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VOICE the georgetown

Silent No More Georgetown’s black student protest movement

By Shalina Chatlani and James Constant

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w January 15, 2015 w Volume 47, Issue 2 w georgetownvoice.com

the

Jan. 15, 2015

Voice

This week: Editorial ... Initiative 71: an another case for DC statehood, pg. 3 News ... SFS and MSB create new academic program, pg. 4 Sports ... On the record with Tyler Adams, pg. 6 Feature ... Black student protest movement at Gtown, pg. 8 Leisure ... Nomadic’s new production is Sick, pg. 10 Page 13 ... Je Suis Charlie, pg. 13 Voices ... Fate of Muslims in France post-Charlie Hedbo, pg. 14

Protests on campus

The Voice explores the black student protest movement on campus.

Last edition’s key:

–Leila Lebreton

This Week’s Horoscope

– Ambika Ahuja & Tim Annick

Capricorns are the typical MSBros. These clever signs could step all over people if they wanted to do, all in the name of success. Other people are plebeians to them. Their motto is “money over hoes.” Capricorns live in the extremes. Their Saturday comprises of studying all day in the depths of Lau and then drinking until their livers fail. This sign is also family oriented. Capricorns make the perfect husbands or wives. Money and loyalty to family? I’d tap that.

Dayana Morales Gomez BLOG

NEWS

Editor: Marisa Hawley

Editor: Lara Fishbane

Assistant Editors: Grace Brennan, Morgan Hines, Carley Tucker

Assistant Editors: Courtnie Baek,

HALFTIME Leisure Editors: Erika Bullock, Graham Piro Assistant Leisure Editor: Michael Bergin

Sports Editors: Alex Boyd, Rob Ponce

VOICES Editor: Noah Buyon Assistant Editor: Leila Lebreton

Ryan Miller

PHOTO Editor: Joshua Raftis Assistant Editors: Vicki Lam, Carolyn Zaccaro

EDITORIAL BOARD Chair: Kenneth Lee Board: Chris Almeida, Shalina Chatlani, James Constant, Steven Criss, Lara Fishbane, Dayana Morales Gomez, Ryan Greene, Caitriona Pagni, Ian Philbrick, Daniel Varghese

Editor-in-Chief

COVER

Caitriona Pagni

Editor: Christina Libre

Managing Editor

Mary-Bailey Frank General Manager

Maya McCoy Webmaster

James Constant, Julia Lloyd-George, Ian Philbrick

SPORTS Editor: Joe Pollicino Assistant Editors: Isabel Echarte, Kevin Huggard, Max Roberts

LEISURE Editor: Daniel Varghese Assistant Editors: Elizabeth Baker, Dinah Farrell, Sabrina Kayser

Editors-at-Large

Chris Castano

Contributing Editor

Tim Annick

Managing Director of Accounting and Sales

Allison Manning Managing Director of Finance

COPY Chief: Dana Suekoff Editors: Lauren Chung, Bianca Clark, Jupiter El-Asmar, Alex Garvey Rachel Greene, Madison Kaigh, Michael Mischke, Suzanne Trivette

Assistant Editor: Megan Howell

SPREAD Editors: Pam Shu, Sophie Super

FEATURE Editor: Ryan Greene

DESIGN Editor: Eleanor Sugrue Assistant Editor: Ellie Yaeger Staff: Caitlin Garrabrant, Johnny Jung, Erin McClellan

PAGE 13 Editor: Dylan Cutler

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

The georgetown voice | 3

fighting a higher power

Congressional meddling on Initiative 71 another case for DC statehood

In last November’s general election, D.C. voters overwhelmingly passed Initiative 71, a bill legalizing recreational use of marijuana in the District. Unfortunately, even with the majority support of all but one voting precinct, Congress stopped Initiative 71 from going into effect when it passed its omnibus spending bill last month.

While Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local politicians have vowed to defend Initiative 71 and ensure its implementation, strong rhetoric will not protect the will of D.C.’s voters. Now, more than ever, is the time to make D.C. a state and prevent unfair meddling with the city’s budget and legislative processes from happening again in the future.

Arguments in support of D.C. statehood have long rested on principle. Statehood supporters point to the fact that no other territory in the country has its residents pay federal taxes without having a senator or representative with voting power, yet a national assembly composed of representatives from states as far away as Alaska and Texas directly controls the District’s budget. Congress retains the right to review all District legislation over a 30 to 60 day waiting period before they come to effect, a restriction unique only to D.C.

Since D.C. home rule began in 1971, Congress has changed the District’s law only on three occasions. The latest Congressional move against Initiative 71, however, is a concrete example of why D.C. statehood and budget autonomy are so crucial to preserving the democratic integrity of legislation in the District. Members of Congress from faraway places and with no experience in D.C.’s local affairs can overturn measures even if a supermajority of District voters support those measures, effectively giving voters in Alaska and Texas more sway over Washington’s laws than D.C. residents themselves.

District voters must now give more support than ever to the D.C. statehood movement. Congress’ interference with a law as popular and important as recreational marijuana legalization is unacceptable. Sending Congress any other message is an invitation for more unwelcome micromanagement with D.C.’s own affairs.

D.C. statehood would also incentivize students to register themselves as D.C. voters rather than absentee voters in their home states. As D.C. voters students can elect representatives to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, a local government body that the university must consult and seek approval of in the master planning process, which

determines everything from building new residence halls to the route of the GUTS buses.

A grand total of 28 write-in votes went to the two seats reserved for students on Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E in November. Such apathy is a different story from the elections in 1996, when the ANC had pursued a range of anti-student measures, and town-gown relations hit rock bottom. A voter registration drive led to more than a thousand students electing two Hoyas to the ANC for the first time.

Students found and treasured their hard-earned voice in local politics despite vehement neighborhood opposition, a voter intimidation campaign, and six years of litigation.

By becoming D.C. voters and even running against Georgetown residents for ANC seats, students have the potential to gain a majority on ANC2E and veto the university’s future campus plans if they do not sufficiently cater to students’ interests.

Ultimately, Bowser, together with other D.C. politicians, must do more than pledge to make Initiative 71 happen: they must push for D.C. statehood. Statehood will empower residents with federal representation and allow students to play a meaningful role in shaping the District’s and Georgetown University’s future.

give us this day our daily aramark

a gigabowser’s story

Hoya Court meal swipe program a win-win for students and university

Practical policies will accomplish new mayor’s goal to end homelessness

At the beginning of last semester’s finals week, Georgetown Dining implemented a pilot program where students with meal plans could exchange meal swipes for food at Hoya Court, which Aramark operates along with Leo O’Donovan Hall and Einstein Bros. Bagels. The program was wildly popular with students, drawing large crowds throughout the duration of the program. The university should work towards permanently implementing the program and liberalizing where students on a meal plan can eat on campus.

The concept of utilizing meal plans across a number of campus-wide dining locations is standard practice at other universities. For example, students at neighboring American University are free to use their meal swipes at their own branch of Elevation Burger, among other retail locations on campus.

However, this practice, while a viable financial model at other universities, still remains largely absent at Georgetown.

In Nov. 2013, Auxiliary Business Services began allowing the use of meal swipes at the university’s two Einstein locations, both of which have limited operating hours.

However, it ruled out expanding the program to other on-campus restaurants. Given the success of last month’s pilot, it is clear that expanding the meal exchange program could help to address longstanding grievances students have had about the meal plan’s limited options. It will also bring Georgetown Dining closer to the standards that university undergraduates have come to expect from college dining services across the nation.

The inequity between the monetary value of a meal swipe and the quality of dining hall food drives some upperclassmen to drop their meal plans as soon as the university no longer requires them to purchase one. To convince them to stay, Georgetown Dining has tried offering prizes to juniors and seniors who purchase a meal plan, which in recent

years have ranged from computer tablets to, most recently, mini Wi-Fi routers.

Some upperclassmen lack the time to cook for themselves or the spare change to eat out in the neighborhood, which, unlike other typical college towns, is populated with expensive and upscale restaurants.

A more flexible meal plan that includes diverse and high-quality options like the ones offered in Hoya Court will incentivize such students to return to the meal plan, providing Georgetown Dining with added revenue.

With more upperclassmen incentivized to continue their meal plans, Georgetown Dining can mitigate the cost burdens of continuing meal exchange programs with on-campus restaurants.

Hoya Court employees may be concerned about the increased crowds that the pilot program drew, especially because Hoya Court already caters to hospital staff, graduate students, and other visitors during the day. Nevertheless, it remains generally empty in the evenings, when it has more operational capacity to serve undergraduate students. Eventually, the program’s novelty will wear off; students will incorporate Hoya Court into their daily routines, and the long queues seen during the pilot program will dissipate over time.

Increasing on-campus meal options is not an impossible endeavor, and Georgetown Dining need not make upperclassmen gamble for technology products with dubious value. Making the Hoya Court meal exchange program permanent, even if students were only allowed to swipe at Hoya Court during the evenings, would increase the value of a meal plan and bring in more revenue for Georgetown Dining—a win-win for both students and Aramark. Ultimately, no good reason exists for the university not to let the most exciting thing to happen to dining on the Hilltop since, perhaps, the introduction of the Leo’s panini press.

D.C.’s new mayor, Muriel Bowser, campaigned on a platform that promised to end homelessness in D.C. by 2025. A report released last month by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, however, highlights the fact that the District still desperately needs better infrastructure for the homeless population. If Bowser truly intends to reach her goal, she needs to be more proactive in developing a practical and comprehensive plan to accomplish her promise.

The “Report Card on D.C.’s Progress in Helping Homeless Families” graded the government based on how well it fulfilled ten roadmap goals for a “high quality homeless services system.” The District had a mediocre performance, receiving one B, seven C’s, and two D’s.

The grades, which evaluate the administration of former mayor Vincent Gray, can give Bowser and her team concrete goals and suggestions.

If she takes the criticism seriously, she can make huge improvements on these scores. In her campaign pledges, Bowser was right to criticize the homelessness policies of Gray’s administration. But her one and a half page blueprint to end homelessness in D.C. in ten years feels like a halfhearted effort.

Bowser’s plan outlines short and long term strategies for eradicating homelessness. Bowser vows to not house the homeless in recreation centers—a violation of the Homeless Services Reform Act—and instead pushes for expansion of Rapid Re-housing and the Local Rent Supplement Program.

Unfortunately, this plan alone isn’t going to do anything in the short term. With temperatures staying below freezing this calendar year,

the decaying D.C. General shelter and multiple motels leased by the District for the winter have been filled to capacity. Some homeless individuals are finding themselves in the recreation centers Bowser has promised to stop using. The numbers of homeless requiring the government’s attention won’t be decreasing anytime soon.

Rapid Re-housing operates on the assumption that once-homeless individuals will be able to pay Washington-level rents in four months to a year. Yet, as the report highlights, “the District has not explored ways for families to easily re-engage if they fall into trouble after leaving Rapid Rehousing.” In a tight economy where prices are skyrocketing and precincts are gentrifying thanks to the influx of young professionals, those who cannot make do without the program’s timelimited subsidy can soon become homeless once again.

The report card also pushes D.C. to think more critically about how it finds funds for projects. It acknowledged that the government found funding to safely house families in private shelters during winters. However, the money came from an existing federal aid program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The District must do more for its citizens than to simply take funds from a pre-existing welfare program.

