GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 94, No. 1, © 2012
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2012
SPORTS PREVIEW
The Hoya gives you an in-depth look at each of GU’s fall teams.
STERN Georgetown’s policy on offensive speech hinders honest dialogue.
SEE INSERT
GRUBER The Hoya sat down with the new DPS chief to get his perspective on the job.
ENERGY Georgetown Energy chose SolarCity to supply townhouse solar panels.
NEWS, A6
NEWS, A6
OPINION, A3
GU Debuts Science Facility
Campaign Rakes In $179M SARAH KAPLAN
SARAH PATRICK
Hoya Staff Writer
Hoya Staff Writer
Propelled by a reunion weekend that broke fundraising records, Georgetown’s ongoing capital campaign secured $179 million in donations in fiscal year 2012. The campaign, titled “The Campaign for Georgetown: For Generations to Come,” is a 10-year, $1.5 billion fundraising effort that was publicly launched last fall. Fiscal year 2012 was the first of the campaign’s public phase, but the initiative has been quietly collecting funds since 2007. Thus far, the campaign has earned $919 million, more than 60 percent of its goal. The $179 million raised this fiscal year, which ended in June, made it the second most successful fundraising year in the university’s history and topped the campaign’s initial goal of $137 million by about 30 percent. “We expected that the launch year would be a very strong year … but I was very pleasantly surprised by how substantially we exceeded the goal,” Vice President for Advancement Bart Moore said. The year’s fundraising was buoyed by almost $80 million in contributions from this year’s reunion classes, which gather every five years. This number topped the previous record for a five-year reunion cycle — $47 million — by 70 percent. According to Moore, a large amount of the campaign’s total fundraising has come from especially large donations: Gifts of $1 million or more accounted for almost half of this year’s total results. “There’s a disproportionate impact of a relatively small number of the biggest gifts,” Moore said. He added, however, that the university is hoping to expand its donor base, which would increase the number of alumni who give to the school. “It is very important to us that See CAMPAIGN, A6
LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA
Regents Hall, the state-of-the-art science center that opened to the public for the first time Monday, includes research and teaching labs, classroom spaces, offices and student study areas and lounges.
With fresh grass adorning a new lawn on one side and construction equipment making its final exit from the other, Regents Hall opened its doors to students and faculty for the first time Monday. The six-story, $100 million science center contains research and teaching labs, classroom spaces, offices and student study areas and lounges. The first two floors are dedicated to teaching and the fourth and fifth floors to research, while the third floor is split between research and teaching spaces. The unoccupied sixth floor contains the mechanical components for the building. According to Ali Whitmer, senior associate dean for strategic planning and faculty development, teaching floors are See SCIENCE, A6
Alum to Document Surging Violence in Syria VanDyke fought and was captured with rebels in Libya last year SARAH KAPLAN Hoya Staff Writer
When Matthew VanDyke (GRD ’04) returned to the United States after being detained for six months in a Libyan prison, he was already planning his next trip to the Middle East. “I’m going to start training … for the next Arab revolution,” he told reporters crowded around him at Baltimore/Washington International Airport when he landed on American soil last November. In a few weeks, VanDyke will follow through on that promise. This
time, he will be heading to Syria, where he hopes to film a documentary about the country’s ongoing civil war. “Syria’s the next step in the Arab Spring movement, the next regime that needs to go,” he said in an interview with THE HOYA. “This is the best way I can help.” He will be filming alongside Masood Bwisir, a Libyan musician famous for singing rebel songs on the front lines during the Libyan revolt. VanDyke, who has a master’s degree in security studies from the School of Foreign Service, has had a longstanding interest in the Middle East. According to his mother, Sharon, he begged his family to go on a vacation to Egypt during elementary school. Between 2007 and 2011, VanDyke rode a motorcycle across the
Arab world, working as a freelance journalist during the trip. He visited Syria between 2008 and 2009 and says that he saw signs of civilian dissatisfaction with its government even then. “[Syria] was one of the countries where I heard rumblings of discontent. I was told a story about the police torturing somebody,” he said. In February 2011, VanDyke called his mother and told her he was booking a flight to Libya so he could write, film and support his friends fighting the dictatorial rule of Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Sharon VanDyke didn’t realize that her son would wind up fighting alongside the rebel forces, dressed in armysurplus fatigues and toting a gun. “You don’t tell your mother
SARI FRANKEL/THE HOYA
VanDyke will return to the Middle See VANDYKE, A5 East this fall to film a documentary.
GUSA Group Addresses LGBTQ Safety Concerns
HOW LONG’S IT BEEN?
ANNIE CHEN
ported having a checkbox as more of a means of opening up a dialogue about how we can improve the living situation Although school was not in session, of LGBTQ freshmen who don’t feel safe in the Georgetown University Student As- their rooms.” sociation had plenty to keep it busy this GUSA President Clara Gustafson (SFS summer. ’13) maintained her support for the Members of GUSA’s Safe Transitions checkbox but said that the working Working Group have spent the last three group aimed to seek out longer-term somonths writing and implementing the lutions to intolerance on campus. LGBTQ Safety and Security Report and “We knew in the first place that [the a list of recommencheckbox] would not dations in response solve anything and to the public debate “That students have not that it would be short over a proposal to term and catch a few found [Georgetown] a include an LGBTQthings to help make friendly checkbox on welcoming enough place a few people more freshman housing comfortable,” she ... is unacceptable.” surveys. said. The checkbox drew The working group VAIL KOHNERT-YOUNT (SFS ‘13), GUSA vice president criticism when it was comprised outgoing proposed last spring, seniors, underclassincluding a viewpoint by Nick Shaker men, LGBTQ individuals and GUSA lead(COL ’12) for THE HOYA (“Acceptance ers and focused on how to improve the Shouldn’t Be Optional, But Expected,” Georgetown experience for lesbian, gay, A3, March 27, 2012) that condemned the bisexual, transgender and questioning measure for implying that tolerance is students. optional. Shiva Subbaraman, director of the LG“The opposition said that if you had BTQ Resource Center, said the culture of a checkbox, it would pressure incom- Georgetown poses challenges to LGBTQ ing freshmen to identify and isolate the students. LGBTQ community within freshman “The Georgetown student culture is dorms,” GU Pride President Meghan Ferguson (COL ’15) said. “[GU Pride] supSee LGBTQ, A5 Hoya Staff Writer
MICHELLE CASSIDY/THE HOYA
Incoming freshmen and transfers gathered outside McDonough Arena before new Provost Robert Groves officially inducted them as Georgetown students at the new student convocation. Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947
Published Tuesdays and Fridays
Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com