We drink it, we use it to clean ourselves and our dishes, and we use it for irrigation and food production.  Our survival and daily lives revolve around its use and availability.  Water is the most important resource used by individuals in the world, yet despite all its value, water pollution and conservation are overlooked issues.

American University prides itself on being an environmentally aware campus and a leader in sustainable efforts.

“AU already uses many efficient water fixtures, such as faucets, toilets, and showerheads, but we are always looking for ways to do better,” said Emily Curley, a staffer in the AU Office of Sustainability. In order to see how AU can become more efficient, Facilities Management and the Office of Sustainability are working with the Dr. Kiho Kim and his University College (UC) Sustainable Earth program.

As a member of the UC Sustainable Earth program, I’ve been helping with the campus-wide water audit, checking the flow of every water fixture in the bathrooms and lounges. By doing this audit, we’re learning more about what we’re already doing well and how we can further advance our efforts.

The purpose of the water audit is to learn more about and call attention to the amount of water AU students go through each day.  Curley explains that in a survey conducted by our student Green Eagles, “Sixty-seven percent of AU’s resident students took showers between 15 and 20 minutes long and 14% actually took showers longer than 20 minutes, Curley said nothing  that figure is based on a survey conducted by the Green Eagles.

But that 20 minute shower takes a lot of water considering our showers have showerheads a flow rate of about 1.5 gallons per minute—30 gallons of water, in fact. That’s an absurdly large amount of water being used for just one shower. The water audit may just be a campus wide inventory of our water usage, but that water usage impacts our communities.

“Water is a critical resource here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed because our wastewater and sewage can contribute to pollution in the Bay,” Curley said. If we continue our current water usage, the Chesapeake Bay will get even dirtier and the environment will be hurt. By further reducing our water use, the Chesapeake Bay will be cleaner and healthier fish. Curley says more fish “means more jobs and more stable lifestyles for people who rely on the Bay for their livelihood.”

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an organization dedicated to enriching the pollution riddled Bay, does a yearly report of the Bay’s health by looking at its present levels of habitat, pollution, and fisheries, on a scale of 1-100. The Bay is up four points from 2008, a 10 percent improvement in less than five years,” according to the 2012 State of the Bay Report. While the ranking has increased 4 points since 2008, the Bay’s health currently at a grim 32/100.

“We have made progress, but much of the Bay and many local waterways don’t provide healthy habitat for fish, oysters, and other aquatic life,” said CBF President William C. Baker. “Pollution has cost thousands of jobs and continues to put human health at risk,” Baker said.

Our water-using habits have an impact on the bay’s health and while American University is able to make active decisions about using proficient, sustainable technology, it also takes thousands of students making responsible choices about their water usage.

Photo by The U.S. National Archives via Flickr

Photos by Jared Angle

Simon Nicholson is professor who teaches in the School of International Service and specializes in global environmental politics. Before his academic home was in the Global Scholars office, he worked in the Galapagos with cross-curricular graduate programs, on a cruise ship headed around the world, and at a law school in New Zealand. Professor Nicholson recently took time to talk about his Semester at Sea, Fossil Free AU’s divestment campaign, and why everyone needs to do more than just ride their bike to stop climate change.

 What’s your favorite class to teach now?

I always have this little spiel at the start of [International Environmental Politics]: ‘I teach this course because I think its really intellectually interesting, there are lots of big and interesting issues to grapple with, but the main reason I teach it is because environmental concerns are about the most critical set of concerns that we face now, and we need to wrap our brains around them and we need to work out why we’re facing them and what can be done, and so that’s what we’re really trying to get through.’ It’s a course really focused on action.

Which of your areas of expertise is the most important to students and to the world?

I think there’s little question for those of us who look at environmental concerns, the big issue that we all need to come to terms with now is climate change. And what I want everybody to know about climate change is that the emerging science on climate change, the mainstream emerging science that’s coming out right now tells us that the situation is far, far more desperate than most of us thought it would be just a handful of years ago. The climate system is changing more rapidly, and its proving to be less robust in the face of even small temperature changes than we’d anticipated and very quickly, it looks like our ability to restrain the global economy from putting more and more carbon into the atmosphere is slipping away from us.

And that sounds just so doom and gloom, and I don’t consider myself kind of a gloomy person, but my read of the science as it stands at the moment is that we’re almost at the point of desperation with these issues.

That was just such a bummer. Can I delete that?

You’ve taught at the Semester at Sea program and with traveling programs at AU. What was is it like to work so closely with other faculty on a small staff? With all your academic work, that’s a lot of collaborating.

In the Semester at Sea program, I’d have class with students, we’d then go to lunch together, we’d get off the ship in India together, and then go back and process that experience in the classroom, and so it really just started to merge together. We’re trying to recreate some of that through the global scholars program, that’s what it means to have a really vibrant living learning community. So the conversations that get started in the classroom don’t finish as people walk out the door. … To just be on that ship, with really smart people: students and faculty, [including Archbishop] Desmond Tutu who you could just kind of sit down with and say, “Oh, so what’s going on? What do you think of the world?”

You’re interested in human rights and climate change. How are they connected?

The thing about what climate change is going to mean for people in the United States, we’ll face more storms, we’ll have more droughts… But because of our wealth as a country, we are unequally able to adapt to many of the changes that are on the horizon. But if you live in Bangladesh and your land’s being swallowed up by rising seawater, you’re being forced to migrate across borders into India, and so forth. The people who are already living the most desperate and fragile lives are affected worst by climatic change. … But they’re not getting any of the benefits of burning carbon-based fuels. That’s fundamentally a justice question.

