DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA
B2
thein guide Year Review
THE HOYA
friday, Friday,april april15, 29,2016 2016
The Year in Brief
Toby hung And katherine richardson
April 14, 2015 - Former World Bank Chief Institutional Economist Joel Hellman Selected as Dean of the School of Foreign Service
Hoya Staff Writers
April 27, 2015 - Students Organize Against Westboro Baptist Church Hundreds of students gathered at the front gates in a counterprotest against the Westboro Baptist Church, which is categorized as a hate group by the AntiDefamation League of America. Students dressed up in costumes, held signs that included phrases like “Jesus Was Nice” and “Jesus Had Two Dads. Why Can’t We?” and blasted LGBTQ-positive music from Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
April 14, 2015 - Employees Reach Contract Agreement With Aramark After months of deliberations, Aramark workers ratified a new contract that laid out requirements for a 40hour paid workweek, a plan for unionization, a process to report managerial abuse, a cheaper health care insurance plan and the development of a food sustainability committee. KATHLEEN GUAN/THE HOYA
June 4, 2015 – University Pulls Out of Coal Investments The board of directors voted to divest the university’s direct investments in coal after a year of pressure from the student organization GU Fossil Free. Students in the organization do not consider this decision a victory, and continue to campaign for divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies. NATASHA THOMSON/THE HOYA
SOPHIE FAABORG-ANDERSON/THE HOYA
June 2, 2015 – Former Mascot Jack the Bulldog Sr. Dies at Age 12
DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA
Sept. 14, 2015 – Administration and GUSA Sign Sexual Assault Policy Deal
COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
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Oct. 6, 2015 – University Receives $50 Million Donation for Improvements to Athletic Program From the Cooper Family
Sept. 22-24, 2015 - Pope Francis Visits DC Hundreds of Georgetown students joined the masses to welcome Pope Francis to the District. The visit marked the third papal visit in D.C. history. JESUS RODRIGUEZ/THE HOYA
Nov. 17, 2015 – University Approves Name Changes For Mulledy, McSherry Halls
OWEN EAGAN/THE HOYA
Jan. 23-24, 2016 – Historic Jonas Blizzard Hits DC; Staff, Homeless Face Struggles
In response to national dialogue on collegiate racism and the name retention of Mulledy and McSherry Halls, black student leaders led around 250 students in a demonstration in Red Square, during which activists demanded the university to change the hall’s names and create an endowment for recruiting black professors. Following the activists’ sit-in outside the office of University President John J. DeGioia the next day, DeGioia announced the renaming of the halls to Freedom and Remembrance Halls.
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Feb. 5, 2016 – African American Studies Department and Major Announced As part of a four-pronged plan to address issues of race and the path to equality, University President John J. DeGioia announced a proposal to create the university’s first African American studies department and major and a racial injustice research center.
Feb. 26, 2016 - GU Launches Jewish Civilization Center
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The result of 12 years of fundraising and $22 million in donations, the university launched the Center for Jewish Civilization, an interdisciplinary research and teaching unit focusing on Jewish history, culture and civilization. Housed in the School of Foreign Service, the center replaced the Program for Jewish Civilization.
Feb. 19 & 23, 2016 – Khan and Fisk Win
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As the only ticket on the Georgetown University Student Association executive election ballot, Enushe Khan (MSB ’17) and Chris Fisk (COL ’17) were elected as president and vice president. The first election in GUSA history with only one campaign — save for write-in tickets, the results were announced 15 hours later than usual by the Election Commission, citing procedural issues.
March 29, 2016 – After Eight Years, Fr. O’Brien Transfers April 1, 2016 – SFS Approves Language Minors
Year in Review
friday, april 29, 2016
THE HOYA
B3
As Assault Survivors Speak Out, Policies Advance Toby hung
Hoya Staff Writer
As the issue of sexual assault on college campuses rose to the forefront of the national consciousness, advocacy efforts for awareness and policy reform at Georgetown also gained traction over the past academic year. From the hiring of the university’s first full-time Title IX coordinator, to the dissemination of the Sexual Assault and Misconduct Survey, to the waiving of Counseling and Psychiatric Services fees for survivors, this year witnessed significant advancements in advocacy and policy.
“We need to ensure that we are being responsive to the specific needs of the Georgetown community.” OLIVIA HINERFELD (COL ’17) Deputy Chief of Staff, GUSA
In late July, the publication of two survivors’ accounts shed light on the administration’s mismanagement of sexual assault cases and the need for more survivor resources. On July 21, Zoe Dobkin (SFS ’16) and Willa Murphy co-authored an opinion piece in The Hoya (“I Stand With Willa, I Stand With Survivors,” thehoya.com, July 21, 2015) recounting Murphy’s ordeal with the university following her rape. Murphy claimed the university provided insufficient support after she reported the rape, which resulted in academic struggles and her subsequent expulsion. Murphy’s account marked the beginning of the “#IStandWithWilla” campaign, which ignited dialogue on sexual assault at Georgetown. The following day, the Georgetown University Student Association convened with student activists and requested to meet with administrators to address concerns regarding the university’s sexual assault policy. One week later, Olivia Hinerfeld (SFS ’17) documented her own experiences as a survivor in a view-
point (“A Shared Obligation,” thehoya.com, July 29, 2015), in which she encouraged students to work in tandem with the university to create a more survivor-centric campus. In mid-September, following two months of negotiations between GUSA and the administration, a memorandum of understanding was reached. Both parties committed to sexual assault policy reform and expanded programs, including increasing promotional material for survivor resources, furthering bystander education, expediting the development of a campus climate survey and hiring of a full-time Title IX coordinator. Subsequent months saw the implementation of these initiatives. In December, the university hired Samantha Berner as the university’s first full-time Title IX investigator. On the first day of the spring semester, the university announced the appointment of Laura Cutway as the first full-time Title IX coordinator, a role that oversees the university’s sexual misconduct policy. “I’d love to … provide a framework and confidence in our system so that people know what they would be getting involved in if they were to report [sexual misconduct], that they feel comfortable and confident in the process,” Cutway said in an interview with The Hoya. With Cutway’s appointment, the university also disseminated the first Sexual Assault and Misconduct Climate Survey to develop an understanding of the prevalence of and attitudes toward sexual misconduct on campus. Modeled after a template from the Association of American Universities, the survey initially saw underwhelming participation from both undergraduate and graduate students. The university extended the survey completion deadline by a week, which resulted in a final participation rate of 51 percent of the entire student population, surpassing the university’s target by 1 percent. The results from the survey are expected to be released to the community in May. Meanwhile, other offices and departments also continued their efforts to promote awareness and
MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA
The opinion piece “I Stand With Willa,” co-authored by Zoe Dobkin (SFS ’16) and Willa Murphy, contributed to the movement demanding that the administration amend its response to sexual assault cases. improve responses to sexual assault cases. The Georgetown University Police Department conducted a 40-hour training program for its 14-person Sexual Assault Response Team over spring break to clarify procedures on responding to sexual assault reports. In April, CAPS began offering free semester-long services for sexual assault survivors and accused perpetrators, the result of a joint effort with GUSA. Under the new policy, students will receive a semester’s worth of treatment regardless of when they begin. Toward the end of the semester, the university also released a new GOCard design that includes the phone numbers of five campus resources — including GUPD, CAPS and the D.C. Rape Crisis Center — on the back. Freshmen and transfer students arriving in fall 2016 will receive the new GOCards, while current students are now able to trade in their existing GOCard for the new version.
Looking ahead, both students and administrators agree that while substantial efforts have been made to create more awareness and visible resources for survivors, there remains room for improvement. “The events of the past few months have continuously proven to me that Georgetown is committed to answering that call,” Hinerfeld wrote in an email to The Hoya. Hinerfeld, who currently serves as GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff, said she hopes to see further initiatives in the next academic year, including a bystander intervention program that builds on I Am Ready, a mandatory training on campus sexual assault during New Student Orientation. “Of course, our work is never finished,” Hinerfeld wrote. “We need to ensure that we are being responsive to the specific needs of the Georgetown community. Before I graduate, I hope to see the implementation of a new bystander intervention education
program for student leaders and the development of a platform for students to report sexual assault online.” At the third annual Sexual Assault Open Forum on April 20, Health Education Services Clinician and Sexual Assault Specialist Jennifer Wiggins said she would like to see more diversity in the sexual assault education community at Georgetown, noting that only 15 of the 60 students currently involved with the Sexual Assault Peer Educators program identify as male, and few students of color are represented. At the forum, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said he looks forward to continuing university-wide discussions on sexual assault policy initiatives. “I’m still very restless and eager to hear what our working groups come up with. I think we need to be restless, while also acknowledging the fact that we’ve done a lot of great work,” Olson said.
Students Advocate for Workers’ Rights Ian scoville Hoya Staff Writer
In a year dominated by student advocacy efforts to address issues at Georgetown from its history with slavery to divestment, workers’ rights has remained a prevalent issue on campus. Student athletes called for the university to re-evaluate its relationship with Nike, which has been accused of mistreating factory workers, while the Georgetown Solidarity Committee launched its Work With Dignity Campaign in March to better recognize and demand improvements for university workers. Evaluating Georgetown’s Relationship with Nike In mid-April, University President John J. DeGioia penned a letter to Nike emphasizing the university’s code of conduct and encouraging them to cooperate with the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights
monitoring body. The university’s Licensing Oversight Committee recommended the letter be sent to Nike and also recommended requiring Nike to sign the university’s code of conduct. The LOC also recommended the university not renew Nike’s contract with the university in its current form. The letter came after months of advocacy efforts by Georgetown athletes and workers’ rights advocates. Athletes and Advocates for Workers’ Rights wrote a letter to DeGioia in November encouraging the university to end its relationship with Nike. Twenty athletes and advocates signed the letter on studentathletes’ behalf. AAWR was formed after a lecture by anti-sweatshop activist Jim Keady in November, who addressed working and living conditions at Nike factories in Asia. The group held an open forum in early December, where the group discussed questions from studentathletes and prepared to meet with
DeGioia. In March, former Nike garment worker and union president Noi Supalai discussed her experience working for Nike, including her difficulties receiving fair wages from the company. AAWR lead organizer and LOC member Jake Maxmin (COL ’17) said it is critical for Nike to comply with the university’s code of conduct. “The big thing for us is for Nike to oblige by our code of conduct. The upcoming end date [of the contract in early 2017] has given us some leverage with them,” Maxmin said. Earlier in November, controversy arose after three student-athletes taped over the Nike logo on their university-provided shoes. Studentathletes are not allowed to alter university-provided apparel, according to the Student-Athlete Equipment Agreement that all student-athletes are required to sign. Improving Workers’ Rights When Winter Storm Jonas hit Washington, D.C., in January, workers were given the choice of
COURTESY GEORGETOWN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
In March, the Georgetown Solidarity Committee lauched its Work With Dignity campaign, demanding better recognition of the contribution of workers and improvements to their working conditions.
