VOICE The Georgetown
Georgetown’s Journey Toward Diversity in STEM page 8
September 15, 2017
2
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE Volume 50 • Issue 3
staff editor-in-chief Caitlyn cobb Managing editor alex boyd news
executive editor lilah burke Features editor jonny amon assistant features editor caitlin mannering news editor jake maher assistant news editors michael coyne, noah telerski
culture
executive editor mike bergin Leisure editor devon o’dwyer assistant leisure editors brynn furey, ryan mazalatis, mary mei Sports editor tyler pearre Assistant sports editor beth cunniff, jorge deneve
opinion
contents
untitled by Aicha nzie
Editorials
4
Achieving Liberation from Eating Disorders Lilah Burke
5
Thoughts from a Freshman Hoya Kayla Hewitt
6
To Take a S.T.A.N.D. Emilio Joubert
7
Georgetown’s Journey Toward Diversity in STEM Emily Jaster
8
Stories of Wonder: Independent Bookstores Thrive in the District Jorge DeNeve
10
Georgetown Community Responds to DACA Repeal Michael Bergin
12
Nike Agrees to Access for Labor Rights Monitoring Group Lilah Burke
13
It Captivates with Both Scares and Laughs Ryan Mazalatis
14
Critical Voices Gustav Honl-Stuenkel and Brynn Fury
15
Executive editor graham piro voices editor cassidy jensen Assistant Voices editors sienna Brancato, rebecca zaritsky Editorial Board Chair chris dunn Editorial Board jon block, caitlyn cobb, Nick Gavio, Alli Kaufman, GRAHAM PIRO, Isaiah seibert, PHillip Steuber
halftime
Leisure editor emily Jaster assistant leisure editors claire goldberg, julia pinney, eman rahman Sports editor jon block Assistant sports editor phillip steuber
design
Executive editor alli kaufman Spread editor jack townsend Photo Editor Isabel lord cover Editor aicha nzie assistant design editors jake glass, keeho kang, lizz pankova, rachel zeide Staff Designers Sam Lee
copy
copy chief audrey bischoff assistant Copy editors Leanne Almeida, Isabel Paret editors Mica Bernhard, Sienna Brancato, Jack Cashmere, Anna Gloor, Claire Goldberg, Isabel Lord, JuliA PINNEY, Jack Townsend
online
website editor Anne Freeman Podcast editor nick gavio assistant podcast editor Gustav Honl-stuenkel social media editor mica bernhard
business
general manager naiara parker assistant manager of alumni outreach anna gloor assistant manager of accounts & sales karis hawkins
support
The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgeton Voice, unless otherwise indicated.
editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057
contributing editors emma francois, danielle hewitt, kaei li, isaiah seibert associate editors margaret Gach, amy guay, parker houston, alex lewontin, anne paglia, lindsay reilly
Staff writers
MOnica Cho, Brynne Long, Santul nerkar, madelyn rice, Brice russo, Katya Schwenk, Dan Sheehan, Maddie vagadori
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
READ more ON GEORGETOWNVOICE.COM editorials Nike Decision a Victory for Student Activists
The editorial board responds to Georgetown University’s decision to to sign a new licensee agreement with Nike, Inc., after facilitating a new protocol between Nike and the Worker Rights Consortium.
News Administrators Share Tools for Supporting Undocumented Students Read Isaiah Seibert’s coverage of a university information session about DACA and ways to support undocumented students, which approximately 100 students attended on Monday night.
Swastikas Found in VCW and LXR Elevators Noah Telerski and Graham Piro report on the anti-Semitic graffiti found in campus housing on Sept. 6.
Sports Volleyball Falls Short Against James Madison Santul Nerkar covers the Georgetown volleyball team’s loss to James Madison in the Hoyas’ season home opener.
Women’s Soccer Remains Goalless Against Ranked Opposition in Draw vs. No. 14 Rutgers The No. 15 Georgetown women’s soccer team battled No. 14 Rutgers to a 0-0 draw at home on Shaw Field. Jorge DeNeve details the thrilling deadlock.
3
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
EDITORIALS
4
DeVos Offers a Step Backwards In a speech at George Mason University last week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced her intention to roll back Obama-era guidelines for how universities receiving federal funding handle cases of sexual assault. This editorial board believes that this decision by Secretary DeVos is an errant one and undermines the effort to prevent sexual assault on college campuses. The Obama-era guidelines, stemming from a “Dear Colleague” letter circulated in 2011, require universities to be more expeditious in investigating sexual assault claims. Before the letter’s release, sexual assault allegations would go months or years before being investigated. The guidelines also prevent universities from making accusers sign non-disclosure agreements. Additionally, they lower the standard of evidence for universities to find an accused person guilty of sexual assault. This lower standard of evidence, also referred to as “50 percent plus a feather,” has been primarily criticized for denying due process rights to those accused of sexual assault, in addition to being biased against people of color and allowing unverified science to influence how universities handled sexual assault investigations. Many of these criticisms are legitimate, and the current methods of handling sexual assault allegations on college campuses are far from perfect. Ideally, perpetrators of sexual assault should have to answer for their crimes in a court of law and receive the proper criminal punishment. However, focusing solely on the problems with current sexual assault policy, as many critics seem to do, ignores the broader judicial and societal context of sexual assault and creates a false equivalency between survivors of sexual assault and those accused of it.
The “Dear Colleague” guidelines were introduced because of a widespread failure by universities to appropriately handle sexual assault cases. Taking cases to the courts has also proven to be unjust for survivors, exemplified by convicted sex offenders like Brock Turner receiving lenient sentences. Tipping the scales away from the rights of the accused on campuses, while undoubtedly significant, should not be of primary concern when these same scales have been enormously unbalanced against survivors of sexual assault for so long. Secretary DeVos herself has used rhetoric equating sexual assault survivors and defendants and has belittled the severity of sexual assault by claiming that, “If everything is harassment, then nothing is.” She has yet to announce the Department of Education’s specific plan for rescinding the Obama administration’s guidelines. However, given the Secretary’s stance on the issue, we fear that her attempts to resolve criticisms of the current policy will create harm for sexual assault survivors that far exceeds any potential benefits. An action permitting universities to once again force sexual assault accusers to sign non-disclosure agreements would be a clear indication that the administration is not acting in the best interest of survivors. Regardless of the intention of Secretary DeVos to reverse the progress made by the Obama-era guidelines, the Georgetown administration must remain committed to confronting the problem of sexual assault. Since releasing the results of a campus-wide survey on sexual assault in June 2016, the university has taken several positive steps toward addressing the problem of sexual assault on Georgetown’s campus. These include
creating a Sexual Assault and Misconduct Task Force, mandating bystander intervention training for club leaders, and introducing the Bringing in the Bystander intervention training program for first-year students this year. In a discussion forum on Tuesday, Rosemary Kilkenny and Todd Olson, two university administrators and co-chairs of the Task Force, announced the recommendations outlined in a Task Force report. The university has already begun to act on some of the recommendations by implementing mandatory education training for all undergraduate and graduate students and GUPD officers. It has also created a Coordinated Community Response Team to move forward on the Task Force’s recommendations and work with campus organizations to examine the systematic factors that contribute to the pervasiveness of sexual assault. These are all significant accomplishments and should be praised. At the same time, this editorial board has written previously and still believes that students should hold the Georgetown administration accountable to continue its efforts to prevent sexual assault on campus and do all it can regardless of the federal government’s position. In this vein, the university should continue to adhere to the Obama-era guidelines until such a time when improved federal guidelines are imposed. In the face of potential actions from Secretary DeVos that can at best be described as misguided, Georgetown has the opportunity to lead by example in the fight against campus sexual assault. The university must seize that opportunity and create a safe and just environment for students.
