GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com
Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 97, No. 23, © 2015
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015
MUSIC ISSUE
From Georgetown’s student artists to the local art scene, 2016 will be a defining year for music.
EDITORIAL The funding of winter housing was an admirable example of collaboration.
RIVALRY RENEWED The Georgetown men’s basketball team faces Syracuse on Saturday.
OPINION, A2
SPORTS, B10
GUIDE, B1
Teach-In Looks to Address Legacy of Slavery OWEN Eagan Hoya Staff Writer
The Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation held a teach-in event focusing on Georgetown’s relationship with slavery and announcing the implementation of Freedom and Remembrance Grants and an Emancipation Symposium to address that history for an audience of around 150 people in Gaston Hall on Tuesday. The event comes in response to university-wide activism surrounding the legacy of slavery on Georgetown’s campus and demonstrations against instances of institutional racism on college campuses nationwide. Working group chairman and history professor Fr. David Collins, S.J., led the conversation, which began with Matthew Quallen (SFS ’16) outlining the history of slavery at Georgetown. Quallen, who received a Marshall Scholarship this month to study the dehumanization of groups through history, published a Sept. 2014 viewpoint article in The Hoya that detailed Georgetown’s slaveholding past, sparking conversation and action
from the Georgetown community. “The Jesuits who supported the university held literally hundreds of people captive across generations over a century, entire families and lives passing by in slavery,” Quallen said in his lecture. The Office of the President formed the working group this September to address the consequences of the university’s history with slavery. The event comes in conjunction with the working group’s recommendation for the interim renaming of former Mulledy and McSherry Halls to Freedom and Remembrance Halls, respectively, following student protests. The group’s recommendation was approved by University President John J. DeGioia and the university’s board of directors Nov. 14. Associate professor of history Marcia Chatelain — who formerly taught at Brown University — and University of Virginia professor Kirt Von Daacke presented to the audience the ways in which both Brown and UVA have addressed their own histories with slavery. See HISTORY, A5
JULIA ANASTOS/THE HOYA
University of Virginia professor Kirt Von Daacke, left, history professor Marcia Chatelain and former Berkley Center faculty member Charles Villa-Vicencio shared their insights as part of the panel.
Georgetown and Slavery: A Complicated History c. 1711
August 24, 2015
November 13, 2015
November 30, 2015
December 11, 2015
Maryland Jesuits begin purchasing African slaves for plantation labor
University President John J. DeGioia states his intention to create a working group to address historical slavery at Georgetown
Student activists stage a sit-in outside DeGioia’s office and the working group submits recommendations to rename Mulledy Hall and McSherry Hall to the interim names of Freedom Hall and Remembrance Hall, respectively
The working group releases the educational pamphlet “What We Know: Georgetown University and Slavery”
A ceremony commemorating the renaming of Freedom and Remembrance Halls is to be held at 11 a.m.
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September 24, 2015
November 14, 2015
December 1, 2015
April 18, 2016
Fr. Thomas Mulledy, S.J., and Fr. William McSherry, S.J., authorize the sale of 272 Jesuit-owned slaves to a Louisiana plantation
DeGioia appoints the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation
DeGioia accepts the working group’s proposed building names
The working group holds the teach-in event “Georgetown University and Slavery: What do we know and what should we do about it?” in Gaston Hall
The working group is to host Emancipation Day Symposium, revealing final recommendations
Three Students Win Renowned Scholarships SARAH GRIFFIN
Special to The Hoya
Three Georgetown students won prestigious postgraduate scholarships in November, with Peter Prindiville (SFS ’14), Matthew Quallen (SFS ’16) and Hannah Schneider (COL ’15) winning the Mitchell, Marshall and Rhodes scholarships, respectively. Prindiville is Georgetown’s 10th Mitchell Scholar, and Quallen is Georgetown’s 11th Marshall Scholar, the first recipients to win both awards since 2012. Schneider — one of 32 Americans to win the scholarship in 2016 — is Georgetown’s 24th Rhodes scholar and the first Georgetown award recipient since 2011.
The Marshall and Rhodes scholarships provide the opportunity for scholars to pursue postgraduate degrees in the U.K., with the Rhodes scholarship awarded specifically for study at the Oxford University. Founded in 2005, the Mitchell Scholarship selects 12 scholars for a year of postgraduate study at an Irish university. Compared to the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, founded in 1903 and 1953, respectively, the relatively new Marshall Scholarship is named for Senator George Mitchell of Maine, who served as the United States special envoy to Northern Ireland and helped negotiate the Northern Ireland Peace Accords in the 1990s. The Mitchell See SCHOLARS, A5
FEATURED syed humza moinuddin/the hoya
Representatives from H*yas for Choice joined members of the D.C. community at a vigil outside the Supreme Court for the victims of the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic.
H*yas for Choice Joins Planned Parenthood Vigil syed humza moinuddin Hoya Staff Writer
Reproaction, a non-profit that advocates increased abortion access and reproductive justice, organized a vigil attended by H*yas for Choice for victims of the recent Planned Parenthood clinic shooting in Colorado outside the Supreme Court on Monday. Around 25 people attended the vigil, which was Reproaction’s first official event since university alumna Erin Matson (COL ’02) founded the organization in August. Speakers included Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), representatives from National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood.
According to H*yas for Choice member Michaela Lewis (COL ’18), who attended the vigil, the student group did not take part in planning the event but did encourage members of the university community to attend. Lewis stressed the urgent need to address the violence that hinders reproductive justice. “The war on reproductive justice and abortion care in the United States is one that has been fought for decades, and it is devastating that it has taken such a wanton act of brutality to bring this structural violence against women to public consciousness,” Lewis wrote in an email to The Hoya. “These events have not occurred in isolation, and now more than ever we cannot talk
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OPINION Mobilize for Accessibility
Students need to share their concerns with GUSA to inform its campaign to improve accessibility. A3
news Georgetown’s Rhodes Scholar
Sports Hot Start
BUISNESS & TECHNOLOGY DeGioia in China
MULTIMEDIA Legacy of Slavery
Hannah Scheider (COL ’15) discusses her journey to winning a Rhodes scholarship. A4
University President John J. DeGioia and Mayor Bowser visited China to encourage investment in D.C. A10
The Georgetown women’s basketball team moved to 5-1 after beating George Mason. B8
Hear what the panel had to say at the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation’s teach-in. thehoya.com
See VIGIL, A5 Published Tuesdays and Fridays
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