Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

GU Offers Response to Proposal

GU Offers Response to Proposal

Unity Coalition’s Demands Addressed

By Tim Haggerty Hoya Staff Writer

In what both sides called a sign of progress, leaders of the Georgetown Unity Coalition and administrators agreed to a stepped-up timetable and the need for significant changes to university policies dealing with diversity issues by the end of the semester.

The meeting came one week after the Unity Coalition submitted a proposal to administrators outlining demands stemming from a series of incidents aimed at racial and sexual minorities.

Over the past week, four committees have been formed to examine the issues raised by the Unity Coalition covering four major areas of student concern. At the meeting, the group also discussed changes to security and communications policies made this past week.

The meeting shows “that we are moving along . we are very focused on getting some concrete, short-term results to show that the institution is working on these issues . and avoiding endless talk,” Dean of Students James A. Donahue said.

The Unity Coalition members stressed the need for tangible results this year. “We don’t want this to drag on and on . the way that we can change or improve the slap that we have given to the university is to make some real changes this year,” NAACP member Tawan Davis (COL ’01) said.

Responding to allegations of mishandling the investigations of the menorah incidents in December and the racial slurs in January and early February, Department of Public Safety officials have announced several policy changes. As of Feb. 8, all calls to DPS regarding hate crimes or possible hate crimes will be referred to etropolitan Police Department immediately, according to DPS Director William Tucker. Previously, calls were not consistently referred to the police.

Within the next month, all DPS officers will undergo a three-session hate crime training program designed in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League, Donahue said. The proposed agenda for these training sessions, which will be conducted by the etropolitan Police, the Justice Department, the Anti-Defamation League and the FBI, calls for education on the impact of hate crimes, the laws regarding these crimes and the proper methods for investigating them on college campuses.

Currently, the administration is in the process of putting together some kind of review of DPS, Donahue said.

Earlier in the day, Simon Stevens(SFS ’01), president of GU Pride, met with Tucker, in a meeting that Stevens called “pretty positive,” where issues of communications and professionalism were discussed.

“There is a level of professionalism that is missing there,” Jewish Student Association President Steve Glickman said. Donahue said that the additional training should improve some of the problems immediately.

Besides the reforms in DPS, students addressed communication problems dealing with the community response to incidents of discrimination and harassment. The Georgetown Community Incident Response Team is taking charge of reforming the notification process, according to GCIRT member and Director of Special Programs Ellen Van Bever.

This process should be relatively simple, Donahue said, explaining that a communication network is needed to established proper procedure when such instances occur.

Van Bever said that the four issues that were identified by the Unity Coalition are the same that have been identified since December and already have people in place considering them. These four issues, legal, security, curriculum and programming, are the focuses of the four subgroups formed in the past week.

Each committee is co-chaired by one student and one administrator or faculty member, Van Bever said. The first meeting for the groups is Friday when the legal committee convenes. The group will consider changes to the Student Code of Conduct, which does not currently cover hate crimes. At the meeting on Thursday, everyone agreed changes to the Code of Conduct are possible and realistic by the end of the year.

Van Bever originally proposed that the committees’ proposals be due at the end of the semester, but members of the Unity Coalition expressed concerns that the deadline was too late. Eventually, the group agreed to meet for updates on long-term proposals and submission of whatever short-term proposals are possible on April 16. Van Bever said this will be a meeting for “a substantive update with whatever short-term proposals can be accomplished and implemented by the end of the semester.”

On Feb 11, the executive faculty passed four resolutions regarding the hate crimes, applauding the Unity Coalition and supporting the victims of acts of intolerance. One resolution advocated a segment of New Student Orientation addressing the issue of student diversity and another proposed more specific consequences for hate crimes and disrespect.

For the rest of the semester, the Unity Coalition will keep in touch through e-mail every 10 days, in order to keep the process moving.

Also at the meeting, Donahue apologized to the Unity Coalition for not directly answering each of the requests of the group within the one week timeframe that they demanded. Each student consented to his request for more time and Donahue said that the proposal will be ready for the meeting in April.

Donahue also emphasized that there are policies in place to deal with such instances. “Each incident was dealt with at a local level,” but he said that it is necessary to consider at what point the larger community should be notified. He also said that the residence life staff needs to incorporate more training for instances of hate crimes in their regular training.

Van Bever said that the Unity Coalition’s requested meeting with the council of deans will be held as soon as possible, though no date is set.

In the past week, the board of trustees and the faculty senate have been briefed on the situation involving the incidents, Donahue.

All agreed that progress is being made. Van Bever said, “Swastikas and slurs have been written on walls and signs for a long time – now people aren’t walking by them – that’s progress.”

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