GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 99, No. 17, © 2018
friday, February 2, 2018
TURNING THE PAGE
The offerings of the English department have grown increasingly diverse and inclusive.
EDITORIAL Georgetown’s mental health resources must accomodate students’ long-term needs.
HOMELESSNESS BY THE NUMBERS The annual Point-in-Time count of the homeless population drew hundreds of volunteers.
OPINION, A2
NEWS, A8
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University Pledges Funds for Mental Health Stipend erin doherty Hoya Staff Writer
A pilot program for an offcampus mental health stipend program for low-income students is set to launch after the university contributes $10,000 to the Georgetown University Student Association in support of this initiative. University administration committed $10,00 in donated funds on Thursday, according to Rachel Pugh, the university’s senior director for strategic communications. This contribution will supplement the $1,217.89 already raised by SaxaFund, a crowdfunding platform to launch student initiatives, as of 1 a.m. The stipend will provide off-campus mental health support for approximately 10 to 20 students with demonstrated financial need. The pilot program is expected to launch within the next three weeks, according to GUSA President Kamar Mack (COL ’19). Students will be selected for the program by the financial aid office and a Counseling and Psychiatric Services case manager.
CAPS currently provides individualized mental health care for a maximum of two semesters, after which the service refers students to offcampus providers, according to Pugh. Only about 55 percent of psychiatrists accept private insurance, according to a 2014 study by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Vince WinklerPrins, Assistant Vice President for Student Health, said these efforts reflect the university’s commitment to student wellness. “We are deeply committed to well-being of our students and always looking for innovative ways to continue to serve them,” WinklerPrins wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We are actively exploring new avenues for robust, sustainable, long term support that address both access to off-campus services and cost and we hope to have new resources in place this fall.” The announcement of the university’s commitment comes after a series of discussions between GUSA and university officials to make mental See STIPEND, A6
RYAN BAE/THE HOYA
Following two information sessions this week, four tickets are set to face off in the Georgetown University Student Association’s executive election to be held Feb. 22. Potential new tickets must collect 100 student signatures to participate.
4 Tickets Emerge for GUSA Executive jeff cirillo and yasmine salam Hoya Staff Writers
Four potential tickets have emerged in the upcoming race for the Georgetown University Student Association executive election as nominations. Tickets are required to attend one of two information sessions hosted by the GUSA Election Commission, held on Tuesday and Thursday this week, or to collect 100 student signatures by Feb. 10 to participate in the election.
Election day is set for Feb. 22, with this year’s official campaign period beginning Feb. 8. Candidates are not permitted to campaign until this date. The four current tickets are: GUSA senator Josh Sirois (SFS ’20) and Casey Doherty (SFS ’20); Sahil Nair (SFS ’19) and Naba Rahman (SFS ’19); Hunter Estes (SFS ’19) and Richard Howell (SFS ’19); and Logan Arkema (COL ’20) and Jonathan Compo (NHS ’20). Sirois previously served on GUSA’s Finance and Appropriations committee, while
Doherty led GUSA’s Dreamers advocacy efforts on the Federal & D.C. Relations committee. Nair and Rahman will likely form a second ticket. Nair is director of external outreach at Innovo Consulting, which connects social entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations to Georgetown students, and is involved in the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service. Rahman led Model United Nation’s National Collegiate Security Conference last semester and has been involved with Georgetown
University Social Innovation and Public Service Fund, a $1.5 million student-run fund that allocates grant money to student and alumni social ventures. Estes, who served on FinApp during his sophomore year, previously directed membership for Georgetown University College Republicans in 2016. Estes also served as the head of the Georgetown chapter of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic See GUSA, A6
Flake Laments Diminishing Centrism in US Politics Senator raises concern over ‘vanishing middle’ madeline charbonneau Hoya Staff Writer
Bipartisan cooperation and his concern for the “vanishing middle” are defining features of Senator Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) approach to politics, he said in an event hosted by the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service and moderated by GU Politics Director Mo Elleithee (SFS ’94) in Lohrfink Auditorium on Monday evening.
COURTESY CLAUDIA CORRAL
The devastating effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria disrupted Georgetown’s traditional application process in Puerto Rico. Two applicants shared their stories with The Hoya.
Hurricanes Leave Puerto Rican Applicants Facing New Barriers sophie rosenzweig Hoya Staff Writer
Claudia Corral sent her application to Georgetown University on Oct. 25 from a small restaurant across the street from her home in Ocean Park, Puerto Rico. Her home had been without Wi-Fi since Hurricane Maria hit almost a month earlier. Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico with 155 mph winds Sep. 20, following Hurricane Irma which hit just two weeks earlier, on Sep. 6. Georgetown normally receives about 40 early applications annually from Puerto Rico. This year, Georgetown
featured
received only 23 applications, according to Ismael Herrero, the Interviews Chair of the Georgetown University Alumni Club of Puerto Rico. Of those 23 applicants, 8 students were accepted, including Corral. Many applicants were offline and faced difficulties in applying, and power still has not been completely restored to the residents of Puerto Rico as of February 2018. The university worried about the effect of the hurricane on Puerto Rican applicants, according to Associate Member of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions Jaime Briseño. “We knew that there were
a number of students who, because of the hurricane, did not apply, and that’s consistent with a lot of our peer institutions. Everyone saw a drop in the number of candidates,” Briseño said. The hurricanes flooded Corral’s neighborhood; she and her friends kayaked over their neighborhood’s streets and attended school in short stints due to the school’s low diesel fuel reserves. Following Irma, Corral did not have WiFi at home for 86 days. She only hoped that everything she was sending was getting to Washington, D.C.
“You can’t govern with the politics of resentment. And a lot of what we’ve seen with this populism is the politics of resentment.”
See PUERTO RICO, A6
SEN. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)
Describing himself as a traditional conservative, Flake said he fears the loss of moderate centrists in Congress because he believes that as the number of moderates declines, the power in the executive branch of the government increases. “I am very concerned about the vanishing middle in poli-
tics,” Flake said. “You always had a time when there were a lot of conservative Democrats — more conservative than the most liberal Republicans — and now you just don’t have many cross over, and that is dangerous.” Flake, who announced in October that he will not be seeking re-election in 2018, did not confirm or deny whether he would consider running as a third-party nominee in the 2020 presidential election, but he did say he could foresee a successful independent run — whoever the candidate might be — in 2020. “If President [Donald] Trump decides to run for a second term, and all the energy in the Democratic Party right now is on the left, the far left — either [Sens.] Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.], Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.], Kamala Harris [D-Calif.] — if the Democrats nominate somebody from their left, and if we nominate somebody who is on our far right, there’s got to be a huge swath of voters in the middle looking for something else,” Flake said. “I’ve always said that the time for an independent is in the future; it may not be so far.” The senator has distanced himself from much of Trump’s rhetoric, especially
from that on immigrants in the United States. Having grown up on a ranch in Arizona, Flake said many of the workers his family hired had migrated to the United States illegally, and his exposure to them from a young age formed his vision that immigrants are not to be feared or hated.
“I’ve always said that the time for an independent is in the future; it may not be so far.” SEN. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)
“I got to know these migrants,” Flake said. “I knew why they were coming, what their motivation was and I’ve never been able to look at them and see a criminal class.” Flake also spoke out opposing the president’s stance against news organizations, especially regarding Trump’s tweet last February referring to the media as the “enemy of the people.” Still, Flake agreed a liberal media bias exists. See FLAKE, A6
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
Clinton Returns to the Hilltop Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to present awards for international female leadership. A5
Teach Our History Georgetown needs an Asian-American studies program to reflect the histories of its students. A3
On a Roll The women’s basketball team won its first consecutive Big East games last weekend. A12
NEWS A Letter to Secretary DeVos
opinion Examining Inequity
SPORTS Hoyas Still Hopeful
Two GUSA members spearheaded an initiative to urge against recent revisions to Title IX guidelines. A5 Printed Fridays
A Georgetown alumnus reflects on the changing dynamics of gender inequity on the Hilltop. A3
The men’s basketball team fights an uphill battle as it plays the toughest part of its schedule. A12 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com
OPINION
THE HOYA
Founded January 14, 1920
EDITORIALS
Confront Ongoing Anti-Semitism While Georgetown’s mission and administration have historically fought to create an inclusive environment for its Jewish students, the campus has long been — and still is — an unfortunate microcosm of existing anti-Semitism beyond the gates. As students committed to Jesuit values, we must learn from our predecessors’ mistakes to reveal and combat modern anti-Semitism. Last month, Lauinger Library published archived editions of The Hoya dating back to 1930. The new digital collection included a 1939 editorial calling for more coverage of persecuted Christians and less coverage of Nazi-persecuted Jews (“An American Preferred List,” The Hoya, Jan. 11, 1939, A2). The editorial asked why Adolf Hitler’s “anti-religious scourge has received such tremendous publicity in this Christian country.” The 1939 editorial board then answered its own question: “The great syndicates are controlled mainly by the brethren of the victims of Nazi oppression,” meaning the Jewish people. Unfortunately, the 1939 editorial does not stand alone; Georgetown’s history is dotted with instances of anti-Semitic incidents. In 1966, several Georgetown students dressed as Nazi soldiers at a basketball game against New York University, according to current reporting by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a nonprofit dedicated to reporting on “issues of Jewish interest and concern.” Before he apologized for the incident 10 days later, Fr. Anthony Zeits, S.J. — then-director of student personnel — insisted that no anti-Semitic remarks were made (“NYU Cites Anti-Semitism in Alleged GU Ruckus,” The Hoya, Feb. 17, 1966, A1). In September 2016, a bathroom in the Georgetown University Medical Center was defaced with a swastika and the letters “KKK” (“Racist Vandalism Investigated, The Hoya, Oct. 4, 2016, A1). In May 2017, anti-Semitic graffiti was found in a restroom near The Makóm Jewish Gathering Space in the Leavey Center (“GUPD Investigates Anti-Semitic Graffiti Near Jewish Gathering Space,” The Hoya, May 8, 2017); this incident was one of nine reported in the past year (“Bias-Related Vandalism Targets Religious Groups,” The Hoya, March 24, 2017, A1; “GUPD, MPD Investigate Hate Crimes,” The Hoya, Oct. 6, 2017, A1). These horrific actions are indicative of what happens when anti-Semitism bubbles under the surface of daily discourse, unacknowledged and ignored. Georgetown’s administration has maintained a resilient commitment to Jewish students since founder John Carroll pledged to admit students from all faiths
and backgrounds. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, peer institutions like Harvard University and Princeton University limited Jewish attendance through quotas. However, there is no evidence that Georgetown ever used such a system, according to Georgetown Universtiy Student Association historian Ari Goldstein (COL ’18). The current administration also seeks to represent Jewish students; the Anti-Defamation League presented its 2017 Achievement award, given to those who “work for a larger impact in the positive shaping of their communities,” to University President John J. DeGioia. The ADL praised the 2016 opening of Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization and DeGioia’s work with the ADL on Bearing Witness, an effort to train Catholic educators in teaching the history of anti-Semitism (“DeGioia Receives Honor for CJC Opening, Interfaith Programs,” The Hoya, Sept. 21, 2017, A1). Georgetown’s message of religious tolerance must remain strong amid today’s rising anti-Semitism. Blatant anti-Semitism on campus is quickly noticed, widely reported and eventually addressed — at least 12 student groups, including GU College Democrats, GU College Republicans and GUSA, released statements condemning the graffiti in fall 2017. The insidiousness of anti-Semitism, however, permeates the lives of Jewish students with alarming frequency. In spring 2017, the Jewish Student Association at Georgetown sent a survey to students active in the Jewish community. In these previously unreleased statistics, 87 percent of the 38 students surveyed said they often, always or regularly felt “welcome and accepted as a Jewish student on campus.” Yet, 71 percent reported experiencing anti-Semitism at Georgetown. The survey indicates the far reaches of anti-Semitism. Progress toward true inclusion demands that students are conscious of their everyday biases. For example, Jewish students who support Israel should not be forced to renounce Israel in exchange for acceptance into progressive spaces. No students should be excluded from any space on the basis of their identity. The record of Georgetown students on anti-Semitism is imperfect, and the too-often unaccepting climate of the present has been exposed; the abhorrent views of our distant predecessors and the reckless actions of our peers serve as unflattering evidence. Georgetown has evolved since 1939, but there is much more work to be done. For the Jewish community to be fully accepted and included at Georgetown, we students must honestly confront the frequent antiSemitism present in the lives of our peers.
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friday, February 2, 2018
THE VERDICT Racing Restaurateur — Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay admitted to wrapping plastic wrap around the license plate of his Ferrari California T in order to avoid speed cameras. Storage Wars — The Australian government unintentionally released files of government secrets after selling a locked cabinet to a secondhand shop. After drilling the cabinet open, the buyer turned the documents over to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Rightful Recognition — On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed a bill granting federal recognition to six Native American tribes in Virginia: the Monacan, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Nansemond, Rappahannock and Upper Mattaponi. The tribes had received state recognition but finally received federal recognition after 20 years of petitioning. Expectations Eclipsed — On Wednesday, a rare “blood moon” was visible to skywatchers in the United States for the first time in 150 years. The next blood moon eclipse will occur this July but will not be visible in most of North America. Never Late is Better — On Wednesday, British Lord Michael Bates arrived a couple of minutes late to a meeting at the House of Lords, profusely apologized for the delay and then announced his immediate resignation. The entire exchange took place in under 60 seconds, leaving his peers shocked and in a state of disbelief.
EDITORIAL CARTOON by Elinor Walker
Expand Mental Health Services Despite Georgetown University’s Wednesday decision to partially subsidize the care of low-income students, the mental health care options provided to students are still frustratingly inadequate. In addition to funding short-term coverage, Georgetown must seek solutions for the long-term mental health care challenges of its students. After months of delay and uncertainty, Georgetown’s administration allocated $10,000 to a pilot program that will subsidize off-campus mental health care for students with demonstrated financial need who are covered by Georgetown’s student health insurance plan (“University Pledges Funds for Mental Health Stipend,” The Hoya, Feb. 3, 2018, A1). In November 2017, the Georgetown University Student Association’s mental health policy coalition asked the university to allocate $40,000 to fund such a pilot program. University President John J. DeGioia and Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson “committed to allocating resources to the goal of making student health care more affordable,” but made no financial commitment at the time (“Activists Shift Strategy In Mental Health Push,” The Hoya, Jan. 26, 2018, A5). In the months between Georgetown’s stated commitment and the administration’s decision to commit funding, the burden was placed on students to crowdsource their own mental health. GUSA’s mental health coalition set up a fund on SaxaFund, a fundraising tool for student initiatives run by Georgetown students and alumni, to raise contributions for a similar program. SaxaFund, founded in March 2017, aims to use student and alumni donations to crowdfund nonessential student initiatives ; projects from this semester include the Leavey Beergarden and Hilltop Compost. Although Georgetown’s agreement to comply with one-fourth of the initial request is a step in the right direction, the intervening process reveals the administration’s apprehensive approach to providing comprehensive short- and long-term mental health care for students.
Counseling and Psychiatric Services, the most accessible provider of mental health care for undergraduates on campus, is structured to exclusively provide short-term individualized care to patients, who have access to care for up to two semesters. After this period, CAPS offers students referrals to an off-campus resource if further treatment is required. CAPS offers on-campus group therapy at low costs, along with other necessary services, but a dearth of resources makes the organization simply unable to keep up with the demand of Georgetown students in need of help. In fall 2016, CAPS cut therapy costs by 89 percent and psychiatric costs by 80 percent; a new staff psychologist and case manager were hired to help the bear the load. Despite this slight expansion, CAPS remains unequipped to address the community’s needs, according to a Mental Health Advisory Board report in October 2016. Georgetown is failing to meet the mental health needs of its students. The university must re-evaluate the services it provides, keeping an open mind toward large-scale changes. The University of Michigan recently added four new mental health counselors using the “embedded” model, in which counselors’ offices are placed in classroom buildings to make them more accessible to students. A similar program at Georgetown would prove a clear commitment to the well-being of students. The program would need to be scaled down to accommodate Georgetown’s smaller size, but further integrating mental health professionals with the campus is an investment worth making. The Jesuit value of cura personalis, or care of the whole person, is foundational to Georgetown’s identity. In outlining the practical application of this principle, Campus Ministry suggests “individualized attention to the needs of each student.” To satisfy its own expectations, Georgetown must develop the resources necessary for the long term mental health care of its students.
