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Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private Jesuit research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic institution of higher education in the United States and the nation's first federally chartered university.

The university has eleven undergraduate and graduate schools. Georgetown's main campus is on a hill above the Potomac River and identifiable by Healy Hall, a National Historic Landmark. It is classified among R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity and its undergraduate admissions is considered highly selective. The university offers degree programs in forty-eight disciplines, enrolling an average of 7,500 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students from more than 135 countries. The school's athletic teams are nicknamed the Hoyas and include a men's basketball team, which is a member of the Big East Conference.

Notable alumni include 32 Rhodes Scholars, 46 Marshall Scholars, 33 Truman Scholars, 543 Fulbright Scholars, eight living billionaires, 25 U.S. governors, two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, two U.S. Presidents, more than 450 members of United States Congress, as well as international royalty and more than a dozen foreign heads of state. Georgetown has educated more U.S. diplomats than any other university, as well as many American politicians and civil servants.

Founding
In 1634, Jesuit settlers from England founded the Province of Maryland in colonial-era British America. In 1646, the defeat of the Royalists in the English Civil War led to stringent laws against Catholic education and the extradition of known Jesuits from the colony, including missionary Andrew White, and the destruction of their school at Calverton Manor. During most of the remainder of Maryland's colonial period, Jesuits conducted Catholic schools clandestinely. Following the end of the American Revolutionary War, plans to establish a permanent Catholic institution for education in the United States were realized.

At Benjamin Franklin's recommendation, Pope Pius VI appointed former Jesuit John Carroll the first head of the Catholic Church in the United States, even though the papal suppression of the Jesuit order was still in effect. Carroll began meetings of local clergy in 1783 near Annapolis, where they orchestrated the development of a new university. On January 23, 1789, Carroll finalized the purchase of the property in Georgetown on which Dahlgren Quadrangle was later built. Future Congressman William Gaston was enrolled as the school's first student on November 22, 1791, and instruction began on January 2, 1792.

19th century
During its early years, Georgetown College suffered from considerable financial strain. The Maryland Society of Jesus began its restoration in 1805, and Jesuit affiliation, in the form of teachers and administrators, bolstered confidence in the college. The school relied on private sources of funding and the limited profits from local lands which had been donated to the Jesuits. To raise money for Georgetown and other schools in 1838, Maryland Jesuits conducted a mass sale of some 272 slaves to two Deep South plantations in Maringouin, Louisiana, from their six in Maryland, ending their slaveholding. President James Madison signed into law Georgetown's congressional charter on March 1, 1815, creating the first federal university charter, which allowed it to confer degrees, with the first bachelor's degrees being awarded two years later.

In 1844, the school received a corporate charter under the name "The President and Directors of Georgetown College", affording the growing school additional legal rights. In response to the demand for a local option for Catholic students, the Medical School was founded in 1851.

The American Civil War greatly impacted Georgetown as 1,141 students and alumni enlisted in one army or the other, and the Union Army commandeered university buildings in order to defend the national capital from a feared a Confederate attack. By the time President Abraham Lincoln visited the Georgetown campus in May 1861, 1,400 troops were living in temporary quarters there. The number of lives lost in the Civil war caused enrollment levels to remain low until well after the war. Only seven students graduated in 1869, down from over 300 in the previous decade. When the Georgetown College Boat Club, the school's rowing team, was founded in 1876 it adopted two colors: blue, used for Union uniforms, and gray, used for Confederate uniforms. These colors signified the peaceful existence of students who held various loyalties.

Enrollment did not recover until the late 19th century, during the presidency of Patrick Francis Healy from 1873 to 1881. Born in Athens, Georgia as a slave by law and mixed-race by ancestry, Healy was the first person of African descent to head a predominantly white American university. He identified as Irish Catholic, like his father, and was educated in Catholic schools in the United States and France. He is credited with reforming the undergraduate curriculum, lengthening the medical and law programs, and creating the Alumni Association. One of his largest undertakings was the construction of a major new building, subsequently named Healy Hall in his honor. For his work, Healy is known as the school's "second founder."

In 1870, after the founding of the Law Department, Healy and his successors hoped to bind the professional schools into a university, and focus on higher education.

20th century
In 1901, the School of Medicine added a dental school in 1901 and the undergraduate School of Nursing in 1903. Georgetown Preparatory School relocated from campus in 1919 and fully separated from the university in 1927.

The School of Foreign Service (SFS) was founded in 1919 by Edmund A. Walsh, to prepare students for leadership in diplomacy and foreign commerce. The School of Dentistry became independent of the School of Medicine in 1956. The School of Business was separated from the SFS in 1957. In 1998, it was renamed the McDonough School of Business in honor of alumnus Robert E. McDonough.

Georgetown also aimed to expand its resources and student body. The School of Nursing has admitted female students since its founding, and most of the university classes were made available to women on a limited basis by 1952. With the College of Arts and Sciences welcoming its first female students in the 1969–1970 academic year, Georgetown became fully coeducational. In 1975, Georgetown established the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, soliciting funds from the governments of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Libya as well as American corporations with business interests in the Middle East. It later returned the money it received from Muammar Qaddafi's Libyan government, which had been used to fund a chair for Hisham Shirabi, and also returned further donations from Iraq. Georgetown ended its bicentennial year of 1989 by electing Leo J. O'Donovan, S.J. as president. He subsequently launched the Third Century Campaign to build the school's endowment.

21st century
In December 2003, Georgetown completed the campaign after raising over $1 billion for financial aid, academic chair endowment, and new capital projects.

In 2005, Georgetown received a $20 million gift from Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, member of the Saudi Royal Family; at that time the second-largest donation ever to the university, it was used to expand the activities of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

In October 2002, Georgetown University began studying the feasibility of opening a campus of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Qatar, when the non-profit Qatar Foundation first proposed the idea. The School of Foreign Service in Qatar opened in 2005 along with four other U.S. universities in the Education City development. That same year, Georgetown began hosting a two-week workshop at Fudan University's School of International Relations and Public Affairs in Shanghai, China. This later developed into a more formal connection when Georgetown opened a liaison office at Fudan on January 12, 2008, to further collaboration.

John J. DeGioia, Georgetown's first lay president, has led the school since 2001. DeGioia has continued its financial modernization and has sought to "expand opportunities for intercultural and interreligious dialogue." DeGioia also founded the annual Building Bridges Seminar in 2001, which brings global religious leaders together, and is part of Georgetown's effort to promote religious pluralism. The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs was begun as an initiative in 2004, and after a grant from William R. Berkley, was launched as an independent organization in 2006. Additionally, The Center for International and Regional Studies opened in 2005 at the new Qatar campus. Between 2012 and 2018, Georgetown received more than $350 million from Gulf Cooperation Council countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Jesuit tradition
Georgetown University was founded by former Jesuits in the tradition of Ignatius of Loyola; it is a member of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Georgetown is not a pontifical university, though seven Jesuits serve on the 36 member Board of Directors, the university's governing body.

Catholic spaces at the university, including Dahlgren Chapel, the university's principal place of Catholic worship, fall within the territorial jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Washington,

Fifty-two members of the Society of Jesus live on campus, and are employed by Georgetown mostly as professors or administrators. Jesuit Heritage Week has been held every year since 2001 to celebrate the contributions of Jesuits to the Georgetown tradition.

Georgetown's Catholic heritage has been controversial at times, even though its influence is relatively limited. Stores in university-owned buildings are prohibited from selling or distributing birth control products.

The university hosts the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life annually in January to discuss the pro-life movement. Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, operated by MedStar Health, are prohibited from performing abortions. However,, the hospital was performing research using embryonic stem cells.

Between 1996 and 1999, the administration added crucifixes to many classroom walls, a change that attracted national attention. Before 1996, crucifixes had hung only in hospital rooms and historic classrooms. Some of these crucifixes are historic works of art, and are noted as such.

In May 2004, Imam Yahya Hendi, the school's on-campus Muslim cleric, faced pressure to remove crucifixes while he and other campus faith leaders defended their placement. The Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Intercultural Center rotates displays of various faith and culture symbols in its lobby.

In September 2005, Georgetown was criticized by religious groups, including the Cardinal Newman Society, for not following the teachings of the church and hosting pro-abortion rights speakers, including John Kerry and Barack Obama.

