College Democrats at the Georgetown University are asking members to host Trump inauguration protesters from out of town.
“Given our location in DC, we are calling all College Democrats to open up their dorm rooms or apartments to help house other college students for the weekend,” reads the online posting, Campus Reform reported Wednesday. “Floor or couch space is much needed to host as many students as possible at Georgetown.”
The email was particularly concerned with hosting participants attending the planned Jan. 21 Women’s March on Washington.
A Google Docs query asks potential hosts to list how many students they could host and what sort of accommodations they have: floor, couch, bed and/or “other.”
Campus Reform says that University officials failed to reply with comment, while for their part, the campus’s College Republicans chapter suggested the couch-crashing email presents a campus-safety hazard with the potential of unknown, unvetted strangers bunking on campus.
“This proposed action by GUCD is well intentioned, but it is very misguided, like most of the Democratic Party platform. These students fail to recognize the potential dangers they are allowing to pass through their front doors,” former Georgetown University College Republicans chief of staff Mike Parmiter said, reported Campus Reform.
“I find this dangerous action and logic is eerily similar to calls for admittance of countless refugees that cannot be properly screened,” he added.
While it’s unclear if any similar couch-crashing effort has occurred in previous inauguration years, in January 2001 a group of 29 students from the elite Washington, D.C., university turned out to protest the inauguration of George W. Bush, The Georgetown Voice reported at the time.
Four years later, the Voice similarly reported on individual Georgetown students participating in demonstrations at Mr. Bush’s second inauguration, but did not report on how many students had participated.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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