The Hoya: October 14, 2016

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Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 98, No. 12, © 2016

FRIday, october 14, 2016

DC RANKED BY MICHELIN

Several restaurants were awarded two stars by the internationally famed Michelin Guide.

EDITORIAL A source of news for many, Facebook must be a credible outlet.

JONES ON ‘MODERN LOVE’ The editor of the popular New York Times column discussed its appeal.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A4

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Students March for Black Lynch Backs Police Database Victims of Police Brutality Project intends to improve police transparency adam shlomi

Special to The Hoya

About 35 Georgetown undergraduate and graduate students marched from the university’s front gates to the White House on Oct. 10 to raise awareness for unarmed black victims of police brutality in America.

Organized by graduate students Raquel King (GRD ’16) and Skylar Cruz (GRD ’18), the rally — titled

“Black Bodies are Beings” — sought to specifically address the deaths of Trayvon Martin in 2012, Eric Garner in 2014, Sandra Bland in 2015 and most recently Terrence Sterling, shot by a police officer Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C. As students, who were notified about the march through a Facebook event page Sept. 30, gathered at the front gates, King began by addressing the killing of unarmed black Ameri-

cans and her view of today’s youth’s desire for change.

The group then gathered for a prayer of solidarity, asking for a successful march and changes to the American policing system.

“We’re backing civil rights,” King said to the protestors at the beginning of the march. “I don’t understand how we’re still going through this when our grandparents talk to us and See PROTEST, A6

ADAM SHLOMI/THE HOYA

Georgetown students gathered at the university’s front gates before marching to the White House to address the unarmed black victims of police aggression in America.

mARINA PITOFSKY Hoya Staff Writer

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch expressed her support for a recently announced program that will collect information on the lethal use of police force as well as create the first national database for lethal and nonlethal interactions in Gaston Hall yesterday.

The speech marked the first time Lynch publicly announced her support for the National Use of Force Data Collection Program, which is a joint project by the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that was launched Oct. 5.

Transparency between the police and the communities they serve will increase with the program, according to Lynch.

“One of the things that we want to know is that when we do see a situation where, in one part of a country or another, there is a police department that is seeing a rise in complaints among civilians about the way they are treated at traffic stops,” Lynch said. “You want to know how that’s compared to last year or the year before. What’s going

YEON CHO FOR THE HOYA

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch discussed a national data collection program in her “Exit Interview.” on that’s leading to this?”

Lynch addressed the project in part of the second of the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service’s six “exit interviews,” a programming series that

focuses on President Barack Obama’s legacy as he reaches the conclusion of his second term.

See LYNCH, A6

GU Report Shows Jewish Community Looks to 272 Hate Crime Rise yasmine salam Special to The Hoya

alfredo carrillo obregon

Reports of stalking increased by 333 percent from three in 2014 to 13 in 2015, Special to The Hoya while reports of dating vioHate crimes against racial, lence increased by 80 percent religious and sexual orienta- from five in 2014 to nine in tion minority groups increased 2015.

Reports of fondling inby 75 percent from one in 2014 creased to four in from zero to 2015, actwo in noncording to residential the Georgeareas and retown Unimained conversity stant at two Police Dein residenpartment’s tial areas.

2016 AnnuThe real Security port, reReport. leased every Alleged year by Oct. instances of 1 and accesrape in nonsible from residential the Georgeareas detown Univercreased 50 sity website, percent aggregates GRACE SMITH from four Co-President, GUPride all criminal in 2014 to activity retwo in 2015. ported on While these facilities owned by Georgetown cases decreased in residential areas as well, the drop was University — including those less pronounced — 12.5 per- overseas — in the previous acacent from eight to seven in the demic school year and provides statistics comparing results to same time span.

Reports of fondling in- the three previous calendar creased from zero to two in years.

GUPD Chief Jay Gruber said nonresidential areas and remultiple departments, includmained constant at two in resiing the Office of Institutional Didential areas.

Hate crimes have increased versity, Equity and Affirmative from one in 2014 to four in Action and the Center for Multi2015 and have targeted minor- cultural Equity and Access, have ity groups on the grounds of worked together to address hate race, sexual orientation, reli- crimes on campus. gious affiliation and gender See GUPD, A6 identity.

“I believe that GUPD should make a more active effort to reach out to GUPride and remind them of their solidarity.”

featured

As members of Georgetown’s Jewish community gathered for Rosh Hashanah services Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, Andrew Meshnick (COL ’17) delivered a sermon on a seemingly unrelated topic: the community’s connection to the sale of 272 slaves in 1838, the profits of which provided financial support for Georgetown.

Director for Jewish Life Rabbi Rachel Gartner led the themed services by giving two Rosh Hashanah services, which featured sermons delivered by students on the legacy of slavery at Georgetown.

Drawing a connection between the biblical story of Isaac, who was almost sacrificed by his father in an expression of faith, and one of the slaves sold by the university also named Isaac, Meshnick argued the Jewish community has a special responsibility to atone for the past.

“If you would teach your children that the sacrifice of biblical Isaac was wrong, would you do the same for a flesh and blood man named Isaac who was one of the slaves sold in 1838?” Meshnick said. “Unlike biblical Isaac, 1838 Isaac was not spared; we know Georgetown’s leaders sold Isaac’s children and grandchildren to Louisiana’s highly lethal sugar plantations.”

Meshnick’s sermon was part of a larger theme for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services on campus this year, which centered on the responsibility of the larger

JINWOO CHONG/THE HOYA

At this year’s Rosh Hashanah services, members of the Jewish community shaped discussions and sermons around reflections on the legacy of slavery at Georgetown. community in atoning for Georgetown’s slaveholding past.

In September, the university announced that it would undertake multiple efforts to make amends for the sale of the slaves, including providing legacy status to descendants in the admission process, renaming Freedom and Remembrance Hall to Isaac Hall and Anne Marie Beechcraft Hall and developing memorials to the 272 slaves on campus.

Gartner worked with the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation to organize ways to further involve the Jewish community with the university’s past with slavery beyond its themed Rosh Hashanah services.

Attendees went on a walking tour through the Georgetown area to explore slavery’s historic presence in D.C. after the customary Jewish atonement ritual, Tashlikh.

Director of the Center for Jewish Civilization profes-

sor Jacques Berlinerblau said Gartner’s efforts revived the Jewish tradition of social activism on campus.

“I applaud Rabbi Gartner for doing this. She is harking back to a tradition of Jewish left activism and of the rabbinical community,” Berlinerblau said. “She is trying to reinvigorate this relationship by drawing attention to the commonalities between blacks and Jews.”

See JUDAISM, A6

NEWS

OPINION

OPINION

GU Shows Pride In celebration of “OUTober,” groups hosted an event in Red Square celebrating “Coming Out Day.” A5

Manipulative Marketing The “No” campaign against the Colombian Peace Process used highly specialized media tactics.

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Promote GUSA Diversity The lack of diversity in the GUSA senate is a systemic problem that deserves attention.

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NEWS NGA Reopens

opinion Editorial

SPORTS Goodbye, David Ortiz

Following extensive renovations, the National Gallery of Art unveiled its expanded site last month.

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Given the rise of threats both nationally and on campus, cybersecurity must be addressed.

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Published Tuesdays and Fridays

A farewell letter to one of baseball’s greats from the perspective of a Yankees fan.

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Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com

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OPINION

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016

THE VERDICT

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What a Game — The Chicago Cubs came back to win in the ninth inning Tuesday after scoring four runs against the San Francisco Giants, making up for a three-run deficit and securing a spot in the the National League Championship Series.

Mitigate Bias in Social Media 

Check It Out — Based on the bestselling novel and recipient of five 2015 Tony Awards, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime” opened at the Kennedy Center for its run from Oct. 5 through Oct. 23.

ment with news through Facebook, the company recently made commitments to become a more trusted platform in delivering direct articles to consumers, namely in partnering with brands like The New York Times, Vox Media and The Guardian.

News aggregation popularized by sites like Drudge Report and The Huffington Post carry the same journalistic obligations and ethics; they serve as arbiters of news and reporting for consumers, which means they are held to the same level of authenticity and correctness as other news sources. Such responsbilities should be objective and “help people discover interesting and relevant conversations happening about breaking news and events from around the world,” as Facebook’s mission statement suggests.

Facebook could solve this problem by applying more funds and capital to better algorithms and software that could weed out poor news and pieces while raising greater ones. At the same time, it may be easier for Facebook to return to its original model of having humans manually check the validity and truthfulness of content to avoid technical mistakes.

Perhaps Facebook can benefit from partnering with more journalism platforms from across the ideological spectrum to ensure only effective filtering is conducted. Conservative sources like the National Review and Breitbart and more liberal sources like The Huffington Post could be partners in helping check and balance the steady stream of news that makes its way to the front pages of users, and in providing a wider range of more reliable and trustworthy reporting to the digital, social media-engaged audience.

Facebook has the power to expose its users to content intended to educate and inform. This becomes a responsibility that, with a reach over a billion people, is not one to be taken lightly. As a platform that has already drastically shifted the way our society communicates and understands the world, Facebook’s next step should be to improve efforts in acting as a news aggregator and source of authentic, relevant news content.

This past summer, Facebook faced criticism for its trending news section being biased towards liberal sites, routinely ignoring or suppressing conservative news outlets like Breitbart.

In response to these accusations, first revealed through documents obtained by the technology blog Gizmodo, Facebook fired the human editors whose job it was to both weed out fake news and write objective summaries of trending topics and issues. Facebook’s trending platform then switched to an algorithm that aggregated popular shared news items that would later be edited and made presentable by human editors.

Yet following the departure of the human overseers, the aggregator began highlighting fake news, starting with a post claiming Fox News host Megyn Kelly had been fired, which was false, as well as stories claiming 9/11 was not a terrorist attack. A piece also emerged under the trending feed that criticized conservative commentator Ann Coulter for statements she had never made, but also directed vulgar and lascivious language against her.

Facebook serves over 1.5 billion users and in recent years has become increasingly essential to the dispensing of news to that global audience.

For students, Facebook undeniably serves as a platform to view and experience content not only shared by our friends but also favorite websites and sources for news. Yet if the company continues to position itself as a source for aggregated news content, it must revisit the methodology and algorithms that determine trending topics and stories. If Facebook cannot change its policies and practices, it cannot truly call itself a distributor of objective and accurate journalism.

Social media has become the most direct way for many individuals to access journalism and news sources. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, 62 percent of adult Americans receive news and articles from social media platforms, and 66 percent of Facebook users report reading news and journalism content through the site first. Ninety-two percent of individuals between the ages of 17 and 25 also claimed to have a Facebook account. Aside from engage-

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Youth Involvement — D.C. Millennial Week began this week on Oct. 9, featuring many activities aimed at providing career development skills for the youngest generation of workers in D.C. Clown Craze — McDonald’s announced that mascot Ronald McDonald will not be involved with company affairs or marketing until a current nation-wide clown scare ends.

Space Warning — A new NASA-funded study revealed Monday that a Mars trip could cause dementia and longterm brain damage to astronauts due to high exposure to radiation.

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Family Ties — A boy ordered a Papa John’s pizza for his grandmother in Palm Coast, Fla., after being unable to reach her for two days after Hurricane Matthew. The pizza delivery person was able to connect the two and ensure the grandmother was safe.

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EDITORIALS

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Founded January 14, 1920

Safety Alert — An Upshur Park playground was destroyed by a fire on Monday, Oct. 10 near an elementary school. This is the third playground fire this month in the local area, and arson is the suspected cause

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Homeward Bound — Thursday morning Boko Haram released 21 of the missing Chibok schoolgirls as a part of a peace deal negotiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Noah Taylor

Confronting Cyber Threats private information is growing rapidly. Between 2006 and 2013, over 550 universities reported a security breach of some sort, according to an NBC report. Symantec’s 2015 Internet Security Report identified that at least 10 percent of all security breaches occurred in the education sector. Clearly there is a need for both shoring up our security — from our firewalls to our personal passwords — and identifying potential threats or compromises prudently.

