The Hoya: October 24, 2014

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 96, No. 16, © 2014

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

BUDDING MOVEMENT

EDITORIAL The lack of study space in the ICC and around campus is embarrassing.

Ahead of Nov. 4 legalization vote, the history of marijuana in D.C.

GUIDE, B1

MAYORAL RACE Democrat Muriel Bowser snagged The Washington Post’s endorsement.

NEWS, A4

OPINION, A2

NCAA AWARDS Kelly Comolli (COL ’14) was a top-30 finalist for NCAA Woman of the Year.

SPORTS, B10

Report Has Low Assault Estimate Without climate survey, crime stats underreport sexual assault

CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA

Maddy Moore Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown’s annual security report released this month revealed seven reported cases of sexual assault — but these numbers reflect only a portion of cases reported, as the university has yet to conduct a more complete sexual assault climate survey, as is recommended by the White House.

The annual security report is distributed every year under the Clery Act, which mandates that all colleges and universities receiving federal financial aid share information about crime in the campus area. Data of on-campus crime comes from Georgetown University Police Department records, the Office of Student Conduct and campus security authorities.

Public property statistics are collected from the Metropolitan Police Department or U.S. Park Police.

The document lists seven reported cases of sexual assault in 2013, an increase from five reported cases in 2012 but noticeably lower than the national rate of one in six women and one in 33 men being sexually assaulted in their lifetime, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. A 2012 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control found that 19 percent of undergraduate women have experienced sexual assault since entering college. Since the statistics in Georgetown’s report include only sexual assaults reported by students, staff and faculty to GUPD, the Office of Student Conduct and the Title IX coordinators, Women’s Center Director Laura Kovach explained that the narrow definition did not capture the extent of the problem on campus.

“If you look at the definition of Clery, it states that a crime occurred on or near campus. It is a narrow definition, and when I see seven, I’m not surprised. These are reports that fit into that definition. So many students either choose to not disclose or if they do disclose, they contact a hotline or seek out support from Health Education, Counseling and Psychiatric Services, Women’s Center, LGBTQ, etc.

We need to be thoughtful when looking at numbers,” Kovach wrote in an email.

“Our Clery numbers are important but so are disclosures that happen in other spaces around campus and off campus.

We need to look at the totality of disclosures and reports.”

See ASSAULT, A6

FILE PHOTO: ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

COURTESY DOUG FARRAR

SFS Dean Carol Lancaster (SFS ’64) is remembered as integral to the SFS throughout the past half-century. Clockwise from left: Lancaster speaking at commencement in 2013, a memorial at the SFS Dean’s Office this week and Lancaster with her son, Doug Farrar (SFS ’05).

Lancaster, Pillar of the SFS, Dies at 72 Mallika Sen Hoya Staff Writer

For over half a century, the School of Foreign Service and Carol Lancaster (SFS ’64) were intrinsically entwined. Among myriad notable alumni, Lancaster, who died Oct. 22 at the age of 72, shined as a dedicated public servant, academic and administrator who had an indelible impact on the school — and the world.

“Her passion for our university — for our students, their growth and

our mission — was unparalleled, and we were all deeply fortunate to have had the chance to be in her presence. Carol will be missed in a most profound way by our entire Georgetown community,” University President John J. DeGioia wrote in a campus-wide email announcing her death Wednesday.

Lancaster resigned as dean of the School of Foreign Service in April, after taking a leave of absence following the discovery of a brain tumor in November 2013. Although doctors at the Georgetown Univer-

MEDICAL GROUP CELEBRATES 20 YEARS

sity Medical Center removed the tumor in December, Lancaster entered hospice care in April.

“We were very grateful that we had as much time after her diagnosis as we did. She did fight this terribly, but it was a grim diagnosis from the start,” SFS Director of External Relations Gail Griffith (SFS ’72, GRD ’81), Lancaster’s friend and mentor, said. “I feel it was a great gift to have her as long as we did over the course of this summer, to spend time with her and have conversations with her

that we treasure.”

After returning to the Hilltop nearly 20 years after her graduation from the SFS as a professor of politics in 1981, Lancaster would go on to serve as the director of the African Studies Program, the director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program and the director of the Mortara Center for International Studies, interspersed with a term as deputy director for the United States Agency for InterSee LANCASTER, A6

New Location, Same Traditions Katherine Richardson Hoya Staff Writer

MICHELLE LUBERTO FOR THE HOYA

Morehouse School of Medicine Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice gives the keynote at an event honoring the achievements of women at GU.

Protest Targets Sabra’s Israel Support Maureen Tabet Special to The Hoya

DAN GANNON FOR THE HOYA

Hummus company Sabra’s support for the Israeli army’s Golani brigade drew protesters at the brand’s Wisconsin Avenue pop-up shop Monday.

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A group of protesters gathered outside the Sabra Hummus House pop-up shop on Wisconsin Avenue NW Monday evening to protest the company owners’ support of the Golani brigade of the Israeli army, in a demonstration organized by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

In the intermittent rain, protesters gathered in front of the store around 6:30 p.m. carrying a large Palestinian flag and signs denouncing the store for supporting human rights violations in Palestine.

“Sabra supports the Gaza siege: let Gaza live ... let Gaza breathe,” protestors chanted.

According to its website, Sabra is owned by PepsiCo, based in the U.S., and by the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that has provided for the Golani Brigade, a fraction of Israel’s military. In addition to the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip, the protesters also said that they were protesting the brigade’s “racist” Tshirts, one depicting a pregnant Muslim woman in cross hairs that read “1 See SABRA, A6 Published Tuesdays and Fridays

Alumni are flooding the Hilltop for Homecoming Weekend, which began Thursday, for Saturday’s Homecoming football game and tailgate, moved from its usual spot in McDonough parking lot to the lawn between Regents Hall and the Rafik B. Hariri Building because of construction for the Intercollegiate Athletic Center.

In 2013, approximately 4,000 people made the trip to campus for Homecoming, an increase from the year before. The Office of Advancement declined to comment on donations or attendees for this year ahead of the weekend.

Traditions Day today will showcase the university’s history and traditions — particularly related to student clubs — on Copley Lawn. During the day, alumni can choose to sample from six classes with university professors, with topics such as “The Audacity to Innovate: Imagination and Creativity,” “We Have a Pope!: What’s New and What’s Traditional with Pope Francis” and “An Introduction to Bioethics.”

Ahead of the main festivities, many campus organizations, including the LGBTQ Center, the Women’s Center, Georgetown University Student Association, Students of Georgetown, Inc., New Student Orientation and The Hoya, are holding open houses and receptions for alumni.

Saturday’s tailgate, starting at 11 a.m., precedes the football team’s game against Bucknell University at 2 p.m., for which tickets must be purchased separately, at $10.

The tailgate costs $15 for students and $20 for alumni, and $25 for same-day entry. For those over 21, the entry fee includes freeflowing beer.

Rodrigo Mercado (MSB ’17) said that he will not be taking part in the Homecoming Tailgate because of its high cost for students under the age of 21.

“To be honest, I have other

CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA

social plans that don’t require payment and I don’t want to pay money for an event geared toward students over 21,” Mercado said.

In the new location on Regents lawn, which the Homecoming website touts as providing “greater proximity to the MultiSport Facility” and as “at the center of the most recently-developed section of campus,” ’80s cover band Reflex will accompany the festivities.

Braden McDonald (COL ’14) a recent alumnus who lives in Calgary in Alberta, Canada, will be coming to Georgetown for Homecoming weekend and said that he knows that the weekend will be worth the eight-and-a-half-hour trip.

“It was a tough decision for me to come to Homecoming and I was a little hesitant. I thought well, on one hand, it’s quite hard for me personally, and on the other hand, it looks a little bit desperate,” McDonald said. “But then I heard about people coming from Dublin and Istanbul. Clearly, this is an unmissable opportunity, and I feel like recently graduated seniors really prioritize it, so I wanted to be part of it.”

McDonald said that he is eager to reconnect with his friends and spend a weekend at his alma mater.

“I’m looking forward to reliving my Georgetown life,” McDonald said. “I’ve transplanted myself to a very new life, I miss my old life very much, and I really want to rekindle that just being surrounded by the people that I love and enjoying a weekend with them.”

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OPINION

THE HOYA

Friday, october 24, 2014

THE VERDICT Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

Speaking Out for Speech The recent and ongoing Hoyas United for Free Speech Campaign has inspired manifold questions as to the true nature and extent to which Georgetown students can enjoy free speech around the Hilltop.

Currently, limited free speech zones such as Red Square serve as locations on campus where students are welcome to enjoy full free speech rights. However, as an institution committed to fostering meaningful dialogue and intellectual conversation among students, faculty and administrators, Georgetown should make greater strides to expand free speech rights to include more spaces around campus.

Understandably, Georgetown’s Catholic identity plays a key role in fostering the inhibited free speech atmosphere extant on campus. The recent debacle with H*yas for Choice, wherein students were forcibly and mistakenly removed from tabling near the front gates as a way to keep Donald Cardinal Wuerl’s honorary degree reception uninterrupted by pro-choice advocates, testifies to the ambiguous and arbitrary nature of existing free speech policies for Georgetown students. But this should not be the case.

The goals of HUFS include establishing a timeline for creating campus-wide free speech zones, immediately allowing free speech in

and around Healy Circle and removing folding tables from the list of “permanent structures” prohibited in areas not designated for the purpose of free speech. Not only will these reforms promote a substantive dialogue on campus, but they also make intuitive sense.

Aside from actual public safety concerns, allowing students to demonstrate their opinions in one open space and not another is inherently arbitrary. Furthermore, HUFS brings up the valid point that folding tables are, by nature, portable, and not permanent.

The HUFS campaign seeks to raise awareness among students about the paltry acknowledgment of their free speech rights while advocating for constructive changes in university policies. It stands as a testament to the will of students for more expansive rights relating to unrestricted expression and communication, making this campaign a rare and exceptional opportunity for students and administrators to work together and make lasting differences on campus.

But above all, it is essential that involved actors come together in an ethos of unity, and more importantly, in a commitment to make wise policy decisions that are mutually constructive and beneficial for Georgetown’s students.

In the ongoing battle against a faceless frontier of designer drugs, the D.C. Department of Health has made a motion to reclassify synthetic marijuana as a Schedule I drug, putting it in the same category as hard drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

Implicit in this move is a prioritization of public health and safety for those in our community who might be vulnerable to the apparent appeal of synthetic drugs such as “K2” or “spice.” These products, when ingested, often do go undetected by drug tests, and are technically a legal alternative to the authentic counterpart in some jurisdictions, making them popular among youth and adults alike.

The focus on stopping these drugs may speak to a newfound commitment by Department of Health officials to scrub D.C. clean of this blight, but more grassroots steps can also be taken to discourage District residents from partaking in the dangers of synthetic marijuana. D.C.’s “K2/Zombie” campaign makes a valiant effort at dissuading people from using synthetic marijuana, but the implication that one will become a zombie upon use of synthetic drugs could be described as cartoonish

at best. A more mature, targeted and sincere campaign is necessary to make a larger impact.

Many young people carry a false sense of confidence regarding safety of these substances, due to their legal status and widespread availability. In April 2013, for instance, a 15-year-old from nearby Loudon County, Va., was placed in critical condition after using the drug just one time.

This example is a clear clue that these synthetics can produce visceral, unintended and unpredictable reactions within our bodies.

Added to that is the fact that these designer drugs are far from regulated, and are not manufactured bearing the user’s health in mind.

In fact, substances like K2 and Spice are the brainchild of backroom chemists (in the vein of “Breaking Bad”) who circumvent drug laws by synthesizing chemical compounds that are unrecognized by law enforcement but still produce a profitable — and dangerous — high.

As the history of drug bans have taught us, illegalization is not the end-all, be-all of effective drug policy. If D.C. does not want synthetic marijuana to be popular anymore, it will have to work for it.

C

Later School Start? — The Fairfax County School District, the largest in the D.C. area, will vote today on whether to start schools later from 7:20 a.m. to between 8:00 to 8:10 a.m. The measure was proposed after officials complained of sleep-deprived students, and the positive effects of later start times in some of the district’s schools already.

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Watch it ... I’m walking here! — A new proposal has been presented to the D.C. government that would mandate bicyclists in the District use bike lanes, when available, for fear of possible harm to pedestrians, especially “the elderly and mothers with young children.”

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If It’s Yellow — Real estate firm, Redfin, ranks D.C. number two for latrines per home.

Let It Mellow — Environmentalists, however, complain that this abundance of latrines, which fills “144.8 Olympic-sized swimming pools” in one day, is wasteful and appalling.

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo? — A heated debate is going on in D.C. suburb, Rockville, Md., where residents are debating whether to allow backyard chickens. Believe it or not, this is not the first time this has been brought to a town hall meeting.

Synthesizing Sensible Policy

Centered Around Study With the current construction dictating the pathways of campus, it is more than ever physically apparent that Georgetown University is running out of space. This fact is especially evident when students cannot find a seat in Lauinger Library during finals, when every table at O’Donovan Hall is taken during mealtimes and when students crowd the floor of the Intercultural Center in between classes.

Unfortunately, the reality is that many of these spatial needs may have to wait until the university finishes this round of intensive construction. However, in the meantime, it would greatly benefit students and administrators to use the space currently available to us in the most efficient way possible. The open space in the ICC Galleria is a perfect opportunity to put existing space to better use and to give students something they need — adequate study space.

