2 9 2012

VOICE the georgetown

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ARAMARK WORKERS CONCLUDE NEGOTIATIONS PAGE 4

HOYAS FALL TO ORANGE IN OVERTIME PAGE 6

PINA JUMPS TO LIFE PAGE 11

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  February 9, 2012  Volume 46, Issue 5  georgetownvoice.com

AT THE CROSSROADS

2 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

comments of the week

Foxdog

By Nico Dodd

“I really should have thought to work funnel cakes in there somewhere. Dang.”

—”GUSA Roundup: You know what happens when you accede...”

“He was far and away the best speaker I’ve seen in Gaston.”

— “Georgian president’s talk in Gaston showcases reforms”

“This is actually mildly intriguing”

—”New South 3 without a chaplain after incident

Wednesday night”

“wowww that needs to be blingeed”

—“Postgame Roundup: Georgetown 58, UConn 44”

Talk Back

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Voice Crossword “Georgetown Groups ” by Tyler Pierce 1

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Across expanded its repertoire to 1. Certain tech labs include everything from 4. Urine group to Michael Jackson, 57. Georgetown 10. One with a green Motown 38. Comprehend Pub offerings who just7.wanted to sing gem above his or her est. 2000 39. Cheer at a pep rally 18. Poppy and have11.a Willingly, good time,for Chaucer head 42.product Genesis preceder est. 1995 13. Coxswain call 12. Cholesterol and19. Is next 43.toRapscallions 61. Super betiting at atriglyceride 14.Bowl It’s weighed weigh 20. Elect44. "___ 5" group 16. Sugar amt. station 22. Latch45. Orange and black 62. Confederate solidiergroup 17. who Froshhas abuser, 23. “Bold!”

15. Georgetown bird“Amazing!” “A riot 63. Going rate? sometimes 46. "The ___ and the 64. Like fancy wine 18. Slugger Mel Damage Done," Neil 65. Snatch 21. Pizzeria order Young hit

on stage!” This is how audiences have described this Georgetown group, est.

2008 29. Sushi stuffer 30. Secret stash 31. Wedding accessory 32. To it we shall return 33. Like a nose in the winter 34. Georgetown group that has opened for Chingy and the Black Eyed Peas, est. 1988 38. Bitch and complain 40. Wiped 41. Bring in 42. Famous hobbit 44. It comes after Sun 47. Georgetown group whose concerts consist of high-quality vocal performance, entertainment, and energy sure to please audiences of all ages, est. 1946 49. Loud blast 51. 60’s do 52. Eagle’s digs 53. Kind of drive 57. Georgetown group who just wanted to sing and have a good time, est. 1995 61. Super Bowl betting group 62. Confederate soldier 63. Going rate?

64. Like fancy wine 65. Snatch 66. Born as Down 1. ___-Lorraine 2. Doable 3. “___ Healing,” Gaye song 4. Champ 5. Age 6. Female bleater 7. Cleopatra’s bane 8. Hula hoop?

9. Ostrich relative 10. One with a green gem above his or her head 12. Cholesterol and triglyceride 16. Sugar amt.

17. Frosh abuser, sometimes 18. Slugger Mel 21. Pizzeria order 23. Dough 24. Performable 25. Lab egg 26. Paradigm 27. Tonic partner

answers at georgetownvoice.com

28. Foxy?

30. Stanley, for example 32. 18 Across room 33. Balderdash 34. Raced 35. This, Latin 36. Beaks 37. Confucian path 38. Comprehend 39. Cheer at a pep rally 42. Genesis preceder 43. Rapscallions 44. “___ 5” 45. Orange and black bird 46. “The ___ and the Damage Done,” Neil Young hit 48. Pensive syllable 49. Rhino, for example 50. Not right 53. Balancing pro 54. The Bounty Hunter 55. Wade opponent

56. Getting on in years 58. Ashes holder 59. Potpie morsel 60. Abate

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Share your love of words and help us write crosswords.

Email crossword@georgetownvoice.com

editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 46.5 February 9, 2012 Editor-in-Chief: Sean Quigley Managing Editor: Leigh Finnegan Blog Editor: Jackson Perry News Editor: Vanya Mehta Sports Editor: Kevin Joseph Feature Editor: Rachel Calvert Cover Editor: Richa Goyal Leisure Editor: Heather Regen Voices Editor: Connor Jones Photo Editor: Lucia He Design Editor: Juia Kwon, Kathleen Soriano-Taylor Projects Editor: Rob Sapunor Crossword Editor: Tyler Pierce Assistant Blog Editors: Ryan Bellmore, John Sapunor Assistant News Editors: Soo Chae, Morgan Manger Assistant Sports Editor: Abby Sherburne Assistant Leisure Editors: Mary Borowiec, Julia Lloyd-George, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Photo Editors: Julian De La Paz, Abby Greene Assistant Design Editors: Amanda Dominguez, Madhuri Vairapandi Contributing Editors: Geoffrey Bible, Nico Dodd, Tim Shine

Staff Writers:

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

Staff Photographers:

Sam Brothers, Helen Guo, Kirill Makarenko, Tim Markatos, Jackson Perry

Copy Chief: Kim Tay Copy Editors:

Keaton Hoffman, Tori Jovanovski, Claire McDaniel, Neil Sood

Editorial Board Chair: Gavin Bade Editorial Board:

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

Head of Business: Keaton Hoffman Business Staff:

Sara Ainsworth, Zoe Disselkoen, Charmaine Ng, Aarohi Vora

The Georgetown Voice

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On this week’s cover: Professor Natsu Onoda Power Cover Design: Caroline Joyce

the georgetown voice 3

MAKE LOVE, NOT BABIES

Hoya women deserve their reproductive rights

Late last month, the Obama administration rolled out a new policy announced by the Department of Health and Human Services which mandates that all employers, regardless of religious affiliation, pay for FDA-approved contraceptives through their health insurance options, effective Aug. 1.

Since then, Catholic advocacy groups across the country have promised to resist implementation of the policy. The issue is especially pertinent for students at Georgetown, as the University’s commitment to its Jesuit identity is so strong that it does not allow contraceptives to be sold or provided anywhere on campus.

The University’s allegiance to antiquated ideologies has passed the point of acceptability, and proves its negligence of student health care needs. These policies become worse when one considers that they have actually proven counterproductive to several of the University’s own social justice and equality initiatives.

In 2010 a student coalition called Plan A: Hoyas for Reproductive Justice responded to these policies with protests and negotiations to pressure the administration towards addressing provisions of sexual health, rape response, and contraceptive services. Despite their efforts, these issues remain unaccounted for in Georgetown’s student health insurance plan, and received no response from the institution. Last week, the University’s flippant attitude towards student demands for better health care provisions became apparent once again, as Planned Parenthood representatives tabling with H*yas for Choice were asked to leave Red Square when they could not provide student IDs to University police. Curiously, no incidents have been reported in which recruiting representatives of consulting firms, Wall Street banks, or buyback book services have been forced to leave for the same reason.

Another strange example is in the Center for Social Justice’s After School Kids Pro-

gram, which aims to reduce recidivism rates in D.C.’s disadvantaged youth communities.

Several teenagers in the program, who are often as young as 14, are pregnant, and some have been victims of sexual abuse, but ASK tutors are not allowed to discuss contraceptives with their students. This forced censorship of the program’s ability to discuss every option is particularly negligent given that HIV/AIDS rates in the District exceed those of several sub-Saharan African nations.

The University’s tendency to sidestep open dialogue concerning sexual health and access to reproductive services has seriously hampered Georgetown’s ability to support the health needs of women, particularly those who cannot otherwise afford these services. Obama’s mandate will affect Georgetown’s policies for the better, forcing it to protect the health of its own students and improving the effectiveness of the social justice initiatives which it claims to be the central facet of its Catholic identity.

SUPERSIZE SOMETHING ELSE

Study shows small schools a must for DCPS

Two weeks ago, an ongoing study tracking the performance of high school students in New York City released its results, showing students who attend smaller schools are more likely to graduate. According to the study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there is a discrepancy of more than eight percent in graduation rates between schools with fewer than 100 students per grade and larger schools. This disparity is consistent across races, socio-economic statuses, and eighth-grade reading and math scores.

While this small-school philosophy is reflected in many D.C. charter schools, which emphasize smaller class sizes and low teacher/student ratios, this is not the case for the D.C. Public Schools system. On the contrary, DCPS has been moving in the opposite direction. One of ex-Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s reforms included shutting down 23 under-performing middle schools in 2008. The District’s solution for the resulting lack of seats was to

replace the middle schools with expanded elementary institutions, forming mega-schools that span pre-school to eighth grade.

Though Rhee’s efforts stemmed the flow of students out of DCPS by expanding highperforming schools, this study indicates the move likely impacts the quality of education.

Larger schools increase the likelihood struggling students will fall through the cracks. By contrast, smaller schools provide better peer and faculty support and, as a result, a generally more successful education for all students.

What’s more, Rhee’s justification of her school consolidation policy was based largely on standardized test scores, reflecting a nationwide practice of assessing teacher, principal, student, and school performance. While these scores are useful in specific areas, many education experts decry their use in measuring overall school quality, for they overlook many outside factors. Test scores in D.C. have also come under special scrutiny lately through re-

ports of cheating scandals across the District.

In any case, graduation statistics are a more holistic measure of school quality—especially for struggling institutions—and they suggest that DCPS should be looking for more and smaller schools, not fewer bigger ones.

Fixing the schools in D.C. involves a massive financial committment. The solution requires investing more in subpar schools, maintaining the small-school atmosphere, hiring more teachers, and improving each institution’s facilities and resources. This would not only improve schooling, but counteract student flight from poor to wealthy districts, thus breaking a cycle that decreases funding for underprivileged students. Instead, the District has decided to sidestep effective reform and consolidate schools, a cheaper but less effective way to approach the educational quality problem. This refusal is a travesty, and reflects a wider, national trend of undervaluing the importance of education.

“COPS’ SOULS”

Police overreact in response to Occupiers Early in the morning on Saturday, Feb. 4, United States Park Police—some in riot gear, some in hazmat suits, some on horseback—raided the McPherson Square Occupy D.C. encampment and arrested eight protesters. Although the purported reason for the raid was to enforce a recent ruling forbidding protesters from sleeping in the park, the preparations and actions of the police were both inappropriate and unwarranted, and were obvious attempts to intimidate those protesters acting within the law into abandoning their efforts.

According to the new ruling, which went into effect in late January, protesters are no longer permitted to sleep in the park, and their tents, which have become fixtures in McPherson Square since the protest began in October, are now only to be used while awake as shelter. On Saturday, police acted on orders to take down any tents that did not meet the qualifications of “vigil tents,” theoretically meaning those that contained

bedding or other evidence of encampment.

