GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 100, No. 19, © 2019
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
Bookstore Renaissance
Learn about how the District’s independent bookstores have unexpectedly adapted to the digital age.
EDITORIAL Georgetown should freeze tuition to alleviate students’ financial burdens.
OBLIGATION TO REPORT A bill requiring clergy to report incidents of abuse awaits review by the D.C. Council.
OPINION, A2
NEWS, A8
Colombian President Safety Risks Drive Students From Dorms Urges Joint Blockade 85 Alumni Square residents will relocate amid roofing concerns Against Venezuela MYROSLAV DOBROSHYNSKYI Hoya Staff Writer
ASHLEY ZHAO
Special to The Hoya
Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez (GRD ’07) called on countries to unify their support for the diplomatic blockade against Nicolás Maduro, whose position as the president of Venezuela has been a subject of international scrutiny, at an event Thursday. The event, titled “The Policy Agenda for Latin America,” was hosted in Gaston Hall by the Latin America Leadership Program, the Center for Latin American Studies and the Colombian Law Students Association at Georgetown University Law Center. Dean William Treanor moderated the event. Duque urged countries and
leaders around the world to continue putting pressure on Maduro and to push to allow humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela. “We should do everything we can to let the Venezuelan people liberate from the most cruel dictatorship we have seen in years,” Duque said. “As president of Colombia, I will continue promoting the diplomatic blockade to get Venezuelan people free of Nicolás Maduro.” A staunch critic of Maduro’s presidency, Duque denounced Maduro for human rights abuses in front of the International Criminal Court in September 2018 and encouraged the continuation of See DUQUE, A6
KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA
Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez (GRD ’07) discussed foreign policy as well as economic growth targets in Gaston Hall on Thursday.
About 85 students are being relocated from their top-floor apartments in Alumni Square to the Georgetown Hotel and Conference Center this week after university administrators informed them about potential structural issues in their apartment roofs Monday morning. The university decided to relocate students after a structural engineering firm conducted roof inspections last week because of concerns over moisture buildup and pressure on the roof in the case of snow or strong winds, according to a Monday email to all affected students from University Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Geoffrey Chatas and Provost Robert Groves. Though the students in the top floor apartments are facing no immediate concerns, they are being relocated as a precautionary measure to ensure their safety, according to Vice President for Facilities and Management Benjamin Kuo. “Structural engineers identified that heavy loading on the roof, such as significant snow or extreme high wind events, may place pressure on the rafters,” Kuo wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Because of the unpredictability of future weather, we have decided to relocate these residents and begin repairs.” Students must leave their
dorms by 6 p.m. today. Relocated students who do not receive scholarship aid for housing are set to be refunded housing credit for the spring semester, according to Monday’s email. Students living on lower floors in Alumni Square are safe to remain in their apartments, according to Kuo. “Structural engineers have confirmed that there are no structural concerns impacting the lower units,” Kuo wrote. “As repair work commences, we will make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the work is minimally disruptive to lowerlevel occupants.” A separate email was sent Monday to Alumni Square residents living on lower floors informing them that roof inspections of their buildings will be conducted on a daily basis. Facilities has also reviewed all other residence halls on campus and did not find any similar issues, according to Kuo. Administrators informed students of initial roof inspections of their apartments in an email last fall. This earlier email did not mention the possibility of relocation in the spring. Relocated students have been given the option to move off campus for the remainder of the semester, or can choose to move out of the hotel to offcampus housing at any point in the semester without needing to pay the university. Yet, this option is infeasible
GU-Q Ranks Poorly on Free Speech CATRIONA KENDALL Hoya Staff Writer
Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar, was named one of the 10 U.S. colleges with the most restrictive censorship by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education on Tuesday. FIRE, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the civil rights of university students and faculty, selects schools based on
the severity of censorship and university attempts to rectify the suppression, according to Sarah McLaughlin, senior program officer for legal and public advocacy at FIRE. GU-Q’s placement on the annual list was a result of the cancellation of an Oct. 9 religious discussion planned by the GU-Q Debating Union as part of a series called “Pardon the Interruption,” according to a FIRE news release.
At the debate, two professors, alongside student participants, were set to consider the question of whether major religions should portray God as a woman, according to GU-Q professor of world literature and one of the planned debaters, Ian Almond. GU-Q tweeted Oct. 8 that the debate had been cancelled because of the organizers’ failure to obtain university authorization.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Georgetown’s campus in Doha, Qatar, was ranked among the bottom 10 U.S. colleges in free speech after cancelling a panel that planned to consider the question of portraying God as a woman.
FEATURED
The GU-Q Office of Communications referred to safety risks associated with the event, according to an Oct. 10 statement to The Daily Q, the student newspaper of Northwestern University’s Qatar campus. “GU-Q is committed to the free and open exchange of ideas, while encouraging civil dialogue that respects the laws of Qatar,” the statement reads. FIRE interpreted GU-Q’s statement as a reference to a Qatari blasphemy law that prohibits speech insulting or offensive to Islam. FIRE perceived GU-Q’s cancellation of the event as censorship of a sensitive religious topic and placed the university on its top-10 list, according to the press release. “In the case of Georgetown’s Qatar campus, we found it uniquely disturbing that a university committed to free expression would seemingly censor speech on the basis that it could be perceived as ‘blasphemous,’” McLaughlin wrote. Qatar, which has notable laws restricting free speech, ranks No. 125 among 180 countries in terms of freedom of press, according to Reporters Without Borders, an organization that advocates for reporters worldwide. See GU-Q, A6
because of the short notice of the relocation, even if students are able to afford off-campus housing, according to Tim Coan (SFS ’20), an Alumni Square resident being relocated. “They only gave us four days to find off-campus housing, which they should know is not realistic,” Coan said. “They didn’t have any answers as to why they are moving us out now and why they had waited so long.”
“They didn’t have any answers as to why they are moving us out now and why they had waited so long.” TIM COAN (SFS ’20) Relocated Alumni Square Resident
Coan, who studied abroad last semester, said he did not understand why the university would place students coming back from abroad into housing that had already experienced issues in the past. “The university will come to us and tell to us to our face that they really care about us as people, but when it comes down to it, they generally don’t really care about our housing situations, and they haven’t shown any signs of fixing that,” Coan
See ALUMNI SQUARE, A6
MOURNING JOHN DINGELL
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Former Michigan Rep. John Dingell (CAS ’49, LAW ’52) was remembered at a funeral mass in Georgetown on Feb. 14.
NEWS
OPINION
Political Pluralism The leader of Malaysia’s opposition party called for interreligious understanding as a means of sustaining democracy. A4
Vote No on GU272 Referendum The proposed fund for descendants of the GU272 is not the appropriate way for Georgetown to reconcile with its past. A3
NEWS
OPINION
Celebrating Black History Month Black student affinity groups are organizing events to bring awareness to black history and culture. A7
Acknowledge Church Crisis Members of the Catholic Church need to hold clergy accountable in the church’s widespread abuse scandal. A3
Published Fridays
said. Following an information session and question and answer period held Monday, the university sent an email Tuesday extending the deadline for moving out by five hours and offering on-campus and longterm storage options, as well as shipping options, that the university will underwrite. The university is also offering affected students the All Access 7 Meal Plan, the most expensive meal plan option, for free for the rest of the semester as well as an additional $200 in flex dollars. Students also have the option to convert this meal plan option entirely into flex dollars, assistant dean of student affairs Stephanie Lynch said at the Monday session. Jeremy Cohen (SFS ’20), who has lived in his top-floor Alumni Square since last fall, said the relocation speaks to a larger infrastructure issue on Georgetown’s campus, which has already caused many difficulties for students. “The fact that this isn’t the sort of issue that can wait until the end of the semester shows the gravity of the infrastructure problems Georgetown has,” Cohen said. “Georgetown needs to do whatever it needs to do to keep people safe, but then ultimately they aren’t recognizing the degree to which the switch really negatively impacts the side of student life.”
Story on A7.
SPORTS New Faces, Same Results
The men’s lacrosse team started its season off on the right foot with a 13-10 victory over Sacred Heart University. A12
SPORTS Road Runners
Members of the men’s and women’s track teams registered personal bests at road meets in Boston and Iowa . A10 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com
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OPINION
THE HOYA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
THE VERDICT
Implement Tuition Freeze Next year, Georgetown University students will not need to pay the Yates Field House standalone fee. Removing the Yates cost, however, hardly distracts from Georgetown’s consistent and hefty tuition increases. The university announced in a Jan. 16 campuswide email that tuition would increase by a net 2.8 percent for the upcoming academic year, marking the eighth consecutive year that tuition rates will rise. With an estimated inflation rate of just 2.2 percent in 2018, tuition increases are dramatically higher than inflation. Tuition increases beyond inflation rates are unfair, trapping students between paying the hefty price or giving up on their education. To alleviate student financial burdens, Georgetown should implement a five-year tuition freeze, only increasing costs at the inflation rate. A tuition freeze would mean that any increases in tuition would only be adjusted for inflation and ensure that students face the same price tag for their entire time at Georgetown. The university’s current system cheats students by demanding a higher price than was agreed upon when they committed to the school. The cost of education is skyrocketing nationwide: Tuition is rising faster than inflation and eight times faster than wages. Universities are also increasing tuition faster than financial aid can keep up. At Georgetown, tuition hikes are deemed necessary largely because of the “rising costs of providing services” to students, according to a fact sheet from the Office of the Provost. However, with the university’s budget dedicated to services for students decreasing by a whopping 1.3 percent each year, this claim falls flat. With inflation rates less than current tuition increases and university spending on services falling, the university should implement a freeze on rates. Peer institutions have already applied a tuition freeze: The University of Texas at Austin locks tuition for four years; The George Washington University for five. Though need-aware, GW found that fixed tuition played a monumental role in students’ deci-
sions to apply — 71 percent of students committed to the school for this reason, according to GW’s website. Financial concerns are undoubtedly a critical factor in college decisions. By applying a tuition freeze, Georgetown could convince accepted students — who might otherwise choose another school for monetary reasons — to commit to the university. With Ivy League schools offering more generous financial aid packages than Georgetown, a tuition freeze could also be an advantage in attracting talent to apply. Moreover, fixing tuition rates is essential to improving socio-economic diversity on campus. Studies have found that diversity decreases at public fouryear universities as tuition rises. Though Georgetown is not a public university, the school clearly lacks socio-economic diversity: The median family income of the student body is $229,100, and 74 percent of students are from the wealthiest 20 percent. To address the lack of socio-economic diversity on campus, Georgetown must freeze its tuition rates. Still, the tuition hikes help fund financial aid, theoretically improving access to the university. Though 21 percent of tuition dollars support financial aid, according to university spokesperson Matt Hill, this method creates a vicious cycle where tuition is being increased to aid those who cannot afford the new rates of tuition. Freezing tuition is a crucial step that Georgetown must take if it sincerely seeks to alleviate students’ financial burdens and remedy the dismal socio-economic diversity on campus. The university claims its current tuition system best serves students’ financial needs: A fixed-rate model would fail to account for negative changes in a family’s income, according to the Office of the Provost. Still, this reasoning ignores that students could receive financial aid if their finances deteriorated. Rising tuition costs increase the financial burden for current students and can deter talent and socioeconomic diversity. To make the university more accessible, Georgetown must restructure its tuition system. Stop extorting students — freeze the fee.
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Seinfeld Reboot — A Canadian man was prohibited from personalizing his license plate with his last name, “Assman,” because Saskatchewan Government Insurance labeled it as profane. The man, who pronounces his last name “Oss-man,” instead opted for a larger decal displaying the name across the tailgate of his truck. Oh, Deer — On Sunday, a group of deer ran through an Ontario parliamentarian’s office and knocked over furniture, fleeing as soon as the police arrived. One of the deer then made its way to the Atria Bar and Grill, where it broke through a window and ran through the restaurant before stopping at the karaoke stage.
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EDITORIALS
What a Catch — A wildlife center in Oregon is allowing people to pay $20 to have a salmon named after their ex-partner and fed to a bear. Each $20 order will include a certificate and a photo of the bear eating the salmon.
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Founded January 14, 1920
Identity Crisis — A 27-year-old man went viral last week after announcing that he intends to sue his parents for conceiving him without his consent. In a video posted to YouTube, he claimed that all people should be paid by their parents to live.
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Avoiding a Cat-astrophe — A cat named Fluffy was brought to a veterinary clinic in Montana on Feb. 7 after her owners found her trapped in a frozen snow bank. Fortunately, the vets helped her warm up and said that they knew she was alright as soon as she started growling.
EDITORIAL CARTOON by Alexandra Bowman
Revise Diversity Requirement A superficial and uninspired execution of the diversity requirement has failed to provide the majority of Georgetown University students with perspectives that reach beyond their own. The diversity requirement, implemented in 2016, was meant to prepare Georgetown students to engage with different traditions and become global citizens. Despite this lofty goal, the university’s application of the requirement falls short in pushing students to reflect and apply lessons learned to their entire educations. To ensure students expand their worldviews and benefit from the requirement, Georgetown should foster a more meaningful and intentional diversity requirement. The university could execute an effective requirement by mandating that professors explain how their course fulfills the requirement. Furthermore, students should be required to submit a reflection to the dean’s office on how the course achieved the goals of the mandate. Georgetown implemented a diversity requirement in 2016 after student activism on the issue dating back to 1991. Under the current requirement, students must take two courses that engage with ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, one in a domestic context and the other global. Though Georgetown deserves some credit for attempting to respond to student activism, the current diversity requirement falls short of the reflective, conscious approach to education that students deserve. To truly cultivate global citizens, Georgetown should effectively execute its diversity requirement by first ensuring all courses that meet the mandate actually present differing ideas and traditions. Currently, some classes that can fulfill the requirement fail to provide students with diverse perspectives. For example, an “Introduction to Early European History” course fulfills the global diversity requirement, despite recycling the same ideas and beliefs that students are exposed to in other classes. Courses that count for the requirement should provide the majority of students with perspectives beyond their own. Moreover, the current system can lead to students taking courses that count towards the requirement without realizing it. In many cases, students take a class to fill another requirement — the humanities, art, language and culture credit, for example —
without realizing they are fulfilling their diversity requirement as well. This lack of intentionality often means students are not deliberately engaging with their academic work. By explaining how courses fulfill the requirement, professors could push students to consciously approach the course’s diversity component. Though professors have a deep understanding of how their course engages with diversity — they must petition for a course to count toward the requirement — these reasons are not always clear to students. To ensure students are deliberately interacting with the requirement, professors should be clear on syllabi and in class about how their course engages diversity. Moreover, current requirement guidelines mean that students can fulfill the mandate without reflecting on the experience; beyond absorbing course material and discussions, no structured reflection is required, perpetuating a dull and thoughtless requirement. In addition to professors, students must bear some responsibility in seeking meaning in the requirement. Georgetown should require students to submit a written or oral reflection focused on the diversity component’s impact on their academic careers for the class to count. Such a reflection — submitted to the curricular dean for approval — would encourage students to actively engage throughout the course and consciously approach the rest of their academic experience. Though a stringent diversity requirement — one that would not allow for course overlap — could also ensure deliberate student engagement, the core curriculum is already difficult to complete. Rather than increasing student burdens, the university should simply improve the current requirement and ensure it is intentional and worthwhile. To improve the diversity requirement, Georgetown should mandate structured student reflection and require professors to be clearer in explaining how courses fulfill the requirement. Both of these changes would expand student engagement with diversity beyond just two mandatory courses. At Georgetown, the diversity requirement is little more than a box for students to check before graduating. To genuinely prepare students as global leaders, the university must refine its requirement and push students to consciously grapple with worldviews different from their own.