Although equipping the ICC with adequate furniture, electrical outlets and study lighting would require additional construction,

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Free Speech Policies Need Clarity To the Editor:

providing even the most basic study space furnishings would be relatively simple in comparison to other projects on the university’s docket. By adding furniture similar to that of the Healey Family Student Center, the ICC would more efficiently use its space, and avoid the embarrassing perception that students in an academic building might not have any place to study but on the floor.

The fact that studying on the floor has become normal in this building — especially in the lobby where distinguished guests and professional visitors often enter and exit — demonstrates the fact that more study space is badly needed.

The ICC is a symbol of the School of Foreign Service and Georgetown’s international focus, and it is important that its appearance conveys that significance and professionalism.

Until there is somewhere for students to study besides the floor, that will remain an elusive goal.

Emma Hinchliffe, Editor-in-Chief

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

In response to the removal of the H*yas for Choice protest at the honoring of Cardinal Wuerl, there is now a petition going around requesting, among other things, that Georgetown “[c]ommit to a firm timeline for the eventual elimination of specified “free speech zones” and “[i]mmediately expand free speech zones (tabling areas) to include the sidewalks around Healy Circle and in front of Healy Hall.” Now, while this petition has some good ideas (e.g., “[c]reate a central funding mechanism for ASL interpretation”) and while I understand the motivation behind its writing, I think it is the wrong solution.

The problem, as everyone agrees, is a lack of consistent standards and application thereof. Since the free speech guidelines are vague, Georgetown University Police Department enforces them in various manners.

The solution isn’t to push back to the opposite extreme. For example, free speech zones are quite important. I, for one, do not want protests happening right on Copley Lawn while tours go by or on constricted walkways that may interrupt travel. But these are issues the

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petition would open Georgetown to.

Moreover, I think Healy Circle should be maintained protest-free, as it holds the loveliest view on campus for students, parents and visitors alike. (Plus, allowing protests there would definitely present security issues for when high-profile speakers attend campus.)

The solution is simple: Re-write the code to more vigorously defend the free speech zones and also create a centralized place to register protests. Nearly every city (including D.C.) has a process to register for protests in order to ensure they are held in an orderly place and at an appropriate time. It’s unreasonable to expect Georgetown to let students protest unannounced at a high-profile event when one would be arrested for doing so anywhere else in this city. If students could register, then GU could ensure they are given a proper place to protest and GUPD could ensure they are aware of the protest and even-handedly treat all registered protests.

Instead of going to extremes when the university wrongs us, let’s sit down together to work out reasonable and feasible solutions.

Alexander Zajac

Board of Directors

Sheena Karkal, Chair

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Letters should not exceed 300 words.

Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-800 words.

Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya.com.

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OPINION

friDAY, october 24, 2014

OF PROGRESSIVE PERSUASION

Congress Subject to Groupthink ‘P

resident Obama wants to conduct medical experiments on the minors flooding the U.S. border.”

“Environmentalism will lead to a world without energy, similar to the world in the movie ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.’”

“Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation’s moral decay.”

These are just a few of the bizarre claims made by Republicans recently, and they surely will not be the last.

In fact, there is so much constant craziness coming from conservatives that Salon published a report of the wildest claims made by right-wingers each week. And although it is not reported by the media quite as openly, many on the left make similarly wild claims.

So the question is, how can smart, educated representatives get away with saying these crazy things? And why do smart, sensible people continue to elect them?

A recent set of experiments conducted

by Dan Kahan on the issue of partisanship yielded curious results. Unsurprisingly, it was proven that partisanship and political passion impacts people’s ability to think clearly.

What was surprising, however, was the extent of this impact. Kahan found that partisanship “can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills … [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.”

In another set of studies, Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth found similar results: “People who said the economy was the most important issue to them, and who disapproved of Obama’s economic record, were shown a graph of nonfarm employment over the prior year — a rising line, adding about a million jobs. They were asked whether the number of people with jobs had gone up, down or stayed about the same. Many, looking straight at the graph, said down.”

If what has been occurring on Capitol Hill was not enough to convince you already, this scientific research proves that evidence and facts will do little to persuade a person who closely holds a certain set of beliefs.

A few years ago, I took “Management and Organizational Behavior” taught by professor Christopher Long, during which we discussed the psychology surrounding group behavior. As we learned, groups provide many benefits to their members including security, status, power and higher self-esteem. Groups also allow for a greater diversity of views and often generate more complete and accurate information and knowledge. Despite these many positive benefits, however, there is a dangerous downside to groups.

Often, group norms press groups toward conformity, the phenomenon whereby collective consciousness quells dissent. When this occurs, members avoid being visibly different and those with differing opinions and views feel great pressure to align with others in the group. It turns out this tendency to conform is part of human nature, as proven by the Asch Study conducted by Solomon Asch in 1951.

In his study, Asch found that respondents verbally provided an answer they knew to be incorrect 75 percent of the time, when other group members unanimously provided the incorrect answer first. After hearing the incorrect answer over and over, respondents became less confident and began to rationalize abandoning their own instincts.

Aspects of conformity, including groupthink (when the quest for unanimity overrides discussions of the alternative) and groupshift (when positions become exaggerated and less rational during discussion because everyone agrees on everything) plague our bipartisan system today. On Capitol Hill, the two-party system creates a sense of invulnerability that drives the overarching philosophy, “we will not be beaten by them.” Mindguards, such as the majority and minority whips, exist solely to keep the parties cohesive and conformed.

Today, party lines are as rigid as ever and compromise seems impossible.

In order for Congress to break the current gridlock, changes have to be made. Open and diverse discussions yield more viewpoints, more creativity and a higher performance over time; they should therefore be encouraged. With this in mind, I encourage you today to write your representatives and ask and encourage them to be more open and cooperative on issues that you believe to be important.

More importantly, however, I challenge you to open up beyond your own set of beliefs and to be more receptive to differing and diverse views. The United States’ bipartisan system is not going to disappear, and for Congress to make progress, we must cooperate and break the conformity that we all fall prey to. At the grassroots level, in large numbers, we can change how things are run at the top.

Tricia Correia is a senior in the McDonough School of Business. THE SENSIBLE CENTRIST appears every other Friday.

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VIEWPOINT • Piatigorski

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Tricia Correia

THE HOYA

Remember to Yak Responsibly

t this point, the majority of campus has used, encountered or dismissed the relatively new social media platform, Yik Yak. Especially through peak midterm season, much of the student population has taken to checking “up-votes,” stalking the “hot” feed for the funniest yaks and trying to break the 50k yakarma barrier as a reprieve from seemingly endless studying.

Since Yik Yak launched in November 2013, it has become wildly popular at colleges across the country. In the app, users share their thoughts, make jokes and poke fun at other colleges in 200 characters or fewer. Like Whisper and Secret, the posts are anonymous, but Yik Yak has a distinct light-hearted tone and comical environment. It also offers a highly contextual experience, as people can only see those yaks, the name that Yik Yak uses for its posts, written within a 1.5 mile radius of the user — large enough for a campuswide experience.

From its launch, the app took an anonymous, comical spin on Twitter’s posting structure. However, not too surprisingly, the app has frequently been abused. The anonymity of yaks has allowed some users to bully, harass or threaten others. In part, Yik Yak has combated this problem by using geo-fencing, blocking out high school and middle school grounds to increase security, as well as major airports and a large number of U.S. federal government buildings.

Unfortunately, any given user may come by the offensive, bigoted yaks that plague the service.

This is especially the case here at

As Yik Yak rises in popularity, it becomes more important that we keep using the app in good spirit.

Georgetown, where a service that should be used as an outlet for escaping the stresses and pressures of homework, exams and college life is hijacked by users making hateful and hurtful statements.

As Yik Yak rises in popularity, it becomes more and more important that we do our best to keep using the app in good spirit. When aggressive, sexual and

plainly rude comments fill the yak feed, nobody wins. Rather, it perpetuates a culture of hateful comments toward anyone unfortunate enough to be found in the target of these distasteful yaks.

Being conscious of what we yak is the best way not only to keep Yik Yak available to us for a long, long time, but also to get the most out of the app.

VIEWPOINT • Hubbell

That’s not to say that stronger jokes and roasts can’t be funny when used in good-natured humor and not pointedly or wildly offensive. We’re all adults here.

Full disclosure, my personal favorite yak was: “Took my pen apart and put it back together, got engineering degree from American University.”

Friendly fire from university to university, fraternity to fraternity or any light-hearted joke or roast every now and again, taken with a grain of salt, are what make Yik Yak the wildly popular app that it has become.

But we also need to make an effort to be conscientious when posting yaks. Earlier this year, a Towson student was arrested when jokingly threatening on Yik Yak to shoot at students at the school. After he was arrested, he told the officers that he sincerely was being facetious; however, the impact was severe.

In line with Georgetown University’s set of ideals, we need to remind ourselves to be considerate of others and what others may think of what we yak. While some jokes are very easily recognized as just that — jokes — others are not so clear.

The bottom line is that we need to know when a joke has gone too far. So far, Yik Yak has been an outlet for all our stresses, an invaluable resource considering all the pressures put on us during our years in college. We can keep it that way as long as we remain good-spirited and responsible while racking up yakarma.

Brian Piatigorski is a freshman in the College.

HOYA HISTORIAN

A Profitable Solution Standing Up For LGBTQ To Sweatshop Labor Rights, Past and Present

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or decades, the worldwide apparel industry has been dominated by a world of oppressive factories and management taking advantage of their employees. In an effort to keep factory costs low and company profits high, sweatshop laborers work long hours for mere pocket change, receive little (if any) benefits and spend their days in pitifully maintained factories, almost always to the detriment of their health and well-being.

Alta Gracia, the revolutionary apparel factory in the Dominican Republic notable for paying its workers a living wage, is now in its fourth year of production. Even as it finds increasing success in the college market, Alta Gracia has remained an experiment in the apparel world, with many industry experts believing that a unionized, livingwage factory could not sustain itself in the globalized sweatshop industry.

Georgetown professor of international business diplomacy John Kline and professor of managerial ethics Edward Soule recently published “Alta Gracia: Four Years and Counting,” a report on Alta Gracia’s first few years in business and what that means for its continued success.

Thankfully, it’s full of good news: The factory achieved $11 million in retail sales in 2013, and that number is projected to grow to $16 million in 2014.

No longer a delicate startup, the factory has built solid success in the collegiate market in a remarkably short time. By many measures, the Alta Gracia business model is not only viable, but superior to current industry standards. Employee turnover is only a tenth of the industry average, workers paid Alta Gracia’s living wage are healthier and more productive and the merchandise is available in more than 400 campus bookstores nationwide.

Of course, Alta Gracia has always been more than just a successful business model. Kline and Soule’s report contains worker profiles, where myriad stories tell of families being able to afford a home for the first time, of workers paying for their children’s college education and of parents spending more with their kids. This is all possible because of the salario digno — a salary with dignity — that allows employees to live full and productive lives.

A worker in the factory named

Ana, for example, was able to purchase a computer for the first time based on her Alta Gracia wages, which facilitated her training as a teacher. She plans to begin teaching night classes soon.

Hundreds of lives are lifted up because of Alta Gracia’s model of fair labor practices, and yet the prices you’ll see in the bookstore are equal to or sometimes lower than comparable goods. Their profit comes from the decreased costs resulting from low worker turnover, better health, high productivity and low marketing costs. So far, the gamble appears to be paying off.

That’s not to say it’s all sunshine and rainbows for Alta Gracia. The apparel market is especially competitive, and vying for space and attention in a crowded marketplace is difficult for a small factory looking to break into the alreadysaturated collegiate sector.

While it may not be a fragile start-up anymore, its future still remains uncertain. It is projected to be profitable by 2015, but many factors could contribute to an unexpectedly weak year. The grand experiment is going well, but it’s far from over.

Georgetown has been one of the campuses most dedicated to promoting Alta Gracia’s goods, including ordering the 2014 New Student Orientation T-shirts from Alta Gracia and providing them prime space in the bookstore. More needs to be done, however. Though 400 campuses stock Alta Gracia products, the report notes that most of them have stocked only token quantities, nothing like the bulk orders that would support a robust manufacturing schedule year-round. And now that NSO is NSOver, there is a huge opportunity for student clubs to put that SAC (or PAAC or Media Board or ABSO-CSJ or ABCS) money to ethical use and buy their T-shirts from Alta Gracia.

Thus, there is a twofold call to action for the Georgetown community: Continue to support Alta Gracia at the bookstore and make it clear that we want more products and more floor space, and make a conscious effort to coordinate with your ally clubs to buy T-shirts together. Let’s give this audacious experiment the support it needs to change the apparel industry for good.

Hundreds of lives are lifted up because of Alta Gracia’s practices.

Julia Hubbell is a senior in the College.

‘T

wo recent letters on your editorial page,” wrote Fr. Robert Henle, S.J., then Georgetown’s president, in the Catholic Standard in 1974, “have accused Georgetown University of in some way capitulating to pressure from homosexuals … This we refused to do. We will continue to refuse to do it.”

Henle’s sharp response came in the wake of gay students’ first attempts to organize at Georgetown, and it was not inaccurate. The university had in no way capitulated to the demands of gay students. If anything, the university had responded to gay students’ demands a year earlier as unequivocally as Henle had responded to the Standard in 1974.

In February 1973, the director of student activities told gay students that “the recognition of any homosexual group is completely inconsistent with the ideals and stated policy of the university.”

When students appealed to the vice president for student development, she flatly responded that Matthew homosexuality was “absent behavior resulting from maladjustment.” By the end of the month, student organizers had retained the American Civil Liberties Union.

Even as gay students weighed their options, their activism had thrust them into the spotlight on campus. There, they found themselves unusually exposed and increasingly under siege.

