The Hoya: Oct. 7, 2011

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 93, No. 11, © 2011

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

SOUNDS OF THE FUTURE

ALL OF THE LIGHTS

Music leaders face the technological tidal wave’s impact on the industry at a GU conference.

The men’s soccer team beat American under the lights at MultiSport Facility Tuesday night.

GUIDE, G8

SPORTS, A12

Profits Dip Mid-Term, GUSA Executives Take Stock For Local Retailers UPASANA KAKU Hoya Staff Writer

Nearby shops see drop in profits as national chains move into the area ELIZABETH GARBITELLI Hoya Staff Writer

As more national retail brands move into the neighborhood, local small businesses are feeling the pressure.

According to Jim Bracco, executive director of the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the area has seen a 10 percent increase in chain store openings in recent months; this brand of retailer now occupies 40 percent of area storefronts.

Local bars and eateries are also suffering from the economic pinch. Saloun, a popular M Street bar known for its live music, will close its doors on Oct. 19.

Saloun’s general manager, Yasmine Afshar, cited high rents and a changing neighborhood as reasons for the close.

See BUSINESS, A5

Halfway done, Georgetown University Student Association President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Vice President Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) have yet to face many of their greatest challenges.

While Meaney and Laverriere say they have accomplished many of the goals that they campaigned on, they plan to focus the second half of their term on an attempt to alter major university policies that directly affect student life.

“Our difficult things still lie ahead,” Meaney said. “These are issues that come up year after year after year. The only way to really give students a chance to improve them is if a wide-scale, major, well-thoughtout, well-researched, well-argued campaign is centered around it. And that’s what we’re planning to do.”

Since being elected to their yearlong term last March, the pair said they focused on building up a strong staff and a good working relationship with the administration, all the while expanding services offered to students.

Laverriere said that one of their biggest successes has been the launch of the Student Advocacy Office, which was key to the campaign platform of James Pickens (COL ’12) and Ace Factor (COL ’12) when they

MEAGAN KELLY/THE HOYA

GUSA President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Vice President Greg Lavierriere (COL ’12) reflect on their progress so far. ran against Meaney and Laverriere last spring. Pickens and Factor are now co-directors of the office, which will provide guidance for students dealing with code of conduct violations.

Both Meaney and Laverriere identified Project Move-In, a program in which GUSA arranged for students, faculty and alumni to help new students arriving alone on campus, as one of the most memorable mo-

ments of their term.

“It was something that was a simple idea, but that you could argue has made the greatest difference on

See GUSA, A9

MPD Confiscates Five Students’ Fake IDs New Space Energizes Ministry SARAH KAPLAN Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: ALEJANDRO NEIRA FOR THE HOYA

Four students were arrested in front of Rhino Bar for fake IDs. A fifth was confronted by MPD outside campus last weekend.

Five Georgetown students have been arrested or confronted by the Metropolitan Police Department for the possession of false identification in the past two weeks.

At 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 25, four Georgetown students were arrested outside of Rhino Bar and Pumphouse on M Street, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

According to Dave Nelson, the manager at Rhino, the students tried to get into the bar but their IDs were rejected by the bouncers. Soon after, a man who Nelson believed to be an undercover cop confronted the students and made the arrest.

All of the students were detained while the incident was being filed; three were released shortly afterward, but one student who had a prior infraction was held in jail overnight at the Second District Station.

The students involved declined to comment on the incident.

See FAKES, A5

Holy Rood: A Cemetery With a Tell-Tale Heart JONATHAN GILLIS

inside and out. Fletcher, a 40-year resident of Glover Park, is the neighborhood’s unofficial historian. He Holy Rood Cemetery has all has spent the last 15 years combthe looks of a haunted graveyard. ing archives and indexes, and has Perched at the crest of a hill and compiled a thorough history of the held above Wisconsin Avenue by a entire neighborhood. Holy Rood, stone wall, the cemetery looks from however, has been a focal point of the street like the setting of an Ed- his research.

Sitting on his gar Allen Poe thrillfront porch on a er. It serves as a solcool Wednesday emn gatekeeper to “It’s a fascinating the neighborhood place. ... It’s not very morning, Fletcher of Glover Park. explains why the Inside, however, well understood by graveyard piqued Holy Rood is a trea- most people.” his interest. sure trove of Ameri“I started studycan history. Home CARLTON FLETCHER ing my neighborLocal historian hood to the remains of history in former slaves, Irish 1995, and almost and German immigrants and at immediately it became clear to least one veteran of the Revolu- me that the most historical, most tionary War, the graveyard is also, venerable part of our area was the strangely enough, the property of Holy Rood Cemetery,” he says. “It’s Georgetown University.

Carlton Fletcher knows Holy Rood See CEMETERY, A8 Hoya Staff Writer

Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-8350

MICHELLE CASSIDY/THE HOYA

Fallen tombstones at Holy Rood reflect the oft-overlooked cemetery’s long history, which in recent years has been marked by neglect.

Published Tuesdays and Fridays

The Jewish Chaplaincy fosters a community atmosphere on campus MATTHEW STRAUSS Special to The Hoya

As students rush around the corner toward the Leavey Center Starbucks and Cosi, they may notice that a once-deserted space has undergone a spiritual awakening.

Makóm, a new Jewish gathering area located along one of Leavey’s main thoroughfares, is a sign of wider changes at work for the Jewish Chaplaincy and Hillel. Just in time for the observance of Yom Kippur this weekend, Jewish students have seen an uptick in campus awareness and university support for their faith community.

“Many of my friends from home found it slightly odd that I was going to a Jesuit school, considering the fact that I am Jewish,” Randi Lawrence (SFS ’15) said. “But I have found the Jewish community here both very welcoming and surprisingly active. It is so comforting to see so many fellow students show up to Shabbat services each Friday — it makes me feel like I belong.”

Jewish Student Association CoPresident Samantha Sisskind (SFS ’12), who has been involved in Jewish student organizations since her freshman year, echoed this sentiment. “[The Jewish community] is a feeling of home within Georgetown,” she said. “It’s been very significant to my experience over the last several years.”

While the chaplaincy operated for many years out of a rented townhouse on 36th Street, the new, centrally located Makóm has already upped attendance at many JSA events, according to Sisskind.

See MINISTRY, A9

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

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EDITORIAL

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

THE VERDICT by The Editorial Board

A Hard First Half to Follow When Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) ran for the GUSA Executive last February, their platform was a mixed bag of large-scale projects and small improvements to everyday student life. But have they been digging deep enough?

The pair has shown it can execute. At the beginning of the academic year, we were pleased to see one Meaney-Laverriere brainchild — Project Move-In — help incoming students acclimate to campus. The duo reinstated the Collegiate Readership Program permanently and improved neighborhood relations by attending many Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E meetings. Transparency in the executive branch has improved, as its two heads have made an effort to advertise all of the cabinet positions to the entire student body and held office (“coffee”) hours. The executives also played a role in making the M Street shuttle a reality and have worked closely with the university as advocates for the 2010 Campus Plan.

Building upon their predecessors’ budding professional development programs, the pair subsidized the LSAT prep and designed a one-time seminar for students to learn more about Wall Street finance, set to take place after Thanksgiving. They even learned from their competition, implementing an initiative proposed by their one-time opponents, Ace Factor (COL ’12) and James Pickens (COL ’12), for a Student Advocacy Office that is set to launch in the near future.

But our executive branch’s leaders still have two major projects to tackle in the remaining half of their term. In an interview with The Hoya featured in today’s issue (“Mid-Term, GUSA Executives Take Stock,” A1), Laverriere and Meaney promised that a review of the Access to Benefits policy and Student Code of Con-

duct is on its way. The pair also plans to prepare a comprehensive report comparing student life at Georgetown with that of peer institutions. Additionally, their campaign website lays out tangible goals that would greatly improve campus life, even if they would take time to crank out. Among the proposals are a possible hot Grab ‘n’ Go option and a Hoya Housing Finder, a resource to help students coordinate housing switches around study abroad programs.

But any fans of the Meaney-Laverriere administration must take into account their predecessors’ progress at this same mark. Halfway through their first term, former GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) had already implemented most of the initiatives for which they are now remembered. Career Education Center reform, the certification of students as SafeRides drivers, the creation of the GUSA Fund and the founding of the Rosslyn Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle bus route all took place in those first few months.

What is concerning about the previous team’s time is that during their second term as GUSA executives, Angert and Kluger let their work come to a standstill. The initiatives that had not been touched by the midpoint of their first term — namely the protection of students from 61D noise violations issued

by MPD and the fostering of closer ties between professors and students — were never addressed.

With Meaney and Laverriere, the scene is different. They have four months left to keep active and achieve some crucial campaign objectives — and they have the legitimacy that comes with the tangible improvements they have already made.

By keeping an end-of-term slump at bay, this team may just be one to remember.

C C C C C

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Founded January 14, 1920

Student Center plans include a clublike food venue, a coffee shop, meeting rooms, dance studios, a gaming area and general lounge space. They also outline a large multi-purpose room for banquets, lectures, musical performances and other programmed events for undergraduate students. Yet the most tantalizing aspect of the sketched student canteen is the “seriously considered” prospect of a pub-like location, especially in the wake of our crushed hopes for the return of Healy Pub. It seems the university is finally planning to create a centralized space dedicated purely to the enrichment of student life. What’s more, New South is an ideal spot, located at the nexus of the front lawns, O’Donovan Hall and Lauinger Library.

Alongside the long-term processes of fixing the Leavey Center and renovating Lauinger Library over the next few decades, the university is making headway in improving undergraduate life on campus. While it is not a one-stop solution, the updated plans for the New South Student Center revealed Monday paint a vibrant picture of revitalized student life through the centralized space that we have all been waiting for.

Bieber’s Hoya Fever — Justin Bieber was spotted wearing a Georgetown Hoyas baseball hat with girlfriend Selena Gomez. Is his first and true love Jack the Bulldog?

Fandom for Fones — A new Android and iPhone app for Hoya athletics features live play-by-play, roster information, scores and much more.

Not in His Backyard — Mayor Gray described Georgetown students as a “creeping presence” in surrounding neighborhoods at the ANC 2E’s monthly meeting on Monday.

Get Your Beer Goggles Ready — Join the Capitol City Brewing Company on Oct. 8 to celebrate Oktoberfest with over 40 different brews at their Arlington, Va. location. See G16 in the guide for details.

Off the Web “New Minors: Finding Their Footing” Article posted Oct. 4, 2011 Comment posted Oct. 4, 2011 MSB 13: Great article. I would like to comment that MSB students pay for prints in their tuition, so it’s not like we are getting anything special by getting to print there (except convenience). And it’s hard for us to get into our own classes (the popular ones) so I don’t see why minors should be given equal privileges.

“Mayor Gray Slams Campus Plan” Article posted Oct. 4, 2011 Comment posted Oct. 4, 2011 Anonymous: I hope some GU Law students help the students file a Voting Rights Act claim against the ANC if Evans’ plan goes through. Shove some more litigation down these [not-in-my-back-yard] throats. “That’s the democratic process at work,” — Gray. What a joke. This guy is as above the table and transparent as a third world dictator.

Comment posted Oct. 5, 2011 Dep. Alum: Will Georgetown ever actually stand up for itself? I was blown away by this neighborhood-university dynamic as a student a few years ago, and I remain blown away by it as an alum. Doesn’t anyone within the school (and here, I’m looking specifically at the administration — here is one area where they should actually bring to bear all their bureaucracy and red tape and lawyers) have the testicular fortitude to stand up and say, essentially, “Hey, guess what, we’re the big guy in town, not you; we were here before you and we’ll be here after you; we’re the reason this area has jobs; and guess what, we’re going to do what we want: if you don’t like it, bring it.”

Although that sounds hyperbolic, believe it or not, there was a time when schools would interact like that with their environs, at least when they were actively strategically stymied as Georgetown is by the ANC and related vested interests. But that time is, apparently, dead.

“A Voice of Reason” Article posted Oct. 4, 2011 Comments posted Oct. 4 2011 Anonymous: I don’t think what they’re arguing here is that the Voice shouldn’t be punished; rather that using student space as a measure of who CSP is happiest with is a bit inappropriate. Space should be given by organization needs, and clearly a 40 student plus newsmagazine needs more space than a 15 person debate team. Go ahead and punish away — don’t let them print for a whole semester, force them to hold ethics trainings, ask them to kick off the guilty parties (which they did already as I remember) — but a sanction such as this doesn’t “fit the crime.” Not in the sense that it’s over-severe, just in the sense that it’s not the proper route by which to punish.

New Plans for an Old Problem As the New South Student Center plans continue to develop, university officials have the opportunity to correct one of the biggest drawbacks to Georgetown’s undergraduate experience: inadequate and poorly designed student spaces. While the university’s tentative blueprints for construction of the New South Student Center are an exciting step for the future, they just scratch the surface of the modernization that a 21st-century campus needs to thrive.

It’s no secret that deficient space is one of our biggest shortcomings. The demand students put on Lauinger Library as a haven for study and social interaction exceeds the building’s capacity. Likewise, the Leavey Center is a sad excuse for a student space. In a building that holds a hotel, a conference center, administrative offices and a huge parking garage, areas like student club offices, Sellinger Lounge and Hoya Court appear to be mere afterthoughts.