Ian Scoville, Editor-in-Chief Maya Gandhi, Executive Editor Christian Paz, Executive Editor Emma Wenzinger, Managing Editor Jeff Cirillo, News Editor Hannah Urtz, News Editor Dan Crosson, Sports Editor Mitchell Taylor, Sports Editor Kathryn Baker, Guide Editor Mac Dressman, Guide Editor Will Simon, Opinion Editor Lisa Burgoa, Features Editor Anna Kovacevich, Photography Editor Saavan Chintalacheruvu, Design Editor Janine Karo, Copy Chief Katie Schluth, Social Media Editor Charlie Fritz, Blog Editor Anne-Isabelle de Bokay, Multimedia Editor
Editorial Board
Will Simon, Chair
Alexandre Kleitman, Grace Laria, Tanner Larkin, Emma Lux, Daniel Wassim, Alexandra Williams
Will Cassou Madeline Charbonneau Erin Doherty Yasmine Salam Yasmeen El-Hasan Allie Babyak Ben Goodman Josh Rosson Noah Hawke Will Leo Noah Levesque Julia Yaeger John Crawford Yumna Naqvi Elinor Walker Will Cromarty Amber Gillette Subul Malik Caroline Pappas Grace Chung Anna Kooken Mina Lee Susanna Blount Anna Dezenzo Catriona Kendall Juliette Leader Joshua Levy Laura Bell
Academics Desk Editor City Desk Editor Events Desk Editor Student Life Desk Editor Deputy Features 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 Photography Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Blog Editor
Contributing Editors
Dean Hampers, Meena Raman, Lauren Seibel, Alyssa Volivar, Sarah Wright
HOYA HISTORY: Feb. 2, 1990
Yearbook Recovers From 1989 Debacle Last week the editors of Ye Domesday Booke, Georgetown’s yearbook, sent the first 50 pages of this year’s edition to the printers; Monday they sent 26 more. With new staffers, new computers and a new set of editors, the yearbook has recovered from last year’s disaster, in which 306 pages were not in by deadline and only one editor remained through the summer to finish over 200 pages. At this time last year, only eight pages of the book had been finished. “We’ve submitted more pages now than we had handed in by graduation of last year,” said Bill Nardini (CAS ’90), co-editor of the yearbook. “Last year everyone bagged.” Throughout last year, unmotivated staff disappeared and edi-
tors failed to work on the pages for which they were responsible, according to Jennifer Gillan (CAS ’89), the previous editor-in-chief. Gillan completed the book alone and did not finish until August. The finished books did not arrive until Dec. 15, three months late. “This year the big difference is that we have a staff,” said Nardini. Nardini and co-editor Mike Heffner (CAS ’90) have built a staff of several dozen writers and editors since the fall. They have emphasized a regular production schedule, and they bought two computers and a laser printer to smooth production. “They’re right on target; they’re extremely well-organized,” said Martha Swanson, director of student organizations.
“They’re doing well in terms of advertising revenue; they’re doing well in terms of pages; and they’re doing well with their senior sittings.” The editors and writers have also tried to improve the atmosphere at the yearbook. “It’s fun now. It’s fun to work on the new computers; we took a trip of the printing plan; we even had a social event for the first time,” Nardini said. “We had a progressive dinner and will soon have another one.” On the financial side, the yearbook will try to turn around last year’s $4,000 loss. According to their most recent expense and income projections, yearbook will end the year with a profit of $14,000. Eugene Sloan
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OPINION
friday, February 2, 2018
THE HOYA
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VIEWPOINT • MA
A Hoya Looks Back
Raymond Dillon
A Hoya Looks at 40
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hen I look at the Class of 1977’s commencement photograph, I find a younger, thinner version of myself in the front row. I am wearing the confident smile of a callow youth, unaware of what lies ahead and without any appreciation of the nurturing sanctuary the Hilltop had been. In the four decades since that image was taken, I have been blessed with the opportunity to experience firsthand many of the triumphs and tragedies that have marked recent history. Much has changed since that optimistic graduate had his image captured, most notably great strides toward gender equity. Yet, as I watched “The Post” this weekend, I was struck by the similarities of that era to now. Meryl Streep’s depiction of Katherine Graham, a woman struggling to find a voice in a corporate world controlled by old white men, was striking. Her dominance of the men around her made her climactic decision — no spoilers — all the more powerful. To quote the Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie, “All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.” One of my most vivid memories of the autumn of 1973 was the struggle for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States Constitution. The amendment, which ultimately faltered, sought to codify the equal status of women in American society. At Georgetown, meanwhile, the admission of women into the once all-male institution was having a profound impact. By 1973, their admission was no longer an “experiment” and the sense of culture shock was palpable. The teaching faculty, the managers of the physical plant and the university leadership were grappling with circumstances for which they were profoundly and woefully illprepared. At the time, there was a popular story of a tenured professor who would make deliberately offensive
and sexual remarks on the first day of class to compel female students to drop the course. There were no consequences for the professor. That this anecdote was oftrepeated speaks to how the atmosphere at the school gave it some credence. In many ways, student life in the 1970s was as different from now as that time was from the 1930s. However, what would be recognizable today as fumbling attempts by a male-centric culture to adapt to the mere presence of females in campus dormitories was the nascent struggle for women’s equality in society. Today, this movement is expressed by #MeToo, the fight for pay parity and access to unfettered health care. That these continue to be at the forefront of political discussions after many decades is confounding. I do remain optimistic, however. When I attended my 40th class reunion last summer, there were as many alumnae present as alumni. They had joined their male counterparts in society and the workforce and rose through the ranks to be successful attorneys, diplomats, scientists, journalists and businesswomen. What were once considered “nontraditional” roles for women are now generally accepted as mainstream. Moreover, I perceive that each woman no longer carries the burden of representing her entire gender. What I did not appreciate as an undergraduate was the pressure women felt to succeed and not have a perceived failure reflect on them all. They now have both a voice and a better chance to sit at the table. What I was privileged to witness on Healy Lawn in the summers of ’77 and ’07 were respectively the promise and the triumph of their struggle. “Nevertheless, they persisted.” Raymond Dillon Jr. graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1977. A Hoya Looks Back runs online every other Tuesday.
Echo chambers are dangerous because people within them derive truths about the world from mutually reinforcing sources, which may or may not be based in reality.
Combat Social Media Polarization
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hen you scroll through your Facebook news feed, you most likely see a slew of funny videos, sponsored posts and news articles. Facebook’s mission statement, posted on its investor relations page, states its goal is to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” Yet, the endless stream of content from businesses and media outlets has made passive scrolling much more common than active engagement. To address this issue, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Jan. 11 that Facebook is shifting its focus back to its roots — connecting with friends, family and groups. As part of this change, Facebook will alter the algorithm behind its news feed so content created by a user’s immediate community is more prominent than posts from businesses, mainstream media outlets and other major pages. At first glance, this change seems positive. As entertaining as binging BuzzFeed videos may be, commenting on posts written by friends seems more fulfilling. As Zuckerberg wrote in his announcement, research indicates connecting with family and friends improves well-
being and happiness more than consuming random news. However, this algorithmic change does not fix increasing polarity exacerbated by social media. A 2017 study by the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent of Americans get at least some of their news from social media. Much of this news is biased toward the viewpoint of the consumer. Tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon tailor content to users’ interests to increase metrics like engagement and time spent on the platform. This targeting of users makes them happy, as they see what they like. However, this strategy is also dangerous because it limits the range of viewpoints to which people are exposed. Take two Facebook users: one liberal and one conservative. The liberal user’s news feed is likely full of articles from HuffPost, The New York Times and CNN, while the conservative user’s news feed probably displays articles from Fox News, National Review and Breitbart. If the two users lack a shared standard of evidence or an understanding of different views, civil debate is nearly impossible. Wall Street Journal’s Blue
Feed, Red Feed illustrates the disparity in political news on Facebook by showing a sample “blue” feed alongside a sample “red” one. As a college student who hails from California, I was not surprised to learn my feed is drowned in blue. Rather than seeking out diverse viewpoints, social media users often tend to stick with — or even cling to — communities that look or think like them. When these communities blindly reinforce each other’s beliefs, they create echo chambers. Echo chambers are dangerous because people within them derive truths about the world from mutually reinforcing sources, which may or may not be based in reality. This social condition explains why people believe conspiracy theories like the Pizzagate scandal and jokes like the Gorilla Channel, and why fake news spread so rapidly during the 2016 election. So, how will Facebook’s renewed focus on personal connection affect these pressing challenges to democracy? Users will certainly be exposed to fewer news articles — real and fake. Beyond that, these changes may do little to combat our increasing fragmentation. In fact, if one’s friends and family share similar beliefs, the
echoes may even get louder throughout one’s network. Because so many people get their news from social media, Facebook must work to make its users not only “happier,” but also more accurately informed. Facebook users should not only interact with friends and family, but also engage in political discourse with people from diverse backgrounds and different worldviews. Facebook is making changes — slowly yet surely. Product teams are rolling out a feature called Related Articles, which suggests additional articles for users to provide different perspectives to their news feeds. “We have a whole team working on this problem and trying to create better incentives for civil, constructive conversations,” Samidh Chakrabarti, product manager of civic engagement at Facebook, wrote in a Jan. 22 blog post. In the meantime, perhaps the onus is on us as individuals to check our cognitive biases, consume news from different sources across the political divide and seek connections with people who challenge our perspectives. After all, ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. Sabrina Ma is a senior in the College.
VIEWPOINT • Sugijanto & frial
NAVIGATING INTERSECTIONS
Promote Asian-American Studies
Shaping My Plate of Couscous
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o education in American history is complete without acknowledging the vast contributions of black, Latinx, Muslim, Asian and Native American communities. We live on the land of indigenous peoples and profit off the labor of immigrants and people of color. By failing to teach these experiences, Georgetown University prevents all students — particularly students of color — from developing a critical understanding of history and contextualizing our roles in fighting racial injustice. In 2016, Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia made a commitment to Georgetown’s black students to “address the structural causes at the root of persistent inequalities — persistent racial injustice — in American society.” The Asian-Pacific Islander Leadership Forum asks the university to extend the same commitment to Latinx and Asian-American students. Georgetown, it is time you told our stories. Eight years ago, the Academic Diversity Working Group, as part of Georgetown’s Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness, published a report suggesting that the university “increase the resources it devotes to [the] changing face of American society” and “take additional steps to increase the diversity of its faculty.” DeGioia affirmed the working group’s recommendations, saying the university would “explore creating new programs” in African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic/Latinx studies. After eight years of diligent work by black students and faculty, we have an African American studies major and department. As nonblack students of color, we are indebted to their work, which has paved the way for us to make this request: Georgetown, it is time you told our stories. Despite sustained efforts by
Latinx students and faculty, Georgetown has done nothing to create a Latinx studies program. To this day, only three classes that focus on the U.S. Latinx experience exist. Since 2010, Georgetown has offered just one course reflecting the Asian-American experience: “Asian-American Literature.” This course has not been offered since fall 2016.
As nonblack students of color, we are indebted to their work, which has paved the way for us to make this request: Georgetown, it is time you told our stories. Georgetown’s lack of AsianAmerican scholars and courses creates a sizeable gap between its curriculum and that of its competitors. Peer institutions like Cornell University, Northwestern University, Syracuse University, the University of Maryland-College Park and the University of Pennsylvania offer degree programs, minors and/or concentrations in Asian American studies. Georgetown, it is time you told our stories. How long until we see our history taught in the classroom? When will we learn about the decades of exclusionary immigration policies, the internment of JapaneseAmericans, the radical history of black-South Asian solidarity, the role of Filipinos in the United Farm Workers movement and the struggles of refugees from the Korean and Vietnam Wars? When will we have classes on the revolutionary work of the Ghadar Party and Eqbal Ahmad, Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs? When will we have the opportunity to study the work of contemporary activists like Tanzila
Ahmed and Deepa Iyer, Tamara Ching and Jose Antonio Vargas? In our call for an AsianAmerican studies program, APILF follows in the footsteps of our black peers who spearheaded the initiative for an African-American studies major, of our indigenous/Native American peers who are participating in the Indigenous Studies Working Group and of our Latinx peers who have pushed for a Latinx studies program time and time again. We ground our efforts in the legacy of the Third World Liberation Front’s fight for ethnic studies at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley, between 1968 and 1969, which inspired countless students of color to fight for representation within university curricula across the country — a movement that continues to this day. APILF calls upon Georgetown to create working groups on Asian-American studies and Latinx studies. We hope to see the establishment of tenuretrack positions for Asian-American and Latinx-identified educators, and request that Georgetown hire visiting faculty specializing in Asian-American and Latinx studies until we acquire tenured professors. As the first step in our campaign, we ask that Georgetown support the Georgetown University Student Association and APILF’s joint effort to introduce an “Introduction to Asian-American Studies” course for spring 2019. APILF wrote a potential syllabus for such a course. We expect Georgetown, an institution that prides itself on diversity and pluralism, to act on these demands. Georgetown, it is time you told our stories. Jennifer Sugijanto is a sophomore in the College and the director of projects for APILF. Zachary Frial is a senior in the School of Foreign Service and APILF’s senior adviser.
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poured water over the finely rolled balls of crushed semolina flour and ran my fingers through the coarse dry mixture, attempting to start the rehydration process. It was a balancing act: Too little water, and the couscous would come out dry; too much water and it would form a paste. I have found the hard parts of life are easier to discuss when I start with what is familiar. Nothing feels more familiar to me or reminds me more of my childhood than helping my mother make couscous, as generations of Kabyle Berber daughters have done for over a millennium. Unfortunately, what also feels all-too familiar — and reminds me of growing up — are the xenophobic, Islamophobic and racist comments and actions Donald Trump has become notorious for. On Jan. 11, 2018, the president said, “Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They’re s---hole countries …” suggesting that the United States instead admit more people from Norway, according to The Washington Post. I was at Costco the first time I was taught my parents — two Muslim immigrants from Algeria — do not belong in the United States. When I left my parents to get a free sample, they were talking about groceries in Taqbaylit. When I found them again, a woman was yelling at my parents, telling them to go back to their country. A crowd gathered around the scene: It was entertaining for them, like a scene out of a documentary, before they declared the United States to be postracial. I stood there alone, too scared to say anything, crying tears of shame because no one was on my parents’ side. I was 5. On March 9, 2016, Trump said, “I think Islam hates us.” On June 14, 2016, he said, “The children of Muslim-American parents, they’re responsible for a growing number — for whatever reason — a growing number of terrorist attacks.”
I was in sixth grade when I learned that my religion made me and my family a national threat. My class was sitting on the carpet in a circle, discussing what we wanted to be for Halloween. A classmate turned around, looked at me and called my name. Twenty-nine pairs of eyes whipped around, focusing on me. Fifty-eight spotlights; 58 beaming X-rays into my soul. My heart sank when I saw him wrap his jacket around his head, attempting to recreate the hijab.
