GU as 7-Eleven?

If you’ve read this week’s cover story about the bevy of new administrators this year, one thought may well have struck you square: When did our top-tier national research university turn into a 7-Eleven?
Perhaps that’s an exaggeration: the new Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall may have Starbucks coffee with boutique flavored syrups, but there are no blue raspberry Slurpees yet. But Georgetown’s current administration turnover rates seem much more in line with the home of the Big Gulp than an educational institution of formidable prestige, located in a major cosmopolitan city. In Student Affairs alone, dozens of positions are filled with new occupants this year, including five in Student Programs. Residence Life has been similarly decimated-two top positions are newly filled, along with many positions further down the ladder.
Ask any administrator, and he’ll say that this is normal in the business. That’s what former Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez told a Voice reporter before he left this summer. His interim replacement, Todd Olson, said much the same thing on Wednesday: It’s the “normal rhythm of things.”
But mild conspiracy theories persist: Some students feel administrators become easily “worn out” by the demands of walking the tightrope between student demands and Catholic dogma. Some feel the University is simply becoming more conservative, fueled by the fact several openly gay administrators left last year. Some suspect the hemorrhaging started with Gonzalez’ departure. Others feel the University just cannot afford to retain top talent lured by higher salaries at large public schools.
Only the last theory may hold any water. Women’s Center Director Nancy Cantalupo left because she finished law school. David Rivera, Assistant Director of Student Services for the Center for Minority Educational Affairs, left to pursue graduate studies. Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life Bethany Marlowe left to be closer to her sick mother after more than a decade in the position.
In addition, many of the new folks are old faces in new places, due to the creation of new positions and administrative reshuffling. Director of Off-Campus Student Life Jeanne Lord, for example, is now interim Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and temporary interim Director of the Women’s Center. CMEA Director Dennis Williams now has added responsibilities as interim Associate Dean of Students. Add to that the structural changes in the Office of Student Programs compelled, according to Director of Student Organizations Martha Swanson, by a pair of unsuccessful job searches to fill Schneider’s position. Those changes turned OSP into the new “Center for Student Programs,” and gave virtually everyone in the office a new title.
The only two departures that might spark any question were Sexual Assault coordinator Carolyn Hurwitz and Marlowe’s replacement at Residence Life, Frank Robinson. According to several administration sources, Hurwitz had trouble walking the delicate “tightrope” between the demands of students and the demands of a Catholicly affiliated bureaucracy; Robinson was not prepared to implement planned changes in ResLife and had trouble communicating with other administrators. But among all the activity, these two are the exceptions, not the rule.