staying on campus or staying at home without pay until the storm passed. Around 200 facilities workers stayed on campus overnight to shovel snow and keep campus operations running. Some of the workers did not have a bed to sleep in overnight. The university was accused by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee of providing inadequate on-campus accommodations for the workers who chose to stay on campus. The GSC drafted a list of demands, including increasing university accountability, enforcing fair business practices, reforming hiring and staffing practices and treating workers with dignity and respect. These were delivered to administrators on March 16 as part of the group’s Work With Dignity campaign. The demands were accompanied by a rally in Red Square on March 18, and an op-ed in The Hoya, in which GSC accused the university of violating the Just Employment Policy — established in 2005 to maintain fair labor practices and create a safe working environment — during Winter Storm Jonas. GSC member Joseph Gomez (SFS ’19) said while the administration has not yet implemented concrete changes, the group is pleased with the progress made so far. “The standout achievement would probably be getting the attention of the administration,” Gomez said. “We’ve met with [Senior Vice President Christopher] Augustini and [Vice President for Public Affairs Erik] Smulson and a bunch of other workers, and engaging in dialogue of how the administration can work with culinary committee and the workers to implement the demands that we are seeking.” Gomez praised the Georgetown community for its support for campus workers. “I think Jesuit values are very progressive, and very caring for everybody and the whole person, and so because of that the student body is more aware of people in general,” Gomez said. “And then with the living wage campaign in 2005, that brought more awareness to the student body, and now kind of like culminating in what we’re doing now.” Other student groups worked to support campus workers this year. Students of Georgetown, Inc.’s Social Impact Committee launched the Citizen Scholarship in March, which works to fund the citizenship process for facilities workers, in conjunction with the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and Working Poor and the D.C. Schools Proj-
ect. Febin Bellamy (MSB ’17) launched Unsung Heroes — a Facebook page that posts interviews and photos of Georgetown workers — on April 1 in an effort to increase recognition for university employees. The project, which was initially developed as an assignment for philosophy professor Jason Brennan’s “Moral Foundations in Market Society” class last spring, is sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative University.
“The standout achievement would probably be getting the attention of the administration.” JOSEPH GOMEZ (SFS ’19) Member, Georgetown Solidarity Committee
“The style that we have used so far is just to get students to understand that [these workers] are human beings — they have stories. I think once students start seeing that, we’re going to continue doing that but it’s going to also be more action. Sort of like, now that we know that they exist, how do we give back to them?” Bellamy said. GSC member Dan Zager (COL ’18) said students have generally been more attentive to workers’ rights compared to last year, when the group held rallies supporting Aramark workers’ demands for better working conditions. Workers reached an agreement with Aramark in April 2015, which included implementing a process for unionization and improved working conditions and wages, after employees complained of managerial interference in the unionization process and poor work conditions. “Having a campaign this year sort of built off of what we did last year — we won last year, that was big — and I think that along with Unsung Heroes has really shifted student perception to be more [supportive],” Zager said. “That along with what’s going on nationally, you’ve got a major democratic candidate Bernie Sanders who advocates for sort of the same issues that we’re advocating.” Gomez said GSC will work to build on this year’s campaign next year. “We’re going to continue, in the summer into next year, just to keep awareness, and keep everything — make sure that what we want is accomplished,” Gomez said.
B4
YEAR IN REVIEW
THE HOYA
Friday, april 29, 2016
Beyond the 272 Sold in 1838, Plotting the matthew quallen
Columnist, Hoya Historian
Editor’s Note: In 1838, Georgetown University President Fr. Thomas Mulledy, S.J., sold 272 slaves for $115,000. More than 175 years later, student protests urged the university to confront its history, challenging the names of Mulledy and McSherry Hall but also advocating institutional changes to address current concerns. In light of the ongoing conversation, columnist Matthew Quallen looks back on the history of Jesuit slavery. On April 17, a Sunday, a picture appeared above the centerfold of The New York Times. Maxine Crump, a descendant of Cornelius Hawkins, stands in a sugar field in Maringouin, La., where her ancestor worked fetid, unforgiving fields. Hawkins was one of 272 slaves sold in 1838 by Georgetown University to a Louisiana planter for $115,000. A provocative question leads the article: “272 slaves were sold to save Georgetown. What does it owe their descendants?” The scale of the question is tremendous. Richard Cellini (COL ’84), founder of the Georgetown Memory Project, described a statistical model developed by a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that predicts how human populations grow and produce descendants. According to Cellini, the model predicts that there are 12,000 to 15,000 living descendants of the 272 slaves named in the 1838 sale. What is most astonishing about this number, 12,000 to 15,000, is its starting point of 272: While Jesuits who ran Georgetown sold 272 slaves in 1838, they owned many more. Some historians have placed the number as high as 400 at its peak, not including the whole generations that lived in slavery under the Maryland Society of Jesuits from its inception at the turn of the 18th century. Georgetown’s Jesuits sold dozens of slaves in 1817, then again to Florissant, Mo., in 1835. They sent slaves to St. Louis and Kentucky in the years that followed. They manumitted slaves in southern Maryland before 1838. Slaves who were never sold lived on campus and in Maryland well after the sale. In light of this, the 272 slaves and Maringouin, La., where the memory project predicts as many as 600 of the 1,100 residents descend from Georgetown’s slaves, join an even larger mosaic; 12,000 to 15,000 becomes 20,000plus. They are essential pieces of an even larger diaspora: a centurieslong scattering of the slaves who supported Georgetown that covers the entire country. At the Heart of Slavery’s Expansion Take a map of the United States. Wipe out every state admitted after 1808: every state west of the Mississippi and many of the rest, leaving only the original 13 colonies, Vermont, Kentucky — carved out of Virginia — Tennessee and Ohio. The rump runs along the Eastern Seaboard, penetrating barely into the interior. On Jan. 1, 1808, those United States enacted a ban on the international slave trade. Nine of the 17 existing states had already abolished slavery, never legally sanctioned the practice or begun abolition schemes to gradually put an end to slavery. That left eight slave states: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland. Still absent from the Union was the Deep South, particularly the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, which is known today for its deep-seated connection with American slavery. That growing interior of the republic would come to host hundreds of thousands of slaves. But these slaves could not come from Africa, Cuba or elsewhere in the Caribbean; the abolition of the international slave trade meant
that slave traders had to move slaves from elsewhere in the United States. For this supply, they turned to Maryland and Virginia. Maryland and Virginia were the most significant slaveholding states in the early republic. Tobacco plantations on the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries and the interior of Virginia, including the plantations of the Maryland Jesuits, sucked thousands and thousands of slaves up the waterways of the midAtlantic, through Washington, D.C., — then the heart of slave trading in the U.S. — and into generations of captivity.
“We live at present in a rotten log house so old and decayed that at every blast of wind we are afraid of our lives.” Thomas brown A Jesuit slave brought from Maryland to Missouri, writing to William McSherry Brown, provincial of the Maryland Jesuits
The two were “breeding states.” slaveholders in Maryland and Virginia saw their wealth multiply through generations as their slaves gave birth to new chattel, transforming family life and population growth into asset appreciation. As demand for slaves grew in the interior and Deep South with the proliferation of cotton, and with the fall of the profitability of tobacco in the 1820s and 1830s, slave owners in Maryland and Virginia began selling their slaves to fulfill the increasing demand from the South. These slaves were moved south through a network of prisons, overland routes and ships: New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. the great slave ports of the South, were the destinations. Washington, crawling with slave traders moving the human cargo of the mid-Atlantic, was the point of departure. Georgetown and its Jesuits contributed to each of these trends. They enslaved blacks for upwards of 160 years, and over generations, their slave holdings multiplied, from the dozens to the hundreds, many of whom spent their entire lives in captivity. There, at the birth of American slavery, the Maryland Jesuits established a place in the top 5 percent of slaveholders in the United States. And when they needed cash to save Georgetown, and the price was right, the Maryland Jesuits sold their slaves from Maryland to Louisiana, hitching a ride on a national scattering of slaves from the mid-Atlantic to nearly half the growing country. Slavery Under the Jesuits In American slavery, many journeys began in Maryland. The Jesuits’ began in 1634, when Fr. Andrew White, S.J., Fr. John Altham Gravenor, S.J., and Fr. Thomas Gervase, S.J., arrived on Maryland’s shores alongside 300 Catholic settlers. They disembarked their watery steeds — the Ark and the Dove — and celebrated Mass around an iron cross now suspended in Dahlgren Chapel. For their efforts, the missionaries received from the Calvert governors of Maryland nearly 12,000 acres of land dotting the banks of the Potomac and Chesapeake. These plots would become the Jesuit plantations. In the 17th century, the Jesuits relied on indentured servants for labor: frequently poor white migrants, debtors or criminals whose labor was owned for a fixed amount of time, often a decade or two. Change gradually arrived around 1700. The supply of indentured servants staunched, in part because many of Britain’s internal conflicts
drew to a close. Meanwhile, the expansion of Brazil and Caribbean sugar production, which required stunning amounts of labor to sustain, encouraged colonial powers to strengthen their access to African slaves. The Jesuits duly observed this transition, which Winthrop Jordan, history professor and renowned writer, has called an “unthinking decision.” In roughly 1700, the Jesuits began replacing indentured servants on their plantations with black slaves. For the next 90 years, the Maryland Jesuits focused attention on their farms and their slaves. The mission’s slave holdings grew through purchases, bequests from wealthy parishioners and the passage of time. Whole generations passed on the plantations: People were born into slavery, lived in slavery and died in slavery on the Jesuit plantations in Maryland. Many of their births on the plantation were recorded by the Jesuits. John, a slave of the Maryland Jesuits, was born on Feb. 22, 1755, in Fort Tobacco Md.,, a Jesuit plantation. His mother was Jenny — noted in flowing hand as Jo’s wife. In May of 1759 — the Jesuit register does not record a precise date – his brother Peter was born, followed, in 1761, by their sister Catherine. John, Peter and Catherine were born 80 years before the 1838 sale; their parents earlier still. It seems likely that none of them escaped slavery in their lifetimes. In 1789, the Jesuit plantations gained new purpose. The Maryland Jesuits founded a school on the banks of the Potomac in Maryland: Georgetown. Meeting that year under the moniker of the “General Society at White Marsh,” the Jesuits formulated a plan. Every three years, they would inspect the plantations and sell “supernumerary” slaves — converting the growth of their slave holdings into broken families and cash. This cash would go into a general fund. The next time they met, in 1792, the purpose of this maneuver became clear. The Jesuits appointed a board of directors for Georgetown College and authorized it to spend from the general fund to build a campus. From its inception then, a tight financial connection bound together Georgetown and the Jesuit plantations — and their slaves. Slaves supported the growth of Georgetown in more than financial ways. The Jesuits deployed slaves from the plantations to work on the grounds of the school, probably in the numerous outbuild-
ings that surrounded the Hilltop. When these slaves became too old to work, the Jesuits returned them to the plantations. In 1814, Fr. John McElroy, S.J., a Georgetown Jesuit, recorded that there were 12 slaves on campus, out of only 102 people. The year before he had recorded 13. The difference may be explained by the flight of Isaac, a slave at Georgetown College. In January 1814, Isaac fled Georgetown. The next day, he was captured in Baltimore. In response, the Jesuits sold Isaac to a slaver in Hartford County, Md. He may have ended his journey on a plantation in Maryland; slavers may have sold Isaac even farther afield. In 1820, Fr. Peter Kenney, S.J., an Irish Jesuit, visited the Jesuit plantations in Maryland at the behest of the superior general of the Society of Jesus to report on the practices and conditions. In his document, Kenney devoted particular attention to the question of slaveholding. He observed that the Jesuits were whipping women who were sometimes pregnant. He also noted that in some cases the Jesuits had tied up these women in the parlors of the priest’s home to administer whippings. Kenney recommended that this practice, which he called “indecorous,” cease. Most traces of that era are gone, but some linger. Slave cabins on the Jesuit plantations still remain. When slaves died on campus, they
were buried in the vicinity, along with free blacks and slaves from the rest of Holy Trinity Parish. Charles, a slave owned by the university, died during a cholera outbreak in 1832. As with other deaths between 1817 and 1833, he was interred in the Old College Ground, a segregated graveyard that was removed in 1953 — and now is the site of the Northeast Triangle Residence Hall. The Sale of the 272 During the 1820s and 1830s, the terrain of Catholic America changed rapidly on three fronts. Catholics poured into the country and its cities, transforming a largely rural, slaveholding populace into one that was increasingly urban and immigrant. A new generation of Jesuits, skeptical of the role of slavery within the society, began to take charge, helmed by Fr. William McSherry, S.J., and Fr. Thomas Mulledy, S.J. And the Jesuit education mission rapidly expanded into the interior of the country. The costs of the first two pieces of this dynamic mix are now wellknown. McSherry and Mulledy devoted increasingly significant resources to Georgetown, believing the changing demographics of American Catholicism required urban schools to become the Jesuits’ new focus. They considered the slaves dispensable. From the plantations, McSherry wrote a series of reports in 1833,
TOP: COURTESY MARYLAND PROVINCE ARCHIVE; BOTTOM: COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY FACILITIES ARCHIVES
An excerpt from a book of 17th- and 18th-century records of births and deaths, top, with a page of slave birth records, included the family history of the Jesuit slave Isaac. Below, a map of campus circa 1905.
