GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 100, No. 1, © 2018
friday, August 31, 2018
tracing the 272
A Special Issue featuring descendants’ voices from reporters’ trip to Maringouin, La.
EDITORIAL Georgetown must revoke honorary degrees from Cardinals Wuerl and McCarrick, both disgraced in a recent jury grand jury report.
REJECT DPE Presidents from three chapters of Delta Phi Epsilon call on Georgetown’s chapter to condemn DPE General Secretary Terrence Boyle.
OPINION, A2
OPINION, A3
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After Outpouring, Students Seek GU Action Against McCarrick Student Finds His Way to Georgetown will cassou
Hoya Staff Writers
katrina schmidt Hoya Staff Writer
A GoFundMe fundraiser for a freshman kicked out of his home due to tension related to his sexuality and for refusing to attend his parents’ church raised over $140,000 to support his Georgetown education, and the university’s financial aid office stepped up efforts to support him.
“I was talking to someone from the financial aid office and I remember breaking out in tears on the phone call.” “Even staying in-state, I was still not able to afford it.” Seth owen Freshman in the SFS
Seth Owen (SFS ’22), who is gay, planned to attend Georgetown this fall before his Southern Baptist parents presented him with an ultimatum last spring: continue to attend their church, which
Owen said regularly preaches against the LGBTQ community, or move out. Owen chose the latter. “My parents said that’s the church that I’ve chosen—you can attend there or you can move out,” Owen said in an interview with The Hoya. “At one point in the conversation, I knew there was no going back.” Tensions had been rising between Owen and his parents since his sophomore year of high school, when his father inadvertently discovered Owen’s sexual identity. His parents insisted Owen go through conversion therapy. “I was put in conversion therapy and it didn’t last that long,” Owen said. “It is very damaging and very depressing.” A new pastor at the family’s church was the tipping point. Owen strongly opposed the pastor’s anti-LGBTQ and socially conservative message, and presented his concerns to his parents, leading to the ultimatum. See OWEN, A6
Catholic student groups at Georgetown University are calling on the university to publicly denounce Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C., for the sexual misconduct allegations brought against him and to rescind his honorary degree. McCarrick served as the archbishop of D.C. from 2001 to 2006 and was an active supporter of Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, speaking at multiple events and gatherings for the initiative. The university awarded him an honorary degree in 2004 in recognition of his public service. The New York Times reported June 20 that McCarrick sexually abused men and boys over several decades in his role as a Catholic priest. Subsequent stories revealed that even before McCarrick had ascended to the position of archbishop of D.C., the church had been made aware about abuse allegations against him and on multiple occasions had reached court settlements with accusers, who as part of their settlements could not speak publicly about their experiences with the archbishop.
Despite McCarrick’s insistence on his own innocence following the initial report, the Vatican removed him from public ministry June 20 after an investigation conducted by the Archdiocese of New York, where he formerly served as an auxiliary bishop from 1977 to 1981, found that the accusations were “credible and substantiated.” Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals on July 26. A university spokesperson expressed disapproval of the former cardinal’s actions in an email to The Hoya. However, the university declined to comment on whether it would rescind the honorary degree it awarded McCarrick. Apart from this comment, the university has offered no other public response to the scandal. “The allegations against Archbishop McCarrick are deeply troubling. It is with profound sadness and concern for the victims and those harmed by Archbishop McCarrick’s actions that we will be determining appropriate steps for our University community,” the spokesperson wrote. Erica Lizza (SFS ’19), the president of Catholic See MCCARRICK, A6
BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Georgetown’s Catholic community is urging the university to rescind former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s honorary degree.
District Leaders, Community Condemn Wuerl Inaction Cardinal is accused of covering up child abuse in Pennsylvania for over a decade Sophie Rosenzweig Hoya Staff Writer
Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and other prominent Catholics in the city are calling for the Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl to resign due to his handling of past sexual misconduct cases.
Formerly the bishop of Pittsburgh, Wuerl has been accused in a grand jury report of covering up decades of systematic abuse and sexual misconduct within the Catholic Church. Wuerl was presented with an honorary degree from Georgetown University in 2014 and has since then spoken at the university several
times, including twice in the fall of 2017. Catholics in the archdiocese and beyond are demanding a response for these findings, which show a lack of action by prominent members of the Catholic Church. More than 40 Catholic school teachers protested for Wuerl’s resignation outside the Mass at the
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Tuesday. Other groups of protesters have also demonstrated outside Wuerl’s home and Sunday Mass at St. Matthews Cathedral, according to The Washington Post. Trinity Washington University President Patricia McGuire has been the first leader
AIR FORCE
Washington-area Catholics are asking Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, left, to resign after a decade of improperly addressing widespread sexual assault within the Catholic church. Wuerl holds an honorary `degree from Georgetown, which he received in 2014.
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of a Catholic college to publicly call for Wuerl’s resignation. Protests by members of the Archdiocese of Washington followed two major scandals within the Catholic Church surrounding sexual misconduct. In June, several accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington and Wuerl’s predecessor. Pope Francis requested that McCarrick resign after an investigation conducted by the Archdiocese of New York found certain accusations credible. Wuerl denied having knowledge of McCarrick’s abuse during his tenure as the archbishop of Washington until after the accusations this summer. In a separate investigation, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office released a grand jury report Aug. 14 revealing sexual abuse by 300 priests over the course of 70 years in the state. Wuerl’s name is mentioned 200 times in the report, which describes his mixed record in responding to accusations against abusive priests. Following the release of the report, former Vatican diplomat to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò published a 7,000-word letter Aug. 22 that called for the resignation of Pope Francis, accusing him of covering up McCarrick’s abuse. In his letter, Viganò also accuses Wuerl, a key ally of Pope Francis, for lying about
the point at which he became aware of McCarrick’s sexual misconduct. Ed McFadden, a spokesman for the cardinal, denied that Wuerl had knowledge of McCarrick’s misconduct, according to Catholic News Agency. “Cardinal Wuerl did not receive documentation or information from the Holy See specific to Cardinal McCarrick’s behavior or any of the prohibitions on his life and ministry suggested by Archbishop Vigano,” McFadden said. Since the outpouring of accusations, Wuerl’s publishing company cancelled his upcoming book release and officials are considering removing his name from the high school of his Pittsburgh hometown. Bishops are appointed by popes, and therefore it is rare for a bishop to resign without the resignation of the pope having already taken place. It is unlikely that Wuerl will resign based on precedent in the Catholic Church, according to Marie Collins, who served on a papal commission on clergy and the sexual abuse of children and is an Irish abuse survivor. “Until recently, bishops would not have considered resigning,” Collins told The Washington Post. “It’s just not in the culture of the church to fall on your sword. Within the church that would be seen as strong punishment, even though looking from the outside, I believe they should have to pay a much higher penalty.”
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
Club Lau Cancelled The annual celebration of books and banter comes to a close after 11 years. Fear not , it will return in a year. A8
A Call for Halal Georgetown dining must accomodate the religious dietary needs of Muslim students who eat halal. A3
Hoyas Defeat Bulldogs The women’s soccer team beat Yale 3-1 with two second-half goals on Sunday. A12
NEWS Washington Confidential
opinion A Check on Tech
SPORTS Starting the Season Undefeated
New journalism director Doyle McManus shares his plans for the program in a new media landscape. A9 Printed Fridays
The nearly unchecked power over consumers’ information prompts a demand for transparency. A3
Field Hockey shut out Davidson and Appalachian State last weekend to move to 2-0. A10 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com
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OPINION
THE HOYA
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
THE VERDICT
Condemn McCarrick and Wuerl Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States, must wield its reputation within the church for good, especially in the face of horrific abuse inflicted on children. The university must condemn Catholic leaders it has honored who are now implicated in perpetrating and covering up sexual abuse. A recent report issued by a grand jury in Pennsylvania exposed widespread sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. The report identified 1,000 child victims in Pennsylvania over the past 70 years and indicated that thousands more remain either unaccounted for or unmentioned. The grand jury also revealed the names of higher-ranking individuals who according to its report purposefully protected the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. Among the named abusers is former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Among those accused of keeping abusers safe is current Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C. Both men hold honorary degrees from Georgetown, and Georgetown has made no public comment on either of them. While no individual or institution can ever undo the abuse suffered by children molested by their priests and denied justice by figures deemed to be holy, the university can take serious action to respond to the revelations. Georgetown must strip McCarrick and Wuerl of their Georgetown degrees and release a statement of condemnation calling on the church to tackle abuse in a more aggressive and transparent manner. McCarrick, who served as archbishop of D.C. from 2001 to 2006, was awarded an honorary Georgetown degree in 2004 for “humanitarian efforts.” Speaking to myriad diplomats and other dignitaries at the degree ceremony, McCarrick said, “I no longer see myself as a welcomed visitor but as a member of the family.” Since 2004, McCarrick’s unworthiness of a place in Georgetown’s family has been placed in harsh light. On June 20, a church panel upheld allegations that the former archbishop sexually abused a teenage boy in 1971 while serving as a priest in New York. The scandal ended with McCarrick’s resignation and the removal of his honorary degrees by Catholic University and Fordham University, among other institutions. This week, Catholic Women at Georgetown and Knights of Columbus’ Georgetown chapter, prominent Catholic organizations on campus, called on the university to revoke McCarrick’s degree. On Thursday, four students launched a Change.org petition calling on the university to revoke McCarrick and Wuerl’s honorary degrees, in addition to demanding Wuerl’s resignation. (Full disclosure: A member of this editorial board, Grace Laria, helped launch the
petition.) This editorial board unreservedly joins that call: Georgetown must recognize its error and condemn men who deserve disgrace. While Wuerl does not stand accused of the same direct abuse as McCarrick, his defense of sexual predators forgave and enabled a system that not only tolerated but also rewarded dangerous child abusers. The Pennsylvania report, the product of an 18-month investigation, contains over 200 references to Wuerl, who served as bishop of Pittsburgh, Pa., from 1988 until 2006, when he assumed his current position as archbishop of D.C. Though Wuerl occasionally chose to remove abusers, at other times he protected priests he knew to be accused of abuse, according to the grand jury. One such priest, William O’Malley, was known by church authorities to have had improper and sexually abusive relationships with adolescents. Wuerl, despite his full knowledge of the situation, reinstated O’Malley to a church position, enabling O’Malley to abuse more victims. Georgetown cannot rectify this indictment with the honor it bestowed upon Wuerl four years ago. While the degree may have seemed proper when it was awarded, the university’s glowing endorsement has been proven false. At the 2014 ceremony, University President John J. DeGioia called upon the Georgetown community to “recognize the contributions of an extraordinary leader, teacher and man of faith.” Paul Tagliabue (CAS ’62), then-chair of the board of directors, highlighted the archbishop’s “extraordinary example of faith and service.” Wuerl has proven himself grossly undeserving of this distinction. If Georgetown turns a blind eye to traumatized children and the men who protected their abusers, it will find itself on the same path of cowardice tread by those who weaponized Catholicism for evil. McCarrick and Wuerl were among the many trusted authorities who enabled a toxic and dangerous culture in the Catholic Church. “Priests were raping little boys and girls,” the grand jury wrote. “And the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.” None of the good done by either of these men can ever measure up to the harm they inflicted and accentuated upon defenseless children. As a leading institution of Catholic thought in the United States, Georgetown has an obligation to rise above affiliation and tradition. Administrators must recognize the role they have to play and do all they can to disavow Cardinals McCarrick and Wuerl of their Georgetown ties.
Soup-er Size Me — A thief stole $98,000 worth of ramen noodles from a 53-foot trailer in Georgia. Fayette County police are still searching for the suspect, whose haul is roughly equivalent to 338,000 packs of microwaveable noodles.
Just for Knicks — A disillusioned New York Knicks fan, Evan Perlmutter, auctioned his fandom on eBay in early August. The fandom sold for $3,500, under the condition that Perlmutter would burn his Knicks gear and buy Los Angeles Lakers paraphernalia.
EDITORIAL
Founded January 14, 1920
Bus Bandit — Commuters spotted a raccoon riding the D.C. Circulator on Sunday. The critter may be the same raccoon seen riding a trash truck in February 2017, known affectionately as “Trash Raccoon.”
Red, White, and Drew — A photo emerged this week showing President Donald Trump incorrectly coloring the American flag with a blue stripe. Some Twitter users wondered if Trump forgot to check the flag lapel pin on his jacket.
Stealing for the Halibut — Videos surfaced on Tuesday of a confrontation between U.K. and French ships over access to scallops off the coast of Normandy. French fisherman acted like “maritime gangsters,” according to U.K. fishing vessels.