Maya Gandhi, Editor-in-Chief Yasmine Salam, Executive Editor Will Simon, Executive Editor Catriona Kendall, Managing Editor Will Cassou, News Editor Deepika Jonnalagadda, News Editor Danny McCooey, Sports Editor Faris Bseiso, Guide Editor Kiera Geraghty, Guide Editor Yumna Naqvi, Opinion Editor Harrison Hurt, Features Editor Amber Gillette, Photography Editor Samuel Nelson, Design Editor Emily Shambaugh, Design Editor Susanna Blount, Copy Chief Kate Rose, Social Media Editor Caroline Porterfield, Blog Editor Tarina Touret, Multimedia Editor
Karena Landler Amy Li Mason Mandell Yolanda Spura Cady Stanton Allie Babyak Brendan Dolan Sarah Cammarota Suna Cha Maddie Finn Dennese Mae Javier Timothy McNulty Sela Dragich Jonathan Wiersema Doris Zhang Will Cromarty Meena Morar Natalie Isé Sheel Patel Kiki Schmalfuss Amanda Van Orden Mina Lee Janis Park Eloise Owen Katherine DeMatteo Sarah Donofrio Chau Le Victoria Lei Madison Carter Barbara McDuffee Isabel Roemer Irene Chun
Graduate Desk Editor Campus Life Desk Editor Academics Desk Editor City Desk Editor Campus Life Desk Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Features Editor Deputy Features Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Design Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Social Media Editor Deputy Blog Editor Deputy Blog Editor Deputy Multimedia Editor
Editorial Board
Yumna Naqvi, Chair
Victor Gamas, Alexandre Kleitman, Juliette Leader, Maya Moretta, Rowan Saydlowski, Jenny Xu
Contributing Editors
Yasmeen El-Hasan, Caroline Pappas
.
HOYA HISTORY: Feb. 18, 1971
GU Prioritizes Minority Admission The Georgetown Executive Admissions Committee last week unanimously issued a policy resolution calling for the consideration of students from minority/ poverty backgrounds as non-competitive applicants. Non-competitive admissions refers to the practice of “choosing all students who meet certain criteria, providing only that they show promise of success at Georgetown and that the numbers of students so admitted not exceed certain predefined limits.” Competitive admissions, on the other hand, is the more common practice of selecting the best candidates from the applicants from each program. The term “promise of success at Georgetown” has been interpreted in the past as the likelihood of the applicant obtaining a 1.7 QPI or better. Groups which have traditionally benefitted from non-competitive admissions at
Georgetown are relatives of faculty, alumni and students. Under the new program, there will be a ceiling of 10 percent of the combined freshmen classes of all schools make up non-competitively admitted students. This is not to say that there will exist a limit of 10 percent on the number of minority students admitted into each freshman class. Applicants who are accepted in competition with the other applicants would not be counted in the ten percent, and once the 10 percent figure is reached, any further applicants would be considered in competition with the other candidates for admission. According to Joseph Chalmers, director of undergraduate admissions, the goal of the program is to demonstrate that the only thing standing between most young people from minority/poverty backgrounds and a successful col-
lege career is a lack of money. Chalmers observed that the College Board SAT exams are geared toward the middle-class white, not toward the young person coming out of a poor ghetto. Thus, he said, in judging the qualifications of minority applicants, it is not possible to go by test scores alone. It is his hope that the new program will provide the admissions staff with a greater flexibility in making use of other norms. Chalmers reported that this year, the admissions office is experiencing better than a 100 percent increase in minority applicants over the number of such applicants last year. Of these applicants, it is estimated that approximately two-thirds are from the immediate Washington, D.C., area.
Don Hammer News Editor
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Board of Directors
Anna Kovacevich, Chair Dan Crosson, Maya Gandhi, Tara Halter, Subul Malik, Margo Snipe, Hannah Urtz LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND VIEWPOINT POLICIES The Hoya welcomes letters and viewpoints from our readers and will print as many as possible. To be eligible for publication, letters should specifically address a recent campus issue or Hoya story. Letters should not exceed 300 words. Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-700 words. The Hoya retains all rights to all published submissions. Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya. com. The Hoya reserves the right to reject letters or viewpoints and edit for length, style, clarity and accuracy. The Hoya further reserves the right to write headlines and select illustrations to accompany letters and viewpoints. CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of a story, contact Executive Editor Yasmine Salam and Executive Editor Will Simon by email at executive@thehoya.com. TIPS News Editors Will Cassou and Deepika Jonnalagadda: Email news@thehoya.com. Guide Editors Faris Bseiso and Kiera Geraghty: Email guide@thehoya.com. Sports Editor Danny McCooey: Email sports@thehoya.com. GENERAL INFORMATION The Hoya is published once a week during the academic year with the exception of holiday and exam periods. Address all correspondence to: The Hoya Georgetown University Box 571065 Washington, D.C. 20057-1065
The writing, articles, pictures, layout and format are the responsibility of The Hoya and do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University. Signed columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Hoya. Unsigned essays that appear on the left side of the editorial page are the opinion of the majority of the editorial board. Georgetown University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for student editors. The Hoya does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, color, national or ethnic origin. © 1920-2018. The Hoya, Georgetown University weekly. No part of this publication may be used without the permission of The Hoya Board of Editors. All rights reserved. The Hoya is available free of charge, one copy per reader, at distribution sites on and around the Georgetown University campus. Email: editor@thehoya.com Online at www.thehoya.com Circulation: 4,000
OPINION
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
INTO THE FEMININE GENIUS
THE HOYA
A3
VIEWPOINT • GRANDE & DUBKE
Erica Lizza
Healing With Faith
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hen I made my first Communion on a sunny April day in 2005, I had never heard about the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal that dominated the news a few years earlier. With new allegations resurfacing over the past few years, my faith in the church hierarchy’s ability to face hard truths about itself has been challenged, but my trust in Catholicism remains. I was eight when I received my first Communion; my priorities were simply to remember the right words to recite after receiving the Eucharist and twirl in the ivory dress my mom and I picked out. I was also excited because my favorite priest, Father Ken, would be celebrating Mass that day. He was beloved at the Catholic school I attended because he gave incredible homilies, told captivating stories and asked questions of the kids in the pews. Fr. Ken left when I was in fifth grade, which was disappointing to us students; still, our parish received a new priest and life went on. However, during that transition and afterward, I heard unsettling stories about Fr. Ken, including the rumor that he had left because of something that had happened with a young woman. But since I didn’t know what exactly had happened, I pushed it out of my mind, doubting our beloved priest could have done something bad. But when a news story about Fr. Ken surfaced during my freshman year in college, I could no longer ignore the truth. Fr. Ken left our parish because a woman accused him of sexual misconduct in the 1970s, when she was 16 years old and seeing him for counselling. Our Archdiocese had determined that the allegations were credible and removed him from public ministry. My doubts about the rumors had allowed me to keep idolizing the priest who helped shape my Catholic identity and love for Jesus’ message. Upon reading the news story, my doubt vanished, disgust and anger fill-
T
ing its place. I have felt the same noxious sentiments resurface time and time again over the past months as headlines expose the abuse and moral corruption rampant within the church. Far too many Catholics have similar stories about a priest from their diocese: priests who celebrated their family weddings and funerals, who were powerful preachers and seemed to truly embody the faith, yet committed these horrible offenses. For too long, church leaders have attempted to minimize the scale of this issue, but given the sadly recurrent nature of the sex abuse crisis, the response of the Catholic will likely be the defining moment of Catholicism in the 21st century. As the Vatican prepares to hold a summit next week on the sexual abuse scandal, I worry the church might decide on a course of action that does too little too late. Yet I still choose to hope the Church will address this crisis by embracing a rigorous system for reporting and responding to sexual abuse that empowers Catholics to hold their clergy accountable. We the church must treat this crisis as the scourge it is without devolving into the temptation to palliate the suffering of victims or to channel anger toward partisan aims. As a church, we should ground our response in the virtues our Catholic faith espouses. Doing so will require the fortitude to acknowledge that the Church enabled much of this abuse by neglecting to remove priests credibly accused of abuse. Moving forward will necessitate faith in God’s power to heal and in our ability to help heal each other. Most importantly, it will demand a churchwide commitment to promoting God’s justice on Earth by holding perpetrators accountable, ministering to victims and prioritizing the protection of the vulnerable. Erica Lizza is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. INTO FEMININE GENIUS appears online every other Monday.
We fear the precedent that we will set if this referendum is allowed to pass — we cannot demand students self-fund every project Georgetown fails to deliver.
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Vote ‘No’ on GU272 Referendum
eorgetown University has struggled to adequately address its past participation in the American slave trade, but the recently proposed referendum is not the answer. In an effort to confront this troubled legacy, the Georgetown 272 Advocacy Team proposed creating a fund of charitable contributions for the descendants of the 272 individuals sold by our university in 1838. This “Act of Referendum to Establish a New GU272 Legacy” narrowly passed the GUSA senate Feb. 3. Now, the decision regarding this referendum has been placed in in the hands of the larger student body. In April, each Georgetown undergraduate will have the opportunity to vote on this referendum. We implore you to vote no. If passed, this referendum will levy a fee of $27.20 upon every undergraduate student, every semester, “to be allocated for charitable purposes directly benefiting the descendants of the GU272 and other persons once enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits.” Though we wholeheartedly support the charitable intentions of the GU272 Advocacy
Team’s efforts, we firmly object to their methodology. Georgetown University alone, not the student body, has the obligation to pay for its past transgressions. The 2016 report issued by the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation never recommended that we, the student body, atone for Georgetown’s sins. Our university has neglected to adhere to its promised memorial-building, classteaching and research-funding. However, the student body is not obliged to pay for institutional failures. We furthermore disapprove of the manner in which the referendum was passed through the GUSA senate, and its subsequent presentation to the student body. During both general body meetings in which the act was considered, advocates commandeered control of the room to stifle debate. Though the suggestion of an optional charitable donation at the beginning of each semester would have been less controversial, the Advocacy Team rejected this compromise out of hand. The specifics of this proposal raise additional concerns that the Advocacy Team has failed to adequately address. Under-
graduates alone are forced to pay this fee; no contribution is required from graduate students, faculty or staff. All of these groups benefit from the existence of Georgetown. The $27.20 cost per student may have symbolic value, but its meaning ends there — no cost data or project proposals exist for the use of the fund. The charitable investments suggested by the Advocacy Team are vague, anecdotal and fall short of the level of specificity needed when considering raising the cost of attendance. In the coming months, the GU272 Advocacy Team will try to convince you that the obligations of Georgetown’s sins fall on its student body and will present this referendum as a financial obligation rather than a choice. Supporters of the referendum will claim that we, by attending classes, living in dorms and accepting our degrees, owe an intrinsic debt to the descendants of those enslaved people who paid for Georgetown’s existence with their lives. While we agree that Georgetown would not exist if not for the sale of 272 slaves in 1838, current students are not to blame for the sins of the institution, and a financial contribution
cannot reconcile this past debt on behalf of the university. Most students were unaware of the darker aspects of Georgetown’s history when they enrolled. For many students, paying more than $200 over four years at Georgetown would add immensely to the economic struggle of college tuition. The Advocacy Team has not been able to make a concrete guarantee that lowincome students would receive a waiver for the fee. This referendum is a case study of good intentions gone awry. If this proposed fee were to become a reality, students would be footing the bill for Georgetown University’s inaction. We encourage the GU272 Advocacy Team to lobby our administration to pay its debts and not take aim at our already cash-strapped student body. We fear the precedent that we will set if this referendum passes — we cannot demand students self-fund every project Georgetown fails to deliver. Please join us in voting no on this referendum in April.
HAYLEY GRANDE is a sophomore in the College. SAMUEL DUBKE
is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. Both are GUSA senators.
VIEWPOINT • TALATI
WOC WISDOM
Hold Northam Accountable
Trailblazing Minority Paths
wo weeks ago, far-right news outlet Big League Politics discovered a racist photo of two men — one dressed in blackface and one dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member — on Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page. The emergence of this photo and Northam’s actions since then — an insufficient apology, an unconvincing denial and a short-sighted refusal to step down — demonstrate that he can no longer effectively represent Virginia and its residents. Northam should resign immediately. To the approval of Democratic constituents like myself, Virginia has become an increasingly reliable blue state over the past decade. Voters demonstrated this trend in November 2017, when they not only elected Democrats in all three statewide races, but also brought the party a net gain of 15 seats in the House of Delegates. This election gave the state a chance to enact important progressive policies, or at least prevent the repeal of existing ones. At the time, these victories created a hopeful outlook — some viewed the election as an early referendum on President Donald Trump, and for a while I felt incredibly proud to call Virginia my home. Much of this optimism, however, has faded as the disturbing pasts of these three statewide officials have come to light. Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to wearing blackface in college, and Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax — previously considered one of the party’s rising stars — faces sexual assault allegations from two women.
Despite the emergence of the alarming news, Northam has continued to cling to his position amid loud calls for his resignation. Prominent politicians and advocacy groups across the country, including at least 10 sitting U.S. senators and the NAACP, have asked him to step down. These three men have utterly betrayed the Democratic values that got them elected, casting a long shadow over the party that markets itself as a champion of women and minorities. Northam may regret his actions, as he has claimed, but he can no longer capably lead the state given the lack of trust his behavior has instilled in his constituents. Each day he remains in office, it becomes increasingly clear that he neither understands the seriousness of what he has done nor truly prioritizes combating racism in Virginia. In one press conference addressing the racist photo, he seemed to make light of the situation by noting that his wife thought it would be an inappropriate time to moonwalk following a series of questions about his use of blackface for a Michael Jackson costume. Last week, Northam told The Washington Post that he has been “reading up on race” as part of his effort to move past recent events. This inadequate step comes far too late for a man leading a former Confederate state, who should have been well-versed in the topic of race in America long before running for public office. He continues to lose credibility with every new statement and has yet to provide his constituents with a compelling reason to
believe that he can continue to effectively represent them. At this point, whether Northam was actually one of the people pictured in the photo in question is irrelevant. The mere fact that he initially thought it was plausible — that there was any chance he had once dressed up either in blackface or as a KKK member — unequivocally disqualifies him from continuing to serve in public office. Though he cannot continue to serve as governor, I do not aim to deny Northam the chance to attempt to make amends as a private citizen. Many people who once supported him recognize the work he has done to improve the lives of many Virginians, both in his career as a pediatrician and during his time in office. However, he cannot simply dismiss his behavior as mistakes committed by a different man than the one he is today. Instead, he has an obligation to accept not only responsibility for his actions, but also the consequences that accompany them. Northam can only prove that he truly wants to atone for his actions by recognizing the magnitude of his failures and resigning from his position. Though other serious problems of racist behavior committed by Virginia’s leadership remain to be addressed, this step would help begin the process of raising the standards for those occupying the state’s highest offices and signal that racist actions will not be tolerated moving forward.