As D.C. continues to endure a particularly cold and snowy winter, Bowser’s newly minted administration needs to reevaluate the government’s homelessness record and make a vested effort to come up with a practical plan of action. District residents should be keeping a keen eye on what Bowser and her team do first.

news

4 | the georgetown voice

JANUARY 15, 2015

SFS and MSB collaborate to introduce new Global Business major and fellowship COURTNIE BAEK The School of Foreign Service and the McDonough Business School officially launched the Global Business Major and Fellowship Program (GBUS) this spring semester.

SFS and MSB students were first notified of the program on Dec. 3.

Student candidacy differed for the GBUS major and the fellowship. All SFS sophomores received the application for the Global Business major and the application for the fellowship was sent to SFS sophomores and all MSB sophomores via email on Jan. 5. Decisions were released on Jan. 9.

“Of the 46 SFS applicants, 10 were accepted for both the major and the fellows program, 5 for just the fellows program, and 5 for just the major,” wrote Mitch Kaneda Director of the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in an email to the Voice. Additionally, 15 MSB students were accepted for the fellows program.

“I’m very excited for this program,” said Ricardo Ernst, a professor in the MSB who helped shaping and funding of the new program. “[Both SFS and MSB deans] have been pushing

SFS STUDENTS WILL HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THE MSB IS. for this in the last three years. I think it puts Georgetown in a very competitive position throughout the world. I don’t think there is any other university in the U.S. or the globe with this type of sophistication, combining a school of foreign service and a school of business at the undergraduate level.”

This pilot program allows SFS students to integrate a basic business education with their political and economic coursework, advanced language and research skills, and cross-cultural proficiencies. The GBUS curriculum is designed to provide students with the multi-disciplinary tools needed to understand and analyze business entities and

KIRILL MAKARENKO

their behavior in the context of the global social and cultural forces.

The GBUS requirements include ten courses in addition to the calculus prerequisite. Students must take one statistics course, four Business Core courses, one International Business Core course, and four supporting courses in addition to the SFS Core Curriculum. Courses offered by the MSB through the GBUS Core include accounting, international marketing, corporate finance, and business operations.

Theodore Moran, Field Chair in International Business and Finance said, “We’re very sensitive in the SFS that our majors are quite broad and

interdisciplinary, meaning there’s a lot of economic, international relations, and ethics requirements. Faculty in the SFS were against making this a pre-professional curriculum.”

Thus GBUS major differs from the International Business major in MSB in that GBUS is not a business degree. GBUS focuses on the role firms play in international affairs— not only in the economic realm, but also in international development and social responsibility.

“This is a big initiative. I would say the program is student led—there’s been a lot of interest in SFS students to have a major. Parent and Alumni interest in both SFS and MSB plus [Provost Groves] is urging cross-campus schools to do more together,” said Moran. “This is a cumulative initiative.

Since higher education is so expensive, parents and alumni want to ensure that students at least have some technical skills. It’s a cultural phenomenon across the United States, I think.”

According to Ernst, the administrative process of creating the new program took initiative from every school in the university. “To evaluate and approve this program, we went through the Ex-

ecutive Council where the all faculty vote and decide whether they want to do it,” said Ernst. “To fund a program of this nature, we’re talking about an endowment around ten million dollars.”

For MSB students who may worry about SFS students complicating course enrollments, Ernst said, “In the registration process, we modify the cap of the class student numbers to guarantee students of the fellowship.”

Furthermore, according to Ernst, no more than 20 students can major in the GBUS and no more than 15 students from each school can participate in the fellowship.

Ernst addressed the allocation of resources in the MSB and SFS career center. “We don’t know yet, we are making an explicit effort to help the fellows to secure jobs [in the MSB]. For the majors, it’s a little bit early, but in the spirit of cooperation we will always try to help them.”

Morgan Kennedy (SFS ’17) was accepted to the major and fellowship in the Global Business Program. “I applied to the Global Business major because I’ve always been interested in multi-disciplinary course approach, but with technical skills,” she said.

Georgetown Athletics creates video to raise awareness about sexual assault MANUELA TOBIAS As part of the “It’s On Us” campaign launched by the White House in September, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has produced a video to feature student-athletes taking a stand against sexual assault. The video follows a series of workshops in the Georgetown Athletics department to engage student-athletes on the issue.

First released through the Georgetown website on Dec. 10, the 30-second video features student-athletes urging other students to take an online pledge to promote bystander intervention.

Produced by Gabriela Elvina (COL ‘17), Megan Schmidt (COL ‘15), and Brett Treacy (MSB ‘15) in conjunction with the Office of Communications, the video will be shown at halftime during home basketball games for the remainder of the season.

Javan Robinson (MSB ‘15), vice president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, believes the public stance taken by the athletic community demonstrates athletes’ awareness and their conviction to end sexual assault. Elvina, who acts as visual media coordinator for

SAAC, suggests that those seen by many as “the big kids on campus” want to lead by example.

“You see them and idolize them. So if you see that they’re supporting this, you want to support it too,” Elvina said.

While the Sexual Assault Working Group agrees that the video increases awareness of sexual assault, representatives believe the video demonstrates little more than an outward display of support for an issue it is unqualified to address.

GUSA Secretary of Student Health and Safety Nora West (SFS ‘15), member of the Sexual Assault Working Group, believes the video will mislead students about student-athletes’ understanding of sexual assault. In her view, athletes’ portrayal in the video presents them as experts, resources, or “people who particularly care about the issue.”

“I understand they’re attempting to use celebrity, but what if that person ends up raping someone?

Or what if any of the people in that video, someone goes to them because they did experience sexual assault, and because none of them have been trained, they don’t know anything?”

West additionally expressed concern that taking the online pledge is an insufficient attempt to address the issue of sexual assault. Those who take it pledge to recognize non-consensual sex as sexual assault, engage in bystander intervention, and support survivors of sexual assault.

“I can take a pledge to anything.

That doesn’t mean that I’m going to live out those values, whether or not I’ve taken them on camera for an athletics video,” West said.

Last fall, the Athletics Department launched the Power Workshops to engage student-athletes in discussions about such issues as sexual assault, hazing, and bullying. Every varsity sports team participated in versions of the workshop, described by student-athletes as a multi-media presentation led by Director of Student-Athlete Leadership and Development Mike Lorenzen.

“Student-athletes and coaches participated in the workshops, which were designed to inform and empower student-athletes and coaches to discuss how power and privilege can be abused in both group (e.g. hazing) and individual (e.g. sexual assault and bullying) contexts,” Sports Informa-

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY YOUTUBE

BIG KIDS ON CAMPUS LEAD GEORGETOWN’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT. tion Director Michael Carey wrote in an email to the Voice.

Incidents of hazing or sexual assault particular to Georgetown were not discussed in the presentations given in December, though student-athletes responded that they were not aware of any on-campus occurrences.

“We kept that under disclosure. It was kind of like, no one said anything. [Lorenzen] didn’t ask about anything. He was just telling us, ‘Well, you’re aware,’” Elvina said.

As a reaction to what it perceived as a danger of having unqualified spokespeople to speak on the issue of sexual assault, SAWG came to a general consensus in December “that if [the video] was going to be out

there, athletes should have further training,” West said. Carey acknowledged that the Power Workshops were not comprehensive trainings on issues of sexual assault, though they were not intended to be.

“In the coming weeks, we look forward to connecting SAAC with the Sexual Assault Peer Educator group to work together collaboratively as an additional avenue for student-athletes to be trained by peer facilitators on these issues,” Carey wrote.

“Right now, Athletics is talking the talk, and hopefully with these trainings they’ll have a better sense of what it actually means to, pardon my cliché, walk the walk,” West said.

news Aramark considers permanent Hoya Court meal exchange program georgetownvoice.com

THOMAS STUBNA After running a pilot meal exchange program at Hoya Court last semester, the Office of Auxiliary Business Services, GUSA, and Aramark are currently working together to evaluate the longterm feasibility of the program.

During the trial run from Dec. 8 to Dec. 13, students were able to use meal swipes to pay for predetermined food options at Elevation Burger, Subway, and Salad Creations from 4:30pm until closing.

According to Joelle Wiese, Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Business Services, the program was generally positively received. “There were some ups and downs for Aramark and for students, but most students who participated in the pilot seemed to be happy,” she wrote in an email to the Voice.

Although students would like the additional flexibility in their meal plan options, GUSA President Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) recognizes that the program might not be easy to implement moving

forward. “A meal exchange program is both extremely desirable and fairly expensive for the university to operate,” he wrote in an email to the Voice.

In order to keep the program long term, Wiese explained that they would need to determine whether or not it’s financially viable. “There is a significant financial impact that needs to be mitigated in order to successfully implement a program like this on a permanent basis,” she wrote.

Another aspect of the program that has to be considered is the impact it will have on customers without meal plans. According to Wiese, some of the challenges they face moving forward include the speed of service

and the maximum operational capacity of the restaurants.

Despite the large influx of customers, managers of the Hoya Court businesses are motivated to accommodate their demand. “The Hoya Court team was very dedicated and executed the pilot program successfully, in what was unchartered territory,” Wiese wrote.

Although the permanent implementation of the program faces challenges, GUSA will continue its support. Tezel wrote, “We will need to think creatively with university administrators to see how we can ensure a financially sustainable program that increases on-campus meal options for students.”

SALAD CREATIONS HAS NEVER BEEN THIS POPULAR.

TARYN SHAW

Government Department establishes new grading policy RYAN MILLER The Department of Government enacted a new policy beginning the Spring 2015 semester that limits the percentage of students who can receive an A or A minus grades in undergraduate level Government courses, according to department chair Michael Bailey.

According to the department website and course syllabi handed out this week, the policy mandates that no more than 40 percent of grades will be higher than A or A minus in the four introductory Government courses: International Relations, US Political Systems, Comparative Political Systems, and Elements of Political Theory. In upper level undergraduate Government courses, the expectation is that no more than 50 percent of the grades being higher than A or A minus, giving these courses more leniency, especially for honors courses and courses in which students demonstrate high levels of effort, according to Bailey. “[In non-introductory level courses] the faculty can go above [50 percent]. But when they do go above that, then they have to kind of explain their work,” Bailey said. “And they may not go above that. But in an honors class, it would be really unfair to have ... some kind of cap.”

Bailey made it clear that the policy does not include any provision in which a professor will be allowed to change a student’s grade in order to meet the cap. Rather, the policy seeks to guide courses so that roughly 40 or 50 percent of the students receive an A or A minus in the course. According to Bailey, this change should not affect students’ grades dramatically.

“Our guidelines are based roughly on empirical estimate of what we … actually do in terms of grade distributions,” Bailey wrote in an email to the Voice. “So the average percentage [of As and A minuses] shouldn’t change too much for most classes.”

The new policy replaces an unofficial and sometimes unpracticed norm within the department that previously sought to have only 25 percent of student receiving an A or A minus in the four introductory courses. This standard, however, was not uniform. The goal of this policy is to ensure fair treatment of students across the department.

In crafting the policy, the department looked at statistics for the percentage of A’s and A minuses received in given courses, and, according to Bailey, it found substantial variation of grades within any given course, notably in introductory courses, where the unofficial norm previously existed.

The Government Department also looked at courses from other departments, such as the Departments of Economics and History, in order to more adequately line up with departmental policies throughout the College.

Dean Chester Gillis of the College noted that the new policy will lead to more equitable procedures in the grading process.

“It will not matter which section of a course [students] take, they will receive equal and fair treatment,” Gillis wrote in an email to the Voice.

One potential effect that Bailey sees the policy could have would be in eliminating students selecting courses based on a perceived ease of the professor.