EDITORIAL CARTOON by Adam Semprevivo
HOYA HISTORY: August 31, 1974
Georgetown Forms New Transportation Service In order to ease the traffic and parking congestion on Georgetown’s campus, the Office of Planning and Physical Plant has announced the formation of a new and expanded shuttle bus service. The program will operate under a new organization known as the Georgetown Transportation Society, or GUTS, directed by Traffic Administrator Lawrence Lorch. GUTS, using a $105,000 loan from the university, has purchased four Mercedes-Benz buses, which will travel three routes connecting the main campus with the Georgetown University Law Center, Alban Towers and the Arlington, Va. area. ‘’This program is both more efficient and more flexible than the previous shuttle bus service and we hope that it will serve
as a model for a system that will connect the entire Consortium of D.C. Colleges and Universities,” Physical Plant spokesman Dave Ralston said. He added that students will benefit from the expanded routes and extensive schedules that include early-morning and late-night service, seven days a week. Also, the society will provide jobs for students interested in driving. He said with reservation, however, that GUTS, which will charge 25 cents per ticket, might appear to be a competitor to the city’s Metrobus network that operated the shuttle bus service last year. “We have fulfilled all the legal requirements. We are not accepting any money on the buses, and we are calling ourselves a society,
not a system, in an effort to avoid any appearance as a competitor to Metrobus,” Ralston explained. Critics noted that GUTS purchased four of the most expensive vehicles for use on its routes. The four air-conditioned Mercedes-Benz buses cost the society $100,000. “We ran a very extensive study in our search for a vehicle that will give us the most service for the least cost. All the major companies had input. Finally, the whole thing began to jell around Mercedes,” Ralston said. The Mercedes-Benz 0309D is the only small vehicle that offers a diesel engine, durability and a 100,000-mile engine guarantee, according to Ralston.
Jim Colaprico Assistant News Editor
For letters to the editor and more online content, visit thehoya.com/category/opinion.
Ian Scoville, Editor-in-Chief Kathryn Baker, Executive Editor Christian Paz, 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 Gaul
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OPINION
friday, August 31, 2018
Learn From Georgetown Peers
hether you are beginning your first year at Georgetown University or your last, welcome to the Hilltop for another academic year! On my Georgetown journey, I have come to better understand my salient identities and how I can advocate for myself and my community. Over the last two years, I have become increasingly comfortable sharing my story as a student without documentation. After the 2016 presidential election, I felt defeated not knowing what would happen to key immigration protections that allowed immigrants like me to come out of the shadows. In response to this uncertainty, I reflected on how I could share my story to transform the hearts and minds of people who believe differently than I do about immigrants’ rights.
I invite you to take full advantage of being in an educational community where there are students from all walks of life. Being surrounded by a “community in diversity” where students strive to be “people for others” helped me in this process. I have found support in the Georgetown community’s willingness to come together and to learn from one another. In partnership with the university, I was able to share my story through different platforms: lending my narrative to a speech delivered by Sen. Dick Durbin (R-Ill.) (SFS ‘66, LAW ‘69), writing opinion pieces for The Hoya and The Georgetown Voice, and speaking and participating at various events, including at a university campaign raising awareness about the contributions of students without documentation. These efforts,
along with the arduous work of past generations of Hoyas without documentation and the crucial allyship and support of several campus partners, contributed to dialogue and also led the university to establish support systems for Georgetown students without documentation. The university hired a full-time associate director for undocumented student services to guide and advise students without documentation, launched the website undocumented.georgetown.edu to provide a space for relevant information and established a partnership with Catholic Charities to assist students with legal matters. Georgetown’s progress in supporting my community gives me confidence in the strength of allyship, especially among students who have not necessarily been directly affected by nativist immigration policies but who continue to raise concern for their vulnerable peers. Just last year, various groups organized to advocate for the Dream Act of 2017, a piece of legislation which would have brough permanent protections for young people without documentation. Thousands of Georgetown students participated in this advocacy effort. Hoyas wrote letters and called their members of Congress; many even visited Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of their peers without documentation. This type of activism meets the ideals Georgetown strives for — supporting our most vulnerable. Coming together as a community in such an uncertain time is emblematic of the beauty of being at Georgetown. Nevertheless, it is important, as our university’s values call on us to do, that we continue striving to be a community in diversity and people for others. Recently, Georgetown alumni such as Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS ’94) have strayed from these core values. Nielsen has been at the heart of the Trump administration’s inhumane family separation poli-
cies. She proudly advocates for cruel measures aimed at deterring and detaining immigrants who come to the United States fleeing persecution and violence.
Think long and hard about your privileged identities and use your privilege to support your peers. It is imperative that we understand we can be the difference we want to see in the world, but only if we begin our journey now. As such, I invite you to take full advantage of being in an educational community where there are students from all walks of life. There are spaces like the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access eager to bring students together to learn and engage with one another. Attend events hosted by this and other organizations to be exposed to different experiences. Outside of these spaces, it is important you understand your positionality. Think long and hard about your privileged identities and use your privilege to support your peers. Furthermore, be educated on issues. Do your research. Stay informed. Your time here will be transformative only if you want it to. From these kinds of efforts, you will build your capacities for empathy and kindness. The support I have seen in my time here truly comes from our community, but it requires buy-in from each of us. I look forward to a great academic year, to the progress we will continue to make together, and to the myriad learning experiences we will have as a united community— experiences that we will be able to carry with us toward the future.
Luis Gonzalez is a senior in the College.
viewpoint • PANJWANI
Cancel Islamophobic SFS Class
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VIEWPOINT • LAMA, WANI, SHAVER & YOUNG
VIEWPOINT • GONZALEZ
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THE HOYA
his fall, the School of Foreign Service will host a class titled “CommunityBased Terror Prevention.” The course description refers to the Countering Violent Extremism program, which was started by former President Barack Obama’s administration. By offering this course, the SFS is wrongly legitimizing CVE’s framework, which punishes misperceived threats of “radicalization,” as an acceptable form of intervention for the sake of national security. CVE was developed to bring religious and civic leaders together with law enforcement, health care professionals, the FBI, U.S. attorneys and other state and federal officials to identify and prevent “radicalization” in their communities. Though the program purports to target “extremism” at large and not Muslims, the program has, in practice, overwhelmingly and disproportionately targeted Muslim communities as a form of state surveillance. The Obama administration issued only one CVE grant to a group combatting white supremacists. The recipient, Life After Hate, also claims to be fighting “Jihadi radicalization.” Under President Donald Trump, the organization’s funding was revoked. The research is very clear: CVE is used for surveillance on Muslims under the guise of community development. The CVE model uses unsound science and a theory of “radicalization” that has been debunked by many prominent scholars and journalists from the Brennan Center, Muslim Advocates, Muslim Justice League, Vice, The Intercept and ACLU. Signs of “radicalization” that CVE identifies have included specific kinds of dress, increased religiosity, critiques of U.S. foreign policy, changes in mood, feelings of isolation and being the target of bullying. Such criteria are breathtakingly broad, and, as the above organizations found, none are actual measures of a move toward violence. Furthermore, the program presupposes that Muslim communities in the United States are hotbeds of “violent extremism.” This
premise is dangerously Islamophobic. The instructor of the course, Mehreen Farooq, and her involvement as vice president at the World Organization for Resource Development and Education, which conducted a CVE program in Montgomery County, Md., also raises concerns. In 2014, the Justice Department gave WORDE $500,000 to carry out a CVE program in Montgomery County. The program worked with mental health care professionals and social workers to talk to Muslim youth and community members through a counseling approach that shared information it found with law enforcement. Not only is this tactic dangerous for its disproportionate stigmatization of Muslim youth, but it stifles the free speech, religious expression and political efficacy of Muslim individuals and communities, making them afraid to express their constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and religion. Despite the Montgomery County executive rejecting CVE’s model in January 2018, the Montgomery County Model continues to be listed as a CVE model on the Department of Homeland Security website. In order to bring these issues to the attention of Georgetown’s administration, I organized a meeting with the SFS Dean’s Office and other community leaders. Dean Daniel Byman heard our concerns, offered clarification on the nature of the class as an experimental course that was in response to interest from students regarding the CVE program and echoed our concerns that the CVE model is potentially problematic, particularly for the Muslim community. We asked Dean Byman to cancel the class — or, at the very least, add a second professor who understands the detriments of CVE’s framework. A few weeks later, I received an email informing me that the class will continue as planned. Byman did not explain why, despite the concerns we raised, the class was still being carried out. He did express that a class on the impact of counterterror-
ism on Muslim communities is in progress for the spring and that he was in conversation with professor Farooq to give her feedback on her syllabus based on his conversation with us. While this is a marginally positive step, it certainly does not justify the SFS’ insistence on teaching a course based on flawed theories.
Georgetown must teach more about Islam as a religion and about Muslims as a diverse, complex group of people, not communities of potential radicalization. Moreover, this course does not exist in a vacuum. SFS courses often teach counterterrorism models like CVE that operate under the pretense of national security to vilify and undermine the civil rights of Muslim communities. Georgetown must teach more about Islam as a religion and about Muslims as a diverse, complex group of people, not communities of potential radicalization. The SFS has been my home for the last three years at Georgetown and always welcomed me as a Muslim student. However, it is in these details and policies that institutional Islamophobia exists. We cannot forget that Stephen Bannon (GRD ’83) graduated from the school’s master’s in security studies program and Frank Gaffney (SFS ’72) and Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS ’94) from the undergraduate program. If the School of Foreign Service truly wants to be supportive of the Muslim community, especially in this critical political moment, it must cancel this class and drop support for the Islamophobic CVE model as a viable solution.
Aly panjwani is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.
Our brothers at Georgetown — the only chapter that has continued to support Boyle — have made a cruel compromise: They have traded their integrity for continual control of the national organization.
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Don’t Join Our Fraternity
elta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity was founded in 1920 at Georgetown University, just months after the establishment of the university’s School of Foreign Service. Many of its founders were World War I veterans who realized that the United States needed a fraternity to support international business and diplomacy. Their vision has withstood the test of time: DPE continues to drive toward a purpose of improving global relations; most notably, our alumni have strengthened the U.S. Foreign Service by serving as ambassadors to the European Union, Singapore, Thailand, Jordan, Australia, Kuwait, Colombia and Brazil, along with various other postings. While our mission remains vital, our organization’s integrity has been greatly damaged by Terrence Boyle (SFS ’63, LAW ’72), the fraternity’s long-standing general secretary. Serving as the premier national officer for the past 40 years, Boyle has subjected undergraduate student leaders to a hostile environment of unrelenting sexism and bigotry. As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Boyle has a history of requiring female members to cook and clean for Georgetown brothers, all while refusing to give them voting rights within the organization. This summer, when chapters attempted to enfranchise female members, Boyle insisted that reformers were creating a “hermaphroditesonly ... society.” Boyle has also alienated foreign-born members of the frater-
nity by claiming that the involvement of foreign nationals harms our mission. His antiquated views could not be further from the truth. Our international brothers and sisters have provided us all with rich opportunities to engage with professionals and scholars from diverse and wonderful backgrounds. By facilitating an international exchange of ideas, our foreignborn members strengthen ties between the United States and the world. After Boyle rejected the attempt to enfranchise DPE women, our alumni launched a massive grassroots campaign. In response to his comments and strong history of prejudice, over 500 DPE alumni signed a petition calling for Boyle’s resignation. The petition further declared that Boyle’s actions were “completely inconsistent with the values of DPE and simple basic human decency” and that alumni were “ashamed to be part of an organization whose leadership would engage [in such] conduct.” While the petition was supported by almost every chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon, active brothers of the Georgetown fraternity were notably absent from the list of supporters. Our brothers at Georgetown — the only chapter that has continued to support Boyle — have made a cruel compromise: They have traded their integrity for continued control of the national organization. As the longest-standing chapter, the national board of DPE is wholly controlled by alumni of Georgetown University. Instead
of opposing a toxic patriarch who has alienated both the campus and alumni community, Georgetown brothers continue to stand by him. We, the presidents of Delta Phi Epsilon at The George Washington University, James Madison University and American University, can no longer ethically cooperate with Boyle or his board. Our message is simple: Please don’t join DPE’s fraternity at Georgetown University. The activities of DPE’s board and Georgetown chapter are not in line with our community’s values or mission. Georgetown alumni, students and faculty must take a stand against the fraternity at Georgetown, not only for the sake of decency, but for the long-term repercussions on the Foreign Service and U.S. influence abroad. Incoming freshmen should not join Delta Phi Epsilon, and university administrators must address the chapter’s corruptive influence on the campus community. We strongly discourage Georgetown students from engaging with the fraternity until its leaders pursue sweeping reform in organizational governance and culture.
Andrew Lama is a senior at
The George Washington University. Shima Wani is a junior and James Shaver is a senior at James Madison University. Stephen Young is a senior at American University. Lama, Wani, Shaver and Young are all serving as presidents of Delta Phi Epsilon at their respective universities.
viewpoint • COHEN
Crumbling Coexistence in Bukhara
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he bazaars of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, play host to a symphony of languages. Melons are bought and sold with boisterous exchanges in Uzbek and Tajik. Ceramic salesmen hawk their blueglazed teacups in Russian, a vestige of the city’s tsarist and Soviet past. European tourists haggle with shrewd shopkeepers purveying handmade rugs in their common English. And occasionally, in the whispers and side conversations of old men seated in the shady edges of the still older Silk Road markets, one can hear the rising and falling tones of Bukhori, the Persian-Hebrew fusion spoken by the Bukharan Jews. During my time in Bukhara this summer, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with members of the Jewish community, attend Friday Shabbat services and learn about this ancient group. Tracing their legacy in Central Asia back over 2.5 millennia, the Bukharan Jews are now part of an increasingly rare breed: Jews in the Muslim world. Now, the passage of Israel’s new Basic Law enshrining selfdetermination as “unique to the Jewish people” jeopardizes the last substantial chance for coexistence of Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. The new law, which asserts Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” is a declaration to Muslim, Druze, Christian and non-religious Israelis that they are not fully welcome. In his efforts to forge Israel into the anachronism of the nation-state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but scuttled the last best hope for Jewish and Muslim populations to build a functioning society together. Once found across the Muslim world, from the rugged Atlas of Morocco to the towering Pamirs of Tajikistan, the historic co-mingling of Jews and Muslims is increasingly hard
to find in today’s sectarian and partisan Middle East. Despite systemic and perpetual persecution often punctuated with brutally violent anti-Semitic riots, Jewish society survived, and at times thrived, in a Middle East more pluralistic than today’s. In a climate marred by the destruction of religious minorities across the region, ranging from the Coptic Christians in Egypt to the Kurdish Yazidis of Iraq, forgetting the historic diversity of this cradle of civilization is easy.
