|
|
|
|
Georgetown University
|
| |
|
| |
Georgetown University is a Jesuit private university located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the American Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy. Georgetown is the oldest Roman Catholic university in the United States, and its religious heritage is used to define the institution.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Georgetown University' Start a new discussion about 'Georgetown University' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Georgetown University is a Jesuit private university located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the American Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy. Georgetown is the oldest Roman Catholic university in the United States, and its religious heritage is used to define the institution. The university's endorsement of Catholic viewpoints has caused controversy at times.
Georgetown's three urban campuses feature traditional collegiate architecture and layout, but prize their green spaces and environmental commitment. The main campus is known for Healy Hall, a designated National Historic Landmark. Academically, Georgetown is divided into four undergraduate schools and four graduate schools, with nationally recognized programs and faculty in international relations, government, law, medicine, and business.
The student body is noted for its pluralism and political activism, as well as its sizable international contingent. Campus groups include the nation's oldest student dramatic society and the largest student corporation, The Corp. Georgetown's most notable alumni, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, have served in various levels of government in the United States and abroad. The Georgetown athletics teams are nicknamed "the Hoyas", made famous by their men's basketball team, which leads the Big East Conference with seven tournament championships.
History
Founding
Jesuit settlers from England founded the Province of Maryland in 1634. However, the 1646 defeat of the Royalists in the English Civil War led to stringent laws against Catholic education and the extradition of known Jesuits from the colony, including Andrew White, and the destruction of their school at Calverton Manor. During the greater part of the Maryland colonial period, Jesuits continued to conduct Catholic schools clandestinely. It was not until after the American Revolution in 1776 that long-term plans to establish a permanent Catholic institution for education in America were realized.
Following the revolution, Pope Pius VI appointed John Carroll of Maryland, a former Jesuit, as the first head of the Catholic Church in America, although the papal suppression of the Jesuit order was still in effect. Carroll orchestrated the early development of a new university, and on January 23, 1789 obtained the property on which Dahlgren Quadrangle was built. Instruction at the school began on November 22, 1791 with future Congressman William Gaston as its first student.
In its early years, Georgetown College suffered from considerable financial strain, relying on private sources of funding and the limited profits from local Jesuit-owned lands. The Maryland Society of Jesus was restored in 1805 and given supervision of the school, which bolstered confidence in the college. The United States Congress issued Georgetown the first federal university charter in 1815, which allowed it to confer degrees. The college's first two graduates were awarded the degree of bachelor of arts two years later in 1817. In 1844, the school received a corporate charter, under the name "The President and Directors of Georgetown College", affording the growing school additional legal rights. In response to the demand for a local option for Catholic students, the Medical School was founded in 1851.
Civil War
The U.S. Civil War greatly affected Georgetown as 1,141 students and alumni enlisted and the Union Army commandeered university buildings. By the time of President Abraham Lincoln's May 1861 visit to campus, 1,400 troops were stationed in temporary quarters there. Due to the number of lives lost, enrollment levels remained low until well after the war was over. Only seven students graduated in 1869, down from over 300 in the previous decade. Enrollment did not recover from the war until the presidency of Patrick Francis Healy (1873–1881). The first acknowledged head of an American university of African descent, Healy is credited with reforming the undergraduate curriculum, lengthening the medical and law programs, and creating the Alumni Association.
At its founding in 1876, the Georgetown College Boat Club, the school's rowing team, adopted blue, used for Union uniforms, and gray, used for Confederate uniforms, as its colors to signify the peaceful unity among students. Subsequently, the school adopted blue and gray as its official colors.
