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.

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This morning, Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, met with President John J. DeGioia, Dean of the School of Foreign Service Carol Lancaster and Georgetown professor and former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) in Healy Hall. Much of Healy and Copley Lawns was cordoned off for security reasons.

Photo: Georgetown University

Last night in Healy Hall, administrators, neighborhood residents and community leaders gathered for the university’s twelfth annual holiday reception with Georgetown’s neighbors. Notable attendees this year were University President John J. DeGioia, D.C. Assistant Police Chief Patrick Burke, ANC commissioner Ron Lewis, City Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), and after an hour filled with anticipation and regular updates on his progress down the Whitehurst Freeway, the real star, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.

With the 2010 campus plan still up in the air, the reception was held with the hopes of a more productive future for University-neighborhood relations. DeGioia kicked off the gathering, deeming it “one of the great events of the holiday season.” He thanked the many community leaders for their presence at the reception.

“I know there are many challenges that we’ve faced together,” DeGioia said. “I am grateful for the fact that we can all come together like this…and work together to ensure a better future for our neighborhood and for this city.”

Mayor Gray’s late arrival lent more holiday cheer to the evening.

Though realistic, the Mayor’s assessment of the campus plan negotiations remained hopeful. “It’s been—I don’t know if I want to say delightful—it’s been interesting working with the University on the campus plan,” Gray said, as the audience laughed. “But I think we’re going to get there. It’s wonderful to be able to walk in this room during the holiday season and see members of the ANC and members of the community here as part of the Georgetown community. That shows me that we are really going to get to a conclusion.”

Gray pointed to the significant progress made so far (“I think we’ve already had 723 hearings,” he quipped to laughter) and said a successful conclusion was in sight.

Gray ended his speech with a call to action. “There are so many problems that are insoluble, and many times the government, despite how many employees we have, just doesn’t have the resources to be able to address those issues….I ask you to work together in the spirit of one city to continue to make this the absolute greatest city in the United States and in the world.”

Photo: Tim Markatos

Correction: Dr. Jacobs is still on staff at the University.

Earlier today, University President John DeGioia announced the appointment of UCLA professor Martin Y. Iguchi as Dean of the School of Nursing & Health Studies starting July 1.

Iguchi currently serves as chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also the former director of the RAND Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Center.

According to his profile on the UCLA website, Iguchi’s recent research concentrates on the sexual behaviors of drug users and the exacerbating effect of drug criminalization on health disparities in the Black and Hispanic communities.

Iguchi will replace Interim Dean Julie Deloia, who assumed the post on July 1, 2010. The last permanent dean of the NHS was former Dean Bette Jacobs, who retired left the position in 2010 after 11 years of service to the University.

On May 13, the University submitted its tax filings for fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010). These forms detail Georgetown’s income, expenditures, and assets, as well as list the highest-paid University officials.

Graphics by John Flanagan (Click to enlarge)

The University faced a $21,493,687 deficit in its operating budget in fiscal year 2010. Meanwhile, the endowment grew by 12.5 percent to $1,007,299,044 (95 percent of its value as of July 1, 2008).

John Thompson III remained the highest-paid employee at $1,894,988, a 3.57 percent raise from the previous year. This increase in his and 7 of the other 15 highest salaries during fiscal year 2010 outpaced the 2.5 percent increase University President John DeGioia recommended for regular faculty members in January 2010.

DeGioia’s own salary increased by 0.03 percent, while the salaries of Thomas Aleinikoff, former dean of the law school, and Provost James O’Donnell fell by 6.75 percent and 0.84 percent, respectively.

Other top salaries after the jump.

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President DeGioia announced today that Michael K. Barry, former chief investment officer of the University of Maryland System Foundation, would become Georgetown University’s CIO.

As the CIO of the UMSF since 2005, Barry managed the investment funds of 21 Maryland state universities and community colleges. Before starting at the foundation in 2003, he was a senior research associate at the Cambridge Associates consulting firm.

Barry also coordinates the investments of Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and serves as and advisor to No Greater Sacrifice, a non-profit that provides scholarships to children of fallen soldiers.

He replaces Larry Kochard, who left in January to serve as UVa’s CIO. Under the last year of Kochard’s tenure, the University’s endowment ranked 61st in the nation in 2010 according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, which was six points higher than the previous year. But the office also faced scrutiny over where it chose to invest.

