Georgetown Day is a day of “food, fun, games and friendship designed to bring together students, faculty, staff and friends to celebrate the Georgetown community.” GU Day was created last year in response to the slew of hate crimes that hit the University campus.
It all began with the destruction of the Jewish Students’ Association’s menorah … twice. This was followed by racial and homophobic slurs found on dorm walls, students’ doors and a Martin Luther King celebration poster. The year ended with an anonymous letter brimming with racial epithets and a death threat to the black campus community.
The Georgetown students’ solution to these events was GU Day: a day filled with student bands, carnival rides and bathing suit-clad students sprawled on Copley lawn. With Mother Nature on our side, hundreds of Georgetown students showed school spirit by donning blue and gray and lining up for hours to fashion their own chocolate cupcakes.
May Day has again come and gone, and GU Day has again been successful in enticing students to skip class and listen to bands on the lawn. But where is Georgetown a year after students were targeted for their race, religion and sexual orientation?
Some say we have come a long way since last year’s hate incidents. In reality, several incidents occurred this year that coincide with last year’s, but since they were not as well publicized, students and administrators have concluded that all is well. We managed to avoid vandalizing the JSA menorah, but what about the vandalism of the Muslim students’ prayer room just a week ago? Sure, we didn’t find racial and homophobic slurs graffitied on students’ doors, but what about those minority students who had eggs thrown at them?
Last year “Robert is an ugly n*gger” was written on a wall, whereas this year “Watch out bitch, we’re going to rape you” was yelled at a female student. Is Georgetown just a breeding ground for intolerance? Were we all just dreaming when we believed that religious practices besides Catholicism could peacefully co-exist on a Jesuit university campus?
Hopefully, we have not all been fooled. Yes, Georgetown does and always will have tensions that exist between members of the community, but this can be easily overcome through dialogue and interaction. It is not only up to the students, however, to sort through these tensions. The administration can’t just sit back and hope that such problems will fade away sooner or later.
Administrators must also take a consistent stance: They can’t take action one time and remain silent at another. Take, for instance, the recent prayer room vandalism. A meeting between students and several University administrators was called immediately, DPS investigated and Father O’Donovan even drafted a letter to the MSA and wider Georgetown community.
Effectiveness of these actions aside, at least an attempt was made. Thumbs up to the administration for at least something. Nonetheless, there was no response from the administration for the harassment and egging just a few weeks earlier. Granted, those who allegedly committed this offense were not Georgetown students, but then again, neither was the anonymous letter sent to the University last year. Thumbs down this time.
In light of all of this, are cotton candy and Healy-shaped chocolate cakes really the solution to Georgetown’s problems? Obviously not, but this isn’t to say that GU Day is not a means for building community. What need not be forgotten, however, are the problems that still exist on our campus?problems that will not go away unless both students and administrators make a conscious effort to acknowledge and remedy them.
