The Hoya: August 26, 2014

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 96, No. 1, © 2014

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

EWING DONATION

DEGIOIA The editorial board looks at the legacy of our longest-serving president.

Patrick Ewing and partners gave $3.3M to the new athletic center. SPORTS, A12

Ebola Stops Study Abroad Ian Tice

Hoya Staff Writer

Days before the start of the fall semester, the university cancelled a study abroad program to Ghana for seven students in the School of Nursing and Health Studies following concerns over the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The semester-long program in Ghana, terminated on Aug. 19, was one of the options offered to international health majors as a part of their required study abroad during the fall of senior year. Other study-abroad options in Africa included trips to Rwanda and Tanzania. The university issued a travel moratorium for Georgetown-sponsored activities in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in an Aug. 1 email to the Georgetown community, a day following the postponement of a Coca Cola-sponsored African Business Forum, which was to have featured Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Gaston Hall. “This means that university funds will not be used to support trips to these areas, nor will the university facilitate or otherwise endorse travel to these areas until further notice,” Associate Vice President for Risk Management Joseph Yohe and Assistant Vice President for Student Health James C. Welsh wrote in the email. There have been no reported cases of Ebola in Ghana as of Aug. 21. However, while it is outside of the moratorium zone, Ghana’s location in West Africa still puts it near the epicenter of the crisis. “Due to the current outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa, the university decided to suspend the Ghana program for the fall semester,” Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh wrote in an email to The Hoya. “This decision came from a careful and measured assessment of the evolving situation in the region.” Director of Global Education Craig Rinker declined to comment. In a separate email, sent to the seven students who were to go on the trip, Executive Dean of School of Medicine Howard J. Federoff and NHS Interim Dean Patricia Cloonan confirmed the study abroad program’s cancellation. “We realize this is very disappointing, but please know the decision was made — first and foremost — out of concern for your health and well-being,” they wrote in a joint email to the students. Bernhard Liese, the chair of the international health department, said that the trip’s cancellation was not ideal for students. “While we know this has been difficult, the university made its decision with the students’ well-being as the central factor. We deeply appreciate our students’ flexibility,” Liese wrote in an email to The Hoya. The department presented the students with two alternative options: spend fall semester in Washington, D.C., to complete the spring semester’s internship early and then spend spring semester abroad, or forgo the opportunity to study abroad in favor of spending fall semester taking classes and working on a thesis, completing the spring internship with the rest of the class. The former option, which would still take place in Ghana, will be modified so students do not miss senior week and commencement, with a contingency plan in case the Ebola crisis continues into next year.

CONSTRUCTION Campus construction will continue to cause headaches into fall.

KICKBACK The Corp’s festival is set for its first iteration next weekend.

NEWS, A4

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A5

McCooey, Tombs Founder, Dies at 83 Mallika Sen Hoya Staff Writer

In 1962, Richard H. McCooey (C ’52) established two properties on 36th Street, with the aim of giving back to his beloved university. His brainchildren — The Tombs, 1789, and later, F. Scott’s — would prove to have an outsized, indelible effect on Georgetown. McCooey died Aug. 6 in Greenwich, Conn., at the age of 83, from complications stemming from cancer and cardiac arrest. McCooey lived nearly his entire adult life in Georgetown, moving COURTESY JOHN BROUGHAN COURTESY CLYDE’S RESTAURANT GROUP to Greenwich following a stroke Tombs and 1789 founder Richard McCooey, in his property, F. Scott’s, right, and celebrating upnine months ago. McCooey was born in Brook- stairs at 1789 in the 1960s, left. McCooey, who spent most of his life in Georgetown, died Aug. 6. lyn, N.Y., in 1930, to a politically entrenched family. At George- found change to campus social ed restaurant design company merly served as a take-out wintown, he served as president of life that accompanied the foun- Persona Studios the following dow to the now posh 1789. McCooey had participated the Yard, the forerunner to the dation of the The Tombs, which year, and would continue to deGeorgetown University Student moved revelry closer to campus, sign and consult for his former in the Air Force ROTC program restaurants, as well as others in while at Georgetown, and was Association, before graduating from M Street. “It was just a wonderful place the Clyde’s portfolio, along with commissioned as a second lieuwith degrees in history and govto go to, and you didn’t have to his wife Karen, whom he married tenant in the United States Air ernment. Force. He gave up a career in ad“There were some things he go to another place far away,” he in 1990. 1789 and The Tombs, which vertising for the chance to manwas just really personally very said. “There was always an excommitted to; number one, he tremely interesting mix of teach- share a renovated federal-style age the properties on 36th and loved the university, and the rea- ers and students, and today you’ll house that had previously hosted Prospect. His dedication was deson he built 1789 and The Tombs see all kinds of people in The two businesses, have evolved to scribed in a 1968 feature on Mcprovide a fine-dining experience Cooey in The Hoya: “Mr. McCooey was he wanted to give something Tombs.” McCooey sold his trio of prop- catered to the elite and a casual eats and sleeps 1789. He eats his back to the university,” Clyde’s Restaurant Group CEO and Co- erties in 1985 for $3 million, service and bar catered to the meals there, and he sleeps in a entrusting the management to university, respectively. The early room outside his office, and he Owner John Laytham said. Laytham attended the School Clyde’s Restaurant Group, with years saw a different atmosphere had better, since he draws no salof Foreign Service from 1962 to whose leadership he had a long- — the bulletin board guarding See TOMBS, A6 1964, bearing witness to the pro- standing relationship. He found- the staircase to The Tombs for-

