2 28 2013

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STUDENT GROUPS STILL IN THE DARK ON NEW SOUTH PLANS PAGE 4

OTTO SAVES THE DAY PAGE 6

CORCORAN GETS PUMPED UP PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  February 28, 2013  Volume 48 Issue 8  georgetownvoice.com

Where my girls at?

2 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2013

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Voice Crossword “The Real Slim Shady” by Andrew Duverney 34. Marshall Bruce Mathers III 36. Saw as I snoozed 38. Foolish people 39. Pop 40. Hormel’s mystery meat 42. Hear evidence on the case 43. Huge avian creature 44. ccTLD for Spain 46. Burns on a BBQ 48. Hippocratic ____ 50. One foam bubble 53. “Cleaning ___” (3 wrds.)

57. Left to right in Excel 59. She ___ her orgasm 60. Period of time 61. Anger 62. Biopic on Lev Landau 63. Succeed 64. Paved paths DOWN

ACROSS 1. Secretly pursue 5. Ash’s first friend (Pokémon) 9. Help 11. Wahlberg’s movie buddy 12. Wash. Metro. ___ 14. Ungulates have these 16. Org. for 25-across 17. Scornful avian creature

18. Insurance trade org.

19. Am I pregnant?

20. AMC rival 22. Introduces memo topic 23. Repair 25. Hatchback or sedan, for example 26. Brad Paisley song 30. Turkey en español 32. Build up

1. Protostar 2. Rubio’s Party 3. Modify 4. Supreme being in Japanese 5. Goes best with cheese 6. Hindu four armed god 7. How much I weigh after Thanksgiving 8. Elastic exercise 9. Largest continent 10. Daffy Duck alter ego Duck ___ 13. When considering being 15. Belonging to federal agents

20. Ready to be eaten 21. Midterms 22. Follower of Haile Selassie I 24. ___kwondo 25. What Boy Scouts do 27. Old money?

28. Television award 29. ___ in the bud 31. Comparative for odd 33. More en español 35. Created by the Nat’l Sec. Act in 1947 37. Dodge pick-up trucks 38. Anabolic or progesterone 41. Sharp haircut?

45. Cougar or mountain lion 47. Contains 49. Where blood enters the heart (twice) 50. “Be quiet!” impolitely (abbr.)

51. Levee 52. Red giant or white dwarf 54. Currency in Fullmetal Alchemist 55. View 56. Made Clooney and revived Stamos 58. O’Hare airport code

Answers to last week’s sudoku

Answers to last week’s crossword

editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 48.8 February 28, 2013 Editor-in-Chief: Keaton Hoffman Managing Editor: Gavin Bade Blog Editor: Connor Jones News Editor: Matt Weinmann Sports Editor: Steven Criss Feature Editor: Julia Tanaka Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Leisure Editor: Julia Lloyd-George Voices Editor: Sara Ainsworth Photo Editor: Miles Gavin Meng Design Editors: Amanda Dominguez, Madhuri Vairapandi Projects Editors: Alec Graham, John Sapunor Back Page Editor: Tiffany Lachhonna Puzzles Editors: Andrew Duverney, Tyler Pierce Contributing Editors: Leigh Finnegan, Kevin Joseph Assistant Blog Editors: Isabel Echarte, Ryan Greene, Caitriona Pagni Assistant News Editors: Lucia He, Julia Jester, Jeffrey Lin Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Almeida, Chris Castano Assistant Cover Editor: Lauren Ashley Panawa Assistant Leisure Editors: Alex Golway, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Photo Editors: Andres Rengifo Assistant Design Editor: Teddy Schaffer

Staff Writers:

Emilia Brahm, Rachel Calvert, Will Collins, Emlyn Crenshaw, Brendan Crowley, Umar Khan, Alex Lau, Lindsay Leasor, Keith Levinsky, Claire McDaniel, Liana Mehring, Joe Pollicino, Cole Stangler

Staff Photographers:

Rebecca Anthony, Max Blodgett, Julian de la Paz, John DelgadoMcCollum, Kat Easop, Matthew Fried, Robin Go, Kirill Makarenko, Tess O’Connor, Matt Thees

Staff Designers:

Karen Bu, John Delgado-McCollum, Christy Geaney, Mike Pacheco, Tom Pacheco, Sebastian Sotelo

Copy Chief: Morgan Manger Copy Editors:

Kathryn Booth, Grace Funsten, Tori Jovanovski, Rina Li, Natalie Muller, Sonia Okolie, Caitriona Pagni, Ana Smith, Dana Suekoff, Kim Tay, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Patricia Cipollitti Editorial Board:

Maitane Arana, Aisha Babalakin, Gavin Bade, Nico Dona Dalle Rose, Lucia He, Keaton Hoffman, Quaila Hugh, Julia Jester, Caitriona Pagni, Julia Tanaka, Galen Weber

Head of Business: Aarohi Vora The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

This newspaper was made possible in part 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: “The Vagina Dialogues” Cover Photo: Georgetown University Archives

the georgetown voice 3

GUSA’S DIRTY LAUNDRY

Stewards scandal highlights need for integrity

Last week’s Georgetown University Student Association election erupted into controversy when an anonymous source, “Steward Throat,” revealed presidential hopeful Jack Appelbaum (COL ‘14) to be a member of the infamous Stewards Society. Exposing Appelbaum and his campaign manager, Jake Sticka (SFS ‘13), to be members of this secret society merely rumored to be elitist, conservative, and homophobic was irrelevant to the campaign and ultimately accomplished nothing beyond distracting student voters from the campus issues at hand and the candidates’ abilities to meet their promises.

Although sensationalist in nature, the Stewards scandal brought into question the integrity of then vice-presidential contender Adam Ramadan (SFS ‘14). In an interview with The Hoya, Ramadan questioned the impact the Stewards had on Appelbaum’s mo-

tives in the election, failing to disclose the fact that he himself was a member of a different branch of the same society.

When Ramadan eventually disclosed his membership he said, “What I think it comes down to is that if anybody is a part of a group like this, it’s at their discretion if and when to expose that information. When I thought about it more and saw the way it unraveled today, I wanted full disclosure.”

Secret societies have been stigmatized— maybe for good reason, given suspicions of past corruption—and considering the negative effect Appelbaum’s association with the Stewards ultimately had on his ticket, it isn’t difficult to see why Ramadan delayed coming clean about his membership. Nevertheless, we must emphasize that complete honesty is imperative for any representative of the student body. Ramadan’s lack of full

disclosure did not paint his character in a positive light, nor did it reassure the electorate of his intentions as a GUSA candidate.

As a media outlet committed to educating and informing the campus community, the Voice values honesty and full disclosure.

Although in normal circumstances extracurricular involvement would not reduce Ramadan’s competence as a candidate or his love for Georgetown, in this instance his membership in a secret society had the potential to impact the results of the election.

Ramadan should have been more forthcoming about his association with the Stewards when the issue first emerged, not only when events unraveled. With a year ahead of him in the GUSA executive, the Voice is confident that Ramadan has learned from this experience and expects nothing but integrity from the GUSA vice president-elect.

RAINY DAYS AHEAD

Sequester woes offset by D.C. emergency fund Last month, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray came forward with an announcement thousands of city officials across the nation wish they could make themselves. The District had accrued a $417 million surplus in fiscal year 2012, and has put it all away in its emergency fund. This brings its rainy day savings to almost $1.5 billion.

While many progressives would have liked the funds to go toward education or low-cost housing in the city, the mayor’s hands are tied by a law he helped pass during his time on the D.C. Council. In 2010, he shepherded a bill through the Council requiring any budget surpluses to be fully contributed to the emergency fund in hopes of shoring up the city’s credit score and preventing any possible return of direct federal control of District finances. While such a stringent rule may seem foolhardy to some, the decision to save this year’s entire surplus is a good one, for that rainy day might be just around the corner.

If it comes to pass, the District will be hit particularly hard by the deep, automatic cuts in domestic federal spending dubbed the sequestration by Congress and the media. The White House estimates the austerity measures would eliminate funding in D.C. for over 200 Head Start students, cut 500 federal college scholarships and 510 federal work-study jobs for D.C. residents, and reduce environmental funding for clean air and water by $1 million a year, along with a slew of other cuts ranging from school nutrition programs to childhood vaccines and military readiness. Thanks to the foresight of the D.C. Council, the District has the emergency funding to deal with sequestration, at least until Congress presumably restores funding to the programs as a part of a larger debt agreement.

The problem is, few cities, or even states , have this luxury. They instead will be left to take the brunt of the sequester on the chin, which will hurt both the economy and the health and well-being of their citizens. The

entire state of Michigan, for instance, has an emergency fund of just $365 million, less than the District’s surplus this year.

Virtually everyone agrees the sequester should not happen. Devised not as policy but rather a point of leverage to beget a larger debt deal, it was explicitly constructed as a set of cuts so irresponsible it would be unthinkable to implement them. Given that many economists have warned our members of Congress this blunder could push us back into recession, there is no reason for them not to simply eliminate the cuts. After all, it’s silly to push for austerity of any kind when unemployment is still elevated, growth is still sputtering, and the American government’s borrowing costs remain at historical lows. If Congress and President Barack Obama finally come to their senses, they’ll write the sequester out of history and shift their focus from the fear-mongering of the debt debate to jobs and economic prosperity for the American people.

THE AUDACITY OF POPE

New pope must shepherd Church to modernity On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI offered his final General Audience address in St. Peter’s Square. As soon as Monday, the College of Cardinals will begin the process of selecting a new pope—a decision that will present the Catholic Church with the opportunity to either maintain the status quo or propel itself into an increasingly modern, liberal age.

Elected at the age of 78, Pope Benedict XVI is the oldest man to be elected to the papacy since Pope Clement XII in 1730. The role of pope involves extensive work, travel, and communication, all of which require physical health and mental endurance. Perhaps Benedict XVI’s retirement from the pontifical throne will set a precedent for the Church of selecting younger popes in the future. Moreover, the papal resignation provides a unique opportunity for the pope to advise his successor, which will foster a continuity within the Church that has been historically absent.

Pope Benedict XVI was selected over other, more forward-looking papal contenders—a decision the College of Cardinals will hopefully not repeat. This time, progressive

candidates, as well as minorities and cardinals from areas outside of Western Europe, will be among the discussed contenders.

Latin America, a region that is home to 40 percent of the world’s Catholic population, has several contenders, including Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras, 70, known for his fight against poverty. The selection of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, S.J., 76, is highly implausible. The Church continues to knock heads with the Society of Jesus, which it considers to be too freethinking. The selection of a Jesuit could provide an interesting and maybe even revolutionary opportunity for reform within the Church.

The first African pope since the first century A.D. could come in the form of Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, 64. Though his election would be a racial victory, it would also be a loss in terms of progression; Turkson is known for his opposition to the use of condoms to avoid HIV transmission. Thankfully, in 2010 the Church decided the use of condoms, for both homo- and heterosexuals, was a preferable alternative to spreading HIV infection.

Ironically, one of the most progressive candidates is Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola, 71. An advocate for involving the Catholic Church in economic and bioethical challenges of society, Scola is known for his push for the Church to take a more active role in appealing to the modern world.

The Catholic Church has the potential to alter its stance on contraception, LGBT individuals, and women’s ordination within the next few decades, and this papal selection will be crucial in determining which course the Church will take. While a regionally or ethnically diverse pope could provide new opportunities for the Catholic Church to reevaluate its role in the world, perhaps these considerations should be forgone for a more progressive candidate, regardless of his origin. In order to remain relevant and maintain its scope of influence in an increasingly modern era, the Church must do more to actively engage with its followers—including electing a pope capable of communicating and considering the wealth of opinions encompassed by the Catholic Church.

news

4 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2013

University still developing a plan for New South groups

by Matthew Weinmann Plans for the Healey Family Student Center in New South Hall have been in the works since 2011, but plans for moving student groups out of the building are still not complete with only two and a half months left in the semester.