The university is already taking steps to overhaul the existing Wi-Fi system to better serve the increasing technological demands of our community. While this commitment is more than welcome, UIS should ensure that the telecommunication companies and service providers with which it pursues new contracts over the next year will be able to help strengthen our firewalls and prevent crippling denial-of-service attacks that can lead to outages in networks and compromised data, as was experienced in this year’s major Wi-Fi outage in late March.

UIS could also play a greater role in informing students, faculty and staff alike about the dangers of cybersecurity through a greater number of educational initiatives.

UIS currently offers a brief 15-minute online course that guides users through basic security threats and precautions they should take. It even encourages students to change their passwords to better ensure security. It may be more helpful, however, to host mandatory class sessions for incoming students and faculty to educate them about concerns ranging from identifying a compromised computer, spotting viruses or possible phishing attempts.

Cybersecurity threats are not obscure — they are relevant and potentially damaging to each and every member of the Georgetown community. A further dedication to cybersecurity and increasing cyber literacy among our community is essential, ensuring that students will be more poised to deal with such issues whenever and in whatever situation they may occur.

In the past year, the news cycle has featured stories of data breaches on an almost weekly basis. Last week, Wikileaks revealed a previously secret email archive from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about speeches made to corporations. Before the Democratic National Committee convention in July, the DNC’s servers were allegedly infiltrated by Russian hackers.

Yahoo was also recently revealed to have willingly deliver handpicked email content to government intelligence agencies. With the increasingly pressing threat of cyberattacks, cybersecurity should not only be a concern for leaders and businesses around the world, but also for our campus community.

The vulnerabilities of Georgetown’s cybersecurity infrastructure have resulted in various attacks in past years. In 2006, approximately 41,000 Social Security numbers were compromised and taken after a university computer server was hacked.

This March, major hospital chain MedStar Health Inc., which has a Georgetown facility, suffered a crippling cyberattack, affecting the computer programs and electronic services for a hospital system handling over 30,000 employees and at least 1,100 patients. As recently as early April, a bug in our university Wi-Fi’s firewall caused an outage in wireless services for the entire main campus.

With October designated as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the university should take the opportunity to make sure our current infrastructure is in a position to combat attacks similar to those in the past. In addition, all students here should seek to increase their cyber literacy and protect themselves from future cybersecurity threats through possible UIS initiatives.

It is clear that our generation lives on the internet. We all have our personal data, credit card numbers, medical records and likely even more personal information stored in the cloud, and the market for

Jess Kelham-Hohler, Editor-in-Chief Toby Hung, Executive Editor Matthew Trunko, Managing Editor Ian Scoville, Campus News Editor Aly Pachter, City News Editor Paolo Santamaria, Sports Editor John Miller, Guide Editor Syed Humza Moinuddin, Opinion Editor Naaz Modan, Photography Editor Jesus Rodriguez, Layout Editor Jeanine Santucci, Copy Chief Elizabeth Cavacos, Social Media Editor Meg Lizza, Blog Editor Jarrett Ross, Multimedia Editor

Christian Paz Tara Subramaniam Lisa Burgoa Owen Eagan William Zhu Emily Dalton Sean Hoffman Darius Iraj Ryan McCoy Tom Garzillo Kate Kim Vera Mastrorilli Sarah Santos Noah Taylor Caroline Borzilleri Alyssa Volivar Danielle Wyerman Yuri Kim Sterling Lykes Emma Wenzinger Kelly Park

Editorial Board

Syed Humza Moinuddin, Chair Jack Bennett, Ben Card, Jesse Jacobs, Naaz Modan, Anthony Palacio, Ashwin Puri, Andrea Roos, Ellen Singer

Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy City News Editor Business Editor Deputy Business & News Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Deputy Sports Editor Paranoia Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Guide Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Deputy Opinion Editor Cartoon Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Layout Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Copy Editor Deputy Social Media Editor

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ell you know, I just thought I was doing something natural, but right from the start, my songs were divisive for some reason. They divided people. I never knew why. Some got angered, others loved them. Didn’t know why my songs had detractors and supporters. A strange environment to have to throw your songs into, but I did it anyway. Last thing I thought of was who cared about what song I was writing. I was just writing them. I didn’t think I was doing anything different. I thought I was just extending the line. Maybe a little bit unruly, but I was just elaborating on situations. Maybe hard to pin down, but so what? A lot of people are hard to pin down and you’ve just got to bear it. In a sense everything evened itself out.”

2016 NOBEL LAUREATE IN LITERATURE BOB DYLAN 2015 MUSICARES PERSON OF THE YEAR SPEECH

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Contributing Editors & Consultants

]

Madeline Auerbach, Kara Avanceña, Reza Baghaee, Nick Bailey, Isabel Binamira, Jinwoo Chong, Deirdre Collins, Cleopatra Fan, Gabi Hasson, Shannon Hou, Charlie Kelly, Daniel Kreytak, Catherine McNally, Naaz Modan, Suzanne Monyak, Jesus Rodriguez, Zack Saravay, Molly Simio, Emily Tu, Andrew Wallender

Board of Directors

Kristen Fedor, Chair Jinwoo Chong, Jess Kelham-Hohler, Arnosh Keswani, Katherine Richardson, Daniel Smith, Evan Zimmet LETTER TO THE EDITOR & VIEWPOINT POLICIES THE HOYA welcomes letters and viewpoints from our readers and will print as many as possible. To be eligible for publication, letters should specifically address a recent campus issue or HOYA story. Letters should not exceed 300 words.

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OPINION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016

AS THIS JESUIT SEES IT

THE HOYA

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VIEWPOINT • AMAYA

Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J.

Find Hope, Humility In Jesuit Election

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his week, the eyes of Jesuits around the world are turned toward Rome.

Since Oct. 3, 215 delegates have been assembled in a General Congregation — only the 36th in the 476-year history of the Jesuit order — and since Monday, they have been engaged in the election of a new superior general of the worldwide Society of Jesus.

It is an election unlike almost any other, embodying Jesuit values and ideals in a striking way. I wonder if we might draw lessons from it, especially as we engage politics in such varied settings as Hoyas on campus and around the globe.

The process begins in listening, when members humbly discuss together the needs and opportunities of the present moment. The delegates examine the current state of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic Church and the world. Individuals from around the world describe the situation in each of their home countries or places of work, and small groups look for commonalities, challenges and opportunities. Over the course of a week, they also begin to name the qualities that are most needed in the next leader, though the delegates themselves decide when they are ready to proceed to the election.

What is unique about this process is that there are no candidates. St. Ignatius of Loyola did not want ambition inside the Jesuits, so he avoided establishing regular elections that might lead to factions; elections only occur upon the death of the superior general — or, as in this case of the former leader, Adolfo Nicolás Pachón, S.J., upon resignation. The delegates are forbidden from seeking to be elected, and they cannot campaign for one another.

Instead, they begin the process with prayer and then undertake a unique set of one-onone meetings: the delightfully named murmuratio. For four days, any delegate can speak to any other, and they are enjoined to speak only of the leadership qualities of others.

Their conversation is always

outwardly focused, aimed not at themselves but at the good of all.

All the delegates — and Jesuits around the world — share a deep belief that the process is bigger than any one person.

They are nourished by prayer — and box lunches — and they are enjoined to approach the election with a sense of discernment. It is a shared process of discovering the right leader indicated by God through coordinated actions.

Delegates are instructed not to make up their minds until they enter the hall in which they will vote. Once the voting begins — with secret ballots, and the results read aloud after each round — delegates seek the interior freedom to adjust their voting based on the patterns that emerge. Ultimately, together, they find their way to the one they believe can best contribute to the mission of the Jesuits today.

Listening. Humility. A focus beyond oneself. And a deep belief in a purpose of ultimate value. As a professor of comparative politics, I recognize that the electoral rules the Jesuits employ would be ill-suited to other contexts. But I am moved by the values and spirit that underlie the process because they invite us to hope and trust in one another. Rather than divide, they invite all to share in a common endeavor, oriented to the greatest good.

Democracy, at its best, does this. It begins with listening to the voices of others, appreciating their unique perspectives.

It looks toward the common good while aiming for values as exalted as justice, peace and freedom. Maybe this weekend, as we watch the Jesuits in Rome, we can learn more than just a bit of news — the name of the new Superior General — but also a new spirit to animate us in our political participation here at home.

Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., is an associate professor of government and the director of the Center for Latin American Studies. AS THIS JESUIT SEES IT appears every other Friday.

It would be inaccurate to say all who voted against peace did so because of a campaign’s anger-based strategy. Many sectors of society conscientiously voted for this option.

Targeted Strategy Disrupts Peace Process

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fter four years of negotiations, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced a bilateral ceasefire June 23, theoretically marking the end of the longest armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere by specifying procedures for the FARC to disarm and integrate into political life in Colombia.

Dates were set for the signing of the final peace agreement among leaders and for civil society to approve or disapprove of the agreement Sept. 26 and Oct. 2, respectively. When the final agreement was signed by leaders in Cartagena, the general atmosphere was optimistic, and polls predicted that an overwhelming majority of voters would go to the polls Oct. 2 and vote “yes.”

However, on the day of the plebiscite, the “no” vote won by an incredibly narrow majority of 50.21 percent, compared to 49.78 percent who voted “yes.” This unforeseen result garnered surprising reactions on both a national and international scale.

Newspaper headlines in and out of the country spoke of the shocking outcome of the plebiscite: Colombia had voted against the peaceful resolution to the armed conflict.

Many analysts and media strong media strategy at the sources pointed to former regional level that ultimatePresident Álvaro Uribe Vé- ly won it the majority.

In an interview with the lez as one of those responsible for the unanticipated newspaper La República, the “no” vote result due to his “no” campaign manager, position as a consistently Juan Carlos Vélez, revealed staunch opponent of the that campaign’s main stratgovernment and the peace egy sought to target certain negotiations. After the groups out of the Colombicease-fire agreement was an population: Low-income announced in Havana in communities were told June, the president-turned- guerrillas would receive economic bencongressman, efits upon along with disarmaother conThe overall m e n t , servative political leaders, campaign strategy while the middle initiated a upstrong media was to outrage voters and per classes campaign rather than to win were told against the peace accord. favor through reason. that the a g r e e The week m e n t s before the w o u l d Oct. 2 plebiscite vote, Uribe was a promise impunity for guerguest on radio and televi- rilla leaders.

He also explained how, sion outlets in the country campaigning in favor of the in the border regions with “no” vote. The message on Venezuela, organizers fobehalf of the “no” campaign cused on arguing how the was much shorter, clearer “yes” vote would make Coand forceful than the “yes” lombia into a Chavista recampaign’s message, as the gime. In short, the overall latter’s campaign strategists campaign strategy was to thought the slogan of peace outrage voters rather than would, in itself, resolve the to win their favor through dispute in its favor. On the argumentation or reason. other hand, the “no” cam- The campaign did not rely paign, knowing that na- on an explanation of the tional surveys favored the Havana agreement, nor on “yes” position, developed a specific qualms with the

VIEWPOINT • OUSEPH

peace deal.

Even so, it would be inaccurate to say all those who voted against the peace did so because of a campaign’s tailored, anger-based strategy. Many sectors of Colombian society conscientiously voted for this option. However, we must recognize that the “no” campaign used a marketing strategy of outrage that proved effective in this election.

The results of the Colombian plebiscite do not indicate that the people were skeptical of peace or that the public has turned its back on President Juan Santos, a man who won the re-election in 2014 with 50.95 percent of the vote. What the plebiscite shows is that strong marketing and advertising strategies such as those employed by Uribe’s campaign can greatly influence elections and public opinion. Knowing how to sell a product, how to appeal to the emotionality of the public and, in this case, how to sell a certain vote can generate friction with the actual exercise of democracy, through which ideas and arguments should be discussed.

OSCAR AMAYA is a Ph.D.

candidate in the department of Spanish and Portugese.

