The Capitol Campus is, at its core, a $90 million folly. Indeed, it violated the most basic commandment of any accountant: Do not burn money.
But to castigate the university endlessly would be pointless. The university has already opened four buildings downtown and raised hundreds of millions of dollars explicitly for this expansion.
Indeed, Georgetown University has long had its sights set on expansion. Thanks to Hilltop enrollment explicitly being capped at 6,675 students, Georgetown has to grow beyond the main campus if it wishes to expand that undergraduate population and increase revenue. Given that many of our peer institutions (University of Southern California, the University of California school system, Johns Hopkins University) have established or are expanding downtown D.C. campuses, it seems inevitable Georgetown, the premier university of the nation’s capital, would follow suit.
Like it or not, we are stuck with the Capitol Campus. The question now is how to stop this $90 million blunder from spiraling into a catastrophe.
As the university refines its vision for the campus, students should establish one non-negotiable principle: Nobody should be forced to relocate to the Capitol Campus in the future. The reason is straightforward. When students enroll at Georgetown, most of them envision studying on the Hilltop. After all, the Hilltop is where Georgetown’s storied history has unfolded. This is where Old North was built in the 18th century and where numerous U.S. presidents have spoken. The Hilltop is home to our student life, from political advocacy organizations to a cappella groups, cultural clubs and — yes — weekend parties. The Hilltop is Georgetown. Possibly relocating students away from it would be unconscionable, if not borderline fraudulent.
Yet, this relocation seems to be the logical outcome of the university’s current plan. To make the Capitol Campus financially viable, the university aims to have 1,000 students there by 2030. Simultaneously, it insists it will not host any “four-year” undergraduates on the new campus. Instead, it is considering a model akin to certain majors (such as public policy) that spend two years on the Hilltop and two years downtown.
But this approach, as many have pointed out, is untenable: How do you persuade students — who have spent their first two years relishing the Hilltop’s social, academic and cultural perks — to abandon that environment for a smaller, less vibrant downtown campus? And even if students are not exactly “forced,” how else could the university fulfill its 1,000-student target without shunting certain majors downtown?
This dilemma is clearly unacceptable. So, what should be done instead?
If Georgetown truly wants 1,000 undergraduates downtown, it should establish entirely new four-year programs at the Capitol Campus, while still allowing those students to take some classes on the Hilltop. There is already some precedent for this. In a recent request to modify its campus plan, the university requested that Capitol Campus students be allowed to take up to two courses on the Hilltop. If granted, this arrangement would permit Capitol Campus undergraduates — whether enrolled through the Capitol Applied Learning Labs (CALL) or in any pilot major (like public policy) — to spend a significant portion of their time at the Hilltop.
That dual-campus approach could be the key. Students who choose the Capitol Campus from the outset would know exactly what they are signing up for: a downtown-based Georgetown education with ample access to Hilltop offerings. They would be part of a smaller cohort but would still have the chance to integrate with the Hilltop community. Meanwhile, those who come to Georgetown specifically for the Hilltop experience would remain there for all four years, preserving the traditions and student life that define the university’s cultural core.
Above all else, this plan recognizes and respects the Hilltop’s singular identity. If Georgetown must expand — and, at this point, it must — then we should do it in a way that preserves our heritage, honors student expectations and uses the Capitol Campus to build a genuinely new Georgetown experience downtown. We cannot undo the money that has already been spent, but perhaps, by offering four-year programs specifically based at the Capitol Campus, we can avoid a far greater disaster: turning the Hilltop into a fleeting two-year pit stop rather than the iconic Georgetown home students expect.
Saahil Rao is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. This is the fourth installment of his column “Institutions and Their Ills.”