Some groups will be able to move back into the Healey Family Student Center once it is complete, but for many, the search for a long term home will be just beginning.

Currently, a wide variety of dance groups, club sports teams, and service groups utilize space in New South. Finding new spaces on campus for these groups is a widely recognized problem.

According to Erika Cohen-Derr, the Director of the Center for Student Programs, the administration is working with virtually every department on campus to find solutions. The faculty advisors for the groups which will be affected have been talking with the leaders of these groups over the last several months in an effort to document current use patterns and prioritize groups’ needs for replacement space.

“For example, clubs like Tae Kwon Do, Aikiki, and the Fencing Club have equipment that they need in order to practice,” Cohen-

is concerned the University will look to solve other problems first, before addressing APO’s. “As of December, our last meeting with University officials, we were pretty much just told we would need to adjust to the idea of not having an office, at least temporarily,” Hartmann said. But even if a temporary office is found, APO will not be able to move back into the HFSC, something Hartmann says the University has made clear. “It seems like they have these discussions, but its more of a notification than a discussion,” he said.

Some groups have greater flexibility than others. One such group is the club triathlon team, which stores 10 bike trainers in New South, and uses the space for bike workouts. “The space we have is crucial in Riverside because

you can’t really lug bike trainers around campus,” said Heather Sweet (SFS ‘14), the captain of the women’s club triathlon team.

Although storage will be an issue, the triathlon team is in a better position than other groups. “We’re flexible because we do triathlons and it’s a flexible sport,” Sweet said. “And we do know that club sports is accounting for us and planning on having space for us in the future and they’ve been pretty clear about communicating that.” The main solution to the group’s need for storage has been closets in Leavey. “I don’t know if they are able to commit at this point to saying anything, so they’re probably not going to tell us anything that’s less vague than that until they know for sure,” Sweet said.

Derr wrote in an email to the Voice.

“The goal for those groups is to find a space that will include both appropriate practice space and storage space so that equipment can be kept in close proximity.”

The administration’s plan for moving groups out is on schedule, but that timeline only called for developing a plan by the middle of the spring semester. “[We will] begin to implement that plan toward the end of the semester and into the first weeks of the summer,” Cohen-Derr wrote. “After Spring Break I hope to have specific information to share with the impacted groups about their options for next year.”

Some student groups are worried they still have no idea what these plans will be or if they will adequately meet all of their needs.

“We’ve been meeting with University officials since last February about what we can possibly do to find a solution or find a replacement space,” said George Hartmann (SFS ‘14), president of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega. “Up until recently the University has been hearing us out in the expected Georgetown bureaucratic way and has not found any solid solutions.”

APO has the unique need of an office space, and Hartmann

The Healey Family Student Center comes at the expense of student activity space.

Georgetown already offers students a Justice and Peace minor, and related majors such as Women’s and Gender Studies and a Social Justice concentration within the Sociology major. However, many students and faculty agree that a Justice and Peace Studies major would encompass broader issues that are excluded by the current curricular options.

“I was really surprised that Georgetown didn’t offer a Justice and Peace major, especially when so many people here are focused on areas like international relations and are concerned with the peace process and human rights,” said Jayme Amann (COL ’15), a student hoping to double-major in Government and Justice and Peace.

“For example, I think that LGBT issues in America are a human and civil right,” she said. “It’s an issue about justice. I don’t like to classify it as a gender issue because some people are gender ambiguous in the LGBT community. Having a JUPS major would be a better approach to the study of LGBT.”

The major is expected to fix this problem by increasing the number of courses offered in the field of Justice and Peace, as well as by recruiting more faculty.

“With the major we hope that there will be a stronger presence on campus regarding JUPS,” said Kyla McClure (COL ’15), another student involved in the plan. “Even when prospective students are looking at the school they can see that Georgetown is offering what is a pretty unique major.”

In a survey conducted by Maita and McClure in September 2012 to mostly students pursuing a Justice and Peace minor, 80 pecent of the participants said that they would consider a Justice and Peace Major. In addition, 79 percent of the respondents who were in the class of 2013 answered that they would have considered the major if it had been offered at the time of declaring their major.

As Professor of Justice and Peace Mark Lance explained in an email to the Voice, “The JUPS program has been one of

Courtesy Georgetown university

For dance groups the construction will only be a temporary issue, but the University has yet to provide suitable proposals to the groups. Even for a short term fix, there are few adequate spaces on campus. The groups need mirrors on the wall, special floors, and railings for the ballet company. “The only space that I’ve really heard talked about is the black box theatre in Walsh, which is just really not going to work for us on so many different levels,” said Danielle Fornabaio (SFS ‘14), president of Groove Theory. Ideally the group would move to the dance and exercise room in Yates Fieldhouse, but it is hard to get a workable time slot.

“I feel like, as far as I’ve been informed, we don’t have a place to rehearse yet, which is concerning for me,” Fornabaio said. “Where we practice dictates the size of the team [and] who can be on the team, because if we have a small practice space we can’t have a big team.”

Fornabaio feels the University is behind in its planning. “They probably should have addressed it with us a little bit earlier than they have, because that space is used a lot throughout the year by so many different groups,” Fornabaio said. “To not have a contingency plan in place earlier just seems kind of silly.”

Dean of College endorses Justice and Peace Studies major

by Lucia He

Since the end of the last school year, a group of Georgetown students and faculty has been working to put together a Justice and Peace Studies major. Last week, the College’s Dean Chester Gillis endorsed the plan to create the major and approved the budget presented by the group. With this endorsement, the College will provide the funding necessary to staff the courses needed to offer the major.

The plan was first presented

by Gianna Maita (COL ’15), who, after taking the Introduction to Justice and Peace Studies class, believed that a major in the field was something a significant number of Georgetown students would be interested in pursuing.

“Justice and Peace is a growing field, a lot of people are studying conflict resolution and international peace, so it’s really exciting that Georgetown could be one of the universities that takes that step to have this major,” said Maita.

the most popular minors for the last decade. There is a substantial interest in a major as well.”

There has also been a great emphasis on how a Justice and Peace major would contribute to promoting Georgetown’s Jesuit ideals.

“Social justice is the core focus of Jesuit education. Many students at Georgetown find ways to live out the central values the University subscribes to, but this is a major that will put those values at the center of the academic work,” wrote Lance.

Maita agrees. “We’re men and women for others,” she said. “We have a lot of students living that out in their extracurriculars. There’s lots of awesome organizations that do service and that look into social justice issues, but there isn’t one major that allows you to take the same lens of justice and peace and men and women for others.”

The next step in making the major official is convening a committee of faculty and students from the program to produce a proposal for a major.

This proposal would include a

detailed outline of the major requirements and courses.

“This will go first to the College Curriculum committee for feedback and, hopefully, approval.

Eventually, new majors must be approved by the board of directors,” explained Lance.

Eli McCarthy, a professor of Justice and Peace studies, sees the major as a positive initiative for the University.

“This is a great opportunity to institutionalize a lot of amazing student social justice activism that has been happening at the campus for a variety of types of issues,” he said. “This gives an academic commitment to honoring that passion and skill and try to harness that and experiment more fully as a community.”

“We still have quite a lot of work ahead for drawing up the plan for a major and for getting it through all the other steps of approval,” said Maita. “However, by the time of my graduation, I will hopefully be doing so with a major of Justice and Peace.”

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the georgetown voice 5

Campaign for referendum on budget autonomy begins

by Jeffrey Lin On Apr. 23, D.C. residents may finally fulfill that age-old American revolutionary demand, “no taxation without representation.” During a special election, residents of the District of Columbia will have the chance to vote on Home Rule Charter Amendment 8, a ballot measure that would sever all ties between the District’s budgeting process and Congressional control. Last Thursday, D.C. Votes, an organization advocating for budget autonomy for D.C., initiated its “Yes on 8” campaign to encourage people to come out and vote on Referendum 8.

“We have established a campaign committee called The Committee for D.C. Budget Freedom to run a campaign throughout the city and contact people who are going to be doing the usual campaign activities,” said James Jones, the communications director for D.C. Votes.

Referendum 8, if passed, would amend language in the 1973 Home Rule Charter to give the District government autonomous control over the $4 billion it collects each year in local tax revenue. The change would go into effect unless Congress and the president block it, which is considered unlikely given President Barack Obama’s stated support for D.C. budget rights. Under the new process, Congress would continue

to have a 35-day review period for the D.C. budget, but it would have to vote retroactively to amend the funding proposal, rather than voting to pass it outright.

This referendum is not the first time that D.C. has tried to win autonomy over its budget.

The D.C. Council advocated aggressively for a bill in the Senate that would have given D.C. budget autonomy, but last minute amendments added by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) concerning abortion, guns, and labor unions killed support for the bill.

Referendum 8 shows a paradigm shift in the battle for D.C. budget autonomy because this would be the first time that D.C. residents would be voting on it.

“This is the first time that D.C. residents are able to take the issue of self-determination for D.C. into their hands,” Jones said. “Special elections like this are traditionally low turn-out elections, but we see this as an opportunity to engage people who may not normally vote in special elections.”

D.C. Votes envisions the referendum as the next step in the fight for budget autonomy now that the bill in Congress has failed to pass.

“We looked at this as a second track in a two track strategy. D.C. Votes and all of the organizations who support this approach, as well as

Obama’s subtle betrayal

Crises often create opportunities to push for unpopular and regressive reforms that would otherwise be met with more skepticism by the public and their elected representatives. The latest showdown over the budget sequester—the $85 billion in across-the-board cuts set to take effect on March 1 unless Congress can pass an alternative—is no exception.

As part of the ongoing discussions to prevent the sequester and reach the elusive “grand bargain,” cuts to Social Security benefits are very much on the table. This, despite the fact that 70 percent of the population is opposed to any such cuts.

It’s no secret that the Republican Party has long had its eyes on Social Security. In his 2005 State of the Union address, sandwiched between defenses of the occupation of Iraq and other criminal activity, Presi-

dent George W. Bush proposed privatizing Social Security. The outcry against the plan, which would have effectively turned the program into an array of 401(k) plans, was so deafening that efforts to advance the proposal in Congress ultimately went nowhere.

Fellow Hoyas might also recall seeing washed-up presidential candidate Newt Gingrich deliver a speech in Gaston Hall last spring to a similar effect.

What’s different this time is that the attack on Social Security, while not as egregious as outright privatization, isn’t coming from Republicans. Instead it comes directly from the Obama White House.

The maneuver is a bit more subtle. The White House favors changing the way inflation is calculated in order to reduce Social Security benefits.

More specifically, the proposal,

tiM MArKAtos

Mayor Vincent Gray supports the referendum, but is skeptical of its legality. the members of the council who unanimously supported it are continuing to press for legislation in Congress,” Jones said. “If we can’t get it done in Congress, then we have another way of achieving it.

We also believe that this could encourage movement in Congress.”

However, some prominent D.C. figures, such as Mayor Vincent Gray, have doubts about the referendum.

They contend the Home Rule Charter specifically prevents changes like those the D.C. Council is trying to enact, citing section 603(a), which states, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as making any change in existing law, regulation, or basic procedure and practice’ regarding ‘the preparation, review, submission, examination, authorization and appropriation of the total budget of the District of Columbia government.’” known as the “chained consumer price index,” or “chained CPI,” changes the formula used to calculate cost of living adjustments that determine how much one’s benefits increase over time. Whichever way proponents ultimately choose to spin it, the implementation of chained CPI would mean a cut in Social Security benefits.

union Jack

by Cole Stangler

A bi-weekly column about national politics and policy These cuts are not marginal. As the AARP has shown, chained CPI could mean tens of thousands of dollars in benefit cuts for beneficiaries over time.