HALEY TALATI is a junior in the College.
Mireya Iglesias-Ayala
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irst-generation women of color are faced with pursuing and upholding representation in systems that are not made for us. Though Georgetown has taught me how to achieve representation for women of color and first-generation students, I have also been pressured to constantly assert my place and forge nonexistent paths as a first-generation student. My family is a typical proud Mexican migrant family — neither of my parents attended college. My dad worked long hours as a mechanical assembler, so I rarely saw him. Though she didn’t speak English, my mother was always willing to help me with school work. My parents, in coming to this country and successfully raising my siblings and me, taught me that with hard work anything is possible. As a result of my humble upbringing and financial background, I signed my Georgetown acceptance letter without stepping foot in Washington, D.C. As college visits were not within my family’s budget, I settled for staring at a picture of Healy Hall before committing to the university. Despite the uncertainty involved with attending Georgetown and its distance from home, I wanted to honor my family’s sacrifices and pursue a quality education. For first-generation students, being the first in a family to attend
college incurs a responsibility to be the representation we did not have growing up. I wanted to be that representation for women of color, but learning how to navigate Georgetown proved to be far more challenging than I had anticipated. I was navigating unfamiliar terrain with nobody to guide me, afraid to ask for help. As a student in the McDonough School of Business, I often felt that my identity clashed with my those of my peers because of our vastly different backgrounds. I came from South Tucson, Ariz., an underserved border community, where I had attended public school on free and reduced lunch. My peers, on the other hand, could afford to attend competitive boarding schools. In my first accounting class, students shared that they practiced investing in the stock market with money their parents gave them. In that moment, I felt a disconnect — I didn’t come from an economically and educationally privileged background. Looking around the classroom, I realized I was one of a few women and the only Latina. For my first few semesters at Georgetown, I felt that my identity as a first-generation woman of color deprived me of knowledge that everyone else had access to. I didn’t know how to network in professional settings or read a company’s financial statement because I came from a community with less resources and had a Mexican accent. I began to fixate on all the things I didn’t know, losing my confidence. It became hard to ask questions and speak in class, so I felt I was falling behind. There were no women of color with a background similar to mine that I could confide in. I began to doubt my capabilities and accomplishments.
Early in my sophomore year, I opened the CMEA weekly email and read about a workshop addressing imposter syndrome for minority students. I was relieved to put a name to what I was feeling, surprised to learn that it is a common issue among women of color and firstgeneration students. Talking to my GSP and CSP peers, I discovered that people deal with this issue in various ways. I chose to involve myself in programs that would allow me to connect with other women of color in business and help me tie my story to my career goals. For example, with Spanish as my native language, I was a more competitive candidate when landing my first internship as a Fabretto Fellow in Nicaragua. Therefore, I continued to seek opportunities that I could bring my whole self into. Slowly, through experiences where I could share my story with others, I regained the confidence to overcome many insecurities. I became empowered by dialogue as I tried to establish my place as a woman of color in an environment that lacked diverse representation. Despite my initial struggles, I feel privileged to be a firstgeneration woman of color at Georgetown. Though the responsibility can be a burden, it has provided me with an opportunity to guide young women of color like myself. Georgetown taught me that I need to unapologetically share my story, because only then can I truly achieve representation for my community. Mireya Iglesias-Ayala is a senior in the McDonough School of Business. WOC WISDOM appears online every other Wednesday.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Monumental Sports and Entertainment founder and owner Ted Leonsis (CAS ’77) and the Washington Capitals are funding repairs for D.C.’s only full-size skating rink. Story on A8.
Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.
verbatim
IN FOCUS DJ SPOOKY ON RACE
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One of the deeper meanings behind it is to try to encourage people to care to know.” Associate Professor of African-American Studies Marcus Board on one of the initiatives behind Black History Month this February. Story on A7.
from our blog
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Paul Miller, also known as DJ Spooky, discussed the application of racial politics in multimedia during an event in McNeir Hall on Tuesday. Miller is the director and producer of the film “Rebirth of a Nation,” which retells the story of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation.”
TAKE A BREAK FROM YOUR HIBERNATION IN LAU Been off the grid this week because of midterms? 4E will catch you up. We’ve got Grammy coverage, Valentine’s Day plans for us perennial single people and a ranking of presidential pets! blog.thehoya.com
Expected Malaysian PM Calls for Interreligious Dialogue ERIKA GEBHARDT Hoya Staff Writer
The Muslim world must practice interreligious understanding if it is to sustain democracy, said president of the People’s Justice Party Anwar Ibrahim, expected Malaysian prime minister, at an event Tuesday. Ibrahim is a senior fellow at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and served as a Georgetown professor of Islam in Southeast Asia from August 2005 to December 2006. After more than a decade in prison, Ibrahim and former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad joined together to oust former Prime Minister Najib Razak. The MahathirIbrahim coalition took control of the government, with Mahathir assuming the role of prime minister. At 93 years old, Mahathir has promised to pass down
the prime ministership to Ibrahim within two years, according to The Washington Post. The event was hosted by the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Copley Formal Lounge and was moderated by John Esposito, founding director of the ACMCU. Although Malaysia is a majority Muslim country, 38.7 percent of Malaysians practice other religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. The Muslim communities in Malaysia and across the world must embrace interreligious cooperation to fight issues of corruption, Ibrahim said. “Unlike a more exclusive view about Islam, or Islamic movements or Islamic parties, Muslims in Malaysia realize that we must work as a community of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists with a clear agenda,” Ibrahim said. “We want democra-
cy, we want justice, we want to rid the country of corruption, we want then to make sure that no one community will be marginalized or ignored. I hope we can share this with many of our friends in the Muslim world and also the West.” Ibrahim’s rise in the political ranks of Malaysia as a founder and leading figure in the People’s Justice Party comes after two separate terms in prison, according to The Washington Post. As deputy prime minister and finance minister during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Ibrahim had a falling out with Mohamad. Shortly after, Ibrahim was jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy, which he has claimed were fabricated. Ibrahim was found guilty of corruption in 1999 and of sodomy in 2000 for a cumulative sentence of 15 years, according to The Guardian. However, he was released in 2004 after six years in solitary
confinement because of a lack of credible evidence. Ibrahim re-entered politics in 2008 and lost the popular vote to Razak after the opposition party, led by Ibrahim, failed to gain the majority of seats in Parliament in the general election of 2013, according to The Guardian. Following the election, Razak sentenced Ibrahim to a second jail term on new charges of sodomy. Ibrahim, who was released from prison after receiving a formal royal pardon from Sultan Muhammad V in March 2018, thanked University President John J. DeGioia for his support during the time he spent in prison. DeGioia attempted to persuade thenSecretary of State John Kerry to allow Ibrahim to receive medical treatment in a U.S. hospital while he was jailed, according to Ibrahim. Interreligious dialogue depends on Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist studies programs in Islamic institu-
tions as well as strong Islamic studies programs in western institutions like Georgetown, according to Ibrahim. “I come here to a Jesuit university and I have a sense that we have a university encouraging these sessions; professors attending and showing their respect and support to the students,” Ibrahim said. “This is to me a great tradition that we can also do towards the Christians or the Hindus or the Buddhists in Malaysia.” In October 2018, Ibrahim won a parliamentary seat that prepared him to assume the role of prime minister. He won with 71 percent of the votes in the town of Port Dickson, defeating six other candidates. As a practicing Muslim and expected prime minister of a pluralistic country, Ibrahim highlighted the importance of ruling without bias toward one’s own faith. “I’m not saying that in order to be a Malaysian I must
disregard Islamic values, no; but in order to serve as a Malaysian this is my campaign slogan: To me, to be an effective leader you must be able to rise above and say ‘a Malaise child is my child, a Christian child is my child, a Hindu child is my child.’” Ibrahim said. “Then you past the test, the litmus test, of being Malaysian. If you have any bias, if you ignore the poor of any race, then that is not acceptable.” Ibrahim’s appearance at Georgetown is symbolic of the kind of interreligious unity that he based his political campaign on in Malaysia, Ibrahim said. “And also of course because I am a Muslim, and this is a Jesuit university, to some it may be a contradiction,” Ibrahim said. “I think this speaks volumes, more than books or lectures, by sheer commitment and passion for justice and concern for the welfare of humanity.”
GEORGETOWN PRESIDENT JOHN J. DEGIOIA/FACEBOOK
Anwar Ibrahim, president of the People’s Justice Party and the expected Malaysian prime minister, urged cooperation among communities of different faiths at an event Tuesday. Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, spoke on the importance of interreligious unity to fight issues of corruption around the world.
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Georgetown Sophomores Begin Three GU Dorms Experience Terms as ANC Commissioners Water Outage; Cause Unknown CHELSEA HAFER Hoya Staff Writer
Matias Burdman (COL ’21) and Anna Landre (SFS ’21) were sworn into positions on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E by Feb. 4 following a Nov. 6 election. Burdman and Landre replaced Zachary Schroepfer (SFS ’19) and Mara Goldman (SFS ’19), who have filled the seats for the last two years. Burdman currently serves as treasurer of the committee, while Landre serves as secretary. Eight people comprise the ANC 2E, which meets monthly to pass resolutions on issues affecting the areas of Georgetown University, Burleith, Hillandale and Georgetown. After discussing the resolutions, the ANC’s proposals are sent to the Washington, D.C. city government for consideration. Landre and Burdman, who both ran unopposed in the fall, filled seats for single-member districts 4 and 8. Landre said in her role as commissioner, she plans to fight for accessibility for her constituents. “While on the ANC, I hope to make accessibility one of my main priorities,” Landre wrote in an email to The Hoya. “This means everything from repairing unsafe sidewalks to working with local businesses to encourage them to become more accessible to potential customers.” Individuals with disabilities comprise a larger portion of the population than many believe, and their obstacles should be better addressed, according to Landre. “Accessibility solutions serve
many of these citizens, as well as elderly residents and families with young children,” Landre wrote. “We should promote commonsense infrastructure that works for all, rather than just some.” Landre also hopes to continue Schroepfer and Goldman’s goal of providing students with affordable and accessible transportation to the greater D.C. area. “I also want to ensure that students have access to affordable, convenient transportation from Georgetown to the greater DC area,” Landre wrote. “All too often, it’s easy to feel disconnected, and it’s not financially feasible for many students to rely on services like Uber.” Burdman echoed Landre’s sentiments, focusing on improving transportation options for constituents in his role as commissioner. “I would say that Georgetown is chronically under-connected and underserved when it comes to the whole Washington, D.C. transportation network,” Burdman said in October. “I think that is something that should be addressed and something we can definitely work on through the ANC.” The main responsibility of commissioners is to bring attention to the issues affecting their constituents, according to Schroepfer. “Much of the role of student ANC commissioners are to be responsive to specific pieces of advocacy that come as a result of events, crises, or new policies,” Schroepfer wrote in an email to The Hoya. Landre looks forward to maintaining strong relationships with
university officials to address the key concerns of constituents, namely problems with maintenance on Georgetown’s campus. “On campus, infrastructure and deferred maintenance will be another one of my priorities,” Landre wrote. “I look forward to working with administration to create welcoming living and community spaces on campus now, and plan more for the future. I’m very excited to work with my fellow Commissioners to reach these goals!” The process for students to be elected into the ANC is a not a simple one, according to Schroepfer. Students who aspire to run for ANC with their name on the ballot are required to collect signatures from voters who both reside in their district and are registered to vote in D.C. The signature collection must occur during the summer break period, making it challenging for students. The policies around signature collection are challenging and can act as a barrier for some students, according to Schroepfer. “I was lucky enough to be able to come to Washington, D.C. to canvas for signatures, but the current policies that are in place are non-inclusive for students across the ANC,” Schroepfer wrote. In the last two years, Schroepfer and Goldman helped the ANC pass several resolutions while serving on the commission. Initiatives passed by the ANC during their term include the institution of Georgetown University Transport Shuttle buses that run on Saturday and accessible pathways through
AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA
Anna Landre (SFS ’21), right, was sworn into a two-year position on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, which oversees Georgetown and surrounding areas, on Feb. 4. Landre joins Matias Burdman (COL ’21).
RILEY ROGERSON Hoya Staff Writer
Student residences Darnall Hall, Arrupe Hall and Henle Village experienced a complete water outage Friday night, with the university and local authorities yet to determine its cause. The water outage began at approximately 10:30 p.m. Friday and was resolved across campus by 8 a.m. Saturday. Neither the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, which conducted system repairs Friday evening, nor the university is claiming responsibility for the outage. The university was working closely with D.C. Water to restore water across campus, according to an email sent to affected students during the outage at 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning by the Office of Residential Living. Although D.C. Water isolated a section of the District’s water distribution system in the affected area to make repairs Friday evening, Marlee Franzen, D.C. Water manager of operations, said the authority was not responsible for the outage. “We did isolate a main along Reservoir Road Friday evening, but we made sure that the hospital still had service,” Frazen wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We do not believe that we did anything to affect the University pressure.” The university is communicating with D.C. Water to determine the reason for the outage, according to a university spokesperson. “We are grateful DC Water was able to restore service and apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We are continuing to work with DC Water on identifying what happened and how to prevent it in the future.” None of the water utilities in Darnall Hall functioned during the outage, according to Darnall Resident Katie Bracken (COL ’22). “Around 10:30 p.m., we noticed that the water wasn’t running out of the water fountain; none of the sinks were working, or showers; none of the toilets were flushing,” Bracken said. This water outage comes after several infrastructure-related issues during the 2018-19 academic year, including the discovery of black mold and elevator failures. Most recently, the university relocated 85 students living in the top floors of Alumni Square because of concerns about the abil-
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Neither the university nor the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority has determined the cause of the outage that affected dorms. ity of the roof to withstand heavy snow or strong winds. Darnall resident Lucy Chatfield (COL ’22) was advised by her Residential Adviser to go to the Leavey Center to get water during the outage. “It was 1:30 and we were really tired and we just wanted to brush our teeth and go to bed, but we had to go to Leavey, which was annoying because it was cold,” Chatfield said. “People were in their pajamas. We ran into a lot of people getting water from a vending machine.” In the days preceding the outage, a pipe burst and fire alarms malfunctioned, going off inadvertently three times, in Darnall Hall, according to a Feb. 4 email sent to Darnall residents by Darnall Hall community director Tom Mangano. Many Darnall students have become frustrated with the frequent facilities issues in their dormitory. The general sentiment in Darnall during the water outage was annoyance as a result of repeated problems in the dorm, according to Chatfield. Students in Henle Village were also concerned that flushing the toilet would exacerbate the problem during the water outage, according
to Henle resident Amelia Walsh (SFS ’20). “I am not placing blame, but it was hard for us because we didn’t know originally if we could, like, flush the toilet because we were like ‘Oh my gosh we aren’t going to have any water anymore after that,’” Walsh said. Although Walsh had never experienced a water outage as a Georgetown student prior to last week, she has encountered a variety of facilities issues as a Henle resident. “Our stove wasn’t working for a long time, one of our sinks was dripping, one of our showers wasn’t working, a couple of our lights kept going out,” Walsh said. “Once those were fixed, we were pretty excited, so then when the water was out we were like, ‘no!’” D.C. Water has offered to work with Facilities to prevent future outages, according to Frazen. “We are more than happy to work with Georgetown University to troubleshoot their pressure issue,” Frazen wrote. “In addition as a precaution we will check some system valves just to ensure they are operating properly.”
