GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 99, No. 2, © 2017
friday, september 8, 2017
VOICES OF RED SQUARE
Take a look back at the history of free speech at Georgetown with a walk through Red Square.
EDITORIAL The university’s Greek life policy fails to accomplish its goal of inclusivity.
A NEW VENTURE The university’s first student-run seed accelerator, Georgetown Ventures, launched this fall.
OPINION, A2
NEWS, A5
B2, B3
Policymakers Scrutinize DC Confederate Statues Attention follows Charlottesville rally Joe Egler
Hoya Staff Writer
Following renewed scrutiny over memorials to Confederate leaders in Washington, D.C., federal and local officials are pushing for the removal of such monuments from public property. The increased activism coincides with a decision from the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday to remove two stained-glass windows featuring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and comes after violent confrontations between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., last month.
“We need to constantly learn from those parts of our history that might actually be unsavory and unpalatable.” LESLIE HINKSON Sociology Professor
Most recently, around 100 demonstrators who marched from Charlottesville to D.C. to protest the white nationalist rally arrived at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Wednesday. The Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally, justified by organizers as a protest of the planned removal of a statue of Gen. Lee in a Charlottesville public park, resulted in three deaths, 38 nonfatal injuries and 11 arrests.
Far-right demonstrators marched through the University of Virginia campus the night of Friday, Aug. 11 chanting slogans such as “white power” and “Jews will not replace us.” The following day, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (R-Va.) declared a state of emergency before the rally, and police ordered the crowds to disperse following skirmishes between groups of demonstrators. A car later plowed through a crowd, killing one person and injuring 19 others. The Department of Justice is investigating the incident as an act of domestic terrorism, 115 miles from Georgetown University. Official Washington Responds Democratic congressional leaders and District officials are calling for the removal of Confederate monuments from the U.S. Capitol. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced identical legislation Thursday proposing the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol building. Currently, 12 statues in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall depict people connected to the Confederacy, including Gen. Lee and Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy’s president. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has expressed support for Lee and Booker’s Confederate Monument Removal Act. President Donald Trump has roundly condemned efforts to remove statues. After a tepid initial response to the violence in Charlottesville, Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence. “This week, it’s Robert E. Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really do have to ask yourself, where does it See STATUES, A6
JESUS RODRIGUEZ/THE HOYA
Sixteen students without documentation from Georgetown met with Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (SFS ’66, LAW ’69) of Illinois on Capitol Hill to discuss the legislative conditions under which the Dream Act of 2017 could be passed.
Hoya Sen. Durbin Hosts UndocuHoyas Following Repeal of DACA Program Jesus Rodriguez Hoya Staff Writer
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (SFS ’66, LAW ’69) of Illinois hosted 16 students without documentation on Capitol Hill to express his support after this week’s repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The students, some of whom were protected under the Obama-era policy, watched from the Senate floor gallery as Durbin delivered a speech advocating for a legislative fix for the so-called “Dreamers,” young adults who were brought to the
United States as children and have been living without documentation for years. “I’m joined this evening by a number of visitors in my office. They are the Dreamers from Georgetown University, my alma mater,” Durbin said on the Senate floor. “I thought it was a pretty big deal when I transferred from St. Louis University to come out here to Georgetown … but what I did was nothing compared to what they have done.” Durbin’s remarks and invitation come on the heels of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement on Tuesday that the Department of
Homeland Security would phase out the DACA program by March 2019, closing the pool to initial applicants and allowing recipients to keep their employment authorization documents until they expire. Amid uncertainty about how the federal government might shape immigration policy in the coming months, the students discussed the political climate and the legislative conditions under which Congress could attempt to pass the Dream Act of 2017, which would grant deportation reprieve to young immigrants See DACA, A6
Anti-Semitic Vandalism Found In 2 Residence Hall Elevators Jeff Cirillo
cording to LXR resident Donovan Taylor (MSB ’20).
Three swastikas were found on the walls of two residence hall elevators this week. A swastika was found carved onto the wall of a Village C West elevator Tuesday evening, and two swastikas were found painted in red on the inside of an LXR Hall elevator yesterday evening. The two cases mark the first biasrelated incidents reported on campus this academic year, including one in a freshman dorm less than a week after the residents’ first classes. The Georgetown University Police Department is investigating the VCW incident but did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the second incident. A student living in LXR reported the second incident to GUPD Wednesday evening, and the swastikas were removed hours later, ac-
“These acts are antithetical to our values as a Catholic and Jesuit university and our commitment to be inclusive.”
Hoya Staff Writer
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The District-Maryland-Virginia area is home to a number of Confederate statues, including one at the Arlington National Cemetery.
featured
REV. MARK BOSCO, S.J. AND TODD OLSON Vice President for Mission and Ministry, Vice President for Student Affairs
The incidents mirror a bias-related incident in March, when two swastikas were scratched into a VCW elevator and later discovered by a Jewish student on the way to class the following morning. In a campuswide email announc-
ing the VCW incident yesterday, Vice President for Mission and Ministry Rev. Mark Bosco, S.J., and Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson condemned “all acts of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and any form of hate.” “These acts are antithetical to our values as a Catholic and Jesuit university and our commitment to be inclusive and welcoming to people of all faiths and racial and ethnic backgrounds,” Bosco and Olson wrote. In total, at least eight bias-related incidents on and around campus were announced by email to the university community in the 2016-17 academic year. The incidents included anti-Semitic graffiti found near the Makóm Jewish gathering space in Leavey Center in May, the removal of Muslim and Hindu flyers from chaplain-in-resident bulletin boards See VANDALISM, A6
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
Schoettes Speaks A former member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS spoke about his resignation. A4
In Knowledge, Power We must educate ourselves on our institutions in order to empower ourselves. A3
Undefeated The men’s soccer team pushed its winning streak to four after two games this past week. A12
NEWS A LEEDing City
opinion Being Health Conscious
SPORTS Soccer and Politics
Washington, D.C. was named the first LEED Platinum city in the world in late August. A5 Published Fridays
Allowing students to address health inequity firsthand is an important and effective teaching tool. A3
Syria’s national soccer team raises eyebrows after being backed by the Assad regime. A12 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com