Bayonne-Johnson: ‘My Goal Was Just to Tell My Story’ Kshithij Shrinath Hoya Staff Writer
Patricia Bayonne-Johnson’s search began innocuously. When the teacher of her scrapbooking class brought in an example project documenting a family history, she loved the idea. “That got me started,” BayonneJohnson said. She began with the Bayonnes, her father’s line, but in 2004, as she prepared for a family reunion on her mother’s side in New Orleans, Bayonne-Johnson decided to trace the ancestry of her mother, Augusta Hicks. She contacted Judy Riffel, a genealogist who had previously helped her with the Bayonne project, and sent her a set of documents on the HicksEstes family line. When Riffel noticed census records that indicated BayonneJohnson’s great-great-grandmother came from Maryland, alarm bells went off. “Judy, from prior experiences, knew of a band who had purchased a bunch of slaves from Maryland,” Bayonne-Johnson said. Riffel went to the courthouse in Plaqueville, La., where she found
four records referencing Nace and Biby Butler. “We knew that was the family,” Bayonne-Johnson said. The first record was an 1851 inventory of the possessions of Jesse Batey, a doctor who had just died. On the list of possessions were the Butlers. The second record was an 1853 bill of sale from the Batey estate to the Barrows; the third was an 1856 bill of sale from the Barrows to the Woolfolks. All three families were major slaveholders in Louisiana, holding more than 50 slaves each in their possession. The fourth document was the coup de grace: an 1838 bill of sale from Fr. Thomas Mulledy, S.J., former president of Georgetown University, to Henry Johnson, a former governor of Louisiana who bought the slaves on behalf of Jesse Batey. Nace and Biby Butler, BayonneJohnson’s great-great-great-grandparents, were two of the 272 slaves sold in 1838 to save Georgetown University from its $17,000 of debt. Bayonne-Johnson wanted more confirmation, though, so she kept moving back in time. When she found out Mulledy was a Jesuit priest, she combed through an
inch-thick stack of files from the Jesuit Plantation Project and discovered that the Butlers lived on a Jesuit plantation called St. Inigoes in Maryland. Her final confirmation came on July 4, 2008, after four years of searching for the ship upon which Nace and Biby Butler were transported from Maryland to Louisiana. She found the name and electronic records of the manifests of slaves entering New Orleans. “It occurred to me, let me put my great-great-great-grandfather’s name in, since it was unusual. Nace Butler,” Bayonne-Johnson said. “The entire family popped up. All of them. They were listed by name; the age was there; the height was there; and the color of the skin was on the manifest.” And thus it was official. Then, Bayonne-Johnson revealed the history to her large Roman Catholic family. “Everybody was excited in a way to hear about the Butlers,” Bayonne-Johnson said. “But everybody also said, ‘This is shocking. This is appalling.’” A Unique Name The Georgetown slaves were
unusual in two ways, according to Georgetown Memory Project Founder Richard Cellini. First, they were baptized by Jesuits and kept the faith; second, they had both first and last names, whereas most slaves only had one name. During her search, the last name Butler stood out to Bayonne-Johnson. “I took that to mean that the parishioner who donated the slaves to the Jesuits — because that’s how they got a lot of their slaves, as donations from their rich parishioners — was a Butler,” BayonneJohnson said. Yet, in the context of the Jesuits, the first name is perhaps even more profound. “Nace is short for Ignatius,” Cellini said. “He was born a slave to the Jesuits, and the Jesuits named and baptized him Ignatius. In fact, they named and baptized him Ignatius Butler. ‘Ignatius’ servant.’” The name was passed down in the family. Nace and Biby Butler gave birth to Mary Butler, who then gave birth to Rachel Scott. Rachel married into the Hicks family and had a son. She called him Nace. Nace Hicks named his son Nace Hicks Jr.; Nace Hicks Jr.,
named his son Nace Hicks III. Nace Hicks also fathered Augusta Hicks, who, after marrying Harold Bayonne, gave birth to Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, now a 75-year-old retired biology teacher who lives in Spokane, Wash., after growing up in New Orleans and living for 40 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, she volunteers and travels — and in her spare time, researches her past. “I never thought about reparations, I never thought about apologies, I never thought about anything but my story,” BayonneJohnson said. “My goal was just to tell my story.” She currently works with Cellini at the Maryland-based Georgetown Memory Project, focusing on her bloodline. More than 20 years after the scrapbooking class, her effort to comb through her family tree continues. “It’s not over because it’s never over,” Bayonne-Johnson said. “I belong to the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California. They have a motto that says, ‘It’s your history. Isn’t it time you told your story?’ I’ve taken that to heart. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
YEAR IN REVIEW
friday, April 29, 2016
THE HOYA
B5
National Diaspora of Jesuit-Owned Slaves lamenting their longstanding inability to furnish enough money to support Georgetown and cooking up a plan of action: Sell the slaves. In an apparent dress rehearsal for the 1838 sale, McSherry managed to sell 25 slaves to a planter from Louisiana named Henry Johnson. Meanwhile, at Georgetown, Mulledy was building. In the same year as McSherry’s reports, work commenced on what would come to be Mulledy Hall, a forbiddingly large brick structure in the heart of the old campus. Enrollment had doubled, facilities and programs had bloomed and Mulledy proved able to attract more exceptional students to Georgetown. In 1837, land speculation in the Midwest led the economy to collapse in the Panic of 1837, and Mulledy and McSherry’s agendas collided. Georgetown fell into dire financial straits. Without an infusion of nearly $25,000 in cash, the procurator of the society suggested that it may be necessary to shut down Georgetown. So Mulledy and McSherry hatched their plan. In 1838, they sold the vast majority of the society’s slaves — 272 in all — to that same Louisiana planter, Henry Johnson, and his business partner, a doctor named Jesse Batey, for over $115,000. Mulledy and McSherry, who was then dying of stomach cancer, took a large portion of the down payment and paid down the most severe of Georgetown’s debts, defus-
ing the university’s financial crisis. Pens inked paper in Washington, and, in Maryland, a terrible journey began in response. Mulledy, slavers and sheriffs rounded up hundreds of slaves without warning, herding infants and grandparents alike onto ships bound ultimately for Louisiana. Many slaves wept or prayed amid the pandemonium. The Jesuits’ human cargo descended from the Maryland plantations on Washington, D.C., to be loaded in Alexandria and transported to Point Coupee and Iberville parishes, mirroring a journey taken by hundreds of thousands in the last decades of American slavery; a dreaded passage from the breeding states of Maryland and Virginia to the cotton-growing states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Many of those 272 slaves’ journeys ended on a plantation growing sugar — in a bayou a few miles north of a town called Maringouin. A Far-Flung Diaspora The journey to Maringouin, which has captured the attention of Georgetown students, faculty, staff, alumni and — under intense media exposure—much of the nation, is the best known of the many strands that make up the Georgetown diaspora of slaves. But the reach of Georgetown slaves extends beyond that particular voyage. There are the 25 slaves sold by McSherry and dispatched to Louisiana in 1835. There are the slaves
who remained at Georgetown; financial records note the presence of slaves on campus more than a decade after the sale. There are the slaves who remained in Maryland, in some cases hidden away by Jesuits opposed to the sale. Joseph Zwinge, a Jesuit historian, interviewed a woman, “Aunt Louisa,” in southern Maryland around 1912. Aunt Louisa, who may be Louisa Mason of St. Mary’s County, Md., claimed to have been warned to flee into the woods in 1838. The 1900 census lists Mason’s date of birth: 1812. She had a son named Robert, who had a wife and children of his own. And there are the slaves who faced their own terrible journeys, accompanying the Jesuits westward as the society expanded it educational reach. In 1823, the Maryland Jesuits agreed to relocate their novitiate north of a small school in St. Louis, Mo. — a school that would laterbecome Saint Louis University. A contingent of Jesuits headed west to establish the novitiate and later helm the fledgling institution; they brought with them from the Maryland plantations a half-dozen slaves: Moses and Nancy, Thomas and Molly, Isaac and Susan, each husband and wife. The Jesuits forced the couples to leave their children behind; they expected their slaves would produce more children in Missouri. During the 800-mile journey over land, the slaves held up the
rear of the party, carrying the heaviest supplies on a clumsy wagon. When they arrived at a river, they split onto two rafts. One held the Jesuits and their sacred items. The other held the slaves and the heavier suppliers, precariously weighing down the timber float as it rushed downriver. The slaves clung to their rosaries, fearing the worst. They survived, disembarked and trod forward on foot.