Sonia Adjroud
What I have learned this year about healing is that it is a slow process. Healing requires the same balancing act as crafting the perfect plate of couscous. “I’m going to dress up like your mother for Halloween. Like a terrorist,” he said. The piercing spotlights turned into tears of laughter, joining in with my tears of shame. I was 11 years old. It has been exactly one year since I found myself crying these same tears of shame, a week after the first Muslim ban. That night, I found myself in my friend Patrick’s bedroom in Village B, talking to him for hours about how the Muslim ban was a painful reminder of growing up with bomb threats to my mosque. It was a painful reminder of my community experiencing surveillance as a result of the Patriot Act; a painful reminder of my sixth-grade self
looking at my teacher through tear-filled eyes to see if she would step in and defend me; a reminder of the disappointment I felt when all she said was “OK, kids. Settle down.” It has been only a year since the beginning of the “era of Trumpism.” Still, the most important lesson I learned from my childhood as the daughter of Muslim immigrants in post9/11 America is that “Trumpism” is the United States of America. What I have learned this past year is that trauma repeatedly strikes in the same place as old wounds, deepening them with time. Although my college years almost perfectly overlap with the “era of Trumpism,” I want my experience to be defined by more than the trauma, and instead by moments of joy and healing. What I have learned this past year about healing is that it is a slow process. Healing over this past year has come from jokes with friends, ArtShares with Art Beyond the Margins, vigils and crying over a box of tissues in Village B. Over the rest of my years at Georgetown, I want to continue creating healing experiences. The memories I associate most deeply with my Kabyle Berber identity are joyful memories of making couscous with my mother, not the experiences of exclusion that I faced as a result of it. Healing requires the same balancing act as crafting the perfect plate of couscous. The balance between allowing myself to feel the pain, while allowing myself to experience moments of joy. Allowing myself to cry tears of shame, but also tears of joy — making sure that there is water, but not too much water. Sonia Adjroud is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. Navigating Intersections appears online every other Monday. Read the full piece at thehoya.com/opinion.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Fr. James Martin, S.J., speaks on the need for the Catholic Church to treat the LGBTQ community with open-mindedness. Story on A7.
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IN FOCUS DREAMERS
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People will still listen to the United States so I think we have an obligation as a democracy to push the U.S. to do more.” Annie Wilcox Boyajian on the state of global democracy. Story on A7
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JOHN DEGIOIA
Georgetown University Student Association led “A Day to Dream,” which included a call center that was set up in the Cawley Career Center for Georgetown community members to call their congressional representatives and support the DREAM Act.
HOW TO SURVIVE VALENTINE’S DAY UNSCATHED Everyone’s least favorite day of the year is near, but fear not! 4E, your faithful and trusted go-to guide on all matters — romance and otherwise — has the tips and tricks for a successful Valentine’s Day! blog.thehoya.com
GU Fossil Free Seeks Support From University WILL CASSOU Hoya Staff Writer
Student group Georgetown University Fossil Free delivered a letter to University President John J. DeGioia last Friday outlining its request for Georgetown to divest from tar sand oil companies. “By investing in tar sand oil companies, Georgetown tacitly endorses and profits from a destructive, unjust industry,” the letter to DeGioia reads. “We call on you to join [the signatories], in favor of the proposal and assist in its passage by the Board of Directors so as to further align the Endowment Fund with our Jesuit values.” The letter was delivered in advance of the spring reconvening of the Committee on Investments and Social Re-
sponsibility, which advises the university on socially responsible investment policies. GUFF’s initial proposal was submitted to the committee in November 2017, at which time the proposal had garnered 200 signatures from members of the Georgetown community. CISR committed in November to reviewing the proposal at its next meeting, which is expected to occur in March. Celia Buckman (SFS ’21), a member of GUFF, said now is an important time for DeGioia to hear GUFF’s message. “We think that it’s important for President DeGioia to get our message now because we’re expecting CISR, the committee that reviews the proposal, to have a vote around March, so getting that kind of institutional
pressure on CISR to support and represent the interests of the majority of students of at Georgetown as well as coming from the top of the administration,” Buckman said. GUFF also wanted to highlight the diversity of student support it has received since the proposal was submitted in November, according to Buckman. The petition now has 326 signatories — including Georgetown students, alumni, faculty and staff — as well as 13 student organizations including Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network and the Georgetown Solidarity Committee. The letter reiterates the main points of GUFF’s November proposal. In particular, it highlights the environmental harm presented by tar sand
oil extraction, which is significantly more severe than other types of oil extraction. GUFF argues that refusing to divest from tar sand oil extraction would violate the Socially Responsible Investing Policy approved by the board of directors last June. “The University shall use reasonable efforts to avoid investments in companies that have demonstrated records of widespread violations of human dignity. As examples, this includes companies that are directly and significantly involved in the production of weapons that are intended to be used for indiscriminate destruction and companies that are engaged in activities having an extremely deleterious effect on the environment,” the policy states. Georgetown’s continued
investment in fossil fuels is counter to its identity as a conscientious and progressive institution, Samantha Panchèvre (SFS ’19), a GUFF member, told THE HOYA in a November interview. “Georgetown is educating its students to be leaders in the world, to fight for a better political and social environment and climate change is throwing all of that into disarray. So by funding climate change, it’s very counterintuitive for an institution like Georgetown to fund climate change and also tell its students to go out and fight climate change,” Panchèvre said. Rachel Pugh, the university’s senior director for strategic communications, said the proposal has remained at the initial stages of the approval process since November. “Georgetown’s Committee
on Investments and Social Responsibility (CISR) received GU Fossil Free’s proposal last November. CISR had a preliminary discussion about this proposal at its November meeting. CISR will meet again in the next few weeks to continue its review of this proposal,” Pugh wrote in an email to THE HOYA. If it receives approval from CISR, GUFF’s proposal will move to the Committee on Finance and Administration within the board of directors for further consideration. Although GUFF members acknowledge the process is going slowly, they have not expressed concern about its current pace. “It’s following a timeline we kind of expected,” Buckman said.
FILE PHOTO: ISABEL BINAMIRA/THE HOYA
Georgetown University Fossil Free delivered a letter to University President John J. DeGioia last Friday, urging him to support a proposal for the university to divest from tar sands oil extraction. The Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility is expected to meet soon to decide whether or not the proposal will make it to the next stage in the process to get approved.
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SFS Alumna Enters Hillary Clinton to Return Pa. Congressional Race For 2nd Speech in 2 Years Deepika Jonnalagadda Hoya Staff Writer
Recent Georgetown graduate Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson (SFS ’14) announced her bid for the House of Representatives in October 2017, just over three years after she graduated. If elected, Johnson would be the youngest woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress and the first African-American woman to represent the 4th District. She is running in the Democratic primary against another Georgetown alumnus, U.S. Army veteran George Scott (SFS ’84). The winner will face incumbent Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who was re-elected in 2016 by 32 percent. Scott’s campaign did not respond to a request for an interview. Johnson’s first exposure to politics began in her grandparents’ household. After growing up during the era of segregation and receiving limited education, her grandparents stressed the importance of participating in national politics. From the moment that she turned 18, Johnson felt an obligation to take an active role in politics. Although this interest had been ingrained in her, Johnson said in interview with The Hoya that she was unsure of how to implement politics in her future. It was not until Johnson attended Georgetown and pursued an internship with Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) during her sophomore year that her political career began to take shape. “I never expected to go to col-
lege, so once I did end up going to college, and I did meet Senator Casey, it just took off from there,” Johnson said. “You actually got an in-depth experience rather than just doing the general administrative tasks.” Following graduation, Johnson joined Casey’s office as a fulltime senior staff assistant. After a year, Johnson received a phone call offering her a position in former President Barack Obama’s administration. She served as the assistant and adviser to thenDirector of the Office of Management and Budget Shaun Donovan. “Going from a foster house to the White House was something I never expected,” Johnson said. “You don’t really see that in your life when you’re sharing one bed with three different girls, and now, you’re the right hand to the guy in charge of $4.1 trillion.” Johnson cites her time at the White House as an opportunity where she further developed her passion for representating all people, Johnson’s engagement with a diverse group of people began during her four years at Georgetown. She was involved with many cultural groups on campus, including some she did not identify with. Groups she was involved with include the Black Student Association, the Muslim Student Association and the Latino Society. Her experiences allowed her to see past the judgments that she feels many people hold toward members of different ethnic groups, Johnson told The Hoya.
“One thing that I see in this world is that there’s a lot of fear of different types of people, but that fear is only fueled by ignorance,” Johnson said. “If you continue to be ignorant about people who don’t look like you, you’re going to always have that fear, and you’re going to perpetuate that fear for generations.” Many of the initiatives that Johnson supports, such as improving accessibility of government programs, stem from her personal experiences. A firstgeneration college student, Johnson grew up in a foster home until her grandparents were able to adopt her — thanks in part, according to Johnson, to the Social Security administration. “If my grandmother didn’t receive Social Security, she wouldn’t have been able to pay for me and raise me. I would still be living with my foster family,” Johnson said. “Just knowing how impactful government programs were for me, I want to make sure that people have access to them and that they’re better than they are now.” Johnson hopes to represent the needs of her diverse constituency, according to Johnson’s campaign communication director, Christina Kauffman. “The goal of her campaign is to be elected to the 4th congressional district so she can represent all people, pulling from her own experiences to shape policies and preserve opportunities for future generations,” Kauffman said.
Deepika Jonnalagadda and Sarah Mendelsohn Hoya Staff Writers
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to speak in Gaston Hall on Feb. 5 to present the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women in Peace and Security to Nadia Murad, a former captive of the Islamic State group, and Wai Wai Nu, a Rohingya activist. Clinton will also present a second award, the Global Trailblazer Award, to BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet for her coverage of the impacts of war on women and children in Africa and the Middle East. The HRC awards recognize exceptional individuals who advance women’s role in peace-making efforts. The award is sponsored by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in the name of Clinton, the honorary founding chair of GIWPS. Murad, the first Goodwill Ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking for the United Nations, was one of thousands of Yazidi women who were captured and enslaved by the IS in Iraq. After suffering significant sexual abuse in IS captivity, Murad has since campaigned for recognition of the plight of Yazidis, a Kurdish minority group, ultimately bringing the problem of human trafficking to the UN Security Council. Murad was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. Nu, a member of the persecuted Rohingya people, was one of many political prisoners in Myanmar. She was freed in 2012 and later pur-
FILE PHOTO: LAUREN SEIBEL/THE HOYA
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at Georgetown in 2017 and will return to the Hilltop on Feb. 5 to present awards. sued a law degree and founded two nongovernmental organizations aimed at empowering Myanmar’s youth: Women’s Peace NetworkArakan and Justice for Women. The NGOs seek to provide legal education to Myanmar’s youth and to teach women how to prevent and combat domestic and sexual abuse. In 2015, Nu launched an online anti-hate speech campaign with the hashtag #MyFriend. Clinton launched GIWPS in 2011 in partnership with Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia as a part of former President Barack Obama’s U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. GIWPS promotes global stability and women’s rights through the engagement of women in conflict prevention and issues such as climate change. The institute is currently run by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global
Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer. Clinton’s planned speech marks her second appearance at Georgetown in two years. Clinton also presented the HDC award at last year’s ceremony, delivering a speech calling for increased diplomacy and protection of women’s rights worldwide. Last year’s recipients were four activists and leaders who pushed for the inclusion of women in the Colombian government’s 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia insurgency movement. The recipients were former Vice President of Colombia and lead negotiator Humberto de la Calle, Colombia Deputy Attorney General Maria Paulina Riveros, Colombia Office of the High Commissioner for Peace Thematic Director Elena Ambrosi and journalist Jineth Bedoya, who advocates against sexual violence.
GUSA Senate Reform Students Garner National Set for February Vote Support for Title IX Letter Elizabeth Ash
Bella Avalos
Hoya Staff Writer
Students are set to vote Feb. 22 on a campuswide referendum that proposes reforms to the Georgetown University Student Association senate, including proposals to elect senators by class year instead of by geographic districts and to move elections for nonfreshman senators to April instead of the fall. The referendum consists of two questions, the first regarding the proposed reforms to the senate. The second question seeks to codify several protections for student participation in GUSA, including protections for citizenship, gender identity or expression, ability or disability and any characteristics protected under federal or Washington, D.C. law. The Code of Student Conduct and the Student Organization Standards include similar protections, but the referendum poses to revise the language in the GUSA Constitution. To pass, the referendum needs a two-thirds margin of support and the support of at least 25 percent of the student body overall. The GUSA Election Commission plans to publicize the referendum and administer voting through HoyaLink, according to GUSA Election Commissioner Grady Willard (SFS ’18). A bill to put the referendum on the ballot passed with 23 senators voting in favor of the bill, two voting against and one abstaining. The referendum is effectively identical to one held last spring, which failed to pass because it did not reach the voting threshold. GUSA Senate Speaker Ben Baldwin (SFS ’19) anticipates higher rates of student voting this year, as the referendum is set to take place on the same day as the GUSA executive election rather than over a threeday period. Last spring’s referendum came on the heels of a December 2016 referendum to dramatically restructure GUSA’s legislative body, which received enough votes to pass but was invalidated by the GUSA Constitutional Council. The new system would better serve the student body, because students’ interests more closely align with their class year rather than where they live, according to Baldwin. “The issues that a sophomore or junior face have more to do with major selection, meal plans, their academic futures, or any number of other issues regardless of whether they live in McCarthy or Alumni Square,” Baldwin wrote. Class-based elections would also improve senators’ accountability to constituents, according to Baldwin. “Frankly, under our current system, Senators are not accountable to the students they represent because they most likely will not be living in the same geographic
Hoya Staff Writer
file photo: will cromarty/the hoya
Students are set to vote on a referendum to restructure the Georgetown University Student Association senate, the third referendum in two years. district for more than one year and students cannot vote a second time on whether their Senator fulfilled their promises,” Baldwin wrote. GUSA senators Sean Lerner (SFS ’20) and Nick Zeffiro (SFS ’18) opposed the bill to hold the referendum. “If there were any lessons learned from last year’s GUSA Senate, it was that reorganizing referendums are a potentially embarrassing waste of time,” Lerner wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I came into the year confident that this year’s GUSA Senate would be able to achieve real goals, and that senators would keep their promise of ‘no more referendums’ that many came into the year with. Clearly, this didn’t happen.” Zeffiro said he opposed the referendum because his constituents, off-campus students, are more interested in social change on campus rather than electoral reform. “Consider my nay more of a symbolic gesture that GUSA should be spending more of its time on enacting change and social progress on campus (issues seniors care about), and less time on constitutional referendums to modify election districts and timelines (issues seniors do not care about),” Zeffiro wrote in an email to The Hoya. Electoral scheduling changes for the senate would foster better cooperation between the senate and the GUSA executive, GUSA Senate Vice Speaker Sylvia Levy (SFS ’18) said. “Moving the majority of Senate elections to April will increase cohesion between the Executive branch and the Senate -- members of both will be able to closely work with one another starting over the summer and through the academic year,” Levy wrote in an email to
The Hoya. Some senators initially expressed concern about isolating freshmen elections, according to GUSA Senator Madison Alvarez (SFS ’21). However Alvarez said mentorship between senators would facilitate the transition should the referendum pass. “A lot of people are new. Between that and the fact that everybody bonds really quickly, we decided it would be worth it to have the upperclassmen start planning over the summer,” Alvarez said. “As long as the upperclassmen step up and mentor the freshmen, it really shouldn’t be a disconnect between these two groups.” Levy said changes to the senate election cycle will create a more inclusive environment. “The stress of the month of September prevents students who would otherwise have considered running for GUSA Senate from doing so,” Levy wrote. “If this referendum succeeds, it will give students much more time to prepare for elections, and it will give GUSA itself more time to reach out to members of different communities on campus that are historically disconnected from student government and encourage them to run.” Baldwin said these changes would result in a more representative, accountable and hardworking senate. “I want to see a system that rewards Senators for the work they accomplish and removes those that either contribute little or participate in the Senate to pad their resumes,” Baldwin wrote. “I know the student body is frustrated with what they perceive as an ineffective, wasteful, or petty body, so I hope that they vote to change the system.”