The organization estimated that a 92-year-old who’s been on Social Security for 30 years would lose over 8 percent of his or her benefits. Indeed, as is often the case when social programs are slashed, this move would over-

In December, Gray sent D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson (DAt-Large) a letter outlining his objections. “I am doubtful,” he wrote, “that Congress has delegated the power to the District to convert unilaterally the role played by Congress and the President in the District’s budget from active participation to passive review.”

Even so, Gray’s office says he is supportive of the idea behind the referendum. “Though he has expressed reservations about the legality of the referendum and whether it would stand up to a challenge by Congress or in court, he urges District residents to support it,” wrote Doxie A. McCoy, the Senior Communications Manager for the mayor in an email to the Voice.

Jones acknowledges the contributions Gray has made for the

whelmingly affect the poor and the elderly, that is, those others who rely on Social Security for a large chunk of their income.

Austerity is always nasty.

In the end, it boils down to class warfare—forcing working class people to pick up the tab for a national debt problem for which they bear little responsibility. Instead of cutting off the multi-trillion dollar lifeline extended to Wall Street, maybe reconsidering the fiscal implications of foreign military operations, or closing corporate tax loopholes, Republicans and their apparent accomplice in the White House have turned to the most vulnerable because they make a much easier target.

But there’s something particularly disingenuous about all of this. Social Security doesn’t actually contribute to the national deficit or debt. In fact, as of FY 2011, the Social Security Trust Fund is running a $68 billion surplus. By law,

movement to bring budget autonomy to D.C., but he believes that the repeated failures to pass a bill through Congress have forced D.C. to switch plans.

“We greatly appreciate his support for budget autonomy in the District. He has fought hard in Congress, he has made allies and friends in Congress so that we are in a better position now more than ever to have Congress pass budget autonomy for us. He signed the bill that put this on the ballot, and he indicated that he would vote for this on the ballot,” Jones said.

Gray has not been the only prominent member of the D.C. government who has shown concerns for Referendum 8. As The Washington Post has reported, Irving B. Nathan, D.C.’s own attorney general, believes the referendum may be illegal.

D.C. Vote remains confident that this referendum will overwhelmingly pass, and Jones even welcomes a fight on the legal grounds of budget autonomy.

“Based on our legal advice from some of the top law firms in town with some of the top constitutional lawyers, we believe that we can defend this and that anyone who wants to come at us from a legal standpoint has to understand that they are going to have a fight on their hands.”

that is the only entity that can fund Social Security benefits, and it remains entirely distinct from the federal government’s General Fund—the one running the deficit. The Social Security Trust Fund will face a shortfall, but not until 2033. By that time, it should be appropriate to discuss strengthening the program so that it can continue to pay out benefits to everyone who contributes.

But as it stands today, to suggest that Social Security contributes to the national deficit is simply inaccurate.

It’s a myth that has long been perpetuated by the American right, finally transformed into a legitimate policy option after years of lobbying and billions in foundation money to back it up. This makes it all the more upsetting that the White House is apparently on board.

Yank Cole’s chain at cstangler@ georgetownvoice.com.

sports

6 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2013

Porter Jr. delivers in final seconds of double overtime

by Chris Almeida After bursting onto the national scene against Syracuse just days earlier, sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. didn’t come out hot against Connecticut Wednesday night. Dormant for about 48 minutes, Porter truly woke up in the second overtime and added to his growing legend, deftly weaving through the Huskies defense for the game-winning layup in the No. 7 Hoyas’ thrilling 79-78 victory over Connecticut.

The layup marked the culmination of a final two-minute stretch where the sophomore Wooden Award candidate willed the Hoyas from a 7-point deficit.

First, Porter spotted up from three. A couple of possessions later, the Hoyas worked the ball around the perimeter before Porter found freshman guard D’Vauntes SmithRivera for yet another bucket from behind the arc.

After a strong defensive possession, Smith-Rivera emerged with the ball before feeding Porter at halfcourt. The Missouri native— who accumulated 22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal—took the ball into the teeth of the defense and went up for what would be the game-winning layup.

Of course, for Porter’s Hoyas, the play started on the defensive end. “First, we were just trying to get the stop,” he said. “That’s what I was worried about. Once we got it, I just sprinted the lane. D’Vauntes was able to hit me, and I saw Mikael sprint to the rim, so, I was able to use him to get to the rim.”

If the Hoyas weren’t in the conversation for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, they are now.

UConn, despite adjusting to new Head Coach Kevin Ollie and dealing with their barring from postseason play, has been impressive this season. “That’s a terrific team, Head Coach John Thompson III said. “That’s not a good win; it was a great win.”

The first half saw little scoring for either side. The Huskies led 22-19 at halftime, with the Hoyas failing to convert a field goal in the last 12 minutes of the half. Porter looked especially passive, with just 1 point before the break.

After halftime, the game sped up significantly. Behind an awakening from Porter—who played 49 of 50 minutes—and junior guard Markel Starks, the Hoyas began to pull away, leading by 12 with less than 5 minutes to play. Thompson said, “In the second half I think we got more movement. On top of everything else, we did a better job of getting [Porter] the ball.”

But, Shabazz Napier came back from injury and rejuvenated the Huskies offense, cutting the lead to three with little over a minute left in regulation. Smith-Rivera looked to have sealed the game when he stole the ball at half court and finished at the rim to give the Hoyas a seemingly insurmountable 5-point lead.

With slightly more than 40 seconds to play, the Hoyas were looking to run the clock below 10 seconds, but junior forward Nate Lubick was called for a moving screen. After a layup with 9 seconds to go, UConn fouled Starks, who had a chance to ice the game by extending the lead to two possessions. Starks missed the front end of the one-and-one, and Omar Calhoun hit a dagger three-pointer to tie the game at 62. With 2.2 seconds to go, the Hoyas inbounded the ball, but Niels Giffey picked off the pass.

With 9 seconds remaining in overtime, and with the game tied at 69, Porter was blocked, and UConn ran to the other end of the floor with a chance to win the game again, but Boatright’s three went off the backboard.

The Blue and Gray fell behind quickly in the second overtime.

UConn hit two quick threes on their first two possessions. Eventually, the Huskies got out to what seemed be a game-deciding 7-point lead.

MILES GAVIN MENG

Otto Porter Jr. cut through three UConn defenders to lay in the game winner.

With the game falling out of reach, the Hoyas failed to get a steal on two separate occasions, with SmithRivera going to the ground for the ball and coming up wincing in pain on the first. With their Big East lead slipping away, the ball went to Porter, who drained a contested three.

After a UConn shot clock violation, the Hoyas got the ball to the

hurt Smith-Rivera who made deep three to move the score to 77-78. On the next UConn possession, SmithRivera stole the ball from a driving Napier and passed to Porter, who calmly drove to the basket and put the Hoyas ahead. The Huskies had one more chance, but Boatright’s three from the corner bounced off the backboard.

This win did not only preserve the Hoyas’ lead over the rest of the Big East, but is also extended a season-long winning streak, now at 10 games and provided yet another signature win in a season that has been full of highlights. The whitehot Hoyas take on Rutgers Saturday in a rare 9 p.m. game at the Verizon Center.

the Sports Sermon “I don’t know.” -Georgetown savior/forward Otto Porter Jr. on whether he should be considered for National Player of the Year racecars all jarring for position at speeds double that of freeway speed limits and then sue when those cars wreck. It does not take much mental effort to understand why sitting in the grandstands at a NASCAR race is dangerous.

Yes, the crash shall ignite calls for a reexamination of the strength of fences that line the grandstands, but regardless of how safe those fences are made, speeding chunks of metal are speeding chunks of metal.

Crashes are part of the soul of motorsport racing. By the nature of the sport, these things are going to happen, and if fans want to be that close to the action, then they have to understand the risk.

This car was flying through the air at nearly 200 miles per hour, and One of America’s mostthe fence prevented any serious watched sports surprisingly injuries from occurring—consider made headlines this weekend, its purpose fulfilled. but not for any reason that actuThe most probable outcome ally has to do with an athlete’s of this dilemma will be that NASperformance or the outcome of CAR will settle with the three a match. At the NASCAR Naspectators outside of court and tionwide Series race at Daytona pay them more money than they on Saturday, rookie driver Kyle deserve in order to save time and Larson’s car was pushed from reduce the attention that has been behind and ultimately lifted off directed toward the lack of safety the ground, slamming into the at tracks. If anything though, mayprotective fencing along the side be this wreck could be the start of of the track. The front end of his something new for motorsports. car completely disintegrated, a It could be the start of an era tire flew off into the stands, and where using complete ignorance his engine was left sitting just in of the danger of speeding cars front of the seating area. for personal gain is no longer ac28 people ended up claiming ceptable. This wreck could set a to be injured from the debris sent precedent that will show all futhrough the catch ture spectators of Pete Rose Central fence, all of whom NASCAR that, yes, Da bettin’ line have since been rethose automobiles leased from the hosflying by in a roarDookies Margin Hoyas pital. The most recent ing blur of colorful (underdogs) (duh!) developments have (favorites) paint could in fact dealt with news that break apart during Bama Frosh Criminal Recs a crash and cause three of the injured Job Market Scar. Knights spectators are lookRoad to Top 5 injury. Maybe then Hoyas ing to file a lawsuit auto racing could Suggs Rings, Bro Brady because of the accimake headlines for dent and their personal injuries.

The frustration on the side of something more substantial than Apparently, these fans were NASCAR is completely under- greedy fans. unable to assume that sitting standable.

Although this crash will most just yards from racecars travel“Oh, Lord, if 20 people were likely result in stronger, safer fencing over 100 miles per hour in- injured they’ll have 25 law- es, it does not seem like fans care volved risk of injury. When 43 suits,” said former Charlotte much about advances in fence rockets on wheels are bunched Motor Speedway president H.A. technology. The day after the up onto a track and told to be the “Humpy” Wheeler. “That’s just crash, the same section that was first to cross the checkered finish the way it is. There’s already littered with debris the day before line, it really does not seem un- lawyers sitting around prepar- was packed with fans watching reasonable at all that those sit- ing for this.”

Sunday’s Daytona 500. None of ting in the grandstands should The underlying reason for the people sitting in the section be aware of the fact that they are these threats of filing a lawsuit is took up the offer by the speedway in a dangerous position. greed. These spectators saw an that allowed them to move seats.

Matt Morgan, the lawyer opportunity to grab some free The fans that come to watch representing the three specta- money and jumped on it. NAS- these races are dedicated, to the tors, will seek to argue that gross CAR, the company that makes the point where the threat of flying negligence caused the accident. fences, the makers of the car, Day- tires does not faze them. The three How are people to know that tona International Speedway, and spectators who plan to sue should a car can come flying into the everyone else Morgan claims to be not need direct warnings about stands? I guess this is how you possible entities in the suit should the risks involved with sitting so know when a sport has true not have to pay out a dime. The close to the track, common sense American fans, when spectators claim that the fence in this case and a basic understanding of are literally yards away from failed its purpose is laughable. physics should do.

by Steven Criss

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Women’s lacrosse starts off undefeated Distaso: Ace for men’s tennis

by Steven Criss In their second game of the season this past Saturday, the No. 15 Georgetown women’s lacrosse team (2-0) fought both wet, sloppy conditions and a physical No. 17 Towson (0-2). High offensive production in the first half allowed them to post a lead early on that they would carry throughout the game, culminating in a 13-10 victory. Sophomore attacker Caroline Tarzian led the offensive effort for the Hoyas with 5 goals, all of which came in the first half, and 2 assists, earning her a spot on the Big East Honor Roll.

“It doesn’t change the game plan, I think we just have to be mentally focused a little bit more,” said Head Coach Ricky Fried on playing through inclement weather. “We’ve got to get that out of our heads and we’ve got to focus on what we’re able to do and not focus on the conditions.”

Georgetown experienced only a momentary deficit in the first two

minutes of the game when Towson nabbed an early goal. Tarzian responded immediately though, netting two for the Hoyas in the next two minutes. Towson struggled to adjust to the slippery turf and several of their drives ended with a loss of traction or errant passes.