GAGE Aims for Expanded Students Push for More Details Grad Student Insurance Coverage About GU Solar Panel Project AFUA NYANTAKYI Special to The Hoya
The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees elected 14 members to the union’s bargaining committee Feb. 8 as it prepares to begin negotiating worker contracts with the university. The bargaining committee aims to win a contract that addresses the top four issues identified by graduate employees, including increased worker compensation, dental and vision insurance, expanded health insurance coverage and reduced out-of-pocket costs for health insurance. The election represents a step towards a university contract that meets the needs of graduate student workers, Chad Frazier, a seventh-year doctoral student and member of the GAGE organizing committee, said. “We’re all very excited to be at this stage of the process, I mean, this is kind of what we have been working for: the opportunity to sit down at the table with the university and bargain for a contract that really reflects our contributions and really addresses the issues that are important to us,” Frazier said. The election came after GAGE voted to unionize in Nov. 2018 following a year-long push to receive official recognition as a union from the university. The university initially refused to recognize GAGE as a union because it considers graduate student employees primarily as students, not as workers. The graduate union held a general body assembly on Feb. 6 to assess the bargaining committee’s future priorities. During the general body assembly, members reaffirmed the outline of the organization’s purpose and shared excerpted results of a survey GAGE conducted among graduate em-
ployees, both members and nonmembers of GAGE. The survey flagged the key concerns of graduate workers from expanded health insurance to increased compensation. The bargaining survey’s results, which are not yet fully available to the public, provided the basis for discussion at the meeting, according to Frazier. “Since we won our election last November, we’ve been talking to grads, getting their issues and we recently completed a bargaining survey that we circulated to our members that was designed to identify those issues that they wanted to raise at the bargaining table in a more systematic way,” Frazier said.
“This is kind of what we have been working for: the opportunity to sit down at the table with the university.” CHAD FRAZIER Member, GAGE Organizing Committee
The results of the survey will provide meaningful representations of the needs of graduate students, according to Avram Reisman (GRD ’19), a bargaining committee member in the social sciences. “I hope that the administration listens to our stories and data collected by the GAGE bargaining survey and we can find some common ground on what graduate employees deserve,” Reisman wrote. Of the respondents to the survey, the results showed that 69 percent missed or delayed medical care because of inaccessibility, according to a Feb. 6 GAGE
news release. The survey results revealed health care, including basic dental and vision care, is one of the main priorities of graduate employees, according to Deidre Nelms, a fourth-year doctoral candidate and bargaining committee member. Graduate students are also frustrated with unclear terms of employment, Natascha Otoya, a second-year doctoral candidate and GAGE member, said. “There should be clear expectations of what graduate work is,” Otoya said. “We’re supposed to work for about 15 to 20 hours a week but we end up working for much more because the expectations aren’t clear.” The bargaining committee will work to advance GAGE’s more concrete goals drawn from student concerns highlighted in the survey, Frazier said. “They’ll be the ones crafting the proposals that sort of translate those issues that members have raised in conversations with organizers, and also in the bargaining survey—just sort of practical proposals, bottom-line proposals that address issues like health care, food insecurity, compensation, benefits,” Frazier said. The bargaining committee members are split between discipline categories including humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, mathematics, computer science and analytics. Voting for the bargaining committee was conducted through an electronic ballot, which closed Feb. 7. Those eligible to vote included graduate students with a signed GAGE membership card who are working as research assistants, teaching assistants or instructors of record during the current semester or who are set to fill one of those positions in the fall 2019 semester, according to the GAGE website.
MEREDITH MILLER Hoya Staff Writer
Students urged Georgetown University to disclose the details of the timeline on a solar panel initiative that would deforest 240 acres of land but provide half of the university’s electricity needs at a Feb. 10 forum. The university is contracting a third party to review the project, a decision supported by student-run environmental advocacy groups. Samantha Panchèvre (SFS ’19), chair of the Georgetown University Student Association’s sustainability policy coalition, said she sees the decision as a response to the efforts of student advocates. “It looks like they’re listening,” Panchèvre said. “The way she made it sound to me was that it was in response to the negative press and the concerns that have been raised.” Students in the forum said they want the university to keep students informed throughout the process. GUSA’s sustainability policy coalition seeks to determine who is performing the review, as
well as obtain a timeline for the review process, according to Rowlie Flores (COL ’22), the coalition’s outreach coordinator. The university reached the solar project agreement with Origis Energy in September 2017 to meet its goal of halving the university’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. La Plata, Md., the proposed site of the solar panels, is located 25 miles south of Washington, D.C., and has been deemed an important bird area, according to the Audubon Society, a bird conservation group. The Maryland Department of Energy scheduled a hearing for Feb. 27 in Charles County, Md., in response to criticism the project has received from local environmental activists who argue the site holds important ecological value and that Origis should consider other locations to install their solar panels. University officials maintain that the benefits from the project would outweigh the deforestation in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. “The US EPA’s public green-
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Georgetown is contracting a third party to evaluate a solar panel intiative that would deforest 240 acres of land.
house gas calculator tool estimates that the proposed offsite solar project would reduce greenhouse emissions equivalent to planting more than 429,000 trees, which is the amount of carbon sequestered by approximately 30,000 acres of forest,” university spokesperson Matt Hill wrote in an email to The Hoya. Origis is working to address environmental concerns, including with an initiative to plant flora that will attract pollinating insects, according to Edwin Moses, the project’s managing director. “Our Pollinator Plan will contribute back to the community and surrounding habitat and our Forest Conservation Easements will provide perpetual forest protection, a sound community investment which we are honored to contribute,” Moses wrote in an email to The Hoya. “This amount of solar on this site is an excellent solution for Georgetown and for Marylanders.” While the forum’s attendees focused on the solar project, students also took the opportunity to push university administrators on other sustainability measures, such as reducing single-use plastics on campus and divesting from fossil fuels. Student-run group Georgetown University Fossil Free submitted a proposal Jan. 17 urging the university to divest from companies that sell fossil fuels. The proposal was submitted to the Committee for Investing in Social Responsibility, which advises the university on financial decisions. CISR has not responded to the group’s request to meet in advance of the committee’s Feb. 24 meeting when it will consider the proposal, according to Celia Buckman (SFS ’21), a member of GUFF. “We worked hard to create our proposal and the bureaucratic infrastructure that enabled its submission, and expect that level of dedication and effort to be matched by CISR in reviewing it,” Buckman wrote.
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Duque Shares Economic Growth Plans Students Frustrated By Unexpected Housing Change
DUQUE, from A1
the diplomatic blockade of Venezuela, according to The New York Times. The blockade has the support of over 50 countries that are denouncing Maduro and recognizing Juan Guaido, the current president of the National Assembly and leader of the opposition, as the true president of Venezuela. The effort began July 5 in response to multiple accusations against Maduro of illegitimate re-election to office in May 2018 and his authoritarian rule, according to CBC. International support is essential to ensuring the success of the diplomatic blockade, according to Duque. “I always said that we need to create a diplomatic blockade,” Iván Duque Márquez (GRD ’07)
Duque said. “We have now more countries in the Western hemisphere recognizing Juan Guaido as the president. Now we have most of the European countries, and yes, we have to keep on channelling that diplomatic blockade.” Maduro has been described as a dictator by many countries and leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as mainstream media. His presidency, which began in November 2013, has withstood instability because of the decline in Venezuela’s socioeconomic status and the increase in crime, hyperinflation, poverty and hunger during his tenure. In addition to fighting for humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela, Duque said Colombia would help liberate Venezuelan refugees from Maduro’s oppressive regime. “It is our moral duty, first of all,
to express fraternity,” Duque said. “The second thing to recognize is that in the 20th century, many Colombians went to Venezuela in search for a home, and Venezuela brothers opened their arms and received them. So we will do all we can to be well-organized and to help with the migration of citizens.” With socio-economic conditions in Venezuela deteriorating, an estimated 4,000 people cross the border into Colombia every day, according to Foreign Policy. Duque, who received his Master’s in Public Policy Management from Georgetown, was invited to speak in Gaston Hall as a part of his first official visit to the United States as president after his June 2018 election. Duque not only shared Colombia’s foreign policy, but also domestic issues with the
KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA
Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez (GRD ’07), left, visited Georgetown on Thursday during his first state visit to the United States. Duque denounced Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
campus community. Duque emphasized the need for a gradual replacement of the illegal drug economy with a more legitimate, legal economy to support the Colombian people. “My goal is by the end of my administration to eradicate more than 60 percent of the illegal drugs that we have — but more than just eradicate, make people that are living off of an illegal crop be part of the legal economy,” Duque said. Colombia recently signed a historic agreement with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in 2017 to address the country’s widespread coca cultivation, according to the UNODC. The area under coca cultivation in Colombia reached the highest-ever figure of 171,000 hectares in 2017, according to the UNODC’s Coca Cultivation Survey Report for Colombia. Colombia has collaborated with the United States to address drug issues in the past, according to Duque. “Our relationship has been, for a long time, a brotherhood relationship,” Duque said. “I am very glad and pleased that we keep receiving support from the White House and also from Congress when it comes to things like the drug problem.” The drug problem in Colombia is often attributed to high levels of domestic production of illegal drugs, according to Duque. In 2016, an estimated 866 metric tons of cocaine were produced in the country, according to the UNODC. However, the issue of drug consumption within the country should also be taken seriously, Duque said. “We need to put an end to the exponential growth of the illegal drugs, and we also need to consider that Colombia is no longer a producing country, but also a consuming country,” Duque said. “We have 800,000 people consuming drugs in Colombia, and we are a low-income country.” Despite the drug crisis that has plagued the country, Colombia has achieved incredible economic growth, according to Duque. “When we talk about Colombia, always the conversation of drugs comes into the table, but in fact, Colombia has a very vibrant economy,” Duque said. “I would say that one of the things that we have to praise is that during the last 20 years, Colombia passed from being considered a failed state to a vibrant economy.”
ALUMNI SQUARE from A1 Georgetown has faced an increasing number of housing problems in student residences over the past year. Facilities responded to 361 mold-related work requests in residences between August and October of last year, more than double the number reported during that time frame in 2017, and students in Darnall and Reynolds Halls reported malfunctioning elevators this past fall. Students who receive scholarships or financial aid will not be receiving a housing credit following the relocation. Aleida Olvera (COL ’20), Georgetown University Student Association vice president-elect, was not affected by the Alumni Square relocation, but attended Monday’s information session for relocated students. The university should be doing more for low-income students affected by the reloca-
tion, Olvera said. “3.1 percent of the students come from the bottom 20 percent, and it’s ridiculous that the administration is not caring about this 3.1 percent, when we are students here at Georgetown,” Olvera said. “We are going to be working really hard to ensure that this is something that’s going to be addressed and that the university will be held accountable.” Cohen agreed the university has underestimated the full burden of the relocation on students, financially or otherwise. “I think the level of compensation that they’re giving is sort of the barebones financial side of it, whereas ultimately people aren’t paying for just the material housing, but paying for everything that comes with it,” Cohen said. “No one wants to be a junior or a senior living in what’s effectively worse than freshman housing.”
WILL SIMON/THE HOYA
Georgetown is working to move students into the on-campus Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center.
Qatar Campus Criticized After Cancelling Religious Debate GU-Q, from A1 Still, GU-Q is committed to freedom of expression and debate in accordance with Georgetown’s Policy on Speech and Expression, a GU-Q spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Hoya. “Faculty members and student groups with access to university benefits may host events on campus that are in accordance with Qatari law,” the statement reads. Despite these national limitations, FIRE faults GU-Q for its restrictions on student speech, according to McLaughlin. “FIRE recognizes that American universities operating branches in other countries may be subject to speech restrictions that would violate the First Amendment in the United States,” McLaughlin wrote. “But in those cases,
universities should not make promises to students that they cannot deliver.” The debate’s poster, featuring a reimagining of the famous Michelangelo painting “Creation of Adam” with Ariana Grande in the role of God, sparked backlash after it surfaced on Twitter, including a trending Arabic hashtag roughly translatable as #GeorgetownInsultsGod accusing Georgetown of blasphemy. GU-Q Dean for Student Affairs Brendan Hill received death threats in response to the poster, according to Almond. FIRE was not aware of any death threats made to the dean and based its assessment of the cancelled debate on GU-Q’s public statements, according to McLaughlin. The university opened a dialogue with students about their right to free expression
after its public statements about the cancellation, according to Fatima Farooqui (SFS-Q ’21), a former member of the Debating Union. “I really do believe that it was for the safety and security of students. I don’t think it was a violation of our free speech,” Farooqui wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The Student Life staff was readily available for the next two days to talk to students and reassure them that these things are things we can talk about, especially within Georgetown.” FIRE weighed this incident too heavily in deciding to place GU-Q on its list, Almond said. “It’s a very liberal and open campus, and in fact one of the reasons why students here at Georgetown-Qatar were angry that the debate was cancelled is precisely because
they perceive it as a very different place in comparison to other campuses,” Almond said. “It is perceived as a place where, as an academic and as a student, you are more or less allowed to do or say what you want.” GU-Q’s campus is the result of Education City, an initiative by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development created by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa during his time as emir. The Education City project incentivizes U.S. universities to build programs in Doha. Other U.S. colleges in Education City include Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University and Texas A&M University. FIRE considers Georgetown’s main campus a “red light” institution, meaning it has at least one policy that restricts free expression, for
making incivility and disrespectful behavior a punishable offense in the code of student conduct. The university was also ranked on FIRE’s 2015 top-10 list for not recognizing the pro-abortion rights group H*yas for Choice; FIRE accused Georgetown of violating its own free speech policy by refusing to recognize HFC because of the group’s stance on abortion. Georgetown appeared on the FIRE’s 2017 list after the Georgetown University Law Center prevented students from campaigning or engaging in partisan political speech on campus. Georgetown adopted a new free speech policy in June 2017 modelled after that of the University of Chicago, which prohibits suppression of offensive speech. This step was important but insufficient to raise Georgetown’s
overall rating, according to FIRE. The GU-Q administration and Student Government Association launched Red Square, a replica of the main campus’s forum for tabling, flyering and other forms of public discourse, on Jan. 15. While the project had been in progress before the October event, the cancelled debate accelerated the process of creating Red Square, as the administration wanted to ensure students had a platform for free expression, according to Farooqui. “The Red Square at the Qatar campus is a combined effort by the administration and the SGA here to encourage people to talk more freely about things that they feel like they cannot talk about,” Farooqui wrote. “It is a great step towards progress. So far, it has been pretty successful.”