Instead of thinking about climate change in abstract terms, we’re putting this invisible gas out into the invisible atmosphere and it might have effects down the road, now we’re talking about it in very human terms, we’re talking about it in terms that I just mentioned. There are people suffering right now because of the effects of climate change. A climate change movement premised on human rights and justice gives us more impetus for action.

So if someone’s not going into policy, what can they do to help?

Here’s one important thing, a caveat. The mainstream environmental movement for a long time and our environmental leaders have been telling us that just by taking some very basic, some very simple steps, you’ve been hearing this your whole life. If you just recycle, ride a bike or take a bus rather than driving a car, if you just change out your light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs, then you’re doing your part.

But if the situation is really as desperate as the science tells us, those sorts of small steps, even taken by a large number of individuals, they don’t add up to very much. They’re not commensurate with the challenge that we face. Individuals, as well as doing all of those sorts of things that we typically think of as living good, green lives, really have to start getting more politically active.

One of Kiho Kim’s classes a couple of years ago, they went into TDR,… and they found out that a huge percentage of food that was going onto people’s trays and plates was being tossed away. And so they recommended that the trays be taken out… There wasn’t an individual level change, we didn’t ask lots of people to work out ways to waste less food. We got rid of the trays, and now people put less food on their plates, and so less food is thrown away. It was a dramatic change, …driven by a handful of students getting together in Professor Kim’s class, and identifying a structural point of intervention. … As long as we think we can tackle the environmental challenge just by individual consumer-type actions… nothing is ever really fundamentally going to happen.

Political action doesn’t just mean writing to one’s congressman or voting in elections, although those things are important too, it means getting together in groups and changing the way that we, collectively, live together.

Students in [International Environmental Politics] set up local community gardens, the community garden we have on campus came in part from students out of that course. Composting in the Davenport Lounge, the initial push for double-sided printing in the library, all of these things are really basic. But if you change the settings on the computers in the library so that it defaults to double-sided printing, people don’t have to make the right choice to print single-sided or double-sided, the choice is made for them, and nobody really complains.

And so what can everybody do, it’s a really long answer to a very simple question, what can folks do? Get serious. That’s what we need to do.

One other thing I want to call attention to is the work that Eco-Sense, the environmental club on campus is doing this semester, they’re pushing for what’s called divestment. That’s a new campaign. It’s a nationwide campaign started by 350.org which is a well-known environmental organization, and they’ve picked it up. And so they’ve started a group called Fossil Free AU

[Those students] want a freeze on new investments in fossil fuels, and in fossil-fuel companies. And then they want a real conversation to begin about how to pull all of our current endowment investments out of fossil fuel companies.

And if the University does take that step because of student pressure… and other campuses and municipalities and investment firms start to do the same sort of thing, that sends a powerful message to all companies. It won’t hurt their bottom line a lot, but it changes their moral equation. It starts to send a signal to oil companies that their business model has to change.

Photo by Rebecca Bartola

In the past few years, roller derby has surged in a popularity not seen since the campy, televised bouts of the 1970’s. But the derby of today isn’t the same choreographed sport your dad watched on TV. There aren’t clothesline trips, elbow jabs or planned endings to the bouts. Instead, roller derby has become a serious sport, creating a niche community. The sport means something a little different to each skater on the track and fan in the stands.

The DC Rollergirls started with a group of players practicing in parking garages seven years ago, and have since transformed into a local league with a rapidly growing fan base and a competitively ranked all-star team.

Despite their varied backgrounds, many of the skaters stumbled across roller derby by chance and all refused to let anything prevent them from strapping on a pair of skates and competing in the league.

“It just happened exactly at the right time,” said Mara Veraar, who has skated for the past seven years as Scarlet O’Snap of the Cherry Blossom Bombshells. “I thought that I would do it just to make friends—and that is a big part of it— but what I really found to was that I forgot how much I loved sports when I was younger. I realized, ‘Oh, I really am athletic!  I really want to be a part of a team sport!’  And the athleticism and the camaraderie have both been important to me.”

Kari Ryder-Wilkie, who skates as Queen Kamayhemmayhem for the Cherry Blossom Bombshells, said she first caught the derby bug six years ago.

“I heard about it and went to go see a bout, and was immediately fascinated and really wanted to play. It was kind of love at first sight,” Wilkie said. Wilkie was finishing up her graduate degree at Boston University when she decided to start training and tried out for a spot in the local roller derby league.

“I had one friend who was kind of interested in doing it with me— and the first day we went out to the roller rink, I broke my arm,” Wilkie said. “That kind of killed it for her, but it didn’t kill it for me.”

Wilkie stuck with it through the injury and moved to DC over three years ago, where she joined the Bombshells and still enjoys the rough and tumble of the game.

The shoulder slams, booty bumps and all the scrambling to block the other team’s jammer might all rile the crowd up at the bout, but even the audience knows how quickly a jam can run afoul when a skater gets slammed down hard.

Cheers swiftly turned to shocked silence during the December 8th game when Jersey Kill of the DC Demoncats twisted and crashed to the ground in one of the last jams in a bout with Scare Force One. Kill, the lead jammer, managed to touch her hips and call off the jam as she slammed to the floor—but didn’t get up. Enthusiasm turned to concern as the music stopped and the audience fell silent. Flanked by referees and EMTs, Jersey Kill cautiously pushed herself from the floor—twisting a grimace of pain into a grin and raising an arm above her head to uproarious cheers.

