In the past year, writers for The Hoya have covered a variety of student issues, including but not limited to a myriad of campus dining health violations, a data leak that threatened thousands of current and former students and administrative actions that limited student life. The university’s communications have been silent on the vast majority of these issues, largely electing instead to use official press releases either to celebrate the achievements of graduates and faculty or to highlight the university’s expansion.
The problem isn’t that these accomplishments aren’t worth acknowledgment; it’s that administrators don’t feel the need to answer student concerns in any sort of public way, even when they’re published through legitimate, university-recognized channels (such as its newspaper of record). This lack of response is only sustainable with an insulated administration that’s shielded itself from direct contact with students who might hold it accountable. But it’s also aided and abetted by a student body who has become too accustomed to taking the university at its word.
Maybe that’s not fair. Students at Georgetown have a number of options to express their voices. We protest in Red Square, a “designated space for free expression and speech” meant to be “a symbol and reminder of the right to free expression that belongs to Georgetown students.” We elect a Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) executive ticket every year to represent the student body directly to the administration. Students in conflict with the administration can turn to the Student Advocacy Office, or perhaps the Ombuds. But all of these pathways are harder to access than they should be, can be difficult to start for day-to-day campus issues or require middlemen that lack an obligation to report student grievances to the proper authorities.
Students accept day-to-day struggles and concerns as a condition of the Georgetown experience, partly due to the difficulty of reaching administration. For example, did any students protest, in Red Square or otherwise, when dorms in Harbin were filled with sewage last semester? They could have, but students looking to air their concerns turned to student media instead. Did the university address or even acknowledge the serious issues in Harbin, articulated in The Hoya? If they didn’t, then what else could the students have done to reach administrators with their concerns?
This leads us to an important question: Who should be able to make direct contact with the administration? Should every GUSA senator have a direct line to university vice presidents? Should club presidents be able to book meetings with the administrators and advisors that govern them?
We don’t need to draw any arbitrary lines of student hierarchy. Every student deserves to have their voice heard, and no student should settle for that right to be limited to Red Square or a quote in The Hoya. If administrators don’t hear student concerns, it should be because the student body hasn’t brought it to their attention. More accessibility would place the burdens of proof and protest on the student body and would enable us to take the quality of Georgetown’s student life into our own hands.
Direct accountability could come in a variety of forms. Professors are required to hold regularly scheduled office hours; why shouldn’t vice presidents be also, or even the provost and president? Georgetown would not be the only university with such a policy. If the concern is overflow, could administrators not open up appointment calendars for students to book at select times or even hold regularly scheduled town halls?
Better yet, camaraderie between administrators and students could do wonders to make us feel at home. Why don’t more administrators write Viewpoints or press releases to be published in The Hoya? Why can’t a vice president join in on a run club workout, or make an appearance at an orchestra concert, or even drop by an election-night watch party hosted by the College Democrats or Republicans? To lead a university that actively promotes its club culture as a central aspect of campus life yet treats it in practice as an entity separate from the functioning of the school does nothing short of building an adversarial relationship with students.
With an adequate degree of direct accountability for administration, the student body will need to answer for failing to articulate their concerns. Once the option for communication is there, the relationship between administrators and students will be what we make it. But students will set the tone of their campus life and have the ability to seek answers to their concerns. Georgetown will be better for it.
Peter Sloniewsky is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.
