John J. DeGioia declared in his inaugural address Saturday that the Georgetown community cannot shy away from debating the “set of tensions” that are an essential part of the University.
The tensions DeGioia confronts now are not new; former University President Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., had to focus on balancing Georgetown’s Catholic faith against the University’s quest to maintain academic freedom as well as to look at building better community relations without sacrificing the interests of students. But, under DeGioia, the tensions might be more pronounced.
Though O’Donovan said one of the President’s primary focuses is on “community building,” DeGioia might find community building efforts more difficult that usual. Student-neighbor relations, never perfect, have become increasingly rocky this year.
Students are in the process of protesting what they consider a discriminatory Board of Zoning Adjustment restrictions that say off-campus housing is not a student right but a privilege that can be revoked for improper behavior that violates the University’s code of conduct.
“The new president has a real opportunity to take a fresh approach,” Advisory Neighborhood Commission Commissioner Peter Pulsifer said, “and I hope he considers that.”
According to Pulsifer, DeGioia should make the effort to meet with community leaders to advance “community-building” efforts.
It is likely that Campaign Georgetown, which launched a University-wide campaign to inform students about the BZA and to urge them to e-mail Mayor Anthony Williams, will follow any “fresh approach” DeGioia takes. Also the University filed a suit against the BZA last August protesting several of its regulations. For DeGioia, community building efforts cannot be separated from the issue of protecting student rights in the community.
Georgetown University Student Association President Ryan DuBose (CAS ‘02) said he hopes DeGioia takes a public stance on protecting students’ rights in the community.
According to Associate Dean for Student Affairs Bethany Marlowe, because the president oversees a number of different campus organizations which handle the “day-to-day relationships with the community,” such as the Office for Off-Campus Affairs, DeGioia may not need to directly involve himself in the issue.
The tensions surrounding student-neighbor relations have, discounting the series of University events in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, dominated campus and might have larger implications for the University in the coming months. These could include specifically the construction of the Southwest Quadrangle and efforts to move forward with the 10-Year Master Plan.
Marlowe said that unlike O’Donovan, whose focus was mainly on the design of the new 780-person dormitory, DeGioia’s will be on the implementation of the new dorm, due to be finished in the fall of 2003.
If the University loses its court decision, it would either have to agree to the BZA stipulations, which the BZA made conditional to its agreement to Georgetown’s enrollment increase. Or it could simply refuse to increase enrollment, which could hurt the University financially and jeopardize the continuation of the 10-Year Plan.
Given Georgetown’s comparably low endowment among top American universities and the University’s efforts to gain more funds through the Third Century Campaign, financial issues will be at the top of DeGioia’s agenda.
Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez said that the University “will need to work very arduously” to attract the remaining $300 million necessary to complete the $1 billion campaign designed to improve various University institutions and to finance major construction efforts across campus over the next 10 years.
The “tensions” DeGioia confronts are not limited to the University’s relations with the community. They penetrate the University’s own community?what it means to be a Catholic school.
As the first lay person to lead Georgetown, DeGioia is at the center of the ongoing debate concerning Catholic identity on campus. Last year’s implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, a document put forward by John Paul II calls for stricter Church control over Catholic universities. While not possessing any legal power does require that Georgetown look more closely at how its teachings conform to the Catholic faith.
DeGioia specifically pointed out the “dynamic tensions” that characterize the Catholic debate.
“The spirituality employs a vocabulary,” DeGioia said, “that can be in tension with that of the academy.”
According to Marlowe, DeGioia, though the first non-priest to lead Georgetown, will not suffer from this fact.
“I don’t think you could get a more supportive stance from the Jesuit community and the Archbishop,” Marlowe said.
However DeGioia chooses to balance these tensions, DuBose said he feels the new president will be sure to involve students in future decisions.
“He involves students in things he’s doing,” DuBose said. “He’s very interested in what students are trying to say.”
It could appear to some that DeGioia might draw fire from the Catholic Church for trying to promote any future dialogue about the University’s religious identity. But O’Donovan, for one, isn’t worried about DeGioia losing his Catholic perspective.
“Jack knows his traditions eloquently,” O’Donovan said. “The way he spoke of tensions was very appropriate, and it was clear to me that [Cardinal Theodore McCarrick], Archbishop of Washington was very pleased with Jack’s speech.”
Whatever approach DeGioia brings to deal with these tensions, he will bring an approach that is well-grounded in the Georgetown tradition. DeGioia has served the Georgetown community for the past 26 years, both as senior vice president and as a former dean of student affairs under O’Donovan.
“Jack has an intimate knowledge of the issues of student life,” O’Donovan said.
Given his past experience, DeGioia is prepared to tackle the “tensions” he mentioned in his inaugural address Saturday. As he himself admitted, these tensions are not going to disappear and the University will need to understand and deal with them.
“These debates do not end,” DeGioia said. “This is the essential nature of a university.”
And now, after 26 years, this is DeGioia’s university, and he will have the ultimate responsibility for dealing with them.
