GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 95, No. 36, © 2014
TUESDAY, february 25, 2014
TIGERS SURVIVE
GUSA ENDORSEMENT The Hoya’s editorial board endorses Lloyd and Ramirez for executive.
GU fell to Towson 8-7 despite two late goals by Jeff Fountain. SPORTS, A12
Housing Rules Shift To Seniors
DINGELL RETIRES Veteran congressman John Dingell (D-Mich.) will not seek re-election.
SNAPSHOTS OF 4 A.M. While most of campus sleeps, some students find their solace.
NEWS, A5
OPINION, A2
NEWS, A9
Tezel Leads GUSA Race
With three days left, 28 percent still undecided
Selection process to favor seniors over juniors, eligibility will stay as is
Emma Hinchliffe
Chris Balthazard
Hoya Staff Writer
26.6%
Special to The Hoya
In an effort to make on-campus housing more enticing to seniors, the university has shifted the housing selection process to favor rising seniors over rising juniors and eliminate barriers to securing housing eligibility for seniors, the Office of Residential Living announced in an email to current freshmen and sophomores Tuesday. The university will implement these changes over the course of the next two years, and the changes will take full effect in the 20152016 academic year. In the new system, rising seniors will receive priority over rising juniors in the housing selection process — a reversal of the current rules — and rising seniors will all receive equal eligibility points, regardless of whether or not they study abroad in the fall of their junior year. Juniors will, however, retain an advantage in the initial eligibility application. Currently, rising seniors on campus for junior fall receive three housing points, and those who study abroad during that time receive four points. Juniors also receive four points. Beginning with the Class of 2016,
Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) and Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15) are in the lead in the race for GUSA executive, with 26.6 percent of likely voters choosing their ticket, according to a door-todoor poll conducted by The Hoya on Sunday evening. Zach Singer (SFS ’15) and Dan Silkman (COL ’15) ranked in second place, with 18.8 percent of likely voters, and Ben Weiss (COL ’15) and Sam Greco (SFS ’15) came in third with 16.9 percent. Thomas Lloyd (SFS ’15) and Jimmy Ramirez (COL ’15) received 9.5 percent of the vote, and 28.2 percent of likely voters remained undecided. The poll sampled 772 students, 515 of whom identified as likely voters, and from whom this data was drawn. Of these 515 likely voters, 168 were freshmen, 151 were sophomores, 118 were juniors and 78 were seniors. “These numbers are encouraging and show that our message is really starting to resonate with Georgetown students,” Tezel said. “That being said, it’s clear that we’re going to have to move full steam ahead. This is
28.2%
9.5%
18.8% 16.9%
See POLL, A7
POLL RESULTS Singer Tezel Lloyd & Silkman & Jikaria & Ramirez Weiss Undecided & Greco
See HOUSING, A8
See the full breakdown of results from The Hoya’s GUSA poll on A6 and A7.
Campaign for SFS Study Young Alum Considers Congress Space Succeeds in ICC Suzanne Monyak Hoya Staff Writer
Ashley Miller Hoya Staff Writer
After the School of Foreign Service Academic Council rallied support through Georgetown Roundtables, an online forum where Georgetown students can pitch their ideas, renovation plans regarding the Intercultural Center are underway. Renovations will include the addition of student study space similar to that found in Regents Hall and the Rafik B. Hariri Building. The SFSAC spearheaded these changes, believing the ICC Galleria to be a poorly designed space. “We call the ICC our home, but no one studies there. It also looks really bad for Georgetown in general and the SFS tours,” SFSAC President Kyle Zhu (SFS ’14) said. “We say, ‘This building is the building for the SFS,’ and then you see students sitting on the ground because there are no seating spaces. It’s just unsavory to look at.” The SFS Academic Council garnered support through its IdeaScale platform, which earned over 400 votes and strengthened the council’s proposal to the Office of the Provost.
SOFIA LAYANTO FOR THE HOYA
Proposed ICC renovations include new study-friendly furniture.
