Georgetown’s Capital Campaign, which officially launched last October, is on its way to achieve the goal of $1.5 billion by 2016. So far, the campaign has received $935 million in new commitments since it began in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
The mission of Capital Campaign is to “foster the creation and sharing of knowledge to the greater glory of God and the betterment of humankind,” according to the website. The funds will go to a variety of initiatives, from student scholarships and financial aid to infrastructure funding for the Intercollegiate Athletic Center, the Calcagnini Contemplative Center, the Dahlgren Chapel renovation, and the New South Student Center.
For the most recent fiscal year of 2012, the campaign received $179.6 million in new commitments which is 30 percent above the five-year average, 30 percent above the goal and the second-best year in the history of the campaign.
A new commitment is when a person pledges a certain amount to donate to the campaign although it may not be received during the year in which it is counted. For example, if someone pledged $10 million, they may give $2 million each year for five years. However, the entire $10 million is counted as a new commitment in the year pledged.
The performance of the campaign can also be looked at in forms of cash, which includes the amount of money that Georgetown has fully received, not just what has been pledged. The campaign has raised $671 million in cash to date and in fiscal year 2012, $113.7 million.
On Wednesday evening, President John DeGioia held his biannual conversation with campus media. Over the hour-long discussion, DeGioia discussed a wide variety of subjects, including the capital campaign, the campus plan, campus safety, Georgetown’s major construction projects, diversity initiatives, and the University’s international programs. Next week, the Voice will offer complete analysis of President DeGioia’s press conference.
Before taking questions, the president reflected on the broad themes of his fall semester:
“It was a great fall, I just think we had a terrific fall. For me, it was kind of driven by a couple of big things. We had to launch the public phase of the campaign. That was really quite an extraordinary weekend for us. It was us at our best and I was glad we were able to have such an inclusive experience with so many, including the big tent on the front lawn. Our fundraising success has continued very well, we’re over the halfway mark in the campaign, at the halfway mark. We feel very encouraged by the generosity of our community. We’re just going to keep at it, our highest priority is scholarships, support for financial aid. Given the challenging nature of the economy I don’t think we could have a more important priority- that priority emerged over roughly 8 years of planning going back to 2003, but certainly characterized all of the years of our quiet phase- that was our most dominant priority. We actually went out publicly with that priority in the quiet phase in a series of town halls across the country, where I talked about what we call the 1789 Scholarship Imperative, which is our way of characterizing the financial aid piece.
I think there were other issues that dominated my time- the relationship with the community and our engagement in the city was part of that. This is our cycle, to submit our campus plan and we’ve completed our public hearing on November 17th. And we have our final filing of documents this Friday, and on February 9th we have a read-out from the Board of Zoning where they think they’re going to come down in terms of the conditions for Georgetown, and we’ll expect some time later this spring, maybe mid-April, maybe May, that will be our expectation that we’ll get a written report, and that will give us a sense of the position of the Board of Zoning. But I think as you know, this was a three-year effort, but also really it’s not a episodic experience, it really is a full immersion for ten years with deep engagement with the community and lots of conversation. It just becomes particularly focused in roughly the final two years of that ten-year period where you deeply engage in the formal submission of documents to various city agencies and the like. So we went through that.
It’s kind of unmissable, but this weekend is the launch of the public phase of the For Generations to Come Capital Campaign. It’s a time for alumni and beneficiaries to come to campus, reconnect with old friends, and, most importantly, make it rain. Here’s Vox‘s guide on how to party like it’s 1789.
Think About It: An Afternoon of Ideas
From 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Lohrfink auditorium, the University and the Lecture Fund are hosting speakers ranging from John Thompson III to Madeleine Albright to give lectures. The topics are Action (Alonzo Morning), Play & Profit (Paul Tagliabue & JTIII), Cures for All (Lucile Adams-Campbell and Howard Federoff), A New World Order (Madeleine Albright and Prince Turki al-Faisal), The State of Capitalism (Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin), and Innovation (Ted Leonsis). Doors open at 2:00, but since Lohrfink only seats 400, getting there earlier is advisable.
Campus Lights Celebration
At 6:30 p.m. in the gigantic tent on the front lawn, President Jack DeGioia, Alonzo Mourning, and Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) (yeah, we’re still trying to find the common denominator there) will give a toast to Georgetown and then flip the switch for the lights on all the front lawn buildings (well, all the pretty ones at least). We’ve been promised food, music, drinks, and bonfires. But the most important part is that this is your once-in-a-life-time chance to cast giant shadow puppets on Healy.
The past week has brought some pretty significant changes to the decor around campus. In conjunction with the launch of the aggressive fundraising stage of the capital campaign—which aims at raising the staggering sum of $1.5 billion—all of the signs that used to publicize Georgetown’s Jesuit values have been replaced with pictures of doors advertising Campaign for Georgetown.” They’re all over Red Square, on every lamppost, and even greeting campus visitors with big banners across the front of Healy Hall.