What the police did, however, did not follow these guidelines—officers removed empty tents, and disposed of whichever possessions of the protesters that they deemed “trash.”

In removing “vigil tents” and non-banned personal belongings, the police acted against the ruling the National Park Service, cynically going beyond their permission in attempt to strong-arm the protesters out of their camp.

The officers’ display of force was almost comically excessive, with peaceful protesters grossly outnumbered by officers armed with riot gear and pepper spray. In bringing in hazmat suits, barricades, and horses, the Park Police demonstrated either a complete unawareness of the protesters’ peaceful actions—unlikely given the amount of publicity the movement has received—or a clear intention to frighten the protesters and characterize them as dangerous and unsanitary. Both these intentions are unfair to the protesters, who have been largely compliant

with police orders, and the tactics represent an utter waste of public resources. It seems Mayor Vincent Gray and his police chiefs wanted to do more than eject the protesters from the square. They instead looked to break the momentum of the movement through overt intimidation.

In the wake of Saturday’s raid, the National Park Service has vowed to “continue to enforce” the no-encampment rule in the coming weeks. But if protesters remained after the first round of enforcement, complete with its unnecessary displays of force and extralegal removal of belongings, then the Park Service should reconsider the effectiveness of its overt, unwarranted antagonism against the Occupiers. The all-too-zealous effort to return law and order to the square only shows the fearsome tactics governments across the country will use if their authority is challenged. If anything, these scare tactics should not break the movement, but renew the vigor of protesters to challenge the rule of the 1 percent.

news

4 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

Aramark, union reach contract agreement Dahlgren renovation plans released

by Rachel Calvert After a year of protracted negotiations, representatives of the Georgetown Dining Services union, Unite Here!, and University food services provider Aramark have agreed on a three-year contract. The settlement provides several of the union’s key demands, including a 50-cent per-year pay raise, a forty-hour work week, year-round health insurance, and a $200 signing bonus.

“This was a huge milestone, because this is as much a step forward in the process of unionization as the actual recognition of the union was,” said Sam Geaney-Moore (SFS ’12), a member of Georgetown Solidarity, the student group that helped begin the workers’ unionization efforts over a year ago.

Unite Here! members said the negotiations were slow to get off the ground, with health insurance proving a particularly contentious issue.

“It seemed to me like the company wasn’t trying to give us anything,” Tarshae Smith, a union member who works at Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall, said. “With everything we asked for in the beginning, they wouldn’t meet us halfway. They just said that the company didn’t have any money.”

After half a year of protracted negotiations, Aramark representa-

tives all but terminated negotiations after a meeting in late December.

“The word they used was that we were at an impasse,” said Smith.

“What they were going to give us was what was on the table—there would be no more discussion.”

Both parties left the negotiating table with no further plans to meet. However, negotiations promptly resumed after workers and student organizers staged a demonstration during the lunch rush hour in Leo’s on Jan. 26.

Donte Crestwell, another Leo’s worker, described the demonstration as “powerful.”

“It let them know that we were still together, and things were going to have to change on campus, and students were with us,” he said. The demonstration coincided with Aramark executives’ visit to campus, and they were at Leo’s to

watch the workers chant, “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!” According to Smith, after months of silence, “that same day that we came together in Leo’s, that same day they called and said they wanted to meet with the committee.”

Smith and Crestwell said the contract, which is pending ratification by union members, included most of the workers’ goals.

However, Smith said she hoped for a more comprehensive contract when the parties convene in three years to renegotiate.

Smith hoped to see a pension plan and a better 401(k) option in the new contract. “I look at it like it’s our first house: it’s not our dream home, but it’s a house,” Smith said. Still, she said, “we came a long way.”

Students protest with Leo’s workers to demand a better contract.

Jackson perry

by Connor Jones On Wednesday, the committee for the renovation of Dahlgren Chapel released specific plans for the improvement of the building, which include moving the baptismal font close to the opening of the church and placing the tabernacle in better view of parishioners. The project would make acoustic and aesthetic improvements to the chapel while responding to changes in ideas about church design.

The Office of Mission and Ministry formed the committee last year after a piece of plaster fell from the church’s ceiling, indicating to that the building’s foundation was less sturdy than previously thought. After a $6 million donation from the Rooney Foundation, repairs to the structure’s base started late last year. In the process, the committee is seeking another $2 million from donations for internal improvements to the sanctuary.

Principal architect Sean Reilly presented the plan as dependent on the amount of money donated by alumni.

“The plan we’re going to show you today represents ...

everything we’d like to do, and the wish-list will be finetuned based on the results of fundraising,” he said.

The chapel’s organ, which is presently located at the back of the seating area, will be moved to either side of the wall behind the altar, next to the choir. The organ was donated 30 years ago, and has not been well maintained. “Other organs built by that builder in the eighties have not lasted,” Fr. Kevin O’Brien said. According to Reilly, moving the organ will increase seating by 25 to 30 percent.

O’Brien responded to concerns from members of the choir that the tabernacle and the organ would reduce choir space. They assured the members that, since the altar would be moving forward, the choir would still have sufficient space.

According to O’Brien, the project’s timeline is still unclear. The project will start once fundraising is met. According to University architect Gina Bleck, the project will presumably be done sometime in the spring of 2013.

The chapel will largely remain open throughout renovations.

Seven candidates launch GUSA presidency campaigns

by Fatima Taskomur The GUSA presidential campaign kicked off this morning at midnight, marking the start of a two-week race. The 24-hour voting period will start on Thursday, February 23, after a presidential debate and weeks of campaigning. There are seven tickets vying for executive positions this year, making the race one of the most closely contested in recent memory.

The candidates running for president and vice president come from a variety of backgrounds, GUSA experiences, and class years. “It’s a lot more crowded—there are a lot more tickets,” Mike Meaney (SFS ’12), current GUSA President, said. “Everyone’s a lot more experienced, so there’s going to be a lot of interesting platforms. People are trying to draw distinctions among themselves in ways we haven’t seen.”

The Nate Tisa (SFS’14)-Sheila Walsh (COL’14) ticket, youngest of the candidates, proposes a three-fold, top-level reform. “It would have been

easier for us to endorse an older candidate…but none of the tickets we see right now had a solid philosophy,” Tisa said. “We didn’t agree with the way they went about it....we had strong ideas on our own.”

Walsh and Tisa see their youth as a significant advantage. “We’re younger, we know younger students, and we also have the advantage of longevity,” Tisa said. “The fact that we’ve got a few years left on the Hilltop gives us the momentum to overcome the perennial problems of disunity that have plagued the student body for so long.”

Other candidates emphasize their years of experience with GUSA. Colton Malkerson (COL’13), the current FinApp chair, and Maggie Cleary (COL’14), chair of GU College Republicans, propose a platform covering issues from club funding to sustainability.

“Our ticket is the most experienced, we have the clearest record, our platform is most relevant to students.

We don’t have to introduce ourselves

to University administrators, we don’t need training. We can start implementing our campaign promises from the first day,” Malkerson said.

Candidates are planning their campaign strategies for the next two weeks. “We plan on knocking on every single door on campus,” Lauren Weber (COL’13) and John Morris (COL’13) wrote an email. “[And] getting the word out through every type of outlet, and engaging the student body on a person-to-person basis as much as possible.”

Murphy Kate Delaney (COL’13) and Michael Appau (COL’13) plan on a similar approach. “We want to emphasize personal interaction,” Delaney said. “Our slogan is, ‘YOUR campaign for Georgetown.’ We want [the students] to feel that they are really are represented by what we’d like to do.”

Daniel LaMagna (COL’13) and Markel Starks (COL’14) also see a need for fewer administrative changes and more detail-oriented ones. “GUSA has done a lot of reform, and now we’d like to focus

on practical application,” LaMagna, a GUSA senator, said. He wants to help make University Facilities more efficient, and possibly launch a Georgetown Smartphone App with school news, access to library information, shuttle bus routes courses, and other information.

The Tyler Sax (COL’13)-Michael Crouch (MSB’13) ticket similarly desires a more technical side to the campaign. “We both come from technical backgrounds, and I think that’s key in an organization like GUSA, where you have to reach out to so many people,” Crouch said. “You have to start by engaging them online.”

Sax and Crouch also have a threepart platform, consisting of building ties across many of the student groups on campus, inspiring innovation in the way they interact with the community, and closing the loop.

“The idea is that we don’t have a monopoly of good ideas; we need to pull on the collective ideas of Georgetown. We try to get feedback; we want to learn what is important [to the com-

munity] instead of us telling them [what is important],” Crouch said.

The Clara Gustafson (SFS’13)-Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS’13) ticket emphasizes reinvigoration of academic life and strengthening Georgetown’s commitment to its Jesuit values. “These next few weeks may be stressful or awkward, but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s made me realize why I’m excited to hopefully represent Georgetown on a bigger scale and be able to advocate for our students,” Kohnert-Yount said.

Meaney encouraged the general student body to take the elections seriously. “I would encourage the students to not just vote for their friends, not just vote for who is popular, not just vote the most famous name, but actually view it as a choice and see whose platform they like, who has a experience, who has a proven record of execution and leadership, who reaches out to them the most, and who cares about their opinions.

Elections matter, elections have consequences. GUSA’s come a long way and it’s not time to go backward.”

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SGU holds executive board elections

by Matthew Weinnman Wednesday night, voting for the 11 positions—one for each of 11 student group categories— on the first executive board of Georgetown’s Student Group Union finished, with candidates for nine of the spots running uncontested. The two contested seats represented student political and cultural groups.

The newly elected executive board will meet at least once every 15 days, with a general body meeting once a month, according to Etian Paul (SFS ’12), co-chair of the SGU steering committee. Any student group leader can run to represent that group’s category on the board. Student groups are each given one vote for candidates representing their category.

Georgetown’s Assistant Vice President for Communications Stacy Kerr said the administration is “eager to engage with student leaders on the issues and opportunities that emerge from their conversation.”

SGU is devoted to this conversation, and the union’s influence continues to grow. In the past week, 14 more groups have joined the SGU, bringing the total number of member groups to 75.

Elections will take place every semester, and no term limits

are currently in place. According to Paul, the next executive board elections will take place in either September or October.

According to Emma Green (COL ‘12), part of the SGU steering committee, the organizations started when student leaders were campaigning to change SAC’s fundraising guidelines.

However, the group denies allegations that it is merely a reaction to antagonism between student groups and SAC. Green said the organization is not about “picking fights, it is about filling in this void of communication.”

Still, Paul said the SGU is “not going to shy away from challenging anything negatively affecting student life.”

While acknowledging the benefits of the CSP online program Hoyalink, Green mentioned that Hoyalink as an “internet forum is not enough to build a network,” and would not advocate for student groups.