“I definitely don’t want a situation where students are looking for classes based on the grades they can get,” Bailey said. “I don’t think that happens a lot, but I’m realistic and it might happen a little. So on that margin, if that behavior goes away, that’s good.”

Bailey says the new policy is designed to add more meaning to receiving an A in the Government Department in a fairer way.

“The easiest thing when you’re giving grades and you’re in doubt is just to go high because then students don’t complain,” Bailey said. “At some point, you just have to stop doing that.”

the georgetown voice | 5

HIGHER EDGE:

a tri-weekly column ABOUT AMERICA’s UNIVERSITIES

STUDENTS PAY THE PRICE OF COMMITTING TOO SOON

BY: LARA FISHBANE

While most high school seniors will spend the next few months anxiously praying for the big envelope to arrive in March, some students already know which college they will be attending this fall.

By applying early to their top schools, students receive admissions decisions several months before most of their peers. For students who are accepted, it alleviates them of pressure later in the year. Early admissions programs are also beneficial to universities as they are able to secure a portion of their incoming class earlier in the year. On the surface, this system seems to be helpful for both students and universities.

When carefully analyzed, however, the early admissions trend might not be equally beneficial for both parties. When then-Yale President Richard Levin eliminated the university’s early decision program in 2002 he said, “The only people served by early decision is the colleges.”

An increasing number of colleges have established early action and decision programs in recent years. Some prior critics are even reinstating the programs—Yale included.

In fact, according to the 2012 State of College Admission Report, the number of colleges offering early action options has increased to 31 percent from 18 percent over the past decade.

Furthermore, the number of students accepted early has also been increasing across institutions. Harvard’s early acceptance rate, for instance, increased to 21 percent for the class of 2018, up from 18 percent the year before despite a decrease in applicant pool.

For universities, early admissions programs are a safe way to fill up the incoming class as students applying early demonstrate higher interest and are therefore more likely to enroll. Some universities even use the binding “early decision” or “restrictive early action” programs, creating a pool that is even more self-selective. Sincethesestudentsaremorelikely to accept admittance offers, institutions are able to fill a significant percentage of their incoming class before the majority of students finish applying. Last year, Columbia, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania filled 46.8 percent, 42.3 percent, and 53.7 percent of their incoming class with early applicants, respectively.

The reason why universities are so heavily invested in securing their class through early admissions, however, is that they want the highest possible yield. Utilizingstudentinterestisonesurefiremethod of increasing yield, as students who select to apply early have a higher enrollment rate. The higher a university’s yield is, the

higher it’s ranked. Universities, then, can manipulate their rankings simply by increasing early acceptance numbers. At many universities, the percent of students accepted from the early applicant pool is double the percent accepted from the regular applicant pool.

There is nothing inherently wrong with colleges trying to improve their rankings. The problem arises because the early applicant pool and the regular applicant pool are not equivalent. Many students have to hold out until regular decision applicationsbecausetheyarewaitingtohear back from scholarships and other sources of aid before applying to schools they will not be able to afford. The students who are able to apply to schools early are generally able to do so because they have the necessary financial security—there is no financial aid question.

While it’s in the college’s financial interest to enroll more students who will be paying full tuition, the practice is harmful forthosewhocannotaffordsomeschools’ rates. Students dependent on financial aid are unable to apply early and therefore miss the benefits of the early pool’s higher admissions rate. Consequently, as colleges accept a larger percentage of their student bodies through early admissions, the number of low-income students who will have the opportunity to attend the same institutions decreases.

These students accepted early don’t just lack diversity. In fact, colleges are also so desperate to obtain a high yield that they are willing to sacrifice the quality of their students. According to a study published by Christopher Avery and Jonathan Levin at Harvard University, applying to a university early increases a student’s likelihoodofacceptanceby20to30percent— roughly equivalent to a 100 point increase on a student’s SAT score.

In order to preserve the integrity of our nation’s universities, the early admissions system should be discarded.

Without early admissions, low income students would be able to explore all financial aid options without systematically being disadvantaged against their peers. Furthermore, all students would have time to more fully explore potential universities without having to strategize over which early admissions program would give them the best odds.

College admissions offices will have to more honestly consider the quality and genuine interest of each applicant without depending on binding or restrictive policies as a crutch. Ultimately, eradicating early admissions systems will benefit both students and institutions by creating equal opportunities and raising university admission standards.

sports

6 | the georgetown voice

January 15, 2015

The heart of a champion: the Tyler Adams story ISABEL ECHARTE

Senior Tyler Adams, at a height of 6-foot-9 and a weight of 250 pounds, is hard to miss.

He’s a member of the Georgetown men’s basketball team, but you won’t ever see him in uniform during the games. You won’t see him playing at practice, either. Instead, you’ll find him reviewing the team’s film, giving the players advice, and cheering them on from the bench during games.

After discovering a possibly fatal heart condition in Dec. 2011, Adams decided to give up playing basketball and has now become an assistant coach of sorts for the team, doing whatever he can to help out.

Before realizing he could no longer play basketball, Adams came to Georgetown poised to make an impact on the team when he enrolled on the Hilltop in the fall of 2011.

“Coach Thompson and my assistant coach Robert Kirby had told me to come prepared to work and be ready to play early as a freshman,” Adams said of his expectations his first year. “Everybody thinks they can go to the NBA, so I mean that was one of my main goals when I got here. I mean even if I wasn’t good enough to get to the NBA, I thought I would at least get a shot to play overseas for a good team.”

Adams had been the captain of his high school basketball team his junior and senior years. During his first fall at Georgetown, he played four games with an average of 2.5 points per game. In early December, however, he experienced chest pain during practice. Adams had testing done on his heart after experiencing

the pain and was not diagnosed with a specific disorder.

“My heart rate wasn’t going up as high as it needed to be, and the doctor said I could play for 20 years and nothing happens or I could play for two minutes and something could happen,” Adams told the Voice.

This problem did not come as a surprise to Adams. He was born with an irregular heartbeat, and at the age of six had to have a muscle removed from his heart. He said after that surgery until the age of 18, he had no problems with his heart and had no trouble playing in high school.

The summer before coming to Georgetown, however, Adams did stress tests and his heart rate did not go as high as it needed to. After this, he began to use a pacemaker, but the problem didn’t go away, as he experienced difficulties that prevented him from playing for good.

Adams said that at first, it was stressful to know that he could no longer play basketball.

“I pretty much came to Georgetown to play basketball. All the academics are important too, but that was one of my main focuses for why I was coming here,” he told the Voice. “It was kind of stressful at first, but I’m not really a person who mourns or gets sad about things, because in life bad things happen to people everyday so I couldn’t, even though its a big issue, I couldn’t let one problem dictate how I live the rest of my life.”

Adams initially considered transferring to a smaller school closer to his hometown of Brandon, Miss., but Coach Thompson said he could stay on the team and keep his scholarship.

voice archives

pictured here in a suit, tyler adams always has his teammates’ back.

Since then, Adams has become a manager for the team and acts like another coach.

“He has his heart issues and that’s hard. That’s hard,” Coach Thompson told the Voice. “For someone who basketball has meant so much to, that’s hard on him, and that’s hard on us.

But I call him my junior coach.

He stays engaged. He’s here everyday. He understands what we’re doing.”

Adams says Coach Thompson makes him feel like he is

still very much a part of the team. He still attends every workout, practice, and game.

He does whatever he can to help his teammates, whether that entails watching film or wiping floors. And the players appreciate it.

Senior guard Jabril Trawick says Adams is a leader and a sort-of second coach. Adams doesn’t protest to this description. “With [senior forward] Mikael [Hopkins], we hang out a lot so I’m always giving him

pointers, even when we’re outside the gym, which probably annoys him a bit.”

In the future, Adams said he might like to go into coaching. “I mean growing up I’ve always wanted to be a coach,” he told the Voice . “I always said if I couldn’t play basketball, I would definitely want to go into coaching. So that’s probably why it’s a lot easier for me to deal with this, too.

It’s something that I probably want to do after school.”

Joe cino’s SPORTS SERMON--Po“lWeliwill not major in punting.”-Rex Ryan in his first press conference as Buffalo Bills’ head coach Rather than just accept the fact that steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs were part of the sport’s culture at the time, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, the electoral body for the Baseball Hall of Fame, has engaged in their own reprisal of the Salem Witch Trials. Any accusation against a player, no matter how scarce the evidence is supporting that claim, or even just simply playing during the Steroid era of the 1990s and early 2000s can be enough to squander one’s chance of earning the ultimate acclaim for one’s career.

As a result of this ill-advised witch hunt, some of the sport’s all-time greats, such as Barry Bonds, the all-time home run king, and Roger Clemens, the pitcher with the most Cy Young Awards ever, have found themselves without a Cooperstown membership card, because of their past association with steroids. Although it seems odd to exclude these two distinguished players from the Hall of Fame outright, it never really troubled me. Even before news of their past associations with performance enhancing drugs came to light, I never particularly cared for either athlete.

Unlike some people, I never saw them as my role models.

But my ambivalence towards the Hall of Fame selection process all changed this past week because it finally hit me personally. My childhood idol, Mike Piazza, the star player of my beloved New York Mets and the greatest hitting catcher in baseball history, found himself left out of the Hall of Fame in his third consecutive year of eligibility. To say that I was infuriated would be a tremendous understatement.

Here’s another tremendous understatement: Mike Piazza was my hero growing up as a kid. And unlike most childhood role models who end up disappointing their admirers, Piazza never did. He was everything that a young, aspiring Little Leaguer could ask. His sheer dominance in the batter’s box with his moonshot home runs, and his ability to get the clutch hit in dire situations made him an opposing pitcher’s worst nightmare. Combine that athletic ability with his mantra for doing things the right way—running hard down the first baseline and always making extra time for the fans for autographs and pictures—and you can see the reasons to why I adored him so much. I dressed up as him for Halloween three years in a row.

But childhood bias aside, Piazza was a damn good baseball player. A 12-time All-Star and 10-time Silver Slugger Award winner, Piazza has hit more home runs than any other catcher in baseball history. Not solely just a power hitter, Piazza is one of only nine players to hit 400-plus home runs, have a career .300 batting average, and never strike out more than 100 times in a season. If that’s not enough to convince you of his worthiness, consider how Piazza almost single-handedly carried an otherwise mediocre Mets lineup for over a half-decade, helping them reach the 2000 World Series. His arrival to New York via trade in the summer of 1998 helped rejuvenate a franchise that had been mired in the National League cellar for almost a decade. On a more sentimental note, he also hit the most significant home run in New York baseball history with his game-winner in

the first baseball game played in New York post-9/11. For most baseball fans, these accomplishments would make Piazza a sure-fire hall of famer. But Piazza still finds himself without a plaque in upstate New York.

What was Piazza guilty of, one might ask? What did he do that has prevented him from joining the all-time greats in Cooperstown? The answer is simple: to the writers who fill out their Hall of Fame ballots every year, unless they can prove with certainty that a player of that era did not use steroids, it is not worth electing them. Like many accomplished players of the time, Piazza, as a result, finds himself punished for the crime of simply playing during an era tainted by rampant steroid use.

But this logic is flawed. Piazza, unlike some of the other players on the ballot this year, never tested positive in a drug test, never was mentioned in any of the sports’ supposed fact-finding investigations— most notably the Mitchell Report. He never had to testify before Congress for past steroid use and never was indicted in a federal court for using performance-enhancers. But that doesn’t matter to these writers.