In this dwindling community, I’ve seen the slipping dream of JewishMuslim harmony, soon to fade away into the sands like the Great Silk Road. This trend of decreasing diversity and tolerance is why the recent passage of the Basic Law by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is such a lamentable event. It signals that Israel, like so many others in the region, has given up on Jewish-Muslim coexistence in the Middle East. Following the expulsion and exodus of the majority of Jews in the region to Israel between 1948 and 1979, Israel remained the last country in the region where members of both faiths shared the same land. Today, Muslims make up nearly 18 percent of Israel’s population, which includes smaller minorities of Christians and Druze. While the relationship between Israel’s Jewish and Muslim populations has long been contentious, it remains one of the few cases in the modern Middle East of Jews and Muslims building a state
together. Netanyahu joins a long line of leaders in the region who have chosen to withdraw into the poisonous cocoon of nationalism and particularism. Yet the potential for a peaceful and cooperative state incorporating both Jews and Muslims certainly exists. In the warren of alleys in Bukhara’s Jewish Quarter, I heard from the local residents, both Jewish and Muslim. Jews of this community spoke to me fondly of their Muslim neighbors, and practitioners of Islam informed me that they happily enrolled their children in the well-regarded Jewish school in the area. Yet today’s Jewish community in Bukhara only consists of approximately 150 members, indicating that the future of this ancient group in their fabled home is bleak. An aging population and extensive migration to Israel and the United States for improved economic conditions mean that twilight is likely close at hand. Bukhara’s Jews have seen the ebb and flow of history as they have outlasted the passage of the Persians, Macedonians, Abbasids, Mongols and Soviets, yet the 21st century will likely be their last. With the rejection of pluralism in favor of fear of the “other,” Netanyahu and his Likud Party have all but eliminated Israel as a site for the type of harmonious interfaith existence that will shortly come to an end in Bukhara. Remembering the throaty Bukhori chants echoing around the evening cool of the centuries-old synagogue, I can’t help but think that in this dwindling community, I’ve seen the slipping dream of Jewish-Muslim harmony, soon to fade away into the sands like the Great Silk Road.
jeremy cohen is a junior in the School of Foreign Service.
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Descendant of GU272 Seeks to Create New Legacy ELIZA PHILLIPS Hoya Staff Writer
When Lauren Crump (GRD ’18) received the call informing her she was a descendant of one of the 272 slaves sold in 1838 to financially sustain Georgetown University, she was floored. This revelation presented Crump with the opportunity to play a role in deciding how a historic institution addressed its past with slavery and atoned for its sins. Though a positive relationship between slave descendants and institutions that were built upon slavery is largely uncommon, Crump did not shy away from it. Instead, she saw an opportunity to help form what she called a “redemptive society.” However, her decision to engage with the university and become a graduate student at the institution was not an easy one. Crump explained that there was often a silent assumption that she was speaking on behalf of black America, and with this came the pressure to make her race and her lineage proud.
“There is an additional weight to do well for the rest of my community, especially those whose voice you will never hear, who have plenty to say — more than I do.” LAUREN CRUMP (GRD ’18) Descendant of GU272
“There is an additional weight to do well for the rest of my community, especially those whose voice you will never hear, who have plenty to say — more than I do,” Crump said, in an interview with THE HOYA during the GU272 trip. Among the descendants, there are varying opinions on what Georgetown’s process of reconciliation should look like. One of the main suggestions is a financial contribu-
tion to the descendant community. However, Crump does not view this as an effective solution. “A cash payout is way too transactional,” she said. In her opinion, it would not be impactful enough on the future generations of descendants and would bear a risk of some descendants not receiving anything at all. Consequently, Crump calls for more sustainable solutions. “We need to create goals with perpetuity ... and legacy in mind,” Crump said. However, she said this cannot happen unless the descendant community has a say in what such goals and solutions look like, something Crump fervently believes they deserve. One of the solutions that Georgetown has already implemented is the legacy status given to descendants who apply. Crump is one of the four descendants who has taken advantage of this so far, having recently started graduate studies pursuing an M.A. in international business and policy. Though Crump admits that she initially felt some hesitation toward attending the university, it was the staff members who eventually won her over. Their sincerity indicated to her that Georgetown was genuinely interested in building a relationship with the descendant community and repairing its historical wrongs. She attributes her willingness to forgive Georgetown to her faith. The Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope service for the GU272 in Dahlgren Chapel coincidentally took place two days after Easter Sunday on April 18, 2017. This pushed Crump to ask herself: “Who am I not to forgive?” Such a question was especially significant for Crump to reflect on when considering that many institutions in this country were complicit in slavery and the oppression of black Americans, according to Time. With this in mind, she felt that attempting to avoid such institutions would be deeply difficult, therefore leaving her with two options: to either resegregate herself or become part of creating a new history. Nonetheless, Crump believes it is vital that Georgetown recognizes that not all descen-
dants’ aspirations will align with attending Georgetown. “Whatever route that descendant chooses to go, Georgetown should have a plan for upward mobility,” she said. This is especially important to Crump because of the way in which the generational effects of slavery continue to manifest themselves within the descendant community. She sees it most potently displayed in the lack of economic, educational and social development in Maringouin, La., the rural town where many of the GU272 were sold and where many of their descendants remain today. “Maringouin is still very much so a time capsule, in the best and worst sense. I haven’t seen very much progress and ... so many of [the residents] feel hampered by their environment,” she said. With complete candor, Crump admits that she is unsure of what exactly these reparative solutions should look like. She insists that the recruitment of experts is necessary to repair the deep effects of the 1838 sale and the remnants of slavery that persist in the university. Nonetheless, Crump deeply believes in the power of dialogue not only with the descendants on reparations but also on Georgetown’s campus about race and racism. “Even a conversation is progress,” she said. She hopes that Georgetown will use its position of power to bring about change not only on its campus but throughout the country and to serve as an example for other institutions that benefited from slavery. Furthermore, Crump hopes that both her local and descendant communities feel empowered to contribute to the effectuation of this change. Her desire to honor her legacy explains her deep interest in being a part of this reformation. She invites not only Georgetown to involve itself in this journey, but also its students and other institutions. “We all have an opportunity to write this story, and some of the effects of the plans that we write right now we won’t see, just like some of the benefits we are experiencing right now are results of people we will never meet,” Crump said.
KAYLA LEYJA/THE HOYA
Lauren Crump, a descendant of the 272 slaves sold in 1838 to support the university financially, calls for a sustainable solution over a monetary payment for reparations.
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Georgetown University Initiatives Receive $1 Million to Fund Research Joe Egler
Hoya Staff Writer
A $1 million grant for research on the social enterprise movement and women’s economic mobility was awarded by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation to the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the McDonough School of Business’ Global Social Enterprise Initiative in August. The grant is intended to spur research on methods for fostering economic opportunity for women living in nations in conflict, according to GIWPS. The study is formally commencing at Bank of America’s October conference on women’s entrepreneurship in Dublin. The grant also creates a Bank of America Research Fellow position for the next two years; Raiyan Kabir (GRD ‘17) is filling the position for the 2018-19 academic year. For the first phase of research, GIWPS is concentrating on actions that would enhance women’s economic equality in conflict-torn nations, according to Ambassador and Execu-
tive Director of GIWPS Melanne Verveer. “There are a growing number of fragile states in the world,” Verveer said in a news release. “Women’s economic empowerment is an issue of utmost importance because it is critical for economic viability, political stability, and peace and security.” The grant will be put toward research that can help eliminate gaps in women’s economic opportunities, according to Verveer. “This important research will fill a critical need by contributing to what we know about creating economic opportunity and improving conditions for women,” Verveer said in the news release. The grant will also serve to fund research on the extent of the broadening social enterprise field for the Global Social Enterprise Initiative. GSEI is exploring how social enterprises, which are businesses focused on positive social impact, increase economic mobility, particularly in the United States. The GSEI aims to use its findings to make social enterprises more efficient, particularly ana-
lyzing how large multinational companies can advance their own causes while creating shared value for others. GSEI leaders hope the research will help students learn to balance their industry’s bottom lines with the well-being of society at large, aligning with Georgetown’s Jesuit values, according to Leslie Crutchfield, executive director of GSEI. “We are trying to understand how the social enterprise movement is accelerating economic mobility for the nation’s most vulnerable and marginalized people,” Crutchfield said in the news release. Through grants like this, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation intends to support communities struggling with economic mobility, workforce development and education, as well as the organizations that study and assist them, according to President of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation Kerry Sullivan. “We are guided by a common purpose to make financial lives better,” Sullivan said in a news re-
lease. “Supporting research and programs like those at Georgetown is a key demonstration of how we deploy capital and invest in partnerships that advance women entrepreneurs and build thriving communities.” The foundation funded similar GIWPS studies in the past. Previous support for GIWPS led to the creation of the Women, Peace and Security Index, which seeks to quantify the state of women’s well-being across the globe and identify which nations pose the greatest and most disproportionate risk to women. Bank of America says that advancing economic mobility is one of the focuses of its leadership, and that research by the GSEI will give women the tools they need to expand this focus. In addition to the funding, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation is planning to continue to co-host a series of lectures on leadership on Georgetown’s campus. Past lectures have featured Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, U2 lead singer Bono and filmmaker Ken Burns.
Georgetown institute for Women Peace and Security
The grant, awarded by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, willl fund research on improving opportunities for women in conflict zones.
500 Descendants of Georgetown 2 Georgetown Alumni Cyclists 272 Reunite in Louisiana Killed in Islamic State Attack Margo snipe Hoya Staff Writer
The GU272 Descendants Association hosted a reunion June 9 to bring together about 500 of the descendants of the 272 slaves sold to Louisiana by the Maryland Society of Jesus in 1838 to save Georgetown University from bankruptcy. June marked exactly 180 years after the signing of the Articles of Agreement in 1838, which finalized the sale of the 272 enslaved children, women and men. The descendants who gathered at the North Iberville Community Center in Rosedale, La., came to reconnect their families and honor their ancestors. The reunion was part of a series of events throughout the weekend, including a tour of Whitney Plantation, a museum devoted to slavery in Wallace, La., Sunday mass at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Maringouin, La., and an ancestral bus tour through the four Louisiana parishes to which the slaves were sold. Fifty-four members of the 272 once worked the property on which the North Iberville Community Center sits, as the Louisiana slave purchaser and plantation owner Jessie Batey once owned the community center. Members of the descendant community travelled from across the United States to deepen connections that, in many cases, had previously only occurred through social media. Although descendants have been connecting and organizing with one another since 2016, the reunion offered an opportunity to form new relationships. Julia Blair Battle is a descendant of Sam Harris and Betsy Ware Harris, whose names appear on the manifest of the Katherine Jackson, the ship used to transport the slaves to Louisiana after the sale. Battle has been working with a group of her cousins to piece together the oral histories their parents once shared and said the reunion marked an exciting new page in the story. “This is a critical event because now you have the face-to-face,” Battle said. “This event plays a big part
in actually physically and emotionally tying people to one another.” During the reunion, Tony Clayton, who previously served as chairman of Southern University System’s board of supervisors, learned of other relatives’ affiliation with Southern University, a historically black university located in Baton Rouge, La. “It’s frightening — how we look alike and how we think alike and how we’re similarly situated,” Clayton said. “It’s just eerily frightening the way that we’re paralleling as a community. This is enlightening to me.” Known as Peaches in the descendant community, GU272 Descendants Association Officer At-Large Lucille Victor said the reunion event provided a means of furthering research and continuing conversations surrounding reconciliation, in addition to uncovering and expanding familial ties within the community. “What [the reunion] does is it allows people to know so much more than they ever knew,” Victor said. “People now are going to be hungry for knowledge to be able to find out more about their families and how they’re related. They’re going to have that same pride that I have where I am saying, ‘My goodness, I am so much more than I thought.’” The descendants built upon their prior knowledge through open dialogue with one another, despite the differences in professions, religions, home states and the various levels of expertise on the history of the 1838 sale, Battle said. “It is definitely an exchange of ideas, definitely a change of people’s views on the human condition at that time and how that has affected us now,” Battle said. “I think it’s a launching pad.” The reunion focused on fostering relationships and taking action for future generations of descendants. Talk of Georgetown University and the Jesuits’ responsibility in reconciliation arose, with some descendants suggesting financial reparations and others supporting Georgetown-backed education for the youth. Some, like Clayton, have commended the university for having publicly addressed and apologized
karla Layja/The Hoya
500 descendants of the GU272 slaves reunited June 9 in Rosedale, La., in an event hosted by the GU272 Descendants Association.
