While us undergraduates are battling it out on the sidelines for our compromised interests in the Campus Plan, we tend to forget that graduate students are affected by these provisions too. At tonight’s advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting on the campus plan, ANC Chair Ron Lewis mentioned that “graduate students will be parking ‘downtown’ in the next few years.” A cursory statement like that holds a lot of weight for these adults who live and study at Georgetown but also have families, children, and established lives.
For graduate students, on-campus housing is not provided as an option. Many students live in Foxhall and West Georgetown to decrease their commute, especially given Georgetown’s lack of access to a Metro station.
“Basically the first year of grad school I was on Connecticut Ave. and I would commute by Metro and shuttle bus and it really made it difficult to schedule time,” Alison Thomas (MSFS ’13) said. “You end up wasting a lot of time in transit or waiting for transit. This year, living near campus made a huge difference to my quality of life.”
In the campus plan agreement, a clause devoted to parking indicates that undergraduate students “shall be prohibited from bringing cars to campus or parking their cars on the street in Georgetown, Burleith, and Foxhall.” And that’s not all, violations will be a part of the Code of Conduct and there will be “very limited exceptions” to this rule.
This concession, intended to mitigate parking congestions in the Georgetown area, is directed at undergraduate students who presumably don’t often bring cars to campus. However, as undergraduate students are completely banned, even graduate students will end up privy to these regulations:
The University shall implement plans as well for mitigating the transportation and parking impacts from graduate students who travel to the Main Campus, with the goal of achieving significant improvements over current conditions.
Vox is curious about the effect this will have on students, whether you’re undergrad or graduate.
Rumblings and grumblings over the results of the campus plan agreement are still alive and well. Students demand a say in the process and express disapproval over the concessions made by the University, and two days ago, students were given the opportunity to discuss these concerns in a conference call with Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson. Tomorrow, the ANC is meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Georgetown Visitation to open the floor to critics and start a discussion about the outcome of the agreement.
A relatively under-explored topic throughout Vox‘s coverage is on the question of expansion. In the agreement, there is a brief reference to establishing a satellite campus for School of Continuing Studies. This change is projected for next December (2013), with the intent to move 1,000 SCS students “at one or more satellite locations not within zip code 20007. The exact phrasing is to “identify and develop next 100 acres” as one of the long term goals for the university.
Inspired by a recent GM post, our minds began to tinker. Where will Georgetown find these 100 acres? Not only that, but who’s moving? Presumably students in SCS, but the vague language indicates the possibility of pushing other graduate students out as well.
After a 24-plus-month gestation period, which included innumerable meetings, hearings, and bitchings, this week the University and the neighbors finally welcomed into the world the long-overdue bundle of joy that is the 2010 Campus Plan. And after reading its provisions, the Vox commentariat quickly realized that this plan looks a lot more like its Burleith-dwelling mother than we’d hoped, and boy, is she ugly. Below, we have the best of the best from this championship commenting week.
On this fated afternoon I will face the chairman of our Georgetowne high council, Knight Ron Lewis, in grisly hand-to-hand combat to determine whose vision for the Campus Plan will prevail in fair Georgetowne. Lord Mayor Vince Gray will preside over the carnage and enforce this ancient rite’s sole rule–no kicks to the junk.
I am confident that this sickening fight to the death atop Georgetown’s seal represents the best interests of our entire community, as with my flanged mace, Grinder, I have never failed to pulverize the eye jellies of my enemies.
As many of you know, we have exhausted all other options for resolving this dispute. In February, a leadership team from the university and representatives from the neighborhood began a new set of negotiations, convening in the great Healy Hall of our forefathers to drink mead, dally with maidens fair, and blow our noses in the tablecloth. Each attendee got a suckling pig to himself. But with our number unable to find common ground after 47 hours of intense, closed-door negotiation, Lewis rent his garments, and in a fury unto madness, invoked “victoria aut mors,” which is why Olson, my boy squire, is strapping me into my resplendent armor, which some say was forged for John the Thompson, second in his name, as I dictate this.
I want to express my deep gratitude to the many members of our community who have sent me wreaths of laurel to bid me good fortune in my fight. But in the intervening hours before we celebrate my glorious victory, when I shall mount what is left of the head on Georgetowne’s great gates, we must prepare for the beginning of the next step for our university–a Great War that will unite the thuggish MSB tribes of the North, the SFSers of the South, with all their sibilant scheming, and the inscrutable mystics of Wolfington Hall.
Georgetowne is a university, and soon, it will control all its surrounding neighborhoods. Today, we move forward as one army, the distant thud of whose footsteps will drain the spirits of Lady Lenore Rubino’s most seasoned fighters, and engulf our enemies’ world in flame and despair.
I look forward to continuing to the work that lies ahead in the spirit of deep engagement and partnership.
Cura Personalis,
John of Gioia
King and Lord Commander of the fearsome Blue and Grey
Earlier this week we ran a pretty lame but kind of funny contest asking you all what you would rename the Career Center. After receiving some minimal responses (come on guys, let’s see some creativity), we’ve decided to scrap the vote and, by default, give the award to Carly for “The ‘Here’s my CV, So Cawley Maybe.’” I mean, really, the other submissions didn’t stand a chance.
So let’s try something different. With the Georgetown community all abuzz on the Campus Plan shenanigans from this week, we’d like to present a poll. Sure, there were some significant gains for students in the recently proposed conditions. From the list we put together yesterday, what do you think sucked the most?
