The Hoya: April 27, 2018

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 99, No. 26, © 2018

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2018

YEAR IN REVIEW

Take a look at this year’s top stories in news, arts and entertainment, features and sports.

EDITORIAL Arming GUPD would put the Georgetown community in unnecessary danger.

NEW SENATE ELECTED Eighteen new GUSA senators were elected in the association’s first school year-based race.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A8

B2-B3

Corp Hit by Cyberattack, Losing Files Conflicts of Interest FBI investigating incident; D.C. and campus police responded Spotlight Ambiguity In SAC Bylaws JEFF CIRILLO AND CHRISTIAN PAZ Hoya Staff Writers

Students of Georgetown, Inc.’s internal network of Google accounts was hacked on the night of March 21, leaving the student-run business commonly known as The Corp without access to internal documents, records and email communications for about a day. The Metropolitan Police Department and the Georgetown University Police Department responded to the incident the following morning. MPD referred the incident to the financial and cyber crimes unit of the FBI, which is investigating the case, according to MPD and FBI spokespersons. The Corp did not comment on any aspect of the law enforcement investigation or response. The attack, confirmed to THE HOYA by The Corp last week, underscores the vulnerability of campus organizations to malicious cyberattacks, particularly as clubs increasingly store internal data on digital platforms. On the night of the attack, the yet-unidentified hacker or hackers accessed The Corp’s internal network of Google accounts, called a G Suite. The Corp uses the suite for email communication, as well as storage of important documents concerning daily operations including schedules, employee handbooks, policy documents

CHRISTIAN PAZ

International Relations Association, a non-profit that provides IRC with significant external When representatives from funding. the International Relations Indeed, a review of meeting Club faced the Student Activi- minutes from the 2017-18 acaties Commission on Monday, demic year and interviews with March 19 to explain why IRC current and former SAC commembers had travelled to Pan- missioners point to apparent ama City earlier that month conflicts of interest between IRC without required SAC approval, and SAC, and a larger problem the club had for a student already argued commission their case a “Groups get one charged week earlier to with keepthe commis- commissioner to ing clubs sion, which represent them before and other included four students accurrent IRC SAC, but sometimes it countable. members. Current and At the time feels like certain groups former comof the March 19 missioners, SAC meeting, have three or four.” both IRC two commismembers sioners, both and not, RICARDO MONDOLFI current IRC have exFormer Chair, Student Activities Commission members, had pressed conalready pushed fusion over for a lesser sanction on the when they should participate club’s international travel dur- in discussions and when club ing a March 12 meeting, while affiliations might present a contwo other IRC members had ac- flict of interest. tively participated in SAC’s discussion over possible sanctions WATCHING THE WATCHDOG on the club. The SAC deliberaComposed of 13 undergradutions appeared routine, even ate students chosen through as four IRC members discussed an application and interview and voted on sanctions for an process, the Student Activities organization to which they belong. Two also held ranking See SAC, A6 positions in the Georgetown

Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: SUBUL MALIK/THE HOYA

Th internal Google network of Students of Georgetown, Inc., was hit by a cyberattack on March 21, leaving the business’s student employees without access to key documents and records. and other materials, according to Alex Gong (SFS ’20), CEO of The Corp. Soon after gaining access at about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21, the hacker deleted the entire G Suite later that night, wiping out important data, files and all Corp employees’ Google accounts. The Corp’s accounts and data were fully restored within a day of the hack, according to Gong. No files were altered or permanently lost, and no sensitive employee or customer data were compromised as a result of the

incident, Gong said. “Protecting that information will continue to be a priority for us moving forward,” Gong wrote in a statement to THE HOYA. Typically, G Suites that have been deleted cannot be recovered. Google technicians managed through an “unconventional process” to restore the suite, according to Ricardo Mondolfi (SFS ’19), the chair of The Corp’s board of directors. Before the G Suite was restored, the company’s senior leadership could not be certain

whether their files would be recovered or whether The Corp’s storefronts would be able to operate without them. A spokesperson for Google declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of customer service matters. The cyberattack underscores the vulnerabilities of Georgetown’s other entirely studentrun organizations, which may operate with lackluster cybersecurity protocols. See CORP, A6

Concerns Continue Over SFS-Q Pelosi Stresses Unity, Broad Migrant Worker Conditions Tent in Democratic Party COSIMA SCHELFHOUT

ELIZABETH ASH

“What we’ve seen at Georgetown-Qatar is the norm erosion of our ethical standards.” So wrote Ian Almond — a world literature professor at Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar, who is currently on leave — in a November 2017 letter sent to Provost Robert Groves concerning the treatment of migrant workers at the Qatari campus. Almond published the letter on his Facebook page in February after receiving no reply. In his letter, Almond was incensed by what he viewed as the lamentable conditions for migrant workers at the Qatari campus. The 122 migrant workers who staff Georgetown’s Qatari campus work in a number of areas ranging from office management to facilities to dining. Yet according to Almond, these workers face deplorable conditions. A few days after publicly posting his letter, Almond received a response from Groves, according to Almond’s Facebook page. Groves’ reply included a link to a February letter to the editor published in the Georgetown Voice discussing steps the university has taken to protect workers at its Qatari campus. Almond, in his letter, claimed workers were paid

A unified Democratic Party is essential as the party heads into the 2018 midterm elections, argued U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (DCalif.) at a student town hall hosted by the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service and the McCourt School of Public Policy on Tuesday morning in Gaston Hall. Outlining a path to retake the House, Pelosi encouraged Democratic candidates to create a distinct platform from the Republican Party as a whole in the congressional election. “Our message to our candidates and members seeking election is show our purpose,” Pelosi said. “Know your purpose. Know your subject. Have a plan, and connect to the people. This is about connecting to the aspirations and the apprehensions of the American people.” Pelosi currently serves as the minority leader of the House of Representatives, and under former President Barack Obama from 2007 to 2011 served as speaker of the House as the first woman to serve in that role. Pelosi answered questions from a panel of students who

Hoya Staff Writer

Hoya Staff Writer

FEATURED

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE

Critics say poor working conditions at Georgetown University’s Qatar campus are antithetical to the university’s values. between 1000 and 1700 riyals per month — the equivalent of $250 to $400 — and forced to sleep in cramped accommodations “with four or sometimes eight to a room.” The average wages of migrant construction workers in Qatar can be as low as $160 per month, according to Vox. Almond said he found these conditions antithetical to the university’s values. “This situation is intolerable,” Almond wrote in the letter. “It mocks and undermines everything we do and claim to be at Georgetown.” Georgetown, which opened

its Qatari campus in 2005, is one of six U.S. universities that have branches in a 14-squarekilometer community development in Doha known as “Education City.” The Education City initiative is supported by the Qatar Foundation, an organization for Qatari development founded and governed by the Qatari royal family. Qatar has long been dogged by accusations of mistreatment and exploitation of its migrant workers, who are predominantly from Asian countries such as India, Nepal See SFS-Q, A6

sat on stage with her, from posts generated by social media and from the audience. The questions touched on gun control legislation, proper size of government, net neutrality, disability advocacy and the future of the Democratic Party. GU Politics Executive Director Mo Elleithee moderated the discussion. Pelosi emphasized the importance of voting in the midterm elections in November,

saying that voting can help shape the nation’s politics. “You are helping to shape this future. Weigh in. Do not miss this opportunity because right now is probably a bigger opportunity than ever,” Pelosi said. “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.” Pelosi emphasized the importance of using shared values to unify the Democratic See PELOSI, A6

KEENAN SAMWAY FOR THE HOYA

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) answered student questions at a town hall event Tuesday.

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

A Convenient Truth Former Vice President Al Gore expresssed optimism for the future of the environment in a Gaston Hall address. A5

Recognizing Genocide Georgetown must recognize the Armenian genocide as part of the healing process. A3

Big East Champions The Georgetown women’s golf team captured its second consecutive conference title last weekend. A12

NEWS Remembering Chernick

OPINION Coming to Terms With History

SPORTS Overtime Victory

SFS professor Marc Chernick passed away at age 62 from a heart attack while at a peace meeting in Colombia. A5 Printed Fridays

Nabil Kapasi (SFS ’20) reminds readers to balance ancestors’ flaws and contributions. A3

Women’s lacrosse defeated Marquette 9-8 in overtime, clinching a spot in the Big East Championship. A12 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com

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OPINION

THE HOYA

friday, APRIL 27, 2018

THE VERDICT

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Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

Keep GUPD Officers Unarmed C In 2015, Samuel DeBose, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer after the officer pulled him over for a missing front license plate. The officer, Ray Tensing, testified that he feared for his life. Arming GUPD would put individuals on campus at risk — most notably students of color. Implicit bias affects all the decision-making of all individuals, according to a report by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University. These biases result in the disproportionate violation of the rights of black people. Black Americans are three times more likely than white Americans to be subjected to the use of force during interactions with the police, according to a July 2016 study by the Center for Policing Equity, a New York-based think tank. Black people are over three times more likely to be shot by police officers than their white counterparts. Arming campus police officers would not improve campus security and could make the Georgetown community less safe; further, to introduce guns is to heighten fear among students of color. The universality of implicit bias makes armed police officers potentially dangerous. T.J. Collins (COL ’18), a leader of the group advocating for arming GUPD, believes further officer training can eliminate this risk. “I am confident that President DeGioia, as well as Chief Gruber, would go to great lengths to train their officers in applying the law equally,” Collins said in an interview with The Hoya. However, the effectiveness of implicit bias training among police officers is unclear, according to The Atlantic’s December 2017 analysis of such programs in several police departments across the country. “Few specific guidelines exist for what courses should include, how the material should be taught, or how to measure its effects. Indeed, little data exist about their efficacy over the long term,” according to the report. GUPD officers have perpetrated racist policing in the past. In January 2017, two GUPD officers stopped and physically restrained Clarence Wesley, a black facilities worker, while he was leaving New North, according to the Georgetown Voice. Detectives told Wesley the officers were concerned he was armed. Although the students of GUARD are motivated by an intention to make Georgetown safer, their proposal would carry the opposite effect. To protect the on-campus community — particularly already-vulnerable students — Georgetown must keep its existing protocol and refuse to arm GUPD..

The Great Sloth Chase — On Wednesday, paleontologist Matthew Bennett discovered fossil footprints that show a human chasing a giant sloth. Dated to at least 11,000 years ago, the footprints suggest that the human stalked the giant sloth for over a day before finally confronting it.

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Joyride to Bali — An Australian 12-year-old boy stole his parents’ credit card and flew to Bali for an “adventure.” After four days of relaxing in a resort, authorities returned him to his family. His bill for the vacation reached $8,000.

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Bringing guns onto Georgetown University’s campus is a potentially dangerous solution to a problem that has already been addressed. Last week, students representing GU Advocates for Responsible Defense delivered a letter to University President John J. DeGioia recommending all Georgetown University Police Department officers be armed to reduce the risk of campus shootings. Leaders of GUARD said they were motivated to act by the recent school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Great Mills, Md. Georgetown is already well-equipped to handle such a situation; arming GUPD officers is unnecessary and could put the Georgetown community — especially students of color — at risk. Georgetown must stand by its current policies to ensure the safest possible campus for the community. Under current GUPD protocol, the department regularly conducts active-shooter drills with the Metropolitan Police Department. In an active-shooter situation, GUPD officers would be responsible for alerting the MPD, which would send armed officers to campus. Peer institutions in Washington, D.C., including The George Washington University and American University, share this protocol. Georgetown should not deviate from the status quo policies that address the minor risk of a shooting. If an active shooter were on campus, MPD is fully capable of resolving the situation quickly and effectively. In the past, GUPD has proven capable of apprehending armed individuals by itself. In May 2015, Officer Scott Connor, Sgt. Fred Johnson and Sgt. Joe Twiggs disarmed and detained an armed person who had robbed a student at gunpoint near the McDonough School of Business and fled to the Leavey Center. No one was injured during the arrest. Although an armed robbery is a less dangerous scenario than an active shooter situation, GUPD’s actions represent an ability to de-arm dangerous people. The officers were not armed when they apprehended their suspect. If they were, the suspect, the officers and everyone surrounding the arrest would have been at risk of unnecessary violence. Studies into the behavior of armed police have shown officers are inclined to use guns even when they do not need to. “A full third of police shootings nationwide are cases in which the suspect was unarmed or cases where police could have avoided putting themselves in harm’s way,” according to a Tampa Bay Times investigation. Armed university officers have used unnecessary force against innocent people in the past, creating reasonable concern guns could bring violence to campus.

Refried Fraud — A Texas man stole $1.2 million of fajitas in Brownsville and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Police became suspicious when 800 pounds of fajita meat appeared at a local juvenile detention center.

Intercommandeered — On Wednesday afternoon, a video of a Kentucky man using the Walmart intercom to ask for assistance went viral. Forrest Hunter had been waiting for assistance in the sporting goods section, but gave up and made an announcement over the intercom.

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Freed Mill — Rapper Meek Mill will be released from prison after serving time since November. In his first interview following his release, Mill told NBC’s Lester Holt, “I ain’t feel free.”