“My parents ... my grandparents grew up on the bayou. Now I know why we’re all along the bayou — because all plantations are along the waterways.” Maxine Crump Descendant of Cornelius Hawkins, one of the 272 slaves sold by Georgetown University in 1838
When the Jesuits and their slaves arrived in St. Louis, they went north to Florissant Farm — now a suburb bordering Ferguson, Mo. The six slaves were crammed into a single cabin under awful conditions. They worked from five in the morning to the evening. The Jesuits whipped and beat the slaves. Fr. Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, S.J., nicknames “Napoleon,” was the leader of the contingent. In October 1833, Thomas Brown, one of the Jesuit slaves brought from Maryland to Missouri, sent a letter of appeal to the provincial of the Maryland Jesuits, William McSherry. Brown, who had then been a slave of the Jesuits for 38 years, begged to be allowed to purchase his freedom, desperately seeking to escape Saint Louis University and its president, Fr. Peter J. Verhaegen, S.J. “We live at present in a rotten log house so old and decayed that at every blast of wind we are afraid of our lives,” Brown wrote, as winter approached. He continued: “Father Verhaegen wants me and my wife to live in the loft of one of the outhouses where there is no fireplace. … Cold will kill both me and my wife here.” Even as conditions remained brutal, the number of slaves at Florissant and Saint Louis University, where the Jesuits set the slaves to building the institution, grew quickly. Molly and Susan
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, COURTESY RICHARD CELLINI, COURTESY ADAM ROTHMAN
A photograph of the old Georgetown campus ground, top, a photograph of the former slave cabin at St. Thomas Manor and an excerpt from the census page, which includes Louisa Mason of St. Mary’s County, Md. — all parts of the history of the diaspora of Jesuit slavery.
each had multiple children. And the St. Louis Jesuits wrote to the superior multiple times — including to McSherry in 1834 — to have more slaves sent from Maryland to St. Louis. More slaves, often whole families, set out on the same perilous trek to Missouri. From Missouri, the Maryland Jesuits’ slaves traveled even farther. Along with French Jesuits, Jesuits at Florissant traveled to St. Mary’s Hall in Kentucky in the late 1830s. They brought slaves from Saint Louis University, who were themselves slaves from Maryland. In 1848, they repeated the pattern. St. Joseph’s Hall opened in Kentucky; slaves from Missouri, by way of Maryland, accompanied another founding. The Jesuits built a slaveholding network that extended its tendrils into the heart of the country.
Emancipation and a Lingering Web In 1862, as abolition and cannons rumbled across the United States, the Jesuits at Missouri wondered whether they should manumit their slaves. By then, there were 24 Jesuit slaves in St. Louis — many directly from Maryland and Georgetown, many their children. Moses, one of the first six slaves to survive the journey west from Maryland’s swampy plantations, had just died at the age of 85, one more Jesuit slave who would not outlive his captivity. When 1863 — the Emancipation Proclamation — and 1865 — the end of the Civil War – struck, the diaspora of Georgetown slaves already stretched from Maryland and Kentucky to Missouri and Louisiana. As Jim Crow and Reconstruction battled in the late 19th century, and the Great Migration of the mid-20th century persisted in the face of southern violence, the web spread. And now, seven generations later, it is difficult to imagine where the diaspora might not now reach — surely, among the thousands of descendants of the Maryland Jesuits’ slaves, there are residents of New York, of Chicago, of Los Angeles and of Washington. Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, a New Orleans native, genealogist and descendant of Nace Butler, whom the Georgetown Jesuits sold in 1838, now lives in Spokane, Wash. But on the drifting bayous and sugar cane farms of Maringouin, La., history remains indefatigably alive, and Georgetown’s place in the American story — one whose success is linked inextricably to slavery, its westward spread and the capital it provided to jumpstart a sleepy colonial economy — becomes especially clear. Today, Maringouin, located about 15 miles west of Baton Rouge and bounded on either side by the snarled waterways of the Mississippi Delta, is small and shrinking. At the 2000 census, its population was 1,262; at the 2010 census, its population was 1,098. In the 1800s, Maringouin bordered sugar plantations, worked by hundreds of slaves. Maringouin still produces sugar and corn. In 2014, the median household income was approximately $21,000. Maxine Crump, a former Maringouin resident and Georgetown descendant who became a news reporter in New Orleans, was returning home to Maringouin when she learned that she was a descendant of Cornelius Hawkins, who was sold in 1838. “I grew up along the bayou. And my parents grew up on the bayou, my grandparents grew up on the bayou,” Crump told The Hoya. “And now I know why we’re all along the bayou — because all plantations are along the waterways. “That’s what it means to be sold down the river.”
Crump: ‘It’s Been There All Our Lives’ Kshithij Shrinath Hoya Staff Writer
When Maxine Crump, 69, heard the name “Cornelius,” she knew that the man on the phone was on to something. After all, it was her great-grandfather’s name, his son’s name, his daughter’s son’s name and his son’s son’s name. “That name is so familiar,” Crump said. On the road from her home in Baton Rouge to her mother’s house 25 miles away in Maringouin, La., Crump was already traveling into her past when Georgetown Memory Project founder Richard Cellini called her. When he said that records indicated she was a descendant of Cornelius Hawkins, one of the 272 slaves sold in 1838 by Georgetown University, the revelation threw her even further into her history. “It was like my car was moving, but I had stopped,” Crump said. She processed the information, matching it to what little she knew of her family history. She knew her family was Catholic, but she had never known how they found the faith. As a black American, she knew she likely had slave
ancestry but had never known their names. The answers were now coming together. “It was a life-changing moment to know them and to be able to feel that relationship with them,” Crump said. Crump is far from the only descendant of the Georgetown slaves from Maringouin. Of the approximately 1,200 people living in the small town, Cellini estimated that anywhere from 600 to 900 of them are descendants of the 272. “My parents grew up on the bayou, and my grandparents grew up on the bayou — all the way back,” Crump said. “And now I know why we’re all along the bayou: Because all the plantations are along the waterways.” The line that Cellini revealed ran through her father, Emanuel Crump Sr. His mother was Mary Justine Hawkins, who was the daughter of Austin Hawkins. Austin’s father was Cornelius Hawkins, who had been sold when he was just 13 years old and who, for years, had labored in a Maringouin plantation — fewer than three miles from Maxine Crump’s childhood home.
“To think about my great-greatgrandfather being listed among the ‘stock’ — he’s listed as stock at the value of $900,” Crump said. “It’s a very painful thought to stand in that experience and know that they have been taught to believe that was their allotted life. … The whole thing was a massive exploit of human beings, of spiritual conscious living beings with a soul.” “That Past That Never Became the Past” A former news reporter, Crump now runs the nonprofit Dialogue on Race Louisiana. The New York Times featured her in its April 17 front-page story on the 272 slaves. As she reflected about the revelation of her ancestry, Crump naturally broached a dialogue concerning a larger lesson. “The church — and the whole institutional construct of America — needs to examine all of its institutional setups for any remnants of barriers against people based on the belief that they are less than, just by birth of being born black,” Crump said. “I’m hoping that this will open up that consciousness.”
Beyond the national lessons, Crump called on the university itself to address its history, pointing to Georgetown’s reluctance to embrace the past as evidence of its need to provide — in some way or another — redress. “If you can’t be proud of it, then you have to say, ‘something’s wrong,’ and we have to fix what’s wrong,” Crump said. “Slavery is that past that never became the past. It just evolved into different, subtler forms of racism and division.” Although she appreciated University President John J. DeGioia’s April 19 letter to the university community for its eloquence and support of continuing the work of reconciliation, Crump advocated two tangible steps for the university to adopt. First, she called for a memorial — in some way — of the names of the slaves who paid off the debt of the university. “I think that if there had been one person who had written off a check to pay off the debt, there name would be ensconced somewhere at Georgetown,” Crump said. “So I would like those names that paid off that debt to be rec-
ognized just as that single person who could have written that check did.” Second, she asked for the university to set up a scholarship fund to support descendants of the 272. “It seems like [the sale] provided education for a lot of people through that time, and now the university could offer a certain amount of scholarships annually to the descendants,” Crump said. “I know they can work out how they can do it in a reasonable way that doesn’t disrupt anything.” Even as she made her appeals, however, Crump remained grounded in the personal experiences of the slaves as they were moved to New Orleans, referencing the “pandemonium” that broke out when they were loaded onto the ship and their feeling of abandonment by the university. Yet, her feeling of loss was perhaps most apparent when she described her realization that her great-great-great-grandfather was buried in a Maringouin cemetery she had passed by all her life. “It’s been there all our lives,” Crump said. “No one ever said anything.”