One member of the psychology department expressed concern that gay students would confuse other students into becoming homosexuals — an outcome to be avoided.

Campus ministry shared his fear, worrying that too many students were going public too quickly. As an alternative to organizing, administrators recommended that gay students “avail themselves of psychiatric services.”

Their concerns and suggestions did not prove entirely without practical merit. Students and administrators alike exercised an unusual degree of cruelty against gay students in light of their increasing presence on campus.

In an article in which The Hoya labeled gay students “the outcasts of Georgetown,” Bill Appert (CAS ’74) — one of the students organizers behind these first attempts — recalled residential staff discovering that he was in a relationship with another gay student. His RA and housemaster called him into a meeting to warn him against gay behavior.

Others were treated much more cruelly. Speaking to The Voice, one student — Oscar — recalled the period as a particularly trying one: “Several gays were beaten up, one transferred and there was a great

deal of homophobia.”

One student shared his views on gay students anonymously: “[It’s] not natural and it’s wrong. I wouldn’t want to be with heroin addicts or murderers either.”

Another student recalled her roommate moving out after she had been outed. She asked whether straight students at Georgetown could know what it was like to be told by a roommate that “she just can’t be seen living with you.”

Later attempts at organization suffered from similar responses. In 1979, the President of Gay People of GU was attacked and chased out of Lau while flyering and gay members of the community saw their residences vandalized. Gay students were only able to finally gain official recognition after a protracted legal battle with the university ended with the intervention of District Mayor Marion Barry.

The LGBTQ Resource Center came into being only after students’ furious response to Georgetown’s shameful response to a hate Quallen crime.

The university neglected to alert students after a bigoted assault sent a student to the hospital. Students clad in the nowubiquitous “I am” shirts headed to Healy Hall, infuriated that they had learned of the incident only after the students responsible were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department. When they got there, the Department of Public Safety barred them from entering. Even with its inadequate handling of the issue cast in the limelight, the university seemed to move reluctantly.

What is the moral of this sad story? LGBTQ students have fought and suffered for every single benefit they possess on this campus. GU Pride and the LGBTQ Resource Center are victories that belong to students.

They’ve earned them.

Recent proposals, however, have threatened to undercut student ownership of these victories. Administrators seem keen on a reshuffle of resources related to diversity.

When the university ungracefully floated the idea of consolidating the Women’s Center, LGBTQ Resource Center and CMEA, students responded clearly: No. The students’ answer deserves to carry the day here. If the university does genuinely want to seek ways to improve these valuable resources, it should retrain the focus of its efforts and engage transparently and originally with students.

Otherwise, it should back down; students have already shown that they won’t.

LGBTQ students have fought for university rights.

Matthew Quallen is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. HOYA HISTORIAN appears every other Friday.

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THE HOYA

PAGE FOUR

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE A panel discussed the intersections of Islam, gender equality and democracy.

See story at thehoya.com.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

AFTERNOON OF ARTS

verbatim

“

We have very little understanding of what is in these products, or their effect on the user.”

Drug Policy Alliance spokesperson Grant Smith on synthetic marijuana See story on A7.

from

JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA

“Benoy Behl: Photographs,” the current exhibition at the Spagnuolo Gallery in Walsh, opened Thursday evening with a performance by the GU Orchestra and a talk by the artist. The exhibition features Behl’s photographs from his travels in Asia.

MR. GEORGETOWN 2014 Meet each of the contestants in tonight’s pageant and vote for which of the bachelors will receive your rose. blog.thehoya.com

Strategist Takes Over Post Endorses Bowser for Mayor Klain’s Seminar MAYORAL RACE

LAURA OWSIANY Hoya Staff Writer

The Washington Post endorsed Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) for D.C. Mayor in an editorial published last on Friday, Oct. 17.

“Neither councilmember David A. Catania (I-At Large) nor former council member Carol Schwartz comes close to Ms. Bowser in temperament, work ethic, ideas, policy understanding and balanced approach,” the Post wrote.

The Post criticized both Schwartz and Catania for their stances on education reform, calling Schwartz’s opposition to the move “wrongheaded,” and lambasting Catania for contrived policy.

“Instead of forging a meaningful collaboration with the city’s able schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson, [Catania] set out to pass a series of bills that were sure to capture headlines but would do little to improve schools,” the Post wrote.

The Post also pointed to the personalities of candidates, identifying Schwartz as a weak sentimentalist, Catania as a hothead and Bowser as tough but likeable.

“Those critical or jealous of Ms. Bowser have painted a caricature of a lightweight. That is not the tough politician we have come to know and admire in her seven years on the council. She strikes us as smart, capable and confident without being arrogant,” the Post wrote.

The editorial suggested that Bowser would better unite D.C. as per Mayor Gray’s “One City” motto because of her commitment to all sections of the D.C. population and her summer travel tour of major cities.

Joaquin McPeek, communications director for Bowser’s campaign, cited the endorsement as a sign of his candidate’s strength.

“We certainly welcome all endorsements and we feel that it provides additional momentum for our campaign,” McPeek said. “I just think it goes to show the broader narrative that she has been able to bring a large coalition of people together and get the support of so many throughout the District whether it’s the Post, labor or business.”

After unseating Mayor Vincent Gray in the Democratic primary last April, Bowser has consistently led the polls. However, recently emerged independent candidate David A. Catania (SFS ’90, LAW ’94) has closed in on Bowser’s lead in the past couple weeks, threatening the typical Democratic mayoral win.

SUZANNE MONYAK

up this class was one of the top things on my mind,” Klain said to his students Monday.

John Neffinger, media and commuStudents in the class lamented the nications strategist, will take over Ron loss of Klain as their professor. Klain, a Klain’s (CAS ’83) government seminar former chief of staff “Presidential Debates,” after Klain was to vice presidents Al appointed the U.S. Ebola czar by Presi- Gore and Joe Biden, dent Obama. has taught this “I’d like to congratulate you on pick- course on and off ing a professor as able as Ron Klain. since spring 2012.

Unfortunately for the class, but forParnia Zahedi tunately for the country, President (COL ’15) said that Obama also recognizes his ability and Klain has been one RON so we have to re-calibrate a bit on the of her favorite proKLAIN course. We’re saved by the fact that fessors at GeorgeJohn Neffinger has generously agreed town. to step in and take over, putting us on “He was one of track to continue with a great class,” the most impactful Michael Bailey, professor and chair of professors I’ve had the government department, wrote in at Georgetown,” an email to the 21 students in Klain’s she said. “He cared class on Wednesday. so much not only Neffinger is the president of The within those MonJOHN Franklin Forum, a nonprofit communi- day night sessions NEFFINGER cations organization that provides me- but outside of the dia training and debate preparation for classroom as well.” progressive candidates and nonprofit She attributed much of the course’s advocacy organizations. He co-found- success to Klain’s dynamism and ened KNP Communications, where he thusiasm for the material. helped clients to develop effective com“He would make class so fun, bemunications skills. tween giving us a He co-authored chance to negotiate “Compelling People: debates ourselves, to The Hidden Qualities role playing differThat Make Us Influenent debates, so I’ll retial” with his partner ally miss how interMatt Kohut, and he active he made the has lectured at Harentire experience of vard Business School being a student,” Zaand Columbia Busihedi said. ness School. Neffinger Klain’s students has earned degrees particularly praised PARNIA ZAHEDI (COL ’15) from Harvard and Cohim for his accessilumbia Law School. bility. According to “I’m particularly pleased that John Zahedi, Klain often ate dinner with has such deep experience in preparing groups of students at The Tombs becandidates for debates. This means he fore class, encouraged students to has lived the often harrowing process come to his office hours, and invited of debate preparation many times over his students to come to his office in which will give him particular insight DuPont Circle if they ever wanted to into the presidential debates you are meet with him. studying in the class,” Bailey wrote in “It’s astonishing how incredibly achis email. cessible he is. First day, he just gives out According to Bailey’s email, the all his contact information to his stucourse will continue as originally dents,” Dan Marrow (COL ’15), another planned on the syllabus, and the class student in his class, said. will continue to meet on Monday eveMarrow explained that Klain denings. signed the course himself and then There will be an outside speaker chose to teach it at Georgetown so this Monday, and Neffinger will begin that he could teach at his alma mater. teaching Nov. 3.

“This is a class that he built, he chose After news broke of Klain’s appoint- to teach here, and you can tell he really ment to coordinate the United States’ loves being over here,” Marrow said.

Ebola response last Friday, Klain disMarrow and Zahedi said that Klain cussed the future of the course with his expressed interest in reconnecting students during Monday night’s class with his students, either individually session. or as a class, after the course is over to “When the president called, giving reflect on the material together.

Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: NATASHA THOMSON/THE HOYA

President Barack Obama and The Washington Post have endorsed D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) for mayor.

“Usually, the Democratic nominee in the primary election is it, to the point that this next election is often a formality. This time we have someone running who has a shot,” said Hans Noel, an associate professor of government and specialist in national primary endorsements.

“Having the endorsement right around this time is probably about the time when people are starting to pay attention.”

Associate professor of communication, culture and technology Diana Owen agreed that the endorsement would solidify Bowser’s place at the front of the race.

“I think that it’s basically a way of validating decisions that people have already come to,” Owen said.

“And for some people, the fact that The Washington Post might be behind her, if they had any doubts about the fact that she would be effective or whether she would be a good leader or not, that might have pushed them a little over the edge, or, if they’ve already decided on her but were a little lukewarm, this gives them a little bit more of a reason to turn out at the polls.”

Noel, who studies national endorsements, explained that while political parties can make voters’ decisions easier in national elections, the same principles of party

politics do not apply to local elections, especially in liberal-dominated D.C. “The real tension in D.C. politics is in sort of reformers and establishment Democrats,” Noel said.

“What I think a lot of voters are sort of counting on is that the Post and other entities like that will help them decide when this person’s a real reformer, if that’s what you want, or not. It’s just hard to know, because you can’t rely on broad, ideological brushes when everyone’s kind of in the same place.”

President Barack Obama and governors Terry McAuliffe of Virginia and Martin O’Malley of Maryland have also endorsed Bowser.

Owen said she believes that personal endorsements, such as that of President Obama, hold more weight in the digital age.

“I think with a personal endorsement, it’s kind of easier to take that forward in new media than it is to just say ‘Here’s a newspaper that’s written an editorial,’ when you have an actual personality and the president of the United States has stepped up in a local election,” Owen said. “If I was to pick between the two and I only had one to pick, I would take his personal endorsement over the newspaper endorsement any day.”

“He was one of the most impactful professors I’ve had.”

NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

THE HOYA

A5

ProfessorNamedState Skype Links Language Partners DeptChief Economist TOBY HUNG

Special to The Hoya

COOPER LOGERFO Special to The Hoya

Economics professor Rodney Ludema, who taught at Georgetown for almost 20 years, joined the U.S. State Department as chief economist in July and will serve in this position for a year.

In his new position, Ludema provides the State Department with analysis of economic aspects of foreign policy.

“The best way to think about it is this: gone are the days when countries would follow the advice of the United States simply because we said so,” Ludema said. “Now we have to convince countries of the appropriate policies and convince them with credible analysis and solid evidence.”

The position, which is at the assistant secretary level, was created by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to facilitate an effective connection between economic and foreign policy. The chief economist reports to the under secretary of state for economic growth, Energy and the Environment.

Ludema said that he took the position to gain a new perspective on international trade, a subject he often studies.

“Sometimes it’s easy to write academic papers that address issues that are of concern to other academics, and so I think it’s important to every once in a while take a step back, pick your head up and look around and see what issues are actually important in the world,” Ludema said. “This is a really good way of doing that, so I am learning a lot and focused on issues that previously hadn’t been on my radar.”

Ludema’s research focuses on international trade policy, international political economy and the connection between trade and the environment. He founded Georgetown’s International Economics Seminar and served as the program’s director in 2003 and again from 2006 to 2010. He is the editor of the Journal of International Economics.

Ludema served as the senior international economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President from 2012 to 2013.

Economics professor Anna Mayda, one of Ludema’s colleagues, said that she thinks that his calm

COURTESY RODNEY LUDEMA

Rodney Ludema is the State Department’s chief economist. personality will help him succeed in his government appointment.

“The nice thing about him is that although he is very smart, he is very laid-back and not too selfcentered so he is also a very good teacher,” Mayda said. “It’s not just working together but learning a lot through the process and that may not happen if you have a senior person who is self-centered.”

Mayda said that Ludema shows a true passion for research and academia, which makes him an excellent candidate for his job.

“He is passionate about what he works on I can see that he really likes to do research and that is important when you are in academia,” Mayda said. “I can see that doing research is fun for him, it is not a burden.”

Ludema said that he will return to Georgetown to teach when his appointment is over.

“I very much like Georgetown and academia,” Ludema said. “I am an academic at heart, it is my lifeblood, and so to put on a suit and work within a bureaucracy — it’s not natural for me.”

Maria Hamdouchi (SFS ’16), who took Ludema’s International Trade class, said that his passion for economics was evident in class and made him an excellent professor.

“He takes being a professor very seriously and he cares about his students,” Hamdouchi said. “As far as academia goes, he ‘gets it’ in that he doesn’t present all of the information as if its something you can learn in books; he really tries to apply it.”

The Teletandem program, which matches Georgetown students with language partners in other countries via Skype, expanded to include Spanish, Arabic, French, Japanese, Russian and Turkish this semester after receiving a one-year grant from the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship.

The program was founded in 2008 and was previously only offered in Portuguese. Teletandum is unrelated to the Language Exchange Program, which connects students from different language backgrounds in person at Georgetown.