for its involvement with slavery and expressed a willingness to directly contribute to expanding opportunities for descendants. “Guys like me, when the opportunity is right, would probably like to reach out and help Georgetown put together whatever program they put together,” Clayton said. Despite moments of reflection on Georgetown’s and the Jesuits’ roles, the majority of discussions focused on the connections among those in attendance. Newfound connections have led some descendants to knowledge about how deeply the history of the 272 is woven into the history of the United States. “It makes me feel good to know that my family has been here in Louisiana since 1838, regardless of the reason, and that prior to that our family has been here [in the United States] as early as maybe 1715,” Victor said. Georgetown Memory Project founder Richard Cellini (COL ’84, LAW ’87) was also in attendance; he gave a speech updating the descendants on the work he has done since the start of his search in 2015. The Georgetown Memory Project is an independent, nonprofit organization working to locate descendants across the nation. His research outlined the number of descendants whose ancestors were dispersed throughout Iberville, Ascension and Terrebonne parishes in Louisiana, as well as recent discoveries about some of those listed on the manifest of the Katherine Jackson but who remained in Maryland. Coupled with his research, Cellini has developed a profound personal connection to the legacy of the GU272 and the descendants. “It’s the most amazing family reunion that I have ever been a part of,” Cellini said. “It’s very beautiful. It makes me cry. It brings me to tears. I mean, this is the first time in 180 years that this family has been back on this soil. Nobody ever thought it was possible.” For Cellini, the descendants’ roots in Georgetown and Catholicism — a religion introduced to the slaves of the Jesuits during their enslavement on the Maryland plantations — were evident during the reunion. “The spirit of the Society of Jesus, the spirit of Jesus himself, the spirit of the Catholic faith is strong in that room and in many respects, is stronger in that room than it is at our own university today,” Cellini said. “It’s a wonderful way for me not just to connect with the GU272 family but with the Georgetown family.” Like many other descendants in attendance, Joe Stewart, who is a non-officer director of the GU272 Descendants Foundation, said he believes the reunion is the first gathering of many. “We have been organizing and moving forward since August 14th of 2016. This is just building. This is not an ending event,” Stewart said. “This is part of continued success toward the future.” Although the reunion was the first time many descendants met face-to-face, the event also reflected many descendants’ desires to continue working toward building their community and expanding their reach. “This event shows anybody that has any eyes open the unification of descendants. For all us not to know anything about each other two years ago, to show up here to the epicenter of our ancestors’ enslavement — we have come here to go forward into the future,” Stewart said.
Will Cassou Hoya Staff Writer
The Georgetown community is mourning the deaths of Lauren Geoghegan (COL ’10) and Jay Austin (GRD ’10), who were killed in an attack in Tajikistan when five assailants rammed into a group of cyclists with an SUV before pursuing the group with knives. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The two had recently quit their jobs in Washington, D.C., to travel the world together as a couple. Along with Geoghegan and Austin, two other cyclists, Rene Wokke from the Netherlands and Markus Hummel from Switzerland were also killed in the attack. The cyclists were visiting the Danghara region, a popular destination among tourists in Tajikistan and about 90 miles south of the nation’s capital, Dushanbe. The death of the two Hoyas has deeply impacted many members of the Georgetown community. Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69), Georgetown’s dean of undergraduate admissions said Geoghegan’s death was especially significant given her seven years working with the admissions office. “We are heartbroken to hear of Lauren’s passing in this devastating tragedy and have expressed our deepest condolences to her family,” Deacon wrote in a news release. “Lauren was a valued colleague and dear friend to many at Georgetown and an overall treasured member of our community.” A university spokesperson told The Hoya on Aug. 14 that university administrators will remain in contact with family members and inform campus community members of plan to honor Geoghegan’s and Austin’s lives. Before embarking on her journey to cycle across the world, Geoghegan worked in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Georgetown between 2010 and 2017. She graduated in 2010 from the university, where she majored in government, and minored in Spanish and Arabic. After Austin received his master’s degree in government from Georgetown, he began to work at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Austin also notably built a tiny home, nicknamed “The Matchbox,” which was featured on several TV shows.
On “Simply Cycling,” the blog that the couple kept together to document their travels, Austin explained their decision to leave their jobs to cycle around the world. “We wanted to learn new things, live a life on simpler, more deliberate terms, spend more time together and meeting others and being outdoors, and see the world,” Austin wrote in June 2017. The couple began their journey in South Africa, cycling to Tanzania, before flying to Europe and cycling to Turkey. According to the blog, last updated June 21, 2018, about a month before the attack in Tajikistan, Geoghegan and Austin were making their way through central Asia, with the intention of eventually making their way through Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, then cycling from South America back to North America. Although IS has claimed responsibility for the attack, the Tajikistani government is blaming the Islamic Renaissance Party, a local political party that had been banned by the government three years ago. The U.S. Department of State, however, has stated it finds the attack consistent with other ISinspired assaults on groups of civilians. The State Department condemned the “senseless” attack.
Other experts also agreed that the attack, despite being the first of its kind in the region, resembled other IS-inspired attacks. “There is strong evidence that was an IS-inspired attack — the first such attack on foreigners by IS in the region, and it is therefore crucially important that Tajik authorities credibly, carefully and professionally conduct their investigation,” Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said to The Washington Post. “The government’s narrative blaming the IRPT for the attack simply doesn’t add up. It’s just simply shooting itself in the foot.” After the attack, IS released a video with the identified assailants, pledging their allegiance in Russian to the leader of the caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and promising to slaughter disbelievers. Though the couple’s trip ended in tragedy, the two had long held that, despite their differences, people generally treat each other decently, Austin wrote on his blog April 5, 2018. “Badness exists, sure, but even that’s quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this,” Austin wrote.
Simply cycling
Lauren Geoghegan (COL ’10) and Jay Austin (GRD ’10) were killed when terrorists drove an SUV into their cyclist group in Tajikistan.
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After Tense Journey, Gay Teen Arrives on Hilltop OWEN, from A1
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Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, right, is photographed with former President George W. Bush in 2005. Pope Francis requested McCarrick resign as cardinal following accusations of child abuse.
Students Demand Stronger Condemnation of McCarrick MCCARRICK, from A1 Women at Georgetown, wrote in an email to THE HOYA that the university has not yet adequately responded to McCarrick’s misconduct. “I’m disappointed that the university has neglected to substantively address McCarrick’s misconduct,” Lizza wrote. “Our organization supports the revocation of McCarrick’s honorary Georgetown degree and hopes that the university will address the scandal and its impact with our larger D.C. Catholic community.” Michael DeFelice (COL ’20), speaking on behalf of Georgetown University’s chapter of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, also said the university has an obligation to take a more public stance and should rescind the former cardinal’s degree. “For the oldest and most prestigious Catholic university in the US to say nothing is to ignore its identity and mission,” DeFelice wrote in an email to THE HOYA. Other prominent Catholic universities, such as The Catholic University of America and Fordham University, have already revoked the honorary degrees they awarded McCarrick. CUA rescinded
McCarrick’s degree July 30, marking the first time the university has revoked such a degree. “In light of these events, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America, after due deliberation, voted unanimously to withdraw the honorary degree awarded to McCarrick in 2006,” a spokesperson for CUA wrote in a statement to THE HOYA about its decision to rescind McCarrick’s honorary degree. McCarrick had a long history of affiliation with CUA: He received his master’s degree and doctorate in 1960 and 1963 respectively and later served as an assistant chaplain, as dean of students and as director of development. Fordham University President Joseph McShane, S.J., wrote in a July 5 statement that the university had revoked the degree in recognition of the survivors of McCarrick’s abuse. “In taking these steps, we acknowledge the extraordinary and long-lasting harm done to children who were sexually abused by clergy members. While we can never fully repair the sins of the past, we must respect the experience of abuse survivors, and accord them all the love and compassion of which we
are capable,” McShane wrote. In December 2017, Georgetown University faced similar criticism from student groups, who called for the university to condemn prominent alumni and guest speakers facing multiple allegations of sexual assault, including former President Bill Clinton, actor Kevin Spacey and journalist Charlie Rose. Lizza said it is crucial for the Georgetown community to address both the accusations against McCarrick and the culture that surrounds such abuse. “The conversation about the sexual misconduct and abuse that often accompany those in positions of power and prestige, whether religious or secular, is one we must continue to have at Georgetown,” Lizza said. “This is even more important for us to grapple with as a Catholic institution, and Catholic Women at Georgetown hopes the university will continue this conversation.” DeFelice wrote that the Knights of Columbus will also address the issue in the coming semester. “It will certainly be a topic of conversation,” DeFelice wrote. “All young Catholic men should feel empowered to speak out against abusive clergy.”
After moving out, the Florida high school valedictorian’s dream to attend Georgetown seemed to dissolve: He had no way to cover his nearly $15,000 in remaining tuition costs based on his expected family contribution. Owen had filed his FAFSA using his parents’ financial information, assuming that he would have some level of financial support from them throughout college. Georgetown calculated his financial aid award accordingly. “Georgetown University admits and enrolls students without regard to their financial circumstances and is committed to meeting the demonstrated financial need of eligible students through a combination of aid programs that include grants, scholarships, employment and loans from federal, state, private and University resources,” a university spokesperson wrote in an email to THE HOYA. “While we cannot comment on any individual case, we work closely with students whose financial circumstances change after admission to modify financial aid assistance and ensure they can still enroll regardless of their ability to pay.” But when Owen moved out, his financial circumstances drastically changed. Owen was couch surfing at friends’ homes and working parttime at Publix, a Florida supermarket, while also balancing the school work and extracurricular activities of a typical high school senior. Owen submitted his change in financial status, appealing his financial aid award in an attempt to gain status as an independent stu-
dent. The Office of Student Financial Services denied his first request because his parents had voluntarily submitted their financial information and because he did not make enough money at Publix to feasibly be supporting himself independently, Owen said. Owen then tried to apply for a $20,000 private loan, but without his parents to cosign for him, he did not qualify for the loan. Owen then appealed his financial aid award a second time, providing letters from multiple sources in an attempt to prove that his circumstances were legitimate. During this process, Owen realized that without an altered financial aid award, he would not be able to attend college at all, even if he went to a different school. “I was talking to someone from the financial aid office and I remember breaking out in tears on the phone call,” Owen said. “Even staying in-state, I was still not able to afford it.” In the meantime, Owen’s high school biology teacher, Jane Martin, started a GoFundMe to help meet the gap between his initial financial aid award and the cost of attending Georgetown, which is estimated to be $74,320 for first-year students in the 2018-19 academic year. Martin started the GoFundMe in June with an initial goal of $20,000. The GoFundMe quickly went viral, receiving nationwide media attention and raising $141,636 before it was closed to donations. While the GoFundMe put the Office of Student Financial Services in the national spotlight, Owen’s second appeal helped him qualify for a Pell Grant, a scholarship through
the Georgetown Scholarship Program and an increased unsubsidized loan. He ultimately was able to negotiate an expected family contribution of $0, although he is taking out a sizable amount in federal loans. “The Office of Student Financial Services was instrumental in helping me enroll in the Georgetown Scholarship Program, whose purpose is to make attendance at Georgetown possible for students in a financial situation similar to my own,” Owen said in a statement initially released on his GoFundMe page. “This program also includes mentoring and networking opportunities which will help me to assist others in situations similar to the one I found myself in earlier this year.” Owen said that the GoFundMe prompted multiple alumni to reach out to the university, and that he is aware that the university received dozens of media requests. He expressed disappointment that it seemed as if action on his case was delayed until the story went viral. “My issue was not that my financial aid package be revised. My issue was that there was no action taken until someone reached out on my behalf,” Owen said. “They didn’t do anything until someone spoke up for me.” However, Owen is now looking forward to beginning his first year at Georgetown after supportive alumni, faculty and staff and other university affiliates reached out. “I’m extremely excited to attend now,” Owen said. “I’ve had faculty members from Georgetown reach out and offer their support and encouragement.”
