Diversity Initiative Groups Report on Progress
Recruiting, admissions and the campus culture were topics of interest at a town-hall meeting of the Diversity Initiative on Thursday. Leaders of the initiative’s three working groups gathered in Copley Formal Lounge to provide updates on their progress.
The three working groups that make up the initiative focus on student life, academics and student recruitment and admissions. University President John J. DeGioia announced their creation in April, following the release of a report on diversity at Georgetown by the Student Commission for Unity and outrage surrounding the April Fools’ joke issue of The Hoya.
University Provost James O’Donnell opened the meeting with a discussion of Georgetown’s historical limitations in diversity among its student body and staff. “We inherit an institution that has a long history of various forms of parochialism,” O’Donnell said.
After O’Donnell’s remarks, the co-chairs of the working group on student life proposed a number of action steps. These included monthly meetings of student leaders, the addition of a diversity workshop to the Georgetown Office of Leadership Development’s student leadership summit and increased visibility for diversity-related programming, such as the various annual cultural shows on campus.
“[Diversity and unity are] especially salient because we are a Jesuit institution,” co-chair Joshua Guzman (SFS ’10) said, citing the ideal of cura personalis, or care for the whole person.
Representatives of the working group on academics dwelled on the potential for cross-department conversation and Georgetown’s comparison with peer institutions that require students to take classes related to diversity.
While Georgetown excels in the area of global studies, the group noted the university’s weakness in the study of U.S.-based racial and ethnic diversity compared to similar universities. The group may propose the incorporation of three new academic programs: African American studies, Latin American studies and Asian American studies.
“In some ways, Georgetown is lagging behind in these areas,” co-chair Stephanie Frenel (SFS ’12) said.
The working group on student recruitment and admissions defined its focus with two principle questions: How can the university increase the number of underrepresented students in the undergraduate population, and how can it send a clear message about social service and diversity to prospective students?
Its main recommendations included significant updates to the university’s Web site; a strengthening and expansion of partnerships with organizations and schools defined as “pipelines” for Georgetown recruits; an increase in campus tours and related programming; and the incorporation of a bilingual staffer into the Office of Financial Aid.
The audience was also active in asking questions and making suggestions. The issues raised by various students and faculty members included the frequency of the Spanish-language Mass, which was reinstated on campus this year, the expansion of “pipelines” in lower-income areas, the recruitment of minority faculties, the incorporation of a diversity-related question into the Georgetown admission application and strategies to raise campus awareness about the work of the Initiative’s groups.
All of the presenters emphasized the importance of general participation in determining a course of action to best foster unity and diversity on the Hilltop.
“It’s going to be up to you to change Georgetown’s image,” Guzman told the audience.
Sep 25 2009 at 5:32 p.m.
Sure, let's waste money on programs like African American studies, Latin American studies and Asian American studies, we all know how much such soft programs do to develop a school's reputation; and they do so much towards preparing their students for the real world.
Guess I can save my donation money this year.
Sep 25 2009 at 10:22 p.m.
Dear Alumnus,
If all you care about is our university's "reputation" and not the quality of the students Georgetown produces, then you can keep your money. We don't want it. I am proud to have gone to Georgetown but I am even PROUDER that while I was there I met some incredible Georgetown students that I know will be a great asset to our society.
Sep 25 2009 at 10:59 p.m.
I am very happy about these efforts. Georgetown is one of the most unfriendly places to minorities amongst top schools and needs to work to catch up. The Ivy Leagues, MIT, and top public colleges are so much more friendly places to be a minority student.
To the last commenter, Alumnus, thanks for the positive criticism and thanks for using your real name.
As one of the many Latino and minority students who had an utterly miserable first year, I really appreciate your perspective *cough*
I hated my first year of Georgetown as I felt unwelcome. I find this is a very common experience amongst minority students and working class students. I went to one of the top boarding schools in the country previous to coming here so I obviously could handle the work so that was not the reason for my difficult adjustment.
Racial relations at Georgetown are some of the worst I have ever seen. I had never met so many people who were so ignorant of racial and ethnic diversity in the US.
I am currently studying abroad in Japan, which is very homogeneous and has difficulty with diversity, despite this, I have felt so much more welcome in my Japanese university than I ever did at Georgetown. Its also Jesuit, so I see no excuse why a Jesuit university in a country with little diversity does a better job of making everyone feel welcome than a Jesuit university in the capital of a country with incredible diversity.
And these sorts of ethnic studies would actually do most students so much more preparation in real life where they have to deal with people of all different ethnicities at the workplace than say a required course like Political and Social thought will.
Its people like Alumnus that are whats wrong with Georgeotwn. Despite Gtown being about "cura personalis", many Georgetown students are utterly unconcerned with the well-being of others.
