GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 95, No. 22, © 2013
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2013
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Professors and their children reflect on what it’s like to have family on campus.
EDITORIAL Campus space should not be allocated to advertisers.
GUIDE, B1
OPINION, A2
SAC: ROUND TWO Unclear voting led the election commission to hold a second chair race.
PHISHING Attacks on Georgetown email accounts are up 60 percent.
NEWS, A4
NEWS, A5
Typhoon Spurs GU to Action Club Filipino, CSJ organize relief efforts after Haiyan Jennifer Ding Hoya Staff Writer
COURTESY BRIAN MCGUIRE
Patrick Sheehan (CAS ’81) wore the first Jack the Bulldog costume during his four years on campus. He died in a car crash Saturday.
Sheehan, First Mascot, Dies at 54 Kayla Cross Hoya Staff Writer
Patrick Sheehan (CAS ’81) embodied Hoya spirit. As Georgetown’s first costumed mascot, he entertained crowds at basketball games during his four years on campus as a human-sized Jack the Bulldog. Sheehan, 54, died in a car crash Saturday when the town car he was riding in was hit by an SUV on Hudson River Parkway in the Bronx, N.Y. The car’s driver, Ata Noorzi, 51, also died in the crash. Sheehan, who was a managing director for public finance at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York, was instrumental in establishing the mascot tradition now visible at every sporting and spirit event. He is remembered as a fun-loving friend who always entertained those around him. “Pat lights up the room when he walks in,” said Paolo Clemente (GSB ’81), who was friends with Sheehan at Georgetown. “Always a smile on his face, very interested in you. Always makes you feel warm and loved.” Associate Athletics Director for Operations and Facilities Brian McGuire (CAS ’72) was part of the Alumni Association group that chose Sheehan
as mascot during his freshman year in 1977 — a position that replaced the role of the live bulldog, which was absent from campus from 1977 to 1999. Sheehan stood out at the time because of his clear commitment to staying in the mascot role for four years and his lively personality, McGuire said. “We put the head on him, we made him do some things … and he was great,” McGuire said. “Without a doubt, he stood above all the others as far as acting like what we wanted the mascot to act like.” It was quickly clear that McGuire had selected the right student for the position. “He was the perfect choice, and we just got really lucky with him, because we’d never had a costumed mascot before him,” McGuire said. “And he was perfect at it. We were really happy all four years.” Shawn Feeney (GSB ’81), who held a work-study position in McGuire’s office with Sheehan, became close to the mascot pioneer. “The thing anyone who knew Pat would enjoy is when you had a long bus ride … Pat would have a captive See SHEEHAN, A6
Members of Club Filipino have mobilized support for a fundraising campaign to support victims of Typhoon Haiyan. The typhoon, which swept through the Philippines last week, is among the strongest storms in recorded history and left more than 4,000 people dead and 921,000 people displaced, as estimated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In total, 11.8 million people were affected by the typhoon. “Typhoon Haiyan was the largest storm recorded in history, so it’s only necessary that it receives the largest amount of relief in history,” said Bianca Castro (MSB ’15), a member of Club Filipino’s Hoyas for the Philippines fundraising campaign whose family lives in the Filipino capital Manila. Hoyas for the Philippines, which has approximately 10 active planning members in addition to other volunteers, launched a donation page Tuesday morning on Fundly, an online fundraising platform, which will continue for 60 days. In addition to the campaign’s online presence, students tabled each day this week in Leavey Center to collect donations and spread awareness. The campaign set a fundraising
EUGENE ANG/THE HOYA
Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J., celebrates a memorial Mass on Wednesday evening in Copley Crypt Chapel for those lost during Typhoon Haiyan. goal of $2,000 and had raised $757 at press time. “Everyone worked really hard and really quickly to get the website together and reach out to groups,” Club Filipino Secretary Jemm Dela Cruz (SFS ’16) said. “People reached out to us too, so it was really great to hear the support from others. We’re looking forward to working with other entities on how to further get more collections and donations.”
Hoya Staff Writer
The D.C. mayoral race formally went underway Nov. 8, with candidates beginning to circulate petitions to get their names on the ballot. Absent from the pool of nine contenders, however, was incumbent Mayor Vincent Gray. Candidates thus far include D.C. Councilmembers Tommy Wells (DWard 6), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), Vincent Orange (D-At Large) (LAW ’88) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), former State Department official Reta Jo Lewis and Busboys and Poets restaurant owner Andy Shallal. Three lesser-known, Democratic, candidates — former D.C. councilmember candidate Frank Sewell, perennial mayoral candidate Nester Djonkam and businessman Christian Carter — have filed paperwork to run as well. The first debate of the mayoral race, sponsored by the D.C. Bar Association, was held Wednesday evening before a live audience at the @thehoya
downtown offices of the Arent Fox law firm, located at 1717 K St. NW. Candidates must collect at least 2,000 signatures from registered Democrats in the District in order to get their names on the ballot for the Democratic primary in April; there are currently no declared Republican candidates. Gray’s delayed pursuit of reelection coincides with a pending criminal investigation of allegations of corruption related to his 2010 victory over incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty in the Democratic primary. “He has not given a timeline for running,” Gray spokeswoman Doxie McCoy wrote in an email. “When he decides, he will make some sort of announcement.” The investigation into Gray and other District officials has brought campaign ethics to the forefront of other candidates’ platforms. During the debate, Wells criticized Gray for what he deemed rampant government corruption. See MAYOR, A5
See TYPHOON, A6
McCourt’s $100M Leaves Out Building Sam Abrams Hoya Staff Writer
The university plans to construct a new building to house the McCourt School of Public Policy, but none of Frank McCourt Jr.’s (CAS ’75) $100 million donation can be used for that purpose. Although no specific plans for a building were laid out when McCourt gave his record-breaking donation in September, Vice President for Advancement Bartley Moore said that the parties involved shared the belief that a new building, likely in downtown Washington, D.C., would be necessary. The school is currently located in Old North, which housed the Georgetown Public Policy Institute until it
was incorporated into MSPP. “[McCourt] and the university share the belief that the fullest vision for the McCourt School will require new facilities that provide ample room to grow,” Moore said. “Though this was not a condition of the founding gift, we share a commitment to put the school near the city center at some point during its first decade.” All of McCourt’s gift will go toward developing the school through initiatives like student and faculty recruitment and research. The McCourt Fellows Program will help recruit promising students; furthermore, the Massive Data Institute and Center for See MCCOURT, A6
As Mayoral Race Begins, Gray Absent Johnny Verhovek
In addition to these fundraising efforts, Hoyas for the Philippines is working on an online campaign video to be posted this weekend. “One thing that we wanted to do was to highlight members of the Georgetown community for whom this issue is particularly important,” Club Filipino External Liaison Helena Manguerra (NHS ’15), whose
TOP LEFT, BOTTOM RIGHT: AJ BROWN, BOTTOM LEFT: MICHAEL KAY, TOP RIGHT: DARROW MONTGOMERY
Clockwise from top left: Councilmembers Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), Vincent Orange (D-At Large), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6). Published Tuesdays and Fridays
COURTESY WOODROW WILSON CENTER
GOP senators filibustered GULC professor Nina Pillard’s nomination.
GOP Blocks Pillard Molly Simio
Hoya Staff Writer
Georgetown University Law Center professor Cornelia “Nina” Pillard’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was defeated by a U.S. Senate Republican filibuster Tuesday. With the Senate’s near partyline vote of 56-41, Pillard was four votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Only two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), voted in favor of Pillard’s confirmation. Pillard, a graduate of Yale College and Harvard University Law School, is President Obama’s third nominee to the D.C. Circuit to have been blocked by Republicans this year. She joins Caitlin Halligan, general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and Patricia Millett, an Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner, in being unable to sway enough GOP senators See PILLARD, A5
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A2
OPINION
THE HOYA
friday, NOVEMBER 15, 2013
THE VERDICT
C EDITORIALS C The Politics of Tenure C C C C Founded January 14, 1920
A tenured position at a competitive university has long been the goal for aspiring academics looking to gain credibility and stability. As a recent article in The Hoya (“Adjunct Unionization a National Struggle,” A1, Nov. 1, 2013) highlighted, however, the Georgetown community is beginning to appreciate the difficulties that academic life imposes on non-tenured faculty members, both adjunct and full-time. As an institution, tenure has protected the independence of research among senior faculty. Yet for junior faculty, tenure has recently provided more of a boon for university administrations than a protection for research. For those seeking tenure, the dream of a safe and stable position brings on a frantic dash to demonstrate the ability to bring in value, publications and funding to the university — often at the expense of hours in the classroom. By focusing on quantitative accomplishments, pressure to qualify for tenure may very well have the unintended effect of restricting research interests. Tenure is a tremendous carrot for university administrators to wield, but the consequences of that baiting are not always so appetizing. Alternatives to a tenure-track position are hardly desirable under current
conditions. Institutions like Georgetown lack a clear protocol for non-tenure-track full-time positions. With widely varying salaries and few institutional roles, nontenured professors teach many classes and receive little in the way of respect from their tenured peers. Worse still is the lot of adjuncts lacking consistent work and stable roles on the Hilltop. This situation, while not unique to Georgetown, threatens the sustainability of the academic model and amounts to an unethical underserving of what are, by and large, talented and passionate professors. The unionization of adjuncts at Georgetown and the administration’s continued work on supporting non-tenured full-time professors are encouraging signs that the university is doing its part to mitigate the problem. Students should contribute to this effort by making the stakes of the matter clear to all parties involved. By demanding fair and consistent treatment for non-tenured academics, students can underscore the importance of nurturing a respectful and supportive environment for faculty. The educational experience that students deserve from their university should not be compromised by the politics of tenure.