In 2009, Georgetown's religious symbols were brought back to national attention after the university administration covered-up the name of Jesus in preparation for then President Barack Obama's speech on campus.

In May 2012, Washington's Archbishop Donald Wuerl criticized the university for inviting pro-abortion rights Kathleen Sebelius to be a commencement speaker. In August 2013, religious groups denounced Georgetown for being excessively LGBT-friendly and for allowing gay-themed events, including a performance, during which "a male student went as a high-heeled Mary and danced to Madonna's "Like a Virgin" while Jesus (a woman) looked on."

Academics
, the university had 7,463 undergraduate students and 11,542 graduate students. Bachelor's programs are offered through College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Nursing, the McDonough School of Business, the School of Continuing Studies, the School of Health, and the Walsh School of Foreign Service, which includes the Qatar campus.Master's and doctoral programs are offered through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the Law Center, the School of Medicine, the McCourt School of Public Policy, and the School of Continuing Studies. Master's students occasionally share some advanced seminars with undergraduates, and most undergraduate schools offer abbreviated bachelor's and master's programs following completion of the undergraduate degree. The McDonough School of Business and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service both offer master's programs. The School of Foreign Service is renowned for its academic programs in international affairs. Its graduate program was ranked first in the world by Foreign Policy, and its undergraduate program was ranked fourth. The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies also offer a Master's of Arab Studies, as well as certificates.

Each graduate school offers at least one double degree with another graduate school. Additionally, the Law Center offers a joint degree with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The School of Continuing Studies includes the Center for Continuing and Professional Education, and operates four types of degree programs, over thirty professional certificates and non-degree courses, undergraduate and graduate degrees in Liberal Studies, as well as summer courses for graduates, undergraduates, and high school students. The School of Dentistry closed in 1990 after 89 years in operation.

Rankings and admissions
Admission to Georgetown has been deemed "most selective" by U.S. News & World Report, with the university receiving 27,650 applications and admitting 11.7% of those who applied for the Class of 2025. , Georgetown's graduate schools have acceptance rates of 3.6% to the School of Medicine, 21.2% to the Law Center, 25% to the MSFS, and 35% to the MBA program. In 2004, a National Bureau of Economic Research study on revealed preference of U.S. colleges showed Georgetown was the 16th most-preferred choice. The School of Foreign Service (SFS) has been ranked 1st in the world by Foreign Policy, as well as 1st in the United States for international affairs by Niche. The McCourt School of Public Policy is ranked fourth in global policy and administration studies by US News & World Report. In the same report, the Medical School is ranked 44th in research and 87th in primary care, while the McDonough School of Business ranks 24th in MBA programs, second in international business, and 9th in part-time business studies. Georgetown University Law Center is ranked 14th in the United States and 12th in the world, as well as first in clinical training and part-time law, second in tax law, third in international law, fifth in criminal law, seventh in health care law, ninth in constitutional law, and tenth in environmental law.

The undergraduate schools maintain a restrictive Early Action admissions program, as students who have applied through an Early Decision process at another school are not permitted to apply early to Georgetown. 94% of students accepted for the class of 2017 were in the top 10% of their class and the interquartile range of SAT scores was 700–770 in Reading/Writing and 680–780 in Math. Georgetown accepts the SAT and ACT, though it does not consider the writing portion of either test. Over 55% of undergraduates receive financial aid, and the university meets 100% of demonstrated need, with an average financial aid package of $23,500 and about 70% of aid distributed in the form of grants or scholarships. Georgetown is need-blind for domestic applicants.

Faculty
, Georgetown University employed 1,414 full-time and 1,196 part-time faculty members across its three Washington, D.C. campuses, with additional staff at Georgetown University in Qatar. The faculty comprises leading academics and notable political and business leaders, and are predominantly male by a two-to-one margin.

Georgetown University's faculty members give more support to liberal candidates, and while their donation patterns are generally consistent with those of other American university faculties, they gave more than average to Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign.

The faculty includes former Society for Classical Studies president James J. O'Donnell, theologian John Haught, social activistd Chai Feldblum, Nobel laureate George Akerlof, writer and human rights advocate Carolyn Forché, award-winning literary critic Maureen Corrigan, linguist Deborah Tannen, business philosopher Jason Brennan, and hip hop scholar Michael Eric Dyson. Many former politicians choose to teach at Georgetown, including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Andrew Natsios, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, and CIA director George Tenet. Former Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan, Jr., Antonin Scalia, and John Roberts have each taught at the university. Internationally, the school attracts former ambassadors and heads of state, including former Prime Minister of Spain José María Aznar, Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal, President Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica, and President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe.

Research
Georgetown University is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". , Georgetown's libraries held over 3.5 million printed items, including 1.25 million e-books, in seven buildings, with most in Lauinger Library. The Blommer Science Library in the Reiss Science Building on campus, houses most of the Science collection. Additionally, the Law School campus includes the nation's fifth-largest law library as of 2007. Georgetown faculty conduct research in hundreds of subjects, but research priorities are in religion, ethics, science, public policy, and cancer medicine.

In 2019, Georgetown spent $240.9 million on research, ranking it 101st nationwide, with $94.0 million in federal funding. In 2007, it received about $14.8 million in federal funds for research, with 64% from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2010, the school received $5.6 million from the Department of Education to fund fellowships in several international studies fields. Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of 41 research-intensive comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, and developed the breakthrough HPV vaccine for cervical cancer, and conditionally reprogrammed cells (CRC) technology.

Academic publications
Centers that conduct and sponsor research at Georgetown include the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding and the Woodstock Theological Center. Regular publications include the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, The Georgetown Law Journal, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Public Policy Review.

Campuses
Georgetown University has four campuses in Washington, D.C.: the undergraduate campus located in the neighborhood of Georgetown, the Medical Center, the School of Continuing Studies (in Chinatown) and the Law Center. The undergraduate campus and Medical Center are together in the Georgetown neighborhood in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington and form the main campus. Other centers are located around Washington, D.C., including the Center for Continuing and Professional Education at Clarendon in Arlington County, Virginia. Transit between these locations and the Washington Metro is supplied by a system of shuttles, known as GUTS buses. Georgetown also has a branch of the School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar, as well as villas in Alanya, Turkey, and Fiesole, Italy. In their campus layout, Georgetown's administrators consistently used the traditional quadrangle design. In 2023, Georgetown announced that it would open a new campus in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Main campus
Georgetown's undergraduate and medical school campuses are situated on an elevated site above the Potomac River overlooking Northern Virginia. Because of this, Georgetown University is often referred to as "The Hilltop." The main gates, known as the Healy Gates, are located at the intersection of 37th and O Streets NW, and lead directly to the heart of campus. The main campus is relatively compact, being 104 acre in area, but includes fifty-four buildings, student residences and apartments capable of accommodating 80% of undergraduates, and various athletic facilities. Most buildings employ collegiate Gothic architecture and Georgian brick architecture. Campus green areas include fountains, a cemetery, large clusters of flowers, groves of trees, and open quadrangles. New buildings and major renovations are required to meet LEED Silver criteria, and the campus was nominated for the District Sustainability People's Choice Award in 2018.

Healy Hall, designed by Paul J. Pelz in Neo-Medieval style and built from 1877 to 1879, is the architectural gem of Georgetown's campus, and is a National Historic Landmark. Within Healy Hall are a number of notable rooms including Gaston Hall, Riggs Library, and the Bioethics Library Hirst Reading Room. Both Healy Hall and the Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory, built in 1844, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In addition to the front lawn, the main campus has traditionally centered on Dahlgren Quadrangle behind Healy Hall, which is home to Dahlgren Chapel; however, in recent decades, Red Square has replaced the Dahlgren Quadrangle as the focus of student life. North of Red Square is an extended pathway that is home to buildings such as the Intercultural Center (ICC), the Reiss Science building, the newly constructed dormitory named after Pedro Arrupe, and the large Leavey Student Center.

The medical school is located in the northwestern part of the main campus on Reservoir Road. It is integrated with Georgetown University Hospital.