Protections for Undocumented Students Under Attack Last week, President Trump reneged on a promise and threw the livelihoods of 800,000 young people into jeopardy by announcing that he plans to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Those affected are people who moved to the United States with their parents as children and have completed or are working toward high school diplomas. Many have no memory of their lives outside the United States. Some speak only English. All of them are Dreamers. Last week’s announcement shows that President Trump plans to use their lives as bargaining chips. Desperate for a legislative accomplishment of any kind, Trump has thrown Dreamers back into the lurch from which DACA pulled them. This editorial board sees this as cruelty, plain and simple. DACA, as President Barack Obama created it by executive order in 2012, allows undocumented young people to apply for protection from deportation proceedings, called a deferral. Obama’s order came after the failed passage of the DREAM Act, a bill which seeks to make similar protections law. Now, those young people can apply for a deferral every two years, so long as they continue to meet the criteria set out in DACA. Among other requirements, applicants to the program must have come to the United States as children under a specific timeline, either be in school or have a high school diploma, and not have been convicted of a serious crime. In addition, Dreamers are often unable to travel for leisure and must apply for permission to travel for other purposes. These rules have allowed hundreds of thousands of U.S.
residents the peace of mind that they will not be thrown out of their homes. This peace of mind has been ripped away by President Trump’s latest announcement. DACA is structured as a program by which the Department of Homeland Security applies prosecutorial discretion to undocumented immigrants. This discretion is an essential part of how the Department operates—it is how immigration authorities decide who to pursue for deportation. In other words, DACA is a promise that the government will let Dreamers remain in the country so long as they stay on the right side of the law and reapply for protection every two years. By ending the program, Trump will go back on the government’s promise and violate the trust that Dreamers placed in our government. Unprotected by DACA, Dreamers could now be at even greater risk of deportation because the government has their personal information. While the Department of Homeland Security is currently not sharing information with ICE, given Trump’s volatility on these issues, there is no assurance that this is a long-term policy. In the years following President Obama’s creation of the program, critics complained that his executive action skirted the rule of law and overreached his authority. While we applaud Obama’s decision, it is clear that executive action cannot be a permanent solution. The safety and stability of these Dreamers should not be based on the whim of whoever sits in office, subject to change every four or eight years. That Obama’s decision can now so easily be overridden by his successor shows how urgently this country needs comprehensive immigration reform.
To make permanent the protections DACA gave Dreamers, Congress must pass the DREAM Act, which has floated around the House and Senate for some 16 years. As an actual law, not simple executive action, it would be less vulnerable to the impulses of any temperamental president. In the meantime, organizations across the country can and must take action to support Dreamers and their families. Here at Georgetown, the university’s administration has made clear its support of our undocumented peers. Georgetown now has an associate director for undocumented services who is responsible for helping undocumented students, including Dreamers, with the challenges unique to their status. On Sept. 5, the date of President Trump’s announcement, university President DeGioia reiterated his administration’s pledge to undocumented students by announcing a partnership with Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services, which will provide free legal counsel to undocumented students. Additionally, the university maintains a webpage dedicated to outlining resources available to undocumented students. We commend President DeGioia’s statement, and all that the university is doing to support Undocumented Hoyas here on campus. However, such decisions should not fall on a university president, and we call on Congress to enact legislation that sets in stone our dedication to Dreamers. Anything less leaves 800,000 people’s lives hanging in the balance and abdicates our responsibility to protect people who call this country home. Anything less is just cruel.
5
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Halfway through my freshman year, I looked in the mirror, considered what I had eaten that day, and decided that something had to be done. I came to what I believed was the intuitive and logical conclusion that I had to undo what I had inflicted upon myself through food. I decided to throw up. For those of you who have never “pulled the trigger,” I feel I should describe it to you. It’s a trick to make your body perform one of its most violent and powerful functions. It’s a way to make your body revolt against its own interests, its own health and nutrition. I became a master at this careful art through the countless number of times I puked that year. Popcorn, bread, and spicy foods are hard. Ice cream tastes just as good the second time. I would wander through Leo’s often, thinking about how beautiful those beets would look at the bottom of my toilet bowl. I was regularly dizzy and my breath and fingers smelled like vomit. I puked about three times per day, after each meal. I had never thought myself one for social conformity, crippling vanity, or succumbing to patriarchal pressure. I never wore makeup, and kept my legs hairy until about 17. I had been a staunch feminist since I first learned the word, scrolling through the feminist blogosphere in middle school, getting into petty arguments in high school. An eating disorder was, I thought, out of character. And so for a while, I was able to deny that I was even suffering from one. What I chose to eat and how I managed my body was my business. Everything I did was my own choice. Wasn’t this a feminist principle? The right to decide for one’s self ? I could achieve control of everything in my life, starting with my body. We could have it all, couldn’t we? Us white, upper-middle class, urban women? Careers and degrees and love and sex and children and power and beauty? But the last one, we all knew, was the lynchpin. How would you find love and sex and children if you weren’t beautiful? How would you get hired if you were dowdy? Wouldn’t everything you did be worth more, get more attention, and bring you more success, if you had a hot bod? I decided that I was taking control of my life, instead of losing grasp of it. Through my own internalized misogyny I had assumed that women with “true” disorders must be different from me. But an unhealthy relationship with food is not indicative of the fact that women are dumb or vain, but rather that they have been subject to insidious oppression and classist division. In my experience, my breakdown made me not only obsessed with food, but also obsessed with men. More than anything, I wanted their approval. I wanted to be thin because I wanted to hook up with men. I wanted to hook up with men because that would mean I was desirable to them and therefore worthy of personhood and womanhood and life in this world. This was not about sexual desirability in general, but rather about approval from men specifically. I know this because I am bisexual, and never needed this validation from other women. I wanted to gain approval from the majority,
from those in power, from the people with the authority to decide what is good. Eating disorders have become a sort of conspicuous unconsumption. While obesity is growing amongst America’s poorest, the upper class has begun a campaign to remain as thin and bony as possible. I have sometimes come to acknowledge my disorder as not only a preoccupation with male approval, but also as a desire to avoid being “trashy,” and fat, and by extension, poor.
Lizz pankova
Obsession with appearance is a strikingly effective way to keep women down. My head was filled with calories and calculations and narcissistic self-hate. It can be difficult to focus when your belly is empty. I would lie awake at night, dazed and
Carring on: Voice Staffers Speak
VOICES
The Revolution Will Not Make You Five Pounds Thinner: Achieving Liberation from Eating Disorders
dizzy, haunted by fantasies of eliminating fat, carving away at my body like a ham. I was not out learning history or science or contemplating how to construct a more just society. I was paralyzed. For the record, I do not think that men spend their time scheming up new and creative ways to control women. They don’t have to. Oppression finds ways to change and adapt to new environments. In the 1920s, many urban white women already began to feel like they had to wear makeup to get jobs and be respected. Some went so far as to use lead-based products, knowingly damaging their health. Their husbands, though, would complain about the fuss women made over their appearances and make fun of their frivolousness. Has so much changed today? Women are still confronted with this doubleedged sword of beauty—to be ugly or vain: That is our choice. We face the same beast in new clothes. Of course, there are men and gender nonconforming individuals who suffer from eating disorders. I’ve met some of them. They face insecurities, pressures, and compulsions, just as women do. And yet, it’s estimated that women represent 85 to 95 percent of those diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia. And I think there’s a reason. Even our largest social movements lack the power to fight the internalized hate and fear that prescribes how we conduct ourselves. I had touted myself as a queer, feminist, socially conscious, rebellious young woman. I thought that with a brain and a heart I could perceive and outlast the pressures I faced. And I couldn’t. I got better, for what it’s worth. But I live with the knowledge that my mind is a creation of this world, as is yours. When we as activists face our own prejudices, how do we work with the knowledge that the enemy is not only “out there,” but “in here?” How do we confront the oppressive thoughts that we think? How do we make ourselves better? When I look at our situation I feel the same way I did my freshman year, staring into the mirror: anxious, and compelled to action. ...
For anyone on the edge: I gained significant weight when I was bulimic or otherwise disordered. It’s not healthy, ever. If you want someone to talk to, you should probably go to CAPS, but you can also email me, not a medical professional, at LB931@georgetown.edu. Good luck.
Lilah Burke is a Senior in the SFS.
