GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 96, No. 9, © 2014
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
TRADITIONS
COMMENTARY Mulledy Hall has ugly ties to Georgetown’s history with the slave trade.
A look at the history of Georgetown’s best-known rituals. GUIDE, B1
TRANSPLANTS MedStar Hospital opens transplant clinic for multiple organs. NEWS, A5
OPINION, A3
FOOTBALL Defensive tackle Jordan Richardson and his impact as a four-year starter. SPORTS, B10
Finding Refuge on the Hilltop 3 Professors Call for Born in a Nepal refugee camp, Acharya pursues politics at Georgetown Margaret Heftler Special to The Hoya
Like many Georgetown students, Indra Acharya (COL ’18) is interested in pursuing a career in public service. He imagines himself running for the Senate in Vermont some-
day, or perhaps serving as a Supreme Court Justice. Like many ambitious freshmen, he ran for a position in the Georgetown University Student Association senate at-large. His interest in politics, though, stems from a unique, personal and painful history.
COURTESY INDRA ACHARYA
Indra Acharya (COL ’18), who grew up as a refugee in Nepal, is now a freshman at Georgetown, running for the GUSA senate.
Career-Based English PhD Proposed
Acharya was born in a refugee camp in Nepal after his parents were expelled from their home country of Bhutan. Acharya said that his family’s expulsion followed ethnic cleansing and violence in Bhutan after the Lhotshampa, a group of southerners with a Nepalese cultural identity, began to demand rights from their oppressive king. “When people started demanding for their rights, [the king] started using his violent force, killing people, raping women,” Acharya said. “My parents, who were never politically involved, [being] from that particular ethnic group was the main reason for them to be refugees.” Growing up in a refugee camp, Acharya said that he experienced feelings of dehumanization that troubled him. “You don’t have any identity,” Acharya said. “I still remember not having enough food to eat for days. We had to depend on the humanitarian organizations and refugee services; there was no food and clothes. I used to depend on people in local communities to bring the clothes that their children wore for years.” Acharya said the conditions in the camp were poor, and also dangerous. “I lived in a hut, bamboo and thatch,” he said. “I called it the See REFUGE, A6
THE IMPACT OF EBOLA
Suzanne Monyak & Kshithij Shrinath Hoya Staff Writer
After a failed attempted to create a doctorate program in English in the 1990s, the English department has drafted a new proposal to create an English Ph.D. program that will prepare its students to enter careers both inside and outside academia. “We’re trying to do something really different. We will be the first new English Ph.D. program in the country in many, many decades actually,” said Ricardo Ortiz, associate professor of U.S. Latino literature and culture, who was involved in crafting the proposal. Georgetown is one of the only major universities without an English Ph.D. program. “It’s kind of shocking that a place with the statute of Georgetown and the reputation of our department does not have a Ph.D.,” Georgetown English professor and supporter of the proposal Henry Schwarz said. Unlike standard English Ph.D. programs, this one proposes an increased focus on interdisciplinary study and work experience, as well the option for students to choose alternative final projects over a traditional dissertation such as digital projects, translations or public scholarships. “We would imagine the Ph.D. in English, which would also be a Ph.D. in the critical study of culture, would be a really great foundation for somebody wanting to do museum work, somebody wanting to do a certain kind of culture-based writing in journalism, which I think there’s more of than there used to be … anybody who wanted to work for culture-based nonprofits or NGOs, and even sort of in the public sector,” Ortiz said. The program proposal was approved by the English department faculty in March and is still awaiting approval from the administration and the board of directors. If given the green light, the program would accept three students a year with an eventual cap of 12 participants in the program at a time. Applicants to the program are required to have a bachelor’s degree, a master’s See ENGLISH, A6
KRISTEN SKILLMAN/THE HOYA
Scott Taylor, African Studies director , and Sharon Abramowitz, University of Flordia assistant professor, discuss historical and social reasons why the ebola virus was so devastating to west Africa at a symposium on the crisis Tuesday.
