GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 94, No. 4, © 2012
TUESDAY, september 11, 2012
OFF TO THE RACES
The Hoyas are 2-0 after defeating Wagner in Saturday’s home opener.
EDITORIAL GU’s delay in raising the evidentiary standard puts justice on hold.
SPORTS, A10
PRINTING The university will work with Xerox to evaluate campus printing options.
SUPER SENIORS For some students, the path to graduation takes longer than four years.
NEWS, A6
OPINION, A2
NEWS, A4
Live-In Faculty Bring the Lesson Home Students to
Weigh In On Policy
Emma Hinchliffe & PAT Curran Hoya Staff Writers
Professor Maya Roth’s office in the Davis Performing Arts Center looks every bit the domain of a seasoned theater professor — performance posters are plastered on the door, artwork lines the walls and books, papers and programs litter the tables. But for Roth, it’s far from her most important space on campus. Roth is one of five participants in Georgetown’s Faculty-in-Residence program, which allows faculty members and their families to live in university residence halls alongside the students they teach. Along with the chaplains-in-residence, these faculty members attempt to connect academics with student life in a way that enhances both facets of the Hilltop experience. Roth, the program director of theater and performance studies in the College, has resided in a spacious fifth-floor LXR Hall apartment with her husband and fiveyear-old son for the past three and a half years. She sees living with students as an extension of her role as a teacher. “Because I’m in theater — and I do creative practice as well as academic courses — from my first year,
Referendum on evidentiary standard aims for student support, will not enact change Annie Chen
Hoya Staff Writer
Hoya Staff Writer
Georgetown’s GOCard Office and PNC Bank have partnered to allow students to link their GOCards to a PNC debit account, joining a national trend that has drawn criticism from higher education advocates. The new service, which became available Aug. 20, allows students to use their GOCards as debit cards to make transactions and withdraw money at all PNC locations free of charge, providing they open an account with PNC. Such university-bank relationships have come under fire for imposing a wealth of hidden fees. Rich Williams, higher education advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, co-authored a report called “The Campus Debit Card Trap” in which he revealed that accounts linked to campus cards typically carry heavy fees when students leave accounts inactive, spend in excess of their account balances or even swipe their cards at merchant terminals. “These cards can carry fees that eat into your balance, including ones for buying or reloading the
SARI FRANKEL/THE HOYA
PNC Bank has partnered with GU to link GOCards to debit accounts.
See FACULTY, A6
See REFERENDUM, A6
LEONEL DE VELEZ/THE HOYA
History professor Fr. David Collins, S.J., held a meet-and-greet in his apartment in Village C West. I’ve had a really close relationship with many students,” she said. Roth holds several classes each semester in her apartment and organizes formal and informal events for students living on East Campus, often coordinating with resident assistants to attract more
GOCards Can Be Tied To PNC Accounts Meghan Patzer
ing to students, especially those whose permanent homes are far from D.C. “I don’t think quite as many students would stop by and say hi in the lobby if we didn’t have a
The Georgetown University Student Association senate voted unanimously Sunday to hold a student body-wide referendum regarding changes to the Code of Student Conduct’s evidentiary standard. If passed, the referendum would not have the power to change the standard, which is currently set at “more likely than not.” The bill is instead intended to demonstrate student support for the Disciplinary Review Committee’s proposal that the burden of proof be raised to “clear and convincing evidence” for all student disciplinary processes except those involving sexual assault. The proposal is now awaiting approval from Vice President for Student Affairs
card and withdrawing money from the ATMs,” he told The Hoya. “It’s very costly to get new bank members, so banks like to target young people before they select a bank. This is why banks have a long tradition of trying to weasel their way onto campuses.” Such partnerships have become widespread in the United States in recent years. The five largest four-year public institutions in the country, including The Ohio State University, have formed financial card partnerships. Peer institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania, have implemented programs similar to Georgetown’s, the latter also with PNC. According to a Nov. 14, 2011 post on The New York Times’ “Bucks” blog, about 60 students held a rally at Western Washington University in opposition to what they deemed excessive fees associated with the Higher One debit accounts linked to their student ID cards. However, Fred Solomon, vice president and director of external communications and issues management at PNC, said that the product the bank offers at Georgetown has no minimum balance requirement, monthly service charge or extra fees for using the card, provided that the cards are used only for PIN-based transactions. Overdraft fees will apply when cardholders spend in excess of their account balances, though the bank has agreed to waive them the first time they are incurred within the first 12 months of accounts being opened. In an email sent to the university community last night, Director of GOCard Services Roman Fahrmann said that Georgetown chose to partner with PNC because the bank was willing to offer packages with no fees as well as free financial training workshops for students. Fahrmann said that the program is designed primarily to simplify students’ lives. Solomon added that PNC provides
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See GOCARDS, A5
participants. These activities range from faculty dinners to themed group discussions to trips to the Kennedy Center. Her role, however, isn’t limited to that of a floor event planner. Roth believes the simple presence of a family in the hall is comfort-
WAR AND PEACE
ERICA WONG/THE HOYA
The Berkeley Center held a panel on the Bosnian Civil War in Riggs Library Monday. See story on A5.
GU Free Speech Policy Condemned Alexander Galan & Kelly Church Hoya Staff Writers
On Sept. 5, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released its list of the seven best colleges for free speech; Georgetown, which has been consistently criticized by the organization, was not among them. In January, FIRE ranked Georgetown a “red light” institution for the sixth consecutive year, citing the university’s policies on harassment and free speech as problematic. According to FIRE’s website, “red light” institutions have a minimum of one policy that “clearly and substantially” hinders freedom of speech. Such restrictions can include bans on offensive speech and any other policies that restrict student and faculty expression that Published Tuesdays and Fridays
would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment. FIRE released the 2012 free speech rankings, which were determined by surveying publicly available policies from 392 colleges and universities, in its January report.
“[Georgetown’s] policy ... contradicts its moral and contractual promises of free speech.” FIRE Report on Georgetown’s Access to Benefits Policy
FIRE highlights the university’s definition of harassment and its stance on bias-related conduct as reasons for its ranking. Georgetown’s Code of Student Conduct defines harassment as “any intentional or persistent act(s)
deemed intimidating, hostile, coercive or offensive.” According to FIRE’s website, however, for any behavior to be deemed harassment, it must meet a stricter definition. “In the educational context, harassment must be conduct ‘so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims’ educational experience, that the victimstudents are effectively denied equal access to an institution’s resources and opportunities,” FIRE wrote on its website. FIRE also holds that bias-related conduct is protected by the First Amendment, unless it rises to the level of harassment. By this definition, Georgetown’s reporting and investigation of bias-related incidents See SPEECH, A5
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