As reported in Tuesday’s issue of The Hoya (“New South Student Space Projected to Open by 2014,” Oct. 4, A1), the proposed student center plans released on Monday night seem to be the answer to students’ complaints. The New South

Party on the White House Lawn — Sample foods from local restaurants at the Taste of DC festival on Pennsylvania Avenue this weekend; Tickets are $15.

Anonymous: “But The Voice’s situation is slightly different. All known facts at this point in time suggest that the reporters acted on their own will, unbeknownst to their fellow staffers.” How is that any different from the IRC incident, which involved one (former, IRC) member acting on his own, without knowledge or endorsement of the IRC? I’ll answer my own question: it isn’t. Also, you neglected to mention that the university (namely the Media Board) sanctioned The Hoya by prohibiting them from going independent for at least a year. That was by far the biggest sanction, and was also disproportionate to the alleged infraction. The editorial makes it sound like The Hoya chose by itself to delay independence or that this delay just arose out of nowhere.

“Navigating the Greek Alphabet” Article posted Oct. 4, 2011 Comment posted Oct. 5, 2011 Anonymous: As an alumnus of Georgetown and Delta Phi Epsilon, I can say with certainty that the network for DPE has been invaluable in business. Brothers in DPE are in all areas of business whether management consulting (e.g. McKinsey) or investment banking, and are more than willing to help out. Pledging DPE was one of the best decisions I made at Georgetown both socially (some of my best friends were from there) and professionally (strong business network).

CORRECTIONS The article “Rain Fails to Dampen Community Picnic” (The Hoya, Oct. 4, A4) misidentified Anne Koester as director of student conduct. She is, in fact, director of off-campus student life.

The crossword answer included in the previous issue (The Hoya, Oct. 4, A4) was incorrect. The correct answer can be found online at thehoya.com/opinion.

The article “School of Medicine May Add iPads to Syllabus” (The Hoya, Sept. 30, A6) mistakenly characterized a Georgetown University Medical Center report as a national study. It was actually an internal survey of recently graduated students. It was not a published research study, nor was it a report from the medical center.

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COMMENTARY

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

THE HOYA

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Halloween Season Unmasks Caught Up in the Rush Our Own Unique Traditions Masha Goncharova

Margaret Delaney

I Know This Much Is True

I

t is October. Fall has arrived in earnest. The telltale signs are everywhere: the collective female population of Georgetown received the usual autumn memo that it is once again boots-and-sweater season, my coffee is now spiked with pumpkin (as is my Blue Moon) and I am tempted to send bouquets of newly sharpened pencils to friends and family (thanks, “You’ve Got Mail”).

My mom’s annual shipment of gourds grown on my uncle’s farm even arrived this week. And, of course, with October comes the frenzied search for the year’s Halloween costume(s).

I love Halloween. Which is laughable, really, seeing as I am a huge wuss when it comes to anything even remotely scary. Some context: When I was four, my mom said in the weeks leading up to Christmas that she often spotted elves popping up in and around our house, undoubtedly to check up on my behavior to report back to Santa Claus. Normal kids would have loved this. How fun, to try and lay eyes on one of these elves! I, unfortunately, became paranoid and hallucinated elves everywhere, convinced that these allegedly friendly ambassadors from the North Pole were actually sent to terrorize me. It got so bad that I began to follow my mom from room to room around the house, afraid to be alone with these kneehigh home invaders. The legend of the elves quickly disappeared from Delaney family lore.

In third grade this same time of

year, we went to a local haunted house in the church basement of a Catholic high school for a friend’s birthday. Halfway through, I started reciting my times tables to myself to distract from how frightened I was. When faced with a particularly ominous-looking hooded figure, I began shouting said times tables. The poor kid took off his mask and tried his best to calm me down before escorting me out of the maze himself. He was fifteen.

He had braces. I was embarrassed — but mostly I was just relieved to be out of there.

I’d love to say that this kind of fear was a phase that I eventually

Halloween is the only holiday that we celebrate entirely with our peers. grew out of, but that would be patently untrue. My life is riddled with stories like these. To this day the only scary movie I can watch (and by “watch,” I mean manage to actually keep my eyes open through more than 75 percent of the running time) is Shia LaBeouf’s remake of “Disturbia.”

And that hardly counts because the first half of that movie is not even of the horror film genre. It is a glorified teen romance.

And so I learned at a young age that I would have to adapt traditional Halloween rituals to accommodate my absurd fears — defang them, so to speak. I put googly eyes on pumpkins; I dressed as decidedly friendly things for Halloween and gave the kids in “Scream” masks a wide berth.

(This tradition continues: I went

as Big Bird and Gretchen from the cartoon “Recess” last year, for God’s sake.) I trick-or-treated with my friends until dark, ran home to change and grab cans of Edge for the neighborhood-wide shaving cream fight, and when everyone reconvened at a friend’s to watch “Halloween” — I walked home. To some, this may sound like a poor man’s Halloween, but for me, it works.

This is not to say I’ve found kindred spirits in college — nor would I expect to. Most of my friends are scary movie junkies and have on more than one occasion locked me in a dark room and blasted the theme music from “The Exorcist.” Just last week they planned to sneak up on me while wearing masks purchased at CVS — and capture the whole thing on film. The plan backfired, but I know they’ll inevitably try again (and likely succeed the next time).

But these tormentors are the very same people who dressed as the rest of Sesame Street and the cast of “Recess” with me. And while the verdict is still out on this year’s costumes (we take this stuff seriously) I know that they’ll be game for anything. And that, I think, is what I really love most about Halloween. It is the only holiday that we celebrate entirely with our peers. As a kid, the whole world was your candy store on Halloween. And in college, little has changed. It is an extravaganza: multiple nights, multiple costumes and weeks of anticipation.

And I’m so ready for what this year has to bring.

Margaret Delaney is a senior in the College. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE appears every other Friday.

College offers us a unique chance to reflect on our lives, but many of us are missing that opportunity.

G

eorgetown breeds political minds — at least its reputation says it does.

It makes sense that an institution in the heart of the nation’s capital infuses politics, pragmatism, steadfastness and determination into the campus environment.

Haven’t you had that awkward moment when your friend visits and gawks at the kids in suits walking around? Or when freshmen talk more about internships than the thrill of being without parents?

Georgetown students perfectly embody a missed step. We avoid the college process of contemplating our lives, instead jumping right into them. Typically, before man does anything, he must contemplate his action.

Now that we “mupload” or tweet our every contemplation, there is significantly less weight to our actions. Thinking and doing has fragmented into small, fleeting instances that live as long as they’re on the news feed (so, about three hours, max). This simultaneous process of thought and action is being repeated on a macro scale in our lives.

What begins, then, to carry significance is the proof of what you have done: the resume that lists all the hospitals you built in Haiti while learning Latin and training for a triathlon. Coupled, of course, with the Facebook profile of all the friends you made and clubs where you danced. In reality, we’re 20-something students who ought to pause and consider what our purpose is. Isn’t that what college is about?

We’re all guilty of being middle-aged teenagers. We’re freshmen hopscotching campus clubs, sophomores declaring our majors, juniors tediously interning or seniors floating among consulting happy hours. When and how does that mysterious moment of attaining your purpose appear?

It seems to me that the issue stems from the end of high school. After the sweat and tears

of the college application process, we perhaps realize that the job application process will be just as tough — if not tougher. The struggle to find purpose lasts a lifetime, but the struggle to sustain a lifetime requires money. While college used to be a time to ponder Descartes on dusty couches, it’s now a time to prepare for a career.

Asking questions about our places in life has been diluted by an overarching fear. If students pigeonhole their predetermined interests, they minimize prudence. Many would rather haul to graduation with political economy and Spanish double majors to get to Wall Street. From there, they would choose to carry 18-hour days for two years, make loads of money and then, maybe, if they don’t make partner at some firm, start living life normally. Heck, maybe they will even have fun once in a while.

I don’t mean to discount the ability of Georgetown students to enjoy themselves.

Department of Public Safety officers are, in fact, quite busy every weekend. But that’s not what’s at question. A computer can use Microsoft Word and Google Books for 12 hours on weekdays while also playing the Ke$ha Pandora station on weekends until 3 a.m.

What a computer cannot do is wonder.

On a bathroom stall wall in Walsh, there’s a stanza from a poem that gets updated every year. Last year it was Yeats. This year, it’s T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” “Time for you/and time for me,/And time yet for a hundred indecisions,/And for a hundred visions and revisions,/Before the taking of a toast and tea.”

What gives our situation hope is that we are just at the place to start. Cultivating the self, the basis of this university, should be an idea that most Georgetown students take to heart. But few actually can live with this mantra given the reality of today’s financially, socially and politically competitive world.

The balance between pragmatism and passion is one of Georgetown’s most admirable values. We should actually try to embrace it.

MASHA GONCHAROVA is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. She is a Hoya Staff Writer.

Patrick Gavin

THE RAW DEAL by Anthony Mastroianni

Identifying a Harmful Policy

Y

ou’re foolish. You have no life experience. You only make decisions with your feelings. Really, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

William O’Brien, a New Hampshire politician, accused college students of these things a few months ago. He was supporting a voter suppression bill that would prevent college students living in his state from voting there.

His bill is unlikely to succeed in New Hampshire, and your vote should be safe in D.C., too. But some Americans won’t be as lucky in November 2012: A national movement to suppress the vote, of which O’Brien is a part, has had some recent successes.

I want to address the most common form that these bills have taken: personal identification requirements to vote. Like O’Brien’s favored legislation, they will shut some Americans out at the polls; unlike his initiative, these bills are constitutional and have been passed into law across the country.

Although they are legal, identification requirements are unjust, harmful and costly. They threaten to hurt our political system and isolate some of our most vulnerable neighbors. We simply can’t afford them.

ID requirements injure our democracy. Studies show that photo identification requirements make poorer Americans less likely to vote, while affecting the turnout rate of richer Americans little, if at all. Because poorer Americans often share party preferences, this depression of

turnout could swing election outcomes away from what the people really want.

These requirements also isolate certain subpopulations of particularly vulnerable citizens from the political process. Elderly, middle–aged and young people are all inordinately affected. Another example comes from my own research, funded by Georgetown’s Raines Fellowship: Publicly available voter histories indicate that after a state implements a photo ID requirement, turnout among people who are homeless declines about five percentage points more than in states without new requirements. These effects threaten to muffle what little say in the political process such marginal populations — the sick, young or homeless — have.

ID requirements are costly to the state that implements them. Training election officials on appropriate procedure costs money, providing the free identification required by the courts costs even more and waiting in longer lines at the polls will cost our citizens and our businesses.

It’s estimated that the photo identification requirement in Missouri will cost the state $16 million over the next three years. Is this really where we should be spending the tax-payers’ money?

Claims from pundits and politicians about how these laws discourage voter fraud and promote confidence in elections are well-intentioned, but misinformed. Check out Lorraine C. Minnite’s book, “The Myth of Voter Fraud.” The title explains a lot, but the gist of her ar-

gument is that pervasive, outcomechanging voter fraud is little more than a rumor. And two political scientists — one from Harvard and one from MIT — have shown that ID requirements have no appreciable effect on public opinion about elections.

There’s no evidence that these laws even prevent what little voter fraud does happen. If you’re going to commit a felony like voter fraud, very little is stopping you from fabricating identification.

The bottom line is that America can’t afford these laws. Their benefits aren’t guaranteed to be big: Voter fraud isn’t a huge problem, and ID laws might not stop it anyway. The costs, on the other hand, will surely be sizable. Millions of dollars will go toward enforcement and education. But perhaps more importantly, these laws’ de facto suppression of turnout in some populations more than others will make our government less representative. That’s a cost, too, and one we can’t afford.

Although states should protect elections from voter fraud, it doesn’t seem like this problem is sufficiently large to warrant the costs of identification requirements for the states, the taxpayers and voters. Voter ID laws might be legal, and they might help some politicians win their elections. But personal identification requirements hurt our democracy and our most vulnerable citizens. We can’t afford them.

PATRICK GAVIN is a junior in the College.

Big East Fake Out: Defections Throw Hoyas Off Balance Andrew Toporoff Multumque Unum

T

he specter of Big East realignment is one of the greatest threats to the Georgetown University identity. Watching our longtime rivals switch conferences would not only harm us on the athletic front alone, but it also would put our whole state of being in peril.

Losing Syracuse, Pittsburgh and others would be foremost an athletic disaster. Heading into the final week of last year’s season, Syracuse University and Pittsburgh University, the two schools now applying to transfer from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference, were ranked extremely high in men’s basketball both within the conference

and nationally. Notre Dame and the University of Connecticut, two other schools in which the ACC has expressed interest, were also top contenders. UConn ended up winning the national championship.

It seems unlikely that UConn and Notre Dame will depart the Big East, but if it were to happen, the four best teams from our conference last year would be Big East teams no more. I may not be a basketball expert, but I imagine it would be difficult for us — as well as for other Big East schools — to maintain the same storied program. Teams challenge each other and grow stronger through competition. Ostensibly, the ramifications of a weaker conference might include less television coverage, fewer interested recruits and lower rankings.

But is our basketball program that storied after all? Athletic institutions do not necessarily correspond to winning traditions, and to me, basketball at George-

town often feels like it deserves only to belong in the category of the former. We go to games because it’s part of the culture of our fellow students. There is the familiar aftermath of defeat, one that includes

Basketball, and not necessarily winning, characterizes the culture at Georgetown. calls for accountability and new models for competitiveness, and yet, these cries are always made in vain. There is life beyond basketball at Georgetown, and if devoting ourselves wholly to the sport is the cost of becoming national champions, just making the tournament each year is fine with me.

