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

IDEV Supporters’ Misguided Opposition to Campus Plan

By now, Georgetown community members are used to seeing anti-campus plan campaigns and propaganda littering the blogs and yards of resentful neighbors. But this week, the “Downsize Georgetown” rhetoric came from a far more surprising source.

Self-appointed international development certificate champion Thomas Zuzelo (SFS ’11) recently called on all opponents of the recent IDEV program changes to protest the 2010 Campus Plan. But these students should take a closer look at the plan’s main goals when shaping their tactics.

The coalition argues that the campus plan represents an injustice to the undergraduate student body. They claim the university is working tirelessly to expand its graduate program and improve graduate student life through the planned expansion while ignoring present undergraduate demands.

The 2010 Campus Plan, however, includes projects like the conversion of New South Hall’s lower levels into a student center and the expansion of Lauinger Library to ease overcrowding. Clearly, the plan’s positives are not reserved for graduate students, as these improvements would have a profound impact on future undergraduate student life.

The the recent changes to the IDEV program are certainly truly unfortunate, but any current undergraduates working to stall the progress of the campus plan’s implementation would also be depriving the next generations of an enhanced Georgetown experience. By opposing the campus plan, some of the certificate’s proponents are going to extreme means to meet a juvenile end: undermining the School of Foreign Service’s administration. Ultimately, misguided student protests should not disenfranchise future undergraduates.

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