Expansion
After the founding of the Law Department in 1870, Healy and his successors sought to bind the professional schools into a university, and focus on higher education. The School of Medicine added a dental school in 1901 and the undergraduate School of Nursing in 1903. Georgetown Preparatory School relocated from campus in 1919 and fully separated from the University in 1927. The School of Foreign Service (SFS) was founded in 1919 by Edmund A. Walsh, to prepare students for leadership in foreign commerce and diplomacy. The School of Business Administration was created out of the SFS in 1957, and in 1999 was renamed the McDonough School of Business in honor of alumnus Robert E. McDonough. These new schools have called for new construction, and since completion of Healy Hall in 1879, Georgetown has added fifty-four buildings on its main campus.
Besides expansion of the University, Georgetown also aimed to expand their resources and their student body. The School of Nursing has admitted female students since its founding, and most of the university was made available on a limited basis by 1952. With the College of Arts and Sciences welcoming its first female students in the 1969–1970 academic year, Georgetown became fully coeducational. Georgetown ended its bicentennial year of 1989 by electing Leo J. O'Donovan as president. He subsequently launched the Third Century Campaign to build the school's endowment. In December 2003, Georgetown completed the campaign after raising over $1 billion for financial aid, academic chair endowment, and new capital projects. John J. DeGioia, Georgetown's first non-Jesuit president, has led the school since 2001, and has continued its financial modernization and sought to "expand opportunities for intercultural and interreligious dialogue".
Jesuit tradition
Georgetown University was founded by Jesuits in the tradition of Ignatius of Loyola. Although president John J. DeGioia is not a Jesuit, five of the other forty members of Georgetown's Board of Directors are. The institution is a member of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, and home to fifty-eight members of the Society of Jesus. Most are employed by Georgetown as professors or administrators. While most live in the Wolfington Hall Jesuit Residence on the main campus, some serve as chaplains-in-residence and live in the undergraduate dormitories. Jesuit Heritage Week has been held every year since 2001 to celebrate the contributions of Jesuits to the Georgetown tradition.
The role that Georgetown's Jesuit Catholic heritage has played in its policies has been controversial at times. For instance, stores in University-owned buildings are not allowed to sell or distribute birth control products. Georgetown University Hospital, operated by MedStar Health, and Georgetown University Medical Center operate under the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services, which prohibits abortions from being performed on the premises. The hospital does perform research using stem cells from aborted fetuses. In 2007, Georgetown University Law Center students protested the University's decision to cease funding for a student's internship at Planned Parenthood's litigation department despite funding it previous years.
Between 1996 and 1999, crucifixes were added to many classroom walls, attracting national attention. Before 1996, crucifixes had hung only in hospital rooms and historic classrooms. Some of these crucifixes are historic works of art, and are noted as such. Pressure to remove the crucifixes comes, however, from within the Catholic community, while campus leaders of other faiths have defended their placement. The Intercultural Center is an exception to this controversy, rotating displays of various faith symbols in the lobby.
Academics
As of 2007, the University has 6,853 undergraduate students, 4,490 graduate students on the main campus, 2,017 students at the Law Center, 788 students in the School of Medicine, and as of 2008, 145 at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Bachelor's programs are offered through Georgetown College, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, the Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, the School of Continuing Studies, and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, which includes the Qatar campus. Some high school students from Georgetown Visitation are permitted to attend classes for Advanced Placement credit.
Georgetown University offers undergraduate degrees in forty-eight majors in the four undergraduate schools, as well as the opportunity for students to design their own individualized courses of study. All majors in the College are open as minors to students in the College, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, and the School of Business. Students in the School of Foreign Service cannot receive minors, but can complete certificates instead. All courses are on a credit hour system. Georgetown offers many opportunities to study abroad, and 58.7% of the undergraduate student body spends time at an institution overseas.
Master's and doctoral programs are offered through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Law Center, the School of Medicine, and the School of Continuing Studies. The McDonough School of Business and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service both offer masters programs. The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Public Policy Institute are both research centers which also offer masters degrees. Masters students occasionally share some advanced seminars with undergraduates, and most undergraduate schools offer abbreviated bachelors and masters programs following completion of the undergraduate degree. Each graduate school offers at least one double degree with another graduate school. Additionally, the Law Center offers a joint degree with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The School of Continuing Studies includes the Center for Continuing and Professional Education, and operates four types of degree programs, over thirty professional certificates and non-degree courses, undergraduate and graduate degrees in Liberal Studies, as well as summer courses for graduates, undergraduates, and high school students.