Kill finished out the bout with a determined grin on her face, even though her team fell 93-270 to the undefeated Scare Force One. But other skaters have faced more than bumps and bruises after going down in a game.

Wilkie is one of them.  She is out for the next few weeks on a hip injury, and was able to walk around without crutches for the first time in two and a half weeks during the last practice before December’s double-header.  She said she only found out about the extent of the damage to her hip after telling a doctor during a surgery follow-up after injuring her elbow.

Despite the risk of injury, many skaters take the physical contact inherent to the sport in stride and keep coming back for more.

“I think one of the things that got me into it was just that it looked awesome—I mean, you’re on roller skates and you’re hitting people,” said Allie Feras, who is entering her second season of skating as Frak You for the Majority Whips. “But I think one thing that keeps me around even when I’m tired, or feeling down about my own ability or anything is the community.  Everybody’s very supportive.  So even if you’re having a bad day, it’s kind of like your own little family.

She stuck with the sport after being teamed with the newly formed Majority Whips two years ago.  At the time, she was completing a graduate degree and working full time.  She says she has a little more time now that she has finished her degree, but that juggling work and derby proves challenging at times.

“Sometimes it’s exhausting when you get home from practice really late and then you’d have to be up really early for work or when you’re travelling for derby stuff and you have to convince your boss that you can’t be at work because you have to go roller-skate,” Feras said.

Feras and her teammates on the Majority Whips faced off against the Cherry Blossom Bombshells during the last double-header. The team narrowly lost 117-123, in a bout that hinged on a series of jams in the last few minutes of the game.

Plenty of fans packed the bleachers at the Armory for the bout. The whole league hopes to capitalize on the draw of the sport as they face the challenge of considering how best to sustain the league and the community they’ve created.

Their aspirations include purchasing a warehouse for practices, getting a rec league off the ground and potentially forming a junior offshoot of the league. During the December eighth double header, volunteers sold shirts and baked goods made by skaters in an effort to help raise money to fund the costs of expansion.

Interested skaters don’t need to buy out a warehouse to get started in the sport, of course.  Anyone with a roll of tape, a bit of space and a pair of skates can play flat track derby— but it takes a certain sort of determination to go from free-spirited skating to the time consuming work of running a Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) member league.

“They always say that half of derby is getting used to how many nights a week you practice, and the other half is getting used to how many emails you get,” Verarr said. “We run this whole league. We’re on the board of directors, we’re the heads of every committee, we’re the ones setting up volunteers, we’re the ones doing fundraisers—so it’s just a million emails.”

Doing the legwork on the track and behind the scenes is a handful, but being skater-run is a requirement for participation as a WFTDA member league.

“They didn’t want to get in a situation where it was some guy or some girl owning the league and not having the skaters’ best interests in mind,” Veraar said. Even though skaters run the league, they receive plenty of help from volunteers and referees who help run the show on bout day.

Colin Burke, known as Refsputin when clad in the black-and-white officials’ uniform, first fell into roller derby seven years ago as the DC Rollergirls were just getting on their feet.  Burke said he became interested after his girlfriend wrote an article about the DC Rollergirls, and suggested he act on his interest and start refereeing bouts.

“I was like, ‘Wait, there are referees in roller derby?” Burke said.

Today, referees and officials usually volunteer as non-skating officials and go through a certification program after they get used to watching the game while gliding around on a set of wheels. Burke said that since he started out when WFTDA was still getting organized, becoming a ref was a little bit different.

“When I started, everybody was learning—so there wasn’t anything set up,” Burke said.  “Now there’s a little more structure to it, and there’s a lot more help from the WFTDA.  I’m one of their officiating clinic instructors, so now I teach people how to do it.”

Burke doesn’t just stay in the city with the league that drew him in to the sport. He travels to ref games with the DC Rollergirls’ All Star team, and even helps officiate games in other leagues as well.

“I’ve been to Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, North Carolina, Virginia—pretty much everywhere.” Burke said. “I also ref several tournaments a year, and those are in Philly, Vermont, Buffalo— all over the place. I do a lot of travel for derby, and I work a lot of different bouts that have nothing to do with the DC league.”

Wilkie says that the sense of community among skaters definitely extends beyond the city and the league. She isn’t too worried about being separated from the sport if she ever moves out of DC.

That’s not to say all skaters stick with derby forever.  Varaar says that she’s the only player who has been skating with the Bombshells since they first started up seven years ago. Teammate Wilkie adds that several others left the sport during the three years she has been with the team after getting bogged down with life commitments and work.

But those who stick around do so because they’ve found something uniquely meaningful in the sport and the community it creates.  It’s a network of players with common goals and interests, a place for people who want to compete without giving up their day job, and for some a riot grrl mentality informed by a do-it-yourself determination.

Rollergirls spend their time juggling fundraising for the warehouse with squeezing in plenty of practice for the next bout— and just having a good time with like-minded skaters.

“I think the great thing about it is that it’s so many different things to different people,” Wilkie said. “I just think people are finding something there that doesn’t exist in any other place in society.  If I didn’t want to do derby— I can’t think of anything else that would replace all of the things that derby is to me.”

