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GU Set to Overhaul Tech Department, Potentially Threatening Employment Chloe Taft

Graduate Desk Editor

Georgetown University plans to restructure its internal information technology (IT) department by June 1, potentially threatening dozens of employees’ jobs, according to several interviews with employees and documents reviewed by The Hoya. University Information Systems (UIS), which was initially structured to maintain local hardware such as physical servers, has not been overhauled in decades, according to multiple UIS employees. At a Feb. 10 meeting, university administrators informed all 150 UIS employees that their positions will fall into one of three categories: no change, updated or repurposed — with the latter designation forcing current staff members to reapply for new jobs due to university policy. In communications with employees about the restructuring, UIS administrators cited the need to adapt to internet and cloud-based technologies as well as offering more customer support. UIS employees in

the “repurposed” category will either start their new roles, if rehired, or be formally laid off by June 1. According to two UIS employees, 30 staff members — about a fifth of the department — have had their jobs repurposed. The Hoya counted at least 32 UIS and information technology (IT) positions posted on or after Feb. 10 on the university’s careers page. The Hoya spoke with five UIS employees and reviewed communications between university officials and UIS staff to understand the impact and extent of the restructuring. All five of the employees requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation, as many will be reapplying for their jobs. A UIS employee, whose position was repurposed after many years at Georgetown, said changes at UIS could mean losing their job and struggling to afford basic necessities. “I’m used to having a paycheck,” the employee told The Hoya. “I’m usedtohavingmoneycominginthat allows me to pay for anything and See UIS, A7

NOAH DE HAAN/THE HOYA

Georgetown University began negotiations with SEIU1199, the union representing university facilities workers, which requested an increase in wages and stable parking rates during a Feb. 25 contract bargaining session that focused on financial provisions.

GU Facilities Workers Renegotiate Contract

Ajani Stella and Nico Charles Gore, a facilities worker Just Employment Policy, which four years, according to Elinor on the bargaining team, said the guarantees fair and competitive Clark (CAS ’27), the facilities team Abreu Senior News Editors

HAAN JUN (RYAN) LEE/THE HOYA

Georgetown University Information Services will restructure by June 1 for the first time in decades, according to employees.

The union representing Georgetown University facilities workers began negotiating their contract’s financial clauses at a Feb. 25 bargaining session. The facilities workers’ union, 1199SEIU, includes a variety of departments such as bus drivers, sanitation workers, housekeepers, maintenance staff and landscapers, among others. During the negotiations, union representatives advocated for an increase in wages and stable parking rates.

final contract should feel fair to both the workers and the university. “It’s going as bargaining goes — it’s such a cat and mouse game that’s being played,” Gore told The Hoya. “But I’m not sure where it’s going yet. What we want is better pay and better treatment, and we’re trying to come to an agreement of better pay without the university feeling like they’re overpaying for something that they should be paying for.” A university spokesperson said Georgetown respects the bargaining process, citing the university’s

compensation for all full-time employees and contractors. “We will continue to negotiate in good faith with 1199SEIU as we work together to reach agreement on a new union contract,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. The union’s primary demand is to increase wages across the board by over 12%, which was the rate increase in the previous contract, according to Carrietta Hiers, the vice president of the union’s Washington, D.C. branch. The new contract would also spread the wage increase across

lead for the Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights (GCWR), a student labor advocacy group. Hiers said the representatives aim to keep employee pay above, not just equal to, D.C.’s minimum wage of $17.95. “We always want to stay above whatever the D.C. minimum rates are — which Georgetown, as a thumb-rule, has been doing — but we want to make sure that it’s bargained for and memorialized in the contract,” Hiers told The Hoya. See CONTRACT, A7

GU Community Sees Potential, Following Brown Shooting, GU Drawbacks for Gemini Rollout Explores Expanding Surveillance Paulina Inglima Managing Editor

After Georgetown University announced it is implementing generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools and curricula, students and faculty remain concerned for the university’s endorsement of the tools yet enthusiastic for potential to increase productivity and research. Interim University President Robert M. Groves said Feb. 23 the university will partner with Google’s AI assistant Gemini in March and develop AI-related academic programs for the College of Arts & Sciences and McDonough School of Business (MSB) in Fall 2026. This is Georgetown’s first partnership with an AI platform, and the implementation represents an additional step in developing Georgetown’s AI presence as the tool increases in use in both academia and the workforce. Vedant Srinivasan (SFS ’27) — co-president of the Georgetown AI Association (GAIA), a student organization dedicated to developing campus conversations around AI policy — said the university’s partnership with Gemini makes AI more accessible and places the school at the forefront of the new technology. “This is access to the frontier, bleeding edge of AI technology, at least as far as large language models go,” Srinivasan told The Hoya. “I think access is a really important thing symbolically,” Srinivasan added. “I do think it’s important that an educational

