The Hoya: February 13, 2015

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 96, No. 34, © 2015

Friday, February 13, 2015

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

With growing perks to videogame culture, gamers have found a niche at Georgetown.

EDITORIAL Vote Joe Luther and Connor Rohan for the 2015 GUSA Executive.

BATTER UP The men’s baseball team will play its first game this afternoon.

OPINION, A2

SPORTS, B10

GUIDE, B1

In Rare Move, FBI Head Addresses Race Relations Comey opines on law enforcement in historic address, marking milestone for tight-lipped agency Molly Simio

communities across our country,” DeGioia said. “At this current moment, when our country seeks a greater Federal Bureau of Investigation Direc- understanding, a renewed of sense of tor James Comey spoke about the sub- responsibility for one another and a conscious racial biases present in law stronger mutual trust, we’re grateful enforcement officers, disproportionate for this opportunity to provide a venue challenges faced by young men of color for dialogue on these matters.” and other issues in the intersection of After remarking on the appropriaterace and law enforcement Thursday ness of his lecture, titled “Hard Turths: morning in a lecture co-hosted by the Law Enforcement and Race,” being held McCourt School of Public Policy and in Healy Hall, a building named for the Office of the President in Gaston former University President Fr. Patrick Hall.

Healy, S.J. — born Comey’s remarks into slavery and the were unusual for “[We] must be honest first black man in an FBI director, America to earn a enough to acknowlwith previous direcPh.D., to join the Jetors only publicly edge that much of our suit order and to bediscussing race in come the president the context of civil history is not pretty.” of a predominately rights issues such as white university — investigations into Comey went on to JAMES COMEY murders commitdiscuss the “hard FBI Director ted by the Ku Klux truths” that he said Klan. No other FBI director has publicly must be acknowledged in conversaanalyzed racial tensions between black tions about law enforcement and race. communities and law enforcement.

“All of us in law enforcement must University President John J. DeGioia be honest enough to acknowledge that welcomed Comey and offered opening much of our history is not pretty,” Comremarks stressing the importance of ey said. “At many points in American engaging in thoughtful conversations history, law enforcement enforced the about race and law enforcement. status quo — a status quo that was often “This is a topic whose importance brutally unfair to disfavored groups.” and urgency have been exemplified in Citing his own Irish heritage, Comey the events in Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland, Oh., and in Staten Island, N.Y., and in See COMEY, A6

Hoya Staff Writer

SOPHIE FAABORG-ANDERSON FOR THE HOYA

In light of events in Ferguson, Cleveland and Staten Island, FBI Director James Comey delivered remarks on race relations and law enforcement in an unprecedented address in Gaston Hall on Thursday.

Wage Disparity Highlights Inequality Amy Char

D.C. by the Numbers

Special to The Hoya

FILE PHOTO: DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA

The Georgetown University Law Center GUTS bus route will now connect main campus with Capitol Hill, facilitating internship access.

GUTS Route Adds Capitol Hill Stop Kristen Fedor Hoya Staff Writer

In response to an IdeaScale petition filed in 2013, the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle buses will link the main campus with Capitol Hill beginning Feb. 17. The three office buildings of the House of Representatives,

which are located adjacent to one another, will be an additional stop on the route that runs from the main campus to the Georgetown University Law Center.

Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey will officially announce the

Hoya Staff Writer

The Office of Student Affairs will provide the majority of funding for disability accommodations at student-sponsored campus events by the 2017-2018 academic year in accordance with an agreement reached with the Georgetown University Student Association on Tuesday.

The funding will cover American Sign Language interpreters and other disability-related accommo-

The Good

1st 1st 2nd 51st

The Bad

in per capita income in percentage employed in computer, engineering and science industries in “well-being” score obesity rate

dations including Communication Access Realtime Translation, services that previously had no central funding source for student groups.

As part of the agreement, GUSA will allocate $15,000 from the Student Activities Fee Reserve Account to create the GUSA Access Fund, which will be operated by the GUSA Fund, for the 2015-2016 academic year.

If 25 percent — or $3,750 — of the fund is utilized during the 2015-2016 See ACCOMMODATIONS, A6

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

1st 1st 1st 51st 51st

unemployment rate in GINI index for income inequality in violent crime rate average grade 8 math and reading scores homeownership rate SHANNON HOU/THE HOYA

cording to a report by Politico Magazine, is the highest in the country at 7.4 percent in 2014: the national rate was 5.6 percent in December 2014. The rate is particularly pronounced for specific groups, with a 16 percent unemployment rate

among the black population in the District.

A study conducted by Wallethub on Feb. 3 corroborated the racial disparity in the District, noting a See INEQUALITY, A6

FEATURED

2015 EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS

OPINION Commentary

Despite eccentricities, student government can make a difference.

A3

See SHUTTLE, A6

Disability Support Receives Funding

Eitan Sayag

Washington, D.C.’s pervasive inequality manifests itself primarily in income and educational gaps, according to a series of reports released over the past few weeks.

A report analyzing the financial recovery since the recession released by the Fiscal Policy Institute Jan. 29 found that the wage gap in D.C. is at a 35-year high. Low-wage earners in the District earn an average of $12.62 per hour, a stagnant figure since the 1970s, while highwage workers’ earnings averaged $45.30 per hour, a $6 increase since 2007 and a steady growth from the $30 average in the 1970s, a reflection of national trends.

“Wage disparity in D.C. is an extreme version of what’s happening in the country as a whole,” FPI Executive Director Ed Lazere said.

The report also noticed the unemployment rate in D.C., which, ac-

NEWS GU Fossil Free

Members interrupted a meeting of the board of directors to talk divestment.

A4 FILE PHOTO: ARIEL POURMORADY/THE HOYA

NEWS Israel-Palestine & GUSA

Candidates responded to petitions regarding the Middle East conflict.

A5

Sports Delaware Bound Go beyond the platforms and rhetoric and learn about the people behind the tickets in our feature series, releasing Sunday. thehoya.com Published Tuesdays and Fridays Published Tuesdays and Fridays

The women’s lacrosse team goes on the road for its first regular-season matchup. thehoya.com

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

Friday, February 13, 2015

THE VERDICT

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Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

Vote Luther - Rohan for GUSA Executive 2015 C As this year’s Georgetown University Student Association executive campaign descended on the Hilltop, the candidacy of Joe Luther (COL ’16) and Connor Rohan (COL ’16) struck many students as a stunt, given that the pair are leaders of the Georgetown Heckler, a satire publication.

Additionally, in the 2014 GUSA poll conducted by The Hoya, exactly one-third of respondents said they would not vote at all; 67 percent said they were not following the race very closely, or at all; 9.5 percent said GUSA was “very relevant” to campus life.

With this apathy in mind, we urge you to vote Luther-Rohan on Feb. 19. Do not take their seemingly facetious platform lightly; behind the humor lies a thoughtful agenda committed to mental health reform, transparency and student-community engagement.

The pair’s strength lies not in an expansive platform or experience with GUSA (indeed, they lack both) but in their demonstrated ability to reinvigorate Georgetown institutions and engage students in an unorthodox yet effective manner.

A Different Approach to GUSA Despite its outwardly satirical persona, the Luther-Rohan campaign recognizes the gravity of its candidacy for the GUSA executive.

Luther and Rohan advocate a strategy distinct from those of the other campaigns in the running, a strategy born not of experience with the inner workings of GUSA or the administration, but of humor as a force for student mobilization.

GUSA has repeatedly struggled to incite a large enough student response to most issues and has only succeeded in certain circumstances, such as the opposition to the proposed satellite campus nearly two years ago.

As a result of Luther and Rohan’s concerted effort over the past year toward rebuilding the Georgetown Heckler, the publication has become a satirical powerhouse with over 2,500 likes on its Facebook page. The Heckler’s articles and videos, despite their element of humor, often tackle the same issues that GUSA does — diversity, student life and progress on the Campus Plan, among others — yet they receive a comparable and often greater amount of exposure through social media. The ticket holds that they can utilize this same approach to incite a level of student interest in GUSA that has not been seen for years.

The same approach is seen for their slogan: ___topia. More than an amusing quip, it is a commentary on the oft-empty promises made by many past and present GUSA candidates. Even their logo, an amalgam of Healy Tower and Darnall Hall, holds a deeper meaning, presenting the idyllic image of Georgetown’s iconic building — so often touted by potential GUSA executives — joined with something perhaps more indicative of student life: one of the freshman residences that is usually forgotten on Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program’s weekend promotional flyers and candidates’ websites alike.

Transparency and Engagement A mention of GUSA often invokes the thoughts of a hyperactive campaign season and a comparably meager and inconsequential effort put forth by elected students. For those outside the organization, there is little opportunity to become involved. Students receive a minimum of weekly emails and flyers for various initiatives but are rarely invited to participate without a specific, usually urgent, cause. This unfortunate circumstance prompted Luther and Rohan to describe GUSA as nothing other than an “opaque monolith.”

Part of a commitment to greater transparency includes exposing the reality that many elected to GUSA do not accomplish all of what they promise to students. Programs like meal swipes at Hoya Court and the delay of the study-abroad housing policy changes

Carolyn Maguire, Executive Editor Alexander Brown, Managing Editor Jess Kelham-Hohler, Online Editor Katherine Richardson, Campus News Editor Kshithij Shrinath, City News Editor Kara Avanceña, Sports Editor Hannah Kaufman, Guide Editor Jinwoo Chong, Opinion Editor Daniel Smith, Photography Editor Shannon Hou, Layout Editor Zack Saravay, Copy Chief Emily Min, Blog Editor Molly Simio, Multimedia Editor

Editorial Board

Jinwoo Chong, Chair

Madison Ashley, Kit Clemente, Francisco Collantes, Ed Crotty, Johnny Verhovek

often take months of administrative meetings and planning. Tickets often propose hundreds of initiatives and policy changes and have neither the time nor the manpower to enact them all. Contrary to the idealistic notions of many candidates, this ticket is refreshingly sincere in what they believe they can accomplish, evidenced by their slim but concentrated platform focusing on a handful of key issues.

A GUSA executive with the ability to engage the student body and generate input can bridge the gap between students and the entity tasked with expressing their desires to the administration.

C C

Smithsonian Selfies? — The museum has mounted a strict policy against the usage of “selfie sticks” on the grounds of potential damage to artwork and patrons.

Measles Mania — After an outbreak of 121 cases originating in Disneyland, California, physicians suspected a case in Fairfax, Va. Despite symptoms, test results determined that this was not measles.

Cat Café — A kickstarter D.C “cat cafe” — in which people pay to play with cats and have a meal — has 3,000 people signed up already.

That’s On Us — Lucky viewers got to preview a total of seven minutes of the new “House of Cards” season after Netflix accidentally released, and promptly removed, it nearly three weeks ahead of schedule.

T-Minus 99 — The 99 Days Club at Tombs began last Saturday; any senior who goes every day until graduation will get his or her name written on the wall.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Jay Tsai

Mental Health Although most of their platform is replete with unfeasible satire, Luther and Rohan have treated mental health and wellness on campus with the utmost seriousness. With clear directives, including required Title IX training for all university administrators and faculty and communication with Counseling and Psychiatric Services and the Office of Billing and Payment Service to explore subsidizing CAPS appointments using tuition, the candidates demonstrate a thoughtful commitment to workable solutions for a system that is deeply flawed.

Regarding sexual assault, the candidates are equally forthright, pushing for thorough reporting and a revamped Code of Student Conduct accounting for different types of sexual misconduct. While theirs was not the only ticket to address mental health and sexual assault on campus, the firm and knowledgeable stance they took on the matter, despite satirizing several other topics, validates the urgency of such issues and their thoughtful approach to them.

Campus Plan With the potential to define the future of student housing and neighborhood relations for the next two decades, the stakes for the upcoming 2018 Campus Plan negotiations, which include proposed constructions and changes to housing policy, are very high. Luther and Rohan recognize the importance of this matter and are approaching it with a fresh perspective.

