Sticking it to the Man.

Tear gas, protestors, anger, separation, litigation. Those are the key terms from the Corp's creation myth, which is always fun to tell parents and journalists. Things were complicated back then - we were wholly independent legally, but it wasn't until the early 90's that we spun off completely from student government. The President of GUSA used to have a guaranteed seat on the Corp Board of Directors and for a while that person was automatically Chair of our Board.

Ever since 1972, our identity has shifted steadily toward the commercial and away from the political. Since I've been a part of the Corp, I've come to understand it as an enterprise that, among other things, generates profit in order to give it back to the community. This service (philanthropy) has come to be seen as a vital campus resource, but as always we have conversations what other purposes we can serve, fitting with our mission.

CSOC came out of one of those conversations. Hopefully by this time next year everyone will instantly know what I'm talking about. At the moment, the Corp Service and Outreach Committee is growing to fill a certain vacuum in Corp-Georgetown relations. Its chair (Pat Lenihan) and vice-chair (Bill Ward) will be taking the vision (a great deal of which we owe to Jesse) and making something new, valuable, and unique out of it. If everything goes to plan, student groups, Corpies, populations in need, and the University administration will all be better served by what CSOC accomplishes. Stay tuned for applications, which will be out soon.

We told "the University" about it yesterday, when six Board members met with Georgetown VP's, as we do every semester. Jesse, Phil, Brad, me, Omar, and Pat met with Dr. Olson (VP of Student Affairs) and other pertinent administrators to talk a little bit about the Corp's place in Georgetown and our interactions with the University. Until having this job, I had always seen the Corp as super-autonomous from them and independent in every sense of the word. There's a shorthand way of talking about our relationship with them that I use frequently - "the University is our landlord, nothing else". And while that's useful for touting our independence, it doesn't do justice to the subtle interdependence that has developed since 1972.

We are a valuable partner for many reasons, at least how I see it. We provide on-campus employment, including work-study employment, for over 200 students. Our employees gain management and professional experience that enriches their university experience and will serve us for the rest of our lives. We can be a source of prestige as the world's largest entirely student-run company - it might take a little while to sink in, but once it does (as an important part of Georgetown's student-run culture), we can provide texture to Georgetown's image, too often reduced to a number . Tour guides mention us for a reason. We can weave that texture into the entire Georgetown community: giving scholarships for outside-the-box reasons, funding innovative and oft-neglected student initiatives, and organizing campus-wide events. And we can connect alumni back to Georgetown, especially now with our Director of Alumni Relations and Professional Development, Lauren Janson. As a side note, we also provide a substantial amount of money for rent and 5% of every GoCard purchase straight to their coffers.

What does this get us? Too often, it seems like too little. I relayed a somewhat less coherent version of the above paragraph to the administrators we met with, referencing the Starbucks decision. But of course there are lots of factors at play, and the best we can do is position ourselves as best we can to generate opportunities and take advantage of them when they come around. Though it may grate our activist sensibilities, every service we operate was borne of a cooperative venture, independent though we may be, and every future service will have to be a cooperative venture as well, unless we're planning a takeover of the tattoo parlor across from Dean and DeLuca.

Enter CSOC. No lease, no Evil Corporate Competitor, no service fees or Facilities calls. Just the Corp connecting with students, coordinating service opportunities, and leveraging our professional relationship with the University to best address the community's needs for dialogue and cooperation. That's what we're throwing our weight behind to do justice to our mission, and it's cooperative, not antagonistic, with Georgetown administrators. Far after we're gone, they'll still be here, and its the relationships we build up that will best serve Georgetown students in the future. If not, we come back to the discussion. We'll come back anyway, because that's what we do. But I hope that we can all get behind this initiative early so that it becomes as robust a part of the Corp as philanthropy is now. Five years ago, things were very different in that arena as well. Not to mention 37 years ago.

Sorry for the epic length. It's a nuanced subject, and I hope I fleshed it out somewhat completely. I also have Russian homework and a paper outline that I don't want to do. And one last thing - as you all know, Mayorga is starting Thursday, thanks to the dedicated work of many, many Corpies. Very, very exciting.