Hoya Court — Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced Wednesday that the ACC men’s basketball tournament will be held at Verizon Center in 2016. Help for the Homeless — As D.C. experiences its first below-freezing temperatures and hypothermia alerts of the season, local nonprofits have set up emergency shelters and delivered blankets and clothes to the homeless. Construction Complications — A plan to replace the dilapidated Georgetown Heating Plant with luxury apartments is currently facing several objections after review by the Old Georgetown Board. Erasing History — A historical Georgetown home — referred to as the “Blue Tarp Home” after it sustained damage in Hurricane Irene — was demolished Wednesday. Fish Fried for Good — Cannon’s Seafood on 31st Street announced that its doors will close permanently and its space will be rented to neighboring Italian restaurant Il Canale.
EDITORIAL CARTOON by Sania Salman
[This Space for Rent] Lively tabling is a trademark of Red Square, and bright fliers fight for space on campus buildings. One marketing technique that is relatively new to Georgetown resurfaced early this week on the grassy intersection between Regents Hall, the Intercultural Center and Harbin Hall. The large stand occupying this location promotes Samsung products and was preceded this fall by several stands marketing Dasani flavored waters. While the stand might not directly intrude on daily life, its presence detracts from campus integrity. Georgetown has always taken pride in its traditional closed campus, which gives it a leg up over other city schools in the area. To stay true to its ambition to provide a tight-knit living and learning community, the university should reserve campus space for uses that improve the intellectual and personal growth of its residents. Drawing in students to consider its products with loud music and graphics, the Samsung hut fails that standard. The
stand also occupies space that is off limits to such advertising from student groups — a priority that should be reversed. More importantly, such commercialization conflicts with the atmosphere originally intended for Georgetown’s campus. It is unclear what benefits the university is reaping from these stands or if the school has a contract with university suppliers. And while the university certainly has autonomy over its finances, renting out parts of campus to commercial interests seeking to capitalize on the college student demographic should not be acceptable. The university should reconsider allowing companies to use campus space for advertising. Georgetown spends thousands of dollars on flower arrangements — a reflection of the school-wide belief that aesthetic matters. Be it Samsung or Dasani, these stands fit neither the landscape nor the spirit of our campus.
Tour guides at most universities tout the strength of their school’s student-professor relationships, and Georgetown’s are no exception. Older students frequently dispense the advice “get to know your professors” as a must for undergraduate life. But beyond office hours and the occasional shared coffee, few means are widely used to bridge the student-faculty divide. In this context, the Moveable Feast with Faculty program stands out as a creative and commendable solution. The program was designed by the Office of Residential Education to facilitate relationships outside of the classroom, in this case over a casual dinner. Through the Moveable Feast, three or more juniors, seniors or graduates can apply to have dinner with a professor or academic dean. The university will pay cover up to a $100 tab of takeout from local restaurants, including Sweetgreen and Qdoba. While it does take courage to invite a professor to a meal, by making the application simple and the food free, the Moveable Feast eliminates a hoop through which students would otherwise have to
jump. The program’s only request is that students provide a photograph from the event to be used for future marketing purposes. By creating a comfortable environment for professors and students to come together, the program facilitates relationships that can extend far beyond a single evening. The only weakness of such a strong program is that it is so rarely taken advantage of. It is solely advertised by a single, infrequently viewed page on Georgetown’s website, and, when asked, few students say they have heard of it. Students are notoriously eager when presented with free food, and many have a genuine desire to socialize with faculty. Given these factors, the Moveable Feast program really should broadcast its availability. But if few Georgetown students hear about it, neither appetite can be fulfilled. In the broad discussion about studentfaculty engagement, the Moveable Feast is a clever way to form friendships. However, its advantages will come to little avail if the Office of Residential Living cannot fill all the spots at the table.
Feeding Faculty Bonds
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 Chris Grivas Charlie Lowe Michelle Xu Kennedy Shields Karl Pielmeier
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Editorial Board
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Taylor Coles, Alyssa Huberts, Hanaa Khadraoui, Sam Rodman, Christopher Stromeyer
Katherine Berk, Chair
LETTER TO THE EDITOR To the editor: After reading Danny Funt’s interview with Dean of Admissions Charles Deacon a few weeks ago, I was reminded of one of the few aspects about Georgetown that never ceases to frustrate me: Why aren’t we on the Common App? There is a prevailing perception that the Common App represents a rat race for status, and that switching to it would amount to an attempt to keep up with the Joneses. As Dean Deacon put it, “We don’t succumb to the false gods.” I agree. We should not switch to the Common App solely to improve our ranking. But we also should not operate without any regard for what other institutions are doing. Despite Deacon’s claim that “we don’t have any particular school to compare ourselves to that causes us to have to act,” I think it’s necessary for us to pay attention to what other schools are doing and adjust accordingly. I doubt that Dean Deacon really sees Georgetown as so exempt from external pressures. Earlier in the interview, Deacon noted that after Georgetown joined “an organization that allowed us to share data … We found out that Georgetown compared pretty well, and we began to re-orient ourselves to be compared among the Ivies, Stanford and Chicago.” If we tried to “reorient” ourselves, then apparently
there are certain institutions that cause us to act a certain way. Later, in response to another question, Deacon lauded Georgetown for its focus on undergraduates, which he noted makes us “more like, say, a Dartmouth, Princeton or Brown,” another clear instance of comparison between Georgetown and other universities. One of the biggest problems in college admissions right now is the fact that many qualified students from lower income backgrounds simply aren’t applying to selective schools. A switch to the Common App would make Georgetown more accessible to qualified students who don’t have much college guidance information. Jessica Marinaccio, dean of admissions at Columbia, cited this reason as her institution’s main motivation for joining: “We offer one of the most generous need-based financial aid programs in the country and believe the Common Application will make applying to Columbia more accessible to students from every background.” I see no downside to joining the Common Application, only the prospect of improving the intellectual life and diversity of our campus. I hope that Dean Deacon and other school administrators will consider joining sometime soon. Paul Healy (COL ’15)
CORRECTIONS The article “Broccoli Counters Radiation GUMC Study Says” (A7, Nov. 12, 2013) incorrectly reported that a Georgetown University Medical Center study of vegetables’ effects on radiation was funded by agencies within the Department of Defense and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, in addition to the National Institutes of Health and Georgetown’s Drug Discovery Program. Only the latter two organizations were involved in funding the study. Additionally, the Drug Discovery Program is within GUMC, not the department of urology. The article “Activists March on Epicurean” (A1, Nov. 12, 2013) incorrectly stated that Epicurean owner Chang Wook Chon’s civil lawsuit is ongoing. The civil lawsuit ended this summer.
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OPINION
friday, november 15, 2013
THE HOYA
STATE OF PLAY
VIEWPOINT • McNelis
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
A3
High Time for Two States ‘T
James Gadea
Positive Change, With Profit W
hat do you think of when you hear or read the word “business”? Is it the hustle and bustle of Wall Street? Is it those traditional white collars and brief cases? Do we associate the inviting, polished Rafik B. Hariri Building with business, or do we think of something more sinister? Business scandals and corporations associated with unseemly practices are nothing new — and negative perceptions of profit-hungry executives are quite common. I’ve even noticed that Georgetown students who work in finance are often viewed differently than their counterparts at nonprofits. But, really, this bias toward business is unfair. People who work at nonprofits can make hugely positive impacts, but those who work for Goldman Sachs also have the potential to do great things for communities near and far. In particular, social entrepreneurship has become a beacon of conscientious profit-making that has successfully formed an intersection between profitability and charity. Ever since I was in elementary school, entrepreneurship has stoked my curiosity. The idea that you could make money by discovering a problem and fixing it struck me as brilliant and fun. My brother and I used to put together “museums” of our coin collections, favorite books and various prized toys. We’d display them in the living room and collect ticket money from friends and family. Years later, after I came to Georgetown, I joined the Compass Fellowship. The Compass
rust me, I’m definitely proIsrael in this conflict.” The words came out easily, unquestioningly, as I was responding to the speech President Obama had given the night before on May 19, 2011, in which he became the first U.S. president to call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on “the 1967 lines with landswaps.” The idea itself was not new; it’s been a cornerstone of U.S. policy since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. But for political reasons — domestic and foreign — it had gone unstated until that day. As the conversation continued, however, I felt a seemingly unexplainable and overwhelming sense of discomfort, unease and shame. I soon realized that I wasn’t feeling guilty because I declared my support for Israel, as I firmly believe in the Jewish state and Israel’s right to exist in peace and security with its neighbors. No, it was the fact that when the words came out, the traditional phrase “pro-Israel” was defined as advocating for Israel against the Palestinians, whereby one should not criticize policies of the Israeli government, recognize the Palestinian perspective on the conflict or recognize their suffering under Israeli occupation … and I had added nothing to indicate that my views on Israel were far more complicated. The way I defensively said “pro-Israel” was not merely a statement of support but an affirmation of the black-and-white views of the conflict, where narratives and language perpetuate the idea that one must choose between supporting either the Israeli or Palestinian people. That day had a profound impact on how I perceived the conflict. I was confused, angry and — quite frankly
— sad. Throughout my life, I had been fed one truth about the conflict: Israel was good, completely devoid of any wrongs, and the Palestinians wanted to destroy Israel. In the year before Obama’s speech, I had begun to question that narrative, and I was more confused than ever about what was true as my friends and government officials expressed their outrage over the president’s statements. Why was there such a visceral reaction to the parameters of the past 20 years of negotiations? I was angry that I had spent that day defending myself and my assertions that the president had not said any-
I am both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, and I’m fine with that. thing revolutionary or anti-Israel; he stated previous negotiating parameters and called on both peoples to compromise for the sake of security and peace. What was wrong with that? And more than anything, I was sad that I had believed the simple, clear-cut narrative without question. Despite the cacophony of emotions and confusion, I went to bed that night knowing one thing for certain: The conflict is not as simple as it is made out to be. I supported both Israel as a Jewish, democratic state, and the Palestinian right to self-determination. I recognized the injustice of the occupation and Israel’s right to security. I believed in the two-state solution. I was both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian, and I was perfectly fine with that. That day changed my life. My confusion motivated me to challenge
the traditional dialogue rather than embrace or turn away from it. I no longer accepted the IsraeliPalestinian conflict as a zero-sum issue. Channeling my inner English nerd, I recognized the importance of rhetoric in the conflict. The traditional definitions of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian have polarized conversations and perpetuated distrust between the peoples. Would you want to listen to someone who, by definition, is assumed to be antagonistic toward you or your people? Of course not. Each of us needs to stop defining Israelis, Palestinians and their aspirations as diametrically opposed and inherently irreconcilable. By changing our rhetoric and the meanings behind it, we open the doors to dialogue, understanding and peace. These beliefs drew me to J Street U at Georgetown, the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans. J Street believes in honest, open conversation and challenging the traditional meanings of “pro-Israel” and “pro-Palestinian.” J Street’s challenge to the traditional dialogue as a gateway to understanding and cooperation was exemplified at the screening of “The Other Son” last week. By coming as individuals from diverse perspectives rather than as members of inherently political organizations, the attendees showed that this conflict transcends politics. By recognizing the humanity of “the other,” these students have done something more: They have shown that recognition and peace are possible. This event may not solve the conflict, but it’s a pretty good start. Katelyn McNelis is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. She is secretary of J Street U.
