The movement against recent incidences of racial intolerance at Georgetown has shifted from protests in Red Square to meetings in Healy over the course of the past few weeks.

Following two rallies in late February against racially-charged incidents in the campus community, university officials have met with student leaders to set into motion concrete steps, including revisions to New Student Orientation and increased collaboration with the Department of Public Safety over minority affairs.

“While Georgetown can be justly proud of many past efforts to create and sustain an inclusive community, we have been reminded . that this is a commitment that every generation of students, faculty and staff must renew,” University President John J. DeGioia said in a broadcast e-mail to students the week before spring break.

Last Friday, Provost James O’Donnell, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and Vice President for University Safety David Morrell returned to students with proposals and procedures that their respective departments could implement in order to dispel racist overtones on campus. The measures aim to establish clear consequences against hate crimes and racial discrimination.

According to Julie Green Bataille, assistant vice president for communications, and Veronica Root (MSB ’05), president of the Black Student Alliance, these steps include a revision of several diversity-oriented groups and programs.

The Diversity Working Group, a group formed in 1997 in order to maintain awareness of ethnic and cultural diversity, will change in order to focus on increasing communications with the public and the campus community, including with both students and faculty.

The Pluralism in Action program, a mandatory program at New Student Orientation, will also be revised, but no specific arrangements have been made for the program.

Along with these changes to existing programs, efforts would be made to further educate students and faculty of minority and multicultural concerns through the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship program on Inclusive Teaching and Learning.

On the public safety front, the steps proposed include working to increase sensitivity and awareness of minority and women’s issues in the DPS training program. A committee to create guidelines for hate crimes and hate-related incidents would be established by August 1.

Curricular changes were also discussed in the reports. A separate working group will be created to review and discuss curricular changes, including student suggestions to include a broader range of non-European history classes in core requirements, and an expansion of the recently-added African American Studies minor, with plans to turn it into a major in the future.

At a town-hall meeting Monday night, student leaders from the Black Student Alliance and the Georgetown chapter of the NAACP, led a dialogue with students to discuss the university’s proposals and the steps that have been taken against racism so far.

“Although there’s always going to be room for improvement, I commend [the university administration] for the steps they’ve taken so far,” Root said.

Some students said that one missing aspect they saw in the proposals was that tenured and adjunct faculty would not be required to attend diversity awareness trainings.

Yet others at the meeting quietly celebrated what they saw as small victories. Stephanie Scott (COL ’06), a member of eCHA, said that she felt encouraged by the proposal to expand the College’s core requirements to include non-European history classes.

“[Under this proposal] part of taking your core will involve learning about other countries and other races,” she said.

These steps come as the result of two large rallies against racism several weeks ago that culminated in the presentation of a petition that called on Georgetown to act more proactively against racism. The rallies were triggered by an inflammatory and racist e-mail sent to the Black Student Alliance and the Georgetown chapter of the NAACP. Originally thought to have come from a Georgetown student, the e-mail has since been traced to a Florida man who is already on an FBI watch list for bigoted acts.

Hundreds of students attended the rallies, and expressed their pain and discontent over racial attitudes they had encountered, many sharing personal experiences of racism while at Georgetown, aside from the racist e-mail.

“The other incidents are what’s more important because the e-mail came from outside the Georgetown community,” Root said.

Root also repeated one of the students’ initial motivations for the rallies and the petition, which she said she felt was the need for a more streamlined and centralized means of addressing and punishing hate crimes on campus.

“My goal for the diversity and cultural trainings isn’t to change anybody’s mind,” she said. “My goal is for Georgetown to set clearer rules . to give an understanding of what is and isn’t allowed because right now it’s rather ambiguous.”