2 16 2012

VOICE the georgetown

0

STUDENTS REMAIN ACTIVE AFTER OCCUPY EVICTION PAGE 5

MERIT-BASED AID ALTERS FOOTBALL OUTLOOK PAGE 6

NO MEAT IN THAT TACO PAGE 11

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  February 16, 2012  Volume 46, Issue 6  georgetownvoice.com

We’ve got issues: GUSA Election Preview

2 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2012

Letter to the Editor: I am responding to your Feb. 9 editorial entitled “Hoya women deserve their reproductive rights.” I am writing not to criticize your conclusion -- although I disagree with it -- but rather to critique the erroneous method and presumptions by which you reached it.

First, you incorrectly characterize the University’s commitment to its “Jesuit identity” as the primary impetus for its ban on the provision of contraceptives on campus. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the ethos and religious nature of our university. Without this basic understanding, you cannot make a valid argument. Jesuits and their values are inherently Catholic. It is this Catholic identity that is the impetus for the University’s decisions regarding these matters as Catholic teaching forbids the use of contraceptives.

Second, you claim that “the University’s allegiance to antiquated ideologies has passed the point of acceptability.” Not only does this assertion border on bigotry, but it is also innately false. Just because a belief is countercultural does not mean it is antiquated. This is a key distinction. As a Catholic institution, Georgetown is called to take a moral stand even if it goes against the norm. This stand is perhaps unpopular, but it is not antiquated.

Finally, you fundamentally misrepresent the Jesuit ideal of social justice. You argue that only through the sale of contraceptives on campus will Georgetown be able to improve “the effectiveness of the social justice initiatives which it claims to be the central facet of its Catholic identity.” Not only does Georgetown claim that social justice is important to its Catholic identity, but it also proudly demonstrates it every day. An emphasis and belief in social justice, however, is not license to abandon our Catholic moral beliefs and Jesuit religious and intellectual heritage. It should, rather, be an extension of these beliefs.

As an intellectual community, and even more so as a Catholic and Jesuit university, Georgetown needs vigorous discourse on these matters. Only through discussion can we solidify our beliefs. I ask, however, that you fairly and correctly present the facts.

For Georgetown, Peter Prindiville (SFS ’14)

classifieds

Rent this spacious 3-bedroom apartment at 1681 35th Street.

Pretty block. Close to campus. Great parking. $4,050. Available June 1. More details at HoyaHousing.com or Facebook “Georgetown Rentals”.

Offered by Charles Sullivan, Re/Max Metropolitan Realty.

301-526-7894 (cell) or 301-947-6

Voice Crossword “No Bones About It ” by Tyler Pierce 1

2

3

13

4

5

6

7

14

17 20

25

26

27

28

29

33

8

9

46 50

51

22

23

24 31

41

54

52

37

38

60

61

62

19

32 35

47

36

18

30

43

12

16

21

40

11

15

34

39

10

42

44

45

48

49

53

55

56

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

57

58

59

72

Across

17. Type of cocktail 18. Badass gun 1. Kyoto sash sch.

70. "Father 14. Ger. neighbor 19. Cambridge 42. Conservative and ___," start?

1970 Cat song 4. Stevens Cause of a trip?21. Got woody 20. Bones 47. Oe on a Denver 7.V.I.P. Kennedy or Turner Religious 71. D.C. team ending 22. Pythagoras had23. one 10.resource Tax worker, abbr.

24. Bitch50. or Provoke shawty, perhaps 72. Lode 25. Regular sights at 13. Home for the terminally ill 25. Parks on a bus?

51. Native New Georgetown after dark 29. Lie idly, with “out” Down 15. Some genetic info Zealander 26.

S-shaped molding 16.

Dadaist Jean 31.

Prior to, to Prior 1. Units of resistance 2. "__ of Mormon," Broadway sensation 3. Bermuda, e.g.

27. Arias, usually 28. Something to be done

53. Frequently 55. J.F.K. postings 56. Spheres

33. Awestruck 34. Holiday ___ 35. Fluorescent red dye 39. Bones 43. Île de la Cité locale 44. Fi, __, Fo, Fum 45. It might be oral 46. Dexter’s sister 48. U.N. working conditions agcy.

49. Successful Black Man, for example 50. Ostrich relative 52. Caviar 54. Bones 63. Id competitor 64. 1975 AC/DC album 65. Bend again 66. Crag 67. King trumper 68. Jersey Shore necessity 69. “Wheel of Fortune” purchase 70. “Father and ___,” 1970 Cat Stevens song 71. D.C. V.I.P. 72. Lode resource Down 1. Units of resistance 2. “__ of Mormon,” Broadway sensation 3. Bermuda, e.g.

4. Diet 5. Highlander 6. Buddhist god 7. Bridge support 8. 15 Across product 9. Speaker’s platform 10. Bob Barker had one in “Happy Gilmore” 11. Choice, like steak 12. Able 14. Ger. neighbor 21. Got woody 22. Pythagoras had one 25. Regular sights at Georgetown after dark 26. S-shaped molding 27. Arias, usually 28. Something to be done 29. LXIII/IX 30. They come after ems 32. Like the states of Alabama and Mississippi

answers at georgetownvoice.com

36. Old German duchy name 37. Muslim leader 38. What’s in one 40. Neckline shape 41. Olive, for example 42. Conservative start?

47. One on a Denver team 50. Provoke 51. Native New Zealander 53. Frequently 55. J.F.K. postings 56. Spheres 57. Insignificant 58. You will find none of Muhammad 59. Bhikshuni, for example 60. Ricelike pasta 61. “... happily ___ after” 62. Arid 63. Socrates’s H

Are you a logophile?

Share your love of words and help us write crosswords.

Email crossword@georgetownvoice.com

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 46.6 February 16, 2012 Editor-in-Chief: Sean Quigley Managing Editor: Leigh Finnegan Blog Editor: Jackson Perry News Editor: Vanya Mehta Sports Editor: Kevin Joseph Feature Editor: Rachel Calvert Cover Editor: Richa Goyal Leisure Editor: Heather Regen Voices Editor: Connor Jones Photo Editor: Lucia He Design Editor: Juia Kwon, Kathleen Soriano-Taylor Projects Editor: Rob Sapunor Crossword Editor: Tyler Pierce Assistant Blog Editors: Ryan Bellmore, John Sapunor Assistant News Editors: Soo Chae, Morgan Manger Assistant Sports Editor: Abby Sherburne Assistant Leisure Editors: Mary Borowiec, Julia Lloyd-George, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Photo Editors: Julian De La Paz, Abby Greene Assistant Design Editors: Amanda Dominguez, Madhuri Vairapandi Contributing Editors: Geoffrey Bible, Nico Dodd, Iris Kim Tim Shine

Staff Writers:

Geoffrey Bible, Mary Cass, Patricia Cipollitti, Will Collins, Jane Conroy, Emma Forster, Daniel Kellner, Kelsey McCullough, Eileen McFarland, Matt Pacana, Adam Rosenfeld, Jake Schindler, Melissa Sullivan, Fatima Taskomur

Staff Photographers:

Nick Baker, Sam Brothers, Helen Guo, Craig Hudson, Kirill Makarenko, Tim Markatos, Jackson Perry, Matthew Thees

Copy Chief: Kim Tay Copy Editors:

Keaton Hoffman, Tori Jovanovski, Claire McDaniel, Neil Sood

Editorial Board Chair: Gavin Bade Editorial Board:

Tiffany Brown, Rachel Calvert, Nicolo Dona Dalle Rose, Leigh Finnegan, Julia Jester, Cole Stangler, Julia Tanaka

Head of Business: Keaton Hoffman Business Staff:

Sara Ainsworth, Zoe Disselkoen, Charmaine Ng, Aarohi Vora

The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

This newspaper was made possible with the support of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, online at CampusProgress.org. Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 424 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Web Site: georgetownvoice.com 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. Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board. 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. The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed

by Silver Communications. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover: GUSA Executive Election Platforms Cover Photos: Alexandra Rice

the georgetown voice 3 FOR... GUSA

Clara and Vail provide the best vision for GUSA There are a great many options in this year’s GUSA presidential election, and each one presents quality ideas. But one ticket clearly stands out from the pack with the necessary experience, a practical and ambitious policy platform, and a wider vision for what GUSA can be. Clara Gustafson (SFS ‘13) and Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13) are that ticket, and a vote for them represents a concrete investment in enhanced student life, a richer academic environment, and a redoubling of Georgetown’s commitment to sustainability and social justice.

The Gustafson/Kohnert-Yount ticket covers many of the practical goals which other candidates like to harp on, but it also envisions a larger role for themselves as student advocates. Their plan for an annual undergraduate research symposium is unique among the candidates, and holds the potential to legitimately enrich the academic experience of countless students on the Hilltop.

Clara and Vail also present the most developed and task-oriented approach to campus sustainability. Their plans range from the immediate and tangible, like the installation of motion sensors in common rooms, to the more lasting and ambitious, like the establishment of a Georgetown Office of Sustainability.

Their platform is also unique in its focus on supporting the campus arts community, a vibrant and talented group of Hoyas too often overlooked by the administration and student advocacy organizations.

Clara and Vail’s is the only ticket dedicated to strengthening Georgetown’s commitment to the Jesuit ideals of social justice. Whereas none of the other candidates even mention the Center for Social Justice in their platforms, these two promise to pressure the administration into finally appointing a permanent director for the CSJ, lobby for increased funding for the Center, expedite implementation of the SIPS fund, and appoint a position on their executive board committed to social justice issues. These are far from the only laudable Gustafson/Kohnert-Yount policies, but they

represent areas where these candidates have broken from the rest of the pack to re-envision the Hilltop. Further, smaller ideas like a campus bikeshare or a Georgetown Craigslist website that have are the focus of other campaigns can easily be taken up by any incoming executive. What really matters is a difference in vision, which Clara and Vail provide.

Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount have also had the most extensive and applicable experience in GUSA and elsewhere on the Hilltop.

Clara has been in GUSA since her freshman year, and spearheaded the highly successful SIPS fund initiative for a year and a half. She brings the necessary administrative relationships and institutional knowledge to navigate the dizzying Georgetown bureaucracy. Vail led the College Democrats, has worked with Georgetown Solidarity Committee, headed voter registration drives on campus, and was an integral part of the Leo’s unionization drive, which was arguably the most significant positive change in the Hilltop community in recent years. Together, they provide a formidable team of University know-how, familiarity with the student landscape, and involvement with those social justice issues that are at the core of Georgetown’s mission.

At the same time, they are unafraid to tap into grassroots student support as a means of pressuring the administration when conventional avenues of negotiation are closed. The combination of Clara’s understanding of GUSA and the administration, along with Vail’s record of success outside of the University’s framework, renders this pair the political capital to represent student interests. They are the candidates who will really “get shit done.”

That said, there are a number of innovative ideas from the other campaigns that Clara and Vail would do well to adopt during their tenure. One which is especially pertinent comes from the Delaney-Appau ticket, who proposed during their Voice interview the addition of a law school alum as a resource at the Student Advocacy Office. The Malkerson/Cleary idea for a “promise tracker” is

also an important component of executive accountability. Tyler Sax (SFS ‘13) and Michael Crouch (SFS ‘13) have displayed great collaborative spirit throughout the campaign, and their crowdsourcing initiative holds promise for integrating the voices of the wider student body. John Morris (COL ‘13) and Lauren Weber’s (COL ‘13) ideas for the SAO were also particularly apt, considering Morris was one of the founders of the office. The Tisa/Walsh proposal to integrate representatives of each student advisory body into their executive board is laudable and forward-thinking. And everyone would appreciate facilities reform, as LaMagna and Starks have proposed.

But in the end, priorities are what define a campaign, and priorities are what set Clara and Vail apart from their fellow candidates.

