GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg said administrators have recently discussed the possibility of moving the Elliott School of International Affairs to a new location to open classroom space for the law school.
GW Law School Dean Michael Young announced the law school could move into Stuart Hall in 2002 and later expand to Lisner Hall, Nota Bene, the law school student newspaper, reported April 12.
Edward McCord, associate dean for student and curricular affairs in the Elliott School, said GW is considering a number of options, including the purchase of a building located on E Street between 19th and 20th streets.
Other options include constructing a building on a lot on H Street, rebuilding town houses on G Street, or using the current GW Hospital site after the new hospital is built on 23rd Street, Nota Bene reported.
Trachtenberg said the proposal is in the formative stages and no concrete decisions have been made. He said he would like to see a plan to provide both schools with more space by 2002, but it is too early to project a time line.
“This (proposal) has not been vetted through all the various stakeholders yet,” Trachtenberg said. “I would love to have it done by 2002, but I can’t say now if that is going to happen.”
ESIA senior Subarna Nandi said she welcomes more classroom space for the school but said it should not come at the cost of its central campus location.
McCord said the Elliott School has a desirable location near the center of campus, but it may have to accept a less central location in return for more space.
“I don’t know if we have any choice,” McCord said. “We like being in the middle of campus, but there’s no space left there. I don’t think anything is a done deal, but it looks like this is the way it is going to go.”
McCord said Trachtenberg approached ESIA administrators with the idea to move into a new building about a week and a half ago. He said the school tentatively plans to divide the building evenly between classroom, office and student residence space. McCord said nothing is official yet.
“We have filled up all the space we have currently,” McCord said. “We need more office space if we want to expand. At this point, we don’t have any unoccupied office space.”
McCord said ESIA administrators would like to have a lecture hall and additional community space for students.
