Ricardo Ortiz, Beloved GU Advocate, Mentor, Professor, Dies at 63
Nora Toscano Executive Editor
Ricardo Ortiz, an English and American Studies professor who taught at Georgetown University for more than 25 years and expanded the humanities, Latine and queer studies departments, died Aug. 18 in Washington, D.C. He was 63.
Ortiz began teaching at Georgetown in 1998 and served as the chair of the English department from 2015 to 2021 and inaugural director of the Master of Arts Program in Engaged and Public Humanities beginning in 2022. He is remembered throughout Georgetown as an advocate for marginalized communities, a dedicated and kind friend and a champion of expanding the humanities.
Faculty and students characterized Ortiz as a funny and joyful person who prioritized his students above all else and inspired every part of Georgetown.
Paul O’Neill, Ortiz’s partner of four years to whom he was engaged, attributed Ortiz’s love for education to the transformative power reading and writing had on his life. He said Ortiz’s upbringing in Los Angeles as an immigrant in a working class family who learned English as his second language influenced his teaching.
“Something to remember about Ricardo was that he was never more himself than when he was in the classroom teaching students,” O’Neill
told The Hoya. “And the reason that mattered so much to him was that he saw in students his 18-yearold self, and he wanted them to experience the flourishing that he experienced as an undergraduate.”
“He was also especially attentive to those kids who didn’t come into the classroom with an advantage — kids who were immigrants, kids of color and kids who were queer — and he wanted to make sure that their experience in his classroom was an equalizing experience,” O’Neill added.
O’Neill said Ortiz’s cause of death was a heart attack.
Advocate for Underrepresented Communities
Born Sept. 23, 1961, in Cuba, Ortiz moved to Los Angeles with his parents in 1966 before receiving his undergraduate degree in English and economics from Stanford University in 1983. He then earned a master’s and doctoral degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1987 and 1992, respectively. He taught at San Jose State University and Dartmouth College before joining Georgetown’s faculty.
Many of Ortiz’s former students and colleagues emphasized the important role he played in shaping their careers and academic paths, which they say is a testament to Ortiz’s dedication to his students.
See ORTIZ, A7
COURTESY OF PAUL O’NEILL Ricardo Ortiz, professor of English and American studies, was known for his dedication to fostering an inclusive campus.
Georgetown University students expressed anxiety following the
and the increased
DC Police Takeover Worries GU Students
Nico Abreu and Ruth Abramovitz Events Desk Editor and Senior News Editor
Georgetown University students expressed fear and frustration over an increased police presence in Washington, D.C., and on campus as they returned to the District for the academic year.
Citing a crime emergency in D.C., President Donald Trump deployed 850 federal agents and federalized D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Aug. 11. A total of 2,200 National Guard troops have also been deployed in the city, including 900 members of the District of Columbia National Guard and troops from various states.
William Mead-McCaughan (CAS ’27), a Georgetown student who grew up in the District, said Trump’s characterization of the area as dangerous and crime-ridden does not accurately represent residents’ experience of the city.
“People who I know who’ve grown up all around the city — it’s their home, and it’s not somewhere that they think of as this awful place,”
Mead-McCaughan told The Hoya
Federal agents first appeared to be present on the Georgetown University main campus Aug. 13, when federal agents were also seen throughout the Georgetown neighborhood. According to photos obtained and reviewed by The Hoya, at least six federal agents were seen walking on the north end of campus.
Federal agents also appeared to be on campus Aug. 27, the university’s first day of classes,
New Residential Hall Complex Opens for GU Juniors, Seniors
construction of the complex — which includes Byrnes, Hayden and Henle Halls — was funded in part through a $20 million donation from graduates William Byrnes (MSB ’72, LAW ’81) and Lisa Byrnes (SLL ’80).
Lily Marino (CAS ’26), a Byrnes Hall resident, said living on campus as a senior makes her feel more connected to the Georgetown community.
“One of the things I liked the most about Georgetown was the fact that its campus is kind of consolidated,” Marino told TheHoya. “And so I always really liked living on campus; I liked
being near everything. I liked feeling like I was always kind of in it.”
Claire Auslander (SON ’26), a senior living in Hayden Hall, said she opted to live in the new residential complex because of its central location and proximity to buildings on the north end of campus, such as St. Mary’s Hall.
“The convenience for me was a major factor — I feel like it’s right next to everything that I utilize the most,” Auslander told The Hoya. “As a nursing student, I’m in See RESIDENTIAL, A7
according to a video obtained and reviewed by The Hoya. The video and descriptions of the sighting suggest four uniformed agents drove south on Tondorf Road in an unmarked white car around 7 p.m.
In both cases, it remains unclear why federal agents were on campus and whether they were on duty.
While Georgetown is a privately held property, areas of campus — such as Healy Lawn, Red Square and some non-residential buildings — are open for public access.
Federal law enforcement officers may access the parts of campus open to the public, but may not enter private areas without a judicial search warrant. The university’s Office of General Counsel offers guidelines for faculty and staff interacting with law enforcement officers.
Darius Wagner (CAS ’27), who saw the agents Aug. 27, said he was worried students may not know when federal law enforcement is on campus.
“I am acutely concerned about this because of how easy they were to miss,” Wagner told The Hoya. “The only reason I saw them was because I was crossing the street, and I had to look at the car as it passed me.”
Wagner — who is also the vice president of the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government — said federal agents’ presence is an intimidation tactic from the Trump administration.
“It just really pissed me off,” Wagner said. “This is nothing but sheer intimidation — trying to scare students who exist on a college campus that values diversity, that criticizes the government, things that he doesn’t like.”
Until last month, MPD cooperation with federal immigration officers was largely barred by a 2020 D.C. law. On Aug. 14, MPD Chief Pamela Smith signed an executive order allowing D.C. police to share information on people not in custody with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency responsible for carrying out immigration policy, as well as aid federal agencies with the transportation of detainees.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower also issued an executive order Sept. 2 requiring local law enforcement to indefinitely cooperate with federal agents to the highest extent allowed under D.C. law. But D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the Trump administration Sept. 4 over its deployment of the National Guard, describing it as an illegal “military occupation” that threatened the District.
Ian Crowley (CAS ’28) said he believes federal law enforcement on campus places international, immigrant and undocumented students at higher risk than other students.
“I am definitely scared and concerned on behalf of some my peers who may not be in that position of privilege that I am, and who may not feel as comfortable even sharing their experiences or sharing how they’re feeling in this time because of their documentation status, because of the color of their skin or because of a myriad of other factors,” Crowley told The Hoya Ignacio Loaiza (CAS, McCourt ’28) said federal agents’ presence
him as he believes it targets people who are also of Latino descent.
“Having family from Mexico makes the situation feel very personal,” Loaiza wrote to The Hoya. “I remember being very young and hearing early rhetoric about Mexicans as ‘rapists’ and ‘criminals’ and that always stuck with me. Seeing that they’ve now militarized this rhetoric and people are being profiled on the streets does feel personal.”
Following the MPD directive to share non-arraigned persons’ immigration status with ICE, the number of detentions in D.C. increased from an average of 12 per week in the first six months of Trump’s presidency to 300 detainments between Aug. 7 and Aug. 23. Throughout the country, onthe-street arrests of Latine immigrants without any criminal history increased to 17% of all ICE arrests in July 2025, up from 3.4% in December 2024.
On Aug. 14, university Vice President for Public Affairs Erik Smulson sent a community-wide email that reaffirmed Georgetown’s commitment to upholding students’ rights while noting the cooperation between the Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) and MPD. Smulson said the university does not anticipate changes to its relationship with MPD.
“You may notice an increase in law enforcement presence throughout the city, including in areas of our campuses that are open to the general public,” Smulson wrote in the email. “As always, we expect any law enforcement activity on our campuses to be conducted in a manner that respects the rights of our community
See GUARD, A7
GU Graduate Student Files to Run For US House of Representatives
Ajani Stella Senior News Editor
When Ammar Campa-Najjar (GRD ’26) began graduate school at Georgetown University this fall, he described it as “a dream come true.” In November, however, he plans to pause this dream to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Campa-Najjar filed to run as a Democrat in California’s 48th congressional district, which includes the area east of San Diego. If voters approve the redrawn maps in a
Nov. 4 special election — which Campa-Najjar and policy analysts expect to happen — he will take a leave of absence from his studies at Georgetown, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in conflict resolution, to begin his congressional campaign.
Campa-Najjar said he believes he can relate to constituents’ concerns better than the Republican incumbent, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
“I have a different way of doing things,” Campa-Najjar told The Hoya. “I think we need to fight for people. I think we need to build a
government that works for working people.”
After state legislature efforts to redistrict Texas to favor Republicanheld districts, Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed a similar effort Aug. 21. Mid-decade redistricting is unprecedented — it normally takes place every 10 years to account for changes in population — but not unconstitutional. A San Diego County native, former U.S. Department of Labor
See CONGRESS, A7
HAAN JUN (RYAN) LEE/THE HOYA
federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD)
presence of law enforcement officials across the District as they return to campus for the new academic year.
Resist DC, GU Federal Occupation, Speak Up for Community Members
As new and returning students made their way to Georgetown University’s campus, a welcome-back barbecue and the promise of new classes awaited. Yet, this year, students were also greeted with the threatening presence of thousands of federal agents in Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops to D.C. and federalized the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Aug. 11 amid unsupported claims of reducing crime in the city. Just two days later, federal agents appeared on campus and in the Georgetown neighborhood.
The presence of federal agents in and around campus resulted in a noticeable shift for students in D.C. Alessia Viscusi (SFS ’27) said she noticed the shift in the District the moment she returned to Georgetown.
“Instead of that beautiful view of the Capitol, what greeted me as I left Union Station were armored vehicles and uniformed troops,” Viscusi wrote to The Hoya. “It was only after seeing federal agents on near-empty streets that weeks earlier were bustling with families and street vendors that the reality of the takeover really sunk in.”
The Editorial Board strongly condemns the deployment of federal troops in Washington, D.C., and implores both students and the university to uphold their responsibility to resist federal intimidation.
This takeover is both unnecessary and expensive. President Trump characterized D.C. as having been overrun by “bloodthirsty criminals” to justify the federal takeover as a public safety emergency. Trump’s statement is ignorant of D.C.’s crime rate being at its lowest in 30 years. Even if D.C. did not have the capacity to prevent crime in the city, Trump should have followed well-worn paths established by the District’s police force, the MPD, including its previous introduction of proactive investigations and prosecutions to prevent crime without a need for federal force. Overreach of federal power is always troubling, but especially so when the federal government decides it is appropriate to use the U.S. military as domestic law enforcement in the capital of the country and on your campus.
As such, the student body and university community have a moral responsibility to respond to these infringements on our campus and community. This is not a distant issue people will forget about the next day. As a Georgetown student, Washington, D.C., is your city and your home. It is not only a place for school but also a place for formative experiences and opportunities that you must protect for yourself and for future Hoyas.
As the federal takeover continues, photos are circulating of troops walking outside of Epi’s, driving down Tondorf Road and on M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. This constant presence serves little practical purpose outside of intimidation and control. It is our duty to stay vigilant.
The university has a responsibility to ensure its students feel safe, and in doing so, the administration must resist federal actions on campus. At the same time, the Editorial Board acknowledges the relative lack of power the ad -
HOYA HISTORY
November 2, 1973
Special operations police ticketed many of the drivers who honked in support of the 450 demonstrators calling for President Nixon’s impeachment last Saturday in front of the White House.
The drivers were charged with “unlawful use of the hom.” They were fined five dollars.
The tickets enraged both demonstrators and those ticketed. Wayne Defour (SBA ‘77) called the action “nothing more than a block of the freedom of expression.
“They (the honking motorists) weren’t doing it in a riotous manner, they were merely expressing their opinions. Under the circumstances there was no cause for such action,” he said.
Despite the small turnout for the demonstration and the fact that President Nixon was not at the White House during the weekend, organizers of the protest felt that it helped the cause of impeachment.
“This demonstration is letting people know they are not
ministration wields in regulating federal actions on campus. To date, administrators have issued one public statement regarding police activity in D.C., saying that the university expects no significant changes to the interactions of Georgetown community members with police and troops.
Erik Smulson, university vice president for public affairs, said in an Aug. 14 email to the Georgetown community that he does not foresee significant changes to community interactions with law enforcement.
“You may notice an increase in law enforcement presence throughout the city, including in areas of our campuses that are open to the general public,” Smulson wrote in the email. “As always, we expect any law enforcement activity on our campuses to be conducted in a manner that respects the rights of our community members and fully complies with due process requirements.”
While troops are allowed in public areas of campus, their actions must respect the rights of community members and comply with due process.
The bottom line is that if the university is unable to act, students must be vocal and active instead. The Editorial Board encourages students to express their dissent with government actions through as many avenues as possible. From walk-outs scheduled on campus to citywide marches, these protests are not performative. They drive media attention and ensure issues like this stay in the spotlight for those across the country who haven’t seen federal troops walking around their own campuses.
This type of community protest is especially important because it is a way to advocate for those who can’t stand up for themselves. The majority of students may not see immediate effects from the federal takeover, but, for some of us, the presence of armed federal agents can be a source of real fear and intimidation. The number of federal agents in the United States increased arrests of people lacking permanent legal status by more than tenfold in the initial Aug. 7 to Aug. 23 period.
Scout Cardillo (CAS, McCourt ’27), a student organizer for Free DC, a campaign to protect the District’s ability to control their governance, said the struggle against recent federal intervention extends beyond local issues.
“I’m fighting for not only my neighbors in D.C., but for my hometown,” Cardillo wrote to The Hoya . “Federal agents make no one feel safe outside of those who directly benefit from their presence and oppression.”
With the recent announcements of new planned deployments to Chicago and Baltimore, the situation will only escalate. As Georgetown students, we must do our part to resist the takeover of the city we have come to know as home.
The Hoya’s Editorial Board is composed of six students and is chaired by the opinion editors. Editorials reflect only the beliefs of a majority of the board and are not representative of The Hoya or any individual member of the board.
alone,” said Tom Callaghan, protest spokesman and attorney for the Committee to Impeach the President. “It’s a showing of some strength.
“There is enough evidence to draft articles of impeachment,” Callaghan added. “I rate the chances for impeachment at 50-50.”
Patti Jacoby (SFS ‘76), a participant in the impeachment rally, agreed that marches are important. “I came here to show my disillusionment with the President’s actions over the past two years.
“I think he’s a crook. He has no moral integrity,” she added.
“He’s very cunning and he knows how to fool the American public.”
Publisher-writer I.F. Stone, the rally’s guest speaker, accused the President of “clearly trying to obstruct justice by firing Cox and trying to replace him with a man he can control.
“If two litigants come into court and one litigant dies or
is kidnapped or bumped off, the case is moot,” Stone said. “And the bright idea of the White House, since this was a litigation basically between the special prosecutor and the President, was to get rid of the special prosecutor.”
Stone also “deplored” the fact that there were no students from Howard University present. He warned that, in order for the movement to be successful, it must not become elitist.
After the rally the demonstrators marched with signs from the Ellipse to the White House. There they lined both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue and urged passing motorists to honk in support of impeachment. A few demonstrators dressed in royal robes and Nixon masks to show their contempt for “King Richard.”
Wayne Saitta
The Editorial Board strongly condemns the deployment of federal troops in Washington, D.C., and implores both students and the university to uphold their responsibility to resist federal intimidation.
The Editorial Board “GU, Resist Federal Occupation: Make Your Voice Heard” thehoya.com
On Aug. 11, President Donald Trump announced that he would federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force and deploy the National Guard. On Aug. 13, The Hoya reported that federal agents appeared to be present on Georgetown campus and in the neighborhood. This week, the Editorial Board
urged students to take concrete action against the militarization of Washington, D.C.
Anish Raja
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EDITORIAL CARTOON by
Reframe Gossip Culture
When my parents visited me at college for the first time, they were impressed by how many people I greeted on the way from the front gates to my dorm. It’s one of the things I love about Georgetown: the close-knit community where everyone knows one another. However, a side effect of this proximity is a culture where everyone also knows everything about each other.
I notice that much of the way we bond is through gossip. I’ve seen people’s eyes light up when someone says, “I’ve got tea,” and friends lean toward each other over the Instagram page of a person absent from the room, bonding over the dissection of another person’s private life.
In a relatively small school like Georgetown, where 1,598 first-years matriculated in Fall 2024 compared to 4,000 at the University of Virginia and 5,812 at the University of Maryland, gossip spreads faster and with more consequences.
My close friend once told me that when he met a mutual friend of ours for the first time, the mutual friend asked, “Do you know Julia Nguyen? What do you think of her?” I panicked upon hearing this. My mind began to spiral, worrying about sinister whispers behind my back, until I realized that the question said more about them than about me. “What do you think of her?” is not an acceptable conversationstarter, nor should it be established as one. In fact, this revealed that person’s priority: finding gossip about me. We have to challenge the central role that gossip plays in our social lives.
Gossip culture at Georgetown is merely a microcosm of a larger phenomenon. I’ve come across several TikToks with captions along the lines of, “When we want to spill the tea, but the tea is in the room.” Though on the surface, the people in the videos look uncomfortable and embarrassed, it seems they are subtly bragging. By talking badly about others together, the gossipers have formed a unit against “the tea,” or the focus of said gossip. The TikTok I linked has 371,700 likes and 73,800 reposts, indicating how relatable people find these kinds of videos. People gossip because it gives them a sense of elevation. It’s a combination of knocking someone down in order to stand above them and having your opinion validated. When others
echo your negative feelings about someone, it creates a sense of unity in an “us vs. them” environment. As Georgetown students, we must first understand the roots of this phenomenon. Gossiping is human, as it appeals to our needs for power and belonging. Instead of tearing others down, we should work to meet these needs productively, whether through grabbing lunch with someone you want to know better or inviting some friends to hang out over the weekend.