Michael Ferreira, a professor in the Portuguese department who helped introduce the program to Georgetown, said that the goal of Teletandem is to help students achieve foreign language fluency while participating in cultural exchange.

“One of the things we noticed was that Georgetown students were too busy with their extracurricular activities to work into their schedule these interactions that are so vital in achieving oral proficiency,” Ferreira said. “What we’re doing is essentially making these interactions possible for students.”

Currently, the Arabic department offers a one-credit course with the Teletandem program, with 15 students enrolled. Students meet weekly for one hour to Skype with their language partners, who are students learning English at the University of Jordan and Jordan’s Al-Balqa` Applied University.

Students converse with their partners in English for half the class and Arabic for the remainder of the class.

Terrence Potter, an Arabic professor who is coordinating the Arabic Teletandem program, stressed the importance of conversation in learning a foreign language.

“The skill you want to focus on is having conversations, which involves negotiating meaning, being receptive to your partner and all these things we normally have in a conversation which we take for granted,” Potter said. “But when you’re doing a foreign language, you have to come to an understanding of how you’re going to do those things.”

Joao Telles, the chief coordinator of the Teletandem program, has been running the program in his native Brazil and coordinating international interactions for over a decade.

“I am very impressed with the way things are going,” Telles said. “There are many languages in Georgetown that we want to integrate Teletandem into, so it’ll be interesting to see how it

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Students can practice their foreign language skills with language partners in other countries via Skype through the Teletandem program. plays out. We are running a lot of research to see how we can improve for the future.”

Ferreira predicts that programs like Teletandem will soon be integrated into most language classrooms.

“In the future, it would be interesting to see [Teletandem courses] become a general requirement for people in the languages,” Ferreira said.

“It doesn’t overwhelm you really. All you do is sit and talk to someone for an hour, which is a lot more engaging than sitting in a lecture.”

Rabia Mirza (COL ’16), a student in the Arabic Teletandem program, said that she finds the program to be helpful to her study of Arabic.

“I definitely find the program helpful, as I’m not currently enrolled in any intensive Arabic class,” Mirza wrote in an email. “My professor once told me that if you don’t use a language you’re learning for more than two weeks, you forget it. The Skype course prevents me from forgetting it altogether.”

However, Mirza says that the program is impeded by logistical issues that are not present in the in-person language exchange program on Georgetown’s campus.

“There seems to be more conversational depth with an in-person lan-

guage partner,” Mirza wrote. “In my experience, I was never assigned a conversation topic, which was more fun, unique, and beneficial in terms of learning Arabic.”

Yuka Akiyama, a coordinator of the Japanese Teletandem program, also acknowledged several difficulties in setting up the Skype sessions between her 19 students in Georgetown and the students in Japan.

“Time difference is a killer in our setup. We have a 13-hour time difference, and that makes it very difficult to schedule a session,” she wrote in an email. “In addition, we also face technical issues such as weak Internet connection and the malfunction of computers.”

Despite this, Mirza said that she is learning about culture and society in her partner’s country.

“I remember having personal conversations with my language partner about her family, relationships and controversial opinions,” Mirza wrote. “Through this, I not only learned cultural elements but also nuanced language that would benefit me more on a day-to-day basis rather than the political and formal terms that are constantly thrown at us.”

1st Hindu Chaplain Talks Goals KRISTEN FEDOR

CREATIVE WRITING ISSUE Do you think you could be the next Ernest Hemingway?

Do you have a notebook full of ideas for the next creative masterpiece?

Or have you just always wanted to see your words in print?

If you have a love of writing and a creative voice to share, submit your work to the guide for our upcoming Creative Writing Issue. Whether it's a poem, short story or memoir, now is the time to share your literary passion with all the readers of The Hoya.

Submission deadline: Oct. 28 Maximum of two submissions per person Poems, short stories, creative non-fiction and flash fiction between 500 to 1,000 words.

If you have any questions or queries, please email guide@thehoya.com

Special to The Hoya

Pratima Dharm, former army captain and chaplain, recently began her work as Georgetown’s first Hindu chaplain. She joins the existing Campus Ministry staff of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and Protestant chaplains. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How do you think your experience in the military will affect how you approach your new position at Georgetown?

There are a lot of parallels, but at the same time there are many new things that are unique to the campus ministry. The parallel of the age category, from 17 to about 28 or 30, is what we primarily focus on.

I have been the lead chaplain for suicide prevention for years in the military. That is one of the things that we have to deal with a lot in the military with the young soldiers. Those are parallels that I find perhaps, even on a campus ministry, if they’re not apparent right now, would come forward in the future. It’s a good preparation point to start from. Also some of the main issues of identity, issues of stress related with studies and education, we see the parallels that are found in the military as well with the young soldiers.

What function do you think spirituality serves on a college campus?

I think it’s a huge part in shaping the person, the individual that comes to be a part of the Georgetown family and culture. I would use the word, “spiritual formation.” It is very relevant to the point of their lives they are in at this time, where they are not fully formed. I’m not saying that as we grow up we are fully formed, but in terms of certain choices, for young persons, especially in the age category you find predominantly at Georgetown, I find that they still have a lot of questions about identity. They have a lot of questions about the choices

they are making, about career choices, about the fields to study and things of that nature, even in terms of the relationships they have as they transition from home to college. Things of that nature are very important and relevant when you bring the faith piece in. I see a powerful connection between faith, spirituality and the formation of the whole person, not just to be focused on choosing a career path, but who they become ultimately. I think spirituality and religion plays a big, huge part in that.

What have been the most rewarding aspects of your time here already?

The most rewarding aspects have been the students. Oh my goodness, they are absolutely amazing. What is really amazing to me is how much that they have carried forth from their home culture to here, and the need they have to practice their religion, their faith and their spiritual practices within their university. That amazes me. They are so young, yet it is so important to them to practice their faith. Now, that is amazing to me. And they have so many questions, that I am most of the time able to answer.

That to me is amazing that I am older now and I have something to offer to them. That I am in a place that I can offer something to these kids who are so eager to learn and to know more about their faith.

How are you looking to add to Campus Ministry, and the overall Georgetown community, moving forward?

It really stems from the fact that there has never been a Hindu chaplain at Georgetown.

These Hindu students have been very good about organizing themselves and getting things done that way, but I am really taking my time to hear them and to listen to them and to know what the needs are. The future plans that I am actually right now just shaping and forming is based off of what I hear from them and their needs. The need is to have a strong mentor and a person

COURTESY PRATIMA DHARM

Dharm is Georgetown’s first Hindu Chaplain. they can go to in terms of counseling. Also, it is about creating those safe places for them, because this is a little new.

At the same time, there is a need to have a chaplain and creating those spaces where their learning is facilitated, while at the same time, they also get a break from learning itself. It’s developing achieving programs that aid their learning, but at the same time, give them a respite as well. They have so much coming at them that I’m amazed at their courseload and the events they’re expected to commit to and the life that they live. I’m in that boat right now to hear them and do what I do based off of what I hear from them to really create those safer spaces of balance, where they are really able to be themselves and hopefully have opportunities for spiritual formation, within the various diverse religious opportunities you have at Georgetown. It is a Jesuit institution and a great institution, but it is also very open to learning from different faith groups as well. The intentionality behind all programs would be to make sure that Hindu students avail themselves to be participating in other faith group activities to enhance their own understanding of their own faith. I am a big proponent for people having the opportunity to experience other cultures and other belief systems that may even challenge their own beliefs. I like to use the word balance. Balance is the word, and the freedom to choose.

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news

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

Report Says 7 Assaults in 2013 ASSAULT, from A1 Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes with 60 percent of cases going unreported, according to RAINN. Health Education Services Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Services Coordinator Jen Schweer agreed that the Clery numbers do not accurately reflect the whole story at Georgetown and noted the need to include other sources to craft a complete picture.

“By definition, it doesn’t include assaults that occur off campus, while on spring break, while home over the summer, etc., even though these can be survivors who seek services on campus and/or their perpetrator is another Georgetown student,” Schweer wrote in an email.

“This is why the information we get from places like Health Education Services, National College Health Assessment data, etc. is so critical, because it helps us get a fuller picture of what is being experienced by our students as a whole.”

The new White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault, created in January 2014, recommends that universities conduct campus climate surveys to better assess the situation on their campuses. The surveys would determine the students’ knowledge

of university policy, the number of students who have experienced sexual assault and more information to help improve campus responses to the issue.

Georgetown has not announced a plan to conduct a campus climate survey, but the administration said that it is closely following federal legislation and developments. Rutgers University was invited by the White House to pilot the sexual assault survey, and the Association of American Universities, a nonprofit organization, is leading the survey’s development.

“As a White House recommendation, a campus climate survey is one of many issues we are considering in terms of how to best engage our campus on this issue,” Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh wrote in an email. “We are closely following these developments to be sure that any climate survey we use at Georgetown is the best possible instrument to help us understand the prevalence of misconduct at Georgetown, what our students’ concerns are, and how effective our educational programming is.”

Georgetown University Student Association President Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) said that a climate survey is essential to assess the culture of the campus with relation to sexual assault.

“[A campus climate survey] provides the best snapshot of the culture at Georgetown and maybe indications of underreporting because that is still an issue that we suffer from. A campus climate survey at one end can gather students’ knowledge about issues of sexual assault and understand how they are approaching the issue, but it could also be very indicative and point out holes in our current reporting procedures,” Tezel said.

GUSA Secretary for Health and Safety Nora West (SFS ’15) added that the campus climate survey will also help ensure that Georgetown provides the best resources and support to survivors of sexual assault.

“In order to create better programs and networks that support survivors, we need to have a better understanding of the situation on campus for survivors of sexual assault,” West said.

As the White House continues its push for campus climate surveys nationwide, student leaders plan to continue advocating for a campus climate survey at Georgetown.

“Things move slowly here, and with any bureaucracy it involves the continued and sustained pressure of student advocates on this issue in order for it to follow through,” Tezel said.

HONEYDUKES IN RED SQUARE

CHARLIE LOWE/THE HOYA

The Georgetown University Farmers’ Market hosted a “Top Chef” competition at this week’s market Wednesday. Among the entries were “Harry Potter”-inspired Cauldron Cakes, pictured above.

DAN GANNON FOR THE HOYA

Protesters met at the Sabra Hummus House, a pop-up hummus restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue, to protest the company’s support of the Israeli army.

Pop-Up Shop Draws Protesters SABRA, from A1 shot, 2 kills,” according to the protest’s event description.

A spokesperson for the company told The New York Times in 2010 that Sabra had never contributed “hummus or anything else” to the Israeli military. Sabra faced similar pushback in 2010, when Palestinian students at Princeton and DePaul Universities protested the sale of Sabra hummus on their campuses.

“The company has no political positions or affiliations,” Sabra wrote in a comment.

In response to the protest, one customer showed his support for Israel by wearing an Israeli flag like a cape as he walked past the protesters on his way inside of the store. Ari Goldstein (COL ’18), a board member of the Georgetown Israel Alliance, said that the organization deliberately did not take any action to respond to the protest.

“GIA made a conscious decision not to stage a counter-protest on Tuesday because we are a proactive, not reactive, organization,” Goldstein said.

However, Goldstein disagreed with the aims of the protest and characterized it as divisive.

“I think the protest was short-sighted. It framed a complex conflict in black-and-white terms in which only Israel is at fault, which is neither a fair nor constructive assessment,” Goldstein said. “Not to mention the fact that boycotting a business just because it’s Israeli gets us nowhere closer to peace, mutual understanding or a two-state solution — it mere-

ly divides and antagonizes.”

Sarah Mink, an employee of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, said that the demonstration was protesting against actions of the Israeli army and did not denounce the entire country or population.

“This isn’t anti-Israel, anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish. That’s a really common misconception that people have,” Mink said. “As a Jew, I’m really uncomfortable with Israel’s actions against human rights violations in Palestinian territories.”

GIA board member Josh Goldberg (COL ’17) also was uncomfortable with the protest, asking for students to support peaceful solutions instead.

“Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East and therefore is an important strategic ally to the United States. Students should be aware of the current situation in the Middle East and do what they can to support a peaceful resolution,” Goldberg said.

Though Mink acknowledged the importance of peace talks, she noted that such solutions had failed in the past, requiring actions such as the protest.

“We’re of the mindset that all of the peace talks and negotiations don’t really work in diplomacy. Although we really believe in it, it is not necessarily what is going to bring about peace and end human rights violations,” Mink said.

Georgetown Students for Justice in Palestine could not be reached for comment by press time.

The Sabra Hummus House will be open through Oct. 26.

Lancaster Remembered for Scholarship and Personality LANCASTER, from A1 national Development during the Clinton Administration. She assumed the SFS deanship in 2010, after serving as interim dean the previous year. She was both the first woman and the first SFS graduate to serve as the school’s dean.

“Carol was this very energetic, imaginative, creative, forceful personality. And she really had multiple visions. She wanted to do some many things,” said Interim SFS Dean James Reardon-Anderson, who served as Lancaster’s senior associate dean. “She pursued them with great vigor and many of them really came to fruition and I think they are going to be with us for a very long time.”

“A Washington Gal” Lancaster was born in Washington, D.C., a city that would prove to be inextricable from her personal narrative. Coming from a family of humble means, she was encouraged by her counselor at Oxon Hill High School to apply to Georgetown.

Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science in foreign service, she won a Fulbright fellowship to La Paz, Bolivia.

“I think when she was in Bolivia, she was affected by the poverty and the living situation. She had a contribution to make in that field,” Griffith said.

She went on to earn her masters and doctoral degrees from the London School of Economics, where she met her first husband, Mehdi Ali, an Iraqi.