VOICES
6
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Three of a Kind:
Thoughts from a Freshman Hoya The first time I ever encountered Georgetown University, aside from viewing the entirely under-appreciated masterpiece College Road Trip starring Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symoné, was when I was 12 years old and living in Atlanta, Ga. My eldest sister came home from a school trip to D.C. and spent the next week raving about some school she had visited briefly with which she had absolutely fallen in love. She was a sophomore in high school and spent the next two years working toward her goal of attending Georgetown. I remember her telling me how she was going to apply to the business school and how confused I became when she started calling it the “MSB.” I remember watching her trudge in after a long day only to be confronted with an excruciatingly small envelope, the universal sign of failure in the world of college acceptances. I remember being startled when she screamed with excitement that she had been admitted. In the years that followed, I got my first glimpses of campus and of life on the Hilltop. My family moved up to Northern Virginia, only about a 30-minute drive from Georgetown, and visits to the area were frequent. Two years later, it came time for the second Hewitt sister to endure the college application process. My other sister began her journey with a
Kayla with her sisters Danielle (left) and Olivia (center).
Photo courtesy of kayla hewitt
wide breadth of schools and little direction. After a long and arduous decision-making process, she entered the kitchen on the morning of May 1 donning a Georgetown T-shirt. There were officially two Hoyas in my household. In another two years time, it was my turn to choose a college. I had repeatedly been asked if I planned to follow in my sisters’ footsteps and attend Georgetown. Throughout the majority of my high school career, I responded with a decided no. It was not until I started seriously considering the idea of college that I realized Georgetown aligned perfectly with everything I wanted in a school. This was when the fear set in. I had worked hard throughout the entirety of my high school career and felt good about my chances. However, nothing is certain when it comes to applying to a school with such a competitive applicant pool. For a short period of time I considered not applying at all in order to avoid being “the one who didn’t get in.” But I’d seen the types of experiences my sisters had gained here and I knew that this was the place I wanted to be. So I put aside my fears and applied early. I remember being confronted by that small envelope when I came home one night, this time knowing not to anticipate failure just yet. I felt a massive weight lifted off my shoulders as I read my acceptance letter, and my sisters and I shared the excitement of officially having a third Hoya in the family. For the next few months I proudly wore the words “Georgetown Hoyas” across my chest and beamed every time I was asked what school I would be attending in the fall. While I was apprehensive and sad about leaving my friends and home behind, my eagerness to start college swelled throughout the second half of my senior year and the following summer. I’m not going to pretend that my fears were alleviated entirely once I was admitted to Georgetown, because they were not. In any relationship between siblings, comparisons, from sources both internal and external, are inevitable. Even though my sisters and I are vastly different, people cannot help but draw parallels between us. By choosing to attend the same school as my older siblings, I have made the basis for comparison that much larger. While I am proud to be associated with people as brilliant as my sisters, those comparisons come with their own pressures and expectations. Both of my sisters have excelled on this campus in their own ways. They have become leaders in their respective clubs, formed lasting relationships with peers and professors, and have indelibly sewn themselves into the tapestry of Georgetown. Taking part in this legacy can feel overwhelming. What assuages my anxieties is the support that my sisters have given me. I have two amazing sounding boards who tell me everything Georgetown has meant to them and give me advice on how to navigate this world.
I was extremely well-prepared coming into my freshman year here at Georgetown. Over the last six years I had gotten to know this school through my sisters. Before stepping foot onto campus for my first day of NSO I had a grasp on most of the acronyms that litter the vernacular of the student body and could make my way around campus with minimal confusion. I knew to never call Leo’s “O’Donovan Hall,” to join the Voice instead of The Hoya, and how to quickly identify my favorite restaurants on M Street. However, regardless of my prior knowledge, this truth still stood: no matter where you’re from, who you’re related to, or how often you visit campus, being a college freshman is difficult. There’s no way around it. Constantly introducing yourself to new people is exhausting. Getting used to communal bathrooms and having a roommate can take some adjusting. Looking around and never seeing a familiar face can feel extraordinarily lonely, and looking at the Instagram posts and Snapchat stories of old high school friends and fellow college freshmen can make you feel like you’re the only one experiencing discomfort in your new environment. While these feelings may not necessarily be universal, they are not unique to me. College is one big refresh button and, while that concept does have many appealing qualities, it is also unknowably difficult until you’re actually living it. However, it is not all bad. Most of the things that made my home feel homey—relationships, routines, a sense of belonging—required patience, even if I did not necessarily know for what I was being patient. I have begun to form new bonds with my surroundings and life has started to feel less alien. The musty scent of my Harbin dorm now has a comforting familiarity. I have figured out what my favorite foods are in Leo’s. I look up at Healy on a sunny day, appreciate how beautiful it is, and recognize how grateful I am to be able witness something so stunning on a daily basis. I have started to make friends, join clubs, and enjoy my classes. This is not to say that everything becomes magically easy after the first few weeks on campus, but things do get better as they become more familiar. As close as my sisters and I are, I am my own person before I am anything else. The connections and memories I make on my own will bond me closer to this campus than anything else ever could. Using both the tools passed down to me by my sisters and the ones I have begun to cultivate on my own, I’m slowly building my own home on the Hilltop.
Kayla Hewitt is a Freshman from Northern Virginia and the third of three sisters to attend Georgetown.
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
7
My Home
I have seen the junction of hope and hopelessness. I spent the first few years of my life on Emerson Street in Haverhill, Mass. The place was falling apart, and drugs changed hands in the house’s darker hallways. My mother rarely let me leave the house or play with the other children outside. I didn’t fully understand why, but I recognize now that she was concerned for my safety — she was concerned about the potential negative influences on my life. My mother grew sick with cancer, and both of my parents were out of work. I was about 12. We were homeless for a brief period and later found a small motel room for the four of us. We managed to become at least somewhat financially stable and were able to find a threestory home in Lawrence, Mass. to call home. It was above our budget, but my father knew the landlord; he was willing to accept payments two, sometimes three months late. Our home may have been falling apart, in a dangerous part of the city, and right next to a nightclub, but we called it our home because that was all that we knew. I was not fully aware of my family’s economic situation, but I understood that something was wrong. I was uncomfortable with the fact that I’d hear an ambulance blare at least once a day, and I never truly learned to differentiate the sounds of gunshots and fireworks. Both scared me. When I see depictions of Lawrence, I notice that it is always viewed negatively.
Articles have labeled it “The City of the Damned.” People at Georgetown who know my city went to Phillips Academy Andover and did community service in our centers, or taught English to the children of immigrant families. We, to outsiders, are a population to be saved.
The Heroes
Everyone I know gets something wrong about Lawrence. There are heroes, people who possess hope unlike anything I have seen; their desire to change their situation burns so brightly that those around them can’t help but notice that the room feels different when they arrive. These heroes who walk along the streets, dancing around heroin needles, are the youth. We, the young people who populate the city, have not had fair lives, but like in any good hero story, we share our tragedies to empower those who may be scared to take a stand otherwise. I’ve had so many moments when I’ve mentored students from my hometown. Often, during the college application process, they are scared to put a school like Georgetown on the list. They are afraid because of the cost, the culture differences, and the distance from home. I’ve learned that I need to push these students to go beyond what they think is possible. I share this all because I have been intensely reflecting on my purpose as of late. I am no longer in the city. I reside within Georgetown’s quiet and peaceful walls, a world where grades mean the world and where the struggles of my childhood would shake the foundations that most of my peers stand on. I have always believed in the capability of the youth within cities such as Lawrence, and I have often wondered how I can act on this belief in a manner that betters the world in some way. I have recently realized that I am now growing beyond the age of the students who I believe are the true champions of cities, and I am growing closer towards the world of being an adult, and more specifically, a college graduate. I want to make sure that I do not become the type of graduate who gentrifies a city like Lawrence and causes the cycle to repeat itself.
Taking a S.T.A.N.D.