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY QATAR/FACEBOOK
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the civil rights of university students and faculty, condemned Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar, after GU-Q cancelled an Oct. 9 event. The event’s panelists were set to debate whether major religions should portray God as a woman. GU-Q cited the organizers’ failure to obtain proper authorization for the event.
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Student Groups Awarded Grant Longtime Congressman Dingell For Women’s Leadership Mourned by U.S. Leaders MASON MANDELL Hoya Staff Writer
Two Georgetown graduate student groups were awarded a combined $5,000 grant by the American Association of University Women to continue their work in advancing female leadership in business and science. The funds will be used to support women in fields where they are currently underrepresented, with the grant directed to Georgetown Graduate Women in Business and Women in Science and Education, according to Daniela Rodriguez (GRD ’20), GWiB copresident. GWiB and WISE collaborated to apply for the grant, which required a proposal for how they would advance women leadership using the funds. The AAUW announced the grant winners Feb. 11. The grant money will go far in supporting their goal of advancing women, according to Rodriguez. “Both WISE and GWiB leaderships are very excited to receive this grant, which is a consequence of hard work and dedication,” Rodriguez wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Our primary goal is to empower graduate women and men who work to lift women at Georgetown, and this grant will permit us to have a significant impact on our community.” The graduate groups are using the funds to host a series of events, which was initially proposed in their grant application. The programming will focus on gaining confidence, improving negotiation skills and helping other women, according to Rodriguez. “Our joint initiative is to advance the professional skills of female graduate students while emphasizing how to overcome obstacles traditionally faced by women,” Rodriguez wrote. The groups co-designed programming with three events: a negotiation workshop, anti-harassment and bystander training, and an event featuring author Valerie Young. Young is set to speak about impostor syndrome, a phenomenon where women fear that they are not worthy of leadership roles. “This tendency to discount or diminish obvious evidence of our abilities is called the imposter syn-
drome,” Young said in a June 2017 TED Talk. “Some of the coping mechanisms are things like flying under the radar — not raising your hand, not asking for promotions, not giving your ideas and sharing in meetings.” Of the 500 largest companies in America, only 24 have female chief executive officers, according to Fortune. Young’s event will teach women methods to identify imposter syndrome and overcome these negative sentiments to realize their leadership potential, according to Allison O’Connell, WISE president. By discussing obstacles women face in the professional world, the events will fill a gap that is often missing from coursework, according to O’Connell. “Together, we feel these events will teach professional skills that, while are essential for successful careers, are often overlooked in traditional graduate student curricula,“ O’Connell wrote in an email to The Hoya. The projects organized by the student groups are important steps in advancing equity through supporting the professional development of women, according to Kimberly Churches, the chief executive officer of the American Association of University Women. “I look forward to seeing the impact these projects — and the students who are responsible for them — will have on our society in the years ahead,” Churches said in a Feb. 11 news release. In deciding which organizations should receive grant funds, AAUW focused on the long-term effects the groups will have, according to Andrea Martinez, a manager in fellowships at AAUW. “We’re looking at what impact they’re creating. Not just the number, like how many women they’re impacting, but, ‘What is the potential for this to have long-term implications on the campus?’” Martinez said in an interview with The Hoya. “Is this something that can continue on when these women are no longer receiving funding from us?” AAUW’s Campus Action Project also gave grants to organizations at 10 other universities that seek to advance women in leadership, according to Martinez. In addition
to women’s leadership, the association also works to support female economic security and education and training. “I think the most important point that you can bring across is the fact that other groups that are not majority people of color need to be more actively thinking about how they can also recognize and acknowledge February, do more to celebrate Black History Month. Because at this point, currently, it’s just groups of color or black groups that have events to commemorate the month. But it shouldn’t be like that.” Professor Board recognized the progress the university has made with addressing matters of race on campus. “So for me, one of the reasons I was excited about coming to Georgetown was because they had the 272 initiative going on and from that the African American studies department instead of a major and they created jobs, which is reflective of institutional change. People do a lot of lip service to like diversity and equality and equity, but the way I saw it was as if the university really wanted to actually do something, a rubber meets road kind of thing, and actually make something happen, and that just doesn’t happen much.” Professor Board also acknowledged the room for further progress, encouraging sustained dialogue about the university’s history with slavery and matters of race more broadly. “And I’m not saying everything is done, and I’m not saying that everything is resolved with the university and their history with enslavement, but the connection is intended, I think, to be making sure we have these conversations, not just to have them and do the lip service, but have them and actually do some substantive work.” Celebration of Black History onth, for Professor Board, is a part of this continuing effort. “It’s a part of an ongoing struggle to disabuse global notions of blackness, of African descendant people, of marginalized groups in general. And it’s just part of that larger struggle of really trying to get people to be invested in learning.”
CHARLIE GOETZMAN Special to The Hoya
Prominent U.S. political leaders convened Thursday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church to commemorate the life of John Dingell Jr. (CAS ’49, LAW ’52), a former representative of Michigan and the longestserving member of Congress in U.S. history. At 92 years old, Dingell died at his home in Dearborn, Mich., on Feb. 7, following complications from prostate cancer. Notable attendees at Dingell’s funeral included former Speaker John Boehner, former President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68), former Secretary Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Bill Clinton paid tribute to Dingell’s work ethic and dedication to public service in his eulogy at the funeral, which was open to the public. “He was a remarkable man,” Clinton said. “A patriot, in some cases, without peer in the history of America. He spent more time in the Congress trying to fulfill the Founders’ admonition to form a more perfect union than anyone else.” A reception was held in the Healey Family Student Center after the funeral. Dingell’s wife Debbie Dingell (SFS ‘75, GRD ‘96) (D-Mi.), who assumed his seat after he stepped down, was in attendance at the closed event. John Dingell will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday morning. A service for Dingell was held earlier in the week in Dearborn, Mich., where former Vice President Joe Biden gave a eulogy. Biden remembered Dingell for his commitment to his work as a representative. “Generations of Americans are going to study his work, know they are better off because he lived,” Biden said. “Remember a man who could always be found standing firm on the right side of history. And when he had to, stand alone.”
Dingell had represented what is now Michigan’s 12th district from 1955 to 2014, a record 59 years. He was in the House of Representatives during the administrations of 11 of the United States’ 45 presidents, and for more than a quarter of Congress’s existence. Dingell’s legacy as a politician and a public figure will outlast his death, former President Clinton said in 2005, Dingell’s 50th year in the legislative body.
“He was a remarkable man. A patriot, in some cases, without peer in the history of America. ” BILL CLINTON (SFS ’68) Former President of the United States
“Presidents come and presidents go,” Clinton said. “John Dingell stays forever.” Up to the end of his life, Dingell remained a part of the Georgetown community, regularly visiting campus, speaking at Georgetown events and attending John Carroll Weekend. Dingell honored the 225th anniversary of Georgetown’s founding in the Congressional Record in January 2014 and praised the university for remaining true to its founding principles. “I can attest to the University’s commitment to addressing the challenges faced by our society and its consistent focus on developing students who are ready to contribute to future prosperity and positive civic leadership,” Dingell wrote. Dingell’s family possessed strong ties to the university as well. Both his brother James Dingell (C ’54, GRD ’57, GRD ’63) and his wife Debbie also attended Georgetown. Dingell was honored by the Law’s school with its Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Law Alumni Public Service Award in 2013.
Dingell was known, however, as much for his accomplishments in the House as he was for the length of his tenure, Rebecca Hollister (COL ’21), chair of Georgetown University College Democrats, wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We are very appreciative of Representative Dingell’s service to our country, its people, and the Democratic party,” Hollister wrote. “He was essential in the fights for healthcare and welfare for all who needed it in the nation and for that we are immensely grateful. Our loving thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.” From 1981 to 1995 and again from 2007 to 2009, Dingell chaired the Energy and Commerce Committee, an influential committee with a wide-ranging policy portfolio, affecting legislation from consumer protection to the environment. Dingell helped pass landmark legislation in the House of Representatives, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 passage of Medicare. After graduating the university, Dingell went on to hold a number of jobs in the legal profession, working for a private firm and as a prosecutor in Wayne County, Mich. When his father died of tuberculosis in 1955, Dingell ran in and won a special election for his seat in the House, representing a district outside of Detroit. In 2014, after he announced that he would retire the following year, Dingell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the U.S. government. Dingell was dedicated to serving his constituents throughout his time in Congress, former Secretary of State James Baker wrote in a Feb 8. statement following Dingell’s passing. “America was built on the shoulders of great leaders like John Dingell who dedicated their lives to serving our nation,” Baker said.
Georgetown Celebrates Black History Month
Alum Fundraises to Fix DC’s Only Full-Size Skating Rink
JAMIE MOORE-CARRILLO
PAULA HONG
Special to The Hoya
Black student affinity groups have organized a series of events celebrating black history and culture and bringing awareness to present-day issues of race and identity in observation of Black History Month this February. Among the scheduled events are panel discussions, movie screenings, student conferences and campus outings. This year’s itinerary includes 24 events, more than double the number held last year. The schedule was organized by the Black Leadership Forum, a coalition of student organizations that plan events directed toward black students on campus. The goal of the month’s events, which are held annually, is to engage in the ongoing appreciation of the rich culture and history of black people around the world, the Black Leadership Forum wrote in a Feb. 7 email to the student body sharing the schedule of events. “Throughout the month, we will actively appreciate the service, art, literature, innovations, and resiliency of Black people across the globe,” the Black Leadership Forum wrote. “It is important to remember that Black history is not just limited to the month of February, because the celebration of Black history and Black peoples’ contribution to the world is endless, immeasurable, and ongoing.” The events are sponsored by student groups and organizations across campus, including the African Society of Georgetown, the Black Student Alliance, Georgetown University Women of Color, the Georgetown chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Caribbean Culture Center, the Minority Pre-Law Association, and Georgetown Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs. Regina Titi-Ofei (NHS ’19), president of the African Soci-
ety of Georgetown, said that events celebrating black identity, while concentrated in February, are also held year round. “The month has been very eventful in terms of thoughts and reflections, making sure that we are always cognizant of the fact that February is the month that we must celebrate our blackness, and our Africanness, and our identity as part of the diaspora,” Titi-Ofei said. “More broadly, over the course of the academic year, we will do small things too.” Black History Month helps strengthen black communities on campus, according to Titi-Ofei.
“We have to come to terms with the fact that racism still exists in a lot of places in this country.” REGINA TITI-OFEI (NHS ’19)
“It’s also just a chance amongst black people to find time to mingle with themselves to celebrate their rich culture and to just do things, not to exclude other races, but for them to just have some time to say that, ‘Yes, this is time for us to really have a cause to celebrate our blackness,’” Titi-Ofei said. This year’s celebrations come at a time when issues of race are at the forefront of campus dialogue. Students have continued to advocate for the descendant community of the 272 enslaved individuals sold in 1838 by the Maryland Society of Jesus to financially sustain Georgetown, with students hanging artwork in Red Square to honor the lives of the GU272 in September. On Feb. 3, the Georgetown University Student Association approved a referendum set for this April on a semesterly reconciliation fee of $27.20 that would go toward a fund to benefit descendants. This year also marks 400
years since the first African slaves were brought to the continental United States, according to The Washington Post. Black History Month encourages open-mindedness and a willingness to learn about other cultures, according to Marcus Board, an associate professor in the department of African-American studies. “Black History Month, one of the initiatives, one of the deeper meanings behind it is to try and encourage people to care to know,” Board said. “Everybody is not gonna be super conscious of every issue or grievance in the world, but our willingness to actually learn about it — that I think is in the spirit and in the core of Black History Month.” However, Board said that there is still room for further improvement, such as encouraging sustained dialogue about the university’s history with slavery and matters of race more broadly. Black History Month is an important time to raise awareness about pressing issues faced by black people today, both in the United States and within the university, according to Titi-Ofei. “We have to come to terms with the fact that racism still exists in a lot of places in this country and discrimination against people of color is real, and we need to acknowledge that as a university,” Titi-Ofei said. “We have miles to go in terms of reconciling with our past.” The university must also do more to make sure that people of color on campus are heard, according to Titi-Ofei. “For a university that claims to be working extremely hard to bridge that gap between different races and to make stronger and more concerted efforts towards their past with the slave trade, I think more needs to be done with having people of color on this campus and making sure that the voices of people of color on this campus are equally as valued as their white counterparts,” Titi-Ofei said. “Georgetown has a long way to go when it comes to that.”
Hoya Staff Writer
Ted Leonsis (CAS ’77), founder and owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, donated 100,000 dollars to help cover the costs of conducting repairs to the Fort Dupont Ice Arena, D.C.’s only full-size skating rink. The National Hockey League and MSE, which owns and operates The Washington Capitals, D.C.’s professional ice hockey team, will also each donate 100,000 dollars for a total of 300,000 dollars. The proceeds are supplemented by a GoFundMe, launched Feb. 3, and will go toward a half-a-million dollar fundraiser designed to help the nonprofit organization The Friends of Dupont Ice Arena, who operate the rink. The Dupont ice arena, which is located in Ward 7, was set to receive 25 million dollars from the city, according to The Washington Post. However, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) asked the D.C. City Council to reallocate funds originally intended for the rink to cover emergency repairs at District schools and recreation facilities Jan. 25. A council vote on the issue was delayed until Feb. 19 as a result of negotiations with the Bowser administration, according to the D.C. Council website.