Green describes SGU as a “paradigm shift” in student bureaucracy. “It’s about taking people with expertise and channeling that into facing issues that come up year after year,” she said. “This is a goal-driven and a goal-oriented organization.”

This is what bureaucracy looks like!

In the press conference for the release of the 2012 Student Life Report, the GUSA President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Vice President Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) were asked when they thought another large-scale, student-driven self-study should be executed.

They responded that the interval between the 1999 and 2012 reports was too long, and that they would like to see another study in the next few years. Although I agree that three full turnovers of the undergraduate population is too long to go without assessing student life, a shorter interval is not the solution.

Rigorous self-study, similar to the assessment taking place in these reports, must be a constant and evolving activity.

The model of regularly-timed, large-scale studies works well for large institutions with longevity.

For instance, the University’s decennial self-studies for reaccreditation are appropriate. This model,

however, isn’t the best fit for a population with a four-year turnover rate. Furthermore, large-scale studies are effective in two ways: by articulating the current state of affairs, and by offering well researched recommended courses of action. In essence, these large-scale studies are excellent for setting mid-to-long-term goals.

But there is one function that large-scale studies cannot serve in a meaningful way: providing feedback. Currently, there is no mechanism for the short-to-mid-term feedback and goal-setting in student life. Assuming that the study is accurate, and that their recommendations were thoroughly considered, how will we know if and to what extent the recommendations were effective after they were carried out? We could wait until the next self-study to be commissioned by another GUSA executive of a completely different student body (and then risk GUSA forget-

the georgetown voice 5

Pro-choice group provokes complaints

by Vanya Mehta Last Thursday, two Planned Parenthood representatives tabling with H*yas for Choice in Red Square were confronted by a University employee and asked to leave when they could not provide identification as students.

The group was offering free condoms and encouraging students to sign thank-you cards to President Obama in support of a new mandate for contraceptive coverage in health insurance provided by employers.

The incident occurred during a brief period when no students were manning the table.

“Someone from the University came up and told [the Planned Parenthood reps] that they had gotten complaints that someone was promoting birth control on campus,” H*yas for Choice president Ashley Bradylyons (SFS ‘12) said. Realizing that they were not students, the University official asked the Planned Parenthood representatives to remain silent until the Georgetown students returned.

Emily Jakobsen, the Planned Parenthood rep for theG e o r g e town area present at Red Square, declined to comment on the incident.

It is unclear where the complaint or the order to remove the representatives from campus came from. “No one from DPS removed anyone from ting about it), or we could create a new, standing commission with the responsibility of assessment.

Obviously, I think the latter solution is more effective.

“Continuous self-assessment” might seem ambiguous, so allow me to provide some specifics. The report recommends that in order to improve student groups’ access

saxa politica

by Ryan Bellmore A bi-weekly column on D.C. news and politics

to space, all space reservations be compiled through one office with one online portal. If this is implemented, and student groups can book any space on campus through OCAF’s website, it is unclear whether student groups will have a better experience with space, or if it will just increase the number of OCAF-related headaches. The best way to tell is to establish criteria that measure student organizations’ satisfaction with space reser-

campus,” Stacy Kerr, Assistant Vice President of Communications, wrote in an email. “As an academic community committed to the free exchange of ideas, Georgetown believes it is important that students, faculty, and staff are able to engage in dialogue on important issues of the day.”

Bradylyons said H*yas for Choice has been removed from the Leavey Center by the Office of Campus Activity Facilities before. “We’re used to getting negative feedback at Georgetown,” she said.

The group says the tabling was part of a larger effort to increase awareness on the importance of the new insurance policy, especially for a Jesuit university like Georgetown.

According to Warrick, at least 300 people signed thank-you cards by the end of the day.

The University’s response to Obama’s new law is still undetermined. “The formal regulations for this have not been issued yet, so Georgetown cannot comment on how we will react to this news.”

Warrick and Bradylyons are unsure of the impact the Obama law will have on Georgetown’s health insurance policy, though Warrick doubts the University will move to providing birth control on campus.

“I think people are starting to realize what H*yas for Choice’s function is on campus—we’re not the group that promotes unsafe sexual practices,” she said. “We’re here to raise awareness that there’s problems that our $54,000 a year tuition doesnw’t cover…and I think our little voice is helping to have things be noticed.”

H*yas for Choice handed out chocolate birth control packs in Red Square. vations, and then, after the change has been implemented, assess the criteria again to see if there was any improvement. Having short-term feedback like this is imperative, especially if student organization bureaucracy (GUSA, the funding boards, and student organizations) wants more autonomy.

I’m imagining this commission on assessment as a semiautonomous commission, like the election commission, with the responsibility to quantitatively review and make recommendations for improving various nonacademic aspects of the Georgetown experience, including student life, space, and student bureaucracies. The senate would be able to direct the commission to look into given programs, and the main emphasis would be the collection of data to assist short to mid-term decision making.

There are a couple of key points necessary for this to work out: first, it has to be semi-independent from the senate and the

JoHan cLarke

executive, so as to not be involved in any GUSA power-mongering.

Second, the reviews and recommendations need to be analytical, rigorous, and quantitative, so they can be taken seriously.

Third, all data should be made public (unless it is sensitive, i.e. health practices). And fourth, the commission should have no power to enforce anything—only the power to review and recommend. The last point is to keep the commission from becoming another hurdle to student life. On the other hand, if the senate or SAC wants to use the data to improve itself, that would be fantastic. In fact, it would be more than fantastic—it would be effective.

Now, whether or not people on campus will do the right thing with accurate information is another discussion.

Like Ryan’s bureaucratic master plans? Petition for your own subcommitee at bellmore@georgetownvoice.com

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6 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

Georgetown falters in overtime at Carrier Dome

by Tim Shine The Georgetown men’s basketball team (18-5, 8-4 Big East) gave the second-best team in the country all they could handle on Wednesday night. But Syracuse handled the Hoyas in the post when it counted, and that was all that mattered.

In a game that saw 18 lead changes and no margin greater than six points, overtime seemed inevitable. The Orange (24-1, 11-1 Big East) ultimately prevailed in the extra period, 64-61.

The Hoyas proved that they more than belonged on the court with the Orange, dominating the boards and mostly neutralizing Syracuse’s vaunted fast break.

However, the Orange’s interior defense, led by Brazilian 7-footer Fab Melo, denied the Hoyas the easy buckets they needed to win.

Georgetown’s failure down low was glaring on the stat sheet.

Freshman big man Mikael Hopkins saw 19 minutes, his most yet in conference play, and was 1-for8 from the field. Senior center Henry Sims had an even worse night, going 1-for-12 from the field while struggling to stay on the court with foul trouble.

“He missed a bunch of layups,” head coach John Thompson III said of Sims. “The ball just wouldn’t go in. He was getting the ball in pretty good position, right under the basket, right under the rim. I have to go back and look at the tape and debate and argue whether he was bumped or when he wasn’t bumped, but at the end of the day, he got it right there and the ball didn’t go in. It happens sometimes.”

Melo, the Orange’s sophomore center, wasn’t always causing the Hoyas’ misses down low, but it often felt that way.

The big man played 39 minutes and posted 11 points, seven rebounds, and six blocks.

“He’s just a big force down low,” freshman forward Otto Porter said. “He’s big—he can cover up a lot of space.”

Other than their performance under their basket, the Hoyas were as good as they could have hoped to be. Even if they couldn’t finish, they moved the ball effectively against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense, and they took control on the boards, outrebounding the Orange 5235. The team even managed to weather a seven-minute stretch where its two seniors, Sims and Jason Clark, sat on the bench with foul trouble.

Porter led the Hoyas on the glass, grabbing 13 rebounds to go along with his team-high 14 points. Junior forward Hollis Thompson also had a doubledouble with 10 points and 10 boards.

“This is a disaster game as far as I’m concerned,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

“I’m very disappointed, at this stage of the year, to get beat like that on the boards. You can miss shots—that’s part of the game— but you’ve got to find a way to rebound the ball better.”

While the Orange were hopeless on the boards, senior forward Kris Joseph compensated for his teammates’ deficiencies by simply putting the ball in the basket. The D.C. native torched the Hoyas for 29 points on 9-for-20 shooting, including 6-for-11 three-pointers.

“Kris bailed us out,” Boeheim said. “He made some shots for us. Nobody else really looked comfortable shooting the ball.”

Georgetown left Joseph wide open numerous times on the perimeter. He eventually punished

JACKSON PERRY

Nate Lubick, Jason Clark, and the Hoyas fought hard on Wednesday night.

them, making four of his last five threes, including the game winner with 29 seconds left in overtime.

That still left the Hoyas with plenty of time to tie the game.

Their last possession went awry from the start, however, when Thompson was not allowed to check into the game coming out of a Hoyas timeout after not making it to the scorers’ table before the buzzer.

“I shouldn’t comment on Hollis not getting in,” Thompson III said after the game.

Without the sharpshooting junior, Thompson III said the plan was for Clark to work off a screen at the top of the key. But the Syracuse defense never allowed that play to develop, forcing Clark to dribble around the perimeter where he was eventually tied up by Orange guard Scoop Jardine, leading to a turn-

over with five seconds to go.

The Hoyas were left heartbroken while the 27,820 fans in attendance celebrated Boeheim’s 880th career win.

“It’s always fun to come up here and play in this atmosphere,” Clark said. “You do want to get a win for the last time you’re playing a team, so that’s heartbreaking. But we’ve just got to move on and take it one game at a time.”

the Sports Sermon “I don’t know if he likes me.” -Eli Manning on his relationship with Tom Brady make his teammates better. Next thing NFL fans knew, Manning heaved it into the end zone to Plaxico Burress to beat the undefeated New England Patriots in arguably the most shocking Super Bowl in league history.

And so, with his second Super Bowl and subsequent MVP award under his belt, the question isn’t whether Eli is better than his brother Peyton, or even better than Tom Brady. The answer to those question remains a resounding and unequivocal no. The real question should be how long we, as fans, should wait to judge a quarterback’s legacy.

