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Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 106, No. 12, © 2025
As GU Announces It Will Join Common Application In 2026, Students React Nora Toscano Senior News Editor
Georgetown University community members expressed excitement, concern and indifference at the university’s announcement that it will join the Common Application. Georgetown will enter a threeyear pilot program starting in August 2026 — a major departure from the university’s previous strategy of using its own undergraduate admissions application. The university is one of only a few top-ranked colleges not on the Common App, an online college application platform which over 1,100 U.S. colleges and universities use for their undergraduate programs. Current undergraduates’ reactions to the move were mixed, with some students optimistic that joining the Common App would increase accessibility.
Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26), the president of the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), said the university will reach more potential applicants by shifting to the Common App. “I think the Common App has a larger reach than just Georgetown’s individual application,” Henshaw told The Hoya. “A lot more students will see it. I think Georgetown, in some ways, advertises most or appeals most to wealthy applicants from certain areas of the country — obviously, there are a lot of Georgetown students from the Northeast — and so I think this will help diversify the applicant pool.” After the Supreme Court eliminated race-based affirmative action in June 2023, Georgetown enrolled fewer See COMMON APP, A7
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Federal immigration agents detained Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow, March 17, sparking student protests, community statements and public outcry as the case continues.
Tracking Badar Khan Suri’s Detention Aamir Jamil Executive Editor
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Georgetown University will join the Common Application beginning in Fall 2026 for a three-year transition period.
Around 9:30 p.m. March 17, Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral researcher, returned home from the university after teaching and attending iftar, the meal Muslims eat after a day of fasting, on campus. Just minutes later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detained Khan Suri. As of March 27, he is in a detention facility in Alvarado, Texas. Khan Suri, a senior fellow at Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), was
researching a project exploring peace processes amid religious tension and taught an upper-level undergraduate seminar called “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia.” He held a J-1 visa, a nonimmigrant visa for foreign nationals to participate in educational programs. The State Department revoked Khan Suri’s visa March 15, over alleged connections to Hamas leadership and for allegedly posting “Hamas propaganda” on social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook. Khan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh (GRD ’26), who is a U.S.
citizen born in Gaza, have spoken out against Israel’s conduct in the latest Israel-Hamas war but have not encouraged illegal activity. Khan Suri’s father-in-law previously served as an official in Gaza’s Hamas-run government, yet left his position more than a decade ago and publicly condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. A student in Khan Suri’s class said Khan Suri’s detainment does not reflect the kindness they saw from him in class. “As a student of his, I can say that the accusations being leveled against Professor Suri
are genuinely dumbfounding — the baselessness of the case would be amusing if it wasn’t for the real-life implications we’re watching play out for him and his family,” the student wrote to The Hoya. “He’s one of the most soft-spoken people I’ve met. He’s brilliant yet humble and has a wonderful sense of humor.” “The fact that this could even happen is a terrifying indication of the state of free speech and human rights in this country — and it’s heartbreaking to know that whether Professor Suri remains in See KHAN SURI, A7
Capitol Campus Enrollment Below Projections,CouldLose$91.4Million Ari Citrin and Aamir Jamil Student Life Desk Editor and Executive Editor
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
As the search for the new Georgetown University president continues, six faculty members across four schools say Jesuit values remain a priority alongside fundraising.
FacultyCiteSolidarity,Fundraising AsPrioritiesinPresidentialSearch Jack Willis
Senior News Editor
In the two months since Georgetown University launched a search committee for its 49th president, faculty members say their priorities for the next leader include fundraising prowess and steadfast commitment to Jesuit values. The Hoya interviewed six faculty members spanning four schools to learn how they view the ongoing effort to replace John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), who retired Nov. 21 after 23 years as university president. The search committee seeks to name a replacement by July 1, 2026. Moral Direction and Jesuit Heritage Rochelle Davis, the director of graduate studies at the Center for
Contemporary Arab Studies in the School of Foreign Service, said Jesuit values should inform the next president’s approach to ensuring freedom of speech on campus. “I think there’s a lot to be said for the Jesuit tradition we are part of, which is about education and dialogue and diversity and cura personalis and all of those Jesuit values that we are taught and that are part of who we are and have been for a long time,” Davis told The Hoya. “I think it’s really using them as a touchstone and protecting the people, protecting the community, to explore and talk is what we need,” she added. Robert Bies, a management professor in the McDonough School of Business, said the next president must reflect the university’s Jesuit values in some
capacity, but selecting a member of the Jesuit order to be university president could prove difficult. “Part of me says it would be great to go back to a Jesuit, but there’s a small group of people who are Jesuits running universities,” Bies told The Hoya. “I mean, it’s a small sample size.” Of the 28 Jesuit universities in the United States, 23 are led by non-Jesuit members of the Catholic Church. In 2010, that number stood at just five. Bies added that to signal a bold commitment to diversity and innovation, Georgetown could select its first woman president or second person of color, following the 29th president Patrick Healy, a Black man who passed as white amid Reconstruction-era
Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus could lose $91.4 million between fiscal years 2025 and 2028 as enrollment lags significantly behind administrators’ predictions, according to data university officials presented to the school’s Faculty Senate on Feb. 19 and released online March 20. Interim Provost Soyica Diggs Colbert (COL ’01) and Chief Financial Officer Hari Sastry (GRD ’00) presented the data, which is based on long-term projections developed in spring 2024. The data suggests Capitol Campus operations will create a $25 million deficit in fiscal year 2025, growing to a projected $34.1 million for fiscal year 2026 if the university meets its enrollment goals. The Capitol Campus is projected to lose a cumulative $91.4 million between fiscal years 2025 and 2028, before making a $4.2 million profit in fiscal year 2029, which the university calculated based on prior estimates and undergraduate statements of intent. As a result, according to the presentation, the Capitol Campus is fiscally reliant on significant enrollment growth and housing revenue. The university projected that the main campus would generate a $19.3 million surplus in fiscal year 2025 inclusive of expenditures related to the Capitol Campus, falling to $15.8 million
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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Georgetown University internal financial projections show the See CAPITOL, A7 Capitol Campus could lose millions of dollars in revenue.
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NEWS
OPINION
GUIDE
SPORTS
Badar Khan Suri Detention
Defend Free Speech
Didn’t Whistle, Didn’t Work
Artificial Developments
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Read The Hoya’s coverage of the detention of Badar Khan Suri and subsequent legal and community responses.
The Editorial Board urges the university to defend Badar Khan Suri and the free speech rights of Georgetown community members.
Disney’s live-action remake of ‘Snow White’ failed in creating artistic and effective changes to the classic, Tanvi Gorripati (CAS ’27) says.
In an April Fool’s Day installation of her column, Eilat Herman (CAS ’26) shares her discovery of the UmpAIres in Major League Baseball.
Seiwa Bunraku
Become a Sanctuary
‘Death of a Unicorn’ Doesn’t Deliver
Sorber Declares For Draft
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The Japan Foundation organized a performance of traditional Japanese puppeteering with the troupe Seiwa Bunraku.
Minahil Mahmud (SFS ’25) calls on Georgetown to become a sanctuary campus and protect academic freedom.
Caroline Woodward (CAS ’27) says ‘Death of a Unicorn’ falls flat in reimagining a mythical creature into a dark comedy.
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First-year center Thomas Sorber declared for the 2025 NBA Draft, though he will retain NCAA eligibility.
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