The Hoya: November 8, 2013

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 95, No. 20, © 2013

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013

BASKETBALL PREVIEW The Hoyas boast their most seasoned roster in years.

EDITORIAL A trend toward quirky college application essay prompts is misguided.

SEE MAGAZINE IN RED SQUARE AND ONLINE

Friendly Screening Sours

BULLDOG MOM McKenzie Stough (COL ’13) will be the new mascot’s caretaker.

NEWS, A5

OPINION, A2

ENGINE FIVE The story of the firehouse that’s just around the corner.

GUIDE, B1

Housing Selection Adds New Twist

’TIS THE SEASON

Educational forums to influence priority for rising sophomores

Joint Israel-Palestine film event falters when group pulls support

SAM ABRAMS Hoya Staff Writer

MALLIKA SEN Hoya Staff Writer

Students for Justice in Palestine withdrew its co-sponsorship of a film screening with the Georgetown Israel Alliance and J Street U, an event that was supposed to herald an unprecedented collaboration between the historically contentious organizations.

The SJP board made the lastminute decision Tuesday to officially disassociate the organization from the event, after determining that it did not align with their national organization’s platform, which opposes normalization — treating Israelis and Palestinians as equals instead of the oppressor and

COURTESY ALIASHA POTTER/CBS

See SCREENING, A5

Georgetown basketball players practice with children at the U.S. Army Camp Humphreys in South Korea on Thursday. See story on B8.

Housing selection points for rising sophomores will be tied to attendance at a series of forums on diversity and sexual assault beginning this year.

The new Housing Passport Initiative, launched by the Georgetown University Student Association and the Office of Residential Services, will take effect for fall 2014 housing selections in March.

Under past policy, rising sophomores receive two housing selection points, rising juniors receive four points and rising seniors who lived off campus in fall 2013 receive three points if they apply for eligibility.

Following the new initiative, rising sophomores still receive two points, but will gain one-tenth of an additional housing point for every forum that they attend. With three forums offered, the maximum number of points for rising sophomores will be

2.3 and the minimum will remain two.

The selection points of students in groups of two, three or four for housing selection will be averaged. Higher point averages will give groups an earlier selection time to choose their preferred housing.

The university will offer four sessions of each module, including two weekend sessions, to help accommodate student schedules.

“We are excited to partner with GUSA to make this initiative launch successful, and in giving incentives to students based on their attendance to these important forums, we hope to see a large turnout, and a positive change on our campus,” Executive Director for Residential Services Patrick Killilee said.

GUSA President Nate Tisa (SFS’14) and Vice President Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) first approached the Office of Residential Services early in the semester to discuss a GUSA Housing Passport Initiative.

“We had this idea back in July to find a way to incentivize increased engagement in all aspects of student life here at Georgetown, and when we See HOUSING, A6

Early Applications Fraud Uncovered at Georgetown $390,000 lost from 2007 to 2010, Washington Post report exposes Stable, Diversity Up Hoya Staff Writer

MOLLY SIMIO

Hoya Staff Writer

The early action applicant pool for the Class of 2018 is more diverse than in years past, with white applicants dropping from 59 percent in 2011 to 56 percent this year.

According to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69), this is a significant trend, particularly for this phase.

“The early pool is more likely to favor the more traditional applicant,” Deacon said. “I would say the fact that we’re getting an increasingly diverse early pool is a good thing.”

After seeing an increase in early applications for several years, the number of early applicants to the Class of 2018 remained mostly unchanged from last year, with 6,569 early applications processed so far compared to the 6,565 processed at this time in 2012.

“Happily, things are the same.

We would have predicted, by all expectations, that [the number of applications] would be going down,” Deacon said.

Deacon expects that the total number of early applications will be between 6,700 and 6,800, staying about even with the 6,840 early action applications to the Class of 2017, 880 of which were ultimately accepted.

Distribution across three of the four undergraduate schools has remained mostly static as well.

Little change was seen in the geographic distribution of early applicants, despite the fact that the largest drop in college-bound students

56

PERCENT OF APPLICANTS WHO ARE WHITE @thehoya

occurred in the Northeast, traditionally a major source of Georgetown applicants.

“Early numbers tend to skew a little toward places that are ready to apply early, which tend to be more likely in the more affluent communities in the Northeast,” Deacon said.

The School of Nursing and Health Studies was the only school to experience a decline in applicants, a break from recent trends.

The NHS has received 457 early applicants to the Class of 2018, as compared with the 502 applications processed at this point last year.

“It’s nothing to be alarmed about,” Deacon said.

SAT scores of early applicants have remained largely unchanged from the previous year’s critical reading and mathematics median scores of 700 to 770.

Deacon anticipates offering admission to about 950 applicants from the early action pool for an acceptance rate of about 15 percent.

“We really review and rate to admit, not to deny,” he said.

The stability in the number of early applications was good news for Georgetown, as the number of college-bound students has been decreasing nationally since 2010, with the largest decline among white students. However, growth in the number of minority students, especially those of Hispanic descent, is offsetting this trend.

“Don’t expect the numbers to go up, be happy if they don’t go down and look at the quality of who is actually there,” Deacon said.

6,569

NUMBER OF EARLY APPLICATIONS APPLICANTS EXPECTED TO BE ADMITTED EARLY

950

Georgetown was among more than 1000 nonprofit organizations that suffered significant asset losses due to unauthorized uses of funds, according to a Washington Post investigation published last week.

The Post’s report, which looked at tax forms from 2008 to 2012, has now prompted multiple federal investigations into whether these nonprofit organizations properly reported diversions, which are unauthorized uses of funds such as theft or embezzlement, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Post specifically examined if nonprofits checked “yes” or “no” to having a significant diversion of assets on their tax forms. A diversion is considered significant if it exceeds $250,000 or 5 percent of the organization’s receipts or assets.

According to Georgetown’s 2011 federal financial disclosure form 990 for tax-exempt organizations,

obtained by The Washington Post, an unspecified university administrator improperly “compensated herself approximately $390,000” from 2007 to 2010 for work relating to a university-sponsored conference. The compensation was done through an unknown bank account

“

We followed internal procedures for disciplining the parties involved.

“

GRIFFIN COHEN

RACHEL PUGH Director of Media Relations

over which the administrator had signature authority.

The documents state that Georgetown immediately closed the bank account upon learning of its existence and transferred the balance to a university controlled and audited

account. The university then entered into an agreement with the administrator, who repaid all the unapproved compensation, plus interest.

Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh said she could not disclose details due to confidential personnel issues.

“This investigation uncovered the additional compensation received by the administrator for work relating to the conference, so we followed internal procedures for disciplining the parties involved,” Pugh said.

Pugh would not disclose what those internal procedures were or if the administrator is still employed by the university. She said that Georgetown expects to be contacted in regard to the federal investigation, adding that the university has followed all proper procedures.

“The university investigated the situation and reported it through its normal governance procedures and made the appropriate disclosures See FRAUD, A6

Grad Students Suffer Pay Delays MADISON ASHLEY Hoya Staff Writer

Graduate students employed by the university have spoken out in an effort to pressure the administration into fixing systemic problems with timely payment.

According to Sheila McMullan, associate dean for administration and finance, students first began to voice concern over pay delays for stipened work after the transition to a new payroll system last winter.

“The issues that we were having were on the hourly side mainly because when the data came over from the old payroll system, it didn’t come over in a complete way,” McMullan said.

Since then, administrators have worked to centralize the payroll system for students on stipend by shifting responsibility for entering stipend hours away from individual departments. The more centralized system put responsibility for all Published Tuesdays and Fridays

postgraduate stipend salaries onto two employees within McMullan’s office.

“It’s a heavy load, especially when you’re coming into the beginning of the semester,” McMullan said. “It’s a lot of hours to put in for those staff members, but it’s the only way we could control the data.”

Jordan Smith, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History, expressed frustration that he had yet to receive his monthly stipend due Nov. 1, though his previous check in September came a week early.

“The thing that is particularly frustrating is that there is no consistency, I’ve had to pick up checks at different places across campus, and there doesn’t seem to be any sense as to who I should ask about this,” Smith said.

As a result, Smith had to dip into savings to pay his rent this month.

See PAY, A6

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Graduate Student Organization President Sam Osea (GRD ’14).

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

A2

OPINION

THE HOYA

C Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

A Handy Passport There are few circumstances that can truly be considered a win-win — and, let’s face it, even fewer when the parties involved include students and the administration. More often than not, the best that can be hoped for is compromise. However, in the Georgetown University Student Association’s Housing Passport Initiative, we’re happy to see an exception to that rule.

Launched this week by GUSA in conjunction with the Office of Residential Services, the new program consists of a series of forums on campus issues such as diversity, club life and sexual assault that are linked to housing selection.

Freshmen will earn a tenth of a point for each session they attend, with a cap of three tenths. Incentivizing attendance with housing selection points is a creative effort to collaborate with administrators. The forums are a commendable method to not only highlight available resources but also build a greater sense of community through discussions of pervasive campus-wide issues.

The passport program will alleviate

a substantial information gap among current freshmen. Though New Student Orientation does a decent job communicating the nuts and bolts of Georgetown’s policies and resources, freshmen are still often overwhelmed by the sheer amount of dos and don’ts, what-if’s and how-to’s. This leads to many freshmen not knowing where to turn or whom to consult when they do end up in a lessthan-desirable situation, whether it be a minor write-up or something more serious.