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Adam Semprevivo

Foster Senior Ball Inclusivity Celebrating four years of hard work should not come with an inaccessible price tag. For too many Georgetown University seniors, however, the Senior Ball has created a frustrating and unnecessary financial obstacle without providing low-income families with time to prepare. Tickets to the Senior Ball, which the student-led Senior Class Committee has advertised as an opportunity to celebrate the Class of 2018, cost $100 per attendee. Students often bring their extended families, meaning the total cost per student can reach $1,000. While the SCC provided some discounted students with demonstrated need, the process of proving need was difficult to navigate and humiliating for students disclosing financial insecurity to their classmates. Future SCCs should create a form to ease the process of requesting financial help purchasing Senior Ball tickets, in addition to fundraising more and spending less on senior week in exchange for the ability to offer discounted tickets to all who need them. The Senior’s Ball’s unaffordability is apparent to those in charge. Nada Eldaief (SFS ’18), Senior Ball chair, told The Hoya she understands the cost is high. Eldaief also emphasized the efforts the SCC has taken to make the event accessible to all students. Approximately 25 percent of the class — those with the most financial need, as determined by the financial need office — receive one free ticket and one ticket at half-price. Even this generosity leaves a broad swath of students without discounted tickets or a means to accommodate for the high price. Thirty-seven percent of Georgetown students receive need-based financial aid, according to US News & World Report. In addition to international students — who frequently receive less financial aid from Georgetown and are less likely to be qualified to receive the existing free and discounted tickets — the SCC must provide options for students outside of the allotted 25 percent of students who receive free or discounted tickets, in addition to the students who need discounted tickets to accommodate other family members. Next year’s SCC can address the issues of its prede-

cessors by better supporting students in need throughout the process of planning, buying tickets for and enjoying senior events. Future SCCs must communicate the cost of the Senior Ball more clearly. According to Eldaief, seniors were first made aware of the $100 cost in March, giving students little time to plan how to afford tickets for themselves and their families. If the SCC does not have an exact cost to tell seniors at the beginning of the year, it should provide an estimate to help enable families to plan ahead if need be. The current system, in which students who do not qualify for the discounted tickets — yet still experience financial need — lacks anonymity. Students must reach out to their peers in the SCC or to the Division of Student Affairs. Then, they are placed on a waitlist and receive whatever free or discounted tickets are made available by discount-receiving students who choose not to attend the event. This process alienates students in need who wish to avoid the embarrassment of bringing their need to their peers or administrators. Next year, the SCC should build the waitlist through a form emailed to all seniors. In the spirit of inclusion, the SCC should also prioritize Senior Ball affordability by cutting other costs throughout the year. Other Senior events, such as Homecoming events or watch parties, can be cut or slimmed to make room for all who desire to attend the Senior Ball. To maintain the preferences of the senior class, next year’s SCC should poll seniors in September to find events that can send their funds toward more discounted tickets at the end of the year. The Senior Ball should be experienced by all graduating seniors as a last hurrah of their time at Georgetown before leaving the Hilltop. However, high ticket prices and an ineffective process throughout the year have made the event unnecessarily exclusive. Future SCCs must offer more discounted tickets and communicate better with their classmates to ensure more students are included in important festivities.

Ian Scoville, Editor-in-Chief Kathryn Baker, Executive Editor Jeff Cirillo, Executive Editor Anna Kovacevich, Managing Editor Madeline Charbonneau, News Editor Erin Doherty, News Editor Ethan Cohn, Sports Editor Mac Dressman, Guide Editor Will Simon, Opinion Editor Maya Gandhi, Features Editor Caroline Pappas, Photography Editor Anna Kooken, Design Editor Cat Kendall, Copy Chief Katie Schluth, Acting Social Media Editor Laura Bell, Blog Editor Anne-Isabelle de Bokay, Multimedia Editor

Editorial Board

Will Simon, Chair

Alexandre Kleitman, Grace Laria, Tanner Larkin, Emma Lux, Daniel Wassim, Alexandra Williams

Will Cassou Deepika Jonnalagadda Sarah Mendelsohn Katrina Schmidt Ben Goodman Matthew Sachs Faris Bseiso Sarah Cammarota Maddie Finn Vera Mastrorilli Julia Yaeger Harrison Hurt Yumna Naqvi Jonathan Wiersema Adam Semprevivo Elizabeth Ash Will Cromarty Amber Gillette Subul Malik Sheel Patel Amanda Van Orden Mina Lee Angela Perez Emily Shambaugh Susanna Blount Sarah Donofrio Robert Treval Barbara McDuffee Lisa Park Isabel Roemer Nora Graul

Student Life Desk Editor City Desk Editor Events Desk Editor Academics Desk Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Cartoonist 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 Blog Editor Deputy Blog Editor Deputy Blog Editor Deputy Multimedia Editor

Contributing Editors

Dean Hampers, Meena Raman, Lauren Seibel, Alyssa Volivar, Sarah Wright

HOYA HISTORY: April 27, 1973

Jewish Students Find Identity at GU A few anti-Semitic slogans scrawled on bathroom walls. The defacing of posters advertising activities sponsored by Jewish student groups. Drunken students returning from the Tombs late at night shouting obscenities in front of the Chavurah student center. A few incidents remind Jewish students of a history of oppression. The examples of bigotry aren’t typical, but the approximately 200 Jewish students here are a special group with special problems. The biggest problem is adjusting to what Hillel President Ivan Katz (COL ’75) calls “an overwhelmingly Catholic campus.” “I was a little frightened when I came to Georgetown,” says Carl Barsky (COL ’73), a Chavurah member. “I had gone to a school that was mostly Jewish. I knew very little about Catholicism. When I came

here I was a little afraid to publicize my Jewish identity. I thought it would be a divisive factor.” Barsky soon discovered that Catholic students were interested in Judaism, however. “As a result, I became more interested in my own Jewishness,” he said. “Coming to a university that has something of a religious atmosphere made me more interested in my own religious identity.” His experience is true for many Jewish students at Georgetown. Their gentile friends ask them about Judaism, and they start thinking about the religious and cultural heritage they had taken for granted. The courses taught by two rabbis, Harold White and Nathan Abramowitz are among the most popular in the theology department. If the Jewish students “had gone to a campus where

there were many Jews, the might have taken the courses,” Barsky said. “Jews tend to become more interested in their Jewish identity when Jews are rare.” “This environment does make you very conscious of your identity,” Katz said. “The problem is to help Jews realize they are Jews.” Jewish students often will learn more about Judaism during their four years at Georgetown that they did at Hebrew school. Chavurah schedules educational programs, retreats and special activities for the Jewish high holidays. Hillel, a newly formed group, also will conduct activities next year. The Passover Seder in New South cafeteria this month was a joint project of the two groups. Andy Lang News Editor

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OPINION

friday, april 27, 2018

VIEWPOINT • DIBBLE

THE HOYA

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VIEWPOINT • THREATT

Susannah Dibble

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Appreciate Professors

his past week, I learned of the heartbreaking passing of a beloved professor and mentor: Marc Chernick. He was best known for his work on the Colombian peace process, a subject I stumbled into and developed a passion for during my time at Georgetown University. The first time I met him was in Bogotá, Colombia, where I interned this past summer. I visited his class at the University of Los Andes with a friend and tried my best to follow along with the rapid-fire Spanish. I missed at least half of the material discussed, but I was fascinated nonetheless. After that week, I returned to class several more times and chatted one on one with professor Chernick. Eventually, I conducted research for him on the implementation of the Colombian peace accords as a part of the Latin America Initiative. While researching my thesis, every person I spoke to about Colombia knew professor Chernick. His name was a key that unlocked their interest, and the praise that followed was always profuse. I used to skip another class just to listen to his stories and look at old pictures from his time spent in the field. Since he first visited Colombia in the 1980s to write his dissertation, he watched attempts at peace fail time and time again. Still, he had an abiding faith that true peace could be realized; over the past four years, his analysis of the conflict helped create the shaky start to a lasting peace that now exists. In addition to his intelligence and expertise, professor Chernick was known for his quiet sense of joy. He stood firm in his beliefs yet was always ready to teach, debate and discuss. Last semester, I took his small seminar, “Violence and Political Change in the Andes.” My classmates and I might have been a little out of our depth subject-wise, but we all persisted. What I remember most, despite our struggles, was his laugh. Even when the technology broke, or students fell asleep or the weather was bad, professor Chernick was happy to be in class, talking about a topic he loved. His passing has given me time to think about the influence he

had on my life, how he inspired my interest in peace processes and justice and how one of my greatest failures during my time at college has been overlooking the contributions of Georgetown faculty and staff. Though I consider my friends and family to be the center of my world, faculty and administrators have provided the deepest guidance and understanding over my last four years. My professors are the people who have made me a stronger writer and a better person, who sacrifice numerous hours a week to be thesis advisers and serve as stand-in counselors when students like myself cry about our personal problems — though they do not get paid any extra. My professors have held class outside and canceled quizzes — because mental health is important too. They have let me skip work because I am stressed or walked me line by line through a paper I failed. They are the people who share stories about their backgrounds and open up their homes for dinners. And, above all, my professors are the people who embody the ideals of a Jesuit education, who try to shape Georgetown students into men and women for others. As I reflect on the last four years, I do so with a long-overdue recognition of my failure to appreciate the influence of the truly wonderful professors. The professors have repeatedly called on me to make the world a better place and to answer questions of justice, inequality and human suffering — a calling that I hope I live up to. To Diana Kapiszewski, Anna Steinhelper, You-Me Park, Matthew Carnes, Charles King, Sara Collina, Mei-Ling Klein and many more who were an essential part of my Georgetown education, thank you. I write in memory of professor Marc Chernick, a mentor who truly believed in the enduring possibility of peace and the burning power of justice.

Susannah Dibble is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. This is the fourth installment of the Senior Compass Series. Read more at thehoya.com/2018scs.

I asked myself why I was at Georgetown and for whom I was striving for these accolades. When my sadness kept me in bed because those things I had valued failed me, I was left with one thing: God.

Discovering Identity Through Deferral

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ot being accepted into Georgetown University is my biggest failure to date. Georgetown was my top choice when applying to colleges, but I did not meet the expectations during the first two rounds of admissions. This process — and my Georgetown experience itself — forced me to grapple with the idea of being good enough, of being exceptional. I was deferred from early action and waitlisted during regular decision. My mom convinced me to remain on the waitlist, despite my concerns about losing money and the risk of making a dramatic school change at the last minute. Despite my hesitations, I accepted the offer to join Georgetown’s Class of 2018 on May 7, 2014. I should have realized then that my expectations of Georgetown — and of myself — were wrong. Once on the Hilltop, I did not receive the straight A’s I was used to, I never had a “hillternship” and I do not think I will be among the 70 percent of Hoyas marrying other Hoyas. I did not live in a Village A rooftop apartment or run for student government, nor do I speak a lick of Arabic. I assumed these would be the experiences that would make my time at Georgetown perfect. I did not realize any of them. Instead, I found the flaws

in my walk with God when I entered through those front gates as a freshman. I stopped prioritizing the picture-perfect life of holding leadership positions, being relationship and squad goals and earning perfect grades. Instead, I was struck by the first Jesuit value: ad majorem Dei gloriam, or “to the greater glory of God.”

Kathryn Threatt I asked myself why I was at Georgetown and for whom I was striving for these accolades. When my sadness kept me in bed because those things I had valued failed me, I was left with one thing: God. When I was at my lowest, my chaplain-in-residence and individuals in the faith community provided a listening ear; they helped me rekindle my faith walk. As long as I was seeking the approval of individuals, I could never be happy. I had to approve of myself first — and realize God already did.

viewpoint • kuyumjian

As my senioritis has brought more time reflecting on my experiences than writing my thesis, I can say that I am content with what I have done and what I have not. Each “failed” moment as a Hoya opened up opportunities that helped me discover myself. My first Georgetown failure — being deferred by my top school — forced me to examine the most intimate parts of my identity: my status as a black woman and my relationship with God. I have sat in classrooms in which professors looked through me and threw away my thoughts. I worried about being equal to those who thought I was at Georgetown to fulfill a diversity quota. I carried the burden of being the only black person in 34 of the 40 classes I took as a student here. I did not truly reconcile my blackness with my womanhood until my decision not to take Arabic sent me to Argentina. Continuing Spanish to fulfill my language requirement — despite my initial hopes to master Arabic while at Georgetown — helped me find la negrita en la ciudad: the black girl in the city. The language barrier and my appearance made hiding impossible; my insecurities were on full display. When I spoke, people listened; when I walked by, they watched. The kids with

whom I volunteered studied my features and made a playground of my hair. I had no choice but to be bold in my identity and my thoughts. Time away from Georgetown helped me discover my beauty, along with the important perspective my identity added to the conversations I had in the classroom. Being quiet and comparing myself to my peers was no longer an option when I returned to the Hilltop. As my time at Georgetown comes to an end, I cannot help but be grateful for this humbling experience. I’m grateful for the alphabet soup of grades, being the oddball in the classroom, the all-nighters and the Club Lau nights at Lauinger Library, the long walks to and from Darnall Hall, the sticky heat and crisp smell of freshly cut grass on move-in day, the cool somberness of commencement ceremonies, the laughter of friends in my small bedroom, the dance sessions with my roommates and the many rejections that life brings. Although Georgetown is my most immense failure to date, it has proven to be my most wonderful as well.

Kathryn Threatt is a senior in

the School of Foreign Service. This is the fifth installment of the Senior Compass Series. Read more at thehoya.com/2018scs.

this week in history

Recognize Armenian Genocide Embrace Historical Inconsistencies

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ince 1915, the Turkish government has denied that the forced relocation and slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians constitutes a genocide. Georgetown University has been part of the silence allowing the Armenian genocide to go largely unacknowledged. Moreover, the Turkish government has exported this denial abroad through lobbyists, bribes and geopolitical coercion to keep governments, such as that of the United States, from recognizing the Armenian genocide. For example, in 2008, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed H.R. 106, but the bill never made it to the House floor after multiple letters from high-profile officials, including then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, expressed their belief that the measure would “severely harm our relationships with Turkey.” Although U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide would not in any way reconcile its horrors, this acknowledgement would build the accountability of all countries to their peoples. Denial is the last step of a committed genocide and the first reason for others to perpetrate new ones. Unlike governments, universities are free from gag rules and political games. They are independent entities with the goal of pursuing objective, unbiased research and scholarship. Yet Georgetown, an institution that claims to pursue justice and academic excellence, is complicit in Turkish denial efforts. Georgetown is home to the Institute of Turkish Studies, which, until 2015, was funded directly by the government of Turkey to propagate a version of history in accordance with Turkish national interests, according to HuffPost. By virtue of its work, the ITS was tasked with a very special obligation:

to actively deny the Armenian genocide within academic scholarship in the United States and to ensure that the first genocide of the 20th century was erased from collective memory. Two distinct events stand out as clear-cut examples of how Georgetown nurtured genocide denial. The ITS first opened its doors at Georgetown in 1982, after receiving a $3 million grant from the Turkish government. Within three years, in what French historian Yves Ternon calls the “Lewis Affair,” the ITS paid off 69 U.S. scholars to sign a letter demanding that Congress not recognize the Armenian genocide. The letter was sent and published in the May 19, 1985 editions of The Washington Post and The New York Times. Georgetown kept quiet. The second incident involved Binghamton University professor Donald Quataert, one of the scholars paid to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government. Quataert was head of the ITS from 2001 to 2006 and was considered a staunch proponent of the ITS’ denial campaign. However, in 2006, Quataert published a review of a Donald Bloxham’s book titled “The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians” in which he conceded that “what happened to the Armenians readily satisfies the U.N. definition of genocide.” As one may imagine, this assertion did not sit well with those in Ankara, Turkey. Soon after Quataert professed his change of heart, he was forced to resign from the ITS by Turkey’s ambassador to the United States at the time, Nabi Şensoy. Again, Georgetown kept quiet. As a result of this scandal, Quataert’s colleague, Mervat Hatem of Howard University, wrote a letter to University Pres-

ident John J. DeGioia, Şensoy and the ITS board questioning “the reputation and integrity of the ITS,” emphasizing that this scandal constituted “government interference in and blatant disregard for the principle of academic freedom.” Yet DeGioia decided it would be best to allow the ITS to continue pursuing its politically biased and morally bereft agenda here at Georgetown. Twelve years later, the ITS has remained operational under the auspices of the university. Georgetown has not only failed to hold the ITS accountable for its complete disrespect of academic freedom, but it has also failed to speak out against the ITS’ denial of the Armenian genocide. Georgetown’s neglect puts into question the moral foundation of its Jesuit values. On April 24, Armenians all around the world commemorate the Armenian genocide. However, the day is not exclusively for Armenians, but rather a time in which we should all unite under the name of justice to voice our demands as the human race, call out prejudice and hatred and build an empowering springboard from which we will be able to make a positive difference in this world. Georgetown gave the Armenian genocide-denying ITS a home and a platform. The university is long overdue to correct this wrong. I call on the Office of the President and the ITS to release a joint statement joining Pope Francis, 29 countries — including Canada, Greece and Italy — 48 U.S. states, the International Association of Genocide Scholars and many other institutions in recognizing the atrocities of 1915 as genocide.

