CCT student Liz Sabatiuk modeled this “index” on the Harper’s Index in Harper’s Magazine. The experiment was part of her final remix project, in which she explored what’s remembered and what’s forgotten in Georgetown’s history. Each Harper’s Index curates 40 facts expressed through numbers, rates, ratios, percentages, years, factors, and other quantities. Each point is carefully chosen and strategically located to provoke reflection and even surprise. This Index juxtaposes 40 quantitative facts about Georgetown to create a multi-faceted and authentic representation of Georgetown, past and present.
Old North’s Index
Georgetown University’s rank in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report: 21
Number of athletes who’ve been inducted to the Georgetown Athletic Hall of Fame: 258
Year John Carroll proposed founding a school at Georgetown: 1787
Year Maryland was settled: 1634
The year blue and gray were adopted as Georgetown’s school colors to represent the two sides of the Civil War: 1876
Percentage of Georgetown students who fought in the Civil War who fought for the Confederates: 80
Ratio of free black people to slaves in Washington, DC, in 1800: 1 to 4
In 1860: 3 to 1
Year Lauinger Library opens, named for Joseph Mark Lauinger, an alumnus killed in Vietnam War: 1970
Georgetown’s yearly undergraduate tuition as of FY2016: $48,048
Number of Catholic women’s colleges in 1910: 14
In 1967: 120
Number of students forming the Committee of Concerned College Students to protest the admission of women to Georgetown: 100
Averaged high school percentile rank of the first group of women admitted to Georgetown: 91.5
Of men the same year: 78.3
Ratio of applications to openings for women the first year Georgetown admitted female undergraduates: 10 to 1
Amount spent to renovate Dahlgren Chapel in 2011: $8,000,000
Number of clergymen who in 1789 acquired the parcel of land that would become Georgetown: 5
Amount of the down payment Georgetown received for the sale of ~272 slaves to a Louisiana congressman: $25,000
Number of United States Presidents who have visited Old North since Georgetown was founded: 14
Number who were men: 14
Ratio of mentions of “children” to “fight” in President Obama’s 2013 speech on Climate Change at Georgetown: 15 to 8
Year Patrick Healy became the 29th President of Georgetown: 1874
Year Patrick Healy was born into slavery in Macon, GA: 1830
Acceptance rate for legacy students for
the same year: 37%
Amount donated by Frank McCourt, Jr. to
found the McCourt School of Public Policy: $100,000,000
Year bulldog adopted as Georgetown
Collins, D. et al. (2015). What We Know: Georgetown University and Slavery.
Harper’s Magazine (2015). Vol. 331, No 1985.
Listening to Architecture: What Georgetown University Says Today. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thehoya.com/listening-to-architecture-what-georgetown-university-says-today/
QUALLEN: Georgetown, Financed by Slave Trading. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thehoya.com/georgetown-financed-by-slave-trading/
Shaver, K. (2015). Georgetown University to rename two buildings that reflect school’s ties to slavery. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/georgetown-university-to-rename-two-buildings-that-reflect-schools-ties-to-slavery/2015/11/15/e36edd32-8bb7-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html
Poulson, S. L. (1995). From Single-Sex to Coeducation: The Advent of Coeducation at Georgetown, 1965-1975. U.S. Catholic Historian, 13(4), 21.
The Restoration and Renovation of Old North. (1983). Office of University Relations. Georgetown University.
Williamson, M. (2015). Georgetown’s New Building Names Won’t Erase Slavery Ties. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/4119635/georgetowns-new-building-names-wont-erase-slavery-ties/