University Tries To Mend Town Ties

As the next round of hearings for the 2010 Campus Plan looms, administrators are stepping up efforts to improve the university's relationship with its neighbors.

The possible construction of a new satellite campus for the School of Continuing Studies as well as programs to clean up trash, facilitate student transportation and police excessive noise in the West Georgetown and Burleith communities are some of the newer initiatives now in place.

According to Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh, the university is considering locations throughout the metro area for a new satellite campus to accommodate SCS programs for roughly 1,000 students. The school currently houses three of its programs at a campus in Clarendon, Va., roughly a 40-minute journey from campus by Metrobus.

Reacting to neighborhood concerns over off-campus student residences and rising graduate student enrollment, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said that the university is committed to creating more housing space on campus.

According to Olson, the possibility of converting the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center into student residences is still on the table.

"We've made a commitment to add student housing, and we're looking at options," he said.

In response to community concerns about an overflow of student trash in the streets of Georgetown and Burleith, the university has also initiated twice-daily trash patrols of both neighborhoods by maintenance workers. More than 20 tons of trash have been collected since Aug. 29.

Assistant Vice President for Communications Erik Smulson said that university crews pick up trash that hinders the aesthetic of neighborhood streets.

"Whether Georgetown trash or not, we pick it up. It's just a good investment in the neighborhood. Less trash and less garbage on the street is a good thing," said Smulson, who has called these new measures "quality of life investments."

"It benefits all of us," he said.

Excessive street noise and waste were among the main reasons many neighborhood organizations called upon the university to provide housing for 100 percent of students on campus in coming years.

Other programs put into effect by the university include a new late-night M Street shuttle, which transports students from Healy Gates to Georgetown bars and restaurants, as well as a bolstered police presence in the neighborhood.

Olson stressed that this recent push for amicable relations reflects a longstanding tradition of cooperation with the surrounding community.

"These new innovations build on a long commitment to engage neighbors, the MPD and students," he said.

According to Olson, last year's doubling of patrols by Student Neighborhood Assistance Program — a university-sponsored service that patrols the streets of West Georgetown and Burleith addressing student rowdiness and noise before MPD involvement — has been received positively by students and neighbors alike.

While the university hopes to accommodate neighbor grievances, Olson said that the team of administrators handling community relations still wants students to be able to maintain an independent lifestyle in their off-campus residences. Accordingly, administrators have refrained from imposing a party registration system or keg limit for off-campus houses.

"We have to strike a balance on these issues," he said.

Alykhan Merali (SFS '13), spokesman for the student advocacy group DC Students Speak, said that the M Street shuttle and trash collection program would benefit both Georgetown students and the surrounding community.

"M Street shuttles are definitely things that can also benefit students — not only will they smooth over relations with neighbors … at the same time, students will have access to wherever they want to go in the neighborhood," he said. "This is something where both students and neighbors are gaining."

Jake Sticka (COL '13), the student commissioner on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, said that these new measures position the university well for the next hearing.

"[The plan] is not a radical shift that some of the individuals in the neighborhood have made it out to seem. It is a plan that will allow the university to continue functioning as a high-level institution for the next 10 years, and [the new programs] say it will do so in ways that are very positive for the community."

Administrators said that they are continuing to iron out the details of the more controversial aspects of the campus plan, such as the proposed on-campus loop road and the need for 250 more beds on campus, in the buildup to the D.C. Zoning Commission hearing on Nov. 17.