I used to walk to the plate for an at bat in Little League and conjure the Shea Stadium public address announcer broadcasting in my mind, “The catcher, number 31, Mike Piazza!” Like many of my other peers who find their favorite baseball players of yesteryear not getting the credit they deserve, I’m now left wondering what it will take for the Hall of Fame to call my favorite athlete’s name.

sports

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the georgetown voice | 7

Women’s hoops on the rise in 2015 ROBBIE PONCE The Georgetown women’s basketball team (4-13, 2-3 Big East) had a tough year in 2014.

During the calendar year, the team suffered two losing streaks of at least seven games, sustained several injuries to star players, and had difficulty competing against a gritty and tenacious Big East Conference.

Dating back to last season, the Hoyas were a combined 7-26 in 2014.

After a promising 2-1 start to their 2014-15 campaign, Georgetown dropped 10 straight contests, including a 76-61 defeat at Creighton in their first Big East game.

However, with 2014 in the past and 2015 in full swing, the program has a unique chance to build upon the trials and tribulations that they faced last year.

Since the start of the new year, the Blue and Gray are 2-2 and are excited to reap the promises 2015 has to offer them. The Hoyas’ two losses came at the hands of DePaul (12-5, 4-1 in Big East) and Villanova (9-7, 4-1 in Big East), who are currently tied atop the conference standings. However, the Hoyas defended home court in resounding fashion against Marquette (4-12, 0-5 in Big East) and Providence (4-13, 1-5 in Big East) and hope to carry some momentum into the rest of season.

The Hoyas have a young core of dynamic players, and Head Coach Natasha Adair—in her first year at the helm of the program—has faith that the team has set the foundation for a bright future.

THE DOPiEST ARMSTRONG

A New year has brought new hopes for the women’s basketball team.

“Sometimes, experience is the best teacher,” Adair said. “As a coach, you want to see your team grow and take steps forward. That’s what we’re doing. We’re a year older, and that’s been a great reason as to why they’ve been competing and why we’re turning things around.”

Two of the Hoyas’ brightest stars have been freshmen guards Dorothy Adomako and DiDi Burton, who have settled in as solid contributors for the Blue and Gray.

Though she has had three head coaches in three years as a member of the Hoyas, junior captain Katie McCormick is the team’s vocal leader and is one of the biggest perimeter threats.

McCormick continues to believe in her team’s ability to compete with the best of the Big East.

“It’s been neat seeing some of the freshmen develop,” McCormick said. “Dorothy [Adomako] is only a freshman and she’s been doing really well. [DiDi Burton} is coming in as a good point guard and Justyce [Swango] will come in and do good things. I think we still have people

freddy rosas

who we need to step up in order for us to keep going, but I think it’s gonna come, and we’re gonna keep building on the wins.”

In the two months left before the conference tournament, however, the Hoyas still have much to prove. The new year will bring new challenges and adversity, and Coach Adair wants her team to be more resilient in 2015.

In fact, Coach Adair even has a New Year’s Resolution for her team.

“I want us to fight to the finish,” Adair said. “I want to show more grit and toughness because that’s the Big East. No one is gonna give you anything, you’ve gotta come out ready to compete and believe it.”

“We have to be one unit, one focus, one team, one fight to the finish,” Adair said.

The team’s fight for Big East relevance will be tested on Friday when the Hoyas travel to Cincinnati to face Xavier (11-6, 3-3 Big East). After that contest, the women will travel to Indianapolis to face Butler (8-9, 4-2 Big East) on Sunday.

Sailing takes a bow at Rose Bowl JOE LAPOSATA While Georgetown’s football team may not make it to the fabled Rose Bowl Stadium in the near future, the sailing team has made a habit of successful trips out West.

“It went well,” That statement by Georgetown junior sailor Nevin Snow provides a downplayed evaluation of his and his teammates’ most recent performance, as the Georgetown sailing team ended their fall season by winning the 30th annual Rose Bowl Regatta during winter break, one of the most prestigious sailing contests in the United States. The regatta, held on Jan. 4, in Long Beach, Calif., saw the Hoyas defend their 2014 title.

Including the Hoyas, 30 teams competed in the Regatta,

– Buckwild –

emmy buck’s TRI-weekly column about sports

making it the largest collegiate sailing event on the west coast of the United States. Aiding the Hoyas was experience from sophomore A.J. Reiter and junior Nevin Snow, both Southern California natives, an advantage given their proximity to Alamitos Bay, home to some of the best sailing conditions on the West Coast.

The races, themselves, were held at the U.S. Sailing Center and Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, beginning at Belmont Pier and into Long Beach Harbor, created by a 7-mile breakwater.

Conditions for the regatta were brisk, with temperatures on the water not rising above 60 degrees, but otherwise clear—good weather for a winter regatta. The races, which started in the late morning, began with an early Hoya lead as

senior Katie DaSilva and Snow won their first five races in the A fleet. The two would go on to win by 12 points overall.

In the B division, junior Isabelle Luzuriaga and Reiter also got an early lead, turning a first match victory into an equivalent 12 point win. The Hoyas won by 37 points overall, finishing ahead of the second place finisher, the Coast Guard Academy, and third place finisher Boston College, who were 51 points behind.

The Hoya Sailors open their spring season on Feb. 21, traveling between the College of Charleston Spring Intersectional in Charleston, S.C. and the Quad Meet at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va. The Hoyas remain at the top of the Sailing World College Rankings, tied for first place among collegiate sailing teams across the globe.

I bought into the idea of Lance Armstrong.

I bought into the idea sold by the bright yellow bracelets with an embossed “Livestrong” embedded in the rubber. I watched every Tour de France with bated breath. I chose to disregard the onslaught of doping accusations. I erased any possible doubts by reading his biography.

Then, two years ago, Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance enhancing drugs while racing in the Tour de France. And so let us commemorate how a man who shares the last name of some of our country’s most iconic figures, the first man to walk on the moon and and an accomplished musician, truly became the dopiest Armstrong.

Born and raised in Plano, Texas, Lance Armstrong grew up with his mother and stepfather. When he was 21 years old, Lance signed with the Motorola cycling team Clearly. By 1996, Lance was the youngest road race champion ever and was ranked the number one cyclist in the world. It all came crashing down on an October afternoon in 1996 when Lance was diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer.

Lance relocated to the Indiana University Medical Center to complete his treatment, joined by his teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy. After undergoing brain surgery and chemotherapy, Lance beat the odds and was declared cancer free in February of 1997.

Despite the many nay-sayers and the fact that his old cycling team had cancelled his contract, Lance was ready to reclaim his popularity and status as one of the best cyclists in the world. He joined the U.S. Postal team and found a group that would go to extreme lengths to win. The team’s impressive success and ability to crush others was astounding.

Starting in 1999, Lance Armstrong impressed the world with his speed and determination to beat the competition, winning the Tour de France seven years in a row alongside his teammates on the U.S. Postal team. To this day, Lance Armstrong is still the only man to accomplish this impressive feat.

But in the midst of this impressive winning streak, au-

thors David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, along with other members of the cycling community, accused Armstrong of lying about past doping. Rumors festered for a while, a federal case was made, and then the case mysteriously disappeared after Armstrong called some select government individuals. The notoriety of Lance Armstrong and the good deeds done by the Lance Armstrong Foundation were too great for any one person to tackle.

But as it goes with most heroic downfalls, hubris got in the way of a clean getaway. In 2009, Armstrong announced his return to cycling after retiring, in part due to his legal troubles. Two years later he retired once again, facing multiple charges and cases concerning his use of performance enhancing drugs. The accusations arose after Lance’s old teammate, Floyd Landis confessed on national television that he and the entire U.S. Postal team were forced into a doping program while racing with Armstrong. When Frankie Andreu refused to participate, Floyd Landis was recruited to replace him. Despite his adamant testimonies, Armstrong was caught in a web of lies.

Floyd Landis’ public confession brought to light an Armstrong unknown to the public, an Armstrong who was willing to lie, deceive, and malign the reputation of others in order to achieve great success.

Finally, on January 19, 2013, Lance Armstrong admitted to the world on Oprah —the only decent place to make a shocking confession—that he had been taking performance enhancing drugs while racing in the Tour de France. He had been lying for 20 years. Keep in mind that I’m 21 years old.

So where is Armstrong today? The government is suing Armstrong on behalf of the Postal Service for $100 billion, attempting to regain the sponsorship money they paid to Armstrong. He is no longer earning millions of dollars in sponsorship money; he is now using all that wealth to pay for numerous legal fees.

As I mentioned earlier, there have been many famous Armstrongs throughout history, but I hope this proves that Lance is without a doubt the dopiest Armstrong of them all.

8 | the georgetown voice

feature

January 15, 2015

standing up and standing together Students demand racial justice “Your silence is suffocating. We, students of color, cannot breathe.”

So begins the letter issued by a coalition of Georgetown University Law Center students of color to the GULC administration on Dec. 6, 2014, two weeks after a St. Louis grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in the killing of an unarmed, 18-year-old black teenager, Michael Brown. The letter criticizes the Georgetown administration for remaining silent amid the nationwide outcry for nearly four months.

“GULC students of color struggle to grasp at the ‘surreality’ of our role as change agents of Justice; we continually lose hope in our study of the law because we attend a legal institution that has neither openly acknowledged or denounced the current legal (in)justice system that oppresses Black and Brown people,” the letter reads.

Following the letter, Georgetown University Law Center, joining Harvard Law School and Columbia Law School, postponed final exams for students who wanted time to stand in solidarity with the grieving families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, another unarmed, black man who was killed by police officers this year.

“Your silence is suffocating. We, students of color, cannot breathe.”

The efforts of these law students have received national attention with reports from a number of media outlets, including The Washington Post and the New York Post. The GU Law letter, however, is only the latest in a series of instances wherein students have chosen to stand together in the name of racial justice since the death of Trayvon Martin. In fact, the statement followed months of Georgetown student activism protesting police treatment of black Americans and the inequities that follow them day to day.

For Walter Kelly (COL ’16), the deaths of fellow black men at the hands of law enforcement left him scared of the kind of society he lives in.

“Post Trayvon Martin, I feared for my brother.

With the Eric Garner case, I feared for my uncles and my dad,” Kelly said. “But with Michael Brown, he was just a couple days from going to college. That was so real to me.

I feared for myself.”

Kelly found an outlet for his concerns last summer, when he was approached by LaDarius Torrey (COL ’17) with an idea for a spoken-word performance project to give voice to black Georgetown students on issues that had come to the fore of America’s national conscious.

“I started thinking, ‘Could I be the next person to be shot dead simply for being a black male?’” Torrey said. “From that I started asking myself, ‘Am I next?’ more as a question for myself, and then I asked my peers and shared my thoughts. I found that our patterns of thinking were very similar.”

By: Shalina Chatlani and James Constant

That kernel of an idea morphed into a fullfledged artistic endeavor.

“My living room table became the drawing board and we started spitballing ideas,” Kelly said. “It felt right to do it on campus. It was about the larger community of black men, but we wanted to show what the Georgetown male voice is.”

Kelly and Torrey gathered a group of like-minded students and filmed their spoken-word project, entitled “Am I Next?” on the steps of Healy Hall and across the Georgetown campus and neighborhood.

“The melanin in his skin labeled menacing, black boy is pulled over while driving while black. He is stopped and frisked for walking while black. He is pinned down to the ground for breathing,” Kelly recites in the video. Signs held by fellow students read, “Why must I feel fear every time I see a police officer, rather than protected?” and “Why do you think my intentions are to steal when I walk into a store?”

While the goal of the video was to engage students across the board in the broader dialogue, Kelly believes that its message is also particularly relevant at Georgetown.

