The Hoya: October 6, 2017

Page 1

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 99, No. 6, © 2017

friday, october 6, 2017

THE CRAFT OF FILM

“Lady-Like,” the directorial debut of Brent Craft (COL ’08) is set to premiere this month.

EDITORIAL The redesigned O’Donovan Hall fails to be a quick and convenient option for students.

B2, B3

NEW GUSA SENATE Twenty-nine new senators were sworn in Sunday as bureaucratic tensions brew.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A5

2017 Crime Report Sees Uptick in Burglary, Fondling Incidents Sarah Wright Hoya Staff Writer

ALI ENRIGHT FOR THE HOYA

Kehoe Field, which closed in February 2016 due to safety concerns, is set to undergo reconstruction after the university’s board of directors approved a design study plan yesterday. The renovation is slated for a 2019 completion.

University to Reconstruct Kehoe Field Following Board Approval Jeff Cirillo

Hoya Staff Writer

The university is set to construct a temporary replacement for Kehoe Field after the board of directors approved a design study plan yesterday. The announcement follows nearly two years of lobbying from student leaders to renovate the field, which sits atop Yates Field House. Kehoe was closed in February 2016 after club sports teams and university officials raised concerns over safety. Club athletes had complained

about uneven playing surfaces, exposed concrete and large sections of torn-up artificial turf. The decision also represents a stark reversal from board members, who in June rejected proposals for a short-term fix until the university could construct a permanent replacement, according to Ricardo Mondolfi (SFS ’19), the Georgetown University Student Association representative to the board. University officials gave student representatives a “definitive no” on a temporary replacement at a June board meeting, Mondolfi said.

Board members concluded that the short-term replacement, expected to last 10 years, would not be worth its multi-million dollar cost. Instead, the board expected to leave Kehoe shuttered for at least the next decade until Yates is ultimately demolished and entirely replaced by 2036. Officials hope the renovation project will be completed by the spring or summer of 2019 and cost about $5 to $10 million, according to Mondolfi. The new renovations are See KEHOE, A6

Reported cases of fondling on Georgetown’s main campus increased threefold from four in 2015 to 12 in 2016 and reported burglary cases increased from 31 in 2015 to 47 in 2016, according to the 2017 Annual Security Report released Sept. 29 by the Georgetown University Police Department. In addition, three arsons were reported on campus in 2016. Until then, no arsons had been reported since 2012. Disciplinary referrals for alcohol increased by 28 percent, or 63 incidents, from 2015 to 2016. The report, published each year in early October, provides crime statistics from the previous three years and offers information and resources on crime prevention for each of Georgetown University’s six campuses in Washington, D.C., Qatar, Italy and the United Kingdom. According to GUPD Chief Jay Gruber, crime rates at Georgetown tend to stay consistently low overall — most year-to-year changes are not statistically significant. “The good thing about Georgetown is crimes are very, very low,” Gruber said. “It’s difficult to see trends or any statistically significant increases or decreases at this point in time.” Gruber said that the increased number of reported fondling crimes might not reflect an increase in crime, but rather an increase in reporting due to expanded sexual as-

sault awareness on campus. “Because of all of the work that has been done by the Title IX office and by the sexual assault task force based on the recommendations, there may be an increase in reporting by survivors of sexual assault,” Gruber said.

“One of our most important goals is making sure that there’s increased reporting because a lot of the time, these incidents go unreported.” KAMAR MACK (COL ’19) President, Georgetown University Student Association

Georgetown University Student Association President Kamar Mack (COL ’19) said that GUSA is working to encourage students to report crimes to GUPD. “One of our most important goals is making sure that there’s increased reporting because a lot of the time, these incidents go unreported,” Mack said. Mack also said that GUSA is working both in the short and long term to improve student safety on campus, citing the university’s LiveSafe app as the most useful safety resource for students. See CRIME, A6

Georgetown to Avoid GUPD, MPD Investigate Hate Crimes Private Prison Investments Police increase patrols, install security cameras in LXR Jeff Cirillo

Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown will continue its practice of not investing in private prison companies in keeping with the university’s Socially Responsible Investing Policy, the university announced yesterday. The board’s Committee on Finance and Administration, which oversees the university’s management of financial resources, accepted the recommendation of the Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility, announced in March, for the university to avoid investments in private prison companies. CISR makes recommendations to the board on ethical investment policies and consists of 12 members, including faculty, administrators and three students. The university will “encourage” its external investment managers to “avoid investing in the companies,” according to a university news release Thursday, which said the decision continues an existing practice. The decision follows the board’s approval of a broad SRI policy in June, which established a general ethical framework for the university’s investment policy. The guidelines broadly require the university to consider the social and environmental impact of companies in which it invests. Though the SRI Policy requires the university to make “reasonable efforts” toward these goals, it did not strictly require any new divestments, nor did it mandate any policies that would compromise the university’s financial interests. Investments discouraged under the policy include

featured

Isabelle Groenewegen

companies involved in providing abortion services, as well as companies deemed to violate “human dignity.” The recommendation that the university establish a policy of “no direct investment” in private prisons passed in March by a majority vote of the CISR. The recommendation followed a divestment proposal submitted in January by three students: Eman Abdelfadeel (COL ’17), Sophie Bauerschmidt Sweeney (COL ’17) and Salma Khamis (SFS ’17). The students’ proposal advocated divestment from “all private prison companies and companies that sustain private prisons,” as well as divestment from “companies that knowingly and consistently enable and profit” from the “violent Israeli occupation of Palestine.” CISR adopted a narrower version of the students’ proposal on private prisons, recommending divestment from private prison companies themselves but excluding any judgment on investing in any other companies that are themselves invested in private prisons. “The Committee determined it is inconsistent with Georgetown’s Catholic and Jesuit values to hold investments in companies that profit from the incarceration of human beings,” a CISR memo announcing the recommendation read. While partially supporting the students’ petition on private prisons, the CISR rejected divestment from Israel, citing Georgetown community members’ “many different perspectives” on how to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and doubts that the university’s divestment would be an “effective tactic” to end hostilities.

Hoya Staff Writer

ALI ENRIGHT FOR THE HOYA

The Georgetown University Police Department is continuing its investigation of anti-Semitic graffiti found in LXR Hall last month.

The Georgetown University Police Department is narrowing a list of potential suspects in its investigation of incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti and threatening messages directed at women in LXR Hall last month. GUPD installed security cameras and established 24-hour patrols on the second floor of LXR Hall while it continues its investigation with Metropolitan Police Department officers and forensic scientists of the incidents reported in the floor’s bathrooms in September. GUPD has also cut a lock for restroom use on the floor and assigned officers to question students on the floor for information, according to GUPD Chief Jay Gruber. “We are conducting an aggressive investigation into these hate crimes. Our detectives are focused on these crimes,” Gruber wrote in an email to The Hoya. Since the beginning of September, seven incidents of vandalism with graffiti depicting swastikas have been reported to the GUPD; four of them were found in LXR. The university stopped notifying the university community of the incidents by email after the incident Sept. 20 in an effort to avoid directing undue attention to the acts, according to a university spokesperson. The university has continued to send emails to East Campus residents only. See investigation, A6

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

Hoyas for Others Hoyas unite to raise funds for Puerto Rico disaster relief after Hurricane Maria. A5

The Unexpected Path Low-income, first-generation students often face uniquely challenging journeys to the Hilltop. A3

Soccer Showdown The No. 12-ranked men’s soccer team and No. 15 Butler square off in Big East Showdown. A12

NEWS King Speaks

opinion Cut the Catcalls

SPORTS Tie Breaks Streak

Former Secretary of Education John King Jr. advocated for diverse public schools Tuesday. A7 Published Fridays

Productive dialogue about sex positivity and consent are vital to stopping catcalling. A3

The women’s soccer team snapped its seven-game shutout streak as Hoyas tie Blue Jays 1-1. A12 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com


A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

friday, OCTOBER 6, 2017

THE VERDICT

C EDITORIALS C Compensate College Athletes Founded January 14, 1920

forts on the court. Colleges and universities directly profit off these athletic programs through ticket sales, merchandising and the use of athletes’ likenesses. For example, the men’s basketball program at the University of Louisville, which has won three NCAA championships and was involved in last week’s scandal, pulled in over $45 million in revenue in 2015, according to the Department of Education. Georgetown’s men’s basketball program grossed over $11 million that year. Meanwhile, players themselves are “compensated” only through their scholarships. Yet, the value of these scholarships are meager compared to the revenue of even just the basketball program: While the men’s basketball program alone pulled in $11 million in 2015, Georgetown Athletics as a whole spent $8.3 million on scholarships for all student-athletes. Moreover, the value of these scholarships is often much less than the market value of the athletes’ performance. Student-athletes must be allowed to receive a percentage of the revenue generated by their performance for their university and to seek outside endorsements or sponsorship deals, should their skill level make this a possibility. It is unfair that these students’ unpaid efforts benefit coaches, administrators, apparel companies, television networks and athletic departments — rather than themselves. Perhaps the most common objection to compensating student-athletes is that this shift would violate the policy of treating them as “students first, athletes second,” as the NCAA puts it. It is unclear how compensating athletes for their work subverts their role as students. The vast majority of college athletes do not become professional: According to the NCAA, a mere 1.1 percent of athletes in men’s basketball programs and 1.5 percent of those in football programs will go professional. This trend is especially notable at schools with smaller athletic programs, like Georgetown, which have historically valued players’ graduations. Compensating these athletes will incentivize them to stay in school longer, rather than take risky gambles on professional careers that might never materialize. The NCAA should end the exploitation of studentathletes by allowing them to take part in the immense profits they generate for their universities, both by granting them a percentage of the revenues and by allowing them the opportunities to take part in potential endorsements and sponsorships. Only this way will college athletics truly be a fair game.

C C C

The status quo of compensation in college athletics is broken. The current rules banning student-athletes from being paid allow universities to exploit the unpaid efforts of its athletes. The NCAA should therefore amend its rules to allow student-athletes to not only be fairly compensated for their time dedicated to their sports, but also to seek their own revenuegenerating opportunities such as potential endorsement contracts, particularly given the significant revenue they generate for their universities. This issue made national headlines last week when federal investigators in New York revealed charges against several coaches at top college basketball programs, including the University of Louisville and Oklahoma State University, as well as a marketing executive at Adidas for bribery schemes revolving around recruiting efforts. In one such case, a top high school prospect’s family was allegedly offered $100,000 in exchange for a commitment to play for that university and to sign with Adidas when he turned professional. This “dark underbelly of college basketball,” as acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon Kim put it, results from college athletes’ inability to be compensated for the work, per NCAA rules. The rules that prohibit college athletes from earning revenue from their efforts force this compensation underground, creating windows for scandals like this one. Top college basketball programs generate millions in revenue for their schools, yet it is illegal for any of that money to pass down to the players who earn it for the school. This system is a series of exploitative relationships where everyone except for the players — the schools, the NCAA, the major television networks and the coaches — earns often large amounts of money. It is no wonder coaches exploit this unfair system to recruit talent; such skewed rules are rife for abuse. This issue resonates throughout all college sports but, due to both last week’s arrests and the athletic focus of Georgetown University, is particularly relevant to college basketball. Two rules governing college basketball are particularly important in this discussion: First, players are not eligible for the NBA draft until one year after their high school graduation, and they must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. As such, most top high school NBA prospects play at least one year of college basketball before declaring for the NBA draft. Second, the NCAA has strict amateurism rules that prohibit college athletes from receiving financial benefits, such as salaries and endorsements, for their ef-

Change of Challengers — The National Basketball Association changed its All-Star Game format from East versus West to two captains picking teams. The change comes after the Western Conference won the vast majority of All-Star Games since 2000. 2024: A Space Oddity — Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to send two crews to Mars by 2024. Cardinal Rules — The University of Louisville fired scandal-ridden Head Coach Rick Pitino after the FBI announced that numerous Division I basketball programs, including Louisville, gave top recruits impermissible benefits and violated federal law. That’s a Wrap — Warner Bros. Pictures and Sarah Jessica Parker announced Sept. 8 that the “Sex and the City 3” movie will not be filmed. Baby Got Hacked — Yahoo announced that all 3 billion of its personal email accounts were hacked in 2013, not just the originally reported 1 billion.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Elinor Walker

Reassess Dining Changes There is a truck in the middle of O’Donovan Hall. The stray Volkswagen vehicle that sits outside Sazón, the “Latin-inspired” concept on the upper level of the hall, is just one of many marks of the ineffective Leo’s redesign. The renovated Leo’s has not only lost its familiar aesthetic but now also presents a new plethora of inconveniences to students. Moreover, it gives students less bang for their proverbial buck by deflating the value of a meal swipe through consistently smaller portions. Additionally, with its constant use of disposable containers and utensils, the redesigned Leo’s presents serious detriment to the environment. The renovation of Leo’s ostensibly sought to improve the quality of the food and service, but appears to have been entirely misguided. Apparently motivated by a desire to make Leo’s more aesthetically pleasing rather than to meet the concerns of students, the redesign of Leo’s has resulted in an establishment that falters in some of the core functions of a dining hall. Several of the changes at Leo’s seem to work directly against what should be the predominant mission of a college dining hall: convenience. In particular, the redesigned dining hall failed to mitigate its excessive wait times. Upstairs, the often long lines at the individual LEO MKT locations drive students downstairs to the Fresh Food Company. Yet even there, the nearabsence of self-service options leads to unwieldy lines, longer wait times for food and often smaller portions — a problem that also dogs the upstairs locations, continuing to deflate the value of the meal swipe. As recently as last year, this editorial board discussed the value gap of meal swipes — the amount of money a students pay per meal swipe when they purchase a meal plan is significantly greater than the value of what those meal swipes can purchase. Yet, the smaller serving sizes found at both upstairs and downstairs locations only reduce the value that students receive for a meal swipe. The shrinking portions exacerbate the already absurd value gap, a disparity “as large as $8.67 per meal,” according to the calculations of the editorial board earlier this year. Moreover, the aesthetic of the renovated Leo’s, which seems to be a central focus of the redesign, fail to connect with students as they were intended. The

Volkswagen truck is just one aspect of the new layout that sacrifices precious seating space for an attempt at visual appeal. The staircase, which is evidently intended to act as additional seating, reaffirms the disconnect between designers’ intentions and the students’ wishes for convenience, adequate seating and the sense of familiarity granted by the old Leo’s. “Hoya Hospitality was born out of the notion that institutional dining does not need to be institutional,” claims a promotional video released by the initiative over the summer. Yet the hall’s bare cement floors and generic environment — reminiscent of an airport terminal and lacking any aspect that is distinctly Georgetown — feel far more institutional than the atmosphere of old Leo’s. Furthermore, one of the most egregious changes made to Leo’s is the consistent wasteful use of disposable boxes, cups and utensils upstairs at immense environmental detriment. Though signs in Leo’s tout its recycling initiatives, the decision to exclusively use reusable plates and utensils upstairs demonstrates an abject disregard for the environment. Unfortunately, many of these aspects of the redesign are not reversible. Nevertheless, there are actionable steps that Hoya Hospitality can take to remedy several of these issues. For example, converting stations on the lower level to be self-service would help mitigate the long waits. Moreover, using reusable dishes on the upper floor would greatly diminish the dining hall’s harmful environmental effects. To be clear, this critique is not an attack on the employees who work hard to keep Leo’s running. It is, of course, not their fault that the redesigned dining hall fails to meet the needs of the student body. The editorial board supports these individuals who work tirelessly to imrpove our Georgetown experiences. Complaining about Leo’s is a time-honored tradition among Georgetown students. Yet, this fact should not mitigate the importance of the concerns about the efficiency, convenience and environmental detriments of the redesigned hall. Particularly because there is only one dining hall at Georgetown, the student body deserves a Leo’s that is able to meet its needs.