Nareg Kuyumjian is a fresh-

man in the School of Foreign Service.

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567-foot-tall obelisk stands 20 minutes outside Houston. The structure commemorates the Battle of San Jacinto, which won Texas’ independence from Mexico on April 21, 1836. Retreating Texan forces, led by General Samuel Houston, surprised General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s larger Mexican force near the San Jacinto River. The 18-minute rout, launched during the Mexican soldiers’ afternoon siesta, resulted in 630 Mexican soldiers being killed and 730 imprisoned, compared to nine Texan deaths. Santa Anna signed the Treaty of Velasco the next day to end the war. This foundational event in Texan history encompasses the purpose of my column: to present a clear perspective of history that allows us to learn from well-developed conclusions. Finding a balance between honoring and criticizing the past is difficult, but also crucial to discerning valuable lessons from history. The United States often wrestles with the appropriateness of questioning established historical conclusions; in the final installment of “This Week in History,” let’s face this apprehension head-on. Independence is a great source of Texas pride and singularity. My family has taken countless guests to the Alamo, just south of my home near downtown San Antonio. Yet recent years have brought deeper examination of the moral legitimacy of the revolution, as well as of its portrayal in schools and popular culture. Traditionally viewed as freedom fighters, Texan leaders have recently encountered greater scrutiny. William Travis, who died at the Alamo, came to Texas to escape debtors’ prison in Alabama. Along with James Bowie, another

Texan soldier killed in San Antonio, Travis was a slave trader. Many Texans like Stephen Austin, who established the first Anglo-American colony in Texas, and Houston himself owned slaves. These beliefs were codified by Texas’ legalization of slavery and its membership in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Nabil Kapasi The righteousness of Texan desires for independence has been questioned along with the character of its leaders. Slavery and illegal immigration were major factors in the push for self-determination. The 1829 Guerrero Decree abolished slavery in Mexico, creating a divide between Texan settlers and Mexican leadership. The empresario system, enacted by the Mexican government to bring American settlers to Texas to develop the land, devolved into massive illegal migration from the U.S. over the empresario quotas. The restriction of all immigration into Texas in 1830 — a law hardly enforced — was another contentious point for Texans who desired autonomy. The Mexican side was not scot-free in its trespasses and controversial actions during this time either. Santa Anna forcefully drafted indigenous soldiers to quash the Texan rebellion, marching them untrained and under-equipped through a harsh winter on their way to combat. The man was an authoritarian caudillo,

or military leader, who hoarded wealth from his impoverished country. I struggle to categorize my home state’s history. I have great pride in our story, yet I know its founders would view me as inferior because of my ethnicity. Texans argue over seemingly unresolvable classifications: historical figures who held widely accepted beliefs or racists who fought for slavery. My home state was built simultaneously on oppression and a thirst for political autonomy and freedom. Many of us grapple with similar stories. We want to feel pride in our backgrounds but are repulsed by the ugliness they hold. The importance of recognizing this paradox is often ignored. Discussing the mistakes or flaws of our predecessors should be neither taboo nor disrespectful: However flawed our ancestors may have been, they are our best teachers. In this column, I have attempted to show that understanding the reality of history is how we respect our heritage. Our past is shaped by imperfect people from different eras, a truth that makes simple categorizations difficult in a world of constantly shifting viewpoints and cultural norms. We should not worship historical characters as deities incapable of mistakes. We should likewise not discard the parts of history that we find difficult to acknowledge. By knowing the full truth, by analyzing all sides of any given story with an open mind, we can come closer to bridging the gap between divisions of heroes and demons, righteous and nefarious. I hope I have helped in this endeavor.

Nabil Kapasi is a sophomore

in the School of Foreign Service. This is the final installment of This Week in History.

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Former White House Photographer Recalls Obama Presidency CADY STANTON

Special to THE HOYA

The official photographs of former President Barack Obama’s presidency are mostly unplanned snapshots of everyday moments during the president’s day, former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza said at the 10th annual Michael E. Jurist Memorial Lecture on Thursday. The event featured a selection of images that Souza captured during his time documenting the presidency. The photos Souza displayed at the event included an image of Obama visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to see wounded veterans, the president playing with his daughters Sasha and Malia in the snow on the White House lawn and a scene of him bodysurfing while on vacation in Hawaii. Souza documented Obama’s political career, from his days as a senator from Illinois to his presidency. Of the more than one million photos of Obama and his family, all of the photos revealed different aspects of the presidency. Souza followed Obama throughout his day, he said, providing a glimpse into Obama’s daily activities. “The CliffsNotes version of what I did everyday was that I would show up to the White House, be there when he came down to the Oval Office in the morning, and I would just tag along with him all day long until he went home at night,” Souza said. “The reason I did that was so that I would be around when these little moments happened that told you so much about him.” As an installment of the Michael E. Jurist Memorial Lecture Series, the event honored the legacy of late Lecture Fund Chair Michael Jurist (SFS ’07). Jurist served as chair from 2006 to 2007. Previous speakers for the event have included Vox Media CEO Ezra Klein in 2016 and sports commentator Stephen Smith in 2014. The dialogue was sponsored by the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, the Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School of Public Policy, the Office of Public Affairs, the Georgetown University Student Association Fund, the Department of Film

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Former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza showcased photographs included in his new book that document major events in former President Barack Obama’s career and family life. Souza spoke about capturing spontaneous images of Obama throughout his rise from senator to president. and Media Studies, Students of Georgetown, Inc., and Club Tennis. Obama prioritized spending time with his daughters despite the demands of the presidency, Souza said after he witnessed the everyday routine of the White House. “I really admired that even though he was, let’s face it, the busiest man on the planet, he would still make time with his girls,” Souza said. “Even if it was for only five or ten minutes, when he was

with them, he was all in.” Souza used particular cameras with a quiet shutter to be able to capture Obama’s daily life candidly and to minimize distractions for the White House. “I use very quiet cameras, so that I can occasionally go right behind him, to show things from his perspective,” Souza said. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14, 2012, in which 20 children were killed at school in New-

town, Conn., stands out as the hardest day of Obama’s presidency, Souza said, referring to an image he took of Obama visiting the victims’ families days later. “Trying to imagine the horror of sending your sixyear-old off to school, kissing them goodbye, putting them on the school bus, sending them off to what we all consider a safety zone, and the next time you see your child, they’ve been shot to death … I think all those thoughts are

going through his head,” Souza said. Though most photos Souza took were spontaneous and candid, Souza planned how he wanted to capture Obama leaving the Oval Office for the last time, he said. “That picture was taken with forethought in mind,” he said. “But that’s probably one of the few times. The other times, everything’s just kind of on the fly.” Out of the more than one million photos he took, Souza

said that he could not choose a favorite, as he is more focused on the overall depiction of Obama through the photographs than he is on the individual images. “Each picture is only one compartment of his life,” Souza said. “The difficulty I have answering a question like that is that I sort of always looked at it as creating the best body of work and not saying ‘this is the picture that is, you know, the best picture, my favorite picture.’”

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Gore Urges Optimism on Climate Change, Renewable Energy Sources DEEPIKA JONNALAGADDA Hoya Staff Writer

The United States is on the brink of a widespread environmental revolution, former Vice President and environmental advocate Al Gore said at an event Monday afternoon in Gaston Hall. The event featured an introduction by University President John J. DeGioia who discussed the university’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and educate students on complex global challenges. DeGioia cited educational programs, such as the Core Pathways project, an interdisciplinary collection of courses offered to students, as examples of an ongoing initiatives at Georgetown to address climate change. Core Pathways and the Designing the Future(s) of the University Initiative co-hosted the event. Expansive developments in renewable energy sources and storage are akin to an environmental transformation, Gore said. “We are now in the beginning stages of a global sustainability revolution,” Gore said. “It has the magnitude of the industrial revo-

lution but the speed of the digital revolution.” Gore attributed the prospect of a high speed environmental revolution to increased technological capabilities. “It’s powered by new digital tools, like the Internet of Things and machine learning and artificial intelligence, that are giving CEOs and executive teams the ability to manage electrons and atoms and molecules with the same precision the IT companies have used in managing bits of information,” Gore said. Since his eight-year term as vice president from 1993 to 2001, Gore has founded and chaired The Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting climate change. He wrote New York Times best-selling book and Academy Award-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006, and was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy on the dangers of global warming. Gore’s optimism for combatting climate change stems from the fact that investments in renewable sources of energy are outperforming those in fossil fuels, he said.

“The bankers and investors are now saying grid parity is here. Grid parity is the line below which unsubsidized renewable electricity, particularly solar, is cheaper than electricity made from burning fossil fuels,” Gore said. “Since 2010, global investments in renewable energy have exceeded investments in fossil [fuels].” The trend has shifted away from nonrenewable resources, according to Gore, specifically noting that coal use is declining. “Coal is on the way out in the U.S.,” Gore said. “The famous coal museum in Kentucky just decided to put solar panels on its roof. A sign of the times, I think.” Despite concerns that President Donald Trump’s administration will dismantle environmental programs, Gore assured that environmental actions spearheaded by local governments and businesses will allow for sustained changes. “We are going to meet and exceed the commitments the U.S. made under the Paris Agreement, because innovation and global markets are driving this progress regardless of who occupies the White House,” Gore said.

While Gore expressed optimism for the reversal of climate change in the future, he stressed the importance of remaining active, and not complacent, on the issue, calling the risks that climate change poses as the most pressing challenge of this generation. Gore underlined growing problems associated with rising temperatures and extreme weather events, particularly forest fires, which serve as evidence of climate change. “The fire season in the American west has started much earlier,” Gore said. “The season is now 105 days-per-year longer than it used to be just 30 to 40 years ago.” Gore addressed the underlying effects of climate change on civil unrest around the world, citing current instability in Syria as an example of a place where political disorder has worsened environmental disaster. “The worst drought in the 900 years of recordkeeping destroyed 60 percent of the farms in Syria and killed 80 percent of their livestock well before the civil war opened the gates of hell in Syria,” Gore said. “The connection be-

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Climate change is the challenge of a generation, former Vice President Al Gore said in a keynote address Monday. tween the climate crisis and political stability and the viability of self-governance is again an underrecognized risk associated with the climate crisis.” At the conclusion of his speech, Gore emphasized the role that individual actions can have on mitigating climate change. “If you are concerned about the

climate crisis and you want to play a part in solving it, the single most meaningful thing you can do is to vote, participate, advocate for candidates whose positions reflect your values,” Gore said. “It’s important to change the light bulbs, the windows and the technology and it’s important to change the laws and the policies.”

GUSA Confirms 35 Executive Cabinet Positions, Aims to Diversify KATRINA SCHMIDT Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown University Student Association’s executive leadership filled 35 senior leadership, operations and cabinet seats to form a team that will work with the administration to develop policy initiatives and support the administration’s goals. In March, GUSA opened its executive positions to the entire student body, soliciting applications for open roles. GUSA President Sahil Nair (SFS ’19) and Vice President Naba Rahman (SFS ’19) ran on the campaign slogan “Because Every Voice Matters” and attempted to diversify the GUSA executive, according to Chief of Staff Aaron Bennett (COL ’19). “We were fortunate enough to receive over 100 applications from

all class years, schools, and gender identities, and we found a spot for almost everyone within our administration,” Bennett wrote in an email to THE HOYA. While two cabinet seats are still empty, the 35 administration positions are held by some students with prior GUSA involvement and some who are entirely new to the organization. The entrepreneurship and gender equity cabinet positions remain unfilled. Alejandro Garcia Escobar Plascencia (SFS ’21), co-deputy for equity and inclusivity, applied for his position after working on Nair and Rahman’s campaign. He had not previously been involved with GUSA, but his experience working on the campaign encouraged him to apply. “The whole idea of having leadership that reflects the diversity of

campus — that’s something that really stood out to me,” Plascencia said. The GUSA executive is structured into executive leadership, which is the president, vice president and chief of staff; senior leadership, which is deputy chiefs of staff and key advising positions; operations; and the cabinet, which is a group of policy team leaders. The seven deputy chiefs of staff oversee a cluster of policy teams that assist with the managerial and bureaucratic needs of the administration. The policy teams work on a variety of areas, including accessibility, racial and cultural affairs, free speech and more. GUSA Accessibility Policy Coalition Chair Anna Landre (SFS ’21) was involved in the accessibility policy team last semester and de-

cided to apply to chair this semester because she was excited that Nair and Rahman wanted to reach people not typically involved with GUSA. Landre hopes to work on accessibility initiatives that both promote investment in accessible infrastructure and increased social awareness and acceptance of those with disabilities. Landre also worked on Nair and Rahman’s campaign, which was a contributing factor in her decision to apply to be chair. “I helped on their campaign because I liked where they were going with things,” Landre said. “I’m pretty excited to be able to work with the administration and make this more of a priority than I think it has been in the past.” Uju Nwaigwe (COL ’20), the new chair of the racial and cultural

inclusivity policy coalition, applied for the position without having any prior involvement with GUSA or in Nair and Rahman’s campaign. She saw a disconnect between “clubs of color” and GUSA and saw an opportunity to improve the relationship between these groups. Although Nwaigwe wanted to become involved in GUSA regardless, she hoped that Nair and Rahman’s administration would be receptive to the concerns of Georgetown students of color. “I felt they would be more inclusive to changes people probably want to see on campus,” Nwaigwe said. The GUSA executive’s current model is relatively new, having first been implemented by Enushe Khan (MSB ’17) and Chris Fisk (COL ’17) in 2016. Prior to Khan and

Fisk’s administration, the GUSA cabinet was a small group handselected by executive leadership. Now, the GUSA executive is much larger and open to the entire student body. While this model is not new under Nair and Rahman’s administration, they aimed to use the open application process to reach a broader range of students by promoting it on social media and over email, according to Bennett. While executive positions have been chosen, there will be an opportunity in the fall semester for interested students to become involved with the 23 policy teams. “In the fall, we’ll continue building out the Executive to include members of policy teams and liaisons to various boards and councils within the university,” Bennett wrote in an email to THE HOYA.

