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Georgetown Admits 12% Of Regular Decision Applicants to Class of ’26

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Georgetown College reported an 11% acceptance rate, the lowest across the four schools. The SFS reported the highest rate, admitting 15% of applicants.

Laetitia Haddad

Academics Desk Editor

Georgetown University admitted 12% of regular decision applicants into the undergraduate Class of 2026, a slight increase from last year’s acceptance rate of 11.7%.

The university accepted 3,229 students from a pool of 26,670 applicants in the early action and regular decision cycles. Total applications this year increased by 25% compared to prepandemic levels, continuing last year’s trend of a rapidly growing applicant pool. Applicants received their admissions decision through an online portal March 29.

Georgetown College saw the lowest acceptance rate, admitting 1,863 of 16,307 ap-

plicants for an acceptance rate of 11%. The McDonough School of Business admitted 541 of 4,505 applicants for an acceptance rate of 12%.

The School of Nursing and Health Studies admitted 225 of 1,721 applicants for an acceptance rate of 13%. The Walsh School of Foreign Service admitted 600 of 4,137 applicants for an acceptance rate of 15%.

Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69), dean of undergraduate admissions, said the COVID-19 pandemic influenced applicants’ decisions regarding their course of study.

“Within our applicant pool, there is a notable shift toward business and undecided in the College,” Deacon wrote to See ADMISSIONS, A6

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In less than a week, The Corp saw over 2,500 sign-ups for their new loyalty rewards program. Once users fill out their profile, they will receive birthday rewards and points that count toward free food and drinks.

The Corp Launches Loyalty Program Adora Zheng

Student Life News Desk Editor

O

ver 2,500 individuals have signed up for The Corp’s new rewards program, which launched earlier this week.

The program offers customers the opportunity to earn points from purchases made at all of The Corp’s locations beginning March 28. Points

can be used toward free merchandise, discounts and addons to food and drinks.

Corp Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Nina Yee (COL ’23) said she hopes the program further engages the Georgetown University community with The Corp’s storefronts.

“I’m really excited to see hopefully increased customer engagement and excite-

GU Climate Justice Teach-In Connects Students Across DC Laetitia Haddad

Academics Desk Editor

Georgetown University participated in the Worldwide Teach-In on Climate/ Justice to amplify advocacy for sustainable solutions.

The event, which took place March 30 and April 1, was organized by a team at Bard College’s graduate program in sustainability. The event involves around 1000 communities, including K-12 schools, universities and a variety of religious organiza-

tions representing multiple faiths. The Teach-In aims to provide education on how to build a cleaner future through various panel discussions, informational sessions and art exhibitions.

Laura Rockefeller (SFS ’22), Citizens’ Climate Lobby president — a nonprofit bipartisan advocacy organization that builds support for local and federal climate legislation — said institutions of higher education play a key role in endorsing clean innovation.

“One thing that we tend

to push for is for university presidents to publicly endorse carbon fees and dividends because that sends a message,” Rockefeller told The Hoya. “Often universities have political weight in their local communities and that starts to legitimize carbon fee and dividend as a policy solution. It’s basically taxing carbon emissions.”

Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service Professor Cynthia Wei said the Teach-In situated Georgetown within a wider conversation about sus-

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Georgetown students and faculty collaborated with over 1,000 nationwide groups and local D.C. schools for a Climate Justice Teach-In, which took place March 30 to April 1.

tainability with fellow Washington, D.C. area schools.

“I would really emphasize the unique nature of the cross-campus collaboration across 9 different universities, this includes all DC area universities,” Wei wrote to The Hoya. “This group- which we have yet to name- hopes that this Teach-In is just the start of conversations across our campuses around these critically important issues of climate, justice, and sustainability.”

Nine D.C.-based universities, including George Washington University, American University and Howard University, collaborated to organize cross-campus events, including lectures and information sessions.

Georgetown hopes to continue collaborating with these universities on similar events in the future, Wei said.

“There is a coalition of faculty and staff across these universities; we have been meeting to organize these events, and we hope to continue our work together well beyond this day,” Wei said.

The university supports discussions about the global impacts of climate change, as well as its impact on Georgetown and the District.

“We are thankful for the organizers of the Climate Teach-in for bringing that conversation to the Georgetown community. We all have

ment about rewards,” Yee said in an interview with The Hoya. “It’s really fun because we’ll just be walking around campus now and hear people talking about Corp rewards.

And that’s really redeeming for us. But then I think we’re also kind of looking more toward the future and seeing what other functionalities this reward system has.”

After entering their phone

number while checking out at any Corp location, users receive a text message directing them to a link to finish creating their account.

Users can input their name and birthdate in order to receive birthday rewards and keep track of points, according to Yee. Corp head of Digital Development Will McCormack See CORP, A6

Tidal Basin Cherry Blossoms

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Photo of the Week: As spring arrives in the District, the Tidal Basin cherry blossoms are at peak bloom.

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No. 3 men’s lacrosse built an early lead against Lehigh on March 26, holding off a late comeback by the Mountain Hawks.

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“Mussel Beach,” a playground at 11th Street Bridge Park, honors the environmental impact of freshwater mussels in D.C.

To commemorate the end of Women’s History Month, seven students share how womanhood has impacted their lives.

A new exhibit in the Walsh Building celebrates the rise of punk rock in D.C. throughout the 1970s and 80s.

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Reject Hypersexualization

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Dupont Circle Market will open a Thursday afternoon market for vendors from underrepresented backgrounds.

It is essential to combat the homophobia and hypersexualization of queer women in a patriarchical society.

The second season of hit HBO series “Euphoria” failed to meet audience expectations with an underdeveloped plot.

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Georgetown women’s tennis secured its first Big East conference win of the season with a 6-1 victory over Seton Hall.

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OPINION: Women’s Identity Issue VIEWPOINT • CHILD

VIEWPOINT • TEJANI

Fight for Women in Finance Identity is Not For Your Amusement Sachi Tejani Author

The most recent Georgetown University McDonough School of Business (MSB) report on diversity, equity and inclusion reveals that only 36.14% of undergraduate students for the 2020-2021 academic year are women. More often than not, I find myself as the sole female team member for group projects. But, to my surprise, this disparity has not overshadowed my learning experience despite my initial reservations, which I attribute to my desire to succeed, take risks and make use of the plethora of opportunities I have received.

From the moment I was born, I was labeled a mini version of my father — I looked like him, started to behave like him and eventually developed a deep and profound respect for him. Every detail of his life story, his childhood, his immigration to the United States and his career success, inspires me as I strive to emulate his strength and passion.

My dad came to the U.S. in pursuit of a master’s degree in computer science, but quickly learned that his interest lay in the business side of operations, where he could be his own boss. Through ventures at banks, hedge funds and other types of firms, he became one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met, and began imparting his wisdom to me as early as I can remember.

I learned about different corporations, how to understand news articles and how to follow the stock market. I’d always been a good math student and invested in my education, so I knew my future would consist of high academic and professional vigor. I joined the business club at my high school, where I first encountered the astonishing level of gender inequity in the field. When I asked my dad why that was the case, he simply said that if I entered the business world, I was going to be on my own, with few female mentors to guide me. I was devastated when the male business club leaders denied me a spot on the board and instead chose more men. I couldn’t recognize then that this defeat was neither my fault nor because I was not qualified.

My dad advised me to be confident, to ask

questions and sharpen my already strong social skills. However, when I had to deLucy cide what colleges to apply to, I was met Child with more opposition. I had mentioned my Author interest in business school to my friend’s dad, who didn’t even pause before informing me that this was a tough endeavor and that women are not treated well in business.

“I’m all about that two-for-one special.”

I went home that day and slumped on my Dumbfounded by the confidence with couch until dinner. I couldn’t stop wonderwhich he had uttered these words, I was aling if I even knew what I was getting into.

Despite the discouraging advice, I applied to most certain that I had misheard him.

“Excuse me?” business schools anyway, but that didn’t erase He repeated: “I’m all about that two-forthe doubts. And even after my acceptance to one special.” the MSB at Georgetown, I couldn’t help but Nope — I heard him correctly the first worry that my inherent traits, including empathy and organization, in combination with time. I guess I wasn’t prepared for his my height and gender, might stand in the way uniquely sexual, yet homophobic comment.

I had just met this stranger in the middle of success against my male peers.

I’ve learned that the business world, while of a party. He asked a friend of mine who her unforgiving at times, can be extremely re- “cute friend with the curly hair” was. Initially warding when the right people, ideas and efforts line up. At the beginning of this semester, I went to a “Women on Wall Street” panel, and I walked away saying, “they are badass — that’s going to be me in a few years.” I reached out immediately to one of the panel members and had a really resonating conversation about her career and the DEI at the bank where she works. It is true, the environment at progressive banks has really shifted to incorporate unique perspectives to come about innovative solutions.

More and more women are entering business and are becoming extremely successful.

I have female CEOs to look up to and female graduates to network with. At the same time, disparities in senior management continue to affect women’s achievements. In banking, while entry-level positions have reached an even gender status, the percentage of women drops off at each level of the corporate ladder.

LUCY CHILD The overall momentum in the field is headed AUTHOR in the right direction, but more can be done to integrate women into this historically patriarchal field — whether it’s recognizing alternative leadership styles, bridging the pay gap or improving work-life balance. I’m proud to have been able to adjust my mindset to see flattered, I laughed and gave him my attenmy identity as an asset. Nonetheless, I know tion. When he asked if I was single, I hesithe path ahead will include long hours, arro- tated. Not because I was interested in him or had any intention of lying about my relagant men and constant growth. tionship status, but because I hadn’t gauged Sachi Tejani is a sophomore in the Mc- whether or not it’d be safe to out myself as a queer woman to this stranger. “He seems Donough School of Business. nice enough,” I remember thinking to myself. So I told him the truth and said that my girlfriend had just gone to the bathroom.

He hesitated and I felt my stomach tie into knots as I waited for what I was hoping would be a casual acceptance of my rejection.

Instead, he referred to my girlfriend and me as a “two-for-one special” available for him to take advantage of. He said it with a grin — almost as though he saw it as a charming gesture.

I don’t remember what I did next, I just remember feeling confused. I felt insulted but wasn’t sure if I was allowed to be mad about the offhand comment. The remark seemed

“Whether it’s having my body commented on by random men passing by on the street or being told to smile more because it would make me prettier, these socially acceptable forms of objectification are ultimately intended to strip me of any power and autonomy.”

homophobic, but it wasn’t like anything I had heard before. I hadn’t been threatened or called any sort of gay slur. Instead, I felt the same way I do when I’m catcalled on the street: humiliated.

This was the first time I realized that queer women and queer men experience homophobia differently. I can unequivocally confirm that queer women are no exception to the patriarchal system our society has cultivated. For queer women, homophobia is underpinned by sexism and more specifically, hypersexualization.

While physical and sexual violence against women are frequently cited as the most obvious and egregious displays of sexism, I’ve found that there are also much more subtle forms of harassment that I and many other women encounter in our daily lives. Whether it’s having my body commented on by random men passing by on the street or being told to smile more because it would make me prettier, these socially acceptable forms of objectification are ultimately intended to strip me of any power and autonomy. They reinforce antiquated conceptions of womanhood within our patriarchal society, and they make me feel ashamed of my own femininity. Interestingly, though, I’ve found that these are the same intended effects of much of the homophobia I’ve experienced as a queer woman.

Queer women are fetishized and hypersexualized by straight and cisgender men in an extraordinarily similar way to how any woman is objectified by the same perpetrators. Don’t get me wrong — there is certainly an added layer of bigotry that is unique to the discrimination faced by queer women compared to straight women. However, I’ve found that even homophobia experienced by queer women is compounded by those universal standards of sexism that work to make women feel less comfortable and safe in spaces that continue to be male-dominated.

As a queer person, the unfortunate truth is that I’m no longer fazed by the gay slurs I’ve been called or by the glances of disdain I receive when holding my partner’s hand in public. As a queer woman, though, I find myself still saddened and angered by the overtly sexualized commentary I receive, often from complete strangers.

I’ve only just begun to understand the intersection of my identity as both a woman and a queer person. The clearly negative implications of this intersection as it relates to bigotry do not only affect me, but rather all women, because any space in which hypersexualization is allowed only perpetuates the acceptance of these subtler forms of sexism.

Homophobia in the form of fetishization directed toward queer women is yet another avenue for men striving to maintain their power and control over us. But my identity as a queer woman is no man’s deal of the day.

I am no one’s “two-for-one special.”

Lucy Child is a sophomore in the College.

VIEWPOINT • ABDULLAH

Find Power in Womanhood Billie Abdullah Author

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What has my identity as a woman at Georgetown University meant for me? Well, to answer that question, nothing at all. My identity as a woman is merely a cross section of the totality of my personhood.

This past semester, I’ve realized that womanhood is a force to be reckoned with.

And when I say womanhood I don’t mean a singular identity: in my opinion, it is not.

It is a plethora of identities.

Womanhood is a watering hole where individuals meet, gather and foster knowledge, where there is a mutual understanding of a societal inferiority that is implicitly encountered on a daily basis.

The collective energy emanating from the strength of this community creates this aforementioned force.

Why is this a force to be reckoned with? I find myself reevaluating this question every passing moment as someone who is continually emitting energy. At times, even though I feel that the force deserves and demands to be reckoned with, the response I receive is not always reflective of this. Dismissal, disregard and discarding seem to be a commonalities experienced amongst my fellow feminists, or anyone who gathers at the watering hole of womanhood.

Defeat is a constant when we are aiming for an utopic

future. Many of us give up when there is push back.

And rightfully so. There is only so much energy we can emit without receiving anything in return. Many of us stop listening or engaging whenever the energy we emit is not reciprocated.

Transforming what can feel like useless energy at times is difficult. During her talk at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2014, author and activist Angela Davis helped me conceptualize the idea of energy you don’t always necessarily feel you have. “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world.

And you have to do it all the time,” she suggests.

I interpret that to imagine the force as something that can be reckoned with, even when you don’t necessarily have the energy yourself.

Establishing the force of womanhood and pushing back on its fabricated definitions has not been easy.

At Georgetown, the daily, repeated behaviors existing within the cross section of womanhood are what I reimagine as the acts that can conjure enough force to change the world. Reimagining things as simple as walking back from a class in Walsh or Car Barn with a classmate to my dorm as actions that have the power to tangibly affect the quality of my day, week or month. Or going to an event, observing, participating or even facilitating and immediately feeling the overwhelming amount of forces combined

within a room. You may be asking yourself while reading, “how can you feel this energy?” It’s something I still can’t exactly put my finger on, but I feel as though the watering hole metaphor is something that easily helps me articulate the unspoken understanding. It can be a shared simple snap, or a smile. It can be a sigh, a scoff, a step, a side eye or a stop in the middle of my sentence.

I am thankful for these simple moments. They remind me that forces, although sometimes not received with equal and opposite reactions, can have a seismic effect when combined. It comes and goes.

Like a wave. Or ripple in a puddle ... or a watering hole.

Returning to the watering hole is something I decide to do everyday at Georgetown, especially as someone who resonates with the shared narrative of a young black woman. And it is something I ask the community of womanhood here at Georgetown to build upon. It can be as simple as walking with a classmate you have shared a commonality with during a class discussion.

Imagining the strength of individual energies when simply placed together is what matters. Not just because you both come together at the watering hole of womanhood, but because the reckoning demands it.

And it is a force that demands itself to be felt.

Billie Abdullah is a first-year in the College.

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022 | THEHOYA.COM

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OPINION: Women’s Identity Issue VIEWPOINT • RIVERS

Redefine Restrictive Views of Femininity Grace Rivers Author

nity of women who are on a similar journey of redefining their femininity, and my content has elicited hundreds of comments from other women. By releasing this pressure to perform femininity in a particular way, I have connected with women from around the world who were on similar pursuits of individuality.

Despite these realizations, there have been numerous instances during this journey where my expression of femininity has conflicted with my family’s expectations.