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YEAR IN REVIEW
THE HOYA
Friday, april 29, 2016
Complaints and Closures Strain Campus Resources Suzanne Monyak and Aly Pachter Hoya Staff Writers
Faced with increased demand for resources in virtually all aspects of campus, the administration worked to address growing concerns in Georgetown’s academic, athletic and student life. Academic Resource Center With five academic coordinators responsible for the entire student population, the Academic Resource Center faced criticism for its tight quarters and inadequate resources in an external review submitted to the university in January. The 14-page report, which was obtained by The Hoya in April and eventually leaked in full by disability rights activist Lydia Brown (COL ’15) on her blog, was conducted in October by Sheilah Shaw Horton, vice president for student development at Loyola University of Maryland, and Myrna Cohen, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Weingarten Learning Resources
Center. Among the 15 recommendations included in the report, Cohen and Horton recommended moving the ARC office to a larger space and hiring two more fulltime learning coordinators, noting the ARC’s “wheelchair inaccessible” location on the third floor of the Leavey Center, its “claustrophobic” testing room two floors above and its undersized staff. Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, who requested the external review, said the conversations regarding hiring an additional full-time learning strategies coordinator and moving the ARC to a more spacious location are ongoing, but nothing has been finalized. Both Olson and ARC Director Jane Holahan said the ARC is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The report cited an anonymous administrator who said, “At a university that prides itself on excellence, we are just meeting compliance.” The ARC, which is housed un-
DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA
Kehoe Field was closed to all athletes Feb. 2 after safety concerns convinced the administration that the field was no longer usable.
der the Office of Student Affairs, is staffed by five full-time professionals on the main campus tasked with providing tutoring services, academic assistance and disability accommodations for the student body, which includes 750 students with registered disabilities and more than 800 varsity athletes. Holahan and Associate Director Annie Tulkin coordinate academic support for all nonathletes, while Associate Director Shelly Habel serves as academic coordinator for all varsity student-athletes with the exception of the varsity basketball teams, which have their own coordinators. The men’s basketball team’s coordinator is housed under athletics, while the women’s basketball team coordinator is housed under the ARC. The report pointed to the imbalance of the student-to-coordinator ratio as possibly contributing to a lack of attention for nonathletes without registered disabilities. Unlike the varsity basketball coordinators who travel with their teams, Habel said she manages too many student-athletes to administer exams tha conflict with athletes’ schedules, except for finals. Monitoring 200 to 300 student-athlete schedules with priority during pre-registration, she said, forces her to devote her time to students who are already academically at risk. “We have tried to rationalize the work in a way where I am doing more triage than I am day-to-day operations, which is unfortunate because it’s like an emergency room,” Habel said in an interview with The Hoya. “As opposed to proactive, it tends to be a little more reactive.” Kehoe Field With multimillion-dollar donations allocated for the construction of the John Thompson Jr. Athletic Center for varsity athletes and renovations of Cooper Field, Kehoe Field — used primarily by club and intramural teams — has fallen into disarray. Located on the roof of Yates Field House, Kehoe Field was closed to all athletes Feb. 2 due to safety concerns. The field has been closed since 2007 to varsity practices. At a Hoya Roundtable discussion held the day after the closure, Vice President for Facilities and Planning Robin Morey said the concrete roof beneath Kehoe’s turf was deteriorating. Additionally, the roof’s poor elevation angle prevents proper water drainage, causing further
damage to the roof. As a result, the turf is riddled with divots, bumps and rippled surfaces. Under current master-planning negotiations, Yates would be torn down and a new athletics center would be built where Shaw Field currently is, creating space for new fields. The development would cost approximately $75 million.
“We have tried to rationalize the work in a way where I am doing more triage than I am day-to-day operations ... it tends to be a little more reactive.” SHELLY HABEL Associate Director, Academic Resource Center
Morey said at the roundtable that the university will decide within 12 months whether it will repair Kehoe Field while waiting for the creation of the new athletics center. The university is still considering its options for renovation. A $10 million renovation would take a year to cpmplete and last for 10 years, but a $30 million renovation would take 18 months to complete and last for 30 years. Facing a potential 8 to 15 year closure under the campus plan, student athletes created a petition in March, urging the administration to speed up the rehabilitation process. The Advisory Board for Club Sports played a role in putting together the petition. In an article in The Hoya (“Student Athletes Form Petition Protesting Kehoe Field Closure,” March 22, A5), Director of Yates Field House Jim Gilroy voiced his support for the petition. “I would like to think that if several thousand students made it clear that this is really important to them that maybe somebody in the administration will listen,” Gilroy said. Counseling and Psychiatric Services Counseling and Psychiatric Services has long faced backlash from students for its inadequate resources, the high cost of counseling services and limited hours of operation. Continued student advocacy this year paved the way for CAPS and the Georgetown University Student Association Mental Health
Committee to increase CAPS staff, provide free services and new programs to improve resources. The fall semester saw the addition of two new CAPS staff members and the implementation of a Mental Health Advisory Board, which consists of students and administrators. On April 24, GUSA launched Project Lighthouse, an anonymous peer-to-peer online chat service to enable anonymous communication, which received 25 student messages on its first day of operations. The initiative included more than 40 hours of training for peer volunteers with the support of CAPS and Health Education Services. The new service is open 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily and is intended to connect students with peer-supporters to discuss issues ranging from stress and sleep problems to thoughts of self-harm. Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson lauded the efforts to strengthen the university’s mental health services in conjunction with efforts by student associations. “I am very encouraged by the partnerships this year between administrators and students to strengthen our campus Safety Net. Adding new staff members in CAPS, convening the Mental Health Advisory Board, and the launch of Project Lighthouse have all been very positive steps,” Olson wrote in an email to The Hoya. CAPS Director Philip Meilman said the expansion of CAPS services is due in part to the growing need for increased mental health resources on campus. “This has been a very active year for CAPS. Over the past decade we have seen more and more students for direct clinical services and a growing number of psychiatric hospitalizations for serious difficulties,” Meilman wrote in an email to The Hoya. “As we work to take care of students, we have engaged in a number of other significant initiatives.” According to Meilman, CAPS is planning on further increasing its staff over the course of the next few years and revisiting its medical leave procedures, an effort already in the works. “Working with GUSA and other student leaders, we have conducted an extensive study of the medical leave process by bringing in an outside consultant who interviewed students, deans, CAPS staff, and others,” Meilman wrote. “We are working on a three-year plan to grow the size of the CAPS staff and are looking at options for additional space to accommodate an expanded staff.”
Bowser Pushes Initiatives to Accommodate Homeless Emily TU
Hoya Staff Writer
In light of an influx of families seeking shelter during a recordbreaking winter storm this year, homelessness in Washington, D.C., became an increasingly prominent issue, with Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) recently announcing plans to close the city’s dilapidated D.C. General Family Shelter. According to the District’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, there are an estimated 7,298 homeless individuals in the District on any given night. This includes 544 unsheltered persons, 5,085 individuals in emergency shelters and 1,669 residents in transitional housing.
“Homelessness can seem so big and so insurmountable, but the fact is we can quantify the challenge.” muriel bowser Mayor, Washington D.C.
In D.C.’s first Homeless Youth Census conducted in August, the D.C. Department of Human Services found that homelessness disproportionately affects LGBTQ youths, with 43 percent of the District’s 330 minors without shelter identifying as LGBTQ. The D.C. ICH and Bowser have led concerted efforts to address the District’s homelessness crisis since September, when they launched “Homeward DC,” a plan that seeks to eliminate chronic homelessness by 2017 and all long-term homelessness by 2020. The mayor also committed $23 million of her $12 billion 2016 fiscal year budget to combat the crisis. “Homelessness can seem so big and so insurmountable, but the fact is we can quantify the challenge,” Bowser said at the plan’s official announcement Sept. 1. “A city as prosperous as ours should
and must solve the problem of homelessness.” The plan proposed reforms to expand emergency housing options and enable the housing of families in both apartments and private rooms in addition to public facilities. The proposal also amended the Homeless Services Reform Act, which previously required individuals to prove they had no safe place to stay before being admitted to shelters. The amendment allowed for the provision of at least 12 days of interim housing to homeless citizens as the city determines their eligibility. The reforms proved vital as nightly temperatures in the District began to plummet below freezing — a period known as “hypothermia season” — and the city faced an influx of more than 700 families seeking shelter in November. The season, which lasts from Nov. 1 to April 1, activates the right-to-shelter law that requires D.C. to provide housing to all homeless people. With shelters filled to capacity, the city resorted to renting motel rooms for 400 families. Homelessness in the cold weather was further exacerbated by the arrival of Winter Storm Jonas on Jan. 22, which tied for the fourth-highest snowfall on record in the District and pummeled the city with over 2 feet of snow. The storm prompted the D.C. Department of Human Services to set up temporary warming and overflow hypothermia shelters in recreational centers, libraries and churches throughout six of the District’s eight wards. “Our staff is doing a whole host of things, making sure they have food, and a plan, meal cards and if need, making sure they have bags of groceries,” D.C. Department of Human Services Director Laura Zeilinger said to The Washington Post on Jan. 22. “Yes, they will be marooned, just like everybody in the city will be marooned. That’s why we’re getting out to them in advance.” Shortly after the storm passed, Bowser unveiled an initiative Feb. 9 to replace D.C. General with facilities in each of the District’s eight wards. The shelter at D.C. General
NATASHA THOMSON/THE HOYA
Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced several initiatives this year to accommodate the increasing number of homeless individuals in Washington, D.C., including the closure of D.C. General Family Shelter. has come under fire for its allegedly poor living conditions, lack of security and staff misconduct since 8-year-old Relisha Rudd disappeared from the shelter in March 2014. Rudd still has not been found, despite the Metropolitan Police Department’s renewed search efforts in April at the U.S. National Arboretum. Under the mayor’s initiative, the proposed shelters would house up to 50 families each and would cost an estimated $22 million annually to maintain, around $5 million more than is currently used to operate D.C. General. The total cost of the proposal is expected to reach $660 million over the next 30 years. Though the plan initially received praise from District officials, as more details were revealed throughout March and April, it began to face criticisms
over its potential costs. The D.C. Council, which was initially set to vote on the proposal April 19, postponed its consideration until the initiative is further fleshed out. “We should not overpay for what we’re doing. If it’s worth $1 million, then we should pay $1 million — we shouldn’t pay $10 million,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said to WAMU on April 6. “A lot of folks who are very knowledgeable about real estate say that we need to ask tougher questions about the cost.” The initiative has met further resistance over its proposed shelter sites, particularly due to its plan to establish a facility in Ward 5 that would be in close proximity to a strip club, a wastetreatment facility, a nightclub and a large Metrobus depot. Critics have also taken issue
with a potential conflict of interest reported by The Washington Post on March 16, which indicated that the proposal — which would lease private land for shelters as well as use public property — has the potential to increase the value of properties owned by mayoral donors by up to 10 times. As of now, the future of Bowser’s plan to address homelessness remains unclear, but the mayor has continued to push for its implementation, stressing the urgency of the crisis at hand. “I urge us not to be distracted by arguments that are based on fear or convenience, or apples and oranges comparisons that falsely represent the cost of lifting our families out of homelessness,” Bowser said in her State of the District address March 22. “Because make no mistake, if we fail to act, we will fail.”
Year in Review
friday, april 29, 2016
THE HOYA
In Memoriam katherine richardson Hoya Staff Writer
Fr. Richard Curry, S.J., 72
Professor of Catholic Studies and Theater
Fr. Richard Curry, S.J., who taught for 10 years at Georgetown and founded Dog Tag Bakery, died Dec. 20 from heart failure. The Jesuit was a fervent advocate for veteran and disability rights, serving as the director of the Academy for Veterans and subsequently founding Dog Tag in 2014. The Georgetown bakery, which employs veterans and their spouses, aims to help employees develop business acumen through night courses and real-life experience. On campus, Curry’s legacy was heard in the tap dancing clicks that echoed through the halls of the Intercultural Center. Through his “Theater and the Catholic Imagination” class, Curry taught students to shuffle-ballchange as a form of expression. Although Curry suffered from health problems in the last few years of his life, his students said that he always came to class with passionate energy, eager to develop close relationships with each and every one of them.