“She spent a lot of time in the Middle East as a newlywed, getting to know his family and travelling around,” Griffith said.

In addition to acquiring Arabic, the polyglot Lancaster developed an interest in the Middle East and Africa, on top of her passion for Latin America.

She returned to the United States in the 1970s, assuming various roles in government, including in congressional offices and in the Department of State during the Carter Administration.

“Carol Lancaster is one of those people who epitomized excellence day after day in government and in academia. Working in Congress, in the State Department, in [USAID] or in the classroom, she demonstrated a hard-nosed, fact-based practicality that turns good intentions into

good results,” former Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.), in whose office Lancaster worked, said in a statement to The Hoya. “Few people in the general public knew her name, but she has been one of those people who gives public service a good name.

I learned a lot from her and very much regret her passing.”

Lancaster was a member of the State Department’s policy planning staff in the late 1970s, before serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa from 1980 to 1981. She left government to join the Georgetown faculty in 1981, and would serve as director of the African Studies program later that decade.

“She Had a Mission” Lancaster’s expertise lay in developmental economics, and she authored 10 books primarily focused on foreign aid.

“Dean Lancaster was a giant, not only here at Georgetown and as dean of the School of Foreign Service and everything she did preceding that, but she was a giant in the field of economic development, and particularly, politics, political science and political economy of development around the world with a lot of her work in recent years in subSaharan Africa,” said Steven Radelet, the Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development and director of the Global Human Development program.

While Lancaster’s tenure as dean was truncated by illness, she had planned to step down upon her term’s expiry in the summer of 2015, having instituted profound change and expansion.

“I had a very interesting phone call with her. Sometime before she announced she wouldn’t have another term as dean, we talked about whether she was in a position to finish as dean and go back to scholarship,” said Robert Gallucci, a distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy and Lancaster’s predecessor as SFS dean. “I assured her that her contributions were so many and so important that she had paid her dues and that she could indeed go back to scholarship. It was not long after that when she was diagnosed, which I think is a tragic irony.”

Most significantly, these “dues” included the establishment of the master’s program in global human development and the foundation of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

“She had hoped for many, many years that Georgetown would play a leadership role in global women’s issues,” said GIWPS Executive Director Melanne Verveer (FLL ’66, GRD ’69), who as chief of staff for Hillary Rodham Clinton formed a friendship with then-USAID deputy director Lancaster. “She was hoping that it would be a place that would make a real contribution to advancing these issues in the world community, provide opportunities for research and related kinds of experience, create an academic program, that it would have a global platform that would put a focus on various aspects of women’s peace and security.”

Former Provost Jim O’Donnell said that the School of Foreign Service campus in Doha, Qatar, held a particular draw for Lancaster.

“The majority of our students in Doha are women from the Arab and Muslim world who have limited educational opportunities otherwise because their parents don’t want to send them abroad to study. And Carol was clearly very much animated and engaged by the opportunity we had there to provide the very best that Georgetown can do for some remarkably smart and promising young women,” he said.

Lancaster conceived and executed the Global Human Development program, aiming to train practitioners who would work on the ground in developing countries.

In April, the SFS Board of Visitors endowed the Carol Lancaster Scholarship to fund an entering graduate student in the GHD program. The board raised $128,000 in funds in “almost record time,” according to Griffith, the SFS director of external relations , and the first Lancaster scholar entered the program this semester.

In addition to these creations, Lancaster also oversaw the establishment of a master’s program in Asian Studies, in addition to more discreet administrative changes.

“It was mostly kind of hidden things that she did that meant a lot and mean a lot to this day and probably escape the attention of average people and sometimes faculty even aren’t aware of these things. She instituted regular consultations with the program directors. … In the past, that was always much more episodic,” SFS Faculty Chair Jeffrey Anderson, director of the BMW Center for German and European Studies, said.

“She understood the complexities of this place; it’s a very decentralized place and that’s in many ways its strength but also you can imagine a decentralized place kind of flying apart over time, becoming less efficient, less connected. She has a knack for figuring out how to bring us together, even though we are all doing our own things within the school.”

Although Lancaster’s tenure as dean coincided with budget cuts as a result of the financial crisis, she maintained faculty growth, and the school continued to turn a profit.

“A Force of Nature” The descriptors “energy,” “enthusiasm,” “passion” and “humor” were never absent from an account of the dean emerita.

“Carol was the dean of the SFS when I came, so in a real way, she taught me about the SFS and what its aspirations are and how it works and things like that,” said Provost Robert Groves, who joined Georgetown in August 2012. “As a new provost here, Carol was really wonderful in making me feel welcomed.

She embodied the Georgetown spirit of community and care about the whole person instantly.”

Above all, Lancaster cherished her students, forming personal connections to both undergraduate and graduate students alike, facilitated by dinners and personal conversations.

“I think that oftentimes when you become part of a management team of a large and really highly respected program, you kind of lose touch with the individual students who make that program so special,” Lancaster’s son Doug Farrar (SFS ’05, GRD ’12) said. “I think that in her case she really maintained that personal connection and that intimate caring for her entire class of students through SFS. To me that was a major impact that I saw her have on students: that she really became close to these people and cared about their lives and their future beyond just in an academic setting.”

Farrar took a class co-taught by Lancaster and DeGioia on ethics in international development, two topics about which Lancaster was passionate.

“It was a large class and she — it was graded by TAs, so there was no conflict of interest there. And actually we had different last names so no one really knew that she was my

mom except for my friends in my class,” Farrar said. “It was amazing to see her in her professional element, having mostly seen her as a mom. I think it reinforced the view that I had, which is that she was who she was, no matter whether she was teaching, parenting, being with friends. She had that same humorous personality and tremendous curiosity and intellect. And she brought that to every aspect of her life.”

Beyond the developing world, she also championed women at Georgetown, serving as a mentor to many and pushing for the advancement of women on the SFS faculty, colleagues said.

Her sense of humor was renowned, employed at various events and used to put visiting foreign delegations at ease.

“She would consistently point to us in the direction of comedy and politically engaged comedy,” said Davis Center for Performing Arts Artistic Director Derek Goldman, the co-director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, an initiative between the theater and performance studies department and the SFS. “And she really understood the medicine of laughter and the way that the campus — I think she saw a connection between what we were doing with the Lab and comedy and laughter, and the campus needed it.”

In addition to her duties as dean, Lancaster played the harp, fashioned jewelry and was working on three books, including a history of Washington, D.C. — a subject on which she taught a freshman proseminar — infused with her personal history.

According to Griffith, a manuscript is complete, but its future is unclear.

Although Lancaster’s health was in rapid decline by this summer, she attended her son’s wedding in Dahlgren Chapel on July 26.

“The fact that she made it to my wedding was an incredible testament to her strength and resilience.

And it was a really special moment for me and for my wife and for our family because it meant so much for me to have her there,” Farrar said.

Lancaster is survived by her husband of 34 years, Curt Farrar, son, four stepchildren, seven grandchildren and her daughter-in-law. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the American Brain Tumor Association. A memorial will be held in Gaston Hall on Oct. 26 at 3 p.m.

news

FRIDAY, october 24, 2014

Disability Month Focuses on Diversity Xinlan Hu

Hoya Staff Writer

The Academic Resource Center and the Office of the Provost are sponsoring the university’s first Disability Cultural Month throughout October and through Nov. 13, which features events, panel discussions and a performance that will focus on disability and diversity awareness.

Lydia Brown (COL ’15), who was on the month’s planning committee, said that she hopes the month will encourage the student body to think differently about disability.

“What we hope to do through the events of Disability Cultural Month is not only to highlight the diverse experiences of disabled people, even within that category of disability, but also to highlight how it is incumbent upon us, intellectually, socially and even ethically, to shift the way we think about disabilities.” Brown said. “We need to shift from this pathological context that disability means something wrong with you to be fixed medically or psychiatrically, to the context of diversity and social justice in keeping with the values of our Jesuit university.”

Although the Office of the President has pledged its financial support for other cultural months such as OUTober and Black History month this year, it will not provide funding for Disability Cultural Month. According to ARC Director Jane Holahan, the Office of the President’s funding does not extend to cultural months that are already sponsored by the ARC. “It is my understanding that the funds are reserved for events created and sponsored by students,” Holahan wrote in an email.

Chris DeLorenzo (GRD ’17), another student on Disability Cultural Month’s planning committee, expressed the importance of bringing disability to the forefront of campus discussion.

“The broader question that we are trying to address with this month, is simply putting disability on the radar screen,” DeLorenzo said. “Putting it on the radar screen as a diversity issue, rather than a medical problem that should be dealt with as little as possible and out of sight of everyone else.”

Many of this month’s events will address ableism, or prejudice against disabled people.

“Ableism is basically the system of pressure that values certain kinds of bodies and minds over other kinds of

bodies and minds,” Brown said. “And in particular, those that are considered not desirable or not valuable bodies and minds are the one that we consider disabled. So our lives are considered less worth living. Our existences are considered burdensome in some societies. … Ableism underpins everything.”

Holahan said that the month aims to educate a wider group of students about disability’s place in conversations about diversity.

“What we are really trying to do is that we are trying to look at opportunities to educate the general community,” Holahan said. “We are trying to look at things that will be really important for students to gain lessons or insights of what it means to have disabilities, of what it means to request accommodations, of what it means to have equal access to programs and facilities.”

Brown said that events that address disability often attract fewer students than events related to other cultural groups.

“For a lot of people, it takes seeing something else in the title or description of the event or hearing about it from someone who they already have a relationship with to consider ‘maybe I should go to that,’” Brown said. “Because, for most people, if it’s just about disability, it doesn’t strike a chord in them that I might want to attend that.”

According to DeLorenzo, the student committee tried to address this problem by connecting disability events to other popular groups such as the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, the Black House, Leaders in Education about Diversity, Black Student Alliance and Center for Social Justice.

The month will also feature a performance of “Broken Bodies, PBP: Police Brutality Profiling,” a spoken-word and hip-hop performance by Krip-Hop Nation, a project that features musicians with disabilities. This performance, as well as other talks that are a part of of Lecture and Performance Series on Disability Justice, focuses on the intersectionality of disability issues.

According to Holahan, about 20 students attended the month’s first event about student-run nonprofits.

“Could there be more? Absolutely.

But … if only one person shows up,” Holahan said, “that one person was passionate about learning about disability issues.”

Synthetic Pot Users to Face Stricter Penalties Tom Garzillo

military personnel who test positive for synthetic marijuana,” Drug Policy Alliance spokesperson Grant Smith said.

The D.C. Department of Health classi- “You have the demand for synthetic fied synthetic cannabinoids as a Sched- marijuana being driven in part by the ule I drug Oct. 15, subjecting possession criminalization of marijuana.” and sale of the drug to stricter punishSmith agreed that synthetic marijuaments. na is a threatening substance, particuThe federal government banned syn- larly because of the lack of information thetic marijuana, colloquially known as about the substances.

K2 or Spice, three years ago. Despite this, “We don’t really know what the risks companies producing the drugs have are,” Smith said. “We have very little unfound it relatively easy to avoid prosecu- derstanding of what is in these products, tion by slightly changing the chemical or their effect on the user.” structure of their compound or labeling These synthetic substances have the it as a harmless substance. The drugs are potential to be 1,000 times stronger than often falsely marketed as potpourri, in- traditional marijuana, with effects more cense, jewelry cleaner or bath salts and akin to psychotic breaks than a high. are sold in gas stations and corner stores.

One Georgetown freshman, who reThe new regulations established by quested anonymity, said that while he the DOH make this practice more dif- and his friends often smoke marijuana, ficult, preventing chemists from alter- they have only encountered synthetic ing the substance and skirting the law. marijuana once. After beginning to The DOH has also allowed authorities to smoke the substance, they quickly realfine and retract the licenses of establish- ized that it was not real and stopped. ments selling the synthetic products.

“They smoked enough to definitely This new Schedule I classification feel what they would say was a buzz,” places synthetic this freshman said marijuana alongside of his friends. “But drugs like heroin it was different than and cocaine. the high you get “In an effort to from smoking maricurb emerging synjuana.” thetic drugs and Despite the effects, protect children and Smith argued that teens, the District criminalizing this has developed one substance would not of the most comfix the problem of prehensive bans on usage in the United GRANT SMITH harmful synthetic Drug Policy Alliance Spokesperson States. drugs,” DOH Direc“First and foretor Joxel Garcia said in a press release last most, this should be treated as a health Wednesday. issue and not a criminal justice issue,” he The D.C. DOH also launched an anti- said. “This is a more reasonable approach synthetic marijuana ad campaign, called with better results than criminalizing it K2 Zombie D.C. This campaign, targeted outright … this is a process where you at young people, associates the drug with let science decide what is the best way paranoia, seizures and hallucinations. to deal with this substance, rather than Other synthetic designer drugs like having politicians decide.”

Molly, a pure form of ecstasy, and bath In the Nov. 4 general election, D.C. votsalts have both seen an increase in use ers will choose whether to legalize mariamong young people. juana for recreational use. The measure, “These substances are gaining in- expected to pass, will allow a person 21 creased prevalence among youth and years or older to legally possess up to two unsuspecting adults,” Garcia said. “We ounces of marijuana for personal conmust be diligent and proactive if we are sumption. to stop the flow of harmful drugs to the Smith believes that marijuana legalmarketplace and finding its way to our ization would lead to a decline in synchildren.” thetic marijuana use, as people would The substance’s ability to go undetect- turn toward the regulated, safer product. ed by conventional drug tests has con“The interest in synthetic marijuana tributed to higher usage of it in institu- could be mitigated by creating a market tions with frequent drug testing. for marijuana,” he said. “That would di“It is not out of the ordinary to hear minish interest, and it’s a win for public reports of law enforcement officers or health and safety.”

