The Hoya: September 17, 2013

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 95, No. 6, © 2013

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

EKING ONE OUT

COMMENTARY On Constitution Day, a chance to rethink our founding ideals.

Brandon Allen scored the gamewinning goal in OT against JMU. SPORTS, A10

Navy Yard Shooter Kills 12

TRUMP IN DC The Trump Organization will soon begin renovations on a D.C. hotel.

NEWS, A4

‘One Georgetown, One Campus’ Brings Alternatives to the Table LEAVEY CENTER HOTEL

Renovations were fast-tracked in 2011, but concern about the $8 million construction and lost revenue made administrators look elsewhere. Still, events are not scheduled beyond December 2014.

NEWS, A6

Housing Questions Linger DANNY FUNT

Hoya Staff Writer

KOBER-COGAN

Closed in May 2010 after a steam leak, this medical center building is vacant. It is owned by MedStar, which is reluctant to part with the building. Much of the medical center parking lot is privately owned.

PENNY HUNG

Hoya Staff Writer

See SHOOTING, A6

OPINION, A3

UP FOR DEBATE

Senior class was scheduled to attend nearby Nationals game later that night A shooter opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning, killing 12 and injuring five others before getting shot by police. The shooting began around 8:20 a.m. with shots fired at Building 197, which contained approximately 3,000 employees. The Navy Yard will be closed Tuesday, except for emergency response and mission-essential personnel. Hundreds of Georgetown seniors, as part of the Senior Class Committee’s Dis-Orientation, were scheduled to attend Monday evening’s Washington Nationals game, which was postponed to 1 p.m. Tuesday in the wake of the shooting. Many students would have arrived via the Navy Yard Metro stop, which is less than a mile from the ballpark. Monday’s shooting was the deadliest event in the District’s history since 1982, when an airliner plunged into the Potomac River, resulting in 78 deaths. Mayor Vincent Gray said there were no indications that the shooting had a terrorist connection. “We don’t have any known motive at this juncture,” Gray said in a press conference around 6 p.m. Two of the injured were members of the Metropolitan Police Department, and both are in stable condition. Among the dead was Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-old suspected shooter from Texas who carried an assault rifle, a handgun and possibly a shotgun. In a release, the Navy confirmed that Alexis, who served in the Navy as a fulltime reservist from 2007 to 2011, was a petty officer third class. The reasons for his general discharge are still unclear, though the Seattle Police Department reported that Alexis had previously suffered from anger-fueled blackouts, caused by post-traumatic stress disorder from participating in rescue attempts after the Sept. 11 attacks. According to a police report, the Seattle police arrested Alexis in 2004 for shooting out the tires of a man’s vehicle during one of these blackouts. For an hour after the incident, Alexis claimed no knowledge of the shooting. The Navy Yard, the country’s oldest military installation, is home to several high-ranking Navy personnel. Chief of

HOYA IN ORANGE Kent Syverud (SFS ’77) was named Syracuse’s new president.

RYAN AND MULLEDY BUILDINGS

Located adjacent to Dahlgren Quadrangle, the former Jesuit residence was also vacated in 2003 when Wolfington Hall opened. Students propose transferring St. Mary’s functions to this building.

ST. MARY’S HALL

The School of Nursing’s home base could house several hundred students if converted to a dormitory. School officials, however, note the inconvenience and expense of transferring its current occupants.

MODULAR APARTMENTS

The wild card of the proposed alternatives, GUSA Vice President Adam Ramadan has led the charge for modular apartments in the McDonough Gymnasium parking lot. Administrators are skeptical.

One week after news of a potential satellite residence for undergraduates sparked a firestorm of student opposition, university administrators will hold a series of open forums on housing options beginning today. Few details have emerged on the satellite considerations and proposed alternatives, as student leaders and school officials remain deeply divided on the subject. A petition against the satellite residence proposal received 412 signatures in just three hours Sept. 9, initiating a studentwide referendum set for Sept. 26. THE HOYA sat down Monday with Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey and Associate Vice President for Community Engagement and Strategic Initiatives Lauralyn Lee, the addressees of an open letter sent Sept. 12 by the One Georgetown, One Campus campaign. Administrators say they are open to reviewing the five alternatives proposed by the student campaign. Olson said that a survey is in the works to gauge student housing preferences, which will likely be released in October. In the meantime, Olson and Morey hope the six forums to be See HOUSING, A6

Bias Reporting System Targets Facebook Incidents MADISON ASHLEY & MALLIKA SEN Hoya Staff Writers

