The Hoya: April 27, 2012

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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 93, No. 46, © 2012

friday, April 27, 2012

A LOOK BACK

From Burleith to Cairo, The Hoya recaps the year’s biggest stories.

GUSA Half of the executive staff holds ties to GU College Democrats.

LACROSSE The men hope to secure another winning season at home against Rutgers.

NEWS, A6

SPORTS, A12

SEE INSERT

GU Delays Pay Unequal Insurance Across Schools Changes Braden McDonald Hoya Staff Writer

University student health plans will not cover birth contol until fall 2013 Sarah Kaplan & Kelly Church Hoya Staff Writers

University President John J. DeGioia announced Thursday that Georgetown will take advantage of a one-year delay offered by the Obama administration before adding contraceptive coverage to its student health insurance policy. “After thoughtful and careful consideration, we will continue our current practice for contraceptive coverage in our student health insurance for the coming year, as allowed for under the current rules,” DeGioia wrote in an email to members of the Georgetown community. The university’s policy will have to implement coverage for contraceptives by fall 2013 under the regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. In the weeks prior to his decision, numerous student and university groups on both sides of the issue submitted letters to DeGioia requesting that he either delay or immediately implement coverage for contraceptives. Most recently, 780 students from the Georgetown University Law Center called on the university not to take advantage of the one-year grace period. DeGioia acknowledged these requests in his announcement. “I am grateful for the respectful ways in which you have shared your opinions,” he wrote. “I hope this is helpful in clarifying a matter of concern to many of you.” H*yas for Choice President Kelsey Warrick (COL ’14) said the group plans to submit a petition from undergraduates asking DeGioia to change his stance. “Obviously, H*yas for Choice is upset with President DeGioia’s decision,” she said. “The health and safety of the Georgetown community is at stake by deciding to defer.” See CONTRACEPTIVES, A7

Despite statistics released by the American Association of University Professors earlier this month placing Georgetown faculty among the top-paid professors in the country, professors and administrators agree that the university’s faculty compensation policies are in need of improvement. According to Provost James O’Donnell, salaries for arts and sciences faculty lag behind those of professors in the McDonough School of Business and the Georgetown University Law Center, and statistics like those from the AAUP distort what Georgetown actually pays its faculty. The statistics, which were featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2012 Faculty Salary Survey, suggest that full professors at Georgetown will make, on average, $167,100 this academic year, representing an increase of 5 percent since last year and making See SALARIES, A5

COVERAGE The Hoya will return to newsstands with its graduation issue May 18.

2010 Average Faculty Salaries $160,000

Salaries for arts and sciences

$140,000 $120,000

Salaries for all professors

$100,000 $80,000

Georgetown arts and sciences professor data from the Consortium on Financing Higher Education Institutional Profiles Project Faculty Salary Study for 2009-2010

$60,000 $40,000

Georgetown total professor data from the American Association of University Professors

$20,000

Full Professors

Associate Professors

Assistant Professors NIKITA BULEY/THE HOYA

Salaries for arts and sciences professors at Georgetown are about $20,000 lower than the average, a disparity that administrators have only started to address in the past decade.

RYAN BUDGET SPEECH DRAWS STUDENT, FACULTY PROTEST

Disciplinary Committee Raises Burden of Proof Matthew Strauss Hoya Staff Writer

SARI FRANKEL/THE HOYA

Protesters unfurled a banner (bottom) during Rep. Paul Ryan’s speech (top). See story on A6.

Georgetown’s Disciplinary Review Committee passed a recommendation to raise the burden of proof for disciplinary responsibility to “clear and convincing evidence” in a meeting Thursday afternoon. The recommendation will now be considered by Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson. Current policies dictate that a student must be found responsible for a disciplinary violation if the adjudicator believes that he or she was “more likely than not” responsible. The new standard would require a higher level of certainty on the part of the adjudicator and would apply to all violations of the Code of Student Conduct except incidents of sexual assault, for which the U.S. Department of Education mandates a “more likely than not” burden of proof. “The current system is arbitrary, it’s ambiguous, it’s confusing and it doesn’t provide for equitable outcomes consistently,” student appointee to the DRC James Pickens (COL ’12) said. See PROOF, A8

Relay Fundraising Drops 30% Lawn Barricades Nixed Margaret Viator Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown University’s Relay For Life saw a 30 percent drop in fundraising during a year with dramatically decreased participation. The walkathon event last Friday raised $207,533, down from last

year’s profits of about $300,000 and a little more than half of the $400,000 raised in 2010. Participation in the fundraiser also declined. About 1,800 people attended the event at MultiSport Facility, and according to Co-Chair DJ Wise (COL ’13), there were between 500 and 1,500 participants

HANSKY SANTOS/THE HOYA

Participation in this year’s Relay declined to 1,800 from last year’s 3,000. Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947

on the field at any given time during the night. By comparison, over 3,000 people participated last year. Despite the drop in fundraising and participation, the event’s coordinators said that group morale and cause awareness remained high. “It looks like we were down in numbers, but in the ways that mattered the most, we made huge strides,” Co-Chair Ryan Muldoon (COL ’13) said. “In general, the committee members and those that attended the event were more intimately involved in the cause.” According to Muldoon, a larger group than usual remained at the event throughout the night this year. Wise added that many colleges and universities across the country have seen similar unexplainable decreases in fundraising and participation despite increased marketing throughout the year. Wise also pointed out that most Relay teams waited longer than usual to begin raising donations this year, and many did not launch their fundraising efforts until early April. “It did seem like the campus wasn’t reacting as much as they had in the past,” he said. See RELAY, A8 Published Tuesdays and Fridays

Following Public Outcry Sarah Patrick

conclusion that it was best to reorganize the day by removing the barricades,” Laverriere said. In a last-minute decision, the According to an email sent to stuGeorgetown Day Planning Committee dents late Monday night, the original announced Thursday night that Cop- security plan involved the enclosure ley Lawn will not be barricaded dur- of the Copley Lawn activity area with ing today’s Georgetown Day festivities. metal barricades so that Department The announcement, dubbed by of Public Safety officers, hired security the planning committee the “Copley guards, university administrators and Compromise,” came in response to student volunteers could ensure that widespread student no outside liquids backlash about the would be brought plan to cordon off “Whatever it might be, I into the space. the lawn. A Face- feel the emphasis should “I think it’s a book event created situation where Wednesday night be that we’re all together students work in light of the pro- on [Georgetown] Day.” c o n st r u c t i ve ly posed barricades with adminisurged students to CHRIS BUTTERFIELD (MSB ‘12), trators to get a Senior Class Committee Chair gather in protest at change done,” Leavey Esplanade Laverriere said. on Georgetown Day “I think over the and had over 1,600 confirmed attend- past few weeks, there’s been a lot of ees on Facebook as of late Thursday misinformation circulating, and it’s night. important to remember that withThe planning committee voiced out the planning committee, the day students’ concerns regarding the bar- would not be held.” ricades during a scheduled meeting Despite the change, alcoholic beverwith university administrators Thurs- ages are still not permitted in public day afternoon, according to George- parts of campus, and students found town Day Planning Committee mem- to be in possession of alcohol will be ber Greg Laverriere (COL ’12). See BARRICADES, A5 “Ultimately, the group came to the

Hoya Staff Writer

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