Faculty
As of 2007, Georgetown University employs approximately 1,268 full-time and 689 part-time faculty members across its three Washington, D.C. campuses, with an additional thirty-two at SFS-Qatar. The faculty comprises leading academics and notable political and business leaders, and are predominantly male by a two-to-one margin. Politically, Georgetown University's faculty members give more support to liberal candidates, and while their donation patterns are generally consistent with those of other American university faculties, they gave more than average to Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
The current faculty includes scholars such as the former President of the American Philological Association James J. O'Donnell, theologians John Haught and Thomas M. King, and social activist Sam Marullo. Many former politicians choose to teach at Georgetown, including U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Andrew Natsios, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, and CIA director George Tenet. Internationally, the school attracts numerous former ambassadors and heads of state, such as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Ambassador-at-Large Robert Gallucci, President of the Government of Spain José María Aznar, and President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski.
Research
Georgetown University is a self-described "student-centered research university" considered by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education to have "very high research activity". As of 2007, Georgetown's libraries hold 2,435,298 items and 31,196 serials in seven buildings, with most in Lauinger Library. Additionally, the Law School campus includes the nation's fifth largest law library. Georgetown faculty conduct research in hundreds of subjects, but have priorities in the fields of religion, ethics, science, public policy, and cancer medicine. Cross-institutional research is performed with Columbia University and Virginia Tech.
In 2007, the school received about $14.8 million in federal funds for research, with sixty-four percent from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. Georgetown University Medical Center received an additional $118.4 million from these and other government sources. Centers which conduct and sponsor research at Georgetown include the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and the Woodstock Theological Center. In 2006, researchers at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center developed the breakthrough HPV vaccine for cervical cancer. Regular publications include the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Georgetown Law Weekly, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Public Policy Review.
Admissions
With 18,700 applications and 3,371 admitted for the class of 2012, Georgetown has an overall undergraduate acceptance rate of 18%. As The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2007 states, "only Stanford and a handful of Ivy League schools are tougher to get into than Georgetown." A National Bureau of Economic Research study on revealed preference of U.S. colleges showed that Georgetown is the 16th most-preferred choice. In 2008, Georgetown was ranked 110th in the THES world university rankings, and twenty-third in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.
Eighty-four percent of accepted applicants were in the top ten percent of their graduating class, and about thirty-five percent of accepted applicants were first, second, or third in their class in terms of class rank. The middle fifty percent of accepted students had SAT scores ranging from 680–760 in Critical Reading, and 670–760 in Math. Georgetown does not consider the writing portion of the SAT in admissions. The undergraduate schools maintain a restrictive Early Action admissions program, as students who have applied through an Early Decision process at another school are not permitted to apply early to Georgetown. Over fifty-five percent of undergraduates receive financial aid, and the university meets one-hundred percent of demonstrated need, with an average financial aid package of $22,000 and about seventy percent of aid distributed in the forms of grants or scholarships.
The School of Medicine's acceptance rate for the entering class of 2007 was 3.5%, for which 10,643 applicants applied and 1,228 were interviewed for the 190 available slots. Students who enrolled had a mean MCAT score of 10.4, and a mean science GPA of 3.6. Of those admitted, fifty-seven percent majored in a biological science. Graduate students accepted into Georgetown University Law Center in 2007 had a median LSAT score of 170, and a median GPA of 3.67. Twenty-nine percent of applicants to the McDonough School of Business Full-time MBA program were admitted in 2008. They have a median age of twenty-eight and the middle eighty percent of GMAT scores range from 640 to 730.