The forums will serve as a much-needed booster shot to NSO and an opportunity to broaden and deepen campus dialogue on key issues like sexual assault and diversity.

The initiative also shows GUSA President Nate Tisa (SFS ’14) and Vice President Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) delivering on a campaign promise of increased student engagement with sexual assault awareness. Though only time will indicate the extent to which the passport program will be embraced on the Hilltop, it has the framework for success.

Substance Over Style “Find X.” “If you could choose to be raised by robots, dinosaurs or aliens, who would you pick?” “What does PlayDoh have to do with Plato?”

For Georgetown students who applied to many different colleges, these real questions on college applications might trigger unpleasant memories. As noted Saturday by The New York Times, oddball college application questions are trendy these days at competitive universities.

Admissions offices claim that, amid a sea of nearly identical application prompts on the Common Application, these quirky questions help set their college apart from the rest of the pack.

But while off-kilter prompts can be appealing on the surface, they have little value for either applicants or application readers. Questions with such restrictive parameters can constrain students’ ability to fully convey their merits. In fact, there seems to be an almost inverse relationship to the quirkiness of the question and the ability to respond creatively or substantively. Because these questions do not facilitate writing about

C C C C

friday, NOVEMBER 8, 2013

THE VERDICT Binge Trends — Campus police at The George Washington University report a 70 percent year-to-date increase of students hospitalized due to drinking, with up to 14 students going to the hospital per week.

Vote for Panda — The National Zoo is opening an online vote to name its baby panda by Dec. 1. The choices are Bao Bao, Ling Hua, Long Yun, Mulan and Zhen Bao. Dean & Donuts — Starting today, Dean & DeLuca will sell donuts from D.C.-based purveyor Astro Donuts & Fried Chicken, famous for producing flavors like maple bacon and peanut butter and jelly.

Grad and Governor — Georgetown alumnus Terry McAuliffe (LAW ’84) clinched the Virginia gubernatorial race Tuesday.

A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD US ... @GtownVoice

Nov. 5 Thanks! <3 <3 <3 RT @thehoya: EDITORIAL: A rethinking of the Georgetown Voice’s office is long overdue

@KMakarenko

Nov. 5 @thehoya Editorial Board on revisiting the @GtownVoice sanctions: Do it, @Georgetown. ‬‬‬ @jacksonrperry

Nov. 5 Mensches RT @thehoya: EDITORIAL: A rethinking of the Georgetown Voice’s office is long overdue. @GTeninbaum

Nov. 5 Great @Georgetown video supporting LGBT student-athletes @GUAlumni @GUStonewalls

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Sania Salman

unique experiences, students run the risk of parallel thinking, or coming up with similar responses, even when their essays adequately address the prompt.

On the other end, admissions offices stand to gain little from quirky questions. The goal seems to be to gauge how an applicant responds when presented with an unusual prompt. But there is precious little space on a college application — a pivotal document in the life of many teenagers — and questions must be given an equal level of seriousness. A majority of worthwhile applicants will be able to convey their unique way of thinking better when presented with a more open-ended question.

Georgetown commendably keeps its essays fairly broad, requiring a creative personal essay, a community service experience description and one schoolspecific response. Our admissions department does well in bypassing what’s trendy. It is a waste of application space to throw in unorthodox prompts simply for the sake of branding.

Reading Into Academics It is a curious phenomenon that at one of the most intellectually rigorous universities in the country, reading doesn’t count for much.

Understandably, in the flurry of midterms, papers and extracurricular activities, assigned readings often get pushed to the bottom of many students’ to-do lists. But considering that much of our education is based on texts, a culture of skipped reading has a deleterious effect on both the classroom experience and general academic life.

The fault does not belong to any one party. On the assigning end, excessive page counts can make it nearly impossible to fully absorb readings. In the drive to maximize the semester, professors tend to overload syllabi to the point where skimming becomes inevitable. And for humanities students taking four or five history, English or philosophy courses, the burden can be especially intense. While Georgetown students should certainly be held to high expectations, reducing the amount of reading and making it more focused would give professors more leverage to demand accountability.

There is no easy solution to this trend, which undoubtedly plagues many college campuses. However, installing more measures of accountability would be helpful. Pop quizzes are one means toward such evaluation, but professors should also consider adopting the informal but effective approach of cold-calling on students. When a participation grade is linked to the students’ abilities to answer questions about the text or how to apply it, there is more of an incentive to put in the work, as students and professors likely have experienced in courses that already use these tactics.

If implemented more widely, however, this model should remain flexible — perhaps allowing students one or two “get out of jail free” excuses per semester for days when unforeseeable challenges make finishing all reading truly impossible.

A packed syllabus whose contents are neglected does everyone involved a disservice. By narrowing assignments and expanding expectations, Georgetown professors could make academic life even more vibrant.

Danny Funt, Editor-in-Chief Emma Hinchliffe, Executive Editor Hunter Main, Managing Editor Victoria Edel, Online Editor Eitan Sayag, Campus News Editor Penny Hung, City News Editor Laura Wagner, Sports Editor Sheena Karkal, Guide Editor Katherine Berk, Opinion Editor Alexander Brown, Photography Editor Ian Tice, Layout Editor David Chardack, Copy Chief Lindsay Lee, Blog Editor

Madison Ashley Mallika Sen Natasha Khan TM Gibbons-Neff Tom Hoff Dillon Mullan Will Edman Kim Bussing Lindsay Leasor Robert DePaolo Jackie McCadden Matthew Grisier Nick Phalen Chris Grivas Charlie Lowe Michelle Xu Kennedy Shields Karl Pielmeier

Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy City News Editor Deputy Business Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Sports Blog Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Blog Editor

Contributing Editors

Editorial Board

Chris Bien, Patrick Curran, Evan Hollander, Sarah Kaplan, Braden McDonald, Hiromi Oka, Remy Samuels

Taylor Coles, Alyssa Huberts, Hanaa Khadraoui, Sam Rodman, Christopher Stromeyer

Katherine Berk, Chair

CORRECTIONS The article, “Council Examines Building Heights,” (A7, Nov. 5, 2013) incorrectly reported the proposed amendment to the Heights of Buildings Act as allowing a 1.25:1 ratio for street width to building height. The ratio is 1:1.25. The article also incorrectly identified population density as a measure of potential growth in the city. The density under consideration refers to building and land development.

The editorial, “A Service for Safe Sex,” (A2, Nov. 5, 2013) incorrectly stated that the H*yas for Choice condom delivery service was launched in early October and was modeled of a similar program at Boston College. The program was launched Oct. 17 and was not modeled after that of Boston College.

Mary Nancy Walter, General Manager Jason Yoffe, Director of Accounting Mariah Byrne, Director of Corporate Development Mullin Weerakoon, Director of Marketing Michal Grabias, Director of Personnel Michael Lindsay-Bayley, Director of Sales Kevin Tian, Director of Technology Natasha Patel Christina Wing Tessa Bell Nitya Rajendran James Church Dimitrios Roumeliotis Michael Taylor Nicole Yuksel Addie Fleron Preston Marquis Taylor Doaty Brian Carden Eric Isdaner Simon Wu Taylor Wan

Alumni Relations Manager Special Events Manager Accounts Manager Operations Manager Publishing Division Consultant Statements Manager Treasury Manager Public Relations Manager Human Resources Manager Professional Development Manager Institutional Diversity Manager Local Advertisements Manager Online Advertisements Manager Systems Manager Web Manager

Board of Directors

Evan Hollander, Chair

Kent Carlson, Danny Funt, Vidur Khatri, Braden McDonald, Samantha Randazzo, Mary Nancy Walter

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OPINION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • Ramirez

CURIOUS BY NATURE

Take Homelessness out of the Shadows I

Katherine Foley

A Global Need to Vaccinate L

ast week, the United Nations confirmed 10 cases of polio in Syrian children. This was only one week after the U.N. launched a campaign to vaccinate more than 2.5 million young children in the war-stricken region after several paralyzed children were found in a northeastern Syrian village.

Polio isn’t a household virus name anymore. Since the vaccine for the incurable, paralyzing virus was introduced in 1955, children in the United States and other developed countries have typically received it in four doses before the age of two months. In 1988, the World Health Organization launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in an effort to completely obliterate the disease. For the most part, this effort has been successful: Last year, there were only 223 reported cases of polio in the world. In April of this year, GPEI formed a new strategy to nip the final outbreaks in the bud by 2018.

The ideas of immunity and vaccination have been around as early as 430 B.C. At the time, individuals who had been infected by smallpox were then known to be immune to the disease and were therefore responsible for taking care of the sick. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was common for individuals to inject themselves with the pus from a smallpox sore in an attempt at inoculation. And while this usually just resulted in the spread of the illness, those who survived were later immune. In 1797, the British biologist Edward Jenner was the first to recognize that exposure to cowpox would produce only mild effects of the illness and somehow protect against future bouts of smallpox. He tested it by injecting an 8-year-old with cowpox. This was the first vaccine.

Jenner’s work inspired Louis Pasteur and, by extension, most of our modern concepts of the immune system. Once Pasteur coined his “germ theory,” or the idea that viruses and bacteria, as opposed to supertstitions, make us sick, it was fairly easy to understand how our bodies com-

Outbreaks of the formerly dormant polio in Syria are especially troubling. bat these little buggers.