When I last attended mass with my family, I wore jeans with rainbows outlining the back pockets, white shoes with a bold rainbow heart intertwined in the front of the laces, and a mask with a black fist in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and sayings such as “love is love.” My family members, confused and unhappy by this activism, inquired why I would wear such things to church, given that they expected women to be quiet and agreeable. I remained steadfast in my commitment to make a statement and remain true to my convictions. I would no longer adhere to their expectations, nor would I be deterred by their anger.

In another instance, when I boisterously expressed my stance on a recent Supreme Court case that could potentially upend a woman’s right to an abortion, a family member remarked, “I hope you don’t talk like that in front of other people.”

They implied that such opinions were too offensive or bold for a woman to express, yet ignored the reasons behind these opinions and anger. I didn’t need anyone to validate my indignation or criticize my refusal to adhere to socially prescribed norms of femininity — this anger was consistent with my definition of femininity.

As I continue to grow and discover what it means to be a woman in the LGBTQ community, I recognize that many people will not approve of my approach to femininity — I am nonetheless empowered to exist without restraint, as I embrace the strength of womanhood and connect with other women who share in the journey.

Being an LGBTQ woman gives me a unique connection to femininity and allows me to redefine what my womanhood means to me. I have a deeper appreciation for the attributes that make women beautiful and powerful, and I no longer feel obligated to conform to patriarchal definitions of beauty, which prioritize the desires of men. However, my redefinition of femininity still frequently comes into conflict with traditional norms of femininity.

To perform gender “correctly” is to adhere to a restrictively prescribed social script, one which allows for little autonomy and individual expression.

After coming out, however, I no longer feel the same immense pressure to perform my gender in such a monolithic way.

The realization that I was not attracted to men led me to no longer seek their approval or validation.

My femininity no longer entailed shrinking my body, remaining polite when I felt angry and dressing and acting solely to please others. Instead, my femininity now means having power and a voice. It means existing freely in a body that I choose what to do with. It means being unapologetic in occupying the same spaces of power to which men feel entitled.

It means feeling beautiful, confident and powerful without external validation or approval.

There is no correct way to be a woman, and this journey of defining my own femininity has been most liberating — I stopped shaving my armpits and legs, I didn’t feel the need to hide blemishes under concealer, I wore androgynous clothing and I stopped trying to make myself small and quiet. In essence, I did what others would claim is too provocative for women to do.

I have been posting on TikTok for nearly two years, and this content ranges from showcasing my eccentric outfits to expressing my bold opinions about social justice and talking about my choice not to shave. I Grace Rivers is a sophomore in have connected with a commu- the College.

ILLUSTRATION BY: JIMIN LEE/THE HOYA

VIEWPOINT • KELLY

Explore Infinite Expressions of Gender Identity Eliza Kelly

Author

“Excuse me, this is the women’s restroom.”

Gut wrenching. Yet another person I must explain it to: I just have short hair and dress like a 12-year-old boy on his way to PE. Fighting my fear of conflict, coupled with humiliation, I respond: “I know, I’m a woman.”

The awkwardness sets in, as I finish washing my hands, the whole time wishing I could melt into the sink.

Intrusive thoughts run amok, and I find myself questioning why I feel so uncomfortable. I haven’t done anything wrong; I am just existing. This person, with their preconceived notions of gender, should feel awkward. Yet here I am, going over my clothing choices and hairstyle for the day, wondering if I should have done anything differently –– if I should have tried to appear more feminine.

Embarrassing bathroom experiences are one of several subtle on-campus aggressions I have

only begun to experience since I cut my hair. Despite Georgetown being lauded as inclusive and open minded, I have encountered a shocking number of students who have an antiquated image of womanhood.

Being a woman seems to be exclusively associated with certain characteristics: “feminine” clothes, hair, even personality and emotions. Deviations from these perceptions are pejoratively defined as androgenous or masculine. When they are the subject of attention, these differences make me feel weird, isolated, aberrant.

Regrettably, I too am guilty of confining myself to these norms because I find myself inclined to cater to certain stereotypes. I have been conditioned by society to feel as if I am only desirable if I subscribe to a certain look of femininity, and upon reflection, I believe that self-love can only be found by unlearning and dismantling these notions.

Hand in hand with my issues surrounding gender are the ardent qualms I have about overly labeling my sexuality. Labeling my sexuality is a terrifying process in which I feel the need to find a specific word to describe myself. Nev-

er “lesbian,” because I don’t like the restrictive connotation that has. For years it has been “gay.” That is probably what I would say if someone asked me today. However, I resent the implication that I have to choose a label at all.

Nevertheless, my queerness feels akin to a shield. I wear it to protect myself, to explain why I don’t dress in a traditionally feminine way. I’m gay, I don’t have to wear a dress. I can wear slacks and a button-up or jeans and a sweater. In reality, I never have, and never will need an explanation for my expression of self, it is simply what personally makes me feel most comfortable. Expression of self in the form of clothing or other articles should always be about what makes someone feel seen and secure, and not about catering to the eye of society, as many are inclined.

The core of my vexation with topics such as gender and sexuality is that I think I should never have to define how I feel or who I love. I just like people and their souls. Gender, clothes and hairstyles are trivial in comparison to one’s capacity for compassion and empathy and their innermost self. For this reason, I will always ad-

vocate for people to be able to wear what they want, and be who they are, without having to feel like they are subscribing to a certain gender or sexuality through those choices.

I have come to the realization that I despise labels. Society loves labels because concepts are more understandable if they have a name. Many people are obsessed with the idea of putting oneself or others into little boxes that have sharply defined edges and constraints. What people do not realize is that those boxes are suffocating them.

To put such strict labels on gender and sexuality does a disservice to one’s capacity for self-expression and self-love.

To be a woman does not have to be about the clothes that I wear, the way that my hair is cut, whom I love or the emotions that I publicly display.

It has everything to do with the perseverance I have, my love for everyone around me and my regard for their wellbeing. It is about my sensitivity, courage and desire to live with integrity. The things I love about myself make me love being a woman.

Eliza Kelly is a sophomore in the College.

Q&A • EDITORIAL BOARD

VIEWPOINT • HOGG

The Strength of Female Solidarity Prof. Brown: Uplift Gender Studies Lauren Hogg Author

When I was seven years old my mother told me that to be born a woman was to be born cursed.

At first, I didn’t understand — I spent days pondering what this meant, feeling my temples for any budding horns, checking my pillowcase for snake skins. Little did I know that the “curse” she spoke of was much more insidious — it hid behind the dishwasher and in the corners of rooms we were not allowed into alongside men.

Misogyny is no curse — it is something real and tangible. The complicated truth about misogyny is that some of the most heinous perpetrators of anti-women stereotypes are women. The origins of this self-hate come from outside of ourselves. The hate that women spew when chastising other women comes from a society that tells us that our only worth is how desirable we are. From a young age I bought into this false conviction, the belief that my role alongside other women was only in competition with them.

The internalized notion that women should not be similar to other women teaches young girls to hate themselves. It breaks down the collective strength we share in navigating a world built for our bodies, not our minds.

Throughout my childhood I encountered uncomfortable and disturbing experiences that placed me on both ends of the spectrum, as the chastiser and the chastised.

I still recall being a little girl and leaning over to my mom to point out a woman walking by to reassure my mom that I would never dress in such a revealing manner.

Where does a five-year-old girl learn to slut-shame women?

In middle school manners class, other girls pulled me down into my chair, reminding me that only my male date was allowed to fetch me water.

These moments stained my childhood like ink does paper — innocent but dark, permanent yet persistent.

When I was 11, like many girls, nature forced womanhood upon me, as I had my first period. I was filled with confusion and anger,

“Women stand unabridged as the world collapses upon our shoulders and women hold each other’s hands while we experience both the greatest pains and the most euophoric joys of life.” LAUREN HOGG AUTHOR

when we were alone together. She spoke about our female relatives who were forced marry young, women who were forced to carry children they didn’t want and my aunts, grandmothers and sisters who were beaten when their boyfriends found out that the procedure they had done by the family doctor was not to remove their tonsils but to remove something much more consequential.

I was these women, these women were me. We came from the same rib.

At 13, the first time I kissed someone, the boy came up for air only to tell me “I wasn’t like other girls.” This statement broke me.

What he didn’t understand was that I carried the strength of my female lineage on my back. For him to deny my similarities to these women as a form of compliment insinuated that I would not want to be like other women. Of course I want to be like other women.

Other women in my life are strong and soft, stern and gentle, loud but receptive and overall badass.

Women give birth to nations while their husbands get credit for state building. Women stand unabridged as the world collapses upon our shoulders and women hold each other’s hands while we experience both the greatest pains and the most euphoric joys of life.

Women’s power is often mythologized, but it is something so essentially human. I do not believe that to be born a woman is to be born cursed. I do believe, however, that there is an unparalleled power that lives inside women from the day we are born — not a natural strength but an acquired one that can only be sustained when we realize that we are not competitors — we are teammates.

told to stay quiet for a week and simply just let it pass. Women bleed and are expected to smile through it. This period of adolescence hurts for many girls, but it was also then that I first experienced the secret language of female comradery. At this age girls begin whispering questions to each other, the things we can not say aloud because we are told by society that our bodies and what they do are shameful. I realized at 11 just how wrong I had been about other women.

My mother mentioned the Lauren Hogg is a first-year in stories of my grandmothers’ lives the College.

In honor of Women’s History Month, The Hoya sat down with Professor Nadia Brown, chair of the women’s and gender studies program, to discuss identity, gender and institutional challenges women’s studies programs face in higher education. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In thinking about Women’s History Month, which women, past or present, inspire you most?

I think about Harriet Tubman who is not necessarily thought of as a women’s leader, but definitely a suffragist, someone who is the first woman to lead troops in the Civil War. She speaks to the capability of people, particularly Black women to use your lot in life to make this world a better place.

I am also thinking about the women that we often don’t include in our typical discussions of Women’s History Month — someone like Pauli Murray who was this really transformative figure, or Marsha P. Johnson who led Stonewall.

What are the most pressing issues that women and women’s studies programs face at Georgetown?

Some of the things women’s studies programs at universities have suffered from is a lack of institutional support. Students want the classes, students are signing up for things, but the programs don’t have the same kind of support as the government or history departments. These programs are usually underfunded, lesser acknowledged units of the College.

Universities need the val-

ue that we bring, but they still undercut it. They’re not funding us, they’re not giving us lines. There are inequities that happen throughout the university, but they are more pronounced in these programs.

How does the idea of a fluid gender spectrum factor into organizations like the Women’s Center at Georgetown, particularly in terms of the inclusion of transgender women and nonbinary people?

I don’t want to sound like feminists have always been welcoming to transgender or nonbinary people because that just isn’t factually true.

But there has to be space to allow people that are femmeidentified or people who were assigned female at birth to benefit from traditional spaces like the Women’s Center or traditional women’s study spaces and make room for them.

I think the problem is when we have this very prescriptive notion of what it means to be a woman. We let certain people in and not others and try to erase other people’s experiences by conflating gender as one thing like ‘we know it when we see it.’

But that also means it must be intentional for people who are cisgender to really recognize that there are different ways that gender is performed and that people live gender in various ways.

The other part is to be very intentional in asking people with different gender identities to come in and be part of these spaces. We can’t change and be more inclusive if they are not there. … We can be transformative and be more inclusive by actually listening to folks who

have different identities and making room at the table.

How can we conceptualize women’s identity and gender identity in general as intersecting with other identities, be it race, sexuality, etc.?

We have to recognize that there are different intersecting vectors of people’s identities that are politically salient and not minimize them. Just because they have different identities does not mean that they are not valuable or that we can’t learn from them and oftentimes we can learn most from people who have differently situated knowledge.

There has to be room for us to call out the common connector of why these oppressive identities matter. If your feminism is not concerned with attacking white supremacy or your feminism is not concerned with ableism or classism and capitalism, then I don’t think it’s a feminist call. There is no room to think about a feminist issue as simply just a gender issue.

As Women’s History Month ends, what messages, feminist goals or issues would you like to highlight?

I want to leave you with something grandiose, but I am angry about how women have been used and how the Republican Party is leveraging women. I think we’re going to see women’s and gender issues be weaponized, for instance, with these antitrans bills popping up all over the country. They [the Republican Party] are making legislation that’s really going to go after a handful of kids that are already stigmatized, that are already marginalized, to protect this white, middle class femininity.

Don’t take the bait.

A4 | THE HOYA

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NEWS

March for Our Lives Organizes Display on National Mall Eli Kales

City Desk Editor

Over 1,100 body bags stuffed with inflatable balloons spelling out “Thoughts and Prayers” appeared on the National Mall in front of the United States Capitol building on March 24.

The display, organized by March for Our Lives (MFOL), a student-led gun violence prevention advocacy group, aimed to honor the victims of gun violence four years after protests broke out when a gunman killed 17 individuals at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Each body bag represented more than 150 deaths from gun violence since the Parkland shooting, as gun violence has killed over 170,000 people in the U.S. since then.

MFOL organizers arranged the body bags to spell out “Thoughts and Prayers” to reference the mantra often cited by officials after mass tragedies. Gun control advocates frequently criticize the phrase, arguing that offering thoughts and prayers in place of preven-

tative action is insufficient.

Display organizers also started a petition urging the U.S. Senate to bring legislation regarding universal background checks to a vote.

Ari Kane (COL ’24), political affairs director for Georgetown University’s MFOL chapter, said the use of body bags elicited meaningful reactions.

“There’s nothing that is more visually striking than a body bag,” Kane told The Hoya.

“Obviously, it’s something that makes us viscerally react, it makes us think of death.

And so seeing ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ portrayed in that way, I think was something that really grabbed me and made me catch my breath.”

While the installation was only up for a few hours, images quickly circulated on social media to draw attention to MFOL’s demands and petition.

Georgetown’s MFOL chapter tabled in Leavey Center with a QR code linking to the petition to encourage support and signatures, Kane said.

While graphic, the display was necessary to draw attention to MFOL’s cause, ac-

cording to Melissa Altschiller, a movement organizer for MFOL in Washington, D.C. “You think about it deeper as a movement organizer and someone who needs to catch the attention of politicians,” Altschiller said. “And you’re like, ‘Wait, this is exactly what we need to be doing. This is what will grab the headlines.’ We’ve been out there with banners and flyers for the past three years and nothing has really stuck.”

The installation’s location in front of the U.S. Capitol building aimed to remind politicians of their inaction and push them toward legislative solutions that will prevent future instances of gun violence.

Kane said she hopes the installation and petition lead to long-awaited change from politicians to prevent gun violence in the future.

“I hope they just realize that not taking a stance on gun violence has consequences,” Kane said. “We need concrete action steps, like passing universal background checks, to actually stop people from dying. I hope people realize that a politician

@AMARCH4OURLIVES/TWITTER

March for Our Lives placed over 1,100 body bags spelling out “Thoughts and Prayers” on the National Mall to advocate for legislative action against gun violence. saying ‘thoughts and prayers’ doesn’t actually do anything, and we can’t let that stand instead of actual action.”

MFOL calls for higher standards of gun ownership, national systems that promote responsible gun ownership, assault weapon bans, disarming gun owners who have a higher

risk of harm and a gun buyback program.

The installation serves as an important call to action, Altschiller said.

“I wish that people still cared about the movement as much as we did, because the movement feels like it’s dying out because there hasn’t been a mass

shooting in a while,” Altschiller said. “But there’s been over 70,000 people who have died since Biden even took office, so I just think that it’s important for people to be uplifted again and wanting to help and wanting to call their politicians and to make change.”

Playground Honors Professor Releases Book on Disability Lineages Environmental Impact Of Freshwater Mussels Minoli Ediriweera Hoya Staff Writer

Nicholas Sheherlis Special to The Hoya

11th Street Bridge Park, Washington, D.C.’s first elevated park, announced plans to build an interactive “Mussel Beach” play area to honor the environmental impact that freshwater mussels have had on the preservation of the Anacostia River.

Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR), a nonprofit organization located in Ward 8, partnered with the District Department of Transportation on the 11th Street Bridge Park project and announced plans for “Mussel Beach” on March 24.

The playground will feature sculptural mussels, seagrass climbers, artificial water sounds and slides to connect D.C. residents with the natural features of the Anacostia River. The play area will be accompanied by an environmental education center.

A single adult freshwater mussel can filter anywhere between 10 and 20 gallons of water per day, removing pollutants and improving the aquatic ecosystem, according to BBAR. The Anacostia Watershed Society, a nonprofit organization that works to protect and restore the Anacostia River, began propagating freshwater mussels into the river in 2014.

Christopher Williams, president and CEO of the Anacostia Watershed Society, said the 11th Street Bridge Park and the Anacostia Watershed Society share the goal of connecting District residents across the river.

“One of the main motivations behind the development of Bridge Park is to bring people down to the river and connect people on both sides of the river, who have been historically cut off from each other by the river,” Williams told The Hoya.

“That is also in the DNA of the Anacostia Watershed Society, one of our chief tools for raising awareness around the river, for improving policy around the river, and for promoting direct action preserving the river, is just to make people aware, bring them down there and show them what a wonderful resource it is.”

The “Mussel Beach” playground will celebrate and educate local children and families about the importance of native mussels to the river, according to Williams.

“One of the really important set of species in the river that are important for the health of the ecosystem, and they make a pretty dramatic impact on the water quality with populations healthy, are freshwater mussels,” Williams said. “‘Mussel Beach’ is kind of a fun salute to this really important species that’s

a bedrock of river health, and so the whole play area in addition is kind of a fun, whimsical salute to the river and the river ecosystem.”

Educating residents about the Anacostia River’s preservation efforts will inspire future generations, according to Hallie Boyce, a partner at OLIN, one of the landscape architecture firms behind the playground, in a March 24 press release.

“Celebrating the mussel restoration program we felt was a meaningful way to teach children about river ecology and its connection to community health, while encouraging the next generation of river stewards for the Anacostia,” Boyce said in the press release.

The play area will not only increase environmental awareness, but will also connect divided neighborhoods

“One of the things that makes Mussel Beach so much fun for me is that mussels are a symbol of the renewal of the river, but they’re also a symbol of the effort that it takes to restore the river.”

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS CEO of Anacostia Watershed Society

on both sides of the Anacostia, according to Scott Kratz, senior vice president of Building Bridges Across the River, in the March 24 press release.

“Mussel Beach will create an inter-generational play area that represents the Bridge Park’s core mission: to connect long-divided neighborhoods and provide a new venue for healthy recreation,” Kratz said in the press release.

According to Williams, honoring freshwater mussels will serve as a reminder of their important role in conserving the Anacostia River.

“One of the things that makes Mussel Beach so much fun for me is that mussels are a symbol of the renewal of the river, but they’re also a symbol of the effort that it takes to restore the river,” Williams said.

“The fun and the joy that the kids have as they’re playing at Mussel Beach while they’re learning about mussels is a great way to impart that message.”

A Georgetown University professor is releasing a new book, titled “All Our Families: Disability Lineage and the Future of Kinship,” about destigmatizing discussions on disability in familial lineages.

The book, written by Jennifer Natalya Fink, director of the disability studies program and English professor, focuses on a cultural analysis of the way society views disability and solutions to transform the discussion. “All Our Families: Disability Lineage and the Future of Kinship” will be available to the public April 5.

In her work, Fink draws upon her own family’s buried disability lineage, highlighting the role of relationships in condemning disabilities.

“Disability is often described as a tragedy, a crisis, or an aberration, though one in five people worldwide have a disability,” Fink wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Why is this common human experience rendered exceptional? I argue that this originates in our families.

When we cut a disabled member out of the family story, disability remains a trauma as opposed to a shared and ordinary experience. This makes disability and its diagnosis traumatic and exceptional.”

Fink’s “lineage of disability” is the idea that disability is a history, a culture and an identity, all of which shift the view of disability to mark a sense of belonging and kinship.

The book highlights the di-

verse perspectives of disabled individuals who are impacted by discrimination and barriers to treatment, according to Fink.

“Instead of only using scholarly sources by non-disabled people, I tried to center my argument on the lived experiences of disabled people — activists, artists, scholars, cultural workers, and students,” Fink wrote. “This eclectic approach helped situate my own journey in the larger cultural context, and offer possible solutions that everybody can try.”

Fink’s contributions to Georgetown’s disability studies program were key in creating stronger connections between the academic community and disability arts, according to Kathryn Temple, English department chair.

“Professor Fink has been a leader and a wonderful resource to all on issues of disability and ableism,” Temple wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“The popular Disability Studies Program is a boon to the Georgetown community as it offers resources that have raised our consciousness around these issues.”

Through her research and writing, Fink curated discussions on genetic testing, healing justice activism, the future of Down syndrome and disability kinship.

Fink emphasizes the importance of creating a community with diverse disability studies resources, such as the Georgetown Disability Alliance and the future Disability Cultural Center, according to Libbie Rifkin, professor in

JENNIFER NATALYA FINK

Jennifer Natalya Fink, Georgetown professor and director of the disability studies program, will release a new book on embracing disability lineages April 5. the English department and founding director of the program in disability studies.

“The community that Professor Fink has helped to build through her research, teaching, and leadership of Disability Studies creates new opportunities for students to find their own disabled identities and lineages,” Rifkin wrote. “By shifting the conversation on disability from a problem to an identity and source of cultural connection, Professor Fink has helped dispel the stigma that keeps disability lineages hidden.”

Fink hopes that the ideas she shares in her book will create a

new climate at Georgetown for more open discussions regarding disability lineage.

“Cura personalis is such a powerful ethos; I think my book will help Hoyas consider how better to live up to this ethos.

How to care for themselves and others — and question how care is arranged, how stigma and shame are perpetuated by the delineation of disabled ancestors and family members,” Fink wrote. “I also consider kinship beyond the nuclear family, and how to connect to our disability lineage beyond the family. We Hoyas are an extended family, with a rich disability lineage!”

GUSA Senate Calls for Metro U-Pass Program Nina Raj

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming the results of a May 2021 referendum that demanded the university implement the Metro U-Pass Program.

The Metro U-Pass Program provides students with unlimited trips on Metrorail and Metrobuses at a discounted price paid at the beginning of each semester. Last May, a referendum in favor of the U-Pass passed with 84% of voters in favor of the pass.

George Washington University and American University have already implemented the program.

The resolution also calls on the university to implement a transportation subsidy grant, which would provide students with financial need a stipend for transportation expenses related to a job, internship or extracurricular activity.

Transportation stipends currently provided by the university are often not available to all students who need them, according to Rowlie Flores (COL ’22).

“As a low-income student who had an internship on the Hill, I know firsthand how transportation costs stack up,” Flores wrote to The Hoya. “While

some offices have been gracious in offering transportation stipends, this is not an option for everyone and often these programs are competitive.”

The resolution aims to reignite student enthusiasm for the Metro U-Pass and pressure the administration to implement the referendum, according to GUSA Senator John DiPierri (SFS ’25), who cosponsored the resolution.

“All Georgetown students will have greater accessibility to the city we call home, without an added cost. Reaffirming this resolution puts our concerns back on the administration’s radar,” DiPierri wrote to The Hoya.

The U-Pass program helps students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds fully participate in all aspects of Georgetown life, including popular internships on Capitol Hill, which often requires transit beyond the campus, according to former GUSA president Nile Blass (COL ’22), who served as president when the referendum was voted on.

“There’s an array of students in terms of race, in terms of economics, in terms of other kinds of diverging factors, who want to pursue that because it directly intersects with their careers moving forward,” Blass said in an interview with The Hoya.

The U-Pass would also allow

students to travel to businesses outside of Georgetown, which offer products and services students cannot usually buy in the Georgetown neighborhood, according to Blass.

While the university is pleased to work with GUSA and the Georgetown University Graduate Student Government to explore joining the U-Pass program, Georgetown has not enrolled in the program because the program does not allow for students to opt in or out, according to a university spokesperson.

“Because U-Pass requires enrollment of all students within a school or campus — whether they use the pass or not — and has historically been funded as an addition to student tuition bills with other universities, Georgetown does not currently participate in the program,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

In addition to offering free transportation to Metro system stops at Dupont Circle and Rosslyn, the university also offers free seasonal airport shuttles and is a member of the Capital Bikeshare Universities Program, offering discounted memberships to students, according to the spokesperson.

Current GUSA President Kole Wolfe (SFS ’24) declined to comment on the record. When asked to comment, GUSA Vice Presi-

dent Zeke Ume-Ukeje (COL ’24) referred The Hoya to GUSA’s Instagram post on the Metro U-Pass.

In addition to the lowered transportation costs, implementing the U-Pass program would help Georgetown become a more sustainable and eco-friendly institution, according to GUSA Senator Dominic Gordon (SFS ’23).

“The university wants to be a green campus. We can’t be a green campus if everyone’s Ubering all the time,” Gordon said in an interview with The Hoya. “There’s got to be an alternative to Uber, there’s got to be an alternative to the ride shares, and that’s going to be public transportation.”

This year Georgetown’s Office of Sustainability has considered the sustainability impact of the U-Pass, according to the spokesperson.

While it is unlikely that the Metro U-Pass program will be quickly implemented, continuous advocacy is key to push the university to honor the referendum, according to Blass.

“It has to be a continual pressure. Thus far, this Metro U-Pass program has extended past some of the most key administrators who were saying no and were dismissing it,” Blass said. “I think that it’s really important for GUSA to be continual in its push, because this is something that is probably going to last.”

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DC Policy Center Names Initiative SAFE and GREEN Join DC Student After Late McCourt Professor Sustainability Network for Food Security Samantha Sinutko Graduate Desk Editor

The D.C. Policy Center, an independent research organization focused on data research and policy proposals in Washington, D.C., named their new initiative on economic growth, equity and development in urban areas for the late Alice M. Rivlin, a renowned economist who taught at Georgetown University from 2003 to 2016.

Rivlin taught classes on the political economies of cities and national economic development for over a decade at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Throughout her career, she served as the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office, an advisor at the D.C. Policy Institute, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and the vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board.

Rivlin will be the namesake of the new initiative, titled the “Alice M. Rivlin Initiative for Economic Policy & Competitiveness,” which will conduct the first in-depth assessment of the competitive role of D.C. as an urban center.

Rivlin’s work framed the research that the policy center will do through this new initiative, according to Bailey McConnell, the Rivlin Initiative’s research director.

“We hope that our work honors Dr. Rivlin’s original vision for the city and carries it forward in these times of great uncertainty,” McConnell wrote in an email

to The Hoya. “We think that her emphasis on economic growth as a prerequisite for strong government services rings true today, and we continued to be inspired by her approach to policy, which prioritized facts over ideology.”

Krista Ruffini, a McCourt School of Public Policy professor, will serve as one of seven members of the initiative’s advisory committee and looks forward to guiding the team’s research about the District.

“I look forward to advising the initiative on critical issues that affect the local economy,” Ruffini wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Already, the Initiative has laid out an ambitious agenda for the next two years that ranges from business location decisions to commuting activity to workplace dynamics and I’m eager to engage with all of these topics.”

One of the initiative’s first plans is to consider the most recent trends in economic growth for D.C. in order to predict future trends, according to McConnell.

“Our immediate goal is to provide new knowledge and tools that can contribute to the District’s recovery from the pandemic’s impact and lift our economic growth trajectory,” McConnell wrote.

“In the long-term, we hope that our analyses, and the resulting policy suggestions, make the city welcoming to all residents, workers, and businesses. We think it is crucial to the city’s long term success that it offers opportunities for everyone and

is able to attract and retain diverse groups of people and businesses.”

In the first two years, the team’s research will focus on regional economic dynamics that have influenced D.C.’s competitive advantage relative to other nearby urban areas, according to McConnell.

The first major report will focus on remote work and its impact on the District through a region-wide survey on business location trends, according to McConnell. Research surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic will influence the approach that the team takes, she added.

“I think the work coming from this initiative is particularly urgent now because the pandemic has changed how people interact with cities, weakening the ties between where people live and where people work,” McConnell wrote. “With the rise of remote work, workers in D.C. can live anywhere in the region, even more easily than before, and a resident of D.C. might be able to take a remote job across the country. We think this initiative will create new knowledge on these challenges and help ensure that D.C. can remain competitive in a post-pandemic environment.”

Rivlin and her past work in urban economics will inspire the D.C. Policy Center’s work, according to Ruffini.

“Dr. Rivlin was a trailblazer in many respects, and the initiative honors her career as an esteemed public servant and champion for the District,” Ruffini wrote.

MSB to Launch MBA Certificate Program in Global Real Estate

JESSICA LIN/THE HOYA

SAFE and GREEN partnered with Urban Beet to launch the D.C. Student Sustainability Network, which aims to centralize environmental activism in D.C. Samuel Yoo

Student Life Desk Editor

Students Advancing Food Equity (SAFE), a campus organization dedicated to combating food insecurity, joined forces with other Georgetown University and D.C. student organizations to create the D.C. Student Sustainability Network (DCSSC), which aims to centralize environmental activism in Washington, D.C. DCSSC, led by Urban Beet, an organization that combats food insecurity by building gardens in underserved D.C. communities, is a network for organizations and individuals interested in climate justice, agriculture, sustainability and food security.

Members of DCSSC hope to consolidate environmental activism efforts to achieve a greater impact, according to Urban Beet Director of Outreach and Communications Stephanie Munn.

“With the DCSSC we aim to create a collaborative virtual space in which we can share ideas, events, and resources,” Munn wrote in an email to The Hoya. “While we hope that this group selfgenerates content through posts, as we expand, we plan to host speaker panels and networking events on topics of interest for the students.

The goal is to connect likeminded people, increase idea-sharing within the environmentalist community, and attack climate change on a systemic level.”

The network provides an opportunity for students interested in sustainability and food justice to get involved in activism, according to SAFE co-president Christina Rosamond (SFS ’24).

“I know people at Georgetown are always looking for ways to give back in different volunteer opportunities to get involved with, so I think this is a great place for students to who are passionate about these issues to come in and find ways to begin to think about that and resolve them and hopefully make some lasting change in our community,” Rosamond said.

DCSSC is open to all Georgetown students, and interested individuals can join through a Facebook page.

Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network (GREEN) is also participating in DCSSC in an effort to expand upon Georgetown’s recent environmental initiatives, like the Earth Commons Institute, a platform for the study of environmental stewardship and sustainability, according to Mark Kuo (COL ’24), treasurer of GREEN and co-lead of the Georgetown community garden.

“When Urban Beet sought to expand its D.C. network, we were one of their first contacts and were more than happy to connect them to other organizations at GWU and Georgetown,” Kuo wrote.

“As Georgetown expands its reach with the Earth Commons Institute, GREEN also

seeks to develop undergraduate influence in D.C.’s broader environmental efforts.”

The network also provides a way to streamline collaboration between different student groups, according to Munn.

“I came up with the collective when, while reaching out to different student groups to hire farm managers, I saw how interested other young people were in the earth, agriculture, and food security,” Munn said. “I wanted to connect all of these groups within individual universities and throughout D.C. because I believe that global issues such as climate justice and food security are more likely to be solved by working together.

The collaboration between DCSSC and SAFE will be mutually beneficial, according to Rosamond.

“The network will expand as we keep growing SAFE,” Rosamond said. “It’s kind of hard for us as an organization to have a big platform of members right now just because our volunteer opportunities are kind of ad hoc, like if you want to do a food rescue here and there.”

DCSSC is part of SAFE’s efforts to increase collaboration with more organizations, thus increasing food justice in the Georgetown and D.C. community, according to Rosamond.

“We hope to introduce community gardening with GREEN,” Rosamond said.

