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Plan A holding meetings with GU

October 14, 2010


Last semester's protest at John Carroll's statue might be the last of its kind.

Plan A Hoyas for Reproductive Justice, the reproductive advocacy group that drew attention  this spring when its members chained themselves to the statue of John Carroll, is alive and well—but the average student would never know it.

Plan A was created last year to demand the on-campus sale of condoms, access to rape kits at Georgetown University Hospital, and a number of other changes to the University’s sexual health policies. This year, the group has abandoned its confrontational approach in favor of a more private dialogue with University administrators.

Last semester's protest at John Carroll's statue might be the last of its kind.

However, administrators and Plan A members alike are staying tight-lipped about their discussions.

“I know there are colleagues who have been reaching out to have discussions,” Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said. Olson would not specify which administrators have been involved in the meetings.

University spokeswoman Julie Green Bataille could not provide any details of the meetings either, but said that she anticipated a productive conversation between administrators and students.

“Plan A looks forward to working cooperatively with the university administration to make necessary changes to current university policies that negatively affect students’ sexual health,” a member of Plan A who wished to remain anonymous wrote in an email.

Plan A’s discrete conversations with the administration have gone unnoticed by students, even those involved with women’s rights groups.

Alex Miller (COL ‘11), president of H*yas for Choice, one of two groups whose leaders formed Plan A in the spring, was not even aware the group still existed. Although Miller was present at the inception of Plan A last year, she hadn’t seen any evidence that the group was active this year.

H*yas for Choice Vice President Morgan McDaniel (SFS ‘13) even said that Plan A “doesn’t exist anymore.” McDaniel is also one of the many students who was frustrated by some of the group’s high-profile tactics last year, even though she ultimately supported the group’s goals.

“[Plan A’s strategy] is just going to piss off the administration. It’s just going to piss off fellow students,” McDaniel said. “I think they sort of got caught up in the spirit of the revolution.”

The leading members of Plan A, including all four students who chained themselves to the John Carroll statue, were seniors.  McDaniel suspected that this contributed to the group’s radical strategic approach.

Even if the group has abandoned its most provocative tactics, the remaining members still have an uphill battle when it comes to convincing Georgetown’s Catholic groups and conservative students.

“It was complete, whether willful or unwillful, ignorance of, and disregard for, the thinking and understanding of Jesuit ideals, Jesuit mission and spirituality,” Kieran Raval (COL ‘13) said of Plan A. Raval is staff editor of the university’s only Catholic newspaper, the Georgetown Academy.

“I think it (Plan A) came out of a larger context: the unfortunate misunderstanding about what it means to be a Catholic university,” said Nick Cantirino (COL ‘11), the Academy’s editor-in-chief.



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