Wage Hike Alters Campus Prices, Employment

WELCOME TO GEORGETOWN

Suzanne Monyak Hoya Staff Writer

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

New students arrived to campus this weekend greeted by balloon arches and cheering orientation advisers at the front gates.

In accordance with the new minimum wage hikes, student employees at Georgetown will see up pay increases this year of up to $1.25, possibly at the expense of number of student jobs offered. As of July 1, 2014, the minimum wage in Washington D.C. has been increased from $8.25 to $9.50, the first increase in a series of incremental wage increases until the minimum wage reaches $11.50 in 2016. Cawley Career Education Center Executive Director Mike Schaub said that while student employment at the Career Center will not be affected by this first wage increase to $9.50, as the minimum wage rises further, the center might need to consider making budget cuts in order to absorb the financial loss. “For 2015 and 2016, we will need to closely evaluate our budget to determine how many students and how many hours we can support. If our budget does not change, we may need to hire one less student (nothing drastic) or give students fewer hours to account for the wage increase,” Schaub wrote in an email. Professor of Research at Georgetown University Medical Center Kathleen Pirollo agreed that the laboratory assistant job her office offers, which paid $9.25 prior to the wage increase, would not be affected significantly

See EBOLA, A6

See WAGE, A6

13 Years in, DeGioia Outlasts Predecessors in President’s Office Emma Hinchliffe Hoya Staff Writer

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Entering his 14th year, University President John J. DeGioia is the longest-serving president in Georgetown’s history. Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947

After 13 years at the helm, University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) has reached a milestone. The Georgetown fixture is now the longest-serving president in the university’s history, surpassing the 12- and 13-year tenures of former presidents Fr. Leo O’Donovan, S.J., and Fr. Timothy Healy, S.J. But DeGioia says the real significance of the 2014-2015 academic year is not entering his 14th year in office, but the anniversary of his time as part of the Georgetown community. Forty years ago, Dean of Admissions Charles Deacon sent 18-year-old Jack his acceptance letter. “I’ve been a part of this place, now, this will be the 40th year,” DeGioia said. “To this day I feel very blessed that I was invited into this community and given the opportunity to do Published Tuesdays and Fridays

the work I’ve been able to do here.” DeGioia was named Georgetown’s 48th president in July 2001, after a career as a philosophy professor and senior administrator on campus. After graduating from Georgetown with a degree in English in 1979, he became a hall director in New South and has since served as an assistant to the president during Healy’s presidency, dean of student affairs, and senior vice president during O’Donovan’s time in the president’s office, negotiating the deal that sold the university’s hospital to MedStar while retaining its School of Medicine. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the university in 1995. “I’ve been in this office 13 years, and sometimes I still feel like it’s their office,” DeGioia said of his predecessors. DeGioia is the first layperson to lead Georgetown, following 47 priests — mostly Jesuits — in the role.

For O’Donovan, Georgetown being led by a layman relates to the Second Vatican Council’s recognition of the importance of laypeople to the Catholic Church. “I see the fact that Jack was elected president as a layman not only as reflective of his great quality, but also as the impetus of the council,” O’Donovan said. “I think I would not have been able to serve long if I hadn’t been able to find ways for us to be the most authentically Catholic and Jesuit,” DeGioia said. For much of Georgetown’s history, the lengths of its presidents’ tenures were limited by the position’s Jesuit link. The university president simultaneously served as rector of the Jesuit community, a position that one person can only hold for six years, until the two roles were separated in See DEGIOIA, A6

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