This realization has brought me to a decision that I made along with a group of close friends. Last year, I was tapped to apply for a Magis Row house which would be sponsored by the Georgetown Scholarship Program (GSP). The other people that were tapped-—David Toledo (MSB ’19), Dylan Hughes (COL ’19), Kevin Durham (MSB ’19), and Christian Collier (COL ’19)—are all people who I have gotten to know well during my time at Georgetown. Our mission is to fight for socio-economic inclusivity on Georgetown’s campus and to bring together voices from a diverse spectrum of economic backgrounds. With a similar mission in mind, Katie De Araujo (SFS ’18), Tithi Patel (SFS ’18), Beatrice Hociota (MSB ’19), and Shifaa Alsairafi (SFS ’18) worked in tandem with us and GSP to create the final product of all nine of our missions — the two S.T.A.N.D. Magis Row houses. After a long and difficult process, we came to the name S.T.A.N.D. because we strive for Socio-Economic Ties and Networks of Dialogue. We will create spaces for people of various economic backgrounds to meet with each other, engage in dialogue, and break the tendency to remain within our familiar circles. We dove into the application process, outlining our programming, making PowerPoints, and coordinating with organizations on campus. During our grueling preparation, I came to understand that we were all in the second stage of being one of the “heroes” I mentioned earlier. We have all learned that in order to continue being beacons of hope, we must strive to educate those around us—we must work with the students who are of low socio-economic statuses and ensure that we foster dialogue with the much wealthier students on campus. This house is, in an actualized form, the core of my mission. I’ve made many friends on the Georgetown campus of varying familial income statuses, and what I’ve found across the board is that we all have much more in common than we initially thought. Wealthy students deal with imposter syndrome; students of middle incomes have unique struggles that come as a result of financial aid issues. My dream is for the house to represent a diverse community, and for students who never had the chance to meet those different from them to come, sit at the table, and feel at home.
Abhichana Naiyapatana
Emilio Joubert is a junior in the College, majoring in Italian. He is a low-income, first generation college student.
VOICES
To Take a S.T.A.N.D.
8
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Georgetown’s Journey Toward Diversity in STEM By Emily Jaster Georgetown alumna Vera Rubin never received a Nobel Prize for her groundbreaking evidence of dark matter, much to the shock of the science world. Rubin, who passed away last year, spent her life advocating for young women to work in the sciences and has become a role model for young students. Her effort to improve the historic underrepresentation of women and people of color in the sciences has not gone unnoticed on the Hilltop. Georgetown stands above the national averages in terms of the representation of women, but advancing diversity across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (commonly abbreviated STEM) remains a challenge. Contrary to popular assumption, the majority of Georgetown’s science majors are female. According to the Georgetown Office of Admissions, women account for 60 percent of science majors in the class of 2021. Women are only underrepresented in two majors, making up 44 percent of computer science majors and 36 percent of physics majors. While the recent advances at Georgetown are promising, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported in 2014 that on average, women across the country receive less than 40 percent of physics degrees and only 18 percent of computer science degrees. The breakdown of enrollment data at Georgetown remains incomplete. The Office of Admissions does not have information on the racial demographics of science majors. Furthermore, Georgetown is better known for fields of science in which women are more highly represented nationally, such as medicine. The fact that the majority of undergraduate students at Georgetown are female also affects these statistics. “The biggest difference in Georgetown versus any other schools is that we don’t have engineering,” said Charles Deacon, Georgetown University Dean of Admissions. “Engineering would be a huge impact on the STEM numbers overall because that’s a significant number of students which we don’t have. So that puts us in the case of primarily having STEM programs in areas where the majority of women apply.” Deacon also noted that the name of the School of Nursing and Health Studies may disproportionately attract women, due to the feminine connotation of “nursing.” He explained that women tend to have high representation in pre-med programs, and underrepresentation in more quantitative fields. Professor Amy Liu, a physics professor and former department chair, discussed why she believes women choose different science-related fields than their male counterparts. “What some studies say is that [among] female students, it’s more important to them to be able to see connections to societal issues, and helping society, helping other people, and so physics somehow, the way it’s portrayed in popular culture, doesn’t come off as being that,” Liu said. Dr. Lisa Singh, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Georgetown, echoed a similar
concern about attracting young women to her field, in which women are particularly underrepresented. “I think that the introductory course series that have been developed for computer science tend to target applications that are related to gaming, which is fun … but they don’t show you the depth of computer science,” Singh said. “People equate computer science to just coding, and that’s unfair to the discipline and it’s also unfair for the students, so the students don’t see the depth of a computer science education compared to physics, biology, or chemistry, where you can see the applications right away.” The issue compounds the lack of exposure most women have to computer science. In particular, Singh referenced a study indicating that girls who have not been exposed to computer science by middle school have more trouble grasping the topic. To increase interest and improve diversity in the computer science field, Singh has worked extensively to establish and lead GU Women Coders, or GU WeCode. “What’s happening is, because we have fewer women and less diversity in computer science and many of the technological fields, the types of products that we get are not geared towards women a lot of the time—they’re geared towards men,” Singh said. “And I think if we want to actually be part of the innovation cycle, we need to be part of learning the field.”
“
I think it’s important, as soon as possible, to get involved with other women in STEM. Rather than seeing every other person as a competitor, it’s important to think of each other as more of a team, to spin ideas off of each other, to develop as a network.
”
In the two years since its founding, GU WeCode has expanded from just 50 members to several hundred, spanning across different schools and majors. Each semester, GU WeCode hosts computer science lectures on basic programming and panels of female technological
professionals. The women who attend range in majors from computer science, to business, to English, every student recognizing the integral role of technology in a variety of disciplines in the modern world. Since GU WeCode was founded in 2010, the number of women majoring in computer science has risen from 15 percent to 44 percent in the class of 2021, one of the highest rates in the nation. Stemme, or Georgetown Women in STEM, is another student organization specifically aimed at building a community of female scientists. The club meets every two to three weeks, plans regular panels with STEM professionals, and hosts workshops for skills such as resume building. “I think it’s important, as soon as possible, to get involved with other women in STEM. Rather than seeing every other person as a competitor, it’s important to think of each other as more of a team, to spin ideas off of each other, to develop as a network,” said Eileen Cahill (COL ’18), the Stemme Vice President of Professional Development. “Because individually … we’re not nearly as strong as we are in a group, like Georgetown Stemme.” In addition to student groups, the university also offers formal programs and scholarships for women and minorities in the sciences. One of these is the Clare Boothe Luce scholarship, a program that gives scholarships to women pursuing STEM degrees and subsidizes the salaries of starting female faculty. Luce, a former U.S. congresswoman, ambassador, and writer, left an endowment in her will to encourage women to join STEM fields, especially those studying at or working in Catholic institutions. According to Sonia Jacobson, director of the Georgetown University Research Opportunities Program (GUROP), the scholarship focuses on STEM fields where women are historically underrepresented: The health sciences were excluded from the program in Luce’s will, and biology and chemistry majors increasingly do not meet the criteria set forth in the scholarship’s guidelines. “There are scholarships for undergrads, and there are also research fellowships for undergrads,” Liu said. “And then there are also endowed faculty positions for starting faculty members, so they’ll cover part of the salary and research costs for faculty members.” Georgetown recently moved to help another disadvantaged group in STEM fields: first-generation college students. Last year, the university started the Regents Science Scholars Program as an extension of the 50-years-running Community Scholars Program (CSP), which provides assistance to first-generation college students. For many first-generation students, Georgetown’s competitive campus climate can be an obstacle in itself. “If you’re a lower income, first generation student from maybe a rural high school where maybe you didn’t have classes with labs but you were a straight-A student, if you go to a state university and you want to be a doctor, you’ll get through,”
9
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Deacon said. “If you come here, you’re facing classrooms full of students who had BC Calculus, two AP sciences, and 750 on the SATs, and so on.” “Students in the sciences will often complain about how many hours they’re in class and how hard we grade. They’re in class more hours and on this campus, along with everywhere else in the country … [and] the average grade awarded in science classes is lower than the average grade awarded in other disciplines,” said Dr. Heidi Elmendorf, director of undergraduate studies in biology. She further explained that the difficulty level disproportionately impacts students who lack a strong scientific background from high school. The difficulty of classes and lack of institutional support can sometimes lead to students changing their major. “If you’re not making a good connection with a faculty member and the class is really hard and you’re not doing very well, it’s kind of human nature to switch to a major where you’ve got smaller classes,” she said. Programs such as the Regents Science Scholars Program seek to lessen the burden on incoming freshman. Students in the program take a summer bridge course in science between their high school graduation and freshman year at Georgetown. The students also have the opportunity to conduct mentored research and then to continue that research into the fall of their first year on campus. “I find that through my peers I can relate and acknowledge that things may be patchy or difficult, but not impossible, and many of these peers are also from the Regents program,” said Stephanie Galvan (COL ’20), a neuroscience major in the Regents Science Scholars Program.