The Hoyas tried to take advantage of their opponent’s lack of fluidity in moving the ball up the field by utilizing their sharper passing around the arc.

“I think our offense moved really well as a whole. Most of our goals came off assists or we were wide open,” said Tarzian.

Towson managed to keep the Hoyas’ lead at 1 until halfway through the first half when Tarzian’s fourth goal made the score 6-4. Georgetown would maintain control of possession for much of the rest of the half, scoring three more times while seeing off any threats at their own end in the final 19 minutes. Key to the offensive domination were the 10 turnovers by Towson, 8 of those

MILES GAVIN MENG

Caroline Tarzian scored 5 goals for the Hoyas on their way to beating Towson.

Otto-matic leads the way

When the final buzzer went off at the Carrier Dome, the excitement set in pretty quickly for me as it did for most Hoya fans. How couldn’t it? We had just handily beaten Cuse on their court in Nowheresville, N.Y. for our ninth straight victory. But then my natural state of Georgetown cynicism set in.

Where had I seen this type of season before?

Then I remembered Georgetown’s eight-game winning streak during the 2010-11 season from mid-January to mid-February, in which, they beat teams such as then-No. 8 Villanova, No. 15 Louisville, and most importantly, No. 12 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. I remembered the great team they had with Austin Freeman and Chris Wright acting as the senior leaders, and Hollis Thompson, Jason Clark, and Julian Vaughn all serving as key role players. They had been ranked as high as ninth in the country but began to come un-

glued right before March Madness, and then really fell apart during tourney time, losing to Virginia Commonwealth University in the second round. While VCU did make it to the final four, Georgetown still had no business losing by 18 points.

As a senior, the worry consumes me. Will I really never get to see a Georgetown team get to the Sweet Sixteen as an undergrad? The 2009-10 and 2010-11 teams had been exceptional at times and had still lost by more than 14 points in firstround games. The 2011-12 team was also quite good and had the potential to go at least to the Sweet 16, but instead they fell in the Round of 32.

I’m stuck wondering why Georgetown just can’t go on hot streaks in March as opposed to January and February. Even so, I take comfort in a few things that differentiate this season from the others, such as the especially great team defense of this squad.

forced by the Hoyas. Georgetown’s defense was smothering inside the arc, preventing the Tigers from taking any quality shots as the half ended with a score of 9-4.

After a slow start to the second half, senior attacker Rosie Corcoran notched the Hoyas’ 10th goal off an assist from Tarzian. Towson responded with an amped up attack, scoring three straight goals with two coming from attacker Sarah Maloof, making the score 10-7 with 13 minutes left. Junior midfielder Kelyn Freedman ended the run, though, swinging around the backside of the net and firing a shot past the Towson goalie as she dove into the lane.

The Hoyas held onto the lead for the final 10 minutes of the game as the two teams traded scores to reach the 13-10 finish.

The day’s offense was a promising sign as the Hoyas were able to execute plays throughout the game to stay on top of the Tigers.

Possession was also an important factor in both tiring out their opponents and gaining key opportunities to keep putting points on the board.

“I think possession was huge and I think our offense was really moving at pace and looking for great opportunities which allowed us to have wide open shots,” Freedman said.

Women’s lacrosse will next take on Princeton Firday at 4 p.m. on Multi-Sport Field in an attempt to continue their undefeated start to the 2013 season.

But beyond that, I take comfort in one thing, or should I say person: Otto Porter.

Porter’s career-high 33 point performance at the Carrier Dome this past Saturday alerted the nation as to who he is and what this Georgetown team is capable of. A favorite to win the Big East Player of the Year Award and a solid candidate for

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

by Alex Lau

A bi-weekly column about sports the Naismith Player of the Year Award, Porter Jr.’s ability to take over a game is unmatched by anyone in recent Georgetown history. And he does so more quietly than anyone in college basketball. He does not need to take a lot of shots to get going like Russ Smith does, and he does not always need the ball in his hands to be productive like Michael Carter-Williams or Trey Burke do.

by Chris Almeida The second half of the collegiate tennis season is more than a month in, and the men’s (2-5) and women’s (53) programs have both had their share of ups and downs.

The men’s team got off to a rough start, losing their first five matches, but have turned things around, shutting out Connecticut 7-0 and beating the University of Richmond 4-3.

Head Coach Gordie Ernst said on the season so far, “I think that you try not to celebrate the wins too much and you try to not dwell on the losses too much... If you look at it big picture, I’m relatively happy, especially when we do what we just did in beating Richmond, who was a tougher team than we thought they would be.”

Junior Casey Distaso has been one of the top performers on the men’s team. He is undefeated in singles play since the season resumed in January. Said Ernst, “Casey Distaso is kind of the unsung hero at this point because we’re 2-5, but he hasn’t lost.

Casey is one of our captains and he’s a great kid and he’s played a lot of matches for us and he’s 5-0 in singles against teams like Penn and Toledo.”

Sophomore Alex Tropiano and sophomore Dan-

Porter is the ultimate team player, and that’s why national sportswriters haven’t really noticed him until now. He not only creates his own shots, but is an adept passer and demonstrates incredible intelligence and grit moving off the ball.

Porter sees holes in the defense and shooting locations on the floor before anyone else, and when he get’s there he rarely misses—he’s shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 45.3 percent from threepoint range.

On top of that, Porter is averaging 2 steals and close to 1 block per game, showing that he is capable of playing any position from the 2 guard to the 4. His pace and size aren’t outstanding, but he’s better than anyone in college basketball at being at the right place at the right time—something indicative of a basketball IQ that’s off the charts. Taking all that into consideration, it’s not a stretch to say he may be Georgetown’s best player since Allen Iverson.

iel Khanin also received praise from Ernst. “Tropiano clinched a couple matches, so he’s stealing some thunder ... I think the thing with Danny Khanin being able to do it two days in a row. He just did it two days in a row where he played great tennis back to back.”

The women have had a contrasting season to that of the men. After a loss to Virginia Commonwealth, the Hoyas reeled off five straight victories before falling to Big East foes St. John’s and South Florida in Flushing Meadows.

“We won a handful of points, and if we hadn’t, we could have been 3-5,” Ernst said. “We were only a few points away from beating St. John’s and if things had gone our way, we could have been 6-2, but I’m very happy. The girls have shown great fight.

They’re very cohesive and they’ve stepped up in the big moments.”

The women’s team was scheduled to play a match against Providence at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, but the match was cancelled due to issues with facility availability.

Both teams travel to Florida next week to take on a slew of opponents. The women face Florida International next while the men go head to head with Florida Atlantic.

And just as Porter is usually in the right place at the right time, this Georgetown team as a whole may be in the right place at the right time.

The competition in college basketball this year has been notably weaker than it has in past years, and there is not one team that stands out. In fact, there appear to be about 15 teams that can win it all, as opposed to the usual 7 or 8 at this point in the year. That means that Georgetown, even if it fails to get a No. 1 or 2 seed, will not have to fear going up against a seemingly unbeatable, invincible team.

They will, however, still have to get past those troubling first and second rounds—or as the NCAA now calls them, the second and third rounds.

But if anyone can help lead a team through those rounds, and maybe even onto the Final Four, it’s Otto Porter.

Find out where Alex can lead you at alau@georgetownvoice.com

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8 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2013

The Vagina Dialogue: Women’s Integration at Georgetown

By Julia Tanaka

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

The School of Nursing graduating class of 1953. The NHS was exclusive to women in 1969.

In the fall of 1969, Georgetown’s College of Arts and Sciences admitted its first class of female students. 50 women were added to the student body, and the administration planned to expand the class size to make it clear that women were not taking spots from deserving males. These 50 women were the first to break a long tradition of single-sex education in the College, which then constituted the majority of the undergraduate student body.

However, they were by no means the first women to attend Georgetown. Each of the other graduate and undergraduate programs had been slowly accepting increasing numbers of women for years, and the Nursing School exclusively admitted women at the time. Aside from one admission in 1898, the Medical and Dental school began to officially admit women in 1947. The School of Languages and Linguistics had admitted women since its founding 1949 (it merged with the College in 1994 to become the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics). The School of Foreign Service had reluctantly opened its doors to women in 1943, albeit in a limited capacity. The majority of the 43 women attended language classes, held from 6-8 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on East Campus—then the center of activity for the SFS. Among the first women at the SFS were those who had already proven competence and leadership in other fields. For instance, Jessie Pearl Rice was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Women’s Army Corps, and was deputy director of the organization when she enrolled. The administration was adamant that

coeducation was an experimental “wartime concession,” according to a 1943 article in The Washington Post. However, as women’s roles in the State Department expanded, so did the class size.

Students expressed skepticism about women’s academic abilities despite their presence in other schools. “Tradition Crumbles: College Adds Girls” read a headline of The Hoya in September 1968, a year before the first class of women was admitted and the Voice was founded. Even a pro-coeducational Hoya editorial published in May 1968 was accompanied by a comic depicting a surprised Jesuit cutting open a cake as a woman jumped out at him from inside. In that same issue, a Letter to the Editor decrying coeducation as “Degeneracy!” was printed, complaining, “is nothing sacred?”

The general attitude toward women on Georgetown’s campus was narrow-minded.

When the first female switchboard operators were employed in June 1938, a faculty member reportedly thought he had the wrong number upon hearing the woman’s voice on the phone. In April 1964, when it was rumoured that a female student was aiding in research in the Astronomy Department, The Hoya excitedly published a short article referring to her as “femme” and a “wench”.

Another challenge women faced as their numbers grew on campus, even before the College opened to women, was the issue of housing. Georgetown was struggling even then to meet housing needs for all students, and it was the women who were pushed off-

campus first in order to make room. Female student enrollment was rapidly rising, and mixed dormitories were not yet an option until Copley Hall’s third floor housed women in 1969. In all of 1957, there had been 373 total female students—in four short years, the number increased to 484. In the 1960-61 academic year, women were sent to the Meridian Hill Hotel in Northwest D.C. in order to accommodate student needs. The now-defunct SFS publication The Courier reported as early as February 1959 that “Female Housing is Subject of Student Council Discussion,” although ironically, the one female member of the Student Council was not present at the meeting.

When Darnall Hall was built in 1965, it was a step forward—although it was outfitted with a larger parlor area in which to receive dates, as well as special hair-washing equipment.

In the December 1965 edition of The Courier, a male student using the name King Sparrow wrote a piece in which he asked Georgetown women to question whether a college education was truly beneficial. “Women who do continue in the traditionally masculine pursuits of … professional life,” he wrote, “often surrender a good part of their female essence … are you as females learning the potency of your distinctly womanly characteristics?”

In the rebuttal in the same issue of The Courier entitled “B.S. or MRS?” by Louise Lague, Father Joseph Sebes, then Active Dean of the School of Business Administration, embodied the attitude of the times.

While conceding that female students, “being women, they naturally want to find the right man,” he agreed with the author that women at Georgetown value their educa-

tion for education’s sake, choosing to study independently of whether going to college presented an opportunity to find a husband and get married.

*** The circumstances surrounding the decision to make the College coeducational were unusual. The expansion was largely prompted by the demand to meet rising costs, wrote Susan Poulson (GRAD ‘90) in Going Coed: Women’s Experiences in Formerly Men’s Colleges and Universities, 1950-2000. Lauinger Library was to cost $6 million to build, the number of academic programs was growing, and women offered a new financial base for the University’s expanded ambitions. There were very few internal disputes, although there was surprise on the part of the University and the public.

“GU Offers Languages to Girls” trumpeted The Washington Post in 1943, when SFS began to admit women. “The GUNS Girl— Balancing Binge and Brain to Combat Conformity,” blared a Hoya headline in 1966. Until the late 1980s, women at Georgetown were consistently referred to as “girls,” as opposed to the “men” in both off- and on-campus publications, infantilizing the female students and only reinforcing the notion that women’s education was to be viewed as a frivolous exercise.