This might be the fundamental dif-

ference between our perceptions and those of a school like Syracuse. For colleges of a similar basketball caliber, athletic ramifications dictate the sentiment behind every game. Basketball, and not necessarily winning, characterizes the culture at Georgetown. That is why losing our rival would be a tragedy. Each year, Georgetown defines itself in that line formed outside the Verizon Center at the crack of dawn one freezing winter morning. But that shared experience is what most of us will ultimately remember, rather than the score of the game.

Perhaps, unfortunately, qualitative value is only meaningful to this Georgetown student.

During the season, we get so excited that quantifiable measures take over.

We get hung up on results and often end up disappointed. But when we observe Georgetown from afar, we realize that basketball comprises just one part

of our university’s character. If we feel that Georgetown University is the right school for us, we have to live with the fact that finding balance means nothing can be perfect. But if we suddenly become athletically disadvantaged, basketball will no longer be the rationale for our other imperfections. We will have to find a new point of equilibrium. If the Georgetown identity thrives in balance, then losing competitiveness in basketball would also have consequences for other facets of Georgetown.

Georgetown is unfairly suffering for trying to balance its identities, while so many universities commit themselves to a single persona. It would be a terrible shame if realignment costs us our fundamental makeup as a university.

Andrew Toporoff is a sophomore in the College. MULTUMQUE UNUM appears every other Friday.

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NEWS

THE HOYA

PAGE FOUR

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

YOUR NEWS, IN BRIEF

Food Needs Justice FROM THE WEB

ADRIANNA SMITH

Special to The Hoya Exploring the moral issues surrounding labor justice in the American agricultural system, the “Food Justice: Growing a Movement” talk Tuesday aimed to shed light on the poor working conditions within the food industry.

Held by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor in the ICC auditorium, the presentation featured speakers Barry Estabrook, author of “Tomatoland,” and Greg Asbed and Gerardo Reyes, both members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The coalition works to promote fair labor practices for the workers in the production capital of the tomato industry, specifically for the Immokalee community in southern Florida.

Estabrook shared the discoveries he made about the tomato growing industry while conducting research for his book, describing working conditions that he said resemble a modern form of slavery.

He detailed an environment where workers are exposed to pesticides nearly every day, earn far less than the minimum wage and do not receive worker benefits.

According to Estabrook, the migrant workers have earned essentially the same wage for the last 30 years. Paid by the amount of produce they pick, they earn 50 to 60 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. Asbed explained that such labor conditions are the result of increasing consumer demand for vegetables.

“There is a steady downward pressure from corporations who relentlessly want to cut prices,” he said. With ever-tightening budgets and the rising cost of farming equipment, the growers’ only option is to tighten their budgets by cutting wages.

CIW has made strides in improving labor treatment for the workers at Immokalee, particularly through their “Penny More

Per Pound” initiative. For every additional cent food purchasers pay per pound of tomatoes, worker’s earnings can increase by 32 cents per bucket. Added up, the new wages nearly equal minimum wage.

Through this campaign, CIW has established a system where the buying power of companies keeps the farmers’ treatment of the workers in check. Participating companies choose to buy from those farms that employ just practices.

The coalition is currently planning to target supermarkets to join their initiative. CIW has already succeeded in gaining the support of fast food chains, such as Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Burger King, as well as Aramark, Georgetown’s food service provider.

“This is the first time the community is seeing the changes they’re pursuing,” Reyes said.

“Abuses will continue, but a system is now in place to punish and identify the abusers and extract them from the system.”

Thomas Scharff (COL ’12), co-leader of this year’s Alternative Spring Break trip for Imokalee Migrant Worker Justice, also spoke passionately about fair labor practices.

“There is no one answer to this issue, and it’s important to hear the different sides and see the potential for change,” he told The Hoya.

“Students need to understand that the consumer holds a lot of power.

We need to be engaged with the issue and realize we can change the markets.”

Reyes and Asbed ultimately hope that raising awareness of the conditions of agricultural labor in Immokalee can eventually change the relationship between the laborers and their bosses.

“We have always had the same dream — imagining life where we are treated with dignity and are not invisible to society”, Reyes said. “This dream gives meaning to our existence and our humanity.

Change is unavoidable.”

MULTIMEDIA Curious about the Occupy DC protests breaking out downtown? The Hoya has footage online at thehoya.com.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE Frustrated by the state of biking in D.C.? Read the D.C. Complaints Board recommendations for bike law enforcement online.

verbatim

“

I look forward to not having to bring a surge protector during finals week this year.

MULTIMEDIA Take the pulse of Meaney and Laverriere’s GUSA executive term in our exclusive video interview at thehoya.com.

”

— Brady Fowler (COL ’14), on the university’s plans to add more electrical outlets to Lauinger Library.

See story on A6.

Tunsian PM Talks Arab Spring Revolts DANA SIEVERS

Special to The Hoya

Tunisian Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi addressed the far-reaching impact of the Arab Spring and the resulting Tunisian Revolution Wednesday in Copley Formal Lounge.

Sponsored by the Office of the President and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Essebi spoke about his hopes for the future of Tunisia and the Arab world in light of the wave of prodemocratic revolts that have rocked the region since December. Essebsi took office on Feb. 27 after former Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned under pressure from the revolts in his home country.

According to Essebsi, assuming his role in the midst of civil strife has given him first-hand knowledge of the revolutionaries’ goals for the country and its neighbors. He stressed that the revolution combined Tunisia’s rich history

with an awareness of contemporary standards of living. Under his policies, Essebi believes that the country is now committed to establishing equality and liberty, regardless of language, religion, gender or ethnicity.

“President Mebazaa has taken up this project and cared for it and set up a democracy. … The projects are not completed, but we have the institutions for that awareness of a democratic system,” he said.

For Essebsi, a solid institutional foundation is crucial for such a functioning democracy. Political objectives originating from this foundation include fair elections, formation and regulation of new political parties and reform of the judiciary. Essebi also hopes to encourage economic and educational growth.

Essebsi also emphasized that his government has no desire to intervene in the policies of other nations. However, he hopes that the revolutionary spirit of the Arab Spring will arise in sur-

rounding countries, as it already has in Libya and others across the Middle East.

“The breadth of freedom has no borders,” Essebsi said. “Revolutions do not respect the sovereignty of nations.”

He added that remaining open to freedom and change will decrease the potential for violent insurgencies in the future.

While students appreciated Essebsi’s sentiments, some felt that his ambitions and explanations of the Tunisian revolution were not entirely pragmatic.

“I thought it was really good. It was just very idealistic,” Yomna Sarhan (SFS ’14) said.

Others felt that Essebsi’s arguments did not fully address the context and possible effects of the Arab Spring.

“A lot of his speech and a lot of what the government is doing in Tunisia is to throw out nice terms to say that something is happening,” Patrick Deem (SFS ’14) said.

NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

THE HOYA

A5

Sociology Professor Dies Work-Study Funding Stable

MARIAH BYRNE Hoya Staff Writer

Visiting assistant professor of sociology and prominent political analyst Mehrdad Mashayekhi died Wednesday, according to a department email sent to sociology majors, minors and faculty.

The university is organizing a memorial ceremony, Sociology Department Chair Tim Wickham-Crowley wrote in the message on Thursday. The date for the service has yet to be set.

Mashayekhi, who was born in Iran in 1953, had been teaching in the department of sociology and anthropology since 1989. He taught Introduction to Sociology, as well as classes that addressed the relationship among social movements, politics, culture and global-

ization. Mashayeki had also served on the faculty of George Mason University, The George Washington University and the University of Maryland. His research and publications focused on social movements, civil society, political culture and Islamic reform.

Masheyekhi had contributed regularly to Persian TV, Voice of America and BBC, commenting on Iranian politics and society. The professor had been struggling with pancreatic cancer for over a year, an illness reported in August by The Iranian, an online English language publication followed largely by North American Iranians.

“We can all learn a lesson or two from him — about the beauty and preciousness of life and how to persevere in the face of adversity,” the article said.

MATTHEW STRAUSS Special to The Hoya

Though The George Washington University saw a significant drop in federal funding this year for its work-study programs, the Hilltop will not experience similar cuts.

On Sept. 29, The GW Hatchet reported that federal funding for the school’s work-study program had been reduced by $400,000, requiring individual university departments to redistribute funds for student-employee wages.

Dean of Student Financial Services Patricia McWade explained that the government’s funding cuts have not adversely affected Georgetown’s program, however.

“Each university receives a different allocation, depending on the expressed financial needs of its students,” she said.

According to McWade, the federal government pays 60 percent of work-study wages at Georgetown, while the hiring department contributes 40 percent.

Georgetown’s 40-percent contribution of its own funds is larger than GW’s internal allocation of 30 percent, McWade said.

“The only case where the federal government contributes 100 percent is toward paid community service positions, such as the D.C. Schools program,” she said.

According to McWade, the percentage of work-study funds

that universities are expected to provide depends on the federal government’s estimate of student need at that university and the number of work-study jobs the university provides.

McWade commented that there has not been any decrease in the quantity of work-study jobs available at Georgetown, and both universities maintain that the number of jobs they offer will remain unchanged in the immediate future.

“I do not foresee an immediate concern in which we will have to reduce our work force,” GW Associate Vice President for Financial Assistance Dan Small said in an interview with the Hatchet.

DPS BLOTTER WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 28, 2011 Theft, Healy Circle, 7:15 a.m.

A student reported that he left his handbag unattended underneath a bench.

The student then left the area and realized that he had forgotten his property.

When he returned, his property was gone. There are no suspects or witnesses.

Burglary, Harbin Hall, 11:00 a.m.

A student reported that an unknown person entered her unsecured room and stole her personal items, including several boxes of cereal, juice and several highlighters. There are no suspects or witnesses.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 30, 2011 Disorderly Conduct, Healy Circle, 5:03 a.m.

DPS made contact with a disorderly student. The student was non-compliant and fled. The student was identified. The case has been forwarded to student conduct.

Burglary, Med-Dent, 5:00 p.m.

A staff member reported that he left his laptop unattended on his office desk. The door was left ajar while he went to talk to a colleague. When he returned, he noticed that his laptop was missing. There are no suspects or witnesses.

SATURDAY, OCT. 1, 2011 DUI, 36th and N Streets, 2:43 AM A non-affiliated Georgetown University member was observed driving the wrong way up a one way street. Moments later, the individual was observed urinating in the street. Contact was made with the individual, who was inebriated. The subject became combative and resistant.

The individual was arrested by MPD and charged with multiple offenses.

SUNDAY, OCT. 2, 2011 Destruction to Property, Building D, 2:54 p.m.

A staff member reported that the outer door to her office suite appeared to have been tampered with, and the door was found unlocked, despite her locking it.

Damage was found to the outer door.

There are no suspects or witnesses.

MONDAY, OCT. 3, 2011 Failure to Comply, Darnall Hall GoCard Office, 3:29 p.m.

A staff member reported that a student became irate and unruly when she found charges incurred on her GoCard. The student was noncompliant and uncivil towards DPS officers. The case has been referred to student conduct.

Defacing Property, Harbin Hall, 8:32 PM A university member reported that there was obscene language written on a dryer.

There are no witnesses or suspects.

TUESDAY, OCT. 4, 2011 Simple Assault An Office of Transportation Management staff member reported that as she attempted to issue a citation to an illegally parked taxi cab, the driver assaulted her.

The case is under investigation.

Public Urination A DPS officer observed a member of the men’s soccer team urinating on the edge of the turf field. The student was identified. The case has been forwarded to student conduct.

On-Campus Discipline Follows Fake ID Seizures FAKES, from A1 The following weekend, another student was soberly walking off campus to check on a friend when he was confronted by an MPD officer and six Department of Public Safety officers. The officers started to ask him questions about what he was doing in a manner that the student described as “aggressive.”

After three or four minutes of questioning, the student showed the officers his wallet, forgetting that it contained his fake. The officers who discovered the identification then confiscated the false ID and threatened to put him in jail, he said.

The student’s case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and will now go through the disciplinary process in place for students, including a meeting with his residence hall director.

Police seizure of false identifications is not unfamiliar in a neighborhood full of bars with a student-heavy clientele. Last February, MPD confiscated fake IDs from 14 underage drinkers at the popular late-night haunt Third Edition.

According to university spokeswoman Stacy Kerr, the university is in direct

contact with MPD regarding all student arrests.

“The university communicates regularly with the MPD about issues affecting its community. When we receive reports of alleged violations of the law, we review those reports and take action as appropriate under the Student Code of Conduct,” she wrote in an email.

According to the Student Code of Conduct, the university reserves the right to discipline students when notified of violations of the law off campus.

“When alleged violations of university regulations or local laws take place off campus and come to the university’s attention, the university reserves the right to take appropriate action when, in the judgment of university officials, the alleged conduct has a negative impact on the university community or the pursuit of its mission or the broader community in which we live,” it states.

Representatives of MPD and DPS did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Hoya Staff Writer Anne Skomba contributed to this report.

HANNAH HILL/THE HOYA

With consistent year-to-year profits, Sweetgreen has bucked a trend of declining sales seen by local shops.

Chains Edge Out Local Businesses BUSINESS, from A1 “[The residents] want a high-class clientele, and they want quiet,” she said. “The dynamic of the neighborhood has completely shifted. It’s not about keeping ma and pop stores around.”