In just a few years, the number of CSP students in STEM majors has increased from only five to almost 30 students out of 75 total in the program, pulling the program’s percentage of students majoring in science closer to that of the university as a whole. The program, led by Professor Elmendorf, has also increased the university’s confidence in accepting students from disadvantaged high school backgrounds, helping to improve socioeconomic diversity at Georgetown and particularly in the sciences. “The admissions committee, for example, has to struggle with whether or not to say yes to a student in that [disadvantaged] situation, because they don’t know that that student’s going to have the capacity to make it through the very demanding program despite the fact that they’re a very good candidate otherwise,” Deacon said. “By having this program that Dr. Elmendorf is working on in place now, our admissions committee has a greater sense of confidence that this is going to work.” Beyond the experience in the classroom and the lab, the Regents Science Scholars Program works to build a support network among the students and faculty. Likewise, the physics department, Georgetown’s smallest STEM major, emphasizes group work inside and outside the classroom, working to build a team mentality, and hosts small picnic events outside of class to build a welcoming community. “When I first became chair, we were going through one of those low periods [of female representation in physics], and it really alarmed me. I did try to work hard to try and attract more female students to physics,” Liu said. She went on to explain that some female students start to feel isolated when
their female peers drop the major. “We have worked hard in the physics department to create an environment where I think there’s a sense of community, that’s focused on collaboration rather than competition between students.” The sense of teamwork often serves as a powerful defense against the bias that women frequently face in science. “My peers, colleagues, and mentors have all made me feel incredibly welcome here and have been supportive throughout the entirety of my time here,” said Alana Lelo, a sixth-year MD and biology PhD candidate at Georgetown, describing the support that her male colleagues have shown women in STEM. “About a month ago, an anonymous person had posted a gender-biased comment on a flyer in our building. Not only were all the voices of the department loud, some of the loudest voices were that of my male peers and colleagues. That behavior, while it may pervade in this world still, is absolutely not tolerated at Georgetown.” Sima Sakhaei, a fourth-year chemistry PhD candidate, echoed a similar sentiment. “Generally speaking, I think Georgetown is doing a good job sending out the message that there’s no room for racism, biased behavior, and sexism,” Sakhaei said. “At least in the chemistry department, I haven’t experienced any situation in which I feel like I can’t get what I want just because I’m a woman.” Even given a generally receptive climate and the numerous student organizations and scholarship programs, Georgetown’s path to parity is not a guarantee. “I don’t think we’ve yet reached the stage where we can assume diversity will occur,” Singh said. “We’re all moving in the right direction, and that’s really good, but we’re not there yet.”
10
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Independent Bookstores Thrive in the District By Jorge DeNeve Washington, D.C., is a hub for educated professionals from all over the world. From the high-end academic institutions in the city to the major decision makers on Capitol Hill, the District runs on the idea of always being informed. In a city that prides itself on knowledge and function, there is no better representation of this mantra than the local bookstores. Every major chain bookstore in the District has closed, with the exception of various campus Barnes and Nobles. From 2008-2010, eBook sales increased by 1,260 percent after the emergence of the Amazon Kindle, while print book sales fell 9.3 percent between 2011 and 2012. As Borders folded at the end of 2010, other chains like Barnes and Noble responded to the competition by creating their own e-readers. It seemed that the traditional bookstore industry was on its way out. While competition has decimated even the strongest chains, some smaller stores have managed to stay afloat. Some are even thriving, notably Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose, well-known independent bookstores which have each been part of the District’s landscape for over three decades. Kramerbooks, founded in 1976 in DuPont Circle, has been a staple in Washington for 41 years. The trademark red neon sign in the front window draws eyes to its walls of books and Afterwords Cafe, a cozy restaurant that shares the property. Both businesses were part of the vision co-founders Bill Kramer, Henry Posner, and David Tenney shared when they set out to provide a full experience of eating and reading. A new book on a unique subject lies within grasp in each direction you turn. New owner Steve Salis, co-founder of local chain &pizza, admires the store’s enchanting atmosphere. “We like that you can get lost in here,” said Salis in an interview with The Washington Post. The tightly packed shelves, quiet music, and amicable staff provide an intimate experience for anyone who walks in. “We don’t have the advantages of Barnes and Noble or Amazon,” said Lynn Schwartz, the general manager of Kramerbooks. “What we rely on is the type of environment that we can create here.” While Kramerbooks is in the heart of DuPont Circle, Politics and Prose lies on the fringes of the city down Connecticut Avenue. Founded by the late Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, the store quickly outgrew its location at 5010 Connecticut and expanded across the street in 1989. Today, announcements written on the front window of future events and drawings catch the eye of those who pass by. Located out in the more spacious Forest Hills neighborhood, Politics and Prose is significantly larger than Kramer-
books. The muted natural light penetrates the heart of the store, making it a sanctuary for the reader, disconnected from the outside world. Seats and tables are provided throughout the store for customers to relax and lose themselves in their books. In the back, owners Lissa Muscatine and Bradley Graham, two former reporters for The Washington Post, have a shelf filled with their favorites. Among listening to various guest speakers at Politics and Prose, meeting a friend at the Afterwords Cafe for lunch, and even finding a random book title and freezing on the spot to read the back cover or first couple of pages, there’s no rush. The layout is thoughtful; the shelves do not harp on efficiency to the point of blandness. A trip to one of these stores is a journey to be taken, and there’s always something new inside.
Kramerbooks continues to add more variety for its customers and engage in its community as it evolves. The staff has also become more innovative, adding to the personality and experience of the store. “We do more. We have author talks and events,” said Schwartz. “We’ve grown in trying to do a lot of new things and take a lot of chances.” In contrast to the recent failures of larger competitors, these two indie bookstores have become integral to the Washington landscape by leaving their respective customers with fond and vivid memories. This formula has been a hallmark of D.C. culture for decades, and is being used effectively by younger members of the D.C. bookstore scene as well. Busboys and Poets, a local bookstore and restaurant chain, has become a well-known D.C. landmark for tourists and lo-
keeho
KANG
11
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
cals alike since opening in 2005. For the past 12 years, it has advertised itself as “a community resource for artists, activists, writers, thinkers and dreamers,” celebrating historic literary figures like former D.C. busboy Langston Hughes. The stores run events for their communities, encouraging participation in discussions and art for those who feel so inclined. Because a large part of their business relies on nostalgia, independent bookstores like Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose must often make a difficult decision between evolving and advancing their infrastructure and maintaining the familiar aura that their customers have come to expect. Roy Barber, a D.C. resident since 1979 who frequents both bookstores, noted the substantial growth of Kramerbooks in recent years. “I haven’t been to Kramer’s in a while, but it seems like it’s doubled in size,” he said. “It keeps getting bigger and bigger, which I guess is a good sign for an independent bookstore.” Kramerbooks added 800 square feet in November after neighboring Willie T’s Lobster Shack relocated in 2016. The additional space, which is to the right of the main entrance, now holds the store’s nonfiction and biography sections, while the history, cooking, and children’s sections have also expanded since the acquisition. The new space also allows for a closer partnership with Afterwords. One of Salis’ goals as a new owner is to establish a stronger connection between the two businesses. The cafe’s doors are on a different street than that of the bookstore, and from the restaurant’s front entrance, the bookstore behind is hidden. While the two are connected physically—there is a back entrance to the restaurant through the bookstore—not every customer goes to both. The restaurant accommodates the bookstore’s schedule so that customers can enjoy a meal as they read at all times of the day. Both Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe are open from 7:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays and until 3 a.m. on weekends, and the menu ranges from breakfast to dinner to late night specials. Customers will often drop in for a book, stay for a meal, and listlessly pass hours browsing the thousands of books and taking in the laid back atmosphere. Both bookstores are well established in Washington, but their paths to this point have been very different. Kramerbooks, located in DuPont Circle, was able to build itself up through the foot traffic that passes its storefront every day. Kramerbooks holds events for authors to speak and share their work, but these occasions are neither as numerous, nor as famous, as those that take place at Politics and Prose. Politics and Prose isn’t in a bustling area of the District but instead is located near the Maryland border, forcing it to be more creative in how it draws in its customers. In a March 2013 interview with the Washingtonian, Meade explains, “We’ve [Cohen and Meade] run it the way we have because we wanted it to become a literary and cultural center.” The most visible aspect of it becoming a cultural center is the speaker series that the store offers. “The speaker programs haven’t changed very much except they’ve gotten bigger and a little more varied than they were before,” said Barry Hillenbrand, former TIME correspondent and regular customer at Politics and Prose for 17 years. The store’s website advertises events from authors Mike Lupica and John Green, singer Art Garfunkel, and, as the name suggests, countless political thinkers. Their enormous political section spans from travels through Russia, to American influence in East Asia, to refugees in the Middle East, to memoirs of growing up during World War II. Politics and Prose has long been a popular stop on highly publicized book tours for authors looking to promote their work. Now with Muscatine, a former Hillary Clinton speechwriter as well as a veteran of the Clinton White House, as an owner, the store can make an even
Customers browse the shelves at Kramerbooks. stronger case to the political writers interested in speaking about their works. “I love that I read The New York Times Book Review and next week two of the writers who are profiled are at Politics and Prose,” Barber said. Showcasing the authors and their work is a point of pride for the store, and the authors seem to recognize this as they return to speak again. “As an independent bookstore, the most important things are obviously the authors and the books themselves,” said Jon Purves, Director of Marketing and Publicity at Politics and Prose. “To have people of that caliber coming through, in and out, on a daily basis makes it an exciting place to work.”
