The Hoya: Feb. 15, 2013

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Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 94, No. 33, © 2013

FRIday, february 15, 2013

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

ENDORSEMENT The Hoya’s editorial board finds Appelbaum and Cleary best equipped to lead GUSA.

SAFETY ALERTS DPS’ recent inclusion of suspects’ descriptions has drawn mixed reviews.

GUIDE, G5

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A4

See our exclusive eight-page insert on the dynamics of sex on campus.

SPRING KICK-OFFS Men’s lacrosse, baseball and softball begin their seasons this weekend.

SPORTS, A12

Employees hOYA POLL With One Week Left, Race a Dead Heat Protest Pay Freeze 144 144 Danny Funt

Hoya Staff Writer

DeGioia may reassess strategy to close the university’s $19m deficit

The ticket of Jack Appelbaum (COL ’14) and Maggie Cleary (COL ’14) is running neck and neck with Nate Tisa (SFS ’14) and Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) in the GUSA executive campaign, according to a poll conducted

by The Hoya on Tuesday and released today.

The two leading tickets each scored 21 percent among likely voters. Shavonnia Corbin Johnson (SFS ’14) and Joe Vandegriff (COL ’14) placed a close third with 17 percent.

The door-to-door poll, which had nearly 800 respondents, showed Spencer Walsh (MSB ’14) and Robert Silverstein (SFS ’14) at 6 percent and Cannon Warren (SFS ’14) and Andrew Logerfo (COL ’14) at 2 percent with just over one week until the Feb. 21 election. However, a plurality of students polled, 30 percent, indicated that they were still undecided, with 11 percent saying they did not plan on voting.

The poll also asked students if they approved of the performance of current GUSA President Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13). An overwhelming 45 percent of students supported the executive leaders versus just 4 percent disapproving and 51 percent saying they had no opinion.

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Elaina Koros Hoya Staff Writer

Pay for staff and senior administrators will be frozen over the next fiscal year, while pay for faculty is still subject to increase. The decision came after university President John DeGioia’s five-year plan was passed by the board of directors on Thursday.

However, DeGioia may alter this plan to more equally affect faculty and staff in the wake of backlash from members of both groups.

The current plan, which seeks to eliminate the university’s $19 million deficit over five years, proposes a freeze in the merit pool for university staff, a fund from which employees receive merit-based pay increases. The plan stipulates that expenditures in non-academic university departments be reduced by 1 percent annually, projected compensation growth be decreased by $7 million and graduate student enrollment rise. Both tenure track and non-tenure track faculty are eligible for raises from separate merit pools, neither of which will be frozen under DeGioia’s current plan.

“In order to go from $19 million to no deficit in five years, we have to take action each year,” university spokeswoman Stacy Kerr said. “In our plan, we go from [$19 million to $9 million] in the first year, and then we reduce it in the following years. The one-year merit freeze is only one element to achieve this goal.”

In a letter dated Feb. 7, DeGioia explained the need for budget cuts during a difficult economic climate.

“These are very difficult decisions,” DeGioia wrote. “This plan will help ensure that we are not only adjusting to the economic climate, but leading in our sector. It will allow us to continue planned strategic investments in infrastructure and facilities, technology and academic growth as we strengthen our institution for future generations.”

DeGioia held two town hall meetings: one for executive leadership Feb. 7 and one for other faculty and staff See PAY, A5

40 16 um a b el ary p Ap Cle &

an on d s a en rfo ein n r t m h r h s f a o rif a oge ls ver J R a W L W Sil bin ndeg sa & & r & Ti Co Va &

A total of 793 students were polled Feb. 12, with 239 identifying as undecided and 89 not intending to vote.

Black House Talks Diversity With GUSA

WATCH PARTY

Annie Chen

Hoya Staff Writer

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Students gathered in Sellinger Lounge on Tuesday to watch the State of the Union at an event sponsored by the College Democrats.

GU May Elect First Gay President Annie Chen

Hoya Staff Writer

If elected president of the Georgetown University Student Association, GUSA senate Speaker Nate Tisa

OLIVIA HEWITT/THE HOYA

Tisa would be the first openly gay president of GUSA and the second at a U.S. Jesuit university.

(SFS ’14) would be only the second openly gay student body president at any major Jesuit university in the United States.

“It is a little lonely to think that for schools around the country, the Catholic and Jesuit identity means the student body is not willing or able to elect an openly gay individual to office. You just figure the statistics would be a little more favorable, but they’re not,” Tisa said.

While there has only been one other openly gay student body president at a major Jesuit university — Carlos Menchaca was elected president of the student association at the University of San Francisco in 2003 — other prominent non-Jesuit Catholic schools have elected gay student leaders.

Ryan Fecteau, the current and first openly gay speaker of the Student Association General Assembly at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., agreed the statistics indicate inadequate support for LGBTQ students at Catholic institutions.

Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947

More details of the poll, plus respondent demographics and campaign preferences can be found in a special report on A6 and A7.

“I think that the number of openly gay student body presidents at Catholic institutions speaks to the realities of those campuses,” Fecteau said. “Many have not made sufficient progress in truly welcoming LGBT students. Many have excluded LGBT from non-discrimination clauses. We have a lot of work to do at Catholic institutions across the country to fully welcome in a most Christian way everyone regardless of sexuality.”

Tisa, however, recalled that it was not the Catholic heritage of the university but the dominance of straight males in Georgetown’s student government that delayed his coming out of the closet until his second year in the GUSA senate.

“When I came into the senate freshman year, I was in the closet. I came out in November of that year, but came out in GUSA almost a year after that [because] GUSA was controlled by kind of an all-boys club, all-straight boys club. I felt like if I See TISA, A5 Published Tuesdays and Fridays

At a town hall meeting at the Black House on Wednesday evening, all five GUSA tickets were asked to explain how their respective platforms would address diversity issues and engage minority students on campus.

The discussion, which was the first of its kind and came amid a period of heightened dialogue about diversity and racial bias on campus focused on engagement between student groups and free speech on campus.

The candidates engaged with an audience of approximately 30 students at the event, which lasted an hour and a half.

Black House resident Aya Waller-

Bey (COL ’14) was approached by all but one of the GUSA tickets to discuss diversity issues on campus and decided to hold the event at the Black House to bring these discussions to a wider audience.

“Quite a few [candidates] realized there were definitely issues at Georgetown they hadn’t talked about, and I thought it was important to have a forum where those issues could be discussed in a more transparent venue,” Waller-Bey said.

The Black House worked with the Georgetown University Student Association Election Commission to establish the event, which WallerBey hopes will become an integral part of the annual executive race.

Presidential candidate Shavonnia See DIVERSITY, A8

CHARLIE LOWE FOR THE HOYA

Contenders for the GUSA presidency spoke about their respective commitments to diversity issues at a Black House panel Wednesday.

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, february 15, 2013

THE VERDICT

ENDORSEMENT

C C C

Founded January 14, 1920

Red and Ready — Due to confusion caused by multicolored cabs, a D.C. Taxicab Commission panel has suggested that red become the uniform color for all taxicabs.

Fallen Giant — Greentree, a private contractor for the National Park Service, mistakenly cut down an historic 140-year-old Gingko tree in Farragut Square

Vote Appelbaum & Cleary For GUSA Executive C

Better Late than Never — Repair work on the Washington Monument will officially begin next week, nearly a year and a half after it was damaged in an earthquake.

C

New and Improved — Powerhouse, a new event space located on Grace Street, will open in the historic warehouse in Georgetown best known for its 150-foot white smoke stack.

When students go to the polls — or rather, open up their browsers — on Feb. 21, they will cast their votes for the Georgetown University Student Association’s next president and vice president. It is important to remember that the position up for grabs requires more of an ambassador for student interests than individuals with executive power. To be effective, GUSA’s executive will need to cultivate a strong working relationship with student organizations and leaders — as well as with top administrators — to effect tangible change. This year, we endorse Jack Appelbaum (COL ’14) and Maggie Cleary (COL ’14) because they are best equipped to effectively represent students at the university bargaining table and implement concrete, practical solutions to the challenges facing Georgetown students.

to pave the way for effective reform. Whereas current funding allocation is placed under several advisory boards whose decisions are based largely on the portion of the Student Activities Fund to which they happen to lay claim, consolidating all groups under a single advisory board would allow groups to engage in fairer competition for a piece of the entire fund, which is composed largely of the student activities fee that all Georgetown students pay.

While a streamlined system is likely to increase efficiency and fairness, it must not come at the cost of the collaborative nature of specialized advisory boards, a concern raised by other GUSA candidates. A consolidated funding mechanism is a logical idea, but advisory boards should continue to exist as means of communication between similar student groups.

The Ticket Appelbaum and Cleary have strong backgrounds in student rights advocacy that would serve them well in the executive post.

Appelbaum has been involved with the Student Activities Commission for two years, having served most recently as chair, and was instrumental in constructing the 2012 Student Life Report. His experience has given him a comprehensive knowledge of the challenges student groups face and his constant dealings with the administration make him most capable to navigate red tape.

Cleary, the former chair of the Georgetown University College Republicans, proved herself while director of executive outreach under the Meaney-Laverriere executive in 2010-2011. She demonstrated an ability to keep up dialogue between students and the student association.

Student Rights One of the most memorable highlights and student victories of last semester was the passing of the Clear and Convincing referendum, a move to formally adjust evidentiary standards in the Code of Student Conduct that GUSA made a priority to push forward. Appelbaum and Cleary aim to continue the fight for student rights by educating the student body about the resources they have on campus.

Together, they aim to increase the visibility of the Student Advocacy Office, which was originally responsible for the referendum.

The dedicated advocates in the SAO provide valuable information for students to guide them in any conduct-related conflicts with the university.

Nonetheless, Appelbaum and Cleary need to consider more substantive free speech goals, a topic they failed to mention in their platform.

Expanding free speech zones is a pursuit worth considering; although the university’s policy toward free speech may be too rooted in its Catholic identity to overturn in one fell swoop or indeed in one term, slowly expanding free speech zones to include more than Red Square and Leavey Center could make a small but important improvement for Georgetown students’ right to free expression.

Student Space With the opening of the New South Student Center in fall 2014, accessible student space on campus will be significantly increased. In the meantime, however, access to adequate student space remains a prevalent issue that needs to be addressed, especially given that forthcoming construction will oust some student groups from their existing spaces in the NSSC. Other platforms aim to create more space for students on campus. This goal is admirable but increasingly unrealistic with the recent completion of Regents Hall and construction of the NSSC soon underway — two projects the university can use as compelling leverage against opening up spaces to students traditionally reserved for other purposes.

Appelbaum and Cleary instead meet the student space issue head on by advocating for better utilization and allocation of student space that already exists, offering practical solutions that will be felt by students on campus now.

Many of the ticket’s proposed renovations — such as the replacement of outdated televisions in common rooms and the addition of permanent barbecue grills to Leavey Esplanade — are realistic and inexpensive enough to be completed during their term.

Funding Reform Funding reform for student groups is a contentious topic among GUSA tickets — and for good reason. Appelbaum and Cleary have the experience and insight necessary

Additional Platform Goals In an election with so many tickets, ideas are bound to overlap, and the idealistic chatter can start to sound a lot like white noise.

Appelbaum and Cleary, however, have a few appealing and unique ideas that they plan on prioritizing. For one, they plan to institute a local landlord fair to alleviate the stressful and grueling process virtually every Georgetown upperclassman faces when his three years of guaranteed housing are up. They would continue the farmers market, complete with added GOCard payment capabilities. They also propose creating faculty advisors for student groups to help facilitate creating stronger ties between students and the varied talented professors Georgetown has to offer.

Solutions for Georgetown Appelbaum and Cleary have shown they are not only committed to listening to student voices but equipped with the experience and knowledge to clear roadblocks and make student ideas a reality. For tangible solutions and change on the Hilltop, vote Appelbaum and Cleary on Feb. 21.

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Sin City — For the second year in a row, dating site AshleyMadison. com named Washington, D.C. the most adulterous city in America.