While fixing facilities issues at public schools is necessary, providing a safe place for low-income students to go to after school is equally vital, according to Jimmy Lynn, a Georgetown adjunct professor in the McDonough School of Business who also served as a mentor to Leonsis. “It’s a rundown neighborhood and is pretty dangerous,” Lynn said. “With the help of organizations like The Capitals and The Nationals, though, they become areas where kids and families can go after school and it provides a safe environment. The area becomes an anchor.” Leonsis’ background serves as an example of why support for community projects should be a priority, according to Lynn. “Ted grew up in Brooklyn to a family of Greek immigrants and was lost at Georgetown at first, but was mentored by a Jesuit Reverend Joseph Durkin and eventually graduated first of his class in 1977,” Lynn said. “He never forgot to give back.” The Fort Dupont Cannons, the oldest minority hockey club in North America, rent their ice time at the Fort Dupont Ice Arena. The Cannons helped form the NHL’s “Hockey is for Everyone” initiative in the 1990s with the aim to foster positive social
change. Currently, 40 program centers participate in the Cannons’ initiative, providing 8,000 children an opportunity to play hockey annually, according to Kim Davis, NHL executive vice president of social impact, growth and legislative affairs. “The ripple effect of the program, particularly inside the Beltway, is so strong and consistent that the rise of support for this initiative is unsurprising. In hockey, safe and welcoming infrastructure is necessary for providing and expanding programming for our youth,” Davis wrote in an email to The Hoya. The Fort Dupont skating rink and other communities around the country with similar stories will continue to be funded by the NHL, according to Davis. The NHL recognizes Leonsis’ involvement in community building and seeks to recognize the diversity of their fanbase, Davis said. “We are living in a time where people are looking for real, authentic relationships. The Capitals and Ted Leonsis are a great example of doing well and doing good,” Davis said. “The Club has worked diligently to cultivate new community partnerships that will build trust and loyalty to their brand over time.”
FRIENDS OF FORT DUPONT ICE ARENA/FACEBOOK
Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis (CAS ’77), the NHL and Monumental Sports and Entertainment each donated $100,000 to help fund repairs to the Fort Dupont Ice Arena.
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DC Lottery Set to Gain Control Spy Museum to Reopen at New L’Enfant Plaza Location in May Over Online Sports Betting ALEXANDRA BOWMAN Hoya Staff Writer
The Washington, D.C. Council gave initial approval in a narrow vote to a bill that would allow Intralot, the operator of the D.C. lottery, to become the sole operator of a mobile sports betting platform Feb. 5. The bill, introduced by Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), would give Intralot a monopoly over the creation and operation of mobile-based sports betting in the District. The proposed legislation enables Intralot to run a mobile sports betting platform that would allow residents and visitors to cast bets on games from anywhere in D.C., including their homes or hotel rooms. Titled the Sports Wagering Procurement Practices Reform Exemption Act of 2019, the bill would also allow private businesses, such as fantasy sports providers DraftKings and FanDuel, to apply for licenses to operate brick-andmortar sports betting facilities throughout D.C. These facilities would not be allowed within two blocks of four stadiums and arenas that were granted unique privileges, including Nationals Park, Audi Field, Capital One Arena and St. Elizabeths East Entertainment and Sports Arena. As a result of legalized sports betting, D.C. would take in money through license fees and a 10 percent tax on betting facilities’ earnings. The legislation could bring the District approximately $92 million over the next four years, according to D.C. radio station WAMU. One million dollars of proceeds raised annually from sports betting would go to toward expanding affordable child care options in D.C., and funding violence prevention programs under the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act, which uses a public health approach to reduce
violence. An additional $200,000 would help fund gambling addiction treatment, according to The Washington Post. By opening up the market to multiple apps offered by private operators, D.C.’s revenue from legal sports betting would drop to $26 million over the same period, according to WAMU. However, private operators such as FanDuel believe privately-run apps will generate more money for the District because a competitive market will enable more betting, according to DCist. FanDuel has hired local consultants to speak with every member on the D.C. Council to persuade them to amend the legislation. The company hopes residents will be able to legally engage in sports betting via private companies’ apps anywhere in the District instead of betting exclusively through the D.C. lottery apps, a representative from the company wrote in an email to The Hoya. FanDuel is not likely to suffer significant financial losses if the legislation is passed, according to the representative. Six council members voted against the bill, including Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large). Grosso is opposed to legalizing sports betting because of the higher risks of gambling addiction among individuals in low income neighborhoods, Communications Director Matthew Nocella wrote in an email to The Hoya. This bill comes as numerous states consider legislation that would enable them to gain financial benefits from the sports betting industry. Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 35-year-old law that had banned sports betting in every state except Nevada. On Dec. 18, D.C. joined seven states in legalizing sports betting by passing the Sports Wagering Lottery Amendment Act of 2018, which is set to take effect June 6 after the 30-day congressional re-
view period, in which Congress can decide to block the bill. This legislation would be the first to legalize a new form of gambling in D.C. since voters approved a lottery in 1980. Legalizing sports betting in the District is a necessary step to modernization, Executive Director of the Office of Lottery and Charitable Games Beth Bresnahan said in a Jan. 28 testimony to the D.C. Council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue. “The Lottery’s current gaming system contract with Intralot, which expires on March 29, 2020, did not contemplate sports wagering when it was procured nearly 10 years ago,” Bresnahan said. “This new contract is essential to implementing sports wagering and modernizing the Lottery.” Numerous pieces of legislation over past decades that would have legalized various forms of gambling in the District have been introduced but ultimately failed. While proponents of these efforts argued gambling would bring D.C. much-needed revenue, others, including civic associations and faith-based groups, argued these laws would promote crime and pull money from low-income residents, according to DCist. The legalization of sports betting will help stimulate the local economy and attract consumers, Evans said. “We take the first steps towards capturing this exciting new stream of revenue,” Evans said in a Sept. 18 news release. “The city should take advantage of our ability to act before the Maryland or Virginia legislatures to create a thriving sports betting market, which will attract consumers to the District and generate more revenue for district residents.” The Council has to vote on the bill a second time before it can be sent to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) for approval. A second review date has not yet been set.
HARRISON MCBRIDE Special to The Hoya
The International Spy Museum is set to move from its former location in Penn Quarter to L’Enfant Plaza this May to accommodate recently acquired artifacts as well as updated intelligence technology. The museum’s previous location closed Jan. 1. L’Enfant Plaza will most likely become the museum’s permanent location, according to Aliza Bran, public relations and marketing coordinator for the museum. The new location is expected to receive around 700,000 visitors this upcoming year, an uptick of 100,000 visitors from last year’s estimates, according to the Washington Business Journal. The new location is planned to open May 11. These artifacts will join the museum’s collection of intelligence technology and memorabilia. Additions to the collection include a piece of the Berlin Wall and displays of updated cyber-technology systems, according to an Oct. 3 news release. The new location is also slated to feature an additional educational room and a larger event hall than the previous location. Along with receiving physical upgrades, the museum also plans to revamp internal infrastructure to approach the topic of intelligence with more depth, according to Bran. “We will be able to take on the topic of intelligence in a bit more of a holistic way, looking at the intelligence process and how that works,” Bran said in an interview with The Hoya. “We get to talk about analysis, what analysts do. That’s of course a big part of the intelligence process, and we didn’t really have the space to get into it in our last home.” The museum intends to restructure current exhibits to create a better flow between the permanent exhibits. The larger space will
MARGARET FOUBERG FOR THE HOYA
The International Spy Museum is planned to reopen May 11 in L’Enfant Plaza. The museum relocated after acquiring new technology. allow the museum to rotate temporary exhibits more frequently to cover a wider range of intelligence topics, according to Bran. In addition to the exhibit space, the museum also plans to offer new and updated versions of educational programs and workshops for varying ages. Topics for these educational programs include a look at revolutionary war spies and their contribution to American victory in the war, according to Bran. The workshops are expected to be a continuation of the programs from the previous location where various skills, such as how to create invisible ink, were taught to visitors. With the new space, the Spy Museum is also undertaking new programs that were unavailable at its former location. Initiatives include a new volunteer program that allows students to work directly with the museum and get involved with former intelligence officials and officers who now work at the museum. A volunteer open house is currently set to be
held Feb. 27, according to the museum’s website. The museum also plans to revitalize its summer camp program for children in the summer of 2020, as the process of moving the museum forced the museum to stop the camp for the first time since its creation, according to Bran. The Spy Museum previously served as a resource to bring new investment into the Penn Quarter, according to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D). “The District of Columbia is very pleased to bring an expanded Spy Museum to L’Enfant Plaza- permanently,” Bowser said in a 2016 news release. “We are fortunate to be able to retain this important resource that was such a catalyst for new investment in Penn Quarter.” News of the museum’s turnover comes after the recent announcement that the Newseum, another paid museum in D.C., was searching for a new home after Johns Hopkins bought the museum’s former building.
District to Consider Making Clergy Mandated Reporters
Bill to Designate Lactation Spaces In Federal Buildings Passes House
GREY ROSENZWEIG AND ERIKA GEBHARDT
AFUA NYANKTAKYI
Hoya Staff Writer and Special to The Hoya
A bill that would legally mandate pastors, rabbis and other clergy to report instances of child abuse or neglect is pending review by the Washington, D.C. Council. Under current D.C. law, teachers, school officials, medical professionals and daycare workers are mandated reporters for suspected child abuse or neglect. Mandated reporters are required to report incidents of abuse to the Metropolitan Police Department or to child protective services. The bill, titled Protecting Children Through Mandatory Reporting Amendment Act of 2019, was introduced Jan. 23 by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety on Feb. 5. If the 13-member D.C. Council and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) approve Racine’s proposal, the bill will be enacted into law. If passed, the bill would also raise the penalty of failing to report a suspected instance of abuse up to a fine of $2,500 and 180 days of jail time. Following The Boston Globe’s 2002 report on the widespread sexual abuse in the Catholic church, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a charter that required all dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Washington, to report allegations of abuse toward
a minor to the public authorities. The bill is a necessary expansion of the protection of minors against sexual assault, Fr. Gregory Schenden, S.J., director of campus ministry at Georgetown, said. “Such a bill will make legal what has already been in effect for the Society of Jesus (and other Catholic religious orders) nationally since shortly after the sexual abuse crisis in 2002,” Schenden wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It is most encouraging to see the District of Columbia rising to these standards in striving to protect minors.” Under the proposed legislation, any information revealed during confession remains confidential and outside the realm of mandatory reporting. Worldwide, confession remains a privileged space, according to Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., the chaplain-in-residence in Kennedy Hall. “Across the board in every state in the United States, confession is considered sacred and privileged, and that is true actually around the world too, because of the particular nature of the relationship with an individual who is confessing something they’re trying to deal with in their minds,” Carnes said in an interview with The Hoya. “A good confessor, a priest, would really encourage the person then to go out and report something they themselves have done or if it’s something they might’ve been hurt in.” This exemption could potentially be exploited, according to Becky
@CATHOLICUNIVERSITY/INSTAGRAM
The D.C. Council is set to consider a bill that would raise the penalty of failing to report a suspected instance of abuse to up to 180 days in jail.
Ianni, the D.C. leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group for survivors of institutional sexual abuse. “I am glad that the bill is adding ministers to those who must report child abuse but am afraid the exemption for confession or penitential communication may be misused to protect the perpetrator,” Ianni wrote in an email to The Hoya. Carnes hopes that confession will continue to assist sexual assault survivors by providing them with resources for psychological and sexual assault counseling. “I remember in my very first confession counseling class the first thing we talked about was making sure you always have the resources around in case somebody needs additional counseling,” Carnes said. “So confession, whilst this privileged space, hopefully leads to then those other options.” The bill also requires any mandated reporter to take a certification course, which focuses on the process of filing a report and the legal definitions of abuse and neglect. Any mandated reporter who fails to complete the course is fined $300. The mandatory training will aid prosecutors in pursuing those who claim they did not report due to lack of procedural knowledge, according to Ianni. “I am pleased with the training of mandatory reporters. This will help prosecute offenders when they use excuses such as I didn’t know that was abuse, I didn’t know who to report to, and so forth,” Ianni wrote. The proposed legislation comes amid sexual assault accusations against notable members of the Catholic clergy. Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s resignation from the position of D.C. archbishop was accepted in October following a Pennsylvania grand jury report that revealed Wuerl had mishandled cases of sexual abuse during his time as bishop of Pittsburgh. In July 2018, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Wuerl’s predecessor, resigned from the College of Cardinals after an investigation found credible evidence of several decades of sexual abuse. Wuerl was aware of an allegation of sexual assault against McCarrick as early as 2004, and kept his knowledge of the accusation confidential until late in 2018. Both Wuerl and McCarrick hold honorary degrees from Georgetown. Student have called for the university to revoke the degrees since August. In November, Georgetown formed a working group to re-evaluate the honorary degrees and has yet to announce a decision.
Special to The Hoya
A bill that mandates federal workspaces to provide a designated nonbathroom space for guests and visitors to pump breast milk passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 6. The bill was introduced by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) on Jan. 30 and is the second-ever breastfeeding-specific bill to pass the floor of either house of Congress as a standalone measure, according to the United States Breastfeeding Committee, a nonprofit that seeks to expand support for breastfeeding. The bill still awaits passage in the U.S. Senate. The Affordable Care Act, a 2010 law which overhauled the healthcare system and expanded medical coverage, already requires federal buildings to provide employees with lactation spaces. Unsupportive work policies and a lack of parental leave are potential causes behind the 60 percent of reported mothers who did not breastfeed for as long as they intended to, according to the Center for Disease Control. The benefits of breastfeeding for both mothers and babies warrant expanding access to lactation spaces in federal buildings to visitors, according to Norton. “Given the significant health
benefits of breastfeeding for both baby and mother already recognized in Federal policy, my bill is a logical step to ensure that visitors to Federal sites have access to clean, hygienic and private spaces to nurse or pump,” Norton said in a Feb. 2 news release. The proposed legislation, titled The Fairness For Breastfeeding Mothers Act of 2019, would not require any additional spaces to be built, only that space be set aside for visitors as needed, Norton said in a Feb. 6 House session. Providing spaces for visitors to breastfeed and pump milk will highlight the necessity of supporting women and families, according to Michelle Stulberger. Stulberger is the director of business operations for Metropolitan Breastfeeding, a D.C. provider of breastfeeding support and consultation. “The health benefits of breastfeeding are well-documented, and by providing space for visitors to federal buildings to pump or breastfeed we as a society continue to affirm the importance of supporting breastfeeding families,” Stulberger wrote in an email to The Hoya. The bill was previously passed by a House of Representatives composed of a Republican majority in 2017 before failing to pass the U.S. Senate. The bill has garnered support in the current house, which has a Democratic
majority. Norton’s law also requires lactation spaces to be accessible to individuals with disabilities under the Architectural Barriers Act, which requires federal spaces and buildings to be accessible to individuals with disabilities whenever possible. The bill includes exceptions for buildings that do not already contain a lactation room for employees or any space that could be repurposed at a reasonable cost. The high volume of visitors Washington, D.C., experiences annually makes it crucial that federally owned buildings have lactation spaces for nursing mothers, according to Norton. “Considering that millions of people visit federal sites across the country, particularly here in the nation’s capital, it is essential that we ensure nursing mothers have access to designated, private and hygienic lactation spaces in our federally owned or leased buildings.” Norton said in a Feb. 6 news release. The first bill introduced specifically on breastfeeding was the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2003, which proposed an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include lactation as a protected civil right. The bill was later referred to the House of Representatives subcommittee on employer-employee relations.
