Money and space are the largest obstacles the university faces today, President John J. DeGioia said last Friday. Accompanied by Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, DeGioia outlined his vision for this semester at a meeting with student media.
Informally dressed and relaxed, DeGioia predicted an eventful spring at Georgetown. “This is one of the best starts I can remember,” he said.
However, as the University seeks to expand physically and academically, DeGioia said that all plans are ultimately restricted by the school’s small endowment and limited property.
The biggest drain on the school’s resources remains the Medical Center, despite the sale of the Georgetown University Hospital in 2000, DeGioia said. The Medical Center is now simply a research institution, he said, and “research is a subsidized activity.” Aside from this, the University’s budget is balanced.
Still, the University’s vision for the future is ambitious: a new boathouse for the crew team, a new performing arts center and a building for the McDonough School of Business are just a few of the structures Georgetown hopes to add to campus.
Which of these structures are actually built, DeGioia said, depends on their relevance to the University’s “core academic mission” and on whether the funds exist for their creation.
A planned science building suffers most severely from the financial problem. Its costs are enormous: while the new boathouse will cost approximately $14 million, he said, the science building may require more than $120 million. “It’s right smack in the middle of our core academic mission,” DeGioia said of the science building. “But these are the most expensive buildings we can build.”
The buildings constructed in the 1990’s were funded mostly by debt; only $50 million of the $185 million spent on the Southwest Quadrangle came from alumni donatons. However, that option is no longer available. “We’ve reached our debt ceiling,” DeGioia said.
However, he defended his “strategic” use of the debt for expansion and construction. “I don’t think we’ve taken any unreasonable risk with that debt,” he said.
The recent completion of the Third Century Campaign, which raised $1 billion, will undoubtedly loosen these financial bonds. But Georgetown’s endowment currently stands at approximately $650 million, much smaller than many private universities and a trifle compared, for example, to Harvard University’s approximately $19 billion.
DeGioia’s comments followed a Town Hall meeting he held for students last Thursday in an effort to connect with the student body. About 20 students attended.
