Georgetown University’s admissions office directed student tour guides to stop giving land acknowledgments during their tours, according to multiple sources and emails obtained by The Hoya.
The Blue & Gray Tour Guide Society informed its club membership Oct. 5 that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions required guides to remove a land acknowledgment — a statement recognizing Indigenous peoples’ history in a location — from their tours and tour manuals. Multiple sources told The Hoya that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions did not consult Blue & Gray before issuing the notice, leading the club to solicit feedback from guides on the change.
Liam Mason (CAS ’26), Blue & Gray’s president, said tour guides have included land acknowledgments to contextualize Georgetown’s history.
“Each guide provides a slightly different tour depending on how they want to discuss their own experiences and Georgetown’s facts, but the acknowledgement explains that as an institution dedicated to Jesuit values, Georgetown recognizes that the land we currently occupy was and still is the homeland of the Nacotchtank and their descendants, the Piscataway Conoy people,” Mason wrote to The Hoya. “We recognize the effect this has on Indigenous communities and emphasize our commitment to continue learning about Indigenous history and culture.”
A university spokesperson said the policy change is for consistent messaging.
“Each year, representatives of the Admissions office meet with the Blue and Gray club leaders to ensure the tours reflect university practices and deliver a consistent message,” a spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “This was not in response to any federal guidance.”
At Georgetown, student organization land acknowledgments typically recognize the university sits on territory that some Indigenous peoples — including the Nacotchtank and Piscataway Conoy peoples — resided on before they were forcibly removed.
Scholars in Indigenous studies outline the continuing effects of colonialism and violence against Indigenous people through the present day. These academics often point to the longstanding impact of the removal of Indigenous people and resulting racism, citing continuing extreme inequalities in health outcomes and socioeconomic status.
Georgetown’s Division of Student Affairs, which manages programming and support to students, includes a land acknowledgment on a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) webpage. The university has also sent a similar two-sentence statement to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, which is celebrated every November, in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Native American students and community groups have pushed the university to develop a formal land acknowledgment policy.
Blue & Gray’s membership has mixed reactions to the change, according to Mason, Mykah Boye (CAS ’26) — the group’s vice president — and Suzie Ahn (CAS ’26), the DEI director. Mason, Boye and Ahn all said Blue & Gray is seeking membership feedback on the policy since announcing the change at their Oct. 5 meeting.
Mason said Blue & Gray is collecting this feedback to convey the guides’ feelings to the university administration.
“Our main goal in this endeavor is to have the voices of our organization heard and relay that sentiment to the Office of Admissions,” Mason wrote.
Harrison McCarty (SFS ’26), who has been a tour guide for three years, said land acknowledgments are important for touring students and families.
“I was disappointed to hear that land acknowledgements were not allowed to be included in our tours,” McCarty told The Hoya. “It’s something that I think is very important to make sure prospective students and parents know about this university, and I think it is an example of our core values to make sure that they’re aware of that.”
Ashland Ross (CAS ’28), a guide since Spring 2025, said she was taken aback by the removal of land acknowledgments from the tours.
“They’ve always presented to us that Georgetown is a very inclusive campus,” Ross told The Hoya. “A big part of what we talk about on our tours is diversity and inclusion of all viewpoints and identities here on campus.”
McCarty said prospective students who do not hear a land acknowledgment may not understand the United States’ violent history that subjugated Indigenous people.
“I’m really proud to be a Hoya, but I also think a proud Hoya needs to understand what this university was built upon,” McCarty said. “I think students are missing out on the future of the school and ways in which we can improve and think about how to better fulfill our mission and our values as a university.”
While land acknowledgments often point to recognizing the Indigenous people of a region, many scholars and activists have argued that these acknowledgments are not enough to advocate credibly for Indigenous people.
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer — co-coordinator of Georgetown’s Indigenous Studies Working Group, a group dedicated to collaboration between Indigenous people, students and faculty — said land acknowledgments can recognize the history of an area but may be inadequate.
“Many of us who study and work cooperatively with Indigenous peoples understand the symbolic nature of land acknowledgements,” Balzer wrote to The Hoya. “Simple acknowledgement is not enough to encourage true engagement with living Indigenous communities.”
Lisbeth Fuisz, an English professor and another member of the Indigenous Studies Working Group, said land acknowledgments can connect history to the present.
“In the United States, you talk about history and the best ones acknowledge the fact that colonialism is ongoing and that native people still reside and still consider whatever place it is that you’re talking about as a homeland,” Fuisz told The Hoya. “So it’s an acknowledgement of the history, but also an acknowledgement of an ongoing relationship to place.”
Fuisz also said land acknowledgments can be performative and purport to absolve institutions without active engagement with Indigenous issues.
“There have to be other steps that accompany it, like investment in native communities or at a university, investment in native students or some additional action that’s required,” Fuisz said.
Ross said she believes the change ultimately does not reflect the Jesuit mission of community in diversity to support Indigenous people.
“I think that if we’re going to portray the university as diverse, that includes representing all opinions and Indigenous peoples and Native Americans on campus, who already represent such a small portion of the population,” Ross said. “This was kind of the only recognition that Georgetown was giving to this unfortunate part of our past, and then now it’s being taken away.”
McCarty said land acknowledgments should continue because they demonstrate the connection between Georgetown and the United States’ colonial history.
“I think land acknowledgements are much more than just remembering,” McCarty said. “They’re also starting active conversations about what this community is built upon, both land-wise, but also our values and who once used to be here.”
“Doing that and remembering that, my hope is that students can work towards justice and really fulfill that promise of being Hoyas for others,” McCarty added.