A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD US ... @JoshZumbrun Feb. 13 Best financial institution I ever had RT @thehoya GUASFCU celebrated its 30th anniversary Saturday. @PIZZAATLEOS Feb. 11 .@thehoya CLEARY: OUR BIGGEST ISSUE IS MORE PIZZA ON CAMPUS. #INAPERFECTPIZZAWORLD @DalvinButler Feb. 11 @thehoya’s blog has reported on #TheHoyaSabotage already

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Megan Schmidt

CORRECTION The article “GIRA Grant Funds Alum’s Debate Initiative in Africa” (Feb. 12, 2013, A5) incorrectly stated in the headline that Dylan Groves and Moren Seja are alumni; they are current students in the Masters School of Foreign Service program.

The article also incorrectly referred to the Global Generation Grant as the Global Grant Competition. In addition, the article misattributed a quotation. It was university Provost Robert Groves, not Kelvin Moyaka, that said “With their GIRA grant of $2,500 to KUDL, Moyaka and Seja were able to extend work they had begun through internships with nongovernmental organization Somali Family Services.

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Lauren Weber, Chair

Kent Carlson, Danny Funt, Evan Hollander, Dylan Hunt, Mairead Reilly, Mary Nancy Walter

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friDAY, february 15, 2013

THE HOYA

GUSA EXECUTIVE ELECTION 2013 VIEWPOINT • Corbin Johnson & Vandegriff

A3

VIEWPOINT • Tisa & Ramadan

A Progressive Hilltop For Students, by Students W W

hen people ask us why we decided a two-way conversation about what practices to run for Georgetown University do and do not work.

The second half of our platform is all Student Association executives, we point to the fact that GUSA is often dis- about promoting progressive values on connected from the wants and the needs of campus. Plenty of tickets discuss how much the student body. We have seen great strides they care about social justice and diversity, made over the past two years, but unfortu- but we are the only ones who have track nately, they tend to focus on annual referen- records that display that commitment. Joe dums that leave the student body wondering led the College Democrats in an election what GUSA does for the other 11 months. year in order to ensure the election of canWe are running to change that. We constant- didates who stand for progressive values on ly want to engage students on issues and get a national stage. Shavonnia has dedicated signatures for petitions and referendums herself to promoting diversity groups and to accomplish more than one big act. In or- currently serves on the board of Latin Amerder to engage the student body, we plan on ican Student Association and the Black Stuworking with student group leaders and the dent Alliance. We want to push for these GUSA senate to make sure we are all working progressive values on campus in various ways. One in four college women are sexutoward the same goals.

Our platform is simple. We want to im- ally assaulted, but Georgetown has never had a campus-wide prove the everyday lives conversation about of students and make the subject. That has our campus more proWe are the only candidates to change. As such, we gressive. Our student life platform is aimed who have track records that want to make education on sexual assault at making a tangible display a commitment to part of New Student impact in the lives of Orientation. We want students. We are propossocial justice and diversity. to push for fossil fuel ing numerous improvedivestment from the ments to our campus. university. We cannot Our budget has set aside $15,000 to ensure that Georgetown Univer- embody a persona of caring for the whole sity Transportation Shuttle buses run on body if we do not take care of our planet.

Sundays and more frequently on Saturdays. We want to help promote social justice and We want to make meal plans optional for all diversity groups here on campus and have sophomores so that Aramark has a financial dedicated $3,000 of our budget to help incentive to be good at what it does. We want make them a larger presence on campus. to make the Code of Student Conduct fairer We would also give them the exclusive by letting freshman know their rights and right to place flyers on boards outside of the making the Student Neighborhood Assistant GUSA office in Leavey Center. Improving Program a more student-driven initiative. We things on campus is great, but the impact want to make Georgetown much friendlier is tiny compared to what we can do to help for student groups. During Joe’s time as head solve the systemic problem in the D.C. comof the Georgetown College Democrats, he was munity.

None of this change will be easy, but it is frequently frustrated by the lack of autonomy that student groups have at Georgetown. The necessary to put GUSA with the students inCenter for Student Programs decides what stead of above them. We hope you will vote the rules are going to be, then dictates them Shavonnia and Joe. down to student group heads who have no way of fighting back. That is why we are pro- SHAVONNIA CORBIN JOHNSON is a junior posing to have roundtables between student in the School of Foreign Service. Joe group heads and the CSP in order to promote Vandegriff is a junior in the College.

hile Nate’s years of involvement in the Georgetown University Student Association have given him meaningful friendships and unparalleled opportunities, we are deeply frustrated with GUSA. We are frustrated with its cyclical presence on campus, palpable for only two weeks in February and September. We are frustrated with candidates who promise the world year after year but lack the ability or intent to follow through on their promises. We are frustrated with the constant temptation toward skewed priorities, where the organization pursues internal reform relentlessly at the expense of the individual student.

Yet we say this as candidates for GUSA president and vice president and, in Nate’s case, the current speaker of the GUSA senate. We are hopeful because after three years of advocating for change with some of the best mentors and peers we could have ever hoped to meet, we are on the cusp of something greater.

For Nate, Georgetown is an idea he fell in love with when he first visited campus in high school. And now as a student, he counts himself lucky he attends a university like Georgetown. But this is not an admissions brochure, and when the sun rises on this campus, it illuminates a reality that is far from ideal. The pursuit of academic inquiry and research are often stifled by antiquated systems. Student entrepreneurs are held back by regulations and procedures. Student groups are discouraged time and

time again by a bureaucracy so monolithic they would rather circumvent it than participate.

Darkest of all, one in four college women and one in 33 college men have been sexually assaulted. Instances of racism and homophobia leave some Georgetown students feeling excluded from our community.

We are the only ticket with a proven record of results in GUSA. As speaker, Nate authored the Clear and Convincing referen-

We need to quash the idea that a select group has the right to dictate solutions for all. dum, ending a nearly year-long stalemate with the administration. Adam comes in with years of experience as a student leader and brings a truly fresh perspective to the executive that will be crucial in permanently redefining how we do business.

We need to quash the idea that a select group of students has the right or ability to dictate solutions for all. In the past month, we have met with hundreds of students and dozens of student groups, and one thing has become clear through the alphabet soup of acronyms it is our task to navigate: Students want GUSA’s money and advocacy but could do just as well without GUSA’s advice. Our task in this election is to convince you that GUSA is worth

your faith, time, energy and vote.

As GUSA president and vice president, we will fight apathy with engagement. We will bring Georgetown athletics and the performing arts to center stage as ways to build community. We will stand against sexual assault by instituting training programs and changing the Code of Student Conduct so that there is one single, enforceable rule on sexual assault. We will empower student groups by breaking up the Student Activities Commission and moving the advisory board system towards a short-term, long-term balance that allows students to thrive in all types of leadership roles.

We have laid out in our platform not the lofty goals or wide nets cast by some but action plans that present voters with deliverable objectives and a way to get us there together.

As Nate said in this newspaper the week before becoming the seventh speaker of the senate nearly six months ago, GUSA can’t do it all. Not until we develop a culture of self-advocacy and mutual assistance will we succeed in steering the university in the short term toward lasting change.

That’s why we ask you now to stand with us and vote Nate Tisa and Adam Ramadan for GUSA president and vice president on Feb. 21.

Nate Tisa is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. He is speaker of the GUSA Senate.

Adam Ramadan is a junior in the School of Foreign Service.

VIEWPOINT • Walsh & Silverstein

Eliminating Red Tape F

or many students, a semester abroad campus together, devising innovative soluis a chance to experience new cultures tions and cutting red tape.

Bringing the campus together is more and learn from others who are very different from themselves. We did both of than rhetoric. One easy opportunity to those things in Hong Kong last semester, unite the Hilltop is through our basketball but we also spent our time reflecting on team. That’s why we have budgeted for — Georgetown and how we can make it better. and will work with the Athletics DepartUntil we saw a truly empowered student ment to manage — shuttles that run from body — which we witnessed in Hong Kong, the McDonough Gymnasium parking lot where university students made an impact to Verizon Center. Not only will we better on the politics of their campus and city — support our team, we will also build One we had thought little about how George- Georgetown.

When it comes to innovative solutions, town students can collectively raise their we can think of few better than enabling voices and force needed change.

Too often, the Georgetown University students to track work requests online, Student Association preoccupies itself while simultaneously prodding University with what it can do to stretch its limited Facilities to work more quickly and more efresources, what projects can be snuck past ficiently. With Spencer’s web design skills, the university’s red tape or what resume- we could build a website quickly and, while we plan to work building titles execwith the adminisutives can dole out tration and the new to supporters. leadership of FaciliLeading GUSA is If students are going to make ties, we are willing about more than to go it alone if that having your name a serious effort to make can make an immeat the top of the Georgetown all that it can be, we diate impact on stuassociation’s letdent life. terhead. It is about need to transform GUSA. Finally, we know bringing students that red tape holds together to speak as Georgetown back. one, creating a powerful message that administrators cannot While we have a comprehensive plan for fixing the Office of Campus Activity Faciliignore.

As the only ticket that has never been ties and centralizing reservations, there a part of the GUSA bureaucracy, we are is an even easier solution. Moving to preready to break the mold and embrace that sumed consent for event-booking would vision. Finding new solutions to old prob- make it easier to schedule events, while a lems is what we’re all about. Spencer is an signed contract between groups and the award-winning entrepreneur, recognized university would assuage every relevant by groups ranging from the National Fed- concern. It’s a no-brainer.

Of course, not every problem can be eration of Independent Business to Startup solved that easily. But if students are goHoyas right here on the Hilltop.

Rob has been a part of numerous groups, ing to make a serious effort to make including the Philodemic Society, College Georgetown all that it can be, we need to Democrats and the International Relations transform GUSA from a parochial insidClub. Through a network of friends across ers’ club into a group that speaks for One campus, Rob knows the needs of both stu- Georgetown.

As the outsiders in this election — but dent groups and student life.

Since we returned from Asia, we’ve met ones with detailed solutions to complex with hundreds of campus leaders. And we problems — we believe we are the right strongly believe that the chance to listen choice. We ask for your support and your to the people who make Georgetown tick vote on Feb. 21. has been more important than any title we could earn in GUSA. Spencer Walsh is a junior in the Although our platform contains many McDonough School of Business. specific, achievable ideas, three align espe- Robert Silverstein is a junior in the cially well with our goals of bringing the School of Foreign Service.

GUSA candidates Cannon Warren (SFS ’14) and Andrew Logerfo (COL ’14) elected not to write a viewpoint for this issue.

VIEWPOINT • Appelbaum & Cleary

Experience to Further Reform

M

any students on campus often ask why the Georgetown University Student Association matters. The answer is simple: It matters because it represents the student voice across campus and fiercely advocates for students to administrators. GUSA must be able to respond to students’ challenges, and, at the same time, students must able to come to GUSA with any problem and expect that it can be addressed. And that’s why we are running: To make students equal stakeholders on campus and continue to legitimize and amplify the student voice.

Over the next three years, the Intercollegiate Athletics Center, the New South Student Center and at least one new residence hall will be built. We will ensure that student feedback is incorporated into the design process. We will challenge administrators to respond to student concerns and hold them accountable for the commitments they make. As our platform displays, we will push the limits of GUSA involvement in space on campus in ways not seen before, including recommending new buildings, restructuring offices and reducing costs and policies that restrict student organizations.

Furthermore, though efforts at reform have made some progress, the funding system remains broken. Student organizations need more freedom, more control over and online access to their funding, fewer restrictions on the type of programming they can hold and a more democratic funding process. Our plan will

give student organizations more autonomy to do what they want when they want to do it. Groups will remain organized by the type of programming they put on to encourage cosponsorships and give student organizations an opportunity to solve current problems in collaboration with each other. We will also open up campus resources to groups traditionally excluded from campus, such as innovative social ventures and fraternities and sororities, to make sure that they have the sup-

Student organizations need more freedom and more control over their funding. port they need to thrive.

Throughout our platform, we have offered concrete solutions to existing problems. Instead of approaching many issues in the same old ways, we have listened to students and taken innovative approaches to campus life.