Toby Hung, Editor-in-Chief Ian Scoville, Executive Editor Marina Tian, Executive Editor Jesus Rodriguez, Managing Editor Jeff Cirillo, News Editor Christian Paz, News Editor Dean Hampers, Sports Editor Mitchell Taylor, Sports Editor Dani Guerrero, Guide Editor Meena Raman, Guide Editor Maya Gandhi, Opinion Editor Will Zhu, Features Editor Stephanie Yuan, Photography Editor Alyssa Volivar, Design Editor Emma Wenzinger, Copy Chief Tara Subramaniam, Social Media Editor Mike Radice, Blog Editor Jarrett Ross, Multimedia Editor Aly Pachter, Development Editor Lisa Burgoa, Public Editor

Yasmine Salam Alfredo Carrillo Hannah Urtz Madeline Charbonneau Dan Baldwin Dan Crosson Mitchell Taylor Kathryn Baker Mac Dressman Noah Hawke Will Leo Yasmeen El-Hasan Kate Rose Elinor Walker Anna Kovacevich Karla Leyja Ella Wan Saavan Chintalacheruvu Grace Chung Mina Lee Catriona Kendall Juliette Leader Joshua Levy Catherine Schluth Charlie Fritz

Campus Life Desk Editor Academics Desk Editor City Desk Editor News Desk Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Cartoonist Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Blog Editor

Editorial Board

Maya Gandhi, Chair Habon Ali, Alan Chen, Michael Fiedorowicz, Elsa Givan, Joseph Gomez, Josh Molder

HOYA HISTORY: Oct. 7, 1971

Students Bring Beach Boys to Hilltop The newly formed Social Events Commission has succeeded in bringing rock concerts back to Georgetown. The Beach Boys will perform in McDonough Gym on Sunday, Nov. 7, largely due to SEC’s five-page proposal, “The Re-Establishment of Concerts on Campus,” which was recently accepted by the Office of Student Activities. The commission’s report maintained that the reason for the disruptions and damages at the Grateful Dead and Traffic concerts was the commercial instincts of the outside promoters. These promoters, interested in obtaining the greatest possible profit, charged “exorbitant prices of $6” a ticket, and, through their diverse advertising, drew in a “highly immature and teeny-bopperish crowd

which was not representative of the Georgetown Community.” Additionally, the promoters, not being familiar with the needs of McDonough Gym, were unable to provide efficient security. The commission then addressed these problems of advertising, security and public relations with solutions including a reduction in the price of tickets to $4 for students without Student Entertainment Subscription Cards and $2.50 for card holders. Coordinator of Student Activities Susan Johnson, impressed by the concrete proposals of the commission and support from the student body, which raised over $11,000 in funds, agreed to permit the concert if 11 stipulations were met. The exclusion of out-

Daniel Almeida, General Manager Maura McDonough, VP of Operations Emily Marshall, Director of Alumni Relations Brittany Logan, Director of Financial Operations Karen Shi, Director of Human Resources Sagar Anne, Director of Sales Galilea Zorola Matt Zezula Tara Halter Brian Yoffe

Senior Accounts and Operations Manager Treasury Manager Accounts Manager Accounts Manager

side promoters, the confinement of initial ticket sales, the enforcement of fire regulations and the attainment of property damage insurance were among the stipulations that were later accepted by the commission. Thus, for the first time in more than a semester, a rock concert will be held on the Hilltop. As for future concerts, in the words of the statement from the Student Activities Office, “The success of the concert will be evaluated with the objective in mind of formulating future policy. Future concerts of comparable scope are subject to equivalent planning and consideration in advance.”

William Campbell Features Writer

Board of Directors

Matthew Trunko, Chair Daniel Almeida, Amelia Fattore, Toby Hung, Syed Humza Moinuddin, Selena Parra, Paolo Santamaria Letter to the Editor & Viewpoint Policies The Hoya welcomes letters and viewpoints from our readers and will print as many as possible. To be eligible for publication, letters should specifically address a recent campus issue or Hoya story. Letters should not exceed 300 words. Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-700 words. The Hoya retains all rights to all published submissions. Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya. com. The Hoya reserves the right to reject letters or viewpoints and edit for length, style, clarity and accuracy. The Hoya further reserves the right to write headlines and select illustrations to accompany letters and viewpoints.

The Hoya Georgetown University Box 571065 Washington, D.C. 20057-1065 The writing, articles, pictures, layout and format are the responsibility of The Hoya and do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University. Signed columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Hoya. Unsigned essays that appear on the left side of the editorial page are the opinion of the majority of the editorial board. Georgetown University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for student editors. The Hoya does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, color, national or ethnic origin.

Corrections & Clarifications If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of a story, contact Executive Editor Ian Scoville at (202) 602-7650 or Executive Editor Marina Tian at (480) 334-9672. Both editors can be reached by email at executive@ thehoya.com.

© 1920-2016. The Hoya, Georgetown University weekly. No part of this publication may be used without the permission of The Hoya Board of Editors. All rights reserved. The Hoya is available free of charge, one copy per reader, at distribution sites on and around the Georgetown University campus. Editorial: (202) 687-3415 Advertising: (202) 687-3947 Business: (202) 687-3947 Facsimile: (202) 687-2741 Email: editor@thehoya.com Online at www.thehoya.com Circulation: 4,000

News Tips News Editor Christian Paz: Call (310) 4350181 or email news@thehoya.com. Guide Editor Meena Raman: Call (201) 4681698 or email guide@thehoya.com Sports Editor Dean Hampers: Call (720) 5458222 or email sports@thehoya.com. General Information The Hoya is published once a week during the academic year with the exception of holiday and exam periods. Address all correspondence to:


OPINION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • SCOTT

THE ACCIDENTAL FEMINIST

Molly Cooke

Catcalls and Candid Conversations

I

can’t think of a single woman I know who hasn’t been catcalled. Each has her own way of responding to it. I, for one, keep walking without acknowledging the rather primitive comments about my appearance until I get home and can rant about them online. I have brave friends who will turn on their heels and yell profanities in the faces of men who whistle at them. These approaches may not be likely to change the behavior of the catcallers in question, but what will? Catcalling exploits our conditioned impulses to feel shame due to its implicit power dynamic: Because of the taboo and intrigue that sexuality carries in our society, it can become automatically demeaning for women to be regarded sexually without their consent, in public or otherwise. A man who makes a woman feel uncomfortable simply by advertising that he considers her a sexual object takes advantage of that fact. We may be able to stop catcalling by removing the societal sense of shame from sexuality, thus taking the air and the power out of the wolf whistle. “Sex positivity” is a popular term floating around these days, but I’m not clear what it means, exactly. The gist of the concept, as I understand it, is that if we talk about sex more openly, it won’t be so taboo. Yet effective sex positivity is more complex than merely talking. Conversations about sexuality that are truly positive address the ways we think sex should be perceived in our society and work toward shifting the paradigm in that direction. A commitment to productive sex positivity requires normalizing not only the idea of sex, but also ideas like people’s right to have as few or as many sexual partners as they’d like without fearing judgment. It emphasizes both emotional and physical safety in any standard sexual education program. True sex positivity indicates not only a change in the quantity of our discussions of sexuality, but also the quality at which we discuss it. Fun as it may be for a group of girlfriends to share their

I

“sexploits” Carrie Bradshaw-style, productive and effective sex positivity involves not only exciting confessions but also just as many, if not more, awkward assertions. Sexpositive dialogue requires honesty, even when it may feel awkward to reduce the stigmas surrounding sex in our society. A change like the cessation of catcalling does not happen overnight, of course: It is a campaign comprised of smaller achievements. Such victories might include conveying the importance of consent to children early in life as it applies to playing with peers or to their right not to show physical affection toward otherwise unknown relatives at family holidays. Consent is a vastly important concept in discussions about catcalling. It adds insult to injury when a woman is not only publicly sexualized, but especially when it occurs against her will. She may feel more humiliated because of this unwanted interaction, through no fault of her own. Any shame associated with catcalling should be related to its nonconsensual, objectifying nature and should therefore be felt by the catcaller rather than the catcalled. Sex positivity may never entirely eradicate the shame in sexuality, but perhaps it can help us redirect that shame to a more rightful place — those who seek to exploit others by sexualizing them. By magnifying and reflecting the discomfort that catcallers create back onto them, we may begin to change the tunes of their whistles to ones of respect. In any case, the conversations we have about such things should not be limited to screaming between strangers in public or on the internet. At that point, it’s too late to prevent the problem: The productivity of the interaction is significantly limited, and the sound is far less pleasant. I’d much rather hear the purr of thoughtful discussions when I walk down the street.

Molly Cooke is a junior in the College. THE ACCIDENTAL FEMINIST appears online every other Tuesday.

Without proper guidance and access to resources, low-income, first-generation students like me not only face barriers to college but often do not realize that college is an option for them.

I

Rising Above Academic Disadvantages

f you were raised in an upper- or middle-class family and your parents went to college, think about what your family and school counselors told you about college when you were growing up. You were likely told to start preparing for your college application in your junior year of high school, take advanced classes and participate in extracurricular activities to boost your resume. You may have been told that if you worked hard enough, you could go to any college you wanted. Students like myself who grew up in lower-income families with parents that never attended college are often not expected to go to college and are thus unprepared. We often do not know how to write a good personal statement or apply for financial aid until we fill out the application by ourselves. Without proper guidance and access to resources, low-income, first-generation students like me not only face barriers to college, but often do not realize that college is an option for them. But persistence and a strong support system, like the Georgetown Scholarship Program, enable us to overcome these obstacles, even if we never expected ourselves to be here.

I was born and raised in a working-class family in rural Alabama. My mother graduated from high school but ended up working low-paying odd jobs while my father quit school in the ninth grade and worked as a sandblaster at naval shipyards. My parents could not send me to a preparatory high school or hire private tutors to assist me with standardized tests. No one expected me to go to college, much less one as prestigious as Georgetown. Once I did start weighing college as an option, I only considered a few colleges. I thought the University of Alabama and Auburn University were schools I could not even get into because only the smartest kids in the state went to those universities, and I was not sure I was one of them. I had been homeschooled after the fourth grade and ended up earning my GED, so I had no conception of advanced placement classes nor class rankings, much less of their roles in college applications. I thought I could not go to college because I did not attend high school. When I did apply to college, I only applied to the nearest community college. Only after maintaining a perfect GPA there did I begin to realize my academic abilities.

Once I started applying to transfer, I did not know about need-based scholarships, and I could not ask my family for help, as they had never gone to college. Only after near-daily calls and trips to the financial aid office was I finally able to figure it out. Still, when I scheduled appointments with my counselors at my community college about my transfer options, they only told me about schools in Alabama. When I told them that my top choice was Georgetown, they steered me toward more regional universities. But by then, I had demonstrated my academic potential and gained confidence in myself. I was determined to go to my dream school — and I did. Guidance and resources to help low-income, first-generation students understand and apply to top universities are critical not only at universities themselves, but in the preceding steps, as they could make or break a student’s decision to apply to college. When I started at Georgetown I experienced imposter syndrome, the feelings of inadequacy in certain spaces that lead to the fear of being discovered as an imposter. This is a common issue among firstgeneration and low-income stu-

dents. Even though I graduated summa cum laude from community college and earned a full scholarship to Georgetown, I still doubted whether I belonged here. Only after my first year at Georgetown did I realize that I was just as academically capable as my peers despite my disadvantages growing up. The most important thing that I learned, though, is that there is a large community of students like me across the nation. Here, it is GSP, which helps first-generation and lowincome students through financial assistance, mentoring and a supportive community. This type of support for lowincome or first-generation students is vital not only at universities such as Georgetown, but also in high schools and smaller community colleges, where they can determine a student’s ability to go to college. Getting to know hundreds of Georgetown students like me who have had similar disadvantages growing up and feelings of self-doubt has changed my life. We may not have been as primed for college as some of our peers were, but we are here, exceeding all the expectations set for us. AMANDA SCOTT is a junior in the

College.

VIEWPOINT • FELDMAN

FROM THE DEAN’S DESK

Welcome Disagreeable Speech

Establish Purposeful Goals

n the United States, universities are the premier institutions for open inquiry in the pursuit of learning. Because of the particular role freedoms of speech and expression play in this enterprise, all parties to the university’s mission face distinct challenges and responsibilities related to campus speech. In classes, meetings, laboratories and dorms, members and guests of a university community harness speech and expression in a collective attempt to learn. When we gather in these settings, we do not speak just to speak — rather, we speak to further inquiry. Therefore, the foundational question university faculty and administrators face is not how much freedom of expression should be tolerated on campus. Rather, it is what responsibilities faculty, administrators, students and guest speakers have to ensure that campus speech serves the distinctive mission of universities. Recently, Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to Georgetown University Law Center to talk about free speech on college campuses. His appearance drove home the need for all members of the Georgetown University community to consider the place of free speech in the university and the various obligations it imposes on all of us, whether as speakers or listeners on campus. For speech and expression to serve the purposes of free inquiry at a university, we must purposefully assemble people who do not necessarily agree with each other — let alone like each other — and insist they collaborate in conversation with each another. Collaboration like this surely requires courtesy, but it also requires a willingness, maybe even an appetite, for discomfort and hard

work. Faculty members cannot reasonably ask to have students or colleagues who will never challenge their beliefs; students cannot reasonably ask to be wholly safeguarded from their own reactions or from speakers who provoke them; administrators cannot reasonably ask faculty and students to simply toe their line; and guest speakers cannot reasonably ask to be insulated from tough questions or from objection to the very decision to invite them to campus to speak.

We must purposefully assemble people who do not agree with each other — let alone like each other — and insist they collaborate in conversation. Productive conversations at the university are almost always demanding, often discomfiting and intermittently fascinating. To make them work, we must deploy a sometimes uneasy combination of honesty, tenacity, clarity, open-mindedness, commitment to substance, attentiveness and courage. Cultivating these traits — especially all together — takes practice and effort. Moreover, speaking or listening as an inquirer seeking knowledge involves personal risk. We may fail to express ourselves clearly; we may be misunderstood; or we may have to reckon with challenging opposition. As we speak and listen, we are almost inevitably going

to be — at different times and to varying degrees — intrigued, nervous, sad, angry, confused, amused and alarmed. Speakers participating in the university’s pursuit of free inquiry shoulder yet another burden: They must be aware of how their speech may weigh on fellow participants. Abrasiveness, let alone hatefulness, almost never serves the purposes of open inquiry in pursuit of knowledge. When we express ourselves in the university context, we should refrain from gratuitously distressing or disturbing each other. We should think seriously about which provocations are essential and which are superfluous. Even as we speak freely with one another, we must speak responsibly. Likewise, before we invite guests to speak on campus, we should consider carefully how and whether their appearances and commentary answer to our mission of inquiry in aid of learning. It is often tempting to sidestep hard, uncomfortable work. But speech and expression that constructively contribute to the pursuit of learning do not come about magically or even readily. They require active effort from those who seek to uphold the primary mission of American university: students, faculty, administrators in their various roles as speakers, audiences and organizers. All of us must ensure that our classrooms, meetings, laboratories, dorms, and auditoriums are venues for the sort of open exchanges that facilitate learning. We must expect and insist ourselves, and our guests, to speak and listen in these venues accordingly. HEIDI LI FELDMAN is a professor of law and associate professor of philosophy at the Georgetown University Law Center.