‘One of the main reasons I would stay in Washington in retirement is because of these bookstores.’
But it’s not just a place for established authors to give speeches. The store also allows customers to fully experience the publishing process through the Opus self-publishing program, Purves said. The service can be used by anyone who needs help printing their work. Purves explained that the store can help with layout, cover design, and even marketing the book in their store. However, most customers visit for one thing: the books. The staff at both stores are enthusiastic about their books
Jonny Amon
and knowledgeable about what to recommend. This service is something that online shopping cannot replicate. “If you’re not quite sure [what you want], then you can’t really beat the physical bookstore experience: coming in, browsing the shelves, seeing what’s on the display,” said Purves. “It’s more than just coming into a shop and buying something; it’s a whole community centered around reading.” On May 1, The New York Daily News reported that digital book sales declined by 19 percent in the United States, while physical book sales rose eight percent for paperbacks, four percent for hardbacks, and 16 percent for children’s books. To Hillenbrand, it’s not all that dissimilar to the movies business in the 1980s. “You’ve got DVDs; Nobody’s going to go to the movie theater anymore. You’re going to all watch it on television at home. Well, that hasn’t happened. People still want to go to movies.” For Hillebrand, the same thing is true of books and bookstores. Especially now with the larger chains gone, it has fallen to the independent bookstores to carry the load. Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose have already made their mark in a combined 74 years in Washington. “Maybe it appeals to an elitism or overeducation here, but good. I’m just thrilled that they’re alive.” said Barber. “One of the main reasons I would stay in Washington in retirement is because of these bookstores.” The stores show no signs of slowing down. Both have new owners that are ready to adapt the stores as times change. Even in crowded DuPont Circle, Kramerbooks continues to grow, and Politics and Prose’s speaker series is still thriving. Yet both stores have stayed rooted to their origins and the visions of their founders. Politics and Prose continues to be a hotbed of dialogue and discussion, while Kramerbooks still keeps its doors open late for customers to enjoy the literature, food, and conversation. It’s easy to lose track of time in the stores and spend hours peering at books. Then again, for Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose, that’s kind of the point.
12
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Georgetown Community Responds to DACA Repeal By Michael Bergin
Matt Buckwald
As Georgetown students started their second week of class, President Donald Trump made a decision that may bring the academic aspirations of some students here in the United States to a permanent halt: rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program, which began in 2012, was designed to give temporary residency status to those brought into the United States illegally as children, providing protection for these individuals to work lawfully and attend school without the fear of immediate deportation. Without federal legislation to address their citizenship status, the approximately 800,000 young people that DACA serves could face deportation. For some DACA recipients of the Georgetown community, last Tuesday’s announcement came as a shock, affecting not only their status as residents but also their lives as students. “The announcement was happening as I was in class, but I remember not really being able to focus, and I remember just thinking about what was happening with DACA, what was being issued, what was being said,” said Mizraim Belman Guerrero (SFS ‘20), who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was four. “I feel angry and disappointed at the Trump administration for throwing DACA beneficiaries under the bus, especially after expressing, on multiple occasions, that he has a heart for Dreamers,” Luis Gonzalez (COL ‘20), who is a DACA recipient, wrote in an email to the Voice. “Dreamers,” a term for DACA recipients, refers to the DREAM Act, which has stalled in Congress several times since it was first introduced to the Senate in 2001. DACA holders hope to transition to “Dreamers” and have legitimate protection from deportation under federal law, especially as it becomes the only possibility for some recipients after last Tuesday’s events. “The uncertainty leading up to the decision also did not make things better. … students were constantly refreshing their news feed waiting for a decision from the White House. It was a difficult situation for all us,” Gonzalez said. The threat of being deported now lingers over the heads of undocumented Georgetown students. DACA recipients must renew their status every two years to remain in the United States legally. Although Guerrero renewed with the program in August and is safe from deportation until at least 2019, anyone whose status is not set to expire until
after Mar. 5, 2018 cannot renew and is entirely dependent upon the creation of federal legislation. “It’s hard to separate the two: being undocumented and being a student. As students we usually prioritize being in school first, but it really can begin to hit you hard, being undocumented,” Guerrero said. The university has not assigned itself the term “sanctuary campus,” a title that indicates its commitment to full protection of undocumented students even if this requires a refusal to comply with federal immigration law, even as student activist groups have lobbied the administration for this status. The university, however, has taken a clear stance in support of its undocumented community.
“
It’s hard to separate the two: being undocumented and being a student. As students we usually prioritize being in school first, but it really can begin to hit you hard, being undocumented.
”
University President John J. DeGioia released a statement on Sept. 5 in response to Trump’s executive action. “This morning, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would move to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This is an unconscionable decision affecting 800,000 young people around our country, including students right here at Georgetown.” President DeGioia met with undocumented students on Tuesday and highlighted resources offered to them, including a partnership with Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services to provide free legal counsel.
The university administration has provided a system of protection for undocumented students, supplying what seems to be some temporary solace during this new political period. “President DeGioia is a champion for undocumented students. He is knowledgeable about our circumstances, and most importantly, he cares deeply about ensuring we are keeping up with our studies. When a group of us met with him on Tuesday, I felt reassured Georgetown would do everything in its power to ensure we were protected,” Gonzalez said. Earlier this month, the university announced the hiring of its first full-time associate director for undocumented student services. Arelis Palacios, who assumed the position on a parttime basis in November of last year, will now be fully devoted to supporting undocumented students on campus. “I’m working across all campuses at the moment to help support students, and we’ll continue to help students along their educational trajectories as best as we can. The short-term strategy is to help students renew their DACA’s before the Oct. 5 deadline, and for the long-term, we’re hopeful that we can work together to identify these strategies,” Palacios wrote in an email to the Voice. The university has also taken an active role in protecting undocumented students in the political sphere. During Tuesday’s meeting with undocumented students, university administrators said that the university would continue to lobby Congress on behalf of the DREAM Act under the leadership of Associate Vice President for Federal Relations, Scott Fleming, according to Gonzalez. Any DACA recipient whose status expires on or before Mar. 5 can apply for an additional two-year extension, so long as they do so by Oct. 5. For all other recipients on Georgetown’s campus and beyond, the only thing left to do is wait and watch Congress through these next six months with the hope that more permanent legislation will pass. “Now, having a year at this institution and being really welcomed with open arms, by the administration, by students, it has felt great,” said Guerrero. “I know that this is a space that we can call home and be able to continue not only my studies but [also] to continue my fight as an immigrant for equal rights, for something more permanent than DACA.”