Two students from the Georgetown University Student Association’s federal and D.C. relations committee collected 198 signatures from university student body presidents across the United States in support for a response letter to the recent changes made to Title IX, a law that protects individuals from discrimination and dictates the proceedings for sexual assault and misconduct cases. Chas Newman (MSB ’18) and Casey Doherty (COL ’20) contacted 2,200 universities nationally to solicit support for their unified response addressing Betsy DeVos, the U.S. secretary of education, and the recently implemented guidelines. In September 2017, the Department of Education released new Title IX guidelines, allowing universities to set their own standards for evidence in misconduct investigations, pursue informal resolutions such as mediation and to establish an appeals process for disciplinary sanctions. These guidelines also allow universities to extend the time frame for misconductproceedings indefinitely. Many opponents of these new guidelines feel that they are protective of those accused of misconduct, rather than the survivors. In response, Newman and Doherty led a joint effort with 198 colleges and universities nationwide to urge DeVos to revert to the Obama administration’s guidelines, which outlined explicit guidelines for how universities should handle sexual assault and misconduct cases. The changes come at a time
when many U.S. college campuses report suffering from high rates of sexual assault. One in five women and one in 16 men will be sexually assaulted on their college campuses, and more than 90 percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses will not report the assault, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Sent on Dec. 4 to both the Secretary of Education and to the Office of Civil Rights, the one-page letter outlines student concerns with the increased burden of proof on the victim, which student leaders believe will cause an unwillingness to begin investigations in future assault and misconduct cases. The letter urges DeVos to reaffirm her commitment to keeping college campuses safe and calls for guidelines that hold college administrators accountable for sexual violence on campus. “Without clear, unwavering commitment from elected officials and government leaders, yourself chief among them, it will be too easy for school administrators to prioritize the avoidance of bad publicity over holding perpetrators responsible for their actions,” the letter reads. The letter includes ten pages of signatures from all the student body representatives from colleges supporting Doherty and Newman’s initiative. Columbia University, Tufts University, Stanford University and Tulane University’s student body presidents signed onto the letter. Newman received a response from the Office of Civil Rights on Dec. 11. The response directed him to the original document for the changed guidelines of Title IX, along with an informational link for “anyone who believes
that a recipient institution has engaged in sex discrimination.” Both students plan to reopen this conversation in March during this year’s “notice and comment” period, which is dedicated to allowing interested parties to submit written comments either supporting or opposing the proposed regulation. “We want people to know that students’ voices do matter and just because you’re not donating to a political campaign, or super old, you do have a voice,” Doherty said. “[We want] an awareness that these things are happening and we feel like we can do something to make it better.” Doherty said the initiative was intentionally student-led. “What we wanted to do was have it be solely students. So that was a concerted effort to keep it at the student body level,” Doherty said. Newman said they felt that the letter would carry more weight without involvement from university administrators. “We think it’s a more powerful narrative, and we found that it was quite successful: students working for students at a national level,” Newman said. Both students voiced their disappointment in the response they received. “We went to great lengths to not necessarily make this a partisan issue,” Newman said. “We want a dialogue, not a diatribe or a manifesto.” Doherty said though Georgetown University has stated its commitment to maintaining the Obama administration’s guidelines for sexual misconduct, many other schools may not have the ability or the willingness to do the same.
US general services administration
In September 2017, the Department of Education released new Title IX guidelines, allowing universities to set their own standards for evidence in misconduct investigations.
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After Storms, Puerto Rican Applicants Find New Home puerto rico, from A1 But Corral had been intent on applying to the Hilltop since she’d attended an information session in 2016. Exploring College Options — a special recruitment program sponsored by Duke University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and Georgetown — cohosts sessions like the one Corral attended every year in all fifty states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. For students who cannot travel to Washington, D.C., to visit Georgetown themselves, the program has offered a more accessible resource to students who may not otherwise have applied. But after the 2017 hurricanes’ devastating effects on communities in Puerto Rico, hosting another session became nearly impossible. Logistical problems with travel and scheduling made hosting the information session this year nearly impossible, prompting the consortium to drop the annual trip. But two of the schools in the consortium – Georgetown and Harvard – did ultimately attend in early December 2017. For some applicants, it made a huge difference. After the Storms, Stress After attending her first information session for the Exploring College Options program in 2016, Corral knew Georgetown was the school for her. “I’ve never gone to D.C. or seen Georgetown but after that meeting I started doing research and I started looking into the classes and I was like, ‘wow this is my school,’” Corral said in an interview with The Hoya. “People were like, ‘You’re crazy, how could you just choose this school?’ but I just knew it was for me.” But when it came time to apply, Hurricanes Irma and Maria had
hit, leaving Corral’s home without power and, crucially for the application process, without Wi-Fi. She and five other families in her neighborhood were the only ones that stayed behind when Hurricane Maria arrived. They kayaked to each other’s houses on the flooded roads and went to the restaurant across the street together where they had access to free — but unreliable — Wi-Fi. The outages during Hurricane Maria gave Corral time to reflect on the supplemental questions asked on Georgetown’s application. “It was just overall a really stressful situation, but it made for good writing. During Maria I had so much time to myself that I just wrote,” Corral said. “A lot of the questions that the application would ask like ‘What’s your sense of community?’ I never knew what to answer for those until Maria came. Because that’s when I really got to know who was in my community.” Three weeks later, around the time when Corral was finally able to return to school, 84 percent of Puerto Rico remained without power and most of the island had little access to clean running water. Though she was able to submit her early admission Georgetown application in October using the Wi-Fi in the restaurant across the street from her home, the mail in Puerto Rico had been running weeks behind, and she worried that she would not hear back in time whether she got in. Corral was not alone. Cristian Bernaschina, another early action Georgetown applicant from Puerto Rico, first visited Georgetown’s campus in eighth grade but did not seriously consider the school as a possibility until his junior year of high school. When he attended an information session for the first
time in 2016, he started to picture a future for himself at Georgetown. While Bernaschina had already sent in most of his application, he was still waiting on supplemental letters from his teachers. Getting to San Juan The destruction in San Juan from Hurricane Maria presented serious hurdles for the Exploring College Options universities. The group was unable to coordinate a joint information session in Puerto Rico due to logistical reasons, leaving all plans for travel to San Juan and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, suspended. Briseño, who reviews every application sent in by Puerto Rican students, as well as students from Texas, the Caribbean and Latin America, was determined to make it to Puerto Rico despite the hurricane. He said he considers Puerto Rican students an important part of Georgetown’s campus. “For us, we always had our message to the alumni community and the students that we didn’t want them to feel like ‘Well, that’s just too bad,’” Briseño said in an interview with The Hoya. “We were going to go back whether it was by ourselves or with one of our partners in the program.” Harvard and Georgetown scheduled their own information session for early December, months after the originally scheduled Sept. 27 session, to give the island more time to recover from Maria. “We wanted to make every effort possible and let folks know that we are happy to consider extenuating circumstances, and we invite students to talk and discuss this,” Briseño said. “Often they include it in their essays, and the counselors and teachers would have included it in their letters of recommendation.” Briseño emphasized that the
other universities in the program are just as passionate and committed to Puerto Rican applicants as Georgetown and Harvard, and were only unable to attend due to insurmountable logistical challenges. Georgetown’s decision to come to San Juan despite the hurricane made all the difference for students who applied to the university – apart from reaching applicants who may not have applied otherwise, during the hurricane, the info session provided a sense of normalcy, according to Corral. “By the time the meeting was held, everything was a lot calmer. It was kind of nice; I don’t know, it felt normal, like something normal was finally happening, like we were having a college meeting, and we weren’t worried about anything else. I like that they came
and visited,” said Corral. Bernaschina believes that Georgetown’s decision to move forward with the information sessions will have a lasting impact on future applicants. “I really feel that it helps, at least in Puerto Rico. Since a lot of people haven’t had the opportunity to visit Georgetown, the info sessions are very helpful,” Bernaschina said. “They really pass on the essence of the university.” Georgetown also made efforts to ease the application process for students in affected areas by accepting students’ supplemental essays and letters of recommendation after the early action deadline of Nov. 1. The university decided to send acceptance letters to students by email in lieu of the traditional mailed packets after several ap-
plicants called Georgetown’s admissions office with concerns about the island’s delayed mail service. Corral got her email from Georgetown in December. “I was kind of scared, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get in but when I got in, that was amazing,” said Corral, who plans to start her first semester in the College in August 2018. On Dec. 14, Bernaschina was also accepted: He received his acceptance email into the McDonough School of Business Class of 2022 on Dec. 14. He plans to attend in the fall. “Every time I go to the Hilltop it’s like I fall in love more and more,” Bernaschina said. “I’ve been there a few times and I can really see myself there.”
courtesy claudia corral
Georgetown applicants in San Juan, Puerto Rico, struggled to send their applications after Hurricanes Maria and Irma devastated the island. Eight were admitted.
Mental Health Stipend Pilot Funded Possible GUSA Tickets Prepare Campaigns stipend, from A1
health services more affordable for Georgetown students, Mack said. “When students make their voices heard and students express things that matter, the university hears it and donors hear it and a lot of that has to do with the fact that this issue got brought forth and now is being implemented,” Mack said. The GUSA mental health policy coalition, led by Kenna Chick (SFS ’20), launched a petition in November requesting funds for the pilot program from the Office of the President and through the creation of an alumni fund. Though the petition garnered over 1,000 signatures, student mental-health advocates turned to SaxaFund
to raise the necessary money, in lieu of university support. The petition demonstrated the widespread student support and need for improved mental health support on campus, according to Chick. “It’s nice to know that people care about something we’ve been fighting for a long time,” Chick said. “Administration has always been very supportive in the sense that they definitely recognize the issue and so to hear today them announce that they are giving a financial contribution, we’re definitely very happy.” It is unclear what has changed since November to prompt university administration to provide funds for the program, but Mack said he is excited about future collabo-
rations between GUSA and the university administration. “The whole point of this process is to better understand how the off-campus therapy stipend process would work at Georgetown,” Mack said. “The big picture conversation of making mental health affordable can be attacked in a number of ways, and this is a way that we’re addressing it in spring 2018.” The program will supplement the mental health services already on campus, including CAPS, and will serve as a longer-term solution for students, Mack said. “There was always the understanding of the problem and an understanding of the importance of addressing it,” Mack said. “Making mental health
affordable is a tricky situation and our hope is to get closer and closer to that ultimate goal.” Thursday’s announcement serves as the beginning of a longer-term mental health initiative that Mack and GUSA Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’19) think will affect Georgetown students for a long time. “This issue is one that is going to need continuous focus, we haven’t completely solved the problem of mental health affordability,” Mack said. “We’re about to launch into the next GUSA campaign season, so we hope that this issue of how do we make mental health, and more generally, student health more affordable is a continuous conversation.”
Senator Advocates Bipartisanship Flake, from A1 “As a conservative, there is generally a bias, but you accept that and you move on,” Flake said. “I think it’s awful to have the president of the United States not understand history well enough to know that you don’t use, you shouldn’t use a term like ‘enemy of the people’ that was most famously used by some people we don’t want to emulate.” Flake’s denouncement of Trump’s rhetoric toward the media echoes his Jan. 17 speech on the Senate floor,
in which he called it “shameful” for the president to use these words spoken by Josef Stalin. According to Flake, Trump’s declaration that media is “the enemy of the people” is phrasing borrowed from Josef Stalin that should have no place in political discourse. The senator also expressed his concerns about the nature of the populism that helped Trump’s election in 2016, claiming the kind of antigovernment cynicism that helped Trump win cannot produce a stable government. “You can’t govern with the
politics of resentment,” Flake said. “And a lot of what we’ve seen with this populism is the politics of resentment.” Rather, Flake said believes politics do not have to be as bitter and divisive as they are. Flake has been known for his efforts at promoting bipartisan cooperation, famously stranding himself on a deserted island for a week in 2014 with Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) for the Discovery Channel program “Rival Survival.” Last month, Flake donated $100 to the campaign of upset-winner
Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) after allegations of sexual misconduct by Republican opponent Roy Moore arose, tweeting the message “Country over Party” with a photo of the check. “We have massive problems here in the country,” Flake said. “But when you look at our history, with the Civil War and women’s suffrage and other things that we’ve gotten through and we’ve found a way to be on the right side of, the challenges we face today are small by comparison. And it just takes good will on both sides.”
will cromarty/the hoya
Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) discussed the decline of bipartisanship and voiced concern about the vanishing middle in national politics in a Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service event in Lohrfink Auditorium on Monday.
gusa, from A1 service fraternal organization, last semester. Howell is also a member of the Knights of Columbus and serves on the Lecture Fund’s associate board. Arkema is the Georgetown University College Democrats’ membership director and a GUSA senator for West Campus, which includes Southwest Quad. Arkema campaigned for his senate seat on a promise to conduct all GUSA business in the character and voice of the cartoon hero Batman. Compo, a former cartoonist for The Hoya, is currently Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society’s technical director for its Footloose musical production this spring. Mack offered advice on the upcoming election period to the prospective candidates at Thursday’s information session. “Through this campaigning process you’re going to talk to hundreds and hundreds of students, and you’re going to find out what people care about on campus,” Mack said. “It’s going to be a grueling process.” On election day, students can vote on Hoyalink or in person at a polling booth in Red Square or the Leavey Center operated by the GUSA Election Commission. A potential cause for contention during the campaign emerged at the info sessions: All three seats on the GUSA Constitutional Council, the student association’s judicial body that adjudicates disputes over GUSA bylaws, are vacant. The three former justices resigned this semester. By GUSA bylaws, the Constitutional Council adjudicates any decisions made by the Election Commission regarding violations of election and campaign rules. The most recent case before the Constitutional Council in December 2016 involved a dispute over the results of a referendum on senate restructuring. The results of the 2016 referendum were ultimately invalidated by the council in January 2017. The February ballot will also include a referendum, approved by the GUSA senate Jan. 21, which would reform the senate’s current geog raphically -organized structure into elections by class year and move elections for non-freshman senators to April from the fall. Applications for new constitutional council justices
are due Friday evening. Mack and Andino said they hope to nominate new justices prior to the election. Nominees must be approved by the GUSA senate. According to FinApp Committee Chair Christopher Holshouser (MSB ’18), if the council is not functional by the start of campaigning, the senate would hold a vote to resolve any election disputes. GUSA election commissioner Grady Willard (SFS ’18) also informed candidates of a new electoral rule that prohibits candidates from contracting any external businesses for campaign support. Willard especially warned against promotional events at bars and other off-campus sites. The new rule responds to an incident in last year’s executive race, when candidates John Matthews (COL ’18) and Nick Matz (COL ’18) allegedly held a promotional event at a bar on M Street. Bouncers allegedly coerced students to submit ballots to gain access to alcoholic drinks, according to Willard. Last year’s GUSA executive race was among the tightest in recent electoral history with Mack and Andino receiving 50.74 percent of the vote — a 34-vote margin — after four voting rounds. As with previous years, campaigns are allowed to “dorm storm” and knock on doors only outside of quiet hours, except for on election day when tickets can campaign all day. The debates for vice presidential and presidential candidates will be held in Intercultural Center Room 115 on Feb. 14 and in the Healey Family Student Center’s Great Room on Feb. 19. Tickets are required to fill out a form to declare their candidacy and must declare all “significant” campaign staff. Tickets cannot spend more than $300 on a campaign, and receipts must be submitted by midnight on election day. All candidates must also abide by Office of Residential Living policies and the student code of conduct. Formal complaints alleging campaign violations against campaigns can be submitted to the Election Commission. Complaints can only be filed by candidates and university officials, not campaign staff or students.
