for another day. In its oversight role, Congress should take care to not be so domineering that it undermines the clearly articulated will of D.C. citizens, which would be the case if it were to overturn Initiative 71 after its passage.

While Georgetown students who are registered to vote in their home states cannot vote in support of Initiative 71, those who are registered in D.C. should make sure to head to the polls Tuesday.

Given the currently dysfunctional federal government, it is not to be taken for granted that Washington, D.C., will lead on important issues of our time. On Nov. 4, Washingtonians will have that chance. We should vote “yes” on Initiative 71 to assure that we make use of it.

Toll Trolls — A Fairfax County woman won a “partial victory” over the operators of the I-495 Express Lanes who charged her $10,692 in unpaid fines for “11 trips,” in which she is due back in court for a final, assuaged fee.

The Cat’s in the App — Uber is starting a kitten’s campaign, UberKITTENS, to raise awareness for the adoption of cats. For $30, you can cuddle with a kitten for 15 minutes, but if the cat really has your heart, some shelters may let you adopt it.

Training Wheels — Signs distributed around university construction sites labelled the Northeast Triangle as the “Northeast Trainagle.”

C

Shelter: Halloween, Without the Superstitions — Shelters used to have to hide their black cats during Halloween for fear of them being kidnapped for “nefarious purposes.” Now, during the Halloween season, they are encouraging potential owners to buy black cats and ward off superstition.

C

Thoughts From Pharrell — Popular musician Pharrell weighed in on the D.C. mayoral election by endorsing Democratic nominee Muriel Bowser.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Megan Schmidt

The Right Response to Protest It seemed almost preordained that, amid Georgetown’s free speech confrontations in recent months, a group of religious sensationalists took to Healy Circle to preach against Catholic teachings. Allowed to continue their disruptive ranting so long as their feet stayed beyond the bricks of the front gates, the outspoken visitors used a bullhorn to communicate their rather extremist message.

Although the trio of protesters harangued passers-by, their hatred-filled religious unilateralism was countered honorably. Georgetown students engaged with humility and respect — not an easy choice when going up against someone shouting through a microphone. They engaged with intellect and understanding, and they demonstrated a readiness to have a mature dialogue with those who have radically different views.

It is this readiness that is central to this campus’s current debate on free speech.

What Georgetown students were ready and

willing to do was engage — and these motives and understanding extend to students of all beliefs, from those at the H*yas for Choice table to those at the Vita Saxa table next to them.

In a setting where the virtue of Georgetown’s Catholicism was openly called into question, students demonstrated remarkable maturity, further supporting claims that campus-wide free speech would not make Georgetown any less Catholic.

In a free speech ruling in 1971, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court John Harlan wrote, “That the air may at some time seem filled with verbal cacophony is, in this sense, not a sign of weakness but of strength.”

Verbal cacophony, no doubt, filled the intersection of 37th and O streets on Wednesday.

The result, however, was unambiguous: A community of students, well-educated both in mind and in spirit, stood up in the face of hatred. No one could ask for anything more.

An Open Door on Halloween

For many Georgetown students, tonight’s holiday is an opportunity for shenanigans and drinking. We dress up and dress down; we drink up and throw down.

However, it wasn’t always that way. As children, Halloween was exceptional for a different reason. The pile of candy that amassed from our neighbors was like a divine offering.

Remember the sheer joy of neighborhood doors opening to reveal an enthusiastic host providing an expansive selection of confections — even if our parents hid it from us the moment we got home.

In fond recollection of these memories — and as a gesture of neighborly kindness — Georgetown students who live in townhouses and off campus should keep in mind the children who reside in the neighborhoods of

Burleith and West Georgetown. Opening the door, keeping a bowl of candy close by (or a bowl of apples, if you’re into that kind of thing) and keeping the beer cans out of sight of the front door this Halloween would show great respect to the families with whom we share these beautiful neighborhoods — as small a gesture it may be.

Of course, as the kids go home, there is nothing to stop Georgetown from celebrating as usual. But for the prime hours of trick-or-treating, it will go a long way to the parents and children at Georgetown for students’ homes to be stocked with candy and for students to be welcoming to sweets-seeking guests knocking on their doors. Georgetown is both a university and a community, and this Halloween is an excellent time to prove it.

Emma Hinchliffe, Editor-in-Chief Mallika Sen, Executive Editor Robert DePaolo, Managing Editor Ian Tice, Online Editor Molly Simio, Campus News Editor Suzanne Monyak, City News Editor Sam Abrams, Sports Editor Jess Kelham-Hohler, Guide Editor David Chardack, Opinion Editor Michelle Xu, Photography Editor Zack Saravay, Copy Chief Emma Holland, Blog Editor

Contributing Editors

Zoe Bertrand, TM Gibbons-Neff, Penny Hung, Nicole Jarvis, Hanaa Khadraoui, Sheena Karkal, Jackie McCadden, Sean Sullivan, Laura Wagner, Emory Wellman

Katherine Richardson Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy City News Editor Kshithij Shrinath Deputy Business News Editor Kim Bussing Deputy Sports Editor Andrew May Sports Blog Editor Max Wheeler Deputy Guide Editor Allison Hillsbery Deputy Guide Edtior Hannah Kaufman Opinion Blog Editor Jinwoo Chong Deputy Opinion Editor Ben Germano Deputy Photography Editor Julia Hennrikus Deputy Photography Editor Daniel Smith Deputy Photography Editor Natasha Thomson Acting Layout Editor Zoe Bertrand Acting Layout Editor Emory Wellman Deputy Copy Editor Gabi Hasson Deputy Copy Editor Katie Haynes Deputy Copy Editor Sharanya Sriram Deputy Blog Editor Emily Min

This week on

Be sure to check Chatter, The Hoya’s online opinion section, throughout the week for additional opinion pieces.

SEamus guerin (COL ’16) shows us why you can’t fully understand the sciences without fully understanding philosophy:

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When does “it’s on my Georgetown bucket list” become “it’s what I’m doing on Saturday”? Why not this Saturday?

Perhaps we won’t go as far as the streets of Rome or mountains of Patagonia back on the Hilltop, but outside even just D.C., Old-Town Alexandria and our Appalachian backyard are ours to enjoy. Time abroad sure goes quickly, but we should remember that it doesn’t go any slower at Georgetown.”

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OPINION

friDAY, october 31, 2014

OF PROGRESSIVE PERSUASION

THE HOYA

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VIEWPOINT • Stiles

Invest in the District With Your Vote

W

Abby Grace

Anti-Choice Lacks Moral Authority T

his past week, H*yas for Choice reached a milestone that we have been working toward since my start at Georgetown: permanent tabling in Red Square every Monday through Friday.

Now, students will have on-campus access to contraception and comprehensive, educational sexual health resources on a daily basis. None of this would be possible without the nearly 100 students who, on a weekly basis, dedicate their personal time to serving fellow students.

By choosing to sit behind the “H*yas for Choice” banner, in addition to dedicating their time to tabling, each of these students also takes on an additional responsibility — defending their pro-choice beliefs. At times, supporting this viewpoint is especially difficult at a Catholic university.

This not only stems from institutional oppression, but it also is in part because of the fact that it is still socially acceptable for individuals to approach our table and openly deride our members for their personal beliefs.

Catholicism, among select other institutionalized religions, states that supporting a woman’s right to choose constitutes a moral failing. As a result, when members of H*yas for Choice are confronted by those hostile to our views, our opponents frequently claim that pro-choice ideology rests upon a morally relativist foundation. However, I reject the notion that the anti-choice movement has a monopoly on morality.

My moral commitment to reproductive justice is deeply rooted in the institutional failures that I witnessed in my home state of Mississippi. Throughout my time in the Mississippi public education system, a two-day session in my eighth grade science class was the only semblance of sexual education provided to students. In lieu of a presentation directly from any official school employee, two “community activists” from our town were invited to teach the class.

The very first picture placed on the overhead projector was that of a young couple standing on a snowy mountain. Each successive image compared their decision to hold hands to a snowball, making it clear that as soon as the snowball started rolling down the seemingly picturesque snowy mountain, an avalanche of sexual deviance inevitably formed. This presentation sent the message that any frank conversation about sexuality and reproductive options had no place in our public discourse.

Despite the presumptive nature of their presentation, these two activists were unaware of a large cloud currently hanging over my eighth grade science class. One of our fellow students, at the age of 14, was on maternity leave and currently caring for her newborn. My classmate’s pregnancy occurred within a context devoid of information, free access to contraception and education about what it means to assert one’s personal agency — even, in her specific case, the agency to say “no.”

Today, I still strongly believe that this particular classmate and the countless additional teenage parents in my hometown were failed by a larger system. In my opinion, this systemic failure is a direct result of personal religious convictions interfering with sensible policies that are scientifically proven to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy.

Rather than confronting cyclical patterns of teenage pregnancy and making attempts to educate youth about basic sexual health, Mississippi and countless other states have allowed social stigma to perpetuate silence and a system of cyclical inequity.

Until every individual, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation or geographic location has the opportunity to receive a comprehensive sexual education, free access to contraception and a supportive environment to make personal decisions about bodily autonomy, anti-choice policies only serve to further erode women’s relative standing in society.

Furthermore, when women have the opportunity to make choices about their reproductive futures, they are empowered economically, politically and socially. When women can speak candidly about their lived experiences, rather than dwelling in an environment that champions sexual repression, progress is achieved through solidarity.

My sense of morality stems from one overarching tenant: equality of opportunity.

Pro-choice policies do not stand on morally relative foundations; rather, they are rooted in a long-standing philosophical tradition supporting the inherent dignity of every living human being and respecting each individual’s choices.

Those who oppose the inherent rights of women to exercise bodily autonomy should not claim the moral high ground. Rather, opponents should openly acknowledge that their opposition is rooted in their personal religious convictions and that they, too, might be fallible.

Abby Grace is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. Of Progressive Persuasion appears every other Friday.

ashington, D.C., is suffering. In sociology we talk a lot about symbols; when the District sent out an upside down flag on the cover of the 2014 D.C. Voters’ Guide, it was a perfect example of a symbol.

What a telling mistake to make; D.C. is, indeed, in distress.

Many people on campus talk about wanting to change the world but ignore changing the capital of the free world — their own backyard.

We claim we value diversity — racial, socioeconomic, religious, sexual orientation — yet with each passing day, the people who make this a diverse city are forced to leave.

You can do something about this.

You can take ownership of this city, which belongs to all of us. It’s time to wake up.

Income disparity in the District is among the widest in the United States. According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, the top 5 percent of households in D.C. have incomes over half a million dollars and the top 20 percent averaged $284,000.

Compare that with the average income of the bottom 20 percent at $9,900. Try living on $10,000 and you will wonder, who is D.C. really for?

Family homelessness rose 25 percent last year — a clear indication of distress. Your fellow residents are in cars, couch surfing and in D.C. General shelter, the nightmare of a family shelter out by RFK stadium.

The sprawling facility was formerly a public hospital and shares the immediate neighborhood with an STD clinic, the D.C. city jail and a detox center — needless to say, not the greatest place to raise a family.

The only difference between a homeless person and you is a home,

Back in 2012, the pundits said the millennials would not turn out to vote, and yet you swayed the election. which is inherently linked to affordable housing.

The latest numbers out of the D.C. Department of Corrections show 91 percent of those currently incarcerated in D.C. are African-American, 93 percent are men and only a little over 50 percent say they have a high school diploma or GED. But these people face few job prospects when they get out, and none of them are

bad people. They were born as cute babies, just like you, but grew up in circumstances where the odds were stacked against them. Nobody wants to live a life of self-destruction.

D.C. residents need a great education (like you had), living wage jobs (like you likely will have) and affordable housing (on that, all bets are off if you stay here).

You are here the better part of

VIEWPOINT • Jorgensen

four years; D.C. is your college town and as our nation’s capital: It really is your city. We have an obligation to take care of our capital. We have to ask ourselves, “Who is in charge?

How did we let this happen?” We must hold our government accountable.

You have power. Back in 2012, the pundits said the millennials would not turn out to vote, and yet you did — you swayed the election.

If it hadn’t been for the young adult vote in the battleground states, the election would have come out differently.

I urge you to look at the D.C. Voter’s Guide and vote on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at the Duke Ellington School at 3500 R St., NW. As a resident of the District, all you need for same-day registration is a Georgetown University document verifying you live in a residence hall, a bank statement, utility bill or lease with your D.C. address.