JESUIT.ORG
Nina Brekelmans (GRD ’15), 25 Recently Matriculated Graduate Student
One month before her death in an electrical fire in a townhouse in Dupont Circle, Nina Brekelmans (GRD ’15) graduated from Georgetown’s Master of Arts in Arab studies program with a near-perfect GPA. The brilliant scholar and nearly fluent Arabic speaker planned to study the experiences of female runners in Jordan with a Fulbright grant in the fall. She spent a gap year in Jordan in 2012 to improve her Arabic skills, and immediately fell in love with the place and its people. Each morning, she ran with female long-distance runners at a local stadium, forming close relationships and working to empower Jordanian women to participate in sports. Brekelmans was a talented runner herself, competing on the Dartmouth College team in her undergraduate days and participating in the Georgetown Running Club while getting her masters degree. She is survived by her parents, Gail and Nico Brekelmans and her brother Rob.
Edward “Eddie” Blatz Jr. (MSB ’17), 21 Student
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Rabbi Harold S. White, 83 Rabbi
Edward Blatz Jr. (MSB ’17), widely known by his nickname “Eddie,” was a talented and admired member of the men’s lacrosse team, for which he played defense. He died April 24 of unreported causes. Blatz graduated from Garden City High School in New York, where he played football, lacrosse and basketball. A 10-time letter winner for all three sports, Blatz was recognized as Garden City’s all-time leader in receptions and touchdown catches. At Georgetown, he majored in management and played in 25 games for the lacrosse team. Blatz is survived by his parents, Edward Blatz Sr. and Anne Marie, and two older sisters, Elizabeth and Jessica.
As the university’s first full-time rabbi, Rabbi Harold S. White pioneered interfaith dialogue and cemented a presence for Jewish life on campus. He died of complications from a stroke Aug. 31. In his time at Georgetown, which began in 1968, White helped launch the Program for Jewish Civilization, delivered hugely popular sermons in Gaston Hall and performed wedding ceremonies for countless interfaith couples, including that of Vice President for Public Affairs Erik Smulson (CAS ’89). In his years on campus, White championed interreligious learning, and taught a popular class called “Interreligious Encounter and Dialogue” alongside Imam Yahya Hendi and PJC Associate Director Rev. Dennis McManus. His students remember him as a dynamic and engaging professor, but also one who valued challenging his own faith and understanding the faiths of others. White is survived by his son Ross McQuilkin.
MBDNA
Charles Cawley (CAS ’62), 75 Businessman and Donor
Any student who has performed on the stage of the Davis Performing Arts Center, met with counselors at the Cawley Career Education Center or studied in Sellinger Lounge has Charles Cawley (CAS ’62) to thank. The prominent businessman and donor, who died Nov. 18 at his home in Maine, served as the CEO of the MBNA Corporation for more than 20 years and consistently worked to improve programs and services at Georgetown. In addition to funding multiple construction projects, he also helped fund the College’s Baker Scholars Program, established and the 1111 Cawley/Murphy Scholarship. He is survived by his wife Julie and their two children, Michael Cawley (CAS ’86) and Maureen Cawley Rhodes (CAS ’88).
CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
Nathan Kittredge “Kitt” Rom (SFS ’19), 19 Student
Known as a passionate, endlessly curious and adventurous freshman, Nathan Kittredge “Kitt” Rom (SFS ’19) died March 9 in a skiing accident in Colorado. The science, technology and international affairs major loved physics and chemistry, and applied his academic skills to his passion outside the classroom — brewing coffee. Rom, who worked at Saxbys, took his love for coffee outside the workplace, creating new concoctions for his friends in Darnall Hall and constantly working to improve his craft. He was also a spontaneous adventurer, who traveled around Italy, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia on a gap year. He is survived by his father Mark Rom, associate dean for academic affairs at the McCourt School of Public Policy, his mother and his brother Chris Rom (COL ’16), who will graduate in May.
COURTESY ROM FAMILY
FR. James P.M. Walsh, S.J., 77
Associate Professor of Theology and Celestial Chime
For more than 40 years, Fr. James P. M. Walsh, S.J., graced the community with an indelible legacy, one of speech and expression, of devout scholarship and of music. He died July 1 from myelofibrosis. Walsh, often known simply as “Jim,” pioneered the university’s creation of a speech and expression policy, and dedicated himself to making Georgetown a bastion of dialogue, expression and free discourse. In his academic life, Walsh studied social justice issues in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, and brought his passion for theology alive in the classroom. The Jesuit also made a musical imprint on the Georgetown community, serving as the “Celestial Chime” in the all-male a cappella group for more than 30 years. The group remembers him as a fiercely loyal Chime, providing lasting friendship and mentorship for three decades of its members.
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B8
YEAR IN REVIEW
THE HOYA
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016
Politics to Comedy: A Year of Speakers T
JESS KELHAM-HOHLER Hoya Staff Writer
his year saw Georgetown’s stages play host to a diverse array of speakers. In its inaugural year, the Institute of Politics and Public Service invited a number of important political players to campus, bringing the presidential election campaigns to the Hilltop with speakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Carly Fiorina — recently named Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) running mate. The Georgetown Lecture Fund also had a stellar year, working to cover a variety of topic areas and backgrounds, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s speechwriter Clarence Jones. In one particularly controversial set of speaker events, the Lecture Fund hosted Edward Snowden and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.
COURTESY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
“It’s a spiritual power of community and of faith that in our darkest moments ... out of the nation of many, we become one again.” VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN DEC. 16
STANLEY DAI/THE HOYA
ROBERT CORTES/THE HOYA
“We should accept refugees from [Syria]. That’s the moral thing to do. Accepting refugees is what America has always done.”
“I’m campaigning for Ted Cruz because he’s the only one who can beat Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has to be beaten.”
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT.) NOV. 19
LAUREN SEIBELTHE HOYA
“My mission is to make sure sexual violence is no longer sidelined as a stigma to be borne in silence, but is brought into the center of international relations.” ZAINAB BANGURA UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARYGENERAL ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT FEB. 22
CARLY FIORINA FORMER HEWLETT-PACKARD CEO MARCH 15
GABY MAS/THE HOYA
“If the CEO of Google wanted to look at your email box today, just because ... what could you do about it?” EDWARD SNOWDEN FORMER NSA EMPLOYEE APRIL 14
COURTESY HAYDEN JEONG
“At Planned Parenthood, our motto is care, no matter what. That’s either a promise or a threat, depending on where you sit.” CECILE RICHARDS PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD APRIL 20
“There are people sleeping on the sidewalks in the richest country in the world. That is your ethical and moral challenge.” CLARENCE JONES SPEECHWRITER FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. FEB. 29
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CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
“Now women who are coming out of college feel like they deserve to be treated equally. I think it’s amazing that these women are taking these steps.”
“I was more scared of regret than rejection. I didn’t want to look back and feel like I didn’t try.” NICK KROLL (COL ’01) SPEAKING WITH COMEDY PARTNER JOHN MULANEY (COL ’04) FEB. 16
LAUREN SEIBEL/THE HOYA
ABBY WAMBACH RETIRED U.S. SOCCER PLAYER APRIL 9
Year in Review
friDAY, April 29, 2016
THE HOYA
B9
Mixed Results in 2015-16 Shift Expectations Soccer stands out, football gains ground
Lacrosse underwhelms, track breaks records
tyLER PARK
elizabeth cavacos
Hoya Staff Writer
Hoya Staff Writer
Men’s Soccer The men’s soccer team (16-2-3, 9-0-0 Big East) got off to a slow start this season, failing to win any of its first three games. However, as the season progressed, the Hoyas’ stout defense led them to a dominant run through Big East play. Georgetown won each of its nine regular season Big East games as part of a program record 14-game winning streak. The Hoyas’ defenders — including junior Joshua Yaro and seniors Keegan Rosenberry, Cole Seiler and Josh Turnley — helped their team record six consecutive shutouts as part of a streak of more than 566 consecutive scoreless minutes — another program record. The Hoyas won the school’s first-ever Big
East championship in men’s soccer by defeating Creighton on junior forward Alex Muyl’s overtime goal. After it finished with a 16-2-3 record, Georgetown earned the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, but it fell to Boston College (11-8-2, 4-4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) in penalty kicks in the third round of the tournament. Four Hoyas earned All-Big East First Team Recognition, including Yaro, the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, and freshman goalkeeper J.T. Marcinkowski, the Big East Rookie of the Year. Senior forward Brandon Allen led the team with 12 goals and was one of 15 players selected as semifinalists for the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, awarded to the country’s best men’s and women’s soccer player.
Men’s lacrosse The 2015 season for the men’s lacrosse team marked a significant turnaround from two years of struggle and sub-.500 records for the program. The team posted a 10-6 record and reached the championship of the Big East tournament, before losing to reigning Big East and national champion Denver. But Georgetown (2-11, 1-3 Big East) did not carry its 2015 momentum into this season; the team had a five-game losing skid through the middle of the season with three blowout losses. The Hoyas have struggled at the faceoff X since 2014; following the departure of thengraduate student FOGO Tyler Knarr after the 2014 season and the introduction of new
NCAA faceoff rules in 2015, Georgetown has had to focus on making the faceoff a more concerted three-on-three effort. Graduate student midfielder and secondtime co-captain Joe Bucci has led Georgetown on offense this season and currently has 18 total goals and seven assists. Freshman attack Daniel Bucaro has also stepped into a major offensive role, recording 15 goals and 12 assists for a team-high 27 points. Sophomore goalkeeper Nick Marrocco returned for his second season, anchoring the defense and garnering conference Defensive Player of the Week honors twice this season. Georgetown’s final game of the regular season is this weekend on the road against St. John’s (1-12, 0-4 Big East).
woMen’s Soccer After an inconsistent nonconference slate, the women’s soccer team (11-5-4, 6-1-2 Big East) started fast in Big East play and maintained its strong play throughout its conference schedule, finishing second in the Big East. However, the Hoyas’ play did not translate to postseason success, as they fell to Providence in penalty kicks in the Big East tournament semifinals. Georgetown thus failed to claim the Big East’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that goes to the tournament’s winner. Georgetown still earned an at-large bid to the Big East tournament and was given a home match against Hofstra (13-6-2, 7-1-1 Co-
lonial Athletic Association) in the first round. However, the results were the same for the Hoyas, as they again lost in penalty kicks and did not advance. Sophomore midfielder Rachel Corboz, a Third Team All-American and the Big East Midfielder of the Year, led a balanced Georgetown offensive attack with 10 goals and eight assists. Senior forward Crystal Thomas added seven goals and seven assists and was one of five Hoyas who earned All-Big East Second Team honors. Graduate student goalkeeper Emma Newins anchored the defense by earning All-Big East honors for the fourth consecutive season, this time receiving Second Team honors.