Sep 26 2009 at 5:42 p.m.
Rocio,
What the heck do you mean "Georgetown is unfriendly to minorities"? You felt unwelcomed, why? What specific examples can you site of people and programs being unwelcoming to you? Maybe you should also consider that while they were not welcoming to your culture maybe they were welcoming to some other culture.
Sep 26 2009 at 10:01 p.m.
student: are you serious?
are you truly shocked that students feel uncomfortable on campus, and would then go so far as to challenge that persons' experience. Check your pulse. act like a human being.
thank you, rocio for using your name. i'd use mine but no one would listen to me, either.
Sep 27 2009 at 12:21 a.m.
Dear student,
It would be prudent to take another gander at your statement. Do you mean to say that because the university is welcoming to certain cultures (but not Rocio's) she should not complain?
I hope your particular culture or background was welcomed at Georgetown. If it was, that shouldn't motivate you to dismiss those to whom you cannot relate. In addition, having spent four years at Georgetown, I have plenty of the types of examples you ask from Rocio. Rest assured they have been brought to the attention of the administration.
Sep 27 2009 at 4:02 p.m.
My experience is that Georgetown University is one of the most diverse institutions I’ve had the pleasure of being associated with. I’ve had the privilege of meeting people from many countries and cultures, and have been enriched for it. Some I have spoken with do face challenges such as English as their second language, and in some cases learning the culture here in Washington; that can be a challenge for anyone. But by and large, they attempt to assimilate into American culture which in turn enriches their own experience. People who accuse Georgetown of not being culturally diverse or discriminaing against others are just wrong and have their own baggage to deal with. Undergraduates are in a new world, no matter what their culture is, and for the complainers to suggest they aren’t paying enough attention to them is disingenuous at best, and outright dishonest and disrespectful at worst.
To Rocio: If you want to be part of the student body socially and culturally, get involved. Don’t disrespect others just because they aren’t dropping the things they are having to deal with so you can be pampered.
Georgetown undergraduates are some of the best prepared, hardest working and best qualified of any college in America; and also the most caring and socially involved. Witness the various programs that students are involved in with the local community. Is the suggestion that this university make exceptions and allowances to make the metrics look socially acceptable? I certainly hope not. If you want to be here, you know what it takes and you know there is intense competition to get here. If you want to be ‘socially accepted’, perhaps you should reach out to others instead of expecting everyone else to cater to you. Students have a lot on their plate and may not have the time to see if they have made you happy. Quit accusing and disrespecting others and contribute to the solution.
Sep 27 2009 at 6:18 p.m.
LC,
You are spot on. The issue, by and large, is not that there are not enough "diverse" options on campus. I am involved in a wide variety of groups and programs, and I have not seen anything which should make people feel uncomfortable. Rather, I have seen students be nothing but welcoming to their peers, regardless of what boxes they can check off on an application. Nobody is going to hold your hand when you walk into a meeting, but if you actually go in and meet some new people, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised, given all the rhetoric flying around.
Sep 28 2009 at 9:21 a.m.
Another Alumnus: I'm confused; by saying I care about the reputation of Georgetown, did I say I don't care about the quality of the students? Anyone who has the intellect to make it through Georgetown should understand that a large part of a school's reputation is dependent upon the quality of its students.
The propsal for race studies is, in part, a resource allocation issue. I question why Georgetown would allocate its scarce funds towards such soft programs that do not prepare its students for the real world, when Georgetown still needs to invest substantial amounts to develop its reputation in traditional, more useful, more generally applicable, areas such as the sciences, economics etc. These are areas of interest to many more students than the narrow areas relating to race studies. Further, they prepare students to really contribute to society. (Go read the reports on "jobs" available for those who major in race studies. Sorry, but that's the true measure of whether society believes such majors contribute to society.)
For those who felt unwelcome at Georgetown, I suspect that you walked in with a chip on your shoulder and found offense where none was offered. Believe it or not, most of us find people we don't like here and there and people that don't like us or are not interested in what interests us. Heck, over the years I've had to work harder than some others because my skin color is not a favored color. This is called life.
Sep 28 2009 at 2:02 p.m.
I will again beat the drum of "Minority students need to stop only participating in minority-exclusive activities." That is a HUGE part of the problem on campus. Any effort to increase racial understanding on campus will be HURT, not helped, by having minority students self-segregate in their class work as much as they do in their social and extracurricular engagements. And as much as many want to deny it, the vast majority of white students on campus are open and welcoming of minority students in their clubs, on their teams, etc. But why do the why kids need to go knock on doors to beg minority students to come out and play? You want to be accepted? Go join a group that isn't defined by race, and you will be accepted. Period.