They will focus on magnifying student interest in the issues this plan puts at stake while simultaneously facilitating a more comprehensive dialogue between students and neighborhood residents.

The ticket seeks to increase student participation on community boards with the hope that neighbors will begin to see students as something other than a faceless mob of troublemakers. This generalization has created a contentious relationship that has resulted in countless noise and conduct violations.

Our endorsement of the Luther-Rohan ticket is not without concerns, however.

While their confidence in their ability to mobilize students seems well founded, the candidates’ strategy appears to be based more on theory than concrete initiatives at this point, and therefore is something they will need to develop further.

If elected, the pair must immediately put forth a realistic set of goals for their term and assemble a diverse and experienced cabinet with whom they can work to demonstrate their commitment to the job to both the student body and the administrators and endow their term in office with legitimacy.

Nevertheless, the ticket offers an insightful and refreshing perspective on student government, to the extent that naming any other ticket as a comparable alternative would undermine the legitimacy that Luther and Rohan have struggled to defend to skeptical students throughout their entire campaign.

Luther and Rohan have used their characteristic satire to gain attention and shed light on issues critical to the future of this campus. If elected, we believe they can harness this humor to create a dynamic GUSA executive.

This week on

[ CHATTER ]

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

Anderson De Andrade (COL ’16) examines alcoholism and its invisible nature: According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, one in every 12 adults is affected by alcoholism...

It is a disease that infrequently manifests itself in the outside physical appearance of a victim, yet frequently leaves its toll on the inside. It affects mothers, fathers, children, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, teachers and everyone in-between... Alcoholism lingers in the darkness, however there are groups out there seeking to bring this invisible disease to the light.”

“

​Prof. David J. Collins, S.J. reflects on Georgetown’s history of Jesuits and slaves: For modern Jesuits, it is impossible to be unmoved by the history they recount. Disappointment at this history is shared by every Jesuit I know and the Maryland Province of Jesuits has long committed itself to keeping the history of this injustice in the light of day.”

“

Find this and more at

thehoya.com/chatter

Mallika Sen, Editor-in-Chief

Brian Carden, General Manager

Toby Hung Deputy Campus News Editor Andrew Wallender Deputy Campus News Editor Kristen Fedor Deputy City News Editor Elizabeth Cavacos Deputy Sports Editor Tyler Park Deputy Sports Editor Andrew May Sports Blog Editor Michael Fiedorowicz Deputy Guide Editor Gianna Pisano Deputy Guide Edtior Daniel Almeida Deputy Opinion Editor Parth Shah Deputy Opinion Editor Sarah Kim Opinion Blog Editor Isabel Binamira Deputy Photography Editor Dan Gannon Deputy Photography Editor Julia Hennrikus Deputy Photography Editor Cleo Fan Deputy Layout Editor Elana Richmond Deputy Layout Editor Matthew Trunko Deputy Layout Editor Katherine Cienkus Deputy Copy Editor Becca Saltzman Deputy Copy Editor Gabi Hasson Deputy Copy Editor Reza Baghaee Deputy Multimedia Editor

Jason Yoffe, Director of Accounting Brenna Muldrow, Director of Corporate Development Genie Douglass, Director of Marketing Ellen Zamsky, Director of Human Resources Lena Duffield, Director of Sales Matthew De Silva, Director of Technology Laura Tonnessen Monika Patel Sean Choksi Joseph Scudiero Tessa Guiv Caroline Gelinne Sarah Hannigan Gregory Saydah William Lowery Zoe Park

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Contributing Editors & Consultants

Sam Abrams, Katy Berk, Zoe Bertrand, David Chardack, Nick DeLessio, Robert DePaolo, Ben Germano, TM Gibbons-Neff, Michal Grabias, Chris Grivas, Allie Hillsbery, Emma Hinchliffe, Emma Holland, Penny Hung, Nicole Jarvis, Sheena Karkal, Hanaa Khadraoui, Natasha Khan, Lindsay Lee, Charlie Lowe, Hunter Main, Jackie McCadden, Suzanne Monyak, KP Pielmeier, Eitan Sayag, Katherine Seder, Sharanya Sriram, Sean Sullivan, Natasha Thomson, Kevin Tian, Laura Wagner, Emory Wellman, Christina Wing, Michelle Xu, Janet Zhu

Board of Directors

Sheena Karkal, Chair

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OPINION

friday, fEBRUARY 13, 2015

The Right Corner

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • Garriott

The Mouse and the Undergrad S Mallory Carr

The AntiScience Debate F

ew labels carry the weight and popular ridicule that accompanies the “anti-science” label. Being “anti-science” is akin to pre-Enlightenment backwardness and indicates an individual should not be taken seriously by polite society.

Unfortunately, what it means to be “anti-science” has evolved, especially when discussing climate change. The Republican Party has been caricatured as “anti-science,” full of ignorant, Biblethumping, climate change deniers.

Such a representation, although a convenient image easy to dismiss in debates, is woefully inaccurate. Most Republicans, especially elected leaders, recognize climate change is real. In fact, at the end of last month, all but one U.S. senator voted acknowledging the accepted fact. The dichotomy of “believers” versus “deniers” set up by cable news is not as prevalent in practice as those pushing the “anti-science” label would have Americans believe.

Politicians who oppose environmental regulations aimed at lowering carbon emissions (such as a carbon tax and EPA regulations) do not necessarily believe that climate change is not real or even that it is not a serious threat to our way of life. They simply disagree about how to approach the issue.

Some believe nothing should be done unless China and India take significant steps to reduce their emission, others support a more free-market approach to developing new, cleaner types of energy, still others support a carbon trading scheme. The views are diverse and many, but this does not make those that hold them “antiscience.”

However, there are some factions within American society that absolutely do deserve the “anti-science” label and accompanying shame, as evidenced by the recent measles outbreak and continued fight to ban genetically modified organisms.

Robert F. Kennedy and Jenny McCarthy helped to popularize the antivaccine movement and the (false) autism connection. As elites on the coasts bought the argument, children across the country were put at risk. California, one of 20 states which allows parents to opt out of vaccines for philosophical reasons, has below average immunization rates with NPR reporting that affluent coastal neighborhoods have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

As The Atlantic pointed out last year, this has led to schools in Los Angeles having similar vaccination rates as those in the South Sudan.

Anti-GMO advocates have similarly caused a serious threat to global public health. The anti-GMO crowd’s antiscience crusade has done quantifiable damage to the developing world and hurt the fight against global hunger.

Despite no reputable study finding any adverse health effects from GMO crops, influential groups such as the Sierra Club continue to fight their use.

One particularly devastating example of the consequences the antiGMO crusade has wrought can be seen in India with the case of Golden Rice.

The genetically modified strand of rice contains more Vitamin A than normal and has been ready for use since 2002.

Were it planted and harvested, Golden Rice would significantly reduce occurrences of blindness, disabilities and deaths associated with Vitamin A deficiencies. However, environmental groups opposing GMOs have prevented its use, successfully lobbying against Golden Rice’s approval. A 2014 study published in Environment and Development Economics quantified the human cost of this delay, showing that over 71,000 children’s deaths per year could possibly have been prevented had anti-GMO organizations not delayed the introduction of Golden Rice.

While the GOP has been unfairly presented as the “anti-science” party for opposing certain environmental regulations, actual anti-science movements have resulted in tragedy and countless heartaches for families across the world. Anti-science f actions within the American political system, no matter how fringe or institutionalized, wield an undeniable influence as their ideas and actions have far-reaching consequences.

Being “anti-science” is a serious threat in the modern world and the label should not be applied frivolously or for political gain. After all, no party has a monopoly on stupidity.

Mallory Carr is a senior in the College. The Right Corner appears every other Friday.

everal weeks ago, fresh after the new semester’s first snow, I was getting ready to go to work at my on-campus job. Pulling the sleeves of my coat onto each arm, I walked into the kitchen of my off-campus townhouse to grab a snack before leaving.

As I opened the refrigerator door, I heard a faint squeaking. Oh no, I thought, I hope that’s not what I think it is? My fears were confirmed as I peered at the gap between the stove and the fridge and found a frightened mouse, paws securely stuck to a glue trap. Fantastic, I thought, just what I wanted to deal with before going to work.

I ran downstairs and told my roommate what I had just seen, hoping in the back of my mind that he would step up and deal with it so that I wouldn’t have to. Using a broomstick, he dragged the trap and mouse out from its hiding place, leaving it in plain view on the kitchen floor.

The mouse, probably exasperated after hours of being trapped, was still squealing, unable to free itself from the confines of the glue. I felt bad for the poor creature.

I’ve never had to deal with a mouse before, a surprising fact considering that I lived in a Henle apartment during my sophomore year where rodents of unusual size (read: Georgetown rats) were a common sighting every time I did laundry after dusk.

Not knowing what to do with it, I decided that the best course of action was to set it free. Isn’t that the point of sticky traps?

Putting on a dirty pair of gardening gloves, I took the trap outside, mouse still very much intact. Unfortunately, I realized that I was no match for the adhesive binding its tiny paws to the trap. Any gentle attempt to pull the creature free only resulted in louder squeals and biting at my fingers.

Realizing that my quick fix would not work as easily as I had expected, I

Peering at the gap, I found a frightened mouse, paws securely stuck to a glue trap. Fantastic, I thought, just what I wanted to deal with before going to work. brought the mouse back inside to devise a new solution. I consulted Google for advice, scrolling past results that recommended simply crushing the mouse and to end its misery. I realized that freedom was perhaps not the intended purpose of this kind of trap.

Nonetheless, I was determined to free my new friend. I found an authoritative WikiHow article titled “How to Remove a Live Mouse from a Sticky Trap” and decided that all hope was not lost. The article recommended

dousing the mouse’s paws in vegetable oil, thus loosening the adhesive and setting the mouse free. Perfect.

My roommate fetched the oil and we poured a few capfuls as best we could around the creature.

The article said that the mouse should eventually work itself free, but upon closer inspection, it appeared he was merely licking the oil, temporarily distracted himself from the prison he was in.

After waiting for several minutes,

and responding to a text from my boss asking why I was half an hour late, I decided that I had to take action. Putting the gardening gloves back on, I took the mouse back outside and began to gently pull its body away from the trap.

The mouse squealed less this time and I could see that the glue was wearing thin. I managed to free its front paws, but after releasing its second tiny hand, I noticed that it had stopped making any noise. Its rapid breathing had ceased and it no longer seemed intent on escaping from the trap to return to its mouse wife and children, who likely resided in my floorboards.

Picking up the trap, I realized the mouse was dead. Seeing its lifeless eyes ended the hour-long emotional journey I had embarked upon with this small fellow. I gave it a proper burial — right into a plastic bag thrown into the trash. The mouse reminded me of the hamster I had as a young child, and I realized that the two were not so different after all. To paraphrase Band of Brothers, an excellent mini-series I watched over break, “In another world, me and the [mouse] could have become good friends.”

Throughout the rest of the day, the memory of the poor mouse stayed with me. It made me ask myself important questions like at what point do we begin to value life? I have no reservations when it comes to killing the numerous cockroaches I encounter in my basement. But a mouse seems vaguely human. It suffers, it feels affection. After all, mice and humans share about 85 percent of their genetic coding.

In death, I honored my brief friend by naming him, deciding that it was fitting to name him after my favorite progressive-house producer — Deadmau5. Perhaps I am too sensitive. Or not enough.

Ashton Gariott is a senior in the School of Foreign Serivce

HOYA HISTORIAN

VIEWPOINT • Aleman

Surpassing the GUSA’s History of Mental Health Barrier Flairs and Triumphs

A

lmost exactly two years ago, I was putting away a cart of books in the Lau stacks when I looked down at my phone. I was overwhelmed by a group text that had begun among my friends and numerous missed calls. In the next 10 minutes, I pieced together that one of my close friends had been taken out of our dorm on a stretcher and was rushed to the hospital.