“That’ll benefit impoverished areas and that’s kind of one of our goals, working towards food security in D.C.”

HANNAH LAIBINIS/THE HOYA

The MSB created a certificate in global real estate, providing opportunities for MBA students to concentrate on gaining skills and knowledge for the industry.

Laetitia Haddad

Academics Desk Editor

The The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business (MSB) will launch a certificate program in global real estate for MBA students.

The MBA certificate in global real estate, offered through the MSB’s Steers Center for Global Real Estate, aims to provide participants with the relevant knowledge and hands-on experience necessary to succeed in the real estate industry. Fulltime and flex students will be able to declare the certificate come May 2022. The program consists of 7.5 elective credit hours in courses like “Real Estate Private Equity” and electives in topics such as private debt, public debt and public equity.

Nicola Chapple (GRD ’23) said that Georgetown’s real estate curriculum was the deciding factor in her enrolling in the MBA program at the MSB. “In addition to building a strong skill set in Real Estate finance, I hope to gain a holistic, global approach to the industry shaped by experiential coursework,” Chapple wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I believe that by completing the coursework with classmates from around the world will allow me to think broadly about Real Estate not only in the US but globally, which suits my interest in European and emerging markets as a UKAmerican dual citizen.”

Matthew Cypher, director

of the Steers Center for Global Real Estate, said their team developed the certificate after students expressed widespread interest in real estate studies.

“We had good enrollment in our real estate courses up until this point,” Cypher said in an interview with The Hoya.

“When we formally launched the certificate, we had 59 people who qualified and will be capable of earning the certificate, which I think represents pretty good demand for a first-time certificate. The instinct that there is demand is proven by the number of people who applied and have been accepted.”

Many of Georgetown’s peer institutions already offer similar concentrations or minors that focus on the field of real estate, according to Cypher.

“One of the impetus for doing this is that our competition is doing it, so we need to be at least on par with our competitors,” Cypher said. “It will also help with recruitment. We are always seeking to recruit more people here and recruit high quality candidates, so it’s evidence that the school has made real estate a priority at the MBA level.”

Jeffrey Foster, adjunct professor in the MSB, teaches two courses within the certificate, “Real Estate Private Equity,” — the one required course — and “Real Estate Public Equity,” an elective course. In these courses, students learn about how to increase the value of property by implementing growth

strategies, as well as how to perform valuations and earnings measures, Foster said.

Completing the certificate program will provide students with negotiation skills that pertain to real estate, investment banking and finance, according to Foster.

The Steers Center for Global Real Estate offers additional opportunities within the field of real estate, such as the Steers Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Solutions Group, an initiative within the center that allows students to work on paid real estate projects for six to seven weeks, Cypher said.

“If you are an undergraduate student or an MBA student, you have the ability to participate in an actual project with an actual company doing actual work on the topic of the intersection of ESG and real estate in which we pay you then,” Cypher said.

Tangible projects enhance learning that occurs in the classroom, allowing students to envision their own plans for the future, Chapple said.

“My interest in the industry stems from seeing my grandfather’s impact on the Great Boston community through his developments across multifamily, office, retail and industrials,” Chapple said. “Developments like these are the building blocks of our communities and have the power to transform neighborhoods and cities — this remains my ultimate professional goal.”

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A6 | THE HOYA

THEHOYA.COM | FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022

NEWS

Climate Justice Teach-In Advocates GU Sees 25% Increase in Applicants For More Sustainable Solutions Compared to Pre-Pandemic Levels ADMISSIONS, from A1 The Hoya. “This is not surprising as students are likely hedging their options in this uncertain environment.”

Melissa Costanzi, senior associate director in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, said that 51% of applicants identified as Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, while 11% of applicants are first-generation prospective college students. The university admitted 3,686 international students from 98 different countries and over 500 dual citizens.

Among the students admitted to the Class of 2025, 25.6% were Asian-American, 12.2% were Latinx, 10.3% were Black, and 0.5% were Native American. 9.6% of admitted applicants were international students from 98 foreign countries.

Despite the recent upward trend in applicant numbers, Deacon said that this growth will likely subside in the near future.

“The number of high school graduates is not increasing so either this represents a major increase in market share for Georgetown or more likely that students seeking competitive universities are filing more applications,” Deacon wrote.

Georgetown required ei-

ther SAT or ACT standardized test scores for all students applying this year with exceptions for pandemic-related circumstances, such as a last minute testing administration cancellation.

This admissions cycle was competitive, with the average admitted student ranking in the top 6% of their high school class. In addition, the SAT Verbal middle 50% range was 750 to 770, the SAT Math middle 50% range was 770 to 790 and the ACT middle 50% range was 34 to 35. Applicants in the Class of 2025 were not required to submit standardized testing scores in an effort to increase flexibility during the pandemic.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced March 28 that it will be reinstating its SAT and ACT requirements for students applying in 2022, after temporarily removing the requirement in July 2020. More than 1,815 colleges and universities removed their standardized test requirements for students applying to be enrolled in fall 2022.

Deacon said that selective institutions will likely continue to require applicants to submit standardized test scores.

Lily Marino, a current senior at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in New

Jersey who was accepted to Georgetown College this week, said that she is excited to be a part of the campus community.

“The best part about going to Georgetown is that because it’s such a well-known university, I would be able to meet all different sorts of people and really have that great opportunity,” Marino told The Hoya.

The Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program (GAAP), a student-run organization that aims to help prospective and admitted students, will host two GAAP weekends April 8-9 and April 22-23 to introduce prospective students to Georgetown before the May 1 commitment deadline.

Elisabeth Mellen, a current senior at BethesdaChevy Chase High School, said that she was excited to be accepted to Georgetown, as she hopes to major in history or government and attend law school in the future.

“Georgetown is 100% my dream school. Because I live right outside of the area, I’ve been visiting Georgeotwn since I was little,” Mellen said in an interview with The Hoya. “First, the campus is just so beautiful but also the students that I see are honestly inspiring to me, and for my entire life I’ve dreamed about becoming one of them.”

Georgetown Environmental Initiative

Georgetown University participated in the Worldwide Teach-In on Climate Justice.

The event aims to amplify advocacy for sustainable solutions and evironmental justice.

TEACH-IN, from A1 an opportunity to contribute to stopping climate change.

Even just lowering our consumption of delivered goods or electricity can make a big difference,” a spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

The Teach-In incorporated a number of student groups and university programs in panels, galleries and lectures. Events at the student-organized Teach-In included a climate change informational session at the Georgetown University Farmers Market and a virtual panel discussion between Georgetown’s main campus in the District and its campus in Qatar. The discussion focused on the issues both campuses face related to climate change.

Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network (GREEN), a studentrun sustainability organization, tabled in Red Square during the Teach-In, inviting

students to stop by and learn about sustainability initiatives like composting and the importance of pollination.

GREEN co-president Brooke Hodge (SFS ’24) spoke at the Connecting on Climate Event panel between the main campus and the campus in Qatar.

Hodge said GREEN helped to plan events for the Teach-In. “The GREEN education and bees teams have been involved in developing plans for the teach-in over the past few weeks and our zero-waste, bees, and education teams are all tabling at the farmers market as a part of the teachin,” Hodge wrote to The Hoya.

“GREEN also helped promote the events through our club’s media outlets.”

The event was a collaboration between Georgetown’s main campus in the District and its campus in Qatar, according to Hodge.

While the Teach-In unites university offices and organizations to discuss climate

justice, this event is primarily student organized, according to Meghan Chapple, vice president of Sustainability at Georgetown.

“Talking about climate and the impacts climate change is having on Georgetown University and the District of Columbia--in addition to the impacts on global heat, storm intensity, and sea level rise--is an important component of climate action,” Chapple wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Rockefeller said events like the Teach-In foster a collaborative environment for achieving environmental justice.

“This has been a great collaborative effort, and we’re so excited to see the turn out and see people participate,” Rockefeller said. “It’s a really great way to highlight all the fantastic environmental work that’s going on at KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA Georgetown. There’s so much Georgetown University accepted 12% of regular decision applicants for the Class happening with everyone of 2026.

Total applicants for this year increased by 25% from pre-pandemic levels. doing different things and that’s really special to see.”

The Corp Launches Rewards Program Offering Discounts, Free Items CORP, from A1 (SFS ’25) said the organization was surprised by the popularity of the rewards program.

“If there’s been any surprises, it’s been the volume of signups already — we couldn’t be more thrilled with how quickly rewards has been adopted at our storefronts,” McCormack wrote to The Hoya. “It’s really been a testament to how excited our customers are about the program.”

The Corp first considered launching a rewards program in 2016, but formal planning did not begin until June 2021, according to The Corp’s former COO Liam Marshall (MSB ’23), who helped create and helped to plan the reward program last fall.

“We circled back to the idea in June, as we were discussing our reopening process, as a way to improve our relationship with the Georgetown community and continue serving students,” Marshall said in an interview with The Hoya.

The launch comes after The Corp solicited feedback from students through a survey they made available in November 2021, which showed support for a reward program, Marshall said.

“People listed a lot of different ideas for rewards — discounts off, dollars off, free espresso shots or free specialty drinks in general,” Marshall said. “We basically approached our rewards program with a tiered analysis

to make sure that if you want to save up for a specialty drink and save up a lot of points, you can, but if you want to get $1 off your order every second or third time that you shop at The Corp, you can also do that.”

Lia Gilleran (COL ’25) plans on purchasing coffee from The Corp more now that the rewards program has been introduced.

“Before, Starbucks was above The Corp because it had rewards,” Gilleran said in an interview with The Hoya. “Now that The Corp has rewards, it’s like I’m supporting a small business.

And its rewards, so I was so excited for it.”

Steven Chung (COL ’25), who signed up for the reward program on March 28, said his purchases as The Corp are more worth it now.

“I have been a very loyal customer to The Corp and a very frequent visitor, so now I feel like every time I go I won’t feel like money is just being taken away — more like there’s something that I will get in return for me going to Corp stores,” Chung said in an interview with The Hoya. “Now I feel like there’s another reason for me to go, and a really good reason.”

Lauren Stipe (SFS ’25) signed up for the program March 28 after seeing an advertisement for the program on The Corp’s Instagram.

“I signed up because why not?” Stipe wrote to The Hoya.

“I’m not 100% sure of all the perks but I did get a text say-

ing I could get a free medium tea and I’m excited for that.”

Yee encourages all students to sign up for the rewards program the next time they visit a Corp location.

“If you shop at The Corp, you have nothing to lose by signing up for rewards,” Yee said. “There’s so many different perks and benefits you get by just logging in with

your phone number.”

McCormack said he and IT will be adapting the rewards program as data comes in, and that he’s excited to earn rewards himself.

“To be totally honest, I’m most looking forward to be able to utilize rewards myself as a customer — who doesn’t love a free coffee?”

McCormack wrote.

JESSICA LIN/THE HOYA

Over 2,500 individuals enrolled in The Corp’s new rewards program, which launched March 28. Customers can earn points toward free merchandise and discounts on purchases at any of The Corp’s locations.

THE HOYA | A7

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022 | THEHOYA.COM

NEWS

DC Jail to Change Transgender Housing Policy Following Lawsuit Kirit Minhas

Hoya Staff Writer

Following a March 23 settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by Sunday Hinton, a transgender woman who was held in a male unit by the D.C. Central Detention Facility (CDF), the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to institute changes to its transgender housing policy.

The terms of the settlement require the DOC to house people according to their gender identity preference and to make determinations about whether transgender inmates should be placed in protective custody on a case-by-case basis within 24 hours. The DOC also agreed to post its transgender housing policy on its website within 30 days of the settlement.

Hinton spent four weeks in the D.C. Jail in May 2021 before her trial on a charge of unarmed burglary with the intent to steal $20. The charge against Hinton has since been dismissed.

For over two weeks of her incarceration, Hinton was forced

to stay in a men’s unit and was moved to a women’s unit on the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF) side of the D.C. Jail after filing a lawsuit.

The DOC changed its policies in June 2021 to begin assigning housing for transgender individuals by their gender identity.

However, Hinton and her legal team argued that these new policies were unjust, as the jail placed transgender inmates in protective custody instead of the unit corresponding to their gender identity upon their arrival to the jail.

The policy changes resulting from the settlement will improve the treatment of future transgender inmates, according to Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington, D.C. “We believe that the changes are significant,” Michelman wrote to The Hoya. “The elimination of the anatomy presumption last summer for housing trans intakes will stop DOC from trying to deny trans folks’ identity and meaningfully reduce trans folks’ risk of harm in custody. And the

elimination of the shackling requirement will stop trans folks from being held in a dehumanizing way upon their arrival at the jail.”

According to the ACLU, an estimated 40 to 60 transgender people were detained in the D.C. Jail in 2021, almost all of whom were housed based on sex instead of gender identity.

DOC will begin regularly sending reports regarding transgender inmates and their treatment to the Public Defender Service for D.C. (PDS). PDS and the ACLU of D.C. represented Hinton in her case.

This settlement will institute necessary changes to ensure humane treatment of transgender inmates, according to PDS Staff Attorney Rachel Cicurel in a March 23 press release announcing the settlement.

“Sunday Hinton’s courageous fight against discrimination has led to important changes not only for transgender individuals but for all protective custody jail residents, who until now were subjected to the degrading and unjustified practice of full-body shackling,” Cicurel said in the press

DC DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS/FACEBOOK

The D.C. Department of Corrections will now house people according to their gender identity following a March 23 settlement in a class-action lawsuit. release. “Ms. Hinton’s case has exposed several kinds of inhumane treatment by DOC.” DOC will also end its policy of shackling transgender inmates, which the ACLU argued violated transgender inmates’ rights under the D.C. Human Rights Act. Hinton’s lawyers argued that the DOC’s policies regarding housing transgender inmates violated federal regulations under the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The new policies will reform conditions for all inmates in D.C.

Jail, but it is still important that the D.C. Council implements independent oversight of the DOC, according to Michelman.

“The changes will also protect other people in custody from the degrading practice of full body shackling,” Michelman wrote. “Given the conditions documented by the Marshals last fall, it’s crucial for the D.C. Council to hold DOC accountable for its unlawful actions — starting by empowering an independent oversight body with unrestricted access to the jail to regularly

report to the Council and the public on conditions and treatment at the jail.”

According to Hinton in a March 23 press release, the settlement will hopefully ensure no other transgender inmates have to endure the same conditions that she did.

“No one should face what I had to face at the D.C. Jail,” Hinton said in the press release. “DOC put my safety and mental health at risk, and I’m glad that other trans people at the Jail will be treated with more dignity.”

China-Russia Relations Several Living Learning Face Uncertainty Amid Communities to Close Violence in Ukraine For 2022-23 School Year Annie Kane

Hoya Staff Writer

China-Russia relations face unprecedented challenges amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to panelists at a March 28 event.

The event, titled “ChinaRussia Relations: Peers, Allies, Competitors?”, featured a conversation aimed at unpacking the dynamism, opportunities and irritants in Sino-Russian ties.

Georgetown University’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues and the Asian studies program in the School of Foreign Service (SFS) co-sponsored the dialogue. Evan Medeiros, Penner Family Chair in Asian studies and senior fellow with the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, moderated the event.

Since Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Chinese government has emphasized the two countries’ partnership. As recently as March

“There’s some stability in this partnership, despite the huge pressures the Ukrainian war has caused.”

ELIZABETH WISHNICK Senior Research Scientist

28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov affirmed that China-Russia relations continue to be particularly strong.

Declarations of support from the Chinese and Russian governments are rooted in ideological similarities that the two countries have shared since the Cold War, as their governments were both fundamentally opposed to Western values of democracy and capitalism, according to Joseph Torigian, an American University professor and Wilson Center fellow.

“They see an attack on traditional values in the West as something dangerous,” Torigian said at the event.

“Whereas Russia and China, by protecting those values, can avoid how these democratic countries fall into what they see as a destabilizing situation. They both want to restore their past.”

