Interim University President Robert M. Groves briefed faculty on safety measures at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) and addressed an Islamophobic Georgetown University College Republicans (GUCR) social media post at a Faculty Senate meeting March 19.
Since the start of joint attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel in February, Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on Qatar, directly impacting GU-Q community members. The university is currently investigating GUCR for a March 8 post claiming Muslims are incompatible with a Christian vision of the United States.
Groves said the university’s staff in Washington, D.C., is collaborating with its counterparts in Doha, Qatar, to ensure students’ and staff’s safety, specifically noting the decision to move to virtual instruction.
“I wanted you to know our efforts to keep our colleagues in Doha safe, which we have succeeded at so far,” Groves said at the meeting. “There’s a group that meets every morning at 9:15 that brings together Doha colleagues and colleagues here. Josh Bornstein, the new vice president for public safety, has emerged as a great coordinator and leader of those activities. All of the education is online now.”
Groves said the university has given students and staff the opportunity to leave Doha, which some students have taken.
“We have offered students, if they are concerned about their own personal safety, to travel back to their homes — as well as faculty and staff,” Groves said. “Most of those who have left have been students. Faculty have basically made the judgment of staying in Doha.”
In reference to the GUCR post, which university officials described as Islamophobic, Groves said the university’s response was rapid.
“That incident was unfortunate and the student conduct procedures were executed quite quickly,” Groves said.
Joseph Ferrara (GRD ’96), the university’s senior vice president and chief of staff, provided updates on the health of university President Emeritus John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95).
Ferrara said DeGioia, who suffered a stroke in 2024 and stepped down as university president later that year, is recovering well and expressed optimism the former president could return to university events in the future.
“I think his spirits are pretty good,” Ferrara said at the meeting. “He understands everything — you’re having a slower conversation, but he understands everything. It’s not like he has difficulty comprehending the nature of the conversation. We’re all hopeful that he can get to a point where he might be able to come to events.”
The senate was also briefed on the Student Cultural Climate Survey, a survey that attempts to explain how the campus environment shapes student experiences and the annual report of the Gender Equity Committee, which aims to bolster gender equality within the university.
Sungjoo Cho, a university research analyst who presented the survey results, said the climate survey showed an increase in student belonging over the last five years, but noted a statistically significant gap still exists between the belonging of Black and white undergraduate students.
“In the sense of belonging among undergraduates, all groups show improvement,” Cho said at the meeting. “The belonging gap between Black African American and white students narrowed since 2020 but still remains significant. But overall, belonging increased across all racial groups. For graduate students, a sense of belonging increased overall as well, with no notable differences between the groups.”
Jamillah Bowman Williams, the chair of the Gender Equity Committee, presented the committee’s report and said the group needs the university community to help enact their recommendations, which include hosting listening sessions and appointing an administrator to monitor gender equity.
“Ultimately, when we come up with the recommendations, we as the Gender Equity Committee can’t go across the full university and actually make it all actionable and actually get it all integrated into the department,” Bowman Williams said at the meeting. “So that’s where we need your help and others in the university who might want to be a part of this work.”
Ferrara also outlined the university’s ongoing plans to brief incoming university president Eduardo Peñalver and that Peñalver plans to visit the university later this semester before coming to campus full-time starting in June.
“We are continuing to use this on-ramp to provide him updates and briefings,” Ferrara said. “He will have an opportunity in April and May, once again, as he’s swinging through D.C. We’re going to try to take advantage of those times he’s in the area to have him meet with colleagues.”
“The plan is that in early June, he would then be here for good and start preparing to take office on 1 July,” Ferrara added. “So all of that, I think, is going pretty well as we prepare to welcome him to campus full time.”