What’s equally important is exercising self-compassion, because we are not solely responsible for the central role gossip plays in our social culture. If you find yourself guilty of gossiping, you should first forgive yourself and then work to decenter gossip from your conversations.
Decentering gossip works both ways. As much as we should stop talking about people behind their backs, we should also try to put less importance on what people think and say about us.
Admittedly, I’ve been gossiped about before, and I’ve let the rumors get to me. But most of the time, people pick each other apart because of a personality mismatch, not because of something they did.
I think of it like my mom’s relationship with sushi, one of my favorite foods. You could serve her the best sushi in the world, but she still won’t appreciate it because she doesn’t like raw fish. That doesn’t mean that sushi is a poor food option or worthy of criticism. It’s not worth chasing the approval of those who don’t see your value, and if someone criticizes what makes you who you are, they’re not a good person. In the end, I’ll be forever grateful for all the “hellos” I get to say on my treks around campus. I love that everyone at Georgetown is interconnected in some way, creating a wide network of people I can turn to. I hope that as Georgetown students, we continue to cultivate this sense of community while striving to make campus a more positive place. In order to do that, I say, let’s decenter gossip together.
Julia Nguyen is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. This is the first installment of her new column, “The Stories That Cultures Tell.”
COLUMN • GU STUDENTS
COLUMN • RAO
Remain Focused on Campus Changes, GUSA
I’ve been struck recently, walking around campus, by the appearance of a number of “Fight Fascism” posters. These posters, very rightfully lambasting Trump for deployment of the National Guard and his desire for “generals like Hitler had,” are each adorned with the tagline: “the fight against fascism begins on campus.”
Whether you agree or not that the country is descending into a state of proto-fascism, these posters are right. College students, both past and present, have had quite the role to play in such advocacy; examples range from literal battles on Madrid campuses during the Spanish Civil War to the recent Bangladeshi protests which led to the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina.
So, if the fight against fascism begins on campus, which Georgetown bodies and resources should be brought to bear in any potential conflict? Some immediate examples spring to mind — the QR code on these posters links to organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the GU Coalition for Workers Rights. Noticeably absent, especially after its recent organization of the Spring 2025 Israeli disassociation and divestment referendum, was Georgetown’s undergraduate student government — the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA). As the current Speaker of the GUSA Senate, I would submit that such should remain so: GUSA is far from the best organization to be undertaking national political advocacy.
Campus Opinions: Graduation Goals
The Campus Opinion section is being revived from late 1990s editions of The Hoya. The aim of this column is to compile a variety of perspectives on campus. In each installment, a question is posed to the student body, and we present to you their answers as spoken.
As first-years become oriented to campus and returning students prepare for another semester, we chose to highlight the best parts of being a Hoya. Georgetown and the surrounding Washington, D.C. area offer a myriad of exciting opportunities, and the best way to live out your time on campus is to try and take advantage of them all!
With this in mind, the question we decided to pose this week was, “What’s one thing you want to do before you graduate from Georgetown?”
The responses we received, from participating in Rangila to kayaking on the Potomac River, demonstrated excitement for the year ahead.
van Schleck (SFS ’29) said,
E“My goal before graduating Georgetown is to try coffee at any place in and around campus — that’s every Corp location, every coffee shop in the neighborhood.”
Zongkai Lin (SFS ’28) said, “I would really want to take better advantage of the downtown campus, because I know there was the hoo-ha about the amount of money spent there but I just think that if the money’s gone into it, we at the Hilltop campus, we can make some use of that as well.”
Justin Chung (MED ’28) said, “Before graduating, I would like to explore more of Europe.”
Charlotte Bonneau (CAS ’28) said, “Before I graduate Georgetown, I want to perform in Rangila.”
Molly The Losen (SOH ’28) said, “I would like to get out into the greater community of D.C. and make an
impact in some way that will help the community in a positive way.”
Lily Korpas (CAS ’29) said, “One thing that I’d like to do before I finish my time at Georgetown — I’m only like a freshman so I have four years — but my daddy is from Budapest, Hungary, and I think it’d be really cool to intern or get a job at the Hungarian embassy.”
Selena Sun (CAS ’29) said, “One thing that I would love to do before I graduate is to attend a conference or meeting in Gaston Hall because I’ve seen pictures and it looks really nice and I would like to be in there.”
Jessica Runyambo (CAS, McCourt ’28) said, “One thing that I hope to accomplish or do on campus before I graduate is meet a former president.”
Livi Ray (CAS, McCourt ’28) said, “I want to babysit a professor’s kid — we’re going to make it happen!”
Louis Kim (MSB ’26) said, “The last thing I want to do before I graduate is go to Tombs three nights in a row.”
Arianne Khoo (SFS ’28) said, “Something I want to do in D.C. before I graduate is go kayaking on the Potomac during sunset. I’ve been told the Potomac is kind of gross, so I haven’t built up the courage yet to go kayaking on it.
Growing up I would always go kayaking with my family and I feel like going kayaking in this place that is now home will really allow me to connect back to my roots.”
Sam Baghdadchi (CAS ’29) said, “My goal before I graduate Georgetown is to go to every single Hoya sports game — or every single different sports team there.”
Owen Huang (SFS ’28) said, “Before I graduate Georgetown, I want to see the NFL draft here on the National Mall in 2027.”
Helena Gernhardt (SFS ’27) said, “One thing I want to do before I graduate is, oh my gosh, the Campus Recreation in the spring does Battleship, where you climb into canoes and try to sink the other canoes, and me and my roommate and all my other friends have wanted to partake in playing Battleship in McCarthy Pool, and that is on my bucket list at Georgetown, so I will be looking forward to that.”
Samuel Yin (SOH ’28) said, “I’d actually like to steal the clock’s hands. That’d be crazy, but I wish I could do that before I graduate.”
Compiled by Ella O’Connor and Thejas Kumar
I offer that for two reasons. First, GUSA has limited time and energy that should be put towards a plethora of on-campus issues which it is uniquely suited to address. Second, there are plenty of other campus organizations targeted towards national political advocacy.
Given GUSA’s unique duty and capability to solve on-campus issues, it should focus on them, leaving the national advocacy to other better-suited student groups.
The preamble of the GUSA Constitution begins as follows: “Students have a right to play a clearly defined and significant role in the formation and application of institutional policy affecting both academic and student affairs. A democratic student government is the best means by which this role may be played.”
The operative word here is institutional policy, the policy which it is GUSA’s responsibility to reform. And there is no question that an excess of these policies exist which currently act against student interests. Let me name a few from this summer and past year alone: 1) GUPD’s prohibitive security costs, 2) Residential Living’s refusal to extend GoCard access to Byrnes and Hayden Halls to off-campus seniors, 3) insufficient furniture in the HFSC, and 4) Hoya Hospitality’s refusal to replace the espresso machine at Whisk despite repeated employee requests.
One could go on and on, but the throughline is clear. These are niche institutional policies
VIEWPOINT • JOIS
that have a disproportionate impact on students’ lives. It is here that GUSA, “as the sole official representative instrument of the undergraduate student body,” can act as a force multiplier, legitimately expressing student desire to a decision-maker primed to listen. It was through a petition led by two GUSA Senators and pressure from the GUSA Student Dining Committee that Hoya Hospitality eventually agreed to replace the espresso machine. It was only after combined Executive and Senate pressure that Student Centers agreed to purchase new furniture. GUSA can escape its donothing reputation only when it acts on issues within its expertise and jurisdiction. While there is only one organization to advocate for the student body on niche institutional policy issues, there are plenty which are specifically suited to work on national issues. Regardless of whether one agrees with their advocacy, organizations such as Georgetown University College Democrats, one of the largest clubs on campus; Hoyas Against Legacy, which has led the fight to ban legacy admissions across all of D.C. through the city council; or Georgetown Students for Justice in Palestine, who organized an encampment with their sister organization from George Washington University, are actionoriented and have concrete records. GUSA’s national record is relatively lackluster. Most notably
(beyond the referendum), the GUSA Executive organized Hands Off Our Schools, a coalition of D.C.-area student governments to oppose President Trump’s education policies. To date it has organized one protest attended by about 200 people that, while attracting media coverage, did not halt Trump’s gutting of the DOE or his leveraging of university federal funding to force policy changes. Now, it is of course unfair to expect any student government protest to singlehandedly convince the President of the United States to change his mind on cabinet-level policy. But organizing that rally and corralling six student governments to agree on a mission statement, set of speakers, etc., must have been an energy-intensive task. The point is not to condemn the intent behind the advocacy, but rather to show that the energy would have been better used on campus, where GUSA is chartered to make institutional policy change. We have enough problems as students just in regard to the Georgetown administration. Shouldn’t GUSA spend as much time as possible fixing what it can? Ultimately, Georgetown’s student government should stick to what it was made for — Georgetown. Best to let others handle other fights. Saahil Rao is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. This is the tenth installment of his column “Institutions and Their Ills” and the first of the Fall 2025 semester.
Redefine Masculinity for GU Students
Masculinity in society is undergoing a systemic change today.
In the past, social norms tied masculinity to working enough to support men’s wives and children. As women gained more autonomy, the need for a narrowly-constructed role as a provider faded. Yet this new freedom erased a certainty some men had that they were needed. No longer bound to the perception of prescribed purpose, certain conservative influencers and politicians describe men feeling adrift and nostalgic for the simplicity of an older era where their life paths were dictated from birth. In this new era, a staggering quarter of young men in the United States report feeling lonely, and over half report daily stress. For the first time, men need to discover for ourselves how we fit into society.
Georgetown University men can consider how moving beyond previously internalized gender roles could create a positive impact on their community. To avoid feeling lost, we must learn to embody the Georgetown value of cura personalis, identifying our unique talents and how we can use them in the service of others. Society must adopt a liberal approach and replace traditional ideas of manliness.
Modern conservatism speaks to male anxieties, championing a return to a “real” manhood that will supposedly save men from aimlessness. Online personalities like Charlie Kirk offer young men an avenue to find community through a return to projected superiority rather than service. The promise of male redemption pits conservatives against liberals, who reject old ideals in favor of new ways of living. Conservatives go as far as to discourage men from working in sectors considered more feminine that they traditionally weren’t as
involved in, such as teaching and caretaking. This divide reflects broader ideological differences: Conservatism emphasizes tradition where liberalism favors experimentation.
On the issue of manhood, however, the conservative appeal carries a dangerous undertone.
Since traditional ideas of manhood center around the belief that women are inferior, arguing in favor of a return to these values implicitly argues for inequality. I’ve seen this narrative play out many times on social media, most notably with posts advocating for a return to traditional stay-at-home wives and domineering husbands.
This perspective stems from one of conservatism’s core principles. Edmund Burke, the “father of modern conservatism,” believed societies should be organized around the wisdom accumulated throughout history. This belief holds that leaders should preserve, rather than discard, systems that worked in the past, whether in government institutions or moral values. In this view, traditional virtues, such as manhood, that once contributed to prosperity are worth defending.
Liberalism, in contrast, insists progress comes from diversity of ideas and lifestyles. Instead of fearing innovation, liberals actively embrace it. They argue a social structure isn’t beneficial only by virtue of its practice in the past and should be replaced if it no longer serves society.
The conservative stance is wellmeaning. Men today do struggle with identity and loneliness; a call to return to values that once gave security and persisted throughout the advancement of civilization can look like a solution. But this view cannot be separated from its historical context. The notion of men as providers
and protectors of women and children only existed because patriarchal systems denied women the right to provide for or protect themselves. Men were considered the greatest inventors and figures in history because they were the center of society, so they had greater responsibilities demanded of them. Even if conservatives today do not consciously argue for female inferiority, a revival of old ideals is impossible without also reducing women’s role in society. For this reason, a conservative approach should not be applied to the issue of gender roles.
As long as gender roles retain ties to misogyny, true equality will remain out of reach. Systemic discrimination of women is deeply entrenched in our country’s history and practices, and implicit bias persists even as women gain more representation. Men must recognize that the world is evolving and accept responsibility for advancing structural change. This commitment requires resisting the temptations of the stability promised by tradition and working toward forming a new identity as women’s equals. At Georgetown and beyond, men should try to live up to the ideals of cura personalis and serve others. Clubs such as the Georgetown Gender Violence Alliance, Sexual Assault Peer Educators (SAPE), Project Rishi, H*yas for Choice and others that are based on servicing communities noticeably lack male members. By joining these clubs and creating a lifestyle independent of outdated beliefs, we can find joy in service to others and take advantage of our diversity of talents that a world without gender roles allows us to explore.
Rohan Jois is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.
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Tightening the Purse: GU Hiring Freeze Leaves Employees Adrift, Pessimistic for the Future
Facing federal government funding cuts, Georgetown University implemented cost-cutting measures that lowered morale for faculty and staff and increased calls for transparency.
Saroja Ramchandren and Sophia Lu Senior Features Editors
Greg Afinogenov, an associate professor in the department of history, was disappointed — though not surprised — by Georgetown University’s move to shore up its finances when it announced a staff and faculty hiring freeze this past April.
What fueled his frustration, however, was the introduction of additional cost-cutting measures that impacted staff benefits a week later, as well as the absence of substantive consultation with affected stakeholders.
Afinogenov — the president of Georgetown’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), an advocacy organization committed to promoting the academic freedom and economic security of faculty across the country — said he has seen his colleagues experience increased stress levels as they contend with the fallout of the new policies.
“It’s really contributed to a sense that staff are barely keeping up, that workloads are accelerating, that there’s just not enough resources to support people,”
Afinogenov told The Hoya
The restriction on new hiring comes amid the federal government’s scaling back much of its previous support for higher education. The cuts have fostered uncertainty surrounding the status of Georgetown’s future federal financial aid and research funding, which totaled $267 million and $195 million in fiscal year 2024, respectively. As part of its overall belt-tightening, the university has also paused annual merit pay increases until at least the end of the calendar year for staff and faculty making more than $50,000 annually and extended the pause to the full fiscal year for senior-level administrators who earn more than $200,000 annually.
A university spokesperson said Georgetown’s leadership is actively tracking federal developments to make appropriate decisions for the institution.
“The fiscal challenges facing Georgetown and all of higher education are significant and require the University to respond appropriately,” the university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “University leadership is deeply grateful to faculty and staff for pulling together as we continue to navigate changes from the federal government in areas including research funding, grant aid, student financial aid, international students and other realities.”
A university librarian, who requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation, said the cascade of cost-cutting measures left staff members in a challenging situation.
“We’re doing whatever we can to still make the experience a great one for everybody, because we love the community,” the university librarian told The Hoya
“Then, on the other hand, there is this low morale.”
“I can imagine that the low morale will seep into the greater campus community,” the librarian added. “It will trickle down to the students in some ways that only time will tell, but definitely not feeling positiveW about what the future might hold.”
Afinogenov said he has noticed tangible differences in day-to-day operations as a faculty member who works closely with library staff for his research.
“In places like the libraries, it’s also led to a significant overstretch in terms of responsibilities of people,” Afinogenov said. “Many of them were hired as, for example, subject-specific librarians, but then have been forced to cover more and more subjects, including stuff that they weren’t really trained for.”
While the long-term consequences of the hiring freeze and pause on merit pay increases remain to be seen, students, staff and faculty are already feeling effects across the university.
Academic Departments in Flux
For Ariel Glucklich, professor and chair of Georgetown’s theology department, the university’s mandate of austerity meant rescinding admission for one of his department’s four newly admitted doctoral students this past spring.
Glucklich said the university has identified doctoral programs as an area of focus for cost-cutting, because doctoral students don’t pay tuition and receive a university-funded stipend.
“All the departments that have Ph.D. programs — it’s been cut,” Glucklich told The Hoya. “It’s an expense for the university.”
Glucklich said the hiring freeze has also impaired the theology department’s ability to offer a full range of expertise, something that became especially relevant following the retirement of a professor specializing in Christian ethics.
“We can’t even imagine getting it replaced right now under the current conditions,” Glucklich said.
Glucklich said a lack of new, tenure-line faculty replacements would have irreparable consequences for the quality of higher education.
“I think universities are engaged in a kind of rat race to attract students, and that includes nicer dorms and facilities and those kinds of things,” Glucklich said. “But it comes at the expense of the soft stuff: for example, hiring young faculty, tenure-line, who can bring in a dynamic approach to the education.”
“For me, that’s the single most important thing, and that is definitely, definitely suffering,” Glucklich added.
Faculty and staff typically undertake personnel planning in advance, considering short- and long-term
student needs as well as extensive community feedback. Sam Halabi, a professor of health management and policy in the School of Health, explained that departments must hire proactively to stay at the forefront of their disciplines.
Halabi said his department has been looking to strengthen its expertise in several emerging fields.
“In health care management and policy, digital interventions — the use of artificial intelligence, applications for patient self-care, for provider innovations, for the clinical interface — are essential,” Halabi told The Hoya. “We really need to build up our faculty presence there.”
Halabi said the hiring freeze puts Georgetown at a significant disadvantage when it comes to recruiting top candidates to its doctoral programs, as candidates would conceivably choose to take their talents to another institution rather than wait for the policy to be lifted.
“It’s a pretty competitive marketplace, so they may go elsewhere, and then you sort of hope that your second choice candidate is sufficiently credentialed that they would be just as welcome,” Halabi said. “You really need to be able to do that pretty nimbly and pretty flexibly in order to serve the students. And so, not being able to do that, it’s not good for the students. It’s not good for the faculty.”
Afinogenov said the hiring freeze has also raised concerns for the diversity of academic offerings as restrictions on hiring limit unique course opportunities.
