The Hoya: December 7, 2018

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 100, No. 14, © 2018

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

A Change of Art

Check out Georgetown’s visual arts, the result of a long-developing culture.

EDITORIAL Georgetown must include women in leadership positions across the university.

DCPS NAMES NEW CHANCELLOR A new DCPS chancellor was named,, ending a six-month search process.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A7

Facilities Employees Reveal Title IX Proposal, GU Policies Institutional Challenges Face Student Criticism in Sessions MEENA MORAR Hoya Staff Writer

The smooth operations of Georgetown University’s maintenance rely on employees of the Office of Planning and Facilities Management to respond to work requests. Yet, several of these work-

ers feel overworked, underpaid and unprotected against mistreatment by their management team. Under a new trade-based work delegation, facilities workers have faced a large number of work requests and insufficient institutional support for addressing work-related grievances, as two

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Facilities workers feel mistreated by Georgetown and unsupported by their union after structural changes to the work-assignment system.

anonymous employees, referred to by the pseudonyms Leo and Sam, said in interviews with The Hoya.

A SHIFT IN STRATEGY

From 2014 to 2017, Facilities shifted delegation of work requests from a zone-based to a trade-based structure, according to former interim Vice President of Planning and Facilities Management Greg Simmons. Under the zone-based system, workers were responsible for maintenance tasks in specific buildings, while the trade-based structure allocates duties based on workers’ skill specialization. During this transition, Robin Morey served as the Vice President of Planning and Facilities Management. Morey left in July 2018, and Simmons filled the role until Benjamin Kuo took office Dec. 1. As Facilities transitioned to trade-based delegation, however, workers felt a significant shift in their roles without preparation or support. For example, the trade-based structure placed Sam — a general building maintenance worker before the switch — in the plumbing skill shop, without the training or wage increase associated with skill specialization. A skill shop is a department within Facilities that includes workers to reflect their area of expertise. “As a building maintenance worker, you’re not allowed to be in a skilled shop,” Sam said. “You See FACILITIES, A6

SANA RAHMAN Hoya Staff Writer

Students criticized Georgetown University’s current response to sexual assault and the upcoming changes to Title IX regulations that could lessen the university’s legal obligation to combat assault during campus feedback sessions Monday and Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education is holding a 60-day public comment period after its Nov. 16 release of a series of recommendations that would bolster protections for students accused of sexual assault in a number of ways, including by raising the standard of certainty needed to sanction accused students. Georgetown chose to host a series of feedback sessions to gather student input on how they hope the university will respond to the proposed regulations, according to Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity Rosemary Kilkenny (LAW ’87), a coordinator for the events. The Education Department’s proposed allowance for cross-examination of the survivor by the accused student’s adviser was a major concern of students present at the first session, according to data collected from the event’s RSVP form. Students questioned whether Georgetown would provide

GUSA Exec to Prioritize Transparency MADELINE CHARBONNEAU Hoya Staff Writer

Transparency, student health and advocacy are key focuses of the Georgetown University Student Association executive, according to President Juan Martinez (SFS ’20) and Vice President Kenna Chick (SFS ’20). Martinez and Chick took office this fall after the resignations of former President Sahil Nair (SFS ’19), Vice President Naba Rahman (SFS ’19), Chief of Staff Aaron Bennett (COL ’19) and nine other members of the GUSA executive. Nair resigned Sept. 11 amid sexual misconduct allegations. Martinez, who was transition chair of the GUSA senate at the time of the resignations, became president Sept. 16 in accordance with GUSA bylaws. Martinez nominated Chick to be vice president Oct. 1, and she took office Oct. 2. The pair is emphasizing transparency among GUSA, the university and the student body, according to Martinez. Martinez and Chick, along with GUSA’s department of student engagement, are holding weekly office hours in an effort to build this transparency. The pair also plans to hold monthly state of the campus addresses, in addition to the annual February address, the two said. Martinez and Chick have also begun working with efforts with university Chief

FEATURED

Operating Officer Geoffrey Chatas (CAS ’85) to improve communication between the university and students, according to Chick. “For transparency, specifically, we just honestly wanted to rebuild GUSA from the ground up,” Chick said. “A lot of the different changes we made within our cabinet was reflective of that, but we also wanted to reach out to different groups. We wanted to make sure that GUSA itself was being transparent and also reflective of the student body.”

“GUSA is not very representative of a lot of intersectional identities usually, and so I want to make sure that they’re being recognized.” JUAN MARTINEZ (SFS ’20) President, GUSA

GUSA also plans to build a new website in January to improve student access to information about the organization, according to Martinez. “In the past, we’ve had a website that’s just extremely inaccessible,” Martinez said. “It’s very ugly — that’s some-

thing we want to work on: a new website in January, to make sure that people know that there are status updates on different projects.” The organization’s current website was hacked on Sept. 7, four days before the resignations. The landing page title was changed to a gray screen reading, “Has the President resigned?” referencing Nair. Though the page was changed shortly after to read “Georgetown University Student Association,” the photos previously on the page were not returned. Martinez and Chick did not regain access to the website until Nov. 16, according to Martinez. The hacker had set up a two-factor authentication system that required a code sent to the hacker’s phone, preventing others from accessing the website’s editing platform, Martinez said. Martinez and Chick are committed not only to transparency, but also to improving support systems available to students, including resources available to survivors of sexual assault from on-campus student groups Martinez and Chick are also working to rewrite language in blueprint training, a program for student club leaders on handling survivor support and sexual misconduct reporting, according to Chick. “We expect people to intuitively be able to handle these

issues and say the right things, but unfortunately that’s not the case most of the times,” Chick said. “A lot of students may find it very difficult to be on the receiving end of the information and not be able to provide the correct resources to the survivors.” The executive’s push comes amid widespread student criticism over the university’s lack of a permanent Title IX coordinator and as the university is holding listening sessions to hear student input on the Department of Education’s proposed Title IX regulation changes, which could limit supportive measures available to survivors through the university. The GUSA executive members also plan to encourage the university to hire a student well-being coordinator, who would analyze the causes of stress culture and work to implement solutions to mitigate the issue, according to Chick. The executive members also hope to represent the full student body and recognize student advocacy outside of GUSA, according to Martinez. “GUSA is not very representative of a lot of intersectional identities usually, and so I want to make sure that they’re being recognized but also that they have some sort of access to institutional support on behalf of GUSA,” Martinez said. “I think that’s our biggest purpose here.”

legal counsel to all parties involved, as those of lower socioeconomic backgrounds could be unfairly affected. If the university does not provide counsel for all students, students who cannot hire a lawyer will have their capacities to advocate for themselves limited, according to Georgetown University Student Association senator Dylan Hughes (COL ’19). “You will see that classist implication of some students hiring lawyers under the name of advisers, and others not being able to,” Hughes said said at the Monday feedback session. In the second session, students focused on the provision that provides a formal definition of sexual harassment. The definition requires that unwelcome conduct be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” to be perceived as sexual harassment. The additional requirement of all three qualifications for behavior to be considered sexual harassment makes it harder for survivors to provide proof, according to Students Taking Action Against Interpersonal Violence member Kory Stuer (COL ’19). “The change to the ‘and’ is a very significant change,” Stuer said at the Thursday feedback session. “Particularly in the last few years where we have seen movements like #MeToo and the emergence of ‘Times

Up,’ I personally feel that it is incredibly important that we are not going backwards in the context of these movements.” Catherine Guttman-McCabe, a partner at Potomac Law Group who was involved in formulating Georgetown’s current policies on sexual misconduct, facilitated the feedback session, which also included Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson. The student feedback will help the university formulate its draft comments on the proposals, according to Olson. The coordinators, who include Olson, Kilkenny and GuttmanMcCabe, will make the comments public to the student body in January before making their official submission. Georgetown administrators have sought to use these sessions to listen to the student body’s concerns before taking action, according to Olson. “We know it is our responsibility to get to a point where the university has a clear position on these issues,” Olson said. “We believed it was not appropriate to start with that, but rather we believed it was appropriate to start with listening.” Students present at the first session were disappointed with the level of the university’s engagement in See TITLE IX, A6

MOURNING PRESIDENT H.W. BUSH

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

President George H. W. Bush, who died Nov. 30, was given a state funeral in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5. Story on A5.

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

Women in Iran Leading Iranian activists discussed reforming policies toward women in the Middle East in a Dec. 5 panel. A5

The Illusion of Brexit Despite unrealistic dreams painted by proponents of leaving the EU, Brexit negotiations satisfy no one. A3

A Win at Home The Georgetown men’s basketball team defeated Liberty University 88-78 at Capital One Arena on Monday. A12

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

HoyaTHON Breaks Records Georgetown’s dance marathon raised over $41,000 for D.C.’s Children’s National Hospital on Dec. 1. A5

Include Nontheistic Dialogue Georgetown must listen to religiously unaffiliated students to further interreligious dialogue. A3

Final Four Heartbreak The women’s soccer team fell 1-0 to UNC in double overtime Nov. 30, ending a historically successful season. A12

Published Fridays

Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

THE VERDICT

C

Sticky Situation — On Tuesday, emergency crews in Illinois responded to an 11-year-old who got his tongue stuck to a frozen pole. After watching a “A Christmas Story,” he decided to touch his tongue to the pole because he did not expect it to stick.

Seek Women for GU Leadership C

New Year, Same Me — In a meeting on Sunday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari denied allegations that he had been replaced with a clone after undergoing a lengthy medical treatment. In the meeting, he assured the public, “I’m still going strong!”

EDITORIALS

In 1969, Georgetown University finally admitted female students into the college. Nearly 50 years later, the institution’s predominantly male leadership fails to include female perspectives. Since becoming fully coeducational, Georgetown’s female student population has increased, even surpassing the number of male students in recent years, with a gender ratio of 56 to 44. To better represent the diverse perspectives of women, the university should actively seek women for senior leadership roles. Women are increasingly rising to positions of academic leadership. In 1986, only 10 percent of college presidents in America were women; by 2016, that number had risen to 30 percent. Despite the increase in the numbers of women in political and academic leadership, Georgetown’s senior leadership is mostly composed of men, stifling female perspectives. At Georgetown, only three of 14 university vice president and C-suite positions are currently held by women: Rosemary Kilkenny, Claudia Stewart and Lisa Brown. Moreover, the university’s board of directors, which is composed of 39 members, has just 10 women. Within the university’s academic leadership, only two of 12 schools have female deans — Patricia Cloonan of the School of Nursing and Health Studies and Kelly Otter of the School of Continuing Studies. A senior leadership deficient in female representation lacks the different perspectives, strengths and experiences that women contribute. Such an imbalanced leadership swamps the voices of women and hinders their ability to effect equitable change on campus. Women of color face even more disproportionate representation within Georgetown’s leadership. Of the 15 women in senior leadership positions mentioned, only two are women of color. With few female leaders, Georgetown normalizes male-dominated leadership. A board of directors with 29 women and only 10 men would be shocking. Likewise, gender imbalance in senior leadership does the community a disservice. To include women’s diverse perspectives and take steps toward gender equity, Georgetown should hire more women to balance the gender dynamic in its leadership positions. Actively seeking to increasing the institution’s female representation could also counter discrimination that women encounter in applying for leadership posi-

tions. With a status quo of male-dominated leadership, women are burdened with proving that they deserve to be included in certain conversations and positions. Moreover, having women in leadership would empower female students at Georgetown. Studies have found that increased female representation contributes to policies that break barriers for women. Georgetown’s historic Jesuit leadership and identity does not excuse the lack of female leadership. Since 2001, the university has been led by lay University President John J. DeGioia. The majority of senior leadership positions are also currently held by non-Jesuits. In fact, the university’s Jesuit identity underscores the value of varying perspectives and identities; these values of inclusivity should apply at the senior level as well. Seeking to recruit more women would not mean ignoring skills and focusing solely on the applicant’s gender. Georgetown should still hire the most qualified applicant but make efforts to include the varying perspectives and insights of women. Though clearly the university is not purposefully looking to hire men for these upper-level positions, its current senior leadership suggests it is also not taking an active role in hiring women. Taking a passive stance in recruiting women ignores the institutionalized bias that disadvantages women in the hiring process. Female applicants with the same qualifications as their male counterparts are rated worse in the hiring process, according to a Harvard Business Review study. Georgetown must counter this bias by hiring more women in its senior leadership. The same study also found that “if there’s only one woman in your candidate pool, there’s statistically no chance she’ll be hired.” Focusing efforts at hiring women would increase the number of female applicants and ensure that there are more qualified applicants. To combat an already-biased system, Georgetown should take an active role in recruiting women to senior leadership positions. Not making an effort to recruit women ignores the disadvantages that they face in the process and further normalizes male-dominated leadership. To reflect the diversity of perspectives present on campus, Georgetown’s senior leadership must increase female representation.

C

Founded January 14, 1920

69 Going on 50 — A Dutch court rejected a man’s request to be 20 years younger on Monday, stating that legal age changes would make age limits in rights such as voting meaningless. He plans to appeal this decision by comparing his request to the legal changes of his name and gender.

C

Frozen Freedom — Dane Best, a nine-year-old boy in Colorado, convinced his town’s leadership on Sunday to overturn a centurylong ban on snowball fights. When asked who he would like to hit, Best responded by pointing to his fouryear-old younger brother.

C

Santa’s Surprise — A postman in the United Kingdom dressed up as one of Santa’s elves to collect letters from a rural primary school without mailboxes nearby. The children, who had been worried that Santa would not receive their mail, were “over the moon” at the postman’s surprise visit.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Alexandra Bowman

Adhere to Finals Policy Study days are meant to be an undisturbed time for students to prepare for finals. However, some Georgetown University professors disrupt this time by violating the university’s finals policy. Under the Office of the University Registrar’s current policy, the university designates two to three days after the conclusion of classes as study days. Any final assessments must be due after this period, leaving students with a brief reprieve from handing in assignments. Because of the nature of the policy, professors are largely responsible for enforcing the requirements. Instead, some choose instead to skirt them. However, Georgetown professors must adhere to university policy and assign final assessments or exams only during the final examination period. Registrar guidelines stipulate that professors must assign final assessments and exams only according to the registrar’s schedule for final exams. Still, professors often require final assessments prior to the registrar’s scheduled date, according to Abby Ulman (SFS ’19) and Dylan McCarthy (SFS ’19). “In my women and gender studies class, my final is a 10-to-12 page synthesis paper, but my professor moved the due date up four days to the beginning of finals,” Ulman said in an interview with The Hoya. “I’m stressing out.” Professors assign not only final papers on dates earlier than their designated final exam date, but also sit-down exams. According to the registrar’s guidelines, however, cumulative assessments cannot take place during the last week of classes McCarthy had a cumulative final exam in his “Analytical Tools for Political Economy” class while classes were still in session Dec. 6. In some cases, professors spontaneously decide to change the date of the final, as with Ulman’s final paper. Impulsively changing the final date reduces student time to study and may decrease students’ GPAs. In other instances, professors convey their decision to change the date of the final on their syllabus. Although students are aware of this change at the beginning of the semester, it still marks a violation of the registrar’s policy. Professors are required to submit syllabi to their academic department for review at the beginning

of the semester. For syllabi that blatantly ignore the guidelines, Georgetown should enforce its own policy and require a review of the dates. Unaware of the finals policy, Arienne Thompson, an adjunct professor in the journalism department, scheduled her final project to be due on the first study day this semester. Although the date on her syllabus violated university policy, the department approved her schedule, Thompson said in an interview with The Hoya. It was not until this week that faculty reached out to her about the conflict. But by then, it was too late for Thompson to change the date. Georgetown professors must adhere to the university’s finals policy to reduce — rather than exacerbate — student anxiety in an already-stressful period. Professors often claim they are doing students a favor by violating the policy: By scheduling exams during study days, they are spreading finals out and thus decreasing student stress. When other professors have the same idea, however, students may face several papers and exams during study days, decreasing their time to prepare without academic distractions. Furthermore, professors may also assign papers and exams earlier in order to give themselves more time to grade. Ulman’s professor changed the paper’s due date to the beginning of the finals period because she was worried she would not have enough time to grade them, Ulman said in an interview with The Hoya. Still, if students are expected to abide by academic expectations and schedules set by the registrars, professors should hold themselves to a similar standard; grading is not an excuse for breaking university policy. Professors can claim these excuses; however, changing the finals date still constitutes a blatant violation of university policy. Though some may benefit from this change, this infringement upon study days will ultimately increase student stress and impact students’ GPAs. Georgetown instituted a finals policy to protect students; professors cannot continue to ignore the university’s policy and harm student well-being.