Hoya Staff Writer

“This should be treated as a health issue and not a criminal justice issue.”

THE HOYA

A7

MAYORAL RACE

Shelter’s Future Debated Maureen Tabet Special to The Hoya

With Mayor Vincent Gray’s plan to close D.C. General, the District’s largest homeless shelter, within the next year, leading mayoral candidates Muriel Bowser, David Catania and Carol Schwartz have proposed differing policy plans to accommodate the city’s homeless population after the shelter’s closure.

The city’s largest shelter is located in the space formerly occupied by D.C. General Hospital. The facility has already seen 40 rooms closed after being deemed unsafe, and the shelter’s budget is $10 million short from what it needs to house the homeless, The Washington Post reported. Fox 5 D.C. reported in May that the shelter’s rooms contained rodents and rust, and the showers were lined with mildew.

The plan to close the city’s largest shelter has raised questions about how to accommodate the District’s homeless population without D.C. General, especially in light of the expected 16 percent increase in homeless families this winter.

Democratic candidate and front-runner Muriel Bowser has voiced her support for Gray’s plan to close the shelter. To bridge the gap until new shelters can be built, Bowser would expand the city’s rapid rehousing program.

However, Bowser’s Campaign Communications Director Joaquin McPeek noted that Bowser’s focus would be on reducing the need for such shelters in the first place, allowing the city to persist

through the loss of the shelter.

“In working to produce more affordable and subsidized housing as well as implementing additional prevention services, as mayor, Muriel’s goal will be to lesson the number of families and individuals in need of shelter. Muriel is committed to finding long-term solutions for would-be homeless families and individuals before turning to a shelter, developing smaller shelter alternatives, and, ultimately, closing D.C. General,” McPeek said.

Dora Taylor, spokesperson with the D.C. Department of Human Service, agreed, saying that the existence of smaller, communityoriented shelters can be beneficial.

“Children should be able to stay at their neighborhood school, so it’s always ideal to keep families in the community rather than isolated in some place,” Taylor said.

According to The Washington Post, independent candidate David Catania (SFS ’90, LAW ’94), in contrast, asserted that D.C. General should stay open, focusing instead on improving facilities. Catania has also focused on reducing homelessness overall by using increased rent subsidy programs to make housing more affordable. “[Catania’s plan will] identify programs and policies that are not working, improve them, or reinvest those resources in more effective programs,” the candidate’s official campaign pamphlet, published Sept. 14, said.

Independent candidate Carol Schwartz has argued for remod-

elling D.C. General or building a new facility after the upcoming winter, hoping to use assistance programs to bridge the gap until then.

“Instead of waiting on construction, Carol will increase funding for tenant-based assistance programs,” reads Schwartz’s Affordable Housing Position Paper.

D.C. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Dora Taylor stressed the department’s support of the mayor’s plan to close the facility, but also pointed to the importance of drawing attention to smaller neighborhood shelters to provide for the city’s homeless population.

“We absolutely think that D.C. General should be closed. We stand in support of the mayor’s decision to close it,” Taylor said.

“We are trying to inform the community and raise awareness that there are already neighborhoodbased shelters that people don’t even know about. They don’t know about them because there isn’t the kind of traffic and activities going on that people associate with homelessness.”

However, the department has fielded concerns from community members about the influx of community shelters into neighborhoods around the city.

“I hope that we are able to convince people that [allowing shelters in their neighborhoods is] the humane thing to do, and if anything, its value added to communities because we stabilize people in a better fashion when they’re able to stay in their community,” Taylor said.

Catholic U ‘Milk’ Event Rescheduled Lucy Pash

Special to The Hoya

After receiving criticism for indefinitely postponing a College Democrats screening of “Milk,” which chronicles the life of the United States’ first openly gay politician, the Catholic University of America has rescheduled the event.

University spokesman Victor Nakas said that the Office of Campus Activities approved the event, originally scheduled for Oct. 1, after a discussion with the CUA College Democrats.

“Following a discussion and review of the program’s education intent, the director of campus activities approved the rescheduling of the event,” Nakas wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The College Democrats indicated that they will attempt to reschedule the program so that it takes place within the next month.”

The university said it originally postponed the screening because of a miscommunication between the administration and the College Democrats as to the nature of the event. According to a statement from CUA spokesperson Victor Nakas after the cancellation, the administrators were confused by the event’s advertising, believing it to be an event centered on advocacy, rather than on LGBTQ awareness.

The College Democrats had distributed flyers, which had been ap-

proved at the time of the event, on campus advertising for the event that read, “Kick off LGBT Awareness Month with The CUA College Democrats.”

“When the request for approval had first been submitted by the College Democrats to the Office of Campus Activities, there had been no indications that the program would be a kickoff to LGBT Awareness Month. On Sept. 30, the Office of the Dean of Students was made aware of the advertising. For university administrators it called into question whether the event had changed in nature from one of education to one of advocacy,” said an Oct. 2 from CUA said.

Though no date has been set for the event yet, CUA’s College Democrats Communications Director sophomore Jackson Tovar said that no changes were made to the content of the original event.

“The event that was approved was the same event that was approved in September,” Tovar wrote in an email.

Tovar emphasized that the event was never meant to be one of advocacy.

“The university thought that the screening had switched from being an event of awareness to an event of advocacy, which was not the case,” he said.

As was planned for the original screening, the rescheduled event will feature introductory speeches by CUA alum Kevin Walling,

the first openly gay chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County, Md., and CUA professor of politics, John Whyte, followed by a screening of “Milk,” in which Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, an openly gay politician who served as a San Francisco supervisor until his assassination in 1978.

Because the university did not propose a later date for the event, students assumed the event was cancelled.

“We were all really confused about why the event was cancelled. To me, postponing means there is a later date. Since there was no later date, I considered the event to be cancelled,” Tovar said.

University officials said they never intended to cancel the event altogether.

“Given the confusion caused by the advertising, the Office of the Dean of Students contacted the College Democrats to postpone the event,” the Oct. 2 statement read. “It is our expectation that it will be rescheduled for later in October.”

Robert Mejia, a junior at Catholic University, said that students were surprised and unhappy that the university originally cancelled the event.

“I can’t speak for the whole student body, but we discussed the cancellation in one of my classes, and a few students seemed upset that the university suddenly cancelled the event when it had just been approved,” Mejia said.

DC Schools Project Marks Founding Charlotte Allen Special to The Hoya

The D.C. Schools Project celebrated its 30th anniversary with a panel discussion in the ICC Auditorium on Oct. 23 about the impact of the project on the Washington, D.C. immigrant community and the current condition of education in D.C. D.C. Schools Project, under the umbrella of the Center for Social Justice, recruits Georgetown students to teach English as a second language to the District’s underprivileged youth and adults with immigrant backgrounds, aiming to improve literacy and give tutors a better understanding of their surrounding communities.

The event began with a welcome message from Olivia Ball (COL ’15), the Latin American Youth Center Program Coordinator of the D.C. Schools Project, who has worked with the organization since the first semester of her freshman year.

“If I could spend every day at the Latin American Youth Center, I would,” Ball said. “I can’t imagine what my Georgetown experience would’ve been like without working for D.C. Schools. It’s also inspired me to continue pursuing a career in education post-graduation.”

Douglas Reed, an associate pro-

fessor of government, moderated the panel, which included an official introduction and report about the current state of the organization from D.C. Schools Program Director Jessica Lee. The three “narratives from the field,” given by Language Access and Advocacy Coordinator in the Office of Latino Affairs Cecilia Castillo Ayometzi (GRD ’97), Director of Language Acquisition Division of D.C. Public Schools Elba Garcia, and Staff Attorney of the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition Ursela Groat (SFS ’11), explored the impact D.C. Schools and similar programs can have and the relationship of their current work to D.C. Schools and Georgetown.

“I always wanted to understand my migration experience; what it meant to be a migrant in my society,” Ayometzi said. “Success is that they pay you to do what you love to do, and I think that I have managed to accomplish that.”

The panelists discussed how the environment in which the project is active has both changed and stayed constant, pointing to the surge of unaccompanied youth into the area “The population continues to be predominantly Hispanic,” Garcia said.

“Now we have more diversity,” Ayometzi added. “The new population is very young.”

Groat said that she was heavily influenced by her own experience working as a tutor in the parent program of D.C. Schools as a student at Georgetown.

“I loved being there every Saturday, I loved seeing the students and I loved the work that we were doing,” Groat said. “It gave me the opportunity to understand what it meant to be an undocumented immigrant in this country.”

Before an informal celebration at Epicurean and Company, the panel concluded with comments

by CSJ Associate Director Ray Shiu.

“I know firsthand how projects like D.C. Schools Project can mean so much in advancing educational opportunities for English language learners,” he said.

Tutor Chris Yang (SFS ’18) attended the panel and, as a first -generation immigrant, connected with the idea of giving back expressed in the panel.

“I wanted to give back, in a sense, and help other people,” Yang said.

Jenny Liang (COL ’18), who also tutors, noted the emphasis of the programs such as D.C. Schools at the university.

“Community service is a central part of the curriculum here at Georgetown,” Liang said. “Georgetown puts a very strong focus on reaching out to local communities.”

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NEWS

THE HOYA

Friday, october 24, 2014

GURanked7thforTFAAlumni ‘What’s A Hoya?’

Gene Choi

Hoya Staff Writer

Teach For America put Georgetown University in the top 20 in the list of medium-sized universities contributing the most alumni to the program for the seventh year in a row.

Georgetown ranked seventh with 27 alumni behind two D.C. area schools, Howard University and the George Washington University, which contributed 40 and 35, respectively. This is a drop in position from 2013, when Georgetown was in fourth place with 40 alumni.

Georgetown’s 27 alumni will join 10,600 Teach For America members teaching in 50 urban and rural regions across the country. Since 1991, almost 500 Georgetown alumni have joined the program.

“Teach For America works in partnership with communities to expand educational opportunity for children facing the challenges of poverty,” Teach For America Manager of Communications Elora Tocci said.“Teach For America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding college graduates and professionals to make an initial two-year commitment to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to end educational inequity.”

Established in 1990, Teach For America has committed itself to eliminating educational inequality in local communities across the United States. Since then, more

than 33,000 participants have reached over 3 million children.

According to Teach For America Recruitment Manager Weston Fillman, the program goes beyond the activities of simple community service through intense engagement between teachers and students.

“We provide intensive training, support and career development that helps these leaders increase their impact and deepen their understanding of what it takes to provide an excellent education to our most underserved kids,” Fillman said.

Georgetown graduates have been particularly engaged in this cause because it aligns with the university’s overall goals and its Jesuit mission.

“Georgetown students and alumni have a real passion for service,” Tocci said. “The fact that so many Hoyas join Teach For America is a testament to their commitment to social justice and desire to make our country more equitable for kids facing the challenges of poverty.”

Teach For America has faced criticism in the past for “padding the resumes” of college graduates before they apply to jobs in their desired field. According to Fillman, this criticism is unfounded, since 90 percent of Teach For America alumni are working in education or with low-income communities today.

“TFA seeks individuals who are looking to solve the problems facing America’s public school systems and it starts in the class-

room and emerges from there,” Fillman said. “We believe in the collective action of many people, in every community and in every field fighting against educational injustice and to tackle large issues of systemic racism and poverty.”

Kelly O’Keefe (SFS ’15) was accepted to Teach For America the spring semester of her junior year and now serves as a campus campaign organizer for the organization. O’Keefe will tentatively teach high school mathematics in Baltimore, Md., during the 2015-2016 academic year.

According to O’Keefe, Georgetown students are naturally drawn to the program due to the values taught on campus.

“I think it definitely has a lot to do with Georgetown’s Jesuit values,” O’Keefe said. “At Georgetown, we are taught a lot about how to be men and women for others and our world class education can be used to further our careers, but can also be used to help other people.”

O’Keefe said that the abundance of community service programs for students to take part in creates a culture of giving, propelling people toward Teach For America.

“I think that especially through programs like D.C. Reads, D.C. Schools, Prison Outreach and Jumpstart, Georgetown has countless programs that are focused on education quality,” O’Keefe said. “For a lot of people, Teach for America is a very appropriate culmination of their four years at Georgetown.”

Returns for 2nd Year Sarah Smith

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown University Student Association expanded its “What’s A Hoya?” Initiative, which is in its second year, by adding discussion sections after the presentations and increasing the number of student participants.

The program, designed by students, administrators, faculty and resource centers, provides freshmen with information and advice on different aspects of life on campus. The topics for each presentation this year are the same as last year, and cover “Mentorship,” “Cura Personalis” and “Community in Diversity.”

According to GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff and “What’s A Hoya?” Senior Coordinator Megan Murday (SFS ’15), the planning team decided to keep the three topics static because they reflect Georgetown’s Jesuit identity.

“When we picked these last year we were looking at what Jesuit values are central to our identity as a university and we picked those three,” Murday said.

Each session is around 90 minutes long and includes presentations, student panels and an added feature, student discussion groups. Students who participate in the program will receive additional points toward housing selection in the spring. In order to receive credit, students must attend one or more sessions and complete a post-program reflection. Each session that a student attends awards him or her a 0.10 increase in housing points.

According to Murday, students who participated in the program last year expressed a desire for group discussion. “[Students said the] most engaging one was the ‘Community and Diversity’ module because it was more of a conversation and a discussion,” Murday said, “It was more intimate instead of just a lecture style.”