Concerned about housing and facilities on campus? We will add a cabinet secretary for housing and facilities to help students work through the challenges they face.

We have also proposed improving the housing and facilities website and starting a landlord fair to help students find off-campus residences, in addition to a roommate-matching system to help students fill empty spots.

Our platform covers a wide range of issues. We plan to support sustainability initiatives on campus and improve technology while also expanding student dining options with more food trucks and the ability to use meal swipes at other campus dining facilities. But solutions and platform points are meaningless without the experience to get it done. As the most experienced ticket both inside and outside of GUSA, we have worked with both students and administrators to achieve the solutions we lay out.

Whether it is Jack’s two-year experience with the Student Activities Commission and his work with current GUSA president Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and vice president Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13) on student-life issues as an executive staff member or Maggie’s experience as the leader of a large student organization, her outreach work for last year’s GUSA executive and her accomplishments representing students on academic-life issues as a member of the College Academic Council, we bring unmatched experience to the role of GUSA executive.

Students not only need advocates leading GUSA, but they need ones who know what to advocate for and how to advocate for it to get results. For the most experienced ticket with the most concrete solutions and the values, drive and vision to effectively serve students, mark Jack and Maggie number one on Feb. 21.

Jack Appelbaum is a junior in the College. Maggie Cleary is a junior in the College.

A4

THE HOYA

PAGE FOUR

NEWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE The Doyle Symposium addressed diversity in liberal arts education Thursday.

Read story at thehoya.com

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

verbatim

JUST DANCE

“

No university wants to admit that sexual assault is a big issue.

”

GUSA presidential hopeful Spencer Walsh (MSB ’14) on sexual assault at Georgetown See story on A9.

from

LISTAL.COM

JAMES CALELLO FOR THE HOYA

Black Movements Dance Theatre rehearsed in Davis Performing Arts Center on Thursday night for its spring performance, which will take place Friday and Saturday as part of celebrations of Black History Month. See more at thehoya.com.

BIRBIGS BRINGS THE LAUGHS Comedian Mike Birbiglia (COL ’00) will return to campus to perform his one-man show Feb. 25 to March 1. Learn more on 4E. blog.thehoya.com

M Street Mall’s New Tenants Draws Opposition EMMA IANNINI Hoya Staff Writer

After being closed for renovations last fall, the Shops at Georgetown Park are set to reopen this spring and will feature a lineup that has drawn criticism from area residents.

According to the president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, Jennifer Altemus (COL ’88), the new stores coming to the mall include DSW, T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, arts and crafts chain Michaels and high-end bowling alley and restaurant Pinstripes.

“We are excited to see Georgetown Park finally revitalized, and I am really looking forward to the bowling alley,” Altemus said.

Although CAG is enthusiastic to see the retail center open again in the spring, Altemus added that many

Georgetown residents feel that these new additions to the mall are not wellsuited to the area and have expressed their concerns to CAG. “Most neighbors I have spoken with are disappointed in the store lineup,” Altemus said. “The discount brands don’t seem to be a good fit for Georgetown.”

Georgetown has a reputation for being a high-end shopping destination, and the neighborhood houses a long list of expensive vendors including Brooks Brothers, Kate Spade and Michael Kors.

Pinstripes has already run into problems; the establishment was opposed

by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E before being approved Jan. 15 by the Board of Zoning Adjustment, after promising to address noise complaints.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Peter Prindiville (SFS ’14), however, did not share the neighbors’ concerns about

the discount chains. He hopes the stores at the mall will attract new customers who live outside Georgetown.

“I think it’s important to stress that the Georgetown retail district serves the entire District and the metro region,” Prindiville wrote in an email. “Georgetown should be a welcoming and inclusive community. To say a certain retailer is beneath the supposed standard for Georgetown ignores a large portion of the residents living in our community who find it difficult to shop in Georgetown.”

Georgetown students seem to agree with Prindiville’s position and are excited to take advantage of the lower prices that the mall’s new line up will offer.

“I think it’s snobbery on the part of the residents here to be upset about stores like DSW coming to Georgetown,” Katie Mangialardi (COL ’16) said. “This

is a great opportunity for Georgetown students because for years, the neighborhood has lacked low-priced discount stores. Personally, I know I am excited to hit up DSW.” Others, however, can see how area residents would disapprove of the new stores.

“On one hand, it’s disappointing to me to hear such an elitist argument coming from some of the people who live in Georgetown, but on the other hand, I do sympathize with their side as well. If you were walking down M Street and passing by Dean & Deluca and then the Coach store, wouldn’t it be weird to suddenly see Marshalls?” De’ahna Johnson (SFS ’16) said.

Nonetheless, Johnson expressed enthusiasm for the arrival of the new merchants to the area.

“All in all, this is a college town, and

OLIVIA HEWITT/THE HOYA

The mall reopens this spring with an emphasis on cheaper retail options. although the neighborhood is one of the wealthiest in the country, Georgetown should have an interest in making its retail area more cost effective,” Johnson said. “I think the new mall will be a big win for students here when it opens.”

Students Critical of Suspect Descriptions in PSAs EMILY SUMMIT

Special to The Hoya

Public safety alerts issued by the Department of Public Safety generally report recent crime on or surrounding Georgetown’s campus. A PSA released Feb. 9, however, warned the community of potential criminals targeting university students with specific physical descriptions of the suspects.

The PSA was issued based on a tip received from Chris Scott (COL ’14), who overheard the suspects described in the alert discussing intended crimes on a train last Friday afternoon.

“Two individuals got on at a stop, and one sat down on the seat in front of me and one sat down on the seat next to me,” Scott said.

While the men initially discussed other topics, their conversation shifted to money, after which a third man said that Georgetown would be a good location to stage burglaries because of the number of wealthy students.

“They sat down and they started talking about how they were going to get their money this week, and then they started talking about the last college I guess they had [burglarized], Catholic University,” Scott said. “They said that they liked to take things from people … not [just] that they liked to, but that they do.”

Scott reported what he heard to DPS as soon as he arrived on campus. The next day, DPS released descriptions of the individuals to the community, describing both as dark-skinned black males, one in Oakley goggles with dreadlocks and another in a yellow hood.

According to DPS Chief of Police Jay Gruber, the department disseminates alerts when it believes the information could be used to help keep the community safe.

“In many cases we are mandated [legally] to send the messages.” Gruber said.

“In other cases, we send messages when we feel that we have important safety information to provide to our commnity.”

Gruber said this was the thinking that led to the dissemination of a detailed suspect description in Saturday’s alert.

“We received information and it came from a credible source and we thought it was important to share that information with the community rather than keeping it to ourselves,” Gruber said.

Gruber is one of the decision makers when the university considers whether to issue an alert. Other key groups involved include DPS, the Office of University Counsel, the Office of Communications and the Division of Student Affairs.

Although many people take part, Gruber emphasized that this does not slow response times.

“It’s a process that happens very, very

quickly,” Gruber said. “The leadership group, when they get the drafts of these messages, are very quick to engage and get these messages out.”

However, DPS does not issue PSAs for crimes with known suspects who have been apprehended — as was the case with Wednesday’s arrest of James McFerguson, who attempted to break into university townhouses on the 3600 block of Prospect Street — or when an alert would jeopardize an ongoing investigation.

“If there’s something of an investigatory nature that we feel would compromise an investigation but not endanger the public, we probably would not release that,” Gruber said.

Five PSAs concerning residential burglaries have been released so far in 2013, describing incidents in Harbin, Copley and McCarthy Halls. Descriptions of the suspects in those crimes have not been released to the public, although key people, including security guards are aware of what they look like. He said he would check with his leadership staff to see who needed to receive the information. According to Gruber, one of the burglars is female and the other is male, but the two are believed to be operating separately.

“We know what they look like, but we just haven’t found them yet,” Gruber said.

Gruber maintained, however, that it

is important for students to receive detailed descriptions of perpetrators.

“To withhold descriptors on race, whether it’s a male or a female, whether the person is tall or short, would be doing a disservice to the community,” Gruber said. “We take the information that’s given to us. … It has nothing to do with whether we’re being sensitive to diversity.”

Some students voiced discontent with the contents of Saturday’s PSA on a Facebook group for Georgetown transfer students, on which Scott had posted a warning about what he had overheard on the train last Friday.

Justin DeLoatch (COL ’14), a member of the Facebook group who commented on Scott’s post, said he believes that the public safety alert would have been just as helpful without the physical description of the suspects.

“As a black man, it makes me feel uncomfortable to walk around campus knowing that this is what people are looking for,” DeLoatch said. “I have braids that most people mistake for dreads, and [the alert] didn’t say anything about dread length.”

DeLoatch said that it was important that students receive the information but thought the public safety alert could have been worded differently.

“I think the idea and the intent were good,” DeLoatch said. “I think it’s very

important that — even if it’s just speculation — if you hear about something possibly going on campus, it’s good to give everybody a heads up. [But] I think a better way to go about it would have been to say we have some uncorroborated sources that say that there’s a possibility that people may be looking to target Georgetown students.”

DeLoatch sent an email to DPS voicing his concerns but has yet to hear back.

“Providing the descriptions they had without any distinguishing characteristics basically just described any of the black men that live on campus,” DeLoatch said.

Other students were grateful for the alert.

“I had my laptop stolen last semester, so I speak from experience that I think some kind of warning would have made me a bit more attentive to my belongings,” Joseph Gruenbaum (COL ’15) said.

But Gruenbaum noted that the controversy surrounding it reflected a larger issue on our campus.

“But then again I do see the problem.

I think that the problem that people see with it reflects the larger division in Georgetown’s campus,” he said. “I think we’re still pretty racially divided and that’s a very big problem.”

Hoya Staff Writer Hiromi Oka contributed reporting.

News

FRIday, february 15, 2013

THE HOYA

A5

Faculty Join Staff in Denouncing Divisive Pay Freeze PAY, from A1 Feb. 12. According to Kerr, Gaston Hall was packed for the second town hall.

Faculty and staff response was mixed during the town hall, according to School of Foreign Service faculty chair David Edelstein.

“I think one [response] was disappointment that we were in this position but also people understanding that this has been a hard time for different places,” Edelstein said. “I think the second reaction was the one that most people had, which was a reaction to the differential treatment of faculty on the one hand and staff on the other.”

Kerr justified the pay scale discrepancies by citing the innate difference between faculty and staff careers.

“Faculty is an industry that has a trajec-

tory,” Kerr said. “At Georgetown, we compete in a very international market place for those faculty, so we have a competition issue in compensation because we’re competing with the best universities in the world. Our staff operate in a way that is much more tied to the regional economy, and it’s much more affected by the local economy.”

Edelstein said that many faculty were uncomfortable being treated differently from university staff.

“If we’re all in this boat together, then we should really be all in this boat together,” Edelstein said. “That sort of treating people differently in that way, — I think it struck a lot of faculty uncomfortably.”

German department Chair Peter Pfeiffer sent a letter signed by 20 College department and program chairs to the university’s board of directors, expressing

opposition to the pay freeze. “[We asked] them to reconsider [the freeze] in recognition of the fact that there are some financial elements that need to be addressed, but doing it this way, which is a very divisive way of differentiating faculty and staff, which are both very important to teaching and research missions of the university, is unproductive and would have long-term consequences,” Pfeiffer said.

Additionally, the faculty senate unanimously passed a measure encouraging the board to resolve the university’s financial issues without seriously affecting lower-paid staff.

According to Kerr, the university implemented similar cuts in 2009, but they were not highly publicized and did not elicit a similar response. The cuts, proposed in response to the 2008 recession,

included a one-year freeze on the merit pool for both faculty and staff.

“That, too, was differential treatment, but there wasn’t a big email from the president that came out, so it didn’t get the same attention,” Edelstein said.

Though Edelstein disagreed with elements in the five-year plan, he applauded the university for not laying off faculty or staff amid the economic climate.

“To my knowledge … we’ve never had layoffs,” he said. “To give them the benefit of the doubt, I think the university has always tried to do this in a way ... to let people keep their jobs.”

DeGioia emailed faculty and staff after receiving their responses, promising to attempt to restructure the plan.