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GUSA State of Campus Address Previews Advocacy Priorities Quinn Coleman Hoya Staff Writer
Student leaders from the Georgetown University Student Association shared their recent achievements and future initiatives during an inaugural State of the Campus address in Healey Family Student Center on Wednesday evening.
Around 50 students attended the event, held one evening after President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address. The event featured speeches from GUSA President Kamar Mack (COL ’19) and Vice President Jessica Andino (COL ’18), as well as GUSA Senate Speaker Ben Baldwin (SFS ’19) and Vice Speaker Sylvia Levy (SFS ’18).
A question-and-answer session followed both speeches. Aaron Bennett (COL ’19), the press secretary for the GUSA executive, also delivered remarks. The leaders presented GUSA’s major projects over the past year on a range of issues, including providing greater accessibility to mental health resources, expanding food
Sheel Patel for The Hoya
Georgetown University Student Assosciation President, Kamar Mack (COL ’19), left, and Vice President, Jessica Andino (COL ’18), right, reflect during their first State of the Campus Address.
resources to low-income students and advocating for Georgetown students affected by the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, an Obamaera executive program that provided work authorization and legal protection to about 800,000 immigrants without documentation who came to the United States as children. GUSA leaders said they hope to enhance current initiatives and push forward on long-term efforts, acknowledging that many projects will take many more years to actualize. Planned future initiatives include the launch of a racial climate survey, expanding access to off-campus mental health services and continuing work with the university board to address the larger issues affecting all students. Mack and Andino used their addresses to shed light on the achievements of their administration since taking office last March. They focused on three broad categories that guided their policy pursuits: making Georgetown more affordable, expanding accessibility to campus resources for “people from all backgrounds” and advocating for students in “big picture” conversations. Andino said she was proud of the executive’s efforts to pursue its goals. “Our administration has never gone a day without asking questions without the pursuit of so-
lutions, and from this we have learned that the labor of student government is precisely that: asking questions,” Andino said. Mack said all their policies are attempts to instill permanent solutions in the Georgetown community. “We must ask the right questions and answer them. And we truly wish to enact lasting, meaningful changes,” Mack said. Last spring, Mack and Andino worked with Robin Morey, vice president of planning and facilities management, to expand access to affordable food through an extended Saturday Georgetown University Transportation Shuttles bus service with stops in Dupont Circle and Trader Joe’s located on 25th Street. The GUSA executives’ most significant affordability initiative came in November with the announced launch of a pilot program in collaboration with the Cawley Career Education Center, which granted 17 students a $1,500 stipend for working unpaid internships. Andino said she hopes the program will grow to capture more students. “We hope to see this program continue to expand from the 17 students who were awarded this past fall into a sustainable program that supports hundreds of students in a given semester,”Andino said. Both the GUSA executives and senate have also worked with the university on issues
involving sexual and mental health. In October, the senate passed a resolution urging the university to implement some of GUSA’s recommendations and the recommendations of the Sexual Assault Task Force, including increased resources for health and wellbeing services and improved training for faculty and staff. Levy voiced the senate’s commitment to promoting improved resources for sexual assault survivors. “We are committed as a GUSA senate, and the executive as well, to continue to push this work forward and to make sure our campus centers survivors and does not let its community members fall through the cracks,” Levy said. Baldwin addressed student concerns regarding senate accountability. In an effort to reach more students, the senate has made an archive of legislation and meeting notes available on the GUSA website, and plans to hold meet-and-greets with senators along with office hours in common rooms across campus. “Our journey together as a Georgetown student body is far from finished,” Mack said. “We are confident in the future of GUSA, because we know that Georgetown students will continue to do what they’ve always done — asking the hard questions and doing what’s necessary to create meaningful change.”
Thinktank Leaders Discuss Decline of American Freedoms Emma Kotfica Hoya Staff Writer
Global political and economic conflicts pose a threat to democracy, according to Annie Wilcox Boyajian, the lead advocacy manager at Freedom House, an independent organization that ranks countries based on their freedoms. Boyajian spoke at a panel event called “Leading From Below: Democracy Support in a New Era,” hosted by the Georgetown University master’s program in democracy and governance Friday afternoon. Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute and co-editor of the informational newsletter Middle East Policy Survey, was the event’s keynote speaker. In addition to Boyajian, the panel featured Georges Fauriol, vice president of programs at the National Endowment for Democracy, and Thomas Melia, fellow at the George W. Bush Institute and chair of the board of directors of the Project on Middle East Democracy. The event marked the 10th anniversary of Georgetown’s master’s program in democracy and governance, which was established in 2008 to help students better understand the democratic processes of government and how officials implement policies to achieve their goals. The experts on democratic freedoms discussed the current state
of freedom in the world, specifically noting the impact of President Donald Trump’s election on democracies around the world. Conflict is not constrained to one area, Wollack said. He referenced the 2018 Democracy Index released Jan. 18 by Freedom House, which showed that the United States’ freedom ranking dropped from previous years. Freedom House rates countries based on their perceived freedoms on a scale from zero to 100, with 100 being the freest and zero being the least. The United States’ rating fell to 86 in 2018 from 89 in 2017. “We now know from issues like terrorism, migration flows and disease, that unlike that famous tagline in advertising marketing, what happens in places like [El] Salvador or Syria doesn’t stay there,” Wollack said. “Now there is widespread concern in our community about the Trump administration seeming to retreat from America’s traditional role in advancing global democracy.” Wollack also expressed fear of the effect Trump’s “America First” foreign policy plan will have on democracy around the world. “The Freedom House report points to the administration’s skepticism toward international alliances with other democracies, the absence of democracy rhetoric in the president’s public speeches and his stated admiration for some of the world’s strongmen,” Wollack said.
Boyajian agreed that the “America First” foreign policy strategy may create concern about America’s leadership ability, but she was optimistic about the United States’ potential to influence the global community. “We’re still a huge economic power; we still have enormous soft power,” Boyajian said. “People will still listen to the United States, so I think we have an obligation as a democracy, a co-democracy community, to push the U.S. to do more and to use that strategy and the rhetoric in the strategy to hold the administration accountable.” Fauriol discussed the importance of “leading from below,” noting that low-power actors play a role in influencing the leadership of an organization. In the context of a democratic society, Fauriol said, “leading from below” is an integral part in promoting democracy. “For me, the ‘leading from below’ concept is not a new adaptation to the preceding natures to the U.S. democracy assistance policy,” Fauriol said. “Probably one of its continuing elements is that it actually is working from below, that’s its energy — it represents the reality, if you will, of the potential of a democratic society.” Melia said he was optimistic about the future of global democracy, though he cautioned against a competitive
mindset when considering the pursuit of democracy and prosperity. “If you think that our prosperity in the world is a zerosum game, it’s dog-eat-dog,” Melia said. “If you think that our prosperity can be shared and our security can be widened if other people have more
of that too, then you have a whole different personality.” Wollack also said he classified himself as a political optimist despite the current negative trends in worldwide democracy that are causing others in his field to worry. “I confess to being an incurable optimist who for 32 years
has worked in the optimism business,” Wollack said. “Given the negative trends over the past decade, a period of time that coincidentally spanned the existence of this program, I, like my chairman Madeleine Albright, remain an optimist, but I can see optimists who are now worried a lot.”
National Democratic Institute
Kenneth Wollack, right, president of the National Democratic Institute, said he classifies himself as a political optimist despite the current trends in worldwide democracy that are causing others in his field to worry.
Priest Advocates Increased LGBT Inclusion in Church Joe Egler
Hoya Staff Writer
Open dialogue between the LGBT community and the Catholic Church is necessary to eliminate stigmas associated with LGBT Catholics, author Fr. James Martin, S.J., said Wednesday at a book talk cohosted by the Georgetown University Library and the LGBT Resource Center.
Martin discussed his latest book, “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity,” which was published in June 2017. Martin has authored 11 other books and has made appearances as a commentator on CNN, NPR, Fox News, Time, HuffPost, The New York Times and other
news outlets. Pope Francis also appointed Martin the consultor for the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication in 2017. Martin’s speech was part of the annual Ellen Catherine Gstalder Memorial Lecture, a lecture that honors the life of Ellen Catherine Gstalder (COL ’98), who died of leukemia in 2004. Martin called for shared and celebrated life experiences be-
tween people from all walks of life. “We’re called to experience life with them and suffer with them and to be joyful with them, too,” Martin said to the audience. “To celebrate life with them, because Jesus came here to experience all parts of our lives, right? Not just the dark parts. So can you rejoice with LGBT people.” Martin’s acceptance of the
Sheel Patel for The hoya
Father James Martin, S.J., spoke Wednesay at the Lohrfink Auditorium regarding the importance of dialogue with the LGBT community to foster inclusion in the Catholic Church after the recent release of his book on the same topic.
LGBT community in the Catholic Church has drawn criticism from conservative members of the Catholic Church, he said. In September, he was disinvited from the prominent Catholic Seminary Theological College for backlash over his divisive views. Despite the backlash, Martin still remains outspoken in his belief that LGBT individuals deserve to be welcomed into the church. “You can’t be sensitive to the LGBT community if all you do is issue documents about them, preach about them or tweet about them without actually knowing them,” Martin said. “One reason I think the institutional church has struggled with that sensitivity is that many church leaders still do not know many gay people.” Martin also spoke about the distinction between the challenges faced by women and members of the LGBT community within the Catholic Church. “Now, some people say, ‘ women are more marginalized,’” Martin said. “Women are marginalized in this church, but not to that extent. There are no things that are comparable for LGBT people. ” Martin said that if the church fails to interact with members of the LGBT community, it is failing to follow Jesus’ call for acceptance. “That lack of familiarity and especially friendship means
that it is more difficult to be sensitive,” Martin said. “How can you be sensitive to a person’s situation if you don’t know them?” To forge unity among the two communities, Martin urged Catholics to reach out and befriend members of the LGBT community if they have not already. “One invitation is for the hierarchy to come to know LGBT Catholics not as just people you give communion to, not as objects of pity, and certainly not as objects of scorn, but actual friends,” Martin said. Ultimately, Martin said, building these bridges is not important solely for unity within the church, but something Jesus himself would do. “When Jesus encountered people on the margins, he saw not categories, but individuals,” Martin said. “[LGBT people] are seen as the other. But, for Jesus, there is no other. There is no ‘us and them.’ There’s just us,” Martin said. Martin concluded by reiterating the importance of dialogue between members of the LGBT community and the Catholic Church, again using Jesus as an example. “This is what the church is called to do with people who feel like they’re on the margins,” Martin said. “Encounter them. Listen to them. Accompany them. Heal them. Help them. Love them. Because that’s what Jesus did.”
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friday, February 2, 2018
Homeless Population Tallied in Annual Point-in-Time Count Meena Morar Hoya Staff Writer
After nightfall on Jan. 24, Cameron Hull (COL ’18) searched the streets of the Georgetown neighborhood for figures lying in the darkness. As the temperature dipped into the 30s, she tallied the number of homeless individuals she encountered over three hours, conducting a survey of each and offering them snacks, socks and gloves to stave off the cold. Hull was one of hundreds of volunteers who participated in Washington, D.C.’s Point-inTime count, an annual effort on the part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to physically count the number of homeless people in cities across the country on a single night in January. Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice and the Georgetown Ministry Center, a local charity serving chronically homeless individuals, coordinated the count within the Georgetown community. The annual count brings student participants to face a vision of D.C. that is often shielded from those on campus, Hull said. “It’s a population that’s super visible, but oftentimes not really talked about in the context of social justice — especially in a college campus where social justice is talked about a lot,” Hull said in an interview with The Hoya. “Ít’s important for people to connect those two dots of this general social justice idea with a popula-
tion that we walk by every single day on M Street.” The results of the D.C. count — set to be released in May — will provide a snapshot that contributes to the country’s most comprehensive estimate of the national sheltered and unsheltered homeless population. But they will also reveal how effective the policies of Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) — who has touted ending homelessness as a top priority since her election in 2014 — have been in battling the city’s shortage of affordable housing.
Homelessness by the Numbers
A week after the District released the results of its 2017 Point-in-Time count last May, Bowser celebrated the progress her administration has made toward making homelessness in D.C. “rare, brief and non-recurring.” In just the span of a year, the District had seen a 10.5 percent decline in the total number of people experiencing homelessness from the 2016 Point-in-Time count, including a nearly 22 percent decline in the number of families experiencing homelessness. But the figures belied the fact that Washington’s homeless population of 7,473 was higher than the 7,298 individuals reported during Bowser’s first year in office in 2015. A 2016 report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found D.C. to have the highest rate of
homelessness of any U.S. metropolitan area, with 124 out of every 10,000 residents experiencing homelessness. Despite the surge in overall homelessness over the last two years, Georgetown Ministry Center’s Development Manager Sarah Hartley applauds Bowser for embracing a “Housing First” approach that has mitigated chronic homelessness. Housing First prioritizes finding permanent housing for individuals experiencing homelessness without preconditions such as sobriety or treatment, which has helped those trapped in longterm homelessness as a result of substance abuse or mental illness. “If we get people into a more stable condition by putting them in housing, it leads to overall better outcomes,” Hartley said in an interview with The Hoya. “That’s been true in D.C., and not that it’s been completely eradicated, because we’re dealing with a difficult, serviceresistant population, but we’ve seen it in our program, thanks to the mayor’s Housing First policy and all of this money that’s been allocated to vouchers.” For James Davis, who has been homeless since 2003, the Housing First policy represents a positive improvement since it allows individuals to address underlying conditions that entrench people in chronic homelessness. Davis himself grappled with a chronic depression that left him homeless after the death of both his parents, a divorce and the
loss of his job within a two-year period. “You put someone into housing, then you provide them with continued care like family planning, job training, you can deal with any mental health issues that need to be addressed, any substance issues that need to be addressed,” Davis said. “The recidivism rate has been really good across the country with the Housing First program.”
Housing Prices on the Rise A key culprit driving D.C.’s high homelessness rate is the dearth of affordable housing for poor families, a trend which has seen soaring housing prices — pricing out longtime residents with the arrival of affluent newcomers. Online real estate database company Zillow estimated the median listing price for a D.C. home to be $535,000 in December 2017; three years earlier, in December 2014, the median listing numbered at $463,000. Leonard Hyater Jr., who became homeless after losing his job, said affordable housing is the most pressing matter the city needs to address in order to combat homelessness. “They’re taking people out of their homes, they’re moving the undesirables and moving the rich people in,” Hyater said. “I call that gentrification.” Hyater now resides in the New York Ave. Men’s Emergency Shelter and works as a
vendor for Street Sense Media, a D.C.-based newspaper covering issues of homelessness and poverty. Faced with the prospect of a housing affordability crisis, Bowser pledged in December to invest $500 million in affordable housing and joined mayors and CEOs from across the country this week to build public-private partnerships to work for housing solutions. Bowser also announced her intention on Jan. 21 to make good on a promise she made in 2014: to permanently shutter the dilapidated D.C. General Hospital shelter by the end of the year and replace the facility with smaller shelters in all eight wards. The D.C. General Hospital, long plagued with complaints of poor sanitary conditions and dysfunction, is a facility overcrowded with 250 families gained notoriety after the 2014 disappearance of eight-year-old Relisha Rudd from the converted hospital. Although Davis said he supports the decision to tear down the D.C. General Hospital given its history of problems, he remains skeptical that constructing eight new shelters will address the deeper crisis of affordable housing in D.C. “The answer is more housing,” Davis said. “When you say affordable housing, you get the development of people building high-rise condos, but you keep people out by saying you’re going to put a certain amount of affordable units in a building. It’s not accessible to people.”