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

Editorial Board

Yumna Naqvi, Chair

Molly Cooke, John Curran, Nabil Kapasi, Erica Lizza, Philip Tsien, Emma Vahey

Karena Landler Amy Li Mason Mandell Yolanda Spura Cady Stanton Allie Babyak Matthew Sachs Sarah Cammarota Suna Cha Maddie Finn Dennese Mae Javier Timothy McNulty Sela Dragich Jonathan Wiersema 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 Barbara McDuffee Isabel Roemer

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 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 Blog Editor Deputy Blog Editor

Contributing Editors

Saavan Chintalacheruvu, Grace Chung, Dean Hampers, Janine Karo, Juliette Leader, Joshua Levy, Christian Paz, Meena Raman, Tara Subramaniam, Mitchell Taylor, Stephanie Yuan

.

HOYA HISTORY: Jan. 26, 1979

Bush Criticizes US Foreign Policy Former envoy to China, Ambassador George Bush, stopped short of declaring his candidacy for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination before a capacity crowd in Gaston Hall yesterday evening. The announcement came during the question-and-answer period following the speech, when Bush was asked point-blank by a student whether he was a candidate. The former Texas congressman replied that he has not made a “super final decision” but added that at present he was “keenly interested in seeking the nomination” and had filed with the Federal Election Commission for a “George Bush for President” committee within the past month. Bush, who had been introduced by Senator John Warner (R-Va.), used most of the preceding 45 minutes to deliver a vitriolic at-

tack on President Carter’s foreign policy — which he called one of “splendid oscillation” — and advance his own ideas on the United States’ role in the world. “One day our government speaks about the growing Soviet menace, and the next day the president says our fear of communism is exaggerated,” the ambassador charged. “One day our fleet is ordered to Iran and the next day they’re ordered to cut figure eights in the South China Sea.” “We are tough one day, soft and mushy the next,” Bush said. “We have the hawks in the National Security Council and the doves in the State Department, and as they fight our tail feathers are scattered around the world. There is no clear sense of what type of world we’re trying to build.” America, Bush declared, should recognize that the Soviet Union is

“our greatest adversary” and that the motivation behind Soviet policy is to achieve world dominance. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is challenging America, Bush alleged, not by overwhelming us in nuclear weaponry but by “breaking the links between the United States and its friends abroad.” A second idea advanced by Bush is that “the responsibility of the United States in world affairs is to be the leader in preserving man’s search for freedom.” The ambassador stressed, however, that U.S. interests abroad should not be made subservient to human rights issues. “I don’t believe we are advancing our goals by publicly kicking around Argentina and Brazil while moving closer to Fidel Castro,” he said.

Hoya Staff Writer

For letters to the editor and more online content, visit thehoya.com/category/opinion.

Tara Halter, General Manager Luke Sanders, Director of Alumni Relations Brian Yoffe, Director of Financial Operations Aditi Joshi, Director of Human Resources Olivia Callis, Director of Sales Kate Wittpenn, Director of Sales

Board of Directors

Anna Kovacevich, Chair Dan Crosson, Maya Gandhi, Tara Halter, Subul Malik, 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, DECEMBER 7, 2018

INTERFAITH INSIGHTS

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • ZHANG

Rabbi Benjamin Barer

Disagree Productively

D

iscourse about the pressing issues of our day — from feminism and religious liberty to climate change and antisemitism — models a profound lack of respect and goodwill. The ways in which I consume news and learn about the world are so effectively siloed off from the political other that I can live my life blissfully unaware of how others are telling the stories of their lives. With few shared narratives that underlie our discussions, civic discourse frays. One of the blessings of Judaism is that to study its history is to know that societies in the past have engaged in vitriolic public discourse just as we are today. As a people — not just a religion — that values productive argumentation as a core value, Judaism has much to teach all of us about how best to engage in the difficult work of repairing a deeply divided and antagonistic society. Beginning with the very form of the Talmud, Jews are taught that multiple contradictory opinions can and must coexist on the same page, literally. The centuries surrounding the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. were the most religiously productive period of Jewish history, in part because they were defined by bitter debates about what Judaism was and what it would look like in the future. Just as that time produced the Talmud and what we now call rabbinic Judaism, we know that we can overcome such bitter divides and emerge stronger, only to repeat the process in time. While Jews often struggle to live up to the highest ideals of Judaism, such as approaching dialogue and debate with a productive mindset, these ideals can still serve as a reminder of how to carefully repair communities in crisis, as much of America seems to be today. There are two ideals of productive argumentation that are constitutive of what it means to be a committed Jew. First is the concept of Eilu v’Eilu. Literally “these and those,” this value stems from a famous story in the Babylonian Talmud. The two most prominent schools of rabbinic thought, Hillel and Shammai, argued constantly, and they were only allowed a break from their arguing when a divine voice issued from heaven, declaring: “These and those are words of the living God.” The fact that the two major

camps of Judaism, who disagreed about everything, could both be affirmed in speaking a divinely accepted truth ought to remind us that there is always another way to see things, another narrative that can help us understand an issue more fully. The Talmud elaborates that, among the virtues that Jews should approach disagreement with are humility and the ability to articulate the other’s position before articulating your own. Next time you start to feel smug about how obviously right you are about the issue of the day, ensure that you can first articulate the other side of the argument persuasively. The second ideal of productive argumentation is disagreement for the sake of heaven. The early rabbis knew they needed to codify what separated a good argument from a bad one to flourish. The language of arguing for the sake of heaven is the earliest articulation of how to know our arguments are productive or life-giving. In the words of Pirkei Avot, a secondcentury C.E. code of Jewish ethics: “Any argument that is for the sake of heaven will endure, and any argument which is not for the sake of heaven will not endure.” An argument for the sake of heaven is one that strives to better understand the truth, not to “win” the argument. This slow, intentional work that trains us to shed our certainties and listen more deeply for the truth that we can only access through the other is what gives me hope that our current challenges need not persist. The rabbis also teach us that an argument’s endurance is a sign of an argument’s success, not a sad consequence of never settling the debate. As a philosophy major, I spent my undergraduate career studying the arguments for the sake of heaven that have endured to shape the Western world for the past 2,500 years. This, too, is what draws me to study Jewish texts, as they provide a blueprint for how to disagree deeply while still respecting the other side. The Truth can only emerge when we acknowledge that multiple opinions do contain words of the living God. Rabbi Benjamin Barer is a Jewish chaplain at Georgetown University. INTERFAITH INSIGHTS is a series of Viewpoints written by chaplains at Georgetown University. This is the final installment of INTERFAITH

INSIGHTS.

Though the university incorporates a variety of faiths under the Campus Ministry umbrella, it does not support the religiously unaffiliated, preventing the realization of genuine interreligious dialogue.

Include Nontheist Voices in Dialogue

W

hen I sat in the Jesuit Values Panel during New Student Orientation, I felt a disconnect. As each of the Georgetown chaplains spoke about their own faith traditions, I was left wondering why no one represented my voice on stage. I was raised in a secular household and am religiously unaffiliated, part of a spectrum that does not subscribe to any religious tradition. Because of the university’s Catholic affiliation, I was hesitant to commit to Georgetown, but was reassured by its publicized commitment to openness and diversity in interreligious dialogue. While Georgetown emphasizes its commitment to interreligious dialogue among a diverse student body, it fails to incorporate the voices of religiously unaffiliated students. Though the university incorporates a variety of faiths under the Campus Ministry umbrella, it does not support the religiously unaffiliated, preventing the realization of genuine interreligious dialogue. If Georgetown is truly dedicated to promoting this dialogue, it should expand the conversation to include students who are atheist, agnostic or otherwise religiously unaffiliated.

The number of religiously unaffiliated college students in America is on the rise. In 1986, 10 percent of college students identified as unaffiliated; by 2016, this number increased to 31 percent. Pursuant to the university’s goal of creating future leaders, it must educate these leaders about a group that now accounts for more than one-fifth of the American population. Currently, Campus Ministry “welcomes and supports students who identify as agnostic, atheist, humanist or simply ‘none of the above,’” according to its website. However, the ministry has not sufficiently dedicated resources to retreats and events for this group. Non-denominational retreat programs such as ESCAPE are the only resources offered by Campus Ministry through which unaffiliated students can forge a community. Though such programs can be worthwhile experiences for unaffiliated students, these students cannot speak as freely when many of their peers are religious for fear of offending them. Because of the absence of a designated platform to support unaffiliated students, this minority lacks a space on campus to talk about their shared identity without risk

VIEWPOINT • DILLON

of encountering judgement or stigma that can be present in other spaces. In addition to providing a much-needed community for unaffiliated students on campus, the creation of programs to augment nontheistic voices will benefit the larger campus community. Under the status quo, unaffiliated students have ample opportunities to engage with faiths represented in Campus Ministry, but other students lack the same opportunities to engage with and better understand the religiously unaffiliated. Georgetown can use existing resources within Campus Ministry to support platforms of discussion that incorporate a nontheistic perspective. These platforms could support events dedicated to the exploration of the wide range of perspectives that nontheism encompasses. For example, Georgetown should invite prominent figures within the nontheistic community for larger lecture events that explore topics such as morality or current events through a distinctive atheist or agnostic lens. Simultaneously, the university could create discussion events focused on the topic of nontheism. These more intimate events would exemplify

the immense diversity among religiously unaffiliated students and add much more nuance to students’ understanding of their unaffiliated peers beyond the simple labelling of “atheist” or “agnostic.” To facilitate these efforts, Georgetown could consider hiring a humanist or secular chaplain to sustain the dialogue. By including more nontheistic voices on campus, Georgetown can better educate its students to combat a nationwide bias against the nonreligious. According to a 2017 study, people from more religious countries, including the United States, have widespread bias against atheists. This bias is rooted in misconceptions about atheists’ moral integrity. By creating more conversation and better representation of the unaffiliated student body, Georgetown can play a part in combating prejudice in the current national narrative. If Georgetown wants to continue to be a leader in interreligious dialogue, it must start supporting its non-religious students by incorporating a nontheistic perspective into the conversation.

DORIS ZHANG is a freshman in the College.

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Democracy Prevails in Diversity Dispel Myth of Painless Brexit

N

ow that the final results from the 2018 midterm elections have — mostly — been tabulated, now is a good time to reflect on the fundamental health of our democratic republic. Most analysts and pundits have focused on individual races and their impact on the balance of power in Washington, D.C., as well as the various statehouses and legislatures. These analyses, however, fail to acknowledge the true implications of November’s results. Rather than speculating about whether liberalism is ascending or conservatism declining, we should ask what the election results say about the state of our political system. Distilled to its essence, a binary analysis provides snapshots of our electoral system that yield little insight into where our republic stands and where it is headed. In fact, this form of analysis is a reflection of what U.S. historian Richard Hofstadter once termed “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” The fate of Western civilization appears to hinge on the outcome of every election. This atmosphere has led us to demonize our enemies and see “compromise” as a pejorative term. The prospects for a healthy democracy are dismal when perceived in this manner. There is, however, an altogether different approach that is far more illuminating and optimistic. This approach entails taking a perspective that is rigorously nonpartisan and divorced from political ideology. It focuses on the viability of our political philosophy. When we use this broader analysis, we can identify key criteria that speak to what is

actually important about our elections. We must consider how the constitutional norms established in 1789 give us the resilience necessary to survive in an increasingly interconnected, yet simultaneously fractious world. America must also remain a beacon of hope, and our political culture a model for other nations seeking a new and freer way of governance. The American political system has historically been predicated on the fundamental idea that our differences do not have to divide us. Rather, we gain strength through our diversity of gender, race, national background and faith. That diversity is the underlying point of E Pluribus Unum, the U.S. motto. The United States can only remain a credible exponent of liberal democracy by continuing to embrace people and ideas from a variety of origins. While drawing conclusions about the long term from a single election is difficult, I think the results of the 2018 midterms augur well. The country’s recently exacerbated polarization may actually have done more to reinvigorate and advance American democracy than any other factor in the last quarter-century. For years, political scientists and other observers have decried falling participation rates in elections. This trend appears to have been reversed in the most recent midterm election. A greater percentage of eligible voters cast ballots in 2018 than in all midterm elections since 1966. The closeness of many races has finally exposed the lie in the sentiment that single votes do

not make a difference — they can and do. Additionally, more Americans who are women, people of color, of non-European descent and adherents to nonChristian faiths sought and attained public office than at any other time in our history. The rules and procedures of the Congress are under review; those meant for an elderly, homogenous, Christian, male body are giving way to the needs of young mothers with children. These seemingly surface changes herald a seismic cultural change. They reflect an acknowledgement that our government’s infrastructure must adapt to a profoundly different population of leaders — one more representative of today’s Americans and more in touch with their needs. America may even be experiencing the beginnings of a return to civility. This week, D.C. is celebrating the life of our 41st President, George H.W. Bush, the embodiment of American civic virtue. That all can honor such a person and regret his passing, regardless of party affiliation, gives hope that we can move forward with more respect and civility. Rather than despair the short-term mistakes of our politicians, we should use them as opportunities to renew our democracy so that we can have, once again, what President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently called “a new birth of freedom.”

RAYMOND

DILLON graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1977. He is an opinion contributor to The Hoya.

Joshua Levy

U

nparalleled majesty. Renown spanning civilizations and millennia. An icon of ferocity and wild strength. For all the superlatives and hyperbole, it should surprise few that the unicorn is entirely mythical. As Brexit continues to unfold in the United Kingdom, the unicorn’s presence on the country’s coat of arms presents a bitter irony. It seems that a Brexit that will please even its most ardent advocates is just as imaginary as the horned beast. When the British public voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, pollsters as well as policy wonks were astonished. The Brexit referendum revealed a theretoforeignored dissatisfaction with globalization. Even today, how the United Kingdom will extricate itself from the EU’s laws, regulations, obligations and bureaucracy remains an open question. Though still foggy, in the 2½ years since the campaign and referendum, what Brexit will mean for Britons and Europeans is becoming clearer. One thing is for sure: Those who voted to leave will not get what they were promised. In the campaign leading up to the 2016 vote, Brexiteers claimed Britain would be able to keep all the benefits of access to the EU’s single market without having to adhere to the EU’s many rules. It was ingenuine for Leave campaigners to promise voters a cake that they could have and eat; it was also folly for voters to believe in that dream.