Their emphasis lies not only on improving academic culture, sustainability, the arts, and social justice initiatives, but also on encouraging conversation on diversity, supporting student health and athletics, and cutting the GUSA budget. Although they have been far too coy about it in their rhetoric, their candidacy represents a novel and much-needed change in GUSA’s trajectory. They are the candidates not only of particularities, but of broad vision. If GUSA is ever to become a functioning and productive student advocacy organization and not some distant bureaucracy, it needs leaders that envision a larger and more activist role for it on campus. That means it will need to exert considerable influence on an administration too often hostile to student interests. Clara and Vail have the expertise to navigate the University landscape without conflict, and are not afraid to utilize student will as leverage against the slowmoving administration. More than that, they represent a new approach to the GUSA Executive and embody the ideals and values of a just and dynamic Hilltop, without resorting to negative campaign tactics or empty displays of irrelevant nationalism in Red Square.

The choice is clear this GUSA election season.

Vote Clara and Vail on Feb. 23.

SACK THE PACS

D.C. must curtail corporate political influence

On Thursday, Feb. 9, D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan ruled that the “Fair Elections to Restore Public Trust” initiative, a potential revamping of D.C. campaign finance law, is constitutional and not in conflict with the 2010 Citizens United vs. FEC decision by the Supreme Court. Supporters will now need to collect 22,000 signatures from registered voters in the District before the measure can go before the public in a referendum on election day. The initiative proposes a series of measures that would bring D.C. campaign finance regulations into line with federal regulations. Although the proposed rules do not entirely curtail the insidious influence of money in politics, they represent a step in the right direction for D.C., which currently lags behind many states and the national government in addressing this fundamental problem in American democracy.

Currently, the District allows businesses to donate directly to campaigns, transition committees, legal defense funds, and constituent services. Contributions of this sort have been banned in federal elections since 1907, and Citizens United only allows donations to entities not technically affiliated with candidates, explaining the rise of Super PACs which operate outside campaigns. The proposed D.C. rules would emulate these regula-

tions, and similar ones in 21 states.

The little financial regulation on corporate donations in D.C. at the moment relates to limits on how much corporations may spend on campaigns. However, the spending caps mean nothing, as businesses have found a loophole in the practice of “bundling.” Instead of contributing money themselves, corporations direct their funds to middlemen, who give to political organizations in multiple donations. By these means, companies are able not only to avoid contribution caps, but can band together to increase their influence.

There are disclosure laws for contributions in the District, but they are too easily circumvented by use of middlemen.

Considering the size of the constituency each D.C. Councilmember represents, it takes very little money to give a candidate a big advantage in advertising and visibility. Without tightening campaign finance regulations, businesses can hold aspiring councilmembers hostage with threats to donate to another campaign. These businesses are often based outside the councilmember’s area, and can amass far greater amounts of money for political donations than the average individual citizen. As a result, their influence disenfranchises D.C. residents not fortunate enough to own a successful company.

Of course, there is a political obstacle to these reforms. As former D.C. Council Candidate Brian Weaver says, “there is never the moment in which the council will step forward.” Our current council clearly puts personal interest ahead of the public in attempt to maintain the status quo in D.C. election law.

The passage of Fair Elections to Restore Public Trust will come far from solving campaign finance issues in D.C. Corporations still have too much power to assert their will, and that threat to the sanctity of our democracy should outweigh any supposed speech rights that corporations have. Even so, the threat of Super PACs and other funding entities outside campaigns is less dire in a small environment like D.C., so this reform has the potential to considerably improve District government’s representation.

As new elections approach, it is essential for voters to recognize the incoherence of the law. Already underrepresented at a national level, the District cannot afford to continue to allow corporations this freedom to corrupt local democracy. Mitt Romney may believe that corporations are people, but District residents should not believe that until Texas executes one. It is in everyone’s interest that this initiative be on the ballot in November and eventually become law.

news

4 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2012

GUSA Executive candidates defend budget proposals

by Morgan Manger On Sunday evening in the Leavey Center Program Room, the seven GUSA presidential candidates gathered to debate their opposing platforms, defending their budget proposals in front of students and campus media. The proposals varied widely in amounts requested, each suggesting different programs and line-items.

Colton Malkerson (COL ’13) and Maggie Cleary (COL ’14) requested $165,000 for their budget, the largest among all of the candidates. Of this money, $144,000 was for lineitems, while only $19,000 was for the GUSA Senate General Account. The line-items include an e-readership program to complement the current Collegiate Readership Program and a spring concert planning committee.

Although their ticket’s budget is significantly larger than those of their peers, Malkerson does not think that the amount of money should concern students. “Students should look at what we want to support,” Malkerson said. “We’re putting priority on a concert which is a major part of student life, or should be at least, [and putting a] priority on group clubs and student leaders.”

Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and Vail Kohnert-Yount’s (SFS ’13) $23,400 request is the smallest proposal among the candidates. They designed their budget with the mindset that money does not necessarily form the best platform.

“To get things done at this university, you don’t necessarily need money all the time. It’s about working hard to foster relationships with people across campus,” Gustafson

craig hudson

GUSA vice presidential candidates debated their platforms last night in Leavey.

said. “And yes, sometimes you do need money to book rooms or provide food or advertise initiatives, which is a lot of what our costs will be.” This priority is demonstrated in one of their key initiatives, $2,500 for a research symposium, of which a large portion would go to a kickoff for the program.

Another difference between the candidates was how to deal with SAFE reform funds. While all candidates agreed that it should go to clubs, some felt that GUSA’s budget should increase as well.

“Most money should be going to clubs, not just to GUSA,” presidential candidate Tyler Sax (COL ’13) said. “A moderate increase in the GUSA budget is appropriate given the increase in available funding this year [from SAFE].”

Key initiatives from his budget include the GUSA Partners Fund and an alumni relations program for clubs.

Candidate Murphy Kate Delaney (COL ’13) had a slightly different view. “SAFE reform has led to a significant increase in the amount of funds available for student programming,” Delaney said. “We strongly believe that the majority of these new funds should be distributed among student groups and that GUSA should receive only a small portion.” Their budget requests include additional weekend GUTS bus services as well as an intra-

GU students connect with Cuban youth

by Eileen McFarland This weekend, the Cuban American Student Association (CASA) is partnering with Raíces de Esperanza, a nonprofit that works to empower young Cubans, for the Cuban Youth Summit. As Cuban society becomes increasingly open, the summit aims to foster relationships between young people in Cuba and America.

Raíces de Esperanza was founded in 2003 by Cuban-American Georgetown and Harvard students who wanted to explore what it meant to be Cuban-American. It has since evolved into a group that empowers Cuban youth with a variety of projects in the greater D.C. area. Initiatives like “Cell Phones for Cuba” and “USBs for Cuba” organize drives to provide young Cubans with technology to which they do not normally have access.

The Cuban Youth Summit begins on Friday with a meet-andgreet, then features discussions on Saturday. One speaker at the conference, MJ Porter, translates for Cuban bloggers who are not published in their own country.

Participants will also meet Yrak Sanchez, a Cuban rapper, and have a phone conversation with a student in Cuba. On Sunday, students will lunch with leaders in D.C.’s Cuban community.

The event aims to improve Cuban-American relations at a people-to-people level. Due to the difficulty of travel and a lack of internet accessibility in Cuba, the summit provides a rare opportunity for Cuban and American youth to communicate. “It’s especially pertinent to Cuban-Americans who live in the US because they’ve always lived being told by their parents and grandparents that they left because of the regime that came

in,” said CASA president Alejandro Gonzalez (SFS ‘12). “Thus they’ve lost contact with Cuba and their roots.”

The initiatives “Cell Phones for Cuba” and “USBs for Cuba” organize drives to provide young Cubans with technology that is difficult to find in Cuba. Cell phones and USBs allow Cubans to disseminate information that would otherwise be restricted.

“There have been a lot of protests in Cuba that haven’t been too publicized by the government,” said Gonzalez. “Most have been captured by cell phone cameras.”

Another project, “Dial to Cuba”, organizes phone calls between Cuban and American youths. The phone calls allow Americans and Cubans to challenge their stereotypes about each other. “Someone is listening, you are interacting with an American who is not the enemy,” Gonzalez said. “They’re no different from you.”

campus bike share program, entitled Bulldog Bikes.

John Morris (COL ’13), on the other hand, said SAFE reform money should go straight to clubs and not to GUSA. He said, “we believe [the SAFE reform money] should go straight to clubs; they know how to use their money best. If it were to go straight to them, that would go a long way in improving GUSA’s relationships with clubs.” Important elements of the Morris-Weber budget include a GUSA student lecture program costing $7,000, and $2,000 towards the development of University administrative office hours.

The role of the University in funding and support became a similarly contentious issue. Daniel LaMagna (COL ’13), whose budget was the shortest of all the tickets, believes the University should take on more responsibility. “We don’t think GUSA should be doing too much paying for stuff, [instead we] should be advocating for the University to change things,” LaMagna said. “They should be the ones paying for it. We pay them already with our tuition dollars.”

Sax disagreed. “The money that GUSA spends is student money and is very different from University money,” Sax said. “Sure, we can ask the University for things, but the power of student government is that you have students directing student money. And that really changes the

way we think about it, and changes the things we spend it on.”

A final issue of contention lay in experience. “The other tickets haven’t been as involved in funding issues as much as I have,” Malkerson said. “So I think maybe their budgets could reflect a lack of understanding about how money could best be distributed in student life.”

But many other candidates, including Gustafson, stated that they were involved in other funding initiatives in GUSA, and felt sufficiently experienced to prepare a strong budget. “[I was] co-founder of SIPS and helped with budgets in that, I also attended the GUSA budget summit last year, and have been very involved in SAFE reform,” Gustafson said.

Some candidates recognized that they had not had as much experience in the financial area of GUSA, but did not feel that it would be an obstacle to their campaign. “I was much more involved in different sorts of policies, such as reforming the Student Code of Conduct, but I would certainly surround myself with people who have had a financial background in GUSA,” Morris said. “[They would] help myself and Lauren out with the intricacies of the budget.”

Polls open on February 28. “Unless you participate, you don’t have a right to complain,” said Nate Tisa (COL ’14), another GUSA executive candidate.

Hollander talks Guantánamo

julian de la paz

Internationally renowned criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander spoke in the Intercultural Center last Tuesday about the rights of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

“It is not too early for us to follow our great constitutional tradition,” she said. “For this, we need to take back our justice system.”

— Ambika Tripathi

news

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 5

Despite crackdown, student Occupy movements growing

by Soo Chae and Matthew Weinnman While recent police crackdowns on encampments in McPherson Square and in other cities across the country have diminished some of the intensity and media coverage surrounding the Occupy protests, Occupy movements at colleges across the District persist, collaborating with each other to organize new protests and actions.

At Georgetown, known more for its conservative values than student activism, the student Occupy contingent remains a small one. There are just 50 people on the Georgetown Occupy email listserv, and only 10 to 15 students regularly attend general meetings. But organizer Gina Bull (SFS ’12) says these numbers belie the group’s effectiveness.

“In a group like this, you don’t really need a bunch of people,” Bull said. “What you really need is a few people who are really dedicated, and I think that’s what we have.”

At American University, on the other hand, student participation is much bigger. “American University has a huge amount of progressive vibe,” Bull, who has

attended meetings at AU for the past few weeks, said.

“When we communicate with George Washington University and Georgetown, they often tell us that it’s hard to get people to care,” Mana Aliabadi, a member of Occupy American University, said. “We do have that problem here, but I feel like it’s a bigger problem at Georgetown and GWU.” Bull admits that compared to American University, Georgetown’s number of active students does lag behind. However, she asserts that Georgetown is not unique in its lack of commitment to Occupy. “GW, I would say, has a smaller group than ours,” Bull said.

Samuel Nelson, a GW student who is active at GW’s Progressive Student Union and has attended GW Occupy events, wrote in an email that GW is a “very corporate, neoliberal school,” and described the student body as “apathetic.”

Despite recent evictions, the quieting down of the media, and dwindling public attention, Occupiers insist that the movement has not lost its momentum, nor has its Georgetown contingent. According to Rachel Nethery (COL ’12), an

DCPS cheats the public

It’s been over three years since the first reports of cheating on standardized tests surfaced in D.C. public schools, and yet many questions remain unanswered. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education recommended in November 2008 that DCPS investigate suspicious rates of wrong-to-right answer changes on standardized tests in the District. Then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her office balked, and OSSE dropped the recommendation.