B

efore you read this article, I’ll be honest: I didn’t do the best job managing my time as I wrote it. There were so many ideas in my head and yet every time I sat down to write, a new batch of emails came in, or someone walked into my office or my phone buzzed — you get the idea. Managing your time is hard work and can often feel like another box to check on an evergrowing to-do list. Moreover, effective time management is a lifelong journey; I know because I’m still on it. I could reiterate everything you’ve already heard about time management, but instead I’d like to offer a different perspective: one that, with the help of your peers, reframes time management as a means to living a goal-oriented and purposeful life. First, take time to consider your goals and what makes you happy. These can be academic in nature, social, careerrelated or concentrated in any number of areas. “Prioritize first,” Neehar Mahidadia (NHS ’21) said. “It ultimately comes down to what you think is important for you.” Whatever you identify as central to you, find a way to acknowledge it externally. Whether it is by quietly taking the time to write out your goals or talking them through with someone else, concretely recognizing your goals is the first step to achieving them. There are many useful resources available on campus to guide you through this process of initial goal setting, including the Academic Resource Center and the Cawley Career Education Center, both located in the Leavey Center. Take advantage of these resources to begin your pursuit

of what will make you happy. As Akila Namasivayam (NHS ’18) said, “If the things you are managing your time around are things you enjoy doing, it won’t even seem like a hassle!” Once you have your bigpicture goals, take the time to make them happen in smaller increments.

Jennifer Ericson “I realize how important it is to block off time with specific intentions. You need a plan of what to do during that time,” Charli Pogany (NHS ’21) said. Breaking down goals into manageable parts is a vital key to long-term success: Write todo lists, keep a calendar and carry a planner with you. “Be intentional when you sit down to do homework rather than just completing it to get it out of the way,” Michaela Hitchner (NHS ’19) said. “Spend time each day to write out or make note of everything that needs to be done,” Ava Tennant (NHS ’18) said. The advice here is to plan out the steps. Determine which smaller pieces will guide you toward your goals, and focus on achieving them one at a time. Fortunately, there are many resources available to help you keep track of and achieve these smaller goals. Google Calendar is a favorite of mine, but other suggestions include apps such as Evernote, Any. do, and Finish. For me, Google Tasks is a lifesaver.

After having set your purpose and plan in place, you can then move into implementation mode. You may be crossing off to-dos and gaining momentum, but after a while, it can start to feel like a whirlwind. Therefore, it’s important for you to schedule time for reflection and balance to counteract this hectic feeling. As Julia Gasior (NHS ’20) said, “Know when to stop; know when it’s not productive to study anymore; know when you should go out to dinner with your friends.” If and when you struggle or need to recenter, reach out: Every layer of support here at Georgetown is priceless. Reach out to peers, academic deans, faculty advisers and chaplains. Building and maintaining supportive relationships is a vital part of living a meaningful, goal-oriented life. “It’s always possible to reset, even if you think you’ve really messed up. There is nothing you can’t make a comeback from, especially when you let yourself lean on your professors, parents and peers for advice,” said Sheela Ranganathan (NHS ’19). The late Steve Jobs said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” Jobs dedicated his time to pursuing his life’s purpose, and his accomplishments changed the world forever. It worked for him, and this pursuit of a meaningful, goal-oriented life can work for you, too.

Jennifer Ericson is an assistant dean of academic affairs in the School of Nursing and Health Studies. FROM THE DEAN’S DESK appears online every other Thursday.


A4

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017

PAGE FOUR

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Former Secretary of Education called for greater diversity in U.S. classrooms. Story on A7.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS SHOWING UP FOR JUSTICE verbatim

You don’t make progress by standing on the sideline, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) in response to Puerto Rico’s hurricane crisis. Story on A8.

from our blog

QUESTIONS FROM ABROAD You might be enjoying the waves in Sydney but have no idea what happened to UG. Not to worry! 4E has you covered. SISTER SONG

The March for Racial Justice and the March for Black Women gathered over 1,000 protesters Sept. 30. Protesters began in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, marched through most of the District and ended on the National Mall.

blog.thehoya.com

Missing Out: The GSP Students Who Would Have Been YASMINE SALAM Hoya Staff Writer

Like many Georgetown University students, Teodora Lancaster (COL ’20) expected her time on the Hilltop to be a balancing act of classes, internships, healthy social outings and sightseeing. But just over a year into her time at Georgetown, Lancaster is coming to understand the severe constraints imposed by her financial situation. “There had been a good amount of times where I wondered if I belonged here. At times, I felt out of place because a lot of students on this campus have money and make sure that you know it,” Lancaster said. Having grown up in southern California as the youngest of five children, Lancaster said her single mother struggled financially while raising her. Working on and off during Lancaster’s childhood, her mother endured financial strains due to her children’s education bills and her late husband’s medical expenses. Lancaster remembers a time during her freshman spring semester when the cost of academic materials and stress pushed her to a breaking point. “I was tackling two jobs and five classes. Two of my courses were extremely difficult for me and although I sought out help from the free resources offered on campus, it wasn’t enough,” Lancaster said. “I also did not have enough money to purchase all the necessary textbooks that I needed so I struggled to keep up because I didn’t even have a book to refer to.” Lancaster was juggling a front desk assistant work-study job at the Georgetown University Medical Center while volunteering for Jumpstart, a national early education organization that aims to provide children from low-income families with tutoring and emotional support. But her work-study job prevented her from receiving an income at Jumpstart, forcing her to work 300 hours over 26 weeks last semester to win an educational grant of $1,221 from Jumpstart to pay off part of her student loan. “It sucked because it would take time away from my studies, but I would say, ‘I need to work towards this time because I need to get this amount of hours to get the money I need to pay off my loan,’” Lancaster said. She is not alone. Lancaster represents a larger group of students on campus who need greater institutional and financial support but

were not granted entry to the university’s largest resource for financially disadvantaged students, the Georgetown Scholarship Program. Faced with steep student loans, expensive flights home, meal and educational expenses and difficult family situations, these students can struggle to support themselves financially due to the high cost of living at Georgetown. With no institutional support system, these students end up missing out while on the Hilltop. THE INCOME GAP Established in 2004, the Georgetown Scholarship Program was created to combat the hurdles students like Lancaster often encounter on a campus where 51 percent of students come from the top 5 percent of the country’s wealthiest families. The program targets students who are among the first generation of their families to attend college and seeks to provide institutional support for students once on campus. A January study by The New York Times found that Georgetown has consistently provided greater access to students from families in the top 20 percent than the lower 80 percent of families in the country over the last 10 years. Seventy-four percent of Georgetown students are from families with an income in the top 20 percent while only 3.1 percent of Georgetown students come from the bottom 20 percent. The median income for a Georgetown family stands at $229,100. The study categorizes Georgetown as an elite college and reports it to have the sixth highest median parent income when compared with 65 of its peer institutions such as Tufts and Vanderbilt. Lancaster said she experienced the effects of this economic gap and believes many students may try to hide their financial hardships to fit in at Georgetown. “I know that there are other students who have faced the same or even worse hardships than I have but it’s still something hard for me to discuss or even believe that people can relate because I feel as if many put up a mask to hide this,” Lancaster said. Selah Shackelford (COL ’19) said she chose Georgetown because of its unmatchable financial aid offer. One of three sisters from Inglewood, Calif., she witnessed an evident socio-economic gap from a young age. However, as with Lancaster, the financial support did not completely eliminate the high cost of living on campus. “I would stay on campus for

some breaks and especially sophomore year where I stayed on campus for all breaks,” Shackelford said. “It was hard buying food. I had a job but I wasn’t making enough money.” Lancaster had never even heard of GSP before setting foot on campus. “When I first heard about GSP, I immediately thought, ‘Well, don’t I qualify for that?’ and wanted to be a part of it for both the financial support and the community support as well as their resources,” she said. Only 9 percent of children born in the bottom income quartile will graduate from college. A 2015 Pell study compiling 45 years of economic research on social mobility finds wealthier students are eight times more likely to graduate college. “Your socio-economic background is your destiny in our country right now, and that’s not fair,” GSP Director Missy Foy (COL ’03) said. THE SCHOOL’S SUPPORT GSP has served over 1,400 students since its inception. Currently the program caters to over 650 undergraduates, including 172 first-year students. Over 70 percent of GSP’s current students are first-generation. Foy has worked with GSP college student since the beginning. Originally made up of 50 students and created to raise money to offset student loans, GSP has grown into an essential support network for many first-generation students on campus. “We are looking at all aspects of the Georgetown experience from the day that you are admitted to the day that you graduate,” Foy said. “The idea is ‘where can we eliminate barriers’ because we want to make sure that Georgetown as an institution isn’t giving students a ladder to get over barriers but really focusing on knocking down barriers.” Among the benefits GSP offers to its members are financial support for flights home, groceries, winter clothes and textbooks, as well as professional development opportunities like networking opportunities and job counseling. THE SELECTION PROCESS Students are not strictly admitted to Georgetown as GSP students, but rather as students on their own merit. Once they pass the admissions process all low-income candidates face a GSP committee selection phase. Throughout this time, candidates have no knowl-

edge of the debates happening behind the scenes. After all accepted students have received their decision letters in April, students are reviewed for GSP’s 1789 Scholarship or other benefits. Representatives from GSP, the admissions office and the Office of Student Financial Services meet to review candidates. “All first-generation students who are admitted to Georgetown are reviewed for consideration and given very serious consideration because the focus of our program is first-generation students,” Foy said. Foy said GSP works very closely with the financial aid and admissions offices to select students who they think will be living on the tightest budget while on campus. “We meet the full financial need of admitted students, so even if you are not selected for GSP, the idea is that your full financial need would be met through a combination of scholarship, parent contribution, student contribution, work-study and loans,” Foy said. But GSP is strapped for resources. Originally supposed to accept 150 students from each year’s incoming class, Foy and her team are currently serving 172 first-year students. After the GSP committee review, students like Lancaster and Shackelford end up not gaining access to GSP benefits and receive whatever financial aid package the university offers. Foy said the resources GSP has available limit the program from serving the full need students have on campus right now and said she worries some of these institutional limits force students like Lancaster and Shackelford to be left out. “There are students that we have reviewed for GSP who we were not able to select because we didn’t have enough scholarship to reduce their loan,” she said. “For very compelling cases you don’t want to leave those students out.” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69) said he understands why GSP must widen its reach. “There are probably more people here who could legitimately benefit from [GSP] than actually are benefitting from it even though I don’t think there are many more. But there could be many more,” Deacon said. “Missy and her team try really hard not to exclude anyone who might need support or want it but it’s not just an unlimited resource that anyone who wants to can be part of.” Deacon is currently preparing for the university’s next fun-

RICHARD SCHOFIELD FOR THE HOYA

The Georgetown Scholarship Program offers support to 650 students, most of whom are first-generation, to attend college. draising campaign to increase GSP’s reach and alleviate outlier cases through an endowment. Launched last year, GSP’s endowment fundraising has secured $19 million of a $25 million target. Deacon said GSP is set to reach this target in two years. Foy said her team often struggles to offer help to students who would fit into the GSP family but are not offered financial assistance. “They are walking around on this campus and I think that is a real ethical and moral dilemma,” Foy said. “Do you reach out to them and say get involved in the program? Or is it a slap in the face to say you’re not going to get the scholarship, and rather we should wait for students to reach out to us and we can say, ‘I can’t offer the scholarship but I can offer X, Y and Z instead.’” Foy said doubling the size of GSP would mean students like Lancaster would not be missed in the initial selection phase. THE NEXT STEP This past summer Lancaster realized her inability to discuss her financial problems would only hold her back. “After a certain point, I felt I needed to talk to an adult about this at the school,” Lancaster said. GSP currently offers an honorary membership option, which is designed for students who did not initially gain entrance to the program but sought to gain access to certain benefits GSP offers. Becoming a GSP honorary member requires completing an

application and meeting with a GSP coordinator. Honorary members receive some of the support that full members are offered such as receiving GSP emails, gaining access to special events and the ability to apply for financial grants, but lack the financial aid and loan relief awarded to full GSP students. Both Shackelford and Lancaster ventured to apply for honorary membership. Shackelford was accepted at the end of the spring 2017 semester, and Lancaster is in the process of applying. Shackelford said the experiences that some of her close friends in GSP shared with her pushed her to act. “I had been having financial difficulties. It’s always hard for me to go home, little things that I struggle with financially that I can’t really do anything about,” Shackelford said. “I would just be thinking, ‘Wow, I’m in the same financial position as a lot of my friends and I should really think of joining’ because I saw the benefits where GSP really came through for them.” Lancaster similarly is seeking to join GSP, as she sees the community as a necessary support system when she needs it most. “I feel I would be exposed to a community that can help me, not just financially because they give need-based grants, but also emotionally,” Lancaster said. “It is really overwhelming at times to have to juggle school and work, and when I struggle it’s even harder for me to find the time to seek out the help that I need.”


news

friday, october 6, 2017

THE HOYA

A5

New GUSA Senate Sworn In as Tensions Emerge Christian Paz Hoya Staff Writer

Twenty-nine students from all four graduation years were sworn into the 2017-2018 Georgetown University Student Association senate Sunday, as the senate chose new leadership for the body and finance and appropriations committee. A confirmation for Mattie Haag (COL ’18) to serve as a councilor for the GUSA Constitutional Council, the student association’s interpretative branch, was unexpectedly postponed after a senate motion led by Christopher Holshouser (MSB ’18) to investigate unclear developments he said constituents had brought to him. Haag’s appointment is needed for the the Council to function as a judicial body, as bylaws require all three councilors to be present for official business to take place. Councilors must be nominated by the GUSA President and approved by a majority of the senate, according to the GUSA constitution and bylaws, and assume office after the outgoing President administers an oath of office. Appointments to the council by incumbent presidents rather than the outgoing have been heard by the senate in 2015 and 2016. GUSA President Kamar Mack (COL ’19) nominated Haag after former councilor Natalie Brown (COL ’17) graduated at the end of former President Enushe Khan’s (MSB ’17) term. The Constitutional Council previously ruled against the GUSA Executive and senate leadership in December 2016 after students opposing a planned dissolution of the senate and restructuring of club funding filed complaints to

the Election Commission for election irregularities and appealed the Commission decision to certify the referendum results. The senate voted to reconsider Haag’s appointment at its 5 p.m. meeting this coming Sunday. Ben Baldwin (SFS ’19) will serve as speaker of the senate and Sylvia Levy (SFS ’18) will serve as vice speaker. Baldwin previously served two terms as a senator from Freshman South and West Campus, as well as a member of the Finance and Appropriations committee, which allocates the student activities fee to club advisory boards, last year. Holshouser will serve as the senate FinApp committee’s next chair, overseeing allocation of more than one million dollars in student activities fees. Holshouser said he would work to engage a group diverse in gender, sexual identity, race and ethnicity to run for Fin/App positions, after senators raised concerns that the previous Fin/App committee featured mostly straight-identifying white males. Holshouser said he pushed for the senate to postpone Haag’s confirmation to give senators time to consider any objections. “Given that the senate was just seated for its first meeting I was of the opinion taking a week to get senators acquainted with senate function and not get bogged down in procedure on the first meeting was more beneficial to the constituents as the docket already was likely to take two hours,” Holshouser wrote in an email to The Hoya. Baldwin, Josh Sirois (SFS ’20), Hunter Estes (SFS ’19), Owen Hayes (COL ’18), Javon Price (SFS ’20), Scott Lowder (COL ’17), Alejandro Serrano (MSB ’17), William Morris (COL

’19) and Zach Oschin (COL ’20) previously served on FinApp. Levy previously served in the GUSA executive, chairing the mental health policy team during the 2016-2017 school year and sitting on the Mental Health Policy Committee from 2014 to 2016. Baldwin said the newly inaugurated senate features students driven to hold the university administration accountable. “In conversations with newly elected Senators, I have seen a drive and an optimism that truly sets this senate apart,” Baldwin said. “I would expect to see a number of resolutions and initiatives over the coming weeks that focus on holding ourselves and the University accountable to the greater student body, whether that comes as a response to hate crimes on this campus or ensuring that students’ activities fees are spent solely on student activities.” Levy said during a speech before the election that she will focus on sexual assault and mental health advocacy. “It’s very important that we use the GUSA senate to make some major statements about a broad range of issues pushing the university and the administration to really own up to different commitments and promises they’ve made around a wide variety of issues,” Levy said. Levy said her term as vice speaker will be successful if she facilitates the senate’s advocacy work. “My goal is to help my peers in the senate to do what they want to do – connect them to administrators and relevant student advocates – and really send some powerful messages from the GUSA senate about what student life should look like,” Levy said.

