Students of Georgetown Inc.

Non profit public charitable organization at Georgetown University

Students of Georgetown Inc., commonly known as "The Corp" '/k//ɔr//p/, is a 501(c)(3) non profit public charitable organization at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C., with seven subsidiary companies generating annual revenues in excess of $5 million. Only undergraduate students of Georgetown University work as employees or sit as members of the Corp's board of directors, distinguishing business operations at the Corp from other student run companies such as Harvard Student Agencies, which allows non students and alumni to serve as board members. As a registered charity, The Corp's profits fund grants for student organizations, as well as scholarships for students, with each recipient being chosen by The Corp's Philanthropy Committee or board of directors. Vital Vittles is the largest of seven businesses currently owned and operated by The Corp. Referred to by the company as "services", these businesses also include four campus coffee shops called Uncommon Grounds, More Uncommon Grounds (MUG), Midnight MUG, and The Hilltoss, the catering service known as Corp Catering, a convenience store called Hoya Snaxa, and a "seasonal" service — Corp Storage — which only operates at the beginning and end of each semester for storage. The Corp also has three internal departments: Marketing, IT, and Accounting.

The Corp finds its roots on May 2, 1971. On the preceding day, large scale May Day protests took place throughout Washington, D. C., ending in clashes between protesters and police. Protesters sought refuge from the Metropolitan Police Department by coming to the campus of Georgetown University where, on May 3, Rev. Robert J. Henle, S. J, the university's president, authorized the police department to use tear gas to disperse and remove the protesters. Many students were caught in the middle of the violence. In October of that year, Student Body President Roger Cochetti and Vice President Nancy Kent determined that the only way to protect students' rights was to form a separate legal entity that would have the authority to challenge the university's actions. The student government subsequently incorporated the undergraduate students of Georgetown University as "shareholders" in a new organization called "Students of Georgetown, Inc." in order to provide a means of filing lawsuits on behalf of students against the university.

On March 6, 1972, Students of Georgetown was officially incorporated as a non profit organization in the District of Columbia. Cochetti described the organization's goals as "to assert and protect the inherent rights of its members and the community" through the use of powers available to corporations, such as making contracts, borrowing money, and receiving property. The organization soon began using its independent status to develop and expand a number of new businesses designed for students' needs. It is not known when the organization formally adopted the name "The Corp."

Shortly thereafter, students began selling extremely low cost yogurt and water on the university's Healy Lawn to fund the fledgling corporation—at times to the same demonstrators whose gassing had prompted the group's formation. The program, In September 1972 the Corp assumed control of The Book Co op—another, older student run business. The Book Co op is the only Corp business to actually predate the Corp. The Corp opened its first storefront called "The Record Co op" or "Diemusbiederplatz" in the basement of New South Hall that same month.

In 1973, the Corp expanded to open three new services. In August, the Corp opened the Furniture Co op to assist students living off campus with the troublesome task of moving into and out of the often cramped Georgetown Townhouses. In its first year the Furniture Co op moved roughly 400 items. On September 6, 1973, the Corp used a $14,000 grant from the university and $3,500 gift from Student Government to open its first shuttle service. The program, Corp Shuttles, was developed to provide transportation to and from the Alban Towers, student housing located roughly 1.5 mile (2 km) from the university's main campus. The program suffered from a lack of rider support and little to no funding. With the construction of new residence halls and apartment complexes on campus, the need for the service ended, and operations were re absorbed by the university. Today the program has expanded to become the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS), which operates five bus circuits in the Washington Metropolitan area. In November 1973, Corp Travel was opened. The new business provided much needed travel assistance for the growing number of students who chose to study abroad during part of their college career. Today, roughly 40% of Georgetown University undergraduates study abroad before graduation.

On January 25, 1974, the Corp finally sued Georgetown University, claiming that the university's actions on May 3, 1971, were discriminatory. Three days later, The Corp opened Vital Vittles in the basement of the New South Hall dormitory. Vital Vittles (or "Vittles") was an expanded version of the original Food Co op. Within the decade, the university would open its first large scale dining hall in the same space. In April 1974 the Corp sponsored the first annual Vincent Lombardi Tennis Tournament for charity. The tournament raised $6,000 in its first year and featured athletes such as Stan Smith and Jimmy Connors. The tournament lasted only three years, being discontinued in 1976 because of legal issues with the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA). During the summer of 1974, Corp Travel separated from the Corp for various management reasons. It re joined the Corp in 1979. In October 1974, the Corp was denied tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service. That same month, the Corp helped start the Georgetown University Recycling Program.