FILE PHOTO: CAROLINE PAPPAS/THE HOYA
The Office of Student Financial Services adjusted its financial aid offer to Seth Owen (SFS ’22), following his parents’ decision to withdraw their financial support for him after he left his church community.
nect with alumni. Tweet articles. Use AP Style. Post phot issues. Mentor staffers. Write articles. Voice your opinio er teams. Take photos. Check facts. Contact sources. Revi s. Share the past. Place ads. Edit articles. Design graphics. Rep king news. Shape our future. Review plays. Shoot vid nect with alumni. Tweet articles. Use AP Style. Post photos. L es. Plan issues. Mentor staffers. Write articles. Voice yo JOIN nions. Cover teams. Take photos. Check facts. Contact sourc gn graphics. Place ads. Edit articles. Interview applican ort breaking news. Review plays. Shoot video. Connect w UNIVERSITY’S RECORDpages. SINCE 1920 Pl mni. Tweet articles. UseGEORGETOWN AP Style. Post NEWSPAPER photos.OF Lay es. Mentor staffers. Write articles. Voice your opinions. Co ms. Take photos. Check facts. Contact sources. Design graphi
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DC Mayor Approves Grant Undeterred by City Efforts, For Homeless Resource Center Rat Population Booms Deepika Jonnalagadda Hoya Staff Writer
A downtown day services center that offers essential resources and social services to adults experiencing homelessness is set to open on New York Avenue by Nov. 1. The construction of the center is funded by a $1.7 million grant announced by Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Thursday as part of her ongoing campaign to end homelessness in Washington, D.C. “The Downtown Day Services Center will enable us to reach more individuals and get more residents connected to the resources and supports they need to stay safe and secure permanent housing,” Bowser said in an Aug. 23 news release. “This center is one more way we can provide individuals experiencing homelessness with the respite and resources they need and deserve.” The center will operate Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is anticipated to serve an average of 100 clients per day,
according to Department of Human Services Senior Adviser Carter Hewgley. The initiative is set to offer visitors social services such as case management, health resources and employment support in addition to meals, computers, showers and laundry facilities through a partnership with Pathways to Housing D.C., District agencies and other non-profit partners, according to the news release. Clients will be able to access trained case managers to understand and help navigate factors that may be contributing to their homelessness as well as peer support specialists who have experienced homelessness in the past, according to Hewgley. “No matter where you are in your journey, there’s something you can find at the center that will help you stay better connected,” Hewgley said in an interview with The Hoya. Executive Director of Pathways Christy Respress noted the importance of the center’s ability to
GWB Whitehouse
A $1.7-million grant will fund a downtown day services center offering resources and social services to adults experiencing homelessness.
merge outreach with available resources. “This Downtown Day Services Center is incredibly important in our fight to end homelessness,” Respress said in the news release. “It will help bridge the gap between the District’s street outreach teams and service providers while providing a safe and welcoming space for people experiencing homelessness.” Clients will also have access to legal services as well as assistance with transportation, acquiring critical documents and locating permanent housing through housing assessments. These assessments will take into consideration the client’s needs and vulnerabilities and determine the extent of required support. Housed in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, the center will be overseen by the DowntownDC Business Improvement District, a private non-profit organization that seeks to improve the economic and social environment in a 138-block area of the city. DowntownDC BID President and CEO Neil Albert commended the program for being the first of its kind. “A Downtown Day Services Center has for many years been the missing piece in our shared effort to comprehensively address the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness in the District,” Albert said in the news release. The center will be open only to adults experiencing homelessness; families and children will continue to be offered support at the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center located on Rhode Island Avenue and the District’s homeless youth drop-in center, Hewgley said. The Bowser administration’s effort to end homelessness through a housing-first strategy — which provides permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals without requiring psychiatric treatment or maintenance of sobriety before reception of the housing — has connected 3,900 individuals to homes. Bowser’s previous campaigns have included a $103 million investment in affordable housing, announced in June, that affected more than 1,700 residents across five wards and the creation of a Homelessness Prevention Program, which was launched in October 2015 and helps families avoid sleeping in shelters.
Elizabeth douglas Hoya Staff Writer
Despite Washington, D.C.’s ongoing efforts to control its rat population, the number of resident complaints to the city is expected to continue to increase after reaching an alltime high in 2017. The D.C. rat population is rapidly growing because of a number of factors, including the increasing human population and rising number of restaurants and bars, which have brought record levels of trash to D.C. streets, attracting the rodents, according to WTOP. Districtwide construction has also disrupted underground rat burrows, so the rodents have become more noticeable aboveground and inside buildings, particularly homes and restaurants, according to. Additionally, mild winters over the last few years have killed fewer rats than in the past, according to The Washington Post. The rats are both unnerving to residents and, at times, dangerous, according to ecologist and former D.C. consultant Bruce Colvin. “Rats have been linked to starting fires, chewing on wires, contaminating food and destroying packaging,” Colvin told the Washington Times.
The number of complaints about rats to D.C’s 311 helpline rose by about 2,000 calls in 2017, although less than half of the complaints turned up evidence of rat infestations, according to the chief of the District’s rat control office, Gerard Brown. This year, those numbers are expected to hold steady or increase, as 3,153 calls were made between January and July, according to The Washington Post. “It’s an eternal war,” Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Mark Eckenwiler told The Washington Post. “You can kill them in one location and they pop up in another.” The neighborhoods hit hardest by the rodent crisis include the 16th Street Corridor, Lincoln Park and the Capitol Hill area, according to CBS. The Georgetown neighborhood did not make the top of the list, with the city receiving 21 calls in the last 30 days, according to the city government website. To combat the rodent problem, the D.C. Department of Health has implemented extermination methods such as dry ice, which vaporizes into carbon dioxide and suffocates rats when dropped into burrows, according to CBS. Dry ice was very effective in reducing a dense maze of almost 150 burrows to under 10, according to WTOP. The city has also introduced
new technology into the extermination efforts, such as sensors on garbage can lids that alert the city when the cans are full, and solar-powered trash cans that compress the trash so that it does not overflow onto the sidewalks. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) also hosted a Dupont Rat Walk in November 2017 that was intended to provide constituents a forum to express their concerns and display what District officials are doing to combat the issue. Private organizations have also attempted to stem the rat problem. In January 2017, the Humane Rescue Alliance created the initiative “Blue Collar Cats,” which matches businesses and private citizens struggling with rat infestations with stray cats that would otherwise likely be euthanized. The businesses provide food and shelter for the cats, and the cats take care of the rat problem, according to The Washington Post. D.C. rats have been a problem for decades. In 1999, then-mayor Anthony Williams convened a “rat summit,” in which D.C. leaders could receive advice from national rodent control experts. But a long-lasting solution to the District’s rat problem has proved elusive, according to Brown. “Rats are genius,” Brown told The Washington Times. “You have to always be thinking.”
file photo: Will CROMarty/The Hoya
Washington, D.C. authorities are exploring ways to control the city’s growing rodent population, which has contributed to fires, chewed wires, contaminated food and destroyed packaging.
Sexual Assault Reports Rise in the District and on Campus Kara Tippins Hoya Staff Writer
The total number of reported cases of sexual assault in Washington, D.C., this summer increased by 3 percent from last summer, according to data from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Every district except for the First District had an increase in reported instances of sexual assault, according to an Aug. 26 WTOP article, and the total number of reported cases was 416, up from 401 last summer. The number of reported sexual assaults occurring on sidewalks and on public streets increased by nearly 21 percent, tallying to a total of 110 reported incidents, according to the WTOP article. Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle, both part of the Third District, saw a 42-percent increase in assaults on the street or sidewalk. The Seventh District, which encompasses much of Southeast D.C., experienced the largest increase in reported sexual assaults with a jump to 17 reports this summer from three last summer. The District’s MPD declined to comment on the increased numbers. The rise in reports of sexual assaults in the city are mirrored on campus, where the number of reports of sexual assault have increased. Georgetown University Police Department records indicate that between January 2018 and July 2018, the number of reported sexual assault cases on Georgetown’s campuses was higher than the number of reported cases during the entire prior year. Samantha Berner, interim Title IX coordinator, said the increasing number of reports of sexual assaults on campus can be attributed to a greater effort by the university to raise awareness about how individuals can report instances of sexual misconduct. “Increased reporting of sexual misconduct at Georgetown is consistent with current national trends and is expected because of widespread efforts to encourage reporting and raise awareness about where and how reports can be made,” Berner wrote in an email to
file photo: Ali Enright/The Hoya
Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department recieved more reports of sexual assault this summer than they did last summer. The Hoya. To raise awareness on where and how to report instances of sexual assault, the university has increased educational programs and made policies more concise, Berner wrote. “At Georgetown, we continue efforts — like climate surveys, revisions to policies, and ongoing information poster campaigns — that contribute to a better understanding of what constitutes sexual misconduct, where to report, and how to get help, which can all lead to an increase in individuals seeking support and reporting,” Berner wrote. As part of ongoing programming to increase awareness for reporting instances of sexual misconduct on campus, the university plans to conduct its second campus climate survey in 2019, three years after its first such survey in 2016, to examine the prevalence of incidences of sexual assault on campus to help the university determine how to prevent further misconduct, according to Berner. Until the survey is published,
the university is continuing to increase educational opportunities and programming about where and how to report instances of sexual misconduct. Resources already on campus in place to combat sexual assault include a mandatory online educational course for first-year students about sexual assault prevention and a bystander training course, which had a 98 percent completion rate this year and a 94 percent rate last year. In addition, the office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action launched an online resource center to provide answers for students who have questions about sexual misconduct on campus. “Georgetown is committed to preventing and addressing sexual assault and misconduct through comprehensive trainings, programs, and engagement with the campus community,” Berner wrote. “We continue to focus our efforts on education and prevention, support for survivors, and prompt and equitable response processes.”
file photo: ali Enright/The Hoya
Georgetown University Title IX office reaffirmed its commitment to protecting survivors of sexual assault amid increased numbers of reported assaults.
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Annual Club Lau Event Cancelled, Ride-Sharing App Focused Potential for Return Remains Open On Women’s Safety Arrives in DC Elizabeth Ash
Meena Morar
Hoya Staff Writer
Since it first launched in 2007, the annual party hosted by Lauinger Library during the fall semester, “Club Lau,” is cancelled, due to a lack of sufficient funds to pay library staff and Georgetown University Police Department officers and provide amenities for the event. Katherine Thomas, Lauinger’s communications and marketing coordinator, said that the decision to cancel the event was made over the summer, after realizing that the necessary funds to staff the event exceeded the current budget for the library. “Club Lau is a complex event requiring funding for library staffing and a robust GUPD presence to assist with crowd control, as well as movers, lighting, refreshments and music,” Thomas wrote in an email to The Hoya. In addition to the costs of resources for the event, in April, GUPD increased security costs for on-campus events with high expected attendance, making the cost of having officers more expensive. GUPD’s typical rate for event security is $52.25 per hour per officer. Though the event is cancelled for this fall, the university plans to host a similar event in subsequent years, according to Thomas. “We are hopeful that the library will be able to support a revised version of this event next fall,” Thomas said. Club Lau has taken place annually in early September since 2007 and it attracts an average of 1,500 to 2,000 students each year, Thomas said. Several students and the Georgetown University Student Association are disappointed with the library’s decision to cancel the event. GUSA Historian Henry Westerman (SFS ’21) said GUSA is working to keep Club Lau open to students this fall. Julia Harris (COL ’20) said Club Lau was one of her favorite memories at Georgetown, and she appreciated its inclusive atmosphere. “For me it was one of the few chances as a new Georgetown student to go out and have fun at an event that was open to everyone,” Harris wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It makes me sad that new students won’t have the opportunity to experience it because I made some of my closest friends
Hoya Staff Writer
file photo: rachel skaar for the hoya
Club Lau, which has been hosted in Lauinger Library every year since 2007, has been cancelled this year due to a lack of funds. on the dance floor at Club Lau.” Jack Korologos (COL ’21) compared Club Lau to Georgetown’s New Student Orientation, saying it assists in new students’ transition to Georgetown. “Club Lau itself isn’t the most fun someone will have at Georgetown by any means. That’s not what it was for,” Korologos said. “Freshman year is a big change and Club Lau helped ease that process in its own special way. All in all, Club Lau was the best welcome that Georgetown offered to the incoming freshmen.” Although library staff planned and hosted Club Lau, student organizations such as Georgetown Weeks of Welcome, an outreach and programming group that facilitates students’ transition to campus during the first six weeks of the school year, contributed to publicity efforts in the past. GWOW Co-Coordinator Casey Wetherbee (SFS ’21) said this year Lauinger Library asked GWOW to publicize an escape room event hosted by the library, called “Escape the Hilltop Conspiracy,” which will include puzzles, riddles and clues for players to try to exit a room.
“Historically, we have reached out to Lauinger Library, and they have sent us their events (which, until this year, have included Club Lau),” Wetherbee wrote in an email to The Hoya. “This year, they reached out to us so that we could promote an Escape Room that they will be running on September 14 and October 12. However, there was no mention of Club Lau.” The escape rooms for the “Escape the Hilltop Conspiracy” are in their initial phases, but library staff members may add more dates if initial trials go well. Developed by students, faculty and librarians, the escape rooms seek to provide an engaging mystery that incorporates research and problem-solving skills for participants. Thomas said that though Club Lau is not set to occur this fall, Lauinger still intends to host other events for the community. “The library is reviewing its events and programming with campus partners and will work throughout the academic year to continue to engage with Hoyas in other meaningful ways,” Thomas wrote.