“Students want to be able to take courses in a variety of subjects, including things that may not be popular with other students,” Afinogenov said. “Faculty want to be able to teach courses in new or unusual or path-breaking areas, and the restrictions — which are very closely linked to restrictions on hiring — are a part of that.”
Glucklich said he feels discouraged about students’ prospects and the university’s academic community at large, as the impacts of cost-cutting measures continue to pan out.
“Sitting around the lunch table and talking about what’s going on, my colleagues are pessimistic,” Glucklich said. “Not long term, there’s a pendulum, but for the next four, five, six years, things will be really tough around the university, mostly for students graduating.”
Personal Costs of Policy Pressures
For many academic departments, the pause on merit payments has disproportionately affected non-tenure-line professors.
Nadia Brown, a professor of government who also directs the women’s and gender studies program, said the pause on merit pay increases has been especially difficult for non-tenure-line faculty, whose salaries are far outmatched by their
tenure-line counterparts and often teach three-three loads — three courses in one semester.
“It has a demonstrable effect on my faculty who are teaching a threethree teaching load,” Brown told The Hoya. “Non-tenure-line faculty members, they have lower salaries; they don’t make a living wage.”
Emily Mendenhall, a professor in the School of Foreign Service (SFS), said the changes in pay increase policies have compounding impacts for non-tenure-line faculty, even if they only appear to be short-term changes.
“Missing a year of merit pay is a lot,” Mendenhall told The Hoya. “I’m a full professor and I support my family, so I have a lot of expenses, but I think it probably is more affective of our more junior faculty whose merit pays will be affected their whole career by this because your pay compounds over years.”
Staff have shouldered similar burdens related to the lack of merit pay increases, including the university librarian, who said she felt blindsided by the sudden changes.
“While I’ve previously received the merit increase, not receiving it this year has taken a bit of a financial toll,” the university librarian said. “It was something that I was anticipating and expecting, and when it didn’t occur, that threw a little bit of disarray into what I was foreseeing my financial future to be.”
The university librarian added that, in addition to stomaching the pause on merit pay, she has had to take on new responsibilities to compensate for the understaffing created by the hiring freeze.
“There’s obviously the larger responsibilities that I’m speaking of, but there’s also smaller ones,” the university librarian said. “Taking on a desk shift or something small like that, or being the person to answer more reference questions, or being on the library chat more because there’s less people to choose from.”
A program administrator in the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS), who also requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation, echoed that the hiring freeze led him to take on an uncomfortable amount of new responsibilities.
“One of our staff positions in my department has been vacant for a year and a half, which has meant that me and the other staff members have had to pick up the slack there,” the program administrator told The Hoya. “So that’s meant that I’ve taken on a lot more responsibility than is comfortable to handle.”
The discrepancy between workload and the number of available personnel across the university has generated pressure for some student workers to assume more responsibilities. In the Office of Residential Living, for example, some university workers said the hiring freeze meant some
In the midst of university-wide austerity, staff and faculty contend with uncertainties in daily operations, shoulder additional responsibilities without increased compensation and worry for academia.
community directors (CD) — live-in staff members who build residential community — shouldered additional responsibilities beyond one dorm.
CC Mesa (SFS ’26), a resident assistant (RA) for Ida Ryan & Isaac Hawkins Hall, said she saw a CD assume additional responsibilities.
“I had to pick up some slack in terms of introducing this new RA to our team, because my boss was running two different teams at the same time,” Mesa told The Hoya “While he was helping to introduce the new Darnall RA, I helped the new Copley RA set up her floor and get oriented to the job. Those were extra responsibilities that I was not necessarily compensated for.”
Other offices on campus, like the Maker Hub — a collaborative space for 3D printing, laser cutting, woodworking and other creative pursuits — have also experienced understaffing.
Sara Lignell (CAS ’26), a student worker at the Maker Hub, said she has taken on duties previously fulfilled by full-time university staff.
“Our responsibilities have been majorly increased,” Lignell told The Hoya. “For example, I’m now responsible for creating the whole schedule for the 40 volunteers. All of these tasks were previously done by the full-time faculty manager.”
Mendenhall said austerity measures, on the part of both Georgetown and the federal government, caused her to ask herself how to best care for students, faculty and her community as a whole.
“What actually matters? How do we respond?” Mendenhall said. “We respond by supporting each other, right? We are just trying to get by in this time.”
Demands for Disclosure
Students, faculty and university employees said they felt the negative impacts of Georgetown’s hiring freeze, but they also recognized that the decision was a result of the government’s withdrawal of federal funds — a change beyond the university’s control.
Mesa said her increased workload — and the university’s austerity policies — were rooted in the federal government’s funding cuts.
“I understand why the university had to put on this hiring freeze, and, ultimately, it’s more the government’s doing than it is the university’s,” Mesa said. “I had to step up — I’m not necessarily angry at that.” Vasquez said he believes the government’s actions forced the university to divert its focus from education to daily operations.
“As much as I complain about these issues, I do feel like the real issue does lie in the federal government with the withdrawal of these federal funds,” Vasquez said. “It really does just ultimately affect everyone’s lives here at Georgetown, and
it’s forcing the university to operate more on a business level and not focusing as much on education.”
While university employees acknowledged the link between Georgetown’s hiring freeze and the federal government’s actions, some also called for increased transparency from university leadership, particularly regarding “mission-critical” functions and hires.
According to a document attached to Interim President Robert M. Groves’ April 29 email announcing the hiring freeze, the university ceased to fill vacancies not considered “mission-critical” — such as student services, health and safety or strategic needs — unless directly approved by senior administrators. Halabi said he is concerned by the lack of clarity regarding what constitutes a “mission-critical” position for university faculty.
“There’s no criteria, none that have been released to the faculty,” Halabi said. “So it seems like it’s done when they feel like doing it. It’s entirely possible that there’s a really good reason that fits within some predetermined criteria that exists somewhere, but it speaks to the lack of transparency on all of these decisions.”
Halabi added that this lack of transparency increased fears the university would continue the pause on merit pay increases for faculty moving into the next fiscal year.
“They need to be transparent about the actual bases for the exigency, and if they’re not transparent, then my answer is that I’m worried that they will just decide to keep their money right in December,” Halabi said. The CAS program administrator said Georgetown ought to more clearly delineate the university’s financial direction so employees can set expectations and plan ahead.
“I would love to see an outlined game plan: What are the steps that they’re prepared to take given certain indicators, whether that be an action by the administration or whether that be an internal indicator?” the program administrator said.
“It doesn’t feel like the provosts or presidents are planning that far ahead, and if they are, they’re certainly not telling us,” the program administrator added. “Which worries us, because why wouldn’t you show your plans unless they’re scary for your workers, for your community members?” Afinogenov said the university needs to do more to reassure and protect its employees in the face of uncertainty.
“In a moment like this, where there are, objectively, a lot of people who are afraid for their jobs, a lot of people who are afraid for their livelihood, the university could do more to reassure them and to make commitments that they are going to do the most that they can to protect people’s jobs,” Afinogenov said.
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New Graduate Programs Aim to Focus On Addiction Policy, Infectious Diseases
Angela Lekan Senior Science Editor
The School of Health (SOH) launched several new graduate programs in 2025, including masters’ programs in Global Infectious Disease, Science in Global Health and Science in Addiction Policy & Practice in addition to an executive certificate in Human Factors in Healthcare.
These programs were originally part of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and relocated to the SOH, increasing the school’s educational offerings and focusing on the SOH’s mission of advancing people’s health locally and globally.
Dr. Jennifer Bouey, chair of the department of global health at the SOH and a professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs program at the School of Foreign Service (SFS), said the department of global health was key in the new programs’ establishment.
“These graduate programs are not entirely new to Georgetown — they recently relocated from the Graduate School to the School of Health as part of a university restructuring,” Bouey wrote to The Hoya. “That said, our department has been instrumental in developing and supporting these programs from their inception.”
Although the SOH is only in its third year as a school after splitting from the School of Nursing in 2022, Bouey said its mission of educating experts in global health has been ongoing for decades.
“The foundation for this work began 25 years ago when our department established one of the first international health bachelor’s degree programs (later renamed to Global Health) in the United States,” Bouey wrote.
The Global Health initiative culminated in the establishment of the masters’ program in the Science of Global Health more than 10 years ago.
Professor John Quattrochi, director of the program, said it was inspired by health inequities worldwide, including discrepancies in life expectancy.
“There is a 30-year gap between how long people born in Japan, South Korea or Spain are likely to live compared to people born in Nigeria, South Sudan or Mali,” Quattrochi wrote to The Hoya. “We wanted to marshal the expertise at GU and in DC generally to train the next generation of global health scholars and practitioners who will work to reduce that gap.”
One unique aspects of the master’s program is that students spend 14 weeks in low- and mid-
dle-income countries to gain field research experience.
“After a year of rigorous coursework, all of our students spend 14 weeks abroad at a world-class research center,” Quattrochi wrote. “They work with local staff to develop and answer a question relevant to the fight to reduce premature death and disease.”
Regina LaBelle, director of the new Master of Science in Addiction Policy & Practice, was instrumental in the program’s creation, saying she served in the Obama Administration during the height of the opioid crisis.
“The idea for the Master’s program came about after serving for eight years in the Obama Administration,” LaBelle wrote to The Hoya. “I worked in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the time that overdose deaths driven by opioids reached a crisis point in the US.”
LaBelle said many people die of overdose every year, mostly as a result of illegal fentanyl, an extremely addictive opioid.
“Far too many people — more than 80,000 — die every year from overdose deaths, primarily driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl,” LaBelle wrote. “These individuals leave behind loved ones
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Graduate programs moved from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences to the School of Health (SOH), furthering the SOH’s mission to advance health both locally and globally.
and their deaths reverberate in communities across the country.”
LaBelle also said the health effects of alcohol use represent a public crisis as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) identifies more than 178,000 deaths related to alcohol usage.
“While curbing overdose deaths is an urgent public health concern, we must also face the health impact alcohol use disorder has on our country,” LaBelle wrote. “In 2024, one in ten people had an alcohol use disorder according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”
LaBelle said this new master’s program offers students perspectives in science and policymaking to prepare them to combat these challenges.
International Overdose Awareness Day Increases Campus, Global Attention for Abusive Substance Use, Addiction
Ruth Noll Senior Science Editor
International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) marked global attention for increased awareness about substance use emergencies on Georgetown University campus and beyond Aug. 31.
The first International Overdose Awareness Day began in 2001 in Australia and has now spread to more than 40 countries. For the past four years, Georgetown has hosted naloxone distribution programming for IOAD.
To support students and the greater Washington, D.C. community, the university hosts a master’s program in Addiction Policy and Practice, a multidisciplinary program dedicated to educating future leaders about addiction policy. The program has developed training with HoyaDOPE and distribution sites of free naloxone at locations around campus, such as the Student Health Center.
Regina LaBelle, director of the program and of the Center for Addiction Policy at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health, an institute at the Law Center working to use law to identify solutions to health issues, said IOAD helps remind people of the issue of substance use disorders.
“Overdose Awareness Day is important to make certain that people in the U.S. and around the world remember those we have lost to overdose, while also understanding how they can prevent future overdoses,” LaBelle wrote to The Hoya Although overdose numbers have been dropping, Black men are still disproportionately affect-
ed, and healthcare professionals have identified these as preventable deaths.
LaBelle said that efforts to prevent overdose deaths should continue.
“While overdose death rates have come down in recent years, from over 100,000 to approximately 80,000 — each overdose is a preventable death,” LaBelle wrote. “There is more that we all can do to prevent overdose deaths.”
Jacob Lignell (GRD ’26) — a master’s student in Addiction and Public Policy and the co-president of Hoyas for Recovery, a club that aims to support students recovering from substance use disorder — said college students are especially vulnerable to the risks of overdose.
“For college students, I feel like they have an extra level of stigma associated with use and everything, because people believe that they’re almost invincible because they’re only 20 years old,” Lignell told The Hoya. “They don’t really understand that there’s dangers with this.”
Lillian Spear (MED ’28) — a coordinator of HoyaDOPE, a student organization that works to provide naloxone trainings and distributions — said it is important to know the signs of overdose.
“When it transitions into that overdose period where you really want to get them help and administer that naloxone, is when they’re unconscious and unresponsive, they’re going to have a deep, gurgling breathing sound,” Spear told The Hoya “It’s going to really sound like they are having trouble breathing, and then your fingertips, their lips, those areas might be turning blue, gray, purplish.”
Known by its brand name Narcan, naloxone treats opioid overdoses through injection or nasal spray, attaching itself to the same receptors that opioids bind to. Spear said naloxone binds more strongly to the receptors than opioids, so it can “knock off” the opioids already bound, reversing an overdose.
Naloxone is available for free at participating pharmacies across the District, at Georgetown’s Office of Neighborhood Life and at other on-campus sites. For IOAD, the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health, which provides services for people experiencing mental health issues or substance use disorder, promoted overdose prevention tools and, on the Law Campus, HoyaDOPE and the O’Neill Center ran a Narcan training and distribution session.
After a National Survey on Drug Use and Health about undergraduate students and substance use
disorder in 2021, Lignell said Hoyas for Recovery has increased their support for students.
“That’s kind of the mission of our club is just to plant seeds in college students’ heads that help is here,” Lignell added. “They might not utilize it in the moment, but when they are ready, we’re always going to be there.”
Spear said that, although naloxone is an important resource, there is still more to be done on the institutional level to prevent overdoses.
“We really need to address the underlying institutionalized issues of addiction and having those social services and the support,” Spear said. “The way we do that is by reaching out to our legislators and our congressmen and really advocating for that, and the National Opioid Awareness Day is a great way to do that, and a great way to remind everyone of this issue.”
Pig Lung Transplant Marks Milestone in Medicine
Adhithi Rajesh Deputy Science Editor
Doctors in Guangzhou, China, transplanted a lung from a genetically modified pig into a human for the first time Aug. 25, highlighting the potential of xenotransplantation to transform medical care.
The organ survived for nine days inside a 39-year-old man in China who was brain dead at the time of surgery. The procedure was performed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. The first successful human kidney transplant was performed in 1954, followed by the first heart transplant in 1967. Since then, transplants have expanded to include livers, lungs, pancreases and even combined organ transplants, becoming a routine and life-saving operation. This achievement, reported in Nature Medicine this week, represents progress toward more accessible transplant procedures.
Abigail Marsh, a professor in the department of psychology and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at Georgetown, said the breakthrough is essen-
tial in solving the core issue with transplant surgeries today.
“There are over 100,000 people on the waiting list for organs in the United States today, many of whom will die before a donor organ can be found. There have never been enough human donors to fill the gap. This advance may someday help solve a problem that we haven’t so far been able to solve any other way,” Marsh told The Hoya Xenotransplantation, the use of animal organs in humans, has long been proposed as a solution to donor organ shortages, but early attempts failed due to the human body rejecting the foreign organs. Recent advances in genome editing have made it possible to design pigs whose organs are far more compatible with the human body by removing the genes that most likely provoke adverse immune reactions, replacing them with human genes that help the organ blend in with its new host.
Hearts, kidneys and even livers have been tested in experimental xenotransplants, but lungs, with their extensive vascular networks, have, until now, been the most elusive target.
Christopher Hwang (CAS ’28), a pre-medical student at Georgetown,
said he was shocked to see how far xenotransplantation has come.
“I remember reading years ago about how pigs have the most similar blood structure to humans, and how pig blood could potentially be used as artificial blood,” Hwang told The Hoya. “It’s truly incredible to see that in just a couple years, such similarities between pigs and humans have translated into a whole lung transplantation.”
The transplanted left lung came from a pig with six genomic edits developed by Chengdu ClonOrgan Biotechnology. Three genes were removed from the lung to reduce the risk of an immune response after transplantation and three human genes were added to protect the organ against clotting and inflammatory attack.
Sophia Kojo (SON ’28), a Georgetown nursing student, said she is excited about this new research in genome editing and transplantation.
“I hope we continue to research and explore genetic modification as a means of making xenotransplantation safer and more reliable,” Kojo told The Hoya The surgeons reported no immediate signs of graft failure,
which occurs when the transplanted organ fails to make new, healthy cells or function properly in the body. Although some injury was observed by day three, the tissue showed signs of recovery by day nine.
The study was then ended at the request of the recipient’s family, but it was a promising proof of concept for long-term xenotransplantation.
The study’s authors acknowledged that better preservation methods and additional genetic modifications will be needed to achieve longer survival in the future. Despite this, the nine-day viability of a pig lung inside a human marks a major step toward expanding the supply of donor organs.
Kojo reflected on the significance of the breakthrough for the future of medical care, saying it represents positive progress.
“It makes me so happy to know that we are one step closer to saving those who have been waiting for the resources they need and deserve,” Kojo said. “Imagine the relief knowing that you’re finally getting that life-changing procedure — that you’re being given a second chance at life.”
“The program includes courses in neuroscience and addiction psychiatry, as well as courses in addiction and mental health law, health care financing and data and statistics,” LaBelle wrote. “The seminar course I teach seeks to integrate these various disciplines to help students understand how to drive policy change.”
Bouey said these graduate programs are increasingly relevant in the face of modern challenges, such as the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and new biotechnology risks emerging with artificial intelligence.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has set global development backwards and revealed capacity gaps in global health across all conti-
nents — there is no better time to emphasize the importance of global health,” Bouey wrote.
“The challenges we face — ensuring accessible healthcare for all, preventing and responding to pandemics and combating misinformation and AI-related biotechnology risks — are present both domestically and internationally.” Bouey added that the SOH’s graduate programs are dedicated to preparing students to address these issues.