“Georgetown is a bubble. Just going a couple streets or blocks down I don’t feel as safe. I definitely experience small microaggressions and smaller instances of violence,” he said. “We just wanted to make people aware of that—it’s not just specific to Staten Island or Ferguson. It’s also felt here.”

Kelly’s and Torrey’s work was just one of numerous protest movements that originated on Georgetown’s campus and drew inspiration from how relatively sheltered and homogenous the neighborhood is.

On Dec. 5, during the annual tree lighting ceremony in Dahlgren Quad, students held a peaceful die-in in solidarity with similar protests occurring across the nation over the decision not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Staten Island’s Eric Garner. Garner’s last words—caught on tape—were “I can’t breathe.”

According Candace Milner (MSB ’16), who helped organize the die-in, the tree-lighting ceremony was chosen specifically for its status as a prominent campus event.

“This is a space that’s very visible, so we can bring awareness about what was going on in our country and try to hold people on this campus accountable in just being aware,” Milner said. “We knew students, faculty, and administrators alike would be there. A lot of students had experiences where a conversation on Ferguson or Staten Island or Eric Garner came up and their classmates didn’t know what they were talking about or they wanted to talk about it in classrooms and their professors didn’t know how to have those conversations or weren’t willing to have these conversations … That took a toll on many students, just the lack of awareness or acknowledgement about what was happening.”

Five days after the tree-lighting ceremony, on the Georgetown Medical Center campus, between 40 and 50 medical students participated in a “white coat die-in.”

Michael Pappas, a first year student at the Georgetown School of Medicine and co-organizer of the demonstration, said the goal was to raise awareness of racial discrimination among Georgetown medical students—what he described as a privileged group

that is often removed from the realities that blacks in America face.

“Ultimately, in any action like this, I think it’s important that students recognize their privilege,” Pappas said. “I think that that’s one of the first things that you have to do in order to be able to truly work in solidarity with individuals who are affected by such oppression.”

Aya Waller-Bey (COL ’14) launched a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #BBGU, or “Being Black at Georgetown” in Dec. 2013. Waller-Bey was a member of the Black House, a Georgetown residence dedicated to fostering a community for students of color. WallerBey’s campaign was followed by a number of her classmates launching another hashtag, “Dangerous Black Kids at Georgetown University,” or #DBKGU, a photo initiative to challenge stereotypes surrounding black men and women.

In an interview with The Washington Post in May 2014, Waller-Bey credited the social media campaign for making a lasting impact on Georgetown and launching a deeper conversation.

“There have been alumni involved and there’s still a written track record of what people have said.

I think that allows us as people to hold the university accountable and to understand, like, ‘Hey, this public shaming thing works,” Waller-Bey told the Post.

Waller-Bey and current Black House Alumni Coordinator Diondra Hicks (COL ’15) declined the Voice’s request for an interview. Olivia Holmes, Black House communications and outreach coordinator, and Nancy Hinojos, Black House resident director, did not respond to the Voice’s request for comment.

Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson (SFS ’14), who launched the satirical hashtag and phototrend #DBKGU, picturing black students wearing professional clothing while standing next to a list of their impressive accomplishments, felt that it was important to challenge stereotyping in the Georgetown community.

“Could I be the next person to be shot dead simply for being a black male?”

“I felt like it was important to send that message at Georgetown, but also to other places,” Corbin-Johnson said. “We don’t just [stereotype] at Georgetown.

We do that in the U.S. and also in the world in general.

I mean, things like that have happened to students at Georgetown.”

Corbin-Johnson said that police in Georgetown often stereotype people, especially black people, by looking at their clothing.

“I personally, myself, I don’t wear sweatpants, and I don’t wear a hoodie, but I happened to be walking to CVS one day, and I happened to be wearing a hoodie

georgetownvoice.com because it was raining,” she said. “And the cops stopped me, and they were like ‘What are you doing in this area?

You don’t belong here.’”

Corbin-Johnson believes that one area for change is Georgetown’s curriculum, which she believes allows students to tailor a comfort zone that prevents meeting different people with different experiences and ideas.

“The majority of Georgetown tailors their education to a comfort zone and is not learning about, in my mind, modern society. Not everyone is the same, so people should learn about who they’re going to interact with outside of the Healy gates,” Corbin-Johnson said.

At the same time, however, Corbin-Johnson acknowledged that making thousands of strangers form meaningful connections with students they don’t want to meet is a big challenge.

“Whether you’re white, whether you’re black, whether you’re Hispanic, whatever, you can tailor who you live with, you can tailor what you study, you can tailor everything to stay in a comfort zone all four years,” Corbin-Johnson said. “And that’s the problem. You need to get out of a comfort zone.”

At a university like Georgetown, where black students make up only 6 percent of the student body, according to Forbes, it was inevitable that the protests would also include largely wealthy white students. For Corbin-Johnson, that’s not a problem.

“If there’s a white person who wants to support a movement, we’re all for it,” she said. “One person approached me and said ‘I’m not black, but I really want to be a part of it.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely, of course’... If someone wants to help the movement, no one is ever going to say no. They just have to know the reason behind the movement.”

Pappas agreed.

“A lot of these students at Georgetown have benefited in one way or another, myself included, from societal structures that create class inequality and suffering in our society,” he said. “I think it’s important to recognize that just because you were born into that privilege that is not necessarily a reason not to take part in such movements, but it’s a reason to recognize that and

then work in solidarity with other populations.”

Following the grand jury decisions not to indict the police officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, University President John DeGioia emailed the Georgetown University community on Dec. 10, 2014.

feature “Recent events in our country have brought frustration and sadness, anger and despair, as grand juries in two different American cities have shined a bright light on the enduring fault line of our Republic—the persistent legacy of segregation, discrimination, inequality: of injustice,” DeGioia wrote. “The fabric that we think of as America seems to be fraying.”

Prior to DeGioia’s email, the administration organized a panel of professors in September to start a dialogue on the implications of police violence and community unrest in Ferguson, Mo. The panel, which packed Gaston Hall to standing-room only, nonetheless struck Torrey as a sign of the Georgetown administration’s reactive nature and came across as mere lip service in the face of massive, national protest movements.

“The fabric that we think of as America seems to be fraying.”

“They put together this all-star panel with Michael Eric Dyson, but the premise of putting together all these people was more to cover themselves,” Torrey said.

“I think the ‘Am I Next?’ video may have threatened them, because it’s directed at Georgetown rather than broader American society… I feel like [the administration’s] efforts only serve to appease our community rather than truly address the sentiments of our community. It’s a reactive step to cover themselves.”

Paul Butler and Peter Edelman, Georgetown Law Center professors who sat on the September panel, both declined to comment on this story. Main campus professor Michael Dyson did not respond to the Voice’s requests for an interview.

Torrey echoed the thoughts of Corbin-Johnson and said that the university could dispel a sentiment of appeasement by changing the nature of classroom discussions.

“I believe more dialogue should be encouraged in the classroom setting and it’s just not,” Torrey said.

“There are professors out there who are touching on these vital issues… I had a professor last semester who had a whole day dedicated to these issues, and one of the issues was stop and frisk. I had a classmate get up and say there’s nothing wrong with stop and frisk, that it serves

the georgetown voice | 9 its purpose and it’s effective. Just from that, you hear the ignorance.”

Most student activists expressed a similar sentiment: the end of ignorance is an increase in the knowledge base.

For instance, the letter addressed to the Georgetown University Law Center demands that the administration begin publicly addressing the issues.

“What does that persistent silence tell us, as law students of color, about our agency, our value, and our role at GULC?” Dean of the Law Center, William Treanor, responded to the letter showing a willingness to cooperate and listen to students’ concerns.

“Thank you for your open letter. You have expressed important and troubling concerns about the experience of students of color at Georgetown Law and in the broader community, and you have shared thoughtful proposals about action steps the Law Center could take to address those concerns,” said Treanor. “My colleagues in the faculty and senior administration at the Law Center take your concerns very seriously and want to discuss them with you.”

After all the actions and protests, the long term effects of of black student protests at Georgetown remain unclear, especially in light of what protesters felt was lukewarm backing by the university.

Kelly, however, believes that there still remains a strong sense of community at Georgetown supporting the message he and other student activists are trying to promote.

“The fact that there were so many people supporting us was really great. It showed what a strong community we have here,” he said.

Corbin-Johnson agrees that the sense of community is changing.

“When I was at school, Aya Wailer-Bey started #BBGU, and she was really large in the black community, and I was also very influential in the black community,” she said. “But we were individual people who decided to take on things ourselves. And I feel like the black community now is more like an organization rallying.”

For Milner, at the very least, increasing a sense of recognition of how interconnected all students are with racial issues is the first step.

“When you talk about racial issues, especially black issues, even Latino issues, being in a place of privilege economically does not divorce or separate you from the issues that you face as a person of color,” she said. “I know people who have been asked, ‘Do you go to Georgetown? Do you belong on campus?’ I mean, we’re students here. We’re paying tuition, too… We don’t get a pass from that just because we’re in this place of privilege at Georgetown.”

leisure

10 | the georgetown voice

JANUARY 15, 2015

Nomadic’s latest production Sick : the cure for our worst fears BRIAN MCMAHON What sort of fear is healthy in our world? How safe can we be without losing our minds?

These are among the many questions director Gregory Hans Keiser (COL ‘16) and his team tackle in their production of Zayd Dohrn’s Sick. The story taps into post-9/11 fears and insecurities, questioning just how cautious we should be in a decaying world.

From the moment the audience enters the theatre, you feel trapped. The beautiful, towering set—painted a sterile and haunting shade of blue— glares at you, pulling you in as another patient in the bizarre quarantine. The cast filling the set proves small but mighty. A talented group of five tackles a complex and dialogue-heavy piece. Facing the challenge of playing the parents of their peers, Thomas Shuman (COL ‘17) and Arianne Price (SFS ‘15) give standout performances.

Their confidence and vigor grow with each spousal conflict, with Shuman’s Sydney doing everything he can to live a normal life while Price’s Maxine

shelters herself in the confines of her disinfected fortress.

Olivia Duff (COL ‘16) and Conor Ross (COL’16) play their children, withdrawn from the danger their mother fears in the carcinogenic outside world.

Duff’s Sarah has talent and am-

“Don’t forget to wear your hazmat suit, dear” bition but knows nothing of taking action for herself; Ross’ Davey provides comic relief but also stands in as an affirmation of his mother’s rampant panic.

Duff and Ross show strong chemistry throughout, creating a believable and moving sibling relationship. Rounding out the

under the Covers: A bi-weekly column about literature by James Constant

Your dear scribe spent a hell of a lot of time reading over winter break.

I was channeling my inner Juan Garcia Madero, one protagonist of many in Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives. Madero’s known for such lines as “Discipline: reading every morning and writing in the afternoons and reading like a fiend at night.”

It’s inspirational stuff.

Beyond the relatable details, what sticks out the most about Bolaño’s novel is its length—it’s a 648-page titan. The reader quickly gets sucked into its world, filled with the romance of rebellious Mexican poetic movements and glamorous literary bums, but there’s something to be said for brevity.

It is difficult to keep track of the interlocking character paths; every few pages a new name to remember emerges.

talented cast is Albert Scerbo (COL ‘15), tasked with observing and reacting to the family as Jim, Sydney’s promising student thrust into the family’s dysfunction. In many ways, Jim stands in for the population at large, aware of clear and present dan-

Holding on to all of the details—questions arise like which failed poet slept with which other failed poet, when did such-and-such thug get serious about writing and stop smoking weed all the time—required contortions from my brain that brought back unhappy memories of finals week.