“I know there has been constructive and active dialogue happening throughout our campus since our announce-

ment last week, especially related to an upcoming delay in the merit pool for staff,” DeGioia wrote. “Respectful of your concerns about how we implement our financial plan, today I asked the executive vice presidents on each campus and our chief operating officer to work over the next few weeks to develop a plan that seeks to ease the burden on our employees, within the financial framework already developed.”

Edelstein said that such efforts would change important elements of the plan, including the merit pool freeze.

“I think the formula might change … but I doubt that the ultimate goal would change,” Edelstein said.

Kerr said that the updated financial plan, which campus leaders will submit to DeGioia by March 11, would seek to meet faculty and staff concerns.

Tisa Would Be Second Gay President at a Jesuit University TISA, from A1 came out as gay I’d be marginalized, that they wouldn’t take me seriously,” Tisa said.

However, Tisa praised current GUSA President Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and Vice President Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13) for opening up discussions on diversity and sexuality when the two advocated for inclusion of an LGBTQ checkbox on freshmen housing questionnaires last year.

Despite the changing atmosphere in GUSA, Tisa said his sexual orientation has occasionally become a point of target when he advocated for LGBTQ issues.

“When advocating for gay issues like gender-neutral housing, sometimes people will go against and just say things like, ‘I know you feel about this strongly personally, but it’s not important to your office,’” he said. “People want to marginalize those issues and make the LGBTQ community invisible on campus, not necessarily because they’re anti-gay but because they just don’t view those voices as deserving respect.”

Fecteau has been active in pushing for official university recognition of CUAllies, a gay-straight alliance at Catholic, and described his narrow victory over a member of the Knights of Columbus in the 2012 student body speaker election as indicative of his university’s increas-

ing acceptance of plurality.

“This outspokenness on LGBT issues did not hinder my viability as a candidate; in fact, I think it made it stronger.

I think that the progress made of having been entrusted, regardless of sexual orientation, by the student body with this leadership position normalizes what is absolutely normal but not common on a Catholic campus,” Fecteau said.

Student votes, however, did not directly translate into university support for Fecteau and the LGBTQ community.

“The administration did not have a blatant reaction to my election. I speculate that they were surprised and likely not impressed. However, I think that I earned their respect as someone not willing to yell about issues but rather sit down and have substantive conversation,” Fecteau said.

Anthony Alfano, who in 2011 was elected the first openly gay student body president at DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in the United States, recalled a different experience from Fecteau and Tisa when running for student government and his time at office.

Alfano, despite being out to close family and friends, did not make his sexual orientation or his involvement in the LGBTQ community part of his platform.

“I was out to family, friends and peers before and while I was running for stu-

dent body president, and I didn’t make it a platform point because I felt it was a non-issue,” Alfano said.

A few months after he was elected to office, Alfano, recognizing that he had to power to encourage others in the LGBTQ community, decided to come out to the entire university through the university’s student newspaper.

“I decided to come out because I realized the significance it could have for the LGBTQ community. At the largest Catholic university in the country I felt that I had a platform to reach out to members of the community and more specifically LGBTQ youth that they didn’t have to hide who they were to strive for better in life,” Alfano recounted. “[I emphasized] that ‘it does get better’ and you don’t have to live a lie. I felt it was my responsibility to do so. I owed it to the generations before me and those who will come after me to share my story.”

Founder of Catholic Association of Students for Equality Thomas Lloyd (SFS ’15) agreed that the election of an LGBT student to the presidency of the student government would assure LGBTQ students that they are respected by their peers “All gay issues benefit from visibility.

When someone comes to Georgetown, they have to make the decision if they want to come out [and] acknowledge

their sexual orientation,” Lloyd said.

“Having someone as the president of the student government to be openly gay sets Georgetown as an exceptional case where the vast majority of the student body is not just OK with seeing that person on campus but also elect him to the top of the student office.”

GU Pride President Meghan Ferguson (COL ’15) agreed.

“It’s good for us to know we have additional support behind us for things we want to accomplish,” Ferguson said.

GU Pride has endorsed Tisa in this GUSA race.

According to Alfano, his coming out, which drew significant media attention in Chicago, effectively increased recognition and opportunities for the LGBTQ community at DePaul.

“I think [coming out to the university] definitely did open up a lot of conversation and people were definitely talking more about LGBTQ issues on campus, whether it was in regard to sexual health or an LGBTQ office fulltime coordinator that we finally got or the career center that reached out to the LGBTQ group to show the career outlooks and life after college,” Alfano said.

Tisa said his struggles to reconcile his Catholic identity and his sexuality at the personal level inspired him to advocate for LGBTQ issues at the uni-

versity level.

“Because of that experience in my personal life, I’ve had to extrapolate it to GUSA,” he said. “Trying to frame issues of social justice and issues of acceptance and tolerance in a way that is coherent to the Catholic identity is something that I’ve had to do every day, and that enables me to do it in GUSA instinctively.”

Lloyd agreed with Tisa that Jesuit values and sexuality should not conflict.

“When you look at gender-neutral housing, people claim that it’s against our Jesuit values to have men and women live in the same place. People always whip out Jesuit values when they want to knock something Pride wants to do down,” Lloyd said.

Despite different levels of struggle, advocacy for LGBTQ issues and acceptance of LGBTQ identities at the DePaul, Catholic and Georgetown, having openly gay representatives in the student government transcends these individual institutions.

“This is about more than just Georgetown. As the first openly gay student body president at Georgetown — at a major Jesuit university — we have the ability the change the way that the Catholic identity is interpreted. We can partner with other Catholic institutions to bring our identity into the 21st century once and for all,” Tisa said.

A6

election coverage

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, february 15, 2013

The Hoya 2013 GUSA Poll Feb. 12 Door-to-Door Survey Provides Insight Into State of the Race

Percentage of Likely Voters

20.5

20.5

Jack Appelbaum & Maggie Cleary

Shavonnia Corbin Johnson & Joe Vandegriff

A total of 793 students were polled, 701 of whom identified as likely voters. Of that group, 34 percent said they were undecided.

2.3 Andrew Logerfo & Cannon Warren

Robert Silverstein & Spencer Walsh

freshmen

sophomoreS

seniors

12%

30%

31%

The Hoya conducted a campus-wide, doorto-door poll of students Feb. 12 in anticipation of the Georgetown University Student Association executive election Feb. 21. Although the polling method was not scientific, the approach was designed to reduce sample bias and promote demographic transparency.

More than 20 Hoya staffers administered an anonymous survey Tuesday in all 15 campus dormitories and several-dozen university townhouses. Polling began at 10 p.m., and a total of 793 students completed the sevenquestion form. The poll was not announced beforehand.

The methodology was chosen for several reasons. First, it did not allow for readership bias, as is frequently found in online polls.

Second, it prevented respondents from being double polled, and the campaigns had no way of stuffing the polling ballot box.

Third, it was meant to reduce significant sample biases such as gender, race or school.

The exception to that final point is year, for which the survey was substantially skewed toward underclassmen. This anticipated sample bias was due to the accessibility of freshman and sophomore dormitories.

Although this oversampling is unfortunate, the results have been broken down by year to identify how upperclassmen, albeit a smaller number of them, are leaning at this point in the process.

GUSA uses a ranked-choice ballot for the executive election, which allows voters to number the candidates by preference. The Hoya simply asked students to list the candidate for whom they plan on voting, which we believe gives a meaningful reflection of the state of the race. Respondents were also able to mark a box if they do not intend on voting in the election, which allowed the poll results to be refined to describe likely voters.

As a reference, a record 3,697 students voted in last year’s GUSA executive election.

juniors

18%

22%

15%

33%

34%

18% 16%

11%

27%

21%

16%

3%

3%

1% 4%

16.9

Nate Tisa & Adam Ramadan

5.7

Methodology

13%

23% 4%

2% Total Polled: 256

Total Polled: 166

Total Polled: 241

Tisa & Ramadan

Warren & Logerfo

Corbin Johnson & Vandegriff

Walsh & Silverstein

Undecided

Total percent

% at GU

12% Total Polled: 67

Appelbaum & Cleary

Behind the Numbers Total polled

7%

Do you approve of the performance of GUSA President Clara Gustafson and Vice President Vail Kohnert-Yount?

Gender Male

368

47.2

48

Female

411

52.8

52

% Class of 2016

Race White

472

60.9

59

African American

68

8.8

8

Asian

126

16.2

13

Hispanic/Latino

52

6.7

7

Multiple Races

57

7.4

8

COL

393

50.8

SFS

174

22.5

MSB

156

20.2

NHS

50

6.4

51% No Opinion

45% Approve

School *GU data for school breakdown not available.

4% Disapprove

election coverage

friday, february 15, 2013

THE HOYA

A7

The Hoya GUSA Poll How do you primarily learn about GUSA candidates?

Social media

29%

Word of mouth

29%

Which campaign method do you find most unpleasant?

Intrusive door-to-door campaigning

Flyers and posters 16%

19%

14% Door-to-door campaigns 6%

Campaign websites

4% 1%

Candidate debates

1%

YouTube videos

7%

Uninformative or silly messaging

Excessive social media efforts

16%

Campus news media

58%

Too many campus flyers and posters

Racial Breakdown Candidate

White

% Likely White Voters

African American

% Likely African American Voters

Asian

Appelbaum & Cleary

98

23%

2

3%

25

23%

8

19%

Corbin Johnson & Vandegriff

52

12%

32

50%

14

13%

7

16%

Tisa & Ramadan

87

21%

13

20%

24

22%

5

12%

Walsh & Silverstein

30

7%

2

3%

2

2%

2

5%

Warren & Logerfo

12

3%

0

0%

2

2%

0

0%

Undecided

141

34%

15

23%

43

39%

21

49%

Not Voting

51

4

Identify each ticket that contains at least one candidate who you know beyond name recognition

352 325

310

157

n n da sh rstei ren rfo a a l r Tis Ram Wa Silve Wa Loge & & &

% Likely Hispanic Hispanic Voters

9

GUEST COMMENTARY • PANDA & SWIBER

Poll Indicates GUSA Apathy

T

134

n so um n a h elb ary Jo riff p n g i Ap Cle rb nde o C Va & &

16

% Likely Asian Voters

he results of The Hoya’s Feb. 12 GUSA election poll are perhaps less interesting for what they indicate about the probable outcome of the current election than for what they seem to suggest about the campus’ attitude toward such contests in a broader sense. On the former point, the poll does indicate a close race.

Jack Appelbaum and Maggie Cleary and Nate Tisa and Adam Ramadan are in a statistical dead heat, with each receiving the support of 20.5 percent of likely voters. Not far behind with 17 percent support is the Shavonnia Corbin Johnson and Joe Vandegriff ticket. Spencer Walsh and Robert Silverstein and Cannon Warren and Andrew Logerfo are far behind with 5.7 percent and 2.3 percent support, respectively.

With one-in-three of those polled undecided, prognosticating a winner at this point would be a fool’s errand.

Freshmen and sophomores lean heavily towards the Applebaum/Cleary and Tisa/Ramadan tickets, which have 21.1 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively, of the combined underclassmen

vote. Such results may indicate the effectiveness of those two campaigns at engaging with the students least experienced with the electoral process. Upperclassmen, on the other hand, break for Corbin-Johnson/Vandegriff and Tisa/Ramadan (17.7 percent of the vote and 16.0 percent of the vote, respectively), with Applebaum/Cleary running a distant third with 10.8 percent of the vote among that age group.

More than anything, these poll results seem indicative of a generally apathetic student body that has little appetite for the annual rituals that these elections bring. First, one in ten students responding to The Hoya’s pollsters forthrightly declared an intention not to vote. Beyond that, almost one-third count themselves as “undecided.” Recent electoral history (only one GUSA presidential election has surpassed 50 percent turnout under the current format) suggests that we can probably categorize most of these voters as “ambivalent” at best and, in all likelihood, “unlikely to make the effort to open the email ballot.”

