Professor and Alumnus John Glavin Offers Timeless Campus Tour
February 22, 2011
Georgetown University has no shortage of enduring icons—the Healy Gates, the John Carroll statue, the awe-inspiring Gaston Hall. But as generations of Hoyas come and go, the stories behind many of its iconic spaces are sometimes neglected.
Enter Professor and alumnus John Glavin (C’64), who gives a campus tour distinctly unlike the one enjoyed by prospective students and their parents. Glavin has been on the faculty of English department since 1967, teaching Victorian literature, screenwriting, and Shakespeare. In 1997, he helped found one of Georgetown’s most prestigious undergraduate programs—the Carroll Fellows Initiative—and he currently serves as Director of the Gervase Fellowship Program. In addition to his deep involvement in campus life, for the past ten years he has been offering an unofficial Hilltop tour that touches on the history of Georgetown (good and bad), the changes he’s seen since his undergraduate years, and the future of the university that is firmly rooted in its past.
For the last few years, Glavin has offered his tour to students and alumni as part of Jesuit Heritage Week, although in the past it was an anticipated Senior Week activity. While the tour can seemingly be described as “unauthorized,” Glavin has done plenty of research. “We have a fabulous archive and a fabulous archivist, Lynn Conway,” in Georgetown’s Lauinger Library, Glavin noted. She pointed him to papers and documents that helped him build his narrative of the university, to which he has added his own unique story. “This is a very personal tour. With the exception of 3 years, I have been at Georgetown since 1960,” Glavin explained. In addition to his research, the tour is sprinkled with “things I’ve heard and picked up and read about” over the years, and in that respect he calls it, wryly, “highly idiosyncratic.”
For Glavin, the buildings on campus not only reflect the university’s vibrant history, but have also anticipated its future as a global institution. Georgetown founder John Carroll planned the university to face the yet-undisclosed site of the nation’s Capitol, hoping to involve his school with the new republic. Of course, Carroll knew the planned site in advance—his brother was on the Capitol planning committee’s board, and sold the land to the government for its construction. But Glavin also notes that the university’s global roots extend from the Hilltop down into the Copley Crypt Chapel of the North American Martyrs, where stained glass panels commemorate martyred Jesuit missionaries. Admittedly his favorite location on the tour, Glavin notes that each window features the “implements” of the saint’s martyrdom, but also stresses that those missionaries constituted Georgetown’s “first signs of globalism.” He noted, “We were a global institution before we were a national institution. Georgetown survived because of those global ties.”
The story of Georgetown, however, is not simply about its founders, but also about its students. In the crypt, Glavin shares how, as an undergraduate, he staged an adaption of Charles Dickens’ novel Little Dorritt in that dark and shadowy space. Later, with listeners gathered in the Quadrangle, he remembers the mass held there just after President John F. Kennedy was shot. Glavin recalled how the students spilled out of Dahlgren Chapel, watching as a Jesuit—in red vestments for the feast of St. Cecilia—received a whispered message, left the altar, and returned wearing somber black. “Just as he came out,” Glavin recalled, “all the bells in Washington began to toll. And of course we knew the president was dead.”
Glavin argues that, as a liberal arts institution steeped in years of history, Georgetown must walk a fine line to embrace both the vision of its founders and the ever-changing perspective of its students. “The challenge at Georgetown is always to re-think utraque unum [both into one]. What does it mean now?” From his perspective, “For over 200 years, we’ve found that balance—we’ve lost that balance—but we’ve found it over and over again.”
It also becomes clear to students that Professor Glavin’s tour is a part of the Georgetown legacy itself. Allison Masserano (C’12), a Theology and Psychology major, inherited responsibility of organizing the event from her brother, alumnus Jonathan Masserano (C’10). “This is where we live, we walk past these buildings all the time,” she explained of the tour’s popularity. “Most of the people who go here really love Georgetown, and hearing the histories of the buildings and the people before us is exciting.” Integral to the experience, however, is Glavin himself. “He’s knows all this because he’s been here so long!” she laughed.
--Jessica Beckman
Photos by Kuna Hamad.