In the following weeks, I gradually came to understand that my friend had attempted suicide. I also learned that depression was the unfortunate life-long battle my friend would have to endure. For the next two years, I have been on an emotional roller coaster, full of highs and lows, attempting to being the best possible support system for one of my best friends.

Although not directly, mental illness has been a part of my life. I myself have never had to seek treatment, but I have witnessed the utter failings of Georgetown’s i n te l l e c t u a l health institutions. They have been as loud as Thomas Lloyd’s article in The Hoya about his mistreatment as an RA and as quiet as the daily struggles of my friend’s depression.

These cases are only ones of many.

Yet the culture of Georgetown has repeatedly pushed these individuals and their stories under the rug.

Even though I do not currently suffer from a mental illness, I cannot stand by and let this negligence occur. I personally feel the responsibility to do everything in my power to reform the broken system before me.

I currently am a member of the Georgetown University Student Association Senate Intellectual Health Sub-committee. Under the leadership of Elizabeth Oh, our purpose is to aid in improving and publicizing existing mental health resources offered to students and we are currently working on a media campaign to explain financial payment to CAPS. Many students have the preconceived notion that CAPS only offers three free appointments. After the three appointments, students must either have their insurance pay or pay for their sessions out of pocket.

However, the existing policy of CAPS says no such thing. CAPS is willing to work with students to find a suitable payment method for each of their sessions. Illustrating these polices is important to make institutions on campus like CAPS more accessible to all students.

In addition, we are working in conjunction with members of the administration to enact meaningful reforms within Georgetown’s mental health institutions. In order to achieve this, we have spent the last semester building a survey to distribute to students.

The purpose of this survey is to gather data about the perceived effectiveness of these institutions as well as the overall mental wellness of students. The survey will then lead us to recommend useful and practical reforms to the administration.

We are also working with existing student groups including Active Minds, Creating Survivors and the National Students of Actively Moving Forward. Each group has their own unique purpose, which target different aspects of mental health. The sub-committee has made a point to partner with these groups to enhance programming and making it available to students campus wide.

For example, Creating Survivors is working on creating a peer support program that will be implemented within the next year. The program will center around students supporting other students, a different system of help than that provided by a psychologist.

Despite all the initiatives the Intellectual Health sub-committee has taken on, it is important to realize that at the end of the day, students must take the first step.

This committee can do everything possible to reform mental health institutions across campus, but students have to first feel comfortable using them.

To do this, there needs to be a constant discussion about mental health and psychological well-being. The stigma that currently revolves around the issue only serves as a barrier to students seeking help.

Mental health cannot and should not be the point of discussion solely when a grave injustice is reported to campus media.

Rather, we need to continually bring these issues to the forefront of the minds of students and administrators. Georgetown elicits fantastical student achievement, but our success should never come at the cost of student’s mental health.

There needs to be a constant discussion about mental health and well-being. The current stigma only ever serves as a barrier for students seeking help.

Annie Aleman is a junior in the School of Foreign Service and a member of the Georgetown University Student Association Intellectual Health Sub-Committee.

I

t’s February at Georgetown: election time. So what’s on the ballot? For the most part, a slate of candidates proposing fairly modest reforms. With the possible exception of the Luther-Rohan ticket, candidates suggest small, agreeable steps, which nip at large and complex problems on campus. None of them — as reported this past Tuesday in The Hoya (“No Candidates Linked to Secret Societies,” A5, Feb. 10, 2015) — are members of secret societies. And no candidate proposes radically changing the Georgetown University Student Association. It may be the least flashy GUSA election on record.

Admittedly, there have only been so many GUSA elections. The organization is very young, founded in 1984. But student government at Georgetown is a very old tradition. Elections across its forms have featured both local and national celebrities.

Condé Nast (C 1894), whose eponymous company publishes Vogue, the New Yorker and other magazines, won an election to become the Matthew first student president of Georgetown’s first student government, the Yard, in 1891. Raymond Reiss (C ’19), after whom Reiss Hall is named, led the same organization in 1920. Phillip Lauinger — father of Joseph Mark — took the helm in 1922. Senators, congressmen, and even the founder of The Tombs — Richard McCooey (C ’52) — all held the post in the first half of the 20th century.

Past elections have brought contentious debates into the limelight. In 1996, one ticket in the executive election promised to dismantle GUSA from within. The candidates sought to return to the model on which the Yard had operated, which included incorporating student leadership across campus. It coexisted with a student council that included representatives from key — read: old — student groups on campus, Mask and Bauble, The Hoya, etc. and, in their account, didn’t suffer from the narrow elitism they attributed to GUSA. The pair overspent their campaign allowance and were disqualified.

While subsequent tickets adopted a similar reforming mission, none succeeded in transforming GUSA. When a writein ticket proposing the revival of the Yard did secure control of the GUSA executive, they more or less shirked their campaign promises. They were the first write-ins to win.

Another group of would-be GUSA reformers published a pamphlet called ‘Common Sense’ — pretending an overhaul of revolutionary magnitude. They managed to place six referenda related to constitutional reform on GUSA’s 1999 ballot, but even though all six passed, the incoming GUSA executive put none of them into force.

Georgetown’s most memorable election matched celebrity with divisiveness. In 1967, Bill Clinton was on the ticket. Clinton numbered among a handful of reformers seeking to dismantle the Yard — historical

anchor to a fractious system of student government. By the 1960s, the Yard was only one of a number of levels of student government co-existing and competing for influence. Clinton neither won his election nor brought about an end to the Yard, although it succumbed to the creation of unified student government in 1969.

Then there are the Stewards. Menacing unseen student life since a slip of tongue first revealed their existence in the 1980s, their various “societies” have loaned much needed drama to GUSA before. The 2013 revelation that several executive candidates were members of the historically conservative organizations exploded into controversy in the election’s final days.

But why so much drama? Writing in The Hoya, Tucker Cholvin (SFS ’15) and Tom Christiansen (SFS ’15) describe GUSA campaigns as “a good deal of time, energy and effort expended on winning a position that is meaningless on the whole” (“GUSA, A Comedy of Errors,” A3, Feb. 10, 2015). They jest that the current executives might salvage their importance Quallen by holding a referendum on whether Tuscany’s Pizza should be revived, or if President DeGioia resembles Admiral Ackbar from “Return of the Jedi.”

It’s a catchy argument, which contains some truth. GUSA elections, heralding doorknocking, fliering, tabling, the creation of websites, platforms, and innumerable interpretations of Healy are undoubtedly shrill, look-at-me affairs. But the authors could have written the same of any elections. And in each case they would be wrong to call the positions “meaningless.”

Cholvin and Christiansen practically admit this. They praise, correctly, the LutherRohan ticket for putting forward a serious and considered platform on the issue of mental health.

But why does this matter if Cholvin and Christiansen assert that the position is meaningless anyway?

But such absolute skeptics of student government need only consult its most recent accomplishment — a cost-sharing agreement that makes it possible for student groups to hire American Sign Language interpreters for their events. Previously, these groups bore the full costs of hiring interpreters, which even the best-intentioned could rarely afford.

Student government changed that. So take pride in our boring, self-important election. Take care to cut through the noise and enjoy the parody. But don’t forget that many of our peers face real problems at Georgetown. Student government cannot remedy all of them, and it cannot perform miracles. Expect no utopia. Still, student government can make a meaningful difference, and who we choose to fill the role matters.

Matthew Quallen is a junior in the School of Foreign Service and the current Georgetown University Student Association Historian. Hoya Historian appears every other Friday.

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THE HOYA

PAGE FOUR

NEWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE The 2015 GUSA executive election vice presidential debate occured Wednesday.

See story on thehoya.com.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

verbatim

CANDLELIT PRAYERS

“

I’m a pro-funk individual. It sounds like a really fun idea, and I hope they’re able to parade down U Street.”

Emily D’Arco (COL ’18) on the Funk Parade, which will be held in May. See story A7.

from

BILLBOARD

NATE MOULTON/THE HOYA

Students gathered for a candlelit vigil in Red Square on Wednesday night to commemmorate the lives of three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who were shot and killed Tuesday. See full story at thehoya.com.

DRAKE’S NEW ALBUM After only leaving some subtle hints on Twitter and Instagram, Drake pulled a Beyoncé and surprised us with a 17-track mixtape. blog.thehoya.com

English Dept. Tops Fossil Free Storms Directors’ Meeting National Rankings JACK BENNETT & TOBY HUNG Hoya Staff Writers

PATRICJA OKUNIEWSKA Special to The Hoya

Georgetown ranked number one out of 65 colleges in USA Today’s list of the best English programs in universities across the nation.

The list, which was generated by college data site College Factual, ranked English major programs according to various criteria, including the salaries earned by graduates in the early and middle stages of their career, the percentage of students with the major at the university across bachelor, masters and doctorate degrees, and a measure of how the major incorporates interdisciplinary studies into its curriculum.

The English program offered by Georgetown was credited with offering a particularly multidisciplinary education that encourages graduates to go into successful, high-paying careers in a variety of fields.

Associate professor of English Nathan Hensley said that the program is successful in providing students with the opportunity to succeed in any profession.

“Increasingly we are seeing that employers from all different disciplines and fields are looking to the liberal arts, and to English in particular, as providing skills that can be transferrable across all different professions,” Hensley said. “What will certainly be needed are people who can approach complex problems creatively and who can write with vividness and clarity and who can think in autonomous and exciting ways.”

Associate professor of English Jennifer Fink agreed that the English program teaches students a series of skills in preparation for a variety of jobs in the future.

“Most of the careers that exist now did not exist when I was in college.

The idea that college is going to prepare you for a career is to prepare you for the past; a true education prepares you for an unknown future,” Fink said. “I think English is the best major for this, in that you are gaining rhetorical, critical thinking and writing skills that are applicable to almost any profession. …You are gaining an understanding of history, culture and art — of what it means to be human.”

The ranking also noted the close relationships formed between the students and professors as one of the greatest contributing factors to their later success in respective careers and professions.

Fink noted the multitude of careers her students have pursued after graduating with an English degree from Georgetown.

“An English degree from Georgetown gives you the kind of writing and critical thinking skills at the very highest level that employers today are looking for,” Fink said. “Majors not only pursue a vast array of fields, but they’ve been phenomenally successful in these fields. The major prepares them to be truly great communicators, critical thinkers and innovators.”

Furthermore, the program gives English majors a great deal of flexibility to focus on various different projects.

Kayla Corcoran (COL ’15) said that she is able to pursue many topics she finds interesting as an English major.

Her thesis, in particular, mixes elements from multiple subjects, including history, economics and politics.

“The English program at Georgetown lets students run with their ideas. As a student myself, I have been able to pursue many projects, including my thesis, which is interdisciplinary within the English department,” Corcoran said. “I feel very encouraged to push myself and challenge myself, and if there’s something I want to do to enrich my experience, the English department has been very supportive of that.”

In addition, the English program provides students with many opportunities to attend community-building events. Three English majors recently created the English Majors Association and Friends of Majors to form a closer community among students in the program.

Kayla Corcoran (COL ’15), Mary Zost (COL ’15) and Will Fonseca (COL ’16) created the English Majors Association and Friends of Majors group last year.

“It’s a nice place to get to take your interests out of the classroom and connect on a deeper level with people who are just as interested in English.

It’s been something that helps bring together a community,” Zost said.

However, students and faculty of the English department recognize the dedication and efforts of the English professors as the main reason behind the ranking.

English Department Chair and associate professor Kathryn Temple noted the effort and talent needed to make the department as successful as it is.

“Our department is excited by this recognition of our commitment to undergraduate study. It truly does take a village,” Temple said. “All of us work hard and work together to be sure our majors and all of our undergraduate students have a great experience.”

After representatives from GU Fossil Free met with five members of the university board of directors Wednesday night to discuss complete fossil fuel divestment, six members of the group attempted to walk into the full-body meeting of the board of directors Thursday afternoon, where they were denied entry by Georgetown University Police Department officers.