James Gadea is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. The Elephant in the Room appears every other Friday.
The Far Left Won’t Take Center Stage T he knee-jerk analysis of last Tuesday’s off-year elections — other than shock at Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s thin margin in Virginia and awe at Republican Chris Christie’s romp in New Jersey — was that the Democratic Party is experiencing a new progressive dawn. But while this idea might be intuitive, it couldn’t be more wrong. For those who predict that a rejuvenated liberal wing of the Democratic Party will jockey for power in 2014 and beyond, unabashed left-winger Bill de Blasio’s victory over more “establishment” candidates in the New York City Democratic primary proves their point. And further up the Northeast corridor, the victory of unionbacked Martin Walsh over the more stylistically slick John Connolly in the Boston mayoral election was viewed as another data point in the theory of a leftward Democratic shift. But looking just at de Blasio ignores New York City’s status as one of the most liberal cities in America. Comedian Stephen Colbert wasn’t off the mark when he joked, “New York City is the only place in the world where the lesbian candidate was too conservative” — a reference to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s primary loss to de Blasio. Moreover, we can learn about as much from de Blasio’s massive victory over his underfunded Republican opponent, Joe Lhota (GSB ’76) as we would if the Georgetown basketball squad defeated the Little Sisters of the Poor. A common narrative has this leftward shift returning Democrats to an equilibrium previously disrupted by President Bill
Democrats in key states simply aren’t pining for the left wing these days.
Social entrepeneurship has become a beacon of conscientious business. Fellowship transformed my freshman year experience, allowing me to discover the power of social entrepreneurship and its global impact. In the process, I’ve been drawn to learn more and more about the nitty-gritty, dynamics and theory behind socially conscious global enterprise. During my first year, I also met an amazing social entrepreneur named Robert Egger. Egger is the founder of D.C. Central Kitchen, an organization that alleviates hunger and homelessness. Egger’s businesses fight these problems by striking at their roots. Within homelessness, there have been few measureable solutions enacted that address the root of the problem. In response, Egger created an organization with the motivating belief that homelessness can be alleviated through socially conscious business. Egger was one of the few who attacked the problem from the ground up. With belief in the concept of socially conscious business, he formed D.C. Central Kitchen to confront these core issues: unemployment, recidivism and drug addiction. D.C. Central Kitchen offers unemployed, homeless and impoverished people the opportunity to receive job training for careers in the culinary world — while curtailing hunger by recycling leftover ingredients. The kitchen gives out 10,000 meals each day to both homeless shelters and lowincome children, and it provides nutritious meals to those who likely would not have had these nutritional intakes otherwise. Egger’s kitchen represents the best of what social entrepreneurship can be. It is the opportunity to make real change while still operating in a profitable framework. A successful socially conscious business is not only profitable for its owners, but also for society in general. That is why Egger’s organization is a shining example of a successful social enterprise: It fosters a better community by making durable positive change through profitable business. Although there may always be a couple of rotten apples in the basket of business, the orchard of potential for socially conscious businesses far outweighs them. Who knows what fresh idea is about to be picked?
Evan Hollander
VIEWPOINT • Doumar, Lin & Schwabe-Fry
OnOurChoicetoWithdraw R
ecently, we in Students for Justice in Palestine withdrew our organization’s support from an event jointly sponsored by J Street U Georgetown and the Georgetown Israel Alliance. The co-sponsorship was originally designed to improve the dialogue surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on college campuses and beyond. We would like to take this opportunity to explain our decision to withdraw. Students for Justice in Palestine supports dialogue. But we believe that for dialogue about this issue to take place, it must take into account the striking power imbalance between Palestinians and Israelis. Thus, dialogue should only take place between parties that agree on two basic principles: first, that Israel should end all forms of discrimination against Palestinians and privileging of Jewish citizens; and second, that Israelis and Palestinians are not equally powerful parties. Any other kind of “dialogue” would suggest that the daily forms of violence experienced by Palestinians today are caused by religious, cultural or historical misunderstandings rather than by a military occupation. Israel, since its founding, has expropriated land, installed settlers and expelled the people who were there before; Israel is an occupying power, and Palestinians are the occupied people. This legal reality must be recognized if dialogue is to have any real meaning. Otherwise, we risk normalizing the occupation by insinuating that the oppressed can work with the oppressor on equal footing, giving credence to Israel’s position that this is a conflict between two equal parties. In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes by Zionist groups in a process Israeli historian Ilan Pappe refers to as the “ethnic cleansing of Palestine.” Palestinians fled and formed refugee camps near the east-
ern and western borders of Palestine, territories known today as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. More than 65 years later, Palestinians remain the largest and longest-standing population of displaced persons in the world, with 6.6 million refugees and 427,000 internally displaced persons, according to BADIL, the Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. The continued occupation of Palestine is atrocious by any standard. In the Gaza Strip, nearly 2 million people, the vast majority being refugees, are completely enclosed in a 360 square-km area (about double the size of Washington, D.C.) Walls
A glaring power imbalance exists in this situation. tower over the southern, eastern and northern borders, Israeli Navy ships sit off shore and drones often hover above, literally imprisoning the residents of Gaza. With highly restricted mobility and limited work opportunities, the majority of Gazans live off aid. In the West Bank, the Israelis continue to appropriate Palestinian land — on which Palestinian livelihood depends — via illegal settlements, a wall that seizes more territory for the Israelis and occupier-only roads that snake through Palestine, dividing village from village and farmers from their farmland, and separating families. Israelis and Palestinians are not simply entangled in a long-running, inevitable enmity that has always existed between Arabs and Jews. A glaring power imbalance exists in which the situation of the Palestinians cannot possibly be compared to that of the Israelis, whose GDP per capita is 10 times higher than that of the Palestinians and who control,
militarily, economically and politically, all aspects of Palestinian life. Israel is a state founded for Jews, institutionally structured to ensure a Jewish majority on as much of the land of historic Palestine as possible. As such, Palestinians face systematic discrimination simply because they are not Jewish. In Area C of the West Bank, for example, under exclusive Israeli civil and military control and covering 60 percent of the West Bank, Palestinians are deprived of electricity, water, schools and access to roads — in striking contrast to Jewish Israeli citizens’ vast privileges in adjacent settlements. We refuse to take part in whitewashing Israel’s public image and therefore reject any Israeli-Palestinian collaboration that does not recognize Palestinians’ inalienable rights and explicitly aim to resist Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. Through our efforts, SJP seeks to underscore the systematic ethnic discrimination and landgrab perpetrated by Israeli governmental, legal, economic and military mechanisms and supported by international governments and corporations that lie at the core of the problem. As Georgetown students committed to Jesuit values of justice and equality, we are determined to educate our community in meaningful ways about the reality of life under occupation. We invite you to join our group and attend our future events in order to engage in discussions, teachings, and organization for the attainment of true justice and equality for both Palestinians and Israelis. aLBERT DOUMAR is a junior in the School of Foreign Service, KRISTEN SCHWABE-FRY is a senior in the College and Erica Lin is a senior in the College. They are president, senior advisor and treasurer of Students for Justice in Palestine, respectively.
Clinton’s moderate approach. Globally, this would parallel a shift in the United Kingdom, as the Labour Party turns away from the “New Labour” ethos that propelled former Prime Minister Tony Blair to three election victories. Returning to its populist roots and hugging ever tighter to trade unions has been costly for Labour and Blair’s two successors, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. In 2010, Brown presided over a landslide general election loss from which the party is still reeling. But as much as liberal Democrats might not want to admit it, Clinton’s movement away from the far left set the stage for Barack Obama. After embracing expansive programs to build on the Great Society for much of the 1980s, Clinton turned the Democrats toward a platform that put more weight on free markets than government programs and made more robust use of military power. Despite defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary, however, Obama has governed in a similar model. Foreign policy — some of it carried out by Secretary Clinton — has turned to the same kind of muscular coalition building that happened under President Clinton. Even the Affordable Care Act follows the Clintonian model, and tax rates are actually lower now than they were in 2000. That’s why Noam Scheiber’s piece in The New Republic this weekend on Elizabeth Warren was of particular interest. Scheiber made a persuasive case that Warren is well placed to lead a left-wing challenge to Clinton in 2016. It’s certainly possible that she could gain traction — as any opponent could — heading into the next presidential election cycle. But Warren suffers from a more narrow interest — opposition to Wall Street — and a lack of broader ideology. Anger at Wall Street will wane as the economy improves and, in any event, is much less of a politically potent weapon than some seem to believe. That Warren was just barely elected in Massachusetts — arguably the most liberal state in the union — should tell us volumes. Critically, there is also a great deal of unity within the Democratic Party today. Nearly 80 percent of Democrats approve of Obama, despite mixed views across the entire population. That’s hardly fertile ground on which to spark a revolution. In the era of a solid Democratic south and big city ward bosses, Massachusetts and Manhattan picked our presidents. Today, places like Manassas, Va., are the key players. Democrats there simply aren’t pining for the left wing today — and tomorrow doesn’t look likely either. Evan Hollander is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. State of play appears
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE Administrators held the first roundtable of the year Wednesday. See story at thehoya.com.