Chernick, Former Latin American Studies Center Director, Dies at 62 WILL CASSOU Hoya Staff Writer

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Former Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Latin American Studies professor Marc Chernick passed away after suffering a heart attack while at a peace meeting in Cali, Colombia on April 18. Chernick had worked at Georgetown for over 20 years before recently receiving Emeritus status. Chernick was buried April 22, and a memorial will be held in Riggs Library this Friday. At Georgetown, Chernick led the CLAS from 2013 to 2016 before Fr. Matthew Carnes took over in 2016, and led the Masters of Arts in Latin American Studies program from 2009 to 2013. He also founded the summer Georgetown-Los Andes Program on Conflict Resolution and Human Rights. “I think he really made Georgetown the place to study Colombia; I mean it’s remarkable how many people came here because they wanted to be involved in the peace process or understand it in a deep way,” Carnes said in an interview with THE HOYA. Chernick had an immense network and knowledge that greatly benefited Georgetown’s CLAS because of his deep involvement in the peace process in Colombia, both Carnes and Dean of the School of Foreign Service Joel Hellman said. Chernick was a notable force in the peace process in Colombia. He was one of the only foreigners being considered to sit on the peace commission before he passed. “He dedicated his life to the peace process in Colombia, and furthering and advancing it. I’m just very happy that he was able to see the peace process come to fruition before he died,” Hellman said. Armed conflict between the Colombian government, several paramilitary groups and far-left guerilla groups, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), began in 1964, making it the longest ongoing conflict in Latin America. Between 1958 and 2013, an estimated 220,000 Colombians were killed and an estimated five million civilians were internally displaced by the conflict between 1985 and 2012. All parties involved in the conflict have been accused of numerous human rights violations, according to the Human Rights Watch. Chernick arrived in Colombia in the 1980s, when then-President Belisario Betancur was conducting early peace talks with FARC, and worked continuously for the next

three decades on the peace process, eventually participating in the peace negotiations in Havana, Cuba, in September 2012. Although the first agreement reached in August 2016 between FARC and the Colombian government was rejected in an October 2016 referendum, the two parties agreed on a revised deal Nov. 24 that was ratified by the Congress of Colombia on Nov. 29. “He had this undeniable hope that a peace could be achieved even when things started to look pretty negative, and so he was very inspiring to me,” Carnes said. Colleagues and former students of his described him as modest, passionate and extremely dedicated to his work in Colombia. “Marc was someone who was humble in some ways, soft-spoken, but with a tenacious set of beliefs and a desire to engage people,” Carnes said. Chernick was not just interested in academia or international relations, but also in its real-world applications, his colleagues and former students also said. “This is someone who in every sense of the word was a true scholar practitioner, someone who loves studying the country but who really felt himself called to contribute to its work for peace for the last, almost three decades he’d been working on this,” Carnes said. Chernick also had a great ability to create connections and build bridges and that he formed deep, meaningful and lasting bonds

with his students, according to Carnes. “Everyone always talks about how personally he engaged each student, and the number of memorials the last few days I’ve been reading of students who felt like he was their personal mentor, that he really heard them and helped them discover what their vocation or calling was really remarkable,” Carnes said. Christopher Wahoff (GRD ’11) was invited by Chernick’s family to speak on behalf of Chernick’s students at his memorial service on Sunday, and he reflected on his relationship with Chernick, who served as a mentor and even as a groomsman in Wahoff’s wedding this past year. “Ever since I was his research assistant, he’s sort of guided and supported every step that I’ve taken throughout my professional career and has been a very good friend and mentor, and I always look to him for advice and a good debate, but that was just the kind of person he was,” Wahoff said. Hellman echoed that he wanted to emphasize the personal connections that Chernick cultivated as a significant contribution to Georgetown in addition to his extensive work in Colombia and with the CLAS. “I wouldn’t want anyone to miss the human qualities that made him beloved among the students that he worked closely with, that helped bring together the community,” Hellman said.

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE

Colombian Senator Juan Manuel Galán, left, met with Professor Marc Chernick as part of Chernick’s work on the Colombian peace process.

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SAC Ethics Questioned FBI Investigates Corp Google Accounts Breach SAC, from A1

Commission monitors and regulates over 110 student organizations at Georgetown University. SAC requires all student groups to submit event authorization forms, which include details like the number of participants, estimated costs and risks such as travel, overnight stay, presence of alcohol or presence of minors, before hosting programming of any kind. From political clubs and cultural organizations, to comedy troupes and debating societies, SAC oversees them all, allocating around $350,000 in funding assigned to it from the student-run Georgetown University Student Association’s Finance and Appropriations Committee. SAC’s 13 commissioners are each assigned to a handful of student organizations and act as informational liaisons between club leadership and the commission. SAC Chair Kylie Navarro (COL ’20) said commissioners are selected to be accountable to and representative of the student body. “One of the big questions that has been coming up with SAC commissioners but also advisory boards in general, is how you remain accountable to the student organizations, to the student body in general,” Navarro said in an interview with The Hoya. Navarro said commissioners serve a dual purpose: to inform student clubs of SAC guidelines and procedures and advocate for those clubs in committee meetings. “One person does not have any sort of power over the funding that a certain group receives,” Navarro said. This SAC structure is in place to minimize the potential influence of one person over the commission’s work, though Navarro acknowledged the ethical dilemma that can arise when commissioners hold external memberships to other student groups. “We are very conscious of — in meetings — if a person is on a leadership board for a club, how they can remain unbiased when we’re talking about funding for a group and they’re voting,” Navarro said. “SAC asks commissioners who have a conflict of interest to recuse themselves from the vote, for whatever we’re going to be discussing.” Though Navarro said board members of SAC groups must recuse themselves, the SAC bylaws require commissioners who serve on leadership boards of a club to recuse themselves from discussing or deliberating on matters that pertain to that club; “regardless of board affiliation, no Commissioner shall vote on any motions that involve organizations that they are members of,” Article 1 of the SAC bylaws reads. Moreover, Article 1 of the SAC bylaws states that conflicts of interest are impeachable offenses and defines a conflict of interest “as any arrangement whereby a member of SAC could, based on their affiliation with SAC, provide an unfair advantage to the commission itself, or any other organization or individual.” Navarro said SAC leadership asks commissioners who have a conflict of interest to recuse themselves from voting and discussing club matters. But former SAC Chair Ricardo Mondolfi (SFS ’19) said despite these explicit rules, some former and current SAC commissioners have flouted these guidelines, pointing to the text of SAC bylaws that had not been previously enforced with consistency. “SAC currently has provisions that prevent biased decision-making. That being said, I do not believe these measures provide sufficient protection, and even existing measures have not been fully implemented in past years,” Mondolfi said in an interview with The Hoya. Navarro said she has made accountability and ethical procedures priorities under her term. Ali Stowe, the assistant director of student engagement, reaffirmed this expectation of ethical procedures. “Commissioners with ties to an organization are asked to abstain from debate, since once the deliberation period has started, organizations are not allowed to comment, so a Commissioner cannot provide any supplemental info,” Stowe

wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Additionally, Commissioners abstain from voting during event approval and allocation votes for organizations in which they serve in a leadership capacity.” Mondolfi said he made efforts to address bias in his term. “We recognized this kind of behavior as improper, and while it was always discouraged, we took measures to stop this kind of behavior when we modified our Constitution and bylaws in the fall of 2017,” Mondolfi said.

Minute by Minute Despite these tenuous institutional safeguards, some members of SAC have routinely skirted these guidelines. For example, some SAC commissioners who are members of IRC, a student organization of over 500 members with a complex leadership structure, also serve in leadership positions for the Georgetown International Relations Association, an educational nonprofit that organizes Model United Nations conferences for high school and college students. These commissioners frequently comment on IRC matters. Though IRC and GIRA share a large number of members, the two are distinct entities, according to IRC Chair Jaylan Smith (SFS ’20). “Many GIRC members participate in conferences that GIRA hosts and GIRA does provide a semester-by-semester bulk allocation to support International Relations education with our events,” Smith wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It’s not rare for a board member of one to be a part of the membership of the other.” However, the IRC website and HoyaLink website refer to GIRA as its “sister organization,” and its members and leaders often overlap. GIRA also provides significant annual funding to the IRC. This overlapping IRC and GIRA membership includes at least seven current and former SAC commissioners from the past two semesters, including current commissioners Chase Wagers (SFS ’20), Elodie Currier (SFS ’19), Maddie Mosseau (COL ’21) and Patrick Walsh (SFS ’21); current nonvoting commissioner Abhinav Saravanan (SFS ’21) and former commissioners Carley Mambuca (SFS ’19) and Aaron Baum (SFS ’20). Wagers currently serves as the secretary-general of the GIRA-organized North American International Model United Nations conference and was previously head of NAIMUN in China. He is also a dues-paying member of the IRC. Currier serves as GIRA’s chief global strategist and will serve as GIRA CEO next year. She is a travel-team member of IRC. Saravanan has served as a GIRA conference staffer and is a member of IRC; Mosseau has served as a GIRA conference staffer and is a member of IRC; Walsh has served as a GIRA conference staffer and is a member of IRC; Mambuca served as executive director of NAIMUN last year and is an IRC member; Baum currently serves as IRC’s communications director and is a GIRA member. According to publicly available meeting minutes, these commissioners have weighed in on at least 19 separate cases relevant to the IRC and have selectively chosen to recuse themselves from votes and discussion on IRC matters. When SAC discussed disciplinary action following the IRC’s Panama trip, Mosseau, Wagers and Walsh all participated in the March 12 conversation. They all voted to bring IRC back the following week and reevaluate a potential ban on IRC travel. On March 19, the three commissioners also participated actively and debated on how IRC would be sanctioned. Despite at least two previous cases in February and March 2017 in which IRC similarly failed to submit EAFs for Model United Nations trips to West Point and the University of California at Berkeley — for which Baum and Mambuca led discussion and voted — SAC ultimately voted in March 2018 not to impose a travel ban on IRC, opting instead for a financial penalty. Mosseau, Wagers and Walsh all participated and voted in this discussion. Currier abstained. This financial penalty, a limit on the level of funding IRC can receive from SAC for its travel events, will be in place for fall 2018 and spring 2019, Navarro said. In September 2017, IRC sought funding and approval

for the Columbia University Model United Nations, Boston University MUN, University of Pennsylvania MUN and Yale University MUN conferences. Mambuca and Baum moved for approval and allocation of funds on all of these trips, amounting to a total $7,402 in funding. Baum said this behavior was assumed to be standard. “The Standard Operating Procedure during my time on SAC was simply that Board members abstained from voting on important matters related to the organizations that they lead; that is what the then-SAC Chair Ricardo Mondolfi told the Commissioners to do,” Baum wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Commissioners frequently voted on and discussed motions on the clubs in which they were active, and indeed the commission often thought it helpful to turn to Board members of the clubs they were discussing to better understand a request.”

Renewed Transparency The seven current and former IRC commissioners maintain they behaved ethically and professionally in all their SAC dealings and said they did not believe they violated bylaws. Mambuca said that, in practice, members of clubs are allowed to participate in discussions for groups they belong to. “I was always careful to abstain from voting when discussing matters of the IRC,” Mambuca wrote in an email to The Hoya. Currier said she was sure to always abstain on votes that pertained to IRC, though she contests that the bylaws require general members of clubs to recuse themselves from participating in discussion. “Referencing the specific bylaws which refers to conflict of interest, which requires that only commissioners who are members of the BOARD of the group they are part of remain silent or leave the room on discussions on their groups,” Currier wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I acknowledge that the bylaw is confusingly worded, but I was at the drafting and interpreted as I felt that the original writers had, which was that IRC board members had to be silent during discussions, and excuse themselves from votes.” Current commissioner Connor Sakati (COL ’18) said IRC’s case is particularly complicated because of the relationship between GIRA and IRC. “The problem with IRC is that it’s a multi-tiered system and there’s so much to it,” Sakati said in an interview. “Most members of SAC, and even most members of IRC I think, don’t necessarily understand what [GIRA] really entails or how much money they get from it.” While current commissioners claim they do not hold board positions in IRC, they can simultaneously be IRC members and leaders in GIRA. But Mondolfi said regardless of whether commissioners are board members, their participation can appear to provide unfair advantages to overrepresented groups. “They are often active participants in discussions about requests from their groups. This gives them the opportunity to add details, explanations and excuses to the discussion as well as communicate with the people making the request, which is safe to call an unfair advantage,” Mondolfi said. “Groups get one commissioner to represent them before SAC, but sometimes it feels like certain groups have three or four.” Navarro said leadership is aware of potential bias and is working to prevent these instances from occurring. “We also screen against bias in our recruitment of new commissioners, as we consistently ask applicants how will they work to remain unbiased on the Commission,” Navarro said. Mondolfi contends that SAC is not meant to be a representative body and that unbiased decisions should be the priority of commissioners and the recruitment process. “During my tenure as Chair, we often discussed how we could ensure that the system was as fair as possible in order to better serve all students,” Mondolfi said. “Perhaps the most important area of improvement is hiring — if more students were willing to serve on SAC, we certainly would not have this issue. Students, especially first-years and sophomores, should strongly consider applying.”