In the 21st-century, the West side of the Hilltop has emerged as a newly developing area of the main campus. The university completed the Southwest Quadrangle Project in late 2003 and brought a new 907-bed upperclassmen residence hall, the Leo J. O'Donovan dining hall, a large underground parking facility, and a new Jesuit Residence to the campus. The school's first performing arts center, named for Royden B. Davis, was completed in November 2005. The new business school headquarters, named for Rafik Hariri, opened in Fall 2009, and Regents Hall, the new science building, opened in Fall 2012. Along with the adjacent Leavey Student Center, these two large buildings have become popular study spaces and overlook a newly developed scenic lawn space.

In the fall of 2014, the university opened a new student center, the Healey Family Student Center (HFSC) to complement the longstanding Leavey Center. The Healey Family Student Center is located on the first floor of New South Hall, a space that functioned as the university's main dining facility until the Leo J. O'Donovan dining hall opening in 2003. It features over 43,000 square feet including several study spaces, conference rooms, dance, and music studios, as well as a pub called Bulldog Tavern and a salad store Hilltoss, which is operated by The Corp.

As a location, Georgetown was ranked nationally as the second-best college town by The Princeton Review in 2011. The Georgetown neighborhood west of Wisconsin Avenue NW is dominated by the presence of university students. Students have easy access to the M Street commercial area, the Georgetown Waterfront, and numerous trails that lead to the National Mall and other parks. Despite this, "town and gown" relations between the university communities and other Georgetown residents are often strained by facilities construction, enlargement of the student body, as well as noise and alcohol violations. Several groups of neighborhood residents have attempted to slow University growth in Georgetown, creating friction between students and the surrounding neighborhood. Despite the relative safety of the neighborhood, crime is a persistent issue, with campus security responding to 257 crimes in 2008, the majority of which were petty crimes.

Law Center campus
The Law Center campus is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on New Jersey Avenue, near Washington Union Station, and consists of five buildings. First-year students at the Law Center can live in the single on-campus dormitory, the Gewirz Student Center. Most second- and third-year students, as well as some first-year students, live off-campus. As there is little housing near the Law Center, most are spread throughout the Washington metropolitan area.

The Campus Completion Project, finished in 2005, saw the addition of the Hotung International Building and the Sport and Fitness Center. G Street and F Street are closed off between 1st and 2nd Streets to create open lawns flanking McDonough Hall, the main building on the campus. In 2019, the university purchased $70 million of a building at 500 First St. NW to add to the Georgetown University Law Center. Opening in 2020, the 130,000-square-foot edifice will provide classrooms and offices for researchers in health, technology, law and other fields.

Downtown campus
The School of Continuing Studies (SCS) campus is located in a 95,000 square foot, state-of-the-art building in downtown Washington, D.C. The campus currently serves as the home for Georgetown's graduate programs in fields such as Applied Intelligence, Journalism, Public Relations, Real Estate, Sports Industry Management, and Urban & Regional Planning.

The current building, which was completed in 2013, includes 30 classrooms, a 125-person auditorium, a digital media lab, a broadcast studio, an interfaith chapel, and a dedicated library. It is located in the Chinatown neighborhood of the city and is considered to be one of the most accessible locations in town, with a Transit Score of 100 and a Walk Score of 98. It is also located just a few blocks away from the Capital One Arena, the home court of the men's basketball team.

Qatar campus
In 2002, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development presented the School of Foreign Service with the resources and space to open a campus in Education City in Al Rayyan, Qatar. SFS-Qatar opened in 2005 as a liberal arts and international affairs undergraduate school for regional students. It offers the same Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) as the main campus, in addition to three certificates. Apart from language courses, including Arabic and French, all courses are taught in English and the curriculum and course materials in the specified majors are identical to those offered at Georgetown's main campus in Washington D.C.

Facilities abroad
In December 1979, the Marquesa Margaret Rockefeller de Larrain, granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, gave the Villa Le Balze to Georgetown University. The Villa is in Fiesole, Italy, on a hill above the city of Florence. The Villa is used year-round for study abroad programs focused on specialized interdisciplinary study of Italian culture and civilization. The main facility for the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies was donated to Georgetown in 1989 by alumnus and former United States Ambassador to Turkey George C. McGhee. The school is in the town of Alanya, Turkey within the Seljuq-era Alanya Castle, on the Mediterranean. The center operates study abroad programs one semester each year, concentrating on Turkish language, architectural history, and Islamic studies. In December 2007, Georgetown opened a liaison office in Shanghai, China to coordinate with Fudan University and others. In 2008, the Georgetown University Law Center in conjunction with an international consortium of law schools established the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London, England.

In November 2023, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced Georgetown plans to open a satellite campus in Jakarta that will offer degree programs for present and future policymakers in the United States and Indonesia.

Student life
The Georgetown undergraduate student body, at 6,926, is composed primarily of students from outside the District of Columbia area, with 33% of new 2016 students coming from the Mid-Atlantic states, 11% being international students, and the remainder coming from other areas of the U.S. The student body also represented 129 countries, with 11% being international, including over 330 undergraduate and 1,050 graduate students who chose to come to Georgetown as a study abroad destination in 2009–10. In 2014–2015, the racial diversity of the undergraduate student body was 57.0% white, 8.8% Asian, 6.2% black, and 7.5% Hispanic. The median family income of Georgetown students is $229,100, with 51% of students coming from the top 5% highest-earning families and 13.5% from the bottom 60%. 55.1% of undergraduates are female.

Although it is a Jesuit university, only 41% of the student body identify as Catholic, while 22% identify as Protestant. Georgetown employs a full-time rabbi, as 6.5% of undergraduates are Jewish. It was the first U.S. college to have a full-time imam, to serve the over four hundred Muslims on campus, and in 2014, they appointed their first Hindu priest to serve a weekly community of around one hundred. Georgetown also sponsors student groups for Baháʼí, Buddhist, and Mormon traditions. The student body consists of both religious and non-religious students, and more than four-hundred freshmen and transfer students attend a nonreligious Ignatian retreat, called ESCAPE, annually.

A 2007 survey of undergraduates also suggests that 62.8% are sexually active, while 6.2% identify as LGBTQ. Discrimination can be an issue on campus, and three quarters of a 2009 survey considered homophobia a campus problem. Newsweek, however, rated Georgetown among its top "Gay-Friendly Schools" in 2010.

A survey by the school in 2016 showed that 31% of females undergraduates reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact, and 86% of LGBTQ students reported some form of sexual harassment at the college. In 2011, College Magazine ranked Georgetown as the tenth most hipster U.S. college, while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals considered it the third most vegan friendly small U.S. school.

Almost all undergraduates attend full-time. A majority of undergraduates, 76%, live on-campus in several dormitories and apartment complexes, including all underclassmen. , 1255 undergraduates and 339 graduate students live off-campus, mostly in the Georgetown, Glover Park, Burleith, and Foxhall neighborhoods. Since Fall 2022, housing is available for on-campus graduate students at 55 H St. NW, which is 30 minute from the Hilltop campus via the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS). Students at the Law Center are accommodated at the Gewirz Student Center. All students in the Medical School live off-campus, most in the surrounding neighborhoods, with some in Northern Virginia and elsewhere through the DMV region.

Student groups
, 92.9% of Georgetown University undergraduates are involved in at least one of the 179 registered student organizations which cover a variety of interests: student government, club sports, media and publications, performing arts, religion, and volunteer and service. Students also operate campus stores, banks, and medical services. Students often find their interests at the Student Activities Commission Club Fair, where both official and unofficial organizations set up tables. The Georgetown University Student Association is the student government organization for undergraduates. There are also elected student representatives within the schools that serve on Academic councils, as well as to the university Board of Directors, and, since 1996, to the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission.

Georgetown's student organizations include one of the nation's oldest debating clubs, the Philodemic Society, founded in 1830, and the oldest university theater group, the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society. Nomadic Theatre, founded in 1982 as an alternative troupe without an on-campus home, produces "plays which educate and challenge all members of the university community through thought-provoking theatre." The Georgetown Improv Association, founded in 1995, performs monthly long-form improvisational shows on-campus at Bulldog Alley in addition to hosting "Improvfest", one of the oldest improv festivals in the country.

The Model United Nations team that is run by the Georgetown International Relations Club, the largest club on campus, and its affiliate, Georgetown International Relations Association, has attained the status of best in the world on several occasions.

