Yesterday, Georgetown announced the formalization of its new Office of Community Engagement, led by Associate Vice President of Community Engagement and Strategic Initiatives Lauralyn Beattie Lee.  The new office will serve as a primary liaison for the Georgetown Community Partnership negotiations and will focus on expanding Georgetown’s campus into the D.C. area.

Among the many concerns for this new office, the School of Continuing Studies satellite campus, “Georgetown Downtown,” in Chinatown will take lead. “This office will coordinate the university’s engagement with the District of Columbia in a manner consistent with the institutional priorities emerging through the university’s master planning effort,” Lee said in the press release.

The new office will be located within the Office of Public Affairs. It will also become a contact point for city agencies and community service programs. Sustainability is a goal for the University as well, and Lee added that a “modern, efficient medical center” will be one of the many ways Georgetown promotes “smart growth.”

Both American and George Washington University have offices for community engagement and relations. Although these offices emphasize engagement through community service, there is a dual functionality in purely maintaining relations with the surrounding local bodies.

“Lauralyn Lee [has been] a trusted member of our university community for over a decade,” President John J. DeGioia said in the release. “She will bring the same level of skill and commitment to this new role that she has brought to her work in the counsel’s office and her work over the last year in the Office of Public Affairs.”

Vox is waiting to contact University officials on further information about the new office.

This afternoon, the Voice spoke to Associate Vice President of Community Engagement Lauralyn Lee and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Ron Lewis about the campus plan, the new Georgetown Community Partnership, and the future of the neighbors’ relationship with the University. We asked you for your questions. Although the phrase “now this part is off the record” was thrown around at least a few times, we managed to get some answers. Here are (some) of the questions asked during the press meeting.

Vox Populi: In the past, you have supported an initative to move 100 percent of students on campus. What made you change your views and become more sympathetic toward student interests?

Ron Lewis: The on-campus student life, the idea of a true living and learning community on campus, the various issues with that, are starting to come out very clearly, with room for improvement, places where it could be made a lot more congenial for students and a lot more opportunities for students to socialize on campus and have a welcoming, safe, and physically adequate building space that just doesn’t exist now. [He continued his response, but off the record.]

The GCP is a comprehensive partnership. I expect with student involvement we will talk about every issue that affects what the campus plan is about (current living conditions, current ground rules for off-campus activities, future growth) everything that’s important to the university is equally important to the students and to the surrounding community. We have three years to look at those in great detail in a cooperative way.

Georgetown Patch: In Clara [Gustafson, GUSA President]‘s letter sent to students, she said that student interests weren’t adequately represented during the campus plan process…do you agree with that statement and what do you think about it?

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In about two hours, Vox will have the opportunity to talk on the record with Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Ron Lewis and Georgetown’s Associate Vice President for Community Engagement and Strategic Initiatives Lauralyn Lee. Lewis was recently named co-chair of the GCP. Lee’s new position entails negotiating with neighbors and communicating frequently with Lewis on different University-neighborhood issues. For any background on the campus plan agreement, check out these posts.

Vox wants to be sure we use this time to ask students: what would you ask?

Please type your questions in the comment section. Be clear which person you want the question to be addressed to, whether it is Lauralyn Lee or Ron Lewis. Thanks.

Administrators have promised student representatives will take a spot in the Georgetown Community Partnership negotiations, starting with Georgetown University Student Association President Clara Gustafson (SFS, ’13). A press release was sent to campus media announcing this new development.

The campus plan agreement led to the creation of GCP, which is the new negotiating body for future discussions between the University and neighborhood groups. GUSA advocated strongly for student representation in the GCP, as the decisions made during these conversations will have a direct impact on the future of student life at Georgetown.

Advisory neighborhood commissioner Ron Lewis was also recently named co-chair of the GCP.

According to the press release, administrators promised student representation on the steering committee and on other committees, indicating that there will be at least a handful of students in the conversation.

“Since student interests were not adequately represented in the campus plan negotiations, it is of utmost importance that students are part of the GCP, which will set the tone for neighborhood relations going forward,” Gustafson said in the press release. “I really look forward to working with neighborhood leaders on safety, transportation, housing, and other student and community concerns, and I hope to involve as many other students as possible.”

Post to be updated with more details soon.

Georgetown’s associate vice president for external relations, Linda Greenan, is reportedly retiring in September for reasons unknown. President John J. DeGioia sent an email to “colleagues” last Friday announcing Greenan’s departure. Students were not sent the email. Greenan played a significant role in the recent campus plan negotiations between the University and various neighborhood groups.

Alongside Greenan’s retirement, DeGioia announced the establishment of a new Office of Community Engagement within the Office of Public Affairs. This new department will “coordinate the University’s engagement with the District of Columbia, participate in institutional planning, serve as the primary contact for the Georgetown Community Partnership and assist in the development of the 2017 campus plan,” DeGioia wrote in the email. Greenan was a tireless and committed representative for the University who often spent many an ANC meeting salvaging both the university and the student body’s interests.

Lauralyn Lee, a “trusted member of our university community for nearly a decade”, will take over Greenan’s role in the new position of associate vice president for community engagement and strategic initiatives. Community engagement in the future will be conducted through the Georgetown Community Partnership, which is promised to include students as well.

“I am deeply grateful to Linda for her unwavering commitment and service to Georgetown University, our neighbors and our entire city.  I join her many friends at the University and across the city in thanking her and wishing her the very best, ” DeGioia wrote.

Via Georgetown Patch

Tonight at 6:30 p.m., the D.C. Zoning Commission will host a final agreement meeting on Georgetown’s campus plan for both a new beginning and a long-anticipated end. The commissioners delayed the final decision in order to decide whether or not additional hearings were necessary. Vox will cover the meeting’s events tonight.

The special public event, to be held at the downtown office of the Zoning Commission, is titled “FINAL ACTION: Georgetown University – Campus Plan 2011.” Campus plan hearings are truly coming to an end this evening, marking a  historic moment in town-gown relations.

Going forward, the Georgetown Community Partnership will become a forum for communication with neighbors over the future of Georgetown’s campus activity as well as any plans to expand into the D.C. area. Some prominent aspects of the 2011-2017 plan involve moving students out of the Georgetown area and on campus. The University plans to create new on-campus housing but also promises to promote more vibrant on-campus social life.

Students are not entirely pleased with the final agreement, but many emphasize that this is a decent start. The Georgetown University Student Association committed to representing student interests in future GCP negotiations, while University officials and neighborhood leaders have not yet agreed to the extent of that participation. Some of the greatest student concerns revolve around housing changes, parking restrictions, and increased punishment for noise violations in the neighborhood. In a recent Vox poll, 29.56 percent of Vox readers reported displeasure with the plan to move students out of the townhouses in the surrounding Georgetown area. Another 25.47 percent were concerned about the noise policy (if noise is heard outside of property lines, the party is too loud and subject to being taken apart).

The Georgetown Patch wrote that tonight’s meeting is “should bring to a close a fraught chapter in Georgetown town-gown relations.” While tonight may be the end to the first part of the story, students will likely lobby to be included in the second half.

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.

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Two years and a few months later, Georgetown and neighborhood leaders concluded the long drawn out battle 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.

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