This indifference is reflected in

students’ responses to questions related to the styles of the campaigns as well. Notably, when asked which campaign method is most unpleasant to them, almost 60 percent cited door-todoor campaigning. Discussing the election with their peers evidently bothers those 60 percent, especially because those discussions both are unsolicited and interrupt students’ incomprehensibly busy schedules for eternally long two-minute intervals.

Beyond these somewhat pessimistic insights, the poll results would seem to reveal few definitive answers about the current state of the race. With a final week ahead, any of the campaigns could pull ahead by engaging with the near majority of students who do not seem to care about these elections as of now. Judging by recent history and the current polling results though, that is much easier said than done.

CHETAN PANDA is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.

PATRICK SWIBER is a senior in the College. Panda is a former member of the GUSA senate.

A8

news

THE HOYA

Speaker’s Corner

Rick Warren

Evangelical Christian Pastor “American Christians need to repent on their not standing up for the freedom of other religions.”

“Freedom is extremely fragile. ... Defend it.”

“I believe in conversion.

I do not believe in coercion.”

“It’s not like contraceptives are hard to get. You can get them free anywhere. Why would I force someone who has a conviction against it and say, ‘You must do this.’ That doesn’t make sense to me.”

ERICA WONG/THE HOYA

Katherine Seevers Special to The Hoya

Prominent evangelical Christian Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of the Saddleback Church in California, spoke about religious freedom and the role of religion in national politics in Gaston Hall on Tuesday.

The event was part of a series on religious freedom hosted by the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace

and World Affairs.

Warren’s Saddleback Church is one of the largest churches in the country with a congregation of 32,000. He is the author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” the best-selling hardcover book in American history.

Warren distinguished between freedom of religion as protected by the Constitution and freedom of worship, emphasizing that the Constitution guarantees religious liberty in all aspects of life, not just

“This freedom has to be allowed in every area of your life, not simply at the moment of worship.”

for prayer.

According to Warren, freedom of religion is delicate and must be defended, especially as religion’s presence in public life diminishes.

Warren added that he opposed the controversial Health and Human Services mandate on contraception coverage on religious freedom grounds.

Warren concluded by calling for interreligious cooperation and securing religious freedoms for all faiths.

friday, february 15, 2013

Candidates Vow to Address Diversity DIVERSITY, from A1 Corbin Johnson (SFS ’14), who is the only black candidate running in this race, said the biggest problem at Georgetown is racial division of student groups. Spencer Walsh (MSB ’14), who is running with Rob Silverstein (SFS ’14), agreed that there needs to be more interaction among student groups.

Presidential candidate Cannon Warren (SFS ’14), who is running with Andrew Logerfo (COL ’14), disagreed, emphasizing that students should be able to control the makeup of their groups.

“The main thing I would pursue is bias reporting and making the campus feel like a safe place to be who [you] are,” Warren said.

Logerfo, Nate Tisa (SFS ’13) and his running mate Adam Ramadan (SFS ’13), who work for Students of Georgetown, Inc., were asked to account for the company’s relatively small number of minority employees and to explain what efforts The Corp has made to become a more diverse organization.

Ramadan, who is half Latino, said that he was encouraged to apply to The Corp by his host at Hoya Saxa Weekend and has actively encouraged minority students to apply.

Logerfo countered that the proportion of minority students in The Corp is reflective of the university’s ethnic makeup.

“The numbers are very much in line with the university as a whole,” he said. “It’s fine if you see that as a problem, but I personally don’t see that as problem with the percentage of different ethnic backgrounds in The Corp. I think it’s more of a Georgetown-wide issue.”

Tisa acknowledged that bias exists within Corp hiring practices, which he said tend to reward those who come from more privileged backgrounds, and said his ticket would create a working group addressing socioeconomic differences that sometimes cause some students to feel excluded from more expensive college experiences, like Corp Gala and the Diplomatic Ball.

“The problem is The Corp, GUSA … and a lot of these institutions with [similar hiring practices] are looking for a specific type of person who reminds them of themselves,” Tisa said.

Candidates were also asked how they would increase communication and discussion of diversity and bias between white and minority students.

Silverstein proposed introducing additional diversity training for all students af-

ter New Student Orientation. Ramadan said he and Tisa would pair up student groups to perform service projects together.

“Rather than Hoya Blue and GUGS that already have a relationship and work together, let’s have Hoya Blue and Korean Student Association,” Ramadan said. “Put groups together that may be a bit of an uncomfortable situation because they were never in that before — the results after would last for so long.”

Corbin Johnson said her involvement in the Asian American Student Association, Vietnamese Student Association and the Latin American Student Association are examples of leaving her comfort zone — something she would like to promote among all students.

The candidates also addressed other kinds of diversity, including social class and sexual orientation.

Most candidates voiced support for gender-neutral housing, but Appelbaum said his ticket opposes the initiative because it is inconsistent with core university values.

“Maggie and I know we don’t support gender-neutral housing across the board in all locations because of Georgetown’s Jesuit values,” Appelbaum said. “That’s something we respect. Georgetown’s Jesuit values are something that’s rooted in the university for a very long time, and it supports the idea of what Georgetown does, what students do and the life they want students to live.”

When asked how they would promote observance of Black History Month in February, candidates invariably advocated for increasing institutional support. Corbin Johnson underscored the importance of encouraging involvement from the black community.

“It’s important to first make the black community aware of the Black History Month,” Corbin-Johnson said. “I’d like to engage the neighborhood in meeting with the Black Student Alliance, the NAACP, the Black House, to get those students involved.

And from there, we can take it to a larger level.”

Waller-Bey was satisfied with the Black House’s first foray into the GUSA elections.

“I was very impressed by the candidates.

They were asked some challenging questions and they did very well,” Waller-Bey said. “Some people went in with a candidate they were hoping to support, and their opinion may have been changed by the discussion.”

news

friday, february 15, 2013

New VP Plans Facilities Changes Emma Iannini Hoya Staff Writer

Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey, who assumed his position Jan. 7, aims in his new position to revamp his department and improve its reputation on campus.

“One of my goals is to effectively lead the staff … to a culture of continuous improvement,” Morey wrote in an email. “We must provide outstanding client service while doing the best job possible caring for the campus assets, in a sustainable way, with available resources. This requires collaboration with university and community stakeholders, effective prioritization and a laserlike focus on our core mission areas.”

Morey said his time working as superintendent of the Senate Office Buildings reinforced his belief that organizational management must delineate clear goals for its personnel to be effective.

“Organizational units must have a clear and singular mission focus,” Morey wrote. “While the Office of Planning and Facilities Management has numerous responsibilities, it is imperative we set clear expectations and priorities for each mission area and effectively communicate those expectations to our staff.”

Students often complain about facilities staff’s slow response time to work orders. Especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy last fall, students said facilities did not work quickly enough to address their problems.

“I’ve gotten emails before that tell me that my work order has been completed when nothing has actually gotten accomplished,” Katie Mangialardi (COL ’16) said. “Facilities definitely has some gaps in communication between its different divisions, and that creates a lot of the inconsistency that we students see from our perspective.”

Morey said that addressing

efficiency and response time to work orders are his primary goals. During his first two weeks on the job, Morey instructed his staff to work on the completion of a work-order management system.

“It will allow us leverage technology to better manage the execution of the thousands of work orders we receive each month and to set clear organization priorities,” Morey wrote.

Morey is on the way to achieving this goal, as facilities will begin to test Archibus, a workorder management system that will allow students and faculty members to track requests, this summer with the goal of campus-wide implementation by fall 2013.

The Georgetown University Student Association will collaborate with Morey in a working group on facilities, which GUSA President Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) said she hopes will provide a forum, for dialogue between students and facilities administrators.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor so that students can play a major role in facilities issues right away,” Gustafson said.

Morey added that facilities plans to develop a client satisfaction survey and hopes to use the results from this and other metrics to gauge how to improve the department’s relationship with the Georgetown community, especially as the university looks to to expand its footprint in Washington, D.C., with a new property of about 100 acres to house graduate programs.

“Moving forward, I envision two primary goals: delivering outstanding client services which exceed the expectations of our clients and implementing and supporting the development plans focused on a student-centric living and learning at main campus and strategic growth of the next 100 acres,” Morey wrote.

THE HOYA

A9

Candidates Discuss Feminism Molly DePippo Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University Student Association executive candidates tackled feminist issues and addressed shortcomings in university policies on new student-run blog “Feminists-at-Large” this week.

Most of the candidates focused on the high percentage of sexual assault cases that go unreported — approximately 96 percent according to the American Association of University Women — and entertained concrete ideas for change.

Vice presidential candidate Maggie Cleary (COL ’14) stressed the relationship between victim stigmatization and the high percentage of unreported cases each year.

“It’s never easy to start these discussions,” Cleary wrote. “There is too much fear and shame and stigmatization surrounding issues of violence and assault to ever make it easy.”

Cleary called for a safer environment on campus.

“Sexual assault is not even exclusively a university issue; it’s far bigger than that,” Cleary wrote. “However, so long as we are students in a university, we have a responsibility to create solutions for our community, solutions that will start here and expand.”

Overall, Cleary emphasized the universality of the sexual assault issue.

“This is not a women’s issue. This is not a men’s issue,” Cleary wrote. “It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, cisgendered, transgendered, liberal or conservative. Sexual assault has no left or right; it is always wrong and always hurtful both to the victim and the community.”

Presidential candidate Spencer Walsh (MSB ’14) and running mate Rob Silverstein (SFS ’14) also wrote about promoting awareness and facilitating incident reporting, citing plans to partner with Take Back the Night and GU Men Creating Change.

“Specifically, we know that increasing understanding of what consent really looks like among men and women across campus is key,” the pair wrote.

However, the candidates diverged on potential solutions in their posts.

Cleary proposed a GUSA committee to analyze the university’s sexual assault policy, which would recommend changes, promote awareness and im-

plement safe-space training sessions based on student input.

Shavonnia Corbin Johnson (SFS ’14) and running mate Joe Vandegriff (COL ’14), as well as Walsh and Silverstein, suggested a sexual assault risk reduction workshop during New Student Orientation similar to Pluralism in Action.

“The importance of planning such a program for the NSO period is to make sure that students are aware of exactly what is not tolerated at Georgetown and so they can be explicitly aware of their rights,” Corbin Johnson and Vandegriff wrote.

In addition to the sexual assault NSO presentation, Walsh and Silverstein wrote about the current Safe Spaces program, which trains peer leaders to handle bias-related incidents and sexual assaults.

“One of the main things we want people to take away [from our post] is visibility on campus,” Walsh said. “The second step after visibility is recognition from the university, and this is by far the hardest part because no university, especially Georgetown, wants to admit that sexual assault is a big issue.”

Corbin Johnson and Vandegriff also proposed concrete suggestions for changes to university policy regarding sexual assault. The candidates suggested removing the threat of alcohol violations for women if they report that they were assaulted while intoxicated.

“Our goal is to remove every disincentive for women to avoid reporting assault,” Corbin Johnson and Vandegriff wrote. “By preventing women from being written up if they choose to report that they were assaulted while intoxicated, we hope to remove some of the barriers to accurately caring for survivors of assault.”

Similarly, Corbin Johnson and Vandegriff wrote that they wanted to raise the punishment for drunken sexual assaulters from the punishment for underage drinking or disorderly conduct to the harsher sexual assault charge.

They stressed that the right to drink is a free choice for college students, but that students must take responsibility for choices make while under the influence.

“To that end, it does not seem acceptable to us that the gravity of the decision to sexually assault another person should be in any way lessened due to the consumption of alcohol,” Corbin

Johnson and Vandegriff said. While other candidates focused on sexual assault, Cannon Warren (SFS ’14) wrote more generally about women’s issues on campus, affirming gender equality as a basic necessity for society and expressing confusion about the necessity of feminism.

“In a society like ours, that proclaims all as equal, one might think that the natural state of affairs would be equality,” Warren wrote. “So then the word just kind of feels unnecessary, like a big ‘duh.’ But for some reason it’s not?

I don’t get it, nor do I get why other people aren’t just getting down with the program.”

Corbin Johnson and Vandegriff agreed, stressing the lack of women in student leadership positions on campus.