CORP, from A1 The Corp, which has its own in-house IT department, employs over 430 students and calls itself the largest student-run 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation in the world, has fallen victim to previous attacks on its digital platforms. Last September, an unidentified person used a Corp email account to send a sexually explicit email to all Corp staff. In February 2016, all The Corp’s storefronts were shuttered for about two hours after a hack on the company’s online servers. “It is clear that no student group is immune to cyberattacks, and we encourage others to follow our lead and take permanent steps to secure their systems from unwanted interference,” Gong wrote. “Most organizations and offices on campus conduct business digitally, but I don’t

think many groups fully realize the risk in relying on online platforms to host sensitive information.” On the morning of Thursday, March 22, the day after the attack, The Corp’s senior leadership contacted various Georgetown administrators and University Information Services, whose officials provided technical guidance and support, according to Gong and Mondolfi. Rachel Pugh, Georgetown’s senior director for strategic communications, did not comment on the details of the university’s response to the incident. Pugh said UIS continues to provide “advice and assistance” to The Corp. Chief Information Officer of UIS Judd Nicholson did not comment. On the administration’s actions to help other campus organizations bolster their digital security

after the incident, Pugh wrote, “UIS continues to engage its student technology advisory board on technology issues affecting students and strategies for communicating with the campus community about best practices.” With the university’s support, The Corp has taken steps to strengthen its online security in the aftermath of the incident. University administrators put Corp leadership in contact with a security consulting firm after the incident to help strengthen their cybersecurity protocols, according to Gong. Employees are now required to use two-factor authentication to access their Corp email accounts and to change their passwords monthly. Employees were also advised to update verification information when control of an account changes hands.

Migrant Worker Conditions At Qatar Campus Scrutinized SFS-Q, from A1 and the Philipines and make up 90 percent of the Qatari population, according to The New York Times. Such migrant workers are particularly vital as the country prepares to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup by building stadiums and developing infrastructure. Workers involved in the World Cup construction reported having to pay recruitment fees, working excessive hours, having their passports confiscated and fearing reprisal for filing health and safety concerns, according to a 2017 report by Amnesty International. Unlike workers at Georgetown’s Washington, D.C. locations, the university’s Qatari employees are not covered by the university’s Just Employment Policy, which requires the university to provide fair and competitive compensation packages to full-time employees and assures their right to a safe, harassment-free work environment. Introduced in 2005 after student protests, including a nine-day hunger strike, the Just Employment Policy currently provides a minimum total compensation of $16.77 per hour. Instead, migrant workers are held to the standards established by the Qatar Foundation in 2013, which stipulate all migrant workers employed by the foundation, its contractors and subcontracted firms must receive training on their rights under Qatari law in their own languages. Workers are also legally protected from being charged recruitment fees to obtain work and from having their passports confiscated by employers, under these standards. For migrant workers at its Qatari campus, Georgetown adheres to these mandatory standards of the Qatar Foundation and holds its contractors to these standards as well. However, the Qatar Foundation’s mandatory standards are not always upheld for migrant workers in the country, according to Gulf researcher Kristina Bogos (GRD ’17). Bogos attributes the lack of enforcement to the asymmetric power balance created by a sponsorship system known as kafala, which tethers the visas and residency permits of all guest workers in Qatar to their employers. Under this system, sponsors maintain the power to “confiscate passports, withhold or delay the payment of … wages, among other forms of ill treatment, with virtual ease,” Bogos added. Concerns about the treatment of migrant workers at Georgetown’s Qatari campus were raised

in a January editorial in The Hoya, (“Extend Rights to Qatar Campus.”, The Hoya, Jan. 26, 2018, A2).Since the article’s publication, the university has announced its commitment to the 122 migrant workers contracted at the Qatari campus and publicly disclosed the creation of a Qatar Foundation-Georgetown University Joint Task Force on Worker Welfare, formed in January 2017. Since its inception last year, the task force has worked to develop recommendations, including steps to combat unethical recruitment practices such as recruitment fees and easier mechanisms for filing grievances, according to a university spokesperson. In a February letter to the editor in The Hoya responding to the editorial, Groves cited the creation of the task force as an example of strides the university is making toward improving conditions for migrant workers. He also highlighted the presence of two Georgetown employees in Qatar charged with vetting contractors’ worker welfare plans at the Qatari campus and overseeing their compliance with the mandatory standards. The university has also established a process to hear and address the grievances of employees at the Qatari campus. Furthermore, the university administration in Qatar commissioned a survey to collect information about workers’ conditions. However, nearly two years after the project’s start, the results remain unpublished externally. In one of several of his policy demands, Almond implored the provost to publish the “squashed” data from this survey, or at least make it available to “concerned faculty.” Georgetown was “unable to release the results without compromising the confidentiality of the respondents,” according to a university spokesperson. However, the results were an important force behind the university’s establishment of the task force, according to a university spokesperson. Alisha Kamran (SFS-Q ’18), a student at Georgetown’s Qatari campus who helped conduct the interviews, attributes delayed publication to standard research practice. Because the interviews were discussion-based, she said, it would take considerable time to break that qualitative research down into quantitative statistics. Kamran is the program director of The Hoya Empowerment and Learning Program, a student-run literacy program at the Qatari campus that tutors migrant workers in topics like English and financial literacy. In her role at HELP, Kamran has established close relationships with several of the service providers.

While she takes issue with their long hours and confined living conditions, she said she is impressed by Georgetown’s dedication to its contracted employees. Kamran said that through HELP’s biweekly classes, universityled food drives and a dinner held at the start of each year for students and service providers, workers are made to feel part of the Georgetown community. “The providers aren’t segregated from students; they are made to feel part of the community,” Kamran said. “After speaking to a lot of them, they actually really like working here, because they are treated very well within the building. ” However, Almond, who frequently participated in HELP’s programming, argued the projects are not enough. “With the greatest respect, I’m not talking about free glasses/free t-shirts/literacy classes/Christmas raffles/free food,” Almond wrote. Almond called for more substantive reforms, starting with a “one-off cash payment” of $1,000 to each service worker and potentially culminating in a “complete restructuring” of the university’s service worker agreement. Bogos, too, called for systematic changes, claiming Georgetown should at minimum implement long-term solutions to ensure the rights of the workers are not violated. “Georgetown should think about its role more broadly in Qatar as an institution of higher education that supposedly espouses the ideals of social justice … and ensure that the standards it sets for its workers at the D.C. campus match those at the Qatar campus,” Bogos said. “From what I know after being on the ground in 2016 and meeting with many workers at GU-Q, the institution is falling quite short.” Such restructuring would entail negotiations with the Qatar Foundation and, as the organization sponsors a number of U.S. universities in the region, could trigger new agreements at other institutions. Kamran said she appreciates Almond’s outspokenness and compassion for service workers at Georgetown, though she wonders how feasible the implementation of a restructuring plan would be. Still, Kamran said the university’s academic focus on human rights is a step in the right direction. But Kamran concedes there is work that remains to be done. “Georgetown is great with vocalizing opinions,” Kamran said. “But I think there needs to be more effort put into actually materializing ideas.”

Pelosi Emphasizes Party Unity Ahead of Midterms PELOSI, from A1 Party. Yet she does not believe that the Democratic Party should only support representatives who have the same opinions on divisive issues, citing her support of antiabortion Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) as an example of the importance of diversity of stances within the Democratic Party. “I always tell our candidates, ‘Your job description and your job title are one and the same: representative,’” Pelosi said. “When the day comes when we can say, ‘We don’t want any of our voters to be anti-choice,’ then we have a right to say we don’t want any of our candidates to be anti-choice.” Pelosi denounced the 2017 Tax

Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowers taxes on businesses and individuals, and eliminates personal deductions on taxes, as unfair and unrealistic. The bill was signed into law on December 22, 2017 and it passed by a margin of 51 to 49. “Did you know that 83 percent of the benefits of the tax bill go to the top 1 percent? In the light of the bill, 86 million middle-class families will pay more taxes,” Pelosi said. “A budget should be a statement of our values. What’s important to us as a nation should be reflected in how we allocate our resources.” Pelosi expressed her support for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an executive program established

by former President Barack Obama’s administration providing work authorization and legal protection to about 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, and other immigrants. She also denounced Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for blocking a vote on a bipartisan procedural measure that would allow votes on four immigration bills. “I say to my colleagues, you pray in church on Sunday and then you prey on people the rest of the week. What is this?” Pelosi said. A federal judge in D.C. ruled that the protections provided by DACA must stay in place, on April 25.

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FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2018

THE HOYA

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Media Professionals Tout FBI Offers $1 Million Diversity Among Journalists To Find Missing Journalist SARAH MENDELSOHN Hoya Staff Writer

Increasing diversity in news media can transform publications to be more representative of the experiences of all readers, a panel of professional journalists said at an event Tuesday evening co-hosted by THE HOYA, the Georgetown Voice and the Georgetown University Lecture Fund. The event aimed to address the transforming media climate and the state of diversity in newsrooms today. The event featured six panelists: Julia Craven, race and black culture reporter at HuffPost; Carmel Delshad, a reporter and editor at D.C. radio station WAMU; Bhumi Tharoor, a CNN recruiter; Miriam Zoila Pérez, a freelance journalist; and Ron Nixon, a national security reporter at The New York Times. A veteran journalist at The Washington Post and a Georgetown journalism professor Athelia Knight moderated the event. Journalists from diverse backgrounds can offer a unique perspective on reporting, Delshad said. “It’s important when you’re talking about recruiting people that come from diverse

backgrounds to realize that they can cover things with a nuance, that maybe somebody else who doesn’t have that background might not pick up on those tiny details,” Delshad said. Nixon, co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society, an organization that supports journalists of color, said the media industry has become more diverse in recent years. He urged media organizations to continue to include people of color in coverage that is not only on race issues. “There has been progress, but there has also been regression in terms of getting people into the newsroom,” Nixon said. “But the bigger thing for me is you’re in there, but what are you doing once you’re in there? And not just on the reporting side, but are you in recruitment? Are you an editor? Are you in decision-making positions?” Diverse journalists’ backgrounds and perspectives can also influence how they investigate stories, Pérez said, echoing Delshad’s sentiment. “The idea that anybody who’s asking questions in a reporting context doesn’t have a perspective that’s in-

MIRIAM ZOILA PEREZ

Freelance journalist Miriam Zoila Pérez emphasized the role journalists from diverse backgrounds can have in offering unique perspectives.

fluencing what questions they ask, who they ask them of and how they frame it is totally a myth,” Pérez said. “There’s no such thing, in my opinion, of objectivity in that sense that we understand it.” Socio-economic status can also shape how journalists report on stories, especially those regarding race, Craven said. “The biggest problems that I’ve seen is the socio-economic aspect of it. Because if you are just, for example, a black person who came from a wealthy background, you may not have a certain understanding of things that go on in the hood,” Craven said. “If you’re covering the hood, you may not understand a lot of the stuff that’s happening there, because that’s not your experience.” Pérez said the lack of diversity in the media industry is reflected by which stories get covered and how they are received by audiences. “If you’re writing about rich white men, then that’s the news. Any other issue, that’s a marginalized thing,” Perez said. Journalism enables reporters to educate the public about the lives of marginalized people, Delshad said. “I do want to shine a light on stories that I think show inequalities,” Delshad said. “I could go outside and hold a poster being like, ‘Let refugees in’ or whatever, but instead I do work that shows what happens when they get here, how little money they have to get by, what’s their house like.” Craven said that even though she believes activism and journalism can operate independently of each other, she identifies with the motivations and goals that drive activists to work for change through her journalism. “I am a reporter, but also that fire that activists have, that passion, that anger, to say that that isn’t what drives me to do my work fairly — I’d be lying to you,” Craven said.

JESSICA LIN

Hoya Staff Writer

A $1 million reward is being offered for information leading to the whereabouts of Austin Tice (SFS ’02), an American freelance journalist who has been missing in Syria since 2012, the FBI announced April 19. Tice, a 36 year-old journalist, disappeared near Damascus while reporting on the Syrian civil war. The FBI released a poster and a statement on its website exhorting people to report any information that could lead to his location, recovery or return. While U.S. intelligence assessments from the past 18 months suggest Tice has survived, the FBI said that the timing of the reward is unrelated to any specific piece of information. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on how federal authorities settled on the $1 million sum, stating only that the agency takes numerous considerations into account, including “the severity of the danger or injury” and “the risk faced by a source.” Tice’s mother, Debra Tice, said his family remains confident that he is alive and has recently gained renewed hope for his safe return with the reward announcement. “We are so heartened about the current efforts and the reward because we are hoping that someone will come forward with information that leads to Austin coming safely home, and we look for that every single day,” Debra Tice said in an interview with THE HOYA. That the decision to post a reward resulted from an internal FBI initiative and not a request from the family offers further reassurance, according to Debra Tice. “That effort came internally — we didn’t push it — so that is even more gratifying to us,” Debra Tice said. Tice was set to be a double Georgetown alumnus, having been a School of Foreign Service graduate and a Georgetown Law student at the time of his disappearance. The FBI reward raises hopes that the government will be able to secure Tice’s freedom, Georgetown’s Associate Vice President for Federal Relations Scott Fleming said.