As per University President John J. DeGioia’s agreement with GU Fossil Free in November to allow the group to meet with the board of directors on the issue of divestment, GU Fossil Free met with five members of the board on Wednesday, including William Berkley, Maurice B.W. Brenninkmeijer (GSB ’86), William J. Doyle (CAS ’72), Carol Keehan and Rev. Joseph P. Parkes, S.J. During the meeting on Wednesday, members of the board informed the group that they would vote on divestment during their board meeting in May or June. In addition, board members requested the group to potentially reformulate its proposal to include partial divestment.

The meeting between GU Fossil Free and the board members came after the Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility’s rejection of GU Fossil Free’s original proposal two weeks ago. CISR offered an alternative proposal of targeted divestment.

After the meeting, GU Fossil Free released an open letter to the board of directors expressing its gratitude to the board for its consideration.

“We sincerely thank [the members of the board] for listening to our presentation and responding with thoughtful questions,” the letter read. “Your attention and presence were deeply appreciated.”

However, the letter also expressed the group’s dissatisfaction with the CISR’s suggestions, as they defended their proposal for full divestment. “[V]arious board members [requested] us to ‘make a list of priorities’ regarding divestment. In their words, asking for full divestment from the top-200 fossil fuel companies is a large step,” the letter read.

“GU Fossil Free will not provide the board with a ‘list of priorities’ … because full divestment is about integrity at its core. … If our university opposes any of the practices of any of the top 200 companies, based on human rights abuses or global climate change, George-

town University therefore equally opposes all companies.”

At the same time of the meeting, GU Fossil Free organized a rally in which around 30 students marched from Red Square to McShain Lounge, where the meeting was being held.

Sam Kleinman (COL ’16), an attendee at the rally, said that he was excited to participate in a student movement for justice.

“This is a symbolic movement to move us away from the violence and murder that goes along with fossil fuels and toward a more sustainable future,” Kleinman said.

“I’m really happy to be here and this is just the kind of movement Georgetown needs.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson was also present at the rally. Olson said that he appreciates GU Fossil Free’s efforts in expressing its beliefs.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to share my personal opinion on GU Fossil Free, [but] we appreciate and value the rights of students

“Fossil Free students have made significant contributions.”

RACHEL PUGH Director of Media Relations

to express their views,” Olson said.

“We know this is an important issue for many students.”

In a statement issued to THE HOYA

by University Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh, GU Fossil Free was granted the meeting with the five board members because of its contributions to raising awareness on divestment.

“While the GU Fossil Free proposal is not being considered by our board of directors, the GU Fossil Free students have made significant contributions to the alternative proposal,” the statement read.

“Because of this and in light of GU Fossil Free’s contributions to the conversation on campus, it seemed appropriate to have [them] meet with some of our board members to discuss these contributions while the board is here on campus this week.”

On the following day, six members from GU Fossil Free, including Caroline James (COL ’16), Patricia Cippolitti (COL ’15), Grady Willard (SFS ’18), Christina Libre (COL

’17), Daniel Dyelewski (COL ’15) and Elaine Colligan (SFS ’15), attempted to gain access into the full board meeting at the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center.

Although GUPD officers denied the group entry into the meeting, the group read out a letter addressed to the board at the door of the conference room.

In the statement read out at the board meeting, GU Fossil Free members further stressed the moral importance of divestment.

“By continuing to profit from an industry so implicated in systemic injustice, we are not only condoning death and destruction — we are enabling and perpetuating it,” the group read out in unison. “Moral consistency demands that we pull our financial and political support from all of these companies.”

James said that the walk-in was necessary in order for board members to fully understand the urgency of divestment.

“After the meeting [on Wednesday], even though we felt pretty much heard, we wanted to take that one last step since we were not allowed to come into [Thursday’s] board meeting to reiterate that this was an urgent and crucial matter,” James said. “So we decided to try to walk into the board meeting and if that was not allowed then to do what we called a ‘mic check.’”

James also said that she thought GU Fossil Free conducted the walkin respectfully.

“The [walk-in] was done completely because we respect the board of directors. … We respect the board and their decision-making power too much to only be heard by five members of what’s a 30-to-40-person body,” James said. “We thought that everyone deserves to be on the same page about who the faces were behind this proposal. We were very polite and tried not to cause any trouble.

We were refusing not to be heard.”

According to the GU Fossil Free Facebook page, the group will be hosting a teach-in entitled “Divestment and Collective Liberation” today, in which it will facilitate short workshops for students on environmental racism, worker struggles in the fossil fuel industry and the role of capitalism in undermining popular democracy.

James said that the teach-in will make students even more aware of the issue of divestment.

“I think the [teach-in] is going to go well,” James said. “We’re continuing to assert our presence through all of the days of the board meeting.”

news

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015

THE HOYA

A5

2015 EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS

GIA Petition Divides GUSA Executive Candidates Ashwin Puri

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown Israel Alliance presented endorsement criteria to the Georgetown University Student Association executive candidates over the past few weeks, including language that advocated for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish democratic state and the opposition of any Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution at Georgetown.

Although all candidates eventually refused to sign an agreement, Tim Rosenberger (COL ’16) and Reno Varghese (SFS ’16) agreed to revised criteria supporting free and open discussion, a decision which received GIA’s endorsement yesterday.

At midnight today, Rosenberger and Varghese, Chris Wadibia (COL ’16) and Meredith Cheney (COL ’16), and Joe Luther (COL ’16) and Connor Rohan (COL ’16) signed a different petition written by Elijah Jatovsky (SFS ’16), co-founder and former co-president of J Street U Georgetown, which encourages campus-wide debate and discussion.

The BDS movement, which advocates for the boycott of and divestment from Israeli businesses internationally, as well as the sanctioning of the Israeli government for alleged human rights violations against Palestinians, serves as a major point of contention between Israeli and Palestinian advocacy groups on college campuses nationwide, including at Georgetown.

GIA’s initial endorsement criteria, reformulated in January, asked candidates to agree to oppose any BDS resolution.

“We affirm our support for students and student groups that advocate for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state,” the endorsement criteria read. “We will firmly oppose any Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolution at Georgetown University, standing instead for positive campus dialogue that brings different Georgetown communities together around a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

GIA Marketing and External Secretary Ari Goldstein (COL ’18) and GIA President Harper Weissburg emphasized the need to make certain student groups on campus feel intellectually and emotionally safe and secure as justification for including BDS language in the original criteria.

“We need to keep in mind those students whose intellectual and emotional security are jeopardized every time an inflammatory, degrading and anti-Israel symbol, comment or activity comes to campus,” Weissburg said.

Weissburg also emphasized when speaking to GUSA candidates that it is every student’s right to talk about BDS

on campus and that it is the obligation of GUSA to always allow the conversation to occur.

“We prefaced [talks with GUSA candidates] by saying it is every students right, if they so wish, to bring BDS to campus; obviously, we are a pro-Israel organization so we don’t want it to pass, but it is every student’s right to bring it if they so wish,” Weissburg said.

The revised statement, agreed to by Rosenberger and Varghese, encourages campus dialogue and a push toward ending conflict but does not include mention of BDS. “We affirm our support for students and student groups that advocate for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. We will always stand for positive campus dialogue that brings different Georgetown communities together around a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the GIA statement signed by the RosenbergerVarghese campaign reads.

Students for Justice in Palestine President Leila Shebaro (SFS ’15) said that BDS serves to support the rights of those in Palestine.

“The BDS call is fundamentally about supporting human rights,” Shebaro wrote in an email. “Specifically, it delineates the non-violent tactics of boycott, divestment and sanctions designed to hold governments and corporations accountable for their roles in human rights violations against Palestinians.”

However, according to the GIA, BDS movements across the country serve as hate speech, stifling the conversation of Israeli-Palestinian peace on college campuses nationwide.

“We originally chose to include language opposing a BDS resolution in the firm belief that, as hate speech, BDS has no place at Georgetown,” GIA wrote in a statement endorsing Rosenberger and Varghese. “On every campus at which a BDS resolution has been presented to student government, it has ultimately served to shut down dialogue and divide the very communities that need to come together.”

GIA presented their initial endorsement criteria to four campaigns: Sara Margolis (COL ’16) and Ryan Shymansky (COL ’16), Abbey McNaughton (COL ’16) and Will Simons (COL ’16), Wadibia and Cheney, and Rosenberger and Varghese.

Margolis and Shymansky and Wadibia and Cheney agreed to the initial wording of the group’s endorsement request, citing the inclusion of preemptively opposing a BDS resolution as stifling free expression on campus, as well as overstepping GUSA’s jurisdictional boundaries. Both tickets later retracted their support, citing initial confusion and later realization of possible repercussions of signing the statement.

“We firmly believe in the rights of all students and student groups to advocate for their beliefs in a respectful manner; however, we do not believe it is appropriate for GUSA to take a stance on international issues,” Margolis and Shymansky wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The Wadibia-Cheney ticket agreed and said that GUSA was not a platform for such political agreements.

“GUSA isn’t the platform to express political views and we condemn behavior of student groups on campus attempting to corner and politicize GUSA campaigns,” Wadibia and Cheney wrote in a public statement.

The McNaughton-Simons campaign, which initially discussed supporting the leadership resolution with GIA, came to an eventual decision to not support the endorsement criteria.

McNaughton and Simons deny that they ever reached a full consensus on the issue, although they did participate in discussions with GIA. “Our staff was engaged in supportive conversations with GIA leadership regarding the language for the past few weeks. In our continued conversations with GIA we did not explicitly sign on to the agreement,” McNaughton and Simons wrote in an email to The Hoya.

GUSA executive candidates Joe Luther

“GUSA isn’t the platform to express political views.”

Meredith cheney (COL ’16) and Chris wadibia (COL ’16)

(COL ’16) and Connor Rohan (COL ’16), who were not approached initially, as GIA assumed they were a joke ticket, affirmed in Wednesday’s vice presidential debate that they met with the GIA this week and decided against signing on to the leadership statement.

“As soon as we found out that the Joe and Connor ticket was a serious ticket, we went to them straight away,” Weissburg said.

“We received an email, we asked them to elaborate — we decided to go against it — then we met with them and we still decided to go against it,” Rohan said.

In a statement sent to candidates and campus media on Wednesday, Jatovsky called upon GUSA campaigns to sign a new leadership statement as a first step to reconciling differences and moving forward in confronting divisive issues.

The Rosenberger-Varghese, WadibiaCheney and Luther-Rohan tickets signed this petition today at midnight. Margolis and Shymansky decided to remain in agreement with their original state-

ment.

Jatovsky’s statement reads: “We affirm our support for students and student groups that advocate for what they believe is a constructive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will always stand for positive, safe and constructive campus conversations and activism that brings different Georgetown communities together around a peaceful and just resolution to this conflict.”

McNaughton and Simons did not sign Jatovsky’s petition, but instead released a statement stating their support of free discussion.

“In light of recent events, we would like to affirm our complete support for free expression and open dialogue regarding any issue on campus,” McNaughton and Simons wrote. “As individuals, we will always support positive, safe and constructive conversations and activism at Georgetown. Furthermore, we support constructive dialogue between all students and student groups that seek a peaceful and just solutions to current local, national and international issues.”

Jatovsky said he is pleased that all candidates, regardless of their decision to sign any petitions, have stated a desire to encourage free and open speech on campus.

“I believe all the candidates have addressed the issues I raised in my essay head on and have demonstrated leadership in building a campus environment that fosters constructive dialogue,” Jatovsky wrote in an email to The Hoya.

When the language of the GIA’s initial endorsement criteria was leaked to the Georgetown student body early this week, including their opposition of any BDS resolution, students turned to social media platforms and other facets of mass mobilization in opposition.

Nabeel Zewail (SFS ’15), Ziad Saqr (NHS ’15) and Aziz Saqr (NHS ’16) co-wrote an opinion piece on Facebook titled “GIA silences transparency on Israeli-Palestinian Issue in GUSA Campaign” and created a Facebook event encouraging students to attend Wednesday’s GUSA vice presidential debate to ask candidates about this particular issue.