Warren proposed an additional screening process on CHARMS, the university’s freshmen roommate matching system. These “bigot boxes,” checkboxes asking if students were racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist or otherwise bigoted, would cause students to be automatically expelled once clicked.

“It sends a serious message that such behavior won’t be tolerated at Georgetown,” Warren wrote.

A post by Nate Tisa (SFS ’14) and Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) will be published Friday. According to Tisa, the post originally focused on the meaning of feminism for Tisa as a gay student, but after reading the other candidates’ posts, he decided to address the issue of feminism more directly.

“Here’s a problem, and here’s what we’re going to do to solve it,” Tisa said.

Tisa added that while feminism is important to him and Ramadan, it does not appear to be a large concern on campus.

“It’s kind of similar to the American dream. You have unalienable rights to do what you want to do,” Tisa said. “[But] there’s a community that really champions [feminist ideas], and then everyone else shies away from it.”

Blog co-founders Erin Riordan (COL ’15) and Kat Kelley (NHS ’14) stressed the importance engaging GUSA candidates in the dialogue about women’s issues.

“They’ve made a really great start at tackling feminist issues, especially sexual assault,” Kelley said. “There’s a lot of momentum around this issue right now. Yet, there’s still a really big need for [dialogue about] this issue.”

A10

Sports

THE HOYA

baseball

friday, february 15, 2013

raising the bar

Southern Trio Marks Madness Only Just Beginning First 2013 Opponents T TOURNEY, from A12

(.325 average in 2012), starting pitcher Neal Dennison (4-3 record) and closer Charles Steinman (3.05 ERA) — who have contributed significantly to the team in recent years. However, Georgetown will have to rely on relatively inexperienced players as well, including three freshmen — shortstop Curtiss Pomeroy and catchers Eric Webber and Nick Collins — who figure to get significant playing time as rookies.

“They’re going to have to be ready.

Ready or not, here they come,” Wilk said of that freshman group. “I think they’re ready, but they’re still freshmen. There will be some jitters, especially this weekend, and hopefully after this weekend they forget they’re freshmen.”

After this weekend’s games, the Blue and Gray will compete in two more tournaments before starting their first three-game series with Princeton on March 13 and opening the Big East season against Connecticut beginning on March 20.

Although his team has plenty of time left to get ready for the conference season, Wilk insisted that the Hoyas put a special emphasis on non-conference fixtures.

“We don’t look at preparing for the Big East season — our season is 55 games long,” Wilk said. “We used to put different value on conference games, but over time, we really felt like our team was approaching some games with more focus

than others, and that’s not the way to play this game. So we stopped differentiating between a conference game and a non-conference game, and we’ve had a little bit better results in our non-conference games [since].”

Prior to the season, the Hoyas were picked to finish 11th in the 12-team Big East, an expectation that they will surely hope to better. Wilk insisted that the team and coaching staff ignore these prognostications but at the same time understood their ranking in the context of the team’s performance in recent years as well as their departures from last season.

“Until we stop finishing in the bottom third of the conference every year, that [prediction] is fair,” Wilk said.

Ultimately, Wilk said that Georgetown’s goal this season, like every season, is to make the conference tournament. The Hoyas can begin to lay the groundwork for that aspiration with a successful trip down south this weekend.

“We’re trying to win every game we possibly can,” Wilk said. “We don’t have the mindset that this is a scrimmage — we’re not trying to play freshmen because it’s not a conference game. It all counts. So we’re going down there to try to win three, and like any other road trip we’ve had, if we win two, it’s a successful trip.”

Georgetown will face Wofford at 4 p.m. today, UNC Asheville at 12 p.m. Saturday and USC Upstate at 1 p.m. Sunday.

DOWN TO THE WIRE

Case of UCLA Star Boils Down to Race L

ast Thursday, UCLA defeated Wash- in sports. ington on a last-second shot from Hockey players just laughed at that last Larry Drew II, heroics that were fol- sentence. Almost every NHL team has at lowed by heralded freshman Bruin Sha- least one guy who has the job of “enforcbazz Muhammad — who was clapping er,” and possibly the biggest part of an and crying for the ball at the top of the enforcer’s job is fighting. One member key only to be ignored by Drew — refus- from each team stops play, takes off his ing to celebrate with his teammates. The helmet and gloves and throws haymakmedia’s postgame spin seemed simple ers until the referees — who typically give enough: Muhammad is a me-first brat. both players the full go-ahead to fight — Don’t buy into it. While it’s controver- finally decide to step in. The fans cheer sial and possibly uncomfortable, the big- loudly every time. But do you really think gest reason for Muhammad’s rap needs to the NHL and its fans would support fightbe mentioned: He’s gotten his unfortunate ing if the majority races of the NHL and public perception in large part because of NBA were switched? our country’s subconscious racial bias, My favorite athlete to defend is LeBron and the way that fans and media mem- James, and while “The Decision” was by bers judge athletes is not immune to it. no means my favorite hour of television, Muhammad didn’t run over to the was it really any worse than what Brett dogpile for many reasons, none of which Favre did summer after summer beginrationally point to him being selfish or ning in 2007? James may have held an a terrible teammate. He later stated that hour-long television show around his he didn’t jump on the pile because he choice, but Favre frequently delayed was honestly worried about his team- his yearly decision of whether to keep mates getting hurt, playing or retire until and he didn’t jump for long after players are joy because his team supposed to report to should have followed training camp. In 2008, up a terrible loss with when he wanted to a more convincing win. come back to Green Bay Because the win was so only to have the Packers ugly, Muhammad said, finally say, “Thanks, but he found himself more no thanks,” Favre took relieved than overjoyed. to television to comMuhammad’s replain about how the Tom Hoff sponse proves why the Packers weren’t protectcriticism surrounding ing his legacy properly. him is so baseless. He None of Muhammad’s From his living room. supposedly cares more The egotistical nature reasons for not about himself than the of his TV interview far team, but his first rethat of James’; celebrating point to exceeded action was about how James never criticized his team’s level of play him as being selfish. anyone, and he even needed to improve. He donated the money he also stated, “That was a earned from “The Debig-time shot and we’re all so happy that cision” to the Boys and Girls Clubs of we won the game” and that he “knew America. But James — like Muhammad [Drew’s shot] was going to be good” — is the self-centered one.

— the types of comments that many How he is selfish, exactly, I have no idea. sportswriters would otherwise use to Like most people, I do believe that our demonstrate a player’s leadership and country has made great strides in terms confidence in his teammates. of race. After all, we just re-elected a black In any case, think of how often the man from the South Side of Chicago who best player on a team has been lauded smoked weed as a teenager and met his for “wanting the last shot” because of father just once after age three. He defeathis ultra-competitiveness. Larry Bird, ed a pro-business, pro-family values white possibly the best white basketball player man who looks like he was designed in a of all time, said that he always demand- laboratory. ed the last shot either because he was on Cases like Obama’s, though, don’t fire or because he was cold and due to fi- prove that racism is gone, only that we nally hit one, which is basketball super- need to be more specific about the bias star language for “Give me the ball and that we are talking about. I, for one, view get out of my way.” Now, Shabazz Mu- racism in two different ways: conscious hammad is no Larry Bird, but neither is and subconscious. Both are huge probLarry Drew II, and the clearly superior lems in our country, but the latter is actuMuhammad was justified in calling for ally far more detrimental in the America the ball. And yet that mindset makes that we live in today.

Muhammad the villain.

Sports are a part of our culture just as Of course, I wouldn’t be writing this much as books, movies, shows or anycolumn if Shabazz Muhammad were thing else, which means that they are the only example of how sports fans and inevitably exposed to any major cultural writers spend far too much time looking problem that we face. Just ask Shabazz through the lens of race. The examples Muhammad. are easier to find than you might think.

If you throw a punch in an NBA game, Tom Hoff is a sophomore in the you get a lengthy suspension, as well as a McDonough School of Business. lifetime “bad character” label, as obvious- DOWN TO THE WIRE appears every ly there is no place for fighting anywhere Friday.

here were six minutes left.

I was sitting in my dorm, procrastinating, as usual. Swamped by work, I needed a distraction. Better yet, I needed an escape. I flicked over to ESPN. I saw Ohio State and Michigan were locked in another reiteration of their timeless rivalry, this time on the hardwood. Those six minutes were all that remained in the contest. I debated — was it even worth getting invested in the game? There were only 360 seconds left, and I really needed to get back to studying. What could possibly happen in the game? On a hunch, though, I decided to watch.

What ended up happening was a whole host of things. Aaron Craft happened. Deshaun Thomas happened.

Trey Burke happened. Tim Hardaway Jr. happened.

But really, all those things were just a part of something greater, pieces to what might be the most consistently entertaining puzzle in sports.

What happened out there was simple. College basketball happened.

Those ridiculous final six minutes were classic college basketball — dunks and threes, tip-ins and crazy bounces.

It was an up and down affair, with the teams matching each other play for play. The Buckeyes were propelled down the stretch by Craft’s smothering defense and a clutch three-pointer from Thomas, only to be met with “Anything you can do, I can do better” exclamations from the Wolverines’ Burke, Hardaway and Glenn Robinson III. Equally as impressive were the contributions from the superstars’ unheralded teammates. OSU’s LaQuinton Ross nailed a big-time jumper with less than two minutes to go to tie the game, doing his best to keep up with the seven points recorded in the final six minutes by unsung providers Nik Stauskas and Mitch McGary of Michigan.

So, yes. Those six minutes were definitely worth my time.

Then it went another five, of course.

Ross’ jumper brought the game to overtime, which threatened to be a ho-

hum conclusion to the thriller. Then Burke and Craft got loose. The two put on a clinic in the final minute, a backand-forth display of defense that was worth the price of admission alone.

After Craft swiped the ball from Burke on one end of the court, Michigan’s point guard hustled all the way back, forced the ball out of bounds and, on the next OSU possession, blocked Craft to seal the game for the Wolverines — or so I thought. After a missed free throw from Michigan, the Buckeyes were gifted a final possession to

Peter Barston

What happened in Ohio State-Michigan was simple. College basketball happened. tie the game, with Craft driving the length of floor only to be rejected again — this time, by Hardaway Jr. at the buzzer. Game, set, match.

Just another instant classic in college basketball.

The game, of which I saw just 11 minutes, was everything that makes college basketball so entertaining.

Big moments. Passion. Hustle. Heroics. The bitter rivals answered one another, shot for shot, until the clock showed double zeroes for the second time. There would be no topping that one, I thought to myself — certainly not for the rest of the regular season.

That sentiment lasted for all of three days. Because then I saw Louisville play Notre Dame.

The longest regular season game in Big East history is still mind-boggling

almost a week later. It took five overtimes for the Fighting Irish to pull away from the Cardinals. Five bonus rounds of basketball. If those five added minutes of Ohio State-Michigan were well worth it, then the twentyfive extra we got from the slugfest on Saturday night were a gift from the heavens.

No one is saying it was a pretty finish. It was a no-name show, no doubt.

Garrick Sherman — who had played a total of three minutes in the Fighting Irish’s previous three games — was the unquestioned star of the quintet of overtime frames, scoring 17 points and adding six rebounds. Those additional rounds of basketball were as much about big mistakes as they were about big plays. The two nationally ranked teams combined for a sloppy, fundamentally unsound finale.

Those overtimes were college basketball, though. They were the mustsee-TV, eyes-glued, don’t-you-darechange-the-channel moments that we have come to expect.

And here’s the craziest thing of them all: There will be more of Notre Dame vs. Louisville. There will be more of Ohio State vs. Michigan. College basketball is only going to get better.

Conference tournaments are on deck, due to start in less than a month.

Then, it’s on to the most anticipated playoffs in any sport: March Madness.

68 teams enter. Sheer, utter, pure madness ensues. One team exits as champion, confetti raining down, “One Shining Moment” playing as they cut down the nets.

The shockers, the thrillers and the nail biters we have seen already this year? Only a warm up. It’s college basketball, after all. It’s all about the unpredictable, the nutty, the “Did you see that!?”

Buckle up. You better believe it: College basketball only gets better from here on out.