Your fellow students are working to get that easily available to you by Tuesday. Two of your classmates, Kendyl Clausen (SFS ’16) and Reed Howard (SFS ’17), are sticking their necks out and putting themselves forward as candidates representing our Advisory Neighborhood Commission. There are over 7,500 undergrads on this campus. You have a voice and a moral imperative to use it. By voting in this election you will be counted among those who care about this city, and that will give you credibility and legitimacy when you demand change.

Before you stay home next Tuesday, think about that great Alice Walker quote, “Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet.”

Sarah C. Stiles is a professor in the department of sociology.

AS THIS JESUIT SEES IT ...

Republicans Govern The High Calling of Through Fear, Not Fact Bothered Excellence

I

n his first inaugural address in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed his belief that in America, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Last week, Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown, running in New Hampshire, disagreed.

“What she calls fear mongering, I call rational fear,” Brown said in response to incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D-N.H.) observation that Brown’s ads concerning the Islamic State and Ebola amount to scare tactics meant to drum up headlines and votes.

This kind of political opportunism might not come as a surprise from a former senator who, after being defeated by challenger Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts in 2012, barely unpacked his bags in New Hampshire before announcing a second Senate run. Unfortunately, however, Republican fear mongering extends far beyond Brown.

Even the sensationalism about the IS group and Ebola this election cycle is a mere incarnation of a culture of fear Republicans have perpetuated and exploited over the past decade.

Fear as a political motivator dates back to Machiavelli, but fear as a political and electoral tool has played a special role in the Republican Party since 2001. The Bush Administration perfected scare tactics amid panic in the wake of 9/11. Our nation’s leaders harnessed public anxiety about al-Qaida and the threat of Muslim extremism for their own political agenda. Vice President Dick Cheney conjured up images of a Judgment Day brought about by nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists to drum up support for his party in 2006, and President George W. Bush falsely claimed the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as reason to invade.

In 2008, with the rise of Sen. Barack Hussein Obama, the politics of fear evolved: Misinformation regarding Obama’s religion and birthplace sustained American Islamophobia and xenophobia, while his race crystallized white GOP anxiety about the changing demography and social climate of the country. McCain and Palin merged these narratives by encouraging the portrayal of Obama as an anti-American, pro-terrorist, noncitizen out to attack the American way of life, an image that has proven resilient.

By 2010, the Republican Party had institutionalized the politics of fear mongering. Then-RNC midterm campaign officials described “visceral” donors who could be motivated to give money through “fear.” Today, Republicans have used everything from immigration rhetoric that reinforces racial prejudices to paranoia about taxes to the downright dismissal of CDC-recommended Ebola policies to play on the ignorance and baseless anxieties of constituents in order to

solicit votes and money.

But apart from being tasteless, immoral and regressive, the real danger of fear mongering is its capacity to undermine the government’s ability to deal realistically with national problems and its tendency to divert political attention from substantive, long-term issues to whatever alarminducing fad dominates the headlines.

It is past time for Republican midterm candidates to acknowledge that securing the U.S.’ long-term safety is dependent on controlling the epidemic in West Africa. Instead, they continue to encourage misplaced “blame” for Ebola on the president (who now apparently has the power to call down plague). The Ebola policy debate should center on how to best achieve this containment while protecting Americans involved in the effort and ensuring our hospitals are prepared to treat infected caregivers, not on how long an asymptomatic nurse should be quarantined in a parking lot outside a New Jersey hospital.

Better yet, we could talk less about Ebola all together. Let’s talk about our health care infrastructure, about public health funding, about the Medicaid expansion that has not yet occurred in 23 states. Instead of declaring that Obama’s IS group strategy will get us all killed back here at home, let’s talk about the thousands of people actually being killed outside their homes just south of our border by drug cartels supported by failed American drug and weapons policies.

Instead of conflating hysteria about the IS group, Ebola and illegal immigration in the American psyche, let’s get our facts straight and debate a path to citizenship with an administration that has a record 2 million deportations. Let’s discuss long-term environmental policy and energy efficiency instead of filing lawsuits perpetuating the myth of Obama as a socialist dictator, when in fact he is on his way to fewer executive orders than either Clinton or Bush 43.

Let’s reject political sensationalism and fear and assess the obstacles facing us — and there are obstacles — more objectively and accurately, and debate policy alternatives accordingly.

After all, what followed FDR’s famous declaration about our national fear is less quoted but equally important: “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror ... paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Today, America is paralyzed by fear, and it is the responsibility of its leaders not to contribute to this paralysis, but to build national confidence through level-headed analysis and action, thus advancing us once again.

Fear mongering diverts attention from long-term issues.

Mariel Jorgensen is a junior in the College. She is the director of membership for the Georgetown University College Democrats.

W

hat makes a Jesuit less resume building; rather, it is education different? character building, identity buildOver the years, I have ing. heard many efforts to describe the If we fully take this on, it will unique chemistry of a place like bother us. We will find that we are Georgetown. Last week, though, I not satisfied with inherited roles, heard one that was genuinely new jobs or views; we will want to take for me. A Jesuit who has served on the freedom and responsibilas president of two universities ity to create such things ourselves. summed up our educational ethos We will not be content waiting for with the somewhat inelegant yet someone else to deal with the isspot-on phrase: “bothered excel- sues we see. We will step out to try lence.” to address them, even when we are The phrase has echoed in my not yet entirely sure what to do. ears ever since — especially the first Bothered excellence. Perhaps word: “bothered.” the phrase rings so true to me beWhen Jesuit education works, it cause I’ve talked lately to several bothers. It gets under your skin. It students who are living a bothered disquiets, and it challenges, even excellence in all its fullness. as it goads and encourages and There’s one recent graduate inspires. It is a worldview in which who has had a marvelous experi“mediocrity has no place,” and it ence working for a consulting firm resists complacenfor a few years, but cy at all costs. is now leaving the We find ourindustry to take the selves unsatisfied risky step to try to with superficial address structural thoughts or simissues through govplistic reasoning. ernmental service.

We experience a Then there’s anrelentless desire other young alumto learn, because nus grappling to we recognize Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J. find creative ways that our growing to unite the two knowledge is vastly worlds to which he exceeded by how has given his life much we do not yet — one of direct acknow. The search tion in low-income for truth and immigrant neighmeaning beckons borhoods and one us forward, leaving us always a bit focused on policymaking and acarestless. demia — in spite of how far apart Jesuit education also beckons the people in these two communius into grappling with our world ties see themselves.

— the real world, as it exists today I think of a sophomore who has — and all the ways that it is both- been set on fire by her environmenered in its political, economic and tal science course, and who is now social relations. It gazes unflinch- shaping her choices of major and ingly on injustice and suffering study-abroad locations so that she and challenges us to ask “Why?” It can address what she sees as the depushes us to take the risk to reach fining issue of her generation. across the most profound divides And I think of a junior who has of beliefs and history to try (and poured himself into gender studsometimes, to fail) to build new re- ies and preventing relationship lationships. violence, and who is now pushIt invites us to not only observe ing himself to engage these issues the poverty and mistreatment of where it is most challenging and so many of our fellow inhabitants yet most important — among his of our planet, but to take these on group of friends. as our own. The world we study beThese excellent students are comes more than a subject in class, bothered in the best of ways, and but a responsibility in life. they inspire us by the questions Indeed, the Jesuit vision of they ask of themselves, of our com“bothered excellence” also un- munity and of our world. settles our understanding of sucOf course, there are a host of cess. That first word transforms petty issues that can bother us in the second: Our excellence is dif- unproductive and unhealthy ways, ferent because it is bothered, and and indeed, on our stress-addled because it bothers us. Being sim- campus, we would do well to avoid ply outstanding is not enough; them. But at heart, Jesuit education it actually leaves us feeling flat. is about allowing the best and most Rather, we want our efforts to be meaningful questions to bother us at the service of something bigger, relentlessly. This kind of bothered something more meaningful. excellence is not a passing condiMost importantly, Jesuit educa- tion; it is a welcome way of life. tion calls to us on a personal level.

The former superior general of the Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., is an Jesuit order, Peter-Hans Kolven- assistant professor in the govbach, noted that “the real measure ernment department. He is one of our Jesuit universities lies in of the alternating writers for AS who our students become.” The THIS JESUIT SEES IT … which aptask is not skillbuilding, and even pears every other Friday.

The world we study becomes a responsibility.

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Ruth Gavison spoke on Israel’s Jewish identity. See story on A8.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

verbatim

DEATHLY DECOR

“

New South definitely smelled a little funkier than usual.”

Alana McGovern (COL ’18) on the lack of hot water’s effects.

See story on A6.

from

FILE PHOTO: MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

VALERIA BALZA FOR THE HOYA

Adding color to ghoulish Halloween festivities, students decorated sugar skulls for the Day of the Dead, in an event put on by the Georgetown Spanish and Portugese Club in the Spanish and Portugese deparment in the ICC on Wednesday night.

SERVING UP DCAF To get excited for the annual two-weekend D.C. A Cappella Festival, take a look at videos of past performances. blog.thehoya.com

Clinton Relaunches Women’s Economic Initiative MOLLY SIMIO

count in formal measures of nations’ economies. When she was travelling around West Africa as first lady during Former Secretary of State Hillary the 1990s, Clinton observed women Clinton, the honorary co-founder of working in fields and marketplaces. the Georgetown Institute for WomHowever, Clinton said that econoen, Peace and Security, discussed the mists told her that they were not evalprogress made in women’s participa- uating the contributions that women tion in business across the globe and were making to the economies bethe work that still needs to be done to cause they were not participating in close the gender gap in economic par- the formal economy that can be meaticipation in Gaston Hall on Thursday sured by classic economic analysis. afternoon.

Clinton stressed the importance of The event, entitled “The Power of creating opportunities for women to Women’s Economic Participation,” participate in formal economies. was sponsored by GIWPS and marked “It is true that if more women have the relaunch of the International the opportunity to participate fully in Council on Women’s Business Leader- the formal economy, they, their famiship. Founded within the U.S. Depart- lies and their communities will prosment of State by Clinton during her per,” Clinton said. tenure as SecIn order to enretary of State, courage equal the council participation in has shifted to the workplace GIWPS’ jurisbetween women diction and and men, Clinwill focus on ton said, certain women’s isbarriers must sues in interbe removed. She national busistated the imporness and in tance of accesinternational sible child care economic poland paid sick icy. leave. AdditionUniverally, she said that sity President in developing HILLARY CLINTON GIWPS Executive Director John J. Decountries, many Gioia offered women do not opening remarks on the goals of the even have access to basic sanitation, council and their compatibility with including toilets, in the workplace. the university’s values.

“We in this council are looking at “The issues that the council will everything from truly the most basic focus on deeply are deeply resonant barriers that enable girls and women with the mission of this university,” to go on to higher education, enable DeGioia said. “The economic empow- them to be in the workforce, away erment of women, the promotion of from their homes for some period gender equality, equal access to capi- during the day, all the way to how tal and markets and the building of to get more women onto program capacity and skills all reflect our tradi- boards and into executive positions,” tion of social justice, our commitment Clinton said. to equal opportunity and our dedicaClinton stressed that the economic tion to the common good.” benefits of incorporating more womClinton began her speech by ex- en into the workplace and ensuring pressing remorse about the death of that they earn equal pay extend to naSchool of Foreign Service Dean Emer- tions as a whole. ita Carol Lancaster, who died Oct. 22.

“If you look at the data, and I invited “My thoughts and prayers are with you all to do that, and we are going to Carol’s family and friends and the en- be producing more data through the tire university community,” Clinton Clinton Foundation No Ceilings inisaid. “She would have really loved to tiative, it is very clear that the more have been here for this. … She was in- women that we can get to participate strumental in the creation of the first- fully and get paid equal pay for equal ever, anywhere in the world, George- work, the faster our economy will retown Institute for Women, Peace and cover,” Clinton said.

Security.”

According to Clinton, if women Clinton went on to speak about the begin to participate in the workforce importance of encouraging the equal at the same levels that men do, develparticipation of women in the work- oped countries’ GDPs could rise by as force. much as 10 percent and developing According to Clinton, much of the countries’ GDPs could rise by as much work that women are doing around as 30 to 40 percent. the world takes place in informal Clinton closed by saying that she economies and is not taken into ac- will work to ensure opportunities for Hoya Staff Writer

“The more women that we can get to participate fully and get paid equal pay for equal work, the faster our economy will recover.”