There is a total of seven a cappella groups on campus, including The Georgetown Saxatones, The Georgetown Chimes, the Phantoms, Superfood, The GraceNotes, the Chamber Singers, Essence, Harmony, and the Capitol G's. These groups perform annually at the "D.C. A Cappella Festival", held since 1991; the "Cherry Tree Massacre" concert series, held since 1974; and "Spring Sing", held since 2011. The Georgetown University Band is composed of the Georgetown Pep Band and the Georgetown Wind Ensemble, and performs on campus, in Washington, D.C., and at post-season basketball tournaments.

In addition to student organizations and clubs, Georgetown University is home to one of the nation's largest entirely student-owned and -operated corporations, Students of Georgetown, Inc. Founded in 1972, "The Corp" operates three coffee shops, two grocery stores, the Hilltoss, a concept similar to Sweetgreen, catering services, and seasonal storage for students. The business has annual revenues of about $5 million, and surpluses are directly re-invested into the Georgetown student body through Corp Philanthropy, which gave out over $85,000 in scholarships and donations to Georgetown groups in 2014–2015. Georgetown University Alumni & Student Federal Credit Union is the largest all student-run credit union in the United States, with over $17 million in assets and 12,000 members. The Georgetown University Student Investment Fund is one of a few undergraduate-run investment funds in the United States, and hosted CNBC's Jim Cramer to tape Mad Money in September 2006. Hilltop Consultants is a student-run nonprofit consulting agency that works with local and international organizations including Teach For America, Habitat for Humanity, and Special Olympics. The Hilltop Microfinance Initiative is a student-run micro-finance organization, aiming to empower underserved communities in DC, Maryland, and Virginia through small business loans and financial coaching.

Another student-run group, the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service, "GERMS", is an all-volunteer ambulance service founded in 1982 that serves campus and the surrounding communities. Georgetown's Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit, the Hoya Battalion, is the oldest military unit native to the District of Columbia, and was awarded the top ranking among ROTC programs in 2012. The proportion of ROTC students at Georgetown was the 79th highest among universities in the United States. GUGS, the Georgetown University Grilling Society, has been a Georgetown tradition since 2002, selling half-pound hamburgers in Red Square on most Fridays.

Activism
Georgetown University student organizations include a diverse array of groups focused on social justice issues, including organizations run through both Student Affairs and the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, & Service (CSJ). The latter organization, founded in 2001, works to integrate into their education Georgetown's founding mission of education in service for justice and the common good.

Oriented against gender violence, Take Back the Night coordinates an annual rally and march to protest against rape and other forms of violence against women. Georgetown Solidarity Committee is a workers' rights organization whose successes include ending use of sweatshops in producing Georgetown-logoed apparel, and garnering pay raises for both university cleaning staff and police. Georgetown Students for Fair Trade successfully advocated for all coffee in campus cafeterias to be Fair Trade Certified.

Georgetown has many additional groups representing national, ethnic, and linguistic interests. Georgetown has the second-most politically active student body in the United States according to The Princeton Review. Groups based on local, national, and international issues are popular, and political speech is protected on campus. Student political organizations are active on campus and engage their many members in local and national politics. The Georgetown University College Republicans represent their party, while the Georgetown University College Democrats, the largest student organization on campus in 2008, represent theirs.

As a Catholic university, the pro-life organization Georgetown University Right to Life is officially recognized by the university. They actively participate in on-campus as well as nationally focused activism, provide free baby-sitting services for all parenting students, and free diapers and material support to mothers and families in the DC Area. In 1981, Right to Life students helped found The Northwest Center, one of two crisis pregnancy centers in Washington, that continues to serve women and families to this day. Every year, the organization sends a delegation to the March for Life to show support for the national pro-life movement. In addition, every January since 2000 the club has organized the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life. The largest student-organized pro-life conference in the United States, it regularly hosts hundreds of attendees and prominent speakers such as Cardinal O'Malley.

The pro-abortion organization H*yas for Choice is not officially recognized by the university as its positions on abortion are in opposition to university policy, including supporting late-term abortion as is still legal in Washington, D.C., prompting the asterisk in "H*yas." While not financially supported by the school, the organization is permitted to meet and table in university spaces.

Georgetown is also home to a number of student organizations focused on sustainability and environmentalism. GREEN, the Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network, is the largest of these groups. Another student group, GU Fossil Free, was founded in 2013, and aimed to pressure the university to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Georgetown is a member of the Ivy Plus Sustainability Consortium, through which it has committed to best-practice sharing and the ongoing exchange of campus sustainability solutions along with the other member institutions; it hosted the annual Ivy Plus summit in 2019. The university announced that it would fully divest its endowment from fossil fuels in February 2020.

Media
Georgetown University has several student-run newspapers and academic journals. The Hoya is the university's oldest newspaper. It has been in print since 1920, and since 1987, has been published twice weekly. The Georgetown Voice, known for its weekly cover stories, is a newsmagazine that was founded in March 1969 to focus more attention on citywide and national issues. The Georgetown Independent is a monthly journal of news, commentary and the arts. Founded in 1966, the Georgetown Law Weekly is the student-run paper on the Law Center campus, and is a three-time winner of the American Bar Association's Best Newspaper award. Established in 1995, the Georgetown Public Policy Review is a student-run journal based out of the McCourt School of Public Policy that publishes online articles and a peer-reviewed spring edition. The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, established in 2000, is a student-managed, peer-reviewed journal that publishes perspectives on current affairs and international relations from experts such as heads of states and renowned professors; it is the official journal of the School of Foreign Service and published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

The Georgetown Academy, restarted in 2008 after a hiatus, targets traditionalist Catholic readers, while the Georgetown Review, founded in 2016, aims to bring a conservative and libertarian viewpoint to campus. Other political publications include the Georgetown Progressive, an online publication run by the Georgetown University College Democrats, and Counterpoint Magazine, a liberal monthly founded in the spring of 2011. The Fire This Time is Georgetown's minority news source. The Georgetown Heckler is a humor magazine founded on the Internet in 2003 by Georgetown students, releasing its first print issue in 2007.

The university has a campus-wide television station, GUTV, which began broadcasting in 1999. The station hosts an annual student film festival in April for campus filmmakers. WGTB, Georgetown's radio station, is available as a webcast and on 92.3 FM in certain dormitories. The station was founded in 1946, and broadcast on 90.1 FM from 1960 to 1979, when university president Timothy S. Healy gave away the frequency and broadcast capabilities to the University of the District of Columbia because of WGTB's far left political orientation. The station now broadcasts through the Internet in its headquarters in the Leavey Center.

Greek life
Although Jesuit schools are not obliged to disassociate from Greek systems, many do, and Georgetown University officially recognizes and funds only one of the many Greek organizations on campus, Alpha Phi Omega, the national co-ed community service fraternity. Other Greek organizations exist on campus, although none require members to live in Greek housing. Additionally, Georgetown University students are affiliated, in some cases, with fraternities at other nearby universities and colleges. About 10 percent of undergraduate students participate in Greek life, a ratio lower than at many other colleges and universities.

Traditions
Annual events on campus celebrate Georgetown traditions, culture, alumni, sports, and politics. In late April, Georgetown University celebrates Georgetown Day.

Homecoming coincides with a home football game, and festivities such as tailgating and a formal dance are sponsored by the Alumni Association to draw past graduates back to campus. The largest planned sports related celebration is the first basketball practice of the season. Dubbed Midnight Madness, this event introduces the men's and women's basketball teams shortly after midnight on the first day the teams are allowed by NCAA rules to formally practice together. The festivities include a dunk contest, a 3-point contest, a scrimmage, and a musical act.

Athletics
Georgetown fields 23 varsity athletic teams and an additional 23 athletic club teams. The university's varsity teams participate in the NCAA's Division I. The school competes in the Big East Conference in most sports. Exceptions include the football team, which competes in Division I FCS' Patriot League, the sailing team, which competes in the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association, and the rowing teams, which competes in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges.

In March 2002, U.S. News & World Report listed Georgetown's athletics program among the 20 best in the nation. Georgetown's student athletes have a 94% graduation success rate, and over 100 have gone on to play at some level of professional athletics.