According to Zewail, opposing the GIA endorsement criteria was fundamentally important as including a provision on preemptively opposing a BDS resolution suppressed free expression on campus.

“When I heard about this, we realized this is no way for Georgetown to operate in terms of restricting free speech on an important issue,” Zewail said.

Zewail also emphasized the need for GUSA executives to distance themselves from taking sides on international political issues. However, he advocated for GUSA executives to focus on how such issues are relevant to tangible Georgetown

institutions.

“Our position is not that we want the GUSA executive to be involved in international political issues, but rather the very narrow issue of how Georgetown spends its endowment and whether it is consistent with our social justice mission,” Zewail said.

Goldstein and Weissburg said that including BDS dialogue in their endorsement statement did not serve the purpose they intended.

“We came to the realization in conversations with the campaigns and with community members, that despite our inclusion of BDS in the name of dialogue and free speech, it ended up alienating many students, alienating many students that we are hopeful to engage in dialogue with,” Goldstein said.

Jatovsky cited the BDS movement as extremely contentious, a movement that needs to be addressed cautiously because of its polarizing nature.

“What is viewed by many in the Jewish community as a movement that undermines dialogue and establishes insecurity is viewed by many in the ArabAmerican community as a legitimate — even necessary — political expression that addresses their frustration over the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and lack of diplomatic successes in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Jatovsky said.

Shebaro also emphasized the importance of GUSA serving as a venue where free speech can be expressed on campus without repercussion.

“We believe that it is GUSA’s responsibility to protect and encourage free speech, particularly about politically charged and sometimes confusing issues such as BDS, which often make for the most productive discussions,” Shebaro said. “Without creating a space to discuss BDS, we make it impossible for us as a community to educate ourselves and take an informed stance on the subject.”

While both students for and against the GIA’s endorsement criteria acknowledge that there is a ways to go in regards to fostering greater communication between groups on campus, Goldstein acknowledged that this conflict serves as a foundation to inspire future conversation and to improve Israeli-Palestinian dialogue at Georgetown in the future.

“I hope that the Palestinian and Arab community on campus can take our efforts over the past few days in good faith and the goals that we share of promoting dialogue and coming together on this issue,” Goldstein said. “I hope that the negative and positive experiences this week will build more of a ground for engagement and communication in the future.”

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news

THE HOYA

Friday, February 13, 2015

FBI Director Discusses Race Inequality Remains Stark in District COMEY, from A1

discussed how law enforcement treated the Irish unfairly and often regarded them as drunks and criminals in the early 20th century.

“The Irish had some tough times, but little compares to the experience on our soil of black Americans,” Comey said. “That experience should be part of every American’s consciousness, and law enforcement’s role in that experience, including in recent times, must be remembered.

It is our cultural inheritance.”

Comey said that he believes that now most police officers enter law enforcement with a genuine desire to serve others, regardless of race, but are eventually swayed by subconscious biases and cynicism.

“Police officers on patrol in our nation’s cities often work in environments where a hugely disproportionate percentage of street crime is committed by young men of color,” Comey said. “Something happens to people of good will working in that environment. After years of police work, officers often can’t help be influenced by the cynicism they feel. A mental shortcut becomes almost irresistible.”

Comey, who, according to DeGioia, expanded new FBI agents’ training to include a mandatory visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, stressed the importance of law enforcement officers making a conscious effort to resist acting on racial biases, which are often subconscious.

Comey also proposed increased outreach in order to lessen the level of distrust that is often present between police officers and the communities they serve.

“We simply must see the people we serve,” Comey said. “But the seeing needs to flow in both directions.

Citizens also need to really see the men and women in law enforcement.”

Deep-rooted societal problems also often lead young black men to crime and create tensions with law enforcement, Comey said.

“So many boys and young men grow up in environments lacking role models, adequate education, and decent employment. They lack all sorts of opportunities that most of us take for granted. … Young people in those neighborhoods too often inherit a legacy of crime and prison,” Comey said.

Comey cited data that indicates that the percentage of young black men who are not working or not enrolled in school is nearly double than that of young white men.

He then praised President Barack Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” ini-

INEQUALITY, from A1

SOPHIA FAABORG-ANDERSON/THE HOYA

FBI Director James Comey discussed racial tensions between black communities and law enforcement Thursday. tiative, which aims to close opportunity gaps experienced by young men of color and help these young men find good jobs or go to college by offering them mentoring and support networks.

In August, the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation collaborated with the U.S. Department of Education on the initiative by hosting a data jam examining the educational outcomes for minority students.

Comey said that the initiative is an important effort in solving some of the deep-rooted problems that cause young black men to turn to crime.

“Law enforcement is not the root cause of the problems in our hardest hit neighborhoods,” Comey said. “Police officers, people of enormous courage and integrity … are in those neighborhoods risking their lives to protect folks from offenders who are a product of problems that will not be solved by body cameras. We simply must speak to each other honestly about all these hard truths.”

Comey’s remarks were followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by McCourt School Dean Edward Montgomery.

Some of the students in attendance noted that Comey’s speech was unique.

“I thought he gave a really wellbalanced presentation of what’s been going on lately,” Samantha Foggan (MSB ’15) said.

Nick Manley (SCS ’17), who at-

tended the lecture, said he thought that Comey’s frankness was rare among government officials.

“He’s definitely shown a genuine effort, which is rare among government appointees. … He actually seemed to have a genuine concern for these events that are happening and [wanted to] make a genuine effort to change,” Manley said.

Vice President for Mission and Ministry Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., invited students to continue the conversation about law enforcement and race in a lunch this afternoon in the Healey Family Student Center.

“We would like to provide our students an opportunity to discuss the issues raised by Director Comey at greater length and in a conversational setting,” O’Brien wrote.

Thursday’s speech was not the first time that Comey spoke publicly about the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson and the protests that followed in Ferguson, Mo., and across the country. Comey briefly discussed Ferguson at an event in Salt Lake City, Utah, in mid-August.

However, Thursday’s talk was the first time he spoke candidly about race and law enforcement.

His frank discussion of the matter has garnered national attention, with many news sources, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, covering his speech.

their way to provide.”

Olson said that Georgetown is currently engaged in a variety of discussions on disability and accessibility issues and that the agreement his office reached with GUSA will have a positive impact on student programing.

“This issue of providing interpretation for events is something that has recently become a higherprofile issue on most campuses, including Georgetown,” Olson wrote in an email. “There is a larger conversation on disability and accessibility issues happening now through the Disability Justice Working Group.”

Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh said that Georgetown has always complied with the American Disabilities Act of 1990 and has always provided disability accommodations for students for classes and related academic activities.

“Georgetown has been and continues to be committed to meeting the diverse needs of students with disabilities,” Pugh wrote in an email. “This new agreement on student organization events is a helpful addition, and makes our current practice more predictable.”

Providing American Sign Language interpreters at a one- to a one-and-a-half-hour event costs approximately $500, according to Georgetown University Lecture Fund Chair Marcus Stromeyer (SFS ’15).

“One of the main differences in the current system is that somebody who really needs these types of accommodations doesn’t have the privilege to just go to an event on a whim,” Stromeyer said.

The Lecture Fund has previously covered the cost of disability accommodations out of its own pocket. Stromeyer praised the new development and said that the policy would provide the Lecture Fund with greater flexibility in terms of its budget and accommodating disabled students.

“Everybody knew this was a big issue and at the end of the day, when someone requested accommodations we always met them. It was just very unpractical and very expensive for us,” Stromeyer said.

“I think it’s very cool to see the whole university moving in coor-

dination. … We’re really excited about it.”

Tezel said that the necessity for improved access to disability accommodations and the difficulty student groups face in providing these accommodations came to his attention during a GUSA event last semester when a student requested an American Sign Language interpreter prior to an LSAT prep course and GUSA had trouble securing the funding for such an accommodation.

“That was the point where we kind of realized that this was something that we needed to do,” Tezel said.

Brown and Tezel both highlighted the need to hire an access coordinator at Georgetown. Tezel plans to engage the Office of Student Affairs in serious discussions during the remainder of his term and expressed hopes that the university would recognize the necessity of an administrator to coordinate non-academic disability services.

“It is now more critical than ever to commit to hiring an access/ADA coordinator to manage the funds, handle requests, and provide technical assistance on accessible programming,” Brown wrote.

Heather Artinian (COL ’15), who was born deaf and received cochlear implants when she was nine, said that she sees this agreement as a step in the right direction.

“Before this arrangement, students may have been hesitant to request accommodations and attend events due to lack of funding or statement of accessibility requests in the event promotions,” Artinian wrote in an email. “The new funding arrangement in addition to required flyer statements will reassure incoming and current students who may need accommodations (and hopefully increase participation).”

Artinian said that Georgetown still has many steps to take toward accessibility.

“However, this does not necessarily mean that efforts should stop there,” Artinian wrote. “There is always room for improvement and we, as a community, should work toward increasing accessibility on campus as a whole. One example would be hiring a disability coordinator.”

64.71 percent median household income gap and a 72.76 percent educational achievement gap between whites and blacks. Ranked among the 50 states, the District has the seventh-highest financial gap by race.

A list of rankings of the 50 states and the District of Columbia by Politico Magazine starkly portrayed the inequalities in the District. Although D.C. was home to the highest per capita income, lowest obesity rate and highest percentage employed in computer, engineering and science industries, it also housed the highest violent crime rate, highest GINI index for income inequality, lowest average math and reading scores in the eighth grade and the lowest home ownership rate.

This lack of affordable housing, which was a focal point of the 2014 mayoral election and continues to be a problem with the inadequacy of homeless shelters this winter, cements the reality of inequality, according to Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality Senior Fellow Indivar Dutta-Gupta.

“Housing prices are a major challenge, especially in the rental market, for low, moderate and frankly, even middle-income families who have a tough time finding housing in areas that are affordable and also convenient for school and work,” Dutta-Gupta said.

The Office of the D.C. Chief Financial Officer revealed in a Jan. 28 study that low-income residents were more likely to leave the city; only 20 percent of people in the lowest quintile of income remained in the city from 2004 to 2012. According to Dutta-Gupta, low-income residents move from D.C. to suburbs like Prince George’s County in Maryland to reduce the housing expenditure, but this concurrently increases their transportation costs.

Inequality in the District, which houses both powerful politicians near Capitol Hill and people living in extreme poverty east of the Anacostia River, has long been an issue. McCourt School of Public Policy professor Harry Holzer pointed to the disparity between the growing wealthy population in northwest D.C. and a large low-income populace.

“People with law degrees and M.B.A.s flock to Washington because there’s a lot of well-paid work for them,” Holzer said.

“Not necessarily in the government as much as all the law firms and the other businesses that have contracting relationships with the government.”

Holzer added that he believes the city’s inequality problems could possibly be worse than what is reported.

“If anything the official data might

even understate how bad it is,” Holzer said. “Men with criminal records ... don’t even show up in the data. If they were included, things might look even worse.”

Lazere concurred, noting that D.C. has a unique economy with few middle-paying, blue-collar jobs, creating a disparity between the large wealthy population and those in low-paying jobs.

“Because it’s a place where a lot of people come to visit or come for their work, it’s got a lot of hospitality jobs, a lot of food service, a lot of office maintenance jobs, and those tend to be low-paying and part-time. Those are the jobs where the wages aren’t going,” Lazere said. “At the same time, you’ve got a lot of people who are in the knowledge business, related to the federal government, lawyers … and those are the kinds of jobs where wages are growing.”

In inequality, however, D.C. is not alone among large American cities. Atlanta, San Francisco, Miami, Boston and New York City all have analogous or greater levels of income inequality.

Lazere attributed this nationwide trend to factors such as declining union power, growing globalization and the outsourcing of jobs to countries with comparably lower wages.

“Really, for the past 40 years, the economy has failed to provide broad prosperity,” Lazere said. “It’s not about workers being less productive or less educated. Workers are more educated than they were 40 years ago. Productivity continues to grow.

It’s just that the basic connection between more productive workers [and] better pay just isn’t happening.”

