Imagine: THE HOYA has an end of the year party honoring its outgoing editorial board – and at the party, two members of the incoming editorial board, juniors, allegedly rape a freshman.
Within a few short days, reporters from all over the country descend on Georgetown, setting up tripods in Red Square and at the front gates, reporting across the globe what we in the Georgetown community have known for far too long – that some individuals, maybe even some on the Hilltop, even if they are associated with otherwise positive organizations, sometimes commit crimes.
Suddenly, the story is not just about the individuals accused of the crime – suddenly, the story is about THE HOYA as an organization. Suddenly, this college newspaper is not merely criticized for being arrogant and self-righteous (which would be arguably true), but is now accused of voluntarily harboring rapists (which would be blatantly false).
THE HOYA then loses all of its revenue – advertisers, alumni and all other sources of funds abruptly refuse to give because of the negative publicity. The incoming members of THE HOYA editorial board who are not accused of any crime suddenly find themselves without a newspaper.
They seek positions at other newspapers on campus. They try to get involved in other non-literary organizations like club sports teams, the IRC or the Georgetown University Grilling Society, and what happens? Those other organizations do not want them as members because they are afraid that allowing these individuals (who are not accused themselves, but are merely associated with the accused rapists) to become members will hurt their organizations. And now, all the members of THE HOYA editorial board can do is sit on their hands – not because they did anything wrong, but simply because of an association.
Thankfully, this sort of thing could never happen at Georgetown: where the students are open-minded, where they recognize that guilt merely by association is unjust and where, most of all, they have integrity. Oh, wait – that’s exactly what some at Georgetown, namely THE HOYA editorial board, would like to see happen.
According to the editorial board, “Troubled athletes should not be given the chance to destroy Georgetown’s and the Hoyas’ integrity” (“Blue Devils Unwanted,” THE HOYA, April 25, 2006, A2). This editorial lambasted the athletic department for possibly looking into recruiting members of the ill-famed Duke lacrosse team, noting that “Perception-even skewed – often follows those involved for years to come, especially in cases of sexual assault.”
By the same logic, some Catholic priests have been accused of child molestation. If THE HOYA editorial board had its way, would Georgetown suddenly disassociate itself from Catholicism? After all, the accused priests are Catholic. Surely this is not the case – at least I hope not.
The editorial’s basic argument was that the team, writ large, is enveloped in scandal and therefore Georgetown as an institution should do everything in its power to stay as far from the team as possible – not just the players accused of a crime, but the entire team – in order to protect the Hilltop’s good name.
The editorial board’s motivation here was commendable: to protect Georgetown. They miss something vitally important, however: Georgetown’s good name is worthless if what it describes is worthless. The editorial board argues that accepting these students into our community may destroy our integrity. I beg to differ; welcoming students into our community who have been accused of no crime, who merely want to move on with their lives, who want to be judged not by mere association but by their own self-worth – that is integrity.
Aaron F. Kass graduated from the College in 2002.