NATE MOULTON/THE HOYA

GIWPS Executive Director and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the necessity of women in business to ensure economic prosperity, followed by a panel on women’s economic participation. her granddaughter, Charlotte, who was born last month, but that these opportunities must be extended to all people, regardless of their background.

“You should not have to be someone who goes to Georgetown, or in our case, the granddaughter of a former president who also happened to go to Georgetown, to be given the tools and to have the support of your community, as well as your family,” Clinton said.

Following Clinton’s lecture, GIWPS Executive Director Melanne Verveer (FLL ’66, GRD ’69), the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, moderated a panel discussion about women’s economic participation. Panelists included Foundation for Women founder Cherie Blair, Bank of America Global Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Anne Finucane, former Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy and Minister of Trade of Indonesia Mari Pangestu and Chair of the Strauss Group’s Management Board Ofra Strauss.

Pangestu shared an anecdote about her experience in a village in Africa where, when asked how to delegate

funds, the men wanted to purchase an antenna so that they could watch soccer, and the women wanted to use the money to install a pipe system so that they did not have to spend three hours a day getting water.

“It’s not just about women’s participation in the economy. It’s actually more basic than that,” Pangestu said.

“It’s also about the decision-making from the beginning as to what the money should be delegated for.”

Finucane spoke about the different perspectives that women bring to corporate leadership.

“The women’s voices at the table have made a real difference. One-third of our board of directors is women, half the management of the company who are vice presidents and above are women,” Finucane said. “I do think that has made a huge difference in terms of just the conversation, let alone the progress we’ve made.”

Gaston Hall was filled to capacity, with several rows reserved for council members and for female ambassadors.

Halle Hagan (SFS ’18), who attended the event, said that she enjoyed hear-

ing from accomplished women about what needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workforce.

“I’m glad that measures are being taken in both developed and developing countries to expand opportunities for women in the economy,” Hagan said. “And we’re still on our way to ensuring that everyone’s labor is valued equally.”

Veronica Yam (NHS ’18) said that she appreciated the statistical evidence that Clinton presented about the economic benefits of including women in the economy.

“One point I liked that both Hillary and the panelists made was that not only is including women in the formal economy a morally right thing to do but that it would help the world economy as a whole,” Yam said. “I’ve never taken an Economics class, so I’ve always thought that encouraging women in the business world was only the right thing to do. It was nice to learn how it would actually improve the economy.”

Hoya Staff Writer Toby Hung contributed reporting.

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FRIday, OCTOBER 31, 2014

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Past Provost Named GU Prof to Lead Freedom House ASU Librarian Lucy Pash

Special to The Hoya

Katherine Richardson Hoya Staff Writer

Former Georgetown University Provost Jim O’Donnell was named as Arizona State University’s librarian Monday. O’Donnell, who is currently a classics professor at Georgetown, will begin his new position in February after over 12 years at Georgetown.

According to University President John J. DeGioia, O’Donnell’s work as a professor and provost greatly propelled Georgetown forward in its academic pursuits.

“Jim has had an extraordinary career as a scholar, professor and university administrator, serving Georgetown with distinction as provost and professor of classics for more than a dozen years,” DeGioia wrote in a statement. “As provost, he oversaw our academic mission with unparalleled commitment to excellence during a time of significant progress for the university.”

DeGioia said that O’Donnell will be greatly missed but will also serve as a valuable asset for ASU. “We are deeply grateful for all that Jim has contributed to our Georgetown community as an inspiring colleague, leader, teacher, scholar and friend,” DeGioia wrote.

“I know that his experience and deep commitment to advancing scholarship will greatly benefit the ASU community as they have for Georgetown for so many years.”

As university librarian, O’Donnell will work to fit ASU’s libraries into the rapidly modernizing world.

“My job there will be to point the way forward, preserving what’s important about what we have but building the new as well,” O’Donnell wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We have a chance there to reinvent the spaces we work in, and that’s exciting, but also to reinvent ‘collecting’ books and other materials to take into account new technologies and new business models. It’s all exciting and scary, but ASU is also a very forward-looking and ambitious institution. I really like that.”

O’Donnell said that his experience as provost has helped prepare him for the job as a “soldier” in

the academic world.

“Probably best to think of me as a soldier, engaged my whole career in the war on ignorance,” O’Donnell wrote. “Georgetown for me was a wonderful opportunity to lead a faculty of great, committed people to achieve more than we ever thought possible. The library world is different: We fight with different weapons in different ways, but it’s all the same war.”

During his tenure as provost, O’Donnell helped lead the President’s Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness. Additionally, he overhauled faculty compensation and helped to ensure a large increase in student financial aid.

This semester, O’Donnell is teaching a business administration course called “Learning to Think Globally,” as well as an Ignatius Seminar for freshmen in the College.

ASU Dean of Humanities George Justice was on the selection committee for the new head librarian, and said that O’Donnell stood out in the application pool. As provost at Georgetown from 2002 to 2012, chief information officer at the University of Pennsylvania and professor at a variety of institutions such as Cornell University and Bryn Mawr College, his vast experience in academia made him ASU’s top choice.

“Jim O’Donnell brings a vision for the future of information, a respect for the history and importance of libraries, and senior level executive experience to Arizona State University,” Justice wrote in an email to The Hoya. “No other candidate in our very deep pool had this very unusual set of talents and experiences.”

Justice said he hopes that O’Donnell will forge ASU’s libraries ahead into the technological age.

“I have very high hopes that he will have a direct impact on making our librarians even more useful to students, faculty and staff,” Justice wrote. “And beyond that, I believe his presence will invigorate research and education not only in his own area of the humanities but across the wide range of academic subjects that we pursue at ASU.”

DDOT Announces 2-Year Plan Matthew Larson Hoya Staff Writer

The District Department of Transportation announced a two-year action plan last week to kickstart its implementation of MoveDC, the District’s long-term transportation plan that will guide infrastructure developments in the city until 2040.

The Georgetown area will see a number of changes planned as part of MoveDC, including a Georgetown station for the Metrorail, potential tolls or congestion charges for cars, repairs and expansion of the Key Bridge and improvements to bike paths, new trails and walkways. Sam Zimbabwe, the DDOT associate director of planning, policy and sustainability administration, warned that these long-term projects may not even be completed by 2040.

“It will be a tremendously costly thing and take a long time to build,” Zimbabwe said. “This is a 2040 plan, and I think we’ll be lucky if something like that happens in that time span.”

The two-year plan calls for the addition of bike lanes, sidewalks and increased automated features at bus stops throughout the city. DDOT will also commence bridge repair work and evaluate the city’s transportation infrastructure to lay the groundwork for their future developments.

“The 25-year plan is something that’s hard for a lot of people, including us, even sometimes, to think about. It’s a long, long time frame,” Zimbabwe said. “Through the action plan, we can start on the implementation of a number of the recommendations. Not every single one, but most of them are covered by actions in the two-year action plan.”

Mandated by the Federal Highway Administration, which provides much of the funding for D.C.’s transportation budget, MoveDC expanded DDOT’s plans for a city-wide transportation upgrade. The 25-year outlook aims to add a 22-mile streetcar system, a 47-mile “high-capacity” transit network and water taxis in Georgetown and the Navy Yard, in addition to improving existing Metrorail and Metrobus services.

“For this plan in particular, we kind of went further than what was required,” DDOT Strategic Planning Branch Manager Colleen Hawkinson said. “We really drilled down to make it a local, city-wide plan as well. New York City, San Francisco

[and] Philadelphia have all recently undertaken local city plans, and we wanted to make sure that we captured both the requirements, as well as the local city needs.”

The improvements offered by the plan look to address D.C.’s exponential population growth and the subsequent stresses placed on the transportation network.

“The District, for the last four years or so, has grown by about 1,100 people every month,” Zimbabwe said. “And that increase in activity means there is more demand on all modes of travel. So, biking, people taking transit, people driving.

If there’s not a coordinated, multimodal plan that looks at all those together, we would have a lot of big problems.”

Cheryl Cort, the policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, worked on the task force that helped put together the MoveDC plan and explained that one of its main goals was to encourage and facilitate the use of public transportation.

“We are really excited about the creation of this cohesive vision for the future of the city,” she said. “The Sustainable D.C. goal is that 75 percent of commute trips would be by walk, bike and transit, something other than [cars]. …We think that’s a great way to look at how we can give people better transportation services that also are going to reduce pollution and enhance health and address climate change all at the same time.”

Despite the funding concerns, Cort said that she believed that the new mayoral administration that would take office in 2015 would also support the plan.

“We need to make sure that our elected officials are supportive of moving this plan forward and providing the funding and support for the policies in the plan. We’re confident that we can do that,” she said.

Although the effects of the master plan will not soon be implemented, Georgetown Running Club Communications Director Jimmy Smith (COL ’17) said he believes that the plan’s long-term goals will offer the Running Club new running paths.

“It definitely is great for us,” he said. “It’s going to make more people run, which we always like to see, but second of all, it’ll be great to just give us more room and places to run around the city.”

Ambassador Mark Lagon (GRD ’91), a professor in the School of Foreign Service, was selected as the new president of Freedom House in Washington D.C., an independent organization that addresses worldwide threats to freedom and democracy worldwide.

Lagon, the chair for global politics and security in the Master of Science in Foreign Service program, currently teaches courses on “Ethics and Decision-Making” and “U.N. and Global Institutions.” He will start at Freedom House on Jan. 2, leaving Georgetown’s teaching staff in order to fully focus on the new position.

“I think it is inevitable that I will come back and be a professor, and I think I need to concentrate on being the manger and leader of Freedom House and be ‘all-in,’ as it were,” Lagon said.

While at Freedom House, Lagon will help analyze political and civil liberties of each country, advocate for the spread of democracy and create policy recommendations for the U.S. government. “[Freedom House] basically does three things,” Lagon said. “It puts out state of the art reports on political and civil liberties in countries around the world, it secondly does global advocacy and thirdly does programs on the ground in countries where there are autocratic or democratizing governments to help civil society bring about change.”

According to professor Robert Lieber, who served as adviser and thesis mentor for Lagon’s government doctorate at Georgetown, Lagon’s achievements and experience make him a good match for Freedom House.

“He is a wonderful asset to Georgetown, a superb teacher and a superb professional,” Lieber said. “His choice as the next president of Freedom House is really very fitting. Based on his political experience, Mark has got the gift of being able to work with people who have different political and partisan views.

So it’s a great loss for Georgetown, but it’s good for human rights and it’s good for political civil liberties.”

Lagon has worked as the deputy director of the House Republican Policy Committee and senior professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a deputy assistant secretary for International Affairs in the State Department and as an ambassador-at-large and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons for the U.S. government. He has also worked extensively with the United Nations on issues of

JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA

SFS professor Mark Lagon (GRD ’91) will leave Georgetown to become the president of Freedom House this January. human trafficking and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

MSFS professor Katherine Gronberg said that Lagon’s vast experience with human trafficking will make him an excellent asset for Freedom House.

“Through his tireless work, he has helped raise awareness of the problem of human trafficking.”

KATHERINE GRONBERG MSFS Professor

“Through his tireless work, he has helped raise awareness of the problem of human trafficking and has brought innovative approaches to the effort to combat it, such as fostering stronger collaboration with key private sector partners,” Gronberg wrote in an email to The Hoya.

According to Gronberg, Lagon exhibits a deep commitment to his students.

“His dedication extends beyond his philanthropic work to Gestudents have at MSFS and does everything within his power to help them get where they’re going after MSFS, MGronberg wrote.

Lagon’s student Sarah Grebowski (GRD ’14) said that Lagon dedicates himself to his students and their development.

“Professor Lagon’s reputation as a faculty member dedicated to students’ intellectual development and professional advancement is well known, but it simply does not do him justice,” Grebowski wrote in an email to The Hoya. “He has become a mentor to many students, myself included, in ways that far transcend the traditional role of an academic concentration chair.”

Grebowski said that although she is happy for Lagon, she will miss him as a professor and mentor.

“MSFS students are excited that he has decided to take this opportunity at Freedom House — we can think of no one better suited to advancing human rights and democracy abroad. However, he will be dearly missed in our community,” Grebowski wrote.

Grad Schools Advertise for New Faculty Andrew Wallender Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University markets to hundreds of thousands of consumers through advertisements placed

by Georgetown’s schools in both online and print media outlets, but of the nine schools that comprise the university, only four use these traditional advertising techniques to reach students and build brand recognition, with no schools targeting undergraduate students.

The divisions of the university that market through advertisements to find both students and faculty members are the School of Continuing Studies, the McDonough School of Business, the School of Nursing and Health Studies and the Law Center, according to MSB Chief Marketing Officer Chris Kormis.