USE YOUR WORDS

Searching for Diversity in GUSA Changing Faces of Censorship

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ast year, I was one of four first-year women in the Georgetown University Student Association senate. When former senators and older Georgetown students cracked jokes about GUSA being a “white boys’ club,” I laughed and brushed it off. After all, there were 11 women in the senate out of 28 total senators. It did not seem that bad.

Soon, however, I realized that was not the point. Women make up more than half the undergraduate student body, yet the GUSA senate, a group meant to represent the students of Georgetown, has failed to be representative of them. Additionally, there were only eight people of color in the senate last year, including just one black senator and no Latinx senators. As chair of the former Institutional Diversity Subcommittee and then- co-chair of the Racial and Cultural Inclusivity Policy Team, I had been so committed to diversity initiatives on campus and how GUSA could advocate for them that I had not focused on any similar initiatives within GUSA itself, particularly in the senate.

With a woman of color — Enushe Khan (MSB ’17) — as our former speaker and current president, it may seem that GUSA has nothing to worry about.

However, in the same way that racism in the United States still exists even though we have a black president, there is still much to be done on campus to make every space inclusive. GUSA can — and

should — be a foundational starting point.

However, this year, not a single first-year student in the senate is a woman.

There are just seven women total and only 10 people of color. I cannot explain why this is the case, but I would like to make a personal commitment to bridging this gap between GUSA and marginalized communities on campus.

Instead of having to

It is important to remember that race and gender identity are not the only indicators of diversity. outsource to groups with members of marginalized backgrounds every time GUSA wants to work with that group, there is value in those same members being a part of GUSA, facilitating greater coordination between campus communities and the senate.

Still, that is not to put the burden on individuals to just join the senate. Representation and inclusivity should not be a burden on or for marginalized communities.

A dedication to diversity and inclusivity also comes in whom GUSA senators choose for certain positions. With the elections for this year’s vice speaker of the senate, one key reason I voted for current Vice Speaker Cherie Vu (COL ’19) is because of an inherent power in repre-

sentation. Having a woman of color in a leadership role is just one baby step towards fostering a more inclusive image of the senate.

GUSA has a reputation for lacking representation, but there is no mold on this campus that cannot be changed, something akin to what the recent viral Chicken Madness campaign appeared to be about: “giving a voice to the voiceless.” While I personally think some jokes are best left dead after a few weeks of novelty, there is some value to such a statement.

I hope to use my place in the senate as an opportunity to give a voice to the communities on campus that have been silenced, whether directly or indirectly.

It is important to remember that race and gender identity are not the only indicators of diversity. As the session kicks in, I expect to learn more about the diverse experiences and backgrounds my fellow senators carry with them over time. Hopefully, this year’s senate and future senators will include queer students, disabled students, low-income students, undocumented students and students from different faith backgrounds.

Maybe next year, we will have a senate that looks a little bit more like Georgetown.

JASMIN OUSEPH is a soph-

omore in the School of Foreign Service. She is a GUSA senator.

C

lark Kerr, the late president of the University of California, Berkeley once said that a university “is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. It is engaged in making students safe for ideas.” While his words may resonate in today’s debate over free speech on college campuses, he originally voiced this idea in 1961, responding to protests against bringing procommunism speakers to UC campuses.

Clearly, the debate surrounding free speech on campuses is nothing new.

Through different eras and political regimes, the political left and right have frequently used the notion of freedom of speech as a tool to censor ideas that they did not want to expose America’s young minds to.

Many argue that within college campuses today, certain forms of censorship have become the prerogative of the intellectual left. However, this division has not always been the case. Janet Napolitano, the current president of the University of California, put it best in a recent op-ed in The Boston Globe: “In the 1960s, as exemplified by the free speech movement at Berkeley, students on campuses demanded and received the ability to protest the Vietnam War. This was free speech, loud and angry and in your face. Today many of the loudest voices condemning speech and demanding protection are students on those same campuses.”

It is ironic that people who fought to free speech from the hold of a more socially and politically conservative intellectual class are now being protested by people who believe that same speech

demands the neutralization of the public space. These demands can take many forms, such as the censorship of opeds in student newspapers as well as calls for bans on certain ethnically suggestive Halloween costumes.

Annabelle Timsit Last fall, a student columnist for the Wesleyan student newspaper, The Argus, penned an op-ed that was critical of the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement, yet campus activists took to social media, calling for the student’s resignation, the paper’s apology and even allegedly threatening violence against him personally.

For a student to voice a concern with an ideology in an open forum, while being respectful of actual problems, and be threatened by his schoolmates because of it is unacceptable. It shows how far campus activism can go in misguided defense of a neutralized public space.

The left, which is supposed to represent the defense of personal liberties and equality for all, has slowly chipped away at students’ right to express unpopular beliefs. In political pundit Kristen Power’s book, “The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech,” she analyzes the delegitimization of dissent that has become the preferred response of what

she calls the “illiberal left” and questions: “What ever happened to free speech in America?”

The evolution of free speech has not been a homogenous process in the United States.

It has been the concern of different political classes and has been weaponized to censor thoughts that run contrary to the normative belief of the education system.

We must resist these efforts and safeguard speech, free of most — but not all — constraints, so far as it does not constitute hate speech or directly threaten violence. If we do not, then we are endangering our campuses’ intellectual diversity and our own ability to form and voice opinions and thus actively taking part in the shaping of society.

Former Justice Hugo Black also articulated the importance of free speech and expression in a democratic society. Despite belonging to the Ku Klux Klan and supporting Japanese internment, he gave an important and relevant warning to challengers of free speech: “First Amendment must be accorded to the ideas we hate or sooner or later they will be denied to the ideas we cherish.”

The Wesleyan incident clearly shows how, in attempting to defend a specific ideology from critiscisms, it fell precisely into the trap of violently targeting and alienating those who would want to engage in a constructive debate around this issue. Let’s hope that our campus is not next.

Annabelle Timsit is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. USE YOUR WORDS appears every other Friday.

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NEWS

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016

PAGE FOUR

INSIDE THIS ISSUE The National Gallery of Art opened Sept.

30 after the completion of its three-year renovation. Story on A7.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS HOMEBOUND HERO verbatim

“

The goal is to help people understand that we are all capable of shaping our own realities if we want to.”

Amina Gerrbi (MSB ’17) Speaker, TEDx Georgetown 2016 Story on A7.

from our blog

AN ODE TO LEO’S BRUNCH Why not reminisce about the good ’ole days?

COURTESY UNSUNG HEROES

Unsung Heroes, a Facebook page dedicated to recognizing Georgetown’s workers, raised money for plane tickets for Umberto “Suru” Ripai, who works at Leo’s, to go home to South Sudan for the first time in over 45 years.

blog.thehoya.com

‘Modern Love’ Editor Talks Column, Societal Change LISA BURGOA Hoya Staff Writer

Relationships have become more flexible as society has evolved in the last decade, argued The New York Times’ “Modern Love” Editor Daniel Jones in Copley Formal Lounge on Tuesday.

The event was co-sponsored by the Lecture Fund, THE HOYA and the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice.

“Modern Love” is in its 12th year as a reader-generated column inside The New York Times’ weekly Sunday Styles section.

In 2015, the most-read article at The New York Times — “The 36 Questions That Lead to Love” — was published in January in the “Modern Love” column, receiving more than 20 million hits online and accumulating a collective reading time of over 100 years.

“I see that, even in college campuses, that there is an aversion to being placed into boxes.”

DANIEL JONES Editor, The New York Times

Jones said his column bears witness to societal changes that have influenced trends in relationships over the past decade, such as the legalization of gay marriage and popularization of nontraditional family structures.

“I see that, even in college campuses, that there is an aversion to being placed into boxes, there is an aversion to calling yourself something, there is an aversion to calling your relationship something,” Jones said.

“People want things to be fluid and undefined, and I think that’s a big change where it was not this way 12 years ago.”

Jones said the column aims to capture love in all its forms, from life-changing encounters to more ordinary episodes, such as the agony of an unanswered

text to a crush.

“This column is about relationships, it’s about human love, which means you don’t write about a love of place or a love of your favorite book, although people submit essays like that,” Jones said. “This kind of complicated love is given means, and it’s not necessarily romantic love. Some of the most moving essays I see are from family, especially parents and children, the sort of blood lines that can be very trying and complicated.”

According to Jones, falling in love is about finding a balance between vulnerability and dependence.

“To fall in love you have to show your weaknesses, but you have to be smart about it – you have to be vulnerable and smart at the same time,” Jones said. “You can’t be vulnerable to the point where you’re a mess, or you’ll scare the other people away. But you have to be vulnerable to the point where the person feels invited in.”

Lecture Fund board member Anisha Vora (SFS ’19), who introduced Jones at the event, said she invited him to campus because he signified a departure from the typical lecturers invited to the university.

“We have a lot of politics speakers come in, and those are great, but we definitely don’t have as many arts-based speakers, and I definitely consider the type of literature and the type of journalism Dan Jones does to be a kind of art form,” Vora said.

Jones, who now reviews over 8,000 annual submissions to “Modern Love,” was a ski instructor before he published “The Bastard on The Couch,” a follow-up to his wife Cathi Hanauer’s feminist essay anthology “The Bitch in The House,” which captured the attention of New York Times editors who approached the duo with the idea for the column.

Jones said both he and his wife were skeptical at first.

“We didn’t think it was a good idea, I have to say, but I was largely unemployed at the time having just finished my book and not

having anything else to do, so we started the column together,” Jones said. “We said let’s see how this works.

That’s how I wound up, surprisingly, at this job.”

Though his wife left the project after a month to finish a book, Jones said he stayed to accomplish his vision for a new type of column.

“I wanted to open the floodgates to stories about people who didn’t have any connection to any editor, who weren’t experienced writers, who had a wealth of stories that would be fresh, would be surprising and honest, people who hadn’t already told their stories,” Jones said. “In my estimation, that’s what’s made the column what it is and given it the longevity that it has had.”

Jones said the idea to include personal essays in an established newspaper like The New York Times, while ordinary now, was a novel idea when “Modern Love” launched in 2004.

“To fall in love you have to show your weaknesses, but you have to be smart about it.”

DANIEL JONES Editor, The New York Times

“I didn’t get it when I first started; I just did not see how this belongs in a newspaper with news articles, and now newspapers,

online magazines, they’re all saturated with personal essays,” Jones said.

Shifts in the way people consume news has prompted Jones to explore different platforms for disseminating “Modern Love.” Jones said the launch of the “Modern Love” podcast in December 2015 opened up a new opportunity to monetize storytelling.

“Podcasting is very profitable right now, and some people would even say it’s in a bubble, but right now it’s easy to get advertisers,” Jones said.

“People are really searching for ways to monetize this material out to people and have them pay for it.”

Sydney Green (COL ’17), an avid listener of the “Modern Love” podcast, said the pieces published in the

“Modern Love” column reflect Jones’ concept of love.

“I just love them. Like he said, I like them because they are very sweet and very sincere, but also very smart,” Green said. “I think he knows what he’s looking for and does a great job finding it.”

Sarika Ramaswamy (SFS ’18) said she attended the event because as a culture and politics major, she is interested in how media intersect with broader political trends.

“I like this idea of using more human stories to talk about broader issues,” Ramaswamy said. “These changes in romance are reflective of a change in society, and it’s a good way to talk about the world through these more human stories.”

DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA

The New York Times’ “Modern Love” Editor Daniel Jones commented on the nature of relationships in today’s society as part of his speech hosted by the Lecture Fund, THE HOYA and the Lannan Center on Tuesday.

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friday, OCTOBER 14, 2016

THE HOYA

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Coming Out Day Kicks Off ‘OUTober’ GUMC Women

Reach Milestone

Olivia Chiu

Special to The Hoya

The 12th annual “OUTober” – a six-weeklong celebration of Georgetown’s LGBTQ community that kicked off with Coming Out Day in Red Square last Friday — focuses on the theme of personal and political histories of the varied LGBTQ community.

Held in conjunction with LGBTQ History Month, “OUTober” will feature a series of 14 events, including speaker events, panel discussions and theater performances.