Barry received his B.A. in Philosophy at Fairfield University.

Last Saturday, the Gulf Times reported that the Georgetown Unviersity University School of Foreign Service-Qatar had graduated its third class of undergraduates. As in previous years, University President John DeGioia delivered the commencement address to the class of 46.

In his address, DeGioia told the graduates, “When we live our lives at the frontiers, we work at the forefront of the possible. We seek out new learning and knowledge, new ways of leading and being, new ways of understanding others and ourselves. We embrace the tensions and ambiguities created by the unexplored to address the greatest challenges before us.”

Thirty-three of the graduates were majors in international politics, while 13 majored in culture and politics. These were the only majors available at the satellite campus until international economics was added this year.

Approximately 38 percent of the students hailed from Qatar, but the U.S., Canada, India, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a handful of other Arab states were also represented at the podium.

Photo: Gulf Times

Victor Reinoso (SFS ’91), D.C.’s former deputy mayor of education under Mayor Adrian Fenty, will join Georgetown University as an “new project development” advisor to University President John DeGioia and Chief Financial Officer Christopher Augostini.

Reinoso will advise DeGioia and Augostini about “international education, distance learning and long-term strategic development.”

“Victor’s more than 15 years of experience in senior leadership positions in government and the private sector will serve the community well as he helps to implement new strategic opportunities for Georgetown,” Augostini said in a press release.

Reinoso, who served under Fenty from 2007 to 2010, faced his fair share of difficulties as a deputy mayor. Although he had oversight of public school construction and the school system’s social services, D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Office of Public Education Facililties Modernization Executive Director Allen Lew “ran their operations with unquestioned authority,” writes the Washington Post‘s Bill Turque, leaving Reinoso “largely elbowed to the margins.”

Reinoso also faced intense scrutiny from the D.C. City Council in 2007 after admitting that a D.C. schools report published by his office plagiarized whole passages from a North Carolina school system’s strategic plan. From that point forward, his relationship with the Council was strained to say the least. (And to top off his tenure in D.C. politics, one of Reinoso’s assistants was fired in 2007 for hanging nude photos of her boyfriend all over D.C. Public School headquarters.)

Prior to joining Fenty’s administration, Reinoso worked for the Federal City Council and a number of start-up companies in the nonprofit and private sectors.

Photo: DCist

Members of the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service, GERMS alumni, students, and administrators took part in a dedication of Unit 9.

Unit 9, the newest and largest ambulance in GERMS’ fleet, features a number of new features that will help GERMS better serve the Georgetown community. The new features include LED lights on both the interior and exterior as well as control monitors in the front and back of the vehicle.

The ambulance’s high-tech equipment is light years ahead of those in GERMS’ first ambulance–a converted hearse purchased in 1983.

President John DeGioia, who became an honorary GERM in 1990, told the members of GERMS that “everyday in this community you make a difference” and that they have made a “great impact on the entire D.C. community.”

During the ceremony, GERMS inducted two new honorary GERMS: Carol Day and Lynne Hirschfeld. Day is GERMS’ faculty advisor and Hirschfeld is the associate dean for finance and administration in the Office of Student Affairs. Hirschfeld was instrumental in securing the funding for the new ambulance.

Colin Brody (COL ’11), president of GERMS, said that in the next ten years Unit 9 will see approximately 10,000 patients and travel 35,000 miles–an impressive number for their range of service.

Photo: Geoffrey Bible

This morning, Georgetown University officials held a videoconference with the 15 students evacuated from Cairo, Egypt to Doha, Qatar yesterday.

During the conversation, President John DeGioia thanked Rocco DelMonaco, vice president for university safety, who is currently in Doha helping with the evacuation, for helping to organize a successful evacuation. DelMonaco noted prior to the students being brought in to the meeting that all of them had gone through a debriefing with University officials.

As the students arrived, DeGioia said how happy he was to see all of them and that “getting you to a place where we could do this was our first priority for the past few days.”

“It was not an easy decision, but we were guided by the State Department,” DeGioia told the students, noting that the official decision to evacuate the students came at noon on Sunday.

DeGioia, along with Provost James O’Donnell, also thanked a number of Georgetown administrators for their dedication to the evacuation, notably Director of the Office of International Programs Kathy Bellows and Overseas Studies Director Laurie Monarch.

“This is bittersweet,” Bellows noted, continuing, “You are a part of history.”

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