Over 300 Georgetown University community members signed an open letter criticizing the university’s change in staff benefits policies that will leave administrative employees with limited paid time off (PTO).
The changes, which the university announced May 7, will transition staff PTO from an accrual model, which allowed staff to retain accumulated time off from prior years of service, to an allotment model, in which PTO will be allocated at the start of each fiscal year and expire at the end of it. The policy will take effect July 1, and employees will lose PTO accumulated under the old policy if they do not use their hours accrued under the old policy by June 2027.
The new policy institutes a tiered system based on years of service for determining maximum PTO allotment. As part of the transition, however, the university will also count PTO accrued under the old policy against this July’s allotment, meaning for every hour accrued under the old policy, a staff member will receive one hour less than they would under their tier-based allotment.
The open letter criticized the devaluation of existing PTO and petitions for full annual leave allotments for the 2025-26 school year, independent of already accrued PTO.
The over 300 signatories, as of May 10, said the policy change contradicts Georgetown’s Jesuit values.
“Georgetown’s Jesuit mission calls for cura personalis — care for the whole person,” the letter reads. “If the University is serious about that principle, it must not treat accrued PTO as a funding source for the new system and honor the time employees have rightfully earned.”
A university spokesperson said the university is listening to community feedback and evaluating potential policy revisions.
“This is an extraordinary and complex time for higher education and we are thankful for the sacrifices being made by our staff who support and maintain Georgetown’s mission each day,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “We are grateful for the feedback we have received and are actively considering revisions to the policy in response to concerns that have been raised.”
A School of Foreign Service (SFS) staff member, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation by the university, said she signed the letter because she believes the administration is overlooking staff contributions.
“Staff members are going to feel less driven and motivated to do their jobs to the best of their ability if we’re not getting properly compensated and we feel like we’re not valued,” the staff member told The Hoya. “What is the incentive for us to grind as much as we do for the school and stay late or go out of our way for certain events like graduation, for example, working a Saturday, if we don’t feel like we’re being taken care of in even the most minimal ways?”
Multiple sources told The Hoya that the timing of the announcement just days before graduation felt targeted because May and June are typically the busiest months for staff, making it especially difficult for them to take accrued PTO before the new policy begins.
Emily Zenick (GRD ’98), SFS chief of staff, echoed these sentiments, saying the announcement is particularly counterproductive at the close of the academic year.
“It is encouraging staff to take off immediately, starting Monday through July 1,” Zenick told The Hoya. “There are people who have lots and lots of hours of unused time, and you have to use that by July 1, or you don’t accrue any next year.”
Laura Caron (SFS ’20) — who signed the open letter as a graduate and worked with many staff members during her undergraduate years at Georgetown — said staff serve as the backbone of the university and deserve recognition as such.
“The staff are really what makes Georgetown run,” Caron told The Hoya. “All of our student experiences that we have are crucially determined by the staff, usually shaped by the staff, so I’m very unhappy to hear that there are these policy changes going on that are negatively impacting them.”
Zenick sits on the university’s internal Human Resources Advisory Council, where the policy was first floated for consideration at an April 30 meeting. She said various members of the advisory council attempted to provide constructive feedback about the PTO change, encouraging the administration to reevaluate the policy transition.
“There was a very robust discussion in which everybody expressed concern about the policy, about the fact that it would damage staff morale and we begged the university to consider other strategies for cost mitigation, perhaps pause this policy implementation for a year or so,” Zenick said. “So when it was rolled out this Wednesday, I was shocked. I honestly could not believe the university went through with this.”
“I’ve been here 29 years. This is a stunning decision, and the timing of it is the most tone deaf thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zenick added.
The announcement comes amid several other recent university policy changes that affect administrative employees, including a hiring freeze and pause on annual merit pay increases. In an April 29 email to faculty and staff, Interim university President Robert M. Groves wrote that changes were necessary in response to the federal government’s funding cuts to universities across the country.
Caron said it is imperative for the university, as it continues to reevaluate the policy, to show staff they value their contributions.
“While undoubtedly there is economic uncertainty going around, I think it’s really important for the university to value the people that are part of our community, and especially the people who maybe don’t always have as strong a place as they should,” Caron said.