Safr, a new app focused on safer ride-sharing for women, will expand its network to the D.C. area this fall, following its launch in Boston last year, according to a press release from the company. While both men and women are allowed to sign up to become a driver or a rider, the app offers individual riders the option of selecting a gender preference for their drivers as well as drivers to indicate a preference for their riders. The company had initially planned to create a womenonly platform, Chariot for Women, but potential legal obstacles due to state and federal anti-discrimination laws led to the creation of Safr’s current business model which serves both male and female passengers. In addition to allowing riders to choose the gender of their driver, the service seeks to create a safer experience for women through comprehensive background checks of the drivers. Each potential driver must complete an extensive criminal and motor vehicle sweep, as well as interviews with representatives from the company, according to the app’s website. If hired, the drivers must also undergo a safety training session. A “color matching” feature created to ensure proper verification within the app assigns both riders and drivers a color which they must confirm at the start of the ride. The app also includes an SOS feature, which allows the user to contact Safr headquarters, the police or a predesignated emergency contact in the case of an emergency. Safr drivers are paid more in comparison to Uber and Lyft, according to a DCist article. However, riders are charged 15 percent more than a typical UberX price. In addition to the service coming to the district, the service will also be available in Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco later this fall. The app was created in re-
sponse to complaints towards Uber’s lenient background check policy and failure to monitor drivers for violent or inappropriate behavior once hired, according to DCist. Two anonymous women filed a lawsuit in 2017 against Uber claiming that “thousands of female passengers have endured unlawful conduct by their Uber drivers,” according to the DCist article. The lawsuit is one of many complaints toward Uber, connected to the larger concern that the company is prioritizing profit over the wellbeing of its clients, according to a Boston Globe article published in Jan. 26, 2017. In an attempt to provide safe alternatives for students on Georgetown’s campus, the Georgetown University Police Department’s SafeRides program is a free option for transportation around the Georgetown neighborhood late at
night. The shuttles run from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday to Saturday through West Georgetown, Burleith and M Street. Burleith resident Eva Lucchino (COL ’19) highlighted the value of an app like Safr in comparison to the SafeRides service. “SafeRides has a limited range within the Georgetown area with specific pickup spots, so it’s not as convenient as an app.” Lucchino said. “I think it’s valuable that people can choose who they are interacting with when getting a ride home after a night out. As SafeRides is run through GUPD, using that service could make members of the Georgetown community feel unsafe when going home because they are required to interact with the police.”
safr
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, gives remarks.
New Art Gallery Focused on Modern Contemporary Art Opens Sarah Mendelsohn Hoya Staff Writer
The Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery opened Aug. 27 on the first floor of the Edmund A. Walsh Building, featuring a mix of Georgetown student artwork, travelling exhibitions and historical artwork from museums around the Washington, D.C. area. After almost six months of construction, the gallery plans to hold its first event, “Rob Pruitt’s Flea Market,” on Aug. 29 and 30. The flea market has been held in various locations since 1999, but this is the first time it is held on a college campus, according to an Aug. 27 university news release. The flea market will include local artists
and Georgetown clubs, which will showcase and sell their products in market-style set up; the vendors will receive 100 percent of the proceeds. Maria de la Cruz (CAS ’87) and Alberto de la Cruz (CAS ’89) donated an unspecified amount for the project in October 2015 and construction for the 2,500-square-foot exhibit begun in February 2018. Al Miner, who became the director and chief curator of Georgetown University Art Galleries and an associate professor of the practice in the department of Art and Art History in 2017, will curate the new gallery, which will be focused primarily on contemporary art. Miner won awards for curating modern art and worked at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the
Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. When he was appointed, Miner outlined his vision for the gallery in an interview with The Hoya in November 2017. “I look forward to establishing a program that will enhance the lives of those on campus, in the surrounding neighborhood, and within Washington, D.C.’s already vibrant arts scene,” Miner said. “Working in collaboration with key partners across the university, we will place great art and artists at the center of critical dialogues and create opportunities for diverse audiences to not only look at art, but to have meaningful and memorable ex-
periences.” The Gallery’s first annual exhibit will open on Sept. 27 and will showcase the art of ChoctawCherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson. The exhibit, entitled “DON’T MAKE ME OVER,” will explore Native American culture, LGBTQ identities and modern art, according to the university news release. Miner outlined the unique style of Gibson’s art, primarily rawhide paintings, highlighting how “DON’T MAKE ME OVER” will contribute to his goal of using the gallery to inspire crosscultural engagement. “This is the first time an exhibition will focus so heavily on Gibson’s rawhide paintings,” Miner said in the news release. “These
colorful, asymmetrical diptychs are intimate in scale and play with negative space more than Gibson’s prior paintings. They vibrantly bring together Gibson’s interest in Native American painting traditions and the language of Abstraction.” In addition to the donations from the Cruzes, the gallery received donations from alumni, parents and members of the College Board of Advisors, according to the university press release. Miner said that he hopes the new gallery will be a platform for cultivating conversations and engagement between various groups in the Georgetown community.
“We’ll strive to use art and the artistic voice as a platform to continue to promote cross-cultural understanding,” Miner said in the November interview. The gallery will also present paintings and exhibitions by Glenn Ligon and Chemi Rosado-Seijo until the spring of 2020. Ligon is a widely celebrated black artist and Rosado Seijo, a social practice artist from San Juan, Puerto Rico, developed a program that partnered a museum and a local public school. In addition to the Ligon and Rosado-Seijo exhibitions, the museum is booked through the spring of 2020.
Kuna Malik Hamad Georgetown College
The Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery’s first exhibit will showcase the art of Choctaw-Cherokee Native American artist Jeffery Gibson beginning on Sept. 27.
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Fall GU Politics Senior Associate Dean Assumes Role Fellows Present Varied Viewpoints Will Cassou and Meena Morar Hoya Staff Writers
Sarah Mendelsohn Hoya Staff Writer
Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service’s class of fellows for the fall semester includes journalists, politicians and political scientists with varied professional experiences and political viewpoints, including Erin Conaton (SFS ’92), the former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and Under Secretary of the Air Force. In addition to Conaton, the class includes Republican pollster Ed Goeas, journalist for BBC News Suzanne Kianpour, digital strategist Tim Lim and former Chief of Staff to Mike Pence, Josh Pitcock. Every semester, five fellows are chosen by GU Politics to lead discussion groups and office hours for students. Past fellows include former Chief of Staff to Nancy Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami and former White House Communications Director and Senior Advisor to President Obama, Jen Psaki. Jennie Fay, the director of fellows and career programming at the Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School of Public Policy, said that this semester’s five fellows represent a wide range of political professions and ideologies, which she hopes will spark conversation among students. “It’s no secret we are witnessing an incredibly divided and sometimes troubling time in American politics,” Far wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Now more than ever, it’s critical we engage those with differing opinions, backgrounds and perspectives to better understand the world around us.” Conaton is now a visiting professor at the U.S. Army War College. Before she began serving as Under Secretary of the Air Force and in the Department of Defense, Conaton worked as a staff member of the House Armed Services Committee for nine years. Goeas, the President and CEO of the Tarrance Group, a Repub-
lican survey research group, consults on a range of political issues, including health care and immigration. Goeas also partnered with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake to create a national political research program, The George Washington University Battleground Poll. Goeas also served as the national political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Kianpour, an Emmy-nominated news reporter, covers foreign policy and national security issues for BBC News. With a focus on the Middle East, Kianpour has covered topics such as the Iran nuclear deal, and reported on the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States. Lim focuses on political strategy, organizational development and fundraising through his consulting business, Lim Consulting. In 2012, he founded Precision Network, now a multi-million dollar online advertising platform, and Blue Digital Exchange, which works to increase investment in digital communications. Lim works on fundraising campaigns for many U.S. House of Representatives and Senate candidates, and in 2016, he served on the National Finance Committee of the Hillary for America Campaign. Pitock currently works as the Vice President for Government Affairs for Oracle Corporation in D.C., where he manages lobbying and strategy. He advised and worked with Vice President Mike Pence for eight years from 2005 to 2017, when he also contributed to President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Before coming to Washington, D.C., Pitock practiced corporate law in Atlanta. Beginning the week of Sept. 24, the fellows will hold weekly office hours and non-credit discussion sessions about current issues in their areas of expertise. Each fellow will also take on a small group of students to assist them with research for discussion groups, promoting their events and connecting them
Adanna Johnson, a former associate professor of psychology and director of the African and African American studies program at Loyola University Maryland, was named the senior associate dean of students and director of diversity, equity and student success at the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access this summer. Johnson, who also cochaired the establishment of university-wide Racial Justice Training Implementation at Loyola University, will supervise the CMEA and convene university-wide councils addressing issues of diversity and student access and success, according to a university spokesperson. Her work will support the American Talent Initiative, an alliance of universities, of which Georgetown is a founding member, to increase the number of low- and moderateincome students at top performing undergraduate institutions. “In this new role, Dr. Johnson will provide leadership for a broad range of work focused on student access and success, on our diversity and inclusion work with students, and in contributing to Georgetown’s work with the American Talent Initiative,” a university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya in an email. The CMEA oversees and hosts residential programs such as La Casa Latina and the Black House; admission events such as Hoya Saxa Weekend, which functions similarly to GAAP Weekend but can better accommodate first generation and lowincome students who face socioeconomic barriers; and the Community Scholars Program, which invites low-income and first-generation college students to participate in a six-weeklong courses over the summer to assist incoming freshmen in their transition into college. According to CMEA’s mission statement, the organization aims to improve the educa-
Adanna Johnson
Dr. Adanna Johnson, coming from Loyola University Maryland, assumed her role as the new senior associate dean and director of diversity, equity and student success at Georgetown University this summer. tional experience of students whose race or ethnicity could have excluded them from certain benefits and privileges afforded to other students at Georgetown. A spokesperson for the university said Johnson’s work at Loyola will enable her to contribute greatly to the Georgetown community. “She has published extensively on a range of topics, with a particular focus on cultural competence and use of cultural approaches to healing as well
as recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in higher education,” the university spokesperson said. “Her long clinical experience working with clients further deepens the perspectives she will bring to her work at Georgetown.” Outside of the CMEA, Johnson will report to both Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and Vice Provost for Education Randy Bass, according to the Office of the Provost. Johnson’s research focuses
on cultural competence and the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in higher education, according to the Office of the Provost’s website. “We are excited about all the assets Dr. Johnson brings to Georgetown and to our students and look forward to continue welcoming her to the Hilltop this semester,” a university spokesperson said. Johnson did not respond to request for comment by the time of publication.
LA Times Reporter to Lead Journalism Program Erin Doherty Hoya Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times reporter and columnist, Doyle McManus, was named the director of Georgetown College’s undergraduate journalism program this week. As a foreign policy correspondent and Washington bureau chief for the LA Times, he covered demonstrations in Iran’s capital city, Tehran, and the Iran hostage crisis in which 52 American diplomats were held for 44 days. He had a ringside seat at the negotiations between the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, and former Secretary of State James Baker in the late 1980s and early 1990s and he has covered every presidential campaign since 1984. After getting his start in journalism as an undergraduate at the Stanford Daily, he reported for United Press International from Los Angeles, Beirut and Tehran. He continues to write as a columnist for the LA Times. The Hoya sat down with McManus to discuss his journalism experiences and his vision for the journalism program more broadly. He said the curiosity that a career like journalism requires has driven him to seek out memorable experiences reporting abroad and in the United States. “The great thing about a long career in journalism is that most journalists get into journalism because they’re driven by curiosity, they want to learn things, they want to figure out how the world works,” McManus said.
What are some of the ideas you have for transforming the program? There are lots of students, not just in the College, but in the School of Foreign Service in particular, who want more media education of one kind or another, and in effect, we have a responsibility to meet that demand and to meet it well — at a level of quality and intellectual sophistication that matches the abilities and capabilities of the students we are teaching. So that’s a starting point. It’s a program that is small, but strong, and we want to make it a little bigger and a little stronger.
How do you plan to expand the program’s engagement with the D.C. world? We’re in one of the great journalism cities of the world. If you choose two cities where you find the best journalists in America, they’re Washington and New York, and I think we can attract more of those journalists to come teach as adjuncts. The program has already been, without any help from me, notably successful in doing that, and look at the list, from Athelia Knight of The Washington Post, who’s been teaching [Introduction to Journalism] for years, to a new recruit who hasn’t taught yet but is going to be fabulous: Liz Bruenig, also from The Washington Post, who is just a terrific mind, a fascinating person and just a really good journalist. She is a great model of how you can be a first rate intellectual and a shoe-leather journalist at the same time.
this isn’t a situation where there are 10 or 20 old line institutions that you can just get online and fill out a job application for. If you want to be a journalist, the way to start is to figure out a way to do journalism. And in fact, Barbara Feinman Todd, who effectively founded this journalism program and left me a terrific foundation to work on, had a wonderful phrase that she used in her classes. The question isn’t, “Do you want to be a writer?” The question is, “Do you want to write?” It’s a verb, not a noun. Do you want to go do journalism? Do you want to go do reporting? Do you want to do commentary? Do you want to produce video or pod-
casts? Well, then the answer is [to] find a way to go do it now, because someone out there will go ahead and be glad to have your services at rock bottom prices, all the way down to zero. But there are places you can write for free, there are places you can produce video and audio content for free and you know what, once you’ve produced that, that’s your product and your credential.
As journalism is changing, how do you hope that the program can keep up? Change or die. If we don’t evolve to keep up with the changes in the environment, evolutionary biology tells us what will happen to us. So
that’s absolutely a requirement. So we already of course have the 200-course, “Digital News,” so we need to make [sure] that’s keeping up, but we have to do more.
Is there anything else happening in the program that you think we should know about? I really do think that this is both a scary time and an exciting time to think about, to do journalism and to consider doing journalism as your life’s pursuit. No question that good journalism has never been more important to the health of American democracy, and we get plenty of reminders of that every day.
But we also get plenty of reminders that doing journalism well is difficult. It’s demanding and there are lots of commercial pressures in the business of journalism that sometimes reward journalism that isn’t really good. It’s no great accomplishment to make a good living producing bad journalism. Our aim, connecting us to the larger aims of the university, is to help students do good journalism and learn skills that will also help them if, God forbid, they should go into another profession; also that will help them be good citizens, good lawyers, good business executives, good media professionals of any kind.