The initiative is a joint effort by the LGBTQ Resource Center, GU Pride, GU Queer People of Color and the Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life. OUTober has also partnered with administrators and clubs including Campus Ministry, the Office of the President and GU College Democrats.

This year’s programming includes a discussion with sociology professor Brian McCabe and Bowdoin College sociology professor Theo Greene about the roles of queer people in shaping neighborhoods and the impact of gentrification on queer people of color.

In addition, the Theater and Performance Studies Programs will perform itsfirst production of the year, “Anon(ymous),” in the Davis Performing Arts Center from Oct. 13 to 15. Anon(ymous), a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey written by Naomi Iizuka, follows the journey of a refugee, Anon, who explores their gender identity.

The performance is student-produced and directed by faculty.

“Coming Out Day,” the first event of “OUTober,” featured a door with a rainbow flag surrounded by chalk drawings and messages of acceptance and declarations of identity to provide a safe space for LGBTQ students to come out.

LGBTQ Resource Center Assistant Director Julian Haas said Coming Out Day is a celebration of inclusivity. “‘Coming Out Day’ is a really special day for Georgetown’s campus. It’s an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to come together to celebrate all of the people that make up what is special about Georgetown,” Haas said.

“Coming Out Day” also reflects the challenges still facing LGBTQ individuals, according to Haas.

“I think it’s also an opportunity for folks to reflect that

May Teng

Special to The Hoya

COURTESY GU PRIDE

“Coming Out Day” marked the beginning of “OUTober,” a six-week series of 14 events focusing on the personal and political histories of the LGBTQ community. there might not always be the conditions or opportunities for people to do that safely and securely, and so it’s a moment for celebration and also a time for reflection on how we can make this an opportunity for more people moving forward,” Haas said.

Yellow shirts with the words “I am” were distributed to encourage visibility of the LGBTQ and LGBTQ ally community on campus. The color of each year’s “I am” shirt follows the sequence of the pride flag, with this year’s yellow shirts preceded by orange last year and red in 2014.

GU Pride Co-President Grace Smith (COL ’18) said the shirts not only help raise awareness on campus but also represent the progress the LGBTQ movement has made in recent years.

“It’s nice because it’s also a visual representation of the kind of progress we make on this kind of journey, so I like that a lot,” Smith said. “The shirts are just a way for people to be empowered but also a way to spread visibility about the day because we have tons of people wearing it throughout the day.”

Georgetown has been criticized by some in the Catholic community for promoting LGBTQ initiatives while being

a Jesuit university. The Cardinal Newman Society criticized Georgetown in an article last week entitled “Coming Out Day Still Celebrated at Catholic Colleges,” arguing that it is improper for Georgetown to support “OUTober” as samesex sexual activity is against Catholic teachings.

GU Pride Co-President Ida Dhanuka (COL ’17) said Coming Out Day — and supporting LGBTQ individuals — is consistent with Georgetown’s values as a Jesuit university.

“I think it’s unfortunate that the Cardinal Newman Society would disagree, and that they would not want to give space to the breadth of ways that Catholicism is practiced, as well as to a diversity of students who come to Georgetown,” Dhanuka said. “Especially Jesuit values — I think that’s really compatible with wanting to have an inclusive campus that gives space to LGBTQ folks.”

Planning for the month of programming began as early as the summer and involved both the LGBTQ Resource Center and various student groups, according to student staff member Jose Ramos (MSB ’19).

Other events include a panel about LGBTQ life in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 18 and an Open Mic night Oct. 24.

Ramos said the student-led organization of the month reflects students’ broader commitment to LGBTQ issues.

“We have to remember that students were the ones who wanted this; they were the ones who, at the beginning, advocated for Georgetown being more inclusive to students from the LGBTQ community,” Ramos said.

Dhanuka said “OUTober” is as important for the greater Georgetown community as it is for LGBTQ students.

“I think as important as it is to have spaces that are for LGBTQ folks, I also do think it is important for people who don’t identify as LGBTQ to go out of their way to get a sense of what other people are going through and how they’re living their lives. Because these are your friends, these are your community members, your roommates and team members.”

Hannah Wingett (COL ’17), who participated in Coming Out Day, said the event allows LGBTQ students to truly be themselves. “‘Coming Out Day’ is my favorite day of the whole year, because it’s one of the only days where I feel like nobody invalidates my identity,” Wingett said.

The Georgetown University Medical Center’s School of Medicine promoted over 100 women to the status of full professors, fulfilling a goal established last year by the faculty-run organization Georgetown Women in Medicine.

GWIM, which advocates for the professional advancement of women in the medical field, celebrated the accomplishment with a reception Sept.

29 after GUMC learned of the promotion of the 100th woman last June. The organization prioritized achieving the full professor status of 100 women by connecting women within the school to mentors and organizing promotion workshops for female faculty.

With women comprising 18 percent of full professors in academic medicine at the School of Medicine, the university lags slightly behind the national average of 21 percent, according to the most recent report by the Association of American Medical Colleges on the topic in 2013. Only three department chairs at the School of Medicine — 11 percent — are women.

GWIM aims to increase the percentage of female departmental chairs and to gather data on salary equity within the medical school.

GWIM President Kristy Graves, who is also an associate professor of oncology, said the milestone was particularly significant in light of challenges faced by women in medicine, who often cannot spend as much time on publishing and research.

“I think there are a lot of subtle obstacles, such as competing time demands in the workplace and the full lives of women faculty outside of their day-to-day jobs,” Graves said. “I think the thing I’ve seen change — I’ve been here 11 years — is that GWIM’s voice matters and our opinion is heard when we offer it.”

School of Medicine Executive Dean Edward Healton, who also serves as the executive vice president of health services, stressed gender equality as one of the school’s core values in an email to The Hoya.

“We know that women bring a different perspective

to their professional lives and that perspective can positively impact their peers as well as their patients,” Healton wrote. “Much has been said about the differences between male and female professionals in biomedical fields, but the mere fact that there are differences supports the argument that women bring to the table a set of experiences that is informing and impactful.”

Healton said GWIM’s programs address the paucity of female mentors within the medical school, making it more difficult for female students to find role models.

“Mentorship is critical to the success of all students and certainly women and men contribute significantly, but to not have half of that equation is disadvantage,” Healton wrote.

Georgetown Medical School’s chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association Co-President Elizabeth Zolper (GRD ’19) commended GWIM’s fulfillment of a concrete goal in seeing 100 professors achieve full professorship, but she recognized the lack of representation persisting in certain fields.

“There are still a lot more inequalities throughout the system,” Zolper said. “Especially at Georgetown, a powerhouse in orthopedics, you’ll still see that orthopedics and some other schools are still very male-dominated, and even though this school is really well-known for it, there aren’t the female physicians in certain fields to serve as mentors.”

Association of Women Surgeons Vice President Colleen Hamm-Kelly (GRD ’19) said the conditions for women in the School of Medicine are noticeably improving. Although the total student body in the School of Medicine is half male and half female, Hamm-Kelly said the majority of her graduating class is female.

In addition, Hamm-Kelly noted a prevalence of women in campus groups.

“It’s a big step in the history of medicine,” Hamm-Kelly said. “I think, overall, the atmosphere is very welcoming. I definitely don’t ever feel intimidated or brought down because I am a woman.”

Panelists Advocate for Continued Discussion on 272 Gaia Mattiace Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown must continue to focus attention on its history with slavery as it begins to reconcile with its past, according to a panel discussion on Georgetown’s slaveholding past in Lohrfink Auditorium on Wednesday.

John Carr, the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, emphasized how Georgetown’s Jesuit identity and Catholic mission have impacted the way the university is confronting its past.

“We have a situation that is not unique but, I think, a response that is unique, and I think part of that uniqueness comes from who we are, what we believe and where we come from,” Carr said. “Great evil was done, but great good can come from that because of who we are, what we believe and how we act.”

Carr said the role of slavery in Georgetown’s success cannot be underestimated.

“I knew in a general way that the Jesuits owned slaves, but the more I found out about this the more appalling and personal it got,” Carr said in an interview with The Hoya. “I live, you study, at a place that was made possible in part by the sale of slaves.”

Carr praised the university’s leadership — particularly that of University President John J. DeGioia — in confronting a sensitive issue.

“This is a leader who steps up and faces responsibility, and I was very struck in his speech. He didn’t just talk about the past; he talked about the present and the future,” Carr said. “He talked about how slavery and its continuing legacy diminished the lives of people all around us.”

Associate professor of his-

tory Marcia Chatelain, who was a member of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation that recommended to DeGioia ways for Georgetown to reconcile with its history, said it is important to look back at Georgetown’s work on this issue in light of current events.

“What’s most important to understand about the working group isn’t the fact that we were tasked to tell a truth that many of us knew, but maybe we’re not ready to confront, but rather the context in which this conversation is happening,” Chatelain said.

Chatelain said the working group’s task is not only to find a possible remedy for past sins, but also to combat potential future discrimination in society.

“One does not wake up one day and imagine the possibility of human bondage.”

MARCIA CHATELAIN Associate Professor of History, Georgetown

“This working group isn’t just an opportunity for people to trace their individual family history,” Chatelain said. “This is a call to rethink all of the practices that we have with us today as an institution that rely and thrive on inequality.”

Carr said in an interview with The Hoya that the evolution of Catholic and Jesuit values can be a form of guidance for Georgetown to find ways in applying the recommendations made by the working group in its report.

“I think our faith, our Catholic identity and our Jesuit values help us understand what went wrong and how to set this right, and so it pushes us in a direction that considers the moral and ethical responsibilities we have beyond the historical or financial responsibilities,” Carr said.

James Benton, a Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation fellow for the Office of the President who is helping to organize the university’s efforts to reconcile its slaveholding past, said the university has been working with descendants of the 272 and community members to plan the next steps to address Georgetown’s history with slavery.

“We’ve been at work trying to figure out how to go forward with implementing the recommendations,” Benton said. “With the participation of descendants, of students, of the Jesuits, the university community, people of good will.”

Benton said the working group’s recommendations are just the beginning of Georgetown’s engagement with this issue.

“I don’t think people have begun to really grasp the significance of the working group report being a start rather than an endpoint,” Benton said. “We are at the very start of a very long process.”

According to Chatelain, the historical context of Georgetown in the 1800s is also important to consider, as Georgetown’s culture was deeply intertwined in the system of slavery that existed in the nation at the time.

“One does not wake up one day and imagine the possibility of human bondage. It has to be deeply engrained in the culture in which the possibility of selling human beings is reasonable and legible,” Chatelain said. “It was

COURTESy georgetown initiative on catholic social thought and public life

Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation fellow James Benton, left, history professor Matthew Carnes, S.J., and theology professor Emerita Diana Hayes talked on the panel. not only Jesuit slaveholding that formed this experience.

It was individual students coming to university with slaves. It was a university contracting slave labor.”

Government professor Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., a member of the working group, said the failings of the Jesuits at the time reflect the failings of the United States as a whole in its support of the institution of slavery.

“I think about the Jesuits who made these decisions.

They were very much a product of their time,” Carnes said. “You can say ‘how did this happen among Jesuits?’ but how did it happen in the United States?”

Carnes said this indifference was due in part by a lack of understanding of the principle of sin among Jesuits.

“There was a lack of moral vision,” Carnes said. “They were trapped both by the

economy of their day and by the theological thinking of their times.”

Professor of theology emrita Diana L. Hayes said she was surprised at how Catholics, who emphasize the dignity of all human beings, could engage in the sale of persons.

“If we are all created in the image and likeness of God, why were some images seen as lesser than others?” Hayes said. “In the United States, the whole idea of race based on color came into existence as a result of the issue of slavery.”

In an interview with The Hoya, Carr said he hopes for Georgetown to be a role model for other universities in addressing similar issues.

“My hope is that we can show the way towards a real path to greater justice in part because we recognize how we failed, how we created injustice,” Carr said.

