Georgetown unveils program aiming to improve issues of social justice
It involves a new African-American Studies major and creation of a new research center
Last Friday, President DeGoia outlined and re-established Georgetown’s commitments to racial equality and social justice.
In a town hall speech, he addressed the events in Ferguson, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Flint and Charleston as: “incidents that shake our confidence in an assumption that as a country, we overcome the legacies of slavery, subsequent segregation and systemic racism.”
Following movements and demonstrations by Hoyas in November to change the name of McSherry Hall and Mulledy Hall to Remembrance Hall and Freedom Hall, respectively, President DeGoia recognized that further steps were necessary to provide the architecture for the community and our “moral imaginations.”
He announced that Georgetown would officially establish a major in African-American studies and expand qualified faculty appropriately, create a new research center focusing on racial injustice in U.S. society, and develop a senior officer position to support these efforts.
The initiatives taken by the university will, in the words of Presiden DeGoia: “Make an urgent inflection point in our history”.