Kormis said that the university’s marketing practices are aimed at strengthening Georgetown’s visibility and appealing to new faculty, and consequently to prospective students as well.

“All of our efforts are to raise the visibility of the school, but in doing so to attract new students, the best and brightest kids that Georgetown attracts,” Kormis said. “It’s to attract new faculty, to raise our visibility among junior or senior faculty who might be considering taking a job at Georgetown to teach here,” Kormis said.

Many of the students enrolled in the Global Executive MBA program run by the MSB in coordination with ESADE Business School in Barcelona heard about the program because of the school’s advertising in The Economist, according to Kormis.

“We always place an ad, I’d say at least twice a month, in The Economist for the Georgetown ESADE Global Executive MBA,” he said. “Every student for that program is interviewed, and they’re asked, ‘how did you hear about Georgetown?’

So many of them say The Economist ad,” Kormis said.

Kormis attributed the 23 percent increase in applications for the MBA program to advertising and noted a spike in applications each time the school updates its advertising campaign.

The NHS has also heavily marketed its online Master of Science in Nursing program, Georgetown’s first-ever online degree-granting program, which debuted in March 2011. Since the program began, it

has attracted 1,000 students in 46 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to NHS Director of Communications Bill Cessato.

“Our efforts to get the word out about the program are reflected here in the extraordinary growth of this innovative program that our faculty has worked hard to develop,” Cessato wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Although advertisements for the NHS and MSB have been featured in The Washington Post, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Financial Times, the schools pri-

“All of our efforts are to raise the visibility of the school, but in doing so to attract new students.” chris kormis MSB Chief Marketing Officer

marily use expensive online advertisements that allow for easy tracking of analytics and use algorithms to advertise only to those who would have an interest in higher education.

1.2 million people viewed the MSB’s advertisements on the Bloomberg Businessweek website and over 605,000 people viewed the school’s advertisements on the Financial Times business education pages last year, with search algorithms targeting specific users to view the ad.

“I would say we’ve been consistently promoting our programs since I’ve been here. But as it gets to be a more refined business, we’re getting smarter about how we do it,” Kormis, who started working at Georgetown in January 2009, said.

Similarly, 22 percent of students in the School of Continuing Studies’ master’s programs first heard about the program through Google, according to SCS Chief Strategy and Communications Officer Roseanna Stanton, which she correlated to people visiting the site after seeing advertisements for the SCS. Unlike the other schools that advertise, the SCS focuses most of its marketing locally with advertisements at Metro stations.

Though the school invests heavily in advertising, the plurality of stu-

dents say they hear about the SCS through word of mouth.

“Word-of-mouth and SCS success stories are still the number one way that people say that they hear about us (29 percent), so while marketing is necessary and effective, our best advertisements are happy alumni who spread the word because their Georgetown degree helped them to achieve their personal and professional goals,” Stanton wrote in an email.

Despite its prominence among graduate programs, the undergraduate schools within the university still choose not to advertise, simply because they do not need to, Georgetown’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said.

“I think that the brand recognition [of Georgetown] is very high,” Deacon said. “Literally almost half of the students who apply to us, we actually don’t know who they are until they apply. They go to the website, they do all their information research on their own. Students tend to come to you if they know your brand,” Deacon said.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions does not engage in any traditional advertising, although they do market themselves to prospective high-achieving students on the PSAT by sending them an informational letter about Georgetown.

Kormis noted even the MSB does not advertise to undergraduate students because its selective admissions rate, at 16 percent in 2014, ranks lowest of the university’s four undergraduate schools. The other undergraduate schools, along with Georgetown’s peer institutions, choose not to market for similar reasons.

“You probably don’t find very many of the better-known schools advertising. You’re not going to get a radio slot from Harvard saying, ‘Think of Harvard,’” Deacon said.

For the programs that choose to market, however, the administrators explained advertising as essential to attracting a strong and diverse student body at the graduate schools.

“The more interest we can attract to Georgetown McDonough, the more people who apply, and that really enables us to put together the best class,” Kormis said. “And that’s the point of the advertising: to put together the best class for Georgetown,” Kormis said.

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THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014

Mold Levels Rise in Village A Ebola Crisis Not to Affect MOLD, from A1 of mold work orders came during move-in due to the high humidity at the time.

“During move-in we generally receive more work orders concerning mold,” Morey wrote. “This is expected as students include mold requests on the work order as part of other requirements that they need resolved as they first move into the units. Also the environmental conditions in the summer, high humidity days, are the optimal conditions for mold growth.”

Although Morey did not have data from the past few years because of the creation of a new work order system, he said that mold has become less severe on campus over time due to preventative measures.

“It appears we have experienced a similar amount of work orders relating to mold year over year, but we have seen a significant reduction in ‘serious’ cases of mold year over year,” Morey wrote.

“We believe the operational improvements related to inspections and the physical improvements, installation of de-humidifiers are the reason for this improvement.”

The Office of Facilities Management has attempted to alleviate some of the mold problems by placing dehumidifiers in some apart-

ments that remove gallons of moisture from the air per day .

“There’s a dehumidifier in our living room and it just obviously takes out some of the moisture in the air and I think that’s been a lot better,” Devon Wood (MSB ’16), a Village A resident, said. “It’s not really that bad anymore, except for the bathroom, but I think that’s typical. I mean it just requires probably more upkeep than a normal apartment.”

Khanin did acknowledge that the university took the mold seriously, providing him compensation for the issue.

“I think they took it seriously,” Khanin said. “They came in and cleaned it and we actually just got an email a couple weeks ago that they were refunding us a couple hundred dollars for the inconveniences, which was nice.” Khanin, who shifted to an empty spot in a friend’s Nevils, said that his experience with mold incentivizes off-campus housing.

“I just think that the way they deal with problems in residences just takes too long especially with the amount of money they charge for them,” Khanin said. “If you ask any other landlord in an apartment off campus everything is resolved much quicker, everything’s in better condi-

tion, for the same price if not cheaper.”

Gus Campbell (SFS ’16), another Village A resident, said that the university took too long to respond to his work order, and he and his roommates had to clean the mold on their own.

“We actually did call and complain at the beginning of the year and they didn’t show up for a month and a half, so we cleaned it in the meantime,” Campbell said. “We pay too much to have to deal with this.”

Kayleigh Hauri (COL ’16) was disillusioned by the work order process, so decided to clean the mold herself as well.

“We didn’t talk to facilities partially because we put in some other complaints earlier this year and they marked them as completed but hadn’t actually come to our house,” Hauri said. “So we were worried about it being a health issue so we thought it would be faster if we dealt with it on our own.”

Concerns about mold in Village A extend to sophomores thinking about housing for next year.

“I would find it very unappealing to live in a place with persisting mold issues,” Sinead Schenk (COL ’17) said.

“The university should really take responsibility to ensure that students live in sanitary conditions.”

Evangelists Protest Catholicism PROTESTERS, from A1 gospel passages and handed out pamphlets entitled “Heaven or Hell?” and “What Roman Catholics Find When They Study Their Own Bible.”

“We just wanted to get the gospel out, and we’re doing it in a legal, appropriate way,” Randy said.

While the demonstrators said that they were not affiliated with any group, the pamphlets that they distributed were from Mt. Zion Bible Church Chapel Library in Florida and Pilgrims Covenant Church in Wisconsin, which, according to its website, encourages public evangelism.

The preachers tried to spread a message about faith that is different from the one offered by Georgetown’s Catholic tradition.

“I’ve been told a number of times, ‘We’re a Catholic University. We’re good.’ First of all, Roman Catholicism is not Christianity,” Sean, a preacher who did not share his last name, said. “We feel compelled to expose truth and to share the truth, not out of hatred for Roman Catholics, but

out of love. Hatred would be to stick our heads in the sand and just let them go about their way.”

Sean said that the demonstrators aimed to share the gospel and to encourage onlookers to convert to Christianity in order to find salvation.

“We want people to be saved, we want them to repent and truly put their faith in Christ, but that’s not up to us,” Sean said. “God does that, and he does that by preaching of the gospel. We’re out here sharing the only hope for a fallen humanity.”

The preacher speaking into the megaphone said that people should not try to find salvation through Catholicism.

“It’s not the more times that you go to Mass that make you right with God,” he said.

“Every time you go to Catholic Mass, they crucify Christ again.”

Around 50 students gathered around the front gates to watch the preachers.

“I’m kind of surprised that they’re allowed to use the megaphone this loud. I know that’s public property, so I’m surprised,” Zahid Syed (COL ’16), who watched part of the

demonstration, said.

Patrick Bylis (COL ’17) held a rainbow flag signifying gay pride near the front gates for about 20 minutes.

“We kind of just wanted to create a distraction. We wanted to take away the hateful message that they were saying and reclaim it to make it our own,” Bylis said.

According to Bylis, the preachers were upset about the flag and called it an abomination of the rainbow that God sent Noah.

“It seems to me that they didn’t know who Jesus was,” Bylis said. “If anyone doesn’t know who Jesus was, it was definitely them because they were spewing a lot of hate, a lot of things that weren’t exactly the Christianity I know.”

Margo Poundstone (SFS ’17), who was standing near the front gates, led a group in singing Georgetown’s fight song and played music from her phone in an attempt to create a distraction.

“This just kind of pisses me off. I attend a Jesuit university not to listen to people telling people how they should and should not live. It’s just really stupid,” Poundstone said.

Free Concert Honors Veterans Lucy Pash

Hoya Staff Writer

In honor of Veterans Day, chart-topping musical artists from Rihanna to Bruce Springsteen will take the stage at the National Mall for a concert Nov. 11.

Hosted by Starbucks and HBO, the free concert is expected to attract as many as 800,000 attendees, according to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

“Our goal is to raise awareness of veterans support organizations dedicated to education, health, and wellness, employment and reintergration,” Courtney L’Ecuyer of Starbucks media press relations wrote in an email.

Although the concert, called the Concert for Valor, will be held at the Mall, the National Park Service is not involved in planning the event.

“The National Park Service is merely providing the location for the concert through a permit to HBO,” Michael Litterst, Public Affairs Officer of the National Mall, wrote in an email.

A three-hour special, the concert will feature performances from The Black Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood, Dave Grohl, Eminem, Jennifer Hudson, Jessie J, Metallica, Rihanna and The Zac Brown Band. Producers for the event include Jamie Foxx, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez, John Oliver and Bob Woodruff will serve as hosts.

The concert will be live streamed on HBO’s twitter page

and on the Concert for Valor webpage. Additionally, it will be played on TV on the HBO channel, open to nonsubscribers and iHeartRadio will stream the musical performances on the radio.

Although attendance to the concert will be free, the event will offer opportunities for attendees to donate to veterans service organizations.

“It’s a way to celebrate our nation’s veterans and bring veterans together.”

JOSH GRUBBS (GRD ’15) Media Director for the GU Student Veterans Association

“The concert will enable Americans to contribute funds or volunteer time directly to the many veterans service organizations that can help create successful transitions for veterans and their families. We have not set a donation goal, but we hope that viewers and attendees will embrace the cause and contribute generously,” L’Ecuyer wrote.

According to Genevieve Billia, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department for Veterans is not affiliated with the event.

Josh Grubbs (GRD ’15), the media director for the Georgetown University Student Veteran Association, praised the event, and said that he knew of

several members of GUSVA who were planning on attending.

“This is another great opportunity that comes from living in D.C., and we are excited to have the chance to attend,” Grubbs wrote.

Although the event planners will be collecting donations, the event’s purpose is primarily to celebrate and honor U.S. veterans for their service.

“This isn’t a charity event; it is a way to celebrate our nation’s veterans and bring veterans together with the society they serve or served,” Grubbs wrote in an email.

In order to accommodate the mass influx of people entering the National Mall, Metro will provide more frequent trains at rush-hour schedule before and after the concert.

Georgetown students expressed their excitement for the upcoming concert.

“It’s inspiring to see how much power music has to bring people together, especially for such a worthy cause,” Jane Mikus (COL ’18) said.

Jessica Andino (COL ’18) said that she would consider attending.

“With artists like Eminem and Rihanna there, I would be interested in going for sure,” she said. “I think more younger people will be included to go, regardless of it being Veterans Day. They would just go for the artists.”

The concert will begin at 7 p.m., and attendants will be permitted to enter starting at 10 a.m. Before the concert, GUSVA will hold a Veterans Day Ceremony on Healy Lawn at 3:30 p.m.