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“The reward shows that the administration is strongly committed to trying to secure Austin’s release and return home,” Fleming said in an interview with THE HOYA. “The fact that the FBI has been willing to come forward with that is another sign that we’re still serious, and it also says to me that there’s great confidence that indeed Austin is still alive.” Government involvement is essential to raising public awareness about the #FreeAustinTice campaign, which could help bring forward new information, Inès de Miranda (COL ’20), who is set to take on a leadership role in the Georgetown campus’ #FreeAustinTice campaign in the fall, wrote in an email to THE HOYA. “[The reward] generates interests and hopefully will yield results,” de Miranda wrote. “We’ll have to see what unfolds, but it’s a renewed show of commitment that is reassuring and maybe even hopeful.” Ari Goldstein (COL ’18), who has been a leader of the campus #FreeAustinTice organization, said he was “thrilled” about the FBI’s reward announcement and emphasized the importance of keeping Austin’s case in the public eye. “Our current action is not to pressure the government to start doing things differently, but rather to really support and encourage the work that’s been going on,” Goldstein said in an interview with THE HOYA. “Most importantly, we need to keep Austin’s name in the media so that people outside the government also care about prioritizing his safe return home.” A weeklong exhibition of Tice’s photographs from Syria was on display in the Intercultural Center Galleria on Monday. The project was led by Goldstein and hosted by the Georgetown journalism program. The exhibit will help raise Tice’s profile within the Georgetown community, according to SFS Dean Joel Hellman. “I hope more students passing by the exhibition get the chance to understand his story and keep him in their thoughts and in their advocacy to ensure that he

comes home,” Hellman said in an interview with THE HOYA. “I think that anything we can do to rally our students, our faculty and the prominence and prestige of Georgetown around this case is important.” Goldstein hopes students will take advantage of the recent publicity surrounding Austin’s disappearance to amplify their voices in his campaign. “I hope younger students take the attention that’s being generated about Austin in the news right now as further motivation to get involved by continuing to keep Austin’s name in people’s hearts and minds,” Goldstein said. “The moment to speak up is now.” Emily Kaye (COL ’18), who has also been a leader in the campus #FreeAustinTice campaign, echoed Goldstein’s sentiment and said Georgetown is well-positioned to contribute to federal advocacy on behalf of Tice. “I see Georgetown as the main convening body to continue the conversation about Austin with the federal government and to ensure they do everything they can to bring home,” Kaye said in an interview with THE HOYA. Fleming applauded the efforts of Georgetown students who have taken part in the awareness campaign. “The important thing to the family is just to keep Austin’s story visible and out front because if somebody like him gets forgotten, then the pressure to continue working goes away.” Fleming said. “Our students are inspired by his story, and I think they are playing a very valuable part in spreading it.” Amid the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Tice’s case, the university will continue to stand in solidarity with Tice and his embodiment of Georgetown’s values, according to SFS Chief of Staff to the Dean Emily Zenick. “Austin is a classic SFS student - chasing a dream and making a difference in the world as a journalist,” Zenick wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We couldn’t be prouder to call him a brother of Georgetown.”

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THE HOYA

Residency Fraud Lost DCPS Over $500,000, Report Reveals JOSH METZGER Hoya Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. Public Schools lost over $500,000 in tuition collection by failing to verify the residency of enrolled students, according to an April 17 report by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General. The 28-page report released by Inspector General Daniel Lucas concluded that DCPS and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the agency that oversees both private and public schools, lack the mechanisms necessary for verifying student residency. The report examined academic years 2014 to 2016. In two-thirds of the residency fraud cases examined, the OSSE settled accounts for less than the tuition owed and remains ill-equipped to provide accurate records of these cases to auditors, according to the report. The audit revealed inadequate record-keeping and lax enforcement of rules against fraudulent enrollment of students nonresident in school districts. The District did not collect mandatory nonresident tuition in full before admitting nonresident students, according to the report. The value of the uncollected school fees totaled almost $170,000. Eighty-two of 85 nonresident students included in the audit report were allowed to attend D.C. schools for free despite their parents not paying tuition. “The District extended payment agreements for self-identified, non-resident students without obtaining required evidence that the students lacked a comparable educational program where they resided and suffered from severe, temporary financial problems,” the report read. The report also found that the OSSE did not adequately work with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General when designating cases as in violation of the False Claims Act, the primary litigation tool for combating fraud against the government. The investigation comes in light of several scandals related to education within D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) administration. The administration has previously handled the resignation of Ant-

wan Wilson from his position of D.C. Public Schools Chancellor. Wilson used his position and influence to enroll his daughter at a top-rated D.C. high school, bypassing a waitlist of more than 600 students. The report recommended changes to the procedure and protocol of the OSSE and the DCPS to resolve ongoing issues and establish documentation requirements for proof of residency. Lucas recommended disallowing nonresident students who have not paid tuition from attending D.C. Public Schools; that all fraud cases be referred to appropriate authorities including the Office of the Attorney General, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Office of the Inspector General; and that standard operating procedures be implemented to track all residency fraud allegations. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) co-introduced legislation with Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) to remedy the problems Lucas highlighted in his report. The bill seeks to establish the District of Columbia EducatioResearch Advisory Board and the

District of Columbia Education Research Collaborative, an initiative that would audit the District’s school data and data collection policies in addition to conducting long-term education research. The recently proposed legislation addressing residency fraud is not the first of its kind, Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) said in an April 17 news release. “Since I took over the chairmanship of the Education Committee in 2015, I have regularly pressed the Office of the State Superintendent of Education on its efforts to verify residency, identify fraud, and refer cases when necessary,” Grosso said. “I made investments through the annual budget process to provide OSSE additional resources to fulfill those responsibilities.” Grosso identified the need to consider residency issues, such as homelessness and unstable family life that many District students face. “While there are certainly cases of those defrauding the system, we must balance the need for rigorous enforcement with the need to provide educational opportunities to our most disadvantaged students,” Grosso said in the news release.

FILE PHOTO: SPENCER COOK/THE HOYA

During Mayor Muriel Bowser’s term, DCPS’ failure to verify students’ residency led to a $170,000 loss in uncollected nonresident fees.

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2018

18 GUSA Senators Elected Under New Election Rules ELIZABETH DOUGLAS Hoya Staff Writer

Eighteen new senators were elected in the Georgetown University Student Associations senate elections for the 2018-19 school year that were held April 19. This election marks the first one since the passage of a set of referendums that upended voting policy this February. The referendums that altered GUSA elections were attached to the executive elections that took place February 22. The referendums moved upperclassman senate elections from the fall of the year in which the senators serve to the spring of the preceding year. Josh Sirois (SFS ’20), Juan Martinez (SFS ’20) and Harry Clow (MSB ’19) were appointed transition chair, transition vice chair and transition finance and appropriations committee liaison, respectively, on April 22. These three positions were newly created by the referendums to serve for the transition period over the summer, which did not exist under the old system. In past years, all senate elections took place in the fall. Beginning with this week’s elections, that is now true only of first-year senators and at-large senators, the latter of whom have no restricted constituent base and instead are elected by the student body as a whole. Under the previous framework, senators were elected by constituencies determined by geographic campus housing districts. Senators are now elected by class year, regardless of housing location. Six senators were elected for each of the three grades voting in this spring’s elections. The overall student body turnout was 23 percent, according to the GUSA Elections Commission Twitter account. Rising seniors had the lowest voting turnout at 13 percent; rising juniors and rising sophomores saw 28 percent and 29 percent turnout respectively. The overall turnout of the preceding senate elections, which took place in September 2017, was seven points higher at 30 percent. According to Minji Doh (SFS ’19), chair of the GUSA Elections Commission, that low number may not truly be a result of decreased

community engagement; rather, she pointed to the fact that the incoming freshman class will not vote until the fall. Their absence in these elections, Doh said, depressed the turnout numbers. “Usually, our biggest turnout is from the freshmen,” Doh said in an interview with THE HOYA. “This year, obviously, they are not included in the freshman Senate race. The freshmen that are voting right now are technically sophomores. In the fall [of freshman year], everybody’s super excited. So we would have to wait for next year for the overall turnout.”

“It’s not based on where you live now; it’s based truly on representing your class, which made it more competitive, for sure, in the freshman and sophomore classes.” JOSH SIROIS (SFS ’20) GUSA Transition Chair

This year’s turnout numbers cannot be accurately compared to those of previous years because of the switch to the class-year system from the district system, according to Doh. Last year’s data are based on housing locations and therefore do not translate to the classyear system, Doh said. “It’s really hard to compare [the turnout statistics] to last year, because the districts usually are mixed with sophomores, juniors and seniors, so it’s kind of hard to distinguish them,” Doh said. Though senate races in incoming freshman classes have historically been very competitive, the races in the rising sophomore and junior classes were significantly more crowded with candidates than district races in previous years, according to Sirois, a threetime senator who was re-elected March 19. “For the rising sophomore and junior classes, there was double the amount of people than there were seats available. I’m not going

to say it was cutthroat, because everyone was really nice and cordial, but it was definitely a lot more competitive than we’ve seen in the district system in previous years,” Sirois said. Now that the district boundaries have been removed, the constituency pools are larger, and all the candidates in each year campaign are in direct competition with one another, Sirois said. He pointed to his experience campaigning in the district system for the at-large senator seat with Martinez, his friend, as an example. “We weren’t competing with every member of our class,” Sirois said. “And that’s where it got to be a little more difficult. It’s not based on where you live now; it’s based truly on representing your class, which made it more competitive, for sure, in the freshman and sophomore classes.” The six elections for rising senior senators, meanwhile, were much less competitive than those of the younger grades, according to Doh. The only competition took the form of an unofficial write-in campaign, which posed an electoral challenge to the official candidates but was ultimately unsuccessful. “Upcoming seniors, so Class of 2019, [were] uncontested because we had six people running and there were six seats,” Doh said. “There was a viable write-in campaign, so we didn’t know what was going to happen.” On the whole, the lack of freshmen made the elections much less error-prone than usual, as measured through reports to the Election Commission, Doh said. “This season was actually really smooth sailing. We didn’t receive a lot of complaints — definitely fewer than in the past,” Doh said. “I think this year, everybody was in good spirits, and I think that it was also because this was upperclassman races. A lot of them already had some kind of experience, more or less, with the procedures. We would have a [few] more complaints from incoming freshmen.”

news

friday, april 27, 2018

THE HOYA

A9

Early Female SFS Grads Contemplate Challenges Olivia Eggers Hoya Staff Writer

Having a Georgetown education provided critical career opportunities and professional development, despite some obstacles encountered on the path to obtain it, the School of Foreign Service’s first female graduates said at an April 18 panel in Fisher Colloquium. Barbara Berky Evans (SFS ’58), Barbara Hammes Sharood (SFS ’58), Helene Gettler Mallett (SFS ’59) and Paula Wiegert Tosini (SFS ’60) spoke at the panel hosted by the SFS and moderated by Ambassador Melanne Verveer (ILL ’66, GRD ’69). These four women were part of the university’s first integrated program to accept female applicants. Each year, enrollment was limited to 25 women in an overall SFS class of 250 students. “There were no women,” Evans said. “It was a pretty lonely time, I’ll tell you that. Until some of these other ladies showed up.” The first women enrolled in the School of Foreign Service in 1943, as male enrollment declined during the Second World War. However, these women were only allowed to take evening and Institute of Language and Linguistics classes until 1954, when six women were admitted to regular SFS courses, according to an SFS news release. In response to the small community of undergraduate women in the SFS, the first women undergraduates formed the Foreign Service Women’s Association in 1955. The organization played a major role in improving living conditions for women on campus. It was in part thanks to FSWA that in 1970, the 25-women admissions quota was lifted, according to the SFS news release. FSWA provided the women a space of their own, in which they felt less isolated from one another, the alumnae said. Each of the women was paired with an “older sister,” a mentor figure for them at Georgetown. “It was more of a sisterhood than anything,” Sharood said. “There are few women who

don’t like to talk, and it gave you people to talk with, because we were all going through many of the same challenges.” FSWA had a popular bake sale every week and used the money to improve living standards for female students. The only place for the women to live on campus at the time was with the nursing students. Another project for FSWA was improving athletic access for women. The tennis courts were past the library, a far walk from the nursing school housing, Tosini said. Due to a strict dress code, women were told to cover their legs when wearing athletic shorts on the walk to athletic facilities.

“When I think of these young women, there are no limits for them.” Barbara berky evans SFS ‘58

“If we wanted to play tennis and wear pants — like Bermuda shorts — we had to wear a raincoat on top of our pants,” Tosini said. They were allowed to remove the coat while playing, but the rule served as a reminder that women had to make concessions in order to access sports facilities. Georgetown women experienced academic limitations as well. Women had to meet more challenging academic criteria to attend the university than their male counterparts because there were fewer spaces available for them than for men. At times, women were prevented from enrolling in courses in the College by professors who refused to teach female students. Despite the downsides of being the first female students on a male-dominated campus, each woman recalled loving her Georgetown experience. “I knew about Georgetown being a boys’ school,” Tosini said. “But that was kind of irrelevant.”

She was one of four Fulbright recipients in her class — all of them women. The first- and second-ranked students were women as well. After graduating, the alumnae entered the workforce in different capacities, though they found that increases in gender equality at Georgetown did not translate to the working world. Mallett sat for the Foreign Service Officer Test after graduation; she remembered her interviewer saying that hiring a marriageable woman like her would be a poor fiscal move for the agency. She never heard back after the interview. Evans, however, was able to find a job at a time when few people were hiring women because of her Georgetown education. She applied for a position at Proctor and Gamble and discovered her interviewer attended Georgetown night classes. “I want to tell you ladies to really value your degree, because you never know what life holds for you,” Evans said. Acknowledging the challenges they had faced in their careers, each of the panelists noted progress made for women since their time at Georgetown. “When I think of these young women, there are no limits for them,” Evans said. “One of them could easily be our next president.” “We’re rooting for you,” Gettler said. Lulu Garcia-Navarro (SFS ’94), host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, delivered closing remarks. Navarra highlighted progress in the fight for women’s rights, but addressed barriers in the road ahead, discussing her experiences in the male-dominated journalism field. However, Navarra expressed hope for the future, despite past challenges. “I consider it a great thing, at this point in time, to be a woman. But that’s because of women like this,” Navarra said about the panelists. “That’s also because of women like you.”

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Students in the “Law, Business and Entrepreneurship” course competed in a pitch competition judged by faculty members. Nadia Ilunga (GRD ’18) took home first place for Cine’ Mobile.

Student Pitch Competition Tests Entrepreneurial Skills Joe Egler

Hoya Staff Writer

“Law, Business and Entrepreneurship,” a multi-disciplinary course in the Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy, hosted a pitch competition, in which participating students demonstrated a range of entrepreneurial skills. Taught by School of Foreign Service professor David Muchow, the class experiments with methods of entrepreneurship that cross the disciplines of business, finance, marketing and law. Nadia Ilunga (GRD ’18) won first place in the competition for her pitch, Cine’ Mobile, a program to provide pop-up movie theaters in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Professor David Wallis, chair of global business and finance in SFS graduate programs; Rosie O’Neil, coordinator for the Landegger Program; and Laura Clark, an entrepreneur-in-residence, judged the competition together. Natalie Kaliss (SFS ’18) participated in the competition, emphasizing the learning opportunities presented by having an opportunity to participate in the pitch competition in class. “It was a very good workshop in what you go through in a normal pitch competition, but in a smaller setting,” Kaliss said. “I thought the panel of judges asked really specific and poignant questions which I was impressed by.”