13
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Nike Agrees to Access for Labor Rights Monitoring Group By Lilah Burke Two weeks ago, after years of negotiation, mediation, and student activism, Georgetown University signed a new licensing agreement with Nike, Inc., allowing the company to resume producing Georgetown apparel. Nike has faced scrutiny from the student body and from activist groups over its labor practices. The new contract now establishes a protocol between the company and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a labor rights monitoring group for colleges and universities. The WRC will be ensured independent Nike factory access and remediation measures to monitor labor conditions where collegiate apparel from their 190 affiliate universities, including Georgetown, is produced. The administration verbally agreed last December, in response to a student sit-in of nearly 35 hours, to let their licensing contract with Nike expire on Dec. 31 and to not re-sign with the company until they ensured independent monitoring access for the WRC.
Over the course of 2016, some students became increasingly concerned with workers rights abuses and labor conditions in Nike’s supplier factories, specifically in the Hansae factory in Vietnam, which employed 8,500 people. The WRC conducted customary off-site interviews with Hansae employees in October 2015 and found extensive wage theft, denial of sick leave, illegal restrictions on worker bathroom use, and dozens of health and safety violations, including many cases of workers collapsing. Factory management did not allow the monitoring group to visit the premises afterwards, and Nike declined to facilitate access. Nike is not the only buyer from the Hansae factory, but it was the only one producing collegiate apparel at the factory. Over a year later, in May 2016, the WRC released a preliminary report on conditions at the Hansae factory, based on off-site interviews. Going into the school year, student protesters and the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, a student club for labor advocacy, began to call for the university to drop Nike as a licensee. The group was emboldened by a similar campaign from United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), a co-creator of the WRC. Georgetown Solidarity Committee is affiliated with USAS. In November, students went without shoes as part of an event titled “Better Barefoot than Nike” to protest the university’s involvement with the company. The same month, Georgetown Solidarity Committee held a mock celebration on the issue, singing songs and asking participants to pin the tail of “responsibility” to a picture of DeGioia. On Dec. 6, the WRC published a report from the Hansae factory. The group had not been allowed to enter independently, only in conjunction with another monitoring group, one which activists characterize as being in the hands of corporations. After the report was released, activism culminated in a Dec. 8 sit-in organized by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee. Seventeen students rushed into DeGioia’s office in Healy Hall and refused to leave unless the university pledged to not re-sign
their licensing agreement with Nike. From the office window they hung a sign: “Occupied until DeGioia Cuts Nike.” The contract was set to expire about three weeks later, on Dec. 31. Just outside the office, dozens of students sat around the foyer Christmas tree in support of the sit-in, preparing for finals and awaiting occasional updates from Joe Ferrara, DeGioia’s chief of staff. Seven out of the original 17 students stayed overnight in the building, even after being threatened with academic sanctions. Nike spokesperson Sabrina Oei explained that the company believed the WRC was not the ideal monitoring group. “We respect the Worker Rights Consortium’s (WRC) commitment to workers’ rights,” Oei wrote in an email to the Voice during the sit-in, “while recognizing that the WRC was co-created by United Students Against Sweatshops, a campaigning organization that does not represent the multi-stakeholder approach that we believe provides valuable, long-lasting change.” At the time, protesters rebuffed the idea that the university could convince Nike to facilitate WRC access. They demanded ending the university’s contract with Nike entirely. “The university has zero leverage in this deal,” said Dan Zager (COL ’18), one of the students in the office. “Nike is a multi-billion dollar company and this contract is pennies on the dollar for them.” Some believed that even if Nike was willing to change, it was more important to send a message. “It’s too late,” said Sophie Bauerschmidt Sweeney (COL ’17), a protester in the office. “Nike has had too many violations at this point and it’s not a time for forgiveness or giving them a second chance.” After over 34 hours in the office and significant conversation with staff and the licensing oversight committee, protesters were given a promise that independent WRC access would be a condition of any new Nike licensing contract. “We can get to an agreement where we can have WRC access. That is what’s best for workers,” Ferrara said. As the spring semester began, Georgetown hired a mediator for negotiations with Nike. Students who had participated in the sit-in were punished with code of conduct violations and
Protesters outside Healy Hall.
the Georgetown Solidarity Committee was placed into a “restoration” phase, not given a budget and only able to get funding through ad-hoc means. In the new agreement, Nike is legally bound to allow the WRC access to their supplier factories where they are producing the apparel of WRC affiliates. The WRC has identified to Nike the recommended corrective measures at Hansae and received a commitment from the company to press these steps with factory management. Nike is still the only Georgetown licensee not to sign the university’s licensee code of conduct, which holds companies to the pledge that they will conduct their affairs in a socially conscious manner. “Nike has over 1000 university partners, many of whom have their own codes of conduct, all of which are subject to change at any given time,” wrote a Nike spokesperson in an email to the Voice. “Given the volume, speed and dynamism of factory production, signing an individual code would not be sustainable to collegiate manufacturing operations.” Nike has agreed instead to adhere to the IMG College Licensing (IMGCL) labor code and additional provisions. IMGCL, a trademark licensing agent, conducts retail license agreements for Georgetown. According to Cal Watson (COL ’07), chair of the licensing oversight committee and assistant vice president of public affairs and business policy, any differences between the university’s licensee code of conduct and the IMGCL’s labor code standards are covered in additional provisions. The Georgetown Solidarity Committee sees the new contract as a significant step. “This victory is also testament to the power of student organizing in enacting real change on and off of the Hilltop. It was students who were willing to put themselves on the line while our university sent mixed messages to Nike and the Georgetown community,” the group wrote in a statement. “We are optimistic that this will provide momentum for students across the country to continue to pressure their own institutions and take this victory nationwide.”
LILAH BURKE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
LEISURE
14
IMDB
It Captivates With Both Scares and Laughs By Ryan Mazalatis
Adapting a Stephen King novel is never an easy task. Most directors have struggled with walking a fine line between creative liberty and adherence to the source material. When filmmakers work hard to create a movie that will please both King fans and the general public, it can go a long way, as evidenced by Stand By Me (1986), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and The Green Mile (1999). As last month’s disappointing Dark Tower adaptation demonstrated, however, film adaptations of King’s novels often fail to satisfy. Additionally, director Andrés Muschietti was taking on a novel King himself has admitted is his masterpiece; saying It had large shoes to fill would be an understatement. Doing justice to the complex plot and themes of the source material, Muschietti delivered, creating a film that lives up to its expectations and presents an experience that both the King fanatic and the regular viewer will enjoy. The film focuses on the Losers’ Club, a band of kids whose terrifying encounters with a child-murdering creature, simply referred to as “It,” in the summer of 1989 sends them down a revelatory path. The kids are forced to confront their deepest fears, identify the monster, and figure out a way to stop it before it wreaks more havoc on their small town of Derry, M.E. Stuttering Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) acts as the de facto leader of the group as he and his friends Richie Tozier, (hilariously played by Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things), Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer), and Stanley Uris (Wylatt Oleff) pursue the monster. Bill and his friends are investigating the Barrens, a wooded part of town that connects the sewer system to the local river, when they encounter the new kid in town Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) escaping local bullies. Later on, the friends meet the rebellious Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) and a farm boy named Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs), who have also been ostracized by the other kids in town. Slowly but surely, each mem-
ber of the group reveals their encounters with It, and they come to learn that the creature lives in the sewers and emerges to satisfy its bloodlust every 27 years. The film focuses not only on their attempt to kill the monster, but also on the relationships between each of the seven protagonists. The movie functions as a bildungsroman and a love story both neatly fitted into one feature length horror film.
The movie demonstrates the power of friendship, the joys and pains of childhood, and the way we deal with grief and abuse.