In an attempt to address the issue, the District voted in 2013 to increase its minimum wage to $11.50 over a three-year period despite the federal minimum wage remaining stagnant at $7.25. Holzer was skeptical that the minimum wage hike would cure the inequalities.

“If you force them to pay $10 ... or $12 for a product that right now costs $7.25, which was the federal minimum wage before it started going up, there’s a decent chance that some employers are going to hire fewer people,” Holzer said. “I don’t think that effect will be enormous. … But you’ve got to wonder about that risk about employment loss.”

Still, the flood of reports over the last few weeks expressing the magnitude of the inequality demonstrates the increased attention recently given to the issue.

“Inequality is a big American problem,” Holzer said. “It’s magnified in D.C. because of the extremes of both ends. The whole country is wrestling with what to do about this.”

Law Center Shuttle Disability Funding Expanded Expands to Capitol Hill ACCOMODATIONS, from A1

academic year, 80 percent of the cost of disability accommodations will be contributed, while GUSA will fund only the remaining 20 percent. If this criteria is not met, the sharing agreement will not take place until the 2017-2018 academic year.

“It was really an ad hoc system that didn’t work for student groups right now,” GUSA President Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) said. “This just takes us one step closer to making the fiscal process easier for students.”

Tezel added that he expects to see an uptick in disability accommodation at student events now that there will be a centralized system to fund the service.

The GUSA Finance and Appropriations committee met Wednesday and passed proposed changes to the GUSA Senate bylaws that will create the GUSA Access Fund if passed by the full Senate. The amendment to the bylaws outlines the agreement that GUSA reached with university administrators.

“Our goal in putting it in the bylaws is continuity,” Fin/App Chairman Robert Shepherd (MSB ’15) said. “It’s a solution that spans several years so we wanted to make sure that people down the road still had access to this.”

GUSA Undersecretary of Disability Affairs Lydia Brown (COL ’15), one of the primary advocates of the new policy, praised Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and Director of Student Engagement Erika Cohen Derr.

“This is a major step in the right direction, and a concrete result of years of advocacy by numerous students for improved disability policies on campus,” Brown wrote in an email.

However, she also expressed disappointment that disability accommodations have not been provided through a centralized system until now.

“Georgetown has always lagged behind on disability issues, and this is no different,” Brown wrote. “Disabled people are not considered a priority. We are told that we are too expensive, too needy, and too burdensome, and that anything we ask for and receive we should be grateful that someone went out of

SHUTTLE, from A1 additional bus stop today.

“Simply, the change was in response to student demand to improve the GUTS services and we were able to accommodate the request,” Morey wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Morey said that no additional cost was anticipated for the new stop. However, the new stop created logistical difficulties that took time to negotiate.

“Adding the stops had to be done in a way that was not going to interfere with schedules of the shuttles that run between Main Campus and the Law Center, involved specific on Capitol Hill where buses are allowed to embark and disembark passengers, and to keep in mind budgetary demands,” Associate Vice President for Federal Relations Scott Fleming (SFS ’72) wrote in an email.

Fleming explained that the schedule had been designed to accommodate student interns who would be disembarking at specific locations on Capitol Hill.

“The schedule includes peak times in the morning, midday and the end of the typical workday. It would be impossible to fit everyone’s internship schedules, but we are optimistic, with some flexibility on students’ parts, many will be able to take advantage of this service,” Fleming wrote.

Anebi Adoga (COL ’16) submitted a proposal for a GUTS stop on Capitol Hill to IdeaScale in fall 2013, receiving 656 upvotes and 5 downvotes. He said he initially thought of the proposal while riding the GULC shuttle.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if it just made stops at a few of those places,’” Adoga said.

The additional stop provides students with internships on the Hill a more direct connection from campus to their jobs.

Most student interns currently take the GUTS bus to either the Dupont or Rosslyn Metro and then take the Metro to Capitol Hill.

Adoga estimated that a student who has an internship on the Hill three days a week spends roughly $18 per week on the Metro.

In addition to making transportation more convenient for student interns, Adoga said he hopes the added stop will make internships more popular throughout the Georgetown community.

“It’s going to encourage more students to pursue Hill internships because it will be logistically easier to do so,” Adoga said.

The Georgetown University Student Association followed the IdeaScale petition with a survey in the spring to gauge the

support of student interns.

Although GUSA is no longer involved, with Adoga having taken the lead, Adoga said the survey demonstrated the extent of the demand for the additional stop and brought the issue to the administration’s attention.

“I really want this to be a grassroots bottom-up thing, so getting that support took some time. And once I was able to do that, we had to go through and see which of these ideas is the most feasible,” Adoga said. “That was just a step to show that there is tangible popular support for this initiative.”

Adoga said that final approval was needed from GULC before the project could become reality, adding that administrators were helpful and open to student input throughout the process.

“There were approvals that needed to happen from the Law Center, from the city, you know, so many moving parts,” Adoga said. “I’m very appreciative of the fact that they … listened on this. This was one of the things where it was student input that prompted administrative action.”

Fleming, a former Georgetown student intern, also said he hopes more students will take advantage of the opportunity to work on the Hill now that transportation is easier.

“Having interned for my home-state senator when I was a Georgetown student before the GUTS bus system even existed, I think it is great that the university has been able to make this work. Now, I hope we will see strong ridership taking advantage of the service,” Fleming wrote.

John Reilly (COL ’17) currently interns three days a week for Rep. Paul Tonko (DN.Y.). He elaborated on the costs of transportation and said it takes him about two hours round trip to get to work by taking both the GUTS bus and the Metro.

“I was surprised by the costs. It’s surprising how quickly it adds up. You feel like you’re putting more money on your Metro card every other day,” Reilly said.

Reilly said he is excited about the new GUTS stop and thinks it will be a positive change for Georgetown students.

“It would make it a lot easier for students who already have internships and it’s also a great incentive for students who are on the fence about interning because it makes it so much easier,” Reilly said. “It lowers the transaction cost, you probably wouldn’t have to pay as much, and it makes it quicker to get there.”

Hoya Staff Writer Suzanne Monyak contributed reporting.

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Professors Recognized With College Dean’s Award Emily Tu

Special to The Hoya

Fr. David Collins, S.J., professor Anthony DelDonna and professor Cristina Sanz received the 2014 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and were recognized Jan. 27 at the 2014-15 Convocation of the College Faculty.

The College Dean’s Award is designed to honor excellence in the teaching of undergraduate students and was presented to its first recipients in 1996. The awards have remained competitive, with about 10 nominees submitted by departments each year, according to Dean of Georgetown College Chester Gillis.

“All of the nominees were outstanding and an inspiration,” Gillis wrote in an email.

In the selection process, dossiers were compiled of each nominated professor’s past teaching evaluations, a statement outlining his or her teaching philosophy and accounts from past and present students about their experiences in each professor’s classes.

The final dossiers were then submitted to a selection committee composed of three previous awardees. This year’s committee included professor Angel de Dios, professor Joseph Murphy and professor Nicoletta Pireddu.

DelDonna, a professor in the depart-

TESS O’CONNOR/THE HOYA

Fr. David Collins, S.J., left, professor Cristina Sanz and professor Anthony DelDonna, not pictured, received the 2014 College Dean’s Award.

ment of performing arts, expressed how it felt to receive the award.

“It means a great deal,” DelDonna said. “I have very talented, dedicated and deserving colleagues, and so for them to put forward my name and then to actually be recognized by the award was very humbling.”

DelDonna began teaching at Georgetown in 2003 and specializes in 18th-century Neapolitan music and culture. His previous research on opera, performance practice, ballet and archival studies has been published in a range of scholarly volumes. At Georgetown, DelDonna teaches courses on topics such as the history of opera and Baroque-era music.

Of the 57 total recipients in the award’s history, DelDonna is the fifth performing arts faculty member to be recognized, and this is the first nomination he has received. It is common for professors to be nominated several times before they receive the award.

Last year, Maya Roth, an professor and chair of the department of performing arts, won the Dean’s Award.

DelDonna emphasized the creation of dialogue between professor and students as an integral component of his teaching style.

“I don’t think of it as teaching; I think of it as sharing,” DelDonna said. “It’s about seeing my students as individuals. I’m not looking at it from the perspective of a grade necessarily, or whether you’re right or wrong, but what you’re bringing to the discussion. For me, that’s where I place the premium — in the act of learning it-

self and sharing.”

Collins joined Georgetown’s department of history in 2004 after 20 years of Jesuit training and doctoral studies.

He has published extensively on the cultural history of the late Middle Ages with focus on the cult of the saints, Renaissance humanism and learned magic. Collins teaches courses including “Saints and Society” and “Europe from the Millennium to the Black Death.”

Collins highlighted teaching as a way to bridge his passion for his subject and his students.

“Teaching is all about human engagement,” Collins said. “The students here are so bright, and so curious, that its fun to be able to brainstorm with them. Even if it’s brainstorming with them over a document I’ve read a hundred times before, the perspectives they come to it with, the questions they pose, their willingness to disagree — it’s all engaging, thrilling and beneficial.”

When asked about his teaching style, Collins explained the lessons he learned from teaching at high school as a component of his Jesuit training.

“It was ingrained in me, from the very beginning, how to read certain signs,” Collins said. “The ability to read the effectiveness of how you’re engaging students with the material, how you’re communicating — that’s something that a college professor has to do.”

Collins also emphasized the atmosphere created by his fellow Jesuits and his colleagues in the history department.

“We’re constantly sharing ideas,” Collins said. “I’ve very much benefitted

from the two groups of people around me who have created a culture of undergraduate teaching as very important.”

Sanz has been teaching for over 20 years, and is a professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. Her areas of focus are second-language acquisition, bilingualism and Spanish linguistics, and her volume “Mind and Context in Adult Second Language Acquisition” received the 2006 MLA’s Mildenberger Prize for an Outstanding Research Publication. Sanz teaches intensive-track Spanish courses and classes on bilingualism.

Both Collins and Sanz have been nominated for the Dean’s Award before.

Sanz expressed her devotion to teaching and what has driven this dedication for so long.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” Sanz said. “I like that I can make a difference; that I can have a student in front of me who is an ‘empty bag’ at the beginning of the semester, a ‘bag’ that leaves my classroom at the end of the course with knowledge that it didn’t contain before.”

Sanz explained the holistic approach she takes to education and compared it to her previous experiences in Spain.

“In Spain, like in many parts of the world, teaching is very teacher-directed,” Sanz said. “Knowledge comes from the teacher and students do not contribute; I don’t believe that’s the best way to teach. I think that to learn you have to be involved — learning is active, and learning happens through the exchange of ideas.”

Funk Parade Plans Expansion 2028 Action Plan Aims To Beautify C&O Canal Daniel Silbert Special to The Hoya

Funk is ready to take over U Street in May. After the first annual D.C. Funk Parade was forced to inhabit V Street last year after the city government would not grant the parade permission to close U Street, the organizers are petitioning the new administration vigorously to move the second edition of the parade onto the larger neighborhood.

The event is an all-day, nonstop music festival and includes a day fair, a parade and musical performances. It will be followed by events at bars and music venues along the U Street corridor.

“We don’t want this to be an event where you have a stage with a bunch of people watching,” Funk Parade Co-Founder Justin Rood said. “It’s open for everyone to come be a part of it; to come dressed as you want with whatever noisemaker and be a part of the fun.”

The idea for the parade, which was first held last May, came to Rood in a dream.

“One night I went to sleep and I had this amazing dream about a funk parade and I woke up and thought this was something that needed to happen,” he said.

Lacking experience in organizing musical events, Rood partnered with Chris Naoum, who had experience in the D.C. music industry through his organization Listen Local First.

Rood, a D.C. native who lives on U Street, envisions the event as an expression of the U Street neighborhood. The area is a cultural hub of the District, with numerous music venues and D.C. landmarks like Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Historically a predominately African-American neighborhood, U Street has been the

site of triumphant moments such as Marion Barry’s first inaugural parade, as well as turbulent times during the 1968 riots.