West African Admissions EBOLA, from A1 tors to any of Georgetown’s campuses who may have spent time in a country subject to Level 3 Centers for Disease Control Travel Warning — currently including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — within the past month. The protocol would require all visitors to communicate with Associate Vice President for Risk Management Joseph Yohe to be cleared before entering campus.

Yohe added that admitted students who may have been at risk of exposure to Ebola would also undergo risk assessment.

“Our recently communicated visitors policy extends to all visitors, who within the last month have been in a country that is subject to a Level 3 CDC travel warning. This would include any visitors that would come to campus through the admissions process,” Yohe wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Additionally, although admissions officers travel to various regions to represent Georgetown, the travel restrictions did not affect recruitment efforts, as no plans existed to visit Central or West Africa.

“We have no planned travel to that part of the world, so it does not affect where we do or do not visit prospective students,” Timlin said.

“With the admissions travel season wrapping up, there hasn’t been any worry over this.”

Earlier this month, CNBC reported Navarro College in Texas had not admitted at least two Nigerian applicants because of Nigeria’s history with Ebola. The two-year community college sent its applicants rejection letters that said that “Navarro College is not accepting international students from countries with confirmed Ebola cases,” according to The Washington Post. The college has since issued an apology.

Allan Goodman, president and CEO of the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization that promotes worldwide access to education and administers the Fulbright Program, warned against placing restrictions on admitting students from Africa.

“While each campus will need to set their own policies on admissions and study or re-

search abroad based on the latest advice from national and local experts, we encourage campus leaders to ensure that their policies do not unnecessarily restrict the welcoming of students and scholars from Africa,” Goodman wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Goodman pointed to previous crises that did not affect admissions processes, emphasizing the diversity of experience offered by international students.

“American higher education has shown through repeated crises, whether terrorism, disease or natural disasters, that we want to keep our doors open,” Goodman wrote. “This reflects our enduring values and the benefits that foreign students bring to our campuses.”

Vice President of the African Society at Georgetown Naa Adjeley (SFS ’16), who was born and grew up in Ghana, agreed that admissions restrictions caused by the Ebola crisis would be problematic and worried that even without an explicit policy, admissions officers might subconsciously choose not to admit a qualified student.

“In terms of admissions, I think Georgetown would have a hard time deciding whether or not to admit a brilliant Liberian applicant. The copout for Georgetown is that we already have too few Africans to start with, so Georgetown’s decision to refuse a West African student would go unnoticed,” she said.

In light of the travel restrictions and updated visitor policy from Georgetown, combined with national worries about the disease, Adjeley said she saw a worrisome trend in American reactions to Ebola.

“I think that just based on what we’ve observed over the past few weeks, Americans have begun to grow a strong sense of Afro-phobia,” Adjeley said. “I, for one, have not been back to Ghana since the summer of 2013, and was hoping to go to Ghana this Christmas to be with my family, but I’ve had to cancel my ticket for fear of being harassed both at airports and when I’m back here on campus. I suspect that I’d be asked to quarantine myself for 30 days, whether or not Ghana would have had Ebola by then.”

Midterm Elections Loom For Dingell, Troiano, Fluke ELECTIONS, from A1 our governing institutions are supposed to work,” he said. “My proximity to those institutions in Washington, D.C., showed me how they are not working. The gap between both our founders’ design and today’s dysfunction gave me the motivation to get involved sooner rather than later to help try to fix it.”

SANDRA FLUKE Known for her advocacy for reproductive and women’s rights, Fluke is running for the 26th District of the California State Senate, which encompasses part of Los Angeles County, including Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. She rose to prominence as a Georgetown Law student in February 2012 when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” for her testimony before Congress in February 2012 on the importance of birth control coverage in insurance plans, which Georgetown did not at the time provide. Later that year, Fluke spoke at the Democratic National Convention, calling for increased access to contraceptive and for equal pay for women.

Although she finished second, behind fellow Democrat Ben Allen, in the June primary election, Fluke will enter a rematch with Allen in the general election as a part of California’s “jungle primary” elections,

which ensure the top two vote-getters in the primary will enter a run off in November.

Despite falling behind in fundraising immediately after the primary, Fluke has seen a recent surge in funds, reporting over $475,000 in contributions last quarter in contrast to Allen’s $300,000. According to a poll taken in September by the Fluke campaign, Fluke holds 41 percent of the vote, putting her seven percentage points ahead of Allen.

In accordance with her rise to national prominence, Fluke’s campaign has focused on reproductive rights and social equality as issues of focus.

“Sandra has devoted her career to public interest advocacy for numerous social justice causes, such as gender equality, education affordability, LGBTQ rights and workers’ and immigrant rights,” reads Fluke’s campaign website.

Fluke’s campaign declined to comment.

Twenty alumni, including 10 graduates of the Law Center, currently serve as members of Congress with six senators and 14 representatives. Senators John Barrasso (CAS ’74, MED ’78), a Wyoming Republican, and Richard Durbin (SFS ’66, LAW ’69), an Illinois Democrat, will both run for re-election this year, as well as the 14 members of the House.

Elections for the House of Representatives, as well as the California State Senate, will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Hot Water Cut Off in Campus Residence Halls Sarah Smith

Special to The Hoya

On Sunday morning, the Office of Planning and Facilities Management cut off hot water from New South Hall, Village A, Copley Hall and Nevils with no warning in order to make an emergency repair.

Typically, with a planned outage, the administration informs residents beforehand. In this case, the water outage was unplanned, according to Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey.

“The outage was required to make an emergency repair,” Morey wrote in an email to The Hoya. “On Sunday morning while monitoring the campus steam system, our utilities staff observed a steam leak on the steam distribution network at the west end of New North. The leak was significant enough to require an immediate outage to make the necessary repairs. The emergency repair resulted in loss of hot water in several buildings.”

According to Morey, the problem was immediately fixed and hot water was restored to student residences by late afternoon.

“After the emergency repair was made the affected parts of the steam distribution network were re-energized and all systems were back to normal,” Morey wrote. “As usual we apologize for any inconvenience that this emergency repair may have caused.”

Some students also complained of hot water outages on Tuesday.

New South Hall Council President Alexi Potcovaru (SFS ’18) said that he expects these

disturbances since they are part of residence hall living.

“I wasn’t a huge fan of my cold shower, but all of us understand that’s the nature of living in a residence hall sometimes,” Potcovaru said. “I think we were more thankful that it was restarted relatively quickly.”

Alana McGovern (COL ’18) said that the lack of warm water forced people to forego their morning shower, which resulted in some negative consequences.

“After a night out with my friends, I was really looking forward to a hot shower in the morning,” McGovern said. “It was a very unpleasant shock when I was doused in cold water. Many of my friends decided to forego the shower and New South definitely smelled a little funkier than usual.”

Yonathan Teclu (COL ’18) said he decided to take the shower, since he was unsure of when the hot water would return.

“In the beginning, I thought it was just a phase, like someone flushing the toilet or something,” Teclu said. “But when I realized the water temperature wasn’t changing, I decided to just go for it. You get used to it. Sometimes a cold shower is a nice change.”

Emily Portuguese (SFS ’18) returned to New South in the morning after a night in the emergency room, but was unable to shower.

“After spending a night in the emergency room due to a bad viral infection, I came back to New South and felt gross,” Portuguese said. “All I wanted to do was take a shower, but I had to wait hours for warm water.”

FRIDAY, october 31, 2014

news

THE HOYA

A7

Debate Society Returns Arab Studies Journal Sees Rise in Readership Kristen Fedor Hoya Staff Writer

Charlotte Allen

of which extend beyond the Arab world, it is fair to say that Jadaliyya has surpassed a lot of expectations,” Sallam wrote in an email.

Bassam Haddad, an adjunct assistant pro- “It not only created a ‘dent’ in mainstream fessor in the Center for Contemporary Arab discourse, but also shattered it into pieces.”

Studies, founded Jadaliyya four years ago in Jadaliyya is also unique in the equal footconjunction with several Georgetown profes- ing that it gives all of its editors, a team sors and graduate students, and the magazine comprised of both graduate students and is now being met with increased readership. tenured faculty members.

Jadaliyya is an online magazine, or “eSamia Errazzouki (GRD ’15) said that the zine,” that publishes content on issues of lack of hierarchy in the magazine’s organiconflict in the Middle East and provides a zational structure allows for a positive minforum for discussion between scholars and gling of ideas. experts, published in English, Arabic, Span“My voice weighed just as heavily as everyish, French and Turkish. The site is updated one else’s, something that, over time, chaldaily, and about a third of the readership is lenged and pushed me to step beyond my in Arabic. Haddad is often quoted in media own preconceived notions,” Errazzouki said. outlets as the main representation for Jadali- Errazzouki said that working on the magayya, although all the editors are hierarchi- zine has helped her to improve in writing cally on equal standing. and editing.

Haddad said that Jadaliyya is unique be“Even though Jadaliyya carved out this cause it blends academia and journalism to new space, it’s still the only publication donot only provide breaking news, but also in- ing what it’s doing,” Errazzouki said. “Worksight on that news. ing with Jadaliyya has made me better at “Jadaliyya has been at the forefront of what I do, both as a graduredefining what might ate student and a writer.” be the ideal of cross-ferSherene Seikaly (GRD tilization between aca’07), who received her demia and journalism,” master’s from the Center Haddad said. “We are for Contemporary Arab connected in organic Studies, is a co-founder ways with the local setand co-editor of Jadaliyya ting, with local writers, and said that she believes academics and activists, it gives voices to those and this connection that may have otherwise provides us with better been ignored. analysis … and creates “The thing that is most exa kind of reporting that citing is that it actually mois often lacking in mainbilizes voices that are able to stream circles.” speak to the contemporary Elliott Colla, an assHERENE SEIKALY (grd ’07) moment,” Seikaly said. “It Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Jadaliyya sociate professor in the allows space for a different department of Arabic kind of analysis and for peoand Islamic studies at Georgetown, writes and edits for the culture ple to bring in their different expertise.”

According to Seikaly, Jadaliyya has besection of Jadaliyya.

“Working as an editor at Jadaliyya means come an excellent source for students and that you are constantly in contact with peo- teachers alike who are interested in the Midple who produce some of the best thought dle East.

“It has also become a very useful pedaand analysis from the region,” Colla wrote in gogical tool because of the diversity of the an email.

Colla said that the magazine utilizes sourc- kinds of pieces that we have,” Seikaly said. es from almost every profession and part of “For me it is very inspiring to be a part of a larger network in which we are really trying the world.

“In my work on the culture page, I regu- to think critically and leave space open for larly get to work with writers, journalists critical thought.”

Jadaliyya has gained influence in the inand activists,” Colla wrote. “I get to have long conversations with poets and novelists, estab- ternational community, but also impacts lished scholars and up-and-coming students. Georgetown students and professors, accordI get to see arguments and analysis being ing to Colla.

“Jadaliyya’s connection to Georgetown is formed in real-time.”

Co-editor Hesham Sallam agreed, and said deep and broad,” Colla wrote. “In our pages, that the magazine has grown in popularity we regularly feature the work of faculty and students. In fact, Jadaliyya is frequently a due to its unique and diverse perspectives.

“Given where Jadaliyya stands today four site for Georgetown faculty-student collaboyears later, with all the interest it has generat- ration. The connection is not an accident ed, the critical discussions it has provoked on — it reflects Georgetown’s longstanding a diverse array of topics and countries, some strength in the field of Arab studies.”

Hoya Staff Writer

“The thing that is most exciting is that it actually mobilizes voices that are able to speak to the contemporary moment.”

Seven students have relaunched the Alexander Hamilton Society, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that promotes debate on foreign policy and national security, after its absence from campus last school year.

President Benjamin Reiser (COL ’17) said the organization’s main goal is to encourage discourse about a variety of issues.

“We have no mission or agenda or party affiliation,” Reiser said. “Our main goal is just to work as a group of students on campus to create and hold these events where these ideas can be discussed and where these complex concepts can just really be put through a forum.”

The Washington, D.C.based parent organization was founded in 2010 and oversees 49 university chapters and four professional chapters in Washington, D.C, New York City, San Francisco and Miami. Events hosted on campuses and in cities throughout the nation are intended to bring together students, faculty and other professionals.

Individual chapters choose the issues and speakers they want to focus on, while the society exists as a way to facilitate and fund these interests.

Reiser said he was approached last spring about re-launching the Georgetown chapter, which fizzled after the 2012-2013 year.

