Our Vision of Change

The Student Commission for Unity believes in a threefold approach to promoting multiculturalism and diversity at an undergraduate institution. Admissions, Student Life, and Academics.

ADMISSIONS

WHO are the students that compose our undergraduate community? Do we have a critical mass of students from various minority groups, or do conversations about diversity suffer from insufficient representation throughout the university? Therefore, we promote policies and initiatives that recruit and yield a diverse student body with respect to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, education background, family income, geography and ideology, among others. 

STUDENT LIFE

HOW do we have conversations on campus? How are they structured in the dormitories, hallways, cafeterias and study groups? What does the university do to promote honest and meaningful dialogue, conflict resolution, solidarity and pluralism? Therefore, we advocate policies and initiatives that are supportive and instructive when it comes to challenging conversations in our community.

ACADEMICS

WHAT do students know about each other's history and culture? Does the core curriculum promote a homogenous local, national and global perspective? Or do students engage in materials that challenge prejudice with reasoned and validated sources? Coursework at the university level always informs dialogue among students, either reinforcing or challenging preconceptions. The university has a responsibility to represent broad and conflicting sources in order to provide an intellectual environment for dialogue. Therefore, we promote multiculturalism in pedagogy, canonizing diversity in the core curriculum, diversifying the faculty, and strenghening ethnic studies offerings. 

From the "Introduction" to our 2009 Report...

The Student Commission for Unity was founded in 2007 as a manifestation of the Jesuit principle Contemplation in Action at work. Our research and advocacy is not merely an academic or professional exercise for undergraduate students. Instead, we endeavor earnestly to confront a society that allows the hungry to go unfed, the homeless to go without a place to rest, the poor to go uneducated, the victim to go without justice, and the alien to become marginalized.

Our research has been an opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of social problems in our immediate communities, truly preparing undergraduates to go into the world and engage the service of social reconstruction, social justice, education, philanthropy, community service, ministry, law enforcement, politics, or any enterprise unique to Georgetown’’s pioneering graduates that enter the world ““living generously for others.””

We have never restricted ourselves to a limited vision of our world, as it exists within Healy Gates. The Student Commission for Unity was founded for the work of social justice, to instigate the grander fulfillment of our Jesuit Ideals, upon which a just society ought to abide.

Our vision for Georgetown is one that actively pursues our Jesuit Ideals with all deliberate speed. In spite of societal injustice abounding throughout America and institutional barriers residing in higher education, which are heeded but unchallenged, the Student Commission for Unity hopes in the untapped potential of a humanity that deliberately seeks the good of our neighbor before the luxury of the self.

Our research is our testament, our recommendations are the vehicle of transformation. The following work has been done as an offering for social justice and for the betterment of humanity, which Georgetown can accomplish by embedding knowledge and understanding in the consciousnesses of every student who passes through Healy Gates.

Within the scope of our research, campus conceptions of class and school, education background, gender and sexual orientation, race and religion are explored in the following pages. This unprecedented student-led exploration of demographic perspectives enabled our researchers to understand in depth the problems and communities at risk at Georgetown, including but not limited to minority communities vulnerable to discrimination and marginalization, as well as majority and privileged communities who risk being complicit it the perpetuation of social inequality.

With this project, we hope not only to enhance community dialogue, but also to usher in an era of advocacy on behalf of the voiceless, and provide a space for growth for all students in our community. Together we strive towards a collective humanity that embodies a peaceful Community in Diversity of Women and Men for Others.