Peter Barston is a freshman in the McDonough School of Business. RAISING THE BAR appears every Friday.

men’s lacrosse

Casey-LedAttackReadyforAction LAFAYETTE, from A12 Neither head coach was present for last season’s meeting between the two programs, when the Hoyas declawed the Leopards for an 8-5 road victory.

Along with Warne’s debut, Saturday will mark the first appearance for Jim Rogalski on the sidelines for the Maroon and White. Lafayette does return an experienced roster, however, with eight starters and 25 letter-winners returning to this year’s squad.

“We’re very experienced on the defensive side of the ball,” Rogalski said in a release from the Lafayette Athletic Department. “As the guys play together and begin to gel, I think we could have a pretty solid unit.”

Conversely, Georgetown takes the field with a relatively youthful look, having lost 16 seniors over the off-

season. But that’s not to say that the Hoyas’ returning corps is without talent; three members of the Blue and Gray senior class were named to the all-Big East Preseason Team, including attackman Brian Casey, midfielder Dan McKinney and defender Chris Nourse.

“I’m glad to see three of our hardest-working guys earn the preseason acknowledgement,” Warne told guhoyas.com. “Brian, Dan and Chris have worked very hard and have shown good leadership and are deserving of the recognition.”

Casey, who switched mid-season from midfield to attack in 2012, led the Hoyas last year with 35 points on 20 goals and 15 assists. Casey will compete on the Hilltop this spring before trying his luck in the pros with Major League Lacrosse’s Charlotte Hounds.

“Being selected in the Major League Lacrosse draft is an honor, and I could not be more excited for the opportunity in the future,” Casey told guhoyas. com. “There is still a lot of lacrosse to be played at Georgetown this spring.”

McKinney finished with 13 goals and six assists in 2012, while Nourse was third in the Big East last season with 1.62 turnovers forced per game.

Returning senior Zac Guy will also be a threat on the Hoyas attack, having recorded 29 points last year, a tally that includes two goals against Lafayette.

The Hoyas begin the season with the NCAA’s No. 23 RPI and unranked in both the USILA and Inside Lacrosse polls.

Face-off against the Leopards is set for noon tomorrow on MultiSport Facility.

track

Hopeful Hoyas Take on Big East’s Patrick Musgrave Hoya Staff Writer

After an indoor regular season of fast times and marked improvements, Georgetown track and field will head to Geneva, Ohio, this weekend to start its postseason at the Big East Indoor Championships.

The Hoya women — defending conference indoor champions — will be looking to grab a second consecutive title.

“Our sweet spot in this meet are the events from the 500 meters up through the 3000,” Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Patrick Henner said. “We’ve got a great middle distance group on the women’s side, one of the best in the country.

So the key battle is going to be scoring points in the middle distance areas against schools like Villanova and Notre Dame.”

Hoya middle distance has already been making some definite noise on the national scene this indoor season.

Senior Rachel Schneider has led the charge, posting several fast marks in the mile as well as the 1000m run.

Schneider will be running the 1000m individually this weekend, an event in which she holds the best time in the Big East at 2:43.34.

The women’s 1000 will be important to the overall team picture, as two Villanova athletes are right behind

Schneider on the performance list, with Georgetown junior Chelsea Cox in fourth. If Schneider can pull out the victory and another Georgetown athlete can beat the two Villanova runners — or at least split them up — it would result in much-needed points in a meet that could end up being very close.

The sprinting department is another potential source of major points for the Blue and Gray. Junior Deseree King and senior Tenille Stoudenmire will be looking to provide a one-two punch in the mid- to longer-length sprinting events. King is slated to race in the 500, where she is atop the Big East time standings. The closest Villanova athlete, meanwhile, is seeded only fifth, meaning that this could be an event in which significant gains are made against the Wildcats.

If she can exceed expectations, Stoudenmire could also make a vital contribution to the team score in the 200m, where she is seeded eighth.

“One of the issues that we have this year is that while we’re really strong on a national level, so is the rest of the Big East,” Henner said. “Teams like Villanova, Notre Dame and Providence are all very strong nationally, so it will all be a matter of how the points get divvied up in the end between the powerhouses.”

The men’s side is likewise aiming for a high finish this weekend, as sev-

eral athletes are rested and well set up to run season bests.

In addition to running a leg in the crucial distance medley relay. senior Andrew Springer — coming off his 13:51 5000m performance last weekend — will drop down to the 3000m this weekend. In Springer’s 5000m absence, graduate student Mark Dennin will be taking over front-running duties. Dennin posted a 13:54 5000m last weekend, a time that currently places him in second in the Big East.

Dennin may also run the 3000m with Springer, making that one more race that Georgetown will be especially keying in on when looking for points this weekend.

Another key performer for the Hoyas will be junior Eghosa Aghayere in the triple jump. Aghayere is seeded third, about 10 inches behind the top seed, Rutgers senior Kevin Bostick. If Aghayere jumps well, he could score a lot of points in comparison to other schools in contention for the overall title such as Notre Dame and Connecticut, which do not have as strong athletes in Aghayere’s event.

“I’m excited for this meet — it’s at a great facility, and we have some great competition. We’re not going to worry about times as much, because it’s all about placing for points in this meet, but the atmosphere could lead to some pretty hot times,” Henner said.

friDAY, February 15, 2013

sports

THE HOYA

men’s basketball

TENNIS

Hoyas Prepare for Tough Road Test Against Bearcats come as a result of their own shortcomings, and defense, rebounding and leadership pressure still adds to the effect. “But at the will be three points of emphasis this week, end of the day, everybody on this team has according to Thompson III. “A lot of times, with all the exposure we played in big games before.”

Friday certainly promises to be another get … you forget that this is an academic inone — arguably Georgetown’s toughest road stitution,” he said. “You forget that most of test yet — and any Hoya success will have to my job is to try to get these guys to walk out of here as men.” come along with good work on the glass.

As one of the only two upperclassmen “You have to rebound against them,” Head Coach John Thompson III said of on the team, Starks has embraced that the Bearcats. “They’re one of the better re- maturation process and has developed as bounding teams in the nation. They do a a true team leader along the way. It’s been good job of limiting you to one shot but get- a tough and gradual process for the Maryland native — whose numbers have imting multiple shots themselves.”

Part of that equation lies in the hands of proved dramatically since the suspension sophomore center Mikael Hopkins, whose of sophomore forward Greg Whittington nine rebounds against Marquette were — but ultimately one that Starks believes essential in Georgetown’s win. Over the is necessary for the overall improvement of past three games, Hopkins has noticeably his game and the team’s success.

“I had to learn how to play without the stepped up his offensive game as well, averbasketball,” Starks said, “and that’s been a aging more than nine points per game.

“On the offensive end, Coach has always great learning experience for me.”

But nobody’s growth in maturity has been telling me to get my teammates the ball and don’t look for shots myself, and the been more evident than that of sophomore shots are [going to] come,” Hopkins said. forward Otto Porter Jr., whose meteoric rise from a small town in Mis“And that’s what has been souri to the national stage happening.” “[Porter Jr.] has the at Georgetown continues Still, Thompson III is to gain national attention. looking for smarter play ability to take over For Thompson III, Porter out of his starting fivea game even if he Jr.’s brilliance is more man. than anything rooted in “He has played better scores just six points his simple ability to conthe past couple games, sistently win games at a but he still could play that game.” high level. better than he has been “Otto has the ability to playing,” Thompson III John thompson III Men’s Basketball Head Coach take over games because said. “He needs to focus he’s going to get that reon rebounding, defending [and] running hard … and the offense will bound,” Thompson III said. “He has the ability to take over a game even if he scores just fall into place.”

Georgetown also needs to tighten up on six points that game.”

Junior forward Nate Lubick echoed his the defensive end. While the Hoyas forced 19 Marquette turnovers Monday night, they coach’s thoughts and expanded on the also allowed the Golden Eagles to shoot leadership that Porter Jr. has provided to an 43.5 percent from the field — the first time extremely young Georgetown team.

“That’s what’s made this team pretty spein eight games that they’ve allowed an opcial,” Lubick said. “We have young guys who ponent to shoot better than 40 percent.

“A lot of closeouts weren’t as good as see the way Otto works every day while becoach wanted,” freshman guard D’Vauntes ing somebody who’s nationally recognized, Smith-Rivera said. “But we’ve just got to and I think that’s been key in having some young guys step up.” move on and get ready for [Cincinnati].”

Georgetown needs to fight off any intimiKnowing where all the scorers are on the court will be important for Georgetown, dation factor that a Big East road game will as the Bearcats rely on solid spacing and surely provide in order to extend its winsmart passes to put themselves in good po- ning streak to seven games. Friday promises sitions to convert. The definite focal point to be a low-scoring grind, as both squads is Cincinnati’s potent backcourt, which pride themselves on solid defense and physconsists of junior Sean Kilpatrick — one of ical play.

But just because both teams tout sound the best pure scorers in the Big East — and senior Cashmere Wright, the veteran leader defense over flashy offense doesn’t make the games any less exhilarating, according of the team.

“They do a very good job of getting the to Thompson III. “I don’t think that the level of play is ball to their offensive players where they’re good,” Thompson III said. “For Kilpatrick, down,” he said. “Is scoring down? Yes. Is defense better? Yes. It depends on what you apeverywhere is good for him.”

Thompson III’s preparations will be preciate when you watch the game. … Just at least as much about his own players, because scoring has gone down, it doesn’t though, as they will be about Cincinnati. mean the game is any less exciting.”

Tip-off is slated for 9 p.m.

Most of the Hoyas’ losses this year have

A11

CINCY, from A12

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS GRIVAS/THE HOYA

Women’s tennis captain Vicky Sekely easily clinched a singles point when her opponent retired, but it was solid doubles play that brought the Hoyas to a fifth straight victory.

Hamlin Seals Comeback Tim Eldridge Hoya Staff Writer

Both the men and women’s tennis teams were in action in the City of Brotherly Love on Wednesday, as the women’s team faced off against Temple (1-6) while the men traveled to Philadelphia to take on Penn (3-1).

The women’s team (5-1) began its matchup against the Owls with strong doubles play, as freshman Taylor Perz and graduate student Liz Hamlin — who have turned into a formidable duo — opened with a win on Court Three. Sophie Panarese and junior Madeline Jaeger faced a tough test on Court Two, but they ultimately managed to clinch the doubles point with a dramatic win in a tiebreaker.

Head Coach Gordie Ernst said that the unusual pairing of a freshman and a graduate student in Perz and Hamlin has paid dividends for the Hoyas.

“That was the point of it, to take the freshman who didn’t have a lot of experience in doubles and put her with a girl who really gets doubles,” Ernst explained, crediting the experience of Hamlin with helping bring Perz up to speed. “It takes a while for doubles teams to get to know each other, and having Liz out there, she has the talent to control a doubles court.”

After the pairs’ win, senior captain Vicky Sekely then gained a quick point on singles Court One when the player from Temple was forced to retire. Temple fought

back, however, and managed to win the next two matches on Courts Three and Five to level the match at 2-2. Panarese won her match to put the Blue and Gray in winning position, and Hamlin clinched it for Georgetown by battling back from a 5-2 deficit in the third set.

“It was definitely the Liz Hamlin show. The new expression we have is ‘pull a Hammy,’” Ernst said. “To pull a Hammy means to fight back when you’re way down and win.”

It’s not just Hamlin that’s been executing her namesake comeback, though, as many different players have thus far shown themselves capable of rising to the occasion when the team needs them. Ernst believes this versatility has been the key to Georgetown’s recent success.

“The amazing thing about this team is you never know from one day to the next who is going to step up and help the team win,” he said. “That’s the way it’s been for five wins in a row, where someone new has been the hero.”

The 4-2 win marked the fifth straight win for the Blue and Gray, and they’re hoping to be able to ride that streak into New York City next week, where they have a dual match with Big East rivals St. Johns and USF. Closing out matches has been difficult for the men’s team (0-5) all year, and Wednesday’s match proved no different, as Georgetown fell 4-3 to Penn.

Ernst had earlier marked the Penn match as an opportu-

nity for the Georgetown men to get their first win against an Ivy League team, and they indeed seemed headed in that direction after winning three of the first four points.