The details of Brexit were announced by U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Nov. 14. No one seems happy. A day later, after a marathon five-hourlong cabinet meeting, two cabinet ministers, including May’s Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, resigned — another five ministers have resigned since. The withdrawal agreement drafted in the meeting outlines Britain’s relationship with the EU for the “transition period,” intended to last for two years; the nature of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; and the timeline for Brexit. Hardline Brexiteers in May’s Conservative party are furious; rumors of a leadership challenge are now a regularity. Britain will have to pay the EU for access to the single market. But the UK has forfeited any mechanism to make the rules that it will be bound by. The future of the border between the Northern Ireland and the Republic has attracted the ire of nearly everyone. Under the proposed agreement, Northern Ireland may get roped into a trade arrangement with the Republic that in some ways threatens the integrity of the United Kingdom. The Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, upon which May relies in the House of Commons to pass laws, is on the verge of mutiny. As a result, other, if unrealistic, proposals have emerged. The popularity of having a second plebiscite on Brexit is growing. As May’s first Brexit secretary, David Davis, noted in 2012, “If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.” But a referendum that walks back Brexit would cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of future polls. Hardline Leavers are increasingly fond of a “no-deal” Brexit. A no-deal arrangement, in which the U.K. would crash out of the EU without any agreed-upon terms, would likely spell economic disaster. The International Mon-

etary Fund estimates that a nodeal Brexit would shave nearly six percent off the United Kingdom’s GDP, equivalent to nearly four years of forgone growth. Some are already preparing for the worst. The National Health Service, the country’s public healthcare provider, has been ordered to start stockpiling pharmaceutical products to handle no-dealinduced shortages. But warehouse space is running out, particularly for products like insulin, which needs to be refrigerated. Business is worried too; supply chains that crisscross the English Channel could be disrupted and bring manufacturing to a grinding halt. Supermarkets are steeling themselves for food shortages. Brexiteers raised none of these complications during the campaign. Instead, they made fanciful claims about “taking back control” from the EU bureaucracy in Brussels. May will have a hard time convincing Parliament to accept the current draft of the withdrawal agreement — a vote is set for Dec. 11. But her deal fully satisfies no one. As disappointing as the proposed Brexit is, it serves as a sobering dose of reality and a painful, if necessary, departure from fantastical claims that Brexit would do good for the country. Brexit was never going to be a painless process. Those who claimed that it would be were either lying through their teeth or had their heads stuck in the clouds. They promised a unicorn and reality is shaping up to make them look like real asses. The diversity of political interests makes Brexit an intractable problem. A Brexit that would satisfy all at no cost? Get real. Joshua Levy is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. ANIMAL KINGDOM appears online every other Friday. This is the final installment of ANIMAL KINGDOM.

A4

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

PAGE FOUR

INSIDE THIS ISSUE The D.C. Council passed a bill that reforms campaign finance law within the District and limits corporate donations. Story on A8.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS MARSHALL SCHOLAR

verbatim

“

In crisis there is opportunity, and now is the time to reclaim the best of Catholic social teaching.” Faith in Public Life Catholic Program Director John Gehring on the need for unity within the Catholic Church. Story on A7.

from our blog

KIRK ZIESER /THE HOYA

Georgetown alumnus Brian Ferguson (COL ’18), who was wrongfully incarcerated for homicide and exonerated after 11 years, has won a Marshall Scholarship to pursure a master’s degree in comparative social policy at the University of Oxford.

SEMI-FORMAL, BUT ALSO SEMI-TRASHY Look your best, but act your worst at the party for a club you never go to. Corp Gala-vant your way into bankruptcy or GUES(S) how long your headache will last! Hit up 4E for all the dirt on GU’s fave season. blog.thehoya.com

Trans, Nonbinary Students Forge Spaces Despite Difficulties MEENA MORAR Hoya Staff Writer

For Al Castillo (SFS ’22), Georgetown University felt like a chance to finally represent himself in his honest form. “When I was in high school, I presented myself as a girl — that was who I was,” said Castillo, who uses he/him pronouns. “Now, I was able to present myself as I truly was, rather than some facade I was putting on for several years of my life. It was really interesting being able to begin anew here at Georgetown.” For many transgender and nonbinary students, this story sounds unfamiliar. In hopes of fostering education and support for queer and trans students, the university provides institutionalized spaces, like the LGBTQ Resource Center, founded in 2008, and student groups like GU Pride and Queer People of Color. Yet queer and trans students cite challenges from tokenization and institutional shortcomings as they attempt to forge their own support networks on campus.

BEYOND A LABEL

Despite the well-intentioned support from student groups and institutionalized spaces, transgender or nonbinary students can feel burdened by defending their identity on campus. GLAAD, a media-monitoring organization founded by LGBTQ members of the media, defines transgender as “an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.” The group refers to nonbinary and genderqueer as “terms used by some people who experience their gender identity and/ or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman.” Chad Gasman (COL ’20), who uses they/them pronouns, feels tokenized when they try to speak up for their community at Georgetown. “When someone who is marginalized speaks up on behalf of their community and other communities, they are automatically labelled as angry at everything,” Gasman said. “That may be true, but the anger is used as a reason to not believe the person, or not respect what they have to say. People don’t take my anger as a trans person seriously, or, when they do take it seriously, they think it’s too much and want you to tone it down.”

The pressure to perform — even within spaces dedicated to the LGBTQ community, like the resource center — can be difficult, according to Mackenzie Foy (COL ’19), who uses she/her and they/them pronouns. “If I went to the LGBTQ center there wouldn’t be beef, but I’d be tokenized,” Foy said. “When I go there, I feel like I am performing, because I have to. There is a misconception that we always want to be social justice warriors. We’re forced into that. I feel like I often have to defend myself in a way that is personal, instead of intellectual. Not only do I have to refute one’s argument, but I have to defend my whole existence.” Tyler McConville (COL ’22), who uses they/them pronouns, has experienced surface-level conversations about personal pronouns which have not resulted in proper usage. “I feel like spaces aren’t as good as they could be,” McConville said. “Something a lot of spaces do is ask pronouns, but I feel like there’s not a push to make sure people are using the right pronouns or even talking about what pronouns are.” McConville attributes this surface-level support to the lack of transgender faculty or staff in the LGBTQ Resource Center and the Georgetown community at large. “I haven’t seen or heard about any trans faculty, or anyone that works on campus that’s actually trans,” McConville said. “I feel like it would be helpful to have a support system that’s run by trans people. When I need support, I don’t want to be educating someone. I want someone to know what I’m going through and help me and meet me where I’m at.”

able, because I’ll go to the gender bathroom and be excited, but it’ll be locked and I’ll have to use the women’s bathroom.” In many buildings, Gasman is unable to use any bathroom at all. “There are buildings on this campus where I can’t pee,” Gasman said. “I will go to the gendered restrooms if I have a friend with me, but I’d still prefer not to. If I didn’t have my own private restroom in McCarthy, I would have to leave the building to go to the bathroom.” The Office of Planning and Facilities Management is already working to fix gender-inclusive bathroom signage across campus by January, according to the LGBTQ Resource Center director Sivagami Subbaraman. “Gender inclusive bathroom signs will go up soon in all public buildings — not residential ones,” Subbaraman wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We are aiming to have one on each floor of each classroom and public building — and they need to also meet Disability access code.” Housing requests for private bathrooms or single rooms face scrutiny and require a medical note, according to Gasman. “I know other students who want a single, want to change the gender of whom they’re living with, or need a private restroom

for safety issues, and have a really hard time getting that,” Gasman said. “A lot of the times, you need a medical note. The problem with that is that many trans people don’t have the resources, or even desire, to seek a medical route for their identity — especially in college. It’s unlikely that the university would take simply being trans as a medical reason for a single.” Georgetown’s Office of Residential Living launched the Crossroads Living Learning Community this year after a student-driven push to create a living space dedicated to gender and sexuality. Crossroads LLC Faculty Adviser April Sizemore-Barber describes the LLC as a way to acknowledge the prevalence of LGBTQ students in every part of the university. “By situating this space in the purview [of] ResEd, the university acknowledges that the issues impacting LGBTQ+ people don’t end when classes are over or the day is done,” Sizemore-Barber wrote in an email to The Hoya. “LGBTQ+ people are revealed to be present in all aspects of campus life.” Housed in Village C East, the LLC is open to students from all class years and allows all gender identities to feel respected and supported with proper living accomodations, according to Sizemore-Barber. “Trans/NonBinary students living in Crossroads do not have to

negotiate the nightmare of communal or two-gendered bathrooms — incredibly stressful for those who do not visibly conform to gender norms,” Sizemore-Barber wrote. “Each dorm room has its own bathroom and students are assigned rooms on the basis of their gender identity (rather than the gender they were assigned at birth).”

FORMING COMMUNITIES Just as students worked to create a formalized gender and sexuality LLC, queer students must make their own communal spaces. Foy observed an apparent lack of support networks for queer students of color. “As a queer black person on campus, there is no institutional space for us,” Foy said. “We make those and we always make those for ourselves.” Derrick Little (COL ’18), Sonia Adjroud (SFS ’20) and Julia Hycinthe (NHS ’18) founded Art Beyond the Margins, a club that aims to provide a platform for art with a specific focus on artists from marginalized backgrounds, in 2017. The club is a response to the isolation queer students of color feel in art clubs on campus, according to Little. “I tried to venture out to a couple of notable on-campus arts clubs, but I often found myself as

the only person of color or queer person — sometimes both — in a significant amount of on-campus clubs. Consequently, I often felt isolated in these groups,” Little said in an interview with The Hoya. Yet, designing one’s own support networks can take a toll on students such as McConville, especially for those grappling with mental health issues. “One of the issues that’s been difficult for me at Georgetown is that although being non-binary is such a big part of my identity and experience, I’m also a student, an artist, an activist,” McConville said. “Just as a freshman, especially as someone who’s mentally ill, it’s been really difficult to work up the emotional energy to try and create resources for myself that aren’t there.” Gasman sees a gap between the university’s professed support for the LGBTQ community and actual resources available to students. “I think Georgetown loves to posture itself as an LGBTQ-friendly campus,” Gasman said. “We have a center and Crossroads, which are huge, but these are just little things, and outside of those spaces, there isn’t the same level of support that there would be. There is no baseline level of support for trans students, or most queer students.”

LACKING PERSONAL SPACES

While the LGBTQ Resource Center attempts to “provide education, programming, support services, and voice to Georgetown students, faculty, staff, and alumni of all sexual orientations and gender identities,” according to its mission statement, some students feel a lack of resources for health care, housing and organizing spaces on a more institutional level. For example, despite the university’s effort to provide genderneutral bathrooms on campus, logistical hurdles limit access for trans and nonbinary students, according to McConville. “[Gender neutral bathrooms] are often locked or out of order, which is really frustrating,” McConville said. “I would just hope that they would be made readily avail-

AMANDA VAN ORDEN/THE HOYA

Many trans and nonbinary students feel burdened by the challenges of defending their identities and maintaining their own spaces on campus. Al Castillo (SFS ‘22), pictured above, saw Georgetown as an opportunity to live in his truest form.

NEWS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

THE HOYA

A5

Panelists Advocate Against Policies HoyaTHON Sets Fundraising Oppressing Women in Middle East Record for 1st-Year Programs RILEY ROGERSON Hoya Staff Writer

Oppressive policies toward women in the Middle East must be combatted, scholars, leaders and activists said at a panel on women’s rights in Iran on Dec. 5. Iran currently ranks in the bottom third among 153 countries in a women’s well-being and empowerment index created by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, which hosted the event. Iran’s low ranking in the index, which evaluates countries based on peace, security, women’s inclusion and justice, stems from legal discrimination against women in divorce and workplace laws. The panelists were women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, actress and human rights activist Nazanin Boniadi, Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute Senior Fellow Afshin Molavi, author and Georgetown SFS Centennial Fellow Azar Nafisi and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Fellow Karim Sadjadpour. The event, which was co-moderated by Ambassador Melanne Verveer, the first U.S. ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, and Margaret Brennan, CBS News’ senior foreign affairs correspondent, was hosted in Gaston Hall. After the formation of the current Islamic Republic of Iran, the government mandated women cover their hair. The hijab requirement has contributed to a general decline in women’s rights in the country, according to Boniadi. “At the inception of the Islamic Republic 39 years ago, tens of thousands of Iranian women demon-

strated in opposition to the new government’s compulsory hijab ruling,” Boniadi said. “Their cries were met with batons, lashes, acid thrown in their faces and imprisonment.” Nafisi wrote “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” an account of her experiences after returning to Iran during the revolution. Laws that require women in Iran to wear hijabs in public spaces are not merely religious requirements, but a way for the Iranian government to repress and control women, according to Nafisi. “The hijab in Iran is not about religion. It is about an ideology in order to preserve power. It is uniformity. It is like Mao jackets that people wore in the Republic of China,” Nafisi said. “[The Iranian government] brought this uniformity and they made women into semiotic signs, into political entities, you know. The first thing they did in culture was to delete women.” Without the mandatory hijab law, some women would choose to expose their heads, Nafisi said. “If this was Iranian women’s tradition and we believed in it, why do you have to use guns and jail and punishment, and impose a law for them to wear it?” Nafisi said. Alinejad, founder of the My Stealthy Freedom campaign against the compulsory hijab, was exiled from Iran after posting an Instagram picture of herself in the country without a hijab. Social media gives a voice to women in the Iranian women’s rights movement, according to Alinejad. “In Iran, for 40 years, we never

had the chance to be seen, to be visible,” Alinejad said. “Through social media we gained our voice back. That is why I always say that every individual woman in Iran can become their own leader and we get successful if every one of us became a headache for the government of Iran.” Nafisi has been labelled as western by Westerners who critique her position as an Iranian woman opposed to compulsory hijab laws and the Iranian government. “They would look at you and say, ‘But it’s your culture,’ or they would call me ‘western,’ you know, and ‘an agent of western imperialism.’” Nafisi said. “As if only western women want the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” Alinejad called for western women to support Iranian women’s rights despite the common argument that gender inequality is part of Middle Eastern culture, and said supporting women’s rights does not make westerners Islamophobic. “By calling this our culture, you are insulting us, and culture is not written to stone, it is flexible. It changes generation to generation. Join us and be loud enough,” Alinejad said. “Supporting the women’s rights movement in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran, doesn’t make you Islamophobic.” Limiting women’s rights can negatively affect the success of a nation’s economy, according to Molavi. “Show me a country that provides its women with equal rights, both legislatively and culturally, and I’ll show you a successful economy,” Molavi said.

AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA

Ambassador Melanne Verveer, left, co-moderator of the event; women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad; and author Azar Nafisi said policies in the Middle East marginalize women at a panel in Gaston Hall on Dec. 5.