Illustration by Ellyse Stauffer

They call him Sabertooth. He talks over the whir of subway cars and clamoring passengers.  In his fire engine red beret and matching jacket, Marquett Milton, 21, could be mistaken for a security official. But he is an unpaid volunteer for Washington DC’s chapter of the Guardian Angels. For over two decades, this unarmed citizen force has worked for crime prevention and community outreach in the region. Volunteers patrol high-crime areas and Metro stations, acting as visual deterrents to illegal activity. On occasion, they perform citizen arrests.

The DC chapter is part of a transnational organization that started in New York City when a 23 year-old McDonald’s Manager named Curtis Sliwa formed a group called the Rock Brigade. Young volunteers picked up trash in the Bronx and were well-received by their community. But Sliwa noticed another, more urgent need for citizen involvement when the New York City police department cut funding from the transit system in 1979. The lack of law enforcement presence led to an increase in muggings and fights in the subway system.

“Curtis got tired of seeing people attacked,” said mid-Atlantic chapter director and DC captain leader John “Unique” King. “He said, ‘You know what, I have a group of kids, young people that volunteer and clean up trash in the South Bronx, I wonder if I can get the young people to volunteer and clean up the trash on the subway.’”

Soon, volunteers latched onto Sliwa’s mission. The 13 original Guardian Angels became known as the “Magnificent 13” in the media.

They would ride the number four train, which was nicknamed the Mugger Express, and they would patrol it, and when they would see crime, they would step in,” Ayala said. Much like the Guardian Angels today, their presence alone was often enough to prevent criminals from acting.

From the beginning, the volunteers wore their now-signature red berets. Milton explains that the color red was easy to spot in dark train cars. “It’s for safety,” he says.  Even now, if Guardian Angels see a crime in progress, they wave their berets to signify an emergency.

The Angels came to DC in the late 1980s. At the time, DC was known as the “murder capital” of the country, riddled with crack-cocaine-laced crime. Seeing the success of the New York chapter, community members hoped the Angels would help clean up the DC streets.

Today, there are over 130 Guardian Angel chapters across six continents and 17 countries.  They patrol major U.S. cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles and deter crime in places like Italy, Israel, South Africa, Japan, and New Zealand. Travel is an important part of being a Guardian Angel, according to Milton. He says he visits different cities to observe how other Angels patrol.

“You’re learning when you’re traveling,” he said, noting that his most important takeaway from these trips has been to make sure that passengers are not pushed from the subway platforms.  Milton remembers this tip when he is on patrol in the DC Metro stations.

Crime Prevention

Milton explained most of the job is just being there and making sure people are safe. “Walk around,” he said. “Be a visual deterrent. Make sure there’s no crime going on. Making sure people [are] safe.” Four times a week for three years, Milton has patrolled with the Guardian Angels.  You might see him at the L’Enfant Plaza, Anacostia, Columbia Heights, or Adams Morgan Metrorail stops—or what he calls “hot stations”— where crime rates are high. While Guardian Angels try to deter crime by just being present, they also detain suspects, which Milton describes as moments of pride and fear.

At an Easter Egg Hunt, as eager children hunted for eggs, Milton chased a man suspected in a stabbing. The Angels held him down and handcuffed him, conducting a citizen arrest until the police arrived. Most nights, however, are quiet. “Ninety-nine percent [of the time] we are out here nothing happens. It’s just that one percent, something always happens,” Milton said.

But sometimes that one percent is all it takes. Once, Ayala was stabbed with an ice pick by a drug dealer. Numerous angels have lost their lives in the line of duty. Though direct crime intervention is minimal, the dangers are real.

Interactions with Police

It might seem like there would be tension between the Guardian Angels and professional law enforcement. But most of the time that’s not the case according to Officer Phillip McHugh. McHugh is an American University alumni with a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from the School of Public Affairs.  In a major city with limited police resources, he is grateful for the Guardian Angels’ help.

“Anytime we can have those extra people out there being our eyes and ears, calling us when they see things, that’s a great help to us,” he said. “They have definitely prevented crime.  They have apprehended criminals and called us and [we’ve] made arrests as a result.”

To McHugh, the Angels’ community involvement is almost as important as direct crime prevention. Many of the Angels were born and raised in DC neighborhoods and can often build trust with the community in a way that’s difficult for some police officers. McHugh encourages the Angels—along with everyone else—to report suspicious activity to the police.  He urges “community responsibility for itself.”

The Angels’ rapport with DC police can be seen in other ways. Some have access to police radios and can contact police directly. Ayala even meets regularly with the police department. Their latest collaboration is an effort to prevent cellphone robbery.

McHugh insists that the Angels do not interfere; however, he says the Angels should remember to take a secondary role, leaving the brunt of police work to police officers.

Vigilantes? And other Angel Controversies

“Most people think we’re part of the military,” Milton said. “Some people think we’re a step team.  Some people think we’re just an ordinary group, trying to be like the Power Rangers.” From the beginning, there has been confusion over the Guardian Angels’ identity.  They are often classified as vigilantes, a label they do not endorse.

Milton supports the idea that an Angel is just like any other civilian.  They follow the law and do not carry weapons.

“If we used a weapon, there’s no point in us being angels,” he said.

Might as well be a police officer. We still have to go by the same rules as a regular citizen.”

When the Guardian Angels started, New York City Mayor Edward Koch denounced them as vigilantes taking over responsibilities that were not theirs to take. In a climate where police were reluctant to give credit for arrests to young, untrained amateurs, founder Curtis Sliwa staged fake rescues to garner publicity.