“While we face many challenges, we remain dedicated to enhancing both local and global communities’ capacity to meet these complex health challenges head-on,” Bouey wrote.
GU Research Collaboration Investigates Protein’s Impact On Brain, Nervous System
Eva Siminiceanu
Deputy Science Editor
A collaborative research project between Georgetown University’s Maillard Lab and Wang Lab investigates nervous system function through the lens of protein experiments.
The Wang Lab in the department of pharmacology and physiology at the Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) studies the relationship between nervous system stability and neurological diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.
Epilepsy affects the lifestyle of almost 3 million people in the United States per year, and Alzheimer’s disease causes over 100,000 deaths per year in the U.S. Individual proteins in the brain play key roles in these systems, intersecting with the work of the Maillard Lab in Georgetown’s chemistry department, which studies properties, functions and communication mechanisms of various proteins.
Saleem Abu-Tayeh (GRD ’23), a researcher in the Wang Lab, and Nazgol Missaghi (CAS ’28), aW research assistant in the Maillard Lab, collaborated on an ongoing project investigating the role that interactions between proteins play in overall neural stability.
Abu-Tayeh said the lab aims to elucidate how different proteins affect nervous system function and homeostasis, the maintenance and regulation of neuron activity.
“We’re investigating how protein interactions affect homeostatic neuroplasticity and nervous system function,” Abu-Tayeh wrote to The Hoya
The collaborative project between the two labs allows them to research the role of several key proteins, such as Drosophila multiplexin and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2), in the nervous system while making improvements to the research process.
Missaghi said investigating the role of these proteins in neural functions will aid in understanding the causes and processes that underlie severe neurological illnesses.
“We investigated the roles of Drosophila multiplexin and MMP2 in synaptic regulation, optimized protein protocols, and analyzed their impact on signaling pathways,“ Missaghi wrote to The Hoya. “It’s common to overlook how much a single protein can af-
fect complex neural circuits, and our work shows just how critical these interactions are.”
Abu-Tayeh and Missaghi made several changes to the project’s protein purification process, which they said is crucial to isolating the samples of protein they aim to study, allowing them to retain purer samples and further their research.
Abu-Tayeh said summer research offered opportunities to overcome previous challenges in the protocol.
“Before the summer, I was struggling to purify my protein due to several reasons,” Abu-Tayeh wrote. “This summer, with the ability to collaborate with others and discuss the projects with others more, we were able to think of new ideas to overcome some of these obstacles.”
Abu-Tayeh added that collaboration was key to the project’s developments and that summer research is a crucial time period for researchers to work together in this way.
“People often assume summer research is repetitive or slows down, but it’s actually when the most collaboration happens, as lab members can dedicate more time and have the opportunity to exchange ideas across projects,” Abu-Tayeh wrote.
Student researchers across the Georgetown community look forward to the unique opportunity the summer provides to dedicate larger amounts of time and thought to their research, creating more opportunities for discovery and progress.
Anish Patel (CAS ’28) — an undergraduate research assistant at Georgetown’s Golestaneh Lab, which studies how aging affects the cells and causes age-related macular degeneration— said he looks forward to conducting summer research in the future.
“Staying over the summer will give me full time experience in the lab to really start my own research experience and see it come to fruition, rather than fitting it in with academic commitments, as I do during the school year,” Patel told The Hoya Missaghi said her and Abu-Tayah’s work will continue into the school year, as will their contributions to both labs’ scientific discoveries.
“This summer helped me see research as a process of exploration,” Missaghi wrote. “Missteps are just another way of uncovering how bio-
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
International Overdose Awareness Day promoted awareness about substance use emergencies at Georgetown University.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The Georgetown University Maillard Lab and Wang Lab collaborated to investigate the nervous system via protein experiments.
IN FOCUS
Groves Testifies to Congress on Collegiate Antisemitism
Interim University President
Republicans’ fears about antisemitism, avoiding viral moments that characterized prior hearings.
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GUSA’s Summer Session Advances Legislation
Sofia Thomas GUSA Desk Editor
The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government, passed several bills during their summer session aimed at improving student life and easing the transition back to campus for the Fall 2025 semester.
During its June summer meeting, the GUSA Senate passed an amendment to GUSA bylaws, requiring every bill or proposed resolution to include a plan of legislation, outlining how the policy could be carried out. The senate also unanimously passed a resolution to establish an endowed fund for student life, which would provide funds for student events, and started working to permit seniors who live off campus to access the newly renovated lobby of Byrnes Hall with their GOCards.
Saahil Rao (SFS ’27), the speaker of the senate, said the student life fund would help subsidize high-cost events by working with the Center for Student Engagement and reducing contributions from the Student Activities Fund (SAF), GUSA’s annual budget that funds student activities.
“We thought it was really important to look big picture and think, ‘How can we make more money available to student life?’” Rao told The Hoya. “We’re centering on this idea to have donors fund a couple of very high-burden events, which the SAF currently pays for, so that hopefully the burden could be moved off the SAF — and now all of a sudden, you have a couple hundred thousand dollars more for every single club to potentially access.” Rao introduced the resolution alongside five other senators.
Zadie Weaver (CAS ’28), the senate’s vice speaker, said she introduced a bill in June to increase transparency surrounding the costs of hiring Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) officers for certain club events.
for Student Life, Funding
“One bill that I introduced to the Senate was a GUPD bill, that attempts to set up more clear criteria for which club events GUPD needs to staff, as well as seeking other possible options for security,” Weaver wrote to The Hoya
“Right now, the hourly cost of GUPD is around $70/hr, and the guidelines for when GUPD is necessary are vague.” GUPD presence is typically required for events in large venues, such as Gaston Hall, events featuring provocative speakers or subjects or events that involve alcohol, amplified sound or cash, according to the department’s webpage. The current hourly rate for GUPD event security services is $68.25 per officer, with a general requirement of one officer per 75 participants.
Rao said he hopes GUSA continues to pursue transparency surrounding GUPD security costs this fall.
“GUPD costs are extremely prohibitive,” Rao said. “But we’re hoping to have more conversations with them throughout the semester, and hopefully even create a slightly more independent process for determining security requirements, because we really think that would save a lot of money for clubs.” Weaver, who introduced the bill ensuring access to Byrnes Hall for off-campus undergraduates, said she wanted to make the transition back to the school year easier with the legislation.
“That may seem small, but I think it’s important that GUSA pays attention to changes made over the summer so that we don’t have to resolve the summer changes administration makes in the first few weeks of school,” Weaver wrote.
The university has not changed policy, though Rao said GUSA would continue advocating for the issue. Weaver and Rao also co-sponsored the bill requiring a plan of action on all legislation, alongside Asha Gudipaty (CAS ’27), vice chair of the senate’s Pol-
icy and Advocacy Committee (PAC), which determines whether to send legislation before the full senate.
In addition to the legislation, GUSA president Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) said he met with interim university President Robert M. Groves for the first time over the summer to discuss investment policies.
“I discussed investment policies and asked if the university could commit to transparently disclosing how the socially responsible investment policy works in practice, what types of companies fall under their ban on weapons manufacturers, and how that policy applies to mutual funds,” Henshaw wrote to The Hoya
In April, Georgetown students endorsed a GUSA referendum calling on the university to divest from Israeli institutions in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, citing the university’s investments in companies with ties to the Israeli government and arms manufacturers. Groves immediately declined to implement the student referendum, citing academic freedom and the university’s responsibility to “deepen engagement and foster dialogue between scholars and societies.”
Henshaw added that he advocated for admission reform and greater financial aid during a June meeting of the Board of Directors, criticizing the university’s continued use of legacy admissions. The Hoya reported in April that legacy applicants were nearly three times more likely to receive an admissions offer.
Henshaw said his work over the summer focused on improving the quality of life for current and future students.
“Admissions and financial aid are really important to me, even if these reforms will not particularly affect students who are on campus now,” Henshaw wrote. “It matters a lot that Georgetown is a place accessible to everyone from all backgrounds.”WW
Student
Ruth Abramovitz Senior News Editor
Georgetown University student organizations hosted a teach-in about students’ constitutional rights when dealing with local and federal law enforcement Sept. 1.
The event comes in response to President Donald Trump federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and installing 850 federal agents in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11, and the appearance of those federal agents on Georgetown’s campus. About 30 students attended the event, which was hosted by a local chapter of Free DC, a movement which advocates for D.C. autonomy, in collaboration with Sunrise Georgetown, a climate activism group; Hoyas For Immigrant Rights (HFIR), which advocates for immigrant protections; Georgetown’s chapter of the legal advocacy nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); Get Free GU, which organizes around issues of equality; and the D.C. chapter of Bulletproof Pride, a gun violence prevention organization.
Emily Han (CAS ’26), the chapter coordinator for Free DC who co-led the lecture, said she organized the event to help students understand the current policing landscape in D.C.
“Our presentation overall was meant to help students navigate the new landscape that’s emerging after so many troops have descended on our city, especially for new students who might not exactly know the legal status of D.C.,” Han told The Hoya
Full disclosure: Emily Han formerly served as The Hoya’s Senior Multimedia Editor in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 and as a member of The Hoya’s Board of Directors in Fall 2024.
The event coordinators spoke
specifically about encountering federal agents on the university’s campus, where they appeared to have been Aug. 13.
Izzy Volpe (SFS ’27) — an HFIR board member who coordinates with United We Dream, a national immigrant advocacy organization — said students should film law enforcement if they are present on campus, and should contact resident assistants (RAs) or community directors (CDs).
“If you are a bystander in a situation where someone is stopped by law enforcement, recording is a great way to discourage unlawful behavior on the part of the police,” Volpe told The Hoya. “And also, we discussed contacting RAs if they’re in residence places, contacting CDs and also just knowing your rights.”
Han said students interacting with police officers or federal agents should prioritize deescalating the interaction, a point which was stressed during the teach-in.
“In interactions with any local law enforcement or federal law enforcement, students should definitely just try to keep it as calm as possible, deescalate and leave the situation as quickly as they can,” Han said.
Sofia Calabretta (SFS ’28), the co-president of HFIR, said the group got involved with the teach-in because federal policing in the city is affecting immigrant communities.
“We’re worried and concerned about the safety, health and well-being of our students and our community,” Calabretta told The Hoya. “And for our students, our international students, our students with ties to immigration or with immigrant families or friends, our undocumented students. We want to make sure that people feel safe on campus.”
Isaac Mazariegos (SFS ’28), the
treasurer of HFIR, said the group is also specifically focused on involving non-immigrants in their programming, including events like the teach-in.
“A lot of immigrants are afraid to speak out or afraid to really defend themselves,” Mazariegos told The Hoya. “So we’re focused on also providing and empowering individuals who have that privilege of being citizens or not being immigrants to also empower those individuals around them.”
After the MPD was federalized, it began sharing immigration status information of individuals not in custody with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a practice which was not previously part of MPD’s policy.
The change led to 300 ICE detainments in D.C. between Aug. 7 and Aug. 23, compared with an average of 12 ICE detainments per week during the first six months of the Trump administration.
Volpe said this outcome has impacted HFIR’s mission as an on-campus group.
“As soon as the federalization occurred, dozens of people were disappeared,” Volpe said. “So our responsibility in this upcoming year and moving forward is to really raise awareness and raise people’s critical consciousness about issues around immigration.”
Han said efforts like the teach-in will help prepare students for a legal landscape where constitutional rights are increasingly threatened.
“There’s a lot of confusion because even with the rights that we do have, there are a lot of violations of them,” Han said. “And so a lot of what we’re training people on is how to stay safe, and even if you do have these rights, what do you do if they’re being violated or not respected?”
Buenos Aires-Inspired Coffee Shop Invites Community in Georgetown
Ajani Stella Senior News Editor
A new coffee shop and bookstore opened in Georgetown, featuring Argentinian-inspired food, drinks and cooking and mental health books. Flor. Coffee + Books, located on 31st Street NW near M Street, aims to provide a peaceful space that draws on the heritage of its founders, Florencia Agrazo and Marco Ferrario, a couple from Buenos Aires, Argentina. After managing her pandemic-era anxiety through gratitude journals, Agrazo wanted to create a shop for Washington, D.C. residents with that same joyful energy.
Ferrario said the shop represents his and Agrazo’s love for each other.
“The name is Flor., because of her and because of what it means,” Ferrario told The Hoya “The effort we put here, we put in our relationship too, and as we build our relationship, our family, we build this shop too. Everything has been thought about, every detail. Every error, every mistake, everything makes us grow together.”
Flor., which celebrated its grand opening Aug. 22, has a typical coffee shop on its ground floor, coupled with a kitchen in the back produc -
ing breakfast dishes that fuse American and Argentinian cuisines. Upstairs, Ferrario and Agrazo built a sitting area with tables, seats and books for sale, where they hope people will gather and relax.
Agrazo said the neighborhood’s initial interest in Flor. confirmed her hope that she could blend her heritage with the District’s culture.
“We feel this pride inside our hearts because we had this crazy idea of bringing Buenos Aires cafe culture and connecting it with wellness topics, with the bookstore, with the menu,” Agrazo told The Hoya “And now seeing that people love our place, it’s really reaffirming.”
The shop also connects to an outdoor terrace with trees and tables, shared with nearby businesses, where customers often sit.
The menu, which ranges from snacks to full breakfast meals, presents American dishes with Buenos Aires flair. Flor.’s priority is its coffee and other drinks, bringing Agrazo and Ferrario’s Argentinian culture to Georgetown patrons.
Alex Cohen (CAS ’28), who visited Flor. because it reminded her of a friend currently studying abroad in
Buenos Aires, said the effort Agrazo and Ferrario put into the shop paid off, describing her iced tea as one of the best she has ever had.
“They just really seem to take their time and take their energy,” Cohen told The Hoya. “I heard the people working there speaking to each other in Spanish, the owner was working the register — it seems like a very homey kind of place.”
Ferrario said the response from customers has been overwhelmingly positive, which gives him hope for the shop’s success.
“People start to appear, and people like what we do, people like what we have, and we want to give our customers a good experience and healthy food,” Ferrario said. Cohen said Flor. was a great place slightly off campus to study or get away from the busyness of Georgetown.
“It’s a beautiful interior,” Cohen said. “It feels like a little escape because you don’t see the hustle and bustle of Georgetown.”
“It’s two minutes past Wisconsin Avenue, but it feels like you’re out of the Georgetown student bubble,” Cohen added.
Agrazo and Ferrario hope to engage the neighborhood, including the university com -
munity, more as their shop grows. They plan to host workshops on meditation and art, start a wellness podcast and discuss nutrition with patrons. They are also hoping to work with local groups to host community events.
The shop also focuses on gratitude, a theme Agrazo picked up during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she started writing “gratitude journals” to cope with anxiety. The couple now sells a published journal, building on Agrazo’s own past as the owner of a book company in Buenos Aires.
Agrazo said the shop is her and Ferrario’s way to create a safe space, especially for people that do not have one.
“In Argentina, we have some advantages in that we gather people together, and our friends are our family, and we have a great coffee culture — so I think we wanted to put that culture in D.C. and create a place that feels like home,” Agrazo said.
“We wanted to create our living room,” Agrazo added. “We want people to feel really welcome, and feel like it’s this warm and peaceful space. I think that is one of the key reasons why people love our place.”
PAULINA INGLIMA/THE HOYA
Robert M. Groves balanced defending the university’s mission with assuaging
COURTESY OF FLOR. COFFEE + BOOKS Florencia Agrazo and Marco Ferrario hope Flor. will become a community space in the Georgetown neighborhood.
GU Community Mourns Humanities
Professor, Advocate Ricardo Ortiz
ORTIZ, from A1
Josh Javier Guzmán (SFS ’10) — who Ortiz taught in the English department and Community Scholars Program (CSP), an academic program for first generation and low-income students — is now an associate professor of gender studies at UCLA. Guzmán said Ortiz was instrumental in shaping his career.
“Because of him and his classes and his mentorship, I started reading more critical theory, and that’s sort of what spurred my interest in academia, largely, and becoming a professor,” Guzmán told The Hoya “He’s probably the main reason why I chose this route — because he showed me that I could read and write and research as a way of living.”
An ally for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, Ortiz frequently taught in the CSP. He was a faculty sponsor of many programs serving underrepresented students, including the Georgetown Scholarship Program, the Black House Diversity Initiative, the LGBTQ Resource Center, La Casa Latina, MEChA de Georgetown, the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access (CMEA), the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, the Patrick Healy Fellows, the Provost’s Diversity Action Council and the Center for Social Justice.
Sivagami Subbaraman, the former and inaugural director of the LGBTQ Resource Center and close friend of Ortiz’s and O’Neill’s, said Ortiz’s care for these programs was essential in shaping a campus culture that addressed its communities’ needs.
“I think of him as somebody who could go where the silences are,” Subbaraman told The Hoya. “He was not afraid to go where the silences are, whether the silences were on campus around issues of equity, diversity, around issues of inclusivity, whether it was the faculty staff divide, whether it was students and Latinx issues.”
Ortiz was influential in Georgetown’s 2007 Out for Change campaign, a movement advocating for better treatment of the LGBTQ+ community on campus that resulted in the university establishing the LGBTQ Resource Center in 2008 — the first Catholic university in the United States to do so. At the time, Ortiz was among the first few openly gay faculty members at Georgetown.
Patrick O’Malley, the chair of the English department who worked closely with Ortiz, said Ortiz’s love for his students is what characterizes him best.
“He loved his students,” O’Malley told The Hoya
“He went to celebrate with them at their various successes, not because he was obligated to, but because he wanted to, because he got tremendous joy in being there with his students,” O’Malley added.
