The University plans to house 88 students in an all-male residence hall at the Mount Vernon campus next fall – a significant change in the history of the previously all-women’s college. The change was announced to the women at Mount Vernon not in an official notification from the University, but by word of mouth. It was a pathetic start to the newest phase of the relationship between Mount Vernon and GW.
When the affiliation between Mount Vernon College and GW was first announced in October 1996, it was heralded as the best way to save the financially struggling college from extinction. GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg said GW would make a good faith effort to shape Mount Vernon into one of the top women’s colleges in the nation.
That was three years ago. In the ensuing three years, GW has poured millions of dollars into repairing and renovating Mount Vernon’s once-crumbling facilities. Many Mount Vernon students take classes at the Foggy Bottom campus, and more Foggy Bottom students are heading to Foxhall Road for some of their courses. Mount Vernon and GW are supposedly a single school, but problems linger.
The University should have told its students – both the ones in Foggy Bottom and those at Mount Vernon – of the new housing plan as soon as it was decided upon. It is unconscionable that drastic changes would be scheduled at what is advertised as an all-female alternative to the main campus without the students there being properly notified.
If GW had planned all along to house males at the Mount Vernon campus, it should have been up-front about its intentions three years ago. At least, Mount Vernon students who wanted an all-female education could have transferred. If the change is to be successful, it must be well-planned, publicized and mindful of students’ feelings.
When GW took over Mount Vernon, it promised to do its best to keep the college close to its traditional roots. The promises seem hollow now. The seemingly spontaneous way in which GW made its housing decision public shattered its past promises and damaged the administration’s credibility.