So we want to know, just how effective is Georgetown’s latest money-making effort? Does it make you want to write a fat check with “Hoya Saxa” as the memo, or slam one of those doors in the face of whoever is asking?
On Sunday, October 23, the Georgetown University Student Association held its fourth general senate meeting. The meeting dealt with last bits of administrative tasks left for the beginning of the year, and legislative business handling several bylaws.
GUSA Speaker Adam Talbot (COL’12) brought to attention a few campus issues, including the Ann Coulter’s controversial appearance last week and the upcoming public phase of the Capital Campaign, a fundraising campaign with a goal of raising $1.5 billion, which is suspected to be a big deal on campus this coming weekend.
The senate also congratulated Jack Appelbaum (COL ’14) on being elected SAC chair.
The administrative duties on the agenda were the elections of the new Secretary and Director of Technology. Abby Greene (COL ’14) and Joe Fiorica (COL ’14) were elected, respectively.
As for legislative business, the Senators embarked on a series of rigorous debates on a couple of revisions to the group’s bylaws. After a heated discussion that lasted almost two hours, the senate approved the charter of the GUSA Fund, a council under the authority of the senate, which provides resources for Georgetown undergraduates who request funding or institutional assistance for events. In addition to providing funding, the charter will provide co-sponsorship status for events that student groups organize.
As debate surrounding the proposals of the Academic Life Working Group picks up, Provost James O’Donnell, left, met with student press on Thursday to discuss the progress all three working working groups have made this school year.
“At the end of the day,” he said, the initiatives are about “helping Georgetown line up with its own best image of itself …. To get us where we want to be, and aren’t always as good as being as we ought to be.”
He and President John DeGioia, he said, accepted the recommendations of the Admissions and Recruitment Working Group. First and foremost, Georgetown is “really ramping up its campaign for more financial aid dollars.” One third of Georgetown’s ongoing Capital Campaign, he said, will go to create more need-based scholarships. The University is not yet publicizing how much it has taken in through the Capital Campaign but O’Donnell said, “It’s gonna be a bunch more than we took in last time.”
“Last time, we took in billion. So my official statement is, this one will be a billion and a bunch.”
The University can begin to implement some of the suggestions of the three working groups right away. He said that a desire diversity will be a part of the faculty hiring process for next school year. Others, however, will take more time and resources.
“Developing the African American Studies major probably requires a reallocation of resources or new resources, preferably news resources. Faculty hiring and curriculum changes can be added through existing resources, but we could always have more.”
When asked whether the University was still considering an Asian-American Studies program or Latino Studies program, he said, “I think that there’s just no question that we need to do better in African American Studies. That’s somewhere where we’re way behind our peer schools. Beyond that, it becomes a question of, how much effort do you put into further individual ethnic communities, or do you study ethnic communities theoretically? …. We are already better at thinking about, studying every single other part of the world except America …. We should be thinking about how our American studies about African American, Asian, Latino groups can draw on our larger understanding of the world.”
On Friday afternoon, Georgetown University President John DeGioia sat down with student reporters from the Voice and The Hoya to answer a range of questions about Georgetown, including the Ten Year Plan, the goals of the school’s $1.5 billion Capital Campaign, the progress of the Diversity Working Groups, and football.
Below is a full transcript of DeGioia’s interview, painstakingly transcribed by the Voice‘s Cole Stangler, our man at the meeting.
The highlights? In response to The Hoya‘s April Fools’ Issue and the recent Heckler incident, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson’s office is going to conduct a “satire and civility” workshop.
The University has raised $580 million so far in its Capital Campaign. Georgetown’s science center will cost $98 million to complete and its target date for completion is Fall 2012.
Voice: How do you view our relationship right now with the neighborhood? I know a lot of students seem to be frustrated about the extent to which the University has entertained neighborhood input with some aspects of the Ten Year Plan—like rerouting the GUTS bus through the Canal Street entrance. How would you respond to students who feel that the University has made concessions to residents that harm University life?
DeGioia: Well, it’s always a very difficult balancing act to try to recognize and understand the needs of the community with what it will take for us to be able to be successful in our mission. And so the work of the master plan is generally ongoing on all the time. It’s not like it’s something that we begin in the months leading up to the need to have it approved.
It’s truly a ten-year effort. We’re always at it and we’re always engaged with our neighbors in trying to understand their needs and their concerns. At the same time, we frustrate them. If a neighborhood were sitting here, they’d be using the same language. So we’re always trying to get the right balance. I believe what you’re seeing right now are a range of ideas and proposals that have been on the table that we are considering in one form or another, but it very much is a work in progress.
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.
Georgetown’s Capital Campaign, which officially launched last October, is on its way to achieve the goal of $1.5 billion by 2016. So far, the campaign has received $935 million in new commitments since it began in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
It’s kind of unmissable, but this weekend is the launch of the public phase of the 
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