The school's teams are called "Hoyas", which originated sometime prior to 1893, when students invented the mixed Greek and Latin chant of "Hoya Saxa", translating roughly as "what (or such) rocks." The school's baseball team, then called the Stonewalls, began in 1870, and football began in 1874; the chant likely refers to one of these teams. By the 1920s, the term "Hoyas" was used to describe groups on campus, and by 1928, campus sports writers started using it instead of the older team name, the "Hilltoppers."

The men's basketball team, which won the NCAA championship in 1984 under coach John Thompson, is among the university's most successful athletic programs. The team holds the record for the most Big East conference tournament titles with eight, and has made thirty NCAA tournament appearances. Georgetown's NBA alumni are collectively among the highest earners from a single program.

The sailing team has won 14 national championships and one world championship in match racing since 2001. Over this time, the sailing team has graduated 79 All-Americans and six College Sailors of the year.

Georgetown has been nationally successful in both cross country and track and field. In 2011, the women's cross country team won Georgetown's second team NCAA championship.

The men's and women's lacrosse teams have both been ranked in the top ten nationally, as have both soccer teams, with the men winning Georgetown's third team national championship in 2019, and the women making the national quarterfinals in 2010 and the semifinals in 2016.

The rugby club team made it to the Division II Final Four in 2005 and 2009. In 2019, Georgetown won the women's team championship at the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association national tournament held at Syracuse University.

Former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon "Gordie" Ernst, one of several people implicated in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, is alleged to have facilitated the admission to Georgetown of as many as 12 students through fraudulent means while accepting bribes of up to $950,000. Ernst had relocated to the University of Rhode Island, where he was placed on administrative leave after he was charged and arrested. He later pled guilty to conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, three counts of federal programs bribery, and to filing false tax returns for failing to report many of the bribery payments.

Alumni
As of 2017, approximately 73% of undergraduates enter the workforce following graduation, and others pursue additional education. Georgetown graduates have been recipients of 28 Rhodes Scholarships, 41 Marshall Scholarships, 33 Truman Scholarships, 15 Mitchell Scholarships, and 12 Gates Cambridge Scholarships. Georgetown is among the nation's top producers of Fulbright Scholars, with 429 over its history, and produced more than any other institution in the 2019–2020 academic year. Georgetown is also one of the top-ten yearly producers of Peace Corps volunteers.

Business
Graduates of the McDonough School of Business have the highest starting salaries, at $70,606, and alumni in general have a median starting salary of $61,681 with a median mid-career salary of $129,500, as of 2017-18. Georgetown ranks among the top ten U.S. colleges for median graduate income.

Government and politics
Government and international relations are the top two most popular undergraduate majors across every college at Georgetown, and many students go on to careers in politics. Former President of the United States Bill Clinton is a 1968 graduate of the School of Foreign Service. Georgetown educated more U.S. diplomats than any other university as of 2015, including former U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Director General of the Foreign Service Marcia Bernicat. Georgetown alumni have served as foreign ministers in many countries.

In the 118th U.S. Congress, eight alumni serve in the United States Senate and 20 are in the House of Representatives. Current congressional alumni include Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, and Dick Durbin, Senate majority whip. Twenty-five alumni have served as U.S. state governors, including Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Pat Quinn of Illinois. On the U.S. Supreme Court, alumni include former Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and former Chief Justice Edward Douglass White. Hoya Battalion, the school's ROTC program, was ranked as the best in the country in 2012 for preparing cadets for military service, and graduates have gone on to hold leadership roles in defense and national security at both the domestic and international level.

Finance and economics
Finance and economics are the third and fourth-most popular undergraduate majors, and almost a quarter of graduates start careers at consulting or financial services firms. Georgetown is considered one of Wall Street's top target schools, so a large number of graduates choose to work in investment banks, consulting firms, and hedge funds. The university is among the top ten alma maters reported by current Wall Street banking employees, according to LinkedIn surveys. Citigroup was the most commonly reported employer, and their former CEO Charles Prince is a graduate of the Law School. Many graduates of the SFS pursued careers in multilateral and international financial institutions, and former World Bank president David Malpass attended the school. Five undergraduate alumni own professional sports teams, making Georgetown the most popular undergraduate university for major North American sports franchise owners.

Media
Georgetown alumni in media, including Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus and NPR correspondent Lulu Garcia-Navarro, have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Edward R. Murrow Award, and Peabody Awards.

title: Georgetown University


text:
Celluloid

Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day uses are for manufacturing table tennis balls, musical instruments, combs, office equipment, fountain pen bodies, and guitar picks.

Nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose-based plastics slightly predate celluloid. Collodion, invented in 1848 and used as a wound dressing and an emulsion for photographic plates, is dried to a celluloid like film.

Alexander Parkes
The first celluloid as a bulk material for forming objects was made in 1855 in Birmingham, England, by Alexander Parkes, who was never able to see his invention reach full fruition, after his firm went bankrupt due to scale-up costs. Parkes patented his discovery as Parkesine in 1862 after realising a solid residue remained after evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion.

Parkes patented it as a clothing waterproofer for woven fabrics in the same year. Later Parkes showcased Parkesine at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where he was awarded a bronze medal for his efforts. The introduction of Parkesine is generally regarded as the birth of the plastics industry. Parkesine was made from cellulose treated with nitric acid and a solvent. The Parkesine company ceased trading in 1868. Pictures of Parkesine are held by the Plastics Historical Society of London. There is a plaque on the wall of the site of the Parkesine Works in Hackney, London.

John Wesley Hyatt
In the 1860s, an American, John Wesley Hyatt, acquired Parkes's patent and began experimenting with cellulose nitrate with the intention of manufacturing billiard balls, which until that time were made from ivory. He used cloth, ivory dust, and shellac, and on April 6, 1869, patented a method of covering billiard balls with the addition of collodion. With assistance from Peter Kinnear and other investors, Hyatt formed the Albany Billiard Ball Company (1868–1986) in Albany, New York, to manufacture the product. In 1870, John and his brother Isaiah patented a process of making a "horn-like material" with the inclusion of cellulose nitrate and camphor. Alexander Parkes and Daniel Spill (see below) listed camphor during their earlier experiments, calling the resultant mix "xylonite", but it was the Hyatt brothers who recognized the value of camphor and its use as a plasticizer for cellulose nitrate. They used heat and pressure to simplify the manufacture of these compounds. Isaiah Hyatt dubbed the material "celluloid" in 1872. The Hyatts later moved their company, now called the Celluloid Manufacturing Company, to Newark, New Jersey.

Over the years, celluloid became the common use term used for this type of plastic. In 1878 Hyatt was able to patent a process for injection moulding thermoplastics, although it took another fifty years before it could be realized commercially, and in later years celluloid was used as the base for photographic film.

Imitating ivory
The development of celluloid was partially spurred by the desire to reduce reliance on ivory, with its shortages caused by overhunting. An 1883 invention allowed celluloid manufacturers to imitate the distinctive graining of ivory, and by the end of 19th century celluloid was marketed as a lighter (and three times cheaper) ivory substitute under the names "Ivarine", "Ivaleur", "French Ivory", "Parisian Ivory", "Grained Ivory", and "Ivory Pyralin".

Daniel Spill and legal disputes
English inventor Daniel Spill had worked with Parkes and formed the Xylonite Co. to take over Parkes' patents, describing the new plastic products as Xylonite. He took exception to the Hyatts' claims and pursued the brothers in a number of court cases between 1877 and 1884. Initially the judge found in Spill's favor, but ultimately it was judged that neither party held an exclusive claim and the true inventor of celluloid/xylonite was Alexander Parkes, due to his mention of camphor in his earlier experiments and patents. The judge ruled all manufacturing of celluloid could continue both in Spill's British Xylonite Company and Hyatt's' Celluloid Manufacturing Company.

The main use was in movie and photography film industries, which used only celluloid film stock prior to the adoption of acetate safety film in the 1950s. Celluloid is highly flammable, difficult and expensive to produce and no longer widely used.

Photography
English photographer John Carbutt founded the Keystone Dry Plate Works in 1879 with the intention of producing gelatin dry plates. The Celluloid Manufacturing Company was contracted for this work, which was done by thinly slicing layers out of celluloid blocks and then removing the slice marks with heated pressure plates. After this, the celluloid strips were coated with a photosensitive gelatin emulsion. It is not certain exactly how long it took for Carbutt to standardize his process, but it occurred no later than 1888. A 15 in sheet of Carbutt's film was used by William Dickson for the early Edison motion picture experiments on a cylinder drum Kinetograph. However, the celluloid film base produced by this means was still considered too stiff for the needs of motion-picture photography.