ELEANOR NORTON/FACEBOOK
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) introduced a bill requiring federal workplaces to set aside nonbathroom space for breastfeeding. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 6.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
NEWS
THE HOYA
A9
A10
SPORTS
THE HOYA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
TRACK AND FIELD
SOFTBALL
Georgetown Posts 3 Top-10 Women Open Season With Victory Over GWU Finishes in Iowa State Classic RACHEL GAUDREAU Hoya Staff Writer
Last weekend, the Georgetown women’s softball team traveled to Boiling Springs, N.C., to kick off their season at the Gardner-Webb University Tournament. Despite some good pitching outings, the Hoyas won one of their four games and finished in last place. Spanning from Friday, Feb. 8 to Sunday, Feb. 10, the tournament hosted four teams from the surrounding areas to begin the spring season. In their season opener, the Hoyas (1-3) faced the George Washington Colonials (3-2). Junior pitcher Katie Vannicola started on the mound for the Blue & Gray, recording four strikeouts, eight hits and two earned runs in six and 2/3 innings pitched on the day. Vannicola was relieved in the seventh inning by sophomore pitcher London Diller, who closed out the game and allowed only one hit. The game remained scoreless for the first three innings, but broke open in the fourth and fifth innings, with Georgetown recording one run in the fourth and four in the fifth inning. Sophomore infielder Savannah Jones tripled to lead off in the fourth and was driven in by freshman infielder Mae Forshey on a groundout to the shortstop to put the Hoyas on the board. In the fifth inning, a string of hits and fielding errors by George Washington led to four more runs. The Hoyas would score two more runs in the seventh, defeating the Colonials 7-2. The Blue & Gray played a doubleheader on Saturday, first facing Furman University (2-3) and then GardnerWebb University (3-1). In the Furman game, Diller took the mound for the Hoyas, pitching for one inning and allowing three hits
and four earned runs. Vannicola relieved Diller in the second inning, pitching for the remaining six innings and allowing one earned and three unearned runs on six hits. The Hoyas opened the game with a double to right-field by junior outfielder Alexa Dolby followed by an RBI single from Forshey. Holiday contributed a double of her own, driving in Forshey and giving the Hoyas a 2-0 lead. The Paladins answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning, stringing together several hits and walks. The Hoyas were kept scoreless in the top of the second while the Paladins earned another two runs off of a home run, a double and a fielding error. Georgetown led an offensive comeback in the fourth inning, tallying three more runs through a sequence of hits by freshman pitcher Cassie Henning, freshman infielder KiKi Besnard and sophomore infielder NeNe Campos to tie the game at five. Furman answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Georgetown again tied the game at six in the top of the fifth. The game remained tied through the sixth and seventh, prompting extra innings. After failing to score in the top of the inning, the Hoyas conceded a run to the Paladins on an error in the bottom of the eighth, ending the game as an 7-6 loss. Later in the day, Georgetown faced Gardner-Webb, losing by a score of 2-10. Henning pitched four innings and allowed one unearned and six earned runs off of nine hits. Junior pitcher Casey Kozak relieved Henning in the fifth inning, giving up three hits and three earned runs before the game ended by mercy rule in the sixth. The Blue & Gray earned one run in the fourth off of
a double by Holiday, a single by senior first baseman Sarah Bennett, and an RBI single by Besnard. A leadoff single by Jones in the fifth and an RBI double by Holiday recorded another run for Georgetown. Despite the win over George Washington on Friday, the Hoyas fell to the Colonials in their rematch on Sunday by a score of 11-2. Diller started the game for Georgetown, pitching five innings and allowing all 11 earned runs. From the beginning of the game, the Hoyas faced offensive pressure from the Colonials. In the first inning, Diller gave up a single to senior infielder Marta Fuentes of George Washington, who would steal second and third before scoring on a foul out. Georgetown’s D.C. rival scored four more runs in the second, two in the fourth and four in the fifth. Diller conceded 11 hits on the day, four of which were doubles and one home run. The Hoyas scored both of their runs in the third inning, with Forshey hitting an RBI double and junior first baseman Noelle Holiday recording an RBI single. The game concluded after the fifth inning in accordance with the collegiate mercy rule, which mandates any game with a lead margin of eight runs or more must end after five innings of play. Jones was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll following the tournament. Jones emerged from the weekend with a team-best .846 slugging percentage and secondbest .385 batting average, along with three runs, five hits, four RBIs, three triples and one stolen base. The Hoyas will play again in Las Vegas on in the 10team, three-day Boyd Gaming Rebel Classic. They will first face Seattle University at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15 at Stephanie Lynn Park.
SIDNEY LEE
Hoya Staff Writer
The Georgetown men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Ames, Iowa, and Boston on Saturday for the Iowa State Classic hosted by Iowa State University and the Valentine’s Day Invitational hosted by Boston University. The Hoyas ran well in both meets, but it was the distance runners again who proved to be Georgetown’s strength. The Hoyas faced tough competition against the University of Illinois, Northern Arizona University and the University of Kansas among other teams, which all rank in the top 30 for Division 1 track and field. On the women’s side, graduate student Josette Norris finished in the top 10 with a time of 16:02.10 in the 5000-meter run. Junior Paige Hofstad finished five seconds
after to take 11th place. As for the men’s squad, in the 800-meter race, sophomore Ruach Padhal was also able to break through the top 10, finishing in eighth place out of 54 runners. Junior Jack Van Scoter gave an impressive performance in the 3000-meter run, finishing in fifth place with a time of 8:10.48. At the Valentine’s Day Invitational, the Hoyas once again proved the team’s strength lies in its long-distance runners, as members of the Georgetown men’s track team recorded a number of personal bests. Senior Spencer Brown came close to cracking the top 10 in the 1-mile run, putting up a personal best sub-four time of 3:59.97 and ultimately placing 12th. Classmate and teammate Nick Wareham as well as junior Jack Salisbury also ran personal bests in the 1-mile,
with times of 4:01.6 minutes and 4:03.19 minutes respectively. The spring season is now underway for the Hoyas. Throughout the year they have proven to be one of the best teams in the Big East. Led by their dominant longdistance team, both Georgetown’s men’s and women’s teams recorded great performances the last two weeks in the Penn State Invitational and the Villanova Invitational. This weekend, the track and field teams will participate in their last races before the Big East Track and Field Championships, scheduled for Feb. 22 and 23. On Friday, the Hoyas will compete in the JDL Fast Track Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C. The following day the team will be traveling to South Bend, Ind., for the Alex Wilson Invitational.
GUHOYAS
Junior Jack Van Scoter ran hard down the final stretch at the Iowa State Classic on Feb. 8. Van Scoter was also honored this week with academic honors from the U.S. Coaches Association.
WOMEN'S LACROSSE
TENNIS
No. 22 Hoyas Open 2019 Underclassmen Come Through With Victory Over St. Joe’s For Men’s and Women’s Tennis BEN GAVER
Hoya Staff Writer
The Georgetown University women’s lacrosse team touched the field for the first time last Saturday in a matchup against the St. Joseph’s University Hawks in Philadelphia. After a tough loss to Virginia Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season, the Hoyas, who are ranked No. 22 in the country heading into the 2019 season, started off on the right foot with a 12-9 road win. The Hoyas got off to a slow start with the Hawks scoring two straight goals to begin the first half. However, the Blue and Gray received help from their underclassmen to cut the deficit. Freshman attack Ali Diamond and freshman midfielder Katie Crager scored two goals within a minute of each other to even up the score. After the Hawks answered with two more goals, the vet-
eran leadership of the team stepped up. Senior midfielder Francesca Whitehurst scored on a free position shot, senior attack Taylor Gebhardt scored with 7:23 left in the opening half, and senior attack Morgan Ryan capped off the half with two goals of her own to put Georgetown up 6-5 at the end of the first. After a St. Joe’s goal to begin the second half, the Hoyas took control by rattling off five straight scores. When the Hawks scored to cut the deficit to four, again Georgetown came back with a goal from Ryan to maintain the five-goal lead with just 4:01 left on the clock. The margin proved large enough for the Hoyas to fend off the Hawks, and the Blue and Gray cruised through the final few minutes to a fairly comfortable 12-9 victory. Head Coach Ricky Fried was pleased with his team’s performance. “I am proud of how we
competed and grew through the game and I am excited to watch this team continue to grow throughout the season,” Fried said. The senior leadership of the team stepped up in Georgetown’s seasonal debut with Whitehurst, Gebhardt and Ryan all finishing with hat tricks. Senior goalkeeper Haelle Chomo also played well, standing tall in net with eight saves. Despite turning the ball over two more times and acquiring two fewer ground balls in comparison to the Hawks, the Hoyas managed to outshoot their opponent 33-17 and secure 12-22 draw controls. Georgetown also drew 10 more free position shots than St. Joseph’s and converted on half of them. The women’s lacrosse team will attempt to build on their opening game success return as they prepare to make their home debut against the Towson Tigers on Cooper Field at 3 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 16.
FILE PHOTO: AMANDA VAN ORDEN/THE HOYA
Junior defenseman Coulby Riehl clears the ball for the Hoyas. Riehl started 11 games for Georgetown last season as a sophomore, causing nine turnovers and earning Big East all-academic honors.
JAKE WEXELBLATT Hoya Staff Writer
Last weekend, the Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams hit the courts. Men’s tennis edged out two quality opponents, while the women’s team lost a difficult conference battle. The two wins for the men were the team’s first and second of the season and were crucial victories to right the ship for the Hoyas as they head into more conference play. The winning matches were held in College Park, Md. over the weekend: On Friday, Feb. 8, the men’s team defeated its local rival George Washington University; they followed up their first victory of the season with another win over Xavier on Feb. 10. The Hoya women were blanked 0-4 by Xavier on Feb. 10. In the GWU (2-1, 1-0 A10) match, Georgetown’s (2-3, 1-2 Big East) early win of the doubles point to start off the afternoon ultimately proved to be the deciding factor, as the Hoyas split the six singles matches. The Georgetown sophomore tag team of Rohan Kamdar and Connor Lee pulled away over their competition in an incredibly tight match by a score of 7-5. Georgetown’s other doubles victory came from senior Michael Chen and sophomore Charlie Sharton who dominated from start to finish en route to a 6-1 victory. Afterwards, in singles play, Lee and Chen continued their winning streak as each won a decisive two-set match. Sophomore Luke Ross also secured a key win during singles play, as he eked out a 6-4, 7-6 victory. Despite not getting any other wins, Georgetown received strong performances from Kamdar, who made each set close, and freshman Andrew Rozanov, who lost the third set despite dominating 6-1 in the second. On Sunday, Georgetown
had similar success against Xavier (1-5, 0-2), as Kamdar and Lee had another decisive doubles victory, and Rozanov and senior Will Sharton clinched the doubles point. The Hoyas’ singles victories came from Kamdar in a tightly contested three-set battle; Rozanov, who won a tiebreak in the first set before closing the match with a clean second; and Ross, who bounced back admirably from losing the first set to win the next two in convincing fashion. The Hoyas finished with a 4-3 win. These two wins helped Georgetown start 2-0 at home and rectify their season. They will look to get back to .500 against Longwood University on Feb. 14 at Yates Field House. Later on Sunday, the Hoya women also took on the Xavier Musketeers. They, however, were not as successful, falling in a decisive 4-0 match. Xavier took the doubles point, as the tag teams of sophomore Sofie Moenster and freshman Elena de Santis, as well as junior Anna Short and senior Cecilia Lynham lost. This left the match involving senior duo Risa Nakagawa and Sydney Goodson useless for determining the Hoyas’ fate.
While the final scores would not indicate as such, the singles matches showed more positive signs for the Hoyas. Moenster, Short and Lynham lost too early for the outcomes to be determined in the remaining matches because the earlier Hoya losses made it impossible for the team to win. However, those three matches involved some strong performances for the Hoyas. When the matches were cut off, Goodson was locked in a 6-6 duel in her first set, while de Santis and Nakagawa were each in close starts of their second sets after getting strong 6-3 and 6-4 victories respectively in the first sets. Led mainly by a strong crop of underclassmen, the women’s team has struggled thus far this season. With the exception of this loss to Xavier, however, the team has shown promise even in defeat during conference play. They beat Butler 5-2 on Jan. 25 and lost 4-3 to DePaul on Jan. 26. The Georgetown women are also on campus Thursday, Feb. 14 to host Longwood University before traveling alongside the men to James Madison University over the weekend.
ROCHELLE VAYNTRUB FOR THE HOYA
Senior Risa Nakagawa dominated in her singles and doubles matches and helped the Hoyas cruise past Longwood on Feb. 14.
SPORTS
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
THE HOYA
A11
MEN’S LACROSSE
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Bucaro, Carraway Deliver Home Win SHU, from A12
saves in his first career win. Freshman defenseman Alex Mazzone secured his first career start, while freshman midfielder Declan McDermott and freshman attack Dylan Watson both posted their first career goals. After the game, Warne was clear on the important role these newer contributors will play this season. “We need that from them,” Warne said. The game got off to a slow start. Sacred Heart opened the scoring just two minutes into the game, and it was another five minutes until Bucaro scored the equalizer. Soon after, Sacred Heart responded with two goals of their own. The home team had its fair share of posses-
sions, but sloppy stickwork prevented them from capitalizing on them. However, with less than a minute left in the half, Bucaro drew a double team and found Watson on the doorstep. The freshman turned and put the ball in the back of the net for the first time in his college career, bringing Georgetown within one goal at the end of the first quarter. After the Pioneers threw the ball away on their first possession of the second quarter, the Hoyas were able to tie the game up once again on a Carraway score. Georgetown then took its first lead with just under seven minutes left, but a slashing penalty on the team just a
few minutes later gave the Sacred Heart a man advantage, which they capitalized on to tie the game once again. The Hoyas fired back with a goal from Clark, making the score 5-4 in favor of the home team. A strong defensive stand just before the half preserved the Georgetown lead entering into the break. However, this lead did not last very long. Just two minutes into the third quarter, Sacred Heart took the ball on offense after a bad Georgetown turnover and tied it up again. Although they couldn’t convert in a man advantage situation, Georgetown took the lead again on a Carraway goal, following it with two more from Clark and McDer-
mott to make the score 8-5. Georgetown found the back of the net twice in the quarter’s last 90 seconds to make the score 10-6 after the third. The teams went back and forth in the final quarter, with each team rebutting an opponent score with one of their own. Sacred Heart struck first, and they scored four times in the frame, but Georgetown’s consistent responses meant that they never brought the game within three goals. The game would end as a 13-10 Georgetown victory. The Hoyas will look to add another one to the win column on Saturday, Feb. 16, when they face off against Robert Morris University at Cooper Field.
