The Rise of Student Counterculture

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of tremendous cultural upheaval in the United States and it was reflected in student activism at Georgetown. Selected as president of Georgetown in order to rescue the university financially, Fr. Robert Henle, serving from 1969 to 1976, oversaw a breakdown of the more traditional culture of Georgetown's campus.

Like many college campuses, Georgetown experienced social unrest that fostered anti-establishment sentiments. A new student newspaper, The Voice, was established because the mainstream student newspaper, The Hoya, was considered to be too conservative in its view of the Vietnam War. In fact, some students burned copies of The Hoya in a 1969 riot. Students also protested the Vietnam War by holding protests including a massive sit-in demonstration on Copley Lawn.

In 1971, a May Day riot got so out of hand that final exams were cancelled and the school year was ended prematurely. Fr. Henle made the fateful decision to call the police on the campus radicals and have them sprayed with tear gas. In response, students banded together and formed a separate legal entity known as Students of Georgetown, Incorporated in order to sue the university. It soon became known as "The Corp." The Corp opened a student-run grocery store called Vital Vittles and continued to expand its non-profit business over the next few decades. True to its rebellious roots, it has at times attempted to sell controversial products like condoms and bongs. Today, The Corp has six storefronts and is the largest entirely student-run non-profit business in the world.

Students even found some partners in the administration. Pacifist Jesuit priest Richard McSorley protested alongside students who opposed the ROTC program. Executive Vice President for Educational Affairs, Father Edmund Ryan was described as the most popular administrator among the students. He even helped students dump thousands of lemons in the president's office in protest of tuition hikes. His abrupt termination in 1974 caused an uproar on campus and prompted a student vigil where hundreds gathered to express their frustration. This solidified tension between the student body and the administration.

While protests at Georgetown were relatively mild compared to many other universities at the time, this behavior was actually quite radical for students at a Catholic school to engage in such behavior. Traditionally, Catholic schools like Georgetown had enforced strict discipline with a paternalistic campus culture known as loco parentis. The erosion of this culture in the sixties and seventies and the rise of student activism led to a new style of housing students on campus. Instead of placing students in dormitories which connoted the strict boarding school mindset, Georgetown began erecting student villages. Thanks to the College Housing Loan Program, the university constructed new communities of apartment-style housing. These communities were intended to feel more like real neighborhoods and grant students more control over their own adult lives. Over the course of a decade, the university constructed four villages: Henle Village in 1976, Village A in 1979, Village B (now named Alumni Square) in 1983, and Village C in 1986.

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