Campuses
Georgetown University has three campuses in Washington, D.C.: the undergraduate campus, the Medical Center, and the Law Center. The undergraduate campus and Medical Center are together in the Georgetown neighborhood and form the main campus. Georgetown also operates a facility in Doha, Qatar, and villas in Alanya, Turkey and Fiesole, Italy. Other centers are located around Washington, D.C., including the Center for Continuing and Professional Education at Clarendon in Arlington, Virginia. In their campus layout, Georgetown's administrators consistently used the traditional quadrangle design.
Main campus
Georgetown University's undergraduate campus and medical school campus are situated on an elevated site above the Potomac River, overlooking Northern Virginia. The main gates, known as the Healy Gates, are located at the intersection of 37th and O Streets, NW. Georgetown University Medical Center is on a property adjacent to the northwestern part of the undergraduate campus on Reservoir Road, and is integrated with Georgetown University Hospital, which is operated by MedStar Health. Georgetown Visitation, a private Roman Catholic girls high school, is on land adjoining the main campus.
The main campus is just over in area and includes fifty-eight buildings, student residences capable of accommodating eighty percent of undergraduates, and various athletic facilities. Most buildings employ collegiate Gothic architecture and Georgian brick architecture. Campus green areas include fountains, a cemetery, large clusters of flowers, groves of trees, and open quadrangles. The main campus has traditionally centered on Dahlgren Quadrangle, although Red Square has replaced it as the focus of student life. Healy Hall, built in Flemish Romanesque style from 1877 to 1879, is the architectural gem of Georgetown's campus, and is a National Historic Landmark. Both Healy Hall and the Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory, built in 1844, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In late 2003, the school completed the Southwest Quadrangle Project, and brought a new 907-bed student dorm, an expansive dining hall, an underground parking facility, and new Jesuit Residence to the campus. The school's first performing arts center, named for Royden B. Davis, was completed in November 2005, while longer-term projects include a self-contained business school campus, construction of a unified sciences center, and expanded athletic facilities. As a location, Georgetown is ranked nationally in the ten best college towns by the Princeton Review. Despite this, main campus "town and gown" relations are often strained by facilities construction, enlargement of the student body, as well as noise and alcohol violations. Crime is also a persistent issue, with campus security responding to 241 crimes in 2007.
Law Center campus
The Law Center campus is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on New Jersey Avenue, near Union Station. First-year students at the Law Center can live in the single on-campus dormitory, the Gewirz Student Center. Most second- and third-year students, as well as some first-year students, live off-campus. As there is little housing near the Law Center, most are spread throughout the Washington metropolitan area. The "Campus Completion Project", finished in 2005, saw the addition of the Hotung International Building and the Sport and Fitness Center. G Street and F Street are closed off between 1st and 2nd Streets to create open lawns flanking McDonough Hall, the main building on the campus.
Facilities abroad
In December 1979, the Marquesa Margaret Rockefeller de Larrain, granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, gave the Villa Le Balze to Georgetown University. The Villa is in Fiesole, Italy, on a hill above the city of Florence. The Villa is used year-round for study abroad programs focused on specialized interdisciplinary study of Italian culture and civilization. The main facility for the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies was donated to Georgetown in 1989 by alumnus and former United States Ambassador to Turkey George C. McGhee. The school is in the town of Alanya, Turkey within the Seljuq-era Alanya Castle, on the Mediterranean Sea. The Center operates study abroad programs one semester each year, concentrating on Turkish language, architectural history, and Islamic studies.
In 2002, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development presented the School of Foreign Service with the resources and space to open a facility in the new Education City in Doha, Qatar. SFS-Qatar opened in 2005 as a liberal arts and international affairs undergraduate school for regional students. In December 2007, Georgetown opened a liaison office in Shanghai, China to coordinate with Fudan University and others.