Afshar added that Saloun and other pubs have struggled in ways that retail shops have not.

“Chain retail stores don’t have as much trouble. They don’t have to worry about licensing or protesting from the residents. They have lawyers and financial backing, and they close at 9 p.m.,” she said.

According to Raji Rankins, manager of the M Street urban clothing and accessory store Da Closet, her shop will soon have to relocate to either the U Street area or Silver Spring, Md., because of consistently low profits.

“We’ve taken such a dramatic hit being down at Georgetown,” said Rankins, whose store currently operates out of the Shops at Georgetown Park mall complex on M Street. “Business is slow. There’s not a lot of traffic.” “[Georgetown] is not a district set up for small businesses,” Rankins said, adding that he believes the neighborhood’s atmosphere, not the national recession, has hurt small businesses.

“None of [the local Georgetown businesses] are making money.”

But Bracco thinks that local businesses’ struggles reflect a wider trend.

“Retail is challenging right now, even for the chains. People aren’t spending,” he said, pointing to greater troubles within the national economy.

As shops struggle to deal with the local and national economic down-

turn, students are beginning to notice the atmosphere of decline.

“I think that the Georgetown mall is a sad place; it actually gives me an eerie feeling because it’s so empty,” Erika Charleston (COL ’12) said. “In this community we are sort of sheltered. The mall is a glimpse of what the economy is really like in the U.S.” Adam Paegle (COL ’13), a native of the D.C. area, said that he thinks the community surrounding the university has lessened its support for small businesses.

“When I was in high school, Georgetown was the place to go. We all wanted to come down here — it was like Adams Morgan. But the residents don’t want the area to be a destination for tourists, they want it to be exclusive,” he said.

Charleston said that she thinks the neighborhood’s priorities have visibly shifted toward luxury boutiques.

“It seems to me that stores catering to a middle class clientele have lost their customers,” she said. “But the fact that Brooks Brothers opened … shows that some people are still willing to shell out for super-luxury goods,” she said.

Thomas Cooke, a distinguished teaching professor in the McDonough School fo Business, said that Georgetown has tailored its marketing efforts to the high-end shopper.

“It doesn’t surprise me that the small businesses are suffering,” he said. “The middle class shopper just isn’t coming to Georgetown. They know the discounts are few and far between.”

Wink, a small M Street clothing store that sells chic designer clothing, seems to have benefitted from this shift in demand.

“We don’t really feel the recession,” said Emily Rubin, Wink’s store manager. “We have our regulars who are still shopping, and we get tourists as well, thanks to our location.”

George Alabarenga, the store manager at Booeymonger’s Delicatessen located a few blocks away, said that sales have been slightly less predictable in 2011.

“Compared with other years, it’s kind of slow,” he said. “[It’s] up and down.”

But not all area restaurants have experienced this decline.

According to Sweetgreen manager Damaris Escobar, the M Street salad shop’s profits were about the same as they were this time last year. The company — founded in 2007 by Nicolas Jammet (MSB ’07), Jonathan Neman (MSB ’07) and Nathaniel Ru (MSB ’07) — has expanded to nine additional locations since its opening in 2007.

While there are no plans to move Sweetgreen to a larger facility, Escobar emphasized that the shop has no plans to downsize or leave the neighborhood.

Bracco mentioned that the historic nature of the neighborhood can make store expansion tough and rent prices high.

“We’ve got a lot of old buildings.

It’s hard to make those spaces work sometimes,” Bracco said.

He added that he thinks members of the local business community, especially those specializing in clothing sales, can overcome the economic challenges that they currently face.

“We still had a large amount of small businesses opening up this year,” he said. “We are the leading neighborhood for fashion and shopping.”

Catholic Universities Pressure President Obama On Contraceptive Rule in Health Care Overhaul ESTEBAN GARCIA Special to The Hoya

In a Sept. 29 letter to the White House, 18 Catholic universities expressed their dismay with a new government mandate that would require access to contraceptives in each institution’s student health care plans.

Representatives of these colleges requested exemption from a stipulation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ health care overhaul that would require all private health plans, including student plans provided by colleges and universities, to include contraceptives and abortion services. They wrote that this stipulation would force universities to adopt practices that con-

tradict the Catholic Church’s strong opposition to contraceptives and abortion.

Though Georgetown’s administration was not involved with the writing of the letter, Carol Day, director of Health Education Services, said that the university supports Church doctrine. “[Through] Student Health Services you cannot get contraceptives for birth control reasons, university policy might allow for contraceptives to be prescribed by SHS doctors for medical reasons, such as hormone adjustment,” she said.

According to university spokeswoman Stacy Kerr, the university has opposed this type of legislation as a member of the Association of Jesuit

Colleges and Universities.

“AJCU has been engaged in initiatives to revise the implementation of the regulations as they pertain to religious institutions, and Georgetown is supportive of those efforts,” Kerr wrote in an email.

In a further move to oppose the legislation, the Cardinal Newman Society urged thousands of members to send comments to the Department of Health and Human Services opposing the change.

Katie Schmitz (COL ’13), former secretary of Georgetown University Right to Life and co-director of the Cardinal O’Connor Conference that the group runs with the Knights of Columbus, said she was content that the university was on board with the

movement against these regulations.

“Georgetown is a Catholic institution … and I don’t think that students, many of whom are pro-life and Catholic, should have to pay for something that they are opposed to,” Schmitz said.

For Kelsey Warrick, vice president of H*yas for Choice, which supports abortion and reproductive rights, the reform laws might spur Georgetown’s health care services to take action.

“I think it’s a great program that they’re enforcing, but at the same time I feel that a lot of universities are already on that track,” she said.

“I’d be interested to see how Georgetown reconciles its religious beliefs with the new law.”

A6

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

Homecoming Scholarship Set to Reward Student Service MARIAH BYRNE Hoya Staff Writer

Several university organizations are adding a service aspect to this year’s Homecoming Weekend celebration in the hopes of making it more than a tailgate.

The Homecoming Humanitarian Award, sponsored by The Corp’s Service and Outreach Committee, Office of Advancement, 1634 Society and the Center for Social Justice, will honor a junior or senior who has made a significant impact on the Georgetown or D.C. community. The winner will be awarded with a $2,000 scholarship during the Homecoming Tailgate.

Funding for the award is being evenly split by The Corp and the Office of

Advancement, which is financing their half though the Alumni Association.

“We built it into the Homecoming Weekend budget so that this can be an integral part of the Homecoming experience,” Director of Class Programs and Reunion Campaigns Caroline Gardner said.

The scholarship was spearheaded this summer by Will Cousino (SFS ’12) in the hopes of furthering the organization’s outreach initiatives while fostering a greater sense of community.

“The idea is to build a tradition. The idea is to have a more meaningful contribution on the part of all participating organizations,” said Will Cousino, Service and Outreach Chair for The Corp.

The Office of Advancement was

Knights Honored DANNY FUNT

Hoya Staff Writer

The Knights of Columbus recognized Georgetown’s chapter as its Outstanding College Council of the year last Friday.

The Knights of Columbus — an international all-male Catholic fraternity with over 14,000 parish and community councils including more than 260 on college campuses — has origins on the Hilltop dating back to 1972. This was their third time receiving the distinction of best national council, which was bestowed at an annual gathering in Connecticut.

According to the group’s chancellor, Stephen Levy (SFS ’13), Georgetown’s council made it its goal last spring to achieve this recognition.

“I don’t think our guys were expecting it when they went up to Connecticut,” Levy, who is the deputy online editor of The Hoya, said. “So it was a really great surprise for the entire council.”

Georgetown’s chapter, which includes about 40 students, received the award for the demonstration of a strong commitment to community service, social justice activism and spiritual formation.

“We worked pretty hard to put on a lot of events for the Catholic community and for the Georgetown community atlarge,” said group lecturer Kieran Raval (COL ’13). “So receiving this recognition definitely gave us a sense of accomplishment.”

In addition to holding a range of religious functions throughout the year, the Knights of Columbus have an active presence off campus.

“The Knights is a service-oriented fraternal organization, and one of our core principles is charity,” Raval explained.

One such program, run in conjunction with St. Paul’s Parrish on K Street, involves delivering breakfast to the homeless in D.C. The Knights also work with mentally ill criminals who are living in Virginia halfway houses and deliver donated diapers to underprivileged mothers in the District.

“Some people may think that the Catholic Church is in decline in the U.S.,” Levy acknowledged, “but looking at the college councils and the turnout we saw in Connecticut, it actually looks like the Knights are doing quite well and increasing members at the college level.”

Journalism Minor Planned for Spring MARGARET VIATOR Special to The Hoya

Following a surge of student interest, a minor in journalism is being proposed within the College.

Before the minor becomes official, the initiative must be approved by the Executive Curriculum Committee for the College. Administrators hope that the program will be in place by this January.

“We have a lot of students who have a significant interest in journalism, who have either a craving to write or to be reporters, who haven’t had the chance to use their talents in a curricular setting, only through extracurricular activities,” said Dean of the College Chester Gillis, a leader of the effort to create the minor. “Now, these students will be given that chance.”

The university has offered journalism classes for undergraduates for several years in the English department, which have been consistently popular among students. The university also offers a Master’s of Professional Studies in Journalism degree through the School of Continuing Studies.

“Although the field of journalism is rapidly changing from print to the digital age, it certainly isn’t going away,” Gillis said.

“If anything, it is growing, and we simply need to embrace that.”

Barbara Feinman Todd, a professor and director of the English department journalism program, will lead the minor once it is approved.

“Our hope is that this new minor will really focus on developing those life-long skills that will help the students both in their professional as well as personal lives, skills such as critical thinking, research skills, persistence accuracy and concise, economical writing,” Feinman Todd said.

Students in the minor will be required to fulfill six course requirements including “Introduction to Journalism,” “Online News Production,” “Media Techniques,” two elective classes and a capstone class.

Jed Feiman (COL ’12), president of the College Academic Council, said he thinks undergraduates will be welcoming of the new curriculum.

“As a representative of the student body, a minor in journalism is definitely desired and needed here,” he said. “Just the fact that all of the journalism classes are always full shows that there is a lot of interest. It’s definitely good on a practical standpoint.”

According to Feinman Todd, the minor will remain under the oversight of the English department but will now have its own set of course numbers within the registrar.

“The field of journalism revolves entirely around networking and building relationships with media outlets,” Feinman Todd said. “Now, I can help students out in this area in a more official manner and will be able to provide them with a lot more resources.”

She added that she believes that the new minor will certainly help in attracting future students to Georgetown.

“We really are in an ideal location being in Washington, D.C.,” Gillis said. “Here, the local news becomes the national news. Because of this, at Georgetown, we have remarkable resources available to us that we should take advantage of.”

heavily involved in the development of the scholarship throughout the beginning of the semester under Gardner’s leadership. While Gardner enlisted the 1634 Society, Cousino called upon the Director of Student Leadership and Special Programs for the Center for Social Justice, Raymond Shiu, who helped provide a framework for the award.

“We wanted this to be a collaborative effort,” Cousino said. “We wanted to draw from those who know the community.”

The scholarship differs from others organized by The Corp and the Office of Advancement in that it is based on peer nominations, not self-submissions.

“This is a way to add intrigue and

nobility to the process,” Cousino said.

Nominations, which include short essay questions and references regarding the nominees’ character and service, may be submitted by students, faculty or staff through Oct. 10. A member selection committee comprised of about 10 representatives from each of the sponsoring organizations will determine the winner.

Nominees’ profiles will be kept anonymous during the reading period. The evaluative criteria used by the committee are based on the hours each nominee dedicates to service and the intensity of the students’ impact on the community. “[We want to] try to gauge the quantity of the sweat they shed,” Cousino said.

Other critical factors include the

development of the individual, the growth of the organization and the passion of the nominator.

“Inherent in any evaluation process is looking for someone who embodies the Georgetown experience,” Gardner said.

The winner of the award and an honorable mention will be notified of their selection on Oct. 18 and then announced around noon during the Homecoming Tailgate the following weekend.

The sponsors of the award ultimately hope to cement the initiative as a Homecoming Weekend tradition.

“We’ve been trying over the past few years to make Homecoming as diverse as the Georgetown experience,” Gardner said.

NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

THE HOYA

A7

Staff Strike Balance in Redistricting Debate Continues 140 Characters or Less BRADEN MCDONALD Hoya Staff Writer

ANDY MILLER

Special to The Hoya

Writing about topics from food reviews to bulldog care tips, faculty and administrators have taken to Twitter in recent years, bridging the gap between their professional and personal lives.

While for most the social media service serves as a mode of personal communication, for academics it offers a way to share valuable workrelated information with both students and peers.

As more faculty members begin using the site as an expansion of the classroom, they often find that their private and public lives blend together in 140 characters.

When Fr. Christopher Steck, S.J., became one of the first Georgetown professors to join Twitter in 2009, he did not intend for it to be an extension of his academic work.

“When I first started tweeting, it was mostly personal,” he said. “I used Twitter like a Facebook on the go. I didn’t tell people I was tweeting, but they found out.”

As Steck’s account gained followers, he began including links to articles he found interesting and informative.

“I got involved in curriculum reform at Georgetown and saw how important it was to bring [students and alums] into the conversation, so I started including more content about higher education and pedagogy,” Steck said.

Still, he peppers his feed with tidbits from his day-to-day experience.

“TGIF baby! just got out of a meeting 45 minutes early!! Yes, there is a God,” Steck wrote in a recent post.