In March of the same year, a USA Today investigation brought the issue under national scrutiny. It showed that 103 of DCPS schools— over half—had provided suspicious levels of wrong-to-right erasures on tests to testing company CTB McGraw Hill. One of these schools, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, had recently been designated a “Blue Ribbon School of Excellence” by the Department of Education. In 2006, 10% of Noyes students scored “proficient” or “advanced” in math on the standardized tests mandated

by No Child Left Behind. In two years, that number increased to 58%. In 2008 and 2010, Rhee awarded the teachers at Noyes $8000 in

bonuses, and Principal Wayne Ryan pocketed $10,000 in bonuses each time. The higher-ups at DCPS liked the story so much they even ran recruitment ads with his picture, asking “Are you the next Wayne Ryan?” Now Ryan is gone, along with a third grade teacher and special-ed teacher at Noyes. No explanation was given for the departures, but it seems likely they were pressured to quit over the testing irregularities.

This shifty response to the resignations has come to characterize the DCPS response to the issue.

John Fermer, founder of Caveon, the company hired to investigate the suspicious erasures, says Chancellor Kaya Henderson never conducted an extensive investigation.

Indeed, Caveon was never even given raw test data from McGraw Hill, which would allow them to see student cooperation, prior student performance on tests, and results for classrooms under different teachers. But, since OSSE hired McGraw Hill to provide the test, it was required to release the results.

It never did.

Meanwhile, DCPS is trumpeting a new report that says suspicious

active member of GU Occupy, the Student Occupy D.C. movement has advanced from focusing on organization and growth to engagement and action. “We got a stable group out now,” Nethery said. “The organization phase has progressed.”

For Occupy AU, that progressive trend brought more emphasis to student issues, ranging from financial matters like student loans, debts, and tuition costs to social issues like gender issues, gay rights, and racism. “It will resonate with [the students],” Aliabadi said. “Anyone can come and be part of it…and be represented.”

Georgetown Occupy collaborated with Occupy AU and other universities involved in Student Occupy D.C. in several protests, notably the Take Back the Capitol October march to Sallie Mae, the Occupy Alfalfa Club event, and Occupy Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend.

The Occupy participants say that misinterpretation of the movement is that they struggle in their effort to reach more students.

“People should realize that Students Occupy D.C. isn’t about erasures fell in 2011, continuing the downward trend since 2008. However, OSSE only released a nine-page summary of the testing company’s original data. The public version breaks down data by citywide grade level rather than by school, and does not specify which schools are involved with cheating. The report refers to an omitted Excel file with school-based data. What’s more, the report was completed in July, but OSSE waited until the last week of December to release the information.

city on a hill

by Gavin Bade

A bi-weekly column on D.C. news and politics Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, for the findings that any real investigation will uncover are likely to be quite inconvenient for Chancellor Henderson and supporters of standardized testing.

Although suspicious erasures have fallen since 2011, DCPS won’t say that the decline in suspected cheating has been coupled with either stagnant or falling test scores. This is a serious conundrum for the school district. DCPS under Rhee-Henderson touted their commitment to accountability under the IMPACT

encampments, [and] that it focuses on student issues,” Aliabadi said.

“We’re all on the same boat.”

Nethery agreed, stating that “it’s a misinterpretation of the movement to think that it’s about camping out at parks...it’s a tactic, not an end.”

In the future, the group is hoping for a big turnout both from Georgetown and from the D.C. community to a “teach-in,” which will be led by a diverse group of occupiers and experts. The group is also collaborating with other schools in the area in organizing action for the National Day for Education on Mar. 1.

The Occupy participants encourage fellow students to keep an open mind. “Highly prioritized academics and super studious students [are] great, but hopefully they will try to reverse that and try to bring more progressive and enlightened sort of thinking,” Aliabadi said. “It’s an issue that we all have in common, unless you’re one of the privileged few.”

Bull said the biggest challenge the group faces is misperceptions about the state of the protests. “People ask me, ‘is it over?’” she said.

“Do you think something doesn’t exist because it’s not in the news?”

craig hudson

Students continue to participate in Occupy despite McPherson evictions. program for teacher evaluation.

Now that regime appears to be tearing at the seams.

It’s clear that job pressure is persuading at least some teachers and even principals to inflate test scores. The teaching methods that come with these numerous tests don’t seem to be inspiring student growth in many of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. When teachers must cover an abundance of set material in a short time to prepare for standardized tests, they often resort to rote memorization, lecture-format classes, and heavy homework loads.

Although these techniques usually serve affluent students well, educational research has repeatedly shown they do not reach disadvantaged populations. Poorer students, usually with less structured home lives and less educational assistance outside the classroom, typically learn better through physical interaction with course material, interpersonal activities, interactive teaching styles, and lighter homework loads, especially during earlier years. However, these teaching practices are often too time-consuming for classes under tight testing schedules and are demanding on overworked teachers.

The increased testing demands and

lack of classroom flexibility under IMPACT are likely exacerbating educational divides rather than bridging them.

In short, DCPS and OSSE are reluctant to release information on testing irregularities because it has the potential to discredit one of the central facts of their educational regime so influential in recent reform efforts around the nation. If their system is so stressful on teachers that it causes them to cheat, imagine what it does to their classroom performance. And if it proves to be the case that these artificially inflated scores are covering up stagnant or falling test results, Henderson and company have a problem. Nothing’s proven yet, but if the DCPS administration is really confident in their educational ideology and the integrity of their faculty, it seems they would have gotten to the bottom of this long ago. But now the scandal festers, and every day that it does it raises more doubts about the D.C. reform model and its capability to change the face of schools and equalize economic opportunity across the nation.

Want to learn how to read good and do other stuff good too? Talk to Gavin at gbade@georgetownvoice.com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2012

Hoyas set for rematch with Friars in Providence

by Tim Shine The last time the Georgetown men’s basketball team saw Providence, the lowly Friars nearly ruined their New Year ’s Eve, holding the Hoyas to a season-low 49 points and remaining within a score of victory until the final minute of the game.

The Hoyas eventually won the game, 49-40, and, a month and a half later, Georgetown (19-5, 9-4 Big East) has regained the ninth spot in the ESPN/ USA Today Coaches Poll just in time for this Saturday’s rematch with Providence (13-13, 2-11 Big East).

The two teams have headed in vastly different directions since their first meeting. Despite a few bumps in the road, the Hoyas have continued their early-season success, and are vying for a top-four finish in the conference. The Friars, on the other hand, are in dead last. The team faded after a strong start under first-year head coach Ed Cooley.

If Georgetown’s recent play is any guide, Saturday’s game should not be nearly as close as the first Providence tilt. Over their last four games (three double-digit victories and a narrow overtime loss at No. 2 Syracuse), the Hoyas have shown that they are a more complete team than they had been earlier in the season, with the bottom part of the rotation showing that they too have what it takes to win games.

In last Saturday’s 71-61 victory over St. John’s, another rematch from earlier in the season, the Red Storm keyed in on Georgetown’s top two scorers, senior Jason Clark and junior

Hollis Thompson, and held them both below their averages.

“I think they spent a portion of that game box-and-one on Hollis,” Head Coach John Thompson III said after the win. “Both Hollis and Jason they really just face-guarded, shadowed them everywhere they went. I thought that both of them did a pretty good job of not forcing anything—a lot of times when that happens you start to force things. But we also had other people that were able to step up and make plays.”

Among them was freshman Greg Whittington, who led the Hoyas with a career-high 12 points. Whittington has been the seventh man off the bench for most of the season, and the team has counted on him more for his hustle and defense than his offensive abilities. But on Saturday he showed flashes of the player who averaged 23.5 points per game as a senior in high school.

If Whittington has fixed the inconsistent jumper that’s plagued him so far in college, he adds another dangerous facet to a well-balanced Hoya offense that had five players in double figures against St. John’s.

More often than not, however, Georgetown’s defense has been what’s won them games.

The Hoyas have the 17th-best scoring defense in the country, allowing just 58.9 points per game. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed since the last time they faced Providence—in that game, Georgetown allowed only 40 points.

Sophomore Nate Lubick emerged as a consistent defensive presence. The forward has struggled at times this season, but he pulled down eight rebounds and blocked a career-

Hollis Thompson will need to assert himself against Ed Cooley’s Friars.

ABBY GREENE

high four shots. At the other end, he was perfect from the field with seven points and dished out five assists.

Still, with so many players capable of putting up a big performance, there is always a risk that one ball may not be enough to go around. If Providence is hoping that will save them from

another loss, however, they should think again. The Hoyas’ coach is confident his players won’t succumb to that pitfall.

“You’re programmed ever since you were four or five years old that, regardless of how poorly you’re shooting, when a big shot comes up, I’m going to shoot it,” Thompson said. “A lot

of times you have five guys on the court that, when you have a big possession, are ready just to chuck up a shot. And the built-in excuse is, ‘Well, I’m a good player so I’m going to take that shot.’

I think that this group has gotten pretty good at understanding that we have a lot of different people that can make that shot.”

the Sports Sermon “Late night is sometimes just nasty.” - Hoya point guard and GUSA Vice Presidential candidate Markel Starks during Wednesday’s GUSA debate However, for the football program, that could signal the restart of continued progress.

Last summer, President John DeGioia said that moving to a scholarship program would not “fit the ethos and culture of Georgetown,” so seeing the Hoyas follow the rest of the Patriot League and give out 15 scholarships in 2013 does not seem at all plausible. However, it may provide a reality check for the administration that college football, even at the I-AA level, is moving toward scholarship aid.

Reagan, for one, remains an optimist in the program going forward. “Money alone doesn’t win games,” he wrote in an email to the Voice. “Football has repeatedly adapted to changing times at Georgetown since it was

pendence could, in theory, logistically work. That move, however, For years, HoyaSaxa.com has would be a backbreaker for the been the holy grail of information program—it could no longer purfor fans of Georgetown football sue an FCS playoff bid unless the and basketball. Of course, there team somehow dominated all of is no lack of internet sources for its competition in a single season.

Hoya basketball, but site editor It goes without saying that the John Reagan (MSB ’84) provides Hoyas will never be a I-A, football the most comprehensive coverage powerhouse. They would need a of the football program around. few wealthy alumni to throw all Scroll down the page a little bit kinds of money at the program. and you will find a counter, one But at the end of the day, that’s that today reads: “It has been fine. As Reagan explains, George2343 days since construction was town student-athletes come to the halted on the Multi-Sport Facility.

Hilltop for a “world-class educaGive our students a home that betion and the opportunity to comfits Georgetown.” pete.” Players pour their hearts Reagan, like most Hoya footand souls into competing for the ball diehards, sees the problems Blue and Gray, evidenced primarwith the program - starting with ily by their incredible turnaround the glaring unfinished field that this season. That effort should sits in the heart of campus. Now, come with some merit-based aid, well over six years a measure GeorgePete Rose Central after construction on town will eventually Da bettin’ line MSF came to a halt, have to adopt once Georgetown’s athletthe exclusively needDookies Margin Hoyas ic priority has shifted based aid route be(underdogs) (duh!) to the new Intercolle- (favorites) comes a footnote in giate Athletics Center.

I-AA history.