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verbatim a new form “ It’s of McCarthyism, just a different McCarthy.
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Citlalli Alvarez (COL ’16), Hoyas for Immigrant Rights president, on Rep. McCarthy’s speech. See story at thehoya.com.
from
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ADVENTURES IN LEO’S — A 4E STORY In honor of this year’s theme for h.innovation, storytelling, the staff of 4E came up with a story of its own. ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA
“Katie” special correspondant Cameron Hughs stood on top of his truck parked in Healy Circle and declared, “We are coming for you, America.” The “Katie” show filmed students in Sellinger Lounge on Wednesday. See story on A7.
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Second Round Afghan Rights Back at Forefront For SAC Election TM GIBBONS-NEFF Hoya Staff Writer
SAM ABRAMS
is why we have the recount. We wanted to minimize confusion,” Hoya Staff Writer outgoing SAC Chair Jennifer ChiA close election and unclear ang (SFS ’15) said. “We’ve received votes in Wednesday’s Student great voter turnout from student Activities Commission chair group leadership, which is great election led the group to hold a because it shows that they really revote Thursday. care.” Each of SAC’s 109 affiliated stuMusgrave weighed in on the dent groups receives one vote in revote situation and reflected on the chair election. According to the campaign as a whole. Georgetown University Student “I have complete faith in the Association Election Commis- election commission and trust sioner Ethan Chess (COL ’14), that they have resolved the iswho was designated SAC election sues that we saw with voting commissioner for the election, last night,” Musgrave said. “I problems included some SAC am happy with my campaign. I groups submitting more than would like to thank my supportone vote for commissioner and ers, and I commend Eng Gin on ambiguous voting caused by a a well-fought campaign. I will ealack of clarity about which group gerly await the results, and, win member was responsible for the or lose, I intend to keep doing my organization’s vote. According to very best to serve the student orChess, these ganizations of problems were Georgetown.” not present in For Moe, the previous SAC close election elections. results revealed This was a student body SAC’s second heavily invested contested elecin the camtion in the four paign. ENG GIN MOE (SFS ’16) years since it “I think both SAC Chair Candidate restructured Patrick and I to introduce a campus-wide elec- are very competent SAC commistion system. sioners and have worked hard to “When we collected the votes, run effective campaigns. The fact we were at times unable to verify that this race was so close speaks who was being voted for, and to the importance of its outcome some clubs inadvertently voted to student group life,” said Moe. more than their one allotted “While there were issues with time,” Chess said. “We have made the first round of voting, I am modifications to the online bal- confident that the new balloting lot on HoyaLink, and voting this system will ensure that the voices time around has gone smoothly.” of all student groups are heard.” Voting in the second round As of 10 p.m. Thursday, nearly ended at 2 a.m. Friday. The results 70 percent of clubs had cast votes. were not available at press time. Chess hoped that 80 percent of The two candidates, one-se- club presidents would eventually mester SAC commissioner and vote. Marketing and Public Relations Moe’s platform emphasized Director Patrick Musgrave (COL communication. Under her lead’16) and two-semester SAC com- ership, the SAC commissioner missioner and New Club Devel- would be required to attend opment Coordinator Eng Gin one event per club each semesMoe (SFS ’16), were separated by a ter. Musgrave hoped to focus on margin of two votes in the initial simplifying the often daunting round. process required for SAC groups “We wanted the election to be to officially sponsor and reserve fair and true in the utmost, which public campus spaces for events.
“The fact that the race was so close speaks to its importance.”
Afghanistan and its population, especially Afghan women, face an uncertain future as the United States and its coalition partners begin drawing down their forces in the coming months. Today’s symposium in Gaston Hall, presented by Georgetown University Institute for Women, Peace and Security, will include Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former first lady Laura Bush as they discuss how far Afghan women have come in the last 10 years. In 2012 both Clinton and Bush were honored by Georgetown’s Center for Child and Human Development and the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council for their work with women and children. Clinton was awarded the Children Lifetime Achievement Award from CCHD and Bush was awarded the Champion for Afghan Women award from the U.S.-Afghan Women’s council. “Georgetown was a natural fit to host Advancing Afghan Women: Promoting Peace and Progress in Afghanistan due to our work with the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security,” Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh wrote in an email. “This symposium’s purpose is to raise awareness of the precarious situation faced by the women of Afghanistan as we leave the country,” visiting professor and senior advisor to GIWPS Robert Egnell said. After the 2001 U.S. invasion and the removal of the Taliban, Afghan women have seen a decade of progress, with women becoming members of Afghan Parliament and assuming top rolls in the Afghan Security and Police Forces. Yet with no post-2014 security agreement decided upon, the gains seen in the last few years are in peril of coming undone. “In my opinion, they stand to lose ground in virtually every sector which has worked so hard to empower them,” Kimberly Motley, currently the only Western litigator in Kabul, told THE HOYA. “Afghan woman are very concerned that as the international forces exit Afghanistan so will their rights.” Egnell said he believes the symposium represents an integral step to retaining the gains in these rights, because in the past years the United States has shifted its goals in Afghanistan from nation-building to counter-terrorism. “This conference put these issues on the agenda, on the political landscape,” Egnell said. “It’s a promise to come back
FILE PHOTO: SARI FRANKEL/THE HOYA
Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush are honored at the State Department in 2012. They return to campus today to discuss gains made by Afghans in the past decade. to as we draw down in Afghanistan. While women’s rights have thrived in post-Taliban Afghanistan, the progress has been restricted to urban areas where western influence is tangible, as billions of dollars in foreign aid have been pumped into the cities’ infrastructure. “There is a dark side to this progress,” Afghan-American Kamran Haris (SFS ’15) said. Born and raised in Virginia, Haris has spent large portions of his life in Kabul. “Some parts of the country are friendly to women and others are not,” Haris said. “The further south you go, and the closer to Pakistan you get, it quickly turns into the Stone Age.” Southern Afghanistan has been home to some of the worst fighting of the war and includes Kandahar City, the birthplace of the Taliban, and the Helmand River valley, which irrigates the lucrative and problematic poppy trade. With the Taliban’s presence still a security issue, Afghan women fear that without adequate protection they will find
themselves under the auspices of strict Islamic law once more. “In recent conversations with Afghan women, particularly young ones, I was struck by how worried many of them are about the post-2014 era,” Washington Post Foreign Correspondent Ernesto Londono said. “I think they see a robust Western presence in Afghanistan as a bit of a shield and worry that without it, ultra-conservative traditions regarding the role of women in society could once again remain the norm.” While the future remains unclear for Afghanistan and Afghan women, there is little doubt they will need the help of the West to retain their gains. “It is imperative that the global community remain engaged in helping to ensure that Afghan women continue to gain the momentum that the international community has assisted them in gaining for over a decade,” Motley said. Kerry, Clinton and Bush are speaking in Gaston Hall at 10 a.m.
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Republicans Block Phishing Attacks Rise at GU Pillard Nomination Matt Gregory Hoya Staff Writer
nine before the Court. Treanor stood by Pillard’s qualifications. to cross party lines. “The candidates that the presi“It’s not about Pillard,” Law Center Dean William Treanor said. dent has nominated should be “The opposition to giving her a vote voted on based on their merits,” is Republican senators who are say- Treanor said. Senate Democrats have criticized ing that the D.C. Circuit doesn’t the GOP for blocking Obama’s need to have its vacancies filled.” According to the Court’s official three female nominees to the website, those three positions have Court in the last year; the fourth been vacant since Sept. 25, 2005, nominee, a male, still awaits a SenOct. 14, 2011 and Feb. 12, 2013, re- ate vote. Of the 14 active judges currently serving on the D.C. Circuit, spectively. Georgetown University College which includes circuit and senior Republicans Communications judges, 11 are male. “You cannot say that one presiManager Tim Rosenberger (COL ’16) said that he saw this trend as dent can have his way on qualian indication that Obama needed fied judges and another president can’t have his way — that you can to select more qualified nominees. “We’re perhaps asking the have qualified men but not qualiwrong question, asking why Re- fied women,” Judiciary Commitpublicans are blocking the nomi- tee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) (LAW ’64) said to nations,” RosenRepublicans in berger said. “We his final pre-vote should be asking floor speech. why there aren’t Sen. Charles any acceptable Grassley (Rnominees being Iowa), the top nominated.” Republican on In particular, Bradley Girard (LAW ’74) the Senate JudiPillard’s proHoya Lawyers for Pilllard ciary Committee, choice views and objections to abstinence-only edu- countered accusations of sexism cation raised concerns from con- during floor speech Tuesday. “That argument is offensive servatives. Moreover, the D.C. Circuit, which but predictable. We’ve seen this currently has eight active circuit before,” Grassley said. “When the judges and three vacancies, is split other side runs out of legitimate arevenly along party lines with four guments, their last line of defense Republican-appointed and four is to accuse Republicans of opposDemocrat-appointed judges. Pil- ing nominees based on gender or lard’s confirmation would skew race.” Despite Tuesday’s vote, members that balance. Senate Republicans have argued of Hoya Lawyers for Nina Pillard, a that, given its caseload, the D.C. group of Georgetown Law students Circuit simply has no need for ad- in favor of Pillard’s nomination, reditional justices and that the three main optimistic. According to member Bradley vacant spots should be eliminated. Senate Democrats, however, have Girard (LAW ’14), the group has countered by reminding Republi- been in contact with the offices of cans that they were not opposed to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (SFS ’66, filling vacancies in the D.C. Circuit LAW ’69), Sen. Mazie Hirono (DHawaii) (LAW ’78) and Leahy in an during the Bush administration. “It is deeply disappointing that attempt to bring Pillard’s nominaRepublicans are continuing to play tion vote back to the Senate floor. Girard said that he is hopeful political games with all of the president’s nominations,” Georgetown that if the Senate were to have anUniversity College Democrats Presi- other vote, it would focus on Pillard’s merit, rather than on party dent Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) said. Before coming to Georgetown, politics. “We know that she is incredibly Pillard worked for the National Association for the Advancement qualified, that she would be a pheof Colored People and served as nomenal judge and she would apdeputy assistant attorney general ply the law in a fair, even-handed during the Clinton administration. way,” Girard said. “What we want She has briefed more than 25 Su- is for there to be a chance for the preme Court cases and has argued Senate to vote on that.” PILLARD, from A1
“We know that she is incredibly qualified.”