The immune system contains several levels of protection, ranging from the obvious, like our skin and mucus layers, to the more elusive lymphocytes, specifically B-cells. B-cells are tiny cells generated from our lymph nodes that secrete antibodies, which patrol the blood stream and look for any skulking virus or bacteria that has not yet infected one of our body’s cells. Antibodies are specific for each illness-causing agent, and they swarm the invader until it can’t function.

Vaccines like the one for polio are made of dead strains of the virus to trigger antibody production from our B-cells. That way, whenever we encounter the live virus, we’ve already made enough antibodies to combat it before it takes over our own cells. Vaccines have been around for ages, and, despite recent anti-vaccine movements, they’re a great form of preventative medicine.

So it’s especially troubling that polio, an epidemic-prone disease, is now coming back in this region of the Middle East.

Now, Syria and its neighboring countries are at risk for a new outbreak of the formerly dormant disease.

The nation’s ongoing civil war is unfortunately responsible for this fresh outbreak. As if chemical warfare weren’t horrible enough, Syrians haven’t had adequate access to vaccines either. Before the 31-month conflict started, about 95 percent of the population had been inoculated, which should have been more than enough to generate herd immunity — the idea that if most, but not all, of a population has protection against a particular illness, the whole group is safe.

In this column, I normally address quirky aspects of science in an attempt to inspire others to care about them like I do. I keep away from heavier topics like international crises because, frankly, they stress me out. But this headline is hard to ignore. Polio in Syria is a chilling reminder that science’s junction with international relations ties the intriguing to the life-threatening.

Katherine Foley is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. CURIOUS BY NATURE appears every other Friday.

n late October, I was given the honor of speaking in Gaston Hall as one of three students representing TEDx Georgetown: Changemakers. On stage, I discussed my personal experience with youth homelessness and attempted to convey how there is something innately beautiful, powerful and inspiring about owning a label that society deems “wrong” or “shameful.” Once we own these labels, we can begin to make a change.

For example, at one time in this country’s history, to be gay was widely considered shameful or wrong. It wasn’t until the LGBTQ rights movement took off that this conception began to change. Members of the LGBTQ community such as Harvey Milk came forward and expressed pride in their identities. They fearlessly owned a label society had frowned upon, and they were able to incite change. By owning who they were, they were able to convey their struggle and make allies in the process.

I have attempted to do the same.

By owning the term “homeless,” I acknowledge the struggle incurred by youth across this nation every day.

I acknowledge that in this country, there are an astounding 2.1 million children that experience homelessness each year. But unfortunately, these youth are skilled at living in the shadows, so few others will ever know their plight.

To understand the impact of youth homelessness, it is imperative that we allow their voices to come forward. Once we bring these voices out of the shadows, we can begin to identify what is allowing so many youth to become homeless. The organization that I work for, the California Homeless Youth Project, has given me the opportunity to come in contact with the stories of homeless youth throughout the state. I heard the

By sweeping this issue under the rug, we allow the cycle of poverty to persist. stories of a 20-year-old woman who was raped by four different family members and kicked out of her house when no one believed her story, and of a 19-year-old man who left home when no agency would help resolve the violence he encountered in his home life.

Like these youth, I felt that it was very important to come forward with my story. During my junior year of high school I became homeless after an insurmountable amount of financial and emotional stress. By sharing our stories, we enable people to understand the core reasons as to why youth

become homeless. Similarly, we demystify common fallacies about homelessness. One of the most common misconceptions I have heard is that people’s housing instability is a product of their own flaws and that those who are able to overcome homelessness do so by themselves. We need to change this narrative, stop placing blame on people and recognize that homelessness is a product of multiple intersecting factors.

Did you know that Halle Berry, Jim Carrey and Daniel Craig were all homeless once?

In America, we are obsessed

VIEWPOINT • Xie

with rags-to-riches stories like theirs. But we focus all of our attention on how someone became rich rather than on why they were forced to wear rags in the first place.

In order to help those currently struggling, it is imperative that more youth should come forward to share their story so that we can in turn educate people on the issue.

Research has found that youth become homeless for a variety of reasons, the most common being family conflict and breakdown, commonly related to abuse or neglect, alcohol or drug addiction of a family member, pregnancy or rejection over sexual orientation.

These youth are incredibly vulnerable. Think back to what you were like as an adolescent, then add the stress of housing instability. Approximately 50 percent of homeless youth engage in “survival sex” — the exchange of sex for food, money, shelter, drugs or other basic daily needs in order to survive. In addition, homeless youth show an elevated risk for mental and physical health disorders. These youth face significant barriers to education, with many forced to drop out of high school to support themselves.

Our children are our nation’s most precious and vulnerable population; their health, education and success are imperative for the progress of our great nation. By sweeping this issue under the rug, we allow for the cycle of poverty, homelessness and inequality to persist and deteriorate our country from within.

JIMMY RAMIREZ is a junior in the College. He is a consultant for California Homeless Youth Project and the Georgetown University Student Association chair for the subcommittee on student health.

A UNIVERSITY FOR OTHERS

Campus Sustainability Selfless Acts Have Stifled by Red Tape The Power to Unite

T

hough Georgetown may out- ticed that students tend to think perform its D.C. peer univer- big, proposing to use the elliptical sities in academics, it lags machines in Yates to generate elecfar behind in campus sustain- tricity or renovate the Interculturability initiatives. Looking at the al Center solar panels. In abstract, progress that American Univer- these ideas are great, but what sity and The George Washington most students don’t realize is that University have made recently, I it’s not as easy as proposing an can only hope Georgetown will idea and getting the funding. First match their dedication to sus- of all, these projects are expentainability. Given the various en- sive, and the return, both environvironmental student groups and mental and financial, is relatively initiatives on campus, it is clear small. More importantly, Georgethat interest isn’t the problem. town’s bureaucracy makes it diffiUnfortunately, a lack of commu- cult to advance ambitious projects nication within the administra- without a serious personal comtion and among the environmen- mitment from university officials. tal groups on campus slowed our It is instead more realistic to foprogress before. And though we cus on smaller projects that yield are catching up, it is time to move large influence. even faster.

Unfortunately, the administraThat being said, within my tion seems to care less about these time on the Hilltop, the universi- less marketable or monumental ty has already seen huge improve- initiatives. For instance, we at ments. I remember signing up for the Office of Sustainability are various environmental groups working to implement a univerin the fall of my freshman year. sal recycling system to decrease Despite their landfill waste. o ve r l a p p i n g Although the agendas and has Our sustainability goals are university goals, these shown supgroups all significant, but the real chal- port by buyworked sepaing new labels lenge will be to meet them. and providing rately from one another. bins for apartNow, with ments and the formation of Georgetown dorms, there is still inexplicably Environmental Leaders, students red tape over a complete recycling across these fragmented groups overhaul. Georgetown seems unhave the chance to collaborate on willing to support these types of projects and create a network to small-scale sustainable improveshare ideas for campus-wide sus- ments without some push from tainability efforts. the students telling them they For me, the most exciting de- care about these issues. On the velopment has been the establish- other hand, people who aren’t ment of the Office of Sustainabili- aware of these issues or who don’t ty. I interned for the Sustainability care are not going to change their Initiative last spring, which was behavior without some transthe precursor to the official uni- formation on campus, such as versity office. Last year, we worked upgrading the recycling system. on a lot of the same types of proj- There are lots of opportunities for ects, but now that we are officially students, faculty and staff to show recognized, with a budget, a direc- their interest, but we need to focus tor and 10 student staff members, our collaboration on spreading I hope sustainability will be given the message that a greener school more weight in administrative de- would benefit everyone, including cisions. And though Georgetown’s those who don’t yet care about 2008 goal to halve carbon emis- sustainability. If we can get these sions by 2020 is significant, the students to voice their support real challenge will be to meet it. for sustainability initiatives, then, As a sustainability research fel- through a bottom-up approach, low this summer, I created criteria we would have a better shot of acand an application for the Green tually achieving our goals.

Revolving Loan Fund attached to the Social Innovation in Public JANE XIE is a senior in the School of Service Fund. As I was fielding Foreign Service. She is an intern for ideas for project proposals, I no- the Office of Sustainability.

G

eorgetown students are this human connection that selfish. Every single one we first engage so many of our of us was admitted to members by showing them serthis school by demonstrating vice in its most raw and basic our worth above thousands of form. This first exposure is ofother applicants — a process ten all it takes to introduce felthat is repeated similarly in low students to the pure goodclubs, classes and job searches. ness of service.

Our circumstances push us We are not writing about toward constant competition. GIVES as a means of publicity, This culture, however, begins bragging or trying to justify our the trek to a lonely life of per- existence as an organization. petual self-promotion. In order We are writing about GIVES to diverge from that path, we because it is what we know must step back and live more and what we do. GIVES is not intentionally while conscious- an organization; it is an ideal ly choosing what we do and to which we strive — the belief the reasons why we do it. We that if you make service accessineed something to encourage ble and fun, you can expose just us to take time not only for about anyone to the presence of ourselves but also for others. pure love within a selfless act.