He commented that despite his drive to share educational material, his personal tweets, especially those focusing on his care of Jack the Bulldog, are the ones most likely to be retweeted.

Professor Garrison LeMasters, who teaches in Georgetown’s communication, culture and technology department, also praised Twitter’s ability to spread invaluable ideas among peers.

“It’s as though you’d gone to a cocktail hour at an international

symposium, and never left. If other scholars’ disciplines aren’t like that yet, they soon will be,” he said.

However, LeMasters also uses the service to connect with his students outside of the classroom.

“First day of classes, just 2 weeks away. Now I just need to think of something to say,” he recently tweeted.

According to LeMasters, Twitter’s tendency to merge public and private information is indicative of a larger cultural change.

“If your tweets are strictly professional, you’re missing the point,” he said.

Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr, who has been tweeting for a few months, also seeks to strike a balance between posting personal and professional information on Twitter.

“I think of it as a tool to share information related to my role as director of student programs, though occasionally I use it to communicate with friends,” she said. “In general my work doesn’t conform to a traditional 9-to-5 schedule, and sometimes my communication patterns may reflect that.”

Still, Cohen-Derr recognizes that her Twitter’s primary role is tied to her position. The Center for Student Programs has started its own official Twitter account, which Cohen-Derr thinks may replace her need to use her personal Twitter for professional reasons.

“The value of Twitter for my work is to find additional channels to share information, amplify the good work that student leaders and student organizations are doing and stay connected to students,” she said. “I think that, like other faculty and staff, I have to be conscious of the overlap between my work-related and personal tweets.”

But even with all the focus on the professional aspects of a Twitter account, faculty still find time to loosen up with an occasional humorous post.

“Why is everyone in such a hurry for Bert and Ernie to marry? Clearly, their relationship works for them,” LeMasters wrote this summer.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Birch’s proposal of a second alternative to the redistricting of ANC 2E last Thursday has failed to assuage some Georgetown students’ representation concerns.

ANC 2E’s initial redistricting proposal, which would have grouped 2,581 students into each of two single member districts, provoked student accusations of gerrymandering last month. Birch’s new plan would bring the number of students contained in the SMDs down to 2,096 and 2,061 individuals, closer to the 2,000-person limit recommended by District law. The proposal would also group students living in LXR and Darnall Hall into adjacent SMDs alongside permanent residents in the areas near those residences.

Though student leaders applauded Birch’s efforts to bring the two districts closer into line with the legal limit, they remain concerned that those grouped into districts composed mostly of permanent residents would not be fairly represented.

“LXR is being grouped in with a primarily non-student district,” said ANC 2E commissioner Jake Sticka (COL ’13). “Even if every student in LXR registers a vote, they will never be properly represented.”

This summer, five students on a working group composed of students and neighbors assigned by D.C. councilmember Jack Evans to design a new redistricting proposal this summer suggested an alternative to the co-chairs’ initial proposal.

The plan, which was drawn up by working group member John Flanagan (SFS ’14), included two Georgetown districts containing about 2,000 students, each with a third district composed of about 50 percent students living in LXR, Nevils and several nearby townhouses.

Though the plan was outvoted by the proposal ultimately put forth by the working group, Sticka said he stands behind the Flanagan plan. “[The] plan was better,” Sticka said. “It would provide real incentive for whoever represented the third district to balance the interests

1

Under the current districting system, student single member districts are overpopulated.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission redistricting occurs every 10 years.

7 2

4

3

6 5

Compared to the redistricting plans recommended by the ANC working group, Commissioner Tom Birch’s plan may offer students greater representation.

1

7 2

4

8

3

6 5

DATA: ANC2E.COM, GEORGETOWN PATCH; KAVYA DEVARAKONDA/THE HOYA

ANC Commissioner Tom Birch’s redistricting plan met mixed reviews from students. of students and residents, which is only fair considering the numbers.

That’s how the democratic process should work. We need elections that can be competitive.”

Commissioner Ron Lewis, who opposed the Flanagan plan, said that a mixed district would essentially guarantee a third student seat.

“His third district would have 1200 students in it. Add that to a district that already has several hundred students living in houses … and it would pretty much be a guaranteed student seat. He knows that,” Lewis said.

Alykhan Merali (SFS ’13), spokesperson for the student advocacy group DC Students Speak, said that while Birch’s plan is a step in the right direction, it does not fairly represent Georgetown students.

“It’s great that we’ll get two districts, but at the same time, the plan still isn’t completely representative of the student population. Students make up approximately 45 percent of the population of Georgetown,” Merali said.

Like Sticka, Birch believes that mixing students and permanent residents in a district has merit, but does he not believe that his plan will drown out the student voice in mixed districts.

“It’s good public policy to look toward attempting to create districts where there will be contests [between students and permanent residents]. There’s more and more tendency in redistricting to put all the republicans in one box and democrats in another, and I think that’s what the plans that came before mine were looking more like,” he said. “My plan still provides opportunities for contests.”

Birch noted that LXR is already located in an adjacent district that includes permanent residents and is represented by Commissioner Bill Starrels.

“The point is [that] there are issues that are important to students living on and off campus that all of us are concerned about. I think that it’s worthwhile to recognize that,” Birch said.

A8

NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

For Local Cemetery, a Struggle Between Life and Death CEMETERY, from A1 a fascinating place. It has lots to learn from it. It’s not very well understood by most people what it is.”

What it is, he explains, is an old parish cemetery, one that took in Catholics from all walks of life, charging the rich and burying the poor for free. It is a motley graveyard full of contradictions, with wealthy Washingtonians lying alongside black slaves. It is almost every aspect of Georgetown’s history clustered into one hilltop.

AN UNWELCOME DEED Holy Rood Cemetery was founded in 1832 as the third parish graveyard for Holy Trinity Church. At the time, Holy Trinity fell under the watchful eye of the Jesuits at Georgetown College, so the school was listed as the rightful owner on the land deed. Parishioners were charged with the upkeep of the yard, but the university kept meticulous records of the burials that occurred there.

In 1942, Holy Trinity Church transferred into the new archdiocese of Washington, leaving its graveyard in the hands of the university. Georgetown protested, arguing that the Archdiocese should assume responsibility for the cemetery’s care, but the archbishop refused, suggesting that the land may be useful to the school in the future. The university ended up with a 100-year-old graveyard that it hadn’t wanted in the first place.

Eventually, university officials decided that there was a better use for the plot, and they began to investigate the possibility of exhuming the remains and developing the land. With views of the Capitol building, the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument, the old cemetery was a gold mine of real estate value, and if the university could find somewhere else for the bodies, it would be able to cash in on the true value of the land.

University officials contacted the archdiocese to discuss their options.

Initially, it seemed that the archdiocese would agree to help exhume and rebury the bodies, but legal troubles eventually caused the deal to cave. Nevertheless, the university decided in 1984 that it would close the cemetery to burials as the first step toward development.

A public outcry followed. Several families still owned unused burial plots in the cemetery, and they took Georgetown to court, arguing that they still

had a right to the land. In the end, they won, and the university was required to keep the cemetery open until the last contract had been fulfilled.

‘SKIMPING ON MAINTENANCE’ These days, the cemetery seems unthreatened, at least by university architects. The 1984 attempt to develop the land came as a public relations black eye to the university, and since then it has not introduced any new movements to remove the graves.

“There are currently no plans to develop the land,” Rachel Pugh, director for media relations, wrote in an email.

That does not mean, however, that the university has had a change of heart.

“Georgetown maintains Holy Rood cemetery,” Fletcher says, “But it does not do it with enthusiasm.”

In fact, in 2008, the university came under fire for its negligent care of the cemetery. An Aug. 28 article in The

“Georgetown maintains Holy Rood, but it does not do it with enthusiasm.”

CARLTON FLETCHER Local historian

Washington Post drew attention to the poor state of the yard, blaming Georgetown for “skimping on maintenance.”

According to the article, toppled tombstones and thick weeds frustrated neighbors, some of whom had relatives buried in the graveyard. Bill O’Keefe told the Post that he was saddened every time he went to visit his parents’ graves.

“I was simply appalled that a university like Georgetown didn’t care enough to do moderate or reasonable maintenance,” he told the Post. “It’s supposed to be holy ground … I just think it shows a disrespect for the dead.”

In response to The Washington Post article, the university cleaned up the graveyard to a certain extent, though a walk through the cemetery still reveals shattered headstones and marred monuments. Fletcher also points to a thick overgrowth that he says still covers several graves, “It’s not really their fault,” Fletcher says of the maintenance crew that cares for the graveyard. “I think they give the guys a week to take care of it all, and no one is going to take hand shears and go

around each individual grave,” he says.

The university contends that it invests plenty of resources into graveyard preservation.

“Georgetown performs routine maintenance at Holy Rood — including mowing the grass, removing decayed trees, repairing the fence and conducting spot security checks,” Pugh wrote in a different email. “These costs are covered out of our facilities operating budget.”

In response to charges that Georgetown has skimped on its monetary commitment, Pugh also recalled a major renovation that occurred about six years ago.

“A few years ago the University spent more than $1.5 million to repair the retaining wall adjacent to Wisconsin Ave,” she wrote.

Recently, there have been murmurs of a revitalization project sponsored

by Holy Trinity Church. In a Sept. 20 article on Patch.com, writer Susan Bunnell noted that Holy Trinity Church has discussed the possibility with its parishioners.

“Holy Trinity Catholic Church has been asking its parishioners about the feasibility of negotiating with Georgetown University to have the cemetery returned and to begin improvements,” Bunnell wrote.

It is unclear whether the university is on board.

A STORY OF HEROES Admittedly, the Holy Rood narrative can make Georgetown out to be the villain, but Fletcher takes care to debunk that view. In fact, he says, Georgetown’s emphasis on record keeping likely saved the cemetery’s history from fading away.

Parishes, he explains, are notorious for their failure to keep accurate records, and it is likely that Holy Trinity Parish would not have been as precise as the university archivists.

“If Holy Trinity and Holy Rood had not been under Georgetown, then records would not have been kept. If it wasn’t for Georgetown, none of this would have survived,” he says.

Fletcher says that he can also understand why the university may be frustrated with the land.

“The university has the property, and they can’t do anything useful with it. … Georgetown is not in the business of keeping graveyards.”

Still, walking between the tombstones, it is hard to imagine Holy Rood being dug up and replaced by a uni-

MICHELLE CASSIDY/THE HOYA

Holy Rood Cemetery, which is owned by the university, often draws criticism from Glover Park residents who bemoan its overgrown state. versity complex, especially because it seems like Fletcher can point out something notable in almost every direction.

Take, for example, the gravesite of Joseph Nevitt. Located on the far fringes of the cemetery, Nevitt’s gravestone stands just two feet tall and bears only his name, dates and age. Fletcher, though, recognized the name as he was sifting through records of Revolutionary War

“If it wasn’t for Georgetown, none of this would have survived.”

CARLTON FLETCHER Local historian

pensions, and was able to identify Nevitt as a minuteman from Maryland.

That two-foot gravestone is one of the last marks of a seasoned veteran of the Revolutionary War. “He was the kind of man that as he walked through Georgetown, people pointed and said ‘That man was a Revolution hero,’” Fletcher says, standing by his tombstone.

About 50 yards away, Fletcher motions to the gravesite of Thomas Henry French, another war veteran, this time

one who was present at the Battle of Little Bighorn. French ended up fighting just a few miles away from Custer’s Last Stand. Though he survived the brutal campaign against the Indians of the West, he succumbed to alcoholism just a few years later.

The tour could go on for hours, but Fletcher has to get back home.

GROUNDED IN CONTRADICTIONS It sounds bizarre to call a cemetery an oasis, but for Glover Park neighbors, Holy Rood seems to be just that. One man sits on a crumbled gravesite and reads the New York Times. Another patrols the far fence, walking casually with his thoughts. Fletcher says that the homeless sometimes even set up camp in the middle of the cemetery.

For a park designed to honor the dead, it seems strangely alive.

On the western side of the graveyard, a birdwatcher keeps a lookout for migratory species. He says that he used to enjoy the cemetery more when it was overgrown; back then, he could see more deer.

Nowadays, he says, the deer are mostly gone, but the does still return to give birth. It seems a contradiction — new life in the midst of all the death — but in Holy Rood, that contradiction seems to be right at home.

Police Board, Cyclists Violations Rise as Reporting Shifts Seek Bike Law Reform KELLY CHURCH Hoya Staff Writer

SHILPA CHANDRAN Special to The Hoya

In an effort to support the District’s bikers, the D.C. Police Complaints Board put forward recommendations last Thursday aimed at improving the Metropolitan Police Department’s bicyclelaw enforcement.

According to The Washington Post, the Complaints Board looked into the MPD’s bike policies after repeated complaints from D.C. residents and local biking organizations.

“We’ll frequently see citations for illegal passing or hazardous driving or riding abreast [in which] the cyclist is doing exactly what they should be doing. But because the officer may not be familiar with the way the laws apply to a bicyclist, then they cite the bicyclist,”

Shane Farthing, executive director of Washington Area Bicyclist Association, told the Post.

The board recommended that MPD address these problems by designing more detailed collision reports and allowing officers extended time to investigate bike accidents. They also suggested offering officers more complete training on bicycle law enforcement.

Sven Beer (MSB ’15) said that he hopes a more effective training will make riding around the Georgetown shopping district safer.