The number of targeted phishing attacks on the university has risen by 60 percent this year, representing the trend of these attacks of moving from government bodies to private institutions. “The scheme involved phishing attacks that successfully collected NetIDs and passwords,” Chief Information Officer Lisa Davis wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We’ve seen scare tactics in email subjects, including ‘Your NetID has been compromised,’ or a note from ‘Information Technology’ requesting specific information from users.” University Information Services Security Officer David Smith attributed the continuing success of this tactic to the increasingly realistic quality of these fraudulent emails, including one that appeared to come from Davis’ account. Davis emailed the Georgetown community Thursday morning requesting that everyone change his or her email account password by the close of business Friday, citing “recent phishing attacks resulting in several identity thefts on campus.” Thursday’s email from Davis used more urgent language than previous phishing warnings. According to Smith, Georgetown is one of many universities that has been affected by phishing and other cyber security threats. Tracy Mitrano, director of information technology policy at Cornell University, identified three types of cyber attacks: those originating from common criminals seeking money; “hacktivists,” including vandals and
political groups; and most prevalently, advanced persistent threats, or APTs, that are often sanctioned by foreign governments seeking information. “There is no international Internet governance, and so it is the proverbial wild west in terms of crime and law enforcement global,” Mitrano said. Foreign sources are interested in universities’ data, according to Mitrano. “Originally APTs were directed to military information, then industry and, most recently, with focused intensity to higher education,” Mitrano said. “The goal of these attacks is to obtain as much data — for example, from academic libraries and scholarly journals, research and research laboratories and institutional intellectual property — as is possible in the event that it might be useful information to have given any particular academic or industrial development.” At Georgetown, UIS utilizes an array of techniques to defend against cyber attacks. According to Smith, the constantly evolving nature of cyber threats necessitates a similarly dynamic defense policy. “Because new attacks are being devised and new vulnerabilities in IT systems are being discovered all the time, UIS creates administrative and technical safeguards to reduce the effects or potential impact of a security threat or vulnerability,” Smith wrote in an email. Specifically regarding phishing, Davis described how certain safeguards attempt to protect the student body from potential cyber-based threats to personal security. “UIS’s security analysts stop many
phishing attempts through our various proactive means to capture and/ or block malicious IPs,” Davis wrote. “We use every technical means at our disposal and are always adapting our tactics as phishing schemes change.” Phishing, however, according to associate professor of computer science Wenchao Zhou, is particularly difficult to eliminate due to the ease with which someone can send an email from a false address. “Phishing attacks are sent through emails, and they’re really hard to prevent, because the protocol used to send out emails does not really require authentication,” he said. “Anybody can send out an email from any address they want.” In addition to employing conventional means of cyber defense, including firewalls and other safeguards of important information, UIS encourages people not to put personal information online and provides phishing avoidance training. In addition, the university has cyber insurance to protect against any potential problems that may arise. Assistant professor of computer science Adam O’Neill said that the greatest threat to student and university cyber security is a product of human error rather than technical flaws. “You need to educate people more about these kinds of attacks and show what a strong and weak password is,” he said. “Any large organization with a lot of data is vulnerable to being hacked, as long as people follow the best practices and keep up to date, we have a pretty good understanding about how to prevent this kind of threat.”
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“We’ve had probably the greatest amount of corruption in our government in the history of home-rule,” Wells told The Hoya. “The way that you lose ground in the city, in any jurisdiction in the world, is if you have a corrupt government.” Bowser’s campaign expressed a similar sentiment. “The obvious criticism of this current mayoral administration is on the topic of ethics,” Bowser campaign Chairperson William Lightfoot said. “Muriel is the champion and leader of the ethics reform legislation, which has now created an independent board, and for the first time, councilmembers who have misdeeds are being punished.” Shallal announced his candidacy Tuesday with a speech at Ben’s Chili Bowl. To Shallal, his outsider status and small business experience are seen as assets in his campaign. “We’ve had four members of our city council either indicted or under possible indictment, and maybe even more,” Shallal told The Hoya. “We’ve had a mayor who’s under a cloud of possible wrongdoing. I think being an outsider is not a bad thing.” A populist message of unity and inclusion lies at the heart of Shallal’s campaign, and he stressed the importance of creating a singular vision for city government. “A great city is able to say it’s great for everyone. A great city and a great leadership can bring the voices of the voiceless into the room, and I think those voices are hardly ever heard,” Shallal told The Hoya. “What happens when you uplift people that are not oftentimes heard, and not often visible, it makes all of us better,
it makes the entire city better. So it’s not just about helping people on one end, it’s about helping everyone.” Reta Jo Lewis, former White House aide to President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68), officially launched her campaign Nov. 2. Like Shallal, she considers herself an outsider. “I’m not beholden to anyone except the residents of the District,” Lewis told The Hoya. “The biggest issue as I have traveled around this city is that people are looking for someone who is not part of the status quo. People are not looking for more of the same, they’re looking for someone who has the ability to put the residents first.” In addition to government corruption, the economy has been a main point of discussion in the early stages of the race. “Under the current administration, although we see a lot of cranes up and buildings going up, those have been in the pipeline for the last several years,” Lightfoot said. “At the current time, there’s very little that’s directly being planned to develop an economic plan and engine for the city.” Lewis said that she has the public and private sector experience in regard to the D.C. economy needs. “I’ve seen the best practices in cities around the country and across the world, and I have the experience and relationships to grow our city and make D.C. a city that works for everyone,” Lewis told The Hoya. Evans’ platform has also focused on the economy. “The top message for our campaign is to continue the economic development that the city has seen thus far and to continue to translate that progress to areas that need it the most. By that, we mean to create jobs for people in this city,” Evans’
Campaign Director Jermaine House said. In the latest campaign finance report, released Oct. 10, Evans, whose ward includes the Georgetown area, emerged as a frontrunner, having collected $768,000 throughout his entire campaign. “What sets Jack Evans apart is his experience. Jack has been a councilmember for 22 years, and in February, he became the longest-serving D.C. councilmember in the history of the D.C. Council,” House said. “So his experience is far more vast than all of his opponents in the race.” Lightfoot, however, warned that Bowser, who declared her mayoral aspirations in March and was the first candidate to begin collecting petition signatures, has also been raising a large amount of money. “She’s had a head start,” Lightfoot said. “She’s been walking throughout the entire city and knocking on doors, calling people and asking them to put yard signs up and they’re doing so. … She’s raised more money than any other candidate and she has more money in the bank.” Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15), president of the Georgetown University College Democrats, said that students want candidates who will directly impact their day-to-day lives. Tezel authored a viewpoint in The Hoya in June urging students not to support Evans, who opposed the university in negotiations over the 2010 Campus Plan. “I am looking for a candidate that promotes better resources for tenants, particularly for Georgetown students who often have to navigate landlords that might not have Better Business Licenses,” Tezel said. “I’m going to also be looking for a candidate who prioritizes expanded transportation options for Georgetown residents.” Orange’s campaign could not be reached for comment.
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First Mascot Leaves Legacy SHEEHAN, from A1 audience and would just have us laughing, in tears, because of his comedic talents,” Feeney said. Sheehan’s antics during games were full of enthusiasm, and the crowd adored him, both Feeney and McGuire said. McGuire remembered the Big East tournament two years after the conference’s establishment in 1979 where four alumni posing as mascots infiltrated the Syracuse game and joined Sheehan on the floor of the Carrier Dome, spelling out “Hoyas.” “Each was a letter. And they cheered every timeout for a whole half until someone finally realized, ‘Hey, Georgetown doesn’t have five different costumed mascots,’ and they finally kicked the rest out, but that was great,” McGuire said. Feeney described Sheehan’s theatrics on the court, telling the story of a time he and another mascot tussled. “As a bulldog, you kind of have your moves,” Feeney said, laughing. “We think [Sheehan] raised his hind leg at one point to simulate relieving himself on the husky. … That was one of Pat’s classic moves on other mascots.” The two mascots were dragged off the court until the athletic director decided the husky had started the fight and allowed Sheehan to return to cheers from the crowd. Sheehan’s experience at basketball games was before the advent of the Jumbotron, which meant near-constant entertainment was expected from the mascot and cheerleaders during timeouts at McDonough Arena, where the Hoyas played before moving to the Capital Centre in Landover, Md, in 1981. His tenure as mascot also coincided with the early years of John Thompson Jr., who was hired in 1972, five years before Sheehan donned the bulldog suit. “Nowadays, on TV timeouts, you’ve got these very canned pitches. Let’s find people and have them kiss, or let’s do a trivia contest. Back then, there weren’t those. The TV timeout was a two-minute opportunity for the cheerleaders — but more importantly, the mascots — to just entertain the crowd,” Feeney said. “We didn’t need a Jumbotron at McDonough, because Pat was going to fill the void by just being a character for those timeouts.” In addition to entertaining McDonough, Sheehan traveled to all away games with the team. “I tell everybody, even bulldogs now, that Pat Sheehan really set the standard for bulldogs, for mascots,” McGuire said. “He was really good at it. It was natural to him. He had a great personality, and he could emote without speaking. He could relate to all the people.” “It was like he was born to be the bulldog,” Feeney added. Sheehan’s excellence in the mascot role for four years set a high precedent for the next in
Politics and Policy are being developed along with an executive education program and a doctorate in philosophy program. “All of it is going to endow the school, invest in the school’s self-sustainability and … spur future growth,” MSPP Director of Communications Lauren Mullins said. Plans for a building downtown or elsewhere will be developed over the next 10 years.