RILEY ROGERSON Hoya Staff Writer

HoyaTHON, Georgetown’s chapter of the Miracle Network Dance Marathon that fundraises for Washington, D.C. Children’s National Health system, became the largest first-year dance marathon in D.C. and set the record for day-of fundraising for all first-year programs at Children’s National. Student participants at HoyaTHON stood or danced for 12 hours on Saturday. Several student groups performed throughout the day, and 151 Georgetown students attended, according to co-directors Hanna Dohmen (SFS ’20) and Callia Karas (COL ’20). The group raised $41,024 overall, and participants raised $11,965 in online donations during the event in the Healey Family Student Center Great Room. The group collected donations through sponsorships of individual dancers and smaller fundraising initiatives in collaboration with student organizations in the Center for Social Justice, the Student Activities Commission and local businesses like Chipotle and South Block. Whitney Maddox (GRD ’11), the Center for Social Justice staff adviser to HoyaTHON, attributed the event’s fundraising success to these collaborations. “They had a combination of reaching out to student organizations on campus, some of which were through the Center for Social Justice and some of which were through SAC, but also through businesses,” Maddox said. “Once we started talking about it and getting it out there, we saw student organizations giving literally up until the last second of the night.” The last dance marathon hosted at Georgetown was in 2010 and raised about $8,500 for Children’s National. Holding a dance marathon had been a longtime goal for Karas, which is why she and Dohmen decided to start a new group in place of the former Hoyathon to bring back the event, according to Karas. “I just thought that I would do it when I went to college because it was for such a good cause,” Karas said. “It really just brings the entire university together on so many college campuses in a way that I’ve never seen anywhere else.” The funds raised at HoyaTHON will have a significant effect on patients at Children’s National Hospital, according to Children’s National Hospital President and CEO Dr. Kurt Newman. “The incredible passion and commitment of the HoyaTHON team and Georgetown University stu-

GU DANCE MARATHON

HoyaTHON, Georgetown’s chapter of the Miracle Network Dance Marathon, raised $41,024 for D.C.’s Children’s National Hospital. dents this past weekend helps make a major impact for the 230,000 kids treated each year at Children’s National,” Newman wrote in a statement to The Hoya. The funds from HoyaTHON will go toward medical professionals and medical equipment tailored for children, Newman said. “Thanks to partners like Dance Marathon, we are able to give children a supportive environment with kid-sized MRI machines, child life specialists who teach little ones about their procedures, and doctors, nurses, and researchers on the cutting-edge of the future of medicine,” Newman wrote. “I’m inspired by this generation of students supporting the health and well-being of future generations.” HoyaTHON did not have official club status at the time of the event, which became a significant obstacle in planning, Dohmen said. “We didn’t have a club in the CSJ, and so everything was on a very week-by-week basis, and it was hard to see even three weeks ahead,” Dohmen said. However, the CSJ Advisory Board for Student Organizations officially approved HoyaTHON’s club status Wednesday, according to Dohmen. HoyaTHON more than doubled its directors’ fundraising expectations, HoyaTHON’s Director of External Peter Hunziker (MSB ’20) said. “We initially set out to have like 100 people signed up and we had over 240,” Hunziker said. “We set our initial fundraising goal at $20,000 and we raised over

$41,000.” HoyaTHON managed to maintain a positive and upbeat atmosphere for participants even as the hours wore on, attendee Juliet FitzPatrick (SFS ’21) said. “Everyone seemed to feel really happy to be there, like they were doing something for the kids,” FitzPatrick said. “It was a really great environment. Everyone seemed really jazzed.” The casual atmosphere made performances enjoyable for Georgetown University Dance Company performers, GUDC dancer Olivia Kleier (SFS ’22) said. “Everyone in the group came and watched us dance. It was a lot more relaxed than the other performances that we’ve been doing because it was more human interaction with the audience because we were right next to them,” Kleier said. “It was just a fun environment — we were all laughing and having fun.” Karas said she hopes that following the success of HoyaTHON’s first event, the group will attract more members and donations in the coming years. “We’re hoping to grow and we’re hoping that next year is a lot easier considering that now people actually know who we are on campus,” Karas said. “Getting people to sign up for something and pay 15 dollars for something that they don’t even know what it is was obviously really hard this this year. But people had a lot of fun and I actually think they will come back next year.”

Faculty Council Votes to Allow GU Community Remembers SFS Students to Minor in College Bush for Legacy of Service MAX LEVINE

Hoya Staff Writer

The School of Foreign Service announced its undergraduates would be able to minor in disciplines within Georgetown College as part of an interschool collaborative effort Dec. 6. The announcement comes after the SFS Faculty Council voted in favor of the policy Nov. 30. The council’s vote awaits approval by the School Council of the SFS, a body which oversees the school’s educational policy, SFS Academic Council Vice President Forrest Gertin (SFS ’20) said. If approved, College minors can be taken by SFS students, including current juniors, as long as the appropriate course requirements are fulfilled. SFS Dean Daniel Byman expects the change to pass and go into effect in the upcoming academic year. Under the new policy, college minors can be taken by SFS students, including current juniors, as long as the appropriate course requirements are fulfilled. Minors in the government, history and economics departments will be limited to students pursuing a major outside of those fields, according to the Dec. 6 news release. For example, an international history major cannot obtain a College minor in history. Though the SFS did not historically offer minors, students have been able to choose from a limited selection of certificate programs, which emphasize regional or thematic areas of interest. A 2016 decision allowed SFS students to pursue minors exclusively in the foreign language departments of the College. Students will be permitted to add a total of any two supplements to their majors, including both minors and cer-

tificates, according to the news release. Opposition to allowing SFS students to pursue college minors was grounded in the belief that minors presented an unnecessary addition to the SFS curriculum, according to Byman. “The belief was that SFS, which has an interdisciplinary curriculum, did not need minors and that the many SFS requirements made minors impractical,” Byman wrote in an email to The Hoya. The recent vote by faculty members comes after years of SFS students pushing for access to minors in the College, Byman wrote. “The decision to allow minors was very much a student-driven initiative,” Byman wrote. “For years, students have wanted the SFS to allow minors, believing that they help a student diversify intellectually and provide benefits on the job market.” Some students felt the original policy limited their academic opportunities, leading the student organization SFS Academic Council to press for change. Students have sought access to College minors because of the complementary nature of certain academic disciplines, Gertin said. “If you think about it, you’re someone who is studying international political economy who’s also interested in financial journalism, getting a journalism minor, which is currently — or used to be — not allowed, could really complement your degree,” Gertin said. The original policy seemed unfair to SFS students as the only school with this restriction, according to Gertin. “It’s an issue of fairness. If my roommate is in the College, why should we be able to take the same courses and the SFS student not receive the same credential?” Gertin said.

The decision comes amid a curriculum restructuring process by the SFS that started in 2016 to update the curriculum in advance of the school’s centennial in 2019. Starting in fall 2018, the school added a science requirement to its core curriculum with the aim of helping students understand scientific issues through the context of international affairs. The decision will help provide university guidance to students who would have otherwise pursued their interests independently, Byman wrote. “My hope is that SFS students will take advantage of minors both to round themselves out and to go deeper on subject areas that complement their SFS studies,” Byman wrote. “Another advantage of a minor from a learning point of view is that it is a structured set of classes. Thus students who complete it will gain a better understanding of the subject than if they did the same number of courses on their own.” Both Gertin and Byman noted the success of the original 2016 initiative that allowed SFS students to minor in foreign languages assured students and faculty that further expansion was a good next step. SFS students would not be the only students affected by the decision, according to David Edelstein, vice dean of faculty in the College. While the plan originated in the SFS, it has since become a joint initiative with the help of the College. Faculty members from the schools hope the policy shift yields mutual benefits, Edelstein said. “I would just emphasize the cooperative spirit in which this was accomplished. Both Georgetown College and SFS are stronger for having access to the resources and offerings of the other,” Edelstein wrote in an email to The Hoya.

WILL CASSOU AND EMILY LENG Hoya Staff Writers

Georgetown University students, faculty and prominent alumni celebrated President George H.W. Bush’s legacy of prioritizing lifelong service to his country over partisan politics after he died Nov. 30 at the age of 94. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died at his home in Houston, after months of failing health, less than a year after his wife Barbara Bush died in April. The exact cause of death was not immediately announced, but Bush was diagnosed with a form of Parkinson’s disease in 2012 and had undergone several health issues and hospitalizations since. Following a memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday, Bush was transported back to Houston for a second funeral service. He was buried on the grounds of his presidential library in Texas alongside his late wife Barbara and late daughter Robin on Thursday. Students and professors alike commented on the example Bush set for young people across the United States throughout his nearly 30-year career in government. McCourt School of Public Policy professor and longtime Washington Post contributor E.J. Dionne noted Bush’s devotion to public service but acknowledged Bush at times faltered in strictly upholding his moral principles. “He was a good man, a decent man who understood the importance of public service, who made some mistakes and was willing to take actions outside what ought to have been his values to win,” Dionne said. Bush valued cooperation even with colleagues who did not share his views, an attitude that is noticeably absent in D.C.’s current political climate, host of the Georgetown University Institute

of Politics and Public Service’s podcast “Fly on the Wall” Alec Camhi (COL ’20) said. “You heard him talk a lot about how he could be friends with people you disagree with and politics doesn’t have to be mean and nasty, and I think that was kind of a fundamental core belief of his,” Camhi said. Despite losing his re-election bid to Bill Clinton (SFS ’68) in 1992, Bush maintained a commitment to unity after his defeat, surprising many by leaving then-Presidentelect Clinton a parting letter of collegial support on Inauguration Day in 1993. The pair developed a deep friendship over the years, accentuated by close collaboration on humanitarian issues, according to presidential biographer Jon Meacham, who published a biography of Bush in 2015. Bush was not only a remarkable public servant, but also a friend of the entire Clinton family, Clinton wrote in a statement released Dec. 1. “From the moment I met him as a young governor invited to his home in Kennebunkport, I was struck by the kindness he showed to Chelsea, by his innate and genuine decency, and by his devotion to Barbara, his children, and their growing brood,” Clinton wrote. “I am profoundly grateful for every minute I spent with President Bush and will always hold our friendship as one of my life’s greatest gifts.” Dionne, who became more familiar with Bush while covering the 1988 presidential election for The New York Times, said Bush and leaders of his generation did not like the divisive nature of politicking practiced by U.S. leaders in recent years and instead focused their efforts on serving the nation. “There was an ethic of service in the elite that existed that is weaker now, and he represents that old ethic of service,” Dionne said. “Whatever my political disagree-

ments, I really really admire that about him.” Jake Lyons (COL ’20), president of Georgetown University College Republicans, emphasized the importance of learning from Bush’s experience. “It is deeply saddening to see him go, but our nation can take great joy in reflecting on his lifetime of service,” Lyons wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It’s my hope that our nation’s leaders, regardless of partisan beliefs, will take the time to reflect on his service and apply lessons from his life going forward into the next Congress.” During his presidency, Bush oversaw the fall of the Berlin Wall and led the country through the end of the Cold War. Following Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which began the six-monthlong First Gulf War, Bush organized an international coalition to fight Iraqi forces and expel them from Kuwait. The Bush administration also continued Ronald Reagan’s efforts to negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was eventually signed into law by Clinton. Bush’s casket was transported on Monday to Washington, D.C., where he lied in state in the Capitol rotunda until Wednesday, which was declared a national day of mourning by President Donald Trump. Following Bush’s death on Friday night, messages of condolence and support flooded in from figures on both sides of the aisle commemorating his steadfast leadership and dedication to public service. Sen. Dick Durbin (SFS ’66, LAW ’69) emphasized Bush’s heroism and patriotism in a statement released Dec. 1. “Ready to give his life as a young Navy Pilot who trained at Navy Pier in Chicago, President Bush devoted his entire life to America. He was humble, caring, and principled, qualities we venerate in a President,” Durbin wrote.

A6

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

Feedback Sessions Yield Condemnation From Students TITLE IX, from A1 the dialogue, according to STAIV member Maya Moretta (COL ’21). (Full disclosure: Moretta previously served as an opinion assistant for The Hoya.) “I think the majority of people kind of felt like the university was hiding behind a lawyer not connected to the university in order to protect themselves,” Moretta said in an interview with The Hoya. “I felt like it was very unprofessional for the administration to not speak out about any of the issues pertaining to Georgetown. The event did not increase the transparency of the university’s intended response, according to Courtney Smith (COL ’21), who was present at the first session. “Students were clearly disappointed in the university officials’ lack of involvement because many students attended the session hoping to gain more insight into how the university is planning to respond,” Smith wrote in an email to The Hoya. Students also expressed concerns that the proposed Title IX regulations could lessen

protections available for survivors of assaults that occur off campus. Tehya Corona (COL ’20) said she disapproved of the changes to the regulations because they would allow the university to neglect a number of potential sexual assault survivors at Georgetown. “Everyone can understand that in a college town, places that are not technically on campus impact our community,” Corona said during the Monday feedback session. Though Georgetown may not be able to address off-campus incidents through Title IX under the new proposed regulations, the university could still take disciplinary action through other means, according to Guttman-McCabe. “Georgetown currently regulates conduct that happens off campus in other ways, and so I think the university would be looking for a way to continue to be able to address this type of behavior,” Guttman-McCabe said. The Education Department’s proposal also calls for an increased focus on the use of supportive measures like formal counseling and nocontact orders. Investigations

of every formal complaint will also be held to a higher legal standard of proof, which would make it harder for universities to take disciplinary action against accused students. Still, survivors should be allowed to decide whether supportive measures are sufficient or if university investigation should be undertaken, according to Moretta. “It should definitely be the survivor’s choice about how they want to go through with this,” Moretta said. “There should be supportive measures for all survivors, but that should definitely be a supplemental thing to people who want to file a report.” Supportive measures alone have often been ineffective in helping survivors of sexual assault, according to Smith. “Unfortunately, many of Georgetown’s current supportive measures are inadequate and have not been effective in the past,” Smith wrote. “Georgetown prides itself on supporting survivors, yet its supportive measures continue to fail survivors again and again.” The feedback sessions are occurring during a

monthslong search for a new Title IX coordinator. Samantha Berner is currently serving as both the Title IX investigator and interim Title IX coordinator after the previ-

ous coordinator Laura Cutway departed in June, a situation for which the university has received criticism. The next feedback session is set to take place Dec. 10 in

the Healey Family Student Center Social Room. Students unable to attend can also submit comments using an anonymous online form.

AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA

Catherine Guttman-McCabe, a partner at Potomac Law Group who helped formulate Georgetown’s current sexual misconduct policies, served as facilitator in feedback sessions Monday and Thursday.

Specialized Assignments Burden Facilities Workers FACILITIES, from A1 need a certain certificate in order to do it. Before they changed it around, if I would’ve wanted to go to that skill shop, I would have to go to school and get trained. They just moved us and put us in the skilled shop with no training, no nothing. It’s a safety issue.” Yet the building workers forced into skill shops have not received the pay of certified technicians, according to Leo. “I feel sorry for the guys,” Leo said. “I’m in the [air conditioning] classification, I get paid as an AC technician. But, the guys in the lower level are doing the AC job, but they are not getting paid for it as AC workers.” Georgetown, however, says it “remains committed to ensuring staff are equipped with the resources, training and tools needed to support their respective teams,” Simmons wrote.

OVERWHELMING ORDERS

In the previous, zone-based system, building maintenance workers were responsible for maintaining either an academic or residential building. Now, workers have to cross campus to fulfill tasks in multiple buildings, according to Sam. “When they put us in skilled shops and took us out of zones, now every worker has to go work academic and residential,” Sam said. Georgetown’s new system, combined with understaffing, has exacerbated the burden on workers to complete work orders in a timely manner, ac-

cording to Leo. “They overload us with more work,” Leo said. “That affects us, because when they centralize everything, now we have to run from building to building.” The office currently employs 21 workers, and the administration is actively trying to fill three vacancies within the shop, according to a university representative. Leo, however, claims there were 30 AC technicians before Morey took over Facilities in 2012. Currently, 12 or 13 workers are classified in the AC realm, according to Leo. “A couple of them are very old guys, so we don’t count on them — they barely move around,” he said. “People have died, people have retired — and they have never hired people again. The trade-based system and understaffing not only affect the workers, but also hamper maintenance work vital to campus equipment, students and building infrastructure. “With the small amount of personnel, the AC equipment at Georgetown is not wellmaintained,” Leo said. “A few months ago, I got sick and I was out for two weeks. Nobody did my tickets. There was a student in Village B without cooling for almost three months — nobody came over.”

AN OUTLET FOR HELP? Leo and Sam both suggested the university’s institutional support systems were apathetic to their work-related grievances about hostile management.