In response, GUSA incorporated time for smaller discussion sections led by student leaders and professionals in the topic. According to Murday, these smaller groups allow students to air their opinions more freely and learn from their peers.

“The idea behind the program is to give freshman students access to the resources, to the discussions that happen on campus but don’t get the air time, aren’t as popular maybe as some of the other things that we have access to all the time,” Murday said. “We are hoping

that it is more of a conversation and that students can start to build relationships with those people that can help them throughout their time at Georgetown.”

Olivia Gasser (COL ’18) attended the mentorship-themed session and small group discussion.

“My small group touched upon spiritual mentorship and not until then had I really realized how much of an impact a spiritual mentor can have on somebody,” Gasser said. “My discussion leader was a great example of how much a spiritual mentor can support and influence somebody.”

According to Murday, the team of seven coordinators selected students leaders that had peer mentorship experience and were representative of different groups within the campus community to serve as mentors.

Brianne Griffith (COL ’18) also attended the mentorship session and said that she enjoyed meeting with older peer mentors.

“Freshman need to get themselves more involved in the job search so they are more comfortable for junior and senior year and finding a mentor is a great way to do that, which this program really showcased,” Griffith said, According to Murday, about 700 freshmen signed up for the first mentorshipthemed session. Last year, attendance at all three modules combined was somewhere between 500 and 600 students.

“We’ve had speakers that spoke last year and then came to this module this academic year and have said they have also appreciated it being more dynamic and more of a conversation,” Murday said.

“I think it’s been much more successful this year.”

Murday said feedback from this year’s programming has been positive thus far.

“A lot of speakers have told me that students have stayed afterwards to ask more questions, have followed up with them via email,” Murday said.“That’s really what we want students to get out of this, a personal relationship with those speakers. [We want them to] feel like they have resources at Georgetown that they can reach out to, so I think it’s been very successful so far.”

The last “Mentorship” session took place Tuesday night in the ICC auditorium. The “Cura Personalis” sessions will be held on Nov. 16 at 2 p.m., Nov. 17 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. All are in the ICC auditorium. The dates for the “Community in Diversity” sessions will be released in January.

GUSA Calls for Focus on No-Contact Directives COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

UNC School of the Arts Chancellor Lindsay Bierman (CAS ’87) (left), Harvard professor Mark Poirier (CAS ’91) (center) and author Christopher Reich (SFS ’83) spoke on their careers in media Tuesday.

Alumni Authors Discuss Careers Emma Rizk

Special to The Hoya

The Georgetown University Library Associates collaborated with the English department to present “Georgetown Writes,” the first in a series of panels featuring alumni discussing their experiences in the literary, film and magazine worlds, on Tuesday in Lohrfink Auditorium.

The panel was composed of University of North Carolina School of the Arts Chancellor Lindsay Bierman (CAS ’87), Harvard University screenwriting professor Mark Poirier (CAS ’91) and Christopher Reich (SFS ’83), who is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Numbered Account.” University Librarian Artemis G. Kirk moderated the discussion.

The discussion began as each writer addressed the challenges that they faced in their specific fields.

Reich started producing novels after giving up an unsuccessful career in stock brokering and investment banking.

“When I was at Georgetown I would have never ever dreamt that I was going to end up as a novelist,” Reich said. “I was in the SFS studying economics, doing my best to get through. …

I’ve written ten books and I’m either proud or ashamed to say I never took one English class in college.”

Poirier also discovered his interest in writing later on, switching from the pre-med track to English during his junior year.

“People learn as much about writing in a physics class … as you can in a writing class,” Poirier said. “At Georgetown you get a broad liberal education and I can’t think of better preparation for a writer than that.”

Regardless of their somewhat untraditional paths to their current careers, all three profession-

als spoke about their deep and lifelong love of reading.

“I am a huge believer in learning,” Reich said. “My fondest memories are of being on the fifth floor of Lauinger looking out over the leaves and just reading a book for four hours at a time. … The reason I can write the kind of books I have is because I learned so much here.”

When questioned by the audience about how the digital age will influence the publishing industry, Bierman expressed his belief that printed books will continue to be prevalent, even in a society that is reliant on technology.

“Print is a lean back experience, digital is a lean forward experience,” Bierman said. “There is a different mindset and I think that that lean back experience is always going to be with us. … What we discovered through our research is that people just want both. They want to be able to have the convenience of looking up a recipe on their tablet in the kitchen but it would actually enhance the likelihood that they would renew their subscription if they could have the tablet and the print addition both.”

The writers also shared their advice and experience with the aspiring writers in the crowd.

Bierman provided tips for two obstacles he said he often faces: writer’s block and procrastination.

“I think that discipline is the hardest thing of all to maintain,” Bierman said. “You have to really separate yourself from the world in a very deliberate way in order to get into that state of flow and to avoid the kinds of distractions that all of us have today. That’s what creates great art.”

Reich and Poirier said they felt fortunate to create and share stories as a way to make a living and spoke to the pleasure they found in seeking out a story as well as

their individual processes and techniques.

“For me, my great joy in writing is the two or three months a year I have where I can go around the world and research on whatever story I’m doing and get out there and pretend I’m some kind of investigative journalist,” Reich said. “The hard part is when you come back and open your door and look at that desk and say ‘Oh my God, I’m going to be there for the next nine months,’ but that’s how you earn a living.”

Poirier said that he loves to travel in search of stories, and often spends the day listening to the conversations of strangers.

“I think going to places is important because you will notice details you can’t see online.” Poirier said. “I do a lot of reading and observing. I’m the one on the subway who misses his stop because he’s fascinated by these two teenage girls who are talking about where they’re going to score some meth.”

Kate Randazzo (SFS ’17) attended the event and said that she enjoyed hearing a variety of perspectives from professionals in the field.

“I really thought the panel was effective at having a diverse group of voices; all the writers were coming from different places and because of that they all had different advice to offer,” Randazzo said. “I liked the variety of perspectives.”

Elizabeth Biener (SFS ’17) said that although she enjoyed the event, she wished there would have been a speaker present who had studied to be a writer while at Georgetown.

“One perspective that I think was lacking is the person at Georgetown that always wants to be a writer,” Biener said.“All three panelists didn’t think they would be a writer and then became one.”

Maddy Moore Hoya Staff Writer

The university’s recent consideration of a third-year meal plan requirement brought to light many concerns with on-campus dining — long lines, limited options and crowded dining halls among them.

Another concern related to requiring students to frequent the same dining establishment for another year at Georgetown was the university’s enforcement of Title IX no-contact directives, which prohibit individuals who are accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault from making direct contact with the survivors of their crimes.

The Georgetown University Police Department and the Office of Student Conduct have the ability to issue a nocontact directive under Title IX, but these restrictions can be difficult to enforce on Georgetown’s small campus.

“When you have areas that become necessary spots on campus, whether that be academic buildings, academic lounges, dining halls, etc., it creates a difficult situation in order to be able to enforce these orders, so it becomes incumbent upon that school or university in the context of its ability to expand and provide more options for its students to ensure that there are ample facilities to accommodate a no-contact directive,” Georgetown University Student Association President Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) said.

The no-contact directives serve to prevent the survivor from coming into both direct and indirect contact with the accused perpetrator.

“Seeing someone who has perpetrated a crime like that can be incredibly triggering for an individual — meaning they experience emotions related to the specific incident or the feelings that followed in the aftermath. This is an incredibly distressing and painful experience,” Health Education Services Staff Clinician and Sexual Assault Specialist Bridget Sherry Laizer wrote in an email. “The knowledge that someone is forbidden to contact you gives some peace of mind to a survivor, knowing that there will be real consequences that follow a violation of a no-contact directive.”

The no-contact directives are not limited to Georgetown’s campus and include all forms of communication.

“Normally the directive addresses initiated actions by students subject to the no-contact directive, such as stalking, phone calls, texting, email,

etc.,” Georgetown University Police Department Chief of Police Jay Gruber wrote in an email. “In instances where students inadvertently run into each other, they are expected to maintain civility and keep their distance from each other.”

Universities and colleges across the country have been taking a second look at their Title IX policies after the Department of Education began its detailed Title IX investigations of over 75 colleges and universities this past year in order to ensure that the schools are complying under the law’s regulations.

Offices like Health Education Services work with survivors to ensure that they receive the necessary accommodations after their traumatic experience.

“We also let them know of accommodations that are available through university housing, academics, and other resources on campus,” Laizer wrote.

“We work closely with all of these different offices to arrange for any accommodations a student might need.”

In the event that the accuser fails to comply with no-contact directives, the violation may be adjudicated with the Office of Student Conduct and could result in suspension or expulsion.

In addition, the Georgetown University Police Department also enforces District of Columbia Civil Protection Orders that students, faculty and staff have issued in the city. These civil protection orders are easily adjustable to the university environment.

“They can be easily modified and adjusted for your specific case. For example, the space between you and the accuser in classes could be reduced from 50 feet to seven feet. Instead of having absolutely no recourse, you can have it be adjustable to a university setting,” Sexual Assault Peer Educator Chandini Jha (COL ’16) said.

According to GUSA Vice President Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15), GUSA representatives have only discussed the no-contact directive with university administrators in the context of the proposed third-year meal plan mandate, but they plan to bring up the issue again in the future.

“It’s a really important part of any work that Georgetown does about sexual assault and it’s really at the forefront of all the discussions,” Jikaria said. “[The university needs to] make sure that they’re not putting any survivors of sexual assault in places where they’re in contact with the perpetrator. Any kind of hostile environment should be avoided in general.”

news

Friday, October 24, 2014

THE HOYA

A9

CFO Tackles Business Reorganization SHAY, from A10 Lucas, Victoria and I, in our capacity as leaders, present a clear vision for the journal’s future growth and structural development. Every individual on the journal’s business team actively contributes to the journal’s success, from managing a list of our subscribers to organizing our Dropbox account. People join the business team with a desire to learn, accumulate experience and deliver a great product. Their positions on the team enable them to do just that. That said, the key to any group’s success is institutional-

ized organization — a value I am working hard to ingrain into the journal.

I was chosen because of my sincere commitment to this principle. Over the course of this semester, I have attempted to install structure and procedure in any area that demands it. At the very heart of all my efforts is the hope that the next generation of journal leaders and business directors will feel as though this organization, although run by college students, is successfully organized.

JEFF SHAY is a junior in the School of Foreign Service.

DAN GANNON FOR THE HOYA COURTESY ANDREW GENUNG

The Improvonia team works at their office to manage the large increase in demand for their services, which streamline the ordering process for restaurants.

Startup Streamlines Restaurant Processes IMPROVONIA, from A10 Furthermore, the Improvonia platform also caters to the eating local movement by allowing restaurants to search for suppliers within a certain distance, even going as specific as local and hyperlocal, so that restaurants only see suppliers that are actually in their area. Not only does this system ease the process of inventory management for restaurants, it also makes the selling process for suppliers extremely efficient.

“Improvonia is enhancing restaurant vendors’ operations so much that they are giving us all of their accounts and are pressuring their restaurants into joining the platform so that their business

transactions are more efficient and less costly,” Zvereff-Akiiki said.

Businesses have responded very positively to the enhancement.

“As a chef, I know how frantic it can be working in the kitchen. Improvonia has created an efficient way to improve the relationship between restaurants and suppliers,” Gianluigi Dellaccio, chef and president of Dolci Gelati, said.

“We need as many hands on deck as possible; we are always hiring and we have a lot of internships available, especially for Georgetown students. We are happy Improvonia has been so successful.

When something works it works and that is what is getting people excited,” ZvereffAkiiki said.

Students line up for the first annual International Career Conference, hosted by the Latin American Student Association and Georgetown Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs.

Fair Has International Focus CAREER, from A10 ence because it will provide an avenue for our community to engage closely with top-tier firms and learn about their culture and job opportunities available.”

Rebecca Cassidy, assistant dean and director of the MSB’s Professional Development Center, believes that the conference is important for a diversity of students at Georgetown.

“From a career adviser perspective, whether you are an American student looking to work abroad, an international student looking to stay in the U.S., or anyone looking to work for a multinational corporation, having the international perspective is invaluable,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy explained that while

only 7 percent of MSB graduates work internationally, it is very difficult for international students to find employment in

“Our faculty does an excellent job of bringing in the global perspective into the classroom.”

Rebecca Cassidy Assistant Dean and Director of the MSB’s Professional Development Center

the United States.

“To see very high-level companies coming to Georgetown to speak specifically about their international opportunities is

very exciting,” she said.

Cassidy is confident that the International Career Conference would be extremely valuable to student education in the MSB, allowing them to understand the international business world they learn about in class.

“With the pace of globalization, it would be difficult to work in any environment without having an understanding of how internationally dependent countries and companies are on each other,” she said. “Our faculty does an excellent job of bringing in the global perspective into the classroom; GAMBLE and LASA are helping by providing opportunities for students to apply that global perspective after graduation.”

Public Policy Initiative Launched Charlotte Allen Special to The Hoya

The McDonough School of Business announced the launch of its Business, Society, and Public Policy Initiative on Oct. 15. The initiative focuses on how business and public policy intersect in modern society and the opportunities and consequences these interactions provide.

The program will provide for a wide variety of events, including lectures by prominent business and government leaders, and will serve as a platform for faculty research.

“The purpose of the program is to address the intersection of business, government and society,” Managing Director James Moore said. “The best way to explain that is to address how public policy decisions affect business and what business could and should be doing as an agent for change.”

