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.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology has granted Georgetown University $6.9 million in stimulus money for the construction of the science building and scientific research, its largest award through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to date.

In an e-mail to the Voice, Associate Dean of the College Ali Whitmer said that construction of the Science Center, which was put on hold until Georgetown could secure enough funding, can now begin in earnest this semester. Some below-ground work had already taken place this fall.

The grant is less than the $15 million Georgetown asked for in its grant proposal in early August, but Whitmer points out that it is not unusual for agencies to grant less than was requested of them.

Georgetown was required to submit both a construction and research element as part of its grant proposal to the NIST, Scott Fleming, the Associate Vice President for Federal Relations, told the Voice in November, so part of the $6.9 million will go toward the creation of the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology in addition to construction.

Photo from Georgetown.edu

The current science center

The federal government has not yet denied or approved Georgetown University’s $15 million request for stimulus money to fund construction of the science center, but Ali Whitmer, a dean in the College, said that the outlook is good.

Having submitted the request to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in early August, the University was contacted by NIST earlier this month with a list of clarification questions about their original proposal.

“While there was not any particular indication that we would be getting funding, that’s generally a good sign that we’ve made something of a shortlist,” she said.

Whitmer said that NIST would make its decision sometime in December. She did not have information on requests Georgetown had made of other institutions for construction funding.

Earlier this month, University Spokesperson Julie Green Bataille said that Georgetown was ready to begin construction on the science building as soon as it had secured enough funding.

“We are doing everything we can outside of putting shovels in the ground … to make sure that when we can secure financing, we’re ready to go,” she said.

Scott Fleming, the Associate Vice President for Federal Relations, said that in order for Georgetown to receive funding for construction of the science center, NIST must also approve the “science element” of the University’s proposal, which NIST required it to submit. The proposed institute, called the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology, would mostly support research in physics and chemistry.

The total amount of stimulus funding Georgetown has received, and what for, after the jump!

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The two million dollar man

How much does a Final Four basketball coach cost? About $2 million, if the coach is John Thompson III.

In the 2007-2008 school year, Thompson made $2,007,508, plus more than $1 million in deferred compensation and benefits, according to university tax documents obtained by Vox.  Thompson’s salary rose by more than $1.3 million from the previous year, making him the highest paid Georgetown employee.

During the 2007-08 year, we also paid $3,074,487 to Payette Associates Inc., a firm whose website says they have been working on the “Science Facilities Master Plan and new Science Center” and $489,234 to Goody Clancy and Associates, the firm that worked on the new MSB building.  Overall, Georgetown’s net assets decreased by $55,772,042.

Who else besides JT III is making bank at Georgetown? Check out the top earners and the full tax document after the jump!

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