page_title: Georgetown University
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: Georgetown University / Student life / Events
caption_attribution_description: English: President Barack Obama participates in a discussion about poverty during the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., May 12, 2015. From left, moderator E. J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post columnist and professor in Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, Robert Putnam, professor of public policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute.
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: Annual events on campus celebrate Georgetown traditions, culture, alumni, sports, and politics. In late April, Georgetown University celebrates Georgetown Day. Besides the full-day carnival, the day rewards the best professor of the year with the Dorothy Brown Award, as voted by students. Halloween is celebrated with public viewings of alumnus William Peter Blatty's film The Exorcist, which takes place in the neighborhood surrounding the university.
  Homecoming coincides with a home football game, and festivities such as tailgating and a formal dance are sponsored by the Alumni Association to draw past graduates back to campus. The largest planned sports related celebration is the first basketball practice of the season. Dubbed Midnight Madness, this event introduces the men's and women's basketball teams shortly after midnight on the first day the teams are allowed by NCAA rules to formally practice together. The festivities include a dunk contest, a 3-point contest, a scrimmage, and a musical act.
  Georgetown University hosts notable speakers each year, largely because of the success of the Georgetown Lecture Fund and the Office of Communications. These are frequently important heads of state who visit Georgetown while in the capital, as well as scholars, authors, U.S. politicians, global business leaders, and religious figures. Many prominent alumni are known to frequent the main campus. The Office of the President hosts numerous symposia on religious topics, such as Nostra aetate, Pacem in terris, and the Building Bridges Seminar.
caption: Gaston Hall is a venue for many events, such as speeches from U.S. President Barack Obama.
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