ISIS Intervention Giovanna Azevedo Special to The Hoya
Three Georgetown faculty members have signed an Iraq Rescue plea calling for U.S. military intervention against the Islamic State group. Director of the Berkley Center’s Religious Freedom Project Thomas Farr, government and international affairs professor Robert Lieber and philosophy Professor Emeritus Daniel Robinson are signatories of the plea, which urges “the United States and the international community [to] act immediately and decisively to stop ISIS/ISIL genocide and prevent the further victimization of religions minorities,” according to the Iraq Rescue website. The plea was written in response to recent acts of terror perpetrated by the terrorist group, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which include beheadings, executions, amputations and acts of sexual violence. Lieber, professor in both the department of government and the School of Foreign Service, joined this initiative at the invitation of Princeton University professor Robert George. “The plea is first a recognition that ISIS represents a great danger in the region, threatening to potentially dominate an important part of that strategic location,” Lieber said. “It also butchers or threatens to kill, or crucify those of minority religions. It is a horrifying operation and a growing danger to the region and to U.S. national interests. You’ll find leading members of both parties in Congress, as well as the president, recently making statements that are consistent with those that we had recommended before.” Farr said he views the Islamic State group as a clear and direct threat to the United States and to religious minorities in the Middle East. “I believe that military action is necessary,” Farr wrote in an email. “It must be carried out with precision and overwhelming force in order to remove the immediate threat, and with every possible precaution to avoid harm to innocents.” However, Farr also said he believes that the religious ideology fueling the Islamic State group cannot be defeated by force alone. Instead, he urges Muslims in the region to rise against the extremists. “It must be eliminated by Muslims who live in the nations where it is incubated. In order to do that, Muslims must have religious freedom, which they currently lack,” Farr wrote. The plea supports President Barack Obama’s decision to per-
FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
COLGATE UNIVERSITY
DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA
Robert Lieber, top, Daniel Robinson, middle, and Thomas Farr signed a plea for U.S. action against ISIS. form airstrikes, but states that there is still much more to be done to combat Islamic State aggression. It also endorses The Washington Post’s call in a recent editorial for the United States to provide arms to the Kurdish and Sunni people in Iraq, since their lack of modern weapons makes it difficult for them to counter Islamic State group attacks. See ISIS, A6
GU Joins Anti-Assault White House Campaign Maureen Tabet Special to The Hoya
The White House and Center for American Progress’s Generation Progress, an organization promoting awareness of on-campus sexual assault, launched the public awareness campaign “It’s On Us” last week as part of the Obama administration’s continued efforts to prevent sexual violence at the nation’s universities. Georgetown joined the list of nearly 200 universities nationwide whose student leaders have agreed to promote the campaign against sexual assault on their respective campuses. “At Georgetown our work for many years on this issue has been guided by our commitment to cura personalis, care of the whole person — mind, body, and spirit. Educating and engaging our community on this issue is an essential part of our responsibility to uphold the moral expectations that have guided us throughout our history as a Jesuit institution,” University President John J. DeGioia wrote in a university-
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wide email. Tina Tchen, executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls and chief of staff to the first lady, stressed the importance of spreading sexual assault awareness at universities. “Everyone has the right to live free from the threat of sexual assault,” Tchen said in a conference call with college media Monday. “Still today, one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college.” The campaign named four goals for colleges: distributing campus climate surveys to assess the extent of the problem on their campuses, preventing sexual assault, responding effectively when assault occurs and increasing transparency on enforcement efforts. “Our goal of this campaign is to both change culture nationally but also to empower students on local campuses to be able to create campaigns and engage new people in the fight to end campus sexual assault,” said Anne JohnSee ASSAULT, A6 Published Tuesdays and Fridays
FILE PHOTO: DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA
Sarah Rabon (COL ’16) reading stories from sexual assault survivors at “It Happens Here” during last year’s Take Back the Night week. Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com