According to Reiser, members of the AHS headquarters expressed interest in bringing the club back to Georgetown’s campus.

“We’re obviously one of the top, leading universities in terms of just having political or foreign policy discourse in the first place, but being in Washington, it can never

hurt to have too much discourse,” Reiser said.

The George Washington University and American University also have chapters.

Sydney Adams (COL ’18), the society’s co-director of publicity, said the Alexander Hamilton Society addresses the high interest in politics on campus in a more unbiased way than other groups do.

“I found that a lot of groups on campus were very much targeted towards one certain ideal, and if you really didn’t fit that mold, or if you had different ideas, a lot times it was intimidating to get those ideas across,” Adams said. “It definitely offers the opportunity for people to learn more about different views. I know, certainly, people might identify as a Democrat or as a Republican, but I think this really brings both groups together and offers a discourse that really isn’t available anywhere else on campus.”

The first event of this year, “Does the United States have the right strategy to defeat ISIS?” will take place Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in Lohrfink Auditorium.

Georgetown government professor Matthew Kroenig and Stephen David, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, are the scheduled speakers. Monday’s event is co-sponsored by the government department.

The national society also sponsors speakers at events on university campuses.

Jeff Naft (COL ’17), the society’s director of events, will serve as a moderator for Monday’s debate. In developing the event and creating the questions for the speakers, he said he made sure all sides of the issue will be presented.

“Sometimes it’s hard, because people are marginalized or stigmatized to go one way or another, and we’re try-

ing really hard to make sure that if we’re going to talk about a conservative thought on foreign policy, we’re going to make sure that we have a really good liberal counterview to it,” Naft said.

Naft compared the society to the Lecture Fund, which brings notable speakers, including former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, actor Kevin Spacey and investor Warren Buffet, to Georgetown.

“We are like the Lecture Fund of debates,” Naft said.

“It’s our job to make sure that we set the topic and we set the stage and make sure we have really good, fair questions.”

The debate will also be the first test for the organization in increasing its campus presence, since the Student Activities Commission does not currently recognize AHS. Adams and Paul Spezia (SFS ’17), the society’s co-director of publicity, both said that the group’s Facebook page, which recently exceeded 100 likes, has brought attention to the organization. In addition to social media exposure, Adams and Spezia plan to table and poll students to generate publicity for Monday’s event.

Spezia added that he is optimistic about turnout on Monday, due to general interest regarding ISIS, heightened by the excitement of election season.

Director of Logistics Max Rosner (SFS ’18) expressed similar optimism about student interest and said AHS is unique, even with existing foreign policy and debate groups on campus.

“It promotes debate between these leaders, not just that this person is going to present a 15-minute monologue and maybe take one or two questions. This is going to be much more engaging with world leaders,” Rosner said.

Panel Talks Disability Rights Andrew Wallender Hoya Staff Writer

A panel discussed the history of institutional abuse against the disabled as part of the fifth installment of Georgetown’s Series on Disability Justice in the Edmund A. Walsh Building on Tuesday evening.

The panelists included Deepa Goraya, a lawyer with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Jennifer Msumba, a survivor of institutional abuse and a disability rights advocate and Shain Neumeier, a lawyer with Disability Rights New York. All three of the speakers were disabled. About 40 people attended the event.

The event was organized by Lydia Brown (COL ’15), who herself is autistic and a strong advocate for disability rights, running the website Autistic Hoya. It was a part of Disability Cultural Month.

“The impetus behind the entire lecture series is to promote greater dialogue behind different disability issues in a concrete way and in the context of diversity and social justice,” Brown said.

Goraya was the first on the panel to speak. She talked about the history of institutionalization in the United States and the two major court cases that have informed U.S. disability law: Buck v. Bell and Skinner v. Oklahoma. Both Supreme Court cases offered dissenting opinions on compulsory sterilization.

Goraya said that in today’s world, there must to be an emphasis on moving away from institutions and toward efforts to integrate the disabled back into communities in meaningful ways.

“We need to focus on thinking about de-institutionalizing people with disabilities in all aspects of life, whether it’s education, whether it’s discipline, whether it’s employment. Institutionalization is just not equal and it’s not effective,” she said.

Msumba offered a personal look at some of the horrifying conditions that exist in institutions. Since high school Msumba has been in and out of institutions, including time at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, an institution notorious for using electric shocks to reinforce behavior.

Msumba focused on the situations she faced at JRC, including abusive use of re-

NATASHA THOMSON/THE HOYA

Three panelists spoke about the institutional abuse that disabled people often face in a discussion Tuesday. straints and electric shocks, which she equated to torture.

“I had to earn [taking] a shower. They would touch me all over whether I said they could or not,” Msumba said. “And if I screamed, I got shocked, and they would go back to touching me some more. If I yelled or cried, I would get shocked, all while a camera in the corner of the bathroom was watching.”

Msumba said the longest amount of time she spent in restraints was after she tried to run into the road and commit suicide by being hit by a car. For two months after the incident everything she did from eating to using the bathroom had to be done while strapped to restraints.

“There is so much abuse of power,” Msumba said. “I witnessed it, and I experienced it.

The staff would often threaten the non-verbal clients asking, ‘Do you want it?’”

Neumeier discussed the history of disability treatments in the United States and how places like the JRC came into existence. She also spoke about specific treatments such as electric shock and why it is allowed to continue to this day.

“In the early ’90s, they did add electric shock in order to avoid the staff putting their

hands on students,” Neumeier said. “It was considered a less dangerous method of control.

And most of this … they have been able to continue.”

The floor was then opened up to questions from the audience. Many audience members asked about how to address people who think institutional abuse is isolated to a few incidents, especially in terms of electric shock.

“Yeah, it’s only happening at JRC but these people are also human,” Goraya said.

“It’s not okay to torture a human being and restrict their freedom. … You’re basically condoning torture.”

Brown organized the event alone, alongside a few sponsors, because she said that the university simply lacks the resources to put together Disability Cultural Month lectures.

“We don’t have infrastructure at Georgetown to have such programing,” Brown said. “For the past two years I have been advocating for the creation of a disability cultural center … that would fill the space for that need. As we have other diversity centers that purport to represent the need of and create safer spaces for particular communities, we don’t have such a space for disabled folks.”

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NEWS

THE HOYA

Friday, october 31, 2014

Korea’s Future Discussed Gene Choi

Hoya Staff Writer

Michael Marshall, Editor of “The Korean Dream: A Vision for Korean Unification” from the Global Peace Foundation, and Jin Shin, president of the Institute for Peace Affairs and professor at Chungnam National University, presented talks on their vision of Korean reunification Tuesday.

The discussion, moderated

by Director of Asian Studies Victor Cha, took place in the Intercultural Center.

Marshall stressed the importance of a shared history to achieve Korean unification.

“Korean unification can be seen as an opportunity for Korea and Korean people to reconnect with their history,” Marshall said. “Their common and long history is one in which both countries can clearly relate with and share, beyond their recent 60-year division.”

Reunification of the two Koreas has been discussed for decades ever since their divide in the mid-1950s.

However, since the Dresden Doctrine that South Korean President Park Geun-hye laid out earlier this year, scholarly and policy-driven talks have gained substantial momentum.

“Reunification is no longer an ‘if’ but ‘when,’” Cha said.

“And the ‘when’ can be very soon, so it would be optimal to prepare now.”

Marshall added that students in the United States and outside Korea seemed to be more interested and engaged in such dialogue than actual Koreans themselves.

“I agree to some extent that people outside Korea are more interested in Korean unification than us,” Wookjae Jung (SFS ’15), a student who attended the event, said.

“Many Koreans today think

reunification is bad for us or simply don’t care, which is a big problem.”

Marshall and Shin agreed that it is worth debating specific policies regarding how best to handle the new unified country and how to better engage Koreans in this endeavor, but equally as important is the vision and principles that will guide that country forward.

“Preparation for reunification is not only for the various scenarios that might arise, but a vision for the new country that arises after reunification occurs,” Marshall said.

Marshall and Shin emphasized the importance of maintaining a vision during this tumultuous and unstable period in North Korea.

“I cannot stress enough how important vision is at times of transition,” Marshall said. “At times of extended social order, both within a country or the international system, the underlying rules and assumptions are accepted by everyone in that society. But at a time of transformation, vision can determine the ultimate goals and principles that guide you toward the future.”

Shin also referred to historical examples where a vision was crucial to creating a pathway toward a brand new system of government.

“The collapse of the Cold War era meant a significant change in the way people lived and thought, and this in turn meant some guiding principle had to lead them out of instantaneous shock and confusion,” Shin said.

Shin proposed that nations, as they become increasingly more interrelated, expand their interests to care about other nations, in addition to their own, for the future generations.

“This seems to be a bit

naive, but when you think about it, it really might be that the reason such a realist world is taking place is because people make it that way,” Eddie Morles (COL ’17), who also attended the event, said. “If nations somehow start to build trust slowly but steadily, it might open up a whole new era.”

Shin acknowledged this criticism and added that despite the difficulty, more collaboration between nations will be the only way for nations to survive and coexist in the future, especially in a world that is already too interconnected to neglect a neighbor nation’s problem simply because it is “their problem.”

“It will be hard, but the key thing nations of the future must do is to change their national interests in a way that prioritizes togetherness with other nations,” Shin said. “It may seem too idealistic, but there will become a time when coexistence and cooperation is fundamental for each other’s survival.”

Marshall and Cha suggested that building this trust and social capital may start with civil society. The institution that may play the most important role in this transition period are the civic associations.

“There is a limit to what governments can do. They can provide health care and water, but they cannot do more than that,” Cha said.

“When Korea unifies, the big question will be how to address what is inside the heads of North Koreans, and that will be something the government cannot do. What North Koreans believed to be true to this day will suddenly be gone. And that gap might be filled with new values with the help of such civil organizations and associations.”

Panel Talks Mid East Policy Giovanna Azevedo Hoya Staff Writer

Edward Walker, the former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and Startup Angels CEO Leslie Jump spoke on Tuesday in the Healey Family Student Center about the current state of affairs in the Middle East and whether high-growth, technological entrepreneurship can succeed in areas where diplomacy has failed.

Walker began by discussing American foreign policy during George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations.

“When Obama was elected president, a lot of us wondered, in terms of foreign policy, where the United States was going to go and how we might pull ourselves out of a deep hole that we had gotten ourselves into over the past eight years,” Walker said. “I don’t want to be one sided, but we can’t deny the fact that the international community did not approve American foreign policies during the Bush administration, particularly regarding to Iraq.”

However, Walker said he does not believe that there has been a fundamental change in U.S. foreign policy since Bush’s presidency.

“Regarding the question of how we can defeat terrorism, much of our foreign policy has been based upon our military policy,” Walker said.

“When you have that kind of continuity, your policies cannot change that much. The question is whether we are missing the point, that in fact there are no military answers.

We are dealing with beliefs, misinterpretations of religious texts and the feeling of injustice that prevails. This is what our policy should focus on.”

Walker also said he believes that we are now living in a time of change that requires new strategies.

“We can’t use the same ideas, technology and techniques of diplomacy that we used to, because everything has changed so profoundly,” Walker said. “Many people feel that the Arab Spring was unsuccessful, in some ways it was. But in reality, it changed some very important things.

One thing it changed was the belief that we can make a change. Until that time, people were resigned, but now people feel that they can

NATASHA THOMSON/THE HOYA

Edward Walker, the former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Israel and the UAE discussed entrepreneurship in the Middle East. make this change, and that changes the entire equation.”

Jump spoke about how her interest in the Middle East was sparked.

“What was most extraordinary to me about this was how these people were deeply disturbed by what had happened and how they were misunderstood,” Jump said.

“The people here did not understand the potential for what was going on in that part of the world. That’s what I decided to do with the rest of my life, help the people in the Middle East realize the potential that they have, through entrepreneurial opportunities, specifically through technology entrepreneurship.”

Jump then discussed how Startup Angels, a program that educates entrepreneurs about investment, was created and developed to best aid entrepreneurs in the Middle East.

“We have been working specifically with how to help more people become angel investors, investors in these startup companies,” Jump said. “Also, how to help more people who are already active

angel investors to invest in new markets.”

Jump then shared her vision of current Middle Eastern youth and said she has high hopes for their entrepreneurial future.

“When I look at the Middle East, I see a young entrepreneurial and unstoppable group of people,” Jump said. “That is why this is so interesting, as people tend to have a different view here in the west. But I think that more people are now starting to look at them with the same optimism.”