“He did what he thought he had to do to get attention,” said Ayala, adding that Sliwa came clean in later years. Koch eventually supported the Angels’ efforts, revealing a growing understanding and approval from public officials.

Officer McHugh also rejects the vigilante label. “Some members of the public, some members of the police department even, will characterize groups such as theirs as being vigilantes and trying to take matters into their own hands, but I can tell you that that perception is completely false,” he said. “They are not out there trying to be superheroes or chase down every bad guy that they see. They’re a smart group of people.”

Illustration by Carolyn Becker

As a school continually ranked by the Princeton Review as one of the most politically active in the nation, here at AU it’s worth positing the question: how do ya figure that?

Well, any minor search into the rankings goliath that is the Review will tell you that these results are shady at best. There is absolutely no quantitative analysis of what constitutes political activity. Furthermore, most of their findings come from questionnaires where students “fill in one of five boxes on a grid,” the aggregate of which then filed into a database.

Interestingly enough, a lot of what people take to mean political activity is directly prohibited under American University policy due to its status as a non-profit organization, meaning student groups can’t technically be politically active.

In the 2011-12 annual report, the AU Board of Trustees declared a total of over $15 million in revenue from federal grants and contracts. Coupled with its tax-exempt benefits, American has a significant interest in maintaining this status. But to do so, the gavel often falls upon unsuspecting heads—namely, student organizations.

“All students, staff, and faculty are strictly prohibited from engaging in lobbying or political activity on behalf of University,” according to university policy. The policy goes on to then define these activities within parameters like “participating or intervening” in political campaigns, “lobbying” any government official or his or her staff, and not surprisingly, “giving gifts” to these same elected personnel.

Even using money that comes from somewhere other than the University doesn’t fly when you’re talking about student groups.

“A recognized student organization is not permitted to hold outside bank accounts, or to privately raise funds for any purposes,” Director of Student Activities, Karen Gerlach, wrote in an email. “All transactions and activities of a recognized student organization must be conducted through Student Activities.”

So, what does this mean for a political group like College Democrats?

On these restrictions, AU College Democrats President, Kathryn Tinker, says, “We are greatly hindered on activities. We can’t campaign,” said Katrhyn Tinker, the president of AU College Democrats.

The Dems, who in the past four years have been dealt two strikes by the Office of Student Activities for infringing on lobbying policies, must now toe the line in order to avoid a third, which would be grounds for the club’s dismantlement. In one case, a group of AU Democrats travelled to the Human Rights Campaign office in Dupont Circle to phone bank for the repeal of the controversial military policy Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. But when photos of the students holding up signs were posted online, the university watchdogs caught the scent of foul play.

Tinker has kept the group strike-free since the start of her term in May and sees these episodes as cautionary tales to mind when planning future activities. To avoid future violations, the AU Democrats now have round-the-clock policy wonks to come up with legal quick guides on the dos and don’ts of non-profit organizations.

Tinker says they’re even mindful of the speakers they bring to campus. When they invited Virginia’s gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe earlier this semester, Tinker remembers specifically warning McAuliffe’s aides to “not make this a campaign stop.”

In the worst of cases, Director Gerlach warns student organizations and individuals “could have charges filed” against them if they violate the Student Code of Conduct.

But the truth is that many other groups have felt less pressure from student activities when it comes to pursuing their political agendas. Valerie Kielba of the advocacy group Students for Justice in Palestine says that they have managed to avoid any sanctions stemming from policy infringements. But she admits that where the school draws the line can sometimes be pretty opaque.

“Most of the conflicts come from other groups on campus that oppose what we stand for,” she said. “When those groups go to AUCC and complain about political statements that were making, then AUCC comes to us.”

The example she’s referring to took place this past September when a group of SJP students went on a hunger strike on the Quad in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners in Israel. Although not in the same vain as lobbying, the political nature of the strike was enough to disconcert the SJP’s student activities advisor, who then admonished the group to desist. Student activities refused to comment on any specific incident for this story.

Even situated in the nation’s political hearth, AU is still an institution greatly stifled in its political expression. Realistically, SJP’s hunger strike on the Quad didn’t pose any threat the the University’s nonprofit status. One would hope students would be encouraged to engage in the political activity within the limits of the law, especially at a school that prides itself as being rated one of the most politically active in the country; however, it makes sense for administrators to be cautious about maintaining the University’s tax-exempt status. Even so, it should be on administrators to understand the rules and communicate them to students; however, with the knowledge they will likely err on the side of caution, it doesn’t hurt for student groups to take the time to know their rights.

Illustration by Rebecca Bartola

“You going to write a story about gentrification?

Though some local residents feel insulted by the word gentrification, the barbers and customers at Eagles want me to hear the word. Gentrification, they say, is the most important story in this area, where small businesses line busy Georgia Avenue and sturdy mid-century row houses preside over quiet side streets.

Residents say that lower Georgia Avenue—roughly defined as the corridor stretching past Howard University and north into Park View—hasn’t seen the same dramatic redevelopment transforming nearby Columbia Heights and, to a lesser extent, Petworth. But business owners and residents say the District of Columbia’s long-standing racial segregation is already declining here.

The 2010 Census shows population gains nearby areas, reversing decades of population loss and changing the area’s racial composition. The black population has declined from 93 to 58 percent since 1990. The same period saw the white population spike from 2.8 to 15 percent. Even more dramatically, residents identifying as Hispanic went from 4.2 to 24 percent.

