In today’s Voice news section, I wrote about how the homophobic crimes and sexual crimes against students at Georgetown has begun to affect—and possibly damage—how outsiders view Georgetown.

One particularly big affect of these crimes is that Walter Schubert, shown right, who is son and brother to three Georgetown graduates and a national figure in LGBT rights movements, is demanding a meeting with President DeGioia to share ideas he has to make Georgetown safer for marginalized students. So far, he has sent two letters to try to secure that meeting:

Dear Dr. DeGioia:

It is the intention of this letter to convey to you my deep concern at what appears to be continuing harassment of, and in some cases violent physical assault of LGBT students at Georgetown University. Despite recent positive actions by the University, it is my strong belief that the current policies and procedures intended to safeguard LGBT students on and immediately off campus remain woefully ineffective.

It may seem odd to you that I am writing this letter, as I am not a graduate of Georgetown University. However, as the son of a John Carroll Award recipient—Walter B. Schubert (1965 C’51)—the brother of two graduates of the School of Nursing: Patricia Schubert (‘84) and Margaret Schubert Sullivan (‘80), and a friend to countless Hoyas, I feel a sense of loyalty to my community, to my father, and sisters that I must speak up, as I can no longer ignore these heinous acts. Homophobia is a national problem, but as evidenced by recent events, it appears that homophobia is also a serious problem that requires urgent and revitalized attention at Georgetown University.

In speaking with Erik Smulson, your Chief of Staff, a few weeks ago, I was informed the three most recent incidents of harassment and physical assault occurring the last week of October, which put two gay students in the hospital, happened “off campus.” I have great difficulty accepting what appears to be an “off campus” defense. Many students live “off-campus” in the immediate vicinity of campus boundaries, and I don’t believe that absolves the University from responsibility to protect GU Students. It is simply irresponsible for such a prestigious, Jesuit institution to ‘ho hum’ such hateful acts that occur only inches from its front gates.

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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

The Student Life Working Group, one of the three diversity working groups that President John DeGioia established at an April 2009 town hall, is not quite ready to present all of the proposals it has for encouraging more diversity and tolerance in student life at Georgetown. But Joshua Guzman (SFS ‘10), pictured right, who co-chairs the group with Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, said they have already come up with several things they’d like to include.

“We’re just trying to find a way that we can institutionalize all that work that students put into making Georgetown a safer place and a more diverse environment,” Guzman said. “In my opinion, there’s definitely a culture of apathy on campus and a lot of people just don’t care, but we definitely should start telling people to care about these issues.”

Last semester, the admission and recruitment working group revealed its suggestions for altering admissions so that it encourages a more diverse applicant pool. These included new scholarships aimed at increasing need-blind aid, diversifying tour guides, changing essay prompts, and many other ways Georgetown could increase enrollment by underrepresented minorities.

“Student life made it a priority to get as much input not only from students, but from staff involved. I think people were really engaged and active in these dialogues and conversation, and overall the feeling was very positive about the work that we’re doing.”

The working group is split into two subcommittees: the Institutional Change Subcommittee for long-term goals and the Student Programs/Organizations Subcommittee for short-term goals. Each subcommittee has provided three preliminary recommendations as a framework for what they hope to get accomplished.

The Institutional Change Subcommittee suggests the creation of a Diversity Fellows program. Members of this program would remain fellows throughout each year at Georgetown, and be responsible for proposing new initiatives and programming related to diversity. The program would get these student leaders involved with CMEA, the LGBTQ Resource Center, and the Women’s Center as a way to provide more cohesion among the various groups already working to improve diversity at Georgetown.

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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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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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Because Sellinger just isn’t quite sufficient…

The Student Space Working Group—an organization founded in the fall of 2008 to address the lack of study space, social areas, offices for student organizations, and a centralized student center—recently got the chance to discuss their objectives with top University administrators at a summit organized by Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson.

SSWG Chair Max Glassie (COL ‘10) and Communications Director Fitz Lufkin (COL ‘11) both said they thought the administration was responsive at the summit. Plans are still in the talking stage, though, at least until the group finishes the “White Paper”—a student space proposal plan with information from surveys and interviews with students—that they are currently working on.  SSWG hopes to finalize the paper by the end of the semester.

“Space is something that moves very slowly,” Glassie said “A lot of it is talk, and at this point we have to realize that talk is a really good thing and it means a lot of progress.”