Greg Monroe Winning The Georgetown Roy Hibbert But for now, A. Davis Super-team football team plays T. Robinson Georgetown will at an extreme disadremain in the PaLob City Chauncey Lake Show vantage not only due triot League. The to their home field, but also the founded in 1874, and will con- administration may not decide team’s operating budget, which is tinue to do so.” either way until the 2012 season estimated to be about half of what As for what’s next, there are is over, as that growing disadvanother Patriot League schools are a number of possibilities. Rest as- tage between the Hoyas and their granted. Additionally, much of sured that DeGioia will perform competition builds. As we saw that budget comes from the tire- his duty, as he did when he added last season, and as Reagan pointed less efforts of alumni and parents Georgetown to the fledgling Patri- out, it’s not just about money or rein the Gridiron Club, who bridge ot League in 2000. The conference sources. The Hoyas went 8-3 and the annual gap between actual op- remains a viable option, with a were on the cusp of a conference tierating costs and the University’s number of respectable institutions, tle, despite the odds against them. budget for the team. simple travel logistics, and an au- They will remain a force in the The Patriot League’s recent tomatic bid to the FCS playoffs. Patriot League this season as well. announcement that it will allow Non-scholarship conferences are For now, the players and coaches merit-based scholarships for foot- now fairly rare and often present mark the program’s success, and ball players beginning in 2013 puts logistical nightmares—take the Pi- the administration’s impending Georgetown in another murky oneer League, comprised of teams decision will play a pivotal role situation, one that could ultimately from San Diego to Jacksonville, as in football’s continued footprint make the school’s disadvantage the prime example. on the Hilltop. One day, we may too drastic to overcome. Coupled Given the Hoyas’ typical look back on the Patriot League’s with the seemingly daily changes schedule of Patriot League match- recent rule-change as the start of to the Big East conference, George- ups combined with a couple of re- significant progress for Georgetown athletics faces perhaps its gional teams and a couple of Ivy town football, forcing the program most difficult and unclear era. Leaguers, a move to football inde- to look past the status quo.

by Kevin Joseph

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Women’s tennis opens Big East Hoyas take down Villanova

by Melissa Sullivan This past Saturday, the Georgetown University women’s tennis team started its Big East Conference matches with the University of Pittsburgh. The Hoyas beat the Panthers 4-2 last season after losing to them in a close 4-3 match in the spring of 2010, and they’ve continued their three-match winning streak by downing them 6-1 at the Alpha Tennis and Fitness Club.

Head Coach Gordie Ernst was proud of his team’s effort against the Panthers, who have historically been a thorn in the Hoyas’ side.

“Pittsburgh, they’re always tough,” Ernst said. “But we were ready, we matched up great throughout the lineup.”

For the singles matches, senior Lauren Greco defeated Pitt’s Jocelyn Lu in a close match of 6-2 in the first set, 3-6 in the second, and 10-7 in the third. Sophomore Tina Tehrani beat Pitt’s Gabrielle Catanzariti 6-1 in both played sets.

Greco and Tehrani, both nationally ranked, give the Hoyas a formidable pair to lead the team, something Ernst has not had in the past.

He’s especially proud of the sophomore’s progression after a stellar freshman campaign.

“Tina’s really coming on strong,” he said. “A one-two punch of Tehrani and Greco, they’re both nationally ranked, and they give us so much strength at the top.”

Sophomore Kelly Comolli fell to the Panthers’ Taylor Washington in a close match, losing the first set 7-5, winning the second 6-4, and losing in the third 10-8. Junior Victoria Sekley in the fourth singles position beat Amanda Wickman of Pitt 6-3, 6-1. Freshman Sophie Panarese won against Kimmy Borza 6-2 in the first set, and while the second set presented more challenges, she came out on top 7-5. Ernst said Panarese, one of the highest-recruited freshmen in the country, provides excellent balance for the team in the sixth spot.

Tina Tehrani leads a balanced women’s attack as a sophomore.

LUCIA HE

Reevaluating Cuban talent

With pitchers and catchers beginning their workouts this week, Major League Baseball is finally underway in 2012. However, as the players dust off their cleats and fans flock to Spring Training to catch a quick glimpse of their heroes, supporters of the Oakland Athletics are left scratching their heads at a rather bizarre offseason.

Few in recent years have dared to question the rationale of A’s General Manager Billy Beane, Mr. Moneyball himself. And yet, many have been puzzled by his recent $36 million acquisition of highly touted Cuban outfielder Yoenis Céspedes. Prior to signing him, the A’s had appeared to have already thrown in the towel on the 2012 season, trading young pitching studs Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez for prospects while doing little else to bolster their already limited big-league roster. Céspedes’s deal makes him not just the highest-

paid player on the team, but one of the most expensive players in team history.

Consequently, while such a signing would normally draw applause from fans, players, and front offices, the Céspedes signing drew staunch criticism. Not only did this move seem to counter Oakland’s prior moves this offseason, but suddenly the price tag had fans and analysts alike questioning whether Céspedes would even be good in the Major Leagues, as scouts doubted his ability to hit offspeed pitches, play center field, or even adjust to American culture.

A similar situation occurred two offseasons ago when the Cincinnati Reds signed fellow Cuban Aroldis Chapman for $30.25 million. But once the then-21-year-old lefty unleashed the first 105 mph fastball in the 142-year history of MLB, doubters quickly began to rethink their initial stance. After

The Hoyas also performed strongly, winning two out of three doubles matches. The first doubles players from Georgetown, Greco and Comolli, lost to Pitt’s Lu and Washington in a close 8-7 match.

Second doubles Tehrani and Sekely defeated Borza and Catanzariti of Pitt 8-2, and third doubles Jaegar and Panarese won 8-4 against the Panthers’ Wickman sisters.

The Blue and Gray (3-1 overall, 1-0 Big East) are starting their season off on a higher note than they did last year. During the 2010-2011 tennis season, the women’s record for their first four games was 2-2. While last season the women started their season competing with other Big East rivals Syracuse and DePaul, this extra win gives the Hoyas an edge over their competitors.

The men’s team, meanwhile, is coming off a 6-1 loss against Penn yesterday. Ernst was disappointed in the result, calling it a “tight match” despite the final score, but called losing their trip to Philadelphia “tough.” One bright spot was sophomore Andrew Dottino’s gritty two-set singles victory.

The men look to rebound versus Old Dominion on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the women travel to Williamsburg, VA, for their next match against William and Mary this Friday at 4 p.m., and the team gets some time off before their next Big East conference game against Rutgers on February 23. The Hoya coach is not looking past William and Mary, though, as the Tribe almost beat nationally-ranked Washington.

“We have to play our very best tennis and we’ll have a shot,” he said.

striking out 71 batters in just 50 innings in his sophomore season, it has become clear that at the very least Chapman will be a quality, if not elite, pitcher.

The similarities between these cases extend beyond their shared heritage, as both players have had their ability to play in Major League Baseball come into question despite their dominance abroad. While

Double Teamed

by Daniel Kellner a rotating column on sports Chapman was already the ace of the extremely successful Cuban national team as a teenager, Céspedes belted 33 home runs in just 90 Cuban games last year, and compiled an astronomic .458 batting average at the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Perhaps Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is at fault here.

His glaring label as a bust stems from five infuriating injury-riddled

by Abby Sherburne On Tuesday night at the Pavillion arena in Philadelphia, the Georgetown women’s basketball team was able to sneak by the Villanova Wildcats. The game was within four points in the final minute, but a few key defensive plays allowed Georgetown to extend their lead to six, eventually pulling out a 60-54 victory.

The win came after a close five-point win over Seton Hall and an 80-38 pummeling by No. 3 UConn. Last year, the Hoyas gave the Huskies a run for their money during the regular season and the NCAA tournament. Despite the crushing defeat, the Hoyas stayed physical against the Wildcats, and did not merely give up. Off-kilter offense is not something that the team is accustomed to, and so it is important to note that their recent unlucky shooting run is not in their nature.

The game against Villanova was slightly better for the Hoyas. They were able to raise their field goal percentage from 25 percent to 34.4 percent, and got off more shots. Junior Sugar Rodgers and senior Rubylee Wright were more effective, combining for 31 of the Hoyas’ 60 points. Perhaps there was a bit of a hangover from Connecticut, as coming off tough losses is always difficult, especially when the team is forced to stay on the road.

seasons in the majors after becoming the most expensive and talkedabout international signing in MLB history.

Matsuzaka’s fall from grace is somewhat inexplicable given his reputation as the top pitcher in the Japanese League and his victorious exploits in each of the first two World Baseball Classics prior to signing with the Red Sox. But even more perplexing is how the hefty skepticism levied on the arrivals of Chapman and Céspedes doesn’t seem to extend to other Japanese players coming into the league.

If anything, MLB scouts should think more highly of Cuban players. Not only does Cuba have the world’s most successful international baseball team, ranked No. 1 by the International Baseball Federation, but Cuban players face a far less difficult cultural transition than Japanese players for obvious linguistic and social reasons.

When one considers the enormous Hispanic community throughout

“We knew this would be a tough game because it always is against Villanova,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “I told the girls to throw out everything and just concentrate on getting the win.”

The women did just that, and consequently were able to secure the much-needed win after the Huskies’ blow to their confidence. Much of the press that they have received in the past year has stemmed from their success in coming close to the media darling Huskies.

At the beginning of the year, Wright said that winning against UConn was a “given,” and Williams-Flournoy said that their Sweet Sixteen loss had been a give-away.

The team’s elongated adjustment period is partially due to the lack of fulfillment of their preseason goals. While their season is winding down, the team still has a few opportunities to continue their upwards trend. They will face an unranked squad from Providence on Saturday, when McDonough Gymnasium hosts Senior Day. The Hoyas should be able to secure another Big East win against the Friars, but it may not be as easy as they had anticipated—the Friars recently beat Seton Hall by a much more convincing 15-point margin.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday. Seven seniors will be honored before the game for Senior Day.

Major League Baseball and around the US, this becomes quite evident.

Furthermore, Cuban baseball interacts far more with other MLB-player producing countries through competitions like the Caribbean World Series and the Pan American Games, suggesting that they will most likely have an easier time adjusting their skills to the MLB. While it is completely understandable to have reservations about paying $36 million for a player completely unproven in the MLB, scouts need to start showing some consistency when evaluating these unknown international talents. Frankly, every player in Céspedes’s circumstances has a chance of being a bust, regardless of whether he’s Cuban, Japanese, Dominican or Icelandic. Let’s give both him and the Athletics some time, considering that all this guy has ever done in his life is flat out hit.

Evaluate Dan’s bat speed online at dkellner@georgetownvoice.com

feature

8 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2012

Meet the Issues GUSA Executive candidates’ platforms explained

STUDENT ADVOCACY

The Tickets Colton Malkerson (COL ‘13) Maggie Cleary (COL ‘14)

By Rachel Calvert

feature

georgetownvoice.com

Almost every platform includes proposals for how students can better interact with the administration. In the case of Sax and Crouch, this means acting “as a bridge between students and the administration,” as they claim that “GUSA’s strong

Clara Gustafson (SFS ‘13) Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ‘13) Nathaniel Tisa (SFS ‘14) Sheila Walsh (COL ‘14) John Morris (COL ‘13) Lauren Weber (COL ‘13) Tyler Sax (COL ‘13) Michael Crouch (MSB ‘13) Murphy Kate Delaney (COL ‘13) Mike Appau (COL ‘13) Daniel LaMagna (COL ‘13) Markel Starks (COL ‘14)

relationship with the administration is... underutilized [sic].” Malkerson and Cleary articulate a way to involve student voices in the administration’s decision-making process, as a way to boost transparency. “We would

push to expand GUSA external board appointments and gain student representation on…

Provost governance committees,” their platform reads.

In addition to pledging to “fight for a fairer Student Code of Conduct,” Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount prop up the newly created Student Advocacy Office. This office was established last fall, after making an appearance in the platform of Ace Factor and James Pickens, who spearheaded the initiative after an unsuccessful bid for the executive last spring.

Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount say that “the SAO is being underused because not many students know about it,” and they call for short and long-term marketing campaigns to raise awareness. An SAO awareness push also makes an appearance in the campaign of Morris and Weber, who cite the office as “a prime example of what GUSA can do to improve student life on campus by giving you a voice.”

DIVERSITY INITIATIVES The SAO’s goal is to help students navigate student code of conduct issues, an area that plays prominently in Malkerson and Cleary’s platform. Their proposal, which also touches on increased awareness of the Student Advocacy Office, calls for broader reforms: establishing a “reasonable deadline” for notice of disciplinary decisions, implementing a longer and more transparent appeals process, and increasing the burden of proof for the University, to name a few.

