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

Love Thy Neighbor

While many Georgetown students were on the couch or on the beach enjoying spring break last week, the showdown between the university and the Georgetown neighborhood over the 2010 Campus Plan intensified.

The Citizens Association of Georgetown – whose president is a Georgetown alumna – is challenging the university’s new 10-year plan with its “Save Our Neighborhood” campaign. Neither the university nor CAG appears willing to budge from its position. If this deadlock continues, the development of the plan, the university and the community will be impeded.

CAG protested various aspects of the plan in a Jan. 7 letter to University President John J. DeGioia. It objects primarily to the percentage of undergraduate students living in West Georgetown.

According to the letter, Georgetown’s architectural consultant has estimated that the university could house an additional 800 students on campus. CAG wants the university to maximize its on-campus space in order to limit a need for off-campus housing.

In this demand, CAG may have set the bar too high – even if the university creates 800 new spots for on-campus living, there is no guaranteeing students will opt for on-campus housing, especially since many upperclassmen are eager to move off-campus as early as junior year. It is unlikely the university could persuade every student to spend all four years within the confines of Healy Gates.

Our neighbors also fail to notice the assets the university community brings to the table. Beyond stints as dog-walkers and nannies for Georgetown families, students also provide a crucial market for local businesses. And the presence of the university increases the real estate values of Georgetown homes. If the university halts its expansion efforts to satisfy CAG, those benefits could be negatively impacted.

CAG, however, is not the only party at fault. The university has been slow, hesitant and vague in its response to CAG demands. It took nearly three months for the university to publish its response to last November’s campus plan community presentations. Although that response, the February Issue Report, included answers to each of the 309 questions posed by neighbors, most of them can only be described as terse.

One community member, for example, asked, “Why do students live off-campus?” The university responded, “Students are seeking a more independent environment.”

Independence, however, is not the only reason students seek to move beyond 37th and O. Off-campus housing is generally more spacious and in some cases less expensive than residences on campus. The university should not over-simplify issues like off-campus housing. Doing so will only encourage CAG hostility. The residents of Georgetown deserve detailed and respectful answers to their questions.

Students should also evaluate how they interact with the surrounding community. We need to recognize that sometimes, we make bad neighbors. Every Friday and Saturday night, many loud students traipse around Georgetown in the early hours of the morning, often disturbing those who are trying to sleep. The fact that Georgetown students pay a large sum of money to study and live at the university does not give them a right to disrupt the lives of their neighbors.

In addition to being more considerate of the families they share the block with, students living off campus should be proactive in improving relations with their neighbors. They can offer to assist neighbors with their trash or the shoveling of sidewalks during the winter. The Georgetown Samaritans set a good example of this attitude during the aftermath of last month’s duo of storms.

Especially when planning parties, staying in touch with neighbors is key. If students exchange phone numbers with local residents and ask them to call if there is a problem, neighbors will contact students before they dial the number for the Metropolitan Police Department. But, if students are not polite to their neighbors, they cannot expect a pleasant reaction. Maintaining a running dialogue with the neighbors can vastly improve understanding between residents and students.

The last campus plan, drafted in 2000, took five years to pass. There is no reason for the process to be long-winded this time around. To avoid another stalemate, however, each of the three involved parties needs to make some adjustments. The university ought to be clearer in its responses to neighbor concerns. CAG needs to be flexible in its demands and recognize the necessity of university expansion.

Students themselves can contribute the most to easing neighborhood tensions if they treat the outside community with a greater level of respect. Each sphere has a right to assert a position on the plan, but all should remember that the futures of the university and the Georgetown neighborhood are and always will be intertwined.

*To send a letter to the editor on a recent campus issue or Hoya story or a viewpoint on any topic, contact opinionthehoya.com. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and viewpoints should be between 600 to 800 words.*”

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