1960-1969
Mass for Dr. Martin Luther King,
April 5, 1968
Raymond F. Pelissier is named Director of the Business Administration School
WGTB switches from an AM to a FM station
Don Cadle, a former Yale and Oxford crew member, volunteers as head Crew Coach in March. He coaches until 1964 when he moves to Germany to enter his family’s textile business. However, he stays in contact with the crew teams, phoning after races to learn the results, and even sending uniforms
Groundbreaking ceremony for Reiss Science takes place, October 9. Bob Hope emcees the dinner after the ceremony
Varsity crew returns to Georgetown after fifty years and is given an annual budget of $1000
New student orientation is introduced
Dr. Patricia Rueckel is appointed to fill the newly created position of Dean of Women.
University purchases Halcyon House (3406 Prospect Street) for use as a women’s residence hall because of the increasing number of women students. The completion of Darnall as a women’s dorm makes ownership unnecessary and the house is sold in 1966
Kober-Cogan serves as the University’s first coed dorm starting in the fall. Women are housed on the top floors, while medical residents who are all men occupy the second floor
Laurian Cardinal Rugambwa of Tanganyika becomes the first African to receive an honorary degree
Crew team is undefeated and wins the varsity and junior varsity titles at the Dad Vail Regatta
Mary Jo Bane, F’1963, becomes the first woman editor of the Foreign Service Courier (a student magazine)
Harry Thomas Campbell becomes the first African American admitted to the College. The College is the last of Georgetown’s schools to integrate
First "Jack" the bulldog arrives on campus in the fall. The students want to name him "Hoya" but he refuses to answer to anything other than "Jack"
University reports that it has 229,000 square feet of fallout shelter space (including 13,000 square feet in Healy Basement) that could accommodate 15,000-20,000 people. This is seen as adequate to take care of all the students and many residents in the Georgetown area
Three Georgetown students, one of whom is African American, are refused service in an Arlington, VA, dinner on February 12. They return with 12 other students the next day and are arrested after a sit-in
50-75 people leave from campus to join the March on Washington. The University declines to sponsor an official Georgetown delegation, August 28
Francis P. Dinneen, S.J. is appointed acting Dean of the Institute of Languages and Linguistics
Georgetown begins a year-long celebration of its 175th anniversary. It adopts Wisdom and Discovery for a Dynamic World as the anniversary theme
Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the de facto First Lady of South Vietnam, visits on October 19, 1963
Ray Charles performs in McDonough Gym, November 2
Students gather in the Quadrangle on November 22, after news reaches campus of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for a Mass said by John F. Devine, S.J., Director of the Student Personnel Office, from the porch of Old North
One of The Hoya’s entertainment reporters conducts an interview with The Beatles who are in Washington for their first live concert appearance in the U.S. The interview is printed in the February 20 issue of the newspaper
More than 6000 people participate in a University-hosted a prayer meeting in McDonough Gym for pending civil rights legislation in Congress in April
Joseph S. Sebes, S.J. is named acting Director of the Business Administration School
Contemporary folk singer Joan Baez performs in Gaston Hall on May 25
Thomas R. Fitzgerald, S.J. becomes Dean of the College
Gerard J. Campbell, S.J. is appointed President of Georgetown. He serves in this role until 1968
After retiring as President, Edward B. Bunn is appointed as the first (and to this point the only) Chancellor of the University
Georgetown University Community Action Coalition (GUCAC) is established to coordinate various student community service projects. By the fall, it is the largest student group on campus
University provides housing in early January for members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) who are in DC to challenge the seating of five Mississippi congressmen who have been elected in contests virtually closed to African American voters
Darnall Hall opens to house women students
Walsh Area Women’s Committee and the School of Nursing Student Council award the first Darnall Award. The award, designed to recognize a woman who successfully combines the role of wife and mother with responsibility to her community, is given to Eunice Shriver. The following year, Dolores Hope, Bob Hope’s wife, receives the award
A group of Georgetown students drives to Selma, Alabama to attend a memorial service for a DC clergyman who has been murdered there in March. The East Campus student Council passes resolutions expressing solidarity with the civil rights movement, setting up an emergency fund to provide support for the students in Alabama, and starting a petition campaign to secure federal protection for civil rights workers.