This was particularly true for Clara Mejía Orta (CAS ’17), one of Ortiz’s
students in the CSP, who fondly remembers Ortiz briefly pausing her graduation ceremony procession to hug her and tell her he was proud of her. Mejía Orta, who is currently pursuing a doctorate in history at Yale University, said his presence guided her through Georgetown and led her to apply for graduate school.
“Profe Ricardo made us feel seen, he made us feel heard, but most importantly he made us understand that graduating from Georgetown was not the end but the beginning of our stories,” Mejía Orta wrote to The Hoya. “For me as a Latina it meant something to see and work with a Latinx Professor, he showed me that I could too and put me on the path of writing and researching Latinx communities to tell our stories.”
A Pioneer in the Humanities Ortiz was instrumental in bringing Latine and queer studies to Georgetown and expanding humanities departments, particularly interdisciplinary programs.
Brian Hochman, the director of the American Studies department, said Ortiz’s greatest legacy is his role in institutionalizing these programs in academia.
“I think these are fields that we now take for granted as part of a Georgetown education,” Hochman told The Hoya. “When he came to campus, they were still very much marginal, and he spent a lot of time and a lot of energy making those fields more visible, fighting for it, and also fighting for students who wanted to learn about those subjects.”
Ortiz published two books in Latine studies and over 40 other academic works in the humanities. He was working on a book about Cuban Paris when he died.
Soyica Diggs Colbert, interim university provost, said Ortiz was an important member of the university community.
“Professor Ortiz was a beloved teacher and tireless supporter of the humanities and of Georgetown,” Diggs Colbert wrote in an email to the university community.
Bassam Sidiki (CAS ’16), another of Ortiz’s students, said Ortiz’s influence on the humanities will have long-lasting impacts.
“I think Professor Ortiz will always be remembered as a champion of the humanities,” Sidiki told The Hoya. “He was passionate, not just in the classroom. He was a dynamic teacher — you would be mesmerized if you’re sitting in the classroom and he’s lecturing.”
Nicoletta Pireddu, the director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative who first met Ortiz at UCLA, said she found a particular kinship in their shared commitment to developing the humanities and expanding opportunities for students.
“I think it was a kind of twin soul that I saw in him,” Pireddu told The Hoya
“I can tell that out of 30 emails that I would find early in the morning when I was ready to start my day, Ricardo’s messages were always the first ones I would click on, no matter what the content was,” Pireddu added.
Pireddu and Ortiz were working on ways to create collaborations between her program in the undergraduate school and Ortiz’s master’s program in Engaged and Public Humanities before he died. She said she hopes to find a way to continue that work and create more interdisciplinary avenues for students to study the humanities, continuing Ortiz’s mission.
A Source of Joy, Support, Care
Georgetown students and faculty remembered the happiness, humor and care Ortiz brought to those in his life. They said he loved poetry and popular culture, both of which he could talk about for hours. He handwrote his application to Stanford in one try because he knew exactly what he wanted to contribute and receive from the university. He knew staff and faculty across almost every department at Georgetown and took pride in bringing them together.
Amanda Phillips, an English professor and personal friend of Ortiz’s, said Ortiz was a “nucleus” for Georgetown’s faculty.
“He made a point to get to know everyone around him, and to make sure they were doing okay, and had what they needed to survive in the institution,” Phillips told The Hoya
Elizabeth Velez, the CSP’s former academic director who was especially close to Ortiz, said she will remember his devotion to those around him.
“One of the things that I learned from Ricardo is to pay attention to everything in the moment, and that’s what Ricardo did in the classroom,” Velez told The Hoya. “He listened to everyone. He saw everyone. And there are students at Georgetown who sometimes don’t feel seen, and Ricardo saw every single one of them.”
Velez and Ortiz spent Thanksgiving and Christmas together for many years.
O’Neill said Ortiz is best remembered by his joy, in part evidenced by a poem Ortiz frequently quoted about the importance of joy in everyday life — an ideal he championed.
“Ricardo was a remarkably joyful person,” O’Neill said. “And the Mary Oliver poem he loved — ‘Don’t Hesitate’ — implored us to find joy and pursue it. ‘Joy is not made to be a crumb,’ Oliver wrote. So if Ricardo were to have an epitaph, it would be about the joy he found in being here. He found immense joy in teaching, in poetry, in literature, in cinema; he found joy in simply being at Georgetown.”
O’Neill has long carried a copy of the poem in his wallet.
Ortiz is survived by his partner of four years, Paul O’Neill; sisters, Ana and Ana; and nephews, Colin, Andrew and Daniel.
Students Upset With DC Takeover
GUARD, from A1 members and fully complies with due process requirements.”
For Wrigley Zbyszewski (CAS ’29), who said she saw two federal agents on 37th Street NW during her first weekend on campus, the federal policing of the city has added anxiety to her transition into Georgetown.
“Maybe other kids who have been here for a little bit, who are
from D.C. or Virginia are more used to seeing various types of federal agents around,” Zbyszewski told The Hoya. “But for kids who are not from here, coming into any sort of police presence can be unsettling.”
Zbyszewski said she has to take extra precautions that first-years at other universities do not need to take.
Loaiza said that although the presence of federal agents feels daunting, it has united students.
“It’s really easy to feel powerless in this situation, especially when the force one is fighting against is the federal government, but people are coming together and are being unified by this issue” Loaiza wrote.
“When I’m introducing myself to girls on my floor, we’re exchanging numbers of our parents, in case something happens and we need to contact someone,” she said. “It’s just that extra layer of stress.”
New Residential Complex Opens
RESIDENTIAL, from A1
St. Mary’s a lot. It’s also right next to the hospital where a lot of my clinical placements are.”
Auslander added that the hall’s lobby space, which includes study dens, lounge chairs, skylights and a pool table, makes Hayden and Byrnes feel more communal.
“It feels very conducive to both being able to do work and group projects and solo work, but also kind of have fun with friends,” Auslander said. “And it also feels like people are keeping it a space where you can still run into people in the lobby, which is kind of nice.”
Juliana Melara-Recinos (CAS ’27), a Byrnes resident, said having study space available in her dormitory’s lobby prevents her from having to walk alone late at night.
“Not that campus is unsafe, but as a woman you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, something might happen to me,’” Melara-Recinos told The Hoya. “I just feel like I have a space here now that’s more accessible, and I feel a lot safer to just go home, which is upstairs.”
For the students who moved in, each unit includes a full kitchen and dishwasher, a living room area, personal sinks and a laundry machine.
Marino said the in-unit kitchen is one of the biggest draws of the building.
“Having a kitchen is huge for me,” Marino told The Hoya. “I got so used to it when I was abroad, and then used it again over the summer. And it’s just fun because there’s lots of communal space so I can be cooking and talking to people in my living room.”
Carolina Chou (MSB ’27), Melara-Recinos’ roommate in Byrnes, said these amenities are a great improvement from those in her previous residence halls.
“I feel like you can just feel that everything’s really clean and new,” Chou told The Hoya. “We each have our own sinks, which is super nice. It makes getting ready for bed a lot faster.”
Marino said she also was interested in living in the new dormitory because of its mixedgender housing option.
“I was thinking about, that if I was on campus, I would have to live with all girls,” Marino said. “If I was off campus, I could live with whoever I wanted. One of my best friends in the school here is a guy, so it would be nice to be able to live with him.”
For Marino, finding housing on campus was also more practical, as she said navigating a squeezed rental market during the spring of her junior year would be difficult.
“Since I went abroad my junior fall, I would’ve basically had to have that house my sophomore spring,” Marino said. “Most of the time, you’re not getting a lease if you’re trying to get that lease in your junior spring.”
Lily Buckner (CAS ’26), a Hayden Hall resident, said avoiding the neighboring rental market and landlords and maintenance issues is an additional benefit of living on campus her senior year.
“I was never interested in living off-campus because I hear so many horror stories about landlord issues, issues with appliances not working,” Buckner told The Hoya. “And then it’s like, who’s responsible for that? Because when you live on campus, if something breaks or there’s some issue you’re having, all you have to do is put in a work order.”
Auslander said it would have been less expensive to live off campus, but the benefits of living in Hayden Hall make the upcharge worth it for her.
“It’s definitely more expensive than living off campus, but I was able to mitigate it by going down on my meal plan,” Auslander said. “I think that you do get what you pay for in the sense that it is a new building, and you’re paying for the convenience and proximity to campus.”
The price of a double unit for four residents in the new building is $9,266 per semester, or about $2,316 per month.
The average monthly rental price for the Burleith and Georgetown neighborhoods, in comparison, is $2,072.
The final third hall of the residential complex, Henle Hall, remains closed to students due to ongoing construction delays.
According to an email sent to students assigned to Henle Hall on July 10 that was obtained by The Hoya, the eight-unit building is set to open in November. Elyse Van Houten (MSB ’27) was assigned Henle Hall for accommodation requirements, but is currently housed in Nevils. They said they now must choose whether to take on the additional cost of living in Henle, which is over $2,000 more expensive per semester, or stay in Nevils.
“Going forward, we have the choice whether or not we want to stay at the Nevils and pay the Nevils rate or go to Henle and then pay the Henle rate for the amount of time we’re there,” Van Houten told The Hoya New residents have also dealt with technical hiccups, from electricity outages to GoCard scanners for common rooms, staircases and the main entrance to Hayden Hall not working. Grady McDonough (MSB ’26), a Hayden Hall resident, said the issues were apparent.
“I’ve had a neighbor whose fire alarm won’t stop going off and had to call the contractor back to the building,” McDonough said.
“And having the exterior Hayden doors not work for multiple days was rough as a Hayden resident.” Kanmani Duraikkannan (CAS ’26), a senior living in Hayden Hall, said these difficulties are being addressed quickly.
“My fridge didn’t work initially, but Henle has its own repair people and they fixed it literally within an hour or two of me reporting that there was an issue,” Duraikkannan said. “So it went down pretty easy, but there have been issues in general and they’re adjusting.” Melara-Recinos, having watched the construction from her freshman year room in the neighboring Darnall Hall, said moving into Byrnes felt like a full-circle moment.
“There’s like a sentimental value to it too, where my dorm was literally facing the construction,” Melara-Recinos said. “We saw it built up, so I was like, ‘yeah, like one day I’m going to live here.’ Then it happened.”
Grad Student Runs for Congress
CONGRESS from A1
official and U.S. Navy officer who ran unsuccessful congressional campaigns in 2018 and 2020, Campa-Najjar hopes his commitment to voters and focus on the economy and healthcare will deliver him to victory in 2026.
Campa-Najjar said that while he was ready to leave politics, he needed to take the chance to run against Issa.
“I got this call to serve, to come back and do something at a time when I think we need it,” Campa-Najjar said.
Issa did not respond to a request for comment.
Campa-Najjar said his belief in public service stemmed from watching former President Barack Obama deliver his 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention that addressed community and unity in the U.S.
“I remember growing up being this multi-ethnic kid, wondering if this country would ever embrace someone like me, a skinny, brown guy with a funny name,” Campa-Najjar said.
Obama endorsed Campa-Najjar in both his previous congressional runs.
California Democrats initially resisted Newsom’s calls to redistrict, but agreed to the plan after Texas passed its new map. While the plan currently enjoys support from a majority of California voters, many scholars have expressed concern that the redistricting fight will erode democratic norms and launch a broader battle across more states.
As Texas and California began threatening redistricting, CampaNajjar said he received calls from congressmembers and local leaders urging him to run in 2026. He then traveled back to California to speak with voters, which ultimately convinced him to run.
The current California 48th district voted for President Donald
Trump by a margin of 15 percentage points in 2024, according to an independent analysis. Under the redrawn map, the district favors Democrats by 3 percentage points.
Drew Lieberman, a pollster working on Campa-Najjar’s campaign, said the redrawn map places CampaNajjar in a strong position to use his campaigning skills.
“He listens actively and attentively,” Lieberman told The Hoya. “He establishes a relationship with people very quickly.”
Carl Luna, a professor of political science at San Diego Mesa College, said Campa-Najjar may face accusations of being a “carpetbagger,” or returning to California from Washington, D.C., for political opportunity.
“He’s coming back because it’s an opportunity,” Luna told The Hoya
“And the question is: Is he running for his own ambition, or is he running because he really has strong roots in the community?”
In his 2018 and 2020 failed congressional runs, CampaNajjar received more votes than statewide and national Democrats did in his district, which generally demonstrates greater support.
Campa-Najjar acknowledged his previous losses but said he is more prepared for this race because of them.
“We were able to punch way above our weight, and get people to come across the aisle and vote for me,” Campa-Najjar said. “That was a lot of hard work and making sure that we were connected to the real issues and not just getting stuck in the partisan gridlock.” Luna said Campa-Najjar has the best chance of any Democrat in the district, but his campaign must extend beyond criticism of Trump.
“You have to have some message on Trump’s impact on California, but
you also have to have some positive message on how you’re going to make life better for people in the newly constituted 48,” Luna said.
Malik Thornton, president of the San Diego Young Democrats, said Campa-Najjar understands the district well.
“Ammar ran one of the hottest races in the country in 2018 and in 2020, and so that experience is definitely helpful for the political field as well,” Thornton told The Hoya. “He knows how to build support and the issues that are important to people.” Gianna Yerkes (MSB, SFS ’28), who lives in California’s 48th district, said Campa-Najjar should remember that voters in the area are upset with high prices that resulted from some of Trump’s policies, yet the district remains socially conservative.
“He is going to need to accept that the majority of people that he needs votes from are conservative, but I think he needs to know that they’re open to someone who’s going to at least hear them out and respect their more conservative values, policies and opinions,” Yerkes told The Hoya Until November, Campa-Najjar will remain at Georgetown, where he is also a teaching assistant for “The U.S. Political System,” an introductory class in the department of government that provides an overview of U.S. politics and governance.
Campa-Najjar said that while potentially leaving Georgetown was a difficult decision, he was proud to make it.
“I was very comfortable with Georgetown and the Navy, but I don’t think this is the time to be comfortable,” Campa-Najjar said. “I want to be able to say that we stepped up and we met these challenges head on, and we were able to fight to build a country and a democracy that’s even stronger than the one that we had before.”
SFS Appoints Russian Political Opponent as
Emily Dabre Graduate Desk Editor
The School of Foreign Service’s (SFS) Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) appointed its first dissident-in-residence, the university announced Aug. 29.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, the dissident-in-residence, is an outspoken Russian politician and former political prisoner who has been a member of the political opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2000. He joins the SFS through a program run by the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), a pro-democracy group, and will host a speaker series and dissident discussion group for SFS graduate students.
Kara-Murza said he is excited to be a part of the Georgetown community and to engage with the students and faculty.
“The global struggle for democracy and human rights is an endeavour that spans generations,” Kara-Murza wrote to The Hoya via CERES. “I am grateful for the opportunity to share my experience with the younger generation — today’s university students and the leaders of tomorrow — and I cannot think of a better place to do so than Georgetown University.”
Michael David-Fox, director of CERES, said CERES specifically chose Kara-Murza due to his participation in the Russian opposition.
“Vladimir Kara-Murza immediately became our first choice to CERES for many compelling reasons,” David-Fox told The Hoya. “He showed the kind of
courage in the face of oppression that is inspiring; he was a political prisoner serving a 25year sentence in a penal colony in Siberia when he was released in August 2024 as part of a prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia.”
In April 2022, Kara-Murza was arrested for disobeying police officers, launching a string of charges that led to him being sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of treason and disinformation. He was released in an August 2024 prisoner exchange.
Matthew Miller, a former spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, said at the time Kara-Murza’s detention was “unjust,” calling the charges “spurious and politically motivated.”
Sean Cailteux (LAW ’26, GRD ’26), a graduate student in CERES, said he believes Kara-Murza’s presence will be valuable for students and faculty.
“I have a lot of respect for Mr. Kara-Murza’s efforts, his courage in the face of grave threats to his personal safety and his perseverance in pursuit of what I perceive as a noble and necessary goal,” Cailteux wrote to The Hoya. “I think his presence and work will be an invaluable resource to CERES students who are interested in contemporary Russian society and politics and efforts to reform and democratize Russia.”
Kristofers Krumins (GRD ’26), a CERES graduate student from Latvia, said he thinks Kara-Murza will be an important resource for students to learn about pro-de -
GU Faculty Group Hosts Lecture Series To Cover
History of Palestine
Ajani Stella Senior News Editor
A Georgetown University faculty group advocating for Palestinian liberation held a series of academic talks about Palestine’s history and international law Sept. 2 to 5. Georgetown’s chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) organized the lecture series, titled “Palestine 101,” to provide opportunities for students to learn about Palestine and Gaza at an introductory level. The four lectures covered key moments in the region’s history, important international laws and agreements and the current phase of the Israel-Hamas war. Elliot Colla, a member of FSJP and associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, said the lectures aim to cover gaps in community members’ education and knowledge.
“We are giving ample space to Palestinian perspectives and Palestinian analysis, which we see that the mainstream media systematically excludes, ignores and marginalizes,” Colla told The Hoya Colla said FSJP designed the lectures to be accessible to attendees with all degrees of prior knowledge of Palestine.
“These lectures are really intended for people who either know a lot, but want to know more, or people who are brand new,” Colla said. “We call it ‘Palestine 101’ because really what we’re doing in these lectures is meeting the community, meeting students and faculty and staff, where they’re at.”
The first lecture, held Sept. 2, provided an overview of the history of Palestine, including its British colonization, the advent of the state of Israel and subsequent conflicts and international agreements.
Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American writer and political analyst who led the Sept. 2 lecture, said the British repression of the Great Revolt, a Palestinian resistance movement in the 1930s, limited Palestinian organizing capability in subsequent decades.