This is why Georgetown Indi- This vision cannot completely viduals Vocal in occur during Education and our time here on Services exists. the Hilltop and While we apmay never happlaud those pen at all. Yet who commit the more peotheir lives to serple who decide vice, we recogthis is a worthy nize that not evcause, the more Philip Dearing eryone can. For our diversity of the vast majorexperiences and & Benjamin Weiss ity, our lives are abilities can conshaped by much tribute to the more than our growth of this We bring the most charitable acts. love. basic aspects of No matter what Too often your future may this ideal is service to campus. entail, keeping dismissed by others in mind should always students who claim they are be a part of it. There is no act not the “service type.” These of service too small and no students are worried about gesture too insignificant to the manner in which they demake the world a better place. pict themselves to peers and Georgetown should instill this employers and allow thembelief in all who pass through selves to be labeled in a certain its gates. manner. We are “SFSers” or We believe that GIVES makes “MSBros” or “people who still service accessible, available think they can be president.” and fun for anyone willing to This also implies that there is participate. Instead of spread- a type of “community-service ing our message through lec- person” that is more predistures, forums or meetings, we posed to helping others. These bring the most basic aspects of labels are superficial, limiting service — love and enthusiasm and overly simplistic. Just as — directly into the daily lives patriotism does not belong of everyone on campus. Even to any one political party and if only for a moment, our faith does not belong to one reacts of kindness provoke indi- ligion, service does not belong vidual shifts from introspec- to any single approach to helption to interactions with oth- ing one another. ers. Through these acts, we do not aspire to cure cancer or Benjamin Weiss and Philip end world hunger — only to Dearing are juniors in the Colbring shared happiness into lege. A UNIVERSITY FOR OTHERS the lives of students. It is from appears every other Friday.

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NEWS

THE HOYA

PAGE FOUR

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE D.C. mayoral candidate Reta Jo Lewis discussed education and employment Tuesday. See story at thehoya.com.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

verbatim

BABY JACK

“ These licenses will not be ‘equal.’

”

Hoyas for Immigrant Rights President Citlalli Alvarez (COL ’16 ) on D.C.’s Driver Safety Amendment Act. See story on A6.

from

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

KAYLA NOGUCHI/THE HOYA

The new mascot’s caretaker, McKenzie Stough (COL ’13), walks the bulldog with Jack Crew member Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14). Jack will live with Stough in a townhouse on 36th Street. See story on A5.

BEST CLASS I EVER (INVOLUNTARILY) TOOK Still have some general education classes to finish up? See what our readers said were some of their favorites options they were forced to take. blog.thehoya.com

Lhota Loses NYC McAuliffe Prevails in Virginia Mayoral Bid JOHNNY VERHOVEK Hoya Staff Writer

TM GIBBONS-NEFF

Lhota said in his concession speech. “We want our city to Hoya Staff Writer move forward and not backGeorgetown alumnus and Re- ward, and I hope our mayorpublican Joe Lhota (GSB ’76) lost elect understands that before his bid for mayor of New York it’s too late.” on Tuesday, earning 24 percent Lhota’s passion for governof the vote compared to Demo- ment started during his time crat Bill de Blasio’s 73 percent. at Georgetown, when he ran for De Blasio will be New York student government on a camCity’s first Democratic mayor in paign platform that included two decades, winning the elec- investigating the finances of tion on a platform in opposi- Healy Pub, an aspect foreshadtion to the policies of three-term owing his current fiscal policies New York City Mayor Michael in New York. His daughter KathBloomberg. Lhota’s platform ryn (COL ’13) did not respond to centered on fiscal responsibil- requests for comment. ity, while de Blasio campaigned Lhota, the former chairman for reducing of the Metroinequality in politan Tranthe city. sit Associa“My cantion, launched didacy is a his mayoral result of both bid after immy belief that pressing New I think that Yorkers with I offer more his handling JOE LHOTA (GSB ’76) than the other of the subway New York Mayoral Candidate candidates to system durbest lead New York and my ap- ing and after Hurricane Sandy preciation for the culture and in October 2012. However, he community that make up this struggled with mayoral debates great city,” Lhota told THE HOYA and campaign finances, raising in February. De Blasio, whose a third of what de Blasio was margin of victory was the larg- able to solicit from his supportest since five-borough elections ers, according to The New York began in 1897, emphasized his Times. progressive platform in his vicStudents from New York saw tory speech. these problems throughout the “The people of this city have race. chosen a progressive path, and “He was a good candidate, I tonight we set forth on it to- know he had some money isgether as one city,” de Blasio sues in the beginning, and he said in his acceptance speech. could have articulated his poLhota’s campaign capitu- sitions better in the long run,” lated early, calling de Blasio a Staten Island resident Louis half-hour after the polls closed, Cona (COL ’15) said. “I think the according to a spokesperson for election was a referendum on a de Blasio. lot of the Bloomberg adminis“It was a good fight, and tration’s policies.” it was a fight worth having,” Despite the differences in Lhota said to a crowd Tuesday party affiliation, New York City night. resident Christopher Ferzli In his concession speech, (COL ’15) compared de Blasio to Lhota also managed one last former Republican Mayor Rudy jab at his opponent, referencing Giuliani. de Blasio’s campaign tagline of “He’s representing the ItalNew York as a “tale of two cities.” ian New Yorkers from Brooklyn “Despite what you might especially, like Rudy did,” Ferzli have heard, we are all one city,” said.

“It was a good fight, and it was a fight worth having.”

Democrat Terry McAuliffe (LAW ’84) won the race for governor of Virginia by fewer than three percentage points against Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-Va.) Tuesday night. The results for attorney general are contested.

McAuliffe won by 55,737 votes, a much narrower margin than predicted by polls, leading many to speculate what these results indicate about the upcoming Congressional midterm elections and the 2016 presidential election.

Georgetown University College Democrats President Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) viewed the race as both an affirmation of Virginia’s increasingly Democratic political slant and a rejection of Cuccinelli’s Tea Party-backed campaign.

“Depending on how the recount in the attorney general race goes, there is the potential that Democrats will have total control over all statewide offices.

We may be able to begin discussing Vir-

ginia as a politically blue state instead of a swing state,” Tezel said.

Georgetown University College Republicans Communications Manager Tim Rosenberger (COL ’16) disagreed.

“I think this race shows that Virginia still actually has a red tilt. Republicans were coming off a scandal, were underfunded and horribly down in the polls,” Rosenberger said.

While many Republicans are claiming victory for Mark Obenshain as the next Virginia attorney general, Democrats are holding firm in the call for a recount. As of Thursday, Obenshain is ahead of his Democratic opponent Mark Herring by 777 votes. “[Republicans] managed to retain the statehouse and win the only race that was supposed to be competitive, that of attorney general. Minority and women voters made up huge swathes of this electorate that was still very generous to outgunned Republicans,” Rosenberger said.

During the race, Georgetown students took to Virginia to campaign for both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli.

Alejandro Perez-Reyes (COL ’17), from Charlottesville, Va., touched on his motivations for becoming involved in supporting McAuliffe.

“My father is a pharmacologist at one of the flagship universities in the state, but due to sequester cutbacks in grant funding, his research is suffering. I mention this because I believe that with a McAuliffe win, the state government can refocus on economic issues and make smart investments in education and 21st century jobs,” Perez-Reyes said.

Perez-Reyes, who mainly campaigned in the increasingly Democratic-leaning D.C. suburbs of Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William counties, said the experience of going door-todoor, while largely positive, exposed him to interesting characters.

“I once talked to a man who was lamenting the degradation of the rule of law in America. He went on to tell me, ‘The white man is a dying breed,’” Perez-Reyes said. “Something told me that this one might not be worth the effort to persuade.”

DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA

Students campaigned with the Georgetown University College Democrats for Terry McAuliffe during the Virginia governor’s race. McAuliffe won against Republican Ken Cuccinelli by 55,737 votes, or fewer than three percentage points, Tuesday.

friDAY, November 8, 2013

News

THE HOYA

A5

2013 Grad New SJP, GIA Partnership Cancelled Bulldog Caretaker SCREENING, from A1

Kit Clemente

Paul O’Neill (CAS ’86), who has taken care of the new bulldog since he arrived on campus Oct. 22.

The Bulldog Advisory Committee “A lot of [the walking] is going to chose Communications Specialist in stay with the Jack Crew. I think the the Office of Communications Mc- schedule will very much stay the Kenzie Stough (COL ’13) as the next same,” Stough said. “I’m kind of fillmascot caretaker Tuesday. ing in for Paul and being like the After graduating last year, Stough dog’s mother at night, and feeding continued her relationship with him, and staying with him at night, Georgetown as an employee and de- and making sure that there’s a solid cided to apply for the caretaker posi- presence with him at all times and tion. somebody that he can really be com“I know they’re looking, clearly, fortable with when we start taking for someone who’s going to be here him to events and things like that.” for a long time. The big priority is Erika Cohen Derr, the leader of the that it’s somebody that can commit,” BAC caretaker search, said Stough she said. “And this fits in really well will acclimate well to her new role. with my long-term plans because “She has a deep commitment to I’ve wanted to be part of the George- Georgetown’s bulldog mascot traditown community for a really long tion. McKenzie will be a great caretime — eventually, taker for Jack and I’ll probably go to be able to manage grad school after his soon-to-be busy he’s totally acclischedule. The BAC mated and no lonlooks forward to ger a puppy — and welcoming McKenso I think you can zie into this imporexpect a pretty tant role and the big time commitwork of the BAC,” McKenzie STOUGH (COL ’13) Bulldog Caretaker ment.”

Cohen Derr wrote Stough has conin an email. siderable experience, having raised BAC members agreed. three dogs with her family.