woMen’s lacrosse After getting off to a rocky start at the beginning of the season with four straight losses, the women’s lacrosse team (6-9, 4-2 Big East) slowly started to reverse the tide after a close 10-9 upset win over then-No. 14 Duke (9-7, 4-3 ACC) on March 9. A bulk of the team’s success this season has come during conference play; Georgetown is currently in third place in the Big East standings behind the two conference rivals it has lost to — No. 2 Florida (16-1, 7-0 Big East) and the University of Connecticut (12-3, 6-1 Big East). The Hoyas’ scoring depth has played a significant role in its wins this season. In
Georgetown’s decisive 18-7 victory over Villanova (4-13, 2-5 Big East) on April 13, nine different players tallied goals, including four from senior attack Kelsey Perselay and three from junior attack Colleen Lovett. Georgetown’s depth also extends to its roster. Senior midfielder Kristen Bandos and senior attack Corinne Etchison continue to put up high numbers on the stat sheet, while freshman midfielder Francesca Whitehurst and freshman attack Taylor Gebhardt have also stepped into lead roles on offense. The Hoyas wrap up their regular season schedule on the road against Temple (11-5, 3-3 Big East) this Saturday in Philadelphia.
football The football team (4-7, 2-4 Patriot League) improved upon last season’s record but was unable to sustain momentum at any point during the season, as the Hoyas never won two consecutive games. Georgetown won its home opener by a score of 34-7 over Marist (5-6, 4-4 Pioneer Football League), and also defeated Columbia (2-8, 1-6 Ivy League), Lafayette (110, 0-6 Patriot League) and Bucknell (4-7, 1-5 Patriot League) in 2015. However, the Hoyas struggled at times on defense, allowing more than 30 points in six of their 11 games. Senior quarterback Kyle Nolan returned to run the Georgetown offense,
passing for 2,433 yards, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Nolan also led the team with five rushing touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Jake DeCicco led Georgetown with 60 receptions and 705 receiving yards, while junior wide receiver Justin Hill hauled in 46 passes for 636 yards and a team-leading six touchdown receptions. Senior running back Jo’el Kimpela rushed for 643 yards to lead the team, and Kimpela and Hill were among six Hoyas who were named to the All-Patriot League Second Team. Senior linebacker Matthew Satchell was Georgetown’s lone All-Patriot League First Team selection after leading the team with 100 total tackles.
cross country & track and field Under the guidance of first-year Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Michael Smith, the teams have thrived between the cross country and indoor and outdoor track seasons. In September, the women’s team was ranked No. 5 in the NCAA preseason polls, with the men’s team holding a preseason rank of 16. In November, for the 10th time in 11 years, both teams earned berths to the NCAA championships; the men’s squad earned 10th place overall in the competition, while the women claimed 20th. Junior Jonathan Green finished in fifth place in the 10,000-meter event, the best individual showing at the national championships by a Georgetown runner since 2000. Heading into 2016, the men’s and women’s
track and field teams earned preseason ranks of No. 22 and No. 10, respectively. Throughout the indoor season and into the opening weeks of the outdoor season this spring, both teams have seen multiple athletes break personal and school records. In the second day of the indoor NCAA championships on March 12, the women’s distance medley relay squad of graduate student Andrea Keklak, senior Heather Martin, junior Emma Keenan and graduate student Katrina Coogan took first place and recorded the ninth fastest time in NCAA history, finishing in 10:57.21. The track and field teams will continue regular competition through next month, with the NCAA preliminaries at the end of May and the NCAA championships in early June.
FILE PHOTO: ISABEL BINAMIRA/THE HOYA
FILE PHOTO: JENNA CHEN/THE HOYA
FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
Honoring Seniors: Stellar Careers Remembered Jake DeCicco Andrea Keklak Aidan Curran
The speedy receiver had the most catches and the most receiving yards on the team as a senior, 60 and 705, respectively. In an era of Georgetown football character“It was the best experience ever, I loved every ized by unsteady performances and losing re- minute of it. I wouldn’t change any of it for the cords – with only one winning world,” DeCicco said. season since the 2007-08 seaDeCicco is especially proud son – senior wide receiver Jake of the growth he has seen in the DeCicco has been a model of program, especially the team’s ofconsistency. DeCicco, a 6-foot-1 fense. 190-pound wideout from Kings“From an offensive standpoint ton High School in Kingston, N.Y., I definitely think that we chalwas a three-year starter for the lenged ourselves this year,” DeCicprogram. He finished his Georgeco said. “Offensively there’s a lot town career with 137 catches of big shoes to be filled … but the for 1,553 yards, to go along with defense is going to come back in FILE PHOTO: ERIN NAPIER/ and be what they’ve been forever.” seven career touchdown catches. THE HOYA “Being a three-year starter has With graduation on the horizon, been great because I’ve been put in a position to DeCicco said he knows he gave everything he work with some of the younger receivers across had to the football team. my time,” DeCicco said. “When I signed my letter of intent I joked DeCicco was the leading wide receiver for around with my recruiting coordinator and the Hoyas last season and helped Georgetown said I wanted to go down as Georgetown’s allfootball end its season with a record of 4-7, time leading receiver. Obviously I came up a the best record since the year before DeCicco’s little short on that goal, but it was a hell [sic] of freshman season. a ride and I enjoyed every minute of it.”
Hoya Staff Writer
Brandon Allen
Andrew May
Allen undoubtedly had remarkable success on the field. When asked to reflect on his time at Georgetown near the end of last season, howNo player in Georgetown history has scored ever, the then senior highlighted his experience more goals than forward Brandon Allen. In four off the field as well. years on the hilltop, Allen found “It is the best three and a half the back of the net a record 50 years of my life so far,” Allen said times and led the team in scoring last September. “Just meeting all every season. these friends and teammates. It’s In 2015, the Big East named Albeen a great experience.” len preseason Player of the Year. As Allen’s 50 career goals, 17 ashe continued to score at a torrid sists and knack for putting away pace, the forward looked to make chances in front of net earned the most of his time as a Hoya. him a contract with Major League “[I am] just approaching every Soccer’s New York Red Bulls. The game like it’s going to be the last, FILE PHOTO: ISABEL forward scored twice for the Red BINAMIRA/THE HOYA Bulls reserve team in his first profesbecause I am a senior, and it is going to end quick,” Allen said in an interview last sional match. Now he is hoping to continue that October. start and begin his career at the next level just as The approach clearly worked, as Allen scored quickly as he did at Georgetown. four times in his last six matches, including the “I want to make an impact like I did in college. game winner in the Big East semifinal and the My first impression in college was amazing. equalizer in the Big East championship against Hopefully I can turn that into MLS and hopethen No. 5 Creighton. fully score a couple my first season.” Hoya Staff Writer
Dan Baldwin Hoya Staff Writer
Though graduate student runner Andrea Keklak has enjoyed a dominant career on the Hilltop, her journey has been anything but smooth. At the end of 2014, Keklak was suffering from Iliotibial Band Syndrome, an injury that sidelined her for most of the 2015 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons. “It was hard,” said Keklak, “Especially during track we travel every weekend so if you aren’t going to those meets you feel very out of the loop, and at training people go off to do workouts. You start to feel a little isolated. I did my best to still be a presence on the team and support everyone, but honestly it was a pretty devastating experience for me.” Although Keklak was injured for a long period of time, her teammates were always there for her. “I would just try to tell her that you are going to get to a place where you are running again.
Also that running in general does not define you and that you are a person outside of that as well,” senior Heather Martin said. When Keklak returned for the 2015 cross country season, she immediately impressed at the Big East Championship meet running a time of 19:58.3, good enough for fifth place. After gaining confidence in indoor season, Keklak enjoyed a record-breaking indoor track and field season, breaking Georgetown records in both the 1000m and mile. She recorded times of 2:42.76 and 4:33.24 respectively in both GUHOYAS races. In the indoor season, the women’s Distance Medley Relay team of Keklak, Martin, junior Emma Keenan, and graduate student Katrina Coogan captured the NCAA national championship clocking in at 10:57.21. This qualified as the ninth-fastest DMR time in NCAA history. With Keklak’s collegiate eligibility coming to an end this season, she will not only be remembered as a great runner and competitor, but also a passionate leader, role model, and friend.
Samantha Giovanniello
Sophia Poole
that the young players around her watch how she carries herself, how she goes about practice how she goes about competing,” Conlan said. Since her freshman year, middle infielder “She is truly one of the greats.” and pitcher Samantha Giovanniello has been a Giovanniello’s personal goals have reflected force to be reckoned with. Playing her team-centered mentality and her first three years as an infielder, committment to the program. Giovanniello transitioned this year “[I would like to] be rememto pitching in order to help her bered as someone who always team, a move evocative of her team worked hard and always had a focused mentality and play. positive outlook no matter what “What I’ve seen Sam do this year the circumstances were. Someone has been one of the most selfless giving 100 percent who can be a things I’ve ever seen in my coachrole model for players to come,” ing career,” Head Coach Pat ConGiovanniello said. lan said. “She sacrificed so much In addition to being a role FILE PHOTO: ERIN NAPIER/ THE HOYA of her senior year, her senior seamodel, Giovanniello has been son, to help the team where we responsible for some significant plays, leading needed it most.” the Hoyas to victory on multiple occasions, most Giovanniello has always been a member of recently with a grand slam against Big East opthe team to exemplify best practices through the ponent St. John’s. way that she trains and competes. “It’s not just one thing,” Conlan said. “It’s “Sam’s a quiet leader, but she speaks loudly about her and what she’s meant to our program and very clearly with her actions, and I hope day in and day out for four years.” Hoya Staff Writer
SPORTS THE YEAR IN
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016
Coach of the Year: Adair Turns Team Around MOLLY O’CONNELL Hoya Staff Writer
When Natasha Adair was named head coach of the College of Charleston’s women’s basketball team in May 2012, she took over a program that had finished its 2011-2012 campaign at 7-23 — the team’s second losing record in as many seasons. Two years later, when Adair made the decision to accept the head coaching position at Georgetown, the team she left
behind at Charleston was vastly different from the one she had inherited. In her brief tenure with the Cougars, Adair led the team to 16 wins in her first season, which was enough to earn it a spot at the Women’s Basketball Invitational. The following year, the Cougars finished 19-15, which still stands as the third-best record in program history. After finishing third in the Colonial Athletic Association’s regular season rankings and reaching the
FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
In Head Coach Natasha Adair’s second season, she quadrupled the Hoyas’ number of wins and led them to a WNIT appearance.
semifinals of the conference’s postseason tournament, Adair became the first coach to ever lead the Cougars to back-to-back playoff berths. In its second straight appearance in the WBI, the College of Charleston made a run to the semifinals. “I went to [the College of Charleston] with the expectation of rebuilding,” Adair said. “I didn’t go in with this ‘my way or the highway’ mentality. I went in and I talked to the players and I said to the seniors, ‘What do you want out of your senior year?’ they said, ‘We want to win, we want to leave a legacy, we want to have fun,’ and I told them that if they commit to working hard and they commit to trusting the process that we would get them there.” The program awaiting Adair at Georgetown in 2014 was in disarray. The roster was without a single senior, and of the team’s returning players, few had previously seen significant playing time. To make matters worse, Adair would be the Hoyas’ third coach in three years. The lack of experience and the high rate of turnover at the head coaching position translated into a disappointing first season for Adair. The Hoyas finished with a 4-27 record that included a 15-game losing streak to close out the season. Georgetown’s conference record of 2-16 was the worst in the Big East. “The first year was hard,” Adair said. “But sometimes when you go through adversity you find out who is with you and you can go through it together. That adversity brought us closer than anything because when you go through turmoil and have ups and downs, people can scatter, people can divide, but our team stayed together and we fought through it.” With a challenging first year behind her, Adair entered the 2015-2016 season with the goal of replicating the successful turnaround she had achieved at the College of Charleston. She was determined to leave Georgetown’s five seniors a legacy of which they could be proud. “I leaned on my seniors. I told them I needed them. I wanted
them to be leaders because this season was for them,” Adair said. “They had been through a lot, and they had experienced a lot in their time here. I just wanted to be able to give them happiness, and I wanted to give them an experience they wouldn’t forget.” Adair delivered.
