The Corp: 50 Years of Students Serving Students

On March 6, 1972, Students of Georgetown, Inc. was officially incorporated in the District of Columbia. Although initially created so that the student government could have legal autonomy to represent students, The Corp evolved in subsequent years to focus on providing low-cost goods and services to the campus community.

During the May Day protests against the Vietnam War in 1971, Georgetown opened its doors to thousands of protesters driven out of West Potomac Park by the police. When officers stormed campus, demonstrators were inundated with tear gas and driven onto our grounds. At great personal risk, students and faculty members kept police and demonstrators apart, and by the evening, 2,500 protesters left campus with no serious injury. Yet some students felt that the response from the university’s leadership and their willingness to allow DC police on campus endangered students and eroded trust. It prompted a few members of the student government, under the leadership of Roger Cochetti, to form the Students of Georgetown Inc. "to assert and protect the inherent rights of its members [students] and the community."

The first service founded by The Corp, Diemusbiederplatz, was a record co-op that operated out of Healy Basement. Though very popular, the service struggled due to frequent thefts. In 1975, the service was merged with the Vital Vittles grocery store, and the combined service was renamed “Audio Vittles” after a campus-wide naming contest. In 1979, all record sales were taken over by The Corp’s new convenience service, Saxa Sundries.

Opened in 1974, The Corp’s first food service was conceived of by Bud Colligan ('74) and sold yogurt and coke out of a converted New South storage closet. The store moved a couple times over its history, from New South to Healy basement. Under the direction of dedicated Corp employees Louise Roseman and Debbie Lamb, the small closet venture expanded and improved into a full grocery service. Vital Vittles moved to its current location in the Leavey Center in 1988. The store is The Corp’s longest continually operating service and is fondly known as "The Flagship." In 2003, The Corp opened Hoya Snaxa, selling candy and convenience items, located in the Southwest Quad.

The precursor to Georgetown’s recycling program was a campus initiative started by members of the Students of Georgetown, Inc. As this Hoya article from 1974 describes, Rick Croarkin (C'76), Ned Reed (SBA '77), and Leo Madden (SFS '77) helped to organize communal recycling boxes for dorm floors across campus. Though the program was short-lived, the initiative helped to push GUSA and the student body to advocate for the more permanent system which the University would eventually adopt.

The early years of The Corp saw the rise of many unique ventures geared toward the student community. In 1973, a Furniture Co-Op was set up to help off-campus students furnish their residences. The Corp also assumed responsibility for the campus’s Book Co-Op, which existed before The Corp’s founding, and helped students buy and exchange their course materials for substantially lower prices. This period also saw the start of The Corp’s internal Accounting Department, Student Storage, and a Copying and Typing Service. Meanwhile, a travel bureau offered spring break tickets and packages for students to locations in Mexico, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, among many others! With the advent of online travel platforms, Corp Travel closed in 2000, and in its space, The Corp opened Full Exposure, a short-lived photograph development service that operated until 2005.

Saxa Sundries opened in 1979, providing standard drugstore items to students like cigarettes, candy, records, and personal hygiene products. At the time of its opening, Sundries was located in the basement of Copley Hall. In an effort to draw more foot traffic, the service relocated in November 1982 to the basement of Healy Hall. As a Voice article describes, a 1988 move to the Leavey Center marked a major shift in The Corp’s operations as leadership was unsure how the new space would affect its customer base. Saxa Sundries relocated out of Healy Basement along with Vital Vittles. The picture above depicts Corp members Julie and Bernie helping to construct the new Sundries.

After Saxa Sundries moved from Healy Basement to the Leavey Center in 1988, there was growing demand for the store’s movie rental service. It proved so popular that The Corp decided to open a separate storefront, Movie Mayhem. Founded in 1989, Mayhem operated out of the Leavey Center for 16 years before moving to an online rental platform, MovieMayhem.org, in 2005. The service had thousands of VHS and DVDs that students could browse and rent. The website was shuttered in December 2007 due to competition from large online movie vendors like iTunes and Netflix.

The Cone Zone, opened on September 13th, 1985, was the first and only ice-cream parlor to be operated by The Corp. Located above Wisemiller's Deli, the store was named through a campus-wide "Name the Store Contest." The winning name for the short-lived establishment was entered in by Stephen Baird (C'88), who received a free sundae every day for a month! Though well-liked by the student community, the store struggled financially. The ice-cream store was constricted to serving a customer base that was largely present during the colder months of the academic year, holding it back from garnering summer revenue, and its location failed to draw much foot-traffic. Being upstairs limited visibility from the street and therefore curbed impulse motivated customers. By the end of 1986, The Corp's leadership decided to close The Cone Zone.

In 1994, Uncommon Grounds (UG) opened its doors to the public as the first coffee service to open under The Corp brand. UG was first located on the main level of the Leavey Center, and The Corp was contracted by the University to sell food and beverages.

More Uncommon Grounds (MUG) was opened in 1999 in the Galleria of the Intercultural Center. It began as a mobile coffee cart extension of Uncommon Grounds but quickly established itself as an independent coffee service.

In 2002, representatives from Lauinger Library reached out to The Corp for help brainstorming ways to utilize a free space on the 2nd floor. Historically the space had been used as a smoking room, but the desire was to turn the space into a “Community Room.” Following a series of earlier proposals in the late 90s for a coffee bar in the Pierce Reading Room, Lauinger and The Corp came to an agreement for a new coffee shop on Lau 2 instead, opening in the Spring of 2003. Midnight served as a new hub for Office Hours, where faculty and students meet over discounted menu items, a tradition still core to the service.

Pictured Left to Right are Rodrigo Ko, Steven Sondej, Danielle Genovese, and Jake McSween.

The Corp's first food service, The Hilltoss Café opened in 2014 in the newly-completed Healey Family Student Center as a "fresh idea" sourced from the student body. The space includes a salad and sandwich counter, as well as a coffee bar called Grounded. The company decided to launch this endeavor as a response to students' demands for healthier options on campus.

The Corp's catering service started operating in 2007. Since 2014, Catering has operated out of the same kitchen as The Hilltoss. Corp Catering provides catering to locations on or near Georgetown University's campus, including university meetings, lectures, group project work sessions, coffee events, breakfast or mid-day snacks. Since 2019, Catering has operated The Corp's internal vending operation, which prepares food in the Hilltoss kitchen and delivers them to the other storefronts.

As part of its mission of "Students Serving Students," The Corp gives back to the Georgetown community through a wide variety of scholarships, grants, and partnerships. In 2005, the Corp Philanthropy Committee (CPC) was established to help oversee the disbursal of these funds. The CPC raises money through corporate partnerships and an annual winter Gala held for students in DC. Over $15,000 are distributed annually and recent scholarships have targeted academic book purchases (as pictured above), study abroad, food insecurity, mental health resources, and covering unexpected for students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through its community engagement work, The Corp has formed strong partnerships supporting the students of the Georgetown Scholarship Program (GSP) and the campus food pantry, Hoya Hub, among others.