“You can see it when she’s with “I’ve really had dogs around me Jack. She knows how to strike that since I was about 5 years old, so balance,” Jack Crew and BAC memthis is just a really good way to use ber Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) said. those strengths with my love for the “You can just tell she strikes that balGeorgetown community and kind of ance between how to have fun with get back involved with the students him and how to make sure he’s hapagain,” Stough said. py, but also not afraid to tell someThe Jack Crew, now composed of body, ‘Please don’t pet him,’ or ‘Don’t six students, will work with Stough pet him like that.’” to build a stable environment and As for Jack’s own acclimation, the family for Jack in his townhouse on focus still remains on gradually in36th Street. Fr. Christopher Steck, S.J., troducing him to the student enviwill continue to care for the old Jack ronment. in New South.

“It’s just a matter of him growing “We’re so excited to be working up. So even after a year, he’s still gowith McKenzie now and just kind of ing to need a lot of care and acclimaestablish what’s going to be best for tion to large crowds, because being both her and Jack, and just be able the mascot, he’s a working dog,” to serve the puppy in whatever way Schadler said. “Not only does he need we can that’s best for him,” Head of to be acclimated to a new home and Jack Crew and BAC member Neve a new family and to the walkers but Schadler (COL ’15) said. also to this new position that he has, Stough will take over for Chief so it will take over a year for that proOperating Officer for Advancement cess to happen.”

Hoya Staff Writer

“I’m being like the dog’s mother at night.”

oppressed, respectively — of the IsraelPalestine conflict.

After SJP’s withdrawal, GIA and J Street U, which advocates for a two-state solution, also withdrew their co-sponsorships, instead attending as individuals rather than representatives of their respective organizations. The screening of “The Other Son,” a French film about an Israeli and a Palestinian switched at birth, still attracted more than 100 people.

“I guess from the beginning of the time that the event was conceived I knew myself and a few others always felt a little bit uncomfortable with the event, but we continued,” SJP President Albert Doumar (SFS ’15) said. “As we began to have more reservations about it, we had to decide among ourselves how to frame the event to be suitable to our cause or an event. … There was no way to structure the event to do that.”

Doumar maintains that the Georgetown SJP chapter did not receive explicit pressure from outside groups to withdraw. While SJP leaders were apologetic for the late hour of withdrawal, they reached the conclusion that participating in an event contradictory to their ideals would have been detrimental.

“Discussions were taking place on campus between our members and we were receiving word from different groups,” he said. “It wasn’t so much backlash as [the groups] trying to explain more about normalization and trying to understand from us why we were undertaking the event.”

As publicity for the event spread, the Georgetown chapter of SJP received messages from chapters at Rutgers, Cornell and the University of Maryland College Park, among others.

“There’s a recognition that all of us are allies in the same struggle, so it was important we presented a unified front to make sure the decisions of any one SJP did not jeopardize the goals of the greater organization,” Doumar said.

Though GIA and J Street U understood SJP’s obligation to its national organization, student leaders were disappointed.

“With their withdrawal, it was a very unfavorable action because it undermined the very purpose of the event,” GIA President Nitzan Gabai (SFS ’16) said. “To facilitate discussion not only on campus but beyond, we needed to use organizations that were bigger than campus.”

CLAIRE SOISSON FOR THE HOYA

Tamim al-Nuweiri (SFS ’15) speaks before a film screening that intended to partner Israeli and Palestinian student groups.

In October, GIA held an event with both Israeli and Palestinian guests that was designed to inspire campus discussion. Gabai hoped for the screening to be an event that would have extended the possibility of discussion beyond campus and felt that opportunity was lost when the organizations withdrew their sponsorship in favor of individual leadership.

“The minute we changed it to an individual-based event, the agenda was marginalized to an on-campus conversation,” he said. “All in all, we still have to look at the glass half-full and go on with the event.”

J Street U organizers felt that the universal decision to attend as individuals was the best way to promote dialogue, despite the sudden developments.

“In some ways it would have been a stronger collective message to show this organizational partnership to other campuses across the nation, but at the same time, we were stripped of that luxury by the sticky situation the leaders of SJP were put in,” J Street U President Jake Sorrells (SFS ’16) said. “I think that was outside our control, and we responded in a way that would allow us to capitalize on that opportunity. There was really nothing else we can do. It inadvertently strengthened our message.”

However, Sorrells maintained that SJP’s withdrawal represented the reasons why dialogue was necessary.

“I think the situation that unravelled emboldened our resolve to conduct this program,” Sorrells said. “It was sort of a microcosm of the very challenges that have typically hindered [progress].”

Gabai said he had hoped that SJP members would have broken out of the

constraints of the larger national organization.

“Georgetown students are trendsetters,” Gabai said. “I was very saddened, because I thought that the board of the SJP would be able to set the trend.”

Director of Jewish Chaplaincy Rabbi Rachel Gartner delivered remarks after the screening, in addition to a videotaped message from Director of Jewish Chaplaincy Imam Yahya Hendi, both university officials.

“What happened at GU does not happen elsewhere. It did happen and let’s build on that,” Hendi wrote in an email.

“I am so proud of our kids, all of them, for they made it happen. [It’s] going beyond borders to build bridges.”

Gartner encouraged participating students and said that she was proud of the way the organizers handled the event.

“It would break my heart if this minor snafu derailed the process that began when they were planning this,” she said.

“My prayer is that students build on the relationships they’ve made in preparing for this event, and build on what they’ve learned about themselves and one another, both in the planning stages and at the film showing itself and find a way to move forward.”

J Street U Treasurer Elijah Jatovsky (SFS ’16), who conceived the idea of the event, said that despite the last-minute challenges, he is hopeful for future cooperation.

“I really want to stress that we view this event as absolutely not a failure,” Jatovsky said. “We will look back on this as an evening that kickstarted the development of dialogue.”

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friDAY, november 8, 2013

Fraud Unearthed at GU Drivers Licenses Allowed FRAUD, from A1 on its IRS form 990,” Pugh said.

This most recent incident follows two previous cases of fraud at Georgetown.

Federal prosecutors accused Pedro Paulo dos Santos, who held various positions at Georgetown from 1998 to 2005, of falsifying documents, diverting funds and inventing a fictitious company in order to obtain more than 100 fraudulent checks totaling about $311,000 from October 2001 to January 2005. Santos served as associate director and program coordinator of the university’s Brazilian Studies Program from 2002 until his termination.

According to court records, dos Santos admitted to the theft when confronted by university auditors but fled to Brazil the following day, where he remains at large.

Additionally, former Georgetown University Medical Center administrator Adriana Santamaria was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for stealing more than $350,000 from Georgetown from 1995 to 2002. Because Santamaria had stolen federal grant funds, which include overhead costs not associated with any individual program, Georgetown was forced to repay over $500,000 to the federal government.

Although university officials stated then that they had implemented new safeguards to prevent this type of theft after they discovered Santamaria’s embezzlement

in 2003, court documents show that dos Santos used similar methods to funnel money out of university accounts for almost two years.

“In light of the dos Santos case, over the past two years, Georgetown has also taken steps to increase oversight procedures, in particular by establishing new policies requiring review and reconciliation by financial managers,” university spokeswoman Julie Bataille told The Hoya in 2007. “On the main campus specifically, there has been an increased enforcement of existing policies and procedures [and] the development of additional controls and procedures.”

In the most recent case,

“It’s an ongoing challenge at a large institution.”

RACHEL PUGH Director of Media Relations

however. the administrator’s theft went unnoticed for approximately three years.

“Certainly any large institution faces an ongoing challenge to ensure that all of its activities are conducted in a manner consistent with policies and procedures, and we are making every effort we can to improve our system, and training and awareness,” Pugh said. “It’s an ongoing challenge at a large institution.”

The unapproved compensation accounted for less than 0.04 percent of Georgetown’s annual operating revenue, ac-

cording to Pugh.

“This is distinguishable from those two [previous] cases of fraud or embezzlement because there’s no evidence that the employee had intent to defraud anyone. The individual did not submit any false documentation and fully cooperated with the investigation and is voluntarily paying restitution,” Pugh said.

She emphasized the university’s efforts to prevent such situations in the future.

“Over a few years, we have adopted more rigorous policies and internal controls,” she said, citing a more robust compliance program and an internal audit function.

“We’ve really made some efforts to make the policies clearer and to make sure all employees are educated about them and their responsibilities under the policies.”

The Post also reported that Columbia University was defrauded about $5 million during a two-month period in 2010, when its medical center accounts-payable system was reprogrammed to the bank account of computer-specialist George Castro, who was not a university employee. Columbia notified the authorities, cooperated with the criminal investigation and recovered almost all the money.

In the Post’s investigation, the largest case of financial diversion occurred at Yeshiva University, a private university in New York, which lost $106 million in a Ponzi scheme linked to Bernie Madoff.

A Craigslist for Georgetown Kit Clemente Hoya Staff Writer

The usual Facebook requests to buy and sell textbooks may slow this year with the introduction of Hoya List, an online marketplace for Georgetown students.

Nicolas Delclaux (MSB ’14) designed the website, launched in September, to mimic Craigslist, after noticing the barrage of students’ Facebook exchanges to buy and sell items.

“I noticed that a lot of these things were going around, so I figured why not bring all this supply and demand into one single platform,” Delclaux said.

The site currently contains listings for electronics, furniture and books, as well as space for users to list local rentals and available leases.

The site currently has approximately 35 listings total.

Should users decide to buy

an item, they can arrange to meet up with the seller in the Georgetown area to look at the product, as well as make the transaction.