Eshete takes requests at Harrar Coffee

At Eagles, barber Darnell Latney, who grew up nearby and has worked at the shop since 1997, trims a customer’s hair while recounting a recent episode involving a new resident filing a noise complaint from the long-established Park View Recreation Center. She relented, Latney says, when “hundreds” of long-time residents defended the center at an Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting.

Latney thinks newcomers should understand they aren’t just buying a house, but a neighborhood.

“Before you purchase, judge if it’s the right neighborhood for you,” he said. “If you buy next to a park and there’s kids playing, you know it ain’t going to be peaceful. They’re going to have summer jams, concerts, and if you’re not one of them people, then you shouldn’t move around that area.”

Kent Boese moved to Park View in 2007 and later became an ANC Commissioner. He also recalls tensions around the recreation center, which he says is beloved by old-time residents.

After a 2012 renovation of the center, the ANC held a meeting to discuss its reopening—the meeting, says Boese, was attended primarily by white residents. Later, neighborhood youths complained they hadn’t known about the meeting, prompting Boese to schedule a second meeting. This time, many black community members attended, and Boese was one of only two white residents present.

Boese describes the meeting as “uncomfortable,” especially when a resident suggested that he had held separate meetings for black and white residents.

Boese understands the concerns behind these comments, though he says not all white newcomers do.

“Most of the problems we have in the city, especially when it comes to race, are problems that we can trace back to segregation. Newer people need to understand where people are coming from.”

At the recreation center meeting, Boese fired back at critics, saying that black and white residents want the same things and can get more from city government by lobbying together.

“I usually speak my mind rather than sugar-coating it,” Boese said. “By the end of the meeting I had stronger relationships with people who wouldn’t have talked to me before.”

Boese says everyone in the area, old and new, wants improvements in local housing and businesses.

Some changes are already underway on the quietest stretch of lower Georgia Avenue, south of Park View and north of Eagles. Last year condominiums went up, and construction just began on another apartment building. Next to that construction site, the family-owned and operated Everlasting Life Café offers an unusual vegan soul food menu in a simple, cafeteria-style setting. Items like a vegan fried-chicken sandwich bring in locals and people from other neighborhoods. And recently, Ethiopian immigrant Daniel Eshete opened Harrar Coffee and Roastery, the only coffee shop for several blocks. Eshete’s sister says although she, Daniel and their extended family live miles away in northern Virginia, the Georgia Avenue location offers a good business opportunity since the street is beginning to develop day by day.

Local residents of all races worry about skyrocketing housing costs though. Barber Latney says even though four of his five siblings still reside in the District, he prefers living elsewhere.

“It’s $400,000 and I could never have a party when I want to because they have a condo association,” he said. “They have rules.”

Although Latney’s late grandfather once owned a five-bedroom house not far from here, Latney has to go farther for his piece of the American dream. When Eagles closes at 7 p.m., Latney will drive about 18 miles north to his home in Laurel, Maryland.

Photo by Jessamine Price

On my 16th birthday, I remember listening to a radio report about a mass shooting that killed 33 people on a university campus. Even now, I can still remember how I felt about the disturbing news, because at the time I was just beginning to make my own plans for college. A few weeks ago, I opened an email to the AU community from University Safety Programs titled “Active Shooter Preparedness,” which brought back the same frightening images of students cornered in classrooms I imagined after the Virginia Tech shooting, the deadliest in US history.

On December 14, 2012, my colleague at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence stuck his head in my office and asked if I’d heard the news from Connecticut: there was a reported shooting at an elementary school. The horror our office and the whole country shared after learning that the victims were 20 five- and six-year-olds along with six educators was heart-stopping. When that news broke, I was updating the Brady Center’s list of school shootings in America.

***

Most Americans are waking up to the presence of gun violence in our society only after  mass shootings like Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook take their toll. The daily presence of gun violence in many communities across the country is no less damaging or distressing though. Duke University professor of public policy and political science Kristin Goss estimates that one in three Americans have been touched by gun violence in some way in Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America .

For high school students in Maryland’s Prince George’s county, this academic year has been especially deadly: eight teenagers have been killed by gun violence in the area, sending waves of disbelief through the community. The Root blogger Sonsyrea Tate Montgomery wrote that the violence was like “slow torture” for the county. When the murders of teenagers are random, unrelated and occur despite a decrease in other types of crime, the frustration of survivors in the community toward the inaction of county leaders is palpable.

In February, after the deaths of two 18-year-old boys in the same shooting, county officials organized an FBI-supported investigative response, called the Violent Crimes and Safe Streets Task Force. Although its written goal is to better understand and combat violent gangs on an institutional level, police are also increasing efforts to foster good community relations. Involvement of law enforcement officials with the anti-violence efforts of other advocacy groups will, they hope, be a more collaborative approach to fostering a safer community environment.

***

Increased awareness of the complicated issues tied up with gun violence is essential in decreasing it. American University professor Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University surveyed over 4000 high school and college students about their attitudes toward future gun ownership. Results indicated that roughly 40 percent of those students plan to own a firearm when they live independently. Another 20 percent said they would consider owning one.

If the number of young Americans affected by some type of gun violence is high and the rate of intended gun ownership is too, why isn’t there greater participation among our generation in the current national debate surrounding increased gun control?