I couldn’t help but think that the book would be better off had an editor chopped, say, 30 percent of its length and insisted on dropping a few characters. I adored The Savage Detectives , but it didn’t earn its length.

Toting around fat tomes is seen as sign of intelligence (see the numerous Etsy listings for “I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie” canvas bags and coffee mugs).

Goodreads has many listings for book clubs based around lengthy novels, but there are none out there for fans of shorter ones.

gers but unsure of how much weight to assign them.

Scerbo carries a heavy load well, showing off some comedic chops in early scenes with Shuman before taking on heavier fare with Duff late in the second act.

Along with the wildly talented cast, the script and its mate-

rial leave a mark. Keiser notes that the play is a lot more about 9/11 for older viewers while we the children of these events associate more with communicable disease. Regardless of your age or 9/11 experience, the show remains provocative.

CAROLYN ZACCARO

The script has numerous bits of ire and wit, but its contemplative silences may be its strongest feature. Dohrn’s play challenges the limits of both caution and sanity, for the players and audience alike.

Producer Nicole Chenelle (COL ‘15) calls the work “fright-

Sometimes, bigger isn’t actually better It certainly seems like recent “important” American novels that aspire to greatness usually drop 500-plus pages down in front of readers—David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, and Don DeLillo’s Underworld being the most egregious. The Man Booker Prize winner of 2013, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, is 848 pages long.

Doesn’t the literary establishment know that we’ve got other things going on in our lives?

At least DeLillo’s been listening to us lovers of the short reads.

Since 1997’s 832-page Underworld, he’s stuck to writing works that look like novellas in comparison. His latest, Point Omega, is only 117 pages. “If a longer novel announces itself, I’ll write it,” he said in a 2010 interview.

That’s the spirit.

Longer novels can aggravate.

They expose the reader to a writer’s particular quirks for an ex-

tended period of time. The latter half of Great Expectations was sullied because I knew that the future would hold more run-on sentences and convenient coincidences than I could handle.

My sister memorably discarded Infinite Jest two-thirds through with a tweet—“There’s only so many times you can read about a guy’s pot dealer being late.”

The shorter the book, the smaller the chance there is that something about it will rub me the wrong way. And that means wonderful short books get closer to that ideal of “perfection” than longer ones.

Take for instance, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. These novels wouldn’t evoke the same powerful, singular emotions if they were longer. Their short length ties the reader indelibly to the certain moment in time in which they read them.

eningly relevant,” and it’s hard to deny considering recent events such as the Ebola outbreak and even Monday’s Metro tragedy.

And while not everyone has a personal connection to 9/11 and many people have no Ebola-induced fear, Sick connects on a broader level, pushing us to consider where we draw the line between fear and paranoia, between physical sickness and mental illness.

Just as importantly, the play reminds us just how talented and impactful our peers can be.

Reflecting on her final Georgetown role, Price proudly asserted, “Student theatre can remind people what matters.”

Sick showcases talent across a variety of mediums, but it also touches on themes that will continue to resonate as the world simultaneously modernizes and weaponizes.

The world has changed in innumerable ways in the past thirteen years, but popular fears endure, as does the play’s relevance.

Devine Studio Theatre January 15-17, 8p.m., 21-24, 8p.m. performingarts.georgetown.edu

I read The Bell Jar over two days of intense joy in my life, and the dichotomy between my happiness and the depression that Esther Greenwood experienced seared my impressions of the novel into my mind.

If it was a slogging read that dragged over several weeks, I doubt it would have left such an imprint.

I love it when a writer makes an impression on me with a book that I finish over the course of an afternoon. It’s a sign of confidence—they know what they’re saying is powerful, and they don’t need to beat me over the head with it.

For readers, shorter books mean that they get to move onto the next one as soon as possible and experience more styles and stories within the same period of time.

Maybe that’s a little mechanistic, but hey, I’m all for efficiency.

Assure James that size isn’t everything at jcc286@georgetown.edu

“you mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?” — inception

georgetownvoice.com

Dog Tag Bakery has a tasty tale to tell SIMONE WAHNSCHAFFT “Welcome to Dog Tag Bakery!

Making it deliciously simple for you to empower the lives of our veterans and military families!” Warmly written on a small chalkboard as you enter, these words merely hint at the expansive mission of this inviting\little bakery. Dog Tag Bakery, tucked away on Grace St. off Wisconsin Ave., is the long-awaited realization of the dream of Georgetown’s own Fr. Richard Curry, S.J. The bakery is an integral piece of the puzzle for the fellowship program offered by Dog Tag Inc., a non-profit that offers wounded veterans and their spouses an education in business and the ability to transition back into civilian life.

During this six-month program, participant veterans take classes at Georgetown’s School of Continuing

Studies that focus on business administration and entrepreneurship. At the same time, members work and operate all aspects of the bakery—from baking to marketing to inventory—as a way to gain hands-on experience in business. The hope is that participants finish the program with the skills and credentials to successfully start their own businesses in any industry, whether this be of a culinary sort or not. All proceeds from the bakery go towards supporting the nine participants of the pilot program.

The restaurant’s atmosphere reflects its role as much more than just a small business. Pictures of participants at work and the opening of the bakery adorn the wall above a cluster of booths.

Red, white, and blue plates and bowls are neatly arranged in clean white cabinets, and whitewashed shelves are adorned by cookbooks such as Jesuit Soupmaking and Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking.

bRINGING A CAT TO THIS RESTAURANT Could PROVE DISASTROUS.

DOG TAG BAKERY

Perhaps the most impressive fixture is off to the right of the restaurant, where a chandelier of dog tags hangs like a curtain over a small stage. As a part of the fellowship program, employees occasionally get up on the stage and describe their experiences to customers. The dog tags that hang above the stage are meant to honor the servicemen and women who have fallen in the defense of our nation. They can be purchased for a donation of $125 and inscribed with a personal message.

Though heavier fare is offered, the bakery excels most in smaller, sweeter bites. This makes it an ideal place for sampling and sharing amongst friends. Get an assortment of éclairs and financiers and pass them around.

The cookie selection is extensive and presented tidily in jars—perfect for an on-the-go accompaniment to a large cup of house blend coffee.

The food doesn’t scream experienced baking, but then again, it’s not supposed to. This place has more heart than any number of establishments with mouthwatering delicacies around the Georgetown area, and this spirit goes a long way.

Hopefully the first of many successful openings around the country, Dog Tag Bakery is truly a D.C. gem.

Dog Tag Bakery 3206 Grace St. NW Closed on Monday and Tuesday www.dogtagbakery.com

the georgetown voice | 11

D.C. Restaurant Week MEGAN PATEL

How many times have you walked past 1789, trudging through the snow on the unfortunate path from Walsh to Leo’s, only to realize you have nothing but fish tacos to stay your appetite for the finer things?

Thankfully, D.C. Restaurant Week provides the opportunity to eat at some of our city’s fanciest joints, turning dreams’ gastronomical mastery into reality.

From Jan. 19 through Jan. 25, a two course lunch and a three course meal will be $20.00 and $35.00, respectively at over 200 restaurants in the DMV area.

These restaurants serve every cuisine imaginable, from Thai to Italian. So, if you’re tired of eating the mystery vegetables in the Aloo Gobi at Leo’s, check out Bombay Club for scrumptious Indian cuisine. Newly opened Mama Rouge provides southeastern Asian

cuisine with a French twist on the waterfront. For a quick bite around Georgetown, you can visit Cafe Milano, Clyde’s, El Centro, or even the aforementioned 1789— just to name a few.

The lunch and dinner prices are preset, so all you have to do is head over to your restaurant of choice and mention that you want to participate in the District. Restaurant Week. But these restaurants will be receiving a high volume of visitors during the week, so call ahead to make reservations.

D.C. Restaurant Week provides the unique opportunity to pursue your quest to unearth the finest restaurants D.C. has to offer.

You might even be able to kill two birds with one stone and take that special someone out to dinner someplace other than O’Donovans on the Waterfront.

This sure beats TRIVIA Taco TUESDAYS!

VIKKI LAM

Despite Eastwood’s efforts, American Sniper misses target IAN PHILBRICK “You’re going to be fine hunter someday,” prophesied Chris Kyle’s father at the outset of Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, an adaptation of Kyle’s autobiography of the same name. Coming on the heels of two wars at a time when the gap of understanding between America’s civilians and armed forces is growing, the film provokes essential questions. But neither the quality of Eastwood’s directing nor the strength of Bradley Cooper as Kyle, the most decorated sniper in U.S. Navy SEAL history, outweigh the film’s fear of answering them.

The film follows Kyle through four tours of duty in Iraq, spanning key campaigns in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Sadr City, and interstitial visits home to his wife, Taya, portrayed

by Sienna Miller, and kids in Texas.

Throughout, the yawning gulf between soldier and civilian, and the challenges of reintegrating into do-

mestic life while one’s comrades remain on the front lines, looms large.

The film maintains a complicated relationship with its eponymous subject. In Cooper’s capable hands, Kyle comes off incorrigibly likable, dutiful, and undeniably heroic. But through the mouthpieces of his fellow soldiers and his wife, the film questions his all-consuming patriotism, prejudice (he labels Iraqis “savages”), and persistent denials of PTSD— war’s good alongside its bad.

But this complex relationship isn’t always to the film’s credit. At American Sniper’s heart is a fundamental identity crisis: what begins as a biopic depicting Kyle’s virtues and foibles ends as a eulogy. In a toopat aesthetic cop-out, the enemy Kyle conquers is both his embodied antithesis, a deadly and highly fictionalized insurgent sniper named Moustafa, and the insurgent within, the patriotic fever that keeps him reenlisting, absorbs his thoughts, and neglects his wife and children. “I’m

ready to come home,” he tearfully admits to his wife via cell phone during the film’s climactic firefight and, having slain his foe with a record-setting 2,100-yard shot, come home he does.

As history knows, however, reality resolves far less neatly. The consequences of the Iraq War still ravage, its legacy as complicated as Kyle’s own.

In ways too harrowing to ignore, but in a manner too ham-handed to feel entirely genuine, American Sniper metonymizes Kyle’s story as that of the war—its successes, failures, frustrations, and lessons learned and unlearned. But as Kyle’s tragic murder at the hands of a fellow veteran approaches, the film backs down, whitewashing its protagonist into a reformed husband, family-man, and selfless volunteer for wounded warriors whose struggle is entirely behind him.

American Sniper opens in Fallujah, with Kyle squinting down his scope at a mother and child. When last he aims a gun on screen, however, it isn’t a rifle tracking insurgents

but a pistol trained on his wife in the kitchen of their Texas home while his kids play in the next room. “Drop them drawers,” he drawls, “slowly.”

The moment exemplifies everything American Sniper leaves out: a celebration of intimate humor without the willingness—or maybe the bravery—to explore the possibility that when the Navy’s deadliest sniper points a gun at a loved one, however jocularly, some demons persist.

Ringing with the adulatory cheers of crowds lining a miles-long

funeral procession, American Sniper dodges answering the very questions it poses through Kyle about wartime morality, taking and protecting life, and America’s relationship with its military. Perhaps this country isn’t yet ready to ask such questions—of its heroes, least of all. But honoring a memory means, first and foremost, understanding.

The real Chris Kyle, flaws included, lived courageously. American Sniper, despite its promise, ends in cowardice.