Ethics Class Website Finds Niche Audience Katie Shaffer
Special to The Hoya
COURTESY PAT MCARDLE
Patrick Sheehan (GSB ’81) at a basketball game with his children in 2004. He died in a car crash Saturday. line, who was chosen by a fourperson committee. “They literally went through auditions — big, long auditions — with 50 or 60 kids before we selected them,” McGuire said. That committee eventually chose Lloyd Williams (CAS ’84) as Sheehan’s successor. Williams tried out for the bulldog role after being encouraged by his friends and seeing ads in The Hoya and the Voice, and he remembered seeing Sheehan around campus when Sheehan was a senior and Williams was a freshman. “He was the total original,” Williams said. “With his personality, he could have done it without the costume, the crazy, quirky, positive, energetic type of guy he was.” Sheehan’s legacy followed Williams after he became the mascot. “People used to come up to me — particularly my first year, but all three years it happened at least once — there’d be a guy who’d come up, look right at me and say, ‘Sheehan was a much better bulldog than you,’ and they were probably right,” Williams said. “He was just a very unique guy, and he really made a great tradition at Georgetown.” In addition to his success on the court, Sheehan was just as ebullient in his everyday life. “If you went on a trip with Pat, a car trip, if he found something interesting, like a 50-mile detour to see the world’s largest bowl of twine, that was the kind of thing Pat would do,” Feeney said. “He had this joy of life.” This adventurous spirit was supplemented by his sentimentality. Sheehan often sent postcards from the various places he visited, always keeping stamps in his wallet in case the opportunity to use them arose. Feeney said that the large size of a Georgetown class could
make it hard for people to have a tangible effect on their class as a whole, but that Sheehan accomplished it. “What impact can one member of the class have on creating that sense of community?” Feeney asked. “I can tell you, Pat proves to me that one person can make a difference. His impact on my class, the Class of ’81, was profound. We were proud when he was on the court, he created this sense of pride in the university, he made basketball games fun.” “We’ve had other alumni who’ve died before their prime, but his loss is striking our particular class so much because he was the life of our class,” he added. After graduating, Sheehan had a 26-year career in the finance industry, starting at Lehman Brothers in 1991. He moved to JPMorgan Chase in 1994 before moving to Citigroup in 2003. Sheehan joined Wells Fargo in June 2010 where he specialized in not-for-profit health care clients. At the season kickoff basketball game at Verizon Center on Wednesday, there was a moment of silence for both Sheehan and Bill Shapland (CAS ’77), the sports information director who died in April. Sheehan’s funeral took place Thursday in Larchmont, N.Y., for which McGuire sent a mascot costume to the family at their request. Sheehan is survived by his wife, Rebecca, and three sons, George, 21, Thaddeus, 19, and Nathanial, 15. George is a junior in the College. Sheehan stayed involved with Georgetown after graduation and took his children to a Hoya basketball game in 2004. At the game, he took a photo with his mascot successor. “He lived and breathed the Hoya spirit,” Clemente said. “He will be always our bulldog.”
$100M Excludes Building MCCOURT, from A1
friDAY, november 15, 2013
“Though we don’t currently have the money to finance the construction of a new building, down the road, we hope that our investment in the improvement and expansion of the MSPP will give us the resources to move into a new location,” Mullins said. Although university spokeswoman Stacy Kerr could not give specifics about how the building would be funded, she suggested the possibility of a large gift with naming rights,
EUGENE ANG/THE HOYA
The McCourt School of Public Policy is currently housed in Old North. Administrators are looking for a larger location downtown.
similar to how the Rafik B. Hariri Building was built. Despite the current lack of funds, the university is already beginning to consider locations, Kerr said. “Old North will remain the McCourt School’s home for the foreseeable future, and the school will continue to function comfortably in that location,” Kerr said. “However, we are currently evaluating location possibilities around the District.” Moore added that the university was still unclear as to where it could create a new school, though possibilities include the southeast quadrant near Nationals Park and the Anacostia River. When the university does pursue a building, it will work with master planning partner Forest City Washington and architectural firm Sasaki Associates, which has handled recent construction projects such as the design of the proposed Northeast Triangle Residence Hall. “In the acreage acquisition process for this new MSPP location, Georgetown is committed to benefitting not only our own community but also Washington, D.C., at large,” Moore said. “Helping develop a parcel of land near the city center would do just that.”
In his spare time, philosophy professor Madison Powers made a website at the end of last year to supplement his teaching on environmental justice. While many such sites might include an assortment of external links and excerpts, Powers’ product offers more than 200,000 original words — the equivalent of about four 200-page books. Powers, a senior research scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, created fewresources. org to approach environmental issues from a social justice perspective. A few months after creating the site for his students in “Global Justice/The Environment,” Powers expanded it to serve as a resource for a population beyond the Georgetown student body, and it now has an international audience clamoring to study this hot topic. He created the acronym FEW, which stands for “food, energy and water.” While Powers receives no revenue from the site and does little to market it, it regularly receives 6,000 unique visitors a month, with hits coming from 120 different countries. India represents the second-largest group behind the U.S. “I don’t want anybody’s money,” Powers said. “I want it completely intellectually independent so that no one can raise any suggestion that the point of view in there is a function of someone other’s agenda.” Powers’ research centers on global justice and public health issues. “As a philosopher, I’m interested in not just the policy, but I’m interested in every place in that policy discussion where there’s an ethical inflection, where some issue of justice gets raised,” Powers said. Students in Powers’ class use the site as a resource to supplement their experience in the classroom. “The website isn’t a textbook, but it kind of takes the place of a textbook because it’s better
than a textbook,” Kafele Kossally (COL ’14) said. “It’s basically a repository for basic information about the topic.” Powers does not, however, see the website as a replacement for the more traditional symposium model traditionally favored by philosophers. “I would say that it is no substitute for writing books and articles or teaching classes,” Powers said. “It is a way of putting in one place a lot of information that’s of an interdisciplinary nature.” Although Powers said the website has been successful for spreading his research on the environment and social justice, he does not see the online model as applicable to all fields of philosophy. “Practical ethics, bioethics and the stuff I do, there’s a good case for this kind of online format that’s different, with the aim of really helping to shape the rising of a certain disciplinary niche within applied ethics,” Powers said. “I don’t think there’d be much need for that in metaphysics or most of the areas of philosophy that are fairly self-contained.” Students have also found that the website has improved in-class discussion. “It’s definitely more interactive because the links you choose reflect your interests so even though we pretty much read the same thing every day, everyone brings different information to class, so it makes it more refreshing,” Kossally said. Powers said he receives 15 to 20 emails a month from visitors to fewresources.org, allowing him to interact with his audience and learn about the environmental issues that are significant in other parts of the globe. Fifty entries in and with online content double the length of his last book, Powers plans to maintain and grow the site for the foreseeable future. “I’ve got the copyright and the ownership of the electronic stuff,” Powers said. “I don’t see any reason [to stop]. I’m just getting going.”
Club Filipino Responds To Typhoon Haiyan Donations to the CSJ campaign will go to the Disaster Response and Management Team at Ateneo de Manila University, located in the family lives on the island of Luzon, said. Typhoon Haiyan did not affect many stu- Philippines, as well as the Filipino Society of dents’ families beyond the experience of heavy the Sisters of the Sacred Heart; both have been rains or power outages. The worst damage was involved in relief efforts in the region. Tentatively, donations to Hoyas for The Philin Tacloban, a city 360 miles southeast of Maippines will go to the Philippines Red Cross. nila. “We wanted to choose an organization that “My family did lose power the first day or two but things were fine, Internet was fine,” was Philippine-based and was already on the Randy Puno (COL ’16), whose family is from ground coordinating the effort and was local,” Manila, said. “We had no trouble making sure Manguerra said. In addition to these fundraising efforts, everyone was OK.” Students have been able to check in with Hoyas for the Philippines is planning a benefit concert for the week after loved ones in the Philippines. Thanksgiving, which will “I have aunts and uncles feature performing arts, muwhose homes were affected sic and dance groups and and on my grandma’s house, possibly a dance-a-thon. The the roof was blown off, so organization is in the prothat’s bad, but we’re just cess of choosing a date and glad everyone’s OK,” Cruz the specific groups that will said. “My sister’s boyfriend RANDY PUNO (COL ’16) perform. hasn’t heard from his family Filipino Student “We really want to publiyet, so they’re still waiting.” Some students’ family members have also cize it as the culminating end event of weeks helped with typhoon relief. Jocelyn Flores’ of fundraising and tabling in Leavey, and hope(COL ’17) grandfather is volunteering for the fully we can get a great turnout,” Club Filipino Red Cross in the Philippines. Although Flores’ Social Justice Chair Katie Amigo (COL ’15) said. family is from Manila and the province of “That way, we can get as many donations and Cagayan, Flores said that she does not know as much help as we can for the typhoon relief.” where specifically her grandfather is volunAmid the destruction and early efforts at teering. recovery, Puno pointed to the influence of the “It’s extremely difficult because even though Philippines’ climate on its people’s character. they’re establishing Red Cross coordinators “I just really think that the Philippines have there, there’s immense damage,” Flores said. what we call the bayanihan spirit. Despite all “My grandpa told me that families are being re- this calamity and destruction that we experilocated and some are being relocated to areas ence every year, we also have quite the fighting in Vietnam, just because cities are completely spirit,” Puno said. “We have that quality within destroyed.” us to stop whatever we’re doing to help each The Center for Social Justice has joined Club other out when something bad happens, but Filipino in mobilizing support for the region it’s nice to see that this time, the whole world through its own online donation platform. seems to be pitching in.” TYPHOON, from A1
“It’s nice to see the whole world pitching in.”