Will Cromarty For The Hoya

GUSA Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’18) swore the new GUSA senate into office last Sunday. The body’s first order of business was to postpone a Constitutional Council confirmation. The Sunday swearing-in ceremony administered by GUSA Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’18) marked the end of a two-week campaign cycle which saw the highest voter turnout — more than 30 percent of students — for a senate election without a referendum on the ballot in recent years. Mack said he looks forward to working with the Senate. “Under the strong leadership of Speaker Baldwin and Vice Speaker Levy, we’re hopeful that this year’s body will be an effective partner in delivering meaningful change on shared priorities — affordability of student life, accessibility of cam-

pus resources, and advocacy on behalf of all students,” Mack wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Above all, we’re excited for the limitless potential of a united student government actively working to better the student experience at Georgetown.” GUSA Election Commissioner Grady Willard (SFS ’18) said only the 2013 referendum vote on a satellite campus in Rosslyn, Va. saw a higher turnout. This election was also the first time the Election Commission included student biographies on the Hoyalink voting page for students to read candidate statements. Two formal complaints were

filed to the Election Commission this year, including a candidate filing a complaint against themselves. The second complaint involved violation of Office of Residential Living policy regarding distribution of posters and flyers in Darnall Hall. The policy prohibits the distribution of materials door to door inside any residence hall and sets clear guidelines for posting indoors, including that posters must be 8.5 ” x 11” or 11” x 17” in length, submitted to the residence hall community director for approval and posted to designated bulletin boards.

Students Unite for Puerto Rico Financial Relief hannah urtz Hoya Staff Writer

SUBUL Malik FOR THE HOYa

Students of Georgetown, Inc. and the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union are responding to recent cyberattacks around the country with new protocols.

Groups Strive for Enhanced Cybersecurity Protocols andrew wallender Hoya Staff Writer

Two Georgetown University student organizations are increasing security measures to protect against cyberattacks, according to senior leadership of the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union and Students of Georgetown, Inc. The Corp is currently formalizing password guidelines and implementing a company-wide password policy for Corp-specific online accounts. Meanwhile, GUASFCU executives plan to migrate on-site servers to a cloud platform to increase security and reliability. The Corp’s increased scrutiny of employee passwords comes after a breach last month allowed a stillunidentified hacker to send a sexually explicit email to all Corp staff. The Corp is continuing to investigate the email, CEO Melina Hsiao (COL ’18) said. Last month’s incident is not The Corp’s first experience with hacking. In February 2016, the company was forced to close all of its storefronts for two hours after a hack of its servers. The switch to cloud-based system at GUASFCU comes as prominent organizations and government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, are increasingly adopting the technology to prevent breaches in cybersecurity. Cloud platforms are considered more secure by some IT professionals, because a company’s data is stored off-site at data centers that often have stronger security defenses than traditional data systems. Continuant, a global managed service provider, predicts 90 percent of businesses will be using a form of cloud platforms by 2018. GUASFCU Chief Technology Officer Nick Matz (COL ’18) said cybersecurity is among the credit union’s top priorities this year. “Cybersecurity is of the utmost importance to the Credit Union,” Matz wrote in an email to The

Hoya. “We have made significant improvements to our network this year. We continue to invest in information technology with our own funding, and with additional funding from the National Credit Union Administration,” a federal agency that regulates federal credit unions. University Information Services have not been contacted by The Corp to help with their internal hack investigation, according to UIS Chief Information Security Officer Joseph Lee. However, since The Corp maintains a company email system separate from the university, UIS would not be able to provide substantive aid in a hacking investigation. The Corp has taken further steps to strengthen their cybersecurity. This fall, the student-run company switched payment processing systems from Square to Clover. Bank of America Merchant Services partners with Clover, making it a more secure point of sale system than Square, according to Hsiao. The university required both organizations to increase the security of their payment processing services this summer by installing separate internet networks to handle financial transactions. The new networks bring the two organizations into compliance with mandated credit card industry standards. Both GUASFCU and The Corp previously used the university’s internet network to process financial transactions. The shift to dedicated networks was necessary because the university’s Wi-Fi is not designed with vendor’s needs in mind, Lee said. “Our first obligation for network access is not to third-party vendors and businesses that have to be running all day,” Lee said. “It is primarily for the students, primarily for the faculty and primarily for teaching, learning and also research.” UIS had been aware for years that student businesses were using the university’s Wi-Fi to process transactions; they began working

with on-campus vendors two years ago to establish a separate network for financial transactions. This summer, UIS assisted The Corp and GUASFCU in contracting an internet service provider for their new networks. However, Hsiao said that processing payments over the university’s internet network did not pose a security risk or put Corp customers’ data at risk. “The only violation was that we were using the university’s network,” Hsiao said. “It wasn’t that the university’s network wasn’t safe enough.” Though GuestNet is not unsecure, it was never intended to be a secure network for businesses but rather a convenience for guests visiting campus, Lee said. “From a business standpoint, there’s a lot of rules you have to follow in terms of what your IT needs to look like and what your network needs to look like,” Lee said. “We don’t say that GuestNet, for example, will meet those needs. It’s good for personal use but for business needs, that’s a completely different thing.” Despite the successful implementation of GUASFCU’s new network, Matz expressed worry that his organization would not be able to rely on UIS for network assistance as in the past. “In our contract with [UIS] before, they did have a lot of things that they would help us with,” Matz said. “And now that they’re not our internet service provider, I’m worried that they’re not going to be as willing to help us with those things.” Despite those concerns, UIS’s advisory relationship with student organizations will remain what it has always been, Lee said. Hsiao said she is not concerned about The Corp’s continuing relationship with UIS. “UIS has been really great to work with and there’s definitely been no negative impact on our relationship,” Hsiao said. “I think, if anything, it strengthened it.”

The Georgetown University Latin American community has come together to support Puerto Rican students and to raise funds and awareness for the island following the devastation Hurricane Maria wrought two weeks ago. Students at the University of Pennsylvania launched a GoFundMe page Sept. 20 titled “Students with Puerto Rico” to raise $15,000 to donate to Unidos por Puerto Rico, a public-private initiative started by the Office of the First Lady Beatriz Roselló and a group of companies to help the victims of the hurricane. Georgetown students were among the first to join the efforts, raising over $1,000 in the span of one day. Paola Mendez (COL ’18), the Georgetown representative for Students with Puerto Rico, said she jumped at the chance to help facilitate broader awareness and support for disaster relief. The group reached their goal within the first 24 hours, as more student groups from universities across the country joined the effort. As of Thursday, the page had raised over $170,000, including a donation of $20,000 that came from NBC talk show host Jimmy Fallon. Mendez, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, said she wanted to make a difference from far away. “I know so many people that couldn’t talk to or hadn’t heard from their families, and it’s so hard not being home or knowing what’s

going on when such a bad thing is happening,” Mendez said. “From here, raising funds and awareness is really the only thing you can do. We’re just trying to do everything that we can from abroad.” Omar Torres (COL ’18) has worked with Mendez over the course of the past few days to coordinate with student groups, administrators and the rest of the Puerto Rican community at Georgetown. Mendez and Torres met with Presiden John J. DeGioia last week to discuss the university’s response and their efforts to engage the broader Georgetown community in the effort. The President’s Office is coordinating a Sunday Mass fundraising event, in which all proceeds will go toward disaster relief efforts. Torres, also a Puerto Rican student, said that while the response from the community has been heartening, there is a long road ahead, and it is important to continue the efforts to maintain support for the island. “[I want] just to raise awareness that people don’t forget about us. It’s easy to be dragged away by other headlines, but at the end of the day — and it’s sad that we have to say this, but we do have to say this — Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Just like someone from Texas or Florida is a U.S. citizen,” Torres said. Various student groups, administrators and even Georgetown alumni have reached out to them to discuss ways to expand the efforts and develop long-term goals, like potential service trips and

reconstruction projects, Mendez said. “We obviously know that once this story is not a part of the news cycle anymore, there’s going to be a need to fill that [publicity] void and so we want to keep raising awareness and keep moving forward,” Torres said. The group has engaged many of the more than 30 Puerto Rican students at Georgetown, and will continue to engage the rest of the Puerto Rican community at Georgetown. David Santos (COL ’19), who has also been involved in the fundraising efforts, said he was encouraged by the responses from the Georgetown community. “It was really surprising to see how much support people gave us. My dean, Sue Lorenson, professors and many students have all reached out to express concern and offer assistance,” Santos said. “I think it showed how much good a group of people can do when they come together for a cause.” Santos said that this kind of effort is indicative of the ways that the university community can unite in moments of crisis. “I think it is important that we all work to make the Georgetown community one where people feel they can reach out for help and receive a united and strong response,” Santos said. “Therefore, the way we respond to disasters that hurt others is what determines how we build a supportive community.

Courtesy Paola Mendez

Students in the Puerto Rican and greater Latin American community joined the “Students for Puerto Rico” initiative to raise funds to aid Puerto Rico’s reconstruction and recovery efforts.


A6

news

THE HOYA

friday, october 6, 2017

GUPD Crime Report Reveals Rise in Sexual Harassment crime, from A1 “The LiveSafe app is the number one most important resource that we want to make sure all students know about and know how to use because it integrates SafeRides, SafeWalks and a lot of the reporting features that exist within Georgetown,” Mack said.

“A big problem that we deal with is finding the proper line between awareness and oversaturating our students with information about sexual assault.” Nina YOUNG (SFS ’19) Chair, GUSA Sexual Assault and Student Safety Coalition

GUSA Sexual Assault and Student Safety Chair Nina Young (SFS ’19) said that her office focuses on reducing students’ risk of falling victim to a crime and helping students part of marginalized groups on campus who may not be comfortable reporting crimes to GUPD. Young also said it is impor-

tant for students to be cognizant of difficulties facing sexual crime survivors when spreading awareness and promoting action. “A big problem that we deal with is finding the proper line between awareness and oversaturating our students with information about sexual assault,” Young said. “We don’t want our awareness campaigns to be so wide that we’re triggering a lot of the survivors that are still here. We want to try to be sensitive to them.” Gruber said that GUPD is concerned about the increase in reported alcohol crimes because overuse of alcohol can lead to other crimes. “One of the big concerns that we have about alcohol use and overuse is that when a person becomes intoxicated, they could be more likely to be to be victims of a crime,” Gruber said. Although the 2016 data did not show an increase in hate crimes, Gruber said that next year’s report may reflect the recent uptick in crimes targeting racial, religious or sexual orientation minority groups on campus. “Georgetown is reflective of what is going on in the country,” Gruber said. “We are not immune.”

Richard Schofield FOR THE HOYA

The Georgetown University Police Department released its 2017 Annual Security Report aggregating Georgetown’s crime statistics from 2014, 2015 and 2016. The report found a 52 percent increase in burglaries and an increase in fondling from four cases to 12.

University Approves Plan to Temporarily Repair Kehoe kehoe, from A1

ALI ENRIGHT FOR the hoya

Kehoe Field is a step closer to replacement after nearly two years of closure, as the university’s board of directors approved a $500,000 design plan Thursday for a temporary replacement that would make the field usable for another 10 years.

expected to address the field’s drainage problems by installing lightweight foam between the roof and the artificial turf surface, helping rainwater to drain off the roof into a nearby stream. The engineering design for the renovation is expected to cost $500,000. The field’s structural problems began when it was first built in 1942 and then worsened when it was it was rebuilt on the roof of Yates in 1979. The lightweight concrete roof of the gymnasium does not properly drain rainwater, leading the field and the roof itself to deteriorate from pooling water. The field has been repaired twice since 1979, first in 1987 at a cost of $1.8 million and again in 2002 for $7 million. Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said the Kehoe renovation is an “important project for our community,” according to a Thursday news release. “After studying options to replace the field surface, we are pleased to be moving forward with plans for a replace-

ment that will restore three acres of recreational space for our community and allow numerous club and intramural sports to practice and compete on campus,” Olson wrote. The closure has left club sports teams without a dedicated practice field for nearly two years. Kehoe had previously been the main field for club sports teams, which now have to share Cooper Field with varsity and intramural sports teams or use off-campus fields at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. According to Perry Cao (SFS ’17), former captain of the Men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, conditions on those fields were less than ideal, and many were unlit. The team has struggled with recruitment, and attendance has dwindled at practices. “The only time slot we could get was 5 p.m. to dark, and some of the weeks where we were off Cooper, 5:30 to dark was like 5:30 to 5:45,” Cao said in a February interview. “All of club sports is really, really furious about it, just because Georgetown has so little field space.”

Suspect List Narrows in GUPD Vandalism Investigation investigation, from A1 Meanwhile, students, faculty, religious leaders and administrators on campus are aiming for increased dialogue on the issue and solidarity for those targeted by the images and messages According to GUSA Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’18), Michael Smith, the director of affirmative action programs in the university’s Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action and other organizations have approached Director of Jewish Chaplaincy Rabbi Rachel Gartner to discuss possible responses to the bias-related incidents. “In the coming month or so [Smith] is going to organize and collaborate with other departments of the university, like the Beeck Center, campus ministries and JSA to create a space for students to discuss these issues, like why is there an increase in antiSemitism,” Andino said. A “teach-in” titled “The Violence of Language and the Normalization of Gender Violence,” moderated by philosophy professor Mark Lance and women’s studies professors You-Me Park and Michelle Ohnohna, was scheduled to discuss “what was really written in LXR” on Wednesday. The event was met with backlash from several students who noted posters for the event made no reference to swastikas or anti-Semitism. LXR and Nevils ChaplainIn-Residence Reverend Rondesia Jarrett-Schell sent out an e-mail after the Sept. 20 incident, urging students to reach out to her for support. “It is upsetting to have these incidents happening

here in the community where we live,” Jarrett-Schell wrote. “To all students, especially our Jewish students who may have felt especially threatened by the swastika on the first eve of Rosh Hashanah, please know that I am available to meet, talk and support you.” In addition, the East Campus Residential Team hosted a “Smoothie and Discussion Night” last Sunday.

