The Georgetown Heckler isn’t out of the woods yet. Following a letter from Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, and two campus-wide e-mails—one from University President John DeGioia and one from Provost James O’Donnell—the Georgetown University Faculty Senate has issued some excoriating words of its own about the December incident involving Heckler articles that some students found offensive.

On Friday, January 22, the Senate passed the following resolution:

We, the Georgetown University Faculty Senate, within the framework of respect for the right to free expression, as determined by the law, and to academic freedom, as determined by the Georgetown community, unequivocally condemn the abuse of such rights. We declare it our common view that the December 12th Georgetown Heckler article, “The Hoya holds annual cross lighting ceremony in Dahlgren quad,” was such an abuse because of its use of egregiously hurtful visual and verbal images that emphasized hate and dehumanization.

We urge President DeGioia and the rest of the University community to join us in condemning this abuse and in reaffirming Georgetown’s commitment to the Cura Personalis, with its “individualized attention to the needs of the other” and its “distinct respect for his or her unique circumstances and concerns.” (Georgetown University Mission & Ministry Statement) In violating those principles, this article was an affront to our entire community, particularly its African-American members, who were the specific targets of its bigotry. Claims of innocent intent do not lessen the impact of these racist images, which rub salt in wounds still fresh in the minds of many Americans, of all races.

We further condemn the unconscionable assault on common decency made by the inclusion of a fully identified child in this article. No possible intent can justify such a disgraceful debasement of our common discourse. We urge the author and editors to apologize to President DeGioia and his family for this outrage.

The offending article is still available on the Heckler’s website here.

Reporting by Will Sommer

Image from the Georgetown Heckler blog

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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Heckler Editor Jack Stuef (COL ‘10) speaking at a forum in December

In an e-mail to the Georgetown community that reflected on Martin Luther King Day, University President John DeGioia made his first remarks in response to the December Georgetown Heckler issue, which many students thought inappropriately satirized race. He also said that he and Provost James O’Donnell have also approved the suggestions of the Admissions and Recruitment Working Group, and that they will take the steps necessary to implement the suggestions.

“Mocking the history of oppression of others is not funny, does not build community, and does not reflect well on those who engage in it,” he wrote in response to the one of the Heckler’s articles. “We often cannot know how our words or deeds can hurt one another – how such an act can bring back into another’s consciousness an experience of a previous injustice or indignity.”

DeGioia also called the response to the Heckler incident ” responsible, respectful, and fitting for an academic community that is committed to the free exchange of ideas.”

The Admissions and Recruitment Working Group presented a draft of their proposals in late November, which it is not necessarily identical to the suggestions that DeGioia and O’Donnell have approved. That draft included suggestions to build a more diverse student body, such as:

• Prominently advertising the 1,789 new scholarships that Georgetown will be adding to encourage need-blind admissions over the next five years to potential students.
• Looking into strategies that will increase the likelihood that an accepted student from an underrepresented group will attend Georgetown
• Increasing the diversity of Blue and Gray tour guides and their knowledge of diversity issues and clubs on campus.
• Including imagery on Georgetown’s redesigned website that highlights campus diversity.
• Including a required essay prompt that invites students to discuss how their background or life experience would enrich Georgetown on applications.

The full text of DeGioia’s e-mail, after the jump.

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Engrossed in the ongoing debate over alleged racism in the most recent issue of The Georgetown Heckler?

Check out former Heckler contributor and recent alum Zach Rabiroff’s (COL ‘09) op-ed, “In defense of satire,” now up on the Voice’s main website.

Stuef speaks at last night’s forum

Heckler Editor-in-Chief Jack Stuef (COL ‘10) answered questions and tried to explain his point of view on a recent controversial Heckler issue at a forum Tuesday night, while students debated the articles and expressed why they were offended by the satirical articles.

Copies of the Heckler’s article about Hoya staff members holding a Ku Klux Klan-like crossburning were passed out before the forum, and much of the conversation centered on that article.

“The KKK isn’t funny,” Stuef said. “The article is to take the situation to the extreme, to show what is maybe buried in this campus.”

Stuef said that he was sorry for offending anyone, but added that with satire, offending people “comes with the terrain.”

LaMarr Q. Billups, Georgetown’s Assistant Vice President for Business Policy Planning, argued that the Heckler should not have used the picture of a KKK crossburning for the article because its hurtful power.

“This is an image that is deeply rooted in our souls,” Billups said. “In my own lifetime, thousands of people were lynched. Cross were burned in people’s actual yards.”

