The Student Space Working Group, a group of students that began pushing the administration to expand student space on campus last fall, found support for their cause in a survey they conducted last April. Of the fifth of the student body that responded to the survey, which was distributed to the undergraudate student body by GUSA, over half said that they were not satisfied with the amount of space available to students at Georgetown. Large numbers of polled students also reported being less than satisfied with the space available for study, social, dining, and athletic activities.
Max Glassie (COL ‘10), the leader of the group, was encouraged by the survey, which demonstrated that students felt strongly about space and would help inform the groups conversations with Georgetown administrators about expanding space.
“The survey results came with over a hundred single-spaced pages of comments from students,” Glassie added.
The talks are a continuation of meetings that the working group has held with administrators, primarialy Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, since this past spring semester. Glassie said that he is confident that the adminstrators the group has met with are in favor of expanding student space. Since talks began, the University has drafted plans to reorganize space in New South, which currently contains mostly dance studios, to include student office space, outdoor seating, and a potential cafeteria, all of which appear in the Ten Year Plan.
“We know we need event space, more meeting space, more study space,” Olson said. “During my entire time here … I’ve been working with students of the issue of limited space.”
Fitz Lufkin (COL ‘11), a member of the working group and the Vice President of the College Democrats, one of the campus’ largest organizations, pointed out that the issue of limited student space has recently taken on special importance, since the Student Activities Commission took away the offices of some of the University’s largest student clubs at the end of last summer.
SAC Chair Aakib Khaled (SFS ‘10) explained that the decision, which was partly due to the clubs’ misuse of the space, was meant to make student offices available to more student clubs. So far, however, Khaled said that SAC has not found a way to encourage a large number of clubs to sign up for use of the space.
With the survey results and student comments, Glassie and Lufkin said the working group plans to compile a ‘’White Paper’’ to illumstrate the student desire for more space, the state of student space at Georgetown as compared to other D.C. univerisities, and the fact that space at Georgetown has been scarce for over a decade.
“Any Georgetown student will tell you that [we have] inadequate facilities,” Lufkin said.
