2023-2025 Residential Changes
Following the University’s announcement regarding construction of the new Henle residential complex starting in early summer 2023, the Office of Residential Living would like to announce updates to on-campus housing opportunities and policies as a result of this changing housing capacity. Changes will begin for the 2023-2024 academic year and continue through the 2024-25 academic year.
Gender Inclusive Housing
Georgetown undergraduate students recently voted in spring 2024 on a GUSA supported student referendum in support of gender inclusive housing in our residential system. Student referenda express students’ views on an issue.
For the past several years, the Residential Living team has partnered with students to identify appropriate on-campus housing for individuals who identify as transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming on a case by case basis.
Over the last year, colleagues in Student Affairs, Planning and Facilities Management, and GUSA have begun work on an initial effort to introduce a gender-inclusive housing protocol for the incoming undergraduate class of 2028.
With the outcome of the referendum, undergraduate students affirmed the importance of this effort and the consideration of future steps to support a residential climate that is inclusive for all students.
Starting with the housing application for the class of 2028, Georgetown has added a question to its housing process to provide a gender inclusive option. New students can indicate they identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming individual seeking gender inclusive housing, or they are welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ individuals and wish to be considered as a potential roommate for students seeking gender inclusive housing.
New Housing Opportunities
The former Henle apartment complex offered over 470 campus spaces in apartment style living to upperclass residents. For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, campus housing will be impacted in the following ways:
The GU Hotel will become a residential community called Leavey with single, double, and triple private bathroom units totaling 298 residential beds.
A handful of double rooms in the Southwest Quad, New South, Copley and LXR are converted to triple rooms.
These designated rooms have been evaluated by staff architects in Capital Projects and confirmed as appropriate spaces for three residents. This will offer approximately 53 more additional spaces on campus. Disclaimer: while we do not anticipate the number of triple rooms increasing, should other spaces on campus come available for residential use, we will reduce the number of triples rooms created.
A select number of study rooms in the Southwest Quad will be converted to single occupancy spaces. This will offer 8 additional single rooms on campus.
University townhouses will continue to follow a renovation cycle, with both residential and office townhouses scheduled for updates each year. Residential Living will confirm before Housing Selection the residential townhouses schedule for renovation.
On-Campus Residency Requirement Flexibility
During construction, the University is modifying the Residency Requirement to allow a limited number of students in the class of 2025 the flexibility to live off campus for two years, as long as they live outside the neighborhood boundaries during their junior year. Students can also choose to live in Georgetown’s new apartment-style residence hall at 55 H Street NW, which includes free shuttle-bus transportation to the Main campus. The junior year swap option will still be available, but only to students who live outside the neighborhood boundaries.
Up to 50 applications will be approved for students pursuing the off-campus housing criteria of the Residency Exemption application and up to 50 applications will be approved for local residence. No cap on applications for students who apply for a Residency Exemption under the age, marital or dependent categories. Details about applying for either of these options can be found in the Residential Living Housing Handbook.
To request this opportunity to live off campus, a student must apply for this under the Residency Exemption application. Students must provide supporting documentation indicating where outside the neighborhood boundaries they will live.
The Residency Exemption applications are available in Hoya Housing starting on November 3, 2023 and closed on March 1, 2024.
Neighborhood boundaries:
The Georgetown, Burleith, and Foxhall communities are defined as the neighborhoods bounded on the east by Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, on the south by the Potomac River, on the west by Canal Road and the Georgetown Reservoir, and on the north by Whitehaven Parkway to Foxhall Road to Hoban Road to Reservoir Road to 39th Street to Whitehaven Parkway (including the 1900 blocks of 39th and 38th Streets) to Whitehaven Street to Dumbarton Oaks Park on the north.
Housing Selection Changes
In response to the change in campus housing options due to the Henle construction, and as part of our continual commitment to ensuring our processes are equitable and accessible to all students, the following selection processes will be instituted instituted as part of the permanent selection process:
- Between the Group Formation period and the end of the cancellation fee window, (March – May) if a Housing Selection group is formed with a Senior group member and that member later cancels their on-campus housing reservation in that on campus housing space, the group may only replace that Senior group member with another Senior. This includes Seniors who transfer their eligibility to 55 H Street NW.
- This change is to ensure students of different class years (sophomores, juniors) cannot “buy” a senior student’s cancellation fee and to be pulled into housing spaces they would not otherwise qualify for through the regular process.
- Residential Living acknowledges this has been taking place in the past Housing Selection years in a process students refer to a “waterfalling.”
- This change is to ensure students of different class years (sophomores, juniors) cannot “buy” a senior student’s cancellation fee and to be pulled into housing spaces they would not otherwise qualify for through the regular process.
- In addition to Townhouses being junior- and senior-specific housing, Nevils apartment complex is reserved only for junior and senior students. When the new Henle residential complex is online for the Fall 2025 semester, this complex will remain a junior and senior only building.