Among the long-term proposals is a plan for creating a Student Center with a restaurant or café in the New South basement.

“There’s approximately 30,000 square feet of space under New South, which is largely unused,” Max Glassie, Chair of the SSWG said. “The plans include a conference center—one of the big problems students face now is the lack of adequate space for programming.”

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Georgetown students and administrators conducted a panel in the ICC Auditorium about Georgetown’s response to hate crimes last Thursday.

Several administrators attended the panel, included Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and Vice President for University Safety Rocco DelMonaco. While there was little information about the crimes, the forum was full of information about safety at Georgetown.

DEFINING HATE CRIMES: The moderator pressed Olson to explain why Public Safety Alerts typically say “bias-related incident” instead of “hate crime.” Olson said Georgetown uses a legalistic definition of hate crime that only certain crimes qualify under.

When GUSA Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ‘12) asked Olson about the GUSA Senate’s bill to change the way hate crimes are treated under the Student Code of Conduct, Olson said the Office of Student Conduct would consider the legislation, but declined to say whether it would be adopted.

STUDENT PATROLS: In meetings after the hate crimes, GU Pride and other students have talked about organizing a group of students patrol campus at night, presumably to prevent hate crimes. DelMonaco pointed students towards other student-run safety groups like the Students Safety Advisory Board and APO’s shuttle service; Olson seemed less than enthusiastic about the idea.

“We need to make sure that if we’re putting students out in a patrol function, that those students are going to be safe,” Olson said.

More about security cameras on campus, arming DPS and Solidarity’s spat with Rocco after the jump!

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Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson just officially confirmed that one shot was fired in a men’s bathroom in McDonough.  No one was injured, but authorities made the decision to hold students in the building for a few minutes after the event.

Olson confirmed that the suspect was apprehended on Village C West and that no shots were fired there. The suspect is a male Georgetown student and is currently in MPD custody.

Update 3:15 a.m. According to Leigh Finnegan, a Voice leisure writer and resident of Village C West, a freshman student from San Diego, CA who lives on the third floor of VCW,  drunkenly took a handgun from an officer during Midnight Madness.

A weapon was discharged in the men’s bathroom of McDonough Gymnasium, according to Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson.

The drunk student then allegedly returned to the third floor of VCW where he was apprehended by DPS, according to Finnegan.

Concerned students from VCW notified DPS about the student with the weapon, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The source said the gun was taken from a female officer with a federal agency, possibly the Park Police.  The gun was made by Heckler and Koch, the source explained, and added that the high-quality firearm could be devastating in the wrong hands.

Vice President Olson had no comment about the type of weapon or whether it belonged to a federal employee.

DPS released an advisory about the incident early this morning, the full text of which can be found after the jump.

Update 11:00 a.m. Vox just obtained the MPD arrest log, which shows that Georgetown student Alex Thiele was booked at 12:30 a.m. for possession of a handgun without a license.

Reporting by Eric Pilch and Will Sommer. Photos by George D’Angelo.

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On Thursday night, students from the Diversity working groups commissioned by President John DeGioia’s office gathered for a town hall meeting in Copley Formal Lounge.  Although the meeting was sparsely attended, a number of prominent administrators were present, and a wide range of ideas on diversity were presented.

For a more thorough examination of the working group’s progress, see Lily Kaiser’s article in the print edition of the Voice.

Vice President for Strategic Development Dan Porterfield explained that the groups had been working hard over the summer to draft concrete recommendations for Provost James O’Donnell and DeGioia.

“[The working groups examined] how can we increase the number of underrepresented groups in the undergraduate population … [and] how can we ensure that all students who are applying to Georgetown hear a clear and compelling message about the standards of citizenship, civic engagement, and respect present,” Porterfield said.

When the meeting was opened up to members of the audience, the discussion became more heated with one individual shouting loudly at the assembled members of the working groups.  A faculty member (who did not give her name) also supported the statements of the irate audience member and argued passionately that Georgetown needed to pursue greater recruitment of minority Professors.

“We’re weaving and creating stronger connections among students … that, as much as possible, breaks down some of the walls and divisions that we experience at our life together at Georgetown,” Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said.

Although the specific recommendations generated by the working groups remain to be seen, panelists spoke out strongly for programs geared toward recruiting minority students, the creation of minority studies programs, and stronger financial aid programs.

Above, a reminder to avoid the mistletoe at all costs. Happy holidays!