The pairings of senior captain Charlie Caris with junior Casey Distaso and graduate student Reese Milner with freshman Danny Khanin locked up the doubles point for Georgetown to start off the match. The Blue and Gray proceeded to win two of the first three singles points, courtesy of Milner and Distaso. Ernst said the Hoyas felt like the match was theirs when they went up early.

“We start off the singles [and] we win the first sets at three, five and six singles, so now it’s like, ‘We’re rolling,’” he said.

After falling behind 3-1, though, the Quakers came roaring back, eventually winning the match 4-3. In the process, the hosts quashed what would have been a particularly sweet win for Georgetown, against whom they have won 23 consecutive matches.

Even with the loss, Ernst still believes the result shows that his team is on the right track.

“We had every right to win the Penn men’s match, and we lost it. Sometimes that’s the way sports go — they don’t make sense,” Ernst said.

Ernst says the men’s team is still confident, and he believes they will be ready to go next weekend when they visit Connecticut on Friday, before returning to Georgetown for a home match against Richmond Saturday.

women’s basketball

Rodgers Limited in Loss ORANGE, from A12 half, Vitalis tied the game at 25 with a put-back off of a Rodgers miss. Vitalis finished the game with 10 points and four rebounds.

“Dominique is really starting to come into her own,” Brown said of the freshman forward.

The Hoyas carried their momentum into the second half and with 17:26 remaining opened up a 35-27 lead on the Orange. But after a Syracuse timeout, the visitors collected themselves and started forcing Georgetown into turnovers and tough shots.

Syracuse’s revitalized defensive focus led to easy, open looks in transition, and before Georgetown knew it, its eightpoint advantage had turned into a seven-point deficit.

“I kind of feel like we beat ourselves this time,” Wilson said. “I think we definitely were capable of beating them, [but] we just made these little mistakes over and over and over again that were killing us in the second half.”

The Blue and Gray didn’t at all lie down, though, and, with 44 seconds remaining in the game, cut the Orange lead to just four. The Hoyas were then forced to foul in order to extend the game, but Syracuse countered with solid free throw shooting down the stretch to put the game out of

FILE PHOTO: KAYLA NOGUCHI/THE HOYA

Freshman guard Katie McCormick contributed 14 points and seven rebounds in the Hoyas’ loss to Syracuse on Tuesday. reach and walk away with the 69-60 victory.

“I think it was the little things that we didn’t do that [lost us] the game,” Vitalis said.

“Yeah, they had a couple of runs, but so did we. We just can’t down ourselves. We have to keep pushing. I think we played hard — we just have to pull it out in the end.”

Vitalis led the way for Georgetown, posting 15 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Freshman guard Katie McCormick was second in scoring with 14 points, while Wilson

tallied 12 points and eight boards.

Rodgers, limited by her fouls, was held in check by the Orange and managed just eight points on 1-of-12 shooting.

“Sugar does so much for us, [but] other people need to step up,” Wilson said. “This is just our responsibility to step up when she isn’t having a great night.”

Georgetown will next take on Villanova on Saturday at McDonough Arena. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.

SPORTS

MEN’S LACROSSE Hoyas (0-0) vs. Lafayette (0-0) Saturday, noon MultiSport Facility

FRIDAY, FEBR UARY 15, 2013

DOWN TO THE WIRE UCLA’s Muhammad is being villified, but the true reasons for it aren’t so clear.

See A10

TALKING POINTS

“

Until we stop finishing in the bottom third ... that prediction is fair.

4 ”

Baseball Head Coach Pete Wilk

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

CURRAN

NUMBERS GAME

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Porter Jr. Fouls Allow No. 23 Frees GU ’Cuse to Slip Away From Past CAROLYN MAGUIRE Hoya Staff Writer

With Syracuse’s loss to Connecticut last night, Georgetown’s long ascent to the top of the Big East standings was finally realized; at 8-3, the Hoyas are tied with their archrivals for the No. 1 spot in their last year in the Big East together.

And yet the prevailing mood of Hoya nation isn’t the brashness one might expect from fans that have watched their team go on its second six-game tear of the year, taking out three ranked opponents in the process and vaulting itself into the national top 15. Instead, we see a cautiously optimistic outlook emerging — a timid acknowledgment that this team might be the real deal, rendered all but silent by the fear that any open display of confidence will trigger the inevitable late-season collapse.

You can’t blame the Georgetown faithful for this outlook; the Hoyas’ penchant for inexplicable breakdowns is well documented and has colored the fan experience of virtually every current undergrad.

But this year could be different.

It’s not that this team is any more talented than the late-season disappointments of recent years. The modern Hoyas have no pure scorer of Austin Freeman’s caliber, no big man who belongs in the same discussion as Greg Monroe. If anything, the current Georgetown squad looks comparatively weak on paper.

In years past, the very real prospect of an off night from Monroe, Freeman or Jason Clark sent chills to the core of every die-hard fan, and things

With 6:17 left on Tuesday and with senior shooting guard Sugar Rodgers on the bench in foul trouble, Syracuse freshman Brianna Butler drained a three to put her team up 10 at McDonough Arena — effectively killing any hopes the Georgetown women’s basketball team had of upsetting its long-time rivals in the last regular-season meeting between the teams before

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS GRIVAS/THE HOYA

Senior center Sydney Wilson put up 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. aren’t necessarily any different this season. The Blue and Gray don’t have a dominant big or a high-volume wing scorer, but they have a superstar. And they might be more reliant on him than on any player in recent memory.

The difference, then? He doesn’t really “do” off nights.

Otto Porter Jr. has been an absolute force of nature in Big East play, averaging 17.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while shooting .500 from the field and .447 from three-point range, all good enough for top-six marks in the conference.

Even when the sophomore star starts slow, he’s bounced back and come up with a solid or even spectacular line. Last weekend at Rutgers, for example, he scored four points on 2-of-8 shooting in a mediocre first half but finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.

Porter Jr. is the first Hoya since Freeman to be seriously considered for the Big East player of the year award.

Unlike Freeman, he’s exceeded expectations, peaked at the right time and has the good fortune of playing in a national down year for dominant players. In the midst of a tumultuous season in which the No. 1 spot seems cursed, Porter Jr.‘s surge has made him the favorite for conference player of the year and in the running for the Wooden Award.

As I’ve written here before, many other, less well-known players deserve credit for the Hoyas’ resurrection after an underwhelming start to conference play. But the biggest difference between this year’s team and the flameouts of the past is the consistently spectacular — and spectacularly consistent — play of Otto Porter Jr.

PAT CURRAN is a junior in the College and a former sports editor of The Hoya.

The number of consecutive wins Cincinnati has over Georgetown, a streak that spans three seasons.

Syracuse departs for the ACC. The Hoyas (13-11, 4-7 Big East), coming off of a heartbreaking overtime loss to St. John’s on Saturday, ultimately fell to No. 23 Syracuse (20-3, 8-2 Big East) 69-60, despite leading by as many as eight points in the second half.

“It’s Syracuse. It’s GeorgetownSyracuse. You don’t have to say anything,” Head Coach Keith Brown said. “[Our players] are more disappointed in themselves than anything else. They came out and wanted to win the game.”

As the second half progressed, the Blue and Gray got into foul trouble and put Syracuse into the bonus early. In the end, this allowed the Orange to not only crawl back into the game but also to extend their lead. “[Syracuse] went to the line 33 times. Any time a team gets into the bonus first or early, they have the opportunity to score every time down the court,” Brown said. “So we have to do a better job showing the referees that we are attacking the rim. Because if we do that and we both get into the bonus, that is when the game gets closer.”

But Georgetown did hang tough with Syracuse for a majority of Tuesday night’s contest. After struggling early in the first half to break the Orange’s full-court press, the Hoyas — sparked by strong post play from senior center Sydney Wilson and Big East rookie of the week Dominique Vitalis — pulled back within two with 10:57 left.

Throughout the rest of the first half, the Blue and Gray continued to dominate the Orange inside, as their interior advantage was key to keeping them in the game.

With six seconds remaining in the

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS GRIVAS/THE HOYA

Sophomore guard Jabril Trawick will be counted on to help cool off Cincinnati’s potent backcourt of Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright.

GU Targets Road Battle to End Skid ASHWIN WADEKAR Hoya Staff Writer

Nothing frustrates Vegas oddsmakers more than a battle of streaks.

Coming off a resounding 6355 victory over Marquette, No. 15 Georgetown (18-4, 8-3 Big East) has now won six in a row, but the team has also dropped four straight across three years to Friday night’s opponent, Cincinnati.

The Bearcats (19-6, 7-5 Big East) are hoping to add to that streak of

See ORANGE, A11

Hoya domination at their home court of Fifth Third Arena, which may well act as a sixth man in what is likely to be a gritty weekend matchup.

Junior guard Markel Starks, however, noted that he wouldn’t be surprised if the hosts’ advantage was even bigger than that.

“Once the crowd gets into it, it’s almost like it’s 100 people out there on the court,” Starks said, explaining that Cincinnati’s defensive See CINCY, A11

MEN’S LACROSSE

Lafayette First Up as Warne Begins Tenure BENO PICCIANO Hoya Staff Writer

A year after losing 16 seniors to graduation, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team returns to action Saturday against Lafayette with a new look and a new coach.

Following the July decision of Dave Urick — the longtime face of the program and head coach of 23 years — to step down, the Hoyas will be led out onto MultiSport Facility tomorrow afternoon by debuting Head Coach Kevin Warne. A new addition to the Blue and Gray commu-

nity, Warne previously served as an assistant coach for two years at local rival Maryland, where he further developed his upstanding reputation as a top defensive strategist. After helping the Terrapins on their way to the NCAA championship game in each of his two seasons in College Park, Warne can only hope that his postseason charm can follow him down to the district come May. But the postseason currently stands oh-so-far away for a Georgetown unit that saw its season of middling success come to a close with the sounding of the buzzer at

its regular season finale last April.

The Hoyas finished a disappointing 7-6 overall with a 3-3 record in Big East competition despite prevailing in their final two games of the season.

A mere 48 hours after Valentine’s Day, this weekend’s date with Lafayette of the Patriot League could be just what the Blue and Gray need to start the 2013 campaign off in style.

The Leopards were an underwhelming 3-10 overall in 2012, with a dismal 1-6 record outside of Easton, Pa. See LAFAYETTE, A10

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Senior attack/midfielder Jason McFadden had 22 points in 2012.

BASEBALL

Standout Leeson, Hoyas Open Season in S.C. WILL EDMAN

Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS GRIVAS/THE HOYA

Senior outfielder and team leader Justin Leeson batted .325 last year.

After a long, hardworking offseason, the Georgetown baseball team is cautiously optimistic at the start of a new year. This weekend, the Hoyas head to Spartanburg, S.C., to kick off their 2013 campaign against Wofford, UNC Asheville and USC Upstate.

The Blue and Gray are coming off a 24-29 season in which their 1017 Big East record narrowly barred them from qualifying for the conference tournament. Since then, Head Coach Pete Wilk — now in his 14th season — has been working

tirelessly to revamp his squad and try to turn things around this year.

“When we got back in September, I thought we were going to be terrible. Our first three weeks of practice, we were terrible,” Wilk said. “But somehow we stopped the bleeding, turned it around and ended up with a very good fall. Winter’s been good, and in the spring, we did a lot with what we can do facility-wise. I think we’re as prepared as the weather has allowed us to be.”

The Hoyas will certainly be required to go through a tough transition process starting this weekend, due to the loss of several key graduates, including leading hitter

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shortstop Mike Garza (.393 batting average in 2012), outfielder Rand Ravnaas (.325) and pitching ace Will Harris (2.85 ERA).

“We had some quality players graduate last year, but it happens every year,” Wilk said. “In the first game, when I haven’t seen a baserunner come around third base for a while, then I will be hurting. How are we coping? Well, I guess we need some people to step up to fill those shoes.”

The candidates to emulate those graduates’ success include a trio of seniors — outfielder Justin Leeson See TOURNEY, A10