The year 1975 marked the first time that the Corp had been in existence since the arrival of all four contemporary undergraduate classes. As the corporation's founding generation moved on, its successors were left to face the problems associated with maintaining a large company, regaining tax exempt status, and developing better relationships with the university it had just sued. In January 1975 the Corp restructured its upper management, deciding to institutionalize one year terms for its officer and managers. In February, the Corp agreed to pay rent to the university in order to solve legal questions related with the tax exempt statuses of the Corp and the university itself. The new costs strained the company's ability to operate, and that summer the Record Co op and Vital Vittles were forced to merge into one business, nicknamed "Audio Vittles." While other parts of the Corp consolidated or were closed, the company continued to pursue new ventures. In September 1975 the Corp began Corp Concessions for athletic games. The university later canceled the concessions contract with the Corp in favor of Hoyas Unlimited, a booster club that hired work study varsity athletes.

In 1976 the Corp's board of directors voted to pay its top management for the first time.

In 1977 the Corp began Summer Storage—a business that allowed students to store their belongings during the summer break. Though closed twice during the 1980s and redesigned five times, the business continues to operate today as Corp Student Storage. In November 1977 Vital Vittles began selling bongs and condoms.

Barely four months after Vital Vittles began to sell them, Georgetown University blocked the sale of condoms. In April 1978, the Corp's board of directors voted to participate in a boycott of Nestle because of allegations that Nestle was selling baby food and baby formula in third world countries made with non potable water. Also in 1978, the Corp opened Corp Typing. Long before the mass production of desktop printers, this service gave students the opportunity to have Corp employees type their papers for a fee. Corp Typing's sister service, Corp Copying, also opened in 1978.

In 1979, the Corp moved Vital Vittles' non food sales into the new Saxa Sundries drugstore, which opened in the basement of Georgetown University's Copley Hall. Also in that year, the Corp was denied tax exempt status for the second time.

On September 23, 1980, the Corp applied for tax exempt status for the third time.

In March, the IRS awarded the Corp tax exempt status—refunding several years of back taxes to the corporation. Also in that year, the university canceled its contract with Corp Concessions in favor of Hoyas Unlimited. In October, the board of directors changed the pay system for the Corp's officers and managers from a salary to a wage system.

In January, the board of directors restructured the Corp's management again to include three officers: executive vice president, vice president of operations and vice president of finance. Later that year the Corp opened the Alban Annex—a convenience store in the Alban Towers apartment complex similar to, but smaller than the Corp's Vital Vittles. Also in 1982 the Corp expanded the role of its marketing divisions into Corp Advertising, which provided graphic design services for university clubs. That same year, the Corp closed its Summer Storage business. It was re opened two years later. In 2005, the service transformed itself once again into Student Storage, which offers storage for the summer break, as well as study abroad storage for semester and year long terms. The final transformation of Corp Student Storage took place in December, 2007, with the launch of a new Web site, Storage. theCorp. org. The new site eliminated the need for paper contracts, making the service one of the first Corp services to dramatically reduce its environmental impact. The new site allows for greater competition with off campus storage competitors, while still allowing the Corp to offer students the lowest prices.

The first of three coffee shops opened by the Corp, Uncommon Grounds was begun as a joint project by the Corp and the Georgetown University Office of Student Affairs. Anticipating the needs of the Quad's 900+ residents, the Corp opened a convenience store on the ground floor of the structure's central dormitory, Kennedy Hall. The Corp sponsored a campus wide contest in the spring of 2003 that gave Georgetown students the opportunity to name the new store. The winning entry, Hoya Snaxa, is a clever take on the university's sporting cheer, "Hoya Saxa!" Although cashiers were hired in the spring of 2003, Hoya Snaxa's original management team consisted of employees "borrowed" from the Corp's flagship grocery store, Vital Vittles. In an effort to meet the demands of its customers, Hoya Snaxa gradually added new products throughout its second year, including ice cream, Phillies cigars, and concert tickets. These expansions proved profitable; in its second fiscal year, Hoya Snaxa posted its first ever positive net income, with revenues up 21% from the previous year. Although revenues continued to climb nearly 24% from the year before, the store's gross profit dropped 3% during its third fiscal year. It was near the end of this year that Hoya Snaxa reached $1 million in cumulative revenues.