However, without the full support of the administration of former Mayor Vincent Gray, last year’s Funk Parade, which was attended by around 30,000 people, was forced to relocate to V Street which, according to Rood, could not accommodate the size of the event.

“I think that last year was a phenomenal event. The only low point was that the parade was the best part of the day but the route that the city required us to use was simply too small,” Rood said. “It was inadequate and the crowd ended up spilling onto U Street spontaneously.”

In the past, the U Street corridor was routinely shut down, both officially for parades and spontaneously by people celebrating in the streets. That trend, however, has declined over the past 20 years. The city has not shut down U Street since 2008, when it held an event honoring landmark restaurant Ben’s Chili Bowl.

This year, Funk Parade organizers are confident that they will be able to move the festival to its original intended location along U Street.

“I think we’re optimistic that, given the success of last year’s event, and how well we’ve worked with city officials to ensure that their concerns were taken into account, I’m hoping that there will be greater understanding from the new administration,” Rood said.

Though the administration of newly inaugurated Mayor Muriel Bowser has not yet granted the parade the right to shut down U Street, the mayor has been supportive of the parade.

“We are a pro-funk admin-

istration,” Michael Czin, communications director for Mayor Bowser, said in a January interview with radio station WAMU. There is also widespread support for the parade in the community. In addition to securing the support from over 100 local businesses, the organizers of the Funk Parade have created a petition on Change.org to help secure the closure of U Street for the parade. The petition has nearly 1,300 signatures, but needs a minimum of 5,000 to be sent to the city government.

Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) said that the parade has garnered the support of the local government.

“The Funk Parade is put on by a collaborative group broadly supported by the community and their effort last year was a success that celebrated our local culture and brought an economic boost to surrounding small businesses,” Nadeau wrote in an email to The Hoya. “As they go through the permitting process, I look forward to working with the organizers and the relevant District agencies to ensure this year’s parade can safely proceed down U Street.”

Rood plans for 50 extra hours of music programming this year and expects the event to outdo the success of last year.

Although the parade is still months away, the event already has some Georgetown students excited.

“I’m a pro-funk individual,” Emily D’Arco (COL ’18) said. “It sounds like a really fun idea and I hope they’re able to parade down U Street.”

Funk Parade organizers will also host a kickoff fundraiser on March 12 at the Howard Theater.

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Matthew Larson Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown section of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal will be undergoing extensive renovations over the next few years to fix lingering issues under the Georgetown Business Improvement District’s 2028 Action Plan.

The historic site, which is located between M Street and K Street parallel to the waterfront, became a national park in 1971 and will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2028. Significant portions of the waterway have fallen into disrepair after years of neglect.

To coincide with the anniversary, the 2028 Action Plan, a set of 75 action items to improve the Georgetown neighborhood, proposed by Georgetown business leaders and community members in 2013, focuses on repairing and beautifying the Georgetown section of the canal.

Future action will include a new dock near 34th Street, fixing Lock 3 of the canal, repaving the path that runs parallel to the canal and improving numerous safety features. A partnership between Georgetown BID, the National Parks Service and Georgetown Heritage, a nonprofit organization founded in 2014 to oversee the renewal of the C&O Canal, will pay for the improvements.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Bill Starrels, who represents Single Member District 5 in the Georgetown region, said he believes that the plan will create a drastically better environment in the canal area for residents, businesses and visitors.

“Quite frankly, the agenda we have in Georgetown is we want to make sure the people were able to appreciate and use that area,” he said. “It seems like something worth trying.”

Georgetown Heritage Director and BID Destination Manager Maggie Downing said the 34th Street dock will open by summer, having recently received approval from the Old Georgetown Board.

The dock will serve as a launching point for paddleboats, motorized boats and barges that could be used for educational tours.

Downing explained that the decision to build the dock as the first phase of the plan was made to generate more interest and capital for the rest of the project.

“We want to provide people more opportunities and reasons to come out and enjoy the C&O Canal,” she said. “[The dock] was selected in part because it was easier to do quickly than a lot of the other projects.”

Starrels added that the original location of the dock, located further east along the canal, had

generated backlash from residents. After hearing complaints, the original design was changed to reflect their feedback and the dock was moved west.

“Initially there were some concerns about it,” he said. “It would be a little too intrusive in the heavy residential areas. [But] when they moved it a little further downstream, it placated people.”

After construction of the dock, Georgetown BID will hold a pilot program for other initiatives that are part of the 2028 Action Plan to gauge the general public’s interest.

“We’re thinking of having a pilot project,” Downing said. “What we’re doing right now are short-term solutions that we can enact as we begin to plan for the longer-term solutions.”

One focus outlined at a community meeting held by BID last Tuesday was the restoration of Lock 3, which is located near 30th Street and in danger of collapsing. BID CEO and President Joe Sternlieb said at the meeting that the damage from the overflow from a potential failure would be greater than the cost to proactively repair the lock.

The BID will also open a visitor center in the Georgetown Park complex this summer to help tourists navigate the area and explore the canal region. The center will be staffed entirely by volunteers.

Starrels said he wants to see how the community embraces opportunities the dock provides during the summer before following through on other plans. “[We need to] get some more activity down by the canal, which overall will increase the activity on the business side of things,” he said. “[The canal] needs a lot of money for rehabbing the walls and other aspects of the locks which need work.”

Georgetown University, which has been involved with the entire 2028 Action Plan since the outset, has participated in brainstorming ideas to improve the atmosphere around the canal, though the university is not physically located along the canal. Assistant Director of Community Engagement Jamie Scott endorsed the renovations. “[We] actively participated in discussions about plans for the C&O Canal and other ideas in the 2028 plan,” he said. “The university was very supportive of the Georgetown 2028 process.”

Starrels was appreciative of the community’s embrace of the improvements included in the 2028 Action Plan for the canal.

“I’m happy with how the neighbors and companies [over] that way liked the idea,” Starrels said. “It seemed like a very nice idea for the canal that will work very well.”

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Conrad Showcases Boobypack on ‘Shark Tank’ BOOBYPACK, from A10

BOOBYPACK

The Boobypack is a sports bra with water-resistant pockets to hold valuables securely. The apparel costs between $54 and $60 per pack and is marketed to the music festival scene.

also has garnered attention from Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post and Perez Hilton.

“I was an English major at Georgetown so most of my classes were about Dickens or creative writing,” Conrad wrote. “I never thought about starting a business, and I never took a marketing or sales course but getting a liberal arts degree definitely promotes creativity — which I think is the key to innovation. There aren’t many barriers to entry for startups anymore.”

The Boobypack website prominently displays the hashtag #BelieveInYourShelfie along with other Boobypack merchandise.

Currently the website is offering a limited edition “Shark Tank Top.” The Boobypack team also addresses concerns of cell phone radiation as a result of storing a phone next to skin. The website recommends turning off phones when stashing them in the Boobypack or using a Pong Protective case (also sold on the Boobypack website), just in case.

“At the moment there’s no known link

between cell radiation and cancer but a lot more research needs to be done,” a statement on the website reads. “So in the meantime, why risk it?”

The Pong Protective case can shield the body from up to 95 percent of cell phone radiation. It also strengthens cell phone signals up to 27 percent, increases range by up to 13 percent (for the iPhone 5 or 5s) and protects phones from drops of up to six feet.

The Boobypack apparel costs between $54 and $60 while the Pong Protective Case costs $49.99.

Weirens said that she would buy the Boobypack because of its utility.

“It’s the same price as something I would pay for at American Apparel but it is probably more useful,” Weirens said.

Conrad said she plans to expand the Boobypack line in the future. The Boobypack team is currently working on the Bootypack, a line of functional spandex.

“The way I see it, if you have a good idea and enough passion to make some noise about it, there’s no excuse to not start something,” Conrad wrote.

Campus Technology Receives Award CONNECTED, from A10 the IDG Enterprise events team.

In particular, the university was commended for its “mobile gamification” highlighted during New Student Orientation. During NSO, students used their mobile devices to check in to a number of locations as part of an on-campus scavenger hunt activity.

Projects were judged by a panel of executive peers on criteria such as sophistication, scale and business outcomes.

“The Digital Edge awards competition was extremely competitive, with many nominations demonstrating enormous business value from mobile, data analytics and other digital innovations,” McCrory said.

According to Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer Lisa Davis, the university will continue to build upon the Connected Campus experience with measures including the potential elimination of the plastic GOCard.

“We are doing a lot of piloting new technologies to create that mobile GOCard, so you can check into buildings, you can get your meal plan, all those things that we do currently with our card.

Students never lose their phone, but they do lose their GOCard,” Davis said.

However, Kaylah Denis (COL ’16) said she is worried that technology cannot be counted on for

something as crucial as the GOCard.

“I think it’s unnecessary to replace something as simple as a GOCard with technology, especially when technology is so unreliable at times,” Denis said.

Davis added that the university is committed to bringing students and staff a fully digitally integrated campus experience.

“The use of these new technologies is very important for our students,” Davis said. “We are very proud and very excited about Georgetown winning this award and being recognized as a digital leader.”

Despite attempts to digitally enhance campus learning, Harshita Gaba (COL ’15) said that she is hesitant about the use of technology in classrooms, especially since many of her teachers do not use such tools to the fullest.

“I’m in a seminar that’s experimenting with it [technology in the classroom], it’s the American Studies English. I think we’re using it because we’re trying to, but I don’t think it really accentuates the experience at all,” Gaba said.

Gaba, additionally, said that she is disappointed in the Wi-Fi networks on campus.

“I use GuestNet all the time,” Gaba said. “I never got SaxaNet to work. I don’t know how the printing system works, it actually consistently does not work, I have to redownload the system every time.”

SUDOKU

Special to The Hoya

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Researchers to Study Flooding Emily Tu

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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

A team of researchers from Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the next occurrence of a glacial outburst flood.

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The National Sacience Foundation awarded a team of Georgetown and University of Texas at Austin geoscience and history researchers a $25,000 rapid response research (RAPID) grant to travel to Iceland to study a glacial outburst flood.

The team won the grant in November 2014 and will travel to Iceland when the flood occurs, although the timing for the flood is not yet known as it is a natural occurrence.

Researchers will collect water and sediment from the flood to find data that has never been collected in the past.

The team, composed of adjunct assistant professor of geosciences Douglas Howard, professor of history John McNeill, a Georgetown undergraduate student Lena Bichell (COL ’15) and a group from the University of Texas at Austin, will collect data from the glacial outburst flood as it occurs.

Bichell, an environmental biology major, was selected by Howard and McNeill to take part in the project.

She said she is eager to travel to Iceland as a member of the research team.

“As an undergraduate student, I was reassured by the fact that I could contribute,” Bichell said. “Not only is this an opportunity to gather information, but the professors involved very much feel like it’s benefitting us students, which is great.”

Glacial outburst floods take place when a body of water contained by a glacier melts, forming a sub-glacial lake that eventually breaks through the ice and catastrophically releases a flood. A glacial outburst flood can be triggered by a volcanic eruption, as is the case with the outburst flood the research team will study, or can be caused by glaciers melting because of global warming.

Outburst floods linked to climate change are more common in midlatitude high elevation areas such as the Himalayas, the Peruvian Alps and Northern Canada.

Glacial outburst floods have devastating effects on the surrounding environment, according to Howard.

“Anything in its [the flood’s] path is basically wiped out,” Howard said.

“There’s so much power, so much energy with these floods that they essentially strip the surface of the channel in the direction of flow clean down to the bedrock.”

The RAPID grant was awarded to the research team in November 2014 and will be in effect until the end of October. According to NSF’s Program Director of Geomorphology and Land-Use Dynamics Richard Yuretich, the number of grants awarded varies from year to year, but averages three to four.

“The award depends on the uniqueness of the event and the ability of the proposal to use this to advance knowledge of fundamental processes that occur at the Earth’s surface,” Yuretich wrote in an email to The Hoya. “These glacial outburst floods are among the most catastrophic that occur on Earth.