“It’s great for us because we were able to put numbers to interest,” Zhu said. The office had considered updating the ICC before the proposal’s inception, but it had not proceeded with this planning. After the SFSAC proposed renovating the ICC Galleria, the office expanded the idea to include adding study-friendly furniture to the elevator areas on the first and second floors. “They’ve talked to the furniture company that did Regents and MSB and are going to contract with them to put those types of furniture in the first two floors,” SFSAC Vice President Megan Murday (SFS ’15) said. Despite this collaboration, the project suffers from technical setbacks: Updating the building’s electricity and lighting will prove difficult. The ceiling is a skylight, which complicates hanging lights, and the concrete and brick floor needs to be taken apart in order to facilitate the addition of outlets. “In order to fix some of the issues in the ICC like lighting, soundproofing, acoustics, electrical work, that actually requires a look at the entirety of the ICC and seeing how you would change everything,” Zhu said. Procuring the desired furniture is also an issue since some fixtures include outlets. “If they want to get tables that are integrated with the electrical system, so tables have outlets, that also requires looking at it. It’s all related, it’s all intertwined. So it’s kind of like everything is dependent on each other. So you need all your ducks in a row before you can really have a conversation about it,” Zhu said. An engineering firm is currently exploring other alternatives, but the renovations remain stalled until these problems are resolved. Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey has confirmed that his department will support the changes. “We provide the planning, design and construction expertise for our clients.
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See ICC, A8
Twenty Georgetown alumni currently serve in Congress, 16 of whom were either elected or re-elected in the November 2012 election cycle. Nick Troiano (COL ’11, GRD ’13) is looking to join that group in 2014; though, at 24, he would stand out from his peers as Congress’ youngest representative. Troiano will become eligible to run upon his 25th birthday. Troiano announced Feb. 18 that he is exploring an independent, citizen-funded campaign in Pennsylvania’s 10th district, which has been represented since 2010 by Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), who is seeking re-election in 2014. Should Troiano win, he would join the ranks of Rep. William C.C. Claiborne, a Democratic-Republican from Tennessee elected to Congress at the age of 22 in 1797 as one of the youngest congressmen in history. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), 30, is the current youngest member of Congress. Troiano is a James Madison fellow with the Millenial Action Project, a nonprofit that supports young, bipartisan leaders in an effort to fight political gridlock. A former Republican, Troiano says on his campaign website that he decided to run for Congress as an independent after the government shutdown in October. Troiano hopes to become an advocate for millennials from the halls of Congress. “Our generation is drastically underrepresented,” Troiano told The Hoya. “Six percent of our Congress is under 40, and there are no 20-somethings serving. So I feel that not only is my potential candidacy important for a step toward political reform, but it’s also important to give some voice to a generation that doesn’t have one in politics.” Jeffry Burnam, a visiting professor in the department of government who taught Troiano several
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COURTESY AMERICANS DESERVE BETTER
Nick Troiano (COL ’11, GRD ’13), at a 2013 rally for The Can Kicks Back, is exploring a congressional run for Pennsylvania’s 10th district. times and a man whom Troiano named as one of his inspirations for entering politics, agreed that Congress needs more youth representation. “The average age of a congressman is 60, which is grossly unrepresentative of the general population,” Burnam said. “I think there’s a thirst for new faces. I think that people are hungry for new ideas and now solutions; they’re tired of gridlock.” While 2008 saw a record high 49 percent of voter turnout for the younger generation, Troiano stressed the importance of young people involving themselves in politics beyond the ballot. “We may have voted in the most numbers ever — for example, in 2008 — but our Congress is steadily growing older and
older every year, largely because the people who are there are staying there longer and longer,” Troiano said. Troiano’s platform, which he described as “a post-partisan platform for generational equity,” centers on fiscal responsibility, economic mobility and environmental sustainability. Troiano hopes to establish an organization that would lend support to young people attempting to enter politics, inspired by EMILY’s List, a political action committee that supports pro-choice, Democratic women. “I think we need a similar organization just focused on young people to give them the encouragement and the tools,” Troiano See TROIANO, A8
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