Seven Living Learning Communities (LLCs) at Georgetown University will not operate in the 2022-23 academic year because of staffing issues, limited resources, campus lockdowns and COVID-19-related adjustments. 

Traditionally, LLCs offer students specific residential communities where students can explore specific academic and social justice issues. Several LLCs have not operated for the 2021-22 school year, including the Culture and Performance LLC, housed in Reynolds hall; Crossroads LLC, housed in Village C East; Entrepreneurship LLC, housed in Village C West; and Explore DC LLC, housed in Darnall Hall; Magis Row, housed in university-owned townhouses, and Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy, a Jesuit value learning community, housed in ​​Ida Ryan and Isaac Hawkins hall.  

Magis Row, Global Living, Culture and Performance, Living Well, Justice & Diversity and Action, Crossroads and Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy will all be put on hold for the 2022-2023 school year because of limited resources, staffing shifts and adjustments. 

The closure of many LLCs came as a surprise for many students, including Lucy Doyle (COL ’22), who lived in the Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy LLC during her sophomore year. 

“I actually thought that the LLC had paused for the year, I hadn’t heard it was closing. I was under the impression that the decision about in-person learning for this school year was made too late for them to implement their normal application process for the LLC (my freshman year, we applied pretty early, and we knew we were going to live there before the normal housing process even started for everyone else),” Doyle wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Doyle said living in the Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy allowed her to learn more about Georgetown’s ties to enslavement. 

“I think that knowing that history has been the most impactful part of living in the LLC,” Doyle wrote. “That is knowledge that doesn’t have to be limited to the residents of a single dorm building.” 

Ida Ryan and Isaac Hawkins Halls is named after Isaac Hawkins, one of the GU272, the 314 enslaved people the Maryland Province Jesuits sold in 1838 to financially sustain Georgetown University. 

Kayleigh Coppinger (COL ’23), a former resident of the Justice and Diversity in Action (JDA) LLC, which is focused on social change and was open this year, said living in the JDA LLC during her first year at Georgetown helped her cultivate a community and find her place on campus.

“It was a great way to cultivate a community my freshman year. And having a wide mix of people from different backgrounds and grades was really formative in finding my place on campus. Being in the JDA also really opened my eyes to all of the different ways that we can go about uplifting our communities,” Coppinger wrote to The Hoya.

JDA Advisor Elizabeth Grimm said LLCs like JDA are valuable for students. 

“I think the LLCs play such an important role in the student experience,” Grimm wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Being involved with JDA has been one of the most meaningful roles I have filled at the university.” 

Some LLCs have been put on hold in order to improve programming, according to a university spokesperson.

“Based on feedback from advisors and the Residential Education team, the university has made the difficult decision to temporarily pause several LLCs in order to reassess and strengthen future programming,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. 

The Spanish, French, Bayit and Muslim Interest LLCs will continue in the 2022-23 school year, according to the spokesperson. 

The university did not inform program managers about why some of the LLCs were put on hold, according to David Lange, the program manager of the Entrepreneurship LLC.

“I was told that Entrepreneurship LLC wouldn’t be running earlier this year without much explanation,” Lange wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I think it had something to do with the uncertainty over the University’s operating status in the Fall 2021 semester.” 

Applications for the Entrepreneurship LLC will run again in Fall of 2023, according to Lange. 

The university understands the disappointment with the closure of some LLCs. 

“While these disruptions have impacted LLC student life, they also offer a valuable opportunity for Residential Education and students to reflect on the goals, mission, programming and format of LLCs in the context of our current world and reflecting on modern-day issues,” the spokesperson wrote.