Daniella Montemarano (GRD ’18), who attended the event, said she is pleased that Georgetown is continuing to focus on its history with slavery.

“I’m extremely gratified at the continuing attention that’s paid to this issue by the leadership at this university as well as its community, its alumni, its scholars, its professors and its students,” Montemarano said.

Andrew Straky (COL ’20), who also attended the event, said he enjoyed how the panel highlighted the importance of continued dialogue on the issues of slavery, prejudice and discrimination.

“I think it’s really valuable that we are having these types of conversations. I think it’s admirable that the university is willing to look at, understand, comprehend and reconcile our past and the issues we’ve had with it,” Straky said.

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FRIday, october 14, 2016

Rosh Hashanah Recognizes GU 272 of slavery at Georgetown,” Galper said. “It was a really This semester, Berlinerblau powerful analogy because not is teaching a course on the re- only am I atoning for my own lationship between Jews and sins in this high holy season blacks drawing on the groups’ but for the sins of my broadshared histories of oppression. er Georgetown community Berlinerblau said the two which includes the fact that groups have had at times con- we sold slaves to be where we trasting experiences of oppres- are today.”

Berlinerblau stressed the sion in the West.

“Maybe what makes this importance of devoting acacourse interesting is that it’s demic resources to black Jewtrue and it’s false. No two ish groups when confronting groups have suffered more at Georgetown’s legacy with the hands of Western civiliza- slavery.

“I think this shows the imtion, that’s the true part,” Berlinerblau said. “The false part portance of having academic is that their experiences here representation on campus in the United States are very and how academic representation fosters a greater underdifferent.”

Co-President of George- standing of issues of interesting groups town’s Jewlike blacks ish Student and Jews,” Association Berlinerblau Jenna Galper said.

(COL ’17) said The Board solidarity of directors between the voted unaniblack and mously in Jewish comJune 2016 to munities is make Afriimportant for can Amerithe future.

Andrew meshnick (col ’17) can studies “The histhe newest tory of Jews department in America has been very intertwined in the Georgetown College. with the history of African- African American studies was Americans and the civil rights previously an interdisciplinary movement and so I think program founded in 2003.

Georgetown expanded analyzing that history and recommitting ourselves to being the Program for Jewish Civistrong allies for our African lization — which sought to American brothers and sisters promote an increased underis definitely a very important standing of Jewish civilization next step for the Jewish com- at the university — into the CJC in February. munity,” Galper said.

According to Galper, the In his sermon, Meshnick urged the congregation to Jewish community listened atone for the sins previously to the recommendations of made by the Georgetown com- the working group on Georgetown’s legacy with slavery munity.

“I hope you will join me in when it said it wanted to see the all-important work of aton- other Georgetown communiing for the sins done to Isaac, ties taking it upon themselves the 271 other individuals who to encourage discussion about were sold and the millions the university’s past.

“The history of slavery throughout our country who were held in slavery’s chains,” and of oppression and of our people is something that is Meshnick said.

Galper said Meshnick’s ser- very close to our hearts and mon changed the way she un- is something that is always derstood and processed George- at the forefront of our mind when we are celebrating holitown’s history with slavery.

“It was a powerful way to days and when we’re praying,” connect myself to the legacy Galper said.

JUDAISM, from A1

“I hope you will join me in the all-important work of atoning.”

adam shlomi/the hoya

About 35 protesters marched from Georgetown’s front gates to the White House on Monday to advocate for increased awareness of police shootings of black Americans in an event entitled “Black Bodies are Beings.”

Equality March Reaches White House PROTEST, from A1 tell us to be careful. It shouldn’t be like that. We shouldn’t be going through this.”

As King filed a parade permit Oct. 4 for 125 people, the group received a Metropolitan Police Department escort, which included the accompaniment of three motorcycles and five cars for certain stretches of the march and fewer vehicles for other stretches, depending on the location. Police blocked car lanes so the students could peacefully march on O and M streets and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania avenues, which caused up to 10-minute traffic delays in Northwestern D.C. Although only a third of the expected number of protestors who indicated on Facebook that they would be attending showed up, Raymond Nelson (GRD ’17), president of the graduate student multicultural organization Hoya Circles, said he felt the demonstration helped foster dialogue about police brutality in the Georgetown community.

“If I could do it over again, I would encourage more

people to participate. I think part of the turnout had to do with advertising,” Nelson said. “But it was a therapeutic moment to let the frustration out and being able to channel that emotion in a way that was productive felt affirming.”

As the protestors marched,

“If I could do it over again, I would encourage more people to participate.”

Raymond nelson (grd ’17) President, Hoya Circles

they carried signs listing the names of men and women killed by police and chanted calls reinforcing themes of racial equality and political reform, such as, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win” and “What do we want? Change. When do want it? Now.” Once they reached the

White House, the protesters continued their calls for racial reform with nearly an hour of chanting before pausing for a prayer circle.

King said she organized the march after hearing about the death of Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old black man fatally shot Sept. 16 by officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa, Okla. Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter Sept. 23 and released the same day on a $50,000 bond.

“After the Crutcher killing, I messaged my friend at Georgetown Law saying ‘I have to do something. I can’t just sit still and not do something,’” King said in an interview with The Hoya.

However, King said the organizers aimed to highlight the pattern of police killings beyond the Crutcher shooting.

“More than anything I want people to see that we care,” King said. “We are going to be proactive. We are young professionals and will make decisions in our own careers that will change in America.”

Though the march was not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement,

participants referenced the movement and included its emblem of a raised fist in their promotion of the march.

Tom Chidiac (GRD ’18) said he attended the rally to learn more about issues facing the black community and demonstrate his support for racial equality.

“It’s important to me to be supportive of this movement and do so with my feet, not just Facebook comments,” Chidiac said. “I’m also hoping to learn more about what the organizers find most problematic and how I, as an ally, can be most helpful.”

Carlsky Belizaire (GRD ’18), who helped lead the rally, said he was happy with the results but wished for a bigger turnout and more interactions with pedestrians.

“I’m happy and excited that Georgetown students came out,” Belizaire said. “In the future, hopefully, more people come. I wish I could have reached out to more people.

Some people were watching us and there was probably a delay between watching the protests and understanding what we were saying and what was really going on.”

Lynch Supports New Police Database on Use of Force LYNCH, from A1 GU Politics, which is part of the McCourt School of Public Policy, previously hosted National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Sept. 14 in an event focusing on national security as the first of its six-part series.

Moderated by Michel Marton, the weekend host of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” said the Thursday discussion centered on modern policing and community relations in light of the national conversation surrounding the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials.

The National Use of Force Data Collection Program will focus on analyzing the effectiveness of the data collection methodology and quality, as well as requiring local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies to report incidents of lethal police force, under penalty of noncompliance fines. However, the Justice Department cannot mandate state and local agencies to report on

nonlethal interactions; its participation in this section of the program is voluntary.

The Justice Department plans to begin collecting data early next year.

University President John J. DeGioia introduced Lynch by discussing the importance of promoting justice and working toward public service on a university campus.

“Understanding and exploring ideas of justice has a strong resonance with any university, whether through the formation of our students, in the inquiry of our faculty or in the responsibility that we have in promoting the common good,” DeGioia said. “It is the ethos, the characteristic spirit of a university, to seek those matters, to work and build a more just, fair and inclusive society.”

Lynch cited the poor relationship between police officers and the communities they serve as one of the biggest challenges to the Obama administration’s legacy.

“In every community that I go into, and I’ve been a prosecutor for 20 years,

people want to have good relations with law enforcement because no one wants to feel that when you are in harm’s way, you have nobody to call,” Lynch said.

“That is the upshot of what we’re seeing in communities. People are feeling targeted, and people are feeling that there is nowhere there for them. There’s no one in their corner.”

Lynch also said conversations on the issue are important because they serve as a way to acknowledge the claims of both minority and police communities and to find common ground between both groups.

“I think it’s an opportunity to honor the deaths of civilians and law enforcement officers and to acknowledge that law enforcement have an incredibly difficult and dangerous job, but at the end of the day both law enforcement and civilians have the same goal: to get home alive and to live in a safe community,” Lynch said.

Lynch called the Obama administration’s work on LGBTQ issues its greatest

success, specifically citing marriage equality and legal protections for families with same-sex parents.

“You cannot have a country, even when it’s as great as ours, live up to its ideals and what it stands for if you are deliberately excluding a huge class of people who want one of the most basic and fundamental rights we have, and that’s the right to marry,” Lynch said. “The way in which this administration has been able to work on the issue is one of the great points of pride and for me. We are measured by how we treat people that others want us to exclude and push or hold back.”

Kelly Bies (GRD ’18), who previously taught middle school in Chicago, reflected on how she witnessed firsthand the impact of the Obama administration’s policies.

“I think her opinions on criminal justice and social justice are really interesting,” Bies said. “I’m a former teacher, so it’s amazing to see how these policies impact our lowest-income communities and the students in them.”

luan tian for the hoya

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch addressed police and community relations in an event Thursday.

GUPD Report Sees 333 Percent Increase in Stalking GUPD, from A1 “The university takes a collaborative approach to dealing with these crimes,” Gruber said.

More institutional support for minority groups is required to minimize the rate of hate crimes, according to GUPride Co-President Grace Smith (COL ’18).

“Many queer students have had unfortunate or even harmful encounters with other members of the community as well as GUPD and administrative forces meant to prevent these events from occurring,” Smith wrote in an email to The Hoya. “On a personal level, I believe that GUPD should make a more active effort to reach out to GUPride and remind them of their solidarity.”

Smith said the report’s sta-

tistics may not be accurate because of potential reporters’ lack of faith in GUPD and the university.

“GUPride would appreciate and be receptive to more engagement with GUPD with the intent to build a bridge of solidarity and trust between the communities,” Smith wrote. “GUPride fights hate with love, fear with acceptance, and violence with care. The organization takes what measures it can to provide safe and brave spaces for its students and community members at its events, but we have not worked with GUPD directly.”

Representatives from the Black Student Alliance and Casa Latina declined to comment pending further review of the report.

For a second straight year,

GUPD also attached an appendix devoted to describing procedures used to address sexual misconduct and sexual assault.

“I believe that GUPD should make a more active effort to reach out.”

Grace Smith (COL ’18) Co-President, GUPride

Gruber said the number of documented cases might not reflect the actual number of sexual crimes committed on campus.

“Many studies and climate surveys show that sexual assaults on campus are significantly under-reported,” Gru-

ber said. “There is hesitation on the part of the survivor to report the crimes for various reasons.”

Georgetown University Student Association Security and Sexual Assault Policy Team Chair Maddy Moore (SFS ’17) said the statistics included in the report are not an accurate representation of the prevalence of sexual assault on campus.

“The numbers are helpful in raising awareness that sexual violence is happening at Georgetown, but it is important to note that they do not necessarily correlate with the number of assaults,” Moore wrote. “Many survivors — for various reasons — do not disclose their assault to anyone or only share with confidential campus resources.”

Bystander education pro-

grams, the hiring of a full-time Title IX coordinator, the Campus Climate Survey and the new Sexual Assault Response Team have contributed to increased resources for survivors of sexual assault, according to Moore.

Moore said GUSA will continue to use the Sexual Misconduct Task Force — a group of students, administrators, faculty and staff assembled following the release of the results of the Sexual Assault and Misconduct Climate Survey in June — to recommend policy on bystander programs, alcohol, drugs and grievance procedures to University President John J. DeGioia.

Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications Stacy Kerr did not respond to a request for comment as of 2:30 a.m. Friday.

Referrals for illegal consumption of alcohol dropped from 250 in 2014 to 226 in 2015 for on-campus reports, a 9.6 percent increase.

The report also addresses crime prevention measures, crime reporting policies and disciplinary procedures as well as new GUPD resources and programs such as the new closed-circuit television camera surveillance system, the LiveSafe mobile app and self-defense courses open to all students.

Gruber said GUPD will work to continue to build trust with community groups.