Contrary to this view, women actually had to work harder to get to the Hilltop than their male counterparts. According to the Georgetown University Office of Admissions Annual Report in July 1969, the first fifty women admitted to Georgetown aver-

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

An SFS student studies maps circa 1953. The SFS first admitted women in 1943.

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georgetownvoice.com aged in the 92nd high school percentile. The men in the same admissions pool averaged in the 78th percentile.

In the early years of coeducation, female students were constantly monitored: the 1967 edition of the administration-written guidebook Miss ‘G’ Goes to Georgetown stated “Your bed must be made and your room in order by 11 A.M. … room checks will be made twice weekly and demerits assigned for disorderly rooms by a member of the Residence Staff.”

Women were also expected to dress modestly, with the 1966 Miss ‘G’ prohibiting women from wearing pants and shorts outside the dormitories, except on Saturdays. Needless to say, the standards for male students was much lower: The ‘G’ Book for men only required that “Georgetown gentlemen are expected to keep their rooms neat and orderly.”

The integration itself was largely uneventful. Although The Hoya mockingly entreated female students to remove “frilly things” from their windows in the event of an alumni visit, there were no highly publicized bias-related incidents on campus.

As told to Poulson, the first female graduate of the College, Maria Angermeier (COL ‘72), reported being treated with some “subtle hostility” by students and professors. But, she added that “there was nothing directed toward me in particular … I really can’t make any generalizations about the experience.”

Students happily adapted to the coeducational life. Patricia Reuckel, the former Dean of Women, said in 1975, “There is no longer a mystique about male and female qualities because students like to know one another as persons, friends, classmates, not as future mates and sex objects.”

Sexual relations between students were strictly monitored. There were curfews for both men and women, but women were ex-

pected to be home half an hour before men.

Although other schools loosened their intervisitation policies, in part due to the sexual revolution and in part due to student pressure, “at Georgetown, men were not permitted above the first floor of the women’s dorm, and women were not allowed in the men’s dorms ‘unless accompanied by a Jesuit,’” wrote Poulson.

In the 1966 Hoya article “The GUNS Girl—Balancing Binge and Brain to Combat Conformity,” the main topic of debate was whether allowing liquor in female dormitories would lead to an increase in sexual activity. The article reinforced stereotypes about heterosexual relationships, quoting students who said, “A boy’ll go out and have his fun and everything, but when it comes time to getting married, he wants his wife to be a virgin”, and citing the existence of “a list of girl’s [sic] names stating whether they’re easy or not, and their qualities and such.”

This attitude is not surprising considering the on-campus culture previous to the integration of women. The Hoya published a series of articles on the local girls’ schools, their cultures, their curricula, and, most importantly, whether the girls were open to dating male Georgetown students. The caption under a photo of girls at Immaculata Preparatory School, a Catholic school that shuttered its doors in 1968, read, “the Immaculata girl dates even American U. boys,” showing that some prejudices never die.

*** A long history surrounds the admission of women to Georgetown’s undergraduate and graduate programs, and the narrative is not yet over. Although in

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

A student at the Institute of Languages and Linguistics listens to language tapes in 1953.

the georgetown voice 9

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

A summer school class in 1960. Only fifty women were initally admitted to the College in 1969. recent years Georgetown has rocked the boat with social justice initiatives such as the LGBTQ Resource Center, its traditional Catholic identity has hampered certain women’s rights initiatives. Both students and faculty faced challenges as they attempted to break the stained-glass ceiling.

The Georgetown University Women’s Center was established by students in the 1989-90 academic year. Specifically, the students founded the center because they saw “students facing difficulties … women’s health, violence, or eating disorders … and they wanted there to be a place on-campus where women could go to deal with those particular problems, and would collect resources to help them deal with those problems,” said Nancy Cantalupo, the Director of the GUWC from 1995-2003.

The first GUWC office was in a small converted closet in New South, with a parttime coordinator position added in 1995.

Over the next two years, Cantalupo worked with students to accomplish a number of goals. In addition to working toward establishing events such as Take Back the Night on campus, the Center lobbied hard for better office space as well as to add a full-time director to the program. The GUWC moved to the Leavey Center in 1997. Support for the Center “ebbed and flowed” depending on leadership, with budgets and salaries contingent on the religious views of the Dean of Students. “There were certainly [women] who found the campus to be unfriendly at the time,” Cantalupo said.

“Over the time that I was Women’s Center Director,” she added, “I definitely ... felt like women’s issues were more prominent on-campus, and some programs like Take Back the Night developed that were really widely attended by students and were major, central events on campus, and I think that raises the visibility of women’s issues on-campus.”

Speaking about Georgetown’s Catholic affiliation, Cantalupo emphasized the importance of serving all women on campus. “The idea was to provide services and promote a safe space for all women on campus … we basically tried to stay away from hot-button issues because we did see ourselves as having a mission to serve all women … To the extent that we

could, we focused on issues that were less divisive.”

Another important aspect of generating conversation about women’s issues on-campus was the development of what would become the Women and Gender Studies program. Professor Pamela Fox came to Georgetown as an English professor in Feminist Literary Theory in 1990.

As she wrote in an email to the Voice, “The program’s founding was absolutely essential to creating a climate that made feminist inquiry even possible at Georgetown … I was … not in on the ground floor of that initial Women’s Studies program founded in the 1980s but I benefitted from, witnessed, as well as contributed to its impressive, dogged development through the ‘90s, which accomplished some major milestones that made its institutionalization possible. It was exhilarating to be a part of that work.”

Fox expanded on the issues pertaining specifically to the Women and Gender Studies program: “Although it’s now thriving, I would love to see the University commit more resources to all of its interdisciplinary programs, allowing them to become full-fledged Departments with the capacity to hire their own, stable tenureline faculty.”

The struggles of Mary Anne Summerfield, who was rejected from a position teaching physics at Georgetown in June 1954 because only men were employed as faculty, seem distant in the 21st century. But, just over a decade ago, in April 1992, only six women were elected to the Georgetown University Student Association, the highest number elected up until that point.

Miss ‘G’ still has a long road to walk to achieve absolute parity, but in the 42 years that Georgetown has been completely open to women, everyone can agree strides have been made in the right direction. As Poulson put it, “The presence of women adds weight to the influence of feminism on and off campus. The presence of women in the student body gives rise to the need for more women faculty ... Women and feminism have changed Georgetown … not only as places but also as processes, for education is ultimately a process of personal and social change.”

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2012

Writing on the wall: Roger Gastman pumps up the Corcoran

by Kirill Makarenko Sterile, white-washed walls of art galleries often eclipse the very artwork they present, sending the comparatively insignificant pieces into a void beyond the reach of memory and effortless appeal. Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980s, the Corcoran’s latest exhibit running through Apr. 7, evades this danger and becomes a vibrant work of art in and of itself while cataloguing the tumult of the D.C. underground scene.

Though it is arranged chronologically, the giant collage of an exhibit is far more than a simple documentary on the 1980s. Curated by Bethesda, Md. graffiti artist Roger Gastman, Pump Me Up weaves together a tapestry of intertwined themes throughout the Corcoran’s atrium and rotunda as it traces D.C.’s history from 1968 to 1992 through the lens of Go-Go music, the rise of punk, the war on drugs, and a growing appreciation of graffiti as an art form.

A brief section on the ‘70s serves as a base for the remainder of the exhibit; photos and framed newspaper clippings from the race riots of 1968, including black-and-white shots of “soul brother” hastily scrawled on storefront windows to prevent looting, are juxtaposed with 7- and 12-inch singles from emerging Go-Go and punk groups. Flyers announcing concerts, most notably a neon pink hand-written sign advertising the performance of the B-52s and the Urban Verbs

at the Corcoran Art Gallery, dot the early sections of the exhibit.

The 1980s begin with color photos of the opening of the 9:30 Club as the impetus of the hardcore scene that dives into a rich, vivid segment of Pump Me Up that does not fade until the final collage. An extensive collection of independent punk label Dischord Records’ Minor Threat memorabilia, including the original handwritten lyrics of anti-drug anthem “Straight Edge” and concert tapes repeated on flat-screens complete with headphones, transitions into T.T.E.D. Records’ LPs and continued coverage of popularization of Go-Go music as a genre unique to D.C. Particularly enthralling is the sizeable collection of bright District graffiti ranging from Go-Go-related photo collages to the New York-style tags growing in popularity and merging with local styles in 1986. Nearly every renowned Go-Go artist is pictured with a signature style at the relevant historical section of the exhibit.

The most prominently displayed artist is Cool “Disco” Dan, whose infamous tag, seen on buses, buildings, and billboards, is a pervasive part of the D.C. landscape. His tribute of a scattered series of photos and news coverage includes a section of wooden wall featuring an original tag and a rare 1991 photograph from a Washington Post profile. While such artifacts may be individually insignificant and fleeting in a larger historical context, their

KIRIll MaKaRenKO

Michelle Obama wanted one that said “FLOTUS,” but it was already taken.

presence in Pump Me Up grants legitimacy to and guarantees the timelessness of the exhibit as a whole.

This ephemeral nature of each individual work is perhaps the most salient feature of Pump Me Up. A decidedly local scope largely ignores the broader his-

tory of D.C., instead offering a natural yet meta-historical snapshot of the 1980s. Framed photographs of arrests made by the MPD Narcotics Division, a rotunda inundated with Globe Poster Printing Corp. ads for Go-Go performances, and the board game “Just Say

La Revolución de Univisión

February was a bad month for NBC. Two of NBC’s fall favorites, The Voice and Revolution were still on hiatus. Smash debuted poorly in its second season premiere alongside comedic flop 1600 Penn and dreadful dramas Do No Harm and Deception. Pile that on to a weak slate of major sporting event contracts and Ted Turner’s National Broadcasting Company was bound to take a tumble. But no one expected this. NBC fell from first in November to fifth in the February “sweeps” race, a key period for advertisers assessing the impact of their dollars and negotiating new contracts.

And while much of the blame for the fall has fairly been lodged against NBC’s dumbfounding inability to book successful comedies to replace now-finished 30 Rock and outgoing The Office, little attention has been focused on their top-four replacement: Univisión.

Though not the first time a Spanish-language broadcaster has cracked network TV’s stranglehold on monthly ratings (it bested CBS twice before in July 2010 and July 2012), Miami-based Univisión’s success means more now than perhaps ever before.

Traditionally, broadcasting for America’s estimated 37 million Spanish-speaking residents has aimed to air cheaply produced telenovelas imported from Mexico and Venezuela, in addition to some original news and talk show programming, like Univisión’s Saturday night variety show Sabado Gigante. While 37 million may be a small pool with respect to the larger U.S. market, it dwarfs many countries that churn out quality programming, like Canada.

The success of Spanish broadcasting has manifested itself outside of the solid ratings, producing verifiable stars that have crossed over into mainstream English programming. Many forget that Sofía Vergara, Emmy nominee and current star of Modern Family, got her

start as a co-host of Fuera de Serie on Univisión. Others, like Dancing with the Stars season 14 third-place finalist William Levy, jumped from telenovelas into reality television and advertising.

Univisión along with its main rival Telemundo have been pumping out this formula for years, but shifting demographics have gradually led to ratings increases, putting them on par with their English-language counterparts.

Their success, however, does not come from sitting on their laurels—the industry is in constant flux. On Aug. 13, 2012 Mund-

Paper view

by Keaton Hoffman a bi-weekly column about television

oFox, a joint venture between Fox International Channels and Mexican broadcaster RCN Televisión, went on the air. Alongside a slew of Mexican imports, MundoFox’s programming includes a new format for Spanish broadcasting stateside: Teleseries. Featuring action-packed storylines, higher production value, and investments in special effects, Teleseries like MundoFox’s breakout hit El Capo (think Hawaii Five-0 in el barrio) are changing perceptions of the bounds on Spanish-language programming in the U.S. Other networks will have to rise to the challenge.