“There’s definitely a tension in situations like this where obviously it’s important to keep students informed.” KAMAR MACK (COL ’19) President, Georgetown University Student Association

Georgetown University Student Association President Kamar Mack (COL ’19) said it was important to downplay the attacks to avoid giving the perpetrator attention. “There’s definitely a tension in situations like this where obviously it’s important to keep students informed and make sure the students know what’s going on,” Mack said. “Then there’s also the tension of when we send out blast messaging we’re amplifying the effects of what that person is doing.” Alexandre Kleitman (SFS ’19), who lives near the restrooms where a swastika and hateful messages were found, said she thinks Georgetown should continue to openly condemn these incidents.

“I wonder whether it is better to not say anything because you don’t give legitimacy to the act or is it better to communicate about it and continue to reaffirm Georgetown’s stance again,” Kleitman said. “It’s better to have a conversation and speak about it and keep explaining why we’re against it because people are still going to know. I understand there’s an ongoing investigation but I still think you can address it without in any way harming the investigation.” For Allie Gurwitz (COL ’19), such displays have made her feel supported by the community in light of the hate displayed in the messages. “The pattern of anti-Semitic graffiti since the beginning of the school year has been unsettling, marginalizing and shocking,” Gurwitz said. “With each additional occurrence, it becomes more and more apparent to me that at the very least there are people here at Georgetown who have no problem vandalizing our school with swastikas and violent language.” Gurwitz said she has “found solace in the strength” of Georgetown’s Jewish community, the community’s “ability to counter hate with love for each other” and in the university’s support. Kleitman said repeatedly encountering the bias-related incidents has incited fear in the dorm and created an uncomfortable atmosphere for residents, especially while the perpetrator remains at large. “Whenever you walk by someone it’s at the back of your mind because this is happening literally in the bathroom next to ours,” Kleitman said.

AISHA MALHAS for the hoya

The Metropolitan Police Department has joined the Georgetown University Police Department’s investigation into anti-Semitic vandalism in LXR Hall. The suspect list is narrowing.


News

friday, october 6, 2017

THE HOYA

A7

Former Education Secretary Warns of Achievement Gap Madeline Charbonneau Hoya Staff Writer

Former Secretary of Education John King Jr. said the United States must push for diverse student bodies and teachers in public schools to close the nation’s racial achievement gap in a lecture organized by the Georgetown College minor in education, inquiry and justice Tuesday. Students of color and lowincome students disproportionately attend low-performing schools, King said, a disparity that significantly contributes to achievement gaps between white and nonwhite students. These gaps come from the United States’ history of institutional racism, according to King. “For students of color, disparities in educational opportunity and achievement are inextricably linked to our nation’s continued struggle to grapple with issues of race and bias,” King said. “It is America’s brutal legacy of slavery and the imposition of segregation that first made the education of black people a punishable offense and then established a separate, inferior system of schools for black children.”

Analyses by The Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.based education research and advocacy organization, have found deep racial disparities in access to high-achieving schools. A 2010 study by the group found that black students in California are six times more likely than white students to attend schools in the bottom third of the state for achievement levels. Educational disparities and de facto segregation in schools hurt all students, according to King. Not only do they keep students and teachers alike from facing their implicit biases, but they also prevent students from unlocking their full potential. “Diversity offers us a better path, in terms of academic outcomes and brighter futures for all of our students,” King said. “Students in socioeconomically and racially diverse schools, regardless of their economic status, achieve stronger outcomes than students in schools with concentrated poverty.” King also emphasized the importance of having a diverse teaching staff in addition to a diverse student body. “All students benefit when they learn from adults who

are diverse,” King said. “I believe it is important for white students to see teachers and school leaders of that community who are of color. It helps them get a sense of what diverse adult leadership can offer.”

“Diversity offers us a better path, in terms of academic outcomes and brighter futures for all of our students.” JOHN KING Former Secretary of Education

King also derided President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to cut federal funding for public education. The president’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal called for a $9.2 billion, or 13.6 percent, spending cut to federal K-12 and higher education initiatives. “There’s no other way to think about that except that it is an assault on the American

dream and an attempt to really dismantle public education in serious ways,” King said. King proposed that supporting education should not be a partisan issue and highlighted a Tennessee program that allows all state residents who graduated high school to attend community college for free. “I think the better alternative can be found in Tennessee, a state with a Republican governor and a Republican legislature. … [T]here is a guarantee that if you graduate from high school in Tennessee, then you can attend community college for free,” King said. King stressed the importance of education for a functioning society throughout his talk, noting several times that quality education for all children is vital to the nation. “The strength of our democracy depends on ensuring that all of our young people are prepared to be effective citizens and help resolve the great challenges we face as a society,” King said. “If we are unable to confront the history of race and racism in our schools, then we will not be able to move past the impact of racism in our society.”

ryan bae for the hoya

Former Education Secretary John King Jr. spoke on the need for diversity in education in the ICC Auditorium on Tuesday.

Prison System Evokes Attica Uprising for Author Elisabeth Neylan Hoya Staff Writer

file photo: John curran/the hoya

Georgetown University Association President Kamar Mack (COL ’19) and Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’18) seek to establish a new stipend program to support unpaid interns.

GUSA Looks to Establish Internship Stipend Program Alex Mooney Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University Student Association is working to establish a program that would give students stipends for working unpaid internships. The initiative, which parallels those at universities like The George Washington University, hopes to allow low- and middle-income students to better pursue unpaid internship opportunities in the District. “Students would apply, and then if they have an unpaid internship related to something they’re really interested in exploring, it would cover the lost income that they would’ve otherwise gotten if they had gotten a job,” GUSA Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’18) said. The goal of the proposal is to allow students of all backgrounds to take an unpaid internship that could benefit them in their career field while still receiving compensation. “We’re looking at how busy the culture is here at Georgetown. And sometimes students really want to intern, but at the same time they have to keep a job during the school year — and then they have school. Basically, it’s very hard,” Andino said. The Cawley Career Education Center would manage the unpaid internship program and review unpaid internships

for low-income program applicants, evaluating criteria such as the student’s career goals and socio-economic status. The challenges that come with unpaid internships put Georgetown’s low-income students at a particular disadvantage, according to Georgetown Scholarship Program Director Melissa Foy. “Summer opportunities — particularly unpaid internships — is one area where GSP students are at a real disadvantage. Taking an unpaid, or modestly paid, internship means they’ll struggle to not only stay afloat financially in the summer, but they also don’t bring money into the following school year,” Foy wrote in an email to The Hoya. GUSA President Kamar Mack (COL ’18) said the program would be another sign of institutional support for students from low-income backgrounds. “Students from a lot of different income backgrounds experience Georgetown differently, and it’s important that all types of students are supported and that we’re really making sure that we’re creating programs to help,” Mack said. Other universities in the area and nationwide like Columbia University and the University of Notre Dame provide unpaid internship stipend programs for students like the one GUSA hopes to institute.

GWU’s program, the Knowledge in Action Career Internship Fund (KACIF), encourages “GW students to pursue highquality, necessarily unpaid internships that foster their career exploration and enhance their academic program, while reducing the financial challenges associated with unpaid internships,” according to the program’s website. The Georgetown administration has been receptive to the proposal up to this point, Mack and Andino said. “This is one of those projects that aligns with everyone’s goals. The provost’s office, the president’s office, the financial aid office and the Career Center are the key administrative departments we’re working with, and each of those groups sees this as something that would benefit their goals,” Mack said. Mack said the next step is securing funds. “We’ll have to see, based on the amount of funding that we can procure for the program, the range of students that we’ll be able to support and the depth of support that they can receive,” Mack said. To make the program viable for the future, GUSA would need to set aside funding each year. “The way it’s sustainable at all other universities is it’s endowed. That’s the long-term goal,” Mack said.

The mistreatment of inmates in New York State’s Attica Prison over 40 years ago is relevant in scrutinizing current U.S. prison policy, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Heather Thompson argued in the Intercultural Center Auditorium on Wednesday. The Prisons and Justice Initiative in partnership with Georgetown University Lecture Fund and the Department of History hosted Thompson to speak about her award-winning novel, “Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy.” The riot that took place in the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York in 1971 remains relevant today because it reflects the current state of the American criminal justice system, Thompson said. The United States incarcerates the world’s largest prison population and is an international outlier with regard to racial disparities in incarcerating minorities, according to Thompson. Thompson said the Attica uprising has negatively affected the U.S. prison system. Based upon prisoners’ demands for better living conditions and political rights, the riot served as a defining uprising of the prisoners’ rights movement, a national effort by inmates to defend their civil rights. A prison management decision to lock prisoners and guards in a hallway triggered a full-blown riot. The prisoners took hostages, most of them guards and civilians, in attempt to demand basic rights from the state. “What we got wrong about

Attica shaped the nation, for us all, for the worse,” Thompson said. Thompson categorized the uprising as a defining revolt in human rights. “On September 9, 1971, a series of really unexpected kind of ordinary things led to one of the most extraordinary human rights protests of the entire 20th century,” Thompson said.

“When we accept the story of what goes on behind prison walls from the people who are in charge, we can go down some very immoral, dangerous, horrendous paths.” HEATHER THOMPSON Author, “Blood in the Water”

Thompson used a photo presentation to show the inhumane conditions in which the 2,400 men lived. Each inmate was fed on a budget of $0.63 per day, given one square of toilet paper per day and pushed to hard labor. They were seldom allowed to shower. The prisoners assumed the correctional facility would provide them with support, according to Thompson. “All of these men, the guards and prisoners alike, had this amazing faith in the system which is that you ask for help you explain the situation and somebody’s going to hear you and their going to step up and make it better for you,” Thompson said. Thompson said prisoners’ demands included an end to labor, more Spanish-speaking guards and religious freedom.

Despite the state of New York’s initial agreement to most demands, Nelson Rockefeller, the New York governor, denied the prisoners’ request for amnesty in September 1971, and the uprising intensified, Thompson said. “They all thought that the hostage lives mattered. They didn’t understand race in America in 1971,” Thompson said. “They didn’t understand what was really at stake for these politicians and how dispensable they all were if the battle was going to be between them and prisoners.” Within minutes, 39 men, prisoners and hostages died. 128 men were shot multiple times by police forces in helicopters. Thompson said the American public was left in the dark about the riot conditions. New York State officials told the world that the prisoners killed the hostages. Meanwhile, the prisoners at Attica were being brutally tortured. The state of New York has not admitted responsibility since. Still, the riot appears on all records, but the documents that Thompson found during her research have disappeared. “When we accept the story of what goes on behind prison walls from the people who are in charge, we can go down some very immoral, dangerous, horrendous paths,” Thompson said. Thompson said despite powerful forces trying to silence stories, whistleblowers should fight to make their stories known. “The thing about prison — and the thing about Attica — is, eventually, human beings, particularly those who are put in cages, particularly those who are denied basic human rights, will eventually speak up,” she said.

alyssa alfonso for the hoya

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Heather Thompson argued that the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 reflects problems in the current U.S. prison system in the ICC Auditorium on Wednesday.


A8

news

THE HOYA

friday, october 6, 2017

DC Council Passes Bill Allowing Dogs at Restaurants Matt Larson Hoya Staff Writer

D.C. Council

The D.C. Council passed legislation Tuesday that allows restaurant owners to choose whether to allow dogs outdoors.

The Washington, D.C. Council passed emergency legislation Tuesday to give restaurant owners the ability to choose whether to allow dogs in outdoor dining areas. The bill, which also requires restaurant owners to post signs about their dog dining policy, was passed unanimously to respond to recent outrage over the D.C. Department of Health’s rules prohibiting dogs from entering outdoor dining areas, which had rarely been enforced until recently. D.C.’s charter allows the Council to pass emergency legislation without Congressional review if the Council and mayor’s office agree on the urgency of an issue. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) is expected to sign the legislation into law and update the Department of Health’s regulations, a spokesman for the mayor confirmed. The push for legislation began in mid-September, when a health inspector told Peyton Sherwood, owner of The Midlands restaurant in Columbia Heights, that his dog was no longer allowed on his restaurant’s outside patio. The inspector told Sherwood that a District resident had recently complained about dogs in restaurants in an article in The

Washington Post. “It’s very disappointing, because everyone loves bringing their dogs out to the patio,” Sherwood said to Washingtonian. “There are rats. There are opossums. There are raccoons and squirrels and pigeons that are all over patios in Washington, DC. But having a well taken care of, loved, and vaccinated animal on a leash is not OK.” The resolution, co-sponsored by councilmembers Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4) and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), notes that the city faces a health crisis, especially in its eastern quadrants. The councilmembers said the Department of Health should not be utilizing its finite resources to enforce archaic laws that could hurt the profitability of small businesses. “The Department of Health’s limited time and resources are being marshalled to suddenly enforce an unknown and previously unenforced regulation about dogs being allowed in outdoor patio dining areas,” the resolution reads. “This enforcement has reduced commercial activity from patrons at the impacted businesses.” After the incident, Sherwood asked fellow citizens of the District to contact their D.C. Council representatives and began circulating a petition to

have the law changed. Jasmine Gossett, the spokesperson for the Department of Health, defended the health inspector’s actions at the time, saying that the regulation had to be enforced. “The D.C. Food Code prohibits animals in commercially licensed food establishments. This is not a new regulation and DOH has enforced when observed,” Gossett wrote in an email to Washingtonian. “We inspected several locations based on consumer complaints about the presence of dogs, of which Midlands was included in.” Nadeau said she had heard from about fifty constituents who had urged her to take action on the bill allowing dogs in outdoor spaces. Nadeau said the health regulations were not appropriate. “This one just really seems like a no-brainer to us,” Nadeau said in an interview with The Washington Post. “These spaces are really special gathering spaces for our community, and that includes our canine friends.” Gray, who is mulling a run against Bowser in the Democratic primary for mayor next year, tweeted out a message Oct. 3 criticizing the mayor for being unable to focus on important issues, such as health care for citizens. Rather, Gray said,

Bowser was waging a “war on pets.” “[Bowser] seems unable to properly prioritize life or death health care challenges over matters of far less concern using limited time & resources waging #WarOnPets,” Grey tweeted. “I’m focused on combatting urgent health issues.” Sherwood praised the Council’s decision to allow dogs back in restaurant outdoor spaces and especially the speed at which it worked to do so. He noted that his dog, named Andypants, would be returning to the patio of The Midlands soon. “It was really sad not having all those fuzzy faces around,” Sherwood said to The Washington Post. “So today is really nice. It was awesome to see everyone working together to get this done so quickly.” A Twitter account, @PupsOnPatios, emerged to advocate for the dogs to be allowed back in outdoor spaces at restaurants. After the D.C. Council passed the resolution, it tweeted out a message of support. “The Dining With Dogs emergency legislation introduced in @councilofdc today leaves it up to DC restaurants & bars to decide whether to allow dogs on patios, while ensuring safety & sanitation,” @PupsOnPatios tweeted. “We determine that to be pawesome.”