“I want students to know about the discrimination, the retaliation and the bullying from that management team,” Sam said. “That’s a constant thing. If you talk to a lot of workers now, there are a lot of workers who have been here and have enjoyed their job and loved coming to work — don’t want to come to work anymore.” Workers are able to file an official complaint or seek help through institutional resources such as human resources, the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action, or the 1199SEIU labor union. Within HR, workers must fill out a grievance form and work with Roberta Kelley Paul, university director for employee relations and engagement, for next steps. Paul, however, does not adequately follow through on workers’ grievances, according to Sam. “She is supposed to contact the union office, about any changes to union workers and any issues,” Sam said. “She has not complied at all. She is the one who created the hostile environment, because we reported these issues and our concerns — and they were very serious issues, when it came to being bullied and intimidated [by managers]. She has done nothing.” For example, there have been over 30 grievances filed against Robert Davis, the associate director of Facilities Operations, yet there has been no official action taken, according to Sam. Racial discrimination, unprofessionalism and public

harassment were among the complaints workers, including Sam and Leo, filed — to no avail. Georgetown did not comment on Paul and Davis’ specific case. Instead, university spokesperson Matt Hill affirmed the role of the IDEAA office as a resource for workers. “While we cannot comment on private personnel matters, we follow the grievance process outlined in the collective bargaining agreement between the university and the union,” Hill wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The university thoroughly and promptly investigates and addresses all complaints through Human Resources, Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action, and other offices as appropriate.” The workers’ distrust of institutional support is also rooted in perceived disloyalty from their union. The 1199SEIU labor union strives to represent workers through the collective bargaining agreement set with Georgetown to negotiate for workers’ rights, according to Yahnae Barner, senior labor union organizer at 1199SEIU. “1199SEIU is a leader on social justice issues in Maryland and the District of Columbia,” Barner wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We are devoted to advancing the economic interests of our members and all working people.” 1199SEIU delegates are employees elected by their peers to represent and mobilize their fellow workers. However, Leo believes that these representatives lack the strength to

criticize the university because of their employment status. “They don’t get paid from the union; they are employees like us,” Leo said. “They are not strong enough to fight the case. Sometimes they give up; most of the time they don’t get backup from the main union organizers.” Barner, however, claims the union cares most about its members — the workers. “The only ties [we] have with University is our members, their employees,” Barner wrote. “We hope to have a healthy relationship with the University, but our focus is to ensure members rights are upheld and the contract is followed.” Yet Leo feels institutional advocates are not doing enough for workers. “Most of the time the union and human resources are in favor of the management.” Leo said. “We basically have no way for justice. Outside of institutional resources, workers can turn to student advocacy groups for help. The Georgetown Solidarity Committee attempts to mobilize student-worker power by creating dialogue between the university and workers, according to GSC member Obed Ventura (SFS ’19). “We try to organize direct actions in order to pressure the university to even speak to workers,” Ventura said. “It’s important for students to get involved with workers because they’re people, too. Everyone who contributes to making the Hilltop the community that it is deserve respect and dignity.” In the past, GSC has helped advocate for the unionization

of Georgetown graduate students with Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees and fought for proper job relocation with Bulldog Tavern earlier this year. Students are instrumental to improving the worker experience at Georgetown, according to Sam. “Working with the students, that saved my day,” Sam said. “They have been a great help — big fighters for us union workers and facilities workers. Whenever we needed them, they were always there.”

NEW LEADERSHIP The workers feel optimistic that new Facilities VP Benjamin Kuo will respond to their complaints about the tradebased maintenance structure. “I bet if you talk to workers now, they’ll say they’re happy, because change is coming,” Sam said. “I had confidence that change would come, because I was fighting. We see the change coming, but what we went through — we went through a lot.” “I look forward to working with the Planning and Facilities Management team to develop specific goals and a strategic plan to best meet all of our needs,” Kuo wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I hope to foster a tight-knit team, continue the department’s sense of dedication and service towards the campus community, and strive for continued improvements.” Yet the university maintains that the trade-based structure is here to stay: Facilities is continuing its current trade-based reporting structure, according to a university spokesperson.

LEFT: FILE PHOTO: SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA, RIGHT: 1199 SEIU MARYLAND/DC

Under a zone-based work structure, facilities workers were responsible for tasks only in a given academic or residential building. A recent change in assignment management has stretched workers thin. Workers say they have found little relief from Georgetown’s human resources department and feel unsupported by their union, 1199SEIU, right.

NEWS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

THE HOYA

A7

Graduate Student Awarded Church Leaders Urge Solidarity Funds for Medical Invention Amid Social, Political Turmoil MEREDITH MILLER Hoya Staff Writer

Shavini Fernando (GRD ’18) won $35,000 at the second annual Bark Tank, an event that awards funding to Georgetown students who pitch new business ventures, for her potentially lifesaving invention, O2Wear. The Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize granted a total of $100,000 at the McDonough School of Business to current and former Georgetown students with ideas and ventures that align with the Jesuit ideal of women and men for others. The Leonsis family donated one million dollars to the MSB in 2016 for the purpose of encouraging entrepreneurship. In addition to receiving $30,000 and the first place prize, which was awarded by a panel judges that included alumni and business experts, Fernando’s O2Wear also landed the People’s Choice Award of the night — an additional $5,000 that was awarded based on live-audience polling. O2Wear, intended for those suffering from heart defects, attaches to a wearer’s ear like an earring and continuously monitors their oxygen level. If the level drops below a safe threshold, the device beeps and sends an alert to an app on the patient’s phone instructing them and a chosen emergency contact to call 911. In Fernando’s prototype, a patient can immediately dial emergency services without their phone by using a button on the device. Fernando said she was inspired to develop O2Wear out of her personal experience with Eisenmenger’s Syndrome, a congenital heart defect that caused a hole to develop in Fernando’s heart. Fernando’s condition increased in severity throughout the course of her life, which has caused irreversible damage to her heart and lungs, meaning she will eventually need transplants. Fernando said the dire outlook that came with her diagnosis at 33 motivated her to work harder on the project. “All they said was, ‘You have

two years to live,’” Fernando said. “I’m like a rebel. I like challenges; it was more like a challenge for me. I have so much on my bucket list.” Three years later, Fernando says she is determined to prove her doctors wrong. Fernando’s near death experiences helped her develop her pitch, she said. “Last year, when I was working at Georgetown, suddenly my friends started screaming that my face was turning blue,” Fernando said to the panel of judges. “It didn’t even take one minute: I couldn’t breathe, and my heart stopped and, clinically, I was dead for two minutes. Luckily, I was able to revive myself on my own, and because of that, today I am here.” The panel of judges included the event’s founders, Ted Leonsis (CAS ’77), the former president and vice chairman of America Online, and his son, Zach Leonsis (MSB ’15), founder of Monumental Sports Network. Each year, $100,000 of their donation is allocated for current Georgetown students and recent graduates through the Bark Tank prize. “It is really great to see these entrepreneurs understand how they have a higher calling of developing mission-based companies that have a business model around service,” Leonsis said in a Nov. 29 news release. “We want students to go out and change the world using the power of entrepreneurship.” Fernando, who is set to graduate this month from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with a master’s degree in visual computing, plans to use the money to develop her technology. Her goal is to shrink the size of the device, bringing it one step closer to the earring that she first envisioned. Fernando said the prize money will enable faster development of the product. Fernando has been developing the technology while pursuing her degree, with occasional help from her doctors at Johns Hopkins University. “People would laugh. At home,

I have a soldering machine. I have literally all the electronic equipment I need to make the device,” Fernando said. “My dining table is my workplace. The second-place prize of $20,000 went to Bluefoot, a company co-founded by Ramya Possett (GRD ’18) that aims to help companies to engage in better strategic decision making with the use of technology according to the Startup Hoyas website. Third place of $15,000 went to Elenas, a digital direct-selling platform for Latin American women to sell beauty products and earn money founded by Zach Oschin (SFS ’20), the only undergraduate student to receive recognition from the judges. In fourth place, receiving $10,000, was M’Panadas, an empanada company started by Margarita Womack (GRD ’19) that meshes food science and street food to create easy, portable meals. The four other participants presented a range of business ventures, from an app that provides information on food trucks to a dynamic pricing algorithm that helps sellers to price their products. All received $5,000 for their participation in the event. While ES is rare, similar heart defects impact an estimated 200,000 people in the United States per year, according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. When including patients with cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,or those in recovery from a severe cardiac event, Fernando estimates that her device will help 50 million people in the U.S. Fernando said she thinks she could help save the lives of people like her, who frequently die because they are unable to receive medical attention in time. “One parent emailed me saying she lost two of her three sons due to this, and she lost her second son last year while he was sleeping,” Fernando said. “I just want to help everyone, so that no kid would die.”

ALEXANDRA BOWMAN Hoya Staff Writer

Catholics must find strength from unity in their religious community amid political polarization and the clerical abuse scandal, panelists said at event in the Intercultural Center Auditorium on Dec. 4. Catholics need to organize around their common faith identity and not fracture based on political discord, Faith in Public Life Catholic Program Director John Gehring said. “One of the dangers we face right now in terms of the infighting is that the credibility of the Church in the public sphere is at its worst point,” Gehring said. “If you think the church has something important to say, now is not the time to hunker down on the left or right. We need to find to find a way to bond over differences.” The panel, hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, also featured Elise Italiano, founding executive director of The GIVEN Institute, an organization that aims to promote the advancement of women within the church and worldwide. Hosffman Ospino, associate professor of Hispanic ministry and religious education at Boston College, and Gloria Purvis, editor of the “African American Catholic Youth Bible,” made up the remaining panel members. The speakers were selected based on their varying perspectives within the church to discuss ways Catholics, in the wake of moral failings of the Church, can come together and protect society’s marginalized members. Former Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick resigned in July following multiple accusations of sexual abuse, which an Archdiocese of New York investigation found credible. Less than a month after McCarrick’s resignation, a Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August detailed seven decades’ worth of sexual misconduct in Pennsylvania churches. The report implicated Former Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Donald Wuerl in an

effort to cover up the potential scandals. Pope Francis accepted Wuerl’s resignation on Oct. 12 after mounting pressure. The political climate in recent years and the clerical abuse scandals have damaged and discouraged participation in public life, Italiano said. “Civic engagement by my peers is down,” Italiano said. “We seem to be really apathetic and want to retreat to the indoors. People feel disaffiliated, and then turn towards ecclesiastical infighting. Young leaders don’t know who to turn to, and it hasn’t gotten much better. We need to find a common union.” To restore the church, Catholics should identify what binds them together, Gehring said. “In crisis there is opportunity, and now is the time to reclaim the best of Catholic social teaching,” Gehring said. “Things are pretty dire. We need to think about what brings us together.” The Catholic Church in the United States needs to recognize and support the diversity of its members, Ospino said. “40 to 43 percent of Catholics in this country are Latino/Hispanic,” Ospino said. “We need to embrace that diversity is not an illness to be healed. It is a gift to the church in the United States. It will enrich our society and enrich the Catholic Church.” The Catholic Church has not done enough to combat racism that many of its members face, Purvis said. “Some Catholics make a mockery out of racism, saying it isn’t really real. People are making fun of oppression, but these are real experiences,” Purvis said. “Shame on us as Catholics.” Catholic churches in the United States have long acknowledged the existence of racism and its pernicious effects, but in August 2017, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops took the formal step of establishing the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism. The USCCB issued a sweeping condemnation of racism and called U.S. Catholics to oppose racism in its 1979 letter “Brothers and Sisters to

Us”; however, a 2004 report found that only 18 percent of U.S. bishops had issued statements against racism, only 36 percent of Catholics had heard a sermon on racism, and that racial divisions within the church had increased in the past few decades. The committee has hosted regional listening sessions since its creation in order to promote conversations around race and recently released a Nov. 14 letter sharply denouncing racism. The church must confront the racism permeating Catholic communities, especially given recent political attempts to stoke tensions along racial lines, Ospino said. “Think about how the ‘caravan’ has been politicized. It’s been used to score political points in a war that seeks to villainize a particular group,” Ospino said. “There is an anti-Latino and anti-Hispanic dynamic in churches. We need to respond institutionally but also at the level of family lives.” Although President Donald Trump has allied himself with the religious community on certain hot button issues, his divisive rhetoric is not compatible with core Catholic beliefs, Purvis said. “We’ll give President Trump credit where it’s due. He has helped advance the Right to Life movement. But his constant attacks have not helped promote the dignity of the human person,” Purvis said. Trump prohibited foreign aid to organizations which promote abortion, which has won him praise from religious organizations, according to Politico. However, the USCCB criticized Trump last June for his family separation policy, which saw migrant children detained separately from their parents upon crossing the border without documentation. Though the obstacles facing the Catholic Church are great, Gehring said he believes the church has the resources to overcome them. “We follow a social tradition that empowers us. Not many communities have those tools,” Gehring said. “There is now a new generation of Catholics who want to put some of the bitter past of Catholics behind.”

GSC Seeks Worker McCourt School Report Finds Rising Safety After Mold Number of Children Without Health Care KATRINA SCHMIDT Hoya Staff Writer

Members of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, a student group dedicated to promoting workers’ rights, called for a plan to protect university workers assigned to clean mold in a letter delivered to to the office of University President John J. DeGioia on Thursday afternoon. After entering Healy Hall with chants of, “What do we want? Safe conditions,” and, “When do we want it? Now,” 14 students and four employees of the Office of Planning and Facilities Management delivered the letter directly to Vice President and Chief of Staff Joseph Ferrara. The letter requests a detailed plan explaining how the university will protect workers cleaning mold by Friday at noon. “Our collective mission as an institution is to support and to promote justice. We must also support one another, including the members of our community who keep our spaces clean,” GSC wrote in the letter. “To honor both of these commitments, we must ensure that working conditions are always safe at this university.” Ferrara promised to forward the letter to the appropriate administrative bodies. “What I usually do with something like this is that I will make sure that the relevant administrators here at the university are aware of the situation, so that we can engage and try to move forward in a positive direction,” Ferrara said at the letter delivery. As reports of mold in student housing increased this semester, in part due to unusually high amounts of rain, Facilities received more assignments to clean this mold. Student work requests related to mold from August to October this year more than doubled since last year, rising to 361 requests from 147 in 2017. Workers have treated the mold with harsh chemical cleaners like bleach without proper training, according to GSC. “I am someone who is allergic to mold, and they would send us to rooms to clean the mold with a product called Tilex,” a Facilities employee, who asked not to be identified by name because of concerns over workplace consequences, said in an interview with The Hoya. (The employee’s comments were given in Spanish and have been translated here.)

Tilex is a mold and mildew cleaner for tile. However, using chemical products like Tilex in an enclosed space like dormitory bathrooms can cause irritation. Some students asked the worker not to use the product because of its harsh smell, which becomes trapped in poorly ventilated student bathrooms, according to the Facilities employee. “In the shower, there is no escape,” she said. Some Facilities workers have also complained of illness due to mold exposure, according to the letter. Similarly, some students say they have fallen ill from mold, like Oona Nash (COL ’22), whose doctor told her black mold was causing her bronchitis. “I had a deep chest cough and my bronchial tubes were congested, and my sinuses were clogged. I was constantly exhausted, and I got hives occasionally,” Nash told The Hoya for a Nov. 30 article. “I went to the emergency room twice. The doctors told me that my illness was being caused by black mold spores.” University employees have raised concerns about mold before. In a lawsuit filed in May 2015, Aleta Mack, a former executive assistant to Georgetown University Police Department Chief Jay Gruber, said Georgetown failed to accommodate her respiratory issues related to mold exposure. Mack, who worked in Village C West, began experiencing difficulty breathing and filed an external complaint requesting a health hazard evaluation. She was terminated from university employment and subsequently filed the suit. Mold cleanup of an area greater than 10 square feet must be left to a professional licensed by the Department of Energy and Environment under Washington, D.C. law. Facilities employees cleaning mold may be exposed to areas greater than 10 square feet, or otherwise not comply with local regulations mandating proper protection, GSC wrote in the letter. “I just hope the student body cares about this issue, because facilities workers work so hard to make sure that we live in a safe and comfortable space,” GSC member Jordan Brown (COL ’21) said in an interview with The Hoya. “We should make sure they get to work in a safe and comfortable space as well.”