How else do you expect the program to evolve? Dean [Christopher] Celenza wants us to begin looking at whether Georgetown needs to do more in the area in what we’re calling information literacy. Sometimes it’s called news literacy, sometimes it’s called media literacy. This is really the question: What do undergraduates need? What do all citizens need, in terms of critical thinking skills and background to navigate the firehose of information that comes at us 24 hours a day through our phones? It actually doesn’t matter whether you’re 20-years-old or 70-years-old, none of us have been terribly well prepared to deal with this new environment. And I figure it’s probably too late to educate the 70-year-olds, but we do have a responsibility to the 20-yearolds.
Going back to Georgetown students interested in journalism, what can they do to get involved in the media world? Like any other career, especially one in a field that is as chaotic and unsettled as this,
Doyle McManus
Longtime Los Angeles Times reporter Doyle McManus aims to connect student journalists with professionals from Washington, D.C. He continues to write as a columnist for the LA Times, even as he assumes his role as the director of the journalism program at Georgetown University.
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Hoyas Split Opening Series in Atlanta Teams Welcome vikram sud
Hoya Staff Writer
Georgetown volleyball (2-2) opened its season last Friday at the Hyatt Regency Invitational in Atlanta. The Hoyas struggled in the Big East last season, losing 16 out of 18 conference matches and finishing the season with an 8-22 record. The volleyball team is under new leadership this year, as Head Coach Toby Rens looks to turn the Hoyas’ misfortunes around. Rens was the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 2008-12 and led the Panthers to four winning seasons and five appearances in the Big East tournament. Last season, Rens coached Maryland Eastern Shore to a 27-9 record. “I am extremely grateful and feel very honored to be selected as the next head volleyball coach at Georgetown University,” Rens said in an interview with GUHoyas. “This is a fantastic opportunity to become part of the Hoya family, fulfill a longtime wish of returning to my favorite city and coaching on the Hilltop. I am truly blessed to be back in the Big East while representing the Hoyas because Georgetown offers one of the very best educations in the country.” Rens is looking forward to starting the season with the volleyball team, which will return 11 letterwinners from last season, including 2017 First Team All-Big East selection Symone Speech. “We're more than ready to compete against other teams as opposed to each other in practice every day. … The team has worked extremely hard to learn new offensive and defensive systems this season. I've been really impressed with the direction the team
is going and the buy in has been great,” Rens said in an interview with GUHoyas. The Hoyas opened the Hyatt Regency Invitational with a match against Abilene Christian, losing in four sets. The Hoyas won the opening set 25-23 but dropped the next three sets by scores of 22-25, 10-25 and 18-25. In their second match of the day, the Hoyas dug themselves into a hole by losing the first two sets 17-25 and 20-25, but responded by winning the next three sets by scores of 25-18, 25-17 and 15-12 to earn a come-frombehind victory against Idaho State. Senior Alyssa Sinnette led Georgetown with 17 kills, while junior Iva Vujosevic tallied 14 digs to lead the Hoyas. The Hoyas were back in action on Saturday against Winthrop. The match remained close throughout, with 10 ties and six lead changes in the first set. Georgetown dropped a close first set 29-31 before rallying once again and winning the next two sets, both at 25-16. With the fourth set tied at eight, the Hoyas went on an 8-2 run and never looked back, winning the final set 25-21. After winning two straight matches, Georgetown faced Georgia Tech in the team's final game of the weekend on Saturday afternoon. Despite all the sets being close, Georgia Tech was able to secure a straight sets win, defeating Georgetown by scores of 27-25, 25-22 and 25-19. After splitting both games across the two days, Georgetown’s record is 2-2. The Hoyas return to the court this Friday, hosting Norfolk State, the University of Pennsylvania, George Mason and UNC-Wilmington in McDonough Arena in the Georgetown Classic.
Incoming Freshmen For 2018-19 Season BRENDAN DOLAN Hoya Staff Writer
AMBER GILLETTE/THE HOYA
Junior outside hitter Claire Mihm had 38 kills in 35 sets played to go along with 27 digs in the Hoyas' 2017 season.
After a strong showing at last season’s Big East Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are poised to carry on their momentum from last season. The women’s team finished in second place at the tournament for the fifth consecutive season, while the men earned third place honors Feb. 24. A strong group of swimmers is returning for both teams. For the men, sophomore Drew Carbone, senior Arthur Wang and senior Ryan Blom, who all had strong performances at the championships last year, stand out as top performers. Carbone was named the Most Outstanding Male Swimmer of the tournament after taking home two gold medals and a silver in his first Big East Championships. Wang broke Georgetown’s 200-yard breaststroke record at the meet, a record he already held. Diver Ryan Blom supported his second-place performance in the men’s 3-meter at the 2017 Big East Championship with another second-place finish. For the women, Molly Fitzpatrick won her fourth Big East title in the women’s 200-yard breastroke. After securing another gold in the 100-yard breaststroke, Fitzpatrick ended her Georgetown career with seven gold medals in breaststroke events at Big East Championships. The departure of Fitzpatrick creates a void the Hoyas will need to fill if they hope to replicate their successes over the last five years. Coupled with Blom’s perfor-
mance was the success of thenfreshman Elizabeth Miller, who earned Most Outstanding Women’s Diver following her victory in the 1-meter event and second place finish in the 3-meter event. The women once again appear primed for success, as they welcome back 10 of the 13 women who were named to the All-Big East Team last season. Head Coach Jack Leavitt is optimistic about the women’s team future and looks forward to welcoming six freshmen to the team. “They are going to bring so much to our team and the Georgetown community, even beyond their swimming ability. This group personifies the type of people that we want representing Georgetown swimming and diving,” Leavitt said in an interview with GUHoyas. Leavitt also spoke highly of the five recruits for the men’s team who have signed with the Hoyas, and said he felt they would transition seamlessly in the pool as well as in the locker room. “We couldn't be happier with this group of guys,” Leavitt said. "When we brought them on campus last fall, they just fit in so well with our team. Also, it's a really adaptable group that should make an impact right away from the 50-free all the way up to the mile and everything in between.” Formidable opponents still lie ahead of Georgetown in the Big East, namely Villanova and Seton Hall, as the Wildcats and the Pirates defeated the Hoyas by 115.5 and 88 points respectively at last year’s Big East Championships. For the time being though, the Hoyas will direct their attention toward Davidson, as they welcome the Wildcats to campus on Oct. 6.
FIELD Hockey
GU Starts Season With 2 Wins Dean Hampers Hoya Staff Writer
ALYSSA ALFONSO FOR THE HOYA
The Georgetown field hockey team notched two shutouts in its first two games this season, defeating Davidson and Appalachian State. The Hoyas face Sacred Heart on Friday, Aug. 31.
The Georgetown field hockey team (2-0) marked a strong start to its season with a 1-0 win against Davidson (0-1) on Friday, Aug. 24 and a 2-0 win over Appalachian State (1-1) last Sunday. In the away contest at Davidson, the Hoyas scored a first-half goal and held on to the lead for the remainder of the game. Freshman back Sydney Stephenson scored her first goal at the collegiate level — and the first goal of Georgetown’s 2018 season — off a pass in the corner from sophomore midfielder Jax van der Veen. After the Hoyas took the lead just five minutes into the game, the Wildcats responded with strong attacking play, launching four shots in the first half, including two penalty corners
and a further shot on goal. Georgetown’s defense remained stout, however, and did not relinquish its onegoal advantage. Davidson continued its attack in the second half, earning an early penalty corner and a shot. Georgetown freshman goalkeeper Ciara Weets kept her team in the lead, making five saves in the game, four of which came in the second half. “Ciara had such a huge presence for us in the back and showed great maturity in the cage today,” Georgetown Head Coach Christy Longacre said. This marks the third consecutive season in which Georgetown has opened with a win over Davidson. After the victory, the Hoyas travelled to Boone, N.C., to face the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Van der Veen opened the
scoring with a goal off an assist from senior forward Helena Masiello. Georgetown continued its strong play by creating several quality shots, including one from Masiello that hit the post. Eight minutes later, Masiello earned a goal assisted by freshman midfielder Halle Gill to make the score 2-0. “It was nice to finish our first weekend strong on the road. We had two really great team goals today and never stopped playing the entire 70 minutes,” Longacre said. We still have a lot to work on going forward into out next weekend of play, but there was a lot to take away from both games this weekend.” The team looks to improve on last season’s 9-10 record, with a 1-6 record in the Big East. Georgetown returns to Cooper Field for a 1 p.m. home match against Sacred Heart (2-0) on Friday.
gOLF
Squads Defend Big East Championships jp harrison Hoya Staff Writer
Coming out of a historic 2017-18 season, the Georgetown men’s and women’s golf teams have much to look forward to this fall. Last year, both teams captured their respective Big East Championship titles. The women’s team has now won two consecutive Big East titles, and the men earned their second championship in the past three years. As perennial contenders in the Big East, the teams will have high expectations this season. With the departure of Jacquelyn Eleey, who won the individual title at the Big East Championship last season, the women’s team will hope the returning golfers and freshman Baili Park will pick up the slack. The men’s team returns to action this fall with three new additions to the roster: Freshman Will O’Neill, sophomore transfer from Villanova Matt Barnes and junior Taso Scilaris.
Following last season’s Big East Championship, the men’s team went on to finish in 13th place at the NCAA Kissimmee Regional, while the women took 16th at the NCAA Austin Regional. Over the summer, golfers Sam Madsen and Jacquelyn Eleey were named winners of the Big East ScholarAthlete Sport Excellence Award. Madsen, along with fellow recent graduate Jack Musgrave, were also named Srixon/Cleveland Golf AllAmerica Scholars. The team is set to resume competition next weekend at the Fuzzy Zoeller Intercollegiate hosted by the University of Indiana. The Blue and Gray are competing in the Georgetown Intercollegiate in midOctober, an event they won last year. Georgetown women’s golf added one player, freshman Baili Park, to the roster this year,. The team’s first test comes next Sunday at the Cougar Classic in Hanahan, S.C. hosted by College of Charleston.
GUHOYAS
Junior Eduardo Blochtein finished fifth overall at the Big East Tournament last season with a 54-hole score of 219. Blochtein helped the Hoyas capture their second Big East championship in three years.
SPORTS
friday, August 31, 2018
THE HOYA
A11
helmet to helmet
CROSS COUNTRY
Hasty Rule Change Angers Star Players CHRISTOVICH, from A12
Jacksonville Jaguars. During the first quarter, Jaguars wide receiver Marqise Lee suffered ligament damage in his knee from a low tackle by Falcons safety Damontae Kazee. Lee will now miss the entire season. While Kazee was issued a penalty for lowering his head to initiate contact with Lee’s knee, Lee’s teammate Jalen Ramsey did not blame Kazee for the wide receiver’s injury. Instead, Ramsey blamed the tackle rule itself. “You can’t be mad at 27 [Kazee],” Ramsey told Michael DiRocco of ESPN. “You have to be mad at the NFL, not mad at them, but that is how the rule is. People are scared to tackle normal because I guess they don’t want to do helmet-to-helmet and get flagged. ... Game-changing stuff could
happen. You don’t really want to blame anyone, but you feel bad for him.” In other words, Ramsey said he believed the new tackle rule has given defensive backs a case of the tackling yips — fearful of accruing penalties, some players may abandon the fundamentals of safe tackling that they have been taught their entire careers. In more other words, Ramsey accused the NFL’s tackle rule, implemented for the sake of player safety, of causing even more injuries. And Ramsey is probably right. Players had no more than one round of training camp to adjust to the rule before it was implemented in league play, an incredibly short amount of time to retrain potentially a lifetime’s worth of muscle memory, during which players learned to
tackle with their head up but not necessarily to lead with another body part. Likely for this same reason, Major League Baseball, for example, did not implement more extreme pace-of-play rules despite a dire need to speed up the game. Commissioner Rob Manfred and the MLB Player’s Association did not implement pitch clocks this season in order to allow players to speed up the game without the hindrance of pitch clocks, Manfred had said in a statement. Considering that many players were dismayed with the very small changes Manfred did make, other leagues must be sensitive when altering rules that players have followed — or not followed — their entire lives. While fans and players alike appreciate the league for at-
tempting to improve player safety — in whatever small way that may be — changing the tackle rule looks more and more like a poorly planned PR move than an attempt at walking the fine line between preserving the essence of football and protecting players. Instead, the league should have given players an entire season of notice before implementing the rule and then provided a trial run in preseason before officially approving it as a seasonspanning rule. Because right now, the tackle rule is confusing players and coaches at best and backfiring at worst.
Amanda Christovich is a senior in the College. helmet to helmet appears every other week.
FOOTBALL
New Coordinator Hopes to Spark Offense FOOTBALL, from A12 GUHOYAS
The Georgetown women’s cross country team is ranked No. 25 in the USTFCCCA preseason poll heading into the 2018-19 season.