“I think that’s one of the things that makes Hoya List different, it’s just convenience.

It’s much easier to coordinate because students run on a very similar schedule and frequent the same places,” Delclaux said. “In the same day you can look on the something you want to buy and by the end of the day have it.”

One selling point for many students has been the security of the service, which requires a georgetown.edu email address.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Nicholas Mendolia (COL ’16) said. “The thing about Craigslist is that people have always been concerned about the security of meeting someone, and with something that’s tied to the fact that you’re involved with

the university and you’re officially a student, it’s totally safe and reliable.”

“Right now, I buy my books on Amazon Prime rather than the bookstore just because the bookstore is very expensive,” Elizabeth McCurdy (COL ’17) said. “But as long as I would be able to exchange with a fellow Hoya who would be on campus and there would be no shipping, I would probably always choose to buy my books from Hoya List.”

Future growth for the fledgling site would be largely dependent on student response, Delclaux said.

“I think as people start realizing how useful it can actually be, and people start really posting things, I think it could increase in size substantially,” Delclaux said. “In the future, maybe, if more people start using it, we can expand to other campuses in the D.C. area.”

Grad Student Pay Delayed PAY, from A1 “The rent’s due on the first, and I didn’t have a check,” Smith said. “This is our paycheck, and I am sure whoever’s fault it is got their paycheck on time.”

Because the university does not offer summer stipends for research or teaching to postgraduates unlike several peer institutions, a majority of graduate students seek employment through the School of Continuing Studies during the summer.

Fourth-year doctoral candidate Jack Santucci experienced a delay in the remittance of his salary from working as a summer instructor for the SCS this past summer.

“Very succinctly, it takes a very long time to get paid, and that’s a particular problem for graduate students,” Santucci said. “You need the money.”

Santucci originally expected to be paid in biweekly intervals, but he did not get paid for several weeks.

“There’s a divergence between what somebody told me when I took the job and what actually happened,” Santucci said. “My contact in the SCS – when I agreed to take the job – told me I could expect my first payment at the end of the first week of teaching. Some time after that, payroll came up with a plan that said I’d receive

it three weeks later, and it would be smaller.”

Associate Dean of the School of Continuing Studies Veronica Donahue was dismayed to learn of students experiencing pay delays while working with the SCS. “We work to rectify the situations almost immediately if we can fix them. We do hire hundreds of students in the grand scheme of things, so we’re not happy unless everyone gets paid,” Donahue said.

Though the SCS transitioned to its new downtown campus this year, Donahue did not believe this restructuring was relevant to pay delays.

“The move downtown certainly didn’t impact our payroll processes. All of our processes are the same as main campus,” Donahue said.

A recent survey issued by the Graduate Student Organization, the representative body of postgraduates at Georgetown, sought to identify whether pay-delay issues were systemic across departments. The survey received several hundred responses from students representing a cross-section of postgraduate programs.

“We had some idea of who gets what, but if we’re going to focus our resources on advocating for some particular issue, we need to know what the most important thing and it appears

it’s the timeliness of payments,” GSO Public Relations Officer Graham Cornwell (GRD ’16) said.

Utilizing momentum from his predecessor’s term in office, GSO President Sam Osea (COL ’12, GRD ’14) said that GSO would use the most recent survey results to analyze the extent of the pay issue before bringing it before the executive committee.

“This pay issue, we realized, is a campus-wide issue, but we wanted to evaluate to what extent,” Osea said. “If it becomes an ongoing thing, we’ll have the documentation to remember it.

It serves as data that we can present to the committee.”

A cursory scan over survey results revealed that the issue is on students’ radar.

“I’ve glanced at a few. It does seem to be a concern. Whether it’s a demonstrated concern is yet to be seen,” Osea said.

Despite the complaints, McMullan is proud of the work that has been done to restructure the payroll system since last winter.

“This year has been a huge difference. There’s been some really great administrators dedicated to fixing it and UIS fixing some of the glitches,” McMullan said. “From the number of complaints we received in January of last year to this cycle are so much less.”

For Illegal Immigrants Kit Clemente Hoya Staff Writer

Immigrants living in the District of Columbia illegally can now obtain drivers licenses in the District after the D.C. Council voted to pass the D.C. Drivers Safety Amendment Act on Nov. 5.

“D.C. has decided to ensure access to drivers licenses for all D.C. residents, regardless of immigration status. That’s incredibly important,” D.C. Immigrant Rights Coalition Coordinator Salvador Sarmiento said. “That’s going to affect thousands of people’s lives in D.C. for the better.”

The bill, introduced by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson at the request of Mayor Vincent Gray, will create a two-tiered ID system, in which these licenses will be marked: “not for federal purposes.”

“I personally think that it was a disappointment not to have one license because it puts in it an understanding of racial profiling,” said Jackie Reyes, the Director of Latino Affairs for Councilmember Jim Graham.

D.C. is already a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, since Mayor Gray signed an order in 2011 stopping police officers from inquiring about residents’ immigration status unless it is directly relevant to a criminal investigation.

The adoption of the original two-tiered legislation came as a shock to many constituents.

“I was surprised two weeks ago when we first heard that the Transportation Committee Chair Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) was backpedaling from her initial strong statement in favor of one license,” Sarmiento said.

Hoyas for Immigrant Rights President Citlalli Alvarez (COL ’16) noted her disappointment with the new law.

“This bill was diluted. True, undocumented immigrants will now be able to attain licenses, but they will be marked. These licenses will not be ‘equal,’” Alvarez wrote in an email.

Others viewed Cheh’s actions as a reasonable compromise considering the restrictions of federal law.

“She was trying to do the best she could to create an ID option for people who weren’t otherwise able to get one, but not to also jeopardize the status of everyone else’s,” General Counsel for Councilmember Jack Evans’ Office Kevin Stogner said, adding that Cheh intends to make sure that the markings will be nondescript in order to minimize any resulting discrimination from the different license types.

“I’m not surprised that they ended up creating the two tier license system so the license would be labeled that they’re not federal I.D.,” department of government professor Mark Rom said. “I imagine the strategic calculation of the council was this is not an issue that we’re going to challenge the feds on.”

In order for immigrants living in the country illegally to be able to obtain a license when they apply, they will be required to provide a valid foreign passport, birth certificate or tax identification number. Additionally, applicants may only apply if they have lived in D.C. for a minimum of six months.

Because the two-tiered system officially identifies illegal immigrants, the question remains as to whether these immigrants will be hesitant in applying.

“They’ll keep driving for sure because people have to get to get to work, go to the store and get their kids to school. The driving will continue pretty much unchanged, how many licenses will be applied for — that’s the big question,”

Housing Points for Freshmen Tied to Workshop Attendance HOUSING, from A1 approached the administration with our plans, they were very supportive,” Tisa said.

Administrators determined that the program would be a valuable tool to educate on key areas such as sexual violence and diversity, and to raise awareness for campus resources.

The first training forum, focusing on mentorship, will take place Nov. 20 and feature a keynote speech from Vice President for Mission and Ministry Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J. The session will also feature a student leadership panel and a host of faculty experts, along with alumni representing Hoya Gateway. Registration for the event will open Monday on HoyaLink. The three other sessions for the module are scheduled for Nov. 24, Nov. 25 and Dec. 6.

The second forum, on community and diversity, is set for January, and the final forum, about student health, is scheduled for February. In addition to attending the forum, students are expected to fill out a survey afterward.

A new GUSA committee, What’s a Hoya?, will coordinate the sessions’ programming under the auspices of GUSA. “Our job is to provide the framework, and the audience for these faculty experts,” What’s a Hoya? Coordinator and GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff Chandini Jha (COL ’16) said. “Their job is the content, which will include everything from the prevalence of sexual assault on campus to establishing positive neighborhood relations to getting in touch with professors or tutors.”

Last year, Jha and other students pushed to add comprehensive, mandatory sexual assault training to New Student Orientation, but because of the tight NSO schedule, there was only an optional discussion at orientation.

“This idea is separate and addresses sexual violence as one of several cultural problems that we face here,” Jha said. “We’ve engaged in talks with experts from the administration, and we are letting them guide us on the most appropriate way

to address this sensitive topic.”

The architects of the program saw housing as the appropriate avenue for these forums because of its effects on every student.

“Housing points was the perfect way to go, because it is the one thing that is in demand for every rising sophomore and it doesn’t cost the university money to slightly revise their selection system,” Ramadan said.

GUSA and administrators, however, decided to limit the program to underclassmen.

“The decision was made that under no circumstances should a rising sophomore have more housing selection points than a rising junior, because we wanted to respect the older undergraduates,” said Killilee.

What’s a Hoya? Coordinator Dan Silkman (COL ’15) expressed optimism at the expected reaction from the Class of 2017 to the new housing selection points system and the training forums.

“We talked it over with GUSA’s 15-member freshman outreach committee, and they all sounded excited for the initiative to begin,” Silkman said. “These forums will benefit each student’s Georgetown experience, and we expect a great turnout.”

However, after GUSA announced the Housing Passport Initative yesterday, reactions from the Class of 2017 were varied.

“I think that for proactive students with time of their hands, this is a great program,” Jack Rosenberg (SFS ’17) said. “But for those of us who have a packed extracurricular schedule, it puts us at an unfair disadvantage for housing points.

I’d be in favor of a return to the old system where all freshmen were at least on level footing for housing selection.”