Competition participants pitched a wide variety of products and services, Kaliss said. “I was surprised by how varied the ideas were, because you had mobile applications for clothing, and returns delivery service, and then you have pop-up movie theaters,” Kaliss said. Professor Dale Murphy, an adviser to the course, said that the intersection of social needs and students’ talents provides an opportunity for entrepreneurship. “In all of our entrepreneurship courses in the SFS, we get students to try and identify a real societal need, and then to identify their own passions,” Murphy said. “The pitches are a way of getting the students to understand their alternative career paths besides those large corporations who recruit on campus.” Murphy said he is always impressed with what Georgetown students manage to come up with and that some students have ambitious entrepreneurial goals. “I’m particularly interested in those students who were able to identify major societal needs, millennium development goals, and figure out business models that address those,” Murphy said. “That’s where the real markets are, whether it’s environmental, or labor, or social , or wealth inequalities,” Murphy said. Muchow has a background in corporate law and previous experience with a range of in-

dustries. He hopes this class provides students with a chance to understand all aspects of the entrepreneurship process, especially relating to how entrepreneurship relates to law. “What I find with helping clients who are starting up is that even if they have taken business classes or typical entrepreneurial classes, there are still a lot of gaps in what they need to know the minute they leave the classroom and hit reality in the real world,” Muchow said. Muchow noted that recent graduates and up-and-coming Georgetown entrepreneurs often overlook aspects of the law when creating projects. Addressing potential obstacles, Muchow said, requires more than just business savvy. The “Law, Business and Entrepreneurship” class strives to prevent these obstacles by teaching students how to understand all aspects of entrepreneurship, from coming up with an idea to watching it come to fruition. “Law schools teach more law than business, although Dean [William] Treanor has been doing more to bring business into the law school. The business schools don’t teach much law,” Muchow said. However, “the world is a seamless web of law, business, finance, perseverance, and [students need] all this in order to create a successful company.”

JPMorgan Chase to Invest In DC’s Underserved Areas Karena Landler Hoya Staff Writer

JPMorgan Chase plans to increase philanthropic investments and create up to 70 new branches and 700 new jobs in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region, an expansion that Chase executives say will benefit lower-income communities. The firm will designate $4 billion to invest in affordable housing and small business development over the next five years, according to an April 19 news release. Its philanthropic investments in “underserved neighborhoods” are set to increase to $25 million from $10 million to fund skills training, aid expansion for minority-owned businesses and improve “consumer financial health.” The expansion is part of a response to new regulations and tax reforms that have brought capital to firms through corporate tax rate cuts, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in an April 18 CBS News article. “With this will come more than just new branches,” Dimon said in the April 19 news release. “We will combine the best of our business and philanthropy to help more communities benefit from regional economic growth.” The new branch locations will increase housing accessibility for low-income neighborhoods, according to Jesse Meisenhelter, spokesperson for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an organization that works to increase fairness in banking, business and housing. “In mortgage lending, bank branches still provide important access to mortgages for customers in low-income areas, and at lower rates,” Meisenhelter wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Research from a 2010 Federal Reserve study

showed more mortgage loans and at lower rates in low-income neighborhoods that had more bank branches present.” The locations will be subject to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which monitors lending practices of banks with physical branches in a community, ensuring Chase serves poorer residents, Miesenhelter said. “JP Morgan Chase has benefitted by serving wealthy clients in Washington, D.C., while skirting any legal obligations to serve the rest of the district’s residents,” Meisenhelter wrote. “By opening bank branches in the district, the bank will be legally obliged to meet the credit needs of low and moderate-income residents.” The bank has operated in the region, serving “some two million local customers” despite its lack of physical branch locations. The expansion will aid the city’s lower-income residents, according to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D). “We hope this expansion means that we will see more banking, not just where we have them already, but where we need them to be,” Bowser said in the April 19 news release. “We are proud to partner with JPMorgan Chase to ensure more residents are able to participate in the region’s prosperity.” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) also welcomed the expansion, according to the April 19 press release. Investment in the region comes on the heels of accusations of lending discrimination against Chase levied by reporters from the Center for Investigative Journalism. The bank paid $55 million to settle a lawsuit over discriminatory lending practices in 2017,

although it denied culpability. Black and Latinx borrowers allegedly were charged $1,000 more on average than their white counterparts from 2006 to 2009. The report reveals that this is not the only possible indiscretion. Black people were granted only 23 home purchase loans out of the 1,119 Chase made in the region in 2015 and 2016, according to the report. Analysis of JPMorgan Chase records from 2015 to 2016 show that there were “statistically significant disparities” in loans denied for all groups examined: Black, Asian, Latinx, and Native American people, according to the Center for Investigative Journalism. Although reporters identified such disparities in 61 metro areas, D.C. was the only region in which disparities were apparent for all groups examined. As Chase did not have physical branches in the area, its practices were legal. The expansion will affect Wards 7 and 8 and is part of a larger expansion and philanthropic effort by the bank, which has already worked on ventures in cities such as its investment in Detroit. “Detroit’s Entrepreneurs of Color Fund has made a great impact creating economic opportunity, and now we want to bring this same model to San Francisco and the South Bronx to help more entrepreneurs grow,” Dimon said in a Feb. 13 news release. “These cities are seeing tremendous growth. By expanding this fund, we will help ensure more small businesses thrive and create local jobs.” The bank plans to expand into 15 to 20 new regions over the next five years following its D.C. expansion, according to the April 19 news release.

A10

sports

THE HOYA

friday, april 27, 2018

BASEBALL

kicking and screaming

Tottenham Needs Trophies Drew Sewall

F

GUHOYAS

Senior right-handed pitcher Matt Randolph has an opponent batting average of .284 this season, recording 23 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings pitched. Last year, Randolph was named to the Big East All-Academic Team.

Hoyas Swept by Red Storm vikram sud

Hoya Staff Writer

Last weekend, the Georgetown baseball team (15-23, 2-4 Big East) travelled to New York for a three-game series against Big East rival St. John’s (26-10, 9-0 Big East), losing all three games. In the opening game, the Hoyas were shut out in the first five innings en route to a 6-3 loss. Junior pitcher Jack Cushing took the mound for the Hoyas, giving up five runs in 5 2/3 innings. Offensively, the Hoyas were led by junior third baseman Ryan Weisenberg, who drove in two runs with a double in the sixth inning. Freshman catcher Ryan P. Davis scored the third run by stealing home in the eighth inning. On Saturday, the Hoyas did not fare much better, this

time losing by a score of 9-1. Sophomore pitcher Brent Killam took the mound, giving up three runs in six innings in his second loss of the season. The Red Storm pulled away in the seventh, scoring an additional three runs to double their lead to 6-0. Offensively, the Hoyas were unable to get much going as they were held scoreless for the first eight innings. Georgetown scored its only run in the ninth. Despite the pitching performance, Georgetown came away with another loss in the final game of the series, losing by a score of 2-1 in extra innings. Offensively, the Hoyas were again held at bay, recording five hits in the game. Senior left fielder Austin Shirley added an RBI double, the Hoyas' sole run of the game. Sophomore pitcher Jeremi-

ah Burke started the game for the Hoyas, giving up one run in five innings before being replaced by sophomore pitcher Nick Morreale. Morreale pitched three scoreless innings to keep the game tied at 1-1. Senior pitcher Jimmy Swad replaced Morreale, and after pitching a scoreless ninth inning, gave up the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th via a fielder’s choice. After Sunday’s loss, Georgetown dropped to sixth in the Big East standings, with a record of 2-4 in the conference. St. John’s remained undefeated, improving to 9-0 in conference play and extending its winning streak to 12 games. Georgetown will be back in action April 27 for a weekend series against Big East foe Creighton (14-27, 3-6 Big East).

ollowing a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-finals, Tottenham Hotspur FC will finish yet another year without a trophy. Despite seeing immense growth and success since Mauricio Pochettino took over as manager, Tottenham has not quite been able to get over the hump. No one can deny that Tottenham has made significant strides under Pochettino. However, the current Tottenham squad has reached the crucial turning point where it will either go down as one of the greatest teams in Tottenham history or will just be known as another “good but never good enough” squad. To put Tottenham’s trophy drought in context, its last trophy came from its League Cup win in 2008. Since then, six different teams have won the League Cup, including one that is no longer in the Premier League. Its last FA Cup trophy came nearly 30 years ago in 1991. Since then, eight different teams have won the FA Cup, including two teams that are no longer in the Premier League. Finally, it has not won the Premier League title in over 50 years, dating all the way back to 1961. Thirteen different teams have won the title since then, including six clubs that are no longer in the top flight of England. For a team often regarded as one of the major clubs in England, these numbers are remarkably poor. Competing in the top flight since 1978, it does deserve credit for being a mainstay in England’s top flight for so long. However, if

it is truly one of the biggest clubs in England, it needs to begin to take home some silverware to show for it. This season certainly has some positive takeaways. It topped its Champions League group, which included Borussia Dortmund and the twotime reigning champions, Real Madrid. The team played a very close tie across two legs against last year’s Champions League runner-up, Juventus. In addition, it made the FA Cup semi-finals. While none of these results are particularly poor on their own, they do highlight a troubling trend for Tottenham. The team has very little to show for its positive improvements over the past few seasons. In the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons, Tottenham was the only team that consistently challenged the ultimate title winners, Leicester City and Chelsea, respectively. Nonetheless, there is no trophy for finishing second.

Glory does not come simply from challenging the league leaders. It comes from trophies, which Tottenham must win. This leaves Tottenham in a precarious position. It has a talented young core of players who could easily transfer to clubs that are winning trophies more frequently. In particular, attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen, midfielder Dele Alli and striker Harry Kane could easily join another squad. Tottenham’s wage bill is currently much smaller than that of the other “big six” teams in England — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United — causing many of their talented players to be underpaid. For example, Eriksen is being paid £75,000 a week, but could likely earn more

than double that at a different club. However, salary differentials have not been posing a significant obstacle for Tottenham. Only one key player, right back Kyle Walker, has left the club to receive higher wages elsewhere. Nevertheless, if the team continues to miss out on trophies, a lot of its young talent will ultimately be inclined to move on elsewhere. Yet Tottenham’s solution is not as simple as injecting more money into the club. Tottenham is close to completing the construction of a new stadium that has more seats for fans and will help grow the team’s global brand. This new stadium is part of a new 10-year deal to allow Tottenham to host at least two NFL games per year. Despite the added benefits, the stadium was expensive, and Tottenham will be stuck paying the cost in the upcoming years. Overall, Tottenham’s future looks very bright. The team has progressed from a mid-table club in the early 2000s to consistent Champions League participants. It has a promising project in its new stadium, which should only help to increase Tottenham’s global footprint. However, at some point, it must begin to win trophies in order to truly be considered one of Europe’s elite. The phrase “The Game Is About Glory” was plastered across White Hart Lane and will be present in Tottenham’s new stadium. This quote comes from Danny Blanchflower, the captain of Tottenham’s double-winning squad in the 1960–61 season and has been adopted throughout the years to describe the club. However, glory does not come simply from challenging the league leaders or punching above its weight. It comes from trophies, which Tottenham must win.

Drew Sewall is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business. This is the final installment of KICKING AND SCREAMING.

MEn's CREW

Softball

GU Loses 3 Games to Villanova GUEINAH BLAISE Special to The Hoya

Despite three consecutive losses to Villanova (23-19, 7-5 Big East) in Philadelphia this weekend, the Georgetown softball team (13-33, 4-10 Big East) is optimistic about its chances of ending its season on a successful note. “Mathematically, we’re still very much in a race for a bid to our conference [tournament],” Head Coach Pat Conlan said. “We have to win the rest of our games to do that.” With six games left in the season, Conlan has noticed a great improvement in the team’s defense. This weekend, the defense allowed fewer than 10 runs in all three games against a competitive Villanova team. While Georgetown had six or more hits in two of the three games, including five by senior left fielder Theresa Kane, the offense struggled to convert those hits into runs. The team, as a whole, scored just two runs during the three games.

The Hoyas also committed a few costly defensive errors as well. They committed one error during each of the first two games against Villanova and two errors in the last game, while the Wildcats played error-free defense throughout the series. Regardless, Georgetown’s improvement, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, has been steady. Conlan said that putting all the progress together in order to string together wins has been difficult during a hectic season. “Unfortunately with the way our season has built, once we start to play, we don’t have any opportunity to get back out there and do a lot of practices … particularly with our class schedules and our travel schedule,” Conlan said. Entering the last stretch of the softball season and finals season, Conlan said the team faces significant obstacles to its focus and performance. “This conference scheduling, that’s just a side note you can’t schedule around,”

Conlan said. “It’s so difficult, particularly with the spring sports ... During finals season [players are] either on the road or at home pulling allnighters right before [they] go on the field.” Even with such challenges, Conlan believes that her players will be disciplined and committed enough to be able to balance their academic and athletic lives. “We believe that academics and athletics complement each other with a very, very bright group of hard working girls on and off the field,” Conlan said. “Our team GPA is a 3.2. We have to work hard in the classroom. So next week will be one of those weeks where you sit down and say, ‘OK, what's everybody’s commitment?’ Maybe we do individual practices, things like that.” Georgetown has three conference games against Creighton (22-12, 7-2 Big East) in Omaha, Neb., this upcoming weekend. The first game is scheduled to start at 12 p.m. May 5.

GUHOYAS

The No.11 Georgetown men's lightweight crew team finished behind Ivy Leage opponents No.3 Princeton and No.9 Penn on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J. Georgetown will host Temple on Saturday.

Hoyas Struggle in Princeton Will Scoville Hoya Staff Writer

GUHOYAS

Sophomore pitcher Katie Vannicola has notched 16 strikeouts during the season, with an opponent batting average of .340. She has pitched a total of 46.0 innings this season, the third highest on the team.

The Georgetown men’s lightweight crew team travelled to Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J., to face a duo of Ivy League opponents Saturday. The No. 11 Hoyas took on both No. 3 Princeton and No. 9 Penn, finishing third in each of the three races in which they participated. The 2,000-meter regatta saw generally calm conditions with temperatures ranging from the high 40s to mid-50s, with slight headwinds.