Grounded is the Corp's newest coffee and dining option. Established as an addition to Hilltoss in 2016, grounded offers a variety of coffees, teas, specialty drinks and toasts, and bagel sandwiches.

Directed by the controller and reporting to the chief financial officer, Corp Accounting tracks the organization's cash flow and investments. Because many Corp services have developed different business models, the Corp Accounting department centralizes the Corp's sprawling accounting needs. Individual services are assigned one or two accountants that work with the service director to monitor purchasing as well as store operations. The accounting department adopts a similar structure to other Corp services with a service Upper Management. The Upper Management consists of the controller, an assistant controller/director of POS accounting, a director of personnel, and an accounts payable manager. Corp Accounting provides its employees with a fundamental understanding of how the company is run. It is the last line of defense that ensures the continual operation of the services.

The Corp's People Operations Department has a staff of four managers— the director of POps oversees the department and serves on The Corp's upper management, the director of POps Operations handles payroll, federal work study and employee systems, the director of employee relations oversees a team of directors of personnel for each service, and the director of professional development works with Corp employees as they search for internships and full time post graduate opportunities. The Corp became a federal work study employer through Georgetown University in 2005.

Corp Information Technology was created in 2005 as the Corp's internal technologies management department to deal with the organization's increasing systems and network administration needs. Later that year it was awarded a contract to construct the website for the Georgetown University Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding.

The Corp Marketing Department was originally an internal marketing division of the Corp. In 1982, it was expanded as a business called Corp Advertising and provided graphic design services for Georgetown University student clubs. In 1997, Corp Advertising was closed due to decreased business and re internalized as the Corp Marketing Department. It once again serves as the Corp's internal marketing division.

Corp Capital was established in 2011 as an internal $50,000 investment fund with a focus on education and training for its members.

The Corp Philanthropy Committee (CPC) was founded in 2005. The committee is responsible for the entire Corp Philanthropy budget. The CPC also is charged with administering Corp Scholarship. The CPC was created to help those groups and students on campus who could not find funding otherwise. Its composition includes one member from each business—or "service"—as well as, an at large Corpie, and an at large member from the student body. The CPC is run by a chairman and a vice chair. The chairman is an at large member of the Corp board of directors.

The Turkey Shuttles program was established as a board project in 2004 and continues today. The Turkey Shuttles provide low cost bus transit for Georgetown University students on their way to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, and Union Station before the Thanksgiving holiday. Estimates suggest that the Turkey Shuttles program saved Georgetown students roughly $7,000 in transportation costs during each of its first two years in operation.

The Bunny Shuttles program was established in the spring of 2006 as a sister program to the Turkey Shuttles service project begun two years earlier, but ended because of a severe lack of interest and profitability in 2011. Like Turkey Shuttles, Bunny Shuttles provided low cost bus transit for Georgetown University students on their way to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, and Union Station before the Easter holiday.

Over the years, The Corp has closed several businesses which failed to generate revenue it saw as sufficient to fund the organization's needs. A list of these businesses includes an ice cream store called The Cone Zone and the Full Exposure film developing business. One business, the Saxa Sundries drug store, was annexed by its sister business, the Vital Vittles grocery store, which continues to operate today. Food Corp 1972–1974 The Food Co op was the first business operated by the Corp and later became Vital Vittles. It was started in the basement of New South Hall, a dormitory on the Georgetown University campus. In its earliest form the Food Co op sold only yogurt and Coca Cola. Record Corp (or Audio Vittles) 1973–1975 One of the original businesses started by the Corp (and, during the spring of 1973, its largest), the Record Co op sold vinyl records out of the basement of Healy Hall for two years. It was renamed "Audio Vittles" when, in 1975, it merged with the Vital Vittles grocery store. In 1979 all record sales were transferred to Saxa Sundries.