One of the movie’s greatest strengths is in the performances from its child actors. Knowing that he was dealing with a film that at its core is about childhood, Muschietti chose well. The most notable character of the bunch is that of Wolfhard, whose performance as the loudmouthed wisecracker helps provide levity and humor to the film. The announcement that Bill Skarsgard, a young Swedish actor with limited experience, would play Pennywise was met with doubt. Bad feelings only increased when the character’s costume design was released online, with critics comparing the costume to something out of Shakespearian England rather than 20th century Maine. Despite these doubts, Skarsgard deliv-
ers a great performance that is profoundly disturbing and memorable. This creepiness distinguishes Skarsgard’s performance from that of Tim Curry’s, who played It in the 1990 television miniseries. Curry’s performance was extravagant, with the monster serving both as the source of scares and of constant comic relief. However, Skarsgard’s It relies on subtle humor, which can be lost on viewers during fast-paced horror scenes with jump scares and gore. The production crew breathes life into the pages of the novel, creating sets that embody the terror and small-town feel of Derry. Whether it be an abandoned house or Ben Hanscom’s history-laden room, each set contains surreal yet believable elements and allusions to the source material. The most awe-inspiring of these is the abandoned house on Neibolt Street, the place where the Losers discover It lives. The house appears lopsided, its paint faded, and it’s surrounded by bare, scraggly trees and dead grass. A rusty tricycle is noticeable on the lawn, and it all evokes a general sense of unease. The movie drifts between scenes of horror and gore, heartwarming friendships, and hilarious one liners. Where this film at moments falters is the transition between these tones, which at times can feel too rushed, preventing the emotion of the scene from properly sinking in. To Muschietti’s credit, focusing on only one tone would have failed to encapsulate what made the novel special. With a runtime of two hours and 15 minutes, there’s just no way to feasibly make these tone shifts feel as natural as they do in the 1100 page novel. However, Muschietti’s retelling of King’s classic is an enchanting story of growing up, lost innocence, and overcoming inner demons. What makes It such an enjoyable experience is its heart. The movie demonstrates the power of friendship, the joys and pains of childhood, and the way we deal with grief and abuse. The adults of Derry manipulate and fail to understand their children. In particular, scenes with Eddie’s mom and Beverly’s dad suggest that the monster that plagues the town is more metaphorical than literal. While the monster feeds off of the people of Derry, Derry also embodies the monster, and each of its residents have parts of It inside them. The movie’s heart and sense of humor distinguishes it from other horror films in recent memory. It blends the two wonderfully, and despite feeling choppy at times, effectively recounts a heartwarming tale of growing up in the face of tremendous adversity.
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
15
Critical Voices Neil young, hitchhicker Throughout his long and storied career, Neil Young has distinguished himself as one the most influential and unique voices in folk rock. Young cut to the fore of the genre with his instantly recognizable delivery, deeply descriptive and moving storytelling, and unflinching accounts of violence and drug abuse. In Hitchhiker, Young is at top form, releasing recordings originally taken in 1976 that have since been mastered for popular release. A majority of the tracks on the album have already appeared in one form another, save for “Hawaii” and “Give Me Strength.” While the former fits nicely into Young’s discography, the latter is as close to a ballad as any of his songs have ever been. Dedicated solely to a former lover, Young foregoes his normal storytelling and instead fills the song with pained harmonica and pleas for the strength to move on. The rest of the collection shows Young at his best, reviving the songs that brought him acclaim. Young has the rare ability to entirely deconstruct common American legends. Opening the album with his iconic track “Pocahontas,” Young transports listeners to his both dreamlike and nightmarish fantasies about life as a Native American. The line “they killed us in our teepees and they cut our women down” immediately follows beautiful descriptions of the aurora borealis and untrammeled American plains—the kind of jarring contrast that Young has mastered. Often he sets up glorious scenes that conjure folk epics, only to then quickly undercut listener expectations,
leaving his audience reeling with the brutal reality of our oft-romanticized history. “Powderfinger” fits neatly into this pattern, as Young narrates the story of a young Native American man readying himself to confront a warship that is quickly approaching his village. “Raised my rifle to my eye, never stopped to wonder why” he stoically recounts, evoking Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” only to follow it with, “then I saw black, and my face splash in the sky,” as his voice begins to falter. Young’s uncensored storytelling, everyman voice, and straightforward instrumentals combine here to an almost overwhelming effect. The album’s title track “Hitchhiker” recounts the litany of drugs Young experimented with on his journey to fame. Hearing Young describe his rise to fortune through the lens of his drug habits is a truly intriguing perspective: he begins by smoking hash as an unknown in Toronto; he moves to amphetamines by the time he reaches California, where he knows he is “getting hotter”; he begins taking Valium to cope with the “neon lights and endless nights,” but it makes him paranoid; he moves to the country and smokes marijuana “in a real organic scene,” but soon grows restless; he returns to the road with a cocaine addiction, but reassures listeners that “that ain’t all I know.” He closes his epic tale wishing that he could create a place specially for a “chosen few,” indicating that now his people are most important to him.
alvvays, antisocialites After spending most of her time on tour for the last few years, Molly Rankin, frontwoman of indie band Alvvays, decided to escape to Toronto Island. There, she found inspiration to begin writing the band’s new album, Antisocialites. On the surface, it is a simple pop album about heartbreak. However, this is just a stage—what Rankin refers to in an interview with NME as her “fantasy breakup arc”—that masks darker meanings. True to its name, Antisocialites reflects on loneliness and relationships while artfully weaving in faint strands of existentialism. The first two tracks ease the listener with indie sounds similar to those of the band’s first album. The soft, beachy melodies lull the listener into a state of calm that nearly disguises the complexity of the lyrics. “In Undertow” oscillates between sarcastic lines and more sinister ones like “Meditate, play solitaire, take up self defense / When you get old and faded will you want your friends?” These lyrics begin to crack the faux setup of a breakup song. Likewise, amidst the telling of a trite love story in “Dream Tonite,” Alvvays seamlessly slips in the theme of the album: “Antisocialites watch a wilting flower.” The core of the album takes a sharp diversion from the dreamy tones of the beginning with edgy guitar riffs and angsty choruses. The rebellious energy of the “Plimsoll Punks” amplifies saccharine lyrics in which the narrator compares her ex-lover to an ice cream sundae. The album gets more creative with “Your Type” and “Lollipop (Ode to Jim).
by gustav Honl-Stuenkel Hitchhiker is truly Young at his best, and encompasses the finest aspects of his long career. Young bares his heart over a simple guitar, spinning tales of heartbreak, addiction, and death in his disarming and magnetic way. Voice’s Choices: “Pochahontas,” “Powderfinger,” and “Hitchhiker”
Columbia records
BY brynn furey
“Lollipop (Ode to Jim)” appears to be a silly song about an electric love. Underneath the fun, upbeat rhythm, however, a voice repeatedly cooes “You’re alone in this picture / And it swallows me whole.” The line is so faint that it is hard to hear, but is striking once noticed. It is not until the final track that the album feels like a cohesive piece and the narrator steps out from behind her mask. While other songs seek to hide sinister lyrics among seemingly lighthearted stories and catchy beats, “Forget About Life” is candid about existential anxiety. Rankin temporarily satisfies her angst by throwing in the towel and repeatedly asking “Do you want to forget about life / With me tonight?” The narrator solves the “antisocialite” dilemma by deciding to take a break from being alone in deep reflection and share in some ignorant bliss with another person. In the words of Rankin herself during an interview with Stereogum, “The record ends with living in the moment. Things may not be perfect, but here we are, regardless.” While maintaining its classic indie pop sounds, Alvvays created a piece of art that surpasses its successful first album. Rather than writing a single story arc, Alvvays strings together a series of vignettes that share a single narrator. Although Antisocialites appears to be about dealing with a breakup, the themes run much deeper, mixing easygoing humor with profound thoughts about life and loneliness. Because it is intended to resemble a series of short stories,
Antisocialites is compiled so that each track can stand firmly and beautifully on its own—but this cannot compare to the complicated and poetic narrative weaved by connecting them all together. Voice’s Choices: “Dream Tonite” and “Saved by a Waif ”
Polyvinyl Record Co.
Abhichana Naiyapatana