“I’ll kill you with more than my Ravishing good looks”

IMDB

leisure

12 | the georgetown voice

CRITICAL VOICES

Meghan Trainor, Title, Epic Georgetown students were “All About That Bass” in 2014, held captive by the catchy tune of the hit single by singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. In her new album, Title, the rising pop star brings new music that doesn’t disappoint. Trainor, a self-made musician from Nantucket, Massachusetts, officially enters the pop scene with the release of her debut studio album.

The LP begins with a short introductory track, “The Best Part (Inter-

Mark Ronson, Uptown Special, Columbia Records Complete with flair, class, and more guests than you can imagine, Mark Ronson has created an album to pay to tribute to the great era of early funk and soul music. Uptown Special turns pop, indie rock, and rap into a charming homage this period.

Taking a mellow, lounge-singer vibe at times and a high-energy, big band style at others, the album’s opposing attitudes towards the genre blend together well. Just as he bridges differ-

lude).” Trainor concludes the track by singing, “But the best part of being a singer at all / Is singing to the world my songs,” introducing the carefree nature of the album and reflecting Trainor’s entry into stardom.

Title then continues with hit single “All About That Bass,” eventually ending with the second single released from the album “Lips Are Movin.” This gives the album a nice balance with the new tracks tucked safely in between.

Full of bubblegum pop hooks, all-female background vocals, and catchy doo-wop tunes, this LP may just be the essence of pop music.

Trainor’s modern and self-empowering lyrics, however, keep it from fading into obscurity in the overly saturated pop genre. The 21 year old artist knows her peers well, describing topics and situations relatable to any young adult.

Whether it’s being comfortable in your own body in “All About That Bass,” late-night texting your crush

ent styles of funk, Ronson also uses Uptown Special to musically tie together the popular genres of the past and the present. He only falters when the album loses sight of its main goal: an entertaining, funk revival.

To compensate for the fact that Ronson does not sing, he features a different artist on each track.

These guests are important—their own influences substantially affect the attitude of the tracks.

Stevie Wonder’s mellow tones open the album in “Uptown’s First Finale,” gradually easing listeners into Ronson’s project. The song blends rising 60s-style with horns and modern synth work to add a more provocative, dancey beat.

While the featured artists on Uptown Special generally compliment Ronson’s production, problems arise when their own styles overpower the central themes of the album.

“Leaving Los Feliz (ft. Kevin Parker)” falls victim to this issue. The track

in “3am,” or mentally listing the attributes of your perfect future bae in “Dear Future Husband,” Trainor’s sassy, positive lyrics can’t help but feel relatable to the daily struggles of a Georgetown student.

Though many of the songs unintentionally sound similar, sharing near identical beats and melodies, Trainor finds a way to use this to her favor, enabling the tracks to easily ingrain themselves in your head. Although the album lacks any clear standouts, its title track “Title” perfectly captures the overall bubbly, jitterbug feel of the album, leaving you with strong urges to sing and dance along.

Trainor is starting off her musical career strong with her first full-length album, offering a likeable, upbeat experience with memorable tunes you’ll catch yourself humming weeks later.

Voice’s Choices: “Title,” “Lips Are Movin” —TYLER Kranawetter

slips off of the fine line between indie synth-rock and funk in the direction of the former. Ronson’s departure from his musical thesis in this instances creates a mottled image.

Fortunately, this issue arises only a few times in the album. It is surrounded by his best, most high-energy works yet. “Feel Right” uses rapper Mystikal to bring back the ebullient presence of James Brown. The aggressive rap lyrics tie the song to the present, yet Ronson and Mystikal seem to reach perfect accord through this reminiscent lens.

Ronson leaves his listeners with a unique album. The broad spectrum of influence he uses ushers in a great appreciation for styles of the past.

Uptown Special marks a potentially powerful musical shift towards the roots of all modern rap and pop.

Voice’s Choices: “Feel Right,” “Uptown Funk” —Mike Bergin

CONCERT CALENDAR FRIDAY 1/16 T.I. Echostage, 9 p.m., $42.60

FRIDAY 1/16 DJ Questlove Howard Theater, 10 p.m., $42

MONDAY 1/22 Dr. Dog 9:30 Club, 7p.m., $55

FRIDAY 1/16 Boris U Street Music Hall, 10 p.m., $10

SUNDAY 1/18 A$AP Ferg & YG The Filmore Silver Spring, 8 p.m., $38

THURSDAY 1/26 Motion City Soundtrack The Filmore Silver Spring, 7 p.m., $33

january 15, 2015

DeadBeats

The “Problem” with Iggy Azalea

To say that the deaths of unarmed black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner—and the subsequent decisions by grand juries to not indict the police officers who were responsible—were a big deal would be the understatement of last year. For months, news outlets, activists, and social media slacktivists have buzzed about the two deaths and their implications for police brutality and race in the United States.

In early December, right after a New York grand jury chose not to indict Eric Garner’s killer, members of the hip-hop community began tweeting their outrage at the jury’s decision and hope for change. One black artist, Azealia Banks, posted a scathing Tweet calling out white, Australian artist Iggy Azalea for not joining in.

“Its funny to see people like Igloo Australia silent when these things happen... Black Culture is cool, but black issues sure aren’t huh?” Banks wrote. Azalea replied the next day, telling her followers that change doesn’t happen on social media—implicitly accusing Banks of just trying to get attention by starting a fight.

While I do think that Azalea comes out on top in this Twitter fight for putting up a calm, reasonable defense and not just escalating things further, I can’t help but feel that she’s just deflecting the bigger issue with her response. The fact of the matter is that Azalea and other artists just like her are ruining hip-hop, but not precisely for all the reasons her critics list.

On the surface, Azalea’s work is pretty unusual. Azalea is white and Australian—not exactly the pedigree expected of brag-spitting hip-hop artists. More importantly (and problematically), Azalea’s act and singing style seem to draw on African American stereotypes.

At best, Azalea’s career is nothing more than a whitewashed version of Nicki Minaj and, at worst, an appropriation of a genre of music that has historically been created by black people and has typically had an activist message. Hip-hop has its roots in the black activism of the 1960s and 70s. By the time hip-hop came into its own in the 80s, groups like Public Enemy wove stories of activism and political dissent into almost every song.

Azalea clearly does not live up to that legacy in any way. When

she’s not bragging it up about how sweet and “fancy” she is, she’s— well, that’s about all she does in her music. It’s Iggy, Iggy, and then more Iggy. There’s not a message to be found—certainly not one that is in solidarity with the black portion of the hip-hop community. And Azalea’s sole defense against these criticisms is a weak deflection, saying that people calling her racist are sexist because no one says the same thing about white artist Macklemore.

Azalea is wrong about that.

Plenty of people see Macklemore as another whitewashed artist who’s ruining the genre. Azalea’s critics are right to call her out and draw attention to her cultural appropriation and bad music.

Where Azalea’s critics falter is that they attribute Azalea’s failure to her race. Azalea is neither bad for hip-hop nor bad at hip-hop because she’s white. Azalea is bad for and at hip-hop because of her shallow music and appeal to the least common denominator.

Some of Azalea’s critics seem to assume that white artists inherently dilute and weaken the genre. They cite Eminem and Macklemore as contemporary successors of Elvis: stealing away black music—dumbing it down, making it white, and then getting rich off of it.

Just last month, hip-hop artist J. Cole released 2014 Forest Hills Drive. “While silly n****s argue over who gon’ snatch the crown / Look around, my n****, white people have snatched the sound,” J. Cole raps on “Fire Squad.” He also calls out Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and Macklemore. But J. Cole and people who make similar claims are wrong. White hip-hop artists are not an inherently bad thing.

It’s white and black hip-hop artists who do not respect the political origins of hip-hop and strive for mass appeal as opposed to a meaningful message who are the problem.

No genre of music should be reserved for any one race. Of course, hip-hop has its origins in black communities, but that influence does not fade when some white artists adopt hip-hop music to tell their own stories in an appropriate way.

Hip-hop’s biggest battle shouldn’t be over race. It should be over quality.

A bi-weekly column about music by Ryan Greene

Rap it up with Ryan at rcg63@ georgetown.edu

georgetownvoice.com

PAGE THIRTEEN

the georgetown voice |13

– Dylan Cutler —Dylan Cutler

voices

14 | the georgetown voice

January 15, 2015

Ouvrez vos yeux: Looking beyond the Paris terror attacks ANA SMITH We don’t seem to care about Boko Haram.

Last Wednesday, a series of terrorist attacks in France, beginning with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, gripped the nation and the world. Millions of people from across the world gathered in Paris, adopted the phrase “Je suis Charlie,” stood in solidarity to support the rights to freedom of expression and religion, and condemned terrorists’ suppressive agendas.

This unprecedented response to the unconstructive and horrific murders of 17 people by fundamentalist Islamist terrorists is extraordinary, needs to continue, and should be commended. However, Boko Haram, a West African extremist group of Al Qaeda’s ilk, has been committing more atrocious crimes than this recent attack in Paris for years. They have killed nearly 2,000 in Nigeria this month alone. Where’s

the media coverage, the outcries for justice, the demands to stand together against such acts of aggression and terror?

Perhaps we’re not paying attention to it because it isn’t “beneficial” to us, since, face it, we as a country and a global community tend to only give consideration to those injustices whose cessation serves American interests, whether it be through oil, weapons, or appeasing a powerful ally. Maybe we ignore Nigeria and Africa in general because we view it as a misadventure—a hopeless and constant problem with no solution.

The issue with this line of thought is that if America wishes to export the concept that all lives are sacred, valuable, and precious, and therefore radical groups such as Boko Haram and the radical Islamists responsible for the Charlie Hedbo attacks should utilize discussion rather than violence, we need to start viewing these events proportionally. We need to give

a measure of consideration to other pressing global events.

How can we teach extremists that all lives matter if we don’t act on that credence? And, perhaps if we took the utilitarian perspective, more lives could be saved by focusing on larger scale events like Boko Haram massacres.

Maybe we see “Je suis Charlie” as an opportunity to stand together and effect change ripe for the taking. But can’t that also be true for those slaughtered by Boko Haram?

This predicament is reminiscent of the Boston Marathon bombings and the West Fertilizer Company explosion in April of 2013. The Boston tragedy— which resulted in three deaths and 264 injuries—completely overshadowed the West Fertilizer Company explosion in terms of media coverage and national outrage. With 15 casualties, 160 injuries, and a decimated town, I bet some readers of this piece still haven’t even heard of that tragedy. Both events deserve

compassion and due attention, but somehow mourning the injured and the multitude of first responders who charged into a fire they knew they would die trying to fight got completely lost in everyone’s daily news report. True, the onset of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil snapped everyone’s attention to the marathon bombings, but meanwhile many heroes died in Texas waging a losing battle against a massive conflagration.

Activists and historians may read this and bring up the valid point of race. If those in Africa were white Europeans perhaps the world would have demonstrated more concern for them. Even so, if you were to compare the two separate points in time, many or all of those who died in West, Texas were white. The easiest answer to these ponderings is that we have neglected these other, incomparable tragedies because they didn’t involved terrorism on Western cultures.