“You develop some nice skills dodging cars on M Street,” he said, adding that he is often concerned by the lack of consideration D.C. motorists show for bicyclists. “I’ve seen some road rage. In my experience, I’ve been knocked off the shoulder of roads and cut off by cars.”

On-campus alcohol violations spiked 30 percent from 2009 to 2010, an increase that university officials attribute to better enforcement and reporting policies.

According to the Department of Public Safety’s annual Crime Awareness and Campus Security Report, 477 alcohol violations were reported in 2010, compared with 334 in the previous year.

According to university spokeswoman Stacy Kerr, new enforcement and reporting mechanisms, including increased DPS cooperation with the Metropolitan Police Department, may have led to higher reported rates of alcohol infractions.

“We have strengthened our enforcement and increased our investments in monitoring stu-

University Begins Work on Outlet Additions in Lauinger BEBE ALBORNOZ Special to The Hoya

Starting this week, a long-anticipated electrical upgrade project in Lauinger Library will install additional outlets on every floor.

The project, which began Tuesday, will last until early December. Upgrades are planned to the electrical paneling in the building as outlets are added.

Contractors hired by the university will work on a floor-by-floor basis, starting on the fifth floor and working their way down to the lower levels.

For Samantha Lin (SFS ’14), a major concern is how much her studies will be affected by the construction.

“I think it is important for upgrades to be made, but I worry that they will interfere with the quiet environment Lau provides while we study,” Lin said.

Though the construction, which will involve work-related noise such as drilling, is slated for completion between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., certain areas of Lauinger may be closed for several days, according to the email sent

by University Librarian Artemis Kirk.

The library’s website provides a schedule for the first half of the project, show-

ing that upgrades will take one week per wing of each floor throughout the month of October.

“We always consider the impact to users of the library and regret the potential inconvenience. In light of the growing need for more electrical outlets, [the university] agreed that it was better to start the project as soon as possible,” said Phyllis Barrow, director of finance and operations for Lauinger Library.

According to Barrow, the university acknowledges the potential inconvenience to visitors of the library, but it believes inconvenience is a small price to pay for the overall improvement.

[University Facilities has] long been aware of the need to upgrade the electrical systems to keep up with the technology demands of today,” Barrow said in an emailed statement.

Students hope that more outlet access in the library will help alleviate the high demand during peak study times.

“Competing with a fellow student to claim the last outlet during high-stress study periods can be uncomfortable,” Brady Fowler (COL ’14) said. “I look forward to not having to bring a surge protector during finals week this year.”

dent life off campus. Holding our students accountable for their behavior is a priority for us, and our policies reflect that,” she wrote in an email.

Director of Student Conduct Judy Johnson added that the addition of more MPD officers on campus — three on weeknights and seven on weekends — could have led to more efficient reporting and an increase in the violation numbers. “[Those committing violations are] being confronted more, documented more,” she said.

Johnson also qualified the data, saying that some incidents may have been reported twice due to a quirk in DPS’s reporting mechanisms.

According to the report, oncampus crimes that had no arrests but resulted in referrals to the Office of Student Conduct

were recorded as separate from on-campus alcohol violations that were not crimes and classified as category A violations. Incidents that violate the Student Code of Conduct are then broken down into three categories, according to severity of the action.

“Some of the numbers represent a single incident with multiple violations,” she said.

But according to Johnson, new procedures have strengthened the university’s ability to more accurately report violations.

“In the past, our system would only let us say, ‘in a residence hall’ or not,” she said, explaining that a violation that did not occur in a residence hall may have been counted as an off-campus violation.

“We’ve gotten a little better at identifying what happened on campus versus off campus,” she said.

NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

THE HOYA

A9

Jewish Chaplaincy Grows With New Prayer Space MINISTRY, from A1

“It’s central, it’s beautiful and it’s big. Students are thrilled about it and see it as a major statement of support [from the university],” Rabbi Rachel Gartner said of the area.

The new space is the latest development in a trend of rising university backing of the Jewish ministry on campus. In 2010, the university agreed to help foot the cost of renting the JSA townhouse — which had formerly been funded by donations — after students called on the university to address the chaplaincy’s tightened budget and capacity.

Makóm’s location is only temporary, as Jewish student space will eventually form part of the new Interfaith Center, set for completion in the next several years. According to Gartner, the finished project will contain spaces for the Muslim and Jewish communities, as well as multi-purpose space and a kosher kitchen.

The construction of the Interfaith Center will knock out the hallway connecting Hoya Court to Cosi and Starbucks, and a new diagonal hallway will take its place. According to previous statements from the Office of

Mission and Ministry, the timeline on renovations will depend on financing sources and contributions.

In conjunction with the fresh space in Leavey, the Jewish Chaplaincy has a new leader this year in Rabbi Rachel Gartner. Appointed last spring, the New York native’s life journey has been rooted in her faith.

“I grew up in a family where my mother was really into Reform Judaism, and my father was very, very committed as a cultural Jew,” she said.

Gartner explained that her deeply ingrained beliefs were challenged in college when she had difficulty answering friends’ questions about her traditions and faith. She knew, however, that she wanted to be able to respond. This search for answers led Gartner to Israel, where she lived for nearly two years. It was during her time there that she decided to attend Rabbinical school.

Now at Georgetown after her most recent posting as Miami University of Ohio’s rabbi and executive director of Hillel, Gartner has been more than welcomed by students of the Jewish community.

“She brings a whole new energy.

Rabbi Rachel is a big part of the new

robust community that we now have,” Sisskind said.

Gartner is only the second permanent rabbi to lead the Jewish chaplaincy on campus. The first, Rabbi Harold White, retired last year after more than 40 years of service. He remains a member of the faculty in the Program for Jewish Civilization.

When White came to campus in 1968, however, Georgetown became the first Catholic university to hire a full-time rabbi.

He originally established the chaplaincy in order to increase interfaith understanding and provide a sense of community for Jewish students.

“There’s something wonderfully mysterious that occurs at Georgetown,” he said. “The connections being established between religions, spirituality and public policy — I believe that these are very important.”

According to White, the first Jewish students graduated in 1954, but it was not until the mid-1960s that he saw a noticeable rise in the number of Jewish students on the Hilltop.

White credits the leadership of President Edward Bunn, S.J., namesake of the Bunn Intercultural Center, for increasing the Jewish presence on

campus.

“Bunn asked a prominent D.C. rabbi to join the university’s board of directors. From there, his focus on recruiting more Jewish students was quite evident.”

When White arrived on the Hilltop, the JSA had already begun to establish itself as a presence after a year on campus.

“We hosted Friday night Shabbat and dinners in the rented JSA house off campus,” White said. “It was a very active program.”

White estimated that 12 to 14 percent of the current student body identifies as Jewish and that these students strongly feel the need to exhibit their religious identity.

“At Penn and other schools with 35 percent Jewish students, you don’t need to do anything to show your religious identity,” he said. “Being in the minority, you have to, or you lose that identity.”

White’s goal of inspiring a sense of Jewish solidarity has been fully realized, according to JSA Vice President of Religious Affairs Eric Hoerger (SFS ’12).

“The Jewish community has contributed a great deal to the phenomenal experience that I’ve had on the

Hilltop” he said. “The benefits to such a community extend well beyond the religious aspect itself. I’ve met an amazing group of friends who met via the organization but have grown to be defined by common interests as well.”

For White, the university cannot hope to meet the needs of many Jewish students until a kosher kitchen is a reality.

“Once we have a kosher option, the number of Orthodox students will rise,” he said.

For now, the new space is a welcome fresh start for the new year.

“The new Jewish space has given us the opportunity to be a much more visible presence on campus,” Hoerger said. “For the first time, we can comfortably seat 30 to 40 students for Shabbat services. We also have a lot more opportunities with programming and storage. Overall, it’s been great.”

This sense of welcome is exactly what Gartner hopes the Jewish community will foster in its members and guests.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to stretch and to learn. That’s the gift of being a small, diverse community,” she said.

GUSA Executives Set Sights on Future Reforms GUSA, from A1

campus,” Laverriere said.

“We hung out with this kid until 3:30 [a.m.], and that was really profound,” Meaney said. “I think it was just cool that we got to be there on his first night when he didn’t have anybody.”

Amid the debate over the 2010 Campus Plan, Meaney said the executive team has also begun to play a new role as an advocate for the university in the surrounding community. Meaney writes a biweekly column for The Georgetown Dish, a local blog, and has testified at Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E meetings. On campus, he co-writes a column in The Hoya with Matthew Hoyt (COL ’12).

Adam Mortillaro (COL ’12), speaker of the GUSA Senate, said the pair — especially Laverriere, a former chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee — had been instrumental in managing the Student Activities Fee Endowment Commission.

“Greg has been really helpful in that,” he said.

And although the team was unable to fund improvements to SafeRides shuttles, Meaney said that their input helped push the university to instate the new M Street bus loop.

“That, I think, is a huge one,” he said. “Because it’s something that we campaigned on pretty vociferously but then didn’t receive the funding to do it. We were a part of that conversation, so we’re very pleased to see that.”

Improving transparency and awareness of GUSA’s activities were also major parts of the duo’s campaign, but success on this front has been more mixed.

Laverriere said that they have stepped up use of Facebook and Twitter to keep students updated on their work, and initiated weekly office hours in The Midnight Mug. “I’m not going to say it’s been overrun,” Laverriere said of the office hours, laughing. “Ideally Mike and I would like it if there were

more people there, but understanding that it is what it is. It’s a good avenue that we’ll leave open for the rest of the semester because it holds us to being where anyone can come and approach us.”

Harry Xu (SFS ’15) said he vaguely remembered Meaney from a time the student association president spoke at New Student Orientation.

For him, the blast emails keep him somewhat up-to-date about GUSA’s movements.

But other students said they still had little knowledge about the team’s recent projects.

“I’m pretty much completely uninformed,” said Isaiah Schulze (SFS ’12).

According to Meaney and Laverriere, one of their biggest pushes toward transparency has been the opening of the application process for members of their cabinet.

“We’ve been able to get 12 great people sitting in this room on Sunday that come from very different parts of campus,” Laverriere said.

“In previous executives it was, you know, positions were generally not opened up, it was more of a ‘you helped me.’”

Now, cabinet positions are required to be advertised to the campus at large.

Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs, said he admired the way Meaney and Laverriere have brought a broader group into the fold.

“I’ve been very impressed by the quality of their work and the way they’ve empowered other students to become involved in GUSA,” he said.

But the pair said that many of the issues they feel are going to be most difficult to address still remain. In the past, executives have often allowed their momentum to die down during the second half of their term, but Meaney and Laverriere say they intend to break any such trends.

“We’ve gotten so much done, we’ve built up all this capital and now we’re trying to use our last, most successful efforts for these kinds of more challenging problems,” Meaney said.

Laverriere outlined the “three pillars” that will dominate the rest of the term: an upcoming report on student life, a review of the Access to Benefits Policy that governs operations of student organizations and a review of the Student Code of Conduct.

Meaney said he hopes that the strong relationship he and Laverriere have cultivated with the administration will allow them to make changes to the latter two focus areas — a goal that has floundered in previous administrations “Those are pretty massive undertakings, and they’re undertakings that GUSA and other groups always try to have a substantive change on, that usually don’t go anywhere,” he said. “So what we’ve been doing is very quietly building a really strong argument based on quantitative and qualitative analysis for why the code of conduct and access to benefits regimes should be changed.”

The report on student life — an extensive document that will scrutinize Georgetown’s funding boards and compare aspects of student life on campus to those of peer universities — is expected to be completed

by January. Laverriere said that they will present the completed report to Olson and University President John J. DeGioia, using it as the basis for their recommendations on changes to university policy.

“I can tell you that the administration will take everything very seriously,” Olson said of the report.

John Morris (COL ’13), deputy chief of staff for Meaney and Laverriere, said that although the final review will depend on the results of the report, a committee has begun to brainstorm aspects on the Student Code of Conduct that they think need revising.

“It’s something that we feel has needed to be done for a while,” Morris said.

The executive leadership said they plan to focus on a few key aspects of the code that they believe will make the greatest impact.

MEAGAN KELLY/THE HOYA

GUSA executives Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Greg Laverriere (COL’ 12) hope to tackle major student life improvements in their last four months in office.

“You can’t have freshmen drinking in their dorms — we get that,” Meaney said. “But there are a lot of rules and regulations on how clubs can spend money, and how students can celebrate and how students can hang out that are really cumbersome.”

Although he acknowledges that revamping the Student Code of Con-

duct and the Access to Benefits Policy will not be easy, Meaney remains optimistic.

“We’ve really tried to show people that we can be a positive instrument for student life and a positive tool,” he said. “We have 150 [and] some-odd days left, and we’re going to keep trying to prove that to people.”

ESCAPE THE GEORGETOWN BUBBLE. the guide can take you there

A10

SPORTS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Corboz, Georgetown Aim to Sweep Big East Rivals WOMEN’S SOCCER, from A12 is one of only four players to start every game. The freshman is tied for second on the team with six goals, her first strike coming in Georgetown’s home opener against American. Most recently, Corboz contributed a goal and an assist in Friday’s 6-0 defeat of Pittsburgh.

Still, the budding star remains humble about her role on the team.

“To get the opportunity [to start] has been great, and hopefully it continues, but as long as I keep contributing to the team and the team keeps doing well, that’s all that matters,” Corboz said. “College soccer [is] a lot more physical and a lot faster. The transition was helped by a lot of upperclassmen. … They’re always there to support me or encourage me on the field.”