Other smaller shifts have been nonetheless transformative. A year ago, Univisión began providing English subtitles during its primetime hours, joining Telemundo where programming has always catered to an increasingly bilingual demographic.

Univisión is taking the bilingualization of its programming even further, partnering with ABC to launch Fusion, an English-speaking news station aimed specifically at Latino consumers. Fusion is gearing up for a mid-2013 premier.

No” among randomly scattered anti-drug propaganda in a glass stand epitomize the Corcoran exhibit, sending the visitor head-first into a pulsating assault on the senses rivaled only by the genuine experience of living through the ‘80s in the District’s underground.

In general, Univisión and American Spanish broadcasters more broadly, have adapted alongside America’s Latino communities. In the 1990s, much of their audience were adults coming here to work temporarily. But after a boom in immigration in the early 2000s, much of the Latino community is comprised of young families and adolescents. The changing age dynamic has propelled these stations to develop programming that caters to teens and young adults, a crowd with which telenovelas have fallen out of favor.

This new market of secondgeneration Latinos also differs linguistically from their parents.

Most of them speak English as their first language at school and with friends, but use Spanish at home. For this demographic, language, too, has no border; English and Spanish blur together.

Likewise, national origin is less significant today. Originally, Univisión’s primary market was the vibrant Cuban community in South Florida. Telemundo, on the other hand, primarily catered its content to Puerto Rican audiences, both in San Juan and San Antonio.

Others, like Estrella TV and Azteca América, were geared toward Mexican viewers.

Today, though, those national distinctions are less important, particularly for U.S. broadcasters seeking to create programming.

Today, both in politics and in civil society, increasingly see themselves as Hispanics, not as Venezuelans or Salvadoreans.

The truth is that Spanishlanguage broadcasters have been slowly adapting for years, growing from nation-specific localized entities to national rankings powerhouses with ever growing media empires. And unlike the Republican Party, Univisión has changed with the demographics, and has reaped the ratings rewards.

See if Keaton’s screwing the maid at khoffman@georgetownvoice.com

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“Didn’t know they grew ‘em so small on the farm.” — Hoosiers

the georgetown voice 11

Curb your enthusiasm about Stoker Pre-Raphael art returns

by John Sapunor A mother tells her daughter, “Personally speaking, I can’t wait to watch life tear you apart.” The mother proceeds to flirt with her recently deceased husband’s brother.

You think the daughter’s going to just sit there and let this happen?

Probably not.

Stoker, the brainchild of Oldboy director Chan-wook Park, is filled with moments of these caustic family back-and-forths that dance around the sordid “family secret” fermenting in the Stokers’ basement. Unfortunately, these outrageous, potentially entertaining snippets of dialogue give the film an indecisive tone. In short, you never know if you’re watching a self-aware tongue-in-cheek horror flick or a terribly executed psychological thriller.

Stoker begins with the funeral of the husband of Evelyn Stoker

(Nicole Kidman) and father of high schooler India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska). Charlie (Matthew Goode), the recently deceased’s mysterious brother, then moves in to the two remaining Stokers’ mansion. Hmm, maybe his return from oblivion had something to do with the father’s death.

India, who has a preternatural ability to pick up on minute visual and aural details, perspicaciously notices something about Uncle Charlie is not quite right.

Meanwhile, school bullies have been picking on her for her 18th century wardrobe that looks like something out of the Salem witch trials. Well, it goes without saying: they’re fucking with the wrong girl.

One day, after a little playground trash talking, India stabs one of the bullies with a pencil.

She begins to feel a connection with Charlie who takes similar pleasure in others’ suf-

IMDB

“I am the tree. Just be the tree. They won’t see me ‘til it’s too late”

fering. The thing is, India soon realizes that those old hunting trips with her father might have been meant as an outlet for such urges. If they’re ever indulged, things could get hairy.

As Stoker flirts with themes of incest, rape, and murder, it begins to bite off more than it can chew.

The plot loses cohesiveness with its unnecessary details, drowning itself in its overindulgence for the bizarre. What should be a demented psychological family thriller turns into a display of morality crises spurred by an inherited proclivity to murder.

Stoker’s flaws go much deeper than this surplus of tropes.

The embarrassingly tacky dialogue makes these commendable actors look like amateurs.

An excessive nude scene featuring Wasikowska masturbating in the shower was in more than poor taste on the filmmakers’ part—it was a clear abuse of the up-and-coming actress’s talents simply for the sake of shock and provocation.

Despite the film’s one bright spot—Clint Mansell’s score—Stoker is a failure of the highest order.

There is nothing more painful than watching a talented cast struggle through a poorly directed, tactlessly scripted film. There’s really only one lesson that can be drawn from Stoker: as a nation, the U.S. has severely underestimated the lethality of sharpened pencils.

by Katherine Propper In his creative manifesto Concerning the Spiritual in Art, the great Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky writes admiringly about the nonmaterialism of the Pre-Raphaelites—men who “sought for the ‘inner’ by way of the ‘outer.’”

By hearkening back to the medieval art created before the Renaissance maestro Raphael, the Pre-Raphaelites sought to convey a dimension of truth beyond the rational rules of classicism. Fittingly, these young radical painters have had their work commemorated by the National Gallery for the first survey of Pre-Raphaelite art in this country. Including over 130 classic works, Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design marks a truly comprehensive showcase of the artistic movement.

Perhaps the most pious of the Pre-Raphaelites was artist William Holman Hunt, whose work is displayed in the exhibit’s first gallery.

Unlike his fellow two founders, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he rarely strayed from his religious roots. In “The Awakening Conscience,” Hunt depicts a young mistress standing up from her wealthy suitor’s lap, and—transfixed by the landscape out the window—resolving to lead a pure life.

Following the view of John Ruskin, nature reflected the di-

vine in a world of frigid, sterile industrialism—the outdoors are the source of light in the painting amidst the bedlam of the Victorian interior Hunt so painstakingly renders.

In contrast, the later works of the brotherhood show a move away from truth toward beauty.

The exhibit’s rose walls flank decorative paintings by Rossetti, marking the impact of the Aesthetic movement. From the mantra “art for art’s sake” sprang an assortment of paintings featuring femme fatales and fallen beauties However, the exhibit’s obvious gem is Millais’s “Ophelia,” a truly iconic and haunting portrayal of the Hamlet suicide—confounding audiences with its intense beauty, it’s an unmissable work.

Finally, the last two rooms of the exhibit feature the works of William Morris, Edward BurneJones, and Rossetti. Together, these men paved the road for the emerging Arts and Crafts movement, which Morris led as an innovator of decorative designs.

If not to see the dream of “Ophelia,” go to this remarkable exhibit to experience Kandinsky’s ideal response. Being exposed to the vivid colors and unconventional techniques of Pre-Raphaelite art might remind you that even in our cold, mechanical society nature still holds the power of transcendence and true beauty.

aCHORDance and University fail to achieve harmony

by Julia Lloyd-George With a cappella groups an established fixture on college campuses everywhere, Georgetown students are hardly unique in their desire to belt. Though the Hilltop isn’t typically known for the arts, it nevertheless boasts nine University-recognized a cappella groups.

However, this figure actually underrepresents the number of students with their own start-up acts; without support from the Performing Arts Department, many groups quickly disband as they struggle to maintain a dedicated ensemble. aCHORDance is one such group straddling the line between obscure and unknown.

Co-founders Shannon Lynch (COL ’14) and Evan Sterrett (COL ’15) started the group in the fall after observing a lack of forums for students to sing out-

side of the prestigious groups already on campus.

After holding auditions both semesters, aCHORDance now has 15 members with a variety of musical backgrounds—while some come from different a cappella acts, others have been arrangers for such groups. Among start-ups, this is a rare achievement.

“Recruiting members without access to Hoyalink and SAC fair tabling is pretty difficult, and we recruited our members entirely via Facebook and our own advertisement,” she said. “I think what distinguishes us from other recent startups is that we were able to recruit a membership that is very dedicated to the existence of aCHORDance in the long term.”

As an underground group, aCHORDance still has more obstacles to overcome, including gaining both SAC and University recogni-

tion. When Lynch contacted the Performing Arts Department about starting the group in the fall, she had less than a warm reception.

“Surprisingly, the feedback I received was less than enthusiastic and people from the department actually discouraged that I start a new group,” she said. “They originally told me they didn’t have the resources to manage another group, and even though I said we didn’t need money from them, they said they couldn’t recognize us.”

The Performing Arts Department was unavailable for comment before the Voice went to press.

Without University recognition, the group can never reserve a rehearsal room, making it difficult to coordinate practice times and locations. And unfortunately, Georgetown seems to be lacking a Room of Requirement.

With an upcoming performance in Uncommon Grounds on Apr. 19, however, aCHORDance also faces more internal challenges.

“There are so many factors that contribute to a great performance group, from having an arranger put a unique spin on pieces, to having a musical director who can teach parts and also listen for shaping and refinement,” Sterrett said.

“It can be overwhelming, notwithstanding the additional stress of obtaining University recognition, and I think these difficulties often discourage start-ups.”

Nevertheless, aCHORDance is still committed to its original goal of providing an accessible space for student performers. Said Sterrett, “So many students are denied a voice and we wanted to fix that.”

Miles Gavin Meng

“Try to sing a bit quieter, or they’ll make us practice in the storeroom again.”

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2012

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

Autre Ne Veut, Anxiety, Mexican Summer Records There’s something unsettling about Autre Ne Veut, a.k.a. Arthur Ashin, and it’s not his inscrutable French. The formerly anonymous indie rock artist known for distorting 1980s R&B on his 2010 self-titled debut has a way of getting under your skin, his superb sophomore effort undeniably stronger proof of this ability to draw from a variety of influences to create an ethereal and dissonant sound. True to its name, Anxiety is marked by a perpetual state of instability, yet it disturbs in the best possible way.

From the first few seconds of lead track “Play by Play,” there is a palpable sense of being drawn in through curtains of rippling sound as Ashin slowly tightens the synths

and builds toward a crashing chorus.

This glorious climax comes quickly, though, and the song’s repetitive remainder disappoints in comparison.

The LP’s main single and highlight, “Counting,” however, more than makes up for the first track’s failed potential. Ashin’s strong vocals take center stage here, his signature falsetto deftly carrying lyrics about clinging to someone as she loses grip of life. Random sax honks make unexpected appearances, adding to the sense of dissonance that runs throughout the record.

The standard drops off a little after “Counting,” as Ashin gets a little lost in the instrumentals on “Promises” and “A Lie.” He gets back on track with “Ego Free Sex Free,” however, an uplifting track characterized by a dichotomy of rapidly placed synths and choral sopranos.

“Gonna Die” harks back to Ashin’s ‘80s influences, gradually building a wave of sonic sound as Ashin returns to themes of death, while “World War” vacillates between similar somberness and static electronic energy. This contrast is echoed in the lyrics here, as Ashin takes a different direction from his former disappointment; instead of imploring a former lover not to leave, he stands on his own two feet.

The Herman Cain of Gtown

As some who keep up with campus politics may know, I recently ran, and failed spectacularly, in a bid for the presidency of GUSA (Goosa). I plan to share with y’all, my dearest readers, the lessons I learned in the pursuit of Georgetown’s highest office. You might ask, “Cannon, why in the world are you telling me any of this? I don’t give a flippity-floppity-fudge about GUSA.” In response, I would argue that these lessons are extremely relevant to you—yes, you. I cannot stress enough that the most important thing I learned was that everyone should run for the presidency. So consider this column a debriefing on how to, or how not to, run your future campaign.

But before we get into the nitty-gritty of campaign strategizing, I am going to try and sell you on why you should run. Above all, it is a lot of fun. Instead of your 15 minutes of fame, it’s a full two weeks. The campus media

will interview you, and they will more or less publish whatever you say (well The Hoya sucks and takes itself way too seriously). So if you have an issue with Leo’s, or maybe just with an ex-boyfriend, campaigning will give you the soapbox to get your point across to the whole campus.

