In February, the Office of the Provost released their self-study for re-accreditation. This study covered four topics: planning, resource allocation, and institutional renewal; institutional assessment; general education; and assessment of student learning. You can find the entire 108-page study here [PDF], and Vox’s coverage of the Provost’s town hall in January can be found here. The majority of the report centers around administrative and institutional practices, but there are some fun bits directly relevant to students.

Gen Eds

A huge issue tackled by the self-study is the general education requirements at Georgetown. In 2009, the standing Committee on General Education has tried to determine exactly what the goals of general education should be, and how can they assess whether those goals are being achieved by the requirements. Currently the only classes that all Georgetown undergraduates are required to take are two courses each in philosophy, theology, and humanities and writing; although, obviously each school has more requirements:

Much of the action taken on the general education requirements (including expanding the number of courses that satisfy the humanities and writing requirement) is a response to the 2007 Intellectual Life report, which basically said that the gen eds exist in their current form because no one bothered to change them in the past 60 years. Through the General Education Working Group the study says that the gen eds “ought to be a visible and distinct aspect of the Georgetown experience (p46).”

However the committee also found that both faculty and students tend to be confused as to their purpose: although most students cite well-roundedness and cura personalis as the rationale for the requirements, there is no consensus. The committee did outline some themes of how general education should function, and how people have been reporting it to function:

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At yesterday’s meeting, the Georgetown University Student Association senate passed six bills, some of which were more important than others and some of which took longer to talk about.

Big Budget, Big Budget

First the outgoing chair of the Finance and Appropriations committee, Colton Malkerson (COL ’13), talked about the finalized budget for next year. This round of allocations reflects the last major increase from SAFE reform, so the distribution of money will probably be a template for future years, according to Malkerson.

For the six advisory boards, Finapp allocated 24 percent of the $960,000 pie to Club Sports, 19 to CSJ ABSO, 16 to SAC, 10 to GPB, six to Media Board, and five to PAAC. They only allocated two percent to GUSA.

Deviating from previous years, Finapp allocated money directly to the Lecture Fund instead of indirectly through SAC. Lecture Fund still has Access to Benefits through SAC, but creating a separate allocation frees up SAC’s funds for other organizations.

Although the increase in funding for most boards was commensurate with the overall funding increase, Club Sports’s allocation decreased by $20,000 compared to last year. According to Finapp member Bridget Power (COL ’12), Club Sports received a mammoth increase at last year’s budget summit, going from $115,000 in 2011 to $250,000 in 2012. This year, Finapp scaled down that increase to make room for other projects.

In other Finapp news, the Senate also allocated another $3500 to the GUSA fund to allow them to finish out the year. According to Malkerson, the current system of funding for the GUSA fund, in which the GUSA fund has to request money from GUSA whenever it needs it, makes it difficult for them to effectively budget.

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On Saturday, the Georgetown University Student Association swore in the new President and Vice President, Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ’13). The inauguration was a small affair, with Vail being sworn in on a copy of Infinite Jest because, “This is the closest thing I had to a religious text.”

Gustafson also gave an impromptu address:

I’m going to take a few minutes of your time to say, thank you all for coming out today and happy St. Paddy’s Day. I am so very excited and honored to stand before you today to be sworn in as the GUSA president. GUSA have accomplished many incredible things the past three years, and I’ve learned a lot from my experience. Vail and I are in a great position to finish a lot of those initiatives that were started, especially SAFE reform, and to establish GUSA as an organization for and by all students and expand its reach into focus areas that haven’t been exercised in the past by GUSA. That said, I would like to thank Mike and Greg for their incredible hard work and dedication over the past year to the students and this university. You guys have left some incredibly large shoes to fill, and we hope we do you proud.

Vail and I have already begun work on some of the initiative we proposed in our platform, such as planning a research symposium, an LGTBQ-friendly checkbox on CHARMS, and the Student Life Report—and how to implement the recommendations that were given in that. We have also been working on a pretty fantastic cabinet to help execute a lot of these and other important initiatives. Vail and I have been given an incredible opportunity, and … we hope that we will serve all of you well in the next year, and know that our door is always open. Thank you very much.

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Yesterday, Chief Operating Officer Chris Augostini held another Hoya Roundtable–this time focusing on sustainability. The roundtable was also the debut of the “Visions for a Sustainable Georgetown” report, which made a litany of recommendations in the short, medium, and long term for Georgetown to achieve its goal of cuttings its carbon footprint in half by 2020. The report is included at the end of this post, but the speakers stressed a few key initiatives, so let’s start with those.

Office of sustainability

Almost everyone and every organization present stressed the need for an office of sustainability at Georgetown. The office would be a physical and hierarchical place on campus to lead the sustainability efforts on campus. According to the report,

This office… would provide advise and support to students and administrators on sustainability projects while keeping the University on track regarding the Climate Action Plan. The office would also work with students groups on sustainability issues and set up a sustainability review board for university operations as well as campus-wide events and initiatives.

Currently, Georgetown has one Sustainability Coordinator, Audrey Stewart, and a half-dozen eco-centered student groups, including Eco-Action, Georgetown Energy, and the GUSA cabinet position.

According to Erin Auel (COL ’14), a writer of the report, ”[Georgetown attracts] students who see their education as a purpose for good. Sustainability has to be a part of it, and that’s why we need an office of sustainability and a climate action plan.”

Moving forward, although Augostini wants to study the office’s feasibility first, he said, “The notion of creating an office makes a great deal of sense.” He hopes to have an answer as to the office’s feasibility by this spring and at the latest by the start of next year. Also, he says he would want to use the expertise of students to shape the office, and he cited the role of student investors in the investment office as an example.

