GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 93, No. 21, © 2011
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011
GRAY STRESSES CREATIVITY D.C.’s mayor promoted entrepreneurship in the District in Lohrfink Auditorium Monday evening.
MISERY LOVES COMPANY Like the women last week, the men’s soccer team was left out of the NCAA tournament.
NEWS, A7
SPORTS, A10
THIS IS GEORGETOWN: HOYAS DESTROY SPARTANS IN SECOND GAME OF SEASON
Campus Plan to Face Final Review BRADEN MCDONALD Hoya Staff Writer
Major players in the debate surrounding Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan are gearing up to make final arguments before the D.C. Zoning Commission at its fifth and final hearing on the plan Thursday night. The plan, which outlines the university’s goals for expansion over the next 10 years, has been the focal point of Georgetown’s relationship with its neighbors since it was filed last December. After the District Department of Transportation gives its testimony at this week’s hearing, the commission will take several months to make its final ruling. Georgetown University Student Association Vice President Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) said the organization aims to send a contingent of 40 students to the hearing to back the plan. “Students are excited to go down there and show D.C. officials and neighbors that we’re standing with the university and we don’t
appreciate not being treated like full citizens of D.C.,” he said. The students’ testimony will supplement an online petition emailed to students, faculty, staff and alumni by University President John J. DeGioia Nov. 3, urging them to sign their names in support of the university. The petition outlines the positive impact that the school has on the District, citing students’ volunteer efforts in the community and the university’s ment of more than 3,200 D.C. residents. According to university spokesperson Stacy Kerr, about 4,100 people have signed the online petition so far. More than 3,000 signatures were received within the first 24 hours of its distribution. “We’re very pleased by the overwhelming response we’ve received in such a short time,” she said. Kerr added that the university also distributed a pamphlet See HEARING, A5
RIG Funds Granted KELLY CHURCH Hoya Staff Writer
MEAGAN KELLY/THE HOYA
Redshirt freshman guard Aaron Bowen threw down an emphatic dunk in Georgetown’s 86-54 blowout of UNC-Greensboro Monday night. The Hoyas moved to 2-0 after also defeating Savannah State, 83-54, on Saturday.
ReImagine Georgetown awarded grants to three proposals Monday. The annual competition funds projects aiming to improve the undergraduate experience. Melissa Riggio (COL ’14) and Antony Lopez (COL ’14) were given $1,000 to implement “Illuminate Lauinger.” Both students work in the Gelardin New Media Center and intend to use their grant to purchase art-friendly technology for the library. The pair also proposed hanging student artwork in Lauinger Library’s hallways and study spaces to improve the building’s atmosphere.
“The second half of our agenda was to bring more artistic flavor to [Lauinger] to make it more enjoyable to work in,” Riggio said. Sam Schneider (COL ’13), a member of The Hoya’s Board of Directors, and Emily Oehlsen (SFS ’13) won a $7,000 grant for “The Georgetown Conversation,” an online forum that will allow members of the community to post video lectures on various topics of expertise or interest. Already under development, the forum is designed to increase intellectual exchange and foster discussion among faculty, students and staff. See RIG, A7
Workers Advocate Dies GU Absent From Occupy DC UPASANA KAKU Hoya Staff Writer
LaMarr Billups, assistant vice president for business planning policy, died in his Falls Church, Va., home Friday after a brief illness. He was 59 years old. Billups, who joined the university in 2007, also served as chairman of the Licensing Oversight Committee, the Advisory Committee on Business Practices and the committee responsible for planning
UNVIERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
LaMarr Billups, who worked to promote fair labor standards, died Friday.
the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. John Kline, a professor in the School of Foreign Service and a member of the Licensing Oversight Committee, said that Billups’ loss was a blow to the university. “He was so dedicated to the work, particularly to students and to workers,” he said. Before coming to Georgetown, Billups served as an aide to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and senior special assistant to the chancellor at the University of WisconsinMadison, where he began his efforts to promote fair labor standards in the production of university apparel. During his time at Georgetown, Billups led a review of the implementation of the Just Employment Policy and consulted for Alta Gracia, a clothing line that promotes living wages for its employees in the Dominican Republic. Among college campuses, Georgetown was one of the top-10 purchasers of Alta Gracia products in the United States this year. Kline said that although Billups’ work often involved contentious issues, the late administrator was open to all viewpoints. “He brought a good consensual type of leadership to the issues. He had a quiet type of leadership.” Kline added that because few students worked with Billups, they may not realize the impact that his work had on the university. “Students that didn’t have the opportunity to get to know him really missed
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See BILLUPS, A7
SARAH KAPLAN Hoya Staff Writer
While students across the country set up Occupy camps on their campuses, D.C.’s wing of the anti-establishment protest movement has garnered little support from Georgetown students. The cluster of tents in McPherson Square, about 2.5 miles from the front gates, sees about 200 regular protesters per day. Few if any of these dissenters are students from Georgetown. A group of at least 30 students organized by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee attended a rally on the National Mall Oct. 15. But enthusiasm for the protests has waned since then, according to Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13), who attended the Oct. 15 gathering. Kohnert-Yount started a group called Georgetown Occupy about a week after the rally. The group meets weekly but has struggled to maintain consistent support, she said. “I think there is a certain reputation about Georgetown where students are actively involved in the political institution but are not as eager to get involved in grassroots campaigns like this,” she said.
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Protesters have camped out at McPherson Square since early October. But for some students, it is the nature of the movement, and not of Georgetown students, which explains the lack of interest. “Their anger is misdirected, and I think, frankly, that it’s no longer a protest movement … It’s just vagrancy,” Tim Carey (COL ’12) said. “I’m not sure how you could be a Georgetown student and live there.”
Charles Berahas (COL ‘11), who is involved with the Occupy movement, said he feels the lack of student representation can be attributed to the kind of students who attend the university. “As much as Georgetown likes to deny this, Georgetown students are mostly white, rich, American kids,” he wrote in an See OCCUPY, A7
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