“In my opinion, the relationship between GUPD and the university community has never been better,” Gruber said. “We all have a mutually inclusive goal of maintaining a safe and secure living and learning environment.”

NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016

THE HOYA

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Students Show Solidarity MATT LARSON Hoya Staff Writer

A group of Master of Business Administration students dressed in all black to demonstrate their solidarity with black victims of police brutality during two gatherings at the McDonough School of Business on Oct. 6.

The students engaged in two moments of silence at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to accommodate students’ different schedules.

“It is not surprising that our students have elected to confront a difficult issue in a positive way.”

ROHAN WILLIAMSON Interim Dean, MSB

Police brutality was brought to the forefront of the national consciousness when Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby shot Terence Crutcher on Sept. 16 and police officers shot Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte on Sept. 20 sparking national outrage.

The protest, called the McDonough Blackout Initiative, was sponsored by the Georgetown Black MBA Association, diversity network the Consortium for Graduate Study and Management and the MBA Student Government Association.

The Blackout Initiative was inspired by similar demonstrations at MBA programs across the country, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, New York University’s Stern School and Columbia University’s Columbia Business School.

According to Black MBA Association President Jonathan Owhe Jr. (GRD ’17), the initiative aims to show that members of the Georgetown MBA community stand in solidarity for victims of police brutality.

“What we have recently seen in the MBA community and also in the U.S. in general is organizations coming forward and trying to show

the police brutality that is current across America is not right and needs to be addressed,” Owhe said.

The MSB administration supported the demonstration. Interim Dean of the McDonough School of Business Rohan Williamson said the event was a constructive way of examining police brutality.

“It is not surprising that our students have elected to confront a difficult issue in a positive way that helps to bring our greater community together,” Williamson wrote in an email to MSB faculty and staff supporting the initiative. “Georgetown University has long valued fighting for social justice, being at the forefront of important national issues, and living as women and men for others.”

MBA Student Government Association Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Aisha Saber (GRD ’17) said the Georgetown MBA students joined with other MBA programs in promoting the #MBAsOpenUp campaign on Twitter, using the hashtag to spread awareness of injustice toward the black community.

Saber said the MBA Student Government Association stands against racial injustice.

“We strongly believe in

the fragility and preciousness of every person’s life,” Saber wrote in the email to the McDonough community inviting students and faculty to take part in the protest. “Therefore, we endeavor to protest the killings of these unarmed human beings.”

In addition to joining the #MBAsOpenUp campaign, Owhe said Georgetown MBA student groups would be hosting community service events aimed at opening dialogue between police and local Washington, D.C. communities.

“We plan to have a community service event that will be more so related to where we can bring an awareness to police brutality and try to help out the African-American community,” Owhe said.

Owhe said he was pleased with the progress Georgetown has made so far in addressing racial injustices.

“I think Georgetown has come a long way,” Owhe said.

“The things that we have seen the Georgetown community doing with reparations and also with the support we received when we were trying to launch this event has been amazing and shows Georgetown’s community is aware and is supportive of us.”

FILE PHOTO: MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

A group of Masters of Business Administration Students protested police brutality Oct. 6.

COURTESY TEDXGEORGETOWN

The TEDxGeorgetown team (above) has announced its speakers for this year’s conference, which will take place Oct. 22, including six students and three external speakers.

TEDx Announces Speakers MATTHEW TRUNKO Hoya Staff Writer

This year’s TEDxGeorgetown speakers include six students and three external speakers, including Vice President of CNN U.S. and CNN Worldwide General Manager Andrew Morse.

In its sixth iteration, the event, which takes place Oct. 22, will focus on a theme of “The Tipping Point,” highlighting different moments in speakers’ lives that have led to change.

The TED organization runs various conferences and speeches around the world on a broad range of academic and cultural topics. While TEDxGeorgetown uses the original TED Talks format, Georgetown students organize every aspect of the conference.

Chosen last spring by the TEDxGeorgetown board, the theme was inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point”, according to TEDxGeorgetown Co-Chair Natalia Peña (COL ’17) “It is defined as the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point,” Peña wrote in an email to THE HOYA. The six student speakers, Agnes Lee (SFS ’17), Amina Gerrbi (MSB ’17), Anthony Anderson (COL ’18), Jeong Whan Park (SFS ’17), Febin Bellamy (MSB ’17) and Summer Durant (COL ’18), were selected by members of the TEDxGeorgetown board.

The conference will also feature Jonah Reider, a student at Columbia University who converted his dorm room into a restaurant, and Mary Beth Bruggemen, executive director of the Southeast Region for

The Mission Continues, a nonprofit that helps connect veterans with service opportunities in the states.

Peña said the organization attempts to select as diverse a group of speakers as possible.

“We try to get a dynamic group of speakers that put across our theme in the best way possible,” Peña wrote in an email to THE HOYA. “We try to look for people who don’t only have great inspiring stories, but who also have the capacity to engage the audience as much as possible whether that be through inspiring people with their stories or simply captivating them with their enthusiasm and personality.”

Each student speaker comes to the event with a unique background and moment to discuss. Speakers were chosen not only because of their individual stories but also based on how they would work in combination with their peer speakers, according to TEDxGeorgetown Co-Chair D.J. Angelini (MSB ’17).

“Our goal was not to judge or evaluate someone’s experience; our goal was simply to pick the best combination of student speakers to hit on the various aspects of our theme,” Angelini wrote in an email to THE HOYA. Gerrbi and the other student speakers were selected for their unique moments that relate to the theme of “The Tipping Point.”

Gerrbi said she will be speaking about the impact of the Arab Spring on her journey to Georgetown.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but I will discuss my time living through the

Arab Spring and how I miraculously ended up at Georgetown despite it being virtually impossible,” Gerrbbi wrote.

“The goal is to help people understand that we are all capable of shaping our own realities if we want to.”

Anderson, who recently found out he is HIV-positive, will discuss how the disease disproportionately affects black gay males, while Lee will speak about her experience living in the country without authorization.

Durant will deliver a spokenword poem about her experience reconciling being half Indian and half black; Park, a veteran, will speak about his struggles with mental health.

Bellamy will speak about his work founding Unsung Heroes, which seeks to give back to under-recognized workers at Georgetown.

Gerrbi said she wants to convince attendees to set goals beyond societal limits.

“I constantly see people making decisions based on their limiting beliefs and what society decides is ‘realistic’ or ‘unrealistic’ for them,” Gerrbi said. “I have a story that really challenges society’s norms, and I want people to get the chance to hear it so that they can walk away inspired and motivated to take on any challenge they face in the future.”

Morse, who produced CNN’s presidential debate, monitors CNN newsgathering operations as well as the Washington Bureau and D.C.-based programming, will be speaking about the unprecedented nature of the upcoming presidential election.

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Earn credit in 250+ courses while experiencing an unforgettable summer on the Hilltop.

Online courses now available.

Start planning now at: summersessions.georgetown.edu/2017hoya

Summer Sessions: 2017 Dates

GU student registration begins during the spring semester.*

PRE-SESSION:

SESSION I:

ONLINE COURSES:

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May 22–June 16 June 5–July 28

June 5–July 7 July 10–August 11

*Courses and dates are subject to change and cancellation. For the most up-to-date information visit our website. Georgetown Summer Sessions are administered through the School of Continuing Studies.

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NEWS

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friDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016

National Gallery Opens After 3-Year Renovation Elizabeth Cavacos Hoya Staff Writer

After a three-year closure, $69 million in renovations and a 12,250 square feet expansion, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art reopened to the public Sept.

30 with 150 new artworks on display.

The renovations were a result of $39 million in federal funding and $30 million in donations from local philanthropists.

Several renovations, such as the addition of a staircase, were required to ensure the building meets regulations and codes. Other renovations were made to open up new spaces to house more artworks, expanding from 350 works in the permanent collection to 500. Additionally, the new space allows for larger temporary collections.

The reopened building also features a new range of around 50 works acquired in January from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which closed in 2014. These pieces include works by Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly and Pablo Picasso.

The reopening also marks the beginning of three temporary exhibitions, one of which is courtesy of Virginia Dwan, an art dealer and patron. Dwan’s new contributions are located in a temporary exhibition, “Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971,” which will remain on display until the end of January.

Originally designed by architect I. M. Pei, the East Building opened in 1978 adjacent to the National Gallery’s West Building, which houses art from the 13th to the 19th centuries.

One of the renovations is the new roof terrace, which connects the two tower galleries and overlooks Constitution Avenue. The previously unused area between the northwest and northeast towers now serves as an open space for visitors to walk through, complete with sculptures.

NGA Curator and Head of Modern Art Harry Cooper said the new outdoor space helps make the National Gallery unique among the other museums on the National Mall.

“It’s so, so wonderful to have that 12,000 extra squarefeet of space up there, that really wasn’t be-

ing used, and put it to use with these beautiful galleries, and just to have an outdoor museum space on the Mall is unique,” Cooper said.

Cooper said that by reconsidering the function of each specific space in the East Gallery, the galleries could be repurposed to house different collections.

“One of the major decisions that happened, which then really determined a lot of other things, was the decision to move special exhibitions from the heart of the building, where they had been for a long time on the mezzanine and upper level mostly, down to the concourse — the lower level — to free up those mezzanine and upper level galleries to the permanent collection,” Cooper said.

According to Cooper, moving the permanent collection to the upper level galleries, which are situated around the East Building’s open atrium, allows for a more coherent presentation of the collection.

“The permanent collection of modern art has been growing and growing, and I really wanted to be able to present it, among other things, in a kind of chronological order so people could learn the history of modern art,” Cooper said.

After revisiting the gallery for the first time since its reopening, Asian art history professor Michelle Wang said the use of the upper level and tower galleries stood out to her.

“What struck me this time was that you still have that experience where the galleries are located on the periphery of the building, but now there’s greater coherence and certain galleries are spread out over multiple levels,” Wang said.

According to Renaissance art history professor Al Acres, the museum’s reconfiguration of its permanent collection and special exhibition galleries have enhanced the East Building’s best features while preserving its familiarity.

“The celebratory or contemplative space of the atrium remains what it was — that changes for different people and over time — but the bread and butter, the real work of the gallery can now be done in many different ways,” Acres said.

ELIZABETH CAVACOS/THE HOYA

After a three-year, $69 million renovation, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art reopened to the public Sept. 30 with an extra 12,250 square feet of space, which encompasses 150 new artworks.

GUPD Warns of Scam GU Attends Conference Simon Carroll Hoya Staff Writer

A virtual kidnapping scam — a hoax where a family is falsely led to believe a loved one has been kidnapped for ransom money — targeted a parent of a Georgetown student Oct. 6, according to a campus-wide email sent by the Georgetown University Police Department on Oct. 7.

“Some victims either just hang up the phone and don’t report the incident, or they are embarrassed.” nicole schwab Public Affairs Specialist, FBI

GUPD advised the Georgetown community to stay vigilant for potential future abduction scams of a similar nature and to immediately contact the police upon receiving a phone call asking for ransom payments.

The Georgetown parent targeted in the virtual kidnapping was able to establish contact through social media to confirm the student’s safety and did not pay the ransom.

Virtual kidnappings have been on the rise this year, according to the FBI. According to the FBI Washington Field Office, out of the 122 reported kidnappings involving U.S. citizens in 2015, 22 were virtual kidnappings. There have been 19 reported virtual kidnappings as of Sep. 26 this year.

The incidence of virtual kidnapping scams has been increasing in the Washington region, according to The Washington Post.

FBI Washington Field Office Public Affairs Specialist Nicole

J. Schwab said the FBI believes a many virtual kidnapping cases are never reported to authorities.

“The F.B.I. believes that a significant number of virtual kidnappings are still going unreported,” Schwab wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Some victims either just hang up the phone and don’t report the incident, or they are embarrassed that they fell victim to the scheme.”

GUPD Chief Jay Gruber said the best way the university and its students can respond to reports of online extortion is to gain an understanding of the nature in which these scams are perpetrated to prevent students and their parents from falling victim to such scams in the future.