Men’s Team Aims To Capture 4th Straight Big East CROSS COUNTRY, from A12
who won the bronze medal at the Pan-American Cross Country Championships last fall for Canada, will return to the Hilltop this fall. In addition, graduate students Josette Norris and Kennedy Weisner, who were named to the All-Big East team along with MacDonald last season, are set to lead the Hoyas in their fall schedule. On the men’s side, the Hoyas won the Big East Cross Country Championship last year, marking the third consecutive season they have topped the Big East. If Georgetown captures its fourth consecutive title this season, the Hoyas would join Providence College as the only Big East schools to win four straight conference championships. Despite his team’s success, Head Men’s Cross Country Coach Brandon Bonsey still
feels that the men’s cross country team is overlooked nationally. “It is exciting for our group to get some regional and national recognition the last couple of days. … I think our team is a lot better than people around the country realize, and practice thus far has been an indication of that. We are looking forward to getting this season started and competing very soon,” Coach Bonsey said in an interview with GUHoyas. Then-juniors Reilly Bloomer and Nick Wareham were standout runners for the Hoyas last season. Bloomer and Wareham finished in the top-seven runners at the Big East championship last season and earned First Team AllBig East accolades. As seniors, both runners are set to lead the Hoyas in their first meet Sept. 8 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
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coordinator Rob Spence joins the team’s staff. Spence brings more than 25 years of collegiate coaching experience to the Hilltop. Spence notably has served as the offensive coordinator at Clemson, Syracuse and Toledo over the course of his career. He will mentor a talented group of returning wide receivers, including the Hoyas’ two leading receivers from the 2017 season, junior Michael Dereus and senior Brandon Williams. Dereus totaled 46 receptions for 696 yards and five touchdowns, highlighted by an 83yard grab against Columbia. Deep threat Williams ranked second on the team in 2017 with 24 receptions for 346 yards. Williams will be this year’s recipient of the No. 35 Joe Eacobacci Memorial Jersey, annually awarded to a player who showcases outstanding character on and off the field in memory of Eacobacci, a 1996 graduate who died in the Sept. 11 attacks. Multiple quarterbacks will compete to take the reins and guide the offense, although junior Gunther Johnson is the expected starter for the Hoyas’ season opener against Marist. Johnson started in four of the eight games he played in last season and finished 2017 with a 49 percent completion percentage, throwing for 1,026 yards and four touchdowns. He also led the team in rushing with 258 yards and an additional four touchdowns. On the other side of the ball, Georgetown boasted a stifling defense last season, holding opponents to 14 points or less in four games. They return junior defensive lineman Khristian Tate, an AllPatriot League First Team member who led the Blue and Gray with 12.5 tackles-for-loss and five sacks. Tate also recorded two defensive
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touchdowns last season. Sophomores Duval Paul, who tallied 31 tackles and two sacks, and Kingsley Umemba, who recorded 16 tackles and one sack, will also return to the defensive line. Six freshmen and four returning sophomores will hold the linebacker position. They are led by sophomore Wes Bowers, who made 57 tackles last season. In the secondary, the Hoyas will need to replace leading tackler David Akere , who graduated last year. However, eight defensive backs who saw game action last year, including seniors Blaise Brown and Ramon Lyons, two lockdown defenders the Hoyas will rely on this
season, will return to the field. Regarding the senior class as a whole, Sgarlata said, “I really respect them for all the hard work they put in, sticking it out with us and believing in the process in what we are doing. I’m really impressed with the way that they have embraced the freshman and sophomore classes and made it a priority to make sure that they know what we are doing and how we are doing it.” Highlights on the team’s schedule include a rematch against Campbell University, who the Hoyas beat 16-10 in the 2017 season opener. The squad then
hosts Columbia on homecoming weekend Sept. 22. The Hoyas will finish the season at home against Holy Cross in what will be Senior Day for members of this year’s graduating class. However, Sgarlata said, “I’m not really worried about the opponents, I am worried about taking care of our own house and doing the little things right every day.” Sgarlata will lead the Hoyas into their season opener, a nonconference away game against the Marist Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The game will be held on Saturday, Sept. 1. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
RICHARD SCHOFIELD/THE HOYA
Freshman wide receiver Joshua Thomas, left, was a four-year captain at Crete-Monee High School prior to Georgetown, and freshman tight end Liam McHale, right, caught 10 touchdowns at Fordham Prep.
Women’s Soccer
Strong Defensive Unit Anchors Hoyas YALE, from A12
team. Graduate transfer forward Kyra Carusa, who joins the Hoyas from 2017 NCAA Champion Stanford University, will play a big part in Georgetown’s plans this season. Carusa scored 15 goals and added five assists last season. “Kyra is a different type of player. She’s more of a maverick on the field,” Nolan said. “She’s very unpredictable, which is very good in that she’s difficult for teams to hone on what she is going to do.” Among the returners, senior forwards Caitlin Farrell and Amanda Carolan will look to build on their successful 2017 seasons. Both forwards were named to the Preseason All-Big East team. “We need both of those guys to help us start scoring some more goals,” Nolan said. Farrell scored eight goals and provided three assists last season, earning her a spot on the United Soccer Coaches All-Midwest Region first team. Farrell is also one of 45 players on the preseason MAC Hermann Trophy watch list. “Caitlin has it in her to be one of the best attacking players in the country. She had a very good junior year and had an incredible spring,” Nolan said. “With her pace and with her size and strength, she’s difficult to match up with.” Carolan scored nine goals and added two assists last season, which earned her a spot
on the United Soccer Coaches All-Midwest Region second team. “Amanda is our target player. We play into her and off of her a lot,” Nolan said. “When she’s on, she’s big, strong, fast, and she can finish.” Manning the defense is junior Meaghan Nally, who was named the Big East Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Sophomore Kelly Ann Livingstone will join Nally on the backline. “I think in Kelly Anne Livingstone we probably have the best defender in the conference now, certainly the best central defender,” Nolan said. “She’s had an outstanding start to the season for us.” Behind the strong defense, graduate student and Big East Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year Arielle Schechtman will serve as a familiar face in net. Last season, Schechtman was named Big East Goalkeeper of the Year, recording 17 shutouts, 37 saves and a 0.31 goals-against average. Nolan feels confident in his defense even after losing Wenger. “I never feel like we are going to give up many goals. That starts with defending from the front with our forwards and our midfielders,” Nolan said. “We’ve gotten comfortable and proud of what a good defensive team we are.” In a battle of the bulldogs against Yale University on Sunday, Georgetown came out on top 3-1. Carusa netted a goal and added an assist,
while Farrell and freshman Boo Jackson added a goal each. The squad outshot Yale 13-6 and held a 10-4 advantage in corner kicks. Looking ahead, Nolan was cautious about creating high expectations for his team. “Most importantly, I want us not to have any regrets,”
Nolan said. “I want us to be the best version of this team. What I don’t want us to do is leave anything on the table.” Next up for the Blue and Gray is a crosstown matchup at The George Washington University against the Colonials (4-0-0) on Thursday at 5 p.m.
ALLIE FRIE FOR THE HOYA
Sophomore midfielder Grace Nguyen has had nine shots and six on goal in four games started for the Hoyas this season.
Sports
Men’s Soccer Georgetown (1-0-1) vs. Stanford (0-1-0) Monday, 1 p.m. Shaw Field
friday, aUGUST 31, 2018
The Georgetown field hockey team won its first two games of the season on the road, not allowing a single goal.
See A10
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Our core group took a hard look at what we need to do to get rolling.” HEAD COACH ROB SGARLATA
Struggling Program Looks for Fresh Start In New Season Hoya Staff Writer
After finishing last season 1-10 following 10 straight losses, Georgetown’s football team is hoping its incoming freshman players and wealth of experienced veterans can turn the program around and leave its defeats in the past. Under a new offensive coordinator, strong defense and returning corps of wide receivers, the Hoyas have reason to believe that they can compete in the Patriot League. Rob Sgarlata will return for his fifth year as the team’s head coach and is optimistic about the offseason adjust-
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The number of kills senior Alyssa Sinnette recorded in Georgetown’s win over Idaho State.
cross country
Football
Danny McCooey
NUMBERS GAME
talkING POINTS
Field Hockey
ments the team has made. “The coaches did a great job bringing the right kids into this freshman class, but our core group of returning players and coaches took a hard look on what we need to do to get rolling in the right direction. We talked about winning every day. It’s not just about the scoreboard at the end of the game. It’s how you attack practice, get to class and handle the locker room too,” Sgarlata said. Georgetown’s offense will be under new supervision this season as offensive See FOOTBALL, A11
GUHOYAS
Graduate student Josette Norris, right, finished ninth at the Big East Cross Country Championships and was named to the All-Big East First Team last season. Norris finished 26th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Cross Country Championships.
Teams Hope to Justify Preseason Rankings Ethan Cohn
Hoya Staff Writer
richard schofield/the hoya
Junior quarterback Gunther Johnson, left, started four games last season, throwing for 1,026 yards and four touchdowns.
The men’s and women’s cross country teams seem primed to continue last season’s national and conference success this season, with both teams ranking in the top 30 in preseason national polls. The Georgetown women’s
cross country team begins the season ranked No. 25 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll. The team’s fall slate of meets begins Sept. 7 at Penn State University in State College, Pa. Although the Hoyas are ranked highly in the national predictions, Director of Track
and Field and Cross Country Julie Culley said she wants the women’s team to focus on postseason success as well. “We are excited and honored to be ranked in the Top 25 in both the USTFCCCA Coaches Poll as well as the FloTrack preseason rankings. November is always the goal and we’ve set our sights
on qualifying for the NCAA Championships, but we will have to earn it every day, at every practice and every competition this season,” Culley said in an interview with GUHoyas. Native Canadian and sophomore Martha MacDonald, See cross country, A11
Helmet to helmet
women’s soccer
Hoyas Defeat Bulldogs for 3rd Victory Josh Rosson Hoya Staff Writer
After 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, the Georgetown women’s soccer team had a chance to advance past the first round of the 2017 NCAA tournament on the road against Wake Forest. Georgetown came into the match on the heels of its Big East Championship win, which marked the first time in program history that the team won both the Big East regular season and postseason titles. But,
after double overtime, the Hoyas came up short against the Demon Deacons, losing 2-1 on penalty kicks in an agonizing defeat. The team will look to bounce back this season, Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “It was a tough way for this season to end,” Nolan said. “I felt bad for the kids, especially with the success we had the previous year, because I actually felt last year’s team was better than the team that went to the Final Four College Cup in 2016.”
Georgetown (2-0-2, 0-0 Big East) will have to make do without two of its top players from last season’s squad, as midfielder Rachel Corboz and defender Elizabeth Wenger both graduated and are now playing professionally. Corboz recently joined FC Fleury 91 in France, while Wenger was picked up by the Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League. The Hoyas climbed to No. 15 in the national polls after their first two matches, a win against the University of
Georgia Bulldogs in the Virginia Tech Tournament and a 1-1 draw against the Virginia Tech Hokies. The Blue and Gray then opened up its home schedule at Shaw Field with a scoreless tie against the No. 11-ranked Duke University Blue Devils. In that contest, Georgetown outshot Duke 24-15. Georgetown will rely on a collection of players to replace the dynamic offensive skillset that Corboz brought to the See YALE, A11
AISHA MALAS FOR THE HOYA
Junior forward/midfielder Paula Germino-Watnick, left, has taken four total shots and one shot on goal so far this season. Germino-Watnick scored four goals on 41 total shots in 16 starts last season to go along with one assist. Visit us online at thehoya.com/sports
Amanda Christovich
New NFL Tackle Rule Could Backfire When it comes to player safety, the NFL just can’t win. This season, the league made several rule changes aimed at improving player safety, one being a modification to the tackle rule, which previously allowed players to lower their heads when attempting tackles. The new rule renders tackles where players lead with their heads illegal. Teams have just four preseason games to adjust to the changes made by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, a dangerously short period for defensive players to completely relearn how to tackle. The official rule, according to NFL Operations, states, “It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.” This includes “lowering the head” or “initiating contact with the helmet to any part of an opponent.” Violating the rule would constitute a 15-yard penalty or an ejection for especially egregious violations. The rule caused a stir before preseason even started, with experts fearing that the rule would be difficult to enforce. Former NFL referee and ESPN Rules Analyst Jim Daopoulos, for example, explained in an article for USA TODAY Sports that he was unsure how officials were going to call the tackle rule and predicted that they might be hesitant to issue these penalties at the beginning of the season, as the boundary between clean and ille-
gal tackles is now very thin. Against Daopoulos’ prediction — which, in retrospect, would have been sage advice — officials came out firing in the preseason, issuing many leading-with-head penalties, often inconsistently. One of the first calls was made against San Francisco 49ers running back Raheem Mostert during the second week of the preseason against the Houston Texans. Though it appeared Mostert led with his shoulder while tackling running back Tyler Ervin, Mostert was issued an unnecessary roughness penalty — much to the chagrin of players, fans and even NFL agent Brett Tessler. Some believe the rule’s problem lies in the inconsistency of its enforcement, while others, like 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, find the essence of the rule incorrect altogether. “There is no ‘make adjustment’ to the way you tackle,” Sherman tweeted after the 49ers’ loss to the Texans. “Even in a perfect form tackle the body is led by the head. The rule is idiotic And should be dismissed immediately. When you watch rugby players tackle they are still lead by their head. Will be flag football soon.” The new tackling rule incited similar discontent during Saturday night’s preseason matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and the See Christovich, A11