Georgetown finished third in the varsity eight with a time of 6:10.1. The Hoyas completed the race five seconds behind the second-place Quakers and 10 seconds behind the first-place Tigers, who finished in 6:00.8. The second varsity-eight race saw the Hoyas again finish third with a time of 6:40.3, putting them 23 seconds behind second-place Princeton and 43 seconds behind first-place Penn, who finished with a time of 6:14.5. The Blue and Gray finished only one second outside sec-

ond place in the third varsity eight, with a time of 6:30.5. The Quakers finished just ahead of the Hoyas with a time of 6:29.2, and the Tigers won comfortably, finishing 20 seconds ahead of both Penn and Georgetown with a time of 6:09.4. The Hoyas did not compete in the fourth varsity race, but Princeton won with a time of 6:25.5, compared to Penn’s 6:38.2. The Hoyas will now return home to race on the Potomac against Temple on Saturday, April 28.

SPORTS

friday, April 27, 2018

THE HOYA

A11

Helmet to HELMET

Women’s GOLF

Floundering Teams Struggle to Attract Fans CHRISTOVICH, from A12

putting their assets toward rebuilding their farm systems. There were so many unsigned free agents, in fact, that the Player’s Association opened a spring training facility for players to complete preseason workouts while they waited to receive offers. Regardless of the other potential factors that came together to create the greatest hiring freeze in MLB history, the seeming popularity of tanking at least played a role in creating the freeze. The rise of the tanking phenomenon has also been criticized, as baseball’s popularity could suffer as a result of a large number of terrible, hopeless teams. A New York Post article discussed comments made by Commissioner Rob Manfred, who refused to call the sig-

nificant number of bad teams this season a result of a complete tanking phenomenon, citing that some teams with terrible records, such as the San Diego Padres, do not fit the tanking model. However, even Manfred admitted that his office is following the situation closely, presumably in case more obvious tanking evidence arises. The article concluded by warning that these tanking teams could “take the sport with them.” A potential counter to this theory comes from Gerald Shifman’s Hope and Faith Index (HFI), a metric created in 2017 that is supposed to measure how much “hope and faith” — in the words of former Commissioner Bud Selig — still exists in the game. The metric combines how many games teams need to win to secure a playoff spot

— teams leading divisions or wild card races do not contribute to this total — and divides them by the total number of teams, to create an average number of games- behind teams there are in a season. The lower the number, the more “hope and faith” exists throughout the game, and the more popular the game could still be.

It is clear that in an age in which drawing new, young fans is crucial, the tanking trend is not beneficial for the strength of the game. And while the HFI illustrates that since the introduc-

tion of the second wild card spot, the HFI has dropped steadily and tanking has yet to largely impact the metric, HFI does not measure how playoff races play out throughout the season. If the playoff races are boring throughout the summer, no amount of excitement at the end of September could compensate for the loss in interest throughout the rest of the season. While tanking’s official impacts on the game are still hazy, and while not all nine failing teams are tanking specifically, it is clear that in an age in which drawing new, young fans is crucial to the survival of baseball, the tanking trend is not beneficial for the popularity of the game.

Amanda Christovich is a junior in the College. This is the final edition of Helmet to

helmet.

men’s lacrosse

Hoyas Defeat Highlanders on Senior Day NJIT, from A12

GUHOYAS

Junior Alexa Popowitz recorded a three-day total of 17-over par 233 at the Big East Championship, finishing 11th overall.

Eleey Becomes 1st 2-Time Big East Champion CALLAWASSIE, from A12

Sophomore Ashley Fitzgibbons climbed 11 spots on the leaderboard on Saturday with a 1-over 73, and turned in a 2-over par 74 over the final 18 holes to move up another two spots, finishing in the top 10. She finished the tournament with an overall score of 16over par 232. Fitzgibbons tied for ninth place with junior Pendleton Bogache, who shot a 6-over par 78 on Sunday.

Junior Alexa Popowitz tied with Eleey for the best round of the final day, carding a 1-over par 73. She moved up four spots to finish in 11th place with a three-day total score of 17-over par 233. With their team victory at the Big East Championship, the Hoyas earned a spot in the NCAA Championship. Georgetown will be seeded 16th at the Austin Regional, which will begin May 7 in Austin, Texas.

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two minutes of the game and finished with five goals. Sophomore attacker Jake Carraway tallied four goals and four assists for eight points, while senior Matt Behrens combined three goals and an assist for four points. Junior midfielder Derek Altobello also got in on the action by scoring his first career goal on the Hilltop. Eleven of Georgetown’s 15 goals were assisted. Senior faceoff man Peter Tagliaferri contributed to Georgetown’s control of possession as he went 9-for-11 on faceoffs, and collected a team-high six ground balls in the game. Jake Carraway earned Big East Attack Player of the Week for his eight-point performance in limited playing time. Carraway impacted many phases of the game, collecting two ground balls and causing a turnover in addition to scoring eight points. This is his second time receiving the award this season. Warne lauded Carraway’s work ethic and drive to succeed. “Jake’s done all the right things to put himself in the best possible position on the field,” Warne said. “To do that he’s been one of our hardest workers in the weight room, will watch film and shoots extra. He’s as competitive a kid as I’ve ever coached. His best days are in front of him.” Freshman defenseman Gibson Smith was named to the Big East Men’s Lacrosse Weekly Honor Roll for his performance in the game against NJIT. Smith led a stifling Georgetown defense that allowed only a single shot on goal in the first quarter and held NJIT scoreless for the opening 21 minutes. He also recorded five ground balls and caused a turnover in the game. Robert Clark’s hat trick helped Georgetown jump out to a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Five more goals in the second quarter provided the Hoyas with a 12-3 halftime cushion, which gave the team an opportunity to showcase its younger talent. Freshman goalie Owen McElroy

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ALLAN GICHOHI FOR THE HOYA

Sophomore attack Jake Carraway, left, has a team-high 36 goals this season and made 18 assists. Carraway earned Big East Attack Player of the Week for his eight-point performance against NJIT.

wOMEN’S laCROSSE

GU Clinches No. 2 Seed With Home Victory MARQUETTE, from A12

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did not allow a goal, while freshmen midfielder Kevin Pertillo and attacker Niko Gekas recorded their first career goals. Freshman faceoff specialist Cade Heverly also went 6-for-8 on faceoffs. The Highlanders capitalized on man-up situations, however, and managed to tie the Hoyas 3-3 in the second half, ending the game 15-6. The win and other conference results on the day secured Georgetown a spot in the 2018 Big East tournament — their first since 2015 — to be held at Villanova. Before the May 3 tournament, Georgetown will travel to New York to face St. John’s in its season finale Saturday, April 28.

giving Georgetown a 7-5 lead at the break. After Marquette scored two goals in the first five minutes to even the score at 7, sophomore attacker Michaela Bruno scored for Georgetown to briefly regain the lead. However, a Golden Eagle goal with just over 7 minutes left in regulation time again evened the score at 8-8. Both teams nearly won the game in the final minutes. Sophomore midfielder Natalia Lynch had a chance to score as the clock neared zero, but her shot was saved by the Marquette goalkeeper. Strong defensive play on both sides ensured that the game went into overtime. Marquette won the opening draw of the extra frame, but junior attacker Morgan Ryan forced a turnover to give Georgetown a chance on offense. The Hoyas secured the victory with a set play from the right side, allowing Geb-

hardt to net her third goal of the game. Gebhart and Lynch led the Hoyas’ offense with three points each, while junior goalkeeper Haelle Chomo anchored the team on the defensive end, making seven saves for the day. The Hoyas shined on both ends of the field, outshooting the Golden Eagles 3728 and forcing 19 turnovers. The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team remains the only team to have qualified for every Big East championship since the inaugural tournament in 2007. The Hoyas secured their 12th straight conference championship appearance with the win. However, Fried said he isn’t looking ahead to the tournament just yet. “Every game is important because of our long-term goal of making the [NCAA Tournament],” Fried said. “In order to do that we have to be competitive in the last couple games … [Our main focus is] getting that consistency down

and playing on both ends of the field.” With the postseason now clinched, Georgetown returns to

the field on Wednesday for its final home game against No. 10 Loyola. The game is set to start at 3 p.m. at Cooper Field.

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

Freshman attack Anna Farley, middle, has appeared in four games this season for Georgetown, notching one assist.

Sports

Baseball Georgetown (15-23) vs. Mount St. Mary’s (13-23) Tuesday, 7 p.m. Shirley Povich Field

friday, april 27, 2018

NUMBERS GAME

talkING POINTS

MEN’S CREW The Georgetown men’s lightweight crew team finished third at Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J., on Saturday.

See A10

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Every game is important because of our long-term goal of making the NCAA Tournament.” HEAD COACH RICKY FRIED

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The women’s golf team’s seed in the Austin Regional of the NCAA Tournament, which begins May 7.

Women’s LAcrosse

Men’s Lacrosse

GU Clinches Big Hoyas Defeat Golden Eagles in OT East Tournament Berth With Win Henry Mihm

Hoya Staff Writer

Danny McCooey Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team won its second straight game April 21 in a dominating performance over the visiting NJIT Highlanders. Thirteen graduating Hoyas played their final games on Cooper Field, leading the team to a win on Senior Day. The victory also propelled the team to No. 18 in national polls and a 9-4 record on the year. Head Coach Kevin Warne praised the leadership of his seniors. “I give the seniors a lot of credit,” Warne said in an inter-

view with The Hoya. “They help our guys understand how we are going to do things, why we are going to do things and they have done a great job of making sure that everyone is adherent to the process.” Senior goalie Nick Marrocco, who is the reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Week, recorded the 613th save of his career. He remains the NCAA leader in career saves among active players. On attack, six different Hoyas found the back of the net. Junior attack Robert Clark scored three times in the first See njit, A11

Allan gihochi for the hoya

Sophomore attack Jake Carraway started all 14 games last season as a freshman, finishing third on the team in goals.

The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team defeated conference foe Marquette last weekend, earning a 9-8 overtime victory in a tightly contested game. With the win, the No. 23 Hoyas secured the No. 2 seed in the conference championship, while Marquette fell to No. 4. “Our players have a lot of confidence in their ability to come through when it matters,” Head Coach Ricky Fried said in an interview with The Hoya. “Marquette played with more energy and confidence in the second half, but our players believe in themselves and were able to buckle down and make the right play at the end of the day.” The Georgetown offense got off to a hot start through sophomore midfielder Natalia Lynch, who scored the first goal on a free position shot and provided an assist to senior midfielder Hannah Seibel on the following goal. With just over 11 minutes elapsed in the first half, the Hoyas (11-4, 7-1 Big East) led 4-1. Halfway through the first half, Marquette (9-7, 5-3 Big East) scored a goal to pull within two, but subsequent goals by Lynch and freshman midfielder Caroline Frock widened Georgetown’s lead to four. The Golden Eagles then tallied two goals in less than two minutes, reducing the Hoyas’ lead to one. Junior attack Taylor Gebhart netted the final goal of the first half, See MARQUETTE, A11

Sheel Patel/the Hoya

Sophomore midfielder Liza Liotta has scored three goals to go along with one assist, recording 10 shots on goal. Liotta has also recorded 14 ground balls so far this season.

helmet to helmet

women’s golf

Hoyas Win 2nd Straight Big East Title JP HARRISON Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown women’s golf team took home its second consecutive Big East Championship on April 22 at the Callawassie Island Golf Club in Callawassie, S.C. Senior Jacquelyn Eleey won her second Big East individual title, becoming the first player in conference history to do so. She won for the first time as a freshman in 2015. As a team, the Hoyas earned a threeday score of 39-over par 903 to win by 20 strokes. “This was such a great week for the program and this team,” Head Coach Kate Schanuel said. “Defending is not easy to do and we played hard each day. I am so happy for Jacquelyn to take the title for the second time and make history in this event.” Georgetown finished strong on Sunday with a 10-over par 298, the best team round of the weekend, to pull away from the field and amass a 20-stroke lead. Seton Hall (923) and Xavier (938) rounded out the podium at second and third place, respectively. Butler (946), St. John’s (952) and Creighton (993) made up the rest of the leaderboard. Eleey entered the final round one stroke off the lead, and carded a 1- over par to complete her three-day score of 6-over par 222. She finished out her final round in fashion with an electric chip-in birdie from a bunker near the green on the 18th hole. Junior Christina Parsells, who was the individual leader after Saturday’s second round, earned runner-up honors with an overall score of 13-over par 229.

GUHOYAS

See CALLAWASSIE, A11

Georgetown has won two straight conference championships and will be the No.16 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Austin Regional will take place on May 7 in Austin, Texas.

Amanda Christovich

Tanking Endangers MLB’s Future

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LB’s efforts to make the game exciting by implementing new pace of play rules, tweeting videos of players celebrating home runs and showcasing new rookie phenom Shohei Ohtani cannot distract fans from an unfortunate fact. Many MLB teams are doing the one thing that will surely keep baseball from becoming fun again: losing. On Tuesday, USA Today’s Jorge Ortiz wrote about a FanGraphs statistic that gave nine MLB teams less than a 2% chance of making the playoffs this year. And while even teams that were supposed to dominate this season are underperforming due to injuries and slumping players — Giancarlo Stanton, for example — at least some of the nine losing teams are tanking intentionally. Tanking is the MLB strategy most recently — and successfully — implemented by the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros. Both teams pared down their rosters to a bare minimum and used a core of young players to build themselves up to ultimately win the World Series in a few short years. The main idea behind tanking is that young players who either come up in the clubs’ farm systems or come over in trades will mature before their contracts become more expensive as a result of arbitration. The Chicago White Sox, which

traded three major players including ace pitcher Chris Sale this offseason, provide a perfect example of tanking. Sale, who is in the prime of his career, was traded for four prospects that are all, with the exception of Yoan Moncada, still minor leaguers — and therefore, gambles. The hope is that after a couple years of poor play in the major leagues, while the White Sox organization waits for prospects to develop, these players will eventually come up swinging like the young players grown in the Astros and Cubs organizations did. Whether this trade was a successful investment, however, still remains to be seen as these prospects develop further. In short: Tanking is one of the most intriguing philosophies in baseball right now. Fans must wonder what this all means for MLB. In the first place, many players and super agent Scott Boras have blamed tanking for the 2017 free agency hiring freeze, in which the greatest number in years of free agents went unsigned going into spring training. During the freeze, teams such as the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Miami Marlins mostly passed on signing new free agents who could immediately augment their rosters in favor of allegedly See CHRISTOVICH, A11