Dr. Beatrix Siman-Zakhari, director of AU’s Washington Semester Justice & Law Program, believes the mass shooting in Newtown, CT compelled her students–-many of whom are not US citizens–-to become increasingly aware of guns in US society.

“Whether about gun violence surrounding celebrities like [Paralympic and Olympic runner Oscar] Pistorius in South Africa or kids killed on school grounds in DC, students can’t avoid or ignore this issue,” she said.

***

Setting aside differences in population size, federal laws, and attitudes toward gun ownership between the US and other countries, the main feature characterizing the national gun landscape is the disturbing lack of regulation around gun industry activities.

The gun industry–meaning manufacturers, dealers and the lobbying-giant National Rifle Association–is highly protected from being held liable for damages incurred by firearms it produces, which is part of the reason Americans unaffected by gun violence have remained unaware of its consequences. Only recently and sporadically have lawsuits brought against firearms manufacturers by individual victims or their families been successful.

What can be done to encourage further accountability for those who produce, distribute and sell guns, and more responsible gun ownership practices among the estimated 60 million Americans who own guns?

“Our country has run into a serious problem with the caliber and magnitude of weapons that private citizens have access to,” AU senior and Justice major JB Budd said. “I one day intend to own a handgun, but I also expect to have to go through an intensive process to become eligible for gun ownership.”

Such a process–-applied nationally and coordinated between local and federal agencies–-does not exist yet. Outraged cries from the small minority of Americans concerned about 2nd Amendment rights currently drown out the voices of Americans who want to see action taken to reduce gun violence.

The problem is that those who want to see more regulation and less gun violence lack the money and influence to effect real change. Or at least they did before now. After the tragic shooting at Newtown though, the national consciousness surrounding guns has shifted, causing outrage among many who would otherwise be apathetic or uninvolved in the national gun debate. While this has given the gun control movement momentum, it will take people dedicated to the cause to continue to pressure our representatives to enact change. It will take conscientious prospective gun owners like Budd to force a shift from within the gun ownership culture. It will take young people who don’t intend to own a gun to speak out against our daily routines being interrupted by gun violence. And it will take community leaders and elected officials to act in the name of increased public safety for everyone.

Illustration by Max Gibbons

Luckily, the woman wasn’t dead. But she could have been, had the car been going a little bit faster, had she fallen a little bit harder, had she hit her head on the way down.

When we arrived on the scene, she was sitting up and speaking to an officer, while two more positioned their cars, blue lights flashing, at either end of the block to prevent traffic from driving through. The pedestrian strike occurred at the intersection of 12th and U Street. It was 10:15 on a drizzly Friday night, and I was sitting in a police cruiser. I could already tell that my evening would be far from dull.

Over the next four hours, I would get to glimpse a side of the District that most people don’t see. Big crimes, little crimes, we would investigate them all, listening closely to the little radio crackling next to Officer C. R. Mayor’s elbow.

The extent of my crime fighting was standing sheepishly beside Officer Mayor, a garrulous, seven-year veteran to the force, as he berated a pizza delivery guy for parking illegally in an alley. Instead, my job was watch everything and to listen to Officer Mayor’s complaints about DC drivers and their pedestrian counterparts. Ironically, just moments before arriving on the scene of the pedestrian strike, Officer Mayor had commented on the prevalence of jaywalking and the widespread belief that pedestrians in the crosswalk have the right of way.

While hit-and-runs and pedestrian strikes may not seem as common in the city’s outskirts, they aren’t unheard of. Earlier this semester two women were injured in a hit-and-run on the crosswalk across from the Katzen Arts Center. Eyewitnesses said they didn’t have a walk signal according to The Eagle. No police report was filed according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

***

Jaywalking isn’t the only risky behavior regularly seen around campus. Friday and Saturday nights in particular tend to be prime times for some good old college fun, which can mean accidents and crime.

Junior Chris Muller, for example, enjoys clubbing in northwest D.C. at places like Ultrabar. While he says that Southeast is also reputed to have a good nightlife, he hasn’t really seen it for himself.

“I wouldn’t go alone, mostly because of the stigma that that area is unsafe,” he said. “I would definitely check it out with friends.”

Annie Buller prefers DC9, Velvet Lounge, and the clubs along U Street. The senior usually stays in Northwest because the bars and clubs there are more accessible. But no matter where she’s off to, she says she takes precautions.

“If I’m going to a new place, honestly, I’ll research it. I’ll look it up online, on Yelp or something like that, see what neighborhood it’s in,” Buller said. “I always get directions, and always have them available on my phone in a way that if I were to lose Internet connection I’d still be able to access them.”

But taking precautions isn’t always enough Buller says.

“I was actually pickpocketed while I was out,” she says, recalling being shocked because she kept her bag on her body. “All of a sudden I reached into my bag for my wallet, and it was gone.” She says that’s part of the risk of living in a city though.

   ***

“I mean, if you are living in a city you should know that while ‘I may have good intentions and my friends may have good intentions,’ there are going to be sketchy people around,” Buller said.

On the metro ride to the police station, a poster reiterating Buller’s advice caught my eye. It depicts a man walking down the road, plugged into his iPod and checking his phone. Underneath is a warning to be aware of one’s surroundings. During the ride-along, Officer Mayor pointed out a man who looked as distracted as the guy on the poster—he seemed completely tuned out from the world, oblivious to the fact that he was mere blocks away from where a kid had been stabbed during a robbery the week before.