Russia and China declared a “no limits” partnership Feb. 4, promising to collaborate against the West and work together on space, climate change, artificial intelligence and control of the internet.

The document’s ambiguous language underscores the countries’ different economic positions, which leaves room

for the Chinese government to withhold support for the Russian invasion, according to Elizabeth Wishnick, senior research scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at CNA. “It’s a normative alignment. I think they agree in terms of certain broad brushstrokes of what they would like to see, but they have different positions in the global economy. They have different desires in terms of their foreign policy aims,” Wishnick said at the event.

According to Torigian, international economic and political pressures may force China to ultimately align with the West more than Russia.

“There’s the added element of the years leading up to the Ukraine crisis, during which I think the Chinese did hope for a better relationship with the West,” Torigian said. “Since that didn’t happen, as they’re calculating their interest with regards to how much to support the Russians, and they think about what might be possible, now that the United States is prioritizing the war in Ukraine so much, they may not feel that the need to work with the Russians is costing them so much as to with regards to the west.”

However, despite the fact that China is facing backlash for supporting Russia, the China-Russia partnership ultimately benefits China’s position in the international order, according to Wishnick.

“There’ve been a lot of questions, you know, is this partnership, it might be unlimited, but is it an unlimited burden for China right now, because of additional costs that China is experiencing for being the strategic partner of Russia?” Wishnick said. “China still sees that as an asset. There’s some stability in this partnership, despite the huge pressures the Ukraine war has caused.”

People should pay attention to China and Russia’s actions, especially in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, according to Yu Bin, professor emeritus at Wittenberg University and senior fellow of the Shanghai Association of American Studies and the Russian Studies Center of the East China Normal University in Shanghai.

“The narrative versus interest — this is the very important issue, and how much the Chinese would continue the normal commercial interaction with Russia, and to what extent, for example, the Chinese would go for any military assistance,” Bin said.

“My own sense of the issue is, I think the normal, ongoing commercial interactions will continue, though the Chinese firms have been more careful not to step beyond the U.S. red line. And that’s that.”

Julia Kelly

Hoya Staff Writer

Seven Living Learning Communities (LLCs) at Georgetown University will not operate in the 2022-23 academic year because of staffing issues, limited resources, campus lockdowns and COVID-19-related adjustments.

Traditionally, LLCs offer students specific residential communities where students can explore specific academic and social justice issues. Several LLCs have not operated for the 202122 school year, including the Culture and Performance LLC, housed in Reynolds hall; Crossroads LLC, housed in Village C East; Entrepreneurship LLC, housed in Village C West; and Explore DC LLC, housed in Darnall Hall; Magis Row, housed in university-owned townhouses, and Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy, a Jesuit value learning community, housed in ​​Ida Ryan and Isaac Hawkins hall.

Magis Row, Global Living, Culture and Performance, Living Well, Justice & Diversity and Action, Crossroads and Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy will all be put on hold for the 2022-2023 school year because of limited resources, staffing shifts and adjustments.

The closure of many LLCs came as a surprise for many students, including Lucy Doyle (COL ’22), who lived in the Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy LLC during her sophomore year.

“I actually thought that the LLC had paused for the year, I

hadn’t heard it was closing. I was under the impression that the decision about in-person learning for this school year was made too late for them to implement their normal application process for the LLC (my freshman year, we applied pretty early, and we knew we were going to live there before the normal housing process even started for everyone else),” Doyle wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Doyle said living in the Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy allowed her to learn more about Georgetown’s ties to enslavement.

“I think that knowing that history has been the most impactful part of living in the LLC,” Doyle wrote. “That is knowledge that doesn’t have to be limited to the residents of a single dorm building.”

Ida Ryan and Isaac Hawkins Halls is named after Isaac Hawkins, one of the GU272, the 314 enslaved people the Maryland Province Jesuits sold in 1838 to financially sustain Georgetown University.

Kayleigh Coppinger (COL ’23), a former resident of the Justice and Diversity in Action (JDA) LLC, which is focused on social change and was open this year, said living in the JDA LLC during her first year at Georgetown helped her cultivate a community and find her place on campus.

“It was a great way to cultivate a community my freshman year.

And having a wide mix of people from different backgrounds and grades was really formative in finding my place on campus. Be-

GEORGETOWN RESIDENTIAL LIVING

Certain Living Learning Communities will be closed so the university can reasses their programming. ing in the JDA also really opened my eyes to all of the different ways that we can go about uplifting our communities,” Coppinger wrote to The Hoya.

JDA Advisor Elizabeth Grimm said LLCs like JDA are valuable for students.

“I think the LLCs play such an important role in the student experience,” Grimm wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Being involved with JDA has been one of the most meaningful roles I have filled at the university.”

Some LLCs have been put on hold in order to improve programming, according to a university spokesperson.

“Based on feedback from advisors and the Residential Education team, the university has made the difficult decision to temporarily pause several LLCs in order to reassess and strengthen future programming,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

The Spanish, French, Bayit and Muslim Interest LLCs will continue in the 2022-23 school year, according to the spokesperson.

The university did not inform program managers about why some of the LLCs were put on hold, according to David Lange, the program manager of the Entrepreneurship LLC. “I was told that Entrepreneurship LLC wouldn’t be running earlier this year without much explanation,” Lange wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“I think it had something to do with the uncertainty over the University’s operating status in the Fall 2021 semester.”

Applications for the Entrepreneurship LLC will run again in Fall of 2023, according to Lange.

The university understands the disappointment with the closure of some LLCs. “While these disruptions have impacted LLC student life, they also offer a valuable opportunity for Residential Education and students to reflect on the goals, mission, programming and format of LLCs in the context of our current world and reflecting on modern-day issues,” the spokesperson wrote.

NHS and DC Organizations Host Day of Service Akashdiya Chakraborty Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies (NHS) organized its first Day of Service since the start of the pandemic, with 16 students from various majors across the school volunteering to help pack medically tailored meals for patients suffering serious illnesses.

The event, which was held March 23, was organized by the NHS’s Committee on Mission and Values (CMV), a university committee dedicated to highlighting ethics and equity at the NHS. CMV worked with Food & Friends (F&F), an organization that focuses on nutritional support for patients suffering serious illnesses, for the event which was held at F&F’s headquarters in the District.

Food & Friends was founded in 1988, initially serving as a meal delivery program for people struggling with AIDS. It has since expanded to provide specialized meals and groceries to individuals with HIV/AIDS, cancer and a number of other serious illnesses that limit a person’s ability to maintain proper nutrition.

The CMV has a history of aiding vulnerable populations, according to NHS professor Susan Coleman, who helped to coordinate the event.

“It is a wonderful organization with a long history of providing life saving nutrition to vulnerable populations in DC,” Coleman wrote to The Hoya.

“Their staff is very supportive of volunteers and welcomed the Georgetown students.”

The day provided a way to establish a sense of community among classmates, according to Nihal Nagesh (NHS ’24), who volunteered at the event.

“Volunteering shows us the needs of the community and provides them an opportunity to contribute,” Nagesh wrote to The Hoya. “Additionally, it also provides us an opportunity to build relationships with other members of the community.”

F&F is dedicated to community and wellness support for their clients in the Washington, D.C. area, according to F&F Executive Director Carrie Stoltzfus.

“Food & Friends’ mission is preparing and delivering specialized meals and groceries that are designed to meet the medical and dietary needs of

each of our clients; providing nutritional counseling and wellness education that enhances our clients’ quality of life; and creating a strong sense of community for both our clients and volunteers that reduces the social isolation that often comes with serious illnesses,” Stoltzfus wrote to The Hoya.

The day of service provided an experiential opportunity beyond the classroom, according to Xinyi He (NHS ’22).

“It can be easy to stay in a safe bubble at Georgetown,” He wrote to The Hoya. “I think volunteering helps students break out of repetitive class schedules and interact with people actively contributing to health services, allowing for better appreciation of the work that goes into healthcare.”

Volunteering is a cornerstone of Georgetown’s health service education, according to NHS Interim Dean John Monahan.

“When our students engage in community service, they have a very important opportunity to listen, see, and learn from those they serve and from the community partners with whom they are working,” Monahan wrote to The Hoya.

“It allows our students to gain perspective for their classroom work — service is an essential part of learning and a value representative of Hoyas for others.”

The mission statement of F&F aligns with some of Georgetown’s values, according to NHS Professor Christopher King, who also helped to coordinate the event.

“The mission of Food and Friends exemplifies ‘cura personalis’ or care for the whole person — a value that is deeply entrenched in our teaching methods,” King wrote to The Hoya.

This day provided students with the opportunity to learn through hands-on community service, according to Coleman.

“I believe the experience provided an opportunity to be part of an organization providing essential nutrition to medically vulnerable individuals and families, to see our NHS values in action aligning with F&F mission and vision, to work with one another and the dedicated F&F staff interprofessionally, and, for health professions students, to see that “Food is Medicine”…the vitally important motto seen in the F&F facility,” Coleman wrote.

A8 | THE HOYA

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NEWS

Panel: Pandemic Will Have Lasting Georgetown SAFE and Swipe Out Impact on Mental Health, Policy Hunger Host Meal Swipe Drive Priyasha Chakravarti Hoya Staff Writer

The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently impacted mental health and welfare policies, panelists said at a March 28 event.

The event, titled “So What Did I Miss? A Look Back, A Look Around, A Look Ahead After Two Years of COVID,” featured four journalists and Mirka Sosa (COL ’23), recipient of the Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellow for her work with immigrants and the Latino community, in a discussion about the lasting effects of the pandemic. The Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life hosted the event, and Kim Daniels, co-director of the Initiative, moderated the discussion.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities, especially when it comes to education, according to Sosa, who is involved in the D.C. Schools Project, a program that provides English literacy tutoring to students from immigrant backgrounds.

“I shared the same internet source with my two sisters and there was a lot of background noise in our homes and the connection wasn’t stable,” Sosa said. “A lot of my tutees experienced this too and fell behind in terms of curriculum, and there were a lot of disparities in terms of who can have access to a good education.”

According to the World Economic Forum, the pandemic forced an estimated 1.2 billion students around the world out of the classroom, and over 55 million K-12 students in the United States were impacted by pandemic closures in 2020.

In addition to exposing inequities in access to education, the pandemic also exacerbated stress levels and worsened a nationwide mental health crisis, according to David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times.

“The most important thing that has been accelerated by COVID has been the social, emotional and psychological crisis in this country,” Brooks said. “There has been a 33% rise in suicide; 40 to 50% rise in depression rates; 45% of college students say they have endured periods of stress so high that they could not function; 54% of Americans say nobody knows them well; and

“I think that although there might be a dawning realization that the autonomy and loneliness that has come from the pandemic can be harmful in the long run, we are now at a tipping point and need to figure out what the new normal will be.”

DAVID BROOKS NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST

the number of people with no close friends has quadrupled.

This is a period of social pain that has been building for the last 20 years and COVID sent it into overdrive.”

During the pandemic, about 30% of U.S. adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, according to a December 2021 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to national healthcare policy and journalism.

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While employment and output levels stagnated over the pandemic, welfare policies positively impacted the economy, according to E.J. Dionne, columnist at the Washington Post and professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy.

“Poverty actually fell during the pandemic because the government actually acted and did all sorts of things to keep the economy from collapsing, like implementing the child tax credit,” Dionne said. “We are however backing up from that and not learning from those lessons to apply during the good times. There is this discontent, disorder and unhappiness. But I have seen in my students and in alot of young people, a sense of determination about making the country more democratic and just.”

Congress has approved about $4.5 trillion in total pandemic related federal aid spending, including $900 billion in COVID-19 aid signed into law by the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. This includes spending on education, healthcare and social welfare, as well as programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program loans, which help businesses maintain their workers’ employment status.

Coming out of the pandemic, individuals must adjust to new social norms while demanding legislative change, according to Brooks.

“When we go back to looking at what normal looks like we have to ask: What is freedom? What is good? How do we make people care for each other?” Brooks said. “I think that although there might be a dawning realization that the autonomy and loneliness that has come from the pandemic can be harmful in the long run, we are now at a tipping point and need to figure out what the new normal will be.”

JESSICA LIN/THE HOYA

SAFE’s March 25 meal swipe drive garnered over 500 meal swipe donations in an effort to combat food insecurity within the Georgetown community.

Adora Zheng

Student Life News Desk Editor

Students donated over 500 meal swipes to Georgetown University community members experiencing food insecurity during a meal swipe drive March 25.

Georgetown Students Advancing Food Equity (SAFE) partnered with Swipe Out Hunger, a national nonprofit addressing hunger among college students, and Hoya Hospitality to plan the meal swipe drive. Students can donate their two guest meal swipes at Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall, Crop Chop, Royal Jacket, Chick-Fil-A, Starbucks and Einstein Bros.

Bagels, according to SAFE’s March 17 Instagram post advertising the drive.

SAFE co-president Christina Rosamond (SFS ’24) said donating is a quick and easy way to support the Georgetown community.

“It’s such an easy thing that you can take five seconds of your day to do, and it really can make an impact for someone who might be facing food insecurity within our community,” Rosamond said in an interview with The Hoya. “I think this is just a really easy and meaningful way to support our community and be sure everyone is getting what they need.”

Students have expressed concerns about food insecurity on campus because of restricted dining hours and limited dietary options. In addition to the meal swipe drive, Hoya Hub, a free food pantry in Leavey 418, SAFE, and studentrun GroupMe chats aim to al-

leviate food insecurity.

Donated swipes are redeemable at every location that currently accepts meal swipes, according to Abigail Orbe (COL ’23), SAFE co-president.

“After spring break, students will be able to request a block of swipes,” Orbe wrote. “There will be iPads at the Center for Social Justice and the Hoya Hub (our on-campus food pantry) where students can fill out the request form, and within a few days, the block of swipes will be added to their meal plan.”

Christina Cordell (SFS ’25) saw a flyer advertising the drive and chose to donate her two guest meal swipes.

“The donation process was super simple,” Cordell wrote to The Hoya. “At more busy or smaller dining locations it sometimes overwhelmed the flow of students but at Leo’s it was a breeze.”

The university provided logistical assistance in planning the drive, which last occurred in 2019 but did not take place in 2020 or 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a university spokesperson.

“Here on campus, Georgetown works with students, including SAFE, and with Hoya Hospitality to facilitate the Swipe Out Hunger/Donate a Meal program,” the spokesperson wrote. “We provide technical assistance to facilitate the transfer of ‘swipes’ from donors to recipients.”

The collaboration between SAFE and Hoya Hospitality for the Swipe Out Hunger program in 2019 collected more than 1,600 donated meals, according to the university spokesperson.

This year’s meal swipe drive

was supposed to be held Feb. 24, but Orbe said several complications forced SAFE to delay the program.

“We hoped to hold the drive earlier in the semester, but with in-person programming being suspended and some other logistic issues, we’ve had to push it back,” Orbe wrote.

“After a few semesters off because of COVID, we’re aiming to bring that back and reinvigorate the program.”

Orbe said the guest swipes that students are allocated every semester typically go to waste, so the meal swipe drive acted as a way for students to donate the swipes instead.

“The donation process is so easy, and many students’ guest swipes go unused during the semester,” Orbe wrote. “This is a great opportunity to help support our fellow Hoyas and improve food access on campus.”

According to Rosamond, Hoya Hub cannot meet student’s full demand.

“The pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity issues on campus, and there’s disproportionate support especially for students living off campus,” Rosamond said. “For those that aren’t on a meal plan, it’s especially important that we make sure that they’re able to have resources to find their meals beyond what the Hoya Hub has.”

Cordell said that her meal plan allowed her to donate many meal swipes to a good cause.

“As a freshmen, I have unlimited swipes which makes me super swipe happy—especially for a good cause,” Cordell wrote. “I would 100% participate in future drives!”

Exoneree Awarded Distinguished Georgetown Visiting Professorship Michael Santos Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University recognized exoneree and attorney Martin “Marty” Tankleff with the Peter P. Mullen Distinguished Visiting Professorship in honor of his contributions to the university and the field of law as a leading voice for wrongfully convicted people.