institution is embracing and saying ‘We are going to grant access, not just generally by saying it’s allowed, but through us, to the technology.’” Currently, Google Gemini is blocked on students’ Georgetown Google accounts. The partnership will give students access to Gemini for Education, an AI assistant that is built to support education and learning accounts, through their Georgetown email. Google currently offers students free access to Google Gemini Pro for up to a year, which offers higher prompt limits, but costs $20 a month to other users. Still, some faculty and students worry that the access to AI will discourage original thinking and reduce the university’s educational experience. William Fleisher — a philosophy professor working at the Center for Digital Ethics, a Georgetown initiative aimed at addressing ethical questions around emerging technology — said the decision to launch a widespread approval of AI use, rather than a slower development of AI education, feels hasty. “I wonder if we shouldn’t think more carefully about the use of these technologies and about the degree of endorsement that we’re providing for these things,” Fleisher told The Hoya. “It’s one thing to recognize that they’re going to be used and to make a space for learning about them, learning how to use them, maybe learning to mitigate their problems.”

“It’s another thing to say every student, faculty and staff should have access to a large language model, and we’re going to help you use it in every one of your classes,” Fleisher added. The partnership comes amid increasing concerns on AI’s impact on education, with some critics saying that students are overly relying on it to produce work and gain less knowledge from their classes. Valli Pendyala (SFS ’27) said they are concerned that encouraging the use of AI will exacerbate Georgetown’s perceived pre-professional and competitive environment while neglecting humanities. “I think this is just perpetuating that kind of environment we’ve developed here, where efficiency is prioritized over actually engaging with the material, thinking critically and doing something for the sake of doing it,” Pendyala told The Hoya. A second Feb. 23 email, sent by interim Provost Soyica Diggs Colbert (COL ’01), announced that the university will also collaborate with Georgetown’s Center for New Design Leadership Studies (CNDLS), which helps advance academic programming. Other initiatives under CNDLS will include developing courses that encourage engagement with AI, advance scholarship on AI and create a simulation center at Georgetown MedStar University Hospital using the

Ajani Stella

Senior News Editor

Georgetown University is considering plans to redesign its security infrastructure to include advanced camera networks following the Dec. 13 mass shooting at Brown University, according to a recording of an internal meeting obtained by The Hoya. The university is focusing on redeveloping its camera systems to allow security officials to conduct more detailed surveillance, coordinate campus responses and expand police capabilities. Though the university has not yet settled on a plan, the upgrades could include line-crossing technology, which detects when people breach digitally drawn boundaries, and crowd-detection, which identifies groups in certain areas. Josh Bornstein, the vice president for public safety, disclosed the suggested changes during a Feb. 5 meeting with a public safety working group, according to a recording The Hoya obtained. The proposals come after the mass shooting at Brown in December, in which a shooter killed two and injured nine students in a building that lacked camera infrastructure. A university spokesperson said security cameras are crucial to campus safety, but noted the university has not decided on a plan. “Security cameras are part of a layered approach to public safety, helping to prevent crime in THE HOYA FILE PHOTOS real time and aiding in investiga- Georgetown University is considering redesigning its security See SECURITY, A7 infrastructure with enhanced camera technology.

See AI, A7

NEWS

OPINION

GUIDE

SPORTS

GU Begins Ortiz Speaker Series

Say No to Gemini

‘Man on the Run’ to the Theater

Men’s Basketball Managers

A12/A11

Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center held an LGBTQ+ poetry seminar in honor of late professor Ricardo Ortiz.

The Editorial Board cautions against the dangers of adopting AI as a learning tool in a college education.

The Paul McCartney documentary, “Man on the Run,” shines visually despite narrative flaws, writes Mauro Mazzariello (CAS ’26).

The Georgetown University men’s basketball team managers are the team behind the team.

GU Students Protest for Ukraine

Prioritize Sexual Health

Megan Maroney Misses

Women’s Lacrosse Beats Hopkins

A12/A11

Georgetown University students joined a Washington, D.C. rally Feb. 21, demanding global support for Ukraine.

Sydney Hudson (SOH ’26) calls on Georgetown University to provide better sexual health resources to the student body.

Megan Maroney’s “Cloud 9”is predictable and personable country pop, but falls short of excellence, writes Catherine Dodd (CAS ’29).

Published Fridays

The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team beat No. 5/6 Johns Hopkins 12-6 on Feb. 24 in a stunning upset on the road.

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