“The best thing to do is to be informed that these kind of scams exist; look at some of the information that I sent out to parents and students and remember some of those things if in fact you do get one of these phone calls,” Gruber said.

Virtual kidnapping scams typically have readily recognizable characteristics, including requests for relatively low amounts of ransom money, refusal to accept money through any other means aside from a wire transfer and insistence victims stay on the phone for an extended period of time, according to GUPD’s email.

The scammers research the individuals they have kidnapped, including places they often visit and their friends, in an effort to make the fake kidnapping appear realistic, according to Schwab.

“Many of the perpetrators obtain information on a victim by taking their cell phone, wallet, purse or address book, which will give them sufficient information to make phone calls to family members and friends of the

victim in order to make ransom demands,” Schwab said.

According to 2015 FBI statistics on virtual kidnapping scams in New York City, scammers typically request between $600 and $1,900 and order the money to be delivered via wire transfer using companies like Western Union. Frequently, the money is wired to third parties in Puerto Rico.

The FBI treats each virtual kidnapping scam as a real kidnapping threat until it finds enough evidence to suggest the abduction is fictitious.

It is difficult for the FBI to take action against virtual kidnapping perpetrators, as the scams are often executed remotely and over untraceable burner phones, according to Schwab. Similarly, university police departments and local law endowment have little they can do to pursue scam perpetrators.

“The FBI believes that a significant number of virtual kidnappings are still going unreported.” nicole schwab Public Affairs Specialist, FBI

Scammers tend to target affluent areas such as the Beverly Hills region of California and the New York metropolitan area, which have both been disproportionately affected in the past few years, according to The Washington Post.

Nearby schools including the University of Maryland and George Mason University have encountered similar kidnapping scams.

Haley Snyder Hoya Staff Writer

Eight Georgetown professors will travel to Quito, Ecuador to attend the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, focused on addressing the needs of the developing world in the midst of rapid urbanization, from Monday to Wednesday.

The conference — held every 20 years and previously hosted in Vancouver, Canada and Istanbul, Turkey — brings together urban specialists, policymakers and representatives from around the world. The 1996 conference in Istanbul resulted in the adoption of the Habitat Agenda Goals and Principles, a proclamation of two guiding principles for the summit: providing “adequate shelter for all” and establishing “sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world.”

Habitat III will be the first UN conference to follow the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference that led to the Paris Agreement, which saw 191 signatures from member countries agreeing to adopt measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2020.

The Georgetown delegation will include professors Uwe Brandes, Shareen Joshi, Robin King, Jamie Kralovec, Mina Marefat, Kaara Martinez, Brian McCabe and Brendan Shane, spanning from the School of Foreign Service to the School of Continuing Studies and specializations in international economics, business diplomacy and urban planning.

According to the draft of the New Urban Agenda, a document outlining the expected outcomes of the upcoming conference, Habitat III envisions attaining social equality, urban prosperity and an end to poverty, even as the world urban population is projected to double by 2050. According

to the proposal, the conference plans to achieve these stated goals by changing the means by which cities and human settlements are planned, financed, developed and managed.

Brandes, the founding executive director of Georgetown’s master’s program in Urban and Regional Planning, said he hopes the takeaways of the Paris Climate Summit will be deeply embedded in conversations about achieving urban development at the conference.

“What is becoming very clear is that we cannot achieve global climate change goals without globalizing those solutions and cities,” Brandes said.

“The relationship between climate change litigation and urban development is something that I hope will become the very clear outcome of the summit.”

Brandes also said he believes the conference is essential in forging collaborative relationships to better equip stakeholders in tackling the sustainability challenges of the coming century.

“In a sense the conference is a validation of the work that has been ongoing over the last few months or so,” Brandes said. “One of the things that could be so important to make cities sustainable is the new generation of partnerships. I think many of those partnerships will be hatched at the Habitat III conference.”

Program Director for the Urban and Regional Planning Program Kralovec echoed Brandes’ call for cooperation during the conference.

“I would love to see greater coordination across sectors.

The work that organizations are doing on urban development would be better coordinated and aligned,” Kralovec said. “One great takeaway from this conference is creating more closely coordinated networks producing ideas, disseminating information, doing

research and working together to support the overall goal of creating more sustainable cities.”

Kralovec said the mission of the conference, along with the research of Georgetown’s Urban and Regional Planning Program, resonate with the university’s commitment to social justice.

“Urban planning is a discipline that helps bring the [Jesuit] values alive by supporting community-driven goals and aspirations, and by helping communities realize their ambitions and their aspirations,” Kralovec said. “There’s a strong alignment between urban planning as a discipline and what we’re doing here in the master’s program in the School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown.”

Hoya/Homeless Outreach Programs and Education CoPresident Andrew O’Brien (COL ’18), whose organization addresses issues of hunger and homelessness in Washington, D.C., said he hopes the global conversation at the conference can positively impact local urban challenges.

“I hope that this global conference can have physical effects on local homeless populations,” O’Brien said. “That’s very hard sometimes to transform in global conversation to something with local ramifications that are also positive.”

O’Brien said the District provides a rich case study for the conversations addressed by Habitat III. “I hope they bring the D.C. perspective to this conference. D.C. is a very unique area currently undergoing a lot of changes with homeless services. That’s something that will be very valuable to the Habitat III conference,” O’Brien said. “This is great as a global program, as an advocacy campaign, but I’m very curious what the actual pragmatic results of it will be at the local level.”

news

Friday, OCTOBER 14, 2016

THE HOYA

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Social Tables, MISFIT Juicery, Sunniva Caffe Offer Advice STARTUPS, from A10

company she co-founded with Wong, had an extremely humble beginning.

“MISFIT started in a kitchen in Burleith that was in Phil’s apartment and we had four crates of ugly peaches that were otherwise going to be discarded from a farmer named Tim,” Yang said. “It was Phil’s senior year of college and my junior year of college and it was a hot mess.”

Despite being perfectly good to eat, over 20 billion pounds of “misfit” fruits — those that are the wrong shape, size or color to be sold at market — go un-harvested in the United States each year. These fruits and vegetables, which would otherwise occupy landfills, make up 70 to 80 percent of the juice MISFIT sells.

Much of MISFIT’s early fundraising came from pitch compe-

titions including Georgetown’s own StartupHoyas Challenge, which gives all Georgetown students a chance at winning part of a $20,000 payout for finalists.

From personal experience, Wong said the most important part of being a successful entrepreneur in the midst of 18-hour working days and Herculean multitasking has nothing to do with business acumen or perseverance.

“I think the most important thing for us, along the same lines as the social justice education at Georgetown, is keeping a strong sense of self,” Wong said.

Jake Decicco of Sunniva Caffe Sunniva Caffe began with Decicco’s younger brother experimenting with coffee in his freshman dorm.

“The girls across the hall actually broke into Jordan’s room and stole a couple bot-

tles of his ‘super coffee.’ So at this point Jordan calls me knowing I was in the business school at Georgetown and said, ‘Hey, I think I might want to start selling coffee,’” Decicco recounted.

They started soon after and were emboldened by the positive response of their family, friends and the Georgetown community, especially after winning the StartupHoyas Challenge. Now, Decicco is the chief operations officer for Sunniva, and the familyowned business is sold in 25 Whole Foods Markets from Virginia to Philadelphia and in 29 states nationwide through e-commerce.

Its coffee combines an organic Colombian blend with coconut oil and protein that provides a longer lasting energy than a standard cup of coffee. Decicco, however, was sold on joining his brother

not because of his product, but because of his passion.

“So I would say, talk to people who you’re friends with or who might be interested in [your idea] and just show them why you want to do it and express the passion you have about doing it,” Decicco said.

Devika Kumar (COL ’20), who attended the panel, said it helped her think more clearly about her future in entrepreneurship.

“You have all these things going on that I sometimes can’t get those minutes to think about my entrepreneurial ideas and my future,” Kumar said. “So this was extremely helpful, and I strongly encourage all people interested in entrepreneurship, actually all people in general — all people should be interested in entrepreneurship — to come to these events.”

COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY GLOBAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Alumnus Dan Berger, founder of the digital eventplanning platform Social Tables, was part of the panel.

MBA Program Adds Video Economics 101 Proved Right VIDEO, from A10

the prompt for the video — a simple introduction — has been purposefully left vague so that candidates do not overthink the question or simply speak to what they think admissions officers wants to hear.

“We’re not giving any kind of guidance because we want to see people in their real selves,” Hubert said. “There’s no right or wrong answer.

What they say is important, but I would say equally important is how they say what they say.”

Additionally, the online video essay guidelines explain that there is no expectation that the video meet a high production standard beyond having clear lighting and sound, but it must be uploaded to an accessible website, such as Youtube. The instructions further dictate the link must remain active for at least five years for purposes of the program’s record retention.

Hubert also added that, because the video is designed to be an informal component of the application, there is no required dress code, but she tempered her statement with advice for applicants to use their best judgment when filming themselves.

“This is a business school that you’re applying to,” Hubert said. “You’re trying to put your best foot forward and represent yourself in way that shows your executive presence.”

Looking beyond higher education, video components are also becoming increasingly prevalent in business hiring practices, as Bob Myhal, director of digital marketing at CBC Advertising and former CEO of NextHire, told Business News Daily in an article from January.

“More and more employers are leveraging webcam and video interviews to streamline the hiring process,” Myhal told Business News Daily.

“We are already seeing a steep uptick in one-way videos where applicants record their interviews for later ondemand viewing. Live, twoway webcam interviews will also experience tremendous growth over the next three to five years.”

Diana Banks, associate director of employer development in the MBA Career Center, explained that while many companies that she knows still prefer a personal touch but predicted that some will move towards technological hiring from an efficiency standpoint.

“I don’t think that it’s taking place everywhere — there’s still a number of employers that consistently come to campus,” Banks said, “But I think, that as they attempt to find other ways to reach a different generation and also be cognizant of costs, that is something that they might employ.”

When asked if she had any advice for undergraduates considering applying for an

MBA program that utilizes the video application, Hubert emphasized the importance of being upbeat and positive.

“The way in which you physically emote can go a long way,” she said.

Hubert also cautioned against over-rehearsing and advised students to pretend that they are simply introducing themselves to the person recording them.

“Absolutely take as many takes as you need for you to feel comfortable, but you also want to come off as natural,” Hubert said. “Think about it not as how am I going to introduce myself to a bunch of strangers, but ‘how would I introduce myself to a friend of a friend?’”

When asked what he thought about the addition of a video component, Andrew Feinstein (MSB ’18), who is considering pursuing an MBA in the future, said that the vagueness of the MSB guidelines were worrisome and offered a possible emendation to make the video essay seem less daunting to applicants.

“A question like this might throw a student off guard and make them feel like they’re being tested, and therefore not achieve the university’s goal of receiving genuine applications,” Feinstein said. “It would be nice if there were a few examples posted that students could review to reinforce the fact that it’s not a test, and there’s no one way to go about it.”

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Uber is a case in point, as co-author of the New York Times bestselling book “Freakonomics,” Steven Levitt ’s work with the company has shown. The ride-sharing giant’s surgepricing algorithm is no exception to this rule. From its onset, surge-pricing was a method to tailor Uber’s pricing to meet the dynamic demand constraints of a given market at peak times.

The idea is fundamentally for Uber to increase price as the demand for rides increases in order to avoid “stock outs,” or the inability to match you with a driver when you’re trying to get a ride to the airport — perhaps as it starts to rain.

If this is starting to give you flashbacks to your “Principles of Economics” class, your professors will be happy to know that you did actually learn something .

Uber’s surge-pricing strategy is perhaps the first reallife proof of the theoretical demand curve that is found at the root of any economics course. In other words, Uber has provided the first tangible example of a demand curve. By mapping a precise demand curve, Uber has become the first company to know exactly how much a price increase — or decrease — will impact demand.

In addition to mapping its demand curve, the depth and variety of data

that Uber has collected over the years has allowed for consumer surplus to be accurately quantified for the first time. Consumer surplus is the economic term used to describe the difference between how much total utility or value you place on getting a good or service versus the price you actually paid for it. In other words, if you have ever purchased something and thought:, “I would have paid a lot more for that,” the difference between the maximum price you would have paid and the price you were charged is your consumer surplus.