The Sting of Stigma Georgetown Ministry Center’s Communication Manager Carolyn Landes said another obstacle to surmount is the stigma that surrounds chronic homelessness, particularly from those who find themselves on the streets as a result of mental illness. “It is important to remember that when someone is homeless, and especially in the population where we serve, it’s never because they choose it,” Landes said. “We liken our population to somebody that maybe has a terminal or chronic illness. If it were a cancer patient, it wouldn’t be someone we would let languish on the street.” Hull said participating in the Point-in-Time count inspired her to reexamine the way homeless individuals are often dismissed in society. “Even something as simple as engaging with someone on M Street, engaging with someone’s humanity, making eye contact, stopping and speaking with someone, is a good way for people in the Georgetown community to realize that it doesn’t take a lot energywise or money-wise to engage with someone, even in a small way,” Hull said. Hyater said he routinely encounters disparaging attitudes as a homeless individual. “When I first became homeless, I was treated like I was less than human,” Hyater said. “It wasn’t pleasant. An individual will raise their voice at me, or he or she will think they can just talk to me in any kind of way. To me, that’s very disrespectful.”
2 Students Launch Discount App for Neighborhood Restaurants Montana Boone Hoya Staff Writer
A discount food ordering app designed by Georgetown students Aaron Rutter (COL ’20) and Sahaj Sharda (SFS ’20) launched this week. The app, Dynos, works with
local Georgetown restaurants to provide students with access to discounted food during restaurant off-hours. According to Rutter, the app uses the principle of supply and demand to give the app users discounts. “The app dynamically prices
dynos app
The Dynos app, which launched this week, uses the principle of supply and demand to get students discounts on food from local restaurants.
food at restaurants based off of supply and demand. So that means that it discounts food,” Rutter said. “So if a bakery has, like, twenty leftover pastries at the end of the day, they’ll end up throwing them out. So the thought was, ‘why waste food,’ and instead allow them to make some money on it.” Users of the app can order food from local restaurants like Wingos, Georgetown Gourmet and Dog Tag Bakery at a discounted rate. Three to four-hundred people have joined the service in the app’s first week. The idea for Dynos was born after Sharda traveled to India the summer after his freshman year. While in a local market with his grandfather, Shardas was struck by the bartering process over goods between vendors and shoppers. “My grandfather took me to a market, and it’s very interesting because it was a bazaar where there were no fixed prices on anything,” Sharda said. “What I noticed was, over the hours, you know, there’s a small little stand that was selling, you know, some sorts of delicate foods, and over the hours people would come up and they would negotiate. And as it came to times that
were away from lunch or dinner, the prices would go down substantially, and they would go back up later.” After that day in the market, Sharda called Rutter, asking him to co-found an app that would allow restaurants and students to benefit from price fluctuations. Because neither Rutter nor Sharda had tech experience, they reached out to members of the Georgetown faculty for help. One of their advisors was Nobel Prize-winning economist and Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy professor George Akerlof. Akerlof said the app is beneficial to both students and restaurants. “They are taking advantage of the fact that the restaurants have times when the marginal cost to them of an extra customer is much less than at other times, and therefore if the app attracts extra customers at those times the restaurants are willing to give them a break (i.e. a discount),” Akerlof wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It is a Dynos-generated win for the restaurants, winfor-the-students.” Rutter and Sharda also consulted with Eric Burger, a Georgetown research professor of computer science. Burg-
er said he encouraged the students to formulate a business plan and tap into a market. “I did, you know, help encourage them to find someone to actually do the programming, but more about how to start a business, how to get a business plan going, how to, you know, kind of find a market,” Burger said. In addition to consulting with professors, Rutter and Sharda spoke to Loren Sumerlin who runs the Auxiliary Services at Georgetown. Sumerlin provided them with insight on how to pitch their app to restaurants. The cofounders also worked with the Students of Georgetown, Inc. on development and marketing strategies. Rutter said he’s noticed a lot of the support from the Georgetown community has emerged from a desire to promote a technologically savvy culture on campus. “What we’ve noticed so far, not just from professors, but sort of from speaking to administration, like people in the administration, is they’re all really for the app, not for, not specifically because they like the idea, but it’s more so because they want to sort of like brand Georgetown as like a tech friendly environment,”
Rutter said. While Dynos is seeing an increasing number of users, Rutter and Sharda are not currently making money from the app. “The tough part with the app is that we’re sort of in this food space where we’re competing with Uber Eats and also Grub Hub,” Rutter said. “We’re not charging them a monthly fee to be on the app. That’s all things we hopefully can do in the future once we’ve like made a name for ourselves. But in terms of how we make money, we right now don’t have any cash flow coming in. We only have user flow.” Rutter and Sharda hope to begin profiting from their app soon and expand the restaurant list to the D.C. area including American University and The George Washington University. Sharda wants other Georgetown students to develop their entrepreneurship skills. “I don’t know if creating an app necessarily is what I would recommend,” Sharda said. “But, broadly I think the core tenets that I would recommend that every student here at Georgetown, broadly, try to develop is entrepreneurship.”
Mayors and CEOs Launch Affordable Housing Coalition Katrina schmidt Hoya Staff Writer
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) joined mayors and CEOs from across the country Jan. 25 to launch Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment, a coalition working to address issues of affordable housing and homelessness. Eleven mayors, including Bowser, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D), are members of the coalition, representing nearly 13 million constituents across the United States. The group aims to build publicprivate partnerships to work toward affordable housing solutions and to oppose any federal funding cuts that affect affordable housing. Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment identified four primary policy actions it will initially be advocating for: maximizing funding for existing federal programs it considers successful, issuing new Department of Housing and Urban Development grants, pairing certain HUD programs with Department of Health and Human Services programs and creating a fund for one-time emergency housing assistance. “We recognize that by investing in affordable housing, we are investing in safer, stronger communities and building new pathways to the middle class for our most vulnerable residents,” Bowser said in a Jan. 25 news release. Airbnb, Sutter Health and
GHC Housing Partners are the coalition’s three private-sector partners. As businesses in the housing and healthcare sectors, the coalition is relevant to their work. “Our experience has shown the best solutions are often the result of the public and private sectors working together,” Airbnb co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk said in a Jan. 25 news release. “We are particularly proud to be working with this coalition to identify and fund innovative ideas that work.” Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment was initially conceived a year ago by the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (D). His concept then developed into the coalition, which currently represents mayors from both major and medium-sized cities in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and D.C. California has the most cities represented, with the mayors of Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco — although a new mayor has yet to be elected since Lee’s death in December — in the coalition. “An affordable place to live should be within reach for everyone in America who dreams of making a better life for themselves their family,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a news release by the group. In 2017, HUD estimated that on any given night, 553,742 people are experiencing homelessness in the United States. Nearly
one-third of these people were in an unsheltered location while experiencing homelessness — a 9 percent increase from 2016. Bowser has made affordable housing a key issue in her administration. Bowser has pushed policies such as the Housing Production Trust Fund, which provides financial assistance to projects that preserve or build affordable housing, and announced an effort to invest $500 million in affordable housing in December 2017. The District is estimated to have one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country. A 2016 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found there are 124 homeless people for every 10,000 residents in D.C. — the highest number in a survey of 32 cities. However, homelessness in D.C. declined 11 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to a 2017 report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Bowser hopes to continue this momentum with Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment. Fittingly, the launch event for the coalition was held at the John and Jill Ker Conway Residence in D.C., a permanent residence for formerly homeless veterans and low- and moderate-income individuals — a public-private partnership. “In Washington, D.C., we are committed to ending homelessness and expanding access to safe and affordable housing,” Bowser said in the group’s news release.
Spencer cook/the hoya
Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) joined business leaders and 10 other mayors from across the country in establishing Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment, which works to address affordable housing issues.
news
friday, February 2, 2018
THE HOYA
A9
Hoya Hacks Competition Celebrates Student Ingenuity Kara Tippins Hoya Staff Writer
HOYA HACKS
The 36-hour Hoya Hacks event attracted over 250 participants who comprised nearly 71 teams, competing in categories including financial technology, health education software and gender equality.
Typeface, a device that helps recovering permanently or temporarily near-paralyzed individuals communicate with their loved ones, took first place at the 36-hour Hoya Hacks competition this weekend, an event that celebrated technological innovation and advancement among students. James Pavur (SFS ’16) and Casey Dayton received an award for Typeface, along with nine other teams for their projects in other categories. This year marked the third annual three-daylong hackathon, in which the technologically inclined participate in computer programming competitions. This weekend’s event attracted over 250 student participants, who comprised nearly 71 teams. Students competed in categories that included financial technology, health, education software, beginner’s hackathon and gender equality. Hoya Hacks was originally founded in 2015 by Taylor Wan (COL ’16) and Casandra Schwartz (COL ’16), with the goal of creating solutions to life’s everyday problems through hardware or software. The Georgetown hackathon allows students from all over the country to collaborate on projects to solve protocol problems, this year’s Co-Director of Hoya Hacks Eytan Gittler (NHS ’18) said. “A hackathon is a time and place where you come together [as] people from diverse backgrounds and try to create a solution to whatever you see fit to
solve,” Gittler said. “It is a fairly new concept — think of it as an invention marathon … [with] constant adrenaline.” Participants are expected to form competition teams of about four people when the prompts for each category are released in in the months before the competition. At the contest in January, participants create their project. Keynote speakers for this year included Marissa Halpert and Julie Bacon, web developers at iStrategyLabs, a digital marketing company, and Judd Nicholson, vice president and chief information officer at Georgetown University. Bacon and Halpert emphasized the importance of encouraging diverse perspectives in the technology sector, noting their experiences as women in the tech world. They also sought to challenge the common stereotypes of hackers. “There’s a stereotype in tech,” Gittler said. “It is generally a white male, 35 years old, who drinks a lot of Mountain Dew and stays in their parents’ basement, but that is not what a hacker is. It is not someone trying to hack into the CIA; it is someone trying to create life hacks.” Event coordinators took particular care to craft an inclusive and accessible event for all, according to Gittler. The gender equality and beginner’s hacking tracks were created with the purpose of encouraging involvement from individuals who may not fit the “typical profile” of a hacker. Rae Lee (COL ’20) a first-time participant in the software development and beginner
hackathon tracks, noticed the benefits of collaborating with students from other schools. “Since the computer department [at Georgetown] is pretty small, it was really nice to get to know people from other schools that did computer science,” Lee said. “Being able to see their projects and work with people that I have not worked with before was eye-opening.” The main sponsor for the event was Craig Newmark Philanthropies, a charitable group created by Craigslist’s founder, Craig Newmark. Additional sponsorship came from groups such as Google, Verizon, Major League Hacking and IBM. The sponsor representatives aided students with particularly difficult brainstorming or implementation challenges during the competition. These representatives act not only as helpful aides in the moment, but also as potential gateways to career opportunities for participating students. Looking forward, Gittler said that he and other event organizers hope that students continue to connect with other students and business representatives. In addition, the leaders of the event said they plan to work more closely with other local hackathons at schools like The George Washington University, and they hope to engage with schools that do not currently have hackathon programs, such as Catholic University and Howard University. For Gittler, collaboration is the key to ultimately producing the best products. “We really want people to cooperate as opposed to compete,” Gittler said.
Metro Program to Reimburse Customers for Delays Sarah Mendelsohn Hoya Staff Writer
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority launched its Rush Hour Promise program Friday, a new initiative that will credit customers for delays of 15 minutes or longer. Just three days into the program, Metro is set to credit a total of 2,262 customers — or about 0.1 percent of its daily 200,000 riders — for delayed trips. Around 90 percent of riders reach their destinations on time, according to an April 2017 WMATA news release. The Rush Hour Promise concludes the “Get Well” Railcar Reliability Program, which was meant to reduce passenger offloads and delays by the end of 2017, and was also part of Metro’s “Back2Good” campaign, which aims to improve the Metro system’s all-around quality, from safety to reliability. The Rush Hour Promise comes after over a year of improvements on the Metrorail system. In June 2016, WMATA launched its SafeTrack program to repair parts of the ailing Metrorail system and increase safety and reliability. In addition to repairing tracks, Metro is retiring older 5000-series train cars and replacing them with newer 7000-series
cars. In a news release, WMATA said its maintenance programs, new trains and improved infrastructure are contributing to fewer delays. “The service guarantee comes at a time of improved reliability, demonstrating Metro’s progress getting ‘back to good,’” according to a Jan. 25 news release. Despite a derailment on the Red line in January, WMATA expressed confidence in its ability to deliver safe and reliable service. “Our #back2good initiative promised to deliver a fleet of new trains and improve reliability in 2017. Based on our progress, we’re making another promise in 2018 - the Rush Hour Promise. So along with being more reliable, #wmata is more accountable,” WMATA wrote in a January 29 tweet. The refunds only apply to trips during rush hour service, or from 5 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Metro SmarTrip cardholders will automatically receive credit for delayed MetroRail trips while MetroBus customers must request credit through an online form. Customers can only receive four credits per calendar month through the Rush Hour Promise. The Rush Hour Promise does not apply to delays caused by
weather, extraordinary circumstances like security emergencies or blackouts or repair work that the customer is notified of in advance. It does not apply to U-Pass or Kids Ride Free Passes. SelectPass, One Day and Seven Day passes will receive a $3 credit for MetroRail delays and $1 credit for MetroBus delays. Metro is using a program called MyTripTime to measure the duration of customers’ trips, taking into account the times of getting to the train, waiting on the platform, transfers and the walk to the exit in its estimate. Metro estimates that 0.3 percent of trips will qualify for credits and that the Rush Hour Promise will cost between $2 million and $3.5 million per year, according to The Washington Post. WMATA CEO Paul Wiedefeld said that the Rush Hour Promise expresses WMATA’s commitment to improved service, according to the Jan. 25 news release. “Rush Hour Promise is our commitment to riders that we are accountable for providing reliable, on-time service,” Wiedefeld said at a Jan. 25 news conference. “We want our customers to know that we value their time, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep them moving safely and efficiently.”
Caroline pappas/the hoya
Metro is using a program called MyTripTime to measure the duration of customers’ trips, taking into account the times of getting to the train, waiting on the platform, transfers and the walk to the exit in the estimate.
Music Critic: Memes Are the ‘Future of Music Promotion’ Joe Egler
Hoya Staff Writer
The needle drop
Music critic Anthony Fantano talked about the future of music promotion and its links to internet meme culture in a Jan. 25 event hosted by the Georgetown University Lecture Fund.
Memes are the future of the music promotion business because they help connect artists with their fans, American professional music critic Anthony Fantano said at an event hosted by the Georgetown University Lecture Fund on Jan. 25. Fantano, who calls himself “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” launched his music vlog “The Needle Drop” in 2007. The vlog features music reviews and weekly music roundups and has over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers. At last week’s event in Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Hall, Fantano spoke about emerging trends in music promotion and music engagement in the internet age, especially the role of internet memes, in helping musicians promote their work. Fantano said memes and popular music both make use of memorable catchphrases and notable imagery that resonate with fans and followers. “Music and memes share a very common virality,” Fantano said. “In the same way that a meme is shared again and again because you love it and you think it’s hilarious, that’s how people share music, if you really love a song. Music, unlike a
movie, or sculpture, or painting, is so easily shareable, just like a meme.” In recent years, Fantano said, the industry has seen the feedback loop between songs and internet culture strengthen: more memes come from songs, and more songs come from memes. Some artists, most notably the rapper Drake, reference popular internet memes in songs and music videos, while others write lyrics aimed at making a splash online. Fantano allued to rapper Bobby Shmurda’s fame owing in part to a dance move he makes in a 2014 music video. Fantano also noted artists such as Justin Bieber, Lil Pump and XXXTentacion. “Music has always had this portability to it that I think memes also share. So it’s pretty easy to share it with your friends, show it to your friends and, if you’ve got a sound system, show it to a large number of people,” Fantano said. “A lot of the things that end up being memes or end up becoming memetic in a way are catchy one-liners, lyrical phrases.” Fantano said the music business’s adoption of memes can form closer relationships to fans. He pointed to the band Death Grips’ interaction with fans on social media as an example of a strengthened connec-
tion between the music industry and its fans. “When artists embrace the meme, it creates these opportunities for interactions with their fans,” Fantano said. The increased use of memes in the music industry, though nontraditional, as a way to connect with fans should be embraced and supported, according to Fantano. “If you have people memeing, I would say embrace that fully,” Fantano said. “Share it, interact with it, spread it yourself. Take part in it, because what that is a signal of is that there’s a community out there having fun with what you do.” Ultimately, Fantano said, the rise of memes in the music industry reflects consumers’ desires to have a greater engagement with the music they are enjoying. “People want to have fun; people want to have a good time; people want to instantaneously create a viral thing and have an experience outside of the thing that they’re enjoying,” Fantano said. “When you’re sharing something like this and you’re contributing art and commentary and satire and jokes to a community of people enjoying a thing, in a way, it’s like taking what you’re enjoying outside the isolation chamber.”
