Georgetown Day under threat

Unacceptable. Georgetown Day will happen whether or not it's the official University celebration. A Georgetown Day on a Thursday three weeks before the end of the semester does not a true Georgetown Day make.

Does anyone know the history of Georgetown Day? Like that it was originally to celebrate community and sobriety after a student died in a drunken fight with another student. The coy pond is for the same kid. It's come a long way in order to reach the "Drink on the Lawn"-fest that it's become.

I still enjoyed Georgetown Day and think that the Provost's Office is just trying to be obnoxious.

But GAAP was scheduled WAY ahead of Georgetown Day. And for a lot of reasons, it is totally understandable not to want GAAP and Georgetown Day to be on the same day.

I call bull. Schick died in Spring term 2000. The first Georgetown day was in Spring 2002.

Yes, Georgetown Day was arguably part of a larger initiative to tackle drinking on campus, which included the loss of Block Party, Homecoming, Toga Party, etc. But, I'd say it was also part of the initiative to rebuild campus morale after 9-11. I don't think you guys realize how weird it was on campus in the wake of the terrorist attacks. I'd say surreal is the best way to describe it. Campus didn't really get its mojo back for a long, long time. Georgetown Day was one of the many efforts the school undertook to try and lift morale.

Here's the deal: Attracting the top prospective students is vital to the future of Georgetown in many ways, not least of which being its bond rating- Georgetown's high demand has been one of the key factors in keeping the place out of junk bond territory.

Over the years, GAAP weekends have typically attracted nearly 1000 students and their families in the Spring, and typically around 70% of those students enroll, so you are talking about around half of each incoming class deciding to come to Georgetown at least in some part off of that experience. Unfortunately, there is simply insufficient space to host an extra 1000 or even 500 students and their families on campus while still having a functioning campus for the current students.

So it is that GAAP must be done over 3 or, ideally, 4 weekends. As it happens, the calendar is not conducive to doing so this year- admissions decisions come out April 1, which does not leave enough time for people to plan to attend an open house on April 3. The following weekend is Easter. That leaves two weekends left in April to accomodate the bulk of the admitted students (EA admits can attend in late March). And Georgetown Day takes over both the spaces and volunteers needed to host an effective open house, so ultimately Georgetown Day needs to be moved to another day. I say all of this with full recognition that I would have flipped out if Block Party had been cancelled for a GAAP Open House when I was an undergrad.

I'm sure being on campus just after 9/11 was so much more trying that having to work every day in NYC just after 9/11. Chalk this one up in the "college kids have no idea how much worse their life is about to get" catagory for this crusty old man.

Right cause DC wasn't attacked or anything and nobody on campus is from NYC/has friends or relatives there/or knew people who died. No, about half the students don't come from New York or New Jersey and no, half the graduating class doesn't move to NYC after they leave Georgetown. No, not at all...so we stupid college kids obviously couldn't understand your pain in New York at all. I guess our pain was nothing compared to yours because we were younger and only in DC just a mile from the Pentagon.

I love you Bin, you know that, but that was a ill-thought, cynical, dick statement.

Come on Cambridge, you really think being a student wandering around campus that week was much different than being an American walking around anytown usa that day? Everybody was in a funk the weeks after that day. I really don't think people who took the NYC subway to work (and had wives/husbands doing the same) were in quite the same boat as kids walking from Burleith to Lauinger. People who actually had to go to work in real target areas like manhattan and in/adjacent to the federal buildings of DC might have been putting up with a bit more stress than those on non-target university campuses who didn't have the normal real world stress of adult life to begin with-whether or not they were about to move to NYC after they graduated.

I'm aware it was a bit of a dikc statement, but I think most of us who lived and worked in lower manhattan that day might have a tough time sympathizing with students on the Hilltop that particuarlly terrible fall. The Pentagaon was a rather obvious target in a big empty field/lot In NYC the target was just "as many civvilans/people as possible" and due to the extremely dense and vertical nature of the city, well, it's a bit different than DC unless you actually worked at the Capitol, White House, etc.

I can also vouch that Block Party did exist. Was it always in the spring? For some reason I remember fall, but then again my memories from those days are a bit fuzzy...

There used to be not 1 but 2 Block Parties- the Fall Block Party was typically the Friday of Homecoming Weekend, followed by an actual tailgate with cars and kegs and grills on Saturday before the football game which Georgetown usually won. Very different days, my friends.

Brasky's memory of an event in the lot in front of McDonough is possibly the new homecoming tailgate, but probably something else like the senior BBQ- I recall something approximating real tailgating even during the Gonzalez years, albeit on the baseball field and with no kegs (they were banned at some point during my undergrad years). The last Block Party was definitely spring of 2000, and the Dean of Students was still James Donahue at that point.