In 1990, Tankleff was wrongfully convicted for the murder of his parents, who were killed in 1988 when Tankleff was 17.

Tankleff was found gulity on two counts of murder and sentenced to 50 years to life after he was corerced into an unsigned confession.

After being exonerated and released from prison in 2007, Tankleff dedicated his life to criminal justice reform. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2020, after which he served as a defense attorney and was admitted to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Tankleff co-teaches the “Making an Exoneree” course, which offers 15 undergraduate students the opportunity to learn about cases of wrongfully convicted individuals through video documentaries and media campaigns.

The Georgetown Department of Government and the Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative, which offers educational programs for incarcerated people, hosted an event in honor of Tankleff’s achievement on March 28, where speakers had the opportunity to highlight Tankleff’s distinguished work.

The Peter P. Mullen Distinguished Visiting Profes-

sorship was established in 1998 in honor of the late Peter Mullen (C ’48), a Georgetown graduate and board chair. The professorship recognizes an accomplished attorney with significant contributions to the university and the field of law.

Tankleff said his motivation throughout all of his involvements is to improve the state of criminal justice in the United States.

“Since December 27, 2007, the day I was freed, after 6,338 days in prison, I have made a commitment to speak to legislative bodies, legal groups, police departments, even the former Suffolk County Police commission, the police department that put me in prison, high schools, colleges and universities, all in an effort to make a difference in this world,” Tankleff said at the event.

Tankleff has testified against interrogation room deception, helping to pass bills banning the practice in Oregon, Illinois and Utah.

Tankleff is a role model for students in Georgetown’s “Making an Exoneree” course, according to co-professor of the class, Marc Howard.

Howard is also Tankleff’s childhood friend, and helped fight for his release.

“I just want to be clear, none of it would be possible without Marty,” Howard said at the event. “He is the cornerstone of this program, and every time our students look up at him, they see the very thing that we are trying to achieve, which is getting an innocent person out of prison, and that motivates

them just the same way that it motivated me.”

Tankleff embodies the values of the Mullen Professorship, according to Elaine Mullen, the daughter of the award’s namesake.

“My father had the belief that our legal system formed a basis for freedom in our society, and that everyone has equal rights and is entitled to justice under law,” Mullen said at the event. “Because of that, my father’s ideals match up perfectly with Marty’s dedication to social justice.”

Tankleff’s work will positively impact generations to come, according to Jason Flom, a music industry executive and an advocate for wrongfully convicted individuals.

“The ripple effect shall be known and felt by countless people, some of whom won’t ever even know his name, but they will benefit from his incredible spirit,” Flom said at the event. “I have benefitted from knowing him. So Marty, I said before that my dad was my hero, and now I have another hero. You are a hero to me and to so many others.”

Tankleff said his own wrongful conviction and years spent incarcerated have driven his career in law and advocacy work.

“Every young boy, girl, child that is going to be protected because of the legislation that I have been instrumental in getting passed, will be protected because there should never be any more Marty Tankleffs,” Tankleff said. “There should never be any child that should go through what I went through.”

THE HOYA | A9

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022 | THEHOYA.COM

NEWS

Dupont Farmers Market Seeks To Support Marginalized Vendors Eli Kales

City Desk Editor

FRESHFARM’s Dupont Circle Market will open a Thursday afternoon market to provide more space for vendors and increase diversity and inclusion.

The announcement comes in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Dupont Circle Market, the largest farmers market in Washington, D.C. Launching May 5, the Thursday market will host around 10 to 15 vendors. The Sunday morning Dupont Circle Market will also expand to include a dozen extra vendors beginning April 3. Most of the new vendors will represent groups that have historically been excluded from agriculture.

In 2020, FRESHFARM faced backlash due to the Dupont Circle Market’s lack of diversity and inclusion.

Vendors and patrons criticized the organization for tokenizing Black vendors at the market, as well as for a lack of transparency in the application process to become a vendor at the market.

The expansion of the mar-

ket is geared toward providing opportunities for vendors from disadvantaged groups in the agricultural industry. This comes in an effort to align with the goals set by FRESHFARM for diversity and inclusion.

Juliet Glass, director of communications and marketing at FRESHFARM, said the organization believes the District will support the expansion of the market.

“FRESHFARM Dupont Circle Market is our flagship and has been operating for 25 years,” Glass wrote. “The market is known throughout the city and region and we have an incredibly loyal customer base, so we felt that the neighborhood could support the market on an additional day of the week.”

The additional day allows for expanded shopping opportunities for patrons and growth opportunities for new vendors, according to Glass.

“The Sunday expansion will give us shoppers more elbow room and also give FRESHFARM an opportunity to add additional farmers and produc-

ers,” Glass wrote to The Hoya. “In 2021, there were 64 farmers and producers in the Main Season (April to December) including regular and pop-up vendors. In the 2022 Main Season with the expansion, the number of farmers and producers at each market will be closer to 70, but our “pool” of farmers and producers will be about 75 if you include pop-ups.”

The Thursday market will feature local alternatives to traditional grocery store produce, according to Glass.

“The focus for the Thursday market will be grocery food items — raw fruits and vegetables, proteins, cheese, bread, etc.,” Glass wrote. “Like all our markets, the Thursday market will be Producer-Only meaning that everything sold at the market is grown or made by the person selling it.”

FRESHFARM, which opened its first market in Dupont Circle in 1997, has now expanded to a network of 28 markets throughout the D.C. metropolitan area, featuring producers from within a 200-mile radius of the District. Aside from its markets, FRESHFARM also works to

ELI KALES /THE HOYA

FRESHFARM announced the expansion of its Dupont Circle Farmers Market to provide greater opportunities for vendors from marginalized communities. improve equitable food access across the District.

In addition to improving diversity at the Dupont Circle Market, expanding offerings on Sunday and Thursday will support economic growth as the District recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to FRESHFARM Executive Director Hugo Mogollon.

“Farmers markets are an essential business, providing communities with a vital food access point,” Mogollon wrote in a press release. “We proudly kept the Dupont Circle market open throughout

the pandemic and we saw a spike in shopping. The expansion will help relieve shopper congestion and also allow us to add new farmers and producers to the market, aligning with the District’s COVID recovery goals and advancing economic development for small businesses.”

According to Glass, the market will now be able to provide increased opportunities to farmers and producers from marginalized communities, which aligns with FRESHFARM’s mission.

“FRESHFARM works to

create a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable food future,” Glass wrote. “We develop innovative ways to solve critical problems across our regional food system and connect people to their food through hands-on education, farmers markets, and food distribution programs. So creating economic opportunities for all farmers and producers, including those from marginalized groups, is part of our mission and essential to creating a strong regional food system that works for everyone.”

National Groups Support GULC Muslim Students DC Central Kitchen Provides Job Training For Young Adults Samantha Sinutko Graduate Desk Editor

Two national organizations submitted letters to the Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) administration in support of Muslim students’ advocacy against the alleged Islamophobic course content of tenured professor Susan Deller Ross.

The Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Muslim Bar Association (AMBA) wrote separate letters — released March 14 by CAIR and released March 18 by the AMBA — to support demands from the Georgetown Muslim Law Student Association (MLSA) in their Feb. 28 letter and memo, which outlined alleged instances of Islamophobia in Ross’s class.

Ross’s exams have included questions asking for students to advocate for upholding a hijab ban and for supporting the positions of a right-wing extremist organization that has committed mass lynchings of Muslims in Kashmir, according to the MLSA letter.

CAIR urged GULC administrators to conduct an investigation into Ross’ conduct, publicly denounce Islamophobia and offer culturally competency training. AMBA asked that GULC and Ross publicly address students’ concerns.

Ross did not respond to The Hoya’s request for comment.

During two meetings between MLSA members and the GULC administration March 8 and 23, the university did not release a statement condemning Islamophobia when the students asked, according to Hamsa Fayed, secretary of Georgetown’s MLSA. “We crafted a two-sentence statement for them to post or to send an email to the stu-

dents at Georgetown Law, as they did with the Ilia Shapiro and Franz Werro incidents, but they seemed to be resistant and ultimately refused to do that,” Fayed said in an interview with The Hoya.

When asked if GULC released a statement condemning Islamophobia following the students’ requests, GULC Dean William Treanor referred The Hoya to a June 9 email condemning anti-Muslim violence after four members of a Muslim family were murdered in Canada.

Though the university cannot comment on personnel matters, Treanor said administrators will address harassment complaints through conducting investigations for individual faculty members.

“If a determination is made that a faculty member has violated policy, the University will determine sanctions and remedies under the Faculty Responsibilities Code as appropriate,” Treanor wrote in an email to The Hoya.

CAIR asked that GULC investigate Ross’ conduct, as well as her class and curriculum material, according to Zainab Chaudry, director of the Maryland CAIR office.

“Unfortunately, there has not been the kind of response that we would expect — especially from a university of Georgetown’s caliber — to move the needle and make sure that these students’ concerns are being addressed and appropriate action is being taken,” Chaudry said in an interview with The Hoya.

While students can be pushed to challenge their perspectives and professors have freedom to construct their class curriculum, this incident brings up additional issues, according to Adeel Bashir, AMBA president.

Abigail Burns

Special to The Hoya

@georgetownlawofficial

Two national organizations wrote letters in support of demands from the Georgetown Muslim Law Association.

“There’s a difference between teaching students and advocating for positions that you may not necessarily agree with,” Bashir said in an interview with The Hoya. “Those are completely fair points.

Within the academic world academic freedom, there’s freedom of speech. We’re not challenging any of that.”

During a March 23 clinic fair at GULC where clinic directors presented their programs, dozens of students held a stand-in where they held up signs condemning the content from Ross’s class.

Ross did not show up and the clinic fair did not include her clinic’s presentation, according to Fayed.

“We had these signs, or posters, and we lifted them up at the conclusion of the clinic and held them up really high,” Fayed said. “We were silent. But one or two of us said a statement about why we were doing this, that we asked people to not sign up for the clinic and to be aware of the clinic in general.”

It’s frustrating for alleged

Islamophobic rhetoric to be included into the GULC curriculum for decades, according to Jinan Chehade (LAW ’23), another MLSA member..

“For someone to have multiple exams to have the best answer be that hijab is backward and prevents women from progressing and is a human rights violation, and advocate for France’s hijab ban — I think that as a Jesuit university, Georgetown should be on the forefront of this and not wait for students to bring it up,” Chehade said in an interview with The Hoya.

Magnifying advocacy when students raise concerns is essential in the fight for equitable learning environments, according to Chaudry.

“It’s important to amplify the voices of these students who are coming forward courageously and reporting these incidents,” Chaudry said. “It can be very isolating and challenging, especially in an academic environment to take a bold stand like this, to stand up for justice and equity.”

Event: Reporters Unveil Russian Violence in Ukraine Annabel Laveran Special to The Hoya

Reporting on the ground in Ukraine about the Russian invasion reveals continued suffering and a lack of respite from Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression, according to speakers at a March 24 event.

At the event, titled “Reporting from the Front Lines in Russia and Ukraine: A Conversation with CNN’s Jill Dougherty and Alex Marquardt,” Jill Dougherty, adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) and former CNN Moscow bureau chief, and Alex Marquardt (SFS ’04), CNN senior national security correspondent, discussed their past experience reporting on the ground in Russia and Ukraine.

Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), CERES and the Carnegie Corporation of New York hosted the event.

Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a full-

scale attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24, prompting the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II. The unprovoked invasion has led to a refugee crisis, with 3.6 million people in Ukraine fleeing to other countries and 6.5 million people displaced within Ukraine.

Marquardt said reporting on personal stories about real people is impactful because it shows the world what is actually taking place on a human level.

“It’s the toughest thing you can do. You are meeting people on the worst day of their life, and it’s very difficult to go up to someone on the worst day of their life and say, ‘Tell me how bad it is, and tell me how you’re feeling, and tell me what you’re going to do next,’” Marquardt said. “It can feel like you’re preying on someone.”

“But you have to remember that that story is hopefully going to have a far reaching impact and is going to help our audience under-

stand what is truly going on in Ukraine,” he continued.

By spreading disinformation and propaganda, Putin’s regime makes it difficult for people both inside and outside of Russia to access accurate reporting and discern what is true, according to Dougherty.

“People were getting information and communication from the rest of the world on a relatively free basis and now Putin wants a sovereign internet which he can just flip off like a switch, and to me that is really terrible,” Dougherty said. “Russia — to a certain extent — is dying. The country will be losing the best and the brightest people.”

Russia continues to be the largest producer of disinformation on social media and is the source of the most fake and misleading Facebook accounts, according to a May 2021 report from Facebook, which discovered Russian disinformation campaigns in more than 50 countries since 2017.

Putin signed a law March 4 that punishes journal-

ists who deviate beyond the Kremlin’s permitted talking points about the events in Ukraine with 15 years in prison. Additionally, Russian officials have blocked access to certain outside information about the conflict.

The responsibility of journalists is to inform the public of the truth during crises to bring about appropriate action and solutions from the international community, according to Marquardt.

“In the early days of a conflict, when people feel like they are the victims, people are eager to get their story out,” Marquardt said. “Then there are others who are going through so much and are traumatized that they don’t want to talk to you, and that is perfectly understandable.

You have to navigate that gingerly and respectfully. It was just devastating — and it is very difficult — but again it’s not about you; your job is to get the story out there, and hopefully it will have an impact.”

Marianne’s, a cafe located in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, is providing on-site culinary job training to young adults facing employment barriers.

DC Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that aims to fight poverty and unemployment, aids individuals who are facing difficulties finding jobs. The organization provides livingwage job opportunities in the food industry by offering scholarships for culinary job training (CJT), such as those at Marianne’s and other locations around Washington, D.C. Over 1,700 people have launched culinary careers in the past 30 years through DC Central Kitchen’s culinary job training program.

Marianne’s was named in honor of Marianne Ali, who served as a mentor and leader at DC Central Kitchen for two decades before her death in 2017. The cafe honors her legacy as Ali herself overcame struggles with addiction after enrolling in culinary school.

The cafe’s location in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library will help to carry on the legacies of both King and Ali, according to DC Central Kitchen CEO Mike Curtin, Jr. “This cafe and catering partnership with the DC Public Library will help transform how American cities imagine the role and combined power of libraries and nonprofits,” Curtin said in a November 9 press release. “We are honored to help carry forward the legacy of Dr. King while honoring the memory of our beloved colleague Marianne Ali, who embodied the values of DC Central Kitchen by affirming the worth, dignity, and potential of everyone she met and educated.”

Trainees can enroll in a 14week CJT program at DC Central Kitchen’s headquarters, which provides culinary arts education, career-readiness training and internships.

In addition to offering hands-on culinary training and professional development, Marianne’s CJT programs teaches skills of empowerment, according to Mishayla Valle, a single mother who graduated from DC Central Kitchen’s CJT program in February and now works at Marianne’s.

“We also do self empowerment, which was really a great piece, because it helps you work with yourself and how to better figure out your strengths and your weaknesses,” Valle said in an interview with The Hoya. “Because that makes you a better person, how to work with people who are hard to work with. Working around different people of all ages and different backgrounds was definitely a plus.”

Valle said she has always had

an interest in the culinary and hospitality world, but struggled with barriers to employment attempting to balance two jobs simultaneously before enrolling in DC Central Kitchen.

Marrianne’s provides opportunities for both patrons at the library and cafe employees, according to D.C. Public Library executive director Richard Reyes-Gavilan.

“Having a cafe where customers can purchase snacks or beverages gives them more reasons to spend time in their library, which is a crucial part of our goal to make the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library a hub of activity downtown,” Reyes-Gavilan said in a November 9 press release.

In addition to its CJT programs, DC Central Kitchen helps students get jobs post graduation by guiding students through the application process. While students have the opportunity to work in hotels and restaurants in the District, many continue to work at the DC Central Kitch-

“I think I made a great decision with staying inside of DC Central Kitchen because they use food to basically build the communities together.”

