Three weeks after a coalition of students presented the administration with proposals to increase tolerance within the Georgetown community, the administration responded in a meeting with student leaders. Their response was swift, genuine and, for the most part, positive. Additionally, the administration prescribed the creation of new working groups and suggested revamping old ones as a cure for this year’s racist incidents. While working groups can be an effective tool for initiating change, they should not be substituted for a more effective, long-term response.
Four years ago, the Diversity Working Group formed when hate-based incidents precipitated a movement similar to the one this year. The group did achieve considerable goals such as the inclusion of “biased-related conduct” section to the Student Handbook, and biased-related incident training for the Department of Public Safety. While these were positive changes, they did not prevent the incidents that have been reported this year. Working groups appease angry students, but they can easily fail to proactively change Georgetown’s culture.
This year, students’ original proposal offered a comprehensive plan to fight intolerance on campus and to bolster Georgetown’s reactions in the case of on-campus hate crimes and incidences. Their proposals included mandatory diversity training for all professors, a change in the Center for Minority Educational Affairs’ mission statement to include the education of the greater Georgetown community, a concrete procedure for reporting hate crimes, changes to the curriculum to include more diverse requirements, and an upgrade of the African American minor to a major.
Representing the administration were three relatively new administrators: Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Vice President for University Safety David Morrel and Provost James O’Donnell. Their responses focused on the revitalization and creation of working groups charged with taking on different aspects of racism, including student relations with the Department of Public Safety and the education of the majority of Georgetown students about issues of race.
Each of these administrators should be commended for responding to student concerns quickly and for presenting their best compromises to the students’ proposals. But while creating and revamping working groups is a step in the right direction, students should be weary. Administrators must help the groups set goals, create effective programs, and phase them out when their jobs are done.
Bureaucratic working groups easily become bogged down in details or small initiatives that do not profoundly impact student life. Working groups work only as short-term solutions; student and administrative interests quickly wane, and the group burns out. Groups are most effective when their ideas successfully become part of the school’s institution. By allowing groups to drag on, time frames extend, goals decrease in urgency and students are left with the same old prejudiced Georgetown.