Andrew Jacobsberg (SFS ’15), who attended the event, said that he appreciated the participation of both speakers.

“I thought it was very interesting how this event brought together two different perspectives, which usually do not cross each other,” Jacobsberg said. “The discussion featured a perspective of the private sector, through Leslie Jump’s participation, and of the public sector, with Ambassador Walker’s words. I thought that the way both perspectives intertwined was extremely interesting and made me see the Middle East with different eyes.”

TINA NIU FOR THE HOYA

Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Ruth Gavison talked about Judaism in Israel.

Professor Discusses Judaism’s Role in Israel Cooper Logerfo Special to The Hoya

Ruth Gavison, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a founding member of the Israel Association for Civil Rights, spoke about the Jewishness of Israel and its implications Wednesday in Copley Formal Lounge.

The event, sponsored by the Program for Jewish Civilization and School of Foreign Service, is the seventh PJC event of the semester.

In this lecture, Gavison focused on what Israel’s Jewish tradition means to both the Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel, as well as to Jews throughout the world.

Gavison offered a brief account of history in order to give a base for her argument. In 1947 the United Nations General Assembly made a resolution that the British Mandate for Palestine would be separated into two states, an Arab one and a Jewish one, and that each must make a commitment to respect the rights of the other group living in their territory. However, this resolution was not a conclusive solution to the tensions of the Jewish and Palestinian conflict.

“What was obvious in 1947, ’48, ’49 is not so obvious at all anymore and this is the challenge of the time and why I have to come here and talk to you about what is the meaning of the Jewishness of the state, what is the justification for that, is it okay for there to be a Jewish state and what are the implications of this identity,” Gavison said.

According to Gavison, Jews living within Israel and abroad have a political and ideological internal debate over the Jewishness of Israel.

“Among Jews in Israel there is a general acceptance that Israel is and should be a Jewish state, but there is a debate on the implication and meaning of the Jewishness of the state,” Gavison said. “Some people say the state must be governed by Jewish law. Others

say most of the Jews in Israel are not religious and not observant and the Jewishness of Israel is about the right of Jews ... and this is not about religion.”

Gavison spoke about the definition of the Jewishness of a state and its nuances.

“It is an ongoing conversation and the meaning of the Jewishness of the State is that the State is in part designed to allow Jews to continue to have this discussion and conversation on an ongoing basis,” Gavison said. “[It is not] to decide it once and for all, but to have the conversation within a political community, which has a territorial base on their ancient homeland in the only place in the world in which they were politically independent and the majority.”

Aditya Pande (SFS ’18) attended the lecture and was pleased that Gavison was able to make clear the core of the problem of the Jewishness of Israel. “[There are] two states for two people, a Jewish majority state and a Palestinian majority state,” Pande said. “The only obstacle here is what is the Israeli proposal for right of return is, because if they let the Palestinians back into Israel that reduces the Jewish majority which they don’t want so that’s the solution.”

Pande said that he enjoyed the clarity of the speech.

“It was very clear,” Pande said. “She distilled her argument to one very simple point and that is that Israel should have a Jewish majority and should have self-determination.

That’s why they were created. That’s why they exist.”

Also in attendance was Jonathan Morrow (COL ’18), who had attended previous lectures sponsored by PJC and was impressed with Gavison’s approach to the topic.

“It’s not just about external diplomacy.

It’s not just about high level political discussions. It’s very much a grass roots discussion of what Jewishness means and what a Jewish society and government looks like,” Morrow said.

news

Friday, October 31, 2014

THE HOYA

A9

Program Assists Nonprofits

HOYA HALLOWEEN

David Brown Hoya Staff Writer

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Jack the Bulldog dressed up as Harry Potter in Red Square on Thursday, as part of his series of different costumes every day this past week.

COMMENTARY

Brands Hire Social Media Celebrities TOWNS, from A10 same purpose for non-famous individuals with large and rabid followings on social media. Companies like Niche and True[X] Media connect social media mavens with brands, have raised millions in venture capital financing and have major corporate clients signed up.

While this “digital talent” does not command traditional advertising or celebrity endorser rates, it is rapidly changing the face of advertising and promotions. Some brands are foregoing

traditional ad expenditures in favor of this more organic approach, with good results.

Before long, more and more of our ad messages will be coming straight to our smartphone apps from people we follow and invite into our feed. Thus, the line between advertising and entertainment becomes even more blurred and advertising becomes more persuasive.

MARLENE TOWNS is a professor of marketing in the McDonough School of Business.

Beginning in spring 2015, New Strategies will begin operations in the McDonough School of Business. Part of the Georgetown Global Social Enterprise Initiative, the program is designed as advanced education specifically for upper-level management of nonprofit organizations, focusing exclusively on how to bolster and manage revenue for growth and success.

The program was created in 2011 by Curt Weeden, a former Johnson & Johnson corporate vice president and current speaker and author, who saw a need to connect nonprofits and businesses. “[I] thought that if nonprofits came to businesses with more appropriate funding concepts, the needle might move in the right direction,” Weeden said.

New Strategies has already assisted over 200 nonprofit executives in developing strategies and adopting new concepts to increase their organizations’ revenue.

“The program [initially] stayed sharply focused on how to conceptualize and present funding options to companies that are ‘out of the traditional charitable-giving box’ so as to increase the odds for securing corporate assistance,” Weeden said. “More recently, the curriculum has become more expansive with time spent addressing other non-company kinds of funding for nonprofits.”

The new funding avenues include social media funding, earned income for the nonprofit, corporate support and government funding, among other methods.

“Social media funding has become a hot topic over the past few years, but earned income is just as important for nonprofits.Most nonprofits receive the majority of their funding from donations, but if they can find a way to earn their own income they can become less dependent on these donors,” professor Bill Novelli, creator of the GSEI and co-director of New Strategies, said.

Novelli also stressed the importance of earned income generation.

“Nonprofits are led by people with really powerful and

COURTESY CURT WEEDEN

Curt Weeden, creator of New Strategies, leads a forum for the program. New Strategies will begin MSB operations in spring of 2015. important missions but they spend 75 percentof their time looking for funds to achieve this mission, we want to help them,” Novelli said.

With its partnership with the MSB, New Strategies will be able to reach new heights in executive education.The program will utilize the assets that already exist at Georgetown: McDonough MBAs and New Strategiesinstructors will undertake a full analysis of each participating organization to get a tailored picture of revenue activities and programming priorities.

Once this analysis takes place, the nonprofit and the participating MBAs and instructors participate in an intense four day forum in which plenary sessions, breakout sessions, oneon-one counseling and prominent guest speakers provide opportunities for the nonprofit executives to learn about all the revenue growth options that are available to them.

Not only will New Strategies provide the highest quality and most in-depth advice that is uniquely tailored for each nonprofit that participates in the program; it will also serve as an excellent networking opportunity for nonprofit executives.

In addition to networking opportunities for the nonprofits, New Strategies will also allow

the sponsoring companies to network with the various nonprofits.

“Sponsors receive strong recognition by those nonprofits selected to take part in the program, name and brand exposure can be extensive for them,” Weeden said.

After the organization takes part in the four day forum, New Strategies provides further coaching, strategies and advice to them for an additional year.

With monthly follow-up communication and virtual interaction with participants, New Strategies ensures sustainable revenue growth for the nonprofit and connection to the vast network of previous participants in the program.

Although the New Strategies program will only be offered three times a year at Georgetown, Weeden and Novelli plan to host a biannual conference for the corporate sponsors at the nonprofits to further increase networking amongst the organizations and to act as a follow-up with program participants.

The co-founders also plan to create a corporate advisory board that will further work to connect nonprofits with potential corporate sponsors.

“A lot of partnerships are already going well but we want to refine and improve those already in existence as well as create even more partnerships for the future,” Novelli said.

GUMC Report Pushes for E-Cigs Deirdre Collins Hoya Staff Writer

COURTESY THATCHER SPRING

The GearLaunch team works in its San Francisco office. The company has received over $875,000 in investments since its launch this January.

Alumnus’s New Take on Customizable Clothing GEARLAUNCH, from A10 Founder Matt Wisley and many others around the country.

Today, the company continues to expand and is looking to grow further through social media. GearLaunch has achieved a 20 percent conversion rate with YouTube stars that have between 50,000 to 150,000 followers. This success is attributable to the fact that developing clothing on GearLaunch’s website allows these stars to monetize their social capital and turn fan base into tangible financial gain. Thatcher also attributes his success to the support of the Georgetown community “The Georgetown network has helped significantly. Its presence in the venture

capitalist industry is very strong,” he said. “The fundraising experience was not extremely difficult because of the friendliness of the Georgetown network.”

In return for the help he received from Hoyas, Spring continues to support the university with GearLaunch.

The company creates shirts for groups like NorCal Hoyas and the GU Club of New York and produced the shirts for the 2014 Georgetown University Reunion weekend.

However, Spring believes that it was more than just his experience at Georgetown that allowed him to succeed in the startup field.

“If you have an idea you’re passionate about, do it now. Do it now and learn as you go,” he said.

GUPD BLOTTER Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014 Theft, Lauinger Library, 5:30 p.m.

A bicycle that was secured to a fence was stolen. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Theft, Regents Hall, 8:05 p.m.

A cellphone that was left unattended in a common area was stolen. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014 Theft, Lauinger Library, 9:55 p.m.

A cellphone that was left unattended in a common area was stolen. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 Theft, Reiss Science, 12:20 p.m.

A backpack containing a wallet and other personal items that was left in a classroom was stolen. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Theft, Village A, 1:56 p.m.

A bicycle that was secured to a railing was stolen. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Theft, Leavey Center, 2 p.m.

A laptop that was left unattended in a common area was stolen. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014 Burglary, Med Dent Building, 12:15 p.m.

A wallet was stolen from a backpack that was left unattended in a lab. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

Burglary, Village C West, 6:47 p.m.

A student reported that an unknown person stole her electronic items from a secured location. No suspects or witnesses have been identified.

This blotter is compiled weekly by the Department of Public Safety.

Researchers at the Georgetown University Medical Center published a brief perspective urging the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate regulations and decrease safety concerns of e-cigarettes in the New England Journal of Medicine on Oct. 16.

Nathan Cobb, an assistant professor at the Georgetown University Medical Center, and David Abrams, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Medical Center and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, also discussed the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a means for smoking prevention in their article, “The FDA, E-Cigarettes, and the Demise of Combusted Tobacco.”

Cobb and Abrams proposed ecigarettes as potential nicotinereplacement therapy, finding significant potential for growth in the product’s market. However, the researchers acknowledged that some manufacturers remained unsafe, requiring FDA regulation to separate the harmful products from the nicotinereplacement mechanisms.

“We’ve spent decades trying to get nicotine replacement products, like the patch or gum, into the hands of more smokers to help them quit, but never achieved our public health goals,” Cobb said. “E-cigarettes, despite their flaws, are a potential path to do that but only if we can guarantee the public that they are safe and will help them stay off deadly combusted tobacco products.”

Regulating e-cigarettes would require manufacturers to disclose ingredients, register their products and restrict sales to young people. The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products previously explained that in order for e-cigarettes to be advertised as smoking cessation products, they would also have to be approved as pharmaceutical products by the FDA. “Getting a pharmaceutical product approved by the FDA requires millions of dollars in funding, an experienced team and years of time. The small existing e-cigarette companies don’t have the resources to do this, only the big tobacco companies that sell cigarettes do, and I don’t think they are in-

FILE PHOTO: DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA

Juan Luis Tirado (COL ’16) smokes an e-cigarette. In their report, Cobb and Abrams called for FDA approval of e-cigarettes. terested in the best interests of health,” Cobb said.

In April 2014, the Food and Drug Administration announced their initial intention to regulate e-cigarettes, which have been on the market for eight years, to raise them to the same level of cigarettes. If approved, this regulation by the CTP would implement class definitions for nicotine content, humectants, vaporization methods and additives. Regulations would also prevent manipulation of these classifications by the tobacco industry.

The battery-powered devices dispense aerosolized and refined nicotine using a humectant and liquid nicotine. In 2014, Americans will spend $2.2 billion on the product, more than on nicotine-replacement therapies and significantly less than on combustible cigarettes.

“The combusted cigarette market is enormous because consumers buy a pack or more of cigarettes every day for decades due to their addiction,” Cobb said. “As long as e-cigarettes remain no more addictive than the nicotine patch or gum then the market will remain small; if manufacturers are allowed to create highly addictive devices and sell them to young people then the potential sales could be enormous.”