CLASSIFIEDS MISCELLANEOUS 800 INDEX Graduating this year? Work at Georgetown University in Qatar! The School of Foreign Service in Qatar is looking for enthusiastic student leaders to work as Student Development Officers at our campus in Doha! To apply for the position, please visit: http://qatar.sfs.georgetown. edu/98845.html#SDO
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NEWS
friday, november 15, 2013
THE HOYA
A7
$1M Opus Prize Awarded Gene Choi
Hoya Staff Writer
CHARLIE LOWE/THE HOYA
Heartbeat, founded by Aaron Shneyer (COL ’05) to foster collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian youths, performs in Gaston Hall at an interfaith concert Sunday.
Interfaith Concert Follows Screening Withdrawal Sam Abrams Hoya Staff Writer
A week and a half after Students for Justice in Palestine withdrew from a film screening meant to foster dialogue with pro-Israel student groups, the Jewish and Muslim Chaplaincies held Amplified Voices, a concert aiming to increase dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis through music, in Gaston Hall on Sunday. Presented as a joint effort by the Jewish Chaplaincy, the Muslim Chaplaincy and the department of government’s master’s program in conflict resolution, the concert attracted Jewish and Arab residents, with approximately 500 attendees. Not all students involved in last week’s screening through SJP, the Georgetown Israel Alliance or J Street U, a group that advocates for a twostate solution, were involved in the planning of this concert, despite the two events’ similar goals. J Street U Treasurer Elijah Jatovsky (SFS ’16), however, did marketing for the concert and was also responsible for planning last Wednesday’s screening of “The Other Son,” a French film about a Palestinian and Israeli switched at birth, which saw the withdrawal of official sponsorship from J Street U and the Georgetown Israel Alliance in solidarity with SJP. The screening continued without official sponsorship from any Israeli or Palestinian group. “[The concert] really was a very important event in that it played to a lot of similar themes and goals … that we believe the movie event was ultimately successful in achieving in terms of kicking off this dialogue,” he said. He also attributed success to the formats of both events, noting the eschewal of explicit politics, despite the fact that SJP withdrew because of reluctance to appear in opposition to their organization’s national stance, which sees Israelis as oppressors and Palestinians as the oppressed. The SJP said that treating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict purely through a cultural lens contributed to the normalization of the issue to which they are opposed. “This kind of an event stresses these two cultures that haven’t been getting along … can come together,” SJP President Albert Doumar (SFS ’15) said. “This is the kind of idea that SJP rejects because of what it implies about the occupation. When you have an event that’s just cultural or mutual understanding, you imply that those sides have long-running grievances against the other side and those need to be solved.” Peacebuilding Connections, a group that uses art for cross-cultural initiatives, helped plan Sunday’s concert. “This event is here to bring together people who believe that we need to act collectively in order to solve our problems, and that peace will only come when that is the first desire on both sides,” concert producer Bob Schlehuber said. The concert’s first act, “Heartbeat,” usually
consists of more than 25 artists funded by the Israeli-Palestinian Youth Music Project. Only five of these musicians performed at this particular concert, but they had the audience on its feet for much of the time and sang in English, Hebrew and Arabic. “I’ve grown up with this barrier wall around my country, Israel. I’ve always been afraid of the people on the other side that would hurt us if there was no wall,” Heartbeat guitarist Guy Gefen said to the audience. “But now I know that our two peoples can truly be brothers, if we wish to.” Recording artist David Broza played part of his new album via Skype with vocalist Muhammad Mughrabi, a Palestinian rapper and East Jerusalem resident. Broza, an Israeli, recorded his entire album in the Palestinian sector of the city and collaborated with Palestinian artists on the project, which stresses the need for peace and understanding. Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean will also appear on the album. Andy Shallal, an Iraqi-American peace advocate who announced his candidacy for mayor of D.C. on Nov. 8, served as the event’s emcee. “There has to be a place for peaceful dialogue in music and in politics,” Shallal said. “And that place should be front and center, because it is what the silent majority of Palestinians and Israelis really want — peace.” Jordanian vocalist Faraj Siraj took the stage after Shallal’s speech, singing traditional Arab folk songs in Arabic, English and Spanish. Director of Jewish Chaplaincy Rabbi Rachel Gartner spoke briefly following Siraj’s performance and cited the Muslim holy text. “The Quran says that God made [Jews and Muslims] different not so that we will hate one another, but so that we may come to know and see each other in brotherhood,” Gartner said. Soon after, folksinger and political peace activist Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary took the stage with his guitar to perform with his daughter Bethany, who sang with cellist Rufus Cappadocia. Students saw these performances as a sign of the concert’s success in promoting its message. “I think the fact that it interested these famous musicians is all the more testament for the recognition of the need to improve dialogue around campus and the creation of peaceful resolution between these two groups,” Jatovsky said. After the concert, attendees browsed booths in Healy Hall with information about the performers and other groups involved in advocating for peace through music, including the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus and the Voices of Peace Choir. “Many people have become cynical as a result of how long the peace process is taking. But hope is free, anyone can have it, and if both sides work together to accept each other and move toward peace, then we can really accomplish something,” Schlehuber said.
For her efforts empowering Afghan women and children through education, Sakena Yacoobi received the $1 million 2013 Opus Prize Award in Copley Formal Lounge on Wednesday. “On behalf of the women of Afghanistan and on behalf of the children of Afghanistan, I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Yacoobi, the founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning, said. Yacoobi said that she will use the money to organize symposiums that will foster dialogue among young Afghanis. “With this generosity, I can do things that were my dream,” she said. “My dream was to work with young men and young women in Afghanistan to create an environment where they can come and sit together and have an ideation symposium.” The annual prize awarded to a faith-based humanitarian initiative is now in its 10th year. The award is funded by the Opus Prize Foundation, which chooses a partner university each year to aid in selection and provide a venue. “The foundation is excited for Georgetown to host the 10th year of the Opus Prize,” Don Neureuther, spokesperson for the Opus Prize Foundation, said. “The university’s commitment to its Catholic identity, interfaith dialogue, service to others and educating the next generation of global citizens makes it a great
partner for this unique and special prize.” Two other finalists joined Yacoobi in the receipt of prize money. The Fahmina Institute, based in Cirebon, Indonesia, and Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Catholic Health Association, each received $75,000. “For the major prize winner, there is a lot that can be done,” said Fr. Daniel Madigan, S.J., who visited the Fahmina Institute after it was announced as a finalist. “For the other finalists, not so much can be done with the money, but being a finalist in this prize gives them some standing in the eyes of other donors.” The prize is one of the largest humanitarian prizes focused on faith. “I think the world desperately needs more interfaith efforts and understanding so we do not let people use religion to divide us,” Keehan said. “The essential goal is to engage and inspire students, those who must carry this work forward,” Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs Assistant Director for Programs Melody Fox Ahmed said. “It is a call to service and an inspiration, a graphic illustration of what can be done in even the most difficult circumstances.” For the past decade, the Opus Prize has solely been affiliated with Catholic universities. “The family that created the foundation are deeply committed to the values of Catho-
MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA
President DeGioia with awardee Sakena Yacoobi. lic social teaching, and family members have attended many Catholic universities,” Berkley Center Senior Fellow Katherine Marshall said. The three finalists were on campus for two days, participating in a Student Leadership Breakfast on Tuesday, giving guest lectures in certain classes, like Madigan’s course “Exploring the Quran” and attending the awards ceremony Wednesday. Keehan expressed her hopes that Georgetown students would join in these faith-based service projects. “I hope Georgetown students will see the tremendous needs, the suffering of so many that is needless and dehumanizing and their potential to make such a difference,” Keehan said.
Couric’s Show Films at GU Griffin Cohen Hoya Staff Writer
“Katie,” a talk show hosted by Katie Couric, filmed a segment in Sellinger Lounge on Wednesday for its five-school national challenge to promote communities partnering with nonprofit organizations to meet their holiday goals. Georgetown nominated its partner organization, Life Pieces to Masterpieces, which was founded and is run by John Thompson Legacy of a Dream Award recipient Mary Brown. The organization mentors young black men and boys in Washington, D.C., focusing on art projects to increase character development and leadership. “[This series] takes us across the country to help different organizations leading up to the holidays,” “Katie” special correspondent Cameron Hughes said. “The big thing is to get the community behind the community. It’s getting people to show up organically.” “Katie” Associate Producer Josh Francis said filming at Georgetown was a positive experience.
“We loved the opportunity to stop at Georgetown. It’s right here in D.C., which makes it central to the community we’re trying to support,” Francis said. “We’ve seen so much support from the student community here. We’re so glad to see students rally to support such a great organization.” The segment, set to air next Thursday, sought to encourage Georgetown students to donate art supplies and cash gifts in support of Brown’s organization. The Georgetown University Bookstore offered discounted art supplies Wednesday, and donations were collected at the Georgetown basketball game against Wright State Wednesday night at Verizon Center. “Katie” chose Georgetown largely because of the school’s connection with Brown. “What we are doing is coming in and using our human development system to help these young men understand who they are and also to understand global citizenship — that they are part of a shared humanity,” Brown said. D.C. Reads coordinator Mellie Corrigan (COL ’14), who has also led work on Commu-
nity Service Day and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, was selected to represent Georgetown and the Center for Social Justice during the segment. “It was a huge compliment to be asked to represent Georgetown,” Corrigan said. “It was a little bit surreal, being in Sellinger with the camera crew.” In addition to Corrigan, Associate Vice President for Community Engagement and Strategic Initiatives Lauralyn Lee appeared on the program. “This was an important opportunity for Georgetown to support our 2013 Legacy of a Dream Award recipient, Mary Brown, and her organization Life Pieces to Masterpieces,” Lee said. “The university recognized Mary as an emerging leader doing impactful work in our city with this award last winter and has been actively partnering with Life Pieces since then. We appreciate the support of so many in our community and across the city for the work at Life Pieces to Masterpieces.” Hoya Staff Writer Madison Ashley contributed reporting.