Mishayla Valle Graduate of DC Central Kitchen’s CJT program

en locations.

According to Valle, the decision to work for DC Central Kitchen was informed by the organization’s values and goals.

“I think I made a great decision with staying inside of DC Central Kitchen,” Valle said.

“Because they use food to basically build the communities together. And I think that’s what I like most about this job and about the DC Central Kitchen companies overall.”

According to Valle, DC Central Kitchen differs from other programs aiming to provide job training for individuals facing employment barriers due to their dedication to community and belief in uplifting trainees.

“I feel like they are here for the people,” Valle said.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from, what struggles you have, what you’ve been through, they are here to work with you, they know that we all are human. They were here to uplift me, and there’s not a lot of programs out here where they can actually help.”

A10 | THE HOYA

THEHOYA.COM | FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022

SPORTS BASEBALL

MEN’S TENNIS

Georgetown Fights to a 4-1 Victory Over BU Terriers

Hoyas Blow Massive Lead, Lose 7-11 to George Washington

Abbey Schiller

Sam Wirth

Hoya Staff Writer

Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown men’s tennis grittily defeated Boston University (BU) in a well-fought contest. Both squads came out hungry March 26 for a victory at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.

The Terriers (1-14, 0-1 Patriot League) were looking to take their second win of the season and the Hoyas (6-10, 1-2 Big East) looked to redeem themselves from a painful 4-3 loss to Butler in their third Big East match of the season.

Beginning with the doubles matches, Georgetown started off with a strong performance from first-year Jake Fellows and junior Kieran Foster for an impressive 6-1 win over Boston’s Johann Sajonz and Adrian Pawlowski.

Fellows, who is in the middle of a stellar first year on the Hilltop, commented how the athletes’ fierce mentality helped them earn wins in an interview with The Hoya.

“We just did well adapting to the conditions, keeping our heads down and focusing on the match and the players in front of us,” Fellows said.

The Hoyas dropped the next two doubles matches, losing the doubles point to BU. First-years Adhvyte Sharma and Akira Morgenstern lost a close 4-6 battle to the Terriers’ Jonah Dickson and Dion Loutas before Georgetown graduate Scott Bickel and sophomore Derek Raskopf dropped their match 3-6 to Boston’s Gabe Brown and Ben Letzer.

Even with the losses, the Hoyas were still able to take momentum from doubles and convert it into four singles

GUHOYAS

The Georgetown men’s tennis team persevered through rain to secure a decisive win over BU. wins. Fellows was able to continue his winning streak in a nail-biting match, going 2-0 against Boston’s Loutas for the first win in singles.

Foster kept the energy high for the Hoyas in his 2-0 win against Terrier Jonah Dickson. Sharma lifted his personal singles record to 4-1 after he won his match against Pawlowski by dominating two sets 6-3, 6-3.

Finally, Bickel triumphed over Boston’s Gabe Brown 2-0.

Georgetown’s Morgenstern and first-year Charlie Suh also made appearances in the singles matches but, unfortunately, the matches were called off early.

Morgenstern reflected on how the team’s perseverance throughout the day was reflective of the Hoyas’ toughness on the court.

“It was our first home match, and we came back from adversity with being down, plus the awful weather,” Morgenstern said. “It was very telling of how gritty we are.”

After the bout with Boston, the Hoyas took on the University of Pennsylvania (13-4, 0-0 Ivy

League) on March 27 in Philadelphia. UPenn bested Georgetown 6-1, denying the Hoyas, with just three matches left, an opportunity to break even on the season.

Despite the loss to the Quakers, Fellows remains optimistic about the future for the men’s tennis team.

“Context is important. We’re a young team starting four freshmen. We’re learning how to play against the good teams,” Fellows said. “We have good recruits coming in next year, and so we clearly have an upward trend. I’m pretty positive about the next four years here.”

The Hoyas are in good shape for the rest of the season as they continue to hunt for their first Big East Championship since 1989.

The younger players’ energy will be a crucial piece of the puzzle for the Hoyas as they continue through their final three matches against the University of Richmond (8-7, 1-1 Atlantic 10) on April 1, St. John’s University (11-3, 0-0 Big East) on April 15 and Villanova University (2-11, 0-0 Big East) on April 16.

After securing an early lead, the Georgetown University baseball team allowed George Washington to hammer in 10 unanswered runs, propelling the Colonials (1213) to a 11-7 victory in another iteration of the crosstown rivalry.

The Hoyas (16-9) came into the game red-hot, having just swept the Virginia Military Institute Keydets in a three-game series, outscoring them 24 to 14.

Sophomore right fielder Jake Hyde, who has led the Hoyas on offense all year, slugged baseballs all week. In Georgetown’s four games last week, he slashed a .444 batting average, a .500 on-base percentage and a 1.222 slugging percentage. Hyde also clobbered 4 home runs and batted in 15 runs en route to his third Big East Player of the Week award this season.

Additionally, Hyde was named one of Collegiate Baseball’s National Players of the Week, placing him in the upper echelon of hitters in college baseball this year.

He is tied for No. 6 in the country in hits, tied for No. 5 in home runs and is eleventh in the nation in slugging percentage.

On the other side, George Washington came into the match scuffling. The Colonials looked for a bounce-back win after getting swept over the weekend by East Tennessee State.

After a scoreless first inning, Georgetown got on the board in the top of the second. Back-toback singles from first-year designated hitter Owen Carapellotti and junior catcher Adam Dapke-

wicz gave the Hoyas a great opportunity. They capitalized when a masterfully placed sacrifice bunt from sophomore shortstop Michael Eze forced a throwing error and allowed both Georgetown runners to score. Hyde remained on fire with a 2-run home run and graduate second baseman Ethan Stern added his own 2-run homer, propelling Georgetown to a 6-0 lead.

George Washington was able to scratch across a run in the fourth inning to cut the Hoyas’ lead to 5 on a fielding error, but Georgetown scored one right back in the top of the fifth with a Dapkewicz RBI single to make it a 7-1 ballgame.

However, the Colonials came roaring back. They scored 2 runs in the fifth on an RBI double from infielder Joe Biancone and an RBI single from outfielder Cade Fergus.

In the sixth, a sloppy throwing error from the Hoyas allowed George Washington to tack on another run, making it a 7-4 game.

With that, Georgetown graduate starting pitcher Collin Garner was done for the day. In his six innings of work, he gave up 9 hits, 2 earned runs, walked none and struck out five Colonial hitters.

With Garner out of the game, George Washington took advantage of Georgetown’s bullpen in the bottom of the seventh and seized control. The Colonials brought 10 men to the plate, scoring 4 runs on just 3 hits in the frame. Walks plagued graduate pitcher Nick Borek, graduate pitcher Andrew DeRoche and senior pitcher Anthony Redfern,

who were three of the four Georgetown relievers needed to get out of the inning. Senior pitcher Angelo Tonas was able to come in and strike out Biancone with the bases loaded to escape the jam, but the inning ended with GW on top, 8-7.

Georgetown had a great opportunity to even the score in the top of the eighth: Eze and graduate left fielder Evan Blum both walked, giving the Hoyas runners on first and second with only one out. Unfortunately, sophomore center fielder Andrew Bergeron lined out and Hyde uncharacteristically struck out, allowing George Washington to escape the threat unscathed.

In the bottom of the eighth, the game got out of hand for the Hoyas. Tonas, who had a 1.53 ERA coming into the game and had pitched well all season, was unable to quell the explosive bats of the Colonials. George Washington scored 3 more runs, capitalizing on the 2 singles and 3 doubles they cracked off Tonas.

Anticlimactically, the Hoyas went down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, ending the game. After scoring 10 unanswered runs, GW defeated Georgetown 11-7. Pitcher Benny Wilson (2-0) picked up the win for GW, while DeRoche (0-1) was credited with the loss.

Following the loss to Towson, the Hoyas bested Coppin State (9-15, 5-3 MEAC) 17-11 on March 30. Looking forward, the Hoyas begin Big East play this weekend when they host Villanova (7-13-1) for a three-game series. Georgetown will take the field versus the Wildcats at 4 p.m. Friday, April 1.

ROUNDING THE DIAMOND

Grading the Winners and Losers of MLB Off-Season Eli Blumenfeld Columnist

Welcome to my favorite time of the baseball calendar year — spring training — where I unjustly reach major conclusions based on meaningless inter- and intrasquad games and devote exorbitant amounts of attention to what’s going on in Arizona and Florida.

On the precipice of a new 162 games, all 30 Major League Baseball teams and their respective players are given a clean slate — an opportunity for new beginnings and, perhaps, unexpected improvements.

Here are my winners and losers of the 2022 MLB offseason.

Winners: Let’s start with an obvious winner: the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After falling short in the 2021 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers signed former National League (NL) MVP and perennial all-star first baseman Freddie Freeman. Not only does this help their own World Series aspirations, but they also stole him away from the Atlanta Braves, who knocked the Dodgers out of the playoffs last year. Once again, the rich get richer. Freeman adds to an already stacked lineup as the Dodgers become clear World Series favorites.

Grade: AThe New York Mets continued their pre-lockout front office overhaul (including stealing Ben Zauzmer, the guy who routinely predicts Oscar winners, from the Dodgers to become an assistant general manager) and added some serious major league talent.

The team signed quality veteran position players, including third baseman Eduardo Escobar and outfielders Starling Marte and Mark Canha, who were traded for

2021 All-Star Chris Bassitt to be their number three starting pitcher. And, of course, the Mets inked starting pitcher Max Scherzer to a three-year deal to create the best one-two punch in the league alongside ace Jacob deGrom.

Nevertheless, the Mets’ success relies on bounce back seasons from second baseman Jeff McNeil, first baseman and left fielder Dominic Smith, third baseman and designated hitter J.D. Davis and shortstop Francisco Lindor — all of whom underperformed their career average wins above replacement.

McNeil, Smith and Lindor also underperformed their careeraverage on-base slugging percentage plus. The bullpen could have used an additional piece, but I believe a trade deadline acquisition could easily fix that problem before the postseason (looking at you, closing pitcher Josh Hader).

shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

They needed to go after the big fishes available in shortstop Carlos Correa and first baseGUHOYAS men Matt Olsen and Freddie Georgetown’s hot bats carried them to a 7-1 lead through four innings, Freeman. You’re the Yankees. but they cooled off and ultimately ceded a comeback, falling 7-11 to GW. You are the rich villains of the MLB. Act like it.

Grade: C+

The hometown Washington Nationals are primed for a fifth-place finish in an everimproving NL East. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Nats hold one of the worst records at the end of the regular season. The failure to re-sign their crown jewel, outfielder Juan Soto, to a deserving long-term mega-extension does not bode well for the team’s future, especially after scraping their roster of all other talents last season. Soto will surely explore all other options in free agency — a scary sight for Nationals fans, who can recall a similar Grade: A tale with foregone superstar outfielder Bryce Harper. Their The Minnesota Twins sur- new Cherry Blossom-inspired prised the baseball commu- Nike connect uniforms are nity when they gave up the fantastic, though.

26th pick of the 2021 draft to acquire starting pitcher Sonny Grade: CGray. The Twins further confused me with the unexpected The Colorado Rockies boast trade of third baseman Josh the most senseless front office Donaldson, shortstop Isiah in the MLB. Trading away one Kiner-Falefa, and catcher Ben of your franchise’s greatest Rortvedt for catcher Gary Sán- players in third baseman Nochez and infielder Gio Urshela. lan Arenado — also includHowever, this trade made ing nearly $50 million to have more sense with the addition the Cardinals take him away of superstar shortstop Carlos — for minimal return is just Correa to a three-year deal, the start in a bizarre string of which the aforementioned moves. The Rockies let shorttrade made financially pos- stop Trevor Story walk to the sible. It is still a lineup and Red Sox for nothing. The team pitching staff with holes and then signed 30-year-old third limitations, but exciting times baseman and outfielder Kris are coming for the Twin Cities. Bryant to a monstrous sevenyear, $182 million deal this Grade: B+ offseason. Huh? Why a team would replace a young, homeLosers: grown talent with an older, The New York Yankees re- worse player is beyond me. I main content with their ros- have no idea what the Rockies ter. The supposed Kings of are doing, except that it is bad.

New York have let their crosstown rivals, the Mets, become Grade: F the aggressor in both the trade and free-agency market. They Eli Blumenfeld is a first-year settled for mediocrity in first baseman Anthony Rizzo and in the College. Rounding the minor upgrades in third base- Diamond appears online and man Josh Donaldson and in print every other week.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Georgetown Comeback Attempt Futile With 7-11 Fall to Towson Kate Berkery Hoya Staff Writer

Down 5-10 on Tiger Field against Towson, the Georgetown Hoyas were on the verge of making a fourth quarter comeback. But after scoring 2 goals in under four minutes, the Hoyas couldn’t find the back of the net again and ultimately lost 7-11.

Georgetown (5-6) was looking to build on a nail-biting 13-12 win against Navy on March 23.

Towson (3-6), meanwhile, was coming off back-to-back losses.

Starting from the draw control, Towson gained possession of the ball and swiftly carried it down the field. After settling the ball behind the net, the Tigers began moving the ball around the eight-meter arc.

The Hoyas responded with lockdown defense but the Tigers cut through the arc, looking for passes from the feeders down low behind the cage. Towson’s attacker Lindsay Clarke found midfielder Kerri Liucci, who escaped her defender and fired a shot past the goalie to score the first goal of the game within two minutes.

The Tigers quickly got back to work setting up another scoring possession, winning the draw again after a scrap in the midfield circle. Attacker Kerri Thornton sprinted past her defender, darted to the goal and gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

Just thirty seconds later, midfielder Blair Pearre put the Tigers up by 3 scores with their second unassisted goal of the game.

Despite this dismal start, Georgetown rebounded strongly.

The Hoyas won the next draw

control and got into opposing territory. After settling the ball, graduate midfielder Erin Bakes dodged her defender and lasered the ball into the back of the net, scoring the Hoyas’ first goal with nine minutes left in the quarter.

After winning the ensuing possession, Georgetown put together its second goal courtesy of first-year midfielder Maley Starr.

Trailing 2-3, Georgetown looked to tie the game before the end of the period. After a successful clear, the Hoyas traveled up the field with the ball. Sophomore attacker Kylie Hazen blew past her defender and nailed a shot into the top left corner to tie the game at 3-3, but another Towson goal made the score 3-4 at the end of the first period.

Trailing by just a goal, the energy was high for Georgetown coming into the second period.

But despite their hustle and energetic defense, the Hoyas couldn’t stop Towson from slipping in back-to-back goals within the first minute of the half.

Junior goalkeeper Emily Gaven and her defense held the Tigers at bay for six minutes until Georgetown logged another goal. After receiving a clear from Gaven, first-year attacker Emma Gebhardt sprinted down the field and scored.

The Tigers, however, had 2 goals for every 1 of the Hoyas’.

They scored twice before the end of the first half and went into the second period with an 8-4 lead.

Despite the break, both teams entered a drought to start the second half. Neither team could score for five minutes straight.

Eventually, senior midfielder Annabelle Albert gained pos-

session of the ball and dashed down the field. She evaded three defenders to get her shot on net, pump-faked the goalie and scored. But again, the Tigers responded with ease, scoring 2 more goals to go into the fourth quarter up 10-5.

Though the Hoyas had struggled throughout the entire game, they remained within striking range of a comeback.

After Gebhardt and Albert both logged their second goals of the game to put the Hoyas within 3 scores of Towson, the momentum belonged to Georgetown.

That goal at the nine-minute mark, however, was their last. The Hoyas could not put together a sustainable offense for the rest of the game, and Towson scored 1 more goal to ice the game.

Despite the final score, this was not a poor game for the Hoyas. Their total shots and shots on goal were consistent with the rest of their performances this season. They also kept turnovers to a minimum, committing just 8 to Towson’s 18. What’s more, they took the edge on draw controls as well.