Consumer surplus, like the demand curve, is a definition that appears in every economic textbook but is one that has not been able to be accurately quantified — until now. Since Uber has been able to trace how much people are willing to pay for their rides, they have also been able to determine how much they have “saved” consumers.

The results of these consumer surplus calculations are telling. When Levitt worked with Uber to determine that the company has generated $7 billion in consumer surplus in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago alone. This illustrates that the benefit Uber offers to consumers far outweighs the losses incurred by taxi cab drivers in those cities.

If you’re not an econ-junkie you might be wondering, “So what?”

What Uber has been able to accomplish in terms of mapping its demand curve and precisely quantifying consumer surplus demonstrate the myriad of possibilities analyzing big data presents. It is only through recording and analyzing the countless data sets of Uberuser rides that Uber and a team of economists have been able to prove the longaccepted theory of supply and demand.

While big data has often been valued for its ability give companies a greater understanding of their consumers, it is now evolving into a method of proving and quantifying theories that have long been considered “unsolvable.” Big data is becoming valuable not only for its profit potential but also for its ability to further academic discussion.

Additionally, big data is now allowing consumers to better understand markets,and vice versa.

Although all the possibilities and opportunities associated with big data are still unknown, for today, economists are joining in the growing number of big data supporters.

For that, you can thank Uber.

Bianca DiSanto is a senior in the McDonough School of Business. Think Tech

Experts Discuss Finance Policy

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Langevoort said that in a time of intense innovation in financial markets, regulators must keep pace with invention in order to ensure market safety.

“Anytime you let innovation run ahead, what you are essentially saying is that enforcement is going to have to do a lot of clean up work,” Langevoort said. “Once the innovators can occupy spaces, and sink costs and sink structures, if the regulators [are] not very close behind, you are going to get bad things.”

The discussion also focused on the subject of over-regulation negatively affecting markets. Panelists mentioned the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act — legislation signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 in response to the financial crisis of 2008.

According to the White House website, key provisions of the 2010 law included ending bank bailout practices in the event of failure, separating proprietary trading from banking and creating new federal agencies to monitor banking practices. The White House has deemed the law “the most far reaching Wall Street reform in history.”

Contending against the positivity attributed to the law from the White House’s perspective, Giancarlo said that one unintended consequence of the system-altering legislation was the increase of “flash crashes” — which The Economic Times describes as sudden falls in stock prices.

“I reflected on the fact since Dodd-Frank made its way through the U.S. Congress, we have had 12 major flash crash events and probably several dozen minor ones in the markets,” Giancarlo said.

Giancarlo explained that the Dodd-Frank provisions require banks to place large amounts of their capital on balance sheets, affecting the liquidity of the market.

Giancarlo said that these changes in liquidity contribute to causing flash crashes.

“One of the undeniable impacts of Dodd-Frank is to require the traditionally large balance sheets in financial markets, which are the major deal firms, to place more capital on their balance sheets and take it out of markets. Therefore, we have a different nature of liquidity in all the major financial markets, currency markets, derivative markets,” Giancarlo said.

Even with problems of overregulation, Giancarlo said that, in general, a marketplace can be compared to a highway and that regulators, like traffic cops, need technology to monitor aptly the financial environment and to enforce accepted standards of safety.

“A highway in a sense is a market place — a market place where people are going different directions, getting on, getting off,” Giancarlo

said. “There are 30 year old cars driving, and there is the latest model, and they are all using the same highway … but interestingly the police never have all the technology. They need to be able to follow a Ferrari, a Lamborghini.”

Spencer Mindlin (GRD’17) said the event was particularly helpful for students, because it gave them a comprehensive look at contemporary issues in finance directly from industry leaders.

“Flying at the level that the conference flies at, it gives folks that might not be as familiar with the day-to-day issues a high-level purview, and then also kind of down in some of the weeds in what are some of the top issues of the day, and perhaps a teaser for students that are interested to go learn more about what is the current environment for financial markets all about and what are the issues that are currently dealt with,” Mindlin said.

NATHAN GARCIA

During “The Regulatory and Policy Environment” segment, attendees received literature that included information on adaptation in regulation.

Business & Tech FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016

from the pros finding the right fit In the midst of recruiting season for the service, banking and consulting sectors, The Hoya spoke with experts attending events sponsored by the Cawley Career Education Center. These recruiters, associates, analysts, consultants and other professionals were asked for their insights and advice to guide students interested in pursuing careers in their areas. In coming weeks, The Hoya will offer more tips from the pros and insiders in companies from across the business spectrum.

Rachel Hawkes Senior Operations Manager, Morningside Translations Why should students want to work for a company like Morningside Translations?

Morningside Translations is a rapidly growing company with a global presence. There are opportunities to really grow within your own department, and also to go abroad and build relationships with clients and vendors. You get to connect with people on a more intimate level.

Andrew Lyu Strategy Associate, Capital One Why should students want to work for a big firm?

One of the biggest pros of working for a big firm is that a large company has the scale and the dedicated talent to really make sure that you have the right skills.

They can really track where your skills are, so you really get an intense training program.

GU Alums Discuss Keys to Startup Success Jack Segelstein Hoya Staff Writer

Last week, alumni entrepreneurs came back to campus to offer guidance and advice to students at a panel in the Intercultural Center’s Executive Conference Room.

“I think really great people who start things are people who didn’t intend to, [for whom] it was an organic process.”

DAN BERGER (GRD ’10) Founder, Social Tables

The School of Foreign Service and Georgetown’s Global Human Development Program co-sponsored the event, which was titled “What’s It Take to Be a Hoya Entrepreneur?” The panel featured Dan Berger (GRD ’10) of Social Tables, Ann Yang (SFS ’16) and Philip Wong (SFS ’15) of MISFIT Juicery and Jake Decicco (MSB ’16) of Sunniva Caffe, who each shared their insights on the startup process.

Dan Berger of Social Tables Born in Israel, Berger came to the United States in 1990 not knowing a word of English. Twenty-one years later, he founded Social Tables, a web-based event-planning platform that now employs 135, has impacted over six million event participants, has planned well over one million events and raised $24

courtesy Georgetown university Global human development program

Moderator Dave Muchow, managing partner at Muchowlaw, right, spoke with alumni entrepreneurs Jake Decicco, left, Phillip Wong and Ann Yang and Dan Berger, not pictured. million since 2011.

Berger conceived of the idea for his startup when he went to a wedding in 2008.

“I thought to myself, there must be a better way for people who go to weddings to get to know who’s at their table before they actually get there. So I envisioned a digital seating chart of the wedding,” Berger said. “I could see that table and have more meaningful conversations than, you know, whose

side of the family are you in or which hotel are you staying at.”

Berger cautioned that raising $24 million is significantly easier said than done. To get just three angel investors required four months of travel and 70 pitches.

Berger described the greatest entrepreneurship ideas as often arising by chance instead of from contrived deliberation.

“I think the really great people who start things are people who

Gracie Hochberg compiled this section. Submit your questions to business@thehoya.com.

Hoya Staff Writer

Regulators must adapt to new financial technologies, federal experts said during a panel segment of the annual “Financial Markets Quality” conference co-hosted Wednesday by the McDonough School of Business’ Center for Financial Markets and Policy and the Financial Times.

About 60 people attended the segment, titled “The Regulatory Policy Environment,” which was held around the middle of the allday conference in the Lohrfink Auditorium, located within the Rafik B. Hariri building.

Nicole Bullock, a reporter for the Financial Times, moderated the panel.

The discussion featured Christopher Giancarlo, commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Georgetown University Law Center professor Donald Langevoort and Steve Luparello, director of the division of trading and markets at the U.S.

See STARTUPS, A9

Bianca DiSanto

File photo: john curran/the hoya

Applicants for this season’s MBA selection cycle at the McDonough School of Business will be required to submit a new video component. The addition of video mirrors general changes in the job market.

Uber, Economics And You

New MBA App Features Video I Léa Nicolas

Hoya Staff Writer

The McDonough School of Business has added a video component to its Masters of Business Administration application cycle, embracing a recent trend in both MBA programs and the job market.

In reforming its application in this way, the MSB follows other elite business schools, such as the University of Chicago’s Kellogg School of Management and Yale University’s Yale School of Management, which have implement-

ed video components in their MBA applications in recent years.

However, the MSB’s MBA video requirement differs from other schools in allowing its applicants more flexibility in recording. While Yale and the University of Chicago require MBA applicants to answer questions on the spot while being recorded, Georgetown requires its candidates to submit links to their videos, which can be re-recorded as many times as they wish.

The first round of this academic year’s application cycle, which began Oct. 10, offers the primary

iteration of the video application component, which will continue as a part of the second round, commencing Jan. 5, 2017 and the third round beginning April 1, 2017.

The MBA application requires that a video be one minute long, and specifies that applicants should use the time simply to introduce themselves to their future class.

Associate Dean of MBA Admissions Shari Hubert clarified that

Securities and Exchange Commission.

Giancarlo expressed the sense that the digital age has fundamentally altered the modern market space and has forced regulators to react to the ground shifting beneath their feet.

“Digitization has transformed everything we do,” Giancarlo said.

“We need to think about what are the principles behind some of these rules [for modern digital markets] and how do we apply that to the virtual world, the virtual training and digitization? We have to catch up to this transformation.”

Giancarlo added that new digital developments actually present a tool for enhanced regulation techniques.

“I think that the first thing we need to do is embrace [digitization],” Giancarlo said. “We need to embrace it not only because market participants are using it, but because it presents opportunities for our regulators to do a better job.”

See REGULATION, A9

f you walk by Uncommon Grounds between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., chances are you will overhear a Georgetown undergrad and a company recruiter talking about thought leadership, company culture, work-life balance or gamification. That last one means the application of game-design thinking to non-game contexts to increase user engagement.

While all of these buzzwords are commonplace in the Sellinger Lounge coffee chat arena, there is one concept that is becoming almost ubiquitous in the business vernacular, regardless of industry — and that is big data.

See VIDEO, A9

Regulators Tackle New Digital Markets Sarah Fisher

Ann Yang and Philip Wong of MISFIT Juicery Despite having secured $135,000 in funding and selling wholesale in 50 locations from New York to Washington, D.C., in its first full year of operations alone, Yang said MISFIT Juicery, a cold-press juice

THINK TECH

Xiao Xiao Data and Policy Analyst, Acumen Why do you like working for a company with younger employees?

I like the really energetic environment, and we have people the same age, so we share opinions and everyone’s fresh out of school. We can train together, we can make friends — it’s really nice to become friends with your co-workers — and also you can learn a lot from each other.

Preston Poon Associate, Charles River Associates Why should students want to work in economic consulting?

Economic consulting is a good intersection between law and business where you’re able to actually use a lot of the economics that you’re learning in your undergraduate background and apply them to business cases. You also get to use a lot of quantitative skills such as data analysis and econometrics in your everyday work, which is very different from management consulting when you’re actually able to quantify the effects of a merger or create evaluation for an intellectual property case. So being able to kind of combine that quantitative background with the qualitative skill set is very important and I feel like it will take you to wherever you want to go.

didn’t intend to, [for whom] it was an organic process,” Berger said.

Companies are ceaselessly trying to find more innovative ways to collect and analyze this information in order to help them better understand their consumers.

Perianne Boring

As a refresher, big data is generally defined as the compilation of enormous data sets that, when analyzed, reveal patterns, trends and associations, particularly related to consumer behavior.

Companies are ceaselessly trying to find more innovative ways to collect and analyze this information in order to help them better understand their consumers. And their efforts pay off: When synthesized properly, big data allows companies to capitalize on latent opportunities in their respective markets and provide better service to their customers.

At the event, Nicole Bullock, left, a reporter for the Financial Times, spoke to experts such as Christopher Giancarlo.

See THINKTECH, A9