The debates are also lots of fun, and are practically free lessons in public speaking. GUTV is even polite enough to record your performance, and furthermore trolls online will leave free commentary.

For some strange reason, the election commission explicitly states that drinking is not allowed for candidates in the debates, which probably has the late Christopher Hitchens, a prominent public drinker, rolling in his grave.

However, I am lobbying to change this rule because, logically, it would only be to the disadvantage of the drunken candidate if they choose to down a brew or two. And on a serious note, the

It’s impossible to look at Anxiety as a holistic work of consistent themes, as its natural sense of fracture is so deeply ingrained and every song so deeply divided in both its style and message. All that’s clear is a willingness to reveal such conflicted emotion, the anxiety and madness within.

Voice’s Choices: “Counting,” “Ego Free Sex Free” —Julia Lloyd-George

Atoms for Peace, Amok, XL Recordings When a couple of Radiohead members, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, and a drummer from R.E.M. get in a recording studio together, it’s difficult to imagine anything mediocre coming out. Prodebates are two hours long and often coincide with local happy hours. Lastly, perhaps the best reason to run is that there is an off chance you might even win, and how wild would that be if you were President?

Well, now that you have decided to run, you need a running mate. From my experience, I learned that Logerfo was the best running mate possible, but as he will be a senior next year, I guess

loose Cannon

by Cannon Warren a bi-weekly column about drunken debauchery I actually have no advice for you there. Just make sure your names sound good together.

The second step is to decide with your vice president whether or not to run a serious campaign.

If you decide in favor of seriousness, stop reading this article now, but if you want to know how to throw a good ol’-fashioned joke campaign, I’ve got you

pelled by Radiohead singer-lyricist Thom Yorke, the supergroup Atoms for Peace has managed to produce Amok, a strong debut marked by magnetic bass lines and heavily produced electronics that doesn’t quite meet the standard expected of such a talented yet motley crew.

Although it might seem as if this eclectic lineup might develop a new and exotic sound that showcases the diversity of their musical backgrounds, the product is clearly a follow-up to Yorke’s acclaimed 2006 solo album The Eraser.

In many ways, however, Amok is a much more developed and matured older sibling to this earlier effort. Filled with highly concentrated yet voluminous records that break the barriers surrounding Yorke’s more rudimentary solo ballads, the album reaches new sonic heights.

Filled with dense and lush production, the LP takes the listener on an introspective journey through a dark landscape of sound. The first single, “Default,” features prominent electronic beats mixed with hints of afrobeat instrumentation. Yorke’s vocals, layered with synths, provide a texture simultaneously pleasant and haunting, though a close listener might point out that he’s allowing covered. The key is never, and I repeat, never let on to anyone that it is a joke campaign. If you do, you will have to spend half of your debate telling people you are super serious. So remember to keep a straight face when advocating turning the Car Barn into a 24-hour petting zoo and contracting Quick Pita to run Leo’s.

Next, put some actual thought into who your campaign manager will be. Do not just pick the closest person next to you when filling out your candidacy form. Even though your roommate might love you, you need to make sure they are just as hyped about campaigning as you are.

Choosing a slogan is also critical. I went with “Let’s Get Weird,” but if I had to do it again I would have thought of something that makes fun of all the Obama-knockoff slogans shatted out by other candidates: “Hope in the One Pulse of your Georgetown,” “Join My Movement,” or “Georgetown is Only Big Enough For One Dick-tator”.

his voice to become subordinate to the instrumentals.

The opening track, “Before Your Very Eyes…” features alluring audio panning for the headphone listener. “Judge, Jury and Executioner” effortlessly blends electronic beats with clean acoustic guitar picking, and is truly a masterpiece deserving of recognition.

On arguably the best track of the album, “Stuck Together Pieces,” we truly get a taste of Flea’s uncompromising bass line offering, which becomes the driving force of the song.

Since the track is such a clear highlight, though, it’s natural to wonder why Flea didn’t have a stronger presence in the rest of the album.

As a whole, Atoms for Peace should be commended for blurring the lines between live instrumentation and electronic arrangement.

Accompanied by an unbeatable cast of musicians, Thom Yorke has clearly gathered enough energy to create a truly explosive LP. It’s just impossible to escape the sense that some of that potential was lost in the process.

Voice’s Choices: “Stuck Together Pieces,” “Ingenue” —Dzarif Wan Becoming proficient in Photoshop is key to running a humorous campaign, and it also might be worth recruiting a film major who has a lot of time on their hands. I really wanted to spoof the Metta World Peace music video “Georgetown Girl” (look it up; it is absurd) but I was too lazy to get around to it. Maybe you can! Lastly, do not be afraid of breaking as many campaign rules as possible.

The more you break, the greater the sensationalism and the more press you will get.

Wrapping up, I had a lot of fun running for President, and hopefully I made the awful campaigning season more interesting for all involved. My only disappointment was that 42 people still voted for Chicken Madness, a demographic I thought I had locked down. Still, this was a humbling experience, reminding me that no man can be Chicken Madness.

Cure Cannon’s Chicken Madness at cwarren@georgetownvoice.com

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14 the georgetown voice

february 28, 2013

Soundoff: Fix the debt now or risk sinking later

by Agree Ahmed The federal debt is mounting. It has exploded since 2000, rising over 250 percent. At face value, it’s difficult to see the immediate effects of irresponsible government spending.

What are a few extra dollars here or there, and what difference does it make in the grand scheme of things?

The most likely scenario is that the government will not do anything until it is too late. The government’s inaction stems from the fact that this is fundamentally a long-term problem and our democracy is a very short-sighted one. Most macroeconomists believe the ratio of debt to economic output for a stable country should be around 60 percent. As the debt soars farther above the 60 percent mark, it will become increasingly difficult to take loans out from investors to bridge the gap between spending and tax revenue. Currently, our debt is equal to about 70 percent of our GDP. Most figures estimate that it could climb to 100 percent or higher by 2024

unless something is done to reign in spending.

The U.S. government is the biggest borrower of money in the world and the interest rate it pays on its loans determines the minimum interest rate for everyone else. As the government’s loans become more expensive, it will be harder for our generation to take out the loans necessary to invest in our children’s college education or buy a house.

As the interest rate rises, it will become even harder than it currently is for the middle class to climb up the socioeconomic ladder. How can a poor family move into a better neighborhood with better schools if they can’t afford to take out such expensive loans? Niall Ferguson showed us in The Ascent of Money that access to inexpensive loans has been one of the greatest alleviators of poverty in human history. If we don’t act to reign in the debt, we as a society will regress in our fight against poverty.

The rising interest rate will have even more worrying consequences for our federal pro-

grams. Thanks to the miracle of compounding interest, the government currently spends six cents of every dollar trying to pay off interest on its debt.

Admittedly this isn’t a historical high: interest payments accounted for more than 10 percent of the federal budget in the mid ‘90s. But as we continue to spend more than we take in, our interest payments will grow exponentially.

A nonpartisan 2013 CBO report projects that, at the current rate of spending, interest payments will exceed the entirety of the defense budget by 2020. Before most of us turn 30, interest on the federal debt may account for more than 20 percent of our budget. That’s hundreds of trillions of dollars that could have been spent on food stamps, federal scholarships, Head Start, immigrant assistance, Section 8 housing vouchers, and the panoply of other safety net programs that protect America’s most disadvantaged and give them a chance to succeed. Without action taken to fill the gap be-

tween spending and revenue, the above scenario becomes inevitable. Interest payments will eclipse other government priorities, with the social justice programs most likely to lose out.

Without question, many programs are larger than they need to be. Two prolonged wars cost the American public nearly $2 trillion and have left us with a swollen military budget. As the U.S. enters an era of warfare where firepower and manpower aren’t the only determinants of victory, it will be important for our military’s spending to reflect this new environment.

Our entitlement programs need to be restructured to make them sustainable. Between adjustments to who gets benefits (cutting benefits to those who can support themselves, raising the retirement age), caps on benefits, and so on, changes need to be made.

Social Security has spent its third year in a row in a deficit and will have to take money from other programs to fi-

tural affiliation in order to achieve success, conforming to the norms of white society in order to make more money and attain a higher social status. Others “buck the system,” deceived into thinking that valuing their black identity means rejecting success as defined by white America. But the greater question is this: If white Americans never choose between dual identities, why should anyone else have to?

In a recent Struggle and Transcendence class, Father Raymond Kemp asked several of my white peers how often they think about their race. Jokingly, a classmate responded, “every time I enter your class.”

Although this was a moment of comic relief for the whole class, Father Kemp’s question caused many of my white peers to face

an enlightening reality—race still matters.

In various conversations, many individuals have claimed that race is no longer a problem and that we live in a post-racial society. Even in our pseudo post-racial society, race matters. In order to prove my point, I want you to answer each of these questions honestly. First, how many times have you assumed that an African-American male must play sports since he is at Georgetown?

Or assumed that the minority student in your class is most likely at Georgetown solely because of affirmative action? Finally, how do you treat those in the service industry?

Would your demeanor and interaction with them change if they were the same race as you?

If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, let me be the first to assure you that it’s not your fault that you view things the way you do. Racism is so deeply embedded in the American tapestry that it has become second nature to many people. In our current society, it has taken on different forms, forms not so overtly demonstrated. For example, in the Early National era and the Civil Rights era, Blacks were viewed as undoubtedly inferior to Whites.

This form of racism was explicitly stated and practiced—Blacks served Whites, Blacks and Whites could not eat together, sit together, or even worship together.

Now, however, racism isn’t as overtly stated but instead is re-

incarnated in several subtle and unnoticeable forms; sadly, some Blacks don’t even notice it. In her best selling 2010 book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander argues the prison system in America is a form of institutionalized racism.

Interestingly enough, Alexander discovered most prisoners today suffer the same consequences as enslaved Africans during the Jim Crow era—no access to voting and discrimination.

Additionally, many AfricanAmericans also experience institutional racism in education, healthcare, access to jobs, and several other aspects of life. In each of these areas, African-Americans are the most or nearly the most disenfranchised in comparison to other races. Why? In America, race still matters.

Though some might argue that upper-class Blacks are an example of how class discrimination is much more prevalent than racial discrimination, recent issues tell a different story. One example is the case of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In 2009 Gates, an African-American Harvard University professor was arrested for disorderly conduct because an officer thought he was trying to break into a house. After Gates presented his ID and explained to the officer his situation, he still proceeded to arrest Gates.

Some might argue that this is an extreme example, but I beg to differ. How would the officer’s re-

nance its obligations if nothing is done.

At the same time, tax revenue needs to be increased significantly, whether by raising rates or expanding the base. As The Economist put it in their article endorsing Barack Obama “America cannot continue to tax like a small government but spend like a big one.”

This is why I have taken to organizing the Up to Us campaign on campus. We want to start a smart dialogue about the debt among students because there is no demographic that stands to lose more from this than our generation. Regardless of your opinion on the issue, we welcome you to come to our events and join the conversation we are trying to start. We don’t claim to have the answers to the problem— we just believe it matters.

Agree Ahmed is a sophomore in the SFS. He is a coordinator of the Up to Us campaign, which seeks to open a dialogue on the debt.

50 years on, still living in the illusion of a post-racial society

by Deborah Williams Many have claimed President Barack Obama is the fulfilment of Dr. King’s half-century old dream, pointing to the election and reelection of the first black head of state as the coming of a post-racial society—an America no longer concerned with race, but instead views all individuals based on the content of their character. However, these individuals neglect the dual identity that President Obama and millions of African-Americans and minorities encounter on a daily basis—trying to balance an appreciation of one’s cultural background, while striving to attain success in a predominantly white society.

Unfortunately, not many have been successful at this task.