Today, almost any team choosing between Manning and

Eli, meanwhile, was thrust into the spotlight for the Giants in When New York Giants the post-Kerry Collins era, replacGeneral Manager Jerry Reese let ing the franchise’s stopgap in Kurt Steve Smith and Kevin Boss walk Warner after he went down with a away in free agency this offseason number of concussions. Since that and cut Rich Seubert and Shaun time, Manning has started every O’Hara, both stalwarts on the game behind center for Big Blue. offensive line, Giants fans were He did, however, experience his ready to declare the season dead share of growing pains, certainly and gone before the first snap. So, on a larger scale with respect to too, were the experts, who widely performing under the New York predicted a third or even lastspotlight. The Jets’ Mark Sanchez place finish for Big Blue. suffers from that scrutiny today, They just forgot about one Elias he was thrust into the starter sha Nelson Manning. Who could role during his second NFL game. blame them? In his seventh seaJust three seasons in, Gang Green son as an NFL quarterback, Manfans are clamoring for his removning threw 25 interceptions as the al. And while Sanchez is no ManGiants failed to make the playoffs ning, he remains a talented quarfor a second straight terback who still Pete Rose Central season. Though all needs time to learn Da bettin’ line hope was seemingly the intricacies and lost, a few writers preparation methDookies Margin Hoyas came out with hope ods of the game. (underdogs) (duh!) for the Giants before (favorites) Eli is not afraid to the 2011 campaign admit that he learns Gisele Looking cute a great deal every kicked off, with KC B. Jacobs Billups Joyner noting that Lin-sanity season, apparent Achilles “Eli Manning wasn’t in his preparations Bradying Mechanics Tebowing nearly as bad as his and additionally 2010 numbers suggest.” his draft-day trade partner Philip with his brother’s other-worldly, As an unabashed Big Blue fan, Rivers, who side-armed his way almost robotic levels of studying.

I took solace in infrequent positive to 20 interceptions in 2011, would Peyton, as another example, opinions, though the team’s simi- ride with Eli. For some, though, took quite some time to establish lar circumstances in 2007 certainly that late-game mettle wasn’t ap- himself before starting his run of had me excited about 2011. Keep parent before 2007, or even before four MVP awards. Brees, meanin mind that during that season, this Super Bowl. San Diego was while, was considered damaged New York was hit with the loss held in notoriety for mismanag- goods after a shoulder injury endof tight end Jeremy Shockey to ing quarterback Ryan Leaf, con- ed his tenure in San Diego. Indiainjury and the retirement of the sidered one of the biggest busts in napolis exercised patience with franchise’s most prolific running NFL history. Much of the reason Manning and New Orleans rolled back, Tiki Barber.

Eli refused to play for the Char- the dice on Brees – both worked That 2007 season was a com- gers is because of the horror sto- out historically well, leading their plete shocker, especially because ries Peyton conveyed about Leaf’s teams to Super Bowl victories.

Eli did not exactly impress dur- NFL upbringing.

Thus, as the NFL’s focus shifts ing the regular season, with 23 But, for their handling of Leaf, from Eli Manning to his brother touchdowns compared to an out- the team certainly eased Rivers’ and the Andrew Luck situation, rageous 20 interceptions. But, as transition by allowing him to fans should be cognizant of what former General Manager Ernie learn under Drew Brees for two recent history shows. Very few Accorsi noted when he scouted seasons. The NFL’s best quarter- quarterbacks are elite, but even if Manning during his days at back, Aaron Rodgers, learned in a they are, it may take two Super Ole Miss, the quarterback had a similar manner under Brett Favre Bowl rings for everyone else to “magic” about him, an ability to for three seasons. take notice.

by Kevin Joseph

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georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Baseball opens against Charleston Soccer fills freshman class

by Steven Criss After a subpar finish in the Big East last year, the Georgetown baseball team will open its new season at Charleston Southern for a three-game series beginning next Friday. During the offseason, many players joined summer teams and participated in a short fall season in attempts to address last year ’s weaknesses.

Coach Pete Wilk is targeting the pitching staff as a major area for improvement. With an ERA more than two runs higher than the league average in 2011, Georgetown looks to significantly bring that number down to secure more victories in close games. The Hoyas lost 10 games last season by only one or two runs, making lowering ERA and total unearned runs a priority.

Wilk is sticking with the same foundation he has used for years,

implementing minor tweaks in the team’s effort to develop stronger pitching. He believes this season’s team has the right mentality to make his strategy work.

“I do think there is enough competition within, I do think there is enough leadership,” he said. “I do think there is enough experience to understand that that’s what this team is going to have to do to win.”

Team hitting also remains a prevalent area in need of improvement. Wilk does not rely solely on batting average to determine the team’s line up, but instead uses a system that takes into account quality and productive at-bats. This alternative system assesses players on how well they execute with runners in scoring position, work to get on base, and put good swings on the ball.

“We’re grading kids’ at-bats.

We call them positive at-bats, to

GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

Justin Leeson leads the Hoyas’ outfield in 2012.

No moral victories for Hoyas

It would be easy to look at the Hoyas’ overtime loss to Syracuse last night as a moral victory.

Georgetown found a way to make the No. 2 Orange look pedestrian, and the team was just a few missed layups away from winning. Not to mention they happened to do all this while playing in front of 27,820 orange-clad fans in the Carrier Dome.

But it would be insulting to the Hoyas to call this game a moral victory. Because after 45 minutes of play Wednesday night, Georgetown proved that there are no such things as moral victories this season.

Whether it was warranted or not, the Hoyas had been labeled as overachievers—a young, unheralded team that exceeded all expectations, but hadn’t quite proved it belonged in the top tier of contenders. It hasn’t helped the Hoyas that some of their marquee

wins from earlier in the season (Alabama, Memphis, Louisville) have been devalued by their opponents’ subsequent decline. In the current polls, the highestranked team that Georgetown has beaten is No. 18 Marquette.

Last night’s game didn’t change that. What it did show, however, was that Georgetown could play with a full-strength Syracuse for 40 minutes, which is more than any other team in the country outside of Notre Dame can say. Any team that can do that can’t settle for moral victories— because it should be winning against every team it plays.

The Hoyas were dominant in some ways against the Orange (winning rebounds 52 to 35), but perhaps the most impressive thing Georgetown did was play without Henry Sims and Jason Clark. Both seniors picked up their third fouls in the first minute

contribute to a team victory,” Wilk said. “On-base percentage, moving runners, scoring runners, those things and that adds up to a clearer picture of a lineup in my opinion than just batting average.”

Pitch selection when at the plate will also be key to success in the Big East. Not only were the Hoyas behind the average in walks last year, but the squad also chased more third strikes than the league average.

With games every week for the next three months, the players are ready to get going, and hope to make some noise in the Big East. Junior outfielder Justin Leeson claims that the team has the right mindset in all areas of the game, and thinks the larger challenges in their out-of-conference schedule will only better prepare them for Big East play.

“Our out-of-conference schedule is tougher than in the past, and I think we have a chance to surprise some people,” he said.

Wilk has a positive outlook for this year’s team and its ability to contend with the league’s better schools. He is confident that with a solid set of position players that deserve to be on the field each day, Georgetown can make a more successful run than it has in the past.

“I expect us to compete for nine innings of every game,” he said. “I want our guys to end their day exhausted from competing, and I think if we can do that on a consistent basis we’re going to have a good club.”

of the second half, and were soon sitting on the bench. Meanwhile, the Orange were going on an 8-0 run to turn a two-point Georgetown halftime lead into a fourpoint deficit.

Enter Georgetown’s four freshmen. Playing alongside Hollis Thompson, they scored every point on a 6-0 run to take back the lead. Save for one Nate Lubick of-

Double Teamed

by Tim Shine a rotating column on sports fensive possession, the freshmen stayed on the court as a unit for close to eight minutes, holding their own against Syracuse’s best.

Before the game, Coach John Thompson III said Syracuse’s strength lies in their quality depth—not only can they play 10 different people, but there’s little to no drop off with any of them.

The way Georgetown’s freshmen

by Melissa Sullivan Facing the graduation of three of its star seniors, the Georgetown men’s soccer program has added six new players for next year’s fall season, a recruiting class ranked sixthbest in the nation.

The squad is looking to add fresh talent after ending last season with a 10-5-4 record (43-1 Big East), and the six players who have signed National Letters of Intent—Brandon Allen, Keegan Rosenberry, Cole Seller, Melvin Snoh, Josh Turnley, and David Witkoff—are all gifted athletes who have been nationally recognized for their skill on the field.

Allen scored a total of 118 goals during his high school career at St. Joseph High School in Old Bridge, N.J. Liberian-born Snoh started his games over his four years at Malvern Prep High School in Coatesville, Pa., and captained his club team, Penn Fusion. Turnley scored 101 goals over his career at Beaver Area High School, where he was also recognized as the NSCAA Pennsylvania State Player of the Year.

Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese is content with the recruiting efforts, but he says that the process is not over.

“We still have more players we want to be adding to it,” he said. “That being said, it’s a very exciting group of players.

We got the guys to come to Georgetown that we wanted.

held their own is confirmation that they’ve continued to develop as players. After showing flashes in the beginning of the season, the newcomers can play just as well as anybody else. That’s going to frustrate a lot of teams—including Syracuse.

After Syracuse walked away with the 64-61 overtime victory, Orange head coach Jim Boeheim spent the first three minutes of his postgame press conference explaining what a “disaster” this game was for his team. It felt like Boeheim would have said the same thing no matter how the game had ended—he thought his team was playing terrible basketball. In many ways, he was right; his team was playing some of their worst basketball of the season. But the Orange’s inability to rebound, their failure to get out on the fast break, and their difficulty scoring didn’t occur in a vacuum. Georgetown had a hand in it.

It’s an exciting time for the program and I’m excited for these men to come visit and start contributing to Georgetown soccer.”

This influx of talent might mean that the returning Georgetown soccer players will have varying playing time, but Wiese sees this as a positive for the program.

“For every position on the field, we want someone to play,” he said. “We want guys to be pushing for playing time. It also helps protect against injuries…so I think this group of guys is going to do all of those things.”

Wiese recognizes the profound capacity that these players have to offer. “From a needs point of view and from a quality of kid…and impact player, it will be six guys that have the ability to play as freshmen,” he said. “This group of guys [has] a potential to play…and that’s exciting for us.”

The coach also feels that one commitment can have a domino effect of sorts, as today’s recruiting involves high schoolers who know each other going into the process.

“There’s a certain amount of momentum that can be built upon a recruiting class,” Wiese said. “Soccer is a small world. When all of these players know each other, they get excited when they know when players go somewhere they’re interested. This group of six players is a solid group.”

In fact, Thompson could have gone on a similar rant in his press conference. He didn’t, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he had done it in the locker room. For all they did well, the Hoyas were abysmal under the basket on offense (Henry Sims and Mikael Hopkins were a combined 2-for20 from the field). They turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 20 Syracuse points. Kris Joseph was constantly left open beyond the arc, including his game-winner.

In short, the Hoyas didn’t play their best basketball, but they still found a way to nearly beat what may be the best team in the country. From the faces and words of Thompson and his players after the game, they didn’t take any pride in that. And that’s because they already knew what that game showed everyone else— there is no ceiling for this team.

Share your orange-juicing techniques at tshine@georgetownvoice.com

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8 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

THE POWER OF NATSU COMPELS YOU Gravitating toward Georgetown’s most spontaneous theater professor

BY JULIA TANAKA

On the set of her new production, Astro Boy and the God of Comics, creator and director Natsu Onoda Power is full of abounding energy, tempered by disciplined focus.