Student life
The Georgetown undergraduate student body is composed primarily of students from outside the District of Columbia, with one-third from Mid-Atlantic States. As of fall 2007, the racial diversity of the undergraduate student body was 64.4% white, 8.7% Asian, 6.7% black, and 6.4% Hispanic; Additionally, 54.5% of undergraduates are female. The largest minority, with twelve percent of the full-time student body, is international, representing 120 countries. Of undergraduates, 7.8% are classified as non-resident aliens. Over three-hundred international undergraduates annually choose to come to Georgetown as a study abroad destination.
Although it is a Jesuit university, only fifty-eight percent of the student body is Catholic. Georgetown hosts a Buddhist clergyman and a full-time rabbi, as twelve to fifteen percent of undergraduates are Jewish. It was the first U.S. college to have a full-time imam, to serve the over 400 Muslims on campus. The student body is generally religious and volunteer minded, and more than 400 freshmen and transfer students attend a nonreligious Ignatian retreat annually. A survey of the student body also suggests that the campus is 62.8% sexually active. Discrimination can be a issue on campus, and three-fourths of a 2009 survey considered homophobia a campus problem.
Almost all undergraduates attend full-time. A majority of undergraduates, seventy-two percent, live on-campus in several dormitories and apartment complexes. The remainder live off-campus, mostly in the Georgetown, Burleith, and Foxhall neighborhoods. On-campus housing is not available for main campus graduate students, although many of the University's hall directors and area coordinators attend graduate level courses. All students in the Medical School live off-campus, most in the surrounding neighborhoods, with some in Dupont Circle and elsewhere through the region.
Student groups
Georgetown University has 172 registered student organizations that cover a variety of interests: student government, club sports, media and publications, performing arts, religion, and volunteer and service. Students also operate campus stores, banks, and medical services. Students often find their interests at the Student Activities Commission Club Fair, where both official and unofficial organizations set up tables. The Georgetown University Student Association is the student government organization for undergraduates. There are also student representatives within the schools, to the Board of Directors, and, since 1996, to the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
Georgetown's student organizations include one of the nation's oldest debating clubs, the Philodemic Society, founded in 1830, and the oldest university theater group, the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society. Nomadic Theatre, founded in 1982 as an alternative troupe without an on-campus home, produces musicals, and small-scale comedies and dramas. The Georgetown Chimes, founded in 1946, is the University's oldest singing group and has hosted the annual "Cherry Tree Massacre" concert since 1974. The six other a cappella groups on campus include the coed Phantoms, the coed Superfood, the all-female GraceNotes, the all-female international group Harmony, the service-focused Georgetown Saxatones, and the Capitol G's, an all-male contemporary group founded in 2008. The D.C. A Cappella Festival has been held on Georgetown's campus since its inception in 1991. The Georgetown University Band is composed of the Georgetown Pep Band and the Georgetown Wind Ensemble, and performs on campus, in Washington, D.C., and at post-season basketball tournaments.
In addition to student organizations and clubs, Georgetown University is home to the nation’s largest entirely student-owned and -operated corporation, Students of Georgetown, Inc. Known as "The Corp", the business has an annual gross revenue of over $3.8 million. The Corp's profits are directly re-invested into the Georgetown student body through Corp Philanthropy, which gave out over $36,000 in scholarships and donations to Georgetown groups. Founded in 1972, The Corp operates three coffee shops and two grocery stores. It also runs biannual book sales, box storage, and airport shuttles for students. Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union is the largest student-run financial institution, with $10.4 million in assets.
Another student-run group, the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service, "GERMS", is an all-volunteer ambulance service founded in 1982 that serves campus and the surrounding communities. GUGS, the Georgetown University Grilling Society, has been a Georgetown tradition since 2002, selling half-pound hamburgers in Red Square on most Fridays. The Georgetown University Student Investment Fund is one of a few undergraduate-run investment funds in the United States, and hosted CNBC's Jim Cramer to tape Mad Money in September 2006. Georgetown's Army ROTC unit, the Hoya Battalion, is the oldest military unit native to the District of Columbia. The proportion of ROTC students at Georgetown is also the 11th highest among all universities in the United States.