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sports
THE HOYA
friday, February 2, 2018
Tennis
Australian Open Title Cements Federer's Timeless Legacy
Matt Sachs Tennis fans are at a loss for words to describe the greatness of Roger Federer. His abilities on the court have been described as powerful, quick, precise, graceful and elegant. Yet, after winning his sixth Australian Open title by defeating Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 last Sunday, Federer can simply be summed up as the most accomplished men’s tennis player of all time. Federer, seemingly designed in a laboratory, has elite groundstrokes, magnificent volleys, a deadly serve and superb feel. Even an expert scientist could not create a machine comparable to Federer’s skill in the sport. All things, even machines, eventually break down — that is, all things except Federer. One year ago, few thought Federer would win any more
Grand Slams. Then the 17thranked player in the world, he was playing in the Australian Open after taking six months off the tour following knee surgery. Now, no one knows when, or if, his reign will ever end. Federer just keeps rolling. He has won three of the last five Grand Slams and is now the only man in history to hold 20 Grand Slam titles. His sixth triumph in Melbourne ties for the highest of all time, and makes him just the third player in the Open era to win four slams after turning 30. But since he already owns about every record in tennis history, Federer is not competing to break them. At this point, Federer is shattering mostly his own records and extending his lead in major titles, putting Rafael Nadal and others’ chances to catch up simply out of reach. Despite his past success, Sunday’s victory was as sweet as the rest, bringing Federer to exuberant tears as he lifted the trophy. Three years ago, friends asked me when I thought Federer would retire. He had not won a slam since 2012 and was having trouble competing with a thendominant Novak Djokovic, as
Helmet to Helmet
well as simply getting deep in slams. I briefly thought his end was near, so I predicted he would call it quits within three years. Well, that time has come and Federer is not done. Refreshingly, he is moving quickly and hitting bigger than he has since his mid-2000s prime. He is winning grand slams at age 36, which is ancient in the tennis world, making him the oldest tennis player to win a Grand Slam since Ken Rosewall in 1972 Federer’s biggest obstacle in his path to the Australian title was saved for last. After remarkably not dropping a set all tournament, the Swiss went the distance with Cilic, and at times fans worried the Croatian could steal the show. But like in his epic final against Nadal in Melbourne one year ago, Federer found another gear in the fifth set. Federer displayed his natural ability to rise above the rest when he needed it most. And by the end, the last man standing was the 36-year-old, not his rivals Nadal, Djokovic or Andy Murray, all at least five years younger than Federer.
NFL fans: It is time to choose a side. Hopping on the Super Bowl team bandwagon is a bittersweet process. NFL fans of all the teams who inevitably did not make the Super Bowl must carefully choose which of the two Super Bowl teams’ bandwagons to join. Sometimes, the choice is easy — perhaps your second favorite team made the Super Bowl, so your instinct is to root for them. Other times, however, it is harder to determine the right team to root for. Some fans root for the underdogs, others for the presumed winners. Some root for the team whose city has been ravaged by a disaster or against a team they feel doesn’t deserve to win. Growing up as a fan of the New Orleans Saints, I would usually root for the team with a Manning brother on it, as the Manning brothers are New Orleans boys and their father, Archie Manning, is a beloved former Saints quarterback and member of the New Orleans community. The exception, of course, was the Super Bowl 44, when the Saints faced Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Other times, I have rooted against a team that had delivered a particularly heartbreaking loss to the Saints that season, such as the 2013 Seattle Seahawks, who defeated New Orleans 23-15 in the Divisional Round. The Seahawks ended up playing Peyton Manning’s Broncos team in the Super Bowl that year, making the choice even easier. Whatever the Super Bowl combination, I always joined NFL fans in choosing a team to invest in for the three-hourlong game. After all, the bandwagon tradition is an integral part of the Super Bowl experience. To watch the Super Bowl without a reason to raise your guacamole-slathered tortilla chip in celebration of a touchdown is to deprive oneself of one of the purest joys of the game — or so I thought. During last year’s Super Bowl, I sat quietly throughout the game, scowling at the television, angrily munching my tortilla chips that I did not at any point raise in celebration. My less-than-sunny disposition was a result of the fact that Super Bowl 51 featured the Saints’ number one rival, the Atlanta Falcons, facing the New England Patriots. Similar to baseball, when most non-Yankee fans root against the Yankees in the World Series, most non-Patriots fans feel obligated to root against the Patriots. Fair or not, rooting against the Patriots is an accepted unwritten rule for
NFL fan bases everywhere. How could I choose between my least favorite team and the most hated team in the NFL? Eventually, I felt obligated to lean slightly toward the Patriots — joining the NFL’s evil empire seemed less terrible than rooting for my top division rival. But the choice was difficult. It also came with the knowledge that I would be ridiculed by NFL fans for hopping on a bandwagon most fans would not dare to join. The Patriots’ presence in the Super Bowl ruins the Super Bowl bandwagon tradition for at least one team’s fan base. Last year, Saints fans were conflicted — no matter the outcome, Saints fans would be grumpy and disinterested throughout the entire Super Bowl and therefore robbed of our bandwagon-fueled, tortilla chip-waving extravaganza. This year, the Patriots have ruined the Super Bowl experience for fans of the New York Giants. Between the 13 losses, the midseason firing of Head Coach Ben McAdoo, multiple injuries and a tearful Eli Manning, Giants fans have suffered enough this season. Now, they must choose between their storied rivals — the Philadelphia Eagles — and the Patriots. How impossible. Giants fans: I feel for you. Like us Saints fans, you will most likely arrive at the conclusion that you have no choice but to root for the Patriots, whom you have been conditioned to dislike whether or not they deserve it. In the interest of saving you from the sullen, droopy-tortillachip Super Bowl experience Saints fans suffered last year, here is the rationale for you to root for the Patriots during Super Bowl 52. Every Super Bowl the BradyBelichick combo wins only enhances the Eli Manning-Giants legacy. The more rings the Patriots win, the more impressive the Giants become, as the only team to best the Patriots during the Brady-Belichick era. Either way, revel in every point scored: You can now enjoy the shortcomings of both teams. While I hated watching Brady hold up the Lombardi Trophy yet again last year, I did enjoy the utter disbelief and heartbreak the Falcons suffered as a result. So Giants fans: Do not let a Patriots v. Eagles Super Bowl make you melancholy. Grab your guacamole, hop on your bandwagon and enjoy an excuse to root for one of the best teams in NFL history.
Amanda Christovich is a junior in the College. Helmet to Helmet appears every other Friday.
Wayne Gretzky played until age 38. Michael Jordan played until age 40. But by the end of their careers, neither dominated their sports like Federer, now turning 37. Federer is simply better than the rest,
just as he was in 2006, when he won three of the four Grand Slams. As ESPN’s Chris Fowler brilliantly said during his commentary of the final, “In tennis, time waits for no one but
Federer.” Last Sunday, the timeless wonder produced excellence yet again.
Matt Sachs is a sophomore in the College.
Distance Medley Highlights Weekend Hoya Staff Writer
Super Bowl 52: A Giant Dilemma
Roger Federer won his sixth Australian Open title last Sunday after defeating Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, making him the only male tennis player to win 20 total Grand Slams.
WOMEN's Track & Field
Madeline Cusick
Amanda Christovich
ROGER FEDERER
The Georgetown women’s track and field team secured third place in the distance medley relay at the Columbia Challenge last weekend and gave several other strong performances in its second meet of the year. The Hoyas faced unusually stingy competition for this early in the season, according to Director of Track and Field Julie Culley. “It’s definitely very different. We had teams like University of Oregon, University of Missouri, UConn, some really big programs in track and field,” Culley said. “We had schools we don’t normally see this early in the season” Given the talented spread of teams, Culley spoke highly of the competition’s early races.
“The Columbia Challenge actually turned out to be a really good meet on the one side, starting off with the hurdles on Friday evening. [Georgetown] had [freshman] Malika Houston run a lifetime best in the 60m hurdles,” Culley said. Houston’s new personal record of 8.76 seconds put the hurdler in 12th place. The distance medley relay team, featuring senior Piper Donaghu in the 1200m, senior Jody-Ann Knight in the 400m, freshman Olivia Arizin in the 800m and graduate student Meredith Rizzo in the one-mile leg, clocked in a time of 11:16.28 to secure third place. Culley highlighted Rizzo’s performance, as tendinitis in her knee has interfered with training since December. “[Rizzo] split 4:45 and then came back and ran 4:48 the next day, and she had a lot
of broken training since December, kind of dealing with some tendinitis in her knee. So to kind of see her show that kind of strength right now, that was a really, really nice indicator for her,” Culley said. Culley was pleased with the finishing time but believes the squad still has room for improvement this season. “[The finishing time] still puts us about somewhere around 10 or so seconds away from potentially qualifying the distance medley for the national championship, but we’re going to take another crack at it in later February and see if we can put ourselves in that position,” Culley said. Donaghu later took 15th place in the one-mile race, running within a second of her personal record of
4:45.46. Although the 200m race did not result in any top-10 finishes for Georgetown’s women, Culley was pleased with the performances she saw. “[Georgetown] also had a nice run in the 200 with both Jody-Ann Knight and [graduate student] Taylor Williams kind of running against each other for the first time,” Culley said. “Overall it was a really nice meet for the women. We were definitely really pleased coming off the weekend.” Next weekend, the women’s track and field team will split up between the Boston University Blue & White Invite in Boston and the Villanova Invitational in Staten Island. A small group of sprinters will travel to Villanova while the rest of the team will compete at Boston University.
Men's Track & Field
GUHOYAS
Graduate student middle-distance runner Amos Bartelsmeyer helped Georgetown finish third in the distance medley relay with a time of 9:38:31 last weekend at the Columbia Challenge. Georgetown notched three top-10 finishes overall at the event.
Team Impresses With 3 Top-10 Finishes Ethan Cohn
Special to The Hoya
The Georgetown men’s track and field team continued its early season progress, garnering three top-10 finishes at the Columbia Challenge last weekend, with freshman Nate Alleyne taking part in all three. Alleyne also finished ninth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.04 seconds. Director of Track and Field Julie Culley was impressed with Alleyne’s performance and maturity this early in the season. “Nate’s been a bright spot for us. He’s an incredibly hard worker. He wants to be good. He brings the energy every time he’s out there,” Culley said. Alleyne has also made an impact on the team outside of
his individual performances. “Especially as a freshman, he’s got the guys going. They’re excited to be racing with him; he’s been an incredible asset from day one,” Culley said. The Hoyas finished third and fourth in the distance medley relay and the 4x400 meter relay, respectively. The 4x400m relay team, composed of sophomores Quincey Wilson and Kenny Rowe and freshmen Rey Rivera and Alleyne, finished fourth behind Ohio State, Oregon and Villanova. Georgetown came in just behind Villanova with a time of 3:16.18. Culley was also pleased with the performance of the distance medley relay team, singling out graduate senior Amos Bartelsmeyer’s efforts as particularly important.
“Amos’ split in the distance medley relay [4:02] … was a really nice time for him to run this early in the season. He’s someone who has definitely battled through injuries throughout his career; we’re really excited he’s healthy,” Culley said. Bartelsmeyer helped Georgetown finish third in the distance relay with a time of 9:38.31. Rowe, Alleyne and junior Spencer Brown also contributed solid times in the relay. Graduate student Jonathan Green finished 26th in the 3000m with a time of 8:09, but Culley explained that another runner clipped Green during the course of the race. “In Jon Green’s 3000m, he got clipped from behind a little past a mile in the race and hit the track. He was going after an NCAA qualifying time and he felt fantastic, so
it was just really unfortunate he missed that opportunity,” Culley said. Culley also praised the performance of sophomore Jack Salisbury in the 1000m, in which he finished second in his heat with a time of 2:24. “It’s good to see him getting out there and putting himself in contention to win races,” Culley said. Next weekend, the Hoyas will compete in Massachusetts at Boston University’s Scarlet and White Invite and in New York at the Villanova Invitational. Culley is looking for the team to further improve its performances and begin to reach its peak as the Hoyas approach the more important meets of the season. “Usually, the month of February is where you see people have their season bests. February is all about running fast and getting those nationally ranked marks,” Culley said.
SPORTS
friday, february 2, 2018
GU’s Next Challenge Comes Against Xavier BRENNAN, from A12
CAROLINE PAPPAS/THE HOYA
Junior guard Dionna White scored 14 points while adding seven rebounds and three assists Sunday against Xavier.
Petke Leads Hoyas With Double-Double made six free throws in the final 30 seconds of the game to seal the deal. The team’s defense was the most important part of its victory, according to Head Coach James Howard. “Any time we can hold a team under 55 points, we’ll have a great chance to win,” Howard said. In particular, Howard credited senior center Yazmine Belk, who had five blocks and 13 rebounds in the game. “When you have someone like Yazmine, who can provide an inside presence, then the entire game is different,” Howard said. After combining to shoot just three of 27 in their first game against Butler, White and Venson shot at 48 percent this game, for 36 points. Senior forward Cynthia Petke added 12 points and freshman forward Tatiana Thompson pitched in seven points. As a team, the Hoyas were outrebounded 38 to 35. They forced 20 turnovers and committed seven. Sunday’s game against the Xavier Musketeers (9-13, 2-9 Big East) went more smoothly for the Hoyas, as Georgetown jumped ahead early on and never gave up its lead. Early in the fourth quarter, the Hoyas led by as much as 29 points. On the whole, Georgetown had more rebounds and assists with fewer turnovers than Xavier.