Watching silently as the script unfolds before her, Power intermittently gets onstage and goes through the movements herself.

“Can you tap dance?” she asks across the stage, as props are moved, chairs scrape, and the projector flickers between slides.

“Some,” the actor replies.

“Great! We’ll have to fit that in somehow,” she says enthusiastically, then sits back at her desk to scribble down a note.

The stage is small and rough, with low lighting, an exposed brick-and-pipes wall, and a concrete floor littered with the organized chaos of a production. In the midst of laughter and the occasional missed line, there is a quieter process taking shape. Onoda Power’s collaborative style dominates the scene.

Power joined the Georgetown theater department in 2005 as an assistant profes-

sor, and has contributed to the program in various ways since then, including a highly acclaimed adaptation of The Omnivore’s Dilemma this past summer, for which she served as director.

Her background includes a mixture of performance art and traditional studio art, with a Ph.D in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and a certificate in Technical Design and Production from the Yale School of Drama among her many credentials.

Her technical skill is evident in both her productions and in her teaching. “She would teach us how to watercolor…[along with] all these great technical skills,” Lorrie Damerau (COL ‘13), a physics and theater double major, said about Onoda Power’s set design class.

Swedian Lie (COL ’13), a studio art and theater major, said that her call to bring painting skills to an audition is one of the things that initially attracted him towards Onoda Power ’s work. “I thought, ‘This is interesting. I really want to meet this per-

son.’ And from that point on I’ve just been following her,” he said.

Theater and Performing Arts Department Program Director Maya Roth says Onoda Power has managed to garner quite a following.

She attributes much of Onoda Power ’s appeal to her “collaborative spirit.”

“It’s her charisma, and she’s gifted, she’s brilliant,” Roth said. “The students who repeatedly work with her— there’s this creativity and visual awareness.”

Looking at her productions, creativity and visual awareness are two qualities that Onoda Power clearly harnesses in abundance, not only in more concrete forms such as set design, but also in terms of her creative process. She is known for using projections and manipulating the stage space to integrate the audience into the show.

For The Omnivore’s Dilemma, adapted from Michael Pollan’s book about the food industry, she created small exhibitions throughout the theater as part of the performance.

Astro Boy—adapted from the popular manga series— employs similar stylistic elements. The set functions as a backdrop for the striking centerpiece: a screen of white paper onto which actors trace projected images and draw their own backgrounds to help shape the story.

Around the muted gray side panels, there are clear white lines reminiscent of robot parts, quietly adding another layer of immersion in the story for the audience.

This type of subtle symbolism and humor is something that Onoda Power is fond of, as Hunter Styles, (COL ’08), who now works at the Studio Theater, recalls from his experience working with Onoda Power as an undergraduate.

“This is a small thing, but the wallpaper on the set for Kafka’s Metamorphoses…the bedroom where Gregor Samsa changes into an insect…had a really lovely, intricate…handpainted wallpaper in the room with a fleur-de-lis pattern, but when you looked closely at the wallpaper, some of the fleurde-lis were actually scarabs.”

Styles said Onoda Power’s sense of humor is often palpable in her work. “Natsu gets inherently that humor is a great way to bring an audience together,” he said. “So even with pieces that touch on grave subjects…humor turns out to be a great way to bring people into that… And it’s like salt on your food—it’s very different from the source material but it brings out the flavor of the original.”

Onoda Power ’s work is full of adaptations— last summer ’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Foucalt’s Madness in Civilization, and most recently Astro Boy. Unlike her previous works—which are direct adaptations—this final production weaves together the story of the comic’s creator with the story of the character Astro Boy. Adapting nonfiction into an exciting stage play may seem like a daunting task fraught with mistranslations.

However, Onoda Power’s process fluidly translates works from the page to the stage.

“I don’t think I ever sit around like, ‘Oh, how am I going to adapt this?’” she says.

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georgetownvoice.com “For instance, reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I really loved the book, and it sort of presented itself to me…it kind of unfolds. You get an image or two, and then you have to fit the rest of it in.”

Astro Boy and the God of Comics, the basis of her current production, played an influential role in the formation of her career. “I actually wanted to be a cartoonist,” Onoda Power said. “I loved Osamu Tezuka’s [the creator of Astro Boy] work as a child…[Astro Boy] has really permeated the Japanese culture.”

Her adaptation is cognizant of the work’s influence on its vast readership’s career paths.

“When you talk to [Japanese] scientists, and ask why they wanted to become scientists, they say ‘Oh, I wanted to make Astro Boy,’” she said. “I think it’s important and interesting to tell a story of Astro Boy in that context.”

Onoda Power’s students have said that her talent for conveying messages to the audience makes her high art concepts deeply accessible. “I think high school students, even, can understand immediately what she’s after,” Jeremy Guyton (COL ’12) said. Guyton worked with Onoda Power on his senior thesis, The BI(G) Life: Ambiguous Attractions, among other works.

“The audience becomes fascinated with what they’re seeing, because nine-to-ten it’s not something they’ve seen before,” Production Manager and Associate Producer for Georgetown theater Ted Parker said.

“And the way she does that, it encourages you to think about what she’s doing.”

Onoda Power ’s colleagues and students hesitate to pin a certain aesthetic on her. “I can’t think of anything that [her performances] really have in common,” Roth said.

“A lot of projections, a lot of presenting things off of what you expect. Her work is so varied.”

In fact, one of the hallmarks of Onoda Power ’s style is originality. “She really pushes the boundary…it’s not just people talking onstage,” Lie said.

“You know the expression ‘think outside the box’? She doesn’t know that there is a box,” Parker said.

When she considers her approach to a production, she doesn’t often bring scripts, but rather comes equipped with large ideas to be filled out by her actors. It all goes back to the process of relaying the important aspects of the production to the audience. “She thinks about what she wants to do, and then she figures out a way to do that,” Parker explained.

Her teaching style fosters an interdisciplinary approach to theatre. “Our majors who have been double majors with studio art—Natsu is their locus,” Roth said. “What she’s doing aesthetically is very distinctive in the program.

What she’s doing philosophically is very in company with the program.”

“

to work with the skill sets of the team she has in order to bring a special flavor to each performance.

Teamwork is most apparent is in her teaching. Both former and current students laud her encouraging creative process.

“She’s one of those professors…you respect them so much, and are inspired to do your best “What’s really unique about Georgetown’s theater program is that it draws students from all different areas of study,” she said. “You get students from many different departments, and they bring their interests with them.”

She describes her interaction with these students as a collaborative process.

“We have psychology majors who are adapting psychology texts into performance, and things like that. That really inspires me. It’s kind of like getting to know different areas through them.”

She gets this creativity out of you that you didn’t even know you had.

-Lorrie Damerau

Her directing and designing go hand in hand when it comes to creating pieces of art. “Basically, being a designer makes you a better director, being a director makes you a better designer,” Parker said. “It’s just the more understanding you have of the different disciplines involved, the more likely you’ll be better at your job.”

Onoda Power herself said that she finds her students’ penchant for interdisciplinary study particularly engaging.

the georgetown voice 9

”

Once she is exposed to an area of study, Onoda Power tends to become engrossed in the project. As she put it, “I get into these obsessive phases.”

“Last year I was really obsessed with Victorian thrillers—I read like fifty of them in a year,” she said. “I think whatever project I’m working on, that’s what I gravitate to. When I work on a project it kind of consumes my life…I stumble upon [topics for projects] more often than I have projects.”

FREER + SACKLER FILMS

In keeping with her trend of absorbing facets of her work, Onoda Power says that Georgetown’s focus on social justice has discernibly influenced her own interests. “Students are really interested in activist theater and theater for social change, which is really great to see,” she said. “And that’s an area that’s definitely grown in me since I came to Georgetown.”

She recounts a story of a high school student she encountered while conducting workshops in D.C. as part of a class with Georgetown students. Reading the short plays of an aspiring playwright, she was overcome with emotion.

“I started crying,” she said.

“The scenes were moving, but also just the fact that they were these handwritten little notes.

All she does in her free time is to write these plays that may never get perused.”

She was moved not just by the content of the plays, but also the writer ’s potential.

“And I had a moment like if somebody just…gave her a computer—taught her how to edit them and put them into a coherent one-act format— could this be her life?”

On an empathetic note, she added, “I’m really fortunate that something I chose to do in my life has actually become my occupation.”

Her colleagues describe her as collaborative, openminded, and resourceful—able

work,” Damerau said, pointing to how unpredictability characterizes her teaching style. “She gets this creativity out of you that you didn’t even know you had.”

Both Styles and Damerau recounted exercises in class that pushed the limits of their creativity. “We created our own one-page panel…we were given five or six images, certain lines of text, and we had to make a story out of it,” Styles said.

Guyton echoed this sentiment, perhaps recalling their collaboration on his senior thesis. “She has this really great way of posing options without saying, ‘This would be better,’” he said. “I would come in with my ideas and my stories, and then we’d talk about them… she definitely allows it to be my material and my words and my stories, but she tweaks it a bit, but in ways that come organically from me and from how I function.”

Observing from the sidelines of the set of Astro Boy, which opens Feb. 15 at Studio Theater, it becomes clear that her easygoing, collaborative style pervades the practical side of her work. But students say that’s one of her greatest assets as a professor as well.

As Styles put it, “She will allow you to be creative on your own terms.”

ALL PHOTOS BY CAROLINE JOYCE

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10 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

Denzel brings down the Safe House

by Will Collins Even when chased by big men with big guns and big cars, Denzel Washington keeps his cool. The actor characteristically brings depth to Daniel Espinosa’s Safe House, the director’s first English-language blockbuster. Starring Ryan Reynolds as a new-to-the-game CIA safe house monitor, and Washington as a rogue agent who ends up under Reynolds’ surveillance, the film sets itself up for sufficiently clever dialogue and often compelling dynamics. By refusing to stick to one genre, Safe House proves a through-and-

through action film with the taste of a thriller and the insight of movies that would otherwise hold themselves to a higher artistic standard.

Reynolds plays Matt Weston, a low-rung CIA employee stationed as a safe house “housekeeper” in Johannesburg, South Africa. Resigned to taking phone calls from his higherups, Weston hardly stands a chance at re-locating to join his love interest in France. Around the same time, and also in Johannesburg, Denzel’s character Tobin Frost is shown, calm and collected, making a deal with a rather shady-looking politician.

True to the typical action script, the monotony of the characters’ backstories suddenly breaks into a lengthy, rambunctious chase. The camera jolts from car to car as a mysterious set of individuals surrounds Frost on all sides but one, making a U.S. consulate his only option for escape. Once the consulate workers realize who just showed up at their door, Frost is shipped to the nearest CIA safe house where Matt Weston is, up until that point, having yet another uneventful day.

