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

Healing The Hilltop’s Woes

Healing The Hilltop’s Woes

Poor Georgetown – she aspires to so much, but just as she looks to take her place among the elite institutions of learning in America, the swift Potomac’s lovely daughter gets swept back under.

The Chronicle of Higher Education burst the Hilltop’s bubble with its publication of “Georgetown’s Growing Pains: Eager Applicants, Troubled Finances” in its Jan. 28 issue. The article outlined how Georgetown’s cash-sucking Medical Center, tiny endowment and general mismanagement have caused the university to stunt its growth.

Georgetown’s secret is out. We have long sought to cover our inadequacies, focusing attention on our impressive alums and selective admission while hiding away our fiscal woes, grade inflation, lack of facilities and pathetically-funded student activities.

Even that last bastion of national recognition – men’s basketball – has taken a turn for the worse from the heady days of Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85).

But what does this mean? Does it matter that Georgetown has been unmasked like the Phantom of the Opera, her prestigious disguise removed to reveal the disfigured half of her collegiate face?

Georgetown’s reputation has long been shaky. Sure some impressive – or at least notorious, in the case of the current President – people have passed through Healy Gates. But they attended Georgetown in the past, and it was a different campus back then. Georgetown was a school of largely Catholic, upper-crust white men who wandered the campus in jackets and ties. Today, while we still are largely white and wealthy, we have become substantially more pluralistic than three decades ago.

However, while the character of the student body has changed and the campus has become more diverse in thought and appearance, the administration has been slow to catch on. We haven’t seen any new construction at Georgetown in over a decade (and, despite promises to the contrary, skepticism lingers regarding the construction of new dorms, theaters and athletic fields). We didn’t have wired dorms until this past year – long after our older brothers at Harvard and Yale had decided to outfit their students with what is now considered standard-issue at college.

And every time I see a pair of Hoyas stumbling home, his coat soaked with cheap beer, her eyes glazed over without a spec of sober comprehension, I seriously question how selective Georgetown’s admission process is.

The Chronicle article, and its companion piece about University President Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., seemed to imply that many of Georgetown’s problems stem from its attempts to balance liberal American education with Catholic tradition. One bastion of the vocal Georgetown conservative community called it a case of “trying to serve two masters.”

But this is not the root of Georgetown’s problems. This isn’t even connected with the campus’ current sore spots. The problem isn’t religious – it is managerial and fiscal. There is no “Catholic” way to pay a bill, build a building or run a campus that is detrimental to its growth. On the contrary, running a university from a position based on certain moral principals is an asset, not a detriment.

The problem is a general lack of foresight and funds. Georgetown should have seen the elephant-sized problem of the med center coming and dealt with it sooner – as former University President Timothy Healey, S.J., suggested in the late 1980s. The university should have realized decades ago that donations were important to funding an institution of higher education, and they should have established a culture of giving at Georgetown. Now, despite the push to raise more money, no such culture exists. And, after seeing how the university nickel-and-dimes students over club and activity expenditures, there is no attempt to establish such a culture among the current undergraduates.

The hefty price tag and elite admission standards of the Georgetown education simply aren’t matching up with quality that they purchase. No wonder increasing numbers of Hoyas are leaving the Hilltop disenchanted.

The Chronicle points to the impending deal with MedStar as significant because it will relieve Georgetown of much of the university’s financial burden. Hopefully, the administration will take this much-needed fiscal relief and give that money back to the students. Maybe those buildings will be built. Maybe clubs will have adequate funding. Maybe our existing facilities will receive the much-needed facelift they deserve. Maybe Georgetown will be able to stay afloat rather than drown in a sea of debt.

I certainly hope so. Come May, I’d like to say that my Georgetown diploma was more than a receipt for $120,000.

Days on the Hilltop appears each Tuesday in The Hoya.

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