Tiffany Lam (NHS ’17) said that the initiative was good, but unnecessary.

“I think that it doesn’t hurt to be taught about health resources, sexual assault and good neighborhood conduct, but it’s a bit redundant,” Lam said. “At least this system will take away the feeling of total randomness from housing selection.”

NEWS

friday, november 8, 2013

THE HOYA

A7

Gluten-Free-Friendly a Misnomer Kit Clemente Hoya Staff Writer

COURTESY WAYNE ROGERS

A high-speed rail in Japan is re-imagined for a D.C. terminal. The project faces financial and bureaucratic challenges in the District.

High-Speed Rail Unlikely for DC Johnny Verhovek Hoya Staff Writer

A Washington-based company is ramping up efforts to build a high-speed rail link that would shorten the travel time for many common commutes.

Founded in 2010, The Northeast Maglev is an organization with the sole purpose of bringing the Superconducting Maglev high-speed train system, which is a magnetic levitation train that can reach speeds up to 311 miles per hour, to the Northeast Corridor, which includes D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. This rail link would get passengers from D.C. to Baltimore in 15 minutes, and from D.C. to New York in one hour.

TNEM has raised close to $50 million and compiled an extensive list of local business leaders and former politicians to help move the project forward.

Members of the advisory board, led by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, include Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank, former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.

“The challenges we are facing in the future are dramatic. The area from D.C. to New York [generates] 15 percent of the United States’ GDP, which is about equal to [that of] the United Kingdom,” TNEM Chairman Wayne Rogers (LAW ’86) said.

Rogers stressed the importance of upgrading the region’s infrastructure in light of the increasing demand placed upon its transportation system by population growth, noting that by 2040, there will be 39 million

more people living in the area.

“To keep our global competitive advantage, we must have first-rate infrastructure. We do not,” Rogers said. “We believe a privately led approach to fixing infrastructure can be done. It is a back-to-the-future approach as rail and infrastructure in the 19th century was privately led.”

The potential cost of the train would be substantial. Rogers estimated that the rail route connecting D.C. and Baltimore could cost up to $10 billion, and he could not yet provide an estimate for the entire D.C. to New York line. Previous proposals for a Maglev system have consistently fizzled out due to a lack of legislative and financial support.

D.C. Department of Transportation Progressive Administration Deputy Associate Director Steve Strauss echoed the sentiments of many officials who realize the difficulty of making this project a reality.

“Given the significant capital needs of the Northeast Corridor, any serious program to increase speeds, reduce travel time and improve system reliability will require a large federal investment, in addition to whatever matching funds the states may make to this program,” Strauss said.

Rogers has met with officials from both the D.C. government and the Maryland Transit Authority to discuss the project, but no decisions have been reached.

“DDOT staff members have met with officials from The Northeast Maglev. [But] we are not actively involved in promoting Maglev as the high-speed rail solution for the Northeast Corridor,” Strauss said.

In May, Udi’s, a gluten-free food company, named Georgetown the second-most gluten-free accommodating college Campus. Many students, however, ace skeptical of this title, despite November’s designation as Gluten-Free Awareness Month.

Joe Lanzilla (SFS ’16), a celiac who is also dairy- and egg-free, said that he has repeatedly gotten sick after eating at O’Donovan Hall.

“Last year, personally, I had to go to the ER three times due to allergic reactions,” Lanzilla said. “There’s definitely room for improvement in Leo’s with the dietary staff. They do a fine job, but there probably can be improvements.”

Students with more obscure allergies also take issue with the presentation of dining hall options.

“They don’t label ingredients so much as they label allergens,” lactose intolerant, nut- and sesame-free Evan Chernack (SFS ’17) said. “It’s kind of misleading when it says contains no known allergens, because it could still contain no known allergens yet still have something that someone is

allergic to.”

For Gluten-Free Awareness Month, Georgetown Dietitian Allison Marco will table in Leo’s to raise awareness about celiac disease and gluten intolerance. She will also hold focus groups for gluten-free students.

“Overall, the staff at Leo’s is aware of food allergies, and they take them seriously,” Marco wrote in an email. “We encourage the staff to ask questions, and I include allergy awareness along with nutrition topics in training we provide to the staff.”

In addition to concerns about availability of food, those with dietary restrictions find themselves restricted to a repetitive diet relying on a locked gluten-free fridge.

“There isn’t really much selection, and I feel like a lot of gluten-free students can’t eat from the fridge because there’s not a huge selection in there, and it’s kind of limited, and so they eat at the other stations, which is plausible, but at the same time, you risk contamination,” Lanzilla said.

Students have praised the new efforts to get student feedback on gluten-free dining.

“I think it’s really good to raise

I was being photographed,” she said. “I think for a lot of people though, it’s catching on, which I didn’t expect.”

“It’s more like Georgetown Compliments than Georgetown Confessions,” Lleonart added.

Cook ensured that there would be consequences for users who might post malicious content, adding that the Unsaid team

was in the process of creating an update that allows users to keep themselves from being tagged in pictures.

Cook believes Unsaid has been successful since it’s launch.

“While I was on campus this week, I’ve heard Unsaid described as everything from ‘a Georgetownonly Instagram but anonymous’ to ‘a more permanent Snapchat.’

It’s exciting to see what Unsaid is becoming,” Cook said.

Ryan Thomas

Special to The Hoya

The use of meal swipes at Einstein Bros. Bagels will become a permanent feature of university meal plans, but the program will not be extended to Hoya Court restaurants, as had been previously considered, Aramark and the Office of Auxiliary Services decided.

The temporary Einstein kiosk in Hoya Court moved back to Regents Hall after the opening of Elevation Burger, Subway and Salad Creations in the cafeteria last week, which administrators expect to affect sales patterns.

Between 240 and 250 people use

meal swipes in exchange for a bagel and drink or equivalent combination at the Einstein Bros. in Car Barn on a given day, Aramark District Manager Josetta Moore reported. Both Grab ‘n’ Go locations, which accept meal swipes, serve approximately 1,200 customers daily combined.

Combined non-meal swipe sales at the Car Barn and Regents Hall Einstein Bros. locations have remained steady at about 450 customers per day.

“We will monitor the sales. After the semester is over, we will pull some data ... a larger sampling will be better to analyze the program,” Moore said.

Financial factors are a primary

NATASHA THOMSON FOR THE HOYA

The Einstein Bros Bagels kiosk that was in Hoya Court during construction is back in Regents Hall. Administrators expect demand to change.

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concern that prevents implementation of the program elsewhere.

“If we move [the program] out to somewhere like Hoya Court, it starts to sway how money is spent. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but we need to keep the financial model whole,” said Joelle Wiese, an associate vice president for auxiliary services.

Logistical concerns are another problem.

“For example, if you opened up Elevation Burger to meal plans, we could suddenly have a thousand more students, and the vendor and the facilities are unable to handle that capacity in addition to the customers already served,” Wiese said.

Over the first few weeks of the semester, meal-swipe numbers at Einstein Bros. were low, but usage increased gradually and has since flattened out.

“The first couple of weeks we started at 30 meal equivalencies per day.

Then the volume doubled around the third week. As the word got out, the program volume increased to 150 per day to the current volume of 240 to 250 per day,” Moore said.

Georgetown University Student Association senate Vice Speaker and Subcommittee on Food Service member Sam Greco (SFS ’15), who advocated for the program at Einstein Bros., was optimistic that the meal-swipe program could still be expanded.

“My goal is that by the start of next year at the latest we will be able to have some sort of meal equivalency out in Hoya Court for some items,” Greco said. “It’s not a done deal by any respects, but we’re doing what we can to improve students’ options.”

Despite the curtailment of mealswipe expansion plans, the program at Einstein Bros. will be continued.

“What we’ve heard from the folks on the food committee is that it provides more value to the current meal plan. It gives a little flexibility when students are over at the Car Barn,” Wiese said. “The meal equivalency is just one way we are trying to provide more value for meal plans.”

Ethnic Studies Minor Proposed Suzanne Monyak Hoya Staff Writer

SUDOKU

awareness for the restrictions that people face because a lot of people don’t necessarily know about how something so routine as eating or as having a meal becomes a lot more complicated when you factor in someone who has dietary restrictions,” Chernack said.

Meal Swipes Permament for Einstein’s

An Anonymous App for Georgetown UNSAID, from A8

JOSH GORDON FOR THE HOYA

Some students are not satisified with gluten-free options in Leo’s.

A proposed minor in diversity, culture and ethnic studies went before the College Academic Council at the end of October.

Although students have previously discussed the option informally, the minor is now supported by the Cura Personalis Initiative, the student-run effort to address diversity issues that presented the preliminary proposal Oct. 22, and Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson.

The minor would give students the opportunity to learn about their own cultures and compare that to others.

“Learning about your history and learning about your culture while also learning about other peoples’ cultures, is invaluable in American society,” CPI Co-Director Esther Owolabi (COL ’15) said.

Planning is still at an early stage, and the details of the potential minor are not completely clear.

“We just met with the College Academic Council last week, so we haven’t really sat down and really figured out the curriculum for the minor, but most minors are six

courses long,” Owolabi said.

Because there is so much to figure out, the minor will not be implemented for at least two to three years, according to CAC President Kamil Lupicki (COL ’14). “[The administration is] supportive, but to be realistic, it takes a very long time for these to get through,” Lupicki said.