By 1889, more flexible celluloids for photographic film were developed, and both Hannibal Goodwin and the Eastman Kodak Company obtained patents for a film product. (Ansco, which purchased Goodwin's patent after he died, was eventually successful in a patent-infringement suit against Kodak). This ability to produce photographic images on a flexible material (as opposed to a glass or metal plate) was a crucial step toward making possible the advent of motion pictures.

Uses
Most movie and photography films prior to the widespread move to acetate films in the 1950s were made of celluloid. Its high flammability was legendary since it self-ignites when exposed to temperatures over 150 °C in front of a hot movie-projector beam. While celluloid film was standard for 35mm theatrical productions until around 1950, motion-picture film for amateur use, such as 16mm and 8mm film, were on acetate "safety base", at least in the US. Celluloid was useful for producing cheaper jewellery, jewellery boxes, hair accessories and many items that would earlier have been manufactured from ivory, horn or other expensive animal products. In these applications it was often referred to as "Ivorine" or "French Ivory", after a form of celluloid developed in France with grain lines in made to resemble ivory. It was also used for dressing table sets, dolls, picture frames, charms, hat pins, buttons, buckles, stringed instrument parts, accordions, fountain pens, cutlery handles and kitchen items. The main disadvantage the material had was that it was flammable. It was soon overtaken by Bakelite and Catalin. Soviet roly-poly dolls were made from celluloid on smokeless powder plants until 1996, and table tennis balls – until 2014. "Parker Brothers... made some versions [of diabolos] out of hollow Celluloid--which, because of its 'frictionless' properties, spun even faster than steel."

Shelf clocks and other furniture items were often covered with celluloid in a manner similar to veneer. This celluloid was printed to look like expensive woods, or materials like marble or granite. The Seth Thomas clock company bought rights for its use as a durable coating from Celluloid Manufacturing Company in September, 1880 and marketed it as, "Adamantine". Celluloid enabled clockmakers to make the typical late Victorian style of black mantel clock in such a way that the wooden case appeared to be black marble, and the various pillars and other decorative elements of the case looked like semi-precious stone.

Celluloid was also a popular material in the construction of slide rules. It was primarily used to coat wooden slide rule faces, such as in early A.W. Faber rules, as well as cursor end pieces, such as in Keuffel and Esser rules.

Celluloid remains in use for musical instruments, especially accordions and guitars. Celluloid is very robust and easy to mold in difficult forms, and has great acoustic performance as cover for wooden frames since it does not block wood's natural pores. Instruments covered with celluloid can easily be recognized by the material's typical nacre-like flaming pattern. Thick celluloid panels are cooked in a bain-marie which turns them into a leather-like substance. Panels are then turned on a mold and allowed to harden for as long as three months.

Formulation
A typical formulation of celluloid might contain 70 to 80 parts nitrocellulose, nitrated to 11% nitrogen, 30 parts camphor, 0 to 14 parts dye, 1 to 5 parts ethyl alcohol, plus stabilizers and other agents to increase stability and reduce flammability.

Production
Celluloid is made from a mixture of chemicals such as nitrocellulose, camphor, alcohol, as well as colorants and fillers depending on the desired product. The first step is transforming raw cellulose into nitrocellulose by conducting a nitration reaction. This is achieved by exposing the cellulose fibers to an aqueous solution of nitric acid; the hydroxyl groups (-OH) will then be replaced with nitrate groups (-ONO2) on the cellulose chain. The reaction can produce mixed products, depending on the degree of substitution of nitrogen, or the percent nitrogen content on each cellulose molecule; cellulose nitrate has 2.8 molecule of nitrogen per molecule of cellulose. It was determined that sulfuric acid was to be used as well in the reaction in order to first, catalyze the nitric acid groups so it can allow for the substitution onto the cellulose, and second, allow for the groups to easily and uniformly attach to the fibers, creating a better quality nitrocellulose. The product then must be rinsed to wash away any free acids that did not react with the fibers, dried, and kneaded. During this time, a solution of 50% camphor in alcohol is added, which then changes the macromolecule structure of nitrocellulose into a homogeneous gel of nitrocellulose and camphor. The chemical structure is not well understood, but it is determined that it is one molecule of camphor for each unit of glucose. After the mixing, the mass is pressed into blocks at a high pressure and then is fabricated for its specific use.

Nitrating cellulose is an extremely flammable process in which even factory explosions are not uncommon. Many western celluloid factories closed after hazardous explosions, and only two factories in China remain in business.

Deterioration
Many sources of deterioration in celluloid exist, such as thermal, chemical, photochemical, and physical. The most inherent flaw is as celluloid ages, the camphor molecules are ‘squeezed’ out of the mass due to the unsustainable pressure used in the production. That pressure causes the nitrocellulose molecules to bind back to each other or crystallize, and this results in the camphor molecules being shoved out of the material. Once exposed to the environment, camphor can undergo sublimation at room temperature, and the plastic reverts to brittle nitrocellulose. Also, with exposure to excess heat, the nitrate groups can break off and expose nitrogen gases, such as nitrous oxide and nitric oxide, to the air.

Another factor that can cause this is excess moisture, which can accelerate deterioration of nitrocellulose with the presence of nitrate groups, either newly fragmented from heat or still trapped as a free acid from production. Both of these sources allow the accumulation of nitric acid. Another form of deterioration, photochemical deterioration, is severe in celluloid because it absorbs ultraviolet light well. The absorbed light leads to chain-breakage and stiffening.

Among collectors of antiques, the deterioration of celluloid is generally known as "celluloid rot." The chemical processes involved are not perfectly understood, but it is widely believed that the gases released by a piece undergoing celluloid rot can trigger celluloid rot in nearby articles of celluloid which were previously intact.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Celluloid


text:
File:Stravinsky-petrushka-fanfare.png

Fair use for Polytonality
The image linked here is claimed to be used under fair use as:
 * 1) it is a small portion of two voice's parts, not the piece;
 * 2) the transcription is only being used for informational purposes;
 * 3) it is inferior to the original piece;
 * 4) Its inclusion in the article adds significantly to the article because it shows a part of the allusion, cryptogram, and quotation techniques used.

title: File:Stravinsky-petrushka-fanfare.png


text:
Talk:Acme

Titius, Gaius, Sempronius are probably more equivalent to "Tom, Dick, and Harry" than "John Doe" don't you think?

What is the quote from Walt Whitman doing there?Nathanmurray1 20:22, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Who is Daniel Latson? Google comes up with squat. Are we sure this isn't a case of someone creeping in to mention their own (unknown) stuff? The paragraph on it here doesn't mention that this Acme is ever in any published works. -- Tarquin 20:17 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)

 * It was added by a regular contributor (Fonzy), and it seems an unlikely thing to add if it was unknown (even if it is virtually unknown you would expect some mention of it to be on the web even if it was just the guy's homepage). So as a result I suspect that there is a typo in the name and that is why you can't find him. --Imran

 * Well, Fonzy seems to make a lot of typos. (I don't mind, it means there's someone who makes more than me!) -- so that's plausible. I guess I'm in a suspicious mood because we've had quite a few people add things they've made up lately. I'll ask Fonzy to clarify -- Tarquin

I'm confused myself. I never wrote that. :-s. All i can think of is that one my freidns must have doen it when they were at my house, dot kow why. - fonzy

 * In that case I'll move it here until someone can confirm.

 * * the fictitious country of Acme is a fictitious country invented by Daniel Latson in 1950. He came up with a whole fictitious history of the country. It is still continued by his descendants.

I found this information a while ago and stupidly did not write back, and now i lost the URL to where I found it:

hmmm well do you know what seacrh engien you used?

 * I'm still getting only this page on google for "acme Daniel Latson". The names in the above table I've tried produce no results. Who put this table in anyway? Whoever you are, rather than tell us about the things within this fiction, please tell us where this Acme appears -- in which books / films / television series etc. If it only exists in the imagination of a single person, it doesn't belong in Wikipedia. -- Tarquin 20:43 Dec 9, 2002 (UTC)

My this is confusing Wiz!