Research Project Launches To Document Free Speech Megan Carey Hoya Staff Writer

Former journalist and journalism lecturer Sanford J. Ungar will explore the status of censorship and free expression in the United States through a new two-year Free Speech Project beginning this fall. The project aims to document cases of free speech violations or reinforcement of expression in colleges, governments and social life and track them for future research and policy recommendations. With institutions of higher education like the University of California, Berkeley and the Georgetown University Law Center in the spotlight for free speech issues, Ungar and his research assistants, Graham Piro (COL ’18) and Will Haskell (COL ’18), will investigate and compile the history of freedom of speech in the United States and specific flash points on college campuses. “We will study the condition of free speech in America today, both in higher education and in civil society, in an attempt to create frameworks that promote public discussion about divisive issues in a civil manner,” Ungar said in a Sept. 20 press release. Georgetown has seen its own cases of intolerance of speakers with unpopular policy positions or personal beliefs. Students protested invitations to speakers including Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson last spring, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions Sept. 26. Piro said the Free Speech Project would look into ways colleges can balance their academic missions with the spirit of free expression. Ungar, who served as President of Goucher College in Baltimore, Md., for 13 years, said universities must work actively to secure this balance. “At the heart of this project is

how universities and American society at large can uphold the First Amendment while also protecting people from harassment and threats of violence,” Ungar said in a press release. Based on their results thus far, the research team said they believe the common perception that college campuses silence mainly conservative viewpoints may not be true. According to Haskell, some media outlets overstate the degree to which censorship happens, and both liberal and conservative voices end up silenced. “Right wing media coverage leads many to believe that conservatives are disproportionately facing censorship at institutions of higher education,” Haskell said. “However, we’ve tracked a variety of incidents in which liberal views are silenced through death threats, harassment or intimidation.” The Free Speech Project will also interview academics, policymakers and activists to analyze different perspectives on the subject. According to Ungar, the hypothesis of the project is that free speechrelated incidents across all levels are related. “When you have stark and deadly confrontations in Charlottesville, Va., and brawls and death threats on the floor of the Texas legislature, you cannot expect college and university campuses to be islands of civility and peaceful debate,” Ungar said in the news release. Haskell said current attitudes and events at the state, city and college levels make this research timely and important. “States are passing laws that make peaceful protest legally perilous and physically dangerous,” Haskell said. “College students are shouting down speakers with whom they disagree instead of engaging with them on the merit of their ideas.”

Haskell said disputes surrounding speech often do not end with angry discussions or disagreements but escalate to mass manifestations and even violence, providing further impetus for the project. At U.C. Berkeley, protests of conservative commentator Ann Coulter escalated to violent riots April 27, while a white nationalist protest in Charlottesville Aug. 13 devolved to violence, resulting in the death of one counter protestor. “State legislators are literally brawling when they cannot work out their differences. From a counter-protester losing her life in Charlottesville, Virginia to athletes defying the president’s tweets by taking a knee during the national anthem, the First Amendment has reached a crucial juncture,” Haskell said. Piro said issues of free speech are particularly relevant to college students, due to the exposure they have on campuses to speakers, professors and peers with different beliefs and ideologies. “Free speech is an issue that is essentially unavoidable when you’re enrolled in higher education in America,” Piro said. “It can be a wide-ranging issue encompassing issues of campus speakers and student activism.” Ungar said a balanced understanding of free speech ensures students remain open-minded. “We have to understand and deal with the fact that some young people may try to shut down speech they find offensive because they are worried that they won’t have their own opportunity to speak up and be heard,” Ungar said. Haskell said their research seeks to defend the value of speech in higher education. “Campuses should be places where the free exchange of ideas flourishes,” Haskell said. “If that isn’t the case, then we’re not getting our money’s worth.”

CLASSIFIEDS INDEX MISCELLANEOUS FOR RENT

2425 L St. N.W. Unit #424 1 bedroom 1 bath junior loft $699,000 Modern and newly renovated. Parking included, balcony and rooftop pool. Call Angie at (571) 268-7977

Advertise with The Hoya Line Ad Rates Regular line classified ads are $0.50 per word. Optional Extras Bold words: $1.00 per issue. Make individual words or an entire ad stand out. Large headline: $1.50 per issue. One line of 16-point bold, centered and capitalized. Two-line large headline: $2.50 per issue. Boxed ad: $2.00 per issue. Add a one-point box around your ad.

Deadlines & Payment Copy and payment must be received by 12 noon, one business day before publication. All classified ads must be paid in full at the time of placement. Visa, Mastercard, cash or personal checks are accepted. Cancelled ads may be removed from the paper if notification is made before deadline. No refunds will be given, but the unused portion of the payment will be held as a credit.

For more information, please email classifiedads@thehoya.com

Rosa DeLauro

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) criticized the Trump administration’s response to the hurricane crisis in Puerto Rico in an event hosted by the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service.

Congresswoman Condemns Trump Puerto Rico Response Sheel Patel

Special to The Hoya

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) condemned the Trump administration’s response to the posthurricane crisis in Puerto Rico in a question-and-answer session hosted by the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service on Wednesday. DeLauro questioned the White House’s delay in sending relief efforts to Puerto Rico and encouraged attendees to bring attention to the issue to spur action. “These are American citizens,” DeLauro said. “Why did it take so long to visit Puerto Rico? Why did it take so long to waive the Jones Act? We ought to be standing up and screaming from the rafters. That is the only way that we will turn things around.” The Jones Act limits shipping to U.S. ports to exclusively American-made ships staffed by American crews, preventing foreign aid from reaching Puerto Rico in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria. DeLauro, who has served in the House of Representatives since 1991, also discussed the U.S. social safety net, the subject of her 2017 book, “The Least Among Us: Waging Battle for the Vulnerable.” She said the social safety net is more than a series of programs — Medicare, food stamps, unemployment insurance and minimum wage, among others — as it also reflects American society and values.

“For me it is not just a collection of programs. But rather, it is a reflection of the values of our country,” DeLauro said. “It is about our responsibility — a social responsibility — but a moral responsibility to one another, and that’s particularly in times of need,” DeLauro said the current administration and Republican Congressional leadership are intrinsically hostile to the idea of a social safety net, preferring a system that would rely on private institutions instead. “The atmosphere in the House now is not conducive because of the fundamental view that the government should not be playing a role in people’s lives and being there as a safety net,” DeLauro said. “The belief is that nonprofits should take care of it and religious organizations should take care of it, and that we should jettison the government’s role in these things.” She said the ideological shift against social programs has been discernible since 1994, with Republican leaders in Congress like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and current Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) seeking to shift the burden of programs like Medicaid to the states. DeLauro also noted that her Republican colleagues have not made concerted efforts to repeal the program altogether. DeLauro reflected on the influence of her parents’ service in the city council of New Haven, Conn., on her views on

social security and the role of government in improving community living standards. She recalled that representatives would reach out and listen to the community and address their needs. “They didn’t write a healthcare bill. They didn’t write a crime bill or a transportation bill,” DeLauro said. “What they did was to minister to their community if they needed help with social security, immigration, or getting their son or daughter a job.” DeLauro said that these lessons have been at the core of her service in the House of Representatives. “Whatever it was that helped people make their way through the system, that’s what they made real in our community. And I took those lessons to the House of Representatives,” DeLauro said. Though she acknowledged that many challenges lie ahead for the social security net, she encouraged the audience to mobilize and advocate for these social programs while reaffirming her commitment to a battle she has fought for more than two decades. “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas,” DeLauro said. “This is what I have worked to defend for 25 years. A vision for America that I want to expand so that all Americans can support each other in difficult times and share in prosperity.”


news

friday, October 6, 2017

THE HOYA

A9

GUSA Pushes for Improvements to SafeRides Program Anabel Getz

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown University Student Association’s Safety and Sexual Assault policy team is re-examining ways to improve the SafeRides late-night security escort service for students. In a joint effort with Georgetown University Police Department Chief Jay Gruber, the Safety and Sexual Assault policy team hopes to improve the SafeRides service after complaints of prolonged wait times, and to launch a service to track SafeRides vans similar to that of the ride-sharing app Uber. The team successfully pushed for an additional SafeRides van driven by a student guard and a new oncampus student guard escort service, through which student guards can walk or drive students on golf carts around campus. Gruber said these changes can be seen on the campuswide LiveSafe app. “You would just use the LiveSafe app, and if you wanted to go from one point on campus to another — let’s say you want to go from [Lauinger Library] up to Darnall [Hall] — you just put those two locations in,” Gruber said. “The dispatch would see it’s an on-campus escort, and they would dispatch the student guard safety escort as op-

posed to a SafeRide van.” As of now, SafeRides passengers wait on the sidewalk for their ride without any indication of when their driver will arrive. GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff Nina Young (SFS ’19) said this system puts the user in an unsafe position as they are left alone, usually late at night, on the street. Young plans to launch an initiative that would turn SafeRides into a free version of Uber via an update to the campuswide app. “This has to do with accessibility and affordability on campus,” she said. “SafeRides not only keeps students safer, but also gives students an alternative to using Uber, which plays into affordability. As far as accessibility goes, it gives students a much clearer way to contact SafeRides.” Young said it is not unusual to wait up to 40 minutes for a SafeRides driver. Young said she once waited outside for over half an hour in the rain for a SafeRides van due to lack of communication between her and her driver. Emily Quatroche (COL ’19), who is a member of the SASS policy team pushing the initiative, said locating the driver is key to making students feel less worried at night. “It’s so that you know where the SafeRide is, and the SafeRide

GUPD

The Georgetown University Student Association’s Safety and Sexual Assault policy team seeks to improve SafeRides service and reliability. The team has pushed for additional SafeRides vans and new student guard escort services. knows where you are, so that makes you feel safer,” she said. “This way, safety can be less of a concern when students go out on the weekends.” SafeRides are in much higher demand on weekends, which creates a delay for students, Gruber said. “SafeRides is a very popular service, and people tend to use

it a lot, especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, or when there’s inclement weather. So sometimes there is a bit of a wait time and a backlog, so what is important to me is that students not wait outside when they’re waiting for their SafeRide van or vehicle,” he said. The next phase for improv-

ing SafeRides is acquiring funding, Gruber said. While GUPD could cover initial costs, a long-term funding plan is needed. “I would find funding within the police department budget for the initial equipment cost,” Gruber said. “But then the monthly cost to keep the service on would need additional funding from

outside the police department.” Young believes student support will enable GUSA to gain the rest of the funding from the university’s administration. “I think the best thing for this initiative would be to get student support in the potentiality of it. What we need is some sort of like support base to get the university to recognize it,”

Former French Ambassador Examines European Politics Tait Ryssdal Hoya Staff Writer

The French and American relationship will survive clashing policy priorities during President Donald Trump’s term, argued former U.S. Ambassador to France Jane D. Hartley during a lecture Thursday. A part of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Oscar Iden Annual Lecture on American Foreign Policy, Hartley’s lecture described her diplomatic career and experiences during her tour in France from 2014 to 2017. Prior to joining the foreign service as a political appointee, Hartley worked as an associate assistant in the Office of Public Liaison in President Jimmy Carter’s administration and served as CEO of G7 Group and Observatory Group, two leading economic consulting firms. Hartley said Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron’s unprecedented elections have tested the historic relationship between both nations. “We have seen current differences manifested in the Trump administration’s policy choices, and I don’t agree with the administration’s positions on trade, immigration or refugees. France doesn’t agree, nor does most of Europe,” Hartley said. However, the core of FrancoAmerican relations will not be disturbed, according to Hartley. “I do believe the fundamentals of our alliance remain strong. That doesn’t mean, though, that President Macron won’t state his opposition to U.S. positions on Iran, North Korea, climate, among others,” she said. Joel Hellman, dean of the School of Foreign Service, echoed Hartley’s remarks in his introduction, highlighting the history and principles the

shared by the United States and France. “France is why we, as a country, are here. The philosophic roots of our revolutionary republic lie in France. A common set of values, principles, aspirations and ambitions are what bring our countries together,” Hellman said. Hartley said she expects Macron to seek a bigger role in European politics beside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose influence took a hit following last week’s parliamentary election.

“I am also deeply concerned at the administration’s willful neglect of the State Department.” Jane Hartley fORMER u.s. amBASSADOR TO fRANCE

Merkel won a fourth term as head of Germany’s parliament Sept. 24, but her party coalition performed worse than expected. This has led to the most fragmented legislature elected in Germany since World War II, according to The Economist. “Macron wants to be the leader of Europe with Merkel, with whom he has a very good relationship,” she said. The election saw the dissolution of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union and Social Democrats’ “grand coalition” and the arrival of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is now the third-largest parliamentary faction, entering the body with 94 seats. Hartley also expressed concern over the Trump administration’s budget cuts to the Department of State and slow attempts to appoint offi-

cials, which she said is vital to American interests abroad. “I am also deeply concerned at the administration’s willful neglect of the State Department, leaving huge numbers of senior positions unfilled, with plummeting morale and an exodus of very, very talented civil servants,” she said. “And that is undermining our nation’s ability to lead in Europe and around the world.” Acts of terror marked Hartley’s term, including both the Nov. 13, 2015 attack in Paris by the Islamic State group and the Jan. 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Combined, these attacks left over 140 people dead. Hartley said these acts of terror tested not just French nationals but everyone around the world. “I served as ambassador for 28 months and those 28 months coincided with a terrible surge of attacks in France and around the world that shook our nations and tested our diverse, multicultural societies,” she said. Hartley said that the November attack reminded her of the shock Americans felt after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. “Whereas Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket were targeted attacks, November 13 was more like 9/11 — an attack against all of us, and really against our way of life. It struck very close to home,” she said. Hartley said the unity exhibited by the French public following the attacks is how all people should confront all acts of terrorism. “The question we face is not only how do we stay safe, but in the face of this terror, how do we stay strong, free and united as a diverse, multicultural society?” she said. “I believe that the unity and resolve that we witnessed during my time as ambassador can be somewhat of a guide.”

JANE HARTLEY

Former U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley expressed concern over the Trump administration’s budget cuts to the U.S. Department of State and slow appointment of officials.

cAROLINE pAPAS FOR THE HOYA

Red line commuters can expect delays for a six-week period in October and November as WMATA continues a pilot project to repair water damage to its tunnels and railcars.