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From the Heckler’s blog

Tonight, recent issues of the student satire magazine Georgetown Heckler will be the subject of a student forum planned by students who have found some of its content offensive. Jack Stuef (COL ‘10), the Heckler’s editor, told the Voice last night that he planned to attend, too.

“I haven’t really planned this out yet, but obviously I’ll try to explain who we are and where we’re coming from because I think there’s a lot of confusion as to who the Heckler is and what our point is,” he said.

“I stand behind everything I’ve ever printed and everything I’ve ever written at the Heckler and I’ll continue to do that at the meeting. And I’ll try to explain where I’m coming from and hopefully there will be some understanding.”

The forum will take place in White Gravenor 201A at 8:30 p.m.

Chair of the Working Group on Admissions Ryan Wilson, who is the incoming Chair of the Student Commission for Unity, said the latest Heckler warranted discussion because it had gone too far.

“I think the Heckler missed the mark,” Wilson said. “While the paper strives to give insightful and intelligent commentary on different campus articles, the articles they’ve written over the last couple of months haven’t really done that.”

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From the December Heckler

“Why is the only context for discussing race found in humor or satire at Georgetown? Why does so much satire at Georgetown target victims of hate crimes, discrimination, sexual assault or injustice?”

Those questions will be the subject of a forum to be held tomorrow night in the ICC at 8:30 p.m., which Student Commission on Unity Founder Brian Kesten (COL ‘10) has organized in response to the latest issue of the satirical student-run Georgetown Heckler—which lampooned The Hoya in light of its controversial 2009 April Fools’ Issue, the Black Student Alliance—and other campus satire. Here’s the Facebook event.

“Possible topics may include: articulating the problem, discussing what should change,  deciding what we should do now and next semester,” the event description said.

In addition to the articles mentioned above, Kesten provided links to two other Heckler articles: “It’s not a hate crime if you love doing it,” a satirical op-ed by a fictional bigoted student, and “Take Back the Night concedes to Georgetown Cuddler in Solemn Surrender Ceremony,” which references the suspected serial sex offender known as the “Georgetown Cuddler” and Take Back the Night, an annual sexual assault awareness rally at Georgetown.

Kesten and many SCU members were involved in the overwhelming student response to the 2009 Hoya April Fools’ Issue, which many students charged contained stereotypes and content offensive to minorities and made light of sexual assault.

The end has come for @JackDeGioia, our humdrum president’s hilarious Twitter doppleganger.  Things began to look grim when the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the University of Texas at Austin’s president’s pseudo-Twitter was shut down last Thursday. According to a tweet from the man behind @JackDeGioia, Georgetown Heckler Editor Jack Stuef, Twitter sent him an email notifying him of the account removal yesterday.

Luckily, Vox was able to get some screenshots of the account so at least the final tweets can be enjoyed in perpetuity:

More after the jump!

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In love with the “John DeGioia” Twitter account? You’re not alone—the Chronicle of Higher Education is, too!

They just published a story on university presidents with twitter impressionists, based almost entirely on JackDeGioia, the brainchild of Georgetown Heckler Editor (and recent Vox guest poster!) Jack Stuef.

The Twitter account identified as belonging to Georgetown University’s president, John J. DeGioia, features frank admissions about the mundane details of running a modern academic institution. Last week, for instance, the microblogger wrote that his face was tired from all the “fake-smiling” during graduation events. The PR office can’t possibly approve, right?

Right. And neither does Mr. DeGioia. The Twitter account, which points to the president’s real home page, is produced by a prankster.

Usually we’d be psyched about the press, but the article reports something sinister, too:

Georgetown leaders have likewise asked Twitter to remove the fake account for Mr. DeGioia. “We think it violates their terms of service,” said Andy Pino, Georgetown’s director of media relations. “We think the author has not made it explicitly clear that he is not Mr. DeGioia.

Oh, c’mon Georgetown! Where will we get all our insights into DeGioia’s gustatory preferences if you take it down? Where will we get up-to-date information about new working groups? Clearly, this is only a violation of Twitter’s terms of service if they prohibit awesomeness.

We at Vox wade through the web 2.0 morass and pick out the top 5 Georgetown tweets of the week. Wanna be considered? Start following GtownVoxPop on Twitter and, if you’re connected to Georgetown, we’ll return the favor and you’ll automatically be in the running for your own 15-seconds of internet micro-micro-fame!

nsevs finished senior your with a bang.

Jenna Lowenstein got too familiar for comfort with Wisey’s.

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