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A few weeks ago, the COO Chris Augostini’s office rolled out the much-anticipated Ideascale–the crowd-sourced ideas forum. How it works is you submit an idea under a category like, “Technology,” “Housing,” “Food,” etc. Then other people vote on whether or not they like it. Sadly, you have to log in with your real name, so that precludes some ol’ fashion anonymous trolling.

On Tuesday, the president of the SFS Academic Council emailed SFS undergraduates the findings of their undergraduate survey. Intended as a response to the BSFS External Review consultations last spring, the survey was conducted by [Edit] the SFS Academic Council for the BSFS review committee to help them evaluate the SFS experience.

The report has both statistics on student perceptions of the SFS curriculum and the unabridged comments from students. It also makes some preliminary recommendations, like reevaluating which classes can fulfill requirements. On the whole, SFSers seems dissatisfied with having to study four economics courses, happy about their Prosems, and skeptical of adding a science requirement to the core curriculum. In general, the report paints a picture of a student body that is satisfied with its academic experience.

You can read the entire report after the jump, but we thought we’d share this recommendation from the report first:

Allow students to acquire language proficiency in languages not offered at Georgetown – a student coming into freshman year with proficient knowledge in Urdu should not be at a disadvantage over an incoming freshman with proficiency in Farsi.

#SFSproblems

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Today, housing emailed East Campus to tell the residents that the heat has, in fact, been shut off and air conditioning will be installed.

Dear Nevils and LXR residents:

I write to update you on the status of the air conditioning in your buildings.

The heat has been turned off in your buildings.  A trailer-mounted chiller and generator has been ordered to provide temporary air-conditioning while we await delivery and installation of the permanent chiller and cooling tower.  We hope that this delivery and installation of equipment can be completed by the middle of next week.  The trailers will be set in the courtyard and cordoned off, but I anticipate that passage among Walsh, Nevils and LXR can be maintained through the courtyard.

Your windows have a limited opening for safety and security.  If you have difficulty opening your window, please report the problem to Work Management either online or by phone at 687-3432.  Remember to close and secure your window before you leave your room or apartment.

I hope that you will receive this information as good news and we thank you for your patience.  We will move as quickly as possible to expedite this installation.

Sincerely,

Patrick Killilee
Executive Director
Student Housing

At 11:30 a.m. this morning, a student reported to the Department of Public Safety that their residence on the 3500 block of O Street had been burglarized the night before.

In the ensuing investigation, the Metropolitan Police Department found that two laptops were stolen and that the burglar may have entered through an open window.

Last night, the Housing office sent residents of East Campus this uplifting message:

Dear East Campus Residents,

As you settle in after Spring Break, we would like to update you again on the progress of the courtyard construction work in East Campus. A substantial portion of the work is set to be completed as of this Wednesday, March 14, 2012.  We are happy to announce that this means pedestrian access between the Walsh lobby and the Nevils/LXR buildings will be restored as of 12 noon Wednesday.

This means that as of noon Wednesday, access to LXR and interior Nevils apartments will be through the normal doors–Walsh lobby or 35th St LXR lobby. The exterior security doors on N St and 36th St (temporarily accessible during construction) will be closed permanently and re-alarmed to be used in emergencies only. Handicap access to the complex will be available through the Walsh lobby.

While this means you may access the buildings as normal, there are portions of work still ongoing.  Continue to expect construction noise and work as these remaining projects are completed. Parts of the courtyard will remain fenced off throughout, and intermittent disruptions to pedestrian walkways may be necessary. We will provide updates on the progress of the remaining work as it is available to us.

The chiller, which operates the air conditioning for LXR, Nevils and Walsh is being replaced. This project is expected to be completed by early May. In the meantime, there is no air conditioning in these residences halls. The heat needs to remain on in the building, as during this time of year there can be great fluctuations in temperature. We recognize this can be uncomfortable for periods of time. We thank you for your patience as we complete this project.

Thank you for your continued cooperation with the Nevils project work.

Sincerely,

Offices of Student Housing

It’s lovely how Housing waits until the middle of the last paragraph to tell the residents of LXR, Nevils and Walsh that they will have no air conditioning until early May. But hey, at least East Campus will still have heating during one of the most unseasonably warm periods in recent D.C. history.

If the ANC was smart about getting students to live on campus, they’d sponsor a crash construction program to get this done in a week. Or buy East Campus residents giant fans.

At yesterday’s lightly-attended meeting of the Georgetown University Student Association Senate, the senate made some plans for the upcoming inauguration next week and the transition after that. There were no big-ticket issues, so Vox has some miscellany for you.

A few weeks ago, the Finance and Appropriations Committee established the budget for the next financial year. According to Finapp member Bridget Power (COL ’12), there aren’t many surprises in the budget.

“For a number of groups, we gave a 20% increase, which was the funding increase,” she said. “We did have to cut from club sports by a substantial amount from what they got last year.”

For the GUSA Fund, the senate approved allocations for the College Dems to bring the founder of Reddit to campus (co-sponsored by the University and the Lecture Fund), for M.E.Ch.A. to buy a banner for their Caesar Chavez Day of Service and Learning blood drive, and for the step team to have a competition in Lohrfink Auditorium. Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ’12) noted that the GUSA fund was close to emptying their coffers, and Finapp would consider an additional allocation to them in the coming weeks.

Our favorite Daniel “DJ LaMagnz” LaMagna (COL ’13) made a triumphant return last night as the head of a new student life subcommittee in charge of academic affairs. LaMagna helped organize the “Striking the Balance” event last semester and wants to continue looking into Georgetown’s relationship with the Chinese government with this new subcommittee.

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