JULIA FRIEDMANN Special to The Hoya

The number of children without health insurance in the United States rose for the first time in at least a decade, according to a Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families report released Nov. 21. The study estimated the number of children without insurance in the United States rose by 276,000 in 2017, bringing the total number to 3.9 million. The number of uninsured children rose for the first time since 2008 last year, according to the report, which analyzes data the U.S. Census Bureau releases annually. The report found that three-quarters of children who lost coverage live in states that did not expand Medicaid services available under the Affordable Care Act. The policy was signed by former President Barack Obama in 2010 that expanded Medicaid eligibility and offered cost assistance for the uninsured through health insurance marketplaces. The report found that the number of uninsured children rose in all 50 states because of loss in coverage or possible decreases in signups. Washington, D.C., saw the only increase in children with health insurance in 2017, after the number decreased in 2016. The percentage of children without health insurance in D.C. decreased from 3.1 percent to 1.2 percent. In a list of all 50 states and D.C., the city jumped from 13th to first in the number of children with insurance. The discrepancy between the growing U.S. economy and the increase in number of uninsured children is concerning, Olivia Pham, a research associate at the CCF and co-author of the study said. “I think that it is really alarming, especially when we’re in a time when we have a strong economy,” Pham said. “Why are we seeing this increase in uninsured kids?” The report suggests recent federal policy changes may have influenced the uptick in

uninsured children. While the majority of children from low-income families are eligible for Medicaid or the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, doubt regarding the programs’ futures may discourage enrollment, according to the Urban Institute, a thinktank in D.C. Congress did not fully fund CHIP for over three months in 2017, prompting some states to freeze enrollment in the program. Additional efforts in 2017 to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its individual mandate, which required almost all U.S. citizens and permanent residents to have health insurance, could have also affected the number of families with health insurance, the study says. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DMinn.) tweeted a news report summarizing the CCF study, describing the findings as “troublesome.” “After a decade of progress, the rate of uninsured children is now rising,” Klobuchar wrote Dec. 3. “Every child needs access to quality, affordable healthcare.” Klobuchar has resisted the shift leftward by fellow Democrats like Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (DOre.) on health care toward a

single-payer system. In a town hall last year, Klobuchar criticized the single-payer system and the Republican effort to repeal the ACA. Klobuchar has instead said she supports a bipartisan effort to improve the ACA. The report found one in four uninsured children has at least one parent with immigrant status. The rhetoric of President Donald Trump’s administration on immigration policy also may have contributed to fewer signups, according to Pham. In September, the White House proposed adding Medicaid to a list of public services that could prevent legal immigrants from receiving green cards if they had applied for public assistance. “That kind of policy takes away the welcome mat from Medicaid and CHIP,” Pham said. “It has the potential to discourage families from applying for coverage and may give them fear about applying for Medicaid and CHIP when it could endanger other members of the family or their status.” The report also documented a pattern of uninsured children in states with high percentages of Native American and Alaskan Native populations. Indian Health Services, a division within the

Department of Health and Human Services, provides health programs to Native Americans in the continental United States and Alaska. However, these populations still have high levels of uninsured children because the IHS does not provide insurance coverage, Pham said. “The IHS is a provider of health services, but they are not a source of health coverage,” Pham said. “That is still important, because there are not IHS facilities everywhere and kids can’t always access an IHS immediately when they need care.” The study found Texas had the most uninsured children in the country in 2017. South Dakota witnessed the largest increase in uninsured children from 2016 to 2017. Both states are among the 14 that have not authorized an expansion of Medicaid for low-income families. To limit the increase of uninsured children, policy changes must be implemented, Pham said. “I think the big concern with this report is that this upward trend in uninsured children continues,” Pham said. “If there are not changes in policy, if people don’t feel like it’s safe to access services, we’re going to see more and more children uninsured.”

A8

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

DC Council Passes Bill Limiting Prenatal Care Center for Immigrant Corporate Campaign Donations Women Celebrates 30th Anniversary JULIE GUAN

Special to The Hoya

Corporations that currently hold, or seek to hold, government contracts worth at least $250,000 will no longer be permitted to make political campaign donations under new Washington, D.C. Council legislation passed Tuesday. The bill, titled the Campaign Finance Reform Amendment Act of 2017, also creates a board which will oversee the Office of Campaign Finance, requires campaign committees to make their top five donors public and prohibits bundled campaign contributions, a practice which bypasses caps on individual contribution sizes by dividing contributions between many different donors. Authored by councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), the bill is an extension of the Fair Elections Act of 2017, which established a program for publicly funded campaigns and was passed by the D.C. Council in February. The Dec. 4 bill establishes regulations to address the issue of businesses donating money to public officials in return for expected favors, according to Allen’s Nov. 20 news release. Aquene Freechild, director of Public Citizen’s “Democracy Is For People” campaign, an advocacy project seeking to reduce the influence of large corporations on government, views the bill as a symbol for promising campaign finance reform in D.C., which she said is behind other cities and states in terms of regulating campaign finance. “It’s fantastic and much needed in every form,” Freechild said in an interview with The Hoya. “If you have business with somebody who is a public official who’s supposed to serve the public and you can give them thousands of dollars, there becomes an incentive for you to do that and gain access to that person’s fundraisers and

other types of events.” In the first round of voting Nov. 20, the campaign finance reform bill passed in the D.C. Council, with 11 of 13 council members voting in its favor. Councilmember Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4) was one of two council members who disagreed with the bill and abstained from voting. Todd’s communications director, Joshua Fleitman, said Todd felt the new bill would disproportionately affect certain voters, according to Todd’s Director of Communications Joshua Fleitman. “The reason he abstained from the first vote was because he felt that it selectively disenfranchised certain parts of the population,” Fleitman said in an interview with The Hoya. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) also abstained from voting, though for a different reason. McDuffie argued the bill was unnecessary because voters are able to see through the actions of lobbyists to influence local politics, according to AP News. Council members who voted in favor of the bill held similar concerns. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) voted in favor of the bill despite reservations regarding its effectiveness. He believes that it is impossible to remove the presence of public influence in the government, according to the Washington Post. In the second round of voting Dec. 4, the bill passed unanimously after Allen introduced amendments to address some of the lawmakers concerns. One of Allen’s amendments allowed contractors to contribute to their own campaigns if they chose to run. The legislation is still pending approval by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), who holds the power to veto the bill. Bowser has yet to indicate her position on the bill. Allen’s introduction of the bill followed a series of recent political corruption cases in the District.

In 2014, former District Medicaid contractor Jeffrey Thompson pled guilty to felony charges for illegal contributions to political campaigns, including that of former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, who served from 2011-2015. In 2013, former D.C. councilmember Michael Brown admitted to accepting $55,000 in bribes from undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. Bowser herself has fallen under scrutiny after her allied political action committee, FreshPAC, capitalized on a campaign finance law loophole to receive donations of unrestricted sizes from donors after they were nominated by Bowser to city positions and contracts, according to The Washington Post. In response, the D.C. Council signed legislation to restrict political action committee spending in Oct. 2015. More recently, Public Citizen, a political advocacy organization, filed a complaint Oct. 23 alleging Bowser violated minimum spending restrictions in her endorsement for at-large Council candidate Dionne Reeder. The Office of Campaign Finance has since dismissed the accusations. While the council has previously taken measures to curb private influence, including the creation of an independent ethics board and eliminating loopholes in campaign finance laws, the new bill is the first initiative with the potential to catalyze D.C.’s campaign finance reform, according to Freechild. “The past campaign reforms have obviously helped, but this would bring D.C. up to speed with other jurisdictions that are serious about combating corruption and empowering everyday voters,” Freechild said. “It’s not just about combating corruptions. It’s all about putting voters at the center of the process. It’s their government and they should be put at the heart of it.”

NESTOR LABASTIDA Special to The Hoya

Founder and CEO of Mary’s Center, a prenatal care clinic for immigrant women in Washington, D.C., Maria Gomez (NUR ’77) celebrated the foundation’s 30th anniversary at a reception in Riggs Library on Nov. 28. An immigrant herself, Gomez left Colombia at age 13 and attended public school in the District. She founded the center in 1988 while she was working as a nurse at the D.C. Department of Health. Gomez said that many women who she treated had suffered traumas in their home countries and often found prenatal care inaccessible. The School of Nursing and Health Studies co-hosted the event with the Georgetown’s Office of Government Relations and Community Engagement. Chair of Mary’s Center’s board of directors Stuart Butler, Dean of the NHS Patricia Cloonan, GRACE Vice President Christopher Murphy and D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) gave remarks. Gomez founded the center, along with other activists, with funding from the D.C. Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs and the Health Department to provide bilingual services to pregnant women and their children after noticing an increase in immigrants from Latin America. The center has expanded to eight locations, with the growth of the clinic allowing for the creation of a comprehensive treatment plan for each patient, Gomez said. “We have grown from one little basement in Adams Morgan to eight locations now, and we are seeing up towards 50,000 individuals with over six hundred people working for us,” Gomez said. “For that, we have a unique social change model which integrates healthcare, social services and education.” The center’s model of health care integrates these three goals,

KARLA LEYJA/THE HOYA

Maria Gomez (NUR ’77), founder of Mary’s Center, a Washington, D.C. prenatal care center, celebrated the foundation’s 30th anniversary. pointing patients to resources like after-school programs, work skills development and other social services in collaboration with their community partners. The center provides care to patients independent of their ability to pay, according to the center’s website. The Jesuit values she learned from professors and Jesuits at the university were foundational to her creation of the center, according to Gomez. The center’s values of participant-centeredness, accountability, respect and teamwork were inspired by the university’s Jesuit values, Gomez said. Gomez also attributed the Community Scholars Program, the university’s five-week summer program intended to help low-income and first-generation students transition to college, for her ability to get ahead at Georgetown. “Georgetown gave me that initial professional head start, truly professional head start, to be able to give back rather than turn my

back,” Gomez said. Gomez is set to return to the NHS at the beginning of the spring semester as a visiting distinguished professor, according to Cloonan. After Gomez’s remarks, Nadeau recognized Gomez’s and the Mary’s Center’s dedication to immigrant communities in the area on behalf of the D.C. Council. The ceremonial resolution, introduced by Nadeau, is titled “Maria S. Gomez and Mary’s Center Recognition Resolution of 2018,” according to a Nov. 29 news release. “The Council of the District of Columbia recognizes Mary’s Center for its accomplishments over 30 years of transformative work, and honors Maria S. Gomez for her important leadership in advancing the health and well-being of mothers and the District’s immigrant community,” Nadeau read from the resolution.

Former Alcohol Investigator Named Director of Nightlife MAXWELL SHEREMETA Hoya Staff Writer

MY INDIANA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Former Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools Lewis Ferebee was appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) as the new chancellor of D.C. Public Schools after a monthslong search.

Bowser Announces New DCPS Chancellor, Replacing Interim DUSTIN HARTUV Hoya Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) selected Lewis Ferebee as the new chancellor for D.C. public schools amid a series of scandals that have dogged the school system in recent years and community concerns over Bowser’s decision-making process at a press conference Dec. 3. Ferebee, who previously served as the superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, is set to replace former Chancellor Antwan Wilson, who resigned in February 2018 after circumventing the District of Columbia Public Schools lottery system to enroll his daughter at Woodrow Wilson High School. Ferebee will inherit numerous other scandals that the DCPS administration has faced over the last two years, including hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in miscollected tuition and accusations of falsified student attendance records. Bowser chose Ferebee because of his past experience leading a public education system and his commitment to serving community members. “When I looked at Dr. Ferebee’s background and experience, I believe strongly that he matches what our community wants and needs most and is able to come and do great things with us and for students, families and educators,” Bowser said at the press conference. Since December 2013, Ferebee has served as the superintendent of IPS. At IPS, Ferebee helped create programs to increase opportunities for students to succeed in college and the workforce, including negotiating raises for teachers, according to a Dec. 3 DCPS news release. The six-month search for the

new chancellor was aided by the Our Schools Leadership Committee, which conducted a community engagement process to advise Bowser. The panel consisted of students, parents, teachers and community stakeholders, and was responsible for providing community input on the search, according to the OSLC website. The majority of OSLC members, which also included members of the Washington Teachers Union, did not recommend Ferebee, instead supporting interim chancellor for DCPS Amanda Alexander, according to The Washington Times. In August, a group of residents attempted to obtain a restraining order against Bowser because they worried she had not nominated enough members to the advisory committee and did not plan to listen to their recommendations. In September, Bowser added two students, two teachers and a parent to the panel, but failed to provide their resumes to the panel, according to the Washington Times. Following Wilson’s dismissal, Alexander, former chief of elementary schools, served as the interim chancellor for DCPS, beginning in February, according to DCist. Alexander was the other front-runner for the position of chancellor, according to The Washington Post. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as DCPS interim chancellor for the last 10 months. During this time, Mayor Bowser and DCPS have released new Pre-K to Graduation policies that are supportive, inclusive and equitable,” Alexander wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I am confident that incoming Chancellor Ferebee will continue to build on the progress we have made, and I know that DCPS will continue to do great things for students and families.”

Ferebee is set to begin his role on Jan. 31, 2019, pending confirmation of his nomination by the D.C. Council early next year. The Council Committee on Education plans to schedule public engagement sessions on Ferebee’s nomination in January because the upcoming end of the council period prevents the inclusion of additional meetings this month. Since Ferebee comes from outside of the District, Chairperson of the Committee on Education David Grosso (I-At Large) encouraged public feedback in advance of the council’s vote. “In Mr. Ferebee, the mayor has chosen to nominate an individual from outside the District of Columbia. The vetting of such a candidate should not be taken lightly or hastily,” Grosso said in a press release Dec. 3. “As always, I encourage and welcome public feedback, comments, questions and concerns about the nomination as we prepare for a hearing on the nominee.” Wilson’s resignation was not the first scandal to have reached DCPS this year. Last month, the D.C. Office of Government Ethics found that a DCPS employee used his position to gain business for his own event planning company. In September, DCPS unintentionally posted the personal information of 2,000 homeless students on its website, where it kept the information up for seven months. In April, DCPS lost over $500,000 in tuition by failing to verify the residency of enrolled students. The scandals were not limited to this year, as in December 2017, one high school in DCPS graduated dozens of students who should not have been able to graduate after failing to meet certain attendance requirements.

Former Supervisory Investigator at the Washington, D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration Shawn Townsend is set to become the inaugural director of the Office of Nightlife and Culture later this month. Townsend’s appointment ended a job search that saw a record number of applications for a mayoral cabinet position in the District, according to The Washington Post. Under Townsend’s leadership, the new office, which Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) signed into legislation in October, will act as the intermediary between residents and D.C. businesses that operate between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. Bowser anticipates the office to start running mid-December, according to Associate Press Secretary Zachary Leibell. D.C. Councilmember Brandon Todd (D-Ward 4) expressed his support for Townsend because of his former experience serving in D.C.’s public sector and working with nightlife venues. “With Shawn Townsend, Mayor Bowser has found an individual with the experience and perspective necessary to lead the mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture in pursuing this important mission,” Todd said in a Nov. 28 news release.

Todd introduced legislation establishing the Office of Nightlife and Culture in 2017 with the expressed purpose of balancing the growth of the city’s nightlife industry with the needs of residents affected by the opening of new bars and clubs in their neighborhoods. The full-time position was listed on Bowser’s Office of Talent and Appointments website as an Expected Service Grade 8 public sector job, which will entitle Townsend to a $97,434 to $118,000 yearly salary, according to the DCist. During his time at the ABRA, Townsend managed the issue and renewal of liquor licenses and the investigation of potential violations of liquor law. Before joining ABRA in 2014, he worked at D.C.’s Office of Police Complaints and within D.C. Public Schools, beginning in 2009. Before working in the public sector, Townsend opened and managed a bar in Charleston, S.C., according to the news release. Townsend is set to conduct quarterly meetings with a 15-member Commission of Nightlife, which will include voices from business and residential and government interests, according to the Nov. 28 news release. The office will also include five volunteers who will work under Townsend. The National Restaurant Association reports that there are

2,267 bars and restaurants in the District, bringing in $3.8 billion in sales and employing 68,900 people. Townsend’s office will be responsible for resolving issues related to the expansion of the District’s growing nightlife industry, according to Todd. “This new office will help ensure that all stakeholders are working together to address concerns such as parking, noise and litter, and that new and existing establishments have help cutting red tape as they seek to expand opportunities in neighborhoods across the District,” Todd said in the Nov. 28 news release. The office will be central to maximizing the nightlife experience for both D.C. residents and visitors, Bowser said. “The Office of Nightlife and Culture is going to ensure that we’re working across D.C. government, with our residents and businesses, to ensure a vibrant D.C. nightlife that works for everyone,” Bowser said in the Nov. 28 news release. Bowser expressed hope that the office will allow the District to promote equitable growth in its nightlife economy. “Together, we’re going to work with the community to overcome challenges, create new opportunities for Washingtonians and spread prosperity across all eight wards,” Bowser said in the Nov. 28 news release.

