One area Georgetown University excels in is service. The University lauds its students for taking action on all levels, in the community and internationally. As such, it would be expected that the University’s response to Hurricane Katrina would follow in this tradition of excellence. While the immediate response at Georgetown was a bit rocky, marked by some organizational confusion, it is clear Georgetown is ready to help.
Last Friday, Georgetown students began organizing GU HERE, the Georgetown University Hurricane Emergency Relief Effort, an “umbrella organization” to coordinate campus relief efforts. This move initially seemed like typical Georgetown campus politics-yet another acronym combined with an added layer of bureaucracy. GU HERE, however, has made it a point to differentiate itself from the rest of Georgetown’s acronym clubs.
The main purpose of GU HERE is to coordinate all campus efforts related to Katrina. They have vowed not to take over organizing clubs’ activities, and instead are focused on coordinating and publicizing such efforts.
In a meeting last night in the ICC Auditorium, GU HERE members addressed questions and concerns from student leaders. It was clear that they are well intentioned, but they do have their work cut out for them. From a logistical point of view, their task is quite large, but the payoff will be a concerted and organized campus-wide response to the disaster.
GU HERE and other campus efforts, notably those of the Southern Society, follow the example set earlier in the year after the Asian tsunami. Then, students organized quickly and brought a strong presence to a disaster far more removed than this one. There is no reason why student organizations working with GU HERE should not be able to exceed the tsunami response.
Students involved in GU HERE realize that help is needed both now and in the long term. They also acknowledge that as time passes, so does popular interest. Hopefully student interest will remain high, and GU HERE will be able to coordinate efforts over the course of the year. However, as with any new organization, only time will tell if all of their goals will be realized.