Moore formerly served as the assistant secretary of commerce for trade development, but returned to Georgetown to run the initiative at the request of MSB Dean David Thomas. He has taught international business, corporate ethics and leadership and management at the MSB since 1999 and served on the boards of the U.S. ExportImport Bank, the U.S. Overseas and Private Investment Corporation and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, among other involvement in international affairs during the Reagan administration.

“We are excited to have him at the helm of the initiative.

He is extremely accomplished in his own right and will bring vision and leadership to the initiative,” Thomas wrote in an email.

The advisory board of the initiative is comprised of a number of renowned individuals, including Thomas Farley (COL ’97), president of the New York Stock Exchange, former Mexican president and CEO of Coca-Cola Mexico Vincente Foxand Ann M. Veneman, executive director of UNICEF from

2005 to 2010 and U.S. secretary of agriculture from 2001 to 2005.

“Georgetown McDonough has the distinct advantage of being a top business school located in Washington, D.C., which has fast become an international hub of business and public policy,” Thomas wrote. “We launched the Business, Society, and Public Policy Initiative to capitalize on this unique advantage. We want the world to understand that we already have significant research and other faculty-led centers and initiatives in this domain, making us a major nonpartisan, global venue to address critical business issues of the day.”

All schools at Georgetown will be able to participate in the initiative, as well as all areas of the MSB. “We also envision that the initiative will support and integrate the nine other centers and initiatives within the McDonough School of Business, as well as involve the greater Georgetown community — including all of the university’s other schools — in important discussions,” Thomas wrote.

However, the initiative is meant to involve more than just the Georgetown community.

“On a local, national and international basis, we are going to be able to focus on issues that are of great importance to the general public,” Moore said.

Already, a multitude of different people from all sectors of Georgetown have been brought together in the development of the initiative.

“It’s very exciting to have a student body and faculty that have already made clear their genuine interest to see that the initiative exists and to support it,” Moore said. “I am delighted that I have been working with all the different schools.”

Moore emphasizes the roles of students in the initiative, believing student involvement is critical to the project.

“My heart has always been in the classroom, and I want

COURTESY JAMES MOORE

James Moore speaks at an event for the Business, Society, and Public Policy Initiative, which he heads. very much to get the students’ input because to build the best possible initiative, the input of students on every level is critical to success,” Moore said.

He hopes that students will be influenced by the initiative and seek out opportunities to gain skills in critical thinking, analysis and strategy both in the classroom, through lectures and in collaboration with influential global and government leaders and the members of the advisory board. These skills could then be applied to solve prominent, current business issues.

“The initiative will begin holding events in the near future, primarily focused on connecting our students with business, nonprofit and government leaders to engage in conversations about the role

of business in society,” Thomas wrote. “We also are working to develop a certificate program for MBA students.”

Looking ahead, the initiative seeks to connect many facets of society and to broaden the minds of those who partake in it.

“To be able to take this on and see that Georgetown can contribute to national and global dialogue is very important,” Moore said.

Georgetown’s location gives it an incredible advantage and opportunity in examining issues of business, government and society, and the initiative helps spread Georgetown’s core values.

“Collectively, we strive to educate our students to be globally minded, principled leaders in service to business and society,” Thomas wrote.

BUSINESS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

BUSINESS BITS

MSB ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AND PUBLISHER McDonough School of Business adjunct professor Eric Dezenhall’s book “Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal” was published early October. “Glass Jaw” demystifies common myths about crisis management in the age of social media.

Dezenhall recommends trying to make the problem go away rather than trying to ameliorate it; by lengthening the time frame of recovery and by using unconventional tools, one has a higher chance at recovering from crisis.

THE BUSINESS OF WATER

Associate professor Mark Giordiano led a group of MBA Evening Program students in an Intensive Learning Course about the private sector’s nuanced relationship with water. In using the resource, students made projects and business plans for how firms can learn from water. Encouraging companies to become more aware of water consumption was a key goal of the course.

By understanding the larger issues at play within the business environment, students learned useful skills that will help them to analyze future problems in their careers.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SHOWCASE

The McDonough School of Business hosted its third annual Entrepreneurship Day on Oct. 22 in order to educate students about the world of entrepreneurship and encourage them to consider careers in startups. The showcase imparted to participants that success in business requires more than just hard work and the proper know-how, it requires leaders to be emphatic, selfless and know how to effectively communicate. Among the speakers were students Kevin Brosnan (COL ’16) and Sonia Vora (SFS ’15) who have created a new online magazine, Venture Capital, which covers and connects startups in the D.C. area.

Career Fair Offered Global Opportunities DEIRDRE COLLINS Special to The Hoya

The Latin American Student Association and Georgetown Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs held the first annual International Career Conference on Thursday in the Fisher Colloquium.

The all-day conference offered students an opportunity to network and seek job and internship opportunities with international companies, such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Deloitte. Internship and job opportunities both within and outside the United States were offered.

LASA had previously held the Latin American Career Conference, a version of the fair focused on connecting students with future employees in Latin America. The conference has been redeveloped this year as the International Career Conference in order to provide students with career opportunities on a global scale.

Representatives from major multinational companies attended the event. A panel was hosted for both graduate and undergraduate students, followed by a career fair and opportunities for informal interviews and networking.

Tatiana Lizarralde (MSB ’16) and Ludovico Bassetti (COL ’16), co-presidents of the independent conference board, have been responsible for expanding the conference. Both were involved in the Latin American Career Conference and approached GAMBLE as another sponsor to increase outreach.

“As presidents, we have managed and overseen the entire planning and execution. This would not have been possible without the relations and progress established in previous years,” Lizarralde said.

Working with a qualified board comprised of nine members to reinvent the conference, Bassetti and Lizarralde are enthusiastic about the first year of the International Career Conference.

DAN GANNON FOR THE HOYA

A Google representative speaks to students at the International Career Conference. The conference offered students networking opportunities with companies offering jobs within and outside of the United States.

“We are excited to contribute to the future of our fellow Hoyas,” Bassetti said. “We believe that Georgetown students are intelligent, driven and well-rounded. Our ultimate goal is to help create an environment in which these qualities can be best exploited.”

Lizarralde and Bassetti explained that their ultimate goals are driven by the conference’s motto: “Where excellence meets opportunity.”

They seek to help students become more prepared for the job searching process and make it easier for undergraduates.

“We strive to create a comprehensive event that facilitates the job searching process by bringing a diverse array of companies, giving students an opportunity to learn how to present themselves and approach recruiters more confidently,” Bassetti said.

in American Career Conference in the past at companies like Bank of America. Allerano is confident that students of all ages have benefited from the conference.

“As an attendee, the conference [would] be very valuable for my personal career development,” Allerano said.

GAMBLE, one of the conference’s main sponsors, has also helped to make the conference more international by expanding the list of attending companies. Daisy Peraza (COL ’15), co-president of GAMBLE, expressed her excitement for the organization’s involvement in the conference this year.

“We have invited many of our corporate sponsors to the conference,” Peraza said. “I am really excited for the International Career ConferSee CAREER, A9

Startup Targets Restaurants

COMMENTARY

The Importance of Being Organized T

The opportunity will be particularly beneficial to international students who are looking for career options outside of the United States.

“International students face a range of visa problems which we help them overcome by bringing companies that either sponsor visas in the United States, have positions abroad or have special programs directed to individuals without working visas,” Lizarralde said.

Nicole Allerano (SFS ’16), the president of LASA, expects hundreds of students to attend the conference since it is sponsored by LASA and one of LASA’s biggest events of the year.

Allerano acknowledged that although upperclassman students typically get more attention at career conferences, many sophomores have gotten summer internship opportunities through the Lat-

DAVID BROWN Hoya Staff Writer

he engine that keeps any organiza- nual publication to including an antion running — club, nonprofit, nual special-issue cybersecurity edition business or otherwise — is the and a website that was updated daily degree to which it can keep itself orga- and professionally solicited. Underlying these initiatives are dynamic profesnized.

I joined the Georgetown Journal of In- sional relationships — with advertisers, ternational Affairs as its chief financial publishers, authors, partners and sourcofficer this semester due to the particu- es of sales — that require a business-like lar knowledge I could bring through mindset and professional organization.

The journal’s most recent business my role as the chief operating officer of another student-run group, the George- transition marks a difficult period. Intown International Relations Associa- formation and records I expected to tion, Inc. In my capacity as the Journal’s receive in order to hit the ground runCFO and as a sitting member on the ning were not immediately available Journal Leadership Council, I worked and had to be actively sought out. The closely with Executive Director Lucas historical and institutional knowledge Chan (SFS ’15), COO Victoria Moroney key to operating such a complicated (SFS ’15) and its new Director of Strategy, institution had to be slowly drawn out from various sources.

Elizabeth Walsh (SFS ’16) to While the journal has help push the principles of had a successful strucefficiency, adaptability and ture, a recent transition productivity, while overseebetween distributors ing the financial side of the has set up various chaljournal. Most important, lenges such as reintegrahowever, was the experition into the journal’s ence I could bring in orgawebsite, phasing out old nizing the business side of articles into the new disthe publication.

Jeff Shay tributor and price negoIn my first month worktiations. Over the suming with the journal, I was introduced to a business Fortunately, I wasn’t mer, Lucas and Victoria committed countless undergoing a significant reorientation in attempts being handed a blank hours to recording, discovering and organizto improve its flexibility slate. ing much of the inforand capacity to implement new initiatives. This arduous process, mation, which they requested remain as both Lucas and Victoria adequately private, that the journal needed. Their informed me, required sincere coopera- work has proven priceless and has guartion and effort on the part of the en- anteed a much more successful transitire business team. For me, this meant tion than what could have otherwise taking on responsibilities as CFO that happened, but there is a lot more to be extended beyond just running the jour- done.

However, my position not only renal’s finances.

Although the journal has been quired focusing on the journal, but dearound for approximately 15 years, the voting a significant portion of this past current structure of its business team summer to the organization of myself. was only introduced a year ago under My motivation was not out of self-imthe leadership of the previous execu- provement, but rather a circumstantial tive director, which itself was a newly demand. The skills demanded of me in established position. It was my task to my role as COO of GIRA were ones I had build upon this initial foundation, in- not previously had to acquire. My prestitutionalize processes and improve decessors may have managed the role with ease, but over the course of both performance.

Prior to the revitalization of the busi- managing the disbursement of a grant ness team, the financial side of the and GIRA’s operational costs and servicjournal had taken a backseat to the con- es, I realized my job necessitated quality tent, until it became apparent that the documentation. Fortunately, there were journal’s growth demanded expanded plenty of existing structures for me to avenues of distribution, which in turn build off of — I wasn’t being handed a required a stronger business team. In blank slate and told, “Here, now build.” the past three years, the journal went See SHAY, A9 from producing a well-respected bian-

A successful startup company will identify both a daily problem and the solution — and that’s exactly what Improvonia, an app created by Georgetown MBA alumni Konstantin ZvereffAkiiki (GRD ’11) and Jagmohal Bansal (GRD ’11), has done for the restaurant industry.

Streamlining the ordering process with electronic ordering sheets for restaurants and their supplies, Improvonia also generates digital reports showing product costs, previous order information and supply data for users.

Born from an MBA operations class group project that tasked students with performing a case study on a real business, ZvereffAkiiki and Bansal chose to analyze Sweetgreen and, from this analysis, noticed the starting inefficiencies of the supply ordering process.

“The current process involved hard-to-hear late-night phone calls, blurry faxes and choppy voicemails,” Zvereff-Akiiki said, describing how the process was inefficient and difficult for both restaurants and suppliers, who have many different clients with varied needs.

Not only was the concept of Improvonia well received by their professor, Zvereff-Akiiki and Bansal pitched the idea at multiple Hoya Entrepreneurship Initiative competitions and won them all. Following their success at Georgetown, the co-founders represented the MSB at the international Stu Clark Investment Competition in Manitoba, Canada as the first-ever team from Georgetown. Despite not winning the investment competition, the founders continued building their concept and formally founded Improvonia.

Launched in July 2014 and funded only by the generosity and trust of family and friends, Improvonia anticipated business with 16 restaurants in the Washington, D.C. metro area in the first three months. Improvonia instantly met with success, attracting over 150 restaurants and their suppliers within those same three months.

“Right now we are just trying to keep up with demand

Visit us online at thehoya.com/business

COURTESY ANDREW GENUNG

The Improvonia team accepts their “Best Unfunded Startup” award at D.C. TechDay from Congressman Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.). and opening accounts,” ZvereffAkiiki said. “The D.C. restaurant community is a very tight-knit community and we are rapidly spreading through it.”

Because of its rapid success,

“We are not enabling price competition and we never will. We are making it easier and more efficient for everyone.”

KONSTANTIN ZVEREFF-AKIIKI (GRD ’11) Improvonia Co-founder

Improvonia was named the “Best Unfunded Startup” at D.C. Tech Day, held Oct. 2 at the National Building Museum. Improvonia was commended for its explosive growth and huge potential going forward in a wide-open market. The startup is now gearing up for its first major round

of financing in November.

“We plan on expanding throughout the East Coast, first in New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia, and then we will see from there,” Zvereff-Akiiki said.“We currently have a lot of demand in New York from suppliers there; they know about Improvonia and want to set up their accounts with us before we even launch in the city. We really want to finalize our presence in the market; we want to make sure everyone knows we exist.”

Improvonia is completely free for restaurants, which contributes an additional incentive to join, as well as streamlining the process of ordering by providing an online database of suppliers.

“Restaurants can access our entire database of suppliers and make electronic orders with them,” Zvereff-Akiiki said. “We are not enabling price competition and we never will. We are opening sales channels for restaurants and their suppliers and making it easier and more efficient for everyone.”

See IMPROVONIA, A9