KARLA LEYJA/THE HOYA

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced her selection of Shawn Townsend as the inaugural director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture in a Nov. 28 news release.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

NEWS

THE HOYA

A9

A10

SPORTS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

UNDER REVIEW

HELMET TO HELMET

Mets Take Risk, Acquire Fans, Executives, NFL Must Aging Canó, Closer Diaz Confront Domestic Violence Jeff Swanson On Monday, the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners completed a blockbuster trade headlined by New York’s acquisition of eighttime All-Star second baseman Robinson Canó and elite closer Edwin Diaz. In exchange, Seattle received outfielder Jay Bruce, relievers Anthony Swarzak and Gerson Bautista, and prospects Justin Dunn and Jarred Kelenic. Seattle also sent $20 million to New York to offset a portion of the remaining five years and $120 million on Canó’s contract. This trade has drawn significant attention across the baseball industry, warranting a thorough examination. The trade reveals the Mets’ paramount objective of fielding a contending team immediately. The franchise had previously demonstrated the makings of a perennial championship contender, following a World Series appearance in 2015 and a playoff appearance in 2016. However, New York has endured two consecutive losing seasons since then, both of which have been plagued by injuries and underperformance. This offseason, the Mets overhauled their front office by hiring Brodie Von Wagenen as their general manager. Von Wagenen’s hiring was an unconventional choice. Before the hiring, Von Wagenen was an agent for MLB players. Thus far, his first move has demonstrated his willingness to take risks to achieve that goal. Canó presents an offensive upgrade at second base and will bolster the middle of the Mets’ anemic lineup. Following his return from a performanceenhancing drugs suspension, Canó played 80 games in which he re-established his offensive prowess, hitting .303 with 10 home runs and 50 runs batted

in. The Mets are betting Canó can maintain similar production over the next few years. However, given Canó’s age of 36, his production on offense and ability to play second base may begin to decline in the near future. The Mets will also find some strength in the addition of Diaz, a dominant young reliever who will help to stabilize a poor Mets bullpen that ranked 28th in ERA last season. The acquisition of Diaz provides an accomplished closer, allowing the Mets to deploy relievers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman earlier in games. These three relievers will provide the groundwork for a group that needs to be further augmented in free agency. From the Mariners’ perspective, the trade expedites the rebuilding process by clearing the longterm salary owed to Canó and by acquiring young, controllable talent in Dunn and Kelenic. General manager Jerry Dipoto had the awareness to recognize that the Mariners would likely be unable to truly compete with their division rivals such as the Astros and the Angels in the short term. As a result, he opted to launch a rebuild of the team, despite the fact that it very narrowly fell short of the playoffs in 2018. Seattle will receive Bruce and Swarzak, who were included to send the Mariners $36.5 million in salary over the next two years, enabling them to offset Canó’s con-

tract in New York. Perhaps Dipoto will elect to flip these veterans for additional prospects. Yet, in the interim, Bruce and Swarzak are bounce-back candidates for 2019, after both struggled with injuries and performance in 2018. However, the crown jewels of the deal for Seattle are Dunn and Kelenic, two of the Mets’ top prospects. Dunn is a starting pitcher who posted modest numbers in AA during the 2018 season, but has managed to maintain his position as the No. 3 starter. Kelenic is a 19-year-old five-tool outfielder with All-Star potential. Ultimately, this deal was the result of two teams with opposite aims for the 2019 season. The Mariners are rebuilding, while the Mets hope to contend. The Mets’ offense and pitching will improve by addressing needs at second base and closer. However, they are undertaking significant risk by sacrificing premium prospects to fill needs at the positions that were among the deepest in regard to free agent alternatives. Meanwhile, the Mariners continue to trade their top veterans for prospects after also dealing James Paxton and Jean Segura. The deal will be evaluated in the long term based on whether Canó and Diaz are able to lead the Mets to postseason success, and whether Dunn and Kelenic prove to be valuable contributors for the Mariners in the future.

METS

Second baseman Robinson Canó and closer Edwin Diaz were traded from the Seattle Mariners to the New York Mets on Dec. 4.

SWIMMING

Amanda Christovich Consider everything you will learn in four years of college. Think about the work you completed, the relentless studying — all you learned about the world and the people in it. Now consider what the NFL learned about violence against women in that same period: nothing. Four years ago, Baltimore Ravens star running back Ray Rice beat his then-fiancee Janay Palmer in an elevator at a casino, as revealed by TMZ in a video published Sept. 8, 2014. Rice was released and suspended indefinitely from the Ravens only after the video’s release. The organization claimed it was unaware of the magnitude of the events before the video surfaced. The scandal sparked significant backlash for the league, prompting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to create a new policy for handling domestic violence, instituted on Dec. 10, 2014. Among other things, this new policy included hiring new executives. At the time, the NFL finally seemed to be taking violence against women seriously. Events this week regarding former Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt proved the NFL has learned nothing. On Friday, TMZ released a video of Hunt assaulting a woman in a hotel. Neither the Chiefs nor the NFL had seen the video before its public release, but neither entity had interviewed Hunt or the alleged victim in their investigation. Both parties attempted to get in contact with the alleged victim. Shortly after the video was released, the Chiefs released

Hunt. As reports trickle in regarding details of the case, countless stories have appeared proclaiming “the NFL has a domestic violence problem.” Though these provocative headlines are true, they miss an important point, in addition to missing the fact that Hunt’s altercation wasn’t intimate partner violence and therefore not “domestic” violence. The NFL’s domestic violence problem is a microcosm of a problem many industries and professional sports leagues face today. Domestic violence is not just an NFL problem. It is everyone’s problem. The NFL is doing at least one thing worse than many companies: failing to distance itself from allegations in the first place. If a company has even the slightest inkling that a job candidate may have committed domestic violence, they likely won’t hire the candidate. The NFL still doesn’t abide by this general rule, and it does not hold its athletes to the higher standard they deserve as public figures. The NFL should be asking a few questions. For any of these questions, if one substitutes their company or university for the NFL, he or she can see how pervasive these unanswered questions regarding assaulting women are in many corners of our country. First, what obligation does the league have to investigate these allegations? Does it play judge and jury or await law enforcement? What protocol does it follow to conduct an investigation? Answers to these questions don’t have to be difficult. Former CEO of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, Amy Trask, offered a comprehensive plan for how a team should investigate an assault case. “When you learn of a situation, you mobilize immediately,” Trask said in an interview with CBS Sports. “You’ve got

to assume that in this day and age, there will be a video recording of everything. And I would search like Nancy Drew to find that video recording.” Next, the NFL must establish a leaguewide plan to consistently deal with perpetrators. Currently, the league has a six-game suspension policy for any player who has committed assault. However, the policy is almost never upheld. The league must develop universal, severe punishments to set a precedent and incentivize players to think before they act. An example of this could be to eliminate incentive bonuses for players who have been suspended. These questions alone do not illustrate how blatant callousness towards assaulting women persists outside the NFL. The Ringer’s Kevin Clark wrote Dec. 1 that the NFL believes it is scandal-proof and no amount of drama will cause the demise of its ratings. So far, it has been right. Just as the Redskins claimed linebacker Reuben Foster off of waivers because they thought they could weather a public-relations hit, the NFL believes it can push assault aside because its fans still consume its product, no matter the scandal. Foster was arrested Nov. 24 on domestic violence charges for hitting his ex-girlfriend. This season, NFL games have accounted for 46 of the top 50 most-watched shows on television. NFL fans don’t seem to mind the immorality of the NFL, so the company has no financial incentive to make changes. Boycotting games and not purchasing merchandise may be a way to get the league to listen, but the likelihood of mobilizing enough fans to actually impact the NFL’s bottom line is almost zero. After this week, one thing is clear: The executives sitting in their swanky NFL offices are not the only problem. We, the football fans, are at fault, too.

TRACK

Carbone Records 2 Georgetown Dominates in 1st Indoor Meet Qualifying Times For Olympic Trials JOANNA LACOPPOLA Hoya Staff Writer

SIDNEY LEE

Hoya Staff Writer

Among many of the nation’s top swimmers, Drew Carbone, a sophomore on the Georgetown men’s swimming and diving team, recorded two qualifying times for the U.S. Olympic Trials last weekend at the U.S. Winter National Championships. Georgetown sent four swimmers to Nationals, which ran from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. Together, Carbone, senior Seth Maslowski, freshman Brett Sherman and freshman Carlson Temple competed in eight different events over three days. On Thursday, three Georgetown swimmers raced in separate events. Sherman entered the water first for the 400-yard freestyle, finishing in second place in the first heat and 26th place in the preliminaries overall. Maslowski placed fifth in the 50 freestyle and ranked 55th overall. Carbone narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic Trials in his event on Thursday by 1.56 seconds. He competed in the 200 individual medley, winning his preliminary heat but then turned in a fourthplace finish in the C final. Friday marked the team’s strongest performances at Nationals. While racing in the 100 backstroke, Carbone won his preliminary heat and beat the Olympic qualifying time by 0.13 seconds. Having secured a spot at the Olympic Trials, he is set to compete for a spot on the 2020 Summer Olympic Team. Temple raced in his first event on Friday, swimming in the 400 individual medley. His time qualified him for the C final, where he placed eighth. In the 400 individual medley, Sherman edged his way into the B final and swam to a fifth-place finish. Carbone did not expect his Saturday result. He surprised even himself with a second breakout performance by recording another qualifying time for the Olympic Trials in the 200 back-

stroke. “My goal was to qualify for the trials in at least the 100 backstroke; the 200 was kind of a surprise,” Carbone said in an interview with The Hoya. “That was a big drop in my best time and it was unexpected, but obviously I couldn’t be happier. It definitely gives me more confidence going into conference [play].” That day, Temple University also competed in the 200 breaststroke and placed seventh in the preliminaries but missed out on the evening finals by just 1.5 seconds.

“Obviously I couldn't be happier. It definitely gives me more confidence going into conference [play].” SOPHOMORE DREW CARBONE

Georgetown’s swimming and diving Head Coach, Jack Leavitt, said he was satisfied by the results from Nationals and remains hopeful for the team’s performance in the Big East Conference in February. “I wanted the swimmers to get more experience in a meet like that. It was the first opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Trials, and Drew made the cut for a couple, which was great,” Leavitt said. “But what we do here, the goal has always been to prepare for Big East, building on what we’ve been working on for the first half of the year to get better and faster.” The Hoyas will return to McCarthy Pool to host The George Washington University and American University on Saturday, Jan. 12.

The Georgetown men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Annapolis, Md., last week to race for the first time this indoor season. Both the men and women burst into the season with blazing speed, coming away with eight first-place spots and 12 top-three finishes. The women’s squad finished with successful allaround performances. Graduate student Taylor Williams snagged first place in the 200-meter with a time of 24.55. In her inaugural collegiate race, freshman Sami Corman also finished first in the 1000-meter event with a time of 2:49.39. “It's obviously great to start your collegiate career with a win; Sami was very competitive and showed that she was willing to stay close to the early pace and make a concerted effort to run a fast opener,” Associate Head Coach Alton McKenzie said. Corman was not the only Hoya who ran well in the 1000-meter race. The Blue and Gray gained the top three spots for this event. Graduate student Kennedy Weisner won second place with a time of 2:50.22, with freshman Rachel Sessa close behind in third place with a time of 2:55.02. “We were one through three in the Women's 1K, so that bodes well for what's to come later in the year. [It is] critical that we build on that as a team,” McKenzie said. As for the 200-meter event, Williams, who reached a personal record, was followed closely behind by sophomore Cassidy Palmer, who came in third with a time of 24.73. There are high hopes for Williams, according to McKenzie. “Cassidy ran a PR first time out, so this hopefully will give her added confidence to continue performing at a high level,” McKenzie said. “Taylor is coming off Big East sprint double outdoors, so the expectation is for her to be one of top sprinters in the region.”

GUHOYAS

Sophomore middle-distance runner Ruach Padhal finished first in the 1,000-meter event with a time of 2:24.48 at the Navy Invitational on Dec. 1. The Hoyas recorded eight first-place finishes at the meet. The Hoyas found additional success in the 60-meter hurdle event, where sophomore Malika Houston gained second place with a time of 8.77, and sophomore Lexi Del Gizzo finished second in the 500-meter race with a time of 1:17.42. The men’s squad also put on impressive performances, gaining first place in six separate events. Among those top finishes was freshman Ian Delgado, who finished first overall in the mile run with a time of 4:20.23. Perhaps the most impressive performance of the day was given by freshman Tristan Forsythe, who finished in first place for the 3000-meter event with a time of 8:28.18. Assistant Track and Field coach Brandon Bonsey was happy with Forsythe, who beat his high school and

collegiate personal records. “Specifically, Tristan I thought ran a great race. He ran the last 1,000 meters by himself and he was lapping a lot of the field, so he had to run wide, so he really ran extra distance in the last K. He won by 22 seconds; that’s a pretty commanding win. That was a huge PR [compared to his high school times],” Bonsey said. Senior Joe White, who finished first overall in the 400-meter event with a time of 47.94, gained another victory for Georgetown. Bonsey was impressed by his performance, especially considering the 400-meter event is not White’s principal focus. “[The] 400 is not his primary event, and this fall we have been focused on base training, so we have been doing longer work than he’s used

to. [It’s] certainly not stuff that’s going to benefit [him] for a 400, so the fact that he went out running 47.94, not using starting blocks, was really good. Joe is in fantastic shape [and] breaking 48 this time of year was a very, very good sign,” Bonsey said. The men’s and women’s teams will return to the track in six weeks, when they will compete in the Penn State Nittany Lion Challenge on Jan. 12. Coach Bonsey remains positive for the men’s track team this upcoming season. “I think the team is in a great spot, specifically those middle-distance runners,” Bonsey said. “I thought coming into the year that we had the best men’s middledistance roster in the country and the guys have trained really hard this fall.”

SPORTS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

THE HOYA

A11

WOMEN’S SOCCER

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Tournament Run Ends Against UNC UNC, from A12

DERRICK ARTHUR-CUDJOE/THE HOYA

Freshman forward Josh LeBlanc dropped six points, added two steals and grabbed 10 rebounds against Liberty on Dec. 3.

Freshmen Combine For 37 Points, Defeat Liberty at Home town led 40-38 at the break. However, in the second half Georgetown’s defense stepped up when they needed it most. The Blue and Gray held the Flames to 39.5 percent shooting in the second half. Georgetown’s defense helped them build a 25-point cushion on the offensive end. Govan praised his team’s emphasis on sharing the ball on offense during their second-half run. “We started playing together, moving the ball and making good reads on offense,” Govan said. “Instead of taking the first shot, we worked for the best shot we could.” Still, Ewing warned of a return of bad habits. The team had 19 turnovers, compared to eight in each of its last two matchups. “Once again, when we got up big, instead of keeping our foot on the gas, we let go,” Ewing said. Georgetown will look to continue its positive momentum in its next matchup which is set for Saturday, Dec. 8 against longtime rival Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN.