The Hoyas will have to step up their level of play on Wednesday, March 30, at 7 p.m.

They will face the Maryland Terrapins (8-1), ranked 12th in the country, on Cooper Field in Georgetown’s last game before conference play.

Unfortunately, the Hoyas followed up the loss to Towson with a tough 3-15 loss to No. 12 Maryland (9-1). Next on Georgetown’s schedule is a road game against conference foe Villanova (4-7) April 2 to open Big East play.

THE HOYA | A11

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022 | THEHOYA.COM

SPORTS WOMEN’S TENNIS

THE EQUALIZER

End Transphobic Laws: Let the Girls Play MCDONALD, from A12

elite level. U.S. newsrooms have clung to the story of University of Pennsylvania swimming champion Lia Thomas, who became the first transgender woman to win a Division 1 NCAA title when she won the 500-yard freestyle March 17. The NCAA cleared Thomas to compete in the women’s division because she adhered to the sports governing body’s guidelines on hormone therapy.

Still, many people, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have unjustly vilified Thomas, claiming that she is unfairly dominating the sport.

Once again, the data disproves this narrative, showing that Thomas’ time would have won the championship in only one GUHOYAS of the past 10 seasons.

The controversy surroundGeorgetown won its first Big East match, taking all ing Thomas’ success highlights a six singles matches and ceding the doubles point to broader issue within sports and defeat the Seton Hall Pirates 6-1 on March 25. society. Casting doubt over Thomas’ eligibility upholds the misogynistic power structures that police women’s bodies. When a woman athlete’s body diverges too far from the narrow preconceived notion of a slim, overtly feminine, Eurocentric body, they are subjected to harsh criticism.

Womanhood is beautifully diverse. For too long, women — par-

GU Bounces Back With Dominant Win Over Seton Hall

business and fighting to the very end,” said Mesmer in an interview with The Hoya.

“A couple of three-set wins shows our fitness is at a high level, and our team feels comfortable competing for as long as they need to.”

Junior Chloe Bendetti has been another consistent bright spot for the Hoyas.

Bendetti rattled off a singles win in three sets, taking the tiebreaker 10-6 against St. John’s in Georgetown’s previous match. She stepped up her game against Seton Hall, winning convincingly in two sets. Bendetti has now won her last three singles two matches, and when they go down to the wire, she becomes even more clutch.

Both for momentum and the team record, getting the first Big East win was huge.

The Hoyas have not logged a conference win since the 2019-2020 season, when they went 2-1 in conference matches. With three more Big East matches scheduled, they have a great opportunity to tie that season, at the least.

Up next, the Hoyas will head home to Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School on April 2 to take on Providence College (3-8, 0-1 Big East). The weekend contest will mark the first match of the season at Visitation, and Georgetown is eager to earn a win on its home turf.

SETON HALL, from A12

“My opponent started the match playing very well. I played more aggressively in the second set, which I think helped me start changing the score of the match. I was serving well, which I think helped me build a good start to the points,” Aizpurua told The Hoya after the match. “I was feeling positive for the third set, and I think all the conditioning we have been doing really helped.”

Sophomore Morgan Coburn spoke about the inmatch adjustments she made to take control from her opponent as well as her team’s sentiment about the win after she fought back from a set down to ultimately win 6-3 in the third set at six singles.

“The girl I played came out to a strong start and was really using her forehand as a weapon. I was able to mitigate that in the second and third sets by taking her out of her comfort zone and dictating the points a little bit more,” Coburn told The Hoya after her win. “It felt really good to get a Big East win.”

Mesmer is optimistic about what the win means for the rest of the season and hopes to keep building confidence heading into the season’s final matches.

“In singles, our women did a great job of taking care of

ticularly Black women — who do not conform to society’s narrow standards have had their womanhood unjustly called into question. World Athletics unjustly sidelined Black female athletes Christine Mboma, Beatrice Masilingi and Caster Semenya due to naturally-occuring higher testosterone levels. But no one even bats an eyelid when men have similar physical advantages. It would be unthinkable to suggest men should take medication to hold them back, yet society has deemed it permissible to force these women to do so.

I am proud to be a fan of all women’s sports because it is an empowering community. We must foster an inclusive space in which everyone can feel empowered. Trans women are women, so an attack on them is an attack on all women’s sports — the very thing politicians claim to want to protect.

People with the power to change things have been ignoring cries for equality for too long. If society wants to have a productive discussion about how we can improve fairness in women’s sports, we must focus on investment to counteract a history of neglect.

This change would increase access to community funding and ensure all schools and universities

GEORGETOWN ATHLETICS

The wave of laws across the United States that threaten to ban the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports must be stopped. are in compliance with Title IX. This change would secure equal pay, sponsorship opportunities and working conditions for college and professional leagues. This change would elevate women to coaching and front office jobs and create systems where sexual abuse and harassment are not tolerated and survivors feel safe coming forward.

Above all, this change would

certainly focus on creating a safe, inclusive environment where women, no matter their sexual orientation, race or sex assigned at birth, can play the sports they love and thrive in the process.

Carrie McDonald is a sophomore in the College. The Equalizer appears online and in print every other week.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

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WBB, from A12

about, we are one,” said Howard in a press release.

Although the Hoyas did not have a statistically significant season this year, they still improved from last year. In the 2020-21 season, Georgetown finished last in the conference with a record of 2-15, struggling to find any sort of rhythm and cohesion during a shortened schedule.

The Hoyas stepped up their game this year, with returning star players like graduate student guard Milan Bolden-Morris and sophomore guard Kelsey Ransom honing their game and improving their points-pergame by at least two points.

Additionally, Georgetown strengthened its conference play to achieve four wins compared to none last season and also advanced in a competi-

tive postseason tournament.

Looking to next season, the Hoyas will lose the valuable talents and energy of BoldenMorris, the team’s reliable leading scorer. The team will also miss graduate guard Kaylin West, who helped run the point-guard position for a good portion of the season, as well as powerful senior forward Shanniah Wright, who was big in battling on the boards each game.

However, Georgetown will retain its star guard Ransom, the second-highest scorer on the team who should continue to come into her own and lead the team as she enters her junior season. First-year players who began to play more consistently in the second half of this season like Ariel Jenkins and Brianna Scott also show great potential for picking up the mantle and helping build up the program next season.

MEN’S LACROSSE

Georgetown Stifles Late Comeback LEHIGH, from A12

Mountain Hawks broke the impasse at the 9:01 mark.

Georgetown continued to struggle in all facets of the game for the remainder of the period. Just as they appeared to escape mostly unscathed, Lehigh scored 3 goals in the final two minutes of the quarter and headed into the fourth trailing by just 1 point.

In the final period of play, Georgetown found a way to grind out the victory. Watson scored a fourth goal at the 14:35 mark to

put the Hoyas ahead 11-9. Trippi added another with 13:55 to play and the Hoyas led 12-9.

But, Lehigh was unrelenting and slotted 2 goals of their own to pull within 1 goal with 10:14 remaining. It would prove to be too little and too late, as Georgetown netted 2 insurance goals in the closing minutes to win the game 14-11.

It was a strong performance from the nationally ranked Hoyas to keep a resilient Lehigh squad from taking the lead.

Watson was stellar once again, putting away 5 goals to

push his Big East-leading total to 27, the closest he’s gotten to matching the 6 goals he scored in the season-opener against Johns Hopkins. Trippi added 2 goals and an assist to eclipse his career 100-point mark.

Georgetown first-year goalkeeper Michael Scharfenberger turned in a strong performance in his first collegiate start.

Though this game tied for the most goals the Hoyas have allowed in a single game all season, Scharfenberger was clutch when it counted: He saved 3 shots in the decisive final period of play.

This has been a promising stretch of non-conference play for Georgetown. After eight games, the Hoyas are 7-1. They have outscored their opponents 116-68. They get clean opportunities from all over the field, move the ball around well and are smart defensively. Big East play is coming and the Hoyas look well up to the task.

They will look to keep their streak alive when they take on Big East rival No. 17 Denver (5-4) in Colorado on April 2 at 2 p.m. EST. Fans can watch on Altitude TV.

Sports

BASEBALL

Georgetown (16-9) vs. Villanova (7-13-1) Friday, 4 p.m.

Waldorf, Md.

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022

TALKING POINTS

MEN’S TENNIS Georgetown rebounded from a

NUMBERS GAME

We have good recruits coming in

heartbreaking 3-4 loss with a

next year, and so we clearly have

resounding 4-1 win over BU.

an upward trend.”

See A10

Men’s Tennis First-Year Jake Fellows

5

Men’s lacrosse senior attack Dylan Watson scored 5 goals in a win over Towson, reaching 27 on the season.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

GU Secures First Big East Win, Beats Seton Hall Robbie Werdiger Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown women’s tennis secured its first Big East conference win of the season with a decisive 6-1 victory over the Seton Hall Pirates.

The Hoyas (5-11, 1-3 Big East) spent the weekend in the tri-state area and rebounded from a hard-fought loss against St. John’s on March 25 in New York.

On March 26, Georgetown traveled to the Murray Hill Tennis and Fitness Center in New Jersey to take on the Pirates (5-9, 0-4 Big East) and closed out its away trip with a win. The Hoyas started the match slowly, losing the doubles point following two 7-5 set losses from the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles pairs.

Still, sophomore Olivia Ashton and senior Brooke Murphy eked out a win in their match 6-4 at third doubles, a match that Head Coach Freddy Mesmer noted as a highlight of the day.

Despite losing the doubles point, Georgetown turned the momentum around in singles, coming out on top in all six positions. The overall match scoreline does not reflect the intensity of the matches, though, as the Hoyas were pushed to three sets at the third, fifth and sixth positions. Despite facing adversity, Georgetown was resilient.

Junior Carmen Aizpurua out-battled her opponent 6-2 in the third set. The Georgetown training program had a great impact on her match fitness, she said.

See SETON HALL, A11

GUHOYAS

Star attack Dylan Watson’s 5 goals led Georgetown to another win over a ranked opponent in the No. 20 Mountain Hawks.

MEN’S LACROSSE

Georgetown Handles No. 20 Lehigh, 14-11 Caden Koontz Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team built a large enough early lead to hold off a comeback from Lehigh on March 26. Senior attacker Dylan Watson led the way for the Hoyas with 5 goals, reaching the 100-point milestone for his career.

The No. 3 Hoyas (7-1) came into the matchup on a hot streak, having won two games

in a row and three of four games against ranked opponents. The No. 20 Lehigh Mountain Hawks (5-3) were also playing well, fresh off of an upset win over No. 13 Army.

Neither team was able to build a lead in the opening quarter, though. Georgetown graduate attacker Alex Trippi opened the scoring with 13:38 to play in the period, putting away his 15th goal of the season after a failed clear attempt from Lehigh. The

Mountain Hawks responded just a minute later, tying the game at 1-1.

Hoyas senior midfielder Declan McDermott then netted a pass from graduate attacker Connor Morin to take a 2-1 lead with 10:30 remaining. Again, Lehigh managed to pull even in less than a minute. The two teams exchanged goals and ended the first quarter tied 4-4.

Georgetown dominated in the second quarter, earning

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

3 unanswered goals to jump out to a 7-4 lead with 10:35 to play in the period. After consistent high-quality play to take this lead, Georgetown became momentarily sloppy, committing a faceoff violation that allowed Lehigh the chance to gain some ground.

Lehigh capitalized on the extra-man opportunity, scoring a goal to pull within 2 points, 7-5. In response, Georgetown ripped off 3 more unanswered goals to take a

10-5 lead into halftime, looking ready for a blowout victory.

In the second half, Lehigh proved its status as a ranked team, keeping the Hoyas from putting together any sort of effective attack. Both teams struggled offensively for the first several minutes of the third quarter, with both squads coughing up a combined five turnovers and taking three shots before the See LEHIGH, A11

THE EQUALIZER

Hoyas Reflect On Turbulent Season Transphobic Laws Ail Women’s Sports Julia Cannamela Hoya Staff Writer

After an exciting return to in-person crowds and only a few COVID-related disruptions, Georgetown women’s basketball finished its 2021-22 season 10-19 overall and 4-15 in Big East conference play.

The Hoyas finished No. 9 out of 11 in the conference, matching the prediction made in October by the Big East Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

The team hit the ground running to start their 202122 season, with a record of 6-4 in their first ten games.

In December, they went on a three-game winning streak as conference play began, notably beating a wellmatched Providence team on the road 55-47.

However, just as the team seemed to be heating up, the omicron variant began to spread through the United States and through the team, canceling four pivotal conference games in a row.

Georgetown was unable to play games and barely able to practice from mid-December to mid-January, taking away all of the momentum and hard work that had been put into the season up to that point.

When the Hoyas were See WBB, A11

finally able to take to the court again Jan. 14, they had to reckon with not only a tough conference schedule but also getting back into shape and rebuilding their team chemistry. The struggle after this break never completely went away, as Georgetown went 1-14 in the following five weeks, only breaking its losing streak with a win against Butler at home on Jan. 30.

Still, the devastating stat sheet does not reveal the many hard-fought battles the Hoyas scraped out against their conference opponents.

Three of their losses came from games that were pushed into overtime, like in the Feb. 13 game against DePaul — the offensive powerhouse and fourth-ranked team in the conference who had blown out the Hoyas a few weeks prior.

Likewise, six of the games were decided by 10 points or fewer, showing that Georgetown was competitive in these matchups despite the disappointing results.

At the end of the season, the Hoyas had a final resurgence, winning their last two regular season games against Butler and Xavier. The team carried this energy into the Big East Tournament when they traveled to Uncasville, Connecticut to upset the favored Providence Friars 68-55.

Although they lost in the

Carrie McDonald Columnist

CW: This article discusses suicide. Please refer to the online version of this article on thehoya.com for resources.

GUHOYAS

It was an up-and-down season for the Hoyas, as they improved to four conference wins despite offthe-court controversies and a COVID-19 pause. quarterfinals to the dominant one-seed UConn, Georgetown closed the season on a high note, advancing in the conference tournament after a disrupted season.

After the impressive March 4 playoff win, Head Coach James Howard expressed gratitude for

his team’s ability to unite under pressure in the face of unforeseen circumstances like COVID-19.

“They were really clicking and that’s what each and every coach tries to practice for. It’s so at the end of the year, we are able to be one, we have a thing we talk

Visit us online at thehoya.com/sports

Women athletes are continuously treated unfairly in sports, but this disadvantage has nothing to do with the inclusion of transgender athletes.

If politicians really cared about fairness for women’s sports as they so fervently claim, they would take action to fix the systemic inequalities that plague the sporting world. Instead, they have chosen to use women’s sports — a space many look to as a symbol of empowerment and inclusion — as a means to advance harmful, transphobic narratives.

A harmful trend of laws banning the participation of young transgender athletes in girls’ sports has taken state legislatures by storm. On March 25, Utah became the 12th state to enact such legislation when the state legislature overrode Governor Spencer Cox’s veto of such a bill under the guise of protecting the fairness of women’s sports. At their core, these laws are transphobic, exclusionary and impose great harm on

the transgender community.

I, a cisgender woman, am the person I am today because I played sports growing up. From the friendships I made to the selfconfidence I developed, sports participation has continued to positively impact my life long after I stepped off the court. Every single person deserves this same chance. Yet, these blatantly discriminatory laws deny transgender girls the same opportunities to seek this lifelong sense of community and belonging.

These laws also carry potentially deadly consequences. A recent study of LGBTQ youth mental health found that 52% of transgender and non-binary young people in the United States seriously considered suicide in 2020. Inclusive policies are an important part of mitigating the additional barriers that transgender people face on a daily basis and could help to save someone’s life.

These laws also attempt to fearmonger by creating a false narrative that transgender women are dominating women’s sports. The laws target an incredibly small fraction of high school athletes; AP News reported that legislators from over 20 states could not even provide specific examples of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

This narrative is also false at the See MCDONALD, A11