Georgetown University

A Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) bus driver asked illegal questions to a student boarding a bus with her guide dog, according to student reports.

Marissa Nissley (MSB ’24), who is legally blind and uses her guide dog, Smalls, as a mobility aid, boarded a GUTS bus from Georgetown’s bus turnaround to her home in Rosslyn at around 8 p.m. on Oct. 4. Videos Nissley posted on Instagram show her pleading with the driver to ensure her passage on the bus.

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), public-serving organizations must allow service animals — dogs trained to do work or tasks for people with disabilities — in all public areas of their facilities. If it is unclear what service the animal provides, staff may only ask whether the dog is a service animal required because of a disability and what work or task the dog has been trained to perform. 

Under the ADA, no employee of a public-serving organization can ask for documentation that the dog is a registered or certified service animal. Nissley’s videos show the driver asking her for a license for Smalls and asking whether Smalls was equipped with a harness labeled “guide dog” — questions the ADA prevents employees from asking.

After inconsistent communication from the Georgetown University Office of Residential Living and the Academic Resource Center (ARC), Ollie Henry (CAS ’24) was left without university-provided accommodation housing shortly before move-in day last fall, resulting in them having to sleep on a friend’s couch for six weeks while searching for an apartment.

“There was no point at which I had someone checking in on my well-being. Technically, for those six weeks, I was experiencing homelessness because I didn’t have a permanent address,” Henry said in an interview with The Hoya. “So it was really that lack of knowledge, care and compassion that really struck me the most out of all of it.” 

Henry experiences panic attacks, which can be triggered by sounds, smells and other factors. The unpredictable environment of dorm-style housing can often magnify their triggers and make it difficult to decompress, they said. 

Henry said that despite being reassured several times in person and over phone calls that the Office of Residential Living could grant their requested accommodations, they never received their housing accommodations and now lives in an apartment off campus. 

“Throughout this process, I think the most disheartening thing about it all was that there wasn’t a level of care or support,” Henry said. “Had from the get-go Georgetown just told me, ‘Hey, you’re not gonna have medical housing,’ none of this would have been an issue.”

Students are calling on the Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) to address racism on its campus after a professor referred to a student using an anti-Asian slur.

Professor Franz Werro used the slur in his class on Feb. 10. In response, the GULC Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) and the Georgetown China Law Society (GCLS) co-wrote a letter, which has been signed by over 500 students, addressed to Dean William Treanor, which they subsequently circulated across the GULC community. The letter included a list of action items for university administrators to address Werro’s racist language and protect students.

Gwyneth Murphy (SFS ’23) met with the ARC during her first-year fall semester and secured 10 accommodations, including double time and a private room for exams. That same fall, Murphy met with one of her professors in the economics department to discuss these accommodations, but he immediately threw the accommodations letter in the trash, she told The Hoya.

“He read it over, and then he just threw it out in front of me while I was standing there,” Murphy said in an interview with The Hoya. “I just remember being like, ‘Alright, this is my first academic accommodation meeting ever as a college student,’ and I thought this was just how it was going to be.”

Shapiro, who was set to become executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution on Feb. 1, posted tweets expressing his opposition to President Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black female Supreme Court justice. Shapiro wrote that the nominee would be a “lesser black woman.” Shapiro deleted the original posts and tweeted an apology, in which he called his original words “inartful,” on Jan. 27, before posting a tweet Jan. 31 expressing his confidence that he will be vindicated and begin his new position at the university shortly.

In a series of tweets posted on Jan. 26, Shapiro made racist comments about Black female lawyers and perpetuated harmful sentiments using the model minority myth, which opponents of the Civil Rights Movement created to justify racism against Black community by using the Asian Americans as a driving wedge.

When it comes to my accommodations, I have had many types of professors at Georgetown. I want to stress that these professors cross disciplines and have a range of identities. I have had the professor who did not believe me – either that I even have a disability or that my accommodations are “real.” I have had the professor who says, “Sophie, I am so sorry I forgot to enlarge your quiz,” in front of the entire class. I have had the professor who asks for weekly reminders for my accommodations because of their busy schedule. I have had the professor that messes up, apologizes and wants me to fix their mistake. Unfortunately, the kind of professor that I have had least at Georgetown is the one who genuinely wants to make their classroom accessible and who goes beyond the mandated accommodations to do so.

Academically, I have received lower grades when my accommodations are not met either because learning materials are not fully accessible or because assessments are not presented in an accessible format. If professors do not enlarge my test, I am the one who suffers tangible consequences. The stress of advocating for accommodations takes time and energy away from my academic work. In addition, I often encounter professors who casually use harmful language surrounding disability in their lectures without realizing how it impacts students. I had a professor last semester who used deafness and blindness as metaphors for not doing the homework before coming to class. I, then, have to deal with being triggered or missing class on a regular basis. Learning is far more difficult when it is constantly stopping and starting.