Delays Expected on Metro Red Line Until November

Hannah Urtz Hoya Staff Writer

Red line commuters can expect six weeks of disrupted service starting Oct. 16 as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority starts the next phase of a water damage mitigation project. Trains are scheduled to run on a single track on weeknights after 9 p.m. through Nov. 24 in the suburban Montgomery County, Md. sections of the line. Train service will also be limited on weekends from Oct. 21 through Nov. 19. Riders should expect minor delays and congestion, according to WMATA. The work will impact Georgetown University students leaving from the Dupont Circle station on their way to the National Mall and Capitol Hill areas and back, particularly in the evenings and on weekends. The service disruptions follow WMATA’s announcement last week that it will expand a pilot project launched in July to mitigate water leaks. The project, which seeks to reduce the water damage to the railcars and tunnels, is testing a “curtain grouting” technique to add a waterproof membrane to the exterior of the tunnel walls using a proprietary polymer-based material. WMATA hopes to complete the new phase of the project by the end of November. The program has already seen success on the treated segments, according to WMATA. Two test segments — a 2,000-foot section of inbound track between stops at Medi-

cal Center and Bethesda and the entire Medical Center interlocking area have remained dry and undamaged, despite heavy rainfall in late July and August that brought more than three inches of precipitation in one day.

“Frankly, public transport in D.C. is just bad, and construction will only make it worse. Now I basically won’t be able to take the Red line.” Christine Mcneill (sfs ’20)

District officials began weighing in on and discussing possible courses of action for these repairs in July. Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner said the pilot program is muchneeded, despite the service disruptions it may cause. “Red line riders will greatly benefit if this innovative approach to preventing water from entering the system works,” Berliner said, according to a WMATA press release in July. “As everyone knows, water and electricity are not a good combination. While there will be unavoidable disruptions, in the long run, our community will be much better served if this approach works out.’ WMATA General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld

said the project has shown promise as a solution to the line’s persisting problems with water damage. “Since this tunnel segment was constructed, Metro has fought a battle against Mother Nature, and Mother Nature has always had the upper hand,” Wiedefeld said at a July press conference. “Just as we have addressed the root causes of track infrastructure problems and railcar reliability issues, I want to address the water infiltration problem head on and find a sustainable solution. Our Red line riders deserve nothing less.” Christine McNeill (SFS ’20) rides the Metro’s Red line regularly to get to and from her internship at the U.S. Capitol. According to McNeill, these disruptions will only further add to the headache that is public transportation in Washington, D.C. “Frankly, public transport in D.C. is just bad, and construction will only make it worse. Now I basically won’t be able to take the Red line,” McNeill said. WMATA Board Chair Jack Evans said at the July conference that the project “perfectly illustrates why we need a dedicated funding source for our Metro system.” WMATA leadership, including Evans and Wiedefeld, have said that a dedicated permanent funding stream is necessary to save the financially troubled transit system, but policymakers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia have not agreed to a concrete proposal. “Fixing this problem will not be cheap or easy, but it is absolutely necessary and the right thing to do,” Evans said.


A10

sports

THE HOYA

friday, october 6, 2017

field hockey

Hoyas Halt Losing Streak, Notch 1st Big East Win allie babyak Hoya Staff Writer

GUHOYAS

Freshman midfielder Ali Cronin assisted two of Georgetown's three goals in Friday's victory against Temple. Her efforts earned her Big East Freshman of the Week.

The Georgetown University field hockey team won both of its home games this weekend, keeping itself above the cellar of the Big East standings. Georgetown (7-5, 1-2 Big East) narrowly defeated Temple University (3-7, 0-3 Big East) 3-2 on Friday for their first conference win and took down Long Island University Brooklyn (1-10, 1-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic) 9-0 on Sunday in a non-conference showdown. Friday’s game against Temple was fast-paced and physical. The win came at an important time for the Hoyas in conference play after suffering two straight losses. “Obviously that win against Temple was a positive one for us because it kept us in the hunt,” Head Coach Shannon Soares said. “When you know you’re still in the hunt, that allows you to stay a little bit more motivated than if you weren’t.” Freshman midfielder Taylor Alba scored the first goal of the game for the Owls nine minutes into the game. Although Temple was the first to capitalize, Georgetown took the advantage by scoring three consecutive goals, two of which came late in the first half and one of which came early in the second half. The Hoyas’ success was in part due to winning 50-50 possession opportunities. “I thought we did a terrific job,” Soares said. “That was our goal, to put our foot on the gas pedal from the first minute of the match against [Temple], and I thought we did a really good

sailing

job of stepping to the ball and being on our front foot for the duration of that match.”

“When you know you're still in the hunt, that allows you to stay a little bit more motivated than if you weren't.” SHANNON SOARES Head Coach

Junior midfielder Helena Masiello was the first to score for the Hoyas at the 21-minute mark. Freshman forward Ali Cronin assisted Masiello’s goal. Cronin was a major differencemaker offensively, assisting two of Georgetown’s three goals. Cronin’s impressive performance this weekend earned her the title of Big East Freshman of the Week. With under seven minutes remaining in the half, freshman forward Cami Osborne capitalized off freshman back Anna Farley’s penalty corner. The goal was Osborne’s seventh this season. Although Temple fought back and scored with less than two minutes remaining in the game, Georgetown maintained its 3-2 lead. On Sunday, Georgetown dominated LIU Brooklyn, winning 9-0. Cronin opened the scoreboard 58 seconds into the match, with Osborne earning the assist. Less than three min-

utes later, sophomore forward Lindsay Getz scored off a play that began with a corner by Cronin. "I think today it was just important for us to come out and set the tone early, and that's just what we ask our kids to do,” Soares said. “They were able to find the back of the net in the first minute of the match and then two minutes later. So, two goals in the first five minutes definitely help put you in a positive situation moving into the rest of the match.” In the first half Georgetown took 27 shots, while LIU Brooklyn only took four. The Hoyas scored five times in the first half and they kept their foot on the pedal, putting four more in the back of the net in the second half. The Hoyas successfully converted opportunities off penalty corners, with three of the nine goals coming from these scenarios. Following the two wins, Georgetown prepares to play Liberty University (4-6, 2-1 Big East) on Friday. Liberty is Georgetown’s only opponent this weekend. Liberty is another Big East opponent. This past weekend, the Flames beat the Old Dominion University Monarchs (4-7, 1-2 Big East), that defeated Georgetown 6-2 on Sept. 22. “We will use every bit of that time to prep for Liberty. They’re a very high quality opponent in the Big East, and they are someone we will take very seriously as we move into the week preparing for them,” Soares said. The match is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. at Cooper Field.

women's Volleyball

No. 1 GU Defends Potomac Squad Opens Conference Play, Splits Home Matches Sean Haggerty Special to The Hoya

The No. 1-ranked Hoyas took both first and second place at the Tom Curtis Memorial Regatta and the MAISA Match Racing Championships in Annapolis, Md, and Washington, D.C, this past weekend. The Tom Curtis Memorial Regatta, hosted by Georgetown University on the Potomac, honors Tom Curtis (COL ’68), but also served as a statement race for the Hoyas. “Tom Curtis was a hall of fame and alum of Georgetown, and because of this, it was important for us to do well against some of the best teams in D.C.,” Coach Michael Callahan said. Georgetown raced Navy, St. Mary’s College, George Washington and Old Dominion in winds ranging from 18 to 33mph. The Hoyas’ top boat, led by sophomore William Logue, freshman Caroline

Teare and graduate student Massimo Mazzolini, propelled itself to a win with 25 points. The second Georgetown boat also turned in impressive results, finishing second in the regatta with a total score of 35 points and placing 8 points ahead of St. Mary’s College and just 9 off Georgetown’s top boat. Coach Callahan praised the team for its gritty performance. “I was really pleased with the varsity and freshman racing all around. Each crew fought hard through the wind gusts of over 30 miles per hour,” Callahan said. Logue and Teare helped lead the Georgetown A boat to the first place while senior Grace Hanrahan, senior Jack Marshall and senior Andie Dahl propelled the B boat to a second place finish. Georgetown’s strong overall showing in the Tom Curtis Regatta demonstrated their

roster depth, boding well for the Hoyas for the remainder of their season. The team also competed this past weekend at the MAISA Match Race Championships hosted by the Naval Academy. Georgetown again endured difficult racing conditions, but overcame the adversity to defeat Hobart and William Smith in the semifinals. The team propelled itself to a championship victory over Navy winning 2-0. “It was exciting to watch a newer group come together and win from behind,” Callahan said. Next weekend, the No. 6 women's team returns to Annapolis to compete in the Navy Fall Women’s Intersectional. “We want everyone to sail our best this weekend and if this happens, I hope to finish in the Top 10,” Callahan said. The Navy Fall Women’s Interconference Regatta will take place Oct. 7.

Nothing but Net

Soccer Needs All-Star Game Vanessa Craige & Paolo Santamaria

I

n a game filled with larger than life superstars — Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar — there is somehow no official all-star game across Europe’s five major leagues. Messi and Ronaldo are arguably two of the best five players ever, and while they play each other at least twice a year as part of El Clasico, they have never — and likely will never — play on the same team. On the other hand, the NBA All-Star game is one of the premier events in the sporting world. While the game is often an afterthought filled with lackluster defense and too many dunks and longrange three-pointers, its spectacle is second to none. Moreover, recent changes to the all-star game have brought even more intrigue to the event. Now, the players with the most votes from the Eastern and Western conferences will serve as the game’s honorary captains, selecting from a pool of players with-

out conference restrictions. This change could very well mean that LeBron James and Kevin Durant — thought of as the two best players of this decade — can play on the same team. The game’s meaning, according to the rule changes, also received a much-needed boost. The all-star game now has charity implications now, much to the pleasure of fans who far too often — and justifiably — complain about the boredom during the game. Of course, this year is the first with these new rules in the NBA, but there is a lot of potential with these changes. In the soccer world, there is rarely a time when superstars team up for single game events. The league seasons range anywhere from 34 to 38 games, with additional competitions — international commitments for players and interleague championship tournaments for teams — taking those totals well past 60 games in a single season. In this situation, however, another proposal could see light. Recently, the Premier League discussed a winter break, where teams would have no games and no training obligations during the holiday period of December, similar to the NBA's Presidents’ Day weekend break. This addendum to the sched-

ule would leave enough room for an all-star game event. We, therefore, propose an all-star game for the top-five leagues in the world. England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France are currently the top leagues in the game, and picking an allstar team would be no issue. With 25 total players on each squad — according to English Premier League rules — that takes us to 50 total players between the two teams, exactly 10 players per league. While these ideas and changes are far from concrete, they hold a rare opportunity to give the world what it has craved for so long: Stars playing with stars. Naturally, there are teams that already have a star-centric dynamic, but there is still almost no league crossover. Having two evenly-balanced, player-selected teams playing one two-legged game — where all the proceeds go to charity — is something that we all hope to see as viewers. Moreover, the team selection could very well be its own event with more advertising and marketing to come. The possibilities are endless for an NBA all-starstyle soccer game. Vanessa Craige and Paolo Santamaria are seniors in the School of Foreign Service and the College, respectively. Nothing but Net appears every Friday.

Bridget Mcelroy Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University women’s volleyball team opened conference play at home last weekend with a historic win against Butler, followed by a close loss to Xavier. On Friday night, the Georgetown Hoyas (7-9, 1-3 Big East) welcomed the Butler Bulldogs (12-5, 2-3 Big East) for an exciting five-set victory, marking the first time in program history that the Hoyas defeated the Bulldogs. The Hoyas rounded out the weekend with a fourset loss against the Xavier Musketeers (7-11, 2-3 Big East). Georgetown came out strong on Friday, easily claiming the first set, but Butler fought back to win the second set and even the score. The Hoyas won the third set in their most effective offensive showing of the five, tallying 16 kills. Junior outside hitter Olivia King, junior outside hitter Alyssa Sinnette and junior middle blocker Symone Speech contributed four kills each in the third set. Butler gained momentum and ran away with the fourth set, capitalizing on Georgetown’s service. In the fifth and final set, Georgetown found themselves down 13-10, but they showed their grit by coming together after a timeout to win the set by a margin of 1513, securing the victory. Sinnette led the Hoyas’ attack with 17 kills followed by Speech’s 13. King and sophomore middle blocker and right side Madison Smith both added eight kills to the number. Junior setter Paige McKnight put up 43 assists and dug out 17 balls for her eighth doubledouble of the season.

Defensively, junior libero and defensive specialist Kenzie Higareda also achieved double digits with 16 digs and graduate student middle blocker Aima Eichie made an impressive five blocks. Speech said she never doubted her team’s ability to recover from the deficit. “I was really, really calm. I had complete faith in my team,” Speech said. “We were sitting in timeout and I was like, 'guys I believe in you and we should believe in each other and we’re going to go out and we’re going to win this game,' and that’s what happened.” Head Coach Arlisa Williams said she was proud of her players’ performance on Friday. “I’m happy about what our team did coming out, we just came out strong and played a really good game of volleyball and I’m happy with the way they finished,” Williams said. “The fact that we were down at the split and then trailing 13-9 to finish the set that just talks about their commitment to this, their unity, their grit and so I’m really proud of those things.” Williams said the win was a result of key contributions from a number of players. “Paige McKnight digging some balls back there and Kenzie stabilizing us,” Williams said. “We’ve got a lot of good pieces and it’s just putting everybody together at the same time. Madison Smith played extremely well. They kind of found her a little bit in the fourth and fifth set, but she played so great early on and we’re really, really happy to see her do that and then the serving runs from Claire, that really helped us a lot.” However, Georgetown failed

to carry Friday’s momentum into Saturday’s match against Xavier (7-11, 2-3 Big East). The Hoyas fell at home in a highscoring, four-set match to the Musketeers, dropping them to 7-9 on the year and 1-3 in the Big East. Georgetown’s first set against Xavier was close throughout, with no team leading by more than four points for the duration of the set. The Musketeers eventually won 25-23. The second set was also a battle. The Hoyas found themselves down 20-19 and were ultimately unable to pull out what would have been their first set victory. The next two sets both went to extra points with 33 combined ties and lead changes. The Blue and Gray won the third in an overtime triumph but dropped the fourth set after being tied 26-26. Speech saw her fourth match of the season with at least 20 kills as she led her team offensively with 23 kills. Smith put down nine with King’s eight close behind. Sinnette and freshman outside hitter Riley Wertzberger each contributed seven kills. McKnight yielded yet another double-double with a matchhigh 50 assists and 14 digs. In addition, two more Hoyas dug up double digits. King pulled in 13, while Higareda had 25 in addition to leading the team with her four service aces. The Hoyas return to the court Wednesday for another Big East matchup. They will travel to New Jersey to take on the Seton Hall Pirates (8-9, 2-2 Big East). The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Walsh Gymnasium.

ANNE STONECIPHER FOR THE HOYA

Junior middle blocker Symone Speech had 33 kills over two games last weekend for a team-high 253 on the year. She also leads the team with an average of 3.61 kills per set.


SPORTS

friday, october 6, 2017

football

Junior safety Blaise Brown, who recorded two interceptions against Harvard last week to earn Patriot League Honorable Mention, will lead the Hoyas defensively. “Blaise is a really complete player,” Sgarlata said. “He’s a ‘lunch pail’ kind of guy, and he’s probably one of the better athletes, I think, in the league as well as on the team.”

“At the end of the day, it comes down to execution, and, if we do that, everything will turn out fine. ” Michael Mcfarlane Senior Offensive Lineman

Another bright spot for Georgetown is the play of senior running back Isaac Ellsworth,

A11

Men’s Soccer

GU Faces Final Ivy League Battle PRINCETON, from A12

THE HOYA

who totaled 282 all-purpose yards last week against Harvard, mostly coming off kick returns. Georgetown’s return game will look to take advantage of a Princeton coverage team that has given up an average of 17 yards per kick and establish good field position for the offense. Ultimately, the team is focused on itself. “At the end of the day, it comes down to execution, and, if we do that, everything will turn out fine. Like Coach Sgarlata says, ‘We don’t really worry about what the other teams do. We worry about ourselves and what we’re doing on our side first,’” senior offensive lineman Michael McFarlane said. The Hoyas will be on the road for this crucial tuneup before league play, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. ET on Saturday in Princeton, N.J. Streaming will be available on the Ivy League Network and WatchESPN.