“Even though Palestinians were sort of the majority, and while they were at a resource disadvantage against the Zionist movement, which had support from the outside, the repression of the Great Revolt weakened Palestinian society, weakened Palestinian capacity to mobilize and, as I noted,
mocracy activism, though he has some concerns.
“It is a rare thing for a university to have a dissident who’s been in prison for quite a long time and has been released during full-scale war,” Krumins told The Hoya. “The issue sometimes of the Russian opposition — even though they’re liberal, democratically minded — is that it is not always in line with the Ukrainian position, the European position.”
After years of political and military conflict, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The two countries have since been engaged in a protracted war.
Mark Vodianyi (GRD ’26), a graduate student from Ukraine, said he was shocked by the decision to appoint Kara-Murza to CERES.
“I felt very disappointed that he was appointed to CERES because of his political views back in 2024 when he talked about sanctions against Russia,” Vodianyi told The Hoya. “I mean, I don’t have to tell you how many Ukrainians have died because of this war of aggression, and sanctions were there to undermine the core Russian economy and threaten the Russian regime.”
In August 2024, shortly after he was released from Russian captivity, Kara-Murza gave a press conference with the two other released Russian dissidents where he spoke out against sweeping sanctions on Russia, saying they largely harmed the Russian population.
Vodianyi said he has enjoyed his experience at CERES so far but was frustrated by the choice to bring Kara-Murza to the program in light of these statements.
Inagural Dissident-in-Residence
“I really like my faculty. I really like my program. But if the university is fine with these political views — I’m not fine with that,” Vodianyi said. “If they’re going to have any programming or activities, I will just not be interested.”
Krumins said that despite hesitations, he is still hopeful Kara-Murza’s residency will be a success.
“There has to be some caution, but overall, I think this is nevertheless a welcome step because this person still has proven himself to be a fierce
advocate for norms and human rights and democracy that are in shortage in Russia,” Krumins said. “So just to imagine the difficulties that he has gone through to be an advocate for that, I think that is, in and of itself, a virtue to appoint him.”
Government Department Hires Asian Studies Expert
Anna Lim Hoya Staff Writer
took a lot of activists and leaders out of the scene ahead,” Munayyer said at the event.
The lectures on Wednesday and Thursday evening covered the Middle East peace process and the United States’ impact on Palestine, respectively. FSJP will host a final lecture Friday evening, titled “Divestment: Enforcing International Law in a Time of Genocide,” which makes a case for divestment from Israel.
Hosts of the events included the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), which researches the Arab world, the justice and peace studies program, and the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank. Colla said the lectures brought together stakeholders from across campus and Washington, D.C., to include a variety of expertise.
“Students in America live in the most resource-rich environment in history: There is more information and more good, solid information now more than ever,” Colla said. “It is also overwhelming. So we’re going to try to give students some ways to ask questions, and ways to orient yourself, to find more information.”
Colla said this year’s lectures, in comparison to a similar series FSJP held in September 2024, focus more on international law and genocide.
“We have begun to appreciate the depth of genocide denial in our community,” Colla said. “There’s more of an urgency this year even than last, and we are bringing forth information with the goal that the information will help people change the situation.”
A growing body of scholars and advocates have accused Israel of genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza, including the leading academic association of genocide scholars. Israel has consistently denied claims of genocide, often characterizing such claims as antisemitic or anti-Israel. The International Court of Justice, which rules on genocide cases, has not yet made a ruling in a case brought against Israel by South Africa.
Colla said he hopes FSJP can host more lectures at Georgetown and throughout D.C.
“We’re trying to do these classes out in the community, and we’re been working with places like to make that happen,” Colla said. “It’s just that we’re all volunteers, and we have lives and families. So ideally, we’d be doing Palestine 101 on our campus, on any campus and in the cafes and the bars at night.”
Georgetown University’s department of government welcomed an expert in Asian studies as its associate director of undergraduate studies this semester, adding a new subject area to the department’s offerings.
LaiYee Leong previously taught in Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) political science department, where she held classes on foreign policy, social movements and the intersection of religion and politics. This fall at Georgetown, Leong is teaching “States and Economy in Southeast Asia” and “Asian American Politics in Comparative Perspective,” both upper-level elective courses.
Leong said she is hopeful to see Georgetown students engage with Asian American and Southeast Asian studies in the classroom to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the field.
“Asian American studies, broadly speaking, is an understudied area of scholarship and not taught frequently enough,” Leong wrote to The Hoya. “Many students have not encountered the subject in any meaningful way before college, even though Asian Americans have long been an integral part of our society and whose presence has shaped our politics. I hope students who take
my courses develop new insights that will give them uncommon and valuable perspectives.”
Joseph Hartman, director of undergraduate studies and assistant teaching professor in the department of government, said Leong’s addition to the department is crucially filling a gap in course offerings.
“Our Department has not had consistent offerings in either Asian American politics or Southeast Asian politics. In my view, that has been a glaring omission as both areas are crucial to an understanding of the modern political world in the United States and abroad,” Hartman wrote to The Hoya. “Because Professor Leong will be teaching five courses a year, that’s a significant increase for us, and I anticipate a fairly robust set of courses going forward.”
Throughout her career, Leong has played an active role advocating for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students and faculty within higher education. She has served as a co-founder of the SMU Association of Asian and Pacific American Scholars and Allies, a distinguished fellow at the SMU Center for Presidential History research hub and a faculty advisor to the SMU Asian Council.
Leong also contributed her scholarship to SMU’s Center for Presidential History, through oral
history projects on foreign policy in Asia and other regions following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Hartman said he looks forward to the expertise and mentorship Leong will bring to her students and the department as a whole.
“Not only does Professor Leong have a truly stellar resume, earning her Ph.D. from Yale University and receiving multiple teaching awards during her time as a university professor, but she has a genuine interest in students that comes across almost immediately, and she is obviously a star in the classroom,” Hartman wrote.
Leong said she is excited to work with students to help them both academically and personally, citing the Jesuit value of cura personalis, or care for the whole person.
“It goes without saying that the promise of teaching and mentoring undergraduates who are engaged and globally minded is extremely appealing,” Leong wrote. “I fully subscribe to Georgetown’s commitment to cura personalis! As a teacher, I find that engaging with students at the level of ideas as well as sharing in their aspirations keeps me curious and energized.”
Ria Maheshwari (CAS ’26), an Indian American student studying political economy, said she is excited to see the unique perspectives Professor Leong brings to Georgetown and is glad to see
more representation within the government department.
“I feel a combination of pride, comfort and curiosity knowing that the government department is hiring diverse faculty,” Maheshwari wrote to The Hoya. “I don’t want to tokenize Professor Leong as the ‘representative Asian/DEI hire,’ but the representation is great to see, especially with someone so knowledgeable and accomplished.” Leong said her experience with research and foreign policy informs her approach to teaching, which she is excited to bring to Washington, D.C. “In addition to academic fieldwork, I have spent a lot of time talking to newsmakers in the United States and abroad, and I try to infuse my teaching with perspectives that reflect that experience,” Leong wrote. “Political science theories provide an indispensable framework for understanding the world. But politics also finds expression in human interactions that I think can be very revealing.”
“Georgetown University itself offers a community that’s unparalleled in its focus on combining theory-driven research with real-world policy,” Leong added. “Like many students, I love the idea of being in Washington, D.C., the heart of American and international politics.”
Graduate Programs Move to Capitol Campus Building
Allister Adair
Special to The Hoya
Several academic programs relocated to Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus for the Fall 2025 semester as the university expands its downtown presence.
The Capitol Campus’ recently opened building at 111 Massachusetts Ave. now hosts multiple McDonough School of Business (MSB) graduate programs, and a School of Health (SOH) graduate program will join in Fall 2026. They join a variety of programs moving to the facility from other Capitol Campus buildings, including the Capitol Applied Learning Labs (CALL), where students live downtown for a semester while taking classes and completing an internship.
Matthew Cypher — director of the MSB’s Steers Center for Global Real Estate, which teaches a curriculum in real estate and has moved to the Capitol Campus — said he is excited about his program relocating closer to relevant networks and job opportunities.
“The proximity to the people and organizations that are leading the real assets industry is much better,” Cypher wrote to The
Hoya. “We’re hopeful to capitalize on this proximity for the benefit of our students and alumni.”
In addition to the global real assets program, students pursuing master’s degrees in management and environment and sustainability management now study primarily on the 111 Massachusetts Ave.’s facility’s seventh floor. Cypher said the building’s modern features and location will benefit students.
“The physical structure is very well done, views are great, common areas are cool in terms of unique nooks for doing work,” Cypher said. “The human activity both in the building and surrounding is very good as well.”
The School of Health previously planned to relocate its global health and global infectious disease programs to 111 Massachusetts Ave. alongside the MSB programs, but will instead remain on the Hilltop until next fall.
John Quattrochi, a professor in the department of global health, said he looks forward to the move to downtown Washington, D.C., next fall because it will provide closer access to powerful institutions such as the U.S. Congress and the World Bank.
“We’re excited to be in a state-ofthe-art facility that is near some of the most important organizations in global health, like the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Bank and the U.S. Congress,” Quattrochi wrote to The Hoya
Riley Green (GRD ’26), who is pursuing a master’s in global health, said she thinks moving downtown will help advance her career.
“The Capitol Campus, thanks to its central location in downtown D.C., could offer more opportunities to interact with local businesses to help students form connections to advance their careers,” Green wrote to The Hoya Green said working alongside other graduate programs will foster collaboration.
“Since the campus will be hosting classes from different areas of study, it could create an environment for greater interdisciplinary interaction,” Green said.
Hang Nguyen (GRD ’29), a doctoral candidate in the global infectious disease program, said the move downtown is an important next step for the university’s graduate programs.
“As students, we are proud of our school with this innovation,” Nguyen wrote to The Hoya
Alongside the changes to graduate programs, undergraduates enrolled in the CALL are now based out of 111 Massachusetts Ave. instead of the nearby 500 First St. Abigail Lewis, director of the CALL, said the new building is an enjoyable space to work and study.
“I love the space, I love the light, I love having so many of my colleagues around now — it’s really awesome,” Lewis told The Hoya The School of Continuing Studies, which provides academic opportunities for various types of students, and the Earth Commons, a program based in environmental studies, also moved to the new building. They both were previously housed in other buildings within the Capitol Campus.
Lewis said the new building brings together programs previously scattered across Capitol Campus facilities and new academic offerings, contributing to a more connected atmosphere.
“We started in the original SCS building — it was our first year — and then we moved
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
The School of Foreign Service Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies appointed Russian political opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza as its new Dissident-in-Residence Aug. 29.
McCourt School’s Better Government Lab Receives $800k Grant for Research
Anna Lim Hoya Staff Writer
A joint research center at the McCourt School of Public Policy
received an $800,000 grant from a philanthropy group to fund five research studies on social programs and economic mobility Aug. 25.
The Better Government Lab (BGL), a collaborative center between McCourt and the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, carries out evidence-based policy research and provides policy solutions. The grant, which comes from philanthropy group Arnold Ventures, will allow BGL to analyze how social safety nets help alleviate economic hardship.
Sebastian Jilke, co-director of the BGL and a McCourt associate professor, said the BGL has an important real-world impact which will be assisted with the grant.
“This work is not only timely, but a classic problem — before we implement public policies, we need to evaluate if they work,” Jilke wrote to The Hoya. “Sounds simple, but is not in practice where partisan views have a much greater influence on what we think works best. At BGL, we study what works and how it can reach its people through proper implementation.”
The five funded studies were chosen to evaluate the efficacy of different innovations to social welfare programs that benefit economically vulnerable populations. The studies will consider unconditional cash transfers, simplified income reporting for food stamp benefits, streamlined childcare grants, educa-
tion tax benefits and alternative responses to 911 calls.
Jeremy Barofsky, executive director of the BGL, said the studies aim to provide all levels of government with research-backed policies that will expand the reach of social safety net programs.
“The studies were partly chosen based on their rigorous design, as well as for their potential to generate evidence on how government can best provide economic security during times of uncertainty such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” Barofsky wrote to The Hoya.
The studies will draw from benefits records, randomized field trials, tax data and police call data.
Barofsky said the researchers’ analysis of these unique datasets will allow them to evaluate how programmatic changes affect individuals’ access to state and local government benefits.
“Once completed, the rigorous design and use of large-scale administrative data sets will allow us to determine, for example, whether economic stimulus payments improved access to college enrollment, whether simplified reporting requirements increased access to food aid for low-income people and how an alternative response program to 911 calls affected arrest rates,” Barofsky wrote.
Jilke said the philanthropic grant was even more important in light of government funding cuts to the American Rescue Plan, a 2021 economic stimulus bill — passed to alleviate effects of the pandemic — that previously funded the studies.
“Luckily, Georgetown is an evolving powerhouse on economic
mobility and state capacity, with numerous high-profile colleagues across schools and departments,” Jilke wrote. “I hope Georgetown and the McCourt School continue to provide resources and help us to further advance this line of research in the future.”
Daniel Banko-Ferran, a postdoctoral research fellow at the BGL, said grants like this one are key for the lab’s work.
“Without these grants, these evaluations wouldn’t be occurring,” Banko-Ferran told The Hoya. “The ability to evaluate these policies — you would see much less of it, because that would require more resources on behalf of the policy makers themselves, and they have many things that they have to prioritize in their budgets.”
“It’s great that we can have partners that can help coordinate these initiatives and let the city focus on the policymaking,” Banko-Ferran added.
Arnold Ventures, the group that provided the grant, is a philanthropic limited liability company that funds evidence-based bipartisan policy research, development and implementation. The company supports research and reform efforts of organizations, like the BGL, that study criminal justice, health, higher education, public infrastructure and public finance.
Banko-Ferran said the BGL’s research has tangible benefits for government research.
“The Better Government Lab, it’s sort of in the name itself,” he said. “We’re trying to help improve these pathways between policymaking and, ultimately, the citizens that those policy makers are serving.”
DC Transit Authority Unveils New Train Car Design, Returning to Original Look
WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA TRANSIT AUTHORITY
On Aug. 26, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) unveiled the design for its new 8000-series train cars, set to debut in 2027.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced its new 8000-series train car designs Aug. 26, which will launch in 2027.
The new design, which returns the trains to their original 1970s look, will replace the 1980s-era 3000-series train fleet and was voted for by some 20,000 riders who selected it from three options. In addition to the retro exterior design, the train cars will include heated floors, WiFi and improved ventilation to prevent the spread of airborne viruses.
Zoe Auld (CAS ’27), who voted on the train car design, said she is excited to see the new trains but has never felt the 3000-series were too old.
“I’ve never been on the train and been like, ‘Wow, this is out of date, I feel unsafe,’” Auld told The Hoya. “You can just tell if it’s a little bit older.”
Naama Ben-Dor (CAS ’26), who grew up in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) area, said she did not like the new design because it fails to feel vintage since the train itself is modern.
“Honestly, if it’s trying to look more old-timey, it kind of fails, because the actual design of the train has a more modern look, but only the color has changed,” Ben-Dor told The Hoya. “It’s failing to be modern, but it’s also failing to be old-timey.”
US Department of Tranportation Will Soon Assume Control of Union Station
Shira Oz City Desk Editor
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced plans to reclaim management of Union Station, a transportation hub and national landmark, Aug. 27.
The Trump administration cited concerns about homelessness and public safety as reasons for assuming command of Union Station. The DOT, which regulates, funds and oversees transportation, has owned the station since 1981, but local nonprofit the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) has managed the travel center. Since July 2024, Amtrak, the government-owned passenger rail service, has taken over operating Union Station, which Georgetown University students often use.
Julia Swerdin (CAS ’26), who frequents Union Station to travel home, said her experience at the transportation hub has been a positive one, and she does not see the need for federal control of the station.
“I generally have a good experience; I think it’s pretty clean and has good restaurants,” Swerdin told The Hoya. “Occasionally, I see a homeless person coming up and asking for food or money, but I overall feel safe, and it’s a pleasant experience.”
At an event celebrating the release of the new Acela train cars, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that current management has neglected Union Station and that he wants to transform the station into a world-class transit hub.
“Instead of being a point of pride, Washington’s Union Station
has fallen into disrepair,” Duffy said at the event. “By reclaiming station management, we will help make this city safe and beautiful at a fraction of the cost.”
Emily Eppel (CAS ’26), who frequented Union Station while moving to Capitol Hill, said she found the station dirty and often encountered unhoused individuals.
“I obviously noticed that it’s very dirty, and no matter what time of day I was at Union Station, there were a lot of homeless people,” Eppel told The Hoya Union Station offers national and regional train lines, as well as commuter rails for Maryland and Virginia. It serves approximately 70,000 passengers on more than 200 daily trains and features dozens of shops and restaurants.
Amtrak will continue to operate the passenger area while the DOT and USRC will manage the retail and building renovations, according to Duffy.
Concurrently with the announcement of the management transition, Amtrak launched the NextGen Acela high-speed trains, a modern design aimed at making Amtrak’s trains more reliable while lowering prices.
Swerdin said the prices of the current Acela line are not affordable for many college students.
“I think that’s awesome if they are making it more accessible because, as a student, it’s definitely not accessible for me to take Acela regularly because it’s usually about double the price, if not more, than a regular ticket,” Swerdin said.
“If they are able to make it less expensive by expanding it, that would
be really beneficial for people like me and just the general population who can’t afford to spend $300 on a train ticket,” Swerdin added. The NextGen Acela is a highspeed transit option in Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which connects Washington, D.C., and Boston. Its ticket prices are often more expensive than the traditional Northeast Regional. With reforms in process for Union Station, Swerdin said she would like to see an increase in security, as there are no security screenings in place to board a train.