In addition, Corboz has noticed that the progression into Big East play has heightened the stakes with each passing game.

“I found a big surprise in the Big East — there was a big difference between the conference games and the non-conference games. … It becomes a lot more aggressive,” Corboz said.

“It just has a greater meaning when you’re [playing] in the conference.”

The freshman’s observations will hold especially true this afternoon, when the notoriously physical and intense Cincinnati Bearcats (5-5-4, 1-3-2 Big East) come to the Hilltop.

“They’re a high-pressure, in-yourface, fight-for-loose-balls kind of team,” Nolan said. “If we stand up to their physical element, I’d like to think that we’ll be in good shape. But they do battle with you, and every game we’ve played with them over the years has always been a tough battle.”

While the Hoyas employ a more possession-oriented approach to the game, the Bearcats’ offense is more direct.

“Their style is to get the ball forward quickly and to battle with you in your final third, instead of maybe trying to build the ball around and be a little bit more patient,” Nolan said. “They play the percentages. The more times they put the ball in your box, the more times they think they’ll get something from it.”

The Blue and Gray have been wracked by injury all season, but sophomore centerback Emily Menges — who needed to be helped off the field during Sunday’s win when she aggravated a pre-existing Achilles injury — is set to return today.

Wells, who became the first Hoya ever to break the 100-point barrier over the weekend, will rejoin the Blue and Gray after a week spent training with the U.S. National Team in Los Angeles.

As for Corboz, her role on the team is now more defined than it was when the season started. So far, she has been executing her responsibilities impec-

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Ingrid Wells became the first player in program history to notch 100 points in the Hoyas’ 6-0 win over Pittsburgh. cably.

“I hope I’m an attacking aid to everybody else and that I’m able to keep the flow of play going, go at people and create things and hopefully get some

goals too,” Corboz said.

The Hoyas are 5-1 all-time against the Bearcats, with the only loss coming on the road. They have won the past four meetings.

FOOTBALL

Kickoff for Friday’s clash with Cincinnati is set for 3 p.m. at North Kehoe.

Georgetown then concludes the homestand with a 1 p.m. game against Louisville Sunday.

VOLLEYBALL

Hoyas Travel North to Empire State Formidable Big East FOOTBALL, from A12 Bison were able to convert on 9 of 17 tries against the Hoyas.

“We’re taking a look at the whole [defense], and we expect this week to get better at it,” Kelly said. “Third downs are the same thing. I think they are tied together [with pass coverage].”

The quarterback situation is also of great concern for the Hoyas. Junior Isaiah Kempf and senior Scott Darby both struggled against Bucknell after a strong start to the season. Kempf played in the Hoyas’ first

two games before an injury forced him out at Yale. Darby had one of the best games in Georgetown history against Lafayette. Ensuring solid quarterback play will be a key to Hoya success in the future.

Wagner, which has struggled this season, is a scholarship program, meaning that Georgetown will line up across the gridiron this weekend against some talented players.

“If you look at their scores … they have had a lot of close football games,” Kelly said. “And then last week, there was bad weather, a downpour, their quarterback has

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Jamal Davis led the Hoyas with 10 catches for 102 yards last weekend.

been banged up a little bit, some injury issues.”

The Seahawks handed the Hoyas a tough defeat last season, tying the game on a 56-yard field goal before returning a Darby interception for a touchdown to win the game in double overtime. But the team doesn’t seem to be dwelling on revenge in the lead-up to tomorrow’s game.

“We haven’t talked too much about it, to be honest,” Kelly said.

“For our guys, this is another opportunity to play another football game and to come out on the winning side of it.”

And despite Wagner’s dismal record, Georgetown isn’t taking anything for granted as they prepare to head up to New York.

“You’ve got to be careful with [teams like Wagner]. If they come out with some confidence at the beginning of the ballgame, they can be tough,” Kelly said.

Although Wagner isn’t a Patriot League rival, a victory could give Georgetown some momentum as they head toward a series of critical league matchups that will determine the outcome of the season.

“In our league, there is a lot of football left to be played. From top to bottom, any of the teams can beat any other team any given week,” Kelly said. “It’s going to go right down to the end.”

Even coming off their struggle against the Bison, the Blue and Gray remain optimistic about where they fit in the conference picture.

“I told our players on Sunday, after the game, we still have several goals we can attain,” Kelly said.

“One is to have a winning season and then also to win the Patriot League and that’s well within our grasp.”

Kickoff against Wagner is set for 1 p.m. tomorrow on Staten Island.

Duo in Store for GU LEONARD OLSEN Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown volleyball team (9-8, 1-3 Big East) will hit the road this weekend, going to Milwaukee, Wis., to take on Marquette (13-4, 3-0 Big East) on Friday night before heading east to face Syracuse (12-6, 2-1 Big East) on Sunday.

Besides the stiff competition they will face, the amount of time spent traveling will make this trip a difficult one for the Blue and Gray. But Head Coach Arlisa Williams thinks her team is up for the challenge.

“We had a great week of practice. The energy in the gym has been really high,” she said. “It’s a tough trip, but it is what it is.”

The Hoyas have been focusing on the play on their side of the net, working on their blocking, defense and ball control. Nevertheless, they will need to play at the top of their game in all areas to be competitive against two impressive Marquette and Syracuse teams.

The Golden Eagles come into the match still undefeated in league play thanks to weekend wins at Connecticut and St. John’s.

Two senior outside hitters, the powerful Ciara Jones and the versatile Ashley Beyer, lead Marquette. Jones leads the team with 228 kills, while Beyer has registered 199 to go along with 149 digs.

“They are a very good team that is scrappy and well coached,” Williams said of Marquette. “I’m very ready for [Beyer] to graduate.”

Williams noted that communi-

cation about what the Marquette hitters are doing, disciplined blocking and handling their own side of the net will be key for the Blue and Gray to earn the victory.

The Hoyas’ second opponent, the Syracuse Orange, defeated St. John’s and Connecticut last week as well, thereby earning their first two league wins. They will look to ride that hot streak into a match against Villanova on Friday before hosting the Hoyas on Sunday.

Outside hitter Noemie Lefebvre has carried Syracuse thus far; the senior leads the team in kills with 178 and is second in digs with 236. Junior setter Laura Homann has posted 683 assists to lead the team, averaging over 10.35 per set.

“Syracuse is always a solid team across the board. They have a number of players who can kill and take care of the ball well,” Williams said. “But whoever makes the fewest errors will win.”

While both of their opponents may be riding hot streaks, the Hoyas have momentum of their own, which stems from defeating West Virginia at home last Sunday to earn their first league win.

As they’ve done all year, the Blue and Gray will look to ride the play of senior setter Ashley Malone and senior libero Tory Rezin to get all of their hitters involved.

Rezin has a total of 251 digs and has anchored the defense all year, while Malone has averaged an impressive 10.55 assists per set (686 total) and has effectively given her teammates kill opportunities.

“With our win against West Virginia, we gained back some confidence,” Williams said. “I think we are in store for a great weekend.”

COMMENTARY

College Athletes Deserve a Slice of the Profits They Generate Matt Emch

Riding the Pine

F

rom “Tatgate” at Ohio State, to the plethora of transgressions at Miami (Fla.) that read like movie scripts to the questionable at best, heinous at worst recruiting tactics of Jim Calhoun at UConn, it is apparent that college sports has reached a tipping point. The illusion that student athletes who play for-profit sports are still classified as amateurs can no longer be perpetuated by the NCAA. On its surface, the idea of having one body oversee the 1,281 schools that compete in big-time college sports is a great idea, especially since the original goal of these sports was to promote school spirit, bolster sportsmanship and provide education to underprivileged youth. But from a 21st century perspective, it is abundantly clear that the NCAA and its policies are a microcosm of Ameri-

can greed and bureaucracy.

Mark Emmert, the head of the NCAA, has the difficult task of trying to rein in these “renegade” schools and athletes. However, instead of acknowledging the changing landscape of college athletics, he buries his head in the sand and maintains that the system is working. What he does not confess, at least publicly, is that the NCAA is stuck in a double bind. If his institution turns a blind eye, it will be a public relations disaster, but the NCAA would continue to exist in its current capacity. Yet if they become proactive in uncovering cheaters, schools with $100 million-plus athletic budgets could theoretically meet and decide to cut ties with the NCAA, essentially killing it in the process.

For that reason, Emmert doesn’t just want this archaic system to work, he needs it to work. Even though the NCAA is a non-profit organization, it has a yearly operating budget in excess of $750 million. Emmert, like the CEOs taking big bonuses while their companies are tanking, has a base sal-

ary of $620,000. But the athletes who make the money are condemned when they attempt to reap the fruits of their labor.

College athletes, for the most part, know that they are being exploited by rich men in suits who sit in offices around the country and ask themselves how they can squeeze a little more money out of amateur athletes. Keep in mind that many of these athletes who play in sports that turn a profit come from very poor backgrounds. So when one of those athletes is approached by a booster or long-lost “uncle” and is offered money, do you think that he will turn it down? And if they take that money, should it make them any less eligible to compete? The answer, for me, is clearly no. But according to the rules established by the NCAA in 1910 and revised in the 1970s, it remains a resounding yes.

Instead of talking about how cheaters never prosper — USC, Auburn and UConn tend to disagree, by the way — Emmert needs to be proactive

in understanding that not all college athletes are created equal, a fact that many will have a tough time accepting.

Take Georgetown, for example.

Our basketball team has deep roots and a winning tradition. We’ve been lucky to have players like Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, Greg Monroe and Alonzo Mourning don the Blue and Gray. Now, do any of you sports buffs want to tell me about any famous field hockey players or rowers who have represented our esteemed institution? That’s what I thought.

So let’s go a step further. Why shouldn’t Iverson be entitled to more benefits than the left fielder for our baseball team? Sure, they both love their school, but one is perhaps the most important money-making figure at our institution, while the other is playing a sport for pure enjoyment with hopes of getting a fantastic education at a more affordable cost. Since we live in a capitalist society, it’s naive to believe that both are entitled to the same type of benefits or even want the

same things from Georgetown. You can call me a cynic, but the overall operating budget of the NCAA has more than doubled in one decade, from $326 million in 2001 to $757 million in 2011. The more we examine the facts, the clearer this case becomes: Money, not an athlete’s well-being, is the engine that drives the NCAA. Since the business of college sports will keep expanding at an exponential rate, the NCAA will eventually have to change its procedures. It is simply untenable to continue this kind of hypocrisy and hope that college sports fans are OK with watching their institutions get dragged through the mud while the NCAA rakes in the money.

But until that happens, I’m sure Emmert will be content with watching a couple of SEC or Big 10 football games and counting the revenue that those “amateur” athletes are making for his and the NCAA’s benefit.

Matt Emch is a sophomore in the College. RIDING THE PINE appears every Friday.

SPORTS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

THE HOYA

MEN’S TENNIS

MEN’S SOCCER

Neumann’s Goal Edges American MEN’S SOCCER, from A12 “We scored two goals on them — there was another one that was called back for offsides and one point blanker that we missed. So we could’ve actually put the game away pretty well, but overall I was very pleased with how they responded to playing a non-conference game.”

American tallied eight shots in the second half while Georgetown managed five, but the two teams went scoreless for the remainder of the

game.

The Hoyas held a slight advantage in the match in shots at 15-14, although the Eagles recorded nine shots on goal compared to only six for the Hoyas.

Georgetown took six corner kicks to American’s two.

Goalkeeper Tomas Gomez had yet another impressive performance in the net, racking up eight saves. The freshman made a crucial stop as the first half wound down to keep the Hoyas ahead going into intermission. Senior goalkeeper Matt

CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Georgetown travels to West Virginia this weekend to take on a Mountaineer squad it defeated 1-0 last year on an Ian Christianson penalty kick.

Makowski had four saves in net for American.

“It’s going to be a big win for us at the end of the season because American has potential to be one of the top teams in the Patriot League,” Wiese said. “I think we’re now happy to move on and focus on Big East conference play from here on out.”

Georgetown is back in action on Saturday night against West Virginia in its third conference game of the season. The Mountaineers (5-4-1, 1-1 Big East) defeated rival Cincinnati, 1-0,on Saturday.

Until last week, West Virginia had the longest home winning streak in the nation before falling to South Florida, 2-1.

“West Virginia is extremely hard to beat at their place and they’re a very talented and athletic group,” Wiese said.

Freshman forward Andy Bevin leads the Mountaineers with 14 points after scoring his sixth goal of the season against Cincinnati. Bevin is currently tied with Neumann for second in the Big East in goals and is ranked 24th nationally.

Georgetown holds an 11-4 advantage in the series after defeating West Virginia, 1-0, last year on North Kehoe Field. Junior midfielder Ian Christianson gave the Hoyas the win off a penalty kick in the first half.

“We have a couple things we’ll focus on that are specific to West Virginia but at the end of it it’s still going to be a question of are we able to execute our game plan well and make enough plays so that we get result we want,” Wiese said. “We’re going to have to make some good plays on the defensive end and be opportunistic on the attacking front. If we can do that then we have a good chance.”

Kickoff is set for Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium in Morgantown, W. Va.

COMMENTARY

Personalizing Athletes Through Twitter Corey Blaine

The Bleacher Seats I was sitting at a banquet for one of my summer jobs, paying very little attention to the speaker trying to tell the high school honors students whom I was employed to mentor about how they would grow up to make something of themselves when, for the first time in my life, I made something of myself.