Both Tisa/Walsh and Sax/Crouch call for similar reforms in their platforms, with each calling for the addition of a Bill of Student Rights. Thought it never made it past the GUSA Senate when it was last proposed in the fall, the Bill of Student Rights was intended as an addendum to the Student Code of Conduct.

LUCIA HE

DINING SERVICES STUDENT SPACE

Given the student body’s generally unfavorable opinion of the Leo’s dining experience, it is no surprise that some candidates have very practical suggestions for how to improve dining at Georgetown. Last year, Dining Services hosted a number of roundtables, and students’ criticism tended to focus on a lackluster array of options in Grab ‘n Go and during late-night dining hours. These are very practical proposals, similar to the ones in past GUSA campaigns, including the 2011 Meaney/ Laverriere platform. Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount focus on incorporating healthier, more vegetarianfriendly options at late-night to accommodate the busy students who are restricted to late-night Leo’s dining. They have a dual agenda for Grab ‘n Go: expand options at existing locations and bring a station to East Campus.

Malkerson and Cleary would also like to see an East Campus

Grab ‘n Go station, and they call for Grab ‘n Go containers students can fill with selections from the main dining hall. Although they also call for improved latenight options and later hours, they uniquely call for more seating upstairs at Leo’s, with premade signs “indicating availability to share,” like the ones at Saxby’s.

Besides improvements in late night options, Tisa and Walsh’s contribution to the dining conversation is to overhaul the meal plan structure to make flex dollars more versatile. They propose a new meal plan option that would enable students “to use some meal swipes to purchase a set value of food from the Corp or other local businesses.” Murphy and Mike’s plan is more of the same, with the exception of allowing one “guest swipe” per week on weekly meal plans, similar to the way Block Meal Plans are set up.

Addressing the dearth of student space on campus was a focal point of GUSA’s recently passed SAFE Referendum. During the fall, Malkerson was chair of the GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee, which oversaw the working group in charge of lobbying the administration for the construction of Healy Pub. Malkerson and Cleary’s agenda for “Enhancing Student Space” heavily features the New South Student Center, a component of the University’s Capital Campaign that also received significant funding from SAFE. “GUSA must ensure transparency and student participation in further planning and development of NSSC,” their platform reads. They support the development of a Corp Market, which “would be similar to a combination of Vital Vittles and Uncommon Grounds.” Their platform also includes plans to ensure that the pub included in the NSSC plans will indeed be student run: “We will fight attempts to give control of the pub to Aramark or any other outside company. To this end, we will partner with the Corp in efforts to make the NSSC Pub student-run as was once envisioned for Healy Pub.” Malk-

erson and Cleary also call for student input in the Leavey Center redesign, with particular emphasis on MSB-style breakout rooms and a center with club operating resources, like printers.

Sax and Crouch echo Malkerson and Cleary in their endorsement of the University’s long-term student space plans.

But they add that, in the mean-

time, “standing tables in ICC galleria would provide students the ability to work on their laptops before or after classes for a few minutes.” To the same end, additional seating on Harbin Patio would “allow students to use the area as outdoor space for socializing and studying.”

In addition to holding the University accountable to its NSSC plans and pushing for

student input in the Leavey Center redesign, Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount’s platform includes plans to consolidate the University’s cumbersome spacebooking procedures. They also include an extensive plan for sustainability, including the creation of an administrative Office of Sustainability, which they feel is “not only crucial but necessary, in order to ensure that the conversation about sustainability is going on at higher levels throughout the University.” They also call for a GUSA representative to sit on the Food Committee and for the University to install light sensors in common rooms to cut down on wasteful energy use. They also plan to “make sure that trash rooms in dorms are well equipped with recycling bins for all types of recycling,” presumably to avoid the common hodge-podge of recycling and trash that most trash rooms deal with.

As for Morris and Weber, the student space component of their platform mentions revamping the student space booking system and supplementing On Campus Activities Facilities costs with GUSA funds while working to reduce reservation rates.

the georgetown voice 9

In fall of 2010, GUSA passed a resolution spearheaded by Josh Mogil (SFS ‘11) calling for a discussion about implementing gender-neutral housing. Since then, very little work has been done on the issue within student view.

Under the heading “Community + Diversity,” Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount outline their plans for making the housing process more LGBTQ-friendly, with the focus on the gender-neutral housing initiative. “Many instances have been reported of LGBTQ students being ostracized or abused by roommates who are not accepting of the LGBTQ identity,” their platform reads. “For the safety and well-being of LGBTQ students, it is important that GUSA continues to advance the conversation on gender-neutral housing.” They also include plans for an “LGBTQ-friendly checkbox on CHARMS and the Rainbow House on Magis Row.” In the interest of promoting diversity in general, they plan to promote and reach out to preexisting programs like the Center for Multicultural Equity & Access, Hoya Saxa Weekend, the Community Scholars Program, and the President’s

Scholarship. Their platform also indicates plans to make bias-related incident reporting more widely accessible.

Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount’s platform gives passing mention to the 2009 Diversity Initiative task force, and call for its findings to be featured prominently on the website.

Similarly, Malkerson and Cleary say that they will “push to refocus efforts on promoting diversity on campus” by encouraging the University to revisit the Diversity Working Group’s report, which was released in 2010.

Like some of the other platforms, Tisa and Walsh note that GUSA as a body is not terribly diverse. “Despite improvements,” their platform reads, “GUSA continues to underrepresent racial and sexual minorities and suffers from an evident male gender-bias.” However, their platform explains how, as a cabinet, they will “represent identities that have not held these offices for a very long time, if ever.” As such, they claim diversity as a priority. Their initiatives range from a unity fair—similar to SAC fair but with a focus on diversity, cultural, and linguistic student groups— to “LGBT-friendly housing and Charms options.”

INTERNAL GUSA REFORM ACADEMICS Gustafson and KohnertYount’s platform is primarily concerned with the relative lack of undergraduate student research at Georgetown. The pair calls for “improv[ing] the outreach and scope of existing research opportunities,” like the Georgetown Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the Georgetown Office of Fellowships, Awards, and Research. They also plan to establish an undergraduate research symposium in the vein of the Carroll Round and the Walsh Exchange.

Tisa and Walsh hone in on the cumbersome registration process: “We intend to work with UIS to make MyAccess more user-friendly, as was done with the MyDegreeAudit.” They also propose a one-credit peer mentoring program, through which “experience[d] students can provide crucial advice on

classes, majors, and programs.” Morris and Weber ’s platform says they “would like to support and encourage the creation of an undergraduate research center with the hope that we could strengthen this academic aspect of life at Georgetown.”

Malkerson and Cleary plan to reform the InterSchool Academic Council. By strengthening its relationship with ISAC, “GUSA can help ISAC coordinate initiatives, educate the students on academic issues, communicate with senior administrators, and solicit student feedback.”

The initiatives that they hope to push through this relationship include the expansion of minors and courses students can take in different schools, standardization of course levels, and “creation of a transparent and organized website for course evaluations.”

During the last election, Factor and Pickens said that the outgoing Angert/Kluger administration had “been largely successful in giving credibility to GUSA as an institution.” Possibly with an eye to continuing this trend, internal reform is a hot-button issue during this campaign.

Malkerson and Cleary’s platform explains that GUSA has steadily improved over the past five years: “Through SAFE Reform and expanded outreach efforts, GUSA has greater authority and visibility on campus,” it reads.

Though they don’t propose to overhaul GUSA, their platform includes an extensive list of tweaks. They plan to develop a smaller executive, assigning specific campaign promises to individual staffers. “In addition, the President and Vice President will take on specific initiatives as our own, rather than serving primarily as administrators.” In addition to collaborating with existing organizations like the Corp and the 1634 Society, they also plan to bring in external consultants. They also include

plans for a “Campaign Promise Tracker,” which will show progress on campaign promises against a timeline for completion.

Gustafson and Kohnert-Yount focus on making “GUSA more representative of the diversity of the student body by reaching out to underrepresented student groups and encouraging their members to apply or run for positions in the GUSA senate and executive.” They will require every member of their administration to go through CMEA and the LGBTQ Center’s diversity training.

Sax and Crouch’s platform alludes to the need for GUSA to “engage in community outreach through small, one-time partnerships with student groups.” They propose a GUSA Partners Fund that would “enable GUSA to form stronger ties with other organizations while providing monetary support.”

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2012

Strathmore pays tribute to Ellington, and all that jazz

by Kirill Makarenko “I’m not going to do justice to Duke Ellington tonight in just one lecture,” speaker Rusty Hassan said to the audience on Monday evening. This twohour session was just one part of a series taking place at the Mansion at Strathmore Hall in celebration of the life and music of the world-renowned jazz composer, arranger, pianist, and Washingtonian. The series, entitled the Discover Ellington Festival, runs from the Feb. 3 to 20 and focuses on the “AfricanAmerican Aesthetic,” making this praiseworthy celebration all the more appropriate during Black History Month.

Monday’s session showcased a condensed history of Ellington’s music, beginning with records from the twenties chronicling the development of the New Orleans “jungle sound” at New York’s Cotton Club and concluding with the artist’s live show in Newport in 1956. While two hours was nowhere near enough time to

in Ellington’s personal style has allowed the Strathmore to schedule a full month of programming filled to the brim with award-winning musicians and scholars.

touch on every facet of Ellington’s work, Hassan, a WPDW DJ and representative of the Duke Ellington Society, threw an almost overwhelming amount of information into the presentation.

Guiding the lecture was the counterintuitive central theme of Ellington’s dislike for the term “jazz.” With no firm etymology or meaning, the label for the genre came to disgust not only Ellington, who claimed in his book Music is My Mistress that he doesn’t “believe in categories of any kind,” but also from John Edward Hasse, author of Beyond Categories. This Ellington biography in part served as the framework of Hassan’s presentation, which resulted in a wellinformed lecture that, despite not quite doing justice to a jazz master, fully captured the essence of Ellington’s work.

The theme of the festival as a whole also ran through the presentation. Over much of his career, Ellington was forced to limit his virtuosity to the length of a 78 rpm record, the domi-

nant form of recorded music until the early 1950s. Combined with his distaste for the common name for jazz, which he simply referred to as American music, this limitation proved

an asset, as each three-minute composition drew on an incredible depth of inspiration.

Consequently, the diversity of musical traditions wrapped up

While tickets to many of the remaining performances carry a fee of over $30, the lineup is well worth the price. Arturo O’Farrill’s Grammy-winning

’14) even wrote many of the “use this word in a sentence” examples that form a vital part of the show’s humor. Madsen’s brilliant quips reveal the way that Spelling Bee celebrates offbeat spontaneity. Roberts ap-

Probably the most unusual aspect of the show is its audience involvement, which allows the participation of four volunteers in the on-stage spelling bee.

Though this may cause the volunteers to sweat over the spelling

more (COL ’15) said “the most important part about the show is the audience involvement.” It is rare that a theatrical production allows for this level of influence from the audience, yet Spelling Bee integrates it with flair.

Kirill Makarenko

My disappointment in you is matched only by your stupidity. #RustyJudgesYou

Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra featuring Latin Jazz master and 10time Grammy winner Paquito D’Rivera will perform Ellington’s big band compositions along with original pieces inspired by his work. The festival will also include the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra performing Ellington’s three “sacred concerts,” described by Ellington as his most important work. Those who wish to pay tribute to Ellington’s music without literally paying tribute can attend the free panel discussion featuring Hasse, composer David Schiff, and Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl as well as the concluding annual family festival celebrating the Ellington’s extensive legacy.

While just one two-hour lecture will not do justice to Ellington’s musical genius, the Strathmore’s Duke Ellington Festival brings together his incredible life and body of work with an awe-inspiring line-up of musicians and experts. Together, these masters bring life and pay homage to this legend of American music.