“An increased security would be nice, because I’ve never felt necessarily unsafe on a train, but it is a little crazy to me that there is zero security whatsoever to get onto a train,” Swerdin said. “They don’t even check your ticket before you board. They don’t scan your bag or check your ID.” Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the city could not afford the $8 billion required to repair the station, and she welcomes the federal government’s assistance in updating Union Station.
“It is an important regional asset; it’s an important asset for the Eastern Seaboard; it’s an important asset for the nation,” Bowser said at a press conference. “It is appropriate in my view for the federal government to make the necessary investments in the transformation of Union Station.” Eppel said she hopes the change in management will be a positive one. “I hope that this change will help restore Union Station and make it both more accessible and convenient for those who use it,” Eppel said.
Two Months In, Students Say Route Redesign is Inconvient, Harmful
Sofia Thomas GUSA Desk Editor
the future,” Clarke said in a June 27 press release.
“While the exterior design of the new 8000-series fleet pays homage to Metro’s past, the interior is all about the future,” Clarke said in a press release. “This new rail fleet will improve the customer experience in every way.”
Even as the WMATA touted the train design, Ben-Dor said the exterior design should not be the focus of the transportation department.
“If the design was updated only in order to make it look nicer, then I don’t think this should be the focus of the transportation industry, at least in the DMV, because I do think it’s a waste of money,” Ben-Dor said.
Many areas in Washington, D.C., do not have a Metro station, including the Georgetown neighborhood. In 2021, the D.C. Council allocated $10 million to construct a metro station on M Street, but geological challenges, including hard bedrock coupled with close proximity to the river, halted the project.
Ben-Dor said adding more stations around the city would be a better allocation of taxpayer dollars.
“In terms of the actual look of the cars, I’m not really interested in investing our taxpayer money into that, because I think a better use of that money would be more destinations,” Ben-Dor said.
Auld said Southeast Washington is also in need of a train station, which includes Ward 7 and 8, the lowest-income neighborhoods in the city, having about 54% to 58%
Randy Clarke, WMATA’s general manager and CEO, said the new train car design is both modern and retro.
car ownership, which is below the city average.
“It would be great to have easier transportation to Georgetown and to a lot of areas,” Auld said. “I know Southeast has a real problem with transportation, and that’s the area where actually the least amount of people own cars.”
D.C. residents who lack proper public transportation and cannot afford a car struggle to access grocery stores, doctors and other amenities, according to the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group.
Valerie Santos, chair of WMATA’s board of directors, said the new train cars are what the District’s transportation system needs.
“Our region deserves a modern rail system, and the new 8000 series fleet will be instrumental in providing the safe, frequent and reliable service our customers expect,” Santos said in a press release.
Ben-Dor said the lack of public transportation makes it difficult to reach grocery stores, which he said changing the design of train cars would not help with.
“As a student living off campus, and who tries to maintain a relatively healthy diet, I try to cook for myself as often as possible,” Ben-Dor said. “The lack of public transportation, though, makes it very difficult to find the time to go purchase groceries, since it takes me significantly longer to walk to the grocery store and back than to actually purchase the items I need.”
Georgetown University students encountered redesigned routes for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) bus network as they returned to campus for the fall semester, which aim to improve travel times, minimize transfers and make schedules more straightforward.
The new Metrobus routes feature names designed to make the routes easier for passengers to navigate while removing 527 bus stops to simplify passenger navigation, according to WMATA. The transit agency removed two stops on M Street along the southbound direction, and one stop on M Street and one stop on Wisconsin Avenue along the northbound direction.
Evan Cornell (CAS ’27), a former senator in the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), said the Metrobus route changes have limited access to the Georgetown neighborhood.
“Georgetown is already a hardto-reach neighborhood and area of our city, let alone bus route changes that make it even more difficult for people from outside our neighborhood to come in and enjoy all our area has to offer,” Cornell wrote to The Hoya Randy Clarke, WMATA’s general manager and CEO, said the redesign will prepare the Metrobus system long-term.
“The new network reflects years of community input and careful planning to create a bus system that’s more reliable, more accessible and ready for
Ignacio Loaiza (CAS, McCourt ’28), a student passionate about transit policy, said the new bus routes have made travel more difficult across the city, especially for communities that already did not have significant transit options.
“Across town, pushes to increase frequency have turned one-seat trips into trips with transfers, almost doubling some commutes,” Loaiza wrote to The Hoya. “As a budget-neutral change, those compromises had to be made but I do think the changes are disproportionately affecting some communities.”
Navyah Sathyamoorthi (CAS ’26) said she frequently uses Metrobuses to get to her various off-campus jobs, but the new bus routes have made her travel harder.
“One thing I’ve noticed is I feel like I’ve had a lot more transfers, as in one bus does not get me to the place I need to go,” Sathyamoorthi told The Hoya
“The more steps there are in the process, the more likely you’re going to have a delay. That definitely makes it a lot harder.”
Cornell said he introduced an act in GUSA to request that the university advocate for a Metro stop in Georgetown in March.
“GUSA unanimously passed Bill 2025-03-23-17 in the spring to ask the university to lobby WMATA on the students’ behalf to solidify and somewhat expedite the timeline for MetroRail blue line expansion into the Georgetown neighborhood with the creation of a Georgetown metro station,” Cornell wrote.
The university did not lobby for the station after GUSA passed the bill, according to Cornell. The D.C. Council allocated $10 million to construct a Metro stop on M Street in 2021, but the project was halted due to geological challenges, including hard bedrock.
Loaiza said the bus routes in Georgetown did not change that much, with the exception of the removal of stops along Wisconsin Avenue.
“I feel like our connectivity hasn’t changed much, other than getting rid of some stops on Wisconsin Avenue, which, in an attempt to speed up transit frequency, makes some stops less accessible for people with mobility issues,” Loaiza wrote.
Sathyamoorthi said she has noticed greater walking distances in her commute because WMATA removed bus stops.
“I do think it’s a little bit more walking that I’ve been doing compared to before,” Sathyamoorthi said. “Bus stops tend to be just a little bit further from the place I’m going to.” Despite the changes to the routes, Metrobus fares remain a $2.25 flat rate with a free transfer from Metrobus to Metrobus and Metrobus to Metrorail. Loaiza said reliability remains an important foundation of the Metrobus transit system. “In order for people to use transit, it must be reliable,” Loaiza wrote. “There’s some reasonable expectation that a trip takes the same amount of time every day, and if an agency isn’t delivering, their ridership and budget suffers.”
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
On Aug. 27, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced its plan to take back management of Union Station, the historic transportation hub and national landmark.
Shira Oz City Desk Editor
Hoyas Fall to George Mason Patriots The Nationals’ Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Season Leaves Low Expectations
The Georgetown University women’s volleyball team (03) continued its winless start to the 2025 season over the weekend, losing to the George Mason University (GMU) Patriots (2-1) over four sets in the final game of the D.C. Challenge, a tournament between area schools, Aug. 31.
The Hoyas looked to turn their luck around heading into the final game of the weekend tournament, after losing to both the University of Virginia (3-0) and American University (4-0) in straight sets to open the season.
Georgetown put up a promising performance early on, springing out to an 11-4 lead in the first set and capitalizing on Patriot attack errors. The two teams then traded kills, with Georgetown maintaining the lead. But with the Hoyas leading 20-12, GMU came roaring back, rattling off an 8-0 run off of Kiera Hamilton’s serve and kills from Nia Thompson and Haley Graetz to tie the score up at 20. Georgetown managed to fend off the Patriots’ charge and closed the first set off with a kill from first-year Samantha Soderlund and a block from sophomore Dionna Mitchell, pulling away to win the first set 25-22. The second set started off as a back-and-forth affair, with neither team able to get into much of a groove.
GMU strung together two 3-point runs off of strong kills
from across the team, building a steady 3-point advantage that the Hoyas were never able to claw their way out of. Despite a late surge to cut the deficit to 1 at 2122, the Patriots pulled away for a 25-21 win in the second set.
The third set continued the same back-and-forth energy seen in the second, with both teams trading points as Georgetown fought out to a 7-4 lead. But GMU’s offense exploded from there, turning the tide to 12-7 in the Patriots’ favor off a team effort on defense and 3 aces.
Georgetown refused to count themselves out, and Mitchell stepped up to the plate, bringing the Hoyas back into the game with 4 kills. Despite Mitchell’s efforts, the Hoyas were still down 15-21, and it looked like things may have been over for Georgetown. It wasn’t over, at least not yet, as the Hoyas roared back off of first-year Sydney Mercado’s serve and some offensive errors on the Patriots’ part to cut the deficit to 21-20. Unfortunately, a complete comeback wasn’t in the cards, and GMU regained their composure and the serve to close out a 25-21 win.
Heading into the fourth set, Georgetown looked to turn their luck around and extend the game. The two teams played each other fairly close, and a team effort from the Hoyas kept them within 2 or 3 points of the Patriots. Around halfway through the set, the Patriots began to pull away once again,
building up a 15-7 lead with Thompson serving. The Hoyas suffered through a consistent 10-point deficit, and it looked all but over with the Patriots sitting at a 22-11 advantage.
Georgetown embarked on an 11-1 run, with the team — led by Mitchell — raining down kills to get the Hoyas back in the game. With the score 2322 to the Patriots, the Hoyas stayed scrappy and fought for every point. GMU was the first to reach the 25-point mark, but the “win by 2” rule meant the game continued on, giving the Hoyas a chance for their first lead of the set and a win. They tied the score up at 25 and 26-all, but 2 successive kills by GMU put victory out of reach for the Hoyas, delivering a 28-26 set win for the Patriots and the game.
Despite the close score, GMU led Georgetown in every category in the box score, including a 12-8 advantage in aces, 56-46 in assists and 61-49 in kills.
For Georgetown, 2024 Big East all-freshman team honoree Mitchell led the way, scoring a team-high 20 kills along with 9 digs and 2 aces. Sophomore Juleigh Urbina also added a game-high 40 assists and 2 aces.
The Hoyas look to garner their first win of the season when they return to action against North Carolina Central University (2-2) Friday, Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. in McDonough Arena for their first game of the weekend-long Georgetown-George Washington University Tournament.
JOE GLORIOSO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
En route to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, quarterback Jayden Daniels led the Washington Commanders to the NFC Championship game. Daniels looks to lead his team back this year.
The Commanders Are Finally Good
All it took for the Washington Commanders to have their best season in the 21st century was arguably the greatest rookie quarterback performance of all time. The Commanders’ 2024 season could not have been scripted any better. After the team slid to a 4-13 finish the previous year, No. 2 pick and 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels immediately steadied the ship and delivered instant classics such as a primetime win over Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals in September and the “Hail Maryland” miracle against the Chicago Bears just before Halloween. The Commanders made the playoffs, avenging their previous loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and outscoring an ascendant Detroit Lions squad before finally falling in the NFC Championship to the eventual Super Bowl champion, the Philadelphia Eagles. For the first time in a while, the Commanders carry Super Bowl aspirations. After making several big offseason splashes, general manager Adam Peters is hoping to repeat last year’s formula of relying on a highoctane offense to make up for defensive deficiencies.
Any conversation about the Commanders must begin with Daniels, who threw for 3,568 yards and rushed for 891 yards en route to earning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors last season. There is no question Daniels is a special talent — a true dual-threat player. He finished second in quarterback rushing yards behind Lamar Jackson, converted a league-high 87% of fourth-down attempts and scored a touchdown in the
last 30 seconds of a game on five separate occasions. The accelerated rebuild timeline also presents a major advantage: Daniels’ rookie contract gives the Commanders’ front office far more financial flexibility to invest in other needs across the team. Indeed, Peters was especially aggressive in acquiring talent via trade, adding Pro Bowl tackle Laremy Tunsil and former All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel via trade. Star wideout Terry McLaurin, tight end Zach Ertz and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota also earned extensions with the team, among other depth pieces. Still, Daniels is far from a finished product, and his continued growth will rely heavily on the offensive line’s ability to protect him. After taking 47 sacks last season — which ranked sixthmost among all quarterbacks — Daniels will now have Tunsil and recent first-round pick Josh Conerly Jr. at the tackle positions and should see significantly more protection in the pocket. By the numbers, the Commanders had an elite run game last season, but much of that was thanks to Daniels. The running back room of Austin Ekeler, Chris Rodriguez Jr. and seventh-round rookie Jacory CroskeyMerritt leaves plenty to be desired, especially since the team traded away workhorse back Brian Robinson Jr.
The team’s fortunes in the run game this season will likely depend on Croskey-Merritt’s ascendance as a home run threat or Ekeler’s return to his 2023 form, but until these developments play out, the rushing game remains a weakness. Run defense is also a big question: the team ranked in the bottom five for nearly every major category in rushing defense last season.
Longtime star defensive tackle Jonathan Allen was released after an injury-marred
2024; instead, defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw will pair up with Daron Payne after signing a $45 million contract in free agency. New signings Von Miller and Deatrich Wise Jr. provide additional veteran presences on the edges, and defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton is expected to take a step forward after a promising rookie season.
Despite these additions, the Commanders still lack true impact talent in the trenches and will look to their strong linebacker core to step up. Both Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu received All-Pro honors last season and are set to anchor the squad, but Dante Fowler Jr. left in free agency after posting doubledigit sacks. Miller will likely rotate in as a strongside backer, while young players such as Kain Medrano and Jacob Magee will have a chance to develop. Finally, the secondary unit will have the most variance in terms of overall performance.
Cornerback Marshon Lattimore is an inconsistent first option in the position at best, while Mike Sainristil and rookie Trey Amos will be asked to assume significant roles early in their careers. Safeties Quan Martin and Will Harris are fine options, but similarly lack the pedigree to be true difference makers on the field. Especially in a division full of wide receiver talent, the Commanders will need to hope their secondary unit stays healthy and consistent if they wish to make it deep into the playoffs. Every contender has question marks throughout their roster. But in the Commanders’ case, they have the luxury of knowing that so long as Daniels continues on his upward trajectory, the sky is the limit. Hope is finally back in town, and for Commanders fans, this season should be a fun one.
Expectations for the Washington Nationals’ 2025 season were lukewarm from the beginning, but the summer brought unexpected disappointment after disappointment to the young team.
Six years removed from a magical World Series run in 2019, the Nationals are unrecognizable: Not a single member of that team remains on the active roster. Then-veterans right hand pitcher Max Scherzer, right hand pitcher Stephen Strasburg, and third baseman Anthony Rendon have signed elsewhere or since retired, while then-promising rookie Juan Soto is now the highest-paid player in baseball — for the division rival New York Mets.
The Nationals have not made the postseason since 2019, nor have they come close. They have put up a losing record for six consecutive years and have already clinched a seventh for 2025.
Still, fans expected 2025 to be a year of growth for the team, which was supposedly entering the tail end of a total rebuild. Instead, they have been met with growing pains, minus the “growing.”
The Nats treaded water until the beginning of June, playing close-to-.500 ball to start the season. Since then, the Nats have collapsed entirely, with a horrific 28-53 record since June 1 and the third-worst overall record in MLB at 56-83. To match their identical — and subpar — 71-91 records from 2023 and 2024, the Nats need to finish the season an unlikely 15-8.
The team acknowledged its failures at the 2025 trade deadline, shipping away every player with a shred of value to a contender and accepting minor
league talent in return. The front office traded infielder Amed Rosario to the New York Yankees, pitchers Andrew Chafin and Luis García to the Los Angeles Angels, pitcher Michael Soroka to the Chicago Cubs, closer Kyle Finnegan to the Detroit Tigers and outfielder Alex Call to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The turnover did not end there. Just weeks before the trade deadline, the Nats’ struggles catapulted their long-time manager Dave Martinez into the spotlight.
Asked to explain the team’s poor performance, Martinez deflected the blame from the front office and coaching staff, saying the lacking performance was the players’ fault.
“You’ve got to put the onus on the players,” Martinez told reporters in a press conference after the team’s seventh consecutive loss. “It’s never on coaching.”
The response from players — many of them rookies — was less than positive; a source in the organization reported that players
were “shocked, dismayed and pissed” at Martinez’s comments. Unsurprisingly, both Martinez and General Manager (GM) Mike Rizzo — both of whom served during the 2019 World Series run — were fired shortly thereafter. In a text message to the Washington Post, dismissed GM Rizzo offered a subtle jab at his former employers.
“The sun will come up tomorrow,” Mike Rizzo said in the message after being let go. “That’s the job. I had a great run. Navigated that ownership group for almost 20 years.” Since July 6, former bench coach Miguel Cairo has served as interim manager and former assistant general manager for baseball operations Mike DeBartolo as interim GM. The Nationals spent this past week getting swept at the hands of the Yankees, and will play a weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays before the calendar turns to September and their season — mercifully — ends.
@APARDAVILLA/FLICKR As the Nationals have struggled to field a competitive team, attendance at Nationals Park has dwindled.
Breaking Down the Diamond League For Professional Track and Field Final
In the world of professional track and field, no event looms larger — with the obvious exception of national, world and Olympic championships — than the Wanda Diamond League Final. The Diamond League is a meet series that has run every year — with the exception of 2020 — since its debut season in 2010. Athletes compete across 32 disciplines in 14 single-day meets spanning from April to late August or early September, hoping to earn a spot in the twoday Diamond League Final. The 2025 season’s finale took place Aug. 27-28 in Zurich, with some notable winners, record-setters, losers and missing athletes.
The Diamond League Final provides athletes a chance to cement themselves at the top of the world stage — before they actually have to earn that title a few weeks later. This year’s notable winners include the likes of U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles, who won his sixth Diamond League final, Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, U.S. discus thrower Valarie Allman and Dutch 400-meter hurdle specialist Femke Bol — all of whom won their fifth consecutive Diamond trophy. Ahead of the 2025 World Athletics Championships Sept. 13 to 21 in Tokyo, Japan, these athletes all stand a good chance at winning their respective events.
