Ending My Service as Interim President

The following message was sent to all faculty, staff, and students in the Georgetown University community.

Dear Members of the Georgetown Community,

Later today, I will conclude my service as interim president and become a senior advisor to our new president, Eduardo Peñalver.

I want to thank you—our faculty, staff, students—for your patience, resilience, and good will during these two years.

In June 2024, we did not anticipate the external instability that we later experienced. Beginning in February 2025, the Federal Government quite rapidly began to redefine its relationship with higher education. This produced deep uncertainties.

But we recommitted to our mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution. We believe that learning requires exposure to different perspectives, best achieved by a community who manifest different backgrounds. Together, we seek to nurture the minds, bodies, and spirits of the students who come to us. We want them to become global leaders—“people for others.” Georgetown is blessed by having faculty and students who never lose sight of this mission.

Staff make possible the joint work of faculty and students. Every staff job is necessary for the core activities to continue. I applaud the resilience and professionalism of the Georgetown staff during these two years of external volatility and ambiguity.

As our students become alumni, they multiply the impact of the university. Their willingness to give back to Georgetown, through their time and treasure, is a significant component of the university’s success.

At times like this, an intentional commitment to our mission, which is honorable and good, sustains us. In my belief, we must never lose focus on the “why” of what we do. With that as our North star, Georgetown will continue to succeed in its mission because of the talents and values of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

It has been an honor to support you in this mission for the last two years.

Sincerely,

Robert M. Groves
Interim President