Office of the Dean - Georgetown College

Georgetown College Nameplate Text size: A A A

Office of the Dean

A Message from Dean Chester Gillis

With the start of the 2011-2012 academic year, new students and their family members will stream into the Georgetown University campus. Each of these young men and women will be welcomed by enthusiastic current Hoyas who have been preparing throughout the summer for the New Student Orientation. These new students will attend a weekend of events designed to introduce them to college life. It is an exciting time for everyone on campus.

Many of these first year students will enroll in an Ignatius Seminar taught by some of our most talented faculty including Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. Topics range from “Faith, Fiction, and Film” to “Following in the Framers’ Footsteps: Rewriting the Constitution of the 21st Century.” With classes limited to 15 students, these seminars create a unique environment that enables students and faculty members get to know one another well while at the same time facilitating focused and inclusive discussions. Thirty first year students will also enroll in the newly reconfigured Liberal Arts Seminar, a year-long experience with four professors that will engage students in the study of music, history, and literature from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment period.

In addition to our arriving students, the College welcomes 17 new faculty members. Among the top scholars in their fields, these professors earned their Ph.D.s at the following universities: Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Chicago, Duke, George Washington, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, Oxford, Texas, and Yale.

Also new this semester is the College’s minor in education, inquiry and justice. Each year, Georgetown provides one of the largest contingents of students to Teach for America. This minor will both prepare many of these future educators for the challenges they will face in the classroom while at the same time complementing their major course of study. The College is also laying the groundwork for a minor in journalism that will debut in the spring semester. What better place to engage in the study of journalism than in the nation’s capital where the local news is the national news?

This year the College received 11,791 applicants and had the most selective admission rate of Georgetown’s undergraduate schools (17%). We are fortunate to have such outstanding students joining us. We welcome them to our intellectual, social, and spiritual community as they begin “the Georgetown years” that will shape them for a lifetime.

Chester Gillis
Dean, Georgetown College

 

Georgetown College108 White-Gravenor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057 Phone: 202.687.4043Fax: 202.687.7290
Georgetown University Seal