The Hoya: October 6, 2015

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

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 97, No. 10, © 2015

tuesday, OCTOBER 6, 2015

LIVING LEGEND

Former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera discussed his post-MLB life in a Q&A.

EDITORIAL Future GUSA senate campaigns must address growing apathy.

LIKE RIDING A BIKE A DCPS initiative will require secondgraders to learn to ride bicycles.

OPINION, A2

NEWS, A7

SPORTS, A10

Council Bill Targets DC Violent Crime Marina Pitofsky Special to The Hoya

The Council of the District of Columbia is currently considering the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act, which would attempt to reduce violent crime by approaching it as an issue of public health, instead of increasing police presence. The bill was initially introduced at the first council meeting of the 2015-16 legislative year Sept. 22. Nearly 70 public witnesses, the Metropolitan Police Department Chief, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and the Justice

and Department of Health Director testified before the council’s Committee on the Judiciary and 11 of the council’s 13 members. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5), the bill’s primary sponsor, presented the major goals of the bill at the meeting. “We have to recalibrate how we look at public safety, which means we have to address not just the symptoms of violent crime but also look to prevent and treat the root causes of violent crime in a long-term, sustainable way,” McDuffie said. “What’s clear is that we cannot

Election Turnout Plummets

19 percent of students voted in the GUSA senate election

Tom Garzillo & Tala Al Rajjal

Hoya Staff Writer & Special to The Hoya

After an election season marked by low voter participation, 28 students, including three write-in candidates, were sworn into the Georgetown University Student Association senate Sunday.

Nineteen percent of the undergraduate population, around 1,252 students, voted in the election, in which 46 students campaigned to serve as at-large senators and representatives of the 11 residence-based districts. Last year’s voter turnout was 25 percent. The GUSA Election Commission posted results on Twitter early

Friday morning after a 24-hour online voting window Thursday. Election winners were sworn in at a ceremony Sunday before taking part in their first senate meeting. According to the Election Commission’s Twitter page, the Freshman South district, which consists of New South Hall and See SENATE, A6

VOTER TURNOUT RATES BY DISTRICT

See SAFETY, A6 Freshman South: 46%

Freshman north: 36%

VCE: 23%

Copley: 18%

SouthWest quad: 18%

Townhouses: 17%

Jesuit Residence/Hotel: 16%

Nevils/Village B: 14%

HENLE: 14%

Village a: 9%

LXR: 5%

Off-Campus: 7%

EXAMINER.COM

FILE PHOTOS: ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) is the primary sponsor of an act that offers social solutions to violent crime.

Nineteen percent of the student body voted in this year’s GUSA senate elections, with higher participation in underclassman districts. Nineteen percent of the electorate placed a vote for at-large candidates.

FEATURED

NEWS HoyaCycle

The university launched a bike sharing program to assess student bike usage. A7

FILE PHOTO: MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Vice President for Government Relations and Community Engagement Chris Murphy and professor Uwe Brandes will lead Georgetown’s partnership with the White House MetroLab Network, which aims to connect university research with local city leaders nationwide.

University Joins White House Data Project Charlotte Allen Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown partnered with the White House Smart Cities Initiative on Sept. 14, joining the MetroLab Network, a program that aims to promote university and city collaboration across the nation. The White House Office of Science and Technology launched the MetroLab Network during the White House Smart Cities Forum. Twentyeight universities in 21 cities have joined the network, which includes The George Washington University and Howard University, although no specific projects for Georgetown have been planned yet. Vice President for Government Relations and Community Engagement Chris Murphy said the initiative is still in its early stages. “Part of the key is that it is very early in the formation of the proj-

ect,” Murphy said. “We are very ner with the city in a more strucmuch looking forward to work- tured way.” The entire White House initiative, ing with the city and figuring out where the overlap is between the which includes the MetroLab Netcity’s needs and the university’s ar- work, is a $160 million investment in federal research eas to contribute.” addressing urban Murphy said “I think it’s only issues regarding that as both citeconomic growth, ies and universi- natural that the city health, safety and ties are constantly would want to partner energy. evolving, they are The MetroLab looking to data with us to help program is paranalysis to identify achieve their goals.” ticularly focused potential improvechris murphy on improving inments. Vice President for Government frastructure, city “I think it’s only Relations and Community Engagement services and other natural that the city would want to partner with us areas of the public sector through to help achieve their goals and give university-city collaboration, acGeorgetown an opportunity to flex cording to the MetroLab Network its muscles with data analysis,” Mur- website. “The Network will focus on comphy said. “Georgetown has been having conversations about gathering mon challenges facing cities in orand analyzing data for a long time, der to develop shared, scalable soand this is an opportunity to part- lutions that can be deployed across

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the network,” the website reads. Uwe Brandes, professor and the executive director of the master’s program in urban and regional planning, will lead the university’s involvement in the initiative once plans begin to take shape. Brandes explained that part of the university’s research will focus on information technologies and how they are changing collaboration with city governments. “At its core it involves using new sources of information in a tactile manner,” Brandes said. “It means asking: How do communities advance their goals and agendas though the new wave of digitally generated information?” He added that although the program is still in an early developmental stage, it will build on Georgetown’s relationship with the greater

OPINION Racial Identity

It is restrictive to define people by their race and ethnicity. A3

NEWS German Reunification A panel reflected on the 25th anniversary of the reunification Thursday. A4

Sports Senior Standout

Captain Keegan Rosenberry scored in overtime for a conference win. A10

See DATA, A6 Send story ideas and tips to news@thehoya.com


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