The report expressed hope that more widespread use of e-cigarettes would limit the demand for cigarettes.

“We would encourage the FDA to accelerate their regulations to eliminate uncertainty regarding safety, drive the substitution of clean nicotine and hasten the

demise of lethal combusted tobacco,” Cobb and Abrams wrote in the article.

Georgetown student Charlotte McCary (COL ’17) agreed, noting that e-cigarettes would be even more effective by closely mimicking the procedure.

“I’ve heard that one of the most difficult tasks for people trying to quit smoking is replacing the routine that accompanies it,” McCary said. “While patches and gum can chemically wean you off of the need to smoke, it doesn’t seem like they would be very effective in channelling the urge to go through the methodical motions of pulling out a cigarette, lighting it and relaxing for a few minutes until it burns out. I could see how e-cigs would be a better tool for people starting to quit because they don’t force you to change your routine right away.”

Despite the potential effectiveness of e-cigarettes in smoking cessation, Cobb expressed his uncertainty about the current products and hopes e-cigarettes will continue to progress.

“At the end of the day, we don’t know if e-cigarettes are good or bad because we don’t know what they are. If I walk into a 7-11 and buy an e-cigarette, there is no law that says it has to contain nicotine, or even which chemicals can be used to carry the nicotine,” Cobb said.

“What we believe to be true is that a manufacturer can create e-cigarettes that are safe and could help people quit, but without regulation we have no idea if specific brands or models actually do that.”

BUSINESS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014

BUSINESS BITS

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM On Friday, Oct. 24 the third annual Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program concluded with its McDonough Undergraduate Research Symposium. Twenty undergraduate students researched various topics under the tutelage of McDonough School of Business professors in finance, accounting, operations, management and marketing. The students’ research was presented at the Parents’ Weekend Deans’ Reception and the Undergrad Research Symposium and will be presented a final time during the Symposium for Undergraduate Research at Georgetown Conference in the spring.

COLOMBIAN ENERGY EXPANSION EDUCATION Earlier this month, members of the Georgetown McDonough Office of Executive Education traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, to host an executive education program for the management of Pacific Rubiales Energy. The largest independent oil and gas exploration and production company in Colombia, Pacific Rubiales has seen tremendous growth over the past few years and the McDonough program provided management strategies and advice to create sustainable growth and leadership development in the face of operation and business challenges that may arise during the next steps of the company’s growth. Featuring adjunct professor Michael McDermott, the program focused on nonlinear thinking and strategy to implement plans for future growth. The program helped grow the already expansive executive network Georgetown has in South America.

MARKETING TEXTBOOK SUCCESS

Georgetown marketing professors Michael Czinkota and Ilkka A. Ronkainen’s textbook “International Marketing” recently reached 1,000 citations on Google Scholar. This large number of unique citations portrays “International Marketing’s” success among university professors and marketing professionals. The textbook differentiates itself from other marketing textbooks by highlighting how strategies for new-to-market companies and firms differ from strategies for established firms in international markets. Furthermore, profiting from Georgetown’s location, Czinkota and Ronkainen accessed and incorporated research on lawmakers, regulators and lobbyists and their impact on international business policy to set their book apart from competitors.

ISABEL BINAMIRA FOR THE HOYA

Originally set to open this weekend, The Hilltoss (left) and Bulldog Tavern will now be opening in the next few weeks due to issues with licensing and permits. Both restaurants are located in the Healey Family Student Center and will offer a variety of food options.

Hilltoss, Pub Face Delayed Openings DAVID BROWN Hoya Staff Writer

While The Hilltoss and Bulldog Tavern were scheduled to open this Saturday, Nov. 1, and Friday, Oct. 31, respectively, in the Healey Family Student Center, both openings have been delayed due to scheduling conflicts for restaurant clearance with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Building permits, certificates of occupancy, health department inspections, business licenses and liquor licenses — for Bulldog Tavern — are all required in order to open a business, and were not all received in time for this weekend. However, both restaurants now have the necessary clearance for restaurant operation, and after final inspections, both should be able to host their anticipated grand openings in the next few weeks.

“We hire expediters and third-party reviewers as applicable to help speed up the process, but at the end of the day there is only so much we can control,” said Joelle Wiese, associate vice president of auxiliary business services. “There are construction projects and restaurants opening across the District, not just on our campus, so I am sure the local government is quite busy.”

Bulldog Tavern will serve alcohol to customers over 21 years of age as well as pub food. The tavern is managed by

Bon Appétit Management Co., which could not be reached for comment.

“For Bulldog Tavern, we are hoping to have a soft opening on Tuesday at 5 p.m., with a grand opening on Nov. 7 at 5 p.m. Hilltoss is a little further behind in the D.C. government process and hopes to be open within a couple of weeks,” Weise said.

Students of Georgetown, Inc. has also faced financial and marketing issues arising from the launch of the newest storefront, which is dedicated to salads and smoothies.

“When going through the budgeting process there have been a lot of fluctuations,” Corp CEO Sam Rodman (MSB ’15) said. “There are a lot of fluctuating costs in the process, and although we have contracts with the construction company, change orders always arise during the process.”

In the middle of construction, The Hilltoss’ development team realized the need for additional storage space, requiring changes to budgeted costs.

“To make up for these change orders we try to reduce the scope of other areas or find ways to reduce product cost so we can maintain within our expected budget,” Rodman said.

In launching The Hilltoss, The Corp also faces the challenge of strategic planning.

“We are making a whole new store with food; we are making ourselves in a new space on campus that is still open to student perception,” Rodman said.

COMMENTARY

The Changing Face of Celeb Endorsements A

common practice in the marketer’s people’s social media feeds, particutoolkit of persuasive tactics is the larly those of young consumers. These celebrity endorsement. Whether non-celebrity musings on even the most it’s Jennifer Aniston selling SmartWater mundane elements of their lives are not or Matthew McConaughey convincing us only welcomed but sought after by their that he actually drives a Lincoln, consum- followers. Even when it is disclosed that ers are well aware that if a well-known ce- statements, posts or endorsements are lebrity is singing the praises of a particular sponsored — as they ethically should brand, he or she is doing so as part of a be — followers are open to these messages as long as they well-orchestrated arrangeare couched in their ment for which he or she is regular engaging conhandsomely paid. tent. Brands are all too As we have seen, it is not happy to be part of the even guaranteed that the conversation and take paid endorser actually uses advantage of this new the product that he or she platform for reaching is endorsing. For example, out to consumers. a much-publicized collaboAs with celebrity enration between Blackberry Marlene Towns dorsers, however, there and Alicia Keys, in which is a risk in attaching she was not only paid as a one’s brand to a dycelebrity spokesperson but Brands are all too personality with was brought on as a crehappy to be part of namic a large audience. Strugative director, ended after gling teen retailer Aerojust a year, a year that startthis conversation. postale has been enthued out with Keys sending a tweet from an iPhone rather than her siastically using social media and social media stars to convince consumers that “own” brand.

As celebrities become more expensive it is still relevant but recently came unto lock down and technology opens up der fire for hiring Vine star Nash Grier.

Grier has a history of expressing racmore direct communication lines with consumers, a newer phenomenon is ist and anti-gay sentiments in his posted quickly taking over the celebrity endorse- tweets and videos. He has over 9 million ment: the social media celebrity endorse- followers, however, and has apologized ment, which also creates opportunities for his earlier comments. It is yet to be seen if his apology will be enough, and for a less traditional type of celebrity.

Far from famous in the conventional how it will impact Aeropostale.

While many of these self-made social sense, a handful of young, hyper-connected social media mavens have amassed fol- media celebrities can still be hired as a lowers numbering in the millions on their brand representative for a comparative platform of choice, including Instagram, bargain, the access that they have to millions of young consumers is becomTwitter, Vine, Snapchat and the like.

Aside from being more believable ing big business. Some agencies focus and relatable than celebrity actors, mu- on connecting brands with celebrities sicians or athletes, regular people gain- on social media, but a number of coming fame through video blogging from panies are springing up that serve the their basements or posting humorous See TOWNS, A9 Vine videos gain tractions on many

“We’re maintaining the same philosophy but with a new aesthetic. We’ve been trying to get our salads into the hands of students with the farmers’ market and giving out free samples and the response has been confidence boosting. We are trying to fill a void on campus that has yet to be filled.”

Along with budgeting constraints, The Hilltoss will also compete with other similar salad restaurants.

“We are convenient and have reasonable pricing. The Corp doesn’t always get product quality correct but we have spent so much time ensuring product quality with The Hilltoss that we’re sure students will enjoy it,” Rodman said of the similar food options.

“In addition, since we are a studentrun company, we can maintain and manage student interests and change based on those interests, something that Sweetgreen, Chop’t and Salad Creations cannot readily do.”

Although Hilltoss salads were not available at the farmers’ market this fall, The Corp made its financial projections for The Hilltoss based on results it saw at the market last spring. The experience allowed them to project revenues and create a timetable of how the input costs of creating The Hilltoss would be repaid.

Not only will The Hilltoss serve as The Corp’s newest business endeavor, it will also serve as another avenue for The Corp’s philanthropic efforts.

The Corp Philanthropy Committee

and The Corp Service and Outreach Committee are working to give back to the Georgetown community through scholarship and philanthropic donations.

“Our money is going to causes.

Through The Hilltoss we are promoting sustainability efforts with our ‘Green Teams’ and providing our employees with sustainable business training. We are really trying to make a difference on campus,” Hilltoss Director Dana Mitchell (MSB ’15) said.

As The Hilltoss and Bulldog Tavern prepare for their grand openings, Rodman expects a symbiotic relationship between the two restaurants that will benefit all students.

“Having the pub around will be really helpful as it will further create the studying and dining experience the student center was meant to be.

We’re going to improve the perception of the building as a whole as students will have the option for a customizable, quick and healthy snack and some caffeine as well as a gourmet option all in the same place,” Rodman said.

The soft opening of The Hilltoss and Bulldog Tavern will optimistically be this upcoming week, although a concrete date will depend on the availability of the final inspections needed for final Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs approval.

DCRA could not be reached for comment.

Startup Enters Apparel Industry ALEX MITCHELL

Special to The Hoya

Since leaving Georgetown a decade ago, Thatcher Spring (COL ’04) has been involved in a variety of entrepreneurial ventures, most notably his recent San Francisco startup, GearLaunch.

Hoping to become part of a rising trend in e-commerce, GearLaunch distinguishes itself from other customizable apparel companies by allowing customers to not only design their own team and club clothing items, but to also market their products while leaving the hassle of production and distribution to GearLaunch.

Spring credits his time as an undergraduate for preparing him for the world of startups, although the entrepreneurship culture on campus was not as developed when he was at Georgetown.

“There were only a couple of clubs for startups, but nothing as big as StartupHoyas,” Spring said.

However, it was through his involvement in extracurriculars that Spring developed the skills necessary for his later entrepreneurship pursuits. He balanced his time on the sailing team with local community work.

“I think sailing actually teaches you quite a bit about entrepreneurship and quick decision-making,” he said. “You’re responsible for assessing large amounts of information — wind, other boats, waves — and making quick decisions to chart the most efficient path.”

Georgetown also taught him the importance of independent thinking.

“It taught me the value of finding creative solutions when the answer isn’t readily evident,” Spring said.

It was this sort of thinking that led him to his first large fashion venture, Thatcher Spring, which

Visit us online at thehoya.com/business

COURTESY THATCHER SPRING

From left, founder Thatcher Spring (COL ’04), Bridget Sauer and Mike Schell comprise the team of GearLaunch, a startup. he named after himself. After researching the fashion industry and realizing there was a lack of upscale American-made neckwear, Spring set out to create his selftitled company in 2006. He successfully grew the company to distributing to 300 retailers around the country. Following his success, Spring pursued an MBA at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, graduating in 2012.

After completing a leadership development program at the Mars Corporation, Spring decided to relocate to the West Coast to expand his business opportunities.

“I lived in New York City last year and had a debate with myself,” he said. “I miss the larger network in New York, but in business, geogra-

phy is more important to me than my network.”

After his move to San Francisco, Spring established GearLaunch in January of this year. Expanding on the basic model of a customizable apparel company, GearLaunch allows customers to use their social media presence to sell those products to their friends and social circles. No money is required upfront for managing all production and inventory or shipment for the user, eliminating any risk of losses.

The unique strategy has caught the attention of investors.

GearLaunch has accrued over $875,000 in investments from angel investors, including Zazzle See GEARLAUNCH, A9