Georgetown University and its student body seem to be doing all they can to help the victims of what may become the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. But both groups’ responses have been poorly timed, much to the detriment of aid efforts and the inconvenience of the nearly 90 students that have come to Georgetown in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Four days after the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast, Georgetown announced that it would admit students temporarily from its Jesuit sister school, Loyola University of New Orleans. Georgetown has stated that these students will only be allowed to attend the university for the fall 2005 semester, through an emergency cross registration program.
Students coming to Georgetown have rushed to meet Tuesday’s application deadline, and now they must hurry to meet Friday’s registration deadline for classes. By contrast, Rice University, which is already four weeks into classes, had a registration deadline two days later than Georgetown’s. This timeframe has made life even more difficult for the students devastated by this catastrophe.
With the exception of the Southern Society, which successfully raised money for the American Red Cross in the days immediately following the disaster, student groups have been slow to respond to the crisis. Several students, in collaboration with Robert Murray, the university’s director of technology strategy and development, piddled away six days building a website for a new umbrella organization, GU Hurricane Emergency Relief Effort.
Although GU HERE was unable to set up a meeting with professors and student leaders until Wednesday evening, ten days after Katrina hit, they were able to create the catchy slogan, “We are HERE,” and that spiffy acronym. This delay hindered other groups’ efforts for over a week.
The group’s main goal is to coordinate groups on campus involved in GU’s relief effort. HERE will not take any action; it will simply organize it. Large-scale fundraisers will occur in the near future, but, according to HERE leaders, they are only in the planning stages.
It will take years to fix the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, and we do not doubt that Georgetown’s response will be effective once students and the university get their acts together. However, Georgetown’s halfhearted support to orphaned students, mixed with a coordinated but unproductive campus-wide relief effort by students, should make students wonder. Is Georgetown’s generosity is simply an empty gesture, and where, exactly, is HERE?
