ONE THING I really hated when I lived on Grounds was leaving immediately after finals. I never had enough time to pack up. But at least I wasn't forced to leave in the middle of the semester. Unfortunately for students at George Washington University, this isn't the case. Students learned last Thursday that the administration had granted a police request to shut down the entire campus - including residence halls - for five days during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings that begin Sept. 29.
There are very good reasons to cancel classes during this time, and the university should take student safety into account. However, the decision to remove students from residence halls is unnecessary and places undue hardship on students living on-campus.
Protests in Washington, D.C. aren't new. About 30,000 people protested when the World Bank met there in April 2000. After the riots this summer in Genoa, however, where a protester was shot by a policeman, tensions have heightened. Protesters there numbered around 50,000, and Washington police have estimated that anger over Genoa will swell the ranks in D.C. to 100,000.
Understandably, the police force is concerned about such a large protest and possibilities for violence. It has several actions planned, from bringing in outside law enforcement to the more controversial building of a nine-foot wall, which will run partially through the GW campus. On Aug. 30 the police department formally requested that the university shut down its Foggy Bottom campus entirely.
Considering the congestion expected by this major event, it makes sense for the university to cancel classes. Faculty and staff most likely would have difficulty getting to class, and if things do turn nasty, students shouldn't have to choose between safety and keeping up with class.
In forcing students to leave the residence halls, however, the university has gone too far. If the protests really do cause that many problems, students can sit peacefully in their dorm rooms and wait it out. Forcing students to leave suggests that either students aren't mature enough to handle themselves, placing little confidence in them, or that there will be such pervasive violence that residents risk being yanked out of their dorm rooms, which is downright paranoid.
The decision also affirms the Washington police's self-fulfilling prophecy of violence. GW Prof. of Management Science Tom Nagy argues in an e-mail that shutting down the campus "frames the issue [of violence] as 'those crazy protesters,'" distracting from the reasons for the protests themselves. While Nagy cannot expect the university to take his position in supporting the protesters, he is absolutely right that GW's actions make the protesters out to be villains forcing the shutdown of a campus, which is inconsistent with the university's neutral stance on the issue of the IMF's policies.
Nagy also notes that GW prides itself on being "at the center of it all," an idea incompatible with closing. In the past the campus has remained open during some of the most virulent protests of the Vietnam War era. Despite having protesters from other venues camped out in the residence halls, GW managed just fine. Students do not come to school in Washington, D.C. expecting to be sheltered from what goes on there.
Even if the university is proved right eventually, it has mishandled the details. According to The Hatchet, the GW student newspaper, most students aren't mad about the closing itself, but about the timing. Students are advised to go home on extremely short notice - three weeks. This is the time window when airline tickets become expensive and hotel rooms in the city are hard to find, particularly for such a busy weekend.
Such short notice was unnecessary. According to The Hatchet ("Closing Campus," Sept. 10), the university had been in discussions with the police for five weeks before this announcement was made. Police also should have made the request to close residence halls earlier, since they knew of potential problems as early as July 10.
Aside from the issue of early warning, however, is the fact that the university has not made sufficient moves to avoid causing financial hardship to students. For those students who don't live close by, GW is offering $600 loans due in December to cover the cost or five days without dorms. For those students who already have loans piling up, however, this doesn't help much. The university essentially is violating a lease agreement without compensation. Whether it's the university itself or the Washington police, somebody should reimburse these students at the very least by crediting them for the time they were denied housing.
Administrators should concern themselves with student safety and police concerns. The decision to move students out of residence halls, however, goes too far and does not adequately meet student needs for housing. In trying to avoid a crisis, the administration has created a new one.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at emanagan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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