Lucie Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johson, leaves the Nursing School as she wishes to marry and married woman are not permitted to continue as students in the School
Mask and Bauble provide lighting for the White House’s Festival of the Arts held on June 14. Lady Bird Johnson sends a signed photograph with an inscription of thanks
Georgetown becomes the first U.S. University to hold a summer program at the Moscow State University. This program is repeated in 1966
Architectural firm of John Carl Warnecke and Associates is commissioned to design the library in July 1965. Warnecke had previously designed the memorial to John F. Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery
Women are represented on the editorial board of The Hoya for the first time
Harry P. Guenther is named the first Dean of the Business Administration School
Membership on the Board of Directors expands in number from 12 to 15 and broadens in scope to include Jesuits from outside Georgetown
Florence Dailey leaves $7 million in Eastman Kodak stocks to Georgetown. This bequest is the largest ever received by the University to this point. The motivation for her generosity – she had no personal connection to Georgetown – is unknown. The University uses the money for student scholarships
Thomas R. Fitzgerald, S.J. – known to students as “Fr. Fitz” or “the silver fox” – is appointed as Academic Vice President. A popular administrator who takes a strong interest in the affairs of student government, he resides on the third floor of New South
Royden B. Davis, S.J. (C’1947, L’1949) is appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Under his leadership the College becomes co-educational in 1969. He oversees the inauguration of the American Studies Program and the establishment of the Departments of Psychology, Sociology and Computer Science. He retires as Dean in 1989. The Performing Arts Center on campus is named for him
Psychology and sociology departments are established
Medical School is awarded the first clinical pharmacological contract written by the FDA
Tony Johnson becomes Head Heavyweight Crew Coach
Pay parking on campus is approved by the Board of Directors
Male students are allowed to keep and drink alcoholic beverages in their dorm rooms for the first time
Amendment to 1844 charter which incorporated Georgetown legally changes the school's name from Georgetown College to Georgetown University
Valerie A. Earle is elected as the first president of the newly created Faculty Senate
Nursing School allows married students to enroll and allows enrolled students to marry. Prior to this, married women could not enroll and senior students could only marry with permission of the Dean
Law School graduates are awarded J.D.s rather than LL.B.s for the first time
After the first Alumni-sponsored European tour, alumni clubs are established in Rome, Paris, and London
Lay members are appointed to the Board of Directors
Protestant and Jewish theologians are added to the Theology Department
Hillel Chapter is established
Law Center sets up the Institute for Urban Service Aides to provide courses in sociology, political science, psychology and history to staff in D.C.’s human service agencies
Jesuit Community separately incorporates
Georgetown University Committee to Support the Poor People’s Campaign (GUPCC) is established in March
Four days of riots in DC follow the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. After a memorial service in the Quadrangle at noon on April 5, a delegation of hundreds of Georgetown students led by the GUPCC co-chairs march to the White House to deliver a petition in support of a national day of mourning for Dr. King. Classes are cancelled beginning Monday April 8, allowing students to go home three days early for Easter if they wish; many stay help local residents
Commencement ceremony takes place but all other associated activities are cancelled after the assassination of Robert Kennedy
Black Student Alliance is founded
Bill Clinton graduates from the Foreign Service School. Among his fellow graduates is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (President of the Philippines from 2001 until 2010)
Student center opens in Healy basement
Georgetown announces that the College of Arts and Sciences will accept women students the following year
Community Scholars Program is founded as a direct response to the racial justice crises of 1968. It aims to promote social justice by enrolling a more racially and socioeconomically diverse student body
University-wide rank-and-tenure committee is established
Georgetown Voice publishes its first issue on March 4. Its editors promise to present and analyze national and local issues of concern to the student, whose concern should spread beyond the campus. The paper takes its name from New York’s Village Voice
San Francisco Mayor Joseph L. Alioto is prevented from speaking in Gaston Hall on March 13 by members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), most of whom were not Georgetown students. Thousands of students sign a letter of apology to him
Small number of women transfer into the College from other Georgetown schools in the spring
College allocates 50 places to women students in the fall semester and receives over 500 applications for those places
Black Awareness Week is celebrated on campus for the first time, April 14-19
Nursing School announces that it will admit men students in the fall
Unified Student Senate is formed replacing separate student governments in the College, East Campus and Nursing School
After women enroll in the College in the fall, Copley Hall is designated as a coeducational dorm, with women housed on its third floor and, later, on its fifth
Dr. Patricia Rueckel is appointed as Vice President for Student Development and becomes not only the first woman vice president at Georgetown but the highest ranking woman administrator in any of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S. The following year she is elected president of the Conference of Jesuit Student Personnel Administrators
Jo Gramling becomes the first woman editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal
Mary Switzer, the first administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, is the first woman elected to a term on the University’s Board of Directors
American Studies Program is created
Robert J. Henle, S.J. is inaugurated as University President on October 7
Students participate in protests in the fall to oppose plans by the District of Columbia to build a bridge over the Potomac River near the Three Sisters islets. Construction for the bridge would have displaced thousands of families, predominantly African-Americans, from their homes in D.C. Plans for the bridge were eventually withdrawn from D.C.’s master transportation plan in 1977
Seven courses in Black Studies are created for the fall
Comedian and Civil Rights activist Dick Gregory speaks in Gaston Hall in October. He touches on issues relating to inequalities in society
The Who perform in McDonough Gymnasium in November as part of a tour to support their album Tommy
