2020 Onward
Covid signage in Lauinger Library, April 22, 2020
Board of Directors adopts a policy on fossil fuel investments on February 6. Under it, the university will continue to make investments that target a market rate of return in renewable energy, energy efficiency and related areas while freezing new endowment investments in companies/ funds whose primary business is the exploration/ extraction of fossil fuels and will divest from public securities of fossil fuel companies
Black Survivors Coalition launches a #GeorgetownDoesntCare campaign to ask for better support of Black women and nonbinary survivors of sexual assault on campus on February 21. A sit-in at Healy Hall led by the Black Survivors Coalition begins on February 24
University announces a new graduate certificate in gender, peace and security on March 5
University announces on March 11 that it is moving to a virtual learning environment as of Monday, March 16, due to the coronavirus pandemic
Members of Georgetown University’s graduate student union ratify the union’s first contract with the university on May 8, after months of negotiation
Virtual celebration of the Class of 2020 is held on May 16, after the 2020 commencement is postponed to a time in which we can safely convene as a community
College Hosts Virtual Teach-In, From COVID to Minneapolis: Structural Racism in America on June 4
University announces on June 18 that Juneteenth will become an annual holiday
Luci Baines Johnson (NHS’69) and her husband Ian Turpin make a $1 million gift to the School of Nursing & Health Studies to support scholarships for graduate students interested in serving adult and geriatric populations, along with other underserved communities in July 2020
Coach John Robert Thompson Jr., the first African-American head coach to win a major collegiate championship in basketball when he led the Hoyas to the NCAA Division I national championship in 1984, dies on August 30, 2020
Major improvements to the historic Holy Rood Cemetery on Wisconsin Avenue are completed by Georgetown University and Holy Trinity Church in October 2020
Former Georgetown University President Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. (C'56), offers the invocation at the Biden-Harris inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2021
Georgetown and Howard University sign a Memorandum of Understanding, formalizing their commitment to collaborate including on the launch of the Howard Scholar Program, a full-tuition scholarship to the McCourt School of Public Policy in February 2021
Georgetown announces the establishment of a new Racial Justice Institute and the hire of three faculty members who will lead the institute’s interdisciplinary work in February 2021
Georgetown women's cross country team claims the BIG EAST title for the first time since 2014 in March 2021
Georgetown men's basketball team wins its eighth BIG EAST Championship with a 73-48 victory over Creighton in March 2021
Jesuits and Descendants of the 272 enslaved individuals sold in 1838 by the Maryland Province of Jesuits establish a new charitable foundation, The Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, focused on racial healing and educational advancement in March 2021
For the first time since Georgetown transitioned to a virtual environment, students in the Class of 2021 convene in person to celebrate their commencement at Nationals Park on May 24, 2021
University announces that Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of the Christian social justice organization Sojourners, will join the McCourt School as the inaugural Chair in Faith and Justice and will lead a new Faith and Justice Center in June 2021
Summer Hilltop Immersion Program (SHIP) starts on June 6, 2021. This is a five-week summer program of academic, experiential learning and social activities for the Class of 2024 and newly admitted transfer students, many of whom are living on campus for the first time. More than 800 Hoyas participate
University joins a new letter from the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and Immigration and American Business Immigration Council to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the bipartisan legislation supporting the Dream Act of 2021 in July 2021
Meghan Chapple joins Georgetown as its first Vice President of Sustainability on August 23, 2021
John T. Monahan (C’83, L’87) is appointed Interim Dean of School of Nursing & Health Studies in September 2021
Alejandro Werner, former director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund, is named founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, a new institute to address key challenges in Latin America and the hemisphere, in October 2021
Family of the late Henry J. Blommer (C’1926) donates $3M to establish the Henry J. Blommer Family Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business at the McDonough School of Business in October 2021
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome, senior hierarch to more than 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, attends an interfaith ceremony at Georgetown as part of his 12-day U.S. tour on October 25, 2021
Dharmic Meditation Center, the first of its kind on a U.S. campus, opens after student-led advocacy in November 2021
Basketball court at Capital One Arena is named for Coach John Thompson Jr. in December 2021
University joins 20 colleges and universities in urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects undocumented young adults from deportation in December 2021
Dr. Roberta Waite is announced as Dean of newly reconceptualized School of Nursing in December 2021
McCourt School’s Massive Data Institute receives $3.2M grant from the Bezos Earth Fund to support MDI in the development of an innovative data collaborative, serving communities most at risk of racial and environmental injustice in December 2021
Rosario Ceballo joins Georgetown as Dean of Georgetown College and professor of psychology on January 1, 2022
The Corp celebrates 50 Years of service to students in February 2022
University launches the Earth Commons to accelerate action, research and education on the most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges both locally and globally in February 2022
Safwan Masri, Ph.D., a global academic leader, professor and scholar on the Middle East and North Africa, is appointed Dean of Georgetown University in Qatar in April 2022
Michael G. Psaros (B’89) and Robin Psaros donate $11M to Create the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy which will offer research opportunities for students and solutions to challenges in global finance in April 2022
University Launches a new five-year Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree program for students at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Md, in April 2022
University announces a 5-Year Partnership with the Southern University System, the only historically Black university system in the U.S., on interdisciplinary programming, research and training in May 2022
McCourt Professor Adriana Kugler is appointed as the U.S. executive director of the World Bank Group in May 2022
Hoya Kids, Georgetown’s childcare center, celebrates its 25th anniversary in May 2022
Chapel in Copley Hall is named in honor of Sr. Thea Bowman, a Catholic religious sister who fought for racial justice and for a more inclusive Catholic Church on May 5, 2022
Acclaimed Play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, which tells the story of the beloved Georgetown professor, returns to the Davis Performing Arts Center, May 12-22, 2022
Dr. Christopher J. King, a professor and chair in the School of Nursing & Health Studies is named as the inaugural dean of Georgetown’s soon-to-be-launched School of Health in, May 2022
University celebrates the Class of 2022’s Commencement — the first graduation on the Hilltop in three years, May 19-22, 2022
More than 2,000 alumni from the Class of 2020 return to the Hilltop to celebrate their Commencement — an event postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 28, 2022
In the run-up to primary election day in Washington, DC, Georgetown and FOX 5 DC host a televised debate in Gaston Hall for candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary on June 1, 2022
