What does the Georgetown University administration think they’re teaching their students? A group of pro-choice, pro-birth control Georgetown University students demanded a meeting with the President of the school John J. DeGioia, about two months ago. After receiving no response the students mailed a box of condoms to the school President, put tape on their mouths, chained themselves to a statue to protest the lack of available birth control on campus, and issued a deadline to the school President.
And guess what, it seems that acting like spoiled children may just win the day.
The Hoya reports:
At 3:20 p.m., H*yas for Choice, in solidarity with Plan A, issued a statement via e-mail announcing that “We are giving President DeGioia a deadline of 8:00 TONIGHT to take the tape off our mouths and the chains off our bodies!”
The protesters received a letter from the administration at 7:15 p.m. stating that they will open up dialogue with Plan A. The letter was delivered by Assistant Director of Student Programs Tanesha Stewart. Cory, one of the leaders of Plan A, said that the coalition hopes for a meeting within the next week.
According to NBC:
Georgetown University officials say they are now willing to talk about sex health issues after a dozen student protesters got their attention during a rally Saturday.
You have got to be kidding me, right?
These students act like prima donnas and they are granted a meeting? What message does the President of the school thinks this move sends to every other student group? Blackmail works?
And one has to wonder how much the school is willing to “negotiate” on the issues of birth control and abortion?
In fact, it seems that this may be the second major capitulation to the group this month. The Philadelphia Bulletin is reporting that The Student Activities Commission (SAC) of Georgetown voted in favor of funding an abortion “rights” panel on campus run by H*yas for Choice.
The Bulletin reports:
According to the blog of the Georgetown Voice, Plan A started its events on March 21 with the panel discussion, which was the first event in Georgetown history to not include the pro-life argument in an open discussion of abortion. Members of the panel included representatives of the National Abortion Federation, Choice USA and GU Men Creating Change. They “spoke about the importance of male involvement in the pro-choice movement, why male involvement is especially important to the pro-choice movement now, and how Georgetown students can lobby the school to fund more similar events.”
A member of Plan A reportedly said that Sunday’s panel discussion was the only event funded by Georgetown University in the overall Choice Week which is now taking place, also according to the Georgetown Voice blog.
I wonder what would happen if pro-life faithful Catholic students chained themselves to a statue in the middle of campus. Something tells me they’d be there for quite some time.
March 29, 2010 at 5:18 am
Georgetown… Jesuit… Catholic in name only… Is anyone really surprised? Sigh.
March 29, 2010 at 5:27 am
Straight out of the Alinsky playbook.
March 29, 2010 at 5:55 am
sad, just sad… martyrs stood their ground to the point of death and Georgetown folds at prima donnas? can't they know to insists that morality and truth are not negotiable! if they cannot adhere to Catholic teachings they should just leave…
– gmtorre
March 29, 2010 at 9:19 am
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March 29, 2010 at 9:20 am
(resending as I noted a typo)
Have to point out that you would never see this at the "Charismatic" Franciscan University of Steubenville. They are faithful to the Magesterium of the Catholic Church.
March 29, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Yeah, Jesuits, what a shock.
March 29, 2010 at 4:08 pm
". . chained themselves to a statue to protest the lack of available birth control on campus."
Is the drugstore too far away for them?? Are the suggesting that the university should just pass out condoms?
Mind-boggling. No, the administration should not give in to this.
March 29, 2010 at 4:11 pm
@Al, how is a school, if they allow inappropriate music in the liturgy, being faithful? Sure, they may have an EF Mass on campus now and have a schola (singing sacred music). However, if the majority of their masses (and youth conferences) employ P & W music, they themselves are not following Church directive on giving sacred music (in particular Gregorian Chant) pride of place. Is that being faithful?
March 29, 2010 at 4:49 pm
From the text, it appears that the administration is just going to confer with the protestors. It could be a chance to educate these kids about chastity, purity and temperance. I doubt if the Jesuits will acquiesce. But if they do, then they are no longer being educators. They would have ceased to be the salt of the earth & the light of the world. They might as well sell Georgetown and give the proceeds to the poor.
March 29, 2010 at 5:07 pm
“We are giving President DeGioia a deadline of 8:00 TONIGHT to take the tape off our mouths and the chains off our bodies!”
Or …what? They're going to stay chained there? Who cares?! They'll leave just as soon as they get hungry, thirsty, or cold enough… after all, they're likely not very good at self denial.
March 29, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Please, are we surprised at ALL?? This is the same school that took down the Crucifix at the request of Obama when he was speaking there. The spineless administrators are an insult to the original Jesuits and St. Ignatius.
March 29, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Someone should have just turned on the sprinklers and walked away.
March 29, 2010 at 6:37 pm
They'll leave just as soon as they get hungry, thirsty, or cold enough… after all, they're likely not very good at self denial..
I assume they would have people bringing them necessities. Even if not, in the whacky world of progressive no-cost protest, there are such things as substitute protestors. I seem to recall one of the prominent members of the black rage movement going on a hunger strike and when he got real hungry, someone came in and subbed for him while he went and got a cheesburger.
March 29, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I agree with Lori – – are these people too stupid to buy a condom or whatever at a drugstore? Do they expect the college to provide for them? Pathetic ignorant little dweebs!
March 29, 2010 at 6:55 pm
@Adrienne…I am willing to bet they didn't realize they were going to a Catholic College. Since that thought did not cross their minds, they thought what held true at their friend's colleges (free condoms) should apply to them too.
March 29, 2010 at 7:08 pm
And this is why I am tearing the Georgetown sticker off my car. In shame.
But to be fair, Georgetown long ago ceased to be a Catholic institution. Shame on me for hoping against hope that maybe they might have a rebirth into orthodoxy.
March 30, 2010 at 4:52 am
When you've committed yourself to sin, you commit just as strongly as someone who commits to virtue.
It's not that they can't just shrug it off and go to the drugstore, it's that to silence the "itch" in their souls, they have to force everyone else to agree with them.
March 30, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Um, they SENT a box of condoms to the president of the university…there's your access, people! And if they kept the tape on their mouths and themselves chained up, they wouldn't NEED the extra birth control! 🙂
April 1, 2010 at 4:44 am
Overindulged American kids…Georgetown caves like almost EVERY Parent I see in society today. You know who you are. Don't shake your heads and complain-look in your own home.
I raised three children (not my own) for a single father who had to work 2 jobs to support them. When I arrived 11 years ago they were spoiled and overindulged and practiced blackmail on a daily basis.
They were 10, 7 & 4. I never made a rule I didn't back up. I stressed that obedience was first in the eyes of God and that the mirror looked back long and hard.
I marinated them with love (sometimes a very tough love)
Today they are 21, 18 & 15. Two are discerning vocations and the third is going into the Marines. They have called me Mom for 10 of these eleven years.
Self-respect, decency, integrity start at home and must be backed up by the schools and by society. WE are responsible for these young souls. We will be judged with mercy, but we will be JUDGED.
I must sign in with Anonymous because the grandparents who were the offenders in this case may be insulted. After all, charity is the key.)
April 5, 2010 at 3:02 pm
GU Right to Life DID try to counterprotest, according to the article in The Hoya. Because they're a recognized group at the school, they could have suffered negative consequences as a result of protesting outside of the free speech zone in Red Square, so they left. Plan A and H*yas for Choice don't have university recognition, so there's nothing the school can threaten them with to make them leave. Take away their funding? They don't have any.
Also, it should be noted that they chose GAAP Weekend – the admitted students' weekend – to protest in the most prominent location on campus. The knew the administration would cave quickly, since it was embarrassed to have all this going on while thousands of prospective students and their parents were on campus.