Georgetown administrators released the 20-year campus plan last Monday June 6 that will serve as the structure for housing, transportation, and conduct from 2017 to 2036. On June 2, Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey discussed the main aspects of the plan during Planning 401, a briefing on the plan with members of the university community.
Some of the key points of the plan include maintaining the same student enrollment maximums from the 2010 Campus Plan and promised renovations to on-campus housing with a focus on Henle Village, Village A, and Alumni Square. With improved housing also comes the potential for new housing, which the university may decide to construct as part of a commitment to bring 244 additional students on campus by 2030. Potential sites include the Leavey Esplanade, St. Mary’s Hall, or a replacement to Reiss.
GUSA Vice President, Chris Fisk (COL ’17), affirmed the inclusion of renovations in the plan as a success after students pushed this point during negotiations. “By working with university administrators and neighborhood leaders, students have significantly shaped and informed these conversations, making for a draft agreement that firmly prioritizes student asks like much-needed housing renovations,” he said.
Other campus improvements will also take place such as possible renovations or conversions to several academic buildings, including the possible demolishing of Yates Field House and construction of a “Student Life Corridor” that will improve the link between the north and south ends of campus.
For transportation, the university hopes to decrease traffic levels and impacts from current levels. However, weekend GUTS bus service and extended hours are notably missing from improvements to transportation.
The new campus plan represents the first product of negotiations between administrators, neighbors, and student representatives that have taken over two years. This will also be the first campus plan to extend for 20 years into the future. During that period of time, the university can offer two unilateral amendments to the plan and the neighborhood can offer one. Any other desired changes would be subject to a more complex process.
The draft will be open to a 30-day public comment period until July 6. Any person may submit their feedback on the plan online, and the university will publish some of the responses under anonymity weekly with responses.
The plan also remains flexible in other ways. It states that “the university and community parties will continue to work together collegially through the Georgetown Community Partnership (GCP) toward agreed-upon updates and improvements.” The GCP operates under a consensus model, marking the first time that a university in D.C. has used a such model. It enabled students, university administrators, and community members to engage in comprehensive discussions in the drafting of the plan and will allow for some campus aspects to be negotiated with GCP members throughout the years as well.
GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff Ari Goldstein applauded the success of the negotiations, but also listed some of the remaining problems for students to work on. “I would have liked to see more constructive solutions to student concerns about GUTS, Kehoe Field, and townhouses, all of which have been in the spotlight over the past several months but none of which I feel are adequately addressed in the Campus Plan. Moving forward, we’re going to focus our energy on those issues as well as on conduct policies focused on enhancing the quality of off-campus student life,” he said. (https://fernandez-vega.com/)
For off-campus life, new policies from the 2010 Campus Plan will stay in effect for 2017. These relate to the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP) and University-paid Metro Police Department officers patrolling during nighttime hours.
The plan will be subject to municipal approval processes before it is fully implemented in the beginning of 2017. The Old Georgetown Board and the ANC 2E/3D will review the plan before it is filed in September.