Acronym
I was surprised to see "American Corporation Making Everything" as the expansion of the acronym, never having heard that before. Google has 4 results for this. The standard expansion, "A Company that Makes Everything," shows up 150 times. --Yath 12:44, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

A joke. I've substituted
 * "The origins of the term are obscure, but if not the Latin word acme meaning high point or best, it would probably be derived from an acronym. The most common is "A Company that Makes Everything."

for this
 * "The origins of the term are the Latin word acme "high point" or "best."'

No problems, I hope. Wetman 01:29, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I do not think that John Doe is the 'usual' name in English speaking countries. Indeed, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/John-Doe lists 5 English speaking countries, and only the USA uses John Doe.

---

What about the people who own acme.com?

---

Erm it now appears to say that ACME has been given the backronym mentioned above, but that the backronym is in question. I'm not sure how a backronym can be in question, as by using it on this page it is now a backronym that is in use. Triangl 16:57, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Non-wikilinked Entries
At the moment, three of the first four entries don't contain any wikilinks to relevant articles. One (the international e-journal for critical geographies) contains an off-site link while the other two don't contain any links at all. I was under the impression that a disambiguation page was supposed to differentiate between Wikipedia articles, not provide a text list of absolutely everything a word could refer to. I think that if any of the non-wikilinked entries are subjects that should be covered by Wikipedia, they should be converted to red links. If they're not suitable for encyclopedia articles, they should be removed. Blackeagle 07:12, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Carmen Sandiego
Didn't the "gumshoes" at Acme Detective (?) always hunt down Carmen Sandiego on the TV show of the same name? --206.54.145.254 15:15, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Acne
I removed the entry below as it's probably baloney. The Acne vulgaris describes the etymology quite differently. Geira (talk) 13:01, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

 * Acne vulgaris, a skin condition originally called acme in Greek, but whose spelling has been corrupted

Last Action Hero
Hi GB fan, as you request on your home page, here my reasoning for the mention of the movie:

I watched the movie (Last Action Hero) a few days ago, and then came here to Wikipedia to learn what the word "ACME" means. From the perspective of the movie, this decoration on some of their props is "trivia" (as it might be mentioned on IMDB (I am not a user there and am not planning to)). Each movie got hundreds of props, so no reason to mention ACME for the movie, because this is an ecyclopedia, not a movie-fan-place.

Yet, from the perspective of the entry "ACME" it is still relevant to mention the use of this term in a major movie production. Especially as Looney Tunes is already mentioned and it is clear that Last Action Hero wanted to send them a greeting.

Now, proof is in the movie itself, but I would need your help please how to cite that. I did link to the article about the movie, so that people can verify that the movie is real and can find enough detail to go and rent and watch the beast. What more do I need to do? Do I need to cite a time-reference within the movie (minutes and seconds or what)?

Consider this: Somebody has put reference to Looney Tunes a long time ago. They did not even link to that fine article. (I did look it up.) The Looney Tunes article also does NOT mention the term ACME. And there is not need, as I have explained above. It is just a great, typical, useage of that term. You did not delete the reference to Looney Tunes (and you should not, even with your logic "not in the article"). But you deleted mine, with an unsatisfactory explanation.

You can see that I am a new user; I like Wikipedia and I try to make rare contributions when I see something "missing". I want to contribute, not just to take out. Now it feels like when I try, there is some veteran lurking with a robot and they quickly delete rather than talk issues or make entries better. Please do not just delete again but give a genuine reasoning. Thanks. --Bassilois (talk) 15:56, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

This concerns the entry below.
 * Last Action Hero, The movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger is showing several props (dynamite boxes...) marked ACME, probably as a nodd to Looney Tunes

 * This page is not an article, it is a disambiguation page. We have a manual of style on disambiguation pages, it can be found at WP:MOSDAB. So all entries are supposed to follow the guidance given on that page.
 * In the section about individual entries it says that each entry will have only one blue link, your entry has two.
 * In your entry you say that it is "probably as a nodd to Looney Tunes" That is an opinion not supported by any reliable sources and as this is not an article this page is not the place to provide those sources. As it also says in the individual entries section, "References should not appear on disambiguation pages. Dab pages are not articles; instead, incorporate the references into the target articles."
 * Now, does it even belong on the page? The first paragraph of WP:MOSDAB says:
 * Disambiguation pages ("dab pages") are designed to help a reader find Wikipedia articles on different topics that could be referenced by the same search term, as described in the Disambiguation guideline. Disambiguation pages are not articles; they are aids in searching.
 * In the editing guideline on disambiguation, Disambiguation in a subsection of Disambiguation pages titled What not to include it says:
 * "Do not include articles unless the term being disambiguated is actually described in the target article. (For example, the Set disambiguation page legitimately has an entry for Volleyball.)"
 * Based on the manual of style for disambiguation pages and the editing guideline on disambiguation the entry does not belong. I see you have added a second blue link to another entry.  That does not belong either according to the manual of style.  GB fan 16:28, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Acme


text:
Talk:Polytonality

Fanfare image
I just added the picture of the Stravinsky fanfare to the page - I hope the size is OK. If anybody has any comments on it, I'd welcome them, because I hope to be adding some more music examples to various articles, and they'll all be about this size unless somebody speaks up (and I should say, it'll be a real pain for me to make them any smaller and retain good quality, much as I would like to). --Camembert

 * they look great. I'd say make them a smidgen narrower perhaps. What app did you use to make them with? -- Tarquin

 * Sibelius (www.sibelius.com) - I only have the demo version, but a musician friend of mine with too much money has bought it (a snip at £600). It's fantastically versatile, but I haven't yet found how to make graphics smaller without them becoming all bitty and nasty looking. I'll probably work it out in time - I agree with you that they could take being a bit smaller. --Camembert

 * The size of the notes is fine -- what I meant is that the widdth of the staff goes over the width of the page (when the browser is set to a comfortable number of words per line). -- Tarquin

 * Until about an hour ago, I couldn't work out how to fix that either! But I think I've got it now - I'll redo the image and upload a narrower version later tonight. --Camembert

 * I've managed to lop a bit off the width - how does it look now? --Camembert

 * It's great! :) -- Tarquin

Groupe des Six
Just a note: there's a ghost link on Erik Satie to Groupe des Six. Which is the better title for a future article? -- Tarquin

 * I've never come across "Groupe des Six" before - Google suggests that it is sometimes used by French-speakers, but hardly ever by English-speakers. Les Six looks like the right name, with Groupe des Six a redirect. --Camembert

 * In fact, I just checked the French wiki, and they have the article at "Les Six" (http://fr.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?Les_Six), which is good enough for me :) --Camembert

 * In that case let's edit the link on the Satie page for consistency. -- Tarquin

 * Done.

Problems with this page
There are several problems with this page right now. First, it relies too much on Reti, which is a rather outdated and not very reliable source. Second, the material about the debates over polytonality is weak. Music theorists are currently in sharp disagreement about whether polytonality is a viable concept or not. A clear presentation of the debate is important for the article.

The section on polychords is weak, particularly the section on the "origins" of polytonality. The Beethoven example is extremely tendentious, as the chords belong to a single key. An opus number as well as measure numbers should also be given.

The material on Bartok strikes me as misplaced, as well.

Finally, does anyone have a reliable example of polytonality (as opposed to non-diatonic scales) in Eastern European folk music? I'm a bit skeptical of the claim that bitonality is "quite common" in this music, and have softened the assertion.

I've revised the entry quite substantially, to try to deal with these various problems. Tymoczko 19:57, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Do you have a source which contradicts Reti? How is Reti unreliable? Hyacinth 07:27, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Reti simply isn't a well-respected scholar. Music theorists don't read him, his statements are often tendentious, false, and confused.  See below for an example.

 * The "'Bartok' material" has been moved to bimodality. Hyacinth 11:12, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Why is this material in a separate article? What are "contextual pitch centers" as opposed to "hierarchically determined tonics?"  I'm not sure this is a viable distinction.  At the very least, it constitutes a substantial music theoretical assertion with which many would disagree.  Perhaps all tonics are contextually determined.

