GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 93, No. 45, © 2012
tuesday, April 24, 2012
JUICED
COMMENTARY The Ryan budget plan violates America’s promise of opportunity for all.
GU stomped on ’Cuse’s senior night, salvaging hopes of a winning season. SPORTS, A10
CONDUCT Unlike other colleges’, GU’s honor code does not apply to social conduct.
Undergrad Research Expanding
Sarah Kaplan & Emma Hinchliffe Hoya Staff Writers
Hoya Staff Writer
See RESEARCH, A6
NEWS, A4
Professor Awarded Medal of Freedom
Matthew Strauss With admission to graduate programs becoming more and more selective, “undergraduate research” has become a new buzz phrase on college campuses, Georgetown’s included. The increasing role of research on campus has been especially evident this past month, as Georgetown has played host to three undergraduate research conferences in the past 10 days. The most recent of these was the 11th annual Carroll Round conference on international economics, which was held this weekend. The event featured 28 students who showcased 26 papers on topics ranging from international trade to education in the developing world. “[Participants] present their research in sessions that are modeled after professional-level academic conferences,” steering committee chair Katrina Koser (SFS ’12) said. “The whole goal is to foster scholarly innovation at the undergraduate level.” With the success of the Carroll Round series in mind, Jonathan Askonas (SFS ’13) co-founded the Walsh Exchange earlier this year. The conference debuted April 13-15. “To our knowledge, the Walsh Exchange is the first-ever undergrad research conference for international relations,” he said. The inaugural conference featured 14 presentations from students at six East Coast universities. Askonas believes the exchange will benefit both students and the university. “The Walsh Exchange will cement Georgetown as not only the place to learn the profession of international relations, but a place for undergrads to engage in meaningful research as well,” he said. Askonas also hopes that the quality of future conference presentations will attract up-and-coming professorial talent seeking undergraduate research assistants. “That’s the big dream,” he said. Despite the variety of presentation opportunities available to undergraduates,
NEWS, A5
OPINION, A3
SAFERIDES GUSA hopes to pay student drivers in a revamp of the shuttle service.
COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Remembered for his dynamic teaching style, professor Jan Karski will posthumously receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom later this spring.
President Barack Obama announced Monday that World War II Polish resistance fighter and Georgetown scholar Jan Karski (GRD ’52) will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom this spring. Karski served in the Polish underground during World War Two, reporting the atrocities committed during the Holocaust to the British and American governments. In 1944, Karski published his book, “Courier from Poland: The Story of a Secret State,” in an attempt to reveal the situation in Nazi-occupied Poland to the public. After the war, Karski moved to the United States and matriculated
at Georgetown, where he studied and taught for the next 40 years and received an honorary degree in 1983. He died in 2000. The Jan Karski U.S. Centennial Campaign was established in April 2011 to advocate for Karski to receive the Medal of Freedom in the leadup to his 100th birthday in 2014. Bob Billingsley (CAS ’68), who serves on the campaign’s steering committee, took Karski’s course on Eastern European government in 1966. “He chain-smoked cigarettes and never sat down. He never had notes,” Billingsley said. “He was a great teacher, very original and passionate about the issue … and [the] responsibility of freedom.” See KARSKI, A5
Tax Breaks Aim to Keep LivingSocial in District Laura Zhang
Special to The Hoya
Mayor Vincent Gray has proposed tax benefits as a means of ensuring that LivingSocial, an online daily discount provider co-founded by a Georgetown graduate, keeps its headquarters in D.C. after the company failed to make a profit last year. Amazon, which owns 31 percent of the company, reported in February that LivingSocial incurred a net loss of $558 million. Though the company has sold over 63 million daily deal vouchers since it was founded as Hungry Machine in 2007, it has yet to turn a profit. Last year, Groupon, LivingSocial’s largest competitor in the daily discount market, suffered a $308.1 million loss. D.C. officials worry that the financial strain of maintaining headquarters in the District could compel Liv-
ingSocial, which is one of the city’s biggest private employers, to move. The company’s co-founder and chief executive, Tim O’Shaughnessy (MSB ’04), told Gray that keeping LivingSocial in D.C. would be more expensive than pursuing growth elsewhere, according to an April 17 article in The Washington Post. “We’ll make a commitment to the District if the District will make a commitment to us,” he said. In response, Gray proposed the tax incentives that, pending approval by the Council of the District of Columbia, are forecasted to save LivingSocial up to $32.5 million in taxes over a five-year period, beginning in 2015. In turn, this would bring the District $133 million during the next 10 years from corporate income, personal income, taxation on hotel stays and other spending by LivingSocial.
GU DEGREE RECOGNIZES FIVE YEARS IN DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS
See LIVINGSOCIAL, A5
LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA
LivingSocial may soon employ hundreds of more D.C. residents as a condition of a tax break designed to keep the business in the District.
After Quiet Term, DC Students Speak Seeks Louder Voice Sarah Patrick
According to Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15), who is slated to be co-chair of the Georgetown chapter of DCSS next semester, student votes will be esDespite a muted presence on campus this se- pecially important this fall when Georgetown mester, the advocacy group D.C. Students Speak students will likely run for three positions on has been making strides toward increased stu- ANC 2E. dent representation in local politics. Across the District, DCSS has also focused According to Andrew Klemperer (SFS ’13), on protesting political decisions that affect DCSS co-chair, the Georgetown chapter of the students, such as the D.C. Residential Parking organization has been focused on encouraging Protection Act, a law that would repeal a special students to register to vote in local elections, vehicle licensing exception for students. supporting the university The new law, which in the 2010 Campus Plan dewould have required stubate and protesting the local “This semester has dents who live in D.C. and noise ordinance, which jails been a little more have a car to live in special or fines those who make an permit zones, register their “unreasonably loud noise” quiet than we wanted it cars in D.C., buy D.C. car between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. insurance and obtain D.C. to be.” During the last week of residency and tags, was not ANDREW KLEMPERER (SFS ‘13), February, the organization instituted in part because co-chair of the Georgetown chapter registered 250 students at DCSS chapters District-wide of D.C. Students Speak Georgetown, American Unisigned a petition in Decemversity, The Catholic Univerber. sity of America, The George Washington UniverThe petition, which was signed by over 600 sity and Howard University as D.C. voters. students, complained that many students have Describing the voter registration strategy as legitimate reasons to drive, such as commuta “dorm storm,” Klemperer emphasized the im- ing to work and tending to medical and family portance of having student representation in concerns and that legislation singling them out D.C. politics. was therefore unjust, . In addition, several DCSS “The reason that student opinions and inter- members testified in front of D.C. Council to opests are usually not represented, especially in pose the act. the local government like the [Advisory NeighKlemperer said that because the university borhood Commission], is because students don’t vote,” he said. See DCSS, A6 Hoya Staff Writer
ERICA WONG/THE HOYA
University President John J. DeGioia awarded D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson (SFS ’92, GRD ’07) an honorary doctorate at a ceremony in Gaston Hall Saturday. Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947
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