Putnam’s Spelling Bee will change your weltanschauung

by Julia Lloyd-George A story about six pre-pubescent spelling bee contestants is not exactly an intuitive subject for a musical. But it is precisely the quirky idiosyncrasies of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that make it such an appealing success. Satirizing the pressure-filled childhoods of middle school overachievers, it tells the simple tale of a county spelling bee while simultaneously capturing the growth of all its individual contestants. Filled with sharp comedy, much of which is improvised, Spelling Bee will have its audiences both falling off their chairs and pondering how to spell the names of obscure South American rodents.

Directed by Beni El-Dalati (COL ’12) and produced by Ellison Roberts (COL ’14), Mask and Bauble’s production of Spelling Bee runs from Feb. 16 to 25 in Poulton Hall. As a musical with improvisational comedy at its base, it provided a unique challenge that required the collaboration of a wide range of staff—actor Joe Madsen (COL

craig hudson

“How could I have been eliminated? You wanna know how? My unfortunate erection is destroying my perfection.” plauded this “quirky harmony” of the cast and crew, saying it allowed them to “come together in the truest spirit of theater and create something.”

of “panacea,” it effectively adds to the show’s humor by lending an air of serendipity to every laughable moment. Assistant Stage Manager Katherine Sise-

The story behind Spelling Bee itself weaves together multiple layers, giving life to the seemingly tedious context of a local county spelling bee. El-Dalati

said the show “uses something trivial and fills it with as much heart as possible.” Though the outward story of the competition itself unites the six children, it frames each contestant’s personal story with flashbacks and musical sequences while the characters are faced with a litany of spelling words. True to the show’s musical spirit, these stories burst to life through often irreverent songs that tell the awkward tales of everything from self-doubt and unfortunate erections to parental pressures.

By the end of the competition, each contestant learns a personal lesson that memorizing the spelling of “didactic” simply can’t achieve. From discovering the joy of “not living up to expectations” to redefining what it means to win, every speller goes through a process of growth. In this way, Spelling Bee becomes a bildungsroman (language of origin: German) of the most unexpected sort.

“What this show teaches us is that it’s not how we perform that’s important, but rather it’s that we do and what we learn from doing it,” El-Dalati said.

georgetownvoice.com

“That’s what i hate about this government. everything’s in red.” — anastasia

lez’hur ledger

Want your money back, you will

by John Sapunor This Saturday, I wasted 16 dollars on a ticket to the 3D re-release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The following is a letter I wrote to George Lucas explaining my disappointment.

Dear Mr. Lucas, You suck.

Sincerely, John Sapunor P.S. This Saturday I attended a showing of Episode I in 3D with two friends. At the age of seven I lined up for the same film sans 3D, and now, at the age of 20, I felt that it would be best if I came to terms with the marring disappointment I felt at that 1999 showing.

Sometimes it’s better not to trust the judgment of my seven-yearold self, and maybe I was wrong about how much the film sucked upon that first viewing. Eager to be impressed, my friends and I got dressed up as Jedi Knights and marched over to the theater in anticipation of this film’s shot at three-dimensional redemption.

When we sat down, we put on our special Darth Maul 3D glasses. “Darth Maul!” we exclaimed, praising the single badass charac-

ter in Episode I’s pool of whiners.

Maybe this movie wouldn’t be as bad as we thought. Maybe Jar Jar had been edited out.

As the only three audience members dressed in Star Wars garb, we felt obligated to cheer for the opening credits. But following these credits, the plot setup dragged through space, reminding us of the film’s first major fault—the plot. The movie revolves around a trade blockade dispute. Was that the best you could come up with, Mr. Lucas? It sounds like someone from C-SPAN wrote this mundane garbage.

Enter 3D Jar Jar Binks (no, he was unfortunately not edited out of this re-release). You know how some 3D movies make you reach out in front of you to grab at what looks like a tangible object? Well 3D Jar Jar is so close to being real, so close to being capable of death, that I wanted to reach out and strangle him. But no, his incessant interjections could not be stopped.

But to your credit, Mr. Lucas, Jar Jar has been a great unifier of Star Wars fans.

Arguably—actually inarguably— the most despised character of all time, he

This money’s Double Fine

There is a rare class of entertainers who could ask their fans for cash and raise over $1 million in less than 24 hours. It would take a gravity-shifting megastar to generate that kind of outpouring of support, someone with a cultish following like Oprah or Justin Bieber—or, apparently, Tim Schafer.

Tim Schafer is a game designer and the founder of Double Fine Productions, an independent game developer best known for Psychonauts, a 2005 game as famous for its commercial failure as its critical success. Before starting his own studio, Schafer spent the 1990s cornering the market on a genre known as point-and-click adventure with games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle for LucasArts.

In short, you’ve probably never played a Tim Schafer-designed game. At least 50,000 people have, though, because as of Wednesday night they’ve pledged over $1.8

million to Double Fine to develop a brand new ‘90s-style adventure game. It’s not exactly a charity case—for a $15 donation you’re promised a copy of the game when it’s finished—but contributors are giving up their money based on nothing more than a video message from Schafer and their own faith.

Double Fine is raising the money using Kickstarter, the crowdsourced financing site that allows companies and individuals to aggregate many small donations to fund large projects. Most Kickstarter projects look to raise thousands of dollars over the course of a month or two. The tentativelytitled Double Fine Adventure was only the second project on the site to pass $1 million, and it did it in less than a day.

No one expected that kind of enthusiasm, least of all Schafer.

Double Fine was only looking to raise $400,000, and a quarter of that

made it clear to all Star Wars fans that this movie sucked, because to counter with a “If you look beyond Jar Jar” remark is impossible.

You simply cannot look past Jar Jar when debating the merits of The Phantom Menace.

Well, there’s no point in prolonging this rant if I can stop at Jar Jar. He single handedly ruined the film’s chance of redemption. The pod-racing scene was cool, and the final Darth Maul battle scene had an edge to it, but the rest was nothing but Jar Jar-tinged crapola. And to address the addition of 3D technology, I’ll refer you to the opinion of my fellow Jedicostumed friend: “The 3D did a great job emphasizing the onedimensionality of the plot.”

So there you go, Mr. Lucas.

Your movie sucked in 1999, and it still sucks in 2012.

I want my $16 back.

was to fund a documentary about the making of the game. In his video pitch for the project, Schafer said, “If I were to get a publisher right now and pitch an adventure game, they’d laugh in my face.” Now he’s amassed a budget that likely dwarfs any of his previous adventure games’ in less than a week. It will keep growing larger, too—peo-

god Mode

by Tim Shine a bi-weekly column about video games ple can still donate on Kickstarter for almost a month.

The immediate success of Double Fine Adventure is incredible. It’s not that $1 million is a lot of money to make a game—an average Xbox 360 or PS3 game costs tens of millions of dollars to make, with the biggest titles approaching the $100 million mark—but adventure games were never considered blockbusters even in their heyday.

the georgetown voice 11

To beef or not to beef?

by Mary Borowiec After the carnivorous barbeque overload of D.C.’s Meat Week, the District’s all-veggie alternative, Meat-Free Week, began its third annual celebration this Monday. The festival challenges meat-eaters to try new diets, and record crowds show up to trade their bacon for Boca Burgers.

“This year we made a schedule much more focused on social events,” organizer Amber McDonald said. “From the BBQ kickoff at Sticky Fingers Sweets and Eats to Sunday’s twEAT up at the Boundary Stone, we were really looking to give participants much more of an opportunity to interact.”

This emphasis on community interaction over vegan options lies at the heart of the week’s purpose. “It’s funny,” McDonald said. “If you can reach people’s stomachs, it can be much easier to get them to listen to your message.”

And Meat-Free Week has definitely succeeded in reaching eaters’ stomachs. Mike Farmer, a D.C. native who has attended nearly every MeatFree Week event, said, “First they laugh at you…but then they try this”—as he pointed Now they’re an extremely niche genre. Their loyal fans have cried out their willingness to pay for a new take on the genre for years, but to see cheap message board talk translate into real money so quickly is shocking.

It’s hard to find a comparison across other media. Film saw a seemingly dead genre resurrected recently with The Artist, the Oscarnominated silent film which has grossed more than $53 million at the box office. The production of Double Fine Adventure, however, is like if The Artist’s director financed the movie by selling tickets to audiences before shooting ever began. There have been plenty of successful Kickstarter projects for independent documentaries and music albums, but none with the clear commercial potential that the support for Double Fine Adventure seems to imply.

Maybe Double Fine will prove to be an entertainment industry pioneer, and more Schafer-like cult figures will go straight to their cus-

down to his nearly empty plate of the Boundary Stone’s famous Seitan wings.

While one audacious blogger went so far in saying, “It’s official, Meat-Free Week is lame,” McDonald laughed, arguing that there is no animosity between the rival foodie events. “[Meat Week organizers] have actually even helped publicize Meat-Free Week as a great way to recuperate and feel better after Meat Week,” McDonald said.

In keeping with the week’s focus on providing options for the District’s eaters, the D.C. Vegan blog keeps the animalfriendly opportunities coming all year round with monthly events like the Vegan Bake Swap on March 3. D.C. Vegan Drinks also offers lacto-ovomeat-free cocktails at the Science Club on March 15.

And for Georgetown students seeking office and meatlessness, D.C. Vegan recommends VegWeek, which challenges public officials to try vegetarianism. McDonald believes that VegWeek will be a success, as certain politicians with histories that demonstrate lack of self-control have taken up the challenge.

“If Bill Clinton can go vegan, I think anyone can,” she said.

tomers to finance new music, TV shows, and movies. At the very least, it shows that even large-scale projects can succeed using services like Kickstarter. Making the leap from $300,000 game to $50 million movie may be a stretch, but if I were someone like comedian Louis C.K., who recently said he would make a feature film if someone would give him $8 million, no strings attached, I’d give Tim Schafer a call in a few months and see how his experiment worked out.

Then again, Double Fine Adventure may just be the unique product of video game culture and a small group of acolytes with over a decade of pent-up demand. And the computer gamers who are backing the project are probably more comfortable than most navigating Kickstarter and making donations online—they clearly love to pointand-click.

Go on your own adventure with Tim at tshine@georgetownvoice.com

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2012

C r i t i c a l V o i ces

Tennis, Young and Old, Fat Possum Records For today’s indie bands, the risk of drowning in a sea of synthesizers and hipster criticism is all too real. Any wrong move results in uncompromising irrelevance, which is followed by the immediate rise of another, similar band to fill the void. Luckily, Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, the husband/wife duo that makes up Tennis, have not succumbed to this fate. A career that began on a seven-month sailing expedition along the eastern coast of the United States has begun to blossom into a powerful act which attracted the likes of the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, who produced the more professional Young and Old. Many of the songs about sailing and the adorable spousal inside jokes of their previous album, last year’s

Cape Dory, disappear from Young and Old, which does little to maintain the themes of love that dominated the debut LP. Tracks like “Traveling” still embody the worldly romanticism that flowed throughout Cape Dory, but Young and Old as a whole moves inland from the group’s first album.

The new LP begins with “It Feels the Same,” which Moore kicks off by crooning that she “took a train to get to you” and ends describing her loss of interest in a romantic relationship. This song sets the tone for most of the record, which appears to be the flip side of Cape Dory in terms of lyrical theme—romantic images and anecdotes from the eastern seaboard give way to melancholy musings about unrequited love and loss of innocence. On the drum-driven “High Road,” for instance, Moore repeats, “Paradise is all around/ But happiness is never found.”

Musically, too, Tennis has expanded its horizons. Rather than continuing the beach-pop of their debut album, the group moves towards a more heavy reliance on Riley’s guitar and Moore’s more prevalent keyboard lines, particularly noticeable on “Origins.” The addition of drummer James Barone provides an additional percussive and rhythmic element that was missing from Cape Dory.

Decent lyrics? That shit cray.

Detractors say rap is the bane of the music industry, inciting youth to worship talentless frauds that can neither sing nor craft lyrical greatness. I have one response to this criticism—really, who cares? Hip-hop can be hilarious. Delving into the shittiest lyrics on the market gives us a tragic and comical look at the failures and successes of some of the most popular artists’ attempts at lyrical ingenuity.