DERRICK ARTHUR-CUDJOE/THE HOYA
Junior guard Jagan Mosely brings up the ball and calls out the offense for Georgetown in a Big East matchup against Butler on Feb. 9.
Hoyas’ Late Push Falls Short in Road Loss to Seton Hall Even the team’s strong spots were not enough on Wednesday; despite the fact that the Hoyas are the top rebounding team in the conference, they were outrebounded by the Pirates 38-30. Looking ahead, Georgetown must win four of its final six games in the Big East to get back to .500 play in the conference. By getting back to .500 in the Big East, Georgetown hopes to avoid the play-in game of the Big East tournament in March. The Hoyas will have a week to rest before their next test — a home battle against the No. 13 Villanova Wildcats. Villanova defeated Georgetown 77-65 back in Philadelphia on Feb. 3. While Georgetown has posted a Big East high of 81.3 points per game on offense this season, Villanova leads the league on the defensive end, limiting opponents to 66.6 points per game. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1 starting at 6:30 p.m., and it can be heard locally on The Team 980 FM.
SETON HALL, from A12
half by shooting 52 percent, the Hoyas struggled to stop Seton Hall junior guard and leading scorer Myles Powell, who dropped 30 points on the night. After Malinowski’s threepointers, Powell responded with six straight points to extend the lead to 19 points again. With just under seven minutes remaining, Georgetown cut the deficit to 11 points after sophomore guard Jamorko Pickett’s three-pointer. However, this was the closest the Hoyas could get as they missed nine of their last 11 shots, and the Pirates ended the game on a 9-4 run to seal the 15-point victory. The 90 points Georgetown gave up in its defeat is the most allowed by the team in regulation this season. The Blue and Gray’s struggles to stop opponents on defense have been a trend throughout the season: Georgetown sits last in the Big East in points allowed with 77.9 points per game.
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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Inconsistency Plagues GU in Big East Losses WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, from A12
free throws knotted the game at 44 with just a quarter to play. To start the fourth frame, Marquette created some breathing room by burying back-to-back triples. Following a quick Georgetown timeout, senior guard Dionna White hit a three to cut the deficit in half. However, the Golden Eagles responded with five quick points, and grew their lead to a number that proved insurmountable for the Hoyas. After a hard fought battle, Marquette walked away with a 59-52 victory, preserving their perfect conference record. For Georgetown, Adomako led the way with 17 points, some of these came during the game’s most crucial moments. Reinforcements were provided by White, who contributed 10 points of her own, and by Kovacikova, who posted 13 points in her 20 minutes of action. In a postgame interview with GUHoyas, Head Coach James Howard acknowledged how difficult the game was, but appeared more focused on the remaining challenges that lie ahead on the schedule.
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“It was a tough game, we just went out there and we tried to play our way but in the end we just couldn’t finish. How we get back from this is the biggest thing,” Howard said. The Hoyas traveled to Chicago just two days later to square off with the DePaul Blue Demons. The team was able to find the offense that had eluded them against Marquette, but could not keep the Blue Demons (17-7, 8-4 Big East) in check, losing 76-71. Unlike the Marquette game, from the outset, it appeared as though the offensive performances of both teams would take center stage. Following threes by both teams, DePaul held a 14-13 lead halfway through the first. The Hoyas received buckets from a number of players during the first quarter, as Adomako, graduate student guard Mikayla Venson, junior forward Anita Kelava, junior guard Morgan Smith and sophomore forward Tatiana Thompson all chipped to give the Hoyas the 26-19 advantage at the break. In the second quarter, the Hoyas fell into a bit of an offensive slump, while the Blue De-
mons began to heat up. Georgetown scored just nine points in the quarter, compared to DePaul’s 19, and walked into the locker room down 38-35. White carried the team during the fourth quarter, as she accounted for a 7-2 run that cut the deficit to 65-62. While the remaining minutes dwindled, senior guard Brianna Jones nailed a clutch baseline jumper after she secured a rebound to tie the game at 67. After a DePaul bucket moments later, Adomako tied the game again after she finished in the lane with only a minute left. However another open DePaul player knocked down a jumped to give them a 71-69 lead. Leading the Hoyas back down the floor, Venson was fouled and sent to the line with the chance to tie it again with 29.5 seconds to go. She did just that by hitting both free throws. DePaul recaptured the lead on their next possession with a pair of free throws. Georgetown attempted to go for the knockout on the final possession with a three, but the shot fell short, and the Hoyas ultimately fell 76-71.
This game certainly featured a balance offensive performance for Georgetown, as Adomako posted 15 points, Smith tallied 10 and Venson added nine. White aided the effort as well, as she contributed a team high of 16 points. However, White’s accomplishments from this game do not end there, as she passed current WNBA All-Star Sugar Rodgers (COL ’13) as the school’s alltime leader in steals with 328. Howard expressed his approval with his team’s play even in a loss, and noted that this type of performance will be required down the stretch. “I’m so proud of the effort today, they really represented Georgetown well this weekend. It’s hard to play good teams at home, but our kids gave themselves a chance. It came down to the little things, but if we play this way over the next five games we’ll put ourselves in a great position going into the postseason. If we play this well down the stretch, we’re a tough team to beat,” he said. Women’s basketball’s next opponent comes Feb. 16th as they travel to Villanova, Pa., to take on rival Villanova.
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONING
The Evolution of the NBA Big Man GILLIGAN, from A12
Last issue’s solutions
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KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA
Junior goalie Jack Stephenson warms up before Georgetown’s scrimmage against UMBC on Feb. 2. Stephenson appeared in four games as a sophomore. He finished last year with a .5 save percentage and earned Big East all-academic honors.
players on his team. Nowitzki’s prowess was most fully recognized when he found his largest audience. In the 2011 NBA postseason, Dallas had Dirk, the team’s only all-star, and several role players. Led by Nowitzki, the Mavericks breezed through the western conference and matched up against the Miami Heat who were in the first year of their “Big Three” reign with Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all in their primes. The Heat tried guarding him with everything they had, but Dirk’s diverse skill-set was too much to handle. The Mavericks overpowered the Heat in a six-game series; Dirk won Finals MVP. After this performance, other big men realized that they needed to mimic his play-style if they were going to contend in the NBA, and NBA general managers began to
seek players who replicated this play style. Since then, the NBA has seen the introduction of players like Kristaps Porzingis of the New York Knicks, Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, DeMarcus Cousins of the Golden State Warriors and Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves. These players have taken the league by storm with their incredible skill set and Dirklike qualities. Just like Nowitzki, these big men can shoot the three, blow by defenders with their speed and have handles that rival many point guards. Towns’ three point percentage this season is 39 percent, while the point guard of his own team, Jeff Teague, shoots 36 percent from downtown. Similarly, Porzingis averages 36 percent from beyond the arc, while New York point guard Dennis Smith Jr. shoots 32 percent. This new crop of big men has proved that the traditional big man is slowly becoming a thing
of the past. Although there are still talented traditional big men in the league such as Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons and Hassan Whiteside of the Miami Heat, we are even seeing that these players are forced to work more on their skills in order to contend with the stretch fives of the league.
Just like Nowitzki, these big men can shoot the three, blow by defenders with their speed and have handles that rival many point guards. SHANE GILLIGAN
In 2017, Porzingis won the NBA Skills Challenge during All-Star Weekend. This is a con-
test of dribbling, passing and shooting all at a fast pace. Previously, only guards and small forwards had even competed in this event. For a 7’3” center to win the contest would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Overall, Dirk Nowitzki undoubtedly revolutionized the game of basketball. Never before had the NBA seen a big man possess such talent as he did. Nowitzki certainly set the precedent for other centers in the NBA to work on their touch and acquire the skills that he had. Dirk is a pioneer for what he gave to the game of basketball, and we are seeing his influence today more than ever. Rather than young big men pretending to be Hakeem Olajuwon and mimic his trademark “dream shake” on the playground, we are now seeing these kids shooting a onelegged fade-away, yelling out “Dirk!”
Sports
Men’s Basketball Georgetown (15-10) vs.Villanova (20-5) Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6:30 p.m. Capital One Arena
FRIDAY, FEBR UARY 15, 2019
Sophomores Rohan Kamdar and Connor Lee powered the Hoyas to their first two wins of the season in key doubles matches.
See A10
MEN’S BASKETBALL
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GU Surrenders 90 In Conference Loss MATT SACHS
Hoya Staff Writer
Coming off another lastminute loss at home, the Georgetown men’s basketball team had little luck stopping Seton Hall Wednesday night, losing 90-75. Senior center Jessie Govan led the Hoyas (15-10, 5-7 Big East) with 20 points and six rebounds. Playing a key role off the bench, senior guard Greg Malinowski recorded 16 points, four rebounds and four assists. The Pirates (15-9, 6-6 Big East), now winners of three of their last four games, jumped out to an early double-digit lead against the Hoyas. They took advantage of a 12-0 run in the beginning of the first half to take an 18-7 lead over the Hoyas.
Georgetown struggled with eight first-half turnovers and shot only 2 of 9 from the three-point range, helping Seton Hall extend its lead to 20 points with 3:12 remaining. The Hoyas fought back, ending the first half with a 7-0 run and providing hope for another close ending. However, the Pirates responded strong after the break, going on a 15-5 run over the next four minutes to take a 63-42 lead. Trailing by 19 points with 13:20 left to play, Malinowski provided a spark with backto-back three-pointers, cutting the deficit to 13 with 12:11 to go. While Georgetown nearly matched the Pirates’ 55 percent shooting in the second See SETON HALL, A11
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The number of steals Dionna White totalled Sunday to break GU’s record of career steals.
MEN’S LACROSSE
GU Dominates SHU 13-10 in 2019 Opener Hoya Staff Writer
DERRICK ARTHUR-CUDJOE/THE HOYA
I’m excited to watch this team continue to grow throughout the season.
Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach Ricky Fried
HENRY MIHM
Freshman guard Mac McClung, left, dribbles past two Bulldog defenders. McClung finished with 21 points in the home loss.
NUMBERS GAME
TALKING POINTS
TENNIS
The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team, ranked No. 18 in the nation, began its season strong with a 13-10 victory over Sacred Heart on Saturday. With the win, the Hoyas came out on top in their second-straight nonconference season opener. Though the win didn’t come easy, Head Coach Kevin Warne anticipated unpredictable play to start off the season. “It’s the first game of the season,” Warne said, “so not everything’s going to be perfect.” However, Warne is certainly looking to improve going forward. “I just want the guys to play a bit better. I think we did, in spurts,” he said, “but we’ve got a lot to work on.” Leading Georgetown’s (10) offense were senior attack Daniel Bucaro and junior attack Jake Carraway. Sacred Heart’s game plan focused on preventing Bucaro from scoring, but the versatile team captain demonstrated deft control of the offense as he put up four assists and a hat trick of goals. Carraway contributed five points of his own, and senior attack Robert Clark posted four points on two goals and two assists. On the defensive end, junior defenseman Stephen Macleod had a standout performance, leaving Sacred Heart junior midfielder Max Tuttle, the 2018 Northeastern Conference Player of the Year, scoreless for the first three quarters. Sophomore defenseman Gibson Smith and
senior defensive midfielder Patrick Aslanian both put up solid performances as well. Smith had three caused turnovers, while Aslanian had
two caused turnovers and five ground balls. Although he was not the only new face that contributed to Saturday’s success,
sophomore goalie Owen McElroy was another defensive leader, who tallied 16 See SHU, A11
KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA
Junior attack Justin Meichner, left, beats his defender in a preseason scrimmage against UMBC. Georgetown went on to win its first game of the year against Sacred Heart University.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONING
GU Drops 2 Big East Road Tests BRENDAN DOLAN Hoya Staff Writer
After two pivotal wins at home propelled the Georgetown women’s basketball team back to .500, the Hoyas were faced with the challenge of playing the conference’s two best teams, No. 8 Marquette on Feb. 8 and unranked DePaul on Feb. 10. While both games were tightly contested, the Hoyas went 0-2 during this tough weekend road trip and now
stand at seventh place in the Big East. The Hoyas (11-13, 5-8 Big East) managed to keep the high-powered Marquette (213, 12-0 Big East) offense to under 60 points for the first time since November, but were not able to capitalize offensively and fell 59-52. The Marquette game was a defensive battle from the beginning. Midway through the first quarter, Marquette led just 6-2. As the quarter began to wind down, the Hoyas found
themselves in a nine-point hole and in desperate need of a run. Georgetown answered by ending the quarter with an 11-0 run, giving them a 13-11 advantage at the first break. In the second period, both teams failed to create separation, and the game entered the half with Marquette in front 27-23. While the Hoyas shot just 33 percent from the field during the first half, the play of freshman guard Nikola Kovacikova certainly stood out. Kovacikova tallied 11
points, including nine from behind the arc and a buzzer beater at the end of the first quarter to give Georgetown the lead. The story stayed the same throughout the third quarter. Graduate student guard Dorothy Adomako’s hit several tough layups in traffic that helped keep her team in it. One of her layups momentarily gave the Hoyas the lead, but a pair of Golden Eagle See WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, A11
KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA
Graduate student guard Dorothy Adomako, right, drives the lane in a home game against conference rival Villanova. Adomako had 15 points, six rebounds and two assists in her last game, a road loss to DePaul. She is averaging 16 points per game this season. Visit us online at thehoya.com/category/sports
Shane Gilligan
Led by Nowitzki, NBA Teams Seek The ‘Stretch 5’ Basketball has gone through various changes over the years. The game that was played as recently as 20 years ago is already far different from today’s style. One of the main changes that has been made can be seen in the center position. The center position has been historically characterized by players who are tough defenders in the paint, scorers in the low post and a physical presence on both sides of the court. These players were not expected to be as agile or skilled as the other positions on the court. However, in the past 20 years, the NBA has seen the introduction of big men who can shoot, dribble and use their agility to get by defenders. Although big men in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon, were creative and nimble around the rim, they lacked the three-point shooting ability and gift of beating players with ball handling along. This modern big man was defined by Dallas Mavericks center Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998 with
the ninth overall pick, then was promptly traded to the Mavericks. Due to his size, ability to drive and shooting ability, Nowitzki was a player unlike anything the NBA had ever seen before. At 7 feet tall, Dirk’s deadly three-point shooting is nearly as surprising as his gift for beating players off the dribble. Other big men found Nowitzki impossible to defend. He would get the ball at the top of the three-point arc and force the big men guarding him to come out that far to defend him so he would not score a three. However, these traditional big men were not nearly as agile as he was; as soon as they stepped out to defend him, Nowitzki would drive past them with ease and finish comfortably at the rim. Then if the players would not come out to guard him, he would punish the other team from the threepoint line. Dirk was the definition of a “stretch five.” In other words, Dirk was a center who would stretch the court out and create space for the other four See GILLIGAN, A11