After five reports concerning online harassment were filed last spring, the Bias Related Incident Reporting System is adjusting to respond more effectively to incidents on outlets such as the “Georgetown Confessions” Facebook page. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access and University Information Services after CMEA staff were concerned by an increasing number of bias reports directly related to online activity. Under the new system, CMEA will review bias reports regarding posts on an online platform. If the post in question meets certain criteria, UIS will make a request to Facebook advocating removal of the post. Criteria for removal include a

comment with identifying infor- System. “It is only recently that we startmation, a comment or post threatening harm against an individual ed getting complaints that deal or group and a comment or post with social media,” Williams said. that includes language with the “Part of the problem is anonymity. … So many of the micro-aggressions potential to incite violence. “Some of us on the staff were are anonymous.” While CMEA just generally concerned “We don’t think anyone is now has the ability to reabout some of reports the things that going to harm themselves view based on the were appearing sites, Williams in the online because of an anonyemphasized forums,” CMEA mous post on Facebook.” that the Bias Director and GEORGETOWN CONFESSIONS Related Report Chair of the Class of 2016 System will not Bias Reporting Team Dennis Williams said. “It’s take on a paternalistic function. “It is a passive system in the sense not that we have any authority to do something, but we do have that we receive reports,” Williams some steps that we can take to look said. “The whole process is prediat individual cases of what might cated on the notion of offense. If no one is offended, there is no report. constitute online harassment.” Cyberspace is not an area that We don’t go out looking for bad has traditionally been under the stuff to happen.” Williams hopes that the new auspices of the Bias Related Report

initiative will have the ability to clean cyberspace of hateful speech against Georgetown community members. “It’s the cyberspace equivalent of getting someone to come and whitewash an ethnic slur off of the wall,” Williams said. The sophomore female who operates Georgetown Confessions, who wished not to be named to preserve the anonymity of the platform, noted that the page is merely a forum for students to express their opinions to a wider audience. The Facebook page has seen revived interest this fall, “Confessions is just another way for students to share their emotions without judgment, and it is good that they have this medium,” said the page’s moderator, who wished to remain anonymous. “We censor posts that single people out See BIAS, A7

Cabs Fall Short in Credit Installation CARLY GRAF

Hoya Staff Writer

The D.C. Taxicab fleet may soon find itself short on vehicles as the Sept. 30 deadline to equip all D.C. taxicabs with credit card readers approaches. As many as 2,000 of the District’s 6,500 registered taxicabs will be impounded if they cannot install credit card machines by the deadline, which has been postponed from Aug. 30. Only 2,000 cabs complied by the original date, and no further extensions will be offered. The remaining cabs had to apply for an extension by Aug. 15, which involved providing a signed contract between the vehicle owner and one of the 10 official payment service providers in the District. In addition, the owner had to certify that he or she had scheduled an installation with the PSP in the imminent future, D.C. Taxicab Commission spokesperson Neville Waters said. The Modern Taximeter System — which includes driver verification and a GPS system,

along with a credit card reader — was introduced by DCTC in response to customer demands for universal credit card acceptance in D.C. taxis. Since August, DCTC has tracked the progress of taxis in meeting the new Sept. 30 deadline through weekly reports of installations from the PSPs. Waters said that current information suggests that between 1,000 and 2,000 cabs will not have installed the MTS by the end of the month, representing nearly one-third of the District’s taxi fleet. Once taxicab owners miss this installation deadline, taxi inspectors will track down noncompliant cabs, which will be impounded and towed. These cabs will be released only in order to have the MTS installed, after which point they can be used for regular cab services. Fourteen cabs were impounded and 65 were ticketed for violations of taxi code through a DCTC partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department in early September. Despite this success, however, Waters said the city would not form a special task force to find cabs without readers.

Nevertheless, Waters hopes that law enforcement agencies and D.C. residents will assist DCTC investigators in tracking down delinquent cabs. Waters encourages all customers to report cabs without electric payment machines after the Oct. 1 deadline. Digital dispatch service Uber has been a vocal opponent of the MTS requirement since its inception. Uber claims that MTS is infeasible with its taxicabs — which are separate from its black car service — because of the incompatibility between most PSPs and current taxi hardware. Uber spokesperson Nairi Hourdajian pointed to the postponed deadline as further proof. “Uber has long been a proponent of improving the consumer experience and that includes making payment seamless and hassle-free,” Hourdajian wrote in an email. “Innovation and technology should be used to ensure a more reliable, more efficient and seamless service for users. Unfortunately, the proposed DCTC requirements make the consumer experience more cumbersome, not less.” Published Tuesdays and Fridays

SARAH LIPKIN/THE HOYA

The deadline for taxis to install credit card readers was extended to Sept. 30, but many cabs still may not meet the new requirement. Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com


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