A U.S. District Court lifted a D.C.-imposed undergraduate enrollment cap June 15, allowing GW to admit its full freshman class in the fall.
In the first victory of a larger legal fight between GW and the city, a judge also suspended a restriction on GW building projects. Both restrictions, lifted only for the 2001-02 school year, were part of the same condition of the University’s campus plan passed in March.
D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment imposed an enrollment freeze and limited GW construction to undergraduate housing projects until the University houses 70 percent of its students when it passed GW’s campus plan.
The University requested an injunction on the enrollment freeze in May to keep its freshman class. GW exceeded the cap on students living on the Foggy Bottom campus by 450 students when it enrolled 2,550 freshmen.
GW testified that it began admitting students before the Board of Zoning Adjustment officially issued the order March 29, about a week after admission letters were sent March 23.
Barber said the judge agreed with the University that the BZA issued the order during GW’s admissions process, and the oral decision from Feb. 13 could not be considered final.
“The decision was issued in the middle of an admissions process that had begun months ago,” he said.
Barber cited Georgetown University’s campus plan decision, in which the BZA’s allowed an enrollment increase in its oral decision but refused one in its written order.
“You really can’t rely on an oral decision, the BZA does in fact change the condition in its written order,” he said.
The court offered no final decision when it reviewed the injunction request June 12 and asked GW to draft an order for the judge, Barber said. The judge returned the order June 15, granting the injunction and asked GW for a breakdown of how many students live off campus by Sept. 30.
Barber said he does not know what the judge plans to do with the numbers, but said he will comply.
“The judge agreed that having a freeze when you don’t know the numbers doesn’t make sense,” Barber said. During campus plan negotiations with Foggy Bottom residents last summer, GW was unable to provide them the number of students living in Foggy Bottom.
Barber said he will also draft an order asking the D.C. Court of Appeals to immediately review a University lawsuit that requests a termination of campus plan restrictions, which calls arbitrary and unconstitutional.
GW filed the suit April 25, saying the order infringes on the University’s rights to academic freedom and discriminates against students as residents of Foggy Bottom. University officials also claim the BZA order causes “irreparable harm” to GW’s operation and development.
