The richness of life on Georgetown’s campus is drawn from its civil society—the clubs and organizations who hold events and speeches, throw parties, raise money and awareness and, yes, publish newspapers. These organizations are our passions, and no one is more passionate about them than Martha Swanson, the outgoing Director of Student Programs.
Martha has been working at Georgetown for 23 years, longer than most current Hoyas have been alive. She began as a part-time clerk in the student activities office before rising to her current position, supervising the budgets and activities of approximately 200 student groups. She provides a helping hand for club leaders trying to figure out an expense form, organize tabling or just get a handle on starting their next project. Her door has always been open to an endless series of Presidents, chairpersons, editors and committee members.
Martha has fought for students to have the money and resources to achieve great things on campus. And, in particular, she has stood up for student newspapers. Each time the Voice has gotten into hot water for publishing information that the administration didn’t want known yet (the names of candidates for Vice President of Student Affairs in 2000, or the unreleased 2005 GUSA election results) or for, in the eyes of some, going too far in a parody (an article mocking former Hoyas Basketball coach Craig Esherick), Martha was always there to stand up for us. Admittedly, she’d chew us out herself, but she never let the powers that be lay into the Voice.
And even when Martha has come under fire for interfering in Student Affairs, as she did during last year’s Student Association election debacle, her clear reasoning and deliberate actions excused what might otherwise have been seen as clumsy manipulation. In that case, she waited to involve herself until it became clear that the election had been mismanaged. In fact, her greatest strength has been treating students like what (most of them) are: young adults.
This year, the University is losing two administrators who share this trait: Martha and the former Vice President for Safety and Security David Morrell. They treated students as equal partners in the University community, not as irritants to be dealt with in the course of doing their jobs. The new Director of Student Programs, now-Associate Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr, should adopt the same attitude. And Martha herself—whose staff made t-shirts with XXIII on the back and a portrait of Martha on the front, captioned “Martha is Georgetown”—will be sorely missed. As she moves into retirement, hoping to focus on philanthropic work, the students who throw themselves into Georgetown’s life are losing an ally and a mentor.