Some choose to sacrifice their cul-

KAREN BU

50 shades of gray. But be assured that they’re all derivatives of Hoya gray.

sponse change if Gates was a white male? Although upper class Blacks may not experience the same forms of institutional racism as lowerclass Blacks, the Gates incident and other unlisted events support the notion that race still matters.

The first day of every semester, I go through the same routine for every single class. I notice how many African-Americans are in the class, with the hopes that I am not the only one. Why? Unfortunately, being the only African-American student in a class assigns me an extra, unsolicited assignment—changing negative perceptions of the “typical” African-American student.

But there’s one problem— I am not the typical AfricanAmerican student.

There is no typical AfricanAmerican, but subconscious racism reinforces stereotypes and fuels systems that continue to disproportionately disenfranchise African Americans. Although my greatest hope is that someday there will be no need for social justice organizations like the NAACP, our work won’t end until minorities don’t have to choose between competing identities in America.

Deborah Williams is a senior in the SFS. She disagrees with Claire, Solange is way cooler than Ms. Sasha Fierce.

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Soundoff: Debt debate is completely unnecessary

by Gavin Bade Everyone says it’s tough to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans today in Washington, but when it comes to the national debt the leaders of both parties basically stand shoulder to shoulder. They may not agree on exactly how to do it, but everyone from the Tea Party Caucus to President Obama seems to think we need a big debt reduction deal and we need it right now.

The argument of the deficit hawks is quite simple. If we continue spending as we do today—especially on social insurance programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security—our borrowing costs will rise sharply. By the mid 2020s, the most severe alarmists claim, we could see interest rates on our debt high enough to doom us to a finan-

cial Armageddon of Greek proportions. It will simply be too expensive for us to borrow money to finance social programs and the military, and so the government will enact either crippling austerity measures or face default.

Curiously, the deficit hawk solution to such debt problems seems to mirror one of their dreaded consequences: they argue for harsh austerity now to avoid it later. Problem is, cutting federal spending now is likely to do more to increase unemployment and tamper growth than it does to alleviate the deficit.

Already we’re beginning to see the consequences of austerity on the federal level. A cut in federal spending late last year precipitated a GDP contraction of .01 percent in the final quarter of 2012, the first time the economy has failed to grow since it sputtered back into positive ter-

SARA AINSWORTH

This debate is threatening to break up the greatest couple the world’s ever seen.

Majority, but still a minority

Since the Super Bowl, I’ve been a little obsessed with Beyoncé. I know I’m not alone in this, as it’s basically the only thing the Internet can talk about. What’s not to love? Queen Bey is beautiful, talented, and apparently perfect; I can’t stop listening to her songs.

The thing is, I’ve actually been listening to her songs, and there’s something very wrong. Don’t get me wrong-they’re super catchy and perfect for dancing. My mother even works out to them.

Anything that can transcend the generational barrier is bound to be fantastic, but there’s still something a little bit off about one song in particular that takes the sheen off of my obsession a little bit.

“Run the World (Girls)” is just a blatant falsehood. Right off the bat, the name alone is incredibly frustrating. Girls? Don’t belittle.

I am a woman. And what world do girls run? Maybe Beyoncé is privy to some super secret meeting I don’t know about, but to my knowledge in every single country in the world—including the U.S.—women are considered a minority group.

Let’s face facts: this has been true for millennia. Sure, in the U.S. we outnumber men in population size and in the number of us in higher education, but that only means that we’re relegated to a “special issues” group. I’m sorry, but it’s not a special issue if

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ritory in the third quarter of 2009.

It’s also been widely noted that cutbacks on the state and local level over the past four years have hampered the recovery and cost at least a million jobs.

If you’re still not convinced, consider the terror the sequester strikes into the hearts of beltway Democrats and Republicans alike.

Another bipartisan consensus emerges: everyone knows the cuts would push us back into recession.

And yet, we continue to think the problem is the type of austerity, rather than austerity itself.

What’s more troubling is that the entire premise of the deficit hawk argument is a farce, at least in the short term. American treasury bonds are trading at essentially negative real interest rates—meaning it’s historically never been cheaper for us to finance a deficit. If the hawks are right about the need to cut spending now, they need to offer a comprehensive account of why the riskiness of American treasuries is not priced into their values.

If there’s such a consensus among economists and finance wizards that the deficit is to become unsustainable within the next two decades, its mind-boggling that the markets would allow us to keep borrowing like nothing is wrong.

Maybe investors simply have confidence we will enact a major debt reduction package before things get out of hand, but that seems highly unlikely given all of the business interest bellyaching about the most of the population has to deal with it. You’d fail a logic class if you tried to argue that way. It’s just an issue.

There’s this incredibly damaging perception that now that women have been able to vote in the U.S. for almost a hundred years, now that we can become

Carrying On

by Claire McDaniel

A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

doctors and lawyers and worldfamous pop stars, now that we can even fight on the front lines for our country, that we’ve reached equality and we should all pack up our soap boxes and go home. That is just stupid.

If we were equal, the world wouldn’t be captivated by the despicable culture of rape halfway across the world in India, or even here in Ohio. If we were equal, there wouldn’t be a problem passing the Violence Against Women Act through Congress and the cabinet wouldn’t almost entirely be old men. If we were

economic uncertainty instilled by unpredictable federal budget negotiations. Then there’s always the fact that credit rating agency Standard and Poors removed the U.S. from its list of risk free borrowers in August 2011—not usually a move that inspires confidence, but we borrow cheaply all the same.

Now, it could be that the market for American treasuries is just dysfunctional and the supposedly rational actors that comprise it aren’t properly valuing risk, but that opens up the deficit hawks to a critique of international finance markets they usually don’t want to take on. Instead, they point to the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. In a world denominated in American money, raising U.S. borrowing costs would completely freeze international credit markets in a similar fashion to what we observed shortly after the financial collapse of 2008. That’s in no one’s interest, so there’s a universal incentive to keep the interest rate on American debt low.

What’s more, American treasuries are seen as a safe haven today for investors wary of the European debt crisis and the continent’s resurgent recession, as well as Asian economies like China that show signs of slowdown. As long as the American economic recovery continues to gather steam and inspire confidence in investors, there’s no reason to believe our borrowing costs are going to rise, especially because a growing economy will beget higher tax equal, I wouldn’t have to write this column.

As a society, we can’t just silently accept that a few well-publicized gains in recent years mean that we’re done fighting for equality. I hate to break it to you, but we’re not. It is going to take a long time for that to be true, despite what Beyoncé apparently thinks.

If you want to measure things in terms of anecdotal evidence or the like, we still haven’t had a female president, although I have my fingers crossed for Hils in 2016. If you want to measure things in the tangible facts, then let’s take a quick look at sexual assault statistics, or maybe domestic abuse figures, or even women’s paychecks. The pattern that emerges is a disgraceful differentiation between men and women, and only that reveals women are quite evidently not yet equal to their male counterparts.

I’m not taking issue with the sentiment that Beyoncé tries to get across. Trying to empower women using music or characters on TV, or however possible, is a step in the right direction.

receipts and less reliance on public assistance programs, lowering the debt (indeed, many economists point to the great recession as the real reason we have alleged debt issues anyway—not overspending).

In that vein, it makes absolutely no sense to cut spending now. Doing so would only hurt growth, thereby increasing the debt and inspiring more pressure on our borrowing costs than if we just left well enough alone. Of course, there are long-term structural issues in our social insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid that need to be addressed, but administering any cuts before unemployment dips at least below 6 percent is tantamount to economic lunacy.

Unfortunately, there’s no one more loony than most strident deficit hawks in the halls of Congress. As The Washington Post’s Brad Plumer noted after the “fiscal cliff” deal, the U.S. is now slated to endure European-levels of austerity in 2013—cuts that amount to around 1.9 percent of GDP—even while we continue to borrow at record low rates. Perhaps our lawmakers should be worried about turning into Greece after all—not in terms of our debt, but in terms of economic growth and prosperity.

Gavin Bade is a junior in the SFS. He has been contemplating sequestering himself due to the upcoming release of Lil’ Wayne’s newest album.

As an anthem trying to portray a woman in a position of power, I actually quite like the song. As a catchy tune thattries to create a generation of women who strive towards equality, it’s not half bad. But as an attempt to say that we’ve finally reached that position of equality, it’s completely incorrect.

Compared to the last decade, century, or millennium, women have never been more powerful. I don’t deny that, I revel in it.

Something’s gone right, and I’d like to think that as a global society we had something to do with that. But we’re not done fighting for equality, we’re not done striving for women’s issues to become issues for everyone, and we’re not done hoping that the world as a whole will come to accept that women are just as good as men.

I’m not going to be any less obsessed with Beyoncé because of this one song, but all of the false sense of security and complacency with the state of women’s rights? It needs to go in a box to the left.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT “The poets have come down for Mt. Olympus” — Nicanor Parra Tell me a little about your art: Well, I started writing when I was maybe about 15—very bad poems, but I think, like anything, writing takes practice. By freshman year at Georgetown I had improved immensely. I had a cohesive manuscript which is now my first collected work.

that have no typical poetic value--Like this chair. A poem should not be so banal; It should speak to everyday life. This idea is better represented in my second book.

How incredible to be a published poet! Can you tell me a little about that process?

When I went home to San Juan last summer, I got into contact with a Colombian publishing company that liked my work, We spent the summer working on it, myself, this company, and an incredible fellow Puerto Rican poet that I really admired. Three months later I presented my published work in San Juan and also here at Georgetown in December.

Wow! A second book?

Yeah, its not published, but it’s complete, and I’m looking to publish it in the future.

It has a lot more to say about everyday life.

For example I have a 15-page poem “Verso de Oficina” about what it feels like to write poetry from inside a cubicle.

Are you proud of how it all turned out?

I think so. Both major PR newspapers gave me positive reviews. I’m not publishing to make money so I’m very happy with it.

You said it was a cohesive manuscript?

“20 mentiras y un prólogo sin prisa” (“20 Lies and a patient prologue”). Each poem is a response to a poem by a famous Latin American poet.

What do you mean by lie?

I mean to address the misconception that truth has a universal meaning. Each poet—each person—takes on truth with an assertion of what truth is. I wanted to express this idea by presenting a rebuttal “lie” to each of these famous poet’s assertions in their poems, defying that truth or actualizing it.

Very impressive, did you have any inspiration for the concept?

It was initially inspired by Neruda’s “20 Poems and a Love Song.” To some extent it is a parody of that. I don’t write love poems because I don’t believe love should be written about so directly. I write poetry about things

What else are you involved in?

I’m Executive Secretary of CIMA, a student-run organization that works in Venezuela. We’re currently fundraising for an afterschool program for girls and boys.

Two completed books, Social justice involvement, and Georgetown coursework. How do you manage?

It’s very time-consuming, but most of my poems start in Lau. Sometimes I write poems in ten minutes sometimes they take two weeks.

Where do you see your art in the future, a career or…?

I wouldn’t want to make my poetry my life’s work, no disrespect to the artists that have, but I cannot help feeling that making a living out of it would debase my art.

Do you think your art has influenced you?

Definitely. Poetry has given me a lot. It’s a two-way street, the way I influence the art and the art influences me. I’ve grown a lot.

My art has caused me to really look at myself, with close attention to detail. I don’t plan to make it a career, but it is something I will always do.

Music genre?

Nueva trova-genre, its great Afro-Cuban guitar.

It’s very poetic.

Un extracto de Mentira #3 “Moriré en parís con aguacero pero, la verdad, que importa? moriré, pero, y Paris? o sea, la Torre Eiffel y las crepas el Rey Luis y sus prostitutas el Louvre lúgubre y sus penumbras los palacios, Lourdes y su gruta ellos cuentan con cierta gracia eterna un tal yo nada que decirte con despliegues de arrogancia existencial son como las piernas de una mujer joven son como Beethoven después de haber compuesto una sinfonía preciosa y enferma…”

--Luis B Mendez del Nido