The problem with these

excuses for general apathy toward Boko Haram and West, Texas is that not only are we showing extremists our ability to disregard massive loss of human life, but the near certainty of a media circus after a terrorist attack allows terrorists to gain the attention that they are demanding. They want to scare us, they want us to be dumbstruck by their actions, they want our attention, and we give it to them each time. Terrorism needs to be addressed and combated, but our political myopia needs to stop. Both Boko Haram and the Charlie Hebdo massacre need to be acknowledged, but there’s a difference between plugging one hole in a sinking ship and plugging all of them. In one scenario, the ship still sinks.

ana IS junior IN THE college

Come back, Voltaire: Free Speech in the wake of Charlie Hebdo ANASHUA DUTTA The cover of next week’s New Yorker depicts an unsettling version of a familiar image. The Eiffel Tower emerges from a blood-spattered landscape, with its peak transformed into a pencil pointing skyward. The pencil has become a symbol of the events that occurred in Paris on Jan. 7 at the office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical news-journal where three armed men, alleged to be Hamyd Mourad, Said Kouachi, and Cherif Kouachi,

broke into the building and began to shoot randomly, murdering twelve individuals, including some of the country’s most prominent cartoonists and satirists. Before their attack, security cameras outside the building caught the men yelling “Allahu Akbar” (God is [the] greatest). Their actions mark the deadliest terrorist attack in France since 1961.

While it should go without saying that these attacks be condemned by all for their heinous actions, it was cartoonists as a group who had perhaps the most coherent and immediate response. Cartoons de-

ERIN ANNICK

“JE SUIS CHARLIE” THE MISTAKES OF A FEW SHOULDn’T BE PROJECTED ON THE MANY

picting conflict between the pencil and the gun began to proliferate in print publications and online. Steve Bell drew a cartoon for The Guardian depicting cartoonists with their mouths wide open, tongues sticking out, tied to stakes that resemble pencils, while a gunman points his weapon at their mouths. In another cartoon, captioned #CharlieHebdo,

by Ruben L. Oppenheimer, a black plane hurtles towards the Twin Towers, in this version replaced by two green pencils.

Charlie Hebdo has long been known for its wholesome embrace of free speech, having published a litany of inflammatory content since its founding in 1970.

The publication infamously featured a cover where Pope Benedict XVI holds up a condom and says “this is my body,” and on Jan. 7, the day of the attacks, it reviewed Michel Houellebecq’s new novel, Soumission, which describes a not so distant future where France is overtaken by Islam. In addition to the cartoons circulated in support of Charlie Hebdo’s mission, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie and Voltaire’s apocryphal quotation, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” became ubiquitous following the attacks.

Though much discourse following the attacks centers around the need to protect free speech, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff’s

response stands out from the rest for its disconcerting prediction that focuses not on freedom of speech but on the future of Europe’s Muslim population. In his cartoon, captioned on Twitter as “#CharlieHebdo attack has another victim,” two gunmen open fire through the Charlie Hebdo office’s doorway. Their bullets sail through and bombard a mosque situated in the background, knocking a crescent, the symbol of the Islamic faith, off the dome.

France has a long history of strained relations with its growing Muslim population. The 1980s slogan, la France pour les Francais (France for the French) neatly summarizes the anti-immigration viewpoint that has long been promoted by right-wing activists. In the early 2000s French law stripped Muslim girls of their rights to veil in public schools on the grounds that the practice violated the country’s commitment to public secularism. Attacks such as the those on Charlie Hebdo further exacerbate these anti-Muslim and anti-immigration sentiments.

On Jan. 9, Marine le Pen, president of the far-right Front National party, called for an immediate French withdrawal from the Schengen Area, a group of 26 countries that abolished border controls to allow for greater freedom of movement.

In a country with a growing lower-class Muslim minority, publishing inflammatory covers featur-

ing the Prophet Mohammed kissing another man or saying “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter,” walks a fine line. In a world where Malala Yousafzai works to bring universal education to all children, a tenet of Islam, the acts of terror carried out by less than one percent of Muslims are more often than not the only brand of Islam we see in mainstream Western media. It’s patently unfair for the media to target all Muslims for the senseless actions of a radical few.

The events at Charlie Hebdo were acts of terror. There is no excuse or justification for them. But they raise an uncomfortable issue— yes, we have the right to freedom of speech and expression, but we also have the responsibility to exercise this liberty with discretion. At what point does exercising accommodation and tolerance become more important than the right to satirize?

Maybe Voltaire would have an answer. Perhaps Philippe Val, the former editor of Charlie Hebdo, had it right when he published his book in 2008. The book’s title, Reviens Voltaire, Ils Sont Devenus Fous (Come Back Voltaire, They Have Gone Insane) seems especially fitting in these trying times.

ANASHUA IS a sophomore in the SFS

voices

georgetownvoice.com

THE GEORGETOWN VOICe | 15

Relearning to read for pleasure, or: how I got lost in a book ROEY HADAR Last semester’s finals generated a lot of panic, and in the middle of exam week, I wanted to go study. But not in Lau, or the MSB, or the Healey Family Student Center, or even the Bioethics Library. I needed to get the hell out of Dodge. So I took the Red Line to Tenleytown, walked 15 minutes, and found Politics and Prose, a well-known independent bookstore in D.C.

I had heard good things about both the store and its coffee shop, so I ventured in and opened up my laptop and books to study.

After a couple of hours, I decided to go browse. As I strolled the endless aisles, I realized, “I have to read a book.”

Sure: I, and probably you also, have read hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of textbooks, PDFs, and assigned novels. But how long has it been since you have actually read a proper hardcover or paperback

READ A BOOK shouts to levar burton and reading rainbow

ellie yaeger

CARRYING ON A rotating column by senior Voice staffers

Climate change is the challenge that will define humanity’s future. Devastating droughts and floods will be more common, and the developing world will be disproportionately harmed.

Let me get something straight: global warming is undoubtedly anthropogenic. Those who deny the existence of climate change only waste time better spent on necessary decision-making to cut emissions and ameliorate the upcoming impacts. Ideological environmentalists, however, do just as much to stymie productive discussion. Addressing climate change is not—and should not be—equivalent to fabricating an “evil” other side to blame, for doing so oversimplifies a complex and multi-industry sector.

It’s hard to miss the presence of GU Fossil Free on campus, a student group that agitates for the divestment of the university’s endowment from fossil fuel companies. The group is right about the need to combat climate change, but is going about it all wrong. Forcing Georgetown to divest will not reduce carbon

emissions and will not help the world develop a cleaner energy matrix. This is because the levelized cost of electricity of solar photovoltaic is twice that of coal and over eight times that of natural gas in the United States.

This is because wind and solar energy are unreliable, not dispatchable, and not storable at grid-level, and if you don’t want rolling blackouts, you want stable power generation. The market demonstrates confidence in “cleantech” company stocks if there is due reason for confidence, not the other way around.

GU Fossil Free admits divestment likely won’t make a financial dent on fossil fuel companies, nor do they have specific alternate stocks or bonds in which the endowment should invest. Rather, they go for the low-hanging fruit, framing divestment as a “moral imperative.” Wind and solar are good, coal is complicit in “destructive behaviors.”

Fossil fuel companies are far from models of corporate responsibility—but their historical

printed book? For me, it was nearly two years.

I grew up reading endlessly, and I would assume many other kids who made it to Georgetown did as well. But increasing workloads in high school and college meant that I had increasingly less time to read for fun. Walking through this shop, however, made me want to lose myself in a book all over again.

I went to the service desk and asked for a recommendation. The employee proceeded to get up and walk around with me for a solid 15 minutes, trying to ascertain the ideal book for me—try getting that sort of help next time you’re at Barnes and Noble.

Although I ended up not getting the book that the employee had recommended, I still bought two: Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns), and Bill Simmons’ The Book of Basketball. I got home that afternoon, and with the clock ticking before my exam at noon the next day, I decided to open Kaling’s book instead of my notes.

I devoured it as if I were receiving a meal after not eating for a week.

It was funny, but not amazingly captivating because it was a memoir rather than a novel, and

yet, within two hours, I had gone through more than half of the 250 pages. My long-stifled desire to read a book for fun finally had the chance to break free. I had reached my wall and wasn’t able to study anymore, but found the chance to read for fun a necessary and liberating experience.

After my exam, I came back and finished the book. I had three exams coming in the following three days, but I kept going, starting Simmons’ book concurrently. Of course, I did throw in some studying, but I still took out the time to get through 200 pages by the time I left for vacation, not counting what I read on the train ride back. Simmons’ 700-page book was interesting, thought-provoking, and genuinely fun. And to think I only picked it out because there was a little staff recommendation note below the book on the shelf at Politics and Prose.

Now is as good a time as any to go read a book for fun. You can use a book as a way of exploring any topic you want or to imagine a world you could not have dreamed up before. There are millions of books out there; there’s bound to be one that really interests you.

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT FOSSIL FREE

BY CLAIRE ZENG

human rights and labor violations should not be convoluted with carbon emissions, because it is intellectually and factually lazy to blame the complex problem of carbon emissions on them.

First, fossil fuel companies don’t just shut down because of public opinion. They stop producing if price indices fall below cost of production. Divesting from fossil fuel companies is the same idea that blocking Keystone XL will stop heavy and sour crude oil production in the Canadian tar sands. FYI—it won’t. It’s already being produced, and will just get moved via another, more environmentally risky route if Keystone XL isn’t approved.

Second, wind and solar are booming in the U.S., but not because the energy sector has suddenly developed a conscience. Instead, a web of government incentives like regulations and tax credits are making these technologies more financially attractive. Ironically, the overwhelming majority of wind projects are in Republican-held districts.

The world will move to more cleantech, but it won’t just be because of the “clean” in cleantech. Only some kind of financial incentive or penalty, like a carbon tax or price, will make cleantech viable—moral opprobrium alone won’t do the trick.

This will be because cleantech has real benefits right now: zero fuel costs, role as a price hedge against volatile oil and natural gas prices, and lack of dependence on geopolitically unstable regions of the world.

Finally, fossil fuel companies don’t burn fossil fuels (for the most part). Consumers do. Over 30 percent of carbon emissions comes from electricity generation in the United States; the next 28 percent comes from transportation. In fact, the only reason power generators and utilities began using renewable energy was because they were required by law to do so by the 1978 Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA). Fossil fuel companies respond to demand for fossil fuels that has nothing to do with whatever devious mechanisms

If you’re planning on watching Game of Thrones, for instance, why not read George R. R. Martin’s series instead? Excited for the NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl? It’s likely that there are a number of books on the history of professional football, or of your favorite team, or on any other topic where you want more information than you could find on a Wikipedia page.

A book can offer you so much information on anything—it can transport you to any time or place you would like to go. College is a place to do what you love and pursue your interests. So why not take a little bit of time and get a book that covers something you like but would never be covered in class?

Washington, D.C. is not lacking in independent bookshops, many of which also serve coffee or lunch.

Politics and Prose is far but worth the trip if you have the time. Closer to campus, there are Kramerbooks and Bridge Street Books.

If you don’t have too much work yet, take a break, go visit one of these shops, and go read a book.

ROEY IS A SOPHOMORE IN THE SFS

GU Fossil Free charges fossil fuel companies with using. Burning fossil fuels is not inherently good or evil, and framing it as such is ludicrous.

In a nod to financial realism, GU Fossil Free writes in its proposal that its real goal is not the instant elimination of fossil fuel companies, but instead a “discursive shift” in the energy sector. They see divestment is the “optimal strategy” for bringing about that shift. What GU Fossil Free fails to realize is that in the present, apart from token climate deniers, no one seriously doubts the merits of addressing climate change. The discourse is over the price and technological reach of current cleantech. The discourse is on how to decouple the current revenue structure that discourages energy efficiency by paying utilities by unit of energy generated.

This is not to say that social responsibility does not influence the calculus of many cleantech companies. It is to say, however, that they succeed because their projects are financially successful and stable.

In order to continue fostering a greener world, the next generation of policy makers and business leaders need to understand how the energy sector works, not rebuke the entire system.