Let’s take a look at some more nuanced races, missing athletes, key losses and the rules that help make athletics, well, entertaining.
Athletes qualify for the Diamond League Final by earning points for placing in the top eight of their event at various meets throughout the season. Before the final, the total points athletes have earned throughout the season — 8 points for first, 7 points for second, 6 points for third and so on down to eighth — are calculated, and a ranking of athletes is developed for each event. The top six athletes in each field event, top eight athletes in races ranging from
100 meters to 800 meters, including hurdles, and the top 10 athletes in any event 1500 meters and longer are invited to compete in the Diamond League Final. Occasionally, athletes who did not rank high enough in their event to qualify for the final but who competed in at least one Diamond League meet that season can be given a global or national wild card permitting them to compete in the final — that is, provided they are either a world record holder, a reigning world, Olympic or Diamond League champion, ranked incredibly high in their event or overall by World Athletics or a Swiss national.
That’s how Noah Lyles ran the 200-meter in Zurich. Lyles qualified for the Diamond League Final in the 100-meter ranked third, having placed second in the event three times throughout the 2025 season. Lyles was ranked 11th in the 200, having run the event and won it once this season. (Lyles also won the USA Championship in the 200 Aug. 3). Lyles took the global wild card for the 200 and scratched the 100 — using the opportunity as a tune up for his 200 in a few weeks at the World Championships. Without the global wild card, we would have had a different winner for the 200, and a potentially different winner for the 100.
Another wild card hopeful, Norwegian distance phenom Jakob Ingebrigtsen, succumbed to a different issue. Having missed most of the season with an Achilles injury, reigning three-time 1500-meter champion Ingebrigtsen was looking for a chance to tune up ahead of the upcoming World Championships. The Diamond League denied Ingebrigtsen a wild card, given he had not competed in a qualifying meet throughout the season. U.S. hurdle and sprint champion Sydney McLaughlinLevrone suffered the same fate last season.
Other notable athletes turned
down the Diamond League finals competition and chance at a $30,000 prize. 1500 runners Nikki Hiltz from the United States and Faith Kipyegon from Kenya, ranked third and 10th respectively in the event, skipped the Diamond League final in the name of preparing for the upcoming World Championships. Kipyegon was the reigning four-year 1500 champion and has had a phenomenal season in which she set a new world record in the 1500 and ran a time faster than her mile world record in her Breaking4 campaign in July. Hiltz has also had a remarkable season thus far — in Brussels the week prior, they became the first American to win the Diamond League women’s 1500 since 2018 and were later crowned USA Track and Field athlete of the week for their performance. On the men’s side of the 1500, Yared Nuguse of the United States hoped to secure the win and a spot at the upcoming World Athletics Championships. Nuguse was looking to obtain a wild card to Tokyo as the 2025 Diamond League winner after failing to garner a spot on the Team USA roster at the U.S. track and field championships earlier in the month. Despite maintaining positioning until the final 100m, the world No. 1 ranked Nuguse failed again, finishing seventh of 10 athletes, and he will not be making the voyage to Tokyo to compete in a few weeks’ time. In contrast to the unfortunate end to Nuguse’s outdoor season, this year’s Diamond League season was a success — as it always is. Diamond League final tickets sold out in less than two hours. Unlike Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track league that died out before its final meet in June, the Diamond League is a constant in the major track circuit. It’s the lead up to the pinnacle of competition each season and an opportunity to qualify for the World Championship. Like past seasons, this year’s meet brought excitement, decisive wins and heartbreak. What more could you ask for?
How Many Errors Can Anthony Volpe Make?
HERMAN, from A12
measures the runs saved by a team’s defense as compared to a replacement-level player. Apparently.
Baseball Reference also tells us that the Yankees are 9th in MLB — again far above average — in a statistic called “DefEff.” Da eff is DefEff? Good question. Defensive Efficiency refers to “the percentage of balls in play converted into outs.” Great, so the Yankees play good defense.
Except they don’t. I know that because I have eyes.
I’ve watched a hundred Yankees games this year, give or take. I’ve seen second baseman Jazz Chisholm, Jr. airmail a throw 12 feet over the first baseman’s head into the camera well. I’ve seen shortstop Anthony Volpe throw to the wrong base to try for a double play and end up making no outs at all. I’ve also seen utility player José Caballero pull off sparkling defensive plays and then ride the bench for multiple games at a time because… I have no idea why, actually. Why does Caballero sit while Volpe makes error after error? Because Boone’s analytics says Volpe’s defense is somehow perfectly fine?
If managers dictate who is in the lineup based on the results of overcomplicated mathematical formulas, why have a manager at all? The Yankees might as well take Boone’s $4.5 million
salary to employ a few more analytics consultants from MIT.
I’m not saying that analytics have no place in the dugout. Of course, managers should not rely exclusively on the eye test to determine which players are productive. But as in all areas of life, baseball teams should strike a balance. If Volpe — who fans have kindly nicknamed “VolpE6” because a shortstop’s error is notated as an E6 — makes a boneheaded error once a week, then spreadsheets shouldn’t be enough to save his spot in the lineup. Yet for some reason, they are. This is all not to mention that spreadsheets cannot distinguish between a defensive miscue when it doesn’t matter and one when the entire season hangs in the balance. Last season, Yankees’ $360 million outfielder Aaron Judge made zero errors during the regular season. Zero, until the must-win Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, when a routine fly ball bounced into Judge’s glove… and then flopped right out in his first error of the season. Is there a place in Boone’s spreadsheets to code which errors made me cry?
If Boone spent his time watching baseball instead of switching frantically between spreadsheets — and one of those sounds a lot more fun than the other — maybe he would realize that the house is on fire, and the spreadsheets aren’t going to tell him how to extinguish it.
MEN’S SOCCER
Draw Opens Homestand, Generates Excitement
VERMONT, from A12
target, before the Catamounts managed to send up their first shot of the half in the 84th minute, sending a ball soaring far over the net. Less than 2 minutes later, the Catamounts secured a breakaway, and as Manske stepped out of goal to grab a bouncing ball, Vermont forward Maximilian Kissel managed to tip the ball over Manske into the net to secure the equalizer for the Catamounts. Despite the groans of the crowd — and maybe inspired by them — the Hoyas quickly went on the offense, sending up 2 shots in the final 4 minutes of play, 1 of which was on target. Reminiscent of the first point of the match, Zengue passed the ball to Baker, who headed it straight towards the goal before Vermont’s Herceg dove in for the save in the 87th minute. Georgetown failed to find the back of the net again, and the match ended in a draw despite the Hoyas’ best efforts. Georgetown ended the match with 10 shot attempts compared to Vermont’s 5 attempts — 6 of the Hoyas’ shots were on target while only 2 of the Catamounts’ were. Despite their apparent offensive and defensive prowess, Georgetown was unable to secure the win. A smattering of offensive
errors may have cost the Hoyas some chances, but their defense locked down the Catamounts. Against the No. 1 team in the country and reigning national champions, a tie seems a very successful result for the Hoyas.
On Tuesday, Sep. 2, Baker and junior defender Oliver Stafford, who scored the Hoyas’ winning point in their match against Pitt — the first of his career — on Aug. 29, were named to the Big East weekly honor roll. Another nod to Georgetown’s success this week.
In describing the decision to play Vermont, Head Coach Brian Wiese said playing the Catamounts offered the Hoyas an opportunity to grow.
“It’s tough when you think you have the game wound up, and then you lose the goal,” Wiese told Georgetown Athletics. “But we have to learn from that and move forward quickly with Duke rolling in on Friday. This is why we play these games, the margins are small and we know it’s going to be difficult, but the hope is that we learn from it for next time.”
The Hoyas gear up to take on the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils (2-0-1) Friday, Sep. 5 in the fourth match of their six-match homestand. Georgetown will be looking for another victory over a ranked opponent and a chance to earn back a ranking of their own.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
ranked opponents.
Lardner Keeps Hoyas Level Against No.
UVA, from A12
The Hoyas were relieved to find an equalizer, but their ultimate objective was clear: push on for a winning goal. Lardner’s goal switched all of the match’s momentum to Georgetown in a final push for victory.
Six minutes later, sophomore forward Jocelyn Lohmeyer had the golden opportunity to put George town in front with a header from the corner, but Safradin, once again, was able to make the save.
The Hoyas — despite their best efforts — could not find a winning goal and the match ended in a draw.
While each team was disappointed with the result, both played their game well and produced a great match. Georgetown featured a major success as they became the first team to score a goal against UVA this season. Further, Lardner’s 5th goal of the season means she has now scored in all of Georgetown’s games this season.
The Hoyas will look forward to their upcoming clash against Vanderbilt University (4-1) Sept. 4, hoping to secure a win against the 25th-seeded Vanderbilt and keep spirits high. The Hoyas will return home Saturday, Sept. 7 to take on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks (5-0-1) at 1 p.m. on Shaw Field.
FOOTBALL
8 Cavaliers
Hoyas Cruise Past Davidson In Impressive Blowout
FOOTBALL, from A12
to junior running back Bryce Cox scoring on the following two drives and a made field goal. The Wildcats were able to score their only other touchdown of the game with 14 seconds left in the half from a quarterback run for a touchdown from Cleland, raising the score to 38-14.
Georgetown entered the third quarter showcasing the same commanding energy they had on display in the first half. Lauter found yet another receiver in the endzone to increase the Hoya’s lead to 44-14 early in the second half. Georgetown adjusted their strategy to start running out the clock, and the Hoyas succeeded in not allowing Davidson to score for the entirety of the second half.
On top of their impressive offensive performance that put over 50 points on the board, Georgetown’s defense was commanding as well. The Hoyas’ defense racked up four sacks and forced an interception while holding the Wildcats to four third down conversions on 15 attempts.
“From a standpoint of being happy about the win, you celebrated on the bus, on the way home and Sunday as you’re preparing, and then once you get to Monday, you turn the page,” Sgarlata said. The Hoyas return to action on Sept. 6 at Cooper Field as they host Wagner College (0-1) in their home opener.
Coach Sgarlata said while he celebrates successes, each opponent brings its own challenges and the majority of each week is spent preparing, not celebrating.
ANTHONY PELTIER/THE HOYA
Fans packed the area behind the goals on Shaw Field for the Hoyas’ first of three home games against
JEFFREY HYDE/FLICKR
Anthony Volpe, pictured on the double-A Somerset Patriots, has the second-most errors in the MLB, at 17.
GEORGETOWN ATHLETICS
Senior forward Esme Brayshaw put up an unsuccessful shot on goal late in the first half in an attempt to regain some momentum for the Hoyas in their Aug. 31 match against the Univeristy of Virginia Cavaliers, ultimately ending the game in a 1-1 draw.
PATRIOT LEAGUE
Sophomore running back Savion Hart broke a 69-yard run on the second play of the season, en route to a three touchdown game in the Hoyas’ blowout of the Davidson Wildcats.
MLB Analytics Can’t Catch Fly Balls
TALKING POINTS
It’s tough when you think you have the game wound up, and then you lose the goal. But we have to learn from that.
Georgetown vs. Wagner
Sept. 5 @ 1 pm
Cooper Field
In
be “the best team in the
Did Boone and I watch the same four games? Did we both watch the Yankees make four errors and a handful of other should-be-errors? Or was he too busy looking at pages of acronyms and decimal points to find some evidence for his absurd claim?
In all fairness to Boone, if you look hard enough at a screen full of baseball analytics, you are more than likely to find some statistical crumbs to support any position. For example, I opened Baseball Reference to find that the Yankees have amassed 12 Rtot, far above MLB average of -1. Never heard of Rtot? Me neither. It stands for “total zone fielding runs above average” — although it doesn’t, really — and it
See HERMAN, A11
Hoyas Draw Vermont Catamounts, No. 1 College
Madeline Wang Senior Sports Editor
Coming off a tantalizing takedown of No. 3 University of Pittsburgh (2-1) last Friday, Aug. 29, the Georgetown University men’s soccer team (1-2-1) fought the No. 1 ranked and last year’s NCAA champions, the University of Vermont Catamounts (2-0-2), to a draw Sept. 1 at home.
The Hoyas took a flying start to the match, with sophomore forward Mitchell Baker securing the Hoyas’ singular goal in the 13th minute. Georgetown skillfully maintained their lead until the 86th minute of play, when a ball flew over senior
goalkeeper Tenzing Manske’s reach and found its way into the net, landing Vermont the equalizer. Despite ample, impressive attempts, the Hoyas failed to secure a winning goal in the last 4 minutes of play. With the sun shining, pep band playing and 1,221 fans filling the majority of the 1,625 seat Shaw Field and lining the back of Vermont’s goal, Georgetown — feeding off the stadium’s energy — got off to an electric start. Players on the ground, fouls, free kicks, flying balls and throw-ins defined the opening minutes of the match. The ball ricocheted team to team with the Hoyas seeking opportunities in the form of
free kicks by the Catamounts’ goal and Vermont breakaways turning into Georgetown free kicks up the pitch. The ball sailed, bouncing off heads team to team. The riveting running side to side first came to fruition as senior midfielder
Zach Zengue fired a shot toward the low center of the goal in the 13th minute of play, which was deflected in a dive by Vermont goalkeeper Niklas Herceg. Baker found the ball at the right post and rapidly sent it back into the lower right corner to the eruption of the crowd, securing the 1-0 lead for the Hoyas.
The remainder of the half continued much like it had begun, with Georgetown
Hoyas Tie Cavaliers in Ranked Matchup
Golnar Jalinous
Deputy Sports Editor
The No. 16 Georgetown University women’s soccer team
(2-0-2) traveled to Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 31 to face the No. 8 University of Virginia (UVA) Cavaliers
(4-0-1). The evenly matched teams put up an intense game that ended in a 1-1 draw — a fair result on the basis of play. Georgetown went into the game ranked No. 16 against No. 13 UVA. This result brought the Hoyas’ early season record up to 2-0-2 with the team yet to suffer a loss. The teams’ intentions were clear early on as they looked to make a statement, resulting in few developments for the first minutes of the match. UVA midfielder Lia Godfrey eventually broke the initial deadlock when, in the 21st minute, she found the net from a free kick into the top left corner. Despite going a goal down, the Hoyas showed no signs of depletion and kept their heads and their intensity up. Georgetown showcased their intent with a few good shots, one notably by senior forward Henley Tippins, which was blocked by the UVA defense. As the half drew to a close, Georgetown’s senior forward Esme Brayshaw fired a solid shot at goal that was saved by UVA keeper Victoria Safradin. The Cavaliers fought hard to go into the break ahead.
The half ended with Georgetown a goal down, but it was clear the Hoyas were not backing down
proving the slightly dominant force. The Hoyas put up 2 more shots in the first half with 1 on goal for a total of 4 shots, 3 of which were on target. The Catamounts put up a mere 2 shots, 1 of which was on target.
The Hoyas secured 2 corners in the first half; the Catamounts secured none. Neither team was afraid of getting a little physical, with Georgetown incurring 7 fouls and Vermont 9. The half ended with the Hoyas holding possession, a reminder of which team was in the lead. As the second half started, it was clear Vermont was looking to secure the win. The Catamounts worked to control possession, losing any fear, assuming there
ever was any, of getting physical. The Hoyas upped their physicality in response; the second half saw Georgetown incur 7 fouls, almost doubled by Vermont with 12 incurred fouls. The Hoyas managed to draw 4 yellow cards in the second half, while the Catamounts only drew 2. Vermont propelled the ball around Georgetown’s end of the pitch out of the halftime interval, rarely allowing the Hoyas to venture into Catamount territory. Despite Vermont appearing to maintain the majority of possession, Georgetown put up 4 shots, 2 on
Ethan Herweck
Deputy Sports Editor
The Georgetown University football team (1-0) started their season off with a bang, dominating the Davidson College Wildcats (0-1) 51-14 on the road Saturday, Aug. 30. The Wildcats won the coin toss and elected to kick to the Hoyas to start the game. On the second play of the game, sophomore running back Savion Heart broke free for a 69-yard touchdown run with a successful extra point, making the score 7-0. Davidson was unable to answer and punted their first drive of the game after a delay of game and false start stalled their opening drive. The Wildcats yet again gave the ball away on their next drive after a failed fourth down conversion near midfield. Georgetown capitalized, scoring on a fourth down of their own, with Hart rushing for a 27yard touchdown on 4th and 1. Following Hart’s second touchdown and a good extra point from sophomore kicker Thomas Anderson, Georgetown led by 14 with a little over 3 minutes remaining in the first quarter. With about a minute left in the first quarter, Davidson found the endzone for the first time in the game with a 55-yard passing touchdown from quarterback Coulter Cleland to receiver Brody Reina.
The Savion Hart show continued the following drive as senior quarterback Dez Thomas II found Hart down the field for a 73-yard receiving touchdown, making that 3 total touchdowns for the day for Hart in just the first quarter. Senior quarterback Danny Lauter kept the scoring going in the second quarter by finding senior receiver Jimmy Kibble in the endzone for a 41-yard touchdown, putting the Hoyas up 27-7 with the extra point. Head Coach Rob Sgarlata said the improvements in sophomore running back Savion Hart’s game came from his work ethic and performance in the weight room.
“I would take a little less credit for it,” Sgarlata told The Hoya. “He works extremely hard. He’s an extremely hard worker on and off the field.”
“He’s definitely one of our top guys in the weight room,” Sgarlata said. “He trains with our strongest guys. So you know, you have one of the running backs at the defensive and offensive line rack working with those guys and competing with them as far as the strength program goes.” The Hoyas were able to pull away toward the
ANTHONY PELTIER/THE HOYA
Eilat Herman Sports Columnist