As promised yesterday in a press conference, ANC 2E finally released the full details of the provisions in the Campus Plan. University officials and neighborhood leaders have ruminated over these “proposed conditions” since negotiations restarted in early April. Both parties responded with an extremely satisfied view on the result. ”I am confident that this agreement represents the interests of our entire community and aligns our long-term strategic plans with the goals of our growing city,” President John DeGioia said yesterday in an email to the Georgetown community.
Not all students reacted to the agreement with as much excitement as the Mayor and President DeGioia. “Particularly promising in this agreement is the stated desire by both sides to make campus a more lively and social place … That said, they are certainly elements of the agreement I found troublesome … Students are full members of society and they should not have their ability to freely choose housing redistricted. The complete ban of student cars from the neighborhood also strikes me as unfairly discriminatory,” ANC Commissioner Jake Sticka (COL ’13) said in an email to Vox.
Earlier today we brought you a few highlights from the recently released provisions on the Campus Plan. Now we’re giving you the full breakdown: from housing to food trucks to the satellite campus. Enjoy.
Earlier today, ANC 2E released the revised 2010 Campus Plan. The move follows yesterday afternoon’s jubilant announcement of a finalized plan, along with the creation of a new Georgetown Community Partnership between the university and its neighbors. It also comes in advance of a special public meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the proposed revisions.
One of the biggest revelations of the 10-year plan is that, well, it’s no longer a 10-year plan. Instead, the plan runs for seven years, beginning retroactively on January 1, 2011 and ending on December 31, 2017. During that time frame, both sides hope to reach a consensus on a new plan that will hold for 20 years thereafter.
Some Highlights
Students living in Magis Row townhouses will move on campus by Fall 2013. These residences will become faculty and staff housing.
Off-campus living to be treated as a “privilege, not a right.”
An additional 450 beds will be added on campus.
Undergraduate enrollment will remain capped at 6,675.
By Fall of 2025, 90 percent of students will live on campus.
Georgetown agrees to discourage students from bringing cars to campus.
Full PDFs of both documents are after the jump. Look for more analysis from Vox on the plan’s consequences later this evening.
Two years and a few months later, Georgetown and neighborhood leaders concluded the longdrawnoutbattle over the Campus Plan 2010. After yesterday’s announcement that the negotiating parties had reached an agreement, President John J. DeGioia, Mayor Vincent Gray, and ANC 2E Chair Ron Lewis joined hands in celebration of the moment-we’ve-all-been-hoping-would-come-but-didn’t and now we still don’t know what the future will hold. Lewis said at the event that the details on the agreement will be released some time today.
Although details on the results of the campus plan are still unknown, both parties expressed a very positive outlook on the agreement and are confident that the new platform for negotiations will be productive.
Today, a little past noon, President John J. DeGioia sent an email, subject line “Good News on Campus Plan,” announcing the official agreement on the campus plan. After months, well, years, of back and forth between the University and neighborhood groups, this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Mayor Vince Gray and ANC 2E Chairman Ron Lewis will stand beside DeGioia to formally declare the end of campus plan negotiations.
In the email, DeGioia says that the agreement is a fair and balanced representation of the community and the university’s interests. Presumably, more information on the agreement will be explained later today at the event.
“Georgetown is a university, and it is a neighborhood. Today, we move forward as one,” DeGioia concluded in his email.
This email comes after another one earlier today from Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, announcing the agreement and stating that the “needs of our students were present in every discussion we had. Making our campus a more comfortable and inviting place to live and socialize is a win both for students and for the local community.” Olson also mentioned that in the future, students would be involved in this Georgetown Community Partnership.
Look back for another post later today on the happenings at the announcement event on P Street and 36th. Full email after the jump!
Update (5:00 p.m.): Tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., on P Street and 36th Street NW, Mayor Vince Gray, President John J. DeGioia, and ANC Commissioner Ron Lewis will make a “major announcement” on the subject of campus plan negotiations, according to an email sent to campus press.
Last night, at the monthly meeting of advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, ANC Chair Ron Lewis announced a request to the Zoning Commission for a one-week extension–from June 11 to June 18–on the filing date of the Georgetown University Campus Plan. By June 18, assuming the groups reach a final agreement, the University, ANC 2E, Citizen’s Association of Georgetown and Burleith Citizen’s Association will conduct a joint filing of the plan. The letter, addressed to the Anthony Hood, Zoning Commission Chair, predicts the real final decision by July 16.
Mayor Vincent Gray left us with high hopes last Wednesday (“We are 95% to getting this solved”) for an official agreement by today’s meeting, but in all fairness, the extension is necessary to gain a recommendation from the Zoning Commission for the joint filing.
University spokesperson Stacy Kerr commented on the meeting’s proceedings in an email to Vox:
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
While us undergraduates are battling it out on the sidelines for our compromised interests in the Campus Plan, we tend to forget that graduate students are affected by these provisions too. At tonight’s advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting on the campus plan, ANC Chair Ron Lewis mentioned that “graduate students will be parking ‘downtown’ in the next few years.” A cursory statement like that holds a lot of weight for these adults who live and study at Georgetown but also have families, children, and established lives.
Rumblings and grumblings over the results of the campus plan agreement are still alive and well. Students demand a say in the process and 
Today, a little past noon, President John J. DeGioia sent an email, subject line “Good News on Campus Plan,” announcing the official agreement on the campus plan. After months, well, years, of back and forth between the University and neighborhood groups, this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Mayor Vince Gray and ANC 2E Chairman Ron Lewis will stand beside DeGioia to formally declare the end of campus plan negotiations.
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