KRISTEN SKILLMAN/THE HOYA
From left: MSB professors Kurt Carlson, Allison Koester and Brooks Holtom face varying pressures and deal with time constraints to publish in top-tier business journals.
Professors Pushed to Publish MSB, from A8 of time to do research when teaching, so you find ways to consolidate times when teaching,” Carlson said. “There’s no good solution other than setting up teaching in once place and focus only on teaching.” On top of multiple outside projects and mandatory school service, Carlson sees himself as a resource to the 260 students he teaches. “I am their professor even after they graduate,” Carlson said. “I can make myself instantly feel good by helping students.”
“You have to force yourself to take [your research] those final yards,” Carlson added. Allison Koester, a non-tenured assistant professor, sees a similar dichotomy with research and teaching. “Teaching is dynamic, with instant gratification, while research is more long-term gratification,” Koester said. Koester explains that her “tenure clock” lasts five years, in which she is doing research before being considered for tenure. Unlike many associate professors and full professors, Koester refrains from side jobs like consulting, explaining
that as a junior faculty member, it would take away from teaching and research. “You are basically self-employed. No one comes to my office every day to check and see if I am working,” Koester said. While the demands are high, Koester and Carlson are happy with their chosen professions. “It’s a very rewarding job,” Koester said. “Do I feel like I have enough time? No, but it’s all my own doing,” Carlson said. “I love this job. Hoya Staff Writer Aaron Lewis contributed reporting.
BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2013
The situations that I find myself most prepared for now are the ones that were the hardest in college. I was being asked to do the same thing. Fortunately, I correctly remembered to use batch processing in units of four per person to maximize efficiency while reducing bottlenecks and avoiding errors. A good friend of mine found herself in a similar situation: After being hired by a company here in D.C., she was soon asked to teach her fellow employees an entire course on Excel. She joked that she would be fine as long as she didn’t have to create a decision tree for any of them. While I suspect that both of our experiences are typical, given the circumstances, I don’t believe that they represent what the business school provides its students. Instead, I believe that for all of the great things the MSB offers (including networking sessions, internship and alumni networks, an exclusive working environment and, of course, Fridays off), it is the MSB’s shortcomings that prepare students for what to expect in the real world. The situations that I find myself most prepared for now are the ones that were the hardest in college. People often have requests for my department that are nonsensical or are given with no context and a bare minimum of information. Often, I deal with parents and teachers who are downright mean: One person remarked that they felt sorry for me because I went to Georgetown. They elaborated by stating that it “wasn’t a proper Catholic experience.” I imagine comparing that to the business school seems rather harsh. Make no mistake; the MSB has a wide variety of wonderful students, staff members and faculty. The unfortunate reality is that it also has no shortage of people with an impressively large sense of self-importance. Embrace that fact. Learning how to handle that is the real lesson the business school has to offer, and it’s a lesson that can take four years to learn. KEVIN PERLOW graduated from the McDonough School of Business in 2013. He manages a laptop help desk at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va.
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early a year ago, I sat at my computer typing my first cover letter at the start of what turned out to be a very short job search. As I looked over my CV, I distinctly remember wondering if I was really ready for the world beyond the front gates. My concerns did not come from a lack of confidence in my prior work experience; rather, I wasn’t sure what exactly it was that the business school itself had given me. My time as a student in the McDonough School of Business could be considered fairly typical. I survived my freshman accounting classes, made it through the introductory finance and marketing courses and eventually settled on becoming an operations and information management major. Some of my professors were incredibly gifted in their fields and would do anything to help their students. Others could only be considered exceptional in their laziness with their work and their disinterest in other human beings. Like any student, I had my fair share of both. Roughly a month into the spring semester, I was offered a position to set up a support desk for a school out in Fairfax, Va., that was providing a laptop program for its students. The laptops arrived toward the end of the season in batches of 50 computers at a time. They each required approximately 10 minutes of extra work before they were ready for a student. For me, this was a cruel twist. I was once shown an instructional video that contained a 1980s Hugh Jackman look-alike packing Styrofoam using various production line methods. It was predictably hilarious, and now
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Learning From MSB’s Mistakes
PRICE AT EPICUREAN ($8.99)
CH EE
Kevin Perlow
NATIONAL WHOLESALE FOOD COSTS VS. EPICUREAN PRICING $/POUND ACCORDING TO BUREAU OF LABOR AND STATISTICS*
COMMENTARY
$2.35
$1.85 $1.82 $1.80
$1.57 $1.56 $1.53 $1.45 $1.42
$1.33
$1.13
$0.75 $0.74
BUFFET OPTIONS *MARKET PRICE IS ABOUT 5 PERCENT HIGHER IN LARGE CITIES SUCH AS D.C.
Epicurean Pricing Favors Finer Tastes AARON LEWIS Hoya Staff Writer
Analysis of Epicurean & Co.’s buffet pricing features a flat rate for food options, allowing restaurant patrons to strategize over how to maximize the bang for their buck. A pound of food at Epicurean costs $6.99 at breakfast and $8.99 at lunch and dinner. But each buffet offering comes at its own wholesale price for the restaurant, leading to high variability in profit margin depending on a customer’s selection. Preparation costs enter into the equation, but the restaurant’s business model is premised on the fact that diners will overspend for traditionally
cheaper foods. For example, pork, on average, goes for $3.99 a pound. Eggs cost Epicurean half of that, so a customer who purchased a pound of eggs would bring Epicurean greater profit, though he would pay the same $6.99 as someone who ate a pound of pork for breakfast. According to a Houston Chronicle report, successful restaurants generally have food costs that are between 25 percent and 38 percent of total revenue. Epicurean’s food costs, however, are at 40 percent. “We could cut food costs down to 33 percent of revenue if we used lower-quality food,” Epicurean owner Chang Wook Chon said. “We try to provide our customers
A Twist on Tenure For MSB Professors
INSIDER
are among the restaurant’s safe bets when it comes to profitability. The restaurant is open 24 hours a day, six days a week, closing late Sunday night and early Monday morning. The buffet closes at 10:30 p.m. every night, while the restaurant’s other options remain open. In general, food costs in D.C. are 5 percent higher than the national average. “The cost is way too high. I eat here because it’s more convenient for me because I’m so close,” Lamar Holmes (NHS ’14) said. “At buffets I’ve been to, I can get twice as much for half the price of Epi.” Hoya Staff Writer TM Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting.
TRADING
What do you think of Twitter’s initial public offering?
TM GIBBONS-NEFF
ment Brooks Holtom said. According to Holtom, the long hours are usually the byLike most Georgetown fac- product of an impetus to pubulty members, professors in the lish scholarly articles in top-tier McDonough School of Business business journals, something are busy. Between teaching and that can be very difficult. mentoring students, business “I’ve been working on some school professors struggle to pieces for five to seven years,” author articles in what they Holtom said. deem the hardest category of Carlson said that on average academic publications: applied for every 20 pieces submitted to journalism. top-tier journals, 19 get rejected. “You need big blocks of time,” In making tenure decisions, said Kurt Carlson, an associate universities evaluate these acprofessor of marketing in the complishments differently. MSB, estimating Duke Univerthat each article “I know only two sity, Carlson extakes him more plained, emphathan 300 hours people who can sizes quality over from conception quantity, while to publication. “I multitask and do the MSB considknow only two this stuff.” ers the number people who can of articles pubmultitask and lished by an indiKURT CARLSON do this stuff.” vidual. MSB Associate Professor Writing some“In theory thing under the guise of applied it sounds great but it allowed journalism implies that the de- Duke to get rid of you if they pendent variable exists in the didn’t like what you were proreal world, Carlson explained. ducing,” Carlson said. “MSB “Frankly, it’s a pain in the counts the number of articles butt,” he said, adding that ap- produced, which is great but plied journalism is the reason the bar is higher.” why it is so difficult to be pubWhen Carlson was first lished in top-tier business jour- hired in the early 2000s, cannals. didates who had published MSB professors sometimes three articles in top-tier jourhave a hard time balancing nals were usually hired. Now, teaching obligations with man- he said, four is the unofficial datory requirements to publish minimum. scholarly papers, sometimes It can also be difficult to find working 80-plus hour weeks. a balance between teaching and “We have very flexible timing research. but it doesn’t mean I don’t work “It’s really hard to get blocks long hours or a lot of hours,” associate professor of manageSee MSB, A7
with high-quality food choices, which is why our customers keep coming back.” Based on the Chronicle’s measure, Epicurean maximizes its business model when it sells food that costs between $2.25 and $3.42 per pound, though it averages slightly above that cutoff. After comparing many of the Epicurean buffet options to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ food averages, roughly 30 percent of what Epicurean sells is below the 25 percent recommended threshold. Chicken, strawberries and cheese are among the options that would hurt Epicurean’s profit margins if they were purchased in excess. Grapefruit, turkey and rice
Hoya Staff Writer
“It’s overvalued. If you look at Twitter’s past revenue, it just doesn’t defend a price of $42 per share. Investors are looking at the brand instead of the business.” ALEX THOMPSON (MSB ’14)
“I wouldn’t invest in Twitter. The price is too high for a company that has such a disconnection between why their consumers use it and how they make money. I think the company has to make major changes to find real success.” JOCELYN KOJZAR (MSB ’15) “The dramatic rise on Twitter’s first day of trading raises some questions about whether Twitter’s investment bankers left some money on the table during the IPO. However, I do think the dramatic rise may be justified; Twitter does have a very innovative business model. The real excitement is really going to begin when they reach profitability.”
JOE MCILHATTAN (COL ’14) CEO of Georgetown Corporate Investors
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