page_title: Georgetown University
section_title: Activism
hierarchical_section_title: Georgetown University / Student life / Activism
caption_attribution_description: The Edward Bunn, S.J., Intercultural Center above "Red Square"
context_page_description: Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise ten undergraduate and graduate schools, among which are the School of Foreign Service, School of Business, Medical School, Law School, and a campus in Qatar. On a hill above the Potomac River, the school's main campus is identifiable by its flagship Healy Hall, a National Historic Landmark.
  Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher education in the United States. The Jesuits have participated in the university's academic life, both as scholars and as administrators, since 1805. However, the university has always been governed independently of the church, and the majority of Georgetown students are not Catholic.
  Georgetown is a highly selective school, accepting 15 percent of undergraduate applicants for its class of 2024. The university offers degree programs in forty-eight disciplines, enrolling an average of 7,500 undergraduate and 10,000 post-graduate students from more than 135 countries.
context_section_description: Georgetown University student organizations include a diverse array of groups focused on social justice issues, including organizations run through both Student Affairs and the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, & Service. This last organization, founded in 2001, works to integrate into their education Georgetown's founding mission of education in service for justice and the common good.
  Oriented against gender violence, Take Back the Night coordinates an annual rally and march to protest against rape and other forms of violence against women. Georgetown Solidarity Committee is a workers' rights organization whose successes include ending use of sweatshops in producing Georgetown-logoed apparel, and garnering pay raises for both university cleaning staff and police. Georgetown Students for Fair Trade successfully advocated for all coffee in campus cafeterias to be Fair Trade Certified.
  Georgetown has many additional groups representing national, ethnic, and linguistic interests. Georgetown has the second most politically active student body in the United States according to the Princeton Review. Groups based on local, national, and international issues are popular, and political speech is protected on campus. Student political organizations are active on campus and engage their many members in local and national politics. The Georgetown University College Republicans represent their party, while the Georgetown University College Democrats, the largest student organization on campus in 2008, represent theirs.
  The reproductive rights organization H*yas for Choice is not officially recognized by the university as its positions on abortion are in opposition to university policy, prompting the asterisk in "Hoyas." While not financially supported by the school, the organization is permitted to meet and table in university spaces. The issue contributes to Georgetown's 'red light' status on free speech under the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education rating system. In 2010, the "Plan A: Hoyas for Reproductive Justice" campaign led several protests against the school policy against the sale of birth control on campus, and in 2007, Georgetown University Law Center students protested the university's decision to cease funding for a student's internship at Planned Parenthood's litigation department despite funding it previous years. Law Center student Sandra Fluke petitioned the university to change its health insurance policy to include coverage for contraception for three years prior to addressing the issue before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in 2012. Although the remarks Rush Limbaugh subsequently directed at Fluke were criticized by Georgetown administrators as both misogynist and vitriolic, the school remains opposed to the coverage of contraception.
  The pro-life organization Georgetown Right to Life, however, is officially recognized and funded by the university. They actively participate in on-campus as well as nationally focused activism. Every year, the organization sends a delegation to the March for Life to show support for the national pro-life movement. In addition, every January since 2000 the club has organized the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life. The largest student-organized pro-life conference in the United States, it regularly hosts hundreds of attendees and prominent speakers such as Cardinal O'Malley.
caption: Students demonstrate and pass through Red Square, the center of student activism on Georgetown University's campus.
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