Interim Georgetown University President Robert M. Groves will retire one year after the new president’s term begins July 1, 2026, a university official said at a Nov. 20 faculty senate meeting that also included changes to budget advising rules and updates on various university initiatives. Joseph Ferrara, the university’s vice president and chief of staff, provided updates on university budget constraints, classroom recording policies, a university plan to subcontract Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) drivers and the transition to a new university president at the senate meeting, which invites monthly updates from university officials and votes on faculty matters. Faculty senators also endorsed a new senate budget committee to invite greater faculty input on spending considerations. Ferrara said he will continue working for Georgetown in some capacity under incoming university President Eduardo Peñalver’s administration after Groves retires, though he will not be chief of staff. “Bob and I will be asked to serve as senior advisors to the new president, to basically help Eduardo Peñalver over as he gets settled,” Ferrara said at the meeting. “At some point, there will be someone who will come in behind me as chief of staff, and part of my role will be to help that person figure out the job and have a smooth transition.” Ferrara said the university’s board of directors, which elected Peñalver, asked him to help advise the transition and begin onboarding the new president. “One thing the board has asked me to do is, in my capacity as a senior vice president, to take some leadership of some of our functions at the university, to maintain stability as we go through this transitional period,” Ferrara said. “So that’s what we’re going to do. We are slowly starting to work with Eduardo on providing information to him.” Peñalver will step down as president of Seattle University on March 31 and will spend April, May and June working with Groves and Ferrara, according to Ferrara. Some faculty members in attendance expressed concern that Peñalver is not ready to lead Georgetown since it is a much larger institution than Seattle University. The faculty members instead suggested Ferrara should have been selected as president. Ferrara said Peñalver is well-suited for the job, citing his experience as the dean of Cornell Law School. “Part of what the board was looking for was people who have experience with Jesuit higher education, which Eduardo does,” Ferrara said. “My sense is he is going to rise to the occasion. I think he will be a good president, and I think he’s very cognizant that the move from Seattle to Georgetown is a big move, but that’s why we’re going to do everything we can to help him be successful.” Ferrara also said Groves would send faculty and staff an update on the university’s financial situation, which Groves had pledged to do monthly through December. Groves announced Oct. 28 that Georgetown is forecasted to lose $35 million and faces a 20% decline in international graduate student enrollment. Ferrara said the university plans to hold faculty town halls to discuss the budget constraints. “We would probably do one at the Capitol Campus and one at the Hilltop Campus, and to be able to talk through the budget a lot of the stuff you’re very familiar with we’ve talked about before the disruptions to federal funding of research at Georgetown, the declines we’ve seen in graduate tuition revenue because of issues with graduate and then international student enrollment,” Ferrara said. The faculty senate also considered a proposal to amend its senate constitution to redefine the Senate University Budget Committee, which makes financial recommendations to the university based on faculty input, to grant the senate broader advisory oversight on financial matters that relate to “teaching, research and scholarship.” Erin Carroll, a law professor who chaired the subcommittee in charge of developing the proposal, said the subcommittee concluded faculty wanted more input in university financial decisions. “Faculty want to be engaged early in the process, be given the information that they need, and feel like they are collaborating with and strategizing with administrators,” Caroll said at the meeting. The changes include reducing the size of the budget committee, inverting the ratio so there are more faculty than administrators, including faculty members from all Washington, D. C. campuses and requiring members to be full-time faculty. The faculty senate approved the changes to the senate constitution and budget committee, which now must be approved by a vote of faculty from the Medical Center, Law Center and Main Campus. Ferrara also updated faculty on points of contention, including the university’s GUTS plan and classroom recording policies. Some faculty have advocated for greater restrictions on recording classes amid fears of political censorship, which Ferrara said the university will study through a working group. “What Bob has asked them to do is really to try to come up with a consistent, legally compliant approach to audio and video recording in university classrooms and instructional settings,” Ferrara said. Ferrara said the university respects faculty’s advocacy on behalf of GUTS drivers, who face a decline in benefits if they are subcontracted, and the chief operating officer’s (COO) office is nearing a decision. “My sense right now is they are in the final stages of trying to figure out ‘they’ meaning the COO’s office based on all the consultation they’ve heard and updating their own analysis,” Ferrara said. “One of the alternatives that they’re exploring is an alternative where you would still be outsourcing to a third party, but the bus drivers could have an opportunity to remain as university employees, which I think is one of the issues that has come up,” Ferrara added. “So they haven’t landed yet, but I think there’s been a lot of consultation, a lot of discussion, and certainly I think they have gotten the message that there are concerns in the community.”.
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Groves to Retire After Advising New GU President