The amusement listeners get from dissecting the lines of their favorite goofy rapper is a perfectly legitimate reason for listening.

Just about everyone who truly does enjoy rap is bemoaning its recent downfall: they point to the new banal, self-promotional lyrics and the tedious tough guy acts.

You would think that this flourishing industry is in dan-

ger of going bankrupt. The genre’s supposed undoing is on the minds of rappers as well. In the radio hit “Nothin’ On You,” B.o.B grasps the merits of keeping your books in order for the IRS, “Baby, you the whole package, plus you pay your taxes.” The money-conscious rapper may just be hitting his stride on the way to a successful career, but this pitiful “rhyme” in a fast-paced love song does an absolutely fantastic job of killing the mood. The first time I heard the lyric, I remember tilting my head inquisitively, rewinding a few seconds, and reliving the ridiculousness of that moment.

If there were ever a rapper built on the premise that smoking weed results in good music, Lil Wayne would be the prototype. He’s preposterously tattooed, with long-ass

While Young and Old is a departure from the themes that made the group’s first LP a modest success, it emerges as an enjoyable record, displaying the duo’s noticeable versatility and immense potential for further hits. For a band that quite literally started out at sea, Tennis has finally found its harbor in an indie pop sound.

Voice’s Choices: “It All Feels The Same,” “Origins” —Kirill Makarenko

Yuksek, Living on the Edge of Time, Barclay Records Frenchman Pierre-Alexandre Busson, Yuksek’s sole member, admitted that the majority of songs on his romantic Living on the Edge of Time, released on Valentine’s Day, dreads, and shorter than Tom Cruise—his image is confusing, yet mesmerizing. As he has compiled one of the most impressive rap discographies of our time, he has influenced several generations of youth.

Wait, what? That can’t be.

Because on the song “6 Foot 7 Foot,” he sings, “Real Gs move in silence like lasagna.”

Blast That Box

by Matt Pacana

a bi-weekly column about rap music The line is a grammatical travesty. At the same time, though, it’s oddly alluring. It is this kind of twisted creativity that makes sense and makes us laugh when you forget about trying to analyze the song as some literary construction.

It isn’t just Billboard-crushing pop rappers who find themselves getting destroyed by critics for their word choice.

were written all alone in between the wings of a plane or above winding train tracks. As such, the album often comes off a little solemn. The opening lines of “On a Train,” sung out in a Wombats-style Britpop accent, are sad a self-deprecating: “Thanks, I’m fine, but I’ve nothing to give.” With a tone like this, Yuksek’s sophomore official release brings the new era of dance-pop music a darker, TV on the Radio-esqe twist.

“The Edge” starts off with Art Tatum-style jazz that quickly fades, only to be replaced by a jeering but silvery repeat of lyrics that inspire the LP’s title. The line “I’m in living on the edge of time” is enjoyably repetitive and intercut with other lyrics seemingly inspired by the moments of life that seem to pass by too quickly. Yuksek croons, “How was the night? / Where did you go? / How was the fight? / Was it someone I know?”

Other tracks, like “Miracle,” are reminiscent of the partially-spoken lines of LCD Soundystem frontman James Murphy, full of repetition and build. This technique shifts focus to Yuksek’s lyrics, highlighting the album’s strongest and most haunting feature. Though the lyrics shine, Yuksek deftly combines instrumentals and even camera work in his music videos. The video release of the Kanye West, the butt of many jokes despite his undeniable production talent, is obviously guilty of committing more than a few of these lyrical crimes. The best one comes from a Jadakiss song, where Kanye croons to the love of his life, “Are you into astrology? ‘Cause umm... I’m trying to make it to Uranus.” This pickup line, clearly ripped from a quick Google search about how to sweet-talk the ladies, neither rhymes with the verse nor fits the beat’s meter, prompting the hesitant addition of “‘cause umm.” It’s utterly stupid. Any regular person who sang this line would be ridiculed and chastised, but from the mouth of an idealized rapper it gets eaten up as “classic Kanye.” Despite the enormous desire to shut the music off, it’s impossible to ignore the sense of satisfaction that comes from hearing a rapper make a fool of himself.

track “On a Train,” stays true to the song’s name: it pans the camera into a train compartment, where Yuksek sits with a woman. The video reveals their journey through a landscape sometimes pastoral, sometimes vividly tinted in fluorescent hues. As for the song’s lyrics, the narrator plainly lays out his discontent over not living on a train—he might as well sing “wanderlust / wanderlust / wanderlust” over and over.

Until recently, Yuksek has been primarily known for remixes, in particular a heavily screwy, electronic remix of Lady GaGa’s “Paparazzi,” as well as “Tonight,” another electro-inspired track of his own creation. With the release of Living on the Edge of Time, it seems as though Yuksek decided to turn to pop and try his hand at penning lyrics. Unsure where to start, Yuksek draws inspiration from the clever but disbanded LCD Soundsystem, makes a handful of nods to New Wave artists like The Cure, and only succeeds in creating an album to be enjoyed while driving through the lava flow of headlights or promenading on the weekends.

Voice’s Choices: “Always on the Run,” “Miracle” —Will Collins Rappers’ lyrics have reached the point where they’re so bad that they’re actually pretty damn good. The downfall of rap isn’t a lack of talent or even poorly crafted lyrics, it’s that the majority hits on the internet rising one day and falling the next don’t have an iota of personality. I would rather hear an amusing or distinctive artist, like Kreayshawn or any of the Odd Future crew, than listen to another speed rapper, rap battler, or gangsta spit four minutes of “swag” garbage through my throbbing earbuds. In a world where hip-hop lines are judged by college kids and Pitchfork snobs, the rapper using bewildering lyrics is on the fast track to commercial success.

Practice your sophisticated ignorace—write your curses in cursive with Matt at mpacana@ georgetownvoice.com

georgetownvoice.com

page thirteen

the georgetown voice 13

THE HOYA SPRING

February 6: Breaking News: Scuffle breaks out between Gustafson and Malkerson supporters in Red Square.

Georgetown Solidarity Committee and Knights of Columbus each accuse the other of inciting a riot.

February 8: Hundreds flee after second day of Red Square clashes.

February 9: Incidents of vigilante justice reported overnight in Burleith as GUSA remains unable to quell the expanding unrest.

Breaking: Mike Meaney and Greg Laverriere to remain in office until unrest subsides. Opposition groups immediately call for resistance.

February 10: John Morris issues radio broadcast from Howard pledging to fight on.

Propaganda videos released by “DJ LaMangz” have gone viral, calling on Hoyas to protest the grievous human rights violations of the tyrannical administration.

February 11: Regime brands Nate Tisa and Sheila Walsh as collaborators, stripping Tisa of his Vice-Speakership.

February 12: Protests continue in Red Square, as opposition groups begin to coalesce around the Hilltop Revolutionary Committee Derrik Sweeney arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails from ICC rooftop.

February 13: Tisa reportedly joins the HRC, as regime condemns the attempts of “sophomores” to change the government.

February 14: The Corp Brotherhood throws its support behind Nate Tisa as protests reach crescendo.

Unconfirmed report: Laverierre holes up in Woodstock, under the protection of Vatican superiors.

February 15: Bowing to demands, Meaney calls for six-month transition to new leadership.

Malkerson tapped to be Georgetown’s steward in the transition, opposition calls for more protests.

February 16: Massive protests overwhelm DPS barricades, anarchy reigns from Prospect to Reservoir.

Unconfirmed Report: Basketball team to depose Meaney, restore order.

Witnesses report basketball team firing “Otto”matic weapons into air as they enter Red Square.

General Thompson addresses campus on GUTV, assures successful post-war performance.

February 17: Starks, Tisa and Gustafson join Revolutionary Committee, which disbands SAC in first order of business.

Bill Clinton and Bradley Cooper tour GU Hospital to cheer up shell-shocked freshmen.

Sax and Crouch were neither seen nor heard, true Milford men. Meaney and Laverriere imprisoned on top floor of Darnall Prison.

Daniel LaMagna was in the bathroom the entire time.

voices

14 the georgetown voice

february 16, 2011

From finance to fielders, navigating the New York Mess

by Leigh Finnegan Earlier this week, a professor of mine asked the class if anyone was a baseball fan. I raised my hand but was tempted to add a disclaimer: As a Mets fan, I felt that this affirmation required a pretty loose definition of the word “baseball.”

This question came up days after Mets fans received an online dose of insult to add to our injury. On his recently launched Twitter feed, General Manager Sandy Alderson began poking fun at the team’s financial woes.

He joked how he was driving down to Florida for spring training and needed a fundraiser or possibly a PAC contribution to pay for gas money. The tweets read like satire, but this, sadly, was not the case. No, the GM of this poor team, which has suffered in recent years from lack of All-Stars, lack of money, and lack of wins, has resorted to public self-mockery.

The saddest part of the joking is that, although Alderson may be striking nerves, nobody is trying to debase his humor

regarding the team’s finances. The franchise is deeply in debt, a problem which cannot be chalked up entirely to the team’s woeful lack of on-field success. The man to blame here is Mets majority-owner and generally reprehensible human being Fred Wilpon. During his time as owner, Wilpon has made investment decisions that range from stupid to criminal, and legal action has been brought against him on allegations that rather than losing money as he had originally claimed, he profited some $300 million off of Bernie Madoff’s cataclysmic Ponzi scheme, which contributed to the Mets’ financial woes. Madoff has testified that Wilpon knew nothing about his illegal dealings, and a few days ago the owner petitioned the Supreme Court on these grounds, requesting that the body lower the potentially staggering amount of money he would need to pay if he loses his case.

But even if this is true, and that Wilpon did not turn an intentionally blind eye to

Madoff’s dealings, it does little to improve his reputation. In May of last year, long before Alderson began tweeting his comedic remarks, Wilpon made disparaging comments to the press about his own players, bashing team favorites like Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and David Wright. The players publicly downplayed the incident as the rant of a man facing the financial destruction of both himself and the 50-year-old franchise for which he is responsible.

Even so, this was widely regarded as a dick move.

But while his commentary against certain players seemed unwarranted, his tone hit far too close to home. The team’s recent record has fared almost as poorly as its payroll. Mets fans still feel the sharp pang of the 2006 National League Championship Series, when Beltran, in the ninth inning of game seven with the bases loaded, looked at strike three.

For a normal team, that strike would have stung for a while, but something in the intervening five years would have giv-

en them something to be happy about. This hasn’t been the case with Mets fans, who have to look all the way back to 1986 for any real solace. The team has been consistently plagued by poor pitching staff and general mediocrity, and with recent changes in lineup, like Jose Reyes cutting his signature locks and abandoning ship for the Marlins, things aren’t looking up.

Here’s where the personal pain of the fan comes in. In 2011, I attended two Mets games. The first was in D.C., where I suffered through a loss to the Nats.

The second happened after a mysterious phone call to my father from a “Personal Ticket Liaison” who identified himself only as Matt. Matt offered my dad three tickets, completely free of charge, in a good location in the embarrassingly nice Citi Field for a game on a beautiful June evening. We showed up at the will-call desk the day of the game and, sure enough, there were three tickets with our names on them. Apparently, attendance has suffered so

much that the team has resorted to actually giving tickets away.

On the way home, we considered calling this Matt guy up and demanding monetary reimbursement for our emotional loss—if he hadn’t given us the free tickets, we wouldn’t have had to watch our guys get pummeled by, of all teams, the Pittsburgh freaking Pirates.

But apparently, despite the losses, the debt, and the general negativity, there are some Mets who maintain the team’s status as a legitimate institution with the power to win. Recently, first baseman Daniel Murphy was quoted saying that the 2012 Mets “expect to go to the playoffs.” If he’s right, let’s hope for games close to home—with the whole team piled in Alderson’s car, maybe the gas money will be manageable.

Leigh is a junior in the College. She always reminds herself that life could be worse—at least she doesn’t root for the Jets.

Approaching one year, Japan disaster already overlooked

by Julia Tanaka Usher videos don’t normally cause me much concern.

Occasionally I feel a twinge of curiosity—how is his head still affixed after all that bobbing?