Media
Georgetown University has several student-run newspapers. The Hoya is the University's oldest newspaper. It has been in print since 1920, and, since 1987, is published twice weekly. The Georgetown Voice, known for its weekly cover stories, is a newsmagazine that split from The Hoya to focus more attention on citywide and national issues. The Georgetown Independent is a monthly "journal of news, commentary and the arts." The Georgetown Academy, restarted in 2008 after a hiatus, targets Catholic readers on campus and the Georgetown Federalist, founded in 2006, purports to bring a conservative and libertarian viewpoint to campus. The Fire This Time is Georgetown's only minority newssource. The Georgetown Heckler is a humor magazine founded on the Internet in 2003 by Georgetown students, releasing its first print issue in 2007. The Gonzo was a former student humor magazine, published from 1993 to 1998.
The University has a campus-wide television station, GUTV, which began broadcasting in 1999. The station hosts an annual student film festival in April for campus filmmakers. WGTB, Georgetown's radio station, is available as a webcast and on 92.3 FM in certain dormitories. The station was founded in 1946, and broadcast on 90.1 FM from 1960 to 1979, when university president Timothy S. Healy gave away the frequency and broadcast capabilities to the University of the District of Columbia because of WGTB's far left political orientation.
Activism
Georgetown University student organizations include a diverse array of groups focused on social justice issues, including organizations run through both Student Affairs and the Center for Social Justice. Oriented against gender violence, Take Back the Night coordinates an annual rally and march to protest against rape and other forms of violence against women. Georgetown Solidarity Committee is a workers' rights organization whose successes include ending use of sweatshops in producing Georgetown-logoed apparel, and garnering pay raises for both university cleaning staff and police. Georgetown Students for Fair Trade successfully advocated for all coffee in campus cafeterias to be Fair Trade Certified.
Georgetown has many additional groups representing national, ethnic, and linguistic interests. In 2006, MEChA de Georgetown, which works to improve Chicano recruitment and involvement, brought together a broad coalition of groups as "GU Students United Against Racism" to protest the perceived racism during a paid speaking event by Chris Simcox, leader of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. Georgetown's student body is particularly active in politics; groups based on local, national, and international issues are popular, and free speech is generally respected. The reproductive rights organization H*yas for Choice is not officially recognized by the University as its positions on abortion are in opposition to University policy, prompting the asterisk in "hoyas". While not financially supported by the school, the organization is permitted to meet and table in university spaces. The issue contributes to Georgetown's 'red light' status on free speech under the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education rating system.
Greek life
Although Jesuit schools are not obliged to disassociate from Greek systems, many do, and Georgetown University does not officially recognize or fund fraternities, sororities, or secret societies among the student body. Despite this, Greek organizations persist on campus, although none require members to live in fraternal housing. Additionally, Georgetown University students are affiliated, in some cases, with fraternities at other nearby universities and colleges.
Active fraternities at Georgetown include Delta Phi Epsilon, a professional foreign service fraternity; Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity; Alpha Phi Omega, a national co-ed community service fraternity; Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish social fraternity; and Sigma Phi Epsilon, a social fraternity. Delta Phi Epsilon was founded at Georgetown in 1920, and members of their Alpha Chapter include Jesuits and several deans of the School of Foreign Service. The Delta Phi Epsilon foreign service sorority, founded in 1973, is the only sorority active at Georgetown. Georgetown's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, affiliated with the campus Hillel, was established in 2002. Sigma Phi Epsilon chartered its chapter as a general social fraternity in 2007. Business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi replaced Delta Sigma Pi, which lost its charter in 2006.