“I want them to know that there’s so much out there for them to attain.” NATASHA ADAIR Head Coach
Georgetown won four times as many games in her second season as they did in her first, making it the team with the third-best season-to-season turnaround in the country. Projected during preseason to finish seventh in the Big East, the Hoyas defied expectations and closed out the season with two crucial conference wins that catapulted them to fifth place. With the fifth seed, Georgetown earned a Big East tournament first round bye for the first time since 2012. The Hoyas would later receive an at-large bid for the Women’s National Invitational Tournament, marking their first postseason appearance in four years. Adair had done it again. In only two years, she had taken a struggling team and turned it into a program to be reckoned with. “This year was an eye opener for us. We didn’t really have anyone on the team that had experienced this kind of success,” Adair said. “We now know that we can beat and play with all the teams in the Big East, even the ones we haven’t beaten yet because we know it wasn’t a matter of what they did, it was a matter of what we didn’t do.” Georgetown’s players have nothing but praise for their head coach. “It was a good decision to bring Coach Adair in. I love playing for her,” sophomore guard
Dorothy Adomako said. “She lets you play with freedom out there.” Freshman guard Dionna White echoed Adomako’s sentiment. “[Adair] is fun to play for, and she knows what she is talking about,” White said. “She doesn’t really try to change your game. You can play how you normally would want to play.” Giving her players the confidence and the liberty to reach their potential is fundamental to Adair’s coaching philosophy. “I tell each one of my players that they have a gift, and we want to expose that gift,” Adair said. “Everyone has a role so if there is something that you do well, then do what you do, and we will put the pieces around you to make sure every other area is covered. I don’t want the kids to be afraid. I want them to play with confidence.” Although she is only a sophomore, Adomako said she appreciates Adair’s off-the-court presence and her commitment to ensuring that her players are prepared for life beyond basketball. “[Adair] is doing a great job of teaching us the things that are going to help us when we graduate,” Adomako said. The future is bright for women’s basketball at Georgetown. The team will return with their two leading scorers and All-Big East Second Team honorees, Adomako and White. Sophomore point guard DiDi Burton and junior forward Faith Woodward, who were both key to the team’s success last season, will also be back in the lineup for Georgetown. “Our team right now is hungrier than I’ve ever seen a team in 19 years of coaching,” Adair said. “They know we have unfinished business, and they know that we want to cut down a net. That is just what’s next. It’s about consistency and about knowing who we are and being that team night in and night out. And we will be that team.” Adair has achieved remarkable successes as head coach for two teams. There is no telling what she and the Hoyas will accomplish in season three.
Lack of Emotional Leadership Sinks Season A n Instagram post should have changed everything; at least I thought it would. On April 7, 2015, a week after Georgetown issued a press release announcing that guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera would declare for the NBA draft, Smith-Rivera posted an Instagram saying that he, in fact, would return for his senior season. It was an announcement that Georgetown fans needed. What caused him to change his decision remains uncertain. Some suggest it was because of his bleak draft status. Smith-Rivera, however, suggested an alternate reason — namely, graduating. “Over time I had thought about some things, like finishing school,” Smith-Rivera said in an interview with THE HOYA in October. “I’ve come this far — to not finish would be disappointing to my family more than anything. I’m a first generation for my family to go to college and I’ll be the first to graduate, so that was a major factor.” Regardless of his motivations, Smith-Rivera’s return restored hope for the 2015-16 season. Yes, the Georgetown team had lost key contributors, including forward Jabril Trawick, center Joshua Smith and center Mikael Hopkins, to graduation. But these losses were matched with a strong group of underclassmen, incoming transfer forward Akoy Agau, and the return of its leading scorer — Smith-Rivera. “As far as a team expectation, I think everyone had an expectation of making it to the tournament and making it far in the tournament,” senior center and co-captain Bradley Hayes said. In short, there was only reason to believe that it would improve from its 2014-2015 finish, and reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007. This quest for the Sweet 16, however, took a hit before the season even started. In October, Agau, who was expected to receive significant playing time and help fill the void left by Smith and Hopkins, tore his ACL, and it was announced that he would miss the entirety of the 2015-2016 season. “With the injury with Akoy, that
was the very first major injury that we had,” Hayes said. “I mean, he brought a motor to the team. Just his motor by itself would have brought the team a lot further than we made it so that was a really big loss there.” However, there was still reason to be hopeful. A Georgetown team with SmithRivera was perceived to be a dramatically different than a team without. After the 2015 NCAA championship game and following Smith-Rivera’s initial announcement, CBS Sports released an early ranking of the top 25 teams for the 2015-2016. Noticeably absent? Georgetown. However, after Smith-Rivera’s announced return, Georgetown appeared at No. 17 in a revised version of the rankings. Moreover, Hayes had showed promise in the 2015 NCAA tournament. In his two games against Eastern Washington and Utah, Hayes averaged 8.7 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds in 21.9 minutes a game — a drastic improvement from his 0.9 points and 1.4 rebounds per game junior year. Despite this seemingly strong team, the propensity to lose close games and lose to inferior teams continued. First, there was Radford (16-5, 9-9 Big South) — an 82-80 double overtime loss in the home-opener. Then the Hoyas fell victim to Monmouth (28-8, 17-3 MAAC) and its charismatic bench. Then University of North Carolina–Asheville (22-12, 12-6 Big South). But sandwiched between these losses, the Hoyas teased their fans and showed their potential. In its second game, Georgetown challenged then-No. 3 Maryland (279, 12-6 ACC) for the entire game. Although the Hoyas led for the majority of the second half, the Terrapins ultimately prevailed, 75-71, after a late run with less than five minutes remaining. This loss was followed by a convincing win over Wisconsin (22-13, 12-6 Big 10) and an 86-84 loss to Duke (2511, 11-7 ACC). Then the Hoyas rallied off five straight wins, including 79-72 win against Syracuse (23-14, 9-9 ACC) in the much-anticipated renewal of the rivalry. “From my standard I have for the team, I feel like we had some great
moments, the Syracuse game, Wisconsin who beat us the previous year was a good bounce back game,” Smith-Rivera said. “Throughout the year we kind of jelled together from the tough losses we had so I think it brought the team back together, I think it helped them bond a little bit better.” Georgetown’s Big East schedule followed a very similar script. There were close losses to good teams — the Jan. 16 loss to Villanova (35-5, 16-2 Big East), the Feb. 13 loss to Providence (2411, 10-8 Big East) and the Feb. 27 loss to Butler (22-11, 10-8 Big East). There was January’s 81-72 win over Xavier (28-6, 14-4 Big East). But there were also the losses to Creighton (20-15, 9-9 Big East) and Marquette (20-13, 8-10 Big East). Yes, Georgetown dealt with injuries to key contributors. Senior center Bradley Hayes, who established himself a crucial component of the Georgetown offense, missed six games with a broken hand. Sophomore forward Paul White, who was expected to contribute, missed all but seven games with a hip injury. “With Paul, he’s really smart with the game,” Hayes said. “He has a high IQ and we missed that on the court. He sees things that other people don’t see and we kind of needed that out there.” And both Hayes’s and White’s absences hurt — Georgetown lost every game in Hayes’s absence — but there seemed to be a greater issue at hand. Throughout the entire season, one thing was always missing: an emotional leader. And this was why the 2015-16 team missed the presence of Trawick. It was not so much his 9.1 points per game, but his consistent leadership, especially in times of adversity, that made a difference. “You know Jabril brought that [spark] to the court. … I think that where he left, other people tried to step up. I tried to take a little bit of his energy for the game, emotion for the game,” Hayes said. “But you can never find the exact same type of thing from another player that has left before. Everybody brings something different.” Smith-Rivera also acknowledged the loss of Trawick’s emotion. “I don’t think we showed enough emotion,” Smith-Rivera said. “That
FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
Senior guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera finished his career as the Hoyas’ fifth all-time leading scorer and leader in three-pointers made. was the thing about it, when you get into tough situations you get emotionally, or you’re supposed to anyways.” It is no secret that this season was disappointing. It was Georgetown’s first losing record in John Thompson III’s tenure and the first since the 200304 season — former Head Coach Craig Esherick’s last season before he was fired. It is not the way that I thought he would end his career and neither did Smith-Rivera. “It’s his senior year and I know he wants to go out with a bang,” Campbell said in an interview with THE HOYA in October . Unfortunately, though, there was no such script in place. Having ended the regular season with a 14-17 record, the Big East Tournament represented the Hoyas’ last opportunity to make the NCAA tournament. In the first round of the tourna-
ment, Georgetown handled DePaul (9-22, 3-15 Big East), earning them a matchup with top-seeded Villanova. Against the Wildcats, there looked as though there would be a potential upset. Instead, Smith-Rivera and the 201516 team went out with a whimper and without receiving an invitation to postseason tournaments. Next year, there will be yet another unexpected return: center Bradley Hayes. “I’m excited I got [an extra year of eligibility] and I’m fortunate I got it,” Hayes said. “[I’ve got] to make the most of it.” Maybe 2016-17 will be the year. The painful optimist in me wants to say yes. But Georgetown fans have come to know better.
CAROLYN MAGUIRE is a senior in the College.