Over the past week, last month’s hate crime has become just one element of a larger debate between the University administration and the LGBTQ community. Although President John J. DeGioia paid lip service to tolerance in a campus-wide email earlier this week, he made yet another mistake by deciding not to participate in a forum discussion organized by GU Pride that was scheduled for last night.
The administration’s first blunder was its failure to disclose that a hate crime had occurred until after it had been reported by the local news. In response to the University’s dismissive behavior, GU Pride organized a large protest in Red Square and pushed for meetings with senior administrators to discuss long-term plans for improving LGBTQ acceptance on campus.
This week, the University looked like it would try to repair the damage. DeGioia sent a campus-wide e-mail saying that homophobia will not be tolerated and that more work needs to be done to make Georgetown a truly tolerant campus.
GU Pride offered the president a perfect opportunity to do more by scheduling a forum discussion for last night as part of national Coming Out Week. GU Pride invited DeGioia to speak at the event, and he had supposedly been reorganizing his schedule in order to accommodate their invitation. During the day yesterday, however, DeGioia backed out, citing scheduling conflicts—and GU Pride responded by canceling the forum.
“We are actively working to reschedule the forum at a time when Dr. DeGioia can participate in it, though we do not believe at this point that he will actually participate in the forum,” GU Pride President Scott Chessare (COL ’10) wrote in an e-mail message.
While DeGioia should have attended the forum, GU Pride should not have canceled it because of his absence. Tit-for-tat pettiness removes credibility from their organization and will only make an already reticent administration less willing to make meaningful changes. GU Pride’s decision to cancel the forum implies that the other administrators who planned to speak—Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and CMEA Director Dennis Williams—are irrelevant and denies students the opportunity to engage with the administration on any level.
GU Pride will hold a public announcement at 4 p.m. today in Red Square “to address the administration’s continued inaction,” according to Chessare.
In order to make amends, DeGioia should work with GU Pride to reschedule the forum. If progress is to be achieved, both sides must display a level of maturity and understanding that has been missing from the discourse until now.
