In the most closely watched macroeconomics lecture in the school’s history, President Barack Obama spoke on campus Tuesday to defend the first three months of his administration’s economic policy and to outline its future. Scattered throughout the crowd of Washington’s political and media elite, the few hundred Georgetown students and faculty lucky enough to win a seat in Monday’s lottery saw the president at his best: a confident realist with a long-term plan for the future.
Surrounded by the religious imagery of Gaston Hall, President Obama chose to invoke a biblical parable to explain his long-term plan for the country: where in the past we built our economy on a “pile of sand,” now we must “lay a foundation for growth and prosperity.” Obama then explained the economic crisis and his administration’s response to it with unprecedented clarity by tying together the separate pieces of his strategy into an easily approachable framework. Outlining the “five pillars” of his plan, Obama focused on rebuilding the economy through better regulation of Wall Street, managing the federal budget, and investment in health care, renewable energy, and education.
Stressing a renewed focus on science and engineering education and pledging that the United States will graduate the highest proportion of college students in the world by the year 2020, the President directed much of his message towards the students in the audience. Though Georgetown is considered a top tier university, it is poorly positioned to capitalize on the changes the president is looking to bring to higher education and the country as a whole. Georgetown Administrators should take the president’s message to heart and invest in the future of Georgetown’s science and mathematics departments.
Nothing illustrates the disparity between what the University’s priorities are and where they should be better than the nearly-completed business school building that stands next to an empty lot where the Science Building will one day be built. Devoting more resources to science and mathematics programs will allow Georgetown to be at the forefront of “the technologies, innovations, and discoveries that will shape the 21st century.”
President Obama laid in greater detail an ambitious plan for the economic recovery and revitalization of the United States. Speaking here at Georgetown he emphasized the important role of higher education in maintaining America’s competitiveness in the global economy. President DeGioia, sitting in the front row, was as close to the president as anyone in Gaston Hall Tuesday, hopefully he was listening. (halcyonliving.co.uk)