Obtaining data on the magnitude of these events is difficult, since they often occur without warning and the results can be devastating.”

RAPID grants are awarded to proposals that demonstrate severe urgency in the availability of and access to data, facilities and equipment in the cases of unanticipated events that require quick-response research.

The research team began working on the proposal once they received indications in August that the activity of the Bárðarbunga volcano would eventually lead to a glacial outburst flood because of the melting of the Vatnajökull glacier that overtops the volcano.

The group from the University of Texas at Austin includes professor and C.B. Smith Centennial Chair of Geography and the Environment Timothy Beach, Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography and the Environment Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach and doctoral student of geography and environment Samantha Krause.

Beach was previously a professor in Georgetown’s Science, Technology and International Affairs program for 21 years.

Howard emphasized the unique research opportunities presented

by the imminent glacial outburst flood.

“This catastrophic outburst flood may only occur once in the life of this volcanic eruption. These kinds of events are very ephemeral; they don’t happen very often,” Howard said. “They awarded the grant so that we could observe it, and [these outburst floods] are rarely observed or collected data from like we have proposed.”

A glacial outburst flood can last from hours to several days, giving the researchers a narrow window of time to travel to Iceland and study the flood when the event unfolds.

The research team will monitor changes in the water chemistry and temperature at certain locations along the channel, as well as collect waterborne sediment samples in order to analyze the effect of the outburst flood on the site’s geomorphological features.

Data like this has never before been collected throughout the entire process of an outburst flood.

“This very possibly could be the largest [glacial outburst] flood in the history of the world that we’ve studied and put boundaries on,” Beach said. “It gives us an upper boundary on what geomorphic agents can do.”

The study will contribute to existing knowledge of glacial outburst floods in terms of how they change the landscape and impact human settlements over time. The project will not only provide a better understanding of the glacial flood in Iceland but can also be used to model similar outburst floods in more heavily populated areas of the world and even on other planets.

Howard has previously conducted research into how the dramatic changes to topography brought about by a glacial outburst flood can be used as analogs for similar floods on Mars.

“Doing studies like this one in Iceland helps us understand and warn people about the dangers of living in flood zones,” Luzzadder-Beach said.

“It also greatly informs our understanding of planetary geomorphology around models to be created to study landforms elsewhere on earth and on other planets.”

Business & Tech FRIDAY, february 13, 2015

business bits GSEI Partners with Niger Delta

The Global Social Enterprise Initiative at the McDonough School of Business and the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative announced last Friday that they would work together in a new partnership. The team’s focus will be to support the “reduction of conflict” in the Delta region of Niger as well as to promote “equitable economic growth.” Both groups will publish information on the progression of the region’s growth and the GSEI will assist the NDPI with building organizational depth. The NDPI will join a group of partners of the GSEI that includes Bank of America, the National Restaurant Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Students Win Venture Capital Competition

A group of MBA students came in first place in the Venture Capital Investment Competition’s West Regional Finals last Friday in Boulder, Colo. In the competition, the students acted as venture capitalists and were judged on their ability to make the best business decisions.

Georgetown’s six-person team emerged victorious and received $1,500 for their efforts, beating out MBA students from University of Notre Dame, University of Arizona, Brigham Young University, San Diego State University, and Thunderbird University. The team will travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., to compete in the global finals April 9.

Barroso Joins Advisory Committee

The Business, Society and Public Policy Initiative welcomed Jose Barroso to its external advisory committee. Barroso served as the prime minister of Spain from 2002 to 2004 and president of the European Commission from 2004 to 2014. Before entering politics, he worked as a visiting professor at the School of Foreign Service and later received an honorary degree from Georgetown. The BSPPI provides nonpartisan analysis of important business issues. Barroso joins other former heads of state on the committee alongside Aleksandr Kwasnieski of Poland and Vicente Fox of Mexico.

Digital Hoyas Win Innovation Challenge

Georgetown MBA students took first place in the Deloitte 2014 MBA Technology Innovation Challenge. The TIC asked competitors to come up with innovative solutions to various digital issues. The “Digital Hoyas,” as the team was called, presented a four-part method to better the car purchasing process: channeling integration, bettering the in-store experience, providing greater price transparency and improving the social media experience.

Study Reviews Men and Women on Valentine’s Day

The McDonough School’s Georgetown Institute for Consumer Research released a study sponsored by KPMG on how men and women approach Valentine’s Day. On average, men spend $116 dedicated solely to their significant other while women spend $77 on both their significant other and friends. Eightyfour percent of men and 87 percent of women will purchase gifts for their partner.

BOOBYPACK

Christina Conrad (COL ’11) invented the Boobypack, a sports bra with pockets to store valuables. After raising funds for the project through a Kickstarter in 2014, Conrad will present the invention to the investors, or “sharks,” on ABC’s “Shark Tank” tonight at 9 p.m. EST.

Alumna Competes on ‘Shark Tank’ Kelsey Quackenbush Special to The Hoya

Christina “CC” Conrad (COL ’11) will be a contestant on an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where she will present her invention, the Boobypack, a sports bra with zipper-enclosed, water-resistant pockets that function to hold and protect a person’s valuables. The episode is scheduled to air tonight at 9 p.m.

EST. “The Boobypack is the one and only fanny pack for your rack,” Conrad wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Our market is 16-45 year old active, music-loving women with a sense of humor and we try to make that apparent in all that we do — whether that’s through an Instagram post of me dressed as Katy Perry’s #leftshark or a Boobypack Soul Cycle ride with an all Haim playlist.”

Conrad came up with the idea in 2013 while she was working at Time Inc. in New York. It was not until Boobypack’s Kickstarter campaign received double its fundraising goal that she decided to commit to the company full time in January 2014.

Kickstarter is a global crowd-funding platform based in the United States. Conrad’s Kickstarter goal was $15,000, yet she received $32,725 from 686 backers. Since 2009, Kickstarter has raised over $2 billion dollars to fund 78,000 projects.

“It’s really cute and I like the idea because

Georgetown Recognized For Digital Innovation Sara Kamouni

Special to The Hoya

Georgetown was the only university among the 25 winners of the Digital Edge 25 award, an honor from IDG Enterprise Media Brands CIO, Computerworld and the CIO Executive Council that recognizes enterprises that have transformed their institutions using digital innovation and technology.

As the only university to receive such recognition, Georgetown stands out among major companies such as American Express, United Airlines and Verizon Wireless, which

also won the award.

Georgetown received the award for its Connected Campus initiative, which is working to leverage mobile, social, cloud and big data to facilitate a connected campus experience.

“Those selected by our judges stood apart for executing initiatives, that for example, drove much greater customer engagement, higher sales conversions and even new lines of business,” said Anne McCrory, vice president of marketing and content strategy for See CONNECTED, A9

DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA

Georgetown was the only university recognized as a winner of the Digital Edge 25 award, acknowledging the university for its innovation in technology around campus.

when I go to concerts, I usually use a fanny pack,” Naomi Weirens (MSB ’17) said. “They have cool designs and colors and I like how they have a customizable part … and they even have a Georgetown Boobypack.”

In Conrad’s promotional video on Kickstarter, she referenced the music festival scene as a target audience for the Boobypack. Some of the largest music festivals in the world such as Coachella and Ultra have

“The Boobypack is the one and only fanny pack for your rack.”

Christina Conrad (COL ’11) Shark Tank Contestant

attracted upwards of 675,000 and 330,000 attendees respectively.

“This next year will be a major growth period for us, especially after ‘Shark Tank.’ In five years, I hope Boobypack is a household name (a la Spanx). There’s a lot of [hard] work to do before that happens but I’m ready for it,” Conrad wrote.

“Shark Tank” is an American reality television show where aspiring entrepreneurs are contestants who pitch their business to investors, also known as “sharks.” Sharks include Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban

and businesswoman, investor and author Barbara Corcoran.

“Either the sharks like your idea and invest in your business for a slice of equity or they don’t and they tear you to pieces,” Conrad wrote. “I can’t say too many details before our episode airs on the 13th but I can say that I’m really happy with how things went. … My Q&A session with the sharks lasted around 50 minutes but they edit that down to around six minutes, so I’m very excited/terrified to see what parts make it in.”

One of Conrad’s best friends, Catie Straut, accompanied Conrad while she was in the tank. Straut is one of the original “Boobypack Angels” and has helped out with partnerships, events and marketing.

“From the beginning, I’ve admired CC’s initiative, creativity and entrepreneurship,” Straut wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Because the Boobypack was created as a fun yet utilitarian response to a need that real girls (myself included!) face in real situations, it quickly became a natural fit for me to support Christina in her endeavors. I’ve loved being a part of ‘Team Boobypack’ from the outset.”

In 2014, Conrad’s Boobypack won the “Mothers of Invention” Competition, a $10,000 female entrepreneurship prize, on Katie Couric’s show, “Katie.” The Boobypack See BOOBYPACK, A9

Hoyalist Promotes Exchange Ashley Miller Hoya Staff Writer

Inspired by the challenge of being unable to get a fair deal on textbooks, two Georgetown sophomores, Ignacio Llado (COL ’17) and Gustavo Martinez (COL ’17), have officially launched Hoyalist, an online Georgetownspecific platform that aims to connect prospective buyers and sellers of diverse items from textbooks to electronics.

The website was originally created by Nicolas Delclaux (MSB ’14), who was unable to promote it effectively because of his busy schedule. After Delclaux graduated, Llado, a friend of his, became interested in taking over and fully developing Hoyalist.

The website features advertisements from Georgetown students, divided into variety of categories, and offers the opportunity for students to reach out to sellers. If a student is interested in one of the advertisements, there is a contact button that puts them in touch with the seller. None of the actual transactions occur through the website as it is limited to bringing buyers and sellers into contact.

The website offers a diversity of goods ranging from textbooks to Hoya basketball tickets to stripper poles.

Llado said that Hoyalist hopes to eliminate the excess of having a middleman, which usually occurs with transactions through services like Amazon.

“The thing is, once you sell it to Amazon, you sell a product

and then you buy it at a much higher price because they are getting a margin there,” Llado said. “Our slogan is ‘Georgetown’s marketplace where only Hoyas decide the price.’”

Martinez sees the platform as offering benefits to both buyers and sellers.

“So for me, last semester I had this [international] finance book that cost me $200, and I was able to sell it for $100 to another Georgetown student through Hoyalist, which was fair for me because I used it for a whole semester, but then I didn’t have to sell it for like $30

“My circle of people I could ask was 100 people.”

IGNACIO LLADO (COL ’17) Founder of Hoyalist

on Amazon,” Martinez said.

The website also helps with the logistics of selling larger items, a function particularly pertinent for Llado and Martinez, who, as international students, frequently have to get rid of furniture.

“All of our friends are seniors,” Martinez said. “They lived off campus, and they had a lot of furniture that they bought. And these are international students, but I have friends from Boston and they aren’t going to carry a couch back.”

Without Hoyalist, students

are limited by their personal network if they want to avoid selling their books to outside companies, according to Llado.

“I myself was actually talking with a lot of seniors trying to buy a TV. Before we started university, I was trying to buy a lot of stuff and then I just realized that my circle of people I could ask was 100 people, 200 people maximum,” Llado said.

Hoyalist also eliminates some of the confusion that comes from the many Facebook requests for basketball tickets or specific textbooks.

“In the university [Facebook] groups, you always see people wanting to buy tickets for the games and everything,” Martinez said. “We wanted to put everything together.”

Devika Ranjan (SFS ’17) said that she appreciates the ease of having an option like Hoyalist to sell textbooks rather than having to deal with Amazon.

“If there was an easier way to do it, instead of me selling my textbooks back to a company that I rented [them] from, or something like that, then I would absolutely take it,” Ranjan said.

Lauren Rubino (COL ’18) concurred, recognizing the difficulty of only using personal networks to find or sell books on campus.

“I’m a freshman but I know last semester, for this coming semester, I texted a lot of my friends to see if they had any books or anything and some of them had never even heard of the classes, so it was hard to get into contact,” Rubino said.