Just as a team of interrogators arrives, the small break from action is interrupted yet again by

“Listen, Denzel, if you tell me to take my shirt off one more time, I’ll make you go to your room.”

IMDB

an ambush from the same heavily armed men from the first chase.

Despite the film’s on-again-offagain action, Safe House’s intricate plotline sets up each chase with care. Though it takes until the credits to piece together who, indeed, chases whom, the film is fast-paced and witty enough to hold even the most impatient viewer’s attention up to the end.

Espinosa plays Reynolds and Washington’s dynamic brilliantly, with dialogue more suited to a serious drama. The relationship between the two characters develops rather quickly, but Washington’s seasoned acting eases the abruptness of the characters’ introduction. Both humor and shock arise from the dialogue between the two, and Weston soon regrets his parting words to his supervisor: “How am I supposed to get more experience by staring at four walls all day?” Espinosa reflects Weston and Frost’s opposing anxiety and calm in the musical score, which fluctuates from fast-paced to somber instrumentals. Behind this, a rough but tasteful cinematography rounds out the film’s mood.

A handful of scenes are stylistically crafted to reveal the

calm before the intermittent storms of action. One scene depicts Reynolds walking away from a bathroom, cleaned up, intercut with shots of him quickly changing clothes and haphazardly splashing his face with water. Mixed in are central exchanges between Frost and Weston, heavily reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs dialogues between the infamous Hannibal Lecter and fresh-out-of-thebox FBI agent Clarice Starling.

Backed by a strong script, it is difficult to ascertain either’s motives until the movie decides to make the reveals.

Safe House is a heavily stylized, big-budget flick, often packing in the cleverness and action of a Guy Ritchie film while retaining the cool and composed reading of a spy novel—even riding on the dark overtones of a noir at times.

Both Reynolds and Washington play their characters excellently, outshining the rest of the cast.

While the dialogue goes down smooth, the audience is faced with a jolting aftertaste. Though Frost addresses Weston when he coolly comments, “I’m already in your head,” he might as well be speaking to the audience.

Weeping for the next generation of art

by Julia Lloyd-George

At first glance, the Contemporary Wing’s venue for its “Next Generation” exhibit appears to be a lone warehouse, surrounded by a gritty combination of chain link fences and forgotten furniture.

Boasting a compilation of work by 12 upcoming artists selected by the seasoned masters of the Corcoran’s “30 Americans” collection, this offbeat setting was clearly chosen with edgy content in mind. The pairing of “Next Gen” artists and chain link fences, however, falls flat given the lack of substance in the exhibit itself.

The drafty vastness of the warehouse serves to accommodate an eclectic range of paintings, photography, sculpture, and installation art. Arranged in a haphazard manner, the collection finds its natural starting point with the paintings of Jayson Keeling. While Keeling’s general theme of death is vague at best,

his love of glitter certainly rivals Ke$ha’s. The use of this unconventional medium, however, is hardly enough to merit the innovative label the gallery hopes to place on his work.

Leaving the glitter behind, the next artist under the spotlight is Kira Lynn Harris, whose fascinating work with light installations would create a stunning effect in the right setting. However, it fails to find an appropriate stage in the form of this warehouse space, which displays only her indistinctive pastel drawings that aimlessly seek to reorient perspective in such a large, bare gallery.

The paintings of Caitlin Cherry prove one of the exhibit’s highlights, fusing the traditional combination of oil and canvas with unconventional installation art. While “The Fate of the Rebel Flag” pairs a cartoonish maelstrom of color with a cannon to convey a presumably patriotic message, the hu-

morously titled “Disney Movies Taught Me to Cry” uses a similarly chaotic style as a distorted throwback to childhood.

Another strength of the exhibit lies in Wyatt Gallery’s photography collection, Haiti: Tent Life. Fourteen photographs document life after the disas-

trous earthquake, capturing Haitians amid the debris of their island while effectively striking an unexpectedly optimistic chord. Among the unremarkable installation art pieces of the exhibit, this collection provides a refreshing window to another world.

As an anthology of contemporary artwork, the exhibit fails to achieve its goal of introducing the art world’s future stars; while it features some remarkable artwork, it is hardly a picture of innovation. If this is truly the “Next Generation” of art, the future just isn’t what it used to be.

“I decided to stock up on non-perishables. They say Snowpocalypse 2.0 is headed our way.”

Contemporary wing

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“anyone know what this is? Class? it’s the Laffer Curve.” —Ferris Bueller’s Day off

Pina dances to life in 3D

by Lacey Henry 3D film seems an odd choice of medium for a tribute to a choreographer. But for director Wim Wender ’s tribute to choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch, this effect proves a stunning, effective tool. The ode to the late German choreographer features exquisitely beautiful modern dance numbers and the talent of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch dancers.

Both a celebration of Bausch’s life and an experimentation in 3D film, dance and cinema enthusiasts alike are sure to enjoy Wender ’s Pina.

Pina successfully captures Bausch’s unique talent for expressing what she often referred to as the “language” of dance. It is a visual masterpiece that celebrates Bausch’s exploratory, creative spirit, as well as her genius as a leading figure in modern dance. The artist’s choreography is characterized by a blend of soft, expressive flow with unrestrained, visceral body movement—as described by her own dancers, a combination of “fragility and strength.”

The dance numbers create visually intriguing, emotional, and at some points bizarre performances on screen. With effective staging in environments ranging from street corners to subway cars, each piece tells a story and never fails to surprise. The range of dances leaves viewers reflecting on themes of love, pain, sorrow, and passion, each played out through Bausch’s signature choreography.

One of the most striking theatrical components of Pina is Wender ’s use of 3D technology. Donning the 3D glasses transports the viewer directly into Bausch’s world of thematic modern dance, which imitates the feeling of being on stage and allows viewers to engage with the pieces. As a dancer ’s lone arm stretches out towards the viewer ’s face, her body sinking to the ground in lost love, the audience is struck by the emotions of Bausch’s pieces.

Wender also deftly weaves interviews with the company into his documentary. True to Bausch’s style of dance, these interviews are unconventional. While their reflections in German are dubbed into Eng-

America ain’t got talent

On Sunday night, American TV viewers witnessed a clash of titans, as NBC brought together the best of the best in a test of raw talent and unbridled passion. Oh yeah, and the Super Bowl was great too.

Sunday’s season two premiere of reality singing show The Voice garnered an impressive 37.6 million views and scored a 16.3 rating, NBC’s highest rating for any non-sports program since the finale of Friends in 2004.

Though likely boosted by Blake Shelton’s patriotic rendition of “America the Beautiful” and Cee Lo Green’s surprise cameo during the halftime show, The Voice’s numbers speak to the success of a franchise that has entered a market already swarming with formidable competition.

American Idol has been a cultural icon for over a decade, producing platinum selling artists

Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Daughtry. And while many claim that Idol has lost its cultural relevance, Clarkson’s stunning Super Bowl national anthem, Katharine McPhee’s starring role in the much-anticipated Smash, and Scotty McCreery’s recent chart-topping album all suggest that the show is still in touch with the American public (well, at least with the middle-aged, Middle American public). It’s simply hard to claim that a show has run its course when it still attracts more viewers than any other show on television, as Idol did just last week.

Not to be outdone by the generic talent shows flooding the airwaves, Simon Cowell introduced his own British baby, X Factor, to America this fall. While it failed to meet Cowell’s personal aspirations, the show achieved modest ratings and, most importantly, a

lish, the audience watches the faces of the dancers—silent, nostalgic, and introspective.

This approach emphasizes the relationship that Bausch had with her dancers, and the sentimentality of how they remember her after cancer caused her unexpected death in 2009.

Many of her dancers expressed a shared admiration for Bausch’s creative vision and ability to feel movement.

As one dancer remarks during an interview, “We became paint to color her images.”

Others remembered the simple, if ambiguous, advice they received from her: “Go on searching,” she said. “Dance for whatever you long for.”

Intertwining these candid interviews with numbers choreographed by Bausch herself, Pina crafts a full picture of the dancer ’s life. In this, Wender delivers a stunning memorial to Bausch’s pioneering style of modern dance, complimented perfectly by the innovative use of 3D. Her artistic legacy is encapsulated in the film’s ending quote by Bausch herself: “Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.”

green light for season two. Despite the bloodbath that saw host Steve Jones and judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger file for unemployment benefits, X Factor shined this weekend with a star-studded Super Bowl Pepsi ad featuring season one winner Melanie Amaro.

Add The Sing-Off and America’s Got Talent to the mix, and the

trash talk

by Keaton Hoffman a bi-weekly column about reality television supply of reality singing competition soars to a level that’s overbearing at best—and nauseating at worst. Critics have rested easy on the logic that the market simply won’t support America’s oversaturation of talent-seeking programming. But the ratings data seem to disagree. So what gives? Americans like singing competitions, but when is it too much of a good thing?

the georgetown voice 11

Reviews, Haiku’d Ghost Rider With Nicolas Cage In the leading role, this film Will go down in flames.

This Means War Watch as Witherspoon Distracts viewers from a film With a thoughtless plot.

Undefeated What appears to be Sarah Palin’s new movie Is just a sports film.

Wanderlust Who would not want to See Paul Rudd and Aniston Have sex in a lake?

Act of Valor Navy SEALs kick ass In another wave of films Caused by Bin Laden.

Star Wars Episode 1: 3D Now on the big screens: The beloved Jar Jar Binks In three dimensions.

—Kirill Makarenko

Look to the myriad of crime dramas, the quirky success of survival shows, or the neverending stream of reality housewife banter, and you realize that programming, at least empirically, seems to favor formula. If the show ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and that seems to be the case for reality singing competitions.

The music industry, on the other hand, operates differently.

It is much more competitive, diverse, and saturated. Network effects make chart-topping commercial success clump in a few successful acts—just look to Katy Perry, Adele, or Rihanna in 2011.

What’s more, demand is falling; record sales have slumped due largely to illicit file sharing and the proliferation of free, though limited, music services like Spotify and Pandora.

On the supply side of superstardom, Idol, The Voice, and X Factor are generally better at producing viewership than at

producing relevant, marketable singers. Most of the Hollywoodmanufactured stars tend to fade as soon as the results show confetti falls. In general, talent scouts like Cowell are losing their relevance to the technological advancements of the information age. It’s a result of sites like Youtube and MySpace that talent once deemed “undiscovered” is often nothing more than “mediocre.” In the modern era, the Internet—not reality shows—ferrets out music’s winners and losers.

The result of this musical supply and demand imbalance is that while a large amount of successful singing competition shows can exist, their promises to produce pop stars will remain largely unfulfilled. Singing competitions may still top the charts, but their winners inevitably fall flat.