LIBERTY from A12

Malinowski played 10 minutes and left with a knee injury in the second half. Pickett played 28 minutes, the second most on the team, and led the team with a game-high five assists. Ewing praised Pickett’s response to the benching, especially considering his negative response to being benched last season. “He did respond — unlike last year, when he pouted,” Ewing said. “This year he stepped up, played hard and did good things to help us win,” he said. Ewing also reassured that Pickett will return to the starting lineup against Syracuse. “I’m going back to the way we normally do things come next game,” Ewing said. A large part of the victory came from Georgetown’s performance on the glass. Georgetown increased its average rebounding total to 38.4 per game, out-rebounding Liberty 44-26. In the first half, the Flames played the Hoyas tightly. George-

SUDOKU

2 4

9 9

9 2 8

5 7

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

Last issue’s solutions

3 9 1 4 2 6 5 8 7

5 6 7 3 8 1 9 4 2

2 8 4 9 7 5 3 1 6

1 2 5 6 4 8 7 3 9

9 4 6 7 1 3 2 5 8

7 3 8 2 5 9 4 6 1

8 7 2 5 6 4 1 9 3

6 5 9 1 3 2 8 7 4

4 1 3 8 9 7 6 2 5

crossed the ball into the box in the 21st minute, but UNC knocked the ball away. Sophomore midfielder Grace Nguyen had three shots for Georgetown in the first half, including one in the 24th minute that sailed just over the crossbar. In the second half, UNC gained control of the match, and the Hoyas relied on their defense to keep them in the game. The Tar Heels added seven corner kicks in the second half and took eight shots, three of which were on goal. Georgetown’s offense struggled, taking four shots, none of which were on goal. The Hoyas also had no corner kick opportunities in the frame. In the 83rd minute, Schechtman leapt to save a bouncing ball from going out of bounds on the goal line. When she landed, she came down awkwardly on her knee and immediately crumpled to the ground in pain. She had to be helped off the field, and junior backup goalkeeper Lauren Gallagher was thrust into action, marking her sixth game in three seasons on the team. “I was hoping Arielle would be okay,” Gallagher said. “Coming into the 80th minute of any game can be tough; in an atmosphere like this, it makes it a lot more difficult. I knew I had my team at my back.” Less than two minutes later, Gallagher was put to the test, as Georgetown committed a foul inside its own penalty area and UNC was awarded a penalty kick. The shot was high and slightly to Gallagher’s right, but the junior made an incredible play. She jumped to her right and cleared the ball over the bar with a violent punch. “I just guessed right,” said Gallagher in a postgame press conference. “I was in the right spot at the right time. It was a well-hit shot, but luckily I was there.” Nolan commented on Gallagher’s ability to step up on the big stage.

SOPHIA NUNN/tHE HOYA

Junior defender Sarah Tressel started all 24 games for the Georgetown women’s soccer team this season. Against Butler on Nov. 4, Tressel contributed to Georgetown’s 1-0 shutout. “We had to deal with a lot of adversity when Arielle went down. But we knew what we had coming on the field. Lauren stepped up and made a great save on the penalty kick, boosted her confidence and handled the rest of the game like a veteran,” Nolan said. A scoreless final few minutes led to overtime, which consisted of two 10-minute periods. The Tar Heels’ depth helped them later, as the Hoyas’ tired legs kept them on the defensive for the majority of the first half of overtime. UNC had a free kick just outside the box in the 92nd minute, which was deflected away before it reached Gallagher. As the first overtime came to a close, it had a one-on-one opportunity against Gallagher, who stepped off the line and forced the shot wide left. After 100 minutes of scoreless play, the match moved into its second half of over-

time. With less than two minutes to play in the period, an unsuccessful Georgetown offensive attack turned into a UNC counter attack. “They cleared it,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said, “and all of a sudden they were going the other way.” The Tar Heels quickly raced down the field and scored on a give-and-go to UNC senior defender Julia Ashley, marking the game’s only goal and the end of Georgetown’s season. Although not the result the Hoyas had hoped for, they played a great game against a formidable opponent. “I give credit to Carolina. They found a way to win the game. They showed a bit of poise in the right moment,” Nolan said. “I felt we had enough chances that maybe we could have gotten something, but to be fair to them, they had some chances too. It’s always hard when the

game finishes so close to the end.” After the tournament, graduate student forward Kyra Carusa was one of 11 players named to the College Cup AllTournament team. When reflecting on his team’s season in the postgame press conference, Nolan said, “I couldn’t be any prouder of these kids. Huge credit to our kids for a great year and for leaving everything on the field the way champions should.” Georgetown’s season was the most successful in program history. The Hoyas won their third straight Big East Championship, their second straight Big East regular season title and finished with 21 wins, the most in team history. “It’s been an incredible season,” Farrell said. “I couldn’t love my teammates any more, as hard as it is to go out this way. It was a great season, and no one can take that away.”

MEN’S SOCCER

Offense Poised to Lead GU in 2019 Season SEWALL, from A12

center of the pitch. The Hoyas were able to frequently recycle possession through Zajec, as he was one of the most important parts of the Hoyas’ buildup play. Zajec also took a majority of the corners and free kicks and was a large reason that the Hoyas were dangerous from set pieces. Freshman midfielder Sean Zawadski was also a bright spot for the Hoyas. He demonstrated poise and composure and should continue to be an important piece of the Hoyas’ team going forward. Zajec and Zawadski both received postseason honors; Zajec was named to the All-Big East Second Team, while Zawadski was named to the Big East AllFreshman team.

Anchored by their two senior center backs, Peter Schropp and Brendan McDonough, Georgetown’s stout defense evolved as the season wore on. The biggest adjustment that the Hoyas’ defense made during the regular season was preventing the opposition from getting opportunities on net. Freshman goalkeeper Giannis Nikopolidis also made key plays as the season wore on. Nikopolidis became more vocal and assertive in the box and generally helped deal with any potential danger well. During the regular season, Georgetown led the Big East with 10 shutouts. In postseason play, the Hoyas’ defense allowed only one goal in four games. For their defensive efforts, senior defender Bren-

dan McDonough was named to the All-Big East Second Team and Nikopolidis was named to the Big East AllFreshman Team.

“The biggest adjustment the Hoyas’ defense made was preventing the opposition from getting opportunities.” DREW SEWALL

Junior defender Dylan Nealis stood out among a stellar defense. Nealis controlled the entire right side of the pitch both in attack and defense.

Nealis constantly bombed forward on the right wing, wreaking havoc on opposing defenses. In the NCAA Tournament game against West Virginia, the majority of the Hoyas’ attacks flowed through Nealis and he scored the game-winning goal in the 88th minute. Unsurprisingly, Nealis was named All-Big East First Team and was awarded the Big East Defender of the Year. Overall, three Hoyas were named to the All-Big East First Team. In addition, two were named to the All-Big East Second Team and the Big East AllFreshman Team. The Hoyas will lose six players to graduation, including four starters. However, with Dodson, Nealis and Achara returning, the future looks bright for Georgetown men’s soccer in 2019.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Hoyas Split Games in McDonough Arena FORDHAM, from A12

showed her rebounding ability, grabbing 10 rebounds en route to her second double-double of the season. After the win, Georgetown welcomed a strong VCU team to McDonough Arena. The Hoyas again held their opponent in check on the defensive end of the floor in the next contest, holding the VCU Rams to 47 points. Yet, a lackluster offensive performance resulted in a 47-45 defeat. Georgetown faced a much more heated battle against VCU than Fordham, as the game was knotted at 24 as the teams hit the locker room. The Hoyas temporarily created some separation in the second half, taking a six-point lead into the fourth. However, the offense slowed down considerably in the fourth quarter, tallying only nine points on 19 percent shooting. The Hoyas struggled to slow the Rams’ offense. VCU exploded for 17 points in this frame to complete the comeback. After the game, Howard voiced concerns over the team’s performance at both ends of the floor

SOPHIA NUNN/THE HOYA

Freshman Nikola Kovacikova played 10 minutes, recording three rebounds, in Georgetown’s win against Fordham on Nov. 29. She is averaging 3.8 points per game for the Hoyas this season. in an interview with GUHoyas. “We just have to make our shots, that’s the biggest way to change the outcome,” Howard said. “VCU finished the easier baskets, and we had some bad defensive possessions which made a difference. We have some mental adjustments to

make.” Although a tough defeat, the Hoyas can take away some bright spots. White and Adomako both contributed 14 points of their own, once again proving they are the consistent scorers this teams needs and can depend on. The women were also able to

string together their second impressive defensive performance in as many games. The Hoyas will have to regain momentum quickly, as tenth ranked and undefeated North Carolina State comes to the Hilltop on Saturday, Dec. 8. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.

Sports

Men’s Basketball Georgetown (7-1) vs. Syracuse (6-2) Saturday, Dec. 8, 3:30 p.m. Carrier Dome

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

Sophomore Nick Carbone qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials with his performance at the U.S. Winter National Championships.

See A10

MEN’S BASKETBALL

“

Strong 2nd Half Powers GU to Win CARTER OWEN Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown men’s basketball team defeated Liberty University 88-78 in a fastpaced home contest at the Capital One Arena on Monday. Following two wins over Campbell University and the University of Richmond last week, the Hoyas (7-1) looked to extend their winning streak to four games. Senior center Jessie Govan drove the Hoyas to victory with an efficient 17-point, 10-rebound double-double. Freshman guard James Akinjo led the team in scoring with 19 points and had his best shooting performance of the season, sinking six of his 10 shots from the field. As a team, Georgetown shot

52.7 percent on 29-of-55 field goals, including 61.1 percent from beyond the three-point line. On the season, the Hoyas have averaged 47.3 percent on field attempts and 36.1 percent on shots from behind the arc. Sophomore forward Jamorko Pickett was benched in favor of senior guard Greg Malinowski against the Flames (7-2). Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85) described that he made his decision based on Malinowski’s performance in practice. “Some things happened in practice, so I decided to make a change,” Ewing said in a postgame press conference. “Greg did an outstanding job.” See LIBERTY, A11

12

The number of top-three finishes the men’s and women’s track teams recorded at the Navy Invite.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Hoyas Fall 1-0 to Tar Heels in Double OT Hoya Staff Writer

DERRICK ARTHUR-CUDJOE/THE HOYA

Huge credit to our kids for a great year and for leaving everything on the field.”

Women’s Soccer Head Coach Dave Nolan

JOSH ROSSON

Senior guard Greg Malinowski scored four points in 10 minutes against Liberty on Friday. He is averaging 4.6 points per game this season.

NUMBERS GAME

TALKING POINTS

SWIMMING

The Georgetown women’s soccer team entered the National Collegiate Athletic Association College Cup Semifinals on Nov. 30 to take on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels. The Big East champions came in riding an undefeated record. Throughout the NCAA tournament, Georgetown advanced through four rounds, defeating powerhouses Duke and Baylor University. However, the Hoyas dropped their first game of the season 1-0 in a double-overtime thriller. This was a bitter end to a historic season for the Blue and Gray. The top-seeded Hoyas (21-13, 10-0-1 Big East) traveled to Cary, N.C., last week for the four-team College Cup, marking their second trip in the last three years. UNC (21-4-2, 10-0-0 ACC) has long been considered one of the true powerhouses of NCAA Division I women’s college soccer. They are the only team in the country that have played in all 37 NCAA tournaments. On Friday, the Tar Heels made their 28th College Cup appearance, of which they have won 21. Friday’s matchup was the first-ever between Georgetown and UNC. The two schools played in front of a sellout crowd in Cary, mostly filled with Tar Heel fans. The first half went back and forth, with both teams creating good scoring opportunities. UNC had five corner kicks, but the steady Georgetown

defense cleared the ball each time. Senior goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman, who was named a first team All-American by the United States Soc-

cer Coaches, made several crucial saves to keep the score even at zero. Senior forward Caitlin Farrell, the other Hoya to receive

the same two accolades as Schechtman, beat her defender down the right side and See UNC, A11

KIRK ZIESER/THE HOYA

Junior midfielder Paula Germino-Watnick scored eight goals and added six assists in 20 starts for the Georgetown women’s soccer team this season. Georgetown’s campaign ended against UNC last week.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S SOCCER

White Scores 15 in Home Victory Big East Champs End Season, Shut Out in Round of 16 BRENDAN DOLAN Hoya Staff Writer

After dropping back-to-back games on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24, the Georgetown women’s basketball team got back on steady ground with a victory over Fordham University on Nov. 29, only to drop its next game against Virginia Commonwealth University three days later. Following a struggling performance at the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout, the

team returned to Washington, D.C., needing a win to maintain its winning record. Georgetown (5-4) answered the call in its home game against Fordham (5-5), capitalizing on a second-half run to defeat the Rams 58-38. However, this momentum did not carry them through the weekend, as they slipped up for a bitter two-point loss against VCU (6-2). The team’s hard, collective defense against Fordham kept the Rams to just 10 sec-

ond-half points and enabled the Hoyas to pull away late in the game. While Georgetown began to heat up from the field, making 40 percent of its field goals in the game, they still were able to hold Fordham to a dismal second-half shooting performance of 15 percent from the field. The team also caused 13 turnovers on the defensive end. Head Coach James Howard praised the team’s defensive performance in a postgame

interview with GUHoyas. “We pride ourselves on the defensive end, and tonight, we defended well,” Howard said. Upperclassmen provided leadership and offensive firepower for the Hoyas. Senior guard Dionna White led the team with 15 points, while graduate student guards Dorothy Adomako and Mikayla Venson posted 13 and 12 respectively. Adomako also See FORDHAM, A11

SOPHIA NUNN/THE HOYA

Graduate student guard Mikayla Venson scored 12 points in Georgetown’s 58-38 win over Fordham on Nov. 29. Against VCU on Dec. 2, Venson tallied six points and two assists. For the season, Venson is averaging 12.4 points per game and has 27 total assists. Visit us online at thehoya.com/category/sports

DREW SEWALL Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown men’s soccer team followed up on its impressive 2017 campaign with another exceptional season in 2018. The Hoyas (13-5-3, 6-2-1 Big East) finished second in the Big East regular season standings behind Creighton (114-3, 7-1-1 Big East). However, Georgetown would ultimately go on to win the Big East Conference Tournament for the third time in four years, awarding them a berth in the NCAA tournament in which they were the sole representative of the Big East Conference in the field of 48. The Hoyas put together a solid run in the NCAA tournament and advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 2014. Seeded 13th overall, Georgetown had a firstround bye before beating West Virginia University in the round of 32. However, the season came to an end in the round of 16, when the Hoyas were shutout 1-0 at home to the Michigan Spartans in a tightly contested game. Georgetown’s regular season was marked by a tough nonconference schedule in which they played some of the best teams in the nation. The team held three-time defending national champion Stanford University to a 1-1 draw, and looked far more composed than their opponents in the process. In addition, they knocked off the

#8 Duke Blue Devils 1-0 on Duke’s own field. However, the defining moment of the Georgetown Hoyas’ regular season came on the road during their 2-1 comeback win over the Creighton Bluejays in their final Big East game of the season. Playing in front of his hometown crowd, senior defender Peter Schropp scored a screeching goal from a free kick to tie the game at one. Then, in the third minute of overtime, sophomore forward Derek Dodson hit a wellstruck volley in the box to score the sudden death goal and win the match for the Hoyas. This win over Creighton, the Big East Regular Season Champion, propelled the Hoyas into the postseason. Georgetown’s effort came up short against Michigan State, but the season was marked by incredible balance and star players on both offense and defense. The Hoyas’ potent attack led the team all season. They averaged 21 shots per game, the third most in the nation. Dodson and junior forward Achara combined to make a powerful duo up top; Dodson finished with nine goals during the regular season, tied for second in the Big East. Achara and Dodson both finished All-Big East First Team. Georgetown’s midfield provided another strong spot in 2018. Senior midfielder Kyle Zajec took the lead in the See SEWALL, A11