Robbery isn’t just restricted to any part of the District though. As Buller found out the hard way, it can happen anywhere. Even on American University’s campus, burglary is one of the most common crimes, with 46 incidents reported to Public Safety in 2011. It comes in second only to alcohol-related offenses.

Reported assault is fairly uncommon on campus though—there were only five instances in 2011. But that doesn’t extend to the District. Just a few hours into my ride-along with Officer

Mayor, we got a frantic call reporting an assault in progress.

Cars darted out of our way as we sped to the scene of the crime, arriving just in time to see one man shoving another while the gangly 911 caller intervened. As we pulled to a stop, the attacker lurched in front of the car. As he tried to get away, his sloppy drunken grin was visible for the brief moment. Then Officer Mayor leapt out of the car, grabbing his arms and pinning his cheek to the hood.

The story poured forth from the agitated victim, a young man standing before us in a muddy T-shirt and boxer shorts. “He kicked my car and then he assaulted me physically,” he exclaimed, his story supplemented with helpful interjections from the caller.

“Who assaults a guy in his underwear? Who does that?” the caller demanded.

Despite protests from the drunken man’s friend, who hurried over to plead on his behalf, Officer Mayor and the cops he called for backup decided they had to bring the perpetrator to the station on a count of simple assault and destruction of property.

That friend, reeking of alcohol but mostly sobered up, arrived a few minutes after us. I was sitting in the lobby while Officer Mayor filed the report and overheard the friend ask an officer behind the desk if there was any way he could bail his buddy out. When the officer said all he could do was wait, he dropped into the vacant seat next to me and took in my AU sweatshirt, backpack, and notebook before asking what in the world I was doing there.

I told him I was with the ride-along program, and that I was in the car when his friend was arrested. He rubbed his large hand over his face. “He’s so stupid,” he complained. “Why does he have to be so belligerent?” Over the course of our conversation he insisted multiple times that his friend wasn’t a violent person. He was, in fact, the nicest guy you could meet. Until he got drunk.

***

Officer Mayor let me out a block from the metro station, and we managed a quick good-bye before he was off, his mind already on the next situation. My mind was somewhere else, too: my bed. I wove around the drunken masses as I made my way to the intersection across from the U Street station, mentally calculating the minimum amount of time it would take to get back to school.

As I stood on the corner waiting to cross, exhausted, shoes soaking wet from the puddles that had collected in the sidewalk cracks, and eager to get home, the thought of jaywalking flitted across my mind as I stared impatiently at the stern red hand keeping me stuck to the curb. But then I had another thought, and this time it was of me sitting on the cold, damp ground—dazed, in pain, and blinded by flashing red and blue lights.

So instead of crossing I waited. My heart thudded once, twice, in time with the music blasting from the club behind me. And then the little man blinked on.

Illustration by Emily Guifoil

Though a relatively small difference, I was shocked to see students resting their feet on tables throughout the campus. Growing up, my father liked to remind me not to put my feet up “like a rickshaw driver” because in Singapore, it is considered rude to put your feet up while with others or outdoors.

American University currently has over 1000 international students and scholars, many of whom have also been adjusting to new cultural norms. Take for instance Fu Hamabe, a friend from Japan, surprised at first by the way American students act in class.

“Japan is really a small country, so we have to co-operate and respect each others’ opinions,” Hamabe said. “It’s about leadership, raising your hands in class and standing out, which was a bit of a culture shock to me. It is good for me actually, as I’m sometimes tired of Japanese collectivism and here you can speak your mind. And Japanese people are more likely to be shy, and difficult to guess their opinions. It’s like, ‘Just say it!’ On the other hand in class, sometimes people talk too much—and this is frustrating as well.”

But Amir Awol, a student from Ethiopia, has been experiencing culture shock in a different way.

“I think it’s hard because, where I came from, it’s way different,” Awol said. “People interact a lot with one another. I feel Americans are more individualistic. Usually I spend most of my time hanging out with international students rather than American friends.”

Before arriving, I  heard that Americans love to talk and as an avid conversationalist, I was sure I’d be in deep discussion most of the time. The friendly “How are you?” was a refreshing change, and I was thoroughly warmed by the friendly greeting. After a while though, the novelty wore off.

“Whenever you say [it], you expect people to reply they’re fine, they’re okay, but it’s actually a formality and you don’t care that much, and it was the most neutral thing somebody could ever say,” Joanna Heaney, a student originally from Rhode Island, said. “There was this one time where I did that and somebody replied, ‘I feel terrible.’ So I felt I actually had to have conversation with him and it threw me off guard.”

While neutral in day-to-day life, some see the frequent greeting as a sign of cultural warmth.

“I think Americans are very friendly. At least, face to face. While I was jogging, a complete stranger said hi to me,” said Eka Cipta Puetra Chandra, an Indonesian friend. “But while I was living in Singapore, they don’t.”

To navigate this new culture, I try to mimic the people I see at places like American University or the streets of Dupont Circle. I am mindful of how cashiers greet me when I check out groceries and reciprocate their passing well wishes. However, small talk isn’t taken too kindly in some situations, and I occasionally have to grudgingly accept the dead silence that fills the moment. Admittedly, many people here smile more enthusiastically than back home, but at the same time, others give sullen looks. Adapting to a new culture has challenged my assumptions about America, forcing me to look beyond stereotypes and giving me a new lense through which to see my home.