Usually a glance is more than enough, and I move on. The “Without You” video, however, was different. After watching it with my roommate, I was filled with distaste.

It features the average amount of gyrating and contains a series of massive earthquakes that literally rip lines in the earth, so that a new Pangea is formed. I felt a deep-seated discomfort and had to leave the room.

On Mar. 11, 2011, at 2:46 P.M., I was sitting with my brother at the table at our home in Tokyo, eating lunch. Small earthquakes are commonplace in Japan, so when the table began to shake, it didn’t bother me. As the tremors intensified, it still didn’t faze me—I continued to eat my lunch as my brother held down a porcelain jug with fear flitting across his face. Suddenly the entire glass cabinet behind me was clattering violently with the threat of wine glasses above my head falling, the windows rattled with stress, and I was surrounded by the sound of falling objects. Before I could warn my brother to get under the table, it was over.

FLICKR

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake-tsunami resulted in 15,846 deaths.

FLICKR

We’re all familiar with the horrors that played out across the TV screens that night. Entire villages swallowed by water, the roar of the earth drowned out only by terrified screaming. Images of people looking stunned and lost, bewildered by the rage of nature.

I engaged in tense conversations with my parents, both at the dinner table and as I lay in the dark, listening, as the fears of radiation poisoning grew and the devastation became more and more apparent.

One evening my mother handed me a roll of duct tape and asked me to seal up the windows. As I stood on a chair and worked, my younger brother silently handed me pieces of tape. The quiet reached its brim, over-spilling in his quiet question: “What if we die?”

It is a testament to the numbness instilled by the tragedy of the earthquake that I could only shrug. I provided the cold comfort of an older sibling. “I don’t know,” I said.

The Usher video reminded me, ironically, that people have forgotten. In October 2011, when the video was released, it was apparently perfectly acceptable to feature an enormous earthquake as its main focus, when there were real victims of the 2011 Great

East Japan Earthquake and tsunami still very much suffering from its aftermath—lack of shelter as winter approached, limited food resources, and the constant fear of aftershocks in unstable housing.

Uncertainty colored every moment, and the air was dense with terror. The international community in Tokyo was in a frenzy: Air Italia stopped flying to Narita Airport due to fears of radiation, companies shut down operations (although Goldman Sachs threatened to fire its employees if they left), and the term “gai-jin”, meaning foreigner, was modified to a disdainful “fly-jin.”

I wrote in an email to a friend: “You want life to go on as usual, but…as you turn every corner of each second on the clock, you feel this strange dichotomy of tension and release. We passed this hour— now onto the next. To think of Thursday—to think of Friday morning, even, is completely unreal.”

Although the before-andafter pictures show a clear path to recovery, we still tread gingerly over the cracks in our comfort. Outwardly, it was nearly imperceptible. Tokyo was far away from the epicenter of the earthquake; we

sustained a few rolling blackouts, but for the most part we were returning to a daily pace.

The Monday following the quake, my father had returned to work. My brothers had resumed harassing each other.

Nonetheless, the memories of the disaster are still quite obvious, as evidenced in new habits. They can still be seen in my mom’s sudden jitteriness when I knock a glass over, and in the helmets and backpacks suddenly lined up at a family friend’s door. It can be seen in the occasional murmurings of radiation poisoning in the water, and in empty seats in my brothers’ classrooms.

February is Japan Awareness Month. Georgetown is hosting various events that remind the community that, while the world has moved on, there are still victims who spent the New Year in school gyms. There are children who will start the Japanese school year in April without many of their classmates and teachers.

We owe them the respect of commemoration.

Julia Tanaka is a freshman in the SFS. Those few weeks were the nicest she’s ever been to her younger brothers.

voices

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice

15

In an unfamiliar culture, an orphan in her own adopted family

by Lauren McGarry Studying abroad and living with a Russian host family began like an awkward first visit at a friend’s house. Your friend leaves the room for a minute and you have to figure out what to say to her parents. Meeting my temporary family for the first time, I found myself in that situation, wondering when dinner is, what it will be, whether it’s any good, where it’s okay to sit, where to put my shoes and coat, what I should and shouldn’t touch, and a whole mess of other

things. But I couldn’t just come out and ask any of that. I was very conscious of being respectful, and even when my host parents told me their first names, I was pretty sure I should stick with Mr. and Mrs. Sokolova.

My mother, Ekaterina, spoke a fair amount of English, so I didn’t have to rely solely on my Russian.

My father, Arkady, barely spoke English. He and I spoke some German, but he seemed reluctant to use anything but Russian.

Ekaterina clearly tried to make me feel at home. She showed me pho-

This is not where her Russian host family lived.

FLICKR

Longtime hostility against Iran While watching the Republican debates over the past few months, I’ve been taken aback by the incredibly violent rhetoric that the candidates direct towards Iran.

The three main contenders left in the Republican field, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich, have all asserted they would use necessary military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center claims that at least 58 percent of Americans agree with the Republican candidates, including half of the nation’s Democrats. As a result, I’ve found myself wondering how Americans can be so eager to start another war after our more than 10-year debacle in Iraq.

Thankfully, the same poll revealed that many Americans, approximately 30 percent, staunchly oppose the candidates’ war-mongering ideology, taking lessons from Iraq and a growing sentiment that America overexerts itself in the affairs of other nations. Even Ron Paul, one of the Republican candidates, has recognized the

painful short-sightedness of these calls for an intervention in Iran, highlighting the crippling burden on the American taxpayer to fuel our nation’s unequaled “defense” spending and the rapidly declining global perception of America as a just and moral leader of the free world.

And yet, even with his far more rational approach to foreign policy, Mr. Paul often fails to touch on the most crucial nuances of the American-Iranian relationship that lie at the heart of this issue. Though it is easy to see the potential negatives of an American intervention, we consistently fail to apply an Iranian perspective to the issue, which is critical in understanding both why American-Iranian relations continue to deteriorate and why an invasion is a morally bankrupt endeavor.

We are too easily dissuaded from critical thinking about this matter by the American media’s projection of Iran as an irrational and dangerous actor. In reality, Iran’s defiance of the West doesn’t come from an innate hatred of

Let the Voice be your voice. We accept opinions, letters to the editor, personal experiences, and creative writing that are exclusive to the Voice. Submissions do not express the opinion of the board of the Voice. The Voice reserves the right to edit submissions for accuracy, length, and clarity. To submit, email voices@georgetownvoice. com or come to the Voice office in Leavey 424.

Opinions expressed in the Voices section do not necessarily reflect the views of the General Board of the Voice.

tos of family vacations, walked with me in the park, taught me to cook, and asked me as much as she could about my family and life in America.

Despite her best efforts, though, I still knew I was not truly part of the family. I didn’t know what to call her. Would Kat or Katya be too informal? Did she expect me to call her “mama?” While that would prove she saw me as more than a guest, I couldn’t imagine saying that to someone other than my real mother. I managed to avoid referring to her by any name for my entire stay.

Even when I overcame the initial awkwardness of being an outsider in a foreign family, several weeks passed before I could give Ekaterina a hug. I could talk about class, home, or music, but I couldn’t joke the same way I did with my family. We didn’t have the years of shared experience that bring a family together.

Friday nights were perhaps the strongest indicators that I was merely a long-term guest. My host family took day trips to Finland, but I didn’t find that out until I had been there a month. Instead, I would arrive home America, Jews, or cooperative foreign policy, but rather from a long history of exploitation of Iran by Western nations.

Much of what opened my eyes to this alternate perspective stems from a long and passionate conversation with an Iranian student while I was studying in London last spring. His uncle had been killed by chemical weapons supplied to Saddam Hussein by American manufacturers during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980’s, and he was keen to speak with an American about the relationship between our two nations.

After explaining Iran’s history of

Carrying On

by Dan Kellner A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

subjection to Western demands, including the crippling sanctions and rhetoric that bombarded his homeland, he made the simple yet profound suggestion that it is Iran who is under an imminent threat—not the United States, Israel, Europe, or the rest of the Middle East.

With my curiosity piqued, I took several courses about Middle Eastern and Islamic history upon my return to Georgetown, hoping to validate the arguments presented to me in that London pub.

Coupled with my own research, the startling narrative of WesternIranian relations opened my eyes

around 6 p.m. to an empty apartment. This didn’t bother me very much the first week—who am I to care about what adults do with their time? By 10 p.m., our typical dinner time, I began to worry. I was hungry, but I didn’t want to touch any of the cooking appliances without permission. The second week, I couldn’t do my work because I kept thinking I heard someone at the door. It was hard to be alone for a long time without knowing why. I was lonely and confused, and I felt abandoned by what was supposed to be my family.

While there were many times when I felt like an outsider, the family did try to make me feel welcome.

Their daughter Masha did her best to teach me how to play Call of Duty.

Every night, Ekaterina checked my schoolwork and helped me study vocabulary, even when that meant staying up past midnight. The smaller gestures meant the most. She held my hand while crossing busy streets, bought me new socks when mine got worn out, and listened to me practice piano and violin. She fussed over a minor injury and fretted when I to the reason why Iran would be so defiant of the current world order. The more I learned about Iran’s past relations with the West, the more it became clear that the majority of Americans, especially those 58 percent who claim they want to go to war, fundamentally misunderstand this nation, its circumstances, and its people.

In fact, a CIA-led coup was responsible for silencing Iran’s first democratic revolution and reinstituting a monarchy in 1953, or that the United States continually propped up an autocratic regime with financial assistance for the subsequent 26 years until the Iranian Revolution in 1979. During the Iran-Iraq War, the United States worked to tip the war in Iraq’s favor, attacking Iranian oil rigs and naval ships, in addition to allegedly supplying arms and chemical weapons to Saddam.

In recent years, the United States has facilitated an international campaign to sanction Iran for human rights violations and the development of its nuclear program, a strategy that hurts the Iranian people far more than it does the oppressive regime.

Meanwhile, the United States has surrounded Iran with dozens of advanced military installations, including a strong presence in the controversial Strait of Hormuz, through which over 20 percent of the world’s oil is transported. The U.S. has also helped train and finance the armies of Iran’s primary regional competitors: Iraq, Turkey ,and Saudi Arabia. Each of these

stayed out later than usual. She treated me as though I were her daughter.

Sadly, I felt most at home right before I had to leave. I heard Ekaterina in the kitchen preparing food for the next day’s meal, and it suddenly occurred to me that she was cooking a meal I was never going to eat. I would go back to my family in America, and their lives would continue without me. I knew seven weeks was not enough time to integrate into a family, but I greatly appreciated their efforts to make me feel at home. While it wasn’t always easy to be immersed in another culture, I had somebody who actually cared about me—someone who, mere weeks before, had been a stranger to me.

I left Russia a year and a half ago.

Ekaterina and I try to keep in touch, and she always signs her messages as “your Russian mom.”

Lauren McGarry is a freshman in the College. Masha was dumbfounded to learn that an American couldn’t play CoD. practices was implemented long before Iran possessed nuclear potential, and perhaps Iran wouldn’t be so desperate to go nuclear if it had any sort of assurance of longterm security.

What the West tries to portray as Iranian aggression turns out to be quite the opposite. First and foremost, the Iranian people are interested in self-preservation and self-determination, something they have been deprived of throughout their history until 1979, first as a satellite territory of Middle Eastern empires and then as a puppet state serving Western interests. While it is impossible to condone the regime’s anti-Semitic rhetoric and disenfranchisement of women, it is even more ludicrous to suggest that Iran, which spends one ninety-eighth of what the U.S. spends on defense, needs to be invaded to prevent the proliferation nuclear terrorism or World War III. Though it may surprise Rick Santorum, the Iranians are no more interested in being blown up than we are. It is time Americans, especially our politicians, realize this misconception, tone down the rhetoric, and seek an equitable relationship with Iran—one that doesn’t curtail their autonomy or diminish their say in global affairs.

Dan Kellner is a senior in the College. Don’t worry, Rick Santorum disapproves of literally everything else he does.

READ VOX