THEO SYMONDS FOR THE HOYA

Junior defender Peter Schropp is tied for third place on the team with three goals while starting all nine games for the Hoyas. Schropp earned the team’s Most Improved Player award for the 2016 season.

Path to Big East Title Runs Through Butler BUTLER, from A12

teams that respect what the others do, and there’s a lot of similarities [between] us. Think it’s going to be one of the better games we’ll have on our schedule all year,” Wiese said. In the Butler Bulldogs, the Hoyas face a team very comfortable with possession. Sophomore midfielders Lewis Suddick and Isaac Galliford dictate play in the midfield and lead the team in assists with five and three respectively. “They keep the ball really, really well. They’re one of the better possession teams we’ve seen,” Wiese said. “We’ve got to be really good when we don’t have [the ball] because otherwise we might defend for a while because they are that kind of team that can

compress you back in your own half and [force you to] defend for a long time.” Georgetown’s stout defense will have its hands full containing Butler’s sophomore forward Brandon Guhl. Guhl is leading the Big East with three goals, averaging a goal per game. For the entire season, Guhl has seven goals and two assists in nine games. “He’s got natural goal-scoring instincts,” Coach Wiese said. One of the many bright spots for the Hoyas this season has been the defense led by Marcinkowski. The Hoyas have three clean sheets and have only given up more than one goal once this season. According to Marcinkowski, this strong defensive showing has been a complete team effort. “It starts from the forwards up top. They’ve pressed really

well from their starting positions, and they’ve given the defense a lot less to do compared to previous years,” Marcinkowski said.

“We’re really excited. Butler is [on] the top of the table [in] the Big East, and that’s where we’re trying to be. ” Jt Marcinkowski Junior Goalkeeper

Another bright spot for Georgetown this season has been sophomore forward Achara. Leading the Hoyas’ dynamic attack with five goals and 14 shots on goal, Achara will hope to add to his impressive tally against the

Bulldogs’ senior goalkeeper, Eric Dick. “Against St. John’s, [Dick] made an amazing save in overtime and went down the field and scored about 30 seconds later,” Wiese said. This game will test the Hoyas’ run for the Big East title, and create a sense of excitement within the team leading up to the fixture. “We’re really excited. Butler is [on] the top of the table [in] the Big East, and that’s where we’re trying to be,” Marcinkowski said. “After this game, we’ll definitely know better where [we’ll] stand for the rest of the season.” The game against the Bulldogs is set to begin at 3 p.m. on Shaw Field. It will be streamed online on the Big East Digital Network.

Women’s Soccer

Hoyas’ Shutout Streak Ends at 7 With Tie PIRATES, from A12 DERRICK ARTHUR-CUDJOE/THE HOYA

Freshman defensive llineman Owen Kessler, left, forced a fumble, and senior defensive lineman Bryan Jefferson tallied a sack against Harvard.

SUDOKU

3 7 8 9 2 5 4 3

7

4

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

Last issue’s solutions

9 8 4 1 3 5

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

7 2 3 6 8 4 1 9 5

3 6 8 9 2 1 5 7 4

2 4 5 3 6 7 9 8 1

1 9 7 4 5 8 6 3 2

8 3 6 5 4 2 7 1 9

4 1 2 7 9 6 8 5 3

5 7 9 8 1 3 4 2 6

get another goal; it’s good for her confidence,” Nolan said. “We’ve been working to try and get more off corner kicks, and we got another one today, which is huge.” A comfortable three-goal cushion allowed Nolan to make substitutions and rest his starters. “You want to try and give some minutes to some kids that maybe need some minutes,” Nolan said. “That’s what you hope for, in those moments; those kids do enough to prove they deserve more minutes.” One of those players was freshman forward Jenna Menta, who finished off the scoring for Georgetown with a pair of goals in less than a minute. “As a forward, my personal goal is to always score a goal, so it was nice to get out there and score two goals. It makes me feel like myself again,” Menta said. On the day, Hoyas led the Pirates 27-4 in shots and 8-0 in corner kicks. The shutout marked Georgetown’s seventh in a row. However, the shutout streak ended in Thursday’s match,

as the Hoyas surrendered a goal for the first time since their 4-0 loss to Stanford on Sept. 1. Creighton (2-9-2, 0-31 Big East) scored in the 43rd minute off the foot of sophomore forward Hannah Miller to take a 1-0 lead. Georgetown dominated the possession battle and held an 8-1 advantage in shots in the

first half but failed to find the back of the net until late in the game. In the 81st minute, sophomore midfielder Paula Germino-Watnick found the equalizer on a shot from outside the top of the box that went just under the crossbar. In the first 10-minute overtime period, the Hoyas domi-

nated possession and had three corner kicks, but failed to score. Georgetown controlled the second 10-minute period as well, but could not break the 1-1 tie. Georgetown travels to Villanova, Pa., to face the Villanova Wildcats (5-7-0, 1-2-0 Big East) on Sunday. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.

ALLIE FREI FOR THE HOYA

Sophomore defender Meaghan Nally has played in all 13 games for the Hoyas this season. Nally is tied for third on the team with three goals, including two game-winning goals.

GM’s Corner

Buffalo Makes Splash Early in Season MCCOY, from A12

Instead, the Bills have stormed out of the gates this year, beating the Jets, Broncos and Falcons and only narrowly losing the Panthers on the road. A dependable offensive line, LeSean McCoy’s effective ground game and efficient quarterback play from Tyrod Taylor have made for a solid offense. On defense, McDermott has switched the Bills from Ryan’s 3-4 scheme back to a 4-3 one, which has seemed to fit the team’s personnel better so far.

The secondary, which lost Darby in the aforementioned trade and Stephon Gilmore to the Patriots in free agency, has been playing better than ever. The group is led by standout rookie Tre’Davious White, who scored a touchdown and had the game-winning pass in Sunday’s win against Atlanta. Will all of this last? It is difficult to predict, as many analysts believe that the Bills’ perceived lack of talent will come back to haunt them as the season continues. Even if Buffalo does not regress, it is likely that the Patriots will

break out of their early-season funk and win the AFC East. However, even if the Bills do not make the playoffs this season, the foundations for success have already been laid. A year ago, Buffalo was perceived as a lovable loser around the league, a team capable of surprising others, but certainly not a legitimate contender. Now, the Bills have a young roster sprinkled with talented veterans to lead the way. They also have extra draft capital due to this summer’s trades, meaning they have the resources to continue to

improve in the years ahead. And perhaps most importantly, they have McDermott, a talented young coach who has proven his skills both in designing game plans and motivating his team, at the helm. With a positive, progressive team culture in place, the future looks bright in Buffalo — something that hasn’t been said about the Bills for some time.

Ryan McCoy is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. GM’s Corner appears every other Friday.


Sports

Men’s Soccer Georgetown (7-1-1) vs. Butler (7-2-0) Friday, 3 p.m. Shaw Field

friday, October 6, 2017

NUMBERS GAME

talkING POINTS

SAILING The sailing team took first and second place in the Tom Curtis Memorial Regatta and the MAISA Championships.

See A10

Men’s Soccer

We can play a lot better than we have shown, and that’s on me. It’s my job to get us going.” HEAD COACH ROB SGARLATA

9

The number of unanswered goals the field hockey team scored against LIU Brooklyn.

Women’s soccer

Butler to Test GU Hoyas Dominate Pirates, Draw Blue Jays In Top-15 Showdown Josh Rosson Hoya Staff Writer

Drew Sewall

Special to the Hoya

Coming off a solid 2-1 win over Marquette, the No. 10 Hoyas (7-1-1, 2-1 Big East) take on another Big East rival in the No. 15 Butler Bulldogs (7-2-0, 3-0 Big East) this weekend at Shaw Field. Boasting a 5-0 record at home this year, Georgetown will look to continue its winning ways against Butler at Shaw Field on Oct. 6. “One of our goals from the outset of the season was to try to be undefeated on Shaw. It’s a really great home field. It’s one of the best surfaces in the country,” junior goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski said. Though the Hoyas have an important nonconference

game against No. 19 Duke Blue Devils (8-2-1, 2-2 ACC) on Columbus Day, they are focusing their energy on Friday’s game against the Bulldogs. “Butler is by far the more important of the two games just from the league point of view. Watching Butler, they’ll be the best team we’ve played this year. They’re good. They’re defending Big East champions, and they’re playing like it,” Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese said. Having improved on last year’s overall record of 6-92, Georgetown will look to avenge its 4-2 loss at Butler last season. “It will be a really hardfought game. [It features] two See BUTLER, A11

theo symonds for the hoya

Sophomore forward Achara returned from injury in the team’s 2-1 victory over Marquette. Achara leads the Hoyas with five goals this season.

In a two-game home stand, the No. 12 Georgetown women’s soccer team recorded a 5-0 blowout victory against Seton Hall University on Sunday before drawing the Creighton Blue Jays 1-1 on Thursday. The Hoyas (9-2-1, 3-0 Big East) returned home after their 4-0 win against the DePaul University Blue Demons (5-6-1, 1-1-1 Big East) last Thursday and carried their momentum forward in conference play against a weaker Pirates (0-7-4, 0-1-2 Big East) squad. Despite controlling the pace of play and holding the advantage in shots, Georgetown was held scoreless through the game’s 43rd minute. “I just thought the first half we were probably 60 percent. We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “We talked at halftime about a couple of things I thought we needed to do a little bit better.” The Blue and Gray finally got on the board in the 44th minute with a long shot from the top corner of the box by sophomore defender Meaghan Nally, who was named Big East Conference Defensive Player of the Week last week. “I’ve been working on that shot for a little bit with [Assistant Coach] Kristen [Meier], and I was hoping it would go in,” Nally said. “When it did, it was a nice little surprise.” Nolan recognized the importance of scoring the first

allie frei for the Hoya

Senior midfielder Rachel Corboz assisted on senior defender Taylor Pak’s goal against Seton Hall this Sunday. Corboz has five goals and a team-high six assists this season. goal before halftime. “If [Seton Hall] goes into halftime 0-0, they have a lot of confidence and they now have a game plan that they’re sticking to,” Nolan said. “Getting that first goal before the break was huge, because it just puts a seed of doubt in their head.” The second half was much

kinder to the Hoyas, who dominated possession and created scoring opportunities at will. In the 55th minute, junior forward Caitlin Farrell streaked down the right sideline and crossed the ball into the box, finding the head of redshirt sophomore forward Amanda Carolan to put the

Football

Hoyas up 2-0. Less than a minute later, two seniors connected to make the score 3-0, as defender Taylor Pak’s shot from midfielder Rachel Corboz’s corner found the back of the net. “It was great for Amanda to See PIRATES, A11

Gm’s Corner

Ryan McCoy

Coaching Change Sets Tone for Bills

W

derrick arthur-cudjoe/THE HOYA

Senior wide receiver Justin Harrell hauled in a game-high five passes for 37 yards in Georgetown’s 41-2 loss against Harvard on Saturday. Harrell leads the Hoyas with 15 receptions on the year, tallying 114 yards.

Team Looks to End Skid Against Princeton Cameron Perales Hoya Staff Writer

After a disappointing showing against Harvard in the historic RFK Memorial Stadium last weekend, the Georgetown football team looks to bounce back against the Princeton Tigers this weekend. Saturday’s contest against the Tigers (2-1, 0-1 Ivy League) serves as the last of the Hoyas’ three Ivy League games before heading into Patriot League play. Georgetown is coming off a 41-2 blowout loss to Harvard in a game in which the Hoyas allowed 457 yards on defense. The Hoyas’ only points came on a defensive safety in the second quarter. Head Coach Rob Sgarlata said he expects the game

against Princeton to be cleaner from a turnover perspective and more competitive. “We left a lot of plays out on the field against Harvard, and they’re a good football team, and I give them all the credit in the world. But we spotted them 14 points before we even got started. So we can play a lot better than what we have shown, and that’s on me. It’s my job to get us going,” Sgarlata said. This season, the Ivy League has dominated the Patriot League, going 7-1 over the last three weeks. “[Ivy League Teams] aren’t like the Patriot League teams: They’re a lot deeper and have a bigger roster than the Patriot League teams, and they’re all well-coached,” Sgarlata said. “They’re all strong teams

and are completing well against the Patriot league this year. Each team presents their own challenges: They all have one or two cats on offense or defense each week.” Princeton brings an offense that has been on a hot streak through the first three games of the season, averaging nearly 30 points and over 300 yards through the air per game. The passing attack is led by senior quarterback Chad Kanoff and the Tigers’ “twin towers”: junior receivers Stephen Carlson and Jesper Horsted, who both stand at 6 feet 4 inches. “Princeton always challenges you, and they do a lot of different things well. They’re very diverse formationally and really make you know how to match up. They also

have a lot of weapons, especially on the edge where they have some big, tall receivers,” Sgarlata said. The Tigers’ high-powered passing attack will challenge the Hoyas’ defense, but senior defensive back and team captain David Akere is confident in the defense’s ability to contain Horsted and Carlson. “Princeton runs a little unorthodox offense,” Akere said. “So we’re preparing and making sure that we all take care of our jobs and manage our responsibilities. We have to read our keys and make sure everyone is on time and getting to the ball, so our offense has the opportunity to get on the field and score points.” See princeton, A11

Visit us online at thehoya.com/sports

hen the NFL season kicked off four weeks ago, few predicted that the Buffalo Bills would be leading the AFC East in October. The Bills, who have a storied history and a passionate fanbase, have struggled to compete in the AFC East in recent years. In fact, they have not made the playoffs since 1999, the longest-active playoff drought in any major professional sport. Added to the tradition of disappointment was a tumultuous change in management during the offseason, with the departure of Head Coach Rex Ryan and the firing of General Manager Doug Whaley the day after the NFL draft. But the Bills currently sit atop their division, boasting a 3-1 record after an impressive road victory over the Atlanta Falcons, the defending NFC champions. When trying to explain their unexpected success this season, one factor stands out above all the rest: the importance of team culture. Perhaps the most important change Buffalo made this offseason was appointing Sean McDermott as the team’s new head coach. McDermott was the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers for five years, helping them make it to Super Bowl 50. McDermott’s

seeming obsession with culture in the locker room has had a real impact on the play of the team thus far. His focus was part of the Bill’s consideration when deciding to make two trades this summer. McDermott and General Manager Brandon Beane shipped off disgruntled wide receiver Sammy Watkins to the Rams and cornerback Ronald Darby to the Philadelphia Eagles.

When trying to explain Buffalo’s unexpected success this season, one factor stands out: the importance of team culture. These moves were widely panned as the Bills preparing to “tank,” or lose intentionally, in an attempt to rebuild the franchise through the draft. By trading established players for picks and younger prospects like wide receiver Jordan Matthews, many thought Buffalo was conceding defeat before the season had even begun. See MCcoy, A11


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.