Well, my Twitter self, that is.

Hello, my name is Corey Blaine, I use Twitter and up until July 15, I had aimlessly tweeted at friends, family and the occasional athlete or celebrity.

In tweeting at the athletes and celebrities I follow, my only hope was a casual response, something to tell me that they had glanced at what I had to say and maybe even thought about it for a split second. In the case of that fateful day at 12:27 p.m., Sarah Hall — an impressive runner who happens to be married to the fastest American marathoner — not only tweeted back at me, but threw me a

retweet bone as well. In that instant, my Twitter existence went from laughable and only for my personal enjoyment to somehow validated. I immediately sent out a text to my twin brother (a kid in Cincinnati who incessantly tweets Reds players to no avail) to let him know of the joy of my newfound Twitter fame. I had made it, and I wanted everyone to know.

Later on that day, one of my runner friends sent me a text about the retweet, to which I graciously expressed my excitement while trying to sound like it had happened before. However, all of that passed within the day. My Twitter fame had come and gone, and I only gained one follower in the process.

We don’t tweet athletes because we think we’ll get fame out of it. We only hope that somewhere in their mansion, they’re on their phone reading through tweets and seeing what we had to say.

For me, it wasn’t about becoming best friends with Sarah Hall, it was just the fact that out in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., the lovely Mrs. Hall read what I had to say and responded. For those few seconds, she was a person that wanted to

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interact with me, not just one of the fastest American women in the mile this year. It’s why my brother Caleb will always tweet at Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, because we want to think of these athletes as people, too.

Twitter has brought us the added level of realism to our favorite athletes that we never knew could exist before.

The era of fan mail has thankfully ended and been replaced by 140 characters of encouragement, jokes or questions. All we ask in return is that these superstars making millions of dollars take the time to read our 140-character offering and maybe respond every once in a while.

If not, that’s OK. I’ll just keep right on tweeting at my favorite athletes, Caleb will keep tweeting at the Reds and if anyone ever does ever respond, we’ll feel special for that day. Sarah Hall’s quick retweet was able to teach me that sometimes a quick mention is all we need to keep the belief alive that our favorite athletes really are people too.

Corey Blaine is a junior in the McDonough School of Business. THE BLEACHER SEATS appears every Friday.

FILE PHOTO: SARI FRANKEL FOR THE HOYA

Senior Charlie Caris and the rest of the Hoyas will play this weekend in the Navy Gold Invitational in Annapolis, Md.

GU to Face Local Trio in Annapolis RYAN BACIC

Special to The Hoya

Coming off an encouraging 2-1 result at the Margaux Powers Memorial Tournament in Providence, R.I., the Georgetown University men’s tennis team is set to make the short trip east to Annapolis, Md., this weekend to participate in the Navy Gold Invitational.

The tournament, set up in a “hidden duel” format, has the Hoyas taking on a different squad each day in both singles and doubles play.

Joining Georgetown at the tournament will be hosts Navy, UMBC and George Washington. Due to their simultaneous participation in the ITA/D’Novo All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. ,George Washington will bring a split team in conjunction with Morgan State.

First up on Georgetown’s schedule for the event is the combined George Washington/Morgan State side, with whom they’ll face off beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday. The Blue and Gray will be looking for a measure of revenge from the reigning Patriot League champions, the Colonials, who swept the top five singles matches in the teams’ Navy Invitational matchup last year.

Saturday’s action will feature a bout between Georgetown and UMBC — last year’s America East runners-up — beginning at the later 2 p.m. time slot. The Blue and Gray will wrap up their weekend against Navy Sunday at 2 p.m.

While the tennis championship season begins in earnest in January, Head Coach Gordie Ernst made it clear that these fall tournaments are not taken lightly, especially considering the nature of the Hoyas’ opponents.

“These don’t count, but they have a sort of pride, a ‘local rival’ significance, so [in that sense] they do count,” said Ernst. “And in a tennis player’s mind, every match counts.”

This mentality has been plainly evident in the team’s play this fall,

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as the Hoyas have posted gutsy performances in the two tournaments in which they’ve played thus far.

Senior Andrew Bruhn turned heads in reaching the singles finals of the Georgetown Classic, held Sept. 24th and 25th in rainy conditions. To get to the Georgetown Classic’s championship match, Bruhn first had to get past promising freshman teammate Shane Korber in the semis. The California native gave his captain quite the match before eventually falling 6-3, 3-6, 10-4.

Playing on their home court, the Hoyas likewise excelled in doubles, as all four pairs made it to the third round of play. The tandem of sophomore Casey Distaso and senior Brian Ward made it the farthest out of the GU duos, bowing out in the semifinals.

At the Margaux Powers Memorial Tournament, held by Brown University from Sept. 30th to Oct. 2nd, the Georgetown men saw similarly good results. They dropped only one of their three matchups, downing Stony Brook 7-6 and sweeping doubles play in defeating Boston College 7-2.

Perhaps what has stood out the most this season, though, has been the promise shown by the team’s underclassmen.

Sophomore Andrew Dottino, who Ernst called the “MVP of the weekend” for his play in Providence, has been outstanding. Distaso, Korber and freshman Alex Tropiano have all also played roles far exceeding those of typical underclassmen.

“I think the most important thing is that they all share a love of the game. They’re all very good kids, so they just have that freshman enthusiasm,” Ernst said.

“They have sort of that quintessential freshman ‘thing.’ They want to get better, they want to learn.”

The freshmen, along with the rest of the GU men’s tennis team, will get another chance to do just that starting on Friday at the Navy Gold Invitational.

With GU on the road, get your football fix from The Hoya’s NFL picks. blogs.thehoya.com/paranoia

Sports

WOMEN’S SOCCER Hoyas (10-4-0) vs. Cincinnati (5-5-4) Saturday, 3 p.m.

North Kehoe Field

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

RECENT SCORES: BIG EAST MEN’S SOCCER

WHAT’S INSIDE: Ryan Bacic previews the Navy Gold Invitational, where the men’s tennis team will look to continue a solid fall season.

Green Bay 1 DePaul 3

Cleveland St. Pittsburgh

1 0

Louisville Indiana

3 2

UPCOMING GAMES: BIG EAST MEN’S SOCCER Georgetown at West Virginia Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Seton Hall at Pittsburgh Saturday, 7 p.m.

DePaul at Villanova Saturday, 1 p.m.

“These don’t count, but they have a sort of pride, a ‘local rival’ significance. ... And in a tennis player’s mind, every match counts.”

Men’s Tennis Head Coach Gordie Ernst

BIG EAST

MEN’S SOCCER

TCU Closes In on Move To Big 12 LAWSON FERGUSON Hoya Staff Writer

The Big East’s future became even more uncertain Thursday, when the Big 12 offered Texas Christian University a spot in its conference. TCU had agreed last November to join the Big East.

The TCU Board of Trustees will meet today and is expected to accept the offer.

If the Horned Frogs, currently members of the Mountain West Conference, do choose to join the Big 12, they will have to pay a $5 million exit fee to the Big East.

Joining the Big East was always a geographical stretch for the Horned Frogs, and, as a TCU press release noted, joining the Big 12 “will allow [them] to return to old rivalries” with local schools like Texas and Texas Tech.

Should TCU accept the Big 12’s invitation, it may not be the only newcomer to the conference. Missouri is rumored to be pushing for an invitation to the Southeastern Conference and, should the Tigers leave for the SEC, the Big 12 would likely look to replace them. Big East schools Louisville and West Virginia have been rumored as potential targets for the Big 12 if that scenario plays out.

The news about TCU is especially damaging to the Big East in the wake of the defections of Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the Atlantic Coast Conference. In response to those departures the presidents of the 14 remaining Big East schools met at Georgetown last Sunday and authorized Commissioner John Marinatto to pursue the addition of other institutions interested in joining the conference. Navy, Army, Air Force, Temple, Central Florida and SMU were discussed as possible candidates at the meeting, but the Big East has yet to extend any formal invitations to those or other schools.

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Sophomore midfielder Steve Neumann scored the game-winning goal under the lights at MultiSport Facility on Tuesday night as the Hoyas downed local rival American. The Blue and Gray haven’t lost since their home opener against Virginia Commonwealth Aug. 29.

GU Sneaks Past Eagles in DC Showdown

MAGGIE LAW

Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown’s men’s soccer team continued its winning ways on Tuesday with a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival American University (4-7-1). The No. 13 Hoyas are now 7-1-3 (2-0 Big East) on the season and haven’t lost a game since their home opener in August.

“This game [was] always going to be a scary game because it’s in

the middle of league play and it’s a non-league, mid-week game,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “We’re not always sure what the mentality of our guys is going to be — if they’re going to AMERICAN 1 come out slow or if GEORGETOWN 2 they’re going to come out and handle it well, but I think the mentality of our guys was really good.”

Georgetown scored its first goal

17 minutes into play off a header from redshirt senior midfielder Ben Slingerland. Sophomore midfielder Steve Neumann sent the ball into the box on a corner kick, where Slingerland connected to give the Hoyas a 1-0 lead.

The Eagles wasted little time finding the equalizer, however, netting their first goal just 30 seconds later on a left-side breakaway by sophomore midfielder Tyler Collins. It broke freshman goal-

WOMEN’S SOCCER

keeper Tomas Gomez’s impressive five-game shutout streak.

With just two minutes left before the intermission, Neumann gave the Hoyas a 2-1 lead, scoring on a free kick just outside the box.

His shot struck the far post before finding the back of the net for the game-winner.

“I thought we looked really dangerous on set pieces,” Wiese said.

See MEN’S SOCCER, A11

FOOTBALL

Freshman Corboz Sparks Hoyas Georgetown Seeks Revenge Against Struggling Wagner BENO PICCIANO Hoya Staff Writer

Joining a squad which returned the majority of its starters from last fall’s magical run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament, it would have been easy for freshman Daphne Corboz to gradually ease her way into the Georgetown starting lineup, patiently waiting for her time to come.

From the beginning of preseason training, however, it was clear that the 5-foot-2 midfielder from Greenbrook, N.J. had no such intentions. The

competitive Corboz quickly staked her claim to a starting spot in the midfield alongside redshirt senior Ingrid Wells and senior Kelly D’Ambrisi.

Fourteen games into the Hoyas’ season, the freshman has 14 starts to her name.

“A lot of freshmen come in just looking to sit and watch, and take what’s given to them.

Daphne went out and earned her spot in preseason,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “She’s a competitor. … Like Ingrid and like Kelly, she does her talking with her feet. She’s come in, and she’s hit the ground run-

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Freshman midfielder Daphne Corboz has started in all of Georgetown’s 14 games and is fourth on the squad in goals scored.

ning.”

Nolan — who also coaches locally at youth clubs in nearby Bethesda, Md. — took notice of Corboz’s prowess from the opposing sidelines, as his club team encountered hers on a number of occasions. Creative, fierce and displaying knowledge of the game, the midfielder’s style of play reminded Nolan of that of the All-American Wells.

“I need a player who has many of the same attributes as Ingrid, which Daphne has,” Nolan said. “[I like] clever soccer players who have great technical ability but wonderful tactical knowledge and have the attitude that they’re competitors.”

Nolan recalls an early preseason practice in which Corboz came head-to-head with her senior counterpart during a scrimmage. While players sometimes shy away from challenging the intimidating Wells, Corboz refused to back down.

“Some kids don’t want any piece of that, but Daphne’s such a competitor in her own [way]. ... I think the other [players] kind of caught up on that,” Nolan said. “It was very easy to see on day one that Daphne could play with these kids, so she got their respect right away.”

Corboz has tallied 13 points, fourth-best on the team, and See WOMEN’S SOCCER, A10

EVAN HOLLANDER Hoya Staff Writer

After a loss to Bucknell last Saturday that left it searching for answers, the Georgetown football team (3-2, 1-1 Patriot League) heads to Staten Island, N.Y., this weekend to try to right its course against Wagner (1-4, 1-2 Northeast Conference).

The Hoyas suffered from an early turnover against the Bison, which contributed to a 28-0 deficit midway through the second quarter. Despite a furious 18-point rally on the back of a solid performance by redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jamal Davis, Georgetown stalled in the second half, and Bucknell prevailed, 35-18.

“We didn’t want to go out there putting the ball on the ground and, then they score and it just kind of snowballs,” Head Coach Kevin Kelly said. “By the time you look up, it’s 28 to nothing. Some games are like that.”

Special teams play was the lone bright spot in the loss for the Blue and Gray; this pleased Kelly, who had emphasized the importance of special teams after it cost the Hoyas valuable points in their game at Yale.

“Special teams were solid [against Bucknell],” Kelly said. “It was nothing spectacular, but they did the job and that’s all we can ask of them.”

But that improvement may be a case of one step forward, two steps back. The Blue and Gray have struggled on defense, particularly with pass coverage. Poor play in the secondary has allowed their opponents to put up some big numbers through the air in the past couple weeks.

Visit us online at thehoya.com/sports

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Sophomore Nick Campanella led the team in rushing against Bucknell with only 12 yards.

“On defense, pass coverage is part of it.

We’re addressing that. … Some of it right now is a confidence thing,” Kelly said.

“We’ve moved some people around and taken a good hard look at how we’re playing and how we’re teaching it. I’m not just going to blame the kids on that. I’m going to blame us as well.”

Another problem that became clear against Bucknell was Georgetown’s difficulty in stopping third-down conversions. The See FOOTBALL, A10