 * I've removed the following sentence:

 * While initially polytonality referred simply to "contrapuntally juxtaposed tonalities" it quickly was applied to any "simultaneous tonalities...that cross, overlap, complement or even oppose each other." (Reti, 1958)

 * The first reason is that it's not clearly meaningful. What, precisely, is the difference between "contrapuntally juxtaposed tonalities" and "simultaneous tonalities"?  Both statements refer to two tonalities occuring at the same time.

 * The second reason is that it's historically inaccurate. If one reads Casella, for instance, one of the earliest discussions of polytonality, there is nothing to support any distinction here.

 * I've also removed the following sentence:

 * As above, polytonality may originate or be created by the use of other techniques such as the octatonic scale. Bitonality may also be suggested with an added tone a perfect fourth below the root of the chord:
 * [[Image:Added P4 below root suggests polytonality.PNG|550px|An added tone a perfect fourth below the root of a chord suggests an entire chord with that tone as root]]

 * The reasons are:

 * Many people feel that "polytonality" cannot result from the use of a single scale like the octatonic. The contrast described in the article is between polytonal music that results from the juxtaposition of heterogeneous musical objects (e.g. different scales) and single-scale music that is not typically described as polytonal.
 * Why is the interval of a perfect fourth below the root at all special? Precisely the same assertion could be made for any other interval: tritone, major third, etc.  So the example is misleading and adds distracting detail.
 * The actual examples do not necessarily sound "polytonal." As described in the text, polychords need not imply polytonality, and all of the chords in this example can be heard in a single key.
 * Tymoczko 11:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC), 24 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I assume that the difference between "contrapuntally juxtaposed tonalities" and "simultaneous tonalities" is that "contrapuntally juxtaposed tonality" is tonalities presented simultaneously through counterpoint as opposed to, say, homophony. It doesn't seem far fetched to me that the concept would originally be described in counterpoint and then applied to other musical textures. What type(s) of texture(s) is Casella describing?

 * The Bartok/bimodality material is in a different article because you said it didn't belong in this one (and this article is no longer a stub).
 * For "contextual pitch centers" and "hierarchically determined tonics" see Wilson (1992). I believe that is his terminology describing the difference between tonality and modality, or between scales and modes.

 * I believe that given the controversy surrounding the term, concept, and possibility of polytonality and the variety of opinions around them, your assertion that polytonality is only possible (if at all?) through the purposeful use of two different scales is unsupportable. More importantly, I have cited a source which contradicts this assertion.
 * As for why the perfect fourth is special, see Marquis (1964). I presume intervals such as thirds are not special is because they suggest non-polytonal tertian chords. You acknowledge that the topic is controversial and if "many people feel that 'polytonality' cannot result from the use of a single scale like the octatonic" then many people may feel the opposite. For exmaple, one could argue that the octatonic scale is not a "viable auditory possibility" and that all use of it is polytonal (and I'm not arguing this, or asserting that someone does).

 * Hyacinth 12:07, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

 * 1) If this is what Reti means, then it's wrong. Stravinsky's music, particularly the Rite of Spring, involves homophonic polytonality in the sense you describe.  Furthermore, Reti is making a point about usage -- claiming that the word "polytonality" first meant one thing, then another.  There's just no historical evidence for this claim.

 * 2) I think the Bartok material can come back here, now in a section called "Polymodality and Bimodality." Just make the point that tonality, in the strict sense, is about keys, while there's something more general that involves modes.

 * 3) I understand that Wilson finds a distinction between "hierarchically determined tonics" and "contextually determined tonics." What I doubt is whether Wilson's claim is appropriate for Wikipedia.  The claim is connected with Schenkerian ideas about tonality being more "natural" than modality.  There is no need for Wikipedia to endorse this extremely controversial view, especially when it is not needed.  Just say that "key" means something specific (major/minor tonality) whereas "mode" is more general.

 * 4) I do not think that polytonality is only possible through the purposeful use of two different scales.

 * 5) The Marquis source you cite is a 40-year old textbook, and it is not widely used. The claim that perfect fourths are special in this context is simply wrong: one can certainly create polytonal effects using thirds -- for instance, Ab in the bass with a C major chord above it, can, in the right circumstances, be used to create polytonal effects.   (NB: it's not the chord itself that does this, but the chord in the context of a piece.)

By the way, I'm not sure how to put this, but I actually am an authority on this subject. I'm a composer and music theorist who teaches at Princeton and is writing a book on tonality. I've published widely in music theory and have written about polytonality specifically. I say this not to pull rank, or to try to browbeat you, but just so that you know that I'm not coming from out of left field. Tymoczko 13:14, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Correction: Stein 2005 appears to have been the source for "contextual pitch centers" and "hierarchically determined tonics". Hyacinth 10:36, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I have not questioned your "authority". That authority means little to me in the context of Wikipedia as there is no way to prove that you are a teacher at Princeton or a college dropout in Missoula, MT. What matters (to me) on Wikipedia is the content you add and improve and the manner in which you do it (in a civil and neutral manner). So far you have proven yourself familiar with the topic simply through your discussion of it, so I have no concern that you are ignorant or an idiot.
 * It would seem in this case however that your credentials are an impediment. You say you are writing a book about tonality, which is great. Unfortunately this article is not a place for personal views and opinions but for verifiable views and opinions.
 * Hyacinth 10:51, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I must apologize and clarify for the above. Your credentials are not an impediment. However, your possible willingness to promote one viewpoint as the only truth mentionable, would be an impediment. You admit that there are many views on the subject, and then you eliminate those you disagree with. Perhaps it would be better to use your experience and knowledge to verify conflicting opinions with citations. Hyacinth 07:38, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Hyacinth, the point is that you are being completely uncritical in your use of sources such as Reti, Wilson, and Stein. Furthermore, you treat them as authorities, and insert their views into your articles no matter how idiosyncratic or controversial they might be. As a result, you're making your articles worse

I am not at all trying to eliminate multiple viewpoints from these articles -- I put in a whole section on the debates about polytonality. What I object to is the presentation of controversial opinions as if they were neutral fact. This is what your version of the bitonality article does, with its controversial distinction between "contextually determined" and "hierarchically determined" tonics. Tymoczko 18:33, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I take issue with this statement:
 * The psychological challenge holds that it is impossible for human beings to simultaneously perceive two separate key-centers at once.

I think it's very possible to experience two different notes as tonic. It also lacks any kind of citation, and -- though I don't know the rules on citations -- I think that a strong statement like this should have a citation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.124.62.60 (talk) 10:11, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Removing redundant and misleading material
I removed this senctence:

Rudolph Reti has defiend polytonality as "simultaneous tonalities...that cross, overlap, complement or even oppose each other." (Reti, 1958)

This is because it is now redundant with the opening sentence of the article.

I removed this sentence:

As above, polytonality may originate or be created by the use of other techniques such as the octatonic scale. Bitonality may also be suggested with an added tone a perfect fourth below the root of the chord:

This is because I offered several criticisms of it in the discussion section when I explained why I took it out. The editor who put the sentence back in did not respond to the criticisms.

Again, the issues are 1) that it is not a commonly held opinion of music theorists that "polytonality may originate or be created by the use of other techniques such as the octatonic scale." No source has been provided for this, and it is not a commonly held opinion.  2) While it might be true that "bitonality may also be suggested with an added tone a perfect fourth below the root ..." it is just as easy to suggest bitonality with other sub-posed roots. At the very least the example should be changed to show that the same could be done with thirds, tritones, etc. Otherwise we are providing misleading information.

I stress that these are not my personal opinions. Tymoczko 17:56, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Definitions

 * "A logical continuation of polychordal technique is polytonality, the simultaneous presentation, on different strata, of two or more keys or tonalities. It is possible to have a tonality without the functional hierarchy that produces a major or minor key. As in bichordal music, seperations of register are necessary to effect polytonality. Composers also often contrast the texture and rhythm between the tonal levels."
 * DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.

 * This definition isn't very good. "Sparations of register" are not necessary to effect polytonality.  For example, one can get polytonal effects by separations in space (two different kinds of music in two different ears), separations of timbre (cf. "Wessel's illusion"), separations of rhythm, or even volume.

 * Please sign your posts on talk pages per Sign your posts on talk pages. Thanks! Hyacinth 02:37, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Merge: List of polytonal pieces
Failed as no reason given. Hyacinth (talk) 08:18, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Polytonality