Events
Annual events on campus celebrate Georgetown traditions, culture, alumni, sports, and politics. In late April, Georgetown University celebrates Georgetown Day. Besides the full-day carnival, the day rewards the best professor of the year with the Dorothy Brown Award, as voted by students. Every year since 2002, Traditions Day has focused attention in early November on the two centuries of Georgetown history. Clubs can compete in a "Best Traditions" contest, with students voting for their favorites. Halloween is celebrated with public viewings of alumnus William Peter Blatty's film The Exorcist, which takes place in the neighborhood surrounding the university.
Homecoming coincides with a home football game, and festivities such as tailgating and a formal dance are sponsored by the Alumni Association to draw past graduates back to campus. The largest planned sports related celebration is the first basketball practice of the season. Dubbed Midnight Madness, this event introduces the men's and women's basketball teams shortly after midnight on the first day the teams are allowed by NCAA rules to formally practice together. In 2008, Georgetown again played host to a first round division of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
Georgetown University hosts notable speakers each year, largely because of the success of the Georgetown Lecture Fund and the Office of Communications. These are frequently important heads of state who visit Georgetown while in the capital, as well as scholars, authors, U.S. politicians, and religious leaders. The Office of the President hosts numerous symposia on religious topics, such as Nostra Ætate, Pacem in Terris, and the Building Bridges Seminar.
Athletics
Georgetown fields 27 varsity teams and 20 club teams. The varsity teams participate in the NCAA's Division I. The school generally competes in the Big East Conference, although the football team competes in the Division I FCS Patriot League, the men's lacrosse team in Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the rowing teams in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges. Georgetown University graduates over ninety percent of its student athletes. U.S. News and World Report listed Georgetown's athletics program among the 20 best in the nation.
The school's teams are called "Hoyas", a name whose origin is uncertain. Sometime after 1866, students well versed in classical languages invented the mixed Greek and Latin chant of "hoya saxa", translating roughly as "what (or such) rocks". The school's baseball team, then called the Stonewalls, began in 1870, and football in 1874, and the chant likely refers to one of these teams. In 1926 the football team replaced Sergeant Stubby as mascot with a Bull Terrier they nicknamed "Hoya" because of the cheer, and by 1928, campus sports writers began to refer to teams as "Hoyas" rather than "Hilltoppers". The name was picked up in the local publications, and became official shortly after. The mascot of Georgetown athletics programs is Jack the Bulldog and the school fight song is There Goes Old Georgetown.
The men's basketball team is particularly noteworthy as it won the NCAA championship in 1984 under coach John Thompson. The current coach is his son, John Thompson III, who coached the team to the Final Four in the 2007 NCAA tournament. The team leads the Big East with seven conference tournament titles, and has made twenty-four NCAA tournament appearances. Well-known team alumni include Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, Sleepy Floyd, Allen Iverson, Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert. In all over one-hundred student athletes have gone on to professional careers. Besides basketball, Georgetown is nationally successful in rowing, sailing, lacrosse, and track and field.
Alumni
As of 2008, between fifty-four and sixty-one percent of alumni enter the workforce immediately after graduation, while others go on to additional education. Georgetown alumni have a median starting salary of $55,000 with a median mid-career salary of $110,000. Georgetown is one of the top ten producers of Peace Corps volunteers as of 2009. Just over three percent of Georgetown's 97,384 living alumni are listed in Marquis Who's Who, the 14th highest percentage and eighth highest raw number among American universities as of 2000. NNDB, the Notable Names Database, lists 289 notable alumni.
Five alumni serve in the United States Senate, and sixteen in the House of Representatives. The current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, as well as the current National Security Advisor, Gen. James Jones, are both alumni, as are the current Senate majority whip, Dick Durbin, the House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, and the current Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.
Besides numerous members of the senior diplomatic corps, ten heads of state are alumni, including former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Philippines. In the legal profession, alumni include a current Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia, and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Edward Douglass White. Georgetown graduates have served at the head of diverse institutions, such as Patricia Russo of Alcatel-Lucent and Susan Hockfield of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in the public and private sector, and have headed military organizations on both the domestic and international level.
External links
|
| |
|
|