The College Academic Council met with College Dean Chester Gillis Oct. 25 to discuss what would be involved in creating this new minor.

“The students’ idea for a new minor was provocative and interesting.

At the moment, it is an idea that needs further development,” Gillis wrote in an email.

The six required courses for the minor have yet to be decided, as well as the faculty chair and professors.

Although the minor could be composed of pre-existing courses slightly modified to fit the new angle, it would also most likely require an introductory course and a capstone, which would need funding.

“Anything that’s change to the curriculum at Georgetown, it’s very difficult to do, because there are so many requirements already. There are so many students that are going

to have backlash,” Owolabi said.

However, the team intends to persist.

“Of course we’re going to face barriers, but right now we’re optimistic that we even have the chance to have these discussions or the possibility to implement this minor,” she said.

The members of the CPI have so far identified 50 alumni who were willing to donate to the creation of the minor.

To gauge general interest in this minor, the group also distributed an exit survey at a college majors fair two weeks ago.

CPI hopes that the development of an ethnic studies minor could lead to the development of a cultural and ethnic studies center, which could serve as a space for the program.

“It could be a really good way of getting our foot in the academic door,” CPI Co-Director Megan Griffin (COL ’14) said.

Owolabi added that she hopes the minor could influence diversity not only in academic life, but also in social life at Georgetown.

“I’d like to come back to Georgetown in 10 years for my reunion and see a more integrated Georgetown,” she said.

BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013

COMMENTARY

Ryan Cunningham

The AntiSlytherin Approach

N

ext fall, I will be a full-time analyst for Credit Suisse’s oil and gas coverage group in Houston, Texas.

Now that I’ve made you scoff at my greed and selfishness, let’s talk.

Most people I’ve met have this misconception of an argumentative dialogue between business and everyone else — a continuous fight between profit maximization and the interests of concerned stakeholders.

Businessmen are considered greedy and self-serving, while other parties are considered ignorant and obstructive. After a while, these misconceptions cloud our vision of people on both sides of the equation and hinder our ability to recognize the win-win scenarios we can create together.

The headlines we see every day certainly don’t disprove these prejudices: “Financial Crises,” “Fraud” and “Reckless Trading” oftentimes flood our inboxes. Going off these headlines alone, it’s no wonder the McDonough School of Business’ sigil is apparently Slytherin.

Anti-business rhetoric from Main Street is certainly returned in full from Wall Street, but that only adds fuel to the fire. By engaging in divisive rhetoric between the two communities, we make it that much harder to envision any sort of situation in which the two can work together.

Our university is not immune to these misconceptions, and the daily conversations I have are manifestations of the greater problem.

As a member of the International Relations Club, I have a lot of friends in the School of Foreign Service whom I look to when discussing international affairs.

Our university is not immune to these misconceptions.

When we’re up to our noses discussing Southeast Asian water infrastructure development, or anything else that’s “so Georgetown,” they oftentimes forget that I’m in the business school; after awhile, they take a step back and say, “Wait, you’re from the business school, you don’t have a soul.”

Like Optimus Prime, there’s more to us than meets the eye.

When John Mackey, Whole Foods coCEO and co-founder, first started as an entrepreneur, he had a misconception about business in line with the argumentative dialogue I described before. He originally believed that businesses were greedy and that profitability had to come at the expense of others. But as his venture Safer Way, which would later become Whole Foods, began to take off, he quickly realized that business is “based on cooperation and voluntary exchange,” rather than bullying or coercion.

Cooperation is the key word here. Cooperation with customers, employees, local governments, suppliers. Conscious capitalists are in touch with the needs of all their stakeholders and utilize those synergies to create value in ways that profit maximization for its own sake would never be able to achieve.

That’s how Whole Foods does business, and they’ve done pretty well so far.

Many of us in the MSB have passions and interests that aren’t rolling around in a pile of money. To us, profits in and of themselves are not our goals; they are means to achieve our goals. We have dreams, business plans, political ambitions and ideas for social initiatives. We choose to study the business of competitively generating profits because we want to be able to have some idea of how to effectively market, manage and finance our goals to give them the highest probability of success. For the same reasons, many College students pursue a minor in business administration, and SFS students seek a certificate in international business development.

RYAN CUNNINGHAM is a senior in the MSB and chief information officer of the Georgetown University Student Investment Fund. Next fall, he will be an analyst for Credit Suisse.

COURTESY RAFAEL SUANES

Seth Goldman speaks to a crowd in Lohrfink Auditorium on Tuesday, where he talked about the humble roots of his company, Honest Tea, and how far it has come since. Today, President Obama remains one of its biggest fans, with White House fridges stocked with the drink.

Honest Tea Remains True to Its Roots AARON LEWIS Hoya Staff Writer

Honest Tea “TeaEO” Seth Goldman highlighted the goals of a socially responsible business in Lohrfink Auditorium on Tuesday evening.

The Stanton Distinguished Leaders Series, a new speaker series that brings business leaders to campus, sponsored the event.

Goldman outlined the history of Honest Tea, which he founded with his one-time professor Barry Nalebuff in 1998. In 2003, the product became the first fair tradecertified bottled tea and was first distributed in Whole Foods after a test batch in Goldman’s kitchen.

“We weren’t able to get distribu-

tion beyond the natural food channels, so we went to the gourmet stores; we began to take up shelf space and the product was moving,” Goldman said. “The beverage distribution world is a fight for space every day. We had to make this business work for every person in our supply chain. It has to be competitive at every point; no one is going to do charity.”

Today, Honest Tea’s business encompasses three core areas: health and wellness, environmental consciousness and social responsibility.

“We are a company devoted to sustainability, to nourish and to uphold, but we operate in a contradiction between being socially conscious and operating in a con-

New iPhone App Speaks for Itself TM GIBBONS-NEFF Hoya Staff Writer

A new iPhone application crosses Instagram with Snapchat on an anonymous platform exclusive to Georgetown students.

Unsaid is the brainchild of Catherine Cook (MSB ’11) and a team of programmers who began work on the app over the summer.

“Unsaid is all about the people you see everyday,” Cook said Unsaid is a free-to-download application, and consists of an Instagram-style feed filled with Snapchat-style photos from other users. As of right now, it has no in-app advertisements, and has no plan to add them in the future.

“It’s not stuff you’d share on Facebook,” Cook said.

“When I post to Facebook, I usually post accomplishments, while Unsaid is the place for the other stuff.”

Cook also founded the website MyYearbook with her brother David in 2005.

MyYearbook was sold to the QuePasa Corporation for more than $100 million in 2011 and rebranded under the name MeetMe. Based out of New Hope, Penn., Cook saw a huge spike in MeetMe’s mobile web traffic, with 67 percent of all traffic coming from handheld devices, and she hopes Unsaid will tap into this mobile market.

sumer economy,” Goldman said.

Now, the brand makes 500,000 bottles of tea every day. However, Goldman acknowledged the challenges of getting to that point.

“We pay more for our ingredients. Fair trade is more expensive.

We spend more than our competitors,” Goldman said. “We have had our share of failures. … It is part of the process, but we need to keep learning and pushing ahead.”

The company gained recent attention through the National Honesty Index, a marketing campaign that aimed to determine how honest people are by asking the public to pay $1 for a bottle of Honest Tea on the honor system, and President Obama’s professed taste for the beverage. Per The New York

INSIDER

Times, President Obama is known to keep the White House’s refrigerators stocked with his preferred flavors of Black Forest Berry and Green Dragon.

Students and professors in attendance enjoyed Goldman’s lecture.

“What impressed me was the way he talked about the need for business to follow its passion. Being successful is making money, having decent margins and volume, while following your mission,” Catholic University of America adjunct professor in business and economics Herb Shatzen said.

Michael Saba (MSB ’15) agreed.

“I think Honest Tea has an excellent mission statement,” Saba said. “I am actually going to go buy some Honest Tea right now.”

TRADING

What do you wish you had paid better attention to or done differently as an undergraduate?

“I should have paid more attention in my course on Dante's “Inferno.” In hindsight, the class not only provided a great opportunity to learn about literature, history, religion and art, it also offered a chance to improve my writing skills. A single course can offer multiple insights.”

JOSH GORDON FOR THE HOYA

JASON SCHLOETZER is an assistant professor of accounting in the MSB.

Unsaid is a Georgetown-only app that mirrors Instagram.

Cook would like to expand Unsaid to different universities, but currently, users must have Georgetown NetIDs to access the app.

“People like having the school-specific exclusivity,” Cook said.

In order to field-test Unsaid before its release last week, Cook hired more than 20 interns at Georgetown to test the app and garner feedback from the student body.

One of Cook’s interns, Marina Lleonart (SFS ’16), was skeptical at first.

“It was a little creepy,” Lleonart said, but added that by the time she had completed her initial 20 posts, she said that Unsaid was fun.

“My only hesitation was that I was a little uncomfortable with pictures of me popping up without me knowing

“I wish I had time to focus more on learning a foreign language. With the world as global as it is, everyone needs to be able to communicate in languages other than English.”

ROBIN DILLON-MERRILL is an associate professor in the MSB. “If I could go back and take any undergraduate course, I would take one in theater and improvisation, because I think so much of life is improvisation and performance. I teach a class on information and creativity, and this course would have given me an excellent foundation for what I am doing now.”

ROBERT J. BIES is a professor of management and founder of the Executive Master’s in Leadership program in the MSB.

See UNSAID, A7

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