The team’s defense was once again strong, particularly early on in the game. Georgetown forced seven turnovers in the first quarter, holding Xavier to just six points and taking a 15-6 lead after one. A quick 7-0 run for the Hoyas early in the second quarter effectively put them in the driver’s seat for the rest of the game. Petke recorded 18 points and 11 rebounds in her 11th double-double this season. Venson had 14 points, and White added 14 points as well as seven rebounds and three assists. The game was markedly different from the two teams’ face-off earlier this year, when Georgetown won 65-60 in a contest that remained tight the entire length of the game. In that contest, the score was still tied late in the fourth, and the Hoyas needed clutch baskets and offensive rebounds down the stretch to come away with the win. The stretch of games for the Hoyas last weekend shows the team’s growth over the course of the season. Howard credits their play to the growing team chemistry. “The reason we’ve done so well is because the girls have really come together as one,” Howard said. Up next, the Hoyas will face the Villanova Wildcats (17-5, Big East 7-4), who are tied for third in the conference. The game will be played in Philadelphia on Feb. 3. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
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the season’s best victory. Ewing also provided the media with their first major glimpse into his role as a recruiter. Nine months after his hiring, many, including dismissive national media pundits, continue to doubt Ewing’s ability to recruit. “That was your guys’ [expectation],” Ewing said. “Not mine.” Back in the fall, Georgetown inked a pair of four-star frontcourt players in 6-foot-8 Grayson Carter and ESPN Top 100 Josh LeBlanc. Ewing also managed to flip explosive guard and internet sensation Mac McClung, culminating in McClung’s commitment to Georgetown. Yet for Ewing, the recruiting season is far from over. “After we lost [to DePaul] the other day, I went out on a recruiting trip. After Creighton, I [went] out west. It’s never ending. We need pieces,” Ewing said. “I’m out there trying to fill [2019’s class]. It’s never ending.” With senior guard Jonathan Mulmore and graduate student guard Trey Dickerson departing at the end of the year, Ewing hinted at providing McClung the opportunity to be the Hoyas’ floor general from day one. Back when Georgetown’s staff visited McClung last year, he recalled Ewing showing him videos of Kemba Walker with the vision McClung could fill that
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role for Georgetown. Next season, McClung’s ball control will be a necessity for an up-tempo offense that has thus far failed to limit Georgetown’s turnovers to single digits every game this season. Although virtually all top recruits have either committed or signed, Ewing remains dedicated to building 2018’s class. He hopes to add one more guard and another big man. After snagging both Pickett and freshman guard Jahvon Blair last summer, Ewing has had plenty of time to add to next year’s class. Georgetown’s most desirable option is top-five point guard Jahvon Quinerly from Hackensack, N.J., who decommitted from Arizona amid an FBI scandal, in which Arizona Assistant Coach Book Richardson was arrested and charged with accepting bribes. Ewing has been in contact with Quinerly, who is rumored to be leaning toward top-ranked Villanova. Junior guard and sharpshooter Greg Malinowski, who is sitting out this season after transferring, will also be an important addition next season. Ewing’s recent four-day West Coast excursion focused on building his 2019 class. Ewing extended offers to ESPN top-50 frontcourt players Jaime Jaquez and Carl Lewis. Cassius Stanley, the No. 2 shooting guard in 2019, is also considering Georgetown. Ewing remains adamant in his desire to reclaim
the D.C. metro area, but hopes to add to Georgetown’s national profile by plucking an elite player from the West Coast. On the court, the Hoyas turn their attention next to the No. 6 Xavier Musketeers (20-3, 8-2 Big East). After its 24-point annihilation at Villanova, Xavier has rattled off five straight Big East wins to reclaim a tie for first place in conference play. Aside from its two games against Villanova, Georgetown’s trip to the Cintas Center in Cincinnati will likely be the team’s biggest test this year. The Musketeers are undefeated in 14 contests in their home arena, where seemingly any Xavier player can catch on fire at any moment. Senior guards Trevon Bluiett and J.P. Macura lead Xavier’s potent offense — which ranks in the top 20 nationally in several areas — with 18.7 and 13 points per game, respectively. The Musketeers’ versatility with nine viable options gives them a big advantage on the defensive end. Xavier’s ability to show and rotate while defending pick-and-rolls will be difficult for Georgetown to attack. Xavier’s junior Kaiser Gates and freshman Naji Marshall are versatile wing players who can play multiple positions, while senior big men Kerem Kanter and Sean O’Mara can defend away from the rim. Pickett’s and Blair’s recent improvements will be necessary to
bring down a balanced team like Xavier. Pickett has averaged almost 15 points a game since the St. John’s double-overtime victory, a day he really felt he turned a corner. “Right before the St. John’s game, everybody was telling me — coaches, fans, family — that you can’t just be a jump shooter, especially when your shot is not falling. So ever since then, I’ve just been working on my handle every day, trying to get rebounds and drive to the basket,” Pickett said last Friday. Since Georgetown’s win over the St. John’s (10-13, Big East 0-11), the Hoyas have been able to string together several runs with junior center Jessie Govan on the bench. Junior forward Marcus Derrickson has averaged over 22 points per game, making shots from well beyond the arc to baby hooks on the block. Blair is coming off a career-high 21 points against Creighton on Jan. 27, 15 of which came from threes. The Hoyas continue to focus their offense on the freshman duo of Pickett and Blair, running them off several screens and giving them space to make plays. Come Saturday’s game against Xavier, both will need to provide a spark in one of the toughest environments in college basketball. Pickett did not seem too worried. George Brennan is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business.
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The Georgetown men’s basketball team currently sits at 13-8 on the season and 3-7 in Big East play, with the team’s eight remaining regular-season games all coming against teams projected to make the NCAA tournament, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
kicking and screaming
Östersunds Puts Swedish Soccer on Map SEWALL, from A12
over, Östersunds FK was averaging just over 500 people at its home games. Now, the team frequently gets over 6,000. Yet it was not just the team’s success that won over the home supporters. Potter, in his time as manager, has emphasized integrating Östersunds FK into the community. Perhaps the best representation of this achievement is its “culture academy,” in which all of the players sing, dance and act in performances in front of the local community. These performances have ranged from a rendition of Swan Lake to a rock concert during which Potter himself put on a memorable performance. In 2017, Östersunds FK achieved its best season in its club’s short history, including a win in the Swedish domestic cup that qualified it for the Europa League. Östersunds FK had achieved one of the lofty goals set out by Kindberg just seven years earlier — European
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soccer would come to Jämtkraft Arena. A rise from the fourth tier of Swedish soccer to the Europa League would be impressive enough, but Östersunds FK’s fairytale run did not end there. In the second qualifying round of the Europa League this past summer, Östersunds FK faced Turkish giant and perennial Champions League contender, Galatasaray. Coming into the cup-tie as underdogs, Östersunds FK shocked Galatasaray, winning 2-0 at Jämtkraft Arena. It then traveled to Turkey and held Galatasaray to a draw to advance 3-1 on aggregate. After showing some hostility toward the visitors early on, the Turkish crowd shocked Östersunds FK by applauding the players as they walked of the field. “I was stunned. The Turkish supporters — who had been very hostile at the beginning — rose up and applauded us off
the pitch,” Kindberg said. Following that victory, Östersunds FK advanced out of the third and fourth qualifying rounds with victories over Luxembourg’s Fola Esch and Greece’s PAOK, respectively. Having made it through all the qualifying rounds, Östersunds FK finally made it to the group stages. Now an all-toocommon theme to its story, Östersunds FK were huge underdogs yet again. Spanish club Athletic Bilbao and German club Hertha BSC, which had finished seventh and sixth in their much stronger respective leagues, were both overwhelming favorites to make it out of Group H, while Östersunds FK and Ukranian side Zorya Luhansk were mere afterthoughts. Yet Östersunds FK’s extraordinary run continued as it finished second in Group H and qualified for the round of 32 in which it drew Arsenal. Arsenal, a team whose man-
ager has been at the club for longer than Östersunds FK has even existed, is one of the biggest teams in England and had qualified for the Champions League for 17 straight seasons before barely missing out on it for the 2017-2018 season. Arsenal’s squad is worth over 35 times as much as Östersunds FK’s squad. Nevertheless, despite all its plaudits, Arsenal will travel up to Sweden on Feb. 15 and face Potter and his rag-tag group of players in front of just over 9,000 ardent Östersunds FK supporters on a night Kindberg had dreamed of just seven years before. Win, lose or draw, the Östersunds FK faithful will surely be chanting their hearts out for all 90 minutes in a night that will go down as the most famous in their club’s remarkable journey. Drew Sewall is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business. Kicking and screaming appears every other Friday.
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Team Suffers 7th Big East Loss of Season CREIGHTON, from A12
points, the difference in the first 20 minutes of regulation. The second half started with Creighton striking first, but Georgetown responded by scoring six straight points, capped by senior forward Kaleb Johnson’s layup, which cut the deficit to 39-48. Creighton showed resilience, however, and slowly extended its lead to 16 points with 13 minutes remaining. The Hoyas slowly chipped away to get even. After cutting the deficit to fewer than 10 points, junior forward Marcus Derrickson, who scored 17 points in the contest, hit
a jumper to cut Creighton’s lead to four points with just under six minutes left. Following Derrickson’s make, Blair made another three-pointer, one of his five on the night. The triple put the Hoyas within one with 4:25 left, the closest the game would be for the final minutes. Once the game became dangerously close for Creighton, the Bluejays went on a 12-4 run to go up eight with 37 seconds left. Following a Georgetown timeout, Marcus Derrickson was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws at the line. He cut the deficit to five, but it was too little
too late, as Creighton’s subsequent free throws iced the game.
“I’ve been working on my handle every day, trying to get rebounds and drive to the basket.” JAMORKO PICKETT Freshman Forward
Georgetown outrebounded Creighton 32-24 overall, but the Hoyas struggled on defense to keep pace with
the Bluejays. They allowed Creighton to shoot 52.9 percent from the floor and senior guard Marcus Foster to explode for a game-high 28 points. Georgetown will have a week to regroup back in Washington, D.C., before it heads on the road again to take on No. 6 Xavier on Saturday night in Cincinnati. The game will be the two teams’ first meeting of the season, with the Musketeers sweeping the two-game season series last year. Tipoff is scheduled for just after 6 p.m. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, as well as aired locally on 99.1 FM.
Sports
Men’s Basketball Georgetown (13-8) at Xavier (20-3) Saturday, 6:00 p.m. Cintas Center
friday, FEBR UARY 2, 2018
The Georgetown men’s track and field team had four runners finish in the top five in the 1000 meter run.
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The reason we’ve done so well is because the girls have really come together as one.” HEAD COACH JAMES HOWARD
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The number of Georgetown men’s basketball’s remaining opponents projected to make the NCAA tournament.
woMen’s BasketBall
Squad Secures Critical Big East Wins Justin Chen
Special to The Hoya
George Brennan
Mediocre Hoyas Face Uphill Battle
I
t was an overcast Friday ed to, late-game rebounding morning Jan. 25, and has been Georgetown’s downGeorgetown Head Coach fall. Failure to secure boards Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85) saun- in the final seconds has cost tered through the Thompson the team games against SyraAthletic Center alongside cuse, Butler and DePaul. Now, with Big East play past freshman forward Jamorko Pickett. Pickett, in his first the halfway point, the Hoyas media appearance, sat down have hovered above their low next to Ewing at the roundta- preseason expectations, but ble with a handful of report- have not been able to get over the proverbial hump in terms ers. of improving Ewing, on on last seathe heels of son’s 14-18 the Hoyas’ With eight games remaining, record. (13-8, 3-7 Big Except for East) least rethe Hoyas have little room the DePaul spectable loss for further disappointment, loss, Georgeof the season has — a one-point but the potential to secure a town held steady home defeat marquee victory. in Big East to DePaul (9play, garner12, 2-7 Big ing three East) — was asked how he is improving wins against teams below it and seven losses against the Hoyas’ rebounding. “Well, I’ve got a baseball teams with better records. bat,” Ewing stoically replied. With eight games remainEveryone, Pickett included, ing — all against teams that, according to ESPN’s Joe Luchuckled. In close contests — one pos- nardi, are projected to make session games with three min- the NCAA tournament — the utes remaining — Georgetown Hoyas have little room for furis 2-4 in conference play this ther disappointing upsets but season, with both of its victo- have the potential to notch ries against St. John’s (10-13, See BRENNAN, A11 0-11 Big East). As Ewing allud-
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Senior guard DiDi Burton currently leads the Hoyas with four assists per game. The Hoyas won their first consecutive Big East games last weekend against Butler and Xavier.
In its two away games last weekend, the Georgetown women’s basketball team secured critical victories against Butler and Xavier. The games marked the Hoyas’ first back-to-back wins in conference play and their third win in the last four games, pushing them to 10-11 overall and 5-6 in the Big East. With seven regular season games left, Georgetown is in a fourway tie for fifth place. The first road game was against the Butler Bulldogs (13-10, 5-6 Big East) on Friday. The contest was a back-andforth battle, but the Hoyas ultimately pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 63-52 — a result unlike two teams’ first meeting Jan. 5 when the Bulldogs came away with the win. Butler came out firing early on, taking a 6-0 lead just two minutes into the game, and stayed hot throughout the first quarter, leading 20-11. In the second quarter, however, the Hoyas clamped up defensively, holding the Bulldogs to just six points and scoring 14 of their own. In the third quarter, the two teams remained competitive and exchanged leads multiple times, with neither team taking more than a sixpoint lead. Not until the last few minutes of the game did Georgetown truly pull away, with back-to-back three pointers by senior guard Mikayla Venson and junior guard Dionna White. The two also See BUTLER, A11
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Drew Sewall
Swedish Soccer Team Defies Long Odds
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Sophomore guard Jagan Mosely scored seven points on 3-of-5 shooting in Georgetown’s 85-77 loss to Creighton last Saturday. Mosely also tallied three rebounds and one assist while making 1-of-2 three-pointers. The loss was Georgetown’s seventh Big East defeat this season.
Despite Comeback, GU Falls to Creighton Matt Sachs
Hoya Staff Writer
The Georgetown men’s basketball team lost to Creighton 85-77 Saturday night at the CenturyLink Center Omaha in Omaha, Neb. The loss marks the second straight drop for the Hoyas, who have now lost seven of 10 games in Big East play and have fallen
to 13-8 for the season. The Hoyas (13-8, 3-7 Big East) fought hard to keep pace the Bluejays (17-5, 7-3 Big East) early on, and the teams traded baskets often in the early portion of the first half. With 10 minutes remaining, freshman guard Jahvon Blair hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 23. Blair, who scored a team-
high nine points in the first half, scored a career-high 21 points for the game. Blair now has nine games with double-digit scoring for the season and is averaging 9.4 points per game. With 3:55 left in the half, Georgetown held a threepoint lead, but the team could not find the bottom of the basket on its next five
field goal attempts. As the Hoyas struggled to score, the Bluejays went on a 16-0 run to take a 46-33 lead going into halftime. Georgetown made seven three-pointers in the first half and shot 50 percent from the field. However, the Hoyas’ 11 turnovers led to 13 Bluejay See CREIGHTON, A11
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efore 2017, you would their home stadium, Jämtbe hard-pressed to find kraft Arena and become part anyone outside of Swe- of the soccer elite. This ambiden who had even heard of tion was ludicrous for a team the Swedish soccer club Öster- in the fourth tier of Swedish sunds FK. Nevertheless, what soccer. the team has accomplished Still, with guidance from — largely thanks to its chair- Swansea City manager Roberman Daniel Kindberg and to Martínez, Kindberg hired manager Graham Potter — is the perfect man to lead Östernothing short of magical. sunds FK on its exceptional Established in 1996 as a journey in 2010. Potter, an merger of several clubs in Englishman who had played Östersund, fullback from Sweden, Öster1992 to 2005, sunds FK has never In his first two seasons had existed for held a profesonly 21 years. as manager, Porter won sional manOften called aging job the Winter back-to-back promotions, before. NevCity, Öster- to climb to the second tier ertheless, it sund has a soon became of Swedish soccer. long history evident that of winter he was the sports but litperfect hire. tle historical prestige when it In his first two seasons as comes to soccer. manager, Potter, along with Östersunds FK suffered an his team, won back-to-back inauspicious start, spending its promotions, climbing to the first 14 years in the third tier of second tier of Swedish socSwedish soccer. Finally, in 2010, cer. After another three years, it was relegated to the fourth Östersunds FK was again protier of Swedish soccer, reaching moted — this time, to the top its low point as a club. division in Sweden: the AllsRelegation caused Kindberg venskan. — along with several of the Just as importantly, club’s other board members however, Potter was able to — to do some soul-searching create a real soccer culture in after that season. They devel- Östersunds. When Potter took oped an ambitious plan to See SEWALL, A11 play European Cup soccer in