Make Keaton’s ears bleed at khoffman@georgetownvoice.com

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12 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

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

Dierks Bentley, Home, Capitol Records Nashville Amid Dierks Bentley’s newest tracks, the country star’s daughter makes an unexpected yet heartwarming appearance on his latest album, Home. Taken from a voicemail left by his three-year-old daughter for her touring father, the clip features her singing a verse of “Thinking of You” along with an acoustic guitar. Well known for his party songs, Bentley’s inclusion of his daughter in this album points to a turn toward family life in the artist’s career.

After releasing nearly a decade’s worth of albums carefully crafted to fit the Nashville standard, Dierks Bentley made a much-needed journey into the roots of country music with his release of Up on the Ridge. Instead of continuing in this path, however, Bentley returns to

his heretofore successful yet formulaic structure in Home, which results in a perfectly sound, if not incredibly innovative, album.

The first three tracks on the LP are classic party-till-the-morninglight anthems, which differentiate themselves from the pack by playing up Bentley’s personal quirks and classic style. Bentley’s characteristic lyrical humor shines on “Am I the Only One,” which also boasts a banjo-infused intro that seems to have migrated from his work on Up On The Ridge.

“5-1-5-0” also features a number of unusually audible banjo and pedal steel sections, which drive the witty lyrics of the love song forward at a rapid pace and offer the listener a much-needed respite from the over-distorted Telecaster noise issuing from Nashville.

Along with a number of party songs, Home features several ubiquitous slow love songs that Bentley seems to have perfected over his career. “Thinking of You” is in many ways the epitome of this type of music; the pedal steel and electric guitars follow each line of each verse, emphasizing the unconditional love flowing through the lyrics: “You’re always the first and the last thing on this heart of mine.” Juxtaposed with his daughter’s clip, “Thinking of You” shows that perhaps Home re-

Kindergarten commentary

“This scene is unbelievable because my frustration about this taxi cab does not understand where I want to go.”

These words were mangled together by two-term governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who evolved from iron-pumper into action star before he started signing bills.

And, if more than 20 people had watched the DVD commentary of his film Total Recall before his election bid, lines like this one could have single-handedly sabotaged his run for office. If only the people of California had known that they were casting their ballots for a man wholly incapable of making a routine DVD commentary track.

DVD commentaries are a treasure trove. They provide an arena for directors and actors to give depth to seemingly

insignificant film details that only hardcore fans could care about, and the awareness of this narrow viewership presents commentators with a chance to speak candidly to their fans.

Some filmmakers take the commentary very seriously, and try to piece together what they can remember from the creative process, while other filmmakers invite cast members to discuss the film over drinks. The jovial laughter and clinking glasses affirm to the audience that these big-time actors are just like us— they enjoy a drink and a laugh as much as you or me.

And then there’s the enigmatic Total Recall commentary, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.

Verhoeven, whose repertoire has been accused of idealizing fascism (Starship Troopers), comes

fers less to Bentley’s musical journey, and more to his personal one.

Dierks Bentley’s transformation of his own experiences into inspirational lyrics proves that, despite its lack of diversity in subject matter, this album is the work of an artist at the top of his game. Whether it is the stay-single-and-stay-free attitude of “Diamonds Make Babies,” the carefree nature of “Tip It On Back,” or the heartbreak of “In My Head,” a piece of Home will resonate with every listener.

Voice’s Choices: “Home,” “Diamonds Make Babies” —Kirill Makarenko

The Fray, Scars & Stories, Epic Records Isaac Slade, the lead singer of the Fray, claims that Scars & Sto-

across as some kind of mad scientist as he shuffles around philosophical tangents with five-minute explanations of the special effects used to create a futuristic fingernail-painting sequence.

Fortunately for the presumably sane audience (I know, I’m going out on a limb calling a Total Recall commentary audience sane),

Box office, Baby!

by John Sapunor a bi-weekly column about film Schwarzenegger buffers the cerebral points Verhoeven grasps at. “Ow. That hurt,” the Austrian proclaims, as his crotch takes a beating. On second thought, forget about Arnold’s purported function as a buffer zone—he only makes Verhoeven’s borderline insanity even more questionable. This commentary duo is a match made in heaven.

ries, the group’s latest release, embodies a “more aggressive” lyrical approach to their music. This might seem strange, given that the group is known for its roots in Christian rock. And while the lyrics do sound more emotionally charged than those in albums past, the band’s continued use of piano as the lead instrument diminishes the potential effect of their newly powerful verses. In spite of this loss of lyrical potential, this new album is the Fray’s most successful LP to date.

Though the band’s members had previously agreed to stray from the righteous path of Christian music after their 2005 debut How to Save a Life, the influences of the album have survived through the years. “Here We Are,” for instance, features an appeal to a higher power: “I’m going back and forth / Show me where to begin.” But the song switches its tone when the band introduces darker lyrics; like a number of the other songs on Scars, it contains the repeated line, “lay your body down.”

This theme of wandering to no certain destination and an awareness of an inevitable end often relies on references to Europe and the conflict of the Cold War for effect.

“Munich” and “Rainy Zurich,” for example, deal with crumbling

What makes Schwarzenegger’s commentary so amusing is his inept approach to the production of a commentary track.

The commentary usually exists as a guide to explain what is happening behind the camera, or to emphasize less apparent details on the screen. Instead, the ex-Governator takes the most obvious onscreen happenings and bluntly restates them. “This is my job, I am a construction worker,” he states.

He’s in construction worker clothes, he’s wearing a construction hat, and he’s at a construction site. Arnold, we know you’re a construction worker.

In fact, if you closed your eyes from start to finish, you could probably write a decent review of the film using Arnold’s literal commentary alone. “Here again, a totally different fight scene. A very brutal, hands-on fight scene,” he points out at

walls, emotional turmoil, and the occasional hope of love in times when “everything is black and white and grey.” The more aggressive nature of Scars becomes especially clear in “1961,” a power ballad telling the story of two brothers on opposing sides of a personified Berlin Wall. An electric guitar, which often renders the piano inaudible, does the most to differentiate this track from the rest of the album. Since Slade’s signature use of falsetto, while lending a unique quality to his vocals that emphasizes the emotion in the lyrics, fails to allow more powerful tracks like “1961” to stand out from the slower ballads like “Be Still” without changes in instrumentation.

The ideas expressed in Scars & Stories are by no means new to the Fray, but the added historical context and a more informed use of instrumentation truly bring out the best in the band’s traditional messages. Capitalizing on strengths revealed in their two previous LPs, the artists of The Fray have released a more complete and unified album, even if it doesn’t live up to its “aggressive” claim.

Voice’s Choices: “1961,” “48 to Go” —Kirill Makarenko

what could only be described as a brutal, hands-on, and totally different fight scene.

While Total Recall remains an outlier in the world of DVD commentaries, it reminds us of the existence and potential of this offthe-radar special feature. DVD commentaries aren’t simply tacked onto the disc—they serve a purpose, and to many cinephiles, they provide an intimate setting for fans to get to know their idols. As an Arnold fan, I still enjoy his films, but with the added knowledge that the actor is simply incapable of making intelligent commentary. Still, that’s not the point. The point is, if Sylvester Stallone campaigns for governor in your state, it would be in your best interest to start watching the Rocky commentaries. That’s right, all six of them.

Get to John’s choppa at jsapunor@georgetownvoice.com

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14 the georgetown voice

february 9, 2012

Affirming the talking points on college brochures

by John Seymour During my visits to Georgetown both before and after applying, as well as during NSO, virtually every student speaker made a point to mention how Georgetown had become their home.

I didn’t buy it. The idea sounded like a bullet point tacked onto an informational brochure minutes before printing by some frantic intern. The college search process forced me to examine the constant praise, merited or not, that schools heap upon themselves in the hope of attracting a few more students. With at least a little cynicism, this sentiment of Georgetown as a “new home” never came across to me as truly genuine.

But I was not looking for a new home in college, so my suspicions mattered little. I envisioned college as a waypoint, a transition between two segments of life. College, to me, was a place to find my own path and take in

new experiences before leaving the campus behind after four years. As a prospective student, Georgetown’s value resided in the lessons I could take from it and the opportunities it could present me. The possibility of a school becoming a second home was simply not a priority.

The relatively short time I would be able spend at Georgetown, or any other college, also made searching for a home within a college seem counterproductive. My own perspective on the definition of a “home” might be a little warped, though, due to my own good fortune regarding stability. The word “home,”for me, conjures up a series of static images: a white house standing in the Southern Maryland countryside with a red barn in the front yard and woods behind it, or my bedroom, a small, comfortable space enclosed by white walls plastered with New York Mets and Legend of Zelda posters. Although I

lived in a different house for my first year of life, I have no memory of it, and for all intents and purposes, that old, creaking, and charmingly imperfect house is the only home I have ever known.

Since my only experience of home is eighteen uninterrupted years in the same location, it follows that I could not have expected any college to take on that role within four years broken up by winter, spring, and summer breaks—Georgetown simply could not compete with the house of which every detail has been permanently etched into my brain. This is no slight against Georgetown; it was an error in my own puerile conception of what a home is, and one moment last semester fundamentally altered my flawed view.

Last semester, soon after my last final, I was packing my bags and preparing to return to Maryland, when a thought entered my mind. “I’m oneeighth of my way through my

time at Georgetown.” This idea stuck itself into my consciousness, refusing to exit my mind for the rest of the day, and the only feeling it brought was sadness. Georgetown had gradually, though much more rapidly than I expected, grown on me. Although the environment had never seemed completely foreign, my first few weeks here had been marked by restlessness. It was all too easy to feel lost in the crowd. My days lacked any sense of routine. Each series of events felt disjointed, almost as if I was sleepwalking through them.

At some point though, I woke up. A routine developed, and the restlessness that permeated my early times here gave way to excitement for each new day. Those large crowds that first made me feel isolated instead began to bring a sense of community. I started to carve out my own niche in Georgetown’s broad landscape. Dahlgren Quad became my preferred location when all

open green fields and a gentle farmer to care for his herd. In reality, the majority of food animals are raised in unsanitary, claustrophobic, industrial facilities with little or no access to green pastures.

Every animal has its own factory problems. Chickens’ beaks are cut off at an early age so that they do not peck the workers or each other. Pigs cannot turn around in their cages.

Cows are tightly packed together. All factory-farmed animals are pumped full of hormones to increase their weight as quickly as possible, and antibiotics are used in attempt to counteract the unsanitary conditions involved in keeping a high density of animals in such a small

space. Consequently, every time you consume meat, you are consuming all of the antibiotics and hormones that the animal ingested as well. Because animals kept alive longer expend more resources and therefore cost more money, there is a trade-off between raising healthy, well-treated animals and raking in as much cash as possible.

If this were not troubling enough, animals are often physically abused before and after they reach the slaughterhouse. Before transportation, living animals are forced to live in tight cages with the decaying bodies of other dead animals. After transportation, the bolt gun used to kill animals like cows and pigs often malfunctions, leaving animals alive yet completely paralyzed.

They are conscious as their skin is removed and up until the point that they are cut into pieces. This kind of treatment does not take into account animal welfare, or even human welfare. The ultimate goal of factory farming is not to feed as many people as possible, but to make as much money as possible, which is evident in the inefficiency of factory farms and the gross mismanagement of the large volumes of animal waste produced.

It would seem as though the ethos of factory farming

is based upon the idea that animals cannot feel pain. This is, obviously, a fundamentally flawed conception. Like all vertebrates, food animals have nervous systems that respond to pain in the same way that human nervous systems do.

Similar to humans, animals express their pain through facial expressions and shrieking.

Because animals can suffer just like humans, it is completely unjustifiable to condone the kind of treatment that animals receive throughout their lives in factory farms and slaughterhouses nationwide.

This is a very upsetting issue, and there is no reason for it to become a permanent fixture in modern agriculture, especially when there are such easy measures that anybody can take to act in the benefit of those who cannot stand up for themselves.

Instead of eating industrially-processed meat, eaters can choose to eat locally.

There are always restaurants that serve locally-sourced organic meat, which has not been pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. Local farmer ’s markets not only provide hormone-free meat but support the small family farms that have been almost wiped out by the giants of industrial agriculture. This measure will help make the lives of ani-

I needed was silence, and Lau, much to my chagrin, became my place of residence on many Sunday nights after days of neglected homework. Over time, simple experiences, like walking into Red Square and seeing it covered in chalk designs, or taking a walk through the neighborhood with no destination in mind, or staying up far too late talking with a group of friends, transformed my views of Georgetown and of what a home really is. What I view as my home, I would say now, should have little to do with the amount of time that I spend there. It is an important factor, but it is not, as I had previously assumed, the most important. Instead, to be at home is to be at peace, and, even after just one semester here, I feel at peace at Georgetown.

John Seymour is a freshman in the College. He only has 30,562 hours left of being an undergraduate at Georgetown.

Pain, mutilation, and abuse: All is not well on animal farm

by Viggy Parr When most people dig into a juicy steak or a pile of chicken fingers, they do not think about their food’s journey from farm to slaughterhouse to plate. That’s probably for the best; examining the conditions and treatment of food animals is a quick way to lose your appetite.

Before I became a vegetarian five years ago, I was just as blind to the treatment of food animals as anybody else. Many meat-eaters, if they think about their food before they eat it at all, tend to idealize the environment in which the animal was raised—they picture a pastoral landscape with wide-

You’re a terrible person if you want to eat this.

WENDY PIERSALL

mals better, and support the regional economy and to help loosen factory farms’ hold on agricultural policy and their near-monopoly on the meat industry.

Furthermore, to reduce the number of animals brutally slaughtered, consumers can alter their diets. This doesn’t mean everybody needs to become a vegan (although that certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing), but there are other, less extreme measures that are still helpful, like using the vegetarian station at Leo’s or resolving to go meatless a few days a week. Making cruelty-free choices is simple, easy, and has far-reaching positive effects.

How we as humans treat those below us defines who we are as a species, and the brutality, cruelty, and violence with which factory farm animals are treated offends humanity itself. Farm animal rights have nothing to do with how good your filet mignon or your pork loin is. Caring about the treatment of animals involves nothing more than the human capacity for fairness, kindness, and justice.

Viggy Parr is a freshman in the College. According to her, even streetlamps and Syracuse students have rights.

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the georgetown voice

15

To remain relevant, Occupiers must do more than show up

by Sankalp Gowda Saturday, Feb. 4, was a long day when it came to public transportation. Between going to the basketball game at the Verizon center and traveling to the Folger William Shakespeare Library in the afternoon, I spent a solid few hours sitting on buses and metro trains.

And while these rides would have been lengthy on a typical day, Saturday’s trips were lengthened due to the numerous detours the bus drivers needed to take to avoid the commotion surrounding the Occupy D.C. protest in McPherson Square. After blocking off a large number of the sur-

rounding streets, D.C. and National Parks Service police attempted to enforce a ban on camping that the Parks Service had invoked. Although they emphasized this was not an eviction, the move brought both sides even closer toward an eventual confrontation.

As controversial as the politics surrounding the protesters’ right to stay are, what struck me most was a phone call that I overheard.

During the call, a woman who had just finished work spoke about the delay we experienced and the scene we saw as we drove by McPherson Square.

The woman was neither upset nor supportive, but she expressed

“Occupy all the streets!” Occupy K Street protestors last fall.

LUCIA HE

Who watches the watchmen?

The latest Internet-sharing apocalypse has struck the procrastinating college student in full force. Megaupload has been driven to an early grave, leaving many young adults with withdrawal-like symptoms, driving them right into the arms of cheaper, virus-ridden substitutes—vidxden.com, fullonshows.com, firststoptv. com, to name a few.

Though cut down in its prime, and suffering a fate similar to those of music-sharing sites Napster and Kazaa in decades past, Megaupload did not go down without a fight.

A larger force was in motion to oppose the shutdown of the site and the looming SOPA legislation—Anonymous.

A loosely organized coalition of activist computer hackers, Anonymous took its battle to the web, targeting

and shutting down the websites of the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI, and Universal Music Group (among others) in response to the seizure of Megaupload. Though this was not the first time Anonymous has lashed out against anti-piracy laws, it represented what it called the “single largest Internet attack in history.”

With the capabilities of technology and the web constantly advancing, the Internet presents a simultaneous threat and opportunity. The emergence of Anonymous, generated within the system as a means of taking advantage of the opportunities and checking the threats, comes as no surprise. Vigilante justice often appears where the justice system falls short.

As part of “Operation Darknet” in 2011, Anonymous released the usernames and other

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curiosity about the protests. Now, that caught my attention. I could not help but notice that her uniform hardly seemed of the “one percent.” No Brooks Brothers suit, no designer shoes, just a plain, navy blue shirt with her name embroidered on the front. Here was a working-class woman, the very kind that the Occupy movement claims to represent, but she did not know the Occupiers’ cause or purpose. This led me to wonder just how effective Occupy has been in its goal to represent the 99 percent, and whether a different strategy would have brought them more influence.

As one of the last Occupy movements to exist in the nation, we have to admire the McPherson protesters’ tenacity. But when does resolve turn into stubbornness?

As the general public comes to view the Occupiers as permanent fixtures, the efficacy of the protest slowly diminishes. If the message hasn’t been spread to a woman who likely rides the same bus past the site on her daily ride to and from work, it seems like their goal of spreading awareness and representing the 99 percent has failed.

If the Occupiers are not careful, they will fade until they become another short-lived phase details of 1,589 suspected pedophiles who frequented sites connected to the child pornography trade. In a statement released shortly thereafter, Anonymous expressed its hope that their efforts would be taken up by the FBI, Interpol, and other law enforcement agencies to bring the suspected pedophiles to justice. With the ability to

Carrying On

by Kate Imel A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

hack into servers, Anonymous has acted as a public defender and as an aid to the justice system. Unfortunately, not all of its efforts are as successful, or as unobjectionable.

The group’s efforts last fall to disband Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel, allegedly spurred by the kidnap of an Anonymous member, went awry when the group’s threat of releasing the names of cartel members and affiliates was met with promises of civilian death by the cartel. According to IberoAmerica, the faction of Anonymous that initiated Operation Cartel, “the cartel threatened to kill 10

of American history. Their presence stirred the media months ago, but in the time since their voice has weakened to a whisper.

Far from representing the interests of the disenfranchised, the Occupy camps degenerated into something much less attractive. As Parks Service workers attempted to check the site for camping violations, they wore yellow hazmat suits due to the unsanitary conditions. There were even reports that some of the more hard-line protesters had left bags of human feces scattered throughout the camp as “presents” for the officials to find. That kind of childishness is hardly the picture of a movement to be taken seriously.

Our generation grew up listening to stories about the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, but we never heard about the—admittedly boring—details regarding the importance of organization and message control. As a result, the Occupy protestors harbor the false impression that the only requirement of a protest is showing up. Most people have no idea that Rosa Parks was not just a tired seamstress traveling home at the end of a long day, but a long-term member of the NAACP who had years of experience with activ-

people for each name of a Zeta supporter revealed.” Despite its noble intentions, Anonymous’s “#OpCartel” placed citizens in the line of fire instead of shielding them.

For many of us, Anonymous represents the vigilante ideal presented in comic books and popular films—the group has even adopted Guy Fawkes masks as a symbol for its anarchistic values and methods. But with enough power to undermine the system, Anonymous’s far-reaching influence sets a dangerous precedent. If any citizen can put on a mask or hide behind a screen while enacting justice, that person takes on an undeserved amount of power and potential for harm.

Amonymous’s actions in Mexico could have potentially cost the lives of dozens of civilians.

If the cartel had realized their threat, it would be difficult to hold the men behind the masks accountable.

Justice exists as an idea, and the justice system exists as a progressive body aiming always to reach our ideal of justice. The system is subject to scrutiny, error, and, most importantly, it is subject to public sentiment. The Mexican government, which possessed

ism. Her decision was carefully thought out and planned along with her fellow local leaders. Following her arrest, a cleanly organized Montgomery bus boycott established a concrete course of action that united a community and eventually the nation.

This is what the Occupy movement lacks—a coherent and unified set of goals it would like to meet in order to achieve greater economic freedom. The movement did successfully bring the issue to the American public’s attention for a brief period of time.

The movement, however, has fizzled. Now almost completely out of the limelight, their window of opportunity is almost gone. If the Occupy protesters truly wish to be heard, they need to change their tactics from passive protest to actively searching for a compelling solution. Unless this happens, the next few years will only leave more people like the woman I overheard on the bus asking, “Occupy? What’s that?”

Sankalp Gowda is a freshman in the SFS. He admittedly did think that the bags of feces were hilarious when he saw them. thousands of emails listing individuals with ties to the Zeta cartel that Anonymous hacked, had reasons for not exposing cartel members. It’s likely that their reasoning was the same that caused Anonymous to retreat—the threat of civilian death. Moreover, the Mexican government would have answered publicly for these deaths, while Anonymous as a group would only suffer in prestige as an organization behind the screens of the web.

Chris Landers of Baltimore City Paper once described Anonymous as a group “in the sense that a flock of birds is a group ... at any given moment, more birds could join, leave, peel off in another direction entirely.” Anonymous, despite the valor and fervor behind many of their operations, is an ungoverned body constantly on the brink of migration to another political hotbed. One can only hope that these masked vigilantes don’t lose sight of true North.

Kate Imel is a senior in the College.

She would approve of Anonymous if they were muscular and started wearing tights.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S

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